The Stray

2-32: Friends

Timothy relaxed just a touch as they crossed back into Wright Square. By now it was starting to feel familiar: the Ashborne house, relative safety full of huge allies(ish); the littleside alleys between the shops and houses, perfect escape routes and choke points; and way too many people. Hey, nowhere's perfect.

Luckily, the crowd was smaller today. In both senses, even! It wasn't quite lunchtime yet for most, so the square'd yet to turn into a roiling sea of people. And the biggest chunk of folks here were kids. "Ohh, right, today's a weekend, huh?"

"Yeah...?" V raised an eyebrow. "Saturday?"

The wolf chuckled sheepishly. "Didn't have many appointments out there in the wild." Beat. "Well I did, but they were less, 'Tuesday at three' and more 'meet me at moonrise.'"

"How could y'tell under the shroud?"

"You got used to kinda feeling it."

"Oh, bullshit." She waved him off.

"No, really! Y'get good at it eventually." If you really focused, you could feel the power of the moons and the sun. "I mean, duh, nighttime's colder."

Just then, a kid spotted them, and called out to the others, "It's V!"

"V!"

Timothy bit back a yelp and stepped back as a bunch of the kids mobbed V, hollerin' and screamin'. The dragoness roared with laughter, and cheerfully waded into the tide of children. It wasn't long before V had kids hanging off her arms, sitting on her shoulders, and just generally climbing all over her.

"V, do the muscles thing!" A camel girl sitting on V's outstretched right arm chirped. The other kids clamored for it too.

"You want me to flex?" The kids cheered. V just glowed with an audience. "Oh, I'll flex— so hold onto your butts!"

Timothy watched with amusement as V bounced the kids around by flexing, posing, and just generally showing off. From the knowing/amused looks the merchants gave each other, this was pretty usual.

...Yeah, that wasn't a shock.

"I've got ya now, V!" Timothy glanced up at the little girl voice. A blue jay girl had flown up on the bass's grill top (ignoring his shouted complaint) and leapt right for V— and she had a sword! ... Well, a wooden practice sword. Ahh, memories. Timothy just smiled, counted to two, and stepped aside to let her dive for V's heart like a good Streneli.

And of course, V hammed it up even though it clonked off her breastplate. She clapped her hands to it like it was sticking right through her breast. "Betrayal! AAAAAAUGHBLUBLUBLUBLUH!" V sank to her knees like there was a spotlight on her amidst a chorus of giggles from the kids. Then V flopped back onto the road slow enough to let the kids jump off shrieking, with her tongue dangling out, and it was "over." The blue jay hopped onto her belly and thrust her sword at the sky. I guess kids are the same everywhere. Possibly including V, from how she laughed. The wolf's smile grew broader.

"Yeah, I got V!" The Jay excitedly hopped up and down on V's stomach, drawing a wheeze from the dragoness. "I'm the baddest!"

A mousegirl rolled her eyes, and tugged the bird off of V with an undignified squawk. "Bad at thinkin', sure."

"Hey!"

"Kids, kids, no fightin'! Save that for me!" V sat up, cheerfully ruffling both kids' hair/head crest.

"V! Let's play tag!"

"Or hide and seek!"

"Aw, I wish I could, little dudes, but I'm on the clock!" The kids let out a chorus of boos and complaints. "I know! Working sucks! G'wan, git!"