Chapter 4 - Mochi vs. the Union

With her mouth hanging open, Milly floated motionless in the air. If she didn’t look like a ghost before she certainly did now with her cheeks sunken in and her figurative “spirit” having left her “body”. A quiet whispered groan escaped from deep inside her broken self.

Mochi had just killed one of the more seasoned castle maids.

Panic set in quickly after and she began to fuss and float back and forth in the air like she was pacing. She pulled her soft black ears down, which was quickly becoming her new self-soothing technique.

“Oh no, oh no, oh nonono.”

“I did so good. I’m so good.”

“That was NOT good Mochi! You… you KILLED someone! I don’t even know HOW you killed someone. You just bit her? She died from being bitten! And you bit her with MY body! And that maid, she’s been here forever! She’s going to… She’s gonna…!”

Milly spiraled and Mochi protested.

“She was touching me! She put clothes on me! I’m not sorry!”

“You should be sorry! She’s gonna be so MAD!”

Mochi cocked her head to the side so far she almost bonked it on the wardrobe, and asked the obvious question;

“How can she be mad? I killed her! She’s gone!”

Milly zoomed in close to Mochi’s face with wide deranged eyes, startling Mochi and causing her to snap her teeth. The princess did her best to explain what she thought would be a troublesome concept for a dog while struggling to maintain her composure.

“People don’t just die here Mochi! In this world under most circumstances if a person is killed they just respawn back at whatever location they designate as ‘home’. And that maid lives HERE in the castle. She’ll be back any minute! And she’ll be MAD”

Mochi’s head continued to cock back and forth, indicating she did not understand a word of what she was just told.

“So… I can bite her again?”

Milly’s ears flattened backwards and her eye twitched.

“NO! Bad!”

Mochi narrowed her eyes and growled at being called bad.

“Explain it better! I don’t understand!”

“I don’t know how to explain it better! Uhm. Uhh.. Well. Some people think the gods are just benevolent and it’s always been like this, I personally agree with the theory that Velho once cast a great spell to make a new rule of reality-”

While Milly rambled on about the world and her personal beliefs, she began pacing again in the air and failed to notice Mochi had long since clocked out of the conversation and crawled her way back to the treat drawer to check for anything she might have missed the night before.

Had she been paying attention she may have heard the loud stomping footstops echoing down the hallway as well. As they came closer and closer, she might have also picked up on the fact that there wasn’t just one set of footsteps, but several.

Outside the door the previously and momentarily deceased maid led the charge of a gaggle of other angry attendants. While the princess might be their employer and the maid hadn’t permanently died, it was still considered an incredibly disrespectful act to murder someone in broad daylight. When the older maid suddenly reappeared in the dormitory, her companions became outraged on her behalf and banded together to give the bratty princess a piece of their mind.

As they burst into the door, some of them spotted Milly and began screaming, calling her back to reality. The victim maid pointed at Mochi and hollered;

“Now you listen here young lady! We have a union you know!”

Amidst the chaos of everyone piling into the room, Milly’s brain overloaded once again and she yelled out as loudly as her small puppy lungs could manage;

“MOCHI! RUN!”

Mochi raised her rear into the air, keeping her hands and feet on the ground, like a professional track athlete about to take off from the starting line.

“I’m good at running!”

She bolted in an instant, swiftly dodging maids as they reached out for her, lunging and grabbing, narrowly missing each time as she avoided pursuit in the room. The maids had made one fatal mistake however, and left the door open. With no pesky door handle stopping Mochi anymore she bounded out of the room into the hallway, and dashed down the long corridor. Milly tried to escape the same way, weaving through long skirts and screaming women, before remembering she was a ghost and could simply phase through everyone. She zoomed through the remaining maids, literally, out into the hall after Mochi, and the two put space between them and the furious and frightened maids.

Milly looked over to Mochi as they fled and saw the biggest smile as her tongue flopped around, and she couldn’t help but smile herself and let her own tongue flap in the wind.

Mochi: 2

Maids: 1