008
“Hello there, old human! How does the day find you?” said the male incani.
“The day found him unlucky for sure, brother,” said the woman incani.
Erick had walked the mostly-straight road heading out from the sewerhouse to the courthouse. In hindsight, he should have taken a different street. Jane probably didn’t walk this way. She would have known better. Erick should have known better too, but everyone he’d met so far had been friendly. Everyone except for the incani. He’d forgotten about them.
So now he was flanked by two horned purple people, each with knives, while a third watched from a porch. It was almost exactly the same situation as before, but this time Erick was their only target.
He slipped into the most welcoming version of himself and rolled with the situation. “The day finds me well. How are you, young whippersnapper?” Erick tried to walk forward, but the man stepped into his path. Erick tried to step the other way, but the man stepped into Erick’s path again. Erick stopped trying to get around the incani. “Are you asking me for a dance, or do you do this to all the old men you meet?”
The man smiled wide. “You’ve learned the language rather quickly.”
“It’s a miracle!” said the woman. “That makes this much simpler.”
“Oh?” Erick gave them their prompts to move the encounter along, “What’s so simple about ‘this’?”
“I’m glad you asked!” The man stepped back, bowing. He stood straight, a smile cracking open his fang-filled mouth. “Since you’re new in town and you’re probably looking for friends—”
“With friends like you, there’s no need for enemies.”
The man’s smile widened.
A sharp pressure touched Erick’s lower back.
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