Dystopia Pt. 03

He motioned towards a corner of the mudroom, and not knowing what else to do she went over and stood there.

"Don't just stand there, dump the hay," he chuckled at her confused expression.

Like she was supposed to know what to do! Washing clothes she was good at, but fighting off deranged goats and feeding rabbits? Not so much. With a bit of a huff, she dropped the hay in the corner as Emil opened the rabbit cage on the other side of the room. Thirty something bunnies came pouring out, and bee-lined it straight for the hay she had just dumped.

'Oh my god, it's like the cutest tidal wave ever!' Isla bent down to rub several of their backs as they hopped through her legs and towards the food.

"Do any of them have names?" she said petting one particularly gorgeous one, looking at Emil.

"Sure they do! The one you're petting is 'Lunch', and the one next to him is 'Dinner'." he said laughing.

She pouted at his mean joke, but figured that he was right. 'No use getting attached, they're all going to end up in the stock pot eventually' she thought sadly. She stood from petting the bunnies, and looked towards Emil for more instructions.

Nodding Emil opened the door back into the cold. "Go get three more handfuls of hay that size and dump it in the corner. They'll eat it eventually. We'll let them run around the room and just worry about the shit tomorrow. Don't let any escape though."

Isla nodded and ducked back out into the wind and sleet to go gather more foodstuffs. When she had gathered her first armful she turned and was surprised to see Emil was nowhere in sight. Quickly she made her way back to the room, dumping her load; and then made two additional trips.

The rabbits didn't seem to want anything to do with escaping. Not that she could blame them. There was nothing out there but cold, and demon sheep. No it was much better inside with a full belly and no snow.

Fleeing into her own shelter, Isla paused just long enough to shrug off her oversized boots 'I just washed this floor dammit' before heading into Emil's room to find him. He wasn't there. Not only that, but the stove was cold.

Turning to the inside of the house, she heard running water and looked down the hall to see Emil filling the bath.

'Alright! Time to be proactive.'

After her uselessness today, 'and yesterday' her brain reminded her, she was determined to be helpful. She quickly bent to the stove and lit a fire, feeding larger and larger pieces of wood to it, until she was confident it would stay lit for a while. That done she went to the kitchen and began rummaging through the various cabinets looking for something to make a meal out of.

Finding the basics for a decent stew, she grabbed the largest stock pot she could find. Practically a cauldron the thing had to be fifteen gallons, and she filled it with water from the barrel outside the mudroom. Lighting the stove she started the pot to boil.

The sound of running water cut off from the bathroom and she guessed that Emil must be starting his bath.

'Perfect, that'll give me time to get the stew going.'

Locating the rabbit hung in the larder, she grabbed the oldest date she saw and brought it into the kitchen for butchering. She had never cut apart an animal, her diet having consisted mostly of various fruits and boiled grains back home. Fortunately Emil had shown her a knife yesterday that he said she could use, and she began cutting as much of the bones out of the meat as she could.

It was hard going and took a lot longer than she wanted, but got most of the meat off the bones, into small chunks, and into the hot water. She even threw in several large bones that she hadn't been able to pick clean, hoping the cooking would separate the flesh. She then turned her attention to the vegetables.

'Ok, so we have tons of meat out here, but I didn't see a garden. That means that he probably buys most of his vegetables and fruits at market. So I need to be careful which ones I use.' Isla remembered back home, onions, potatoes, and carrots were pretty cheap. Most root vegetables actually. Assuming price margins were roughly the same, she felt confident using those.

Chopping up several of each she added them to the pot with generous spoonfuls of salt, pepper, and something labeled "celery seed" which smelled amazing. Just as she reached for a spoon large enough to be replanted and called a sapling, when Emil's voice came tumbling down the hall.

"Isla, come here please"

"Yes sir!"

Isla rounded the corner of the kitchen into the hallway and saw the bathroom door was wide open, and Emil was stark naked drying himself with a towel. She froze mid step. Her mind raced as she considered all of her options.

She could go to him, and full fill whatever 'needs' he had, she could turn around ignoring him and just take the beating, or she could pretend she was taking a while, grab as much clothes and food as possible and just run. Her brain spun into overdrive.

'Ok, so running is out of the question. I'd get a mile and die from exposure. Maybe if I tackled him, I could get him face down in the tub and drown him. No, he's at least fifty pounds heavier than I am, and look at that back. Fighting goats must be great exercise. No he'd kill me easily' she thought to herself.

Her thoughts began to spiral out of control as scenario after scenario flashed through her adrenaline infused mind. Each one arrived at the same conclusion. 'Anything other than total obedience means death.'

Her back straightened even as her stomach dropped out beneath her. Terror gave way to resignation as her body on autopilot completed the last few yards. Shoulders slumped and eyes misting she entered the bathroom.

"Yes sir," her voice quivering.

Turning around Emil met her gaze and gestured to the bath. "I'm done with the tub if you wanted it. It's still pretty warm." Hanging up his towel he padded his naked ass down the hallway and into the bedroom. "Oh you started the fire! Thanks."

Isla stood there looking at the tub.

It was about three quarters full and had a greyish tint to it, showing it had already been used.

The soap sat nearby in the bucket, and white globs of not-yet-dissolved soap clung to the sides of the tub.

It did look like it was still...

'What the fuck?! Ok that was not normal! None of this is normal! Omg is he torturing me?!' Isla's brain screamed at her. Her psyche was a minefield of emotions. Half of her was so relieved that she felt the burden physically, wanting to sit down and just cry. The other half was just grateful that he had even thought to offer her a warm bath.

A tiny part of her though, a mere sliver of reality, barely enough to call a thought really; was furious.

'What the fuck is this man doing to me? This is the second time I've steeled myself, and been willing to give him what he wants and he brushes me off?! Oh my god! Am I mad that he didn't take me? What the hell is wrong with me? Oh this is not ok. This is very very not ok. If I don't figure out what's going on soon, I'm going to have a stroke. Should I ask him? NO! What are you thinking? You can't ask your owner about sex! That's like...begging him to fuck you. God I can't take this. The stress is going...'

"Isla?"

Isla spun around, seeing Emil now fully dressed standing in front of the bedroom door. "Yes sir?"

"Are you ok?"

"Yes sir"

"Well you've been standing there for like...five minutes. Staring at the tub. If you want a fresh bath that's fine."

"No, no, I'm fine. I was just thinking," she said shaking her head trying to clear it.

"O...k. Well the tub is probably too cool now anyway, so just drain it and when we're done with lunch if you decide you want a bath you can take one then."

Isla quickly turned and began the business of draining the tub and cleaning the bathroom.

'Cleaning! Cleaning is good. Cleaning is safe. Clean the bathroom, clear the mind. Don't know where that came from. What the fuck is wrong with me?'

She scrubbed the tub within an inch of its life, and may have been unnecessarily forceful when spreading the towels on the rack. Her hands slowed as her adrenaline rush began to fade, taking her anger with it.

'Psycho bitch, you're going to get yourself in trouble if you open your fat mouth. Keep it closed, or he may put it to use'

Isla thought about how she had turned that corner, seen him naked, and very nearly gotten herself killed by attacking him. She became more and more calm as the bathroom became neater. A small smile tugged the corner of her mouth.

'He did have a nice back though,' her brain whispered. Isla stood bolt upright so fast her feet nearly left the floor.

"Oh. Shit"

Chapter 15

Emil wandered into the kitchen enjoying the sight of the pot set to boiling a large amount of stew. A quick taste with the lumber sized spoon though made him reel.

"Oh man. That's way too much celery seed. Dammit that shits expensive too."

He continued mumbling to himself as he pulled out some garlic and precious sugar. Normally he wouldn't waste sugar on a stew, but there was enough in the stewpot for a week of meals. After a little fine tuning of course.

A little sugar, a couple cloves of garlic, and a lot of pepper later and he thought it was tasting pretty damn good. It was a little light on the meat though. Reaching into the larder, he fetched another rabbit from its hook. Using a dull butcher's knife he chopped the rabbit clean in half crosswise along the spine and hung the remainder back in the closet.

Using the knife Isla had left out, he quickly separated the ribs, legs, and back meat and tossed it all in the boiling cauldron. Giving it a few good stirs to make sure that none of the potatoes stuck to the bottom of the pot, he turned to check the fire in his room.

Isla had lit the fire without asking, which was a waste of fuel since nobody was in the room; but it meant that the room was warm, if a bit odorous. He'd have to talk to her about efficiency. Maybe in a bathhouse you want the fires always lit so people could just walk in and take a bath, but up here they needed to conserve fuel for when it was really necessary. The only reason he took a bath is because there was very little else to do, and honestly he needed to work out some...stress.

It's not like he had never been around women before. Though that barmaid at the Prancing Pony was new, he'd hired ladies there before for a night of companionship. It was completely different to entice a wench you'd been wooing all night with a bit of coin, and another thing entirely to purchase a human being for permanent usage.

It's just different.

Of course his hormones had absolutely no idea about the moral murk of sex and money; and quite frankly, they didn't give a damn. He'd woken up this morning abruptly thanks to his near death experience. If he'd woken up a little slower, his body would have followed the same routine it had for the last decade, and demanded his immediate attention. As it was...it was rather difficult to aim in the bathroom.

Of course he told her to follow him around the ranch while he did his chores. So why was it so damn cute that she followed him like a curious little puppy all day? Her sliding down the hallway this morning in her socks? Priceless.

Worst of all was her smell.

She smelled of jasmine. Oh god he could get lost in that scent and float away to dream dreamy dreams of soft curves. It didn't even make any sense! His soap was infused with some pansies, but not jasmine. It couldn't even survive this far north.

Needless to say, his biology coupled with her pheromones and general adorableness...he was a ticking powder keg. As soon as they were done with this morning's chores he had fled to the bathroom to relieve the pressure. Now like the fabled werewolf, he had reverted back to his human form. Slightly dazed and sticky, but human.

Emil shook his head to clear the raunchy thoughts.

'No you bought her to help on the ranch. Not as a human fuck toy. She's a goddamn human being and there is a line' he thought angrily.

Emil turned back to the stove and began stirring the pot, skimming foam off the top and checking the rabbit for done-ness. It was coming along very nicely and just in time to, as Isla emerged from cleaning the bathroom.

"Sir, that's my job! Here let me."

She promptly plucked the spoon from his hand and tasted the stew. Nodding to herself she smiled. "Not bad for my first time! Though I think it needs more celery seed."

Emil winced. "I don't know, I think it tastes great. Besides that stuff is about sixty silver a jar. Let's not go too overboard."

"Yes sir" she replied meekly. "It should be ready in a few minutes. If it's ok, I'm going to wash the bedding again and maybe tidy up the room a bit. It's still a little...pungent."

"Sure. Sounds great," he nodded.

While she went off to strip the bed, Emil pondered the sleeping arrangements.

'I can't have her sleeping in my bed every night, that's certainly going to end in disaster. I really shouldn't have done it last night. Don't even know why I grabbed her, should have sent her to my parent's room or had her sleep on the floor. Should I just move her to the big bedroom? No, that won't work. I don't have enough fuel for two stoves long term. I could buy some more in town, I do have to go get boots and some proper fitting pants for her.'

"Isla," he called, walking into his bedroom. "Do you know how to sew?"

She looked up and met his gaze, "Yes sir. I spent many hours fixing clothes in the laundry."

"That's great, but I meant could you sew clothes from scratch, not just alter. Could you sew a whole new set of pants from raw material?"

A look of 'no-shit-sherlock' crossed her face for a heartbeat, before she nodded meekly. "Yes sir. My mother taught me how to sew clothes, and I made most of the clothes my sister and I wore."

"Perfect. Instead of just washing the sheets, I want you to strip the big bedroom of everything. You can use this room and the living room as temporary storage. Use the mudroom if you have to. I need to work on the walls in that room."

A plan began to form in Emil's mind. Leaving Isla to her assigned tasks, he bundled up in his heavy coat and boots, then headed out to the barn. Rifling through the chest of tools he kept out there, he quickly located his bucket of nails and hammer, as well as an old canvas cot and some chain. Grabbing the insulation he had purchased during his last trip into town, he quickly stomped back inside.

The storm wasn't any worse, but it wasn't getting much better either. The wind was still whipping sideways at several dozen kilometers per hour, and the ice was building up on the side of the house and barn rather thickly. If the storm didn't let up in the next couple days, he was going to have to come out here and chop it off, before it started to peel off the outer boards that made up his home.

Tromping inside sans boots, he made his way over to his parent's former room. Isla had already made quick work of most of the chests that had been lining the walls. Their contents placed on the bed in the middle. Even the dresser had been moved. The bed was still in place, but he supposed it was too heavy for her, even before it had been loaded down with various knick-knacks and thingamabobs his parents had collected through the ages.

Isla was currently unloading books from one of the two bookcases, and carrying them to the living room; piling them neatly in stacks in the corner. Emil bent to help her and between the two of them they finished unloading the books and moving the bookcases and bed in just a few minutes.

After the room was sufficiently gutted, they broke for lunch. Enjoying the stew at a perfect temperature, since the fire had gone out earlier. Quietly they both sipped their fill, and Emil showed Isla several ceramic jars, lengths of cheesecloth, twine, and the shallow shelves in the back corner of the larder; leaving her to store the stew.

Hefting his hammer, he marched back into the bedroom and carefully began prying the boards that comprised the wall out of their homes, and exposing the framework beneath. When he and his parents built the house, they put some insulation on the outside walls but hadn't considered the inside walls necessary. After all the perimeter was sealed right?

The first real winter had shown them the error of this. Insulation was not a perfect cure-all, and given enough time it would eventually allow the exterior and interior temperatures to match. Mother Nature was a patient bitch, and she had nothing but time. Unless fires were lit in each of the rooms to keep them warm, eventually they got just as cold as the outside. Hopefully the insulation Emil had would slow the process down though.

Prying the walls open, being careful to not splinter the boards and retrieve as many nails as he could, took Emil the better part of two hours. That done he began unrolling the insulation into the walls, adding to and cutting the rolls as necessary. Unfortunately, he had only bought enough to do his room, which meant that he was only able to do about three quarters of the larger room. When he went into town for supplies, he would have to buy more.

Sealing up the walls where he had already laid insulation didn't take nearly as long, though since he was going to be buying more insulation, Emil left the unfinished section open. He called out to Isla and told her she could start putting the room back together, and then bent to the cot.

Another convenience of having the walls open recently, is he knew exactly here the support beams were. The room was larger than his, but placing the cot on the ground wasn't really an option if you still wanted to use the space without constantly stepping the other person. Emil had an idea, and was very proud of it.

'Instead of placing the cot on the ground, I'll hang it from the wall. That way it can fold up and out of the way! Bwahahaha, I'm so smart' he thought, mentally patting himself on the back with a smug smile.

Hanging the cot was simple. Emil nailed one end of a short length of chain to the rail, and then to the support beam in the wall on either end of the cot; then repeated the process with longer sections of chain for the outside rail. It was more than enough to support his weight, even bouncing on it like a seizing cow.

A simple piece of wire and a nail on the wall allowed the cot to be folded up flat, freeing up the floor space for use.

'Sometimes I'm so damn good I scare myself. Now Isla can keep her hair to herself!'

"Isla come in here please."

She quickly rounded the corner into the bedroom, a damp rag in one hand. "Yes sir?'

"I put this bed together for you, so you don't have to sleep in mine. This way we only have to use one stove and we can both stay warm."

Isla looked from the cot to him with an unreadable expression. "Thank you sir," she said. Though her neutral tone took him slightly aback.

"Whats wrong? Don't you like it?"

"Yes sir. Thank you." she said nodding.

Emil shrugged. It had been a long time since he dealt with people in a close space like this. Maybe he just wasn't reading her very well.

"Tomorrow we will head back into town and grab a few more supplies. I honestly didn't even think about getting you a proper set of boots or clothes last time. I was too busy thinking about my herd and the storm. Now that they're all packed in, they should be fine for a quick jaunt into market. If you have anything you can think of that you need, now is the time to mention it."

Isla stared at the floor thinking.