The Happiness Monster

Chapter 16

NIKA

As soon as they entered the Fallcastle city, Nika trotted away from Lise, as usually. Lise didn't mind, she just made sure Nika knew where Lise was staying - as if Nika couldn't smell her.

Truthfully, it would probably be harder than back in the swamp, because the city was full of unusual smells. And Nika wanted to explore them all.

First of all, the news. Nika started with the basic stuff, very simple assertions - most of them concerning the upcoming hunt. Messages like I AM SO EXCITED and I'M GONNA WIN dominated, following by more skeptical "I am wise and I don't care". And over it all, a big bright message A YOUNG&STRONG&HEALTHY MALE LOOKING FOR A DATE. Nika snorted, cleansing her nose.

Even like this, the messages were more complex than the ones she got in the swamp. The foxats that lived in the outskirts usually were there either because they weren't smart enough to deal with the demands of the town, or because they needed a break from all the complexities. So the messages in the swamp were all very simple, like "I need help" or "leave me alone", or "don't touch my food" or, quite the opposite, "good food, eat it all, I'm done". And, of course, the message Nika had left by her own egg, "PLEASE CARE FOR THIS EGG".

Next, Nika got to the stink-list, which had all the people who had gotten on the bad side of the local foxats. Nika didn't recognize any of these people, but she remembered their smell just in case. Some of them would be pranked, some would have their lives destroyed - depending on the mood of the foxat who happened to meet them. Being unpredictable was what made foxat's curse especially fearsome.

And then she got to the more complex messages, the ones that took real skill to create and understand. The simple scents that every foxat could make combined with more difficult ones, the combinations making up words and phrases.

Some of the messages dealt with the lord's daughter, her disappearance, and the guesswork of her location - many of the guesses refuted and scratched out. But most of the news were about the starseed. The foxats had noticed it falling, and some of them guessed about the star man in it. This was where Nika was most valuable. She carefully deposited Jade's scent she had held in the folds of her skin, and added notes to it. Male. Clever. Reasonably healthy. Confused. Not outrageously evil. Last seen in a cave in between the castle and the swamp.

All in all, he was a really good catch, if only they managed to help keep him alive. Nika realized that she had perhaps grown too attached to him, that she was probably going overboard with trying to protect him.That was not good - she needed to make sure she stayed in the background, since for the foxats, the main reason for their survival and coexistence with humans had been pretending to be unobtrusive, mysterious and generally harmless pets. If you didn't have opposable thumbs, you had to be extra clever to make use of the beings who did - namely, humans - and you didn't want them to know you were this clever. Experience had taught that the humans didn't take well to being outsmarted.

Nika snorted to clear her nose and went towards the castle. She was worried about meeting Orlando - knowing full well that he wouldn't be extra happy to see her. But today was the best chance she had to get on his good side again. She had used his sperm to lay an egg - that was a nice thing to do. And, she knew about the star man. That was information Orlando wouldn't want to miss.

*

JADE

The cold and the dampness - being naked, tied up and immobile in the cold, and dampness, and dark - was getting to him. He sneezed. Right. What else could he possibly do but get sick right now.

He had felt his body struggling against illness for some time now. But the daily dose of immuno-boosters, tailored to his DNA, let Jade's body adapt to this planet's wild bacteria. Decent food and clean water, and a good night's - well, day's - sleep had helped with the adaptation as well.