"Excuse me. I wonder if you could help me."
The Female alligator who was manning the front-desk at the hospital looked up at the person who had just addressed her. Said person turned out to be a female poodle. The Poodle's fur was black, except for a white circle around her left eye and she was wearing a purple dress.
"Certainly" she said, "How can you be of assistance?"
"Well, you see, I just found out that a friend of mine had been in accident, while in the company of some of her other friends. They took her to a hospital, but they neglected to inform me which hospital it was. I've been visiting three hospitals already and she was not in any of them. Please, oh, please, tell me that this is the right one. If its not, I think I might cry."
To add emphasis to her words, the poodle's nose began to twitch slightly and she instinctively brought one of her paws up to the corner of her eye. She looked so despondent that the nurse c was moved to pity out of her.
"Please, don't cry" she said. "What is your friend's name and what species is she?"
"Her name is Risha, she's a lynx."
"In that case" the receptionist said, smiling, "I have good news for you: We do indeed have a patient who fits that description to a t."
"That's great" the rabbit said, excitedly, clasping her paws together. "Tell me, which room is she in?"
"Room 17. Oh, but I'm afraid visiting day is not until tomorrow. Of course, I can tell her that you stopped by."
"No, no, I'll come back tomorrow and surprise her."
"You do that. Have a good day."
"Thank you and the same to you."
The Poodle left the hospital and, as she stood on the sidewalk, pump her fist in the air. At last, she had found the right place. Now, all she had to do was finish the job and meet up with her client to get the rest of her money. Of course, she had to get inside first, but this should not prove difficult. This hospital must surely have a separate entrance, for the staff to use.
She peeked around the corner of the hospital-building: Bingo! There it was, at the end of a narrow alley. Suddenly, the door opened and a sturdy-looking brown hare, carrying a sword in his belt appeared. Her heart pounding, the poodle ducked back, cursing the ram's sudden appearance. Had he seen her?
Slowly, she once again took a peek and was relieved to see that the hare was busy emptying his bladder against the building, whistling loudly as he did, paying no attention to her.
For a moment, the poodle considered dispatching of the hare. It would be easy to sneak up on him and slit his throat while he wasn't prepared. Than again, she had not paid to take care of him and it was against her principles to kill unless there was money involved.
With cat-like thread, the poodle quickly snuck past the hare, she than carefully opened the door slightly and squeezed inside.
She came into a room in which various articles of clothing, among them several nurse's uniforms, were hanging on clothesline. Without hesitation, the poodle grabbed one of the uniforms and a few seconds later, she was walking the halls of the hospital, just one more nurse among several.
It did not take long for the poodle to locate room seventeen. She noticed, somewhat surprised, that a chair had been placed by the door. She touched the seat of the chair, it was warm. Whoever had been occupying it could not have gone far.
I had better hurry up, the poodle thought. Who knows when they might come back?
Wasting no time, she pushed the door open.
The First thing the poodle noticed, as she stepped into room 17, was that the curtains surrounding the hospital-bed were closed.Listening, she could hear the sound of someone snoring, coming from behind the curtain.
Good, she thought. This will make my job even easier.
A chair stood in a corner and the poodle wasted no time in positioning it under the door-handle, blocking access to the room from the outside. Having done this, she took out a long dagger and with that in her paw, she crept up to the hospital-bed, pulled aside the curtains and promptly froze in shock:
There was her intended target, very much awake and seated on the bed, holding a short-sword, whose point the poodle found herself staring down at.
"I suggest you put that tooth-pick down" Risha said. She was smiling as she uttered those words, but the tone of her voice made it clear to the rabbit what would happen if she did not comply.
Realizing that she had no other choice, the rabbit, furious at herself for having been taken by surprise by someone she had thought would be easy prey, opened her paw and let the the dagger fall to the floor. Without taking her eyes of the rabbit, Risha bent down and picked it up.
"Aside from the doctor, I have two nurses attending to me" Risha said, explaining how she had managed to take the poodle by surprise. "I recognize their footsteps, so I knew you were not one of them. Besides, the nurses always announce themselves before entering a patient's room."
"Is that so? I'll be sure to remember that next time my profession takes me to one of these places."
"Bold of you to assume there will be a next time. By the way, one of my colleagues is supposed to be on guard outside, how did you get past him?"
"I did not. There was no-one there."
A frown passed over Risha's features, but did not take up residence and moved on as soon as it had arrived.
"I see" she said, nodding to herself. "Now, take off your clothes."
"What?"
"You heard me: Take them off."
To add emphasis to her words, Risha pricked the rabbit's throat with the tip of her own dagger. A scarlet drop appeared. Raging inwardly, the rabbit obeyed and was soon wearing nothing but a frown. Risha than ordered her to hand over the nurse's uniform, which she proceeded to go through meticulously in search of hidden weapons. In one of the sleeves, she found a garrot-wire, which she put aside, while shaking her head in a mock-disapproving way.
"So tell me" she said, "what's your name?"
The Poodle was so surprised by this question that it took a few seconds before it registered with her.
"V-Vidia" she stuttered, stumbling on the words.
"That's a pretty name. I'm Risha, but I have a feeling that you already knew that, am I right?"
"Yes, my client told me your name. Um, could I by any chance have my clothes back? Please?"
"Your clothes? You mean these? But these belong to the hospital and therefore are not your clothes, correct? Besides" she added, toying with the confiscated dagger, "I rather enjoy looking at you."
Vidia's eyes narrowed slightly, so the lynx was one of those people? Perhaps she could pull this job of after all.
"Well" she said, putting her arms behind her neck, so that her small bust stood out. "Perhaps you would like to do something more than look?"
"Sorry" Risha said, pointing the dagger at Vidia. "I'm afraid that I'm neither horny nor stupid enough to let you get closer to me than you already are."
Just then, there were a series of rapid knocks on the door, followed by an unmistakably masculine voice calling out:
"Hey! Why doesn't the door open? Answer me, Risha! What's going on in there?"
"Just a second!" Risha called back. "That would be my so-called body guard" she explained. "Let him in."
"Like this?" Vidia asked aghast, making a sweeping gesture indicating her exposed forms.
"Like that" Risha said. "Come on, shake that tail" she urged, giving the canine-girl's backside a slap with her short-sword.
Rubbing the spot where the sword had struck, Vidia, muttering curse-words under her breath, went and removed the chair. The Door opened and the hare from the alley became visible. Evidently, he had not expected to be greeted by the sight of a nude woman when coming to check up on his female colleague, but he quickly found his bearings and stepped inside.
"My apologies" he said. "I was not aware you had company. Do you want me to leave so that you can...?"
"She's not a visitor" Risha cut him off. "She was sent her to kill me, but failed and where were you, exactly?"
"I...I had to take a piss. I rushed to the indoor-privies, but all the stalls were occupied, so I went outside into an alley. I rushed back here as quickly as I could, barely gave myself time to give my dick a good shake."
This was not true, after he had finished answering the call of nature, the hare decided to take advantage of being outside by indulging in his tobacco-habit. However, he saw no need to tell Risha that.
"Anyway", he continued, "thing turned out well, didn't they?"
"No thanks to you", the lynx replied acidly. "Take off your shirt and give it to the prisoner."
The Hare removed his shirt and handed it to Vidia, who put it on. It ended just above her knees.
"Now take her out of here."
"You want me to deliver her to the local authorities?"
"No, take her to where Kyros and the others are. Tell Kyros that I want him to keep her under guard. I have plans for her."
"Oh? What plans are those?" As he asked this question, the hare leered at Vidia while stroking his chin.
"Just get her out of here" Risha said, her tone of voice making it clear that she was really not in the mood. "Do you think you can manage that?"
"Yeah, yeah" the hare grumbled. "Uppity bitch" he muttered, sotto voce.
He turned to Vidia.
"Come on, you!" He ordered, giving the failed assassin a light push, which caused her to stumble. "Move it, and no funny business. Remember that I am armed and you are not."
Once she was alone, the calm confidence Risha had displayed until now vanished and her limbs began to tremble. What if, as she had pointed out, Vidia had arrived a bit earlier? If so, her story would probably have ended here. In her imagination, the lynx pictured the shock of the nurse that would have found her corpse, followed by her brother's sorrow when the horrible news was delivered to him. No! She did not want to think of something like that and what was the point in doing so, anyway, when things had turned out well?
Deciding that she needed to take her mind off of things, Risha put the short-sword away and reached for the thin volume that Leorin had given to her during his last visit and opened it.
*****
For many years, whenever Zevedo felt vexed by something, it had been his habit to shut himself in his basement, which served as a laboratory. Usually, playing around with the various mixtures he had on display there and breathing in the weird-smelling fumes, had a relaxing effect on him. However, this day (the day after the events narrated above), the effect was absent, much to Zevedo's frustration.
The Reason for this was, of course, the lack of news from Vidia. Had she finished the job? Or had something gone wrong? Zevedo was not usually one to question his judgement, but he was beginning to wonder if he had done the right thing hiring the poodle.
Just then, there was a knock on the basement-door and the next moment, a squat green-skinned figure appeared at the top of the stairs.
"My apologies for disturbing you, Mis.." the goblin began, in a shreeky voice, then corrected himself: "Master, but a boy just came by with this message. He said that a poodle had paid him to deliver it."
Zevedo's (or more precisely, Merees') heart began to beat faster.
"Give it here" he said eagerly. "Hurry!"
Knowing that keeping his master waiting was never a wise thing to do, the goblin negotiated the steps as quickly as his short legs could manage. Having done this, he held out the envelope to Zevedo who snatched it out of his hand.
Taking no further notice of his servant, Zevedo opened the envelope and took out the letter. It read as follows:
Target has been located and dealt with. Meet me by the cherry-trees in the park, at midnight, with the money.
- V
PS: As per agreement, I have included, with the letter, proof that the deed has been done.
Well, well, Zevedo thought. Let us take a look at this proof.
He reached into his envelope and fished out a few strands of hair. Zevedo recognized them immediately: They were hairs from a lynx's ear-tufts.
At midnight by the cherry-trees, is it? I'll be there.
Zevedo held up the letter and exhaled, turning it into ash.
