However, his presence of mind wound up changing their immediate fate.
Fred’s clinic
“Okay, I should be heading to work myse—”
Just as Firo safely dropped Isaac and Miria off at clinic, he sensed that something wasn’t right. “…Hey, Isaac.”
“What is it, Firo?”
“What’s the matter?”
The couple looked perplexed. They didn’t seem to have noticed anything strange about the clinic.
Wondering if his imagination was playing tricks on him, Firo frowned. “Who’s usually in charge of locking up here?”
“The doc’s assistant, Mr. Who. Dr. Fred goes to lots of different hospitals in the morning, giving exams. He doesn’t show up until past ten, and since Who lives here, he’s the one who takes care of the patients until then. There aren’t any patients staying here now, though.”
“Yes, health is number one! Boil to sterilize!”
Fred, the doctor who ran the clinic, usually dressed from head to toe in gray. He looked like a suspicious character, but his skills were solid, and hospitals often asked him to help out with surgeries and the like. Firo had heard the same thing from Molsa Martillo, so although he hadn’t seen much of the doctor personally, he trusted him.
Apparently, the man was often away at other hospitals until his consultations began at ten; the clinic wasn’t open for business, yet the door was ajar. That was concerning.
“Look, the door’s half-open. Are they airing the place out or something?”
“Huh? Come to think of it, that’s odd. Who’s a pretty conscientious fella, and he gets mad at us if we leave the door open.”
“Oh, but he did say it hadn’t been closing too well since the fight, remember?”
“…I see.”
Maybe somebody had been bringing things inside, and they hadn’t closed the door.
Still, he couldn’t shake the sense that something was off.
Assuming something was wrong—had Melvi’s henchmen hit again? Were they lying in wait for Isaac and Miria?
No… If so, why leave the door like that? That makes no sense.
Was it a regular robber, drawn by the rations that were sent to relief facilities?
No.
Firo’s instincts nixed that theory, too.
A smell was tickling his nostrils.
The smell of an animal.
It was similar to what his nose picked up when he passed one of the city’s mounted police officers on the horses they rode, but there was a slight difference. It was more like the smell of a dog. Something carnivorous.
Firo stepped past Isaac and Miria, heading into the clinic.
“What’s the matter, Firo?”
“Are you sick or hurt or something? The doctor’s not here yet.”
“No, just a worrier.” Slowly, Firo peeked through the door, just to spot a man lying on the floor in front of the reception desk. With a start, Firo warily stepped inside, then ran to the man and checked his pulse.
Apparently, he’d just passed out. Both his breathing and his pulse were normal.
As Firo exhaled in relief, Isaac and Miria came in.
“Huh?! Mr. Who’s dead?!”
“He’s fine. He’s breathing.”
“Oh. Well, good… Is he asleep?”
“Is it because it’s been busy lately?”
“Maybe lugging in all that stuff wore him out.”
Isaac and Miria seemed to have decided that the man was sleeping, not unconscious, and they looked simultaneously relieved and confused.
Firo turned to them. “Is work at the lodging house that rough?”
“I dunno. Is it a rough job? Is it hard on you, Miria?”
“Anything’s fun if I’m with you, Isaac, so it’s not a problem!”
“Yeah! It’s a piece of cake if I’m with you, Miria!”
“Hooray! Thank you, Isaac!”
The pair were as noisy and boisterous as a couple of kids. Ignoring them, Firo crouched, intending to wake the young man up.
That was when he noticed something—the man’s cheek and collar were wet. Not only that, but hairs of a brownish-gray sort of color were scattered over his clothes.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Still, Who must’ve been really bushed to conk out on the floor like that.”
“Yes, ‘Sleeping Beauty’! ‘Young Slept-for-Three-Years’!” Miria said, giving the names of a famous fairy tale and a folktale she’d heard from Yaguruma. Suddenly, she spotted a mound of blankets in a corner of the clinic.
“Oh, say, Isaac! Do you think we’re supposed to take those blankets over today?”
“Huh? Wow, that many?!” Isaac followed her gaze to a messy pile of blankets that was taller than either of them. “It’s like a mini-mountain… If he got all this ready, no wonder Who’s so tired.”
He leaned back against the blankets, enjoying the fluffiness.
“Ooh! Isaac, that looks like fun! Let me do that, too!” Miria joined him, collapsing back into the pile with enough force that they bounced her right back up.
Isaac and Miria leaned back by turns, as if they were marking time.
Firo sighed. “C’mon, don’t mess around with the charity blankets. Help me get this guy to a bed, and—”
He broke off.
Something’s…
As Isaac and Miria bounced off it, the mountain of blankets was also rocking rhythmically.
That description sounded natural enough.
But it’s kinda shaking more than it’s supposed to.
The mountain was shifting slowly, and the movement was too significant to be caused by the couple’s motion. The blankets fell away one by one, revealing another huge blanket that was a color somewhere between gray and brown.
No, wait…
A…blanket…?
Firo felt apprehensive. As if responding to his misgivings, the mountain of blankets moved even more dramatically, knocking Isaac and Miria forward.
“Whoaaaagh?!”
“Eeeek?!”
Isaac and Miria tumbled over the floor, then looked at the blankets, wondering what was up.
They saw a mass of fur.
Unlike the blankets, the fur was covering a whole lot of fat and muscle. It also had four limbs and a face.
Firo, Isaac, and Miria all stared at it. Little round eyes shining, the enormous thing bolted to its feet, scraping its head on the ceiling—which was easily over nine feet high—and grunted.
“Gwuff?”
The giant grizzly’s quiet growl was summarily drowned out by screams from Isaac and Miria, and from Who, who’d just come to.