Re-Awakening

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

05/15/98:

And then I woke up... well, waking up being a relative term,
and in no way is able to describe just how important that
one event in my life was. Hum... maybe I should start this
over somewhat more coherently.

In a flash of anguish and pain I was suddenly back in
control of my body. After almost a month of slowly being
torn apart piece by piece, and gods know how long of being
from all intensive peruses dead, I was suddenly once again
whole and alive.

My first reaction was just plain shock. Then came the
realization that Ken had done it, he had found a way to
break this curse!

It was then I found I was still a lioness. Rhea was gone for
now, I wasn't sure were, but I was now in charge of myself
again. I was going to make the most of it and wasn't going
to let her destroy me again.

Then the pain finally started to pound its way into my
skull. I ached all over, I was cramped up, bruised, and from
the feel of it, my right back leg was bent in a way not
meant by nature.

I started to look around, drawing in my surroundings. At
first glance I appeared to be hanging over a branch in huge
tree. Maybe a dozen feet away rose a wall of stone up
farther then I could see. I could also not see the ground
through the foliage underneath me.

Digging back I tried to remember what had happened. Most of
my time as Rhea and becoming Rhea was somewhat vague, if
there at all. The recent past though was crystal clear. She
was chasing some pray, it looked to be something like a
dear.

The animal had made a suddenly side jump and Rhea just ran
past it, and off the side of what I thought was a cliff. She
fell into the tree, breaking through the branches on her way
down. Once large branch breaking her leg when she hit it.

She had gone into shock... leaving it open for me to awaken
once more. As I felt through my mind I could feel her,
shaking in a back corner. She was alive but pretty scared
pretty badly.

I but a mental cage around her. She wasn't going to be
coming back any time soon. I was going to have enough
trouble as it was without having to fight her once more.

Twisting a bit I tried to look at my leg. It could see
enough to tell that it was badly broken. The bone hadn't
broken then skin, so at least that was a blessing.

The next problem was trying to get down from the tree. The
answer was start to present it self as the branch I was
draped over let out a pained creak and bounced.

I had just enough time to think quick swear before the
branch snapped and sent me once again falling. Trying to
curl myself into a ball I slammed into a dozen more
branched, some hard enough I wondered how I wasn't breaking
my back.

Then, just as I felt myself finally leave the tree and enter
the open air I came to a sudden stop. I had not hit the
ground, or landing in anything at all. Untucking my head
from under one fore-leg I looked out.

I was hanging in the air maybe twenty feet above the ground,
and was slowly lowering. Standing below me was lioness
morph. She was holding a staff between her paws and chanting
in a language I didn't understand.

My first hope was that it was Oriana, but as I was lowered
to the ground I saw that it wasn't. This lady was taller
then Oriana was, her hair was cut short and she had both of
her ears pierced a few times. Her clothing was unusual for a
magic user of her caliber. It was just a some pants and a
t-shirt that clung to her chest in ways that would have be
far more interesting if she wasn't busy saving me.

As my feet touch the ground the pain in my back leg flared.
I rolled onto my side and pulled it close to my body.

The lady smile, setting her staff down and pushing her bangs
from out of her eyes. She crouched down onto her knees and
place her paw against my head, right between my ears. "Hello
Fox." She said, though not with words, her voice seemed to
echo in my skull.

'Hello yourself,' I thought back to her, 'thanks for the
save.'

She chuckled, taking her paw away. "No need to thank me, I
was sent here to do just that."

My ears perked up at this. 'By who?' I thought, already
starting to guess the answer.

"Burke is a friend of mine." she said, standing up and
cleaning the dirt from her knees. "He asked me to help when
Rhea ran off. It was luck through that I found you here at
all."

I nodded my head a bit, I seem to vaguely remember Burke
helping me at the start of this.

She picked up her staff and bowed, holding it in front of
her. "My name is Romana."

My attention had left her by then. Standing behind her,
right in a ray of sunlight that was filtering to the ground,
was a unicorn! I wanted to rub my eyes, but, just like
before, the unicorn was gone in a blink of an eye.

Romona noticed my lack of attention to her. She twisting
around to look behind her, then with a swift move past her
staff through the sunlight. Turning back around she shook
her head. "What were you looking at?"

'A unicorn,' I thought to her.

She smiled. "Do you see them often?"

I shook my head. 'Third time.'

She bent down and patted me on top of my head. "That's
pretty damn often Fox."

I gave her as much of a shrug as I could in this body.

Letting out a laugh she shook her head. "Come on, we need to
get you home."

* * *

I was curled up on the couch, slowing drinking a cup of
lukewarm tea. It had be a week sense Rhea had run away I was
losing hope of ever being with Fox again.

I wasn't alone in this house right then. Ken was there was
well, propped up in the chair and looking just about dead.
He had found some sort of way around the spell and now was
just waiting for someone to find Fox.

Personally, I suspected he would really be dead before
anyone found Rhea. By then though nothing we could do would
help him. With every passing day there was less and less of
a chance of ever recovering Fox from Rhea's mind. I had let
the mind-shredder go home yesterday, he was still on call
though, just in case.

Inside the room came a muffled 'thewmp' type noise. Twisting
my head around I searched for what had caused it. I found my
answer in the form of a lioness. She was standing just
inside the front door, dressed in tight clothing and holding
onto a carved staff.

I started to stand, but she just smiled. "Is this your
animal?" She asked and stepped to one side.

Huddled behind her and watching me with pained eyes was
Rhea! I jumped forward, pushing past the lady and landing at
my knees in front of the lioness.

She tilted her head, looking at me, her ears flicking back
and fourth. Finally she just leaned forward and licking me
right accost the side of my face.

I just broke out in a sharp burst of laughter. Stiffening I
was started to see that the lioness was slowly shaking her
head.

This was such a strange gesture to see an animal to do I
grabbed onto once sharp piece of hope. "Fox?" I whispered.

She nodded to me! Without thinking I was suddenly hugging
her around her neck with my face buried into her fur, crying
my eyes out. "I thought I had lost you."

Fox nuzzled me along my shoulder and my neck, licking the
fur a bit at times.

Finally I pulled away, grinning like a fool. Then turned
sharply. "Ken!" I called out. He was already standing behind
me.

"He found a way back." He said.

I nodded.

Some of the color of his skin seemed to flood back as he
knelt next to Fox. She leaned forward and licked him accost
the face as well.

He smiled, holding up his forepaw for Fox to see. Held in
his grasp was a small necklace. It was a silver and gold
chain, the main piece of the necklace was silver pendant of
a long dragon. Perched between it's wings was a milky white
stone that seemed to glow when looked at for too long.

Fox looked it over, flicking her ears. Ken took the chain in
both of his paw, spreading it open wide enough to fit around
Fox's neck.

She leaned forward, her eyes closed, almost looking like she
was offering herself to Ken. The half-dragon pulled the
chain over her next and let it rest against her shoulders,
then stepped away.

The stone on the pendant seemed to glow stronger, as Fox's
body almost seemed to be rippling around the edges. Then,
without so much as a pop of air Fox was back as a human.

His face pulled into a winch and he pulled his legs forward.
I saw that one was bent at an odd angle, clearly it had been
broken at some point.

Shaking a bit he looked up at me and smiles softly. His eyes
hadn't changed back, they were still the same super light
blue color as before. Though with him as a human it look
erie.

"Welcome back," I said, bending down.

He nodded. "Thanks." He whispered, then his eyes rolled up
and he passed out.

* * *

Three hours passed before Fox finally woke up. Ken and I had
hurried him the hospital as soon as he passed out, the lady
that had brought him had left with out anyone noticing. Once
inside the doctors took over, getting Fox into a bed,
hooking him up to an IV as well as bracing his leg. Ken on
the other hand they took right into one of the ICU wards and
put him right into sedation. It would be a few days before
he would wake up.

Fox was a mess as he sat up in the bed, rubbing his eyes
with his fingers. The doctors had put him into a gown but it
had taken threats of body harm from me for them to leave the
pendant around his neck.

Reaching over the bed I handed Fox his glasses. He smiles,
taking them from me and placing back into the normal
position on his face. He smiled at me but still didn't say a
word.

"How are you feeling?" I eventually asked.

He shrugged. "Like hell. My leg is sore, I hurt everywhere
and I really could use some cooked food."

I smiled. "Everything should be taken care of over the next
few days."

He nodded. "Good... good..."

I took one of his hands in my paws.

"How long was I dead?" He asked.

"A week," I answered.

He let out a small sigh, then frowned. "Shit, Elena!"

"I took care of it."

He gave me a quick look. "But I never told you about it."

I shook my head. "You did, you where able to talk to me in a
dream. You expect you wouldn't remember it." He also must
have forget what he told me. He would realize it again
though, and I would wait for him, as I always have.

"Will she help us?"

I nodded. "From what I've been told the Mouse has started
talking."

He smiled. "Good."

I freed my paw from his hands and bent over to flick the
pendant. "You see this?" I asked.

He looked down. "Yes. Ken used it to break the curse."

"No, he didn't break the curse."

Fox shot his head up. "What?"

I nodded. "He wasn't to clear when he tried to explain it to
me, but from what I understand he found a short cut around
it, to make you human again. But only when the pendant is
with in a few feet of you."

He blew some air through his teeth. "Hell."

"Ken did say that you would be in control though. You may
have to deal with Rhea, but you will be in control."

He chuckled. "I don't think it's something I'll need to
worry about."

I slowly shook my head, Fox started to frown. Sitting down
on the side of his bed I explained. "If I understand Ken
right you just can't push a curse like this back. There will
be resistance to it. Every thirty days you have to spent
some to as a lioness or the spells on the pendant will break
and you'll really be stuck."

He nodded.

"Also, when get the pendant far enough away to become a
lioness, it needs to recharge or something close to it.
You'll be a lioness for three days, no matter how long it's
been sense the last time."

He sighed. "Not the best end, but far from the worst. I can
deal with it I guess."

I nodded, standing up again. "I think you had better sleep
right now. I'll be back in the morning."

"Ok, but first, what's bothering you?"

I shrugged. "Nothing important."

He chuckled. "Oriana..."

I smiled. "Don't worry about it. It will take care of
itself." Then with a quick wave of my tail I left his room
so he could sleep.

-----

This story is (c) 1998 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.
Elena is (c) 1998 by Chris Bradford.