Third Week
It was collage admission test time for James, unfortunately everything was happening a little too fast. Unable to concentrate on his tests James was overwhelmed the next night when not only two, but five little mice joined Wilbur in running around the roof of James' apartment complex. Not only that, but when it was time to go the five mice promptly tried to crawl into James' pocket with Wilbur.
"Sorry, Wilbur, just you. No friends allowed."
At first James easily declared his intention.
When Wilbur realized that James was not going to allow his friends to come waves of despair rolled in through the contract bond.
[Cheep, cheeeeep]
Confused at the sudden emotions that were bombarding the bond, James watched as Wilbur even climbed back down James' clothes and moved to huddle with his friends.
"Come on Wilbur, enough games, I am tired. Let's go get some sleep."
James had stayed out later than normal tonight, way later than he should have since tomorrow was the first day of his tests.
But Wilbur ignored James even when James started to move away impatiently.
All six mice ran over to the side of one of the grow boxes and snuggled together for warmth.
"Why aren't you guys going home? Wilbur what does this mean?"
Trying to understand, James started to panic a little himself. He was not ready for this level of responsibility. It was one thing to keep a pet in his apartment, but uncontracted animals were banned. Especially mice. If his landlord found out he would be in big trouble. They would kick him out.
He didn't have anywhere else to go. And they would find out. The landlord did a regular inspection every week and SPAM did one every month. This was normal. It was impossible to tell when space pockets would collide and if a dungeon level space pocket were to break the whole building would be uninhabitable for at least a week if not entirely demolished.
That was how crazy a dungeon break could be.
"Don't do this to me Wilbur, come on, please come home."
James pleaded, but his little buddy was incapable of understanding human society.
This was too much for James on a test night.
"Fine, come on, but only for a few days. I have to focus on my tests and then we will have to find another place for you all to stay!"
James opened his pocket and leaned down. All six mice jumped in one after another. Each of them looked up at him through of opening of his shirt pocket looking so terrible and needy.
"I don't know what happened to the local mice population, but my apartment is not a mouse hotel!"
Saying some harsh words, James still gently patted his pocket soothing all six mice to calm them down a little.
Back at his apartment the five new mice promptly jumped on the couch and dug a hole into one of the cushions. It happened so fast James wasn't even watching while he dispensed some water for the mice to drink from the fridge.
"Oh! No! What did you do!"
Protesting James showed the mice Wilbur's little mouse cage that came complete with a mouse wheel and automatic feeding devices. But not one mouse budged from their new nest.
Even Wilbur just stood his ground and crossed his arms.
"These mice are taking advantage of me!"
It was much harder to be a good master than he ever thought!
'I can't worry about this now, I have to get some sleep. I will talk to the landlord and work this out after finals. I just have four more days left.'
It was just a cushion. He could afford to replace a cushion.
That night James had terrible dreams of dog headed landlords and colonies of mice ruled by dictators.
The next day Wilbur refused to come with James to school. Instead he stuck around with his friends even when James tempted him with some food.
"Fine, but don't leave my apartment, whatever you do!"
Having woken up late, James had to leave right then or miss his final. As it was he was late, but the teacher let him in anyway. It was only a few minutes.
In this way James rushed through his final imagining terrible things happening back at his apartment. The computer screen became fuzzy several times as he seemed to go in and out of concentration. As soon as he had finished all the questions he didn't review anything and just left. He was the first one to leave and several of his fellow students let out a shocked noise. No one would have heard their involuntary surprise, but James ... and any mice who might be living in the walls.
Thankfully, when James came back the hall leading to his apartment wasn't filled with angry tenants or the landlord. Everything seemed quite, until he unlocked the door and went into his room.
"..."
Blind anger triggered through James. And then before he could do anything he regretted his anger swallowed it all down.
'Calm down, you should have realized this would happen.'
All over the floor Wilbur's bag of premium mouse food was scattered. The mice had somehow ripped open the plastic bag and then knocked it over. And there wasn't just one mouse eating, not even six, there were at least a dozen full grown buck mice contentedly munching. These weren't the half grown sort that James had left in his couch before going to school. These mice were three times the size of Wilbur and fat.
"Wilbur!"
James called out for his pet and immediately Wilbur appeared crawling out of a different cushion from the one that had been ripped open the night before.
"What happened here?!"
James asked of his pet.
It was hard for James to understand and he was overreacting in a situation what was already beyond his control.
He had read online that contracted pets were anathema to mundane versions of the same species. There was just too much separating tamed animals and untamed animals. It wasn't just the powers that tamed animals gained. It was also the fact that tamed animals gained a lot of human intelligence, the intelligence of their master. Human intelligence made mundane animals fail to recognize their former offspring. The pet was left on their own. In all cases the bond between master and pet completely overcame and replaced any other connection a pet had. Often the master became the surrogate parent.
One source had said that pets and the species from which a pet came from could no longer successfully breed. Most pets could never produce offspring. It was rare for a pet to be able to reproduce. Special conditions had to be provided. As James thought about it he couldn't remember a single time when any of the pets he knew interacted with their own kind. What's more pets when were able to evolve they gained additional abilities, different colors, sometimes extra appendages or horns for example. Evolved animals often didn't look anything like their original species.
A local pet store had recently and proudly proclaimed that they were able to produce ghost eggs. Ghost pets had been magically induced to produce a clutch of ghost eggs. How a ghost became pregnant and how a ghost could have eggs was not explained. Everyone just accepted the fantastical because that was how the world worked. But ghosts had to have started out as some mundane animal.
The ghost ancestor many generations back could have been a raccoon or a giraffe. Sometimes the exact line of evolution became lost. There were so many interactions happening and no way to track it all!
Except it wasn't how James' world worked. His life had been organized and predictable. Now everything was out of control.
Crawling over everything were hundreds of mice. Astonished James saw a hole that had been made in a floor board next to the entertainment center.
"What, how?"
Throwing up his hands James went to go sit in one of the chairs at the dinning table, but something told him to look at where he was sitting. To his horror there was urine and feces all over the chair.
Somehow the mice had decided that the dinning room was the place to relieve themselves.
"Argh, this is too much! Is this all because our ability is fertility? But this doesn't even make sense! Wilbur the internet said that you won't even be able to procreate until you are at least five weeks old. You are barely three weeks, right now! Why?! Just why?!!"
Pulling his hair out James talked to himself. Obviously there was no one there who could help him figure out what was going on. The first thing he had to do was get out of this apartment. Too much was happening that he didn't have answers for.
But he couldn't go live on the street. Not with Wilbur and still be safe. And especially not with all these mice.
'Wait, if I take Wilbur and run won't I be able to get away from all these mice?'
The thought of being able to escape this situation became a bright star in James' mind for about two seconds. Then he remembered his father telling him that what defines a person is who they act in the small things.
"Fine. I guess I have to face the music. There is no way I can clean this up and fix it now!"
Sighing James walked out of the apartment. He paused for a moment at the door and looked back to see if Wilbur would follow. Wilbur didn't even miss a beat and went back to romping around with the five half grown mice that James recognized from the night before.