The bus driver was clearly familiar with the traffic patterns of the city, as he was able to get into the right roads with as few left turns as he could muster. He actually turned away from the destination so that he could turn right onto the busy street.
We rode down a side street, towards the highway and got on – and that’s the last I remember because I fell asleep on the ride over.
4
Chapter 4
“I told everyone this was going to happen, but did they listen to Fumnaya? No!”
“D-did you just refer to yourself in the third person?” David asked.
“Shut up and help me lift her,” Fumnaya said.
“I’m a werewolf, I can lift her all on my own.”
“Gah! I’m up, I’m up!” I said, suddenly going into a blind panic and checking the bag. It seemed to be fine, but I wouldn’t know till I looked inside and either found an egg or eggshell.
“Well, no carrying for me then!” David said as he shuffled out of the bus’s seat.
“Hey, you came in through the window, only fair that you exit through it,” I said, still able to enjoy a little joke at David’s expense.
He matched my smile and then some. He backed up into the seat that was across from the window, leapt forwards, transforming into a wolf, before turning and jumping out of it as an upside-down wolf. He continued the spin outside and landed on all four legs at the same time.
“Damn.”
“How’d he do that? There’s no way that wolf form fits through that small window!” Fumnaya said, going up to the window.
“David probably sucked in his gut, which made getting in so difficult,” Silvia said, shrugging.
“Woof!” David called from outside.
Fumnaya and I turned to Silvia. “What? Oh right, he said he didn’t have a gut, but it was in that tone of voice where you know you have it, but you’re still denying it.”
Fumnaya and I looked at each other and shrugged. “We’ll take your word for it,” I said, as I slowly rose, cradling the backpack.
I think Silvia and Gavin noticed since they seemed to look at the bag with suspicion.
Miriam, who’d been at the front of the bus for the ride, was handing people room keys and numbers. We walked up and she gave me a room key. It was long and old-looking like the locks would be those you see in medieval settings, with the comically oversized keys. The key was also comically oversized, and you could see how the teeth looked from a long-distance away.
“Old locks. This home has been in use for a while, but don’t worry – other than the doors, most things have been updated…”
“Why haven’t the doors been updated?” I asked.
“Hard to update something that’s magically enchanted to not want to break or get taken off its hinges. Blame older Glavonians’ willingness to experiment with magic,” Miriam said.
Had Leonardo been there, I’m sure she’d have been given a glare, but as it stood, she was the only member of the administration on this trip.
She walked around to the side with all the gear along with us. “Okay, now remember, our community center is considered the least capable one, so while normally someone like me would be saying behave yourselves so you don’t give us a bad name, I’m saying don’t give them ammunition.” She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
“Yikes, are we really the worst community center?” I asked everyone around me, as I set the bag on the ground.
“We were assembled quickly to cover an area, and before they could find a good group to help balance us out, another portal popped up and they went there instead. We get by, thanks in no small part to you and Anderson,” Gavin explained calmly.
“Anderson can sometimes guard the portal all by himself and seems to be able to live off the mushrooms that grow there naturally,” David said, shrugging.
“One man guarding team, interesting, but it makes sense…” I called forth the image of him slaying the dragon in my mind.
It was knocked over, sure, but anything but helpless, and he ended it with one swing. If he could do that to dragons, what possible entity could stand against him?
“Alright, bring your gear into the manor and THEN you can head to the pool,” Miriam said.
Everyone grabbed their stuff and started walking. I headed over to where the key told me to go. Inside the manor was rustic wooden flooring, with various rugs of what I could only assume to be several thousand thread count fabrics, and animal hides.
I found it rather disturbing that the one at the front door was of a wolf. The building had large areas dedicated to its wooden frame, which arched to the top of every floor. It reminded me a lot of a cottage, not that I’d gone to one.
My room was on the third floor, and I found it pretty quickly. There was a single bed, with some comfy-looking sheets on it, a dresser, which seemed to be finely crafted, a small rug in the center of the room and a light fixture and fan combo hanging from the center of the ceiling.
“Cozy,” I said to myself.
“Isn’t it though?” Amelia said.
I nodded, then sharply turned. “Amelia?!” I recoiled in shock.
She smiled and waved, “Hey roomy!”
Amelia had changed her usual gear. She wore a puffy skirt now, and always had on an anime or Masked Kishu themed shirt. I’d assumed this was from hanging out with Genki, because one of the things she had on was a glowing illusionary tattoo of a star.
“Wait… you weren’t on this trip! Did you sneak on with Genki?!” I glared at her.
“Yes,” she said, giving me a sly smile.
I slapped my forehead and looked around. Sure enough, one of the coziest-looking blankets had two azure and white-tipped tails.
“Look, there’s only one bed, so could you not be in my room?” I said.
The normal anger had slowly disappeared. Amelia had really changed in six months, thanks to Genki’s influence, and idea of fun, no doubt.
“Awww okay,” she said, looking down, no doubt trying her best to guilt-trip me.
Genki, to my surprise, transformed back and didn’t take away the blanket; he just made it deflate, apparently hiding under it.
I put a hand on his shoulder. “Hold up a sec.” I waited for Amelia to step a bit further away.
“I need to ask a favour.”
Genki looked me in the eye and smiled. “Hii.”
“I don’t want anyone sneaking into my room.”
Genki pouted, clearly seeing what I was asking as orderly, and not chaotic.
“I may have something I’m not supposed to…” I stuck out my tongue and winked.
Genki’s eyes lit up and he smiled. “Alright!” He headed out and started to case the joint.
I meanwhile set down the suitcase and bag then opened up a drawer. “Hey Genki, mind shutting the door? Can’t have someone coming by and seeing after all!”
He shut the door, and I opened my bag. The fear that it might have cracked during the ride over was real. Luckily enough it seemed to be fine, still warm, still wrapped in dry sweaters. I took it out, along with a sweater, and placed both into an empty drawer.
“Okay, building a nest and then I can go swimming, and after that…” I looked out the window. “I should buy some dog biscuits and some bacon bits. I should have looked up what dragons eat before agreeing to this…” I said, sighing.
I put all the sweaters in my suitcase around the egg, making a lovely little cloth nest around the thing and slid it back inside the drawer.
“There we go, all settled, and a little bit of plausible deniability, combined with Genki’s… whatever, should mean that this egg is safe. Until he hatches,” I gulped.
The sudden weight of what I was really doing finally touched down on my shoulder.
There was a chance that the first thing this dragon did when he saw me was blast my face with fire, and while, yeah, I knew to stop, drop and roll, there was a chance that it killed me outright.
Then if I got past that stage,
dragons were characterized as prideful, and independent – would it be possible to get him to understand human emotions and such? He was a reptile.
I shook my head. Way too late for those questions, this was happening, and if he attacked me, well, there were a lot of wolves that liked me more than they liked a dragon.
I stood up and headed out of the room.
Genki was already a potted plant, guarding the room. “Uh, Genki, not to criticize, but I’m pretty sure everyone will be able to see your tails,” I coughed.
Genki seemed to make an attempt to slip the tails somewhere so they wouldn’t be seen, but that failed, and he popped back out into his full, human form.
“Hmmmm.” He rubbed his chin, I think in an imitation of someone he saw thinking.
“Maybe keep an eye on this place, and do something if you see someone coming in? I’m sure you snuck in here to have some fun, and I wouldn’t want to deprive you,” I said.
He smiled, and in a snap, his clothes were a pair of swim trunks and, oddly enough, a bikini top.
“Okay, no, they have bikinis in Japan and I know you know what they are used for.”
“Amelia’s plan,” he said softly.
A man of few words, due to the language barrier, but damn were they always effective.
“Amelia’s plan? Involving you in a bikini?” I blinked, trying to think of what she could be thinking.
Unfortunately, her statement of me not understanding her was now more right than ever before.
“Is it gonna affect me or my friends?” I asked, giving him a serious look.
“Laugh,” Genki said, smiling.
My worry melted away. “Okay, but make sure not to go too far, werewolves and whatnot,” I said, waving a finger in the air.
We both headed out towards the pool around the back of the property. It was about as big as the outdoor pool that I’d often go to as a kid. There were already a bunch of people there, and the pool was overflowing due to the displacement.
Over the net set up across the pool was a game of floating beach volleyball, with a game of regular volleyball at the net beside it. David, and company, were all putting on sunscreen by the deck of the pool where there were a few lounge chairs and picnic tables.
“Well, seems like the pool’s filled up…” I was a little disappointed.
“Hey, uh, why do you smell so much of Genki and Amelia?” David said, looking at me.
Silvia and Gavin turned away from the conversation almost immediately.
“Would you be surprised that the chaos team managed to sneak aboard without us noticing?”
“Yeah, kinda,” David said. “A bus is a very small, enclosed space. Stealth really isn’t that possible.” He put a hand to his chin. “Hanging off the roof might be possible, more so if they used those belts, but… I dunno, I think we would have noticed any sound up there, because Genki did say he wasn’t a ninja, and that means that he couldn’t use magic to be quiet…”
“Getting colder,” Silvia said, stiff as a board.
“Colder, huh.” David didn’t even acknowledge that Silvia had said something incriminating. “Then it’d be in the undercarriage?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Is that… giving them ammunition?” Lorenz asked, his pale body on full display for all to see.
“Whoa, Lorenz, have you been working out?” Fumnaya asked, smiling wide.
“Y-yes…?” Lorenz said, confused at this kind of question.
“She’s saying you’ve got nice abs, dude,” David said, dumbing it down.
“Oh… Thanks,” Lorenz said, blushing a little bit.
I felt my own eyes go wide at his expression – it was great to see him actually blushing at something. Cool, Lorenz had a weakness.
David turned towards the pool and looked around for a good place to dive in.
“Hey, uh, David, mind coming with me to the local convenience store?”
“Uh, why do you ask?”
“I wanna pick a few things up, and I need someone to pay, and help me bring stuff back,” I explained.
David sighed, “Alright, but only because there are so many people in the pool already!” He got up and walked into the manor to get his wallet.
“Why isn’t he wolfing in there?” I asked.
“Well, number one, he doesn’t wanna put that much effort into stuff, this is a vacation,” Lorenz said.
“And the Galvoses don’t want the manor smelling like a wolf,” Gavin added.
“Ohhh, right, that’s a thing…” I’d since forgotten that there was any smell since I worked at the place so much and pretty much did it for the smell since it reminded me of Mika.
“Y-you don’t notice? That stench is constant in the center!” Fumnaya said.
“I like it, and you know, a few nights sleeping at the place and you forget it’s there,” I said, waving a hand.
“Want me to come with you, E-lis?” Silvia asked. “I could carry some stuff, too.”
“No, you’re small enough to enjoy the pool with everyone in there, don’t mind me!”
Silvia seemed a little disappointed, but I didn’t want to bring her in on why I was buying doggy treats and other things that wouldn’t match the current lie that I was forming.
David came out with a leather wallet on a chain and rushed towards me. “Alright, you were asleep as we rode so the nearest convenience store is…” He looked towards the roads near us. “About half a kilometre that way,” he said, pointing with all his fingers.
“All the better to make us enjoy our pool time!” I said with a cheery smile.
David sighed, and we started to walk over to the store. I got the feeling that Silvia was watching us all the way over, which was something I should have addressed, but I didn’t want to just randomly head back.
“Been a while since we’ve been alone together, huh?” David said, not even close to out of earshot of the others.
“Keep shouting that to the heavens and people’ll show up.”
He chuckled and found a pocket in his trunks to put the wallet into.
“Speaking of people showing up, I think I got an idea for a business. Wanna hear it?” he asked.
“Uh, you’re seriously doing that?” I asked.
Sure, he’d taken the marketing course, though his grades hadn’t come in yet, but I didn’t think he’d actually want to do something.
“Yeah, I told ya, it’d be a nice thing for Gavin and Silvia, and you know… every werewolf wonders what they could do in the mundane world,” David said.
I wasn’t sure if he was referencing the talk I’d had with others or if it was just a thing among the werewolves.
“Okay, so what’s the idea?” I said, completely forgetting to use the time to establish why I was going to buy things.
“So, I can’t do something obviously werewolf-esque because that’d draw too much attention, but I was thinking that if we had something that could turn a picture into a shirt design, we could have a wolf-based line with fairly good production values while not doing much for it.”
“Wolf printed shirts. I mean, there’s a market for it probably, but I’m not too familiar with the fashion world…”
“Maybe we could go further, with some accessories, like, I don’t know, gauntlets or something.”
“Gauntlets?” I asked, looking him in the face for the answer.
“Gauntlets are cool. Imagine walking down the street with metal on your hands. Without even saying anything, with any kind of body language, you radiate power.”
“Oh god, I’m getting flashbacks to fezzes and bowties being cool,” I said.
“They are! Look, give me a little time, and I’ll get a suit made up with a fez, a bowtie and some gauntlets and you won’t be able to keep yourself off me!”
“Right, and all those elements won’t totally clash, not only with each other but with you as a whole!” I chuckled.
“So anyway, I’m not too sure how well people like me heading to the university, so I
may have to end the coursework, but I heard of a good resource, and I think you took it – the online marketing thing.”
“Yeah, that’s the class where the witness online manager was in and nearly found out that one, I’d deciphered their code and two, tried to kill me.”
“I heard that it was an excellent resource for actually advertising in the modern age.”
“Yeah, but I’m sure there are YouTube videos and whatnot that can teach you SEO and all that stuff… content marketing…”
“Okay, guess I’ll look for them. Hey, did your classes ever run you through actually making the business, like incorporating and whatnot?”
“Incorporating, they mentioned it was a thing, but not how to do it. You’d have to look that up on a government website,” I shrugged.
“Man, this university thing sounds worse by the moment. They didn’t even teach business students how to make a business, what are they going to do there?!”
“I mean, only the entrepreneurship people needed to know how to do it.”
“Were they taught it?” David asked as we approached the convenience store, on the edge of the suburban area just half a kilometre from the manor house.
“According to people I talked to before exams, no.”
David clenched his fists and shook them at the sky. “Why?! What are they even learning?!” he asked, sounding actually angry.
“High-level concepts that’ll change by the time they are high up enough to actually leverage the knowledge,” I shrugged.
“Anyway, what’s on the list to buy?” he asked.
“It’s vacation, and there’s no medical kibble, so we may as well have some fattening goods, like chips, candy, and maybe some bacon, unless most meals are covered already…”
“There’s a few barbecue things we brought along, but mostly it’s what people buy for breakfast. I’m sure no one’s going to object to the bacon,” David said.
We got into the convenience store, which was much like the ones near my hometown, but ever so slightly different since a merger between brands a while back. I immediately went over to the area with dog treats, not unnoticed by David.
He went to the back and got out some energy drinks, and some milk from the two walls of fridges.
The Stray Dragon : (A collage age urban fantasy with werewolves werewolf community center book 3) Page 3
