E.U.R.O Chapter 6
A short beep occurred and then a green light flashed above the door, it parted in two and slid open, the door vanishing into the walls. The eight assembled in the parlour dropping bags in the open planned hallway as they passed through.
Sure enough eight young people of various species and sizes stood around the Parlour, it sported two black sofas as well as a large glass coffee table and two black chairs. The black furred wolf gazed out of the glass walls, examining the courtyard. A deep orange furred cat stood in the middle of the room a warm expression upon her face "well, hello everyone." Arthur's ears twitched, detecting a bouncy northern Irish accent. "I'm Hannah, who are the rest of you?" "Evie, hi there." Came the sing-song voice of a Labrador, likely Welsh if Arthur's hearing wasn't deceiving him. "Oscar Davies. I'm from Ponty." Came a deeper but just as playful voice from a stocky looking German shepherd, he gave a small smile to the rest of the room, before a panther dressed rather casually in a red jumper and skinny jeans spoke up in a very obvious Scottish accent. "I'm Jane! Does anyone really have a clue what's going on?" she shrugged her shoulders looking around at the rest of the group. "Not a clue. I'm Sophie by the way!" Came the voice of a tall Husky, she was clearly a sporty girl, opting for trainers and her t-shirt showed well-toned arms and her accent rang with a similar tune to Hannah's. "Now come on lads, don't tell me Oscar's the only one that isn't shy?" "Blake Hunter, not shy just wanted to let you all introduce yourselves first." The black furred wolf smiled to the group as he turned around, lifting his gaze from the courtyard and over to Sophie. "Well, I'm Arthur" The Huskute cast his green sight over to Blake giving a weak smile to the rest of the group before having a confident one returned from Evie. "And that leaves our mystery man!" Hannah chuckled, her face still warm with the glow of friendliness. By the door stood a white Lion, leaning his back against it his eyes were a dark fuchsia colour. "Rowan, not that mysterious honestly." he smiled, running a paw through his short white mane.
"So with introductions out of the way wha- "Blake began, before being swiftly interrupted by Hannah, who gave the wolf a smile as his maw dangled open. "What comes next? Good question that." The cat stated, her tail flicking to and fro behind her. "Tea comes next." Arthur said with a smile to those around him, he wasn't sure if he'd get the response he wanted, but soon with a few nods and a couple of grins he knew it was a good call. "Sounds like the Husky with a plan!" Grinned the white lion, as he pressed a button, the door to the hall opening, as he walked through it and pressing a button to open the kitchen. The first thing that was felt, was the feeling of solid dark stone tiles under boot as Arthur and Rowan entered the kitchen, the worktops were also dark but glossy reflecting a faint sparkle of the sunlight outside, Arthur filled a black kettle with water before setting it to boil, preparing a teapot by placing a couple of tea bags inside the large teapot. "It's a pretty fancy kitchen then." Rowan commented as he poured milk into a jug and put it, along with a sugar bowl; on a tray. "It really is, honestly it is like a dream home so far. Almost futuristic compared to my house back home, these sliding doors and buttons are just something else." Arthur inspected the sleek cabinets, all fitting perfectly and spotless within the pristine kitchen. There was a quiet beep as the Kettle was boiled, this took the two boys by surprise as kettles usually just flicked off when boiled instead of beeping. Arthur lifted the kettle and poured the boiled water into the teapot, settling the lid upon it and then taking the tray to the living room whilst Rowan opened the doors.
The tray was set down upon the large glass coffee table, and soon enough everyone had a cup of tea. The small talk that followed was cut short very swiftly as a sound of a mug being placed on the glass table heavily rang out. "Is everything alright Jane?" asked Hannah, noticing the panther had put down her cup. "I've just noticed we haven't checked out our rooms, and I can't wait to put my stuff away and get it done." Jane replied, standing up and picking a large suitcase up from the hall. Jane soon padded up the minimalist staircase onto the first floor. She saw four doors on this floor, trying her card against one of the scanners, it responded by flashing red. "Really? Guess it's not that one." Jane shrugged before tying the door opposite, this time it flashed green and the door opened.
The rest soon found their own rooms, Arthur found himself on the 2nd floor, his room was very simple, a single bed along one wall with a small ensuite bathroom with an open shower, toilet and sink. There was also a neat desk and a wardrobe, as well as one of the walls being a full-length window. Arthur's room being at the back of the house had a view to the rear, he gazed out at a dense forest around the back of the house. Noting the sun was high in the sky, he figured it must be around mid-day, the Huskute picked up his bag and began to unpack his clothes, placing them neatly within the small wardrobe. He had only just shut the wardrobe, placing his bag at the bottom of it, when he heard a strange mechanical noise. He glanced over to the desk and noticed that the wall behind it was no longer blank but had a sleek monitor just poking out from the wall.
The monitor was very clear, Arthur could not tell how thick it was due to only being able to see the front. It displayed a fairly blank desktop with an English flag Background. Arthur felt his tail go bolt upright as an automated voice began talking. "Welcome Arthur Darkgrove to the E.U.R.O Training facility. I am Star your house's AI assistant. You have free time until 12 PM" Arthur blinked, he was used to having a phone assistant tell him the odd thing or two, but this was a bit different to what he was used to, though it was merely unusual; not implausible. "Star what is the time now?" "It is 10:43 AM." Responded the computer.
"Great, thanks." Arthur replied, before pulling off his shirt and other items of clothing. He stepped into the ensuite and turned on the shower, immediately being greeted by warm water. Arthur scrubbed through his fur, noticing that shampoo had been provided Arthur made swift use of it running it through his head fur and grinning, it was always nice to have free stuff after all. Arthur made use of a thick towel hanging on the back of the ensuite door, drying off his wet fur as best he could. Though having inherited the thick fur of both sides of his family, it was always a struggle.
"Star, what is the time?" Arthur called out to the computer once more. "It is 11:18 AM." Responded the computer. Arthur huffed, he hadn't killed too much time, so decided to lounge on the bed. He was immediately surprised at the comfort of the mattress stretching out over it while looking out at the window. But soon enough he heard the computer voice talking on its own accord. "Residents of Crown place, the time is 11:30 AM please find your uniforms inside the wardrobe and get yourselves dressed. You need to be ready soon, once dressed please assemble downstairs." Arthur looked rather confused, he opened the wardrobe, finding a neat black uniform inside, he pulled it out placing it on the bed, noticing it consisted of a dark grey short sleeved collared shirt, a pair of sturdy black boots and a pair of black trousers with a strong black leather belt and a metal but fully coloured Union jack belt buckle.
Arthur found everyone else in the living room. Looking across at them, he noticed everyone's uniforms were exactly the same, all sporting the same colours and brightly coloured belt buckle, he noticed Rowan posing, leaning on the wall with one arm as he put a paw through his short mane. "You know I think this suits me quite well." He said with a slight grin on his face.
Sophie laughed to herself, her curled tail wagging behind her as she gazed over to the Lion. "Its not bad, but a black t shirt would be better than this grey"
"I think we all look pretty sharp to be honest." Noted Hannah, examining herself in the mirror, trying to flatter part of her ginger fur that had stuck up while getting the uniform on. "See even Blake likes it, look at him!"
The Black furred wolf froze as everyone turned to look at him, for he had been checking himself out in the mirror, noticed only by Hannah's sharp eyes, she smiled warmly at him. Hannah pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at the group. "We NEED to take a selfie." Everyone shuffled together and after a few taps of the camera button, one deleted photo due to Jane saying she looked horrible in that photo; they had managed to get a rather decent photo of their group.
There was a beep around the house, a constant beep. "Attention, there is someone at the door." Came the voice of Star. Blake went to the door as the uniformed stag waited patiently. "Ah you lot are ready then, that's good come with me!" He stood out the way of the door, silently counting them one by one as they left the building, smiling once he reached eight. "Alrighty then, if you'd all follow me, you get to have a wonderful tour of this place!" He set off, taking them around the courtyard and through the building they first entered. "This is the main building and you'll find we use this place pretty regularly for addressing everyone." He ushered the group out the other side of the building and walked around the front of the complex. "Over here we have the Research centre, any science related things you are studying will take place here, Opposite is the Humanity and Language building which as you can imagine is where you will study those subjects." They then pressed on further down a path before coming to an exceptionally large building, not particularly tall, but wide and taking up a substantial surface area. "And here we have the training centre, you'll get to see what this is for later on. Have you got any questions?" The stag looked over all members of the group before Sophie raised her paw. "Yes, Miss MacLean?"
"Is there a post office on the island?" She asked, looking around for one but with all the modern architecture it was hard to tell what everything was.
"Yes there is, we provide a courier service to the post office in the town on the island, Just leave anything you want to send with reception at the main building, and then they'll notify you if you have anything waiting... you're the first group to ask about that." He paused looking around with an awkward smile. "I should've probably told the others about this too." He'd shrug before tapping away on a small tablet. "There we go that should notify them all, you'll find your timetable and such things on the house computer. You should all have your first class in an hour. But for now, consider yourselves dismissed." He then walked into the training centre.