Hillock stiffened. Words she had not expected to hear pierce through her eardrums, shattering a very important shard of her world.

"That can't be him. You must be mistaken," she said. Tears welled in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure that it's him. We don't get that many creatures as large as your father, chap," Moly replied.

Tears now flowed from her eyes. She sobbed and wept. Roy slid to her side, wrapping his arms around her. He let her wipe her tears on his sleeves.

"H-how," she began. *Sniffle* "How d-did he die?" Her voice was tinged with a bit anger.

"His workplace listed it down as 'due to occupational hazard', but their definition of what occupational hazards are is debatable to say the least," Moly explained. They put down the documents that they're holding and began putting them back to their proper folders. "If you ask me, I'll say that it was a 'termination of employment'."

"Termination of employment!" Something in that phrase had filled her with wrath. Pink veins had crossed her lemon eyes as she stared daggers at Moly.

"Explain," Roy calmly requested.

"Initially, we were going to file this under 'reckless impudence resulting in homicide' or 'murder', but his workplace, Metis Progressors Group, called and declared his case 'death by occupational hazards'," Moly answered, and then placed their face on their palms. "Which spawned a lot of problems, especially for me as mayor and temporary police captain. I needed to sort out the laws of Townston's bylaws, and make new laws concerning occupational hazards which we do not have."

"What?! What kind of job did he sign up for?" Hillock asked.

"Company diplomat according to them," Moly answered.

"Can we see his body?" Roy asked.

To which Moly smiled and said, "Yes, you can. I can even bring you to where it was being kept."

~***~

Roy looked at the building that was built at the foot of the hill, Flores Immaculate Mortuary. The orange sun was setting behind the grassy hill in the background. Torc's body was said to be kept there. Moly had walked ahead of them, but never too far, and sometimes looking back; Roy and Hillock were slowed by grief. He kept by Hillock's side, comforting her on the way, wiping the tears that continued to well in her eyes. The death of her father had affected her rather deeply.

They walked on old brick pavement, closer to the color of pale earth than Ozian yellow. The funeral home was a white building styled like a marble temple. Greek columns rose to support the white roof, and gargoyles with scowling faces and lolling tongues adorned its gutters.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

They stepped into the funeral home. Glazed tiles paved the floor, clean and made sacred. Pictures of angels and spirit guides adorned the walls. There were coffins all around, on display, of various sizes in the chambers, some awaiting for family and others being actively mourned. Wreaths of ferns and white flowers were laid on their coffins while mourners prayed for the well-being of their departed souls. Funeral priests in black robes gave comfort to the grieving ones blessed the bodies of the dead lest they return as restless undead. Those priests bowed in reverence to the presence of Moly (who was the head of faith of Townston) when they notice them passing by.

At the end of the corridor, they came to a large mahogany double doors to a large white room. There were cupboards filled with bottles of formaldehyde, holy water, preservatives, and other clear chemicals. A row of granite counters hug one wall, holding tools, canopic jars, and spare cloth. On the southern wall was affixed metal lockers to be storage of unprocessed dead bodies, and many of them lay closed and occupied. To the north of the room was another pair of double doors leading to a crematorium. On one side of the room was a large operating table on which was a corpse covered in a white sheet.

Moly talked to the person in the operating office, Harold Greyfeather, a mortician. He was a gentlemanly person in a black suit and clean white gloves. He had the head of a crow, and a cybernetic eye was in place of his right eye. He wore round spectacles as he gently talked to Moly about the matter.

Hillock and Roy homed into the corpse on the operating bed. It was a large corpse; it had to be bent around the table and still spill off it. It was lengthy, and its length almost encircled the entire room. Hillock cautiously approached the covers and slowly uncovered a part of the corpse.

It was somebody. It had scales of blue-violet, thick arms with lines of silvery metal scales, and curving gold claws perfect for tearing prey.

And most importantly: it wasn't her father. It was too snake-like with more legs than she had fingers.

"What do you mean we don't have his corpse anymore?" Moly's voice suddenly rose up from their quiet conversation with Harold.

"I'm afraid that his body has been taken away yesterday, your Hallowedness," Harold answered. "They took his body away from us via helicopter."

Moly resisted the urge to scratch their face; that will only achieve one thing: ruin their face. Hillock turned to Harold and asked, "Who took him?"

"Cuento Antiguo Insurance Corporation. They needed his body because of an insurance contract that he had signed with them," Harold answered.

"Why have I not heard of this?" Moly asked.

"It's probably because of the spike of deaths due to monster attacks in the last two weeks. It probably got buried under the piles of death reports and other insurance companies' reports."

Roy raised a finger to insert himself into the conversation. "Where is the nearest branch of Cuento Antiguo Insurance?"

Harold looked at him with interest. "There is unfortunately no branch of Cuento Antiguo Insurance Corporation in Townston nor in any other town in Hillland," Harold answered. "Cuento Antiguo Insurance is a small company with only one office in Loadton."

Hillock wilted. That was far. Roy was going to have to withdraw some money from the bank just to get there. He felt a little obligated; it was her father who helped him get a legitimate identity and profession.

"Shush. Don't be sad Hillock. We'll find him, and I'll be by your side all the way," he said. Hillock smiled a little bit.