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Chapter 17
It was three days after the Rockport incident when the two wolves finally had a chance to settle in for a quiet evening. They lingered over dinner, just happy to be together with nothing urgent going on, until Lowe sighed and broached the subject they'd been ignoring in the aftermath of the attack. “So, John. Very interesting tricks you came up with when we were actually under fire. Have you figured out how to do them on your own yet?”
Whitford looked at her. “Tricks, plural?”
Lowe chuckled. “You mean you didn't even notice what you'd done? Think about it, John... What were you doing when the first explosion took place?”
“I was eating...” He paused, trying to remember the details. “Heard the first explosions, put down my plate, and picked up my rifle.”
“And you switched out jeans and a t-shirt for your body armor. Which was up in your room, as I recall. And your rifle was on the plane back in Portsmouth. I remember telling you not to bring it, because we were going to be guests at a party, not the hired security.”
John did his best to look innocent. “I still had my jeans on under the armor.”
Lowe grinned. “Now you're just trying to avoid the issue. The point is that you did an instant prep for battle. You need to figure out -how- you did it. And see if you can summon that shield of yours when you want it. It was a bit nerve-wracking to See that missile headed for us. The future went blank for me for a few seconds once the thing launched. I'm not used to that anymore.” She shivered, and leaned into Whitford's shoulder. “Foreseeing one's own death is not a pleasant experience. Even if it wasn't certain.”
He held her close, trying to be reassuring. “I'll do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again.”
“I appreciate that. But for now, why don't we go to bed and you can make me forget all about it for a while.”
“Your wish is my command, dear. But I want to say something first.”
“Oh?”
“Something Thor suggested – rather strongly, in fact - a few months ago. And after what just happened, I think he was right to do so.” He hesitated, frowning for a moment before smiling. “I just realized, we can't kneel the way humans do any more.” He crouched, digitigrade legs curled beneath him, the posture of a predator poised to spring. “But let's pretend that I am. Jandi... will you marry me?”
She took his hand, and pulled him back up to his feet and into a gentle kiss before replying. “Of course I will.” She grinned. “You didn't think you could surprise -me- with that question, did you?”
He blinked. “Well... I wasn't intending to -surprise- you, as such. But the old boy was right. I have too much respect for you to just keep shacking up like this.”
“I hope that doesn't mean you intend to stop.”
John laughed. “Not unless you want to run off and get the license right this minute, no. When he brought it up, I said I was planning to do it when things weren't quite so busy.” Lowe laughed at that idea. “Yeah, I know, not happening while we're working for the government. But then he pointed out that we have as much time as we want to plan things. And that he was engaged to Sif for nearly a century before they actually performed the ceremony. So...”
Lowe hugged him and leaned up to lick his muzzle. “.. there's no rush. As long as we don't wait so long we outlive our wedding guests. Thank you for asking. For now, though, to bed, perchance to sleep. Eventually. Maybe even tonight.”
John grinned. “Pessimist.”
Pensacola, Florida
Captain Sterling woke up to the gentle strains of the Beatles as her alarm went off just before sunset. Her yawn was disturbingly wide by human standards, and the sharpness of her teeth generally didn't make most people feel any more comfortable, but she'd long since decided not to let that bother her. She was not physically intimidating in terms of size – in fact, post-change she'd needed a waiver to continue being a military pilot - so she let the general -otherness- of being a bat-changeling do it for her instead.
She let go of her sleeping perch, flared her wings out and dropped lightly to her feet, wandered into the kitchen to put some breakfast sausages into the microwave and the teapot on the stove, and sighed as her phone buzzed for attention. “Sterling.”
“Karen? It's Janet.”
Sterling smiled. “Hey! How are you? Planning another trip?”
The wolf chuckled. “Yeah, but not for this week. That'd go through channels anyway. This is just personal news.”
“Kinda figured. It would've been Captain and Director if it was official, or Shadow and Diviner if it was Immortal business. So what's up?”
“John proposed!”
The bat grinned. “Well, that's fantastic news! Congratulations! When's the date?”
“We haven't decided yet. Sometime before 2050, we're thinking. We've both got family that we'd like to be there.”
“2050? Isn't that a bit long for an engagement?”
“Not, apparently, for Immortals. Gives us three decades to decide if we can stand each other for extended periods, after all.”
The bat snorted. “Well, you don't seem to be in any rush to make arrangements, then. I'm glad to hear John's going to make an honest woman out of you, even if it is going to take thirty years.”
“Don't tell anyone else that! I'm a spymaster. We're not supposed to be honest.”
“Any ideas at all yet?”
“Well... we're thinking we might ask Cerunnos to officiate. Aside from that, it's still very tentative.”
Sterling glanced up as her timer beeped. “And my food is ready and I haven't washed up yet. I'm going to end up having to 'port in to the base if I don't get a move on. And that always freaks out the gate guards.”
“Can't you 'port all the way straight in?”
“Nope. The wards are up now, and they don't like when I go through that way. I have to stop at the gate and get passed through properly.”
“Ah-hah. Good to hear. John will be happy to know they're getting things sorted out finally. I'll let you go then. I -do- have a trip coming up, so we'll be seeing you soon. Take care!”
“You too, Janet. Bye.”
Sacramento, California
18 OCT 2017
Stardancer met her guest at the front lobby and presented him with a visitor's pass-badge. “Welcome to the National Laboratory, Eldest. Thank you for coming.”
“Thank you for inviting me, Stardancer. I've seen magical laboratories on occasion, but never before one where there are -cooperating- wizards. It seems a bit unnatural, to be honest.” The tall blond smiled at the red-headed witch. “They -are- cooperating, I assume, since you're all still here?”
The witch chuckled. “There are -some- difficulties involved – we had problems with temporary mana depletion at first when too many experiments were being conducted simultaneously – but that's been much less of a problem since Forge came up with his first mana generators, and we make sure we schedule spell-workings now to make sure we don't step on each other's toes. It seems reasonable to assume that people didn't know what was causing the problem at first and separation became a fetish to avoid interference.”
“Makes sense, when you think about it. So where are you keeping your stuck unicorn? Let's see about getting him back to normal, and then you can give me a tour.”
“Right this way, sir.” She led the way to the lab that had been set up as living quarters for the quadruped guard. “We tried doing mana depletion to snap him back, but it just made him uncomfortable.”
“No surprise. Shape-shifting doesn't work without the background mana. We have to be very careful near the end of a Cycle to stay in the form we want to use during the drought. Sooner or later, we're stuck in whatever body we're wearing at the time...”
Sayeed stared at the marks in the river mud as he listened to the young boy who had discovered them. “... did not think there was anything -that- odd about a woman getting water so early, but I did not recognize her, and she left quickly when she saw me, and then the goats did not want to drink where she had been. It was their usual spot, but they all went upstream instead. And when I looked at where she had been, there were these tracks instead of footprints. Was this truly the snake-demoness, Captain Sayeed?”
He nodded. “These are the same tracks I saw in the desert, Haidar. You have done well.”
The boy beamed. “Thank you, Captain! May I go with you and your men when you chase the demoness?”
Sayeed shook his head. “Not until you are older, Haidar. It speaks well that you wish to try, but this is a job for those with experience.” He smiled at the boy's obvious disappointment. “However, it is not too soon for you to learn to fight. Tell your parents that I expect to see you at Wednesday's training session.”
Haidar grinned. “I will be there, Captain! Thank you!”
His second-in-command chuckled as the boy ran off. “He seems a bit young for militia training, don't you think?”
“He pays attention to what he sees, Mazin, and that puts him ahead of some people thrice his age. If he is too young for some things, there are others he can start to learn right now. Perhaps his name will be prophetic. I will give our young Lion a chance.”
She watched as they moved through the desert. <I suppose they believe they are being quiet. But I can feel their footsteps as well as hear their voices. Why won't they just leave me alone? I have not bothered them, or their stupid goats.> The old memories, the ones she usually tried to ignore, reminded her that the Naga had never been left alone. <They have always feared and hated our kind. If we disguise ourselves and live among them, we are accused of luring them astray. If we live separately, we are sorceresses who feel ourselves above them. Humans have never been good at accepting those who are different. You were like that yourself before the Change, Farrah.> She sighed to herself, the sound emerging as a hiss.
The rocky barrens left no trace of the snake-woman's passage, and after several hours of searching, Sayeed was forced to call his men back. He stared up into the hills above them as they regathered, wondering where the creature had gone. When they had all reassembled, he addressed them. “This is where it vanished before, when it first crossed the border from the Kurds. We will return home for now, but continue to watch for it. Young Haidar has described the form she assumed, but be careful of all strangers, for we do not know if there is only one, or if she can take more than one seeming. Mount up!” He swung into the cab of one of the trucks, settling himself beside Mazin. “We will need to patrol the edges of this area, I think. Maybe we can find tracks leading out and corner the demon away from its lair.”
“Maybe, sir. If all it wanted was to drink at the river, though, perhaps we should leave it alone. If it turns out that it is not easily killed, better not to antagonize it.”
“All will be as Allah wills it, my friend. But He cannot want our families to remain in peril from this creature.”
Mazin shrugged. “If we -are- in peril. One cannot help but remember what happened to the imams who were too eager to claim that they truly knew Allah's will.” Sayeed frowned and remained silent for the rest of the trip back to Al Suwar.
“How are you feeling today, George?”
The unicorn looked up from the computer screen he'd been reading. “Bored, as usual, Director. Anyone come up with any new ideas?”
“I decided it was time to call in the expert. George, this is Cerrunos, the Eldest of the Immortals. Eldest, this is George Sommers. He was one of our security guards before he shifted under stress one day and then couldn't change back.”
“I understand that you saved a young girl's life that day, Mr. Sommers?”
“I did, sir. I kind of stressed out when I saw how badly she'd been torn up in the accident, and... well, I just wanted to fix her. Didn't realize I -could-, but this is what happened, and I channeled the healing power through my horn. Or maybe I shifted while I was doing the channeling. It all happened too fast for me to be sure of the sequence.”
Cerrunos nodded. “So you may have tried to push more power than a humanoid body could handle... and your body shifted in response?”
Sommers gave him a caprine shrug. “Could be. I wouldn't take it back, but it's been a bit inconvenient this past week.”
Stardancer nodded to them both. “If anyone knows how to teach you to shift back and forth, George, he'll be the one to do it. I've got to get back to my own work, but feel free to call me back if you need me, Eldest.”
“We should be fine.” He waited until the witch had left, then found a chair. “My first shift was a bit less altruistic. I'd just fended off a sabre-tooth's initial charge, but broke my spear in the process. I was desperate for a weapon, and I got a horn...”
Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida
Sergeant Howard, USMC, ran through the list of basics for the new assignment to gate duty. “Mostly it's the younger officers and senior enlisted in and out at the shift changes. You still have to check ID badges for everyone coming in, but you want to do it quickly as possible or the traffic gets backed up in the morning.”
Lance Corporal Martins nodded. “Right, Sarge. What do we do if someone doesn't have a badge?”
“Gotta use your judgment on that one, Martins. If it's just some clueless civilian who didn't see the sign, you point them over to that parking lot and tell them to talk to the folks inside to get permission. If you think it's something more sinister, you detain them until the MP's can get here. I don't think I need to remind you, err on the side of caution. The CO will forgive you detaining someone who didn't need it a lot sooner than letting someone go who you shouldn't have.”
“What if they charge the gate?”
“Then you take cover. If they can actually get through it, you wouldn't have been able to stop them in the first place. There's serious stuff in place if someone tries that, and it takes a serious kind of wizard to break through.”
“What about fuzzies? I'm not so good at telling them apart yet.”
Howard winced internally. “First off, you forget you ever heard that word. If--”
“Aw, c'mon Sarge. We have to call 'em -something-, don't we?”
“Maybe, but not that. Captain Sterling comes through this gate most nights, and she hates that word almost as much as she hates...” He glanced up the road and lowered his voice to a whisper. “...critters. She overhears you saying either of 'em and you can kiss your next promotion goodbye. And probably your last one, too.”
“I wouldn't say it near --”
“Stop making stupid excuses, Martins, and trust me. Just. Don't. Near in her case could be half a mile away with those ears. And that's when she's not hiding. Something spooky about the way she can do that. I've seen her vanish standing in the middle of the sidewalk. I overheard some of the pilots talking one time, and -they- said she can vanish an entire airplane that way if she wants.”
“For real?”
“They weren't pulling -my- leg, Martins. They didn't know I was listening.” He paused to check the ID of an incoming vehicle, then resumed the conversation. “She usually flies in unless she's got something big with her. And she hasn't come through tonight yet. When she's running late...” He paused again, as a swirl of mist and darkness congealed into the form of a bat Changeling dangling from the overhang of the guard shack. Martins backed up against the far wall, wide-eyed. “... she does that. Evening, Captain.”
Sterling presented her ID. “Evening, Sergeant.” She glanced at Martins, who was still nervously huddled against the far side of the guard shack. “Breaking in a new hand?”
“I was just telling him to expect you doing that, ma'am. Since you're usually through here before now.”
“Last minute interruptions, Sergeant. Reassure him I don't bite, will ya?”
“Aye-aye, ma'am.” Howard saluted, Martins followed suit an instant later, and Sterling returned it before spreading her wings and flitting through the gate on her way into the base. The pair watched her go, and Howard actually smiled. “And no, corporal, she's never bitten anyone I know of. She's not a vampire bat.”
“You sure, sarge?”
“Looked 'em up myself when I first met her. Vampire bats have much different teeth. She takes after the brown bats. Cute little guys, actually.”
“If you say so, sarge.”
It was three days after the Rockport incident when the two wolves finally had a chance to settle in for a quiet evening. They lingered over dinner, just happy to be together with nothing urgent going on, until Lowe sighed and broached the subject they'd been ignoring in the aftermath of the attack. “So, John. Very interesting tricks you came up with when we were actually under fire. Have you figured out how to do them on your own yet?”
Whitford looked at her. “Tricks, plural?”
Lowe chuckled. “You mean you didn't even notice what you'd done? Think about it, John... What were you doing when the first explosion took place?”
“I was eating...” He paused, trying to remember the details. “Heard the first explosions, put down my plate, and picked up my rifle.”
“And you switched out jeans and a t-shirt for your body armor. Which was up in your room, as I recall. And your rifle was on the plane back in Portsmouth. I remember telling you not to bring it, because we were going to be guests at a party, not the hired security.”
John did his best to look innocent. “I still had my jeans on under the armor.”
Lowe grinned. “Now you're just trying to avoid the issue. The point is that you did an instant prep for battle. You need to figure out -how- you did it. And see if you can summon that shield of yours when you want it. It was a bit nerve-wracking to See that missile headed for us. The future went blank for me for a few seconds once the thing launched. I'm not used to that anymore.” She shivered, and leaned into Whitford's shoulder. “Foreseeing one's own death is not a pleasant experience. Even if it wasn't certain.”
He held her close, trying to be reassuring. “I'll do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again.”
“I appreciate that. But for now, why don't we go to bed and you can make me forget all about it for a while.”
“Your wish is my command, dear. But I want to say something first.”
“Oh?”
“Something Thor suggested – rather strongly, in fact - a few months ago. And after what just happened, I think he was right to do so.” He hesitated, frowning for a moment before smiling. “I just realized, we can't kneel the way humans do any more.” He crouched, digitigrade legs curled beneath him, the posture of a predator poised to spring. “But let's pretend that I am. Jandi... will you marry me?”
She took his hand, and pulled him back up to his feet and into a gentle kiss before replying. “Of course I will.” She grinned. “You didn't think you could surprise -me- with that question, did you?”
He blinked. “Well... I wasn't intending to -surprise- you, as such. But the old boy was right. I have too much respect for you to just keep shacking up like this.”
“I hope that doesn't mean you intend to stop.”
John laughed. “Not unless you want to run off and get the license right this minute, no. When he brought it up, I said I was planning to do it when things weren't quite so busy.” Lowe laughed at that idea. “Yeah, I know, not happening while we're working for the government. But then he pointed out that we have as much time as we want to plan things. And that he was engaged to Sif for nearly a century before they actually performed the ceremony. So...”
Lowe hugged him and leaned up to lick his muzzle. “.. there's no rush. As long as we don't wait so long we outlive our wedding guests. Thank you for asking. For now, though, to bed, perchance to sleep. Eventually. Maybe even tonight.”
John grinned. “Pessimist.”
Pensacola, Florida
Captain Sterling woke up to the gentle strains of the Beatles as her alarm went off just before sunset. Her yawn was disturbingly wide by human standards, and the sharpness of her teeth generally didn't make most people feel any more comfortable, but she'd long since decided not to let that bother her. She was not physically intimidating in terms of size – in fact, post-change she'd needed a waiver to continue being a military pilot - so she let the general -otherness- of being a bat-changeling do it for her instead.
She let go of her sleeping perch, flared her wings out and dropped lightly to her feet, wandered into the kitchen to put some breakfast sausages into the microwave and the teapot on the stove, and sighed as her phone buzzed for attention. “Sterling.”
“Karen? It's Janet.”
Sterling smiled. “Hey! How are you? Planning another trip?”
The wolf chuckled. “Yeah, but not for this week. That'd go through channels anyway. This is just personal news.”
“Kinda figured. It would've been Captain and Director if it was official, or Shadow and Diviner if it was Immortal business. So what's up?”
“John proposed!”
The bat grinned. “Well, that's fantastic news! Congratulations! When's the date?”
“We haven't decided yet. Sometime before 2050, we're thinking. We've both got family that we'd like to be there.”
“2050? Isn't that a bit long for an engagement?”
“Not, apparently, for Immortals. Gives us three decades to decide if we can stand each other for extended periods, after all.”
The bat snorted. “Well, you don't seem to be in any rush to make arrangements, then. I'm glad to hear John's going to make an honest woman out of you, even if it is going to take thirty years.”
“Don't tell anyone else that! I'm a spymaster. We're not supposed to be honest.”
“Any ideas at all yet?”
“Well... we're thinking we might ask Cerunnos to officiate. Aside from that, it's still very tentative.”
Sterling glanced up as her timer beeped. “And my food is ready and I haven't washed up yet. I'm going to end up having to 'port in to the base if I don't get a move on. And that always freaks out the gate guards.”
“Can't you 'port all the way straight in?”
“Nope. The wards are up now, and they don't like when I go through that way. I have to stop at the gate and get passed through properly.”
“Ah-hah. Good to hear. John will be happy to know they're getting things sorted out finally. I'll let you go then. I -do- have a trip coming up, so we'll be seeing you soon. Take care!”
“You too, Janet. Bye.”
Sacramento, California
18 OCT 2017
Stardancer met her guest at the front lobby and presented him with a visitor's pass-badge. “Welcome to the National Laboratory, Eldest. Thank you for coming.”
“Thank you for inviting me, Stardancer. I've seen magical laboratories on occasion, but never before one where there are -cooperating- wizards. It seems a bit unnatural, to be honest.” The tall blond smiled at the red-headed witch. “They -are- cooperating, I assume, since you're all still here?”
The witch chuckled. “There are -some- difficulties involved – we had problems with temporary mana depletion at first when too many experiments were being conducted simultaneously – but that's been much less of a problem since Forge came up with his first mana generators, and we make sure we schedule spell-workings now to make sure we don't step on each other's toes. It seems reasonable to assume that people didn't know what was causing the problem at first and separation became a fetish to avoid interference.”
“Makes sense, when you think about it. So where are you keeping your stuck unicorn? Let's see about getting him back to normal, and then you can give me a tour.”
“Right this way, sir.” She led the way to the lab that had been set up as living quarters for the quadruped guard. “We tried doing mana depletion to snap him back, but it just made him uncomfortable.”
“No surprise. Shape-shifting doesn't work without the background mana. We have to be very careful near the end of a Cycle to stay in the form we want to use during the drought. Sooner or later, we're stuck in whatever body we're wearing at the time...”
Sayeed stared at the marks in the river mud as he listened to the young boy who had discovered them. “... did not think there was anything -that- odd about a woman getting water so early, but I did not recognize her, and she left quickly when she saw me, and then the goats did not want to drink where she had been. It was their usual spot, but they all went upstream instead. And when I looked at where she had been, there were these tracks instead of footprints. Was this truly the snake-demoness, Captain Sayeed?”
He nodded. “These are the same tracks I saw in the desert, Haidar. You have done well.”
The boy beamed. “Thank you, Captain! May I go with you and your men when you chase the demoness?”
Sayeed shook his head. “Not until you are older, Haidar. It speaks well that you wish to try, but this is a job for those with experience.” He smiled at the boy's obvious disappointment. “However, it is not too soon for you to learn to fight. Tell your parents that I expect to see you at Wednesday's training session.”
Haidar grinned. “I will be there, Captain! Thank you!”
His second-in-command chuckled as the boy ran off. “He seems a bit young for militia training, don't you think?”
“He pays attention to what he sees, Mazin, and that puts him ahead of some people thrice his age. If he is too young for some things, there are others he can start to learn right now. Perhaps his name will be prophetic. I will give our young Lion a chance.”
She watched as they moved through the desert. <I suppose they believe they are being quiet. But I can feel their footsteps as well as hear their voices. Why won't they just leave me alone? I have not bothered them, or their stupid goats.> The old memories, the ones she usually tried to ignore, reminded her that the Naga had never been left alone. <They have always feared and hated our kind. If we disguise ourselves and live among them, we are accused of luring them astray. If we live separately, we are sorceresses who feel ourselves above them. Humans have never been good at accepting those who are different. You were like that yourself before the Change, Farrah.> She sighed to herself, the sound emerging as a hiss.
The rocky barrens left no trace of the snake-woman's passage, and after several hours of searching, Sayeed was forced to call his men back. He stared up into the hills above them as they regathered, wondering where the creature had gone. When they had all reassembled, he addressed them. “This is where it vanished before, when it first crossed the border from the Kurds. We will return home for now, but continue to watch for it. Young Haidar has described the form she assumed, but be careful of all strangers, for we do not know if there is only one, or if she can take more than one seeming. Mount up!” He swung into the cab of one of the trucks, settling himself beside Mazin. “We will need to patrol the edges of this area, I think. Maybe we can find tracks leading out and corner the demon away from its lair.”
“Maybe, sir. If all it wanted was to drink at the river, though, perhaps we should leave it alone. If it turns out that it is not easily killed, better not to antagonize it.”
“All will be as Allah wills it, my friend. But He cannot want our families to remain in peril from this creature.”
Mazin shrugged. “If we -are- in peril. One cannot help but remember what happened to the imams who were too eager to claim that they truly knew Allah's will.” Sayeed frowned and remained silent for the rest of the trip back to Al Suwar.
“How are you feeling today, George?”
The unicorn looked up from the computer screen he'd been reading. “Bored, as usual, Director. Anyone come up with any new ideas?”
“I decided it was time to call in the expert. George, this is Cerrunos, the Eldest of the Immortals. Eldest, this is George Sommers. He was one of our security guards before he shifted under stress one day and then couldn't change back.”
“I understand that you saved a young girl's life that day, Mr. Sommers?”
“I did, sir. I kind of stressed out when I saw how badly she'd been torn up in the accident, and... well, I just wanted to fix her. Didn't realize I -could-, but this is what happened, and I channeled the healing power through my horn. Or maybe I shifted while I was doing the channeling. It all happened too fast for me to be sure of the sequence.”
Cerrunos nodded. “So you may have tried to push more power than a humanoid body could handle... and your body shifted in response?”
Sommers gave him a caprine shrug. “Could be. I wouldn't take it back, but it's been a bit inconvenient this past week.”
Stardancer nodded to them both. “If anyone knows how to teach you to shift back and forth, George, he'll be the one to do it. I've got to get back to my own work, but feel free to call me back if you need me, Eldest.”
“We should be fine.” He waited until the witch had left, then found a chair. “My first shift was a bit less altruistic. I'd just fended off a sabre-tooth's initial charge, but broke my spear in the process. I was desperate for a weapon, and I got a horn...”
Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida
Sergeant Howard, USMC, ran through the list of basics for the new assignment to gate duty. “Mostly it's the younger officers and senior enlisted in and out at the shift changes. You still have to check ID badges for everyone coming in, but you want to do it quickly as possible or the traffic gets backed up in the morning.”
Lance Corporal Martins nodded. “Right, Sarge. What do we do if someone doesn't have a badge?”
“Gotta use your judgment on that one, Martins. If it's just some clueless civilian who didn't see the sign, you point them over to that parking lot and tell them to talk to the folks inside to get permission. If you think it's something more sinister, you detain them until the MP's can get here. I don't think I need to remind you, err on the side of caution. The CO will forgive you detaining someone who didn't need it a lot sooner than letting someone go who you shouldn't have.”
“What if they charge the gate?”
“Then you take cover. If they can actually get through it, you wouldn't have been able to stop them in the first place. There's serious stuff in place if someone tries that, and it takes a serious kind of wizard to break through.”
“What about fuzzies? I'm not so good at telling them apart yet.”
Howard winced internally. “First off, you forget you ever heard that word. If--”
“Aw, c'mon Sarge. We have to call 'em -something-, don't we?”
“Maybe, but not that. Captain Sterling comes through this gate most nights, and she hates that word almost as much as she hates...” He glanced up the road and lowered his voice to a whisper. “...critters. She overhears you saying either of 'em and you can kiss your next promotion goodbye. And probably your last one, too.”
“I wouldn't say it near --”
“Stop making stupid excuses, Martins, and trust me. Just. Don't. Near in her case could be half a mile away with those ears. And that's when she's not hiding. Something spooky about the way she can do that. I've seen her vanish standing in the middle of the sidewalk. I overheard some of the pilots talking one time, and -they- said she can vanish an entire airplane that way if she wants.”
“For real?”
“They weren't pulling -my- leg, Martins. They didn't know I was listening.” He paused to check the ID of an incoming vehicle, then resumed the conversation. “She usually flies in unless she's got something big with her. And she hasn't come through tonight yet. When she's running late...” He paused again, as a swirl of mist and darkness congealed into the form of a bat Changeling dangling from the overhang of the guard shack. Martins backed up against the far wall, wide-eyed. “... she does that. Evening, Captain.”
Sterling presented her ID. “Evening, Sergeant.” She glanced at Martins, who was still nervously huddled against the far side of the guard shack. “Breaking in a new hand?”
“I was just telling him to expect you doing that, ma'am. Since you're usually through here before now.”
“Last minute interruptions, Sergeant. Reassure him I don't bite, will ya?”
“Aye-aye, ma'am.” Howard saluted, Martins followed suit an instant later, and Sterling returned it before spreading her wings and flitting through the gate on her way into the base. The pair watched her go, and Howard actually smiled. “And no, corporal, she's never bitten anyone I know of. She's not a vampire bat.”
“You sure, sarge?”
“Looked 'em up myself when I first met her. Vampire bats have much different teeth. She takes after the brown bats. Cute little guys, actually.”
“If you say so, sarge.”
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 115px
File Size 56.6 kB
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