Fun day with Ilrica (3)

As they played, a crowd began to gather on the observation deck high above them. Partly for the novelty of watching a monk scamper about in his robes. Partly for the oddity of watching Ilrica taunt and tease an opponent who clearly stood no real chance at this game.

"Eleven to zero," Ilrica cheered, hanging like a bat from one platform with her toes.

Gerald fought to catch his breath as he leaned against a stone pillar. Sweat dripping from the tip of his squared chin.

She inverted her hand and caught the ball as it fell down, then vanished. Gerald didn't even look for her. He took off running for the nearest glowing column. He jumped onto a platform, then slid down the far side of it, tapping it with his shoe.

He looked up and saw her serving from high above him. He scooted back up the platform and leapt into the air, catching a rock with one hand and hanging just in the right spot. The ball came sailing towards him and he returned.

He watched it with satisfaction as it hit her end of the table. A couple people applauded, but Ilrica was already on top of it, smacking the ball to the far end of his side of the valley before he could even drop to his feet.

The buzzer sounded game-over as he picked himself up.

"Good boy," she said, as she appeared alongside him and patting him on the head. "You actually hit it back that time."

"Quit it!" he said, swatting her hand away.

Ilrica held up her paddle to the people watching. "Thank you everybody. I hope you had as much fun watching the human get beaten as I did beating him!"

The crowd looked at each other distastefully.

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," the owner said, coming forward.

"Why?" Gerald asked suspiciously.

"The Bertulf is being too hard on the equipment," he stated, crossing his tentacles.

"No, she wasn't."

"Come on," Ilrica bade. "Let's go scare some babies."

She grabbed his wrist and they were off again.

* * *

A young mother turned a corner in the park, her stroller hovering in front of her while she gossiped to the person in the window above her.

Then she saw fangs tearing into flesh, and blood dripping down a chin.

The young mother screamed, falling backwards into the mud. She nearly knocked over her stroller as she scampered to her feet, terrified.

Ilrica laughed to herself, licking the blood from her chops.

"Filthy animal," the woman complained once she realized that Ilrica was doing nothing more than sitting on a park bench eating her dinner. She gathered up her muddy things and walked away, opening a window to call the police.

"That never gets old," Ilrica chucked as she took another bite of the brakka leg they had bought. "Prey species are such babies."

Gerald peeled his lemon and took a bite. "It's getting pretty late in the day. If you don't mind, I'd like to be off."

Ilrica took another bite and shook her head. "Date's not over yet."

"This is a date?"

"Well, sure it is. I dumped turajino on your head, humiliated you at ping-pong, and forced you to buy me dinner."

"Yes, remind me what I get out of this again?"

She gave him a knowing wink. "Your reward comes at the end. That's the best part."

"I'm not sure I'll like what that means."

"Am I giving you a choice?" she asked, slurping down her food.

"No, and the fact that you can bend time means I can't run away from you."

She patted him on the head. "I'm glad you understand."

Gerald discreetly reached up to tap his communicator and call for Trahzi, but when his finger reached it, he realized that he was now wearing a different brand.

"What the?"

Ilrica held up his old translator in her hand.

"But when did you? Oh, right."

She smiled and tucked it away into her uniform pocket.

"I guess I should have figured that you'd be harder to ditch than Zurra."

Ilrica threw her head back and laughed. "I've hunted Rixigliss over the glass plains of Pleemin. Those things can aetherically hide their very existence. If they can't lose me, you don't stand a chance."

She moved to throw away the rest of the leg.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

She sucked her teeth. "I'm done."

"Yes, but you don't throw it away." He delicately took the leg away and looked around. "Here, follow me."

He led her across the park into an alleyway. As soon as they entered it, they moved from the polished clean streets into a dingy, shadow world of grime.

"What are we doing in here?"

Gerald sniffed the air. "If you just take a minute to look around..."

They rounded a corner and found a trio of homeless people huddled around a heat lamp.

"...you find someone who needs it more than you."

Gerald greeted them in standard and placed the leg on the heat lamp. Within a couple of minutes it had cooked up nicely, and he divided the meat up amongst them.

"Thank you sonny," the woman with wood-like skin said, gobbling the meat down.

Gerald held out some to the filthiest one, his long brown beard poking out from beneath his True-Life helmet. The man pushed it away.

"Does he not want any?"

"Oh, he's just sore right now because his virtual girlfriend broke up with him," the scaly-skinned man said.

"I really don't want to talk about it," he grumbled from beneath his helmet.

Gerald scratched his neck. "How can your virtual girlfriend break up with you? She is programmed to be completely loyal to you."

"I said, I don't want to talk about it."

Ilrica picked a piece of cartilage from her teeth. "But saying you don't want to talk about it is talking about it. Ipso facto, you are talking about it."

"Wow, you were paying attention in Ms. Stubbs' class," Gerald praised.

"Nah, I just heard it in a movie once."

The man tipped up his helmet and accepted the piece of meat.

"Holy trab!" Ilrica said. "He's a human."

"Well, of course I am," he said, chewing with his rotten brown teeth.

She sniffed him just to make sure. "But you have fur on your face."

"It's called a beard."

Ilrica was impressed. "Oh, wow. Gerald, you should grow a beard like him. It would make you look so much more manly."

"He's pretty manly already," the woman said, looking over Gerald's sculpted physique.

Ilrica's tail flicked around. "How can he be manly without fur?"