"True. But where can you go to pick up a Cherufe hitman on a weekend? It says a bit about whatever's after you that that's easier than a gun."

"Yeah, they had a Cherufe going spare or just consider that the go-to solution, I guess."

"I mean, once they have decided to kill someone, a Cherufe - or possibly exotic nonsapient monsters in general - is their go-to. They have a knack with them, they have an exotic nonsapient monster handler on the payroll, they have no liquid cash to get an untraceable sniper rifle but they do have a garage full of Purina Cherufe Chow, whatever."

"Right, yeah, I got that part - I just do not approve of them. So I suppose we should start trying to figure out who had at least one Cherufe at their beck and call at that time and could get one to Forks within a weekend."

"I think maybe we should check to see if there've been weird fires elsewhere in the general northwesterly area. In case the Cherufe has been camping out receiving instructions for a while before you splashed it and may have been succeeding at other tasks."

"... Brr, that's a scary thought. I'll look up weird fires when I get home, that's important information to know."

"It was leaving a strange enough trail that it might have looked like arson, I can ask Charlie to see if there's anybody worrying about serial arson among the cops in case there's a pattern news reports wouldn't mention."

Darren nods. "Sounds good. I guess maybe we could also ask Mrs. Adams about bugbear senses, and ask if she knows much about its habits or its route before it found us?"

"Yes, that's a good idea," agrees Bella, snapping her fingers, "and if there's any - I mean, it's more likely to be some kind of critter, right, than a human? If there's any critters around who aren't ruled out on account of obviously not wanting me dead."

"It could be a human that has been made aware of critters and knows magic," points out Darren. "Or something to get a Cherufe to work for them, some leverage of another sort or something."

"What's the relative population of critters and critter-aware humans, though?"

"More critters to critter-aware humans - I don't have the actual numbers, but... Usually a human gets told if they're best friends with or spouse of a critter. Neither leads very well to large numbers."

"So, most likely a critter, and Mrs. Adams can find those - although I guess it could be a critter like Angela who knows about things but hasn't turned."

"Yeah. So it's probably a bad idea to rule out other options, entirely. Unfortunately."

"Yeah. But critters are people of interest, at least. Even if they aren't in fact trying to kill me. I think I'd like to know more critters."

"Fair point. Okay, we can see about meeting the critter community in and around Forks for reasons other than extremely justified paranoia," he teases.

Bella giggles. "We can start a club."

"We can! What should we call it? Hopefully something funny and clever."

"Oh, you've gone and set the bar awfully high there."

"I have. I will settle for nothing less, now. Excellence only."

"Well, there go all my ideas, I hope you have something good in mind."

"... Nope! Nothing in the slightest."

"Well, then your high standards might not be satisfied."

"I don't know what I'll do if they aren't! I might cry, Bella."