Norman woke up with a mouth full of feathers and his vision full of yellow. He spat the feathers out of his mouth and carefully lifted the giant wing covering most of his upper body. Pail, scared of being alone, had snuck into his bed in the middle of the night. That itself was fine; he could understand a child being scared in an unfamiliar place at night, but he would appreciate it if the boy closed his wings while he slept instead of spreading out all his limbs in an avant-garde gymnastics pose.

  [GOOD MORNING, NORMAN.]

  “Good morning, Savant. Why didn’t you tell me I was about to die by suffocation by feathers? I had to be told in a dream.” Norman grumbled. If Savant wanted him alive so badly, then it should warn him about these things.

  [...]

  Norman took Savant’s silence as remorse and decided to be the bigger symbiont and let the issue go. The dream person his subconscious made up had told him about it, so it wasn’t worth dwelling on. For some reason, he could feel irritation coming from his mental link with Savant. Strange.

  To be honest, Norman was a little lost on what to do. The plan was to head to the slightly larger village of Lugg, but he would need to prepare for such a journey. Sure, it was only a day away, but it would certainly take longer with both a kid and a fox to accommodate. If he factored in all the toilet breaks, meal breaks, and breaks for his pitiful stamina, then it would be closer to a day and a half. If it was a day and a half, then they would need to camp out, and to do that, they would need supplies.

  Norman could feel his to-do list getting longer and longer the more he thought about logistics. Why couldn’t this world just have a taxi service like back home? Maybe he could rent a carriage. That would’ve been a great idea if he knew how to steer a carriage. He’d never even been near a horse before, not even when he went on a school excursion to a ranch. He was too afraid to get kicked in the head by a horse, so he spent the entire trip learning about different kinds of weeds. It was a very informative trip.

  Invasive plant species aside, Norman still had to prepare for the trip to Lugg. Today would be the preparation day, and tomorrow they would set off as soon as the sun rose. As for what he needed to prepare, he could ask about it in the village’s general store; they would probably know best. Norman felt another wave of irritation wash over him for a split second, but he chalked it up to travel nerves.

  After the tedious ordeal of wrangling an excited 6-year-old into getting dressed and an equally excited fox kit into sitting still, they were ready to head off into the village. The day hadn’t even gotten started properly yet, but Norman felt like he’d just finished an 8-hour shift. He had a renewed respect for single mothers if they had to deal with this every morning. Norman could feel a sense of pity coming from Macy as he ushered everyone out the front door.

  The village of Hardwood was small and isolated, making Norman and his crew very interesting to the villagers. He could feel their curious gazes on him, and he had no idea how to handle it properly. Norman had always been the ideal background character back on Earth. He blended in so well that even his family struggled to pick him out from a crowd. Norman prided himself on his conformity, which made him think he was doing a good job at being human, so being stared at like this made him very uncomfortable.

  Norman relaxed slightly as they entered what he assumed was the general store. They’d left Pretty outside for politeness's sake, of course. The general store was filled to the brim with everyday items. Bags of grain stuffed under tables filled with cloth and utensils filled the room. Pots and pans hung from the low ceiling, and tall shelves full of ropes, canisters, riding gear, and other useful items lined the walls. An elderly bunny woman was sitting behind the counter, mumbling to herself and sucking on a piece of lettuce. Norman found it startling how easily he got used to these anthropomorphic animals.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  While Norman endlessly repeated his questions to the almost deaf shopkeeper, Pail decided to explore this miracle store and its treasures. He had never seen so many things in one place before, and he figured that this was where all the villagers kept their things safe. He made sure to be extra careful if that was the case; he wouldn’t like it if anyone messed up his own treasures, so he wouldn’t mess up the villagers' treasures either. Just looking wouldn’t hurt, though. Right?

  As Pail browsed through the things on display, he imagined himself as a rich prince who owned them all. He would light the candles when he hosted fancy dinners using the pretty wooden bowls with flower designs, and then he would build something really cool in the royal garden with the rope and the box of nails. His daydreaming was interrupted as he tripped on a piece of blue fabric sticking out from under one of the tables.

  Pail caught himself and ended up in a crouching position, where he had a clear view of the thing under the table. It was a girl in a blue dress who only looked a few years older than Pail. She had the features of a human but with long floppy rabbit ears covering most of her face. She looked very surprised to see someone new, especially another hybrid like her. She’d heard from her mother that there were others like her out there, but this was the first time she’d ever seen one.

  “Hello! I’m Pail! They named me that ‘cause they found me in the pail of a well! What’s ya name?” Pail introduced himself happily. He was very wary of strangers, but he was comfortable with hybrids as he lived with a whole bunch of them when he was with the angry men.

  “Serena… my name is Serena… I don’t know why I’m named that…” Serena responded quietly. She felt that Pail wasn’t a very nice name for such a pretty girl like the one in front of her, but she wouldn’t say that out loud. She fidgeted with her brown hair as she talked, something she always did when she was nervous. “Are you a half-demon like me?”

  “Yuh uh! I don’t got a clue who my parents are, but I know my momma is a harpy, and my pops is a human. What’s yours?” Pail had no problems talking about the fact that he was abandoned. He didn’t know these supposed parents of his, but because they abandoned him, he didn’t wanna meet them even if he was able to.

  Serena thought the girl in front of her was quite pitiful. She loved her parents and would be very sad if they left her somewhere. She wondered why Pail didn’t feel the same. “My mom is human, and my dad is a lepui like my grandma… they live here with me” She felt like she was bragging about her parents being with her, and that wasn’t her intention. “Are you… alone?”

  Pail, however, didn’t even pick up on the unintentional bragging. He was just happy to say that he wasn’t alone for once. “Nuh uh! I’ve gots the kind mister and Pretty! Pretty is a real purdy fox, and mister doesn’t even beat me! Ain’t ya jealous?”

  Serena just smiled and nodded at that. She was glad that Pail wasn’t alone. Her mother had told her stories about young girls being kidnapped by bandits whenever they wandered alone outside the village, and she didn’t want that to happen to her new friend. She didn’t know why not being beaten was something to mention. That was normal, wasn’t it? Unless Pail meant spanking, then she was jealous. Serena always got spanked by her grandma whenever she stayed out late.

  Their conversation was halted by the monotone voice of Norman. “Pick out a bag. One with a lot of storage space.” He called over his shoulder at Pail before going back to shouting at the old shopkeeper, hoping she’d pick up on at least a few words despite her hearing difficulties.

  Pail’s eyes sparkled at that. He was allowed to pick something out in this treasure trove? A bag just for him? He quickly ran over to where the bags were hanging, with Serena following closely behind. They sold a surprising amount of bags in all shaped and sizes. Bags were essential items to both adventurers and regular people, after all. Most of them were too big for him, and his wings would get in the way of a backpack. Even so, he had quite a few to choose between.

  “I think… the one with the flowers suits you best. Since you’re so pretty.” Serena offered her suggestion, pointing at a brown leather satchel bag with embroidered flowers on the front and shoulder strap. “It matches your clothes, too.”

  Pail was inclined to agree. He liked colors, and that one was the most colorful option. Pail had never lived in normal society and, therefore, had never learned about gender roles. It never even crossed his mind that his new friend was mistaking him for a girl and was suggesting a bag that was in fashion only amongst little girls.

  “Mhm, I like that one. I’m gonna tell mister!” Pail nodded as he skipped off to tell the frustrated Norman which bag he wanted.