Into the Fire
Three
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Scheherazade eyed the building with her ears half folded back. “You thought there was some kind of threat at the Garda station in Dublin.”
“I’m still not sure why I felt that way and right now I don’t feel like there is anything like that here. Besides, I do not want to get caught wandering around with six stolen pokedexes and the fingers necessary to get around the DNA locks on them.” He sighed. “I considered tossing them in the woods somewhere and pretending I never saw them, but it’s very possible that their families don’t know the kiddies are probably dead. I don’t think that’s right. That’s why I’m going to turn in the dexes and fingers to the sheriff here in Dundalk.”
“You have a kind heart.”
Kerrik chuckled. “Yes, and I want everyone to keep thinking that in case I have to do something bad. A good reputation will keep you out of trouble.” His eyes twinkled with humor. “Just like the time a dissection frog ended up in a girl’s purse in biology class. I even confessed to the crime and nobody believed me.” He settled the slung shotgun on his shoulder more firmly. “And I want to make sure I’ve got a permit for this thing if I need one.”
The sheriff’s office was a small, blocky building with no windows in the back, that presumably being where any cells would be. Kerrik opened the door and headed inside. “Hello?”
The furry pokegirl who came out of the back was tall enough that her spiky blonde hair brushed the door frame as she walked into the room. Kerrik identified her as Denmother. “I don’t know you.” She bobbed her head in greeting. “Sir, I’m Colleen, one of the sheriff’s deputies.” She frowned at the heavy bruising still on his face. “What happened to you?”
Kerrik wasn’t sure if pokegirls could get in trouble for assaulting their tamers, so he made a snap decision. “I ran into a door frame.”
Colleen gave him a disbelieving look, but didn’t pursue the subject. She eyed the weapon on his shoulder. “Do you have a permit for that?”
“I just found it, so no. It’s one of the reasons I’m here.” He frowned. “I’m Kerrik Wolf and I’m a tamer. I was on my way from Dundalk to Dublin when I was accosted by a criminal named Jared O’Hanlon. I ended up taking him into custody and proceeding on to Dublin, where I turned him in. The officer who took charge of him asked me about his possessions, which reminded me that I hadn’t looked for where he was staying. On my way back I located his camp and found this shotgun, which I want to get a permit for.” He squared his shoulders. “I also found something gruesome, and I wanted to turn it in here.”
Colleen held out a massive hand as her ears flicked. “Sir, I’ll need your pokedex.” He handed it to her and she plugged it into her computer. “While that’s downloading, let’s pull up this Jared O’Hanlon’s information.” Her hands were quick and confident as she worked. “Ach, he was a nasty piece of work and I see your name listed as aiding the police in bringing him to justice.” She changed screens. “And I’ve verified that you’re who you say you are.” She blinked as a red icon suddenly began blinking in the middle of her screen and opened it to a new window, reading it quickly before looking back up at them. “Now what do you have to show me that’s so unsettling?”
Scheherazade handed him a sack and he unloaded it onto Colleen’s desk. “We found a half dozen pokedexes at his camp.” Last of all, he pulled out the small cooler. “We also found this.” His eyes met the deputy’s. “It’s got severed fingers in it. At least one of them will unlock one of the pokedexes we found.”
Colleen looked at the cooler and her ears drooped. “Did you find any other,” her voice caught for a second, “remains?”
“We looked, but no. Scheherazade couldn’t find any scent of decomposition around the camp. I think O’Hanlon was from Dublin, so it’s likely that he encountered them around there. I know he committed some crimes around the city.”
“You could have just abandoned these items in the woods. Why didn’t you?”
“Their families need to know that these kids are probably dead. I can’t offer them anything else, but I can give you this so you can double check. Personally I hope they’re in a hospital in Dublin, or out with their new replacement pokedexes. Unfortunately, since Jared was going to kill me after robbing me, I don’t think he let them go.”
Colleen opened the cooler and grimaced before shutting it again. “You’re probably right.” She put it aside. “Your records say you’re from here, but I know everyone in the area. Who are you, Mr. Wolf?”
“I’m new in the league. I want to be a pokegirl hunter and I’m going to take the tradesman test in a few days. However, I met Scheherazade and had to become a tamer so I could keep her. This is a nice little town and I took my test here, so it’s my home of record now.”
“Well, if your behavior in this matter is any indication, you’ll bring honor to the township, sir.” She began putting the pokedexes into a small bag. “If there’s a reward from any of the families, where can I get in touch with you?”
“I’ll drop by before the test. I’m still not sure if I’ll be staying in town.” He smirked. “I don’t want to fall afoul of any vagrancy laws, and I’m darned near broke until a couple of auctions finish up.”
Colleen’s jaws opened in a grin that showed white, sharp teeth. “Mr. Wolf, if I arrested tamers for being vagrants, my jail would be full. You can try the pokegirl center. It’s too small for regular taming rooms, but they do have a common room with pallets.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, deputy. Now what do I have to do for that weapons permit?”
“I’m finishing it up right now, Mr. Wolf.” She winked. “You did a very nice thing in getting those pokedexes to me and I think it covers your security check rather well. I did note that you still need to be scanned by a psychic or celestial pokegirl, but April has made the notation that it’ll be taken care of when you test for tradesman.”
“Thank you very much, Deputy Colleen. Your professionalism is a credit to your badge. Should I meet the sheriff, I will let him or her know that.”
The Denmother swelled with pride. “Thank you, sir.” She finished typing. “Your firearms permit has been added to your tamer record and when you become a tradesman, it’ll carry over.”
Kerrik looked at Scheherazade. “We need to go by the pokegirl center anyway so I can put that Warcat up for sale.” He frowned. “Deputy, I still need to pick up my starter pokegirl. Where are the ranches around here?”
Colleen got up and headed for a wall where a map was tacked up. “The only ranch around here is the Serendipity Ranch. It only raises a few types of pokegirls and most of the ones it supplies are ferals captured and sold to it.” She grinned over her shoulder at him. “That’s where the name came from since you never know what you’ll find there.” She tapped a point on the map with a claw tip. “You head almost due west for about ten kilometers. It’s easy to find. The current owner is Johann Sebastian Strauss and he’s an immigrant from Noir. I’m pretty sure it’s not the name he was born with since he’s not a long dead composer.”
He and the Dire Wolf exchanged a look. “We could try there first and see if they’ll buy her.” Scheherazade looked thoughtful. “We’ll see if the others sold. If they didn’t you’re over the limit on pokegirls if you count the Warcat.”
“You’re over limit?” Colleen had been shamelessly eavesdropping. “Naughty, naughty, Mr. Wolf.”
Kerrik shook his head. “I’ve got five pokegirls I put up for sale a little while ago and when I found Jared’s camp, there was a feral Warcat tearing it apart looking for food.”
The Denmother nodded. “That sort of thing happens a lot. Just be sure and get under your limit as soon as you can. If you go more than a week over limit, and you’re in an urban area, you could get the excess pokegirls confiscated.”
Kerrik smiled broadly. “I don’t suppose such a talented deputy like you couldn’t use the needs of the league rules to give me storage rights?”
Colleen’s eyes twinkled. “Of course I could. That’s easy.” The twinkle grew brighter. “It’s also not going to happen. You need more than one pokegirl before anyone will consider giving you storage rights.”
“Oh, well. I could but ask. I hope you have a good day, deputy.”
“Thank you, sir, and the same to you.”
Scheherazade managed to beat him out the door and was alertly watching the street as he joined her. “Shall we go to the ranch first, or the pokegirl center?” Her ears canted amusedly. “It’s daytime, so April won’t be at the center.”
“You have a point. We’ll go to the ranch first.” He pulled out his pokedex and tapped on it for a moment. “Shit. Ah, wait, here’s the GPS function.” He fiddled with it for a moment before sighing and looking up. “Damn, that’s not it either. Piece of crap electronics is a lying sack of shit. It has ‘easy to use’ and ‘intuitive’ operation my ass.” He pointed. “That’s north, so we go that way.”
“How do you know?”
He started to snap something and closed his eyes for a second. “The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.” He glanced at her. “That is unless Typhonna altered the planet’s rotation when she fucked up everything else.” He shook his head slightly. “I know she didn’t. You’d think tamers would get a bit more scouting training. They probably do, but skip ahead to the part about pussy.”
Scheherazade gave him a diffident look. “Have you tried reading the instruction manual?”
He blinked and began chuckling. “You happen to be looking at one of those oddballs who, whenever possible, actually likes to read the manuals before operating the equipment. Unfortunately, there’s a small problem.” He slapped the pokedex and gave it a disgusted look. “The instruction manual is digital and is stored inside the pokedex. I’m reading it, but it’s slow going because I have to get out of the tutorial to try what it says to do.”
Typical of the small communities around the world, once you got about a hundred yards out of the area, the wilderness took over. While in previous periods farms would be found directly outside of towns, the truth was that with feral pokegirls, being close to a city just invited more attention from flying pokegirls as well as ferals who found urban areas more to their liking. In addition, when farms were next to communities, there were inevitable casualties from poorly aimed pokegirl techniques, either from attacking ferals or from the farm’s defensive forces. Because of this, farms tended to be sited at least a short distance outside of cities. With the lack of irrigation available, they also tended to be close to fresh water, either through a series of wells or very near a river or lake.
The road leading towards the Serendipity Ranch almost immediately turned into a one lane trail rutted with wheel tracks from wagons. In low or muddy places, the surrounding trees had been cut down and the road corduroyed with the timber.
After a couple of kilometers in which Kerrik pushed the pace, Scheherazade turned to her sweaty tamer. “I could fly us there.”
“Yeah, you could. And I’d miss out on all this wonderful conditioning. Let’s face it; I’m not in the same shape as the average tamer.”
“You’re not the average tamer’s age, either.”
“In the old west, sixty year old mountain men could hike up and down mountains all damned day. I’m not anywhere nearly that old and I think I should at least be able to do that on the flat.” He pulled his canteen from his belt and took a swallow. ‘Having you fly me everywhere is not going to let that happen.” He wiped sweat from his face and smiled slightly. “When some slavering pokegirl wants to eat my sweetmeats and is right behind me is not the time to find myself out of breath. I do appreciate the offer, however.”
Her ears came up. “You do?”
“I do. Trust me when I say I’m only doing this so I can run farther and faster when the occasion arises. This shit is not anything even close to being fun. Now please stop offering to make this easier before I weaken and say yes.”
She laughed and nudged him, sending him careening sideways into a thorny bush. It didn’t take long to extricate him, and the bleeding stopped soon afterwards.
Kerrik stopped walking when the buildings appeared out of the forest. He looked around and shook his head. “You have got to be kidding. Where are the crops?”
Scheherazade gave him a curious look before returning to scanning their surroundings. “Would you care to elaborate?”
He pointed to his pokedex and then at the buildings. “According to this, that is the Serendipity Ranch.” He looked at the piece of electronics again. “Yep. Even though I still think you should be able to engage the GPS function without having to have the mapping app open first, I did finally get the damned thing working and that’s the Serendipity Ranch.” He sighed. “Otherwise we are completely lost and I probably need to say something about knowing that I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque.”
The Dire Wolf glanced at him and snickered softly. “You were talking about crops?”
“Actually, I was talking about the lack of crops. Granted, up until very recently I didn’t actually live here, but I do like to think that my thought experiments about certain things in the pokegirl universe and how they should be make logical sense. One of these is how ranches are designed. I think the optimum design would involve putting large fields of crops all around the buildings for the ranch. It gives a clear field of fire for the watchtowers I’d put up and gives the vast majority of ferals the chance to stop and eat something instead of wandering into the buildings looking for food and slaughtering everyone they come across. Additionally, it gives you food crops to feed to you and your pokegirls, reducing the amount you might have to import from somewhere else, thus reducing overhead. Pokechow may not be all that expensive, but it’s not free. Every pound you buy comes straight from your bottom line and even if you’re not out to make a huge profit, you can’t afford to lose money all the time.” He waved at the buildings ahead. “Having the buildings just sitting out makes things a lot more expensive, not only in food costs, but in the fact that you’re just asking ferals to come in and graze off of the pokekits and staff. That rather quickly gets pricy, as well as kind of messy.”
“Could they just factor in the loss of a certain percentage of the kits as the price of doing business?”
“They could, but it’s really cold blooded and if you let ferals get into the buildings you never know when one might turn up in your bedroom looking for someone to eat. They could also have a really good reaction force, but everyone screws up eventually and at that point people get killed.” He shrugged. “Even the outer ring of crops concept isn’t perfect. Tunneling pokegirls and fliers might miss the crops entirely and something might cause a land based feral to completely ignore the fields. I’d want a moat, too, along with those watchtowers I mentioned.”
“It sounds expensive,” she pointed out quietly.
“It costs less than my life is worth, and a lot of the cost can be avoided by using harem pokegirls to do as much of the construction as possible. With a couple of Elves and maybe an Elfqueen, you could have more than one harvest a year, too. Most Elf kingdoms should have a junior Elfqueen or two that the reigning queen would just love to get rid of. You just have to couch your request in political terms that the queen will appreciate.” He eyed the buildings grimly for a few seconds. “You’re sure this is the best thing for me.”
“I am not sure of anything, but I believe that this is the best course of action for the situation.”
He closed his eyes for a moment. “I got nothing. Well, Scheherazade, let’s see what the future has to hold for us.”
As they approached the buildings a Griffon came out of a door on the closest one and bounded into the air in a short flight that ended right in front of them. Her ears flicked halfway back as she looked Scheherazade over before turning to Kerrik. “Good afternoon, sir. This is the Serendipity Ranch, and I’m Ellen. If the ranch is your destination, welcome. If it’s not, I’ll have to ask you to skirt around the buildings so as not to have any incidents with the pokegirls.”
“Good afternoon, Ellen. I’m Kerrik Wolf and I’m here to get a starter pokegirl.”
The Griffon smirked as she glanced at the Dire Wolf again. “I can see why you’d want one, sir.”
“Ellen.” Kerrik’s voice was flat. “Stop with the insults. She hasn’t done anything to you to deserve it and I don’t like your attitude.”
The Griffon’s eyebrows shot up and her spine went straight. “Well, sir, if you have a problem with my attitude, feel free to speak to Master Strauss about it.” Her tone suggested it wouldn’t have much of an effect.
Kerrik snorted and turned around. “Scheherazade, let’s go.”
Ellen chuckled. “And where are you going to go, sir? We are the only ranch in the area and there isn’t anyplace else to get a starter.”
He stopped and looked back at her. “I’m going to return to Dundalk and file a formal complaint about this place. I don’t need a starter so badly that I’ll put up with you, but if this is the way you treat guests I don’t think you should be involved with Dundalk’s scholarship program.”
Her eyes went wide. “Sir, wait!” Kerrik ignored her and headed down the road, closely followed by his maharani.
After about five minutes, Scheherazade looked at him. “You’re serious about going back to Dundalk.”
“Damned right I am. Ellen giving you shit like that was way out of line. If I have to tolerate her fucking with you to get another pokegirl, I don’t need one.”
“But according to my precognition, your next pokegirl is at that ranch. What about her?
“What you see are lines of probability, not absolutes. Apparently the wave function was not really supposed to collapse to a solution at that point or Ellen would not have been a fucking asshole. It’ll collapse somewhere else, maybe in Dublin. A ladyba or ladyien might not be so bad.”
Her ears canted sideways. “Why do you curse when you’re amused, and yet you didn’t curse at Ellen?”
“I don’t curse when I’m angry at strangers. Most people tend to dismiss those who curse out of hand. Instead, I get very precise and lower my voice so the person I’m pissed at has to listen to what I’m saying.” He smiled. “And not only that, but my cursing goes in stages, sometimes I don’t curse much at all. If it bothers you, I’ll work at cutting back.”
“It doesn’t bother me, Kerrik.” She suddenly looked up and tensed. “Take cover.”
He dove into the bushes and froze. Scheherazade was still standing and looking up. He dropped his voice to a whispered hiss. “Shay, turn invisible and get the fuck over here!”
She blinked and vanished seconds before a Griffon landed a dozen meters up the trail. It was Ellen, and she let a tall slender man go. He looked around and spoke with a distinct French accent. “I saw them around here. What was his name?”
The Griffon’s ears drooped. “I don’t remember, sir.”
“Minou foutu stupide.” The man cupped his hands together. “Mr. Tamer, sir, I am Johann Strauss and there’s no need for you to go back to Dundalk before you get your starter. There’s been a grievous misunderstanding and I’d like to have the chance to make this right.” Kerrik watched him for several seconds before getting up and moving into the open. His Dire Wolf appeared beside him as Strauss sighed in relief. “Thank, you monsieur. Ellen has something she’d like to say to you.” He glanced up at the cat pokegirl.
Ellen bowed her head submissively. “I’m very sorry for making you angry, sir. Please accept my humble apology for my earlier words.”
“There appears to be a misunderstanding, Ellen. You need to apologize to Scheherazade, not me.” The expressions of stunned shock on both faces almost made him smile. “You didn’t insult me; you insulted her when you insinuated that she couldn’t do her job.”
I didn’t really feel insulted. Is this really necessary?
Yes, it is. Nobody treats my woman that way. Nobody.
I don’t think I can complain at that attitude, Kerrik.
Strauss recovered first. “You have a refreshing take on life, sir. Ellen, I believe you owe his Foxxsea an apology. Make it heartfelt.”
The Griffon grimaced. “Yes, sir. Shed, er, Schayhel, um, Foxxsea, I want to apologize for in any way suggesting that you were not a good pokegirl for your tamer. I was out of line.”
“My name is Scheherazade and I accept your apology. I know there often is a rivalry between canine and feline pokegirls. I do not share that tendency, but I thank you for apologizing.” She looked at Kerrik. “Are you satisfied, master?”
He nodded. “I am, Scheherazade. Thank you, Ellen, and you as well, Mr. Strauss.”
Strauss let out a small sigh of relief. “Sir, I’m afraid I don’t know your name.”
“I’m Kerrik Wolf.”
“Mr. Wolf, perhaps we could return to the ranch so you could pick out your starter pokegirl?”
Kerrik nodded. “That would be nice, Mr. Strauss. I also have a feral that I’d like you to look at and see if you want to purchase.”
Strauss looked surprised. “You have only one pokegirl and a feral and you want to sell the feral? What is she, a one legged Bimbo?”
“No, she’s a Warcat.”
“You, you don’t want to keep a Warcat? If I may ask, why don’t you want to keep her?”
“I’m allergic. It’s hard to tame a pokegirl when your eyes are swollen shut.”
Strauss nodded slowly. “I’ve seen that before, although it’s pretty rare.” Apparently satisfied by something he could understand, his tone now became businesslike. “Can Ellen give you and your alpha a lift back to the ranch?”
Scheherazade cocked her head. “Mr. Strauss, I’m afraid my tamer is allergic to all cat pokegirls.”
“I hadn’t thought about that. Please accept my apology.”
Kerrik waved it off. “It’s ok. We’ll just walk and meet you back at your ranch in a few minutes. I know ranching is a lot of work, so you go ahead.”
“Thank you, Mr. Wolf. Ellen, let’s go.” The Griffon wrapped him up in her arms and spread her wings before leaping into the air.
Scheherazade watched her fly away. “Are you really allergic to cats?”
“Nope.”
“The more powerful Foxxsea can teleport. We could use that to avoid the walk.”
He snorted and took her hand. “Scheherazade, there are two types of beginning tamers who happen to have powerful pokegirls when they’re first getting started. Those would be the rich ones and the ones without a father who took their mothers as their alpha.”
She turned to stare at him. “Does that really happen?”
He shrugged. “It’s a logical offshoot of the tamers who would bang their sisters, and some of the literature is full of that. Single mothers would still need tamed and if their sons are raised to think pokegirls aren’t really people some of them wouldn’t have any qualms about it. It’ll never happen in my work since I don’t have an Oedipus complex.” He sighed and started heading back towards the ranch. “I wonder if I’ll ever get to write again.”
“You could do that here.”
“It’s not the same. It’s like a piece of artwork I saw in a Dungeon Master’s Guide for Dungeons and Dragons, which is a high fantasy game where the players take on the roles of fighters, mages, thieves and priests of human or other races. In this art, there was an adventuring party playing a dice game called Papers and Paychecks, where they pretended to be living in the world of the players and having adventures being car salesmen and executives. I’d have to write about a world without pokegirls where guys have to find other ways to get into women’s panties. Considering the worldview here, it might be a paradigm that’s hard to explain.”
“Why would it be?”
“Spock once said that it’s easier for civilized folk to act like barbarians than it is for barbarians to act civilized because civilized people have a barbaric past while barbarians have no civilization to draw upon. That’s why.”
“I don’t know who that is, but those words make sense. So this world is barbaric?”
“It is in how it treats women. That behavior has even filtered over into how putatively human women are treated.”
A short time later the ranch came back into view. A different pokegirl, this time a Scarecrow with long straw-like hair, was on the roof of one of the buildings. She dropped to the ground and jogged over to them. “Master Wolf? I am Ashlyn, and I’m supposed to escort you to the choosing room.”
“Choosing room?” Understanding filled Kerrik’s eyes. “This is a storage ranch, isn’t it?”
The Scarecrow nodded happily. “Yes, sir, it is, except for a handful of kits Master Strauss’ harem has had. This way, please.” She headed for the central building.
They fell in behind her. “What’s a storage ranch?”
“I should have realized what this place was when I didn’t see any fields and put that together with the fact that most of the starters they give out are ferals. If I’d listened more closely to Colleen I wouldn’t have been surprised by the layout. A storage ranch isn’t like most ranches. What you’ve got is a breeder who doesn’t really do much breeding; although most of them let their harems have litters. Instead, he takes the lower tier confiscations and low tier ferals he buys and markets them to tamers. All a storage ranch needs is a storage unit and possibly a transporter. He buys the confiscations from the league for a fraction of what they’d sell for and just keeps them in storage until he can unload them, either by sale or by giving them to a beginning tamer, which the league then compensates him for. Since the pokegirls stay in storage, he doesn’t have to feed or house them, so his overhead is very minimal. He doesn’t even need the storage unit since almost all of the ones he has for sale are already feral, he could just stack them in a box if he wanted to.”
Ashlyn looked over her shoulder. “We actually do need the storage unit. Finding a specific pokegirl without computer tracking being available would be an utter nightmare, sir.”
“That’s an excellent point, Ashlyn.”
She opened the door to the building and waved them in ahead of her. “What kind of pokegirl are you looking for in a starter? We cannot guarantee to have anything specific, but Master Strauss tries to get as close as possible.”
“I got a perfect score on the tamer’s exam, so I’m eligible for a second tier pokegirl. I’m not sure what I want, so I thought I’d see what you had ready to go.”
A hesitant look crossed her face. “I don’t mean you any disrespect, sir, but we hear that a lot. I’ll have to call the pokegirl center and verify your score before I can release any second tier starters.”
He smiled. “That makes perfect sense to me. You can’t just take a beginning tamer’s word for something like that. If you did, some days you’d give out more second tier pokegirls than there were tamers taking the test that week.”
She laughed softly. It sounded like reeds rustling in the wind. “That’s right, sir. If you’ll just go in that room, sir, I’ll make that call. It shouldn’t take long.” She ushered them into a cozy room with a computer on a small table against the far wall. The door shut behind them and both heard the click as the lock engaged.
Scheherazade chuckled. “They wouldn’t want most tamers wandering around unescorted, would they?”
“No, they wouldn’t. You never know what might accidentally jump into one of their empty pokeballs. It’s also likely we’re being monitored, if for no other reason than to make sure we don’t try to steal Ashlyn.” He looked at the screen on the monitor. “We need a password to get in, so I guess we just cool our heels until she comes back.”
A few minutes later Mr. Strauss came in, followed by Ashlyn. “I’ve verified your perfect score on the tamer’s test. Congratulations, by the way.” He smiled. “Sadly, right now we don’t have many second tier pokegirls available for adoption. In fact, I’ve only got six of them and therefore there’s no reason to have to winnow through them here. I’m having them released in the examination room, and once that’s done you’ll be able to inspect them and see if any are to your liking. They’ve all had a level three conditioning cycle, so even the ferals are pretty safe right now.”
“Thank you, Mr. Strauss.”
Strauss gave him a hopeful look. “So you don’t think you’ll find any need to file any sort of complaint against my ranch?”
Kerrik glanced at his maharani. “Mr. Strauss, it appears that Ellen and I just got off on the wrong foot when we first met. Running any ranch can be rather stressful and I should have taken that into consideration. I don’t think something that minor warrants any sort of official paperwork that’ll just waste both of our time.” Ashlyn gave him an approving look and he smiled back at her.
Strauss visibly relaxed. “I thank you for being so understanding, Mr. Wolf. I’ll speak with Ellen and make sure she’s friendlier to our future guests.”
“We all have bad days. Don’t be too hard on her.”
The door opened and Ellen looked into the room. “Sir, the pokegirls have been released and are ready for inspection.”
Strauss nodded. “Good. Return to your patrol outside. Mr. Wolf, please come with me.” Ashlyn took up the rear as he led his guest to a room where several pokegirls stood with bleary expressions as they looked blindly around the room. “With the limitation that you can’t tame any of them, please feel free to get physical while examining your prospective starters.” He smiled. “While you’re looking them over, might I have the Warcat so I can evaluate her and make an offer for her?” Kerrik tossed the pokeball to Strauss, who handed it to Ashlyn. “Have her healed and then scanned before bringing me the report on her.”
“Yes, sir.” She slipped out the door.
Kerrik started down the row of pokegirls, looking them over while trying to find what could identify the one that Scheherazade thought was the important one for him. None of them had “Property of Kerrik Wolf” on their foreheads, so he didn’t have a clue, but he figured he’d look them over and hope he could figure it out. If not, he could always ask his Dire Wolf, but he wanted to see if he could do it on his own first. He’d start with the Avariel on the end and work his way back. He blinked when the air in the room seemed to shimmer. Before he could say anything about it, a flash of red caught his eye and he turned around as Strauss returned another pokegirl to her ball. “Um, what are you doing?”
“I’m putting the girls up.” He returned a third one as Kerrik glanced at Scheherazade. Kerrik’s confusion grew when she looked like there was nothing out of the ordinary going on. Strauss finished returning the pokegirls and turned to Kerrik, holding out a pokeball. “Here you are. I’ll update your record and you are free to go, Mr. Wolf.”
Kerrik took it and frowned as he tucked it into his belt. “I thought I was going to decide which pokegirl I got.”
Scheherazade chuckled. “Sir, I think we should go now.”
Kerrik turned to see a pokegirl standing next to his maharani. Her hair fell to the middle of her back and was bright blue flecked with tiny white spots. Her eyes were the color of sea foam. She was wearing a simple dress that was belted at the waist. Her eyes sparkled as she smiled at him. “Sir, I think my alpha is right. We need to be going.” The air seemed to shimmer again.
He nodded and gestured at the door. “You’re right, Danielle. It’s back to Dundalk. Ladies first.”
Scheherazade led the way and the blue haired girl followed behind her. The butt of the shotgun took Danielle in the base of the skull and slammed her face first into the wall, pulping her lips and shattering her nose. Scheherazade whirled as he butt-stroked his victim again, this time in both kidneys. The blue haired pokegirl screamed shrilly and tried to protect them with her hands.
Scheherazade stood with a look of shock on her face. “Sir, what are you doing?” Behind him Strauss gasped loudly.
Kerrik reversed the shotgun and pressed the muzzle to the center of Danielle’s back as he clicked off the safety. “Who are you?”
She almost yelled at the wall. “I’m Danielle, sir! Your pokegirl! What are you doing?”
He slammed the barrel against the side of her head and knocked her sprawling. She looked up to see the muzzle about an inch from her right eye and froze. His voice was low and rasped with suppressed anger. “You got your only lie. Now tell me the truth or die.”
Scheherazade took a hesitant step forward. “Kerrik, are you ok? Danielle is part of your harem and you know that.”
“Scheherazade, how many pokegirls did I have this morning? Think really hard before you answer.”
She opened her mouth and paused as she suddenly looked confused. “One. You just had me.”
“How many pokegirls did I have when we talked to Colleen?”
The confused look didn’t go away. “Just me.” Her ears began to flatten.
“How many pokegirls did I have when we got here?”
There was less hesitation this time. “You just had me, sir.”
“Now think very hard. Did you see me pick a pokegirl inside the examination room?”
The Dire Wolf shook herself like she was shaking off water. Her fists clenched and her muzzle rippled in a snarl. “Who is she?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.” He prodded the pokegirl in the nose with the shotgun and she whimpered. Tears began to run down the sides of her face to mingle with the blood from her nose and lips. “You get one chance to answer. Now turn off the waterworks. They don’t work on me and I didn’t hurt you that badly.”
She sighed. “How did you resist me?”
Her eyes went wide when he jammed the muzzle into her cheek and twisted savagely. She whimpered in pain again. “You don’t get questions. Answer mine.”
She whispered the words. “I’m Danielle. I’m here to help you, Kerrik Wolf.”
He pulled the muzzle back to hover over her right eye again. “What kind of help could I possibly need from a Megami who tries to make everyone believe she’s already in my harem? Starting with lies is a really bad way to have a relationship with me. Who are you with, the Celestial Alliance? Sanctuary?”
The Megami shook her head slightly. “Neither. I really want to help you. Sanctuary wants you for them and the Celestial Alliance wants you for them, but you dead and unable to be taken by Sanctuary would also be fine by them. They think I’m looking for you to feed intelligence back to them. Idiots.”
“They don’t know where I am?”
“You’re like some kind of black hole for magic. They can’t find you. Nobody can. The Blue League knows you’re here and has the Pendragons looking for you, but they’ve come up empty handed, too.”
“If I can’t be found, how does the league know about me?”
“Sanctuary sent out an emergency bulletin to find you and the others like you that they’d lost. Their communications aren’t nearly as secure as they think.” She looked up at him. “Does my answering your questions mean you’ll stop threatening to shoot me?”
“I’m thinking about it. So how did you find me?”
“I checked the tamer records and found when and where you became a tamer. Then I simply went and asked April about you. You made quite the impression, I might add, and she’s hoping you come back to see her.” She coughed and spat blood. “My nose is filling up and I can’t breathe.” Kerrik clicked on the safety and shouldered the shotgun as he held out a hand. She took it and he pulled her into a sitting position. She moaned softly. “What the hell did you do to me? My lower back is on fire.”
“If I didn’t rupture your kidneys, it wasn’t for lack of trying.”
“Was that really necessary?”
“Yes, it was. So you tracked me to Dundalk. How did you manage to find me here?”
She winced and rubbed her back. “I think you succeeded. The pain is getting worse.”
He glanced at Scheherazade. “Heal her back.”
“I’d rather break more of her for tricking me like that.” She knelt and ran her hands down the Megami’s spine. The Dire Wolf looked up at him with a questioning look and touched her nose. He shook his head slightly and she nodded before standing up. “All done.”
Danielle sighed in relief. “Thank you.”
“How did you manage to find me here?”
“I found you in Dundalk. Your pokegirl isn’t the only one that can become invisible and I followed you here so I could join your harem.” She grimaced and touched her lips. They glowed and mended. “I waited there for nearly a week before you showed up.”
“Why do you want to help me?”
“You’re not one much for small talk, are you?” She blinked when he pointed the shotgun at her and clicked off the safety again. “Then again, your time here probably hasn’t been very pleasant and so I can understand you wanting direct answers.” A ghost of a smile appeared. “Any of the Alliance would play their usual games and you’d have either shot them or left them by now. I want to help you because not only are you being butt fucked by being brought here, if you have the power that Sanctuary thinks in a group, it’s likely that you might have power of your own without others. Power that could be used to help humanity and pokegirls survive.” Her eyes narrowed. “That and I wouldn’t mind smacking Sanctuary around a bit if the opportunity comes up. If nothing else, I want to help you go home, since only you leaving or dying will make Sanctuary stop hunting you and hurting others in their attempts to find you.”
“You have a history with Sanctuary?”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t. But if they succeed and create a new world where they’re on top, I doubt there’ll be much of a place for my kind.” She took a deep breath. “And we’re not the only ones who understand that, either. There are strong indications that the legendaries are trying to cook up something to stop Sanctuary.”
Kerrik put the safety back on and slung the shotgun over his shoulder. “The legendaries are involved? Every time someone brings up Sanctuary, it seems like the shit just gets deeper and deeper.” He frowned and looked into the examination room. Strauss was standing with wide eyes and an open mouth. He wasn’t moving. “What the hell?”
“I used magic to stop time for everyone here except us.” Danielle slowly levered herself to her feet. “He did not need to hear this conversation. I’ll release him when we leave.” She winced as she straightened. “You hit hard. I should have worn my armor for this. Will you let me join your harem?”
He looked at Scheherazade. “Are you going to tell me that she’s the one we came here for?”
The Dire Wolf closed her eyes for a moment. She sighed. “I don’t think she was, originally, but she is now.”
“What the hell am I going to do with a Megami?”
Danielle smiled slightly and healed her nose. “I can be useful. I’m not one of those frilly ‘let’s talk and work things out for the best’ Megami. I can and will pull my own weight.” She looked at Scheherazade. “And you can trust me not to let him out of my sight if you’re away doing something.”
“That’s good.” The Dire Wolf looked at Kerrik. “My precognition says she’ll be useful for us. Do we take her?”
Kerrik pulled out his pokedex and pulled up a screen before touching the Megami’s pokeball to the front. He typed a couple of things and nodded. “I either trust your abilities or I don’t, so she’s in the harem.” He turned to the Megami. “Your name is Eve.”
She blinked and her mouth set. “My name is Danielle. I like Danielle.”
“Tough. Your new name will remind me to still be cautious about the gifts you offer to me. If you don’t like it, feel free to leave.”
Her mouth dropped open and she pulled it shut with an obvious effort. “I let you almost kill me and you still don’t trust me?”
“Would you if you were me?”
She started to say something and stopped, staring at him. Finally she shrugged. “I don’t trust people easily.”
He gave her a cynical smile. “Welcome to the club. Let’s get out of here before Strauss thaws out.”
“Kerrik, we still have to sell the Warcat.”
He blinked. “Damn, I forgot. Good catch. I guess you’ll have to wake everyone up, Eve.”
“My name is Danielle.”
Kerrik looked at Scheherazade. “Did you hear something?”
She smirked. “Perhaps it was the wind.” She looked at the Megami. “Well, Eve, your master gave you an order.”
Eve gave the Dire Wolf a flat glare. “I think I hate you both.”
Scheherazade’s ears flicked back. “You want to be here, do you not? If not, Kerrik hasn’t fucked you yet, so you are not bonded to him and he has no real attachment to you.”
“I don’t get fucked, I get tamed!”
Scheherazade looked at her master. “Now she sounds like one of those stuffy Megami she just made fun of.”
Eve stared at both of them. “I, I, I,” she stuttered. Then her eyes narrowed. “You bastards.”
“She’s rather foul mouthed for a celestial.”
Kerrik shrugged. “I might point out that you’re a celestial and you curse.”
That got him a glare from Eve. “She is not a celestial!”
Scheherazade gave the Megami a lofty look. “I happen to be a Dire Wolf.” She chuckled as Eve turned purple and sputtered at them both. “She seems to have the kind of attitude you like. She hasn’t said sir yet.”
Kerrik shrugged. “She’s incoherent. She’s not saying anything right now, but you might be right.”
“She just needs to channel her frustration into action and words. She’ll learn how to do that if she doesn’t pop an aneurism.”
“I’ll stand ready with her pokeball, just in case.” Kerrik reached out and took the Megami’s hand. “Eve, I want you to take a deep breath and squeeze out your frustration in my hand.” He went white and screamed as she convulsively clamped her hand over his and crushed it. Blood gushed around her fist and spattered loudly on the floor.
Eve’s eyes widened and she let him go. “Oh shit. I’m so sorry, Kerrik.” She grabbed his hand and he screamed again before she healed it. He slumped to the floor, panting. She turned fearful eyes on Scheherazade. “I’m sorry.”
The Dire Wolf knelt and looked at her tamer. “Don’t worry about it. I broke his face while we were having sex and he forgave me. He’ll get over it.”
Kerrik took a shaky breath and examined his now uninjured hand. “I take it you have enhanced strength.”
“I’m so sorry, I thought you knew.” She blinked away tears.
“I do now.” He held up his hand to her and she stared for a second before taking it and pulling him to his feet. “It’s ok, Eve. I forgot a cardinal rule about pokegirls and you administered a lesson that I won’t forget for a while.”
She blinked. “What lesson is that?”
“Don’t judge by appearances. You looked so sad and angry that I wanted to help you and I didn’t think about the fact that strong pokegirls don’t necessarily look strong.” He put a finger on her lips as she started to speak again. “You’ve apologized, however I should point out that I was stupid. You didn’t kill me and it won’t keep me from bedding you when the time comes. I apologize for teasing you so much, too.” He smiled slightly and traced her lips with the finger. “Your lips are very full and soft. Kissing you is going to be fun.”
She turned bright red. “I can’t believe you. Your other hand is still covered in blood where I crushed it and you’re thinking about kissing me.” Kerrik blinked and looked at his left hand before he shrugged and cleaned it on the front of Eve’s dress. She jumped backwards. “Hey!”
He glanced at Strauss. “We do need to finish our business here and if they’re out too long it’ll be hard to explain when someone looks at a clock.”
“You’re right. I’m going to confuse Strauss a little when he wakes up so he won’t wonder why he doesn’t see you beating me up anymore or wonder about the blood on the wall from my face or the floor from your hand.” She quickly scrubbed her face clean on her dress. “He should just accept things as he sees them.”
“That’s a neat trick. Powerful, too.”
She nodded. “Yes, it is. That’s why we don’t ever talk about it.” She came over and turned around to press the back of her body against him. Then she grabbed his hands and wrapped his arms around her waist. “This will help to confuse his memories of us fighting an instant ago.”
“I can see where it might,” he said with a soft chuckle as he rested his chin on her shoulder. She shivered suddenly and tried to pull away. “No, you’re right, Eve. Wake them up.”
She slowly relaxed back against him. “All right. I’ll wake them up in five, four, three, two, one, and now.” The air shimmered slightly all around them.
Strauss stirred and blinked owlishly for several seconds. “What, um, never mind.” He rubbed his forehead and muttered to himself. “Merde.”
Kerrik let Eve go and headed for him. “Are you all right, sir?”
Strauss waved him off. “I’m fine, Mr. Wolf. I’m just a bit weary.”
Kerrik nodded. “That’s good. You looked a bit off there for a moment. Now that I’ve got Eve, I guess that except for the Warcat our business is done.”
Strauss gave him a vague look that sharpened in stages until he was fully alert. “The Warcat, yes, Ashlyn should be along fairly soon with that report.” He looked at his watch and frowned. “She should have been back by now. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll see what’s taking her so long.”
Scheherazade watched him leave. “He left us alone and in the hallway. He’s still a bit confused.”
Kerrik frowned and sniffed Eve’s hair. She shivered again and pulled out of his arms. “I know that scent. What is it?”
She gave him a bright smile that trembled nervously on the edges. “It’s me. Look, um, remember when I said I’d been waiting here a week for you to show up?”
“Yes, I do. So far my short term memory works just fine.”
“Well, I wasn’t sure when you’d show up, so I kept watch the whole time. I haven’t slept much and other than one time with April, I haven’t, well,” she broke off and looked at the floor.
Kerrik nodded. “It’s ok, Eve, and we’ll take care of those things this evening. Am I going to need restraints for you?”
She shook her head. “I have really good control of my strength.” Eve glanced at his hand and reddened. “That’s the first time I ever lost control.”
“I’m flattered that I was the one to make you do it.”
Suddenly she was scowling. “You shouldn’t be. I could have killed you.”
“Yes, you could have. I have enough on my plate trying to make sure that future events don’t kill me that I have decided not to bother fretting over past events that might have ended my life. I don’t ignore them or the lessons they might offer, but I don’t agonize over them.”
“I like her.” Scheherazade’s tongue lolled in a grin at Kerrik. “Once I evaluate her level of training, I think she’ll be very useful. Eve, can you cook.”
“Yes.” She sighed. “I’m not going to be Danielle again, am I?”
“Once he’s emotionally invested in you, then you should probably be able to get that name back. He wants the people important to him to be happy, and if you make it a condition of your happiness, he’ll give you just about anything you want.”
Kerrik gave the ceiling an exasperated look. “Could you two do me the favor of plotting where I don’t have to hear it?”
Scheherazade licked his cheek. “We can’t do that until you get a third pokegirl and we can go off to talk alone.”
“Can you not be so blatant about it, then?”
The Dire Wolf winked at Eve. “Sorry, but no. Girl talk is always frank.”
“What’s he got to do with it?”
Scheherazade blinked. “What?”
“Frank. What does Frank have to do with you talking with Eve? And who is this Frank, anyways and why are you two talking about him and not me?”
Eve fought not to smile as her maharani’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
His eyes twinkled. “Oh, do I? In the future, perhaps your discussions about Frank should take place somewhere where I don’t have to hear them. That might help prevent more confusion.”
Scheherazade growled softly and looked at Eve. “It’s a good thing the sex is so good or I might strangle him myself.”
Eve’s eyes went wide at the threat. She slowly relaxed when Kerrik and Scheherazade both chuckled.
The Dire Wolf’s ears rotated. “They’re coming back.”
A moment later Strauss and Ashlyn came up the hall. “Mr. Wolf, the Warcat you are offering is of decent quality. I’d be willing to offer you thirty thousand SLC for her.”
Kerrik nodded. “I see. Just give me her back and we’ll be on our way.”
Strauss blinked. “That’s a fair offer.”
“It’s not even the going league rate for a rare feral and I can easily get more than that for her in an auction. I’ve got starving pokegirls to feed and that won’t do.”
“I’ll offer forty thousand and not a credit more.”
“Sir, you insult me when you lowball your offer like that.” Kerrik held out his hand. “The Warcat.”
“Fifty.”
“Mr. Strauss, if you’d offered that in the beginning, I’d have happily taken it. However, right now I wouldn’t sell her to you for anything less than a hundred and fifty thousand credits. Since both of us know you won’t pay that, give her to me.”
Scheherazade’s ears flicked. He already has a buyer lined up for her. Eve started slightly and her eyes went wide.
Kerrik felt no sympathy. That’s gotta suck, but it’s not my problem.
Strauss ground his teeth. “I’ll give you a hundred thousand for her.”
Kerrik folded his arms. “One thirty.”
“One hundred and ten thousand.”
“One twenty five.”
Strauss scowled. “I came up ten and you only went down five?”
“I came down twenty and you went up ten,” was the response. “I can play that game too.”
“Fine. You’re stealing all my money, but I’ll give you one twenty.”
Kerrik smiled. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you.”
“No, it’s not. Give me your pokedex and I’ll transfer the money to your account. Kerrik handed it over and Strauss did the exchange. “There you go, sir.” His mood lightened visibly. “I don’t suppose you’d consider selling your Foxxsea? They’re quite the rage right now.”
“She’s not for sale, loan or rent.”
“Very well, sir. Thank you for coming to the Serendipity Ranch and I hope you have a nice day. Ashlyn will show you out.”
“Thank you, Mr. Strauss.”
In moments they were outside. Ashlyn gave them a small bow. “I hope you do well, Mr. Wolf.”
“I thank you for your concern and I’m certainly going to try. Ashlyn, are you the alpha?”
She nodded. “Yes, sir, I am. Why?”
“See if you can keep Ellen from being punished too harshly on my account, would you?”
The Scarecrow shook her head. “Sir, that’s up to Mr. Strauss, but the fact that this isn’t the first time she’s done something like that doesn’t make me inclined to put in a good word for her. You’re the first business she actually drove off, but I think that’s only because you’re older and therefore not willing to put up with her behavior. If she did something like that to a league official, things could quickly spiral out of control.”
“Oh. If she’s done that before then I retract my request. Good day, Ashlyn. Let’s go, ladies.” As soon as they were far enough down the road that they were out of sight of the ranch, he turned to Scheherazade. “I want to go to Dundalk just to get supplies and then I want to get the hell out of the town. We’ll stay at the cave until it’s time to return for the Tradesman test.” He looked at Eve. “What do you need in the way of supplies?”
She smiled and twirled in place. “You see almost all of my worldly possessions.”
“Your dress is clean. Are you one of those that can summon clothing?” When she nodded he smiled. “Well at least I don’t have to buy you clothes then. Scheherazade, do you want to put one of you upstairs as CAP?” When both the women gave him a puzzled look, he shook his head. “It means Combat Air Patrol.”
The Dire Wolf shrugged. “Eve, can you fly?”
The Megami nodded. “I don’t have wings or anything, but yes, I can.”
“I don’t think it would be a good idea at this point. While I know that Eve can fly and I know she has some level of enhanced strength, that’s all I know about her and I don’t want to put your safety in her hands until I know more. I’ll find out more about what skill she has when we’re at the cave.”
Kerrik nodded. “Are you literate, Eve?”
She gave him a blank look. “What’s that?”
“Can you read and write?”
She smiled. “I was kidding. I’m literate.”
“Good. Once we get that T2, you can help Scheherazade come up to speed.”
Eve nodded. “I’d be glad to. Can I ask you a question?”
“You can always ask me a question and you don’t have to ask for permission first. You’re part of my life and I’ll always try to answer your questions.”
“Can you cast magic spells?”
“I have some indication that I have the potential to be a wizard, but I haven’t had any training.”
“Would you let me teach you?” She drew herself up proudly. “I happen to be a graduate of the Wolf Institute and I still have all of my books.”
“Why hasn’t the Order snapped you up? They’re frantic to learn everything they can about the Wolf family and how they practice magic.”
“I’m a free pokegirl and I told them to go to hell.”
Kerrik looked thoughtful. “Did they contact you before they left? I know Kasumi wanted to get former students to go with them, even though Shikarou tried to forbid her from getting in touch with them. She actually got several free pokegirls to leave and go with the family.”
The Megami suddenly looked wary. “She did contact me. Why?”
“She left anyone who told her no a way to get in touch with her in case they changed their mind.”
Green eyes went wide. “How do you know that?”
“This is why the Goths want him so badly. He has information they would kill their daughters to know.”
“We need to make sure the Alliance doesn’t find him. Some of them would sacrifice much for knowledge like that.” Eve clasped her hands tightly. “Why would you want me to contact Headmistress Wolf?”
“Sanctuary and the Celestial Alliance have no access to One.”
“One?”
“That’s where the Wolf family went. It’s a world like this one, only they emerged in 6 AS. There, Typhonna didn’t destroy the continents, so there’s a lot more empty land to hide in. Land we could use to hide in if it becomes necessary and I can’t go home.”
Eve was staring at him in awe. “You have power all right. I can feel it. I don’t know if it’s the power to reshape the world into a new form, but there is power there.”
Kerrik snorted. “If someone puts a gun to my head and tells me to remake the world into a paradise, and I have that kind of power, say goodbye to everything you hold dear because my first thought would be to detonate the sun. I’ll give them peace.”
“You would murder everyone here to get revenge on Sanctuary?”
“I’d destroy the world to prevent them from their next logical step, which is to export their lifestyle to the other worlds they know about, including mine.”
“Wouldn’t they be satisfied with remaking this world?”
“The people who crave that kind of power are never satisfied with what they have, Eve. It’s never enough.” He waved around them. “What threat do the leagues really represent for Sanctuary? None of them are expansionist. None of them have the fucking resources to do anything about it even if they were. They’re all too damned busy fighting the ferals inside their borders to care about what happens elsewhere and Sanctuary has its own darkness blessed continent. They are in no danger from the leagues and yet they plot to overthrow them and create a new world and a new order in which they are the bitches on top. What’s reasonable about what they’re doing?” He snorted. “Even the Celestial Alliance makes more sense than that and that little social club happens to be made up of megalomaniacs with delusions of grandeur.” He snorted. “Maybe the world doesn’t want saved. Maybe it wants a nice big fluffy pillow and a bedtime story instead.”
“You’re odd.”
“Well, I can’t help it. There is only one of me. I’d only be even if I had a twin.”
Scheherazade shook her head. “On to Dundalk?”
“Are my puns that bad?”
She gave him an amused look. “That was a pun?”
“Ouch. Tough audience. Fine, let’s go to Dundalk.” He looked at Eve. “And there you can decide if you want to stay or leave.”
“I want to stay. What do you want?”
He started to say something and stopped. “What I want isn’t apparently very important right now,” he said quietly. “I’ve been here long enough that I’ve been fired from my job. My house is probably in foreclosure. All of that means I can’t have what I wanted, and,” he touched Scheherazade’s nose with a finger and smiled when she licked it. “And I’m beginning to not be sure what it is that I want, other than to be left alone. And nobody is going to let me have that.” His eyes were serious and faintly sad. “So I’m going to have to be like the Kerrik that I portrayed and kill enough of them that they either decide to leave me be or kill me before I can make them stop.” He smiled softly. “And that is really why I tell bad puns and jokes and tease you and Scheherazade. If I didn’t laugh at the world, I’d go stark raving mad with worry and frustration and blinding rage.” He looked at a passing cloud for what seemed like a long time before he spoke again. “Mostly blinding rage. You will teach me magic and Scheherazade will use dream time to make the subjective time go faster. And when the time is right, Sanctuary will reap the whirlwind that they have sown.” His smile was amused and sad and predatory at the same time. “They brought me here to change their world and by the darkness and the light I will do just that.”