I was huffing and puffing by the time I was done. By
his stunned expression, I assumed that he wasn’t about to speak, so I went on.
Shinobu seemed to be stunned still, too.
“Go home, I’ll find Divina and Edward on my own.”
“I can’t leave you on your own.”
“You babysat me all day, I’m sure I can find my way.”
He sighed, and this seemed to be the one time he
wasn’t going to turn and walk away. “We know you’re not a child. All of us do.
And it’s not that you act like one. But you’re what, twenty-one? Are you even
legally of age on your world? I’m fifteen-hundred-sixty-two years old. Edward
is more than two-thousand-years-old. Even Divina is so much older than you it’s
ridiculous. To us, you’re a child. To the Guardians, everyone is a child, and
though you are one of us now, you’re still a baby compared to us. You’re going
to become more powerful than all of us, but right now, we’re all responsible
for you. And there is no point for us to protect you, and train you, and guide
you, if you’re not going to be able to do it yourself. I know this is your
first week. You are learning fantastically, but you need to get it through your
head that you are powerful. You may rely on everyone else right now, and I know
that frustrates you, but eventually,
everyone
will rely on you. You have
to know your strengths to use them. You have to know what you are.”
With that, he turned and walked away.
* * *
I sat for about an hour, processing everything that
happened to me since I opened the door to Edward. After an hour I came to one
profound conclusion; no matter how dangerous this life was, or how much trouble
I got in, or how lost I got, this life was better than my life on Earth.
Once again focusing on my book, I stood. Shinobu
opened her eyes and glared at me.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
She accepted the apology and closed her eyes again. I
started off into the street, continuing the way Nano and I were going. I
traveled for a few minutes before I slowed to a hesitant stop. I knew I wasn’t
going the right way, so I backtracked and made a left turn in an intersection I
had passed without thought.
This street was almost deserted and even the sunlight
seemed to avoid it. I walked slower. The shops that weren’t clearly abandoned
looked sinister. There was a group of three very large men off to the left and,
thanks to my luck, they all noticed me in time to intercept my path.
The man in front I assumed was the leader. He had
short, black, spiked hair while his two accomplices had shoulder length black
hair. He wore a dark red, button up shirt with black pants and a black robe,
while his friends wore black tunics with black pants. They were all about a
foot taller than me and were thin.
“Dano ni takonate antao,” the leader said.
I didn’t recognize any word except “takonate,” which
was money. Of course they wanted money; I was being mugged. I was only mugged
four times on Earth.
“Musi takonate juno hide,” I said, hoping I was
quoting Edward right. I didn’t think I needed to learn how to tell someone I
had no money at the time, but here I was.
I was startled by the hiss as Shinobu bared every
sharp tooth and spit at them, her fur was puffed like an angry cat’s. She was
downright pissed off. The men fell back with pure horror on their faces,
pointing at her and repeating a phrase. Her hiss grew louder and they were
tripping over themselves to get away.
I hurried over to one of the abandoned shops, sat
down, and gently pulled her off me. Her hiss died down and her fur settled, but
she was still clearly angry. I set her next to me and pet her. “Calm down.
They’re gone.” I said. She closed her eyes and nuzzled her nose against my
wrist. I could feel her little muscles relax. “Now what happened? Why were they
so afraid of you?”
The look she gave me could only be considered a
deceptively innocent smile. On a cat/sugar glider/squirrel creature, that was
quite disturbing.
How can something with such a little head understand what
I’m saying?
After a few minutes, I picked her up, stood, and placed
her back on my shoulder. Her tail wrapped around my neck again. I was cautious
until I came to another fork. Following my instincts, I turned left onto a more
populated, where the people were more formally dressed. All I had to do was
find my book before anyone spoke to me.
A man purposely blocked my path. He was about
Edward’s height and wore a dark green uniform, which included a tight,
long-sleeved shirt that had straps on the left side and matching pants. He was
unmistakably a Duran version of a cop.
Crap.
“Haso ga motaisensu o ideo?” he asked, pointing to
Shinobu.
I tried to think of what to say, but came up blank.
The cop repeated the question. Shinobu looked up at him, either because of his
loud voice or my sudden tension, but she was unimpressed. He repeated his
question again, louder and angrier.
Divina’s sweet voice rang out from behind me and all
my tension melted away. She stopped beside me and Shinobu stood, perfectly
balanced. Divina reached out and stroked her under the chin before regarding
the cop.
“Haso ga anago?”
Instead of answering, she reached into her bag. It
crossed my mind that she should try the decoy meat. After a few seconds of
searching, she pulled out a small card. He took it rudely before she could hand
it over, but she just smiled. There was a look of disappointment on his face as
he handed the card back
“Ema ideo,” he said coldly.
“Mowa,” she answered, picked up Edward’s bag, and
dropped the card into her backpack. The officer was still glaring at us as we
left.
As soon as we were out of earshot, Divina eyed
Shinobu thoughtfully. I assumed she would ask where I got lost or be mad about
it, but she pointed to Shinobu. “Where did you find that?” Her tone was calm
and patient.
“In an alley. How did you find me?”
“I discovered you were missing, I looked for you, I
found you. You have to get rid of her before we meet up with Kiro. He’ll never
get over it. You’re going to make him paranoid.”
“Well… She kind of saved me from being mugged… and
from being eaten,” I said. Divina frowned so I explained everything that
happened since I got lost, but skimmed over Dios and focused on Shinobu. “I
really don’t want to just tell her to go away. Can we at least get her
something to eat? Are there humane societies or something around?”
She sighed. “You don’t seem to understand. This thing
is very dangerous. Has she bitten you?” she asked. I shook my head. “Did you
even wonder about it when she chased off three thieves?”
“Yes, but she wasn’t mad at me.”
“The reason the officer stopped you was because you
need a license to keep this type of animal. You are fortunate that I found you
in time and that I have a license, and so unfortunate that you found her in the
first place. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe Edward will let me keep her if he sees how
nice she is.”
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Maybe he will be
able to explain the word no to you. I told Kiro to go ahead. He was reluctant,
but I reminded him about the crowd. Come on, your little friend is making a
scene.” She was right; people were staying far away from us.
I was more worried about them overhearing English.
“Aren’t you curious as to where I was for more than a day?”
“I know. You were with Nano on Dios.”
Of course she knew that; it was the only part I told
her. I just figured she would want to know what I did on Dios or what Nano
might have told me since I was there so long. “I got to meet Nano’s nephew,
who’s a void.”
“Yeah, you probably shouldn’t tell Kiro you got
involved with a political assassination attempt, or with Adre. In fact, you
probably shouldn’t tell Kiro anything more than you had a nice day with Nano
looking at maps and reading culture and history books. Books are sa… never
mind.”
“Were you about to say that books are safe?” I
wanted to know who told her what happened on Dios, but figured she wouldn’t
tell me if I asked.
“Yeah, but that would be a lie,” she answered.
This street consisted mostly of businesses and we
soon arrived at one where Edward waited. He was already staring at Shinobu as
we approached him. “Divina,” he said.
“I tried; he wouldn’t give her up. He said she saved
him from being mugged.”
“It ate the thieves?” he asked. “Where did you find
this thing?”
“She found me. She hasn’t done anything to hurt me
and I’d really like to keep her. You have Tibbit and I had to get rid of
Dorian. She can’t be very messy. Please can I keep her?” I asked.
Edward reached for her quickly and she let out a
fierce hiss, which Edward returned with a growl.
“Stop,” I told her. She looked at me. “He’s friendly,
so you be good.”
She reached out again and touched my cheek. “Good,”
she said. I looked at Edward.
“No,” he growled. “I would let you have a dragon if
you wanted, but not this. I don’t care if it’s nice to you; it’ll eat you while
you’re sleeping. This is not luck; you are cursed. You don’t understand what
this thing is, do you?”
“Of course not. Foreigner, remember?”
“This creature is what started leprosy on your world.
Its bite is much worse here. People refer to it as the Dark God’s favorite
assassin. It had to have escaped from experimentation on Canjii.”
“Well, good, maybe they got rid of the leprosy
stuff,” I smiled. Edward’s glared, but I was used to his glare by now. “Can we
at least keep her while on Anoshii?”
“She hasn’t bitten him and she really does seem to
like him,” Divina said.
“No. Get rid of it.” Anger was seeping through his
control and I discovered that I wasn’t completely immune to his glare.
I knew this wasn’t the time to argue. If I learned
anything since meeting Edward, it was that he was reasonable. Unfortunately, my
future was questionable and Edward didn’t need anything to make his job harder
right now.
I took her to the side of the building and I knelt
down in a patch of grass. “You can’t come with me anymore.” She hopped off my
shoulder and looked at me. “Don’t be mad at Edward; he’s just trying to protect
me. There’s got to be someone who can take care of you. Maybe the next time I’m
in Anoshii, I’ll be good enough with magic that Edward will let me keep you.
So, if you haven’t found someone by then…” She was frowning. I stood and
stepped back, but she took a step forward. “No. You can’t come with me.”
I returned to Edward and Divina before I allowed
myself to look back. Shinobu was still where I left her, watching me.
Divina wrapped her arm around my waist. “It’s okay.
You’ll see her again. Kiro’s really just upset because some red-head evil girl
violated his cards.”
Edward looked tired.
“Did you get the papers?” Divina asked. Edward lifted
the flap of his bag to reveal a small stack of papers in between our books.
“Good. Let’s get something to eat.”
“How long was I gone?” I asked.
“It’s been nearly one Duran day. Kiro returned this
morning, and I got us a room at an inn,” Divina answered.
“Wait, returned from where? Where did you go?”
“I had to go to Earth to take care of something,
which turned out to be nothing. I’m pretty sure that it was a stall tactic from
Vretial’s little pets in order to leave you vulnerable while they searched
Duran.”
“But I wasn’t on Duran. Nano has great timing.”
“Actually, I think it was his god that took you to
Dios. I’m pretty sure Nano just wanted to meet you,” Edward said.
On the way, Divina and Edward argued over where to
eat. We passed through the same streets several times before they finally
stopped. They were now speaking Sudo and their voices were higher than I was
comfortable with, but no one was paying them any attention. I guess food
arguments were normal amongst sago.
Finally they settled their argument and took off in
one direction. Judging by Edward’s exasperation, Divina won. While the place we
arrived at was similar in appearance to the other buildings, it was larger and
seemed sturdier. The first thing I noticed after Edward opened the door was
that it was fairly dim.
The floor was hard, black wood with dirt and smears.
Five durable looking dark, wood, round tables, each with a small lamp and four
wooden chairs, littered the room. The ceiling was low and we had to step down
when we entered. At the far end of the restaurant was a long bar, lined with
chairs, and a sliding door on either side. The wall behind it opened to a grimy
kitchen with old stoves and older cooking tools. Three people served food at
the bar; people had to go and get their own food. There were ten customers, and
only two of them were women.
Divina nudged me up to the bar behind Edward. He
spoke to one of the men who served food. The man nodded, said something, and
then directed us through one of the doors. When he slid the door open, it
revealed only a small wooden staircase; one of those rotting ones found in a
basement.
We followed him up the stairs into a hallway lined
with sliding doors about ten feet apart, with a large window at the end of it.
“Hya no sanya juuni oteka,” the man said, then quickly
left.
Obviously this wasn’t a restaurant that expected
tips.
On each door was a sudo word, which I assumed were
numbers, because Edward and Divina had no problem finding the correct door.
Inside was a fully enclosed booth with a table and bench seating. There was
only a little space between the door and the seats. A small lantern sat lit on
the table. Edward took a seat on the left and Divina sat on the other side, so
I was able to sit next to her.
Edward slid the door shut. “What do you want?” he
asked me, pointing to the door.