“That’s quite a promise to make.” William said, his voice cracked like he hadn’t slept well, he rubbed one sleepy eye while Fauve turned her face away from her father.

It’s very strange to see a species where the younger members of the family unit harbor a strong desire to look out for the elder caregiver, and yet this seems to be the norm in a contented family unit. Fauve did not want her father to see that she’d been crying.

A note about humans crying. It is one of the single most unpleasant, ugly noises I have ever heard in all my life on any of the worlds I have traveled to. They gulp with their mouths and snot comes out their noses and they have the most piercing wail when they’re very small, and more than that they can’t even talk properly, even when they’re of age that speech is normal.

Their eyes turn red and crack like glass that is on the verge of bleeding… even happy crying is hard on the ears. From an evolutionary perspective it makes sense, their distress is unpleasant and you want to alleviate it. But knowing why it was so unpleasant doesn’t make it more pleasant, and Fauve, I guessed at least, was doing a lot of crying lately over the harassment she was receiving in her online world.

To some degree at least, I irrationally blamed myself, ‘You should have figured it wasn’t just the incident itself.’ But the rational part of my mind reminded me, ‘No, you’re an alien damnit, you came here to learn these things, if you already knew them you wouldn’t have needed to visit in the first place!’

I have to say, if I were to pick a moment where I realized I was as much test subject as observer in all this, then that was it. My reactions were so undlamisa like, consistent worry over them, my irrational protectiveness of the child who gave me head scratches… chasing that blasted tennis ball…which I wanted to do again as soon as possible…(though it would be a while yet as Fauve was uncomfortable leaving the house still), everything about this, from the beginning, had changed as much as taught me.

Perhaps that was why keeping Fauve’s secret was so important, and I said nothing despite her distress.

Instead I answered William, from within his bedroom, I could hear Michael crying, I had to wonder if Fauve still sounded like that when she was getting one vile message after another and wondering what she’d done to make so many older men hate her that much that they wanted to pile their vile messages on her that badly.

“It may sound like a difficult promise to keep, but it isn’t, at least not this time.” I said, and stood up like I was going to offer more reassurance, instead blocking his view of Fauve so she could make a hasty retreat.

I wasn’t completely successful as his eyes followed her retreating back until she rounded the landing and went the rest of the way up the stairs and back to her room. “I wish I could offer that kind of reassurance, but I just, I don’t want to lie to her.” He muttered, “Lawyers are expensive though, every time we file something, his lawyers file some kind of a motion or objection… It's expensive and my wife and I aren’t rich. Even with things how they are, you can still buy injustice sometimes.”

William said it quietly, but I saw the way his fingers twitched, and for that matter, so did his right eye. Now the human practice of law requires some explanation. Most worlds there is only one expert in law, but in fact humans have every case represented by three. One for the accuser, one for the accused, and a judge who is not technically a lawyer but is supposed to be knowledgeable on the subject.

In theory this provides balance, but where the system can be corrupted, say by the copious wealth of one party in the lawsuit relative to the other party, then the purpose of the lawyer is not to provide a vigorous defense, but rather to obscure the truth and bury the other side by draining their ability to pay for their representation or wear them out by way of a protracted battle of endurance.

This was what the Walkers now feared. As Wolfbeard’s father had a fortune, his expensive lawyers could threaten, cajole, and file whatever they needed to, it didn’t matter if it was frivolous, it served to drain the Walker’s funds by forcing them to pay their own lawyer far more than they could afford.

And they were paying a lawyer to defend me, to keep me from going to court and keep me from being arrested or my bail vacated.

Somehow they became my humans. And my humans were going to be rendered poor because of what I did.

I think it was more human than dlamisan that I blamed myself for that.

I hung my head and opened my mouth to say, ‘I’m sorry.’ Or to render some kind of an apology as soon as I found the words.

But it was at that moment that the doorbell rang. Like he knew what was on the other side, Michael’s crying became louder, and Rebecca came into view, her eyes wide and hair hung limp and unkempt, William and I traded a glance.

I was confident about my people’s interference, but there was no telling how much would be done other than making it all go away. The harassment might stop, the charges against me would probably be dropped. But from the pale look on William’s weary face, I could read that he was also concerned that Wolfbeard might manage to get his own charges dropped too.

If he could be let go… how could my human ever feel safe? How could she believe she would ever be given justice? And would she ever be able to go anywhere without wondering if she’d see Wolfbeard around the next corner? Rebecca’s words about why they wouldn’t settle, began to make more sense to me.

As I imagined Wolfbeard’s hand reaching out again, I knew two things.

The regret that I had not bitten all the way through and removed it.
And that I wished that my world would never encounter him or his like, ever again.

My tail and my ears stiffened as the knock at the door came again.

“They’re early this time. They must have figured out my routine.” William laughed, but it was a dead man’s laugh and his eyes had never looked more hollow. I doubted he was really joking.

He walked toward the door with a zombie-like shamble and opened it to find a skinny human in an expensive pinstripe suit and a fedora… for some reason all the lawyers sent to the Walker home wore fedoras. This was not a popular hat for daily wear, and it made me think that it was almost like a uniform. Or that perhaps it was something more like a message about who it came from? I don’t know.

I didn’t approach the door, though all my hearts and airsacks were throbbing in my chest, and I could see over William’s shoulder despite his effort to shield the view of the interior of the house from the visitor. More importantly, I could hear every word.

“I know you filed a restraining order, Mr. Walker, but we are allowed to come to your home to serve you papers. I'm here in my capacity as an officer of the court, delivering notice that you are going to be sued for emotional and physical injury-” The lawyer’s snide voice had a high pitched whine to it that was more shrill than a baby’s cry, I hated it immediately. At least I didn’t have to hear it for long as William cut him off.

“You could have had anyone do that. This is an obvious attempt to get around my restraining order… Now get off my property.” William snarled, his hand tightened on the doorknob like he was about to slam the door in the lawyer’s face.

“Now, now, let’s not be nasty, it’s nothing personal, Mr. Walker, if you really believe some law has been broken then you can always call your lawyer up and have him file a motion to limit court document delivery to those with no connection to the criminal defense side of things. It’s only what, five hundred dollars an hour with the one you have now? I’m sure you can afford the six hours worth of document filings and hearings, and of course I’ll be there to object, or one of my colleagues will be.”

I could see William’s entire body shaking, if he hadn’t been standing in the way, I was ready to rush the lawyer like I rushed Wolfbeard before, but then quite unexpectedly, I could see the shaking stop.

And I heard something I could not have timed better.

“That won’t be necessary. After all, this is no longer a matter for the local court.”

The human lawyer inhaled loud as a jetstream through his nose and William let go of the door so it could swing open and I could see the very welcome sight of a black furred dlamisa of substantial height.

“This,” the dlamisa said, cutting off the question from Wolfbeard’s daddy’s lawyer, “is now a matter between the planetary government of Earth and Dlamias, regarding the treatment of one of our citizens and the laws of mutual aid between our allied species. Your client is overstepping his bounds in attempting to confine this to the lower court. And this is for you in your capacity as his representative.” The dlamisa was carrying a messenger bag over one shoulder, and when he finished, he drew out a paper on Dlamisian digital parchment, a specialized material used only for communication between governments.

“And this is for your client.” He said and removed another. “And this is for your client’s father.” He repeated, and laid all three in the human’s unthinking hand. “You’ll all three of you be explaining your interference and harassment of the home of one of our offworld citizens. And since I’ve found you here where I definitely shouldn’t have found you, this is for you personally.” He then removed one more paper, though of more traditional human standard, and the lawyer’s face went pale.

“It’s a summons to your, what do you call your legal review boards? The ones who say whether you have behaved ethically in the practice of law?” My counterpart asked, the lawyer did not answer. He looked down at the documents as if he were holding a hungry gaxan, but did not dare to either drop them or speak.

But my counterpart was not finished. “And to make sure there are no other problems,” he turned and barked toward the street, and I could hear two doors slam, “these are guards from our embassy. They will be stationed at this house until matters between our governments are settled. Inform your employer that they are authorized to use any reasonable degree of force to protect our citizen, and what constitutes reasonable is at their discretion, thanks to your state’s representative.”

“But- But- But I- This- It isn’t what it looks like!” The human lawyer’s pale face began to tremble, but in true dlamisa fashion, with his business done on the matter of the lawyer, my representative turned his attention to William Walker.

“Your household is under the protection of your government and mine for the duration of the crisis. You will receive reimbursement for all expenses incurred on his behalf retroactive to the date of the Battle of Waterland Park. And any expenses incurred later going forward will be split between your government and my own. File through the same channels as paying for food or other costs. Do you have any questions, Mr. Walker?” My representative was brusque and to the point, his tail never wagged and he never cocked his head.

I was grateful, but William spontaneously reached out and hugged him. His arms went round the dlamisan embassy representative like they were long lost friends, and he looked at me past William’s shoulder and asked, “Is the human alright? What’s happening here?”

I approached and gently disengaged William from my speaker, and reassured the dlamisa representative, “It’s nothing, it’s just a thing my humans do, you get used to it.” I said while the two behemoths of dlamisan security guards ascended the steps. The representative of Wolfbeard’s legal interests soon found himself beneath the two growling snouts of my people’s military forces, and to my great joy, I got to watch sweat spring to his brow while he inched his way along the rail and back down toward the street.

“Yes, well… it’s fine then, if it’s just the custom… I will go. My work is done.” The speaker for my people stated, and departed without another word, leaving only relief and a sense of safety in his wake. Though if I may add one more minor note?

I saw that his tail was wagging as he left the premises.