28. Abbey

28

ABBEY

The back room of the Royal Breeder's area was filled with many different pens, each with its own litter of Eye-pets. Solon described the area quietly to her and Abbey thought again that it reminded her a little bit of a pet store.

"Now what we usually do is wait until a litter is a year old and ready to be parted from their mother," Gustobrav explained to her. "That's when we send word to parents who have a baby with the Inner Sight to bring in their child—when the child is six months to a year old. We put them down in the center of the pen and let the Eye-pet pups approach them. Inevitably, one of them will be a match with the child and will climb up onto his or her shoulder. Once that happens, the bonding begins and then the two of them will be together for life."

"It sounds simple enough," Abbey said. "But…what if none of them want me?"

"Oh, I doubt that will happen," he told her. "The pet pups can sense a good person, which you seem to be. It's more likely that I'll have to break up a fight between two or three of them who want to bond with you."

He led Abbey to one of the pens and had her sit on the floor, on a clean white cloth. Other than the cloth she was sitting on, the area looked like a uniformly gray blur to Abbey, probably because of the hay, which she could feel prickling her legs through the white cloth. (Solon had told her that there was gray hay everywhere which must be the bedding the Eye-pets lived in.)

"Now just sit very still. I'm going to open the gate and let the litter in with you," Gustobrav told Abbey. "Don't get upset if they climb up on you—that's how they get to know you."

"All right." She nodded eagerly, though she couldn't help thinking how different this was from getting a guide dog.

She'd answered so many questions when she applied for Major and he had been personally chosen for her by one of the breeders who thought that they would be a good fit for each other. Abbey hoped she could have the same kind of relationship she'd had with her dog with the new Eye-pet she was hopefully going to get. She hoped?—

"Here they come!" she heard Gustobrav say and suddenly she was surrounded by a lot of little pink and yellow blurs which were peeping and cheeping all around her. After a moment, she realized that they were saying words.

"Pretty-pretty! Pretty lady! Pretty-pretty" they peeped at her over and over.

"Oh! Are they talking to me?" Abbey asked.

She heard Solon rumble laughter.

"It seems they like what they see!"

"You have to excuse them—the pups don't have many words yet," the Royal Breeder told her. "They'll gain more language as they grow older."

"Oh—okay." Abbey had to work hard to hold still. She didn't want to scare the tiny animals.

Solon had described Chancellor Maprist's Eye-pet as being very fuzzy all over with two arms, three legs, and several eyes growing on long stalks that stuck up on the top of his head. He'd also said the Eye-pet was about the size of a tennis ball. Abbey wondered if the baby Eye-pets or Eye-pet "pups" as the Royal Breeder had called them, might be even smaller. Say, the size of a golf ball, maybe?

Her fuzzy vision didn't allow her to see details, so she didn't know, but they certainly seemed tiny, clustered around her knees as she sat there, cross-legged on the white cloth.

Several of the little balls were already trying to climb up her skirt and into her lap—their pink and yellow fur was obvious against her dark green dress—when Abbey noticed a turquoise blur alone, some distance from her. The brilliant blue-green color was evident against the gray straw but it was just sitting there, not moving.

"Hey, what's that one over there?" she asked, pointing at the brightly colored blur. "Is that an Eye-pet too?"

"Oh, that's Spex," The Royal Breeder said. "He's what we call a loner—he's been around for years but never matched with anyone. We just let him in with the new litters so that he can ingest some of the happy emotions being generated during a new matching. Otherwise he'd starve, poor fellow."

"Spex?" Abbey felt her heart go out to the poor little Eye-pet. Holding out a hand in the direction of the turquoise blur, she called his name again. "Spex? Is that your name? Would you like to come say hello to me? I'm Abbey."

For a moment, the turquoise blur didn't move. Then, very tentatively, Abbey thought, it began to come towards her.

Ignoring the tiny pink and yellow pups that were still trying to climb up her skirt, she held her hand out patiently to the little creature.

To her surprise, Spex climbed right into the palm of her hand.

"I'm going to lift you now, okay?" she said to him. "If you don't want me to, you can jump off my hand."

The little Eye-pet didn't move. Instead, he settled more firmly in her palm. Abbey took it as a sign he didn't mind being lifted, so she carefully brought her hand up to her face. Spex didn't weigh very much, maybe about as much as the guinea pig she'd had as a child, she thought.

He was furry like a guinea pig too—the downy fuzz covering his round, plump body felt as soft as silk against her fingers.

"Hey, little guy. Hey, Spex," she murmured, when she had him closer to her face. "Are you all alone here?"

"All alone," he agreed in a tiny, squeaky voice that somehow managed to be adorable and sad at the same time.

"And why is that?" Abbey asked him. "Why are you all by yourself, Spex?"

He let out a high, trembling sigh.

"Spex not talk so good," he admitted in his squeaky voice. "He doesn't bond when he is little and now that he's grown, nobody wants him, because he doesn't say just right."

"You seem to talk well enough to me," Abbey remarked. "My seeing eye dog, Major, couldn't talk at all."

"He no talk?" Spex sounded surprised. "How he tell you where to go then?"

"He nudged me sometimes. He was bigger than you—he wore a special harness I could hold onto so he could lead me around the town," Abbey explained.

"Spex can wear a harness," the little Eye-pet said, sounding eager. "Spex will lead you, if you want, pretty lady."

Abbey laughed at his willingness.

"I don't think that kind of arrangement would work for us because I'm so much bigger than you, Spex. But could you ride on my shoulder and tell me what you see and if it's safe to cross the street or not?"

"Spex can do that! He can! He can!" He danced in her hand—the turquoise blur bobbed up and down and she could feel his three tiny feet tapping against her palm with excitement.

"I don't live here, though," Abbey warned him. "I'm only visiting Tengula Five. I live on a planet called Earth, in a far distant galaxy called The Milky Way."

"Spex doesn't care where the pretty lady lives as long as Spex can live with her," the little Eye-pet declared.

"Do you want to do a trial run, then?" Abbey asked him. "Would you like to sit on my shoulder and tell me how to get around the room?"

"Yes, yes! Spex will tell pretty lady how to go!" he squeaked, dancing excitedly again. Abbey remembered how Solon had described the Eye-pets and had a mental image of a furry turquoise tennis ball with eyes on stalks jumping up and down in her palm.

The image made her smile and she carefully held her hand up to her shoulder and let Spex climb on board.

"Okay—I'm ready," she told him.

"First, be careful," Spex warned her. "There are still many little Eye-pups around your legs, pretty lady."

"You can call me, ‘Abbey'—that's my name," she told him.

"Pretty Abbey, be careful," Spex said.

Abbey laughed.

"I'll ask the Royal Breeder to move them."

"I'll get them out of your way, my lady," she heard Gustobrav say. A moment later he was there, gathering the tiny pink and yellow blurs and taking them out of the pen. As soon as they were gone, Spex squeaked in her ear again.

"Safe to get up now, pretty Abbey."

"Okay, thank you, Spex." She rose carefully and stood there. "All right, tell me how to get around the room."

"Pretty lady Abbey is standing in a pen. She is facing away from the fence. Pretty Abbey, turn around until Spex says stop," the little creature instructed.

Abbey began to turn in a circle until she heard him say,

"Stop!" in her ear.

"Okay, now what?" she asked.

"Now Pretty Abbey takes three steps forward. There is a fence. The latch is on the right side at the level of Pretty Abbey's waist," he instructed. "If Pretty Abbey presses down on the metal latch, the gate will open."

Abbey did as he said and was happy to find that he was exactly right.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Where does Pretty Abbey want to go?" Spex asked in his squeaky voice. "Does she want to talk to Royal Breeder? Or does she want to see big fur-man?"

Abbey bit back a laugh.

"Big fur man is named ‘Solon,'" she told the little Eye-pet. "He's my fiancé." It felt a little strange to call the big Monstrum that, but it was the most accurate way to describe him, Abbey thought.

"What is ‘fiancé?'" Spex wanted to know.

"Well, that's a title that means I might marry him," Abbey said lightly. She wondered how Solon was taking this conversation.

"All right," the Eye-pet agreed. "So does pretty Abbey want the-fur man that she might want to marry?"

"Right now I want to walk from one end of the room and back again," Abbey told him. "Can you tell me how?"

"Yes! Pretty Abbey turns to the left. Then walk forward twenty steps."

Abbey wondered how he could be so accurate with telling her exactly how many steps any given distance was. But she decided to take the little Eye-pet at his word. Turning to the left, she walked forward twenty steps with one hand out in front of her.

On the twentieth step, her searching fingertips came in contact with the wall and she stopped.

"Wow, you're a good judge of distances," she told Spex.

"Spex does his very best for Pretty Abbey," the little Eye-pet said. "Does Pretty Abbey want Spex for her own? Please? No one else wants him."

He sounded so sad that Abbey felt her heart melting.

"Yes, Spex—I want you for my own," she said, smiling.

For a moment Spex was silent. Then she felt something soft nuzzling against the side of her neck.

"Pretty Abbey won't be sorry," the little Eye-pet promised. "Spex will lead her the right way always. Spex will love her forever."

If she'd thought her heart was melting before, Abbey was practically a puddle now.

"Aww, Spex…" Reaching up very carefully, she held out her fingers and the little Eye-pet nuzzled against them, allowing her to pet him. He made a soft chrrrrrring sound, almost like a kitten purring and trembled all over as though he was so happy he could hardly stand it.

"Well, my lady—it looks like you've found your match," she heard the Royal Breeder say.

"He's certainly a charming little male," Solon rumbled in agreement.

Abbey smiled.

"Yes, he certainly is."

"Clearly he was meant for you," Chancellor Maprist, who had been mostly silent this whole time, remarked. "I am so happy for you, my Lady Abbey, for the lifetime bond with an Eye-pet is most fulfilling. But now I fear we must get to the Royal Perfumer if we're going to get a scent mixed for both of you in time."

"Wonderful—let's go." Abbey smiled and turned in the direction she had last heard the Royal Breeder's voice. "Thank you again so much. Is there anything else I need to do in order to care for Spex?"

"Just love him and let him stay close to you by day. By night, he can sleep on his own. Eye-pets clean themselves, so there's no need for baths," he told her. "They like the same temperatures their owners do, so if you're hot, he probably will be too. If you're cold, he will be as well. Make sure to give him some affection every day and he should be fine."

"Thank you so much." Abbey smiled at him. "Er—do we sniff each other goodbye the way we sniffed hello?"

"A verbal good-bye is sufficient," she heard Chancellor Maprist say. "And now that we have said ours, we may be on our way to the Perfumer."