Intruder

Cory sat at the counter of his pet shop, the soft glow of the afternoon sun slowly creeping through the glass window at the front of the shop. He was currently in the middle of making a few string toys for some recent cat fosters he was looking to adopt out soon in his store. Rustling and the sound of things being knocked over immediately caught his interest. Without thinking much about it his hand reached for the sign which read "be right back, thank you for your patience" and palced it on the counter whilst the other hand secured the needle that was still connected to the half finished cat toy he had been working on. He pushed himself up from the wooden stool he had sat on and turned to look to the back of the store where the storage room was located from which the sounds were still coming from. Cory gulped and was half contemplating to call up a friend of his to boost his confidence, but he shook that thought right from his head. Creeping closer to the door of the storage room, Corys shadow was cast upon the door with the sun in his back.

A clawed hand reached out and firmly grabbed the handle, twisting it slowly the sounds immediately stopped inside, sending a shiver down his spine.

He opened the door finding the storage room in disarray yet nobody was inside of said room, despite him searching high and low. He glanced around noting the sacks of dry kibble that had been torn into his eye lingering on it for a moment before a thought cropped up in his mind.

An idea came to mind and cory stood next to the door with his back pushed against the door as he closed it, hoping that whatever had caused such chaos in his storage room would show itself again if he pretended to have left the room.

He waited with baited breath part of him eternally curious as to the troublemakers motivations another scared of what said troublemaker could be.

Sure enough a small buzzing vortex opened before cory in the middle of his storage room. a portal no doubt- and from it stepped a dog? cautiously trying to sneak back into the storage room.

It didnt immediately notice Cory allowing him to observe as the dog went back to the bags of kibble and tore into them - clearly hungry.

Sneaking over Cory was at first intending to confront the dog but was worried that it might startle and vanish through the portal again so instead he snuck over to the portal and whilst he hesitated at first he peeked into the portal finding himself... in the undercliffs. Normally he didnt travel through portals as he liked to actually travel to a destination as opposed to stepping through a portal and arriving there immediately, missing all the things he could be seeing on his travels. But with a portal having popped up in the back of his store he felt compelled to check it out he stepped back through the portal again returning to his store only to find the dog there staring panicked at Cory as he turned around to face the canine.

"Look-" said Cory holding his hands out in front of him to try and soothe the animal. "Im not going to hurt you, the undercliffs are a tough place for someone like you to end up in. You clearly need the food more than i do." Cory gestured to the kibble that was strewn across the floor which the dog took as a hesitant sign that it was alright for it to continue to eat.

Cory crouched down next to the dog, cratching his head as he looked back to the portal then to the dog.

"I dont mind you dropping by to get food, but maybe it would be better if you stayed with me right? Besides-" he turned to face the portal again. "I have never seen an animal that uses portals like you have. Something tells me you are special."