Xander vol.1 Transmutation by Jaz Johnson Page A

before, hardly even trying. I’ll be fine.” Xander
walked over to the seemingly paralyzed Nora and pushed at her back,
guiding her to the staircase. “Now come on. We go to your
authorities tomorrow. You need to sleep.”

Chapter 11

    “Why is she still here?”
Loni asked, coming into the living room of the house with a
half-eaten powdered pastry in her hand.
    Xander was sitting in the
middle of the sofa. Nora was to his right, staring up at her with
an expression that was half distaste, and the other half shock.
Xander had his elbows perched on his knees, hands folded, with his
chin resting on their intersection. He stared ahead at the
television that Nora had shown him how to use.
    Gradually, Xander turned
to look at Loni. Loni looked back and forth between them, her
pastry stopping inches away from her mouth before lowering. She
frowned.
    “ What?”
    Xander gestured to the
television, which was broadcasting the latest in breaking
news.
    “ The special must have
been catnip yesterday at local Clemming café as an overgrown
lioness decided to stop in for a treat,” one male reporter said to
the camera man.
    The footage then showed a
shaky recording from someone’s phone of Loni entering the café,
followed by the immediate departure of several customers inside.
The footage then panned back to the reporter, who was standing in
front of the now famous café.
    “ Many customers fled the
scene, fearing for their lives, while others stayed to record, take
pictures, and call animal control.”
    The footage then switched
to another shaky recording of Loni inside the café, sniffing and
slowly walking about. Stopping after what seemed to be a few
minutes, after she had searched the entire building, Loni came up
to stand in front of the counter, where Liz and Jared stood
petrified in their uniform aprons. Loni sniffed at the glass on the
side of the counter, protecting the pastry treats
inside.
    She gently pawed at the
glass, before smacking it and roaring up at the two employees. They
both flinched, shuffling some before Jared hurriedly knelt down,
took out a small cake from the glass and placed it on the counter.
Loni stood on her hind legs, her front paws resting on either side
of the counter. She sniffed at the delicacy before biting into it,
picking it up, and heading towards the entrance of the
café.
    The footage then shook as
the crowded people hurriedly tied to get out of the way. The camera
then moved back to the reporter.
    “ Clemming zoo was
contacted about the loose lioness shortly after the sighting. The
owner had this to say.”
    The footage then switched
over to the owner of the Clemming zoo, who was standing with a grim
expression. The beginning of his speech was muted as the camera
switched, his hand signing feverously to compliment what he was
saying.
    “ - Wasn’t ours. All of our
animals are tagged. The exhibits have undergone a new safety
regulation after the loss of our latest edition …” Old footage of
dragon Arol escaping from his exhibit played while he spoke. “… and
I can assure you that no other animals have escaped,” he ranted.
The camera switched back to the reporter.
    “ Be that as it may,
citizens are still skeptical that the zoo can properly contain
their animals, and it’s got many people spooked.”
    The camera switched to a
local citizen. A Hispanic woman in her late thirties.
    “ I mean this is
ridiculous. I can’t go out to get a cup of coffee now without
worrying if I’m going to be mauled? What are they doing over there?
This is crazy,” she complained.
    The camera switched to
Jared, still wearing his café uniform, and still sporting his pale
expression.
    “ I … I don’t know,” he
shrugged. “I’m just glad it didn’t hurt anyone.”
    The reporter held the
microphone back to him.
    “ Don’t you think it was
strange that it took the cake?” he asked, trying to lighten the
mood. Jared gave half a laugh and another shrug of his shoulders.
“Is catnip