The Dimension Wanderer *HIATUS*

Chapter Two~just peachy~

Aelia grimaced, eyeing the latch that inprisoned the little penguin creature in the dog crate. She had managed to shoo him(or was it a her? She really couldn't tell, but she would stick with calling it a he) into the crate last night, and kept him relatively happy by feeding him canned peaches from her pantry. His little gullet was constantly hungry. Now Aelia watched him shove his last peach slice into its beak. He looked up at her expectantly, waiting for more food.

Aelia shook her head slowly. "Sorry, buddy, but that's all the food that I've got." Her own stomach growled ruefully. She rubbed it as if to ease its hunger. "If I let you out now, Bongo, will you be good?"

Bongo slapped his flippers against his sides twice and looked at the empty can of peaches. He nudged one over with his beak and eagerly bent down to lick up the juice. Aelia sighed. Canned peaches were her favorite. She reached out and unlocked the dog crate.

"I'm opening the door now. Behave yourself, Bongo. Please."
Aelia swung open the the metal mesh door, anxiety using her stomach as a trampoline. True, she was warming up to the little creature, but she wasn't warming up to his habit of ravaging her kitchen.

Bongo's head jerked up, the peaches can still stuck on it. Aelia couldn't hide a small laugh. He was like a cat: curious, always hungry, and constantly getting himself stuck in places because of those traits. She gently grabbed the can and wrestled it off his head. The peach juice had formed a sweet syrup, and the can had left a ring of the thick substance on his head.

Aelia snorted in amusement. "I'll go get a washcloth." She walked briskly down the hall to the closet, snatching a white washcloth from a shelf in it. She could hear the slaps of Bongos's webbed feet against her tiled kitchen floor as he ventured out of the crate. She hurried back to find him standing on her counter, reaching for a cabinet handle. Oh no, you don't. Aelia had just cleaned up. Well, mostly. The refrigerator was too heavy for her to lift up on her own, so she had left it sitting on its side on the floor after several failed attempts to right it. She would recruit Kellan to help her with it; though he may not be athletic, another pair of hands could provide an extra boost.

Aelia rushed over and hauled Bongo off the counter, depositing him ungracefully on the floor. She knelt down with the washcloth, scolding and cleaning at the same time like an angry mother.

"You shouldn't be up there, you know. It's not like there's any food up there anyway after you looted it last night. I don't even know how you got on the counter. There's nothing you could climb on to get there, and I don't think even genetically mutated penguins can fly." She paused from scrubbing at his head to inspect his flippers. Yep, they still were fingered. They hadn't magically turned into wings. At this point, Aelia would believe anything. She noticed a small spot of peach juice she had missed and rubbed it away with the washcloth.

A hesitant knock came from her door, and Aelia set down the washcloth. "Stay there," she told Bongo as she stood up and walked to the front of her apartment. Of course, he waddled after her like a little black shadow. Oh well. At least he wasn't alone in her kitchen. The knock came again. Aelia grabbed the door handle and yanked it open. Kellan stood on the other side.

"Hey," he said. "Sorry I didn't get here last night when you texted. I know it was urgent, but-" his eyes widened, staring past her at Bongo. "WHAT- WHAT THE-"

Aelia grabbed his arm and roughly pulled him inside, slamming the door behind him. "We're in an apartment complex!" she hissed. "You're lucky if my neighbor didn't hear that. Our doors are across from each other. Whatever we do or say out in the hall, she hears. And she's already suspicious enough since I asked to borrow her dog crate when I don't have a dog. It's a no pets allowed deal, even though she managed to smuggle that vicious little chihuahua in."