Light flickered through the train windows. Tall white buildings dripping with blue and pink flora blocked the Yidarian suns as the sky train flew through the Io Ward. Hadassah Graydon gripped the handle of her purse tight as she watched the sprawling surface city pass by.

“This stop is: The LeX University Scholar Center. This stop is: The LeX University Scholar Center,” said a soft voice through the micro-speaker implants in Dassah’s ears. “Please exit here for the LeX University Scholar Center and Cultural Exchange Buildings. The next stop is: Tranquil Peace Terrace. Thank you for using the Idela Iceberg Fleet Sky Train System.” Dassah puffed out her cheeks as she stared at the map above the doors, reading the names of the stops.

She swung back against the side railing as people crowded around the doors. Instinct urged her to line up with them, but she wedged herself as far to the side as she could so as not to get drawn into the flow of people. Her time at the Scholar Center was over, and while the excitement that she’d first felt when she had landed on Yidar six months ago had dissipated over time, she had something very different to look forward to now.

The train came to a stop. People shuffled off, and people shuffled on.

“The next stop is: Tranquil Peace Terrace. Please stay clear of the doors,” came the soft voice again, before the train made a loud BRRR sound.

Trying to stave off the tremors of excitement, Dassah squeezed the handles of her purse again. Only a few more stops and she would be on her way to her new official apartment in the Varier Corporation Complex. Tomorrow, she would start her new job as a quality assurance tester in their game development department.

Off to her right, Dassah noticed that a little deep-copper-colored garule child was watching her with great interest. A girl, she guessed. Aside from color, looking at the tails was the easiest way to guess a garule’s gender. Males were brightly colored, with short tails that had elegant plumage to rival even the most handsome of peacocks. Females, however, had long, serpentine tails that were made of pure muscle and had a snake-like vertebral structure.

The child squirmed in her seat, twisting against a large, muscular garule of similar colors whom Dassah assumed was her mother.

Twitching, Dassah tried to ignore them, but her mind fixed on the image of the little girl’s curious eyes watching her, just at the edge of her vision. The child clung to a chicken-like doll by the neck, squeezing and pulling at it as she tilted and stretched her own neck to keep Dassah in sight.

It wasn’t the first time that Dassah had seen the child. She’d shared the train car with her almost every day. Sometimes she was with her mother, and sometimes she was with a smaller, brighter-colored one that Dassah — not being an expert on the garule — assumed was the father. But always, there was the little girl. Dassah met the child’s eyes and managed a slight smile that earned her a toothy grin. She wasn’t sure why the little feathered creature found her so interesting, but the scowl the mother gave her as she pulled her child closer to her side made Dassah break out into a cold sweat.

It wasn’t anything personal. The child and her family had done nothing wrong. Aside from the occasional meeting of the eyes, she had hardly interacted with them.

But they were garule.

Ignoring it was the best option. They always got off at the Tranquil Peak Terrace stop, regardless of who the child was with so she wouldn’t have to worry about them much longer.

The mother noticed Dassah staring, and gave her another sharp, narrow glare. Her powerful tail wrapped protectively around herself and her child.

The train began to slow, and the pair got up to stand by the door. The child’s arms and tail swung around wildly, and her less-than-thrilled mother tried to pull her back into order. With a loud chime signaling their arrival, the doors slid open. Everyone began to shuffle through, and they stepped off to the platform outside.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Dassah looked down the aisle, only to see that the little girl’s chicken doll was left behind, abandoned on the floor. A few passengers started entering and finding seats for themselves.

“Ah—” Dassah started, reaching out towards the doll as a jikak stepped on it. The pig-faced-like man looked down but merely twitched his flat nose with disinterest.

Just outside the car, a screech pulled Dassah’s attention back to the little girl on the platform. She saw her pulling on her mother’s hand, reaching back towards the car. Dassah was too far for her translator to pick anything up, but she understood the look in the child’s eyes. Far from the aggression and anger from Dassah’s memories, the child was scared; distraught over having dropped her doll.

Dassah looked back at the doll. Was there a way for her to get it to the small creature? Despite every instinct telling her to ignore it, she knelt and picked it up. She brushed the dirt off. The door began to BRRR again, alerting those around it that it was about to close. Mouth dry, Dassah lifted her gaze to meet that of the little girl.

Hardly thinking, Dassah slammed her hand on the door sensor — but when the mother dropped to all fours and began to shout, Dassah’s mind went blank.

Her chest grew heavy as her heart began to pound. Thump, thump, thump. The deep, deafening sound echoed through the whole of her body. Her vision glazed over and started fading to black. Images and sounds. Violence and screams. Claws. Teeth. Her emotions whirled. She drowned in an ocean of thoughts.

She shook her head. Breathing slowly, deeply, Dassah worked to shove it all back into the pit of her stomach.

“I’ll take it,” a gravelly voice said. It was a nice voice. Calm. Deep. It gave her mind a light to swim up to, and when she felt a light tug on the doll, it was as if someone was drawing her up out of the depths. Breaking out into a cold sweat, Dassah looked up to see a gray-colored garule woman with golden eyes standing before her. The doll slipped from her hand. “Hold the door for me, please.”

This new garule walked over to the pair and held the doll out for the girl. She squealed with glee and went to grab it, but her mother grabbed the doll with a threatening hiss. The aggressive lunge sent Dassah into yet another dizzy haze which left her gripping the door, more to keep herself upright than to keep the door open for the helpful garule. She, however, seemed to ignore the apparent hostility and hopped back into the train car, unfazed.

“Thanks,” the garule woman said and leaned back on the rail opposite of Dassah. Dassah stared. The garule raised a brow at her before leaning over and saying, “You can let the door go now? You alright?” She tapped the arm that held the door lightly, sending Dassah jerking back into the bars.

The garule threw her hands up. “Sorry.”

The monorail jerked back into like, and the soft voice in her ear said: “The next stop is: Varier Science Center. Please stay clear of the doors.”

BRRR.

The door closed.

Shock wearing off, Dassah shook her head in a short, jerky motion, attempting to regain her composure. “Ah... I should th-thank you. Thank you f-for delivering... that.”

She wished she could bring herself to look into the woman’s eyes to know if she was at all convincing, but the best that she could manage was to look at their reflections in the window.

At best, the woman looked confused, but she shrugged and leaned back against the rail. Calming down, Dassah realized that the gray garule was also a regular on the train.

Pushing her loose brown hair behind her ear, Dassah asked, “Y-you, an exchange student?”

“Researcher,” the garule answered. The surprise she felt must have been evident in Dassah’s eyes as the woman snickered. “What? Not everyone in the ‘Bergs is a student, you know. Are you?”

“I-I just didn't expect that—”

“—A garule could be a scientist?”

Dassah gaped as the gray garule narrowed her eyes with a widening grin. “Th-That's not—” she tried to start, but bit her tongue and looked to the ground. “Sorry.”

To her surprise, the woman laughed.

“Well, at least you're willing to admit it,” she said. “Can’t hate that, I suppose.”

“Do you get that a lot?”

“Often enough. And if it’s not that, it’s something else.”

“Like?”

“Mmm,” she started to answer, tilting her long face. Her eyes fell on the badge that hung loosely around Dassah’s neck. Nodding to it, she said, “Stay here for a few more months, and I'm sure you’ll figure that out all on your own.”

“Oh.”

Silence fell.

“This stop is: Varier Science Center. Please exit here for the Varier Science Center and Varier Research Buildings. At this station, you can transfer to the Blue Line. The next stop is: Varier Square. Thank you for using the Idela Iceberg Fleet Sky Train System.”

The train slowed and came to a stop. The gray garule leaned further out of the way to let people exit and enter.

Dassah looked between her and the platform and said, “Isn’t this your stop?”

“Not at this time,” she said. It seemed like she was going to leave it at that, but as the car started moving again, her golden eyes slid back to Dassah’s with a grin. “Why? Want me gone?”

“The next stop is: Varier Square. Varier Square. Thank you for using the Idela Iceberg Sky Train System.”

“T-That's not...”

“It is,” the woman said in a very matter-of-fact tone that made Dassah’s heart plummet. “I recommend you get better at masking it. I’m just screwing with you, but some people might take it personally.”

“I... Sorry.”

“Stop that.”

“What?”

“Apologizing.”

“S—”

The garule hissed at her through her teeth. “Even if it’s sincere, an apology without an effort to improve the situation is worthless,” she said. “Once is enough. After that, you just... do better.”

How? Dassah wanted the courage to ask, rubbing the handle of her luggage. Her palms were sweating.

As a child, she’d admired the garule. Of all the aliens that had come to Earth with the valkyrians, she’d thought that they were the coolest.

Valkyrians? They looked like humans but had longer life spans, wore beautiful masks, and could do cool magic tricks. They were entertaining, but they also liked to talk about complicated and boring things that little Dassah had never understood.

Tivarys? Short and bald with bark-like skin that occasionally sprouted small flowers. They were kind of cute and could speak with plants. To young Dassah, they were a bit fairy-like and fragile.

Earar? With broad skin wings spreading out from their arms, they were the second-best. Though they were barely taller than tivarys, they could take to the sky at will.

But garule?

Tall, lean, and muscular, they were creatures full of easy, unexpected grace for something of their size. Their long legs and necks made them exceptionally tall — and they were dangerous.

The copper adult that she had seen earlier had been easily close to eight feet tall, while the gray one in front of her now was probably a little less than seven feet. They had torsos like any other humanoid, but their legs were like a cat’s; they walked on the five clawed toes on their long feet, with their heels about parallel to their knees when they were relaxed. They didn’t wear shoes, so those claws — each about the length of one of her fingers — were left on display for all to see. Their hands had claws too, claws that were smaller, but sharper. The gray garule in front of her had hers filed down, but it wasn’t uncommon to see them with their claws grown out to sharp, deadly points.

As a child it had been enchanting. She had seen them as she saw lions and leopards, anacondas and komodo dragons: Beautiful. Powerful. Magical.

But everything was great on the other side of the glass. In the real world, however, when you had to bear witness to that powerful creature brutalizing people who could have been you, things change.

Thinking about it, a shiver ran down Dassah’s spine, and she shrank into the corner of the doorway.

Now, even standing still with her eyes closed, the gray garule was no different than a tiger outside its cage.

Upon closer inspection, however, this one didn't quite match the majestic image that Dassah had imagined for most of her kind. Unlike the well-groomed feathers of the average garule, this one had oily, almost matted-looking gray feathers that faded into black at the tips. The woman said she was a scientist, but scientists on Iceberg Cities were in the upper class. Surely that meant that she should have been able to take better care of herself.

“This stop is: Varier Square. Please get off here for Varier Terrace and the Elevator to the 3rd Ward of the Io Iceberg Hollow City. At this block, you can transfer to the Yellow and Green Lines. Thank you for using the Idela Iceberg Fleet Sky Train System. The next stop is: The 4th Ward Clinical Center.”

The gray garule’s eyes fluttered open. Dassah forced her attention away from the growing crowd of people at the train car door. Several of them were managing large suitcases like she was, making navigation more difficult. The garule woman stood facing the door, but she was eyeing Dassah expectantly — a look that Dassah ignored.

The doors opened, and the crowd funneled off. Just like that, the gray garule was gone as well, and Dassah breathed a sigh of relief.

“The next is: 4th Ward Clinical Center. Thank you for using the Idela Iceberg Fleet Sky Train System.”

BRRR.

At least she could take the rest of the trip in peace.

Then she jerked her head up and counted the stops on the map again.

“Oh, shit!” she exclaimed, just audible enough for everyone to hear her and her foreign curse. With a frustrated sigh, she stood in front of the door so that at least she wouldn’t miss the next stop that would allow her to turn around.