Memory transcript subject: Vili, Venlil Waitress

  Date [standardized human time]: November 6th, 2136

  My awakening in the waiting room was none too pleasant, being immediately bombarded with questions from irate doctors. They flung accusations at me of being the one who had administered anesthetics to Luka, making it hard for them to find exactly where he was injured for proceedings. The overload from being interrogated caused me to break down in front of them, prompting the doctors to file away one by one in embarrassment while the nurse attending to my brother tried to calm me down.

  “If it’s any consolation,” he told me, “it signifies that you’re protective of your herd. Nobody can fault you for that.”

  The truth was that I had no recollections of what had occurred in the diner past watching Luka pass out in my grasp. There were the sounds of arguing and crashing, but everything past that was a haze when I tried to remember. Having people accuse me of things I don’t recall doing was a tried and true happenstance wherever I went, it would seem, and I let out an irritated snort as I sat up in the double-wide chair.

  My knee bumped up and down as I anxiously awaited the doctor’s return. They’d taken Luka into the operating room for a “quick” installation of a brace on the part of his jaw where there was a fracture - it was in just the perfect spot that he wouldn’t be able to eat solid food if it was left unattended.

  The process sounded grisly when the nurse described it to me, but he assured me that the doctors knew what they were doing and that my brother was in good company. I began wondering if medicine was my calling, judging by how queasy I felt when they described peeling Luka’s skin back to insert gold alloy beneath it.

  According to his nurse, Luka insisted he didn’t feel anything after the painkillers wore off, and he began claiming that he would be fine to leave. I had no doubt of the former, but plenty about his claims of the latter. Luka was of a tough stock and I’d never seen him take too long to bounce back from the toughest spats, no matter how much it looked like it hurt. He was also as stubborn as a rock, hardheaded and brash as he let his skull do more thinking than the brain it contained.

  I nibbled at the tip of my claws as I always did when I was on edge. To my knowledge, the chances of something happening to Luka during the procedure were astronomically slim, but still existed nonetheless.

  What if they put him under for too long? Or if they cut something they aren’t supposed to?!

  I squeezed my discolored ear between my claws and ran them up its length to dispel the anxious twitch that accompanied the disembodied buzz that came when I got too worked up. I tried soothing myself with airy platitudes and felt a bubble in my belly from the hospital food I’d eaten. Pangs of hunger begged for me to eat again, but I was determined to wait in this room until Luka was out of the operation even despite losing track of how long I’d been sitting here.

  Didn’t someone in our village die because the doctor pierced something vital during an ear checkup? Or was it an eye checkup…?

  Curling in a ball on the seat, I groaned as I grew more and more ready to simply ask to be shown to where Luka was being operated on, though I knew the doctor would only chuckle and list off all the reasons I shouldn’t worry about my brother’s health. Again.

  My ears searched for even the slightest hint of noise in this sterile cavern of a building and I felt a shiver envelop me as an odd chill swept across me. It permeated the layers of my fur, tickling its way to my skin. The place was already cold to begin with, to discourage bacteria growth, but this was a sensation divorced from any outside influence. I clutched the blanket the attending nurse had loaned me and nuzzled my snout against it, hoping it could replicate the comfort of having someone close by.

  An eternity and a half passed as I tried to count the threads on the cloth, serving only to exacerbate the frustration as I realized that my brother’s fate was out of my control. I coiled my tail around the leg of the chair I sat in, loosing the tension from my body upon the sturdy plastic beneath me.

  A half-hearted purr was all I afforded the blanket in an attempt to salvage my soured mood such that as I awaited any news, I hardly noticed the approaching footsteps.

  “So far, the procedure’s gone well— woah!”

  I was at my feet in a heartbeat, though perhaps a bit too quickly as I stumbled when my vision went dark for a moment. The nurse put an arm out and chuckled as I steadied myself, slicking the tuft of fur on my head back so that I could look down at him.

  “So I have good news and bad news,” he stated as he picked his clipboard back up. “Which do you want to hear first?”

  “The one which lets me see him.”

  “Good answer. Bad news: the damage was more extensive than we’d anticipated from initial scans, and we found evidence of multiple prior fractures that had healed and resulted in more brittle bones.”

  “Is that why it’s taking so long?”

  “It’s an ongoing process to keep prior injuries from exacerbating the problem - how your brother went this long without eating something that could have caused a refracture is a miracle, I tell you.”

  “But he’s going to be alright? Please, I’ve been waiting for news forever.”

  “That’s the good news: once the doctor’s done reinforcing the troublesome areas, your brother may be better than before. We’re working on minimizing the risk of an injury later on down the line while we have the equipment allocated for his treatment. When he’s better, I’ll come back and let you see him.”

  My tail twitched with excitement at the news and my leg bounced with impatience as I awaited the nurse’s return.

  ===

  Luka came out of the operating room as a babbling mess. According to the doctor, he had regained consciousness near the end of the procedure because the anesthesiologist had underestimated the amount needed to keep him under for the full operation. That knowledge was enough to have me on the edge of barging into the room and berating the fool doctor who would have botched my brother’s surgery, but the nurse was quick to point out that Luka still wouldn’t have felt a thing for a while.

  After confirming that he was able to be seen, I was invited inside to talk to him. When I entered the room, I was greeted with a face that hardly looked like my brother. His lip hung slack and his eyes were glazed and misty from the incessant blinking he did.

  His mouth hung agape for a moment as he stared at me and drool dribbled down the corner of his mouth. “Who are you?” he whispered, acting as though speaking at a conversational volume would disrupt something.

  “Me? I’m the woman who gets you in and out of trouble.”

  The doctors chuckled as Luka let out a croaking noise while he seemed to process the news. “Are you my mom?”

  A snicker came from the head of the team as he quietly ushered the others out of the room. He leaned in and explained, “This is your sister!”

  Luka’s eyes stared at me vacantly as he let this revelation sink in. The part of his lip that he had control over trembled and his eyes turned watery as he looked up at me. “Sister?”

  I signed an affirmative, though I was unsure if he could really interpret such a sign in his current state. Luka choked on a sob and scratched at the numb part of his face, which the doctor discouraged by placing a paw on his arm to lay it back down.

  “I have a sister!” He held out his arms toward me as a child would to their mother to be lifted up, and I obliged by leaning in for his embrace.

  A sharp intake of air was what kept me from cursing out loud as Luka clumsily dug his claws into my back to maintain a grip on me as we hugged. There was something soothing about hearing him weep, even if these tears were shed while hopped up on anesthesia.

  I gave out a purr of contentment as I released Luka and he slouched back into the pillow again with that same distant look. “How long’s he gonna be like this?” I inquired of the doctor.

  “Way he’s going, he’ll be fully lucid by the time your stop comes.”

  “Our stop? So that’s it? No recovery period, no stay at the hospital?”

  “Nope,” he told me as the nurse stepped through the door with a wheelchair. “He’s ready to go as-is. Of course, we’ll be sending you home with a list of instructions to ensure that the restructuring compounds have had time to set, but the long of the short is that there will be no solid foods like grains or leaves - basically, try to avoid chewing for at least the next week or so. You’ll both know when the pain from eating becomes negligible.”

  Luka chimed in with, “Negligliglibible.”

  I stroked the tuft of fur on the top of his head and I saw as he relaxed from the contact of my calloused paw. I turned to the doctor, asking, “Can I help?”

  He gave an affirmative ear flick accompanied by a curt chuckle. “Be our guest. It’s always a joy to see siblings so caring for one another come through my ward.”

  The nurse helped instruct me on how to safely lower him onto the chair, and we lowered him in legs first. Apparently, we could install gold alloy whatzits to stabilize a fracture, but a device to lower someone into the wheelchair afterwards was out of the question.

  My paw slipped and Luka’s leg kicked the chair from beneath him, though the doctor was quick to realign it under his butt. Luka’s head tilted backwards and he mumbled, “Are we supposed to fly like a bird?”

  “No,” the doctor told him. “But you can surely get knocked down by one.”

  He and the nurse exchanged curt laughter at his jab as I followed behind. I was sure that a statement like that was a violation of their oaths, but I was not interested in raising a fuss over it - I’d already caused enough trouble as things stood.

  I followed the two of them as they carted Luka toward the exit while he continued to babble aimlessly, reaching for every shiny thing that he passed along the way to the chagrin of the nurse. “Why can’t I see my sister?”

  Neither of his guides got a chance to glance at me before I breezed past them to stride next to him. He looked up to me with a distant look as his tail curled with curiosity. He’d not been this excited to see me for a long time - at least, not in recent memory. I laid my tail across his wrist as we exited into the sunlight, relishing the feeling of being able to hold him without any sort of protest.

  A bus arrived promptly as we approached the curb, opening the door in front of us to enter. “This is where we leave things up to you, Miss Vili,” the doctor told me. “Adhere to the instructions we’ve set out for you and your brother will recover in a matter of weeks. Solid foods are out of the question, and avoid any mishaps that could result in a partial or total refracture.”

  I gave him a silent affirmative as I wrapped Luka’s arm around my shoulder and sat him up before helping him stagger onto the bus. He stopped for a moment and looked contemplatively at the driver. “Are you my sister, too?” he asked the sivkit man.

  I ushered him to his seat as the driver closed the door without answering the question, and I gave one last farewell to the doctor/nurse team as the bus departed. Then, we sat in silence.

  Holding Luka’s paw between my own, I continued to look down at him as he seemed hypnotized by the passing city and I saw the light slowly come back into his eyes. He silently lip-read the signs to himself as we zoomed past, showing that he was regaining some lucidity and with it, the more distant and reserved Luka I was more familiar with.

  I rubbed my shoulder against his with a purr and he gave me an acknowledging ear flick. A little tug from his arm was all the tell I needed to let go of his paw.

  “Our stop is coming up,” I announced to him, barely concealing my disappointment.

  “I didn’t say anything embarrassing, did I?”

  “Nothing that I can get you to do the dishes for me with.”

  “Good, good.”

  The brakes of the bus hissed as it brought us close to the stop just up the block from our apartment. With a melodic tone that told us we were clear to stand up, I stood up and helped Luka to his wobbly feet - I felt the tiniest bit bitter that this was the last symptom to disappear, and not his playful whimsy.

  I held my arms out to catch him as he tried to navigate through the cramped bus, trying to avoid bumping into the other passengers before stepping back out.

  With the bus gone, we stood at the curb in silence.

  “We should head inside,” I told him. “You’ve had a rough day.” He glared up at me with a look that burrowed its way past my poor excuse. The truth was that I was absolutely beat after the recent events, and I was ready to have some time to lie down in a comfortable bed, knowing Luka was home safe and well.

  Before that could happen, though, a body emerged from the door next to ours and Luka and I paused to see a krakotl with an odd feather discoloration stand between us and our door. Her beak hung open and Luka’s ears raised in curiosity.

  The bird tilted her head as she clicked the door shut behind herself. “I was wondering why nobody answered when I knocked, but now it all makes sense. Last I saw of you, you were being carted to the hospital on her lap.” She turned an eye to me and I folded my ears back. “I trust things went well?”

  “I feel like shit and Vili here looks like it, but we’re fine.”

  Thwip. My tail struck Luka against the back of his thigh and the krakotl looked confused for a moment as Luka hissed in indignation as if he was the offended party. “Excuse my brother,” I muttered. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Meet me? I thought we—”

  “If formal introductions are to be had,” Luka blurted out, cutting the bird off. “I’m Luka, and it’s nice to meet you.” He staggered forward with a headbob that he probably intended to mimic a formal greeting. I caught him before he could taste the pavement though, and he planted both shaky feet on the ground with a paw on my shoulder.

  I wrapped an arm around his waist to straighten him up and he gave a silent thanks before turning back to the bird. “Sorry, so what’s your name again? I don’t think I caught it last time.”

  “You were in no condition for introductions at that time. I’m Hileen, your neighbor.”

  “There’s no need to talk so formal with us,” Luka pointed out. “We’re not your boss.”

  “It’s just how I was raised,” she tittered. “Mom and dad thought I’d get into forecasting or talk shows when I grew up.”

  I tugged an ear up and could feel a jolt as Luka’s tail flicked at the mention of her own parents. I brushed the tip of my tail against his to soothe his tension and his demeanor simmered down with a placated huff. Sometimes I forgot about why we were here.

  “So I’m on a bit of a time crunch as of this moment, Vili and Luka, but when I get back, I’d love to try and get to know my neighbors a little better? After all, I’m sure we have plenty to discuss after last night’s fiasco.”

  “Yeah,” I stated. “Looking forward to it.”

  Hileen slipped by us and her talons clicked on the pavement as she hurried to some unknown destination, leaving Luka and I to our devices.

  He asked me, “Still remember the key code?”

  I scoffed, “Do you?”

  “Yes,” he hissed indignantly. “Do you?”

  “Care to put it in then, smartass?”

  Luka broke free of my grip and staggered in front of the door. His knees wobbled less with every second but he was still a tidbit drugged up.

  “Let’s see… if we consider our apartment number, and we subtract it from the street number… carry the one…”

  I rolled my eyes as he placed a claw to his lip as if it’d convince me that he was deep in thought.

  “Vili, when’s our birthday again?”

  “0-4-0-6-2-3.”

  “Weirdest birthday I’ve ever heard of.”

  “Put it in, sivkit brains.”

  He gave me a clever ear waggle as he put the code into the door, flicking it open and holding the door open for me to enter. “Clumsy before beauty.”

  “And age after brains.”

  “Those extra ten minutes really bother you after all this time.”

  I forced my way past my quippy brother and into the dry, cool air of our humble abode. Everything was exactly as I’d left it, and yet everything felt strange - we’d hardly been here two weeks and it was clear from the excess of negative space in the room that we had a long way to go to call this place “home”.

  I flopped onto the couch, brushing the remote on the table closer with my tail until I could grasp it with my paw. With a flick of the claw, the television came to life and put the last thing I’d been watching on display. Luka stuck his snout into the pantry and rifled through the limited selection of supplies we’d bothered to stock up on using the funds we’d moved here with.

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  “Hey,” I called to him. “Doctor says no solid foods.”

  “They won’t be solid when I’m done chewing,” he argued. “Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing—”

  “Use the pestle and mortar, and mash whatever you’re eating into the consistency of baby food. I’m not going to send you back to the doctor with a toothache just because you were too hard-headed to follow his instructions.”

  Luka mimicked my demands out loud as he followed them to the letter, throwing a few berries and seeds into the bowl before mashing it. I couldn’t hear the program I was watching over the incessant grinding noise as my brother turned the foodstuffs into a fine, mushy slurry.

  He poured the contents into a bowl while he looked to me as if to say “see?” He turned it bottoms up and poured the entire mixture down the hatch in one motion as I watched in disgust.

  “Have you heard of flavor? You could at least taste it before tossing it back.”

  “Have you heard of efficiency? I’ll follow the doctor’s instructions, but don’t think that I’m gonna enjoy it.”

  “Child.”

  “Harpy. I’m going to bed, you coming?”

  “I’m gonna finish this show. Be there after.”

  Luka slinked through the bedroom door, signaling rest well to me before closing it behind himself. I sighed, signaling love despite myself being the only one who’d know.

  I wasn’t sure how much time passed after he went to sleep as I let the show play out. Every scene between where I’d picked back up and the reveal in the penultimate episode simply blended together as I slowly drifted into my own sleep. Big surprise, that the asocial cousin of the lead character was a murderer, and that the two characters with a modicum of chemistry got together to please the fans.

  It was the same plot arranged differently every time with these mystery shows, and as I reclined against the end of the couch to watch the finale where they tied up the loose ends, I found my eyes growing heavy. There was a mention of a predator’s plot, which felt a little bit out of nowhere, but I never got to see how the sequel-baiting finale closed out as I slowly drifted into a deep sleep.

  “These predators stole everything from me! I can’t lose you, too!”

  ===

  Memory transcript subject: Luka, venlil Sanitation Employee

  Date [standardized human time]: November 7th, 2136

  I woke up choking on a gob of my own spit, hacking and coughing to clear my windpipe. Satisfied that I wasn’t going to flood my lungs with saliva, I wiped the drool from the corner of my mouth and sat up to look at the time. The holopad read that I’d slept for a claw and a half, which felt disappointingly short for how tired I was when I got home.

  I sat up and stretched, listening as the joints in my tail cracked, then stood up. I checked Vili’s bed, and was again disappointed as I found that she hadn’t come to bed like she said she would. Smacking my lips and tongue to rid myself of the taste of resting breath, I slowly cracked the door open and peeked outside.

  Surely enough, Vili was curled in a ball on the couch, sound asleep with the TV still on. She shifted in her sleep, pulling her foot that dangled over the couch in close as she unconsciously tried to shelter herself from the cold.

  I contemplated what to do about her - on one paw, I knew I needed to get her out and about to look for another job, since her last boss's shop would be seized by the city by now as he underwent trial. On the other, she was a heavy sleeper, and I felt like she needed the rest after waiting for me the entire time I was in the hospital.

  My better judgment kicked in and I grabbed her blanket from her bed, shaking off the fur she shed before dragging it behind me. With a flourish, I let it drop on top of her like a parachute, covering all but her head. I leaned forward and gently nuzzled the tip of her ear, and it twitched in response.

  With my sister’s needs attended to, I decided to sit on the floor and flip through the channels. I didn’t care as much for the shows Vili was immersed in, and the news was just more of the same about the ongoing conflict and the aftermath of the bombing of Earth.

  I let out an irritated snort as I passed through the news channels that all showed the same images, with the same headlines in different contexts depending on whether they were pro or anti human.

  “Human refugees demand better living conditions,” read one that was accompanied by videos of predators roaming the streets of the capital in their masks.

  I lingered on this display for a moment longer, before an image of a human child with what appeared to be their mother sitting at a street corner came on. They were holding a sign that read “not enough houses, not enough space, need shelter”.

  With a huff, I flicked the television off and tossed the remote onto the table. Vili shuffled in her sleep, scrunching a portion of the blanket in her paw while her ears twitched. Must be a bad dream.

  I stood up and shuffled to the bathroom to look into the mirror. Collecting a pick from the medicine shelf within, I lifted my lips to observe the gaps in my teeth and find any debris that might have gathered. Plaque and leftovers alike were removed as, one by one, I checked every nook and cranny to ensure they were clear. Despite my banter with Vili, I had no problem following the doctor’s orders, and that started with making sure the teeth that neighbored my missing one didn’t rot.

  After giving it a once-over, I gave myself one last glance by curling my lips back to observe every tooth at once.

  And I was once again reminded of the predators.

  Baring my teeth like I was performing a human’s snarl, I looked at myself in the mirror in silence. Deciding that it looked more like I was suffering from a high fiber diet rather than displaying a predator’s aggression - or affection, as they insist - I straightened up.

  I continued on with my usual routine, wiping the inside of my ear, brushing my fur, and scraping my claws clean. There was something comforting about doing it every time I woke up. It took my mind off of whatever bad dream I had, or cleared my head for the day set before me.

  With my instructions telling me I couldn’t work until I could bear the pain of chewing, I didn’t really have much of a day as of the moment. The ambience of the air conditioning keeping the room cool and the buzz of the world outside did little to assuage the rising boredom as I paced through the kitchen. I didn’t feel hungry, and I didn’t want to wake up Vili, who I was almost certain had stayed awake much longer than she should have.

  That’s when my mind wandered to the events before my hospital visit. I thought about the blur of scenes as I regained consciousness, and the comforting touch of Vili as she stroked my head. I remembered the route I’d taken before deciding to stop for a bite to visit her, and the fear I’d felt before that at the depot, and in the truck.

  There was one face that persisted through all of them: Richard, the human.

  I could recall the short back and forth we had before I blacked out, and his futile attempt to communicate with me in my own tongue. He’d protected me at my most vulnerable, and dismissed my concerns of being eaten as I lay helplessly in his grasp. Most curiously was how, despite the way I’d tried shunning him as best I could, he was so quick to step into my corner and fight on my behalf.

  The herbs that dangled on the hooks on the wall were beginning to wilt, since we didn’t know how to actually prepare them - they’d been provided as a starting gift from Markol when we first moved in, and I felt a twinge of guilt that we hadn’t actually done anything with them.

  My eyes flicked between Vili sound asleep on the couch, and the herbs on the wall. My head spun as I weighed my options, trying to comprehend my own intentions.

  Perhaps it wouldn't hurt if I restocked the herbs.

  I ducked back into the bedroom to grab my satchel, checking the holopad on its charger for the time. I gave myself a couple claws at the least, if my predictions about how long Vili slept were accurate. At the very least, I could be back with something to appease her if she woke up while I was gone. Well, about as appeased as she could be when she’s mad at me.

  I decided against taking the holopad with me, confident that I’d be able to apply my knowledge of the analogue positions of the sun in the sky with relative ease. I rushed to the door, but stopped with my paw on the handle.

  Vili was still out cold, but I felt a twinge of guilt for leaving her alone when she was so worried about me. I skipped my way back to her side as she lay on the couch, reaching down to make sure she was properly covered so that she wouldn’t catch a chill. I nuzzled her shoulder through the sheet before making my way out the door.

  First stop: the civic center.

  ===

  The uptown streets of Suncast Valley had an odd configuration that showed the city’s age - near the Westward Channel, they adhered to the contours of the valley it lay in before slowly switching to the octagonal artificial steppes that were more convenient for construction as you reached the outer edges of town. The downtown, on the opposite side of the channel, had a more modern design, having been torn from the foundations and reconstructed to fit this newer design philosophy.

  That’s what the sign next to the bench I sat at read, anyway. I’d made my second stop on the way to the civic center, which was where the largest population of human refugees resided. The next would’ve been the municipal park-turned-slum on the other side of town, and so I was taking a gamble by choosing the easier option.

  I could spot the glassy exterior to the building upstream from where I sat, hardly a half-hour’s walk from where I sat. A child buzzed on by, imitating the noise of a ship’s engine as their mother hustled to catch up with him while carrying a load of groceries, reminding me that I still needed to get other things done after my visit.

  Getting back on my feet, I let out a groan and grabbed my satchel before marching onward.

  The shelter grew closer and closer, looming over me as it dawned on me what I was trying to do. Crossing the street, I couldn’t help but notice how there were no other bodies on this side as I stood in the open, the only thing between myself and the nest of predators being a long stretch of grass on either side of the paved walkway. I drew a breath, and took a step forward.

  Before long, I was standing at the front door, and it became rather obvious as to why the glass panels didn’t show the inside: all of the glass had been retrofitted with polarized sheets, preventing visibility of the inside from the outside. The door handle looked well-worn, and there were clear signs of dirt marks from the humans’ foot coverings on the pavement leading in and out.

  Another nervous breath in and out, and I tugged at the door.

  Inside, I was greeted with a rush of cold air as I crossed the foyer. My heart thumping made it impossible to hear as the blood rushed through my ears, and I stood on high alert as I approached the front desk. I was standing in a nexus of predators, so despite my intentions in coming here, I had no plans on letting my guard down.

  The front was occupied by a single predator, having long curly locks of mane that dangled from their head and over their shoulder. Male, most likely, with a smattering of short black fuzz on their lower jaw and over the lip.

  He looked up from whatever he was doing at the desk and observed my movement as I shuffled forward.

  “How can I help you?” he asked, putting on as much of a sweet tone as a predator could manage. “Curfew is in effect, so visitation is not available at this hour.”

  I stammered, producing a string of indiscernible noises as I failed to speak. I wasn’t nearly this nervous being stuck with Richard, but that was in the presence of only one human. I knew that behind these walls, there lay a couple thousand humans, some of which may not be as restrained as Crow.

  “Crow,” I bleated.

  “‘Crow?’”

  “Y-yes. Crow. Richard Crow.”

  “What about them?”

  “I’m here to see him.”

  The human scratched their neck, then swiveled their chair to sit in front of the computer. “Let me see if we have a Richard Crow in the system.”

  The predator clicked away at the keyboard for an agonizingly long time. All the while, I kept my eyes pointed at either end of the entryway for movement with my ears on a swivel.

  “Looks like we do have a Richard Crow…”

  “And…?

  “And he has not checked in for curfew for weeks now.”

  My heart sank and the tension I felt contested with the disappointment of wasted effort. “What does that mean? Are the rules here so lax?”

  “Says here he last checked in just a couple days after his file was first created. Then he went off the grid.”

  “That can’t be right, I just saw him not too long ago. Do people come through here without checking in?”

  “Plenty. But most don’t go for three weeks without checking in, because staff will check in on them when it becomes a pattern.”

  “Is there a chance he could…?”

  “Be on the other side of town? Possible, if he found someone who was willing to let him stay at their place. But space is limited there as it is, and nearly every house in the park was pushing capacity in the first place.”

  Now, I found myself growing a bit frustrated. There was no way a human could exist outside of the boundaries of human centers within city limits without raising suspicion.

  “I know he’s around here,” I insisted. “I worked with him not too long ago!”

  “I’ve no doubt about that, sir. What else can you tell me about him? Maybe I can point you in the right direction.”

  “He… He worked with me at at the city sanitation department, and then there was a big fight that he got involved in—”

  “Hold on, hold on. A human got in a fight? Here, in town?”

  “Yes, why is that so hard to believe? I thought you humans were all about…”

  I trailed off as I realized how I was talking to the predator’s face.

  “Sorry.”

  “Don’t sweat it,” he replied tepidly. “Such an event as a fight breaking out in town would most certainly be addressed by the UN, and the Guild would’ve doubtlessly gotten involved as well. We’d have heard about that, even if it was someone on the other side of town.”

  “Well, it happened, and I even lost a tooth from it—” I opened my mouth and pointed to the hole in my gums—”so I can attest that there was such an event.”

  The human paused and narrowed his eyes. “Did… he do that to you? Are you here for a settlement?”

  “No, he—... no, he helped me. And I want to see him.”

  He ran his tongue through his cheek before leaning in, and I instinctually did the same. “Look, buddy, I know everything that comes through this door - every man, woman, child, and fart of wind. And I can promise you that nobody matching the description on his file has come through here in a long while. But I’ll tell you something.”

  I tilted my head and flicked an ear to signal attentiveness.

  “There’s a group, out east past the hills outside of town. Nobody out there answers curfew, and they’re from refugee centers all over the planet. Now, if you’re looking for a man that hasn’t checked in, and who we haven’t gotten activity reports on, then your next best bet will be out there.”

  “In the mountains?!”

  “No, no. Not that far. As far as I’m aware, the Magister lady who runs the town allocated some land just outside of the city limits for them to stay and all that. You might be able to take the train to the edge of town and just walk there, if you have the cojones.”

  “I’m not sure what my—”

  “That’s all the help I can give you, though. Whether you make good on that info is up to you, little man. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

  I paused in thought, clicking my claws together.

  “Can I have one?”

  I flicked an ear to the cup on the desk in which there were sticks of candy piled inside. The human’s eye twinkled with a strange aura as he plucked one from the cup and held it out for me.

  “Name’s Jesus, by the way. Pleasure to help you.”

  My claws grasped at the stick and lifted it from his clutches. “Luka. And thanks.”

  I turned and made my way out the front door, the white stick of the candy sticking out of my mouth as I sucked on the crystalized sugar stuck to the end.

  From here, I knew I had two options: to my left, I could head for the market to restock on herbs as I intended - to my right, I would come to the nearest transportation stop that’d take me to the east end of town.

  I still had half a claw left at the minimum and I had only just woken up not too long ago, so I wasn’t feeling too tired. The sugary treat that I rolled on my tongue invigorated me somewhat, spreading out in a flavor I was not familiar with as my jowls tensed from the tartness.

  With a single, firm bite, I split the candy into shards in my mouth and I let it swish around.

  The herbs are mostly just for decoration anyway.

  My tail sagged and before I could convince myself otherwise, I turned right.

  ===

  The last stop the train made before intercity travel was right at the edge of town, and so I stepped out onto the empty platform to look out into a sprawling nothing before me. The point of no return came when the doors hissed shut and I found myself standing there alone, looking out into the fields before me.

  To the north, I could spot the orchards in neat rows stretching to the northeast where it’d meet the roads that led in and out of town. To the south, there were only empty plains, continuing well past the horizon.

  I could spot the train curving slightly eastward, toward Onandel Heights. It wasn’t going to come back for me.

  Shuffling to the edge of the platform, I peeked over to the ground, a few feet below me. There was a rudimentary pathway that’d been made by feet, likely people cutting through the grass from the parking lot several meters away. I turned my gaze outwards again, scanning the area when I caught a curious sight.

  It was a truck - an older model with a worn out paint job and spots of rust between the panels. It sat solemnly in the grass away from the lot, with a single occupant.

  It wouldn’t take a scholar to guess that it was a human, even from this distance. They were thrashing about in their seat, hair whipping to and fro. I could hear the faint thump of music, though I couldn’t make anything else out besides the bass-y tones.

  I couldn’t imagine what a human would be doing here, on their own and near the edge of city limits. I tilted my head in curiosity before I slipped under the railing of the platform and dropped to the ground below.

  The music grew louder as I stepped closer, and the features of the occupant could be more easily discerned.

  They had long, dark hair, and grasped at the wheel of the truck with bony claws as they jerked their head back and forth to the rhythm of the music. Violent, guttural music.

  I couldn’t make out the lyrics, but it was definitely not music from any non-predatory artist, and sounded unlike anything else I’d ever heard. Distorted strings and tinny percussion created an ear-splitting chorus as a human howled over the noise in such an aggressive growl that I felt a chill run down to the tip of my tail just hearing it.

  The human didn’t seem to have noticed me nearing him and I finally stood next to the truck, now able to make out the lyrics.

  “Get up, come on, get down with the sickness

  Get up, come on, get down with the sickness

  Get up, come on, get down with the sickness

  Open up your hate, and let it flow into me”

  I stood next to the human thrashing about in the car, worried about the consequences of interrupting this strange ritual of theirs. Unfortunately, I didn’t need to take the initiative, as they seemed to have noticed someone standing next to them. I flinched as they jumped in their seat, followed by a loud thump as their head hit the roof.

  They writhed in pain for a moment before reaching for the audio system and turning the dial down to an almost inaudible level. Reaching for the door, they slowly lowered the window until there remained no barrier between me and them; nothing to stop them if they were displeased with my presence.

  “Yes?” they asked in a rumbling tone.

  I stood still, frozen in place as the strange human glanced me over. I, too, got a better look of their features, and could say with certainty that it wasn’t Richard. Compared to Crow, this human was almost emaciated in form, with stick-thin arms and bony cheeks that peeked out from the shoulder-length mane, revealing a dark-brown pair of eyes. His mouth hung open partially, and I got a good look at their pearly white, sharp teeth.

  “I…”

  “You come here to talk shit? Well, have your laugh, man, we’re still around, and we’re here to stay. So why don’t you take those funny little words you’re gonna say, roll ‘em up sideways, and stick ‘em up your fuzzy little—”

  “Crow.”

  He paused with his lips hung on the last word he was going to say, eye twitching. “Crow?”

  “Richard. Crow.”

  He sniffed and took a look around, probably assuming I had others nearby. “What about him?”

  “I want to see him. Do you know him?”

  The human pursed his lips and tilted his head slightly.

  “Could be that I do. What do you want with him?”

  “We’re associates. Can you take me to him?”

  “Why would I let an alien in my vehicle? So you can call the tin-hats on me and get me a nice, charred complexion?”

  “I suppose I can just walk…”

  I turned, unwilling to engage further with the suspicious predator. I managed to get a bit of distance before I heard him call from behind, “Stop.”

  I stopped.

  “You wanna meet Crow, that’s your prerogative. You can hop in the passenger seat and we’ll be off as soon as my homies get back with the groceries.”

  A wave of relief came over me as I knew I’d not have to walk all the way back home. I obeyed the predator’s demands, skirting around the front of the truck and popping open the door opposite of him to hop in. “Name’s Luka, by the way.”

  “Mikey. Or Michael. But most people call me Mikey.”

  “What is a ‘homie’ anyway? That, like, a word for the humans at the shelter?”

  “Oh, naw. I mean, I did meet them at the shelter, but it’s just a word for your closest buddies, y’know?”

  My heart skipped a beat. More humans.

  The hairs on my arms stood on end and I tucked them under my armpits to hide that fact; you couldn’t be too certain if a predator could smell your fear, but they’d certainly see it.

  “Your friends. Right.”

  “Don’t you worry, Luka, me and my boys are the most harmless motherfuckers on the planet… when we’re sober.”

  We stared at each other for a moment.

  “Are you sober now?”

  “Venlil drinking laws are much more lax than on Earth.” He didn’t elaborate, save for his lips separating into that horrendous signature snarl the humans on the television sported.

  With that, I pinned my back against the woven cushion of the truck, and as close to the door as I could manage.

  Richard, I hope this visit is worth it.