In Search of Home

Chapter 46

The stuff they had bought arrived before they had. Either Vok'Rul had asked for a scenic route or the car their stuff had been in was driven by speed demons. It was funny to think of the latter, so Viktor decided that was the only possible explanation.

He wrangled himself out of the harness after they had gotten back into Vok'Rul's rooms. Rukka and Kac must have already retired because it was just the three of them. Nohkka was still sleeping rather soundly. The sun quickly set in the time it took for Vok'Rul to have staff members take some of their goods upstairs.

Eventually, what with all the noise and rustling, Nohkka woke up again. Excited and seemingly energized by her nap (which couldn't have been more than an hour. These aliens probably needed less sleep than humans did), she started taking out some of the sweaters. Viktor squinted at her suspiciously.

Thankfully, Vok'Rul managed to hold her off for a while, and Viktor was left in peace. The staff members left after Vok'Rul thanked and dismissed them. Viktor crept out of the relatively safe office (he had been watching from the opposite end of the room, looking out of the open door. He didn't particularly like having a bunch of aliens he didn't know very well in his space, thank you very much) and watched as Vok'Rul started to sort through the items.

He had gotten a lot of bottles. Viktor wouldn't be able to tell anyone what they were for, exactly, but he had a good idea since they went into the bathroom. There were some hairbrushes in that pile as well.

Viktor had immediately pounced on the blanket when it was revealed, wrapping himself up tightly. Nohkka petted him on top of the blanket, but that was alright. It was pretty soft.

As soon as they had gotten to their little clothes pile (which was still ridiculous he thought. In fact, he thought all of this was ridiculous. There wasn't any need to buy him all this junk, but he couldn't tell them that, so he tried to enjoy the consequences and not let the guilt bother him too much), Viktor had snagged the socks. Unfortunately, they were wrapped up pretty well, so he had to hand them back to Vok'Rul so the alien could slice them open.

They were a little big. They went up all the way to the bottom of his calf if he pulled them taut but otherwise settled around his ankles. They'd probably end up slipping off sometimes, but he couldn't find himself caring that much. New socks were nothing to sneeze at. Plus, they were blue! And matched his sweater!

Vok'Rul took his old ones, probably to throw them away. Viktor wouldn't miss them.

There was a whirring noise behind him, distracting him from his newly acquired socks. He turned around, a bit awkwardly since he was sitting down, trying to put on the socks. Nohkka had a strange little device in her hands. Vok'Rul looked up from his pile, rumbling something at her. She quickly got up, rushing over to him. Viktor had to reel backward to avoid getting smacked in the face by whatever she was holding.

"Sheesh," Viktor muttered, quickly pulling on the other sock before standing up and wandering over. He almost stepped on Vok'Rul's tail in the process.

Vok'Rul opened the package for Nohkka, rumbling at her squeals of excitement. The item that popped out of the package - from what Viktor could see before Nohkka quickly snatched it up - was probably the weirdest thing he's ever seen.

It reminded Viktor of the cars that they use here; flat at the bottom and a little domed at the top. But that was where the similarities ended. As Nohkka turned it all on, Viktor realized that instead of using whatever engines the real cars of this planet used this one was propelling itself upward with air.

Nohkka drove it around a little bit in circles using a small, circular device that he would probably be unable to understand, ever, before she twisted it in his direction. It hovered almost a foot in the air and was hurtling toward him with an alarmingly fast speed. Viktor took a few steps back and this time, he did step on Vok'Rul's tail. And trip over it, in the process.