The Gathering of Friends

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

12/25/98:

"Excuse me," I said, stepping inside of Jadith's office. "Do
you have a few free minutes?" It was a rhetorical question.
I knew she had some free time, if she hadn't she would have
been working some place other than in her office.

She glanced up from her work, a pen in hand, which she had
been rocking between her fingers. "I was just about to call
you anyway. I've found out something interesting."

"Well, I'm glad I came then," I responded with a smile as I
closed her door, then took a seat on the far side of her
desk. She returned the smile, brushing away a bit of her
hair that was hanging in her eyes, before bending down and
extracting a file from one of the drawers.

"Would you care to go first?" she asked as she set the
folder down in front of her on the desk, Then gingerly set
her hands on top of it, folding them over each other.

"I'm going to be away for about a week," I stated.

"Oh?" she said, glancing quickly at her desk calendar. "Is
it time for Rhea again? It doesn't seem to have been long
enough."

I grinned, "No, it's a little more personal than that. I'm
going back home for a week. I've been gone for about a year,
and it's time I saw my family again." The last time I had
been home was just before the Plague had started. After that
my next chance back had been right after I had first been
Rhea, and I wasn't in the mood to run around back then.

She nodded, smiling widely. "I understand that. I'll handle
any requests for your office until you return. Though you're
going to have to start putting together a staff in the near
future."

"First thing when I get back. Now," I leaned forward in my
chair. "What exactly did you find that was so interesting?"

"The soot," she answered, pulling her hands back and opening
the file she had brought out. Removing a couple of pages,
she handed them to me over the desk. Taking them from her
hands, I scanned over them slowly.

"This is the stuff we found in the R&D lab?" I asked,
glancing back and fourth between the two pages. It didn't
make too much sense to me. There were lots of graphs and
charts. One looked like a spectral analysis, or something
along those lines.

She nodded, relaxing back in her chair just ever so
slightly, her hands folded carefully in her lap. "It's not
exactly soot. It does have the normal makeup of soot, but
with extremely high quantities of c60 and c70, as well as a
few trace particles that shouldn't form in the normal
process of burning."

I set the pages back down on the desk, trying to get them to
land on the folder, but I missed. "That's interesting in
itself, but I assume you have something else that you
qualify as very interesting."

She smirked slightly. "Of course," she said in a tone of
voice that implied that I would never think of anything but
that. "I ran the measurements through the assorted
databases, trying to find a match."

My eyes were caught by something inside of the folder, half
showing under the papers I had dropped on it. Reaching over
I picked the folder up and opened it to what I had seen. It
was a picture, a picture of a pantheress. A pantheress who
by all rights I didn't believe existed.

The unicorn had stated to me that she was real. That all
that had happened in the caves on Draz's world had been
real, and this pantheress had been there. She was supposed
to have been a friend of Becky's, but I didn't know her, and
it didn't explain how she had come to be in those caves.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Jumping a bit, I snapped my
head up fast enough to hurt my neck. Jadith was there, a
concerned look on her face. "Fox, are you all right?"

I shook my head slowly. "I'm not sure," I answered.

"That's Jen," she volunteered, tapping the picture. "She was
the assistant involved."

I nodded slowly, taking a few seconds to process what she
had said. "I kind of gathered that, but I think I know her."

"Where from?" she asked.

"I'll tell you at dinner," I stated, snapping the file
closed and tucking it under my arm.

She laughed slightly, "Fox, you know I can't make it to
dinner."

"Try to tonight," I told her as I stood up, "Please, it's
very important."

She gave me a slightly frustrated smile as she looked me in
the eyes. "I'll do my best, Fox, but I can't promise you
anything."

"That will be good enough," I said as I patted her on the
shoulder. "See you at eight."

She nodded as I turned away and left her office. I didn't
bother to return to my own office in the building. Instead I
went straight outside and caught a taxi back home.

Casually I stepped through the front door, and found Oriana
sitting on the couch inside. Beca was on her lap, well as
much of a lap as she had, considering how much her belly
took up, and Oria was reading to her. Beca seemed more
interested in the book itself, reaching out for it, pawing
at the pages and the pictures.

"Hi," I said, leaning over the arm of the couch and looking
over Oria's shoulder.

"You're home early," she said, tilting her head back to look
at me. "And what's in the folder?"

I blinked, looking down at my right hand. I was indeed still
holding the folder. I hadn't even realized it, but there it
was, held tightly in my right hand, so tight in fact that my
knuckles were white.

"Long story," I answered, kissing her cheek. "Think you
might be up to a large dinner?"

She twisted her ears a bit as she thought about it, then
started to smile, "Inviting someone tonight?"

"A few people," I explained, thinking about who I would be
asking. "Only friends though."

She smiled, turning the page of the book, then dropping one
paw to rest on her belly. "I would love to have some friends
over tonight."

Unable to help myself, I reached down and petted the fur on
her belly myself. I was rewarded with a very firm kick
against my hand. I laughed, kissing Oria's ear, "I've got to
make a few calls. Then I'll get back to you on the guest
list."

She smiled wider, then turned her full attention back to the
book. She pointed at some of the pictures inside as she
read, but Beca seemed more interested in her own tail by
that time.

Reaching down, I fluffed my granddaughter's head fur before
taking off to my office. Walking down the hallway I prepared
a mental list of who I wanted to call for dinner. It wasn't
just Jadith, I wanted all of my closest and most trusted
friends there.

I had decided it was time for me to tell them about the
unicorn, and the Neverending.

Once inside my office, I settled down behind my desk. When I
set down the folder, or tried that is, I couldn't get my
right hand to open.

With a growl I grabbed on to the folder with my left hand
and yanked it free. My right hand opened as I did so,
allowing me to use both hands after that.

Flexing the fingers of my hand, I turned on the video phone,
then started to dial the first number from my mental check
list. It took three rings before Ken answered the phone. He
jumped back once he saw me, looking shocked. I almost never
used the video phone.

"Fox," he said, a smile spreading across his face.

"Would you like to come to dinner?" I asked, returning his
smile.

His smile spread even wider than before. "Only if I can
bring a guest."

I laughed softly, but gently, "You have date?" I really
didn't want an outsider to join us for dinner; I suspected
that they wouldn't understand most of what was going on.

"You might say that," he answered, stepping to the side.
Behind him I saw Thrysten. She was relaxing in a chair, her
wings fanned out slightly. When she saw me, she waved,
smiling herself.

"By all means bring Thrysten along!" I answered, my voice
rising in pitch a bit as I spoke. It would be nice to
finally visit with her, after our last meeting had been so
short.

He chuckled, flapping his wings slightly. "I knew you would
see it my way. What time should we arrive there?"

"Around eight," I answered. "We'll be starting dinner soon
after that."

"We'll be there," he said, still smiling.

I nodded, before pushing some of my hair out of my eyes.
"See you then."

"Bye," he said, then we both reached out and disconnected
the phone.

I let out a content sigh, relaxing back in my chair and
crossing my hands over my chest. This was going to be a far
more interesting dinner than I had first expected. I just
hoped that Oria would act a bit more civilly to Thrysten
than she had last time they met.

Let's see, who else was on my list? Well there was Sora, but
she was in the house, and usually came to dinner when we had
it together. Then there was Terminus, but he never answered
his phone during the day. Other than that there was Rachel.

Snapping the phone back on I quickly dialed her office
number. It went about four rings before it was answered. She
was hunched over her desk, working on some other things, and
not paying too much attention to the phone.

"Hello?" she said, still not looking up.

"Hello, Rachel," I said with a grin.

She paused, turning her head to look at me. "Fox, this is a
surprise, you don't usually call me."

I shrugged, "Things change. I was wondering if you could
come home for dinner tonight, about eight o'clock?"

Her response was a deep frown. "I'm really sorry, Fox, I
can't make it, I have appointments till ten tonight. There's
no way I can cancel them, either."

I let out a sigh. I guess I couldn't have everybody I
wanted. "Try to come if you can," was my response, "but if
you can't I'll understand."

"I'm sorry, Fox," she said again, her voice sounding sad, "I
have work to do, otherwise I would love to talk with you
longer."

"It's all right," I answered. "I'll talk to you later."

She nodded, "Till then," she said, right before she switched
off the phone.

I shook my head slowly, letting out a second sigh. Rachel
had been acting more distant of late, pushing away from all
of us more and more as time went on. I was starting to worry
about her, it seemed like all she did was work. Most of the
time it was like she slept in her office, we saw so little
of her around the house.

Resting my head in my hands, I tried to think of why Oria
and I had decided to ask her to be the third person in our
marriage. We hadn't gotten the chance to ask her yet, things
were just too hectic, but lately she'd just been kind of
cold to us. To everyone actually, at least so I gathered
from the few people who had talked to me about it.

I was worried about her, very worried.

For now though, there was nothing I could do about it, so
worrying at this time would be ineffective and unproductive.
I still had a dinner to plan.

Getting out of my seat I headed back to the living room.
Oria was still sitting on the couch, reading to Beca, though
she was starting to fall asleep from the looks of things.

"It's going to be you, me, Sora, Jadith, I hope Terminus,
Ken and Thrysten," I told her as she looked up towards me.

She seemed to be slightly surprised by the list. "Thrysten?
What is she doing on Prid?"

"I don't know," I explained, shrugging my shoulders as I did
so. "She was with Ken when I called. Maybe they're working
on something together. Perhaps the gem for Rhea?"

She nodded, but didn't seem satisfied with the answer.

"I was going to pick up anything you thought we would need
for tonight. Make a list for me?" I also was planning to
stop by Terminus' place and ask him to come over.

Before she could answer, the phone in the kitchen started to
ring. I rolled my eyes and excused myself as I stepped
across the hall and snatched up the receiver. "Hello?" I
asked.

"Is that you, Fox?" A close to forgotten voice asked over
the phone.

"Kalie?" I asked, sounding startled. I hadn't heard more
than a few passing words from her in months. The last time
we really talked was almost exactly a year ago.

"Surprised to hear from me?" she asked, her voice sounding
slightly slurred somehow. Slower as well, more controlled
than I had ever heard it before.

I nodded my head, even though there was no one to see it.
"Absolutely! The last I heard, you were doing maneuvers with
your army. What brings you back here?"

She made a sort of grunt-like sound that didn't tell me a
thing. "I was wondering if I could come over and see you?"
she sounded slightly timid now; this was not like her at
all.

"Sure," I answered, "We have a new place now though."

"I noticed," she said with a soft snort.

"Take a taxi and swing by," I told her, then rattled off the
address.

I heard the sound of a relieved sigh come over the phone.
"Thanks, Fox. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"No rush," I said, leaning back against the wall. "We're
having a dinner tonight at eight, you're invited of course."

There was a long pause, I could hear her breathing over the
phone, but not much else. "Let me get cleaned up first," she
eventually said. "I'll be there in a few hours and help you
get everything set up."

"That will be great! I can't wait to see you again, it's
been far too long."

"Yes," she answered softly. "It has been a long time." From
the way she said it, I think it meant more than what it
sounded like.

"I have to go," she continued. "I'll be there when I can."
Then without giving me a chance to say anything else she
hung up the phone.

I hummed to myself as I returned the phone back into the
cradle. "That was Kalie," I said as I turned around to start
into the living room. I was surprised to find Oria standing
right behind me, Beca nestled into her arms.

"I heard," she said, smiling as she ran her fingers through
Beca's fur. "Will she be at dinner as well?"

"Yep," I answered.

She smiled wider, her ears perking up and her tail starting
to swish. "I'll go shopping then, you put Beca to bed," she
offered me the child.

As I took her gently, she fussed slightly in my arms, but
settled back down into slumber. Smiling myself, I bent over
and kissed Oria's nose-pad. "Could you drop by Terminus'
shop and ask if he would like to come by? And be quick,
knowing some of these people, they could be arriving at any
minute."

She laughed and returned the kiss.

* * *

It wasn't exactly 'any minute', but Kalie did arrive about
two hours early, just as Oria was starting to cook the meal.
She happily pitched in with the cooking, letting out a
couple of high-pitched chirp-like sounds as she did so.

It was great to see the otter again. She looked a bit older,
some streaks of gray finding their way into her brown fur
and another whisker was missing. There was something else
too, something in her eyes, a kind of a sadness to them.

I was being drawn to the conclusion that some of her
happiness was merely a front, but covering what? Was that
even my right to know? She was a career army officer on her
world, serving in one of the special forces units. It could
just have been some bad times on her last mission, or
something.

I wouldn't ask though, that was clearly not my right. I
would have to wait for her to tell me what was wrong, if she
told me anything at all. Kalie had always loved her privacy,
but she did know that I was always available to listen
whenever she wanted to talk to me.

The rest of our friends arrived pretty much on time. Sora
was there first, in fact she helped with the latter parts of
the meal. Then Ken and Thrysten arrived, which led to hugs
all around between them, Kalie and I. We had been a group
together for a while during some of my old adventures.

Jadith arrived a few minutes later, slightly out of breath,
but happy to join the group. She knew everyone, but Kalie
and Thrysten were more of acquaintances to her than friends.
Terminus came in right after her, chomping on one of his
cigars and joining the rest of the group.

Sadly though, there was no sign of Rachel-- not that I
expected her to make it. Her schedule demanded all of her
attention, but I still wished that she could have managed to
come. I would have to tell her everything later.

As a group we gathered in one of the great rooms. Oria got a
few comments on her pregnancy, which made her just start to
glow with pride. She loved the attention it brought her, and
loved the idea of being a true mother.

We sat around the room, chatting a bit. Ken, Thrysten and
Kalie had formed a small group of their own and were
catching up on old times. Oria was with Jadith, talking
about other things, with Terminus moving between the two
groups. Sora was passing around drinks for everyone and
occasionally inserting a comment or two.

I decided to hazard it for once, and took a glass of wine as
she came around to me. It surprised her a bit-- I rarely
drink, but this was a special occasion. What caught my
attention was that Kalie took the juice instead of the wine.
That was a startling surprise, she loved fine wines.

Seated where I was against one wall, I watched as all my
friends talked, sometimes laughing a bit. Oriana and
Thrysten were getting along better than the last time they
had met. I couldn't hazard a guess as to why, but I suspect
it had something to do with our engagement.

Which was why I never noticed that Kalie had come up next to
me. I first became aware of her presence when she tapped me
gently on the shoulder.

"Enjoying the party?" I asked her as I took a sip of my
wine.

She shrugged, swirling her juice around in her glass,
staring down at it intently. "It's been nice to catch up
with old friends. I've missed all of you." She seemed to
brighten up a bit, "I hear you and Oriana are engaged now. I
guess congratulations are in order."

I nodded, "And expecting," I told her, my face breaking into
an uncontrollable grin.

"So I see," she said with a slight chuckle. "How you two
pulled it off I will never know. I just didn't think a lion
and a human could breed."

"It's a very long story." I answered. "It would take all
night to tell you without going into details. Lets just
leave it at-- it took a god to allow it to happen."

She nodded, but rolled her eyes as she sipped at her juice.
I didn't have the heart to tell her I was serious. Then
suddenly she lost her jovial attitude. "Can I ask you
something, Fox?" There was a slight hitch in her voice as
she spoke. Whatever it was, this wasn't easy for her.

"Of course," I answered, trying my best to not look worried,
a feat which I suspect that I failed at.

She gulped, taking another, longer, drink of her juice. "I
ah..." she shook her head slightly, taking in a few deep
breaths of air.

I placed on hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. "Go
on, you can ask me anything."

She nodded, licking her lips slightly. "I was wondering,"
another pause, she seemed to be struggling to get the words
out. "You have such a large place here. Think you can spare
a room for a bit?"

"Of course I can," I answered, smiling slightly relived that
it wasn't something worse, but still worried about her. "We
have plenty of rooms here, most of them haven't even been
looked in the whole time that we have lived here. It would
be nice to have a few new faces around the place for a
change."

"Thank you," she said, sounding very relieved, and almost
gasping the words out. "You don't know how much this means
to me." She straightened up as she spoke, her eyes
brightening slightly as she forced a smile for me.

"I'm your friend," I explained, "Giving you a place to stay
is the least I could do."

She seemed relieved to hear me say that, her smile starting
to look natural instead of painted on.

I gave her a quick hug then pushed her towards the table.
"Dinner is ready, so why don't you go take a seat. I'll be
right there."

Tweaking my ear gently, she stepped away and walked over to
her chair. Her tail was still hanging kind of low, but not
so much as when she had first arrived here.

I sighed, finishing off the rest of my drink. Then setting
the glass down on the table next to me, I picked up the
folder I had taken from Jadith's office earlier. Looking
back up at the small crowd that was gathered at the table I
smiled.

"Thank you for coming my Friends," I said with a smile,
taking my seat next to Oriana at the head of the table.

"What else could we do, Fox?" Jadith said. "You sounded so
insistent in my office."

"And you don't normally call us all together like this," Ken
added, spreading his wings out slightly. "It had to be
important."

"You would have talked to us in private if it wasn't,"
Terminus said, having put his cigar out for the meal.

"It is," I answered, looking at each and every one of them
around the table, making a second of eye contact with them
all. Jadith looked slightly concerned about it, Thrysten was
puzzled, Ken and Kalie both had a knowing look that
something important was about to happen. Sora's face, as was
normal for her recently, was not showing me a single thing.
Terminus' face I could never read.

Oria reached out and placed her paw over my hand. I smiled
and gripped it tightly. "Jadith, I think it best you start."

She was startled. "Me?" she paused, thinking about what I
could have meant. "You mean about the soot?"

"Yes," I said with a nod. "About the soot."

She gave everyone a short explanation of what had happened
in the R&D lab and some details about the strange soot.
"What really caught my attention was that when we had
processed the soot through the old Council's databases,
there was a match."

"With what?" I asked, suspecting I already knew. The way
things had fallen into place inside my mind, there was only
one possible statement she could make here.

"My clothing," she answered, matching my opinion of what her
answer should be. "When you first found me, while the
Hunters were searching for my world, they analyzed my
clothing, and found samples of the same soot on them as we
found in the R&D labs."

There was a stunned silence around the room, everyone
glancing back and forth between each other, then all turning
to look at me. "This means something, doesn't, it Fox?"
Kalie asked.

I nodded my head, taking a slight sip from my glass. "It
means a lot, but not just that, there's one more thing." I
picked the folder up and removed the picture of the
pantheress. "Her," I said, passing it around the group.

"Who is she?" Oria asked as she looked at it.

"That was the assistant who vanished from the lab," Jadith
answered. "That's all there is on her as well, she doesn't
exist outside of the records for the lab. Whatever was going
on there, she was part of it."

I laughed softly. "There's more to it than that," I answered
sounding more cryptic than I had meant to. "Far more. Though
I think I should explain going back to front; things may
make more sense then."

There was a general consensus around the table.

"To start with," I said, leaning forward slightly. "I seem
to have attracted the attention of a unicorn."

There was a burst of laughter around the table. "You're
joking," Terminus said, smiling slightly. "Unicorns are
fairy stories; they do not exist."

I shook my head. "No, I wish this was a joke, but she's been
watching me. Sent to watch me, by something called 'The
Neverending'."

"I've heard that name before," Oria said, sounding slightly
startled.

"I know," I said, turning to face her, "I mentioned it to
you once, before I knew what it meant."

Sora spoke up, "Are you serious, Fox? You've seen a
unicorn?"

"Touched it, talked to it, and hunted it, yes." I spoke
slowly, trying hard to find the right words here. Somehow it
was harder than I expected it to be.

"This makes no sense," Ken said, his wings flexing out wide
behind his chair. He was frustrated, that much was clear.

"I've seen her five times," I said, holding my fingers up as
a count. "And I shall explain each event." I took a second
drink from my glass, larger this time than before.

"The fifth time I saw her was out on the plain. When we went
camping after Naomi started to age. The last night when I
was Rhea, I went out for a run, and she was suddenly right
there next to me, offering me a hunt. I chased her for a
time, eventually catching her. She gave me a new kill for me
to eat from, and I gorged myself. Once I was finished we
started to talk.

"She had been sent to watch over me, or that is what she
claimed-- to watch over me and help me at times. She sort of
explained to me what was going on with my sightings of her,
and that she could do nothing to help when I was first Rhea,
but had to wait for me to awaken.

"I asked her who had sent her to watch over me. She answered
'The Neverending.' This was the second time I had
encountered that word. I questioned her about it, and what
she had to do with Becky. She didn't tell me very much, just
that the pantheress, the one in the picture, was a friend of
Becky's.

"The last thing of substance that she told me was about the
Wyrm, the one that was in the caves on Draz's world. It had
been put there as a test. For what, I don't know, but I must
have passed it by the simple fact that I survived it. Then
with a parting comment, she left."

I let out a breath as I finished, eating a bit of my food.

"That does explain how the Wyrm came to be there," Jadith
said, "But why would it want to test you?"

"I'm not sure," I answered, "But I think it put you there as
well."

She jumped, "What? Are you sure about that?"

I nodded, pushing some of my hair from my eyes. "Absolutely!
It's the old thing that makes any sense. I was told that
help would be brought for me, but I didn't believe it until
that meeting with the unicorn."

"Stop," Kalie said, raising a paw. "Who told you this?"

"I will get to that soon," I answered. "All in good time.
There's more still. A month and a half before, I meet her
for the fourth time. This was brief, like all the meetings
had been before the last one.

"This time I had been looking through some of Becky's old
stuff, from the room down in the cave at the old house. I
had found her journal and was looking though it, not exactly
reading it, just flipping though the pages. Out fell a piece
of paper, on it was written the word 'Neverending'. It sent
a chill down my spine and a feeling like I was walking where
I shouldn't be fell over me. I put the journal back with the
paper, where I found it.

"I left the room and was heading back towards the rest of
the house when suddenly the unicorn was before me, standing
in the light from the window. We stared at each other for
what felt like hours before I asked her who she was.

"She responded with the single word 'soon', a word which
almost burnt my ears with the beauty of the voice. Then she
was gone. That's why I had asked about Becky the last time,
because I somehow knew that she knew about the Neverending."

"My," Thrysten said, folding her paws over each other and
leaning on the table. "You do meet some interesting people
in your line of work."

I smiled. "You would be surprised."

"Wait a second," Oriana spoke up, "Becky knew about this
Neverending, and never told you about it?"

I shrugged, "The last two months before our exile she almost
never returned to Earth. She spent more time on Prid than I
did, but I suspect that if she knew more about it than just
the name, she would have told me to start with."

"That's what you say," Sora said, "but sometimes people can
surprise you."

I nodded.

Terminus was oddly quiet, sitting at the table and eating
his food, thought his eyes where locked on me.

"That's two encounters, what about the other three?" Kalie
asked, eating her food slowly, her eyes fixed on me as well.

"The third time was maybe a month before that. On the day I
woke to find myself free of Rhea. Romana had just saved my
life, and was introducing herself. She told me that she was
a friend of Burke's. Before I could even start to distrust
her the unicorn was suddenly there, standing right behind
her. Just as long as the blink of an eye, but she was there.
I think she was telling me to trust Romana."

Everyone nodded slowly, but I gave them no chance to
respond. "The time before that was also for an eye-blink as
well. The first time I spontaneously turned into a fox
morph. Of the group here, only Sora saw it. It was right
before I turned back that I saw her. I'm not sure if she was
giving me a message, or just showing herself, but she was
there."

"Perhaps she was just there," Terminus finally spoke, "but
so far she has not shown herself without cause. I suspect
she was allowing you to see her for a reason. Maybe to draw
your attention to something?"

I shrugged, "I don't know what."

"The first time you saw the unicorn," Jadith said, sitting
up slightly, "it was in the caves on Draz's world wasn't
it?"

I nodded. "Yes, it was. In our last meeting she told me that
all I had seen there was real."

"You sound doubting," Kalie said, twitching her whiskers a
bit. "You don't believe what you saw down there, and some
how being told it's real is something you can't accept."

"I know," I answered. "It's hard to explain, but... I'm
still not sure how much of what I saw was real or not."

"Please," Sora said, her wings pulled tight to her body, the
tips folded over her shoulders to clasp at her neck. "Tell
us what you can."

I took a long drink, then a few deep breaths. "I still don't
remember everything clearly, it was such a strange time.

"Some parts of what happened are still kind of vague in my
mind, and I saw many things that just couldn't be real. I'm
still as sure now as I was then that I was delusional. When
I entered the caves, I jumped down into the pit that the
camp was using for refuse. On the way down I hit my head,
badly enough that it was bleeding, badly enough that Sora
told me afterwards that she not only could see my skull, but
she could see that it was clearly fractured.

"At the time, though, I didn't know this. I just wanted to
find a way to get back to Oriana and the castle. I tended to
my wounds as best I could, and started off into the cave.
Two strange things happened at the start though. First off
was that, with the light I carried, I could see Sora's
footprints in the dirt of the cave floor.

"The second was the light band I was using-- it stopped
working once I got a few feet down the tunnel Sora had
taken. Just shut off on it's own. I did some testing and
found that there was some kind of spell that was blocking
electrical power.

"Technically, this spell was impossible on Draz's world,
which didn't know about electricity in any form other than
lightning. I knew something was going on... someone was
expecting me. I had no choice though, I had to find Sora and
we had to get out of the caves, so in the dark I pressed on.

"It didn't take more than a few minutes before I was
hopelessly lost. I struggled on in the darkness, walking
down the worn tunnels, my hands following along the wall,
searching for something. I was calling out Sora's name every
few feet, but no response came.

"Then in a flash I thought I saw Sora, she was standing, her
back to me, a dozen feet away in front of me. I went to her,
calling her name again. Just as I reached out to touch her
she was gone, and so was the floor.

"I slide down a long slope, landing in some water. Strange
water-- which, once I got out of it, I found myself to be
dry. There was a glow coming from a tunnel, just bright
enough to hurt my eyes after the darkness. I walked towards
it, coming to a large room, maybe a thousand feet across.
The center was filled with water: a lake just a few inches
deep. The water was filled with small circles of rocks, each
one spaced far enough apart to make it easy to walk from one
to the other. The light in the room, an eerie blue glow,
rose up from around each stone.

"It was on the far side of this room that I first saw the
unicorn. She turned to look at me, her eyes a piercing shade
of impossibly deep blue in the dim light. I started to walk
toward her, slightly enchanted, but I was suddenly overcome
by a wash of dizziness, and fell short of the first stone,
landing in the water.

"I laid there for a few minutes, struggling to breathe, but
so dizzy that I couldn't get up. A sick-like feeling was
falling over me. I nearly threw up twice before I felt a
hand on my shoulder.

"I could see just enough to tell that it was the pantheress,
she was dressed in all black clothing that hung slightly
loose on her, and she had very a concerned look on her
muzzle. She turned my head around, and I could feel her
fingers feeling the back of it where I was hurt. I let out a
slight yelp of pain as her fingers reached the wound,
confirming for her that it was there.

"She poked around for maybe a minute before leaving, calling
out a name into the air. I didn't understands the word, in
fact all I remember hearing was a long dull roar that filled
my ears, which was accompanied by a growing blackness on the
edge of my vision.

"Suddenly I felt paws on my shoulders, slowly helping me to
my feet. 'Don't worry,' she told me as I slowly started to
realize that it was the pantheress again. She picked me up,
draping me over her shoulders and started walking across the
stones.

"The movement made me feel sick, but I did my best to not
throw up. 'Help will be here soon,' she told me, holding me
gently as she walked across the shallow lake. She kept
carrying me past that, back into the caves. I'm not sure how
long she carried me, I seem to remember passing out a few
times along the way. Sometimes I would see Sora behind me,
or Oriana, and call out to them, but they were just
delusions. Other times I would hear voices whispering in my
ear, telling me I was already dead, or this was a dream, or
a thousand other things I can't remember.

"Eventually we came to a stop, and she set me down, propping
me up on my feet against the cave wall. In the distance,
maybe a hundred paces, away I could see light. It was dim,
coming from around a corner, but still enough to illuminate
most of the corridor I was standing in. We looked at each
other for a few seconds, before I started to feel myself
pass out again. She keep my attention on her long enough
that the feeling of encroaching blackness had slipped away
again.

"The pantheress brushed off my face and beard, then smiled.
"Go towards the light," she told me. "Help is waiting for
you there." I nodded dumbly, and started staggering along,
leaving her standing there. A few seconds later I turned
around to thank her for her help.

"And Becky was standing there in her place. Looking almost
like she was shocked that I would even be looking back at
her. Then, faster than a blink of an eye, the pantheress was
there instead, the look of concern back on her muzzle. She
motioned for me to keep going, making a hush-like motion
against her muzzle.

"I nodded to her, suspecting that it was just a delusion
again, suspecting that everything I had seen had been a
delusion. I started back towards the light. It was there I
found Sora and Jadith, and fell into their arms before I
eventually passed out."

Everyone around the table was staring at me in a state of
shock, most of them with food half eaten on their plates.
Others had stopped chewing. The statement that I had seen
Becky was enough to thrown them all off step.

I took this time to take a long drink from my glass, letting
it roll over my throat as it went down. By this time I was
starting to get a bit hoarse, my throat slightly raw from
the narrative.

"In our fifth meeting the unicorn told me everything in the
caves were real. But they can't be," I said once more,
taking Oria's paw and squeezing it gently. "The pantheress
can't be Becky, it just can't be."

I felt a paw on my shoulder from Ken. "Are you sure? It's
possible that Becky somehow slipped away. You yourself said
that she suggested replacing yourselves with bio-drons and
staying on Prid."

I nodded, "Yes, but she didn't have the time, or the chance.
From the moment we returned from Catarn till we were put
into exile, there was never a time when we were allowed to
be alone. The guards even followed us into the bathroom."

"Becky would not have left Fox like that," Oriana said,
speaking what I believed to be the truth. "She would have at
least told him what had happened before they were put into
exile. I can't believe that she would do something like
that."

Jadith was frowning slightly. "So you think they brought me
there to help you once they found out you were hurt?"

"Perhaps," I answered. "It's always smacked me as being too
damn convenient to have you waiting there to save my life."

She paused, tapping her fingers against each other as she
thought. "You're right... the odds against it are just too
great. Even if I managed to somehow go though a ripple the
chances of my being there just in time to have you land at
me feet, needing my help are vanishingly small. No, I agree,
I was put there to help you."

Her frown deepened, "What I don't understand is the time
difference. I was in the caves for days, before they knew
you were hurt."

"She has a point there," Kalie said, waving her finger at me
as if to emphasizes the statement.

"Time travel, maybe?" Sora suggested.

I rubbed my chin a bit, pulling my fingers though my beard.
"That is a real possibility. We know that Page, Burke and
Romana are from the future-- maybe the Neverending used some
sort of time travel to get Jadith back to where she was
needed."

"This is making my head hurt," Thrysten said, sighing
slightly as she relaxed into her chair. "And I'm full, and
tired."

"Yes," Terminus said, checking the time. "It's been three
hours!" He seemed startled. In fact so was I, it didn't feel
like it had been that long.

"Anything past what Fox has told us will be supposition,"
Oria said, snuggling her arm around my shoulder. "I think
it's time we break up and think about what we've been told."

"I agree," Ken said, standing up and stretching out his
arms, tail and wings.

I smiled as all my friends stood up and stretched out. "Till
later, then," I said, standing up as well, "and please, call
me if you think of anything new."

"I'll send someone to explore the caves," Thrysten said,
picking up some of her things. "We'll see if we can find
that shallow lake."

With a quick step over I gave her a tight hug. "Thank you.
Come and get me if you find it-- I want to check it out if I
can. I'm pretty sure there is something special about that
cave."

She nodded as we separated, and I drifted back over to Oria,
taking her paw in my hand again. From that point on everyone
said their good-byes and started to drift away. Jadith left
to go and sleep, and Sora went off to do whatever it was
that she did.

Terminus stayed a bit longer, talking to us and Kalie,
having me repeat the story one more time for him. Finally he
left, but without comment. It was odd, usually he was very
talkative. He must have been really working over some parts
of it. I suspected I would hear from him in a few days about
some ideas that he had. I would welcome the call.

I showed Kalie to her room before Oria and I finally made it
to bed. Cuddled up close to each other, both of us purring
in time, we drifted off to sleep.

I knew there would be questions in the morning, but at this
point, I didn't care. I was tired, it had been a very a long
day, and I just wanted to be close to my wife to be.

And so it was done.

-----

This story is (c) 1999 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.