Chapter Forty-Seven

You were originally intending to save Pou-tine and then let them go, but now that you’re thinking on it, there might be other uses for something that’s kinda sorta like you. If you were way smaller and way weaker and way less smart.

Yes, Pou-tine might be useful to keep around.

“Okay, so I’m going to rescue you now,” you tell Pou-tine.

The large pile of stuff wobbles to the far end of the circle, as far from you as it can get without slipping out of the circle. Curious, you look on the Other Side and notice that Pou-tine’s main body is just around the corner, but it’s stuck.

Kind of like how you and your main body are connected. Which reminds you to check on the tentacle you left with Abigail... and which is currently flopped onto her lap and being pat-patted while Abigail and the others drink more tea.

You bask in the glow of the patting for a moment while considering what to do with Pou-tine, but then the solution is really quite simple. You’ll give Pou-tine a body like yours and then you’ll have a pet that can do boring things for you so that you don’t have to.

It’s a brilliant idea!

You just need some materials to build Pou-tine’s new body out of.

“Freeze!”

“Stop right there!”

“Raise your hands and back away from the abomination!”

You turn and take in the half dozen Inquisitors in long coats and bucket hats, all of them pointing long rods at you and screaming. You grin.

How convenient!

***

The return trip is just a bit more eventful then the trip down into the room where Pou-tine was held. Mostly because now everyone in the building is panicking and running around and because you have to carry Pou-tine’s new body with you. It’s all wrapped up in tentacles to keep it nice and safe.

“Please let me go,” Pou-tine asks.

“No,” you say. “I need to show you to Abigail.”

You arrive at another intersection where a bunch of armed Inquisitors are trying to block your path. You make the corridor way bigger, then pinch up the floor so that it stretched into a wall cutting off the end where they put up a barricade.

Silly Inquisitors, they didn’t even try to make it so that their castle was fixed in reality.

“I don’t want to go see any Abigails. I don’t want to be eaten,” Pou-tine says.

“Abigail won’t eat you,” you say. You’ve seen the sorts of things Abigail eats. Pou-tine isn’t one of them. And if Abigail was hungry enough to eat Pou-tine you’d let her eat you first. But only a nibble.

“How do you know? You could be lying.”

“I’m not lying,” you say.

The two of you exit the Inquisition building to find a crowd gathering outside of it, but they’re just normal boring mortals so you ignore them as a new tentacle comes tearing out of the ground, grabs you, and flings you across the city.

Your aim is a little better this time, even with Pou-tine struggling behind you, but because there are so few lights it’s hard to see if there are any snacks available and you land without anything new to eat and with a bunch more broken bones.

Picking yourself off the ground, you look around the garden at the back of Daphne’s place. It’s quite nice. Well maintained and with lots of pretty flowers and there’s a big sofa off to one side of the path. She must have paid lots of attention at the Gardening Club.

Edmund is at the back door, holding it open with one eyebrow raised. “Welcome back Miss Dreamer and... guest. The ladies are in the dining room.”

“Thank you Edmund,” you say as you squeeze past the butler and cross the house. Pou-tine is still dangling in the air behind you. “I’m back!” you say as you push the door open.

The girls are all still there, though they finished the tea and ate all the crumpets while you were gone. You decide that it’s okay and that you’ll forgive them. You draw back the tentacle on Abigail’s lap, shoving it back onto your real body and closing the rift you made for it, then plop your small body onto Abigail’s lap and wrap your hands around her waist.

“Welcome back,” Abigail says as she returns the hug. “But, um, who’s the boy?”

“You didn’t kidnap anyone, right Dreamer?” Charlotte asks as she inspects what little she can see of Pou-tine through your tentacles.

“I didn’t,” you say.

“She did,” Pou-tine lies like a lying liar. He’s not a kid so it wasn’t kidnapping.

You huff. “This is Pou-tine. I made him a body.” That said, you unwrap Pou-tine and let him fall.

The body you made with bits and pieces of the Inquisitors that tried to stop you (you left them alive and better than ever because anything else would make Abigail bap you) is quite nice. It’s a bit shorter than yours, and skinnier, and it’s a boy body with long, long gravy-brown hair. His eyes are potato-brown and are looking around the room as if to make sure nothing will eat him.

Daphne lunges to the side and slaps a hand over Abigail’s eyes. “Edmund!” she calls.

The butler walks in a moment later. “Yes, Miss?”

“Clothes,” Daphne says.

Edmund inspects Pou-tine and then nods. “Very well Miss. I will find something suitable for the young master post haste.”

Charlotte shakes her head and stands up before kneeling in front of Pou-tine. “Are you okay, sweetie?” she asks.

“Are you going to eat me?” he asks her.

“While you are quite handsome I’m afraid that I’m not inclined to gobble you up. How about we get you some proper clothes, and then a nice warm meal before bed? Do you have a name?”

Pou-tine blinked. “I don’t,” he says, which is silly because his name is Pou-tine. You think. You’re pretty sure it’s that.

“Oh my my,” Charlotte says. “Well don’t worry, big sis Charlotte will take care of everything.”