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I hum in agreement. I want to feel the warm water against my skin. I want to feel clean, and I want a belly full of food. There are so many things I want right now, and I don’t even know how to go on and ask him. Will he give me everything I want, or is he going to limit me? But the most important thing is getting a shower. Once I feel better, then I can worry about food and sleep and everything else.

“Here’s the blanket. I was able to find a small bottle of formula, but there wasn’t much left in the kitchen,” the guard explains, making me flinch. I didn’t realize he had come back into the room. “I tested it to make sure that there was nothing added to it.”

“Everything’s okay, Little Pet. This guard is good people. He’s not going to harm you,” Daddy explains. “Everyone here is good. Besides that cruel guard, but he’s been taken into custody, so you don’t have to worry about him any longer.”

It’s a relief to know that he has been taken away, and I won’t have to see him again. But is he telling me the truth? Are there really no other bad people, and are all of them like him, caring and compassionate?

“Thank you. Please go check all the other rooms to make sure no other Little Pets are hidden away somewhere. We don’t want this to happen again,” Daddy says. “And talk with the other guards to see whether there are any other bad apples. We want to nip this in the bud before it gets any worse.”

“And if I find anything?” the guard asks.

Daddy gently pats my bottom as he rocks me back and forth. “If you find any humans in random cages in rooms they shouldn’t be in, have Yamal check over them before you notify their owners, or put them back in the main holding room. But first, immediately get them looked after to make sure there’s nothing wrong health-wise. I also want you to check the other girls and make sure they’re getting fed, that they have clean diapers, and that they are being taken care of.”

“Yes, sir. Would you like me to report back to you when I find something?” He asks.

“After you’ve done all of that, you can come and tell me the conclusion of everything. But you don’t need to report every single detail. I trust you,” Daddy replies. “If you need anything, I’ll be taking my Little Pet back to my home. Yamal will be with me to check over her, but afterward, he should be free. If it’s something urgent, then there’s another doctor you can contact. He doesn’t have as much experience with humans, but he should be able to see whether they are in any sort of danger health-wise.”

“Understood. I’ll go do that,” he says.

Daddy looks down at me and gently runs his finger across my cheek.

“Are you ready to go home?” he asks, but he doesn’t wait for my reply. “Daddy is going to place this blanket around you and cover your face. Not because I want to, but because it is necessary. The sun outside is far too bright for you right now, and I don’t want your eyes to get hurt. So we’re going to cover your face. Before that, I’m going to help you drink this formula so you can have something in your stomach. I don’t know when the last time you were fed, and I’m worried it was far too long ago.”

Daddy holds the bottle up to my lips and gently runs the nipple across my mouth, easing it in.

“Do you think you can suckle?” Daddy asks.

I try to move my mouth around the nipple, but everything in me just wants to fall asleep and do nothing.

“That’s okay, Little Pet. Daddy’s going to squeeze the bottle so that it comes out, and you can just let it slide down your throat,” he explains.

And he does just that. The same wonderful flavor dances across my taste buds as he squeezes the bottle. It’s slow, but I can slowly feel my stomach start to fill up.

“That’s all for now. I don’t want you to get sick by drinking too much too quickly,” he says.

A whimper escapes my lips as I open my mouth slightly, wanting more to drink.

“I know, Little Pet, but I don’t want you to get sick. Your stomach isn’t used to having food inside you, and I don’t want you to throw it all back up. We’re going to take it slow, extremely slow, to make sure that it doesn’t happen, but you will be getting regular food so your stomach will never be empty,” Daddy gently says. “When we get to my house, and Yamal looks you over, then you’ll be getting another meal.”

“Yamal?” I utter, barely.

It is exhausting, trying to make my mouth move, but this was the third or fourth time he has mentioned Yamal’s name, and I have no idea who he was. I have no idea who Daddy is or how he knew I was in this room.

But he is my savior in some way. He came to save me in this room and took away the bad person. So I owe him everything.

“Yamal is a doctor. He’s going to examine you and take your vitals to make sure that everything is okay. I don’t know how long you’ve been here and what you’ve been fed or haven’t been fed, or how you’ve been treated. There are bruises marring your skin, and I want him to treat them and give me medicine. But he’s the expert in this field, not me,” Daddy explains. “Now, are you ready to go home? Let’s go.”

THREE

“Come on, Little Pet. Daddy’s just going to set you down so I can put the diaper on you,” Daddy explains.

I didn’t want to let him go when he tried to put me in a large sink to wash me off. I held on to his shirt the whole time, getting it wet as he washed me, but I didn’t care. I wanted him close so he wouldn’t dare to leave me. Even though he reassured me so many times that he wasn’t going to leave me, I doubted him.

“You can’t hold on to my shirt forever, Little Pet. At some point, I’m going to need to put you down so I can do things around the house,” he tries to reason with me, but I don’t pay any attention to it. “I know you’re scared right now and don’t want to be left alone, but I’m not going to. I just want to put a diaper on you so when you need to go potty, you can. There aren’t any bathrooms on Venkoria for you. I don’t want you to wet yourself and make you even more embarrassed or scared.”

Daddy keeps mentioning that there isn’t a bathroom, or that I’ll be sleeping in a kennel, or that I’ll be drinking out of a bottle. He keeps calling me Little Pet when I’m not a pet. He says so many things, and I have no idea what he’s talking about. I know I should be offended about some of them and question him, but I don’t have the strength to do that right now. Daddy came to save me, which means he has to have my best interests in everything that he’s doing, right?

“No,” I mumble as I hold on tighter to his shirt.