Dan quickly learned to only move in the morning or early evening. The climate was hotter than back at the mountain: even wearing the upper garment and trousers that Veylu had packed for him didn’t help. He was wary of people traveling along the road and kept out of it, expecting to see Mayvaru at every turn.

He’d already spent two days on the road by himself since leaving the village. He’d tried waiting around, knocking again at Ulres’s door, but nobody had answered. The people in the village avoided him, and eventually it dawned on him that he was putting the sea snakes family in danger. So he left, following the directions he remembered. Only one thing was on his mind: finding Morìc. Aressea was the only big city in the area, it made sense to start his search from there. Not that he could think of any other alternative.

The next evening, while he was looking for a place to sleep in the sparse wood at the side of the road, he saw something move at the edge of his vision. He turned and gazed at the semi-darkness until he was sure he was alone, then sat down and didn’t fall asleep until the night had completely fallen.

The feeling of being watched remained with him for the rest of the following day, even if he was constantly looking around without ever finding anyone. He saw animals similar to donkeys, but with a sleeker shape, pulling carts. He also saw smaller creatures running up trees when he approached, and little birds with blue and red plumage constantly chirping in the foliage.

The second night, the feeling of being followed by someone resurfaced. He tried to climb a tree with the intention of sleeping on a branch, but he couldn’t find one solid enough that was also within his reach. He hid among the bushes, covering himself with the filthy carpet, the soft portion of it against the body, the rough bottom part disguised with fallen leaves and twigs. At some point, he stopped worrying about his surroundings and fell asleep. When he opened his eyes, he saw a dark shape looking down at him.

He screamed, scrambling backward and stumbling on the carpet. He saw the shadow’s pointy ears and the silhouette that suggested the presence of fur and almost screamed again.

“You’re scared!” a high-pitched voice said, delighted.

It was very different from Mayvaru’s, even if that didn’t tranquilize him at all.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Tagu. Are you a snake person? I saw you at the village.”

The idea of someone following him since he’d left the village made Dan’s hackles rise.

“Do you have a torch?” he asked. “I can’t see you well.”

“I can. I thought you could too.”

“Only a bit.”

A light sparkled in mid-air, startling him. It became a minuscule flame trembling at the top of a short stick, held up by clawed fingers. He saw two enormous yellow eyes on the other side of it, the pupils reduced to slits. They were surrounded by brown fur and some patches of pale human skin that looked like someone had torn away portions of hair. The nose was elongated, with a flat and triangular point, the mouth completely human, even if the smile revealed pointy fangs. Something about that face-muzzle looked very unnatural, as if it was a result of sickness. But it was just an animal person, even if he couldn’t tell which animal they took their traits from.

“What’s your name?” they asked.

It took him a bit to register their words.

“Dan.”

“I saw them kick you out. Is it because your scales are different?”

Something touched his forehead. The stranger’s hand retracted before he could step back.

“Yes, that’s why,” he said, aiming to indulge them until they left him alone.

“They did that with me too, you know? The cats, I mean. Because I’m too different. They didn’t want me to live with them, even if I asked very nicely. I heard them tell people: ‘That girl is trouble’, and everyone stopped talking to me.”

“That… That’s cruel,” Dan could only think to comment. Even if he was too absorbed by his brother’s disappearance, he actually felt a bit sorry for her.

“They’re always like this! The cats, the snakes, the boars, they’re all the same.”

Dan didn’t know what to comment in the silence that followed.

“What’s a cat?” he asked in the end.

The girl’s eyes became wider. She extinguished the flame with a blow that sounded like a hiss. Dan blinked as his eyes got used to the darkness again. He saw her shape running away, then disappearing in the midst of the trees.

He waited, thinking for some reason that she would come back. Soon tiredness had the best of him and he laid back down on the ground, puzzling over that strange interaction.

“Look, I’ve found one!”

Dan jumped on the spot. He’d been walking in the midday sun, trying not to think of the sloshing water remaining in his canteen or the fact that he was probably lost. He turned: even if he was sure he had checked he was alone mere seconds before, there was the girl, Tagu, standing between the trees. She was dressed like most animal people in the village, with a cloth around her upper body and embroidered trousers, even if one leg had been torn in half. She was holding another creature in her arms. Dan looked from the animal to the girl and vice versa. There was a sort of similarity, even if the creature’s fur was even and sleek.

“It’s a cat,” Tagu explained. “You can pet it.”

He stepped closer, admiring the creature’s pointy muzzle and striped fur. When he reached out with a hand, it started wriggling in Tagu’s arms until she let it go. It ran away and disappeared beneath the bushes.

Dan dropped his hand. He was a bit disappointed, then realized how absurd that feeling was in his situation and laughed.

“It was scared,” Tagu commented.

Dan looked ahead, at the road tracing a slight incline.

“Are you going to Aressea too?” he asked.

“No, I was just following you.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. It was a very exaggerated movement, as if she didn’t control her shoulders completely.

“My family is camping in the area. I like to explore.”

“So… Other cat people?”

Her ears lowered.

“No, I’ve told you. The local cats didn’t want me. They think I’m an actual cat that became human after eating corpses.”

Dan did his best not to stare too much at the patches of skin all over her face and body.

“Are you?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

“No! Why would you ask that question, it’s rude!”

He saw something move behind her. A tail, similar to what the cat had, even if it lacked fur in places.

“I thought about introducing you to the other strays,” she continued. “But I can’t let you meet them if you’re going to ask this kind of question.”

“Who are the strays?”

“My family. They’re like you and me, without an animal-bound clan. They’ll probably give you food and a place to stay, if you don’t say anything weird.”

Dan weighed the canteen in his palm.

“I’ll take the water, if they have it. I have some sea snake meat.”

“Don’t worry about the food, we have ours.”

Dan was reminded of Ulres’s words upon meeting him. Accepting his invitation had led to Morìc being kidnapped, so he decided to take the water and leave those ‘strays’ as soon as possible. Even if the promise of sleeping in a safe place for the first time in two nights felt comforting.

Besides, he was almost sure he was lost. Not as many people were walking the road anymore, which meant he’d left the capital somewhere behind himself.

He followed the girl deeper into the woods. They soon found a trail and walked on it until it became too hot to continue. They rested in the shade, Dan fell asleep, and when Tagu awakened him it was evening.

“We’re close,” she said.

Soon enough, Dan saw light filtering through the trees. There was a fire ahead, with bags strewn some armlengths from it and creatures sitting in a circle. Their shapes reminded him of the firepit at the village, except they were more similar to Tagu in the way the animal traits seemed to engulf the human ones.

He stopped and hid behind a tree. Tagu didn’t seem to notice as she approached the group.

“I’m back,” she yelled as a way of greeting.

The nearest animal person, a mountain of red-brown fur that resembled a boar, was startled enough to let a piece of food fall. Tagu laughed, and with her another individual who seemed to be covered half in feathers, half in an orange fur. They mostly looked like a person who was wearing a coat made of two different animals stitched together. The asymmetry was enhanced by the fact it had a pointy black beak in place of the mouth, and only one triangular ear, while the other seemed human and was hidden by the feathers.

“Have you found some good garbage?” they asked Tagu.

“I’ve found something, but he's not garbage. He’s…”

She turned and noticed that Dan wasn't right behind her. He retracted behind the tree, but the movement didn't escape her eyes.

“Come on, they won't hurt you! They're my family.”

“You brought someone here?” a deep voice said.

“Yes. They kicked him away because he's like us. Dan, come on!”

He realized there was no point in hiding if everyone knew he was there. He stepped out of his hiding spot and greeted them with a faint voice.

“He's young,” the boar person commented. “How old are you?”

“Fourteen,” Dan replied.

“Come sit with us, we don't bite.”

Dan advanced as if in a dream. He sat down on the ground next to the half-bird half-something individual, hugging his legs to his chest. There were two more people around the fire, but Tagu covered his view by standing in front of him.

“I’ll introduce everyone. This is Dan, a sea snake. They kicked him out because his scales are more fashionable than everyone else’s.”

She gestured at the red boar person.

“She's Autur, and she came to Aressea because it was too hot where she lived.”

“That's exactly the opposite,” Autur grumbled. “I’ve never sweated this much in my life.”

“I don't sweat,” Tagu said, shrugging, then stepped closer to the half-bird individual. “She's Kaspuru, but we call her Kasp. She left her family because they were jealous that she gets to be two animals instead of one. I'm jealous too, but I would never kick her out.”

Dan saw that Kaspuru’s eyes were still very human, and of two different colors: blue on the bird part, brown on the other side. Lines and whirls had been carved on her beak.

“Woodpecker and fox,” she answered his silent question. “And I don't know why I can take my traits from two animals. When I was born, my fox side was completely human. My best friend was a fox, so I got to eat often at his house, and over time the human side started changing into this.”

She grabbed a tuft of orange fur.

“Cool,” Dan commented, earning a chuckle from her.

“I was speaking,” Tagu commented, moving on to the next person. “He's Merekis. I don't know much about him but he's nice.”

He waved at Dan with a kind smile on his lips. After seeing Tagu, Autur and Kaspuru, he expected to find more exaggerated animal traits, but Merekis seemed completely human. He had a bald head and light eyes of a color Dan couldn't identify over the fireplace.

“And he's our boss, Sibras,” Tagu said, pointing at the last person.

“Don't say anything else for now, please,” he interrupted her.

Dan recognized the deep voice he'd heard while hiding behind a tree. He held his breath when he saw Sibras’s face.

He had the muzzle of a rat, pointed and covered in coarse fur, with small black eyes like pearls. The ears were round and had a vaguely human shape at the base. The rest of his body wasn’t as covered in fur as Tagu’s, even if he had visible spiky hair. The hands in particular were mostly human, with bony articulations and claws. He wore a cape clasped at the front over the traditional upper garment and trousers, with a hood long enough to hide most of his face when raised. His long whiskers moved in the air as if they were touching some invisible object.

“Tell us more about you, Dan,” Sibras said. “Where do you come from? Your accent is not from here.”

Dan was glad he didn't comment on his lack of proficiency with the language.

“The mountain,” he said. “I don't know how it's called in Arissian. It's on the other side of the sea.”

“And why did you come here from so far?”

Dan held his breath for a moment, then realized he didn’t need to lie.

“My village was controlled by bad people. I was looking for a better life here.”

Sibras nodded.

“Many do. They think Aressea is the solution to their problems. Especially animal people, they come here to find more of our kind. They don’t know about the bigotry until it’s too late.”

He looked around at the others in the group.

“What do you think?”

Autur observed Dan from her enormous height.

“What can you do?”

“Do you mean… My animal traits?”

She snorted.

“Your human ones too. Anything that could be useful.”

“I can swim well. I can also see in the dark better than a human. I know how to cook. I’m adaptable.”

Autur nodded. Sibras’s gaze shifted to Kaspuru.

“He’s alright to me. If we’re keeping Tagu, might as well take him in too.”

“Hey!”

Sibras’s eyes questioned Merekis. He smiled wider.

“He’s already a stray, whether we accept him or not.”

Sibras nodded.

“Tagu?” he called.

“Yes!”

“Very well. Do you want to join us, Dan?”

He was taken completely by surprise.

“What do you do?” he asked.

“Tagu didn’t…? Nevermind. We offer you protection, food, shelter and even friendship, but this is up to you. We’re under Mayvaru’s protection. She gives us missions, we fulfill them, and in exchange we get the food we need and resources to live decently.”

Dan’s felt a cold chill wash over his body in recognizing Mayvaru’s name, remembering the scared tone with which she’d been announced at the door back at the village. His first reaction was to run away from the strays. He regretted telling them his name.

Then he realized he couldn’t have found a better place. Mayvaru had kidnapped Morìc, so he’d have more chances to find him by staying near people who were in contact with her.

“Yes. I accept. I want to join you.”

It was difficult to tell, but Sipras’s lips seemed to be stretching into a smile, while a small holler of victory came from Tagu and Kaspuru.

“So it’s decided, then. Give him something to eat, please.”

Tagu was the first to reach a closed bag abandoned on a stump, but Autur stood and moved her aside by lifting her from the scruff of her neck.

“No extras for you.”

“I didn’t want them!”

Autur ignored her and rummaged in the bag.

“We don’t have sea snake meat,” she commented. “Is generic sheep alright?”

“We’ll ask Mayvaru to bring us some next time,” Sibras commented.

Dan froze at the idea of Mayvaru knowing about his presence. He took out a stripe of jerky from his hidden pouch.

“Don’t worry, I have enough for now. I want to finish this one, first.”

Sibras considered his words for a second, then shrugged.

“If that’s what you want. But let us know when you finish it. Mayvaru can find anything you might need.”

Autur brought Dan a piece of soft cheese and a round red fruit he’d never seen before. Tagu sat down next to him, pushing Kaspuru to the side, and taught him how to peal away the thick peel, stealing two slices in the process with the excuse of giving a demonstration. When Dan tasted it himself, he was surprised to find out he already knew the flavor. A memory was pressing to the forefront of his mind, trying to emerge, but couldn’t form anything concrete besides that vague impression.

“Who’s Mayvaru, exactly?” Dan asked Tagu once the rest of the group had started another conversation around the fire.

She snickered.

“I can’t believe you don’t know her.”

“I come from the other side of the sea!”

“That’s not an excuse.”

She still explained to him what Mayvaru could do. Dan felt his mouth become dry at the thought of having faced someone that powerful. Of having to face her again in the future, to free his brother.

“Let’s go to bed,” Sibras said at the end. “We have a mission in two days, I want you to be rested by then.”

Dan regretted not asking what a mission entailed. Not that the answer would have changed his decision of joining the strays: he needed to find his brother, and if to succeed he needed to work for the person who had kidnapped him with strangers he’d barely met, he would have done it without hesitation. So he ate the meat in silence, even if he had planned to let the scales disappear once he and Morìc were safely on the other side of the sea. Neither of them was safe, he thought while biting down on the jerky, so his plans could wait a bit more.