“Chief! What the hell are you doing!”
Chief sighed. Not this again. Lewis was always so unreasonable. “Yoispa homlin natai, Ruis greppao!”
Lewis’s voice changed from surprised to angry. “It doesn’t matter! No killing! We talked about this! Now, give me the sword.”
Chief hesitated. They had the homlin pinned, and the body could easily be disposed of. Although they didn’t like the idea of killing, the protection of their kingdom was more important. However, Chief’s loyalty to Lewis was even greater. After all, they owed him a lot, plus it was their duty to serve him. Furthermore, Lewis’s orders had always turned out for the best, no matter how opposed Chief had been at the time.
Chief decided to hand Lewis the blade, even though their gut still told them this was a terrible idea. “Kiyoi.”
“Good.” Lewis took the blade, then gave it a cursory examination. The sword had been made by sharpening a nail on the sides, filing away its top, and then wrapping cloth around the dull end to form a handle. Creating it had taken Chief weeks of careful metalworking, all to make sure the edge was just right.
However, Chief knew this work would all go down the drain the minute Lewis’s tail reformed. Sure enough, Lewis tossed the nail in the air, the blade of his tail chopping it into a snowfall of metal shavings before it even reached the peak of its trajectory.
“No weapons in the house Chief, that’s been the rule since before we even came to this world. Now, let’s see if we can’t solve this peacefully.”
Chief nodded, then dashed up onto Lewis’s shoulder. They would start work on a new sword as soon as Lewis looked the other way, but for now they would try to trust Lewis’s judgment.
Pandora finally spoke up, after her lengthy silence. “So, another world, huh? Does that mean you’re aliens, or are you, like interdimensional travelers? Has ‘Crazy Talk’ Jenkins actually been right the whole time? What was your home world like? Did you turn the lights off after I left because you’re actually nocturnal, and you like the dark better? How did you get here? Are there others like you hiding on earth?”
Chief raised an eyebrow. Not even ten seconds after they’d stopped threatening to kill her, she was back to asking constant questions. “Dokan homlin gaka?”
Lewis scowled. “Her name is Pandora, use it.”
“Dokan Pandora gaka?”
Lewis nodded. “Better.” He then turned back to face Pandora. “He wants to know what makes you so persistent.”
Pandora sat up, biting her lip as she thought for a bit. “I guess it’s just another part of my ‘Lois Lane complex’.”
“Lois Lane complex?”
“Yeah. I always feel this super strong urge to investigate anything even remotely suspicious. Even if it makes me wander into the middle of something dangerous. It’s just like the character Lois Lane. I consider it mostly a bad thing, but I can’t really do anything about it, so I mainly just try to keep it from going too crazy. Now it’s your turn. If you could just answer the questions I asked…”
Lewis sighed. “Yes. The second one, although the proper term is ‘realm walker.’ I wouldn’t know, I haven’t met him. A bunch of dark tunnels. No, it’s because the dark reminds me of the caves of home. A portal that lead to the sewers. And I hope not.”
Pandora began to open her mouth to ask more questions, but was interrupted by Lewis. “Look, how about I tell you the rest tomorrow. It’s late, and I’ll be a bit more coherent in the morning. So if you could just go home, not tell anyone my secret, and come back tomorrow, that would be perfect.”
“Of course! I wouldn’t be able to get the rest of the scoop if the men in black locked you up!”
“The men in what? Lock me up?”
Pandora waved, then streaked out the building, shouting “See you tomorrow!” as she ran.
“Wait! You didn’t answer the…” Lewis stood in silence for a few seconds, then wandered out of the kitchen. “Chief! Have you seen my phone?”
A note from the
authorninja:Well, it could’ve gone a lot worse…
Also, am I the only one who feels a little bad for Chief here? They’re just trying to protect their family, and they ended up making Lewis angry and losing several weeks of hard work.