Page 37 of Fumiko and the Finicky Nestmate
You and Jacques are our only normies
So you better come back quick
As soon as I can
Hey, I have a friend with me
Want to meet her?
Someone’s there?
Damn it, Akira
Say something sooner
And say hi
“Nonny says hi,” Akira relayed, albeit unnecessarily, since their heads were bent together.
“Which one is he?”
Scrolling back up to the selfie, he pointed to a blue-eyed teen with a thicket of straight, sandy hair. And horns. “This is Nonny. His father is from a goat clan. And the one with his head on Uncle Jackie’s shoulder is Gilen.”
A ginger-haired boy of about twelve smiled shyly up at the camera. Fumiko couldn’t decide which was more remarkable, his green-gold eyes or the faint stripes that marked his round cheeks. “Is he a tiger?”
“Half. On his mother’s side.” Akira drew her attention to another child, a little girl this time. “The one holding the baby bottle is Mei. You can kinda almost see her tail. And this is Arnaud. Up past his bedtime again, but he’s another of our French-speaking kids, so he clings to Uncle Jackie.
Fumiko was amazed. And frankly, delighted. Striped tail for Mei, whose heart-shaped face made her dark eyes huge. And a spotted tail for Arnaud, who had kitten ears. Or … cub ears? “Is Arnaud a leopard child?”
“Cheetah, actually. He came to us from Ivory Coast.”
“Came to you?” Fumiko tried to remember where Akira was from. Surely, someone had said. “Where is this place?”
“I live at Stately House most of the time. There’s a school for crossers, and we also take in mixed-species kids with nowhere else to go.”
She’d heard of it and said as much. “You know Argent Mettlebright?”
“Sure do. But he’s hyper secretive about home. So this has to stay between us, okay?”
“Zuzu and I are secrets, too,” she pointed out.
Akira beamed. “That’s part of what makes this safe. Want to send a selfie?”
As she smiled for the camera, it occurred to Fumiko that her sister was being unusually quiet. Not that Zuzu was truly absent. That’s the way she was sometimes, though. Because it gave Fumiko something to share when they came together later. Even though Zuzu always knew everything that happened under her branches.
While they’d been talking, Nonny had loaded the chat window.
You met an American girl?
Is she my age? Your age?
Does she understand you?
You have a dreadful accent
Wait, Jacques says there’s a lighthouse
Show us!
