It was a dark day, the clouds covered the suns as it began to rain, and Artemis felt his stomach roil with the alcohol that was sitting in his belly, but he had to keep it together. He wore a black suit, with a burning torch in his hand, His vision was blurry and he felt off-balance, but he tried his best not to sway as he started his eulogy to his father, who’s body was laid on top of a pyre.

“Ezrah Semper was my father. You may not know me, but you know him. He reached many with his kind heart.”

Artemis blinked, and tried to keep himself upright, using his tail to keep himself balanced.

“For this reason, we know that my dad will be sorely missed. My dad was a merchant. He sold his merchandise with a free bit of advice, at all times. My dad was good at reading people and could tell what they were upset about. He was insanely good at it. So his advice helped a lot of people. I’ve seen my dad talk someone out of killing another. I’ve seen him talk a guy out of killing himself. Now, someone killed my dad, simply for being fauna. It’s unfair, isn’t it? Wouldn’t you think a guy so nice would avoid the bad karma that is getting murdered?” Artemis’ drunken brain started to ramble. “And, I mean, what bad timing, right? Dying right before his own birthday—“

“Artemis?” asked Asher. Artemis looked over at him, then the nausea in his stomach spiked. He dropped the torch onto the ground, bent down and threw up. He accidentally stepped on the torch’s head, putting the torch out while he stumbled and leaned against the pyre, getting drunker by the second. Asher and Lasheda ran to his aid, grabbed him and holding him up as they took him to a chair while he said, “It’s not fair, it’s not fucking fair, he’s dead, he’s fucking gone, and it’s not fucking fair!”

“You reek of whiskey,” Said Asher, holding him up.

“I-I couldn’t go into this sober…”

“I get it,” said Lasheda. “I drank several whole bottles of wine when my mom died,”

“You should’ve had me do this, Art,” Said Asher, pulling Artemis’ handkerchief from the farmer’s breast pocket and putting it over his eyes and forehead to mop up sweat and to cover his eyes from the light of day.

Artemis had been horse-driven to his farmhouse, where he collapsed onto his bed and slept away the alcohol, while a party happened at the farmhouse. He’d deconstructed his father’s bed to make room for people. When he woke up, it was a few hours later and the party was still going, but Asher was attending to his drunken friend.

“You feel better?” Asked Asher, Artemis nodding in response.

“I can join the party,” said Artemis.

“Yeah? You feel like you can enjoy everyone’s company?” Asked Asher, giving him a glass of water.

“Yeah, I feel like I can handle this now that the actual funeral is over,” said Artemis, gulping down the water.

“Okay. I’ll take your word for it.”

Artemis got up, got dressed in his farmer’s clothes, and went into the living room to meet with the people who came to celebrate Ezrah Semper’s life.

Artemis met several people, all with different fauna aspects, such as Mrs. Applenathy, who was a donkey fauna, with the tall ears and thin tail of a donkey, and she sometimes brayed. and Mr. Yaurel, who was a lion fauna, had the soft mane of a lion, the ears of a lion and the tail of a lion, and when Artemis complimented his suit, Mr. Yaurel purred and thanked him.

Artemis met with other dog and wolf fauna, who invited him outside to howl for Ezrah, and as they were howling, one of the dog fauna yelled, “We love you, Ezrah!”

Artemis saw everybody out, but Asher and Lasheda stayed behind to help Artemis clean up.

“Hey, Artemis?” Said Asher. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Said Artemis absent-mindedly. “Why?”

“You kinda broke down at the funeral, dude, why wouldn’t I ask?” said Asher.

“I did? What did I say?” asked Artemis.

“Oh nothing major, but you went on a tirade about how unfair it was, and you threw up everywhere…”

“To the Great One, why didn’t anyone tell me?!” Asked Artemis to the sky.

“Nobody wanted to embarrass you,” said Lasheda, taking dishes to the sink. Artemis buried his face in his hands.

Asher patted his back and said, “Hey, at least you’re not going for revenge!” he said.

“Oh I’m going for revenge,” said Artemis. “I’m going tomorrow to find that journal, see if it’ll tell me anything,”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“You…you’re what now?!” Asked Asher, very concerned. Lasheda looked at Artemis. “Art, that’s really dangerous, with the Fauna Hunters out and about in Okville?”

“I know, I’ll be careful,” said Artemis.

Asher said, “You can’t, you mustn’t, Artemis what if you get killed too?!”

“I won’t get killed, I’ll be careful,”

“You say that, but you’ve been a farm boy since you got here, you don’t know how to act in a city, they’ll spot you right away!” said Asher.

“Asher I thought you’d support me,” said Artemis, his eyebrows furrowed.

“We support you,” said Lasheda. “But we’re just asking you to be very-“

“Absolutely not!” Said Asher, standing up. “You can’t go!”

“Try and stop me,” Artemis challenged.

“Oh, oh really? You wanna die?” Said Asher. “You know that humans are just bad news for us!”

“I know, that’s the ‘careful’ part coming in,” said Artemis.

“You’re a fucking idiot, you know that?” Said Asher, slamming a fist on the table.

“Whoa, getting a lot of hostility here and I do not appreciate it,” Said Artemis, even Lasheda was shocked at the amount of anger Asher was displaying.

Asher grabbed Lasheda’s hand. “You can be an idiot and go find ‘revenge,’ and risk your life for a bunch of paper, but we’re not helping you, you’re on your fucking own,” said Asher.

“Okay, thanks.” Said Artemis. “The door is right fucking there, just go.”

Asher pulled Lasheda away and through the front door, leaving Artemis to clean up everything.

When Artemis was done cleaning up the house, he changed into a pair of cloth pants, with nothing covering his chest, and went to bed sober for the first time in a few days.

Not my mom…not my mommy…

“I got the filthy dog’s head!”

“I got her tail! Let’s go!”

“Imani! No! Artemis? Where’s my boy?!”

Artemis shot up out of bed, and looked around, grounding himself. It was morning, and it was time to give the farm to Old Man Jed for now.

Old Man Jed was already out and about, and Artemis handed the keys over.

“I’m gonna be gone a while, Jed. The farm’s all yours for now,” said Artemis.

“Can I stay in the farmhouse?” Asked Jed.

“Sure, knock yourself out.” Said Artemis.

“Whoopie!” Said Old Man Jed, jumping for joy with surprising agility for an old man.

Artemis put on one of his father’s brown bucket hats to hide his ears, and tucked his tail into his pants, wrapping it around himself in such a way that it barely showed the protrusion, then he pulled out a large bottle from his pack. He opened the bottle and pulled out a dropper filled with a purple, slightly viscous liquid. He tilted his head back, and dripped the liquid into each eye, blinking as his eyes burned momentarily, then he looked in the mirror and saw that his eyes had changed from amber to brown.

“Perfect!” He said, looking at himself. Nobody would ever know he was fauna.

Then he started out towards the wagon house, and as he passed by Ilysus, he saw the bustling streets and beautiful architecture, houses made of stone and wood, the tavern which was pretty dead at this time of day, but despite knowing and loving this city, he couldn’t help but feel excited to leave it. Even if the reason was morbid.

After about an hour of walking, he finally got to the wagon house, where a wagon to Okville was prepped and ready to go, and the wagon master was standing about to give the order to set off.

“Wait!” Artemis yelled. The wagon master turned and looked at him. The wagon master was a short, portly man with frizzy rat ears and a worm-like rat’s tail hanging from his bottom, and he eyed Artemis up and down with convictions about Artemis.

“Where are you going?” He asked.

“Okville, sir,” said Artemis.

“Twenty silver for full passage,” said the wagon master, holding out his hand as Artemis counted out each silver coin. The coins jingled as Artemis set the pile of coins into the wagon master’s hand. The wagon master dropped the coins into a bucket, and then gestured to the wagon.

“Get on, have a safe passage, yada-yada.”

Artemis got on the wagon and sat across from a man with two bony ram’s horns which curled aesthetically into spirals.

“Where you off to?” asked the ram man. Artemis told him and he said, “Same here. What’s your business there?”

“I’d rather not talk about it,” said Artemis, trying to avoid the topic of his father’s death at all costs. The ram-man nodded, and said, “Okay, well, I’m Bart, what’s your name?” Artemis introduced himself, and Bart said, “Semper? You mean like the man who died the other day?”

The subject presented itself despite Artemis’ best efforts, and Artemis sighed.

“Yes.”

“I’m so sorry, was he your…?”

“Father,” said Artemis. Bart nodded again, and said, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Artemis nodded, looking to the north where the wagon was heading.