by Aaron Oster
“What do you think the city will be like?” he asked, turning to Aika instead.
“I don’t know,” Aika snapped. “Why don’t you just ask Ferry?” She stalked away then to march beside Hermit, leaving Roy feeling confused and offended.
“I don’t know anything about cities,” Ferry said. “Why would she tell you to ask me?”
“I don’t know,” Roy replied with a sigh, feeling his shoulders slump.
“Don’t be upset,” Ferry said, moving closer to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. “I can try to tell you about cities. Maybe if I guess enough, I can get some things right.”
“That’s okay, Ferry,” Roy said. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“But I do worry, Roy,” Ferry said, pulling him tighter into her side. “You’re upset, and Aika doesn’t like me anymore. Did I make a mistake by not staying in my old shape? I just thought everyone would like me more if I looked more human.”
“No, you didn’t make a mistake,” Roy replied. “And no matter what shape you choose, I’ll always like you the same.”
Ferry squeezed him just a bit tighter, letting out a small squeak of happiness, before thankfully releasing him. Roy was sure that had she squeezed any tighter, she might have broken something important. He noticed Aika shooting the two of them a glare over her shoulder, but she quickly turned around once she realized that he’d spotted her.
Before he had time to be troubled by this, the tunnel came to an end and they walked into the city proper.
“Oh, wow!” Ferry exclaimed, letting out a loud gasp. “This place is amazing!”
11
Roy stared around at the massive open courtyard that greeted them upon exiting the tunnel. Turning both right and left, he could see thousands of people streaming into the city, all moving off towards various branching paths. Tall buildings surrounded the courtyard, some towering as much as five or six hundred feet into the air, casting long shadows over the courtyard.
Massive panes of glass coated at least half of the buildings, giving everyone below a clear view inside. Never before had Roy seen buildings on this massive scale, nor could he imagine what purpose they might serve.
“This way,” Hermit called above the noise of the crowds. “And stick close to me. You don’t want to get separated.”
They then began to push through the mass of bodies, carts, animals, and Beasts. They followed closely behind Hermit, who was heading for the centermost path leading out of the courtyard. Everywhere Roy looked, he saw the blue and gold colors of the Itachi, interspersed with every other color imaginable. The other colored robes belonged to visitors. They were mainly merchants, but he could see several groups surrounded by official-looking escorts.
“Who are they?” he asked, moving closer to Hermit.
The man sighed, clearly not wishing to answer more questions, but thankfully, obliged after another few seconds.
“They could be visiting diplomats, Martial Artists from branch families, arranged outings from one of the more important families, or just someone wealthy who wants to look important.”
“Wait, how big is the main branch anyway?” Roy asked. “I didn’t realize that there were that many living here.”
“There aren’t,” Hermit replied. “The main branch consisted of ten families when I was here last, each with a representative on the Sovereign’s Council. They speak for all the branch families within the city, of which there are several thousand.”
“But I thought this was the city of the main branch,” Roy said.
“It is,” Hermit replied. “But that doesn’t mean that regular branch families can’t live here.”
“So, exactly how large are the main families?”
“I don’t know. As I said, it’s been a while since I’ve been here.”
“Well, how large were they when you left?”
“The ten main branches had a total of ninety-one members when I left,” Hermit said, starting to sound a little annoyed.
Roy decided to change the subject then. There were so many things to ask about, so he chose a topic that he hoped wouldn’t annoy Hermit too much.
“What are those buildings for?” he asked, gesturing around them.
“For workers,” Hermit replied.
“What kind of workers?”
“All kinds.”
“Why would they make the buildings so tall?”
“Because it takes up less space.”
“Why make them out of…”
“Do you ever shut up?” Aika exploded, whirling on him.
Roy started as his normally chipper and happy friend practically screamed in his face. Before he could say or do anything, she turned back around, stalking away into the crowd.
“Great. Just what I need,” Hermit muttered. “Teenage drama.”
“Why did Aika just yell at you?” Ferry asked, leaning down over his shoulder and watching the girl stalk towards the center road with Hermit sticking close behind.
“I don’t know,” Roy said, feeling an odd sensation in the pit of his stomach.
Whatever was wrong, he knew he didn’t like it. All his life, people had been treating him badly, so it wasn’t like he was unused to harsh words or criticism. But it was the fact that it had been Aika who’d yelled at him that bothered him. She’d always been nice, friendly, and always advocated for him. For her to suddenly turn on him like this was very unlike her, especially since she was always so happy and easygoing.
“You’re sad,” Ferry said, placing both hands on his shoulders as he started walking again.
“Wouldn’t you be if your friend yelled at you?”
“But you would never yell at me, Roy,” Ferry said in a sure voice. “You’re way too nice.”
“I’m glad you think so,” he said, keeping Hermit within sight, but hanging back somewhat.
He felt Ferry’s hands squeeze down lightly on his shoulders, trying to comfort him. She only succeeded somewhat, and Roy found that he missed the way she would have snuggled up to him had she still been in her more bestial form. Maybe it was Ferry that was bothering Aika, though he didn’t know why she was taking it out on him. It wasn’t as though Ferry had really changed all that much.
Sure, she looked different and was far more intelligent, but she was still the same Ferry under it all. He peered over his shoulder and saw the ferret’s head swiveling from side to side, her small nose twitching as she smelled the air around them. Her small black eyes were practically shining with curiosity and wonder. The more he watched her, the better he found he felt. For her, everything here was new. It was all new to him as well, but not quite in the same way.
She was viewing all this for the first time with real intelligence. She could now understand a lot more and process information better, and although she still acted much the same, there were still some very distinct differences in her behavior. The old Ferry would have been bouncing around excitedly, and while she was bouncing from foot to foot, one couldn’t exactly say that it was the same.
Ferry used to act just like a regular Beast. She’d had some intelligence, but her overall mannerisms were distinctly more human. So maybe he was in the wrong here in thinking she was still the same. Perhaps that was why Aika was so upset because she could see the differences and didn’t like them. Maybe she’d preferred it when Ferry acted like an excited dog, rather than as an excited oversized child.
As they left the main courtyard and entered into the busy road, Roy noticed Ferry doing something odd. She sniffed once or twice, let out a light squeak, then pulled Roy to one side and tried to duck down behind him. This was somewhat odd, as even though Roy was tall by the standards of humans, Ferry was a good foot-and-a-half taller.
“What are you doing?” Roy asked, trying to look behind him.
“Don’t move!” Ferry said in a panicked voice. “He’ll see me!”
“Who will see you?” Roy asked, immediately alert. “Are you in danger?”
“Him,” Fer
ry said, pointing a shaky finger over his shoulder, before quickly dropping it.
Roy’s eyes scanned over the crowd in the direction she was pointing, until his eyes landed on a six-and-a-half-foot tall bearlike creature with far more human features than Ferry. The only features that were bear-like at all were the rounded ears, black nose, and the powerful build of his body. As he moved through the crowd, Roy caught a glimpse of a furry chest through his open-fronted robes and a small line of fur tracing the man’s arms.
“Why are you hiding from him?” Roy asked, now confused. “Do you know him from somewhere?”
“No,” Ferry said, finally allowing Roy to turn to her once the bear-man had passed.
She had her hands over her face, though she was clearly peering through her fingers at the bear-man’s back.
“Then what’s bothering you?”
“He…smelled really nice,” Ferry said, the fur on her face showing two patches of darkened color. “My stomach feels all fluttery, and my face is all hot. Is something wrong with me?”
Roy stared at her for a few seconds incredulously, before understanding finally hit him. While he thought he knew, he wanted to check with Geon before answering.
“Geon, is Ferry feeling attraction towards that bear-man that just passed?”
“It’s possible,” Geon replied.
“How old is she?” Roy wondered as Ferry continued following the bear-man with her eyes.
“Technically, she’s as old as I am. Her body can experience everything a full-grown adult can. But from a mental standpoint, I’d say she’s maybe ten or eleven by human standards.”
“Great,” Roy said with a mental sigh. “Now I have to explain to her why she feels the way she does. How the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“Not my problem,” Geon said. “But you’d better tell her the truth. Don’t go damaging her mental growth because your human emotions make you uncomfortable.”
“What’s the holdup? Why are you just standing there!?”
Roy turned as Aika came stalking back, Hermit on her heels. Ferry, unsurprisingly, was still watching the bear-man as he vanished into the crowd and didn’t even pay the two of them any heed.
“I think Ferry might just have experienced a…um…” Roy tried to think of a tactful way to say it, but after Aika’s eyes narrowed even further, he decided to just spit it out.
“She smelled a passing bear-man and got really embarrassed. I think she may be experiencing attraction for the first time in her new form, and I don’t really know how to explain that to her.”
For animals, there were no feelings of attraction as far as he knew, nor did they feel embarrassment or shame. When they wanted to mate, they simply did. Some animal species would stay together for a bit, but the male would normally leave after a while, wandering off while the female raised their young. Roy couldn’t be sure if Ferry ever had had any kids, though judging by the fact that she’d been a Dungeon Guardian up until a year ago, chances were that she hadn’t. How did one go about explaining that?
Aika’s entire demeanor seemed to change all at once. The anger melted from her face as she looked between Ferry and the bear-man, who disappeared from view after another few seconds. Then, much to Roy’s shock, she pushed past him and placed a hand on Ferry’s shoulder. This was only possible because the ferret was still crouched, as though she were trying to hide.
“Hey, Ferry. I hear you’re feeling funny after seeing that handsome bear-man walk by. How about we have a little talk, and I can explain everything to you?”
Ferry turned at the sound of her voice and then gave Roy a confused look.
“Why is she offering to talk to me now?” she asked, her cheeks still containing the same rosy hue.
“I think Aika can explain what you’re feeling better than I can,” Roy said carefully.
“Yes, I can,” Aika said, giving the ferret a warm smile. “I am a girl, after all, and we know things that boys couldn’t possibly understand.”
Ferry looked uncertain, but Roy gave her a reassuring nod. Ferry took Aika’s outstretched hand in her own much larger one and got back to her feet.
“Stay close,” Aika said. “You know, just in case she needs to ask any questions. But not too close,” she warned. “We can’t have you overhearing our private conversation.”
“Are you all quite finished with all this foolishness?” Hermit asked, annoyance tinging his voice. “Because if not, I’m just going to leave you here.”
“Yes, I think we are,” Aika said, giving everyone a beaming smile. “Let’s go.”
That said, she took Ferry’s hand in her own and began walking down the road once again, chatting animatedly.
“Can you explain to me what just happened?” Roy asked, feeling very confused.
“I can,” Hermit said. “But you won’t learn any lessons if I do. Now, come on. The city is very large, and we’ve still got a lot of distance to cover.”
Roy just let out a sigh, then followed the man as he headed after the pair of women, one chatting animatedly and the other listening in rapt attention.
12
Hermit walked through the city where he’d grown up, hardly recognizing the place from his youth. Much had changed in his time away. The walls had been reinforced, the city was over ten times as large, and the number of people had skyrocketed. He was only able to find his way around due to the cluster of higher-powered Cores near the center of the city.
He could feel one source of power that was far greater than the others and knew that it belonged to his sister. Not even a hint of his power lingered in the air of his brother. One might wonder how he could sense his sister and not the other way around. The answer to that was quite simple.
Almost no one had the ability to sense the Cores of those who suppressed them. Hermit was different, having long ago acquired the technique. He had a feeling that it had more to do with his own Core than any specialty on his part, not that he told anyone about it. No one other than his immediate family knew of his unique situation, and aside from the Core in his chest, not a soul knew he could sense those with suppressed Cores.
Most Martial Artists believed that a show of strength was important and allowed their power to blaze forth. This included some of those in the main family. He could sense them now, the few who allowed everyone to feel their strength. There were two Red-Belts, closer to Base than Gold, and a single Purple-Belt. All the rest were muted, letting him know that they were suppressing their power.
The fact that he could sense all ten signatures in the same place meant not only that this was very obviously the main family’s compound, but that they were all currently in a meeting. That was good, as it meant that he wouldn’t need to make more than one introduction to the main family heads. Many of them wouldn’t even know him, as he’d left when the older generation was still in charge.
The fact that many of them were under Gold-Belt, and that they didn’t have a single Brown-Belt among them, meant that they were almost all either new or had replaced their relatives after he’d left. There was one other signature he recognized, but it was more muted than the rest. This, Hermit knew, was a sign of age rather than a more masterful suppression of one’s Core, but it would be good to have someone besides his sister there to recognize him.
His thoughts were interrupted by a peal of laughter from up ahead, and he saw Aika give Ferry a pat on the back.
He’d been worried that the girl would never work out her differences and that he’d have to step in. It had been extremely obvious to him from the moment Aika had seen Ferry snuggled next to Roy, that she’d been jealous. She clearly liked him as more than just a friend, but neither of them were experienced enough to admit as much.
Roy was a bit harder to read, as his upbringing lent itself to him keeping most of his reactions muted or internal. He’d have some serious lasting damage from that, though the last few months had seen him open up a bit more. Even so, he was fairly certain that Roy felt the same way,
not that Aika was sensitive enough to pick up on it
She’d simmered in jealousy all day as she’d watched the two of them and was behaving like a petty child instead of an adult. Although she was almost twenty years old, she’d blown up at Roy a few times, and Hermit had wondered if she might even go so far as striking him if she thought that Ferry was making a move on Roy.
Clearly, Aika didn’t deal well with things like this, nor did she realize that no matter how womanly Ferry appeared, she’d never feel the same sort of attraction to Roy as Aika did. Ferry was a Beast, and Beasts were not attracted to humans in the way Aika feared. Love was irrational, though, and with the lack of understanding came jealousy and anger.
It was only when Aika had discovered that Ferry was feeling attraction to a complete stranger, just because of his scent, that she finally started to grasp that Ferry wasn’t trying to steal Roy away from her. In every sense of the word, Ferry was still a Beast. That meant she had a different way of thinking, one that would never change, no matter how long she lived. If anyone was the victim here, it was Roy, as he was clearly confused as to why Aika had been treating him so badly, only to turn a complete one-eighty and act as though none of it had ever happened.
Hermit had confidence that Roy would figure it out eventually. He was a smart boy, and once he put two and two together, he might start noticing other things in Aika’s behavior. Perhaps the two of them might even end up together.
“I still have a hard time understanding you humans, even after all our time together,” the Core said.
Clearly, his thoughts were leaking through again, but Hermit didn’t even bother trying to seal the connection. His inner world was in turmoil due to his impending visit with his family, and right now, he could use the support of his oldest ally.
“Most humans never understand each other either, so you’re definitely not alone,” he replied.
He could see the road shifting up ahead as a marketplace came into view. It would be easy to get lost there, so he’d have to have his pupils stick close to him. He was sure that they were nearing the compound by now. Even from here, he could make out the slight shimmer in the air that signaled warding scripts. Getting into the compound might not be too difficult if he forced his way in, but if he wanted to get inside without making a ruckus, it was going to be far more difficult.
