The mouse only shook his head sadly. "I know. All Guardians know. But it isn't my place to tell. Only Dionysus and Celeste have the right to tell if they wish. Roger shouldn't have brought it up in the first place."

"Well, what are we going to do now?" Susanne asked.<<

Ignoring Susanne's question, Aneara launched into a tirade. “Oh, great! It’s a guardian thing. *They* know all about it. Who are *they* anyway? What in Hera’s black crap is a guardian?” Anaera was starting to get a little hysterical because she was confused. She hated being confused. The last time she had been confused was centuries ago. She needed time to think quietly, but at the moment she was doing what passed for thinking and she was doing it out loud.

Orpheus tried to quiet her, “Anae, calm down, please. And please don’t use those expressions!”

“And what’s with you, anyway? You suddenly start talking and trying to run my life! I always wondered why you don’t die – I mean, you’re way past a mouse’s lifespan, but now you’ve got this whole other life that I don’t know about.” She turned toward Dionysus. “And you! I don’t like having blades at my throat for speaking my opinion! And you don’t even look a thing like Dionysus! And don’t ask me how I know because it’s none of your business and if you're so powerful and what-not and Orpheus talks as much as I think he does, then you probably know anyway and I don’t want everyone to know about it because it’s a secret and I wish I could erase any knowledge you have, if you do have any, about it because I don’t like you because you’re rude, and yes Orphy I know I’m not being nice, but that’s just t—“

“SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!” Orpheus yelled with a voice completely disproportionate to his rodent size.

WHAM! A force slapped Anaera across the face, cutting off her nearly senseless tirade, spinning her around, and landing her on her armored butt.

“Itai no da!” she moaned. She closed her mouth and blushed bright red. She had really embarrassed herself. She looked around. Dionysus had left and she couldn’t blame him, nor could she arouse displeasure about it. Susanne and her guardian (who looked like this guy from a Highlander episode that a friend had made her watch one time) were studiously ignoring her at the moment and seemed to be discussing something. “I’m calm now, Orpheus.”

“So I see! Really! Such shocking behavior! And soooo tacky! What would your father say?”

“That dead-beat? I haven’t seen him in centuries. Besides, the last time he bothered to pay attention to me, that was the kind of way I acted. I was a child for a very long time.”

“And now, it seems, a teenager for even longer,” the mouse muttered to himself.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. ANYway. All you really need to know about guardians for now is that they protect certain people and that they have animal and human forms. I’m not going to turn into my human form because when I’m a mouse you carry me everywhere. Now, there are a few more things I need to explain.”

“Oh, really?”

“Ahem! First off, you need to find Chichiri because you are his otaku. Second, there’s someone I want you to find for me, but I’m being generous and helping you find Chichiri first. No, none of your sass now, girl. That is your quest! Before we get to that, though, I need to say that this could’ve been explained to you better. Your author, though, doesn’t want to talk to you. I think she was in a bad mood about something and I’m certain she doesn’t even entirely understand it and doesn’t want to sound stupid.”

“O-kay. I won’t mind looking for Chichiri at all! And out of caring for you, despite your current annoying manner, I will help you find this person. And about my ‘author’ – whatever that means – she doesn’t sound like anyone I’d want to talk to anyway! She sounds like one of the gods! Oh yeah, and if it bothers you that much, I’ll try to watch my language no da.”

“Arigato,” Orpheus said. Aneara hadn’t even noticed that she added “no da” after her last sentence, but the guardian’s whiskers had twitched. "That’s probably a good sign," he thought. Aloud, he stated, “Now, I think we should find a place to stay for the night.”