Warlock

Eavesdropping

Something was different. There was no coating of crust and dust over his eyelids and he was barely stiff at all. Then he remembered; his hibernation was over. It was the next day, not years later. Loch felt the weight of the world even heavier than before. Yesterday he had made it through figuring out the basics of the new computers, bought himself a laptop, and read a three-hundred-page overview on the past thirty years. On top of it all, he'd had to remember to eat so that eventually he would appear less skeletal.

Loch opened his eyes and rolled off the couch. With a quick look out the window and a mental scan, he decided it was safe enough to move through his own methods. He fell backward with his eyes closed and opened them to find himself sitting in the car once again. Another thing on his enormous to-do list; fix the car's heater and anything else that may not have been made for the current climate. The rest of it showed no sign of rust and was unharmed due to a little protection provided by himself for the times between awakeness.

The car rumbled to life with an enthusiastic purr, happy to be driven twice in a row for the first time in many long years. Its cheer did not rub off on him. Loch sped through city and skidded to a stop several minutes later in front of the same shop as before. After some exploration the day before, he had discovered that the Other population in the rest of the city was not nearly as large as that of the café, so it was definitely a gathering spot. While he would much rather remain undiscovered, he needed to catch up on Other affairs as well as those of the humans in order to understand all that was going on.

Loch sat in the same place he had sat in the day before - it provided a very good vantage point for observing the café and the street - and waited for a waiter to come. It was the same naiad as the day before. His haircut was curious, though it could be the latest style. Loch's own hair stopped growing every time he went into hibernation, so it stayed at her preferred length. The boy grinned at Loch, showing off sharp teeth he probably thought his customer could not see. "Would you like the same order as yesterday?"

How surprising. He remembered both Loch and his order. "Yes."

"You seemed like the type." The boy smiled to himself and sprang away with a skip in his step. It was fascinating watching a six-foot-something naiad skip around with so much cheer. It could be his personality, or it could reflect the current state of the infuriating Other politics.

He seemed the type. What did that mean? Loch decided not to dwell on it. He pulled the touch screen phone he had been convinced to buy during the process of buying a computer out of his coat pocket and powered it up, looking at the directions at the same time. The internet contained much more information than it had when he had last gone into hibernation, and he planned on taking advantage of this fact. Yesterday he had found that there were stores online, so he had bought new furniture to replace the threadbare, collapsing furniture he had now. Only the car was ever protected during his periods of hibernation. Anything more would require too much focus and he would never sleep.

He eventually grew bored of searching for answers to his questions and closed his eyes to listen. The city was an incessantly loud place, and he had very good ears. Inside the kitchen of the little café, he separated the clattering of pots and pans from the chattering of voices.

"What did she say about this month?" This voice was a dryad, he knew. A girl by the sound of it.

Her question was answered by a sigh, then a much deeper voice. The new voice had a slight growl to it; another lycanthrope. A male. "She said the usual. They're looking at the killings and trying to find the killers, but still to no success. I think she's hiding something because she doesn't want us to get scared. I am not a coward." Lycanthropes always had to assert their brawn and bravery.