Passengers

by Aris Merquoni

o/~ Deny the passenger / Who wanna get on / Deny the passenger / Who wanna get on / Deny the passenger / Who wanna get on / Wanna get on / (Wanna get on) / He wanna get on / (He wanna get on) / Wanna get on / (Wanna get on) / He wanna get on / (He wanna get on) o/~

- Passengers, Elton John

We hiked for hours, but that's kind of a given. The main part of it I spent lip-synching to various songs piped through an earphone bead from my backpack. I don't know when I passed over to singing; all I know is that midway through about the fifth verse of the extended version of American Pie(It's about half an hour long) Selvane turned to me with a rather nasty glare- if he could bottle it, he'd make a fortune on insecticide.

I clamped my jaw shut and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry." I had all of my other senses on alert for danger, but so far nothing had shown. Nothing did, actually, all the way to the city in the distance.

We trudged right up the the gates, stopped, looked up, and stared. "Firefoot's fe'thra," I murmured. The city wasn't as huge as some I had seen but it was gargantuan. It wasn't as pretty but it was like a diamond in the desert. It wasn't- enh, I'll give it a rest. Towering skyscrapers, huge walls... it was like Techside of the Road, like Seth-tarvana, like Quarro, like any of the other places I had seen that were centers of commerce.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a break in the gate near us, so we had to trudge along until we hit the main road. Main it was about the size that you'd get by placing 280 and 680 side-by-side and it had the rush-hour traffic, too. Huge critters, sleek cars, pieces of junk, starfuries, unicorns, you name it, it was in the crowd. I even caught a Th-varian chatting with a gate guard that looked somewhat human- until you saw the wings and forked tongue.

Inside... well, take any bazaar you've seen; any art and wine festival will do. Imagine it tripled. Then squared. Then cubed. Then stacked on verticals like in The Fifth Element. Then make the merchandise all ultra high-tech or high-magic, and you might get a glimpse of the idea of what Chi-lin looked somewhat like, only Chi-lin was more. Imagine that, if you will.

The soldiers at the gate were checking ID, and from the looks on the faces of some of the ones getting led away, they didn't like it when you didn't have a badge. I had my DT license somewhere in my backpack- but that left out Selvane.

I pulled him to the gate by the side of the seething throng, out of the way of traffic. "I don't see an easy way in, unless you call scaling stainless steel or fighting off a phalanx of guards easy. I don't. Suggestions?"

He looked like he was about to say something, then looked past my shoulder. I whirled, just in time for him to push past me at a run. "Wait!" I cried, then grimaced as my yell got lost in the crowd noise. *Virivor Whitewind's honor! Was that Rusky smoking some of the local vegetation when I wasn't watching?* I growled and took after him.

He was making holes and accidents in the crowd. I called out in various languages, trying to soothe hurt feelings, finally using Esperanto as one that people seemed to recognize. I pushed through a crowd of Kzinti- *Kzinti?!* and ran smack into the Th-varian I had seen earlier. She laughed and told me to do something unsavory with my tail.

"I would if I had one, sister," I growled in her language, which brought her up short. "But Tangaloor himself decided to play a prank on me. Ask Tanasha DeLares if you don't believe me." I vaulted over her shoulder as she stared at me in disbelief, still trying to make out Selvane in the crowd.

"Vladdy is gonna get it for this," I muttered, skidding to a halt at the gate. There seemed to be a fight going on...

My jaw dropped as I surveyed the scene in front of me. "He just attacked a city guard!" I gasped out in disbelief.

"Yeah, and that's gonna land him some time for sure," someone said at my back. I turned to see the Th-varain doing the equivalent of a grin. "He a friend of yours?"

I suddenly started laughing. The whole irony of it all... "Sort of," I managed to gasp out. "Aristalarus Lemalishtara Merquoni, sometimes dragon, full-time Dimension Traveller. At Firefoot's service." I managed a five-point clasp through my giggles.

"Shav'rri," she replied, "At Firefoot's service. Rva Irr'rah'thrr Tra."

"Rva Irr'rah'thrr Tra," I intoned, managing to hold down my laughter. "This is too strange."

"Agreed. I have not seen such a traffic jam since five hours ago!"

I looked back at Selvane. He was standing by- Nexx! Oh, so that was what this was about. I managed to catch my CO's eye, and she nodded at me before covering Selvane. I turned back to Shav'rri. "You going anywhere?"

"I was going to jump out of here," she said, "visit a friend of mine. Perhaps you know her- Shan'ath?"

"'Shadow?" I asked, startled. "You know White Shadow?"

"Yes, I do," she replied. "I was going to check in on her."

I grinned, making the nonthreatening handsigns in case she hadn't dealt that much with Hayumans. She had. "Tell her hi from me, will you?" I asked. "I haven't been back in too long. Have fun in New York... if that's where you're going."

"Oh, yes," she said. "But... don't you need help to get inside?"

"No, I've got it covered," I said, hoping that was true. "Want some N!!thren'das before you go?"

"Certainly," she said, and I handed over the flask. I watched in somewhat horrid fascination as she took a mouthful raw, then screwed the cap back on and handed it back. "Thank you," she said, then turned to leave with a flick of her fe'thra.

I sighed, took a sip of the stuff myself, nearly gagged on the potency, and tossed the flask into my pack. Then I turned to the guard, to see if I could get in the legal way.