Meeting

Sam got himself cleaned up and dressed. The three men left his hotel room and rode the elevator in silence, finally reaching the ground floor. They skirted the bar and walked out into the sunshine.

Hiro led the way to Cassie's house telling Kisho and Sam about her. He rang the bell and waited. She didn't answer and he began to worry. The Mercedes was parked in front of the house. The three men walked towards that back.

Sitting at a small table situated on the patio, and staring out at the beautiful garden that adorned Cassie's back yard, Cassie and Doston were sipping iced tea and companionably talking. Doston was fearful that the evil man would return but didn't want Cassie to know it was protecting her. So they chatted about life at The Station and looked at the flowers.

Doston heard the men approach before Cassie could; its hearing was for more acute. "Someone is coming."

Cassie tensed. She didn't know if the rapist man knew where she lived or not. Doston was unsheathing its talons when Hiro came around the corner. The talons surreptitiously retracted and Cassie jumped up to greet her friend. Then she stopped as two more men followed into the yard. "Hello." She was staring at the strangers who were staring back at the creature still sitting at the table.

Hiro said, "This is Kisho, a Ninja I've known since before my days at The Station. In fact, at one point he was sent to ambush me. He is a very good Ninja, but I am a very good Samurai. We both survived the encounter. And this," pointing to Sam, "is Sam Shovel, the policeman in charge of capturing Ralph."

Then addressing the two men at his side, "Of course, you can surmise who Cassie is, since we were coming here. Doston is a Musician who helped to save her from Ralph."

"Ralph's my attacker?" asked Cassie. Doston was nodding its head behind her.

"Yes, that is the name of the man who attacked you. He murdered at least six women before coming here. Sam was on his trail but he escaped capture." Hiro filled in all the details, with Sam adding clarification when necessary. Sam never took his eyes off Doston.

Finally, when he couldn't stand it anymore, Sam asked Doston, "So what do you play? You beat Ralph off with a tuba or something?"

Doston's laugh was one of the most musical things Cassie had ever heard. "I'm from a planet whose name doesn't translate well. Your friends have decided to call it Music. Therefore I'm a Musician. But I got Ralph's attention with these." Doston again unsheathed its talons. Long, clawed, razor sharp points extended over its fingers. It was like three knives in each hand.

Sam had been perturbed by the four eyes and the beaklike feature. He had been troubled by the golden fur covering the body. But he was scared nearly senseless by the vision of those talons. "You just walked up to him and …" Sam couldn't even figure out what might have happened next.

"I swooped down on him. I fly more often than walk. It's faster."

Sam was looking a little dazed, but Kisho could stand it no longer and broke in, "You fly? In what?"

Cassie turned to Doston and said, "Perhaps a demonstration?"

Doston stood, stretched its wings, which startled both Kisho and Sam, and launched into the air. It circled the yard a couple times, landed, and the wings folded back perfectly flat and were again unseen from the front.

"Good Gawd, almighty," whispered Sam.

"By all that's sacred," intoned Kisho.

"Impressive, isn't it?" said Hiro.