MultiPets: Chimera Knight, Part 2

[Nicholas DeVivo]

I was going to add a bit more to this before showing it to you all,
but I got tired of working on it. I thought some feedback might
encourage me onward. I'm a little concerned that I may have wound up
spoiling the primitive illusion before I could sufficiently build it
up. Since I was starting over, I took the opportunity to respell
Jaime as "Jamie" and rename Orion "Jean." Additionally, I revealed
Jean's 5-ARD before I expected to. 5-ARD (5-alpha-reductase
deficiency, also crudely known as "Guevedoche") is a particularly
uncommon and unusual condition where a genetic male is born visibly
female only to become male once they hit puberty. More information
can be found on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guevedoche#Major_cases

While I pretty much just tacked this on him, I intend to make it a
plot point at some point. Self-image and social issues aside, this
condition will help him track down his biological father.

MultiPets: Chimera Knight
Chapter 1, Act 2: Initial Investigation
By Nicholas DeVivo

Never let it be said that the people of Wine Town don’t know how to
party. It was almost sun-up by the time Katrina returned, and half
the people at her ceremony were still there. Granted, most of them
were unconscious, but a few stalwart fellows were valiantly trying to
keep the revelry going, huddled around the dying embers of the
bonfire, drinking the last of the town’s famous wine, and incoherently
singing drinking songs. Not necessarily the same song, mind you, but
they were either too drunk to notice or too hammered to care.

As Katrina and Wearwolf proudly strode past them, she stopped next one
of the sleeping revelers and prodded him with her foot. He was lying
face-down, wearing only a pair of buckskin chaps, a wineskin clutched
tightly in one hand and a loincloth (presumably his) in the other.
After a few pokes, followed by a good stomp, he groggily lifted his
head and blinked at Katrina a few times.

“Wake up,” Katrina said. “Party’s over.”

“Yer back quick,” the man slurred. “Ya c’m back lookin’ fer ya…” He
smacked his lips a few times as he tried to figure out what he was
trying to say. He looked down at the loincloth in his hands. “Eh-
this mine?”

“Probably,” Katrina replied.

He looked at it uncomprehendingly. “Mebbe I sh’d puh-this back on,”
he said, shortly before tying it around his head.

“No, guess again,” Katrina said, like a preschool teacher might say to
one of her students.

He took off the loincloth, looked at it, nodded, then stood up as he
put it back on over his loins. He looked at Katrina a moment and
snorted. “There’s s’mthin’ diff’rnt ‘bout you… You get yer hair
done?”

Katrina glanced at Wearwolf, who was standing obediently by her. “You
could say I grew a lot of hair,” Katrina replied wryly.

“No, no, no, no,” he replied, taking a swig from the wineskin. “You
ain’ got no more hair then before, but mebbe you sh’d shave yer legs.
Now yer woof, she’s gotta lotta hair. Hey, waitaminute…” He leaned in
with a clever grin and poked Katrina in the shoulder. The smell of
alcohol was heavy on his breath. It was a wonder he was getting any
oxygen at all. “I know wat’s diff’rnt ‘boutchoo! Youse gotta woof!”

“I can’t get nothin’ by you, can I?” Katrina laughed, shoving the man
a little.

“Gah, that’s classic!” he laughed. He shoved Katrina, missed, and
fell on her. She caught him and attempted to stand him upright.
“Classic ‘Trina! We think you go an’ get eaten by a woof, and you go
an’ get yerself a woof! Classic! Just classic! Congratulations,
man, er, ma’am, dude, lady, kid…”

“Thanks,” Katrina said. “Now help me wake everyone up so we can go
home.”

“Right, right, right,” the man said as he took another drink. He then
turned to the crowd at large. “Hey, Guys! ‘Trina’s back! And she
brought a friend!”

Practically all at once, everyone hopped to their feet and mobbed
Katrina, cheering loudly. After a few congratulatory shoves, slaps,
and hair-tousles, they lifted her and Wearwolf onto their shoulders
and started marching them around what remained of the bonfire. Most
of them were singing “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” while the
drunker ones were either trying to sing Jewish folk tunes or “We Are
the Champions” or some confused combination of the above. Wearwolf,
confused an unaccustomed to this ritual, not to mention this position,
was whining and growling.

“Calm down, okay?” Katrina told him over the raucous singing.
“They’re not gonna…”

One of the drunks lost her balance and stumbled into one of the other
drunks, causing both of them to fall onto someone who had just gotten
up and was merely hungover, who nonetheless fell on someone else,
thereby causing the entire party to collapse into a heap with Katrina
and Wearwolf at the top. The drunks immediately started laughing and
the others, who were still having a good time regardless, laughed as
well.

“Good times, good times,” Katrina laughed as she and Wearwolf climbed
off the pile while everyone else hauled themselves to their feet. She
spotted someone she needed to talk to and helped her to her feet.

This woman was dressed differently from the others. While the other
people in her village usually dressed in buckskins similar to what
Katrina wore now, this woman wore a white linen blouse and a pair of
blue jeans. Although after a night of revelry, both were stained
brown with dirt and the blouse was untucked and open to the navel.
She was one of the ones still up when Katrina arrived, and her
drunkenness showed in that only her mechanical left eye was able to
focus properly on Katrina.

“Katrina!” the woman exclaimed, draping a prosthetic arm over the
younger woman’s shoulder. “Lass! I remember you! I remember… when
you were just a wee lass.” She squinted, holding up her thumb and
forefinger. “You were a blaggard then, and yer a blaggard now! But I
loved ya like the daughter I never had!”

“You have a daughter,” Katrina said, leading her away from the crowd.
“You remember Jamie, right Jess?”

“Aye! I had two daughters!” Jess exclaimed. “And o’ them turned out
to be a boy! Chef Boyardee, I think they called it.”

“5-ARD,” Katrina corrected.

“Aye,” Jess agreed. “Got it from his father, he did, ‘cause he sure
as ‘Ell didn’t get it from me! And neither o’ them are like ye, which
is why yer the daughter I never had.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Katrina noted. “Speaking of your
daughter, I’m heading over there anyway, so I thought we might as
well…”

“Lissen ye wench!” Jess interrupted. “I have some advice for ye…
Never, ever, let that dog out of your sight.”

“He’s a wolf,” Katrina corrected.

“I don’t care if he’s a Chihuahua!” Jess declared, her voice beginning
to swell. “You never leave a man or pet behind. Even if you promise
to come back some day, some day soon, never leave him behind. Because
going back means giving up what you love. And I love those girls,
even if she is a boy. I’m proud of them, always will be. Don’t let
anyone tell them otherwise, ye hear? I don’t want them to think the
woman who raised them for fifteen years, would just, just…”

Jess’ voice cracked as she started to cry, burying her face in
Katrina’s shoulder. Katrina had never seen her like this. She’d seen
her drunk certainly, but the crying thing was new. She was never a
sad drunk, that she could tell. Usually Jess would just get loud and
boisterous, even a little raunchy. Okay, very raunchy. She’d seen
her mad, seen her stupid, but not once had Jess cried or even been
morose, and never quiet or introspective. It was uncomfortable to say
the least.

“Okay, Jess, you’ve definitely had enough,” Katrina said, peeling Jess
off her shoulder and getting her walking again. “I’m taking you
home.”

“I’ll decide when I’ve had enough!” Jess exclaimed. “Now, take me
home!”

Katrina rolled her eyes. “Aye-yi, Captain.”

Katrina’s mother was still pregnant with her when Jess first arrived
in the village, so all she knew about it was second-hand. Jess was
pregnant as well, but otherwise alone. All alone. Not even with an
animal companion, something no adult in their society was to be
without. Her only explanation was that she couldn’t bring it with
her. No account of why or how or what. She wouldn’t even explain
where she came from, why she left, or who she was, aside from the name
Captain Jessica Chardonnay, or simply “Jess“ for short.

Some accounts claim that it was raining that night, and that she stood
before the village wearing a black overcoat with the rain pouring down
on her despite being visibly with child. Those accounts are often
dismissed as being romantically dramatic, holding her to mythical
standards. But one thing that held unanimously true is that the
village wanted nothing to do with her. Alone as she was, she was
considered “incomplete,” and despite being pregnant, with twins no
less, there were those who wanted to run her out of town. Her house
proudly stands where she proved just how “complete” she was, a
demonstration worthy of another name she gave as her identity… In the
middle of Siren Crater.

Siren Crater lay just outside of town. It was filled with water, so
it was really more like Siren Pond. Its creation left an island in
the middle of it, leaving a donut shape just right for building a
house on. The house itself was a refuge in audacity. Whereas most
homes in the village were essentially holes in the ground (well-
constructed holes, mind you) with roofs built on top of them, Jessica
Chardonnay lived in a houseboat. Which is to say, her house was
shaped like a boat. A two-story affair complete with bow, masthead,
and mainsail. Katrina always thought it looked like it was ready to
set sail right across the land-locked Dionysus Region to the seas of
the Quinlong Region.

Katrina half-dragged Jessica down the pier to her front door. The
door was unlocked, so she just let herself in. The interior was
better furbished than most in the village as well. Most of the
furniture was purchased in the next town, and many of the trinkets
were bought off traveling merchants. Not even her children knew where
the money came from, and aside from these purchases she lived as if
she were no richer than anyone else in town. It was rumored that she
had so much money she’d never have to work a day in her life, yet she
worked harder than anyone. Played harder, too. There was nary a
person in the village who would even think of ousting Jessica these
days, although there have been days…

And not once did Jessica cry.

The opening of the door roused Jamie from her slumber, who was asleep
in the loft above. When she peered over the edge, expecting to see
her mother, and was surprised to see Katrina with her.

“Katrina, you’re back already,” Jamie exclaimed. With a puzzled look,
she added, “With my mother.”

“Yeah, well, we were heading the same way,” Katrina replied. She
buckled slightly under Jessica’s weight. “You wanna lend a hand? I
think she just passed out.”

“Oh, yeah, just a sec,” Jaime said before ducking out of sight again.
She soon climbed down the loft’s ladder wearing a buckskin tunic, her
auburn hair hanging loosely over her shoulders. Hair was one of the
few things she inherited from her mother, and other than that they
weren’t very similar. Where Jessica was tall, lean, toned and
muscular, her skin tanned and weathered in ways Katrina particularly
admired, and had a rack you could happily snuggle in for days, Jamie
was smaller, wispier, with smooth, fair skin and slender fingers that
could slide effortlessly into small spaces. Jessica had more than
once stated that Jamie could make for a good pick-pocket, and she did
know quite a bit of slight of hand. At current, her diminutive
stature wasn’t much help with moving Jessica across her living room,
but she wasn’t so heavy that Katrina couldn’t bear her weight. She
was just awkward to carry around when limp.

“She must’ve been pretty plastered,” Jamie remarked as they draped her
mother over the couch. “She usually at least makes it to the
bedroom.”

“Yeah, I know,” Katrina agreed. “She was crying, too.”

“No way,” Jamie replied, astonished.

“Seriously,” Katrina said.

“She’s not that kind of drunk,” Jamie said incredulously.

“I know,” Katrina said. “But she was telling me how I shouldn’t leave
Wearwolf behind and she starts bawling. I guess seeing him touched a
nerve or something. Oh, yeah…” Katrina walked back to Wearwolf by the
door. “Did I mention I brought back a wolf?” She knelt down and
scratched him behind the ear. “Jamie, this is Wearwolf. Wearwolf,
Jamie.”

Wearwolf barked, causing Jamie to jump back. She wasn’t sure how she
missed him before, but it was clear now that a wolf in your house was
indeed an intimidating sight. She fell on the couch behind her,
somehow managing not to wake up her mother.

“A wolf!?” Jamie exclaimed, regarding her furry guest with a nervous
half-smile. “I mean, I figured you’d bring back something tough, but
wolf… and so quickly! I mean, it’s not a bear or anything, but…” Her
gaze snapped back to Katrina. “Did I ever tell you you’re the most
awesome person ever?”

“Yeah,” Katrina replied, standing up and crossing her arms. “But
don’t say it too often. I don’t want to come across as a Mary Sue.”

Jamie glanced back to the wolf. “So, Werewolf, is it?”

“Yeah,” Katrina confirmed. “But with a W-E-A-R. When I communed with
him, he said he’d be my armor, so I went with the pun.”

“Oh,” Jamie remarked, rolling her eyes. “That is so like you, too.”

“By the way, I need your computer,” Katrina added.

Jamie blinked. “What?”

“A strange thing happened during the Rite,” Katrina explained. “Some
sort of bug shaped like a horn attached itself to Wearwolf’s head and
compelled him to attack me. I managed to cut it off, but it left some
slime on his forehead and I want you to analyze it.”

Jamie tilted to the side, propping up her head with her hand and an
elbow on the arm rest. “And why me? Isn‘t there anyone else more
qualified in the village?”

“Because you’re straight-edge,” Katrina explained. “Everyone else
would either be too drunk or too hung over by now to be much help.
Besides, I know you have the tools for this.”

“Alright, but I can’t promise anything,” Jaime said, standing back up
and walking to the ladder. “But you can take the data to someone that
can properly analyze it.”

She went back up to the loft. Her brother must’ve woken up, as
Katrina could hear them talking. They both came back down soon after,
Jamie’s brother all but sliding down the ladder in a pair of buckskin
pants. He had that same auburn hair, but shorter, but he was more tan
than his sister and more well-built, too. His arms, especially.
Katrina was particular fond of those arms, even before the change.
But then, the change wasn’t all that dramatic as one might expect.
Looking back, Katrina had to admit that he made for a somewhat homely
girl but was pretty cute as a boy.

“Katrina, you’re back already!” he exclaimed. “And you got a wolf!
That’s so awesome!”

“Isn’t it?” Katrina replied, giving him a big hug. Once they were
done trying to crush each other, Katrina turned back to her partner.
“Wearwolf, this is Jean. Jean, Wearwolf.”

“With a W-E-A-R,” Jaime added. “Something about him being her armor.”

“He’s a magnificent animal,” Jean remarked, kneeling down to meet
Wearwolf. “Hello, Wearwolf.” Wearwolf barked at him. “I think he
likes me.”

“Nah, he hates you,” Katrina noted.

“What?” Jean replied, shocked.

“He says he’s gonna eat your face off if you touch me again,” Katrina
added.

“Seriously?” Jean asked, his face turning ashen and backing off
slightly.

“No,” Katrina laughed. “I’m just messin’ with ya.”

“Geez, Katrina,” Jean said with a sigh of relief. “Don’t kid about
stuff like that. Just because he’s bound to you doesn’t mean he’s
domesticated, you know.”

“I think I’m going to let you take the sample from his head,” Jamie
said, handing Katrina a pair of tweezers. “I’m sure he trusts you
more than he trusts me.”

“Okay,” Katrina said, taking the tweezers and kneeling down next to
Wearwolf. He bowed his head slightly and allowed her to pluck a few
goop-covered hairs from his head. Katrina then handed the tweezers to
Jamie.

Jamie was now wearing her glasses, with round lenses and a wire
frame. Although she wore them all the time, she had perfect vision on
her own. They were actually the display for her computer, a small
device she kept in a leather pouch that hung from her neck. The
glasses also seemed to complete her face, giving her a shy bookworm
appearance that a lot of people, Katrina included, thought looked
pretty cute.

She took the tweezers from Katrina and peered at the sample. Light
green lines danced and scrolled around the inside of her lenses,
almost as if reflected from a hidden monitor in front of her face.
Her gaze soon shifted from the sample to the lines themselves. Her
brow furrowed as she tried to make sense of the data streaming to her
eyes.

“That can’t be right,” Jamie remarked. She reached into her pouch and
pulled out her computer. It was a small, black unit, about half the
size of a paperback novel, that soon folded out into a keyboard with a
click of a button. Placing it on the arm of the couch, her fingers
quickly danced over the keys as her eyes darted back and forth between
multiple readouts.

“What is it?” Jean asked.

“You said this came from a life form?” Jamie inquired.

“I guess,” Katrina replied with a shrug. “It seemed alive enough to
me.”

Jamie scanned the data again. “The virobot concentration is
approximately fifty percent.”

“Isn’t a concentration of fifteen percent considered dangerously
high?” Jean noted.

“Fifty is like, half robot, right?” Katrina clarified.

“At fifty percent, there’s one virus-sized robot for every organic
cell,” Jamie explained. “So, yeah, pretty much. But virobots lack
cohesion and can’t integrate themselves into any sort of complex
construct.”

“The life form would fall apart,” Jean said. “There’d be so many
virobots its cells wouldn’t be able to stick together. At just
fifteen percent, the virobots could clog blood vessels and restrict
circulation, so they‘re programmed to maintain a low population.”

“So Wearwolf might’ve overdosed on Virobots?” Katrina said with marked
concern. “He’s not going to die, is he?”

“The concentration in the follicle is normal,” Jamie answered, to
Katrina’s relief. “It’s all in the goop, but no living being should
be able to manufacture this many virobots, let alone house them. The
only way I can imagine this working is if each cell was slaved to a
virobot, and I‘m not even sure how that‘d work.”

“Could there be more of these?” Katrina asked.

“I can’t even imagine one of these things existing,” Jamie replied.
She folded up the computer and put it back in the pouch. “But you
know what they say…”

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” Katrina recited. Wearwolf whined
slightly at her grim expression.

"Where did Wearwolf find it?" Jean asked. "If there are more,
something should be done about it."

"I’ll have to ask,' Katrina replied. She put her hands on Wearwolf’s
head and begun the process of focusing on his voice again. She tuned
out sounds she wasn’t previously aware of hearing; The quiet hum of
Jamie’s computer, Jessica’s soft snoring, the surprisingly-annoying-
once-you-actually-hear-it whistling as Jean breathes through his nose,
and the sound of insects buzzing outside. ~Are there more of these?~

~Yes,~ Wearwolf answered. ~There are countless more.~

~Where did you see them?~ Katrina asked.

~I am not supposed to tell you,~ Wearwolf replied. ~I swore to never
tell anyone.~

~These… Body-Jackers told you not to tell me where they are?~ Katrina
noted.

~No, not the Body-Jackers,~ Wearwolf clarified. ~I saw the Body-
Jackers somewhere I cannot tell you. They are not from there, they
just are there. We were there first, and then they came.~

~Where are they?~ Katrina questioned. After a short pause, she added,
~I don’t want to force you to tell me, but you know what these things
can do. If you don’t want that to happen to anyone else, you have to
help me, your partner, find out where they are.~

Wearwolf thought about it for a moment. ~I left to warn others, and
to seek aid. They did not want help from humans… However, I do
believe this situation to be far too large for us to pick and choose
who our allies are. I do not give this information lightly. You must
not reveal to anyone the location of the Dryad Sanctuary.~

“The Dryad Sanctuary!?” Katrina exclaimed.

“The Dryad Sanctuary!?” Jamie and Jean echoed.

“The plant-men?” Jean continued to exclaim. “The Mandrake? The Ladies
of the Forest? The Children of Dionysus? The nymphs that will kill
you just for seeing them?”

“I thought they were a myth!” Jamie added. “Like Bigfoot or the
unicorn or Scientology! They’re real!? And within walking
distance!?”

“You guys! Shut up!” Katrina shouted. “You’re ruining my
concentration!”

“I’m sorry,” Jamie said quickly. “It’s just I’ve never seen a real-
live Dryad before. And knowing that they live close by… It’s just so
exciting!”

“I hear they’re the remnants of a long-lost civilization,” Jean said.
“Resurrected from fossilized remains by the virobots.”

“I hear their screams make people’s heads explode!” Jamie added.

“And you still want to see them?” Jean noted.

“I’ll just wear earplugs,” Jamie said.

*To be continued...?*