For some reason that she couldn’t quite explain, Essni found her mood considerably lightened as she walked into work. She found it surprising how much the decision to take Andimem home with her had cheered her up. He was just going to be her pet, after all. It would certainly be nice not to have to come home to an empty apartment but it wasn’t like she’d won the weekly credit draw.

Still, she wasn’t going to question her good mood.

“Good morning, my dears!” She cooed as she stepped into her office and booted up her work pad. “I hope you all had a good night.”

In response came a chorus of chirping voices as she was greeted by her ‘gang.’

Essni carefully picked her way to her desk, always looking out for a wayward human underfoot. Once she arrived, she set her pad into the desk and linked it to her screen.

“Alright, time for work.” She sighed and sipped from the Kaf in her thermos, while all around her the humans went about their work.

Most of them, anyway.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Andimem up seated up on of the shelves in her office. He was talking with that girl, the dark haired one that hadn’t spoken Archavian. Essni frowned and her mood dampened somewhat, though she wasn’t really sure why.

She shook her head. She wasn’t going to feel jealous of a human girl. How silly would that be? It didn’t much matter anyway; when she went home from work she’d be taking him home with her and then the little dark haired girl wouldn’t matter anymore.

*.*.*.*

Oteo was beyond frustrated. He wasn’t sure exactly how long it had been since he and Dr. Miroppi had made their wager, but it had gone on longer than his patience would allow.

He couldn’t believe how stubbornly Lishda was clinging to her worldview. The woman could not imagine life outside of Titan control, and when she tried all she could see was pain and loneliness.

Under normal circumstances Oteo would have been more than happy to leave Lishda to her own delusions. If she wanted to be a pet, what business was it of his.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that Kiri Miroppi controlled both their fates, and his own freedom was tied up with Lishda’s, her preferences became his business.

And Lishda stubbornly refused to acknowledge that there was a world beyond what Titans would allow her to have.

Oh Oteo had tried to explain it to her, many times in fact. He’d told her all about Avalon and the fact that humans walked free on the surface of the moon. Unfortunately, he’d made the mistake of mentioning the Titans that also lived on Avalon. Lishda took this as evidence that the “freedom” on Avalon was nothing more than an illusion and it was really the Titans who were in charge. Unfortunately, nothing Oteo said about Avalon after that point would convince her.

Meanwhile, she was doing her best to convince him to give up his aspirations of being free and accept a life of being taken care of. She pointed out how there was no stress involved in being a pet. Food, shelter, even love were all provided for. All he had to do was be reasonably pleasant.

“Pleasant?” Oteo snapped. “Are you serious?” He shot to his feet and paced the length of their confinement. Occasionally, he would spare a glance through the clear wall beside him and could see Kiri on the other side of the vast room. She appeared to be working on something on her laptop, but Oteo had a sneaking suspicion she was paying attention to what was going on between the two humans.

Oteo was just about to launch into a rant that would vent the frustration that had been building up ever since his deal with Kiri when he stopped short. He saw the stubborn look on Lishda’s face and realized that it wouldn’t do any good. They’d been going around in circles reciting the same points.

A different tactic was required.

“Okay.” Oteo sighed and leaned against the clear wall of the terrarium. “So all we have to do is act pleasant and the Titans take care of everything for us, right?”

Lishda’s eyes narrowed in confusion at Oteo’s sudden change in attitude. “Yes…” She replied cautiously.

“So what guarantee do we have that they’ll be ‘pleasant’ to us?” Oteo asked.

“What do you mean?” Lishda wondered. “Titans aren’t mean… they love us.”

“Are you sure?” Oteo asked. “Sure your master was good to you, but what happened after he died? His sister shipped you off to a shelter. She didn’t take care of you, even after she said she would.”

“Well… but…”

Oteo took a step closer. “The fact is, we don’t know what kind of Titans we’ll end up with at any given moment, Lishda. “Sure, we might get lucky and find a nice enough owner willing to give us food and rub our bellies or whatever… but then something happens to them maybe, and we’re back in a shelter… and then after that it’s luck of the draw again. Maybe the next time we get an owner who isn’t so nice. One who gets off on hurting beings smaller and weaker than they are… or one who likes to experiment on them.”

Oteo spared a glance across the room, but Kiri’s face remained impassive.

“If we were free, we wouldn’t have to worry about what the next Titan was like… because there wouldn’t be one.”

Lishda bit her lip and shifted her weight uncomfortably. Several times she opened her mouth as if to respond, but only shook her head. Oteo resisted the urge to grin. He could tell that Lishda was far from ready to concede the point, but he knew he’d begun to make an inroad.

For the first time in days, he began to feel hopeful about regaining his own freedom.

*.*.*.*

“Alright dears, time for me to head on home.” Essni sighed, stretching her arms above her head and cracking her back against the chair. “Andimem, can you hang on a minute? I want to speak to you about something.”

“Uh, sure Essni.” Andimem glanced over his shoulder at the Titan looming above him, before turning back to Elena and Mihiya. “Go on ahead, I’ll catch up.”

Essni watched impassively as the two women made their way to the vent.

“What do you need Essni?” Andimem asked. Essni smiled and knelt down so that she could get as close to the human as possible.

“I’ve made a decision.” Essni stated. “I’ve decided to bring you home with me.”

Andimem took a cautious step back. “What for?”

“To live with me of course!” Essni replied brightly. She slowly reached out her hand, with her long fingers splayed to wrap themselves around Andimem’s body.

Andimem’s eyes widened in fear. “What? No… I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

“Now now.” Essni cooed softly, while slowly moving her hand closer to the little man on the table in front of her. “I know the idea of being a pet must be scary for you, but you don’t need to worry. It’s just me! I’ll take care… of… you!”

Essni swiped her hand out but Andimem was able to duck underneath her fingers and avoid her grasp. He rolled across the tabletop and scrambled back to his feet. Without looking back, he pelted across the table and blindly leaped from the edge to the floor below.

Essni growled in frustration. She had assumed that Andimem would be reluctant to go with her at first, but she hadn’t figured he’d be quite this upset by the idea of being her pet. It was almost insulting.

With a sigh, Essni heaved herself back to her feet and made her way around to the other side of the table. It took her a moment to spot her quarry, but soon she was  able to spot his lithe form pelting across the hardwood floor of her office.

“There you are!” She whispered triumphantly before taking a step in his direction.

Andimem’s heart raced as he felt the tremor of the titan woman’s footstep rumble the floor underneath him. Normally a Titan’s footstep didn’t really phase him. The majority of the time, the cause of the disturbance didn’t know he was there anyway… and the rest of the time, it had been Essni. Essni, whom he had trusted.

Essni, who now wanted to capture him.

A shadow fell over him and he leaped to the left, just in time to avoid the second onslaught of Essni’s grasping hand. It had been a very near miss, however. A sharp pain shot up his leg as one of her long manicured fingernails grazed his shin, leaving a long but shallow cut in his skin.

Andimem ignored the pain and sprang back to his feet, determined to make it to the ventilation. If he could get there, he could find Elena and Mihiya and they could all disappear.

He was nearly there. The sound of his own breathing thundered in his ears and the vibrations of Essni’s impatient footsteps threatened to send him tumbling. Her legs were so much longer than his own, she would easily overtake him. It was really the element of surprise that had allowed him to get as far ahead of her as he had, but Andimem couldn’t afford to give up. He just had to make it to the vent. He just had-

“Got you!”

Andimem gasped as he ran straight into the palm of her hand which had suddenly dropped from the sky and blocked his path. Before he could try to escape, her long pale fingers coiled around his body and ensnared him in her grasp.

Air whooshed past his ears as she raised herself back into a standing position. A moment later, he found himself staring at his own reflection in her dark pupil which was surrounded by an orange iris.

“There we go, enough fooling around. We need to get home so we can make you nice and comfortable.” Essni whispered in what she thought was a calming voice. She reached down and picked up her bag, throwing the strap over her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I know you’re upset right now, but trust me! Living with me will be great.”

Meanwhile, in the shadows Elena and Mihiya were in stunned silence after what they had both just witnessed.

“I knew we couldn’t trust her!” Elena growled once she had recovered her wits. A molten core of anger covered the initial shock and despair at seeing Andimem taken from her.

“I can’t believe she would just take him like that!” Mihiya gasped.

“Believe it!” Elena snarled as she watched Essni saunter through the office door, which closed behind her. “But we’re not going to let her get away with it!”

Mihiya’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What are you planning?”

“She has to come back to work right?” Elena reasoned with what Mihiya suspected was a slightly unhinged look in her eyes. “So tomorrow, you and I stow away in her bag and go home with her. Then, all we have to do is free Andimem.”

“And then what? Stow back in her bag?” Mihiya shook her head.

“Maybe. Or if not, we’ll find somewhere else to go.”

“That’s crazy!” Mihiya sighed.

“Yeah. Probably.” Elena nodded. “But what choice is there? We can’t leave Andimem as a pet! Not after all he risked to help us!”

“No, you’re right. We can’t.” Mihiya sighed. “I just hope we don’t get captured. I’m never going back to a cage again.”

“Just stick with me.” Elena replied with a confident smirk. “I haven’t been captured yet, and I don’t intend to start now.”

*.*.*.*

Andimem took a deep breath to stop himself from panicking. His entire life, he’d seen the poor humans carted around in cages. He’d freed them whenever he possibly could, but above all he swore that would never be him in a Titan’s cage.

Which, technically, was still true. He wasn’t yet in a cage. He was trapped in the bottom of Essni’s bag, trying to keep his feet from the constant swaying of the woman’s steps.

He was bewildered and shocked by this new development. Before he really had time to process however, the bag’s motion stopped abruptly and he was sent sprawling against the leather side. A deafening sound ripped through the air around him and light poured in from above. After a moment his eyes adjusted and he saw that Essni’s smiling face was peering down at him.

“Hi sweetie!” Essni gushed, reaching her hand into the bag to scoop Andimem up. “Welcome home!”

Andimem took a deep breath and looked around the vast room. It was very different from any room he’d ever been in. In the corner was an enormous bed and a desk. And on that desk was a clear glass box.

A cage, for him.

Andimem’s heart thumped in his chest as Essni crossed the room and held her hand above the opening.

“What do you think of your new home?” Essni asked grinning down on him.

“Why have you brought me here, Essni?” Andimem asked softly.

“Because I want to take care of you, love.” Essni replied gently. “This way, you don’t have to worry about finding food or keeping out from under foot. I’ll take care of everything from now on. And all you have to do, is keep being your cute self.”

Andimem took a shallow breath as the palm in which he was sitting was lowered into the cage. He grabbed onto her thumb in a futile gesture, but she easily shook him off, leaving him splayed on the floor of the cage.

“There, see?” Essni giggled. “It’s not so bad is it? I know it’s a lot to take in, but trust me. In a few days you’ll feel right at home.”

“Essni wait!” Andimem protested but the Titan wasn’t listening. She stood up and wandered out of the room, leaving Andimem alone with his thoughts.

Andimem paced the length of the cage that surrounded him, examining each of the walls for anything that might be of use to him later. A weak spot, a crack, even a slight warping of the material might eventually lead to his freedom. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be anything.

Essni had known that Andimem was able to open the locks on a regular cage and had prepared accordingly. The only opening to the enclosure was in the lid of the cage and it was far too high up for the poor man to reach on his own.

Andimem collapsed in the corner and rubbed his forehead. He wasn’t ready to give up, not by a long shot; but it appeared that freedom wouldn’t come as easily as he’d first hoped. He’d have to bide his time and wait for an opening.

Essni would get lazy with his confinement. He knew she would. She’d slip up somewhere along the line. She’d leave the lid open, or become too trusting and decide that he didn’t need to be caged anymore.

And just like that, Andimem had a plan.