Chapter 2

James, the former lab rat, stumbles across a rather interesting new friend while trying to wash off the stench of his previous captors.

James dipped his fingers into the water, letting them dangle there and enjoying the feeling of the current moving his fingers around. He moved them down further, until he was touching the soft bottom of the creek. His nails dug into the soft mud and drew patterns in it, his eyes following the resulting brown cloud that washed away downstream.

He heard soft footsteps approaching him and turned with a smile, expecting to see Hiko there. The fox spirit had resumed their normal form, but would occasionally take the girl’s shape when James needed a bit more familiarity.

This, though, wasn’t Hiko. The person who’d approached him kept to the shadows of the trees, golden eyes piercing him with their gaze. His smile slowly faded away.

This had been the first time he’d seen Yoruko since his first day outside the white place--the lab, he reminded himself. He’d been a little more than just frightened, but since the man had backed off when Hiko told him to, James thought maybe he could trust him. Even if he was a little creepy.

Yoruko’s nose wrinkled, and the first thing he said was, “You still smell like them.”

This surprised James a little. Did he mean Hiko? Or the lab he’d come out of? The latter wouldn’t make sense; he’d only been out for a few days. But he didn’t think Hiko smelled bad. Definitely better than the rats’ cages back at the lab.

“Like who?” he finally asked.

Yoruko sniffed disdainfully, but remained silent. James scowled.

“You’re kind of mean,” he said.

The blond arched a brow, but still said nothing. They stared at each other for a few more moments before Yoruko turned and disappeared into the undergrowth. James frowned and got up, following him through the tall snake-grass and into the leafy forest.

“Hey,” he called. “Come back!”

He followed after, but Yoruko had gone too quickly for him to follow. He peered through the trees and saw the other boy escaping over the field toward the old building there. It didn’t look like he was running, but he’d moved so quickly that James was sure he had.

He sighed and sidled over to a pile of rubble--metal things that Hiko had said were once part of a farm. There were a couple of big cement tubes that he could crawl inside, too, but then he wouldn’t be able to watch Yoruko’s retreat.

The shadowy boy went into the building. It was an old, white, wooden house-looking thing with a padlock on the front double-doors, but the lock didn’t seem to hinder Yoruko. The boy dissolved into shadow and slid through the crack between the doors into the building. James pursed his lips, wondering why he always seemed to want to be alone. Of course, he couldn’t say too much, considering he’d only seen him twice, but every time it had seemed like he’d been a little too glad to get away.

Was it how James smelled?

He sniffed his arm. He smelled the dirt of the forest and the water that had washed it away, but under that...he could still smell the antiseptic, the rubbing alcohol, the various other chemicals they’d used to clean him back in that place, despite how long he’d been out. He remembered what Hiko had said--that Yoruko had come from the same place as him. His number was 42, wasn’t it? And then, what he’d said moments ago; you still smell like them.

Glancing at the river through the trees, James narrowed his eyes.

What had started out as an attempt at a bath soon proved impossible in ankle-deep water.

It was helpful that the algae and watercress shifted out from under his feet before he put them down, but there was no bathing in water this shallow. He sighed and put back on the clothes Hiko had given him--a simple maroon hoodie, green T-shirt, and faded jeans--holding his worn shoes and socks in his hand as he traveled upstream. Just a quick hunt for deeper water; he’d be back soon.

The underwater plants parted to make way for his feet, but he didn’t mind. What he really liked was the feeling of pushing his feet through moving water and curling his toes into the soft earth underneath. Besides, he didn’t want to crush anything alive underfoot. He’d feel horrible.

Eventually, he realized the water had gotten deep enough that he’d have to roll up the jeans so they wouldn’t get wet. The water sloshed against his calves and he smiled, enjoying the sensation. Up ahead was a little dip under the water, and he realized he’d found his bathing hole.

He disrobed again and set his clothes far enough away from the water that they wouldn’t get wet, and waded in. The water was just up to his knees, but that was good enough. He dunked himself first and shook out his hair as he resurfaced.

He sat on his feet as he soaked, intent on getting the chemical smell out of his skin. But he didn’t have soaps or--what were those things Hiko was talking about--loofahs. But he didn’t mind that too much. He was already clean; he just didn’t want to smell too clean.

He’d been soaking for several minutes before he realized he was being watched.

Between the stalks of snake grass were two round, dark green eyes. They blended in with the foliage, but not the face they were set into; the scales reminded James of one of those German brown fishes that Hiko had made for dinner the other day, but they were more of a chocolate brown, almost black color than those fish. He couldn’t see most of its body, which was hidden by the snake grass as well, but he could see it was the same color as the rest of its scales.

Remembering how skittish the animals of this forest could be, he pretended he hadn’t noticed his stalker. He dug his fingers into the mud underwater to relish in the feeling again, a slow smile crossing his lips. He kept the creature in his peripheral vision.

And when it slowly started to come out of the snake grass, he didn’t react but to turn that smile its direction. He watched as it started to reveal itself. Its face was long and beaklike, and he realized the scales weren’t very fish-like. More snake-like, but on a bigger, browner scale. It had tiny black spines for eyebrows and bigger spines for a beard and horns, medium-sized green spines running down the middle of its long neck. It reached out a leg, brown bird-like claws poking through the surface of the water.

“Hello, there,” he said, but he didn’t move, nor speak too loudly. “I’m James, but I guess Jim is short for that, so you can call me Jim. What’s your name?”

He wasn’t expecting a verbal answer. The creature tilted its head and clicked its beak curiously. Apparently having decided he wasn’t a threat, it came less cautiously into the water, and out of the snake grass. Jim’s eyes bugged out a bit as he realized the creature had long, leathery wings folded to its back.

So it was a snake, a bird, and a bat. With spikes. And round, slitted eyes. Jim recognized what sort of creature it was from a poster he’d seen back at the lab, but he’d never had a name for it. And it had seemed bigger in that poster--there was a human standing beside it, but its head was barely as tall as its foreleg. This one was much, much smaller. Maybe it was a baby.

A series of clicking noises escaped its beak as it moved closer to Jim. He felt its claws prick against his knee, but quickly moved off again, as if it hadn’t meant to touch him. It smelled a little like fire after the rain, particularly when he caught a whiff of its breath. He raised a hand clear of the water and held it out, letting the thing sniff it like he’d seen humans do with dogs.

“Is it okay if I pet you?” he asked, again not expecting an answer. It blinked slowly, letting its eyes stay closed for half a second longer. Jim took that as a yes, and placed his hand on the smooth end of its beak.

He smiled. “You’re out here taking a bath like me, aren’t you?” he asked. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know this was your spot. If you want, I can go.”

The creature made a small, high-pitched sound. Jim wasn’t that in-tune with weird poster creature languages, but that sounded like protest. He giggled.

“Okay, I’ll stay,” he said, running his hand down the creature’s snout. It seemed to like him, despite his weird chemical smell. Unless the smell had rubbed off...or maybe this thing couldn’t smell as well as he or Yoruko.

Suddenly, the creature perked up, looking past Jim and cowering back.

“Hey, what’re you--where are you going?” he asked as it backed up, sliding out of the water and disappearing into the snake grass again. The waving of the stalks soon stopped, and Jim frowned.

Moments later, he heard a rustling sound behind him and turned to see Hiko coming out of the trees with a paper bag in one hand. Jim could tell he was feeling more like a boy today--his dress, or kimono as the fox-person called it, was tucked into a pair of loose, almost skirt-looking white pants, which he called hakama. Plus, his face looked a little less soft, even if the smile was the same. He started to approach Jim, then paused, sniffing the air.

“Was there someone here with you?” he asked, coming close to the edge of the creek. He put the bag on the ground next to Jim’s clothes and tugged a short towel out of his shirt. Jim wondered how he’d thought to bring one.

“Oh! Yeah, there was!” he said, grinning. He described the creature to Hiko, who was frowning by the time he’d finished. “Do you know what it was?”

“A baby river dragon. But that’s strange, because a baby doesn’t venture out of the nest unless it doesn’t have its parents to stop it from leaving before it’s old enough.”

“Well, maybe its mom thought it was old enough,” Jim said.

“Maybe.” Hiko frowned anyway, then held up the towel. “Do you want to go find out?” he asked.

The bag had contained new shoes and socks. The shoes were great; they were a little tight on him, and hurt a bit--which Hiko had assured him would stop once he’d walked in them long enough--but they gripped the dirt easily enough that he didn’t have to support himself on trees as they walked. The bag had also contained a change of clothes--a black shirt that had a cartoon skull and the words “Little Sahara” on it, and another maroon hoodie, this one with a pink heart on the left side of his chest and a bigger heart on the back. He wondered where they had come from, but when he asked Hiko just said, “I have a friend that works at a place where they make clothes like this all day. She gave these to me herself.”

Jim thought on that; how Hiko always seemed to know what sort of thing to bring him. How had he known to bring a towel? The new clothes--well, he’d said that was what he was going out for earlier. The clothes and shoes he’d given Jim first were old hand-me-downs accidentally left by campers, which he’d said he’d replace as soon as he had a moment to. But the towel?

He paused as Hiko stopped in front of him. The kitsune held a finger to his lips and ushered him forward.

“It liked you, didn’t it?” he pointed out in a soft voice. “You should go first.”

He pointed through the undergrowth at a small hole in the ground. There was a scraping sound coming from within. Jim noted the footprints leading up to it, and realized they must have been made by some big claws.

Hiko stayed behind as Jim moved forward, getting down on his haunches and crouching down a few feet from the hole. “Hey,” he called out amiably. “It’s me, Jim, from the river. Are you down there?”

The scraping noise stopped, and a familiar beak poked from the hole, soon followed by the rest of the dragon’s body. It made a clicking sound and looked at Jim. Then it spotted Hiko and withdrew.

“No, no, it’s okay!” Jim said. “Hiko’s my friend. He helped me. He’s not gonna hurt you!”

There was a long silence, and the dragon didn’t come out. Jim made a small “aww…” and backed up with a sigh.

“It’s okay, Jimmy,” Hiko said. “Now you know where it lives, and you can come back sometime. Probably without me, though. It seems afraid of me.”

Jim’s brow furrowed as they started back down the hill. “Why would anything be afraid of you?” he asked.

“You were afraid of me at first,” Hiko reminded him. “Because I was white, just like the people who hurt you. Maybe those same people hurt your new friend.”

Jim pondered that. It made sense, but it also made him hate the people at the lab even more. There was this, Yoruko, and Jim, not to mention what they could be doing to the girl who had rescued him.

“We need to fix those guys,” Jim said in a soft growl. “Make them stop hurting people. Letting this go on...it’s wrong.”

Hiko paused, turning to look at him. “I know, but that’s going to take time. For now, let’s go home and have some ramen, okay?”

Jim smiled, his anger temporarily forgotten. “And that warm leafy fruity juice stuff?”

“Tea,” Hiko corrected. “Of course. What kind would you like to try today?”