The Wizard's Terrarium

Chapter Five

"That's okay, we'll just swing by and pick him up on the way..." Six started to say but then let his voice trail off. "Oh my, is that Maurice?"

Falling Rain followed his gaze. Indeed, the Taurian had emerged from the cottage provided him by the Arcgate Welcoming Committee, and she could see why Six was so startled. Maurice wore nothing but tightcloth briefs, revealing a powerfully built body that had previously been hidden by his baggy tunic.

"What are you wearing?" asked Six, refusing to look directly at the Taurian. "You can't go around in public like that!"

"Why not?" asked Maurice, putting his hands on his hips. "This is standard attire for a Taurian warrior."

"You look like you forgot to get dressed!"

As the two of them began to argue, Falling Rain glanced over at Nenth. "I don't think I've ever seen Six so agitated."

Nenth shrugged. "My guess is that he is a man of diverse tastes."

"Diverse...?" Falling Rain stared at Six Candy. Is that why he had shown so little interest in mating with her? "Then he doesn't like women?"

"That's not what I said."

Falling Rain thought about it for a bit before breathing a sigh of relief. Then she thought about it some more and shot Nenth a suspicious look. "Wait, how do you know?"

Nenth turned to look fully at her, though her pale hair hung down over half her face, making it appear as if she had only one eye. "You seem possessive of Six Candy's affections."

Falling Rain felt her face grow hot, felt irritated that her white fur didn't cover her blush as well as darker fur might. "Well, it's a logical pairing, isn't it?"

"Does he return those affections?"

"I don't know."

Nenth cocked her head to one side. "You should ask. It would be good to know."

"What, is it really that easy?"

"It could be," replied Nenth, shrugging.

Before Falling Rain could think of how to respond, Six Candy and Maurice came up to them, still bickering like an old married couple. She tried not to think about what Nenth had said. She wasn't ready to have her hopes dashed just yet.

"Well I still think you're being culturally insensitive," Maurice was saying.

"Whatever, I know you're not going to listen to me anyway," said Six, rolling his eyes. He looked at Nenth and Falling Rain. "Still no Jaap, huh? Well, he probably got carried away with one of his inventions. Let's go fetch him."

#

Falling Rain had never bothered to visit the Steam District before. She spent most of her time helping newcomers resettle, and the Melesi were one of the longest established groups. They were an odd bunch, always tinkering with mechanical things that made no sense to anyone else, and they mostly kept to themselves. Rain had never had reason to interact with them much before.

Besides, the noise here made her uncomfortable. Sudden hisses as steam escaped, the clanking and grinding of metal on metal, and even the occasional explosion assaulted her ears. She kept them flattened even as she feigned calm.

Jaap was asleep at his work bench when they arrived. When Six approached and gently shook him awake, the Melesi immediately leapt to his feet. "Oh, Six! I was so excited about my project I think I forgot to go to bed last night. Here, you must watch this!"

The badger man picked up a long tube with both hands. "I call this... the air bolt cannon!" He aimed the tube toward a wooden dummy wearing a breastplate and pulled a lever. With a pop and a hiss, a metal bolt sprang from the tip of the tube and punched a hole neatly through the target's chest cavity before retracting.

Falling Rain gaped. "That's a powerful weapon," she said.

Jaap looked at her, seemingly puzzled. It was hard to tell with goggles covering his eyes. "Weapon?"

"Seems like you could use that to seriously injure or even kill someone," said Six Candy, nodding.

The engineer stared down at his invention, scratching the back of his head. "I suppose you could, but why would you want to do that?"

"Well, what other use would that thing have?" asked Maurice. The Taurian looked especially unnerved by the device for some reason.

"I'm not sure just yet," admitted Jaap. "But I'm sure I'll think of something."

"Then why did you create it?" wondered Falling Rain.

Now Jaap smiled. "Because I could!" He turned back to Six Candy. "You see, my cousin in Onderberg sent me a package of these air crystals. I figured I'd give them a look, see if they had any properties I could use like those life gems I showed you..."

Falling Rain stopped listening. Instead she looked around, and a chill went down her spine despite the fact that the Steam District was warmer than any other district in Arcgate. Maybe they shouldn't have overlooked the Melesi. Here were hundreds, if not thousands, of mad inventors who could at any time design highly dangerous weapons, yet seemed unaware of any moral or ethical considerations in doing so. Another explosion echoed through the district just then, making her realize just how much damage these badger people could cause if they set their mind to it.

She would have to report to the council, let them decide what to do with this knowledge. In the meantime, she was going to have her hands busy, watching over the two newcomers, the potentially dangerous Melesi engineer, and Nenth. She was sure she had never seen any of Nenth's kind before, didn't even know what her people were called. It was suspicious, too, how quickly she had attached herself to Six.

Rain sighed. Yes, she would have to keep an eye on things. Peace, the thing she held so dearly, was a fragile thing. She could not let it be broken, not by Six, and certainly not by any of his companions.