The little boy came racing back out the doorway.

  “Sister! Sister! There’s, there’s—”

  Millie clutched Zack’s arm and the children all crowded close to Sister Paula.

  “Hush, hush now Tommy, what is it,” she said with a soothing voice.

  “Th-th-there’s a snake inside!”

  Zack frowned.

  “Eep!” Millie squeaked, gripping his arm tighter.

  He patted her hands with his free hand and then slowly peeled her off.

  “And what did the snake look like, Tommy?” Sister Paula asked in a soothing voice.

  “It, it, it was tan! And it hissed at me!” The boy broke down sobbing, unable to speak clearly anymore. He buried his face in the sister’s robes.

  “Alright children, stay outside with me, now.”

  Several other children started crying as well.

  It was setting Zack’s nerves on edge.

  “Should I go get a guard, Sister?” Millie asked.

  Sister Paula just sighed.

  “As if they’d come out here. Not unless you feel like making it worth their while.”

  “Are the snakes around here poisonous?” Zack asked.

  If it wasn’t poisonous, he could just go in and put it in a box or something.

  “Venomous,” Millie corrected him.

  “Only the tan ones,” Sister Paula said wryly.

  Great.

  “Is there anyone else inside?”

  Sister Paula frowned. “The older children…”

  “Millie, take the kids. I need the Sister.”

  Zack picked up the crying Tommy, detached him from the Sister’s robes, and moved him over to Millie.

  “What?!” she cried.

  “Unless you want to help me with the snake.”

  She shuddered.

  “No thanks.”

  The actress and seamstress started soothing the little boy and Sister Paula detached herself from the children, who now crowded around Millie.

  “Do you have a box or something to put the snake in?” Zack asked, cautiously approaching the door.

  Sister Paula stood a couple steps behind him. “Yes, but…”

  “Do you know much about snakes?”

  “No.”

  The interior of the building was dark, and Zack squinted. [Night Eye] kicked in, and his vision was able to penetrate the gloom.

  He didn’t see the snake.

  “A lot of snakes are skittish,” he said. “If we give it a path out, it might leave on its own. If we chase it, it’ll hole up in a corner and get aggressive.”

  He carefully bent over and scooped up the dead mouse.

  It was still warm.

  Good.

  Gross, but good.

  “First, we’re going to locate the snake, then get everyone away from it.”

  “Okay.”

  “Then I want you to go get a box with a lid, and bring it to me.”

  Zack crept inside, and Millie called out to him.

  “Tommy says the snake was in the washroom!”

  “Over there,” Sister Paula said, pointing.

  There was an entryway with a number of shoe cubbies and coats hanging on racks, unneeded now that it was nearly summer, and a large open space beyond that. Ahead and to the right were a number of doors, mostly closed, saved for one that was ajar.

  “The room with the open door?” Zack confirmed.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, wait here.”

  He stepped carefully, ears peeled, eyes squinting in the dim light. There was a shift, and the dimness bothered him less. No snakes visible.

  He crept forward with [Soft Steps], and reached the washroom door. Carefully, slowly, he pushed the door wide open.

  There it was.

  Curled up in the corner, as though under a spotlight from the sun shining through a window, was a tanish-yellow snake with black spots and black eyes, looking right at him.

  Hiss!

  He stepped back, leaving the door wide open so he could keep an eye on the snake.

  “Okay, Sister, I see the snake. I’m going to keep an eye on it, so you get everyone out and away from the gate, as well. Once I have it in the box, I’m going to take it out the gate straight away.”

  “Be careful, mister…”

  “Jack.”

  “Okay. Be careful, Mister Jack.”

  Zack kept his eyes on the snake as he listened to the Sister gathering up the other orphans and guiding them outside. Eventually, the Sister returned carrying a large box with a hinged wooden lid.

  With one eye still on the snake, now staring at him and flicking its tongue out periodically, he check to make sure there were no large holes and that it could be closed securely. Even better, there was a latch to fasten the lid once closed.

  “This will work. Make sure the path to the gate is clear.”

  “Okay, Mister Jack.”

  He listened to her footsteps fade behind him.

  Just inside the washroom there were a couple mops with long wooden handles. He first set the box on the ground, lid open, and then pushed it with the handle close to the snake.

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  The snake hissed again and retreated further into the corner, glaring back and forth between Zack and the box.

  Then, Zack retreated and waited.

  After about five minutes, the snake seemed to relax and investigated the box. Then it retreated to the sunny spot again.

  Once more, Zack stepped inside.

  The snake peered at him, coiled up. It was maybe three feet long, and flicked its tongue in and out.

  The dead mouse, still warm in his hand, was the bait. Zack got as close as he dared, then tossed the mouse into the box.

  The snake flipped back into the corner again and hissed.

  Another retreat.

  But soon enough, the snake investigated the mouse, and…

  Slithered right into the box.

  *ding!* The skill [Tame] has been acquired!

  Zack blinked.

  Scared. Sleepy. Full.

  Foreign feelings flooded into his mind, faintly.

  Zack crept into the room. Originally he had planned to push the lid closed with the mop handle, then hold it down until he could latch it. Now…

  “Stay there, snake.”

  The snake raised its head lethargically, a mouse-sized bulge several inches down from its head. It flicked its tongue out and then put its head back down.

  Slowly, he closed the lid using two mop handles.

  Sleepy. Full. Comfy.

  And then he latched the box shut.

  He took a deep breath and calmed himself, then picked up the box. Altogether the box with the snake weighed about ten pounds, and most of that weight was the box itself.

  The snake inside shifted a bit, but not in a panicked way.

  And so Zack carried the box outside, straight to the gate. The children and Millie were all waiting off to the side, while Sister Paula stood holding the gate open.

  As soon as he was through, she closed and locked the gate behind him.

  “Oh thank the Goddess,” she breathed a large sigh of relief. “Were you bitten?”

  “No, thank the Goddess,” he replied. He sent a quick prayer up to Her, but as usual, there was no response.

  “Did the snake have black spots?”

  “Yes, it does.”

  Sister Paula shuddered.

  “That’s an extremely venomous snake,” she said. “Thank the Goddess it didn’t bite anyone.”

  “Where can I take it?”

  A dissatisfied feeling emanated from inside the box, though the predominant emotion was still sleepiness.

  “The Hunter’s Guild or the Adventurer’s Guild,” the sister answered. “Unless you want to take it far into the wilderness to release it. That snake’s too dangerous to let go just on the edge of the city. That’s probably how it wound up here…”

  For almost an hour, Zack stood holding the box while Millie and the Sister soothed the children and then finalized the poster work. Sister Paula and one of the older boys were talented artists and could make copies of the poster, and then the younger children would go put them up around town.

  “Jack,” Millie called to him from well over twenty feet away. “I need the money!”

  Carefully, he set the box down, and the snake inside seemed content to snooze. He pulled out the money pouch, clinking with coins, and then tossed it to Millie.

  She dropped it, but the pouch stayed securely closed.

  “Do thank the Director on behalf of us all here at St. Bella’s,” the Sister said on emptying the pouch into her own.

  “Thank you mistah Director!” all the children chorused.

  Millie left the orphanage but kept well clear of Zack and the box.

  “Let’s go,” she said, “the Hunter’s Guild is up this way.”

  “Why not the Adventurer’s Guild?” Zack asked, attempting casualness, but Millie turned and narrowed her eyes.

  “That’s out of the way. What’s wrong with the Hunter’s Guild?”

  Zack’s gaze wandered, and then Millie giggled. “Clearly you don’t have the [Acting] skill yet, Jack.”

  He sighed and decided how he wanted to answer.

  “I think I might have accidentally [Tamed] the snake, actually.”

  “Huh? Really?” Millie’s eyes widened.

  “Yeah.” Zack looked down at the box with the snake he could tell was sleeping despite not being able to see it. “I got the skill when I fed it the dead mouse.”

  “Oh! Geez, that’s a real dangerous familiar, Jack!”

  “It wasn’t on purpose,” he grumbled, averting his gaze.

  Millie sighed. “Fine, I suppose we can go to the Adventurer’s Guild, then. They’ll know more about taming.”

  They walked—Millie still keeping her distance—back west and north, past the theater but skirting around the red light district, eventually reaching a large, four-story building with a sign depicting a sword crossed over a shield. Zack started to walk up to the door before Millie stopped him.

  “Jack, you can’t bring that inside! Even if you’ve tamed it!”

  He froze, then walked back towards the road.

  “I’ll bring someone out.”

  “Are you going to be okay, going in there alone?”

  Millie nodded. “Yeah, in this part of town? I’ll be fine. And I’ve met the vice guildmaster before, at one of our after-parties.”

  Zack waited outside another twenty minutes, using his [Calm Down] skill to tamp down his nervousness.

  Here he was, conspicuously holding a box, just standing around.

  Exposed.

  He found himself sympathizing with the snake’s earlier nervousness, although now it was sleeping in its warm, dark box.

  But, for the most part, when he observed the passers-by and the people entering and exiting the Guildhall, nobody gave him a second glance.

  Just a dude holding a box outside the Adventurer’s Guild.

  Eventually, finally, Millie returned with a brawny, tall man in tow. As tall as Bradley with even more muscle, though not as much as Fyodor, the man wore a wide-brimmed hat and had a coiled whip on his belt.

  “So,” the man said, pausing a good couple yards away from Zack, though not so far as Millie, “you caught a wee beastie and tamed it, eh?”

  “Yes. And you are…?”

  “Gerald. Gerald Thompson.” He lifted his hat from his head, briefly.

  “I’m Jack,” Zack responded.

  “Tell me about the snake. Keep that box closed, too, if you don’t mind.”

  “I will. It was coiled up, but looked about three feet long, and it was yellow-ish tan with black spots.”

  Gerald frowned, growing serious. “And how much do you reckon it weighs? Guess, if you can.”

  “Maybe a pound or two. It was hissing and backed in a corner when I found it. I put a dead mouse in the box and it got in, then I closed the lid and latched it shut.”

  “How’s the snake now?”

  “Sleeping.”

  “Can you tell anything else about the snake?”

  Zack looked down at the box, squinting as though he could make himself see through the wood.

  Sleepy. Full. Warm.

  “Warm, and full. From the mouse, I guess,” Zack said.

  “And you got the [Tame] skill just today?”

  “Yeah, when the snake ate the mouse.”

  Gerald sighed.

  “Anyone in your family ever had the [Tame] skill or a familiar before?”

  “No…” Zack looked back up at the Adventurer.

  “I can’t be sure without lookin’, but I reckon what you got thur’s a a taip’n. Extremely dangerous, those. Venom’s lethal enough to kill you in under a minute.”

  [Calm Down]

  Zack’s face scrunched together a moment, involuntarily, before he controlled himself.

  “’S bad luck, in a way, but good luck for us here. Ain’t nobody ever tamed one of them taip’ns ’fore. The Guild’ll pay good money if you let us milk it.”

  Millie gagged audibly. “Milk it? Can you even milk a snake?”

  Gerald replied without turning, eyes locked on the box. “Fer the venom, of course. It’s dangerous, though, until you really bond with yer snake and it listens to ya good.”

  Zack opened his mouth, ready to just ask the Adventurer to take the snake off his hands, when his throat closed and he choked on his words.

  His chest tightened.

  Gerald’s eyes flickered up and he sighed. “Yep, ye’ve already bonded with it. I’m gonna go get a more secure box, and then ye can come inside, and I’ll tell ye more about taming.”

  “Jack,” Millie said. “I really need to get back.”

  Zack looked up and composed himself. He nodded. “Alright. I’ll be fine. Are you good without an escort?”

  “Yes, from here. Thanks! I’ll let the Director know what you’re up to.”

  She turned and quickly walked down the road, back towards the Rose Theater.

  Gerald went inside and returned with a secure, transparent case with a small ventilation grill that clinked like metal when he set it down on the ground and opened the lid on top.

  “Just put the box in like that, no need to scare the snake by opening it.”

  Zack did just that,and Gerald gestured for him to pick up the case. “You can borrow that for now. You work at the Rose Theater, right? Veejee Harmut’s a regular. Just don’t try to sell it or nothin’.”

  “So,” Zack said as he gently picked up the case and followed Gerald inside the Guildhall, “just how much is taip’n venom going for these days?”

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