"Della, what are you doing?!"
Della sprang from the Elite Ratfolk's shadow, drove a short dagger into its skull, and twisted until its brains were pulp. Then she looked at Annan, who had cried out.
"What?"
"Nothing. I was just afraid it wasn't dead."
Annan spotted the Centurion. The Centurion saw Della and tactfully kept his distance.
Della flicked the stinking brain matter from her dagger and gave Annan a troubled look. "How were you able to summon me?"
She had spent the whole night running to the forests of the Snow Mountains hundreds of miles away, burying every trace of her passage. She had barely curled up in a tree hollow where even the Ratfolk couldn't find her, without a chance to rest, when Annan's Summoning Spell dragged her back to Breeze City.
"Sorcerers are full of surprises."
An awkward silence fell. Annan and Della had spent nearly every hour together, but they had rarely spoken. Only then did Annan notice the long, thin, hairless tail hanging behind her. "Can I touch it?"
Della silently caught her tail and held it out to Annan. It trembled as he touched it, stroked it, then took it in his hand.
"You look like you want to eat me." Annan meant the kind of eating the Gillman family practiced.
"A Ratfolk's tail is a weak point." Della drew her tail back as Annan released it. Noticing furtive glances from the Street Sweepers, she wrapped it around her waist like a belt.
"You've saved me again. The Ratfolk must hate you even more than they hate me," Annan said. "Breeze City is dangerous for you. Leave before they realize what happened..."
Della looked at him with conflicted eyes. "I'm Ratfolk."
"I know."
"...Don't trust Ratfolk so easily." As if his sincerity had melted