Boxcar, in his prone position on the green grassy lawn next to the garage, yawned widely and returned his gaze down the road toward the forest away from the lodge. He could hear Nora and Justin talking about flux stabilizers and a whole bunch of other words that the wolf considered absolute nonsense. He even had a sneaky suspicion that they were sometimes making up words just to impress each other. The sickening smell of ozone, oil and metal came out of the garage, almost overwhelming the sweet natural scents of wildflowers, tree sap and pine needles that dominated the majority of the air around the lodge. Oh yes, his natural wolf senses made him want to vacate the area, head off into the forest on his own, and start exploring and marking his territory...
He sighed as he winced at the thought of what would happen if he tried to get too far away from Nora right now. Oh well, maybe he could convince her to go "walkies" later...
His wolf ears perked up, and he looked down the road to see a man walking up to the lodge. Boxcar frowned; his color vision wasn't the greatest, but he could smell that it was a human being, tinged with an almost bubbly mixture of elemental magics stirring about in his aura. He was wearing robes that looked to Boxcar like those he had seen in a scientist's picture of his recently-graduated son, except marked with even more decoration, which made Boxcar hazard a guess that this was someone more highly-placed in the world of higher education.
He got to his feet and dashed to the mouth of the garage. "Hey, perfesser! Somebody's coming up the road, I think it's one of those lodgers we were told to expect!"
Nora and Justin pulled themselves out of their conversation, and they stepped out of the garage back into the light of the morning sun. Nora covered her eyes briefly, before gesturing with her glasses to bring up the list of expected guests for the lodge - or "lodgers" as Boxcar put it so simply - and she was able to match the picture provided with the face of the man arriving. "Doctor Jorvis Wainwright, accidentally traveled here from a planet called 'Earth' during what was apparently a magical experiment..."
Justin shrugged. "I came from a place called Earth, too - but it can't be my Earth, no magic there to use." Then he changed the subject. "Well, you're the host here, Nora, might as well say hi!"
"Eh?!" Nora was caught off-guard by this sudden shift in responsibility. "B-but I thought you were here to help show us around, you can help with the greeting part too, can't you?" Her palms started sweating out of a sudden burst of anxiety.
"You'll be fine," Justin said. "Just gimme a minute to pack up my tools on my Ostrich, then I'll be there to help." With that, he turned around and started loading his tools back into their box, and the box he lifted into a storage compartment on the side of his bird-legged motorcycle.
"I'm here too," grumbled Boxcar as he sat next to Nora in front of the garage. "Just introduce yourself and say 'welcome to the lodge' or something like that...that sounds like something you should say." Then he became silent.
Nora adjusted her glasses as the man approached and asked her, "Is this the lodge?"
"Y-Yes!" blurted out Nora as she nodded, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. "Welcome to the lodge! You're Doctor Jorvin Wainwright, I presume? My name is Nora Minder - I'm the representative from Cybertronics Unlimited here acting as host for those staying at the lodge for our introductory test period!"
The truth of the matter was that Nora, in her last adjustment to her glasses, had pulled up the document of the lodge pamphlet, which included a map that led to the lodge, and some introductory information she had just ad-libbed into her greeting. She congratulated herself for the sudden stroke of quick-witted genius.
Boxcar snorted, and Nora, wrapped up in her thoughts, nearly jumped out of her skin. "O-oh yes, and this is Boxcar, my, um," she scrambled for a word, "assistant."
Before she could be called upon to explain what she meant, a car drove up the road and pulled up in front of the lodge. "Don't mind me," called out Justin as he eased his red-and-white Ostrich out of the garage, "looks like we might need the extra space in the garage soon, so I'll just park my bike on the side over here." And so he drove the cycle that way, his gyroscopic seat keeping him at an even height as the mechanical bird legs propelled him forward until he went around the opposite side of the lodge from the garage.
The car, unlike the hovertruck, was driven along the road with wheels; Nora recognized it as a vehicle from a company that specialized in such throwback designs. As advanced as technology on Faiza was, there was an extraordinary consumer demand for vehicles of very specific types, down to the models favored on distant planets, and this had led to certain models of vehicle being propagated based on what social class they were associated with. The logo, with the letters BMW, wasn't terribly familiar to Nora, but she could tell with a quick comparison with her glasses that it was locally-made with the more advanced navigator system - among other improvements over the native company's planetary technology, including to the engine and wheel components.
Boxcar, meanwhile, had given in to a canine instinct and went running up to the car as it came to a halt. Nora cried, "Boxcar, wait!" but he was already there to sniff at the wheel after it had come to a stop, and then he eyed the driver - another human - who stepped out, wearing the fine yet indistinct clothing of a servant. Boxcar could smell the distinctive odor of a small weapon - a handgun of some type, though he wasn't certain if it was an energy weapon or a slugthrower - coming from the man's jacket, but since the man didn't make any sudden moves, Boxcar merely sat and watched as he went around and opened the door for the other occupant of the sports car. He didn't pick up anything unusual in terms of powers from either of these two arrivals; he could smell expensive perfume, and he mentally noted with some approval that this arrival at least knew how to be subtle about the use of artificial scent.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," the man called, bowing to everyone present. "Presenting the Lady Amethyst Jane, Baroness."
Nora struggled with what to say, and was grateful that she was given several more seconds to figure out what to say while the Baroness was equipped with her sword and belt. She didn't need the introduction to recognize the Baroness, since she had her files available on her glasses display, not to mention how distinctive the Lady's uniform was, but it was announced with such dignity that she felt she needed to respond in kind somehow. This was the representative of the House of Jane from the country of Ridalia, who had co-sponsored this lodge project with Nora's bosses. In other words, she had to make this look good.
"W-welcome to the lodge, your..." Nora desperately ran a quick search for noble titles, then did a quick improvised curtsy with her labcoat as she finished, "ladyship? I'm Nora Minder, your liaison with Cybertronics Unlimited for your stay here at the lodge! We are honored to receive you! I hope you had a nice trip?"
The roar of an engine interrupted any response as another person drove up to the lodge, this one on a sleek black wheeled motorcycle. They stopped, and the curvy rider removed her helmet to reveal a pale-skinned black-haired young woman. She placed the helmet on her cycle's seat and turned to address the group, who had just been rejoined by Justin. "Morning everyone. This is the lodge I got a letter about, right?"
"Yes, it is," answered Justin, cutting off Nora as he approached the cyclist and greeted her with a friendly handshake. Boxcar snorted quietly to himself; while the human male might have been smooth enough to seem innocent, he could smell Justin's attraction immediately. "I'm Justin Hobbes, freelance maintenance. You've got a pretty sweet ride, there. I'd love to see how she handles."
As for Boxcar's senses...he got a mixture of scents from this lodger. There was a scorching smell of ozone accompanied by the sting of electricity, but this was accompanied by a separate smell that was very much like his own. A wolf in human guise? He would need more time to be sure, but if he was reading his superpower sniffer correctly, she had two sets of powers - one over electricity, and the other, more familiar and yet more alien...
Nora was only barely able to stammer out a greeting of her own to this newest arrival - Ashley Chertal, a singer from Segaso City, as her file listed in the lens of her glasses - before everyone's attention was suddenly jolted from the more crowded scene by a streak of light that tore across the sky with a scream. The object went over the lodge and into the forest behind, and there was an explosive crash as the ground shuddered with the impact of the meteoric streak. A long trail of smoke was left in the air behind it, and off in the distance, a rising plume of black smoke climbed into the air.
"What the dog was THAT?!" called out Boxcar into the stunned silence that followed, which was then followed by another stunned silence as those who had not yet heard Boxcar speak were surprised to see the wolf talking.
Justin went immediately back to Nora. "Finish up the introductions, and get their vehicles sorted to see who's parking in the garage and who has to leave their ride on the side," he said to her in a low voice. "There's a tarp we can set up for any extra vehicles that won't fit. I'll head out and see what that was."
As if the universe was playing some kind of strange, recurring gag this morning, Nora found herself unable to answer as yet another vehicle pulled up in front of the lodge - this one a classic short school bus painted with the E Z Port logo on the side, the bus company that had won their contract by being the lowest bidder for public transportation in Segaso City. The bus driver, a somewhat pale, tall and husky-looking human opened the window and asked, "Hey, uh, should I park the bus in the garage or just leave it here?" He seemed uncertain as to who he should address, his eyes darting from Justin to Nora to the others. With the timing, it was possible he may have seen the crashing meteor, or he may only have seen the smoke as he drove up; it was impossible for Nora to know.
Nora recognized him as the fourth person on her list - Samuel Deniel. Boxcar picked up the scent of sulfur and woodsmoke along with hints of a legendary creature of some sort; maybe this human didn't look that impressive, but he could tell that he had a trace of something else in his lineage that definitely wasn't human or mortal.
Justin was already running off into the woods behind the lodge before Nora could protest. For someone who's just temporary hired help, he's sure willing to go running off into danger, she found herself thinking, though she wasn't sure why she felt that way. But he seemed confident enough to do that, and besides, she realized, what would she be able to do? No, it was more important right now to make sure that everyone who would be staying at the lodge was safe and kept away from any danger.
"Okay!" Nora called out, deciding to take her cue from Justin's hurried instructions. She addressed Samuel first. "For now, just pull up to the side here, and we'll figure out which vehicles will be staying in the garage and which will be staying under a tarp to one side! Once we're done with that, we'll start moving luggage onto the porch and then into the lodge!"
As the group began to work on this project, which Nora worried they all would see as a delay tactic to distract them from the sudden meteor fall, she suddenly realized that the fifth person on the list, Jaiden Fairfield, had not yet arrived. Where on Faiza was he? Soon enough, she was grateful for the distraction of figuring out parking and luggage.
Justin, in the meantime, went at a brisk pace through the trees on foot. He was tempted to bring his Ostrich, but he guessed that it was only about a mile away to the site of the crash, and the trees were close enough that the chicken walker bike might get stuck, or trip over a tree root. If he had to, he had some built-in enhancements to his shoes that would lengthen his stride and get him there - or back - more quickly, but the amount of fuel for that upgrade was limited, and at least for now, he didn't feel like this was worth the use of that feature. He jogged through the forest to conserve his strength as he headed toward the rising black pillar of smoke.
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