Once More, Unto the Breach

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

07/10/97:

    Chapter 1

I looked down from the deck, and over Fox's small party.
There wasn't much of a crowd, but he hadn't invited to many
people. Fox was sitting at the end of the dock chatting with
Rachel, and Oriana and Kalie where off to the side playing a
game of chess, though Oriana didn't seem to be able to keep
her interest in it. Ken was at the barbecue cooking up some
stakes, at the same time talking to Page who was setting up
the rest of the food.

I was on run to get some drinks for everyone, but I just
couldn't resists standing there, watching the second sun
set. It was amazing, as well as beautiful, and even after
seeing it for so many times, it still felt as new as the
first time.

Pulling my wings close to my body, I smiled a bit, and
stepped back inside, getting the drinks everyone asked for.
I was happy, almost enough to forget what awaited me if I
ever returned home, but that was for later. Right now there
was a get together to get to.

Heading down the steps, holding my tray steady so I wouldn't
spill anything, I noticed that there the message light was
blinking on the computer. I made a note of it has I went
outside, intending to mention it to Fox.

I quickly passed around the drinks to everyone else, then
headed down the dock to Fox and Rachel. I handed Rachel her
drink, and handed Fox his tea.

"You got a message waiting." I told him.

He glanced at Rachel. "Do you mind?"

She shook her head. "No, not at all. It may be something
important."

He smiled. "Right now very few things are more important
then this." Then standing up he headed back down the dock.

I was about to follow him when Rachel spoke up. "Why don't
you sit down, I haven't gotten a chance to talk to you at
all."

I shrugged with my wings, then sat down in the folding chair
that was set up on the dock. "I'm Sora by the way."

She nodded. "Thank you, I wasn't to sure. Is any more
introduction in order then that?"

I shook my head. "No, Fox as told me a lot about you,
especially after I came here."

She nodded again. "He did mention he had gotten a new friend
on his trip, I never did press it. So, what do you think of
Prid?"

I laughed. "You know something, no one has asked me that
yet! I actually like it here, the two suns are nice, and all
the different species here. I though we were diverse back
home!"

She smiled. "It is something isn't it. It's not that easy to
keep peace as much as I would like."

"So I've been told."

She motioned with her drink. "So, do you have any family?"

I shook my head. "My parents both died nearly two years ago,
and my sister has been dead for nearly twenty-two."

She frowned. "I'm sorry to here that."

I frowned. "Don't be. It's lucky for them right now. My clan
is not in the best position currently. That's partly why I'm
here."

She nodded a bit. "I won't press it then."

I was going to reply, when I heard Page ask, "Fox, are you
all right?"

Both Rachel and I turned in unison. Fox was standing just
outside the doorway, his face very pail, almost white. He
looked over us for a second then slowly spoke. "Ken, Kalie."

The dragon and otter gave him a curious look.

"It's started."

Both of them looked at each other, then Ken asked. "Are you
sure?"

Fox nodded. "Yes, totally."

Kalie started walking towards Fox, as she did so I watched
him pull out a the portal controller from his pocked. He
held it up and a bit to the side. Kalie grabbed it as she
walked past, not missing a beat.

Oriana walked over to Fox. "What's started? What's going
on?"

He glanced at Ken. "Something all three of us have feared
for over three and a half years."

Ken slowly nodded. "We had hopped that it would never
happen, and all of us where suspecting that it wouldn't as
it's been so long."

Next to me, Rachel stood and started down the dock. "Explain
you two. What's going on that's gotten you so shaken up?"

Ken and Fox shared a glance, then said, in perfect unison.
"The Krege is invading."

"Which is?"

Fox cleared his throat. "Krege is a kingdom, and a man. He's
started his invasion against a small part of his world that
wrestled there life and lands back from him."

"In fact," Ken said, "It was where he started his empire
from before. We helped to force him out, and put someone new
on his throne. It didn't lessen his control on the rest of
the lands he has taken, but it did free his once capital."

Fox frowned. "It wasn't exactly a legal thing to do. Krege
wasn't much of a tyrant, or evil exactly. He just neglected
his own people spending most of his time expanding his
empire. We didn't understand that until we were up to are
necks in it."

Ken continued, "none of us are proud of what we did there,
and we all feel if we had know the truth at the time, we
would have never helped."

Fox nodded. "I suppose it's some kind of luck, that in the
final battle, the real tyrant that we were fighting for was
killed."

Ken smiled some. "Actually, for a bit there Fox here was
King."

Fox chuckled. "Oh gods yes, though I wasn't to fond of it. I
actually told Draz that he was in charge as he left, the
look on his face was amazing. I guess I've been away long
enough that I've forfeited my claim, and made him King."

"And now the real King is returning." I said as I walked
down the dock.

Both of there faces fell. "Yes," Fox said, and we are going
to go defend it. At least this time we'll know what we're
fighting for."

About half a minute past in silence. Both Ken and Fox spent
the time staring at the ground while Oriana, Rachel and I
spent it staring at them.

Finally it was broken as Kalie walked back out of the house,
a bundle slung over her shoulder. Throwing it onto the
ground she pasted the controller back to Fox.

He took it, then bent down and opened the bundle. Inside
laid three strange looking types of rifles, as well as half
a dozen swords, each in a simple leather scabbard.

Fox looked up at her. "A little extra on the blades don't
you think?"

She shook her head, picking up a shorter length sword, and
wrapping it around her middle. "I was expect some aid
actually. I assume you told them the story."

Fox nodded. "Most of it." He said, picking up a sword of his
own belting it on his waist.

He then stood up, and looked over the rest of us. "Ken,
Kalie and I are honor bound to do this, the rest are not. I
do not ask any of you to follow us on this, but I'll take
volunteers."

Oriana walked over to him, her tail twitching slightly. "You
think I'm letting you out of my sight again? I'm coming with
you whether you like it or not!" Then picked up one of the
shorter swords and put it on.

Page put up her paws. "Hate to say this, but my Grandfather
told me never to get involved in anything midevil. Anyway,
what use would you have for a computer geek when your short
the computers?"

Fox nodded a bit.

Rachel shook her head. "You know my answer."

Fox nodded again. "Yes, the Council wouldn't be to happy if
there head goes gallivanting accost the universe."

Finally all eyes turned to me.

I shrugged. "After hearing so much about your adventures, I
might as well take part in one." Then walking over I picked
up one of the swords, and put it on.

Fox smiled at me. "I'll have to give you a crash course in
how to use that." He said.

Ken nodded, and picked up the largest sword in the pile,
which made sense as he was over seven feet tall. "I suggest
you all get anything else you're going to need. I'll kill
the barbecue out here."

Fox nodded back, and headed inside. Both Oriana and I
followed. Oriana herself headed upstairs to her room, and
Fox went strait to the computer.

I followed Oriana upstairs, and into Fox's, mostly now my,
bedroom. Stripping down just to my panties and bra, I
changed into something a bit more practical then a skirt and
blouse, namely some jeans, one of Fox's t-shirt (back
modified for my wings) and lastly my cloak.

Putting the sword back on, I adjusted it a bit so the hit
was right under my right paw, and made sure it was covered
under my cloak. Then I headed back down to the main room.

Oriana was already there, now wearing that trench coat she
so loves, with that little patch over her left breast.

Fox nodded as I came down, finishing up what he was doing
with the computer. He picked up two small circles of
something, and handed one to Oriana and one to me as I
finished down the stairs.

"This is the language download." He explained. Then walked
over to the couch picking up his army jacket, and pulled it
on.

I looked at the disk for a second, then suddenly remembered
what to do. Pressing it against the back of my head, I did
my best to tell the translator there to download it.

I must have gotten it right, as a low buzzing filled my ears
for a few seconds. When I stopped, I pulled away the disk
and dropped it on the table.

Fox glanced at Kalie and Ken as they walked in, Page and
Rachel following them. "You two ready?" He asked.

They both nodded.

"All right then." He said, catching one of the strange
looking rifles as Kalie threw it to him. The other two each
had one slung over there backs already. Fox followed suit by
swinging his over his shoulder.

He looked at Rachel. "I'm sorry about this." He said.

She nodded. "I understand, just come back alive ok?"

He nodded, then clapping his hands together, he said, "lets
get this show on the road." Then turning, headed out the
already open front door.

I was about to follow, when someone grabbed my on the
shoulder. Looking back, I saw Page looking at me, a
concerned look on her muzzle.

"Do me a favor please," She said, "stick with him as much as
you can. He'll need you before this is over."

I tilted my head. "How do you know?"

She frowned. "I don't have time to explain, but when you get
back I'll let you know everything, ok?"

I nodded. "All right but--"

"No time," she cut me off, "get going."

Nodding again, I went through the front door, as well as the
t-port curtain. The others were already a bit down the
hallway, and ran a bit to catch up.

I didn't have far to go as Fox quickly stop in front of what
I assume was a fold. Looking back at me and Oriana he said,
"You should note, the native species of this world is wolf.
So be careful."

Then he turned, and looked hard at the air in front of us.
It quickly rippled, and opened into a portal. Slowly we all
step through Fox going first, and I was in the rear.

Stepping through the fold, I found myself on top of a stone
walkway of some kind, and with company. Surrounding the five
of us was ten guards, five on each side. Most of them had
swords drawn and held ready, though two were pointing the
the same type of rifle Fox had at us.

Kalie shook her head. "Nice welcome." She muttered.

    Chapter 2

It wasn't the welcome I was expecting to get if I ever had
to come back to this world. I had no intentions of ever
returning without the invitation we had received, but I had
at least hoped not to have weaponry pointed at as as soon as
we arrived.

"Begone fowl demons!" One of the guards yelled, jabbing his
sword a bit in our general direction. I saw Sora grin a bit
next to me, apparently finding some amusement in that
statement.

"I resent that." Fox said. "I am _not_ fowl!"

The guard who had spoke was taken aback by this, it not
being then answer he had expected. He finally seemed to
recover a bit. "You admit to being a demon then?" He asked
softly.

He smiled. "Now I wouldn't go as far as saying that."

Now the guard really was confused, the others edging forward
a bit.

"I would," A familiar voice said from behind us. Turning my
head around, I watched as Draz passed down the battlements
towards us. The guards behind us separated as there King
walked through there mists.

He stopped in front of Fox, sizing him up a bit. "You've
changed." He said, his voice soft in the chilled air of what
looked like evening.

"You haven't changed yourself."

"I suppose... I am glad you came back. Things have gotten
out of paw, badly." He then turned towards me, his cloak
billowing a bit in the wind. "Ken, thank you for being here
as well."

I nodded. "We happened to be together when you broke Fox's
'Coin' so we came as fast as we could."

He smiled, then looked towards over at Kalie. "I fear we
will need your mind for what is to come."

Kalie frowned a bit. "If it comes to that, yes."

Draz then looked behind us. "I see there are two more in
your misted."

Fox nodded, and stepped aside. "This is Oriana and Sora." He
said, pointed to each in turn.

Sora bowed her head, fanning her wings out from under he
cloak slightly. "It is a pleaser to meet you your lord."

He smiled. "I wish it could be during better times. All of
you welcome, and thank you for coming to our aid. The light
is starting to fade though, so I would like you to come in,
I can inform you of what has been happening."

Fox gave him a sharp glance. "No formalities please, what
has happened?"

Draz frowned a bit, then waved his paws at the guards who
were still surrounding us. All ten of them snapped to
attention, and seemed to vanish back into the castle in just
a few seconds time.

He then sighed. "Look that way." He said, pointing behind
us. Fox turned, pushing past us and walked down the castle,
until he was at the wall that looking in the identical
direction.

Fox let out a low whistle. "Guess who's coming to dinner.
Guys come here and take a look at this."

We walked over to where Fox was and looked out over the
battlements. In the distance, maybe twenty miles away, was a
low hill one side cut by a large canyon, the crest was dark,
a brown and black ripple. First I though I was looking at
the ends of a fire, then it finally came into focus.

It was a line of troops, close to a mile long. They where
all camped out for the night, with small camp fires dotting
the hill. They where only a day away by a still march, and
then, after a day of rest, they would attack.

The castle would only stand for a clawfull of hours.

* * *


"I knew Krege would eventually want this place back, but I
didn't expect him to bring in half his army to do it." I
said, walking down the steps behind Draz.

The wolf shook his head. "Which is what I don't understand.
Up until five months ago we had full negotiations with him.
Nether of us wanted a war, not over this valley. It came as
a shock when are last messenger returned with a message
amounting to give it back or else."

I frowned. "Before that everything was going well?"

He nodded, turning around a corning and walking though a
small door into the dinning hall. He walked over to the head
of the table and sat down in the larger of the pair of
chairs that dominated over the table. He then motioned for
the rest of us to sit with him. I sat next to him, the
others following down the table.

Finally he answered my question. "Yes, it was. He understood
why we did what we did and was willing to allow it to say
out of his kingdom, to just left us to live on are own."

I steepled my fingers. "From what I have been told about
Krege, this doesn't sound like something he would do. If he
was willing, he would stay willing. Something must have
changed..."

"Clearly Fox... but what? No messenger I have sent after has
returned."

I nodded, leaning back a bit as one of the castle's servants
placed a plate of food in front of me. The same type of
plate was put in front of the rest of us, with the exception
of Ken who got a larger plate of very lightly cook meat.

Oriana, who was sitting accost from me, frowned. "So what
exactly are we suppose to do? We are slightly out numbered
by a few thousand to one. We just can't charge at them, it
would make a massacre look like small picnic."

Kalie, who was sitting next to her, nodded. "I suggest you
send a message out to them at dawn. Find out exactly what
Krege want's, we maybe able to save this situation before
there is any blood."

Draz nodded. "Yes, though I sent out the messenger just
before you arrived. He should return in the morning with any
news."

"How about recon?" I asked, causing Draz to give me a
perplexed look. I tried to explain, "what exactly are we
going to be facing if we do have to go head to head?"

Draz nodded. "The recon is in progress," he said with a
small frown, taking a sip of his wine.

Sora shifted a bit in her seat next to mine. "What about the
Captain of the Guard? Should he be here as well?"

He coughed. "She is doing the recon," he said with a deeper
frown.

I nearly gagged on the wine the I had been sipping. I forced
it down in a painful gulp. "Thrysten is out there?" I gasped
out.

The wolf nodded slightly, his ears twisting a bit. "She is
safer then you might expect. She is doing an aerial scout as
she calls it."

I pushed my plate away. "She doesn't have the wingspan or
the power to fly more then twenty feet of the ground. This
is not her world, she can't safely fly here!"

Oriana and Sora were now starting at me, Sora looking more
interested then anyone else. Ken and Kalie where just nodded
to themselves. They agreed with me.

Draz took another sip of his wine. "She has a toy the castle
wizard made for her, she will be safe enough."

I grumbled to myself, pulling my plate back and eating
slowly.

"Speaking of your wizard, I would like to speak with him. We
maybe able to create some kind of defense for the castle if
we come to blows."

"That will be a problem." A very familiar voice announced
from the main doors of the dinning hall. We all twisted
around to look down the length of the table. Walking through
the doors was the subject of the last bit of conversation.

It was Thrysten, she was a gryponess morph standing about
six feet tall. She was dressed in the clothing of this
world. A pair of lose cloth pants, in dusky brown colour,
and a green silk blouse which she was lacing up along her
chest. She gave it a final pull with her thin talons.
Steeping around us she sat down next to Draz, spreading her
feathered wings around her, her tail sliding easily though
the back of the chair.

I felt myself start to smile, this gryphoness was a great
friend, even if she had only been with me, Kalie, Ken for
only a couple of weeks before she decide to stay on this
world with Draz. I had missed her a great deal in the four
years sense I last saw her.

"What would that problem be?" Ken asked, leaning forward a
bit over his empty plate.

She reaching inside of her blouse and pulled out a small
sea-blue gem on a string that she let fall to her breast.
"The problem is that are castle wizerd was killing in his
bed four months ago. We have not found a replacement yet."

Ken frowned. "Then I will do what I can do alone."

Oriana sat forward a bit. "As there been any other
assassinations sense you last talked to Krege?"

She shook her head. "None that I have been aware of."

"Strange deaths in general?"

"Only the old Captain of the Guard. He was thrown from his
horse about a year ago." She then turned to me. "Fox, who is
this person and why is she so interested in this?"

"My name is Oriana Shripon, and have some experiences in
this field." She said, glaring at Thrysten.

I shook my head, not liking where this conversation was
leading to. Fortunately I didn't have to find out. The large
doors of the dinning hall opened and in rushed a guard
dressed in riding leathers. He was clutching a scroll in his
paw and panting hard. It was the messenger Draz had sent
only an hour before.

    Chapter 3

Draz shot out of his chair as the messenger approached him.
"Why have you returned so soon?"

The messenger stopped a few feet from him. "I encountered a
messenger from Krege, he gave me this and said to bring it
to you." He healed the scroll in front of him, as if it
could shield him from his Kings anger.

Draz took the scroll. "You may leave." The messenger relaxed
slightly then scurried out of the room.

"A final ultimatum?" Fox asked as Draz broke the seal the
scroll.

Draz quickly read over it, his eyes bouncing over the
parchment. He then gave a short nod. "Yes, it orders me to
send a Royal Envoy tomorrow at dawn to discuss terms of our
surrender. It also says that if I do not, he will starts his
march to battle."

Fox frowned, "so what should we do?"

Thrysten clicked her beak lightly. "I would suggest exactly
what they ask."

I shot a stare at her. "Right, good idea, and who ever goes
is also a convenient hostage. Sounds like an idiot plan to
me."

She twisted her wings a bit. "No, it is not. I've seen
exactly what kind of enhancements he has. We won't stand a
day when he finally does decide to attack. A reprieve of a
few hours will greatly aid us in planning some kind of
defense. Maybe even avoid the battle intently with out
losing the castle."

"But who ever you send probably won't get back alive, and if
it's a Royal Envoy that will be the King losing his life.
Not to mention--"

Fox cut me off by clearing his throat, I looked over at him.
He frowned at me, and said, almost to calmly, "Oriana, do
shut up."

I felt like a slap accost my muzzle. He had never told me to
shut up before, he always said he disliked using the phrase.
Felt it was to crude. The fact the he had said it meant that
I had gotten him mad at me. It hurt.

Looking down at my paws, I started to stand up, only to feel
Kalie's paw on my shoulder. "Stay here for now." She
whispered, pushing me back down.

I sat back down and took a drink of my wine glass, which had
been refilled outside of my notice.

Fox shook his head a bit, then looked at Thrysten. "What are
his enhancements? What should we expect to be hit with?"

She frowned, her flexible beak twisting a bit. "To many, you
can see how much man power he has just by looking in that
direction. It's over the hill that is what we need to worry
about. He has a dozen battalions of dragons poised and ready
to attack, half of them big enough to drop boulders on top
of us, while the other have is burning us."

Draz looked surprised. "He would destroy the castle to get
this land back. That is not something he would normally do.
If he is willing, it maybe much harder to try and end this
peacefully then we had though."

Thrysten smiled at him, and took his paw. "I expect that I
can do a good job of it."

Draz shook his head. "No, I can not allow you to go into
this."

"We've had this discussion before. I am not like the other
women in this world--"

He cut her argument short. "No, of course not, but you are
my Queen," I jumped at this announcement, I suppose it was
obvious, but I didn't see it. Neither did anyone else from
the way they all jumped as well.

Draz continued. "The Queen can not be the Envoy, and neither
can the King. Someone has to be selected to carry the Royal
seal with them to be the Envoy."

She sighed a bit. "Who then?"

There was a pause, that grew longer. Slowly everyone's eyes,
even mine, turned to Fox. He must have been thinking the
same thing because he started to shake his head.

"I don't think that would be a good idea." He said, raising
his hands in his defense. "Ken or Kalie would be better, of
even one of your guards, not me."

"I can't go," Ken said, "I need to be here, to go though
there old wizard's lab. To try and find something that may
help us now. Kalie needs to stay here and plan for the
defenses of the castle. You though are perfectly suited for
this type of negotiations."

"I'll go with him," I said, "seeing the two of us together
may shock him enough to try and settle things a bit closer
to how we want."

Draz nodded. "Agreed," he then turned to look at Thrysten.
"Would you keep an eye on them from above and report back
the if anything untold happens to them?"

She reached up and clenched her Gem in her talons, and
though for a moment. "Yes, I believe that should not be a
problem."

"Actually it should," Fox said, "Your not unnoticeable in
thr air." He stopped, and shook his head. "What am I doing,
I haven't even agreed to this yet.

We all looked at him again.

He let out a pained groan and ran his hands over his head.
"I guess I have then."

The King smiled. "Very well then, the servants will escort
you to your rooms. It is night now and we need to rest,
things will be getting hectic in the morning."

Fox sighed a bit, but pushed away from the table, we all
followed him. One of the castle servers appeared out of
nowhere and took my arm, starting to lead me to one of the
side doors in the Hall.

"Wait," Thrysten said, suddenly beside me. "I wish it speak
to her for a second."

The servant nodded, and was instantly gone again.

"You said your name was Oriana?" She asked.

I nodded, suddenly getting nervous as my eyes darted around
the dinning hall, which was empty of all but a servant by
the door, me and the gryphoness.

"Well then Oriana," She said, hooking one of her talons on
the collar of my shirt. "I am the Captain of the Guard for a
reason, and it's not because I'm the Queen. I had to fight
long and hard to achieve this position. So if I have a plan,
by all means make suggestions on how to improve it, but do
not say it's a fool's idea. Do I make myself clear?" She
said pulling me closer to her.

I felt a growl starting at the bottom of my throat, I healed
it back though the best that I could. This was not the best
of times to be getting her mad at me, that could wait till
later.

"Yes." I finally said with distaste.

She let go of my shirt. "Good." She said, smiling a bit,
then turned around and walked out of the room, her lion's
tail bobbing as she went.

I felt myself deflate, shaking my head a bit. Instantly the
servant was back at my arm, leading my out of the hall. I
let him, suddenly finding myself very tired.

He led up a flight of stone steps, down a couple of touch
lit halls, and into a small room. He left me there, closing
the thick wooden door as he left.

I sat down on the bed with a thump, and rubbed my wrist arm,
which was starting to hurt. I was about to strip as much as
I dared (the bedding looking rather bug infested) and go to
sleep when there was a knock on my door.

I sighed, walking over to the door and pulling the massive
thing open. Fox was standing outside, his jacket off and
looking disappointed.

As he saw me, he strained up a bit. "What the hell was
that?"

I turned away.

"Why did you try and make Thrysten look like a fool? You
have never done anything like that before. This is not like
you. So what exactly was that?"

I though about it for a few seconds. "I don't know." It may
have been a flat answer, but it was the truth.

"Think about it then," He snapped, "because this is not a
time to be at each others throats. Wait until this is all
over then jab as much as you want, then I won't care as much
as I do now."

I started to blush, I was actually embarrassed that Fox had
to tell me this. I hopped he couldn't see it in the
flickering light from the torches on the wall. "If this is
over, I don't exactly think it's safe to sleep in there
tonight." I said, motioned back into my room.

He smiled a bit. "Don't worry Oria, we are not going to be
attacked during then night." He answered, not understanding
that I meant the bedding in the room.

I didn't have to time explain myself because, almost as if
cued by his statement a shadow separated it self from the
rest of the wall. It formed it self into one of the local
people dressed all in black.

He sweep his arms down in a flash, and was suddenly tightly
holding something thin and black against Fox's throat,
choking him.

    Chapter 4

People trying to kill me is something that seams to happen a
bit to often for my tastes. All right, so after my exile it
has mostly stopped, but that's because I'm not gallivanting
off through out the universe trying to be the Doctor.

Actually... I'm not sure why I've stopped doing that, it was
fun.

Except at times like this, when someone is actively trying
to kill me. Though being choked from behind by some kind of
wire is a new one on me. Though it wasn't as bad as it
seemed.

My attacker had the bad luck of snagged my collar under his
line, which gave me a bit of slack to breath, though not
very damn much.

I acted instantly, reaching back and grabbed my attackers
paws, trying to get more slack on the line. It didn't work
very well, as all it did was make him pull harder on the
line. I changed my tactic to something that would work a bit
better. Digging my fingers into his flesh I kicked backwards
with my foot, catching his knee.

I didn't hit him very hard, but he still changed his balance
to lessen the blow. Which was what I wanted him to do. As he
reacted, I let my own knees give way, starting me falling,
leaning forward as I did so, I pulled him with me.

My attacker was off balance and didn't seem to have a clue
as to what I was doing. He tried to pull back from me, then
to twist, neither one work. I pulled forward with my arms
and upper-body just as I landed, knees first, on the stone
floor, and rolled forward until my head was touching the
stones.

Looking up, I found that my plan had worked. My attacker was
now laying on the floor in front of me, looking rather
startled. He hadn't expect me to throw him the way I had, or
even throw him at all!

I scrambled to my feet before he could react, and just as he
started to stand up on his own, I jumped. It wasn't a jump
very far, and only about a foot high. It was where I came
down that counted.

The heel of my foot landed on his left knee cap.

There was sharp crack as his knee shattered under my weight.
The wolf went deathly pail through his fur and started to
yammer softly, then his rolled back as he passed out.

I took step back a few feet so I was next to Oria, the whole
attack had taken about thirty seconds, though it seamed like
longer. I looked back down at my attacker and shook my head.
"Pesky ninjas."

Oriana for her part had her Needler gun out and in her paw.
She gave me a pained look. "You where in the way, I couldn't
find anyplace exposed on his body to shoot."

I nodded. "I understand, though shooting the hostage is
acceptable at times."

She frowned, puzzling this over. "I suppose," she said with
a sigh, slipping the high tech gun back inside her trench
coat.

I draped my arm over her shoulder. "Are you OK?"

She gave me a strange looked, then laughed softly. "Me?
Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

I rubbed my neck. "Other then a small bruise, I'm fine."

Kalie stuck her head out the door to her room, she started
to say something then noticed the downed wolf. "Oh... that
answerers my question. Anything left for me?"

"Nope," I said, looking around the hallway. "I think it was
just the one."

She stepped into the hallway with us, pulling on her
clothing (what little there was of it) as she came out. "I
see, pity."

Ken joined the rest of us by poking his own head out of his
door. "I though I heard a fight out here." He said, before
noticed my still unconscious attacker. "I see." He
continued, walking over next to Kalie, pulling his foreclaw
out of his satchel.

I frowned. "Someone doesn't like that I'm here."

Kalie bent down to look at the wolf. "You did this Fox?"

"Yes." I said with a frown.

She stood up, whipping her paws of on her fur. "I don't
think this boy is ever going to walk again. Good job."

I shook my head a bit, then looked away. She didn't mean it
as an insult or sarcasm, she meant it as that I had done a
good job. It kind of hurt actually.

"I suppose we should warn Sora that people are trying to
kill us," Oriana said.

"I'm surprised she didn't hear the scuffle," I said, walking
over to the door I had seen her go through when I was shown
my room. "She isn't a heavy sleeper, so she would have to be
awake."

I gave a quick rap on her door with my hand. After waiting a
few seconds I did it again. The door didn't move, and I
didn't hear any sounds on the other side. Suddenly I was
worried.

Leaning against the thick wood of the door, I forced it
open. As it swung inwards, I got a whiff of the air from
flowing from inside. It was cold air, very cold, and damp.
It smelled strongly of dirt and mud, as well as a bit of
mold.

Wiggling my way inside, my worries became fears. There had
been a struggle in the room, her bedding was spread over the
room, and her sword was throw against the wall by the door.
The wall on the far side of the room was open, blowing the
cold air at us, along with the occasional cobweb.

I swore, then pushed past the others and back into my room
to grab my sword and jacket. I ran back only stopping to
grab a torch from the wall. "Oria, you find Draz or Thrysten
and tell them about what happened. Ken I want you to check
our rooms for any more hidden doors and shut them up. Kalie
you and I are going after her."

Kalie smiled, and unsheathed her sword, holding it in one
paw easily, bouncing a bit. I shook my head, and drew my own
sword. Then holding the torch in front of me I entered into
he passage way.

Nothing attacked us as we went in, which was a good thing,
and who ever had taken Sora had left some very clear foot
prints, which made it easy to follow in the maze of twisting
little passages, all alike.

We also traversed a few sets of stairs, all going downwards,
at times either Kalie or I would catch something that
sounded like foot steps, but neither one of us was ever
sure. After maybe ten minutes, we finally found the first
that went up. Following it, nearly running, we burst out
into the back of a stable.

Sticking the torch in a free wall mount, I ran outside,
Kalie next to me. We were accost the moat from the castle,
and I found that going from the semi-light to the black of
night made it almost impossible to see.

"Damn!" I swore under my breath. "Can you see anything
Kalie?"

"A few trees, that's it. I don't see anyone else though."

"Fuck!" I muttered, forcing my sword back into it's sheath.

* * *

"I didn't even know the castle had passages like those."
Draz said with a frown.

I sighed, looking back into Sora's room. "Sad way to find
out."

"I can't think of why they Krege would want your friend
Fox."

I frowned. "I can. He wanted you, and told his kidnapers
that you were the one with wings. They just found the wrong
one."

She nodded, then kicked the side of my attacker, who was
still laying in the hallway. "At least this bastard can
telling us something when he wakes up."

Ken walked over to us. "I found two other doors, both have
been closed. I suggest though you find out where they all go
so you don't have any more surprises like this."

Draz nodded. "I'll have guards on it as soon as this is
over. I also have a pair of guards on the entrance in the
stables."

"And hope that's the only entrance." Oriana said, taking my
left hand in her paw.

I sighed. "I'm not sure what Sora will say or do here. She
may tell them our plans, or she may not, I don't really know
her well enough to say. Though I think we need to change
them now."

"Right," Kalie said, "First is that you should have an armed
escort if you are going out there tomorrow."

"No," Draz said, his voice suddenly carrying much more
authority. "This is to be a Royal Envoy, and that is part
trust, there can be no guards."

Kalie stood up straighter. "Then I'll go instead of Oriana."

I felt Oria squeeze my hand tightly.

"No again." Draz continued. "If Sora knows anything about
you, or if Krege does, he will know that you are in ensconce
the same thing."

I sighed. "My only suggestion is not to have Thrysten above
us. If he knows about that it will lose any advantage we can
gain from it."

Both Thrysten and Draz smiled at this. "Your friend does not
know how I will do this," Thrysten said, "nor how to find
me. I will not be seen."

I frowned, but finally nodded. "So there is not much we can
change. Though Ken, I think you should check the late
wizard's lab now, in case something has been done to it."

He nodded. "Good idea."

Kalie suddenly twisted around. "Where's Oriana?"

I looked around, then back into Sora's room. "Maybe she's in
her own room."

"She would have had to gone past me." Kalie said, walking
into Sora's room, her short whiskers twitching a bit.

"Is this there tactic, kidnape us one by one?" Draz asked
from behind me.

"No," Kalie said, walking back over to us. "Oriana left a
note, though I don't understand what it means. You have any
idea Fox?" She asked shoving it into my hands.

I frowned, reading it out loud. "Dear Fox, I've gone to do
some work, I'll try to be back soon. Please say a prayer to
Thryn for me. Love Oriana." I then looked at it again, the
meaning sinking in.

I remembered that she had been clutching my left hand.
Looking down I gulped when I saw that my watch was open.
Oriana has stolen my Matrix chip.

And she was going to use it to help her try and assassinate
Krege.

    Chapter 5

"What the hell do you mean by she's gone to kill him?!"
Kalie demanded by smashing her fist against the small table
she was standing behind.

Fox sighed. "Exactly what I said. Oria stole my Matrix chip
and went to assassinate Krege."

She sighed, sinking down into a chair, sitting sideways to
allow her tail some access. "What is this Matrix chip
anyway?"

"A very fancy disguise using small force shields to produce
an effect shape of the local population."

Kalie perked up. "I think I've seen one before, Page had it
when we first met. Sort of an explosion of light."

Fox smiled. "Yep, and with the shielding a lot more accurate
then Ken's magiced images that we used before."

I scoffed. "My current one's are by far less obvious then
they used to be."

Kalie shook her head. "That's is all nice, but we're
drifting from the point of this discussion. That being what
we are actually going to *do* about this?"

"We can't tell Draz," Fox stated, stepping away from the
wall where he had been leaning. "He would want her hunted
down and killed. I think Thrysten might understand, but I
don't want to push our luck there."

"And if she does kill him it will make sure there is the war
we all want to avoid." I stated. "We have to find her before
she tries to do anything."

"Finding her will be easy." Fox said with a frown, rubbing
his forehead with one hand.

"What part makes it easy?" Kalie asked. "That fact that she
doesn't stick out at all, or that she could be there all
ready killing him as we speak."

Fox walked over to stand in front of the room's fireplace,
still rubbing his head. "Because she can't get there very
fast. Her world has nothing like a horse, or even the
concept of riding an animal. So unless you taught her Kalie,
she's going to be walking, meaning she won't be there till
morning. Second, this is the first time she has chooses to
assassinate someone, she's going to take a lot of working
trying to convince herself to do it. Finally, even with the
Matrix she will be easy to stop. She's going to want to stay
close to Krege, and I'm going to be talking to the man
tomorrow. She'll be the guard or soldier or whatever that
isn't shocked when they see me."

Kalie hissed a bit. "Ken, what do you think of this mess."

I shook my head, pulling my wings around myself. "I think
this is the best we're going to be able to do. With whatever
Thrysten has planed I suspect we will have a better chance
at it. Still though Fox's way of finding Oriana is tenuous
at best."

Fox turned to look at me. "I don't suppose you have a better
idea." He snapped.

I nodded. "Do you have any of Oriana's fur?"

He started to protest, then paused. Slowly he started
digging though his jacket pockets, he then reached up and
felt around the collar of his jacket. He let out a small
'ah-ha' and pulled lose a small clump of golden-tan fur.

I walked over and plucked it from his fingers and started to
dig into my satchel. "I can make a small spell to show you
the direction she's in. A floating arrow that only you can
see."

He nodded. "Good idea."

I pulled the second table over in front of me, then pulling
out a few ingredients started to work them in a wood bowl. A
little of the fur, and a few added spices. Along with some
spell base (a thin white paste I keep pre-made) and some
energies on my part it was done.

Actually, it wasn't done, it was a small white, furry lump,
the size of a pebble.

I plucked it out of the bowl and gave it to Fox. He took it
from me and looked at it in distaste. "I swallow it, right?"

"Just say tre'talon."

He raised an eyebrow. "Tre'talon?" He asked, invoking the
spell. The pellet puffed into smoke and Fox stumbled back.

Waving his hand in front of his face he smiled a bit.
"Interesting spell, this should make it a lot easier to find
her."

"It will get darker the closer you get to her. When it's
black she'll be just a tail lengths away."

Fox nodded, and rubbed his neck. "Ok... now that we have
that taken care of," He turned to Kalie. "I would like one
of your guns."

She blushed, looking down a bit. "Oh Fox, you don't think I
would have brought any do you?" She asked, trying to sound
innocent.

He crossed his arms. "At least three."

She nodded, reaching behind herself and removing a gun that
was hidden under the cloth and in the fur at the top of her
tail. She reluctantly handed it over to Fox.

He took it, and gave it a once over before secreting it some
place in his jacket. "Clips?"

She handed him two spares, which he stuffed into the pocket
of his jacket. "Right now, what else can we do here?"

"Sleep," was my suggestion.

Fox sighed, "You guys can do that."

"Still not sleeping?"

He shook his head, then winched. "No." He said then started
to rub his forehead.

"What's wrong?" Kalie asked, interrupting me as I was about
to say something else. "You've been rubbing your head sense
Oriana vanished."

He frowned. "I've been fighting an headache sense we got
here, it's gotten worse all night."

I frowned myself, tapping one clawfinger against my side.
Fox got headaches a lot, it was part of who he was, but if
he had a one that started when we arrived back here, that
could mean the spell I had put on him before was starting to
break down.

I stepped over to him. "I think I can help on both counts
tonight."

He looked up at me. "Oh? How exactly can you?"

I closed my eyes halfway and concentrated. It was a very
familiar spell I was doing. I had done it on myself so many
times I didn't need the simple adds to help me control it, I
was able to shape the magic purely in my mind. As I shaped
it I let it flow into Fox, wrapping him in it's power.

He could feel it, the look on the face told me that. He
opened his mouth to protest, and yawned. Slowly then, taking
only a few seconds, he fell into my arms, sound asleep.

"Will that last till morning?" Kalie asked.

I nodded, lowering him to one of the pads on the floor. "It
will last until I break it. He needs a full sleep, very
badly."

She nodded, walking over to her own pad, which was on the
other side of the room. "Then I suggest we follow him for
the night."

I smiled. "Yes, we should," I said, dropping my satchel on
the floor and laying myself down beside Fox. We had all
moved to one of the smaller common room's in the castle,
having decided to try and stay together as much as we can,
not wanting to lose anyone else.

Kalie dropped of to sleep quickly, her light sores drifting
though the room. I still had work to do before I could rest.

I pulled Fox up against myself, and wrapped my arms around
him. I could fell the three spells of my own resonating with
my touch. Closing my eyes, I felt them with my magic, easily
finding the oldest one.

It was crude and badly formed, and was starting to break
down. I was surprised that it had lasted as long as it did.
I was also a bit amazed at how crude my own magic was.
Either way though I had to do this. Delving into the spell,
I started to rebuild and reinforce it, so that what it was
hiding would stay hidden from Fox for the rest of his life.

* * *

I was unceremoniously dumped onto a dirt floor. A pair of
paws dug into my arms and pulled me up onto my knees. There
was a few mumbled words and the sack that had been pull over
my upper body was yanked off.

Blinking I tried to clear my eyes a bit. I was in what
looked like a tent, the floor was trammeled grass, not dirt,
but felt about the same when I landed on it. On one side of
the room was two men. One was sitting in thickly padded
chair. The other was slumped down in a small chair to the
side. He looked like he might have been tied into it.

The one in the larger chair, I assumed it was the Krege that
we where going to be dealing with. He looked over me, and
frowned. "Guards, please leave."

The pair of solders who were standing next to me snapped to
attention, then left the tent. Krege stood and walked over
to stand in front of me. He bent down to look me in the
eyes. "You are not Draz's pet bird, are you?"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Perceptive aren't you?"

He shook his head. "Well, I did tell them to bring me the
winged one, how was I suppose to know there would be
demons?" He sighed a bit, "what other atrocities will Draz
commit to keep this valley?" He said turning back to walk to
his chair, sitting down in it with flourish.

I laughed. "Demon? Hardly, you're the one with out the
wings." I fluttered mine a bit to demonstrate. "That makes
you the demon."

He raised his eyes a bit. "Really now, that is a strange
view of us. Where did you come from."

I stood up, stretching my wings out more, working on a few
small cramps that had formed while I was dragged around. "I
can with Fox, Kalie and Ken."

Krege face seamed to freeze, his ears laying flat. "Fox is
here again?"

I nodded, folding my wings down and folding the tips down
onto my chest. "I believe I just said that."

He smiled, sitting back in his chair. "That is an unexpected
pleasure. I get to remove Draz and kill Fox, this will be a
good year."

"From Fox's history I don't think he's going to be to easy
to kill."

He grinned. "He will die though."

"Why?" I snapped at him, "Because he helped take your own
capital away from you?"

Krege raised an eyebrow, sitting forward a bit. "It was not
my capital, it was Krege's here." He reached over and
smacked the wolf in the chair next to him. "I on the other
paw have a more personal grudge."

I looked at the real Krege, he was now leaning forward in
the chair, drooling a bit. The only real active part of his
body was his eyes, which were so blood shot they looked at
red as mine. He was staring at the wolf I had been talking
to with the most pure look of hate that I've seen in my
life.

"Then who are you?"

He smiled and raised his paws in front of his face. "I am
the Prime Minister of the Krege empire. But you may call me
Salden."

"And why are you on that travel throne?" I snapped at him.

He grinned, standing from this throne. "Krege is ill, as you
can see. Until he recovers I am King." He reached down and
pulled out a small bag from behind the throne. Reaching
inside he pulled out a small paper packet. "It is also time
for his medicine." He put the bag back behind the chair,
then clapped his paws.

Krege had watched him do this, and was now struggling as
much he could, which wasn't more then a few twitches. A few
seconds later a guard walked in carrying a goblet of wine.
Salden took it from him, then opening the packet he dumped
the fine powered inside into the goblet, he mixed it with
his finger while walking over to Krege, dropping the packet
on the travel throne.

He pushes Krege's head back and started to pour the wine
into his mouth, doing something to force him to swallow it.
While he was distracted doing that, I jumped over and picked
up the packet, shoving it into one of the pockets of jeans.
I decided that if Krege was so afraid of this he problem
knew what it was, and I was sure it wasn't medicine.

Salden suddenly turned around, standing less then two feet
away from me. He's face contorted, "How dare you approach
me!" He bellowed into my face, then grabbing my shirt threw
me a few feet accost the room.

"Guards! Take this... _thing_ some place and dispose of it!"
He yelled, sinking back down into the travel throne,
dropping the goblet to his side.

A pair of solders ran into the tent, one grabbed by left arm
and the other grabbed my right arm, he also wrapped an arm
around my neck. They pulled me backwards out of the tent.

"What exactly are we support to do with her?" One asked the
other.

There was a pause. "I suppose we should kill her." The other
replied.

"Do you want to kill a demon? Do you think it can actually
be done? And if we did, what would happen to us?"

The second guard growled. "If we don't kill her _we_ will be
killed!"

There was a another pause as they dragged me along. The
first guard spoke up again. "What about the pit at the edge
of camp, the one where we dump the camp waste. The wizard
said it was bottemless."

There was a laugh. "Yes, she does count as waste doesn't
she!"

Then turned sharply, pulling me in a new direction, past
more tents. After a few minutes they thinned out until there
was no more left. Finally they stopped, each one changing
there grip on my body. Then one said something I missed and
I thrown forward. I was over a deep pit, sliding down at
about a thirty degree angle and was completely smooth. The
was the last I saw of it as I landed face first, my head
smacking against the stone as I slid down, forcing me into
unconsciousness.

    Chapter 6

I was jarred awake by the feeling of a hand descending on my
shoulder, and a voice whispering my name into my ear. I
turned over a bit and yawned, rubbing my eyes a bit and
finding that I had sleep with my glasses on.

Adjusting them slightly I sat up and looked around the room.
It was much lighter now, the tapestries that had been
covering the window at night had been pulled aside to let
the sun light stream into the room.

"How's your head?" Ken asked from beside me.

"Much better actually." I said, stretching my arms out. "My
headache is totally gone."

He smiled. "That is good." He said, pulling his satchel over
his shoulder.

I stood myself, dusting my shirt off a bit, Kalie had all
ready left, to breakfast I assumed. "What did you do to me
last night?" I asked, remembering the feeling of magic that
had washed over my from Ken.

"I made you sleep."

That was an answer I didn't expect. "I though you said you
couldn't make me sleep again?"

He nodded a bit, his head dropping some. "I can't, not
normally. Last night I forced you into a magic sleep, and
you would have stayed asleep until I woke you up again. I
use it on myself some times when I need to sleep, it's not
exactly safe but it works well."

I frowned as I processed all this. "Oh... that is something
a bit unpleasant to know... I... please don't do it again?"
I said, looking into his eyes. The fact that he could for me
to sleep like that scared me a bit.

A small look of pain fluttered over his face, then he slowly
nodded. "I won't then."

I sighed, I had hurt him with that. "Come on then, we need
to eat, and we have a long day before us." I told him as I
walked towards the door out of the room. He followed, though
didn't seem very happy. More so then what my actions had
done.

Halfway to the dinning hall I finally decided to ask.
"What's bothering you Ken? Something I did?"

He shook his head. "Nothing from what you did Fox. I'm just
re-thinking something I did years ago."

That didn't sound good. "Here?"

He nodded his head again, lowering it a bit more. "Yes, I
don't want to talk about it though."

I frowned, that sounded really bad. "When you want to then,
I'll be here to listen."

He gave me a pained look, then nodded. "Thank you."

I smiled back at him as we both walked into the dinning
hall. It was a bit brighter in the morning, lit by the sun
though the windows and not by the torches, or the always
going fire.

Kalie was there all ready, as well as Thrysten and Draz. All
three where talking to each other about something. I assumed
the possible defense of the castle.

Thrysten was the one who noticed our arrival. She smiled and
waved a foreclaw at us. "Good morning, come, break your
fast."

Never one to disregard an invitation for food, I sat down
accost from Kalie. A servant instantly was next to me,
putting a plate of eggs and ham down in front of me, as well
as a goblet of wine. He was almost instantly gone. Looking
around the room I noticed there where actually three of the
castle's servers waiting by the door to the kitchen. In fact
as I though about it I realized that they where most
everywhere in the castle, they just vanished from my
attention.

I shook my head a bit and started into my food. Ken sat next
to me, receiving the same fair, though slightly rawer.

"Are you still planing to do this alone?" Draz asked, the
questing was clearly aimed at me.

I nodded, swallowing a mouthful of food. "Unless you have
someone you want to take with me."

He shook his head. "No-one that would not make this
situation worse then it is."

I frowned, with Oriana out there, it quite possibly was all
ready worse. I could still see which direction she was in
too, thanks to a ghost like arrow that was floating in front
of my vision. Thankfully it seemed to vanish when I wasn't
looking at it.

Kalie strained up a bit. "I think some short term defense of
the castle can be done. It will take some work, but we
should be able to stand for at least a day. Which, if you're
late wizard had prepared, should be enough time for Ken to
preform a spell to attack them."

Ken sat up at the mention of his name. "I rather believe
that there would only be defensive spells, as offensive
spells take much more power."

She nodded. "It would be enough."

"For now," I said taking a sip of the wine. I really didn't
like it, but the water here was undrinkable. To many illness
having worked there way into it. "If there is a siege on the
castle we will eventually need all the attack power we can
get."

Ken nodded softly, going back to his food.

Thrysten stood. "Very well then, Fox I suggest we get on our
way. Ken, you will want to see this."

Ken and I exchanged glances, but both of us stood, and
followed her out of the dinning hall. She went though the
kitchen and out there exit, over the small bridge over the
moat, and out into a garden, until there was a grove a
tree's between us and the castle.

"I believe you all ready know where the stable is," she
said, "you'll have to get there yourself. Ken you will need
to return to the castle immediately after this is done."

I nodded. "Should not be a problem... now I assume you'll
finally tell us how you plan to fly with out being seen?"
There was a trace of sarcasm in my words. Thrysten had come
from a world with a lower gravity, which allowed her to fly
there. Anyplace else it took a lot of work just to get off
the ground.

"I will show you." She said, and started to unlace the top
of her blouse, though I think bodice is the proper word for
it. As she started to open it I turned on my heal, so my
back was to her.

She laughed. "When did you become a prude Fox?"

"Just trying to preserver your modesty." I responded.

She laughed again as her shirt flew over my head. "In this
place there really is no such thing. Being Queen means I
have no real privacy. Ever time I take my cloths off a
servant is there to help." This time her pants went though
the air above my head.

"Why are you doing this anyway?"

"Because it's a pain in the tail to get new clothing." She
said, her panties following the rest of her clothing. "Now,
please turn around, I want you to see this."

I gulped a bit, and turned. She was totally nude now, except
for her gem, which she was holding in one of her foreclaws,
her finger like talons wrapped around it gently. She was in
profile to me, so I wasn't seeing anything to unmentionable,
but it was still embarrassing. Ken thou had moved to take in
a better view, which was normal for him to do.

Thrysten let a smile play accost her flexible beak. "Watch."
She said and spread her wings, and spread them and then
spread them further.

They where growing larger, expanding in side, her feathers
thickening as well. The growth sending ripples though the
fur and feathers of her chest. I noticed then that the gem
was glowing in her talons. This was clearing the source of
her change.

The change didn't stop with the growth of her wings though.
It seemed to expand outward from them. The growing mussels
under her skin started to pulling out, pushing her chest out
farther then it was pleasant to look at. At the same time
her breasts where getting smaller, until there had vanished
into her body entirely.

With a loud snap she fell to the ground, landing with one
foreclaw propping her up, the other still holding the gem.
Her legs where perched on her toes as her feet started to
lengthen, while the rest of her legs shorted, as well as
thickened. Her upper body was changing as well, spreading
out as it thickened, her arms getting longer, her foreclaws
becoming talons proper and digging into the ground.

With a second snap her head swung upright, as her neck
thickened. The shape changed, becoming larger, her beak
growing longer, and hardening. Her eyes spreading out as her
shape finally settled into place.

She let go of the stone, which fell to her chest, and sat
back onto her haunches, a very proper looking none-morphic
gryphoness.

"Master," Ken whispered, "A norm-shift stone."

Thrysten nodded her head. Then squawked and nodded towards
the castle.

"I think you're being dismissed Ken. Though you can talk to
her about it later I would assume."

Ken nodded a bit, his eyes glazed over slightly. Though he
didn't move. Finally Thrysten squawked at him again. He
jumped a bit then nodded, this time going back to the
castle.

I smiled as he vanished though the trees, then looked at
Thrysten. "So that's how you can fly. Impressive."

She flared her wings slightly, and bent her head back to
preen some of her feathers. I chuckled, she was clearly
proud of it.

"Right then, the stables are this way?" I asked, pointed in
the direction I though they were.

She nodded a bit, then crouched down, fanning her wings out
slightly. With a heave of her hind legs she jumped strait
up, maybe ten feet into the air. As she rose she spread her
wings, forcing them down at the high of her jump. Her
wingspan must have been thirty-five feet. Three times Sora's
wingspan and ten feet larger then Kens.

She rose into the air, beating her wings again, easily
carrying herself over the trees and into the sky. I smiled
to myself, and started to the stables, suddenly feeling a
lot safer going to see Krege.

* * *

"What the hell do you think your doing?" I scolded myself
for the thousand time. I had been doing it sense I left the
castle the night before. I was being an idiot and an ass, as
well as a fool.

I had no idea what possessed me to actually start out to try
and assassinate Krege. It was ludicrous, the whole idea of
it made me ill.

Yet here I was, disguised as one of his solders, wondering
around his base camp. I felt, sort of numb, not like before
when I had been forced to kill, this was different. I had
chosen to do on my own, and it frightened me.

I tried to justify it to myself by saying I was going to
rescue Sora, as much as she annoyed me, but it didn't wash.
It always came back to the same thing.

I was planing on killing someone. Willing walking in to do
it. It frightened me on some level, but I couldn't feel it.
It was like 'I was going on autopilot' as Fox would say.

I had actually tried to find Sora when I first got to the
camp, only to be told that she had been killed the night
before. That... shocked me, badly, and made me angrier then
ever. Sure Sora was a pain in the rump, they way she always
help me in contempt for being a Madam, and how she treated
me when I became an assassin...

I am an assassin... funny, no one has said that phrase since
I acutely passed the review. Maybe it was out of a sense
decency, or just disbelief, but I was never called an
assassin. I never even though of myself as one.

I looked down at my paws. I could still see the blood of the
ferret I had killed. I still don't know what his name ways,
just that I had killed him. Every time I looked at my paws
they blood was there, soaking into my fur, my pads and my
claws.

I think it will always be there.

Finding a boulder to sit on, I keep looking at my paws. I
had considered killing myself a thousand times since I
became this. I probably would have if Fox hadn't taking me
back to Prid. Then again that wasn't all his doing, I did
see Thryn's Gems on his hand. If I hadn't, I probably would
have refused to go.

All that was a moot point though. I was on a different
would, trying to help clean up a mess Fox left behind
himself, and I was doing by planing on killing there leader
of the bad guys.

Talk about being stupid.

If I did manage to assassinate him it would make things even
worse. Whoever his second was would go berserk, and destroy
the castle, Fox, and everyone else without a second though.

"Unless," I whispered, my training suddenly kicking in, "it
looked like his second and killed him. Then it would seem
that he did it to insure a battle." It was a good plan too,
if his seconded went into a rampage while it looked like he
had killed Krege, who ever was under the second would assume
he did it because Krege was going to workout a deal. They
would take over and would workout a friendly surrender
because they would believe that Krege wanted that.

I stood, smiling. It would actually work, the problem would
be making his second look guilty. Though a little well
placed blood and an unbelievable story, curtsy of Fox's
Matrix chip, would make him...

'WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING!!!' I though to myself. I was
actually planing this out, simply, easily, I was actually
working out how to do it and to make sure it worked.

I looked at the sword belted around my waste. I didn't know
how to use it, but it wouldn't be too hard to fall on it,
point first. I just would need a secluded spot where I my
body wouldn't be found, except eventually by Fox. I was sure
the Matrix chip could be traced back to where I was in some
fashion.

Reaching for the hilt of my sword, I undid the leather strap
holding it in, and slid it out just a thumbs length. All I
needed was a place to do it at, then it would be just a few
quick moves, and I would be dead.

Dead... that had an unpleasant ring to it, but there was
nothing else to do. I had just proven to myself, I really
was an assassin. I was trained for it, well trained... I had
achieved highest score in seven years in my review with the
Guild.

I found what looked like a good spot in the distance, maybe
an hours walk away. Pushing my sword back into it's sheath,
I started towards it.

I only got a few feet before someone barked. "Boy!" Right
into my ear, then grabbed my shoulder, twisting me around. I
found myself nose to nose with one of the higher ranked
solders in the camp. I started to panic, this could turn
very bad, very quick.

"We've been ordered to escort in a guest to see Salden."

I frowned, they only guest they could mean is Fox, and
anyone they sent with him. Though had no idea who Salden
was, I had heard his name around the camp before, but I had
not found out anything about him. I suspected he was Krege's
second, and from the sound of how people talk about him,
rather a good scapegoat for my plan.

"Come about it boy!" The guard said, yanking my shoulder. I
had no choice, so I gave him a quick nod, and started
towards the front of the camp.

    Chapter 7

I took a glance into the sky, lifting my hand to block out
the glare from the sun. I could just make out the dark speck
in the air that was Thrysten. If I didn't know any better
she would look just like any other bird to me.

Come to think of it, I wasn't to sure it wasn't a bird,
there was a lot of specks like that in the sky. The sun made
it worse, as I was riding into it.

To add to the that, I never did learn to ride a horse, and
this one wasn't in a very good mood with me trying to
navigate him. Either way though, I was getting to where I
was wanting to go.

I pulled the horse to a stop. It looked like I might have an
escort though, in the way of about two dozen armed solders
who were currently blocking my path.

"Expecting me?" I asked with a slight smile. Most of them
jumped back a bit. I really was something new to them.

"You are to come with us," one guard, some kind of senior I
assumed as his uniform had gold hexagons embroidered onto
his shoulders.

I shrugged. "Fine by me."

He stepped forward. "Get off the beast, you will be walking
the rest of the way."

I shrugged again, and swung my leg around, sliding off the
horse. "Anything else?"

He held out his paw. "You're sword."

With a sigh, I reached around and undid my sword belt,
handing it over to him. I had expected this, which was why I
had taken one of Kalie's ever present guns.

The leader of this group nodded at two others. "Search him
for any other weapons."

The two solders were on me quickly, each one covering one
side of my body, going though my pockets and felling over my
legs and arms. They both went past my actual weapon, looking
for daggers or the like, I found that a bit surprising
actually. They should of taken that just because of how
foreign it was, that and it could have been used to
cold-cock somebody.

Eventually they stepped back into the group. "Nothing more
on him sir." One announced.

There leader nodded his head again. "Tight formation around
him, I don't want him slipping away." The solders broke
there line, falling into a tight square around me, giving me
about half an arms length from any one else.

The leader looked them over, correcting a couple of the men.
Then with a shout they all started to march, and me along
with them. Every time I got to close to one of the solders,
I was growled at. I quickly got the idea that they would
rather be killing me then escorting me.

Something else was strange though, the one next to me keep
shifting a bit, missing the march time just by a little. The
leader noticed this and had made a point of making sure the
solder knew it, still though he only improved by the
smallest margins.

I put it off as just bad training. Krege had a huge army,
and from what I understood from my last visit, a lot of
draftees on demand. So it was perfectly logical that a few
of the solders were still quite green.

That was when I noticed that the arrow still floating in my
eye sight had become black as night. I was stunned, it had
changed and I had never even noticed it! More then that,
Oriana was standing right next to me, right here and right
now, she was also one of the pair who had searched me
before, which explained why the gun had been left behind. I
had found her, now I just had to talk to her.

I though for a second, sending a few pre-set mental commands
to the translator to shut it off. There was no visible sign
of that change, nothing would show it unless I tried to talk
to someone. Slowly I reactivated the chip, but only to
translate my hearing, I followed that by setting it so that
my spoken language was translated into Oria's native tongue.

"Hello Oriana," I whispered low enough that she should be
able to hear.

She jumped, a startled looking playing accost her disguised
face. She gave me a glance out of the corner of her eye. She
finally whispered back. "I'm sorry."

I slumped a bit. "Don't kill him, it would be bad." I hissed
out, suddenly feeling anger starting to rise.

"I know, I can see that. I won't kill him."

I nodded a bit. "Good." I whispered back, then shut up as we
were starting to attract some attention.

We keep the march up for twenty minutes, as I was escorted
up out of the valley, and into the camp. I was led past a
forest of tents that the senior officers used. Finally
reaching a the largest one at the center of camp.

"Go in," I was ordered, the solders splitting in front of
me. I gave a quick look back to Oria, then reset my
translator. "Of course." I snipped at him, and taking three
steps forward threw open the fabric of the tent and steeped
inside.

It was partly lavish, a few designer items here and there,
as well as some maps on the walls. Sitting in a large chair
on the far side of the room was who I was here to see.

Walking right to him, I smiled. "And you must be Krege." I
said.

He gave me a tooth filled grin. "No... Krege is ill." He
motioned to the side of the tent where a pale looking wolf
was slumped in a chair. "I am Salden. Prime Minister of his
lands."

I took three steps back. This was an unexpected turn of
events. I was a bit shaken up. "For how long?"

He waved his paws a bit. "Long enough. Now, am I to assume
you are Fox?" He said my name with a slight roll of his
tongue, making it sound like 'fux'.

I pushed my hands into my pant's pockets. "That I am."

He smiled again. "What they say of you is true, you are a
very horrid creature. You demon was much more pleasant to
look at."

"Yes, some thing that. What did you do with her?"

He shrugged, leaning back a bit. "She has been disposed of."

I frowned... this bastard had killed Sora... The anger I had
felt before started to grow even worse. I tried not to show
it though. I gave him a smile and shrugged. "Well, she isn't
important to me now."

He chuckled, leaning forward a bit. "Yes... now we are hear
to talk about the terms of Draz's surrender."

I did not like the glint in his eyes. I was betting this man
was the reason why Draz's negotiation had been broken off. I
also got the idea that he might have caused this 'illness'
as well. I didn't expect him to want anything less then
Draz, and probably every one else in the castle dead.

"No, you are. I am here to try to end this in some peaceful
manner."

This caused Salden to frown. "I see... well then, would you
like a glass of wine?"

I shook my head. "No, I prefer to refrain from drinking."

He twisted his paws a bit, folding them lightly and resting
his muzzle on them. "Well then, sense we appear not to be
able to have a discussion, I would wonder if you would
answer a question for me?"

I pulled my hands out of my pockets and crossed them around
my waist, letting my right hand brush against the handle of
my gun. Focusing a bit I took a look at the arrow. It was
pointing behind me, and only a shade lighter. I hoped that
meant Oriana was just outside. I had the feeling that I
might have to make a run for it, and didn't want to have her
in the way if I started shooting.

"You may ask."

"Do you remember who helped you put Draz on the throne?" His
voice was suddenly dripping with venom.

I nodded. "An upstart pain in the ass little brat with
delusions of grander."

His eyes flickered over me. "Do you remember what happened
to him?"

This was definitely becoming a sour turn of events. I gently
pulled my gun out, holding it in front of myself, though not
trying to hide it. "Yes, one of his guards killed him in the
final attack. I personally think he deserved it."

Salden looked past me for a second, then back at my face.
"What is that thing?" He asked, pointed at the gun.

I raised it up, holding it to the side so anyone behind me
(like Oriana) could see what it was. "Oh, just a good luck
charm." I said with smile, as I thumbed the safety off and
pulled back the bolt of the gun, loading a round into the
chamber.

He smiled. "You will need one."

That confirmed things for me. I twisted around, taking a
step in Salden's direction as I did. Standing about five
feet away, and holding his sword ready to lunge was a one of
his solders.

We made eye contact for a fleeting second, then he ran at
me, I shot at him. I won. He lost his footing and fell to
the floor, his paws pressed against the wound in his belly.

Quickly as I could, I ran past him, and forced my way out of
the tent. I startled a pair of solders who had been standing
at attention at the entrance as I forced my way past.

Focusing on the arrow, I found a solder who was already
running towards me, as he got closer the arrow got blacker.
It could only have been Oria. As we ran past each other I
grabbed her arm and turned her around.

"Which was is out." I asked, pushing past some more solders,
and going around a corner. I could hear yelling starting
behind us.

"Behind us." She said. Her voice not fitting in at all with
what she looked like.

"Then which was is back into the hills?"

She gave me a look. "To the right, why?"

I turned right, plowing through a pair of solders. "Good
then. I think we can get into the hills and double back
thought the canyon. We should be able to get back to the
castle by late tonight."

"Won't it be a bit late?" She demanded. "By the time we get
there the attack might have already begun. We need a way to
warn them."

"It's on it's way already. Thrysten is above us remember. As
soon as I started to run she would have turned back to warn
the others."

There was a yell, and suddenly from three sides of us came
charging troops. I dogged and ran into a tent, pulling
Oriana with me. She saw what I was doing and pulled out her
sword, running in front a few paces, she sliced an arc in
the tent's fabric. She forced her way through it, and I
followed.

Outside I found she had cut her way though two tents. One
right next to each other. There was no room to go between
them, I could only go into the next tent, which Oria's tail
was vanishing into.

Diving after her, I found that it might not have been the
best of choice for an escape. We had apparently run into a
barracks of some sort. There was fifteen solders inside with
us, and they were all reaching for there swords.

Oria had stopped, not sure what to do. "Keep running and
turn of the damn Matrix chip." I said, pushing her forward.

She understood, starting to run again, speaking into the
chip-control that was built into the metal bands on her
wrists.

There was the explosion of light as the Matrix deactivated.
I had expected it, though was still shocked. All the solders
though frozen for a few seconds. Long enough to get past
them and out of the tent.

We were back between them again, this time though they where
starting to thin out. I could actually see the hills at the
end of the lane of tents, aiming for it, I started to run.

It took thirty seconds to get to the end of the lane, I find
things were not what I had expected it. Yes it was the start
of some of the hills, but it was also at something like an
seventy-five degree angle. I could climb it in about half an
hour, but that wasn't an option, and I could see no other
way up into them for about two-hundred feet.

We wouldn't be able to make it, I had seen archers in the
back of the crowed that had ambushed us. They would shoot us
down before we got even half way there.

The only other real option was a slanting pit to the side of
us, that smelled like it had been used for the camps refuse.
It was a way out, I was sure no one would follow us there,
but I didn't think we would be able to find our way out
either.

I looked at Oriana, she was pulling up the sleeve of her
trench coat, reliving some kind of device strapped to her
right arm.

"What is that?" I hissed.

She frowned, looking down at it herself. "It's a climber,
Marn gave it to me. I can use it to get up the hill, but it
can't lift more then my own weight." She started undo some
of the bits of it.

"I looked around, we had maybe ten seconds before the
solders where on us. "What are you doing?"

"Giving it to you so you can survive."

I growled a softly under my breath. "No time for that right
now! You go, I'll take care of myself."

She looked at me for a second, making her mind up. Then
suddenly grabbed and kissed me on the lips. It lasted for a
second before she broke it off. Aiming her arm up she fired
and was quickly gone.

Gone was what I was about to be if I didn't do something
damn quick. Looking up to make sure Oriana was safe, I
turned the gun's safety back on, stuffed it into my pants,
and jumped into the pit.

    Chapter 8

I hated myself for having left Fox behind, just the though
made me start to feel ill. Even if he had ordered me to go,
it just didn't feel right.

Fox was the leader of us, he was the one in charge... there
not suppose to be left behind while the less important one's
run for there lives.

I was now lost, badly lost. I had been running though the
woods for about fifteen minutes and didn't have a clue as to
where I was going, the forest's canopy was so dense I
couldn't even see the sun. Though I wasn't sure it would
have been to much of a help.

Sinking down next to a tree, I wrapping my arms around my
legs, resting my chin on my knees. I hoped we could
eventually find him once this was all over, but I didn't
think so. If it wasn't a terminal drop, he would still be
lost inside of the caves. He would be almost impossible to
find.

At least there was little chance of Krege's solders finding
me. If they found where I had come up the hill at, they
would still have to try and follow me. Even if I didn't hide
my trail very well, or at all for that matter.

It was sloppy, but I wasn't thinking clearly... I shook my
head, they I went, thinking like an assassin again. What
would Thryn think? Not much I suppose, murder is still
murder no mater what name you label it by.

Sometime's though, it isn't as wrong as it could be.

I stood up, pulling on my coat. Fox was lost, Sora dead and
I'm trying to moralize my second job. I really think I was
starting to lose it.

Picking a direction I started off in it, hoping maybe I
would find something I recognized, or maybe the canyon that
Fox had mentioned. That was what I actually found too, after
a minute the trees started to thin out. After another two
minutes at a brisk run I found myself on the edge of what
looked like a four-hundred foot descent straight down.

I whistled a bit through my teeth, letting my eyes follow
down the length of the canyon in each direction. One way
looked to be towards a valley, the other I couldn't tell.
With a quick prayer that I picked the right direction, I
turned around and found myself nose to nose with some of the
local wildlife.

Letting out a yelp, I jumped about two feet, some of my fur
starting to bristle. At the same time, the animal, I could
see now it was a gryphon, took a few paces back.

As I landed, I fell into a crouch, reaching into my coat for
my needler. The gryphon on the other paw just sat back on
it's haunches, staring at me.

Raising myself up just a bit, I started to edge my way to
the side. "Good gryphon," I whispered as I went, "I just
want to get out of here. No need to attack, I'm not a
threat."

The beast seamed to understand me, tilting it's head to one
side, flexing it's wings slightly, almost as if it was
laughing. It puffed it's chest out a slightly, it's feathers
catching the sun, the glint of the gem around it's neck only
adding to the effect.

'Wait a tail flick... a gem?' I though looking closer. The
gryphon did have a gem around it's neck. A fire-red stone
that looked like it had a life of it's own, it's shape
though, and it's setting, seamed familiar to me.

Finally it sunk in. "Thryn's eyes, Thrysten?"

The gryphon snapped it's beak and me, and clucked lightly.
She was laughing at me! With a grimace I slipped my needler
back into my jacket, and stood fully erect. "How under
Leo-Star did you do that?"

She reached up with one of her foreclaws and grasped the
gem. Her form started to change, shrinking in on itself. It
wasn't to pleasant to look at, so I didn't. Instead I found
great interest at the ground between my toes.

"It's done," She said. I looked up to find her on her claws
and knees, nude, and panting hard. She had let go of the
gem, which had turned back into the sea-blue color it had
been the first time I saw her.

"Are you all right?" I asked, ignoring the surge of anger
that had just started to form inside the pit of my stomach.

She nodded, taking a deep breath. "It will pass," she her
panting almost stopped.

"Fox said you were watching us, I just didn't expect this."

She gave me a sharp look, which sent a chill down my spine.
"What happened back there? And where did you come from, Fox
and a guard went into one tent, and you and Fox came out
another."

I rubbed the bands on my wrists. "I don't know what
happened. I heard a gun shot and ran for Krege's tent, Fox
meet me outside of it and we took off running. Your second
question has a rather self-evident answer."

A frown crossed her beak as she stood up, picking some dust
from her feathers. "You are very arrogant, I wonder how Fox
can stand you?"

Now I was mad. Crossing my arms I glared at her. "You're the
one who threatened me, remember?"

She snarled a bit, a snarl which turned into a growl as a
dark shadow passed over us. She whipped her head around and
started into the sky, her eyes narrowing. I looked myself,
only to see a half-dozen dark shapes flying above us.

"Dragons," she hissed. "There attacking the castle."

I looked at her. "You did warn them that something had gone
wrong?"

She stared back at me. "I was to busy trying to find you so
I could know what to warn them about!"

I frowned. "They're going to find out on there own in a few
minutes."

"And we'll be right behind them," she said, taking her gem
once again into her foreclaw.

"We will?"

She gave me a look of distaste, as he shape started to flow.
"You ride me." She said, her beak changing around the words
as she spoke them.

I frowned, but when she had finished changing I climbed into
her back. Even before I could get much of a grip she leap
into the air out over the canyon, and we were on our way.

* * *

Light, I saw light filtering though the cave. I rubbed my
eyes a bit, not wanting it to be another trick of the dark.
I had been wondering around for hours now, trying to find
some way out, or some kind of help.

I found though that the light was real, or at least vanished
when I closed my eyes. Stumbling my way towards it, I found
it grew brighter. It was still dim, but after so much pure
darkness it was hurting my eyes.

Holding my paw in front of my eyes I let then slowly adjust.
After a minute, when my eyes stopped hurting, I dropped by
paw.

I was standing in a bend in the tunnel, along with the
source of light. I had been hoping for some kind of exit,
but this was unexpected.

It was a women, almost a girl. She was curled up in the
corner, sleeping softly. She wasn't a wolf like the rest of
this world, she looked like Fox's species, furless with out
muzzle or claw. Though though the long hair on her head I
could see one of her ears... which was pointed.

She was also the source of the light, her body seemed to
glow with it in the darkness of the caves.

Wrapping my wings around myself, I eased down against the
cave wall. Finding this girl was not a good thing. She
wasn't something that looked native to this world, or at
least in my opinion, and if she wasn't that didn't bode well
for her.

The classes Fox had made me take covered something like
this. This girl had gone though a fold some how. The chances
were good that her portal control had been broken badly, or
she had got dumped out of a ripple some how, or maybe tried
to use one of the 'deep' folds and she got thrust here, or a
thousand other things.

She was here though, and that meant I was given certain
responsibility. One of which was helping her some how.

Moving forward, I reached out, gently touching her shoulder.
She awoke with a violent start, her eyes opening instantly
and focused on me. She panicked, forcing herself back
against the wall and screaming loudly.

I jumped back myself, pulling my wings tighter against my
body. The girl keep yelling the same string of syllables
over and over again. My translator didn't do anything to it,
I just heard it as she said it. Which meant she didn't have
one, or if she did it (or possibly mine) was broken, that
and the language wasn't stored in mine.

Which made things even worse. If she didn't have a
translator it meant that she might be a misplaced exile from
the Council, or some kind of convict. The history of the
Multi-Verse, as far as I learned, had many cultures who used
the folds to remove criminals, some even know how to let
them live through the transit and used it as a relocation,
and not a device to kill.

They where all eventually stopped, and when they found out
about the Multi-Verse as a whole, duly embarrassed. Still
though, it left criminals floating around worlds totally
different from there own.

Like this girl that was screaming before me.

There was one other possibility. She could have been used as
some kind of test subject. Used to test a device like the
implants. She ended up down in these caves and lost the
fold, and quite possibly her life.

The only way I would know for sure was to ask her, and the
only way to do that was for my translator to learn her
language. Which, from as I understood it, it could not do if
she keep yelling the same word over and over again.

Finally I sighed. "I'm not a demon." I told her, taking a
the usually acuret guess as to what she was calling me.
Still funny though, people thinking that _I'm_ the demon.

The girl instantly shut-up, looking at me with her pail-blue
colored eyes. Slowly and very clearly she began to speak.
None of it made sense to me, but from the look on the face I
think she expected me to.

As she finished she gave me a hopeful look. I didn't know
what to do, she expect something from me, but I had the clue
as to what. I sighed a bit. "I don't understand."

He face fell and she started talking again. This wasn't
screaming though, she was holding her voice calm, talking to
herself. She looked at me again and said three more words.

"No," I said again.

She said something that clearly was a swear word of some
kind, and started talking again. It occurred to me that she
was trying to analyze the situation. She had though I was
two different things, and she was trying to go though more.
She might have been going through her native mythology,
trying to find out what I was.

She quipped a few more words at me.

I shook my head. "I don't understand."

She paused for a second, then sighed, slumping a bit against
the wall. There we stayed for a few minutes before she
finally looked up at me. She said a word, pressing her hand
against her chest.

It took me a few seconds to realize she was telling me that
her name was Jadin. I smiled a bit and touched my own chest,
saying my name at the same time.

She smiled and reached out touching one of my wings. "Sora."
She said, rolling my name slightly.

I nodded, touching her shoulder, "Jadin." I responded.

She broke away from my touch and laughed, saying a string of
her language. At the same time I felt myself smirk, when I
had been taught this basic type of interaction in class I
though it was nonsense. I didn't think it would work so well
in actual practice.

Jadin finally settled down pushing her head back from her
eyes. She reached into behind her back, and returned holding
some fruits of some kind. She offered me one as she took a
bight of the other.

I took it from her, not sure if it was safe for me to eat or
not, but I was hungry. I hadn't eaten sense dinner at the
castle, how ever long ago that was, and just the sight of
the fruit made me start to salivate.

I happily dug into it.

    Chapter 9

It was not a pleasant fall. The pit smelled worse on the
inside then standing above it. The sides were slimy with
what I didn't want to know about, and it had a few strait
down falls that jarred the top of my spine into the base of
my skull.

Eventually though I finally landed on solid ground, after
dropping about five feet down from the end of the pit.. It
was dusty, dirty and smelled slightly musty. I was just glad
that the camp's refuses had petered out after the first
drop, I really didn't want to land in the stuff.

Rolling over onto my back I rubbed my shoulder where It had
meet the wall with some force on my way down, and was
already starting to throb. Winching as I touched it I also
was informed that the back of my head was also in pain.

Reaching back with my other hand I lightly touched my head,
I was rewarded with an even strong shot of pain and a light
sticky feeling on my fingers. Pressing a bit lighter I felt
the stickiness in my hair.

I gave it a quick taste, it was blood. I swore softly, just
what I needed now, I concussion or a cracked skull. Neither
one a good thing to happen.

With a groan I stood up, quickly getting a rush of vertigo.
Leaning up against the wall I held the back of my head. I
was going to need to see a doctor some time soon. As the
vertigo past I dug into my pockets. I had a small first-aid
kit in my jacket, but that would have to come later.

I pulled out a small band out of one of my upper pockets,
and pressed the only none smooth place on it. There was a
soft buzz from the band as it light up.

I smiled a bit, pulling it over my fingers and tightening
the strap around the palm of my hand. The light-band was a
cute little toy I had keep around for years, it wasn't as
breakable as a flashlight and looked like a inch thick wrist
band, just far more useful.

Going back into my jacket I found the first-aid kit.
Swallowing a set of pain killers I pulled out a small
towelett of anti-biotic. I rubbed it against the wound on
the back of my head. It stung badly, which made me stomp a
bit from the pain, but it faded fast.

Stuffing the rest of the kit into my pocket I finally looked
around the cave I had landed in. It was large, water-worn
cave, it was bone dry, with no stalactites or 'mites. The
floor was covered in a thick layer or some kind fo dust. Not
actually dust, it wasn't that fine, but there was still a
good layer of it. There were two exits, other then they way
I had come in. One exit though had a set of footprints
leading though it!

I looked close at the prints, they where fresh, the floor
was clear under them, with the dust piled up to the side.
They where not feet though, or sandals, but looked like a
pair of shoes.

Shoes with a tread... which don't exist in this world. It
_had_ to be Sora!! She was still alive!

I felt a surge of relive, where I didn't even know I felt
guilt. She was still alive down here, which was a boon to
me, we had a better chance of getting out alive, and if I
kind find her, and get lucky enough to find a ripple, I can
get both of us out of here.

Holding my hand up, casting the light in front of me. I
yelled Sora's name, hearing my voice echo though out the
caverns, vanishing and coming back to me a few seconds
later. No response came, though caves can swallow sound in
some corners, and my voice my not have reached where ever
she was, or she could have been asleep or something of the
like.

With a smile I started after her, keeping my pace up a bit
more then she had walked. She had been down her for who knew
how long, at most though it was half a day, which was the
length of time sense she had been kidnapped.

I only got about ten feet into the new tunnel before the
light-band snapped out. I swore again, taking a step back.
The light-band flickered back on. Reaching my hand forward
again the light shut down once more.

I pulled my hand back. "Fuck," I whispered. This was very
very high on the bad thing scale. This had to be magic,
things like this didn't happen by any know type of
technology. But why make a spell to stop this type of
electricity... or was it just for light.

Digging out my portal controller I turned it on. Holding it
out I moved it past the point where the light had shut off.
It shut off as well. I put it away and sighed.

This was a spell to stop all none-biological electrical
energy. It wasn't a very easy spell to do, a bit of in any
direction and things short out, or you kill anyone walking
though the field.

Either way someone went to a lot of trouble to set up this
spell, in the middle of a cave. The type of electricity it
was stopping hadn't been discovered on this world yet! I
could only think of one reason why anyone would have this
spell here and now.

Someone was expecting me. Switching the light-band to my
left hand and pulled out my gun, holding it in my right,
pulling the hammer back but keeping the safety on.

Holding it prone I headed into the darkness.

* * *

"DRAGONFIRE!" A voice yelled from the outside of the castle.

I lifted my head from the stack of papers I had been buried
in. Looking out the turret's window I saw a trio of dragons
flowing low over the castle, burning the ground under them.

They where past the castle though, why were they attacking?
Walking over to the window I cast a small spell to improve
my vision I looked out at the damage. The dragons had each
cut a swath of destruction though thick crop land.

A second trio of dragons flew over the castle, burning more
farm land and pre-cooking a couple cows.

Finally I shook off the quick shock I was feeling. Sweeping
of the spell on my eyes, I grabbed a handful of papers I had
been stacking and dashed out of the room I was in and
exploded down the stairs into the castle.

Jumping over the last few stairs I burst past some startled
servants and though the corridor. I keep running until I
burst though the one of the side doors and into the dinning
hall.

Draz and Kalie were already there, looking over a set of
maps. As I made my entrance they both looked up. "Ken,"
Kalie said with a bit of a frown, "You saw happened?"

I nodded, twisting a chair sideways and sitting down in it.
"How could I not?"

Draz nodded as one of the servants whispered into his ear.
He frowned. "The dragons have banked back to there camp. A
next flight could be on there way already."

"I hope not," I whispered, dropping the papers onto the
table, spreading them out a bit.

"You found something?" Kalie asked, leaning forward towards
me.

"I... I'm not sure." I said pulling around some of the
papers. "I think I found something that looks like some kind
of dragon repellent spell, I'm not sure though, I can barely
just read the written language."

Kalie winches. "The translators, I forgot about that." She
turned to Draz. "You can read, yes?"

He coughed a bit. "I'm not royal by birth... I've learned a
few things, but not enough to understand something like
this."

Kalie frowned. "Then get someone here who can read, right
now we need to protect this castle!"

Draz shook his head. "It's not the castle there attacking
right now, it's the farms and crops in this valley. If they
destroy all of them we're not going to survive this coming
winter."

I pulled out a paper from the stack. "From what I can read,
I think I can get this spell expand to cover the whole
valley, but I'm going to need someone who _can_ read."

Draz snapped his fingers and one of the servants came
running to his side. He spoke to him for a second then the
servant ran off.

Another servant ran up to Draz as the first left. He
whispered something into his hear then back away.

He stood instantly upright. "Thrysten is heading back this
way."

"I think it's safe to assume that Fox's meting with Krege
didn't go well," Kalie quipped as she stood.

"Brilliant observation," I said, standing on my own. All
three of us ran out of the hall, up the same stairs we had
first come down, and onto the battlements of the castle.

Draz ran to the east side of the castle, facing Krege's
army. The dragons were no longer in the sky, but something
else was. Putting the same improvement of vision on my eyes
I traced the sky. Thrysten was coming, flying in her
none-morphic form (a rather amazing feet, I really want to
get my claws on that stone of hers). I also saw that she had
Oriana perched on her back.

She was struggling to stay in the air, betting the air
instead of trying to glide. There was no beauty in her form,
just force. I snapped my vision back. "She has Oriana on her
back and is going to be landing hard."

Draz paled a bit. "Spread back a bit, she's never been good
at tight landings."

Kalie looked puzzled. "How can she fly?" She demanded.

I moved back a bit. "Stand back and watch."

Thrysten was now viable as more then a strangely shaped
bird. He form was growing quickly as she tried to slow down.
Stepping forward I moved to just to the side of where she
would skim past the battlements. I opened my arms and
yelled. "Jump!"

Oriana must of heard as when they flew past she leaped from
Thrysten's back and against me. She missed my arms but
smashed into my chest, forcing me onto my back. I rolled,
taking Oriana's momentum from her leap. I flipped about
three times before finally hitting neck first into the stone
wall.

Suddenly Kalie was by my side. "What the hell was that
about?" She asked, prying my arms from around Oriana,
rolling her onto the battlements.

"Basic physics," I muttered, blackness creeping around my
vision. "If she had been on Thrysten's back when they
crashed she would have flow off and break her neck, not to
mention Thrysten's."

She nodded, patting my head. "Smart idea then."

I chuckled a bit. "Thanks," I whispered as the blackness
took over my vision and I passed out.

    Chapter 10

I was still going damn fast as I plowed into Ken's chest,
forcing him back into a roll along the battlements. I was
dazed from the crash landing and really didn't come back to
reality until Kalie started slapping my face lightly with
her paw.

Shaking my head I found I was propped up along the side of
the battlements, Ken was sprawled out a few feet away from
me, his neck already starting to show dark brown bruises on
his green scales.

Kalie was still slapping me gently. I waved her off. "I'm
ok," I said, starting to stand. My head gave me a hard
throb. "I think," I amended.

She nodded, helping me stand up. "What happened back there?"

I rubbed my head. "One of the dragons dive-bombed Thrysten,
clipped her wing."

"I can see that," Draz hissed, hunching over the gryphoness.
"Retrieve a healer!" I called out to one of the ever present
servants.

I looked down at Ken. "We'll he be OK?"

Kalie shook her head slowly. "I don't know, I think he broke
his neck when he landed."

I stumbled a bit. "Oh shit."

"Good understatement, unless you can do magic we may not get
out of this."

"I've done one spell," I said, leaning up against her side.
"it was complex, but most of it was pre-prepared. I just had
to go through the motions."

Kalie frowned at me. "You just don't 'go though the motions'
with any kind of magic. It doesn't work that way."

Thrysten groaned before I could respond. Both Kalie and I
turned to look at her. She was slowly melting back to her
normal form, but whimpering in pain. As she reformed, she
looked worse them when I was on her, part of her left wing
was bent back, broken badly, part from the dragon, but
mostly from the landing. She had bruises down her side and
her shoulder blade was bleeding slowly.

Draz slowly rolled her over and held her head in his lap,
slowly stroking the feathers around her eyes. She was
moaning still, her eyes unfocused.

He looked at Kalie. "Can you do anything for her?" He asked,
waving the healer away.

Kalie seamed to lose a few inches in height. "I... not
here..." her eyes flickered over to where the fold was, "I
could take her back with us, but Fox has the temps, and if
she's critical the shock might kill her."

He bent down and kissed Thrysten's head. "Can you do it?" He
whispered at her.

She moaned, her eyes slowly closing.

Draz looked back at us. "Anything you can, anything,
please."

Kalie slowly nodded. "Ok then, we need to get her inside,
laid out an a bed, a clean bed, not the molded straw we had
last night."

He nodded, "She approved our bed in the Solarium, she had it
made for us. Will that do?"

Kalie nodded. "It will have to, get ten servants, carry her
gently down into the room and get her into bed. I'll be down
to look at her in a few minutes."

He nodded again, talking to one of the servants. I looked
over at Ken, his neck was swollen badly and bleeding slowly
in spots. "What can we do about him?" I asked.

She frowned, still holding me. "We can't move him. It will
make him worse, maybe even sever his spinal cord, if it
isn't to late."

I pushed away from her, standing up on my own, my head
spinning still. Draz was slowly helping the servants move
Thrysten down the stairs. "What did he find?"

"A spell to repulse dragons, he figured he could extend it
to cover the whole valley. He couldn't read more then a few
words of it though, so it's just a guess."

I rubbed my head. "We'll need a scribe."

Kalie took my arm, leading me towards the stairs. "We were
about to send for one before you landed."

"Good, right. That will help. But even then, how can we do
the spell?"

She started down the steps, with me in tow. "You did magic,
what kind?"

I rubbed my head again. "I did a spell for Fox using Bliss
as a base."

She looked started. "Bliss? You gave Fox Bliss?"

I nodded, regretting it instantly. "I used it like it was
made to be."

She sighed. "Fine, you can tell me all the details later.
Right now then I need to see what I can do for Thrysten, you
get it translated into Prid standard. Got that?"

"Yes." I said as we walked into the dinning hall. I could
see a dozen papers scattered accost the table. Though only
one was set in front of any of the places.

Kalie turned to one of servants, "You, get the castle scribe
for Oriana," she turned to a second one. "You, take me to
the Solarium."

Both scribes ran off, one taking Kalie with him.

I sat down at the chair with the papers. Picking up the one
in front of me, I scanned over it. The written language
looked nothing like mine, and all languages I have in my
translator looked like mine to me. I wasn't sure if I could
do anything with it without help."

"Lady?" A voice asked from the other side of the room. I
looked over to find the scribe. He was just a teenager,
maybe fifteen at the most. I waved him over so we could
start.

* * *

Jadin was a chatty girl, even if nether one of us could
understand the other. She had been talking for what seemed
like hours. I knew it was less then four, that was how long
the translator was suppose to take to pick up a language,
but still.

She paused for a second and handed me another fruit. She
seemed to have an infinite supply of them. She just reached
behind her back and pulled one out. No bag or anything, they
where just there.

I supposed it was magic, just one of the things I've had to
accept as real now that I've been with Fox for half of one
of his years. The same thing that was causing the glow
around her body.

I munched on the fruit, watching as she talked just to talk.
I was starting to think that she had been down in these
caves for so long she just needed someone to talk to other
then herself, even if I couldn't talk back.

Suddenly she stopped, gaping a bit, looking over my
shoulder. Turning my head, I gasped a bit. Standing about
three feet away, looking very badly dazed, was Fox. His eyes
were clouded over, and he had blood on his hands.

"Fox?" I whispered.

He fell down next to me. "Sora, th-th-that is you, r-right?"
He stuttered out.

I nodded, "Yes."

He smiled a bit. "Good," he whispered, and fell forward into
my lap. I yelped, catching his head, gasping when I saw the
back of his head. He had blood over the back of his head,
some hair was missing and his scalp was scrapped off. His
skull was actually showing, and cracked slightly.

"Oh lord." I whispered.

Jadin nodded, suddenly sitting right next to me. Brushing
her hair away from her eyes. She touched his head lightly,
away from the crack in his skull. She whispered something
under her breath press her fingers down a bit. She continued
to whisper softly.

I gave her a glance. "What do you think?"

She turned to look at me. "I think he needs help." She said
in a very soft voice.

I jumped a bit, through tried not to jar Fox's head to
badly. There was no sign that the translator had started
working, it just did.

I shook it off. "Can we do anything though?"

She nodded. "I think," she said, brushing her hair away from
her eyes. "I'm not sure though, he looks like me, but is so
different." She then gave me a sharp glance. "How can you
talk now and not when I first gave you _the words_."

"I didn't understand them."

She gently lifted Fox's head from my lap and slowly moved it
into her own. "You can now, I am amazed, we will have to
discuses this later." She started to stroke the side of
Fox's head where his hair was ripped out at.

"What are you doing?" I asked, sliding over a bit closer to
her.

"My job," she whispered, "now get back."

It was differently an order, I slide back over to the side
of the tunnel wall. She was holding the tips of her fingers
against his skull. She started to chant a bit under her
breath. The words she spoke seemed to carry a weight of
there own, heavy in the air and echoing a bit in an area
what wasn't echoing before. Her fingers started to glow a
bit, soon growing to be brighter then the light her body was
giving off.

Her face was a mask of pain and concentrating, blood was
starting to run from the corner of her eyes and her mouth.
Finally she let out a gasp and pulled her hands away from
Fox's head.

Fox for his own part moaning softly and rolled over,
reaching up to rubbed the back of his skull. "What
happened?" he whispered, his eyes slowly focusing on Jadin.

He paled slightly, "oh shit." He muttered before fainting
again.

    Chapter 11

I drifted back awake, pain fluttering around the back of my
head. I whimpered, reaching back to touch my skull. I
received a stronger flair of pain, but not as bad as it was
before.

Looking up my eyes focused on the pair of people in front of
me. One of them was Sora, who was actually there, and not
one of the delusions I was having before.

The second one was what shocked me. She was an elf, one of
the few I had ever seen. She looked like a young girl, so I
guessed she was maybe in her thirties or more. Long brown
hair that draped down her shoulders, the tips of her ears
pushing though. She also seemed to be the source of what
light was in the cave.

I slowly raised myself up into a sitting position. The elf
looked at me, whipping some blood from her face. She then
turned to Sora and said something in a slightly chirping
bird-like language. Sora responded back in the same tongue.

That must of meant that she didn't have a translator, at
least that was the leap of half formed logic I made at the
time. Her world wasn't part of the council, at least as a
full-verse, if she was she would have had some sort of
translator working in one of the basic universal languages.

Suddenly something suck into my mind. "Sora!" I said and
jumped over to hug her.

She gasped, not having expected that. She was shocked but
finally hugged me back. "Miss me?" She asked with a slight
smile.

I shook my head, winching a bit as I did so. "They said you
had been killed."

She gave me a smug look. "The solders were to scared to kill
me, so they threw me down a bottomless pit. Then sounds like
they lied about it."

I rubbed the back of my head. "Yes, I went down that pit
myself. Though it's not as bottomless as they would like to
think."

She paused for a second as the elf said something. "Oh yes,
Fox this is Jadin." She said.

I nodded to the elf. "Welcome, though I think you find that
you've landed yourself in a huge mess."

Jadin looked at Sora, and she gave her a short translation,
the elf gave a quick response.

"She said that she guess as much." Jadin then said something
else. "She also said she doesn't even know how she got
here."

I let out a low whistle. "Oh shit... that's might be even
worse."

Jadin continued to speak, and Sora continued translating,
"she was hiking when some kind of vortex of light opened in
front of her and sucked her in. She woke up here."

I groaned. "She's a natural..."

Jadin gave Sora a puzzled look as my comment was translated,
though after a second she smiled, quipping something out.
"She also said that you should thank her for healing you, it
saved your life."

I frowned. "How?" I asked, feeling the back of my head, the
pain was slowly fading. I suddenly felt dumb for having
asked that. Here this lady is, glowing magically, and I
wanted to know how she healed me.

"The back of your skull was cracked."

I winched a bit. "I though it was just a concussion, and I
thank for it them. I'm also glad she was here, it was...
convenient." I actually didn't like it at all myself. It was
_too_ convenient for my taste, with that and the anti-power
spell.

Sora passed it on, then looked back at me. "Why did you ask
if it was me?"

I rubbed the back of my head again. "I was getting
delusional. Seeing and hearing things that where not real."

She leaned forward. "Such as?"

I shook my head, and frowned, "that's it really." It
actually wasn't it, I just didn't want to tell her what I
had been seeing as I found that I unnerved me a bit.

She sighed, pulling her wings around her body. "Very well
then, how long have you been down here?"

I glanced at my watch. "About an hour I think." I said,
realizing that it was actually working (it hadn't been
before). With a quick press I turned like light-band on, it
activated, sending a flash of light down the tunnel. I
turned it back off after a few seconds.

"What was that about?"

I stood up, shaking my head as I was suddenly dizzy. "Just
checking something. I think we should get going, we have to
get back to the castle as fast as we can. We don't have much
time anymore."

Sora stood as well saying something to Jadin. She stood as
well, saying a long string of her language to Sora. Sora
brightened up instantly. "She can find us a way out!"

I looked at both of them. "Why hasn't she already?"

The response was quick. "She said she has, but meet some of
the local population and freaked, she came back here." There
was another pause. "That was about a week ago."

I smiled. "Smart lady, if she can get us into the valley
this will be a lot easier then wondering around hoping we
can find the way ourself."

"She thinks she can."

I clapped my hands lightly, and turned the light-band on.
"Just have her point the way then."

* * *

"How is the translation going?" Kalie asked as she entered
the dinning hall.

I whipped some ink from the fur of my paws. "Slowly. Ken was
right, this is some kind of dragon repellent spell. I'm just
not sure how to expand it, or how we can to do it with-out
him."

She sighed, "We may have no choice, he's getting worse. I'm
considering going back to get a special forces team from
Prid, or at least a doctor."

"That's illegal." I said in a semi-monotone as I wrote down
more of the scribe's dictation from the actual notes on the
spell.

"I know," Kalie said with a sigh, sitting down next to me.
"But unless we can get this spell done, I would be willing
to forfeit my life."

I frowned. "Even assuming Ken does recover enough to do the
spell what then? We still have a few thousand solders that
will arrive in a day or less."

"Get as many as we can out of here and surrender. Unless we
can come up with something better before then."

I set the pen down and waves to the scribe to stop, wiping
my paws off again. "So, how is Thrysten?" I asked, trying to
change the topic.

She shook her head. "She isn't doing very well. I think she
ripped off some of the muscles around her shoulders."

The conversation faltered at that point. Finally after a
minute had pasted I spoke again. "How can we do this spell
with out Ken?"

She leaned forward a bit, "I think there might be someone
else who can do cast it."

That suddenly cheered me up, I smiled a bit. "Who?"

Kalie gave me a hard look, the kind people always get before
they deliver some bad news. "I think you can do it."

I jumped back a few inches. "What?! You've got to be
kidding, I can't do magic! What I did for Fox was all
pre-done and pre-made. I just had to go though the motions
of the spell."

Kalie shook her head. "You do not 'just go though the
motions' with any kind of magic. You either have the talent,
and it works, or it just doesn't work."

I growled, not wanting something more to fuck up my life.
"Fine, if you say so! But even if I can do magic, I can
_not_ do something like this!" I waved down at the paper in
front of me.

She nodded. "No, you can't, not directly. You don't have
enough skill, control or power. But Ken does. If you can
find some way to connect to his mind, telepathicly or though
other means, he can do the spell, but though your body."

I leaned back slightly in my chair. "This is not what I
need."

"There's not much of a choice, if you can do this you must
do this."

I sighed, leaning forward and resting my head in my arms.
"Fine, fine if I can do any kind of magic I'll try it."

Kalie patted me on the back. "You can Oriana, remember
that."

I nodded, raising my head. "Get me Ken's satchel then."

She stood, and started out, then stopped, looking back over
her shoulder. "You haven't said what happened to Fox, and
Sora."

I sighed. "I last saw Fox diving into a pit, and Sora is
dead."

"Then so be it," she whispered, and walked out of the hall.

    Chapter 12

"You didn't plan for anything like this did you?" I asked
Fox as we walked though the caves.

He gave me a sideways glance. "In which sense?"

"In that you came expecting to play some politics, or go
against in small army. Not any of this, having someone other
the Krege in command, or being stuck in a cave while
everyone else has to deal with it."

He nodded. "Right on all counts. I assume you've meet Salden
then?"

I nodded. "Yes, not a very pleasant man."

"I'll bet hard money that he ended the negotiations with
Draz, the same time that Krege's 'illness' started."

"Poison maybe?" I asked, starting to dig though my pockets.

"Maybe, a small dose, at least to start. By now he would
have to be getting enough to keep him ill. It would actually
need to be feed to him at this stage, I think. How would you
go about it though."

I found what I was looking for. Pulling the packet I had
snatched the night before I held it in front of Fox's face.
"How about his 'medicine'?"

He stopped, which made me stop, Jadin went on a few feet
before she noticed we were not behind her anymore.

Fox looked at the packet, then slowly took it out of my
fingers and looked inside. He folded it up and laughed. "Son
of a bitch! Sora this is perfect, if this actually _is_
poison we might be able to stop this after all." He hugged
me tight and handed the packet back.

I smiled a bit at all this attention. "It did appear to be
important."

He kissed my cheek. "Damn right. We need to double time it
now! We have to get this back to Ken so he can take a look
at."

Jadin broke in. "I think this might be of interest to you."
She said from the intersection she was standing in. He tone
was such that we had better look weather it was interesting
or not.

I relayed the message to Fox, walking over to where she
stood. She was pointing down one of the tunnels. I let my
gaze follow her finger. In the distance was a pair of what
looked like red gems hanging about four feet above the
floor. They seamed to be getting closer to us as well,
bouncing slightly.

Fox saw this too, and took in a sharp breath. He pointing
his light down the tunnel. In the distance, just shaded by
the light was a large head. The red gems were it's eyes
mounted above a massive grey muzzle, the rest of it's head
was in the same proportion.

"Do you know what that is?" Fox asked in slight awe.

The creature was getting closer. "Let me guess, horrible. Am
I wrong?"

"It's a Wyrm." He whispered.

"That thing looks hungry," Jadin said, backing away, "and I
think we're dinner."

I nodded. "Right, lets get out of here Fox."

The Wyrm put on a burst of speed. I wasn't about to wait for
Fox's answer, I turned and started to run. Jadin had the
same idea.

Suddenly I was snared by my shirt and pulled back, the color
cutting into my neck. I was pulled back into one of the
other tunnels by Fox, Jadin in his other hand.

"Never run away from anything immortal," He hissed in my
ear, "it only attracts there attention!"

Before I could respond the beast shot out of the mouth of
the tunnel, accost the one we were standing in, and into the
other side. The thing was long, fifty-feet in length, maybe
more. All in the same dark grey colour as it's face. It had
only a pair of thick fore and hind legs to move, and seamed
to do a damn good job of it.

After it finally past us by Fox let go of both of us. "What
was that?" Jadin asked me. I told her what Fox said to me.
While she puzzled over that I looked at him. "You said that
monster is immortal?"

He nodded. "Yes, and one of the few forms of life that have
ever evolved to use the folds. They've been around for
longer then any know civilization, and most worlds have them
in there history." He frowned for a second. "Even mine."

"What do we do about it?"

He dug into his pocket and pulled out his controller. "Not
much, the clostest fold is back at the castle, so we're not
taking that short-cut. I think we should just get back to
the castle. Which way do we go from here?"

I passed the question onto Jadin, and she gave me a dark
look. "Behind that thing."

Fox groaned. "I know that kind of look. We're following it
aren't we?"

I nodded.

I blew air though his teeth. "Lets hope we don't run into it
again."

We all agreed with the sentiment as we started down the same
tunnel the Wyrm had used. It lasted only a hundred yards as
the tunnel curved into a large cavern. There was half a
dozen exits in it, one of which the beasts with curled in
front of.

"Let me guess," Fox said, pointing at the blocked tunnel,
"that's our way out?"

I turned to Jadin. "The Wyrm's in the way?"

She just nodded.

"Is it the only way?"

I related the question, and Jadin nodded again.

Fox swore, his eyes drifting over the cavern. "She had
eggs." He whispered, pointing out into the cavern.

There were six eggs, lined up in two rows of three. They
where sitting in the middle of the cave, about thirty feet
away from us.

He paused for a second, then started to look around. "I need
a staff of some kind, about five feet long."

I glanced around, passing it onto Jadin. She just smiled and
pulled a wooden staff out from behind herself.

Fox raised an eyebrow, but gently took the staff from her,
examining it carefully. He nodded and pulled out a small
block of plastic from one of his pockets. He opened it and
pressed a few buttons inside. Then bending down he threw it
along the floor. It skidded and bounced, finally ended up
against one of the the eggs, stopping with a dull wack.

"What is that?"

I smiled. "An EMD, be carrying it around so I can spy on
Burke," he gave a sideways glance to Jadin.

He finally nodded a bit to himself. "All right, I have a
plan to get us out of here. Right now, she has eggs, and if
we entered the layer should would gladly have us to eat. So
we need some way to convince her to let us out."

"How would be planing on doing that?" I asked.

"By getting to her eggs," he said with a smile, tucking the
staff under his arm. "On my mark I want to you to run that
way." He pointed accost the cavern, it was on the far side
of the Wyrm, but still a bit to close for my taste.

"I though you said running would attract her attention?"

"It does, that's the point. While she goes after you I get
to her eggs. The rest is just negotiation of the lowest
order."

I started to protest but Fox gave me a look sharp enough to
cut me off. I finally sighed, and passed on the instructions
to Jadin, who's reaction was about the same as mine.

Fox watched the Wyrm for about ten seconds, counting slowly
to himself. Finally he turned to me. "Now," he whispered.

I pulled my wings tight and started to run, finding the
floor turning into a soft sand a few feet in. Jadin was just
a few inches away from me. Behind us came a deep bellowing
roar, and the foot falls of the Wyrm as it started after us.

Jadin speed up past me, and I tried to keep up. I could
actually feel the Wyrm's breath on the back of my neck when
a sharp crack rang though the cavern. The Wyrm stopped, it's
head twisting around the draft catching the ends of my wings
and throwing me to the ground.

"That got your attention I see." Fox called out through the
cave. Scrambling around I looked towards him. He was
standing inside the eggs, and slowly standing, the end of
the staff buried inside the shattered remains of one.

Jadin nudged me, and I gave her a translation of what Fox
said.

The Wyrm bellowed towards Fox and started to charge at him.
Fox reacted quickly pulling the staff out of one egg and
crashing it into the side of the second. The Wyrm stopped,
it's eyes focusing on the puddling yokes under her eggs.

Fox smiled at her. "Two eggs, that's all that is ever alive
out of any clutch, it's not these two. Give's you a one in
two chance of me not hitting one of your actual children."

The Wyrm back away a bit. "Sora, Jadin, work your way to the
exit."

I took Jadin's hand and started to edge my way to the tunnel
out. The Wyrm saw us and flipped and started to dive
forward.

There came a sharper and deeper crack. This time the Wyrm
screamed, turning back to face Fox. He tilted his head a
bit, pulling the staff from the remains of what had once
been a growing egg. "Oh, to bad about that. But then again,
you always kill the second born, so I've just saved you some
trouble."

The Wyrm screamed again, edging towards Fox. He slammed the
staff into one more egg, spattering it over the floor of the
cave. "Well now, two left, and only one is still alive. So
hear is the deal. My friends and I go, leave you alone, you
don't attack us or follow us. Understand?" He let the staff
hover over the pair of eggs.

The Wyrm curled back a bit, then turned it's head away from
Fox. He nodded a bit, and started to back away. Finally we
all started down the tunnel we needed to be in. Fox stopped
at the exit. "The one left is the biggest and the strongest
of the pair. I would never kill the child you would keep."

Looking over Fox's shoulder I watched as the Wyrm glared at
Fox, then slowly bent to lick at the remains of the eggs.

He nodded and started down the tunnel.

"What did you think you where doing?!" Jadin said quietly
yelling. "If you picked the wrongs eggs it would have killed
us to spite you!"

I translated for Fox. He nodded in agreement.

"I didn't just pick the eggs, I knew which one's actually
had the children in them. That's why I threw the EMD out
there. That was all planed." He frowned. "Except for killing
the one, that wasn't part of it."

I passed this onto Jadin. She seamed accepted it as she gave
Fox a quick nod as we continued down the tunnel.

    Chapter 13

I let out a pent-up sigh of relieve as we finally made are
way out of the caves and into the light of the afternoon. I
had been down in the caves for about three hours.

It looked like a lot had happened in those three hours.
There were long slashes of scorched ground covering the
valley, a trio of dragons were just rising up from a dive,
leaving a trail of smoldering crops in there wake.

Sora swore to herself from where she stood next to me. "How
can we stop this?"

I rubbed the back of my head. "Quickly I hope. That packet
of yours, if it is poison, may end this quicker then
anything else can. But we need to get back to the castle
first."

She nodded. "We just have to make it." She said as the trio
of dragons flew over our heads, "and there has to be a
castle to get back to."

I patted her on the back as she tucked her wings against her
body. "We will, it's only going to be a couple hours
walking." I squinted a bit, focusing on Ken's spell which
had seemed to have vanished down in the caves. "Oriana looks
to be already there, and I hope someone notices we're on the
way. We might end up with a ride."

"I hope so," She glanced at Jadin, and said something to
her. There was a quick response. "She's ready."

I smiled. "Right then, lets get going," and started to
walked towards the castle, rubbing my head again.

"You're thinking about something." Sora said, falling into
step at my side.

I nodded. "Yes... something wasn't right back there."

She chuckled a bit. "Which part?"

"The Wyrm, it shouldn't of been there."

"By what definition?"

I shook my head. "Any, a Wyrm lives with the folds, it uses
it to hunt. It will keep it's lair on a fold, going though
it to half a dozen well know worlds. It's still miles to the
fold, there's no way she could be living off of that. She's
still alive though, which means that's she's actually going
out of the caves into this world to hunt."

She shrugged. "Maybe the fold moved, or collapsed, and she
was trapped."

I shook my head. "The fold has been at the castle for at
least four years. It's still exactly where it was last time
I used it. She's also new to that cave, and Wyrms spend
there adult live in one cave. She's to big for this to be
her cave. This also was her second or third set of eggs, or
else they would have all been empty of life."

Sora bunched her wings a bit accost her back. "So it moved?"

"A Wyrm would die before willing leaving it's cave." I shook
my head. "No... I think someone moved that Wyrm here, but
why? It had to have been something around a year ago. She
came pregnant, and laid her eggs, which is probably the only
reason why she took up a new cave."

"Meaning what?"

I sighed. "To much... she should not be here at all. I don't
know why she is here, but she is... and I don't think she is
the only one brought to the caves."

Sora frowned. "Jadin?"

I nodded. "Yes... I don't think she is a natural. Again, the
only fold is at the castle, and a natural almost never come
out a ripple when they first open a fold. Not even the most
powerful natural can do that."

"So how did she get here?"

"Ask her to describe what happened. Everything she can
remember about the portal."

Sora nodded and fell back a bit to talk to Jadin. She came
back a minute later. "She said that it was a orange colour,
it opened in front of her, the color starting at blue then
moving to orange. She remembered next waking up in the
caves."

I rubbed my eyes, then readjusted my glasses. "That locks it
then. I think she was deposited."

"But why, and by who?"

I smiled, looking at her. "The why is simple, if she wasn't
there I most likely would be dead now. Someone had to put
here there so she could heal me when the time was right."

She nodded. "Still though, who would have know to do that."

I gave her a light stare, and raised an eyebrow. She looked
at me for a few seconds, then said. "Burke?" She guessed.

I nodded. "Burke."

"How though? If he did put Jadin there how would he know to
actually _do_ it? He would have to know that you would need
her this happened. That would take some for of time travel."

I nodded again. "Which he may actually have."

"What?! I though that it was still theoretical." I gave her
a sharp glance. "He's also from the future isn't he?"

I shrugged. "Or maybe last week. It still may be an accident
that Jadin is here. This is still just a theory the Brothers
told me about a couple days ago. Apparently some of the air
Burke was breathing out looked like it might have been older
then it was suppose to be."

She nodded a bit. "What do we do about it then?"

"For right now, we make sure Jadin has some temps just
in-case she isn't a natural, then get her validated when we
get back to Prid. Until then we keep walking."

Sora glanced up. "I don't think so, our ride is here." She
pointed at the growing figures coming towards us.

* * *

I looked over my notes on the spell, trying to find some way
to expand the it to cover the valley. I didn't have any idea
what to do, or how to do it, or even where to guess to start
at.

"Any progress?" Kalie asked, as she walked into the dinning
hall.

I shook my head. "I think I have everything I need to do the
spell, but just not sure I can actually do it, and I still
have no clue how to expand it."

Kalie nodded setting a pair of necklaces on the table. "Ken
knew, and you might be able to ask him. I think these will
link you together so you can do the spell."

"I wouldn't not recommend it." Fox said from the doorway. I
twisted around, jumping out of my chair at the same time.
Fox was just walking in the doorway, looking a bit smug. I
ran over and hugged him tightly, nearly picking him up. He
laughed a bit and hugged me back.

He pried me off after a few seconds. "What have I missed,
other then dragon attacks?" He asked, walking over to the
table.

"It would be good to know." Sora asked, following him into
the room.

I felt myself smiling. "You're alive." I said, calling it
out a bit.

She nodded, patting my shoulder. "Had a couple of squeamish
solders, they didn't like the idea of killing me."

I nodded pulling her over to the table. "That's good..." I
said, not sure of what else I could say.

"Who's your friend Fox?" Kalie asked sounding a bit shocked.

I looked around, finding someone new standing in the
doorway, she looked like a human, but after a few seconds I
saw that it was actually an elf. "How did she get here?" I
asked.

Fox shook his head. "That's a matter of some debate. Now
what's this about linking with Ken?"

Kalie sighed. "Ken is hurt, his neck is broken and he is
unconscious."

He gulped a bit glancing at the elf who was standing behind
Sora. "What happened?"

I gave him a quick version of what happened on top of the
castle hours before. He face slowly fell as he heard what
happened. "I think we need to not worry about the spell for
right now." He turned, "Sora? How much healing can she do?"

Sora turned to the elf and had a small exchange. She turned
back to Fox, "She might be able to heal Thrysten, but not
Ken, at least not all the way."

Fox frowned a bit. "All right... Kalie, take Sora and Jadin
up to Thrysten, we need her first, her and Draz, we need
them as a pair."

Kalie looked at Fox for a few seconds, then stood up,
walking out silently. Sora and the elf (her name Jadin I
assume) walked out after her.

"If Ken's out, why are you still working on the spell?"

I frowned, looking down at the table. "Kalie seems to think
I have some capability in magic."

He grimaced. "Just what you need, something else screwing up
your life."

I chuckled. "That's just about what I thought."

He shook his head, smiling a bit. "Don't worry about it. If
I'm right this might end in a few more hours with out an all
out battle.

"What's your plan of fearless leader?" I asked with a smile.

He gave me a lopsided grin and told me.

    Chapter 14

I cough Jadin as she fell back off the bed, she had blood
running from her eyes, mouth and nose. Thrysten on the other
hand was slowly waking up. Draz was instantly at Thrysten's
side, Kalie came over to me and Jadin whipping her face off
with a wet cloth.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

She moaned and shook her head slowly. "This isn't as easy
for me as it is for others." She whispered, her voice
getting stronger as she spoke.

Draz spoke to us. "Tell that child that I thank her."

"Fox say's she's an Elf, and an adult." I said with a slight
smile as she sat up on the edge of the bed.

Thrysten coughed, rubbing her shoulder where her wing had
been hurt. "What happened?" She asked, looking around the
room, she focused on Jadin. "And who is she?"

"Draz will explain," Kalie said, standing up. "We'll go for
now. Though Fox want's to see you soon."

She nodded a bit, winching slightly. Kalie tap my shoulder
and I stood, helping Jadin up. Then we all headed out of the
room.

"I'm impressed. I've never seen healing like that, or that
much pain caused by doing it."

I nodded. "She bleed less when she healed Fox."

Kalie have me a sharp look. "What happened to Fox."

"To long of a story for right now," I sighed.

She shook her head, working her fingers through the fur of
her arms. "Why does Fox want Thrysten first? It would make
more sense to heal Ken first."

I shrugged. "I don't know. Though I think he has a plan of
some sort."

She chuckled. "In my experience Fox isn't the best at
planing things. He always seems to miss some major point
that I had to fix before it got us all killed. Except for
last time, he actually did pretty good then."

I shook my head a bit. "Well, I hope what ever he has this
time works, and I'll bet it has something to do with this."
I pulled the packet out of my pocket and showed it to Kalie.

She took it from me. "What is this?"

"Fox thinks it's a poison. I agree with him."

She frowned, sniffing it a bit. "Who for?"

"Krege." I said as we walked into the dinning hall.

"Why is he taking poison?" She asked.

Fox walked over, snatching the packet from Kalie's paw.
"Because he's being feed it by his Prime Minister."

Kalie sat down. "Oh... I see... He's taken over officially
by making Krege sick."

I nodded, sitting myself down along with Jadin. "It works
well too."

"So, he is the one who is doing this."

Fox nodded. "Right, he seems to be taking our forcing Krege
out kind of personally."

"Who?" Draz asked, walking into the room, Thrysten followed
behind adjusting her clothing as she went.

"Salden," Fox said, "Krege's Prime Minister and current
leader of the army's up there."

Draz frowned, sitting in his chair at the head of the table.
"Yes, he would have an interest. It was his son who you
fought for."

Fox groaned. "And he got killed at the end of it."

A connection made itself in my head. "He also blames you for
it Fox."

He looked at me. "Really?"

I nodded. "He almost drooled at the prospect of killing
you."

Fox rubbed his neck. "Nice man." He looked at Draz. "If
Krege was killed, Salden would not have taken charge would
he?"

"I don't think so," He said, "though if he was appointed to
rule while Krege was ill he would be king, unless Krege
died."

Fox blew a bit. "Right then," He threw the packet to Draz.
"I expect that is poison."

He frowned and passed to Thrysten. She sniffed it a bit then
dropped it on the table. "Yes, it is."

"Salden has been feeding that to Draz." I said.

She nodded. "Yes, a growing dose would keep him ill."

"Good then." Fox said with a smile. "I need an antidote that
will get him back to his feet in minutes. He doesn't have to
be strong, just awake, thinking and most of all talking."

"What do you have planed Fox?" Draz asked.

"You're going to surrender." Oriana said from where she had
been leaning against the wall. "Fox and I will take care of
the rest."

"We need the antidote first." Fox said. "Do you have one for
this?"

Thrysten looked at Draz. "It is the same poison dear, and
still a smaller dose."

He nodded. "Yes, we have an antidote. It might be stronger
then you need, but it will help."

Fox raised an eyebrow. "All right then. You're going to need
some kind of guard."

Thrysten smiled. "I can arrange that."

He nodded. "Jadin can help Ken right?"

"I can try and heal him enough so he can be moved back with
you guys." Jadin responded.

Fox blinked and nodded. "Well then. Sora you remember where
we came in, Ken's up there. Both of you get up there and do
what you can. Don't over extend yourself either."

I nodded and started up to the battlements with Jadin in
tow.

* * *

"How exactly will surrendering save us?" Draz asked, leaning
forward a bit.

I grabbed an apple (or something like) from the table and
bit into it. "It gets you to see Salden. The fact is you
have a script you need to follow."

Draz frowned. "What are you planning to do Fox?"

I started to speak, but stopped before I said anything. "To
be honest, I don't think I should say. We already know that
there are spies in the castle. They took Sora and tried to
kill me. Oriana knows and for what we need to do that's
enough."

"And what do we need to do?" Thrysten asked.

"Just get there, and take about twenty solders with you.
Kalie you go with them."

Kalie nodded. "All right."

"Draz, you insist on meeting Salden alone. When you do delay
him, about five minutes should do. Also, I will need the
antidote."

Draz nodded and Thrysten snapped a servant over to her then
sent him off.

I checked my pockets for the gun, I still had it, along with
the clips from before. "Kalie, right here and now, what is
the strongest weapon you have."

She reached over and grabbed what looked like Ken's satchel.
Reaching inside she fished around for a few seconds. There
was a muffled rip then she came up with something I hadn't
expect at all.

She tossed it my way and I looked it over. "A twelve-gage
pump action shotgun. Kalie your a bitch, you know that?"

She laughed and passed over four shells. "It holds all of
them, and that's all I have. It was an emergency weapon. Ken
didn't even know he had it."

I shook my head, taking the strap from the satchel and
attaching it to the shotgun, then loaded it and hung it
under my jacket.

The servant that Thrysten had sent off returned carrying a
small vial half full of a off-white liquid. The servant
handed it to me.

"Give him half of that," Thrysten said, "That should do it."

I nodded, putting it in another pocket.

"Come on Oriana, lets get going." I stood. "We'll meet you
at Salden's camp." Glancing down at the apple I still had in
my hand, I took another bite of it and threw it over my
shoulder as I walked out of the room.

    Chapter 15

"I understand what you plan to do," I said, walking next to
Fox, "but do we _have_ to uses those ugly beasts?"

He nodded, rubbing his wrist. "They're fast enough, and we
need them to get there in time."

I nodded. "All right."

"Now, give me the Matrix chip."

I pulled the chip out of my band and handed it over to Fox.
He put it inside of his watch. "Right, now we need a hooded
cloak." He dived into a room off the the side and came back
with one tucked over his arm. "Here, put this on."

I took it from him. "How did you know that would be there?"

He shrugged. "A guess... come on." He started off down the
hall at a faster step.

I draped the cloak over my shoulders, closing the claps. "I
can't exactly sneak around in this thing."

Fox started down a set of steps. "We don't need to sneak
around, we just have to get to where we need to be. Then
Draz just has to do what he needs to do."

I chuckled in spite of myself. "You certainly are being
vague about all this."

"With all that has happened I think I need to be." He shot
me a smile and walked out of a side door into the court
yard. Fox walked right over the drawbridge and into the
stables.

It took about five minutes for the person in charge of the
place to bring around a pair of horses and to saddle the
beasts.

Fox easily swung up on to the saddle and took the some kind
of leather straps, which he informed me were rains, in his
hands.

With some small aid of the wolf who brought the beasts
around I perched myself on top of one as well. Fox nodded a
bit and did something to set the animal to a run.

I tried to do the same by had very little luck. Finally the
wolf behind me laughed and slapped the beast on it's amble
rear, sending it running after Fox.

It didn't take much time for me to catch up with Fox. He
brought his animal next to mine and took the rains from me.
Holding his set in one hand any my set in the other.

"This is a pain to ride." I said with a slight whimper.

Fox shrugged, changing the horses direction a bit. "You get
used to it."

"I don't want to get used to it, I want to get off of it!"

He laughed softly. "Just relax and don't try to fight it,
this will all be over with soon enough."

I tried to take his advice, though wasn't doing to good a
job of it. Finally I just decided to try and keep talking to
Fox so I would be distracted.

"Why do you need me here?" I asked.

Fox twisted his head to look at me. "What?"

"I mean why are you bringing me along. From what you've told
me I'm not exactly needed."

He smiled. "It's always good to work in pairs. Not to
mention you know a bit more of the camp then I do."

"Oh..." I said, looking slightly away from him. The
conversation didn't go very far from there.

Eventually Fox stopped about ten minutes away from Salden's
camp. Getting off the horses Fox tied them to some thick
bushes and we started towards the camp.

As we got closer Fox turned the Matrix chip on, giving him
the appearance of a wolf, I pulled the hood of my cloak up
and held it closed.

He slowed down a bit as we neared the camp. He hunched over
a bit and steeped past the first tent. On his way he picked
up a pack that someone had left by a tent, slinging it over
his shoulder.

He drifted back a bit until he was walking next to me.
"Which way is Salden's tent from here?"

I though for a second. "Down that way," I pointed in the
direction.

He nodded and started through the tents, still hunching
over. Amazingly it seemed to worked, no one noticed him as
he trudged down the lane. On the other hand people seemed to
be looking at me with something approaching suspicion.
Finally I hunched over and fell in step behind Fox. That
abated most of the looks.

After a time we come to, then pasted, the tent. About three
tents later Fox dived into one, then pulled me into it.

I pulled out of his grip. "You didn't need to pull me, I was
right behind you."

He shrugged. "Sorry."

I rubbed my wrist. "So now we just wait."

He nodded, digging around through some of the stuff in the
tent. He came up with a knife from a trunk and started to
cut through the tent wall.

* * *

An uproar broke out just outside the tent. Sitting up I
stuck my head out a hole in the side of the tent. There was
a precession walking up to Salden's tent, with Draz and
Thrysten in the lead.

"Come on Oriana," I said. "It's starting." Walking to the
side of the tent I turned off the Matrix chip. Then I cut a
small hole into the side of the tent. Looking though I found
that I was right where I needed to be.

On the other side of the hole was a small room inside of
Sladen's tent. It had been partitioned off with some wooden
panels. Though the small door I could see the inside of the
rest of the tent.

I ducked back a bit as one of the solders dragged Krege,
still tied in his chair, into the small room. As the solder
walked out I slowly ripped open the cut between the tents
until I could slip through.

Krege tried to react, but could only whimper a bit and twist
his head in my direction.

I shook my head. "Relax, I'm here to help you." I whispered
as I kneeled down next to him.

He closed his eyes and whimpered again.

Pulling the vile of the antidote from my jacket, I lifted
Krege's head. Holding it in front of him I said. "This is
the antidote, you need to drink this."

He slowly opened his eyes and started hard into my own.
Opening the vile I lifted it to his mouth, tilting it and
his head backwards. When a bit more then half of it was
pored in I pulled his head back down and took the vile away.
Holding his mouth close I tilted his head back once more.
Krege swallowed it quickly.

Letting go of his muzzles, I took the knife and started to
work off the ropes that was binding his paws to the chair. I
moved onto the rope accost his chest and then to his feet.

"Draz is pretty good at filling time." Oria whispered from
the door.

I smiled, "Good." I looked back at Krege. His eyes seemed a
bit brighter, and was starting to sit up under his own
power.

Motioning Oriana over I sat her down next to Krege. "When he
can get out there and talk you do that. Got it."

She nodded, then I stood, adjusting my jacket a bit. Then I
walked though the door and into the main area of the tent.
Draz and Thrysten saw me, and there reaction must have been
noticed by Salden because he spun around to stare at me.

"It's you!" He growled.

I spread my arms. "It usually is, it's gets confusing when
it's not."

He smiled a bit. "Very well then, I'll just kill you all."

I shook my head, walking over to stand with Thrysten and
Draz. "Not that easy, all three of us can over power you
with out much trouble."

He crossed his arms. "You forget the my troops standing
outside."

I waved my hand. "There Krege's men, not yours."

He laughed. "As long as he is ill the *are* my men."

I saw Oriana standing in the doorway. When we made eye
contact she ducked back in. I looked back at Salden. "Except
he isn't ill. You've been feeding him poison so you could
take control and do what you though he should have done."

He crossed his arms. "Now, who would believe a story like
that?"

"I would," Krege said with a slight slur to his voice. Orian
had him propped up on her shoulder. Salden turned instantly,
his facing going slack as he registering who had spoken.

"Shocked?" I asked with a slight smile.

He turned back around, growling.

Thrysten steeped back to the proper exit for the tent,
stepping outside. She came back in with three of Krege's
solders behind her.

As the three of them saw there proper King they all fell on
to there knees.

Krege smiled as much as he was able to. "Stand and retain
Salden."

Salden growled a bit deeper as the solders stood and drew
there swords. He twisted his wrists, a knife appeared from
inside his sleeve which he threw at Draz, he then turned and
bolted.

The solders where faster though, they were already running
for Salden even before he moved. Two of the solders pulled
him to the ground before he had gone more then three feet.
The final guard pulled Draz down before he could reaction,
the knife sailing through where his head was and hitting the
ground a few feet away.

I blew though my teeth. "Hell, that was anticlimactic. I
came armed for a running fight and it doesn't go more then a
few feet."

"You sound disappointed," Kalie said pushing her way into
the tent. "Sorry I missed it, the solders were quite happy
to restrain me."

"I don't think he's disappointed." Oria replied, walking
over to the rest of us, Krege still hanging off her
shoulder.

Draz stood, walking over to Krege. He crossed his arms over
his chest and bowed his upper body a few inches. "Welcome to
my Kingdom your Majesty."

Krege smiled, or at least tried to, only half his muzzle
pulled up, the other side didn't really move at all. He
looked like he had suffered a stroke, which might have been
a side effect of the poison.

"I thank you," Krege said, speaking very slowly. "Forgive me
for not bowing... I am still hurting."

Draz nodded, resting his paws on the others shoulders. "Now
that we are finished with this war business, can we return
to where we had been before this mess began?"

Krege nodded slowly. "Yes... though first I would wish to
rest."

Draz smiled. "Rest then... we can allow this to wait for a
few more days."

    Epilogue

  Ten days later:

"Oriana," Fox said, sounding slightly relived when he saw me
waiting for him outside the dinning hall.

I smiled as he walked towards me. He wrapped his arm over my
shoulder. "How are things back on Prid?" He asked, pulling
me forward a bit as he keep walking.

"Ken is recovering decently... the doctor says he will stay
in bed for close to a month. He is awake though."

Fox smiled, nodding and pulled me a bit closer. "Jadin?"

"She is a natural, though no one is quite sure how she got
to where she was found. It also turns out her name is
actually Jadith. Sora misunderstood it."

He nodded. "Right then. How about you? How are you feeling?"

I frowned, down casting my eyes. "I am... better."

Fox stopped walking, and moved to stand in front of me. "I
haven't had a chance to ask you this yet, but... why?"

Closing my eyes, I gulped, the air hurting my throat as it
went down. Slowly, I tried to find the right words. "I...
don't really know," I whispered, "not then... and still not
now. It was as if my training took over, leaving me as a
passive viewer. I did understand what the cost of my actions
would be.. and I was able to make certain that I avoided
them.

He looked at me, his eyebrows twitching slightly. "What
about you, not your training, but you?"

I turned my head away from him, looking at the floor. "I
knew exactly what I had to do to end this... no battle, no
fight... I would just have had to murder him."

Fox breathed deeply, placing his hand against my chin. "I'm
here for you. You do know that."

I nodded, taking his hand from my face and holding tightly
it in my paws. "It's... hard... so many times I've want to
die for what I've done... what I will have to do..."

Fox hugged me, one hand on my shoulders, the other pressing
lightly on the back of my head. He held me close against his
body. "Don't Oria... I've..." His voice was wavering, "I
don't want to lose you... you're the closest friend I have.
You've been with me longer then anyone else. I'll be here to
help you, and I'll be here to hold you... but don't kill
yourself... it's not worth it."

I found that I had started to cry against his shoulder.
Slowly looking up, I looked into his blue eyes. I saw my own
reflection in his glasses, and it hurt to see it. "I love
you." I whispered.

"I know," He whispered back.

I fell back against his chest, he held me there, pressing
against my head lightly, but still firmly. We stood that way
for a few minutes until Fox's grip lessened.

"Hello Thrysten," he said, his voice slightly horse.

I jumped back, whimpering the fur of my face against my
sleeve. The gryphoness stood a few feet away, dressed in the
normal clothing of the world. She had her arm's crossed over
her chest and her wings pulled tight to her shoulders. A
slight smile bending over her beak.

"I see the pair of you are becoming reacquainted." She said,
tilting her head a bit.

Fox nodded, his own smile forming on his lips. "As you
say..."

She chuckled softly. "I would like to thank you for your
help with the treaty. You may not have been necessary, but
it was still good to have you with us."

He shrugged. "I've done it before, I expect I will do it
again. Oh, by the way, I have something for you." Fox turned
to me, "you brought it?"

I nodded, pulling out a small box from my pocket. Fox had
charged me with retrieving it when the rest of us had gone
back to Prid.

Taking it from me, he removed the lid. Pushing aside some
sort of packing he removed a single gold coin. The side I
could see had a silhouetted fox head (a real fox, not a
morph) embossed into the metal.

Taking Thrysten's fore-claw, he turned it up, and set the
coin on her palm.

She closed bent her fingers down and pull the coin up,
holding it carefully. "A new coin."

Fox nodded. "You may need me again."

She smiled, putting the coin away in a pocket of her
clothing, then crossing her arms. "You're going then?"

"Yes, I have some things to take of." He frowned slightly.
"If you want, I can still take you home."

She smiled then broke out into a soft laughter. "Fox, this
_is_ my home. I'm quite happy, happier then I would ever
have been back on my world."

"I know, I just couldn't let myself not ask," he smiled with
half of his face, the other side staying fixed. "It's been
great seeing you again."

"Agreed... It's been as interesting time as ever."

Fox smiled. "Maybe I'll see you later..."

"Wait..." She said, digging some folded up papers from her
pocket. "This is all the notes from the old wizard on my
gem. Ken may find them to his interest."

He took them from her, putting them into his jacket. "I'm
sure he will have a hay-day with them."

She reached up and dug her claw-fingers into the feathers of
her neck. With a tug she gave a gasp of pain. Pulling a
single feather away she handed it to Fox. "To remember me."

He smiled, taking it from her fingers. Holding it gently he
brushed his fingers down one edge. "I always will."

Thrysten smiled, then turned and slowly walked away, her
tail hanging low to the ground.

Fox draped his arm over my shoulder. "Let's go home."

I started walking again, Fox keeping pace with me. "You two
used to have something didn't you?"

He slowed his walking a bit. "Ah... not exactly... I thought
I loved her... but as it went I realized it was more lust
then anything else."

I nodded, patting his hand with my paw. "I understand."

He lifted his arm from my shoulder as we started up the
stairs to the battlement.

"What was with the coin anyway?"

Fox smiled. "A calling card. If she breaks it in half I'll
come running. Just like I did."

I frowned. "How can that be done."

He chuckled as we walked to where the fold was. "Easy...
though with years of research... I'll explain it later." He
grinned at me and opened the fold.

Together, we went home.