Editing City Series:Volume6b Chapter4 (section)

===Part 5===

The land known as the Black Forest was of course black during the night.

Not just dark, but black. The sky above looked brighter.

Heidengeists and gods had once lived in that land and humans had needed to coexist with them to survive.

Paved roads now ran through that place and humans could come and go with some freedom.

Hazel was currently in the mountains a short distance from a mountain road that wound through that vast land.

Black was all she could see. The starlight from above was the only source of light.

That bluish-white starlight had to filter through the leaves overhead before it reached her, so she could only make out the faintest outlines of her surroundings.

She was lying at the base of a cedar tree.

She was in a sleeping bag, but she was not asleep.

The hard ground below her back was not helping there, but she had also napped during the day and it was too early for sleep.

“It was only 8 earlier, wasn’t it?”

“She stuck a hand out from the sleeping bag. It held the pocket watch she had borrowed from Berger.

She used her nails to open the cover and she gasped at the unexpectedly loud noise.

After a few seconds she glanced around (even though she could barely see) and sighed. Then she viewed the glow-in-the-dark clockface.

“8:10.”

…''I could have sworn I’d been here for around two hours.

The forest’s night was entirely silent.

Her sense of time was entirely thrown off. She shut the pocket watch and rolled over onto her stomach. She propped herself up on her shoulders to look around. The new pose let her see something she had not seen while on her back.

“…”

Berger was sleeping there.

He was sleeping with his back against the trunk of the tree and his arms around a raised knee. He too had a sleeping bag, but it was half unzipped and only his lower legs were inside it. That way he could take action at a moment’s notice.

He did have his black coat over his shoulders to keep him warm.

The chest of the coat looked oddly bulky because he was holding Gelegenheit. He had removed his sunglasses and the exhaustion on his face was plain to see.

She only noticed how tired he looked now that the bluish-white starlight was shining down on him.

…''He was driving all night. No, for an entire day.

He had a mission: attack a Geheimnis Agency base and sink the aerial warship under construction there.

“The AIF…the world’s first independent military force funded only by corporate sponsors.”

She knew the AIF was the Antiwar Independent Force, a group with divisions around the world who swiftly and covertly dealt with any problems that might lead to international conflict.

They were still short on money and personnel. People she assumed were with the AIF often came to meet her father. Most of them were former German citizens and some had been women. She had caught bits and pieces of conversation when serving them their tea.

The things she heard there never turned up in the newspapers or on the radio.

“…”

She thought back to the Sylphide Incident from two years ago.

That had never been revealed to the public either.

…''It took flight to fulfill the Messiah’s prophecy and it accomplished that. And yet…

She suddenly held a hand to her right eye.

“The Messiah implant was destroyed afterwards and it hasn’t recovered.”

She raised her head to look at Berger’s left arm, which was hard to make out in the blackness of the forest.

Then she heard a rustling from the foliage around her.

“…?”

Doubt filled her and then a howl erupted behind her.

“––––!!”

An animal’s extended “uh” or “oh” rang on and on toward the heavens.

It was a wolf.

A pack of them.

“Eek.”

She cried out, grabbed her left shoulder, and cowered down.

She was glad she had rolled onto her stomach. As a Werecat, lying on her back before an enemy was a sign of submission and helplessness.

The next howl sounded closer.

Her feline instincts feared the canine cry.

Barely a moment later, she heard another animal cry, but from a different location.

They howled.

They roared.

They growled.

The many bestial noises broke the Black Forest’s silence.

The howls took on a set rhythm and crashed down on her like waves.

She felt like something was about to pounce on her.

…''Wh-what is this?

She could tell her pulse was racing. A moment later, her body obeyed its instincts and began the Flektieren transformation.

“––––!?”

She knew she shouldn’t let it happen, but it was too late.

As her body’s Tons rearranged, air blew out and exploded inside her sleeping bag.

The blast of air sent her tumbling out of the sleeping bag as a kitten. Her legs dragged her somewhat torn clothes and underwear with her.

“Why?” she tried to say, but it came out as a meow.

Her choker now dangled down as a collar and she skillfully extricated herself from her own clothing before walking and tumbling some more.

She was still surrounded by the waves of howling. As a cat, her night vision had improved and she could make out a few forms moving through the surrounding forest.

“U-um, uh.”

Everything she said came out as quiet mews. The howling harmony drowned it all out.

Her fear won out over her hesitation.

She practically leaped forward as she ran toward Berger. She scrambled up his leg to his hip. She moved to the hem of the black coat draped over him and desperately rubbed her chin against his hip.

…''Wake up, wake up, wake up!

She was desperate enough to beg, but the response arrived far too leisurely for her liking.

He finally opened his eyes. Part of the way.

“!”

She called his name half in tears of joy.

That too became a meow, but he looked around with sleepy eyes.

The howls were surrounded by the forest and the mountains.

His eyes stopped on a single point.

Confused, she tilted her head and looked in that direction.

An unusually large form was in the black of the forest there.

Standing 2.5 yards tall, it was as large as bear. It stood in the bushes not 5 yards away.

She could tell it was not just a tree or a hill because of the single point of light where its face would be.

…''Is that the glint of an eye?

The only one-eyed creatures she knew of were a type of giant that had a small population in the Aerial City. One of them would have been even bigger, so this was something else.

She gasped when she saw the way the silver light gathered around the figure’s outline.

…''What is that? Fur?

She had no idea what it was, but she knew it was looking at her while the wolves howled.

“…”

Silent with fear, she nestled against Berger.

He pulled a hand out from below the black coat and held her close.

…''Oh.

As a cat, she was even softer than normal and she was pressed against his body. She was relieved to feel his warmth through the clothing. She calmed her breathing and looked up at him with her heterochromatic eyes.

He turned his sleepy eyes toward the figure standing in the forest.

His lips slowly moved.

“Quiet those things down, idiot.”

It sounded like a casual comment, but his voice rang clear through all the howling.

“…”

The figure in front of them smiled. Or so it seemed.

No, she had seen the Ton tempo of a small smile spill out from the figure.

“!?”

By the time she wondered what that was about, it was too late.

The figure was gone. It had leaped away. And…

“…?”

The wolf howling also vanished. All she could hear was a rustling of the underbrush, branches snapping underfoot, and dozens of padding feet, all growing more distant by the moment. She looked around as it faded away until it was gone.

…''What was that?

No one could answer her question, but she heard Berger speaking while half asleep.

“C’mon…how many times do I have to tell you not to wake me up?”

She tilted her head in his arm.

“He’s never told me that.”

Her voice only came out as a small mew, so he did not respond.

Instead, he pinched her behind the neck and lifted her up.

She considered struggling, but his grip was weak and she could tell he was still half asleep. If she struggled, she would slip from his grasp and fall.

She silently let him take over.

He roughly pulled aside the black coat and held her to his chest with his right hand.

Then he pulled the sleeping bag up over him with his mechanical left hand. He zipped it up to his chest and lay on his back. Only her head stuck out from the sleeping bag.

She looked up to see his face there.

“…”

He was already falling asleep, so she sighed while viewing his stubbly face. She adjusted her position in his hand, getting herself to lie on her stomach while pressed against his chest.

Then her front right paw caught on something with a metallic clink.

“?”

She saw a woman’s pendant next to her face with the locket portion sitting open.

…''That’s the red jewel pendant he always wears.

“I shouldn’t look inside.”

She reached out her front right paw to close the pendant, but she could not get her claws on it well enough with just one paw and the pendant rolled.

The stars illuminated the inside of the pendant, giving her the view she had been trying to avoid.

She saw the single photograph contained within. It was an old scrap from a larger photo.

…''That’s a lot like Marsch Gant’s photo I saw in the Sylphide.

There were clear differences, however. The background was Tempelhof Air Base, just like the one in the Sylphide, but the people in the photo were different.

One was a black-haired young man and the other was a brown-haired woman.

They were both smiling.

She stopped breathing for a moment. And…

“Sorry.”

She felt guilty for having seen it, so she apologized, despite how meaningless it was.

Then she more calmly reached out her front paw and shut the pendant.

The process allowed more light in, giving her a better look at the photo.

The woman’s narrow eyes were bent in a smile, but they were clearly cat eyes. She was a Werecat.

Hazel slowly shut the pendant while her eyes met with another member of her species.

“Oh.”

She sighed.

…''Is that why it never gets to him? He’s done this before.

“Dealt with a girl like me, I mean.”

She shut her eyes while deciding to never tell anyone what she had seen.

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