When I got on the other side and safely away, Kane finally spoke to my back.
“You need to watch out, Nial. You’ve been claimed, but there are always those looking to challenge for the top spot. Watch your back, cubbie. I wouldn’t like it if you got hurt.”
When I turned around to find out what he meant, he was gone, merging back into the wolf crowd behind me. Maybe I would get a chance to ask him another time.
Finally, I made it to the back stairwell, and the whole area floored me.
It was set up like a makeshift hospital. There were mattresses on the floor and sheets between them. I was searching for Ze in the sea of fabric when another familiar face popped up.
“Nial! Good to see you alive, cubbie. What are you doing wandering around down here? Shouldn’t you be in the safe bosom of the cat pack? Damn, it’s not a pack is it?”
Jarvis scraped his fingers through his salt and pepper beard and looked to be thinking hard. “It’s a proud, no a prong? No that’s what you call the little deer antlers, isn’t it? I once called a deer shifter’s antlers a prick one time in a bar, and he got so pissed!”
I hadn’t known Jarvis but a few hours on the bus ride into this place, but he was treating me like a long lost friend. I loved it. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed this feeling of ease, something like friendship, even. He brought out a lightness in my spirit that I hadn’t known I was missing in here until now. I even started giggling when he continued with his story.
“Woo wee,” Jarvis slapped his thigh, and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud this time. “You haven’t seen mad until you’ve seen a shifter deer trying to murder you with his front hooves. He’d been drunker than Otter John at that point in the evening, though.”
His laugh was infectious, and I noticed several other guys looking over, shaking their heads and laughing along with Jarvis’s tale.
“Every time that young buck tried to launch up onto his back hooves and come at me, he’d list to the side and fall over.” He was laughing so hard now that he had to lean over and rest his palms on his thighs to catch his breath.
“Good gods’ almighty that was a sight to see. All those stick legs floundering on the bar floor, hooves all over the place.” He heaved a big, deep breath, then looked right into my eyes as serious as a heart attack all of a sudden.
“You want to know the best part though?”
I shook my head and leaned forward so he could whisper into my ear.
“The idiot flailed around so much that he wound up breaking off one of his antlers against the bar. For the next year, until it grew back, every one of his friends and all the guys at the bar called him Prick!”
This time we both had to lean over to catch our breath and several of the guys around us had tears running down their faces, too.
When I raised myself back up, I finally caught sight of Ze in the farthest corner. I didn’t want to disturb him, but I was too late. He had heard me laughing, I had to assume, and he cut his gaze toward me. Jarvis followed my gaze and motioned me to follow him that way.
“Hey, come meet someone special. Farley is the greatest coyote in the whole place. If you think I’m funny, you should hear him.”
The smile and genuine affection in his voice told me he truly liked this man Farley. I edged my energy out and did a quick inventory of Jarvis’s feelings while we walked. He was good, kind, and his affection for those he cared about ran deep. But there was worry and a feeling of sadness blended with his feelings for Farley. When we got to the last mattress area, the reason for his concern was evident.
The man on the mattress was slight, frail, and obviously in ill health. His bright eyes showed his intelligence and lively spirit, but his body had long ago moved past being sturdy. Farley was dying. That was the reason for Jarvis’s worry, for Ze coming here to check on him. I had no idea what could be done, but I wanted to help, too, if I could. And the family resemblance was unmistakable.
“It’s nice to meet you, Farley. Your son has been telling me a funny story about his encounter with a deer shifter in a bar. He told me I had to come hear your stories if I thought he was funny.”
At the mention of his son, Farley’s whole face beamed and he raised his thin hand up to wave Jarvis forward.
“My son has been a godsend to me the last few days he’s been here. I told him not to come here, but he wouldn’t listen. There’s no help for me, and I’ll be damned if I want my son to die in this hellhole, too. I wish to the goddesses I could get him out of here and back to his life. He had a military career, and he threw it all away to come help me.”
“Pop, you aren’t supposed to tell anyone about my military service in here, remember? Besides, it doesn’t matter anymore. The Allusian Naval Academy just lost their best combat instructor because of a bar brawl in Liagiba Province. According to them, I got what I deserve for being dumb enough to get in trouble in this damn prejudice province in the first place.”
I was confused for a second and had to ask the question that had been bugging me since I had first talked about it with Ze.
“But Jarvis, you told me on the ride in here that you’d been in here before. You gave me advice to get along in here.”
Jarvis, still holding his ailing father’s hand, let out a booming laugh and turned his sparkling eyes to mine.
“Ah, cubbie, you were scared to death on that bus. Your leg was bouncing around, and your fingers were twisted in knots. You reminded me of the brand new recruits I train when they first get to my class. They’re all elbows and nerves, and their minds make every situation worse than it could ever possibly be. I wanted to give you something to hold onto, something besides the unknown to think about for a few minutes. It worked didn’t it?”
I couldn’t believe he had totally bullshitted me that whole time.
“Was everything bullshit? What about the name thing?”
