The door opened.

Xe stepped forward, shrieked, and leapt back. Something had moved straight towards xir out of the smoke.

The music stopped.

Xe froze into a defensive crouch. Whatever had moved towards xir was still in there. Xe waited a moment for something to happen. When nothing did - except the music had stopped, and xe was trying xir best not to break into full-blown panic - xe stepped forward again, leg trembling.

It was a coat. A big, thick, blue business coat, hanging from a hook. It hadn't moved towards xir after all, it'd just seemed that way in the swirling smoke. Its thick sleeve had loomed suddenly.

Was this a coat closet?

A voice said "Hello?" from somewhere behind her. A deep, smooth, confident voice.

Startled out of xir mind and operating on pure instinct, xe ducked into the closet and closed the door behind xir. Two more coats, one in black and one a sort of velvety maroon that reminded xir of Welton's red jacket, hung next to the first. None of them had dust on them.

Muffled footsteps approached across the carpet outside the door. "Hello?" the voice said again. "Is everything okay out here?"

Another voice said, "it must've been the music, Guy. It just sounded like someone shouting in the background."

"I've listened to that album a thousand times," said the first voice, "and I've never heard a shriek like that."

Maybe xe should reveal xirself? If xe was caught hiding in a closet, wouldn't that look worse than if xe stepped forward and introduced xirself, boldly?

"You think we've got eavesdroppers?" asked the second voice.

"If we do," said Guy, "it won't go well for them."

Then again, maybe xe should stay hidden.

"I don't see anyone out here," said the second voice.

"Then you've got better eyes than me, Phil," said Guy. "If you ask me, anyone could be lurking in this haze you've spewed out."

"It's your haze too," said Phil.

"No, Phil. I like a good cigar. You like a minor forest fire." The footsteps came closer. Whoever made them, Rakkel thought, must be heavy. But a fat sort of heavy? Or a muscular sort of heavy?

"Whoever it was that shrieked," said Guy, "they're not over here unless..." the handle on the closet door began to turn. Rakkel could barely see it, but xe could hear the sound of sliding metal. Xe cowered back into the corner of the closet.

Behind xir, xe felt a panel in the wall, like some gap in the architecture or unfinished ventilation hole had been covered up with cheap plywood. Or at least, like something had been covered up with cheap plywood. Xe took a gamble and hooked xir grooming claws around the edges, prying it off the wall as quickly as xe could.

"You really think someone's hiding in the coat closet, Guy?" said Phil.

The knob stopped turning.

"I don't know if someone's hiding in the coat closet, Phil," said Guy. "I mean to find out."

"Didn't we lock the front door, anyway? How could someone have gotten in here?"

"Did we?"

"Er..."

The plywood came away. Behind it, just as Rakkel hoped, was a hole. Xe'd had a momentary vision of Guy bursting into the closet to find Rakkel standing there, awkwardly holding a wooden square in front of xir like a shield, the wall behind xir missing a patch of paint toward the floor but otherwise intact.

If xe didn't move quickly, though, Guy would have a momentary vision of a black and white striped tail disappearing into the wall, which was already more of xir than xe wanted him to see. There weren't a lot of people in Forash, xe figured, running around with black and white striped tails.

Xe didn't waste time finishing these thoughts before xe crawled into the hole. Xe could think and crawl in parallel.

The door came open behind xir.

There was a heavy, pensive silence in the closet.

"Phil, was there a hole in this wall before?"

Rakkel couldn't hear Phil's response.

"Well, there is now," said Guy.

Another muffled response from Phil.

"No, I don't," said Guy. "I know what I heard. Now, there's a possibility that it came from somewhere else, and the sound carried through that hole. But I don't remember seeing a piece of plywood on the floor when I hung up my coat in here. I think I'd remember seeing a thing like that."

Xe continued crawling away. Any moment, xe thought, Guy would duck down to peer into the crawlspace, and see xir after all.

The crawlspace opened up just ahead. Xe pulled xirself forward through it and tumbled into the room on the other side.

Xe heard a noise behind xir, in the crawlspace. Xe bent down to look back through it.

On the other side, xe saw a pair of shining retinas. Xe stared back at them, unsure what to do and unable to see a face behind them.

"Interesting," said the voice of Guy.

The tapetum lucidums rose back up out of view.

Those weren't human eyes, Rakkel thought, followed by, why could he see me if I couldn't see him? Or could he see me after all? Maybe he'd only seen xir own eyes glowing back at his through the darkness. That'd still qualify as "interesting," wouldn't it? For a confused moment, xe felt relief as xe remembered xe had a handkerchief over xir face, then felt it go away again as xe realized how little that would help protect xir identity.

"Do you know what's behind this wall, Phil?" asked Gus.

"No, what?" Evidently, Phil had joined Gus in the coat closet. Rakkel could hear him clearly again.

"I don't know either," admitted Gus. "Could be anything." There was a pause, and then the sound of shifting fabric.

Rakkel moved away from the hole and turned to look at the room xe'd tumbled into. It was less a room, more a sort of awkward little wooden space between the walls, too small to be useful. Doople might've been able to live comfortably in it, but anyone else would get claustrophobic, which was probably why whoever built the place hadn't bothered to finish it.

Surprisingly, light came in through an extraordinarily dirty skylight set awkwardly into the top part of the sloped ceiling. Xe wondered why anyone had bothered to install a skylight into this non-room. Probably just to preserve the symmetry of the appearance from the outside or something like that.

Seeing no other way out, Rakkel took a running start and leapt as high as xe could. Xe just managed to hook xir grooming claws into a thin gap between one wall and the ceiling. Xe dangled for a moment, fingers hurting. Lemurs were built for climbing, yes, but not like this. Xe hoped xir claws wouldn't just snap. But there wasn't anywhere else to gain purchase.

"What are you doing?" said Phil.

"I'm going after them," said Guy. "What else? Hold my vest, would you?"

"It's probably just rats," said Phil.

"It's not rats," said Guy.

Rakkel began making xir way hand-over-hand around the wall. The crack sloped upward toward the higher part of the ceiling. Dust and wood fragments fell down every time xe shoved xir claws into the next part of the gap. Xe tried not to sneeze. Back home, xe was famous for xir cute sneezes, which at the time seemed unlikely to ever threaten to be the death of xir. At least now the handkerchief proved useful.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The sound of crawling came from the crawlspace. Fortunately, it seemed that Guy was not a fast crawler.

Rakkel was a very fast climber, and thank goodness. Xe finished hauling xirself up and along the sloped top of the wall, hand over hand, to the skylight. Xir nail bases screamed in pain. At least on this side, the crack became wide enough that xe could slide xir slender fingers over, relieving the two claws somewhat.

The skylight had no latch. Of course it didn't, xe thought. Xe began scraping furiously at the ancient paint with one grooming claw, clinging desperately to the top of the wall with the other hand. Xir palms and feet gripped tightly to the rough wood. Paint flakes fell like dandruff.

Steady thumps and bumps came from the crawlspace, slowly drawing nearer and nearer, deep and even, resembling Rakkel's heartbeat in no way, shape or form. Rakkel began to scrabble more desperately at the edge of the window. Xe tried to work xir other hand's claw into it, supporting xirself only with xir legs, and almost fell before catching xirself. Xe alternated scraping the paint and simply banging against it with a fist. Guy must certainly be able to hear the banging, but there was nothing else xe could do. It had to open. It simply had to.

Suddenly, smoothly, almost anticlimactically, the window popped open. Rakkel's arms grabbed the sides and pulled Rakkel through before xe even realized. Xe dragged xirself onto the roof, rearranged xir body upward in a kind of automatic, keyframed transition that seemed to ignore xir actual joints, and took off away from the skylight as fast as possible, or maybe slightly faster than that.

As xe started running, the jazz music started up again. It came out of the skylight and chased xir away across the rooftop.

Welton couldn't enjoy his banana.

He got to the final bite without having tasted any of it, then stared morosely at that last bit of chocolate-coated, chipotle-flavored banana pulp.

Years - decades - no, centuries of genetic manipulation went into the creation of this snack, he thought, and I can't even be bothered to taste it.

He threw the peel along with the last bite into a gutter.

He reflected that, never mind the trials and tribulations suffered by the innocent banana throughout history, fragile monoculture that humanity had turned it into and all, there was also the matter of the amount of chocolate that he'd just wasted. In his youth, before the great Chocolate Reclaimation Project had succeeded, even that tiny amount of rich, pure, dark chocolate would've been a rare treasure. His own parents, who'd both been heavily involved in the project, knew the value of chocolate all too well, and would've scolded him and maybe even beat him for throwing it away like that.

Welton thought chocolate was delicious. He couldn't help that. This was a fundamental truth of chocolate, undeniable and irresistable. But now that it could be grown easily in any climate, he took a certain delight in throwing little bits of it away. Or at least, he had for a while. He thought he'd outgrown the habit. He hated his parents, sure, but he didn't need to spite them anymore like that. He'd figured out that it didn't help anything.

In this case, he'd probably just done it because he was being generally moody and petulant. And as he had that thought, his petulant mood evaporated. What was the big deal, anyway? So Rakkel, a person he barely knew, wasn't the person he imagined she was, or something like that. He really didn't need to let it get to him this much.

He shrugged, stretched, and took off his jacket.

The sun felt warm, filtered though it was through the scratched, dirty glass of the market tube windows. The bustle around him felt like the bustle of life. Why worry about anything? Here he was, free, unrestrained, at large in the city of Forash. His family wouldn't find him here, his fortune lay before him, and his future seemed bright. Rakkel could live her own life, and the best of luck to her.

Maybe he'd just needed to eat something, he thought. It'd already reached late afternoon. The tables and stalls and ramshackle shops made weird shadows across the ridges of the tube's insides, as the setting sun pushed them to extreme angles. He'd rushed breakfast and missed lunch. At least there'd be a delicious dinner waiting for him at Doople's place. But he'd needed the banana to tide him over for sure.

Ahead of him, in the crowd, he saw a fin.

He squinted at it, perplexed. It vanished between a couple of people.

Must've been some kind of novelty backpack, he thought, or maybe I just missaw it.

No, there it was again. A definite dorsal fin coming out of someone's back.

Another bio-modder? He moved toward them. The crowd made it difficult here. He'd wandered to a part of the market where a lot of people had set up food stalls, and he wasn't the only person around who'd noticed how close it was getting to dinner time. He found himself being jostled about. Occasional angry mutterings on the theme of "watch it, pig-face" echoed around him.

He ignored them and pushed forward. Another flash of fin, this time at the end of a tail that swept along the ground past a forest of ankles. Definitely a bio mod, he thought. He grinned, in spite of the experiences of the past day.

A break in the crowd opened up, and he saw another hint of gray flesh. He jogged forward. Whoever this was seemed to be heading south, towards the place where the two rivers met and mingled.

There was a gap in the wall of the tube just ahead. He followed the stranger through it into a sandy clearing, where for some reason a number of lots had been roped off in which household appliances stood on display. The crowds respected the ropes: Suddenly, he saw his target clearly.

They were a grey-fleshed, beak-faced dolphin wearing some kind of green jumpsuit. They actually did have on a backpack under the dorsal fin - it had a notch cut in its lid to make room for it. But even as he stared, the crowd carried them away again.

Determined not to lose them, he jumped a rope and ran across one of the lots, hopscotching over solar-powered vaccuum cleaners and ignoring the yells of the vaccuum cleaner dealers. He caught a hoof on the ropes on the other side, stumbled awkwardly for a moment, then shook himself free and kept running, the edges of the lot ruined behind him.

There they were, walking into the tube on the other side of the yard, the crowd finally thinning behind them. He hurried forward.

"Hey!" he shouted, coming up behind the dolphin. The dolphin, confused, took a moment to turn around and look at him, which gave him just enough time to realize that he had no idea what he was going to say to them.

"Oh," they said, "you're a bio-modder!" Their face broke into a grin. "Hi!" they said.

"Hi," said Welton. "Uh, yeah. I saw your tail moving through the crowd, so I thought I'd come say hello. There aren't very many of us around here."

"Doesn't look like it," they agreed. "I'm new in town. Name's Essabrou."

"Welton," said Welton. He extended a hand. Essabrou took it in webbed, rubbery digits.

"I'm kinda new in town myself," he added. "Just been here a couple of days."

"I got in this morning. I'm working one of the cargo ships from upriver. We're docked for a few days while they unload, so I thought I'd come see the sights. Was just looking for somewhere to go eat. Wanna come get food with me? I'll treat you. I don't meet a lot of other bio-modders."

Good grief, thought Welton. Now he knew why Rakkel had been so reluctant to come to the market with him when they'd only just met. He'd said a handful of words to this total stranger and already they wanted to treat him to dinner. Was that right? It felt uncomfortable to him. But then again, he was the one who'd chased them down across the marketplace, not the other way around. Could he really judge?

More importantly, did he want to get to know them better, or not? Of course he did.

"I just had most of a banana," he said, "so I'm set for food. But I'll walk with you."

"I'm a porpoise, by the way," said Essabrou.

"Eh?"

"Not a dolphin. A porpoise. Everyone always gets it wrong, so I figure I'll just clear that up right now and save us some awkwardness later."

"Right," said Welton, "okay. Good to know. I'm just a pig, no gotchas."

"Cool! Actually, no, that is really, seriously cool! I've never heard of anyone doing a pig morph before."

"Ah, thanks," said Welton. "I guess there aren't very many of us." Only one that I know of, he thought privately.

"It looks good," they said. "Handsome."

"Ah," said Welton. "Er, thanks."

"I like the way you've done it. Very sleek. How do you feel about seafood? Oh, that's right - you had a banana. Well, if you think you're going to want to get some food after all and you can't stand seafood, speak up now."

"Just as long as it's vat seafood," said Welton. "Not wild-caught."

Essabrou hesitated. "Yeah," they said. "Of course."

"I really meant it about the banana, though," he said.

"Yeah, no worries. Just saying." They'd already turned and started walking away. Welton followed.

Rakkel doubted Guy had followed xir onto the roof, unless he was both lighter and more athletic than he'd seemed, but xe kept running anyway.

At the edge of the roof, xe climbed down and stopped to take a breather. This wasn't the marketplace anymore. It was some kind of alleyway, roughly cobbled, which ran along the side of a series of long, low brick buildings. Xe guessed they were warehouses. The building xe'd just escaped from resembled it on this side, save that the windows were all boarded up, and on the other side of the building from where xe stood, it transitioned into about three stories of what had probably once been a skyscraper, its upper part covered by a huge tarpaulin from which twisted steel girders stuck at unpleasant angles. At the moment, the sun hung just behind it, turning it into an ember-limned silhouette of itself, diabolical against the skyline of bowing, cowering supplicants.

Though this fascinated Rakkel, xe didn't stick around to take it in. Instead, xe set off again, running down the alleyway back toward where xe thought the market was.

Both office-lined hallways, xe figured, must've been part of the skyscraper. Not many skyscrapers still stood, and those that did had mostly been repurposed as vertical gardens, or solar farms, or just as housing. But the others had been dismantled, xe thought. Usually very carefully - they'd have to be, wouldn't they? It wasn't the sort of job one approached haphazardly.

Maybe that's what had happened to this one: Someone had gone to demolish it, planned poorly, and destroyed the top part. Though even if that were the case, what had they done to twist those girders so violently? Mostly the goal in skyscraper demolition projects was to reclaim as much of them as possible for other uses.

Which, in the old days, wasn't really the way they'd been built. They were supposed to stand forever, or something like that. Or probably the builders hadn't even thought ahead. In the age of luxury, they had the resources not to bother with thinking about endings.

But who were Guy and Phil? What were they doing in there? How much of xir had they seen? In retrospect, xe supposed xe'd deserved all of it, poking xir fuzzy little snout into places uninvited like that. It hadn't been any of xir business and it still wasn't.

At least xe'd gotten away.

Given the late hour, xe supposed xe'd have to skip dinner and go hunt down that hostel again. Xe was pretty sure xe remembered how to get back, once xe reached the riverside. Or maybe xe could stop by Doople's on the way? No, xe'd given all xir money to Salmidon, and xe didn't want to impose on Doople any more than xe already had.

Not that xe knew where xe currently was in the city. But it couldn't be that hard to find the riverside from here. Right?