The next day, L.U. managed to open her drowsy eyes and found herself in a steel cage. There were two cages beside her, and one of them contained R.A. I’ve seen her somewhere before… but from where? L.U. wondered. R.A. sensed her staring and turned to face her.
“What are you looking at?” she growled.
“I’m sorry. I’m looking because I think I’ve seen you somewhere…”
“Of course you saw me; we all met in our minds.”
“Then if you were in my mind, then where’s—.”
There was a loud snarl in the room next door. L.U. turned her head to the open door that was connected to another room. She saw four of the Professor’s assistants holding down E.M. as she struggled to get free. What’s going on? L.U. watches and noticed that they were trying to clip onto E.M.’s ear.
“Hold still! We don’t want to accidentally make another hole on you do we?” one of the assistants said as he struggled to keep E.M. still as a second assistant clipped on bronze colored plastic tags through the two hole that they have made in her ear. “She’s a very stubborn one; I would’ve never thought that she would have so much energy when she got out of the chamber yesterday!” said the assistant as he closed the tag with E.M. written on it.
“Why did they put that on her?” L.U. asked R.A.
“It’s so the labcoats can keep track of us,” R.A. replied in a dull voice.
“Why don’t I have one?”
“You do; it’s on your left ear,” L.U. lifted her paw to touch her ear and felt the tag dangling out.
“C’mon E.M., back to your cage.” the assistants groaned as he tried to get her off the examining table. E.M. couldn’t take it anymore; she whipped her head and bit the assistant’s arm. He cried out in pain as the others tried to close her mouth long enough to put a muzzle on her. But she managed to shake them off, running towards her cage.
Mai walked in when she heard all the commotion. “What’s going on here??” she demanded. The injured assistant didn’t hesitate to answer.
“We tried to put the tag on her but she kept moving! But that vicious animal bit me and ran.”
“where’s E.M. now? We cannot afford to lose the Professor’s experiments.” Mai looked to where the angry assistant pointed. She spotted E.M. in her cage, calming licking at her paws. Mai turned to the assistant and tapped her foot disapprovingly. “Tom, you’re just exaggerating! She’s in her cage and everything!” she glared at Tom.
“But-but—.”
“Enough! Now hurry up, all of you. The Professor is waiting for us in the other room.” she marched out along with the other three assistants. Tom walked up to E.M.’s cage and gave her a venomous glare when she only gave him a mischievous grin in return. “Dumb animal…” he muttered angrily as he slammed the cage door shut and locked it before he walked off.
“Hey, E.M. how are you?” R.A. said casually.
“In pain… those labcoats don’t know how to put it on right! Look! They made two holes on me and now I have these things… hanging out of my ear!” E.M. growled.
“Well, if you weren’t moving so much you might have gotten only one.” L.U. said, joining in on the conversation.
“That’s because I didn’t want to get a hole in my ear…” E.M. whined.
“What are they gonna do to us?” L.U. asked in a concerned voice.
“I don’t know… but when I was getting my ear clipped, I overheard them that they wanted to study us.”
“Study us?” R.A. asked, raising her ears up to pay closer attention to the conversation, while L.U. tilted her head to the side.
A door opened and Mai entered with a clipboard in her hand. She walked over to them and kneeled to her eye level and looked at E.M. “The Professor put me in charge of giving you all names! Hmm… what should I name you, my little tan lioness? How about Emmy? That’s a good short name.” She wrote, ‘Emmy’ on her clipboard.
She turned to R.A. “For you… hmm… you’ll be Rain. You have a grayish dull color that reminds me of rainy days!” she giggled as she wrote down R.A.’s new name.
What?? I don’t have a dull color! Rain thought sourly.
She finally turned to L.U. and was silent for a bit as she gazed at her narrowed eyes. “You’re such a wonderful subject… I know that the Professor will take good care of you… what should I name you?” L.U. tilted her head in curiosity and confusion
Why is she looking at me like that? she wondered.
“Oh, I have the perfect name for you: Lumina will be your new name because your fur is bright looking.” Mai said smiling as she wrote down her name on the clipboard. “Okay now…” Mai said, showing two strong leather muzzles and leashes from her big lab pocket. “Emmy and Rain, you two are going outside, you’re going to do a lot of exploring! Doesn’t that sound like fun?” she chattered as she slipped one of the muzzles and a leash on Rain. She then turned to Emmy and was able to slip them one with ease. “Heh, and Tom says that you’re vicious…” before Mai walked out with Rain and Emmy, she faced Lumina who was still inside her cage. “Don’t worry Lumina. The Professor has something special in mind for you…” and Mai tugged onto their leashes and disappeared from the room.