Tepic Wakes Up

He knew it must be time to clock on when Jimmy and Myrtil woke him up. For some reason he was asleep on Miss Bookworm’s couch, he had no real idea why he was there, but the thought drifted through his mind that at least he knew her tail was still alright, and that was of course the important thing. Not Miss Bookworm’s tail, naturally, it was probable that she didn’t actually have one, he had never seen even the slightest hint that she had and the sad truth was that many of his friends didn’t have tails. Amazingly enough, they didn’t even realise what they were missing, though that was probably a blessing, poor things…. No, it was Miss Rouse’s tail that was still alright. Admittedly, she was missing a few limbs and other bits, but her tail was fine.

Both Myrtil and Jimmy told him that the debt he had to work to pay of was now finished, both of them swearing Canergak himself had told Tepic it was done. Strangely, he could vaguely remember Miss Bookworm telling him that, along with Dr Sonerstein and Dr Solen, Miss Maddox’s father, but he couldn’t remember the small mean man in the clockwork hat telling him he was released. Still, he knew his two young friends wouldn’t lead him astray.

They kept telling him he could now rest and he should start eating better, which was odd because he was sure he normally worked at least as hard as he had at the factory, sometimes the factory was even sort of restful, no need to worry about a sewer roof collapsing or marsh gas or even an unexpected encounter with a ROUS. As for food, sure, he hadn’t eaten the evening meal Mr Popplefot laid on, but he had plenty of voles and his other usual sustenance. He couldn’t really understand what they were worrying over…

When they suggested taking him back to his camp he agreed to go readily – not only would it be nice to be back there, but he could also drop by the factory on the way, maybe pack a few crates for old times sake. Once they were outside though, Myrtil showed him the ornithoptor they had arrived in. It would be much easier to fly back to his camp, even though it meant they would miss the factory. Never mind, he could go by later…

Once they had cleared the Palisade Wall and landed, he lead them to his camp and they sat down to a nice pot of reheated vole stew. It was a revelation to him that in all the time he had known them, neither of them had tried his famous vole stew! With wild garlic and onions, picked fresh from down near the pond, a few carrots and a handful of tatties liberated from one of the nearby back gardens, and a decent number of plump voles, it cooked down into one of the best feeds around. When mushrooms were in season, a few added for flavour made it a dish for kings! The three friends sat in companionable silence while they ate, it seemed that unlike the fresh raw voles Tepic often offered round, cooked ones were more to the tastes of his human companions.

Finally dinner was done, and Jimmy and Myrtil excused themselves, saying it was time for their shifts at the factory, Tepic got up to join them, surely it must be time for him to start work, but his friends insisted he did not have to go back and should rest, or at the most go and check on the vole traps. Ah well, he thought, it would be nice to get back to the old routine, and it wouldn’t hurt for a while, he guessed…..