Reuniting With a Dragon Tattoo

“So, this is our last stop before the capital?” Mitsu asked. He swiveled his head back and forth curiously, intrigued to finally get the opportunity to see what an actual town in Ferris was like.

“Yes,” Amber said. “But I need to warn you—Lovey is dangerous, so don’t leave my side no matter what while we’re here.”

Mitsu frowned at her words. The village didn’t seem dangerous…at least on the surface. Would there be so many people willing to roam the streets, even during the day, like they were now? He wasn’t sure.

As Amber drove the wagon through the dirt streets, kicking up plumes of dust as they went, he noticed how the houses and shops seemed almost new, all somehow managing a fresh coat of paint around the same time. 

Also, despite not having a properly paved road, the village square was still lively as ever, with bands of musicians adding their flavor and delicious sound to an otherwise rather colorless town.

So, with all that seen and heard, Mitsu didn’t quite understand why Amber had called Lovey a dangerous place—but it was peculiar, nonetheless. Especially once he looked a little bit closer at the people.

“…Why is everyone wearing bear ears?” Mitsu asked. “Is there some kind of event going on?”

Amber sent him a confused glance. “Uh, not that I know of. But what do you mean by ‘wearing’ bear ears?”

“Well, they can’t be real, right? Is it part of the fashion here?”

“No, that’s how Ike people are born—I’ve actually never met someone from Lovey without bear ears.”

As Mitsu observed the people with a similar intensity to watching cookies bake in an oven, he began noticing things he’d previously overlooked—like how their ears twitched when they were listening for something distant or flattened when dealing with something sad or unpleasant. 

His back hit the back of the wagon with a soft thud at such a revelation, and he couldn’t help but laugh. “Of course. Bear people in the land of bees. I should have known.”

Amber grabbed him by the arm and pulled him close. “Tone it down,” she hissed. “It won’t be good if they think you’re laughing at them.”

Mitsu cleared his throat and straightened. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to—“

“You don’t have to apologize,” she said, voice softening. “I know you didn’t mean anything by it.” She made the briefest of eye contact with a pair of Ike people, and they scowled and looked away. “The Ike are looked down on by a lot of people in Ferris, so they’re sensitive to ridicule. There’s a lot of resentment both ways.”

“Why would—"

Mitsu’s investigative questioning faltered, and his heartbeat quickened.

There was someone in the crowd distinctly different from the rest. He was tall. Broadly built, with shoulders that stretched his thin black shirt tightly. His ears were human, and he sported a short brown cut of hair, but none of that said more about who he was than the black dragon tattoo on his neck.

Ren.

Mitsu didn’t even think as he jumped from the wagon, ignoring Amber as she cried his name behind him. He swam through the crowd of people with the same desperation as someone fighting a rip tide. “REN!” Mitsu shouted. “REN!”

The man—his friend, he just knew—turned, and as soon as their eyes met, he was shoving his way through the crowd too. Someone seemed to be calling after him, but he didn’t pay it any mind either.

 After squeezing past a particularly portly bear couple and a group of young children, for the first time since leaving Earth, they were finally face-to-face. 

Mitsu threw his arms around him—and Ren reciprocated.  

They clapped each other on the back like the old friends they were, and Mitsu found such inexplicable relief in the gesture. 

“You crazy bastard,” Ren choked out. “How are you here?”

“So crass,” Mitsu laughed wetly. “Is that how you talk to your long-lost world-traveling best friend?”

“It is,” Ren said, “so shut up and stop whining about it.”

“Fine,” he said, his voice trembling as he gave up without a fight. “You win.”

Mitsu couldn’t express how much he had missed this—the familiarity, the rapport, the dumb smirk on his face. In a world that seemed to constantly challenge who he was, it was nice to have one person who knew him in the before.

As Ren gripped his shoulder like he was afraid he would disappear from right beneath his fingertips, Mitsu decided he probably felt the same way.

“Mitsu!”

“Ren-Ren!”

Amber was breathing heavily as she tapped Mitsu’s back as if she had been playing a particularly rough game of tag. “I t-told you not to leave my side,” she said, voice winded.

Ren grunted as a small body slammed into him from behind. A short Ike woman with purple bear ears poked her head out from behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Her expression was protective, and she didn’t hesitate to bare her fangs. “Beat it, humans,” she snarled.

Mitsu took Amber’s wrist with a bright smile. “It’s okay. He’s the friend I was telling you about!”

Ren gently unwound the woman’s arms from around his waist. There was a gentle expression on his face as he looked at her. “Don’t worry, Leila. Mitsu isn’t the fighting type. He’s never even won against me.”

“Don’t lie! There was a time!” Mitsu said, shoving a finger in his chest. “I beat you at thumb war in our senior year, remember?”

“That doesn’t sound like it counts…” Amber trailed off.

Amber caught Leila’s eye, and the Ike woman blinked slowly, recognition flitting across her face. Leila stepped out from behind Ren. “Amber?“

She waved. “I’m back,” Amber said weakly.

Leila’s ears perked up. “Great timing. I was just running out of my honey supply.” She glanced around warily, and for the first time, Mitsu was aware of the prying eyes boring into them. “Let’s continue this at my shop,” she said, tugging on Ren’s sleeve. She looked at Mitsu and offered the briefest of smiles. “I’m sure you two have a lot to catch up on.”