Cloak (YA Fantasy) (16 page)

15

Food At Last

“I
can’t believe this is a hospital,” Will said. He and Rizz passed an enormous cavern with a waterfall and palm trees where brightly colored bird enchants splashed in a turquoise pool.

“It wasn’t always,” said Rizz. “St. Grimm’s was the first permanent enchant settlement in America. That’s why there are all these habitat chambers. The settlers wanted to experience their perfect environments and be safe inside a fortress at the same time. You can’t blame them. After being hunted for hundreds of years, living under a mountain sounded like a pretty good idea.”

Rizz paused in a cloister overlooking a cavern housing a redwood forest. He and Will watched tiny woodland enchants dart through the underbrush, giggling as they played a game of tag.

“This is our Plymouth Rock, the place it all started. Man, it would have been cool to see it back then. Now most of the chambers are used for therapy or spas, but a few old-timers still call them home.”

Will and Rizz came to another cloister, this one overlooking a desert full of dunes where a cluster of ancient camel enchants were playing chess near an oasis. The dry heat and blowing sand made Will want to keep moving.

In the canopy of the rainforest chamber, an orangutan enchant with a cast on her leg was doing physical therapy with a lemur-woman in nurse’s scrubs. Will and Rizz hurried past a bright cavern larger than Madison Square Garden full of the icy landscape of Antarctica. Will’s hands were numb after only a few moments in the freezing temperatures. A group of enchants with penguin feathers was having a water aerobics class in the center of a half-frozen pool.

The labyrinth of tunnels that connected the habitat chambers undulated side to side and up and down like a roller coaster in a tube. It was impossible to walk down one of the steep slopes without picking up speed and running up the wall when the tunnel rose again. Will and Rizz started competing to see who could run the curves faster.

Will thought he was holding his own until Rizz sprinted up a wall across the ceiling and down the other side, almost colliding with a geriatric chicken enchant with a walker. “Show off,” mumbled Will as he caught up to Rizz.

“Hey, I’m a ram, it’s what I do.”

At a fork in the tunnel, Rizz pointed to the right, and Will took off down a slope, hoping to get at least halfway up the wall at the bottom. At least he could give the ram a run for his money. It was his best attempt yet—at least six feet off the floor.

“Watch it!” Rizz caught Will by the wrist, just in time to save him from falling down a huge hole in the middle of the passageway. The agent swung Will to the other side and helped him climb out.

“What is
that
doing there?” breathed Will, staring down into the chasm.

“That’s just a shortcut to Radiology. But I recommend
you
use the elevators.”

“A shortcut? Who would use a shortcut like…”

He stopped midsentence when a four-legged orderly with antennae and locust wings walked out of the hole, said “Good morning,” then continued up the wall and into the opening in the ceiling.

“Like I was saying,” said Rizz, “there are shortcuts like this all over the place, so you probably want to watch your step.”

Will nodded and let Rizz take the lead.

The closer they got to the cafeteria, the more enchants they encountered who couldn’t stand Will’s gerbilly musk and weren’t afraid to show it. A pack of adolescent kangaroo enchants rough-housing in a corridor started blaming each other for the offensive smell until they realized it was Will.

The worst response came in the cafeteria. The gerbil stench cleared the dining area the moment Will arrived. A group of toucan enchants near the door held their beaks and complained, dropping their utensils and leaving their meals unfinished.

Will tried to block out the murmur of complaints following him as he took a tray and browsed the huge herbivore buffet. He grabbed a blueberry-buckwheat muffin, a packet of tater-tots, rolls, donuts, broccoli, beets, granola with little flowers in it, biscuits, cereal, and a can of orange soda.

“Hungry, kid?” Rizz smirked.

The tray bowed under the weight of Will’s food, but he kept adding to the mound, not wanting to miss anything.

There was a table with twenty kinds of lettuce, grass soup, dandelion burritos, and pinecone etouffee.

Rizz stopped at a section devoted to tofu. Will eyed the chocolate tofu éclair but had no room on his tray.

“Can I grab one of these for you?” offered Rizz.

“Thanks.” Will hoisted his tray and followed Rizz to the cash register.

“Good morning, Elsa,” Rizz greeted a portly woman with hooves, bison horns, orthopedic shoes, and a hair net. “You are looking lovely as ever.”

The cashier stared stone-faced through her horn-rimmed glasses.

“This hungry young enchant is Will Tuttle. He’s one of the doc’s guests. Just put all his meals on Noctua’s tab from now on, okay?”

The woman sniffed at Will, then grunted and wrinkled her bulbous snout. She leaned away from him and rung up the two meals.

Looking for a seat, Will was met with angry glares from enchants holding napkins over their noses.

“Let’s eat outside.” Rizz moved toward a set of broad wooden doors.

“Isn’t it kind of chilly for that?”

“Just trust me. Unless you’d rather eat in here?”

A table of large, angry caribou enchants stood up and moved Will’s direction, wielding oversized forks.

“Outside sounds good. Let’s go.” Will hurried behind Rizz. The caribou enchants kept coming. Rizz hit a button on the wall with his elbow and the heavy doors swung open. Will rushed out and was met by a warm, fresh breeze, washing him in the scent of pine trees and flowers.

It was paradise. Natural stone terraces lined the sides of an enormous horseshoe canyon. Each grass-covered balcony had a table and was connected to other balconies by narrow steps and bridges. Thirty private dining areas clung to the steep walls. Small springs flowed from the cliff face, launching into waterfalls that fell into crystal pools three hundred feet below. Will was stunned. Dark ponderosas and thick vegetation balanced above and below him on the walls, all of them reaching for the brilliant blue morning sky. If it weren’t for the pine trees and the mountain plains visible in the distance, he would have thought he was standing in a vast tropical grotto.

There was a snort behind Will and one of the caribou enchants slammed the door.

“Come on, kid.” Rizz strolled beneath a stone ledge and under a waterfall.

“It’s so warm.”

“It’s the hot springs. Feel.” Rizz reached out his cloven hand and let the water spray off the tips of his hooves.

Will did the same. It was the perfect temperature for a warm shower.

Rizz chose a secluded table on the highest cliff. There were no railings, nothing to separate them from the sheer drop to the valley below. On the other balconies, only a few tables were occupied. There was a family of goats eating with a young enchant in a wheelchair. A couple of llama enchant doctors were having coffee.

“Not too many people out here.” Will scooted his chair away from the edge.

“That’s why I like it. The height scares off the faint of heart and makes it more private. Plus, it’s hard to beat the view.” Rizz stuffed a fork full of herb-covered tofu into his cheek. He held up his hand and swallowed. “Hold on.” He produced the pack of mints and tapped it twice. “You can never be too private.” He leaned back and eyed Will’s tray. “Did you eat like this at home?”

Will grinned, picked up the muffin, and crammed it into his mouth. He closed his eyes and chewed. The buckwheat made it kind of gritty, but he didn’t care. Even grit was a new experience. All of it was amazing. Sour, sweet, bitter, salty—every taste expanded his palette. Some things like the mushrooms inside the donut didn’t appeal at all. Others, like the orange soda and the tater-tots, were beyond words.

Rizz watched Will decimate the contents of his tray. Soon nothing remained but crumbs and dishes. Will fixed his eyes on the éclair sitting on Rizz’s tray. “Go ahead. We wouldn’t want you to starve.”

Twenty seconds later the éclair was gone. Will leaned back in his seat with a look of complete satisfaction.

“I’m guessing you enjoyed it.”

To Will’s surprise, a small burp escaped his throat.

“Nice, but next time put a little more power behind it.” Rizz let loose a belch that echoed off the canyon walls.

“Wow.” Will gripped the table to steady himself.

“So you obviously like the food.” Rizz piled the remnants of the meal onto a tray. “Ready to see the rest of St. Grimm’s?”

Will’s good mood faded, and he dropped his chin.

Rizz stopped cleaning up. “Well, there’s an extreme lack of enthusiasm if I ever saw one. What? Not up for a tour?”

Will shrugged. “It’s not that, I just…”

“Just what?”

He picked at his glove. “It’s the gerbil stink. I don’t like it.”

“But I thought the smell didn’t bother you?”

“It’s not the smell, it’s the reactions.” Will gestured toward the cafeteria.

“Oh.”

Will poked at some crumbs with his fork. “I know it was for my protection when I was traveling and all, but now that I’m here, why do I keep having to hide? I just don’t like people thinking I stink.”

“Enchants, Will,” corrected Rizz.

“Huh?”

“
Enchants,
not people. There’s a difference. A big one. Your cover doesn’t just hide you, it also protects you
from
enchants.”

“But you’re an enchant, and Special Branch, and Dr. Noctua.”

“True. Although it’s not as easy for us to be around a Nep human as you might think.”

“What do you mean? Isn’t every enchant part human?”

“Yeah, but they are also part animal; and that means instincts.” Rizz sat back. “Every enchant battles his or her instincts every second of every day. When a lion enchant sees me or you, his gut tells him we’re prey—that he should lunge. But he fights it. His human side keeps him from attacking people. It’s not easy. Some of us have stronger animal traits than others; but as a society, we manage to keep it together enough to live side by side. Most of the time.”

Will thought he’d found a loophole. “But if the human part is what makes enchants not follow instincts, I should be fine without the gerbil cover, right?”

“Yeah, but you gotta realize that enchants can’t always rein in those instincts. Sometimes they’re too strong. Have there ever been times when you’ve wanted to hit somebody for being stupid, but you fought it ’cause you knew it was wrong?”

Will thought of Nurse Grundel and nodded.

“Now, try to imagine if your first instinct was to bite someone’s jugular or bash somebody in the skull—and those impulses almost block out any other thought? Couple that with speed or claws, talons or teeth, and you can see why it’s important to have natural defenses to protect yourself. For enchants, those defenses come along with the animal traits.” Rizz tapped his silver capped-horn. “Without some sort of natural security system, living in an enchant community for an extended length of time would be…ah…unhealthy.”

“But what about you and the protection team?” Will folded his arms. “Is this stupid stink keeping me safe from you guys, too?”

“Special Branch agents have to go through an intensive testing process to be able to be around Neps. It helps that me and Manning are herbivores. Flores is an insectivore, so unless you have six legs, no worries. And believe it or not, Das is the most controlled carnivore I’ve ever seen.”

Will rubbed his shoulder where he still had the bruises from when he first met Kaya. “She’s controlled?”

“For a carnie, she’s a rock. The only time she’s dangerous is if you make her mad. Her more base impulses are buried deep. But she was strong even before she joined Special Branch. What she did in the Everglades was incredible. Noctua was so impressed by her actions that he recruited her as team leader of Special Branch. But what really caught his attention was her restraint.”

“Restraint? She said she put that prisoner in the infirmary.”

“Yeah, but what she didn’t mention was that the reptilian jerk was three times her size and striking with venom. Any other agent would have ended him for what he tried to do and claimed self-defense. But she didn’t. The rest of ISPA thought her restraint was a sign of weakness. Enchant law is based on
eye for an eye, fang for a fang.
But Noctua and Special Branch didn’t see weakness. For an enchant, mercy in that situation is rare, especially for someone with her animal side.”

“Is it harder for cats or something?”

“She’s not part cat, kid. She’s part Bengal tiger. Having her as a protector is about the best you can do. She’s even better than me, and that’s saying something.” Rizz popped a piece of tofu in his mouth.

“But, if you guys are the best—” started Will.

“If?”

“Okay,
since
you’re the best, why do I have to reek?”

“Kid, you know there’s at least one hunter out there.”

Two ghostly white eyes flashed briefly in Will’s mind, and he nodded.

“I doubt if wolfy would get anywhere near St. Grimm’s, and it’s not like we’re expecting any enchants to jump you or anything. We just don’t want to take any chances until you are prepared. You’ll learn how to hold your own one of these days. But until you’re ready, you’re gonna have to stink. Sorry.”

“But how do you know when I’m ready?”

“We’ll know when you know.”

“Great.” Will frowned.

“You know. Not all enchants are bugged by your gerbil musk. It didn’t seem to bother Mars that much.”

Will shot Rizz a crusty look.

“I bet there are plenty of other enchants around here that you don’t utterly repulse.”

“Ha, ha.”

“Hey, I’m serious.” Rizz leaned closer. “But before we try to find them, why don’t you get more familiar with your new surroundings. You know, in case you run into an enchant who wants to eat you. It would be good to have an escape route.” Rizz wiped his mouth with a hoof-like thumb.