Chapter 61: Chapter 61

A Young Girl’s War Between the Stars

Dathomir. 36 BBY/964 GSC.

I blinked, looking at the ship that had just landed in the Redoubt’s hangar. It looked like my Rusted Silver, but something felt off—and it wasn’t just that it was sitting on a set of four landing struts holding it a little higher than if it had landed on the short wings on the bottom of the hull that it had used before. Running a quick scan with a formula and comparing it to what I had stored, I raised an eyebrow at the changes.

On the surface, they were subtle. A new coat of paint—black and gray for the most part. A few upgrades and changes to the weapon systems, and an addition here and there.

The turret that had been centered previously had been moved up towards the front, with a second one in the rear, facing backwards. The sensor pylons that had been mounted on the stubby wings on the bottom had been moved off of those and welded to the hull directly, with the pylons having been replaced with what looked like ion cannons.

It was also just a bit bigger than the original Rusted Silver—a few feet longer and wider. Nothing that would stand out unless you put it next to another GAT-12. So while the weapons may be concerning at first glance, my guess was that most people would still consider it on par with a standard Skipray in all other ways.

However, a deep scan told me the truth of things.

The interior layout had been changed. There were systems installed that I didn’t recognize, except in relation to those on my stealth corsair. A socket had been added for Arthree between the top turrets. The power plant and thrusters had been modified and upgraded. The entire frame and hull were made of a different metal—I wanted to say sacanium, based on comparing it to previous scans of the Dagger.

The hatch opened and the familiar blonde form of Cindy poked her head out, one hand resting on the top of the hatch opening above her as she grinned down at me. Taking in the leggy blonde and the way her outfit worked to emphasize her curves, I felt my mouth go dry.

Now is not the time for that!

And yet, that amused little smile pulling up the corner of her lips made my heart pound in my chest and my stomach seemed to think I was in the middle of aerial maneuvers. Green eyes looked me up and down and she whistled, once. “Damn, boss. You put on nearly a foot.”

I rolled my eyes. “Six inches. Don’t exaggerate.”

“And you really filled out! Gonna be a looker~,” she teased.

“Shut up, before I reconsider your bonus,” I grumbled.

“Oof! Right in the pay check,” Cindy winced, putting a hand to her breast. “Well, I think I can make you reconsider! Why don’tcha come on up and have a look, eh?”

“I believe I will,” I nodded, and she moved back out of the hatch to let me in. “What did you do to my ship?”

“You like it?” she asked, and I could feel both pride and an earnest desire to please coming from her. Cindy didn’t half-ass things. Her work was always stellar quality—it was why I hired her on permanently as my personal mechanic in the first place.

“I suppose we’ll soon find out,” I mused, looking around. Arthree lowered himself down from the slot in the roof and I waved to the astromech as he beeped a greeting. “And hello to you too. It’s been a while.”

Deciding to start from the front, I moved up to the cockpit. The first thing I noticed was that the layout had been changed. The single seat I had left in the center of the control array had been moved over, back into its original two-seat configuration, with a second seat installed beside mine, along with a second set of flight controls. The two chairs were divided by a console between them with what looked like the throttle, landing gear control, and a few other things. Two more seats were installed behind those, in front of what looked like backup controls for weapons and other systems.

All of the systems up front had been rearranged and it took me a moment to figure out where everything was. Certain systems had been prioritized front and center, and to my immediate right and left—namely primary weapons and sensors. Navigation, hyperdrive, and other systems that wouldn’t be immediately useful in combat had been moved further from the center and onto the ceiling.

Dropping into the pilot’s seat, I adjusted it until I was comfortable and raised an eyebrow at the blank metal hull in front of me, with no view outside. “Is this what I think?”

“Yes and no,” Cindy grinned, dropping into the seat beside me. Reaching over, she toggled a switch on the center console and a color holographic display projected onto the blank metal, showing what appeared to be an exterior camera feed from cameras mounted somewhere on the front of the ship. It actually extended a bit further than the actual former cockpit windows had, giving me a better view than before. “Let’s take her out for a test flight, shall we?”

“Sure,” I agreed. Finding the radio, I keyed up. “Redoubt, this is Rusted Silver. I’m going for a short test flight.”

“Roger that, Rusted Silver. We’ll leave the barn doors open.”

I shut off the radio and went through the startup sequence, partially guided by the Force as I wasn’t entirely familiar with the new system yet. As I did, the holographic display changed, overlaying it with practically everything that the individual consoles displayed—sensor data, altitude, speed, orientation, horizon, and other things. I tuned it out for the moment and focused on getting moving. Thankfully, it only took a few moments to lift off, retract the landing gear, and get us out and into open space.

“So, as you can see, I’ve got everything from the console piped into the hologram here,” Cindy began. Reaching into a compartment, she pulled out a wire that reminded me of an auxiliary cable for a stereo, then grabbed one of the two helmets hanging above our seats. Plugging the cable into the helmet port, she pulled the helmet on and then plugged it into a port on the console to her right—mirrored to the one on my left. “The plugs fit any standard data port and work with most models of helmet—flight helmets , the kind like the ones on the vac suits you like, the ones the Mandos wear. It’ll relay the feed directly to the helmet if you want to use it that way, in case the holographic projector breaks or something. When you’re using the turrets, they’ll track your eye movement too, so you can just look and shoot.”

“Very impressive,” I murmured, nodding as I took down my own helmet and tested it, before putting it back and disconnecting it. “What else did you do?”

“So if you don’t want to use the projector, if you’ve landed and don’t want to run the power cell down, or if you just want to eyeball it for some reason…” She pulled off her own helmet and flicked a control on the central console. In front of us and to the sides, metal panels slid down, and I realized she had actually put blast shields on tracks on the outside, while beneath them was a standard transparisteel viewport for the Mark I eyeball. Parts of the projection were still visible, but I could see how it would be very hard to see in certain lightning conditions.

“It’s not perfect. It doesn’t work great with the projector,” she continued, practically reading my mind, “but I thought you’d like to have the option.”

“It’s a good decision,” I agreed, hitting the switch to cover the viewports again. “What else have you changed?”

She reached out and pointed to a console in the center—between the two seats. “Stealth system. I’ve made some improvements over the one on the corsair, and then I sent the notes over so they’ve already been to the stardock at Mandalore to get them upgraded. So, we’ve got more options now! Using the shields and some EM emitters, the system can futz with other ships’ sensors. Short version, you can’t make your ship look smaller than it is to an enemy ship’s magnetic sensors when you get close, but you can make it look bigger to a degree. Take this one, right? We can select from a bunch of patterns I’ve programmed in,” she tapped at the console and it shifted between various fighters and transports around the same size as the Rusted Silver, “or pick something bigger,” a button shifted to display a YT freighter, then flicked through a few others around the ‘light freighter’ size.

“The force field will expand to take on that shape to ping the right radar/lidar profile. Waste heat goes where it needs to, in order to give it the right infrared sensor profile. EM emitters put out enough noise to look like we’re a bigger ship. It’s practically foolproof!” She paused, then bit her lip. “Just uh, don’t get shot. The shield emitters will take a few seconds to shift things back into combat mode for maximum shield strength. If you get fired on while you’ve got your shields in that configuration, you may as well not have them, if they’re projected out into something bigger.”

Frowning, I nodded. “Noted. Still, that’s an impressive upgrade.”

“Oh, it gets better,” Cindy smiled. “If you need to go stealth, the projector can display empty space around you, or empty sky from below. It’s not perfect, but it was good enough in testing to hide from everything we sent after it. The slower you’re moving, the better. And of course, if you set down on the ground or something, it’s much more effective. As for infrared, it can either lock in waste heat for a while, or you can use the shields to vent it in a specific direction—like away from you.”

I hummed, thinking it over. Infrared in space didn’t create the sort of thermal bloom it did in atmosphere, because of the lack of air. It would spread as it hit minute space debris, and would generally travel in a straight line until the radiation hit something it would reflect off of. Depending on the angle it left your ship at, but you could approach an enemy keeping your thrusters pointed away from them and they wouldn’t see you coming until you got close enough that they couldn’t do anything about it—assuming they were using only infrared. With this, the shields could be used to always put the vent pointed away from anyone observing. However, they wouldn’t just not see the exhaust from the thrusters, they would be unable to see the infrared radiation the ship’s hull gave off, from the various systems including life support and shields, since all of that would reflect off the shields and be directed out the vent.

“It does create a vulnerable point in the shield, and you’ll have to reset them to combat mode if you get in trouble,” the blonde warned of the obvious downside.

“I understand. It sounds like it’s worth the trade-off,” I sent her a smile. “What else have you got for me?”

“Just one more thing up here,” Cindy said. Standing, she urged me to as well. “Ship, turn us around and take us back to the Redoubt.”

There was a flash of light from a small dome in the center of the roof console, then a bland female voice spoke. “Affirmative. Sending intent to return and dock.”

“Auto-pilot?” I asked, and she shook her head.

“Droid brain, like the corsair. This ship’s a lot smaller, so I only needed one for all the various systems. She’ll fly herself, if you tell her where to go,” Cindy smiled.

“Excellent work,” I sent her a smile of my own, before moving back to look at the rest of the ship.

The lounge/meditation area was pretty much as I remembered it, as was the hatch leading down to the lower level. That was practically identical, and Cindy confirmed it. In the main living area, the ship had been separated out into more areas by bulkheads and hatches, giving the option for privacy—with a hatch separating the cockpit, one dividing the lounge area from the kitchen, the kitchen from the sleeping area, that from the restroom, and then my workshop in the back just before the hatch to the small engineering compartment.

Speakers on the bulkhead made sure that I wouldn’t miss any alarm from the cockpit. In the event of a hull breach, I’d be able to seal off whichever area was open to vacuum, at least. They even proved decorative, as a lot of the vertical space had been covered by Cindy, so it wasn’t just bare metal—with lots of hanging planters and a variety of plants, all of which could seal up on their own if something happened. Things had been rearranged a bit, and a few pieces of equipment replaced, but overall it looked like Cindy had been able to get more space with less and make the best use of the space the ship had.

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Moving back to my workshop, I smiled at finding everything practically as I had left it. Opening my armor/weapons locker, I pulled out the holster with my favorite compact blaster pistol on it. It felt like some small tension I had been ignoring finally loosened and I sighed, no longer feeling naked without a proper blaster that wouldn’t short circuit the moment I used it to channel the Force into a formula. Grabbing my cloak, I pulled it on, finding it was a bit shorter than it had been the last time I’d worn it but was otherwise perfectly functional.

I moved back to the cockpit and saw we were already approaching to dock. Looking to Cindy, I asked, “I’m impressed. I’ll make sure you get a nice bonus. So, what prompted this overhaul?”

“Well, when Satine poached pa, they offered me a lot of money to do it, and supplied all the materials,” she explained. Grinning, the blonde continued, “I’ll admit, I wasn’t initially keen on the idea of a complete rebuild, but when I actually started thinking of the improvements I could make, I warmed up to the idea. That’s the thing. When you do something , you can fix all the little screwups and cut corners whatever lowest bidder did and make big improvements. Even something as simple as the electrical and data conduit? Replacing the crap that came with the old one for high quality stuff lowered the latency between control and response and improved power distribution. So things like the shields and the guns get more power, faster. I could add redundant wiring, so if anything gets damaged, you can just open the floor up in the affected section and throw a switch to move everything to secondary wiring. Playing with the shield emitter array let me do what I did with that. Removing the missile and torpedo launcher let me put in a small, rapid fire railgun—it might not do much against something big, but you can bet it’ll turn a fighter into scrap. The frame and hull are both lighter and stronger too. All the little improvements add up.”

“I noticed it seemed much more responsive,” I nodded as I felt the ship thump beneath our feet. “So, what will you be doing from here, with Master Dooku sending me out for a while to train a student?”

Cindy grinned. “That’s a secret! But I think you’ll like it.”

“I’m sure I will,” I smiled.

The blonde stepped in close and I was surprised to find myself pulled into a hug. She was soft and warm, and pleasant to hold in a way that I wasn’t prepared to deal with.

Chuckling, she pulled back and smacked my arm. “Alrighty, I’m going to head out. The Redoubt’s gonna drop me off back on Mandalore. If you need anything, call me, okay?”

“I will,” I promised, nodding.

With that, I watched her hit the hatch control and hop out, turning and waving before hurrying away. A moment later, a Mando knocked on the hatch. “Ma’am, your bag.”

“Thank you,” I nodded, accepting the Republic Army issue bag and setting it aside. Closing the hatch, I made my way to the cockpit and sat down. As soon as I was sitting, I felt a familiar twist in the Force, and Catya perched herself on my shoulder, her claws digging in and starting to knead.

“And where have you been, hm?” I asked, glancing up at the feline currently starting to purr. “Well, I suppose it’s a good thing you stayed away from Felucia.”

Giving her a quick scratch under the chin, I signaled the larger ship. “Redoubt, this is Rusted Silver. I’ll be heading down to the planet now. I appreciate the ride here and once again, thank you for the assist.”

“Roger that, Rusted Silver. It was our pleasure,” I recognized the captain’s voice on the comms as I lifted off and turned for the open docking bay. “Safe travels.”

“You as well, Redoubt.”

I shut off the comm and took off, leaving the Keldabe-class cruiser behind, much to my disappointment. The ship was impressive and I really wanted one.

She had hangar space for thirty-six fighters, which was currently occupied by thirty Fang-class fighters and two Kom’rk-class fighter/transports—plus shuttles and two light freighters. She was positively bristling with heavy turbolasers, heavy ion cannons, and missile batteries. And best of all, she had a battery of four very large coilguns that could all fire independently, in sequence, or in tandem.

Some accommodations had to be made in the design to house those big guns. They’d had to make room and split the hangars between port and starboard, and lost about a third of the hangar space they could have had. Likewise, they couldn’t store as many missiles because of the space taken up by the guns. And of course, all of the corridors on the X axis had to route around the big guns, either over or under, which cut into available space. But I thought the added firepower was worth it, and the captain agreed. Ten or so more fighters and a few more missiles didn’t outweigh the utility of four big fuck off guns that could potentially annihilate most targets from well outside their normal engagement range.

The things I could do with one of those…

I shook my head, pushing the thought from my mind as I descended towards the planet. This time, knowing where the Singing Mountain clan were and with my ship being smaller than the one I’d last visited Dathomir in, I decided to put it down just outside the village where I knew there was a clear area.

I slowed as I approached the village, the ship bumping in the turbulent winds coming off the mountain made worse by the ongoing storm, as rain hammered the outside of the ship hard enough to drown out my thoughts. I made a pass around the village to make sure the landing zone was clear, before bringing the ship in for a landing. She eased down onto the new struts, which adjusted themselves to level the ship on the less than level ground. Shutting off the exterior holo display, I hit the switch for the windows, then powered down the engine.

Arthree beeped, descending from his socket and rolling over the floor. I sent the droid an amused look. “You saw it was storming. If you want to go out and be a lightning rod, I’m not going to stop you.”

The droid made a very complainy sounding beep, before rolling over and plugging into the holocom. Rolling my eyes at the droid practically sulking, I pulled the hood on my cloak up. Catya refused to move or get down, so I just wound up covering us both with it. “I may be a while. Signal if you detect anything.”

Arthree gave a confirmation beep and I hit the hatch control. Stepping out into the storm, I closed the hatch behind me as the rain hammered down on me and thunder rumbled. Walking towards the village, I was intercepted by a patrol, one of them riding a rancor covered in makeshift wooden armor.

“Who goes there? This land belongs to the Singing Mountain clan.”

Reaching under my cloak, I drew my lightsaber out slowly. They tensed for a moment, radiating wariness. I flipped the blade on, letting them see it. The wariness faded and the one riding on the rancor chuckled. “Welcome back, sister. Come for your coming of age?”

I shut off the lightsaber and slid it back under my cloak. “No, but I’ll speak with Augwynne and see if she’ll allow it a few months early.”

“It’s not typically done, but if one is expected to leave on a journey that won’t see them returning for a while, exceptions have been made in the past.”

“Thank you,” I nodded. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Well, don’t just stand here getting soaked. Head on in. I’m sure she’ll want to catch up,” the leader jerked her head towards the building at the other end of the village.

I gave a small wave and walked past them as they went back to their duties. Around me, I spotted a few homes where people peeked out of their windows, but all I felt from them was curiosity since the guards had obviously let me pass if I was this deep into the village.

Finally, I made it to the building partially carved into the side of the mountain. Feeling two presences inside, one of them familiar, and the other feeling… younger given the emotions I sensed, I realized Augwynne was either with her daughter or had a young guest. Still, rude as it may be, I wasn’t going to stand out here in the rain and wait for them to leave.

I knocked on the door, then opened it and stepped inside, closing it loudly behind me. Light footsteps from someone small running barefoot across stone sounded and I turned to see a young redheaded girl run into the hall, carrying a staff. She saw me at the same time and her bright blue eyes went wide. For just a moment, she felt fright, before leveling her staff at me—the fear replaced with anger.

“Who are you? What are you doing in our village?! In our house!” the girl demanded.

Chuckling, I took a step forward as I sensed Augwynne coming around the corner. The girl charged, screaming. For a six year old, she was fast—already channeling the Force into her body to speed her movements and increase her strength. I waited until the last moment, then reached up and caught her staff, leaving her dangling there.

“Now, is that any way to treat a guest, and a friend?” I asked as Augwynne watched from behind her daughter, an amused smile on her face.

“What? We didn’t invite you! I don’t even know you!” the girl spat, jerking at her staff as she tried to pry it from my hand, throwing her whole weight into the motion.

I let go of the staff and she fell, stumbling back and planting on her butt. Reaching up, I pulled my hood back. Catya perked up for a moment, cracking open one eye, before closing it again as her tail began to slowly thump my chest.

The girl froze, her eyes going wide as she stared up at me, darting back and forth between my face and the cat. For some reason, her mouth fell open and her face turned red. Shifting my gaze to her mother, I nodded. “Augwynne, it’s good to see you again.”

“Tanya. You’ve grown,” the woman smiled. “And you brought a friend?”

“So I’ve been told,” I nodded, pulling the cloak off and hanging it from a peg on the wall. “This is Catya.”

The older woman’s lips twitched. “Creative,” she murmured. Turning, she motioned for me to follow her deeper inside. “Allaya, join us.”

The small redhead continued to stare. When I sent her a raised eyebrow, she said, “You’re red.”

She went even redder, before bouncing to her feet and running away, deeper into the home. “No I’m not!”

Shaking my head, I followed Augwynne as she led us to a kitchen and began putting water on to boil for tea. Digging into the pouch at my side, I produced a small bag of dried leaves. “Here, use these,” I said, handing her two leaves.

Taking the leaves, I felt the Force move within and around the older woman as she hummed. “Interesting. I don’t suppose you have more?”

“I can give you a cutting to cultivate.”

“Wonderful,” Augwynne smiled. “I didn’t know you’d taken an interest in botany. If you’re interested, I have a collection of plants that promote healing and other effects. Remedies, paralytics, poisons, and other interesting things.”

“Certainly,” I agreed. “I have a few empty planters in the ship.”

The kettle got up to temperature quickly and before long, we moved to the kitchen table and sat. Allaya was still blushing a bit and kept looking between myself and her mother. I could feel the curiosity coming off of her, along with… I supposed it was childish infatuation. It was hard to describe. I’d seen it before in children at the temple, but it had taken me a while to work out what it was. It wasn’t romantic or sexual in nature—obviously, they were just children. But it was the sort of fixation that saw them looking up to someone, respecting them, and usually leading to familial love. I’d felt the same thing a few times from Obi, directed at Master Qui-Gon.

Finally, unable to contain her curiosity anymore, Allaya asked, “Who are you?”

Augwynne smiled and shrugged as I sent her a questioning look. Taking that as her letting me answer, I said, “Tanya Mereel. I am your father’s Padawan. And we have met before.”

“No we haven’t! I’d definitely remember!” the girl protested, shaking her head and sending red hair flying.

“I was here for your birth.”

Her mouth opened in a silent ‘o’ at that. Frowning slightly, she looked away. “I’ve never met him, except over holocalls.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “Master Dooku is a very busy man. Moreover, Jedi are not supposed to have familial bonds—or any strong bonds at all. Keeping in touch with you as much as he has goes against the Order’s rules.”

“That’s dumb,” the girl grumbled. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on novel✶fire.net

“I agree,” I nodded, and she looked up again, radiating surprise. It was pretty apparent she had likely thought I’d tell her off, tell her that Jedi had their reasons and she would understand when she was older or some other way adults brush off children and uncomfortable or complicated questions. Not focusing on it, I pushed on, adding, “There’s also the fact that your father is a very important man, who has made many enemies in his life, and the galaxy is not a safe place. Here on Dathomir, at least you’ve been hidden from those who would try to use you against him.”

Allaya didn’t seem mollified at all, but then, she was a child who had never met her father outside of video calls. A hologram couldn’t hug her. Wouldn’t tuck her in at night. Couldn’t comfort her after a nightmare. Couldn’t soothe the aches, pains, scrapes, and bruises of all the things a child inevitably got into. If a few words were all it took to alleviate what she felt at his absence, I would be worried I was dealing with someone with sociopathic traits.

Thankfully, I won’t have to deal with it long. I’ll pick up this prospective student of Master Dooku’s, say my goodbyes, and be on my way.

Augwynne reached over and rubbed her sulking daughter’s back. “You’ll get to see him soon.”

“I know, but why can’t we all be a family together?” the girl asked, pouting mightily.

“Your father and I both have responsibilities we can’t, in good conscience, leave to someone else,” Augwynne explained, and from the tone I could tell the explanation had been repeated many times in the past.

I raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you were sending her to visit Master Dooku. When were you planning that? Or,” I paused, considering, “ah. Yes. Of course. I would be happy to take her to Master Dooku, along with this prospective student.”

Augwynne sent me a confused look for a moment, before a smile pulled at her lips and she radiated amusement. No, not just amusement. A mischievous sort of feeling, that gave me a feeling I wasn’t going to like whatever she said next. “Dooku didn’t tell you who the student was, did he?”

“Only that I should speak to you,” I confirmed.

She snorted quietly, before it turned into a laugh. “Ah, that man’s sense of humor,” she sighed, shaking her head. Apparently seeing my confusion, she smiled, then patted her daughter on the shoulder. “Allaya is the student.”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

Augwynne’s amusement ratcheted up a few notches as she nodded. “Yes. She’s already training with the others and using the Force unconsciously to strengthen herself. I spoke with Dooku and we think that having her trained in the Jedi way would be beneficial for her, and for the tribe.”

Considering for a moment, I frowned, but nodded. “Very well. I’ll deliver her to Master Dooku to take on as his Padawan—”

“He didn’t tell you that either?” she asked, and I slowly shook my head.

“He did say that he wanted me to train with his prospective student for a while, but my understanding was that it was just going to be introductory things. Filling in a gap that would have normally been filled by a youngling spending time in general lessons as an Initiate.”

Augwynne chuckled. “I want you to train her. Everything you can.”

“I’m not saying no,” I began, and she nodded. “But why? Master Dooku is the superior choice—”

The redhead raised an eyebrow. “Dooku has not trained in our ways. You have. Not only that, but you’ve successfully integrated everything you were taught into what you do. Dooku may have more experience, but you have what I’m looking for to train her. Of course I want her to spend time with her father, and have him train her as well. But I’m counting on you.”

Picking up my cup, I took a sip and considered it for a few moments.

On the one hand, I didn’t really want to deal with a child. I didn’t hate or even particularly dislike children. One day, I might even want one of my own.

There were just… complications around that, which I didn’t like thinking about. I was certain in my sexuality of only being attracted to women and I didn’t want to be the one carrying one. There was too much of my first life leftover for me to ever be comfortable with the idea.

My point being, I would be fine with raising and training my own child, but that was a lot of effort to put into someone else’s offspring.

On the other hand, I could look at it as not just an investment but as doing a favor for Master Dooku, Augwynne personally, and the Singing Mountain Clan as a whole. I would be improving my standing with all of them by taking her on. Moreover, allies—especially strong ones—were valuable! You didn’t often get a chance to train a future ally practically from the ground up, shaping their training, their strengths to complement your own. Not to mention, instilling proper education, morals, and values.

Which is likely why the Jedi insist on taking children as young as possible. Fewer personal connections, easier to forget their parents, and a blank slate to indoctrinate. The problem is, the modern Jedi Order has become corrupt.

So… an opportunity to train a new ‘Jedi’ without the corruption. Train her to use the Force properly, instead of only half of it. But most importantly, how to think for herself, without falling back on tradition for the sake of tradition and not understanding why and how those traditions came about.

Finally, I set down my cup and nodded. “I’ll do it.” Turning, I sent a smile towards Allaya. The girl froze where she sat, a trickle of fear seeping through the infatuation. “We’re going to have so much fun~.”

For some reason, she leapt off her seat and bolted away, deeper into the home. Frowning, I made a mental note.

Going to have to train her fear response properly, too…