Things that go bump in the night
Prologue
"So, I thought it would be a little harder than this to find you, you know that right?"
There was one thing Rika thought she wouldn't hear when she woke up, and that would be the sound of some strange woman's voice who was out in the rain, that apparently had been looking for. Great, what did she do now other than fall asleep in an alleyway? It wasn't like anyone would pay attention to a pre-teen sitting there by herself anyways. The world was just that heartless.
"Hey, you going to respond or am I just going to go ahead and drag you off to where you should be anyways?" The stranger asked, cold brown eyes looking over Rika's shivering form. "For the love of God kid, you could have at least thought of lighting a fire even if it caught a cop's attention."
"Why do you care?" She asked, studying the woman in front of her. The woman was very much above average in height as well as curves, her chest seeming to strain against the black leather trench coat that came down to her knees, almost like a dress. Her black hair seemed a little oily, but was much better combed than Rika's. She held a dark brown umbrella over the two of them, long fingers covered by the white gloves on her hands. Her face though… Her face was that of someone who'd gone through hell and back, with… Were those tiny patches of scales on her face? No, that had to be Rika's imagination.
"Because guess what, when it smells like a cat's been soaked and gone through the mud, I have to assume it's the person I'm looking for."
"And who says that smell has been coming from me."
"Good question. How long has it been since you've had a bath?"
"Touche…"
"Now, mind telling me your name? Or should I just go on ahead and get rid of being mysterious."
"Rika. Now how are you, and why the hell is your face covered in scales?"
That earned a small chuckle from the woman before her face went stone cold again, before glancing Rika over.
"The name's Torikkusutā, or Tori. And well, I'll explain a bit more if you take off the hood."
Rika looked the woman over again, and took a deep breath through her nose. A more… Reptilian scent hit her nostrils instead of just the smell of sweet pavement and whatever was in the dumpster next to her. She took another look at the gloves, and saw that Tori's claw like nails were trying to poke through the cloth, causing her to raise a slender eyebrow at the woman.
"Take off the gloves and I'll take off the hood. Just seems like a fair deal doesn't it? Since it's obvious we're both trying to cover up something." She said suspiciously, the reptile smell seeming a bit more noticeable now.
"True. Well, might as well be a bit more truthful then." Tori said before removing the glove that belonged to her empty hand, looking in disgust at the scaled flesh underneath. No, there was no sign of regular skin, just scales that looked like the rest of Tori's tanned skin. "Now, your hood."
Rika sighed, and made sure nobody was walking down the street. Satisfied with how deserted the area seemed, she pulled down her hood, revealing her messy fiery orange hair and the very bane of the pre-teen's existence. The cat ears that earned her a lifetime of shame, the ears that she'd been told were because of her father, not her mother.
"Well then Rika, do you mind coming with me? My car's waiting for me down at the end of the street, with a hot meal made for myself and possibly a starving cat girl."
"Fair enough." She said as she stood up, putting her hood back on and making sure to stay at arm's length away from Tori. "It'd beat freezing to death out here. And I don't turn down free food."