Chapter 5 - Mochi vs. Door

The pooch princesses raced through the castle. Milly was doing her best to guide them towards the library, but Mochi, being a dog, assumed running also meant racing and tried to pull ahead constantly, leading them down one or two wrong turns.

Eventually their steam began to run out, and Mochi started to pant heavily.

“Come on Mochi… J-just a little farther to the library…”

Milly was quite worn out herself and wondered why she even had a stamina limit when she was technically dead.

“What… is… library… I… want……… MEAT.”

Mochi spoke in between gasps. Running on all fours in a human body wasn’t the most practical method, and her hands had small friction burns all over from the carpeted hallways. She slowed down enough to resume crawling on her knees, and tried to sneak in a lick to her hands each time she lifted them to move forward. If they weren’t in a desperate situation Milly might have been charmed by the silly sight.

They reached the library and once again came face to face with their old nemesis; a doorknob.

“O-okay Mochi, you’re a good girl, you can do this.”

“No. I don’t want to. I’m hungry.”

“I promise you’ll get so much meat soon. It’s… It’s technically on the other side of this door.”

Mochi glared up at Milly, and Milly worried if she could tell that she was lying, but to her surprise Mochi compliantly reached up for the doorknob. She poked it with a curled finger first, and then tried to hook and pull like with the drawer.

“It’s not working! I hate this!”

Pulling her hand back, Mochi started to angrily chew on her own fingers.

“I-its okay Mochi! You can do it! I just need you to listen to me reeeeeally closely. Because those maids are still looking for us, and if they find us we’ll be in trouble. They’re still really mad.”

Mochi winced at the word mad and with the most disappointment she could express muttered back a soft ‘okay’.

Milly began deftly instructing Mochi on how to use the doorknob, briefly questioning whether it was a smart idea to teach her to open doors.

“Okay Mochi, make your hand flat and push it onto the doorkn- uhh… the shiny ball! Yes! Now make a fist! No no, put your hand back on the ball. No you have to make it flat first. No, flat hand against the ball, yes! Now… uhm…”

Milly had never been good at explaining herself. Even as a child if she got blamed for something she didn’t do, she wasn’t able to say the words she meant and got in trouble anyways. Trying to instruct someone on how to use human hands was like putting a student teacher into a kindergarten class by themselves on day one, but she was going to try and beat this super hard mode level anyways. Her future depended on Mochi opening this door!

“Okay… Mochi, show me your claws.”

Mochi cocked her head and looked at Milly like she was stupid, but turned to her and lifted her hands into a cute pose children might make if they were pretending to be a monster. Her fingers curled inward and her joints flexed out.

“Perfect! Now, don’t change your hand, and put it on the ball.”

Lifting her hand back to the doorknob, Mochi shook but kept the shape perfectly still, placing her fingers over the ‘ball’. Delighted, she turned back to Milly with a big smile and her tongue poking out, looking for praise.

“YES! Good girl Mochi! Okay, last part, you can do it… Squeeze the ball, and turn your hand. No, not quite, your hand is turning but you’re not squeezing. Now you’re not moving at all. Almost. No. Yes. No, no.”

Milly heard a soft rumbling in the distance and her patience was growing thin.

“Mochi hurry! They’re going to find us! Hurry!”

The sound grew louder and Mochi became frustrated.

“I can’t do this! I hate this!”

“Mochi no! You have to! Please!”

The sound down the hallway got louder with each passing second, and tension grew as Milly started to panic and pressure Mochi, causing Mochi in turn to get angrier with Milly for yelling at her.

Just when the sound was at its loudest near the corner at the end of the hall, and Milly thought they were doomed to a life of Mochi becoming the princess and leading the country to ruin while she would be experimented on or worse yet; be stuck haunting a library that no one used, Mochi let out the same noise she had made just before destroying her clothes the last time.

“GRRRAAAHH”

Milly stopped her panic and focused her attention.

“I just have to turn this ball, right?!”

For some reason in this moment, Milly expected something wondrous to happen. A beam of magic light, a powerful punch that would break the doorknob clean off, something that would save them at the last second in a way she’d read about in one of her books.

Instead, Mochi lunged up at the doorknob with her mouth agape, chomped down on it- somehow piercing the metal with her fangs- and violently shook her head from side to side. She looked like a dog that had just gotten a hold of a squeaky toy and wanted to see it die, and die it did. The doorknob clattered as she shook and the door clicked, slowly opening inward. Mochi went along for the ride, hanging in the air hooked on the knob until a moment later, the metal in her mouth broke clean off and she plopped onto the floor.

She spit out the chunk of metal and smugly looked at Milly.

Milly didn’t have time to register or praise Mochi, and zipped inside the room to the other side of the door, urging Mochi to push it closed. With a headbutt, the door clicked closed again, just as a broom and the frill of a dress could be seen peeking around the corner.

Mochi: 1

Door: 0