I awoke with the morning light once again. I got up, stretched, curled my tail, and spread my wings. That stretch got interrupted as I heard the sound of a door opening, forcing me to duck behind the HVAC unit and tuck my wings back within the space covered by the illusion spell. It felt like I’d barely slept at all, here on the roof of Ida Grove Emergency Veterinary Clinic. I stayed hidden as gravel crunched underfoot, waiting. After the door closed, I heard Cheryl’s voice call out. “Are you here? Um… Dog?” Well, at least she was making an effort to not call me “Weird Dog”. We had gotten interrupted before I could actually talk much about myself.

I peeked out from around the corner of the metal box, making sure she was alone before I said anything. “Yeah, I’m here. Are you all right, after last night…?”

“Yeah, I guess thanks to you… I can’t believe he did that, he… He’s gone crazy. Gotten so jealous, I don’t know what happened to him…” She sat down against the wall and I sat down a short distance away.

“I’m surprised you’re up here, isn’t your shift over?”

“I didn’t do the second half of it, I’ve been talking to police and hanging out around here, I just… didn’t want to go home right now. Not with Chad there.” She stared in the direction of her feet, but it was clear she wasn’t looking, just staring into the distance.

“You live with him?” I paced a little, the end of my tail flicking in irritation at the thought of a friend being in danger.

“Yeah, though… Well, a friend is gonna let me stay at her place for now. I don’t know what I’m going to do…” Her forehead rested on her arms as she sighed heavily.

“Mmh. …You and me both.” I settled down onto my stomach, sprawling out.

“Oh?” Her head lifted. Taking the focus off her seemed like what she needed, and I hadn’t had a chance to talk much about myself.

“Yeah, I… I came here looking for someone. My Owner. Except, I have no clue what I’m doing. I’ve been wandering, but I guess I’m hoping I’ll bump into him somehow? If he’s even here? This is the closest town to… where I last know he was, I guess. At least, where I hope he was. Ugh, what if I even have that wrong?” I rolled into my back, the sun barely over the tree line of the surrounding woodlands.

“I meant to ask about that. You have a collar, after all… But there’s no tag on it?”

“Yeah, just… never got one, I suppose. Wasn’t much need, kinda forgot about it I guess.”

“Not many talking dogs with fox eyes, yeah.”

“Heh, yeah, something like that.” I wasn’t sure what to say. The silence weighed a little heavily. “My name’s Princess, by the way.”

“That’s a cute name. Better than ‘Weird Dog’.” Cheryl smiled softly.

“Thank you. It sort of… was kind of like a nickname that stuck? I like it. …I like being cute. It feels good.” I thought back to the day it was picked out. The day Master rescued me from the guard tower, preventing me from being butchered by taking on all of Elimaio’s assets as well as debts. Like a knight in shining armor, and I’m his Princess.

“What’s your Owner’s name?”

“Oh! Um, Tola. Sorry, I’m just, so used to thinking of him as just ‘Master’, it took me a second.”

Gravel clattered as Cheryl moved, a shadow alerting me that she was coming closer. I had to quickly roll away, up onto my feet, back arched as I escaped her hand that had reached out for my stomach. “Oh, sorry, I guess I should’ve asked if you wanted a belly rub? I thought, from the pose…”

I calmed down a little, but kept my distance. “Nnh, no, I… Sorry, I just… Don’t touch me. Please.” I couldn’t tell her it was because she wouldn’t find fur if she did.

“All right, I won’t. Why not, though?”

“I don’t… want to be touched.” My gaze lowered. “I’ll talk, but no touching, okay?”

“No touching. …You weren’t abused or anything, were you? By Tola?”

The question made me bristle. Accusing Master of… “What? No! No, of course not! Master takes really good care of me, he’s nice, he rescued me… He’s saved my life, time and time again!”

“Rescued? Is that why you don’t want to be touched, then?”

“It’s… Well… I suppose it’s related…” Distantly, anyway. I was rescued from Elimaio, who turned me into a dragon and tortured me, and I don’t want to be touched because I’m a dragon. Hm. “It’s… a really long story, and you wouldn’t believe it anyway.”

“I don’t know, I think I’d believe almost anything, coming from a talking fox-eyed dog.” She chuckled again.

“Okay, you got me there, but… no, I don’t… want to get into it. Yet. Maybe later. I just want to find Master. Find Master, get home, that’s all.”

“I can understand that. Where is home, then?” She picked up a piece of gravel as she leaned back against the wall, tossing it idly towards the large metal cube with vents of the HVAC unit. It made a loud ping noise.

“It’s… far. Really, really far. I hate it here. I mean, one wrong move, and… You can imagine what a huge risk I took just speaking to you, if you reacted badly, told anyone, decided to vivisect me, there’s… a lot you could choose to do. Multiply that by every single human being I come across, knowing any one of them might take a little too much interest in a Weird Dog.”

“That does sound stressful. Heh, kind of makes what I’m going through seem so plain.” She picked up another rock of gravel and flung it. The area it hit had several dents, and now I had a good idea how they got there.

“Yeah, stressful. But… If Master can use my help…” I settled onto my haunches, sitting down and looking up at the sky, a single cloud passing by. It looked so much like the ones back on Terra that I could almost, but not quite, forget which world I was on for a moment.

“You really do like him, huh? This Tola guy? He got a last name?”

“Master? He… I… I don’t… actually know. Huh. It never occurred to me to ask, and it never came up, I guess.”

“Still, it’s an unusual name. How long have you known each other?”

“Oh, almost a year now. We’ve got a… nice place, outside a town that’s even smaller than this one, believe it or not. He does… variety work? I don’t… really know a good way to describe it.” How could I tell someone he’s a magician for hire, essentially? A talking dog is one thing, but actual magic, dragons, other worlds… It was much too much.

“Sounds nice. I can try to check for lost dog postings, shouldn’t be too hard. I mean, he’d be looking for you, wouldn’t he?”

“Of course he would! …If… he knew I was here… Now that I think about it, I don’t think he… thinks I could’ve followed him. We are REALLY far from home…” A heavy dread settled into my thoughts again. This was starting to feel impossible again.

“I can still post Found Dog signs or something? There’s gotta be something I can do to help.” She reached a hand out but stopped herself before she actually moved from her spot, turning the movement into a shrug.

“I really appreciate that, I do. I just feel so overwhelmed. Master’s out there, alone, somewhere, and I don’t even know if I’m close or far or if he’s… What if he got hurt before I could get here? Or if he gets hurt before I can find him? I’m… I’m really scared.”

“Hey, hey, you can’t help that, you just gotta keep doing your best. You’re doing great, you came this far, haven’t you? And now you’ve got a second person looking!”

My tail wagged a little, gravel being scattered behind me. I stood up and stretched, though. I didn’t want to risk it giving away anything, since my actual tail extended a bit beyond where the illusion ended.

Cheryl’s phone beeped, causing her to check it. “Yeah, I should’ve… expected that. Chad wants me to pick up my stuff and move out. I just… I don’t want to go alone. I know it’s a lot to ask, but you… you protected me tonight. Last night? Earlier. Would you… be willing to come with me?” It beeped again and she laughed. “Yeah, I think I definitely want you there, if that’s okay.”

“Heh, yeah, I think if I’m there, he’s gonna… really hesitate to start anything.”

“Especially after you came roaring at him last time… Though, now that I think about it, you didn’t really sound like a dog. You sounded more like a cougar or something, dogs are more snarling than roaring.”

“There’s a lot that’s weird about me. Otherwise I would’ve been ‘Normal Dog’, wouldn’t I?” I didn’t make eye contact. I didn’t like having to hold so much back, but what could I do?

She took the stairs, and I jumped down the back side using the low wall like usual. It was more comfortable than jumping straight down, and I didn’t want people inside the clinic seeing me jump down through the window. With that, she led me to her car and let me into the back seat, before getting in and driving.

Seven days after arrival, the same day I would later arrive, ‘James Smith’ was in the possession of a convincing-looking driver’s license, as far as he could tell. It probably wouldn’t hold up to a search against an official database, you couldn’t really get a card like that if you chose the name, or without paying ten times the cost he did. It took most of the remaining cash he had on him, but it would hopefully be worth it.

Entering the bookstore, the bell above the door rang out. Today he was in normal Earth clothes again. Wearing his old Terran outfit gave him an awkward feeling, making him worry that he was trying too hard to cling to what was lost. After so long, it felt strange to not have the Mage’s Guild badge somewhere on his clothing, though.

“Oh, hey, James! You’re looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!” The cheerful voice of his employer, Miss Brown, called out from behind the desk.

“Bushy-tailed?” He started to twist around for a moment, but stopped himself. “Hm, I don’t think I’ve heard that expression before, I have to admit.”

“Maybe it’s a Minnesota thing, that’s where I grew up, you know.”

“Maybe.” Stepping behind the counter, he shrugged his satchel off his shoulder and placed it on a shelf underneath the counter, out of view.

“What about you? Where’d you grow up?” Her enigmatic employee was such an enticing mystery to the woman.

“Oh, here on Earth.” James smirked, it was something of a game to him, fending off her probing questions. She’d have to be more sneaky than that to get things out of him.

“Oh, you silly Billy! Fine, have it your way.”

The two settled into a slow day of manning the bookstore, one that threatened to be dreary with too few customers to break up the passing hours. One in particular, though, caught James’ attention. He had a way of walking that struck him as almost predatory, looking with disdain at the stacks of books he passed over. Finally, the customer came to the counter.

“What’s with these…?” He gestured dismissively at the shelves behind him, as if any description would be too good for them. “Where’s your real stock?”

Miss Brown seemed to bristle at that. “What are you talking about, ‘real stock’? What’s wrong with the books? There’s tons of great titles, great authors!”

“If I want to waste my time, yeah. But I’m wanting real information.” The customer glowered, though perhaps he realized he was risking alienating the best source of what he wanted, as he softened almost immediately. “I mean, something that goes past fiction.”

“What, like textbooks? I think I still have some, what subjects are you looking for? They’re not the latest editions, don’cha-know, so I can cut a discount on them…”

James watched the exchange carefully. He’d seen this type so many times, the kind that think they know everything, that think everyone else is beneath them. And asking for ‘real stock’ in this particular store… It was important to keep his breathing calm and steady, to be ready for anything. A guy this brash was likely overconfident, someone competent would already have their sources, they wouldn’t be so indelicate.

“Really? Textbooks? That’s… all you have?” His voice was incredulous, as if he hoped he could stare the woman down into giving him what he wanted.

“I mostly deal with fiction, that’s what I like. There’s no money in textbooks unless they’re the newest editions, and I don’t have the floor space to devote to them. The community college has its own bookstore if you want more of those. You sure you don’t want anything? You look like a Piers Anthony sort, eh? That goatee of yours, reminds me of the Apprentice Adept series kind of guy.”

James couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle at that, earning him a sharp glare from the customer. “Sorry, the early books were all right, but I preferred the Death Gate Cycle.” Smooth.

The customer gave an exasperated sigh. “Forget it. Sorry to bother you.” With that, he spun on his heel and stormed out.

Miss Brown watched him leave, waiting a bit after the bell’s ringing stopped. “Huh, wonder what that was all about. Though, it wasn’t a total loss.”

James raised an eyebrow. “Oh, what did you possibly gain from that exchange?”

“I got you to admit a preference.” She grinned.

“Huh. Yes, I suppose you did.”

“Two, actually. You didn’t like Piers Anthony? I thought everyone liked his stuff.”

“Like I said, the early stuff was fine. When Phaze was full of wonder and possibility. My biggest issue with that and Xanth is how the worlds he creates seem to… not really have much history before the books. They quickly become convoluted messes, but stayed so straightforward until the main characters showed up. Almost stagnant. I almost get the feeling he never goes in expecting to make a series, when he writes the first book.”

Miss Brown was silent, digesting the analysis and trying to bring her own memories to the surface to compare them. “Huh. It’s been a while since I’ve read them, maybe I’ll reread them. Still, is that so bad? If something is good, why not write more?”

“Oh, I’m not complaining about that so much. It’s more like… starting with a smooth sandbox, drawing shapes, covering the entire thing, and then coming back to the same sandbox for a second drawing. You have to try to squeeze between drawings carefully, and there just isn’t room, and every new drawing you make in the same sandbox makes people wonder how it stayed so pristine.”

“Certainly have a way with words. Ever thought about being an author?”

James chuckled and shook his head. “I have a hard enough time telling stories about myself, let alone things I make up. No thank you. I’m content to read what others come up with, excitement is overrated.”

The rest of the day was spent discussing different books, each recommending a series to the other, sometimes even going as far as to pull a book off the shelves to hand to each other.

Cheryl and I pulled up to the house I’d visited before. The same rusted truck was in the driveway. I didn’t really like the feel of this, but I liked even less the idea of sending Cheryl here alone. When she knocked at the door, a bleary-eyed Chad answered, looking like he hadn’t gotten much sleep. At least he had a fresh pair of jeans on, though.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“I’m here to get my stuff.” The note of sadness was covered by the cold, projected confidence she struggled to maintain.

“Yeah, come on, I–Shit!” I had moved to follow Cheryl inside. “That… What is that THING doing here?” He nearly fell over himself, backing up into the living room.

“Oh, I’m trying to find her owner, she showed up at the clinic. She seems to like me. Besides, you might pull out another baseball bat.” She entered the house and I followed along, making sure to keep my gaze trained on him. It was hard not to feel a little amused.

“You don’t… You don’t know what I saw! You can’t let it… You gotta stay away from it! It’s evil! It’s a beast from Hell itself!” He backed away more, growing more agitated.

“What, Princess? She’s a sweet dog, when you’re not swinging weapons at women.” She started to pack items into a box, while Chad ducked out into the bedroom area, I suppose.

A few minutes later, however, the distinctive sound of a shotgun being pumped resounded in the air, making us both freeze in place. Chad stood in the doorway, a kitchen behind him and a hallway to his side, holding the weapon across his chest, but not yet aiming it. “Get over here, Cheryl. I promise, I just wanna keep you safe, you gotta get away from that thing, it’s a real life Hellhound!”

“What the– Chad!? Put the gun down, please…!”

“Get over here! If you don’t… If you’re in league with it, I’ll shoot you both! C’mon, I don’t wanna shoot you, girl…”

Cheryl looked at me and I tried to nod slightly towards Chad, backing away slowly. Carefully, she stepped over beside him. Once she was out of his line of sight, she slipped her phone out of her pocket, just enough to unlock it and hit dial. She’d had 911 dialed before coming in, just in case, but she hadn’t expected this. With that, she locked it again so it wouldn’t hang up before letting it slip back into her pocket, hoping it would be enough. “You’re… You’re not right, Chad… You don’t have to do this, please. You don’t have to shoot anyone…”

“I ain’t shooting anyone, I’m shooting a damn demon-dog.” With Cheryl “safe”, he raised the gun towards me. “Any last words, Hellhound?”

I kept my voice low and measured. “Not that it matters, but I’m not a Hellhound. I don’t even know if those actually exist.”

“See? It talks! I told you it’s a demon!”

“Stop it, Chad! Just put the shotgun down, please!” She spoke loudly, partially out of fright, possibly to make sure the phone could pick it up. I didn’t know how loud she’d need to be, or if this was enough.

Either way, I saw him raise the gun to his shoulder, and dove behind the couch right as the thunderclap tore through the air, pellets ripping apart a section of carpet right where I’d been standing. Surely the phone would pick that up.

I wasn’t an expert on shotguns, but the fact that I wasn’t hearing reloading probably meant he was still ready to fire. Two barrels, that meant two shots, right? It looked like a pretty old design, but again, not an expert. My heart raced, and a plan began to form. It was gonna be risky, but I didn’t know what he’d do if I didn’t try.

“Yeah! You’re scared, huh? I didn’t know if this’d even do any good, but if you’re scared, it means I’m right! C’mon out, demon! We’ll see who sends who to Hell!”

I let out a low growl, then a roar as I shot a wing upward above the couch. The sudden movement was what I had hoped, the thunderclap rang out, but so did searing pain. Buckshot ripped through my wing membrane and I screeched, hissing. There was no time to delay, though, this was my opening. This time, I leapt for real over the couch, bounding to close the distance as fast as possible. Sure enough, he had the shotgun opened in half, but the motion made him drop the shells in his hand, raising the gun across his body like a staff to protect himself.

Not that it did him much good, though between that and him backing up, my claws that swiped only left a series of shallow gashes across his chest before he fell onto the tile, myself dropping to all fours, the gun clattering to the floor to the side. I let out a deep growl and hissed again, my wings were already tucked in within the illusion.

The haze of pain made my heart pound like a drum in my ears, and I glared, taking a step forward. He shrieked and scrabbled away.

“Back, demon! I… I’m a f-faithful servant of God! You have n-no power over us! The Lord protects his flock!”

Bastard. A cruel idea flickered in my head. He wanted a “Hellhound”? Fine, then.

I gave it my cruellest voice. “Faithful servant? Hah! You couldn’t even love a single woman, let alone understand God’s love for all His creatures!”

“Wha–…? I… I loved Cheryl! What do you mean, I didn’t?”

“You didn’t LOVE her, you fool! You COVETED her! The same way you covet a big-screen TV or a new truck!” I took another step forward. “That wasn’t love, it was Pride. It was Greed, thinking you could own her. It was Sloth, making her tend to you. Gluttony, demanding meals. Envy, thinking you could control her and being angry she worked instead of being your slave. Lust, treating her like a sex object. And this… toy of yours?” I kicked the shotgun with a forepaw, making it spin on the tile floor. “Classic Wrath. Is there no Sin you won’t make your heart a home to? You are the one who chased out God’s Love from your heart, you and you alone!”

“N… no… No…! I swear, I didn’t…!”

“You talk about me dragging you to Hell? You foolish mortal, you’re running straight into it yourself, as fast as you can! A wretch like you? Repenting, understanding Love, understanding God? Ha!”

“You’re wrong! I’m not…!” The poor guy looked like he was about to cry. The walls started to light up with red and blue flashes, police cars pulling up in front. I guess they’d finally traced the call enough to know where to go.

“Maybe you’ll prove me wrong, mortal! Maybe you’ll learn. Maybe you’ll be able to clear yourself of Sin, but after wallowing in it like you have? In the mud, like a pig? Lucifer will enjoy his bacon, SWINE! And I’ll be there to laugh at your failure!” He finally found his feet, rushing past me. “Run, little piggy! Whee whee whee! Aaaah ha ha ha ha!” Okay, I was having a little bit of fun, channeling my most over-the-top villain laugh.

Chad screamed as he scrambled out the door, into the line of officers who had been setting up to start getting on the loudspeaker. He fell to his knees with his arms raised, screaming about how he surrendered.

I started to tremble as adrenaline began to fade, blood still dripping onto the floor from my shredded wing. Breathe, remember to breathe, take a moment to breathe.

“...Princess…?” The shaky voice came from behind me, and I turned to look. Cheryl stood against the wall, staring in horror and shock. “You… H-he was right…?”

Maybe I was a little too convincing. “N-no, I… I promise, I swear, I’m not… I’m not a Hellhound, or a demon, or anything like that! I… Crap, the others are coming…”

She glanced at the shotgun on the floor, then her gaze snapped back to me. Eyes still wide in terror.

“You… you don’t… believe me. I… Nrrrh. I’m sorry.” I ran through the hall, leaving her behind as an officer walked into the front door. Heading into a bedroom, I crashed through a window and fled into the morning light, through the back yard and with plenty of undeveloped land to go through. Thanks, town, for having such sparse development. I don’t know if anyone even tried to follow me, all I cared about was running.

I’d just ruined the one friendship I’d made on Earth. That thought hurt far worse than my wing did.

Cheryl was brought out and checked for injuries, with one of those blankets draped over her shoulders. Police officers asked for her statement, and she gave a mostly-accurate accounting of events. Chad pulled a baseball bat last night, and that had made her finally realize she needed to break things off with him. She came to collect her things. She claimed she had brought a dog from the clinic, one that she was trying to find the owner of, but it wasn’t hers. The same one that had protected her last night. She showed the text messages Chad had sent, where he claimed the dog was a Hellhound, an actual fire-breathing monster, but she admitted she thought he was exaggerating. After all, who would believe a claim like that?

She talked about how he pulled out the gun, had fired twice but seemed to miss both times. When she was asked about the blood, she didn’t know about it. She admitted that maybe the dog had been hit after all. The shock of it all was still making everything such a blur, like a series of disconnected images in her mind. She didn’t say anything about my talking, or my speech. After all, who would believe her about a talking dog?

As it turned out, Chad confessed to everything, though he was adamant that he had no intention of shooting at Cheryl. Of course, the 911 call had a recording of him loudly saying he would, if he thought she was “in league” with “the Hellhound”... My monologue had been more muffled and wasn’t clear, but Cheryl claimed she had tried to talk to him, and Chad claimed it was the Hellhound, so they believed Cheryl.

Chad was brought to prison where he would be held, not to be released without being cleared by a psychiatrist. The house was searched for firearms, Cheryl was able to collect the things she cared about, and the house was locked for the time being. Finally, she was escorted to her friend’s house, where she was able to have a long, restless sleep once the adrenaline crashed and exhaustion caught up to her.

I had made my way back to the clinic. I wasn’t in the mood to go exploring the city today. I didn’t even bother eating any of the kibble by the back door, I just climbed up onto the roof. The wing had gotten a pretty nasty hit, but it had already stopped bleeding, at least. The… I guess the closest thing to it would be a finger, one of the “ribs” that went through the webbing, one of them had gotten hit by one of the pellets and the bone had shattered. It hurt like hell, but I picked out some of the fragments with my teeth. Maybe it was instincts, but it was really bothering me to leave them in place. I guess it’s easier to grow a new bone with them gone than it would be to somehow reassemble them.

The sun felt far too nice for my mood. Maybe it was the time passing with nothing else to do, and the warmth of the sun, and the crashing adrenaline, but I found myself falling asleep. I dozed in and out as the sun made its way across the sky. When night fell, I thought about going for a flight as the air cooled, but my wing was still a throbbing, painful mess. I was definitely grounded until it healed more.

Honestly, it felt more like yet another thing I had lost. Just as well, I felt like I deserved it.

That same day I spent wallowing on the clinic roof with an injured wing, James spent in the bookstore. Things had fallen into something of a routine, though tomorrow would be his first day off since he started. Miss Brown had promised him a surprise, but she would say nothing about what it actually was.

The day passed intolerably slow. He started browsing the shelves, perhaps he’d find a book he wanted to read. Instead, he found himself dreading the idea of opening a fantasy novel, especially when they had paintings of dragons on them that looked nothing like actual dragons. It was something of an amusing, if annoying thought. Actually living fantasy might have ruined the genre for him. Instead, he picked up something with spaceships on the cover and sat down behind the counter.

He was having some trouble getting into it at first, until he realized he was thinking like a mage out of habit. Trying to approach the problems in the book as someone with access to magic. He almost set it down and pulled out his spellbook when the main character complained about his spaceship’s engine overheating. He could probably adapt his Ice Lance spell into something that could cool an area down without necessarily forming ice, and it’d be useful for the summer months as well. But no, air conditioning already exists, he could take on the challenge as a mental exercise another time.

Sighing, he set the book down, using a piece of receipt paper as a bookmark. He wasn’t in the mood to read, there wasn’t much to do in terms of work, even if he didn’t need to man the store there wasn’t much to do in town… His thoughts kept wandering to Terra anyway. What did Dweli think of what happened? Did Roffil convince the others that he was some horrible demon out to destroy all of them? Would they think his friendship had been a ruse all along? Did any such questions even matter?

The ringing of the door’s bell snapped him out of his melancholy, and he was grateful for anything that would break up the silence. Miss Brown’s grinning face met his blank expression, as she came up to the counter and pulled up a stool. “Slow day, eh?”

“The slowest. What brings you by?” James was still seated behind the counter, but Miss Brown was sitting in front of it.

“Well, wouldn’t ya know it, I found it! I must’a brought it home with me at some point.”

“You found it? That’s great! …What is it?”

“Oh, you remember, don’cha? The book! The one I copied from for the window? That you asked about when you first showed up? Yeah, no wonder I couldn’t find it here, it wasn’t here at all!”

James blinked in surprise. “Wait, really? I had assumed you’d sold it after all.” Something nice was happening today after all.

The woman pulled a thick, leather-bound tome out of her purse and set it on the desk. “It’s a hefty one, isn’t it? I think maybe it was made for one of them, what’cha-call-its, Dungeons and Dragons things? Talks about magic and stuff.”

“Hm, maybe it was, but it looks quite a bit old for that, doesn’t it?” He reached out a hand and then stopped himself. “Would you mind if I looked through it?”

“Not at all, that’s why I brought it in! If you’re a collector, maybe you can help me sell it, after all. Or maybe I’ll just give it to you, you’ve been such a great help to have around, and it’s so nice to have an employee again! It’s just been me all by my lonesome for a couple years now, don’cha-know.”

“Well, that’d be quite a generous offer… I honestly don’t know who would buy such a book around here, though. Might have to try to sell it online. If it’s one I already have, I– Hm, I guess ‘had’. I still forget sometimes that I’ve lost everything…” James scowled a little as he picked up the book, opening it and beginning to read. “A Treatise on Wind Magics. Hm, haven’t seen much on that before…”

Miss Brown watched as he read, seeming to be delighted that he was looking through with such intensity. “You recognize it, then?”

The book was the real deal. He knew the runes, but he’d only ever seen them discussed, not actually used. It started with an introduction about the theory of using wind, and an attempt to explain what it was by someone who had no idea about things like oxygen atoms. He couldn’t help but chuckle when he got to the first spell. “Hah, look at this one.” He showed the page to the store owner.

“Yeah, lots of those runes on that page.”

“So many, just to make a nice pleasant breeze to cool your home… Guess I’m not the only one thinking about how to beat the summer heat, I was just thinking about the problem from an ice approach instead of wind. Hm, I wonder if I could combine them…”

Miss Brown’s smile faded a little into confusion, especially when James pulled his bag from under the counter, producing his own spellbook and opening it next to the wind tome. She wanted to ask, but James was still muttering to himself under his breath.

“Hmmm, yes, I could combine the two, chill the breeze as it flows…” With a pencil, he began sketching runes onto a piece of paper taken from the printer’s tray. “Beginning with this, flowing through here…” His other hand flipped through a few pages in the new book. “Ah, here’s how he’s approaching… But would that work? Oh, no, he goes into it here… Okay, but this part…”

Miss Brown watched in fascinated silence. Maybe James played whatever game this was written for? She’d love to have him explain it, she’d always wondered about them but she knew you needed several people to play.

James drew the final rune in with a flourish. “I think that’d work! Princess, what do you–” His grin faded when he looked up, blinking in surprise at first but then darkening. “Ah, right, sorry. Um, sorry. I got a little carried away…”

“Oh, it’s all right, but who’s Princess?”

“She is… was… my pet, back where I was staying… She would always be close while I was working on things.” He took another look at the design on the page and sighed.

“You miss her, huh?” Elsie reached out a hand and set it on his, wanting to comfort him. At first, she was enjoying seeing him reveal more about himself, even if she didn’t quite understand what she was seeing, but once she saw he was hurting…

“Terribly. I’m worried that with me gone, she’ll… be mistreated. She had me there for so long, I really don’t know what she’ll do without me, but… I had some friends, one of them will probably take good care of her.”

“Cat, or dog?”

“Ah?” The question had caught him off guard. “Um, dog. I… don’t know what breed, probably a mix, I think.” He placed the paper into his spellbook and closed it, maybe he’d try out the spell later when he was alone.

“Hm, kinda thought you’d be the kinda guy to go for something more… independent and quiet. Not a dog that wants attention.”

“Oh, she was quiet, usually. Unless she needed something, but she was… good at letting me know what she needed. I guess we had a kind of connection. I rescued her from an abusive owner, and she was happy.” He smiled softly, remembering some of the happier times on Terra.

“Are you going to get another dog?”

“I couldn’t possibly. Even if I was… ready, I don’t have a place. I’m still staying in the Community Housing Center, I’m hoping to be able to start getting a place with the money I earn here, after all.” He closed the wind tome as well, putting his own spellbook into his bag but leaving the other on the counter.

“Oh, that’s right, you mentioned that. Well, let me know when you’re ready to start looking, maybe I can help you look.”

“You’re very kind to me. I’m grateful.”

“Sure. Grateful enough to tell me how a buncha drawings is gonna do any ‘work’, though?” That playful grin returned to her face now that James seemed to have cheered up.

“Oh, heh, well… It’d be a pretty long story, but perhaps eventually… Especially if we can find more books like this one, with more runes of the same kind.”

“You really like that stuff, huh? You play Dungeons and Dragons?”

“Oh, I’ve never been much of one for dungeons, though some friends of mine back in Europe, where I was backpacking, they might. I’ll stick with the dragons.”

Elsie raised an eyebrow, but was pretty certain James was teasing her at this point.

In the middle of the night, when I heard the bowl of kibble being refilled, I waited a bit and climbed down to eat. The wing was hurting less, but I was still in no shape to fly. I needed to figure out what I was even doing, how to go about searching. Especially now that I was back on my own again. I was still eating when the door opened again, only this time it was Cheryl, holding the leash of a small dog. We froze, staring at each other for a tense moment. I started to slink backwards, head down.

“Princess, wait… Please.” She stepped out and closed the door behind her. I stopped but kept my distance. The little curly-haired dog had no clue what to make of me and seemed to be trying to hide behind Cheryl.

“I was just… getting food, I’ll… I don’t want to cause any problems, I can try going elsewhere from now on…”

“No, it’s fine, please, just… Don’t go, okay? I, uh, need to let this little guy do his business, but I want to talk, please?” She stepped into the grass-covered lot, the nervous dog shaking as he kept as much distance as he could from me. Maybe it was my scent, or maybe I still smelled like blood, or it was my size… Or the fact that I didn’t smell at all like a dog.

“You want to talk? I didn’t think you’d want anything to do with me, after this morning. Are you sure?” I couldn’t look her in the face. I didn’t want to let my hopes get up if she was going to twist the knife I felt in my chest.

“I’m sure. You… You promise you’re not a demon or anything, yeah?”

“Yeah, I promise.”

“Then I’m going to trust you. You’re my friend, you broke your silence to cheer me up, you protected me twice.” The little dog hid behind a tree, and I smelled on the air that he was doing what he came out to do. I moved a little to try to find a spot that didn’t have the smell.

“I really… I’m glad to hear that. Thanks. It means a lot to me.” My tail wagged as I looked up. “Um, sorry, it just… feels a little weird to talk when not on the roof. Heh.”

“How do you get up there, anyway?”

“Easy, like this.” I turned and leapt up onto the low wall, and from there, the roof. Turning around, I called down from the edge. “See you on your break?”

Cheryl laughed softly, nodding. “On my break, sure. You know you move like a cat, Weird Dog?”

“Oh, I’m ‘Weird Dog’ again, huh? Not ‘Princess’ anymore?”

She was laughing now. “You’re both! You have to admit, you’re pretty weird!”

“More than you know!”

As she went inside, I settled in to rest, but this time I felt a lot better. Even if I couldn’t fly right now, my heart sure felt like it was soaring.