The Chimera looked at me.
Its tail wiggled. Both of them, slow and deliberate.
Then it opened its mouth.
"Hi there. Me Chimera. Me like you." It tilted its head. "Me your pet."
Behind me, the tamer went very still.
"What," he said.
The Chimera settled next to my foot with the finality of something that had made a decision.
"No. No, Chimera." The tamer raised his brush. "Use Woof."
The Chimera looked at him. Then at me. Then it leaned against my knee.
The tamer lowered his brush. He stared at his Chimera, then at me, then back at his Chimera, with the expression of a man watching his career make a choice without him.
The fish, crow, and lion arrived behind me in a cluster.
"Ey man is smart," the fish said.
"He knows everything," the crow agreed.
The lion considered this with appropriate gravity. "He even knows that he doesn't know Ey."
They contemplated this together.
I looked at the tamer. "I'm sorry. I just said hi."
"To think," the tamer said slowly, "that I would lose to a nobody like you."
He reached into his coat. He produced something and held it out.
It was a pencil.
He placed it in my hand with the solemnity of a man settling a debt. I looked at it. I looked at him.
"Uh... thanks?" I said.
He stepped back. He pointed at me.
"Mark my words." His voice had taken on the quality of someone delivering a line they had been saving. "I will return. Stronger." A pause. "Ey man."
He turned and walked away down the road.
I watched him go. I looked at the pencil. I put it in my pocket because I didn't know what else to do with it.
"We go?" the Chimera said.
You're following me too?
"We go," After a long pause, I said.
...
Fesceland was loud before it was visible.
Conversations, arguments, something metal hitting something wooden at no particular rhythm. The smell arrived next — complicated, layered, mostly unidentifiable.
Then the buildings. Low, various, added on top over time by people with intentions rather than plans.
There was a gate. Two posts, a crossbar, a cat asleep on top. Nobody was manning it and it had no mechanism for closing. Anyone could come and leave as they pleased.
Meh, looks more normal than other things I've come across so far.
I walked through. The lion, fish, crow, and Chimera followed.
Nobody stopped us. A boy watched the lion pass and went back to what he was doing. A woman with a cart gave the fish a long look and moved on.
The city was full of people doing nothing that looked like work.
Men played a stone game by a wall with total commitment. Someone was painting a large bird standing on a fish on the side of a building. Two people argued with theatrical energy while a crowd watched appreciatively.
I stopped next to a man eating against a wall.
"Who runs this place?" I asked.
He thought about it. "Run? You like to run?"
"What? No. Run as in, who's in charge. Who maintains things."
"Charge? Maintain? Aha, you mean Main Tein by Hidolf Atler! I heard that it's a worthy read."
"Huh?"
"I particularly liked the part where he became the leader of germs." He ate something. "It's unfortunate that the germs lost to jams though. It looked like they were about to win as well."
"Alright, I don't know what you are saying. Genuinely."
"Oh.. don't know? You are searching for Ey, eh?"
I was trying my best to keep myself together here. What's with this flow of conversation?
"I—no, yes, I mean," I said. "Apparently."
"Figures," he said.
That's when I decided that I needed to leave before the conversation completely wrecked my brain over. Turning around, I left the man who simply shrugged before returning to his food—wait, what is he even eating?
Then the smell hit me.
Cooking oil, heat, something on a flame — coming from an open-fronted building to my left.
I looked through the entrance of the restaurant nearby.
In the kitchen, visible through the serving window, was a beetle the size of a person. Yes, a beetle the size of a person. Yes, there were four bizarre animals by my side, but a beetle? An insect, the size of a person?
Get me out of here.
Swallowing such words that threatened to spill out of my throat, I followed where my eyes guided me.
The beetle moved with the focused efficiency of a professional, shell gleaming, rolling something carefully with the attention of someone who took their work seriously.
What is it rolling even?
The chef beside it accepted the product, sliced it cleanly, laid it in oiled heat.
I then watched another beetle come out of the stall outside, holding something as it entered the restaurant. Subsequently, one person, holding his stomach, urgently rushed into the stall...
...?
My jaw dropped open in silent recognition.
Then, my mouth automatically moved,
"Just what is wrong with you people?!"
The restaurant went quiet.
Two diners looked up from their meal with mild confusion. They had been enjoying their lunch. A stranger was now shouting in the entrance.
My eyes were wet. I hadn't decided this. It had simply happened.
Nothing made sense. I liked not working. I liked the freedom from the depression. But still, this was too much.
People were eating their own shit!
The fish put a fin on my arm. "Ey man," it said quietly.
"I'm fine. I'm fine, really. I apologize for my outburst." I wiped my eyes.
"Are you—" one of the diners started.
"Searching for Ey?" the other finished.
"Apparently," I said, calming down.
They nodded with the understanding of people for whom this explained everything.
I looked at the beetle. It continued working with serene professional focus.
"Never mind," I said.
I turned away from the restaurant.
The lion watched me with solemn attention. "The search for Ey is not comfortable," it said.
"That," I said, "is the most useful thing anyone has told me since I got here."
The lion stood slightly taller.
"Ey man Ey search. Ey hard." Chimera added.
We walked on.
...
The address was in the north quarter. I found it, knocked.
The man who opened the door looked at me, the fish, the crow, the lion, and the Chimera without particular alarm.
"Cass Ration Jr. Sr.?" I said.
"Yes."
"Letter from Cast Ration." I held it out.
He took it. He looked at my entourage. "You walked from the farm."
"Three hours."
"Come in," he said. "You need to take a look at my dingalong."
There it was again, the dingalong. What even is this?
He let us sort ourselves—Chimera inside, lion by the door, fish to the basin out back, crow on its wings somewhere.
I sat down.
He settled across from me. "Dingalong. Dingalongadoo."
"...What?"
"Dingdadingdingdadingka."
I was wondering if he was trying to joke around. I looked at his face. Cass Ration Jr. Sr. was dead serious.
"Dingidigiding. Doolaaka!"
"Please, just explain."
"Pretty cool, isn't it?" He said.
"...Cool what?"
"My dingalong."
I had questions. I held it back, not wanting to drag on the conversation.
"Ey knows the answer to that." Eventually, I answered.
Silence. Cass Ration Jr. Sr. looked at me with teary eyes, as if touched.
"Thank you," he said, "I've never heard such praise."
"Uh... you're welcome?"
He stood up and left the table. He quickly returned with a kettle in his hand.
"Here, have some tea."
He poured some right on the table, yes, on the freaking table. There was no cup.
I watched flatly as the liquid spilled down from the table. Some ended up on top of my clothes. Fuck.
"Enjoy."
I blinked. I looked up at Cass Ration Jr. Sr. as if he were serious. He returned my look with a genuine smile.
"Can you..." I finally asked, "Demonstrate how to drink?"
"Of course."
Leaning down, he licked the table. Then, lifted his body back up. He gestured at the table.
I grimaced as I looked at the table. Sighing inwardly, I leaned down. Leaked the liquid on top of the table.
It tasted like concrete, ugh.
Outside, Fesceland continued. The argument in the south quarter had become a different argument. The fountain in the east quarter was dry. The beetle in the kitchen was rolling.
Fesceland really was something else.