Etched in Bone

Messis 16

Dear Merri Lee,

The train ride from Lakeside to Bennett was equal parts exciting and frightening. Despite all of us arriving together, the conductor didn’t want to let me take a seat in the earth native car. Technically, anyone can ride in either car, but that passenger car is reserved for terra indigene and Intuits, while the other passenger car is for regular humans. From what I can tell, and from the bits I picked up from chatting with other passengers when I went to the dining car, there is no difference between the railcars themselves—the earth native symbol is a decal that can be removed and put on any car that’s available. And it’s not like a regular human can’t sit in the earth native car if the other car is full, but it’s clear that if there is any trouble of any kind, the human will be blamed in order to protect the train and the rest of the passengers. So the train’s personnel try to keep regular humans from spending much time with the Others in a confined space.

Fortunately, John Wolfgard spoke up for me, telling the conductor that we were traveling as a group to Bennett.

It was a long ride, but we swapped seats often to talk and get to know one another. We’d all seen the pictures of the dead Wolfgard piled into mounds after the attacks by the Humans First and Last movement. Even the Simple Life folk had seen a few of the pictures. And most of us had seen pictures of the mounds of humans who had been destroyed by the Others in retaliation. It would have been easier for all of us if we could believe everyone in Bennett had participated in killing the Wolves. But the innocent had been killed too, and what had killed them was out there, in the dark, waiting for us to make a mistake.

I was told that if I can’t accept that, I should ask for a ticket back to Lakeside or some other human community that’s large enough to provide a buffer from the truth—that no place on this world is free from the Others who are called Namid’s teeth and claws. Their existence is just more obvious now in a place like Bennett.

I met my boss, Sheriff Virgil Wolfgard. It’s one thing to mentally prepare yourself for harassment and bullying by your coworkers because your body doesn’t have the same equipment as theirs; it’s quite another thing to have your boss look at you like you’re an item on the menu. I guess he needed a deputy more than he needed a meal. So I have a shiny new badge and a gun. And I have a horse, which a couple of the Simple Life men helped me choose—an easygoing bay gelding with a high tolerance for human foolishness, to say nothing of putting up with a novice rider. Driving around town is discouraged, as a way to save gasoline, so I am the horse patrol within the town limits. No one has explained what I’m supposed to do if I arrest someone and have to take the person to jail. I guess I’ll find out when it happens.

On a lighter note, I’m glad I brought a couple of the Crowgard cozies you recommended. They’re great fun and nothing I would have found in a strictly human bookstore. I’m loaning them to Jesse Walker after Barb Debany has a chance to read them. I liked Barb the moment I met her, and I think we’ll be compatible housemates, especially since she’s okay with me adopting one of the young orphan dogs as long as the dog gets along with Buddy the parakeet.

I’ll write again soon.

—Jana