My First Day – Part 2

Unlike other multi-parters I’ve done on the platform, this one is not meant to be self-contained, so I highly recommend you start at the beginning if you’re new to Jason Nightingale.

Part 1:

***

Guard duty was every bit as exciting as I expected. In that, it very much was not. Still, I was more than used to sleeping on the ground, and now I had this handy Nightingale cloak that kept the rain at bay and was way warmer than a trash heap.

Between that, eating delectable porridge provided by the grateful homeowners, and the parcel of scrolls along with parchment and quill I had brought to practice my letters, the time was well spent.

TJ even saw me doing my studies and lent me one of his books. It was the first one I had ever held, and he had to show me how to work it.

A Nightingale’s best weapon is their mind, I reminded myself whenever my eyelids would grow heavy.

A dead tree in the back acreage even got more than its share of crossbow bolts as I kept up my marksmanship practice. A Nightingale’s best weapon is their mind, except all their actual weapons was the complete phrase.

TJ saw my other pastime, too, and asked if he could try it. But bear paws are a bit too large to work the bowstring. And the claws posed a constant risk of severing it. Guess that’s why you don’t see too many bear archers.

“Buck up,” I told the despondent bear cub. “You’ve got teeth and claws. Way more useful.”

“But Robin Hood uses a bow,” he mumbled. “I wanna be like Robin Hood.”

“Hey, I bet Robin Hood wishes he could be like you and tear his enemies limb from limb. No need for a ranged weapon and all this practice then.” I clapped him on the back. “Plus, you have all this thick fur to keep you warm and keep the bees off you when you go for honey.” By instinct, I licked my lips. “Sweet, rich honey.”

The Bear residence had honey in abundance. I felt a slight increase in my heart rate at the thought of losing access to the delicious bounty when this assignment was over.

After a moment, TJ smiled. “Yeah, you’re right. Being a bear fucking rocks.”

“Sure wish I could be one.”

“Nah, you’re better off as a human. I wish I could be you.”

The side of my mouth curled down. “But we just went through that whole self-esteem exercise, TJ.”

“I know, I know, and you were right in everything you said. Yet, it’s not like my parents were wrong. Me, getting close to a human girl? Dream on.”

“Still hung up on Little Miss Home Invader?”

TJ nodded, his eyes glazing. “Being up close to her let me catch her scent. Cinnamon and coriander. Well marbled shoulders. Skin a perfect golden brown, like it was fresh from the oven.”

Being quite the connoisseur of all things edible, I didn’t quite see how that second spice contributed to the attraction factor. Then I considered the rest of his descriptors, and it all clicked into place.

“Say, if I didn’t know any better, TJ, I’d say it sounded like your parents have it all wrong.”

The bear cocked his head. “Oh?”

“It sounds a whole lot less like you want to court her and a whole lot more like you want to eat her.”

TJ mulled that one over for a spell. Then smirked. “Yeah, you might be right on that one.”

Now this was a bear I could understand at a subconscious level. I laughed. “At the end of the day, all species are united by our love of a good meal, huh?”

I nodded. “Another advantage of being a bear for you there. Bear eats a human? People may not like it, but they understand it. It’s part of nature. A human eats a human?” I thought back to the trainee class and how they all seemed to find excuses to be somewhere any time I came around. “That tends to provoke a lot stronger reactions in people.”

Just to be clear to the higher ups who read this report: I haven’t actually eaten another human.

Thought about it, sure. Who hasn’t thought about it? Go a fortnight with only a few breadcrusts to quiet the hunger pangs long enough to sleep a few hours and see how high and moral you are then.

“That actually explains a lot about why I’m so obsessed with her,” TJ said. “We’ve even been writing letters back and forth.”

“Wait… what?”

“Oh, she’s trying to get me to dig up dirt on Mom and Dad. Find the original deed, see if there’s any loopholes in how the land was granted to our family, so on. And I’ve been trying to get her to meet me in the woods for what I thought would be a date.” He bared his teeth. “Suppose it might have turned into something else.”

“Dude, what the fuck.”

TJ waved a paw. “I know, I know, it’s wrong to go behind my family’s back and all.”

“No, I don’t care about that.”

That caught him by surprise. “You don’t?”

“Family’s a waste of time. Never had one. But I am upset you’ve been keeping this from me and Lusario so long.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ve had a direct method of communication with the target and a great pretense to lure her in just sitting in your back pocket this whole time!”

TJ rubbed the back of his head. “Well, maybe that thought did occur to me before.”

“Then why—”

“Because this is the first chance I’ve ever had to hang out with someone who wasn’t my parents. Okay? Not exactly a lot of talking bears around, are there? God forbid I have a friend to talk about girls and shoot trees with.”

Panic rippled down my spine at that word. Friend. It felt alien in my mind. I’d never had one before. I had never wanted one. How did one be a friend? Did I go out and buy new clothes? Friend clothes? Lusario still didn’t trust me with coins. There was nothing in the Nightingale training manuals about friendship.

Before I could start hyperventilating, a conspiratorial light entered TJ’s eyes. “Besides, you’re getting paid by the day. I’m doing you a favor here. Plus, you yourself said you’ve never had a real book to read before.”

Ah, a transactional relationship. Now this was more solid ground. I scratch the bear’s back, he claws mine.

I smirked. “Okay, fair enough, TJ. I hold onto this pertinent info a little longer. You get some more practice with the crossbow. I get some more time with the book. Deal?”

You might say I made that deal in bad faith, because I knew full well there was no way he would ever improve with the crossbow. Not unless he got some fletcher to make a crossbow specifically for a bear. Or at least someone intimately familiar with the weapon to build a rough approximation so he could practice…

Even so, the look of relief that crossed the cub’s face made my own smile grow wider.

Whatever we are, we’re still not friends. No way am I ready for that.

***

Eventually, I cued Lusario in on what I had learned. The lag time between me learning of this backchannel to the golden-locked menace and me reporting its existence to my mentor had even allowed me to piece together a multi-pronged plan of how we would exploit it.

There was a glint of something in Lusario’s eyes as she read through my proposal. What it was, I couldn’t say, but TJ had a guess: “She’s proud of you, dude.”

“Yeah, sure. Just happy that I’m that much closer to taking her place, more like.”

TJ shrugged. “If thinking about it that way makes you more comfortable, then sure.”

That cub knew me too well for comfort, I swear.

Besides, for someone so “proud” of the plan, Lusario did have one—in my opinion—major alteration.

“We can’t just stay out of sight and shoot her when she approaches, Jason.”

What she saw brewing in my face was less an objection on the merits and more a complete and utter disconnect as to why that wasn’t the solution.

Which drew a hearty belly laugh out of Lusario. I didn’t see her laugh often. “Someday, you’ll learn that you can’t just go shooting random passersby. The constables know who we are and tolerate our private security status so long as we can claim clear and present danger to ourselves or our clients when asked.”

“But you were trying to pitch the Bears on us going out into the woods and finding this girl to put a permanent end to the problem.”

As she nodded, Lusario’s eyes flashed. “Yes, but that would have been done out of sight. Plausible deniability. There will be witnesses when she comes marching up to the front of the house. And witnesses are either on our side, or they tend to disappear before the lawmen arrive.” She pointed to TJ, who was struggling to pull the string back on a crossbow. “You don’t want that happening to him, do you?”

I sighed. “I suppose not.”

“Rolling one’s eyes when talking about a friend is not a typical reaction,” Lusario said with her usual quiet smirk.

“He’s not my friend!”

“Sure, kid. Sure.”

Our gazes both whirled to TJ as the crack of the string snapping echoed across the field.

“That’s okay,” I called to him. “I’ll weave you a new string later. Don’t give up.”

The bear cub appeared less than mollified as he ambled off into the woods, muttering and waving his arms the whole way.

Lusario fixed me with a skeptical look. “You’re really okay with him practicing on the crossbow you’ve spent so much time modifying and finetuning?”

“Of course not. That’s why I carved him a practice crossbow. He needs a bigger one than we carry, anyway. Had to find one thick log to make it wide enough. Only way he’ll be able to work the loading system without true thumbs and fingers.”

“You…” It was a rare moment where Lusario appeared to be unable to form the words her mind wanted. “You what?”

I walked over to the discarded weapon, hefting it in both arms to show it to her as I called back. “I know, it’s not perfect, but I figured he should at least get the motions down before I worried about building a more finished version. Prove the concept before I commit all that time.” I shrugged. “Believe it or not, he does show some promise. Just needs more patience and less, you know, brute force with it.”

“You did tell him he’s a bear, right?” Lusario asked as I returned, the massive crossbow still cradled against my chest. “He doesn’t need a ranged weapon. We’re looking at nature’s perfect killing machine with those teeth and claws.”

I set the weapon down, leaning it against my side. The stock nearly brushed my armpit. “I did, actually. He still wants to learn the crossbow. Think he saw me using mine and got inspired.”

A soft chuckle. “Sounds like young TJ wants to bond with his friend over a shared hobby.”

“Then he better learn fast, because he’ll never catch up to me at this rate.” I paused, then fixed Lusario with a glare. “And nice try. Again, not friends.”

Her smile only deepened. It was my turn to go stomping off into the woods, grumbling all the way.

***

Part 3 (the finale):