Ghost in the Cabin

Terrance was waiting for them when they arrived at the radio shed. Not deliberately: he was directing the distribution of fertilizer and timber between several ATVs to be taken up the trails to various campsites and cabins. But he took a time-out from that the moment he spotted Oro and Sarahi approaching the shed. “Not today, you two,” he spat into the flowers beside the shed, stomping over to the pair while the other groundskeepers continued loading up, “You’ve got a special assignment from the boss.” He scowled at Kitt, smiling attentively behind them. “Who’s the kid?”

“Friend of ours,” Oro answered curtly, crossing his arms over his chest, “What’s this assignment?”

Their supervisor gave him a suspicious look. “...Assuming you’re not just wasting time and money up there,” the Ram frowned, “Your job is dangerous when you actually do it. We can’t be liable for her safety, especially without a contract. That goes double for a kid. Send her to school, or leave her at home,” he instructed bluntly, apparently remembering that it was still a school-day.

“Oo!” Kitt bounced excitedly before Oro could make an answer to that, “Is now when I’m supposed to show this?” She pulled her newly issued ID from her hip pocket, declaring her a probationary citizen and showing the same age as the Runepaw twins...because that was as plausible as anything else, and at least of working age. Mr. Swordbright (and, probably, Mayor Swordbright) had pulled a few strings in the courthouse to hasten her application through the process, and excuse her lack of documents.

She was immediately disappointed by Terrance’s lack of interest, not even glancing at the card. “No,” he spat, still engaged in something like a staring contest with Oro.

“Not that it’s your business who we sub-contract,” the Rabbit smirked, “But she’s a tracker, helping us do our job better. Her contract’s with us, not you. Fair enough? Now what’s this assignment?” he repeated.

Terrance considered that for a long minute...then spat into the nearby flowers again. “You’re on loan to Grayslate Properties this weekend,” he explained without answering the first question, “Apparently they’ve been getting complaints about one of their getaway cabins being haunted. Voices from nowhere, furniture moving by itself, the whole horror-movie treatment. Seems the boss got wind of it and offered ‘our’ services...meaning yours, specifically.” The Ram thrust a business card against Oro’s chest, with a number circled in red ink.

Oro dipped a brow as he accepted the card. “What in Hell are we supposed to do about a ghost?”

“Fuck if I know,” the Ram huffed, “Same thing you do about these ‘monsters’ roaming the mountain. Make the property owners feel better. Kill it if you can. Something like that,” he spat contemptuously into the flowers again, “Get your tails over to Heckler Island for the details, and be grateful: they are paying us for your time, so you get a bonus out of it. I don’t want to hear from you again before Monday.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Oro nodded, holding his fist out to the Ram. Terrance knocked knuckles with him with hardly a thought, and turned back to barking at the groundskeepers, asking what was taking so long.

Sarah blinked at him over her shoulder, a little surprised at the gesture, as they started around to the front of the lodge and the dedicated trolly-stop beside the front vestibule. She waited to get well out of earshot before asking, “Is this a guy thing? Where you sound like you hate each other but actually don’t?”

The Rabbit shrugged. “Hell if I’d know. Kylan’s the only ‘guy-friend’ I’ve got, come to think of it. That guy just tells it like he sees it. No shit and no sugar coating. I can respect that.” Jerking his thumb over his shoulder, he added, “We’re doing a pretty shady job almost entirely on the honor-system. We’ve only done it twice so far, and since they fucking disintegrate when the job’s done, we can’t even prove it. I would be suspicious as fuck in his shoes, but he didn’t give us any grief when we reported either of those encounters. He does his job, and doesn’t get in the way of us doing ours. What’s to hate?”

The Sha'khari couldn’t argue one word of that. For all his foul temper, Terrance was affording them a great deal of trust. So was Kita, for that matter. “When you put it like that,” Sarahi admitted, “I feel kind of bad about taking a bonus for this. It’s more like we’re being given a chance to prove we actually do our work.”

Another shrug from Oro. “We’re not much different from a military in peace-time,” he noted, “From a certain perspective, it’s unneeded...but you’re really going to want it when you do need it, and on short notice. So you pay the upkeep and low-key hope it’s all a waste.”

“So your profession is uncommon in this world?” Kitt tilted her head curiously, “Priests don’t regularly exorcise ghosts and hunters don’t come across monsters in remote places?”

Sarahi turned back to her with an equally curious look. “Not usually,” she answered slowly, “They say there was a time when magic was more common, but that was hundreds of years ago. Before the witch, I’d never seen magic, much less a ghost or monster, and I don’t get the impression from our history classes that magic was ever as common as, say, electricity is today.”

“Huh,” the little Hound considered that for a moment, “Where I come from, every culture has funeral rituals specifically to prevent the dead from lingering as ghosts, and most religious orders dedicate at least one or two of its members to driving out those that show up. Unnatural creatures are always a threat, especially in places where people don’t gather often. Deep caves, tall mountains, unblazed wilderness...we go into places like that expecting to be met with teeth. Your world really must be blessed, to meet them so rarely.”

“Most of it, anyway,” Oro growled as they reached the trolly-stop, and leaned against the wall of the little wooden shelter over the bench, “My little corner, specifically, not so much. I gotta say, though, there seems to be an awful lot of it popping up around here lately: a god, a witch, another ghost now...fuck, our boss is the center of a whole legend of her own.”

“Oh, yeah,” Sarahi nodded, “I almost forgot about that. She must pay someone to keep it out of the online biographies or something. I’ve never seen it mentioned outside of Three-Peaks.”

“Your employer?” Kitt continued to tilt her head curiously, “What did she do?”

Sarahi chuckled. “Eh, it’s not so much what she did as where she came from. She’s famous as a singer, and a little less so as a philanthropist, but she and Rikko are kind of a local mystery. I don’t know the details, but the gist of the story is that they’re orphans who were found in the woods on this very mountain at a young age. No one ever figured out how they got here or where they came from, but they...well, no, I guess they can’t really be called normal people...but they seemed ordinary enough at the time, and now they tend to solve problems instead of causing them. Kita’s a major tourist draw and the financial backbone of town. I don’t know so much about Rikko.”

“I’d call him duct-tape to her grease,” Oro grunted, “I looked into him. He doesn’t make a fuss, and he doesn’t go out of his way to look for trouble, but if anything bad gets started around him, he stops it cold. Kita makes things move when they get stuck, with money or charm, and Rikko stops things from falling apart, with kindness and brute strength. People feel safer whenever they’re around. Too bad one of them is almost always out of town, and the other spends most of his time at the lodge or in the park.”

Kitt nodded, as if all that made sense to her. “Anyone who can stop you in your tracks would have that kind of effect,” she mused, “I can’t wait to meet this ‘Kita’ person. I wonder what she smells like.”

“Well, you’re going to be waiting a while to find out,” Oro shrugged, “Rikko and Lua came to that little cook-out because Kita’s out on tour again. Won’t be back until winter, at the earliest. Probably next summer.”

Sarahi tilted her head, pleasantly surprised. “And here I thought you didn’t like Rikko. You’re right, though. The first time we met him, without a clue who he was, just the sight of him was a relief,” she admitted, “We were kind of an emotional mess, and I, for one, was near to panicking. But he was calm, quiet, and didn’t ask anything besides whether we needed help. When he motioned for us to follow him...I just didn’t worry about it anymore.” She meant that as a compliment. Sarahi was nothing but grateful for that moment. But, now that she was really thinking about it for the first time since that day, something occurred to her: “I wonder what he was doing out there, anyway. We were well off the trail still, and Kita mentioned they didn’t have any idea where Organa’s circle was at the time.”

“Same thing he was doing when I ran into him, and when the Gritpaws met him,” Oro growled, “Being in the right place at the right time. That guy’s not normal. Fuck if I know what his deal is, but it’s like you said: people stay out of their business because they solve problems instead of making them. I’m down with that, and would like the same courtesy,” he grunted.

The trolly rolled up...and Sarahi had an awkward moment in which she suddenly realized she was trying to openly carry a weapon onto public transport. Fortunately for her, if the driver noticed at all, he dismissed it as an expensive hiking stick. Regardless of his thoughts, he didn’t so much as blink at it as the three got aboard and began the leisurely ride into town. Sarahi called the number on the card, to let the Grayslate representative know that they were on their way, then the three monster-hunters enjoyed a relatively relaxing ferry ride across the river to the large island splitting the river just a little inside the borders of the valley. They were the only passengers.

“Hello,” huffed the impatient Ewe that greeted them as the trio stepped off the ferry, “You must be the Ironhearts. I’m...wait,” she paused, arching a brow at Sarahi as the woman stepped up beside Oro, “You’re Absol and Shadhia’s girl, aren’t you? Swordbright?”

Sarahi tilted her head. “That’s right. You know Mom and Dad?”

“Used to go to temple together,” she answered quickly, looking the Sha'khari over, “You wouldn’t remember. Goodness, you got big,” she chuckled, opening the door to her car and motioning for them to get in. Her amusement seemed to exhaust itself as soon as the last door closed. “Sorry. Call me Amalie,” she introduced herself as they all fastened belts, “Thank you for coming. I manage the cabins for Grayslate on this island, and frankly recommended shutting down the one we’re about to go to for good. We’ve had to refund the last three guests to rent the cabin, and done more repairs on this one rental than all the rest of the island combined in the last five years. It’s wiping out any possible profits.”

“And all that’s because of a ghost?” Oro asked dubiously.

“I don’t know,” the Ewe sighed, sounding highly suspicious herself, “At first I thought that was just the excuse a guest was using to get out of paying for the damages. But the complaint’s been pretty consistent, and guests’ property is being damaged as well, and some have suffered injuries. Whatever it is, I need it to stop.” Glancing away from the road for a moment to look him over, she asked, “Can you really do that? Don’t you guys need some kind of tools or bags of herbs or something?”

Oro snorted, and Sarahi lifted her spear, which she was carrying in the floorboard with her, to where it could be seen in the rear-view mirror. The cloth covering the blade was probably giving their guide a similar impression to the trolley driver. “We’ve got what we need,” Oro assured her, “Just get us there, and stay out of the way. You gonna stick around while we do this?”

Amalie shook her head. “Neat as it would be to watch, I’m sure, I’ve got other work to do. And I understand it might take some time.”

Sarahi winced slightly, thinking that was a reference to their work for Kita thus far. “We’ll try to make it quick,” she promised, “It’s just the one cabin being haunted, right? That’s a much smaller territory than a whole mountain.”

“Yes,” the Ewe nodded quickly, “But most of the—what do you call it? ‘Activity’?—comes at night. I don’t know if that makes any difference to you,” she shrugged, tacitly admitting to being completely out of her field, “But I figured it’d be tomorrow morning before I’d see any results, at the earliest. At any rate, I can’t rent it out again until something is done, so you’ve got the run of the place for as long as you need, as far as I’m concerned.”

Oro and Sarahi exchanged looks between the seats. “Woulda been nice to know that before we got here,” the Rabbit growled, “We didn’t pack for a stay. Just show us the place, and we’ll figure out our plans from there,” he huffed, leaning back in the seat.

Kitt rocked her head, seeming to seriously consider something. “Only at night? Every night, or just specific nights?”

Amalie shrugged. “I only know what’s written in the guest complaints. I know it’s not every night, and some guests have actually made it through their entire stay without incident, but the guests that didn’t always checked out first thing in the morning, and sometimes retreated to another hotel during the night before bothering with that much. In total we’ve lost ...,” she paused to do a count in her head, “I think eight bookings over the last year. I’ll send you the exact dates when I have a minute to sit back down at my desk, if that will help.”

“Please do,” Kitt nodded, then contented herself with watching the trees roll by outside her window, with the occasional glimpse of the river between them.

They pulled up to the front porch about ten minutes later. From the front, the cabin looked idyllic: rustic logs and faux-bark shingles, surrounded on three sides by tall, broad-leafed trees, and a clear view of the river from the back deck. The height suggested a second story or loft. Sarahi gave an impressed whistle. “This is nice.”

“Yeah, if you don’t look at the east wall,” Amalie sighed, “Be careful inside. The housekeeping company won’t go near this place anymore. I swept up all the glass from the floor and vacuumed all I could from the sofa, but there’s always a chance I missed some shards. It’s not worth replacing the windows until I can be sure they won’t be broken again in a month.” Her phone chimed, and she checked the message with an exasperated groan. “Okay, I gotta go. Here’s the key, and my personal number,” she dropped another business card into Kitt’s hands, along with the key, even as she slid back into the driver’s seat, “Call me when you’re done, or if you need something. Oh, there’s one convenience store on the island, down the road that way,” she pointed out the window, “Good luck!” And with that hasty farewell, she pulled through the circular drive and quickly back onto the road.

Sarahi blinked at the dust cloud rising up behind the tires. “...I suddenly have this feeling we’re being set up as the MCs of a slasher film,” she chuckled nervously, glancing at Oro. The Rabbit was tapping his bat on his shoulder, giving the grounds a cursory once-over. “Tell me I’m just imagining it?”

“Nope,” Kitt answered before Oro could, though her bubbly, energetic smile was beaming in its usual place. Her nose was to the wind, quivering excitedly, until it seemed to occur to her that she might be wrong about something. “‘Slasher film’ means a movie about lots of people getting killed for reasons they don’t understand, right?” the little Dog confirmed, “I doubt that’s going to happen with Broro here, but that uneasy feeling you’re getting is your soul recognizing a threat. This place definitely has a ghost.”

The Sha’khari was not at all comforted to hear that, but tried to put some trust in Kitt’s assessment. She had far more experience in this sort of situation than Sarahi did...or so Sarahi assumed. Oro merely shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t feel anything but annoyed,” the Rabbit growled, thumping his bat more firmly on his back, “Me and ghosts don’t have a great track-record.” Taking the key from Kitt, he marched up to the front door and shoved it open.

The interior was cozy. The door opened directly into a small living-room with a high ceiling, dominated by one couch in front of a coffee table. The far wall was one massive built-in bookshelf, filled with a number of books clearly chosen for the decorative value of their covers instead of their contents. The photos were more thematically chosen, depicting Three-Peaks flora and fauna in various seasons, and Sarahi grinned as she saw one of Diya’s prints hanging on the end of the bookcase. A short hall ahead of them lead to the bathroom and a bedroom, and the small kitchen was clearly visible through the arch to their left, along with the door to the back deck.

The quiet and comfortable atmosphere was wounded by the remains of a small television resting in one of the larger nooks of the bookcase, with a large crack running diagonally across the screen. The window to the right of the couch was missing all of its glass, and the frame still in the gap was cracked like it had been kicked inward. One of the cabinets in the kitchen was obviously empty, as visible through the broken door still hanging by a single screw in one hinge.

“Well, what’s your nose telling you now?” Oro asked as he stepped fully into the living-room, looking cautiously around.

Kitt took a deep, deep breath. “Haunted,” she shrugged, “Lots of fear lingering here, probably from the guests. The scent of ghost is faint, but that doesn’t mean much. My nose can reach into the umbra, but scents are subtle there, and my range isn’t great. It could be hiding upstairs,” she pointed up at the little banister separating the loft from the living-room, “And I wouldn’t be able pin-point it until I get to the room.”

“Terrific,” Oro rolled his eyes, gesturing with his bat for her to follow him, “Let’s make a quick sweep, then. If it’s here, we’ll try to coax it out. If not...I guess we’re camping out. Wish I’d brought some cards,” he grumbled, strolling down the hall toward the bathroom. A cursory sniff around that and the spare bedroom on the main floor turned up nothing, so Oro lead the way up the stairs to the loft bedroom that overlooked the living-room.

“...Further off,” Kitt confirmed after one more good whiff, “Ground floor, or maybe even lower. Maybe it really does only come out at night. Or maybe it’s trying to figure out what we’re doing here before it makes a move.”

“What are the odds it can understand what we’re saying?” Oro asked off-handedly, tapping the banister with Gorgorond.

The little Hound rocked her head with a shrug. “More likely than not. The real question is how it will respond, if it can. Poltergeists are known to react to almost any prompting, but it usually involves breaking something...and usually on someone. Some spirits talk back, but most ignore anything except very specific actions that set them off.”

“So if I tell it to get the fuck out, or I’m going to eat it,” Oro frowned, thumping his bat on his shoulder again, “It’ll probably throw something at me?”

All three of them glanced around the small room, furnished with a single large bed and hefty three-drawer dresser topped with a mirror. “...Apparently not today,” Kitt chuckled, “Maybe it’s not a poltergeist, or maybe it just can’t hear us. I only know the broad basics of disembodied undead. There’s a number of things ‘ghost’ could refer to.”

“Alright,” the Rabbit growled, ears twitching as if he could hear something in the spirit-world, in much the same way Kitt could smell it, and it annoyed him, “Let’s hit up that convenience store for some lunch, then, and give Tuli a call. If this thing won’t play along, we’ll at least be here overnight, if not for a few days. We’re going to need some clothes and things.” The scowl on his face said that idea disgusted him, but there was little more to do unless one of them came up with a more concrete idea.

Faces Old and New

They got some lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon getting familiar with the island, especially in the area right around the cabin. Nayeli brought them the bags she and Tuli packed, along with a take-out dinner, early in the evening. “It’s really a lovely place,” the Lioness remarked as she looked around the cozy cabin, “Quaint and comfy. I’d adore renting something like this for a weekend sometime.”

“You could stay with us tonight,” her husband suggested, though he knew all too well what her argument was going to be even as he said it.

Nayeli shook her head, validating his expectations. “I’ve got classes tomorrow, and the first ferry won’t get me out of here in time. Plus you’re expecting a fight, sooner or later. I’d be more liability than help, then,” she reminded him, albeit around a sympathetic smile. Staying overnight away from home didn’t bother him half so much as staying overnight away from her. “Besides, I didn’t bring a bag for myself.”

“Wouldn’t be our first time sleeping in the buff,” Sarahi winked. Needless to say, the Sha’khari would also be much happier if they could all stay together. It would almost be like a little lover’s get-away...if they ignored Kitt.

Nayeli blushed, but shook her head again. Her first two arguments still stood. “Just enjoy a night to yourselves,” she suggested instead, giving Sarahi a warm smile, “He doesn’t steal you away for those as often as he does me.”

“Oo, including me?” Kitt immediately pipped up with a hopeful look.

Oro immediately grimaced, but Nayeli giggled good-naturedly and leaned over to give the little Hound a kiss on the forehead. “Even you...but Sarahi has to agree to that, so I hope you’ve been buttering her up.”

“Dry as fresh toast over here,” the Sha’khari declared, though she couldn’t quite suppress the grin that suggested she was open to the idea. Kitt shot a sly look right back at her, as if already plotting her approach. Oro just rolled his eyes, not even asking whether or not he had a say in that. She was leaving it up to Sarahi because they both already knew his stance, and what could change it.

Oro rode back to the ferry with Nayeli, while Sarahi and Kitt handled cleaning up their dinnerware and stocking the pantry with the extra snacks Nayeli had brought them. Sharing a quick kiss with her through the driver-side window, Oro waved her off and watched the ferry set out across the river with her standing by the car on the deck before starting the walk back to the cabin. It wasn’t nearly as long a hike as the walks from Sarahi’s house to the Hopes’ had been, and the scenery was nicer, so he was actually looking forward to a few quiet minutes to himself.

Except he wasn’t entirely alone. In the last dim light of the sun sinking behind the mountains, a Mouse walked ahead of him at a quick pace, glancing all around as if not quite sure where he was going. He would have out-paced Oro easily if the Rabbit continued at a leisurely stroll, like he planned...but something about the young man struck him as familiar. It was the nervous pace to his steps, and something about the glasses, so Oro discreetly stretched his stride until he got close enough to confirm his suspicions the next time the Mouse checked the road signs. Somehow the boy had still not realized he was being shadowed.

“Well would you look who it is,” Oro sneered the instant he was sure of his memory. Devon flinched in his tracks, whipping around so fast his tail snapped behind him, and stared at Oro with eyes nearly as wide as his large, round glasses. Oro popped the knuckles of one fist in his opposite hand. “You’d better grit those teeth,” the Rabbit warned, pulling his fist back for an obvious hay-maker.

The smaller Mouse took the bait perfectly, throwing both arms up in front of his face and turning his head with eyes squeezed shut. Oro smirked, and drove him to the ground with a solid punch to the gut instead. The Mouse’s eyes and mouth both flew open in shock as he tried to draw a fresh breath that simply wouldn’t come into his compressed diaphragm. “That’s for being a coward,” the Rabbit growled, crossing his arms over his chest, “Now what the fuck are you d—!!”

A sharp crack echoed in the air as something walloped Oro square in the cheek hard enough to send him spiraling into the ditch. A downright bony Snake in a blue bonnet and dress, carrying a lacy parasol of the same color, shook the sting out of her hand with a smile. “Hay the’e, shuga’,” she greeted the Rabbit sweetly, “Ah’d be right mighty ‘preciative if’n ya didn’t bully mah little friend he’e.” Turning a worried look to the winded Mouse, she asked, “Y’alright? Ah didn’t sense any blood-lust, so ah didn’t think he’d actually hurt ya.”

Before Devon could find the breath to answer, Oro surprised them both by stepping back out of the ditch, not much the worse for wear. Or maybe it was the bat he seemed to have pulled out of nowhere that got their attention. “The Hell are you mixed up in this time?” the Rabbit asked quietly, thumping the weapon in his palm. “And who’s the bitch?”

She curtsied, unbothered by his vulgarity, and gave him the brightest, warmest smile a Snake who looked to have her tail already in the grave could manage. “Merona Embereye, at ya se’vice,” she announced herself, “Y’all know Devon?”

The Mouse in question reached out to tug the back of her dress gently, finally forcing an ounce of air into his lungs. “‘S’kay,” he wheezed as best he could, shaking his head and starting (slowly) to get back to his feet, “Kinda...deserved...it...”

“Fuck yeah you did,” Oro grunted, thumping his bat again, “You’ve got no idea the Hell I went through after you turned tail. Right call, by the way, but fucking pussy move.” He continued giving hard, appraising looks at the Snake.

Massaging his chest and taking three more deep breaths to be sure he could form a full sentence, Devon bowed low to the scarlet Rabbit. “I’m so sorry,” he apologized sincerely, “I didn’t mean to make trouble for you. A real ghost...scared me. The real you, with a real knife, also scared me. You’re right about all of it, and I’m sorry.”

Oro glanced at him with a narrow, dubious look. “I said it was the right call, didn’t I? Hell, if I’d known then what I do now, I might’ve outrun you.” Crouching down and laying his bat across his knees, the Rabbit looked Devon straight in the eyes. “Thanks to that fucking ghost I’ve been cursed, fought monsters, fathered demons, and nearly been crushed by a god. I’ve killed people. I’ve eaten them. And now I’m half-possessed, myself.” He pointed his bat at the Mouse, just as Devon opened his mouth to say something, “Not blaming you. Not your fault, and fuck if I need your pity. I’m only telling you so you’ll know I mean this,” he growled, giving a brief glance to the Snake and then a stern look to the slack-jawed Mouse. “Do. You. Need. Help?”

Merona tilted her head, but her scaly smile carried something like admiration. Devon, standing at her hip now, blinked in surprise and gave her a nervous look...then slowly shook his head. “No,” he answered quietly, “It’s okay. She’s my friend.”

The Rabbit stood up again, tapping his bat on his shoulder thoughtfully a couple of times. “...I take back what I said,” he grunted, “You’re no coward. Not anymore, at least.”

His shoulder hit Devon’s chest before the Mouse could flinch, launching him off his feet again and depositing him safely (if painfully) in the ditch. In the same move he took a swipe at the Snake’s head, claiming her bonnet. She evaded the entire series of swings that followed, darting and weaving around each one with an ease that pissed Oro off to no end. “‘Scuse me, shuga,” the Snake began curiously, as if they were just passing each other in the street, “Didn’t you hea’ him?”

“Loud and fucking clear,” Oro snarled, taking another swing, “That’s why I’m getting him out.” To the Rabbit’s eyes it was clear: Devon was scared witless. Oro had spent enough years looking for eyes like those to recognize an easy mark. The Mouse was prey already between the predator’s teeth. And in spite of that, when a helping hand was clearly extended, he’d given Oro an out. To rather stay trapped than risk anyone else getting caught with him...that was something the Devon that Oro had known before could not have done. Somewhere between Witch-Mountain on that Harvest Eve and this island today, the cowardly Mouse has found a hero’s heart.

But he didn’t have the sword to go with it. Enter Oro.

Understanding his intentions, Merona struck back. He swatted aside her parasol when she snapped it open between them, but was surprised to find she’d vanished from behind it. A brief jab in his shoulder told him where she’d gone, but the lithe Serpent darted back out of reach before his bat could circle around, grinning smugly. “Juth a dry bite,” she warned, “Latht war—nin’?!”

The Snake looked horrified to find a full two-thirds of her fangs’ length missing when she tried to fold them back up in her mouth. Oro just sneered. “Same to you, bitch,” the Rabbit snarled as he extruded a second bat from his spare hand, “I’ve got more teeth than you do.”

Devon jumped between them. “Stop it!” the Mouse shouted, holding out his arms with his back almost right against Merona, “I said she’s my friend! Really! Leave her alone!”

“Fuck off, kid,” Oro growled, lowering his stance and readying another rush, “Hell if I know the details, but the taste I just got tells me she’s nothing natural. This won’t end with an apology and a handshake.”

Swallowing his nerve and gritting his teeth, Devon marched straight toward Oro, frowning hotly. The perpetually vexed Rabbit, needless to say, was not intimidated. “N-neither are you,” the trembling Mouse tried to say sternly, balling up his fist for a comically poor swing. Oro didn’t even try to dodge, his momentary respect for the smaller teen entirely replaced by contempt again.

The skin peeled off Oro’s face. Or rather, the demon masquerading as his fur went momentarily limp, as the Mouse’s soft knuckled reached passed Oro’s cheek and clocked something unseen beside and a little behind him. The false skin fell away to reveal the bare and pock-marked face beneath, and the shock of that sight was enough to stun Devon almost as much as the punch stunned Oro.

The Rabbit took a quick step back as his fur snapped back into place. The lobes of his ears closed for a second, then opened again to reveal deep throats with row upon row of serrated teeth, and a mass of writhing tongues between them. They roared something incomprehensible, and Merona darted forward to yank Devon back out of immediate reach while Oro dropped his bats and reached up to grab his own ears at the base. “Back the fuck off!” the Rabbit barked at his own body, “...And say it in Heartherran, or shut the fuck up!”

“The boy can see the umbra!” the deep voice of Gorgorond gurgled from Oro’s ears...surprising Oro more than anyone, probably, “He can touch it! He’s dangerous! Eat him! Now!”

Between the trembling Mouse and the Rabbit struggling against his own skin, Merona’s tail had begun to rattle, and a vicious sort of glee was creeping across her face. “Hey! Hey! I like him!” the Snake grinned again, showing all her sharp teeth (and what remained of her fangs) and losing her mountain accent entirely, “He geth it! You get it, right?!” she cackled, completely unperturbed by her new lisp, and began slithering a wide circle around Oro, “Yeah, yeah! You’re like me!”

Devon blinked, and took a hesitant step away, whispering, “Oh, shit...Cibi...”

“Come on! Come on!” the Snake laughed as she made a taunting circle around the now-wary Rabbit, “You’re like me, right!? Blood’th our thong, and violenthe our muthic! I want to hear yourth! Thing it! Thing for me!!”

She moved to strike, but hissed as a bright light burst between them, zipping past like an arrow and striking a tree on the other side of the road...which promptly exploded. “Heaven’s tongue, a barb ever ready, retort!” Sarahi commanded, summoning the spear back to her hand as she came running up the road with Kitt crouched on her back.

Devon tried to cut them off, to warn them both to stay back from this mess that was getting entirely out of hand, but Kitt pounced before he could get a word out. The little Dog shoved him to the ground with hardly a thought as she vaulted over him, landing deftly in a series of swipes with her punch-daggers that drove Merona back to a more respectful distance, and Sarahi slid to a stop at her back. “Ha! I knew I smelled a slime!” Kitt grinned, twitching her broad nose as she took in Merona’s scent and giving her a curious look, “Are you actually wearing that stuff?”

A second head sprouted from the Snake’s neck, formed from the quasi-transparent thing coating her body. The husky, baritone voice that spoke from it conflicted terribly with the feminine face. “How do you know what I smell like?”

Kitt’s smug grin fell into slack-jawed shock. “...It TALKS?!”

Sarahi couldn’t spare enough attention to keep up with the conversation going on at her back, much less be shocked by it. She was standing with her spear levelled cautiously at Oro, giving very worried looks to his salivating ears. “Oro...?!”

“The kid pissed off Gorgorond but good,” her husband grunted, still wrestling with his own ears and making no effort to move back from that shining blade despite the burning heat it shed over him, “Mind the bitch over there. I don’t know exactly what she is, but Devon’s—”

The Mouse on the ground shouted something that wasn’t Heartherran. Sarahi jumped a little, but kept her spear pointed at Oro, while everyone else froze stock-still and Devon pushed himself back to his feet. Taking a second to dust off the front of his pants and shirt while the spell still held them, he hurriedly stepped over between Merona and Kitt. Even he looked a little nervous to be putting his back to the Snake, though, as everyone took a deep breath and felt the spell release their bodies. “Okay, everyone just stop for a second. Please,” the Mouse begged quietly with his hands held up in front of him. His voice was calm and steady, at least, even if his eyes were still as frightened as ever. “I swear you’ve got the wrong idea. We don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“I do!” Merona immediately raised her hand with a too-wide smile...then fell to the ground and began writhing around herself spasmodically.

Giving her a quick glance over his shoulder, Devon actually looked relieved. Kitt quirked a curious brow and took a deep breath through her nose...and then a very cautious step back. “Gods above and below,” she whispered as her momentary shock turned to genuine fear for the first time since coming to this world, “Vampire?! You have those here?!”

Devon cringed, but nodded admission. “Yes, she’s a vampire. But we are not here to hurt anyone! Please, believe me. I know it sounds weird—”

“Kid, you’ve got no idea the kind of weird I’m up to my neck in,” Oro scoffed, squeezing his own ears like he could actually choke the demon out of them.

“—But she’ll be under control in a second,” Devon insisted. “We’re only here to investigate a haunted cabin on the island. Merona thinks it might be something serious, so we came to look at it. She never would have attacked if you hadn’t hit me first.”

Sarahi winced, then sighed, wishing she didn’t find it so easy to believe that accusation without even having to look askance at her husband. Maybe if he’d bother to deny it...but of course he didn’t. “Okay, we’re going to hear you out. There is way too much going on right now. Honey-bunny, can you get it together?”

He gnashed his teeth and pulled his ears down around his cheeks. “You know I don’t actually control this thing, right?” her husband growled, “He’s only hesitating because he doesn’t know what to make of Devon. The woman’s not so much a worry to him.”

“She’s not?!” Kitt barked, apparently having a completely different assessment of the situation.

“Not without my whangs, I’m not.” Merona had stopped her seizure, and was slowly pulling herself up onto her coils again. “Eh, thorry ‘bout that,” the Snake apologized with a sheepish smile, rubbing her head like something deep inside it hurt, “The others are holding her down now. We thould go.”

Devon tilted his head, and asked just for clarity, “...Cici?” He became visibly more relaxed when she nodded, and stepped over to follow close by her side.

Sarahi hesitantly turned her spear away from Oro, since he seemed to be holding his ground at least, and turned it warily toward the Snake. She kept the head low, non-threatening, but in-hand and at the ready. Sarahi had about a hundred questions about this encounter, and what had started it, but set most of them aside in favor of what seemed like the highest priority right now: avoiding another one. “Hold on, we’re here about that cabin, too. We need to talk, if we don’t want any more run-ins.”

Devon blinked in surprise, but Merona shook her head. “That guy,” the Snake nodded toward Oro, “Hath her really exthited. We can’t keep a handle on her for long. And that thing,” she add, putting up a hand to shield her eyes against the glow of Sarahi’s spear, “Ith making the whole area really hot. Tho you can hah the cabin. We’re leahing.”

Oro took a heavy step forward, and Sarahi immediately swung back at the ready facing him. “Stop right there, fucking blood-sucker,” the Rabbit snarled, though it was the Mouse beside her that he directed his question to, “Devon, are you absolutely sure you want to go with her? You still look scared as fuck over there...” Not that he’d blame the kid for being even more frightened of him at just that moment, still struggling to restrain his own demon-possessed body, but at least it should be clear now that, if Oro unleashed it, Devon could be confident of his rescue.

Devon reached out one hand to grip the back of Merona’s blouse, never even turning to look at the Rabbit and his friends. The Snake, however, wasn’t waiting to see if Oro would accept the Mouse’s answer this time. Quick as a blink, she coiled her whole body around the Mouse, then...well, it was hard for the Ironhearts to say exactly what happened then. Her body distorted weirdly, abandoning form and flapping into the sky in some amalgam of serpent and bat. It hurt Sarahi’s eyes to look at it, and she flinched away before it even disappeared behind the sliver of moon in the sky. Kitt’s guard was up again, daggers at the ready. Where or how the thing had even carried Devon was beyond their guessing.

“Fuck!” Oro spat, pulling his own ears hard in frustration. They snapped upright when he let them go, back to being merely ears to all outward appearances. Turning a little aside from both Sarahi and Kitt, the Rabbit crossed his arms and snarled, “If you can talk outside my head, fucking do that, you skin-hugging bastard! What the fuck was that all about?!” He tapped his foot impatiently, but no answer came, either outside or inside his head. After a moment he seized his ears again, this time pulling hard enough to convince Sarahi he really was attempting to tear them off!

“Whoa, whoa, honey!” the Sha’khari jumped forward, wrapping both arms around him (and perhaps being a tad reckless with where she pointed her spear).

Despite her recent training, Oro was quick to break her grip and writhe out from between her arms. “Don’t touch me!” he snapped, rounding on her with a glare and a stance that was ready for a fight, “I told you it’s not my body anymore! This fucking bastard—!”

“And we told you why that’s not going to stop us!” Sarahi snapped right back, dropping her spear and taking his hoodie in both fists. She hurt her mouth a little, shoving it against his in a kiss that was as defiant as it was fierce.

Oro froze. Everything in him tensed up, like a balloon inflated to its limit...and then someone let the air out. He very nearly fell against her, but managed to catch himself before unbalancing her. “Fuck,” he hissed, far less venomously, when Sarahi released his lips, “Why do you keep stepping up to save me?”

“I’m your wife,” the Sha’khari reminded him with a frown, still keeping hold of his hoodie, “It’s what I do. Now,” her expression softened, becoming more concerned again, “...Are we going to Hell today?”

He couldn’t resist a grin, though he took a deep breath to calm himself down. “Ha! I’ve gotta carve out a little kingdom there before you arrive, so you have something to come to.” The grin fell off his face again, replaced by a more familiar frown. “Seriously, though: it scares the piss out of me for you to touch me when I’m that worked up. It’s a fucking demon, eating or not-eating what I want it to, for reasons I don’t know or control,” he huffed. “If either of us looks like we’re going off the rails, I want you on the other end of that spear until we calm down. Please.”

Much as she wanted to argue against that, Sarahi could sympathize. The brief reminder that the thing clinging to his skin was its own entity, with arguably as much control of Oro’s body as he had, made her a little afraid to touch him. That’s why her kiss had been so hard: she’d had to dive into it against the fear of having her face literally bitten off. She would go that mile for him, but that didn’t make it easy. It was actually a little flattering to know he recognized that.

“Okay, so I’m concerned about a whole host of things now,” Kitt broke in on their moment as gently as she could, still staring at the sky and regularly testing the wind in her nose, “But can we talk about them under a roof and beside a fire? That,” she nodded to the sky in general, indicating their recently departed company, “Is a problem I don’t know how to solve. And a talking slime?! It’s unheard of! I thought monsters weren’t common in this world...?”

“They’re not,” Sarahi shook her head, reluctantly letting go of Oro now that he seemed to be fairly well in control of himself again, and picking up her spear, “Though my honey-bunny’s right: they do seem to be popping up around here a lot lately.”

The Rabbit straightened his hoodie, and popped the last of the tension out of his neck and shoulders. “Yeah, and there’s only so many I can tackle at one time,” he admitted reluctantly, “So for now, she’s not top of the list. Fuck if I know why, but it looks like she’s protecting Devon, not snacking on him, and her fangs will be useless for a while regardless. Any idea how long it’ll take them to grow back?” he asked the little Hound, just for curiosity’s sake.

Kitt blinked at him in genuine surprise. “Can they grow back? Are they useless? These are things I don’t know. Their kind drink blood and burn in sunlight, and that is the sum total of my concrete knowledge of them. Everything else is ages-old rumor at best.”

Sarahi tilted her head at that confession as the trio started walking (rather more slowly than before) back toward the cabin. “Really? You recognized the scent, at least, so I thought you might have met one before. Are they rare in your world, too?”

A shiver ran down Kitt’s spine. “Oh we did, once. But they’re practically extinct in our world, thank all the gods above and below. The legends make them out to be gods, or near enough the difference doesn’t matter, and one of them, the very last of his kind, is a Saint of the Order...so actually a god, still clinging to flesh.” Casting one last glance at the moon over her shoulder, Kitt finally tucked her daggers away and took a deep whiff of Oro’s scent to relax herself. “The stories say he hunted and destroyed all the rest. That’s why he was sainted. That was all well before I was born, though. The stories also say anyone who goes around asking too pointed questions about vampires is bound to meet him...and then disappear.”

“Is that how you met him?” Oro quirked a brow, “Why were you asking about them if they’re all gone?”

Kitt shook her head quickly. “No, you and I weren’t doing anything like that, thank goodness. We probably wouldn’t have walked away if we had been,” she admitted, “We were just out to assassinate a troublesome king among the humans. I won’t wear you out with all the reasons why, but it needed to be quiet, so as not to spark a war. We were waiting in the rafters above the great hall for the guards to finish their patrol, so we could move on to the royal quarters, when we realized he was there. And by ‘realized’ I mean I just happened to glance over at you and saw there was someone standing on your other side, politely waiting to be noticed. I was still new to my nose, but I swear I didn’t smell a whiff of him before I saw him, or hear him either. I kind of think he let me see him, so we could back out before he had to make a move. There’s no way either of us would have missed something that glaringly white even in the shadows when we first snuck in.”

Sarahi grimaced in sympathy, hardly able to imagine how it must feel to be caught in circumstances like that. “How did you get away? I’m assuming he wasn’t too keen on you killing that king...”

Kitt shook her head again. “We didn’t, really. St. Culbert didn’t seem offended, at least, but he very politely asked us to ‘leave the king to him’...and we very quietly did exactly that,” she sighed, “Now that I think about it, meeting that Snake is kind of a relief. I guess vampires vary in power at least as much as wizards. She wasn’t nearly on a par with the Saint.” Giving a wary look to Oro, she continued, “It frustrated you terribly, but even you estimated we would have been flat-out slaughtered if it had come to blows.” Her smile returned at last, as her eyes floated up and down Oro’s figure a couple of times. “Although I was grateful to the Saint for the handful of hours after, at least. Any night where you take your frustrations out on me is a good one...and that one was particularly passionate.”

Oro and Sarahi both grimaced.

The rest of the night was uneventful, if somewhat restless for the trio, who ended up spending it together in the living-room floor rather than any of the beds (the loft felt risky, and the sofa-bed wasn’t sturdy enough for Sarahi). They slept in a little the following morning, waiting for the comfort of bright, warm daylight coming through the windows to drive away the lingering unease about vampires and ghosts before striking out to buy some breakfast...again, from the convenience store.

“Oh! Mrs. Amalie sent us those dates you were asking about,” Sarahi informed Kitt as they were walking, passing her phone with the messages to the little Hound.

Kitt pulled her own phone from beneath her cloak, humming happily to herself as she compared the listed dates to her calendar, looking for something Sarahi couldn’t guess at. Whatever it was, she apparently found it, as her smile turned smug and self-satisfied just before she handed Sarahi’s phone back to her. “Well, there’s still no guarantee it only comes out at night, but it’ll definitely do something by tomorrow,” the little Dog declared confidently.

Oro arched a dubious brow, while Sarahi seemed more impressed. “Yeah?” the Rabbit grunted, “How do you figure?”

“The next new moon will be tomorrow night, and all of these dates are within a night or two before a new moon,” Kitt grinned, showing her phone with a lunar calendar displayed on the screen, “Looks like our ghost likes having its cabin to itself on the darkest night of the month.”

“Wow!” Sarahi blinked, “Nice catch, Kitt. Does that mean anything in particular?”

Kitt just shrugged. “Not to me, but it must mean something to the ghost. Maybe it died on a new moon, or maybe it fears the moon goddess...is yours a goddess or a god here?” she tilted her head curiously.

Sarahi chuckled, and shrugged. “Who knows? The names and natures of every god except the Bright Lion have been lost for ages. That’s what the phrase ‘gods forgotten’ means: we know they used to exist, and might still be listening, but we couldn’t really call to them if we wanted to. Video games and movies kind of pay homage to the concept...but I think that might be more disrespectful than honestly forgetting them, in some instances.”

“Fuck ‘em all,” Oro snorted, “If the Lion’s the last one standing, it just proves he was the only one worth calling on anyway. I’ll give him that much, at least. And if Jareth’s any example of what the rest were like, I’d say nothing much was lost.”

Sarahi sighed, rubbing her face at Oro’s typically savage reasoning. “Well, there’s a pretty broadly accepted rumor that some of the forgotten gods are still worshiped in Amunet...but anything coming out of Amunet is a rumor at best. We’re told their queen rules with an iron fist made of sorcery, and their citizens have a very short list of what they’re allowed to say or sell to other nations. Even that much is the subject of a lot of conspiracy theories, though, so who knows.”

Kitt, surprisingly, nodded like she had some understanding of the situation. “Well, if you’re harboring fugitives—especially divine fugitives—secrecy is key to survival. We have cults attempting to do the same in our world,” she shrugged.

“So it’ll make it’s move tonight,” Oro brought them back to the problem at hand, which was keeping him from spending his nights with Nayeli, “Or tomorrow night at the latest?” Kitt nodded confidently again. “Okay. Let’s grab some food to take back with us, then. I’d like to give it every opportunity it could ask for,” he growled, “The sooner it shows itself, the sooner I can eat it and go home.”

Sarahi rolled her eyes with a little chuckle...and picked up a pack of playing cards along with the food. The rest of the day seemed to drag out interminably, in Oro’s opinion...especially since he made the call to warn Nayeli not to join them for dinner after her classes. If Kitt was right, he’d be less pissed about not seeing her for a full day than about her getting hurt in the fight they had coming.