A Joining of Two

By: Mr. David R. Dorrycott and Mr. Freddy K. T. Andersson

Felina copyright Mr. Freddy K.T. Andersson

Chapter One

The Captains Cabin...

Captain Marcus Grandell leaned back in his favorite chair, sucking on his pipe a moment as he decided his next course of action. “Your certain this isn’t another of those space yarns we keep being handed” the grizzled old bear asked. He flipped closed the object he held, biting hard on his pipe. In his huge paws was a hand written text. It had been bound in a leather of some lost animal, or race’s skin. One none of their equipment could quite determine what was. “We can’t afford any wild wombat chase, not with supplies this low. It has to have a profit margin or I’ll find myself looking for a way to breath vacuum.”

Across from him sat what could only be labeled a wet dream come true. She was rabbit of course, currently draped in nothing but her fur. Even so she was at ease. For good reason, she and the bear across from her had been secret lovers for a very long time. “Undercover work often finds things unexpected” she purred, for all intents sounding nothing like a rabbit. “When this came up in my... friends... private library, I instantly thought of you.”

“Before or after your ‘friends’ body was cold?”

She laughed, her voice a sweet sound with a ting of hardness. “Actually, before I removed his heart. None of my current employers knows about this.”

Setting down the book he studied his oft-time lover. “I always thought rabbits were vegetarians, until I met you. Why me? We haven’t any money to pay you what this is worth if its real. Truth be told I can’t be the best lover you’ve ever had either. So why me?”

“Two reasons love. First, no your not the best, or most energetic lover I’ve had. That would be Arbis. Your not the most exciting either, that would be Rhys, before she turned her back on me. You are tho the most trustworthy and honestly. I am not going to lie and say that I think I’m in love with you. With Kiko dumping me and Arbis chasing every skirt that flutters near him your simply my best long term choice now.”

“Dangerous, in your line of work. To be in love. What’s the second reason.”

“There is a very... very high price on the head of one of your... passengers. One you’ve used with some level of success.”

“That’s gotta be what? Fifty, sixty individuals. Which one?”

“Felina.”

He sucked in his lower lip. Felina. Of all the creatures sentient and non-sentient aboard his ship she was the only one he knew, knew for certain, could kill him without breaking a sweat. Her little mouse partner would be a very close second. “Felina’s a dangerous person to cross” he warned. “She’s never failed. So who wants her? Some small kingdom or the Patrol?”

“Neither honey. Pyruian wants her. Wants her alive but if dead, they will accept her frozen eggs.”

“PYUIAN! Those...” He gulped, breathed, tried discretely to recover his composure. “Hon... We skirt a thin line between Commence and Piracy here. When there’s a question we stay inside the law. Getting involved.. You couldn’t be fool enough...” 

“A question only, of their current list’s of ‘desired individuals.’ Nothing I don’t get before every contract. She’s been top of their list since day one. You could buy a fresh out of the docks fully loaded and crewed heavy battle carrier for her head. For her eggs, forget the crew.”

He tapped the book in his lap. “So this is nothing but bait?”

“Oh no. That my love is real. As real as I can determine. Do you have any disposable mice aboard that would accept this job?”

“You know Felina’s current lover is a mouse. You know its Kiko too. So that’s it. You’ve had your eye on her for a long time. Revenge for dumping you?”

“Kiko’s a Dom honey. And there’s no better slave for our future than a ‘re-educated’ Dom. Is there? Besides she’s a Priestess. She carries an Mithriel Honor Blade. Those things are the ultimate in rare. We’d be set for life and beyond. More to the point, she”s in love with me already. Even if she gave me up so she wouldn’t have to fight Arbis. That’s what angered me. It should have been my decision. Never hers.”

“Let me think on this” the bear decided. “I don’t like turning on those who trust me, not even ones with high head value. Not even for a payday this big.”

“If you decide no hon, there’s still what’s in this book. It alone would set us up. We could both retire to a nice colony planet that’s just starting up. Build our own Kingdom. Having babies is an awfully nice career change for me. I’m not getting any younger and this job keeps getting harder. I’ve already outlived everyone who stated with me, on both sides. My numbers coming up fast if I keep working.”

“Tomorrow then. We’ll decide tomorrow.” He reached across the small table, lifting his companion as though she weighed nothing. “Tonight I’ve other plans.”

Her answer was a giggle, followed by her body closing against his. There was no way the bear could know that his and his ships future were already over. That Pyruian already knew which ship Felina had chosen. That they had already, upon verifying that information, paid the rabbit (who had been working for them a long time already) more than his ship was worth. While the ex-assassin and her lover were busy off-ship PURPLE PASSION would become recycled material. Her crew, passengers and Captain nothing more than hydroponics fertilizer or slaves. Pyruian agents had seen to that.

Dai appeared normal to the lust filled bear. Reacting exactly as he remembered. Pyruian however had stolen her mind. Locked within the rabbits head the real Dia cried in frustration as she watched herself sell her only real friends for nothing more than another breath. Nothing could save her, for the process that had been used to destroy a Galactic Patrol agent and turn her into nothing more than a programmable puppet was technology from before. No one today understood it. No one today could reverse it. So she was nothing more than an intelligent meat puppet now, and only Kiko would have noticed. Perhaps only Kiko, or one like her have even a chance to breach those wall. No matter, Dai Ti was nothing now. An automation going through preprogrammed steps.

Far away from the two another pair were deep in conversation.

Chapter Two

Lovers Chained

Felina slammed down her empty tankard, staring bleary-eyed at the tiny mouse sitting comfortably across from her. "Lest yah gots a mommie" she slurred, momentarily remembering the argument. "Not poured outta ah jar. Gots a race too. Ah'm last one, I go... " She flung the hand holding her empty tankard above her, absently releasing the missile. "All gone. Poof.. no more me." Behind her the wooden tankard slammed into a wall, splintering upon impact, causing the small ball of fur on her left shoulder to quiver..

"Yes" Kiko replied softly. "You are correct." They had this argument every time Felina got too drunk. It was an old argument, one the mouse had no interest in winning. Her temple studies had at least prepared her for this, though not for a companion that could, and once had, swallowed her leg half way up her thigh if she wanted to. There was nothing she could do now but wait it out. Felina never got so drunk she passed out. In all probability there wasn't enough alcohol in this entire ship to get her that drunk.

"Yeah. You go home, family. Me?” Felina patted her pet, calming it. “All I got bunch of black hearted crime bosses wanten me tah make patina... Patuti... bah, squish their enemies. I could squish you, easy nough."

"Then, by all means. Squish me" Kiko offered. "Then you'll be free of me. No more Felina do this, Felina do that. Just you and your memories."

Long moments of silence followed as the catsect worked those words through her head. "No" she announced finally.

Kiko stood, walking around the table to stand by her huge companion who was also, remarkable, her lover. "Why not? Your infinitely stronger than I. Larger by far. I would be completely unable to defend myself. Why, I'm no more than a late lunch for you. With no body there would be no evidence. You would be free of me forever."

"One day I'm gonna take you up on that" Felina warned.

"I know" Kiko agreed. "One day you will devour me, and I will gladly let you do so. But that day won't come until your so starved you become mindless. On that day I will already be dead, or so close it will make no difference to me. Given a choice between my life and yours I prefer that you live."

A lopsided smile came to Felina's face. "Why I won't squish you. Your so damn.. damn..... You see things clearly. That your Goddess?"

"Partly" Kiko agreed, slowly pulling a delicate silver chain leash from her pocket. Quietly she cleaned it of any lint while Felina watched sullenly. "Your beginning to frighten the crew. It's time to go to bed."

"Make me" Felina challenged.

Kiko didn't say a word, she simply slipped her comparatively tiny hand under Felina's short skirt, between the catsects legs. There was a sharp click as a latch on the chains end connected to a hidden ring. "I have never, I will never force you into anything Felina" Kiko answered, giving the chain a slight tug to check it was connected correctly. "Everything you do is of your own free choice. I have, and always will grant you two paths. Now. You may sit here, unclip this leash and continue to drink. Or you may come to bed with me." Walking away she let the chain play out until it reached its end. There was a high pitched 'epp' cry from behind her, followed by the hurried sound of a chair moving. Instantly the chain slackened. Walking out of the ships bar with Felina following behind her Kiko ignored the self serving smiles of several of their crew mates. No one commented on the silver sound of a bell’s chime as Felina waled.

Chapter Three

Four months later...

White pain laced through the fem-mouses head, snapping her sharply awake from a fitful sleep. Sitting up carefully, her miniature paws held tightly to her head she fought to see through pain blinded eyes. Carefully she pressed firmly at the base of two unbelievable growths, the pressure from her paws causing her pain to lessen for a moment. Moaning softly she turned towards a small bedside table, finding the top drawer by feel. At the moment, even the tiny night lamp she'd left on was too much to bear. Opening the drawer she withdrew a small packet of self-injectors, fumbling with the plastic case and almost dropping its contents as the lid popped free. Eyes still closed tightly from the pain she drew one of the tiny self-actuating cylinders from its resting place, quickly jabbing it against firmly her left leg.

Warmth quickly radiated from the injection site, moving with the speed of her own blood flow. It radiated upwards, surrounding and containing the pain. As the drug calmed her pounding head, slowly depressing her pain to a bearable level she relaxed, dropping her paws loosely into her lap. With a soft curse Kiko Nao Rhys opened her eyes to the semi-dark room. Even that dim light still caused a brief burst of discomfort before her pain sensitized eyes could adjust. Wincing she turned to look at her pillow where the impression of an antler was fresh in the worn dark blue cloth. Slipping out of bed she headed to her dressing table and the magnifying mirror there. Turning on lights bright enough to land a starship by (and sending another lance of pain thorough her oppressed skull) she examined her scalp where the implants now grew from her skull.

No lasting damage she decided finally. 'Still,' she thought to herself, 'After two weeks you'd think I'd learn to sleep on my back. How the merg they convinced me into this I'll never understand.' Her mind drifted back to a meeting three weeks before. Dia, the rabbit who’d become her friend and her greatest love until something had happened to her a year ago had made yet another unexpected visit to the mish-mash of materials loosely called a ship.. With her the rabbit had brought an ancient book, one so old the ships computer had taken almost an hour to understand the language, and another twenty-five to completely translate what was written within. After over a week of ship-wide discussions the Captain had decided this data was worth investigating. Two days later Kiko had undergone a session of the ships micro-surgeons delicate operating skills. On two places flesh protecting her skull had been carefully removed, leaving the delicate bone of her small skull exposed. To this had been attached two artificially grown antlers, closely matching those of the race they would be meeting. Not even an X-Ray could detect the surgery, mostly because unless someone with those same delicate skills removed the horn Kiko would go to her grave with them. The other things that had been done to the mouse, well they were temporary and best left unremembered.

"The things I do for this ship" Kiko muttered to herself. After a week she had grown accustomed to the slight weight, her wounds had healed and the artificial horn had almost completed attaching itself to her skull. Still, sleeping on her side might have caused damage. So along with the pain reliever was a large dose of a specialized healing agent. Any damage she might have caused would be repaired before the pain drug faded away. Turning off her bright lights she sighed, opening a small closet to pick out a clean set of coveralls. Still another week to the planet, and her rabbit friend had left two days ago. Quietly Kiko dressed, then as quietly headed for an early breakfast.

Chapter Five

Living Chains

Felina was still studying the operations plan of the upcoming mission when her intercom chimed. Smiling to herself she moved her furball pet aside before she activated the little unit. Felina knew it couldn't be the Captain. She'd left him around midnight and he would be lucky to wake up for lunch. "Wazzup" she asked, ignoring the little units screen. At this time of the morning it was either one of those hot-shot pilots or that delicious mouse that had become so oddly special to her.

“Could you come to my work-bay" 'that delicious mouse' asked. "I'm trying to install those modified seats and I need a mobile crane."

Felina giggled, cutting on her monitor as she faced the intercoms tiny screen. "Somehow I like you better without the horns" she replied.

Kiko's image grimaced, "So do I" she agreed. "Now are you coming down here to help or do I call Fox One in from patrol to help?"

The Catsect grimaced. "Don't bother. He's on duty and this is his buddies first real day off since... I don't know when. I'll be down in ten minutes." Cutting the connection she stood up, stretched all four arms and started changing clothes, no longer noticing the silver chiming sound as she moved. Becoming involved with the mouse had changed the assassin, in more ways than simply the physical adornments Kiko had added.

"Stupid Urisoid sized design" came Kiko's voice as the ex-assassin entered her repair bay. Glancing around she noticed most listed modifications had finally been completed. With only one full time maintenance person, even with the rest of the ships crew pitching in keeping things running smoothly was impossible. Remembering what implants had been used to replace the mouse-mechanics savaged arms over a year ago she frowned, remembering well how a certain rabbits back had looked before the medics repaired her injuries. If it hadn't been for the rabbits tender care Kiko probably would have committed suicide. 'Well' Felina thought to herself, 'At least now I can squeeze her hands without crushing those delicate bones of hers.'

But why had the rabbit suddenly turned away from Kiko? After nearly dying to save her, lately she almost ignored her. It didn’t make sense. As to why Kiko had backed off, that was public knowledge. A ship was simply too small an environment to hide secrets. Arbis had won without even knowing he was in a fight.

Walking over to the ancient shuttle she stuck her head in the open cargo hatch. The view that greeted her was mouth watering. Kiko was bent over an acceleration chair trying to move something out of the way. The small woman’s hips were well above her shoulders, her legs spread deliciously wide for support and her tail wrapped around a stanchion above her. The pose had pulled her aged work coveralls skintight around her hips causing her sex to be perfectly outlined by the thin, overstretched cloth. Momentarily the Catsect admired the view, then reaching out gently she ran one finger along the mouses tail, circling its base before slowly moving her finger between the woman's widely spread legs.

There was absolute quiet, even the mouse’s breathing had stopped. Finally her head rose slowly as she maneuvered her antlers around obstacles. Kiko silently stared at the grinning woman behind her, her own eyes wide. Her breathing suddenly fast. "Don't do that.... Please" she asked in a voice almost devoid of understandable emotion. A series of shivers running down her tail belied the mouses voice, the touch had done exactly as had been intended.

Felina withdrew her hand, noticing the damp spot rapidly building where she had last touched. "Wrong time?" she asked.

"Never for you, you know that" Kiko answered as she fought to control her sudden excitement. Taking a deep breath she held it in several seconds, then relaxed. "We've really got to get these things in before tomorrow. Anyway, between my medication and our timetable it just isn't possible right now."

Felina nodded in reluctant agreement, carefully stepping into the shuttle. Motioning the smaller woman to move away she gently lifted the heavy seat, arranging it's supports over several pre-drilled mounting holes. Effortlessly she held the unit in place as her partner locked it down with self-tapping bolts. "What do you think about this mission" Felina asked, carefully adjusting the seat to allow another bolt access.

"Pipe dream" Kiko replied, "It's simply not possible. The Captain ought to know that." She cursed as an antler caught, jerking her head around for an instant. "l mean... If inter-dimensional travel was possible, don't you think that some big government would have it by now?' She glanced into her friends eyes, "Look, all pride aside, your ex-employers may be further advanced in that area than anyone I know. I can admit that."

Felina nodded. "They tried it, and decided it was just fiction" she answered "Or it took too much power to make it economically worthwhile. Look. Don't worry about upsetting me. You know that's past history with me. I made my choice years ago."

"Last one" the mouse announced, carefully withdrawing from the tight confines of her work area. "Now for yours." Standing she started to slip past the huge woman, stopped, then laid one hand on a huge bicep. "Are we past history too? I mean, you do have the Captain when Dia’s not around. You know I’m playing with a certain nurse." Her voice carried the hint of worry.

Swatting the mouses rump lightly Felina laughed. "When we don't have them we have each other" she answered. "Besides girl, I know your only playing. You’ve never even so much as kissed her. Now where's is my chair."

Stepping out of the shuttle Kiko pulled a worn cover sheet off a strangely shaped object. Beaming with pride she pointed at a huge gold plated mass of metal, foam and leather. "Had some stuff lying around" she giggled. "So I thought I'd make it pretty for you."

Chapter Six

Planetside

Days later things weren't so funny. From the start their mission hadn't gone well and now they were regulated to public transportation. Hanging an old style phone receiver back in its cradle Kiko stepped from a public booth Felina could never have fit in. "Gate six, we take the blue shuttle" she informed her waiting partner. Amazingly, although almost everyone was staring at the towering woman no one accosted her. "I think their frightened of you" she laughed.

"As best they should be" Felina replied. "I feel naked. They wouldn't let me bring a single weapon off the shuttle. Leaving Furball on the ship bothers me too. It’s not often were apart as long as we will be this time."

"Unarmed you do look naked" the mouse agreed. “Furball will be fine, you know that. Anyway, even if our schedule go terribly wrong it’s only for a month at worst.” They walked quickly through early morning sunlight towards their waiting public transportation. "When we're alone I'll loan you a couple of my knives" the mouse whispered.

Felina stopped in her tracks for a second, thought better of it her idea, then continued following the mouse. 'How in Mothers name did she get weapons past that scanning system' she thought to herself. Even her most private last ditch weapons had been easily discovered by those strange scanning machines. Shaking her head in disbelief she stepped onto the bus. Her entry caused the drivers eyes to go wide as his vehicle reacted badly to the woman’s mass. Never designed for such a large single entity his bus leaned dangerously to one side. Bending over Felina slid into the front bench seat, the only place with enough room for her. Turning to look at Kiko she growled deep in her throat. "Don't tell me" she complained, "You rented a sportster."

Raising one eye the mouse shook her head. "A sub-compact" she responded. "With fuzzy dice." Felina simply closed her eyes and moaned, a sound that further shook their driver, causing him to sideswipe a police cruiser. Things defiantly were getting worse.

Chapter Seven

A long and bumpy road

Nineteen days and over almost a thousand miles of bad road later the catsect was about ready to have fresh mouse for dinner. "Vegetables" she complained for the ninth time since sunrise. "Don't these people eat anything but plants."

"Actually yes. Nuts are part of their diet, along with scads of different fruits. But meat? No" Kiko answered. "It’s a religious law they hold very dear. If you can hold on though, last night I arranged for the ship to drop us a supply package. Dangerous yes, but they promised they'd manage it. It should be around here somewhere." Looking through the trucks (now removed) rear window into its cargo bed she grimaced. Days of traveling in the back of a poorly sprung, un-shocked truck over bad roads, unable to do anything but lay down or sit had brought the catsect dangerously close to an explosion. Combined with the poor food and lack of animal protein... She thanked her Goddess none of the real meat eaters of their crew hadn't come. She had no interest seeing anyone’s stomach from the inside.

Turning a tight, tree lined corner that was far from any habitation a glint of sunlight off refined metal struck the truck. Kiko smiled as she gunned the engine. Their situation grated on her. If she hadn't passed as a member of the planetary race... Well aliens were only allowed on the planet as special guests, or pets of planetary inhabitants. Between their navigators skill with coding and Millin's art of 'seductive legality' they had managed a believable set of documents for the muride. Combined with her medical 'adjustments', such as relearning how to judge distances with her newly enlarged eyes and weeks of studying everything the rabbit had brought along she had passed, barely. Three days after landing she still wasn't sure what Felina had been listed as, her study of the local languages hadn't included the High Law and Tongue.

That was going to prove to be a costly mistake.

There was only one starport on the planet and it had been on the wrong continent to start with. This had been bad enough. What was worse, where they needed to go was deep within one of the remotest mountain ranges of a very desert covered continent. Kiko had been forced to take an slow airship to this continent, it being the only thing large enough to safely carry Felina and adding two days to their already strained schedule. Finally she had been able to rent an off road truck large enough to carry her partner with some reason of comfort, afterwards they had started on their search. Thankfully the weather had held, sunny with just enough clouds to keep the heat bearable, cool and clear at night. Still the truck had picked up the scent of Felina's enforced stay and even Kiko was beginning to wish that air conditioning had been an option. During her encrypted radio contact the night before she had ordered a weapon pack for Felina and some special things from her room, giving Millin her access code so he could get them. Then she had wrangled a two week leave on the next acceptable planet from the Captain for her and Felina. Once this job was done of course. Turning off the road she pulled up to the re-entry pod, braking to a stop just past it. "Lunch time" she called as she killed the engine.

Bracing herself she waited until her partner had climbed out and the truck had quit bouncing on its over stressed suspension. Even so her antlers were banged roughly against the trucks interior, sending waves of pain through her skull. "Headaches are gonna be the death of me" she cursed as she opened her door, rubbing her now pounding forehead. She had some painkillers but dared not use them. The little red caplets drew from her bodies reserves so taking them for a minor headache would be tantamount to suicide. She just hoped no one ever discovered who had conned the little nurse Mira out of such dangerous drugs. Not that the little vixen hadn't proved interesting in bed that last night, a surprise victory for Kiko. But in the long run she simply wasn't the mouses type. Much too submissive for Kiko's taste. There was something wrong with the girl and Kiko had no desire to find out what. She patted a side pocket, still it'd gotten her what she needed and she'd done worse before for less. It bothered her that she hadn’t been able to make contact this morning. Maybe she’d just misjudged the ships place in orbit.

Neither she nor Felina had any idea that at that moment, high above them, their ship was being systematically reduced to its component parts by dozens of Pyruian salvage ships. Nor that the local space force had been beaten back by overwhelming forces. Or that the little nurse she had just thought of was lying unconscious in a slave ship, a new iron collar welded around her pretty neck.

Stepping from the drivers cabin she joined Felina at the lander. A small one way device it held about half as much cargo as the truck could carry. Felina palmed open the lock with one hand, pulling at the hatch with two others while she braced herself with the fourth. With a hiss of compressed nitrogen it released, allowing the catsect access to what lay inside. Moments later she was tearing into a huge haunch of fresh mutton, standing with her back against the landers thin composite skin.

"That's what I needed" she sighed, carefully picking a morsel from between her teeth. "I can't believe any race can survive on just plants."

"I can" the mouse replied from within the lander. "In fact, I can live that way or the opposite. My race is pretty much able to eat anything, even catsect."

Felina’s purr spoke volumes. "Wanna try some now?" she asked as she tossed a cleaned bone back into the lander.

Kiko laughed. "If I can find some mustard, sure" she answered, ignoring the obvious offer as with her back to her friend she entered the capsule. Sounds of objects being shoved aside came through the hatch, soon followed by the mouses head. She leaned out of the lander holding a large box out to Felina. "I think you'll be happy now" she said as she fought to suppress a smile.

Taking the box with one hand Felina opened it with another as she continued to eat while Kiko watched. 'Sometimes having four arms comes in handy' she thought to herself as she watched her friend tear open the box. With a squeal of delight Felina held up a weapons belt. Fully armed it could contain most of her favorite styles of weapons. A few more minutes of digging reveled a complete selection of the catsects favorite weapons, most quickly vanishing into their respective hiding places. Suddenly she stopped, lifting out an ornate scabbard. Looking up at the smiling mouse she gently drew the blade, listening to its well oiled movement. Holding up the slightly curved, single edge blade her eyes filled with a strange fire. "Where did you find this" she asked, staring with open respect at the brilliant polish of the blade.

"That, my dear friend" the mouse answered, "It's my payment for your taking such good care of that little chipmunk pleasure slave we were stuck with a while back. When I saw it I instantly thought of you. I just never found the right time or place to gift you."

With a hiss of cold steel against fine brass Felina sheathed the weapon. "It's perfect, thank you" she whispered. In a flash of movement she had the mouse in her arms, her lips against the others. Long minutes later she broke the soul searing kiss. "You are a dangerous little mouse, you know that." she asked.

"Who. Me." Kiko asked, the hint of laughter in her eyes.

"Yes you" Felina replied as she cradled the smaller woman in her four arms. "Between you and the Captain there isn't a woman on the ship safe."

"Except a certain Panda" Kiko agreed reluctantly. "And don't think I haven't tried."

"The Second Shift navigator? Well I guess we'll have to remedy that when we get back" Felina laughed. Setting the mouse on her feet she started 'dressing.' When she finished she handed two milky crystal blades to the mouse. "You still haven't explained why they weren't detected by sensors."

Kiko accepted the weapons, carefully arranging them within their customary nests. "I can't she said, eyes downcast. "You.... Your not allowed to know."

Felina bit her lip as she thought. Suddenly she nodded in understanding. "Religious, right."'

Kiko nodded, "Uh-huh."

"Okay then. I can live with that for now" she accepted. "I guess some things just are too private. But trust me little mouse. One day your going to tell me and we both know that. Come on, lets get this stuff loaded in the truck and set this things fuse." The tiny mouse nodded silently, helping her huge partner as she loaded the heavy packages. Most of the cargo was forbidden on this world. Energy weapons, scanners and the like. Nothing over Tech Five - Crossbows and swords, could legally be transferred to the surface. Somehow the ships crew always seemed to have selective memories about such laws, especially when their own safety was involved. Straining with the final energy cell Kiko wondered just when planetary law had ever interested her friends still in orbit. If they were caught with this load... She grimaced in distaste. She'd have trouble spending the rest of her life in a 3'x3'x3' cell as a display to the local citizens. Felina would go mad in minutes. That was, if they could get her into such a small cell without killing her first.

Neither had any idea that the few surviving members of their crew, those selected as worth the retraining were even now being reduced to pleasure slaves. As was a certain rabbit, who’s brief experience with restricted freedom after her own capture months ago had discovered slavery had simply been a foretaste of the rest of her life. Only a very small number had escaped to the planets surface. Escaped to detention, but safe behind planetary defenses now opening up on the pirate ships.

Less than a planetary hour after pulling up to the stealth capsule they were back on the road, again headed for their destination. Behind them the fragile capsule slowly began to glow as overloaded energy cells heated up. By the time they cleared the next hill there was nothing left but a puddle of rapidly cooling metals and charred plastics. Tossing their map back to the purring catsect the mouse slowed. "We're approaching an intersection Felina" she called, pulling to the side. "Which route do we take?"

From behind her the rattle of plas-paper greeted her as the huge woman studied the map. "Any signs?" she asked.

"Sure" Kiko replied, staring out at the mishmash of signs, advertisements, and general clutter. "Which one do you want?"

A sudden twisting of the trucks suspension warned her, still she barely moved herself into safety before Felina's huge head poked through the access. "Hummmm..." she muttered, studying the scene before her. "Typical clutter, nothing really useful." Glancing at the dash mounted compass, the cloud filled summer sky and surrounding terrain she nodded to herself. Then licking one finger she raised it through the skylight for a moment. Pulling her hand back in she pointed left. "That way" she answered, pulling herself back into what relative comfort of the trucks cargo bed offered. Without a word Kiko shifted gears and turned down the indicated road.

Chapter Eight

The Inn of Error

It was just past sundown when they pulled into a small mountain village. An exhausted mouse set the brake before killing her engine. Glancing back her sleeping friend she smiled to herself. Like all people who had seen combat the catsect seemed able to sleep whenever she could. Reaching back she gently touched the others skin. Without a sound the woman’s huge eyes popped open, staring at her friend. "I think we're there. At least this is an Inn" Kiko told her. "Stay here and I'll get us a room. In the morning maybe we can find the shrine."

Felina grunted, shifting slightly. "Better be sure one of the beds big" she complained, slowly stretching one limb at a time in her cramped quarters. Nodding, the mechanic picked up her belt-purse and headed for the Inn's door.

A few surprising minutes later the two were in their rented room. Dropping her bags at the door Felina stared around in wonderment."It's huge" she said, her voice filled with awe. "How could you afford it."

Tossing her own bag on a table Kiko stretched, yawning. "It's a family room. Remember, here they have multiple husbands and wives." She flipped through her beltpurse, pulling out a tag. Tossing it towards Felina she nodding towards the door. "Put it in the slot outside. Foods coming." She sat on the bed, a huge affair of pillows and blankets. "Our shrine is at the end of this road, about ten klicks from here" she informed her partner.

"Great, we should be there before noon" the catsect replied. Fluffing up a pillow the mouse leaned back, sighing as over stressed muscles relaxed. "That's ten klicks as the rock falls" she half whispered, "Something like two hundred klicks of mountain roads."

Felina almost dropped the tag. "Two HUNDRED"' she almost shrieked.

Kiko nodded, grazing Felina's massive breast with her horns as she did. "Uh-huh, and I have to drive a mountain road without power steering."

Chapter Nine

I have seen Darkness

"More plants" the catsect grumbled. "At least there's FOOD in the truck."

Kiko looked up, reaching over from her chair to dig into her own pack. Pulling out a plas-can she tossed it to the complaining woman. "What's this?" Felina asked.

"Cows tongue" Kiko answered. "Just make sure you don't leave the can out, it'd be a really bad idea."

With a grin the catsect tore open the container. "You spoil me" she said over bits of the delicacy.

Kiko sighed, for her the meal was wonderful as it was. "Spoil you?" she asked, gracefully letting her blouse fall open. "My dear sweet friend, your more than worth the effort. Now later, when I start really training you...." She laughed as she ducked the pillow Felina tossed. "Just hope we don't get stuck here" she continued. "You would be a slave for real and I don't think either of us could live that lie very long."

Setting her cleaned can aside Felina nodded in agreement. "Fun to play, not to live" she agreed. Abruptly she winced. "Uh, Ladies room?" she asked.

"Out the door, down the hall. Narrow double doors" Kiko replied absently, taking another spoonful of her thick soup. "Easy to find, so have fun."

Opening the door Felina looked around searching the dark hall from the rooms doorway. Finally she gave up. "Okay, where's the lavatory" she finally asked, stumped.

"Down the hall, take a left as you exit the cross room, then...." the mouse giggled. "I better take you there, you'd never find the thing and there's no symbols anyway."

"Great" Felina playfully complained. "Led around like a baby again. Are you going to have to potty train me too?"

A sly look came across the mouses face, her tongue darted out for an instant. "If you want retraining" she answered in a seductive voice. "I'm a very good teacher..."

Felina shook her head no. "No thanks little lover, I remember how you used your last slave girl." She grimaced a moment at the thought. "I'm not sure I want to try that." She gave the mouse a quick glance, seeing the fake, highly overdone childish pout. ‘Not yet anyway’ Felina continued in her thoughts, giving a soft, uncertain but somehow revealing smile as Kiko's dark eyes called to her. Suddenly she realized what had just crossed her mind, her four ears drooped simultaneously as she instantly broke eye contact, a frustrated expression playing across her face. She felt herself blushing and knew the little mouse could tell she was. But she couldn't get the image of her some-times lover being drained by a very willing chipmunk out of her mind.

Kiko sat her food aside, slipping off the bed as she noted her friends twin tails wrapping around each other. A sure sign the catsect wasn't able to handle the social situation and probably unable to figure a way out of it. "Don't worry, I'm not about to force you into something you might hate" the mouse admitted as she gently took one of Felina's huge paws in her smaller ones. "Now lets get you to the potty before you go boo-boo and I have to clean it up." She lead the huge four-armed woman to the lavatory, stopping her just at the split doors before breaking the embarrassing silence. "I'll take the couch, it's more than adequate. I'm worried about your nightmares and well...." She frowned. "I'd rather wake up a bit cold than with my neck broken." Felina just nodded and opened the doors. Kiko waited until she was settled before returning to her room, giggling to herself. The catsect, by her reaction had let free a secret fantasy by mistake. Felina had kept the ring she'd given her several months ago, they even used it for her leash occasionally. That bell had made things even spicery on occasion. Perhaps it was time to add to her collection. Fantasies were something the mouse was an old hand at helping become realities. She shared at least one trait with the huge catsect, a need to use and be used on occasion. The huge woman had proved to be an exciting bed partner. Maybe, with just the right pushes at just the right times... Just maybe she could become a true love as well. Though her soul belonged to Dai Ti, she had given up the rabbit rather than fight her friend. Felina was a more than adequate replacement, she simply could never give the catsect the soul-love she’d given Dai. Their vacation alone together after this mission could indeed be more interesting than she had dared hope. Perhaps, perhaps even more so than the mission itself.

Lost in her thoughts she missed the servant hidden in a dark stairway. He watched as she returned to her room, closing her door behind her. Horrified the small man crept up the stairs, looking back at the end of the hall. He had seen the two walking down the hall together, nothing abnormal although they were speaking an alien tongue. At first he thought she just hadn't taught her trained pet enough of the language yet. But then she had left the alien alone, returning to her room while the pet was free to do... do anything. He waited for her to realize her mistake, hoping that she'd just been off-planet so long she'd forgotten. But the door remained closed. Slowly his heart felt fear. Could she be controlled by her pet? It was rumored some out-worlders could do that. But how? Wouldn't she have been caught at the spaceport like all the rest? To his knowledge there were no other murdie races in the universe, which left only the black evil of mind control. Turning, he hurried down the stairs for his employer. Law was being violated, perhaps High Law as well. Only his employer could decide

Back in the room Kiko carefully made her bed, thankful that on a world where people had horns the pillow makers had long ago taken those problems into account. Finally satisfied with her bed, abet a lonely one, she slipped between the thick sheets as she pulled several heavy blankets over her. If the last few nights were any indication she'd need all the sleep she could get before her partners war-dreams woke her. Just before she drifted off she glanced at the huge, and still empty bed. Felina still hadn't shown up yet and she knew why. 'And tiny toilets isn't why.' She giggled to herself. The catsect was so.. so damned cute when she was embarrassed. Snuggling down she wondered what would have happened if Felina had entered her life earlier. 'All dreams' she decided, drifting into her own rest filled sleep.

Felina sat quietly in the, for her, cramped bathroom alone with her thoughts. Until she calmed down she couldn't return. Images of what she'd let slip kept entering her mind, causing a shiver to run down her back. 'Could I really do that' she wondered, 'And like it?' Kiko was one of her closest friends. A lover who demanded nothing, asked nothing yet was always there. Maybe that was why she was so embarrassed. The mouse seemed to have a way of getting information without trying, making you slip when your weren't watching. Talking and socializing in general was something the catsect was still learning, still clumsy at. Kiko's seemingly ease of talking to anyone, beggar or King, was something Felina envied. 'Lucky she's doing all the talking and not me' she decided. Finally the mountain cold started getting to her. Touching her symbiote she grimaced. A full nights sleep was something she really needed, would it let her? Opening the door she walked as quietly as she could down the hallway. She easily spotted the innkeeper but he just smiled nervously like everyone else when she bowed respectfully to hium as Kiko had trained her. Thinking nothing of it Felina slipped into their room.

A shocked and flustered innkeeper stood in the darkness watching as the huge alien, unescorted, wandered the hall freely. Even though she returned directly to her room to her owner, a serious law had clearly been violated. Taking a deep breath he sent his servant for a Runner. With the local priest ill and in Marlagia he would have to send the runner all the way to the Shrine. The proper authorities were days away by foot and the only mechanical transportation belonged to his guests. Taking it without the owners permission would put him in more trouble than Kiko was in now. Still they couldn't possibly finish their business at the shrine in less than three days, the time it would take a runner to arrive. Let the Priesthood handle it he decided.

Kiko had fallen asleep, deep in dreams of a long anticipated vacation with a certain catsect she was worlds away when Felina entered. Even her knife fighters sense barely flickered at the silent entry. She was used to the huge woman’s movements, her mind noted the entry, filed it, and left the tiny mouse to her rest. Felina moved silently, so carefully even her huge bulk failed to cause old floorboards to creak. 'No secret' the catsect thought to herself with a smile, 'Just step where the nails are solid and the boards aren't raised. Stay near the wall as long as you can.' Slipping off her clothes she slid into the bed, shocked at the scent that came to her. 'Had I been that excited?' she asked herself. Settling down, she looked around the room, enjoying the ornate decorations based on the planets only religion. 'I'll have to let Kiko study them before we leave' she reminded herself. She started. It had been a long time since she'd cared about anothers feelings, a long time and many deaths ago. Settling down she closed her eyes, one hand unconsciously drifting between her legs, encountering the ring Kiko had given her so many months before. 'l never thought I'd like something like that there' she thought to herself as she tugged it gently, caused the tiny silver bell attached to it to ring softly. Remembering the carvings she winched, 'It'd be a shame if I crushed any in my sleep... If I get any sleep.' Minutes passed, the catsects eyes slowly dimmed as she drifted away, entering her own dreamworld.

Chapter Ten

Temple Trail

Morning light had painted the foothills red and orange when Kiko made her final excuse's to a grateful innkeeper. Tho all according to custom still he seemed happy they were finally leaving. Politely he wished them a safe journey, even waving goodbye as they drove away. "Maybe she was just exhausted" the servant suggested as the truck bounced away.

Watching the truck as it slowly passed from view around a row of homes the innkeeper agreed. "You're probably right. If her pet has nightmares like that every night she's probably so exhausted she leapt at a chance for a few extra minutes of sleep. Forgetting Law in her exhaustion." Biting his thumb he looked up to the mountain peaks where the Holy Shine lay hidden. "I've done it myself" he admitted. "Taking her pet there would be the right thing, even for aliens the healers there have done wonders." Turning the two men headed re-entered the inn. "I was wrong to rush sending the runner, it's too late now. Another couldn't catch him in time."

As soon as the village was hidden by a turn in the road Kiko stopped, turning to look at Felina. The catsect still looked torn from last nights nightmares. Her first scream had woken half, if not all the village. She turned back to the road when Felina refused to make eye contact. "This isn't helping" she said calmly, dodging yet another pothole in the weathered dirt road. Felina remained quiet.

"Look, you screamed my name, you woke half the village and then you almost smothered me because you wouldn't let me go." She waited but her companion remained quiet. Whatever the dream, from the reaction Kiko knew her own death was involved. She'd seen the catsect enraged once for no seeming reason. There wasn't any way short of mutilation the mouse could really hurt her. A sudden sharp bump broke Kiko's thoughts, 'Better keep my mind on the road, she'll talk when the time is right' she decided.

Hours later a deep sigh came from the trucks bed. Kiko glanced into the mirror, looking back into the trucks bed. Weary eyes met hers then turned away. "Feeling better" she asked.

"Yeah..." Felina replied softly. A few moments of silence followed. "I'm sorry I freaked out again" she apologized.

Taking advantage of a wide flat spot Kiko pulled over and stopped the truck. "You, or something connected to that bump on your sternum" she asked. Felina's look spoke volumes, the mouse just nodded. "Subject closed. Just as long as you know I suspect. And suspecting means if I'm right I'm probably dead already."

Dropping her eyes Felina turned away. "I can't..." she begged, "Please don't...."

"Like my knives love, the subject is taboo. Trust that I'll not ask again, at least not until I'm certain. Then your going to tell me. I refuse to die without knowing why the woman I love is ripping my throat out."

Felina nodded, a flicker of smile coming to her face. "I am sorry" she said again.

"l know" Kiko replied softly. "It really isn't your fault is it." Turning her back to the emotionally shattered catsect she shifted back into low, turning the truck back on what the locals laughing called a road.

Kiko's words had given little comfort to the catsect. In her dream she had been sharing a tender moment with the mouse, only to suddenly find Kiko begging for her life as Felina's four clawed hands began tearing her apart. Ripping open her sweet belly, tearing out delicate morsels. Her hands covered in the mouses blood as her jaws crushed that delicate neck, fingers tearing at the mouses still living body as hunger filled her mind... Sweet warm blood filling her mouth, flowing down her parched throat.... When she'd suddenly regained her own mind. Shock came instantly and her throat tore as she screamed Kiko's name. It took minutes before she realized she was back in reality, that the dreamworld gone again. Awake, with a living breathing mouse held tightly in her arms she stared at the door helplessly while several locals broke it open.

Forced dream or future she didn't know. While she pulled herself together Kiko calmed the people, ignoring her own pain from over-stressed ribs as they managed to re-secure the door, then she'd slipped in the bed with Felina. Gently she had begun rubbing the catsects tense muscles, ignoring her own pain and need for rest as she worked the fear from her friend. Felina shuddered at the memory, she had to have suspected the truth, yet she had pushed her own safety aside. Biting her lower lip Felina wondered just what kind of relation they were building. Somehow the dream frightened her more than any other had. She barely noticed when the truck left the main road and began to climb over a narrow, stone littered mountain 'road.'

Kiko had made the decision to take a lessor way, one that would lose or slow anyone from the village that might be following them. Fighting the steering she cursed their luck last night. "I gotta get even for this" she cursed. Remembering a few special items In her 'Hope chest', ones her old rabbit lover had shivered at when she saw them Kiko grinned. 'When I get back its going to be... Interesting, for the catsect. Bells. I'll need to use lots of small bells.'

In the trucks cargo bed Felina took a steady grip on the trucks frame with three hands while the forth covered her symbiote. If she could she'd tear it free, but its tendrils were deep inside her. Nothing she could do would remove it. It would only leave when it wanted to, never before. She formed hateful thoughts, directing them at the creature. Felina knew it could read her mind, that was how it twisted her dreams and nightmares. Giving her nightmares and flashbacks she couldn't control.

"Damn you" she cursed softly. "Damn you forever. Won't you ever leave me alone." The symbiote, as always, remained silent. Any answer it might give would be in her dreams. Once sweet dreams now twisted forever into hellish nightmares. Leaning back she stared at the mouses back, watched her muscles bulge and stretch as she fought the road. Reaching under a blanket the catsect withdrew the sword Kiko had given her. For a long time she just stared at it. No one had ever given her a gift like this. Not without wanting something from her in return. A single tear slowly drifted down her cheek as she remembered last nights image. In minutes it was followed by a small river.

Late the next evening Kiko brought the truck to a grinding halt. With a sigh she cut the engine after locking both safety brakes. "Time to pitch camp?" Felina asked from her nest in the trucks bed.

"Only if you don't like sleeping indoors" the mouse answered. "We're here." A sharp bang, followed by a muffled curse was the rear passengers reply. Kiko readied herself for the expected twisting as Felina exited. Once the truck settled down she opened her door to step out into the thin cold mountain air. Taking a deep breath she laughed. "I could get to like this" she sighed, staring up at the crystal night sky. "Such a beautiful view."

Felina cursed. "Cold, thin air, dry and you like it"

"I'm from the mountains" the mouse reminded her companion as she stretched her cramped muscles. "My clan lived in mountains like this since our race was sent. .." She stopped as if a switch had been thrown. "We better go meet the locals" she said, changing the subject.

"Another 'I can't tell you unless I kill you first huh" Felina asked, turning to face the two figures approaching them. "We're starting to run into a lot of those on this mission. One of these days we're both gonna slip up and end up having to slit each others throats to save face."

"That or exile ourselves to some forgotten asteroid" Kiko agreed. "If we live long enough that is. And I really think that your right. I've this feeling we're going to share more than just bed and fantasies before this mission is over. I just hope it doesn't leave us hating each other" she studied her friends body. "I'd miss you more than breathing. Now stay here. Your not a native remember?" Stepping forward she greeted the two, bowing deeply before falling to her knees.

Felina looked on with disgust, "A true warrior bows to no one" she muttered to herself as she felt sharp gravel trying to dig through her own feet. "I can't understand how she can do that, she's better than that." Leaning against the truck she waited for her partner to make things right. A fight wasn't something she was interested in. It would be weeks before her body adjusted to the thin air and cold. Between that and her exhaustion she wasn't a tenth as dangerous as she looked. She didn't want the mouse to bow, but she'd probably lose in a fight against the mechanic right now. Even with the symbiote controlling her she was just too exhausted to do more than move and make conversation. Eventually though she followed her partner in crime to a small building. It was warmer inside, and it had a bed she could sleep on.

Bright sunlight woke the catsect. Shocked she sat up in her bedding. "A full nights sleep and not a single dream" she gasped. Looking down at the lump between her breasts she touched it lightly, "Thank you" she whispered, not realizing it wasn't a gift the symbiote had given her but a necessity. Far away from the safety of their ship, her body beginning to collapse from protein withdraw and fatigue, the creature had realized it had no choice. Besides, there was always another night to rip open the woman’s mind, pouring in darkness no one deserved. Crawling out of bed Felina looked out the window. Hundreds of people were about, many with alien 'pets' of their own. She swallowed as she suddenly realized something. Every alien had a leash. A knock on the door caught her attention and when it opened Kiko entered. Looking up into her friends eyes the mouse sighed. "You've seen" she said.

"Just give it to me" Felina said, "If I had known..."

"If I had known I'd have brought anyone but you" Kiko finished as she handed over the collar and leash. "That Panda Navigator would have been perfect, a quarter of the aliens here are panda or panda-like and it wouldn't be that difficult to have broken her by now." She caught the catsects startled look. "I do that" Kiko admitted sheepishly. "It is a natural talent I have, like throwing knives. I'd probably be tempted to work on you too" She giggled. "My rabbit was easy, she was already in love with me. That makes it much simpler. You would take effort, but Felina. Even with that thing you carry your no stronger than I am, and I can be broken." A grey cloud seemed to cover the mouses face a moment. “I wonder what I did wrong. Why does she hate me so much now? She even stopped answering my messages a few months ago.”

"So you’re a natural born slave trainer" Felina grunted as she clipped the too-tight collar around her neck, handing the lease to her friend. Kiko’s introspection she ignored, she hadn’t the social skills to help anyway.

"Dom" the mouse corrected. "I'm not quite that comfortable with the idea of slavery. I also cook a mean double death chocolate cake when I want too."

"I noticed how you felt about slaves" Felina admitted. "You wanted that chipmunk awful bad didn't you." Kiko nodded, embarrassed to admit it. "Well if a chipmunk can learn to love this, I can learn to survive for a few days. Just don't make me want to wear it forever, it'd be embarrassing. Tell you what, I know where she is. When we get back I’ll buy her for you. I’ve more than enough and her new owner owes me heavily."

"If you take it off in public, they'll kill you" Kiko warned, leaving the rest of her companions speech unanswered. She looked down at her feet. "You can stay in here, you wouldn't have to wear it. I could bring you your meals."

"And miss High Society." Felina asked in mock shock. "I wouldn't dream of it. Besides why take away your chance to teach this old lady a few new tricks." Returning to her normal voice she put a hand on the mouses shoulder. "Actually, I think I'm getting excited by it. We better go now or your gonna be busy for a while. But if you get me to liking this, I'm gonna haf-ta eat you little mouse."

"Promises" her diminutive companion laughed before she led her huge 'pet' through the door and into the public eye. "Just behave please, and if I tug on the leash drop to your knees. No questions. Just do it. Stand up at two." She stopped at the door, digging a strange copper colored disc from her belt-purse. "I applied for us to try the Gate" she warned Felina as she turned the latch, opening the door. "We were accepted. It seem's no ones applied in a generation. They almost cried when I applied." She replaced the token in her purse. "It seems there is something here, but I still don't think it's anything like what the Captain's hoping for. From what I've been told no one who's returned survived intact. You don't have to go you know. It's probably a one-way trip."

"Probably a lot of mumbo-jumbo" Felina replied. "I've never really been into this Religious thing, certainly nothing like you. It's all just a hoax, a con to keep the lower classes in line you know."

Kiko stopped, looking up into Felina's face, her own face a mask of shock. "If you don't believe in a God or Goddess." she asked. "But... but...."

Felina gently shut the mouse mouth with one hand. "Darling mousie, not everyone's been fooled by those con-men. One day you'll wake up and laugh at them like I do."

Shaking her head Kiko turned back towards a huge building. "I never suspected" she whispered. A shudder went down her frame as she dealt with the sudden enlightenment. She'd never met anyone before who had no belief of any kind... That her first such meeting would already be a lover-friend was a massive shock.

"Where are we going anyway" Felina asked, momentarily bothered by the thick collar and the chain attached to it.

"The truck. You need food and we're only allowed what we can carry." She stopped, turning to study the catsects huge muscular frame. "Weapons are allowed. In fact anything we want to take since it's our lives we're risking."

"No" Felina growled. "I can't carry the truck. I may be strong but even I have limits."

Kiko sighed, acting disappointed. "And here I thought nothing was beyond you" she moaned theatrically. "If your that weak I guess I'll have to... whoops..."

Felina had lifted the tinymouse with one of her lower arms. "Maybe I ought to have fresh mouse for breakfast after all" Felina growled softly running her tongue across sharp teeth while she watched the smaller woman try to break free.

"Put me down you idiot" Kiko hissed. "This isn't allowed in public. Not here. You want to spend the last of your life as a farm animal pulling a plow? Your brain cut so you really are nothing more than an animal?" Her feet suddenly found purchase as Felina set her down. "Listen" the mouse continued, her voice still a harsh hiss. "Anything you do can get us both caught, including doing nothing." She paused, smoothing her dress. She glanced around, no one was in sight but several open windows could hold a hundred pairs of eyes. "Damn" she cursed, turning completely around as she tried to control herself. "Love, inside our quarters anything goes. ANYTHING. No one cares. Outside... Outside you've no more rights than that patch of weeds over there." She was pointing at an area between several buildings where a ragged plant blew in the wind. "The wrong mistake your dead. Nothing, and I mean nothing I say or do could stop that. Not only you, but the ship as soon as word can get to planetary defenses." She stopped talking, fighting to control her fear.

"What about you"' the catsect asked, her own voice subdued as she realized just how dangerous the situation really was. "What would happen to you."

Kiko closed her eyes, turning away. "I... I won't tell you lover. Let's just say it'd be better if I admitted to being an alien than accepting that." She tugged the leash, heading for the garage where their truck was now parked. "Come on, we have to be at the Gate in two hours."

Felina walked silently behind the tiny woman, her own thoughts rushing like a storm through her head. She did know aliens discovered trying to pass for natives were often killed in interesting, and always very slow ways. Executions were always imaginative, like slowly pouring liquid wax into very private places so you cooked from the inside out. "What have we gotten into" she asked as they reached the truck.

"All I will say is that if we get out of this alive, a certain rabbit is going to have a very... very interesting time" the mouse growled. "And you'll be helping me. Now get in the truck and stuff yourself. They supply most of the food we'll take when we go and it's 'Holy beans and rice' until we leave this place. Plus whatever little meat you can hide in our packs." She watched as Felina opened a container, reaching over to stroke the huge woman’s leg. "And I mean stuff yourself" she ordered as she climbed in beside her, selecting her own supplies. Felina began eating, knowing deep down she was already protein stressed, even this feast wouldn't catch her up to her bodies need. And it could be weeks before she saw 'real food' again. That was, if her body lasted that long. She opened a second container.

Two hours later they stood before an archway. Three aged figures faced them, their antlers no more than stubs now. In the background an exhausted man sat on the floor, panting heavily. One of the figures spoke, his voice high, reedy. "Hleeveah zGeeslin, if that is whom you truly are. You are accused of violating High Law." Felina's heart fluttered, so close, oh so very close.

"Hleevah zGeesIine be I" Kiko answered with a strong voice, belying her fear. "Know not I any zGesslin. High Law. Specify charge and witness."

The man smiled at her response. "My most delicate apology, misspoke your name I have." Holding up a paper he let the mouse read its content. The tiny, precise script was difficult for her, still she managed. Nodding, Kiko jerked hard on the catsects leash. Felina kneeled instantly, wondering what was going to happen next. "Complaint truth is" the mouse admitted, her voice subdued. "Punishment now."

"Upon return, should you return. Publicly branded you will be" the man informed her. "Forbidden the temples and cast out the cities for six cycles. Never again star travel will you do."

Felina bit her lower lip, keeping silent. She felt more than heard the mouses shock. What had they done to elect such punishment she wondered, and how would they get out of it. A second tug on her leash cued her to stand. Minutes later the three escorted her into a huge chamber. Felina studied the place as they walked. 'You could fly a fighter around in here' she thought. Hollow empty echoes spoke the size, and emptiness. They walked twenty minutes before coming to a huge pair of bronze doors.

"Beyond, your destiny'' the Priest guide announced. Pulling an ornate key from under his robes he unlocked the great bronze doors. Two other figures quickly pulled on massing rings, swinging the doors open slowly. "Food, water waits you." Suddenly he reached out, laying a hand on Kiko's shoulder. "Think daughter, need not go." He glanced at her companions huge bulk. "Seen have I how she acts. Stay. Take punishment. Grow old in peace with your wifeling toy." He stopped talking, staring into the hallway beyond. A soft white glow shone from beyond the door. "Madness. Madness all go there. Take what have. Think."

"Word have I given" Kiko replied gently, "Thanks mine, and hers for offer." She took the mans hand, kissing the open palm. "For iron branding be ready when return" she continued. "Cycles six we return, see you I will again." Releasing the priests hand she tugged Felina's leash, causing her to kneel. Reaching over she unlocked the thick leather collar as the catsect kneeled. "Collar off" she said. "Live, die, madness. We do now and forever as equals."

It took but an instant for Felina to remove the collar, dropping it in her carry bag. 'Never know when you might need something' she told herself. With a angry glance at the priest she stood and followed her friend through the doorway. Behind them the massive door slowly swung shut. A heavy click told both they were locked in. "Welp" Felina said, "Lets see this thing. I'll bet you..." she giggled, certain of herself. "I'll bet you I try your suggestion in the Inn if it's not a fake."

"And what do I have to do if it is?" the mouse asked, struggling under her own load.

"I'll think of something" Felina giggled, "Something... just as fun."

Kiko looked up, blinking in the dry air. "With your limited imagination... Fine, your on."

Laughing, Felina followed her friend down the passageway. 

Chapter Eleven

A First Test

Turning a sudden corner both stopped as though they had struck a wall. Felina in surprise, Kiko in shock. "Will that be now, or do I hold it until later" the mouse asked. Her voice was such a soft whisper even the catsects sensitive ears almost missed it "It can't be" she continued, seeming oblivious to her friends presence. Stepping forward she opened her pack, withdrawing a blade Felina had never seen before to kneel inches from the strange field. "Merithel your daughter..." then fell into a language the catsect hadn't heard before.

Stepping around the oblivious mouse Felina examined what they had found. Vaguely oval, glowing with a soft ivory colored light the shape hung in midair. As she approached it Felina could feel a slight static charge. Although several meters in diameter it seemed to have no thickness. As she stood at one edge she tried, without success to discern any. It was either there... or not there. She swallowed, backing away. "Its a con.. its gotta be a con" she whispered to herself. "Please let it be a con..." She shook herself, turning her back on the strange, somehow frightening thing she examined their prison. Only a few meters larger than the Gate it was built of thick granite blocks even the catsect had to admit she couldn't move. Next to the hallway was a pile of food, jugs of water and a half un-rolled scroll.

Languages usually came easy to Felina, part of her genetic construct had been the ability to pick up strange languages quickly. A months study had made her more proficient than Kiko in the local written word though her friend was unaware of that fact. It was the verbal tongue she had missed studying, not expecting to need it. Using the fields light she began to read while her partner continued her strange prayer.

"Hleevah zGeesIine" she read, "You are the first to ask the Gate in over twenty turns. For this we thank you. Be it known to you that our race faces a dangerous future, for the Most Holy stone that has for two millennium protected and provided power to our planet is failing. Our ancient most holy writings tell of other stones beyond the gate. We therefore charge you to find one of these stones, return it to our world and forever remain silent of this.

To this end you must use your pet in whatever manner needed to survive and complete your task. Should your pet be lost we shall replace her with any twenty females of your choice from any temple on the planet, no matter what their linage, age or rank. If she not be lost, you will still choose any ten.

                                                                 signed by my hand and seal

                                                                              Vegal, Grand Priest'

Felina shivered, not for the first time she was happy Kiko wasn't one of this planets race. Still something about that hovering light had deeply shocked the mouse. Something about it was very familiar to her. She just hoped her friend... her lover wouldn't decide a single catsect was worth less than what she found on the other side. Rolling the scroll up, she shoved it into an already filled pocket. Grabbing both packs and the extra water jug she turned to the still praying mouse. "It's time to go" she called gently.

Kiko shivered, seeming to pull herself from somewhere far far away. Absently she returned her blade to its hiding place. "Felina" she almost whispered. "Would you really be lonely living on an asteroid with me. For the rest of our lives."

Staggering slightly under her overburden Felina walked to the gate, dropping the last bag next to her partner. "What are you talking about" she asked. "There's nothing here you can't talk about, nothing I can't know about."

Kiko lifted her hand, laying it gently on the castsects thinly covered mound. "Oh my dear sweet friend" she answered, gently exploring what was to her an eye level part of Felina's body. "ln order for you to understand I have to break a vow that will cost me my life, and the life of my daughter. Should any, any of my race ever hear." She looked up, bending her head far back to meet the catsects eyes. "What part of you I touch now is what we see now. From one of these Gates my race sprang. From Merithel herself we were born. In all our teachings nothing was ever mentioned about another birth home... And nothing I've learned here indicates that they understand what this truly is." She dropped her hand, reached out and took her pack from the catsect. "On the other side of this we will find my Goddess" she continued. "Everything I believe in has come down to this..." She shuddered. "Watch yourself my friend, while we are in the light give no true name if you value your soul. None have ever seen this and returned unchanged. From the moment we enter, until the instant we return we will be tested. Faith, body, soul, love.. and much. Much more." She looked hard at the lump on her friends chest. "All of us" she whispered again. "None will remain unaffected.” For a few seconds she remained silent, finally a gentle smile formed on her lips. “Do you know what the real problem with life is" she asked, taking one of Felina's paws into her own.

"Not enough of it?" Felina asked.

"No” Kiko answered as she stepped towards the light. "There's no background music to warn when danger is near, or truest love."

Images assaulted the two as they walked through a mist that was not a mist, yet was. For as thin as the gate had appeared they must have traveled half a kilometer so far, with no end in sight. Felina's enhanced senses often caught flickers of movement, strange colored glows that could only be eyes and what seemed to be sounds of children laughing. Once something brushed Felina's lower right arm, reflectively she flicked it away with the upper. There was a crackling noise, like cellophane being crushed slowly and the mouse sighed. "Can't I take you anywhere without getting into a brawl" she asked. "Ignore them. As long as you don't give them a name or they don't know our true names they can't harm us."

"How do you know so carg much about this" the catsect growled. "Your as calm as the eye of a hurricane. At least I know now what you mean now when you say 'May you see the light.' I wouldn't wish this on anyone I even barely liked."

"A good analogy, the hurricane" Kiko answered quietly. "Remember it for later while I have my breakdown. After we get back." She stopped suddenly, closing her eyes. "I'm a blade bearer. I've studied this for more than half my life." Opening her eyes again Kiko looked up into her huge friends face, "And... as a blade bearer Merithel entered me for an instant. Or an lifetime. This place is like a foggy half remembered dream. I just... know. We're there" she finished. Pulling her strange doubled blade she raised it above her. "Draw your sword little one, for it wakes the Guardian."

Felina quickly drew Kiko's gift from its scabbard. "What Guardian?" she asked as their blades met with a soft ring of crystal against metal. She hadn’t yet noticed Kiko’s strange words, or having been referred to as ‘little one.’

Kiko shivered in anticipation, or fear. "There is one who has always been, who will always be. It serves the Gods whomever they may be. Neither it, he or she.... The Guardian looks within us. If we are not true our names are called out. Those things we passed through will come and will rip our bodies apart in seconds, our souls will take several eons longer to die."

"So that's what happened to the others" Felina whispered. "How do we know if we meet this Guardian's minimum requirements?"

Kiko looked up at her friend, reaching out with her free paw to slide it within one of Felina's massive paws. "I don't know. but I can't think of anyone I'd rather face this with than you. Not even my daughter" Felina felt the Imp-things withdraw as .. something... else... approached. Talk was over, it was time to meet whatever was coming.

"Who comes from the darkworlds to ask entry" a dust dry voice asked.

"A daughter of Merithel and her shieldmate" Kiko answered, her voice strong and confident even though Felina could feel the mouses paw clinch within her own. Something passed over, around then through the two. Something that Felina felt touch her non-existent soul.

"You are not from that darkworld yet you have used their door. An interesting puzzle." Felina felt a something touch her heart, felt the symbiote rise in anger, then collapse like a snuffed candle. "Know daughters you trod the death strewn path. Pass. Daughter and Shieldmate. Pass to the truth and be welcome."

Kiko tugged Felina's hand. "Come on, this is it" she urged. An opening appeared before them and there were ruins visible beyond. With a rush the two left the white madness behind, stepping out onto a cracked stone patio. "No" Kiko moaned as she spun around. "It can't be."

Chapter Twelve

A Second Test...or is it Third?

Looking around her all Felina could see were statues and shattered stone columns. A wide ring of them surrounded the two. Some destroyed, some hardly worn. Nothing else was visible to them, for they had come out upon a cloud wreathed mountaintop. Try as she might the catsect could see no evidence of any God or Goddess. Kiko though was kneeling where she had entered, tears falling from her face like raindrops. 'Con artists' Felina thought. 'They don't care who they hurt or how badly.' Walking away from her shattered friend, instinctively knowing the mouse would have to deal with this herself the catsect began studying the row of statues. It was long cold late when Kiko finally broke from her shock. Darkness surrounded them, broken only by the soft white glow from each undamaged statue. "How... How long" she asked, knowing without looking her that friend was still with her.

Felina looked up from the high-tech pile of junk surrounding her. "Maybe nine, ten hours" she answered. "We've been in this cloud bank since arriving, it's clearing up now though." She pointed off to her right, in the far distance a brilliant glow was visible through the breaking clouds. "I get the feeling that's where we need to be" she commented emotionlessly. "There's nothing here but statues, columns and rubble." She held up something, studying it as Kiko rubbed her eyes clear of her tears. "Nothing that uses an energy cell survived being activated so I'm not quite certain." There was a clatter as she tossed a half melted pair of binoculars away. "Interesting place, something here just loves energy cells."

"Thank you for letting me work my own path through this" Kiko sighed gently, reaching over absently to pick up the binoculars. "Cell meltdown. Something caused the energy cell to release it's full charge in one short sudden stream." She dropped the useless mass. "That means over half our gear is useless."

“At least it’s the heavy half" Felina admitted. "I really could have used those pulse guns though. So I take it we are back to basics then."

"Basics..." the mouse whispered, her mind seemingly centuries away. "Basics might keep us alive until the gate opens again..." A shudder ran down the her tiny frame, almost threatening to shatter her bones. She blinked, looking around. "Or might not. Where the Gods have warred can mortals survive?" she asked.

"I don't understand you" Felina replied. "What Gods and what war. No war ruined those statues, no war shattered these columns." One hand slapped against a broken bit of ornate column. "This is age, age and weather alone. No fire, no sword, no blaster or bomb. Just water, wind and time." Reaching out she handed the scroll she’d found earlier to her companion.

Kiko read silently, finally dropping the useless document to the stones before her. She spoke every so softly as she stood. "I never could have suspected but I should have. The signs were all there. I just didn't see them until it was too late." Walking away from the sitting catsect she made her own examination of the ring of statues as her friend watched. Finally she stopped at one, reaching out to place her hand against the figures bare chest. "This is my home Felina" she explained. "If we wait long enough perhaps this gate will open and we can go to my home. No more war, no more running from every ship we see, no more lost future. We can live in peace. I can see my daughter again."

Standing Felina joined her friend. "No more ship. No more friends. No more lovers." She stopped, looking down at the gentle face below her. "No more honor."

Kiko closed her eyes. "That means no going home" she whispered. Looking out past the statue she searched the fog. "I could leave the ship and crew.... I might even be able to leave you my friend. Maybe. But I could never leave my honor."

"Not even to save your soul?" her companion asked. "Not even then?"

"It is what I am, what I will be." The mouse smiled. "I don't mean body or job Felina, I mean... what is after.." She sighed again. "Had I met you first, really known you it might have been different. But I've already given my soul, I've already made the long peace. For us it's too late in this life. Only Merthrial can release me from that bond even though Dia has thrown it aside." She lowered her head, staring at the world carved in the statues base. "Home. So close and so far away." Lifting her head she looked up into her friends eyes. "In the morning we'll continue our search. This fog should have lifted completely by then. I need to tell you this too. Since the night I arranged that lander I haven’t been able to contact the ship. I have a feeling in my hearts that something terrible happened, yet no idea as to what that could be."

"Passion can take care of herself” Felina answered. “We may be an odd crew, but we’re a good one. So are you really going to let them brand you? When we get back I mean. Seems an awful lot to accept when we could just run and have a stealth fighter pick us up later." There was no answer, stepping to one side she saw the mouses eyes were already closed, her lips moving softly. Shaking her head over her companions seemingly useless action she turned back to their remaining gear. In minutes she had her blankets out, for a warrior stone was as comfortable as the softest bed and more desired considering their situation. After covering Kiko with one blanket she wandered off, searching for a place less windswept to sleep. The mouse might like this nights chill wind but the catsect preferred a much warmer, more humid climate. Finally she found her place, absently kicking aside shattered stones, broken bits of once beautiful statues. Spreading her blanket she laid down, staring up at this worlds strange sky. Above her instead of stars were what appeared to be planets. As she studied each one, some the blue-white of life, others red and more than a handful or two the black of death one seemed to keep drifting into her vision. She fell asleep watching that black world.

Her dreams that night were strange. Unsettling yes, but more a replay of the days events. Images of the imps kept coming forward, turning slowly as if being studied. Some were less agreeable than others. A last image slammed through Felina's battered psych, forcing her awake. She sat up, eyes wide, sweat pouring down her body. Taking deeps gulps of the icy mountain air she steadied her nerve. Slowly focusing her sight she found Kiko sitting across from her, watching.

"Not as bad as they normally are" the mouse commented. Pointing one of her throwing knives at the catsects chest she just stared.

Felina looked down, noticing a strange dull glow emanated from her. "You can see it" she stated, more than asked.

"Dimmer now that your awake" Kiko answered. "How long are you going to let that parasite eat away at your soul" she asked. Seeing Felina's shocked look a grim smile bloomed on the mouses face. "I'm safe from it for now. You can't get back without me and no civilization can exist in this universe." She handed over two of her odd blades. "Keep these, I have a feeling you'll need them."

"What do you mean, this universe" the catsect asked, accepting Kiko's newest gift. Fear had gathered about her heart for her friend seemed to know more about the symbiote than anyone other than herself, and those few who had placed it on her. Many who had guessed a great deal less had died slowly in her hands, why hadn't it ordered her to crush the tiny mouse. Could it be that she was right?

Pointing upwards the fragile little woman just blinked. "Fog lifted completely a few hours ago Felina and I don't know anyplace where the sky looks like that."

Looking up the catsect saw again those worlds drifting above. They crossed the night sky only to turn, retracing their course, twisting about each other in an unending dance. Studying the worlds again she pointed, finally recognizing one. "That's the world we came from" she gasped.

"My world is a little below it" Kiko replied. "The small one, dark red on one side, pale clouds over a tan landscape on the other."

Felina searched. She'd seen pictures of Kiko's home. Millin had a book of worlds and had proudly shown her his, his partner's and the mouses. Finally she spotted the one she remembered. "Why the red" she asked.

"That's the Great Burn" Kiko explained. "I think red means you can live there, but you really wouldn't want too. And the black Death. Nothing survives."

"Do you think all those worlds were alive once" Felina asked, rolling on her back to more comfortable study the strange sky.

"If I put a hundred or more worlds in my sky I wouldn't bother with dead ones" Kiko answered, standing slowly in the cold pre-morning air. "Sunrise in less than an hour, lets get ready... And Felina..."

"Yes?"

"I'll let them brand me. If I don't you won't get out of that place alive." She walked over to the stones edge, pointing across to a glow in the darkness. "You were right. When I awoke somehow I know we have to go there before we can leave. I don't know why, but we have to... At least I do."

"Your awful free with truths you would have died to protect aboard ship" Felina commented as she rolled to her knees, watching her companion start sorting through the remaining supplies. "Why the change."

Hefting her backpack Kiko turned her back on Felina, looking out over the false-dawn lit landscape. "This is... This is where my race came from Felina" she answered. "Where all the original races came from my love. This is where our Gods and Goddess's live." She waved a free paw towards the rows of statues, "And it seems those of over a hundred other races. Just your being here gives you the right to know anything you want, and we do have a mission. You need every fragment of information I can give you." She stopped as the valley below slowly came into focus. "Oh merg, I can't" she cried, letting the bag fall.

"What's wrong" Felina asked as she stood, looking into the valley. She studied the landscape below them carefully. "It's only a jungle, maybe some swamp. Two, maybe three days to cross. Piece of cake." Something suddenly hit her. "Your from the mountains...."

"And I've breathed vacuum... More than once" Kiko added.

"You won't be able to breath down there, not breath and walk through that mess. Not with that kind of lung scarring."

"No. I'll have to do it. It's a test... Every breath from the moment we entered the Gate is a test, every thought, every dream.... If I fall you must continue on. You can pick me up on the way back. One of us has to make it."

"Silly mouse. I'll carry you through. With most of the weight gone it'll be a lark."

"Sure" Kiko laughed, running a hand along Felina's smooth muscular thigh. "You just want something juicy close by to nibble on when you get hungry."

"l told you I can't live on beans and rice" Felina giggled. "How about breakfast first?"

"Right, good idea" Kiko agreed. "Should have thought of that myself. Relax, it'll take me a about half an hour. And Felina?" she called, holding up a small metal can. "There’s very little meat left. This is the last."

"I know. I'm still wasted from no meat, what I've eaten didn't help much. How long to cross the swamp?"

Kiko looked down at the mist shrouded valley over a half below them. "Like you said. Three, maybe four days. How long before your in real trouble?"

"It completely depends on how much reserves I have to call upon. A week at best, no less than three days at worst" the catsect admitted. "Can we get there by then?"

Kiko shook her head. "No" she admitted. "A day down, another day up... But that still leaves the trip back."

Felina sighed in exasperation, turning back to her bedding. "We'll build that bridge when we reach the chasm" she decided, leaning down to pick up her bedding. Something caught her eye as she prepared her bedroll. Turning her head a bit she studied a broken bit of stone arm. Something about the paw... She reached down, picking up the stone. It was... She snorted, it looked almost like her paw but smaller. More delicate. Looking at the statue she'd slept beside her hearts raced, missing two arms the statue still had four. Broken bits of stone indicated at least two tails and as her eyes traveled up the torso to the statues worn face she whimpered. "Me, it's me" she gasped softly. Turning back to the ground she hunted through windswept earth, stone fragments and dust scattered until she found the second arm. Carefully holding both arms in position she almost cried. It was her. Softer, thinner and taller. Two extra arms yes. Yet the basic shape was unmistakable.

"You found your roots, didn't you" Kiko’s small voice asked from beside her.

"It can't be. I was created by the Pyuian Guild" Felina argued. "Its got to be nothing more than a coincidence."

Kiko silently reached up to caress Felina's muscle hard stomach. "My dearest agnostic lover, your basic stock had to come from somewhere right? Even the Pyuian Guild can't yet create a viable complete DNA sequence from nothing."

Felina kneeled down, brushing dust and dirt from the twin hemisphere map in the statues base. Studying the image for some time she finally looked up, searching the skies above them. "That one" Felina told her companion, pointing with one of the stone arms.

"Your right" Kiko agreed. "But its dead. You really may be the last of your race then.

Felina carefully laid the two arms down. "No babies then for fat old Felina" she laughed sadly. "I'd make a horrible mother anyway." She jerked in surprise when the mouses small paw laid upon her symbiotes small lump.

"A very bad mother" she agreed. "As long as this Queel Spawned filth is attached to you."

Slowly, gently Felina pulled her friends paw away. "Be careful. It's made me kill many times before when I did not want too. It will so again."

Kiko nodded in agreement, walking back to her small fire. "Breakfast is ready" she told Felina. "And the day that damned forever queelspawn wants you to kill me..." She turned, facing the towering woman only a few meters away. "That day I'll show you the true power of my blade. I may die, but I'll take it with me. You’ll be free forever. That will be my final gift to you. I promise. Now lets eat."

Chapter Thirteen

The Swamp

Almost an hour later the two women had finished cleaning their campsite. As Kiko started down the path Felina had located she could hear the woman humming behind her. It was a good hundred meters later that the name of the tune suddenly popped up in her head. Spinning around she glared at her friend. "I am not a cow!" she yelled at the grinning catsect.

Felina just smiled. "l was beginning to think you never watched tri-vee" she laughed.

It took until just after mid-day to work their way down to the swamps edge. The closer they came to their goal the worse their path became until near the end Felina was reduced to hacking a way through close knit vines. "What a terrible first use for my new blade" she complained as she cut through the last vine. Stepping through she found herself on an algae covered mud flat, her feet sinking to her ankles as she waited for her companions arrival. Kiko was having it rougher than the larger catsect. Between the heat, humidity and caustic vine sap she was a mess. Dropping to her knees she heaved in great gulps of the relatively cooler air there. Her face was dark and heavy sweat soaked her clothing. Felina noted all this, along with her lack of complaint. "Don't kill yourself before we finish this" she warned her friend.

"Why" Kiko panted, laboring for each breath. "You want that pleasure all to yourself?"

"Sure, I've got this great recipe for slow roasted mouse. Should I use a campfire and spit, or just toss you into one of the ships ovens."

"Whatever you want" the mouse panted, "Doesn't matter to me what you do with my body after I'm gone." She pushed aside a clump of bamboo-like plant. "Actually, I'd be honored if you had my body for dinner. Then I'd always be a part of you." She gasped suddenly, dropping down to a sitting position, letting her pack slide off her back into the muck. "I hate swamps" she managed before she fell back against a sorry excuse for a tree, her chest heaving as she fought for air. Felina reached down, lifting her companions pack from the mud and slipping it over her own shoulder. Then she dropped into a squatting position to rest herself. "I can manage" Kiko complained.

"No you can't" argued Felina. "I should have taken this from you hours ago. You won't do me any good dead love. I can't possibly find my way back through that mist without you."

Kiko nodded her acceptance wearily. "Fine, you be a pack mule. Maybe I ought to lead you with that leash you so carefully saved."

Felina looked at the mouse, her breathing was easier now that she had rested, but that thin wheeze as she exhaled told volumes. "If you weren't half dead maybe I'd let you" she agreed gently. They sat there for over an hour, the mouse slowly regaining lost strength while the larger catsect studied what lay before them.

"Four days not three" Kiko suddenly announced. "See that pinnacle of rock?" she asked, lifting an exhausted arm to point towards the mist at a barely visible grey shadow. "It's halfway in, after that we're on our way out." She coughed again, spitting up a colorless lump of mucus. "Lungs are getting clogged" she explained calmly. "It'll clear up as soon as we get some altitude and I cool off."

"Swamps are bad enough" Felina agreed. "And this mist just makes it worse. It keeps hiding that landmark. We'll end up walking in circles until we drop."

Kiko looked up, studying the mass of mud and vegetation ahead of them. She was quiet for several minutes before she finally spoke. "Current's left to right, watch the leads. There are different colors of mud and slime, even in the quietest areas you can see the flow in this stuff. Keep the narrow end on your left and you'll have a compass."

Felina studied the mud for a while, finally understanding what her companion meant. "I never noticed" she finally admitted. "Where did you ever learn that little trick?"

The mouseling looked up, trying but failing to grin. "Ask Millin sometime. We 'landed' in one once. Like I said, I hate swamps. Felina. Your going to have to cut these horns off me. They keep catching on stuff. On your back I’ll as likely break my neck before you notice I’m caught, or rip half my skull off.”

“After all you went through to get them, you want me to cut them off. I see your point, I just with we didn’t have too. I’m starting to like them on you.”

“You just like them for handholds” the mouse shot. “We do have a saw don’t we?”

Felina opened one side of her pack, setting things on her expansive lap as she hunted until she came up with a roll of rugged looking wire. “Survival saw” the catsect explained as she re-packed the other gear. “All right, lets rip that beautiful rack off the mouse.”

Sometime later Kiko sat holding her horns in each paw. “Ugly looking things” she decided, dropping them to the ground. “I feel a hundred pounds lighter without them.”

Reaching over Felina patted the short growths remaining from her companions head. “Guess I just call you stubby from now on.”

“That’s it, it’s the rings for you when we get back.” She stood slowly, looking around them carefully. Finally she limped silently back into the mass of vines. Felina waited, listening as the mouse worked. Eventually she returned, dragging a long length of dead vine with her. "Use this to check the mud for traps, quicksand, holes, whatever" she explained as Felina took the makeshift staff from her.

"Where will you be" the catsect asked, already knowing the answer.

"Riding those broad shoulders of yours my sweet willing love slave. I'll never make it through that stuff. Not by walking."

Felina simply held out a paw for her friend. Kiko placed one foot on the catsects right knee, took the offered paw and half jumped, half lifted herself onto Felina's backpack. Suddenly she twisted around, giving the surprised giantess a deep long kiss. "A promise for later" she whispered as she pulled herself back into position. Tapping Felina's head she laughed, "Forward Slave. For I've business with the Empress tonight and I mean to explore her secret lands extensively."

Felina abruptly laughed. "Just watch it little mouse, or this slave's gonna have you for lunch."

Kiko giggled, though thinly, squeezing Felina's neck tightly with her thighs. "Promises, always promises." Suddenly she coughed again, leaning against Felina's head for support with a long moan. "We better get going lover" she whispered. Her voice suddenly frightenly harsh and weak. "Doc warned me never to get into this kind of environment again. I really should have listened to her." Nodding gently Felina stepped forward, sinking to her knees into the slowly flowing muck. Her ill companion lay over her head like some strange hat, her breath whistling as she fought for each lung of thick hot air.

As the day passed Felina slogged slowly through muck, tangles of dead thorns and strange colored mists. Occasionally Kiko perked up enough to hold a conversation, then she would fall back into a fitful sleep. Felina could tell the mouse was worried. Upset at her own physical weakness she hated being a dead weight for the larger woman. Still there was nothing else to do but force her way through what was slowly becoming a thick, sludge-like mire. During the first long, surprisingly cold night she dragged the two of them up into a mass of dead vegetation, catching only a little sleep as the semi-buoyant mass shifted and twisted under her. Certainly she could have continued, her heat sensitive night vision would have let her do that. But she couldn't see fine details at night. Her 'compass' would be useless. Felina feared she'd end up in the morning back where she started, and time wasn't on their side. During the night she slept as best she could, half hearing strange slithering noises and odd chittering sounds her brain interpreted as masses of multi-legged insects. She ignored it all. Her body needed sleep so she slept.

When the sun came up it was to a ragged pair. During the night their clothing had dried so that every movement sent cascades of powdered muck showering through the thorns to make tiny pattering sounds as it struck the mire below. Kiko hadn't moved all night, still laying on her stomach where Felina had left her. Her breathing seemed easier, a soft whistle the only indication of her distress. A sharp acrid smell gave evidence she hadn't moved even when her bladder had demanded to be emptied. Felina carefully opened her pack, digging out several of the hated oat cakes and one of their two four liter bottles of water. After her breakfast she felt better, tho her stomach wasn't happy with the cakes. Moving gently she pealed off her own pants, dealing with her bodies natural functions as quietly as she could. Finished she dressed and repacked, stuffing her partners smaller pack into her own now that there was more room.

Holding the almost empty bottle she leaned over and shook Kiko, waking her. "Time to go lazy bones" she said gently. "Suns been up almost an hour. If we're going to make those rocks we better get going." Kiko groaned, barely waking. As her mouth opened Felina poured a capful of the warm water into her mouth. It dribbled out.

"Can't swallow" Kiko complained. "Sorry."

"Fine, we'll do it the hard way then" the catsect replied. Filling her own mouth with water she lifted the mouse, placing a hand behind her head. Locking her lips over Kiko half open mouth she released the water, feeling Kiko's body convulse as she was forced to swallow the life giving fluid. Felina repeated the action again, until Kiko suddenly put her hand up.

"No more" she gasped. "Your going to drown me."

Felina swallowed the last bit of water then laughed. "In the middle of a mud swamp, three meters off the ground and you drown in fresh water. Oh I'd love to explain that one to the Captain." Putting away the bottle she lifted her friend, helping her settle into place. "Hold tight now mistress, we're off."

Finally late the second day Felina dragged herself onto the rocks. For the first time in two days her feet stood on solid ground. Leaving Kiko and the packs she slowly climbed the spire, while every joint in her body felt like it was filled with ground glass. Gritting her teeth she ignored the pain, finally finding herself some ten meters above the mists. Ahead lay their destination, a rocky cliff with a narrow cut. She could see a waterfall near the cut, vanishing at least a dozen meters above the swamps mist. They had started with a fairly large supply of fresh water, but the catsects body had pumped gallons out as sweat during her battle with the swamp. Kiko, doing nothing more than sleeping, had refused all but the barest amount, leaving her share for her heavy boned, large muscled companion. Noting the path she wanted to take, the catsect carefully lowered herself to the ground. Now was no time to sprain an ankle or break a bone.

Kiko was awake when she returned and several things were scattered near her as she slowly dug through her pack. "So, now that I've done the worst of the work your finally going to wake up" Felina joked.

"Not hardly" the mouse replied weakly. Felina could tell from the mouses complexion, her red eyes and puffy lips that she too was in pain. Her breathing wasn't as labored as before but the mists weren't coming onto the rock. Kiko nodded, looking out at the pale multi-colored mists just a few meters away. "It's like there's some kind of barrier. As if you make it this far then you can rest." She pulled out a medical bottle, the catsect catching only a glimpse of the label as Kiko opened the bottle, carefully pouring out two small bright red pills. Resealing the bottle she gulped the pills, following them with a small capful of water.

"That stuff will kill you" Felina commented as she sat down, painfully pulling her mud caked boots off.

"Doesn't matter any more" the mouse admitted. "At least it kills the pain for a few hours. And I’ve three injectors in my pocket if I need them." She leaned back against a rock, pulling open her sweat soaked blouse and letting the sun beat down on fur matted flesh. Tiny glints of light reminded the catsect of Kiko's own preferred ornamentation, bringing back memories of gentler times. She pulled her thoughts away, turning instead to studying the strange lifeforms smashed into her boots. Small fang marks were visible here and there, remembering those vague pressures she shuddered. Another two days of slogging through that muck, and if she ever fell....

"Might as well tell you now as later" the mouseling said as she suddenly broke the long silence. "Doc's given me a year, eighteen months if I stayed aboard ship under her care." She looked over to her friend, laying one hand on her own bare chest just below her breasts. "That last exposure to vacuum did the trick. I've barely enough lungs left to keep me alive, and the scarring is spreading. This time next year, maybe a little longer, my lungs will be too scarred to keep me alive."

"Why didn't you tell anyone" Felina asked, worry heavy in her voice. "Here you are, in the worst possible conditions... You knew better."

Kiko smiled weakly. "What would you have done? Stayed away from my bed for fear of killing me? And Dia, we both know she'd have abandoned her career just to spend the time with me. At least once she would have. I couldn't do that to either of you, much less see the end of Millin's lovely pranks. No, if I have to go I want to go doing something. Not lying in sickbay, tubes in all the places better used for more fun things. Friends standing around depressed. No we'll get this done. Then you go back to the ship. I... I'll be staying on the planet."

"If that's what you really want" Felina sighed, surrendering to the knowledge that nothing she could say or do would change her friends mind. "I'm certainly not going to force you to do something you don't want to do." She sat her boots aside to dry, laying the thick, damp, mud caked socks beside them. Pealing off her shirt then unbuckling her pants, she struggled out of them, beginning to repeat the partial cleaning process on them as well.

"Nice view" Kiko whispered, a touch of her normal humor in her voice. "Want help looking for buggies?" She slowly crawled over, laying one hand on the catsects bare stomach. "Come to think of it, you were the best choice for this trip after all. But was it really a necessary one?"

Felina dropped her still damp trousers beside her. Kiko's touch was hot, dry. Frightenly hot. She laid one hand on the mouses forehead, dragging her against her with her lower limbs. "You've got a fever, I'll get you some water."

"No" the mouse refused, "I already checked the water supply. If I drink any more there won't be enough to keep you going. If you can't keep going we're both dead."

"If you don't drink more liquids your kidneys are going to shut down, and that'll be just as bad. Let me see if we have any soup left." Felina dug in both packs for almost half and hour before finally admitting defeat. "Dehydrated, all our careful plans. We brought light weight stuff. If we'd only left that useless equipment behind..." She pulled herself into a sitting position, cuddling the tiny mouse like a baby.

"Who'd have thought it would be a swamp? the mouse replied softly, her fevered brow buried against one of Felina's now bare breasts. "You can't think of everything, neither can I...."

Felina felt Kiko's body relax as the mouse fell asleep on her. "No, I can't" she admitted to the sleeping woman. "But I won't let you die because I made a stupid choice." She gently lifted her sleeping friend up, settling the mouses head between her own massive breasts, using her own body to drain some of the deadly heat from the tiny body lying against her. Wrapping all four arms around her once playful lover she laid her own head back, tying to relax. 'A little sleep, then I make a finish of this muck' she promised herself. As she rested she could feel the joints in her body complain, a muscle spasm appearing now and then. Too long without fresh meat or supplements and she'd overtax her body. Two days and a night in the swamp had eaten her reserves, and tho her stomach growled the thought of an oat cake made her physically ill. "We're both in trouble little one" she whispered to a sleeping ear, "And I'm fresh out of ideas." Felina relaxed as best as she could, feeling her friends fever ravaged body against her own. Like a hot coal against her flesh the mouse lay motionless. Born and bred to be a killing machine Felina had never felt as helpless as she did now. And.... Helpless, she watched as the sun dropped below mountains they'd just come from, sleep softly found her a few minutes later.

Felina awoke to the mouse thrashing against her body. Waking almost instantly she tightened her grip, surprised at the sudden show of strength. "What in the world?" she gasped, at first thinking it was a fever dream. Sitting up she forced the struggling, still sound asleep woman away from her. A tug at her chest as their bodies separated told her the story and she growled deeply in anger. Somehow during the night Kiko had been invaded by the symbiote, now the thrice cursed thing was ripping at her lovers mind just as it did her own. Rolling over she held the mouse down with three of her four arms. She couldn't force her lover awake without causing instant, and very painful injury. All she could do was carefully hold her until the woman broke her dream. When she finally did the mouse lay motionless, breathing shallowly. Fever exhaustion Felina realized. Between her illness and the symbiote Kiko had fallen almost into a coma. It could be hours or days before she woke. Carefully wrapping the small body in their only clean blanket she stood. Once standing she started walking around the small island. She needed to think, never before had the cursed creature affected anyone else, why now?

 "Because the mouse is a danger to it" a deep male voice answered her thoughts. Felina spun, staring out at the mist. Standing just inside the mist was a dark clad figure, muted colors blending into the dim light, making detail difficult even to her special senses.

"Get out of my mind" she growled, feeling her body prepare for battle as she tried to determine what she was facing. "Who are you and what do you want?"

The figure laughed, a deep, somehow shivering sound. "Why, I am a God" it answered. "Which one is unimportant to you, seeing as you don't believe in us. What I want is the mouse’s hearts. Give me those, I'll see you transported safely to the shore you so desire to reach."

"Rot in Hell" Felina cursed, turning away to continue her trek along the shore.

"My dear Felina" the figure laughed, keeping pace with her. "Where do you think you are?"

She stopped, shocked. "Your telling me this is Hell?" she asked with a laugh. "I've lived in places worse than this."

"Perhaps you have. Yet your mouse can't. This is her Hell. Your's waits far along the path, rest assured, your icy grey stone hell awaits. Give me her hearts, it's a small matter. We both know she will never live to reach the far shore. Your eternal plaything has seen to that."

"What do you mean" she asked, worry now creeping into her voice.

"Why warrior. That mouse is the only true force of good to ever completely, and freely enter your life. She's changing you, turning you from the path that was intended for you and it can't fight her openly. If it did they would both die, and you would be free. The true gift of light is freedom. So it forced her to use her deep reserves. Forced her to waste her energy fighting dream demons. Of course I'd have done it myself but this place is bound against my power. A useful toy, I may free you from it in reward. If you give me her hearts."

Felina decided to play along, to see just what this... this thing really wanted. "So. I toss her out into the muck and you fly me across your dark domain to safety. Why?"

"Oh, you can have her body" the being answered. "After all you need meat don't you? You've eaten her kind before, those weaker, unable to defend themselves. If not their bodies, then their hearts, their love... Their futures. One more or less won't change what awaits you at the end of your long life. Wither you do or don't believe it is all the same. Why do I want her? She and her kind are my natural enemy. When I eat her hearts, and I will with or without your aid, I will have her power. Her soul. I will be that much more powerful. The Light that much weaker. But what does it matter to you? We don't exist." It laughed again, sending a shiver down the catsects spines. "No, we don't exist, do we?"

"Let me get this straight" she replied. "You want me to rip the still beating hearts from a woman I love, toss them into the mud for you to eat, and then eat her still warm body? Your sick."

"I am many things dear sweet Felina, who has served me so long and so well. Of course, your quite correct. I will even make it a step better for your suddenly cultured tastes." Warm light suddenly illuminated the area, but not the figure so close by. Felina turned and gasped. A fire burned brightly on the shore, but what caught her attention wasn't the fire, it was what stood around it. Two tall metal poles, a V at the top of each with a long, bent rod laying across. A cooking spit.

"I thought your power couldn't reach here" she whispered.

"You are quite wrong little killer. I can't affect anyone, nor may I endanger or cause harm to them by direct or indirect action, such as weakening the spires rock so a climber falls. Still I may convince someone there to do it for me. Think of it Felina, fresh cooked mouse-meat." A scent drifted to Felina nostrils causing her blood to race, sweet, delightful, somehow causing her hunger to magnify. The being continued, its voice becoming darker, more forceful. A sense of urgency at the edges. "Your race was born, raised eating the meat of rodents. Why do you think you find her taste so sweet? Because she's clean? Because for you she will do anything? No cat. It is because her race was born to be food for you. Rip her hearts out and cook her body over my gift. Save your own life. If you don't have meat it is only a matter of days before that powerful body is so racked with pain even your will won't be able to force it to move. You'll die, just like the mouse. Alone, sick, in pain you've never felt before. And you'll be mine then. Oh Felina, the torments I have planned for you are nothing compared to what I will do to you if you fail me."

"NO!" she screamed, turning to throw one of the knives Kiko had given her. The blade flew straight and true, striking the being dead center. With a brilliant flash of fire it's form was illuminated for an instant.

"YOU DARE!" it screamed, twisting in its own pain. "YOU DARE!" Slowly the light faltered, flickered and was gone. "When you come to me woman, I will make your worst nightmare seem a gentle dream. You DARE harm me. Your Master! Your mouse will not live to see the end of this journey, this I promise you. I will take her dead body and do things you could never imagine, then send her back to you. When the sun rises, let her look long upon it. She will never see it rise again."

And it was gone, as if it had never been. Felina felt her knees fold, felt the sand strike her as she sat, shivering in the greying light. She still didn't believe in Gods, but whatever she'd just met was something she didn't ever want to meet again. It took almost an hour before she felt well enough to stand. Her joints screamed in pain, fire washed along nerve endings to coalesce in her head. "Damn" she gasped to no one. "Whatever it was, it was right about one thing. If I don't get meat, or at least blood soon...." She pushed the thought aside, hurrying back to the sleeping form of her friend.

Kiko awoke to the morning suns warmth and the sound of her friends approach. "Been for a walk" she asked drowsily.

"I needed to clear my head" Felina answered. "Breakfast, then we're off."

Blinking Kiko pushed the blanket off herself, noting it was soaked with sweat. From the scent it was her's. "I had such terrible dreams last night" she told Felina as the catsect settled down beside her. "You were tearing me apart, slowly, and making me watch while you ate each bit. First a hand, then a foot... I couldn't wake up. It was like someone else was controlling me." She shivered. "Goddess I'm thirsty, I hope it's not too far to water."

"Two days" Felina told her, "Can you last that long?"

Kiko slumped against the rock behind her, "No. Half a day, a day at best." She coughed, then spent several minutes wheezing before she was able to continue. "I'm having trouble staying awake now, it's hard to think. If it hadn't been for the nightmares I probably would have made it. But what's done is done."

Felina pulled out the last water bottle, now barely half full. "Then you better drink this, I'll manage without."

Kiko pushed the bottle away, shocking her friend with the weakness of her effort. "Don't be stupid. Your in the same position I am. There's barely enough there for you to make it. I checked last night, you've been skimping. If you fall there's no chance for either of us."

"What are you going to do then" Felina asked as she set the precious bottle back in her rucksack. "Drink that pond scum out there? That would be worse than going without."

Eyes closed, Kiko barely nodded in agreement. "Uh... Felina?" she asked softly.

"What."

"Um... Have you pee'd yet this morning?"

"No, why" Felina answered in a puzzled voice.

"Well, you've got nothing on but your weapons belt right now.... And I do need water..."

Felina looked at the mouse. "Are you sure? I mean... That's uh.. well... Would it work?"

Kiko laughed. Or tried too. Her voice was hollow, as weak and fragile as a reed in Winter. "I am not going to die on you my love, no matter what I have to do to live." Moving slowly, still with eyes closed the mouse slowly dragged herself to her lover. "Look at it this way lover, it'll be something you can boast about in the bars. Go slow, short spurts or I can't swallow fast enough." She moved further down, reaching a part of the catsect she now knew better than the catsect herself.

Felina had to admit it was a survival tactic. Still, the feel of her lovers mouth doing that... She shuddered... gasped as fire inflamed her. The mouse had moved a hand up, pushing on the catsects bladder. Thirst always was more powerful than morals and the mouse was proving it. Felina felt as if Kiko were trying to milk her for every drop in her body. Her actions had ignited a fire in Felina she knew all too well. It was with more than a little force of will that she finally moved away from Kiko's talented mouth. "Not now" she gasped, regaining control over her body. "I need my strength." She felt delicate fingers sliding over her sex, twisting the hairs there around until they were trapped. 'Funny' she thought, 'That should hurt, but it feels good.' Something the mouse had learned that turned pain into pleasure.

"Only if you promise, when we get to the shore."

"Fine you sex starved rodent. Now let me get dressed while you rest. We're going." In the back of her mind that creatures threat stood strong. Once she started there would be no stopping. She couldn't take the chance it had been right.

Noon found the giantess struggling against long dead vines. Vines that seemed to reach out and grasp her arms, her legs. Behind her the sanctuary had vanished into the mist, only an occasional dark blob showing where it might be. Might be because Feline no longer trusted her eyes. Several times places she swore looked solid had turned out to be nothing more than patches of dry algae. She fought on, Kiko's head laying on her shoulder, her ragged breathing sharp in the catsects sensitive ears. By nightfall she was exhausted. Still she only paused long enough to drain her water, shoving the empty container back for use later. If there was a later. Her joints felt like they were made of sandpaper, her muscles twitched randomly and bright red blood oozed slowly from where plants had slashed her. She knew the symptoms. Her body was close to collapse and not from fatigue. Settling the mouses body more comfortable on her back she trudged on.

Kiko soon woke in the relative coolness, staring around. "Where are we?" she asked. "Millin, this is a swamp, not a meadow...." Coming to a stop the catsect slung Kiko's body around,. holding her close. Fever caused her to shiver, a tiny vibration against the catsects huge body. "Your not Millin" she gasped, "Who are.. are... Felina? Where are we Felina?"

"About halfway out" she answered. "And your having another fever dream but you have to keep quiet okay? It's important. Quiet."

Kiko nodded slowly, "Quiet, okay, I can be quiet. But I'm so thirsty... Do you have any water?"

"No. We ran out remember?"

"Ran out. Okay. Ran out. That's not good... is it?"

"No, now if you'll be real quiet, I promise I'll find you something to drink."

"Sure, no problem." The mouse blinked once, then again. Slowly she laid her head against Felina's arm and fell asleep again.

The night was worse Felina decided. Several times she discovered she'd somehow gotten turned around, having to retrace her steps. Her body screamed against the abuse while an ache began to build in the back of her head. Just beyond her sight shapes flickers, swamp lights, pairs of eyes and worse. Towards morning she was dripping with sweat, barely able to put one foot in front of the other... When it came again.

"A Nobel effort cat" the voice said.

Felina stopped, forcing herself to understand. "It isn't over" she growled. "Not until I'm dead."

"Oh my dear cat. You are dead. Your body just hasn't convinced your mind of that yet. Still... You insulted me. You struck me with the Light when all I wanted was such a little gift. Now I'll take my gift... And you as well."

"Don't bloody bank on it" she growled. "Kiko's still alive and I'm no where near dead either."

"Ah. But you will be, you will be." With a flicker of shadow the figure was gone, and Felina sensed something had taken its place. Slowly she drew the sword Kiko had given her. Settling the limp mousefem's body securely between pack and flesh, she walked forward.

It struck from below, her only warning was something wrapping around her legs when a huge head lifted from the murk. Burning red eyes stared at her, a gaping mouth showing a black tongue and long deadly fangs. Before she could attack it constricted, pulling her legs together. Off balance and falling she managed only a glancing blow. Not enough to kill but enough that it released her legs for a moment. Spitting muck she rose from the mire, forcing her body to obey her. This time it came from behind, striking her at the base of her twin tails. With a cry of agony she fell to her knees, surprised at the shallowness. Was she closer than she believed? Taking a wild swing she forced herself forward on her knees. The muck dropped half a hands breath. Shallow ahead. Whatever was attacking her had to come from behind. Spinning on one knee, ignoring the pain as flesh tore against rugged stone she turned to face her opponent. It seemed lighter, for an instant she saw a ripple in the muck and with a cry of triumph she swung, sending the deadly blade cutting through mud and algae. She struck something, felt the blade try to turn in her hand. With a final effort she lifted blade, and the monster attached to it, slinging both behind her. Something heavy hit with a thump, followed by the ring of steel against stone.

"Very good. He was one of my better servants."

Felina stood slowly, checking to insure her precious cargo was still lashed to her back. With relief she felt the mouse's leg, felt her pull weakly against Felina's grip. "You lose, I win" she replied, carefully taking one slow step after another backwards.

"Not really. You cost me one servant. But cat, this was your lovers Hell you were tested in. I still have your Hell to test her in. If you find a way to survive long enough to get there. I will have two new servants to replace the one you cost me. Time is always on my side."

Felina's left foot came down on dry sand. A moment later as her other foot followed the figure faded away. Turning around she found the body of a withered old man, his belly opened by a sword cut, laying dead on the clean gravel. Her weapon lay only a few dozen steps further away. "So that's the way of it" she whispered. Clean pure air filled her lungs for the first time since they had stepped into the swamp. A path lead from the beach, above her she could hear the sound of a waterfall. "A long climb" she observed. "Still it can't be anything like the swamp was."  

Chapter Fourteen

A Rare Find

A little later Felina staggered, then fell to the ground. Her pain had become unbearable yet she kept moving forward. Crawling on her hands and knees she knew she wouldn't be able to move if she stopped to rest. Her body would collapse and she would surely fall into coma. If she allowed that to happen they would both die. Doggedly she kept crawling uphill, her clawed fingers tearing into grass filled soil as she dragged herself up over the rocky terrain. She had finally reached a small plateau when she felt her legs give in. No matter how hard she tried they refused to obey her will. She didn't feel any pain, only the burning sensation through her twin spines. The only thing keeping her head from laying itself at rest on the ground was her massive chest. She felt like crying but as always she repressed that emotion and began to drag herself across the ground, her extended left finger on each hand serving as an extra thumb, giving her enough grip on the surface to drag herself forward with the puny strength she had left. Her long claws dug into any little soil there was, tearing up dirt and rocks. Her muscles screamed in pain as cramps hit her soon afterwards, the violent spasm being more than the catsect could take. Her body went into shock, shivering as Felina's forehead went to rest against a tuft on the ground. The catsects massive body kept shivering long after her consciousness had plunged into darkness.

Felina felt cold and alone in the dark, but she felt no pain. Her body and eyes were at rest. All was silent and peaceful for the first time in her life. It took a some moments before she noticed a faint sound of someone whimpering. Focusing on the sound she could hear it a bit more clearly. It was far away but yes someone was crying. It was like the sound of a lost and lonely child and that sound for some strange reason disturbed her. Not only disturbed the peace of her body but also the peace of her heart and mind. She stood up, amazed that she was able to do even that, and began to walk in the direction of the voice of tears. ‘So this is what it's like being dead’ she thought, her emotions at peace as she gazed into the dark void, finally noticing a weak dot of light. It looked much like a far away star. Mindlessly she let her steps be guided by the light. Watching dispassionately as it grew in size during her approach, but not in strength. As she approached closer she could finally see a figure in the large orb of light. From that figure came the sound that had guided her here. It was from that figure the weeping was coming from. When she finally stopped near the glow she could feel it's sorrow and pain. For some unknown reason tears of her own started to fall down her chin.

"Why are you crying" she finally asked. Inside the light the figure suddenly stopped weeping. It sobbed a bit then as it slowly turned a wing opened up revealing a head, two hands still covering her the eyes while the other two were held tight cross each other on her large bosom. Two more arms hung lifelessly below the upper four, as though all strength had been taken from them. A woman Felina realized even as the figure slowly took her paws away from her face, turning her head towards Felina. Both stared in shock as their images stared back at them like in a mirror.

"Child..?" the figure whispered in disbelief.

"Mother..." Felina replied. But the word did not come from her mind. It came from her soul.

Standing slowly the being in front of her slowly arose from her knees, she was over a head taller than Felina but thinner. More fragile. Two huge torn wings sprouted from her back and two long endless thin tails, with large furry tips wound nervously in the air as she stood up. She so slim and looked so beautiful and fragile that Felina’s heart ached from the sight. Her bright blue eyes stared at Felina like those of a mother looking to a long lost child that had finally returned back home. She raised her four shivering open arms towards Felina and less then a heartbeat later they were holding each other in a tight embrace that seemed to last forever. Felina felt a strong bond form within her that could never be broken. Gently words from the larger female finally broke their silence.

"It's been so long since I enjoyed the company of my loved ones. I thought all were dead, that I was alone" she whispered as she gently gave Felina's cheek a slow stroke with her finger, her longing voice gently caressing the catsect’s mind and senses. "Oh my poor daughter... What have they done to you?"

Looking into those eyes Felina felt herself lost in a thousand heavens, she felt a warm breeze caress her bare skin. She seemed to fall through bright caressing velvet skies before she finally landed softly in the arms of her new companion, feeling the touch of her silky fur against her as their lips met. But only for a moment. Moving away the other woman studied Felina, studied her as though she could see to the smallest bit of the catsects soul. “They have abused you greatly my daughter” she said “I am your mother Felina” the figure continued. “Your race came from me. Though with only one living member of my race remaining, and she not a believer, my powers are very weak. Yet still I may push back the darkness. Come, let me share with you the truths that you have been denied.”

Felina carefully grasped the two paws held out to her, feeling even more warmth flood through not her body, but her soul as she made contact. Her heart seemed to melt while her soul burned with pleasure. Time felt like it was racing past eons a second and yet stood still. More than willingly Felina gave all of her body, soul, heart and mind to her companion. For a moment she felt that she could stay with her forever. Her past life was exchanged by a series of others, she realized that she was reliving the lives of her ancestors on her now dead home world. A world and people she never even knew existed. She was seeing generation after generation passing by like day and night, from the bright birth to the bitter end. So full of life. So alive and in harmony. Now her world was gone forever, one of the outer worlds to fall in the First Grand War. A world and people destroyed by those who could not accept the beauty that was, and denied others the right to have it. Reliving that last life she saw her world burn, felt the fire that poured down from the sky, felt the agony and death of her people. She felt the shuddering death of her world, then the silence and darkness that followed.

Felina slowly opened her eyes as she felt gentle strokes over her head and body, gently resting herself in the lap of her companion as she leaned her head against a warm breast. Her eyes sensed the dim but soft light from the aura around her guardian, like a lonely star in space. All else was still pitch dark and silent. She was no longer a stranger to this being. She was her life. Her mother, sister and friend. She was everything and all to her now. She was a goddess...her Goddess.

Felina's Goddess gave her newly found daughter a gentle lick as Felina looked up on her with dozy eyes. A soft touch of her hand on Felina's forehead told her to relax and keep resting. She lowered her head down against the Goddess furry chest again while she slowly began to regain her mind and senses. Felina now knew how it felt to believe, it was the most comforting feeling she had ever felt. It gave her life a meaning and purpose, yet it was laced with heartache. Filling her soul with torment. Her Goddess had shown her the past and history of her home world. Of all her children. Felina's brothers and sisters from generation to generation. From the beginning and birth of her race to the end and death of her world, a death which plunged her Goddess into oblivion and near eternal darkness. Too weakened by the loss of her children to tear even the smallest rip in the dark fabric of the cold veil surrounding her she had remained here. A prisoner in what had once been her bright domain. Unable to gain any knowledge of the fate of her children, unable to call out to them or to break free, she had been trapped.

Long afterwards Felina's thoughts formed words that came slowly. Softy she formed her question. "Kiko. Is she...dead..?" There was a sad tone in her voice as if she feared she already knew the answer.

"This dark void is infinite, time and space do not exist here daughter. It's an endless maze of nothingness. Loneliness and imprisonment for all eternity..." her Goddess explained. Her voice seemed sad and broken as she gently kept stroking the back of her child’s head. Felina pressed her body closer while her Goddess gently held her head to rest tighter against her breast, a gesture giving them both some comfort.

"You can't leave this place...ever...?" The words came as shattered fragments past Felina's lips while she gazed into the dark.

"As I said, daughter, it is a maze. Only the voices of a million children could guide me safely through the darkness. Only then could I return as a Goddess once more. Brute force will not shatter the empty void. Only the song and prayers of those who love me and truly believe in me will be able to my prison. Without the love of the life We have created all Gods are like I am now. Lost and alone in the dark, without purpose."

"Then I must find your lost children for you" Felina whispered. "If they still are alive, that is...

"Not all are lost", the Goddess replied softly, now holding all six of her arms around Felina. "Some are just waiting for an opportunity to return back to life" she continued as she touched Felina, her warmth making the catsect purr.

"I'll have at least a hundred children of my own" Felina declared, smiling as she raised her head to face her Goddess.

"You will not be able to make any children here daughter" her Goddess laughed. "It is time that you returned to your friend, who yes, is still alive. The Goddess held her close, her voice stronger but still gentle. "Someone you love needs your care. Just follow your heart...my daughter..." Her hands gently released Felina’s, allowing her to take a few steps back away from the glowing aura. The dim sound of twin hearts beating made her head turn in another direction, as though someone were standing behind her. As she turned back to face her Mother the figure was already beginning to fade, but the light around her seemed to shine a little bit more brightly. It was something that Felina knew had to be a sign of hope, and new strength. As she stepped back into the dark void she looked back one last time to see a lonely star burning brightly. Then the dark around her begun to thicken, gaining substance, making it harder to breath. Felina held her breath before she felt herself slowly losing foothold and begin to float upwards.

Felina's naked body burst up into the bright daylight through the surface of a large pond, making a huge splash of water drops that she hurled up into the air to twinkle like shining crystals. Her body arched and her soaked hair was launched backwards as she inhaled a huge breath of fresh air into her lungs. When her body slipped back down into the water again she felt her feet sink into soft sand before she found herself standing steadily on the bottom, her chest well over the surface of the pond. Where had the pond come from she wondered. Her last memory had been of collapsing. Could this all be a dream?

She stood still for a moment, feeling the water pour down her soaked body, letting her hands speed up the waters flow by stroking her fingers along her skin. At the same time her other set of skilled hands worked their way up over her back before she held up her hair and gave it a good squeeze. As the splash of water left her hair and flowed down into the pond again she turned to Kiko. Kiko who now lay under a tree on the other side beside the pond, just as if she had put her there herself only a few minutes ago. This was no dream she realized, but how?

With a soft smile Felina started to walk towards her friend, eventually noticing a shadow and the swift movement in the water in front of her, almost instinctively a hand, claws outstretched struck through the surface. With her claws extended her hand held a steady grip on a large, now twitching fish as she continued towards Kiko. A few steps later she was up on dry ground. Laying down on one side next to the little naked mouse she watched her breasts rise as she breathed and listened her hearts beat for a while before she dropped the cold slimy fish right down on her breasts and stomach. Kiko woke up hastily as she felt something wet and heavy on her and screeched when he eyes and paws found the big ugly thing on top of her. She tossed the fish to one side as she rolled away in the opposite direction, right into Felina's arms. Hearing and feeling Felina's laughter as the catsect put her arms around her, she finally realized that it was a fish that had struck her, now laying motionless on the ground.

"You look different" Kiko observed as she noticed the change in Felina. "You look...older..."

"And wiser." Felina replied with a smile. "A lot wiser. And you look pretty well for a dying person." Felina laughed, heaving Kiko up and down like playing with a baby. "Looks like the fresh air did you some good."

"If ya keep this up I'll puke on you, I swear!" Kiko yelled with mixed annoyance and laughter before she found herself resting gently between Felina's breasts, feeling her huge lover gently embracing her with all four arms in a long warm hug. Playful licks and long kisses replaced words for a while as the two lovers shared the joy of being alive and together.

"And the symbiote?" Kiko asked when she'd broken of a long kiss, looking down upon the hated thing laying on Felina's ample chest. Its glow had risen in response to the mouse’s play, now as she watched it slowly dimmed, or withdrew back into the catsect.

"Still there. I can’t tell yo anything. You know that" Felina said quite seriously. But I would have to kill you wouldn’t I? I wouldn’t have a choice” she admitted somberly.

"Why you little tease! I'll show you!" Seconds later a suddenly energy filled mouse was all over the laughing and seemingly defenseless huge cat. The friendly wrestling was cut short by Kiko's sudden coughing attack. Felina stopped instantly, placing her companion carefully in her lap as she cleared her lungs of built up mucus. Some the catsect noticed, now streaked with blood. As the mouse finished clearing her lungs, then took a few pain filled breaths she looked up and noticed the view from their location. Far downhill she saw the mist from the swamp and the islands of small hills and heavenly mountaintops on the horizon.

"Quite a view", Felina admitted. "The smelly goo kind of adds to the scenery, as long as you don't have to be up to your armpits in it."

"You got us through that, then all the way up here? You must be stronger than I thought!" Kiko whispered hoarsely, a hint of doubt in her voice even while feeling one of Felina's huge biceps.

"Bloody stubborn is more like it" Felina admitted. "And don't ask me where I got it from." She continued with a smile, laying herself half down on one side.

"Merithel be praised" the mouse whispered to herself as she leaned back onto Felina warm body.

"There is more than one Goddess around here love". Felina replied tickling Kiko's ear with one of her fingers. "Remember the broken statue?"

Kiko blinked twice before she realized what Felina had just said. "You have met your Goddess?!" she yelled in excitement as she sat up, then laid down again as her lungs threatened to betray her once again.

"Yes, and she's NOT a con." Felina replied calmly, pointing one cautious finger at Kiko.

"What was she like then, this Goddess of yours?" the mouse asked innocently, while snuggling against her huge partner, seeking the warmth Felina’s body easily surrendered to her.

Felina seductively stretched, then wound her body around the mouse a bit. She felt like she was falling asleep, everything seemed so misty about her. "I'd give you up for her anytime, you delicious little rodent" she replied as she leaned her large bulk over the tiny mouse, letting one of her breasts rest on Kiko's chest while embracing her in a long deep kiss.

"Sounds like I better cook that fish of yours, before you decide to eat me instead." Kiko managed, one word at a time, even while Felina continued to overwhelm her with passionate kisses.

“I like live food too” Felina whispered, one hand easily trapping both of the mouses paws in its grip, while her lower arms grasped the mouses ankles, slowly spreading them. “Maybe I should have fish, and mouse.”

“If that’s what you want, take it” her tiny companion replied gently.

Felina laughed. “As if I would” she giggled. “I didn’t when you tried to kill me, why would I now?” She released the mouse, settling back on her ankles. “For that matter, why did you try to kill me anyway?”

“Simple answer” Kiko replied, still not moving an inch. “You killed one on my last friends from my world. Killed him for trying to protect a woman you then killed without any remorse. I owed him the attempt. I failed.”

“But you tried hard didn’t you” Felina asked, her voice becoming softer. “No one would try to avenge me, if I were murdered.”

“I would” Kiko admitted.

Felina blinked in surprise. “Me? Why. I’m just a retired assassin. I’d probably deserve it too.”

Kiko slowly rolled over on her side, lifting herself into a standing position with a smoothness that, after so long, still amazed her companion. “You are my friend. Sometimes we are more than that. Honestly” she opened her right hand, sunlight sparkling off the crystal blade that seemed to appear as by magic. “If I hadn’t already given myself to Dai, I know that I would give myself to you. Even though you would eventually have killed me. Either way I need to start cooking, and you need to start catching more fish.” Palming her blade Kiko moved away, carefully collecting fallen wood for a fire.

Chapter Fifteen

And the Tests Continue

"Its time ta get up Felina" Kiko announced the next morning, giving her huge partner a less than light kick on the rump with her naked foot.

Felina only grunted. "I've killed for less than that" she muttered.

Kiko turned back to the small fire. "The fish are gone" was her only reply.

Felina bolted upright. "Gone?" she asked. "There were tons of 'em just last night."

"I know, I cooked half of them, you ate everything and were still eyeing me remember?"

Felina ran to the pools edge, staring into its sapphire blue depths. Of the hundreds of large and very delicious fish that had been there the night before, nothing could be seen. Felina waded into the cold water, then dove. Kiko sat by the fire waiting while her catsect lover swam around, hunting what wasn't there. Finally Felina surfaced, rising fully half out of the water as she gasped for air. Dragging herself out of the water she lay gasping on the grassy shore.

"I really think that its time to leave" Kiko said gently as she began toweling off the suddenly icy water from her lovers body. "Before we get kicked out. I’ve refilled the water bottles."

"Uh-huh" Felina agreed. "That water just suddenly got cold, real cold. I just hope its not too far to the next meal."

The mouse only laughed, sliding her legs on each side of Felina's head. "Hungry again? Already?" she asked playfully.

"Don't tempt me mouse-girl. Your looking tastier every minute. Roasted mousegirl, now there’s something I haven't tried yet." A cold wind rose suddenly, damping their play. Felina stood quickly, ripping the towel from Kiko's paws as she dried the rest of her body. "Lets get dressed and get out of here" she complained.

Her diminutive partner smiled softly as she stood. Everything was already packed, a final meal left out for Felina. They were ready to leave now. As she walked up to the tree they'd slept under Kiko thought about her readiness. 'Well' she thought, 'When you wake up at midmorning with nightmares you get a lot done before sunrise.'

After she had eaten Felina lifted their single pack, noting with relief the weight of refilled water bottles. It could be a long way to their next water stop, or only a few hundred yards. Either way the mountain bred mouse had again proven her understanding of their position. Both drank deeply from the pool, its surface now glittering with shards of ice so cold it had become.

“We get a nights sleep, a bit of rest and we’re kicked out” the catsect noted. “Enough time to rest, not enough time to fully recover. Even with the protien I ate last night I’m still weak. What do these tests want to know? How long I can go before I collapse?”

“They know that now” Kiko answered from beside her massive friend. “They know all they need to know about you now. It’s me they want to test next.” Her right paw ran through her hair as if pushing it back. Standing she spun, a flash of amber light the only indication that she had done anything, the light striking a shadow under the tree they had slept at. A Shadow that seemed to quiver, before fading into a much lighter greyness. “We are no longer safe here” she finished.

Felina stood, brushing blades of grass from her legs with her lower hands. “I thought we were being watched, but I couldn’t spot anyone. I wouldn’t have killed you Kiko. Honest, I wouldn’t have.”

Kiko moved to retrieve her blade. “That is the real difference between us my friend. You are of the mortal plane. Nothing living could come this close to you. I though.” She wiped her blade on green grass, leaving a thin greyness behind. “I was trained to see the non-mortal world. There will be more tests, hard tests. Though I think not as many now. Gather what we have, there isn’t time for anything else.” She looked Felina’s chest, where the symbiote once lay. “You wouldn’t have had a choice Felina. In all truth, we both know that.”

Turning away she started walking uphill, knowing her companion would easily catch up. Behind them the blades of grass Felina had brushed away slowly faded, returning to the dust that they had come from.

“A choice for what” Felina asked sometime, and many hundreds of feet later. What had started as a gentle trail had become a rock ledge, a crumbly one at that. Kiko, mountain born had little trouble. Felina, assassin trained, had just as little. If this were a test the catsect though, it was a really poor one.

“I don’t understand” Kiko responded, carefully avoiding a tempting branch just within her reach. Though the branch seemed well seated, about it was a greyer stone. More granular, softer looking. It was nothing like what she was currently holding. Like her companion she too wondered what kind of test this could be.

“You said I wouldn’t have a choice” Feline reminded her. “About killing you?”

“I saw what you did to Jen and Marcus when that thing sent you into madness” the mouse explained, stopping suddenly. “I am temple trained, don’t you think I could sense what drove you? Didn’t you wonder why, after our first meeting, I came back and apologized? You are not what you want people to think you are Feline. Your no more evil than I am. That thing you carried is what drove you. We have a problem.”

“As in” Felina asked as she pulled herself level with her smaller partner. “Oh, that is a problem. Got rope?” Before them rose a solid silver grey surface, as flat as though it had been cut by a knife. As far as either could see in either direction it ran unbroken while above then it towered at least a hundred feet. “It’s silicon” Felina decided. “Solid silicon and that’s a big problem.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have suction cups on your hands, would you?” Kiko asked.

“Not a chance.”

“Didn’t remember any. Okay, here’s the plan. You throw me to the top and then run up after me.”

“That’s a plan?” Felina asked. “Your not serious.”

“Nah, but my arms are getting tired. I’m having a lot of trouble breathing and this black rock isn’t what we need to cut hand and foot holds. Not to forget that stuff breaks like glass, extremely sharp edges. Ideas?”

“Hand me one of your daggers” Felina suggested. “I um... I used one you gave me and I need two.” Accepting the blade KIko offered without comment she held one in each of two massive hands, striking their points hard into the grey wall to her right. With a sound nothing like shattering glass the silicon spalled away. “This is gonna take time, I’ll probably break most of your blades.”

“You won’t, not those blades. But you better hurry. We seem to have company coming.” She pointed downwards. When Felina followed her direction she shuddered. Something greyish white was slowly flowing up the rock wall. As they watched stones began to fall like rain from its surface. As they fell, both women could swear they turned to dust.

“Not good” Felina cursed, turning her attention to the flat surface before her.

“One wonders why so many physical challenges” Kiko mused softly as spalled silicon fell into the mist, causing it to flash green for a moment.

“Until you remember every one has had a moral anchor to it” Felina reminded her friend. “Could I resist my desire to kill and eat you? Could you accept the only water available? See channel nine for more details. I’m up, can you follow?”

Kiko looked up, surprised to find Felina already a body length above her. “Not as quickly, but yes.” She began edging over to the artificial handholds. Below her came the odd creature, eating its way up the rock wall with an ease that belittled half a day of climbing. “By the way Felina?”

“Yes?”

“This wall is healing. I think that you better pick up the pace a bit.”

Kiko wasn’t joking, she could feel the crystal metal handholds filling in. They were not covering her fingers or toes but slowly pushing them outward. If Felina slowed, her mouse companion wouldn’t survive. With a soft grunt of effort Felina increased her efforts. In the end they both survived. Oddly, whatever the thing was that had attacked them, it simply stopped once it reached the grey wall. Silently holding its position until were both safe. Then just as it had appeared, it seemed to soak into the stone cliff.

“That made no sense” Felina gasped as she lay on her back against the razor flat silicon surface. Kiko however sat, looking around her at a grey, featureless plain.

“There’s something else” she whispered. “I feel... I feel like that was a warning. That we can’t go back down again. Even if we win through, that way is not the path home again.” Turning her attention to the West she noted the sun was about to set. “No possibility of heat, no protection from the cold. Hon, tonight’s gonna be real hard.”

“Even for you?”

Shrugging the mouse moved away from the cliffs edge. “Maybe. It’s been a long time since I took my oaths. A long time since I spent a winters night unprotected on a mountain.”

“And you are a whole lot older” Felina reminded her.

“There is that. How about we walk a way from this cliff, then wrap ourselves together in your blanket.”

Chapter Sixteen

Felina’s Secrets

Cold wasn’t a word. It was an element. They had found a sort of forest, if thousands of spires of silicon could be called a forest. There was little protection from the cold, but within that strange forest there was no wind and that made all the difference. It was Kiko again who woke. Woke to the sound of someone calling Felina’s name. Slipping from under Felina’s blanket, her own acting as a mattress of sorts, the mouse stepped away from her companion. To her left was a soft glow, a greenish grey glow the mouse now suspected indicated powers of evil intent. Drawing her Honor blade she walked towards the glow.

Her path took her out of the forest onto a small clear bit of surface. Surrounded on three sides by those strange spires, the fourth side was a sheer drop back to the swamp so far below. A grinding sound was her only warning, and it too late as her path back to Felina closed. ‘Walked into this one’ she decided. Putting her back to the forest she moved as far from the edge as she could.

“Now it is your turn to pay me my due, as your companion did” a sharp edged voice announced. Kiko winced, it sounded like shards of glass rubbing across each other. Before her the same creature that had spoken to Felina appeared, though Kiko couldn’t know that.

“What due” she asked. She stood calm, loose jointed. Anything with the power to affect these spires could kill her and Felina if it wished.

“Quite simple. For her life Felina gave me something. All I ask from you is the same. Give me the love you hold for her, that she has granted you and all will be well.”

“Should I refuse?”

A spire grew beside her, nudging her none too gently towards the edge. “It is a long way down. Many things wait. I promise you that your fall will not kill you. Still you will die. In the passing of centuries.”

"And there will come the day when all who take her breath, all who drink her blood, all who eat her flesh shall be burned away. Cleansing forever her body of children, pious or dishonorable." Kiko quoted. “Do you really think that simple death bothers me?” She sheathed her Honor blade, walking to the cliffs edge. “Shall we dance?”

“Well done little one. Very well done. You would truly sacrifice yourself for one who does not deserve such. Perhaps though, were you to know the truth.”

A sound behind her caused Kiko to turn. “I am Halgarth, of the Myhol Trading Clan” a small bear-like mammal said in greeting. Kiko walked away from the edge, sitting in order to bring her eyes more in level with the creature. “Felina was my partner. We were well into the black. I was in love with her, I trusted her. She ripped my liver out and ate in the night before we were to be married. She laughed as she ate. She laughed as my life fled. I would kill her slowly, were I able.” Turning the creature walked towards the spires, vanishing as a female figure replaced it.

“I and Deline Dellpa” the feline announced. “I was heir to the throne of Jalual. I hired Felina as my bodyguard on my sixteenth birthday. I never saw my seventeenth. To my dishonor I fell in love with her. I gave her all that I was and she murdered me. Her hands slowly, ever so slowly crushed my windpipe. She took hours to kill me, telling me all the while just how she would mutilate my body. I loved her, I gave all I am to her and she debased me. I am nothing now. No vengeance would change what she has done. Yet I wish I could kill, so that I could kill her.”

For hours Kiko sat apparently impassive as creature after creature came to her, each explaining who they were, what Felina had done. Some went into graphic detail, some simply stated their name and the fact Felina had killed them. Finally the last one stepped away, leaving the mouse with a burden that nearly crushed her hearts. She had always known what Felina had been, she had never known exactly what she had done.

“I could have sent lies of course” that glass on glass voice announced from behind her. “This time, her truth was more damning than any lie I could give you. Grant me that love you feel for her, whatever is left now.”

Standing slowly, as though lifting a great weight Kiko kept her back to the creature. Within her hearts was great sadness. Not only for Felina’s victims but for the catsect herself. “And what will you do with this love, should I give it to you” she asked.

“That is not a simple question to answer” came the reply. “It will, of course, remove from her the only barrier that keeps her from killing you. So she may kill you. That even I cannot tell. It will though crush her heart when you turn away from her. She has found her Goddess. I cannot allow that one to regain power. Not that it is a great matter to me, no greater than your own life. Crushing her will only turn the balance a slight ways towards me, and against those I battle.”

Turning to face the creature Kiko fought to keep further tears from falling. “How much do you think I love her?” she asked softly.

“That I do not know. I suspect though, almost enough to accept anything from her.”

Kiko threw back her hair, slowly drawing her Honor blade. “My answer then” she decide. "The time comes when one must choose. Choose with your heart and I will be with you. Choose with your mind and you stand alone" she quoted again. With a battle cry as harsh as any her race had ever given she took the few steps between herself and the cliffs edge, then leapt at the creature still floating in mid-air.

And slammed into Felina as the catsect rose in response to her scream. Four arms wrapped about the mouse, grasping her closely. “Kiko, its me” Felina cried, twisting to avoid that deadly blade. For a moment nothing happened, then Kiko’s face lifted, looking up her eyes locked with the catsects.

“Is there anyone near” the mouse asked tiredly.

“None I can sense” Felina admitted after a moment. Between her heat sense and ability to use sound as a bat does to detect movement the catsect was certain that no mortal was nearby. “You met him, didn’t you?”

“I met him” Kiko admitted. “I met everyone you ever killed too”. Still held tightly by the catsect she could hardly speak, but the heat from Felina’s body was delightful. “Why didn’t you tell me about him?”

“He wanted me to kill you” Felina explained. “He came to me at that rock spire,. Wanted me to give him your still beating hearts. I refused.” She released her companion, surprised when the mouse remained with her. “He said that by eating your hearts he would be strengthened just a little, while the light would be weakened just a little. I didn’t believe in Gods then, but I know evil when it presses me.”

“Obviously” Kiko agreed. “Thank you for not adding me to your list. Its too long for anyone now anyway.”

“So you hate me now right?

“I can’t hate you” the mouse admitted, sheathing her blade. “I will pray for those souls, each separately. I cannot hold you accountable for what that symbiote made you do. Not and accept you now.” She snuggled against the catsect. “You hold those faces within you, those names. It is a terrible burden. Felina. So I’ll help you carry that burden from now on, okay?”

Laying back down, dragging the mouse down with her Felina sighed in relief. “I was going to tell you” she admitted as she pulled her blanket over the two of them. “But the time never seemed right.”

“There never is a right time for that” Kiko whispered. “Now I know. We need sleep, we’ll deal with the fallout later. If we survive.”

“Goodnight my love” Felina whispered, but Kiko was already deep asleep.

Chapter Seventeen

Sunlight

Both women woke to a blinding light that cut through their blanket as though it were tissue paper. Kiko, with her artificially enlarged eyes was blinded, reduced to holding one paw over her closed eyes while she scrambled to gather what she could. Felina was likewise in trouble, though she could see somewhat due to her genetic engineering. “I should have known” Kiko yelled as she found their pack. “Silicon, sunlight. We have to get out of here before full sunrise.”

“Or be cooked” Felina agreed. “We’re in a forest of mirrors. I’ve got the blankets and food.”

“Pack and water” Kiko replied. Stumbling across the suddenly unlevel surface she made her way to the catsect. Between the two of them they managed to pack their gear, Felina swinging both pack and mouse onto her shoulders. “Pack Mule go” the mouse yelled, still covering her eyes with one hand while holding Felina’s neck with the other.

“Not that easy” Felina corrected. “These things are growing and I can barely see.” Still she started moving, deeper into the silicon forest where there was less light, but less room as well. It was their only choice. Behind then was the cliff edge to nowhere, to each side the flat grey surface eventually dropped off as well. It was forward, or nowhere.

Occasionally Kiko felt something bump her as Felina worked her way through the slowly rising spires of crystalline metal. Occasionally Felina would curse and more than once a sharp sound of shattering crystal was followed by even louder crashes. Apparently the catsect was ripping one spire down then using it to break down others. Eventually the light dimmed, though the heat continued to build. Opening her eyes just enough to see the mouse was surprised to find them inside a tunnel of some kind. Slipping off the tired catsects shoulders she landed on soft grey sand.

“What is this place” she asked.

“An oven, but I was nearly blind. It was our only choice” Felina answered. She was rubbing her eyes as if trying to get sand out.

“Stop that, let me pour water on your eyes. Whatever’s in them will just cause more damage if you rub them.”

“Can we afford the water?” Felina asked, her eyes blinking as whatever had gotten into them caused further irritation.

Digging in the pack Kiko removed a bottle that hadn’t been opened since she filled it at the pond. “I’d rather go thirsty than have you blind. Lay on your back so I can see what I’m doing.” She moved over to her friend, waiting until Felina was settled before checking the first huge eye. “One advantage of these overgrown eyes Deft gave me” she commented as she dribbled a bit of water into that blod shot orb, “Is that I can see the problem without a magnifier. You’ve two shards of silicon in your eye. Hold tight while I get the med kit. I need those tweezers.”

“Use your claws, there as good” Felina reminded the mouse.

Kiko stopped, looking at her fingers where artificial claws extended. For a moment she reflected on how she happened to have them. That bomb on the shuttle, her bones eaten away, Dia nearly dying in a raid just to get these replacements.

“I don’t know why she changed either” Felina remarked. “It never made sense to me either. Now please, get these out before I go blind.”

Broken from her thoughts the mouse turned back to the job at paw. Gently she edged first one, then the other sliver from Felina’s eye before going to the other, where four slivers rested. “I think you cut your cornea” she reported as she edged the tiny sliver out.

“I’ll heal in a few hours” Felina reminded her friend. “How about a drink of that water anyway?” She accepted the bottle, drinking sparingly from it. “That made no sense you know, out there. But we better move further back, its getting hot even for my tastes.”

Gathering their gear the two worked further back into the cave, all the while finding their path covered deeper and deeper with the grey sand. Behind them followed a blast furnace of heat, not quite unbearable but making any chance of rest impossible.

“I wonder what time it is” Kiko asked finally, the hot breeze making her a bit irritable.

“Nine fifty one” Felina answered. “Plus or minus a few seconds.”

“You’ve got a time implant?” the mouse asked. “Why didn’t it burn up like everything else?”

“Not an implant” the four armed catsect admitted. “It’s a running computation in my brain, accurate to a couple of seconds. Kinda like a subroutine in a computer. It’s there, has its own place, but doesn’t bother me. I can access it anytime I want, or ignore it completely.” She looked down, noticing the expression on her companions face. “‘llI ignore it then” she added, a thin smile of amusement on her lips.

“So, how many of these running computations are in that thick head of yours anyway?”

“Forty of fifty, I don’t keep count.” Felina stopped, they had entered a huge chamber. Ahead of them was a large hill of grey sand, behind them the heat continued while a building breeze rolled over their backs. “This doesn’t feel right” she whispered.

Agreeing with her companion Kiko followed as Felina began carefully, but quickly working her way around the huge grey hill. Oddly the chamber they were in, though immense, was almost perfectly circular, odd horizontal groves of various sizes went up as far as they could see. Only the return of that blast furnace heat warned them that they were approaching the entrance again. “I can’t see the roof, other than that point of light. Even with these eyes” Kiko admitted. “What about you?”

“Nothing other than a spot of light. That means its at least three or four hundred feet above us.”

Kiko paused, working out what they had discovered so far. “If your sonic hearing says it’s a few hundred feet, and its heating up in here, could we climb out?” She swallowed, realizing what all those groves had to mean. “Felina. We have to get out of here or find shelter real soon.”

“There isn’t any” Felina reminded her friend. “We already looked remember?”

“Then we look again, harder. When the heat builds enough wind is going to scream through here. It will pick up that sand and spin it around like a tornado.”

Felina shivered with abrupt understanding. “To the bone, and then the bone. Lets get looking.”

With both searching it quickly proved that there was no hiding place. Meanwhile the wind had built, tiny particles of grey sand whirled around in the air already. “Climb?” Felina asked.

“Best choice. Can you get a good grip in those groves?”

“Easy, climb on. I know you can’t make this climb. I’ve been listening to your breathing.”

“Please don’t” Kiko asked. “We both know there’s nothing that can be done.” Quickly clambering up onto the catsects back Kiko held for her life as the six limbed woman started climbing.

They made it all the way to the top before Felina groaned. “I might not make it” she admitted. “Too long on a low meat diet, my muscles are shaking.”

Looking up Kiko could see that they were very near the opening. One Felina couldn’t fit through with either her or the pack on her back. “Tight fit. I think I can make it from here but if you fall I join you.” She pulled the bag from Felina’s lower arm, amazed at how heavy it still was. Stepping onto her companions broad shoulder she started climbing. Felina, with much less weight to drag her down, soon followed.

They emerged on a small flat section of smooth rock well above the silicon forest. Grey sand covered the land, though lightly. “Its not safe to stay here” Felina warned. “Those sand bits coming out sting already, and that wind is still building.” Kiko though simply lay like a wet rag on the ground. Moving over to the mouse Felina turned her over, to discover her mouth covered with blood. “Idiot” she cursed, using all four hands to dig through the rodents clothing until she found the three hidden packets. Breaking one open she injected it directly into Kiko’s throat. A risky option considering the drugs effects, but the fastest option. Tossing aside the used injector she stuffed the other two back where she found them, grabbed her friend and the pack, then ran for a pile of boulders not too far away.

Her caution proved correct as less than half an hour later a tornado of grey sand emerged from the hole. It built high into the sky. Watching, Felina knew that anything on that rock would have been dead in seconds. Turning her attention back on Kiko she watch the mouse’s chest rise and fall slowly. Almost too slowly. For a few minutes she debated on using a second injector, then decided against it. Not only would it be too much drug, but from her own bodies complaints she might need one herself. Soon.

It was after sunset before Kiko awoke. Her eyes fluttered open, looking up at nothing. “So, rejoining the land of the living?” Felina asked as she started opening a bottle of water.

“Not for long” a dry voice answered. “I can’t feel my legs.”

Felina bit her upper lip in concern. One thing Kiko had never done was joke about her own health. “Drink some water, we’ll rest for the night then start off tomorrow early. I scouted ahead after that killer sandstorm ended. Its only a few hundred feet up to the top.”

“You maybe. Felina...” Kiko coughed, more blood coming from her lips as she drank, though not bright red like before the catsect noted. “Its hard to breath. I’ll try, but I think I honestly misjudged my own ability this time.”

“I wonder how many more tests there could be” Felina asked as she turned her attention of tonights meal. Forcing herself to ignore her companions words. It would be cold rehydrated soup, there wasn’t anything to burn anywhere that she could find. “We’ve been hit with everything and more.”

“Tell me about them” KIko asked. “Your side of the story.”

“I don’t want too” Felina admitted.

For awhile there was only the sound of Kiko raspy breathing and Felina’s stirring of their meal. “Then don’t” the mouse decided. “It’s time we quite the mind games Felina. I’ve enjoyed them, I think you have too. But its late now, its time I came clean to you. You deserve that much.”

Felina looked up from her pot. Kiko as a joking sidekick was one thing, Kiko as a dominate partner in their private games another. But Kiko as a totally honest woman was something she had never expected to experience. For some reason it scared her. “So? There’s another woman?”

“There was Dai” Kiko admitted. “I gave her my soul, she threw it back at me. I don’t know why. I’d have done anything for her. Just like I will for you.” She accepted the soup. “Chicken? You’ve been holding out.”

“I’ve been rationing” Felina corrected. “Tonight every bit of animal protean gets eaten, by both of us. We both need it.”

“Okay” Kiko agreed, her easy acceptance of the decision bringing more worry to the catsect’s soul.

They ate in silence. When the food was gone Felina started mixing more. This for herself as Kiko had already admitted she couldn’t eat anything else. “I was important in my clan. I carried the Honor Blade” Kiko started softly. “I stood in all clan meetings, I had a veto in all decisions. Other than our Priest and Chief I was pretty much top rodent.” She sipped more water, watching her friend eat. “We were attacked by two of the three rouge clans. They wiped out everyone. Everyone but me and the baby I carried. Don’t look so shocked, it happens even today. All it managed to do, other than destroying my clan, was have all the other non-rogue clans rise up and wipe out those three who refused the high law. It didn’t bring anyone back. I don’t even know why they did it. There were rumors that off-planet money was involved. Rumors are rumors.”

She paused, looking at her paws. “I retreated to the High Temple. I had my daughter. I’d hoped for a son to carry the clan name. No one but the priests knew because there were still a few individuals that had escaped. It was already known they were after me. At least they didn’t know I was pregnant at the time. So I went off planet. To hide. An Honor Blade carrier hiding. I shamed my clan by doing so. I shamed my daughter.”

She coughed, her breathing going ragged a few seconds.

“Did you have a choice” Felina asked. “I mean, what would have happened if you’d stayed.”

“I would have been hunted down, once I had failed the blade would have gone of itself to my daughter. An infant cannot defend itself. Not even one to whom the blade has called. My clan would have ended anyway.”

Felina blinked, working those words over in her mind for a while. “Why tell me this now. You’ve always said...”

“I’d have to kill you. I couldn’t do that on my best day and we both know that” the mouse interrupted. “I’ve never been a physical match for you, but that doesn’t matter. Felina, let me talk please. I’m dying.”

“I know your dying..” the catsect started when Kiko lifted her paws.

“Now” she broke in. “I had a heart attack climbing out of that trap. Its only a matter of hours now. No later than sundown. Felina, I love you so much I can’t deny you anything. But even though we both have two hearts there’s a big difference. Either of your hearts can keep you alive and healthy. Granted, you’d have to reduce your exercise to compensate, but you’d live to a ripe old age. You told me that yourself. I’m different. One heart can’t keep me alive for more than a day, even if all I do is lay flat on my back. My hearts pump differently.”

“That explains the squishy noises” Felina joked, trying to lighten the mood. “I know your hearts twist, not pump. Like squeezing water out of a rag. So which one quit?”

“My minor heart” Kiko answered. “It hurts to just lay here, its like a heavy rock in my lower chest. I couldn’t possible finish our journey. I couldn’t walk a hundred feet.”

Felina closed her eyes against the pain. Though she had never wanted to admit it, the little mouse had changed her life in so many ways she couldn’t stand the thought of being without her. Even before her Goddess had woken her soul her heart had stopped the symboit from forcing her to kill Kiko at least twice already. What was it about the little ones Felina asked herself. That gives them such power over our hearts. Opening her eyes she waited, watching. “Kiko. Why come clean now?”

“Whole story?”

“Whole story.”

“My clans dead. A few months ago I received a message, my daughter married into another clan. Arranged marriage but that’s normal. She’s only twelve so it would have been a while before I became a grandmother. But her name is no longer mine. I am the last surviving member of my clan. That means my Honor Blade would be locked away until the end of days. I can’t send it home, so it will be labled as lost. Felina. I should have married you. I really should have. Dia had my hearts too long, she should have made her decision sooner. Now its too late but I have a gift for you anyway.”

Reaching under her body the mouse dragged out her double bladed weapon. Carefully she cut her arm, the act itself showing how ill she was as her blood merely dribbled, not flowed. Holding the bloody blade to her lips she kissed it, the act leaving traces of her own blood on her lips. “I am no longer able to preform my duties” she told the blade. “I beg you to accept this woman, who I have given my soul, my love too, as your newest bond.” Weakly she held the blade towards Felina. “Cut your arm, if it accepts, there will be a flash of blue light. If not, it won’t cut you at all. Please?”

Gingerly the huge catsect moved closer, accepting the blade while looking at it as though she were holding a deadly viper. “Do I have too?” she asked.

“No Felina. As with everything we have ever done, that final choice is yours. It always would have been.”

“Yeah” Felina laughed. “I don’t recall you asking about that ring you gave me.”

Smiling Kiko reached out to gently tap a tiny bell on the catsects body. It rang sweetly in their silent camp. “I don’t recall you removing it either” she laughed softly. “I really would have loved to see you with all the rings, bells and fragile gold chains. Your body is made for such a display, mine isn’t.”

“You’d have let me...” Felina’s jaw dropped. “But...”

“You never asked my love. I told you many times. I’d never refuse you anything.”

“I never” Felina started, then stopped talking. “I don’t want to lose you. I want you part of me forever.”

Kiko smiled as she closed her own eyes. “I’m trying to induct your bone headed ass into my clan. So, if you would be so kind, make a decision while I’m still alive? Please.”

Felina bit her tongue hard enough to bring a little blood. Of all the gifts she’d been offered in her life, this was the first one she was afraid of accepting. Silently she pressed the edge of Kiko’s blade against one arm, holding her breath before she slid it across her dark green skin.

Blood welled, forming a trickle that the blade seemed to drink. As it drank a soft blue glow emanated from its surface. “I think it likes me” the catsect whispered. “Its glowing blue, and its drinking my blood. I think.”

“Congratulations” the mouse responded softly. “You just made history.”

Setting the blade down Felina glanced first at her wound, which as all her wounds was healing rapidly, then to her companion. “How? I didn’t kill you with your own blade?”

“Couldn’t have, it would have shattered into a zillion pieces first. Felina. You’re the first alien an Honor blade has ever accepted. The first, and I love you. Take the sheath, keep it with you always. As long as you carry it I am with you. No matter where you go. As are my ancestors, though I think their in stunned shock at the moment.”

“In-laws” Felina sighed as she accepted the ancient leather scabbard. “No one ever gets along with te in-laws, do they?”

“Not to my memory. I never got along with Ulel’s mom. She was always finding fault. Now love, I need to sleep a bit okay? I’m awfully tired.”

Felina again looked at the blade, still amazed at what had happened. “Are you sure that’s a good idea” she asked, but there was no answer. Looking back to the mouse she quickly realized what had happened.

Her scream of pain was heard all the way to the swamp. 

Chapter Seventeen

A Goal Obtained

Pain gives one strength one never expected. Loss makes one immune to hardship. Thus it was a little after three in the morning when Felina found herself standing before a huge pair of bronze doors. On her back was her pack, but what it carried wasn’t supplies. Felina wasn’t a cannibal. At least not where a certain mouse was involved. Cold wind pressed into her face, trying its best to rob her body of strength, to turn her away from her destination. She ignored it all, forcing her way forward until a well known form barred her from further advancement.

“Give me her hearts” the dark form demanded. There was no pleading, no offering, only a simple hard edged demand. It stood between her and the doors. A pillar of darkness blacker than a singularities heart.

“Ever think of taking up acting?” the catsect asked. “Two choices. Move, or die.”

“Die?” Dark shattered crystal edged laughter answered her threat. “I am a God, you can’t kill a God. You don’t even believe in us.”

“We started this together. We end it together.” Drawing the Honor blade from its sheath Felina stepped forward, thrusting it into that darkness without thought to the consequences, her own life, their mission or any possible future. What occurred stunned her. Nothing happened, other than the creature smiled.

“Amazing. It took you as its bearer. I really don’t remember this occurring ever before. Very well Assassin who has found her true heart. You may pass. Within is your final test. You may have found your soul child, but at a cost not even I could bear. Hope that you pass that test, for to fail is to cease to exist.” Moving away the figure blossomed, fading even as it increased in size. Before Felina those great doors opened without a whisper of sound, for the icy wind had ceased completely. Stepping forward she was unsurprised when those doors closed behind her.

“Since when does an unnatural beast enter the halls of nature” a gentle male voice asked from beside her. Turning Felina saw only stone, stone lit with a soft inner ivory glow. She ignored the question, walking forward until she was standing at the edge of a great drop. There was no further path. There was, even to her senses, no other side. Only a fog like ivory glow that filled her sight.

“Answer the question” a gentle female voice advised her from the endless glow before her.

“I may be unnatural” Felina answered. “I am no beast.”

Another, ancient voice asked from a different direction “How do you know this.”

Carefully removing her pack she opened it, gently removing the still pliable body of a female mouse from within. Gently she laid Kiko’s body on the stone, kneeling beside her. “Because she loves me” she answered, gently brushing Kiko’s hair from her long dead face. “She could never love a beast.”

That last voice chuckled. “I thought you might hold that toy up as proof. Yet it only reads the heart and soul. Not the mind. Very well.”

“What are your desires here” another gentle male voice asked.

Pulling Kiko’s body up against her own Felina could feel how cool it had become. “We were sent to get a stone for power, but that’s not why I came. I came because she came. I want to be with her. Forever.”

Before her the ivory glow shifted, eventually showing deep space. A moment after Felina realized this a body floated by, one of the few crewmen she had been on speaking terms with. Behind the bear wreckage followed. “Not to ask for the lives of ship and crew” another female asked. “For they are all dead or enslaved now.”

Woodenly Felina watched as bits and pieces of Purple Passion drifted along. Enough remains that she knew those words must be true. “We all lived day by day. Knowing that eventually our card would come up. No. Allow them their peace. If not now, then another day the same thing would happen.”

“Quite the stone hearts you have” a gruff male laughed. “Yet your words are true. You have found your race-mother one known as Felina. Tell me this. Are you willing to guide your race back to greatness?”

“I have said so” the green skinned woman admitted.

Before her the star scene changed, spinning madly until even the combat veteran started to feel uneasy. Finally it slowed, a dim grey object appearing within it, though no stars were nearby. That grey object expanded until it became a series of battered metal globes. “Within this once slept five hundred of your race. Many thousands of your years ago it was sent from your planet in order to find a new home. Now, due to both natural and artificial interference it floats far outside your galaxy. All within are now frozen to ambient temperature. Yet they could live again, for a price.”

More of her people, a people she had never known. Felina’s hearts yearned to meet them, become part of their lives. For them to become part of her’s. She had known only nine other of her kind, all laboratory grown. All combative due to the symboites given each. She was the last of those ten to still breath. “What price” she asked breathlessly.

“Give up forever the one within your arms” another male voice answered. “Renounce her love. Return her soul, and her blade. Do this and you will live with those you see. Your race will live again.”

Felina’s reaction was to draw Kiko’s body closer to herself. To deny, yet her mind ran on. She could keep her promise to her new-found Goddess. She could return her race to life. All it would take... “All it would take” she whispered. “Is to deny the love of someone who see’s me as I can be, not what I was. All I have to do...” She stood, still holding Kiko’s body in her arms, “Is to throw her hearts into your mouths, so you may eat her. No.”

Icy wind struck her. More than icy wind, for there were shards of ice itself within it. Staggering away from the edge Felina braced herself against the building wind. “Do not place us alongside he who bears the dark mantle this turning” dozens of voices said at once. “We give you a choice little mortal. Your race, for your love. Choose. One or another.”

“I choose both” Felina screamed, only to be tossed further backwards as the wind tripled in strength. She lost hold of Kiko’s body in her tumble, ending up on her back, ice building upon her body robbing her of what little strength she still had. With a growl of defiance she rolled over, digging her claws into the hard earth, dragging herself forward until she reclaimed he prize. “Both” she gasped. “Or none.”

“Strong-willed mortal, you are a fool” those voices said in unison. “Those were not choices given.”

Suddenly the wind ceased striking Felina, though she could hear its howl about her. Rubbing ice from her eyes she looked towards the ivory light and gasped. Within her arms lay the body of a mouse. Before, that same mouse stood, blue light ripped from her in streamers by the howling wind as she held her arms before her, paws open. As Felina watched the wind grew greater, until the small form begain to waver.

“You spend your soul protecting this one?” a female voice asked.

Kiko though, said nothing. She simply stood, her back to the catsect as she blocked the wind. Felina could see her form was fading, as though she were losing her existence. Gathering her feet under her the exhausted catsect stumbled forward until she was beside the mouse. Fragments of wind tugged at her, but nothing like what had struck her only moments before.

“I told you I would always be with you” Kiko’s spirit reminded her companion. “No matter the cost.”

“Don’t. Please” Felina begged. “Your destroying yourself.”

“Better me than you” the fading spirit answered. “I cannot exist without you. I could not exist without being here.”

“Then we go together.” Drawing her Honor blade Felina stepped past the spirit, still holding Kiko’s body in two arms. Instantly she felt the winds full force. It was madness. It was hell. Still she stood, holding the blade not before her, but between the wind and Kiko’s spirit. “You lose” she screamed at those unknown voices. “You... Lose.”

Ice built on her body, slowly entombing her into a solid block of ice. “Choose” a sexless voice demanded.

With a last laugh of defiance Felina passed beyond the veil of life.

Silence filled the great chamber, a silence filled only with a sound of voices that could not be heard by mortal ears. “What are we to do with them” a voice asked.

“I have not experienced such strength of soul in... in nearly a half turning of their galaxy.” another voice admitted.

“It isn’t like many pass all our tests” a voice Felina and Kiko would know admitted. Standing before Felina’s frozen body the darkness clothed figure studied her. “Kiko’s soul has joined with her’s. In truth they are now one. There was little choice before, now there is none.” Turning to face the others that dark form laughed. “And to think it would be on my watch that such would come.”

A long soul cleansing sigh filled the chamber. An older, sexless voice spoke. “We have tested all we set ourselves to test. It is up to their Goddess’s to decide.” That voice chuckled. “They would have Goddess’s and not Gods, it just goes to show those mortal scribes are rarely right. Call them forward, we will abide by their decision.”

Time passed that mortals might measure as nothing, or eons before two female figures appeared at the cliff’s edge. “You have done well our servants” the female mouse said. “You have tested them to the death, and beyond. We now shall decide their fate.”

Looking towards her co-Goddess the one Kiko knew as Merithel smiled. “It has been long since we talked my sister Hisheril ” she said in greeting. “She passed your test?”

“Perfectly” the Hisheril admitted, her great wings dripping rainbow colored light. “She is all I could hope for in a Guardian, and more. And yours?”

“There are issues” Merithel admitted. “She takes herself too seriously in some ways. Yet your child counter balances her weakness well. And that thing within her. What shall we do with it? A counter to their works?”

“That I think would be best.” No flicker of movement came from either, yet the thing in Felina’s chest appeared before them. “You will no longer harm my child” Hisheril told the glowing ball of light. “You will rule nothing. You will have no kingdom, only what you are. You will rule only those who freely choose the dark, of their own desire, their own free wills. You my never harm the innocent, else all these powers you have now, and will have shall vanish forever. This you understand?”

Some manner of communication came from the thing, then it was gone. At the same moment both Felina and Kiko’s bodies vanished. “You must teach me that way of making Honor Blades with your tears my sister Merithel” Hisheril said as they began to vanish.

“The secret” Merithel admitted... “Is that it is not tears I use. It is....”

Silence again filled the chamber, only that ivory glow remained. Remained for the next candidate to arrive.

Chapter Eighteen

Destiny

Felina blinked. She had died, she knew she had died. Yet now she stood on a hillside. Before her stretched a wide plain of low grass, a wide slow moving river running down its center. “Beautiful” a voice from her hearts said from beside her. Turning Felina was stunned to find Kiko standing beside her. “Your... Your dead” she gasped. “So then am I?”

“Neither of you are dead” twin voices answered the catsect. Turning both were staggered to see their respective Goddess’s standing before them.

“This is a world far outside your Galaxy” Hisheril told her daughter. “Look above you.”

Looking up both mortals were amazed to see the great elliptical starfield of their galaxy above them. “Felina?” Kiko asked softly, obviously confused.

“So you don’t know it all” the catsect answered.

“Uh.. No.”

Merithel smiled. “No, you don’t. Nor do we. There is simply too much within one universe for any one creature, no matter how great, to understand. We are bound to our Galaxy. Though we may know everything about it, no entity may know everything. Its mind would self destruct into madness, for there is simply too much to know. This is certain as many have tried, many will try. All fall into madness, ceasing to be.”

“Great Mother. Why are we here” Kiko asked in a soft, very respectful tone.

“This is your final test my daughter. Just as it was our final tests when we completed our quests dozens of universes’s ago. My sister?”

Hisheril laughed. “I remember well my quest sister. I almost failed. Still.” She walked forward, until she stood within a breath of Felina. “Daughter. You are Guardian of my last children. Return them to greatness as you promised me. Return them to the stars. There are no races within billions of light years of this system, and those are all still struggling from the muds. Bring my children into the light that I may great you as a sister, not as a child.” Her wings swung forward, enveloping the stunned catsect. When they opened again Felina was different. Still the same physically, yet different. “Welcome to the life of a Goddess my daughter.”

Hisheril stepped back as Merithel stepped forward. “Normally this test is for one alone” she told a gaping Kiko. “Since there are two of you, we have arranged one to make your task the more difficult. You may fail, most do. Yet succeed my child, and I too will greet you as a sister.” She too took her mortal child within her arms, both vanishing into a glow no mortal eye could stand. When she too stepped back Kiko stood as she had been. Physically the same as she had been born, her stubs of horn gone, her eyes again normal sized. Yet she too was somehow different. At her side was a second Honor blade, one a twin of the one she had given Felina only a day, or an eternity ago. “Welcome my daughter, to your last test.”

“I don’t want to be a Goddess” Kiko complained.

“Neither do I” Felina admitted.

“Only those who have no such wants or needs succeed.” Merithel finished. “Look above you. Comes now your task. Raise them above what they are, for they have lost much of their knowledge through the millennium they have slept. They are nothing more now than the animals you were when first you arrived. Fail, they cease to exist. Succeed, they become what would have been.”

“Had that been your wish, you would have failed. None who desires to be a god may succeed.” Hisheril explained. “You may each ask one question. Felina?” 

“How much time” the catesect asked. “Are we given?”

“Until you succeed, or fail. Remember that which once ruled your dreams has been given power to war against you. As to the why, because there are two of you. What is can do is rule those who surrender to it willingly. No others. Kiko?”

“Our friends” the mouse asked, instantly wondering if she had chosen the right question.

“Have met the fate they made for themselves. They will be reborn of course, as all are eventually. Would you have them here? They would become part of your people, forever reborn here. Never again in their birth galaxy.”

“I would like that” the mouse admitted. “At least a few.”

“You may both name five” Merithel agreed. Felina?”

“Teressa Kolzell” the catsect answered. Fantus Millin, Marcus Grandell. No others.”

“Three Hisheril asked. “Not five?”

“Beyond this mouse, who I know now has merged her soul with mine Mother. There are no others.”

“Very well. You Kiko?”

“Dia Ti, Varnell, Jeffary Deft, Mary Yano and Rhimus Lee.”

“An interesting selection. Very well, our gift to you. When those eight die their souls will be reborn here. You will know them, but know this also. They will never be the individuals you once knew. They will not know you so do not be shamed when they bow to you. Though I truly believe that three of those names will never bend knee to you. It shall be interesting to see what occurs. Now we must leave.”

“But...” both women started to say in unison. Yet it was too late as both Goddess’s were gone. In their passing came the sound of laboring engines. Looking up they saw the great multi-globed ship landing, pieces falling away even as it approached the ground. For to Kiko’s eyes it was obvious that this ship had seen more time than its designers had planned.

“I’ll never forgive you for this” Felina growled as she watched her future arrive.

“You need more bells” was Kiko’s only reply.