Chapter 11: Anticipation

Thankfully enough, the return trip was much less... chaotic, so to speak: without the necessity to go excessively fast or break any laws, my voyage on Dante's black mount was substantially calmer... which was a bit of a shame, since I loved that feeling of the wind slashing through my face like a blade. If I had not been so focused on saving my friend, I could have enjoyed the experience a lot more... not that I regret doing what I did, of course: I just wish to have another chance to feel that sensation again, perhaps in a much less... crowded and dangerous setting.

Still, we eventually arrived at Lepris's house and (since Dante truly did not know what to do next) we both climbed the stairs all the way to his apartment... afterwards, we entered it thanks to the keys he gave us and closed the door as he instructed before briefly wondering what to do next.

“It's so warm inside... definitely much better than outside, do you not think so?" I ask as I take off my jacket and leave it next to my bed; I look at the man, who seems reluctant to take off his clothing... or even his sunglasses, which I believe are pointless to wear indoors: I politely tell him he is more than welcome to take those off, but he refuses to do so, claiming “Sorry, but I rarely take off my coat... and you shouldn't stare into my eyes for too long: trust me on that one." I seriously doubt that, were he to take off his sunglasses, I would waste all my precious time staring into his eyes... but I decide, more for purposes of politeness than anything else, to humour him and let him do as he wants.

“So, what were you planning to do here? You said you wanted to check something out, right?" the human inquires, just as calmly as ever.

“I did?" I ask in return, only to remember that I did want to do something as soon as we arrived; kind of embarrassed, I reply soon afterwards “Oh, you are right: I guess I forgot for an instant, but now I remember. I wanted to learn a bit more about the recent happenings in this city, in case I ever get a chance to do something about them." the strange deaths that happen every day... this 'Anteros' terrorist organization... I cannot simply ignore them, but I have to know what I am facing if I want to stop them. After all, you cannot defeat your enemies until you know who they are... or so my father taught me.

“Huh, interesting... and why come here instead of, I don't know, going to a library or something like that?" Dante inquires, slightly raising an eyebrow.

“Lepris told me about this 'Internet' thing, and I wish to try it out." I respond, hoping there is some way I can get access to the mystic archive that he mentioned from his home... he said he could use it from here at least, so there must be a way I can as well.

“Again, we could've just went to a library... but alright then: there must be a computer or smartphone we can use from here..." he says as he turns to look around the room, before finally saying “Oh, good: there's one over there." he points at a flat, white, rectangular object standing in a corner on the kitchen counter; we grab the object and take it with us on the sofa in the middle of the room to use. The human somehow opens the 'computer', which is apparently divided in an upper section, comprising a huge screen similar to the ones the mysterious woman from before was fiddling with, and a lower one, made out almost entirely of small buttons with letters, numbers and symbols attached to them.

As the human notices a small, black bitten apple drawn behind the upper screen, he immediately sighs as he comments “A Mac... what a casual..." he then presses a weird-looking button on the rightmost, uppermost corner causing the screen to light up and show an image the same apple superimposed over a black background; after a while, the image turns into that of a grey canvas with two small white rectangles in the middle of it: one of them has Lepris's name written on it, while the other is blank.

“Did Lepris tell you his password?" Dante asks, prompting me to inquire what a 'password' even is; instead of answering, he takes my answer as a 'no' and proceeds with his 'plan B' “Alright, we'll have to do this the hard way." a small, box-like device appears in his right hand, which he connects to a small opening in the computer's right flank through some sort of black thread “I had a friend of mine make this for me: it can bypass most standard security measures, so we just have to wait and see. Hopefully it doesn't blow up like the first time I used it." I admit, I am quite concerned Lepris might kill me were I to destroy his property... but the human connects the two gadgets before I can stop him, so I decide to go along with his plan despite the risks. Some black dots slowly appear on the previously blank rectangle, seven of them in fact, before finally stopping: since the device has yet to blow up, I figure out Dante's expedient has worked out perfectly.

“Alright, we're in." the human claims as he presses a button labelled 'Enter', causing the image on the screen to shift to a... picture of Lepris, in his rabbit form, surrounded by many, many humanoid animals and monsters in various dumb poses; to be honest, their expressions are kind of creeping me out... and their bodies and fur do not look real in the least. They all look like they are dead inside, despite their cheerful expressions. This picture truly is... weird.

“Furries..." Dante hisses as other, smaller images appear over the big one, each of them accompanied by a short white text that is probably their name; in order to stop looking at the big odd picture, he rapidly moves the cursor over one resembling a blue compass and taps the small rectangle twice to, as he immediately explains to me, 'open it': a white canvas appears before us, and he incites me to tell him what, exactly, I want to look up.

My name... is Red. I am a fire dragon, and the only survivor of the massive surprise attack that destroyed the capital of my kingdom. After a tough battle against a mortal enemy, I managed to help Lepris overcome his fears and anxieties and show him that I... that we all love and respect him for who and what he is. We then went our separate ways: he went with Fortune to train himself, and I went with Dante to learn more about our enemies...

“First off, let us look into the recent deceases that have been plaguing this city." I tell him, hopeful “If they are indeed murders, there must be some kind of correlation between the victims... correct?" he nods positively and begins writing a few words in another blank rectangle: a few blue phrases appear on the screen, and he clicks twice on the one that he believes is the most 'interesting'.

“This is a memorial of all the victims so far: here's hope we find out something more about them." he says as the screen changes once more: this 'memorial' thing is showing us the names, ages, occupations and other small things about these poor people, along with a rather realistic picture of themselves... and, at least at first sight, there appears to be little correlation between these humans. From children to teenagers, from simple students to heirs of huge 'corporations', from poor upbringings to wealthy ones, it appears as though these deaths are entirely random in nature: although it is true they are all below twenty-five years of age, no other clues tie these people together. We do learn, however, that the deaths began more or less two weeks ago, starting from a very talented singer who died just before one of his 'live performances'.

“This is as much information as we're going to get from this website, and it's not helping us a lot, is it?" Dante comments, annoyed “I am sure something binds all these poor souls together... but it definitely lies elsewhere, I can feel it." I reply as we take some time to look up other similar 'websites', but we do not learn anything useful from any of them. Disappointed, we decide to halt our research for now and focus on something else.

“Alright, what else did you want to look up?" the human inquires; “I want to know what this 'Anteros' criminal organization is: these monsters have killed dozens of innocents and, from what I have heard, this is not even the first time they did something like this... and it probably will not be the last. I need to know what they truly are after if I wish to stop them."

“Terrorists? Ah, good old memories... yeah, I'm familiar with their kind." he comments almost happily as a new batch of blue phrases come on screen. This time, he chooses to open an 'article' from a website called 'Wikipedia', which states the following: “Anteros is an active terrorist organization operating in Britain; its headquarters are supposed to be located isomewhere in the capital, according to governmental sources."

“Alright, it says here it's been active for... two months? Seriously? Have they really caused that much damage in so little time?" Dante asks rhetorically as he scrolls down the page, before adding “Apparently their flashiest operation was the first one: they broke into a prison, killed some of the guards stationed in it and let all prisoners escape; all escapees were found and arrested, except two which are still missing... odd, isn't it?"

“How so?" I inquire, not understanding where the human is getting at.

“Do you honestly expect that a movement whose goal is to 'return the world to its original state' would actually bother freeing some worthless criminals... just because?" he asks in return, before answering his own question “No: these guys knew exactly what they were doing... they freed everyone to create a massive distraction, and in the meantime..."

“...They rescued the only two people they were actually interested in!" I finish Dante's own thought, before asking the human to find out more information on these two individuals. The research that followed was... equally disappointing. We only manage to find two pictures and a small biography for each one: the man on the left looks young and sleek, what with his short blue hair and charming smirk, but his fashion style leaves much to be desired; the woman on the right, on the other hand, looks more or less like Fortune... except her skin is as black as the night, her hair is purple instead of black and her clothing, although somewhat revealing as well, is more 'mystic' than it is appealing.

“The first one was both a professional e-sports player, which is way too complicated to explain, and a professional thief: using his public image as a facade, he became as rich as a small nation before getting caught and sent to prison. The second one was a street fighter, and amassed quite a fortune by defeating other battlers... both in and outside the arena: she eventually started hitting people for fun, which eventually led to her being jailed. I can't see any connection between the two, other than they both look like huge idiots... for one reason or another." half of the human's words are foreign to me, but I understood the overall message... I think. Still, the lack of information on either topic I wanted to research is quite disappointing... but at least now I know more than what I started out with.

“So, is there something else you want me to research?" the human asks, just as frustrated as I am.

“No, not really... I think this is enough for the time being." I reply, trying not to sound excessively defeated “So, what should we do now?" I ask, unsure of what to do whilst waiting for Lepris to show up.

“Maybe play some video games?" I suddenly hear Karma's voice coming from behind us, almost making me fall from the sofa in the process: their shining eyes gaze at me cheerful from behind the couch, a relaxed expression on their face “Oh, please! I know I can be creepy, but your reaction really offended me!"

“Yeah, sure." Dante replies, not at all believing the cat's remark “Anyway, why are you here? Weren't you supposed to find out more about that 'F.E.A.R.' from before?" he does have a point... perhaps they already finished their research, just like we did?

“I was doing just that, until... I grew bored, and decided to leave everything to my assistant: I'm sure she's doing fine on her own... after all, I didn't choose her specifically for nothing." they chuckle amused, but they still manage to come off as creepy; meanwhile, they make a large black box appear in their right hand and three black sticks in the other before asking “Sooo... Wii Sports?"

Unsure of what to do next, we both decided to join Karma in what appeared to be a simulated sword battle between unrealistic figures inside Lepris's TV screen: learning the rules of the game, which involved throwing your opponent off a platform and into the sea below by attacking them repeatedly, was quite difficult at first because I thought I needed to strike my opponent directly with it and not the air in front of me, but eventually I became a master at it. I was not initially thrilled at the idea of simulating sword fighting instead of fighting for real, but my scepticism disappeared as soon as I saw Karma's 'Mii' ungracefully fall off the edge and sink in the stormy waters beneath our arena.

I think I won roughly sixty-percent of all the matches we had, thanks to my skill with the sword; Dante, although apparently quite adept with a sword himself, was not as good as me due to his distaste for this sort of games and Karma... well, let's just say a chicken would have used that stick way better than they did. Only an infant could think that flailing wildly over and over again in hopes of hitting something could be a good idea.

“Oh, come on! I was so close!" they scream as they throw their stick on the ground, furious after losing yet again; “Just like the last twenty-something times." Dante remarks, angering them even more “How come you haven't rage-quit already?"

“Oh, shut up you noob! You just can't comprehend my secret strategy!" they reply aloud as I distance myself from their heated argument.

“Neither does the game apparently, since you keep losing." the human replies, as cold as ever; before the cat can unleash their suppressed fury, something starts ringing inside Dante's coat: he grabs his phone and puts it next to his ear, before starting a conversation with someone “Dante here... yeah, we're having fun I guess... no, I'm serious... anyway, how are you and that dweeb doing?" I have a feeling he is speaking with Fortune... but I decide to keep that to myself, as interrupting now would be quite impolite “...I understand. Alright, give me a minute." he ends the conversation, but keeps staring into the phone's screen for whatever reason as he explains “Your friend finished his training session with Fortune, and she asked me to bring him home since he's too tired to come here himself."

“Gods... that training must have taken a real toll out of him..." I comment, the image of Lepris literally in pieces before the demonic woman quickly forming in my mind “So, are you going to bring him here on your steed as well? Because that would take quite a while, even by your standards of quickness..."

“Just for the record, that thing's called a 'motorcycle'; secondly, based on the description that psycho gave me, the poor guy can't even stand on his two legs any more... I guess I'll have to bring him here the old fashioned way, even though he'll probably faint as soon as he sets foot in here." the human answers as he waves goodbye and disappears in a cloud of smoke.

“I should probably go too: it's getting awfully late, and I have to start preparing myself for the future! Goodbye, dear prince: try not to die tomorrow, alright?" the cat chuckles as they fade into nothingness, leaving me only their ominous words to keep me company... which I could have gladly lived without, to be frank.

Dante reappears in the middle of the room a second afterwards, holding an agonizing Lepris between his two arms “Quick! Grab a bag, or something like it!" he nervously shouts at me as he gently lays my friend on the couch; the expression on Lepris's face reminds me very much of... oh Gods, this is not good! There must be a bag or something like it near here... and, in fact, there are plenty of them in the kitchen corner, made out of a white, light and seemingly not very expensive material that is just perfect for this necessity! I bring the bag to Lepris, who immediately takes it away from me and begins puking his soul into it, almost breaking it in the process; after a minute spent disgusting both me and the human, the shape-shifter ends his disgusting torment as he hands the human the bag, which he hesitantly accepts with an 'Eww..."

As Dante proceeds to hastily drop the bag in the nearest trash can, I sit next to Lepris as I attempt to understand what could miss Fortune have possibly done to make him feel so awful “What did Fortune do to you? You look more dead than alive: what happened to you?" he is so beat he cannot even answer, just breathe heavily... but that does not prevent Dante from answering the question in his stead “Actually, the vomit was... kind of my fault..." I turn to face the man, blazing fire burning in my eyes “I'm sorry, it's just what happens to everyone who fast-travels with me... but he's definitely handling it better than others. I only felt this kind of sickness once, and I perfectly remember how it feels like... so, once again, I'm sorry. Hopefully it won't happen ever again." Lepris does not appear to be too angry with the human, despite what he just said, so we all silently decide to forget about this... incident and return to his current condition.

“Skyscrapers..." he finally mutters, albeit with some difficulty “She... made me... climb... skyscrapers..." oh my... that sounds rather difficult, even for someone such as myself “...Then we fought... while falling... from said skyscrapers..." that's even worse, and apparently there's more “...And after that... she made me punch... and kick... the skyscrapers!" edifices certainly do not look like optimal punching bags... is that lady crazy? She cannot be sane if she forced my friend to go through such nonsensical training!

“Well, at least she didn't break you entirely..." Dante grimly remarks before reassuring us both “Relax: you'll be fine... just go to sleep and you'll fully recover by morning... probably. Hopefully. Well, at least you'll fight much better than before, that's for sure." he then makes as to leave, for whatever reason.

“Are you going somewhere?" I inquire, to which he answers “I sense an increased number of 'F.E.A.R.'s in the 'EmotionGrid', most likely because of the time... maybe I can do something about them before going to sleep." almost as if knowing exactly what I was going to say, he immediately adds “I know you want to come fight with me, but you're still visibly fatigued from that battle earlier... and your friend's not looking too good either. You should stay here with him, and rest while you can: I'm sure tomorrow will be just as tough as today was... if not even more." after muttering those words, he leaves the room in a cloud of smoke. What a character... but at least he is on my side, if anything else.

I turn to face Lepris, who has given in to tiredness and is now silently sleeping on the couch: his enormous yellow eyes do not look just as big when they are closed, and he definitely appears to be... way less intimidating when fast asleep. I cannot allow him to sleep on the couch however, much less seated, so I gently sneak my arms behind his shoulder and under his legs and pull him up: I then slowly can carefully carry him to the bed, where I drop him off. He slowly slides under the blanket of his own volition, but I presume that is more of an automatic reflex than a spontaneous gesture... oh well, there are more important things to worry about anyway: even though the bed is quite big, I cannot simply sleep together with Lepris... it seems as though I will have to sleep on the couch, despite how uncomfortable it may sound.

And yet, as soon as I lay down on the sofa's unfamiliar fabric, I quickly fall in a sleep as deep as the night itself...

The words my father spoke were as silent as the empty halls of the castle, and their meaning was as useless to me as a sword to a dead body: I clearly stated I wanted to be left alone to mourn in my room... but I was but a child, and clearly my father was getting tired of having to deal with my selfishness. It was about time something rekindled the flame within my heart.

“Red, this is Sol from Thundaria, your new retainer." I finally dared to listen, and my heart beat out of rhythm, tremendously upset: I turned to face what was before me and saw her for the first time... she was just a child at the time, only slightly older than me, and yet her eyes were far colder than mine... it was clear she had seen things no infant was meant to see, just like me.

My first words to her were... less than ideal, to be frank “I do not require a retainer! I can look after myself just fine! And most importantly, I can certainly do without the assistance of... one of your kind!" my father angrily attempted to stop me, but Sol stood between him and me and begged him to let me finish... and surprisingly enough, despite the apparent difference in both age and rank, he listened to her... but I did not care, I was just glad I could tell her the precise words I wanted to use “You thunder dragons are despicable and untrustworthy... criminals and murderers, that's what you are! It's because of you gold-scaled beasts that... that she..." I could not even end the insult, as I immediately fell to my knees and began crying like the kid I still was... what a disgrace...

And yet, amidst the darkness that enveloped my eyes, a hand reached out for me: hers. She sat next to me and admitted, in a rather well-composed tone that could not communicate the sadness she surely felt within “You are right: Thundarians truly are beasts, criminals and murderers... it is because of them that I lost everything. My family was killed, my house plundered and my possessions stolen... all that I have left is my life , my name and my burning hatred towards those monsters..." I turned to face her, and her almost evil eyes pierced my soul like a million daggers “You and I are more alike than you can possibly imagine... which is why I can understand you more than anyone else. I understand your pain, your hatred, your desire for revenge... but now is not the time to focus on neither of them." after a brief pause, she added, even more stern than before “My name is Sol, and that is all you will have from me: that is all I have left, anyway. I pledge my life to you, My Lord: I swear to help and defend you with my life for as long as I have breath within my lungs."

And that was how I met my retainer: at first I felt almost... oppressed by her presence, but soon I began feeling better as we grew closer and closer, just like friends do. Eventually, we became inseparable... despite her best attempts to keep our relationship purely contractual. Truly, if it were not for Sol, I would have drowned in despair a long time ago...

“Hey, wake up!" I hear a familiar voice shout annoyingly in my sleep... Lepris? I hear it again, more insistent “Come on, we're gonna be late if you keep this up! Wake up already!" I decide to awake, if only to punch the man who so rudely interrupted my beautiful dream in the face... however, as soon as my eyes meet his own and recall the events of the day prior, I decide to forget about it and focus on whatever he wants to tell me. After all, I should have gotten up on my own a long time ago for sure...

“Excuse me, what are you talking about? What are we going to be late for?" I growl, still only half-awake; “To the convention! I talked about it yesterday when we went shopping, remember?" to be honest, I do not ever recall speaking about such a thing... Lepris must have noticed my estranged expression as he immediately sighs “You weren't listening, were you?"

“Unfortunately, no." I have to admit, quite embarrassed “So, what is this 'convention' thing you want to... attend?" I inquire, unsure of what the rabbit has in store for me today.

“I'll explain it on the way there." he says as he points me to the only table in the room: a superb breakfast comprised of more eggs, sausages and an assortment of peculiar stuffed breads called 'sandwiches' awaits me on its surface, stimulating my hunger merely by looking at it “I'm pretty sure none of us ate anything last night, so I prepared a bigger breakfast to compensate for it... I already ate my part, so you can eat the rest if you want." he needs not tell me that twice: I immediately jump out of bed and almost tumble before reaching the nearest chair, ready to finish this mixture of delicacies as quickly and, uh... as elegantly as possible. I must not forget my manners, especially in front of my friend... I swear this place is making me more mundane than I am comfortable with.

“So... we are going to a gathering of... animal lovers?" I attempt to make sense of the words of the shape-shifter as we proceed towards our destination; the rabbit nods for the umpteenth time, slowly growing impatient of me and my... problems at understanding his explanation “Technically, yes: it's just a bunch of people who really like animals... and animal-human hybrids... and dress up like them at these gatherings. It's not that strange, I swear!"

“It is for me: making dresses out of the pelt of the animals and monsters you killed is a common practice between us dragons, but wearing fake pelts of fake animals to look like an animal yourself is... unheard of, to put it lightly." and would probably be enough label you a madman... in the best scenario; perhaps it's best I do not mention this to Lepris, however.

“I know, you dragons are not as socially advanced as us humans, but try to keep an open mind! I'm going there because there are a few people I want to see again, and possibly others I want to meet... and there could be some other otherkins in disguise, just like me! Plus, nobody's going to realize we're... different for the rest of the day, thanks to this convention." so that's why we can walk around in our real forms: because of this gathering taking place, we can look like humans in disguise without fear of being recognized by the general population! An ingenious idea... though the perspective of visiting a rally of madmen is definitely not a positive one.

A few humans turn to face us as we begin heading down a particularly busy road, but most if not all of them just sigh and pretend not to see us when we pass by: the shape-shifter's plan is working outstandingly well, so at least that's a plus... hopefully things will stay this way until we reach our destination.

“See? I told you it was going to be fine!" Lepris comments as we pass another shop full of TVs, all showcasing the same old woman from yesterday reading today's news “Surprising the entire nation, the series of mysterious daily deaths that started two weeks ago just as mysteriously ended today." surprised and confused, I urge the man to stop walking and listen to whatever she has to say; she soon adds “Nobody knows whether this is a sudden stop or if it's just a short break, but as a matter of fact the strange syndrome that claimed dozens of victims forgot to do just that yesterday: the police searched the city far and wide, but nobody died of the odd symptoms that link all other victims. After the terrorist attacks from yesterday afternoon, we are all relieved to see that no more unnecessary blood has been spilled..." the lady goes on and on, but I already learned everything I needed to: from the looks of it, the inexplicable deaths have stopped! But how? Just now I remember that I did not go searching for the source of these deceases yesterday evening as I promised myself to, but I scold myself less harshly knowing that my forgetfulness was not punished by destiny.

“Oh, that's cool." Lepris says before adding, somewhat sad “Oh, and I've also learned about... the other explosions." oh, right... those. I had forgotten to tell Lepris about the truth behind them, but evidently he did some research of his own earlier this morning “It's... kinda sad knowing some people died because of those... criminals, but..." he turns to face me once more, a more hopeful expression on his face “We saved some lives the other day! Because of us, some people didn't have to die... because of us, some people now have another chance to live! If you hadn't forced me to come with you, I wouldn't have had the strength to intervene... but now, I think I have it! I'm gonna help everyone I possibly can, just like you do every day! I'm gonna help everyone... because that's what needs to be done, right?" frankly, I did not expect Lepris to change as radically as he did overnight... but I welcome this change nevertheless! It seems this newfound determination of his has greatly increased his confidence in himself and in others... and that is a wonderful improvement over the past! Now, onto putting it to good use...

“Anyway, sorry for... exploding on you like this all of a sudden: I just felt like saying that, nothing more and nothing less. The place we're looking for should be nearby, so why don't we go back on track and start looking for it?" he ends his own argument, and we hastily return to our journey...

This... place sure is big: atop a set of stairs with more than fifty marble steps stands a huge beige palace that, Lepris explained me, hosts various conventions and reunions all year-long... the name of this place is 'The Domino Hotels', but he says it has been a long time since someone actually slept in this place. The entry lobby is quite big for hotel standards... it's so big, in fact, that a glass 'elevator' thing stands right in the middle of it (which reminds me I have yet to try riding one... perhaps today is the day I do?), restlessly taking visitors up and down and allowing them to leave only when near one of the various suspended walkways that connect in a cross-like fashion the four sides of the immense room. The floor appears to be covered by a large brown rug, the walls are brownish and made out of the same material that most walls in this world are made out of and the ceiling is shaped like a glass pyramid, allowing the light of the Sun to come in the room but not the heat it holds within... it's truly fascinating.

Numerous people, most of them dressed in those 'animal costumes' Lepris spoke about, are happily chatting or hugging (for whatever reason) all over the place, and very few actually bother looking in our direction as we enter the room: I expected some kind of reaction from these individuals... but I certainly did not expect them to shrug us off with a mere 'Nice costumes!' before returning to whatever they were doing. Are they serious? Can they really not tell the difference between real fur and scales and common fabric? I mean, Lepris's eyes are very big, of course, but they should be able to tell the difference between static ones and moving ones! I am almost tempted to give away my cover, just to mess with them all... but common sense forbids me from doing it, and rightly so. I decide to follow Lepris's clue and lay low, doing only as little movement necessary in order to not unsettle anyone.

“Alright, what next?" I ask, already feeling quite uneasy.

“I dunno... the first minutes are always the most awkward..." he responds, smiling embarrassed... indeed, this getting far too awkward. I do not understand what my friend wants to do at this 'convention', but if something does not happen immediately I might just lose my sanity...

And, incredibly enough, something does indeed happen: someone walks through the entrance behind us, someone unusual... someone who is definitely not wearing a costume. The... woman looks like a tall, slim white bird with a short black beak, luminous black eyes, powerful white wings and short white hair: she is wearing a sleeveless white shirt, a blue short jacket and light blue trousers... she is also holding an outstanding amount of paintings of various sizes within her hands, and it appears as though there is more of them inside the huge black backpack she is carrying on her shoulders. As I look at those paintings, I realize I have already seen all of them somewhere else... oh Gods! That cannot be!

I rush to the woman's aid and help her carry a part of her goods, followed by Lepris soon afterwards, who seems to have understood as well the 'uniqueness' of the lady before us: as the lady expresses her gratitude and I recognize her gentle, yet imposing voice, I ask, suspicious “Is that you, Merle?"

The lady immediately turns to face me with wide open eyes, almost scared someone actually recognized her: it takes her a few seconds to ask in return, just as suspicious “Red?"