Shiver, drumming her trembling fingers on the table, stared with the expression of one utterly unenthusiastic, at her food. She was alone. Neither Mist nor Aryan was here yet. “I’m sure they’ll be here soon dear,” said Laurence reassuringly, readjusting his chef hat at a funny angle to make her laugh. It induced a weak but grateful smile. There was a dark, wooly rug on the gray flagstone floor. The table she was seated at was meticulously carved, mahogany wood from Aryan's seventeenth-century set. Donning a white lace cover and porcelain plates. Pretty indigo candles lit Shiver’s flickery little face and clothes and the stone walls. Ones deeply gray.

  Shiver had dressed for the occasion in a pretty, flowing, crimson-silk dress with a pattern of purplish flowers, and a large hat of navy-blue upon which she had tacked on a fair rose from the garden. She clicked the strappy sandals that blackened her slender, white, little feet against the grand chair. She studied from various angles her reflection in the mirror hanging off the dining room wall and smiled to herself.

  Golly, I look very nice today, she thought to herself proudly.

  Her slender, dainty hands slowly stroking her dress’s delicate fabric were on edge though, as she waited anxiously and with rising distress for Aryan. She began to slowly pick petals of a flower entwined in hair’s red-gold out, one-by-one scattering them upon the floor. There was another purpled rose in a cobalt vase on the table, that her fingers itched to pluck. The vase contained myriad, midnight-blue flowers, all thorny and long-stemmed, and an ornate, silver handle.

  Monovalent to distract her, turned on the air-conditioning, and the music sensors. It had also turned on the dishwasher and porch lights, in case Aryan arrived late again, possibly after dark. The computerized stereo could play music anywhere in the house. At the moment it was projecting Shiver’s favourite songs into her mind. Mist arrived three minutes later and sat down groaning “Gee the old guy’s still not here”. “He’s not old he’s young,” said Shiver sounding defensive.

  “Yeah, you would say that, because you have a thing for the oldie. He’s really seventy-nine Shiver, he just looks forty-nine,” Mist said.

  “Forty-one not nearly fifty and he actually looks more like twenty-five,” Shiver snapped at him indignantly.

  “Whatever. Not vegetables again!” He exclaimed suddenly staring at his food in dismay.

  ‘Master Aryan is a vegetarian as you well know Master Mist,’ Laurence Samuel Burns reminded him.

  “Yes, but I’m not,” Mist pointed out.

  “You’re supposed to be while you’re living at the master’s household,” Laurence reprimanded him sternly. He, as the manor’s gardener, household chef, and Chauffer, was understandably quite exhausted and not in the mood for antagonistic, spoilt brats.

  I miss meat, thought Shiver sadly her stomach churning and staring with equal dismay at her organic vegetable casserole. The pair, who often lived off chocolate bars, scrambled eggs, biscuits, cheese-and-spaghetti on toast, instant noodles, ice cream, fast food including pizza, hot dogs, and burgers as well as coffee and tea, were not the world’s most healthy eaters even at the best of times.

  “It’s probably going to be fruit for dessert again too argh,” Shiver said.

  “If we’re lucky it’ll be coconut slice, carrot cake, blueberry pie, or chocolate brownies again yum. Hey, remember how we’d sneak down to the fish and chip shop or The Blue Café for tea and scones with jam and cream or the Chinese place for fried rice, roast duck, and spring rolls before Aryan got home?” Mist said. “ Or when we just went and bought all those lollies, chocolate bars, and biscuits and ate them till we were sick, then told Aryan we were too tired to be hungry that was so great,” Mist laughed.

  Shiver nodded wistfully. “We just ate and watched great films, all day.”

  “I wish he wouldn’t still make us come to his stupid little dinner banquet every night,” Mist said.

  “You know what Aryan says,’ Shiver droned monotonously her face stiff and robotic in expression; “Family must make time together and grow as one… and to achieve this, must always spend the time it takes to learn and appreciate each other... To each accept the other in all their wonders and foibles. Only thus shall we attain comradery and love.”

  They both laughed as it was such a good imitation of the speech Aryan regularly gave with such passion yet still always seemed to come out sounding like it came straight from the mouth of a robot. Shiver took a sip from her delicate porcelain cup of ivory etched with an artistic rendition of willows, leaves, and birds designed by some Australian artist and turned to Mist.

  “We’re the only family he’s got,” she said somewhat more seriously “but I agree this little family nightly ritual does get painful, especially around these times. He never gets to see us on some days though he’s so busy working. Which I guess is why it’s so important to him.”

  “Well, I suppose we are his only friends,” Mist said in a conciliatory fashion, “so it does seem cruel not to humour him, plus he lets us live in his massive home.”

  “Yes, and it’s even bigger than it was last month what with those two room expansions,” Shiver said smiling.

  “Yeah,” Mist nodded. “Aryan's been spending big time ever since he made that extra bucket load of money selling his online holographic world technology to the military army and the police force. Now they can practice killing criminals with guns and bombing war-time civilians within their own virtually designed realistic world or Aryan’s anyway. No more pitiful sort of 3D but closer to 2D simulations and target practice boards. Now they get the real thing or close enough,” said Mist.

  “No more using animals to practice their aim or see what effects their weapons have either thank God”, said Shiver referring to a scandal published over 20 years ago in the newspaper. When those still existed.

  Neither mentioned why they really were beholden to this ritual and any other that took Aryan’s fancy. This being the threat Aryan had hanging over their heads. He could kill the young Shiverla anytime he wanted without repercussions. Shiver didn’t really believe he’d do them in over something as insignificant as missing dinner or refusing to go to dinner, but she couldn’t be sure and certainly did not want to risk it. Thus, she remained ever-bound to his whims.

  “Making a carnivore eat leaves it’s truly disgusting,” said Mist a minute or so later when Aryan still hadn’t arrived.

  He then asked a strange question.

  “Shiver, with the severing, impairment or blocking with a wall, that connection that allows us to feel empathy wholly in a beyond merely-intellectual way, do you feel it at all.”

  “Well, sometimes as I see something genuinely sad or merely sentimental, I’ll feel closed off and a little numb as usual but a part of me that I can’t quite reach, that’s closed off and alien almost like someone else will be reacting, feeling something intensely. Tears will be in my eyes, without me realizing for a while.”

  “A little of that feeling will cross over into me, to my not-walled-off part.” She replied after a gentle pause. Before turned our maiden, those for-a-killer-too-kind eyes and now delicately raised brows, toward her male companion.

  Shiver not quite in these words but felt sentiments similar yet more lust-worthy and they both had noticed how he looked just like a Greek boy- muse or marble Roman statue causing Shiver’s ivory cheeks to blush a dusky pink, rose-tinged hue that was rather becoming.

  “Well, almost carnivores, and really more like omnivores”, said Shiver trying to distract herself from our boy Mist handsomeness and especially his slender, muscular arms. “We can still get nutritional value from plants say better than a cat can we just need to digest meat as well.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Well either way I’m a growing adolescent who is now, no thanks to Aryan and his diet regime, over six foot,” Mist said. “I deserve better.”

  Laurence who was standing politely next to the kitchen door waiting for the master’s arrival home made a soothing noise. “Shiver tilted back her old-fashioned wide-brimmed hat exposing her little heart-shaped face and smiled up at Laurence sweetly.

  “See Laurie gets what we’re going through at least’ she said. When she smiled, she exposed her very small, even teeth baring them wolfishly and the quiet butler couldn’t help flinching slightly

  Mist smiled: “It’s interesting how our cells are hybridized with virus and bacteria DNA. Viruses insert new copies of DNA/RNA into cells and that’s what we do, we just insert our memories and our current physical form in as well. Some cells shut down and become less effective at repairing over time due to certain genes like R 16. Our gene R 16 was switched off. Some cells are less affected by these genes and still age. Experiments show the cerebral cortex will still atrophy even without R 16.”

  Shiver sighed “I wish we could eat meat more than twice a week,” she commented oblivious to Laurence’s continuous flinching. ‘I mean why should we be not allowed to eat animals because it’s cruel, but we’re not allowed to donate some of our excess money to charity which could save starving or disabled/homeless people because we need it to buy that new computer?”

  “Isn’t that a more frivolous reason than eating for protein and maximum health?” She went on. “After all, don't vegetarians lose brain cells faster than regular people? A semi-carnivorous diet is what made our ancestors smart and stronger, makes us the Shiverla even smarter and stronger. Meat consumption helped our human ancestors get the iron, high- protein, and energy needed to increase brain size and capacity while in development in the womb”

  “Was that ever conclusively proven?” Mist asked. “About vegetarians being less healthy or is that spread by the meat industry? On the other hand, food companies who market to vegetarian interests have all their own studies claiming vegetarians and vegans as healthier, and their claims are just as likely (if not more so) to be bogus. Not to mention increased height and muscle mass are linked to meat consumption as is adequate absorption of protein and iron essential for growth, physical strength, and menstruation,” Mist said making a slight face at the mention of the last one.

  “Besides we do donate our money,” Mist reminded her.

  “Yes, but we could donate a lot more if we gave up this luxurious lifestyle,” Shiver said.

  Shiver glanced over at Laurence as she spoke, as he had come from a very working-class background but his face was impassive, unreadable. Mist’s lovely face when she stole a look at him too was pensive; his beautiful deep, purple-gray eyes had an unusually softened look almost vulnerable. “Are you alright Mist?” Shiver asked hesitantly.

  ‘I’m fine,” Mist said snidely. “I was just wondering why you love your precious Aryan so much when he treats us so terribly and you disagree with his most of his personal opinions and policies on animal welfare anyway.’

  “I don’t disagree with them!” Shiver said fervently. “I just don’t think he pays enough attention to animals in the right areas. Like how he said commercial human surrogacy, especially when outsourced to poorer nations like India, is so barbaric when paying for kittens and puppies too young to leave their mother and using their mothers as breeders is the exact same thing. Puppy mills abuse the dogs something terrible and keep them in cages. When the poor dogs get ill, they don’t treat them.”

  “Farm animals are used as surrogates too, made to have babies to suit human agendas” she continued. “Where’s their right to bodily integrity? Where are the rights of those poor, human babies born to surrogate mothers and sold like commodities for that matter? God, I hate people and their stupid individual rights system.”

  “Euthanizing and sterilizing cats and dogs because they're supposedly overpopulated and not doing the same to people who are far more overpopulated is also disgusting. We might have brought them here but that gives us less not more right to punish them for our past transgressions. We should let them all go free and kill the wildlife. After all, we kill millions of animals and destroy their habits and nature itself. So, the very least we can do is award other species that privilege. At least it would be fair.”

  “They wouldn’t be endangering any native wildlife if we hadn’t bought them here in the first place. If their population explodes, they’d also starve, famished, mangy cats racing about everywhere” Mist pointed out. “Besides what do you care?” Mist taunted her grinning, “You eat these beloved animals of yours and Aryan at least is a vegetarian and an advocate of stopping animal abuse.”

  “I don’t think animal consumption is wrong, and I would never eat a highly intelligent animal,” Shiver informed him hotly.

  “I don’t think keeping animals captive and for consumption is right, but I think if you weigh it up against the alternatives (not eating meat at all) it’s the lesser of two evils. I think as long as you ban factory farming and give them companionship and wide-open spaces, feed them well, and kill them humanely it’s probably okay.”

  “Zoos and medical testing where they keep them in those tiny little cages and they purposely made ill to test antidotes even killed is far worse, however,” Shiver continued.

  ”You don’t eat clever animals Shiver? I thought pigs were supposed to be quite intelligent” Mist said to her.

  “They are brighter than chickens,” Shiver said “but whatever those pseudo-science tests say to the contrary a leopard that has to strategize and think on its feet all the time to catch its prey is more intelligent than the rather docile pig. Birds and wolves and foxes and other big cats are brilliant too. You can see it in the eyes,” Shiver said, absently chewing on a red-gold lock. “I’m sorry but I don’t think cat and dog intelligence can be compared to cows or chickens or even pigs that are very sweet but just not that bright,” Shiver said. ‘That said I don’t think we should eat more than necessary we should really cut down on our meat-eating.”

  “I’m just saying like Aryan once did;”

  ‘“A being is judged on many things in this human society “appearance” and, status often using and procuring objects that convey said status; money, housing, the perfect family, a respectable career... but intelligence is sadly underrated, and I fear many humans are losing their brains and more and more have little of this brightness left to boast of.

  Cleverness is undervalued, and stupidity and cunning are too often praised.... Cats and dogs and wild animals on the other hand can often be far more intense, deep, and intelligent than your average human. As they do not live a caged, sheltered life as many humans do, and if they did not have their wits about them would die in an environment as harsh as what we call the wild.”

  “Worth in my perfect world order, would compromise the ability to think, feel, and comprehend profoundly, talent but only real talent in science, art, maths, economics, history, music, industrial relations and being highly knowledgeable and literate as well as to live a long, healthy enjoyable life full of recreation and relaxation. It is the highly skilled workforce with the best quality of life and opportunities for success offered to all that shall best foster talent and technological innovation. As well as good quality products than one that relies on cheap labour and products”’

  Shiver finished what was an impressively long quote.

  “Wow,” said Mist in a mock-impressed tone “quoting our wondrous, ever so humble prophet the great Aryan Alexander Gray, are we? “I mean isn’t all that from one of the speeches Aryan wrote explaining his communist ideals? He gave it to me read the self-aggrandizing cretin when I complained about how dumb people were. Still think for yourself loving the old guy doesn't mean quoting him and treating him like the Jesus the holier than thou bloody prophet” Mist said viciously.

  Shiver blushed red and glowered at him, enraged. “I hope Aryan gets here soon, as you fucking suck today Mist you arrogant, vindictive bastard,” she yelled loudly. Mist’s only response to this was to laugh with great mirth. Shiver looked like she was going to cry.

  “Don’t you dare take that laughing, disdainful tone with me again Mist” she said the sound of her voice not teary but utterly enraged.

  “It’s Aryan's fault not mine,” Mist said in protest seeming rather unabashed. “If he arrived on time, we wouldn’t get bored and hungry and irritable like this. Your altercation is with him not me, so resolve it with lover-boy.”

  Laurence with thin, almost-slumped dark cheek aloft and who’d been observing the entire scene, reflected this was true. The two of them always fought when Aryan was late. It was a real pity as they usually got on so well. He sighed and ran a finger through his hair, praying the master would arrive as soon as possible.

  Shiver frowned feeling sullen and miserable; a fairly standard state for her and her look toward any who dared share the same space, at once cold and contentious. She sat upon something with a somewhat sharp, lined edge that pricked her winged, little hip slightly.

  She began to retrieve it, with that shaky show of haughtiness that conveniently masks the immensely-wounded. Emanuel had said of people he deemed narcissistic;

  "Their pride even modest achievements can positively effect but conversely, their self-adulation others may only shallowly debride. They remain ones nevertheless, of fairly rich self-accolade".

  Shiver meanwhile continued in her endeavor to stop the irritating prickling and took out the crumpled mess poking her form.

  It was the handwritten letter, pale little fledgling. Shiver knew it was from Emanuel, whom Monovalent had told her was to be her saviour. The one who created her in the first place. All the wonders he achieved just to see her again, she thought dreamily as she read what was written

  I send this with my love. My little fiend here’s merely part of a letter and a poem penned … Read its beginnings: hold the note with nimble fingers. Feel papered wisps and inked whisperings, light-filled. Clamour to every word's core. Wait to see how its soft little ending tails... Until you're again, my Elusive Island of Sandstone finding. No matter how sincere, I am yet consigned to my own flowering-in-folly. Little evil one, my self-pride has near-infallible wells; all should dwell upon the glory of this scaled yet mammalian beast and his beloved.

  Through the great and gentle moisture of the would-be beautifier’s blink, I see your cold limbs and fetaling incarnation. All from within the confines of my cavernous lair. Once courted death, did she frozen-in-fairness. Death is unfathomable and cruel and you offered it your refusal. Inevitability; proved its falsehood.