He yawned and then licked his lips, blinking as he came to. I stifled the yawn that formed in the back of my throat in response. I wasn’t about to use my free time to take a nap. I tried not to make too many trips into the city. Sometimes I felt like I was being watched, though I wasn’t sure how much of that was just paranoia. “I’m going out,” I told Mephi. “You can stay here if you want.”

That got him moving. He rose to his feet. Something rolled out from beneath him and he scrambled to cover it with a paw.

“What’s that you’ve got?”

His shoulders shifted. “Nothing.”

“If it’s nothing, you won’t have any problems lifting your paw.”

His brown eyes went wide, his ears went up and he slowly lifted his paw. It was not nothing. So he was learning to lie now too. I supposed I hadn’t been the best example when he was young. It was a round piece of jade, carved into the shape of two fish entwined with one another. I leaned over to pick it up, brushing the dirt from it. “That’s not yours.”

Mephi tilted his head at me. “I found it. I like the fish.”

I frowned. “Found it… where?”

He scratched an ear before answering. “In a room.”

“Which room?”

He gnawed at the fur on his shoulder as if he’d not heard me.

I sighed. The older he grew, the more obstinate he became. “I’ve told you already – you can’t just pick up things you find in people’s rooms. You’re not actually finding them; someone has placed them there for a reason. And they’re not yours.” I pocketed the carving. I’d have to ask around with the guards and the servants to see if any was missing belongings. This hadn’t been the first time. How did one teach a creature like Mephi personal boundaries?

His ears went flat against his head, and he bared his teeth. And then, in the next moment, he’d bounded forward, butting my thigh with his head, his tail curling around my knees.

“Whoa whoa careful.” I tried to ward him off. “You’re like a goat with those horns.”

He bared his teeth again. “Not like a goat.”

And for the thousandth time, I said, “Then what are you?”

He rolled his shoulders in his equivalent of a shrug. “Are we going?”

I checked my purse – I’d filled it this morning. I’d need it to be full if I was going to again cater to Mephi’s appetite. The street vendors all seemed to know when we were coming, placing their tastiest, most fragrant morsels at the front of their stands and speaking more to Mephi than to me when they advertised them.

I scratched the beast’s cheeks. I supposed there were benefits to steady pay.