Lary hobbled around in his ill fitting dog shoes, and found it fascinating that a dog needed a noose around its neck to leave the house. He was reminded of the horse he'd seen previously, bedazzled in gaudy, glittering headgear. Of course a world dominated by weakling humans would flaunt dominance over all other stronger creatures.

Good thing Lary was a crouching tiger, duping everyone into thinking he was a helpless little kid so he could focus on figuring out how to get back to Elyria instead of wasting time evading the enslavers.

Lary looked up at Andrew, who towered over him but held his hand gently, and knew he'd also picked out a good "mommy" to feed, shelter and protect him – even if he wasn't allowed to call him that. This strange, noisy, and stinky world was confusing, but Lary didn’t have to figure it all out on his own because he had a trusty servant.

Said servant was mulling over the peculiar occurrence he’d just witnessed.

When he saw Latte’s owner across the street, he waved. Latte was Milkshake's best friend and typically would have lunged towards her. But this time Latte stopped short and then frantically tugged in the opposite direction.

Andrew knit his brows. Could dogs have beef with each other?

Then he realized another strange point. Milkshake was a social butterfly and on a typical walk, they would stop every few seconds to say hi to every dog they passed. But this time they’d only for the occasional woman and child who couldn’t resist petting Milkshake, but no dogs. Where were all the dogs?

Not only that, but Milkshake whacked her tail around and offered up her belly to every stranger like they were her long lost BFFs, but blatantly ignored the child right beside her.

Maybe it was simply because Lary himself didn’t like Milkshake?

While Andrew pondered what any of this could mean, the three of them arrived at the local Tarje, located on the second level of a glass skyscraper. 

Lary stared at the morphing staircase with wide eyes. Was he expected to... give himself up to that thing?

This was Lary's first time seeing steps that expanded and collapsed in mesmerizing wave after wave. What the son of a Sun kind of magic was this? The stairs were alive. And there was no way Lary was gonna trust them to not swallow him whole.

Lary's hands became cold and clammy.

Seeing Lary's fearful gaze, Andrew chuckled. "Want me to carry you?"

Lary tore his gaze away from the faceless death monster and looked up into Andrew's warm brown eyes. He didn't want to go near that thing, but was also afraid of being abandoned. He unblinkingly nodded. Seeing that Andrew looked so relaxed, maybe he was overreacting...

Andrew hoisted Lary onto his hip with his right arm and stepped onto the escalator. Moments later he felt a tug from the leash in his left. He looked down and saw Milkshake's paws scuttling around on the slippery metal grating as she frantically resisted being pulled up the escalator.

Alarmed, Andrew immediately ran down the up-escalator, trying to give the leash as much slack as he could.

His face was hot. While he fought against the current of the escalator with a child on one arm, a line formed behind Milkshake. Some customers had even pulled out their phones and were recording the fiasco before them. Andrew wanted to cover his face but both his hands were full. His eyes were trained on the wave of morphing steps as he willed himself to get down faster.

The moment Andrew reached the bottom, Milkshake popped up, teary eyed and tail ferociously whacking the person behind her.

Andrew sighed in relief to confirm Milkshake was alright. He shuddered as he envisioned fluffy paws being caught and crushed.

"Hey! If you're not going up anymore, get out of the way! Stop blocking the path!" Someone shouted from the line.

Andrew's face that was just calming down burst into flames again. In his panic, he simply picked Milkshake up with his free arm and ran up the escalator, like a fireman running out of a burning building. His face was hot, his vision blurry, and he dared not turn around to pick out from the crowd the rude fellow who had just yelled at him.

Once at the top, an employee wearing a red polo and khaki pants stopped him. Was he going to be asked to leave because he'd caused too much of a disturbance?

"Sir, just so you know, we do have an elevator." The employee pointed at the elevator beside the escalator.

Dammit. Of course they had an elevator! Andrew was so embarrassed he couldn't meet the employee's eyes. "Thanks," he eked out before rushing away from his line of sight.

Andrew felt someone was right on his heels. He picked up his speed, eager to lose his tail.

"Excuse me!"

Fuck. What now?

Andrew pasted a smile on his face then turned around, pretending like running around Tarje with a child and a dog in each arm was perfectly normal. "Yes?"

"Your dog lost its sh..." A woman held up a dog shoe but her words faltered as her eyes zeroed in on the fact that the dog was wearing no shoes, and the child had a dog shoe on one foot. "Thanks!" Andrew gritted out. Frostbite be damned, he shouldn't have let Lary leave the house with dog shoes on! And he didn't even have any free arms to accept the shoe from the woman.

"My shoe!" Lary reached out and snatched the shoe from the frozen lady.

Lary tried to put the shoe back on his foot but he couldn't reach when Andrew was holding him up like this.

Andrew realized he should get a cart. But... unfortunately the carts were on the other side of the escalators... meaning he'd have to walk back past that employee and all the judging eyes slowly getting off the escalator one by one. 

Andrew considered shopping without a cart for a hot second. But there was no way he could manage a baby, dog and all the stuff they needed to get, with just his two arms. Resigned, he slunk back the way he came, looking down to avoid meeting any overly inquisitive eyes.

It wasn't until he got to the rows of red plastic carts that he realized he was still strong arming the dog and child, one on each arm. He put Milkshake on the floor first, and stepped on her leash while he set the child down in the plastic cart.

"Why am I in the cage?" Lary complained as he squeezed his bare foot into the dog shoe.

"Cage?" Lary’s choice of words made Andrew laugh and helped break him out of his shame spiral. "You've never ridden a cart before? It's fun!" Andrew coaxed as he pushed, pretending all the people still staring at him didn't exist.

Lary opened his mouth to retort but shut it when he felt how smoothly he was gliding.

Although it wasn’t quite the same, he was reminded of when he would ride the wind as a hawk. He felt a sudden nostalgia for when he used to soar over the majestic mountains, rivers, and forests of Elyria. The view here was not as good. The air was dusty and everything was gray. Gray buildings, gray ground, gray people…

Although he hadn't felt welcome among his people, he'd adored the land. But here, in this strange world, he didn't belong among the people nor the land. Well that wasn't a completely fair statement. He wasn’t alone anymore, he had his servant now.

Andrew was disobedient and headstrong, but strangely made him feel at ease. He was nothing like the people at the Royal Atrium who had ulterior motives. Lary wasn't like Milkshake who would offer her vulnerable belly to seemingly anyone, but he could see that Andrew wouldn't hurt him. It felt nice to simply be around someone who didn’t fear him, and didn’t expect anything special from him at all.

Lary let his eyes roam freely, as he clutched the edge of the cart tightly for balance. Cool air blew through his blonde curls. He took a deep breath of the fresh, earthy smell.

They were in the produce section.

The walls were brightly lit with shelves full of fruits and vegetables of every color - vibrant with life and more varieties than he could count. Lary felt the chilly air emanating from these shelves and reached out his arms in awe. Air could be chilled with Essence back in Elyria, but never to this scale. Although Essence was plentiful, it would be too draining on the caster and it was rarely worth it.

While Lary's hand was outstretched, a fine mist sprayed out, leaving beads of dew on his fingertips and on the leafy greens. Lary giggled and waved his tiny arms around in the mist. They even called on the rain to water the plants on these shelves! So these plants didn't require soil?

There was no Essence in this gray world, so what was powering all this magic? It must be even more powerful than Essence...

Andrew grabbed some apples, clementines, and brussel sprouts. Every time he tossed something into the cart, Lary's fingers descended upon them like a swarm of locusts, curiously touching everything.

"Be careful, you don't want to bruise the bananas, you gotta be gentle with them."

Lary's eyes widened. Bruise? Wasn't that the coagulation of blood? Did plants bleed here? Did they feel pain?

He looked back at the spray of mists that was watering the leafy greens. He felt sad as he realized the bananas were too far for the magic rain to reach. Poor bananas, they were probably thirsty too...

Lary lifted the big bunch of bananas and reached them out towards where the rain came from and patiently waited to water the bananas.

When Andrew looked back at the cart, he saw Lary holding up bananas like he was Rakifi holding up a baby Simbo. "What are you doing, Lary?"

"The bananas are thirsty."

"...." Andrew was amused. He hated bruised bananas, but he supposed getting them wet was okay. Probably.

Lary's baby arms were clumsy and quick to tire. While he adjusted his grip, the bananas splayed and flipped out of his tiny hands.

No! Andrew snatched the bananas up from the ground. He looked around and saw that no one was looking. He discreetly swapped the bananas out for a fresh bunch. "Don't touch the bananas. They're not thirsty."

"How do you know?"

"They're already dead!"

"What about them?" Lary pointed at the herbs and leafy greens that were being misted. "Why do they get rain but not the bananas?" Lary felt a deep sense of injustice bubbling up from deep within, his eyes tearing up.

"... it's because their skin is thin, so giving them water keeps them fresh longer. But they're also dead."

Lary poked at the bananas, as he pondered what Andrew said. Indeed banana skin was quite thick..

"You..! Stop touching the bananas!" Andrew saw the purple spots appearing before his eyes with each poke from Lary. He picked up the little shitter and fed his legs through the openings in the back of the cart so that he couldn't keep destroying all the produce.

He then swapped out the bananas again, and hurried out of the produce section.

Lary twisted around and found that he couldn't reach the stuff inside the cart anymore. "Hey!" He complained, but he wasn't upset for long as he kicked his free legs back and forth and recalled how different this experience was from the last time he was at one of these food dispensaries.

At that time, he'd already been chased down by the police so many times he was terrified of standing out. He spied on other humans walking into a building, and walking out with packages of sustenance. Lary was desperate at this point and didn't question the strange way food was packaged. He just kept his head down, and picked a human and did exactly as he did, picking up a small red basket, not questioning what the man was grabbing just grabbing the same things. When the man suddenly turned around and stared at him, Lary pretended to be very interested in whatever was in front of him.

Pads.

He picked one up, it wasn't a food he was familiar with. In fact he suspected it wasn't food at all... it seemed to be some sort of cushion, he surmised as he squished it with his hands. 

He saw the word "comfort", but for what part of the human body? He thought about the shape and realized aha! Of course it's for the feet! Humans only have two, and they walk on them all day, it makes sense they'd want extra cushion for them.

"You struggling to pick one too? No clue why there are so many, but my girl says you gotta get one with wings." The man beside him shared in a low voice.

Wings? So not only did these help cushion the feet, it also let humans fly? Although it wasn't food, this magical tool seemed really cool, so he waited to see which one the man picked and grabbed the same ones.

After the pads, the man went to stand in a line. Lary stood behind him.

He cautiously peeked at the man and saw that he pulled out a blue card and swiped it. 

Lary used some of the Essence he had stored in his infinity pouch to replicate it exactly as he saw it with his sharp eyes.

When it was his turn, he did exactly as the man had done. He moved his items from his basket to the black moving table, and then he swiped his blue card. 

Except when he did, the magic tool made harsh beeps. 

"I'm sorry the machine isn't reading your card. Do you have another card you can use?" The human behind the counter asked.

Lary stared back with wide eyes. 

"Or do you want to call your bank?"

Lary wasn't sure what that meant. His grasp of human language wasn't very good, but call meant to like call out to someone, right?"

Lary called out, "Bank!" loudly, to see if someone named bank would come. 

The bustling sounds of humans interacting around him became silent, as all eyes turned to stare at him. Oh no. And after all he'd done to prevent standing out!

"Is this a joke?" Someone in line behind him shouted.

"Get a move on!" Someone else added.

Lary felt his panic bubbling over, crowding out his ability to think. Had he swiped the card incorrectly? He tried swiping it again, and again but the same harsh beeps screamed back at him.

The human who'd told him to call his bank blocked him from swiping anymore, and asked him something but by then his brain was barely functioning. In a panic he just grabbed the items and fled.

If he was less hungry he could have shifted into a bird to escape. But after all the starving, he'd pass out if he tried. So he simply ran.

But the police came out of nowhere, and chased and surrounded him. This time they used another powerful magic tool, rods that made his muscles clench as an excruciating burning sensation coursed through him.

Lary shuddered when he recalled the pain. He never wanted to see the police again. Luckily, this time he’d selected a trusty servant to take him around, and explain everything. Lary put his small hands on Andrew's big ones that were pushing the cart, with a contented smile.

Recalling that time reminded Lary that he never got to try flying with those magical feet cushions... Maybe this place had them too? 

Lary looked around and saw a wall of them in the distance!