For the second time in his new life, Luka walked the streets of Sneerhome. Darting in and around his feet, little Leo prowled, hopping from shadow to shadow like a panther stalking its prey—what was Leo’s prey? Luka’s shoelaces. They were gnawed and frayed, split apart at the ends like dock rope cut with a rusty knife.

  Luka sighed. “Can you not?” he asked flatly, shaking his foot when Leo caught a lace.

  The little guy then began to pull, his head low and tail wagging. He pulled and pulled and pulled, taking the human along with him. They were in the middle of a street, the hustle and bustle of the well-populated city skirting around them with glares and choice words.

  Still, Luka couldn’t help but smile. “Fine!” he decided. “You win!” He kicked off his shoe, giving Leo the prize he so desperately wanted… for whatever reason.

  Leo trotted around with the shoe in his maw, smiling with every prancing step.

  “You know he does that because you don’t spend enough time with him,” Eve unhelpfully said from the side. She was trying not to smile but was pitifully failing.

  Beside her, Annie and Vlad stood, watching—they weren’t attempting to hide their smiles. They had yet to visit Sneerhome, so when the opportunity presented itself, they gladly volunteered to traverse the smelly, overcrowded streets, and were clearly distraught with the notion of visiting countless bookstores, trinket shops, magical supply stalls, and whatever other inconceivably unfun, uninventing, and other totally not places they’d want to visit, they decided to take one for the team and go anyways.

  Luka gave Eve a tired glare. “I know.”

  “Then you should—”

  “When would I?”

  Eve shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “I see your point.”

  “You should delegate stuff, Dad,” Annie said, walking arm in arm with her husband. “Hire an assistant.”

  “I thought you were supposed to be my assistant,” he replied.

  “Was I?”

  He blinked slowly.

  Annie guiltily frowned. “You’re right. Sorry. I’ll take over morning checks.”

  Luka graciously nodded. “Thanks.”

  With that, the group split. Annie and Vlad went off to explore, taking the evening for a miniature date of sorts. It wasn’t every day you were reincarnated on another world—and at some point, they wished to see the sights.

  Luka as well, for that matter, but that was for another day. Side by side with Eve, they walked through the city, little Leo trotting behind with the shoe in his teeth.

  There were two reasons for the visit to the city. The first was to hire a new specialized employee, the other was to be seen—which was a bit scary, when Luka thought about it. But that was, hopefully, for later.

  At the edge of Sneerhome’s beast section of the city, past the cages of slaughter animals and meat venders, beyond the dire-mount hub, was a veterinary clinic and pet sanctuary. It wasn’t much, just a small house in the center of a flat property, with enough room for the various patients to run around. But it wasn’t the location or architecture they came for.

  A herd of dogs, cats, and a multitude of other animals greeted Luka, Eve, and Leo at the gate. They barked, growled, hissed, purred, anything to alert the owner of the establishment to the strangers lurking around the edge of the property.

  As they waited for the owner to exit the house, Luka scanned the mass of animals for a particular snubby dog—Leaker. The pug looking mutt was aptly named for his habit of marking everything. Last time Luka was here, Leaker peed on him twice! His shoe made squelching noises the whole walk home.

  And there he was, the little mutt! Luka spotted him at the back of the pack, peeing on the hind legs of a great big slobbery dog. Then, like a fateful encounter of two mortal enemies, Leaker and the Lost Lord made eye contact, each sizing the other up.

  “Eve?” a voice called.

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  Luka didn’t dare turn away from such an opponent, opting to stare down the dog even as all the others drifted away from the gate. Leaker, likewise, stared, but with his tongue out and panting happily. Did Leaker not remember him? Or was the dog playing the long game, and looking for an opportunity to strike?

  “Zora! There you are! I was starting to get worried with how long you were taking!” Eve yelled, her voice crossing the pack animals to the house.

  Walking over was an orc. As tall as Eve and just as muscly, Zora’s smile stretched across her underbite tusks, wide and bright. Short curly hair was tied back and bunned, highlighting her dozen or so bone piercings. They jutted from the bridge of her nose, her ears, and pinned up her bottom lip. She looked fearsome, an attribute needed to corral all these animals by herself.

  Luka only glanced up for a moment, but in that time, Leaker slipped away, hidden in the pack. He grimaced and unfortunately couldn’t look for him—not if he wanted to make a good second impression.

  “Hello, Zora,” he said, holding out his fist in greeting. The orc eyed his knuckles, smirked, reared back, and threw a heavy punch. Luka felt the shock up his wrist and through his elbow, but a divine blessing gave all protection while greeting an orc the traditional way—so he was fine. The same could not be said for his ego, sadly. Even in this young physically perfect body Goddess Tippy made him when she reincarnated his soul, there was no possible way Luka could ever punch that hard.

  “Luka, right? It’s been a while,” Zora said, ignoring the dogs and a few of the cats pawing at her pants for rubs.

  “It has. I was meaning to come over with Franky earlier, but the park got super busy—”

  Her eyes went wide. “Oh, right! The park! How could I forget? How’s that going?”

  “Amazingly,” Eve said, happy as naturally possible. “The village has been reinvigorated, through and through. Everyone has enough money to do whatever they want, job security, and endless entertainment.”

  “Sounds like a dream compared to when I left,” Zora said. She was originally from Emberwood Village, but after the mine collapsed, left with the other wave of migrating villagers.

  “It is! And we want you back!”

  The vet paused. “If I remember correctly, you wanted an animal section of the park, right Luka?”

  “Bestial Grove, yeah,” he replied. “Have you been out there yet? I don’t remember hearing about you visiting.”

  “I haven’t, no. It’s hard to find someone to watch the pups when I need to leave the city.”

  A flash of fear blistered in Luka’s heart. His eyes darted around, suddenly remembering Leaker and the cursed smell of dog pee. He didn’t find the mutt but instead found little Leo showing off his prized shoe to some of the other dogs. They were taking turns sniffing it.

  “Well,” he said, pulling his attention back to Zora, “we need an animal expert, both magical and mundane. And there’s plenty of space for you and your pups.”

  She gnawed her lip at that. “Let’s talk inside.”

  ***

  “Let me get this straight,” Zora said over a mug of watery jrum. “You want me to pack up here, move back to Emberwood, and build up and run a veterinarian clinic solely for the park?”

  “Not necessarily solely for us,” Luka answered slowly. “I was thinking about a subdivision of veterinarians that help and/or take care of the mounts people ride in on. Fixing horseshoes, giving check-ups, surgery if needed. Heck, we might even throw that in as a ticket bundle.”

  Zora blinked. The words reached her ears but failed to make a mark. “And you said something about monsters?”

  “Allow me,” Eve said, interrupting. She pointed out the window at Ressen across the way. Even in Sneerhome, the World Tree took up the sky. “You know that big tree? That’s our friend’s daughter, Ressen. Her just existing passifies and draws animals and monsters. Jear—Ressen’s mom—guarantees all sorts of creatures will come from miles, ready and willing to give up their old life hunting and protecting territory.”

  Luka quickly added, “We’ve already had a ton of frogs move in from the lake, as well as a Gilded Beast—”

  Zora gasped. “You’re lying!?”

  “Nope. Beast King Orris—”

  She gasped again. “King Orris is at the park? You’re not lying to me, right?” She turned to Eve. “He’s not lying to me, right!?”

  “No—”

  This time she squealed. “I’m in! I’ll sell this place and move by the end of the week!”

  Luka and Eve shared a glance. “You’re serious?” he asked. “Just because of Orris?” she asked.

  “Just because of—” Zora whipped her head back and forth, shaking it aggressively. “To work with a Gilded Beast is a dream come true! I remember when my mom told me stories of Storm Herald Vyke! She’s an inspiration to all sapient wyvern kind!”

  “A wyvern?” Luka asked. “She’s already much cooler sounding than that opossum-thing Orris. He made me build him a castle five minutes after meeting me.”

  Zora held back on squealing like a little girl again, and instead asked, “What did you wish for?”

  “What do you mean?”

  A beat passed.

  “What do you mean, what do I mean?”

  “What are you talking about wishes for?” Luka asked, not noticing the door gently push open.

  Zora’s jaw dropped. “You mean to tell me you did as Beast King Orris asked and didn’t tell him your wish? Beast King Orris is the most powerful Gilded Beast for his wish granting alone! He can literally do anything you wish for as long as it’s equal to or less than the value of what he wished of you!”

  Luka and Eve shared another look.

  “We must be talking about different Gilded Beasts,” Eve said. “Because there’s no way that lazy opossum—”

  Luka suddenly jumped to his feet, warmth running down his leg. Movement darted across the room, out the door. “Leaker!” he yelled, but the pup was long gone.