Snakes and Ladders

by Ysabet

A sequel to Icka M. Chif's "Learn To See" (with her permission! Yaaaay! Read it first, okay?); the consequences of seeing the world as it really is (or is it?).....

Ooookay; I admit, this one caught my imagination by the noogies and wouldn't let go.  Icka?  You did invite people to continue this… so here's my little stab at a continuation.  And THEN somebody else needs to pick it up—it's too interesting a concept to be allowed to falter.

Snakes And Ladders

By Ysabet

It was six forty-five a.m. on a beautiful morning.  The early sun was shining like a ten-billion-watt bulb, the birds were twittering in the trees that lined the street…  It was all blessedly, marvelously normal.

Sort of.

Admittedly, a giant snake sweeping the front walk of the Enjaku Detective Agency with a straw broom was not precisely what most persons considered to be a normal kind of thing; but then, Mayura was having to redefine what she viewed as 'normal' nowadays.

*Big Snake!*  her mind shrieked at her; *Big, BIG!!  SNAKE!!  GO-GO-GO MAYURA!!*  But she had a little more self-control now than she had had two days previously; okay, so maybe she was terrified out of her wits, but… she had to do this.  Her father had helped as much as he could, but even he had limits; and where else could she go?

With slightly shaky hands, the peach-haired girl pushed a straying strand back out of her eyes as she approached the familiar building—well, it *had* been familiar a few days before; now…  It looked different.  Everything looked different—the people she passed on the street, the trees, graffiti on the walls downtown, the glitter of the river near her home—it all had an extra something to it that she couldn't define, something she could see but not yet understand.  It was almost as if a new color had been added to the spectrum that her eyes took in, one that glossed the entire world over with its own ephemeral sheen.

…or, actually, NOT quite so ephemeral when you looked at the giant snake with the broom.   His (it's?) head was bent with concentration as it (he?) meticulously got the last bit of debris from the cracks between the front walk's stones.

One part of Mayura's mind wondered silently how Yamino-san could even hold onto a broom since snakes didn't have hands.  Of course, she could see his normal self just as clearly as his… his snake-self?  So he *had* hands.  Of course he did; hadn't he used them to make that fantastic Strawberry Crème cake last Friday?  The peach-haired girl quivered internally, just a bit, as she realized that she had eaten food prepared by a cold-blooded, scaly bakemono of a reptile that probably swallowed people and squeezed people to death and bit them with poison fangs and…..

Yamino-san looked up just then, peering through his round-lensed glasses and the bars of the front gate.  "Mayura-san?"  His voice was as polite and cheerful as ever.

No, decided Mayura a bit numbly; you couldn't imagine Yamino-san swallowing people or biting them or *especially* squeezing them to death; he'd get his suit wrinkled.  And if there was one thing in Mayura's faltering world-view that she was certain of, it was the man in front of her's utter dislike of being in any way rumpled.  If he was a man.  The scales that slid and glittered through the air around him as he walked forward made that more than a little unlikely.

Right now she couldn't be sure of anything.  Yamino-san leaned his broom against the gatepost, looking as uncertain as she felt.  "Errrr….. Mayura-san?  Would you like to come in?  It's early—but I have breakfast almost ready, and… Loki-sama's been wondering… if you, ah…."  He hesitated; his ghostly serpent-self seemed to coil a little tighter and the girl shivered.  "…well, actually, we were both wondering if we'd ever see you again."  Smoke-blue eyes blinked hopefully at her behind thin masks of glass as he rested a hand tentatively on the gate-latch.

The shrine-keeper's daughter looked around her at the sunlit buildings, the trees, the birds, the sidewalk… almost anywhere except at the ghostly serpent that sprawled across the lawn like something out of one of her more vivid nightmares.  "My, my father… didn't want me to come.  He told me I'd be better off staying away f-from both you and Loki-kun now, now that I—"  She drew a deep, nervous breath.  "—but—"
Loki's servant cocked his head a little to one side; the spectral eyes of the serpent that coiled through and around him glittered with their own inner radiance.  "—but?"  Narrow fingers flicked the latch open and he drew back the gate for her, though she made no move forward.  "You came anyway.  If I may ask, Mayura-san… why?"

"Ummm….."  She wasn't really sure herself.  Maybe it was just the desire to make *sense* of things that had driven her to sneak out of the house so early—ever since her worried father had picked her hysterical self up a few days earlier, she had spent her time either immured in her bedroom or plastered against a window, staring half-terrified-half-fascinated at the changed world outside.  "…..I'm… I just….."

Yamino-san waited silently; the tip of a scarlet tongue flickered from the serpent-head above him and she flinched back.  "I just… want to understand what's going on—" she said haltingly.  "M-my father, he told me… a little.  He said, he said that you—and Loki-kun—"

And she stopped.  She hadn't been able to make herself think to hard about Loki-kun, or about the terrifying wraiths she had seen around him when she woke up.  It was just too much, too weird.  Too scary.

As if he understood, Yamino-san nodded.  "Well…  You came all this way; won't you come in?  I made muffins," he offered hopefully.

When she hung back, eyes wide, he looked a little hurt.  "Mayura-san, you *know* you don't have anything to be afraid of from either Loki-sama or myself; we'd never hurt you."  At her hesitant nod he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.  "Then why won't you come inside?"

"….. you…. you're a *snake.*  And you're so BIG."  She gestured with two hands that shook just a little.  "I mean, you fill up the entire front yard….."

"Oh, that.  Just a second—"  And the man with the glasses did something that registered in her new vision as a… flash? a flicker? of scarlet light that glinted for a brief snapshot-second off of every dim scale; when her eyes stopped throwing back reverse-shadows of green, Yamino-san stood alone in an empty yard, as reassuringly normal as ever.

Almost; it was when he moved to pull back the gate a little wider that tiny scale-shadows glittered in the air around him.  It was almost pretty, in an unnerving sort of way.

"I—I won't, um, bump into… into…?"  Was she supposed to consider the snake 'him'?  There was so MUCH of it.

Loki's servant smiled reassuringly.  "Not at all.  I'm very sorry, Mayura-san; I'm not used to, err, being seen; even Loki-sama doesn't pay attention to the rest of me usually—too much of a distraction.  And as for my being a snake… well, we can't help how we're born, now can we?"

The peach-haired young woman blinked as well; she had never thought of that.  "I guess not."  Nerving herself, she walked through the gate of the Enjaku Detective Agency.

Inside, everything looked almost the same as before.  Almost—there seemed to be odd scrawls written here and there on the walls, front door and windows that she didn't remember; they looked like spray-paint.  Moving tentatively forward (and waiting for the feel of cold scaliness, no matter what Yamino-san said) Mayura looked inquiringly at her friend.  "Did… have you had problems with gangs lately?  You've got graffiti…"

He chuckled as they reached the door.  "No, no; those are—Ah, I suppose you could think of them as burglar-alarms.  They let Loki-sama and myself know if anyone who isn't welcome tries to get inside… you know, like the, err, boy who caused all that trouble the other day.  Normally they can't be seen at all by most people, but…"  Yamino left the rest unsaid as he tugged at the door-knob.

Carefully she reached past his shoulder, touching a cautious finger to the green scrawl on the front door; it was dry beneath her fingertips but tingled slightly.  "It looks like spray-paint.  What IS it?"

"Spray-paint.  I bought it on sale from a mail-order catalogue—you can get six colors for only 1000 yen, if you—"  He broke off as the door popped open and a white blur shot out in mid-air to impact Mayura squarely in the chest, knocking her backwards.  "Ecchan!  Bad!!"

"YEEEP!"  Her shriek of surprise dopplered backwards as she fell over to land sprawling on the hard walkway; the cause of Mayura's descent followed her down to dance delightedly back and forth on her torso, squealing with happiness at how the Funny Human Wanted to Play.  Ears (or whatever they were) flapping, it poinged a few feet into the air and swirled around her prone body; Mayura's eyes bulged.

Yamino sighed; for a second the glitter of his scales intensified around him, then faded like blown-out candles.  "It just wants you to chase it; Ecchan absolutely loves being chased, and Loki-sama won't because he considers it too childish."  Carefully he helped the girl to her feet.  "Are you alright?"

She stared at her hand where it lay in his; if she concentrated hard enough, she thought dizzily, she was sure she would be able to feel scales and cold, constricting coils…..  But oddly enough, she couldn't; all she felt was the touch of concern and kindness, not monstrosity.   "Here—"  He helped her to a chair by the window, the one she had sat in so many times before; a book that she had been flipping through a few days earlier lay neatly closed on the chair-arm with a bookmark in place, not carelessly open face-down as she had left it.  Yamino-san's handiwork, of course.  His touch was everywhere in the house, gleaming from the polished brass and shining floors, from the way he carefully helped her into the chair and in the glass of water he brought her a few minutes later.

The floating white whatever-it-was (Ecchan, hadn't he called it?) bobbed along behind them like nothing so much as an aerial sort of puppy without legs; its amorphous body nearly quivered with happiness as it settled into her nerveless lap, circling around on itself and making itself comfortable.  Gingerly she stroked the thing; it made a sort of mewling purr, its fur soft and dense beneath her fingers.

"I'll go wake Loki-sama; why don't you just rest here a minute—what?"  At her sudden, agitated movement, the servant frowned slightly.  "You don't want to see him?  Mayura-san, he's really terribly sorry he frightened you the other day—well, in his own way he is; I'm sure he'd like to speak to you… and you *did* come all this way…  Mayura-san?"  He knelt in front of her, startlingly quick.  "Mayura-san, I can't explain everything to you, not without Loki-sama here; I'm sorry, but that's how it has to be.  But… maybe I can make things a little easier on you.  Tell me:  what can I do to help?"

She took a deep gulp of water, trying to calm her nerves.  It didn't help that the water in the glass glinted up at her with the same odd sheen of Something-New that had been scaring the wits out of her ever since…..  "That boy, the one that HIT me with, with whatever it was—who was he?  Why was he trying to hurt Loki-kun?  He looked so angry….."

The man kneeling before her sighed, absentmindedly pushing his glasses back into place.  "That was—someone with a grudge against Loki-sama, an old one.  A very old one, in fact.  He's not exactly what he seems to be at first glance, either."  Yamino frowned thoughtfully; "He certainly needs therapy, though—perhaps one of those new confrontational-technique sessions, to get him in touch with his 'inner child;' I read about them on the Internet.  Of course, I wouldn't wager that any psychiatrists involved would survive the encounter….."  Pulling himself back to the subject, the man with the kind eyes looked up at her apologetically.  "I'm sorry, Mayura-san; I think your new vision is going to complicate your life a bit after this."  The white-furred thing in her lap cooed sympathetically as well, snuggling close.

"It's already complicating it…"  She dropped her face into her hands, squashing Ecchan slightly (which Ecchan did not seem to mind at all).  "I wish they made glasses to take away things like this—I'd wear them from now on.  Why couldn't things stay the same?  I don't, I don't WANT to s-see you as a big scaly snake and I don't WANT to see shadows and scary things around Loki-kun and—and everything's changed!  I want to be the way I was--  Why did everything have to change?!?"

* * *

Yamino winced at the anguish in her voice; again, the glitter of phantom scales flickered into visibility around him like the ghosts of wind-chimes, just barely there.  Rising, he pulled a chair up so that he could sit opposite Mayura, close enough to talk but not close enough to scare her.  The girl hugged the creature in her lap close, fingers buried in fur; Ecchan keened sympathetically, rearing up a little (never mind that it didn't have hind-legs or any legs at all, for that matter) to peer anxiously into her face.

The World Serpent hesitated, searching for words.  Usually he didn't have to bother; the long, long years of lying on the sea-bottom hadn't required much in the way of social skills, and his time since being translated into human form had proven to him over and over that good manners and careful side-stepping could often defer the need for explanations.  He'd gotten quite good at it, in fact… 

But now—

"Everything changes, Mayura-san; everything changes, sooner or later.  And," he added rather wryly, "anyone who remains in Loki-sama's vicinity for as long as you have is *bound* to change, one way or another.  You might even say that he embodies change; after all, children grow to become adults, don't they?"  That was skirting the truth in a rather risky kind of way, actually, and ignoring the whole 'God of Evil' stereotype, but…  Yamino thought a little harder, really looking now at the girl across from him.  He was aware that, as humans went, Mayura was not the brightest torch in the mead-hall; but she had a good heart and a steadfast spirit.  She deserved better than just having Sight thrust on her without a word of explanation, even if it made things a little… awkward.

If she reacted so strongly to his snake-self, he reflected, how would she react to his father's constant entourage of phantoms and half-there-half-not undead?  Not well, probably…  And he doubted she'd like Loki-sama's red eyes, either.  Humans seemed to have a problem with red eyes for some reason or other; he'd never been able to figure that one out.  Red was just another color, wasn't it?  Even Mayura's eyes were a sort of soft burgundy-brown.  But no, show a human something with really scarlet eyeballs and they shrieked and fled every time.  It had to be one of those things that came with the species; Yamino just didn't get it.

She was still hugging Ecchan close, running her fingers through the shikigami's coat over and over again like a little girl petting a kitten; the creature had begun emitting its thrumming purr once more, and as the vibration thrummed its way through her body Mayura finally began to relax.  Heartened, Yamino decided on another tactic, something he had used often enough on his father before and tended to think of as 'Distraction á la Mode.'  "Mayura-san?  Wait here; I'll be right back—"  She opened her mouth to speak, but he was already up and heading for the kitchen.

*Apple pie… no, it's too early for that; too rich.  Mmm; maybe some of those sweet buns from yesterday?  Or some fruit—ah, I've got it; just the thing.  A little outré for breakfast, but it'll hold her attention for just that reason.*   Bustling from the refrigerator to the counter and back, the World Serpent began concocting a small diversion.  *A little leftover crème-cake… a bit of fresh peach, sliced thin… a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, a drizzle of—oh dear, do I have any left?  Ah, there it is—raspberry sauce…*  He topped the whole with whipped cream from a can (it didn't measure up to fresh, of course, but the convenience made it worth keeping around), tucking a spoon neatly into the freshly-made Peach Melba and surveying it with satisfaction.  The Western-style dessert had been one of the first things he had ever learned to make, once he had gotten hands.

For a giant snake, he mused happily to himself as he slipped the dish onto a tray and then poured himself a cup of the tea he had left brewing, he made a very decent cook.  Certainly Loki-sama had no complaints…

"Yamino-kun?" said a rather sleepy voice from the doorway behind him.

*…and speak of the Devil…*

"Errrr, good morning, Loki-sama—"  Rather hurriedly he turned around.  Loki, God of Mischief, father of Hel, Fenrir and his own scaly self, stood yawning in the doorway; his bathrobe-cord trailed onto the floor at his feet and he had a profound case of bed-head.  *If Mayura-san saw him like this she could hardly be afraid of him, could she?  --Of course, there ARE the shades…*  They weren't very active just yet, the shadows that constantly wreathed the small boy-form around with their smoky presence; Yamino privately believed that they were nothing more than projections of his father's magic, as automatic for him as breathing.

One of them reached out a shadowy hand towards the whipped-cream can; without being too obvious about it, Yamino pulled the can back out of range and the shade subsided.  Loki-sama had *such* a sweet tooth sometimes…

"I thought I heard voices--  Did Narukami-kun show up for breakfast again?"  Loki rubbed at sleepy green eyes that had shadows beneath them which owed nothing to the awakening shades that hovered about him.  "He's a Thunder God, he's had more part-time jobs than anybody else on this planet; you'd think he could at least manage to fry an egg on his own…" he grumbled.

Yamino had his own theories about that, starting with Narukami's perennially-empty pockets and ending with his tendency to lose any job that had to do with cooking; the Thunder God could cook well enough—the problem was that he didn't WANT to.  "Nooo…  Would you like a cup of tea, Loki-sama?  Breakfast isn't quite ready yet—I just need to… ehh…."  His voice trailed off at the boy's increasingly sharp stare, directed rather pointedly to the dessert melting in front of him.

"… to heat it up?  Ice cream?"  The Mischief God sniffed, tugging his bathrobe cord a little tighter.  "Raspberry sauce…..  Peach Melba.  For breakfast?  Yamino-kun, are you experimenting again?"

The World Serpent winced; Loki-sama was never going to let him forget about the escargot, was he?  He *still* couldn't understand why that hadn't worked; teriyaki sauce went with almost everything, didn't it?  It had almost been edible; maybe if he tried ordering the fresh snails rather than the canned ones next time…  "No, not exactly… Er.  Mayura-san's in the living room, and I thought I'd…..??"

He was speaking to an empty doorway.  Loki-sama's bathrobe-cord whipped around the corner of the hallway as his voice carried faintly:  "Let me know when you think she's ready to talk, I'm going back to bed, jaa—"  The sentence was punctuated by the distant slam of a bedroom door.

*Oh.  Well.  FINE.  Be that way, then.*  Somewhat miffed at having been left to do the messy groundwork, Yamino sighed and picked up Mayura's breakfast.  As he headed back into the main room, he ruminated darkly on his father's desertion of the situation; for THAT little bit of backpedaling, he promised himself, Loki-sama would find himself footing the bill for those bedroom slippers Yamino had seen a day or so before in a catalogue—the bunny ones with the fleecy linings.  It was only fair.

She was carefully examining the furry shikigami in her lap when he carried the tray back in; Ecchan was flat on its back, having its tummy (or the nearest equivalent) scratched with a blissful expression of sheer idiodicy.  Brushing aside a trailing strand of peach-colored hair, Mayura looked up.  "It doesn't have any legs, not really… just, um, these two bumps; it looks sort of like a flying tadpole with ears," she said in wonder, fingers still scratching.  "How does it fly, anyway?  It doesn't have any wings either—"

Yamino chuckled.  "It just does.  It's a shikigami, a little spirit; Loki-sama summoned it one day to amuse your father."  *Of course, it wasn't your father who was being amused, it was Loki-sama,* he thought to himself.  The man's expression of horror had been… memorable.  It hadn't helped a little later when the Mischief God had allowed his shadows to 'menace' the unwitting Mayura-san right in front of him either.

"Speaking of your father….."  he asked carefully as he handed over the dessert; Mayura took it with an expression that shaded a little closer to her usual sparkle, digging in enthusiastically.  "Just what DID he tell you about your new, ah, ability?"  *He probably said something like 'I TOLD you so'…*

Her spoon clinked against the side of the dish; Ecchan made an inquisitive little **meep!** as it peered hopefully upside-down from her lap.   "He said 'I *TOLD* you so.  Why don't you ever listen to your father?'  I think he meant well, though."

Loki's son sighed.

"He said… that I was going to see things the way he did sometimes, the 'hidden world behind the world.'  I told him I didn't want to—"  She took another bite.  "—Yamino-san, does Ecchan eat sweets?  He does?  Okay—  And then he said something really funny…"  Mayura looked thoughtful, or as thoughtful as a young woman could look with a dab of whipped cream at the corner of her mouth.

"What?" prodded the World Serpent.

"He said… 'Don't think that just because you can see behind the masks that you're seeing what's really there,' and I don't know what that means.  He was really worried—"  She glanced up at him again; there was a hint of returning fear in her dark eyes.  "I… see almost everything different now; I even saw something funny in the water you gave me a few minutes ago—like a sort of color.  What was it?"

It took Yamino a minute to realize what she was talking about.  "Oh—don't worry about that; there's a purification-spell on the pipes.  Water filtration systems cost so much these days, and….."  His voice trailed off.  "You could actually tell?  Something as faint as that?"

She took another bite and nodded, feeding a bit of ice-cream from her fingertip to Ecchan.  "Mmmhmmm… just barely, but I could see it, sort of like a really pale rainbow on the surface."  **Clink-clink** went the spoon again.  "What did he mean about the masks?  My touchan, I mean?"

*Loki-sama should be explaining this, not me.  What do I know about settling the fears of adolescent human girls?  As she pointed out, I'm a giant snake; I've never even HAD offspring of any kind, and he's been… creative in that area in the past.  VERY creative.  Very, very, very creative.  He's qualified, I'm not.*

But… he HAD volunteered… and the human girl was a friend.  He had had too few friends in his lengthy existence to belittle them just because they were mortal.

"Masks….."  Yamino absentmindedly leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and steepling his hands in front of him to peer past them in thought; a faint scuffling noise from outside the window made him turn his head for a moment, but he ignored it and pressed on.  "Well—when you saw me outside, what did you see?  --and I don't mean just the new things—everything.  What did you see when you looked at me?"

"A snake….. and… the regular you, sweeping the walk.  Yamino-san?"  She swallowed her last bite; in her lap, Ecchan made a **murrrr** of disappointment.  "Which is real?"

Loki's second son pinched at the bridge of his nose; he had a headache coming on, he just knew it…..  "Both of them.  But—I was born as one and became the other; the old me is no less real because there's a *new* me, anymore than the NEW me is less real than the old."  Mayura looked nonplussed; he smiled wryly.  "You were a little girl once, and now you're a young woman.  The old you didn't get erased just because you grew older, did it?  You still remember what it was like to be a child, don't you?"

She clutched her bowl, rattling the spoon.  "Well—but I can't turn back into a kawaii little girl again…..  Can you, um—?"  She gestured with one hand, miming a snake head with her thumb and forefinger and sort of waving it around.  "I mean….."

"….. can I turn back into my old self?  Sometimes, if it's necessary.  But I prefer being this way."  Giant snakes didn't get to cook or clean; they didn't get to wear nicely-tailored black suits, either, or to sit chatting and drinking tea with friends.  Giant snakes also had to shed periodically and didn't get to peruse mail-order catalogues or the Internet.  While there was a certain delight in being large and terrifying, it tended to limit your range of friends severely—and Yamino had found (somewhat to his surprise) that he was a social creature.

He laced his hands across his knees, still leaning forward.  "Mayura-san, being able to manifest your old self isn't that important; the fact that it's still there inside of you is.  But as for your father's comment about masks…..  When you look at me now, do you think of me as Yamino-san or as the snake?"

There was a moment of silence; outside, birds chirped from the windowsills.  "….. Yamino-san.  That's who you—that's who you *are* to me, even if I can see scales when I look at you.  And really, really big teeth."  Her voice was very small.

The World Serpent breathed a sigh of relief.  "That's what your father meant, I think.  Just because you can see new aspects of the world, that doesn't mean that the ones you're familiar with are false."  He thought again for a moment.  "If you liked something before, remember that when you see it again, even if it looks different.  If you trusted someone before… remember *that* as well—even if their new faces are frightening.  Be careful—but don't forget your old self or your old judgments just because you have more information now."

She turned the dish around and around in her hands, balancing the base on top of Ecchan's stomach; the small shikigami's wide eyes followed the movements as it wriggled slightly.  Apparently Ecchan was ticklish.  "I… guess that makes sense.  Yamino-san?  What ARE you and Loki-kun?  When I saw him, he had…  They looked like g-ghosts, all dark and scary…  But Loki-kun's always been so sweet to me; he's not scary, never--  Why would he have those THINGS around him?" 

*Oh dear.*  She was becoming agitated again; Yamino mentally cursed himself for a clumsy, thick-scaled idiot.

"He…  I suppose you could think of his shadows as something like *memories,* Mayura-san."  His own fingers tightened about his knees as he recalled the Loki of ages past; and his son suppressed a shiver.  "There was a time, once, when he was a very, very different person in very, very different circumstances; then, it was best if he seemed… intimidating.  What you saw around him was part of that— reflections, if you'd like, of who he's been."  When she continued to stare at him, perplexed, the World Serpent ght back a severe desire to go drag his father bodily from his bed.  *He's probably got the covers over his head right now, too…..*  If the God of Mischief had a weakness, it was a strong dislike of having to explain himself; hence his return to the comforting depths of his bedroom.

*He has another weakness, too:  Mayura-san.*  Yamino privately promised himself the new All-Automatic Rice Cooker/Vegetable Steamer that he had seen in the same catalogue that the bunny slippers had been in; he had earned it.  And maybe the Self-Refilling Doggie Water-Dish, too; that'd make Niisan happy.  Speaking of which, where *was* Niisan?  If Mayura was at ease with Ecchan, maybe—

The muffled scuffling sound from outside that he had been ignoring suddenly made sense and he jerked upright, nearly upsetting his chair as he leaned over to poke his head out the window.  "Niisan?  Niisan, is that you?  You're not—"  He stared out at the line of trees to the left, eyes narrowing.  "You ARE digging again.  Niisan, you promised you'd stop that!!"  Behind him he heard Mayura shift, peeking past his shoulder; she squawked faintly but made no other outcry.

The small black dog who had just pulled his head out of the rather deep hole he had been excavating drooped guiltily.  "…… sorry…..  I was GOING to put all the dirt back before you or Daddy saw—"  Tail dragging, he carefully lifted whatever he had been burying (Yamino refused to look too closely) out and began to scuffle at the soil again.  Muffled grumbles came from the bottom of the hole.

"B-big dog, *REALLY* big scary dog—"

He sighed, settling back down.  "Sometimes.  Most of the time he's just—well, as you saw:  a small, black puppy who DIGS HOLES IN THE YARD—" (and here he raised his voice slightly) "—even when he promises not to.  Other times, he's, ahhh… a bit more fierce."  Had the girl had missed the "Daddy" and "Niisan" references…?  He looked up hopefully.

*Aaack.*  She had that 'look' on her face, a fish nibbling at the bait.  "You called him 'Niisan'?  Niisan?  Your brother is a dog?!?  And… who's 'Daddy'?"  Mayura put her hands in front of her eyes.  "My head hurts—"

Yamino nodded briefly; he understood the feeling completely.  "Errrrr…  Would you like some more water, Mayura-san?  Or some tea?  Or perhaps—"

"What I want is to UNDERSTAND."  It was more of a wail than a whimper; outside the window the scuffling sounds suddenly ceased and became an alert, doggish silence.  "YOU'RE a snake, your brother's a dog, and Loki-kun's a, a—a something scary with ghosts following him around.  Is he your—this sounds SO crazy—your brother too?"

"Not… exactly….."  *And won't THAT be interesting to explain?  Let's just hope she doesn't think to ask if we have any sisters…*   He *was* going to buy himself  something particularly nice after this, just to soothe his nerves.  There had been an intriguing new catalogue in the mail yesterday, still in its brown paper envelope—he hadn't even had time to open it.  'Fredericks Of…' somewhere or other, wasn't it?  Perhaps there'd be something interesting in there for him.

Mayura was plowing on… errr, doggedly, so to speak.  "A-and if you're a snake and your brother was a huge German Shepherd, then how come you aren't now?"  She sniffled hard, wiping at her eyes; her Peach Melba dish lay forgotten on the arm of her chair, and Ecchan broke off its less-than-stealthy attempt to reach the dregs of melted ice-cream at the bottom as she hugged it tightly, producing a pneumatic squeak. 

"Why aren't we what we were?"  Yamino repressed a desire to clutch at his hair; the situation was not improving.  He hesitated, stalling for time.  Where the Hel was Loki-sama?  "Errr, we….. that is…..  Well, it's like this, Mayura-san—"

"'Cause we don't have to be!"

The World Serpent managed to just barely keep from levitating out of his chair at the unexpected answer; Mayura wasn't so lucky.  Ecchan and the Peach Melba dish went flying, with the predictable results of Ecchan bouncing off the ceiling and the dish heading for the floor.  An abnormally quick (for a human, anyway) swipe of a long arm caught the dish before impact; CLINK! went the spoon, and as the peach-haired girl fought to keep her chair from tipping over backwards she found herself confronted by a grinning black dog-face with silverware clutched in its teeth.

"Oo c'n ERE m'oww, 'ite?  Ptooo!"  Fenrir spat out the spoon into his brother's hand.  "Thanks, Niichan.  You can hear me now, right?  Right?  And understand me, right?"  His small body wriggled in happiness as he bounced in place, tail wagging.  "I don't just go 'bark bark bark' to you now, right??  Right??"

"….. um, yes….."  She shrank back, but Fenrir was having none of that; vibrating with excitement, he leaped up into her lap as he had so many times before.  Over her head, Ecchan whined in complaint and then swirled down to flop in a case of shikigami-sulks across Yamino's knees.

Loki's eldest son planted a black paw on each shoulder, tongue lolling from white-toothed jaws.  "You can HEAR me!! 'Bout damned time!  See, it was like this:  When Daddy got sent here he went looking for Niichan and changed him from a snake to the way he is now, which is *much* better 'cause he can open dogfood-boxes this way, and me, I got loose and came looking for Daddy 'cause I figured he needed me and besides it's damned COLD back where I was and I was there all alone for ages and ages and ages and ages."  Soulful dark eyes looked up into Mayura's at the end of the extended trail of words; she blinked.

"…..'Daddy'…..?"

"Yarf!  I mean, 'Yup!'  He's—"

"—and we can just leave that last for Loki-sama to explain, can't we?" Yamino hurried to interject before his brother *really* got going; the Fenrir Wolf had a tongue that was hinged in the middle, wagging at both ends.  "Let's… let him have his chance to talk too, all right, Niisan?  Please?"

The dog gave what could only be construed as an aggrieved sniff.  "*You're* just still mad at me for digging in the garden.  Lighten up, Niichan, It's not like I wasn't gonna make everything nice and neat afterwards, you know—"

"That's not the point, you SAID you'd stop digging—"

"Oh FINE, and I'm supposed to leave cool things like porkchop-bones and dead squirrels out where everybody can find 'em?  Do you know how *hard* it is to find a really good dead squirrel these days?  And I never had one, not ONE back in that gods-damned cold cave where I was chained up, no matter how many times I tried to catch Ratotskr—you remember, he used to hang around Nidhogg?  Stupid little bushy-tailed tree-rat with a nut fetish…"  Fenrir shook his head hard, ears flapping; he appealed to Mayura, who had been sitting quite still during the argument.  "What would you do, Maryura-kun?  I mean, if YOU found a really great dead squirrel, wouldn't YOU—"

"Uhh…"  For some reason she didn't seem quite as rattled by having the Wolf From Hel in her lap as much as Yamino would expect.  Gingerly she stroked his ears back, just like always; when she buried her fingers in his ruff to give him the expected scratch that he usually got when in her arms, Fenrir' tail wagged so fast that it sounded like wiper-blades on a car.

There was a momentary silence as she gathered her thoughts; both of Aesir Loki's male children watched her face hopefully.  At last she smiled at them hesitantly, a little more color in her face than there had been before.  "You said… you 'didn't have to' be that way anymore…?"  She was struggling to understand—and for Mayura, who seldom looked beyond the next 'mysterious mystery,' that was an intellectual leap of atomic proportions.

The two brothers looked at each other.

Fenrir was the first to speak, a little slower this time than his earlier eager rush.  "Well… I was stuck in a cold, snowy cave; Niichan was down at the bottom of the ocean.  Neither of us had anybody much to talk to, and—and we were both lonely.  *Nobody* wants to talk to you when you're a big snake or a—"  He suddenly looked a little doubtful.  "—did you call me a 'German Shepherd' earlier?  I really think I look more like a Labrador Retriever—oh, you mean my Big Self?"  He considered the thought for a moment, then grinned a doggy grin with a lot of teeth.  "That's good; I like that.  Anyway…  Nobody wanted us, either of us.  But we—Daddy, he—"

Yamino broke in at this point (if he heard much more of the 'Daddy' comments, he resolved, Niisan was going to find himself presented with a muzzle).  "It's like I said earlier, Mayura-san; no-one has to stay the same as they were.  We each had a chance to change, to be something other than we had been—and so we did."  He held out one long-fingered hand, turning it over and over in the morning sunlight with his fingers spread wide.  "I didn't have hands—"

The dog in Mayura's lap made a low, chuffing sound in his throat.  "I was alone—"

"—but we were given reasons to change."  Loki's youngest son sighed.  "I'm saying it badly; but—"  Yamino's eyes softened a little.  "Mayura?  Why did you get involved with us in the first place?"

The peach-haired girl thought a moment, brow wrinkling; unconsciously her fingers stroked Fenrir' ears.  "I….. because you were interesting….. and because you *needed* me.  I mean, if I hadn't brought you clients you'd just sit around here doing nothing—"

Yamino had a few rather strong doubts about THAT (and in his lap, even Ecchan looked dubious), but essentially it was the answer he had been looking for.  "So; you changed because you thought it was a good idea, correct?"  She frowned a bit as he shook his head gently.  "Why consider that an option belonging only to humans, Mayura-san?  Anyone can change, given the opportunity—and a good reason."

They were all silent for a moment or so; the young woman nibbled on her lower lip as she thought hard.  It was interesting, really; Yamino had never seen such a look of concentration on her face before—as humans went, Mayura tended far more towards the 'first impression rules over all' standard of mentality.  It was a little ironic, too.

She was changing, right there before his eyes.  She was learning to *think* as well as to *see.*

"Mayura-san?" he prompted after the silence had stretched a little too long; Fenrir watched them both, uncharacteristically quiet.  "Now what?"

"Mm?"  She still had that introspective look; it was almost disturbing.  "Now what what?"

The dog in her lap spoke for both of them.  "Are you gonna go away?  Stop coming here?  Get scared off?  Stay with us?  Which?"  Despite his low opinion of her intelligence, Fenrir had a soft spot for the girl.  He wriggled slightly, twisting around to bite briefly at his shoulder, and Yamino wondered darkly if Niisan had picked up a case of fleas.

"I… I'll—  I don't—"

She stopped.  The two brothers looked at each other again.

"……….I don't know."  She stared down at her hands helplessly.  "I just want to UNDERSTAND."

The black dog cocked his head to one side, looking up at her from dark eyes that had far too much depth to them to be an ordinary animal's.  "I wanted that too, when they chained me up, you know; nobody told me why.  I snarled and snapped and bit—and howled, too." 

Yamino was silent, remembering a long, despairing fall into the depths of the lonely ocean uncounted ages ago.  Snakes didn't howl, but that had not lessened his pain, not in the least.  "She needs to talk to…"

"…to Daddy.  I know.  Where IS he, anyway?"  Fenrir twisted around in Mayura's lap to stare around the room as if Norse gods of mischief were likely to pop out of the woodwork.  Of course, anything was possible…

"He went back to bed."  Loki's younger son severely suppressed several uncharitable thoughts regarding his father's courage (and a twinge of envy or two as well).  "I'm sure he'll be up soon—"

Mayura was obviously running a mental playback of their conversation at this point.  "'Daddy'?" she asked warily for the third time that morning, this time with a bit more emphasis.

"—errrr-----"  Snakes didn't sweat; however, Yaminos *did.*  He tugged at his collar.  "You see, ahh—"

His brother bounded down from the girl's lap, paws scrabbling at the polished wood floor in a comical cartoon-character run before traction caught up; with an interested "Punyan?" Ecchan rose into the air and followed, tail (or whatever) streaming behind.  "I'LL get him!  Stay here, Mayura-chan—I'll let him know his miko's here—"

*…his… miko?...*

*! ! !*

The peach-haired girl only made a puzzled little noise, but Yamino's eyes widened as his mind wandered down the path of speculation that the title of a Japanese shrine-maiden had opened the gate on.

Daidouji Mayura….. the daughter of a family traditionally devoted to religious service, who hurried from her scholarly training each day to apply herself to the Mysteries of her chosen devotion….. who came without fear to the place where a god dwelled and called upon him by name and who brought him petitioners, whose requests the god answered in his own way with his own particular abilities, accompanied by undeniably supernatural assistants.

*'His miko.'  Oh DEAR.*

It made sense, actually, in a horrifyingly ironic sort of way.  Odin had sent Loki to Midgard to lessen his power; his 'miko' was helping him get it back, in a roundabout sort of way.  She *believed* in him… and gods thrived on belief.

"Err, right.  Of course.  Mayura-san?  If—If you'll just wait here, Loki-sama should be up very shortly….."  Yamino stood, gathering the bowl and spoon along with his wits.  "I really should finish with my morning chores….."

Still looking quite apprehensive, the girl nodded, gripping the arms of her chair rather tightly as he slipped past towards the kitchen to drop off the dishes.  It wasn't until his hand was actually on the door-knob that her small voice floated back to him.  "Yamino-kun?  …..I've decided; I want—I want to stay.  I don't want to stop coming here—but I, I want to—"

"—to understand; I know."  He looked back at her, smiling a little in spite of himself; sometimes she really wasn't so dim at all.  "Wanting to understand… that's the first step towards changing.  Remember what I said earlier?"

She almost smiled as well.  "Um… that….. no-one has to stay the way they are?"

No, not nearly as dim as one might think.  "That's it.  Not me, not Niisan, not you… not Loki-sama.  Especially not Loki-sama."  And still smiling, he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and turned away towards the morning.

Behind him he could hear his brother's determined barks, accompanied by the footfalls of two very reluctant small feet and the occasional enthusiastic "PunYAAAANNN!!!"; not even Loki-sama could resist Fenrir, not when he was in one of his moods.  Bemusedly wondering how long it would take Loki-sama (and Odin AllFather, for that matter) to realize that the Trickster God now had an active, working temple and priestess, Yamino slipped out the front door to rather hurriedly finish sweeping the walk.  But, he reminded himself as he took up his broom again (ignoring the low-voiced conversation and occasional barks inside the house with a lighter heart than before), he had to get done quickly; there were quite a lot of mail-orders to be placed that morning…..

*Let's see…….  The slippers, that rice-cooker, perhaps some really *fresh* snails so I could try that teriyaki recipe again, I'm SURE I can get it right this time… and that Flea-Be-Gone rinse for Niisan, and the cedar-shavings-stuffed doggy-bed for his birthday next week….. and there's that special 5-in-One-Uses push-broom I wanted….. oh, and that refillable water-dish….. a new bathrobe for Loki-sama, the old one's getting rather tatty….. and that Grow Your Own Shitaki Mushrooms kit I saw….. and a new bathrobe for ME, too… and…..

He rather figured he had earned them.

Whistling, Yamino swept dust along the flagstones with cheerful concentration; behind him his shadow lay across the walk, long and serpentine and content.

**********************************************************************************************************************

Ysabet's Notes:  Again, thanks to Icka for letting me write this!  Hope it was okay; it could DEFINITELY go further from here, I think.  And by the way, if anybody ever gets the chance, *try* some Peach Melba; it's really, really good.  **laughs**