Songbirds After Dark

Kiera I

The market was only a walk away.

I had gotten faster as I transformed. A damn rabbit, of all things. I had kept one in a cage when I was a child. Maybe that was where I would end up when I came back, in captivity. It wouldn't be unlike my previous life.

When I arrived, it would take me half an hour to get to the market. An hour before I learned to navigate the folds and creases of this world. But I had gotten faster since then, so now I got there in around twenty.  

The market wasn't exactly impressive. The opposite, nearly. A cleared out patch of land in the savannah and dust-colored tents were all that distinguished the goods on the ground from anything else. It wasn't as if we could print money here, so you got what you needed by bartering or begging for it. Luckily, I had been around long enough to pick up a few things to barter with. We didn't need to eat, but plenty of people here liked to do it anyways. Reminded them of home, no doubt. Not me. I don't have time for nostalgia; I'm getting back, I don't care if this world likes it or not. 

Someone grabbed my shoulder. "Kiera!" Said a booming voice.

"Amare. " I said, turning towards him. "I haven't seen you around much, lately. Where have you been?"

"Here and there," he said. He was becoming a bear, but despite being here for longer his change was happening much slower than mine. His face was animalistic by now, but the rest of him remained human. "You'll never guess what I've heard down south." Amare had surely been a wanderer in life, and that never changed.

"What did you hear?"

"Folks are saying that people are leaving here. Getting out thanks to that witch doctor, you know, the one who lives by the meteor. Real isolated type, like you and Jorge."

"There's nowhere that isn't isolated up here, just to different degrees. everyone gets out eventually, that's not news."

"Not just getting out. They're not coming back as something different, they're going back to their old lives."

"I don't buy it. I'm sure if something like that were happening, I would have heard about it."

"Out here?" Amare gestured out at the sprawling grass. "I'm surprised you ever see any people, much less those who know the happenings down south." I rolled my eyes at him. City folks were the same everywhere.

"I need to get some tea for Jorge. We've got a newcomer over. Care to come?" Amare wrinkled his long nose.

"Thank you for the offer, but I'll pass. I've got to be somewhere else soon, and I hate that tea anyways. But, hey, if you're ever close by, give me a shout. I'll see you around, Kiera." and just as suddenly as he appeared, Amare was gone. I sighed, and made my way over to the herbalist. She was a little mouse-lady, and I felt a sort of kinship with her. We were both destined to be prey. I approached her. She looked up at me.

"You're Jorge's friend, right?" she said.

"Right."

"You want tea, then?"

"I do." I felt a little bad for not knowing her name. She clearly knew me. 

"I'll take whatever you've got for it." she said, handing me little bag of the stuff. I tucked it under my elbow and rummaged through my pockets, finding a fistful of opalescent little shells, which I handed over. I thanked her, and began the descent back to the houses.

I probably should have taken the fast route, but I took my time. Amare was full of shit most of the time, but if there was even a chance that this witch doctor existed...

It gave me a lot to think about.