“So what do you want to do?” Kayden asked after yet another seemingly eternal moment of silence. When she didn’t answer, he just sighed and petted the now sleeping cat on his lap.

“Why are you so quiet?” He asked her hoping that by doing so it would at least give him some idea as to why there had been so many awkward silences between them. “Are you shy?”

“No,” Melonda said. “I’m not shy. I’m just not used to people talking to me so I don’t know what to say to you. Oh and to answer your question about what I want to do, I want to go outside.” She never got to go out much even in her own dimension so she wanted to go out in this one since there weren’t any major threats for her to worry about and nothing for her to feel the need to hide from.

“That’s it?” he asked. “That’s all you want is to go outside?”

“Yeah, got a problem with it?” she asked.

“No, I just thought maybe you’d want to do something more interesting.” He tried to explain himself but Melonda glared at him as if he had insulted her somehow. “I can’t shake this feeling like you only give me that attitude of yours as some sort of defense, if that’s the case, I can assure you that you don’t have anything to worry about. I really am a nice guy. I promise I won’t do anything to hurt you.”

“You know me not even a day and you already think you’ve got me figured out huh?” She asked him. “Well, here’s a surprise for you, Kayden. I’m not worried about you. I’m not afraid of you and by the way, if you ever did try anything, I’d kill you before you had the chance so I don’t need your empty promises.”

“Alright, alright, geez I just can’t win,” Kayden complained. “I offer to help you and I even invite you into my home and you act like I’m the devil or something.”

Melonda’s expression went from that of anger to that of almost sadness. “I’m sorry,” she said in a voice that was nearly inaudible. She was hurt by Kayden’s sudden outburst and didn’t understand why he was angry.

“Don’t feel bad,” He told her not liking the hurt look that Melonda was giving him. “I shouldn’t have said that. Let’s just go outside and do…well whatever it is you want to do.” Kayden laughed hoping Melonda would do the same but she just stared at him as if she were a child being punished.

“Ok,” she agreed quietly and stood up heading for the door. Kayden went ahead of her to open the door and waited for her to step out before closing it behind him. He was very confused by Melonda’s sudden mood swing but at the same time relieved that he didn’t have to put up with her attitude for a while. They walked around Kayden’s yard for a few minutes then Melonda suddenly stopped in front of a large tree in his back yard. She looked up at it wide eyed like a child in a candy store. Kayden smiled amazed that someone could be so excited to see a tree. He wondered what else Melonda would enjoy seeing. He watched her eye the tree appearing to be in deep thought. She looked up at a high branch and suddenly jumped up onto it perched there like a cat. Kayden stared at her in awe. The branch was so high from the ground yet she leaped to it like it was nothing. Her eyes had a sense of wonder about them as she sat there. It was as if she had never even seen anything like that let alone actually come in contact with it. She sat proudly on the tree branch as if she owned it. Kayden simply stared at her not sure of what so say. Melonda looked down at him and her expression quickly changed to that of slight annoyance.

“What? Why do you keep looking at me like that?” She asked him, the look in her eyes quickly fading back to their usual angry state.

“It’s just that you seem so…..I don’t know…..child like in that tree….besides…I’ve never seen anyone jump that far before…it was awesome,” Kayden laughed a bit nervously hoping he didn’t upset her. Much to his surprise, she simply smiled in response and went up further into the tree.

“Hey wait a minute,” Kayden began climbing after her. “Don’t go up so high, you might get hurt.”

“Relax…I’ll be fine.” Melonda told him with little emotion in her voice.

“Nice to see you’re so sure,” Kayden replied with slight sarcasm. Melonda let out a small almost inaudible giggle enjoying the annoyance she was causing Kayden. She was unsure why she enjoyed it so much but didn’t take the time to think about it at the moment. She climbed higher and higher up the tree until she reached the top and sat there staring at the scenery around her. It seemed to comfort her somehow. She felt a strange new emotion begin to fill her mind. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was and was a bit confused by it. She was unsure if she liked this new feeling she was having but it seemed so nice so different than the usual feelings she had. Kayden suddenly interrupted her thoughts by calling to her from near the bottom of the tree.

“Hey! I think you should come back down here before something bad happens,” He began to worry about her being so high up and wanted her to listen to him and come back down before she ended up falling.

“I told you I’ll be fine,” Melonda called back to him now completely annoyed with him for taking her new feeling away. She looked down at him and thought about what she could do to let him know just how annoyed she was. Then it came to her like a bolt of lightning. She suddenly jumped down at him from her high spot in the tree and knocked him down to the ground. Kayden yelled out before getting the breath knocked out of him for a moment as he hit the ground taken completely by surprise by Melonda’s sudden attack. He began to realize that she could be dangerous. “Maybe that’s why her creators were so afraid of her,” he thought to himself as he lifted his head to see that she had landed softly on her feet and was now walking back toward the house.

“Hey, Melonda! What was that for?! That really hurt,” He yelled at her, angry that she had attacked him for seemingly no reason. He stood up and went after her. “Hello! Can you hear me?! I’m talking to you!” Melonda stopped suddenly and turned around. She had the same confused expression to her face that she had earlier when he yelled at her. It caused Kayden to stop in his tracks. He was almost afraid to come any closer and he didn’t want to cause another attack so he stood there waiting for her to react.

“Why did you take my feeling away?” She asked.

“What are you talking about?” Kayden was still a bit angry with her but was now more confused than anything else.

“You took my nice feeling away. Why did you do that?” She asked again.

“How did I do that?” He asked her, still not sure what she meant.

“You interrupted my thoughts and the nice feeling I had went away….” She looked at the ground seeming to be hurt somehow.

“I didn’t mean to take your feeling away. I just didn’t want you to get hurt, that’s all,” he tried to explain himself to her but he was distracted by her hurt expression.

“I told you I was fine.” Her face returned to its usual emotionless state as she said this.

“I’m sorry,” Kayden said, not sure what else he could do to make her feel better.

“For what? It’s fine…I’m not hurt,” she told him with the same lifeless tone she had used with him so many times before. She turned back around and began walking back to the house again. Kayden followed her in complete confusion. Her emotions fluctuated so wildly he wasn’t sure how to adjust to her. “This trip might not be such a good idea,” he thought to himself. “I don’t know if I can handle her. That attack came out of no where. She hurt me and I couldn’t defend myself at all. She could have killed me if she wanted to….” His thoughts were interrupted as he came up to the door. Melonda was standing there waiting for him to open the door even though it wasn’t locked. He opened the door for her and motioned for her to go inside.

“It wasn’t locked. You could have just come in on your own, you didn’t have to wait for me,” he told her as he walked inside after her.

“It’s not my house,” she said flatly. Kayden just shook his head and walked into the living room. His cat came to greet him with a meow.

“Hey, Mekyiu.” Kayden smiled and bent down to pet the cat. She happily rubbed against his hand as he pet her purring loudly.

"Mekyiu…?” Melonda asked, wondering why he called the cat such a strange name.

“That’s her name,” he told her looking up at her still smiling.

“I thought you said it was a cat,” Melonda returned his look with a rather confused one of her own.

“Yeah, it is and her name is Mekyiu,” he said. “I guess I forgot to introduce you when she jumped on you earlier.” He laughed hoping to ease Melonda’s confusion a bit.

“Oh….” Melonda was still confused but decided to let it go for the moment. “I’m hungry.” Melonda was suddenly very aware of her empty stomach.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I bought some food yesterday. I’ll make you something if you want." Kayden stood up and started walking toward the kitchen. Melonda followed him ignoring a very loudly meowing Mekyiu that was trailing behind her craving attention.