In the time of Oharu

The Second Volume November 1936 to November 1937

Chapter 1

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Spontoon Island created by Mr. Ken Fletcher. Used with permission.

Songmark and other characters (See Appendix A for complete character listing)

created by Mr. Simon Barber, used with permission.

November 28^th, 1936

“You’ll never get away with this Ming” a strong young male voice threatened. Another voice, one with a heavy Mandarin accent answered him in a derisive manner.

“But my dear Flash. As you can see. I already have. Dale is aboard my ship being dressed in her wedding gown. By sundown we will be Emperor and wife. Then she will grant me many strong sons. Or die. That choice is hers to make. You cannot escape from that pit Flash Gordon. Even if you could find help, it would take days to escape that pit. So I leave you to your thoughts. Guards, seal this beggar into his tomb.”

A heavy thud of something immensely heavy came from the radio’s speaker, a sound of welding filled the speaker followed by the trademark laugh of Ming the Merciless. Music swelled up, slowly covering that dark laugh until it too faded. An announcers voice soon followed. “Will Ming marry Dale? Will Flash somehow escape. And Professor Zarkov. Will he return from Lower Prudish before it is all too late? Tune in next week for the next chapter in our play. The Marriage of Dale Arden. And now a word from our sponsor, Alabaster Soaps...”

Oharu Wei stood slowly as the radio continued its messages, thanking the McGee’s for their gift of time. Gathering the few items she had purchased during her visit to Casino Island she walked to the door, Butterfly McGee stepping beside her. “That business offer still stands” the larger woman reminded the mouse.

“Is not allowed. Priestess to enter into business” Oharu reminded her hostess. “Even selling of own art could be too much. Great Mother has not decided.”

Butterfly giggled, it was an oddly girlish sound from one of her age, and size. “Its been months. You mean she hasn’t told you yet. Oharu, had she not decided we would not be selling. Had she decided no, we would not be selling. We are selling, so the answer was yes. Great Mother is only pulling your tail for a bit I think.” They walked to the resorts main door, pausing to watch as an aircraft drifted slowly into Spontoon Harbor. “You love to fly” Butterfly noted.

“Yes” Oharu admitted. “I do, when can. I love serve more though.”

“Other than your art. Nikki is teaching you how to work on aircraft yes?”

Oharu shifted her weight, her now worn blue kimono shifting as her body moved, to worn now to make more than a sack-like shape. “For help with Clay. Yes. I learn much under her instruction. “

“Then your doing the best that you can. Well it was wonderful having you visit Honored Mother. Next week?”

“Same Ming time. Same Ming channel” the mouse answered, laughter in her eyes. “Now must hurry. Will be long past sunset by time I return to Glen.”

Later that evening as Oharu continued her work she was approached by one of her students. “Shihyou. It is true then that your daughter said no?”

Oharu turned away from the rubbing she was making of a worn stone by torchlight. Behind her stood Ote’he, the young girl holding a length of bamboo in her paws with carved markings upon it.

“Yes” the mouse answered, returning to her work as though nothing important had occurred. Hoping that her student would leave things at that, for she was truly in pain today from stretching so much. So much so she was afraid that her temper might be shortened.

“Shihyou. She was your choice. Why would she refuse such an honor.”

There was nothing too do but explain. Taking a deep breath Oharu turned around, setting he paper aside as she settled into a new position. Her legs thanked her for the rest, her feet worshiped her in throbbing silence. “Ote’he” the mouse explained. “Tatiana has different path than one I wished for her. I could but offer. Was her choice yes or no. Not mine.”

Ote’he looked down at her bamboo, running a claw along several carefully cut symbols before she spoke again. “It is not for us to force, only to offer” she finally said. “It is her choice to accept or refuse. Thank you Shihyou. Though I much looked forward to sharing my studies with you daughter, I must accept she will not come.”

“You have grown my daughter” Oharu admitted, her voice much lighter than normal, though still filled with the sandpaper roughness only a God could heal. “So much so. So quickly. Your bamboo?”

“It is a prayer. One I will release into the pond in minutes to fall into our islands heart.” She looked away, towards the pond then took a deep breath. “My prayer.”

Reaching out quickly Oharu snatched the carved bamboo from her student, surprising the girl. “You may not call that ones curse upon yourself” the mouse ordered. “You not ready for such a testing.”

“How...” Ote’he bowed. “As Shihyou wishes” she accepted. “I will carve another, without those last lines.”

Snapping the bamboo in her paws Oharu tossed the remains aside. “One day. Yes one day such may be your weight daughter. That one will be healed soon I have been told. Her’s was this test, your sisters as well. All have been tested as all must be. It my daughters path to care for British lady. Thus she cannot be as I wish. It is your path to be with Tehepoa, so he not be full Priest. What will be I can not know, but is path for him I do know.”

“And my friend” the young fur asked.

“I have not asked” Oharu admitted. “I wish some surprise in my life. I choose your friend to surprise me. Maybe she catch rich tourist woman, turn her into fat happy Island wife.” She laughed with Ote’he as the image filled both their minds. “Now off. I must finish several rubbing today.” She turned back to her work, not bothering to watch if her student returned to her own studies of not.

It had been six months earlier, in France that the next assault began. An elegantly dressed wolfhound carefully locked the door to his library, dropping a metal shield over the keyhole in order to prevent spying by his servants. Assured of his privacy here he then walked over to the rooms only other obvious door to repeat the process. A moments time was wasted to insure that the single window was still heavily covered, supposable to protect his precious book collection from sunlight. Only then did he move to his real destination. Approaching a specific set of shelves he reached into a certain dark place, finding the secret hidden there. To even his fingers it was no more than a slight bump, an imperfection in the wood perhaps. In reality it was a well camouflaged bronze plate covering a very special keyhole. Sliding that plate down he withdrew his paw, then taking an ordinary looking key from his ring he looked at it. An ordinary key meant to open a desk drawer perhaps. Or a Tantalus perhaps. Reaching in with that key, using a claw to guide himself to that waiting opening he slipped the key in and turned it.

A click followed, followed by a single section of trim popping from its place. Removing the key, then using one finger to slide that bronze plate back into position lest he ever forget he removed his paw from the darkness. Only after carefully replacing that key on his fob did he reach for that trim. Pulling it out he turned it exactly one third a turn counter clockwise, then pulled again. A deeper click answered his action as a large section of bookshelf several feet away moved outward an inch. Returning the trim back to its original position he pushed it back into place, where it settled itself with yet another solid click. Satisfied that everything was functioning correctly he pulled the bookshelves open, lifted one booted foot over the remaining shelf of books and stepped into his truly private office. Reaching back behind himself he found the ivory handle, carved into the shape of a naked vixen it waited his paw. He gripped it and pulled the bookshelf closed carefully, so as not to disturb the books on its other side even as a pair of heavy bronze bolts seated into their reinforced slots. Now from the outside there was no evidence of a door where he had stepped through.

A tiny click followed his actions as he turned on his portable electric lamp. His special office was exactly as he had left it. No one had been in it since his last visit exactly one month ago. Looking around the walls he admired the carefully framed pairs of photographs mounted there. Each one a proud young woman whom he had either seduced or had captured. One taken before his approach, one after he was done with them. Either way, each woman’s fate had been the same. Once he had tired of them they had been sold to a certain Arabic leader in Cyrenaica. Although the Italians had most recently renamed that land, both he and the Arab preferred the older name. What happened to them after the Arab was tired of them he did not know, nor care. Even now a once proud Italian lay in her cage in his deepest hidden cellar. One of El Duce’s lessor nieces, she had been visiting Paris when she had caught the wolfhounds eye. Such an easy conquest. Within a month of their first meeting she had asked to experience what he could grant. After signing a paper her training had begun. There were still months of careful work before the beautiful bovine would slip over the edge. He didn’t want her to shatter after all. That was much too easy. It was always better when they slipped over gently. Always believing that the final choice, that every step had been their own. When that occurred she would be his toy for a year or so, even helping to capture the next woman in one way or another. In the Italian’s case it had been a Greek who had so ensnared and fired her imagination with tales of his manhood. Of his special training. Slipping information into the young woman’s world of the supposed joys available. That Greek had just yesterday arrived at the Arabs home, her future forever nothing as she had planned. Yet the woman, as all but two who had fallen into the wolfhounds trap would believe until it was too late that she had been released, as was specified in her contract.

Why he did this was a simply reason. Pleasure yes, but in the end it was the money of course. In the end it was always the money. Though he much enjoyed the hunt, then training each woman it was in the end gold that ruled him at this point of his life. Gold would pay his taxes, pay his servants, grant him the yearly travel he so delighted in. It paid to repair, to replace what the Great War had taken from him. It paid those contacts he used and it paid for the grand parties he often threw where even more young ladies came to his eye. Young ladies such as the Italian. One might call him heartless, but one would be wrong. Very wrong, for his second nieces photograph was on those walls as well. A beautiful, snippity poodle, his only brothers youngest daughter. She was long gone from even the Arab’s home by now. He was not heartless. He was completely without a soul.

Assured that all within his world was well, Yves Sébastien Marcel Garennier settled down in the ornate chair behind his desk. From within his overcoat he withdrew several dozen envelopes. Envelopes picked up just last Friday at the London club he was a member of. Carefully he placed them on the desk before him, a nearly perfect pile from which he would savor each and every possible new prey. Though he preferred to find his pets locally there were occasions where even he needed to search elsewhere. The Arab had expressed a desire for a special kind of Dalmatian. None were available locally that were even near acceptable. Thus he had sent requests to certain contacts. Now he had his answers. Licking his lips he selected the top envelope, picked up an ornate gold bladed knife and slit it open. Soon he held in his paws another possible trainee. One who would not be easily swayed. This one, as with only two others, would have to be captured. Not simple tricked. After looking at a second packet he made his decision. Half a world away two very acceptable Dalmatians awaited his paw. If not one, then the other. After all it had been almost a year since his last trip, and the Italian was almost ready for her part in his play.

December 1^st, 1936

“Left. A bit more left” the roughly dressed rabbit yelled, taking another puff from his oversized cigar. “Dammit LEFT!” he screamed abruptly. “That’s right, now lock it down please.”

Across a South island ravine from him six natives were trying there best to place a set piece where their employer wanted it. It was a complex section of carefully painted wood and canvas that was supposed to take the place of a railroad tunnel, when filmed from the right angle. Beyond the fact set that no standard gauge railroad had ever existed on any island near Spontoon, the structure was no lightweight in itself. Two days preparation had gone into the set pieces foundation, otherwise the entire mass would have fallen end over end forty feet to a tiny creek below. Tiny now, but when the rains came in a few days it would be a gully washer, cresting nearly to the foundations top. It would also insure that the flames to come would not cause a jungle fire.

While his hired crew worked to bolt down his movies prize set piece Arnold J. Walton walked over to the crew foreman. A rugged looking wolf he’d worked with many times before. “You boys are doing a bang up job Bola” he announced as he reached easy conversation range. “Better than the unions back home. I’d still be waiting their third coffee break right now and that thing would be laying in the brush, ruining the scenery. Thanks.”

Bola Wingflare smiled at the complement, his battered arctic wolfs face turning the smile into a bear frightening grimace. Still he and Arnold had worked together many times before, so the rabbit wasn’t bothered by that grimace. “Another day to finish, if your lucky rains will come in time. Your stars?”

Arnold laughed, picking up half a melon from a waiting table of food. “Bitchin about the heat. Bitchin cause they can’t stay on Casino in a five star, bitchin caus they wanna bitch.” He bit into the melon, relishing its sweet taste. “Haven’t even tried one of these” he continued. “Overpaid spoiled brats. I oughta take them to Albert Island for a few scenes, after warning the natives of course. That’d stop their bitchin fast. I came in the off season so they wouldn’t have much to do and it jerks their chains to discover this.”

“Yes. Was good choice. But you would not do such to poor Albert Islanders. Would you?” the wolf asked, not bothering to hide the chuckle that followed. “Why, such little meat on either, and both so stringy. Why sell the girl to Red Lily. Send the boy to the Spear. Both life changing experiences.”

Arnold spewed melon into the ravine, having to gasp for breath. “Oh that would be priceless” he managed to answer once his breath returned. “But I promised in writing to bring them back alive and healthy.” He paused, looking around as he thought. “Physically that is. Too bad that female stallion’s busy right now. I bet she could pound some sense into that bottle blond poodles head.”

“True.” Turning to another table, this one under a mountain of books and papers Bola searched for what he needed. Finally he removed a couple of eight by ten glossies from an envelope, walking them over to the still eating rabbit. “They are packing this up now” he reported, offering the photos to his Euro employer.

Arnold tossed the rind of his melon into the ravine. It would decay and become food for plants that way rather than be buried to shrivel up into a leatherlike object. Or so Bola had explained to him. Accepting the photos he held them in his paws, studying each one carefully. “Painted like I asked?”

“Exactly. So garish.”

Tapping one paw with the photos Arnold Walton studied his chosen scene carefully. “I wish ah could afford color film” he admitted. “That’ll never happen. Mings ship should be garish. He’s basically a show off. Honest Bola. I could never afford this set in Hollywood. Why the union pay scale alone would take up three quarters of my budget. I’d rather local actors replace mine and would. If this were not the forth movie. Audiences would positively revolt. Why Dale won’t even allow a ‘European scene’ to be filmed. Stuck up bottled blond.”

“One works” the wolf explained. “With what have.” He returned the photographs to their place, rummaged around until he found a badly dog-eared script. “You always bring this. Why not film” he asked.

Arnold walked over, taking the script from his friends paws. “Because no one will finance it” he answered, tossing the script back on his work table. “I keep looking it over, it just doesn’t want to be changed. Maybe. Maybe one day. But everyone is hung up on Cowboys and Injuns, Religious recreations or space plays.” He looked down at the forlorn script, as if wondering himself. “No one cares about a Penny Lambert adventure.”  

December 3^rd, 1936

Helen Whitehall stood watching as her son played in his bamboo pen. Outside a massive storm was blowing, wind whipped heavy raindrops against her house in a sleeting roar that she hadn’t experienced since the last Fall before leaving home. All in all it was a calming day for her, yet another reason why Spontoon’s school schedule was so odd. Today she had scheduled tests in all her classes, but with this weather only an idiot freely left their homes. A sardonic expression came to Helen’s face then. Idiots, fools and Songmark girls. It was a dead set certainty that dozens of girls wearing Songmark uniforms were battling their way through some task or another. She leaned down, scratching her son’s head behind his right ear. Tests could be made up, lives could not be replaced. Thus other than those who had no choice, all business was suspended until this storm had passed.

An odd scratching came from her front door, causing Helen to look up. Scratching? Was there a broken limb rubbing against her door? If so it could wait. She returned to her son, enjoying just being with him today. There was an awful lot of his father in that young face the hound noted. Then more scratching came from her door, followed by three feeble knocks. Setting her mug of hot coca aside Helen went to her door, opening its tiny peephole to look out. All she could see was the rain slamming against the peepholes glass. Closing the little door she returned to her son, taking him from his playpen and carrying him to his room and crib.

“Mommie will be back in a moment” she told her son, scratching his ear again. Her son Antonius only gurgled, too busy playing with his favorite stuffed toy to notice. Returning to her front door Helen picked up a miniature cricket club that her sister-in-law Willie had sent, then unlocked it. Opening the door she was struck by heavy rain pounding itself through the new and now open screen door. Laying in the doorway, actually against the main door was the calico known as Dia-Kura. She looked up through blood covered fur at Helen, then fell into the house unconscious.

“She will live” Doctor Kiwi announced as he left Helen’s second bedroom later that night. It was the one that she now kept for overnight guests, like Maria Inconnutia. “Concussion, broken arm. Broken leg. Nothing time and nature won’t heal.” He studied Helen’s blood covered clothing. “You two have a fight?”

“Fight?” Helen asked. “Us? No doctor. I don’t think anything could get me angry at Dia. She just fell into my home that way.”

Kiwi laughed softly as his nurse stepped from the room, making her way silently past the two. “No offense Mrs. Whitehall” he said. “Those wounds are from a fall and neither of you show the damage a fight would cause. She should awaken in an hour or two. I left some pain medication by the bed. Make her take it, even if you have to sit on her chest and shove it down her throat. Now I have to get back to hospital. Call when you need us.”

“Her bill please?”

Kiwi paused half way to the door. “Bill Mrs. Whitehall? I thought you knew. No Honored Mother is ever billed for medical care. They are too important to us. Too rare. No Mrs. Whitehall, if anyone owes anything, its we who owe her. I won’t tell anyone else, but if she’d stayed out in this storm much longer. With those injuries.” He shook his head no. “By morning she would be a cold corpse. Now keep her warm, get as much of that hot coca she loves into her that you can. No alcohol. Not for a week at least. I will be back tomorrow afternoon to speak with the Honored Mother. Good-night Mrs Whitehall.”

Helen closed her front door against the cold rain, reflecting the last time it was raining when she had visitors. Walking back to her kitchen she picked up her phone, asking the operator for a certain number. It would not do to miss many classes, still caring for an Honored Mother just might be accepted as an excuse in this case.

Dia-Kura woke to numbness. It was not a feeling that she had much experience with and it frightened her. Had she broken her spine? The absolute last thing the calico could remember was that wet stone rolling under her foot, then nothing. “Anyone” she called in Spontoonie. For she was in a bed, something more rare than snow to her personal world. Thus someone must be near.

“A moment” came a well known voice, the sound of which brought relief to the worried priestess. This then was Helen’s home. Helen, her only Euro friend. In truth, one of the three people in this mortal world she considered a friend. Allowing her mind to withdraw from the near panic it had approached the calico waited. Whatever had occurred was done. Nothing could change what was, not even the Great Mother herself. What ever her future, it was a path she could not step away from now. And it was still raining heavily outside.

Helen entered the room, a thick mug of coca in her paws. She sat the mug on a table next to her guest, taking a moment to brush the covers that protected her visitors battered body before sitting on a waiting chair. “Dia, what is the last thing you remember” she asked.

Dia-Kura noted the worry in her hostess’s voice. A kind of worry only a woman who truly cared could show. “Not attacked” she answered truthfully. For lying to this woman was something the calico would never do. “Stone rolled under foot. Nothing else.”

“I see. And what were you doing out in a storm like this my friend” Helen asked. “It has been storming two days now, no place for one of your delicate form to be traipsing about in.”

Dia took a deep breath, noting that by doing so she had just proved that she still had control over her body. To some extent. “Love the storms” she admitted. “Love the lightning. I dance in the storms.”

“For pleasure.”

Dia giggled in response to that surprised voice. “All need some pleasure. Even priestess.”

“Your pleasure my friend cost you a broken leg, a concussion and a broken arm” Helen explained. “Not to mention a torn back, more bruises than a boxer after twenty rounds and almost your life.” She stared down at the nearly helpless woman. “Doctor Kiwi said that if you had remained in that rain much longer you would not be with us now. So, to protect you from your own foolishness dear Honored Mother, you will be my guest until you heal. Fully.”

“I can not” Dia-Kura protested. “I have duties.”

“I will speak to Moricia. As I recall she is an Honored Mother as well?”

“Yes. But not, as Euro’s explain such, full time.”

Helen shook her head in confusion. “You really must explain these part time full time Priestess’s to me Dia. Now you will remain in that bed until the Doctor says otherwise. I will care for you exactly as I care for my son. If you need anything, you ask me. If it can be obtained I will find it. Questions?”

“For this you will ask in payment?”

Leaning forward Helen carefully placed her paws on each side of the calico’s face. “Everything. You will explain everything my sweet. Else I will bath your fair body in honey, shove a large shaft up a very private part of your body and sell you as a treat to the Euros.”

Dia couldn’t help herself. She laughed. Laughing, even through the pain medication filling her body brought pain. Gasping she managed to stop. Only to chuckle again. “You would.”

“No. I would not sell you” Helen corrected. “I might give you to my son instead.”

This caused Dia-Kura to laugh again, though this time not as freely. “You are good friend Helen Whitehall.”

Helen pulled away, reaching for the mug of coca. “And I hope to be your friend until we both pass away of old age. Now let me help you into a sitting position. Then we’ll get this coca into you. Doctors orders.”

As Dia sipped a thought came to her. “Helen...”

“Your wearing a diaper and nothing else. A diaper exactly as my son is wearing though yours is somewhat larger. I have already changed it twice.” She gave a practiced leer. “I know all your body has to offer little priestess. Fear not, I will have you as my own.” Then the leer passed. “Your built exactly as I am, though with an interesting scar. Maybe one day you will tell me about it. Now drink. I am never a danger to you.”

“Fishing accident” Dia admitted between sips of the beloved coca. “Brothers hook flew wrong. Painful.”

“I bet it was. Who emasculated your brother?”

Dia giggled weakly again. “Was accident. He still apologize.” She pushed away the near empty mug. “Tired. We talk again when I am awake?”

“We talk.” Helping her guest back into a comfortable position she pulled the covers back up. “You’re a beautiful woman Dia” she told the drifting calico. “Were it not for Catherine, I would ask.”

“Another life. I would maybe consider” came a sleepy voice. “Or no. Not this one.”

Surprised Helen stood, taking the mug with her. That Dia-Kura, the well known hermitress would even think of considering. This life or another. That was a surprise, though not information to be used. Ever. Quietly she gathered her things together, taking them to be cleaned for their next need.

Later the next day Dia slowly opened her eyes again, though this time there was more life within them. Looking around herself she felt decadent. She should be tending shrines, gathering her next meal, visiting villagers. Not lying in this luxurious bed in her friends home. Accepting what was she relaxed, enjoying the never before felt softness of a Euro bed.

December 5^th, 1936

It was one of those calm sweet late evenings in Winter. Even so a cool breeze was just now beginning to touch the bowl shaped depression high in Main Islands mountain chain that was traditionally home for all High Priestess’s. Today, as in days before and many to come after, Spontoon’s newest High Priestess sat in silence. Saimmi, once known simply as Saimmi Hoele’toemi uncapped her water jar as her unofficial favored assistant, the mouse known as Oharu Wei approached. While waiting the mouse’s arrival she gently poured two mugs of water. Unconsciously her actions mirrored those her predecessor Huakava had made when she and Saimmi had spoken. Now Huakava had passed on, leaving to Saimmi the weight of guiding Spontoon’s almost one hundred full and part Priestess. Her passing had left a great hole within the community, one that would be seasons before itself passing. This though always happened when a Great One found the end of her path. Adjustments were made as duties and responsibilities were slowly shifted. Once there had been three times a hundred full Priestess for each High Priestess to guide. That had been long before. Perhaps, with success, it would be once again. But not in Saimmi’s lifetime, that she felt certain. “Greetings” she said to Oharu as the mouse stopped just outside the fires small circle, having broken into her thoughts with nothing more than her own presence.

“I have come. As you asked” the mouse announced as softly as she was able with her broken voice. Unlike most priestess’s, this one now spoke only in Spontoon to other Priestess’s. In truth, only occasionally would she shift into any of the other languages she knew. Then only when socially the best choice or when needed for clarity. Such as when a word had to be explained to her in English or Cipangan, even once in a rare while in French. Yet she fought to learn her adopted countries language as one with a deadly fever fought to live. It was her only way to truly understand both the religion and people she now served. “You have a journey for me?”

“Please sit, be welcome” the feline offered. There was a hint of deadly tiredness in the mouse’s voice. One not of physical exhaustion, but something possibly more important. As Oharu moved to obey Saimmi held out one of the old fired clay cups. Accepting it Oharu carefully studied the cups surface, exactly as she would one given her in her birth countries tea ceremony. Although Saimmi, nor many other Spontoon citizens quite understood the significance of the mouse’s action, for her it seemed important. It caused no harm, thus it was accepted. One day perhaps it would be fully understood.

“This is serious” the mouse noted, having determined which cup Saimmi had unconsciously selected. It was the same one Huakava used to give Saimmi when they had spoken of important things, with Oharu as well. Unconsciously the new High Priestess had selected it when her need was great.

“You remember what I told you of my voyage. To Cranium Island?”

Oharu gently took a sip of her water, more for rituals sake than thirst. “I am to recover that stone?”

Saimmi laughed, though softly. “Yes. I failed in my self appointed mission ” she admitted. There was no irritation within her voice, for what was done had been beyond her power to stop. Not without a cost greater than she was willing to pay, at that time. “There is no need to rub that salt into my wounds. Your task though is to recover the one on Krupmark. Without my failing.”

Oharu settled her cup carefully into her lap before replying. “I may not step foot upon Cranium, nor Krupmark Island” she softly reminded her senior. “Huakava made this matter clear to me. No matter my own desires.”

“As long as Huakava lived” Saimmi reminded the mouse. “She so informed me of this matter. In truth she made that decision before she was certain that you would not take her place. We both know your were her first choice, as you would be my first choice. If I thought that there was any chance that you would accept. You are aware it was with great disappointment that she accepted your refusal. Oharu. I wished for this duty that I give you now. In this I was refused. Now I am High Priestess. I may not leave Spontoon for such a dangerous mission until one is ready to replace me. As you refuse forever that honor, it may be half a lifetime before another is ready to accept your service. Even my leaving Spontoon for more than a few hours would prove difficult at this time. Still. Unfortunately. She who’s name we must not speak as yet, lest her servant be made aware now knows where that fragment is. Should she obtain it, recover and marry it to its opposite fragment. Like calls to like. Not only would the Krupmark stone replace that drained stones power, she would soon know where the main fragment is.”

“Sacred Lake” the mouse added.

Saimmi sighed her acceptance of those two words, drinking from her own mug. “Oharu. We both know that the Cranium stone is without power. Like a bowl inverted, it has been drained dry. Yet like that same bowl it may be refilled. Either by time, thousands of years or hundreds of lives. Should she find the Krupmark fragment it would refill the other instantly. Worse. They would join. Joined their power will be tenfold what only one is. They would then show her where the main fragment is. Ten times tenfold. There are not enough priestess’s within three days travel to stop her should she marry the three into one.”

Oharu’s tail curled around her waist, her only outward display of her own emotion. “I am unaware of these fragments true powers” she admitted. “Though I have been made aware of their history. That, and more than many priestess’s freely went to their deaths, giving their souls into slavery in the purifying of these islands. Great One. I have not even spent my night alone on Sacred Island. I have not been fully accepted as yet, though we are both aware I have been judged. I can still be rejected from all. Yet you offer this?”

“Yes and Yes” the feline agreed. “Well over two hundred died” Saimmi admitted. “Almost all who lived then. So much was lost, simply to gain a place to live. We lost at least three generations of knowledge. Even now there are gaps. Though your own knowledge, which you so freely share seems to fill many of those gaps. Those important rituals though, the binding ones. These are still known. Huakava taught you all but one in her final days. Tonight I will teach the last of them too you. If you will accept this quest Sacred Island will wait another month. Or two. For this it must wait. I have been made aware that they who judge understand, who await you with interest. They accept.”

“As you need then. I will freely accept your desires as I always will” the older woman agreed, setting her clay cup aside in order to take out her ever present notebook. “I will never deny you my service” she continued as she opened her book. This simple act brought a soft laugh from the feline, causing Oharu to glance up.

“Of all the priestess’s I have known you are the only one to always take notes. But first. You are unaware of these fragments true powers. It is enough for now to tell you that when holding one, if the need is great. If she who holds it has the will reality may be changed. This change is permanent, unless that same holder uses the exact same fragment to reverse that change, sets a limit to it or a more powerful force intervenes. While you hold that fragment, and only you must hold it be very careful what you desire. I am sending only part of my original team with you. Amelia and Helen will not be with you. I know that you will sorely miss their budding abilities, still your Molly will be one of those who is with you. You have made me well aware of your choices regarding this one. Be careful what you desire of her when holding that stone. It will be granted.”

“Molly should not go” Oharu admitted. “Though my Fall season is done, still my heart aches for her as a lost child aches for his mother. Even a glance, a scent of her. I have fought to set her aside. Fought and failed. It is too dangerous for her. Great Mother this truth is, I am not beyond yielding to temptation where she is involved. I could change her. To my bitter regret I am certain that should she glance to me the right way, the right moment. I would take her. No matter the cost.”

“Or by throwing your life between her and Death himself as we are well aware you have already done. I know that I press you hard Oharu, as did Huakava. I know that you are close to collapse, though how close you stand I am unsure. I would rather you went to Sacred Island, then took your yearly rest before accepting this task. From what I see now, perhaps we have pressed you much too hard without rest. Still I have no one else to send. Your own students are not yet ready by many years. Alone even Amelia and Helen would be crushed in instants, their training is not yet ready for such dangers without support of one like you or I. There are only two other Priestess I could choose, though for this mission even they are less than my students. She will be there within the week. There is no time. I am sorry. For in this I may be using you completely. You may return to me as a husk of what you were when you left. You may never return to me. I may be sending you to your doom, to spend eternity as a slave to that darkness held within those stones. This you understand?”

Oharu stared into the small fire, letting Saimmi’s admission, her warnings wash past her as a forgotten breeze, unremarked. It was not her place to complain of the duties given her. Her life was to serve, to aid, to teach. In truth had she not been captured by the doe, she would have spent her life in blissful happiness, nothing greater than she was now for what she was now was what she had dreamed of all her life. Within those flames though she hoped to see the future. Where those fragments were involved though, all was chaos. Still one image, a sharp warning abruptly flashed before her eyes. “One will be changed” she whispered, her body shaking in reaction to that truth. “If it is Molly. If her. I must be thrown down. I must not be allowed to bend her desires to my own. Still. Yes, I will go. To serve you. To serve Spontoon. For that, anything you desire from myself is permitted. You will teach me this ritual?”

Saimmi studied those words. She was aware of her favorite priestess weakness. That she would always stand ahead even of her new warrior priestess as their protection. She who was becoming Spontoon’s most powerful religious shield had taken many weights upon her shoulders. Saimmi was aware of all the reasons why those weights pressed upon the soul before her. Molly Procyk was by far not the most pressing problem Oharu dealt with each day. Though she was the keystone that kept the mouse from breaking. Should Molly turn from her, it would be a very short time for that collapse to occur. Carefully Saimmi stepped through those weights. Oharu’s near breaking at the paws of her own people, her soul ripping disownment of her own God King, her country. There had been the now dead sea monster that had fed off the mouse’s body, leaving behind a fear of salt water Oharu could never defeat even with Saimmi’s help. She had seen that recently in her deepest fire dream though Saimmi held that secret still. A Cranium Island created creature that had almost killed her. Following those two events had been Karen Davies and Henrika, finally the bright furred Euro. She who’s breaking through to understanding had required the mouse to step father than even Huakava had expected. For that young feline had proven stronger willed than most female Euros. Much stronger. Yet Oharu had succeeded where no one else could have.

Had Oharu finally reached her own shattering point? Every priestess had a point which to step even a hairs width further would cripple, even destroy them. It was the responsibility of each High Priestess to know when their daughter was near that point so that she could arrange healing time for them to rest. But Oharu was a different case. Her previous training made reading the stress’s within her impossible even for Spontoon’s Wild Priests. As they themselves had warned Saimmi only weeks ago, much to their own dismay. Her impossibly calm exterior made lie to every reading Saimmi knew of. Not even the one star nosed mole priestess had been able to burrow through that curtain, a curtain of ancient ritual the mouse constantly wrapped around herself. Her single mindedness to be useful, to understand, to bring together all things within a single hut. These walls deflected even the deepest fire dream, yet those did say that the mouses last test would be of the heart. That could only mean one thing.

There was only one way to discover Oharu’s limit the feline know, and discover it she must. She must carefully allow the mouse’s heart to fall as it must, but buffer that fall in some way. Only then hope that she could piece her back into a useful whole. Still that problem had to wait for now. She hoped. If she lost Oharu, if she could not return to oneness that fractured soul then she would lose a most powerful tool she desperately needed. Spontoon desperately needed. But if she did not know the mouses limits then she could never use her fully.

It would stun any European to discover that two such dissimilar woman had not only a friendship, but held within their paws the current future of Spontoon’s native religion. Certainly they would have had difficulty accepting that Spontoon’s High Priestess was so young. In truth, younger than most she served as leader. Younger even than Oharu herself, though by very little. However unlike claims by other established, organized religions seniority had nothing to do with ability. Thus the choice had been made not by politics, as so many religions had devolved into, but the personal choice of she whom was being replaced. It would shock them even more to discover that she who so easily placed herself below Saimmi, who had given the choice of her own life or death too, had been first offered, and refused that same position. Not once or twice. But three times. Once to the High Priestess Huakava, once to the Wild Priests and once to the local spirits themselves. It would instill unreasoning fear within them to learn that the little mouse, so calm, so obedient, was many more times powerful than she whom she served. Yes, it would cause ancient men to titter mindlessly in fear should they discover the little mouse’s future. Saimmi though had no fear, she would never fear. For Oharu had sworn her service to the feline and one thing Spontoon’s High Priestess knew with certainty about the little mouse. Oharu would destroy herself before disobeying Saimmi.

“Then this will be done” Saimmi decided. “Come, I will teach you my daughter. But if you shatter on me. If I lose your service I shall be sorely vexed by you failure to properly serve me.”

“I will never fail you Great Mother” was the mouse’s only answer.

Still, there was something in her voice that much worried the High Priestess. Worried her greatly.

December 9^th, 1936

Dia-Kura limped into the parlor of Helen Whitehall’s home. Though she was healed now of her lessor injuries, not even she could heal broken bones in less that the time the Gods had decided. Helen’s hired help quickly left the kitchen, assisting the smaller calico into a waiting divan. “My thanks” the injured priestess said softly.

“I am honored to help you Honored Mother” the older woman answered. “Coca or tea?”

“Coca please” Dia answered. As the other woman returned to the kitchen Dia-Kura reflected upon her situation. She was injured. Yesterday the Great Mother herself had visited, asking how she was. There had been a strain in the felines voice. One that told Dia a great deal. “You have decided Great Mother” Dia had said. “You will send them?”

“I will” Saimmi answered softly. “I much fear for them.”

“I was to go” Dia remained her religious superior. “This” she indicated her bothersome casts, “Was an accident.”

Saimmi had actually laughed. “On my pretty little calico. Huakava and I have long known of your love of storms. Accidents do happen.”

Dia remembered looking down, ashamed. “I was chosen, I should have been more careful.”

Saimmi had reached out, her paw lifting Dia’s face by the smaller felines chin. “You can no more ignore the storm that I may stop breathing. It is you. It will always be you. Now rest, heal. The son is just as important a duty to you as that stone. Unlike the stone, he holds no power.” She giggled again, surprising her Priestess. “At least not until he grows. Oh then will tails snap sideways in his gaze.”

“Helen does not know, though she suspects” Dia warned.

Saimmi shrugged. “She is his mother. Certainly she will suspect. That is the way it must be. Now heal, I will return again. When you are whole.”

That had been yesterday. This was today. Gratefully she accepted the heavy mug of coca brought to her, then looked out at the sunlit scene before her. That Spontoon hoped to marry one of their daughters to Helen Whitehall’s son the American well knew. But exactly which daughter of Spontoon that would be. That would surprise the hound to no end. After a sip of her drink Dia Kura began a long, involved prayer for the safety of those who would be going to Krupmark.

December 11^th, 1936

Although heavily overcast, with a steady threat of rain it was as yet still a calm day. A day perhaps meant more for reading by a small fire or even sewing than for meeting ones own fate. Yet no one is in truth master or mistress of their own fate, though they may always write their own destiny. Thus it was with a curious mind that Maria Inconnutia walked towards Song Sodas, her mind certainly filled with more questions than answers. She had been called to the offices of Songmark just after her last class. There she had found Miss Wildford waiting for her, an envelope in her paws. “You have a meeting” the mixed breed instructress had said, offering Maria the envelope. “I think perhaps, this time. I think that you should seriously consider refusing it.”

“Why should I refuse” Maria had asked as she opened the envelope. “Information is always useful. Perhaps this will become a new source.” She drew out a signed card, the signature that of Miss Wildford herself. “Any one soda with one ice cream in a private room. Only myself?” She smiled to her instructor. “Have I a secret admirer as well, such as Molly has? Will I be running off some heart struck young woman. Or finding myself held in the arms of some rich male. Will rich dresses and deadly weapons fall from the sky into my paws as they do her’s? Will water taxi drivers look upon me with curiosity, wondering how I could be such a fool as to ignore such a great love? Or is there one waiting to bind me, to shave me, to drag me helpless to a slave block on Kau Hon.”

“That” Miss Wildford answered in a tight voice as she turned away, showing the bovine her back. “Is for you to decide. Maria. Riches are not always simply gold or pride. I will only give this advice once. Do not go. I will not say why. You would know that the instant you see those who wait.”

Slipping her card back into its envelope Maria read a second card held within while she considered her instructors words. It was a pass. One allowing her to leave ‘for an undetermined time.’ “Those. Two? How impressive. I am now most popular. Miss Wildford, please. I have learned in my time here to trust you and the other instructors with my life. To trust that none of you will ever consciously harm us. I have also come to understand that you have debts to the local powers. Government, Business and Religious. Our bodies are sometimes the coin that you must pay to service those debts. Yet we learn from each encounter. My uncle sent me here to learn Miss Wildford. Not to be a coward, nor to run from every mystery. I have the blood of true Rome in my veins, though in truth I believe my Uncle does not. With your permission I will see to this meeting.”

Miss Wildford was looking at a picture when she answered, though the angle was wrong for Maria to make out which one. “Mystery’s come in many flavors my Imperial child. Have you not had enough taste of those available here? Do you, like those whom came before you need more blood to sweeten your life?”

“Blood is not something I have a taste for Miss Wildford” Maria admitted in a less aggressive voice. “I don’t quite understand your meaning. For adventure. Never. Though I do admit that Cranium Island came close to shattering my mind. My sanity I owe to my dorm mates. I will trust them always. With my life, perhaps even my soul. Miss Wildford. I was a haughty self important young woman. One filled with my own self worth when I arrived here. I cared only for pleasure, speed and adventure. Nothing else. Perhaps in many ways I still am that woman. Still no matter what occurs from this, even should I fall to appear upon some madfurs table as his dinner. Please believe me when I say this. Had I not been accepted here. Had I not accepted your rule I would be less than I ever could be. I would be nothing but a playgirl all the days of my life, if I were even still alive by now. More than a few of my friends no longer breath. To this I thank you all. Now please. When must I return?”

“When you wish. If you wish. Maria. Until this is done there will always be a place open for you to complete your studies. Though it may be years before you return, or simply hours. This is not something we desire our students to face. Yet. Maria. We have no choice. In order to prepare you for what awaits you outside these gates we must always allow you to choose each pathway for yourselves. To our great sorrow we have lately discovered that we cannot protect you outside these gates. Only prepare and warn. For now though. Please leave” came the answer.

“Is this like the danger in China you warn us about” Maria asked, true curiosity now in her voice. Yet though she waited several minutes no answer came. Hesitating, at last deciding there would be no answer Maria left quietly. What was it about China that had so changed her instructors the bovine wondered. What could be so bad that it made Cranium Island’s known dangers pale in comparison. This she decided to discover, if for nothing else than to answer her own question. It would be an answer she would find soon, to her own great horror.

Miss Wildford waited until Maria had left before abruptly slamming her fist hard into the wall. Only then did she turn away from the photo. A photograph that showed four smiling women. They were standing in front of an excavation in a large trash mound. Three felines and a hound. A trash mound that was once to be found on Songmark property. Miss Wildford wasn’t one of the four, she hadn’t been part of Songmark then. That had been Miss Pelton’s place. A fact that was pressed into her soul every time someone, usually an old student, asked for her. That mound was now... What was it? Everyone who saw what had been rebuilt under its protective surface, even herself reported something different. Photographs were always... odd. With a growl of anger she sat back at her desk.

To be asked about China. Almost it angered the woman, only almost. Maria had the curiosity one associated with reporters or spies. Looking to her door Miss Wildford felt a tear drift down the fur of her face. She had seen the remains. They had all seen the remains at Rabbi Miller and Mrs. Whitehall’s agreement. To prove to them for all time what it was that they must shield their students from. But she could only shield them while they were her students. Maria would find the truth. Of that the feline was certain. “I am so sorry Maria” she whispered.

When Maria arrived at the favored watering hole of almost all Songmark students she happily turned her card over to one of the serving girls. Immediately she found herself escorted to a closed door. Song Sodas had been built with several private rooms. Rooms of different sizes holding any number from two to twenty. Each were used for small parties, an occasional private meeting, at other times something more. Usually they were filled by dorms gladly celebrating finishing some hazardous test Songmark had thrown at them. Many believed that the building was nothing more than a house of cards, rooms tacked upon rooms until the whole thing was a single story crazy quilt of interconnecting halls and doors. It made for some fun, lighthearted adventures. She paused to wonder what Amelia would think, should she discover the map in Maria’s own locked private diary. It had taken nearly a year to work out that floor plan. When she had finished Maria had laughed at the image on her paper. Once.

Now when she opened the door to one of the smaller rooms she found two women waiting. Neither had ever been Songmark students. Neither ever could be. Closing that door behind her the bovine felt her blood chill as Spontoon’s High Priestess Saimmi, no longer Hoele’toemi Marie reminded herself, turned to face her. She well remembered what had happened to her the last time they had met. The other fur she had seen, but did not know her name. That both were priestess’s was glaringly obvious even to her. It wasn’t so much their clothing, for Saimmi wore a lava-lava while the other wore what had to be a kimono, it was the patterns carefully combed in their visible fur. “I won’t go” she decided almost instantly.

Her answer was the older, smaller mouse standing silently, to politely pull a chair out for her. One Maria noted was specifically designed for her physical build. “Hear us out first” Saimmi asked.

“I still have nightmares” Maria informed the woman. “I’m still trying to forget.” She looked at the walnut furred mouse, hardly half her own physical size and realized she’d seen her at Songmark before. At least twice. Maybe more. “Its enough shame for a lifetime.”

“Is the child shamed, when abused by an adult” the mouse asked softly. Her voice though. Her voice Maria realized was the clue. That ragged white strip of fur around her neck... “You’ve been hanged” she stated. Songmark had given her all the tools she needed Maria realized abruptly. When used correctly.

“Is the child shamed” the mouse asked again.

Taking the chairs back Maria spun it around, sitting down like a male would normally do. “You know it isn’t. A child cannot defend itself from what an adult wants. It is the adult who holds forever that shame.”

“Could you defend yourself from the Ghost-walker? Or what took you later” the mouse continued.

Wood crackled under Maria’s paws as she fought to hold back her anger, her humiliation. Splinters fell to the floor under the pressure of her nails. “It melted my crucifix” she whispered. “It laughed. Even as... Even... IT LAUGHED! And I found pleasure it that.”

“As would occur to any untrained” Saimmi admitted. “It was an accident. It was my fault.”

“But I liked it. I enjoyed every moment. I still remember. Saimmi... I think I want it again. I know I do. I am shamed forever.” Maria troubled eyes turned up to the priestess, only to swing onto the mouse when a cool paw laid gently upon her wrist. “She did not know either” the mouse explained. “It was her sacrifice that kept you from bearing even further shame.”

“I could kill her for it though. I wish I had never....” Maria growled.

“No. You will not harm her” Oharu warned as she moved away. “You could not defeat me, defeat me you must to harm the one I serve.”

In answer Maria moved. Her chair slid spinning across the floor towards the mouse as she turned to reach for Saimmi. Or thought she was turning to reach for the feline. Instead she found herself flat on the floor, her arm held behind her back as though by a butterfly, her breasts crushed into the floors rough surface by the mouse’s lessor weight. “I know that move” she cursed. “Why couldn’t I counter it?”

“Because I am faster than you. I will always be faster” the mouse explained as she stepped away, letting Maria gather herself up. “You are afraid to die. I am not, for I have already. Until you are like myself. Until life no longer holds interest to you then you cannot win against me.”

“In a fair fight” Maria admitted. “All right then. I know Saimmi. Who are you?”

“Oharu Wei. Maria. Should you ever attempt to harm the Great Mother again. I warn you only once. Next time it will not be a fair fight. Even if you move this instant you will still lose. Only the cost to you will be more than you could ever hope to afford. Cranium Island will be a pleasant dream after that.”

“O... You’re the one everyone says is in love with Molly. That’s a joke right?” Maria tried to ignore the mouse’s other words, yet they had been delivered with dead certainty.

“Perhaps” Oharu answered. “Miss Wildford said you would laugh. Maria Inconnutia. I need your group. I need you, especially.”

Maria stared at the smaller woman in surprise. “Explains that question. Molly, of course you’ve nothing to live for. An impossible desire.” Then she looked to Saimmi, who had never moved. “The other fragment?” she asked.

“Sit. I will explain” Saimmi answered. As Maria and Oharu found their chairs and sat, Saimmi began explaining what must be done at Krupmark Island. How little time there would be to do it, what dangers were involved and who would face them. Finally she came to an end. “Your questions are?”

Leaning forward on the table Maria let her chin rest in her paws. “Four witches to obtain something that makes our last trip a picnic. Molly, with her Mauser specially hexed. Without her knowledge, to stop any ghosts. To cure her of her fears that her greatest weapon would ever fail her. But what do you need me for.”

“To protect your friend, and the other three ‘witches’ from me. Should I fail” Oharu answered.

Turning her full attention onto the mouse Maria studied her yet again. “I know about you” she admitted. “Rumor is you wont kill. How does that make you dangerous to them. If you were dangerous what am I supposed to do about it?”

Glancing at Saimmi for an instant Oharu as if awaiting a signal drew her utility blade, using it to slice open her own paw. Ignoring Maria’s question she gently worked her hot blood into its iron, speaking words in her native language as she worked. It was a ritual from her ancient past that she preformed as the other two watched in silence. Carefully Oharu made certain that she missed no surface, that she even pressed blood under the guard onto the blades tang. When finished Oharu laid her blade onto the table between her and Maria. “A shade of a shade of a half remembered ghost defeated you” she stated. “A twisted forgotten memory violated you. It took all Saimmi could do to save you from what would have been. What you would have been mother too. What I will face is no shade. It is no memory. It is a source itself. If I fail it will destroy me without the effort you use to blink one eye. It will then take over my body, to use it to destroy you all. I have no ability to defeat it should it wake fully. My greatest strength I have been warned would be as a candle flame against a Typhoon’s winds. Molly’s weapon alone will delay it enough that you two may escape unharmed. Those close to the stone, we four witches as you call us. We will pay the same price our hundreds plus sisters payed to make Spontoon safe again. There is only one way you may save them all from joining my fall, should that happen.”

Maria had glanced at the blade. Unremarkable, a typical locally made utility blade. Meant to cut grass, clean a fish or open a coconut. Completely unremarkable. Other than the drying blood upon it. “Explain” she demanded.

“You have tasted a shade of a shade of a half remembered ghost of that which I will face” Oharu answered, allowing Saimmi to take her injured paw within her own. “Tasted, and enjoyed beyond imagining. Tasted and become addicted such that neither Saimmi nor I may hope to ever cure you. Just as nothing but a God can cure me of my need for Molly. We would both gladly give ourselves to destruction if only to again taste that which is now forbidden us. Because of that curse upon your soul you will know the instant I join battle, the instant I win or lose. Should I win we will be safe. Should I lose. Maria, you will have but a moments breath to cut my heart out. To hold it against that which has defeated me as it tries to recover that still beating heart. Without my heart that darkness will have no center to focus its desires. Its power will be unfocused, weakened. Do not hesitate to take my heart. You must do this. I beg you to do this, for my soul will already be enslaved forever beyond your ability to free me. Hold my heart long enough that all of you escape. Once above ground you are safe, you may then allow it to have my heart. For my body will at that time be useless to it. Should I fail it will be a hundred years before this attempt may be tried again. By anyone.”

Maria shivered, leaning away from the emotionless voice of that mouse. “What about you?”

“As I said. I will be gone” Oharu admitted. “As Amelia on Cranium Island would have been, had she not known the correct rituals. As you would have been, had not that scientist found you of interest for his unnatural experiments. I will have joined my sisters in eternal enslavement to that which I seek to defeat. Maria, if I am defeated there will not be any possibility of my survival. The others must not know, for a single miss-spoken word, a stumble. Any failure in the ritual we must do will mean I am lost.”

Turning to Saimmi Maria almost snarled. “Why her, not you?”

“I am High Priestess now Maria” Saimmi answered as she released Oharu’s paw. “ I wish to go. I do not wish to expose my daughter Oharu to that which awaits. She is more than my servant, she is my friend. Yet by law I may not leave Spontoon until one who may take my place is ready. And there is this. I have faced this already. Though her battle will be with a wakening stone, while mine was with the monsters stone created. We both will have faced the same. Besides, wither or not Oharu will ever admit it in this she is the Mistress. I a stumbling first year student. She has faced such things before in her longer life. Faced them, embraced them and dispelled them. If you do not believe her abilities. If you are unsure. Travel to Meeting Island and speak with Mrs. Helen Whitehall. Inform her I asked her to explain to you what Oharu did for her. Or step to that place within Songmark itself. Speak to she who was once a student and who now abides there. Ask her what Oharu did for her.”

She looked to the little mouse, sorrow in her eyes. “She must know.” What signals passed between them Maria did not know, but the next words were a shock. “Oharu saved Molly’s life when she was ill. Not once. Not twice but three times. She stood before Death himself. Stood and he turned away. Three times. Maria. Before you is no little mouse fem who has been badly treated. When she warned you about attacking me. Maria, she would not move a muscle and you would spend the rest of your life screaming in fear. She IS more than I. You are safer with her than with your dorm. For though she will not kill. As a friend once told me after a bad injury. It is amazing how much damage a body can accept. And still live. And Molly will be with you.”

“You both act like it’s a forgone conclusion she’ll fail” Maria snapped, trying to push aside those words. “Like there is no chance. If that’s the truth then why bother at all?”

“We are planning for the worst that can happen” Saimmi corrected. “Oharu, like myself at Cranium is quite capable of a successful completion of this quest. Truth is, she should have gone to Cranium. You would never have been touched. Nothing there would be so foolish as to attack her or her party. I did not fully expect what we found. I had to adjust, as your kind are fond of saying, on the fly. Still only a fool does not plan for the worst that could happen. As Songmark trains you I think. To plan for the worst. There is very little chance Oharu will fail. Huakava and I have trained her and the others too well for that. As I said, her training to deal with such forces is as greater than mine as a graduated third year is greater than an applicant to Songmark. Yet as some military genius once said. No plan ever survives contact with the enemy.”

“So I’m your hold out gun. Just in case” Maria suddenly realized. She pointed at the knife. “I’m supposed to kill you with that?”

“I will already be dead Maria. My living bones ripped from my flesh to join those of my enslaved sisters” Oharu corrected. “You will be stopping the fall of your two friends, of our priestess’s. You will be allowing their escape. That they may return alive to their families. Nothing more. Before you ask, that weapon is now the only thing on this world that would allow you success, should you need it. No other weapon on this world would pass through the shell of what was once myself.”

Saimmi coughed, gaining Maria’s attention. “Molly needs to go because she needs to see that spirits can be dispelled by her own paw. It will end her doubts, some of her own nightmares. Her future demands she lose those doubts. You need to see the destruction of that which, allowed into the wrong paws, will make what you experienced a gentle caress. Maria. I failed you. Please do not fail Oharu.”

For some time there was silence, until slowly Maria reached out to pick up the waiting blade. “I may kill you anyway witch” she warned Oharu. “Molly doesn’t need people like you around her.”

“If my death is to be at your paws, my death will be at your paws” Oharu agreed. “Though unlike were it Molly’s paws, I will not simply bow my head to your blade.”

Maria remembered her recent defeat, the words Oharu had used in warning. Grimacing as she slipped the blood caked blade under her Songmark jacket as she made her decision. “I don’t look forward to that fight” she admitted. Turning her attention to Saimmi she tapped the table top with one finger. “Why not Amelia? Helen? How do they rate missing this trip?”

“Amelia will be tailfasting at that time, as will Helen. I cannot ask them to step away from their own futures. They are not yet my daughters, only my children. I would prefer them, they are the better choice. Many times better trained. Yet I cannot in good conscious ask them to turn away from their own happiness again for such a dangerous mission.

“Amelia. Jirry?”

“Jirry” Saimmi agreed.

“But Molly and I. We don’t matter.”

“Have you one in your heart” Oharu asked. Her voice was serious, as was the look she gave Maria.

“Not this week” the bovine admitted. “No, I’ve not chosen anyone yet. But Molly...”

“Still has Lars, as has in her way Amelia” Saimmi reminded the horned Italian. “She has no one within her heart to cause her pain. At this moment. That will change in the future, but not in time to endanger her. Nor do I know who that may be, though something tells me it will not be Lars to lay beside her in her elder days.”

Maria looked to Oharu. “There’s the mouse here” she reminded Saimmi.

“That cannot happen” Oharu answered, though there was deep pain in her voice. “It would be against her nature. This trip will heal some of her pain. It is, in my way, my Solstice gift to her. This Solstice. I cannot ask her to be my love. No matter how much my soul yearns for me to do so. She has made her decision plain. One such as I has no place in her circle of friends. Certainly not in her life.”

Nodding in agreement Maria worked the information she had in her mind. “You’ve given her a lot of ‘gifts’ priestess. Helen told me about what you did against the typhus. Now Saimmi. Her life three times? That kind of gift can never be repaid. I believe that you dream that she joins you on Sacred Island and tailfast, but you love her too much to even chance hurting her by even hinting at such a thing. Your so much the fool that you won’t even try. Molly needs you, you’d be good for her. Better than anyone I know. You’re the cool waterfall to her bonfire. Without you she’ll burn her soul out. You’re an idiot mouse. A powerful idiot. But your still an idiot.”

“So I have been told by many” the mouse agreed.

“I’m still owed a soda and ice cream” she reminded the small Priestess.

“It awaits you” Saimmi answered as she stood. “We will leave by the back way. To lessen your shame of dealing with, as you call us, witches.”

Oharu too stood. “Maria. Yes, I was hung.” She turned away from the bovine, opening her kimono to let the back fall away. “And worse than even this, even your injury. Do not think your shame that great my child. I was a Miko, a maiden. I had not yet tasted my first kiss. I was much of what you think of as a Nun. I had never even kissed any but my own mothers gravestone. They stole all that from me for their own pleasure.” Lifting her kimono again she turned back to the shocked bovine. “They took from me the ability to have children and more. Yes. I love Molly. No, I cannot expect her to care for me. Do not think I am a danger to her, for I will take my own life first, if I must to protect her from myself. I will not consciously harm her in any way, given a choice. I will certainly never insult her by asking her to bind her life with mine. I could never shame her soul in such a way.”

While Maria fought to digest what information she had just received the two women left. That, and the mouse’s paw was healed without so much as a scar. It was a lot to digest in one sitting. A few minutes later a waitress entered, quietly setting the bovines favorite soda and ice cream before her. “She was wrong” Maria suddenly declared, causing the waitress to stop in confusion. “I was right to come.”

December 16^th, 1936

“We are going” Amelia was informing Saimmi when Mrs. Hoele’toemi arrived home from the days shopping. “You won’t leave us behind, forgotten like helpless children.” Beside her sat Helen, the tigeress nodding agreement with her friends words.

“You are to be tailfast” Saimmi reminded both women. “I will not take this away from you. This special day.”

Helen laughed, a deep throated Texan’s laugh Amelia herself had only heard a few times. “Yah don’t understand Texans” she countered. “If I’m good enough tah marry, I’m damn good enough tah wait six months or more fore.”

“I agree with Helen” the English housecat added. “I love Jirry. He’s all I need to make my life full. I will have his children. I will not leave him, though I will be an adventuress. If he can’t understand this thing is more important than a second tailfast, then I have made a fool of myself at his feet and more. For nothing.” She drew herself up. Facing Spontoon’s High Priestess, and her hopefully future sister in law, with all the propriety any Englishwoman could hope to show. “He will wait for me. Or by the King and Crown I shall kick his tail up over his head.”

Helen giggled. “What she said. In spades.”

Saimmi sighed in defeat. She had tried her best. She had hidden the mission from her two students. But Maria would talk. These two would listen. “I will inform Oharu and the others. You two and Saffina must spend several days and nights at the Great Stone Glen. Oharu will teach you what you need to know. As Huakava and I taught her. Before you go I will test you. Be certain that if you fail that test there will be no second chance. I will then send the others I have already selected.” She stood to take her leave. “Oharu is self sacrificing to an extreme that I find dangerous for her own safety. Especially when it involves your friend Molly. I fear that she will one day freely pour her blood out for that doe. For nothing more than to please her. I am also come to understand that she has taken too much upon herself. That she may be close to losing her control. I charge the two of you to insure that she returns to me unharmed. But know this my students. If by your incompetence you allow my daughter to come to harm. If she is hurt due to your inaction. I warn you both. Do not attempt to return to these islands. Ever again. You would never wish to face my anger. Now you must return to Songmark for one last lesson.” Picking up her own bag Saimmi left the longhouse, walking into the darkness as though it were bright sunlight.

December 17^th, 1936

True Sunlight was just flowing over Main Islands tallest mountain when a certain dorm found themselves standing together in Songmarks compound, silently waiting before the yellow furred Labrador, a woman known to them as Miss Devinski. Classes had been out for a day, but they had returned for a last, special instruction. One that left them even more certain of their feelings than before. An adventure yes. One they had been waiting for yes. But nothing that could ever be expected of any Songmark student to endure. It certainly was no where to be found on the school prospectus.

“Your no fools” the hound announced. “You have now seen what resides upon these grounds. You have heard what happened to a Second Year, and the path that was made open to her in order to save her life. What little remains. You have spoken to she who now borrows that form when she needs it. And Saimmi has asked for you again. You all know why. Some of you have had her training. She says only for a week, perhaps eight days. This all to the determent of your formal course work. That failure will be adjusted when you return. Do not expect any free time until we feel you have caught up with your work. Do not hope to expect that we will be lenient. Do not pray to any God that you will be allowed to skip any test. Saimmi will not be going with you this time, you know who she has chosen to take her place.”

“Saimmi is High Priestess now” Saffina reminded Miss Devinski. “Who is her chosen second?”

“No one knows yet” the hound admitted. “I personally know that Oharu Wei already declined the high job, she certainly wouldn’t take it from Saimmi. I strongly doubt that one who turned away the High Seat would be granted Second Fiddle, or accept it anyway. So as yet, no I do not know. I grant that there is some agreement between them, but what it is I have not been informed. I warn you though. Saimmi appears to use this Cipanguan born mouse as her private sword. Do not anger her enough that she offers it to you. I have personally watched that blade cut. I warn you. It is a very, very sharp sword.”

“So it is truly Oharu, the one we travel with” Saffina continued, accepting but not commenting upon the warning. “As we were told. I had not been certain. She is... strange. So intense. There is something different about her. Something that I have never encountered before.”

Miss Devinski leaned back against the wall behind her, studying the five young women before her. “Yes. There has been good reason that one is, as you say, intense. Oharu had to learn everything you know, and ten times as much more in less than a year. At the same time she had to meld her own Shinto rituals with Spontoon’s. You might say she had to take an entire three year Songmark education and pass within three months. I strongly believe that this last month has been hell for her. I’ve certainly not heard of her presence in her normal haunts.”

“What are you, really” the tigeress Helen asked abruptly as some light came on in her mind.

Miss Devinski frowned at that question. “I am your instructor. Never ask that question again. Of any of us. Even should you graduate. Especially should you graduate.” She paused, calming. “Now ladies. You may choose to take this adventure or remain here. This is truly outside Songmark. If you accept though, you will be traveling to Main Island immediately. Without Guides. In fact, should you be successful only Sacred Island will remain denied to you. This Saimmi has already promised me. On Main Island you will remain until your return. If you return. Your choice is fully up to you. It will have no bearing on wither or not you pass. My last warning is this. There is a very good chance you will never leave the place you are going. Alive or dead.”

‘Officially has no bearing’ all five women finished within their minds as they turned as one to head for the main gate.

December 21^st, 1936

Four days later Nikki Ibarra Lily Benevedo lowered her amphibious aircraft onto the waters next to Krupmark island, its over powered engines having been silenced over a mile from the shore. With professional ease she had landed in a pea-soap fog, one that had unexplainable risen an hour before their arrival. With the same professional skill the mare slid her ships nose up onto a tiny sandy beach. “Sunrise” she reminded her passengers. “I’ll wait exactly ten minutes, then you are on your own.” Everyone had been warned that when the mare said ten minutes, she did not mean 601 seconds. No one commented on the fact that the mares normal heavy accent was completely absent. They had all had eventually noted that Nikki’s accent came and went as she chose. That it went only when she was deadly serious.

Although it was still barely daylight this would not last long. This was Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. This date had been selected for two reasons. The first was to give six woman time to locate the fragment and return. More importantly, legend had something in it about exposing this fragment to sunlight would be a very, very bad idea. That of course made sense as to why it had been buried underground. As they stepped onto the beach Helen pulled Oharu aside.

“Are you gonna be okay. With Molly I mean” she asked so softly only the mouse could hear her. “Can I help you?”

Oharu looked over to where the doe in question was examining her Mauser. Molly had been upset that she couldn’t bring Amelia’s t-gew again, until Saimmi had explained that there were twisting tunnels they must pass through. Tunnels that Amelia’s longer weapon might not pass. For a moment she thought over the prayers she had said over that weapon while Molly slept, and a tiny mark of her own blood that she had placed upon it. All the protection she could give her hopeless love. “It is very difficult” she admitted. “If I fail, I know that you five will protect her from me. In whatever manner you need. Perhaps then, to protect her, you will marry me?” She smiled, noting Helen understood it was a very tiny joke, the feline smiling in return. “In truth Helen” she continued, again serious. “I could do horribly worse, and no better than one with your soul. It is my misfortune that your heart already belongs to another. Yet again I am too late. With Molly, before her enslavement I would have stood a chance. A good chance. Now. Now I have no more chance than a single drop of water in a tourist bonfire. It is time. Come my little sister. We must hurry. Time passes quickly.”

All involved had been given the exact same information, for nothing had been held back. Nothing glossed over. What information that had been handed down through generations, along with Huakava’s dangerous last scouting mission earlier that year and that strange reptilian priestess from another island. Even so they all moved carefully, for though the damp path upwards was no challenge for any of the Songmark girls Oharu herself had no such climbing training. As they helped the slightly older priestess upwards all five wondered just how she would manage their trip back. Then the mouse would be laden with the fragments weight, as well as its bulk. Nor would anyone be allowed to touch her for fear of breaking her concentration. Reaching the cliffs top both Helen and Amelia pulled out their trusty compass’s. With a moments checking between what each said and what their memorized map showed in their minds the two pointed left. Without a sound the group moved off. Behind them Nikki started her engine, flying off to wait out the night somewhere in the deep ocean.

Unlike Cranium Island here everything seemed fairly normal. They had landed close enough to their destination this time that their entire mission could be completed in the one long night. They would have just fourteen and a half hours of darkness allotted to them. A darkness filled with thick fog, even though this was the wrong time of year for such weather. Saimmi had told them to expect it. It had been here. Still even starting an hour before sunset, by the time they had made their way to the ancient church (bypassing several expensive looking compounds and very nasty looking guards on their way) it was near midnight.

Approaching the forgotten chapels broken doors all four Priestess trained women stopped. In reaction to this Molly Procyk and her partner, the bovine Maria Inconnutia brought their weapons to bear. Having experienced Cranium island once neither expected what they were to face to care much about mortal weapons. Yet there would be mortal opponents they had been warned. Certainly she who no one would name, not until it was time. Maria was unworried about that one though, for her own investigations had told her who that woman must be. Knowing that, and having already seen that Molly could beat her in a fair, or even unfair fight, she was unworried.

An orange glow abruptly came from the direction of Fort Bob. A glow soon followed by a sound of clanging bells, then a massive explosion. “Someone’s started a little diversion” Molly announced dryly. “We better hurry.”

“They still live” Oharu abruptly gasped, beginning to move both her paws in a complex pattern none of the Spontoon trained women had ever seen. “Those three that came here with me. Beware, they will be mad.” She then walked unafraid into the shattered stone church.

Carefully the group moved inward, four whispering words the other two tried not to hear. Tried not to understand. Tried not to believe really worked even though their own senses had already proven that last to them before. Around them there appeared to be eyes in the darkness as though hundreds of creatures were watching. Of them all, only Oharu seemed unconcerned by being inside a stone building with little cover and many enemies. From her worn blue and silver kimono she drew a single sheet of rice paper. “Sometimes” she explained as she ran the paper through her fingers. “It is best to use a weapon your enemies do not understand.” She spoke one word in her native language, throwing the paper high above her. Though only a thin sliver of rice paper the object flew upwards as though heavily weighted. Another strange word came from the mouses lips. In response a brilliant flash occurred. When it had passed those eyes were gone. “It will last not long” the mouse warned. “Perhaps, with luck until sunrise. No longer. They are only frightened. Not returned to their demon world. That would take more energy than I can afford to use today. Maria, Saffina. That altar?”

Physically the most powerful of all six, both woman pushed at the stone altar, having been warned earlier as to what to expect. Slowly it moved, until with an ancient Roman curse none of the Songmark girls had expected Maria to know they forced the thing aside. Before them was a rectangular pit with ancient worn stone stairs going down into the darkness. Five electric torches came on almost as one. “I must go first” Oharu warned. “Saffina is not yet ready to stand against what waits.”

As Saimmi had warned their passage was through tight turns that even the Mauser occasionally had some difficulty passing. Molly had to admit to herself that Amelia’s t-gew would never have made the journey. Yet there were no traps, no sudden attacks, not even misdirecting side passages. What waited was aware that they were coming. It wanted them to arrive safely. For they, or actually their young bodies, were its path out of this tomb. Out, and back into the light. Into the light and power.

“Molly” Oharu whispered as they approached the stairs end. “Soft lead please.” A moment later a single round was passed forward. Taking it Oharu turned to the wall on her right, writing something in her native language upon the stone, then turning to repeat her actions on the other wall. Sending Molly’s now deformed round back to the doe Oharu took a deep breath. “I will remember you, always” she told her companions. Or, Maria wondered, were those words meant only for her doe love. Without another word Oharu stepped forward, and vanished.

Saffina was immediately behind the mouse. Reaching out with one paw she was unsurprised as it too vanished past her wrist. Ceasing to exist as though it had passed into a darkened mirror, it simply seemed to no longer exist. “She blocks this from any but us to follow” the lioness explained, having seen the like used in her own country. “Follow.” Stepping forwards she too vanished.

What they now faced was unlike what had been at Cranium Island. Other than an underground chamber it was as different as sand from snow. Great sheets of greenish glowing algae hung from the walls like curtains. Soft sickly yellow light filled a chamber nearly a hundred and fifty feet across. It looked to the six as though Mother Earth had drawn herself away from what lay in the middle. Upon a tall altar made of corroded green-grey bones sat what they had come for. Softly glowing, it was obvious that this fragment had never been drained of any power. Not one single erg.

“You have come” a cracked male voice called from their left. Instantly the emaciated, naked mole found himself facing several weapons, though in the mouse’s case she simply looked at him, then dismissed him.

“He is harmless” Oharu announced. “As are the two following him. Their minds have been pushed aside. By this.”

As she had warned two female figures, chipmunks from what could be told of their features followed. They had come from a hidden tunnel and one woman was carrying what looked like a large book. “You have come for this” that other women announced. “It was finished ten days ago. Take it. Leave us in peace with our God.”

“Your positions” Oharu ordered as three more sheets of rice paper appeared as though by magic in her left paw. While the three religiously trained women moved to surround that horrible altar Oharu took one step towards the three newcomers, called but one word as she threw her papers. Surprised, the three could do nothing as each paper struck them, flashing into nothingness upon impact. Immediately they fell, collapsing into piles of ragged fur. “They will sleep, though what they will be when they wake. This I do not know.”

Turning her attention back to Maria and Molly she indicated the three bodies. “Gather them Maria, but on your soul do not touch that book. If you do I cannot save you. Molly, take a position. Whatever you see come, kill it.”

“With this?” the doe asked. “I couldn’t kill that other thing with Amelia’s t-gew. Even with incendiaries.”

Oharu walked over to the now shivering doe, reaching up to touch that ones forehead with three fingers. “Do you honestly believe” she asked. “That I would place you, of all who live, within harms way unable to defend yourself? That weapon will kill mortal, or immortal. Just..” She smiled into those bottomless eyes, even now barely able to stop herself from falling forever within them. “Do not shoot a God. They would be irritated. Very irritated. They might even decide to be ticked off about it. Now please. Our souls depend upon your abilities. Those bones that stone sits upon are the priestess’s who brought this thing here. Please, do not allow it to add your friends to that collection.”

Mollified the doe moved away, a harsh sound of metal on metal following her. Of that one Oharu had no further worry. It was Maria who was their weak link at the moment. For Maria had fallen to a near powerless fragment, though to no fault of her own. There was nothing the mouse could do to protect her from this one, other than keep her far away and hope the blade the bovine now carried would do as she desired. In the least it would save everyone else. If Maria had the courage to rip out the still living heart of a walking dead priestess.

Saffina started her chant first as Oharu approached. After her came Amelia, then Helen. Oharu’s own broken voice joined theirs as she reached her position. It was a long complex ritual. One designed to encapsulate the fragment so that it could be safely moved. If one could imaging a thousand gallons of boiling hot nitroglycerin being moved safely. It was though a long, draining and very dangerous ritual. Even before the fifth verse had been sung Molly’s weapon spoke. It would speak many times more before the rituals end, but only once for each shadow that appeared. No matter how hideous, no matter how powerful.

Only once.

Many hours later the exhausted women finished their chants, with Oharu continuing for several verses before her harsh voice also went silent. By now the chamber was filled with the smell of cordite, though around them was nothing that would indicate anything had been struck. Not even a single bullet littered the floor, or had pocked those soft walls. Stepping forward Oharu grasped the stone, not pausing for a breath or thought. Had she done so it was very likely that she would have turned away. For the ritual had either succeed, or her bones, with her soul trapped within them would have been pulled from her living flesh. Thrown to the ground under that stone to join her sisters as she touched it. Of this danger Saimmi had warned her often. Together they had decided the others need not know, unless they might stumble from fear of failure.

Yet the ancient chants Huakava and Saimmi had taught them held. Though Oharu’s fur snapped out as though electrified and her kimono warmed against her chest, nothing more occurred. Nothing, until she had stepped away. Then almost silently the bone altar collapsed, falling into dust as they watched.

“They sleep now” Saffina whispered. “They are free again. I shall pray for them.” Gently she kneeled, gathering up pawfulls of mixed bone dust to place in a large carrying bag she had brought. “I shall bury them on Spontoon. They will again be home.”

“Time” Amelia warned. “Just over three hours until sunrise.”

“These three?” Maria asked.

“If you can carry them, do so. Else leave them. Saffina, that book. The binding words first but do not open it. On your soul, do not open it.”

Moving with confident ease the lioness followed her instructions, soon moving up the stairs in front of Oharu who went last. Behind them came a groan as stone slipped upon stone. Yet as they moved up that tunnel their way was clear, even those once tight places were now unexpectedly wider.

“Mother Earth” Helen gasped as she climbed. “She wishes this thing out of her.” Maria, walking behind the tigeress simply nodded in agreement under her burden of underfed furs. Still they hurried, for behind them they could hear the chamber collapsing. There was no certainty that the tunnel they were in wouldn’t follow suit.

“Been waiting” a well known voice announced as they finally exited the tunnel. Kansas Smith stood within a now sealed doorway of the church, fully twenty heavily armed males with her. “Half Ration, that book the lioness is carrying.” She pointed her weapon at Maria’s belly, the woman unable to do anything to protect herself, burdened as she was. “Unless you want to watch the tentacle playtoy die. Rather slowly I would think, considering how belly wounds tend to become so badly infected.”

Half Ration moved forward, reaching out for the book Saffina held. “May we say her name now?” the lioness asked with dry humor.

“She is here. It no longer matters” Oharu agreed. “Though it is not the name she was fated to be born with. It is hers.”

“Kansas Smith, I curse you” the lioness said in English, then slipped into her native language.

Apparently Smith understood what was being said. At least most of it. At first her eyes widened, her face paling a bit under her fur before she shook herself. “You make a good bluff girl, but none of you will leave here alive. Especially not that one.” Her weapon changed targets, firing almost instantly. Time seemed to slow as the heavy caliber round sang its way towards the doe Molly, only to stop as it impacted the fragment held by Oharu. For Oharu had taken a step even as Kansas Smith’s weapon began to turn, placing herself in a direct line between the hated adventuress and she who was heart of her heart. Soul of her soul.

When everyone could hear again there followed a soft clatter as a now deformed soft lead dum-dum bounced off ancient wooden boards. “No” Oharu announced, her voice as lifeless as a Winters nights breeze. From her chest came smoke, smoke that billowed about her, yet kept her face clear. Her kimono though sagged as its fabric burned to ash where the stone touched it.

Smith’s eyes went wide again before she laughed. “Never thought I’d see that move from a fool priestess” she admitted. “You must love her a great deal mouse. There’s no other reason anyone’d make that move. Still. Half Ration its time. Open that book.”

“CLOSE YOUR EYES” Oharu managed to scream as the tiny character opened the tome at a random page. She though watched, for in her own battle she had no other choice. Kansas Smith and Half Ration she noted had not closed their own eyes. They had no illusions as to what they held. No illusions that simply closing their eyes would save them or anyone else. Not from what was going to emerge from that book. No, Oharu had ordered such only to save her companions from nightmares beyond nightmares for years to come.

Something did emerge from that book. It looked around as though searching. Spotting Oharu it came forward like a mist, yet rebounded as she drew upon the fragments power as Saimmi had taught her. Oharu felt something within her shatter, as though some wall had been broken. She knew not what it was and had no time to investigate now. Irritated the smoke creature seemed to twist. It looked at the five Songmark women with Oharu, appeared to lick obscene lips as is edged closer, only to be thrown back by the watching priestess. “These are my playthings” Oharu told the creature, though no sound came from her lips. She was unaware that Saffina could in her own way fully understand both sides of this silent conversation.

She felt power wash through her, knew she was now greater than that which hungered even though she accepted but a tiny touch of the stones power. Or had she accepted any power from the stone the mouse wondered. Then reality changed about her. Each of her companions souls became obvious to her. There, within Molly. A simply tiny change, so little, a mosquitoes breath of change and the doe would look upon her with favor. For an instant Oharu contemplated making that change, for an instant touched that place then realized what was happening. Should she do so. Should she change Molly the stone would win a battle. It could not be allowed to do so, not even such a tiny battle. It was a major force of will to push that thought aside, to force that which hungered within her heart back into its cage as she withdrew her touch from Molly’s soul. Taking a ragged breath she turned her gaze to the thing before her. “Yours playthings are behind you. Lest you desire to face me?”

With a look of contempt at what it believed were Oharu’s toys, then more than a touch of fear as it looked into the mouse’s own soul the creature turned, is multiple tentacles washing its body like hair as it faced those others. “You do not need the stone to defeat me little priestess. Cease fooling yourself. Cease hiding behind false walls.” it announced. “Men” the voice continued. “And a man woman. Dust to my taste. Give me your women, at least the breeding cow. She desires me. You know that. You feel it within her. I promise, I will care for her though eternity. She will know pleasures she could never dream of. I shall gift you with more power for her body. Just the cow. After all, she hungers for my touch. There are many women whom you may have, I only those near me when I am called.”

“No.”

“Fool. I will have her eventually. She will come to me eventually. It is foretold.”

“Fool? So I have been told. The cow though is mine. If ever you, or your kind touch her again I shall make you mortal. Now take your feast, for it is all I will allow you. Else face me in combat now. Only this choice I give you.”

Moving away from Oharu the creature found two of its prey also protected. With a curse of distaste it attacked what was not protected. “I deserve a woman” it complained to Kansas Smith. “Next time, a women. A young maiden woman. Or better the cow. Remember that.” Then it was gone. As it vanished the book closed against Half Rations strongest attempts to keep it open.

“You may look now” Oharu informed her companions tiredly. There was exhaustion in her voice, but she still stood tall. She had no idea that Maria had been watching her. Had ignored her order to close her eyes. For she had seen such before. What she had seen in Oharu’s eyes had frightened her. She had felt the mouse slip, had felt her almost fall and had readied herself to act. Too, though Oharu knew it not as yet, Maria through changes made to her by her previous encounter had also heard every word of that unspoken conversation. Though she had no idea how making such mortal would repay being attacked, the shear abject terror she had felt come from that thing as it faced the mouse had filled her with awe. They did have a weakness. A weakness she now knew. All she had to do was learn how to turn that weakness into a weapon. But it had been right. Upon seeing it she had hungered. Oh how she had hungered. And had Oharu agreed she would have gone to it willingly. With her body and soul fully open in greeting.

Kansas Smith cursed after the book closed. “Its fed Half Ration, give it up” she finally admitted. “Another century or two before it will hunger like that again. We need the right ritual and what it demanded to open it safely anyway.” She looked to the mouse. “Your darned dangerous for a mouse. Give me that stone or I’ll shoot every one of your friends. Starting with that useless cow who couldn’t even conceive with a full night and day of trying with the Morris.” She looked at the now angry Maria. “Your cries of pleasure were music to mothers ears cow. Mother managed first try. You though must be barren.”

A roar of anger came from Maria, followed by the unconscious moles body, then each of the chipmunks. Kansas easily dodged the flying bodies, Half Ration though was caught by surprise. Stumbling backward he tripped over a shriveled, lifeless body that had been one of Smiths henchmen. Kansas however snapped off a shot. A shot that headed directly for Maria but unexplainably made a sharp right turn, striking again the fragment Oharu held. “What the...” Kansas fired again and again until her own weapon was empty.

“Everyone leave. Hurry” Oharu ordered. “I will deal with this one.” Her fur crackled as Saffina brushed against her on the way out. Her ruined Kimono now remained upon her body only because she held it there with the stone. Soon they were alone, except for Molly who stood beside the priestess to protect her.

“I beat her once” she reminded Oharu.

“This is my fight” the mouse answered. “Try to stop Half Ration, or at least recover that book.”

“I won’t leave you to her. Amelia said to never leave you. You can’t make me.”

Kansas watched the interplay, for some reason unable or unwilling to move to make her own escape. She knew that no one would catch Half Ration. Not with that book in his paws. She also knew something else. Molly could kill her yes. This priestess though. She wouldn’t kill to save her life. Not even to save Molly’s life. Half-Ration had assured her of that, and the being she called her assistant had never been wrong about such things. Unafraid she waited out the interplay with some interest.

“I can make you hate me with all your soul child. Please, do not make me. You must not see what I will do here. You are too young for such sights, and you must not let the stone know who you are. How important you are. To me.”

Molly’s answer was to chamber a round. “No.”

“Think Priestess. She can be yours” a voice said in Oharu’s head. And she saw. Again saw all that was Molly. Saw the beauty of her soul, the darkness held in check within it. Saw what had happened to the doe. Every instant, every touch. What Lars had done. Saw again how little was needed to open her heart to the mouse. To cast aside all that darkness forever. Such a simple thing. To just erase one very small memory, that her first time with the ships Captain had been forced, not asked. So little. By so little had Oharu lost her chance for Molly’s heart. Yet, a touch. Here.... Pushing the images aside Oharu locked away her mind from that voice. For she would burn her own soul to ashes before harming the one she loved.

Outwardly Oharu seemed to collapse inside herself, even drawing upon the stones power to hold Kansas her collapse was noticeable. “Molly Procyk” she announced with ashes of loss in her mouth “I did not give you that weapon so that you may kill without reason.” She was almost whispering. “I did not save your life three, four times now to watch you curse your own soul by murdering a helpless woman.” She turned her face to lock her gaze with the doe’s. “Kansas Smith is as helpless as a baby now. If you kill her it is dark murder. You have done many things dark in your life Molly. You have killed yes. But you have never murdered. You cannot murder. This I now know as honestly as I know your name. You no longer have any secrets from me thanks to this stones desires. Not even that rainy day you spent your last three pennies for posies to place on your mothers grave. I did not give my heart and soul to a murderess. I gave them to you. I love you more than I can stand to admit Molly Procyk. I would be your wife, if you would accept. Now please. Go. Hurry.”

Emotionally shocked, Molly stumbled away from the mouse. Her weapon started to turn towards the mouse.

“You may do that when this fragment is safe” Oharu agreed, turning back to face Kansas. “I will never deny you my life. It is yours. Yet you must leave now. I must destroy this woman’s ability to create such damage again. At least for a short time.”

With a curse Oharu did not understand the doe left. Left Oharu to face Kansas Smith alone.

“All right, you won” Kansas admitted. “So I’m a dead woman. Even Half Ration is now afraid of you little mouse. Not for what you are, or maybe will be. But for what you are going to do for that little country. That stone. Lot of people want that” Smith continued. “They’ll track it down you know. Thanks to certain... Enlightened Germans, we have the other fragment. It’s like a compass you know. That doe. She’s going to kill you now. If I don’t.”

“Yes Kansas. She will be my death one day. She will drink my blood and laugh. You though. You will never do so. You are not powerful enough. Your companion is no longer powerful enough. Not against what I am now. What they are.” She stepped even closer. “Look at me Kansas Smith. Truthfully. Am I your meat? Are they?”

Kansas Smith looked, and for the first time in her life felt real helplessness. “Still” she managed. “There is always someone more powerful. You will all fall to someone.”

“You are right. I already serve her. I have already fallen. One day she may fear me. On that day I will offer my still beating heart to her fire, to prove her fear groundless” the mouse admitted as she walked even a little closer to her enemy. They were by now only the mouse’s arms length apart. “You though will not be one of those I need ever worry about. Now you will bother no one, at least not for a year.”

“And why is that mouse. Your going to break my legs?”

“Oh no” Oharu laughed softly. “No. I am not like you Kansas Smith. I have looked upon your life in the fires. I do not harm what does not deserve harm. You are what you are because of your mother. Not because of your own soul. Had you lived with your father. Then I would have been honored to know you. I would have been delighted to be called your friend. Truth between us, I would love to have known that other Kansas Smith. That woman who, as you claim to be, would have been a powerful woman. Would have been the first female president of your United States. For that woman, who’s future was destroyed by a hungry mother, I will gift you with that which you have always most desired. Doing so Kansas it will take at least a year to retrain yourself. I warn you though. Yes. I love Molly. That is no longer any secret. She has my soul. That also is no longer any secret. Harm her, even the slightest fur, the slightest whimper and you will not ever die. That I can assure you. You will live to see the last primitive life leave this world. But you will wish to die. Oh how you will wish too. Every instant of every day that follows.”

Kansas swallowed. It was a lot to take in one standing. Nor was there any suspicion within her that this woman wouldn’t destroy herself just to make all she had promised come true. “The doe” she asked softly.

“Is my problem. She is my death. Now I grant that other Kansas Smith my gift. Accept this, remake your life. You will never be what fate desired, but you can still be something better. I grant you one chance, it is more than most are given.” Stepping back two steps Oharu concentrated, tapping again that stones power or her own newly found strength, this she did not know. She saw within her mind the body Kansas had desired all her life, that fate had held from her for that greater destiny. That destiny stillborn by an abusive, selfish mother. That body by not having, with a mother tearing her down every moment, had become such a dark soul. There was nothing Oharu could do about Kansas’s soul. Only the woman herself could change that. But she could...

Kansas Smith felt a warm flush roll up her legs, starting from her toes. Her body felt odd, as though it were changing. Her clothing became tighter, too tight as buttons exploded away from her. Yet she felt no pain, only a pleasant warmth. “Don’t do this” she begged, finally understanding what the mouse was about. “I beg you. Don’t do this too me.”

“You would rather be crippled, broken all the days of your life” the mouse asked. “For Molly’s safety it is the only other choice I will grant you.”

“No. But please...” She stopped talking as the forces holding her vanished. Oharu staggered back, her back slamming into a stone column while Kansas Smith to fell to her knees, her ruined clothing hanging about her like rags. “No” she whimpered as Oharu pulled the stone tightly to her own body again, whispering sealing words Kansas herself well knew. Sealing words that bound Kansas in her new form for a year. Or at least until she could find someone, or something more powerful than the mouse.

Outside a brilliant flash of light lit the church behind the five women. Helen and Amelia had already stopped, to be passed by Maria, again carrying the three unconscious furs, then Molly who was covering Maria’s escape. Saffina joined them as well. Of Half Ration and the book there was no sign. He had, as Kansas Smith knew he would escaped untouched. “She has used the stone” Saffina gasped in horror. “What will it cost her?”

“Don’t know, don’t care” Molly answered from in front of them. “Hope it kills her. Hurry, Nikki waits for no one.” Though shocked by the doe’s selfish statement all three stood in place. They would wait for the mouse until sunrise. Until they were certain. Amelia and Helen well remembered Saimmi’s words. They looked at each other, seeing the worry in each others eyes. Yet it was only a few minutes before they spotted that small form leave the church, and only a little longer before Oharu herself, stumbling with exhaustion under the stones small weight joined them. They could tell by her eyes that she was changed, though how they did not yet know. Nor did the mouse herself.

“I will be some time recovering” Oharu admitted to the three. “Do not touch this stone. Even should I die. Do not touch it. That book?”

“Gone” Amelia admitted.

“So I fail Saimmi. We must go. Hurry.”

Saffina stepped in front of the priestess, blocking her way. “Why does Molly suddenly hate you” she asked bluntly. “I know everything you and that creature spoke of, so after that. Why does the doe hate you now.”

Oharu looked up, the strain in her face evident. Yet she answered calmly. “To save her soul from this stones touch I admitted to her that I love her beyond hope of release.”

“Oh nuts” Helen said from behind the mouse. “That’s done it now.”

December 22^nd, 1936

Many hours later Nikki eased her craft into the placid waters of Sacred lake. While her aircraft idled Oharu stepped out on a float, carefully looking down into the waters, her ruined kimono hanging about her in rags. Placed too deep and the lead box could not be recovered, Not deep enough and children would dive for it. Yet it had to be accessible, not so deep as to cost a life as she knew the main fragment would. She guided Nikki by movements of her paw until the right sandbar was found. “Maria” she called.

Carefully the Italian eased out a lead box, one that had been heat sealed in flight. Within it was locked the fragment and maybe a touch of a certain mouses soul. No one was yet sure of that, not even the mouse herself. Stepping aside Oharu pointed. “That patch of green sand. You are the only one” she instructed Maria in a low voice as Nikki edged towards a tiny beach. “The only one who could strike the place I need. It is also why you came with us. Not as a beast of burden, but as one who see’s what we, what I cannot.” Moving aside to give Maria space she watched in silence as the bovine studied her underwater target, directing Nikki’s movement of the aircraft with paw signals of her own that the mouse found difficult to understand. Finally the box vanished. Slipping under the water with hardly a sound. It quickly dropped away into darkness again, landing almost perfectly in the center of that patch of green sand. Nikki revved up her engine slightly, bringing them close to a shore. “I wish I had as great a soul as you Maria” Oharu admitted softly, so as to not wake those who now slept within the aircrafts hull. “I have enjoyed your company. Now I must go too.”

As Oharu started to slip off the float Maria grabbed her. “You can’t swim” she reminded the mouse, misunderstanding Oharu’s intent. “No way your getting away from Molly’s dark vengeance that easily. She’d be upset not to be able to slip a ring on your finger.” Lifting the smaller mouse into her arms Maria leapt off the float, landing with a splash in, to her, waist deep water. Moving carefully Maria walked out onto dry land, still cradling Oharu in her arms. “You’re an idiot” she said softly. “A self destructive idiot. But your hearts in the right place.”

“Until Molly wants it for her dinner” Oharu admitted. “She will never offer such as I a ring. May I stand now?”

“Not yet.” Both could feel Nikki’s eyes on their backs. Nikki’s eyes, and perhaps another’s. “For this mission I’m asking payment” Maria continued, looking not at the mouse in her strong arms, but around them, as though hunting another. “Information. Nothing to endanger Spontoon. But sometimes a word, a warning. Anything.”

“You wish to be a reporter, or a spy” Oharu asked softly, surrendering to the fact that for this moment Maria held all the cards. Gently she laid her head against the bovines large chest.

“Reporter” Maria admitted. Though if she were lying Oharu could not determine.

“Then I will agree. Now, it is uncomely for you to hold me in this way. Unless there is something else you want of me. Which for your service to these islands I will gladly grant now, or at any time in the future.” Gently she let her tongue slip out, licking the upper swell of Maria’s right breast. “I think I can out do a simple tentacle devil.”

With a laugh Maria gently released her charge, glancing back at the waiting floatplane. “Yer dangerous little mouse. I think she would be upset if I wandered onto her pasture.”

Getting her balance, for Oharu was more than exhausted, the mouse barely managed to stand even with the waters help. Around her reality seemed to shift, as though she were looking through different eyes than before. “It is a pasture she will never visit. I doubt she would care. It is a pasture now open to all of you, should any of you want it. It is a pasture I honestly hope that you all might one day wish to visit. For I owe you more than I can ever repay. I owe all of you more than you can understand. Long life to you Maria. You are strong in more than simple physical strength.”

“Long life to you as well, you mad mouse.” Turning back to the lake Maria waded to her waiting transport, easily lifting herself onto its float, turning to wave goodbye before she slipped into the craft.

Stepping out of her ruined kimono Oharu watched as Nikki easily made that impossible takeoff. She let her burned clothing slip away into the lake, then stumbled into the forest. Before she had reached the closest path Nikki’s craft had vanished from sight, headed for Casino Island to drop off the three still sleeping ‘missionaries’ for medical care and her other passengers. Those Songmark girls would make their way home by water taxi of course. It had been an adventure yes, but not one any would wish to repeat. Certainly not a certain mouse.

“You were successful” Saimmi announced as Oharu reached the path.

“Only in regaining the fragment” the mouse answered, collapsing onto the ground. “It existed, the book you dreamed of. I was unable to retain it. Kansas Smith has it.”

“We must prepare then, she will come here for the fragment.”

“Not for at least a year.”

“Oh? Why so long?”

Oharu looked back at the water. “I used the stone” she explained. “Kansas Smith has been most severely defeated. It will take at least a year to regain her strength.”

“At what cost” Saimmi asked worriedly.

“Part of my soul I imagine, for I feel differently now. If not my soul, something within me has changed. I know not if for good or ill. In the least yes I have been changed greatly, but how we must both discover. And soon. That fragment and I, we are now lightly linked. When I die I think it is possible that I may become, as did all other priestess’s its slave. Not very possible, yet if so a very small price for serving these lands. I also had to tell Molly I love her. I have lost my soul Great Mother. I have lost my soul and my heart. Now until your book is complete I must hide from her. She will desire revenge for my betrayal. Once the book is complete it will not matter. Please. Did you bring any clothing?”

“You will survive even this” Saimmi warned her priestess. “Worse has happened to others, they lived. Your Molly will simply deny you, she will not seriously hunt you. But clothing? My dear priestess in training. We are on Main Island. No one cares.”

“My back” Oharu reminded her superior.

“Is your back. Those who cannot accept it will ignore it. Now come. We go to South Island. Mama Hoele’toemi has promised a feast in your honor. You have done Spontoon a great service. Again. Even should you become a drunken beach bum spending your life ruining the reputation of every woman on the island we cannot repay you enough. Besides, I too failed as you may remember. Maria?”

“Is strong. Your intervention stilled that which wished to grow within her. She will survive and grow. She will always remember, but now that memory will not be as painful. The mother of Kansas Smith, she awaits a vile birth. We must be ready there as well.” She stood and with Saimmi’s help walked a bit into the forest, her mind swirling as she worked over what had happened these last days.

“Great Mother.”

“Yes Oharu?”

“Instead of becoming a drunken bum. Which I admit at this moment is a highly attractive path. One I may, for a difference, try some day. May I instead simply serve? A simple tender of shrines, nothing more. It would give me great pleasure to simply serve.”

Reaching out the feline took one of Oharu’s longer mouse paws into her own. “As of this moment you are no longer simply daughter to the High Priestess. You are my sister, now and forever. Yes, you may simply serve. I am honored to have you. But Oharu...” She winked. “There are those who will come to you now. They will wish to gift you in the ways they most are comfortable with. Please do not hurt those who offer the simple gifts by refusing what they offer. Other than the boys I mean.” She laughed as Oharu blushed all the way down to her belly button. “There is this also. You wear no family pattern.”

“My family has outcast me” the mouse reminded her superior. “As has my birth nation. I am alone but I have Spontoon. I am more than content. This is truth, for I have never in my life been happier than I am now.”

“Perhaps” Saimmi agreed. “Yet certain times one needs family. If nothing more than to share a joy with. To allow cubs to crawl over oneself. To forget ones duties. If only for a pawful of hours.”

Oharu reached out, taking a branch in her paw to steady herself. She was beyond tired yes, but not quite yet at collapse. Not quite yet. “I am then to die? To be reborn in another family?” She looked to her right, as if by doing so she could see though the mountain. “There are some who will miss embarrassing me.”

“You are not to die. I have found a family who this last year have lost a much loved daughter. They would much like to speak to you about taking her place.”

“I cannot have children” the mouse reminded her superior.

“Their daughter would never have blessed them with grandchildren Oharu. I am as certain of this as I am that you enjoy being embarrassed by those you speak of.”

Releasing the branch Oharu began carefully walking again. “And this family you have found? They are not McGee are they.”

“No. I fear that their name is Hoele’toemi.”

Again Oharu stopped, turning to look up into Saimmi’s face. “I cannot” she gasped. “Not your family.”

Reaching out Saimmi again took the mouse’s slightly longer paws into her own. Strange she thought, how normal on Oharu a rodents longer paws seemed, while on most others they appeared odd. “It is no longer my family” she explained softly. “A High Priestess has no family, yet is mother to all of Spontoon. I ask this of you as a personal favor. Please. Mother was quite impressed by your actions when Molly was ill. They are all impressed by you, your arrival twice a week to clear the gardens even with your other duties. How you helped Nikki find her love, how you serve this nation without care for your own desires. Please, at least sleep on this.”

“And when will I sleep” the mouse asked. “It is still a long walk to the Glen.”

“But a short walk to a waiting water taxi, and a very long trip to South Island.”

“South...” Oharu giggled in drunken exhaustion. “I forgot. So much is on Main Island that I sometimes forget where the Hoele’toemi household stands.” She yawned abruptly, now seeing double. “I think though I need to sleep here, now.” Struggling to find a place to lay Oharu Wei was easy prey for the larger feline. In seconds the surprised mouse found herself on Saimmi’s back. “What? This is not...”

“Oh please” Saimmi argued. “Felines eat rodents correct?”

“Well, before intelligence... yes. But...”

“I am simply bringing a fattened feast mouse home.” Saimmi giggled. “It does rise a humorous image. Should I invite Helen, Saffina, Maria and Molly to a party, with you as the main course?” But she received no answer, for the mouse had fallen asleep.

Elsewhere Kansas Smith was screaming at her mother as their aircraft cut through the clouds, now on a heading for their secret base. “How can you walk in this" she yelled as she stumbled again. "I'll kill her."

"And her little dog too" Kansas's mother asked.

"No. That doe!" She fought with the uncomfortable too tight clothing she now wore. Clothing borrowed from her own mother. Oharu had given her the body she dreamed of all right. Now she couldn't even lay flat on her back anymore. It was impossible to breath with all that weight on her chest. "I will kill them, both of them. Very slowly. Especially the doe. I’ll skin her and send the pelt to that mouse, before I do the same to her.” She remembered the mouses promise. “Maybe. But at least I’ll sell that doe to Kuo Han."

"There is one plus to this" her mother admitted. "You have so many more interesting places to hide a weapon."

"MOTH-er!"