“What were you going to do if I had said yes to the bet? It’s not like either of us owns anything. Well, I guess I technically own you. Uh, not like that. You know what I mean.” Enken walked back out of the Constabulary’s office. Apparently, there were sixteen constables in the city. Well, twelve. Four of them were on vacation at the moment, but technically the entire city had sixteen.

“I still think it's crazy that there’s so few of you. What if there are seventeen crimes happening at the same time.” Enken had said it was because they were the sixteen most powerful people in the city, but that was still a point to be made.

“Then someone is on double duty.”

“How do you decide who that is?”

“It’s just whoever finishes their assignment first. Also, I think you’re forgetting that other people can handle their own problems most of the time.”

“Okay, but what if-'' Tar stuffed a fluffy tail of pure darkness into Cael’s mouth. He was actually pretty thankful for that. His mouth was getting dry with all the talking he’d been doing while they dropped off the baixan, whose name was Steel, as it turned out.

Flint and Steel— no relation— were both named after stuff related to the earth. When Cael had asked Enken about it, he had learned it was because the baixan had been a mining race a few generations back, and that their naming conventions kind of reflected that.

He supposed it was kind of the same as having the last name ‘Smith’ because one of your ancestors was a blacksmith once upon a time.

‘I guess you’re meeting Flint properly.’ Cael scratched behind Tar’s ears as his mind wandered to their destination. There was really no getting out of it. Either they introduced Tar properly, or Cael would end up blabbing about it anyway.

As they walked, the streets grew busier. A lot more dangerous too. If Cael were to trip, he was in serious danger of falling on top of another person, and half of those people had a biological pincushion sticking out of their backs.

The other half was an iridescent race of hard-shelled insect people. Cael couldn’t tell any of them apart. Thankfully, Tar had stuffed his tail into Cael’s mouth before he could say that. It would have been kind of rude.

Humanoids like Macera, Mercy, and Trista were practically nonexistent, and he’d only seen one other drake all day. They had been a lithe woman selling jewelry.

Cael had checked out her store, but he was much more interested in the woman who ran it. While her jewelry had been colorful, she had been even more so. Her scales covered every hue of the rainbow in a fantastic spiraling pattern that started at her heart. He had told her this, of course.

Apparently, that had been a pretty good compliment, because she had gifted him a silver wire bracelet. She’d said it matched him, which made no sense. Cael’s skin was a warm bronze tone. Tar had agreed with her though, and she had laughed Cael off before telling him to go catch up with Enken, who had notably not been paying attention to Cael and had left the changeling behind when he’d wandered off to talk to the owner of a random jewelry store.

That was Cael's fault. He should know by now to stick close to the large drake. He’d been kidnapped the only time they’d been separated. But there was just something so alluring about the lady and the atmosphere of her building.

He’d tried to hand her the bracelet back, but she’d insisted he keep it. Cael had been too anxious about finding Enken that he hadn’t stayed to argue that hard. He’d been forced to tell her that part too before he thanked her sincerely and rushed out to look for the man. As he left, he slipped the bracelet onto his left arm. His right arm had bandages on it from Steel’s stabbings. Cael figured this balanced him out more. Something about the symmetry.

Just a couple of minutes later, Tar had tracked down the drake and guided Cael back to him.

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Tar was really putting in the work to earn that new name.

Finally, though, they had made it to the orphanage. And there had only been one kidnapping along the way. Certainly, this was news to be celebrated.

The orphanage was a grassy property at the edge of the city. Children, or at least smaller versions of the baixan and the bug people, scarabs, as the System called them. He'd asked Tar, who knew much more about the world around them due to a skill he called [Evaluate Target]

Cael’s leg throbbed in protest. He really needed to sit down.

“Vana, it’s good to see you.” Enken greeted a baixan with dark metallic quills. Other than that, she kind of looked the same as Flint and Steel. Cael hadn’t spent enough time around baixan yet to figure out their defining characteristics.

‘... hey, Tar?’

‘Yes, I will keep track of names for you.’

‘Thank you.’

Cael hoped the elemental’s memory was good because his own definitely wasn’t up to the task.

“Enken, have you brought me another kid? I’m full up as is.” The matronly hedgehog was peering at Cael appraisingly.

“You are?” Enken spoke in a gentle voice to the old baixan. “If you were low on space, you should have contacted City Planning. They would have sent someone down to expand the premises.”

Were there really that many orphans around? That was a harrowing thought, but it made a horrible sort of sense if elementals were just attacking cities at a moment's notice.

‘I said I was sorry.’

‘And I said it was fine.’

“It’s not space, but limited staff that’s the problem.” She confided in the attentive drake.

“I’ll ask around for volunteers.” Enken offered.

“No. That’s a sure way to get the wrong type interested, and I don’t want that for the children.”

She wandered over to Cael as she spoke and grabbed his hand.

“Oh!” Cael exclaimed. The aches and pains all over his body vanished in an instant. “Thank you. That was really nice of you to do.” At least he tried to say that. Tar’s tail was still in the way.

‘Oi.’

‘Fine. You better not say anything embarrassing.’

‘I trust you to stop me before I do.’ He thought, spitting out the tail.

“Sorry about that, I meant to say, ‘thank you’. Also, do you normally use healing magic on everyone you run into?”

“I do, actually. You live with needle-covered children for long enough, and healing just becomes a habit.”

Tar stuffed his tail back in Cael’s mouth.

‘What was that for? I was just going to say her metal-looking quills looked cool.’

‘I think the shining, colorless quills are a sign of old age. You were about to call her old.’

Well, that was as good a reason as any other, and Cael didn’t mind the whole tail thing. It wasn’t like Tar tasted like anything. He trusted the elemental to act in both of their best interests.

‘Honestly, I feel really lucky to have you. I think you’re much better than any [Pain Tolerance] skill.’

‘Hmm. Keep that in mind the next time someone cuts off one of your arms.’

‘I think I’ll be alright. As long as you put up with my complaints afterward, I can live with it. I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Are you secretly trying to take over the world or something?’

‘Secretly? Please. My goal is to rule this universe with an iron fist.’

‘Shadow fist,’ Cael corrected, ‘And that’s fine. Everyone needs dreams. Is there anything else I should be worried about?’

‘Not at the moment. I will let you know if anything comes up.’

‘Please do.’ Cael shook his head and petted the possibly-evil shadow cat with his wonderfully painless arm. Vana was on a rant about the quality of Mercy’s healing abilities, and Enken was listening politely.

‘In the spirit of letting you know about the things that come up, I feel I should warn you about Flint.’

‘What about Flint?’

Tar never answered, instead choosing to leap off of Cael’s shoulders and onto Enken’s head.

“You’re alive!”

"Uh oh," Cael would recognize the voice of his first attempted mugger anywhere.

He was tackled to the dirt by a relieved hedgehog, becoming slightly punctured in the process.