Apparently my chapter was too long to send sorry guys, here's chapter 4 part 1, part 2 tomorrow! _________________________________________ "I want a puppy," Thora announced at dinner that night to her family. Lidy wrinkled her nose. "Ew, a dog? Why would you want a dog?" Thora glared at her mother, who had raised her eyebrows and was clearly about to say no. "If I have to be here all the time again, I at least one someone to hang out with. All the time it's Mom and Dad, Lidy and Cal, and me either drawing by myself, practicing my magic, or training with my friends. Since I won't be allowed to train or practice anymore, I don't want to be alone all the time! I'll feed her and scoop her poop and train her and everything. I just want a dog, please." "We'll talk about it," Dad said. "But you know you're mostly leaving yourself out. You can play with Lidy and Cal if you want to. They're not excluding you." "I'm sixteen. I don't wanna [i]play[/i] with anyone, except a dog. Don't pretend we don't have the money for it." Thora stayed up all night researching dogs and decided she wanted a golden doodle. They were energetic and playful, a bit harder to train, but she was up for the challenge. The next morning, to her surprise, Mama came and told her that they'd decided it was alright for her to get a dog! She went to the breeder she'd found online and picked out a sweet little girl dog, with long, fluffy, honey-colored hair and irresistible brown eyes. She named her Lola, and she spent the next few weeks at home alone potty-training her and playing with her and teaching her tricks while everyone else was out. Dad and Mama both had work, and Cal had battle training, even though he was ridiculously young for it- so unfair- and the boarding school in the City that Lidy went to was back in session after that week, their 'Spring Break.' She had not yet dared mention Arjaan to her parents. She had meant to, but she had decided to put off that conversation until she was more sure of exactly what was going on with him. She was fairly certain they both liked each other and both knew it, but it seemed like they were still just friends. A [i]friend[/i] was of no concern, so of course that meant there was no need to bring up the subject to Mom and Dad. They let her go to the park whenever she wanted, and she always brought Lola with her. Arjaan loved dogs, too, and Thora didn't dare leave Lola behind, since the rest of the family had less-than-warm feelings for her. Thora didn't understand how anyone could despise such an adorable creature. Thora hated disciplining the dog, but did it when she needed to, because, after all, if not disciplined, she would be spoiled. Thora did not want Lola to be spoiled. "Down, girl!" She commanded, tugging Lola away from a tree a squirrel had just run up. "Hey, Arjaan!" "Hey, Thora!" Thora struggled against the leash and Lola panted and struggled to get to Arjaan, who came to her, petting her and scratching her behind the ears as she jumped all over him. Arjaan gave Thora a hug, and then they sat down on a bench together. Lola leapt up beside them, putting her paws on Arjaan's shoulder and licking his ear. He laughed, pulling her down into his lap, where she rolled over so he could scratch her belly. "How long are these things supposed to live? I need to make sure we're friends for that long." "Oh, if you only came to see Lola, then." Thora laughed. "Let's see, she's a smaller dog. I think they're supposed to live about thirty years, what with today's medicine and whatnot." "So she'll probably still be around when you have kids?" "If I have kids before I'm forty. Which I probably will. I want to get married and start a family a bit younger. A lot of Awoken wait until they're a lot older, but with the Awoken lifespan... the younger you have them, the more life you'll share together." Arjaan raised an eyebrow. "How young are we talking exactly?" "Oh, I mean, not younger than 20 for sure. Probably like 25ish." "Okay, cause I was gonna say, if you're planning on trying to have a kid [i]tomorrow,[/i] hmm. Maybe think it through a little more." Thora laughed. "Yeah. Definitely not anytime soon." "See, I like the idea of waiting longer to have kids. You wait till you're like a hundred, enjoy your life, then you settle down and all that. I mean, come on. We live for thousands of years! A hundred years is like one to us." "Fair point. But the Awoken are STILL having repopulation problems, even after thousands of years. Why? Because we HAVE thousands of years. We relax. We think we can wait. But if there aren't enough people to support an economy, then no one can survive, no matter how long you live." "True, true. If we only had 100 year lifespans, all the original Awoken would have died out left only the children they had, which probably would've reset the male/female ratio to 50/50." "Oh, yeah. The 20/80 is still a huge problem. It's why faithful, monogamous marriages like my mom and dad's are so discouraged. There aren't enough men for every woman to have one, so settling down is considered unwise." "Well, it's also why I'm an orphan. Because my dad, whoever he was, didn't want to settle down and my mom couldn't support me, so she just dumped me with the Techuens. I don't want that kind of lifestyle. I think I'd be much happier in a long-lasting relationship with just one person." "Yeah. Me too. How did this even come up?" "I don't remember." Arjaan scratched his nose. "That's what happens when you talk to women. Instead of talking about the same thing for an hour, you talk about all kinds of crazy things." Thora laughed, then frowned. "I'm sorry about your mom. But... I'm sure she didn't just [i]dump[/i] you. She probably-" "No, she dumped me. Parents who care about the kids they can't support take the time to set up an adoption plan and pick the best person available to raise their child. Mother Ylaia told me that she just turned up one day, handed me over, and left, never to be seen again." He kicked a couple rocks onto the sidewalk. "Oh. I'm sorry." Thora slipped her arm around him. He obviously cared very much about this, and only pretended not to. _________________________________________ Sorry, guys 🤣 I know that's a weird place to end it but there was nowhere good after that. I'll post the second half tomorrow.