“When I was young, I had a dog.”

  Lily was listening quietly. An hour ago, her and Sunica had dragged the goblin inside and set them up on the couch. Now the two of them sat on the floor in front of the furnace while Lily warmed up and dried off. It was still dark, although Lily suspected the sun would be up before too long. She could barely make out the other girl in the moonlight that made it into the cabin. After a long pause, Sunica continued.

  “Her name was Musca. I thought that if I got a dog, I’d have a friend. No matter how the people in Veni treated me. As long as I had one real friend it was going to be okay.”

  “What about Avea? I’ve gotten the feeling you two have known each other for a long time.”

  Sunica sighed, and explained.

  “We have. Sometimes we’ve been close. Other times not so much. When we were too young to know better it was easy. But, when we got to be over about ten, well… His family explained to him how things were. It’s never been the same.”

  “Ah. Sorry.”

  The balaur girl shifted in the darkness. Lily assumed it was a shrug.

  “It’s fine. But, around that time I needed someone. Anyone who would see me for me, instead of just my scales. One day I found a puppy. It had wandered away from home. A brown little mutt. I spent all day carrying it around asking if anyone knew who it belonged to. Eventually I found them.”

  The door creaked open. Sunica held the puppy in her arms as it nobbled on her wrist and tried to get away. An older balaur woman opened the door and peeked out. When she saw who it was, she brought it the rest of the way open.

  “Oh, little Sunica. You brought the little one we lost. Did you find her yourself? Come in, come in.”

  Sunica let herself be ushered into the small home. An angry looking balaur man was sitting on a pillow near the center of the room, reading something and eating what appeared to be seasoned fish from a bowl. The home was small, but seemed cozy. Despite that, Sunica immediately got an unwelcoming feeling. That feeling was confirmed when the man spoke up.

  “Oh, it’s the red one. Did you bring anything to offer our family, girl?”

  Sunica made a hasty reply.

  “I’m sorry Mister and Miss Dinte. I only brought her.”

  As Sunica let the puppy down, the elder woman spoke up.

  “Hush dear. She’s just a child, and she brought us home the puppy. Isn’t that nice?”

  The man took another bite and muttered something to himself before replying.

  “Whatever. Mutt should have stayed missing. Already got rid of all the siblings but no one wants the runt.”

  Sunica was watching with interest as the puppy sniffed around the house. It was so cute! The puppy toddled over to the man and nobbled on his pant leg. He shooed it away immediately and grunted out a few more words.

  “It’s filthy. Tracking dirt into our home.”

  At this point he noticed Sunica was still standing in the entryway.

  “What are you still here for? There isn’t a reward. Get out.”

  Sunica turned to leave. Her heart broke for the dog that would have to live with these people. Well, Miss Dinte seemed friendly enough. But Mister Dinte was…

  The puppy yelped again as the man pushed it away forcefully. Sunica made up her mind in an instant, and turned back into the room.

  “Um, I’m sorry. But, if you don’t want the puppy back, I’d happily take it.”

  “Huh?”

  The man looked up, and made a clearly sarcastic questioning sound. Sunica could see the irritation on his face, and was surprised when it cleared up into something else.

  “You want ‘er? She’s for sale.”

  “Oh… Sale? I thought you were looking for homes for the whole litter?”

  “Yeah, and we gotta be compensated for our time and food up till now by the new owners. So, you want the dog?”

  Sunica fished around in her pocket. She only had a few copper coins, and she needed those to eat tonight and tomorrow. She might be able to scavenge a bit, though. And it’s not like she hadn’t gone hungry for a few nights before.

  “I’ve got… four copper?”

  The man grunted.

  “Coins? You came here without anything to barter with? Get out girl.”

  “Wait! I only get a stipend from my family. But, I can wait until the next one comes in!”

  The woman spoke up to her husband in a placating tone.

  “Oh, please be gentle dear. She’s only a child.”

  The man let out an exaggerated long suffering sigh.

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  “Fine. Five silver coins. No less. Or bring me something worth it.”

  “F-five…? I only get one a month…”

  “Not my problem. Ask your family for some more. They’re loaded, so that should be nothin’ right?”

  Mister Dinte gestured for her to get out and grabbed another hunk of meat from his bowl. Sunica knew arguing was going to be a losing battle from here, so she left. She stood outside after closing the door behind her.

  She didn’t cry. She didn’t want to cry. She just felt so tired.

  Lily jumped forward and gave Sunica a hug, squeezing the girl tighter than was probably necessary. Sunica laughed a little and wrapped her arms around her assailant in return.

  “What the hell? I’m tellin’ a story here!”

  “I know! I know but. It’s just so… People really treated you like that? When you were just a kid? That’s horrible!”

  She felt Sunica’s body tense up just a little, and when she did respond her voice was a little more wooden than before. Less animated.

  “It’s normal.”

  “It’s not normal!”

  “Well, it is for me. I told you. I don’t belong here. It’s fine.”

  “It’s not fine either! That’s terrible.”

  Sunica pushed Lily away, gently but firmly. Her voice had turned a little bitter.

  “I’ve made my peace with it. It’s the way things are, and no amount of hating it changes anything. I just have to live with it.”

  Lily let the silence sit for a minute. Why did this always happen? She was making things worse. She just wanted to be comforting. How are you supposed to be comforting? She was annoyed at her lack of practice with this stuff.

  “I’m sorry. I think I’m hurting you. But… I just want you to know that my heart hurts for you when I hear stuff like this. I know I can’t change it, and you can’t either. I just want you to be happy. Is that okay?”

  Sunica’s figure in the darkness softened a little, and so did her voice. Lily could hear her take a deep breath, and for a split second she thought the girl was about to yell at her. Lily braced herself, but it didn’t come.

  “I’m sorry too. I just have a lot of complicated feelings. I’m glad that you want better for me. But, I spent years wishing things were different, and all I learned is that it’s easier to not think like that in the first place.”

  “I think I understand that.”

  Lily did. She had her own issues that she felt that way about. She had long since given up hoping that she would ever learn how to exist as a normal person in her world. If the world didn’t change, she would have stayed the same for as long as she lived. She would have died alone in that apartment, and no one would have even noticed her passing until the smell reached the other living spaces. She remembered the bitterness of hoping things could be different and knowing they never would.

  But, things were different now. If she could speak to her past self, she would have responded just as bitterly to the idea that things would change. But they did change. It took a world ending, but they did.

  Lily looked over at the girl across from her, and made a silent vow to herself.

  ‘I’ll change it for you. Even if I have to burn this place to the ground for you.’

  If someone as undeserving as Lily got to have that change, then Sunica deserved far better. With that decided though, she still needed to treat this situation with gentle care. Coming out and saying that would only sting her.

  “I really do think I get that line of thought. I won’t push you. So, did you wanna keep telling your story?”

  “Oh, uh… yeah. Give me a second.”

  They sat in silence for a few more minutes. The sun was just beginning to come up. A little more light was making it into the room, second by second. Lily wasn’t used to being up so early, but it was kinda nice. If only she wasn’t so tired.

  “So, I needed five silver coins, and I had no way to get them. I didn’t really own anything. Not even the clothes on my back. I couldn’t really earn money either. There were a few places around town where I could go to work a little, but they usually paid me with a good meal. Not with money.”

  “How’d you get it then?”

  “Actually, I begged Avea to help.”

  “I thought you said he didn’t like you anymore…?”

  Sunica laughed a little. It wasn’t a happy laugh.

  “It wasn’t like that. He was still my friend. He just knew not to get too close. Because it would be bad for him and his family.”

  “So, that worked?”

  “More or less. He turned around and asked his family for help, and suddenly it wasn’t a problem as long as it was his puppy that I was taking care of.”

  “Huh? So like. You knew she was yours, and Avea did too. But the family was hung up on the technicalities of ownership?”

  Sunica shrugged.

  “It matters in our culture. No one would care one way or another if she was an ordinary dog, but if she ever accomplished anything noteworthy it would be an accomplishment for their family. And if I turned out to be a good animal trainer or something, I’d owe them for letting me learn on ‘their’ animal. It’s a small thing, but it’s a debt that will either be pretty costless or pay off way more than five silver coins. That’s a lot for a kid, but it’s just some change to a working family, you know?”

  “I guess. Feels weird to think about putting a kid in that kind of debt though.”

  “Not to us. In our culture, a lot is reciprocal like that. They almost certainly got more than five silver coins worth of free labor out of me over the next couple years too.”

  “They made you work for it? That’s so…”

  “It’s not like that, Lily. I offered to do things, because I owed them.”

  “Hmm. But you felt obligated, right…?”

  “Yeah. And I’ll admit, I was probably at an age where most of my people don’t think so deeply about stuff like that. But, I was on my own. So I had to learn to be an adult early.”

  “Yeah, I guess. I’m just a little mad on your behalf.”

  “Well, don’t be. I was beyond grateful. I had Musca. We did everything together. It was honestly a struggle to make sure we both ate, but it was worth it. She loved me for me, just like I wanted. I worked hard to train her. It was a good time.”

  There was a pause that held the weight of all the emotions in the room.

  “So… What happened?”

  “It was my fault.”

  Sunica rushed through the snow. It came up to her knees, but was melting into slush as soon as it touched her. Her heart was pounding. Small cuts on her arms and face bled from where she’d fallen, and scraped against rocks and brush in her haste.

  But there was only one thing on her mind.

  Musca.

  And Dorin’s smug face. His words echoed in her heart.

  “Come to the clearing by the river if you ever want to see your stupid dog again.”

  Steam rose around her, as the snow on her skin melted and boiled away. She was going to kill them.