THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD Written by & copyright of Foxonian Foxonian@aol.com Featuring Cassie and Foxonian (Cassie's husband) Cassie, the Rock & Roll Vixen http://www.cassietherockvixen.furtopia.org Please read the prequil, "Taste Of Life," Featuring Cassie, Shiva (Cassie's security chief) and Foxonian (Cassie's husband) at http://www.cassietherockvixen.furtopia.org/taste_of_life.txt Please read the sequil, "The Temptress," featuring XXXXX at http://www.cassietherockvixen.furtopia.org/the_temptress.txt All characters created by & copyright of Earl Bacon except Laretta, who is created by and copyright of Andre' Cotton, Alex, who is created by and copyright of Donna Fritz, Vixina and Cloudchaser, who are created by and copyright of Cloudchaser Shaconage and Victor & Ben, who are copyright themselves. The Long And Winding Road “That should just about do it,Cass.” Slim said with a pause. The Rock Vixen stood next to the otter furry-morph as the last of the band’s equipment was loaded into the huge semi trailer parked just outside her home studio. It was going to be a 4-month tour starting in Los Angeles. Normaly Cassie would have been eager to get on the road again, but things were not normal now. To start,she was still worried about her husband. His “encounter” with the silverback furry-morph vixen/vampire named Shiva still haunted her. Despite Shiva’s assurances that he was fine and that she hadn’t been in contact long enough for him to “change”,the Rock Vixen did not want to leave his side. In fact, she really didn’t want to tour any more period. It wasn’t like she needed the money. All of her investments were doing quite well and both she and Foxonian owned all of their possessions outright. As she stood with her human like fur covered arms folded across the waist of her light blue ankle length denim dress, the furry-morph vixen knew that she was doing it for the other gals. Cindy, her furry-morph snowleopard bassist was sinking in debt. She and her boyfriend, a tiger morph named Victor and sank all of their savings into Victor’s furry-morph surfing business and they were losing money. Most of it due to “Humans-First” hate group punk gangs that had been harassing furry-morphs visiting public beaches on the west coast. Even though such behavior was blatanly illegal, Human police officers and Lifeguards tended to look the other way when it was going on. Things were so bad that Victor had to close most of his shops and was down to just two. The Tiger insisted the Cindy go on tour, not only for the extra revenue the both needed,but to take the snowleopard’s mind off of their current predicament. Things were also not going well for Alex. The artic fox and her lynx NYPD boyfriend were on the verge of going their separate ways. Mainly due to Rafe’s continued police work and rumors of possible infidelity on his part. Alex was so distraught, she hadn’t left her apartment for almost two months. The wolfess Laretta, the band’s rhythym guitarist, went to see the artic fox 3 months ago at Cassie’s request. Laretta fouund that Alex spent her days sleeping, watching televison and waiting for Rafe to call. A few times she had gone to the police station to ask about him, but the officers on duty always told her that he was “on assignment” or “deep undercover” and they couldn’t revel to her where or how to contact him. The artic fox noticed that several off the officers,both human and furry-morph would snicker to themselves each time she asked that question. Calls to the lynx’s answering maching were never responded too. So one day,according to Laretta, she sat outside Rafe’s apartment waiting for him to show up. Spent a day sitting in front of the door, leaving only to relieve herself or to eat at the restarant across the street. On her last trip back, she thought she saw an unmarked police car pull up to the building with Rafe inside. Then, the person driving the car would spot her and then speed away without discharging anyone. After that, Alex feel into her deep depression. The wolfess said that Alex just spent her days in her underwear watching the TV (although she did bathe and change her bra and panties daily) and waiting for the phone to ring. After much arguing, Laretta managed to get Alex dressed took her to see a local psychiatrist. Laretta kept Cassie updated on the Artic fox’s progress. Then, last month, Alex called Cassie. She said that she was feeling like her old self and that she had started to play the drums again. She begged Cassie to go out on the road one more time, saying that she needed it. The Rock Vixen agreed with her. The one thing that bothered Cassie was how Rafe had treated that innocent young lady. As far as she was concerned, if he was deep undercover, he had better stay there from now on. If either Cassie or Laretta got hold of him, he would be running for cover. That much was certain. The breeze began to pickup, causing Cassie’s huge mane of black head hair to ebb and flow. She adjusted her black neck choker with it’s oval blue centered gem and reached down to pick up her guitar case. Inside was the Les Paul Artsian gutar that Foxonian had given her for Christmas. She planned on using it as her main instrument on the tour as a sign of devotion to him. “Thanks Cass, See you at Logan!” Slim said as he climbed into the passinger side of the Semi’s cab. “You bet! Thanks Slim! See you there!” the Rock Vixen replied as the semi pulled up the long driveway and down to the main road. “Can I say goodbye?” a human voice said. Cassie turned to see Foxoinan, dressed in black boots, jeans and a wool sweater that said “UMASS” standing in the front doorway of their converted ski lodge. Cassie ran up to him and threw her arms around her husband in a passionate imbrace and kiss. “Hate to leave you, Hun. But…” Cassie replied with tear in her right eye beginning to form. “I know. But,you know you have to. Just go have fun. I’ll be okay,” Foxonian said as wiped the tear away. “Okay, I just worry about you and about Shiva being here,” Cassie said. “Well, if I recall, Shiva’s staying here was YOUR idea. You felt that she would know what to do if I suddenly took a turn for the worst, remember?” Foxonian said with a smile. “I know. That’s what worries me. I want to stay with you.” Cassie then dropped her head and looked away from her husband and lover. Foxonian took his right hand and placed in under her muzzle then kissed her again ”I’ll be fine. Please go. I’ll feel better if you did. Okay?” “Okay” Cassie said. She then threw her arms around Foxonian and held him tightly for a moment. With great reluctance, Cassie picked up her guitar and walked down to the new dark brown Grand Cherokee SRT8 that she got a few weeks back. Opening up the tailgate and securing the gutar inside, she glanced up and Foxonian. As she shut the tailgate and walked over to get in the driver’s side, she yelled out, “I LOVE YOU!!!” and then waved to her husband standing the doorway. “I LOVE YOU TOO! BE GOOD!” Foxonian said as he waved back. The Rock Vixen smiled,then got into the jeep. It was going to be an interesting tour.She wondered,however, if it was going to be the last. THE END