“I don’t know.”
The answer sat between them.
Adrian watched another building pass the window. A narrow house with a steep roof, dark timber across the upper floor and something metallic running along the ridge. A woman stood outside with a child, both of them wrapped in jackets against the morning cold.
Normal people.
Doing normal things.
He looked away.
The driver was quiet for several seconds.
Then he sighed.
Not dramatically. Not angrily.
Just the tired sound of a man who had gone into the forest to work and had instead found an injured stranger sleeping beneath a tree.
“All right.”
He turned at the next junction.
Adrian noticed after a moment.
“This isn’t the way we were going.”
“No.”
“Where are we going?”
“CSA.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Why?”
The man kept his eyes on the road.
“Because I have to get back to work.”
Adrian waited.
The man glanced at him, then added, “And I’m not leaving you at the side of the road.”
Adrian looked down at the blanket gathered in his hands.
“Okay.”
He didn't have a better suggestion.
The blanket shifted as he settled back against the seat. He pulled it higher automatically, covering the thin laboratory coat beneath it.
CSA.
He knew the initials.
The Crossworld Services Authority had offices almost everywhere people, goods or problems crossed between populations and worlds. Immigration. Residency. Species-specific documentation. Portal incidents. Displaced persons. Other things Adrian had never needed badly enough to remember.
Until now, government offices had mostly meant forms, appointments and waiting.
This was different.
The truck passed another pair of pylons marking the edge of the settlement, then entered a broader road. There were more people here. More vehicles. A delivery van stood half on the pavement while two workers unloaded crates from the back.
Adrian watched it until they were past.
His fingers had tightened around the blanket.
He made them loosen.
A few minutes later, the driver turned into a small paved lot.
The building ahead was larger than the clinic they had passed earlier, but not by much. Two storeys, pale stone and dark panels, broad windows facing the road. A blue-and-silver emblem was mounted beside the entrance.
CSA.
The truck stopped.
The engine went quiet.
Adrian stayed where he was.
The driver removed his seat belt.
“That’s CSA.”
Adrian nodded.
People moved behind the glass entrance.
He didn't like that.
He didn't like the truck either.
Or the clinic.
Or the police.
Or being in public.
Or being alone.
There didn't seem to be anywhere he actually wanted to be.
The driver opened his door.
Adrian tensed.
The man stopped.
Then, without comment, he got out and closed the door behind him.
He did not open Adrian’s.
Adrian watched him cross the lot.
The blanket was warm now. The truck was warm.
For several seconds, Adrian considered staying exactly where he was.
He reached for the door eventually.
His hand stopped on the handle when the CSA entrance opened.
The forest worker came back out.
Someone followed him.
Adrian stared.
The newcomer was enormous.
For half a second, Adrian's exhausted mind tried to make him into a very large man.
It gave up quickly.
He was a bear.
Not bear-like. Not a man with rounded ears and too much body hair.
A bear.
He stood upright, easily more than two metres tall, his body covered in dense dark-brown fur. A broad muzzle projected from a heavy head beneath small rounded ears. His shoulders were massive, his arms thick enough that the short sleeves of his dark CSA shirt looked almost inadequate.
And he was wearing clothes.
Dark trousers. Heavy shoes shaped for feet that clearly weren't human. A uniform shirt tailored around his bulk. An identification badge clipped neatly to his chest.
His hands were not quite paws.
They were too articulated for that, the digits longer and more mobile, but they were broad enough that Adrian doubted he could have wrapped both of his own hands around one. Thick black claws curved from their ends.
Bear Aniel.
Adrian had seen beast-form Aniels before. Everyone had.
Usually at a distance.
On the street. On screens. Once or twice on public transport.
He had never stood beside one.
And he had certainly never met one while injured, barefoot and suddenly much smaller than he remembered being.
The bear stopped several metres from the truck.
That helped.
The CSA officer looked through the window.
His expression was harder to read than a human face. The muzzle changed the shape of it, and the fur concealed smaller movements Adrian would normally have noticed.
The eyes were easier.
They moved over the blanket, the bare feet beneath it, the dried blood on Adrian's shin, then briefly to his face.
Something in them changed.
The forest worker said something Adrian couldn't hear.
The bear answered.
His muzzle moved naturally with the words.
Neither approached.
Adrian waited.
Eventually the forest worker came around the front of the truck, but stopped before reaching Adrian’s door.
“I told him what happened.”
Adrian looked past him at the bear.
“What did you tell him?”
“That I found you in the forest.”
Adrian hesitated.
“Anything else?”
“No shoes. No belongings. Hurt. You don’t know where you are. You don’t want a clinic or police.”
Adrian looked down.
Hearing it listed like that made his situation sound different somehow.
Worse, perhaps.
The worker rubbed a hand across the back of his neck.
“He’ll help you.”
Adrian looked at the CSA officer again.
The bear hadn't moved.
“You know him?”
“No. But this is where you need to be.”
Adrian wasn't sure that was true.
He wasn't sure of much anymore.
The bear finally spoke.
“My name’s Bruno.”
His voice was deep, but surprisingly quiet.
Adrian said nothing.
Bruno didn't seem bothered.
“I’m going to stay here.”
Still Adrian said nothing.
“You can stay in the truck for a minute if you need to.”
Adrian frowned slightly.
The forest worker shifted his weight.
“I really do need to get back.”
Adrian looked at him.
For the first time since waking beneath the tree, he realized he had no idea what the man's name was.
The man had found him, given him a blanket, driven him into town, offered him a clinic, offered him the police and finally brought him here.
Adrian had never asked.
“Right.”
The worker hesitated.
Then he gestured toward Bruno.
“There. Your problem.”
One of Bruno's rounded ears moved.
“She’s not a problem.”
The word caught Adrian immediately.
She.
His eyes moved to Bruno.
The bear hadn't emphasized it.
He wasn't even looking at Adrian when he said it.
Why would he?
The forest worker had found a woman in the woods.
Bruno saw a woman sitting in the truck.
To both of them, that was simply what Adrian was.
His stomach tightened.
“You know what I mean,” the worker said.
“I do.”
The man looked back at Adrian.
“Good luck.”
Adrian swallowed.
“Thanks.”
The worker nodded once.
Then he walked around the truck, climbed into the driver’s seat and looked across at Adrian.
Adrian realized he needed to get out.
He reached for the door.
His ankle objected the moment his foot touched the ground.
He caught himself on the frame.
Bruno moved.
Adrian flinched.
Bruno stopped instantly.
The reaction was almost startling in something that large.
He had taken one step.
That was all.
Both of his hands remained where Adrian could see them, thick fingers slightly spread, claws pointing toward the ground.
“Sorry.”
Adrian stared at him.
Bruno stepped back again.
“I won’t touch you.”
Adrian knew the bear had only moved because he had nearly fallen.
There was no reason to be afraid of him.
His body apparently disagreed.
“I'm okay.”
Bruno nodded.
Adrian got his other foot onto the pavement.
Standing was easier than it had been in the forest.
Not easy.
Just easier.
The blanket complicated things. He needed one hand to keep it around himself, and the laboratory coat underneath was still barely doing its job.
He straightened.
Bruno was even larger from down here.
Adrian had to tilt his head back considerably to meet his eyes.
The size difference was difficult to ignore.
So were the claws.
Bruno seemed aware of both.
He kept his arms loose at his sides and his distance unchanged.
The forest worker remained in the truck.
Waiting.
Adrian moved away from the door.
The truck pulled out almost immediately.
He watched it leave the lot.
And with it went the only person in Western Rovenmark who had any idea where Adrian had been found.
For one irrational second, he wanted to call the man back.
He didn't.
The truck turned onto the road and disappeared.
Adrian stood barefoot in the CSA parking lot with a grey blanket around his shoulders.
Bruno remained several metres away.
He had not come any closer.
That was beginning to feel deliberate.
“You all right standing?”
“Yes.”
His ankle throbbed.
Bruno's eyes dropped toward it.
“For a little while,” Adrian added.
“All right.”
That was it.
No demand for a name.
No identification.
No questions about the blood.
No request to explain why an apparently young Aniel woman was standing barefoot outside a government building wearing a damaged laboratory coat.
Bruno simply waited.
Adrian looked toward the entrance.
Two glass doors.
Reception beyond them.
A few chairs.
A woman behind a counter.
“What happens now?”
“We get you somewhere warm.”
“And then?”
“Food, if you want it. Water.”
Adrian waited.
When Bruno didn't continue, he asked, “And after that?”
“We figure out what you need.”
Adrian looked at him.
There had to be questions.
There were always questions.
Name.
Address.
Identification.
What happened?
Who did this?
Where?
When?
Why?
Questions Adrian couldn't answer.
Questions he could answer that would sound insane.
My name is Adrian Voss.
I'm thirty-eight.
I'm human.
Or I was.
Someone kidnapped me.
They put me in a tank.
I woke up like this.
He tightened his grip on the blanket.
Bruno noticed.
But he didn't ask.
Instead, he shifted sideways.
Not toward Adrian.
Away.
The movement left a completely unobstructed path between Adrian and the building entrance.
Adrian stared at the gap.
Then at him.
A bear more than two metres tall, broad enough to block most of the doorway by himself, was very deliberately making sure he blocked nothing at all.
Bruno was treating him like something frightened.
Something that might bolt if cornered.
Adrian wasn't sure why.
But his shoulders loosened slightly.
“Can you walk that far?”
Adrian looked at the entrance.
Maybe twenty metres.
“I think so.”
“Okay.”
Bruno waited.
Adrian took one step.
Then another.
His ankle hurt. His ribs hurt. His shoulder hurt.
But nothing chased him.
No one grabbed him.
Bruno walked beside him, several paces away and half a step behind.
His steps were heavy without being loud. There was something slightly different about the way he walked, a rolling weight to his gait that made it impossible to mistake him for a human even from behind.
Close enough to help.
Far enough that Adrian didn't feel crowded.
Adrian noticed the distance.
He was grateful for it.
They reached the doors.
They opened automatically.
Adrian stopped.
Warm air touched his face.
The inside smelled faintly of coffee, cleaning solution and something baked.
Not antiseptic.
That helped.
Bruno stopped with him.
Again, he didn't ask why.
Didn't gesture impatiently.
Didn't put one of those enormous hands between Adrian's shoulder blades and guide him forward.
He simply stood there.
Waiting.
Adrian looked inside.
A receptionist had noticed them.
Her eyes flicked briefly toward him.
Bare feet.
Blanket.
Blood.
Lab coat.
White ears.
Tail.
Then back to Bruno.
Something passed between them.
Adrian didn't understand it.
The woman stood.
Bruno gave the smallest shake of his head.
She sat down again.
Adrian watched her.
Then he looked at Bruno.
He wanted to ask what that had meant.
He didn't.
He had spent the last day trying to get away from rooms.
From people.
From anyone who might put him back on a table.
But the forest was behind him.
The laboratory was somewhere behind that.
Home was somewhere impossibly far away.
And for now, there was nowhere else to go.
Bruno stepped aside.
The path remained completely clear.
“Let’s get you inside.” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.