Beasts Like Us

Chapter 1-2

Dazi dodged out of the way as someone dressed all in black with fuzzy slippers ran past him. Nearly every fake-skin he had encountered so far was bizarre. They made odd noises at each other, hugged like characters one might see on a show for toddlers, and some of the costumes were downright baffling. This one hadn’t been in a full costume, as Dazi had assumed everyone would be, but it wasn’t his appearance that made Dazi do a double take, it was his scent.

“Do you guys smell that?” He sniffed, turning his head to follow the scent. “It smells…odd…”

“They all smell odd,” Kesi said, rolling her eyes. “It reeks of sweat and faux fur in here.”

That wasn’t what Dazi meant. Everyone else smelled positively dull compared to this. Dazi knew the scent of every member of their tribe, and this was closer to their scent than anything else, but it was different in a way Dazi couldn’t explain. There couldn’t be other skin-walkers here. As far as he knew, their tribe was the only one of its kind.

The Mukua’poan had kept their secret for generations. All its members were bound by centuries-old laws. Even so, Outsiders could be particularly nosy, and there had been several occasions when the tribe’s shamans had to step in and deal with people who learned too much. However, this convention had had the Mukua’poan on edge since it began. Nothing had happened so far, but Dazi and his friends didn’t want to wait and find out the fake-skins’ intentions when it was too late.

Kesi had the sharpest nose, though Dazi’s sense of smell was nearly as sharp as his eyes. Only Kesi’s younger brother, Tommo, had better eyesight, which he used to scour the hall. “None of them appear armed,” he said. “That is, unless you count a few fake swords and wizard staffs.”

Kuhma snorted. “All for show. These fake-skins couldn’t cast a spell if you crammed Nattusu’s entire storage of herbs down their throat and set them on fire.” He rubbed at his ears. “I wish I knew which ones are making the squeaky noises. It’s getting on my nerves.”

The same could be said for the itchy hat Dazi had on. He was wearing the same fake wolf ears as Kesi, since they couldn’t find anything that accurately resembled his mountain lion ears and they were the closest thing they had to coyote accessories. Kuhma had been lucky that the vendor had a headband with full antlers and buck ears, but Tommo had only his lucky feather talisman, since they couldn’t find anything related to eagles at that booth, and they weren’t comfortable venturing farther in to the hall. All four of them were also hesitant to purchase things they would only wear once, but they thought such apparel would be necessary to blend in with the fake-skins. However, if there were other true skin-walkers amidst these pretenders, Dazi wanted to meet them.

“I suppose we should attend a panel or something,” Kuhma said, looking over the booklet they received at registration. “This thing reads like a class list for an online arts college: drawing classes, writing classes, animation classes, costume-making classes, it’s basically an arts-and-crafts festival where everyone dresses like animals.”

Tommo peered around Kuhma’s arm. “Looks like the next one is a drawing class in Conference Room 2E-1.” He craned his neck and narrowed his eyes. “Down at the other end of the hall. Looks like there’s already a line outside the door.”

Dazi sniffed the air again. From what he could tell that was where the other skin-walker’s trail led. “Let’s go to that one,” he said. “Doesn’t make much difference, I suppose, but that one’s close and starts soon.”

“Yeah, it’s either that, a fanfic writing class, or a Best of My Little Pony showing upstairs,” Kuhma said.

“Drawing class it is, then,” said Kesi.

The four of them made their way down the hall. Dazi took the lead. The scent trail was getting stronger, and he wondered if the man in black was at its end.