Coyote

Chapter 6: All Aboard!

The streets of the human forest made me miss our forest. My claws were dulled by the hard, sweltering pavement. My sense of smell was assaulted by the reek of humans and their piles of garbage that they decorated the fronts of their homes with. Even worse, people greeted us as they passed us on the street, saying things like "good morning" and "how do you do?" as if they weren't all trespassers who would love to yell rude things at us if given the chance. I did my best to tune them out, showing my teeth to anyone who came too close. They shrugged and smiled as they walked away in abject fear of me and my compatriots. We would not be fooled by their performances of kindness.

Finding our way through the crowds of humans and their strange metal riding beasts was difficult. We would walk along one street lined with gray blocky dens only to turn and discover another street also lined with gray blocky dens. How anyone knew which den was theirs, I did not know. Nor did I care to know. I was just making a literary point.

"Have you been able to pick up the scent again?" I asked Kai. At the lake she had lost it. The water had eradicated the humans' scent, and we now had to do our best to find them here.

She shook her head. "I thought I found something that may have been their scent, but it turned out to be a moldy sock. It was really so similar to their scent from the forest."

"No worries," declared Eli. "We'll just have to ask around and see if anyone has seen them is all. Asher, you're charming. You go and ask that human over there, the one with long hair on one side of their head and short hair on the other. That one sitting on the bench."

This was a rare moment in which I agreed with Eli's judgment. Asher was charming. That red fur of theirs looked so soft, like a cloud, or a really soft log. If anyone could appear non-threatening, it was them.

"But what am I going to say? Eli understands the human language much better than I do; he should be the one to go and ask for assistance," said Asher, shaking their adorable little head in their nervousness.

Eli simply patted them on the back before pushing them towards the human. The human had been eating a sandwich, but they looked up as Asher approached. Asher took a deep breath, and said, "Hello. Umm...have you happened to see any humans around here lately?"

The human took a bite of their sandwich, and then spit out a glob of ham on the floor. They lowered their glasses and gazed into Asher's eyes. They said, "Yeah, I think I may have seen some humans around here."

Asher hiccupped. "Oh, wonderful. Delightful even. Would you, can you, tell me where they went?"

The human seemed to consider their sandwich for a while. They took the two slices of ham out from between the bread, and then placed them on their shoulders. They coughed wildly, and we all took a step back.

"Remember to social distance, everyone," Eli reminded us. "We don't know what sorts of diseases these humans might be carrying. There are a lot of humans who just don't believe in getting vaccinated. No wonder they die so often."

The human coughed again. They clearly wasn't long for this world. Hopefully their pack found a nice rock to hide them behind.

"Down by the train station," they said, "you'll find a train. And on that train, you'll find humans. That's where you need to go."

They borrowed a map from a passing stranger and showed us how to get to the train station. It wasn't very far from where we were. We thanked them and went on our way. The human went back to their now ham-less sandwich, trying to balance it on their nose.

"Such a kind human," said Eli. I nodded and turned back to look at the human one last time, but the bench where they had sat was empty. There wasn't much time to wonder where they had gone though – we had humans to catch.

We stormed down to the train station, raising clouds of dust in our wake. There were certainly a lot of humans there. They exited the train in droves, and lines of additional humans waited nearby. They all carried luggage with them, cluttering the space even more completely. I was almost knocked to the ground by a young child carrying a cage with an owl in it. When I turned to yell at the hooligan, they had already disappeared.

"Alright, everybody," said Eli. "Do any of you see our targets? There are certainly a lot of humans out there."

In a matter of seconds, I identified the three humans. I would never forget that horrible, poofy, green sweater. It haunted my nightmares. Mr. Sweater was waiting in line with his two buddies, fidgeting nervously. I smiled to myself. Maybe he knew his doom was coming. If we could just get on that train, that doom would be delivered soon.

"Over there," I told the others, pointing out the humans. We all laughed to ourselves and headed over to the train.

We waited in line a good distance away from Sweater and Co. It would be a shame if we were discovered before we could exact our righteous vengeance. It would be better to surprise them when they least expected it. They didn't really look towards us at all, as they were more focused on whatever was ahead of them, but we made sure to constantly keep them within our sight.

The line eventually began to move forward, and in time we found ourselves outside of the train doors. The only obstacle between us and the train was a woman with a vest and a hole puncher.

"Tickets, please," said the vested woman.

I glanced at the others. "Is that some sort of tick? I've got a few she can borrow."

Surprisingly, it was Asher who had the answer. "It's actually a piece of paper that grants one access onto the train. I forgot that we needed one."

"Tickets, please."

We were running out of time, and the vested woman, who had originally seemed rather bored, was now eyeing us suspiciously. Behind us, humans in the line were starting to get fidgety, and were trying to figure out what was causing the delay.

"What do we do, Eli?" I asked, expecting him to have some sort of answer. Smart as he is, he just shrugged.

Asher looked up at the vested woman. "Excuse me," they said to her, "but I seem to have misplaced our tickets. You see, we're not from around here. Back where we're from, you just get on a train without worrying about the ticket. So, it was a bit unusual to suddenly find that we needed a ticket. I don't even know where you'd get one."

"Foreigners, heh?" the vested woman asked.

"Yes, we're foreigners. From the foreign land of..." oh no, Asher didn't know enough about the human world to make up a place. Our lie was about to be exposed.

But then the vested woman provided an answer for us. "You Greek?"

Relief spread through me, and I could even hear the others sigh. I jumped in. "Yes! We are Greek. Absolutely.

She smiled to herself. "Knew it. My brother-in-law, Nico Lionedis is Greek, and I've never seen a hairier man. Y'all have a lot of fur on you."

"Oh, umm...thanks?"

"Tell you what," she said, glancing down the stagnant line, "y'all can just get on the train. It isn't completely booked, so you should be able to find some seats. Have a great visit here in America."

We all thanked her and quickly shuffled onto the train.