"In the flesh!" Linger beamed, "What's the matter, old geezer? Aren't you happy to see me?"
"I would't say happy to the likes of you, perhaps pleasantly surptised is more appropriate. What the hell are you doing here?"
"Oh, this and that" Linger waved his hand non-committingly, "I'm on vacation."
"Vacation my left testicle!" the old man snorted, "Destruction tour is more likely, if you still got the same attitude that you had when I last saw you" he winked "which I bet you do, since two and a half centuries is not enough time for you to wisen up."
Two and a half centuries??? Jim thought, Just how old is this guy?
"None of your business, Jim" the old man looked up at Jim as if he read his mind, "Youngsters..." he looked back at Linger, "No manners at all! Why did you bring the kid, anyway?"
Jim was about to say something indignant but the old man's dog -- no, defininitely a wolf -- silently glided up to his side, regarding him with curiousity, its teeth half barred in a sort of a caricature of a lopsided grin. Jim reconsidered.
"This one?" Linger indicated Jim, "He's my host." He seemed to ignore the wolf completely. Jim took a step back.
"Host?" the old man was puzzled.
"Yea," Linger sighed, "this 'incident' that you mentioned, involving the young Marquis De Sade, wasn't really authorized and somewhat pissed my boss. He decreed that I will not be able to visit this plane unsupervised anymore. I did mange to find a little loophole, however" he added cheerfully, "Seems that a certain symbiotic relationship with a native falls under the current legal definition of 'supervised'."
The wolf edged closer. Jim tried to back down some more but found his back pressed against the wall. He could swear the wolf was smiling.
"Symbiotic or parasitic?" the old man inquired.
"Er... Excuse me" Jim whispered, "your wolf..."
"Oh, leave him be" Linger told the wolf, then jumped out of Jim's pocket landing on the wolf's neck, straddling it. The wolf made a gesture surprisingly like a shrug and walked towards the counter. "Say, old relic, why don't you give the lad something to play with while we finish this conversation?"
"Something to play with..." the shopkeeper mused, "well, I suppose I can do that... Go there," he looked at Jim and indicated a wooden door at the back of the store, "and try not to break anything."
Jim nervously edged around the wolf, who seemed to have lost interest in him, and walked towards the door and opened it. The small room behind it was unlit. "You can play with these" he heard the old man say just as he noticed...
Sat Oct 9 07:09:05 1999