Alone?

The first few days of Lim's new life in Itona were a whirlwind. Lim had thought they had a good idea of what they were getting into, when they chose to immigrate, and maybe they had — but thinking about a thing, preparing for it, was a completely different beast from carrying it out.

It was one thing to know that "sea legs" and "land legs" were a thing, another to experience the confusing perception distortion for themself.

It was one thing to know that Itonans lived side by side with hound-beasts, another to have one foisted on them before the ink had even dried on their citizenship application.

It was one thing to know that folk rarely had just one of the creatures, and another to win a second dog in a flash raffle event Lim really didn't understand before Lim had any idea how to properly handle just the one hound.

At least the second hound had a… less antagonistic personality than the first and, despite his appearance, had not exchanged his brains for extra fluff.

"Spoon" was a ridiculously fluffy monster with soft blue and cream fur. Lim has seen fluffy squish toys for children that were less plush. His name was terrible, but he refused to answer to anything else. At all. No "dog", "hound", "hey", "you"… only "Spoon".

Lim felt a little piece of themself die every time they had to say it.

With the worst of the paperwork over, Lim didn't have much left to do other than… figure out dog stuff, and familiarize themself with Ynnis. It was… well, it was certainly an "experience".

Perhaps a charitable person would call Ynnis "bustling". Lim isn't a very charitable person at the moment. They would perhaps call it "swarming". There are so many people in the streets it's like every boat and residence is a pot that's boiled over and spilled forth beings. So many beings. It makes the fur on the back of Lim's neck prickle, makes the clothes hung over their back feel like it won't ever sit right.

They can't say they like it very much.

Part of them wonders if being turned off of Azzaru because of the representative's grease was a mistake. Part of them wonders if Azzaru is worse.

Ynnis was, at least, quite pretty.

Spoon (ugh) was treating his leash as more of a suggestion than a rule, tugging in the direction he thought smelled the most amazing at any given moment (which may or may not have coincidentally been the direction of the wind at any given moment).

Lim was trying not to let him know that they weren't sure who was stronger and didn't want to find out.

In a way, Spoon made things easier. He demanded attention just by existing. Lim wasn't a heartless being, they didn't want him lost or hurt, and were unsure of just how much sense existed between those long fluffy ears. (It was, in all likelyhood, not very much.)

It was easier to ignore the creeping discomfort of not quite knowing the outlines of Ynnis' culture and crime risk when there was an elated mass of fur and energy trying to shove his nose in every trash can or mysterious alleyway stain and — OH GODS, DON'T EAT THAT!

It was easy to forget the feeling of being alone surrounded by people, when there was mysterious residue on their hands from wrestling with a trite dog's jaws clamped around his precious new find and Lim had no idea if there was any public water wells nearby with which to rinse their poor hands off.

Spoon gave them a long and pitiful gaze, head tucked against his neck, his tongue still half stuck out of his closed mouth.

Lim stared back, hardly thrilled, but — an idea occurs. They smile, and reach for him, roughing up the luxurious fur around his neck. Delighted, he leans in as they rough their hands all the way up to his ears — ear rubs are, apparently, the best most amazing thing that's ever happened to him since the last best most amazing thing that ever happened to him.

It's strange, really, when Lim stops to think about it. That maybe, just maybe, it's easier to remember that they have a whole new life here. That even though it's strange, even though it's unsettling and a little bit frightening, that there's a reason they fought to get themself a spot on that boat… and it's easy to think, that just maybe, they made the right choice.