I looked up a little surprised, expecting to see a beautiful woman with a confident look and a smile that would surely come to my rescue, and if my words had power and this was my golden finger, I would be absolutely delighted. So hopefully I looked ahead at the girl who spoke to us; a little short, wearing a pink sweater that was too small, a slightly freckled pale face, and a brave look in her black eyes that flashed between me and the girls next to me.

Lineth. Well, she wasn't a supermodel but she was pretty enough for me. Still, I didn't hear her leave the store, she was quieter than I thought.

"And who are you?" Sofia asked sharply.

I could see her courage wavering slightly at the aggressive tone of the other girl, "L-Lineth." She said with a stutter, but then cleared her throat. "Leave him alone."

I could see Adriana, the other wolf girl form a smile at her words. "You're the sissy from before!" She pointed at Lineth, "I didn't recognize you standing up straight,"

Sofia also clapped her hands when she remembered Lineth. "That's right, it's her!" she laughed easily. "Thank you for accompanying him before, but now he has company, you see?"

"Leave him alone" Lineth repeated, this time louder.

Both Adriana and Sofia looked around as Lineth raised her voice, I could tell that we were attracting attention this time, people were looking at us more often and I could even see that some were preparing their cell phones, apparently with the intention of recording a fight or something like that.

Before I could do it myself, Sofia rose abruptly from her seat. "Or what, Huelees?"

Lineth didn't say a word, she just lifted her chin and stepped forward defiantly at Sofia's words, and although she was obviously scared, she didn't back down. Sofia gave her a mocking look and her once erect ears flattened back. I didn't know much about demi-humans, but I thought I'd read somewhere that this was a warning sign from the cats. Maybe the same was true for demi-humans wolves. 

I immediately got up from my seat, dropped the ice cream in spite of myself, but this was more important. I also grabbed the bag that contained my only purchase in this mall and quickly moved to stand in the middle of the girls, more on Lineth's side, since after some thought the best option was a tactical escape.

I admired Lineth's bravery, but I really didn't want to see her get beaten up, sure, she might have essence, but if what I had learned was true, this Sofia girl should be stronger than her.

"I'm sorry Sofia, but I'm really not interested, Lineth here is my company today, maybe another time." I said, almost dragging Lineth with me to avoid a fight that we clearly had the odds against.

After all, I would have fought if Lineth had a conflict with the girls. I didn't have much confidence in my fighting skills, but if necessary, I would have tried to use some self-defense tutorials. I don't know how effective they would be with magic.

The small crowd that had quickly gathered was disappointed when they avoided the conflict.  The wolf girls were stunned by our escape for a while before they finally left angrily to go somewhere else. At least that's what I saw over my shoulder.

Lineth was quiet next to me, and I could tell she was pretty nervous because her hand was shaking a little, or maybe it was the adrenaline? Either way, it was pretty brave what she did, knowing that she could have been hit by a couple of girls.

"Thanks for back there."

Lineth lifted her head from the floor, looked at me for a moment, then lowered it again. "I didn't do anything." She said sulkily.

"I'm serious," I said again, "it takes courage to stand up to people like that." My words are earnest.

Just because she didn't back down, she really had more courage than many men, even more than me in my previous world.

"But I was afraid." She revealed, "The demi-humans look down on us, there are still cases of brutality against humans, sure, the perpetrators are punished, but that doesn't rebuilds the face of the afflicted, doesn't it?" She laughed nervously. "That's why nobody does anything, it takes 3 humans to subdue a demi-human, they'd rather let the authorities come than risk getting hurt."

I watched her for a moment before I approached her and slowly put my arm around her back, pulling her into a light embrace as we walked. She didn't say anything, but she didn't freeze either, just walked with me. I didn't know the difference was so big, now I'm even a little scared. I should have handled the situation more tactfully.

The silence was awkward as we walked, both of us probably a little worried about getting into trouble. But I stopped myself from thinking about it. I couldn't live in constant fear. There were laws and authorities, surely a demi-human couldn't fight a gun, no matter how much they improved their body. Maybe Lineth was just as paranoid as I was.

While I was thinking about that, my eyes caught a bright place with flashing lights to my right. Following the sound of gunshots, cars and various other things, I saw that there was an arcade right in front of us. I turned my head and Lineth still looked a little worried, so I took her hand - which was a little sweaty - and dragged her to the place.

"What are you doing?" Lineth asked, looking at where many girls were playing various games.

"Let's have some fun."

We made our way through the people to the fighting game area, out of the corner of my eye I saw some claw game machines with some cute moon shaped stuffed toys, maybe I could go there later and get some for Luna, luna means moon in spanish after all, but for now I concentrated on raising Lineth's spirits.