"Is this going to be a problem?" I hear a deep voice ask beside me.
I do not manage not to jump in response. I can't even pass it off as a twitch. "Oh, for f--"
"Are you ok?" he asks.
He's slim but has a certain stringy muscularity. He definitely pulls off the silver fox look, although I can do without the amused look.
"You surprised me," I say.
"Really? You spotted me earlier."
He was the flash of grey? Is he... Is he another one of those animals that don't stay animal?
"I wasn't expecting you to stand next to me," I say, as if that covers everything. I mean, it kind of does, right?
He hmms at me.
"If you tell anyone you made me jump, I'll kill you," I say.
He laughs. I laugh. I'm pretty sure we both know I mean it.
"You'll try," he says.
He laughs. I laugh. I'm starting to reconsider.
We turn back to the aerial combat. The pink-shirted man is now a salmon. So that particular idiot is another one of those animals. Anyway, the salmon is wriggling in the eagle's talons. I'm pretty sure it's only his weight and the ungainliness of it that's causing the bird problems, though. I can't be sure from this distance but I think the salmon is actually trying to bite the eagle. What kind of fish does that?
"Do you need a hand?" he asks.
I want to ask him why he's intent on helping me. He doesn't strike me as one of those selfless idiots who would do it for no reason, or even one of those idiots I keep running into who seem to blow through my plans like a hurricane.
"I think I should at least consider helping out, seeing as you fed me and helped me get rid of my hunter," he says.
I have no idea what he's talking about.
"I have no idea," I say. "I'm not even sure where I'm supposed to go. I'm here to ask the fish but." I shrug.
"The fish is otherwise occupied."
"Yeah."
I can hear the bird screaming at the fish. I just can't hear what it's screaming. Probably something about thinking he's better than it. I mean, it's just the way things have been going since... I'm not entirely sure. Things are getting vague from before the not-Chinese restaurant. Before that was the squirrel-man and eagle-woman. Was there something about a pool before that?
"You've wandered too far from home," says the grey man. "It tends to addle the brain in this world."
"My brain is not addled!"
He laughs. I don't laugh. I may have to reconsider.