Nano-Sapiens: Carter and the Mother's Day Fetch Quest
This month, Carter does a fetch quest to save Mother's Day! Plus critter and flower pictures! Enjoy this month's Critter Tails!
Welcome to May!
It is a month of the sun, of blooming, of the time between spring and summer. It is when we all pull out sunscreen and sunglasses. It is the time to worry that the heat outside might be too much for the large black Newfie!
Unlike March, May is not a mixture of cold and light - it is the first breath of spring. Nor is May like April, with spring rain and easy warmth.
No, May is something different.
It is the end of Spring and the beginning of summer. It is when the plants are more than blooms.
It’s when the first harvest starts to appear. It is a time of celebration of motherhood. And thus, we wrote a story for just such a purpose.
We hope you enjoy our story and that all your naps are without interruption.
Carter and the Mother’s Day Fetch Quest
Carter blearily awoke from his nap to hear his final snore echoing through the room.
Above him, he saw the unusual sight of his three siblings gathered around him. The three of them gathered around him wasn’t unusual. That they were looking down at him was. Normally, his Newfie body towered above their Maine Coon cat bodies. But gray tabby Charles, orange tabby Raymond, and tortoiseshell Valerie all looked down at him as he lay on the floor sleeping.
Uh-oh, he thought. What’s wrong?
Valerie’s soft voice was needlessly, but accurately, translated from Feline into English by her collar. “Carter? What happened to Mom’s Mother’s Day carrots?”
Carter’s ears slowly moved down, and his tail, which had wagged at the sight of his siblings, stopped its movement.
The dual Feline/English speech took a little getting used to, but Carter was experienced with that. His own collar translated his Canine into English. “Mom’s carrots? I thought they were for me. They’re my favorite ever since I went through teething.”
Raymond nodded his orange stripy head. “Yeah. That took forever for you, poor guy.”
Charles, the gray tabby, spoke up. “We can’t find where they are. Did you eat them all?”
“Let me think for a second.”
He closed his eyes and thought about it. His tail wagged again as he remembered the wonderful taste of the crisp carrots.
“Carrot. I only ate one.”
Valerie patted his nose with a soft paw. “Where are the rest then?”
“Let me think some more.”
And he started thinking again. He had pulled the big bag of carrots out of the refrigerator and put it on the cabinet, as he’d been taught. He knew he’d put it away.
“The bread box.” He opened his eyes from thinking, to see all three kittens glaring at him.
“That was the wrong place? Sorry.”
He raised his head from the ground. This gave Valerie a chance to come in and rub his chin and give him a nose lick.
“You’re a goof, but, you know, you’re our favorite larger brother.”
The three kittens moved off towards the kitchen while Carter lumbered to his feet and followed in their furry wake.
Valerie saw him following and spoke to him. “We’re making Japanese curry for Mom. The latest romance series she’s reading is set in Japan. There’s a Nano-Sapiens fox in it.”
Her voice showed extra excitement. Nano-Sapiens in literature were still new. Even if there were a flood of it on the way.
Charles broke in with, “Yeah. That’s so cool.”
“Yeah.” Raymond mewed, “But everybody knows there’s no such thing as a Nano-Sapiens fox.”
They’d reached the kitchen. Carter saw that there were already bottles and jars of various powders and liquids on the cabinet. But he moved to the fridge to help them get the enormous bags. Five and ten-pound bags of onions, carrots, and potatoes were a little big for the Maine Coons, while he barely noticed that they were there. Although the carrots weren’t in the refrigerator. They were in the bread box. Then he opened the meat side of the refrigerator and nosed around.
“Guys, I can’t find any shrimp.”
Three mews of dismay followed him. Immediately, one kitten was at his feet, peering between his legs into the refrigerator, while two others climbed his body to get a higher view. Eventually, Valerie climbed onto and checked every shelf.
In unison, all three kittens exclaimed, “No shrimp.”
Their sad little ears drooped with their tails. They almost looked like sad dogs. Carter didn’t tell them this. They might get upset. Intelligent from nano-tech shots or now, they were still cats and moody.
“Hey.” Carter thought a moment more. “I can go down to Edmund and Raihana’s place and borrow some.”
Three hopeful, bright-eyed faces looked up at him.
Valerie was almost like Kathy and Carter in her interest in cooking. “We can get started on everything else. The shrimp goes in last, so it doesn’t overcook.”
So, Carter ambled over to the front door, shook himself, made sure he had his collar on, the one with the tag telling where he lived because he sometimes still had trouble remembering that. He went out the door and down the street.
Edmund and Raihana were in the same place that they’d lived after getting married as graduate students. He stood up on his rear paws and nosed the doorbell, which, after an unfortunate incident, had been waterproofed.
The former graduate students’ daughter answered the door. Kathy’s dark face looked down at him, much as he looked down on the kittens. “Carter, how are you today?”
Carter’s tail wagged. Kathy knew about cooking. She’d help. “We don’t have any shrimp at home, and the kittens are cooking food for mom. Can we borrow some shrimp?”
Kathy tilted her head at him. “I’m sorry, Carter. I don’t even have to check. We don’t have shrimp because it’s not kosher. Usually, if Dad wants some, he gets it when we go out to eat.”
Carter’s head slowly sank until it was almost level with Kathy’s knees.
Kathy bent down and hugged him around the neck. He felt her head turn as she looked at a clock nearby. “Carter, I’ll help you get some from the store, but I need to be back in time to count Omer.”
She stood and grabbed a jacket from inside. Carter shook himself out and asked, “Count Omer? Is that a countdown to something?”
“Actually,” Kathy laughed, “it’s a count up towards Shavuot, when we celebrate the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.”
Carter nodded his blocky head as Kathy came out and locked the door behind her. He was always interested in learning. But right now, he was a little more interested in getting shrimp for Mom’s Mother’s Day present.
He dog laughed. “This is like a real life fetch quest.”
Kathy laughed in return. Then she stopped and glared at him, although he could still smell the humor behind her mock anger. “Hey! Did you just call me the village NPC?”
***
Twenty minutes later, Carter had no idea where he was. He looked left down the long grocery food aisle. Then right down the long grocery food aisle. Colorful bags of dog and cat kibble lined the aisle as far as he could see. Some of the kibble was even marketed towards the small but growing Nano-Sapiens population. Usually, younger ones that didn’t want to have to cook.
Carter enjoyed cooking. Thinking about it made his tail start up again.
The Nano-Sapiens oriented colors made little sense to humans, but were bright, cheerful, and delicious to a dog or cat.
The important thing, though, was what he didn’t see. He didn’t see Kathy. But Kathy knew where the shrimp were.
“Well,” he said to himself, “only one thing to do. I have to go look for her.”
The next place he looked was in produce, next to the carrots. No Kathy here, although, oh, the yellow and orange carrot smelled so good. He knew not to try sniffing the whitish carrots because those were actually parsnips. He liked them, but they didn’t smell the same.
Then he checked the other aisle where he thought Kathy might be: the outdoor aisle. He looked longingly up at the rows and rows of tins of tennis balls. But despite the delectable collection of toys, no Kathy. He shook himself wildly, and this seemed to shake a thought into his head.
“Wait a minute. I’m a dog. I can smell. And we’re not here for cool stuff. Well, not dog cool stuff. We’re here for shrimp.”
Immediately, his head dropped, not in dejection, but energetically and hopefully. This let what his siblings always called his inadequate nose get closer to the scents on the ground.
He nosed through the store, automatically going around people in carts, until finally, he found his Newfie scent mixed with a human, Kathy. He looked up one way and then the other. She probably didn’t leave without him, so he followed her scent into the store. Bravely, he ignored the kibble as he walked through the kibble aisle. So, he’d been with her at some point. Struggling out of the kibble aisle, he followed the scent around, down, around. Suddenly, the smells of raw seafood and cold assailed his nose. He looked up, and Kathy was there.
She held up two bags. “Carter, where have you been? I found colossal shrimp and large shrimp. Do you have a preference?”
“Sorry. I couldn’t find you.”
Carter sniffed at one bag and then the other. He could read “shrimp”. And the word “large”. Some of the other words were still a little tough for him, so he asked Kathy what the difference was. She held up one bag and said, “This shrimp is bigger, but it has a tail on, you know, the shell, the part on the end. You can’t eat it.”
Carter nodded, and then Kathy held up the other bag. “This one, the shrimp aren’t quite as big, but all the shell, including the tail, has been removed.”
Carter nodded again. “Let me think for a minute.”
He tried to remember if his mom had any feelings about this. He knew she’d like the larger shrimp, and then he remembered something that had happened on one outing.
“We want without the tail,” he declared. “Sometimes the tail’s kind of pokey, and it’s too hard to eat around, but yet there’s so much shrimp left inside it. And let’s just say it caused problems.”
Kathy put the undesired bag back on the shelf and petted him with the now free hand. “Carter, why didn’t you ask for help when you couldn’t find me?”
They were walking, and Carter stopped because he had to think. Finally, tentatively, his translated voice came from his collar. “Well, if I didn’t know where you were, why would anyone else?”
***
Much later, Kathy had returned home to her counting, and Carter had returned to his for the cooking.
He helped the three kittens push the tray of food into their parents’ bedroom. The tray was a custom tray, nice and low so that everybody could reach it. Tall enough for the cats. A little low for Carter, but everybody was happy with it.
Carter carefully pushed the tray to stop in front of Veronica. He joined his brothers and sister next to the tray. Their father Timmy, a gray tabby Maine Coon like Charles, popped in the door to join them.
In unison, they all shouted, “Happy Mother’s Day!”
Their orange tabby Maine Coon cat mom chirped in pleasant surprise. Her tail went high and straight, trembled just a little, and then settled down. She approached the tray, sat, politely leaned forward, and took a lick of the curry.
It must have been good, Carter thought. All of her fur stood on end.
Charles climbed up on Carter. Carter knew this meant Charles was going to give a speech.
“We love you, Mom. You always take care of us. To show appreciation for that, we’re taking care of you today.”
He looked down at his siblings. His sister nodded back at him.
“In fact, we made enough Japanese curry and shrimp for all week.”
Veronica looked at the kittens and Carter. Then she directed a very pointed stare at Timmy.
Their father gave a cat shrug. “They just asked me to keep you busy. I had no paw in their plans.”
Veronica laughed and moved to give each of her kids a cheek rub, having to stand up on her back legs to do so properly with Carter.
“Thanks, kids. I love all of you.”
Carter shivered in happiness. He gave his mom a Newfie lick of joy - equal amounts of drool and love. And he had a lot of love.
Mom’s yowl was drowned out by the kittens exclaiming together, “Drool is love!”
Chaos Tip of the Week
Be like May!
Bright, warm, and ready sear anyone with a heat of your smile.
Hotter than a Mother’s warning with all your names!
Critter Question of the Week
For the Mom’s out there, what is the best Mother’s Day present you ever received?
For the rest of you, what would you like to do for your mother (or pseudo-mom, step-mom, or mom equivalent persona in your life) to show her how much they mean to you?
~Anna and Tod
More IP Writing on the Way!
Anna and I are please to announce that our story, Family Honor, has earned a spot in the Annals of the Auran Empire anthology. Arbiter of Worlds has a blog post with the complete author list and more details. The anthology is set in the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint RPG universe of the Auran Empire. (Think Fantasy Rome.)
Crowd funding opens June 8th, and you can sign up to be reminded via BackerKit now!
https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/8b8be898-82a5-4dc9-868d-aa9a9b449f6e/landing
We’re pleased to see our fellow Alpha Mercs joining us: Zane Voss, Sam Robb (the first anthology we were in was also with Sam), B.K. Gibson (who also gave great developmental feedback during edits https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/), and Nathaniel McIntyre.
We think our story has the most interesting one liner in the announcement:
“Family Honor” by A. Kristina Casasent, featuring a Ring Against the Wolf, tells the story of a Tirenean nobleman struggling with the challenge of producing an heir with his new wife.
For more details, checkout the Arbiter of Worlds blog!
