Shadowville

Chapter 3: The Neighborhood

Their path wound through the neighborhood rather than heading directly to the center of things, and soon Blake was glad for it. His neighbors had gorgeous landscaping. Vaughn told him about an old lady, Anna, who tended a scattering of fruit trees, chosen so that something would be in fruit all year long. Apples and pears gleamed in the evening sunlight.

"She'll let you take some; she's always complaining about how they fruit too much for her to use up."

The neighbor next to her had stunning topiaries, with dragons leaping over the fence to the backyard. One across the street had a cascade of fiery-leaved azaleas. Vaughn informed him that they were plain green for most of the year, but in the spring when the flowers bloomed and in the fall when the colors changed it was one of his favorite arrangements. Squash vines crawled towards the street on another house's lawn, and yet another still had a massive Halloween display, with body parts poking out of the ground, ghouls and witch hats hanging from the bushes, and an archway shaped like a haunted house, complete with ghosts in every window.

"That's Brenard's. He goes all out for the holidays, but he can't take things down by himself. The HOA's going to get on his case if he doesn't hire a crew for this soon."

Blake noticed two heads poking up over his nearly-obscured gate. Just like the folks at the coffee shop, they didn't look...quite human. One had horns, and the other had rounded ears poking over his locs. Blake waved, and the figures waved back.Once Vaughn noticed where he was waving, he stiffened, the smile fleeing from his face.

"Um, there's something else I should tell you."

"Hmm? What's that?"

In the sunset lighting, Vaughn's guilty expression seemed exacerbated. "Several of the people who live there own, um...exotic pets."

"Well that's to be expected."

Growing up in the city, he didn't have any pets of his own, but he had friends with baby tigers, a backyard full of peacocks, flying squirrels, some other rodents he didn't remember the names of. One girl he remembered had cried when her father cancelled her Ranger Rick subscription because she kept wanting every animal within, even such impossible gets as yeti crabs and deep-sea tube worms.

"I mean, those two are Brenard's pets."

Blake's eyes widened. He looked back at the pair–the horned one still had an arm over the fence, a human arm with a human hand, but only the top of the other's head could be seen, betraying how far he had stretched to look over. They seemed to be in a hushed conversation.

"Are they animals?"

"That's right. We don't know what happened, but these creatures started showing up over the past few years. They make excellent pets, although those two aren't so well behaved. Brenard spoils them."

"Can we go see them?" He was almost surprised to hear himself say that, as he'd been taught not to walk on other people's lawns.

Vaughn seemed surprised too. "Sure. I like these two, even if they are rascals."

They passed the towering Halloween display and reached the fence. The points of the fence were about eye-level to Blake, and a little higher to Vaughn. The antelope–that's what Blake imagined it must be–stared down at him.

By all measures, his face was quite human-shaped, and a honey color that was just short of being a color a full human could have. Smears of black spread diagonally over each eye like a drag queen's makeup. His eyes themselves were golden, and his pupils were horizontal slits, like pools of poured chocolate.

Slowly, Blake moved his hand to the creature's head, just behind his right horn. Blonde hair not dissimilar to Vaughn's swallowed his fingertips, until he made contact with scalp, and he scratched like one would a dog.Those big golden eyes closed, and the smile on his thin lips grew wider.

"Who's your friend, Vaughn?"

Blake could hear the other creature whispering, thoroughly ruining the ethereal atmosphere that had built up. Blake looked over. Vaughn's face looked tight, his eyes narrow. He was pissed off.

The creature, however, had hiked himself back up so his arms were hooked over the fence. His ears twitched, as he was still waiting for an answer, although he was pointedly not looking at Vaughn anymore.

"I'm Blake Reeves, owner of TouchTech." He extended his hand.

"Wow! I haven't heard of that one." He took his hand and shook it like a trained businessman.

Blake was almost taken aback.

"You know our video game thing? With the screen? I think that's TouchTech," the antelope said, the first words Blake heard from him. The two sounded like high school jocks; there wasn't a thing graceful about the way they spoke.

"I don't manufacture video game consoles, actually. Your machine might have touch-screen technology, but that doesn't mean it's TouchTech. Does, uh, Bernard have a phone? If it has two letter T's on the back it's probably mine."

"Does he?"

"I'll look next time."

"So what're your names?" Blake asked.

"Leon," said the one with the round black ears. His eyes, like the barista at the coffee shop, were black on the left side and pale yellow on the right. He was in the middle of putting his foot on the fence and hefting himself over. His foot was a perfect copy of a big cat's paw, but proportional to his body.

"What are you doing?" Vaughn asked, annoyance oozing in his voice.

"I'm uncomfortable standing on my toes to talk, so I'm coming over to the other side."

"We're going to be moving on soon," he warned.

Leon perched on the fence, glaring down at the human. A long cat tail swished behind him. His only clothes were adornments, a gold band around his arm, necklace-thin gold chains around his waist and draping down his furry thighs, and a black velvet collar.

"...And I'm Cass," said the antelope. "Welcome to Shadowville."