Cory stood on the sidewalk of 10th street and looked upon the pillars of the California State Capital building. With Mandy riding piggy-back, it had taken an hour to find the building from the train yards. She was a small burden on his large frame, but a mile was still a mile, and he didn’t know the area, yet. It was still early, only a little after sunrise and the streets were fairly empty.
“How is your leg?” asked Cory.
“Horrible,” said Mandy with a silly giggle. Her voice was loud next to Cory’s ear. “I have to be carried everywhere, today!”
Cory let her down easy and observed how she stood. “You look fine. Walk a few steps.”
Mandy shrugged to readjust the backpack she wore, then walked five paces, turned and curtsied.
“You will do okay,” said Cory. “Walk slow, and if you start to ache, take a rest.”
“I’ve fallen out of moving box cars before, Cory,” Mandy said with a huff. “You remember back in-“
“Hush!” said Cory, low and sharp. “Remember, we don’t talk about where we have been.”
Mandy put her hands on her hips and looked around. Then she flung her hands out to either side and thrust her face forward at Cory. “There isn’t anyone around to hear.” Her voice was almost a whisper, though.
Cory turned his head slightly to the right, keeping his eyes on Mandy, and he raised his hand from his side, turning his palm towards her. She caught his meaning and immediately lowered her eyes to the pavement and dropped her arms to her side.
“This is new territory, Mandy,” said Cory, relaxing his posture. “We don’t know anything anymore.”
Mandy said nothing, her face expressionless as she listened. There were no apologies between them. He was her protector, and she knew he was just trying to keep her safe when he brought her back inline. They had done this many times before, so she knew the rules. She had also forgotten the rules on occasion, but Cory also said “Never to apologize to yourself.” No use beating herself up over something when there were plenty of people out there to do that for you.
“You know what to look for, today?” asked Cory. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some cash.
“Breakfast,” said Mandy, looking at the money. She smiled. “Libraries and cheap clothing stores.”
“Right,” said Cory, returning the smile. “I’ll be looking for a place to sleep, and some place to work. Call me at noon.”
“Can’t,” said Mandy. “We ran out of minutes, remember?”
Cory lost his smile and knitted his brow. Anger flashed across his face, then evaporated just as quickly. “We meet back here at noon, then.”
Mandy held back a frown, but lost her smile. She nodded, turned and went off on her mission. Cory watched her walk, noticing there was a slight limp, but she would recover fine.
Now, it was time for Cory’s mission. He needed to find signs of the Forsaken, before they found him. Relations always started better when he approached a pack, asking about the rules, rather than being found and labeled as a trespasser.