jeriendhal | Fic: Paperwork

A little fanfic set in the Ever Hollow universe for it's author, the lovely and talented Wazaga, who out of the blue promised to make me a fanart. :)

“Growf?”

“Amber, I already said I was sorry for letting you sleep in harness last night,” Auron said for the third time, as they made their way through narrow streets of the old town. The red sprinter lipped Auron’s tail again, leaving a cheerful trail of slime. “Yech! Stop that already! Let’s just get your paperwork in order before we get stopped by another constable.”

“Rao-oh.” Amber let go of his tail and they kept walking, until they arrived a modern office building, made of concrete and steel, instead of the stone and brick structures more common in the older part of town. “Stay out here, Amber.” The spinter let out an annoyed chuff, but at least didn’t try to follow Auron into the building. A quick check of the handwritten directory pointed him towards the Ministry of Agriculture office, which was where he needed to go, since in the purest technical sense sprinters were considered work animals, instead of pets. Though the idea of Amber ever doing anything that resembled “work” was enough to make Auron smile with amusement.

“Good morning, sir,” the young lapine manning the office front desk greeted him when he entered, “how may we help you today?”

“I brought my sprinter back into town, ah, recently and I was looking to get her re-registered,” Auron said.

“Certainly.” The lapine brought up her terminal and had him plug his handcomp in a data dock. “May I have your name, sir?”

“Auron Hollow.”

She looked him up and down, obviously trying to classify him, as he stood there with a tail, chalk white skin, red eyes and elf-like mobile ears. “And, er, your race?”

“Undetermined.” He smiled at her benignly, in a way that suggested making an issue of that might not be the best way to complete their transaction.

“Okaaaay.” Her terminal made an annoyed blip and she gave it a sharp rap. “Let me just enter an override. Ah, that’s better. And what is the name of your spinter, Master Hollow?”

“Amber.”

“Amber, all right. Eye color?”

“Amber.”

“Amber.” The lapine tapped this into her terminal, muttering, “Creative fellow. That’s fine, and what’s her breed?”

“She’s a red runner.”

The lapine’s ears perked up in surprise. “Beg pardon?

“Amber is a red runner,” he repeated, taking a deep breath and counting to ten backwards in his head.

“Sir, really, red runners are practically untamable. You can’t possibly have ridden one into town.”

“Actually I tend to walk with her a lot of the time.”

“Can we be serious a moment? I’ll accept that you’ve got a reddish sprinter, there are a lot of mixed breeds like that out there, but you can’t possibly have a… red…” The bureaucrat’s mini-tirade came to a stop as Auron felt a familiar chuff tickle the hair on the back of his neck. He turned slowly to look Amber in the eye.

“You were supposed to stay outside,” Auron told her, folding his arms across his chest and glaring at her.

“Grrworf!”

“How did you make it up the elevator, anyway?”

“Raa-woof!”

“Um, Mister Hollow, sir, you really can’t have that b--, um, your sprinter in the building,” the lapine sputtered.

“I know. Tell you what,” he said, smiling in his best do what I want I’ll leave your life forever expression, “why don’t we finish up with her paperwork and I can take her back outside, okay?”

“Okay,” the lapine agreed hurriedly. She starting tapping rapidly into her terminal. “Breed: Red Runner. Coloration: Red & Purple. Horn: single, four notched.” She hit the enter key and said triumphantly, “There! That’ll be two hundred local units for the year.”

“Two hundred?” Auron said, trying not to let his eyes bug out.

“The fee went up two months ago, sir.”

“Two hundred, right.” He looked at her hopefully as he took out his wallet. “I don’t suppose you take bank credit, do you?”

She smiled back at him, “Cash only, sir.”

Auron and Amber both let out a mutual moan of dismay as he pulled out the cash from his wallet and handed over the requested amount in local units. The lapine bureaucrat tapped another command into her terminal, then removed his hand comp from the interface and handed it back to him. “There you go, Master Hollow. Now have a nice day and please remove your… Amber from the building.”

“Thank you. Come on, Amber, let’s get out of here,” Auron said. He placed one hand on the pommel of her saddle and guided her back to the elevator. When they entered the lift, he told her, “You know, you’re more trouble than you’re worth sometimes.”

Amber let out a cheerful, “Growf!” and gummed his tail again.

“Let’s get back to the market. At least nothing else can go wrong today.”