Kerr is dozing, his arms wrapped around Miera, when she suddenly licks his throat and whispers, "Where's your collar?"
My collar? Puzzled, the rabbit sit up and touches his neck with his paws. "It... It's gone?!"
"About time," the pantheress states, sitting up beside him and ruffling his neck-fur.
"B-but..." "Have you seen our clothes anywhere?" she asks, "that's more important."
"N-no," he mumbles, "but you can use my robe if you want."
"Thank you," she responds, leaning in and giving him a quick lick, "but I think that I'll look for another. Not that I don't like seeing you walk around naked, but it can be rather distracting."
I thought you liked that kind of distraction. Bemused, Kerr watches as the black-furred female slip out of bed and starts searching the room for something to wear.
"Rot!" Cursing profusely at the general lack of clothes, Miera starts banging on the wall panels.
"Maybe we could ask Florence?" Kerr suggests.
"Who?" Miera asks, "and how?"
"She's the doctor," he explains, "a bareskinned female about your height. She told me to press the panel above the bed if we needed anything."
"No!" the panther exclaims, punctuating it with slamming her fist into the wall.
Click.
Puzzled, she grabs the panel and swings it fully open.
"Found something?"
"This piece of wall," Miera mumbles, "it's a hidden cabinet. And inside..." Grinning triumphantly, she pulls out a robe similar to Kerr's. She examines it for a moment, rubbing the material between her fingers, then puts it on.
"It looks nice on you," Kerr states, "the white against your black fur."
"But it doesn't fit," she grumbles, grabbing at her tail through the fabric. Holding a fold of fabric between two fingers, she takes the robe off and examines it more closely.
Shriiip!
"Better!" she exclaims, threading her tail through the hole she tore in the material as she puts the robe back on. "Want me to fix yours?"
"Uh, no," he responds, grabbing the garment and quickly dressing. "What are you planning?"
"Getting out of here!" Walking up to the door, she hesitates for a moment, then places her paw against the small panel beside the door. To her joy, and Kerr's surprise, the door slides open. "Are you coming?"
We shouldn't be doing this. I just KNOW that she'll get us into trouble again! Shaking his head, he follows after her, stepping through the now empty room on the other side of the door and into the corridor outside. "Where to?" he asks.
"Where's the room they kept you?" Miera asks.
"Down that way," Kerr replies, pointing down one corridow, "I think. I was too worried about you to memorize the way."
"Well, I can't smell anything," she admits. "There's something in the air that masks all smells." Then, deciding on a whim, she turns in the opposite direction of where he pointed and begins walking.
After walking a minute or two, Miera mutters, "Strange."
"What?" Kerr asks.
"The corridor," she responds, "maybe it's my eyes, but it looks like it's curving upwards, but no matter how far we walk the floor is still level."
"It's not your eyes," he retorts, "it looks like that to me, too." Thinking a bit, he adds, "it's almost as if we're walking inside a large wheel."
"Don't be silly!" she exclaims. "Can you imagine how large it must be, or the size of the steam engine needed to turn it so that we're always at the bottom?"
"No?"
"Neither can I. It must be some sort of illusion," she states.
If you say so.
"Look!"
"What?!" Miera snaps, frustrated and tired. "This door!" Kerr replies, pointing to a translucent panel, "It's made of glass! And look at the other side!"
"Stairs!" Stepping up to the panes and preparing to break them as she doesn't see any of the curious panels or a handle, she is surprised to see the doors open automatically as she gets to within two feet of the door. Stopping in the stairwell, she sniffs the air, announces, "We're going up!" then starts climbing the stairs.
"Why?" Kerr asks, panting.
"How high can this building be?" she retorts, "even if we end up on a roof, at least we should be able to get an idea of where we are."
We could have found that out by asking, but no...
"Why are you shaking your head?"
"H-how?" Kerr asks, "how did you know?"
Turning her head to look at the rabbit who's a few steps behind her, she grins, "I could hear your ears flapping around."
A few minutes later, when they're taking a breather, Miera looks up, then states, "The light up there is different. It looks like we're reaching the top soon."
"About time," Kerr grumbles, I feel like I've climbed a mountain!"
"Nonsense!" she exclaims, "you're not even panting as hard as when we have sex."
"We left a perfectly good bed downstairs," he mutters, "just so that you could tell me that!?"
Reaching out to stroke his ears with her right paw, she whispers seductively, "I'll make it up to you later." Then she grabs his left paw in her right and pulls him along. "But first we climb theese stairs!"
A minute later, and panting heavily, Miera stops at the top landing. "Finally!"
"Yeah, finally," Kerr retorts. Then, pointing to first one, then another set of doors, he asks, "What now?"
Walking over to one set of doors and peeking inside when they opens, she states, "That looks just like the corridor where we started." Then she turns and approaches the other set of doors. As soon as they opens, she steps through, then stops, and only Kerr's quick intervention as he follows, stops them from closing on her tail. Taking a deep breath, she asks, "Feel that?"
"Feel what?"
"The smell!"
At first he doesn't understand what she's talking about, then he takes a long, deep breath, closes his eyes and slowly breathe out. Another deep breath and his whole figure seems to perk up and a soft smile appears on his muzzle. "Fresh air," he whispers, "plants, wind, sun!"
Knowing how much this means for the rabbit, the panther grabs his paw and gently leads him along the short corridor, towards another set of doors.
Moving slowly, with his eyes still closed and putting his trust in Miera, Kerr walks down the corridor. There's a soft whosh as doors opens, the smell of plants almost overwhelming, but still he keeps his eyes closed. Even when the sound of claws on floor-tiles changes to the sound of claws on stones, he doesn't open his eyes. Finally, his feet touches grass and a soft sigh escapes him.
"You may want to see this," Miera whispers.
Warned by the strange tone in her voice, the rabbit turns his head down before slowly opening his eyes. The first he see is grass, unfamiliar grass, but still grass. Then, a paved path, a few bushes and a bench. Lifting his head further, he looks over the edge of the plateau they're on and down into a valley. Higher still and the long, straight valley sides that seems to point straight up. Gasp! Where he expected to see a blue sky, a sun and maybe clouds, is... ground? "A cave?" "No," she whispers. "Look closely at the roof. There's a lake there!"
A lake? "You must... be..." the rest of the sentence dies unspoken as he spots movement. There's someone walking up there!
"Take a look behind you."
"What?" he asks. It can't be stranger than what's in front of us. Turning around and looking up, he soon finds that it really can be stranger; directly above them the opening to the valley is sealed by a translucent wall -- letting the light in -- and above and to the sides are plateaus similar to the one they're on now, except that they're upside down and on their sides. It can't be possible! I must be dreaming!
"This place is getting stranger and stranger," Miera states. "Want to go back inside?" Seeing his reaction to the thought of re-entering the lifeless corridors, she adds, "Or do you want to go exploring with me? Who knows, we might even find something edible."
"Lead the way," he sighs.
Grinning at the thought of exploration and possibly a hunt, the panther rushes towards the edge of the plateau, then disappears down a narrow trail.
"Wait for me!"
Sinking down onto a rock beside a small stream, the rabbit groans, "How much further do you intend to go?"
"As far as I can," the panther replies, "or even further. You know me better than to ask, Kerr."
Yeah, it's not far enough unless we're knee-deep in trouble.
"Anyway," she states, going down on her knees beside the stream, "at least we have water." Then she leans down and licks up some of the clear water. "Tastes good, too."
"But no food?" P>"There are animals here," Miera states, "I've seen tracks and droppings, but... nothing new enough to be promising."
"Want to go back?"
"No!"
Me neither. This place is strange, but... At least it's outside... I think...
"Well, we can't sit here all day," Miera states, getting up and walking over to the rabbit. "Maybe we'll find something behind the hill over there?"
"Ahh!"
Grabbing the rabbit and wrapping her paws around his muzzle, Miera hisses, "Quiet! I heard something."
"Mmph!" Let go!
Ignoring Kerr's frantic attempts to make her release his muzzle so that he can breathe, she drags him along towards a small copse of trees. As they nears the source of the noise, she slows down, then stops behind a bush. Releasing the rabbit from her grasp she whispers, "Look."
"What?" he mutters, taking a step forward and craning his neck to look over the bush. "Oh."
Grinning mischievosly, the panther pulls the rabbit along as she makes her way past the bush to stop next to a large blanket where two females are laying, completely oblivious to what's happening around them. "Is this a private party?" she purrs, "or can anyone join?" Then, as one of the females -- a dark-skinned one with not a single hair anywhere on her body -- looks up, she adds, "If you want, you can borrow my rabbit."
Sigh. Can't she ever think of anything but sex? He's about to say something when he hears the sound of running feet and laboured breathing somewhere behind them. "Uh... Miera?"
"There you are!"
Florence? the rabbit realises, how did she find us so quickly?
"Thank goodness I found you!" the female gasps as she enters the clearing, "you have no idea how worried I was when... oh!" Turning halfway towards the two females on the blanket, she exclaims, "Have you no shame!? Having sex where anyone can see!" Turning back to Kerr and Miera, she adds, "I wish to apologise for this shameful display."
"Shameful?" Miera responds, grinning widely, "is that another word for fun?"
"Miera!" Kerr hisses, "please behave!" for once!
Standing up, and showing off her strong, but still feminine body, the dark-skinned female gives Kerr a rather predatorial glance, then turns to the panteress. "I'm Yolanda," she states, "maybe we'll meet again, later?" Then she struts over to her clothes and begins to put them on. The other female, a short, golden-skinned female with long, black hair and curious designs traced on her arms, belly and back, wraps herself in the blanket, scurries over to pick up her clothes and disappears behind a bush.
"Maybe," Miera purrs, looking at Yolanda's smooth back. Then, noticing the scowl on Florence's face, she states, "It seems we're at your mercy again."
"My... mercy?" the female asks, puzzled. Clasping an ornament on her cape she whispers something, then goes down on her knees before the pair. Turning her head towards Miera, she states, "I wish to apoligize for the way I treated you when you woke up. Believing that it was a slave collar and you his master, I acted rashly and without attempting to get my facts straight." Turning slightly towards Kerr she adds, "We will have your collar repaired and returned to you within two days."
"Don't worry," Miera grins, "mistakes happens."
Uh oh! She's planning something.
Reaching out to stroke Kerr's neck, the pantheress adds, "And don't bother with that old slave collar; I've been trying to get him to take it off for half a year. He even broke the key to stop me from removing it when he sleep."
"B-but..." Florence stutters, "I thought... He said..."
"I wasn't always her mate," Kerr states quietly, moving closer to Miera and slipping an arm around her waist.
"You... you were a slave?" Florence asks. When he nods, she continues, "Please be quiet about that for now. There are those among my people who might do something rash if they find out. When I left earlier today it was partly to try to calm the public by explaining that you two were a couple and that we must have misunderstood the text on the collar."
"What kind of rash things?" Kerr asks.
"Taking control of your world," Florence begins, getting up from her kneeling position, "and you really don't want that!" Turning and starting down a trail, she gestures for them to follow.
"Why would that be so bad?" Miera asks, "you have so much... ships that moves between worlds, this... this... place..."
"Because," Florence stresses, "we created your people!"
"So you are the Creators," Miera interjects, "I knew it!"
"Yes," the woman sighs, "your people were our greatest triumph and our greatest shame, all rolled into one. What do you know about us?" Then, before anyone can respond, she steps up to a strange platform with a group of deep chairs in the middle and a railing around the edge.
Where did this come from? Kerr wonders, it wasn't here earlier.
Sitting down in one of the chairs, she gestures for them to join her. "In a moment this platform will rise and begin to move," she cautions as they sit down, "it's nothing to worry about. it'll take us through the wildlife preserve and to the residential area where we've been preparing accommodations for you."
Despite the warning, Kerr is still surprised when the entire platform slowly and silently lifts and begins to glide through the air, towards the far end of the strange cave.
"While we still have our privacy," Florence begins, "why don't you tell me how you two met and became mates?"