Chapter Text
Legosi squatted in the west stairway on the third floor. His tail swished behind him as he focused on Haru, who was reclining on the steps. “-so then I had to go all the way across campus, to catch the guy before he left. Thank god,” she rolled her eyes. “But then I had to spend two hours hauling the bags to the garden. I wish they’d install an elevator or something.”
The wolf perked his ears. “Two hours? Oh, you should have called me, I would’ve helped you…”
“Ah, there was a lot of people,” she shook her head. “Didn’t want to set everyone chattering again.”
Legosi felt a pang in his heart. People had been awkward around him, but no one yet had directly confronted him about the rumors. After all, he was a six foot wolf, nobody was especially keen to confront him about anything. But Haru, small as she was… “Are you sure you don’t want to say anything about it? I mean, sure we… slept... together…” His nails nervously scratched the back of his neck. “But we didn’t sleep together. And I don’t think it’s fair that everyone-”
“It’s fine.” That’s what she always said, and Legosi hated it. He hated it because he knew it was a lie. “Seriously, it’s fine. It’s high school, they’ll talk themselves out until the next scandal comes along. It’s not worth our energy, we’ll just make it worse if we try.” Legosi could feel his ears droop, and his eyes fixed on her. Clearly she noticed. “I promise, I’ll be okay!” A smile crossed her face. “I’ve had people say bad stuff about me before, I just let it roll off.”
“Mmmmmm…” Legosi finally looked away, his hum of discontent rumbling in his chest. A small group of sheep passed by, and spying the two of them, quickened their pace. He let himself fall backwards onto his rear, clasping the top of his knee with his hand and resting his chin on top of his furred knuckles. “I wish I were a rabbit…”
“Huh? Why d’you wish that?”
“Because… if I was, then…” he sighed, “then people wouldn’t look at us like that,” he motioned after where the sheep had just passed the corner. “Then we could get the same-species benefits, then we just… would have less to worry about.”
The wolf looked away, feeling despondent. Then a warm touch on his fingers. His heart quickened. Ears perked up and his snout snapped to fixate on the little white hand grasping at his own.
“I wasn’t saved by Legosi the Rabbit, was I?”
This time her smile seemed real.
Legosi felt his tail thwap against the wall as she got on her feet. “I promised I’d call home tonight, so I better go. Promise me you’ll have a good evening, okay? Do something that’ll make you smile. I like it when you smile.” With a happy wave, she went up the stairs to her dorm.
The wolf watched after her for several seconds. He rose to his full height, staring at the top of the stairs. He took a deep breath again. Then he turned to head back to Room 701.
The summer break was ending soon. Many students had simply stayed at school for the few weeks. Others were filtering back in, either having spent time with families or being first-years. But there seemed to be a few more parents than normal this year. Understandable, given not only that Louis had still not reappeared, but also…
“Lego!” A familiar and friendly voice snapped him from his brooding. Jack came skipping up to him, face lit up. “Oh I got great news! Y’wanna hear?”
“Course,” Legosi gave a soft smirk.
“Okay okay, so it was Principal Gon who wanted to see me, and because I’m the top student in the school…” he shook his fists from the excitement, ‘he wants me to guide the human!”
Legosi’s brow lifted. “Really?”
“Yes! I’m so excited!” Jack’s smile was so wide that he couldn’t open his eyes. “He said that he trusted me more than anyone else to make a good first impression! He said that, Legosi! About me! Oh I’m so excited, I’ve never actually met a human before!”
The wolf tilted his head. “...our janitor’s a human, and another one works in the cafeteria.”
“Oh you know what I mean, to meet-meet a human! Plus those two are from the city center, this guy’s gonna be from one of the outside communities! The ones that put on those crazy shows?”
“Hmmmm, yeah…” Legosi thought back a couple years ago, when his grandpa had taken him and Jack to see a traveling human performance. They’d been breathtaking to behold - their skin, bare and furless, shimmering under the lights. Then it’d gone dark, and they gleamed with skulls and bones lighting the shadow. They had swallowed fire, leapt across trapezes, defied death a dozen times over. Choirs had chilled him to the bone, lone singers lifting his soul. On that stage, they seemed almost unreal.
“Do you think Vigil will be all crazy like that?”
“Hm? That their name?”
“Yeah, Vigil of Ardi. You think he’ll know tricks and everything?”
“I don’t know. But it might be rude to ask him that first thing.”
“Well duh!” Jack rolled his eyes. “I’m not gonna go up to our first human student and say ‘Hey, know any tricks?’ But like, I’ve seen some humans wear their stage outfits out and about. You think he’ll be like that?”
“I think he's going to wear the academy uniform.”
“Oh yeah…” the dog shrugged.
Something kept picking at the back of Legosi’s mind though. They proceeded in silence a couple seconds, “Gon sure it’s a good idea? You know, a dog and a human? Given the whole…” he trailed off awkwardly. The so-called ‘artificial’ species had initially evolved to fit cohabitation with humans over generations. When the Hominid Union had declared war on carnivores and herbivores alike, dogs in particular found themselves in an awkward position. Eventually, as the war turned south, dogs defected to the Alliance. It was taught in history from an early age, and emphasized that they were a crucial part in victory...
“Aw, I’m sure it’ll be fine! That stuff happened, what, seven decades ago? The only people who make a fuss about that are old kooks. If Vigil’s coming here, I’m sure he must be fine with it.”
Legosi nodded, that was probably a safe assumption. They turned a corner, and saw the custodian, Ward. He was forty-something, had silver hair and light freckled skin. His eyes glanced up to see them coming, and moved his mop bucket to the other side of the hallway. His body was covered in blue overalls, a grey shirt beneath that. Sure he was from a different community… but the wolf felt comfortable extrapolating.
“I think Vigil will just be like the others here,” he gave a gentle smile. “Just normal.”
Vigil kept his eyes closed as he felt the rector’s thumb against his forehead. The warm smudge of blood stayed behind. “And therefore we mark fellow flesh with fellow blood, to seal him from all troubles that may befall him, to signal our solidarity against those who seek to do us harm beyond our hallowed walls.”
Vigil opened his eyes again. The rectory was low and long. Wood benches lined wood tables, the front tenth of the seats taken, all facing him. Everyone wore the same thing he did: a black tuxedo suit, with a loose white bowtie. Overlaid was an ornate ceremonial collar, fabric meeting in a V across the chest, with golden thread inscribing runes and exotic lettering along the material. Everyone wore a brass charm, shaped like a four-pronged corn tassel.
Around the benches were stone pillars, each carved to portray a skeleton supporting the wooden roof above. Between the pillars, real skeletons slouched in thrones, blanketed in red robes and crusted with glass and crystal. High skylights provided the illumination, focusing it on the center of the floor and leaving the edges in shadow. Banners hung from the ceiling beams, scarlet with a golden X inscribed within a circle. The same symbol was on everyone’s collar, as well as on the rector’s robes as he stepped back and continued from the yellowed book in his hands.
“Look, all, upon he who ventures forth from our gates, not in disgrace but in dignity, for the sake of our long pilgrimage. Look with favor and hope that he may gather our allies, scatter our enemies, and in his individual mission come into greater communion with the concord of humankind.
“For we are bound by our history, our many triumphs and our Great Loss. May the Elder Word bring you wisdom in the face of uncertainty, may our brothers and sisters also on the long journey bring you aid in the face of adversity, and may your hands bring light to darkness in a world overcome by strife, that our people may shine forth as one, united, and strong.
“Remember our kin who have been taken from us, and set all hope that we may see their memory immortalized, at the end of our long pilgrimage, when we stand together upon soil we call our own, in perfect harmony, the names of the dead on the lips of the living, in union, as a single humanity.”
With that, the patriarch of the community, Father Reed, stepped forward from behind Vigil. He held charcoal in a small brass dish. Two fingers dipped into it as Vigil held out his hands. Reed spoke proudly as he marked the boy’s left palm, “Scatter and divide evil.”
“I shall,” Vigil spoke with a slight crack in his voice.
The right palm. “Lift up your brothers and sisters.”
“I shall.”
His lips, “Speak of the past, that none shall forget.”
“I shall.”
And now his forehead, arching over the bloodstain. “Remember the future, that all shall share.”
“I shall.” Vigil blinked, then looked up at the patriarch’s solemn face, hiding behind glasses. “Thanks Dad,” he added with a whisper.
A smile back at him
“Vigil,” the rector stepped aside and gestured him down the aisle of the building, raising a hand, “when we see you again.”
“When we see you again!” repeated everyone present, also raising their hand to head height. Vigil returned the gesture, and proceeded down to the opposite end of the building. He passed the others. Their eyes were heavy on him. Then he passed the empty tables, eyed the skeletons carved and otherwise on either side, as the double doors beckoned him outside.
Father Reed, and then the rest of the congregation, followed him along the dirt path through the town square, past homes and shops and offices scattered haphazardly, planned and built only as they were needed.
The sturdiest structure in the village wasn’t even really in the village - a fifteen foot concrete wall surrounded Vigil’s home, and had ever since he was born. On the other side was a world he’d heard horror stories about, a world where monsters devoured each other, and had nearly devoured them all. Sure the reality was more complex than that, everyone learned that growing up. But, when the first memories he and his friends had were their mothers warning them about wolves that stalked outside the gate and waited to eat bad children, or that the deer and goats and lambs that frequented the farmer’s market would snatch them away, that gut sensation tended to linger.
Even now as he spotted the open gate, Vigil felt a tinge of fear that he had to suppress. His dad must have sensed it. “It’s a thrill, isn’t it?”
Vigil just nodded. His eyes had only briefly caught the outside world in the past. “Yeah, I’ll be okay. I just need to…” he struggled with his words. “I need to get used to it, is all.”
“That’s the spirit!” His dad clapped on his shoulder. “And it’ll be safe at the school, and if you make any friends, they can show you around town. Stay smart, and you’ll be just fine.” Closer now. “I’m proud of you, Vigil. Taking this on, you’re going to pave the way for our entire species.”
“Thank you,” Vigil took a deep breath. That’s right, so many eyes were on him now. On the one hand, the smallest mistake would be exposed to everyone. On the other, it’d be harder for any malicious actors to get to him now. But he would also be a bigger target as the son of the patriarch, but that might mean he’d be afforded more protection by the animal authorities, but they might be more keen on actually acting against him, so many conflicting thoughts and scenarios in his mind as he approached the threshold of the Ardi community, the threshold of the world he’d known, and now he was stepping across...
Vigil stopped. Just outside the gate was a paved road, and empty cars lined up on either side of the doorway. Around him, fields of corn towered, and wheat and soybeans and all manner of vegetables. In the distance across the rolling fields, the glittering skyline of Cherryton faded against the atmosphere. One low black sedan idled on the grass by the pavement, and one human leaned out the window expectedly.
“Good luck,” Reed gestured for him. Vigil stepped to the car, took a last look at everyone who had seen him off. They all lifted a hand, and once again he returned it.
Then he opened the car door.