No Date

"What are you doing here with him?" Evan asked.

"He said that there was something serious we need to discuss. What are you doing out and about anyway? Aren't you third-shift?"

"Yeah, but I'm not nocturnal. I'll have you know that he is a convicted felon. He was part of a juvenile gang when he was in high school. He was a shoplifter and jumped multiple people in an alley."

"Listen, man, just stay cool. Eehh---" here he forgot my name.

"Ainsley," I filled in.

"Ainsley and I had some very important business to discuss. And it doesn't concern you."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure that it does concern me. I am a law enforcement officer and another fabula creaturis. Anything that you say in front of her can and probably should be said in front of me as well."

"Well, if you insist. Have you ever heard of the dangerous fantastical creature known as the Shadow Beast? It's sometimes known as the Black Dog or the Cadejo Negro."

"It sounds like a Black Shuck to me," Evan grunted.

"Well, it's not me, because I'm completely corporeal. Anyway, the Shadow Beast is a creature that is basically its own independent shadow. But it can jump off the walls in the blink of an eye and kill you. Then it'll jump back and continue its stroll. In its true form it is a large, shaggy dog the size of a cow and with cloven hooves and horns. It has large, glowing red eyes. The majority of them had been hunted to extinction, but there was one that we locked up, and we locked it up in such a way that its shadow would not be able to pass."

"Why are you saying 'we'? You had a part in this?"

"No, but I'm talking about fabula creaturis as a whole. Now don't interrupt me in the future. Some new numbskull released it by accident when trying to feed it, and now it's out and about terrorizing both regular people and others like us. I'm gathering up as many fabula creaturis as possible to help me out. Now, are you in?"

"Sure," I said.

"As am I," Evan interceded.

"Then it's settled."

Black Shuck

Tomorrow after the same class, the Black Shuck came up to me again.

"Listen, I don't think that I caught your name the first time that we met," he said. "I know that the professor always calls on you, but he only refers to you as 'Ms. Aithne'."

"My first name is Ainsley. It's traditionally a guy's name, but you can use it for a girl too. And you never raise your hand, so I don't have anything to call you except for 'Shucky'."

"Please never call me 'Shucky'. Naw, you can call me whatever you feel like. I don't really have a name."

"Fine then, Shucky."

"Fine, you can call me whatever you like as long as it isn't Shucky."

"What name are you enrolled under?"

"Ripley Thorpe."

"Interesting name."

"I know, right? You don't happen to have a class directly after this today, do you?"

"As a matter of fact, I don't."

"Great. Let's go somewhere off-campus for coffee."

"Like a date?"

"No, there's something serious that I need to talk to you about."

We went to the closest off-campus Starbucks and sat down with coffee. As he sat down, he said to me, "You're Irish, right? Where's your accent?"

"It goes back and forth. I've been in America forever."

"If I listen really closely I can hear a couple dialect hints."

We talked for a little bit about nonsense, and I began to think that there was really nothing serious to talk about. Then I noticed a familiar tall man with blonde hair. Officer Ryans was here, and he didn't look too happy seeing me with another guy.

In Class

Chapter Two

In Which I Find Another Fabula Creaturis

"Ms. Aithne, you're late," the professor said. Normally he would be angrier, but I was one of his best students, and this was the first time that I had been late this year.

"Yes, I know," I said, sitting down. The American was second nature to me, and sometimes I would flit between my home accent and Standard American English. In fact, it was becoming difficult at times to call up my Irish. Soon I was going to have to rely on my Gaelic for my roots in terms of language.

Halfway through class, I got up to look closer at something written when a man two rows in front of me turned around and smiled. He flashed gleaming fangs and I sat down without getting what was on the board. I had lost interest in what was there.

When class was over, I was one of the first to get up, going over to the guy who had smiled at me. He was talking to a group of friends, but as I went up they quietly dispersed.

"What are you?" I asked in an anxious whisper.

"What do you mean?"

"Why do you have fangs if you're totally human?"

The guy laughed, and I saw the fangs again. My eyes turned "cat", yellow with pupil slits, and I showed him my fangs. He stopped laughing.

"Good; I only suspected that you were a fabula creaturis. Cat Sì, right?"

"Yes. And you?"

"Black Shuck. Listen, I need to get to class, but I'll see you tomorrow. We can talk then."

Sorry

Sorry. I won't be able to get new posts very frequently from now on; I got a new novel idea and the writing for that is spilling out of me faster than I can write. Most of my time spent online is spent writing the new novel. I apologize for this, and I'll try to get posts as much as I can.

I'll let you know when you can expect more frequent posting.

Night Puma

I smiled and turned to go towards the campus when Officer Ryans (I hope you're fine with me calling him Evan from now on) ran forward to catch up with me.

"Hey, there's one other thing I want to give you."

"A present already?"

"Well since we're, you now, fabula creaturis, I think that you might have more of an appreciation for this than the average person."

He fished in his wallet and pulled out a pin. It was the shape of a kind of cat, black with two sapphires for eyes.

"It's called a night puma," he explained. "It's a rare kind of fabula creaturis, of the beast variety, and only found in the Rocky Mountains. They say that one holds the power to reverse as much damage as you want, but it can only do this once, so it needs to judge whether it's a worthy cause. However, the night puma also has supreme wisdom. According to superstition, jewelry of a night puma can give you similar wisdom."

"Oi bet it'll 'elp me on me studies," I said, taking it.

Before he got back in the squad car, he said, "I'm serious about that date, you know. Call me after class so we can figure something out."

Officer Ryans

As soon as he pulled out the gun, Officer Ryans and the other police officers were on him immediately. As he was taken away, Officer Ryans came back to me.

"He was a Barbebleue," the police officer explained. A barbebleue was sort of like a Bluebeard, and it turns out that this guy had been found out for all of his charges and was trying to escape, which is why he was going through the five stages of grief.

"Anyway, I know that you've gone through a lot of trouble. Can I buy you a drink?"

"Not if Oi 'av ter make it," I said.

"Are you even old enough to be working at a bar?" He asked skeptically.

"Oi'm workin' on gettin' me doctorate," I said. "Oi really want ter be a 'orror author, though. Or somethin' artistic loike dat."

"Sounds interesting. Tell me more."

"Is it easier for yer ter 'ear American? Oi spake it well."

"Say whatever you want."

Together I told him all of my dreams to do something that involved the arts and horror and how I was studying to be a veterinarian, and he told me about all the things that he had seen while on duty.

I looked at my watch after a while and panicked. "Oi nade ter git ter class," I said.

"I can take you in the police car," he said.

"Naw, Oi'm gran' on de 'arley," I said.

"Well, I don't want you getting in a motorcycle accident. How about I follow you and turn the alarm on if you start falling asleep."

"Is dat allowed?"

"I don't think so, but I'll risk it for you."

Together we drove to the campus, and he got out when I parked with a slip of paper in his hand.

"I want to take you on a real date sometime. Call me so we can arrange. And I mean it; I'm not going to wait for some other Barbebleue to wave a gun just to talk to you."

Cat Sì

Chapter One

In Which I Meet a Police Officer

"Welcome to Grimm's Bar," I said in a well-rehearsed American accent. My name is Ainsley Aithne (my family loves the alliteration), and I was a bartender here while trying to get my doctorate. For some reason I had this silly idea that I could actually be a great success, despite the fact that I was constantly hiding something about myself. I'm a Cat Sì, a Scottish and Irish werecat of sorts. In my cat form I'm black with a white spot on my chest, and most humans fear me. To other creatures, though, I make the best drinks in the city.

Grimm's Bar was just the way it sounded; a safe haven for any creature straight out of a storybook or mythology to have a drink and transform in some peace. Occasionally a human came here, but they were usually driven away by the drink choices before they could notice how off this place was in the first place. I don't blame them; in my whole life I have never actually tasted anything I've served; I was more or less pushed away.

"Officer Evan Ryans, FTPD," the man said, showing me his badge. "I received a complaint saying that there was a man in here that was drunk and disorderly."

"Roi dis way, officair," I said, reverting back to my traditional accent as I showed him the creature that was weeping in the corner about how horrible his life was. "'e's 'eadin' through de foive stages av grief roi in 'ere," I pointed out. When he came in he was fine, then threatening to fight with anybody who offered, trying to give me all his money to "make his life better", and now he was here.

"Yer don't 'av ter get 'im if yer don't want ter," I said. "'e'll accept it soon enoof."

Suddenly the man stood up on a table and waved a gun.

"Yeah, he's accepting it all right," Officer Ryans said.