Etheric Researcher
By S.R Russel & Michael Anderle
Snippet 3
Unedited
Anne put down some fresh water for Jinx before she headed for her shower. As she stood there, letting the hot water wash over her and soothe her remaining aches, her mind wandered over the events of the last few months.
She had gone from living at home with her parents to living with her best friend and companion.
She’d been failing in school, and now she was acing her classes. She’d been suffering from an undiagnosed cancer, and now she was a super healthy Kurtherian modified human.
Anne tilted her face up into the spray of the shower and used her fingers to comb her dark red hair behind her ears.
Anne almost felt like dancing, as the water splashed over her. Bethany Anne had hired her as an Etheric Researcher, but to date, she had not been able to come up with any ideas to justify Bethany Anne’s confidence in her.
She wasn’t sure how to solve the energy transfer issue, but at least she, finally, had an idea to explore. With a smile, Anne grabbed her bath sponge, soaped it up and started to scrub the residue of her workout from her body.
___
Jinx drank the bowl of water almost dry, she eyed her dog food, sighed and went to lay down while she waited for Anne to get out of the shower. Their sparring match had left her hungry, but she had learned a difficult lesson. She had discovered, through uncomfortable experience, that eating after drinking a lot, while she was hot made her sick. The first time it happened neither she nor Anne had made the connection.
The second time it happened, Anne had remembered that this was twice after a workout. As much as she wasn’t happy about it, they tried it once more just to make certain. Sure enough, it didn’t take five minutes after eating before Jinx was heaving it all back up.
YUCK!
The next time, Anne made Jinx wait until she had stopped panting, and that was enough that her stomach didn’t revolt after eating. That became their default routine. Jinx could drink as much as she wanted, but she had to wait until she was no longer panting before it was safe to eat anything.
Jinx had asked Anne how dogs on Earth would handle the situation.
“Remember, dogs on Earth are not as smart as you guys, and are owned by humans. I imagine the human would just keep the food away from their dog until they felt it was safe for them to have it.” Anne had speculated.
Jinx ignored the furniture, and stretched out on the polished rock floor, hoping to leach some heat from her body, as she waited for Anne. Being kicked across the training room really … Pissed. Her. Off!
She hadn’t been hurt, but she was no longer able to protect Anne’s back and that left her person fighting everyone by herself. She considered contacting ADAM to ask Matrix to come visit to discuss the issue, but she had a feeling that Anne would want them to try to solve this on their own. This was the sort of thing that Bethany Anne had hired her for, after all. Jinx heard the water shut off and figured she’d have about ten more minutes on the rock floor before Anne made her appearance. With a sigh of contentment, Jinx closed her eyes and waited.