Remnant Tails

by Fey Truet

“Not until you perform your duties as master! There are things I can’t do, Cross, and there are things you have to, and one of those involves following your responsibilities. Emare hasn’t a choice in all this, and she shouldn’t suffer for your irresolution.”

  Wren pulled his ear even harder.

  “Fine! Fine! I concede,” he cried.

  Cross glared at me, and now I was baffled again.

  I sighed.

  This couldn’t possibly be the old man who saved me all those years ago. He was a child. People didn’t simply grow younger, and to grow so much younger in such a short span of time wasn’t viable. It was more ridiculous than the fact that I wasn’t merely a girl anymore.

  I considered it and sighed.

  This is all ridiculous. I’m betting I’d have suffered a lesser fate if I would’ve stayed waiting for my brother. This child is a major collapse from the man I always thought he was.

  Wren’s face turned terribly red as if someone had spoken her most dreaded secret and Sere snickered. I also heard a few gasps from those up on the balcony.

  It was then that I remembered that I had no privacy in my own head, and even then I only sighed again.

  Why should I even care anymore!

  “What!” the poor little child squeaked.

  The former girl he left for dead had hurt his arm and now his feelings.

  Do my own thoughts warrant another attack from that demon? Am I not entitled to my own opinion?

  “I am no demon, child! If anything, you are! I am The Shatterer. The Stopper of Worlds, The Crusader of Lost Shadows! I’ve battled gods and held The End at bay and—”

  Took my soul and cried like a baby after I bit you. And laughed at my death so unlike a little child or stopper of gods. I don’t care anymore. Can you just put me out of my misery? I’m tired of your unsubstantiated caterwauling.

  It was so disheartening.

  I’ve longed for little in my life but to thank the man who helped me all those years ago, and now my image of him was forever tarnished because he was a whelp barely out of diapers.

  I no longer had a brother.

  I was no longer human.

  I no longer had a reason to live.

  The little boy stomped over to me and snatched the sack I was trapped in away from Sere who was having an amused fit.

  “Measly brat! You think you know of misery? Then maybe I considered death for you too soon! What should I do with you! You are mine after all. I wonder if you’d find it satisfactory to stay here and listen to my senseless caterwauling for all eternity without the right to cover your ears or ever earn back your freedom. Maybe then you’ll understand misery.”

  I considered it and shrugged, and he shook me with a growl.

  “I know things, You Evil Little Beast, that’d make misery seem like a paltry pastime in an endless purgatory! I’m betting you want to be in my good graces now! Well, don’t you! Well, you know what! You’re too inadequate to keep around! What are you laughing at!”

  Sere had all but drowned in the flood he rolled in, wracked with laughter.

  “You’re so pathetic! Even your familiars are looking down on you. Oh, how far you’ve fallen, oh, Stopper of Worlds.”

  That even earned a small giggle from Vidale and Wren.

  I didn’t see what was so funny.

  “Geto Sem Siesto!!!” Cross pronounced swiftly then grimaced and Sere disappeared.

  Wren made an offended sound, calling her “master’s” name.

  “Anyone else find this dilemma amusing?” Everyone quieted. “Good.”

  Cross yanked my book pendant.

  I took it that he still took offense with me.

  I sighed.

  “Now! As for you, Emare! I never liked you. Humans should fear that which takes form completely unexpected. You never have. You’ve never feared death or even pitied it. You, who fears the expected, I should’ve never helped you.”

  Now I was reminded of the old man who helped me. It was strange how his entire demeanor had changed so fast.

  “PAY ATTENTION!” he shook me.

  “In the year of my anniversary you asked me for help and I, despite my reluctance to do so, I gave it to you. Now you bite the hand that feeds you. Emare. 6^99(3. You are sentenced to Madra Hinat. I don’t want to see you unless summoned. I probably won’t.”

  ~~~

  I gasped and before a blink of an eye Cross was no longer in front of me.

  “Oh, Mommy! Look at the kitty!”

  I turned and saw that it was daylight.

  People dawdled on the streets talking to one body or another or walked swiftly past, ignoring everything.

  The cloth that restrained me completely disappeared.

  The air smelled fishy.

  I was in no place familiar.

  “Yeow!” I squeaked when fragile little noodles scooped me up from my back and carried me past a smiling girl in pink over to a woman dressed in the most peculiar way.

  She wore a hat shaped like an ox’s horns but looked like a pin cushion. Her dress, all the woman’s dresses, were like boring ball gowns, tight around the waist but poofy everywhere else, and made with dull washed out colors you could always get for cheap like grey or faint—any color that was not bright. They all wore sashes, this woman’s sash was light blue, and they all wore wincing heels.

  My ears folded back at their sacrificial style and sore feet. Then I turned and saw a huge smile on a small healthy face, and caught a whiff of the sweetest smell I had ever got in my life.

  A boy?

  “Mommy! Can we keep the kitty? Please? He likes me? Mommy? Mommy!”

  “Kyle, honey, Mommy needs a moment to—Oh, my God!”

  Kyle’s mother threw down all she held, except for a power cord, and ran over to us.

  “Kyle put that down!” she shrieked, and I felt the tear-burning lash of her whip on my hind leg and tails.

  She rose to swing again, and in an act of desperation I struck the boy, taking care not to use my claws, and landed in a heap on my tail.

  “Shoo, Shoo!” another woman threatened with a broom.

  I tried to run in another direction, but a man in a suit nearly missed me with a shoe.

  I turned and there was a crowd forming around me with angry faces.

  “It’s a demon!” “Look at those tails!” “Capture it!” “Keep it away from the children! Kill it! Kill it!”

  I was at a lost.

  Then a bold soul snatched me up by the tails, and I became ever helpless.

  “Got it!” the man cheered. “Reckon I can fetch a pretty price on this demy?”

  Just as soon as the man grabbed me he let go, and I fell ungraciously to the ground once more.

  What fell next to me was a cracked glass elephant that smelled too compelling to leave behind. I grabbed it, it clinking against my teeth, and darted up the broom the woman held with poise and agility I didn’t know I had.

  I jumped over the crowd in one fell leap.

  When I hit the ground, I ran, stumbling a bit, losing the rhythm of my legs, but desperation got the better of me and I quickly caught the pattern again.

  I ran and ran, and darted through gates, and past barking dogs that seemed to appear from out of thin air, and ran some more until I came to an orchard surrounded by trees.

  I ran up the trunk of one and finally allowed myself a breath and collapsed on my leg that was too injured to carry on.

  I looked back at my leg and saw that it bled slightly from a gash in my fur that revealed a red welt. That and the burn together did me no justice. My wet fur offered me no warmth from the cold breeze. I shivered, staring at the Cracked Glass Elephant.

  All I could think of was my brother.

  Curious and Quaint

  It was warm when I next awoke.

  The tugging on my tail was not the wake-up call I was looking for.

  I looked behind me to see red makeshift bandages and a fluffy haired girl playing with my tail. She looked up a
t me and then smiled.

  “Good Morning,” she said brightly. “I see you’re finally up. Oh, splendid! Wait here for a moment, okay?”

  Just as soon as I made out her bright brown hair had it all disappeared?

  As for me, I felt horrible. The pain from my burn seemed to double since yesterday.

  I wondered how long I’ve been here if I didn’t wake up when I was kidnapped.

  It was all so unfortunate.

  I heard the quick taps of light feet and in popped the girl where the door was missing. Now that I could see better, I saw her glowing young expression, tired, but full of hope. She was a little younger than Pohlin, but from the dirt on her face and the state of her clothes, she probably had a long life ahead of her.

  But in front of her now she held a small piece of bread and a small bottle of milk.

  She ran in front of the bed I sat on and crouched down, setting a bowl right in front of me. She poured the milk in, and I felt my stomach rumble in hunger.

  “Just in the nick of time, huh?” she said, pushing the bowl closer.

  I shrugged and pulled myself up to eat like I had done so many times before, only this time I wasn’t human.

  It was strange not drinking from a cup. As well as hard having a nose so close to my mouth. It became vexing figuring out the best way to drink this milk without drowning in it while still getting my share.

  Another thing Scarlet made look easy.

  The girl laughed as I sneezed milk out of my nose or tried to gulp as much milk as I could.

  After a lot of frustrating, and sometimes dangerous experimentation, I found out that my new tongue was the best instrument for drinking after all. Where my old tongue was thick and flabby, this one flexed and curved to form a small little bowl that carried liquid to my mouth. It wasn’t the best or quickest way to drink, but it worked.

  I sat there for a long time trying to concentrate on drinking the milk, but it was unnerving how my patron kept staring at me. I could sense it. After a long while, I risked a peek at her.

  She was staring.

  “I saw what they did to you yesterday,” she finally said. “In town. Those people are mean. They’re always mean. I hate them.”

  I stopped and looked up at her. For a moment her face matched her words, but when she saw me staring she smiled again and rested her head on her arms and hair, watching me again.

  I went back to drinking.

  “You have really pretty eyes. One is green and the other is brown. Are you a… demon?” she whispered that last word.

  I stopped drinking again and looked up at her.

  Am I a demon?

  The girl took my glancing at her as a yes and jumped up.

  “I knew it! You are too pretty not to be,” she burst out.

  I sighed and went back to drinking. I’d never have been so brave to actively rescue a creature I thought to be a demon at her age no matter how pretty.

  “You know I saved you, right?” she said after a silent moment. “Twice actually.”

  She pulled the glass elephant off a nightstand and I risked a glance at it. “I found this in the trash and lopped it at Finrick’s huge head. You should have seen the way he cried, but I guess you were busy running for your life, huh? It’s a good thing I followed ya, huh? Mama says you were in a bad way, but that you might also grant my wish. Do you grant wishes?”

  I didn’t look at her.

  I wasn’t that type of demon if that be my new title.

  I heard the girl pout.

  I lifted my nose a little at her scent. Like the boy from yesterday, she smelled sweet. Like ambrosia with a peculiar twist of ripe cherries. Such a good smell I almost tasted it.

  “I’ll tell you my wish. Then maybe you’ll grant it. You see, Papa works in the High Arcs with the other men, but he doesn’t make a lot of money. So he can only send us very little, but for him, even that is a lot.”

  The girl looked down at the admission as if she were ashamed, but I couldn’t understand how having a working father, even poor, was something to be ashamed of. I was never ashamed of mine.

  The girl cheered up.

  “Soo. I want him to come home. I want him to quit working there and come home. There is plenty of work in the fields, and, oh, would it make Mama happy. We haven’t seen him in an awfully long time.”

  The girl tried to pet me and I ducked away.

  I didn’t know what to think of her predicament except that everyone had one.

  She was a little girl who longed for her father. Even I was guilty of that.

  Now she was jumping out of her skin. She grabbed the bowl of milk, still with a little left at the bottom, and jumped up.

  “My name is Dory. Mama says you can stay for a while if you want? But only because she wants no ill-will from the spirits. I think it’s because she doesn’t want you to slaughter the townspeople like the Midnight Lady did all those years ago. But truth be told, I wouldn’t mind.”

  “Doreen Taya Denbacher! You watch your mouth this instant!” I heard a woman shout from another room. The girl flinched and ran out shouting, “But, Mama!”

  I looked around the room. It was very unique. And conservative. The bed, the dresser, and all the furniture save for the lamp were all handmade from trees and thick branches. The dresser still looked like the trunk of a tree. The mattress I lay on had no springs and smelled like cherries and goose.

  I let myself sink into it more, listening to the creaks and groans of the old house. It was nothing like home, but it was still comforting.

  I sighed and stood up, my back complaining at the movement.

  I had to figure out where I was because that Cross was as incompetent as he was evil. I was right to think of him as a demon even though he denied it up and down. How could I ever think him my savior? All he did was curse me to a fruitless fate to punish me for reasons I didn’t understand.

  Very immature, Cross, you vile demon.

  I heard a creak from the bed and looked back to where two branches crossed to make the bed end. I started to shrug, but the bed gave an abrupt lurch and I jumped, following good instinct. I turned to the bed and saw that it had grown teeth and the two halves had snapped shut like the mouth of a caiman.

  The bed quivered and shook and returned to a bed and I staggered back into the dresser.

  He heard that from even here?

  He was a dangerous demon. One I should be wary of with that message.

  I looked around and spotted the glass elephant with the cracked trunk.

  I don’t believe that man was heavy enough to receive a blow from that and stand, meaning that girl, Dory, would’ve suffered if she had been found out. I’m sure she risked a lot to save me.

  I sighed.

  I could keep insulting my “benefactor” as I once called him, but I’m sure I couldn’t do so for long without provoking his true wrath. It’d do no one any good if I got myself killed.

  I went out the doorway and saw a gray bare wood floor, two other closed doors, high ceilings, and a narrow turn almost invisible in the darker hall.

  I went around the corner and saw a larger hall and a flight of stairs with a dilapidated rail. I ran down them, feeling where a few steps might fall through and made a sharp turn through another doorway.

  I slowed down in a nicer family room furnished with a brown couch and an older V.B.

  Even my family never had a viewing box.

  Another thing I saw that was rare was a fireplace with a mantle above it. From here I could see the unlit candles and the flowers that garnished the shelf. Another thing they had my family never did were pictures.

  I let my curiosity get the better of me and went in front of the fireplace, but sat down when I realized I couldn’t see the pictures from here or from afar. I shook my head and looked up at the mantle. It was very high up, but I had jumped much higher to avoid the demon’s fireballs and the people in town.

  I stood up and positioned this body to jump. I pushed hard with my
hind legs, feeling a pinch, and though I jumped, it was only straight up. I flailed in the air and landed ungraciously in a heap on the floor, upsetting my burn.

  Well, that was heroic.

  I got up and tried again. This time I pushed my body towards the mantle and…clunk! My head slammed into the shelf of the mantle and I fell again, this time with a head knot.

  I whined quietly at the pain and only looked up again when it subsided. I whined again at the mantle.

  Why does my soul-self have to be so small?

  I jumped again, not putting so much force into it and made it half way onto the shelf.

  I dug my fore-claws into the shelf but it was made of harder stuff and I slipped slowly, unable to push myself forward with my hind legs. I snagged a bush of flowers and dragged them all down with me along with a picture, landing painfully on my tail.

  Ouch.

  The picture’s leg clapped down, grabbing my attention.

  I got up and carefully walked around it.

  Finally, I put a paw under it and lifted it, trying to get a look at what lied underneath. Then I finally flipped it over.

  The picture was bright and vibrant, taken in a spring that must’ve been distant in time and space from here. A young man and a young woman, both with dark hair, embraced each other while two boys, identical, stuck their tongues out at a small girl with cropped brown hair.

  Dory’s family?

  They all looked so free. So happy.

  And in a field of grass and wildflowers that went on forever with the bluest sky over them.

  The woman had on pants, and the man was dressed as a clean hobo. The twins had on white shorts, each wearing a shirt either a bright blue or orange. Dory, much, much, younger, looked a lot like a boy in her white shorts and green shirt and was missing her two front teeth.

  I tried to laugh; the sound that came out was still filled with glee.

  Then I saw the mess I had made.

  Flowers and leaves were everywhere. And this picture wasn’t on the ground when I found it.

  I had to put them back.

  I gathered the flowers together and then grabbed them all in my mouth. Instead of trying to jump to the mantle, I’d jump above it, which I did. I landed, crushing against the wall, but on the mantle no less. I set the flowers down and jumped down again.