The elf just shrugged and went back to looking at the collection of weapons. He looked over a trio of broadswords mounted low on the wall then, much to BekkaNeko’s surprise, he grabbed the center one and took it down from its bracket. Before anyone could say anything, the elf began to spin the sword around in his hands. The ancient blade hummed through the air, flickering under the electric lights. As he twirled the weapon, BekkaNeko thought she could see him make little motions that would surely skewer an attacker. It took about fifteen seconds for the class to overcome its collective shock.

Carlin, the biggest student in the class, stepped forward. “Hey! That’s the museum’s sword. You aren’t supposed to be playing with it.”

In reply, the elf spun on one heel and planted the other foot. He brought the sword up and swept it down in a two handed attack. Carlin’s jaw dropped as the elf suddenly frozen, the ancient blade hovering a finger’s breadth from the student’s forehead. The elf grinned showing his teeth. BekkaNeko’s tail puffed further...this guy was either crazy or just dangerously predatory. His canines were almost long enough to be counted as fangs.

“Never try to disarm a swordsman with your bare hands. You will lose.” The elf stared at Carlin for another moment, only looking away when the young man stepped back and put up his hands, gesturing his surrender. He spun the sword one last time, then set it carefully back into its place on the wall. With a quick glance around the room, the elf left.

Someone tapped BekkaNeko on the shoulder; she turned to see her sister standing behind her. “That guy was scary.”

“Yeah. I’d hate to meet him in a dark alley on a rainy night.”

“Me too. But what was all that about? Where’d he learn to swing that thing around like that? It looked like it didn’t weigh anything in his hands. Did you notice him look at you right before he left?”

BekkaNeko blushed slightly. “No he didn’t. I think I would have noticed that. I was watching him the whole time to make sure he didn’t do anything.”

ReaNeko grinned. “Yeah right. I know what you were thinking. Well, he was kinda cute for boy, even if he was kinda scary.”

"Ok class, now that we’ve had our little dose of excitement, can we continue on with our history lesson?” Miss Vaughan asked, her voice cutting through the girls’ chatter and the ribbing that Carlin was receiving from some of the other jocks.

That night, as BekkaNeko lay in her bed, snuggled under her pawprint sheets and a light blanket, she ran the day over and over in her head. There was something vaguely familiar about that elf. She couldn’t place what it was exactly, it seemed to be a combination of little things she noticed, how he talked, how he moved, even the color of his eyes, which she now realized were a cold, icy blue.

In the bed across the room, BekkaNeko could hear her sister’s snores turn into a loud, droning purr. Someone was having an interesting dream of some kind. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know who or what her littermate was thinking about in her sleep.

BekkaNeko woke early the next morning to the angry buzzing of her alarm clock. Growling, she blindly slapped at it from under the covers before knocking off the nightstand. It shut up. After a few minutes of lazy stretching, she climbed out of her warm bed. ReaNeko was, as usual, still asleep, and completely oblivious to the alarm’s frantic attempt to rouse her.

BekkoNeko stripped out of the nightshirt she’d slept in and stepped into the bathroom. She took advantage of her sibling’s unconsciousness to take a long shower and use up most of the most water. After her shower, she stood naked in front of the closet trying to decide what to wear. Normally, it would be the usual uniform, but this being Friday; she was free to wear what ever she pleased. She choose black T-shirt, cut somewhat low in the front, though still appropriate for school, and a pair of jeans. ReaNeko was just slinking into the bathroom when she finished tying her shoelaces and headed downstairs for breakfast.

While waiting for the school bus, BekkaNeko noticed the headline on the paper in the machine at that bus stop. PRICELESS NATIONAL TREASURE STOLEN FROM THE FENWICK MUSEUM. She knelt down and read the beginning of the article, before it disappeared from site at the bottom of the machine’s window. Someone had broken into the museum during the night and stole Daeghrefn. Nothing else was taken; nothing else was disturbed. The police were still trying to figure out how the thief even got in and out, all of the windows were locked from the inside, and the door alarm was tripped.

She thought about buying the paper, but when she fished out her change and counted it, the choice was either read the paper or get something for lunch. Today was sushi day at the cafeteria; no way was she going to miss that. The bus arrived within another minute, just as ReaNeko, running at top speed, reached the bus stop.

All during the day, BekkaNeko was distracted. She kept thinking about the sword wielding elf and the stolen Daeghrefn. She just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a connection somewhere. At one point during Basic Algebra, she sat staring out the window. She noticed an old elf standing outside the fence surrounding the school.

He couldn’t have been any taller than her shrunken by his years. He was wearing a long coat, hanging open. Underneath was a Fenwick University T-shirt, mostly hidden by his lengthy wisps of scraggily white beard. The elf’s head was covered by a backwards baseball cap with white hair slipping out from under it. He seemed to be staring at her intently and rubbing something between his fingers. It looked like a medallion on a silver chain, but she couldn’t really see it.