- 33 -
Much to her frustration, Pandora had spent the better part of the morning searching for a good place to conduct her research. She was thankful to Allister for giving her a place to stay the night before, but she couldn't keep getting herself arrested. Besides that, there was no desk in the holding cell, so she searched.
After the incident with the storeroom it was decided to initiate a lock down. All the aimless wandering about an empty ship had given her plenty of time to think, the one thing she didn't want to do right now. Though, that was due more to who she was thinking about. The previous night still weighed heavy on her mind. The way she had made a fool of herself. That's what she gets for trying to grow close to someone. Hadn't she failed enough times to realize she was meant to be alone?
Pandora shook her head, trying to knock the thoughts loose. She needed something else to distract her mind. If only she could find a suitable place to look through her bestiary. Really sink herself into the hunt. She did know of one place perfect for the job; a small library for first and second-class passengers. Unfortunately, no one had bothered to unlock the doors. It made sense. What point was there in opening up the library when all the passengers were on lock down? Still, what a cruel prank fate had played on her. She couldn't return to her room, yet had nowhere to go because everyone else was trapped in theirs.
Once her search had failed, she found herself back at the dining hall. Like everywhere else, the doors were locked, but she could hear the workers inside preparing for dinner. At least she wasn't the only one who's job was complicated by the lock down.
The cooks had it a bit easier since there was no ordering; everyone would receive the same meal. But the wait staff had been put to work pushing carts of food across the whole damn ship, delivering to each room individually. Apparently they had been deemed too essential to be locked away from the youkai.
Pandora didn't want to bother them, they already had enough to deal with, but she had run out of options so she sat her bags on the deck and gave the door three heavy knocks. There was no answer. Pandora wasn't sure if the knock had gone unnoticed or if they were ignoring it, but she didn't expect a different response from trying again. She took up her belongings and turned to leave as the door creaked behind her. Big brown eyes regarded her through a thin crack in the door. They gave two blinks, then the door swung open. They eye were attached to one of the waitresses, a small woman with pale blond hair.
"How did your investigation go? Are you any closer to catching that thing?" the woman asked.
Pandora couldn't remember if this woman was around when she and Allister visited the storeroom, but she recalled her being around on her first trip back to the kitchen. She had stood up to the chef and gotten herself in trouble. Maybe she would be willing to do it again. After all, Pandora was sure the chef wouldn't want her around.
"That's why I'm here. I need to go through my notes; I was looking for a place to sit for a while."
The woman beckoned Pandora inside with a hurried wave. She pulled the door shut, then fastened two separate locks before turning back and saying, "Have you had anything to eat? I can get you something. I know you were working through breakfast."
Pandora moved to the nearest seat and began to unpack her books. "Actually, I haven't. That would be great."
The waitress gave her a warm smile then started for the back. Pandora's gaze followed her until she disappeared into the kitchen. Turning back to her books, Pandora flipped each one open and arranged them so they'd be easy to cross reference. Her notebook lay open at a rendering of a feather. In the corner was a list of every feathered species of youkai she could remember. Each one was crossed through. She had already eliminated them all, but decided to go through again; maybe she had overlooked something. If that failed she would go through every entry in her bestiary one by one looking for anything that matched. She wasn't ready to confront the possibility it was an undocumented species yet. And besides, at least it would get her mind off of Lilith.
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> Pegasus
>
> Anomalous | Negative
>
> Native to Evropa
>
> A youkai taking the appearance of a stallion with gleaming white wings sprouting from its back. It isn't aggressive by nature but may attack those who draw too close. Water springs from the ground as it walks. Important to note as the wet environment this creates enhances the lightning that sprouts from its wings.
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This species was easy enough to rule out. One eye was more than enough for Pandora to see that the creature she fought in the smoking room was not a horse. And that was before considering the distinct lack of water or lightening. She flipped through a dozen pages until she came across the next entry in her list.
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> Gryphon
>
> Baleful | Negative
>
> Native to Central Asia
>
> A species of quadrupedal birds known for collecting and guarding vast hoards of gold. They can be recognized for their cat like body and hawk like head and wings. Any who wish to fight them should note that while their claws are indeed razor sharp, their beaks are even more so. As their eggs are formed from a dense stone, Gryphon beaks are able to break rock from birth; a trait they do not lose as they grow to maturity.
>
> Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
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The depiction of a razor sharp beak and claws was certainly getting closer, but there was nothing feline about her target. It was more full bird than it was half bird. It was possible to pull out some human characteristics, maybe, but no other animal. This too was an easy elimination.
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> Strix
>
> Baleful | Positive
>
> Found world-wide
>
> A Strix is an avian metamorphosis of a witch transformed through a curse. They take the form of large pale birds with forward facing eyes and hooked claws, though some accounts describe dark feathers as well. They are known to hang upside down from the branches of trees. They will lactate a foul smelling milk onto human infants to mark them. Any child marked should be cleansed with garlic for the strix will return to its mark to disembowel them and drink their blood.
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Pandora sighed at having to once more read such nonsense. She only kept this particular bestiary with her as she traveled because it was the most accurate she had come across. But passages like this made her reconsider her choice. No hunter had encountered every type of youkai, let alone done their own studies. The books were filled with shared notes and bound to have some inaccuracies, but that blatant propaganda like this could still make it into published works was disgusting. Of course, she should have expected as much from a book that still had an entry on witches even though it had released years after they had been declassified as youkai.
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> Harpie
>
> Baleful | Positive
>
> Native to Evropa
>
> Man sized birds that distort the human form. They are mostly avian, save for the head and torso of a human woman. No male harpies are known to exist bringing into question how they reproduce. They are said to carry away their victims to the afterlife, leaving them seemly to disappear without a trace in the absence of witnesses.
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Pandora was startled by the clack of a plate hitting the table. Succulent slices of roast duck breast with a spiced apple sauce. Beside it laid a bed of green peas, creamed carrots, and rice.
Pandora smiled up at the waitress. "It looks wonderful. You must not have told the chef it was for me."
"What he doesn't know won't kill him."
Pandora let out a muffled laugh. "Thank you, umm..."
"Gabriella."
"Your name is near as cute as you are."
As soon as the words were out, Pandora's heart turned against her. Each beat was punctuated with a stabbing pain. A clear condemnation of her behavior.
"Sorry, I need to get back to work now," Pandora said softly.
"I'll be in the back. Feel free to come to me if you need anything."
Pandora dropped her gaze back to her books trying to hide how disappointed she was in herself. It wasn't like Gabriella was unreceptive to the flirting. She had answered it with a knowing smile and a tender touch on the shoulder before heading back to the kitchen. And it wasn't like she was unattractive either; She was no Lilith but...
There it was; the real problem. Lilith might not have wanted to be with her, but she still wanted to be with Lilith. The feeling had consumed Pandora's every thought for days now. From even before the night under the stars. Her heart was giving her clear signals.
Of course, that hadn't stopped her from flirting with the first set of x chromosomes she had come across. What was her end goal? To go back to Gabriella's room and fuck her? Over the past decade Pandora had plenty of one night stands, and exactly zero lasting relationships. Never once had she felt better the next morning. Why was she still trying? It was time for her to accept that the last person who cared about her died ten years ago. And no matter how much she wanted Lilith to fill that void, she had scared her away.
Pandora dropped face first into her notebook. Suddenly, sitting up felt like so much effort. Or maybe it was her thoughts weighing her down. The whole point of going back through her rejected theories had been to distract herself from Lilith. What a miserable failure that had been. Now it was all she could think of.
I'm such a stupid bitch. Why didn't I just keep my feelings to myself. A week might as well be a minute to a serious relationship. Especially when Lily has every reason not to trust me.
She should have stuck to her original idea. Offered to train Lilith as a hunter, maybe even given her a place to stay in the city. Two weeks aboard the ship would never have been enough time, especially with Lilith being a youkai. The amount of trust she would need to build before she could reveal what she knew was far to great. There was no hope of a relationship until she could show Lilith that even though they were different, they were still the same.
Pandora shot up straight. How had she overlooked something so simple? She riffled through pages in the bestiary until she settled on the entry for Tengu.
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> Tengu
>
> Abhorent | Positive
>
> Found in mountain ranges across the western hemisphere
>
> Tengu are viciously clever creatures that take the appearance of human religious figures. They have large wings and deep red skin that gives them away as non-human. Their most distinguished characteristic is their long pointed nose. They are most often seen dressed in religious garb common to the north-west leading scholars to theorize that they originate from that region. Though most commonly spotted alone, it has long been known that Tengu act as the head of secluded settlements of similar youkai. See Kotengu.
>
> Kotengu
>
> Baleful | Positive
>
> Found in mountain ranges across the western hemisphere
>
> Kotengu resemble large birds of prey with human characteristics. They represent a more feral variant of the Tengu. Though less intelligent than that of their greater counterpart, they do still reach human level. Kotengu are know to be actively malicious towards humans. Murder, rape, and torture have all been reported. The most common attacks include abducting people only to drop them from great heights or tying children to the tops of trees to listen to them scream as they slowly die to the elements.
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That was it; the creature was a kotengu. She had originally disregarded the species based on another variant, but everything matched up. Different, yet the same. Thank you Lily, I found this because of you. It was a bittersweet victory, something else to funnel her thoughts towards Lilith, but now she had everything she needed to organize her hunt: Known behaviors, physical characteristics, blood properties. She needed to find Allister and let him know.
"There's a problem," Gabriella shouted from the threshold to the kitchen, worry plastered on her face.
"What happened?"
"We just got a call over the radio. They want us to stay inside and lock the doors. There's been another attack."
Pandora snatched her weapon and rushed for the exit. Before stepping out she turned back to the scared waitress and said, "Make sure no one steals my books. Some of them are quite expensive."
Pandora hoped the display of confidence would calm the woman down a bit, but she didn't have time to wait and see. She rushed out onto the deck and started down the side of the ship. She needed to find one of the security patrols. They would be able to lead her towards her target. But before she could find anyone she noticed something that stopped her in her tracks. A book laying abandoned on the ground. Pandora picked it up and examined it. The cover was well worn; a once deep blue faded with time. The books title was embossed in Silver and Gold leaf on the front. One that she recognized.
'Chains of Love' by Christina Claremont.
A deep dread washed over Pandora.