Conversations

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

04/05/97:

I leaned over the railing of the second floor, looking out
over the living room. The house was acutly in some decent
condition, Sora actuly haveing cleaned up somewhat.

She, was down in the living room, laying on her belly on the
floor reading a book, and slowly streaching out her wings.
It actuly was rather pretty to watch.

Tapping my fingers on the raling, I muttered under my
breath. I still had no luck trying to place her speices. Or
rather base speices as it was.

She looked like a canine of some sorta, she had the body for
it, mostly. She was like a mix of all the different species
of canines out there. Though I still couldn't think of
another one that had the same pail red eyes.

Then there was the wings an even biggere mistery. I've seen
specaes that eveloved flying after they started getting
larger, but the wings where usualy part of the arms, eithor
as flaps of skin on the side of the body, or hyper-exteneded
fingers.

A six-limb form with wings was rare. In fact the only
six-limbed shapes I've ever seen where some breeds of
dragons, and gryphons (both morphic and four legged).

I looked down at her again, watching how her wings fanned
out to about ten feet total. As she said, not enough to fly
with. Though gliding could be done well.

She shifted her poitions a bit, and flipped her tail around.
I tilted my head a bit, thinking over some of her form. I
looked over the shape of her body as a whole, from her
plantagrade feet to the tip of her muzzle.

I smiled a bit, if the ears were a lot bigger, and the tail
a lot smaller, she would look a lot like a bat. Even with
six-limbs.

Suddenly it hit me up side the head, "Of course." I said,
slapping the railing. A bat! How stupid of me. I didn't even
think about her NOT being canine in some sense. If she was
morph of a six-limbed bat, then it would make a lot more
sense, the reselbelence to canine was just a resembelec.
Acidental, or a left over from there evolution.

"Of course what?" Sora asked, looking up at me.

I shook my head. "Nothing, nothing at all." I said, smiling
a bit. Then walked back over to the kitchen table. Sitting
down I started going over the padd that was laying there. It
was the regestry information for my ship, I was still going
over it so I could launch.

I even still hopped that Oriana would be there, but I wasn't
sure now. She had gone off again after her stay (three days)
at the hospital. The hospital was happy to have her go,
there was nothing wrong with her, and some of the nurses had
be starting to talk about how she had come in covered in
someone elses blood.

Something I still wanted to know about too. I had tryed to
talk to Marn after he had his chat with Oria, but he brushed
me off, and told me that it was her decision to tell me.

Oria wasn't to forth comming on that herself. She keep
chaing the subject when I asked her about it, finaly I just
gave up. I know her well enough that if she will tell me
when she wants.

In the two weeks sense she left, I haven't heard anything
from her at all. I've sent Page off again trying to find
her, still with no luck.

I also wanted to know about Marn. Page had told me that she
handn't found anything on him in her searches, but I wasn't
buying it. It was something in the way that she said it, it
just seamed like a lie to me. Though I didn't know why she
would do something like that.

The truth is, something about Page was starting to rub me a
bit wrong. Every now and then a glance out of the corner of
my eye, or how she says something to me, or half a dozen
other things.

It could have been perfectly normal paranoia, or I could
have been right, I just didn't know.

With a sigh, I punched the last button, and sent the
regestration for the ship off.

"Giving up?" Sora asked from right over my should.

I jumped about three feet into the air, spinning around a
bit. Sora was trying very hard not to laugh, her head bent
down, her paw on her muzzle, hidden behind her wings as they
wraped around her body.

I shook my head a bit. "What do you mean."

She composed herself, mostly, and looked up. "With the
ship... you've been putting off sending the registation
sense your friend left again. Are you giving up on her
showing up?"

Letting out a sigh, I said. "Yes... mostly. She knows about
the ship, I told her while I was with her. She may not want
to see me."

Sora frowned a bit, pulling out a chair and sitting down.
"Why not?"

I told her what happened with Oriana, some of the small
things, and how she just walked out. I think she understood,
though I'm not sure in what way.

After I finished tell her all of this, she nodded a bit. "I
think I understand. I also think you should have seen it
months before it blew up in your face."

"So do I actuly, it's all so obvoice, now. Proving that
hindsight really is always 20/20."

She snickered a bit. "I don't think that translated right."

"I'll explain it later."

She grined. "I'll make sure of that. So, what are you going
to do about this?"

I shurged. "I don't know what I _can_ do. She knows how I
feel and that's not going to change. I could tell her 'I'm
sorry' but that won't do any good, I don't think. I hope I
can at least let her know that I didn't see it. Guess I'm
blind even with my glasses."

Sora sighed a bit. "She'll have to get over a lot to come
back you know."

"I know. I doubt it would be easy to find out someone you
though loved you really was only a friend."

She nodded.

"I just miss her, and I do want her back. I may not love
her, but she means a lot to me. I've already lost so much in
the past few months... I really don't want to lose her."

She smiled a bit. "She means a lot to you." It really was
just a statment.

"Ya... after all is said and done, with everything falling
down around my ears, and the HammerHeads, which I feal guilt
about keeping her in the dark on, and then losing my
world... she is a good friend... the kind I've so rarely
had, and always seam to lose."

Sora reached over and patted my hand. "If her love for you
is a hundrith of the strength that your friendship for her
is, she will come back someday."

I nodded, I really did hope so.

-----

This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints limited to one a
person, all other rights reserved. This story may not be distributed for a
fee except by permission of the author, and this copyright notice may not
be removed.