Abigail followed closely behind this serpent man. Her face fixed to the floor as he spoke to her. She committed every word to memory and tried to understand exactly what would be needed to please him.
"I am going to take you to your room now. I want you to bathe and you can begin organizing your room in the way that bests suits you. I just demand that it remains clean at all times.
When he said the word "demand" She shivered a bit and nodded profusely. He saw her nodding and became frustrated.
"Come here."
She quickly presented herself to him. He hovered his hands over her shoulders and she felt her body go from extremely cold to slightly warm, to warm, to slightly hot, to hot in a second flat. Her body trembled as she felt something intrude on her mind and then into her soul. It was pushed out of her soul but it took root in her mind.
'I had a feeling I would not be able to enter your soul. You will speak to me telepathically until you start using your mouth. It is a bit difficult for humans but you will have to learn. Do you understand?'
'Yes sir.'
They both froze. Michèle because he was genuinely shocked and intrigued and Abigail because she thought she might be punished for proving her new owner wrong. They both stood looking at each other for a long moment.
Michèle shook himself out of it and continued with his explanation. 'This is a map of the den." Images and information streamed into her head. "You will understand everything as you read the map. You may go any where with the exception of the well. If I find you there I will assume that you are trying to escape and I will kill you instantly.'
To demonstrate his ability to do so he spied a small cave dweller on a far wall and he spewed fire on the poor creature. It was instantly incinerated and fell from the wall dead. Michèle walked to it and popped it in his mouth. He looked over to see if she was disgusted only to see her with her head facing down and not even looking in his general direction. He sucked his teeth and continued. He frowned when he noticed that she jumped at the sound of him sucking his teeth.
'Go clean yourself well. You can use anything in your room. Today you can explore. Tomorrow you start your duties. Understand?'
'Yes sir I do.'
'Good.'
He turned and quickly walked away. She smelled absolutely horrendous. But he now understood why and he was very perplexed. He had thought human families cared for each other.
He had looked at her memories and, there won't that many she only had eighteen years.
He would need to see this family of hers.
Abigail waited for the serpent to disappear from sight and then she waited twenty minutes more before she enter her room. Then she stood at the door in utter confusion. She backed out of the room and she spoke to Michele.
He had been slightly amused to have to explain that it was definitely her room and everything in there was for her use and that she would have to look and behave accordingly to be his proper servant.
She gave him a curt yes sir and then apologized for disturbing him with her misunderstanding.
Abigail entered her room and thought she had entered some sort of dream. She found the pile of clothes and was rather overwhelmed. She felt she would need to make servant clothing for everyday and the pile in her room would be for special occasions.
She washed rinsed off and washed again three times before she was satisfied. She had believed that the spring would never clear again, she was so dirty, only to be surprised to see it finally begin to run clear on its own. She quickly cleaned and organized her room and saw there was no bed or other furniture. She shrugged and used some of the clothing to make a nice bedding area far to the back of cave (remembering about her sleeping are at the house she grew up in).
She decided to go exploring while she thought about what she could do in her room for furniture.
She went to the kitchen first. It was very big and it had a small herb garden in a far corner. It also had odd plants growing on the walls.
Her instincts told her that these plants had some sort of importance and she left them as they were. After she was satisfied that the kitchen was well organized and clean she went to the library. It was fairly clean but she could still tell that no one actually used the space. She planned on coming back to clean and find books that she needed
Then she went to the place that excited her the most. The garden. As soon as she saw it she was in love. It was vast, with a large lake, stocked with many different types of fish, six rivers flowing through it, odd animals that she somehow knew were edible. Wide terraced gardens that could have been called farms and orchards.
She frowned because everything was so beautiful yet had not been maintained well. She set to cleaning it immediately. She worked late and scared herself. She had caught several fish and some of the odd grazing animals and cleaned them as she had cleaned the gardens.
Some she had begun to smoke in a smoke house she built and others she loaded with aromatics and herbs to cook later and she had not even begun to cook for him. She gathered up all the fish, meat, fruits, and veggies she had collected to cook for him and she raced to the kitchen.
Michele had made his way to Abigail's old home. He had, of course, used his human form but he had changed his hair to black. He left his blue eye blue but changed his red eye to brown. He knocked on the door and waited.
The charm he cast was laying thickly on his body and when the door opened it was sucked in like a deadly backdraft and filled the entire house instantly. He created it so they would see them as an old friend that they confided everything in. The mother opened the door and his stomach actually grumbled with hunger as his human lips curled in an expression of disgust.
They let him in and told him everything. He nodded as he thought how he would secure Abigail's money for her. He had connections within the human world that could help him to do just that. He had no doubt about it.
These contemptible people. He wanted to kill the lot of them. Even if they did not have a direct hand in Abigail's suffering they were equally guilty for allowing it to happen without saying a word.
Yes he would get his servant all of her money back. Even the money this sour family spent. Everything that belong to her would be returned to her. He suddenly paused confusion swirling in his heart. Why did he even care. He was getting a bit too caught up in this little project.
He left the house but he left a small knowledge spell that would work like a microphone and receiver and continually send him reports on what happened in the house.
Abigail had made it back to the kitchen and she started the process of braising the meat, to get it tender, and roasting the root veggies she had found. She went back to the garden a few times. She made a mental note to build an area for the fowl so she could find eggs a bit easier.
She looked at the time and became worried. She needed to work in the garden more tonight. She wanted to slaughter more of the animals and see what their meat was like. Once she saw it she would know the best way to prepare it. She currently had some smoking, some curing to become bacons, and different types of cured meats and jerky.
"What is that delightful smell?" even though his voice sounded light and cheerful something in her broke. She had not finished before he returned home. Not for the first time today she wondered what type of punishments he gave.
'I am sorry Sir Serpent. Your dinner is nor quite ready yet and I have not finished any of your snacks either. I…'
"My dinner? Snacks?
"You're cooking for me? I thought this was for you. Just call me when it is done. I can wait. It smells quite delicious."
Abigail continued her work in confusion and dread. Maybe he was the type that lulled you into a sense of security only to rain abuses on you like some sort of psychological warfare.
She made herself notes about what he would need for balanced meals. She would see if she could find them in the den before she asked for anything.
Michele shook his head as Abigail's surface woes stormed through his head. He was more damaged then he thought.
He went to check her room first and was confused about the neatly arranged pile of clothes on the floor.
'Abigail why are some of your clothes neatly on the floor?' He felt her tremble before she answered.
'I apologize sir. I will find an alternative for a bed later. That is just for tonight.'
He shook his head at himself and her fear of punishment for doing what needed to be done.
He created bedroom furniture for her and charmed it all for it to be easy to move.
His next stop was the garden. Much of what she had done he did not understand so he could not fix it but he liked how the smoke house smelled. It just looked like it would fall over at any moment, but he feared repairing it thinking that he would damage some fine nuance in it's mechanics and he truly wanted to taste the meat that would come from it. He would have to speak to her tomorrow about all her improvements.
Then he caught her thought about building something to house the fowl so she could easily find eggs. Good, humans liked eggs as well. First he looked into her mind to see what she was thinking to build and he created it in the place she was imagining and placed all the fowl within it. He was amazed how they quickly took to it. Different species roosting in different ways and using different areas of the space as if they had lived there all their lives.
Then he tasted the air and collected all the hidden eggs. He searched her mind to see where she wanted them to be, created the intriguing apparatus she was in visioning, placed it in the kitchen where she wanted it, and put all the eggs in it.
What an intelligent slave. He was truly given a gem this year.