Stew kept her head low, sulking. Her eyes avoided mine when I looked at her.
"What is it?" I chuckled at her childishness, bumping her side.
Stew stumbled but didn't return the playful gesture.
"Is this because I beat you?" I continued with a grin and proud flourish "you'll just have to grow longer legs like mine."
Holding my head high, Stew dragged behind.
I dropped back, letting the smiles turn to concern.
I nudged her and gazed into the eyes that lifted to mine.
"What's up?"
Stew opened her mouth to talk before shutting it and focusing on walking.
"She will come back..."
"It's not that" she sighed back and looked elsewhere guiltily "it's just..."
Stew turned to me and whimpered when she realised I wasn't going to let it slide.
"What if she doesn't like us anymore?"
I felt my head lurch back at the shock of her words, even freezing in the grass for a moment before I caught back up to Stew shuffling on.
"What bought this on?"
"You know..." she tried to shrug it off "she never sees us as, well, us. What if Ma gets sick of us like this and doesn't want us like that? What do we do then? My last Ma never wanted me like that. She said it was better like this."
Stew shouldn't be thinking like that. Sure, she was exploring her surroundings and having all these new thoughts about the world as a growing girl, but I never heard anything like this escape her lips before.
The fact she was bringing up her horrible past of being nothing more than a chained pet was really making me concerned for the poor girl beside me.
"Did... you hear something?"
Stew shrugged again, making my own gut churn with uneasiness.
"We always do human things when she's away. It feels like I'm lying to her. She knows it's us. Ma isn't stupid."
We used her home like it was our own when Missy was away. We ate our share of her food, soaked in her bathroom, cleaned her house, decorated it with little gifts, and reverted back to these forms by the time she returned.
She knew. We all knew.
"I know" I agreed with my own sigh at the harsh truth "Missy does appreciate it though."
Was that a lie or the truth? She did appreciate the first gesture of the thistles in the bottle, but since then, all the other gifts of decorative plants only made it painfully obvious that Missy wasn't living with mere pets carrying cute food-based names.
She knew it and didn't push it. We knew it and brewed in quiet turmoil.
There had to be a day where everything just came to a crashing halt.
Not now, though. I don't know if Stew could handle something like that right now.
If Missy rejected us after all this time....
"Did you want me to brush your hair when we get back?" I offered, trying to brighten the image of a screaming Missy from my thoughts "you can take the first shower."
"I'm having a bath" a grin crept up "and I'm getting her cute top too."
Stew loved Missy's pot plant top. I sharply steered us away from her clothing whenever we took turns bathing, but Stew was a curious girl and loved being in the same clothes as her Ma. She had been eying that top for months now, much to my disapproval.
Stew said her Ma's clothes had a certain smell and feel to them that new ones didn't have. They made her feel warm and safe when she was being hugged by the long arms she only wrapped around herself.
As long as that top didn't go missing, it couldn't hurt for her to wear it for a few hours. If it got her mind off those darker thoughts that were now niggling my brain, maybe letting her have that little bit of happiness wouldn't be too bad?
"As long as it goes right back where it was."
Stew's eyes lit up and she gasped in surprise at my sudden leniency.
"Really?"
I chucked at her buzz of excitement and gave a little nod to make her bound around happily.
"As long as it goes right. back." I reminded her sternly.
She rolled her eyes at me and smiled as she stopped jumping around to walk happily ahead.
She looked back, a cheeky smile on her face as her tail flicked in excitement. There was no warning when Stew took off running for home with her head start.
"Cheater!" I shouted as I picked up my pace and sprinted after her "you can't just think you can beat me there!"
"I can and I will!" she yelled back, not knowing I was already catching up to her flank. When she saw me streak past, she cried out in a laugh.
"Catch up, slow poke!" I looked back to her determined face trying to reach me.
Whipping my tail around, I felt it hit her face before I shot ahead to the leaning fence dancing in sight.
I pushed myself to my limits to plant my hands on it first. Panting and smiling through my breathlessness, I watched Stew still trying to reach me.
"That's not... fair!" she blew out her breath against me "you always beat me!"
"And I will until you get those long legs" I teased as I dropped from the fence to round to the gate.
Stew huffed, stretching out her arms and legs while she walked. I waited for her just inside the yard and watched her awkwardness lumber up to the stairs, still stretching.
"Maybe if you ate your vegetables...."
Stew wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue with a sound of disgust.
"You can never get me to eat an eggplant, no matter how many things you promise I can do."
I snorted at her, swiped up the key from under the pot plant, and stretched onto my back legs for the door.
Stew observed in silence. It made me self-conscience that I was looking a bit too human in this stance. Missy had noticed it too when she first caught me in this towering pose.
But, I got the door open without any interruptions and held it open with a sweep of my arm.
"After you."
"Don't knock your head on the way in" Stew laughed at me.
I pressed a hand to the doorframe when I entered to avoid doing just that.
Stew was already making her way towards Missy's room. I saw her tail flick it's way through the open door she disappeared through.
Two bowls were on the floor against the front of the kitchen bench. Both had streaks of brown soup stained down the sides from where Missy had rushed the pouring. It was crowded with cubes of meat that were submerged in the thick liquid. I noticed the round, uneven segments of carrot mixed with sticks of celery and spotted beans.
Missy must have purchased the celery in town. I knew very well she didn't have any growing in her mended nursery out the back.
Stooping down to swipe up the bowls, I carried them over to heat up properly.
Stew emerged from the room with her chosen shirt wrapped over her shoulders. She grinned at me and did a turn to show it off.
"Isn't it the best?" she breathed as she stood up on the other side of the bench.
Even up to her height, she was nowhere near reaching mine, which was obvious to her as she looked between me and the food.
"It'd be better if you changed and had a shower" I flicked a finger to her to shoo her attention away from the humming of the microwave.
"Yes, Dad" Stew scoffed back cheekily and dropped back down to scurry off down to the bathroom.
I waited until I heard the door firmly close, and quickly checked that it had, before I opened up the fridge to find the plastic-wrapped wedge of eggplant sitting inside.
Smiling to myself as I slid out a clean chopping board and knife, I diced the vegetable into little chunks that I squashed with the side of the blade, pushing the mash to the side so I could add it into the soup still rotating behind me.
As much as Stew said she hated it, I wasn't going to let Missy's hard efforts go to waste. The eggplant had been difficult to grow this year and it was far too expensive for her to purchase at the markets if the homegrown one did spoil.
Stew would have to make-do and appreciate the hot meal. I would deal with the complaints about the eggplant if she discovered it.
ns 15.158.61.13da2
