Dream Stepped

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

04/22/98:

"Ken!" Naomi said, running accost the main room of the
house. Ken caught her just as he was closing the door,
hefting her up and walking into the room.

I looked up from The Book, feeling a little bit of hope. I
had not seen any sign of Ken sense the attack, eight days
before. I hoped his presence now meant good news.

As he walked towards me he set Naomi down. She smiled and
followed after him, keeping just on his heals.

"Good news I hope?" I said, closing my book and setting it
down onto the table.

He didn't answered, looking slightly concerned as he sat
down in a chair across from me. His eyes where sunken, and
the scales that made up his skin seemed to have lost some of
there color. I wondered how much sleep he had managed to
get.

"Newt," He said, looking down at the child. "I would like to
talk to Oriana on private. If you go up and play in your
room for a bit, and don't come up, I'll be up soon to teach
you a new trick."

She smiled at him, her face beaming. Nodding her head she
took of running up the steps and slamming her bedroom door
closed behind her.

Wavering his paw through the air he muttered a few words.
"There," he said to me, "her door is locked for now, we will
remain private."

As he spoke he slumped down into his chair, his skin become
ever paler as his whole body, except around his eyes. There
the skin was almost black, seemingly reflecting the light
around his eyes.

"When was the last time you sleep?" I asked, genuinely
concerned for him.

He shook his head. "Days, I don't think I've even eaten
sense I this happened."

I started to stand. "I'll get you something then."

He shook his head again, motioning for me to sit back down.
"No, I can last for a few more days before I must eat. Where
is Sora?"

"She and Jadith are working together on something. They
didn't tell me quite what." I answered.

He nodded this time, as he did I noticed a small like of
darker skin under his chin. A scar, from where Fox had
attacked him.

"What about Fox, where is he?" He asked.

I sighed, and turning to look out the patio door, out onto
the dock. Fox was there, laying in the sun, curled up and
maybe sleeping.

Ken followed my gaze. "Fox," he called out to her. There was
no response.

"Rhea," I called. This brought her attention, she sat up and
twisted her head around to look at us. Then she slowly
stood, stretching her body out, and padded into the house
and over to us.

Ken looked at me, starting to ask a questing.

"She hasn't responded to Fox in a couple days," I answered
before he could voice it.

His eyes narrowed, a look of worry passed over his sunken
eyes. Bending over he reached out to touch her on the back
of her neck. He stayed like that for only a few seconds
before sitting back into his seat.

"What is it?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "Does the language patch that Burke gave
you work?"

I nodded. "Yes, she can understand us when we talked to
her."

"I assume then," he said leaning back a bit. "That you
called her 'Rhea' in Fox's language."

"Oh, yes," I said, remembering, "you don't have the patch."
I bent over to coffee table and grabbed the small disk.
"Here," I said, throwing it at him.

He caught it with ease, his reflexes still strong even if he
was tired. Placing it against the back of his head his eyes
seemed to blank out. After a few seconds he looked back at
me, setting the disk on the small table next to him.

"Now that we have all that done, what have you found out?"

He smiled just a bit. "You have some interesting enemies."

"I know." I answered.

"No you don't." He replied. "This are your enemies. This
curse was made for you, not Fox."

I found myself speechless. That was suppose to be me,
Thryn's eyes! I had no idea who are why, but suddenly I was
very worried.

Ken continued. "It was an accident that it effected Fox, an
error in the spell."

"What?" Was all I could manage to get out.

"The style of magic was interesting, it done as if
programming a computer, with the same type of errors." He
took a slow breath. "To be as simple as I can, it was made
to watch for you and attack you."

I shook my head. "I go through that entryway about once a
day when I'm back. Why didn't it go off."

He nodded, "Yes, exactly the problem. As far as I understand
the spell takes a few seconds to prepare before it's cast.
It uses your biological information to tell if it's you or
not, and if you leave, or if someone comes in after you. The
problem was that it was set for your species only. When Fox
was in the field with you it through the spell off. It
didn't shut down like it should and it cursed him."

I drew in a slow breath, this was incredible. I understood
what had happened, but it was just amazing.

"This isn't all," Ken said, "part of the spell was also the
real mind of a lioness. This part was made very specially to
overlay over your mind, you would have only been an observer
in the body. I think the idea was that once the change was
finished, the real lioness would attack, and maybe kill,
those around you. While you watched helpless."

"Oh my," I said letting the breath out of my lungs as I took
another slow breath.

He looked down to were Rhea was laying. "With Fox though, it
didn't take right away, some parts overlaid others did not.
It's still going on as well. The long I take to break this
the more of Rhea will take over from Fox. There will come a
point were breaking the spell will be useless, Fox will be
gone." He shook his head as he said the last part, as if he
couldn't believe it himself.

I gulped, I would not lose Fox, not like this. "How long do
we have left."

"Only a few more weeks, two, maybe three. After that..." He
just left it there. We both understood what was left after
that.

"Then you had better take care of yourself," I order him. "I
want you awake and alert. Like you are you may miss
something that could save him."

He smiled. "I know, after I go appease Newt I'm going to put
myself to sleep for about a day. I'm not about to lose him
either."

Slowly he stood up, mumbling under his breath. As he did he
looked much heather, the color coming back into his skin. An
illusion, I was sure.

Looking down to where Fox lay he sighed and started up the
steps towards Naomi's room.

I let my head flop back agent the couch and looked up at the
ceiling. Ken would find a way to undo this, I knew that well
enough, he had to. If we lost Fox... I don't know what would
happen. To myself, to Naomi, or anyone else, but I did not
think it would be good.

Someplace during this time I fell asleep. I didn't notice,
but then I only do when I'm sick. I did know when I started
to dream though. I found myself in a grey darkness, empty
except for two figures just in front of me.

One of the pair was Fox, the other was a lioness-morph that
I didn't recognize. I guessed that it may have been Rhea.
They where sitting, facing each other, playing some kind of
card game.

Stack unevenly in front of each of them was a pile of chips.
Some were blue, others red, but the majority were white. The
lioness had the most of them, and seemed to be gaining more.

"What is this?" I asked, hoping for some kind of response.

"Metaphor." Came Fox's answered from behind me.

I spun around to look at him and was shocked. It was Fox, be
he had changed. He still looked human, but now he had a
small muzzle, as well as furred tail that was sweeping
slowly behind him, a lion's tail. His eyes as well had
changed, becoming slitted, though still remained his normal
dark blue color.

He walked up to me, his hands stuffed into his pockets. "The
game's about me." He said, looking past me.

I turned back to look at the two figures who where playing
there game. "I don't understand."

He shook his head. "I know, simply though the game is about
who I'm going to be once this is over. The winner gets my
body, what ever that happens to be." He sighed, "Just that
Rhea is a damn good player and she stacks the deck."

I sighed. "I wish I could do something to help."

He smiled. "You're staying with me, believe it or not that
is helping."

I nodded.

"Also," he said, smiling a bit wider. "This is not totally a
dream. I found that if I tried, hard, I can do some sort of
telepathy, if people are open to it. This is the first time
I've succeed with you.

"Fox..." I said, unable to add anything more to the
sentence.

"I could understand what you and Ken were saying, even
through the control Rhea already has." He shook his head.
"Programs and magic just don't mix."

I nodded again, acting like I understood what that meant.

He sighed. "The more Rhea wins against me, the less of me
there actually is. She places herself over my own mind, my
own memories. She's only staying with you because she at
least knows that I want to be with you during this. Once I'm
gone though, once she is in control, she will leave."

He shook his head. "I'm having a hard time believe this is
happened!" He said, "I even have a hard time trying to
think."

"What?" I asked him.

"My mind is become simpler then before. I'm losing parts of
how I think. It's much simpler now, a lot of words and
images. It's an effort of will to speak in full sentences."

"You'll be fine Fox." I told him.

"Listen, there's something you need to do, something
important." He said, starting to look considered. "It's
about the Mouse."

I had heard him mention something about the Mouse before, in
passing, but nothing directly to me. "What about hir?"

"What's today, the Earth date?" He asked.

I paused, thinking for a few seconds. "The twenty-second of
the month."

He smiled. "Good, on the twenty-fifth you need to got
Mydisia base. All the details are on a PADD in the kitchen.
You need to meet a vixen there, if she's there at all. She
will be willing to help us."

I nodded. "I'll do that."

He nodded, and smiled again. "One more thing. This is going
to be the only time I can do this."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes, very. I'm not going to be here enough to pull this off
a second time. I can barely keep us talking now." He sighed,
then took his hands out of his pockets to grab my shoulders.
I saw they had changed as well, almost paws, his fingers
just stubs.

"I'm not going to remember this later Oria, I can't remember
the start of it. So I want to tell you this. I didn't
understand until my mind started to change. If we recover me
I don't know of I'll remember how clear my thoughts were."

"What are you talking about Fox?" I asked, looking him right
in the eyes.

"When all this is over, I may not remember this, but I will
eventually, don't worry about it." He smiled at me.

"What?" I asked.

Bending over he kissed me on my nose. "I love you." He
whispered to me as he moved away.

And with that statement still echoing in my ears I woke up.

-----

This story is (c) 1998 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.