**Princess of Goldenheart**

Roman Quintanilla
Copyright (C)2020 by Roman Quintanilla

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40
Chapter 1

Olive eyelids flung suddenly open in the darkness, revealing glistening black orbs without whites - the eyes of a seal. The lindarian lifted the back of his head from the branch against which it had rested through the night. He could still hear echoes of the screaming wind from his dream as he came to.

He looked down to find a rope strapped horizontally across his chest. It was snug, but not painfully tight. There was another strap over his slim belly, and another over his pelvis. There were ropes strapped along the lengths of each of his black-clad legs. Seven could see that all was just as he had left it.

Before he did anything at all, the lindarian closed his eyes and inhaled a long deep breath, through large, flaring nostrils that gaped to receive it. As the wind whistled flatly through the leaves of the towering kapoks, and a distant cricket chirped, the man sucked every bit of air he could into his large, inhumanly-powerful lungs.

As he inhaled the air, he sifted it, examining it, searching for every bit of information which his eyes could not report. He could smell dangers and bounties, presences and memories of presences in the deep dark recesses. He could scent into every hidden cranny in the forest for many miles around.

There had been a feline hunter there, in the darkness, about an hour ago. The creature had circled around the trunk of the tree, but had not climbed all the way up to the branches where Seven had been sleeping. It had been a hungry feline - a female. He could still scent the stomach acids churning in her stomach. It had been a local feline, too - not from the east, like his pursuers.

The lindarian twitched his nose as he inhaled again, examining the chemistry of the air more thoroughly. He could smell her leather toe-boots also, and her bow, her lance, her cedar quiver of ironwood arrows. There was some kind of compound in her hair.

Seven exhaled all the air out of his lungs, emptying himself from the information before drawing breath again, this time examining his immediate surroundings. He could smell the noisy cricket whose song had haunted his dreams, located it. It was thirty two feet behind him, and about forty eight feet down, along the ground, tucked into a small rock formation nestled in tall grass.

The nest of robins a little higher up into the tree was still in place. The mother was no longer there. She had flown not half an hour ago. There were three chicks inside her nest. They were hungry.

He could smell a pack of wolves huddled around a reptilian carcass to the south, southwest. He could smell the body of standing water deep into the bush more than a hundred yards in front of him.

The lindarian could scent within ten miles with perfect clarity, seeing every bit of his environment perfectly without his eyes. He could tell every danger, every source of sustenance.

And he could smell... _her_.

The human female - the girl. The one with the golden hair and the large, grey eyes - her scent like fresh, clean linen. If he closed his eyes, he could see her face: her elegant nose, her little teeth, her thin, plain lips. He could see her, but had no idea who she was.

Only that she haunted his dreams.

It was possible that he had known her - that he had tried to kill her. He wasn't sure. There wasn't much that he remembered from the time before the fall.

Her scent seemed to have faded some while the lindarian had slept, but it was still there; still lingering. It was always there. Seven put his black eyes out onto the horizon to his left, where the sky was not as black as it was everywhere else. It was a dark but lucent blue, and the dim blue light was growing.

Seven reached behind him, grasped the hilt of his katana. The heavy, wooden handle wrapped in a cotton ribbon felt good in his hand. He pulled it up, but only far enough to loosen the heavy blade from the scabbard before he pushed it back into its snug grip. It made a soft, secure sound just behind his ear.

Satisfied, he brought his hands forward again and started loosening the knots on the ropes that had secured him safely to the branches. Calloused, deft fingers pinched and pulled at the fibers of the tight knot, as it unraveled in his hands. When his chest was free, he breathed even more deeply than before.

He switched to the next knot, and while he was working, he cast his gaze past his leg, over the branch's edge, all the way down to the moist jungle floor far away. It was still too dark to clearly see. There was only blackness there.

When all the lines were loose, Seven rolled them up into tight bundles, put them away into the black folds of his heavy cotton robes, and then he dropped over to his right side, his lean body swinging down just before he caught the branch with his strong hands.

He dropped to the next limb down, and then the next, moving swiftly, fluidly, like a shadow down the long length of the tree trunk. In another few seconds, the lindarian's black boots touched noiselessly down onto the richly-brown, moist earth.

There was a loud ringing of bird chatter as the dawn began to break. There was the chirping and screaming of a white-faced spider-monkey somewhere to the west. The lindarian dug through the folds of his robes and began to relieve himself into the dirt as he looked around in the growing light. He knew he would not be sleeping here again.

Just to the north, there ran a thin rapid stream, which had helped him to decide last night on where to sleep. He could barely hear its water splashing turbulently over the white rock river bed.

Before he moved in that direction, Seven sniffed the air for her, catching the female's slightest scent. He could tell that she was west of him, as usual, but he couldn't tell exactly how far west, or in what exact direction.

Looking in that direction, he could only see thick jungle. He would have to find a clearer path.

From her waning scent, Seven thought the girl might be in motion, maybe travelling away from him. He couldn't be sure. He couldn't lose her, either. Whoever the girl was, she held the answers to all the questions in his head. He would have to move more quickly than before.

When he had finished evacuating, the black-eyed man turned around, facing northward, and began to move that way, descending into a shallow valley, toward the source of moving water.

By the time Seven reached the little stream, the light of day had overcome the darkness. There was a soft, peaceful glow in the green leaves, and a soothing sound of cool, running water.

Seven didn't see the reptor who lowly crouched near the river bank, hiding in thick brush, but he scented it.

He had no fear of that reptilian thing. He could also tell the creature presented no danger to him. It was an old, decrepit lizard, whose aroma was thick with old age. It smelled like dirt and fungus.

Seven strode past the sneaking reptilian carelessly, and reaching the water's edge, he knelt down and started to undo his robes. He pulled the thick, black clothes down, exposing his muscular back and huge scars and welts across it, where his ribs had once poked through.

There was a gash with a little bit of meat sticking out of it along his right flank. Seven stretched that arm, feeling the searing pain in that old scar, and then, without any further hesitation, he plunged his face down into the cold, clear water, dipping it all the way inside where he opened up his mouth and drank.

He drank the water deeply, fully, well aware of its chemical content, unafraid of any dangers that it may present, and then, when he'd had his fill, he pulled his head back out all at once. The water flew behind him from his wet, black locks and splashed cold against his naked back. With his eyes closed, Seven pushed his wet hair back, smoothing it over the top of his head as he continued stretching his lean form.

With his eyes still closed, he calmly breathed, inhaling fully, exhaling long and slowly, meditating in the moment as he did usually during the early morning, until suddenly, there was a sound - a low and guttural voice coming from behind him.

"Belot," said the reptile, "is not afraid."

Seven's eyebrows furrowed, and he frowned. He scented that the old, slow-moving lizard in noisy armor was right behind him. The thing was holding something wooden in its hands.

Seven turned only his head, and when he did, the reptor's eyes lit up as he shrunk back.

The metal breast plate he wore caused a racket with his sudden, clumsy movement. His plump, scaled feet slapped noisily in the moist earth as he repositioned his attacking stance. He had to straighten out his armor on his wide, leathery form. The metal shin guards just above his feet didn't quite fit around his thick calves and looked quite ridiculous - like they were struggling just to hang on.

Seven didn't have to look at him to see that the creature was generally inept.

"At first," the creature said, "Belot thought, 'maybe...maybe it's dangerous! A human hunter, maybe! Maybe it will kill you, Belot!'" He shook his stick at Seven. "But now look how Belot has captured you!"

Seven faced the river once again and kept his eyes closed, largely unconcerned.

The reptor waddled clumsily closer to the calm and kneeling Seven, his stick out and ready to attack. "Hey, human!" he said, "Didn't you hear me? Put your hands up now - I don't want to struggle with you!"

Seven dismissively returned to the business at hand, plunging in his face for another drink.

The fat lizard man couldn't believe how he was being utterly ignored, and splatted around to Seven's right hand side, constantly adjusting his combative ensemble just to keep it together. The metal plates made a rattling clamor. He waited impatiently for the man to finish, his slit, green eyes examining the lean, olive figure, seeing the horrid scarring.

"Are - are you going to do what Belot says?" he innocently asked when Seven pulled his face out of the water again.

Seven would not so much as look at him. He busied himself washing his face and arms and the back of his neck.

"Hey!" Belot said, becoming impatient. "Belot is talking to you!" He reached out with his stick, to prod Seven's right shoulder, but before he could make contact, Seven's hand reached up, grasped the stick and pulled it hard enough to send the lizard man entirely into the creek.

The reptor yelled in surprise and complaint at once as he splashed down into the water, his thick rear end landing on the rocks below. "Aaurgh...!" He stood up, the water cascading down his elbows and his many scales. He immediately began struggling to get out, complaining all the while. "Why, you little...you son of a...!"

Seven opened up his eyes at last, directing his glare at the splashing reptilian before him.

The reptor's eyes widened when he saw Seven's large, wholly black irises, his long nose with flaring nostrils. "You're...you're not..." Panicking, he splashed his hands into the water, searching for his weapon. "You are _lindarian_!"

While the reptor was still reeling from his realization, Seven reached back with his right hand to grip the hilt of his sword. With his left hand, he secured the tip of the scabbard on his lower left and slid the long, curved katana out of its sheath in one swift motion. It made a sharp, resounding shriek.

The reptor closed his eyes tightly. The slit he had for a mouth stretched out, so that he looked like he was smiling, even though he wasn't. He was petrified.

Seven thrust his sword forward mercilessly...and straight into the water.

The reptilian almost felt the blade slide into him. He squealed as he almost made a contribution to the river down below.

When Seven pulled the sword back out again, it was carrying a fish that it had skewered. He pulled the flopping fish off the tip of his blade and in one swift slice beheaded it. He skinned the fish just as skillfully and gutted it, spilling the guts onto a flat white rock beside him.

The reptor peeked one eye open - a grey, green stone with a black slit down the middle. His head tilted as he watched the lindarian work.

Seven dipped the two pink flanks that he'd prepared into the water now, washing them before he brought one of them back up to his mouth and bit into it. The other one, he tossed to the wading lizard man.

It slapped the reptor in his chest, making a loud clang against the breastplate, and then fell down into the water before Belot clumsily snatched it up again. His thick claw-hands fumbled with the meat until he held it firmly.

He looked up at the man in black, his eyes large with confusion. Water was steadily dripping from the hard, scaled fins that poked out of his leathery face.

Seven ate the fish, chewing the cold meat, bones and all, his black eyes on the reptilian. Soon, he'd downed the whole plank, swallowing hard before he stabbed the blade into the water again, and then a third time when he pulled out two more fishes and prepared them as well, beheading them and gutting them skillfully.

"You're not..." the reptilian stammered, his thick shanks maneuvering in the water, "you're not going to kill Belot?" He smiled now, relieved, showing sparse, brown, pointed incisors. He even let out a tiny grunting laugh to celebrate his great fortune. His tiny nostrils pushed and pulled air as he began to get up, splashing about, careful not to drop the breakfast in his claws.

He finally climbed out of the creek with all his metal armor clamoring and came to stand near Seven. "Thank you, lindarian," he said, "for sparing Belot. I see that you are good for Belot."

He sat down near the lindarian on the ground, on his haunches, his thick tail sticking out of the metallic rear of his cuirass. Gratefully, he started eating his own portion, the whole time never taking his eyes off the black-eyed man.

The two ate quietly, the lizard-man watching the lindarian; the lindarian looking up and down the riverbank as he chewed.

When Seven finished, he got up and pulled his inner black robe over his form, still wet though it was. He didn't mind. It would help to cool him on his travels. He started straightening it out.

"You don't talk much, do you?" said the reptor with his mouth full.

Seven didn't so much as look at the reptor as he continued dressing. He pulled on the larger, outer cloak now and then began to tie his sash.

"That's all right," said the thick, old reptilian, "Belot doesn't like to talk much, either."

Seven wasn't interested in conversation. He was working to relocate the scabbard on his side.

"Fine," the lizard admitted. "Belot a talker. What can Belot say?" He pointed at the lindarian with a jiggling piece of fish, the pink and purple little tendons jiggling just beneath his leathery palm. "You, you lindarians. Belot knows all about your people. You know? Belot knew one of you when he was just a little toad. Lived alone in the earth. In Underton, you know. The underground city. You know that place?"

The young lindarian was finished dressing. And having had his breakfast, he would soon be returning to his path.

Belot gave another rumbling chuckle, the pale tan flesh beneath his chin jiggling loosely. "Toughest old bag Belot ever met! They say it's the lungs, you know? Is it? Is that what makes your kind strong?"

Seven plunged his sword into the water and shook it inside, rinsing it. He pulled it out and wiped it clean and then he lay it down to dry as he began to dig around inside his black folds. Moving in businesslike manner, the lindarian pulled out a long tan skin, uncapped the wooden cork and turned its bottom up, unloading the cool, clean water into his guts.

While the lizard told a story of his youth, Seven knelt at the water's edge again and plunged the skin canteen into the running torrent. He filled it up halfway and capped it, then shook it vigorously before pouring the contents back out into the stream.

The creature hadn't paused his rambling.

He plunged the canteen into the water again and waited for it to fill completely, forgetting all about the old reptor behind him and his chattering. When the container was finally filled up, Seven replaced the cap and began to turn around again.

"Ah ha!" said the old serpent, pointing Seven's own sword at his face. "Belot caught you off guard, didn't he?" The leather-faced creature's smile was pure elation. "And Belot thought lindarians were so sharp! Belot was told it's impossible to best one of you!"

While the lizard man gave his celebratory monologue, Seven smirked and calmly tucked the canteen back into its place.

An old, pink tongue coated with white fish membrane slid between the thin slit the lizard had for a mouth as the trickster planned. "Now you listen to me, human..." he instructed. He looked nervously to his right and left. "You listen, and Belot will tell you what we're going to do next." The tongue again, sliding between leathery lips in the opposite direction.

As he turned the blade in his hands, the morning light reflected from it, shining into his eyes, and now the non-man started to examine it. There was an emblem at the hilt: a golden heart upon a silver disk.

"Wait, what is this?" he asked. "This is no ordinary blade...!" He held it at arm's length until the hilt was upright and the sword was pointing downward. "This is the work of a skilled blacksmith! It is surely worth a fortune!"

Then, in a flash of black cloth, the lindarian snatched the blade skillfully right out of the lizard's meaty paws.

The lizard's face coughed out in disbelief of Seven's speed, and before he could react, the blade was already back into its sheath on Seven's side.

Belot's mouth was gaping. "H-how did..." He looked at his empty leather palms. "How...?"

Like a soldier on a mission, Seven marched right past the speculating creature. He marched up the hill again, quickly leaving the river and the bank behind him as the reptilian watched him go.

When he reached the top of the hill, the sunlight beamed down over him, warming his moist face. He basked in its warmth for a moment, before he began to march into the wilderness.

"Hold on, boy!" called the interian, struggling just to stand. "Belot wasn't gonna hurt you! Come back!"

But Seven wasn't listening. He had no time to waste with the old serpent. He was moving with a purpose.

He marched toward the distant, towering dipterocarps to the west, continuing on his path toward his constant target; toward the scent of her.
Chapter 2

Athedra lay on her side upon the cold, stone floor of the dark dungeon cell, her neck bent at an impossible angle as she slept. Long strands of her filthy, blonde hair draped over her face and over the rock floor all around her. Her frail, debilitated frame rose and fell on her unconscious breath.

Her skeletal arms, crossed at the elbow in front of her, seemed like they would break at any moment from malnourishment. Her ribs were grotesquely prevalent through the thin blue fabric of her dress.

In the tomb-like dungeon, there could barely be heard a distant plop of water into some unseen puddle.

"Don't be afraid," the girl heard inside her sleeping mind. It was a father's voice - a deep and handsome and consoling sound. "This is our lot."

There were other noises all around her in the dream: explosions, orders being shouted out in haste. There was gunfire, too, but all these other sounds seemed distant - fading.

Only the resonating voice was present, overpowering all the rest.

"You will not know peace," it said. She could almost see the face - saw flashes of soft, brown hair - a beard? Thick brows... "...You will never rest assured..."

A wind arose in the background then, and quickly started to subdue the voice. It was a high-pitched blend of wailing sirens, rising, growing, as wakefulness began to tug at her.

Athedra's body shook and shuddered as her face twitched. She moaned as the wind grew louder and louder in the dream, until it was all-encompassing...until was screaming in her ears.

Her huge, grey eyes flipped all the way open at once as she snapped out of it. She sucked air to full capacity through an open little mouth without lips. At first, she peered around in the darkness, seeing only bouncing orange light that was coming from somewhere behind her.

She didn't know yet where she was.

Athedra placed a palm on the dank floor and slowly started rising, straightening out her neck. She rose slowly onto her haunches, and when she was sitting up, she tried remembering.

She could see very little past a few feet, mostly just rock walls and floor, barely lit by the bouncing light.

It was when she saw the black, vertical bars that she felt the searing pain in her back, and her memory returned to her in a flash. She remembered it was Ruzil's whip that made that stinging pain in her flesh, and as she remembered everything, she began to feel a heaviness in her heart - a terrible blackness. She placed her face into her hands and she began to cry.

Her boney shoulders shuddered as she wept.

In the silence, there came a sound from an unseen, distant corner of her cell: "You were dreaming." It was a whisper, a soft hiss.

Terrified and with good reason, Athedra scrambled away from the sound hastily, backing up against the wall of black bars behind her. She hissed inwardly in pain when the metal touched her tender back. Her large eyes grew wider as they searched the darkness in the direction from which the sound had come. "Wh-who's there?" she timidly asked.

Two lavender lights appeared in that dark corner, side by side. And then they blinked.

Athedra started to stand up, her boney spine sliding up the black bars until she stood on weak, emaciated legs. "Please get back," she politely requested. "I'm afraid."

Now the eyes came into the bouncing light, accompanied by a face - a lindarian face: huge eyes that were almost wholly iris, olive skin, flaring nostrils. This lindarian was a child of maybe seven or eight years. Athedra could see the young face underneath a tangled mess of hair.

"Don't be afraid," pleaded the little creature as it stepped into the light. "I'm just a little girl."

Athedra saw the girl more clearly now, inside the flickering torchlight. She was small - no taller than Athedra's chest. Her little frame was loosely covered in heavy sackcloth, and her little feet below were streaked in black soot just like hers.

Relieved, Athedra relaxed a little bit, let out a breath. "You scared me."

"I'm sorry," said the child, her huge eyes amply apologetic. She continued stepping forward, until she was standing close to Athedra, and looked up into her face. "I'm scared, too." She held out a little hand, palm down, a lindarian signal of acquiescence, a promise not to hurt her.

Athedra touched her fingertips to the girl's wrist, familiar with the custom. She gave the girl a smile, finding her company refreshing in so horrible a place.

The girl smiled, too, and after standing there a while, blinking at Athedra, she sat down on her haunches on the floor.

"Well," said Athedra, joining her on the floor, "we can be scared together."

They sat there watching the orange light in each other's faces, listening to the distant plopping of the water.

Athedra asked, "What's your name?"

"I'm 'Gentia,'" said the girl. Then she put her face into her palms and put her elbows on her knees.

"Well that's a pretty name. My name is - "

"'Mogwa,'" said the child.

Athedra smiled.

"Everybody knows who _you_ are," Gentia said. She started scratching at something on her wrist.

Athedra asked, "How old are you?"

Mogwa looked like she was calculating it, her head tilted, her eyes to the ceiling, but finally she only shrugged.

"Hasn't anybody ever told you?" asked Athedra.

The girl was not interested in the subject. "Is it true what they say about you?" she asked instead.

Athedra tilted her head, intrigued. "What do they say?"

Gentia didn't want to confess it, but then she said, "They say you fell from the sky."

Athedra was taken aback. "That I fell from the sky? But how could that be? I have no wings. I'm a human being, just like you."

Gentia also shook her head. "Not like me," she said.

"I'm no different from you," Athedra insisted. "I have hair like you, and fingers like your fingers." She took Gentia's hand and put her own hand up against it. "See?"

Gentia shook her head slowly. "No," she said. "You're special."

Athedra was going to plead her case when there began a cacophony, as an old and crusty voice cackled out a string of coughs.

All four eyes searched into the darkness beyond the cell. They could see a large, stone hallway there. They could see traces of the orange light reflecting off the walls and floor, but only the vertical bars of the other cells could be detected.

Out of the darkness of the cell across the hall, there came the voice: "Lies!" it cried out hatefully. It was the voice of an old woman. "Filthy lies! They're only stories!"

Athedra and Gentia peered into the dimly-lit hallway.

"Everybody knows she's just a slave like any of us!" the voice said. "She's no different!"

Gentia shouted, "You be quiet, you old witch! Nobody asked you!" A lindarian, the girl could scent exactly who it was.

Now Athedra started to see a bulbous head beyond the vertical bars, with wispy, grey, disheveled hair. It was an old woman, her hard frown barely visible in the bouncing blackness just beyond the torchlight.

The old crone waddled forward, to be seen. Her face was skeletal, her skin pale and wrinkled in the firelight. Now she actually spat - on the rock floor beside her blackened bare foot. "No different!"

Unfazed, the girl said to Athedra, "We've all seen your magic."

"Magic?" said Athedra, her fingers to her boney chest. "I don't know any - "

"More lies!" cried the old woman.

"Be quiet, Agara, you old crone!" cried another voice in the darkness. It was another human - a man this time - from further down the hallway. "Let her say!"

"I don't know of any magic," said Athedra, raising her voice for all to hear.

"We all saw it," insisted the child. "We felt it!"

Finally Athedra realized what she was referencing. "You mean my singing! It was just a song, that's all. It wasn't magic."

"I wasn't there!" complained the unseen man. "Make the magic for me!"

Other cries rang out, agreeing, echoing down the dark tunnels.

"No!" hissed the old woman. "And be quiet! All of you! You know the rules: Humans no speak - speak is incitation!"

"Please make the magic," Gentia begged privately, quietly whispering. "Please, just a little."

"It isn't magic, Gentia," said Athedra. In the commotion, the two had separated. Gentia was by the bars, and Athedra was still sitting on the floor. She tapped a space beside her. "Come. Sit with me," she said. "And I will teach you."

Gentia's eyes grew wild as she considered it, and then she came and plopped down next to her again.

Athedra gently brushed her fingers over Gentia's dark, matted hair, smoothing it. "I will teach you how to sing," she said, "and then you will see that it's not magic - that anyone can do it. You'll see we're just the same."

Gentia suddenly stuck her nose up in the air and sniffed in rapid little breaths. She turned to look at Athedra as she stood up all the way, and then began to pull away from her.

"What is it?" asked Athedra. "Gentia?"

The girl began to slide back into the darkness. Strangely, almost naughtily, she said, "You are not like me..."

When she had completely disappeared, Athedra called into the dark space. "Gentia?"

Immediately there was a deafening clanging down the hall - an ancient door was coming open. The sound was followed by a slow, earsplitting screech of hinges that seemed to last forever.

All eyes turned toward the sound with wide, fearful eyes. It was coming from just outside the cell block, indicated by a brighter firelight across the walls and floor.

There was the sound of dragging feet - a human, but the human was not alone. There could be heard the pattering of feline toes. Then there was the jingling of keys upon on a ring.

The prisoners looked down the hall at that firelight that had appeared in the window of a heavy iron door. There was a rumbling of turning tumblers and a second door cracked open. A loud, long screech accompanied the slowly swinging panel, and when the door was open all the way, there appeared a man there, dressed in discolored rags. He was holding up a black pole in his boney hands and at the end of it there was the torch. An unruly fire from it splashed its light all over everything.

A feline appeared inside the light, and then another. They were identical, lion-like creatures, with heavy brown manes that draped down over their young, lean shoulders. They were dressed in leather - across their chests and flat bellies, over their upper arms and forearms. They wore leather loincloths and leather toe-boots all the way up to their knees.

The felines waited while the human locked the door behind them before they started down the hall again.

And now Athedra could see them clearly. They were two of the Liu Mok Six - the ruthless sons of the cat king, Ruzil. As the furred creatures dressed in leather sauntered down the hall toward her cell, Athedra tentatively watched them.

The cat-men continued down the hall, tip-toeing as felines did, until they came to stop before Athedra's cell. "Open it," said one of them.

The human slave stepped forward with his set of keys.

Athedra backed up slowly, afraid, her frail hands out in front of her defensively.

The feline pulled open the gate, drawing another loud screech from the hinges. He beckoned the girl with furry, curling claws. "Outside, human. Your master Ruzil summons you."

Athedra looked from one feline to the other, and then back to the first. "Why?" she demanded. "I've done nothing!"

"Humans no speak!" screamed one of the two dead ringers. He lunged forward, his flowing brown mane reacting secondarily. He grabbed Athedra's shoulder roughly and forced her forward.

"Be careful, brother!" warned the other one, "who knows what diseases that filthy human may be carrying!"

Shackled and collared, Athedra was escorted down the long dark hallways of the Ruzil dungeons, which were lit by many torches set on high. On the way, she passed by other cells. She could hear the voices of those others trapped inside them, crying women and children and old men. It was a terrible and horrid place.

They came to a bridge over running water, where there was the scent of moist earth and mold. There were candles all along the edges of the runway. Two men were pouring something into the water from wooden buckets. They stopped their work when they saw her and looked at her, then at each other, then back at the girl as she passed between them.

"Back to work!" hissed one of the cat men.

Athedra and the slavers continued, and soon they came to the foot of a long, concrete staircase. From here the sounds of jungle were perceivable - chirping birds of different types, the cawing of a monkey in the distance.

Athedra looked up through a small square window along the top of tall, stone walls, seeing dim daylight. It was morning.

"Up!" commanded one of the cat-men, and Athedra placed a tiny, blackened foot on the first step as she began to climb.

At the top of the staircase, Athedra waited as huge, wooden double-doors were pulled open by another pair of human slaves. They also watched her intently as she passed between them.

Beyond the doors was a long, dark hall, lit up by more torches on the walls. There were other torches set on many pillars on either side, lining the way to a distant platform, where she could see the throne of the cat king Ruzil. From this great distance, Athedra could see a great gray mane convulsing as a creature sickly coughed beneath it.

Athedra felt a prodding in her lower back. "Proceed," instructed one of the young felines.

The girl continued forward, her eyes to the beast at the far end as she stepped. Her bare feet felt the comfort of the long, purple carpet that ran the length between the pillars.

There were others in the court of the lion king: many females of many different species - mostly lion-like, but there were others, too, like panther-likes and tigs, and there was even a small, sleeker cheetah-like female.

Most of them were thin and scantily clad, some dressed in tiny leather bikinis, some of them completely bare. Some wore wispy lace veils over their flat noses. They had tails that slithered behind them like snakes, and long, elegant limbs upon which they easily sauntered. They whispered in each others' pointed little ears and purred softly from behind the pillars as they cast their slit-eyed gazes at the girl.

Along the way, Athedra passed a group of males in heavy armor. These all were lion-like, and some of them were blood-stained and filthy from the hunt. One of them was missing his tail. There was a stump in its place, underneath the thick steel plates that crossed his slender back. Another had to pull back his spear to let the girl get past.

Nearing the throne, Athedra saw the lion king more clearly now, saw his golden eyes light up to see her. The coughing ceased, but he was wheezing, his great, grey mane swaying like a cloud. He wiped the black nose he had at the bottom end of a long, flat ridge and sniffled. His purple robes were old and musty, and frayed along the hems. He wore a crown, but it was slovenly, with some gems and some empty spaces where there had been others.

Ruzil handed a handkerchief to a female next to him - one of his many wives - as he gave another couple of coughs. "Little Mogwa," he said, his voice tight and scratchy. "Oh, but what gr-r-reat tr-r-r-rouble you have been!" He rolled each r distinctively.

Athedra only stood there, looking at him.

Ruzil pointed a long, black talon at the girl's shackles. "I don't think those are necessary," he said.

The two felines wrestled with the metal cuffs until the girl's hands were free, and when they were, Athedra rubbed her reddened wrists.

Ruzil's sons carried the chains away, and circled around the dais, positioning themselves on either side of Ruzil's throne.

Ruzil sat looking the girl over for a minute. "I wonder," he began, "I wonder...if you r-r-r-remember...when you first came to us, little human..."

Athedra remembered nothing of her origin.

"It was..." Ruzil looked along the shiny stone floor. "...eight...maybe nine years ago."

It had been ten.

"You were just a little one then, but quite feisty, I remember, with stories of gr-r-r-eat gr-r-r-randeur." The feline lord smiled, his canines glistening. "...stories of a... _human kingdom_!" He gave a laugh. "Do you remember that, my cub?"

Athedra's tiny mouth - no more than just a slit - stayed closed. Only her big eyes were staring up at him, accusingly.

"But everybody knows there's no such thing!" he said. "I think you know that now, don't you?"

Athedra didn't answer. She knew better than to speak.

Now the lion king leaned on his arm, his countenance transforming, softening. "Have I ever treated you so unfairly?" he prodded, "so unkindly that you should rebel? Have I not always treated you like my own child? Shown you utmost compassion? And discipline?" As he spoke, he rubbed a fibrous rope between his other thumb and fingers - the hilt of the whip with which he'd dealt his punishment.

Athedra gave no answer, only stared at him and his cruel device with fear.

"Yet here you are, once again before me. Once again accused of the hor-r-r-rendous crime of...of what?" He looked casually over at his mane-less wife.

Liu Mok placed a silky paw over her mouth and whispered into the lion-king's ear.

"Ah yes," said Ruzil as the feline turned her silvery-green eyes on Athedra again, " _incitation_..." He spoke the word slowly, hissing every syllable. The very word was taboo. "In this particular case, making...human magic...!"

He slammed a dusty fist on the wooden armrest of his throne angrily. "Have you learned nothing? Have I not broken your wicked resistance?" Now his eyes were fierce, his voice a low growl, his temporary kindness vanishing. "You are clever not to speak, to respect the laws of our great pride. It seems you have learned something after all." He nodded. "Indeed humans are not allowed to speak, little mouse, but here, on this day, you may say."

"I've done nothing wrong," said Athedra right away.

The lion king reacted with a guttural, complaining growl. "Nothing wrong?" he repeated. He appealed to his oldest wife, Liu Mok. "Nothing wrong, she says!"

The girl watched the grey mane without a sliver of emotion as he coughed into a balled-up fist.

"INCITATION!" he cried out. "Incitation is what you are accused of! Human magic!"

"A song," she said. She shifted on her feet. "I sang a harmless song - that's all."

"That's all?! Uprisings are started by such actions! UPRISINGS!"

The echo of his words rang out through the otherwise silent kingdom hall.

"Is that what you desire, little mouse? An uprising against Master?" Now he started a new series of coughs, brought on by his emotional outburst.

Athedra only shook her head.

"Is it more punishment I must administer?" He rubbed the whip with his thumb again. "You will get it!"

Athedra could not ignore the searing stings across her back. "No," she said. "Please." The toes of her right foot scraped backwards along the carpet as she retracted them.

"'No,'" repeated Ruzil mockingly, "'please.'"

Liu Mok started laughing.

"You see, my dear," he said to her, "all humans can be trained...by fear...!" He reached for a metallic goblet in the lioness' hands, swirled the drink inside, but just as he was going to take a drink, he looked over Athedra's head, and seeing noticing something there, his face dropped.

Athedra noticed the change, and turned her head, craning her neck to look behind her.

Ten paces back, there was a man-slave in rags holding a push-broom. Only he'd stopped sweeping. Instead, he was only standing there, watching the confrontation between the girl and Ruzil.

Athedra looked back at Ruzil, but the lion king was not looking at the man with the broom anymore. He was looking over his left shoulder at a group of slaves who were working to repair a window sill. They, too, had stopped and were looking back at him.

Athedra noticed Ruzil's long, uneasy stare at them.

The non-man looked around the room at one human, then another, his expression stolid. Even his coughing had ceased. He found them all staring at him.

He slid forward in his seat, softening his hard demeanor once again. "Now, child, so that you should see the tr-r-r-remendous kindness of your master...I will r-r-r-return you to your cage."

The two cats emerged from either side of him and secured the girl's arms in their claws. One of them motioned toward a heavy side-door to the chamber, directing her.

Athedra began to make her way toward it.

"Be a good girl, now, my little Mogwa," said Ruzil as she walked away.

As the girl was escorted from the court, Liu Mok watched her with narrow eyes. She was most displeased. "You are growing soft, my husband," she purred. "You should have whipped her again, that vile little creature!"

The lion king sneered with disdain. "You are a fool, old Liu Mok! You know nothing!"

Humans were getting out of Athedra's way as she exited the great hall, bowing their heads as she passed them by.

"I know enough!" said Liu Mok. "I know that one little slave has got R-r-r-ruzil the Grey-Mane under her control!"

Ruzil was infuriated, and grabbed Liu-Mok by the throat, his claws digging into the soft fur around her neck. "There is a reason why you cannot lead, stupid cow!" he spat. "Don't you see the human slaves? How they look at her? How they look at _me_?!"

"They're only humans!" the feline female barely squeezed out through her larynx.

He threw her away and put his paw-hand back on the armrest, watching as the door that led to the kennel city was opened. He watched the girl escorted through it, walking out into the morning light.

"How I would like to be so ignorant as you," he said, "to believe such a simple thing. These creatures that we trade are not so weak, as you might think!"

There rose up the sounds of celebration from the other humans out in Ruzil's kennels, yips and cheers from the population of his slaves as the girl emerged.

Ruzil's yellow eyes widened at the sound of it. "They are more dangerous than you can imagine," he said. "Human wisdom is far greater than our own. If they were ever to unite against us..." He shook his head and his great mane.

Ruzil and Liu-Mok looked at each other with concern as the cheers continued.

"It's getting worse," said Liu Mok. "She grows in power. Let me kill her!"

Outside, Athedra watched with fascination at the cheering crowds. She could tell they had been waiting for her, but she didn't know why.

As she was led through the vast kennel yard of the Ruzil palace, Athedra looked at the many eyes on her, all around her, at all the humans in captivity, all watching her.

She could hear chatter among the men and women in their cages. All around her, gaunt, filthy faces followed her. They came forward in their cages as she passed by them, to look at her.

"Stop," commanded one of the two felines, and unlocked the door to one of the many kennels. "This will do for now. We'll move her to the females' kennel in the evening." The other cat pushed Athedra into the cell and locked it behind her. As the girl fell on the floor, there were jeers and complaints in the crowds of her mishandling.

The cat men looked fearfully at the humans and at each other as they hurriedly prepared to leave.
Chapter 3

Seven crouched in the shadows, hiding as he watched the reptors moving up and down the giant trunks of the dipterocarps. It was a bright, sunny day up there, above the leaves, where the light shone brightly, but down here, far below the lofty canopy of the forest, it was dark and moist.

Only thin beams of sunlight like needles were able to break through to the forest floor, and long, dark shadows overtook much of the environment.

The reptors Seven was observing were quite different from the dusty old interian he'd left by the creek this morning. Interians like him were thick and tough, and covered in hard scales, but these creatures were thin and long, and graceful. They had soft, smooth skin the color of fresh spring grass. They had yellow bellies and long necks topped with almond-shaped heads that fluidly turned. Seven knew them as arborians; usually peaceful, unobtrusive creatures.

He'd been watching them for quite some time now, listening to the chatter of four guards positioned close to him. They were posted at the base of a wide wooden staircase that circled around one of the trunks - each soldier armed with a tall spear and a bow strapped behind him.

They had quivers filled with arrows on their backs, and were dressed in nothing more than leather loincloths and leather straps across their thin chests. One of them was also wearing a small leather helmet over the top of his long, green head. It had indents cut out for his eyes as well as a decorative hole in the center of the top for his parietal eye.

Seven's own eyes traced the spiraling staircase upward, far above where it finally ended at a vast plank deck built at least a hundred feet high, tied to the trunks of the giant trees upon which the reptilian city was built.

The lindarian had spotted the city in the trees well in advance, before he'd bedded down for the night before. Three miles away he'd scented the sweet aroma of boiling vegetables and bugs - their usual diet. He'd seen the dim flames in the silhouettes when it was dark.

Now he could scent the eggs that held their young in their nursery far above, the most guarded sector of their village, and regretted his decision to cut through their territory.

He had considered going around the lizard encampment, as it was directly in his path, but as the scent of his objective had started to diminish, he'd decided to chance it after all, and had come to find himself right in the midst of their abode.

Now he wished he'd made the other choice.

Seven knew these lizards were peaceful, but they were also easy to alarm.

He didn't want trouble. He only wanted to get past them, and continue on his path, but seeing so many, he thought it might be necessary to wait until nighttime before he'd move again. He looked up into the foundations of the vast wooden structure. There were soldiers patrolling there as well - scouts that would be looking for anomalies along the ground. He couldn't see them, but he could scent them. From their lofty position, those troops could easily spot him if he moved too quickly.

So he kept still, and patiently watched the four arborian guards as they paced around, their long, green toes in leather sandals crunching twigs and leaves. An hour passed while Seven waited, holding perfectly still, even his black eyes were barely moving.

He knew the sun's thin rays would not shine on his position; he'd calculated it long before he'd slipped into his hiding place.

A plan crossed his mind: the four creatures turned away at the same time - an unlikely combination of events - and when they did again, this time he'd slip a little further forward.

There was a dark ravine some two hundred feet to the north of the village foot. It stretched down and west along his path. He'd slip into that darkness, he thought, and then creep along until he was well outside of the view of the arborians.

"Be still," he heard inside his mind. He could hear the teacher's words inside his head, but he could not remember who that man had been. "Be ready!" He could see only his eyes - black eyes, like his own; black quills for hair, just like his, but he was older. "Focus!"

Another hour passed, and then it happened. While two of the guards were looking away from him already, there came a sound on the other side of them - a tiny crash as a decrepit piece of branch fell from far above and landed on the ground - the other two now turned away from him as well. It was his chance. Seven slid like a fluid in the shadows of the bushes, underneath them almost, moving like spilled water. He made no sound. In just a few maneuvers, he had come almost into their station.

He stopped as one of the almond-shaped heads turned around again. It said something to another one in their native tongue.

Seven breathed steadily, in through his large nostrils, out through his slit mouth, quietly, taking up a whole minute on the exhale. The creature looked into the place where Seven was, but he didn't seem to spot him. He turned away again when another lizard said something as well.

They were closer now, within good thrusting distance.

"Through here?" one of lizards asked another - the one with the helmet.

"That's what they say," the other one reported. This one, like the others had no helmet, only the leather straps across his chest and leather loincloth, but he had on leather gauntlets. "A black-eyed lindarian, they say."

And now Seven started listening.

"Those things are dangerous," said another of the three. "But I'm not scared. He'd better not come through here!" The young arborian got into a battle stance and thrust his spear into an imaginary enemy before him, once, and then again. Then he turned swiftly, whipping his tail into the same space. "Lindarian or not, I'll take him down!"

"Shut up," said the arborian with the helmet. "You're no match for one of those things."

The other two laughed at the scoffed lizard.

"You're too fat," pressed the helmeted reptile. "He'll kill you, skin, cook you and eat you all in one go."

They laughed more heartily at him.

"There's also a female with him, they say," the squad leader continued. "- a human."

"Also lindarian?" asked another of the three.

There came no answer. Seven waited. But now the creatures began to move out of his field of vision, and he couldn't turn his head without moving more than just his eyes. It could create a distraction. They would definitely spot him if they were facing him.

Patches of arborian soldiers covered at least four acres in every direction. Instead, Seven waited patiently.

And then he smelled it. It was only one at first: a thin, wooden beam - of pine. He was sure of it. And also stone. There was the unmistakable scent of serpent's poison.

Inside his head, the master's voice: "Focus!"

In a flash, Seven abandoned his original idea. His positioned had been compromised. He reached above his head with hands like lightning and clutched the wooden arrow's thin shaft before the thing could stick. The tiny stone arrowhead was a mere two inches from his black top when he'd stopped it. The poison dripped into his black hair as another arrow landed near his feet.

"There! There!" someone was calling from the canopy far above.

Seven looked up, seeing tiny, outstretched green arms from all around the wooden structure. They were all pointing at his position.

Now there were many arrows sticking into the earth all around him.

"Get him!" screamed the helmeted guard nearby, thrusting his spear into the space as Seven vacated it. The spearhead stuck into the root where he'd been resting.

Seven tore toward the dark valley to his right, the black cloth toes of his boots lightly tapping earth as he quickly darted over it. A symphony of wooden pipe alarms sounded overhead as the lindarian sped through the trees, juking and barely dodging the arrows as he went.

The four guards ran after the lindarian with their spears out. "It's him! It's the lindarian! Kill him!"

He flew over some pale boulders as arrows fell from the sky like rain. A spear landed on his path and he leapt over it as well. Another crashed behind him right into a tree trunk. Steel cymbals rang loudly, despite their vertical distance - a blaring choir of alarm.

Voices joined in - the creatures hollering in high-pitched, rapid whoops. Seven could 'see' them with his powerful olfactory sensors. The four behind him were quickly catching up to him. Eighteen more skinny arborians were coming in from all directions. Scores of the creatures were quickly rappelling down the trees toward him.

Seven stepped quickly, his feet a dark blur beneath him now - faster, faster. As he sped, but began to notice less and less arrows landing near him. The barrage almost completely stopped as he continued forward. Had he outrun them? Was he out of their range?

He stepped on something strange - a rope - another. Then suddenly, the lindarian went flying up into the air, his arms wrapped around him; his legs tucked as he was caught in a net. A giant rope contraption had him held tightly. He looked around, seeing all the lizards circling around him below, their tails slithering behind them. Seven reached for the hilt of his katana and slid it out swiftly, slicing through the rope net at the same time, freeing himself.

He fell, landing on his feet. His sword was out before him.

"After him!" yelled the hatted arborian guard and the whole bunch started coming in.

A heavily-armored reptor reached him first. He had on plate armor, although it was also made from only wood. The slender lizard thrust his spear, but Seven juked.

As Seven dodged the spear, he spun also, slicing the arborian in two with one swift, powerful swipe - the katana finding the tiny bit of green flesh between the chest plate and the abdominal plate.

Two more reptors were already there, attacking him, and he swiped again and again, felling both as they rushed in. Another two rushed him and they hit the ground without their heads, their tails wiggling as the bodies were dying.

Another swipe from Seven's sword, and another death, each time he brought down one lizard man, spilling out his intestines or removing its head from it.

Now he was surrounded, but for a moment, the arborians stopped advancing. They were cautious. Afraid. In just a few seconds, he'd made corpses of many of their peers.

Seven shook his head at them, his eyes sending a clear warning.

A command came in their language then, and more reptors lunged forward.

As they did, Seven killed them, felling the front liners in a single turn, his blade a flash of silver as it sliced. More of them attacked, and more were slaughtered, Seven's blade exposing pink flesh and bone and cartilage beneath green skin.

They were coming at him from all directions now: from up above, lizards were jumping down, landing at his rear or flanking him. They were climbing down the trunks like green sap slowly dripping.

But just as quickly as the soldiers reached him, they would find his sword cutting through them.

Seven broke a spear with his sword, then took the two pieces from the lizard that had thrust it at him. He stuck one into the attacker and then stuck the other end into another as he neared.

He was ending their lives as quickly as possible - he had to neutralize each target with one strike because they were so many.

Outside of Seven's view, a huge wooden structure was being lowered by ropes at its four corners. It landed beside a tree trunk and a squad of lizard soldiers came rushing from it. They were coming quickly to join the slaughter that was already at the warrior's feet.

Soon, Seven had to stand on the pile of bodies as they kept coming, one after another dead, and then another and another...until...

"Stop!" somebody screamed, and the yelling was accompanied by horns. He screamed something in the arborian language and every lizard stopped at once.

Seven stopped slicing and dicing through the arborians, too, as they stopped their forward motion, some of them even taking one step back or two. All of them were breathing heavily, all of them terrified of what they'd found in the darkness. It was obvious on many of their faces that they were relieved to hear the horn of retreat from up above.

Somebody was barking orders and Seven looked in the direction of the voice. It was coming from another elevator landing beside another giant tree trunk. Upon that platform, he saw a finely dressed arborian with a hand up - four long, skinny fingers with bulbous fingertips all pointing to the sky. This lizard had many brightly-colored feathers strapped to his almond-head by a colorful, silver band. He was older than the others, evident by his sagging skin and slow gait as he stepped off and started coming toward Seven.

Seven held tightly his katana's hilt, ready, with the blade still out. Blood was dribbling down over his hands, and he shook them off one after the other. He used this opportunity to stretch his neck and arms. His eyes were everywhere but his own chest was barely heaving. He was still inhaling steadily in through his large nostrils, exhaling calmly through his mouth.

The adorned reptilian moved forward through the other arborians as the ranks of lizard men divided to allow him. Soon he was standing at the edge of the circle surrounding Seven, peering with slit, green eyes at the man in black. The black slits were clear and bright.

Seven looked around at all of them, checking every reptor. He was controlled, but his guard was all the way up.

The chief peered into Seven's eyes, searching, and then, in Seven's tongue, he said, "Lei Na Daro."

This caught Seven's full attention and he stopped his scanning to focus on the green chief, his eyes suspicious but inquisitive.

"'Of the mountain descended,'" the lizard chief translated.

He stepped forward, out from his ranks, toward the dangerous lindarian. This brought gasps and sighs from all around him. He shushed them with his green palms out to his sides.

The chief looked at the hilt of Seven's katana, spotted the golden heart at the end of it, and then his own green eyes lit up. He took two steps back, his long, lime-green tail swaying. "This cannot be..." he let slip past green, leathery lips.

Seven choked up his grip, his black bulbous eyes focused.

"Who are you?" asked the bewildered lizard chief. "Why are you here?"

Seven gave no answer. He waited, watched. He swallowed and then licked his lips.

The chief's head turned, his long chin panning. He said, "Tell me! Were you sent to destroy us?"

Seven's bulbous black eyes blinked once, and he wiped lizard blood out from his right eye, but he did not say a word. Instead, he slowly shook his head.

"Then...you did not come here to kill us?"

Again, Seven shook his head, no.

The chief took a deep breath, relieved, and said, "Good. We will attack you no more." He looked at his commanders. "Put them down. Stand down, all of you."

The warriors hesitated, the lower ranking soldiers checking their individual leaders for confirmation.

"Stand down, I said!" demanded the chief.

Finally, all of them obeyed. Spearheads went down to the black earth. Arrows found their quivers as bows were replaced on arborian backs.

The chief asked Seven, "are you hungry?"

Seven saw the weapons being put away, but he did not put his own sword away. He held it more lowly, though, offering no more threat.

The chief held out his gangly fingers towards Seven. "Come," he said. "Be our guest."
Chapter 4

The slavers were walking Athedra through the kennels after her meeting with the lion king, and as they passed a small cage for women, they came to a stop. It was mostly empty, except for an old crone, a tall woman with orange, disheveled hair, and two thin twins which had all been brought up from the dungeons at dawn. "Not here!" complained old Agara, as Zu-ril was removing the long, metal key from his belt. "Take her somewhere else!"

"Be quiet, old witch!" said the other feline, and banged against the bars with the edge of his scimitar, warning her to back away from the gate.

Agara waddled backwards away from them, her face twisted up into a hard, pained scowl.

"Humans no speak!" reminded Zu-ril as he worked the lockset. Soon, there was a resounding clatter as it disengaged. The gate came noisily open.

The old woman who'd badmouthed Athedra in the dungeon darkness now frowned hard at the girl as the irons were removed from her frail wrists. She slid back away as Athedra was shoved into the kennel past her. "Thinks she's special, doesn't she?" she said.

"Quiet!" yelled the slaver. "Or you'll go back to the dungeons!"

Now Agara was quiet, only eyeing the child up and down, her pale blue eyes narrow with hatred. Her brown teeth could be seen just past her bowed upper lip.

"And you!" said Zu-ril, pointing a gloved finger at Athedra. "No more of your human magic!" he warned, "or you'll go back into the dungeons, too!"

Athedra's eyes were sad, her expression filled with despair.

Zu-ril and the other feline began to back away from them, their tails seeking out the gate. When they had back all the way out, they slammed the gate shut and stuck in the key again, to lock it. Before they left, he shot Athedra one last glare and reminded her. "You've been warned."

Humans all around in the kennel city stood with their hands on the bars and watching. They eyed the felines as the two slunk away, their leather toe-boots making no sound, their tails slithering behind them as they went. Soon, they disappeared past the many cages and gaunt human faces.

Athedra looked across the small kennel, seeing the twins and the large, red-headed woman. She circled around one of the twins to find a space on the floor. She placed her back against the bars near the rear of the cage and slid down to the floor on her haunches. She put her face into her hands and her elbows on her knees.

One of the twins came forward when she was sadly seated, and placed her hand on Athedra's shoulder. "It's okay, Mogwa," the skeleton said meekly. "Don't be sad."

Athedra finally looked up at her and forced a broken smile. "Thank you," she offered.

The old woman sneered at them. She hissed, "Humans...no speak!"

Hours passed.

The sun, which had been tucked behind grey clouds for most of the day, began to poke through in the afternoon, casting warm light over the seemingly unending kennel complex. It hung lowly in the western sky. Soon it would be feeding time.

Feeding of the humans was usually administered by lesser felines than the sons of Ruzil. A plump orange cat usually did the work, along with two females - all in aprons stained in deep brown and red hues. The females pushed a cart on squeaky wheels and stopped at one gate after the other, usually scooping out slop and flopping it onto the floor in different places so that the humans wouldn't fight for it.

Athedra's eyes opened to the sound of the squeaky wheels stopping just outside her gate.

Today, the food was meat - pieces of rarely cooked flesh. The smell was not pleasant and the animal from which it came could not be determined by it. Today the flesh was pink in color.

"Get back!" yelled one of the feline females to the large woman as she reached out for a piece. The female cat carefully held it out before tossing it into the kennel. It landed on the floor with a loud slap and the woman lunged for it.

The orange feline was counting the fourth piece of flesh as he handed them to his assistants. Another was tossed and this one was caught by Athedra's slender hands. Another piece landed on the face of one of the twins, but she did not complain. Like a starving dog, the girl immediately devoured it and then began to lick her cheek.

Agara reached for the next piece, but missed it, and it slapped onto the floor near the other twin. The famished human dove down for it. When the last piece was tossed into the kennel, it flew past Agara's wrinkled fingers and came to land closer to the tall red-headed woman.

The tall woman immediately reached down and scooped it up, shoving the entire piece she already had into her mouth.

"Hey!" complained the old woman. "My piece!" But she cried out when she was poked in the back by a stick in the orange cat's hands.

"Humans no speak!" yelled the orange feline angrily before he started pushing the cart away again. The two felines kept up behind him, following him to the next kennel over, a cage of men and boys.

"What about me?" complained the old crone, looking around the kennel at the others. "I need to eat, too!"

All eyes went to the tall woman, who was busy chewing. She wouldn't even look at them. Instead, she chewed hurriedly, racing against time. It was clear to see she had absolutely no intention of sharing.

The twins said nothing, but only eyed the red-head as they chewed. They seemed to know her. They knew better than to argue with her and only quietly ate, eyeing each other and Athedra as they did.

But Athedra spoke. She said, "what about her? She also needs to eat."

The tall woman finally spoke. "Hell with her!" she said with her mouth full. Pieces of the pale pink flesh dangled from between her teeth. "She's old and will die soon. She doesn't need to eat."

Now men from the next kennel over came closer to them, putting their hands on the bars as they observed. They'd eaten their rations in seconds flat.

"Be quiet, Mogwa," said one of the two twins. "Only eat your rations."

"But she - " started Athedra before she was violently shushed.

At the next kennel where the cats were arriving, eyes were turning to see the women arguing.

"Be quiet!" hissed the other twin, lowly so that the orange chef would not hear. "Humans no speak. Just eat your piece!"

Athedra looked at the piece in her hand and then slowly her eyes traced the concrete floor slowly away, slowly toward the old woman who leaned against the bars on her own haunches. She could see the old woman's wrinkled, boney hands. They were trembling and she knew the reason for it.

Before she knew it, Athedra stood up on shaky legs, weak from malnutrition herself, and began to slide her bare feet toward the old crone.

And for the onlookers, time seemed to stop. The quiet chatter all came to a sudden stop as all eyes went to the girl crossing the kennel slowly, carrying her sliver in her hands.

"What are you doing, Mogwa?" asked a dark man with a filthy face and tangled hair in the next kennel over. "Just eat your piece, you fool!" It was Jerob.

But Athedra didn't listen. She stayed her course toward old Agara.

The old woman stared at the girl as she came finally to stand above her. She didn't want to look into Athedra's eyes but only kept her stare to Athedra's blackened little toes.

The girl squatted down in front of the old crone and then began to concentrate on tearing her piece in half.

"Stop that!" yelled Jerob. "That old dog hates you! She wouldn't do the same for you!"

Others agreed and hissed their complaints. "Let her die!" they'd say. "Eat your portion!" they'd hiss.

The old woman's head was shaking no as her hand reached out impulsively toward the morsel. "Please, no," she said, as her stomach loudly growled. Tears were welling in her eyes. "I don't want it."

"You need it," said Athedra. "You need to eat, just like I need to eat. Now please take it and eat."

Finally Agara took the piece and then she stared at it for a long time, her head and hands a trembling, tearful mess.

Athedra sat down beside her and began to dine herself.

Finally, with a heavy heart and starved half to death, Agara started chewing.

Out of Athedra's view, the tall woman and the twins were staring at her, awed by her.

In the kennels all around, where the other slaves were receiving their own rations, some of them were already eating, others had eaten already. All of them were watching her.

They came to stand at the closest wall of their cage toward her, with their hands gripping the bars, all staring at her, in awe.
Chapter 5

The high court of the lizard king was a wooden palace, made almost entirely of deep red mahogany; every wall and floor and every surface was perfectly polished, and reflected the soft bouncing light from torches set around the huge room.

The reptilian lord did not recline upon his polished throne, but sat forward, quite intently watching his guest, along with all his people which were seated in rows on either side of him. These arborians dressed in fine linen filled the room and lined the walls. They, too, were quietly staring at the stranger in their midst.

Great, panoramic windows on all sides of the structure allowed for breathtaking views of the earth far below; green, vast land stretching out in all directions beneath a brilliant sun. Looking over his shoulder into the east, he could see the great daro - that unnaturally tall mountain that stuck up from the earth like a thumb.

Seven sat on the floor, on his haunches, with his legs crossed. He could feel the wooden structure in motion as the massive trunks that held it swayed under the force of the wind. He could hear wooden flutes singing lovely tunes in places he couldn't see and sticks and drums played a soft, rhythmic percussion along with them.

Before Seven was a highly-polished table and upon it was a bowl filled with some manner of sustenance - shiny, hard pieces of what looked like insect shells floating in pink and pearl, oozing slime. He scented exoskeletons and slugs. He scented arsenic in the crustacean pudding also, but it was only trace - far less than the poison cocktails he'd been fed since childhood to increase his tolerance.

Seven glanced around the large room filled with many reptiles. A hundred slit eyes watched his every move.

He put his finger into the sloppy mess. The pink slime was warm and slippery. His finger came away coated in it. A bubbly drop slowly developed and when it was sufficiently fattened, plopped back down into the bowl. Seven slid his hand over to the wooden fork beside the wooden bowl and without a word or hesitation started to dig in.

As Seven ate, he looked at the seated lizards surrounding him, crunching gently into a beetle's shell.

The chief, seeing Seven eating, relaxed now, reclining in his seat which sat upon a slightly raised platform made from polished cedar.

Seven sniffed toward him.

"Lei na daro," said the reptilian leader slowly, "if not to attack us, then why did you come here?" The tiny eyes on top of his long head blinked and the long green snout panned slowly left.

Seven only looked at him, swallowed the food, his throat wet and slimy. He felt a critter's leg scraping its way down into his stomach.

The chief motioned toward him and two small lizards approached, with long tails ornate with ribbons. They were females, with small, smooth hands. One of them was holding a tall pitcher filled with crystal-clear water. The other set down a wooden cup. When the first had filled the cup with water, Seven took the cup and drank.

"Did someone send you here?" pried the lizard king.

Seven only watched him as he shoved in another spoonful of the slime.

"We played no part in the demise of Hearthstone, I swear it," declared the chief solidly.

Seven chewed. As he swallowed the sludge in his mouth, he could swear he felt movement towards the back of his throat.

"As you can see, our humble house does not accommodate the mighty elemen." He held out one slender, green arm to show that there were no gigantic seats or tables as there were in most modern cities. "No, we are not so well acquainted with the modern nations as you men. I assure you no avians with their machine guns come here!" As he said these words, he shot a line of bullet-holes across his ceiling with an imaginary M-16. He shook his hands to simulate the kick-back of the avian machine weapons. He smiled at Seven. "No. We are only simple, peaceful lizards here."

Seven stared with little interest, his jaws crunching away.

The chief's long face tilted back the other way. He was genuinely confused. "...or is it...could it be that you do not know of what I speak?" His eyes lit up. "Tell me - did you steal that sword?"

Seven looked at his katana, which had been polished clean and set up beside the chief's throne for all to see. He brought the cup back up to his lips and drank again. When he set it down again, he looked around, past the many faces curiously observing him. He investigated the vast wooden room, examining all available exits. He looked out through the windows, southwestwardly, his path, seeking out any obstacles. He looked down through the lower windows, which displayed the distant ground. It was about a hundred and fifty feet below.

"You don't remember," said the chief, pensively, his eyes narrowing. They were the color of a rotten, pale lime. "You don't know who you are, do you?"

This brought Seven's attention back to the chief and now he searched the leathery green face.

Slowly, grimly, the chief said two words as if he were telling a story of old ghosts to frighten young hatchlings. The tiny nostrils along the top of his flat head flared and his eyes narrowed as he slowly hissed, "Guardian...shadoooow..."

The lindarian's head tilted on its axis when he heard these words.

He knew these words. In his mind, he heard them again.

Guardian.

Shadow.

The words reverberated. They had something to do with him - with the female he was hunting.

He decided it was time to go. Seven took the bowl of bug soup in his hands, brought it to his mouth, and emptied the whole thing into his mouth, to the shock of his hosts. When he was finished, he stood all the way up.

The lizards reacted in unison, all of them with a manner of fear. Guards in their leather straps appeared in doorways in the commotion.

Seven wasted no more time, crossing the floor in two leaping strides, reaching the chief almost immediately.

The chief recoiled, but Seven only wanted his katana. He took his sword and scabbard in hand and made his way swiftly toward a great wooden doorway to the west, beyond which there lay a wide open deck lined in torches.

"Wait!" said the arborian chief as he stood up to follow him. "You agreed there would be no violence!"

His guards rose up as well and all began to follow Seven.

As the young man briskly walked, he worked, fastening the scabbard's ties around his torso, his fingers operating deftly, quickly. They'd done the work countless times before.

By the time he reached the outer deck, he was tying the strap around his leg. It was not his favorite position for the sword, but it would suffice for what he was about to do.

Out on the deck floating far above the earth, Seven strode straight toward the furthest ledge, not stopping as the arborians attempted to engage him.

"Stop!" commanded a finely-dressed guard.

But Seven wasn't listening. He was marching. When he reached the ledge, he intended to step right over it, but suddenly, he was frozen. It was the view before him. The earth was almost two hundred feet away, and for a second, he was reminded of another place and time.

"Please, wait, lindarian," said the chief, but Seven wasn't with them anymore. The words echoed in the back of Seven's mind.

He was in the memory now, and falling. Falling fast through the cold air. His arms were out beside him, stretched out - so were his legs - as the world came screaming up toward him. He was not alone. There was someone else there, in the air with him. He could see fingers - small and lifeless; bright in their color against a background so distant it was blurred. He was reaching for the fingers, stretching out toward them. He was just about to reach them when he snapped back to the present.

"Lindarian?" called the chief, finally reaching him. Seven was teetering on the edge of the wooden bulwark. "What are you doing? We mean you no harm. I have more questions for you. Please come back inside."

But Seven was not staying. Before they reached him, the lindarian stepped right over the edge and right out of their sight.

One lizard exclaimed, "Oh, my!" as they all ran toward the ledge. They placed their thin green fingers over the wooden edge of the parapet and peeked over it, looking down into the wide open space beneath them. There was nothing there. There could only be seen the thick green blanket of the forest down below. It was too far to see any one tree clearly. There was no lindarian in the air.

"Where did he go?" asked another soldier. He looked over the edge and found the black-clad body stuck on one of the massive trunks that held up their city. "There!" he cried.

Suddenly, the body dropped some forty feet to another spot on the trunk where there was a small branch.

Before they knew it, the body fell from there also, jumping downward from one place to another further down, on the way to the forest floor.

"Chief," said an arborian commander with brilliant yellow eyes. "Shall we pursue him?"

By now, the chief, along with many soldiers as well as the councilmembers in white were all looking down over the edge to find the human dropping down and down. His body was small now - a black little thing leaping from one spot to another and another, and soon he'd reached the ground below where he completely disappeared.

"No," said the chief finally. He inhaled and let it all out at once. "Let him go."

"He's just a human!" insisted the subordinate. "Let me take a unit of warriors and we will - "

"It's a human, yes," interrupted the chief, "but he's also lindarian. He has the strength of many men, and can go on fighting for days. Didn't you not see the carnage on the floor?"

The young reptor had seen. "Who was he, lord?" he asked. "Why did we let him go?"

In mere seconds, the mysterious creature had torn through half his men, and just as swiftly, he had vanished from their lofty perch.

The old lizard knew. He knew all about the creature and his ilk. "He's bred to be a killer," he explained, "unlike any other. He would have destroyed our entire tribe, if I hadn't stopped him." He put a hand on the lieutenant's armor-plated shoulder. "It was not I who let him go, my simple hatchling. It was he who let us all live." He put his gaze out over the vast wilderness to the southwest, the direction in which Seven had gone. "He goes into the feline territories now. And woe to whomever it is that creature hunts. It will most certainly not survive."
Chapter 6

Athedra had been relaxing for a while, outstretched along the hard, masonry floor of her kennel. She'd eaten little - only half of a portion that was already too small - but she'd had plenty of water, and that had settled her stomach a bit. She lay her head back against the concrete and allowed her mind drift. She thought about the man in her dream - that bearded, handsome man who spoke with her so kindly. Yet his words were not encouraging. They brought her no tranquility.

"You will not know peace..." the man had said in her deep sleep. She heard the words from the dream clearly. "You can never rest assured..."

Why would he say such things, she wondered as she lay, looking up through the bars of her cage, into the drifting white clouds above. They drifted over the bright blue sky, stretching and transfiguring.

Athedra thought she would doze off as the words reverberated in her memory. "This is our lot...this is our lot..."

Suddenly, there was a great commotion.

There were screams and banging sounds somewhere closer to the center of the compound.

Athedra rolled up into a sitting position, looking toward the calamity. There were bodies moving quickly, some outside and others inside their own cages. She stood up slowly, famished, on weak legs.

"Get him!" yelled a feline voice.

Athedra recognized it as Zu-ril's, one of the sons of the lion king.

"Catch him! Catch the little rat!"

There was a wave of commotion in the prisoners, all screaming and yelling and whooping. Athedra tried to see, but was too short to look over the others' heads, when there was a break: the fugitive came suddenly into view.

He circled a kennel that neighbored Athedra's. His eyes lit up when he saw her, and he stopped in his tracks. He took a few more steps, staggering loosely in her direction.

Athedra was wondering why.

"He's over here!" screamed out a cat man. "He's in the eastern sector!"

The boy began to run again, this time straight toward Athedra's kennel, and then, before she knew it, he had come right up to it. He kept his black eyes on hers as he put his hands around the bars.

His face was filthy, and like it, his hair a wiry, grey mess. He was covered in grime and he wore only a torn rag for a shirt and a pair of undergarments below. His feet were black and bare. His black eyes stared up into Athedra's face as if he were dying of thirst and she were a flowing fountain.

Athedra, intrigued, stepped toward the boy, watching him as the cats appeared around the man kennel, behind him. There were two of them, in brown leather armor, but she didn't look at them. She put her hands on the bars, too, right above the boy's.

The boy said, "Save me."

"Here he is!" called out a feline guard. He was out of breath. He held his side as he came toward Athedra's cage. Nearing the boy, he reached out to grab him, but before he could make contact, the boy demonstrated a fascinating skill: he slipped right through the bars and into the kennel.

Another feline came around the corner. It was Zu-ril. He slid out the sword from his scabbard and slammed the wide edge of it against the bars. "Get out here, little rat!"

But the boy wasn't looking in the direction of his pursuers. He was only looking at Athedra. He knelt down before her and then put his face into the floor, his forehead pressed against her toes. Athedra only looked down at him.

"Open it!" commanded Zu-ril, slamming his blade against the bars.

Another feline guard appeared, already fumbling with his keys.

Zu-ril began to pull the bullwhip from his belt. "This little cur is mine!"

The boy's torso was inflating and deflating rapidly, his breath hot on Athedra's toes. She could see bleeding stripes already on his bare back. She could see blood on the garment he wore for a shirt now. Dust flew out from underneath his face.

The gate flew open and the cats flooded into the kennel, all surrounding the two humans.

"Leave her alone!" complained Agara, as she reached out bravely to stop them.

"Out of my way, pig!" yelled Zu-ril as he tossed her easily aside.

The tall woman and the twins were only trembling in a corner.

Zu-ril positioned himself behind the boy and raised the whip over his head. "Now you will feel my whip, you little rat!" he screamed.

But just as the whip was coming down, Athedra threw herself over the prostrate boy, covering him with her own skeletal form. She tightened up to take the pain, but as she waited there, the beating never came.

There was only a deep and furious growl. "Don't think I won't, little Mogwa!" yelled Zu-ril. "I will give you all his lashings if I must!"

But now there was another sound - a soft, pounding sound. It was the stomping of many feet - human feet. The stomping was followed by the word, "no," over and over again.

The cat prince looked around, holding the whip high and ready, at all the people in their kennels, all looking at him with intense hatred, all stomping, all commanding him to stop. "No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No...."

"Be quiet!" Zu-ril yelled, but the voices were too many, and the stomping was too loud.

"Humans no speak!" a feline guard reminded them, but also to no avail.

The pounding became louder. Now the slaves were pummeling the bars. "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" was all that could be heard, and the stomping accompanied.

The small band of felines looked around them, at the hundreds of human slaves, all chanting in unison, all protesting, and they began to be afraid.

"HUMANS NO SPEAK!" screamed out Zu-ril, but even his loud scream was drowned in all the noise.

"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!"

Slowly, the cat prince began to drag his toes backwards, toward the gate. There was a new expression in his face - of fear. On his way, he bumped into another stunned feline. "Get out of the way!" he yelled at him.

Little by little, the feline slavers all backed out of the kennel, all of them carefully, and then one by one, they scurried back toward Ruzil's palace.

Athedra got up from the boy, his blood stained on her blue dress. His little back was fresh with stripes and it filled her with despair. Her eyes filled up with tears. Where she sat, she started crying, as she pushed herself into a corner of her cage.

"I hate this world!" she suddenly screamed through her tears. She rolled herself into a ball. "This horrible horrible place! I abhor my very existence!"

She was shaking with her crying, and the eyes of those that could see her also started filling up with tears. Jerob wiped his face with the back of his massive hand.

"But...my lady," said a woman's voice in the next kennel over.

Athedra wasn't listening. She had finally been broken. "There is no justice in his place!" she complained. "Evil triumphs! The powerless are trodden underfoot!" Her eyes were filled with tears and blood-red now. "I wish I could just die!"

"My lady, please!" the lady yelled, pleading for the girl to stop.

And Athedra did stop. She unfurled and sat up, looking into the crowds to find the woman that was speaking.

The woman said, "Please think about the rest of us!"

Athedra was genuinely confused. She sniffled. She shook her head. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"My lady," said the stranger, "if you were not alive, if you weren't in this place...right here, right now...what would have happened to that boy?"

Now the boy got up on his knees, to get a good look into Athedra's sad eyes. He scooted over, sat next to her.

"Please do not despair, miss," said the lady, shaking her own head with warning. "If not for you, there will be no hope at all."

Athedra sat there, and thought about the lady's words. She still had not come to understand her power. She snorted snot, wiped her nose with her sleeve, and put her gaze upon the floor as she considered what the lady had said, how the people all were watching her. She thought about it for a very long time.

The boy she'd saved watched her. He was amazed to be alive.

Athedra put her hands on the bars, and began to get herself up slowly, and there was a reaction in the many faces. She looked around, into those faces - the endless sea of grimy, defeated humans in all directions, behind metal bars and barrier sheets. All of them were staring at her.

She cleared her throat, stronger now than before, fueled by the lady's words. She straightened up her little shoulders and nodded at them as she turned in a circle to acknowledge every one.

The faces responded, melting into hopeful smiles before her very eyes and then she had the strength, even in all of her desperation...to smile back at them.

This filled them with hope and once again they stared at her, watching her, not turning from her. They were waiting for her.

Hours passed, and as the sun was hanging lowly in the southwestern sky, a little creature slid up next to Athedra. It was her little friend from deep inside the dungeons. The little creature shined her purple eyes up at her from just outside the bars.

Gentia said, "Hello."

Athedra smiled at her. "Well, there's a familiar face." She said, and reached out to stroke the top of the girl's head. "How did you get up here?"

Gentia smiled naughtily at her, but as usual, gave no answer. She looked at the black-eyed boy and said, "I told you she would save you."

Athedra looked at the black-eyed boy, who widely smiled at her.

Athedra asked, "Why did you tell him that?"

Gentia said, "So it is true what they say. You did fall from the sky."

Athedra shook her head. "Why do you say that?"

Gentia looked around at the vast kennel complex, at all the faces behind bars, all looking at Athedra like she did. "Not just me," she said. "We all believe in you." She shifted her little body into a more comfortable position before putting her head back to the bars so that Athedra could reach.

Athedra smiled at the lindarian child and brushed her hair back away from her forehead. "I'm just a girl, Gentia. I'm just like you."

Gentia shook her head slowly, knowingly. "You're not like me. Even the slavers know that's not true. They're afraid of you."

Athedra looked around at feline keepers that were nearby. One of them was watering the new men's kennel and looked quickly away from her quickly. Two more - two of the Liu Mok Six - were chatting from the safety of the palace. Both of them were staring at Athedra, watching her more closely than ever before.

"Don't worry, Ms. Mogwa," said Gentia, "I will protect you."

Athedra smiled her sad smile.

"...until they come to rescue you."

Now Athedra rolled her eyes. "Rescue me? Ha. Who's coming to rescue me?"

Gentia turned all the way around. "Your people!" Then she sat back down so that Athedra could keep stroking her hair.

"Oh, you are a dreamer, Gentia. I knew we had that in common."

"Don't believe me?" said Gentia.

Athedra only shook her head.

Gentia turned and peered into Athedra's face with her big purple eyes, searching. "Well, it's true. Your people will come to rescue you."

"What people?" asked one of the twins.

"Her people!" insisted Gentia. "Other people from the sky."

"Silly girl," said Jerob in the next kennel over. "You're dreaming."

"Yeah," said another man beside him. "This is the home of the most dangerous slavers in all the feline territories, the most violent of all the cat clans! Who on earth would be so stupid as to break into a place like this?"
Chapter 7

Captain Pol Hutchinson was drunk again...and passed out. His right cheek was planted against a stone tabletop where he was seated at the Under Bar Casino, and there was a little puddle of drool beside his open mouth. Occasionally his lips would come together as he snored.

The forty-something man was dressed in the tattered uniform of a Tuskan pilot - a grey and baby-blue jump suit with multiple cargo pockets, a black belt and black boots. His rank was upon his collar in the form of two silver bars, and the top of his head was encased in a golden dome. Tufts of his brown hair were sticking out from underneath it.

Despite the blaring music of the reptilian rock band on stage, the human snored as loudly as an eleman calf, occasionally mumbling from his dreams. His arms were splayed out over the tabletop shamelessly.

Seated next to the sleeping drunk was an eleman, similarly dressed, though in considerably larger garments, and like most elemen, he wore no shoes on his large, bulbous feet. His rank was also different, made of subdued, black stripes, and he had a huge round head with flapping, leathery ears. When he spoke, the eleman made a soft but terribly deep sound, like a contrabassoon. He said, "Captain."

The human only snored and snored.

The eleman raised his voice. "Captain Hutch! It's time for us to go."

Hutch snored on. As they were at the only table large enough to accommodate elemen in the entire establishment, the pair was seated near the rear end of the Under Bar, and Loma Don figured he could make a small commotion. He slammed his flat grey hand over the tabletop with great force, causing a great, resounding crash. Plates and bottles and glasses filled halfway with beer were violently supplanted before settling back down again.

Loma rolled his giant head forward, his grey eyes like old coins blinked as they watched the human.

Remarkably, the drunken Hutch snored on.

"Captain!" yelled the bass right in his face.

There was a stirring in the captain's face - the twitching of cheek muscles, the squinting of closed eyes. He made a few discernable sounds and then there was the snoring once again.

Soon a slender arborian female slid up next to the giant eleman, carrying a tray filled with empty glasses. She had smooth, lime-green skin and her long, almond-shaped head was adorned in multiple rings and pendants. She was dressed quite scantily, even for an arborian - a tiny, leather strap stretched across her thin chest and another was pulled up her long, skinny legs into a V that rode high on her broad hips.

The lizard passed her tray from her right hand to her left and neared the sleeping human, examining him, sniffing him with the holes at the far end of her long green face. She looked up at the seated eleman. "Sorry, big guy," she said. "Boss says you guys gotta go...says you and sleeping booty here are taking up too much space."

"I understand," said Loma. He shook his head, his huge ears flapped forward and back, stirring the air around him. "Sorry for the trouble." This time, when he slapped his huge grey hand, it was across the sleeping human's back.

Hutch's eyes flung open at the same time that his head shot up off the tabletop. His arms went out in all directions for balance as he came to, his fingers splayed as he blinked back to consciousness. "Wake up, Lo-man!" he commanded in the other direction from Loma. "We gotta go!"

"Morning, baby," said the reptilian server as she slid into his view. "Hey, you're pretty cute, for a human!" The eyes on the top of her head blinked twice and she gave a smile, exposing a long set of many teeth.

Hutch smiled his award-winning smile at her, his own teeth white and straight, and shining. Perfectly-placed dimples developed in his scruffy cheeks. "Hey, sweetheart." He snapped his teeth. "Always nice to see a pretty face first thing in the morning."

"It's evening, Captain," Loma informed him from behind.

Hutch spun all the way around in his chair to find his large friend. "Hey, there you are, kid. Been looking all over for ya."

Loma flapped his ears again.

Hutch turned again and put up a finger for the reptilian waitress. "Can I get another one of those interian ales?" he asked her. He thumbed over at Loma Don. "He'll take another shot o' root whiskey."

She was shaking her head at him, but gave in. "All right, babe," she said. "I guess it's all right if you're payin' customers. It's gonna be two kona."

Hutch dug into his pockets and pulled out two silver coins. He placed them into the female's long, slender hand. "You keep the change, baby."

"Back in a bit," she said.

Loma shook his head at the slim waitress, his massive trunk swaying from his round head. "Captain," he said to Hutch, "haven't you had enough already? You just woke up from a drunken stupor."

Hutch's handsome face twisted up into a grimace as he thumbed at Loma again. "Hey! Who let my mother in here?"

The server laughed sweetly, along with some interians at the table over.

"One ale. One whiskey," confirmed the server. "I'll be back." She looked around at the packed crowd. A passerby bumped into her, stepping just barely over her long tail and almost causing her to spill her tray. She expertly diverted the accident. "Might be a little while. As you can see, we're pretty busy."

"You take your time, girl," said a smiling Hutch. He gave her a wink.

The lizard slid away again, her long, green tentacle slithering after her.

"Pretty good-looking girl, huh, Lo-man?" said Hutch.

Now it was Loma who grimaced, his mouth stretching underneath his large, grey trunk. "She's reptilian, Captain."

"You mean you don't go for scales and tails?" He elbowed the huge, pale grey expanse of Loma's belly. "C'mon, buddy. It's a new world. We're not back in Tusk with all those uptight chicks. It's party-town down here! You gotta get a little crazy!" He started stretching and yawning, looking around at the smoke-filled bar.

There were all kinds of creatures now, unlike when they had first arrived here. There were some humans scattered throughout, but mostly there were non-men of every kind. There were three felines at the table next to theirs. There were interians in great number, as was proper, since the bar itself was deep inside the interian underground. Torches high up on earthen walls lit up the entire establishment along with blinking neon lights.

Hutch noticed three interians at the serving bar nearby. They wearing imperial uniforms - breast plates and shoulder pads of bronze, etched with their fancy, intricate carvings. And he recognized the most prominent of indicators that they were avian soldiers - the black machine guns that had given the empire its power over all other nations.

The fact that there were imperials here brought Hutch no particular alarm. The emperor's troops stretched into every crevice of the vast beast world. Surely they weren't seeking trouble this far down into the earth.

Fully awake now, Hutch was getting very comfortable. He drummed his thumbs on the table to the pipe-music and drums, bobbing his head, skipping no beat to the riffing guitar from the band.

He turned and noticed Loma had put his chin on the table. He had a sad expression: his trunk stretched across the top of the table. His eyes were droopy and their gaze was distant. "What's the matter, big guy?" he asked, "Why the long trunk?"

Loma's only reaction was only to turn his large grey eyes on him before he put them back out into the crowd.

"C'mon, seriously. What is it, buddy? You want ole' Hutch to hook you up with a nice interian girl?" He started looking around for prospects. "I'll see if I can drum you up a - "

"It isn't that, Captain." said Loma, annoyed, his deep voice distinctive in the sea of sound.

Hutch repositioned himself to face the giant creature. "All right, I know. It's about tomorrow, isn't it? You're nervous about tomorrow?"

"It's not tomorrow. It's in three days. Anyway, I'm not 'nervous.' I'm..." He raised his big head to look at Hutch. "Aren't you ashamed?"

"Ashamed?! C'mon, guy! Everybody fails a mission or two. It's not that big a deal!"

Loma was mindlessly rolling an empty bucket between his massive thumb and middle finger. Its base spun noisily against the stone tabletop as it rotated. "Captain, it's just that we've been out here for such a very long time. And - "

The Captain happily agreed. "Yes, and have we or have we not had us some good fun out here?"

"Captain, that's not - "

"Remember the sisters?" Hutch interrupted, fondly remembering. "Those ones with the - " he made the universal sign for a well-endowed female. "And remember the - "

"Hutch, I'm being serious!"

"All right, already! Go on about your special mission!"

"It _is_ a special mission, Captain Hutch! And we have failed it utterly!"

Hutch said impatiently, "It wasn't a mission, man! I've told you a million times! It was a sham! A total sham! We were sent out here to vacation! Remember what Gonal told us? 'Lay low.' 'Don't worry about it.' 'Take your time.' Those are words he made! He knew it was an impossible task! And tomorrow we get to go home and report as much."

Loma was slowly shaking his head. "I just can't accept that we were sent out here to fail."

"Not to fail!" said Hutch. "To vacation! We were sent out here to kick back and put up our feet after Koba Khan! As a reward!" He had an idea: "You know what? Now that I think about it, it was Gonal himself who called it a vacation. He said, and I quote: 'you're basically on vacation!' He said, 'You guys just kick back and relax out there!' That's what he said!"

Loma's eyes narrowed as he gave it some thought. "That's not true!" he proclaimed at last.

Hutch was holding out his hands defensively. "Okay, that's a lie. It's true. He didn't say that. But he kind of implied it!"

Loma Don was flapping his ears no.

Hutch gave up. "Look, kid. We were never going to find one tiny little female human in the middle of all the cat lands, no matter how special she might have been! Kid was a needle in a haystack! And by now, she's surely dead." He shrugged. "I'm sorry I failed you, kid. I tried."

Loma's trunk was stretched out over the table again. He honked with it sadly.

Hutch started on a different task. He craned his neck to look for the reptilian waitress. "Now where the hell is that girl?"

Loma didn't move. "They're very busy, sir," was all he had to say about it.

Hutch felt bad for his friend. "Look, Loma. Tell you what. If it'll make you feel any better, tomorrow morning, before we start the clock-out - "

"...three days..."

"...we'll go down to that slave auction, that one they do just west...uh, just west across the River Green..."

Loma's ears perked. "The Ruzil auction?"

"Yeah, that one they do before, uh...what's that celebration...?"

"Manterra! The Manterra celebration!"

"Yeah, that's it. That's next week, right?"

"Yes, sir!" Loma answered excitedly. He was surprised the captain knew it.

"And they always do that auction the week before, yeah? So we'll go down there and take a last look around, see if we can find your little princess. How's that?"

"That would be grand, Captain!"

Hutch was comfortable again. He started stretching out in his seat. "It's a pretty big event. Those feline slavers bring out their best humans."

"She could be there!" Loma poured out. Color was returning to his grey face.

"It's possible, buddy."

"We'll have to be careful, Captain. The Ruzil palace is the home of the Liu-Mok Six!"

"Hell yeah, kid. Those cats are dangerous! - the most dangerous gang in all the feline territories, those silky bastards! And I'll tell you what else..." There were two dings in the captain's head and sent a finger in the air. "Whoa, hold that thought, Lo-man." He touched another finger to the golden dome on his head. "My show is coming on."

Loma threw up his hands. "Show?! Captain, we're talking about the most - "

"No, no! I know! I'm with you, buddy! Just...Just..." He left the table in that instant, not in person, but in mind. He stared lifelessly over the tabletop and into the crowd at the other end of the bar as the data started streaming from the craniotol atop his head directly into his brain.

Loma watched him go.

Hutch started laughing, experiencing the show inside his mind. Inside his helmet, he was being carried off, to another world of endless entertainment. There were colors, faces, booming music, vast, wide open landscapes as his show flooded his mind's eye. Then, suddenly, it all came to a halt. Hutch's trance-like look of great amusement ended as abruptly as the show. There were two blips and a knocking sound, and then there was nothing.

Suddenly Hutch was back in the real world, back in the rear of the interian bar. "Hey!" he complained. He banged on the side of his craniotol. "Damned hat!" He knocked against the other side. Nothing. He started to get up. "Look, we'd better get out of here. We're too far down to get a good signal, and I can't miss my show."

"Oh, it's an emergency," Loma snapped.

Hutch ignored him. He checked his pockets for his affects. There were rattling sounds, keys jingling. "C'mon, let's go, kid."

Loma Don stood up slowly, careful not to bang his head against the ceiling. When he was standing upright, he towered over his human friend.

The captain rattled the keys to the LPV and then stuck them into a pocket on the front of his grey shirt.

As the Tuskans waded through the crowd on their way toward the front of the bar where the exits were located, Loma Don towered over the other patrons, carefully stepping past them, mindful of the many tails and toes.

Hutch was cutting through the masses out in front, winking and smiling at every pretty human he encountered, and shooting them with an imaginary pistol.

It was Loma who spotted her first: a slinky, black-clad lindarian female who was waiting impatiently by the bar. He noticed a patch on her left shoulder - a service patch. It was a familiar emblem: a golden heart made of many fine gold threads. It was surrounded by a silver circle. "Captain," said the sergeant, and pressed a thumb into the center of Hutch's back.

"What - I'm going!" said Hutch, still flirting with a pair of chubby, giggling women.

"No, Captain, look," insisted the eleman.

When Hutch turned to look up at Loma, he found him pointing, and followed the direction to the same lindarian female.

Hutch was stunned. How could he have missed such a stunning beauty - that perfect feminine form clad in tight, black leather. That hair, like black silk. Her face was obscenely beautiful, with high cheek bones and curved lips that looked like the petals of an exotic rose. She had great big eyes a perfect physique - shapely, firm - a natural athlete. "You know just what I like, buddy!" he exclaimed.

"What? No, I mean, look at the patch..."

Hutch was already wading in her direction, cutting through the smoky crowd of dancing, writhing lizards and tails until he was finally before her, his big smile ready to go.

But the woman hadn't even seen him. She was only looking in his general direction. From here, Hutch could see her eyes were a deep sea green. Then, as a little yellow arborian appeared behind the bar, she turned to it, and commanded, "Get Cyonybvldrd. Now."

Without hesitation, the little creature turned and slid into a hole located low on the wall behind the bar.

Hutch stepped up beside her, his chest out, his dashing smile in place. "Well, hello there, legs!"

Without looking at him, the woman said, "I'm not a body part."

Hutch snickered. "Nah, I know. I was just - "

The woman didn't so much as turn to face him when she cut him off with a palm toward his face. "Forget it, loser. Go away."

Hutch was stunned for a second. "Hey, c'mon," he complained. "You don't even know me. You haven't even seen my face." He mustered up his best possible smile and held it in anticipation. "At least look at me, for cryin' out loud!"

She kept her emerald greens to the mirror above the bar. "No," she plainly said, even though she was looking at his profile now. "Go." Seeing no danger in him, she looked past him and into the crowd, searching. She saw a giant eleman approaching.

"Captain Hutchinson," Loma said, coming up behind him. "I almost lost you!"

At the deep sound, the woman now examined the two in the mirror, examined their grey uniforms, their golden domes, the emblem of the great city of the north embroidered on their shoulders. She examined them, but all without so much as a glance at the captain's face.

"Soldiers of Tusk," she said pensively. "Here, just east of the Green River Valley. So far from home." She wondered what they might be doing there.

"We noticed you wear the emblem of the human kingdom," said Loma.

Hutch said, "We did?"

Now the woman turned from the images in the mirror to actually face them. She looked up first at the towering grey face, the grey eyes, the giant ears like thick, plush blankets. She looked at the golden dome on his head.

The tower asked slowly, in his deep voice, "Are you an agent of Hearthstone?"

The woman glanced down at the old, withered symbol of Lord Manson on her left shoulder. She slowly slid the slender fingers of her right hand over it, feeling the old fabric as if she'd long forgotten it was there at all.

"Ha! Hearthstone!" said Cyonybvldrd as he arrived from behind the bar. He was a skinny arborian with a yellow face and yellow eyes, and lime-green otherwise. "There is no Hearthstone!" he cried out in a high-pitched voice. "Everybody knows that! An imperial province now!" His long, thin fingers crept across the bar toward a package on the bar before the lindarian pulled it out of his reach swiftly.

"No touch," she said, eyeing the reptile suspiciously.

"Well, I need to examine it!" complained the arborian.

The woman set the package down again on the dark wooden bar. She peeled the layers of grey, greasy rags from it like she was peeling an onion until a metallic object appeared. It had a panel of cooling fins on one side and blue and yellow lights blinking on the top.

Loma said, "That's a flash-timer!" He was quite amused. "It's an LPV flash-timer, from an H-1 model."

The woman flashed a glance at the eleman and chinned up at him.

Cyonybvldrd said, "We know what it is, you big dummy!" The lizard put his hands on the object, lifting it up, ever careful not to take it out of the lindarian's reach. A missing digit on his left hand was his constant reminder to do no such thing. The serpent observed the flash timer from every angle - seeing its tiny, blinking lights: blue, yellow, green - before setting it back on the counter. "Six kona," was his high-pitched offer.

The woman shook her head. "No. More."

"I can offer no more than seven," stated the beast quite frankly. "Seven kona. Take it or leave it..."

Hutch cleared his throat. "Ten kona!" he announced, finally eliciting a response from the lindarian beauty.

When she finally looked at his face, she found he really was quite handsome. She fought a smile of any form. But aside from the human's rugged good looks, there was something else that caught her eye about him...a familiarity. She _knew_ this face.

"What do you want, human?" complained the annoyed reptor. "This does not concern you!"

"Hey, green eyes," said Hutch, placing a hand on the dangerously sensitive shoulder of the lindarian beauty, "How 'bout you and me..."

In an instant, Hutch's arm was twisted up behind him as his body was twisted almost to the moist stone floor. "Whoa! Whoa! Honey, you're going about this all wrong! I'm on your side!"

The woman twisted his arm even more. When she heard an audible complaint, she released the captain and straightened out again. "No touch," she warned.

He stood up slowly, dusted his crumpled sleeve. His ego was sore from the rejection. "Okay, all right, sweetheart. No touch - I got it. I didn't mean any harm." When he was standing again, he flashed her another killer smile, this time turning his cheek just so, gifting her his finest side. Surely, she would fall for this one.

The woman returned no smile at all. Instead she held out the bundled device and an empty palm.

Hutch said, "No sugar? Nothing?"

No smile from the black-haired beauty.

Hutch pressed his lips and finally gave up. "Fine." He started digging into his pockets for coins. He pulled up a golden coin with a clear "V" imprinted on one side and then pulled out another five. He handed them to her.

As she took them from him, Hutch noticed she was watching his face now, her eyes hardening, narrowing. Surely his smile-trap was finally doing its job.

The lindarian's white-less green eyes were carefully examining him. She looked at his scruffy chin and cheeks. She looked as if she'd found someone for whom she'd been searching.

Hutch began to inflate with inspiration, his wiliness resurrecting.

Suddenly, the woman said, "take it off."

"Honey!" Hutch said in celebratory fashion, "I knew you'd come around!" He started tapping his chest, searching for the zipper to his flight suit - his face lit up like a child with a brand-new toy. "I mean it's a little more forward than I'm used to, but yeah, let's go with this!"

"The helmet!" clarified the woman. "Take off the helmet!"

Hutch stopped unzipping, his face a look of confusion. "Oh."

"Hurry up!" demanded the woman.

Hutch reached over one of the keys along the side of the golden dome and pressed his finger to it. The helmet made a whirring sound as it complained of a broken neural connection to its human. There was the sound of air escaping as the dome came up and off.

Immediately, Hutch breathed in a deep, full breath and held it for a long while before he let out an equally long, exhausting exhale. Right in the moment, he felt strange, strangely liberated. He felt as if he had been unable to breathe fully for a very long time and was finally able to do so once again. His thick brown hair released, he ran his fingers through it, pushing it back from his forehead. He smiled at the woman, but this time his smile was genuine.

The woman looked like she was seeing a ghost. "Can't be..." escaped from her lush lips as she took a step back, to get a better look at him. Her eyes hungrily examined him.

"Well," said Hutch, proud of himself, "That's more like it! I'd like a smile, is all..."

Slowly, and ominously, the woman said, "Hutch...in...son..."

Hutch's smile began to fail as his expression turned to total wonder. He looked up at Loma Don who was looking back down at him with equal wonder. Hutch looked back at the black-haired beauty and said, "How do you know my name?"

As if in a state of emergency, the woman clasped Hutch's arm. "Pol Hutchinson! I know who you are!" She looked around now, cautiously, looked at the lizard behind the bar, shot a glance around the other patrons. She noticed some of them were looking at her; some of them were looking at the soldiers of Tusk. She said, "And we know who it is you seek!"

Hutch looked into her eyes, lost in them, befuddled by her, awoken by the broken neural connection to his craniotol all at the same time. He felt like he was falling through the air. "Who...I...seek?"

"I know," the lindarian said, nodding, "because we seek her, too!"

Loma went to a knee now, nearing his face to the woman. "So. You _are_ an agent of Hearthstone!"

She nodded at the eleman. "Yes."

"And you seek the princess of Goldenheart!" said Loma.

She nodded again. "We do indeed," she said, finally. There was relief in her face.

Finally, Hutch caught on. "Oh! The princess of Hearthstone! Sure!"

The woman and the eleman shushed him.

"What a coincidence!" Hutch continued, more quietly. He thumbed back over his right shoulder, indicating his eleman friend. "I was just telling Loma how important it is that we find that girl!"

Loma shook his head disappointedly.

"My name is Magda," said the woman. "And we need your help!"

Hutch turned a cheek. "Who's this 'we' you keep referring to, Maggie?"

"Magda," she corrected. She took Hutsh's hand in hers. "And you will see." She glanced suspiciously into the faces in the crowd. Reptilian and feline eyes looked quickly away from the three. "Come," she said. "We're not the only ones looking for her. The eyes of Avia are everywhere!" She started toward the doorway with the Tuskans in tow.
Chapter 8

The cobblestone streets outside of Under Bar were dark and gloomy, barely lit by torches set high upon the earthen walls. The orange light reflected off the stones' shiny edges, but great swaths of darkness consumed almost every corner of the underground environment.

Built with the help of elemen many centuries ago, the entire structure beneath Red Hill easily accommodated the giants, and the nine-foot-tall Loma Don walked along the giant steps next to his human companions.

As Hutch and Magda descended on the right side of the staircase toward the street, a small group of felines passed by on the street. They were drinking and spilling their drinks, laughing merrily. They seemed to be celebrating something.

Across the street, at one of the few establishments in this sector of the city, there were two drunk reptors, propping each other up by their tangled arms as they spewed drunken babble at each other. The reptilian restaurant behind them seemed open, but very little could be seen through the soot-stained windows across the front. There was another general restaurant beside it and another couple of bars further down on the left.

At the street's edge, the lindarian female turned left, going northward instead of southward, toward the city's garage.

"Car's this way," Hutch said, indicating the opposite direction with a jutting thumb.

Loma had started circling around to follow Hutch but then he stopped for her.

"What is it?" asked Hutch. "Don't tell me you wanna take the stairs, babe..."

"It isn't that," she said, her green eyes searching the dark hallways behind the pilots. She looked like she was calculating, then shot off into a smaller, darker corridor to the side. "Come this way," she hissed.

Hutch thought it was funny. "Sweetheart, c'mon." He didn't move. "We're not taking the long way...!"

But, "I'll go," was what Loma announced before the giant started after her.

"Dude!" Hutch complained, his palms down and out beside him. He watched them disappear into the darker tunnel before he started following her, also. "You guys do know I'm the highest-ranking officer here, right?"

When he caught up to the pair, they were already spilling out into the next street over. Here, the torches were more plentiful, giving more light to the pedestrians of all species that were rushing up and down. There were also electric lights on this busier road, some neon signs as well. Here there were more eyes, too - slit, green eyes - watching the trio through the crowds.

Magda noticed them as she led the Tuskans down another alley, a residential area where there were many stone apartments with wooden doors all in a row. She was moving faster and faster, the pilots fast in tow behind her.

"Dammit, legs!" Hutch called from behind Loma's rear, "what's the rush?"

"General!" Magda called into a dark spot between two buildings. She waited but there came no response.

Hutch was catching up to her. " _' General_?'" he asked.

Suddenly, a pair of reptors appeared out of the darkness into which she was calling. They wore uniforms made of black exoskeletal armor and black helmets. They carried the black machine guns of Avia. Upon their breastplates they wore the four-talon symbol.

"Halt," said one of the reptors, putting out his own pronged claw, "in the name of Avia."

"Halt yourself," said Hutch defiantly as he came around the eleman. "This isn't imperial territory - You're about a quarter-mile beneath the surface, you know."

The reptors looked at each other, their smooth green scales reflecting the bouncing orange light of the torches.

"Soldiers of Tusk," said one of them, "our quarrel is not with you."

The other soldier pointed at Magda. "Our righteous lord seeks this lindarian female - "

Hutch guffawed reflexively. "R-righteous lord?"

"...seeks this lindarian female," the reptor repeated, "and her counterpart."

"Counterpart?" repeated Hutch.

"A male human," the lizard clarified. "Grey hair."

Hutch showed Magda his palms. "Honey!" he joked, "Already you're two-timing me?"

Now more reptors began to emerge from the dark halls all around them. They were all armed with the machine guns, all of them loosely pointed at the three.

"This is no laughing matter, Captain," said Magda.

The reptilian sergeant motioned for the others to come forward. Two of the reptilian soldiers were carrying a net, which they splayed out between them as they approached the lindarian.

"Our two nations are at peace, Captain of Tusk," the reptor reminded him. "Your eleman masters would be most disappointed with you if you resisted our beastly authority. We are under direction from Lord Clavius himself."

The two captors behind them were coming closer to the female, circling around her.

"Go hot," said Hutch, and uncapped a small switch on his belt. He flipped it and there began a humming in his back-pack.

Loma did the same. His machine created a louder hum. The huge white pack was twice the size of Hutch's.

"Captain..." hissed the reptor in warning.

Hutch reached for his weapon - a white pistol on his belt that was attached to the pack by a long, silver cord. A red, subdued light began to blink on the side of the contraption.

By now, Loma's weapon - a huge cannon in place of the pistol - was out before him. He had to hold it in both his massive hands and aimed it all around at the reptors as they crept forward.

"Captain, all we want is the woman," argued the reptor.

"Yeah, but..." Hutch looked Magda up and down shamelessly. "...me, too."

The lizard decided. He locked and loaded his weapon as he ordered, "Take her!"

The soldiers closed in quickly. The two handlers ran in with their net out, but Hutch decided, too.

The rushers were met by laser light. Two rapid flashes of blinding pink light shot out of Hutch's pistol and punched into the breastplate of the reptor on the left. The soldier cried out as his chest was holed.

Magda got down on one knee as she slid out her two blades from the scabbards across her back. Their silver blades glimmered in the laser light. She sliced the net into three pieces as Hutch shot into the crowd of reptilian soldiers.

Two more fell and then another two, but already more black exoskeletons were coming around the corner. Their machine guns were out before them and they started firing.

Lead bits punched hard into a pillar behind Hutch and Magda as they circled around it for safety.

The bullets whizzed past their heads as they moved, then Hutch fired back pink light. Two streams crashed into the corner, behind which the sergeant quickly slid. The shots broke off cement and sent dust and pebbles flying.

Loma fired from his canon and a torrent of light slammed into the floor. The hit tore rocks out of their places and sent them flying, leaving a great hole into which one lizard soldier stepped. Loma shot again and felled him. He shot and felled another two screaming, firing troops at once.

But now there were too many. They were coming from all around and they were going to have to move.

"We're gonna have to move!" yelled Hutch. "C'mon!" He waved Loma over and they began to run down the hall. There was another vesicle in the vast tunnel complex into which they could escape.

"Not that way!" yelled Magda, pulling him by the arm. "That's a dead end!"

"Baby, please," said Hutch over the deafening gunfire from the M6 machine guns, "listen to daddy!"

He sent two more shots over her head into the crowd of black exoskeletons as he pulled back into the alley. "Come on, you big oaf!" he yelled at his companion as he ducked his head behind a kettle that was instantly bulleted to mesh.

Hesitantly, Magda followed. As she ran, she slid her swords back into the X-scabbard. "Captain!" she called out. "Do you have a plan?"

"Yeah," said Hutch in front, "Run!"

Loma was behind them, firing back into the crowd. His giant feet slid over the cobblestone road noisily. He squeezed off another round and missed. The yellow light of his cannon coasted just slightly over the many black helmeted heads, causing them to shine in the darkness.

"No, but I mean..."

"What?" said Hutch impatiently.

"Well...because it's a dead-end."

As the lindarian was speaking, Hutch found an earthen wall rapidly appearing before him. "Oh, no! No! No! No! This is no good." He reached up and pressed a button on his golden helmet, instantly producing a beam of forward light. Sure enough. It was a wall. He shined his light left. More wall. Right. Wall.

"Captain?" Magda was waiting for his plan.

"Yeah," said Hutch. "Yeah, this is not good."

"'Yeah, this is no good?' That's it? That's what you've got?"

Hutch shrugged.

Now the soldiers started slowing down as well, as they could see the trio was trapped. By now, there was a small platoon of lizards, all in their black exoskeletons, all of them with their guns out.

The sergeant slid out ahead of the crowd. He was breathing heavily.

"Halt," he said, shielding his eyes from Hutch's brilliant headlamp. His eyes lit up like yellow flames. "Just stop." For a minute, he put down his weapon, put one black-gloved hand over his rapidly inflating and deflating chest as he caught his breath. "In the name of Avia...you are all under arrest."

"Ah, come on, buddy," started Hutch, when there was a great explosion from behind the formation. Grey smoke filled the whole corridor at once as lizard parts flew into the air.

Loma shielded his eyes with a huge grey arm as black fiberglass shards slammed against it.

The cloud almost instantly overcame the alleyway, making it impossible to see clearly.

Streaks of pink light could be seen as the Tuskan soldiers shot blindly in the direction of the enemy.

"Stop!" cried Magda, "You'll hit him!"

As the three stood watching, they saw the smoke slightly clearing.

"Who's 'him?'" asked Hutch, noticing that the bodies were strewn in an outward direction, coming from one spot in the cloudy chaos. He narrowed his eyes as a figure appeared in all the smoke - a black silhouette.

Out of the cloud, there came forward a man - an older soldier, dressed in a tattered Hearthstone uniform. His hair was grey and his face was rugged and he was slightly dragging his left leg.

The old soldier was wearing a patch over his left eye and as he came clearly into view, he spat on the floor and then rubbed his jaw.

Magda gave a breath of fresh relief.

The man looked just like Hutch. When he was close enough, he looked Hutch up and down for a good long while with a particularly sour sneer. "Oh, great," he said. "You found the little bastard!"

"Where were you?" Magda asked of her friend.

"Sorry, Mag. I hadda move. They were all over the place."

Loma said, "They are now."

"Pol Hutchinson," said Magda, waving an open palm at the rugged older man, "meet the leader of our operation...General Maical Hutchinson."

Hutch gave a tight smile, chinned up at the grey-haired man and said, "Hey, Dad. What's with the patch?"
Chapter 9

Athedra was awake about an hour before dusk. She was hungry. There was a rumbling in her stomach. As the blue sky slowly blackened, she sat with her back against the steel bars of her kennel, watching over the silent, sleeping bodies of the other women and the children. The fires from the torches set throughout the compound flickered, their soft light bouncing off the girl's pale face and reflecting in her giant eyes. She closed them and listened to the sounds of late afternoon. She could hear the rising symphony of ten thousand birds cackling and screaming in the jungle beyond the concrete walls of the compound. She heard the singing of the monkeys, their chattering and whooping.

A child lay in her lap - the small boy with black eyes, who she had saved. Hours earlier, he had fallen asleep as she comforted his cries. Athedra could feel his sticky warmth plastered uncomfortably against her thigh but she did not complain. His little arms were tightly wrapped around her frail, thin waist and his black locks stretched out over the pale blue fabric of her dress.

"Butpe," called Athedra gently, her voice fine like the song of a wooden flute. She ran her fingers through the boy's moist strands. "Butpe, wake up."

The boy made no response. He didn't even stir.

"Butpe."

"Let him sleep," said Jerob, the large dark man in the kennel across the way. His own voice was deep like rolling thunder, especially this early in the morning. "It's his only comfort in this place."

She could barely see him, as the man cage was dark, untouched by the torchlight and hidden underneath an overhanging wooden roof. She could only see the vertical bars of the kennel that held the males when two massive hands appeared there.

Athedra offered her friend a frowning smile. "Good evening, Jerob."

The hands slid from the bars. "What's good about it, your highness?"

Athedra smiled sourly at him. "Don't call me that."

"What?"

"You know what." She returned to brushing the boy's hair from his warm forehead. "I'm just a girl."

The boy began to stir. He turned his head so that he was now facing away from her and grunted.

Suddenly, Butpe shot up beside Athedra, his black eyes peeled all the way open and every limb stiff. He looked like he was about to scream.

Athedra shushed him quickly as she placed a gentle hand over his head. "It's okay, Butpe. Shh. It was just a dream." The child's forehead was covered in sweat. His worried eyes found Athedra and immediately he began to relax, his scream transforming into a soft sigh. He looked around at the cages as far as his eyes could see, reminded of the harsh reality surrounding him. Then he lay his head back into the lap of the girl with the yellow hair.

"Poor kid," said Jerob. "Probably can't tell which is worse - the nightmare, or this place."

Now more children started rising from their slumber, and some women, too. As the children came to, they sought out the blue dress, and when they saw Athedra, began to radiate slowly toward her.

Men in the kennel across the way began to wake up, also, as the light of day began. There were the sounds of yawning and expulsion as the first beams of sunlight stretched out over the compound.

There came a faceless request from the growing crowd of children. "Sing a song for us, Mogwa."

A woman said, "Yes, that would be nice."

"No," said the large man. "It's too late. They will hear."

"Just one song," pleaded Gentia next to her. "The lullaby song! Please?"

"No!" insisted Jerob. "Leave her be!"

"It's all right," said Athedra. "Just one song." She cleared her throat and started. "Luuuulaby...I'll sing you in the mor-ning...close your eyes...I'll sing it in the night...luuuulaby..."

As she sang, Athedra could see the children waking, smiling, despite their horrible predicament. Her sweet, fine voice brought comfort to them and they gathered closer to her. All around, in the other kennels, men and women were waking up. Most of them came to the edges of their cages toward her, placing their own hands on their bars, positioning themselves to see her and hear her gentle serenade.

Some of them knew the words and mouthed them. Some sang along, but not quite loudly enough to be heard. By the second stanza, Athedra had attention of the all the prisoners within earshot. They were affixed, listening intently to the simple words her father had sung for her when she was just a child.

"Aaaalways I...will be right here be-side you...Iiiin the night...and in the morning light..."

Mouths were yawning. Eyes were being rubbed, but none shut, nor turned away from her. There were shushes and "be quiets," but mostly they were silent as a tomb so as not to miss her singing.

Despite the horror of her life in captivity, the girl couldn't help but smile as she held the attention of her captive audience. Spurred by it, Athedra's song grew louder. "Luuulaby...I'll sing you in the evening...so that Iiii...can sing - "

When suddenly there was the sound of rattling and clanging chains.

Immediately, the singing stopped, and all eyes went to the main entrance to the kennel complex.

They were here.

The Liu-Mok Six had just returned from their hunt. They led a chain of shackled human prisoners by a leash. The humans looked as if they had been beaten. Some of them were bloody. The rags three of them wore were torn. There were another four humans that were better off. Zu-ril started tying the leash to a post when another feline slunk up next to him and started his report.

As the humans intently watched, the slender creatures started coming toward the cages. They were clad in black leather - black leather toe-boots and pants - their hunting gear. They wore tight leather shirts with steel buttons and sequins.

The guard was out in front of the sons of Ruzil. He was holding in its furred hand a steel ring of jingling keys and turned toward the singing girl. He pointed at Athedra. Another two slid through the gates behind them, all looking in the general direction of the cage for the women and children.

"Oh, no," said one of the men in the closest cage to the main entrance.

"Quiet!" screamed one of the felines, slamming a black, wooden stick against the bars of his cage. "Humans no speak!"

The man tucked his chin to his chest and moved away, as if he had been struck.

The felines continued their slinking saunter toward the center kennel of women and children, toward the source of sound they'd heard.

"Who was it?" demanded one of the felines, his brilliant green eyes focused on Athedra as he approached. "Who was making the noise? The human magic? WHO?!"

None dared speak. There was a dead silence. Even the jungle sounds outside the complex seemed to die down all at once.

Finally, Jerob spoke. "It was me. I made the sounds!"

"No, it was me," called out another.

But Zu-Ril wasn't fooled. He growled his disapproval of them and then grabbed the lock to the cage filled with the women and children. "Open!" he called over the leather pad of his right shoulder.

Now there were cries and yelps as the human population began to complain.

"BE QUIET!" screamed Zu-Ril. The other felines slammed their sticks against bars threateningly. "Humans no speak!"

The cat with all the keys approached the gate from behind Zu-Ril, grasped the lock in his claw-hands and slid in the key. He pulled the lock off, opened the gate and followed Zu-Ril inside. "Back!" commanded Mok-Mok of the women and children.

The humans slunk back from the felines, lining the bars of the kennel as they backed away from them, leaving a path toward Athedra.

Watching them, Athedra pushed the boy in her lap away from her and slowly rose on weak, wobbly legs. They trembled from malnourishment and fear, but the girl's impression was stolid.

"It was you!" accused the slaver, the velvety ears on the top of his head turning backwards. "You were making the sounds...again! Have you learned nothing, little rat?!"

Athedra could smell the creature's fierce breath up close and grimaced in disgust.

"It wasn't her!" said a voice from the kennel over.

"It was me, you feline bastard!" screamed another.

The other felines ran toward the cage from which the sound had come, issuing warnings of pain and punishment as they slammed their sticks against the cages.

Zu-Ril clasped the girl's thin neck roughly, squeezing, digging his claws into her pale flesh. Immediately Athedra's face began to redden. "Admit it, human filth! It was you who made the sounds!"

Athedra gasped her answer. "It was I."

Zu-Ril growled an evil growl as he neared his whiskers to the side of her face. He hissed into her ear. "I would kill you, if I could."

Athedra tried to swallow. She couldn't breathe and her lack of oxygen made large white spots in her vision.

"Leave her alone, you disgusting animal!" screamed Jerob.

Zu-Ril threw Athedra down and then turned his growl on the large man. He pointed at Jerob and two felines went toward him with their sticks out.

"I made the sounds!" protested Athedra. "No one else! Punish me, not them!"

Zu-Ril turned his lime-green eyes on her again, the black slits narrowing as he focused on the girl. "Fine." He slid his claw-hand from her throat and shouted over his padded shoulder. "No rations for this one!"

Athedra fell to the floor at the creature's feet, breathing hastily, clutching her own delicate hands around her neck. Her fingers came back with blood on their tips.

Zu-Ril licked her blood from the tips of his claws and smiled at her, his white canines glistening. "You're a lucky little creature. At least you'll live." He turned around and raised his arms. "Take the females and younglings to the feeding grounds!" he commanded loudly. "All but this one. Take her down to the whipping post. We will teach her to obey!"

Athedra had started crying as she panted on the floor, the thin strands of her filthy hair dangling to the concrete floor. She snorted loudly and forced herself to stop. Two furred claw-hands grasped her boney arms and hoisted her up violently.

But as they put their claws on her, the humans began to complain. They began to chant as before, pushing and pulling at the bars of their kennels with vigor. They began to scream as the girl was dragged toward the gate. The cages started rattling.

Ga-Ul said, "but...brother...look at them. They will attack!"

"I fear no humans, brother," answered Zu-ril, "not anymore! And neither should you fear them!"

But the words brought Ga-Ul no comfort as he looked around at the growing danger. He released his grip.

Far above the kennel city, from the court of the lion king, Liu Mok was watching with her husband. "Look at her!" she said. "See what is happening, husband!"

Ruzil's other wives were watching also, listening to the screaming and the commotion. Fear was growing in their eyes. Even the servants came to the windows to see the humans all out of control, all screaming.

"Look at them!" cried Liu Mok. "They are crazy for her! We are losing control of them!"

"Be quiet, Liu Mok!" hissed Ruzil, but his face showed that he wholeheartedly agreed.

"She is dangerous, husband!" she insisted. "You must kill her! Now!"

Ruzil was brandishing his whip nervously.

"We must separate her from the others," another wife of Ruzil's harem suggested.

"That will do no good!" said yet another. "They will rise up!"

Out in the cages, the hundreds of human slaves were scream-chanting now. The felines could actually see the cages in motion from their protest. They could feel their stomping in the floor.

"They believe she is their princess!" complained Liu Mok. "They will fight for her!"

By now, two more of the Liu Mok Six had come into the court. "Are you hearing this, father?" said La Uz. "We are losing control!"

Liu Mok said, "Each day, I see more and more human heads bow down to her! Kill her now!"

Finally Ruzil stood all the way up. "Fools! Have you no idea what those creatures are capable of! We will lose control of the livestock. We CANNOT kill her, not out there! Not like this!"

All were uneasily quiet.

Liu Mok had an idea. "But there is...another way..."

Ruzil was interested. All the others turned to face the matriarch of the Ruzil clan.

In whispers, Liu Mok started planning. "We must take her outside the walls...where they cannot see."

"How, mother?" asked La Uz. "How shall we do it?"

"Fret not, husband," said Liu Mok to Ruzil. "My sons and I will rid our clan of this troublemaker. Leave it up to me."
Chapter 10

The bounty hunters were close now, creeping quietly along the forest floor. The sun was setting now, and long, black shadows stretched out in all directions, covering them. At long last, the crew had found the black-clad lindarian and soon they would capture him. Months of study led them to believe he would be dozing now, in his perch.

They were all covered in mud, in order to hide their scent, and looked like tree branches as they approached a towering kapok tree where the human had set up his nightly camp. They dared not look up, so that the creature would not see the reflection of their manimal eyes.

They were so close that the hyena-like among them had to work to stifle his giggling excitement. His orange Mohawk wiggled as his unquiet jaw trembled with anticipation.

"Be silent, Biasco!" hissed the leader of the group - a slender arborian called Xexuphaz. "Or you will alert him to our presence."

Biasco tried hard but could barely contain himself. Crouching lowly like his partners, his dangling left foot shook restlessly. Golden rings on his furry wrists and fingers jangled noisily.

Xexuphaz reached out and clasped one of Biasco's forearms in his claw, squeezing it painfully until Biasco stopped its trembling and whined.

"Quiet!" hissed the lizard. "And remember...there will be no killing...not until we have the location of Malegus' prize."

Stuttering with excitement, Biasco said, "th-th-then killing?"

Xexuphaz turned his long snout on the hyena-like and nodded. "Yes," he whispered ever so quietly, "Then the killing."

The shadows stretched out over the rabble, obscuring their presence. They had been creeping slowly forward for an hour, and were becoming more excited as they closed the distance from themselves and the endless flow of kona that would surely come.

They could see the tree that the lindarian had chosen to take his slumber. From the camp sites they had found, they knew he would be fastening his body to the branches for sleep during the night. They were counting on the ropes - that they would slow down the lindarian's response.

They had long ago devised a plan: they would torture the location of the human princess out of him. Then they would kill him.

It wouldn't be long now before they were delivering the emperor's prize to him. Then Putis Malegus would make them rich beyond their dreams. All except for Biasco, of course. Xexuphaz had long decided that as well. He had little use for such a nervous fool. But the giggling creature would make excellent fodder while the rest of them surrounded the lindarian. It was a cutthroat business, but it was the best chance they had.

An hour passed as the crew endeavored slowly forward, and finally, nearing the trunk of the giant ceiba, the lizard gave a silent signal with waving, open hands. The muddy non-men began to fan out around it.

A giant arborian came up behind Xexuphaz. He had on his massive head a leather helmet with flapping leather ear guards. The six-foot freak neared his head to Xexuphaz so that the leader of the hunters could whisper right into his ear canal.

Xexuphaz whispered his command, and the giant got into position beneath him, readying to hoist the reptor up into the branches.

Xexuphaz - about four feet tall - climbed onto the giant's neck as he began to rise up close to a hanging vine. He reached out with green, eager fingers, when something caught his eye. It was Biasco, who was suddenly quite calm.

He couldn't see the trembling follicles above the hyena-like's head. Each bright orange hair was perfectly still, as the lizard had not seen before.

Xexuphaz narrowed his eyes and twisted his long head as he focused on the creature. He noticed Biasco's face was no longer an unquiet mess. His eyes weren't bulging eagerly. His mouth was open but he wasn't stifling a giggle. His lower jaw only hung there. Lifelessly.

Xexuphaz noticed then that there was a protrusion from atop the non-man's furred head: a black, steel stick. The lizard's head tilted back as tried to figure what was wrong with him.

Now Xexuphaz turned to see the other hunters that had not quite made it into their designated places around the trunk of the tree.

They were just as lifeless, also.

"Zevol!" he hissed at one of the two felines in the group. The black cat was in the crawling position - his face down, his claws out in front, digging into the grass - but he was also no longer creeping. "Zevol! What are you doing?!"

But Zevol was not answering. And he wasn't going to.

Zevol was dead.

Now the lizard could see clearly a black stick protruding out of the back of the feline's neck.

Xexuphaz looked from one of his bounty hunters to the other now, frantically, finding each one of them lifeless - each of them with a similar protrusion. He wondered what was happening.

He looked up into the branches high above, searching for the spot where they'd seen movement only minutes ago. There was no movement there. He trained his eyes on a black silhouette against the darkening sky. It had arms like branches, he thought. Wasn't it just part of the jumble of the tree? He had thought it was a branch, but now he wasn't sure. And then he saw it: a swift, slight movement.

He heard a tiny sound, like the snapping of a twig, and felt a simultaneous shudder. He felt the ground begin to give way. "Giant!" he hissed as the massive arborian started falling over. As he felt himself sliding down the back of the scaly giant, his green little fingers reaching out for anything to grab. They clasped a steel, black dart sticking out of the top of the lizard's skull.

Xexuphaz's hand retracted instantly as he cried out and tumbled the rest of the way down. When he landed, he deftly fought to stay upright, his long tail whipping around to balance himself. He slid out a short sword from his belt and took a fighting stance. "What is happening?" he hissed aloud.

He looked around at his accomplices, his eyes wide in disbelief, his jaw hanging stupidly. "Get up!" he ordered them, feeling panic rising in him. "Get up!"

He looked up into the tree again, seeing nothing of the jumble of branches he had seen before, but only the obvious branches of the tree. There was no ambiguous lump there anymore. Words were coming from his mouth, but they had no structure. "Where?" he asked no one in particular. "What? Where?"

As he stood there helplessly watching, the human he'd been hunting descended smoothly before him, as a spider on a silk string, and before Xexuphaz knew it, Seven was standing there before him.

The arborian let out a little bit of urine.

Seven had his sword out, but as he looked into the lizard's wide-open eyes, he saw no danger there. He slid the katana back into its scabbard. It made a long, slick sound until the hilt clicked back into its place. He even gave the short sword in Xexuphaz's claw a nod.

Xexuphaz swallowed something in his throat. "You've...you've killed them all..."

The lindarian backed away from the arborian hunter, and then reached down to grab the black dart protruding from the middle of the giant's head. He struggled a bit - the dart was deeply imbedded. Finally, it came loose with a clack.

Ignoring Xexuphaz now, Seven went on to Biasco's corpse and started pulling out the dart he'd stuck into him. This one came out more easily, but was covered in long orange follicles. Seven wiped the hair and brain matter from his tiny missile, then started pulling black darts out of the heads of the rest his pursuers, one after the other, working quietly as Xexuphaz watched him.

"What...?" asked Xexuphaz, bewildered. "Who are you?"

Seven pulled back a flap from one of his legs, exposing a list of darts and some empty leather holsters. One by one, he wiped the used darts and then slid them back into their places. He was no longer watching Xexuphaz. The lizard leader posed no threat that he could see.

Xexuphaz protested lightly. "We...only wanted to...share the bounty. We didn't want it all for ourselves!"

Seven was finished collecting his things. He closed the flap again and stood up straight. He put his black eyes back toward the lizard and stepped toward him.

Xexuphaz took a step backwards, his leathery tail whipping left and right. He pointed his long face in all directions to avoid the black-clad thing approaching. He knew it was no use to run, but didn't know what to do.

Seven circled the frightened creature slowly, watching him, gauging him, and when he was sure the arborian was completely harmless, he stepped right out of his view.

Xexuphaz spun around to look for him, his wide eyes searching every nook and cranny, but he found only dark shadows all around.

Just like that, the lindarian had vanished back into the dusk.
Chapter 11

The LPV 81 18 coasted quietly over the treetops of the vast jungle. The smooth disk glided effortlessly, the many rings of light along its undercarriage flickering rapidly, creating a soft hum and lighting up the dark green landscape as the ship flew forward.

Inside, the crew looked forward out of a huge glass window that made up almost the entire front half of the cabin. There were clear glass panels below the console as well, so that the tops of the trees rushing past were also visible.

On the right, there approached a patch of towering dipterocarps, and Loma had to steer slightly leftward, to avoid them. As they circumvented the city of the arborians, there could be seen many thin reptors crawling up and down the massive trunks. The green bodies moved over the vast wooden platform city, some of them shielding their eyes from their flickering lights.

"We're in the territories," said the eleman as he steered the aircraft. "There's the arborian city."

"Yeah," Hutch concurred, sitting in the seat beside the eleman. His feet were up as he reclined in his armchair. "We're approaching the feline territories. The Ruzil compound won't be far."

"I'd like to ask you something," said Magda, seated right behind the others in the next row of seats. "What makes you think she'll be there?"

"Well..." Hutch put down his feet and sat forward. "They have this thing there usually just before the Manterra celebration..."

"That's next week," said Magda.

"Yeap. And just before that, they essentially purge their stock. Loma was thinking she could be there." He shrugged and looked back at her. "Anyway, it's worth a gander."

Magda nodded in approval.

"What do you think, dad?" asked Hutch. He looked back again, past Magda into the large space behind her. It was a transport ship, with a huge cabin designed to carry an entire platoon. There were rows of bunks along the walls as well as a kitchen area and a small room in the rear - a latrine. The general was nowhere to be seen. He asked Magda, "Dad in the can?"

"The general is sleeping," Magda reported.

Hutch teased, "The old guy pooped? That happens to old people."

"The general is resting in preparation for combat," she explained.

Hutch said, "Don't you ever smile, Maggie? I bet you got a beautiful smile."

"Magda," she corrected. She was serious, but she was also solemn. "Lately, we don't have much to smile about."

"It's getting dark," said Loma, his deep voice a glaring contrast to the others.

Black shadows stretched out over much of the dark green mesh below, as darkness overtook the jungle. The sky ahead was yellow-blue, but quickly darkening, turning into the dark orange that follows a setting sun.

"Won't they see our lights?" asked Magda.

The rings of light beneath the aircraft lit up the green landscape powerfully.

"Yeah," Hutch concurred. "We'll have to put down a couple miles before we get there, and trek on foot the rest of the way. But it'll be a little while before we're close. Maybe you should get some sleep, too." He reached for his craniotol. The golden dome was on the seat beside him. "I guess I'll plug in for a while. Maybe catch a show or something..."

But before he could put the CT on his head, the thing went flying sideways and hit the glass panel before landing on the console.

Hutch turned around to find Magda lowering a long leg.

Hutch complained, "Hey!"

"Don't put that thing on anymore," she said simply.

"Ah, let him!" said Maical, emerging from the dark cabin behind Magda. "Maybe it'll fry up what's left of his little brain."

"Good morning, sleeping broody," Hutch said, chinning up at his father. "Get a good nap?"

"We need him focused and sober for now, General," Magda said. "He can go back to wasting his life away later."

"Sheez!" Hutch exclaimed. "Words hurt, babe!"

"Are we close?" asked Maical.

"Somewhat, sir," Loma answered. "We should be putting down in about forty-five minutes."

"In fact, I think we'll have to wait 'til morning to get our look," said Hutch. "We can't all see at night, being as you two don't have your own craniotols."

"You can see in the dark with those things?" asked Maical.

Loma nodded. "Yes, sir."

Hutch asked, "You gonna be up for a little hike, dad? When we get there?"

Maical asked, "why?"

"I mean 'cause you're kind o' old..."

"Captain..." Magda intervened.

Hutch shrugged. "Fine. I'm just saying - "

Magda said, "The general is more than capable. We thank you for your concern."

Hutch smirked. "He's _my_ dad..."

"No, I'm not," said Maical.

"Oh." Hutch rolled his eyes. Then he turned all the way around in his seat. "How long are you gonna be mad at me, dad? About that one stupid thing?"

"One stupid thing?!" said Maical. "It was more than one stupid thing, you little turd! You abandoned us!"

"Gentlemen, please," said Magda.

Both men sat sullenly for a while, Hutch with his arms crossed until Maical said, "He started it."

"I started it?" Hutch retorted immediately. "I'm not the one who..."

"Gentlemen, please!" Magda said more sternly.

Now all were quiet, and remained quiet for a while.

As they coasted, there appeared a tiny stack of rising smoke in the far distance, on the right. Then there were five smoke stacks and little bits of yellow light. It was the first feline compound they'd encounter west of the River Green.

"That's not it," Hutch said quietly to Loma. "Remember? Those are the tigs. Keep left, keep outta their sight."

Loma steered the craft leftward a bit by a knob in his massive grey hands.

"Lemme ask you two something," said Hutch. "What are you gonna do with her when you have her? I mean, the fact of the matter is, that lizard in the bar was right: there is no human kingdom! Not anymore. So what are you gonna do with her? Where you gonna take her?"

They didn't give an answer. The general and the lindarian only looked at each other.

"I mean, think about it," Hutch went on. "She's just some rich brat, after all! What's your plan? You gonna build her a castle or something?"

"We have standing orders," said Magda.

Hutch guffawed. "Standing orders? Ha! From who? The dead king of a dead nation?"

He turned to find them sulking and he digressed. "All right, I'm sorry..."

"Told you, Maggie," said Maical. "He's a selfish little bastard whose only concern is himself! He won't help us!"

Hutch was interested in a different matter: "Oh, he can call you 'Maggie' but not me. Is that it?"

"Our orders are to deliver the princess to the Full Gate of Tusk," Magda confessed.

Now Hutch faced forward again. "The Full Gate, huh? That's that secret chamber under the city chambers? Isn't that right? And then what?"

"Don't tell him anything else, Magda," said Maical. "He'll probably betray us."

"It's a weapon, some say," contributed Loma. "Some say sanctuary."

"Like, what the hell is it, though?" asked Hutch. "How does it work?"

"Nobody knows, I think," said Loma.

"It's an ancient contraption put in place by ancient men for some purpose," said Magda. "What purpose? No one knows. All we know is its location - beneath the council chambers of the great city. We also know that we must deliver the princess there...or die in the attempt." She looked at Maical. "We made a promise to our king to do just that."

"He doesn't care, kid," said Maical. "I told you. That boy has no soul."

"Yes, I do, Dad," said Hutch sadly, regretfully.

"Anyway, don't tell him too much," insisted Maical. "Hell, I'm surprised he didn't turn us over to the avians back there. It's what he does. He always has some way out!"

"He won't betray us, General," said Magda. "Don't you see? This is fate. It's no coincidence that we found him down in that bar. Of all the bars in that interian city. Of all the interian cities! Of all the places in the world, that we should run right into him is remarkable! It's fate!"

Maical only looked away.

"Don't all of you see?" insisted Magda. "There are no coincidences! We're all here together because of powers outside our understanding!"

Hutch said nothing.

Maical only nodded sadly at her.

A few minutes of complete silence passed. It became almost an hour.

There was only the humming of the flash timer and the cooling systems of the vehicle. Stars began appearing in great numbers overhead. Hutch began nodding off until there started a light thumping sound, and an orange light appeared on the glass panel of the driving console.

"Okay," said Loma. "We're just outside their light, sir."

"Slow us down, kid," said Hutch. He looked out of the windows, down into the dark forest floor, seeing the dilapidated remnants of an ancient tower overcome by trees and vines. "In fact, put us down there."

"On Melach Tower?" Loma asked.

"Yeah. We'll be up off the ground that way."

Loma started guiding the LPV toward the old rock building.

"We'll go ahead and lock down for the night," said Hutch. He looked around at the others.

The general had disappeared into the recesses of the cabin again.

Magda's eyes were closed and her head lay against the head rest.

Suddenly she opened up her eyes and she found Hutch looking back at her. "What is it?"

Hutch said, "The compound isn't far. We're gonna put down for the night. We'll need the daylight, so we'll get started in the morning."

"Have you got a plan, Captain Hutchinson?" asked Magda, lifting her head.

"It's just 'Hutch,'" replied the captain. "And sweetheart..." He shot his killer smile at her. "I always have a plan."
Chapter 12

Seven made his way through the thickening jungle brush, cutting with his blade to push forward. Grass and leaves and vines were flying over his head. He'd been at it for some time, when he'd come across the matted obstacle. But as he was still chopping, suddenly he stopped.

His eyes narrowed in the direction he'd been travelling. He took in a deep breath, examining the air. Had he lost her scent? He took another breath, this time hastily, but there was nothing.

He looked down at the chlorophyll upon his blade, the thick green slime that gave such a powerful aroma. Maybe it was that which had masked the scent of her. Or maybe she'd been locked away as before. He couldn't be sure, but something was strongly interfering.

With a look of disappointment, Seven wiped his blade on a fallen vine and then slid the sword into its scabbard. His big black irises blinked into the darkness. He wasn't sure now if he was still headed in the right direction.

She was close now, he knew that. The smell of her was overwhelming him of late, even when he'd cut off his pursuers.

But now he wasn't sure. And he had to be sure. There could be no mistake now that he had come so close to her at last.

Seven started looking up into the trees for somewhere he might spend the night.
Chapter 13

On a cloudy day, Athedra worked in the rear of the feline kitchen, emptying a bucket of rotted blood into a waste incinerator. She was tired, as she'd been working since the dawn, and paused to wipe her sweaty brow. Her locks were moist with sweat and hung low over her stained forehead.

While she rested, she heard a noise - a high-pitched, wailing sound - the sound of a crying infant. It was loud and overhead. Athedra's face went immediately in its direction, her eyes scanning the top of the cinderblock wall that surrounded the compound. She looked toward a watchtower where there were feline guards looking back down at her. She decided the sound wasn't coming from there. It seemed to be coming from outside the wall, from outside the palace, in the wilderness beyond.

Athedra looked to her left and right and all around, to see if anyone else had heard the sound, but she found only Liu Mok and her new personal servant, Gentia standing there.

The golden-furred Liu Mok had been watching the girl, and began to saunter toward her. "What is it, Mogwa?" inquired the cat-woman, as she slithered up next to Athedra. "Did you hear something?"

Again there was the sound, and now the girl was sure. She diverted her eyes to the floor near Liu Mok's feet and nodded.

"What is it?" asked Liu Mok, holding Gentia's leash. "Does it sound like...a human child?"

Again the girl nodded, not looking up at the grinning matriarch.

"Ah, yes...how unfortunate," pretended Liu Mok, "A poor bare-skin infant out there, all alone...will probably die of starvation...or worse."

This weighed heavily on Athedra's heart. She looked like she might cry.

"If only..." Liu Mok started, "if only there was someone brave enough to go out into the wilderness, out there beyond the protection of our borders to save her..."

Athedra looked up at Liu Mok now, with hope in her eyes. She could be that someone.

"What is it, slave?" asked the cat-woman, her little ears pointing forward. "Would you like that chance?

The crying came again. This time, it was louder, more intense than before. It sounded as if the infant were in great pain.

Athedra's answer came, in the form of profuse nodding.

Liu Mok was surprised at first. Her eyes widened, and then they narrowed as she brought her furred face to the princess.

"You think me a fool?" hissed the cat woman.

Athedra didn't know quite what she meant.

"Surely you deceive me," purred Liu Mok. She was rubbing the leash in her hand between her thumb and forefinger. "Surely you will run! This is probably some trick to steal your freedom!"

Athedra shook her head as profusely as she had nodded. The cries were growing louder, along with her sense of urgency. It was obvious on her worried face.

"Everyone knows humans are liars and thieves!" scoffed Liu Mok. "How do I know that you will return..?"

Athedra only stared at the cat woman with pleading eyes.

It was then that Liu Mok knew she had her. It was then she sprung the trap. "Very well," said the cat woman, looking around to make sure plenty of other slaves were there to witness. Gentia was shaking her head for Athedra to not listen. "You may go..."

Athedra didn't hesitate. She ran toward the wall right away.

Once there, she looked up for a way to climb as her hands felt along the concrete. She found a conduit that lead all the way up to the top and gripped it in both hands. She hooked her blackened toes into a crevice between two cinderblocks and started climbing.

She climbed quickly, as the cries began to come more frequently. She would have to be fast.

In a few strokes, the skinny, barefoot girl reached the top of the wall. She crouched down and for an instant, she looked out across the compound, over her kennel home. It was the first time she'd ever seen it from up high. She could see the tops of the many cages, the different sectors. She could see the keep clearly, see into the cat king's court. She looked from one watchtower along the top of the perimeter to the next, seeing humans inside of some of them, along with their feline owners.

She turned to look outside of the compound now, and down into the green expanse beyond the walls, where she'd been told there was only death and desperation. She saw large, green, leafy tree tops. There were no paths or gateways on this side of Ruzile Palace, and she couldn't see the floor for the thickness of the fauna.

Athedra heard the crying sound again. This time its location was almost distinct. The spot was no more than thirty feet into the black-greenness of the forest, and it drew her eyes to it. Again, the sound of a screaming child came, and this time, the princess began to look along the outside of the barrier for a way down.

She found it, in the form of a vine that had grown all the way up against the concrete. Athedra stood up, almost too quickly, so that she had to put her arms out to the sides to balance herself.

"Don't look down, Mogwa!" yelled Gentia from the floor before Liu Mok yanked her leash and hushed her loudly.

Athedra payed the girl's warning heed. She kept her gaze forward, toward the vine and cautiously began to step toward it, her little toes feeling the way along the wall top as she went. When she had finally arrived at the vine, she dug her toes into the winding flesh of the plant and grabbing it in her hands, began her downward descent.

Soon, she was in the thick of the forest. It was dark - much darker than it had seemed from above the leafy trees. She peered upward and squinted, looking for the top of the palace wall again. Then Athedra brought her eyes back to the twisting trees surrounding her and they began to adjust to the darkness. When she could see the black earth of the forest floor, the girl released.

Her feet landed with a plop against the moist, dark ground.

Again came the sound of the screaming child. It was near - maybe nearer than she'd thought.

"Hello?" called the girl into the bushes, as she carefully entered. "Are you there?" she asked sweetly, "Can you hear me?" Her skinny arms batted out before her adjusting eyes, removing green growth and branches as she ventured forward.

As she penetrated the dark jungle, she tried to determine the distance of the spot she'd seen from above. It was just a few more steps. She could only hope she was going in the right direction, but she couldn't be sure. She listened for another cry, but no sound of children came. There was only the cackling of birds and critters in the dark.

Nevertheless, Athedra pushed forward, stepping carefully, nervous about what she might find. She continued until the wall was far behind her, and there was nothing but thick brush and jungle all around.

Athedra turned back to look in the direction from which she'd come, and began to realize that it looked exactly like every other direction. She began to worry.

Then, as she listened for the baby, the slave-girl heard another sound - a deep, low growl, like that of a younger, fiercer Ruzil. It was loud enough to cause the girl to freeze completely.

Her heart was beating wildly in her chest. Her breath was quickened. She took one single step backwards.

As Athedra stepped, her foot was caught on a lowly-held spearhead and she tumbled backwards - directly into the arms of Ga' Ul, of the Liu Mok Six.

The cat man laughed deliciously at the unsuspecting victim, his sharp fangs gleaming in the tiny spires of light that broke through the leafy canopy.

As he laughed aloud, Ga Ul held the human tightly in his clutches.

Athedra struggling and panicking, pushed away from his furred chest but found she couldn't loosen herself from his powerful grip. "P-please...please let me go!"

Then there was more sinister laughter from the scheming sons of Ruzil, as the rest of the Six came crawling out from all around Athedra, surrounding the defenseless girl. Their weapons were out before them, glistening blades and spears thirsty for her blood.

"Humans..." said a smiling Zu Ril, his sharp little fangs gleaming in the dark, "...no...speak...!"
Chapter 14

"It's a day where the slave-traders make their stock available," Hutch was explaining as they made ready to leave the ship. He was adjusting a belt on Loma's laser pack behind the eleman, talking through a screwdriver he was holding in his teeth. "If they have her, we can possibly buy her."

"Buy her?!" complained the general.

Hutch stopped what he was doing. Pulled the tool out of his mouth. "Yeah, buy her. What's wrong with that?"

"I don't like it," said Maical. He was reviewing pictures of the compound that the LPV had recorded from the night before. "Why can't we just infiltrate? We have superior weapons."

Hutch finished with the straps on Loma's laser pack and slapped him on the side. "You're good, bud." He turned and tossed the red plastic tool into a pile of other tools. "Yeah, we have light weapons, dad, but we're desperately low on ammo. I've got maybe one or two fights in my pack. Loma's got maybe one."

"I have ten light balls," Loma volunteered.

"See?" said Hutch. "One, maybe two fights."

They all came to stand in a semi-circle facing the forward shield of the ship, which displayed the pictures of the compound at night. "See here, there's a whole lotta kitties to deal with." He pointed at the towers and their armed guards. "And if you look right here - " he pointed at one of the towers, at the humans out in front. " - they have human shields." He looked at his father with conviction. "You don't wanna shoot _people_ , do you, dad?"

They all took a long, pensive look at the cat palace. There were feline soldiers swarming the gate, their long tails slithering around behind their leather armor.

"This western wall seems to be a weak point," said the general, pointing. It was thin, just large enough to accommodate one soldier at the top. Some parts of it were even made of wooden planks. "Not exactly a fort."

"Agreed," said Magda. "A child could scale those walls."

Hutch let out a sigh, and then sat down into the captain's chair before the control console. He settled into his spot as he began to mull.

"What are you doing?" asked Maical. "We've gotta go!"

"Thinking, Dad," said Hutch. "I'm planning."

"What's there to think about?" said the general. "We have light weapons! We go in and start shooting cats. We demand our princess. That's the plan!"

"Our firepower is far superior to theirs," Loma agreed.

"No," said Hutch. "Won't work."

"Why?" demanded Maical.

"Because it won't, Dad! Because I'm tellin' you it won't work!"

"Why?" Maical repeated.

"Look," said Hutch adamantly, hissing his words, "here's why: Because this is a rescue operation. And there are two elements to a rescue mission." He held up two fingers and then folded one. "One: we need to get the girl out." He flipped up the other finger up. "Two: we need to get her out safely. You hear that word? Safely! We go in there guns a' blazin,' knockin' things over, callin' people names, and there's a pretty good chance we'll get a scratch."

"A scratch?" asked Magda, concerned.

"An injury," said Loma in his low voice.

"A death," added Hutch, then raised his brows when everybody turned to face him. "You heard me!" He settled back down into his spot and crossed his arms on his chest. "That's why we've gotta plan."

Maical sulked for a good while before he finally asked, "Well, you got any ideas?"

"Gimme a minute," he said. "Let me think of something."

The four sat as they contemplated.

In a little while, Hutch said, "Look. Like I said: we go in, say we're looking for your girl, make the purchase, and then split. We all go home to Tusk as heroes...piece o' cake."

"With what money?"

"Don't worry about that!" said Hutch. "We gotta whole pile of kona around here somewhere."

"But we're _humans_ ," said Maical. "They're not gonna make a sale of humans to _humans,_ you knuckle-head!"

"Well, there's the problem, Dad. You never gimme a single stitch of credit...!"

They'd begun to get riled up again when Magda suggested, "maybe Loma can pose as a slave-trader."

"I can do that," Loma volunteered.

"No," said Hutch, shaking his head and smirking, "bad idea."

"Why?" said Magda.

Hutch shrugged, embarrassed a bit. "Look, I know this kid better than anybody." He thumbed over his shoulder at the giant. "That sumbitch can't lie to save his life." He looked over his shoulder at him now. "No offense, kid."

Loma trumpeted sadly but he knew that it was true.

"Oh, but you're pretty good at it, is that it?" said Magda.

"Me?" Hutch asked, smiling widely. "I'm an expert liar!" he proudly stated. "Right, Lo-man? I'm the best!"

Magda looked at Maical through narrow eyes. "You sure that's your son?"

Maical shrugged. "All right," he said, making his way toward the hatch. "Let's get going, then." He was adjusting the ammo belt that held his shells.

"Wait a minute!" said Hutch. "That's not a plan, dad! I need time to figure this out!"

But before he knew it, Maical was pulling open the hatch, letting the door made from many panels slide up noisily into the ceiling.

As he did so, fresh air came flooding into the cabin from outside.

Magda stopped following the general as the air hit her face and she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, fully. When she let out the air again, she opened her huge green eyes and a look of overwhelming joy came over her. Tears welled in her eyes as she shot a look at Maical.

Maical delicately asked, "yeah?"

Magda nodded. She said breathlessly, "She _is_ here!" as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Maical broke out into a smile as well, a thing he had not done in many years. Tears began welling even in his eyes.

The Tuskans only looked at each other as the soldiers of Hearthstone shared the moment.

Hutch was going to say something stupid when Magda stopped smiling all at once. Her eyebrows knitted again as she inhaled again, more deeply. She took a step forward, toward the hatch and the wilderness beyond. She was deeply inhaling, examining the air. Her hands curled into fists as she scented again and again. Suddenly, all the color rushed away from her pretty face.

"What is it, Maggie?" asked Maical, concerned.

"It's him," said Magda desperately. "He's also here!"

Maical said, "You mean...the shadow? Magda, that can't be! You saw him fall!"

She placed her hands on either of his broad shoulders. "It is!" she insisted. "It's him! We have to hurry!" With that, the lindarian turned and flew right out of the hatch.
Chapter 15

Athedra was surrounded by the Six, her eyes wide and looking from one furred face to the other, and the other. Her knobby knees knocked into each other in her fear. She didn't know where to step.

Zu ril teased, "What were you looking for, little Mogwa, little trouble-maker? Were you hoping to find a little baby in distress?"

Athedra could see the feline's gleaming, eager smile as they all laughed at her.

"Make the sound, brother," Zu ril said to La Uz.

La Uz was only too happy to oblige. He twisted his mouth and craned his neck as he began to wail like the crying of an infant. It was a perfect rendition.

The other five laughed the louder, encouraging the beast.

"Louder!" said Ur-Zil and Liu Zil, laughing, "louder! Louder!"

La Uz did make it louder, and more intense, turning the crying mimic into a scream of pain for his brothers' pleasure.

Athedra looked on, mortified as the cat-men celebrated.

They had fooled her, and now they would enjoy the sport of killing her. They neared the points of their curved swords and spears toward the desperate girl.

But as the crying feline worked to entertain his murderous brothers, suddenly and without warning, his head flew off his shoulders, popping straight up into the air.

In a sudden, the crying sounds he'd been making altogether ceased, and in their place were sudden gasps from his brothers as they saw the head tumbling through the air.

The furry cranium, with its mouth in the same position to make the mimic flew upwards, the soft mane whirring as it went, then it landed with a dull thump on the forest floor before the headless body.

The Liu Mok Five - no longer laughing - now watched the body of La uz fall forward, doubling over and slumping on the floor at Athedra's feet. The beheaded body kicked a couple of times before it finally stopped for good.

In the seconds still passing, the Liu Mok brothers tried to figure out what was happening, when suddenly another head flew off its shoulders, and then a third cat started to make a twisted, contorted gesture with his entire body - an odd, macabre dance.

Those who were left watched helplessly, as his face twisted, his eyes bulging in his furry face. Suddenly they saw the device of his demise, as Seven's sword burst out from the middle of his chest.

Seven's katana chopped fiercely downward then, opening the stomach of the cat man.

As the others watched in horror, the feline's intestines spilled out before him as he looked down at them - like wet snakes slithering forth. His face which so recently celebrated now panicked - his eyes wide - his mouth gaping open. The cat-man fell forward, dead, and there, where he'd been so recently standing now stood a lindarian monk in black, with his sword out, and covered in cat blood.

Seven looked calmly at the three remaining felines, whose eyes were wide with terror. Within seconds, their gang of six had been chopped in half.

Seven watched them, breathing slowly, looking from furry feline face to the other, to see which one would be next.

His stillness was like the peaceful eye of a terrible hurricane the cats would not survive.

Ur-Zil, still dumfounded by the sudden turn of events lunged forward at once, with his curved blade, relying on his natural speed.

But before he could make contact, Seven spun and cut him down in the same motion. Two of Ur-Zil's parts went flying into the bushes as his lower half keeled over, lifeless on the ground.

Zu ril and Liu zil were the only two left, and they weren't going to fight. The two creatures gave each other a wild look before they both sped off into the darkness, running for their lives.

Seven opened up his flap and slid a dart out of its holster.

As Liu zil leapt over a fallen branch, his head suddenly shot forward, his mane like a shaking rug. The cat tumbled forward lifelessly and spilled onto the moist ground.

Seven stepped forward a bit as he pulled another dart. But already it was too late: Zu ril had abandoned all hope and escaped into the dark jungle in an effort to retain his life.

Screams and shrieks from atop the palace wall resounded as the murderous gang known throughout the territories as the Liu Mok Six were made four, then two, then one.

Seven looked up to find the cat woman watching - and screaming for the lives of her sons.

"You evil demon!" cried Liu Mok as she eyed the black shadow in the forest. She turned around to look down into her city. "Husband! My children! My beautiful children have been murdered!" She howled in ear-splitting, screeching sorrow.

Seven's keen eyes caught her and quickly calculated the reason she'd been watching. He took a step toward the wall and launched his dart.

In another second, the steel, black tip found the body of the terroristic feline, cracking her skull as Liu Mok's eyes fell further apart, separated by the dart between them. The body of the creature fell lifelessly backwards, down along the inside of Ruzile Palace, and landed on the inner floor.

There was a mix of screaming and cheering from within.
Chapter 16

"Guardian shadow?" asked Loma as he stepped over a fallen tree. "Is that what you called him?"

"Yes," said Magda, struggling to find a foothold on the tree herself. "That's what he is - the guardian shadow. He's the highest ranking of all of Hearthstone's agents."

Loma shifted the two-hundred-pound trunk to help her.

"You see," she explained as she now easily climbed over and onto the other side, "the guardian shadow has but one purpose - to protect the heir of Goldenheart - "

" - in this case 'heiress,'" added Maical.

" - until the heiress - " Magda gave Maical a nod. " - takes her throne."

" - or," Maical added, "until the guardian shadow dies."

"Yeah," concurred Magda. "His sole purpose in this life is to preserve her."

Loma was intrigued. "Her personal bodyguard," he ventured.

"Yes," Magda agreed. "He is chosen from among the finest lindarian families. Before he is even born - he is bred for this one thing. And even from birth, his training begins. He is trained every day, in every form of martial art, under the most rigorous conditions, with every weapon known to man for this one duty."

"Fascinating," said the eleman.

Hutch only rolled his eyes.

"He has no name," she continued. "He only has a number; the number of his order. Before him, there have been seven hundred and seventy-six protectors of the heirs of Goldenheart. He is number is Seven hundred and seventy-seven."

"So that's why he's called Seven," Loma mused. He said to Hutch: "Are you listening to this, Captain?"

"Yes, yes," said Hutch, somewhat annoyed as he cut through some brush ahead with a machete. "Hearthstone is chockful of ancient rituals and special appointments. Look what good it's done 'em."
Chapter 17

The danger had been neutralized, and the guardian shadow now turned back towards Athedra, and finally laid his eyes on the princess of Hearthstone, after having searched for her so long. His lindarian nose identified her as the one, so that there was no doubt it was she, but upon closer examination, he could see she was no child anymore.

As he circled the trembling, skinny thing, Seven could see she was the spitting image of her mother, the queen. But on her face was great sadness and fear. He could tell that she had known great suffering, and it began to make him angry.

The princess - barefoot and in the rags of a slave girl - stood still to be observed, watching the mysterious man who'd saved her with her eyes wide.

The lindarian wiped his katana clean on the corpse of Ga' ul and then began to approach her.

She held up her little palms as he came close. She took one step backwards from him.

When he was in front of her, the man in black knelt down before the princess. He planted his sword before him, the tip of it sticking into the earth next to Athedra's left foot, inches from her fearfully-curling toes.

He looked up into her face, and before he knew it, the black orbs of his eyes began a tiny bit to moisten.

Athedra looked into those eyes now, searching his gaunt, handsome face as she began to realize just who he was. It came to her all at once. "Seven?"

Seven let out a breath that he'd been holding as he nodded. He closed his eyes now, and lowered his countenance for her.

Athedra let out her own held breath - and a slight cry - as tears filled her own eyes. Her heart was racing once again, but not from fear this time. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her breath was coming rapidly as she reached out with trembling fingers and slid them into Seven's thick black locks. She could not believe that it was real at all.

Seven lifted up his face.

She placed both hands on either side of it and held it there, staring into the black eyes. She could not believe what she was seeing. "You're here!" she said.

Seven nodded in her hands.

"You're real!" she said.

Seven nodded once again. A tear rolled out of his right eye.

"I have seen your face a thousand times," she gasped. "In my dreams."

Seven stayed perfectly still for her. Finally he was satisfied. Finally he was complete. He knew now who she was. And who he was.

"I thought I had invented you," Athedra said.

Seven shook his head in her hands.

"My Seven!" she cried out. "My guardian shadow!" She slid down to her knees in front of him and threw her arms around her fierce protector. She sobbed into the crook of his neck.

For Seven it was a forbidden thing that he show any emotion. But in that moment, he was truly happy. And finally, he did smile. Then he did a forbidden thing: He wrapped his own arms around the little trembling body and held her tenderly.

"My Seven," Athedra said again, her voice muffled by his heavy black clothes.

She felt completely safe in his arms - a safety she had long and totally forgotten.

Now Seven stood all the way up before her. He grabbed his katana from where he'd planted it and slid it back into its scabbard, then took her hand in his gentle but calloused grip. "Must go," he urged. He turned around, his black eyes searching for the path in the woods that he had designated for their exit, and started towards it. But as he went, he caught a foreign scent, a thing that he had missed. In the commotion, it seemed a group of humans and an eleman had come in behind him. His eyes narrowed.

"Seven," Athedra said behind him, "wait."

Now a pair of humans appeared from the thickness of the jungle.

Seven thought he'd scented plastic and other elements he did not recognize. His head tilted on its axis as he thought he recognized a human's scent. He kept the princess behind him.

"You stay," he told her, and then started sliding toward the group emerging from the wood line. He'd have to resolve the issue quickly in order to return to her and gripped the handle of his sword.

Still, there was something there - a scent with which he was certainly familiar - and as he closed the distance, it came clearer to him.

He slid out his katana anyway.

"Hey, whoa, hold on there, kid," said Hutch appearing now from behind a bush. His hands were up, surrendering. "We're all friends here, guy!"

"Captain," said Magda from behind him, "be quiet!"

Seven's face tilted once again. Now he knew he recognized that voice. Silently, he mouthed, "Magda?"

"Seven!" Magda shouted joyfully as she appeared behind the captain. "Seven, it's me - Magda!"

Seven sheathed his sword as he recognized his friends. General Hutchinson appeared beside her.

"It's me, little brother!" Magda said. "It's me and Maical!"

They came out into the clear completely now, and the two lindarians went to each other. They touched hands customarily.

"Magda," Seven said.

Magda embraced her friend.

"Hey, kid," said Maical, approaching. He held out his hand and Seven took it, shaking it warmly.

Seven was glad to see them.

"We see you've found Athedra," said Magda.

Seven nodded and then turned around to point at her.

"Magda?" cried the princess approaching them.

"Princess!" cried the lindarian woman, her huge green eyes filling with tears as she ran to her.

"Magda!" screamed Athedra as she ran to her and Maical.

The soldiers of Hearthstone fell to their knees before their princess, rejoicing.

"Highness!" cried Maical.

"Oh, sweetheart!" Magda said, "How long have we been searching for you!"

Athedra went to her knees as well, embracing them as if they were her mother and her father. "Magda!" she screamed into the lindarian's shoulder as they happily embraced.

Maical wiped a tear from his eye as the two women cried and sobbed into each other's arms.

"I'm so happy!" yelled Athedra, her heart pounding in her little chest. "I thought I had imagined all of you!" She pushed Magda away to get a better look at her and brushed the black hair from her face. "Beautiful Magda! I love you so much!"

She took the general's heavy hand and pressed it up against her face as she basked in the family that had raised her in Hearthstone those many years ago.

When they had had their tearful moment, the women slowly stood again, but never took their hands away from each other.

"You came for me," said Athedra, looking at the faces that she knew.

"We never stopped looking for you, kid," said Maical.

"You've become so beautiful!" said Magda.

Athedra only shook her head. "Uncle Maical!" she said, recalling her father's name for his top general. "You can't know how happy I am in this moment!"

But in the commotion of reunion, the soldiers of Tusk had come to stand among them.

Athedra noticed the giant eleman first. His steps shook the ground so that it made her open her eyes to see him. Then she saw the human male just a step beside the giant - a rugged, handsome man that looked very much like her friend Maical.

Seven, suspicious of him, started sliding out his sword.

Hutch said, "Whoa, hold on there, black-eyes! Let's put that away." He came close enough to Magda that he could nudge her with his elbow. "Uh, honey? You wanna tell this guy we're on the same side?"

Magda hesitated.

"C'mon, you're killing me."

"I's all right, little brother," Magda finally told Seven. "Your highness. Meet Pol Hutchinson - "

"Just 'Hutch,'" Hutch said.

Maical rolled his eyes.

"He's our friend," said Magda, although she added a small shrug. "He's going to help us get you home." She waved a hand at the eleman, "and this gentle giant is Loma Don. They are soldiers of the Great City."

Loma Don approached and knelt down before Athedra. He towered over the others, so he bowed his own head as lowly as he could for her and closed his eyes, unsure of any applicable protocol.

Athedra came close to him. "I've always loved elemen," she said smiling as she put her hand on his grey, leather face. "So big."

Loma opened his eyes. He could blush. He smiled at her boyishly.

Suddenly, there was a loud drumbeat, followed by two rapid beats and then two more. The sound was loud enough to send birds flying into the air up above.

Everybody looked at each other.

"Hell was that?" asked Hutch.

Another loud beat came followed by the same pattern, and then the whole thing repeated all over again as all eyes went to the top of the grey concrete wall of the compound. The cement shown in flashes through the thick green jumble, almost in unison with the steady rhythm.

Athedra's heart fell and any trace of happiness vanished from her face all at once.

"All right," said the captain, "let's get outta here. Before more cats come looking for their friends."

"Yes, let's," said Magda and started stepping back into the woods with Athedra in tow. The others also started following, but all stopped when they noticed Athedra standing still.

"Sweetheart?" said Magda. "Theeds? What's the matter, baby? We're leaving."

Athedra did not move.

Maical's eyebrows furrowed. "Your highness?"

"The drums," said Athedra sadly. When all eyes turned on her she said, "They're keeping time."

Hutch was not interested in whatever Athedra might be describing. "That's fantastic," he said, reaching for her. "Now let's get the hell outta here."

The princess withdrew her hand even though he wasn't near enough to touch her. She took a step back, toward the compound, and then another.

"Well, what do you wanna do?" said Hutch, "Dance to the rhythm? We got places to be, kid - come on!"

"That was the fourteenth beat that just passed," Athedra informed them, holding up an index finger to indicate. "At three thousand six hundred, a slave will be executed, starting with my closest friend."

There were groans as the crew looked around at each other with grim expressions.

"Another will be killed at the second hour," Athedra continued, "and another one hour after that. And so on and so on...until the escaper returns to the nearest watchtower or twenty one slaves have been destroyed." She shook her head grimly when she added, "There are no exceptions."

"Good grief," said Hutch, with disgust.

Very faintly, there could be heard the screaming in the palace as the cats picked out the first of Athedra's friends for execution. Surely it was Gentia.

Magda stepped toward her. "Princess, there's nothing we can do about that now."

Athedra shook her head. "I will not abandon them."

Hutch would have none of it. He stepped toward her, too, with the intention of handling her. "Hell with that. C'mon, we're leaving!"

But before he could reach her, Seven took Hutch's hand and deftly repositioned the captain on his knees by it, placing the hand into the middle of his back between his shoulder-blades.

"What the hell?" Hutch complained, contorted and in pain. "Are you guys serious?"

"No one can force the princess of Goldenheart," Magda explained. "Please don't attempt to touch her again."

Seven launched Hutch away as Magda added with solemnity, "Athedra makes all her own decisions."

"Yeah?" said Hutch, recovering as he rolled forward, "Well, she better _decide_ to get in the boat, the little brat!" He pointed with a thumb behind him. "We're trying to save you!"

"I will not leave my people," said Athedra sadly. "Even if it means my life."

" _Your_ people!" said Hutch incredulously. "Your _people_?" He pointed over her head into the compound behind her. "Lemme be the one to break it to you, kid, those aren't your people! You'll be delighted to learn that your people are alive and well...in Tusk - a beautiful, modern metropolis! Where they have air-conditioning and pizza and cold milk! Your people - free humans - live in big, beautiful apartments and have good teeth and hygiene!" He looked down at Athedra's stained, bare feet. "And shoes!"

This made Athedra so happy that she wanted to cry. "My mother, too?" she asked Magda.

Magda nodded but she knew it didn't really matter.

"Yes, the queen, too," said Hutch. "And your buddy, Daniel, your best bud? Yeah, I met him - real nice guy - really misses you - and everybody else that you knew back in Hearthstone, too. They're all there now, and all alive and living well. And so will you!"

Athedra was pleased to hear about their fate. "Thank you for that," she said.

"Yeah," said Hutch. "Now look, forget about this place - these people. They're..." He shrugged apologetically. "...unfortunate souls. That's all. That's just the way it went for them. In just a matter of hours, you'll be in Tusk, surrounded by _your_ loving subjects, okay? And in no time at all, you'll forget all about this place and these...people."

She only blinked at him.

"This very evening," Hutch continued, "you'll be sittin' at a table in your honor, with your mom and all your homies from Hearthstone all around you, telling stories about your adventures and drinking wine and eating cheese biscuits and you won't remember any of this. You won't have to, kiddo. This isn't your problem anymore."

Athedra stood there quietly. The wind blew and lifted her hair. The follicles flew gloriously as she deeply inhaled and then let out her breath. She was decided. She said, "I am Athedra of Goldenheart."

Maical and Magda nodded. "Yes, your highness."

Athedra said, "My father was Manson of Goldenheart."

"Yes, he was," they said, relieved to hear her say it.

Athedra turned slightly to face her guardian shadow. "Until I saw my Seven just now I had forgotten who I was, and who he was...and who you were. But now I know. Now I remember everything."

They were nodding, listening to her.

"My father was known as the lord of men," she said.

"Yes, precious little queen," said Maical.

Magda nodded profusely and repeated the known title, "Lord of men!"

Athedra's countenance transformed when she said, "He was not known as the lord of _some_ men."

When they knew what she was saying, the two weren't smiling anymore.

She said, "and I have inherited them all."

"My lady..." said Magda, worried.

Athedra faced Maical squarely. "General Hutchinson, you are my father's most trusted friend and the greatest of his warriors - Sentinel of Hearthstone."

General Hutchinson straightened out at attention before her and nodded dutifully.

"I beg you please," she said with great pain, "do not abandon me in this place of horror and torment. I pray that you will find a way to save us all." And with that, Athedra turned around, and began toward the compound once again.

Without hesitation, Seven slid into the shadows after her.

Magda took a deep breath, raised her thin high brows at Maical and slowly let it out again. She shook her head, her shoulders raised. She was unsure of what to do as she started after them as well.

In the darkness, there could be heard the sound of her twin blades leaving their x-shaped scabbards on her back.

Maical, too, readied his weapon, pulling from his back his combat shotgun. He cocked it, sending a resounding crackle into the quiet air, and he began to follow after them as well.

Loma looked at his captain. He shrugged, and then also started following the group.

Hutch wanted to remind Loma that he was in charge, but he knew that Loma wasn't going to listen to him now. "I can't believe this," he said, to himself, because there was nobody around him anymore to listen. He was truly incredulous and threw up his hands. "I really can't believe this crap!" he shouted. Then, finally, and complaining the whole way, he began to follow after them as well.
Chapter 18

Athedra climbed onto the wall again, but this time stood tall for all to see. She looked out across the kennel city, seeing the thousands of people in their cages. All of them were looking up at her, some of them shielding their eyes because the sun was hovering just above her head. It made it seem that the light was emanating from her. The wind was blowing, and it caused her mane to flow like golden flames. Her blue dress fluttered like a flag.

As the slaves of Ruzil looked up at her, a lindarian in black robes rose up to stand beside her. In the man's hands was a shining silver blade.

Jerob said, "Who is that?" as he stepped forward in his cage.

From the women's kennels, Agara had seen the lioness land upon the inner floor. Now she shielded her eyes to see the girl and her mysterious companion appearing overhead.

"It's her people," Gentia said, her leather collar still attached. Her leash lay long along the floor, toward the lifeless corpse of Liu Mok. "The others from the sky."

Agara wasn't naysaying anymore. She and the others were beginning to believe her.

There could be heard the screaming growls of felines throughout the compound as they received news from the watchtowers that the Liu Mok Six had been cut down.

"No!" one of Ga ul's wives was crying out, "It cannot be!"

"All of them?" another cat was asking.

"They are all dead, master!" a human was reporting.

The slaves looked around at each other as they heard the lamentations of their feline slavers. They were not so sad as they that their torturers had been slain. Some of them were even smiling.

There began to rise a chant among them: "Athedra! Athedra! Athedra!"

Soon the chanting grew, and more and more slaves began to join.

Feline guards began to scream their mantra into the chanting crowds. "Humans no speak!" they warned, "Humans no speak!" But in their eyes there was fear. What could have killed their ruthless leaders - the most dangerous gang in all the feline territories?

Their warnings were wholly ignored. The prisoners screamed the louder, "Athedra! Athedra! Athedra! Athedra!"

Before long, Ruzil appeared on the whipping stage. His wispy grey mane was puffed up, so as to showcase his authority, but somehow he didn't seem as threatening a presence anymore among the people. They would not quiet down.

"Athedra! Athedra! Athedra! Athedra!"

The lion king gave a loud roar, as loud and long as he could give it, but it did not produce the result that it once had. There were too many questions in the minds of the enslaved. It didn't quiet down their chants.

Seeing this, Ruzil's yellow eyes widened with fear and unbelief. Didn't they know it was he who was demanding their silence?

He stepped down from the stage, his eyes in all directions. He started toward the cages, surrounded by his leather-clad soldiers and some of his wives. They all came down the center aisle toward the wall where the defiant little Athedra was standing tall for all to see.

The humans booed and jeered at Ruzil as never before while his felines slammed their swords against the kennels.

Ruzil was furious. "Mogwa!" he roared up at the girl. "What have you done, vile creature? What evil have you brought upon my noble sons?"

But Athedra was not as she was before. She would not be silenced, and spoke loudly and clearly when she said, "Ruzil! Foul deceiver! I told you before. My name is not Mogwa! I am Athedra of Goldenheart! Heiress to the human kingdom!"

The cheers from the crowd were overwhelming.

Ruzil was stunned to hear the defiance all around him. His eyes were huge and his mouth was fallen open. "Damned slave!" he cried out. He pointed to the ground before his leather boots. "I demand you come here this instant! Do not disobey Master!"

But Athedra was not finished. She declared, "I deem you a criminal against mankind and order you arrested!"

The humans cheered the louder. They rattled their cages wildly. The steel beams were jostled by their force.

Ruzil looked around at them, terrified and furious at once. "I will teach you, little rat!" he roared at her as he began to pull his whip from his belt. "You will know pain as you have never known it!" To his soldiers, he ordered, "Bring her to me! Now!"

The felines ran toward the wall and started climbing. Those in the watchtowers started sliding out toward her, closing the humans between them on the thin wall.

But Seven was ready, his katana out before him.

One of the felines near the guardian shadow began to close the distance to him, poking at him menacingly with the tip of his spear.

Seven was watching him out of the corner of his eye, and when the cat had come close enough, he grabbed the spear and pulled the feline towards him violently as he sliced him in half.

It happened so quickly that the feline guard was astonished to see himself in two pieces as both his halves tumbled down to the floor of the kennel city. His eyes were still wide as the head bounced off the ground.

Another cat approached, his own scimitar in hand. He was rushing in when, in an instant, he too, was cut to pieces.

Another cat rushed in, and was cut down, and then another one was killed and then another one, all as the prisoners screamed their cheers in celebration. Like Ruzil, they could not believe what they were seeing. Another feline fell, and then another one, all of them tumbling down the walls to land upon the floor.

Athedra's gaze did not leave Ruzil as her guardian shadow worked. On her pretty face was righteous indignation.

Spears flying through the air toward the pair of humans were halved before they could reach the precious princess. Arrows were landing in small pieces on the ground. Blood was soon cascading down the concrete wall like lava, as almost all of Ruzil's troops were decimated.

Overwhelmed and astonished, the guards kept pushing forward, but their confidence was lost. As their turn to attack came up, they were unsure of anything anymore, holding their swords at defensive angles, confused as they approached.

There was the sound of cracking bones and swords and sticks as the feline soldiers were slaughtered like their leaders. Soon there was a pile of bloodied bodies against the foot of the perimeter, but Ruzil pushed his troops nevertheless.

"Kill him!" he screamed. "Get that evil creature, sons of Ruzil!"

But the soldiers started slowing as they saw their numbers quickly thinning. Those left approached the calm, collected lindarian war machine with great care, the toes of their toe-boots out before them.

Seven soldiered on calmly and unfazed, slicing and cutting with perfect precision as the enemies of his mistress were destroyed one after another and another and another.

Ruzil had an idea. "I will stop this!" He turned to his latest wife - a young panther-like. "Bring me a human!" he commanded her. " - a child!" His yellow eyes scanned the kennels to find a good target and found Gentia standing there. "That one!" he yelled, a talon pointing at her.

But there came a new disturbance: a great explosion of blinding, blue-white light, as the northern gate was blown suddenly to pieces. Wooden planks and splinters flew through the air as slaves and felines shielded their eyes.

A great cloud of smoke billowed out into the complex, and when it cleared, there could be seen the Hutchinsons and Magda in the space where the gate had been.

A giant eleman was standing there as well, his cannon out and ready to deliver another cannonball of light. There were "ah's" and "oh's" from the onlookers to see the mega creature.

Hutch stepped forward, and then Magda, too, both of them with their weapons out - Hutch with his own laser pistol swinging left and right and Magda with her twin blades at arms' length.

Maical held his scattergun at the ready, looking at the feline soldiers who were only armed with primitive swords and spears and bows and arrows.

"Defend me, my children!" Ruzil screamed as he pushed his cubs and wives toward the humans. "Defend Master!"

Some of the felines were reinvigorated by Ruzil's command, and they began to charge.

"We are many!" one cried out. "They are few! Attack!"

Hutch squeezed out a round - a bolt of pink light struck one of the leather-clad attackers and the cat was shoved backwards forcefully, flipping in the air. He shot another one, and then looked down at the glass window on the top of his gun. There was a blinking pink number there. It was twenty-five. "I'm getting close, here, kid!" he yelled over his head at Loma as he squeezed out another two rounds. Two more felines were thrown to the floor.

Loma had his own problems: A group of felines was coming up the center aisle between the kennels with their spears out. They were coming for the eleman.

Loma Don trained his grey-white pistol on them and squeezed his thumb down on its lit trigger. A bolt of white light flew out and into the crowd, sending cat-men flying in all directions as they screamed out.

He loosed another cannonball, and it slammed into a distant tower where two felines were readying a ballista. The cats and weapon were destroyed, sending fur and leather and splinters in all directions.

Three panther-likes surrounded Magda, but she was quick. She slid her swords into two of them at once, then spun around the third. She pulled his tail upwards hard, causing the feline to tumble forward before she climbed onto his back. A quick thrust of her blade through his neck made him still for good.

One explosion could be heard after another as Maical's shotgun coughed out death at groups of feline soldiers. Their bodies flew backwards in the air.

Ruzil's troops were cut down to almost nothing, and Ruzil noticed. He stopped pushing his harem toward the danger now, and started pulling them toward him, to shield him from the devastation.

"Give it up, whiskers," Hutch told an approaching feline with a short sword, and then blasted the sword out of the creature's hands when he didn't stop approaching.

The feline screamed in fright, and then put out his hands in surrender. Finally, along with the other soldiers left, he slowly sank down to his knees.

There were more deafening cheers from the crowds of slaves as feline guards bolted for the exits, scaling up the walls to lunge themselves into the wilderness beyond.

Ruzil could see he'd been defeated. In a matter of minutes, his entire army had been destroyed. He looked around at his ruined force, circling around in place. Those who were left were tight around him and they were only cubs and wives. Hopeless and deflated, he dropped his whip to the floor. The instrument of punishment and pain coiled into a lifeless pile of leather, and then, he, too, went down to his knees.

The prisoners cheered as Hutch and Maical closed in on the cat man to restrain him.

Loma stepped forward, his steps like quiet thunder, until he was towering over the lion king. He reached down with a giant grey hand and grabbed Ruzil by his mane.

"Prisoners of cat Ruzil!" Athedra cried out from atop the wall, "You are prisoners no more!"

They cheered again, their skeletal arms up above their heads. The noise exploded in the air, reaching far into the darkness of the jungle.

Hutch and Loma and the others looked around at the vast crowds. The humans - half-starved and half-dead - were crying from their joy.

Maical saw the kennels for every different category: kennels for children, for old people, kennels just for men, for women. He wondered what his king would think of this.

Ruzil groaned in frustration. His grey mane had been tousled in the struggle, and some of the wispy locks stuck out in places, hanging over his pathetic countenance. "Please," he begged. "Please don't kill me. I have always only taken care of my human friends!"

Maical came to stand over him. "Mr. Loma. Let's find somewhere to put this thing."

Before they knew it, a lindarian child was standing in their midst. With a little hand pointing the way, Gentia said, "Dungeon's this way."

Loma started dragging the lion king away by his mane, as Ruzil kicked and roared out in complaint.
Chapter 19

By late afternoon, there was a feast in Ruzil's palace, as the freed people ate and drank from the personal stores of the lion king, and they were merry, some of them, for the first time in their lives. In the yards, there were groups of people singing the songs Athedra had taught them. There were the sounds of laughter and reveling in every corner.

Ruzil's court had been turned into a hospital for all the ill, and Athedra was there, walking among them, ministering to them. An entourage had developed around her, and they followed her everywhere she went with bandages and water for the sick.

Hutch sat upon the throne of Ruzil, slouching as he watched Athedra and Magda work. He was not as joyful or optimistic as they. "This isn't over, you know," he said, loudly for them to hear. "This isn't some happy ending, your highness."

His warning fell on deaf ears as the women continued working, and he only shook his head at them.

Maical and Loma had been occupied dislodging some boards from a giant stone window, and Hutch stood up now, and wandered toward them. He looked out through the opening they'd made, over the wilderness beyond, looking across a vast open field and into the trees on the far side.

"It's beautiful out there, isn't it, Hutch?" asked Loma.

But Hutch wasn't enjoying the scenery. He was looking for signs of feline scouts.

"The cat clans are riled," Hutch said, "and they will come." He was nodding his head when he said, "Believe me, they will come."

"They will want to avenge their friend," agreed Jerob, who was standing close by, upon the floor.

"Vengeance?" Hutch laughed, turning to face him. "For Ruzil? No. Felines are not so loyal!" He pointed with his chin over Jerob's shoulder, at the celebrating masses beyond the inner windows. "They are coming for them! They are coming to take Ruzil's bounty." Hutch's gaze coasted lazily over the court's floor until it came upon the princess. "And if they're smart," he added, "they are coming for her."

This stopped the women from their bandaging, and they began to pay attention to the captain.

Hutch continued. "By now, they are well aware of the princess and the hefty price on her head. Not all the cat clans are as isolated or ignorant as this one. They know Avia will pay the value of many Ruzil palaces for the heiress of Goldenheart."

All eyes were on the princess as hearts began to sink.

"There's only one solution," said Hutch, shaking his head solemnly. "We gotta go. We have to leave right away."

There was silence for a while, only the moans of the infirmed were heard and the occasional crying of a distant infant.

"Leave?" asked Athedra, looking around at the infirmed. "Where can we all go?"

"Yeah," said Hutch. "I know. Look, I know now, okay? I see. You're not the spoiled little brat I thought you were."

Athedra touched her fingertips to her chest.

"You stayed here. You came back for them when you could've taken off, I know. I get it now." He shrugged. "Hell, you're a real stand-up gal...you're a real sweet kid." He put his head down and gave a few paces. "But I'm afraid that won't save you, princess." He looked her in the eye. "There's no place I can take two hundred people."

Athedra carefully corrected him. "It's...one hundred and eighty-seven."

Gentia's bare feet came slapping up the stone floor. The lindarian child was cheerful until she saw that the adults were in serious discussion. She found a place on the floor from which she could watch the princess and plopped herself down.

Athedra said, "And I am responsible to every single one of them."

"No, you are not!" Hutch said frankly, sternly. He looked around at all the scowling faces. "Look," he began again calmly, "I admire your..." he struggled - " - charity. I do. But we can't fight off multiple feline armies, kiddo, no matter how you feel! Any one of them could wipe us out!"

"We defeated Ruzil's army," Maical offered.

"We're out of ammo, dad!" Hutch quickly retorted. He asked Loma, "Whatta ya got, kid? Like three rounds left?"

Loma held up five thick digits - three on one hand and two on the other.

"I've got twenty rounds - that's it! And it's not enough!"

Magda said, "We have the guardian shadow! You saw what he can do!"

"He can't fight off a whole army, can he?" Hutch said before he gave it a second thought. "Can you?" he asked Seven who was standing nearby.

Seven didn't answer.

"Look, it wouldn't matter anyway," Hutch said. "We'd still have two or three more armies to deal with! I'm telling you right now, if we stay here, we are going to die."

The princess thought about this for a good long time but didn't say anything.

There was almost an audible sound along with the deep darkness that set in as the humans began to realize the trouble they were in...the horrible storm that would soon set down upon them.

Hutch sucked his teeth, picked something out of them from the meal they'd earlier had, then flicked the thing away. He chinned up at Loma. "Well, c'mon, Lo-man," he said to his companion. "Let's take a look around."

Loma nodded, trumpeting sadly and then followed the captain out into the kennel yard.

When the Tuskans were gone, Athedra found a place to sit near Ruzil's throne - a foot stool - and sat down upon it. She was greatly troubled now, and it showed upon her face. Her gaze was on the floor. Her heart was heavy with concern.

As she sat, she spotted her little friend sitting on the floor nearby, and motioned to Gentia with a beckoning hand.

Gentia would not look at Athedra's eyes anymore, but stood at once, to come to her. She was only looking down to the stone floor as she slid up before the princess.

"Why are you far from me, Gentia?" Athedra asked. "What's the matter?"

It took a while for Gentia to finally say, "Things are...different now...your highness."

"How?" Athedra demanded.

Gentia looked up at the Athedra suddenly. "We were right! You _are_ a princess!"

Athedra smiled.

Gentia scraped a black little toe between two stones. "But we're not part of your kingdom. We're not really your people. We're just...slaves."

"We were all slaves," said Athedra. "Now we are free."

"Not you!" Gentia answered quickly. She didn't like what Athedra had said. "You are not like us!"

Athedra got up and knelt down in front of Gentia so that they were face to face. "Hey," she said sternly, "Look at me."

Gentia kept her sad eyes to the floor.

Athedra repeated, "Look at me."

Gentia finally did. Her giant eyes were moist with tears.

"You are mine," Athedra said as she shook the girl by her little shoulders, "and I am yours."

"But...your highness...you have to..."

Athedra waited.

"You have to leave us now! You _have_ to! Didn't you hear him? You have to leave us and go back to your palace where you belong!" The girl drew a rapid lungful of air in fear that what she'd said was right. Her eyes were to the floor.

Athedra lifted Gentia's chin with her forefinger. She said, "Does a mother leave her children?" Her own eyes filled with tears as she shook her head. "No. And I will never leave you. Never!"

Gentia's eyes almost fell out of her head to hear such good news. She threw her arms around the princess and squeezed her with all her might.

Athedra gasped and her mouth fell open. Veins started appearing in her thin, pale neck. "Sweetheart," she squeaked out under the lindarian's tremendous strength, "you will break me!"

"Oh!" Gentia grunted as she remembered and drew back her hands. Then she folded them upon her belly and, happy now, sat down on the floor at Athedra's feet. She stared up at her beautiful princess and admired her.

An open window let in the soft light of an afternoon sun, and its soft glow enveloped Athedra's flowing hair like honey.

Gentia teased: "You're not old enough to be my mommy. You're just a girl like me."

Athedra only smiled.
Chapter 20

Hutch couldn't tell if the page had gone through. He'd waited a full ten minutes for a confirmation, but none had come. As he sat, he reached up and ran the pads of his fingers across the smooth surface of his craniotol. It felt a little strange now that he had gone without it for almost two days. He had to admit he'd missed the strange, unnatural extension of himself. His fingers found the twin, metallic buttons along the front right edge near the brim, and circled the rings, one after the other.

While he waited for his response, Hutch leaned back on a wooden bench atop the throne room of the palace. It was made for felines, with holes in the seat for the tails, but he had stuffed the hole with his jacket. There were two rows of the benches behind the forward parapet of the city, one facing outwardly, for the guards to watch over the landscape out front, and the other one faced inwardly, allowing for guards to look out over the many cages of slaves.

Hutch watched the busy, freed humans as they worked to build homes from the cages that had so recently detained them. There was a group nearby tearing up some plush furniture. Some items were still being dragged out of the slavers' bedchambers. The cotton innards were being pulled out and used to make small, makeshift mattresses for the elderly and infirmed. Another group was hammering and sawing away at a stage, which had once held the compound's whipping post. There were cheers as the pole came tumbling down. Another group was carrying away the planks of wood in pairs.

"Any response, Captain?" asked Loma, approaching from the kennel floor. He didn't have to climb up onto the roof to speak with Hutch. Instead, he used the roof like a counter, placing his massive grey hands on it.

Hutch said, "What are those guys doing over there?" indicating the busy workers with his chin.

Loma turned to look at the activity. "They haven't been able to work for a long time. They're just spending pent-up energy."

"Yeah, well...we might need that energy. Anyway, I haven't gotten anything back from Tusk."

Loma shrugged, his leather folds groaning softly. "The lum ludor is a busy office."

"This is true." Hutch sighed deeply. "How about you? Have you gotten anything?"

"Me?" Loma tapped the side of his craniotol with his thumb. "Oh, I never sent anything."

"What? Why?"

Another shrug was Loma's answer.

"What?" Hutch's chin panned left. "What's going on with you, Lo-man?"

"What do you mean, Captain?"

"You're acting...I dunno...you're acting like..." He had an idea. He tapped his finger on the helmet and transmitted, 'are you reading this?' just with his mind.

Loma's face was a blank stare.

'Respond, Sergeant!' Hutch 'sent' through the device, but when no response came, he said aloud, "Is your CT even on right now?"

Loma shrugged his huge, bulbous shoulders a third time. This time, he kept them up as he finally shook his head, no. His huge ears flapped to and fro.

Hutch was incredulous. "So what - you're not using it anymore?"

More ear-flapping, trunk swinging.

"Since when? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Dunno. I guess I don't miss it too much."

"Don't miss it! Don't miss it too much?! What's wrong with you? Your craniotol is your connection to everything! To Tusk! To the matriarch! To the games!" He slapped Loma's arm. "What about your shows? Don't you care about your shows?"

Loma had little interest in the subject. He said, "Nah. Not anymore."

Hutch stared at Loma a good while, attempting to decipher his friend's odd behavior. Finally he asked, "How long?"

Loma was unsure. "How long have I not cared - ?"

"How long have you been disconnected?"

The giant gave it a thought. "A while, I guess. A month?"

Hutch threw up his arms. "Ah! Well, that explains it!"

"What?"

"Explains EVERYTHING!"

"WHAT?"

"This nagging me about our special mission! Special mission this - special mission that! All that crap! That's about when it started!" He was having an epiphany. "So _that 's_ what happened to you!"

"Nothing _happened_ to me, Captain Hutch. I just..." another shrug "...woke up!"

"W-woke up!" Hutched scoffed.

"I guess I just started paying attention to the world around me. That's all."

Hutch said, "Wait - why is it still on your head?"

Loma rubbed his golden top. "Fashion statement?"

"Yeah. Real fashionable, guy." He shook his head, disappointed. He eased back into his seat, casting his gaze back out into the crowds. "Anyway, look where your new-found wisdom got us, kid."

Loma turned around, also looking out across the many freed people. "But, captain," he said, "We _saved_ these people."

Hutch said, "We _condemned_ them."

Loma only looked at him.

"Loma, don't you see? We can't actually rescue them. They were better off as slaves. At least they'd be alive tomorrow. Now, they'll surely be dead...along with us."

Loma crossed his giant arms on his huge chest. He was pensive. Finally he said, "I don't think so. I believe in you. I believe you'll figure something out."

Hutch shook his head, doubtful. "Well...we'll see." He tapped his fingers in a row on a stone armrest. "Look, just...just don't get your hopes up about this, all right? We'll probably have to flee in the end." Then he flashed back to Loma's revelation. "Weirdo! Who doesn't CT?"

Loma shrugged again. He looked like he was smiling, the leathery edges of his mouth slightly lifted.

"Stop that!" said Hutch. "Don't smile! Some of those people will see and it'll give 'em hope! No smiling!"

Loma's smile widened comically.

"Stop it!" Suddenly, Hutch cocked his head when he heard two light dings inside his head. "Oh, wait. Hold on a sec, I'm getting something..."

"Is it - ?"

"Shh." He waved his hand dismissingly. "Go do something."

'It has been a long time, young Captain Hutch,' said someone inside the captain's head. It was a breathy, wispy voice, uncharacteristic of an eleman. It was the lum ludor of Tusk - the council-head of the eleman city-state.

Hutch was so joyful, he smiled tightly and gave an inward cheer. 'Yes, it has,' he thought back, 'too long, Lum Ludor. Very pleasant making contact with you again, sir.'

'Likewise, my old friend.'

There was a pause as Hutch felt a strange, warm feeling throughout his body.

'I hope that you are well'

'Oh, I'm fine, Lum Ludor. Thank you. Loma is also well. We hope you are well also.'

'I am in good conditions,' thought Gonal. 'I thank you for your concern. Now, Hutch...I don't want to initiate our conversation with any negativity...but...I have been informed of your run-in with Avia.'

Hutch frowned guiltily. 'Oh, that. Yeah. It's a...long story.'

'My friend, I'm sure you understand that war with Avia is outside the better interests of Tusk.'

'Yes, sir. I do know that. I - I -'

'Captain, I don't want to harangue you over this, but I must insist - '

"I found her," the captain said suddenly, out loud. Then, with just his mind, but as excitedly, he reported, 'I have the princess of Goldenheart.'

Another pause, this time a long silence. Hutch was spinning in place as the two conversed. He was looking out over the parapet at the quiet grassy fields beyond the compound. 'Sir?' he thought, 'Did you copy?'

'Commander, this is a very serious issue.'

'Oh, believe me, I know, Lum Ludor.'

The words came slowly. 'Are...you...sure it is the one Athedra?'

'Oh, yes. Trust me. I know it's her. There are others here, helping me. Two lindarians - one of them is the girl's bodyguard - all the way from Hearthstone!'

'So...the guardian shadow...lives.'

'Yes, sir. There's also...my father...can you believe that?'

'General Hutchinson...is still alive? I'm glad.'

'Yes, sir.'

'Still giving you a hard time, I'll bet.'

'Yes, sir. Still.'

'That old cockroach! Well...This is very good news, commander. I am most impressed.'

'Thank you, Gonal.'

'Now, when can we expect you home, Captain?'

There was another pause, while Hutch contemplated his words.

'Captain?'

'Well, actually, sir. That's kind of why I'm calling.' The captain stopped pacing in place and placed a palm upon the wooden bench. 'We're in trouble, and we need your help...'
Chapter 21

Athedra couldn't sleep.

Laying in a bed for the first time in many years, inside the bedchambers of Liu Mok, she looked up into the darkness of the ceiling. Her eyes were wide open even though she'd promised Magda she would nap. She couldn't sleep a wink now that her whole life had been completely upended.

She was thinking of her guardian shadow.

"Are you there, Seven?" asked the girl into the darkness. It was altogether possible that he were there, tucked into the dark spaces where there could only be detected the wooden bottoms of black ceiling joists.

But there came no answer from the darkness. There was only the rushing of wind in the trees beyond the outer window. She could also hear the crackling of fire in a fireplace.

And silence.

"I know that you can hear me," she said, smiling. "I know you're watching over me. The way you always did." She closed her eyes and then started working to turn herself on her side. There were pillows all around her, but her body did not remember such comfort after so many years of sleeping on the cold, hard floor. Instead, she made a pillow of her hands by placing one palm against the other and lay her cheek upon it.

"I wish you would speak with me," she said softly. "I missed you very much."

She had an idea and propped herself up again. "Wait - I remember how to make you appear."

She slid out of bed, her bare feet initially retracting as they contacted the cold stone floor. At least they were clean now - scrubbed of the grime that had so long covered them. She slipped them into leather shoes as she looked around the bedchamber.

It was a large a room, the walls and floor all made of great, grey rocks. There were torches on the inner wall that gave dim, yellow light. They were as distant as the wooden doorway with its fraying wooden edges. There was a sturdy nightstand beside the bed, made of the same heavy planks of fraying wood.

She found an open window with a massive stone ledge and started toward it.

At first, she put her hands on it, looking over and down the outer wall of the compound. She could see the ground was maybe twenty feet or so away. "It's not too far down," she said loudly over one shoulder. "I won't die, but I'll be broken to pieces!" She spun around again, looking around into the dark room. Had he heard her threat? Was he there at all?

There came no answer.

Determined, Athedra started climbing onto the window ledge, scraping her knee as she went. She rubbed it as she pulled her other leg up also, and soon was standing on the narrow construction - her hands out for balance. She started sliding her feet toward the outer edge. She was biting her lip as she reached the point of danger.

Athedra's legs were somewhat shaky as the tips of her shoes reached over the brink. "All right, mister guardian shadow," she called out nervously, "here we go!" Her voice had a slight tremble. "I really hope you're there..." And then, with her eyes closed tightly and her teeth clenched, she let herself fall forward, and right over the edge.

At first she felt the pull of gravity, felt her arms fold into her lap as she began to drop toward the distant ground.

But just as suddenly, she felt him: felt his arms, strong, yet gentle, and cradling her. Suddenly, she wasn't falling anymore.

Now she was being lifted up and when she opened up her eyes again, she saw Seven.

He was there, holding her, the way he always had before. Her personal bodyguard held her in his powerful arms as he carried her back into the bedchamber and set her on the floor.

"Oh," she said smiling, as she looked into his black eyes, "there you are."

Seven shook his head at her. "Not funny."

She was smiling at him widely, unashamed of her antics. "Effective, though."

The lindarian started sliding back into the shadows when she caught him by his arm.

"Wait. Please. I'm sorry, Seven."

Seven stayed still for her, allowing her to look him over.

She guided his chin to the left with her thin fingers. "This face," she said, and then moved it to the right again. "My heart never could forget this face."

Seven put his gaze down to the floor.

"I just wanted to spend some time with you," she said. "Is that so much to ask?"

He managed a weak smile.

"Please, sit down," Athedra asked, as she took a seat herself.

Seven only stood, but he didn't slide back into the shadows. He was standing very near to her.

"I can't remember everything," she said, "but I never could forget you. You were always in my dreams..." She placed her palm on Seven's face, slid it up the firm jaw, feeling his low cheekbone. She looked into his eyes which up close were not black onyx after all, but a soft, warm brown.

Seven sneaked another look at her. But almost immediately he took his gaze away again, back down to the floor beneath her dangling feet.

"I always felt," she said, "...I dreamt...that you would come for me."

Seven didn't speak, and he didn't look at her until she tugged his hair to force him. He swallowed the lump inside his throat as he looked into the deep sea of her eyes.

Athedra slid one hand down and into his, felt his heavy, calloused palm. "I was so afraid...without you."

Seven shook his head no. He couldn't stand the thought of her alone...and terrified.

"So many years passed by. Even now, I still can't believe you're really here. I wonder...Did you always remember me? Or did you also forget?"

Seven said, "I dreamed of you. I never lost your scent."

Athedra was glad to hear it, and it showed on her lips as they stretched into a wide smile. A tear appeared in her right eye.

"It's because of my training," he added, though. "That's all. I am conditioned to come to you."

Athedra nodded. "All right," she conceded. But it is also love."

Seven's gaze drifted from her, and back down to the floor, coasting over the stones, over to the roaring fire in the hearth on the other side of the bedchamber.

"I have many dreams," she said. "I used to dream that I was falling...falling through the air. Why do I have such dreams? Do you know, Seven?"

Seven knew, and as he began to give his answer, he could almost hear the wind screaming in his ears. It was a terrifying, deafening sound. He said, "You fell..."

"General!" Magda was screaming over the howling wind those many years ago, "I'm losing control of it!" The controller in her hands was trembling as the LPV soared across the sky at full forward speed. The hole in the side of the ship was sucking debris from all around the cabin and firing it out into the open air.

Maical was unconscious, his head hanging forward on his chest and bobbing. The blood from his popped eye was splattered across the windshield and more of it was pouring from the socket.

"General!"

In the seat behind them, ten-year-old Athedra was screaming, stretching out her hand for the man in black. "Seven!" She was sliding out of her restraints, being sucked toward the ship's open wound. The parachute that Seven had put on her was also slipping in place.

"Seven!" yelled Magda from the forward seat, struggling to maintain the ship under control. "Get up here! I need you to help me!"

Seven looked right to see the princess struggling and screaming. She looked uncomfortable, but safe enough for him to leave her. He couldn't tell that she was coming loose. He began unbuckling his own belt as the wind whipped and screamed bloody murder in his ears.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, the princess was dislodged and all at once was sucked out into the sky.

Seven felt her sudden absence like a jolt inside his chest. He caught the faintest glimpse of her blue dress as it slipped out. Without a moment's hesitation, and no parachute of his own, he took two long, rapid strides toward the opening, and dove out into the open air.

Outside, the wind was howling in his ears. The earth was far - some three thousand feet away. He saw many shades of greens and tans and browns. A lake registered as just a deep blue swatch.

Seven searched the open space, his black eyes wide despite the hard wind, his arms and legs extended fully. He spotted a tiny thing, blue and spinning in the air and pointed himself toward it. He tucked his arms and legs, aiming himself like a projectile.

Athedra's arms and legs were flailing loosely as she plummeted toward the earth. She had gone unconscious. Her thin, blonde hair blew in all directions.

Seven lifted his head to check his progress toward her, and was pleased to find that he was nearing her. He tucked his head again and calculated. He had to make his mark. One foot to the left or right and he would miss her, and the princess would fall to her demise.

Two seconds passed and then he lifted up his face again. His aim was true. There she was, coming in close, but at too great a speed. He splayed his arms and legs again, the thick, black folds of his cotton gi fluttering like flags to slow him down.

He was right upon her. Fifteen feet. He was slowly spinning, and saw that she would pass just over his outstretched right hand. Ten feet. He reached, stretched, contorting himself. Five feet. Two. He stretched with all his might. He could almost barely reach her.

He HAD to reach her.

He did.

Seven's fingers wrapped around her ankle and gripped the thin appendage with all his might, allowing even injury to her if necessary.

He brought her in close, wrapped his arms around her little torso.

"Athedra!" he yelled, but she gave no response.

Her head was bobbing lifelessly.

They were spinning now, tumbling head over heels as the blurry earth flew up to meet them. Two thousand feet now, maybe less.

He ran his free hand over the harness of her parachute, inspecting it, making sure that it was tight around her. He tightened up a strap on her left leg and then wrapped his fingers around the silver ripcord. Gripping a low part of the harness with his other hand, he pulled the ripcord mightily.

The parachute inflated violently, pulling hard away from Seven, but he was able to hold on.

And just like that, the wind stopped screaming. The storm had ended, as they reached the next plateau.

Now the two survivors floated peacefully, coasting across the sky. A newfound hope allowed the guardian shadow to take a breath.

Seven looked up into the girl's face, which was hanging on her chest. She gave no sign of consciousness. He pulled himself up and found her wrist.

He found a heartbeat and gave a sigh of relief.

In the sky, toward the south, he spotted the little silver LPV. It was on a downward curve now, and he could see a line of smoke tracing its trajectory. He looked down and saw the earth below him. The swatches of color had turned into grassy fields and forests and patches of dry earth. Closer, he could see beige veins throughout - roads.

Seven started planning. What would they do when they reached the ground? They would have to move toward the LPV and Magda and the general - hoping they would be alive at all. He craned his neck to see exactly where the ship would land. He had to map a path.

And then he heard it - a familiar sound - a tear in fabric.

Seven's face bolted upward, his black eyes wide - and he found it. It was a tear between a row of lines and the canopy to which they were attached. Seven worried. It was a tiny tear, but it was an ancient cloth. He held his breath...and watched it.

In another second, there was another tearing as the gape grew up to about five inches, and then another, as it grew to about the length of Seven's arm. He knew it suddenly: it wasn't going to hold.

They would fall, and the princess would die.

And it would be his fault.

The young man made up his mind. He took a last look at the sleeping princess, his black, seal-eyes somber. It was a tragic thing. Despite his efforts, he had failed in his commission to protect her. He had failed the house of Goldenheart.

To the memory of his lord, Seven said, "Forgive me, my king," as he closed his eyes, and then let go.

The little princess remained unconscious, her head bobbing on her chest as the breeze blew through her soft hair. She floated safely across the sky, carried by a strong westerly wind...deep into the feline territories.

Seven plunged through the air, his body facing downward. He saw the earth rushing quickly up at him again, saw the greens and tans becoming clearer and clearer as he fell, saw the individual trees forming now, though tiny still. Then they began to be distinguishable one from another as they grew, and then their branches began appearing as he plummeted.

All he could hear was the screaming of the wind.

The princess was broken-hearted to hear what had happened to her friends. Her eyes were filled with deep compassion as she reached out to embrace Seven. "Oh, my Seven," she said softly, holding him. "I'm so sorry."

As she held him, she could see now the scars upon his neck. Now she knew why his left hand seemed to hang at an odd angle. "Now everything is clear to me. It all makes perfect sense." She shook her head, bearing the weight of his pain. "I'm sorry that you suffered so."

Seven only raised one shoulder. "I was broken," he said. "For years, I was...unwell..." He seemed to leave Athedra as his mind traveled to a painful place inside his memories. For a moment, he stared off into the dark space. "When I could walk again, I set out to find you. Though...I did not remember...anything. I did not remember until I saw you again with my own eyes."

Athedra wrapped her arms around him again, embracing him. "I never want to be apart from you again."
Chapter 22

'Of course Tusk is happy to assist her most valiant son,' Gonal was transmitting to Hutch's craniotol. 'I assure you a fleet of fighters and transports will be disembarking for your location this very hour.'

'Very good, sir!' Hutch sent happily. 'That's wonderful news!'

'Now, Captain. Surely you understand. We will not possibly arrive on time. Should they attack...'

'Uh, 'we,' sir? Do you mean you're coming also?'

'Oh, yes, old friend,' was the response. 'I wouldn't miss the opportunity!'

'Of course, Lum Ludor. Loma and I will be glad to receive you...if we're still alive...'

'In that case, Captain Hutch, I leave you now, in order to prepare.'

'Hope to see you soon, Lum Gonal.'

'Likewise.'

With that, there were a few blips and buzzes inside of Hutch's head. In another second, the transmission was severed.

It was early evening by now, and Hutch was leaning over the outward parapet, his arms splayed, his hands on the stones, his blue eyes squinting from the sunlight of a fat, orange sun dipping low over the horizon.

He looked out past the open field, into the vast canopy of thick jungle on the other side and found himself surprisingly unstirred. He looked toward the west now, his eyes searching, digging into the dark green expanse. He turned around, surveying, yet quite calm despite the approaching storm.

He could not remember why it was, but he felt absolutely no sense of emergency anymore. He rubbed his palm over the smooth golden surface of the dome atop his head. It felt soothing somehow. Above all, he felt as if he couldn't wait to see his eleman superior.

He put his hands on the short parapet before him again and closed his eyes for a nice, relaxing moment.

"How you feelin'?" came the sudden question, along with the sudden hard slap right on the center of his hat.

Hutch's head plunged into his shoulders as he grimaced hard in pain. "Ow!" he complained, turning around to find his father standing there.

"Quit yer cryin'!" said Maical.

Hutch frowned hard at him. "That hurt, Dad!"

"Still cryin'." The general circled around his son to come and stand beside him on the wall. "You always were a little bit of a cry-baby."

"Wonder why!" said Hutch, rubbing his head through the craniotol.

"Your momma was too sweet to you, that's why. She never let me slap you on the top of your head."

"Uh, change subject, please!"

Maical rolled his eyes and gathered up some spit. He shot it over the wall.

Hutch smirked. "Look, Dad. I know you're still mad at me about the past. But this is not the time - "

"Nah, I know," said Maical, putting up a surrendering palm. "I know. I'm not here to give you a hard time, kid." He took a deep breath. "I'm not even here as your father, Pol, I'm here as a fellow soldier on a shared mission. That's all."

Hutch agreed to a temporary truce with a nod.

"So, what do you think?" asked Maical. "You got any ideas?"

Hutch shrugged. "Doesn't look good."

Maical pulled his hands off the forward parapet and spun, looking inwardly, over the vast kennel complex below, seeing the freed men and women and children. They were smiling, working together, conversing merrily. The general crossed his arms on his chest as he leaned back against the wall. "You see any hope for us?"

Hutch turned to look at them as well. He shook his head. "Not really. Not for all of us. These people. They have a lot of hope. But it won't save them."

"They have more than that," Maical said. "They'll fight."

"Fight? Them? Sure. They'll fight, but they're weak. They're broken. They couldn't defend themselves against one feline clan. What makes you think they'll be able to hold against three or four of them?"

"Yeah. Well, it's a good thing we're got the great Pol Hutchinson here to help us figure it out."

Hutch searched his father's face with narrow eyes, to see if he was making fun of him.

"I mean it," Maical assured him. "What? You don't think we know about your exploits in our little village?"

"C'mon, Dad. I'm being serious."

"So am I! Look, son, I know I can be a real heal, but underneath all this meanness is a man who's really..." He was having a difficult time. "...really proud of his boy."

Hutch watched him, still unsure.

"My son," said Maical proudly, "the liberator of Koba Khan."

Now Hutch could see that he was being honest. He could have sworn he saw a glimmer of pride in his father's eye.

"You should have seen me brag about it, boy."

Hutch really wanted to believe it. "Yeah?"

Maical smiled and nodded. "Oh, yeah."

"Thank you, sir," Hutch finally said.

"Don't get me wrong, now," Maical said, recovering from the tender moment. "I'm still mad at ya, I'm just saying that I'm also proud of ya."

Hutch shrugged with just his face. "I can accept that."

"And if there's anyone that can figure a way out of his dilemma..." He slapped his son on his arm. "...it's you."

Hutch was truly touched. It showed on his face. He started reaching out to hug his father.

"Hey!" Maical complained, catching him. He shoved Hutch away. "What's your problem?" He brushed himself off.

"What the hell, dad?" Hutch demanded.

"What? What do you want from me, you little turkey?" And just like that, everything was back to normal again. "Just get to figuring, kid!"

"Fine!" Hutch said.

"Fine."

Still scowling, Hutch said, "Maybe just a little hug...?"

Maical grimaced. "No."

"...Little high-five? Pat on the back?"

"NO! None of that!"

"Fine!" Hutch said, crossing his arms on his chest.

"Fine. Just get to work."

Hutch shook his head at his father and then put his eyes back out toward the swarming crowds. It was back to business. "We'll need every able-bodied man and boy strong enough to fight," he said.

"They're already being gathered," said the general.

Out in the kennel city, men and large boys were filing along the walkways. Appointed leaders were separating them into groups.

Mothers were pulling their children toward themselves as the boys pulled away toward the ranks. They were weak, but they were hopeful, and they were ready to fight.

Hutch shook his head watching them. Some of them were so skinny, they were having trouble holding the spears and swords they'd been issued from Ruzil's armory. "They won't do."

"Yeah," agreed Maical, equally somber. "I know."

"And things are worse than having just an amateur army of weaklings. We also don't have much time to prepare them." Hutch turned around to show his father what he'd earlier detected. He pointed toward a tiny flame over the southern horizon. "See there?"

"What's that? A scout?"

"A scouting party, yeah."

"Well, at least they're not bright enough to hide their intentions."

"Right," said Hutch, surprised at his father's insight. He shot him an approving glance before he pointed to another spot. "There's another group there."

The general squinted. "I can't see them."

"Yeah, well. They're there, all right. One's a panther-like clan. And there's another one to the east." He dragged his pointing finger to another spot where there were tiny smokestacks rising from just behind the tree line. "Those are the tigs, led by Calico Criej, I'll bet. That's just the three that I can see."

"So there's gonna be a lot of them."

"Yep. Now, the good thing is that they're divided. They'll be uncoordinated, fighting against each other as well as against us. All each chieftain wants is the loot. We can use that to our advantage."

Maical was agreeing by nodding.

"Now, look, I contacted the lum ludor of Tusk. And even though..."

Maical was stunted. "Wait - what? You contacted Gonal? _Why_?"

Hutch was annoyed. "Because I was hoping he might be able to help us, Dad!"

"With what? Well wishes? He's two thousand miles away, at least!"

"Yeah, but..."

"Also, that dirty rat doesn't care about us! He'll probably send a fleet to finish us off!"

"C'mon, dad! Gonal is our friend!"

"Friend?! What friend?! Where was Gonal when Hearthstone was attacked? And come to think of it, where were you?"

"Dad! You said!"

But Maical didn't say anything else. He knew Hutch was right. He only scowled angrily and breathed hard through flaring nostrils.

Hutch was quiet. He waited until his father's anger had passed. "You said we weren't gonna talk about that," he finally complained.

"I know," Maical said. "I know." He finally let it go. "But Gonal is no friend to humans - I tell you that!"

"He's my friend, Dad," Hutch insisted, though tenderly. "And right now he's the only friend we've got."

Maical put his hands out on the parapet again, calming himself slowly. "Well, I don't trust him one bit."

Hutch nodded. "Well, don't worry. He won't show up on time for the party anyway." He nodded toward the south, indicating the feline gangs. "They'll attack at dawn."
Chapter 23

"Do you remember my father?" asked Athedra as she and Seven watched the fire crackling in the hearth. Early evening had come, shadows had grown, and the fire burned more brightly than before.

Seven nodded, yes. His eyes were sad and pensive.

Athedra noticed. She said, "You loved my father, didn't you?"

Seven only looked at her. Finally, he gave another gloomy affirmation.

"He had a beard, didn't he?" asked Athedra while stroking her chin. "Like a brown beard? I remember that."

Seven said, "When the queen allowed it," and managed a dim smile.

"Tell me something about him, will you? Something that you remember?"

Seven sat watching the fire for a while, the little yellow flames reflecting brightly in his black eyes. He said, "When I was about twelve years old or so, my master died. Ziophan was his name. He had trained me since birth, trained me in the guardian arts. He was the only father I had ever known."

Athedra could see the melancholy in his eyes.

"I was alone, then, in the world - a stranger among the unchanged - your people. Even Magda had not yet come to Heathstone. There were no others like me."

Athedra placed a palm on Seven's shoulder. It was like a rock.

"There was a small ceremony," Seven continued. "I remember standing next to the sepulcher. I felt so small...a strange and grotesque thing..."

Athedra was sad for him. She shook her head in silent disagreement.

"Your father came to stand behind me. Your mother, too. She held you in her arms. Your father put a palm upon my shoulder."

Athedra looked at her palm on Seven's shoulder.

Seven said with a heavy heart, "He said, 'I'm your father now, Seven.'"

Athedra asked, "He said that?"

Seven nodded. "He said, 'We are all your family. And you will never be alone.'"

Athedra smiled. She was renewed for just a moment. "Thank you for telling me that, Seven."

Seven was not so hopeful. He managed a weak smile, but only for her sake.

Athedra said, "Do you think I made a mistake, Seven? In returning here? Did I condemn my rescuers to die?"

Seven stood up all at once. He stepped away from her, out of her reach. He said, "You cannot ask me that!"

Athedra was greatly troubled. "Would my father be ashamed of me? For the decision that I made? I have to know!"

Seven only shook his head. "You cannot seek my counsel! That is not my place, your highness!"

"Why?" Athedra asked, quite concerned.

"My purpose is singular - your preservation! I am no one to advise you!"

"I make all my own decisions," Athedra concurred. "That's what they say, I know. But can't you even tell me what you think?"

Seven was stern. "It doesn't matter what I think. Please, don't ask me anymore."

Athedra was very troubled. Her heart weighed heavily. She felt the world upon her shoulders. "It is I then, who is all alone."

Seven could see, and though it was against all that he had ever known, he felt sorry for her. He could see her great distress. There was a light explosion in the fireplace as a pocket of oxygen lit up inside a log. "This one time, I will say," said Seven, though it seemed as if her were leading her into fire, "but never again."

Athedra said, "That's fair."

Seven took a deep breath, seeming to suck all the air into his powerful lindarian lungs, and then let it all out again slowly. He said, "I think..." He swallowed. "I think you did what your father would have done." He gave her his eyes when he added, "I think he would be very proud of you."

Athedra smiled widely, sighing also, relieved. She touched her fingertips to her chest. She didn't look at him when she said, "Thank you, Seven. That means the world to me."

He said, "You must not ask me anymore. Please."

Athedra said, "I understand."
Chapter 24

Hutch stood on the wall as the sun dipped into the earth. He'd seen the tiny fleck of brilliant orange light as it disappeared behind the southwesterly horizon. And now he could see the torchlights of the cat clans clearly. He could see that it was three campsites in total. It was more than he and his rabble would be able to handle. He sighed uneasily and closed his eyes, to rest them.

The storm would set down on them soon, and he didn't know if...

Suddenly, there was a ping inside his head. A show was coming on!

Hutch scooted back from the forward parapet and found a space on the bench to sit. He sat and closed his eyes to receive the full experience in his mind's eye. It would be a pleasant escape from the harsh reality he faced.

It was a chance to get away for just a bit - to forget about the troubles at hand. He leaned back in the seat as the display began inside his mind. He could see the cloud of information forming as the signal reached his brain: glimmering lights in motion, a deep and dark blue background. The capital letters of a title were just beginning to materialize.

"Captain?" called a voice. It was a feminine voice - a familiar voice.

It was Magda, but for the first time, Hutch was not entirely interested in her company. His priorities were temporarily disordered. He felt a soothing warmth coming over him as he sank further into his vegetative state.

"Hutch?" said Mada, surprised by his ignoring her.

But Hutch was no longer in the world. Before he knew it, he didn't care about the troubles surrounding him. He didn't care about anything but the entertainment he would soon receive. He was smiling as the fictitious figures started to materialize.

"Can you hear me?" Magda asked.

Inside the false world Hutch was entering, he heard her suddenly. He finally answered in a strange and fainted voice. "I'm sorry, Maggie. I'm kind of busy now..."

"Busy?"

"I've got a show coming on," said Hutch absently. "I'll get back to you right after..."

But Magda recognized the thing that was different from before. She narrowed her forest greens on the golden dome atop the captain's head. She knew more than most about the effects of the Tuskan craniotol - the device of cranial control.

And she wasn't going to have it.

In the dream state, Hutch suddenly felt a yank and all he saw was red. "Ow! What the -?" Coming back to reality, he saw Magda pulling off his craniotol. "Hey!" he complained as she wrestled with it, yanking his head powerfully to the right and to the left. "What are you doing?"

Magda said nothing, but only worked to pull off the contraption.

Sucking air through clenched teeth, Hutch put his fingers into the metallic buttons, releasing the synaptic contacts as she tore the hat right off his head. "Good grief! That hurts, you know!"

Magda didn't care. She threw the golden dome on the floor and started stomping on it, folding it in half and then smashing the halves mercilessly underfoot. The machine sent out sparks and whirs and complaining buzzes as it was destroyed.

"Oh, come on!" Hutch cried. "I need that thing!"

Magda said, "What we need is for you to focus right now, Pol Hutchinson!"

Hutch was holding his head, still reeling from the pain the disconnection caused him. "Yeah, but..."

"But nothing, Captain! This is no time for lollygagging. You can go back to playing with your little gadgets later. Right now we need you working on a plan to get us out of this."

Hutch thought better of it. "Yeah..." He gave a grimace. "Yeah, okay. You're right."

Magda was disappointed, shaking her head, her lips tightly pressed against each other. She started leaving, but first she said, "Besides. I'm not sharing your attention with some damned machine!"

It took a second or two for Hutch to find the implications of this message. Then his face lit up. "Oh, yeah?" he said, but Magda was already down the wall, and moving fast away from him, her long, lean legs carrying her swiftly. He got up and started after her. "Hey, Maggie! Hold on a sec! Can you say that one more time? About the 'attention?' - what?"

Magda stopped and spun around - her face showing the same, serious-business expression. "I said, stay focused, Captain," and then she disappeared into the staircase leading down.

Hutch took in a deep breath, renewed now, reinvigorated. "Hear that?" he asked nobody in particular. He turned back around and continued on toward the space that he'd inhabited atop the wall. "My attention, she said," he was mumbling to himself. "My attention!" He spun around as he stepped, with a great smile, checking the way she'd gone. He spun again and kept walking toward his perch, but now with a bit of music in his step. "Sounds like she's startin' to come around!"

The tigs were still setting up their encampment as the light of day faded from the sky. Torches barely lit up the intense darkness just inside the tree line as they worked - leather-clad engineers sauntering to and fro.

Within the command tent, their leader, Calico Criej was contemplating with his caporegimes. Now Criej was a deeply orange thing - a tiger-like with two rows of sharp little teeth and a deformed face: his left cheekbone was missing and the rest of his face came together to take up the space. It looked like he was receiving a hard punch at all times. He listened as his closest subordinate advised him.

"I tell you, we should strike now," urged his young cousin, Medunz, "while it is dark. While the humans are unprepared."

Another of Criej's cousins spoke up. "Yessss! Let us strike tonight, Calico!"

"Fools!" hissed Criej. "Our men have been racing for most of the day to get here! We will rest, and be upon their lawn at first light."

"Hell with protocol," insisted Medunz, "we are not the only ones. The panther-likes are setting up their camps just north of us..."

Calico was giving it some thought when he saw a young lion-like entering the tent. The little ears on the top of his round head poked up as the creature stepped through a lifted flap. "Well, well," he said, "What do we have here?"

It was young Zu-ril, the last of the Liu-Mok Six, easily recognizable by his grotesque mane. The son of Ruzil was being brought inside by Criej's armored guards. They held the slaver's elbows in gloved hands.

"Cousins!" said Zu ril heartily, as if no guards were holding him. "How glad I am that I have found you! A great terror is upon our lands!"

"'Cousins!'" said Criej. "He calls us 'cousins' now." He motioned for his guards to bring him into the torchlight. "How rich that you remember us now, Ga Ul! What we remember is the price-gouging of your precious slaves!"

"I am Zu r-r-r-ril!" corrected the lion-like.

Criej raised one ornate shoulder. "Whichever."

"Ga Ul is dead," Zu ril explained nevertheless. "He and the rest of my honorable brothers were murdered by a human assassin...and...and his many allies! There must have been a hundred of them!"

Criej shook his head. "Yes, we have heard of your...troubles of late."

There was a rumbling laughter from his caporegimes.

Zu ril was looking around at them. He didn't know if they believed him. "I for one am glad you have come. I welcome the help of our great countrymen! I knew the tigs would come to aid us with this human invasion!"

"Aid you," said Criej, his fangs glistening as he smiled. "Yes. Aid you...Tell me, son of Ruzil, how was it that you alone were able to escape this overwhelming ambush...?"

Zu ril searched along the grassy floor for answers. "I...uh...I fought them off...valiantly. They were so many...I..."

Criej put up a gloved paw for Zu ril to stop lying. "It matters not, young Zu r-r-r-ril. Not anymore. What matters now is...that you tell me everything...including all that you know about this...human princess..."
Chapter 25

In Liu Mok's bedchamber, Athedra was sitting on the bed, gazing unabashedly at her lindarian protector.

Seven wasn't looking back at her. His gaze was upon one of the wooden windowsills that lined the western wall. He was leaning against a chest of drawers with his arms crossed. He wasn't looking at Athedra, but he knew that she was looking at him, and by her breath - reflected on the acids in her stomach - he could scent what she was feeling.

Athedra asked him, "Will you hold me, Seven?"

He answered plainly, "No."

The churning in her stomach told him she was nervous. That there was something she'd been wanting to communicate.

She raised her narrow shoulders and innocently asked, "Why?"

Seven said, "cannot."

Athedra pressed. "But...why?"

Seven finally looked at her. "No unnecessary physical contact," he cited from his oath. "You know that."

Athedra pressed her thin lips together. "Yeah, I know. It's just...I don't see why."

Seven shook his head. "Oath is why." He found a hair on his left sleeve and picked it off. "My oath is everything."

Athedra said, "Yeah." It seemed that she would give it up. But then she said, "at least sit here with me," while patting the space beside her on the bed.

Seven only shook his head. His eyes were to the window again.

"How can you be so cold?" she asked, hurt. "Don't you have any feelings for me?" It began to worry her, and it showed on her face. "Did you not miss me also?"

Seven didn't seem to understand.

She tried to clarify: "...like I missed you?"

Seven answered in the most effective way he knew: "...to neither love nor be loved..."

"Oh, I know your oath...!"

"...until I am released...or your army replace me." Then he looked into her grey eyes and repeated for her, "Oath."

Athedra had an idea: "Then we'll have a ceremony!" The idea excited her. "I'll release you!"

Seven was distraught. "You cannot!"

"I can. I have the right."

Seven was becoming frustrated. "Why would you do such a thing?!"

"Why will you not hold me?" she demanded.

"I know where is your heart!" Seven revealed.

"Yes," Athedra admitted. "My heart is with you! Where is yours?"

"What you want is unnatural!" said Seven. "Forbidden!"

Athedra was frustrated and pouted childishly. She said resolutely, "Then we will have the ceremony of release."

Seven shouted, "Then I will go away!"

Athedra's heart was breaking. "You would abandon me in this?"

"You will destroy my honor," he explained.

"Hell with your honor!" Athedra slid out of the bed and stood. She came to him and took his hand, placed the heavy palm on her humble chest. "There is something here, Seven, between us, and you know it! I saw it in your eyes out there, when we first saw each other, after all these years. It is in my heart now and you can feel it! Don't deny it!"

Seven slid his hand out from underneath hers and looked away.

Athedra looked like she would cry. "Am I so hideous?"

Seven hissed angrily, "You are so beautiful!"

Athedra was taken aback. She had not expected such a revelation. Her head shook without her shaking it as she took one step back. She turned around, her mind reeling. Inside, she was ecstatic, but she didn't know what to say. The words lingered in the air as she basked in them.

Seven was quite disappointed in himself. He put his black eyes to the floor, his heart heavy and greatly troubled. "You weren't supposed to be," he said.

Athedra spun around again. "I - "

"NO!" said Seven, stopping her from uttering anything else. He didn't want her to say anything at all. Any one word would tear his honor to shreds. "Please," he said. "Please leave this alone!"

In that instant, there came a knock at the door. The hinges creaked as the heavy wooden panel was pushed inward. "Theeds?" called Magda, her slender fingers appearing over the dark planks. "Are you awake?"

Athedra was beaming as she turned toward the voice. "I'm here, Magda. I'm with my Seven!"

The door pushed in the rest of the way as Magda stepped through it. "But baby, you need to be sleeping," she said as she came into the room.

As the bed with its high posts and drapes came into view, Magda only saw Athedra standing next to the bed. Magda's chin panned left as she stuck out her lower lip. "I see nobody but you, hon."

"I know," said Athedra. Her face was glowing like the sun.

Magda turned a cheek, suspicious of her. "What is it?" she asked naughtily.

Athedra bashfully answered, "Nothing."

"All right, fine," said Magda. "Keep your secrets." She motioned with her head behind her. "They're ready for you."
Chapter 26

Athedra followed Magda into one of the smaller bedchambers of the keep, which had been transformed into a makeshift war room. There were rudimentary maps on the walls and upon the structure that had been the bed was a model of the compound, made of sticks and stones and straw and clay.

Around the room, there were rows of weapons stacked against the furniture and walls - bows and quivers and spears, along with different types of old and beaten swords. There were freed slaves in makeshift, wooden armor, both boys and men, and even some women. They were all waiting for Athedra.

The captain was there, standing near the far wall and pointing at a spot on a map as he conversed with Jerob and the general and Loma. The sleeves of his jump suit were rolled up to his elbows and his sandy hair was disheveled as his uniform. He stopped and turned when he saw Athedra entering.

Hutch said, "We need to talk about this," as the others there stood for the princess.

"Of course, Captain," Athedra answered as she was led to a nearby chair. She waved the others to sit. "I am eagerly awaiting your plan."

When she sat, the others sat also.

"Now look," Hutch said, "we can see that one of the Liu Mok Six survived. I believe it was..." He looked over at Jerob for help. "Zu-...Zu-...?"

"Zu-ril," Jerob filled in, nodding.

"...Zu-ril," Hutch chimed, "that survived. And he's out there. Looks like he plans to help the tigs, which are..." His fingers traced along the map until they drew a circle around a space in dark green. "Here."

"How can you tell that?" asked Magda.

Hutch half-complained, "Well, by use of the magnifier on my formerly-operational craniotol." He added with a smirk, "Pretty useful device in a spot like this."

Magda stretched her lips into an apologetic frown.

Hutch moved on. "What that means is that they definitely know what we have here." He indicated Athedra with his chin. "One princess of Goldenheart is worth ten mansions, and they know it, even if Ruzil himself was too stupid to see."

All eyes turned to Athedra.

Gentia's eyes gleamed at her friend.

"It also means they know all there is to know about the compound...its layout...its weaknesses...strengths...the weapons we have. They know about the number of men and boys willing to fight with us...they know just about everything that we do." Hutch looked around at the gloom in the faces of the slaves that were now fighters. "Puts us at a particular disadvantage."

Athedra was troubled by the news. Her brows were furrowed close together.

"Is there any good news?" asked Magda.

"No," said Hutch frankly. "In fact, I'm not finished with the bad. There are multiple clans that are already encamped across the field out front. The tigs are here," he said, pointing to the circle he'd made. "But there's also the panther-likes. There's two of them. They're here, I think." He pointed to another spot. "And also here. Now these panther-likes are small creatures - only about four feet tall on the average, but they're ruthless and quick. They'll be the least coordinated, but they are fierce little bastards."

There were groans in the former slaves. They were looking at each other with terror in their eyes.

"And that's not all of 'em," Hutch continued. "There are more encampments out there that we just cannot detect. Our only hope is that they'll be coming at us from different angles and at different times, fighting each other as well as us."

There were more sounds of gloom from the soldiers.

"Now," Hutch said, "unfortunately, we're pretty much out of ammo, me 'n Loma. I've only got twenty shots left in mine. Loma Don has another five or so from his light cannon...it won't be enough."

"What about the airship?" asked Jerob. "Can't it help us?"

Both Hutch and Loma shook their heads.

"It's not a fighter," Hutch said. "She's just a big ole' boat."

Loma added, "It has no weapons."

"But it is included in our plan," Hutch added. "We'll come to that."

Athedra asked meekly, "What do we do?"

Hutch took a breath. "Well...They won't attack at night, I don't think, even though it would be to their advantage. Only reason they won't is the fact that they've come so far to get here. They'll be tired, and they'll probably wait until morning." He sauntered as he spoke toward the model of the compound. "The tigs will be the first and the greatest of them - probably a couple hundred - maybe less. I'm not sure." He pointed to an empty space before the front gates of the little model. "They'll have their tents set up here before the dawn."

He looked around the room at the frightened faces. "We'll need to be ready by then, to put our plan into action."

Athedra asked, "and what is that plan?"

Hutch took another breath. "You're not gonna like it."

All of them were waiting.

"The princess, as well as the elderly...the women...and the children...will all need to go into hiding, to give us the best chance possible. The rest of us...will stay and fight."

"Where can we hide them?" asked Jerob. "In the dungeons?"

"No," Hutch answered, shaking his head. "That's the first place they'll look. The safest place for the princess is not in the dungeons. It's not in the yard. It's not in the compound at all. The safest place for her is the last place they would expect to find her." He pointed out into the wild. "It's out there."

Magda went to a long vertical window in the wall. She looked out into the dense, dark greenery. "Out there?"

"There's a small tower up a ways, toward the north, where we landed the LPV. It used to be a little fort. It's a place where we can stick 'er."

"I will not..." Athedra started.

"I know, I know," said Hutch with his hands up in mock surrender. "You're not abandoning anybody, kid. The elderly, women and children will all go with you. Just the men and boys will stay to help us."

"It's dangerous out there," said Jerob. "They told us stories about the dangers beyond the walls."

"Well, they were right about that," Hutch agreed, nodding. "You'll get no argument from me. The princess and all will be in a tight spot. Without ole' black-eyes around, it would be a different story, but since we have the guardian shadow...we know she'll be protected." He looked around for approval from Seven. "Right? Where is he?"

Seven made himself visible, emerging from the shadows behind him.

"Sheesh!" said Hutch. "You scare the cheese outta me, kid! Anyway, am I not right? Won't she be safe out there with you?"

Seven nodded.

"Then again," he said. "If you wanted...we sure could use your help here..."

Maical spoke up. "The guardian shadow doesn't leave our lady's side. That's the way it is, Captain."

"Okay," said Magda, "and then what?"

"Well..." Hutch started walking about, stretching his legs. "Then we fight."

"Against all three of the cat clans?"

Hutch shrugged. "Three if we're lucky. But, yes. 'Cause even a little mouse can eat a whole cow, if it eats a little at a time."

"What do you mean?" asked Athedra.

"I mean if we can divvy 'em up, we have a chance. First we'll have to split up the biggest of them - the tigs. If we can best them early in the day, then we have a chance to hold off the rest. If we can't, then we'll be faced with all of 'em at once."

"That we could not survive," said Maical.

"That's right. So our first and greatest challenge is to split up the largest army. That's our first goal."

"But, Captain," said Magda. "Why would the tiger-likes divide their forces?"

Hutch cocked his head. "Because they're stupid."

Magda only smirked at him.

"Okay...because I have a plan to do just that."

"All right," said Maical, "let's hear it."
Chapter 27

Hutch woke up with a bang - shooting all the way up into a sitting position. His arms were out and all around him, examining his surroundings as he came to. He rubbed his eyes, coming to find himself on Ruzil's throne again.

"You all right?" asked Magda before he knew where she was.

He swung his legs off of the arm rest and set his feet on the floor as he looked around to find her approaching with a steaming cup. "Hey, beautiful," he said and then began to scratch his side. His hair was plastered to one side.

"Cup of coffee?" asked Magda, holding out the cup for him.

Hutch took it gladly, his mouth watering as he felt the heat in his hands. "Thank you, sweetheart."

"Who the hell can sleep at a time like this?" asked Maical from a window that faced forward from the compound.

Hutch turned to find the general at the window next to Loma. The two were watching the activity out on the front lawn.

Loma volunteered, "He once took a nap during combat!"

Maical shook his head in shame. "You wanna get up here?" he asked his son.

Hutch lamented quietly with Magda while he sipped his coffee. "Why couldn't we have met under different circumstances? I'd make you my ten o'clock each night."

Magda stopped smiling. "I'm not a time-frame, Pol Hutchinson."

"No, I know. It's just..."

Magda stopped him with a palm. "We know all about the promiscuous mating patterns of Tusk, Captain."

Hutch felt stupid for saying it. "I..."

Magda said, "Hey, forget it." She gave him a sad smile. "We need you focused, Hutch." She nodded at the others. "You better get up there."

Hutch stood up, stretched his arms up over his head. He stretched to one side with light jerks and then to the other side as well before taking up his cup again.

"Hey!" Maical called impatiently.

"I'm coming," answered Hutch as he began to make his way to the window. En route, he downed the entire cup of coffee before setting it down on a little table. He let out a belch.

He climbed onto the platform and squeezed between his father and Loma, looking out the window to find the tig tents set up out front, just like he'd predicted. From here there could be seen a sea of orange and white fur as the tiger-like troops filed out in ranks beside a huge, eggshell tent. There was an orange flag flapping in the wind over it, indicating the leader of the outfit. Below it, there was a small white flag, indicating a desire to communicate.

"Just like you said, Captain," Jerob mused.

Hutch asked, "How long have they been here?"

"It was still dark when they started," Maical reported. "Maybe an hour and a half." The morning sun-beams were breaking through the window and ignited his one pale blue eye.

"'Bout an hour and a half," Loma concurred.

Hutch looked around in the large throne room, seeing all the refugees-turned soldiers. Most of them were covered in the leather armor of their former captors. Some were holding shields and swords. Some of them were holding spears. They didn't look as weak and malnourished as the night before, but they also didn't look much better. "The troops look ready," he said nevertheless.

Loma said, "We're all ready, sir," as he worked to fasten one of the straps on his laser pack.

"You know, Captain Hutchinson," said Magda from the floor.

" - just Hutch - "

Magda said, "Sometimes...it's helpful to say something positive in this moment." She looked around at the volunteers from the slave kennels. They were ready but she could see the fear in their eyes. "Maybe you could give some words of hope."

Hutch said, "Hope?" He looked like he was going to laugh but didn't after all when he saw she wasn't joking.

"Yeah," Magda said. "Like a pep-talk."

"A pep talk? You want a pep talk?" He looked at the rabble of volunteers, at his makeshift army. Some of them were not strong enough to carry the weight of their own weapons, but they were all listening intently. He shrugged and said for all to hear, "We're all gonna die here!"

There were groans and moaning in the ranks.

Maical frowned and rubbed his forehead disappointedly.

Hutch paced out over the platform beside the window. "I'm serious," he continued. "We're all gonna die. There's no hope for us at all - maybe a tiny little sliver of a chance that some will survive, but that's it." He dragged a thumb across his neck to indicate how it would end. "Look, we made our choice to stay here. We could have run, but we didn't, and here we are. That's all there is. Stick to the plan and do your best, but don't hold out a hope. Accept it - you're probably gonna die here today."

The gaunt faces of the slaves seemed to grow more gaunt at such a grim prediction.

Under her breath, Magda said, "worst pep talk I've ever heard!"

Loma trumpeted his accord.

A moment of perfect silence passed as they Hutch's words hung heavily in the air.

"Well," Maical said, "them cats ain't gonna kill themselves. We'd better get out there."

"Agreed," said Hutch. He whistled above for the main gates to be opened, the way he had arranged it, signaling the plan into motion. He chinned up to his father as he began to make his way out into the morning light. "C'mon, Dad," he said. "It's show time."

As the two crossed over the threshold, exiting the building, Maical turned to find Magda and stood looking at her for a minute. "You've been a daughter to me, Maggie," he told her wholeheartedly. "It's been an honor to serve with you."

Maggie stepped toward him, her heart heavy in her chest. She had been under the wing of the general since she'd come to Hearthstone. She straightened her lean form into the position of attention and lifted a salute. "General," she said. And then she added, "father!" with tears welling in her eyes.

Maical turned all the way around to face her and stood at attention for her, also. He gave her a swift salute before he dropped it, and then turned around.

Hutch said, "c'mon, Dad," and the two proceeded to the drawbridge.
Chapter 28

Maical and Hutch stood outside the flagged canvas tent, waiting with two tigs in fancy, ceremonial armor made mostly of metallic plates. The felines stared at the men, holding long spears upright.

"You guys look real fancy," Hutch commented to their stolid faces. He had his hands in his pockets and then gave a long yawn as he repositioned his feet on the grass.

The thick flaps of the tent fluttered in the morning breeze, as did the many flames atop black torches that were set up all around the temporary shelter. The fires whirred noisily in the wind.

In a minute, the flap entrance was lifted by an unseen force and one of the guards stood aside to let the humans pass. "You may enter," he announced.

As the two men entered the dark, torch-lit space, they saw more cats in fancy plate armor. There were human slaves serving a group of them that were eating at a table.

Following their escort, they came to stand before a portable throne, surrounded by more felines, also dressed in shiny metallic armor. There was also a young lion-like whose own dress was quite drab compared to all the others.

Noticing him, Hutch looked at his father, who nodded back at him.

Yes.

It was Zu ril.

The orange-white feline on the throne had a beaten face and was drinking from a goblet of carved iron when the men came into view. He raised it to his human guests. "Greetings, humans," said Calico Criej.

Maical's good eye narrowed. "Criej!" he said with a bad taste in his mouth.

Criej's lime-green eyes lit up as he recognized an old foe. The small, pointed ears on the sides of his head stood up and pointed forward. "Meega Ill," he said, "You old cockroach! You're still alive?"

Hutch interrupted. "You two flirt later! We have business to discuss."

Criej's slit eyes narrowed at Hutch with great disgust. "Business," he repeated with a sneer. "Is that what you call it? Yes, then. Quite."

"Well, you're the one with the white flag," Hutch said. "What did you want to talk about?"

The feline threw the goblet aside angrily. "Your surrender!" he shouted, sliding forward in his chair. "That is all. There'll be no bargaining! Otherwise what do you have to offer me?" He gave Hutch a looking-over. "Furthermore who is this boy that speaks with me? Looking so plain and disheveled...like a reject of the Tuskan army!" He laughed wholeheartedly but his eyes were not laughing.

His caporegimes laughed as well.

Hutch looked around at all of them. "Well, you are a laughy bunch!"

Maical said, "This is Pol Hutchinso..."

"Just Hutch," said Pol as he straightened out his laser pack on his back. "You can call me 'Hutch.'"

"And why pray tell," Criej said, "would I call you...?"

More laughter from the clowder.

"'cause I'm the one you're dealin' with," Hutch snapped.

Now Criej growled more loudly, more deeply. His troops were quiet.

"Now, look," said Hutch. "All we want is to go."

Maical was confused. "What?"

"That's all," Hutch said. "That's our offer. You can have everything - the slaves - the palace. Everything. We just want out."

"What are you talking about, Pol?" asked Maical.

Hutch waved a hand for his father to be quiet, but kept his eyes on the cat leader. "You got about fifty-sixty men in there, half-starved and never held a weapon in their lives. Easy peasy. I'll tell you where the weak points are - the strong points. The plan they're gonna follow. Everything."

Maical was beside himself. "What the hell do you think you're doing, boy?"

"There's a lindarian woman in there, too," Hutch pushed on. "I keep her. And we three go. You can just roll your army right in there. You're what - about two hundred troops? Piece o' cake."

Criej put his white paws on the arms of the makeshift throne and slowly stood, towering over the others. He looked amused. He stepped down from the raised platform on steel, segmented toe-boots and clasped his claws behind his armored back as he paced. He was deep in thought. "You think you're very clever, don't you, boy?" said Criej. He turned to his closest subordinate. "You see, Medunz, the trickery of these creatures? The cowardice!"

Medunz chinned up his concurrence, but wouldn't take his eyes off Hutch. He couldn't wait to run him through.

Hutch said, "Wait. What's your name?"

"Meduuuunz," hissed the feline warrior.

Hutch guffawed as he elbowed his father. "'Mittens!'" he said. "Cat's name is 'Mittens!' Now that's hilarious!"

Now Criej stopped pacing and glared at the captain. "Don't think for one second that I don't know what you have in there, human!"

Hutch stopped laughing and glanced at the suddenly uncomfortable general.

"That's right," said Criej. "Cr-r-r-riej knows!" He paced all the way toward the pair of men and then turned and paced the other way as he spoke. "They say the last of the Goldenheart bloodline lies within the palace. The desire of Avia..." He spun around to face them. "The product of Manson!"

"No!" Maical lied. "There's no such thing. My lord and all his bloodline were erased at the fall of Hearthstone. Everybody knows that!"

Hutch only stared at the menacing feline don, whose slit eyes were locked on his. Finally he nodded his confession.

Maical put his hands on Hutch angrily. "Damn you, boy! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Surviving, General!" said Hutch, "what else?!" To Criej he said, "She lives. It's true."

Criej was nodding with a wide, evil grin. "R-r-r-ruzil was too stupid to see what he had, but I am not."

Zu ril spoke up. "I will not allow you to speak of my father..."

"Quiet, fool!" shouted Criej, sliding his scimitar all the way out of its scabbard, "or I'll run you through!"

His troops put hands on the young lion. One of them held Zu-ril by his mane.

"Now," continued Criej, "you, Hutch, will bring me the human princess!"

Hutch was biting his lip but finally spoke up. "She isn't in there," he confessed.

Maical groaned loudly.

Hutch shot a guilty but resolute glance at his father.

Maical said, "Don't you dare!"

"Don't do what, dad?" said Hutch. "Don't survive? You wanna die here? Die! Me, I'm bargaining." He stepped toward the feline don.

Criej's guards quickly closed the distance to block him from reaching him.

"I have a thing of value," Hutch said. "The location of the princess. You have a thing of value: our lives. Do you want to make a deal or not?"

Maical was adamant. "Don't you tell him, you little son-of-a-bitch!"

But Criej had picked up on something. His eyes were slits. "Dad?" he said, musing. His slit pupils looked from one human face to the other, then back to the first. "Dad. Yes, I see." This gave Criej a streak of joy and now his eyes lit up. "There is a resemblance." He drew his sword again and brought it to Maical's throat.

Maical straightened out his neck and swallowed.

"Now," Criej said, "where is she...boy?"

"I will never forgive you," said the general to his son. Then added, "...traitor!"

"Oh, pipe down, dad!" Hutch said. "You really thought this was gonna work out somehow? Fight off all the cat armies and go home? You really thought we'd all be back in Tusk eating cake and celebrating? Don't be an idiot!" To Criej, he said, "Now look, you want the princess, you gotta guarantee our lives. Otherwise, no deal!"

Criej replied, "You think you can make demands of me, human?" He drew a line of blood from his father's throat.

"Kill him and you don't get the girl!" Hutch shouted. "It's that simple!"

Criej stopped. He gave it some thought. He was eager to slaughter the infamous human general, but he was also wise enough to hold. He digressed, pulling the blade from Maical's neck. He replaced the broad blade into its decorative golden scabbard. "Very well, human," he said at last. "You will live."

"Good," said Hutch. He shook a shoulder free of a cat's claws, which had snuck up behind him in the commotion. "Now look, if you think you're just gonna go crawl up and snag the little princess, you're crazy."

Criej was interested. "What do you mean?"

"You ever heard of a guardian shadow?"

Maical said, "You little bastard!" as he reached out to choke Hutch now. He wasn't holding back anymore. He clasped Hutch's neck in his strong hands.

Criej's men leapt forward, securing the general.

"I seen that kid chop down the Liu Mok Six like they were cacti!" Hutch said. "You're no match for him!"

"Lies!" cried Zu-ril. "All lies!"

"Not with all your men can you compete with that crazy little dude!" Hutch explained. "You n' Mittens here don't stand a chance."

Maical was struggling against his captors. "I'll kill you, boy!"

He pulled one of the cats restraining him over his head and threw him down. He drew a blade from his pants and was going to stab down before two other felines tackled him. One of them drew his own scimitar.

But as the sword began to come down on Maical, there was a flash of blinding blue light. The beam struck the metal-clad feline and threw him backwards. The cat landed with a thud upon the grassy floor, lifeless.

Another flash of blue light emitted from Hutch's weapon, striking another guard in his steel cuirass. The feline flew into the air as well.

Hutch pointed his pistol at more attacking guards, but now there were too many. They were too fast, too, pinning the captain to the ground swiftly.

"Bind them!" commanded Criej.

The two men were thrown together on the grass.

Criej said, "Bring me the weapon."

Zu ril approached. "Sit him up," he commanded, and one of the guards lifted Hutch onto his haunches. The lion-like worked to wrestle the laser pack off his back, pulling the tethered pistol with it. He lifted the entire contraption and examined it before he began to strap it on himself.

At once, Medunz was upon him, the blade of his sword across Zu ril's neck. "Don't...even think about it!"

The young lion gave up the weapon.

Hutch was struggling. "Give it back!" The feline holding him, popped him on his mouth and it drew blood.

Criej's eyes lit up as he received the technological wonder. He weighed it in his rough paws, his metallic armor jingling. "Put it on me," he commanded Medunz.

Medunz did as he was told, positioning himself behind the cat king pin and strapping the weapon onto him. Criej grasped the hanging pistol and pointed it around at his men, each bowing out of his line of fire as he laughed. He pointed it at a lamp nearby and squeezed out a round, sending the blue light into it, blowing the device over instantly, and drawing more merriment from the cat.

"So..." he said, his eyes gleaming. "This is the great tech-no-logy of humans! A weapon of light! Excellent!"

Sulking, Hutch admitted, "It's all right..."

Criej paraded around, pointing the weapon here and there. He turned it on two felines standing close to the main tent flap and shot one of them. The creature went to the ground in a heap. "EXCELLENT!" he cried happily. He shot the other one, too, and he also fell to the ground beside his fellow guard. "I AM INVINCIBLE!" cried Criej, holding the pistol overhead. "Now, show me this...lindarian...I doubt he'll be much of a match against this!"

"What have you done, you fool?" cried Maical to his son.

Reeling with power, Criej pointed the weapon at the general. "And now, to deal with the great Sentinel of Hearthstone!" He shot, blasting blue light into Maical's chest and sending him back along the grass, his limbs limply flopping as he tumbled.

"DAAAAD!!" screamed Hutch as he watched his father. He tried to go to him, but the cats held him in place. At Criej he screamed, "YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH!!"

Criej focused his joyous evil on Hutch once again. He came to him and squatted down, bringing his deformed face down to the captain's. "Now...you will lead me to the human princess," he hissed, "or you will join your... _dad_...!"

Hutch was crying as the cats began to drag him out and past his father's body in the grass. He struggled but could not get loose. "Dad," he said. "Daad!!"

Criej said to Medunz beside him: "You will take Zu ril into the compound, where there will be only starving human slaves to conquer. It should be an easy win. I will take some of our men and retrieve the prize of Malegus!"

"Yes, cousin," said Medunz. "And Ruzil?" he asked. "Am I to release the lion king?"

"Release him?" retorted Criej. "Why would we do that? My cousin," he said, putting a metal glove on the young feline's shoulder. "We didn't come here to rescue anybody. If Ruzil lives, leave him bound wherever they have him." He motioned at Zu ril, who was exiting with Hutch and some feline soldiers. "And put his son in with him."

"And if he's dead?" questioned Medunz.

Criej said, "Well...Every son must join his father. Kill him, too, along with all his men."

"Yes, cousin."

Criej said, "This is a time of great benefit, my cub!"

"Yes," answered the young feline.

"I am going to be rich beyond my greatest dreams!"
Chapter 29

Magda and Jerob were waiting atop the forward wall, peering out over the parapet at the eggshell tents across the drawbridge. They were waiting for their sign.

"It's been a while," said Jerob.

Magda agreed with a nod. She was holding a flaming torch in her hand.

"I hope they're all right," he said.

"They're all right," Magda reassured him, although she wasn't sure herself. They'd heard the unmistakable but faint commotion and shouting from within the bivouac.

The panels of the tents blew in the breeze now, flapping carelessly. Shadows shrank from the grassy floor as morning passed. But nobody emerged.

Finally, trumpets started sounding, and now two armored felines exited the front of the tent. They were finely dressed guards. One of them held out the flap as a third feline emerged from between them - it was Medunz.

Medunz stood looking at the compound for a moment - his striped tail wagging left and right behind his armor - before he started circling around the tent toward the rear, where the files of tig soldiers were waiting.

Magda could hear them being called to attention. She could hear orders being given, and the unit started to divide. The two forward ranks began to slide toward the right as the other three marched in place and chanted.

Magda looked at Jerob. "Here we go," she said.

Jerob nodded back at her. He choked up his grip on the feline bow in his hands.

Magda looked left along the wall at her many archers looking back at her. She nodded at them to be ready.

They nodded back.

The file of archers to the right nodded at her, also.

All were ready.

"There's the captain," said Jerob, as Hutch emerged now from the tent.

Magda let out a breath of relief as she saw him. She made sure that Jerob didn't see her expression.

As they looked on, a group of felines slid out also from the tent, and came to surround the captain. In a little while, the group began to circle to the rear as well.

"Where's the general?" asked Jerob.

Magda answered by shaking her head and frowning. She didn't know.

The small detail of felines and Hutch soon joined the ranks of felines that had separated, and then the whole unit started moving out toward the north, into the bush.

"There they go," said Jerob, surprised, seeing the two groups of feline soldiers separating. "I'll be dern. He really did split them up!"

Magda managed a smile and said, "He'll surprise ya, that guy."

The remaining ranks of felines marched on orders toward the compound. They soon were forming up in front of the bridge. Their archers came out along the sides in an attack formation.

Jerob could hear the feline sergeants screeching and roaring their commands. "There's Zu ril," he said, noticing the lion-like among them. There was dread upon his face. "He was particularly ruthless. The others might be afraid of him, for his ruthlessness."

Magda watched the lion-like with narrow eyes as he and Medunz conversed out of earshot. "Did he hurt the princess?" she asked Jerob.

Jerob swallowed before he finally admitted, "He whipped her. He was a punisher." He seemed to look into dark memories when he added, "He whipped us all."

Magda almost growled when she said, "you leave that one to me."

"But," Jerob protested, "the plan..." but when he saw the fury in Magda's eyes, he digressed. He said, "Okay."

As the moments passed, the feline soldiers started to prepare for their attack, straightening out their armor, brandishing their weapons. Jerob wanted to confess. "I should tell you...I...I've never held a weapon..." He was apologetic. "I'm not afraid. I will fight - I _want_ to fight. But...I was a farmer when they took me..."

Magda patted him on his back. "Hey...just do everything like we taught you, okay?"

Jerob nodded dutifully. "Yes, ma'am."

"It's okay, Jerob," she assured him. "Just follow my lead."

Jerob said, "We're all gonna die here anyway, right? What's there to be afraid of now?" He meant it.

Hearing his words, Magda realized suddenly the genius of Hutch's speech. She wondered as she took a second look at all the slaves-turned-soldiers. She noticed now. They weren't afraid. They didn't know what they were doing, but they weren't afraid because they expected to die. "Yeah," she agreed with Jerob. "We're all gonna die here anyway."

Jerob drew an arrow from the quiver on his back and positioned it on his weapon as the cats stepped onto the bridge. "I'm ready, Ms. Magda," he reported.

Magda stood up as the felines started filing forward. "Ready on the firing line!" she yelled at all her troops as she raised the flaming torch over her head.

The crude soldiers within earshot all repeated it as they'd been trained: "Ready on the firing line!!"

All around her, starving slaves readied their bows and arrows.

As the cats began to slither over the bridge, she watched them, unmoving, holding up her torch steady. She was waiting for the opportune moment. Then, when the felines were halfway over to them, she dropped the torch as she cried out, "Open fire!"
Chapter 30

The refugees were tired as they traversed the wilderness, having exited the compound through the north gate since long before the dawn, but their bellies were full and they were hopeful.

There were two carts among the travelers - old wooden contraptions with huge wheels on the sides. One of the carts was for the infirmed and the elderly, and the other one was for the infants.

Athedra was helping to push the cart carrying the infirmed. Her feet dug into the mud as she heaved ever forward along with the others. She'd been heaving the entire time.

"My lady, please," begged Agara from inside the wooden carriage, "Please let me walk. I am ashamed to be carried by you."

Athedra wiped sweat from her brow before replacing her hand on the worn wood again. "I told you 'no,'" she said, managing a smile. "And stop worrying. Sleep."

There were many others on the cart, and there were many others pushing. The faces of the sick and elderly weren't sleeping, though. Every single one of them was awake, and watching the princess as she worked.

"She carries us," another woman said, "when we should carry her."

"Yes," agreed an old man with a bandage on his head.

The tall woman from the kennel was pushing the cart on Athedra's left hand side. "Let's carry her!" she shouted for all to hear. "We should carry the princess!"

There were affirmations in the crowd.

As if the weight of the infirmed were not enough of a burden for Athedra, she also had Butpe tugging at the hem of her new dress as she pulled forward. He was all but attached to her, stepping into every indentation Athedra's feet made in the mud.

Athedra didn't complain. She said, "Nobody will carry me. I am young and I am strong."

Soon the jungle started thinning as the group travelled northward, and a large, open field appeared ahead.

"There is the meadow!" someone shouted.

They were close.

All eyes went to the tops of the trees across the field, searching for the remnants of an ancient tower as the others had described. There, they would find the LPV and shelter.

But as they searched, they found no red brick structure. They saw no shining metal from any ship.

"I don't see anything," said the tall woman.

Agara suggested, "They betrayed us?"

"No," Athedra said. "It'll be there."

"We've seen no other field," said someone else - a young man. "We followed the Daro, like they said. We kept it on our right, just like they said!"

Far away over their right shoulders, in the sky, there could be seen the faintest trace of the Daro, that strange mountain that stuck up like a thumb. It was barely perceptible.

Athedra knew better. "'There will be a creek,'" they said," she reminded them. "That's the first thing we'll see after the field. And then the tower. Remember?"

Gentia said, "I scent water!" She stopped walking and closed her eyes as she rushed air into her lungs through gaping nostrils. It seemed to take a whole minute. "Running water!" she confirmed excitedly.

"Are you sure, child?" asked Agara.

Gentia nodded vigorously. "Yessss!" and then started running forward.

"Don't go too far!" said Athedra as the little lindarian ran out of sight.

The princess stopped for a moment, winded, and put her hands on her back as she rested and stretched. She was glad to hear that they were close. She peered into the trees as the others tracked ahead, into the dark shadows, looking for him. It had been a while since Seven had appeared.

She felt a tug and looked down to find another set of eyes just as black.

Butpe was wondering when they were going to catch up to the others, made evident by his pointing forward and tugging on her hem.

"All right, all right," Athedra said, then reached down to scoop the boy into her arms as she started travelling again.

He asked her, "Do you love him?"

Athedra was shocked to hear the boy say anything. "Butpe? I didn't know that you could speak!"

Butpe said, "I think you do."

Athedra smiled down into his deep black eyes.

He said, "He loves you, too."

"Yeah?" Athedra asked as she walked. Now she looked forward, so that she could see where they were going, and had to duck beneath a branch.

"He thinks you are beauuuuutiful," Butpe whispered.

She said playfully, "Oh, he does, does he? And how do you know that?"

Now Butpe was quiet again, closing his eyes and smiling coyly. He refused to answer, but only tucked his face into the crook of her arm.

"Bupte, get down," Gentia said, appearing from the front again.

Looking over the child's shoulder, Athedra could see the crowd ahead had stopped, all of them standing around what looked like a body of clean, running water.

Butpe slid out of Athedra's arms as she stepped forward. "Is it...?"

Gentia said, "It's a creek. It bends to the right, just like the captain said."

Athedra quickened her pace and soon came to stand along with the others by the running water. Some of the boys were drinking from it on hands and knees. Another one was filling skins.

"We're close, your highness," said Agara.

The tall woman had travelled farther than the rest, and kept looking to the treetops to the north. She smiled widely when she saw a structure of stone poking out over them. "It's there! It's there!" she said excitedly. She called back to the others, "I can see the tower!"

They began to move again, this time more hastily.
Chapter 31

Back at the Ruzil palace, the freed slaves were doing better than they had anticipated. The feline soldiers were fierce and they were many, but their numbers were dwindling. The cats could be heard screeching and moaning as they received arrows in their chests and legs and arms from the archers on the wall.

Feline wailing resounded as cat-men fell over into the muddy moat below the bridge, clinging onto the shafts sticking out of them. Some were surprised that the humans were able to fire the arrows at all, evident by their wide eyes as they collapsed.

The bridge began to run red with their blood.

Atop the wall, few humans had received arrows themselves. An old man had been stuck in the shoulder and he was screaming. Another man - a young man - was holding a shaft that was halfway into his upper arm. A soldier beside him asked, "Does it hurt?"

The injured freedom fighter was smiling when he answered, "Yeah. And I love it!" as he loaded another arrow from his quiver.

The rest of the rabble was still working, sending arrow after arrow into the sea of orange and white fur and leather armor down below. They were hysterical, driven by their fear.

"Center mass!" Magda yelled, reminding her troops. "Aim for center mass!"

Now Medunz was organizing his troops across the bridge. A battering ram had been assembled, even as feline soldiers were falling dead just outside the massive wooden doors.

Seeing it, Jerob reported, "There's the ram, Ms. Magda!"

Magda nodded as she loaded up. "Don't hit it, remember!"

Jerob shouted over his right shoulder, "Not the ram!" while sliding his fingertips left and right across his neck. "Don't hit the ram!"

Soon the ram was being carried by the most well-armored cats across the bridge.

"Make a hole!" Medunz cried out.

All the other felines were quick to get out of the way, some of them falling down into the moat unharmed as the huge wooden beam was carried forward.

"Here it comes," said Magda.

As the battle raged, Jerob looked out across the field and could see other feline groups assembling. He could see black panther-likes in armor to the right. They were swirling like bees around a center, largely disorganized. On the left, far behind them, there was another clowder assembling into ranks. "There are too many," he gasped. He looked at Magda uneasily. "Ms. Magda? Do you see them?"

"Don't look at them, Jerob!" commanded Magda, keeping her eyes on the bridge and the attacking clan. "Don't lose heart! Remember the thing about the chicken and the bug?"

Jerob nodded, but his face showed dwindling faith. "But...what if...?"

"Remember the plan!" Magda insisted. She stopped firing arrows and grabbed Jerob by his arm. She shook him and shot a glare into his eyes. "We stick to the plan!"

Jerob swallowed and nodded, renewed.

In no time, the ram had reached the doors below. They could feel the commotion with their feet as the battering began.
Chapter 32

There was something different about the captain now, as he led the felines through the jungle. There was no spring to his step, no music. No clever quips were coming from him anymore, no humorous sarcasm. His eyes were still red from the rubbing and his face hung lowly from his skull.

A little rain was falling.

A few paces behind the captain sauntered Criej, his own green slits wide with suspicion and constantly bearing down on the fair-haired human guide. He held his new-found plastic weapon in his hands, pointing it at him.

One wrong move would send the body of the captain tumbling into the bushes.

"He tricks us," hissed one of the cat-men walking next to Calico Criej, his own eyes digging into the back of Hutch's head. This cat was dressed as fancily as Criej, in a short, metal cuirass that lightly clanged as he stepped. His scimitar was muted in his leather scabbard, and his spear was out in front. "He leads us into a trap."

"This had better not be some sort of trick, human," warned Criej. "Your fate will not be so painless as your father's. Tusk laws against torture do not exist in the feline territories."

"It's not a trick," Hutch answered sadly, defeated. He didn't even say it loudly enough for Criej or his men to hear. "You see the tracks."

He was right. All could see the obvious, sloppy tracks of at least a hundred human feet, as well as the deep gouges in the mud from heavy wheels. There could be no doubt the crowd of survivors had come this way.

Aside from these and despite their suspicions, the felines could clearly scent the slaves ahead.

Criej took a few sniffs himself, his black nose twitching, confirming man-flesh in the air.

Now there was a commotion in the path ahead. The leaves of bushes started trembling. All spears went out, anticipating.

Criej's lieutenant slid out his scimitar and stepped out in front of the clan leader as Criej slid into safety behind him. "Who's there?" he demanded.

Others slid out their swords as well. They trained their weapons on the bustle.

In another second, a pair of eyes appeared, and then the unmistakably feline features of one of Criej's scouts came into the light. "Don't shoot!" pleaded the young cat. He was holding up his paws. Slowly the creature slinked out of the brush and came into the crowd of troops surrounding Criej.

"Speak!" commanded Criej.

The scout held out his palm. It was soaked. "The bend is near, cousin Calico, just like the human said."

Criej neared the scout, eyeing him suspiciously, sniffing the air around him. He put out his own paw-hand and pressed it against the scout's moist fur. He brought the water to his face, smelling it, checking it for the scent of fish and bacteria, making sure it was water from a river. He was satisfied, and wiped his paw on the scout's brown cloak. "Did you check for traps?" he asked, eyeing his human prisoner. "It could be an ambush."

"There is nowhere to hide other than some bushes, cousin," reported the scout. "There is a large, open field."

A pleasant look appeared on Criej's face again - sharp little teeth emerged beneath furred lips. He smiled his wicked smile at Hutch. Then he focused on the scout again. "And the rock tower?"

The creature shook its head. "I see none," he said.

"It's beyond that field," Hutch clarified. "I told you that. Doesn't anybody listen to me?"

"Go back," Criej commanded his scout. "And don't let them see you."

"Yes, cousin," said the scout before he turned around and scurried off into the bushes once again.
Chapter 33

At the Ruzil Palace, the cats had made much progress with their battering ram. The wooden doors were splintering and collapsing with every strike of their device. They could already see the torches inside the courtroom beyond.

"Heave!" cried Medunz as they struck again and again. "HO!" The gates were leaning inwardly now, barely hanging off their hinges.

The cracks widened further and further as they worked, and on the last heave, the gates flew open as they were destroyed. The leather-clad cat soldiers cheered as they flooded in like water.

"Kill them all!" screeched Medunz, directing his soldiers onward with his scimitar. "Leave none alive!"

The felines had their swords and spears out as they entered, ready to slaughter any starving slaves who might stand in their way.

But now inside, they began to see that there was no one there to resist them, not even one human defender. They slowed their step until they were all standing still, and they looked around in the vast, empty courtroom of the lion king.

Medunz came up behind them, with his sword out at the ready. When he saw what they were seeing, he lowered the blade until it was only hanging from his paw-hand. He looked around in the empty room and asked his lieutenants, "Where are they?"

The others only shook their heads and shrugged their leathered shoulders.

In the middle of the floor, before the throne, there was a bundle of rags. A faint, repetitive ding was sounding from within it.

"What's this?" asked one of the lieutenants as he neared to it, curious.

Medunz was still looking for the enemy troops, his gaze into every nook and cranny. Surely they were in the corners, somewhere, hiding, waiting for the opportune moment. He ordered his men to search, but they were only shaking their heads as they returned with no sign. He started looking around at all his own soldiers for a mane. With some suspicion, he asked, "Where is Zu ril?"

But Zu-ril wasn't anywhere inside the compound. He was still on the outer bank outside, watching from across the bridge. He was waiting until the felines gained control again before he himself moved in. He couldn't wait to slaughter the slaves in vengeance, but he wasn't going to face that black-eyed thing again, if he could help it.

And so he waited, watching the last of the tig tails slithering in through the destroyed gateway. He did not see Magda standing on the roof, who was waving all the archers back, quietly ordering them to their next position.

Now as Zu ril stood watching, his eyes caught something unusual: off one of the two boulders outside the gateway, he thought he saw movement. A large, leathery grey blanket was in motion, as if the boulder had grown a flapping ear.

Inside, Medunz began to notice that every entrance to the hall seemed to have a chain-link net across it. The chain-link covered all the windows, too. The fabric covered every crevice and every hall that led from the great room into the rest of the compound.

He walked to one of the doorways, the one that led down into the dungeons, and put his claws into the wire mesh. He shook it. The fabric would not come. He went to the next exit, a huge window that overlooked the kennel-city. It was also covered, and he shook it, too. It, too, would not come loose.

Overhead, Magda was looking down into the room through a skylight. She was waiting until every feline invader had come across the bridge and entered. When she was sure they were all inside, she straightened out and screamed at the top of her large lungs, "Now, Loma!"

The felines all looked up at once.

Out in front, Zu ril saw as the eleman appeared behind the massive boulder on the right side of the ruined gateway. He fell backwards to see the giant Loma Don placing his huge hands on the rock.

Loma started rolling it over the entrance, trumpeting as he mightily pushed.

"What's that?" complained Medunz when he heard the slab of stone in motion. He could feel its rolling underneath his toes.

All his soldiers turned to see as the rock rolled over the exit, darkening their light, and locking them inside.

"What is happening?" said Medunz.

The others didn't know.

By then, the tig examining the bundle had uncovered it. His little ears reached forward to capture the little dinging sounds that were coming from it. And now he saw the package. It was a large flat box with a black chord attached to one corner of it. He ran his fingers over the rubber hose until they came to the enormous pistol tucked beneath. There were lights all over it, blinking and complaining.

"Look what I have found," he said to a feline soldier beside him.

The other soldier was quite curious, too, coming closer, hovering over the device. "What is it?" he asked, his tail whipping left and right behind him.

Medunz saw their work, and came quickly to them. He squeezed between them, shoving them aside, looking into the red flashing lights on the device. They were numbers, but he didn't know them.

At first the number was zero-four. And then it turned into a zero-three. The number became zero-two next, and finally there was a one.

Outside, Magda was running along the wall, as fast and far away from the courtroom as her long legs could carry her, and when she was just barely far away, there came a great explosion.

The freed slaves were all in their places, standing as far to the rear of the complex as they'd been instructed when the smoke and fire blew out through every doorway and window of the courtroom, sending debris flying far away.

Some of them shielded their eyes as the main hall of the cat king went up in violent, horrid flames.

"All we need is a bomb," Hutch had said last night as he'd laid out his plan for the others. "If there was a bomb, then we could end the tig invasion then and there." He'd laid back in his chair, putting his hands on the back of his neck and stretching as he looked up to the ceiling.

"If there's a way that we could spare their lives," Athedra had said timidly, "I would prefer that. It would be kinder for us to let them live...to detain them and not kill..."

Hutch and Loma had looked at each other with Hutch shaking his head.

"In a time of peace, I could agree, your highness," Hutch said to Athedra. "But this...is war."

"Captain," Loma called, and when Hutch looked at him, the eleman held up the pistol to his laser pack. He was making a suggestion.

Hutch shrugged at Loma. "I didn't wanna leave ya naked, kid."

The eleman had immediately begun to pull it off.
Chapter 34

Criej's crooked face was alight when he saw the red tower and the silver disk upon it. It was just as he'd been promised. He could see some of the humans that had not climbed up into the LPV still. They were clearly Ruzil's slaves.

As the feline troops surrounded the foot of the tower, the stragglers started yelling to the humans inside, warning them, panicking.

Their fear fueled Criej's wicked glee. He gave a soft, purring laughter.

"You gonna get this off me?" Hutch asked, holding out his bound hands.

Criej thought about it as he looked the captain up and down.

Hutch sensed the don changing his mind. "Hey, we had a deal, Calico! Remember?"

Criej said, "Why not add you to the pot? I bet you would fetch a bag of kona, too."

Hutch smirked. "You kidding me? Malegus Putis doesn't know me from Adam."

Criej only continued eyeing him. He pointed the pistol at him. "Unbind him," he commanded.

Another feline stepped forward with his scimitar out, and cut the ropes that held Hutch's wrists together.

Hutch shook his reddened hands and stretched them, one after the other. "Oh, that feels good."

"Now get up there," said Criej, and poked him with the weapon.

"Me?" Hutch asked, looking from Calico's face to the tower and back. "What do you want me for? You got your slaves - go round 'em up." He shot a thumb over his shoulder to indicate his intended path. "Me, I gotta go."

Criej's eyes narrowed and his broken lip lifted slightly. "Now!"

Inside the ship, the people were all in their places. Most of them had fit, as Hutch had said, but half of them were standing and bunched up together. The children were on many laps. All of them were panicking.

"It's him!" Agara was saying. She was standing near the hatch, looking down at the gathering of cats along the forest floor. "It's that Captain Hutch! He led them here!"

"He betrayed us!" the tall woman yelled.

Athedra shook her head. She didn't want to believe that it was true.

"What do we do, your highness?" several asked the princess.

She didn't know.

"Your highness?"

Meekly, she said, "I don't know."

There was moaning in the crowd. "We're worse off now than we were before!" somebody yelled.

"They'll kill us all!" yelled another.

"We were better off as Ruzil's slaves!" said someone else. "I don't want to die!"

In a minute, a furred soldier appeared on the ramp that led into the ship. A tig covered in brown leather crept forward, holding a long sword out in front of him. As he stood watching all the human faces, there came another one to stand beside him. The tigs watched the humans hungrily.

The refugees slunk back in fear.

It would be a tense little while before there could be heard the jingling of Criej's fancy armor. Finally Hutch appeared, to the gasping and then the moaning of the crowd.

Athedra was most horrified to see him. "Why are you here?" she asked.

Now Criej appeared behind the captain, holding the grey plastic pistol to his back. "Get inside," ordered the chieftain.

Hutch began to climb the ramp.

When Criej had entered the ship, he looked around at the scared faces with his wicked glee, licking his lips and panting excitedly. His tail was whipping behind him. "Well, well...what do we have here?"

"What do you want?" Athedra demanded. "We are free!"

As she spoke out, a shadow slid along the ceiling, out of everybody's view.

Criej gave his wicked laughter. "Why, you, my little morsel," he said. He motioned with his weapon at the captain. "Get over there," he said, "with them."

"We had a deal, Calico!" Hutch reminded him.

Calico only motioned with the gun again.

Hutch obeyed, sliding his feet childishly until he came to stand with the others. In the crowds, a child began to cry.

"Now, one of you," said Criej, "is the princess of Hearthstone. Don't deny it!"

"I am Athedra of Hearthstone!" said the princess right away. She presented herself before the accuser.

Criej was surprised, but also glad. He closed the distance to her, grinning widely. "Well, well," he said. "That was not so difficul - "

"She lies!" said the tall woman, standing up for Criej to see. "Clearly I am the one Athedra! Not this scrawny girl!"

Criej was angry and distraught. He looked from one face to the other and back to the first. He pointed the weapon at the tall woman at last.

"No, I am the one Athedra!" said Agara, standing near to him.

Criej swung his weapon around to aim at her. He shook his head, confused.

"I am Athedra of Goldenheart!" stated Gentia proudly, her little hands on her little hips.

Criej looked down at her. "You?"

"No! It is I!" called yet another in the crowd.

"No, me!" cried out another.

Before long, every woman in the multitude was claiming to be the princess of Goldenheart.

Criej was waving his weapon frantically now, pointing it at one after the other. "Which is it?" he demanded. "Damned human filth! I will kill you all!"

Hutch was smiling at the cat-man's dilemma until Criej pointed the weapon at him.

"You," he said. "You tell me which is this...Atheeeeedra!" He lifted the weapon slowly until it was pointing at the captain's face. "Or I will shoot!"

"Not the face!" said Hutch, holding up his palms, suddenly not smiling anymore.

They stared at each other for a while, as Hutch seemed to be contemplating.

"Tell me, human captain," Criej spat out, "or I will turn that face to mush."

"All right, all right," said Hutch, not seeing the guardian shadow as he prepared to attack. With hesitation, he finally straightened out his pointing finger at Athedra. "That's the one."

Suddenly, Seven leapt out in front of them.

But Criej was ready. He pointed the weapon at the black-clad warrior...and shot.

He missed.

The blue light crashed into a blinking control panel, sending sparks throughout, scattering the people. He shot again as Seven leapt over to another spot like a spider, then another.

But finally, a blue streak of light found its mark, striking the guardian shadow in one side. Seven's suddenly lifeless body was thrown sideways, into the crowd, and then he only lay there in their arms.

Athedra screamed loudly enough for every ear to ache, "SEVEEEEEEN!!"

Criej had to hold his paw-hands over his ears as she screamed and then, when she was finished, he let out a sigh of relief. "Excellent," he said. Then he said to Hutch, "just as you said, boy. He was indeed quite fast!"

Hutch looked disappointed and remorseful, still holding up his hands in surrender.

"But not fast enough for Calico!" Now the feline sauntered over to Athedra, who was draped over her Seven, weeping.

His eyes filled with lustful elation as she wept. "Well, my little princess," he said, "I wonder...who's going to rescue you now?"
Chapter 35

By now, the entire front of the Ruzil's palace was aflame. Thick, black smoke filled the air, billowing in heavy, rising clouds. The roof and walls were caving in as fire overtook them. There could be heard the snapping and crackling of its construction.

The archers had all reached their secondary positions at the rear of the estate. They were climbing the ladders that had been set up since the night before.

"In the rear of the compound," Hutch had said at last night's meeting, "the walls are thick enough to walk around on the tops of them. Once that explosion goes off, get all the archers you can up onto those partitions, and make sure they're fully loaded."

Magda was nodding at him, fully attentive to the captain's words.

"Any cats that come after that will have to get through the fire and then into the kennel yards where they'll be easy prey." He'd looked around at the frightened boys and men. "Even for us, they'll be like fish in a barrel. All you'll have to do is shoot down into them."

Now those archers were filing into the staircases and clambering onto those partitions. As they went, they met with other troops who were handing out fresh quivers from Ruzil's stockpiles.

To Magda's surprise, they were smiling as they went, celebrating the first victory. Most could not believe they were still in the fight. Some of them were shouting, "For Athedra!"

Jerob could see it in their gaunt faces - they had hope. He joined them with a raised fist: "For Athedra!"

They all began to chant. "Athedra! Athedra! Athedra! Athedra!"
Chapter 36

Criej was celebrating as he neared the princess, jutting the weapon in her face. "Now, my little goldmine," he said. "You belong to meeee." He began to laugh wholeheartedly then, titling up his face as he rejoiced.

Hutch started laughing, too. His hands fell slowly to his side as he let out peeling laughter overhead.

Seeing Hutch laughing, Criej stopped his own rolling laughter. "Wait - what are you laughing about?" he asked, annoyed.

Hutch said, "Well, _you 're_ laughing!"

"Yes, I'm laughing!" agreed the cat lord, as he began another peel of rolling laughter.

Hutch laughed, too, even more heartily this time, attempting to match Criej.

Annoyed, Criej commanded, "STOP LAUGHING!"

Hutch shrugged again. "But...you're laughing!"

"Yes, I'm laughing!"

"It's kind of funny."

"It's not funny! There's nothing funny about it, human filth!"

"I dunno," said Hutch, weighing it. "If you think about it, it's a little bit funny."

"No, it's not!"

Hutch reasoned, "a little funny."

"Not funny at all!" insisted the cat.

Hutch asked, "Then what the hell are you laughing about?"

"I'm laughing...in victory!"

Hutch said, "Okay."

"I'm not laughing with you!" Calico explained. "I'm laughing _at_ you! Fool! I am laughing at your demise!"

"Okay, I'm starting to get it."

"Don't you understand? I have defeated you! You and your human princess! And now I laugh at you! I laugh at your defeat!"

"Well," Hutch said with raised shoulders. "Not really. I mean, to tell you the truth...you didn't actually defeat anybody."

"What? Yes, I did!"

Hutch was hesitant. "Nah. You didn't."

"What do you mean? Of course I have! I even killed your guardian ghost!"

"Nah. You didn't."

Criej was genuinely confused. "What?"

"Yeah. You haven't killed anybody! See, the gun's not set to 'kill.' It's set to 'zap.' All you did was zap 'im."

Criej looked down at his plastic pistol. His head tilted on its axis as he observed the interface. He said, "Zap?"

"Here," Hutch said, "I'll show you." He took the pistol out of Criej's claws. He held up the little plastic window with numbers that were blinking. "See here - it's set to 'zap.'" The screen showed two digits in blue light: a zero and a three. "You got three more shots."

"But..."

"You're on 'zap' here, see?" He held it up for the cat to see. "You've basically just been putting everyone to sleep."

"Sleep?"

"Yeah. You have to switch it over to the red for 'kill.'" Hutch slid his thumb over a switch and pushed, turning the numbers now to pink. "See, now it's on 'kill." Then he turned the weapon on the cat and pulled the trigger, sending Criej backwards with a powerful blow of laser light that instantly killed him.

As the feline flew, he took the tethered pistol with him, and he and the pack and the pistol landed in a pile.

Hutch said, "Like that."
Chapter 37

Maical woke up with a bang, sitting bolt upright suddenly, sucking in air as his hands went out all around him. He felt the hot flash of pain in his chest and clutched it with both hands. "Ugh!" he groaned, remembering. "Little son-of-a-bitch zapped me!"

Looking around, he saw he was still inside the tigs' tent. He straightened up until he was standing, disoriented, his hands out to steady himself, when he saw two tigs sitting up nearer to the throne. They were also coming to.

He started an empowering yell as he rushed toward them, jumping over and down into the mass of fur as he began to kick and punch.

The cats were caught off guard, one of them rolling over, away from the attack, himself disoriented.

Maical grabbed a tanto knife that had landed on the grass in the commotion and stabbed the first feline in the chest, between his breastplate and his shoulder.

The creature let out a screeching howl as he attempted to put his claw-hands into the general.

Maical slid the short blade out of the feline's chest and backed away quickly, crawling and then standing halfway straight. He half-turned and went to stick the other one.

The second feline was alert now, rolling out of the way, but when he stood up, he stood on wobbly legs. "C'mon, one-eye!" he taunted. He shook his head and then started reaching for his sword, but he couldn't seem to concentrate. The wooden scabbard kept slapping him against the leg.

Maical charged, thrusting the knife forward and missing the second feline altogether.

The feline got behind him and wrapped himself around the general, squeezing him mightily.

Maical was struggling, the long knife dangling in his hands as his own head wobbled. "Gimme a minute, here...I'm a little dizzy..."

As Maical was being swung by the powerful feline, he caught the two other felines waking up near the flap, and they began to come toward the wrestlers, too.

"Can't catch a break!" Maical complained, as he rolled out of the feline's grip and spun around, sticking the knife into his neck.

The feline let out a siren's screech, loud enough for Maical to grimace hard.

As the cat man fell to the grass, he took the knife with him and now the general was unarmed as the other two began to rush.

"Damn the luck!" he complained as he dove down into the grass. He grasped the handle of the scimitar of the dying feline and pulled it hard, but it wouldn't come.

The other guards were quickly closing the distance to him as he fought.

"C'mon, dammit!" he yelled. The metal was jingling in his hands. He started yanking and yanking at the scimitar, but for the life of him, it wouldn't slide. "Damned curvy swords!"

Yank. Yank.

"C'mon, you son-of-a-!"

"Get him!" yelled one the guards as they overtook him from behind. Their own scimitars were already out before them.

Finally, the sword slid out of the dead feline's scabbard, making a loud, sloppy sound as Maical spun around with it in his hands. He sliced through the air and right into the closest feline's arm, immediately disabling him.

Blood shot out in spurts as the injured cat cried out.

The other feline was faster, but still stumbling, coming around on Maical's other side.

Suddenly, the general's luck began to change when the fabric of the tent was torn apart.

Both the general and the attacking feline turned toward the blinding sunlight, finding the giant Loma Don standing there, holding both pieces of the torn material in his massive hands.

The feline's courage instantly vanished as he saw the giant creature trumpeting angrily. The long, thick trunk curled over his great head.

Loma's powerful steps shook the ground as he began to rush the cat-man, who turned and ran as fast as his furred legs could carry him.

The feline leapt over Criej's throne and through another flap, exiting in a panic.

Maical was glad to see his new eleman friend. "Good job, kid!" he said breathlessly, and then he lay his head back down against the grassy floor.

Loma almost blushed. "Thank you, uncle Maic-" he started saying before he stopped himself. He was embarrassed. He started to correct himself. "I mean..."

"Hey!" Maical shouted, and then he smiled and said, "It's okay, kid. You can call me 'uncle Maical.'"
Chapter 38

There were sounds of both confusion and glee in the crowd of humans as they saw Hutch jumping down and scrambling for the weapon on the floor. It was tucked under the dead body of Calico Criej.

"C'mon, you oaf!" Hutch demanded as he wrestled the pistol free.

By now, Criej's troops were coming up the ramp to get help him.

But Hutch freed the weapon first, then turning it on them as they rushed in, he shot, one after the other, sending beams of bright pink light into them as they fell back onto the ramp and down the tower steps.

Hutch held the weapon up again, looking into the screen. There were only two blinking zeroes now. He cast the gun aside and rushed to close the hatch before the other felines could realize what had happened.

With the hatch secure, Hutch spun and dove into the driving seat for humans. "Power up!" he shouted overhead. The LPV only made a few gurgling sounds. Hutch listened to the failure. "C'mon, you old boat!" he yelled as he slammed his palms against the glass control panel. "Power up!"

Finally, the panel lit up with blinking lights and whirring sounds all around. The humming of the flash timer started as the ship started coming to.

"Hold on to your hats, kids!" Hutch shouted over his shoulder as he took the controller in his hands. The ship began detaching from the tower as he concentrated.

Athedra came around his chair to stand beside him. "Captain Hutch?" she said. "I thought you had betrayed us."

Hutch smiled at her. "I know, kid. But I didn't."

Outside the ship, the cats were throwing spears and shooting arrows at the underside of the LPV, all to no avail, as it lifted up into the air and began to glide forward.

Athedra said, "You tricked them!"

Hutch said, "Yeah," with a smile, as the earth began to fall away below them.

Athedra steadied herself from the LPV in motion. "You...You _lied_ to them!"

"Yeah!" Hutch said. "Pretty cool, right?"

Athedra only smiled at him. She said, "You saved us."

Hutch said, "Well...Let's not get ahead of ourselves, kid. I'm still working on it." He faced her. "Look, highness, I'm sorry I scared you back there."

Athedra said, "It's okay."

Hutch had his own concern. "Now listen, when your boyfriend wakes up, he's gonna be real mad at me..."

Athedra smiled, understanding completely. "I won't let him hurt you."

Hutch gave a sigh of relief as he pushed the ship toward the compound. "All right, get ready, kids!" he shouted at all the passengers. "We're gonna go real fast!"
Chapter 39

The Ruzil palace had been decimated. Fire roared out of the windows and doorways of the ruins, towering over them, licking up into the sky. Stacks of black smoke rose up in spinning ribbons like tornadoes as the walls crumbled and the rooves caved in.

At the rear of the prison complex, the former slaves were winning. Perched on the high walls, they were easily shooting arrows down into the dismayed and scrambling felines that were left.

There were few of the tig invaders now, and those left were scattered and leaderless - coughing and stumbling about in the yard aimlessly. Some of them were caught on fire and rolling on the ground. Others were jumping on their compatriots, stomping on them in an attempt to put out their flames, but catching arrows from the humans on the walls.

As Jerob worked, firing arrows into the masses, he noticed that some of them began to flee. He could see their tails slithering as the felines went over the battlements and back into the wilderness and safety.

Magda was beside her newfound friend, and also firing down into the enemy. She could see the numbers of the felines thinning.

"They're retreating!" shouted Jerob over the screams and screeching of the dying. "Ms. Magda! They're running away!"

Magda was nodding. She stopped firing arrows and lowered the bow she was holding. "Yeah," she said. She smiled at him. "Looks like it." She let the bow slide on her palm until it was dangling from one end. "How about that?" she said, pleased.

Through the fire and the smoke, there appeared a familiar form, now: a lean, young feline with a great, brown mane. The once-ruthless punisher was stumbling around as he observed in disbelief what had so recently been his domain. He couldn't believe what was happening.

Jerob said fearfully, "It's...Zuuuu-riiil..."

Magda looked at Jerob when he said it, saw the confidence slide away from him and fear replace it. She wondered about the pain that creature had delivered to her princess and it absolutely fueled her fire. "Here," she told Jerob. "Hold my bow," as she retrieved Maical's automatic shotgun from her leg.

She brought it up in front of her, pumped it once and started down the stairway toward the cat-man.

"Uh, Ms. Magda?" Jerob called after her.

But Magda wasn't listening. Her eyes were narrowed on the lion prince, who she'd decided was going to feel her wrath.

Her swift black boots stepped quickly down the concrete stairs, but her eyes were focused on her target. "Zu-ril!" she called out as she glided toward him. "Don't you run!"

The feline saw her and his yellow eyes lit up. He wasn't sure of who she was, but he could see her ire clearly. She was no slave. He started backing away, searching for an exit in the chaos.

Suddenly there appeared a brilliant, flashing light above. All hands went up to shield their eyes as a photo-boat slid out of the northern sky and stopped right in midair.

It floated there, just hovering over the calamity, the brilliant light from its circular propeller blindingly bright.

In the distraction, Zu ril the lion-like escaped.

From behind the glass, Hutch looked down into the fiery battlefield below. He could see the orange and white fur of many felines lying in the field, in pools of bright red blood. He saw others retreating into the wilderness past the walls, running fast, withdrawing quickly. It looked as though the tigs had been defeated.

"What a mess!" he said, steering the ship.

Athedra stretched her neck to see through the bottom window, also. "They're leaving," she said. "We've won!"

The LPV was turning in a circle, as the captain surveyed before setting it down. Soon they were facing west again, towards the field across the drawbridge of the palace. There he spotted them. He could see that the invasion wasn't over.

The panther-likes were still coming. Beyond the tig tents, their black ranks were forming. There were hundreds of them, still, and behind them, there were other armies also.

Hutch was filled with dread. "No," he said. "I'm afraid it's not over yet."

As the ship continued turning, they came into the view of the northern sky, and then the eastern sky, and the ghostly Daro in the distance. They could just barely see the silver outline of the mountain.

Hutch kept looking there, his eyes unwavering as he stopped turning the vehicle. "Unless..."

Athedra followed his eyes out into the eastern sky. She waited. "Unless...what, Captain Hutchinson?"

As they sat watching, waiting, the minutes ticked. Time passed as Hutch hoped for a miracle. "C'mon, baby," he said to some unseen entity in that distant sky. "Come on."

"What is it, Captain Hutchinson?" asked Athedra. "What are we waiting for?"

"A hundred points of light, kid," answered Hutch. He bit his lip. "C'mon, at least just gimme one."

But as they sat waiting, watching, no points of light appeared in the eastern sky. There could be heard the celebration of the slaves on the walls below. Hutch glanced down at them. "They think it's over. They don't know the panther-likes are coming."

"What are we going to do?" Athedra asked.

Hutch gave up. "We lose," he said, as he began to drop the ship. "Grab onto something."

He set the plane down into the middle of the compound, where the kennels had been, where there were cat men strewn about with arrows sticking out of them.

"Stay inside, princess," he told Athedra as he started lowering the ramp. He got up and gave her one last look before exiting. "You'll go on to Tusk now, you and Maggie. And you'll find your Full Gate. You'll see."

Athedra stood up, following him as he began onto the ramp. "But..."

Hutch looked around at all the little faces stuffed into the cabin. There were faces stacked on top of faces. He felt a tiny sense of pride. He knew that - together with the princess - he had saved them. "Stay inside, all of you," he told them. "Everything is going to be all right."

All the faces nodded.

Athedra started, "But...I thought..."

Hutch wasn't listening. He stepped off the ship and down the ramp.

Hutch had seen Magda from the ship, still standing on the last step of a staircase. He searched for her in the crowds now, and when he spotted her ran towards her. When he was standing before her, he looked up into her eyes. "Hey, beautiful," he said, his own eyes sad.

Magda waved her arms, showcasing the gore all around them. "Well...what do you think?"

Hutch looked around, nodding in approval. "Ya done good, kid," he said. "Ya done real good."

Caught in the moment, the two threw their arms around each other, celebrating, as the refugees cheered for them.

Hutch pushed her way now, taking her hands in his. He wanted to examine her. Her hair was disheveled, some of it strewn across her pretty face. Her face was flustered and reddened, and her lips were blushing red. Hutch had never found her more attractive.

Magda noticed his unwavering stare. "Captain?" Magda said. "Are you all right?"

Hutch only nodded, but his eyes told her everything was not all right.

Magda thought of something. "Athedra? Is she...?"

Hutch indicated the LPV with a thumb. "She's in the boat. She's fine."

Magda was glad. "Well...you did it, Captain Hutch. You defeated the tig army, like you said. I admit I had my doubts..."

Hutch said, " _we_ did it, kid - you and me." He shot a thumbs-up to the soldiers on the walls, drawing their victorious cheers. In that moment, it sure felt like everything would be all right.

When he looked back into Magda's sea-green eyes, Hutch wasn't smiling anymore. "Look, Magda..." he started. He didn't want to give her the bad news.

Magda said, "What is it?"

Hutch's heart was weighty in his chest. "Maggie," he said. "I wish so much that I had found you somewhere else. Some other time and place..."

Magda shook her head. "What is it?"

All the refugees were cheering on the captain, whooping and hollering. One of them said, "Kiss her, you fool!"

"Pol?" asked Magda.

Hutch said, "It's not over, Mag."

Magda was genuinely confused. "What?"

Hutch said, "They're still coming. I could see them...from the ship...There's hundreds of 'em still." He pointed with his chin. "They'll come around those walls at any minute."

"Okay," said Magda. "So what do we do? What's the plan?"

"Magda!" Hutch said, surprised. "Hundreds! Probably a thousand! There's no plan! It's over. We can't win!"

"Sure we can!" Magda insisted. "We've defeated hundreds of them already - by your planning!"

Hutch was shaking his head. "My plan was to stall for time, Maggie. That was all - I was hoping the cavalry would arrive in time to rescue us! I was wrong. I...miscalculated."

Magda said, "Miscalculated?"

"Now, look, the ship can take you almost to Tusk," Hutch said. "If you go straight eastward, toward the Daro mountain. If you can..."

"We're not going anywhere, Hutch," she said. "Now figure something out. They're coming."

Hutch was in disbelief. "N-no. That's not gonna happen! There's no time. Now get in the boat - you're not gonna die here!" He started walking Magda to the LPV by her hand. "The princess is waiting. And me and..."

"Captain..." Magda pulled his hand.

"...me n' dad and Loma, and these others, we'll stay here. We'll fight..."

"Pol!" said Magda

And now Hutch was quiet. He was confused. What was it that she didn't understand? Or was it he that didn't see something...?

In that instant, Magda put her hands on either side of the captain's face, drawing whistles and cat-calls from the archers on the walls. And then, before he knew it, she kissed him.

Hutch was taken aback at first. His mind had been on something else - survival. But now he forgot all about that as he began to kiss her back. He took her face in his hands as the two souls intertwined.

The fighters cheered even louder than before - jumping up and down - and they kept cheering as the couple passionately kissed.

They were lost inside the moment, forgetting all about the chaos and the collapsing world around them, and lost themselves in their passion for each other. The world faded away, as the lovers only kissed.

The princess appeared now, on the landing. Her guardian shadow was beside her. She was smiling happily at them.

Hutch finally opened up his eyes again as Magda pulled away. He smiled gigantically.

Magda licked her lips and smiled happily as well. She blushed a little.

Hutch held her in his arms. He wrinkled his nose at her. "Okay," he said, "I can die now."

By now, the panther-likes had appeared. They were coming around the crumbling ramparts. They were running through the fires and the smoke, their swords and spears out in front of them. They were coming in from all around them. Hutch saw them from the corner of his eye. "See?" he said, "Here they come," he said.

"Let them come," said Maggie, holding him, staring back into his eyes.

Hutch shook his head, his eyes narrow. He felt as if he'd stumbled right into a dream. What did she see that he didn't see? "Maggie," he whispered, "would you please get in the boat?"

"Oh, Pol Hutchinson," said Magda, unbroken, "When are you going to believe?"

Now as the felines started closing the distance to them, and Seven started sliding out his sword, and the archers started loading up their bows, there suddenly appeared small lights across the eastern sky.

All eyes went to them, even those of the attacking felines. The archers all turned to look, too, because the little lights were so bright.

The black-clad panther-likes stopped charging.

They were a hundred little points of sunlight in the middle of the day, and in another second, they were huge, and right above them.

They were LPV's - two squadrons of them. There was a variety of different sizes - some of them were huge - transports like Hutch's own machine. Some of them were smaller, fighter types. They were chrome and grey and white, and mostly circular, and new, and some of them had red crosses on their sides.

The smaller ones were somewhat oblong in shape. These had turrets on the sides, and as they swept into the air above, the turrets started firing bright beams of pink light. The beams shot into the crowds of cat men as the attackers suddenly went flying in the air.

There were screams from them, as their attack was instantly dashed. Again and again, the beams crashed down into the panther-likes, killing them in waves. Black shields and swords and leather-clad warriors flew into the air as the invasion was stopped cold. The remaining felines started running with their rudimentary weapons over their heads to try to protect themselves.

The ships were only getting started. They glided out past the fire, into the field beyond, firing into the crowds of feline warriors as they scattered, running for their lives back into the wild.

The archers on the walls were scream-cheering. The cavalry had arrived.

The princess was now standing on the ground, her jaw dropped as she saw the rescuers. The women and children were coming down out of Hutch's boat and surrounding her as they all watched in disbelief.

"It's her people," Gentia said breathlessly. "I told you they would come for her!"

Agara gasped.

"I told you!" the girl said.

A gigantic LPV appeared, and now it started dropping in the sky. It was a presidential machine with a baby blue hue and darker blue along the bottom. The massive transport landed with a thud upon the floor.

In a few seconds, the landing ramp extended from it. Over this ramp, there was a blood-red carpet and at first, two elemen guards came down the ramp. They were dressed in clean, crisp Tusk army uniforms. The giants thundered down the ramp until they came to stand on either side of it.

The human slaves were amazed at the massive, majestic guards, and their shiny craniotols, all new and golden and glimmering. They could feel the thundering of their steps in the earth.

Soon, there came a third eleman - dressed in a flowing black suit with a blood red stripe down the middle of his massive stomach.

As the photo fighters made mincemeat of the felines overhead, Hutch began to move toward the well-dressed eleman giant. He knew him. He grabbed Magda's hand and dragged her along with him.

Spotting Hutch, the giant knelt so that he was close to the human's eye-level.

"Lum Ludor!" Hutch said. He held out his arm and the giant gently held the whole thing in his hand. "I've never been so glad to see you, sir."

Gonal smiled underneath his massive trunk. "I told you I'd get here as fast as I could. Don't tell me you lost confidence in me, my friend."

"What - me lose confidence?" Hutch said. "Never! I knew you'd make it right on time!"

Magda shook her head beside him and rolled her eyes.

Hutch, noticing, said, "What?"

Now the lum ludor saw somebody else in the crowd - the girl in blue. He knew who she was. He could tell it was she - Athedra was the spitting image of her mother. He straightened up now, standing, towering over all the others. "Excuse me, Captain Hutch," he said as he stepped away, toward her.

Hutch nudged Magda with an elbow. "You're gonna love Tusk, babe."

Magda said, "Not if I meet any girlfriends."

Hutch's cheerful smile instantly deteriorated into an expression of pure terror.

The crowd of children moved slowly out of the way for the approaching eleman giant, completely awed by the majestic creature as Gonal waded into them.

Now other creatures in Tuskan uniforms were emerging from the other LPV's. There were arborians in the grey uniforms. There were felines as well as interians. There were humans, too. All of them were dressed in the same grey suits as Hutch and Loma. All of them were wearing the same shiny craniotols. Some of them were soldiers - they surrounded the humans, guarding them. Others were medics - indicated by the red crosses on their uniforms. The medics started ministering to the weak and fallen men and women. Some of them were lifting the infirmed, and placing them onto gurneys they had brought.

Gonal knelt down for Athedra, and as he bowed his enormous head, the great flaps of his ears hung lowly. "Princess Athedra of Goldenheart," he said in his breathy voice, "I am honored to be at your service."

Athedra's eyes were wide with awe. She couldn't figure out what to do with her hands and finally let them hang at her sides.

"I am Gonal," said the giant, "Lum Ludor of Tusk, and friend to your father, Lord Manson. We've come to rescue you."

Athedra was almost crying when she said, "Thank you, Mr. Lum Ludor." Her voice was trembling with joy. "We're sure glad to see you."

"My transports will take you and your friends to your new home in Tusk, where your mother and all your old friends from Hearthstone impatiently await you."

Athedra's eyes filled with tears and one of them rolled down her flushed cheek. "Momma!" she cried out. "I'm going to see my mom!"

Gentia and the others were coming around her, crying tears of joy as well. They still could not believe their fortunes. Gentia asked timidly, "All of us?"

Athedra looked at Gonal for his answer.

"Of course, all of you," he said. "As the princess will have it."

From atop the wall, Jerob shouted, "She has saved us!"

The people screamed their cheers.

Jerob started chanting. "Athedra! Athedra! Athedra! Athedra!"

The others chanted, too. All of them shouting it: "Athedra! Athedra! Athedra! Athedra!"

And their praises could be heard deep into the wilderness.
Chapter 40

Seven watched Athedra from a distant perch, tucked into the shadows of some random structure, where he lived, where he had always lived. He saw the multitude surrounding her, smiling for her, laughing with her in the sun as she conversed with them and reminisced. Her hair was flowing in the wind like follicles of honey.

He saw Loma Don arriving in their midst, walking with a limp, escorted by the general. The others ran to greet them. Everybody looked so happy.

But for Seven, this was no happy ending. This was only the beginning of a personal and monumental struggle. He would have to live his life now in denial of a burning in his heart. He knew now beyond any shadow of a doubt.

He loved her.

It was a thing that could not be. He had never known love. Love had nothing to do with him.

He tried not to see Athedra's face, tried not to see her beauty. He tried to ignore that smile she made when she laughed - that crooked little tooth...those naturally sad eyes. He would never be able to admire that little divot between her nose and upper lip - that sweet little spot.

He tried to shake the feelings welling up inside him for her.

It was a thing that must not be.

It would be no easy task, he knew.

As Seven looked around in that yard, he saw the people all around her. They, too, were underneath her spell. All of them - those from that far city as well as those who had been prisoners with her. Every single eye was on that girl, despite anything around them. Every one of them would die for her.

Just like he would die for her.

And even though it was his duty, he knew it had nothing to do with that. He knew he would die for her not for his oath, but because he truly loved her. And so did everybody else. Her beauty was not only on the outside. It was in every word she uttered.

As Seven watched her conversing with those around her, suddenly Athedra turned to look at him - right at him.

Seven was rocked. His eyebrows furrowed.

How could that be? He looked down at his body, careful not to move too quickly. He was checking his robes for light, or any other thing that might be giving him away. Or else how could it be that she could see him? He knew he was perfectly hidden - it was his special skill! He looked at his surroundings for some thing that he had missed, but there was nothing. There was no way that she could see him.

Yet there she was, far away, some one hundred feet away, and in the sun. Her eyes were definitely fixed on him as she listened to somebody's story. And she was smiling at him.

There was something about that girl, he knew - some kind of magic. She had a power he would never understand. In that moment, as he watched her watching him, lost inside her beauty and trying desperately to flee from it, Seven knew.

There was no question now.

There would be no escaping the love of Athedra of Goldenheart
