Shard of order

Chapter 4

Jethro opened his eyes. They weren't groggy, like they were when every morning when he worked at the factory, they were awake and attentive, bespeaking the the good nature of his sleep. As every other morning, he felt like he'd forgotten something. He looked to his side, where his new Tibo was lying. Luke was what Jethro had eventually decided to call him. Luke had his head leaning on Jethro's shoulder, but lifted his head up when he realised Jethro was awake. Jethro reached to his right, opening a drawer next to his bed, and pulled out a long-sleeved shirt. In the month he had been at this house, he had already accustomed himself to the constantly warm environment indoors, and was finding it hard to get out of bed on cold mornings such as this. Luke leaped off the bed as Jethro sat up, and walked over to sit by the door and wag his tail, asking to be let out of the room.

"You could just use the rooftop ramps to leave the room, you know," Jethro told Luke. The only reply was a happy looking face. Jethro got out of bed and stepped to his window, undoing the clasp to let some fresh air in. He instantly regretted this, as an icy draft blew his hair about his face. He quickly closed the windows, or as quickly as he could with the wind fighting against him. He heard luke whimper, and saw that the dog was still waiting to be let out. The dog probably knew that it would be cold outside, and opted to take the warmer exit.

"I don't blame you, either," said Jethro

He walked around his bed, wearing his sleeping clothes with another random shirt over the top, and opened the door to his room. Luke dashed out of the door, and Jethro only heard him running down the stairs. On the way down the stairs, Jethro heard a surprised cry from Tefton, and then laughter from Bardon, and so doubled his pace to see what the hustle was about. Tefton was very red in the face, and Luke was looking very happy with himself, chewing on something. Of course, Bardon was still in uncontrollable laughter. Aronal was watching with a concerned expression from the kitchen. Bardon's laughter finally subsided. Despite the dog belonging to Jethro, Tefton's anger was directed towards Bardon.

Noticing that Jethro had arrived, Tefton explained what happened. "That dog jumped on the table, and took my prosciutto!"

"What's a prosciutto?" Jethro asked.

"Fancy pig meat," answered Bardon.

"No, no, no, prosciutto has another name for a reason, it's made from only the finest..." Jethro stopped focusing on what Tefton was talking about after that, and walked over to Luke. The dog seemed happy, but it obviously didn't grasp the concept that it shouldn't steal. He crouched down next to the dog and pushed his hand down on its head. Luke almost instantly looked remorseful, and held his head near the ground. All of the others seemed somewhat surprised.

Even Tefton paused in his prosciutto rant. "How did you...?"

Jethro didn't know what they were so surprised about. "I was just trying to tell Luke off, so I pushed his head down. It shows him that he shouldn't be so happy with himself."

There was a silence. Aronal broke it. "Jethro," he said. "You're not meant to be able to command a pet without a set of commanding stones. What you just did is impossible."

"Well..." Jethro began. "I didn't really command him. I just wanted to tell him he was being bad. It might be that he was untrained." Or maybe because he was last generation, whatever that means.

There was another pause. "How about we go get some commanding stones then?" Tefton finally said.

"No." Jethro said. "I don't want to force him to do anything."

"They probably wouldn't work on him anyway, since he's last generation," said Bardon.

"Either way, Luke looks a bit hungry," Aronal said to Jethro. "Come to the meat shed and we'll grab something for him." Jethro followed Aronal to the place behind the door at the right of the kitchen, and selected a nice big leg of meat.