What Freedom means. (4)

[tiger]

I'm not sure what woke me up the next morning, but I went from groggy to full blown wide awake when I opened my eyes. Staring back at me were a set of brilliant green eyes! The fur surrounding them was a deep grey color with black highlights. I tried involutarily moving backwards, only to find that my right arm was trapped under something that was sitting (or lying?) on top of the thin sheets that I was under. I heard the three other males in the room started laughing, (at my expense, probably) and the person who was on top of my arm shift slightly, allowing me to move it out of the way. Then I noticed that she(?!) was smiling as only a morph can: just a tiny hint of tooth, and madly twitching ears. She leaned forward and whispered in my ear in this sexy sounding alto voice: "Sorry about startling you." My voice was slightly shaky. "W-who are you? What are you doing in my bunk?!" The twitching got slightly worse. "My name is Tal'ena. I do this to almost all the new folks who come through here as a way of welcoming them here. What's your name?"

I shook my head slightly. "I.. don't have a name. Master always called me Morph when he wanted my attention." She nodded her head curtly. "We can fix that. I'm also here to show you around the facility, and to meet the permanent residents and staff. But first, is there something I can get you for breakfast?" I paused for a second. "I've never had breakfast. I know what the term means, but I've never had one. I always went directly to work after getting up and getting dressed." "You must have just fallen off the turnip truck, then. Here we eat a little something to get ourselves going in the morning. I'll meet you downstairs in ten minutes, and I'll show you the kitchen and fix something for you." With that, she climbed off the bunk, leaving me quite bewildered. The others took full advantage of this, apparently. I'll save you the comments, but they were not at all polite or even repeatable. Fortuantely, I was still wearing the shorts I almost always wore when I was sleeping, so I was at least modest when I went to my locker and got my clothing.

I arrived downstairs ten minutes later, and was greeted by an older morph who called himself Jack. He was a tough and grizzled looking creature; his grey fur must has been brown or black during his youth. He had a key on a chain around his neck, and was not wearing a bracelet that signified that he was under an Indenture. He was wearing an authentic scottish kilt, and spoken in lightly accented english. He explained the basic rules here, and that he was pretty much in charge here, although there was a human here that technically oversaw the lot. His name was Mike, and for the most part, he made sure that the day laborers (the three that were upstairs) kept to a somewhat regular schedule, and got them off to their work assignments. Jack also noticed that I had spent a little too long loking for the bracelet. "Lookin fer my Indenture? I dinna have one anymore. I work here because I love the pay, the hours, and seeing new faces like yours." As he spoke his accent got quite a bit thicker. "Tal said tha' ye had no name. Is tha' correct?" I nodded and meekly squeaked out a tiny "yes, sir." "I donna go by 'Sir' 'round 'ere. Just call me Jack." He leaned in a little closer and dropped his voice a bit. "I know I look a wee bit fearsom', but I'm really jus' a nice mate. Unless ye piss me off." His eyes twiched, and he leaned back, and raised his voice a bit. "Ye dinna wan' ta piss me off, d' ye??" My response was immediate. "No, Jack!" He nodded, and I spun around to see... Tal'ena.

She was wearing the jumper that she had on when she woke me up, and she had her arms crossed in front of her. She looked at Jack and her ears twiched again. "So Jack, what do we call him. 'Morph' sounds wrong for him." She stepped a bit closer, making me rather uncomfortable. "I think this one's an Eddie. What do you think?" She stepped a way, and Jack gave me the once over. "Eddie sounds good. What d' ye think? "tis yer name, aft'a all." I thought about it for a second. "Eddie will work, I think." Jack nodded. "I'll get it put into ta' computer later t'day. As ye may have guessed, Tal'ena and m'self are two of the permanent residents here. Even tho' I'm free, The department canna put me anywhere, and I don't fall under ta' 'standard qualifications' for the rest of ta' world. So, I work here in exchange fo' a small stipend, room and board, and ta' chance ta help me fellow morphs. Tal'ena here is one of 5 females tha' BioGen let out of ta' labs. She'll tell ye her story later, if ye ask her and if she wants t' tell ye. But in any case, She's here t' show ye th' facility, and t' see what ye might be interested in doing here while the department deals with yer case. The doctor will be 'round bout noon to administer yer tests, so ye got about four hours t' take the tour and see what this place is like."

Tal'ena took my hand and tugged me into the kitchen, where she started to make a small meal up for me. "You don't have to do this for me," I tried to protest. "I'm not hungry." Her response was to put her head up to my stomach briefly, much to my embarressment. "Nope, your body is wanting food, even if your mind disagrees. Also, one of my jobs here is to cook for visitors and new people until they get aquainted with the layout of the kitchen." She handed me a small round roll-like thing cut in half with a white paste like substance smeared in the cut portions. I was looking at it and was staring at it. "It's called a bagel, and that's cream cheese in the middle of it. Can I get you something to drink?" I shrugged. "Water will do fine." I took a bite out of the bagel, which tasted pretty good, actually. She then handed me a glass with water in it, and then started on the tour of the house.