Friday
A month passes
"Ok. Carte Morta, you and Ren are going to go to the Church to help them out, they say they want to check out the top of the class. You all know where it is, correct?" Mr.Norio looks across his desk at Ren and Takeshi who sat in the chairs in front of Mr.Norio's desk.
"Yes sir. Thank you," Ren gives Mr.Norio a small smile.
"No worries, now hurry up and go. You two are supposed to be there at nine am sharp. It's 8:45. Go," he shoos the two out of his office then goes back to work.
"Wow. We're going to the Church. That's something some people only dream of," Ren nearly laughs as her and Takeshi walk down the city's streets towards the Church with Maiman trotting behind them.
"Yeah. Pretty great. I'm actually a bit nervous," Takeshi chuckles, trying to hide the lie of him being nervous as they reach the front door of the Church.
"Ready?" Ren looks at Takeshi.
"Yep," Takeshi nods then looks at the door as it opens.
"Takeshi?" May looks up a little confused then notices Ren.
"You must be Ren and Takeshi. My boss informed me you two were coming with your wolf," she stands up trying to cover up her slip up.
"Yes ma'am. And you are…. May?" Takeshi pretends to look at May's name plate on her desk.
"Oh why yes. Very glad to meet you two. Let me call my boss and she should be in soon," May sits back down and calls Ember to let her know they were there.
"You two are the top of the class students? I'm Ember Rose. Nice to meet you," Ember walks over to them after a few minutes.
"Why yes ma'am. I'm Ren and this is Takeshi. It's an honor to meet you," Ren smiles at Ember and glances at Takeshi a bit nervously.
"Well I have a fairly easy assignment for you two," Ember looks right at Ren, not looking at Takeshi at all.
"May I ask what it is?" Ren asks a bit nervously.
"I've assigned you two to run a border check. It should be easy since we already swept it with the drone in the air but we still need to double check. Most of our men and women are busy so I figured it would be easy to have you two go and do it so we can see if you guys would be considered as new recruits," Ember looks at May then back at Ren.
"Ok ma'am. We can do that," Ren nods her head.
"Good. Here is a map of the trails for you two. Just follow the trails and you'll be good. Once you're done, you'll end up back here because the trails lead back here. Be safe," Ember hands Takeshi the map then walks off.
"Let's go," Ren turns and walks off out of the building.
"Well this is going to be great," Takeshi sighs quietly and walks off after Ren with Maiman on his heels.
"Should we leave Maiman here? So we can finish quickly?" Ren looks at Takeshi as they step outside.
"I could tell her to go home," Takeshi shrugs.
"Ok can you do that?" She looks at Maiman.
"Yeah," he looks down at his wolf.
"Maiman, go home," his eyes look into the wolf's eyes. She gives a small nod and trots off.
"Anything else you need?" he looks at Ren and she shakes her head no. "Then let's go," Takeshi looks down at the map then heads off towards a trail he already knows.
They start their assignment and head up the trails until Takeshi stops in his tracks a while into the walk.
"What's wrong?" Ren looks back at him. He holds his finger to his lips, signaling for her to be quiet as he carefully walks up next to her. "Takeshi…. What's wrong?" She whispers to him and he quickly and quietly shushes her. A white horse with a white horn on top of its head walks up to them with chains around each of its ankles and its neck.
"Oh sweetheart," Takeshi lightly gasps and slowly stretches a hand out towards the horses head.
"Takeshi? Is that… Is that a, unicorn?" Ren quietly gasps and Takeshi nods his head.
"It's ok sweetie. It's ok," The unicorn looks at his hand with uncertainty. "I can help you. Let me help. Please," Takeshi looks the unicorn in the eyes. It hesitates then steps towards him a little, letting his hand touch its snout.
"Takeshi… Creatures like this can't understand us you know?" Ren looks cautiously at the unicorn.
"Watch," he sighs and slowly pulls off his book bag and the unicorn quickly steps back away from them. "Oh no sweetie! It's ok! I'm just getting something to help get the chains off. Ok?" He freezes and holds up his hands as he looks at the unicorn. It eyes the bag then looks back up at him a bit more relaxed. Takeshi looks through the bag and finds bolt cutters.
"Come here and let me help take those off," he motions at the chains on the unicorn. It carefully steps towards him, eyeing Ren with uncertainty. "There we go," he smiles as the unicorn stands in front of him.
"Now stay still so I can get these off," Takeshi starts to work on getting the chains off. He gets all of the chains off as the sun sets.
"Takeshi… We should really get back," Ren keeps her eyes on the unicorn as Takeshi puts the bolt cutters and broken chains in his bag.
"Are you joking? We have to get her to a safe place," Takeshi looks at Ren as he stands up.
"It, will be fine," Ren looks at Takeshi.
"She. Your "it" is a she. And we can't just leave her out here like this. She isn't from around here and she won't survive the night out here alone," he looks back at the unicorn.
"We're not going to bring a unicorn into the city. Ms. Ember Rose would have our heads!" Ren shakes her head.
"Well I'm not leaving her here so you can go back but I'm going to stay," Takeshi carefully pets the unicorn.
"I'm not just going to leave my partner in the outskirts!" Ren nearly yells. The unicorn quickly pulls Takeshi and Ren onto its back with its teeth before it takes off running.
"What in the world? Takeshi! What's happening?" Ren gasps and holds onto the unicorns back.
"That's what!" He looks behind them at a pack of big black wolves running after them.
"C'mon girl let's go!" He looks back in front of them and positions himself so he was riding the unicorn. He carefully holds the sides of the unicorn's neck as they run through the forest.
"Take a quick right!" Takeshi tells the unicorn then pats the right side of its neck. It takes a sharp right towards a guard tower.
"Hounds!" He yells at the top of his lungs as they near the guard tower. A loud siren type sound erupts from the top of the tower as they pass it. Takeshi steers the unicorn towards the city then quickly jumps off.
"Takeshi!" Ren screams from the back of the unicorn as it races towards the town. The big black hounds surround Takeshi as he quickly stands up with a large machete in his hand. One of the hounds takes a step towards him and he quickly faces it with a growl. It stays put, not moving any closer to him but not moving back either.
"Fire!" Someone yells from the top of the guard tower and Takeshi quickly moves out of the way as bullets pierce the skin and bones of all the hounds, quickly killing them.
"God!" Takeshi grumbles as he sits next to the tower while holding his arm where blood slowly dripped down from under his hand.
"Takeshi!" Ember Rose rushes up to him after a few minutes.
"Is the unicorn ok?" He looks up at her, ignoring his bleeding arm.
"Yes. We have it in the stables…." she starts to say.
"Is Ren ok?" He interrupts her.
"A bit shaken up but ok. She's at the school," she says as a few more men rush over, picking up the dead hounds and quickly walking off.
"Ok good," he starts to stand up.
"Did you get shot?" She looks at his bleeding arm.
"No, I got cut, well, clawed. One of the hounds. It attacked me then rushed off before all the other ones got killed," he leans against the tower wall, upset.
"You know what the procedures are then. Let's go," she takes a small step back and they head back to the Church.
As they walk through the town towards the Church, Ren runs up to them.
"Takeshi!" She gasps and goes to run up to him but Ember quickly stops her as Takeshi takes a step back, still holding his arm as blood continues to slip though his fingers slowly.
"You have to stay away from him," Ember looks at Ren.
"What happened?" Ren looks at the blood on Takeshi's arm and hand.
"Ren, back up. He was clawed by one of the hounds so he needs to go to quarantine. If he makes it, he can tell you all of the details later. But, right now we need to go," Ember replies before starting to walk back to the Church with Takeshi following.
Once they reach the Church, Takeshi gets taken to a concrete room with a bath tub full of water and a towel. He sighs and pulls his clothes off and lays down in the bath, carefully rubbing the blood off of his arm and hand with a small wash cloth. A while passes and he gets out, dries off, and then pulls his clothes on.
"Ok Takeshi. Meds now," a voice says over the intercom as the door opens and a small bottle of pills slides towards him. He nods, grabs the bottle, takes the few pills that were in the bottle, and then sits against the wall, slowly falling asleep.
"Takeshi, wake up. You have to go to school some time," Ember's voice wakes him up slowly.
"I passed I'm guessing? Considering I'm still alive," he opens his eyes with a yawn and looks up at Ember.
"Yes. Now get up. You have to go to school," she sighs as he stands up.
"Ok Ember Rose, and, thank you," he smiles then leaves the Church with Maiman and his backpack.