CHAPTER THREE

"And it is written, that the great Gods had made the world in its first perfection, and they looked down upon it and saw that it was Good. And the winds and rains mingled with the sunshine in their allotted measure. And the plants and animals did grow and increase as was planned, in harmony with themselves and each other. And the talking peoples did awaken, to see this all and give fulsome praise.
     "So the world continued for age passing age uncountable. Only the Gods cared to count the years, each following indistinguishable from the other in the gentle harmony which they had planned. And so the ages passed.
     "And one God said; that is the Fifteen Millionth time a mortal has praised me for the ripening of the grains in their due time and season, and lo, I am most heartily sick of it.
     "And said another; this Divine Perfection is Soooooo Uncool. Why indeed SHOULD a simple straight line be the shortest distance between two points ? And did we take a vote on which way Gravity should point ? Anyway, I do recall my first design used Velcro for the job.
     "And quoth a third; seas of boiling blood.... unspeakable acts... blasphemous miscegenations... armour with cool runes and black spiky bits all over... verily, let us call our brethren and try something a bit Different for an Aeon or two."
	"Such was the Revolt of the Gods, where the evils of Chaos were launched upon the world."

(From the sole unexpurgated copy of Liber Chaoticae, unread for millennia, now said to be sealed in two metres of enchanted lead plate and buried under the foundations of the Prime Temple Of Primane The Preserver, Central Dystope.)
 

The millionfold still pools and creeks that embraced the great city of Dystope-on-the-Delta had their birth far to the South, in the upland province of Helgrandsland. A great snow-capped granitic dome it was, a gently curved upturned bowl slashed deep with valleys roaring loud with turbid white waters.
	"Oweeee..." Kazuko Leclerc's teeth chattered as she waded through the third ford that day, ice-born water lapping at her chainmail bikini "next time round, let's see how good a set of waterproofs we can get past Dimensional Customs..."
	At her side was the cheerful bulk of Machsan, the great icebear splashing through the ford like a playful battleship. "Ha ! No sort of chill to this. Must be hours away from the fresh glacier up there. What's the problem ?"
	And as she scrambled up the far side of the rocks, her leather leggings sloshing with litres of recent glacier, Kazuko suddenly realised why so many people were so VERY prejudiced against Barbarians. 

	High mid-morning sun shone on that unnamed tributary of the Stahlem River, warming the salmon-pink granite boulders on which the party halted for lunch. Perched on the warm stones while Vazeeq led the pack horses off to graze, Beauvette idly tossed stones into the uncomplaining foam. Her brow was furrowed in an unfamiliar look of deep contemplation.
	"Three days on the road, not a sign of trouble," she rubbed her freshly sharpened horns, checking the tips "Three days since they reckoned to stop us dead with a whole troop of spell-crazed knights, that must have cost a bundle o'power to set up fer us. And since then, not so much as a village shirrif inclined to argue with us. Don't make sense to me."
	Above her on the boulder, Mangana's manga eyes were matching lakes of bemusement as she nodded agreement. "Someone wanted us awfully badly. I don't think they'd give up like that, either." She glanced up at the steep wooded gorge above them, and frowned. "I keep thinking what I'd do, if I had that sort of power. There's a hundred things I'd have tried already... like maybe sorcerously damming a lake upstream, ready to let rip as soon as we're crossing." She shuddered, and looked over her shoulder, as if she expected a ten metre wall of water to roar down any instant. "But I suppose we're as safe here as anywhere else.."
	Just then there was indeed an echoing splash. But it was from the deep pool downstream, not from the gorge above.
	Kazuko craned her neck to look over the glittering shelf she sprawled across. "It's OK," she called up "only Horst and Machsan taking a dip, like the masochists they are."
	Thirty paces below the ford, the shallow river tumbled in a long foaming cascade to a deep, rounded pool, scoured and smoothed by the rains of a thousand Winters. Kazuko crawled to the edge and looked down admiringly at the two fur-naked swimmers below. From above, Suzuko and Gralius saw her foot starting to twitch unconsciously, like a canine being tickled in the ribs.
	Suzuko cast Mangana a sympathetic look. "Seems like Kazuko's going to come back to her old style, if she gets the chance..."
	Mangana grimaced. "She's been so .... moderate, the last couple of months - as far as males go. I thought it was a bit odd, she took up sharing a room with Mariko, back at Toho. Whatever she got up to in the Verdine Woods last week, seems to have put her back on her old form. Still, she was in there a week."
	Gralius had listened to the strange tale the outworlders had to tell, around the camp fires and on the trail over the last few days. Three months before arriving on his world, they had survived an adventure which had left them - if not exactly Reborn, then certainly Reset.
	"The one good thing is, my teeth don't have any fillings any more, or need them..." Kazuko had shrugged fatalistically "the bad thing is .... that's six years of Experience gone like it'd never been. It's wiped out my chances of getting to be a priestess of Dhoreen this trip. Or the next one."
	Gralius had nodded understandingly. The Goddess Dhoreen was concerned not only with love but fertility; to be a full priestess of the Love Goddess, she would have had to prove herself capable of all aspects of her worship. As indeed she had done, by all accounts - there was a golden-haired satyr happily running round the Verdine Woods, who was probably half a dozen Springtimes away from making her a Grandmother. Satyrs were born with an animal's intelligence, grew with almost animal speed, and were highly popular with those who liked that style of male. But these were unique circumstances, as far as he could imagine; though Kazuko had indeed bourne little Katyo, the actual body she now wore, had NOT.
	"Good Primane, Preserve us from living such Interesting lives," he prayed silently to the Preserver God. "Preserve some peace around here, at least."
	In the meantime, the object of their discussion had crawled to the edge of the three metre waterfall, and was looking dreamily down into the clear water. Her huge blue eyes glittered like the waterfall that splashed vigorously down, a few metres off to her left as she lay on the warm pink rocks. Below her, Machsan leaped out like a dolphin, the splash filling the pool with tsunamis that threatened to empty it faster than the waterfall could keep pace with as the ice-bear roared and rolled like a happy cub.
	"Come on in !" He shouted up "Water's lovely !"
	She grinned, thumbing her button nose at him. "No chance - you ought to ask Suki. She's got Arctic fur, like you and Horst.... you'd need a hot sauna nearby to tempt me into there. No no..." she shivered "there's No sort of offer you can make that'd get ME down there."
	The huge icebear turned over on his back, looking idly up at the big-eyed human. He smiled, a startling display of brilliant white teeth set in ebony heat-absorbing gums. Beside him, Horst pulled himself to the bank, checking as ever that his weapons and equipment were at hand. Even naked, the boar carried a diver's knife strapped to his thigh. He caught the bear's amused gaze: icebears normally carried two-handers.
	"Always be prepared, they taught us," he shrugged "be ready for anything". The pack and belt pouches he slipped back on had been severely reduced from his normal equipment list, even before Dimensional Customs had been through it. Horst was what some cultures would call a dedicated Survivalist - though Kazuko's tale of seeing him taking shark repellent into the bathroom was probably a SLIGHT exaggeration.
	The Dimensional Customs Police operate on a strange and often incomprehensible set of standards. Roughly, they keep out any item liable to seriously affect whatever culture the traveller's destination already had - or anything that could not be made over there. But there were strange loopholes: Horst's combat knife was chemically sharpened with a level of technology this world would not see for centuries - but that would eventually wear away in use. Stainless steel utensils of any sort were banned, despite needing far less technology.
	"I don't see why I couldn't have brought along my playsuit," Kazuko murmured "after all, it's not going to fit anyone else...."
	Machsan's eyes softened like a cub's, their gaze still fixed hypnotically on the human watching him. "Oh yeah. We're always ready. Cold water doesn't bother us - on or off the ice, we're ready for whatever comes our way." His huge teeth glittered in the sunlight as he floated on his back, powerful limbs spread in the deep, clear pool.
	From far upstream out of sight of him, Mangana saw her cousin's face light up. "What's going on down there ?" She called down.
	Kazuko didn't turn round. "He's just giving me a demonstration of cold-water adaptations. He's not quite like a Polar bear - I didn't know any bears could sheathe and unsheathe their claws. And now he's unsheathing ... oh, MY !" There was a gleeful squeal, a cast-off Alpenrock shirt flew high into the air, and a loud splash followed as Kazuko dived out of sight into the pool below.
	Suzuko and Mangana looked at each other wordlessly. Suzuko's ears twitched. And then Mangana nodded slowly.
	"I think we'd better light a fire this lunchtime. It'll come in handy for drying things ... looks like we're liable to be here for Quite some time."


	That evening, the party came out of the houseless hills into a long, narrow valley whose sides were terraced to the plateau edge with lush green crops: not all of Helgrandsland was a howling wilderness. Luckily they had dried their clothes and packed them under oilcloths before the sun vanished behind looming banks of cloud late in the afternoon. Rain began to spatter the dust of the trail at their feet.
	Gralius reined in his mule, as the party passed him and began the descent from the high, open hillside into the valley. "Vazeeq," he motioned to the baboon, bringing up the rear with Beauvette's pack animals "You've got good eyes. Can you see anyone following ? Once we get down there, we'll be blind till the next corner."
	The baboon scanned the horizons of short-cropped grass and glittering granitic boulders. "Nothing," he admitted, a minute later. "Nothing - Visible." Then he shuddered. "But I was at Della Bridge, when the Chaotics sent invisible Enteropes to - er, Infect the baggage train mounts while the battle was on. Can't you Detect anyone ?"
	Grey feline whiskers twitched. Casting a silent prayer to Primane, he felt his perceptions wash out across the landscape, receding like the bow-wave of a boat. Eyes closed, he waited for a telltale reflection - but nothing came back. Nothing but the vague background hiss of Chaos from the distant corners of the realm.
	"This area was more or less slaughtered during the Nineteenth Incursion," he sighed as they rode down to catch up with the rest of the party. "The whole area was contaminated by a persistant Chaos Taint curse. We had temples working here for generations, just de-tainting the land, before you could even think of raising crops or animals. Even the wild beasts, had to be destroyed and burned. But - folk are coming back. Whertondale's a fine town, I've been through it a few times."
	"Whertondale", Beauvette grunted approvingly as she turned to face him. "Been through here before, too. The last Good inns and good roads before we hit the Southwall foothills. All uphill and camps from tomorrow."
	Mangana looked around her, as the shadows lengthened on the steep valley sides and the empty road. "An inn ? I'm glad to hear it - three nights kipping on the ground is enough for me to be going on with. Besides, we could all use a whole night's sleep without having to worry about setting the watch." She drew her waxed leather hood up as raindrops the size of marbles suddenly spattered around them; from the look of the black wall of cloud reaching up behind them to the West, it was going to be a wild night.
	Gralius silently approved, though he knew exactly what Beauvette and Machsan were thinking. Newbloods were tougher than humans by a fair degree; a Newblood was far more than a human in a fur coat. They were hardier against wounds or weather, and their blood ran hotter in their veins; given enough food, it was almost unheard of for a Newblood to freeze to death even in the bitterest winter. But just because he could survive days and weeks of frost and soaking, didn't mean a feline had to Enjoy it....
	"Hey !" Kazuko shouted, from the head of the party, where she rode with Machsan "Lights ahead - I think we've arrived somewhere !"

	The settled valley of Whertondale was a narrow strip of cultivation winding into the heart of the high, waterless plateau that now supported great herds of dumb foodbeasts. Its steeper slopes were tunnelled for houses or farmsteads; the debris of generations of tunnelling contributed to the upkeep of the kilometres of high terrace walled fields which fed and clothed the local populace with their produce.
	"They don't seem too surprised to see us," Suzuko commented, as the party rode into the first village on the hillside. Though foxes and boars were standard breeds over here, the Manga humans usually drew a crowd. Evidently there was some unfriendly pumpkin-headed Chaos monster native to this world, to judge by the number of analytical spells that usually bounced off Mangana and Kazuko as they entered a town.
	The massive minotaur unbuckled her helmet, and scratched the coarse poll between her horns reflectively. "It's a busy place, in trade season. Folk come from all over - even seen a few of the Witch-Queen's experiments here, the hybrid ones from across the mountains. They SAY she's a full Priestess, of Dhoreen and Brazakar the Battle Lord both - but using folk as breeding stocks's not my idea of Good. Dunno why the Goddess lets her get away with it."
	Kazuko's eyes flashed briefly, and an unfathomable glance passed between her and Machsan. Suddenly those great orbs lit up with excitement.
	"You go ahead to the inn - I've just seen something I've just GOT to look at here !" With that she was off down a side street, leaving the rest looking bemused as the shaggy mountain pony was urged towards a noticeable redshift, splashing through the spreading pools of water on the cobblestones.
	Suddenly Mangana laughed. "I was Wondering when she could find somewhere to register with her old cult. And you think YOU'RE saddle-sore, Suki ? I think Machsan put something of a strain on her - she's been muttering about getting some more "Accommodation spells" all afternoon." She looked down the street to the domed, comfortable-looking building. "Sort of symbolic - the Temple of Dhoreen's the one building in town where the gates are permanently spread wide open in welcome...."

	Another place that was open to all comers was the Starsmoor Inn, a solid chunk of mountain-hewn granite that squatted stolidly at the corner of the market square, its narrow windows gleaming with lantern light in the rain-wet evening.
	"Why is it," Suzuko wondered aloud "that we spend so much time hanging around inns, over here ?"
	Horst shrugged. "Count the nights, Suki. Actually, we don't - just that nights spent on the ground with the tree roots rearranging your spine, are nights you try to forget. But an inn - hot baths, good food, and a safe, warm bed for the night - THAT is the sort of thing to be remembering."
	They rode in through an archway that would have done a minor noble's castle no dishonour, if heavy ironwork on the doors and murder-holes in the ceiling were any measure of defensibility. The Starsmoor Inn had seen some rough customers in town, it seemed - the sort who were deterred by molten lead rather than bouncers at the door. The landlord, a tall black-haired human with ferocious moustaches, welcomed them with a hearty roar.
	"Travellers !" He barked gleefully "Priests and mages too - welcome, welcome ! A wild night brewing up behind you - but come on in." He waved them into the outer of two courtyards, where a pair of saluki-like canines, obviously brothers, stood ready to lead the horses away to welcome stalls and dry hay.
	Suzuko shivered, as thunder echoed from the houseless hills to boom from wall to wall around the tightly shuttered town. Sliding off her pony, she caught Mangana's sympathetic glance as she winced painfully. Stretching, she tried to smooth her tail back to its accustomed angle.
	"You can watch Virtual Reality shows on riding till your whiskers droop," the human girl shrugged "but that doesn't help your muscles when you're faced with a real saddle and a real mountain trail. This is just something you'll have to get used to." She winced as she slid to the ground. "I keep forgetting - my muscles and joints aren't used to this any more, either. I remember riding bareback since I was big enough to hold on - but since we all got Reset.."
	"Owwww." the vixen flexed her supple spine, stretching luxuriously as her paws were firmly on the ground once more. "I suppose you can get someone else to break in horses and saddles - but what they don't tell is that it's you who Really gets pummelled into shape." Panting, she surveyed the courtyard, welcoming pools of light spilling out of the lanterned doorways, and the scent of ale and roasting meats inviting in the warm air. "I'll be happy once we're all safe and sound in your Mother's tower, Mangana - all this excitement is NOT my idea of a holiday."
	
	Half an hour later, horses were stabled, rooms arranged and a major meal in preparation. Suzuko hung up her waxed linen coat by the door and looked around; the main room of the Starsmoor Inn opened into one of two courtyards that let light and air into the fortified building. This court was the one without animal stables - though Mangana had told her there were common spells to banish flies and such, it could be much easier over the years to just build with common sense.
	The room was square, twelve metres or so across with pillars holding up the heavily beamed ceiling. The outer windows were narrow stone slits in the defensive wall, but facing into the courtyard were wide, square-paned windows, now dark and shuttered against the storm. For an instant it felt very familiar - there were bars at home she was used to, similarly bare and equipped to handle powerfully built revellers in armour. At least, she consoled herself, you can't make the mistake here of drinking alcohol meant for power-suit fuel. Kazuko had been known to add a spoonfull of NitroEthanol to party punches, which livened things up quite noticeably.
	Suzuko sat on one of the benches in the common room, grateful to be at rest. She closed her eyes, and for a minute her nose drank in the mixed, homely scent of the place - varnished wood, scouring herbs, smoking fires and an increasingly tempting scent of beer - mingled with the loudly unwashed musks of her companions. A clinking made her open her eyes to another welcome sight - Mangana carefully balancing a wooden tray packed with gleaming pewter mugs, their contents sloshing encouragingly.
	"No saki, I suppose ?" she asked, one red-silver eyebrow raised.
	Mangana laughed, the lines of worry dissolving as she put the tray down in front of her. "Nope - they don't have the climate for rice. The beer's good, though - of course, it depends on what you're accustomed to."
	Beauvette sniffed appreciatively at a flagon that must have easily held two litres. "Ah... they DO make it like they used to. Great stuff." With a loud slurp, she stuck her muzzle in the wide-mouthed mug and began to quaff.
	Gralius looked at her with a pained expression. True, Newbloods with wide, cheekless mouths were forced to be less than neat when using cups originally designed for humans - but there was also a question of how hard they tried. Machsan didn't even try - the great Icebear pulled out a wooden military trough from his pack and poured the tankard into it before lapping happily.
	"Cheers, then !" Mangana toasted, with a more modest mug in hand "but let's stay on our guard - my danger sense hasn't fired up all day - but things can happen fast. Like, if somebody teleported into the area, I'd only know when they got here. So it doesn't mean we're safe."
	Suzuko raised her own glass. Not saki, she confirmed, but it'd definitely do ! Rich, black beer, thick with yeast and hop flowers, hardly gassy at all. And just warm enough; not the blood heat of saki, but just a fraction cooler than the air. Other warmer realms might enjoy fizzy, clear beer - but she liked to think of herself as having some decent culture.
	"Will this pass muster, Horst ?" she flicked her ears in query. The boar had been studying his brew with great deliberation, his thoughtful face a study itself of cautious apraisal.
	Suddenly, he broke into one of his slow-dawning smiles, his tusks glittering. "Ya - it will definitely pass the test. I think it'd pass the Law."
	"Mention Law, and the priest's ears prick up !" Mangana laughed, seeing Gralius's reaction. "Horst's not from quite the same place we've come from. They've got some rather - uncompromising rules and such over there."
	The object of her affections grunted cheerfully as his mate wrapped a slim arm around his muscular waist. "Not as much as we used to. But the Purity laws still apply to beer - for most other things, we have abolished death by impalement as punishment." 
	Gralius stretched. "I'll be turning in soon as we've eaten, for my devotions," he yawned "and I'd recommend we make the most of tonight. From here it's all uphill, rough country towards the Twisted Zone; no telling when we'll see bath or bed again." He cast a sharp glance at Machsan, who was pouring a second flagon into the field service trough.
	Mangana nudged her vixen friend. "Come on - I've ordered us a bath upstairs in the room while they get the meal ready - no microwave ovens or running water round here, just lots of servants. You scrub, I'll groom."

	Steam rose thick from the iron-bound wooden bathtub, swirling in the draft towards the cheerful wood fire on the upstairs hearth. Suzuko was reminded of some buildings she had seen when travelling with her diplomat parents in Europe; great dark beams laced the walls and threaded across the ceiling, while the inward-facing windows were rough leaded glass. Facing outwards were only high, narrow firing-slits that squinted into the mountain darkness.
	Mangana shivered luxuriously, rubbing her back against the high peak of the bathtub. She cast a glance at the rain-beaded windows shutting out the storm. "One good thing - at least we aren't short of money. Last time round, we Did manage to bring in some fashion ideas that've taken off. More Kazuko's line, really - I think digitigrade shoes are selling via the Temple of Dhoreen." Even in Dystope, with the current human trend of disparaging Newblood species, they had seen many a pair of Kazuko's little fashion accessories. Their human owners tended to be young, female and walking on artificial hooves arm-in-arm with someone big, handsome and naturally digitigrade. 
	Kazuko had explained how the Newbloods had been changed from their unstable ancestors - each of the species now bred true. But with the express permission of Dhoreen, a worshipper could bear children of any breed desired, not necessarily her own. Priestesses often left it entirely up to their Goddess as to what their children would be: Suzuko could understand wanting to keep the child's sex a surprise, but she drew the line at species. Unlike some of the other Gods and Goddesses, Dhoreen made her powers available to all who asked for them - given the population trends of the past few years, Suzuko had often wondered if many of the next generation would be needing any hooves but those they were born with.
	"Hum. You sure Kazuko's going to be all right out there?" Suzuko's ears dipped in concern. "I mean, for all we know, they could be putting up "Wanted" posters for us all over the place by now. Whatever, we DID kill a dozen of the town guard." She reached down for the mug with the remainder of her ale from the floor. This was Good - and wholly unlike the overchilled SynthBrau Lager that she drank at home for want of an affordable alternative.
	Mangana raised a pink foot out of the suds, and studied it critically. "We also happened to have Divine Approval to do it, unless you've forgotten. And Gralius wasn't kidding about that - you can ASK most of the Gods round here for favours for years and never get an answer - but just try falsely representing them, and Oh boy, won't you just find out about Divine Intervention." She paused.
	"Of course," she mused "as soon as she's back in with the Goddess, we'll have to watch out. If we're going near the Southwall Mountains, she might be grabbed by slavers, and end up in another harem. "
	"Another ? It's that dangerous around here?"
	Mangana shook her head. "Not really. It's just a sort of hobby of hers. She splits her resale price, and does her usual escape and evasion as soon as she gets bored." She sighed. "It's a good thing Dhoreen teaches Illusion spells - I've seen posters with major rewards for her disguised forms - they don't know what she really looks like, luckily."
	The vixen nodded. It had been a great surprise to find Kazuko was now as tall as her raven-haired cousin. The manga-eyed humans had a reputation for recklessness, with their massive eyeballs seeming to displace so much forebrain that it would constitute a lobotomy in a standard skull - and Kazuko seemed to work hard at guarding that reputation. It was hardly a recent development either; according to Mangana, she had been secretly dosing herself with stolen hormonal pills at an early age - in one respect, it had accelerated her development, but at the cost of stunting her growth by a handspan.
	As the human leaned over, Suzuko's paws scrubbed her back carefully, watching the white foam run down the smooth, furless skin. No, she reminded herself - despite outward appearences, Mangana was not exactly human. What the species-purity conscious zealots of Japan's Rising Sun would have to say about her was predictable; the fact that Mangana's mixed ancestry was a result of natural magic rather than illegal Genemeld technology would cut no ice there.
	As if she divined the vixen's thoughts, Mangana turned round, and gently rubbed the itching swelling at the base of her spine. "I suppose I shouldn't be TOO upset, that the lot of us got - reset - last time we went adventuring. Having your body restored to exactly what's in your genes probably saved us all from dying of radiation sickness. But it's given some of us a few problems apart from wiping out a lifetime's adaptations to riding. There's Kazuko, for a start. And you - I've noticed, you've been on season suppressors for months. It's not doing you any good in the long run, you know - it's like taking sleep suppressants. Sooner or later, something is going to give, when it catches up with you. A pretty vixen should enjoy herself."
	Suzuko gave a worried grin. " I'm just trying to save myself for my mate Pathwan, if I get to see him next season. But I imagine Kaz has lost a few skills that she'll take awhile to get back again. And you, too - I know you'd got halfway adapted to Horst, inside and out. When we got reset - it knocked you right back to start."
	Mangana stood up, slim and shiny in the firelight as she splashed suds off her wholly furless body. That was something in her "initial" genes, before her mate's hormones had begun to trigger the adaptive mechanism. She shrugged, and her three-inch green Manga eyes flashed amusement.
	"Easy come, easy go." Her gaze wandered towards door of the bedroom, where the innkeeper's wife had taken one glance at her and her sharp-tusked mate, and made the necessary arrangements for them. The oiled leather bedcover and pile of absorbent towels were something she was looking forward to needing later on. "I know how I got adapted to him last time - and I'm getting it back already. See ?" She ran a soaped finger over what looked like a pale brown mole two fingerwidths under her breast; another was symmetrically placed opposite, and another set was just becoming visible below them. "Depending on how hard we try " - and her sharp, perpetually growing teeth flashed a smile "I'm sure these'll be filling out nicely again in a couple of months. Bone takes longer, but I bet if you took a good X-ray of my tailbone right now, it'd show signs of Spring. "
	Suzuko climbed into the vacated tub, as Mangana vigorously towelled herself dry in front of the fire. Dancing firelight sparkled and gleamed on the slim pale body, much like a standard human except for the improbably long legs and impossibly round pumpkin of a head, the eye-sockets leaving little room for frontal bone. As stray drops of bathwater hissed on the fireplace, the vixen's gaze was quizzical.
	"Don't you.... mind ? I mean, I know Horst's a fine mate - but what if he likes you the way you were ? I mean, your humanity's going to be pretty much gone by next year. It's like he's washing it all right out of you..... Next year you'll have a tail, six Huge great sow breasts you'll probably need to support for the rest of your life, and for all I know, you'll start growing tusks like an Orc and bristles all over. "
	Mangana grinned, shaking her wet bob of hair. "What's wrong with that ? I CAN afford a grooming set, you know. It'll be fun to see how far things develop - and it looks like I might have a few centuries to get used to it, if Mother's anything to go by. Anyway, I'd hardly think You'd object to anyone having a mixed-species mate. Not with that lovely hunk of fox-stallion centaur you're saving yourself for." She shivered. "You can buy Accommodation spells from Kazuko - I think you're going to need them with Pathwan. But - oh, blast it. Of course, they wouldn't work - you'd have to bring him over here."  Suzuko's mate was back on Earth, serving aboard a pirate offshore bank on the high seas, and had been unable to join them. His own ancestry was distinctly mixed, and more than distinctly illegal across most of the world. Mangana looked around herself and shivered, even in the warmth of the roaring fire. It seemed that this was another world where hybrids were looked on as a treasonous betrayal of one's whole ancestral and future stock.
	Hot water soothed Suzuko's trail-battered muscles as she relaxed, feeling her friend's strong fingers massaging hot soapy water into her shoulder ruff. The road had been rough and the unaccustomed mule-saddle hard on her: with a delicate shiver she thought of the black rainy night outside, and the inviting softness of sheets in the room next door. Supremely grateful she was that tonight she did not have to be out in the rain - but there would be tomorrow night, and the many nights after it. Horst had been right about selective memory, and the nights she wanted to forget.
	For a full minute she lay there silent, letting her ears and nose do the perception in the soap-rich air, mixed with Mangana's own clean musk. Even freshly bathed, humans had a distinct smell, with their naked skin covered in sweat-glands - Mangana less so than her cousin, whose father's Western genes had provided more distinctive features than the blonde hair so impossibly rare and yet so admired back home in the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere.
	She stirred, her paw slipping down to disperse her own musks in the cleansing water. "Pathwan's a fox, most of him - and the rest, I've no complaints about. He may be a hybrid - put him in any Japanese street and he wouldn't make it to the first street corner alive - but he's beautiful to me. But - no disrespect to you or Horst, but if I'd got your adaption skills - I'd definitely try and avoid falling for a human, or even a standard pig. The thought of it ... all my fur falling out, nothing left but bald sweaty hide - and as for how the cub'd turn out - I wouldn't want to try. It just wouldn't be fair to it." She shuddered. 
	Mangana wound a towel round her head and looked out towards the rain-jewelled window reflectively, before turning back to face her friend. "Depends on what you're used to," she mused. "Wipe-clean skin IS handy sometimes. I've always grown up with the idea that I'll change - you should see my older sister, Akaten. Last time I saw her, she was happily squatting on top of a pile of new-laid dragon eggs, waiting for her wings to finish growing - Mother always said we should be allowed to choose. It's not as if I ever was pure Human anyway - if there's any advantage in that, I've never noticed. Besides " - she grinned, and playfully cuffed Suzuko's ears "for once, I'll agree with my sweet, innocent little cousin - it's up to us to make the world a better place. You chose Horst yourself once, didn't you ?" 
	The vixen's ears blushed. It had been the first month she had been together with her friends, when her season had come round and the urgent needs awakened again. There had been pushy, attentive canines almost camped in lines outside her door, but she had chosen the grave, attentive boar for her season-mate. Somewhat unwisely, as it turned out. She had stayed the best of friends with him after her season was over, but never, ever again would she pick one of his species for her needs. He had done his utmost to please her, but with the best will in the world, vulpines and aperines simply were incompatible without either exotic adaptors or special surgery. The exact details were intimately biological, but she had never again been able to look at a twist drill bit or ratchet screwdriver without thinking of him......
	Mangana's eyebrow rose, as if she had read the vixen's thoughts. She smiled. "I'd say a world with lots of young boars like Horst, or satyrs like whichever one it was fathered Katyo, is a place I'd like to be." She ran a finger down the smooth skin of what was rapidly becoming a sow's belly, complete with internal screw thread. "And that's not something you can trust someone else to arrange. It's up to folk like us to make it happen. Just as it's happening all over the country: humans are marrying Newbloods, but it's almost always a Newblood that gets born. I'm taking Horst to see my Mother this trip, you know - I think she'll approve of him."
	Just then, there was a heavy thump at the door. Suzuko's nose twitched, as the draft carried a familiar scent to her.	"Beauvette ? Come on in."
	The door opened - and there came a gasp of surprise from two throats.
	The minotaur had dressed for the evening. They had left her polishing her double-bladed axe, and carefully stripping down the trigger assembly of the arbalest - a major piece of engineering was required to hold eight hundred pounds pull on a hair trigger. But now the important work was over - and Beauvette looked rather different.
	"Very nice !" Mangana's eyes widened in appreciation. The dented field plate had been put aside; in its place she wore a fine chainmail dress of burnished silver-steel, brightly sparkling like a healthy fish. But this was no ornamental costume; the "Glamourise Ironmongery" spells purchased from Dhoreen's Temple had resulted in a haute-couture piece of hardware, that flattered the hugely muscled figure and yet would divert any incoming blow away from the seemingly unprotected areas. Which in Beauvette's case, involved a LOT of surface area.
	Beauvette gave an embarrassed grunt. "Got this in my pack. Got everything I own in there, may as well wear it. Never tried it on before - a Priestess gave it to me, years ago, when I brought down an Entrope pack. Didn't think it'd fit."
	The humanoid girl gave a chuckle. "Of course it'll fit. It'd fit anybody. It'd fit ME, even ! That's enchanted metal, made for comfort. And it's the only sort of armour us "Soft Humans" can sleep in - amongst its other advantages."
	"Huh ?" Great brows furrowed beneath the curving sweep of the bovine horns.
	But it was Suzuko who answered. "I remember, she told me about Kazuko's first trip here. Mangana tried to tell her that Nobody goes around in plain, untreated chainmail bikinis - but Kazuko'd seen all the films, and when has she Ever listened to good advice ? You might say, the whole subject's still a sore point with her."
	It had greatly surprised Suzuko to see wholly impractical forms of armour being being worn here by serious fighters. Although, she mused, there certainly existed enough ludicrous styles on her homeworld, such as power-armour suits teetering on high heels. She could see no natural way of explaining the gaping gaps in what was meant to be life-saving protection, just to make the costume more appealing. After all, even here, most armour tended to be removed when its owner wanted to relax. 
	Her own armour's upper shoulders were heavily armoured with chainmail and leather padding, not displaying naked fur like a lingerie catalogue. She had not known about the enchantments that had been laid on the metal of Beauvette's costume; an "Attract Damage" spell of high enough power could make even the most minimal armour coverage effective. Originally researched to be cast on shields, it would pull aimed attacks towards itself - though not stopping a strike getting through the metal, it ensured that a ten percent coverage of armour took not ten, but a hundred percent of incoming attacks. And for furred species, this happily prevented the almost certain heat exhaustion that any full coverage suit promised. (Slight problems remained where it also pulled in projectiles that would have otherwise just missed its wearer, but the mages and sorcerers promised that with just a slightly increased research budget next year, they could get right to work on the problem.....)
	Deep-set eyes sparkled in amusement. "When you ready - a good crowd in the Common Room. Lots of tales, and new barrel of beer just gone on. Hurry, though - me and Machsan have thirsts to feed !"


	Half an hour later, Suzuko pulled a comb through her freshly fluffed tail, and poked her snout out of the door.
	"Ready ?" Mangana called down the corridor from the top of the stairs where she stood with Horst. His long boots glistened in the lamplight, the mud of the day's riding thoroughly cleansed. The big boar was dressed in his best - a severely cut, yet utterly practical dress uniform of elegant midnight black, that he had been wearing when he had arrived on their timeline from the Hundred and Thirteenth Year of his Empire's world rule. It was not only Horst's sorcery techniques that were Politically Incorrect on their Earth timeline. 
	The vixen nodded. She had changed into a simple green skirt, such as the martial cults wore for everyday dress in this part of the world, and a green top of light canvas. It was getting distinctly chilly outside the range of firelight; central heating without expensive sorcery was still a thing of this world's future. Looking downstairs, she could see the hallway between the kitchens and the common room, bustling with life as the serving-boys and guests bustled to and fro. An appetising smell of roast meat reminded her of all the high-tensile beef jerky she had eaten, or rather defeated, in the last week.
	Gralius almost bumped into them at the door, still dressed in his plain robe. The cat's ears were lowered in worry. "Problems," he frowned. "It's still raining - and we're still on the wrong side of the ford."
	Suzuko shivered as another customer opened the heavy door into the courtyard, revealing lamplit sheets of rain hammering down. She had seen tropical storms far worse than this - but those at least tended to be a lot warmer. "I'd say we're in the right place tonight, personally. You'd rather be out camping in this ?"
	The feline shook his head, as they went into the common room together, and sat on one of the wide benches lining the whitewashed walls. "Where we're going, isn't a major route. I've been past here before though, and someone pointed it out then - just downstream from the village here, the river runs over great sheets of flat rock. It's a fine ford, you can drive a waggon over it - unless the river rises."
	Outside, the windows rattled as another gust slammed in from the blind night. Suzuko shrugged. "I'll say this, though - anyone who IS out there trying to follow us, this'll give them more problems than it'll give US."
	Gralius waved across to the barmare, and ordered a half pint of "small beer", the low-potency brew that harvesters drank by the gallon without accidentally cutting too many limbs off with the scythes. He returned Suzuko's questioning glance with a wry expression. "Primane doesn't forbid us to drink. He doesn't actually Forbid us much, really - just that we've to hold ourselves always ready to do His work whenever He calls on us, day or night." His gaze fell on Machsan, who was emptying another flagon of "Kreakstone's Boncebanger" into the wooden mess bowl. "Barbarians don't have to concentrate on spells and such."
	Machsan winked at them, sloshing a tidal wave of beer out of the field-issue trough as he stood up. Gralius looked on with lowered ears as the ice-bear lapped up the spreading pool from the tabletop.
	Mangana shifted the flagons and unrolled a map on the table, as they crowded around it. "We're here, Whertondale," she pointed at one of the rivers draining the great shield of naked stone that was the mountain massif of Helgrandsland. "Downstream a kilometre, the ford climbs up steeply through the woods, zig-zagging out of the valley, into sort of broken lands for maybe two days. Up here is the Southwall Mountains, we follow those along to the edge of the Twisted Zone. Tricky, from this direction - Mother's tower is right across the far side. We can stick to the Mountain trails - avoiding the Zone itself isn't too bad, but it's what comes out of it that worries me."
	Suzuko winced. "I still don't see why your family home has to be right out there. Dangerous, or what ?"
	The manga girl's eyes gleamed brightly. "Can't help it. The Twisted Zone is a weak spot, all sorts of stuff comes into existence from Outside. Various - experiments - are a whole lot easier. We can get straight back to Earth from there, when we're finished - same route my father takes, commuting from Tokyo every weekend. A lot of things get in through the Zone, most of it's Chaotic - but that doesn't mean it's necessarily an Evil place. The thing is, Lawful creatures generally stay on their home planes - they don't usually WANT to go about invading each other's territory. Plus - it saves us having Misunderstandings. Some Paladins have had trouble with us before."
	Gralius' whiskers twitched dangerously, and he silently cast a Detection spell at Mangana. Primane provided his followers with the ability to detect Chaos in any form - like an outwardly sound beam riddled with decay, often the outward signs only became obvious when the case had far advanced. He frowned, puzzled. Chaotic, she was not. But as for Power - she had far, far more of it than anyone her age had a right to personally command.
	Mangana, he had known, was a sorceress. Impiously, he had heard it claimed that to tap the power of Sorcery was like spinning your own nets to go fishing the sea for plankton. The power was out there, just needing to be gathered from a wide area - and he recalled how a drunken sorcerer had once boasted that to worship the Gods was to become a performing seal - the food doled out in large, digestible chunks, but entirely at a Master's whim.
	Mangana caught the probing spell, and grinned. "Enjoying the view ? " She tapped a dull brown stone set in a bracelet. "Detection detector. I like to know who's taking an interest."
	Gralius frowned. In the last few years, priests had began to vaguely notice a change in the magical flux of the world. No vulgar fishing analogies for them, though. He recalled what his own High Priest had said in pensive mood once.
	"As shining stars, the Gods look down on us, and between them is only the faint dust glow that they walk among, and sorcerers sweep up for their tricks. My lifetime has seen that dust grow bright indeed - as if gold-dust were spilling from a sack."
	Gods were immortal, surely. And yet - there were some who had faded out of mortal sight altogether, since times still remembered in the earliest writings. Three thousand years had the sacred metal chariots lain silent in the long-aisled temples to the merchant gods Tesco and Netto, missing and believed slain in the Chaos Wars.
	Mangana stretched hungrily, as even her tiny nose caught the aroma of roasting meat that the rest of the party had beet trying not to drool over for the past half hour. "Not bad, one night where we're as safe as it gets out here." She whispered something into Horst's wire-furred ear, and the boar's eyes sparkled.
	Suzuko watched them across the table, her own feelings a mix of yearning and embarrassment. The manga girl had pressed her tiny nose to the corner of Horst's tusked jaw, and her smooth human tongue was greedily exploring as her mate's musk glands responded. The vixen looked away as a glistening stream of the hormone-laden fluid spilled down Mangana's chin and down the front of her open blouse. Occasionally, there WERE some advantages in having wipe-clean skin in place of fur.
	Just then, Vazeeq loped in, his fur slick with rain. The baboon looked hungrily at the warmth of the fire that crackled in the great hearth.
	"Well ?" Beauvette fixed her gaze on him. "What's it like out there ? And don't say 'Wet', or you're staying out on watch tonight."
	He winced, hopping from one saturated foot to the other, while the landlord looked askance at the expanding puddle he was generating. "I talked with the folk by the town gate - no way can we get across the ford, now or tomorrow. But they say if the rain stops tomorrow, the river should fall fast indeed."
	"Humph." Beauvette's eyes gleamed under heavy brows. "What say you, Gralius ?"
	The feline priest looked out into the dripping hallway, and sighed. "I remember what happened the LAST time I let you convince me to stop over on our mission. If we really can't get across tomorrow - I suppose we can use the rest here. We're not short of gold for an extra night, after all."
	The baboon hesitantly raised a hand. "Excuse ? Shouldn't someone go and tell Miss Leclerc that we're staying ? So she doesn't have to come back in this rain ?"
	Lightning flickered on the hills above Whertondale. Beauvette nodded. "Okay. Vazeeq, go tell her - you're wet anyway. Then you're off duty till tomorrow night, or till we call."
	The baboon's face lit up, and he loped off into the rain with a purposeful air. After all, he'd have to go to the Temple of Dhoreen, and maybe tonight's Initiation rituals there required Extras....