(And for my triumphant return to the FFML, after my ISP's week-long email
outtage got me unsubscribed... here's a piece for your entertainment, a UF
story which does NOT involve my SI character in any way whatsoever. A
character piece for your holiday enjoyment. C&C welcome - Redneck)


	Clarsu, Claw Lakes Province
	Grand Duchy of Kumbar
	Salusia, Vega Sector
	Tuesday, August 16, 2405

	Near the top of a tall, steep hill on the edge of town, two 
figures of white, clothed in white, sat across a small fire from 
each other. The larger of the two, a broad-shouldered figure in 
white fur and ceremonial robe broken only by the seal of his house, 
watched the smaller figure bow on his knees before him. 
	"Master," the smaller figure said, "I have completed my 
training with you and met every goal you have required of me. I 
seek your permission to stand before the masters of our art and be 
confirmed in my rank."
	The larger man considered the ceremonial words carefully 
before delivering the proper response. "Student, go forth unto the 
elders and receive their judgement, for there is nothing more I can 
teach you. Return to me not as a student, but as a brother."
	The two men stood, and with great ceremony they clasped each 
others' left forearms. "Thank you, Master Shidou," the student 
said, bowing one last time. With that, the ceremony ended, and the 
master covered the fire with sand. The student walked down the hill 
towards town, while the master looked up the hill to his family's 
home, and to the hall which, until today, had housed his family's 
school of swordfighting.
	"And so it ends," Satoru Shidou murmured.
	
	I have a message from another time...

	UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES: FUTURE IMPERFECT

	IF YOU CAN MAKE IT THERE

	Includes characters created by CLAMP
	And other fine nut cases

	by Kris Overstreet


	The planet Salusia has three major land masses. The main 
continent, over half of Salusia's total land surface, is the 
Salusia of the postcards and cheap tri-D dramas, the home of the 
dominant black, white-striped Cheltari race and the sub-race that 
makes up the royalty of the Salusian Empire. The smaller southern 
continent, separated from the main by a deep but narrow channel, 
hosts the Salusia of the cheap restaurants, the noodles and spicy 
food served up by quiet and reserved Vindari Salusians, sporting 
fur coats of brown, gray, and occasionally red.
	The smallest continent of the three hugs the north polar ice 
cap on three sides, with only a couple of narrow, rocky peninsulas 
and island chains extending south of the fortieth north parallel. 
The Kumbari people who live in this realm of tundra and lakes, 
alpine slopes and glaciers, fjords and icebergs, tend to blend in 
with their white fur, rugged individualism, and boisterous 
attitudes. They were never conquered during the prehistoric days 
before the Zardons first invaded, and even to this day the Grand 
Duchy of Kumbar remains a footnote to galactic politics as the only 
part of the Salusian Interstellar Conglomerate which does not bend 
a knee to the monarch at Saenar. 
	There is a patch of the Kumbar continent, however, where even 
most Kumbari don't care to go. The Claw Lakes, three large lakes 
conjoined at one end, rested near the center of the continent, dug 
out by ancient glaciers that scraped the ground clean of any 
topsoil aeons before, leaving just enough dirt behind for forestry, 
but not much else. The weather was miserable, the food was bland, 
the nights in winter were nineteen hours long, and there were large 
arctic creatures lurking in the wilderness that could give a 
pureblooded Salusian of Imperial birth a fair one-on-one fight.
	Hikaru Shidou loved it.
	Hikaru loved to romp around the rugged, insect-filled woods 
in summer, her creamy white fur covered in only a swimsuit, while 
the few main-continent tourists to visit the small town of Clarsu 
("Gateway of the Sunny North!") bundled on thick jackets and cursed 
their travel agents. She reveled in the fallen leaves of autumn, 
her red hair and ponytail blending into great piles of brown and 
red and silver, only her twitching white tail showing her presence. 
She especially enjoyed winter and early spring, hunting and 
questing seasons. She'd skip school time and again, going out with 
only a single blade to find an ur-dog or jerryl to test herself 
against... or, more usually, to protect the huge beasts from more 
cruel and unsporting hunters.
	Hikaru loved her home, thought it was the bestest place in 
the whole galaxy, and she never, ever wanted to leave. 
The only disadvantage to Clarsu was her trio of older, over-
protective brothers. Having just entered adolescence at twenty-six, 
Hikaru was taking a mild interest in the males of her species, and 
her brothers took a dim view of any prospective beaux who took up a 
similar interest in Clarsu's wildest, most energetic inhabitant. 
(Not that a short, skinny girl like Hikaru got many of those to 
begin with.)
	Boys were, as yet, only a minor worry, and all in all Hikaru 
loved her life, loved her home, and expected to live there forever 
and ever.
	Hikaru had persuaded a couple of wild snow-threshers to perch 
on her fingers one later summer afternoon when the chirping of the 
grats was broken by the sound of Masaru's shouting. "Hikaru! 
HIKARU! Where ARE you?" The youngest of her three older brothers 
came crashing through the low brush, frightening the birds away. 
"Hikaru, come home at once! Satoru has some urgent news for us!"
	Hikaru sighed as she watched the small birds flitter timidly 
from one tree-branch to the next, that precious and trusting moment 
she'd spent most of an hour working towards shattered in a moment. 
"Masaru, is this really necessary?"
	Masaru was only five years older than Hikaru, but he stood 
over a foot taller and outweighed her almost two to one. She was a 
tiny thing for her age, appearing to be a mere cub instead of a 
growing Salusian juvenile in her tweens. Thus it took no effort at 
all of Masaru to pick Hikaru up and haul her back to the old Shidou 
home, ignoring her strong physical protests at the treatment.
	For generation after generation, the Shidous had kept alive 
the near-forgotten martial art of Kumbarlyn, the two-handed 
longsword dueling form and martial art which matched lynly's less 
elegant and more vicious traditions elsewhere on the planet. The 
form was so similar to Earther kendo that Kumbari teams 
occasionally participated in kendo leagues, and most non-students 
even in Kumbar knew it only as 'Salusian Kendo.' Unlike lynly, 
Kumbarlyn was intensely spiritual in nature, and its practice was 
as much a prayer as an exercise. 
	Practitioners of Kumbarlyn take their art very seriously, and 
in recent years the dangers of the martial art's code had taken 
their toll on the Shidou family. Hikaru's mother had died in a 
duel. Her father had been challenged and defeated by a student for 
his teaching credentials, and he had departed in disgrace on a 
prolonged training mission to perfect his art. That had been five 
years ago.
	Hikaru's oldest brother, Satoru, had been forced to take up 
the leadership of the school too soon. He did not have his father's 
standing or training, and thus over the years as students moved 
beyond Satoru's level, few came to replace them. Finally the Shidou 
school had dwindled down to four students, and only one of them a -
paying- student. The other three were Hikaru and the two brothers, 
Kakeru and Masaru.
	Satoru had called the family together because that last 
paying student had departed for the duchy's ancient seat at Pegwe 
to take his examination for certification as an eighth-degree lan-
ko, the same rank Satoru currently held. Since Satoru obviously 
could not continue teaching an equal, and since Satoru could not 
find a ninth-degree or tenth-degree teacher willing to train him, 
well, that was it. The loss of the school's last paying student was 
serious enough to call Kakeru away on emergency leave from the main 
Salusian Service Academy in Saenar, and thus all four of the 
remaining Shidous gathered in the family meditation and training 
hall as Satoru described the situation.
	"For the past two years we've been living off the savings of 
the family trust," Satoru said quietly, "and we could continue to 
do so without any students for the next five years. However, with 
Master Rake-Jornen's temple and the two new lynly schools in the 
town, I do not see any hope of gaining new students to continue the 
school here." Rake-Jornen was a tenth-degree master and an ancient 
rival of the Shidous, and with the head of the Shidou family 
missing he had sucked up all the prospective students in the area, 
including several from the Shidou school itself.
	"For that reason, I have decided to sell our lands to the 
government for use as a natural preserve," Satoru sighed. "With 
that money and our savings, we will be able to relocate to New 
Avalon. A master of the art there wishes to retire, and he is 
willing to sell his school and complete my training. There the 
Shidou school can survive and flourish."
	"Awesome!" Masaru grinned, pumping his fist. "The most 
happening place in all of the Federation! All the big films 
premiere there!"
	"The Wedge Defense Force!" Kakeru's smile was somewhat more 
restrained than Masaru's, but not much. "There's a branch of the 
Salusian Service Academy on New Avalon, but my grades are good 
enough... I could transfer to the WDF Academy and be a lieutenant 
in a year with my credits!" 
	"Seven amusement parks!" Masaru smiled. "Seven Galactic-class 
amusement parks, all side by side! And the game development 
studios! Only the best in New Avalon!"
	"Lieutenant Shidou, WDF," Kakeru smiled. "I like the sound of 
it."
	"And the FOOD!! Why, if there's any food that New Avalon 
doesn't serve-"
	"I HATE IT!!!"
	Hikaru's fist came down hard enough to shatter the low table 
the four sat around. With blazing eyes glimmering with tears, she 
shouted, "How can you be so enthusiastic about abandoning our 
FATHER'S HOME and crossing half the galaxy to some ARTIFICIAL 
WORLD? And who's going to be here when Father comes home? Who's 
going to be here?"
	The brothers each looked at her, Masaru embarrassed, Kakeru 
regretful, and Satoru calm and reserved as ever. "Hikaru," Satoru 
said carefully, "we are not selling our home or school- only the 
forest. The government is the only buyer for the land- and I will 
not sell the school to Rake-Jornen," he added with a growl. "We 
will spend the remainder of this week closing our affairs and 
packing our personal belongings, and then we shall take passage on 
the hyper transport to New Avalon."
	"No!!" Hikaru shook her head, tears running down her face and 
through her fur. "I won't accept it! I won't!" She stormed out of 
the meditation hall, breaking into a run as she left the carefully 
tended courtyard for the forest. In moments she was lost from 
sight.
	"Should I go after her, big brother?" Masaru asked.
	Satoru thought for a few moments, then shook his head. "No," 
he said quietly. "No, let her spend some time alone saying goodbye 
to her forest. The next few days will be very hard on her, and 
human school will be even harder. If the transport makes good time, 
you and she may have three days before school begins in New Avalon. 
No time to settle in," he sighed, "but I do not wish to waste this 
opportunity. Tomorrow we are all going to the clinic for the 
humanization process... let us hope Hikaru has calmed herself by 
then."

	Hikaru went through the transmogrification procedure the next 
day with a sullen expression that lost nothing in the reshaping of 
her face. She packed her clothes and her very small collection of 
dolls (she preferred living companions to figurines) slowly and 
reluctantly. She left all the other packing to her brothers. On the 
night before the departure they found her curled up around a yan 
tree, a handful of truirl skittering away at their approach to 
watch as Satoru carried her home to bed for the last time. 
	Early the next morning, the paperwork completed and the hall 
closed and secured, the Shidou clan departed Clarsu on the red-eye 
morning shuttle to Cheltopolis. From there the orbital shuttle took 
them to the Vann Ayx Lines orbital terminal, where they boarded the 
good ship Shiva's Jewel for the six-day, five-stop journey to Zeta 
Cygni. 
For the first time Hikaru saw beings of other races somewhere 
besides a vid screen. Oh, humans didn't count; humans made up over 
40% of the entire population of the Federation. There were even a 
couple of humans living in Clarsu, the Federovs, who spoke in that 
strange snicky-snicky-snisk accent. No, the cruise ship also had 
Andorians and Tellarites, Vulcans and Bimms, even a tiny Fuzzy who 
had traded in his zatku-hodda for a briefcase. Some would stop off 
along the way, at Giesi, Puntab, Wilderness Station, or New Palnu; 
most were going all the way, going to New Avalon.
The passengers were slowly escorted to their cabins, and with 
a soft rumble the ship pushed away from the orbital station. From 
their cabin, Hikaru caught one last glimpse of the Three Lakes, so 
tiny on the globe turning below the ship. Then, the ship turned, 
and Hikaru was left staring at a blackness of space that matched 
her heart. One last glimpse of Salusia- a jewel of green, brown and 
blue- flickered through the window as the stars streaked to lines, 
and hyperspace's mottled not-light was shut out by the automatic 
blinds. 
	Hikaru spent the entire trip either sleeping or sulking; 
later on she wouldn't remember a bit of it.

	The Kumbarlyn school in New Avalon turned out to be a small 
studio in a strip mall in the northern suburbs of town. Satoru had 
not been informed of this break with tradition, and he informed the 
old master in polite but firm terms that he regarded himself 
misled. After much discussion, the purchase price of the studio was 
reduced, and instead of a new, cozy home the Shidou clan found 
themselves staying indefinitely in a Motel 6 while Satoru looked in 
vain for an affordable bit of land suitable for building a new home 
and meditation hall. 
	The younger brothers took no notice of Satoru's troubles, 
adapting almost instantly to the new situation. Kakeru registered 
his transfer at the Zeta Cygni campus of the Salusian Service 
Academy, then in two days breezed through the qualifications and 
transfer procedures for the WDF Academy Class of 2406. 
Masaru blew a substantial portion of his personal savings 
exploring the many and varied entertainments offered by the city of 
New Avalon. His spree was cut short when he discovered that the 
most entertaining thing in the city for him was the eighty-five 
centicreds per token New Avalon Transit Authority, AKA the 'N', 
which allowed him to go as far afield as the Zeta Cygni Speedzone 
or the Baxter Mountains. 
	Hikaru did her own exploring, mostly shopping for uniforms 
and supplies for freshman year at a human-style public school. Most 
of what she saw made her even more homesick. For one thing, the 
weather felt too warm for summer- not much, but just enough to be 
an irritant. For another, although there were many different races, 
human faces dominated the crowds; few Salusian faces, humanized or 
naturaform, and no other Kumbari race at all. She purchased a few 
sets of Rich Parker Memorial's red-and-blacks for girls and tried 
not to feel alone.
	The most irritating thing of all, she noted on the way back 
to the motel, was the city itself. Hikaru had always thought that 
Clarsu, or the ducal seat of Pegwe, were large cities, and Pegwe 
made her uncomfortable. New Avalon was a monster, with buildings 
taller than the Imperial Palace at Saenar, steel canyons hiding the 
sun and creating strange, evil- smelling winds at ground level, 
lonesome trees growing in strips or single stands among the 
pavement, sidewalks, skyways, and elevated trains. What green there 
was seemed trapped, tamed, herded like gorth on the Vindari 
steppes. 
Hikaru was lost in a forest of concrete, walking past iron 
thickets and under leaves of glass and steel, and the loneliness 
and homesickness closed tighter around her with every step. When 
she found her way back to the hotel, she stayed there, leaving the 
room only for the mealtime trips to the hotel's Waffle House 
franchise restaurant.
	Monday came at last, and a new school year began on New 
Avalon. For Hikaru and Masaru, that meant orientation and placement 
into the New Avalon thirteen-year school system. Satoru walked the 
two to Rich Parker Memorial High School and waited while the two 
spent their morning in placement tests. Hikaru struggled her way 
into the freshman class, narrowly avoiding demotion to the eighth 
grade, whatever that was.  Masaru had it worse; although he should 
have been a senior by age (he would have graduated secondary school 
on Salusia in another two years), his test scores placed him in the 
sophomore class, just barely ahead of Hikaru. 
	Having been placed into their proper curricula, Hikaru and 
Masaru parted for their assigned homerooms. Hikaru arrived at her 
new classroom about eleven, walking in as the teacher- a skinny 
human woman with her grey-streaked hair done up in a very 
unattractive bun- droned on about the year's required reading in 
the homeroom subject, Earth Literature (pre-Contact). Hikaru shut 
the door quietly and stood, waiting and listening politely, as the 
teacher kept lecturing, unaware of Hikaru's presence. It took the 
stares of half the classroom- virtually all human, Hikaru noted, 
except for a young elven boy in the very back corner- to call the 
teacher's attention to Hikaru. 
	"Good morning," the teacher said tightly, implying that it 
couldn't possibly be good at all with Hikaru in her life. "Do you 
have a tardy slip from the office?"
	"I... I'm Hikaru Shidou," Hikaru said. "My family just moved 
to New Avalon this week. I was in the office taking a test."
	"Ah," the teacher said, lightening up on her demeanor a bit. 
"May I see your paperwork, Ms. Shidou?" Hikaru handed the teacher 
the stack of papers from registration, and she flipped through them 
with an appraising eye. "I see you're from Salusia, Ms. Shidou. 
Please bear in mind that this school operates on a different 
curriculum than what you're used to. Don't be afraid to ask for 
help."
	Hikaru, not understanding at all, merely nodded her head. 
	"Well," the teacher sighed, "I don't want to go through three 
hours of orientation all over again. Instead, we'll just skip the 
rest of the syllabus for my class- which is, again, required- and 
go to selecting your course loads. Open your student handbooks-" 
she handed Hikaru one of the handbooks from the desktop and pointed 
Hikaru to an empty desk at the back of the room, next to the elf- 
"-to page twenty-four for a listing of all requirements for 
graduation. You will notice that there are four different diploma 
tracks- trades, general, honors, and advanced placement- available 
for you, depending on your choices..."
	Hikaru tuned out the teacher's lecturing, which had already 
gone into waters far too deep for her, and began reading the 
general diploma requirements herself. After a minute, she raised 
her hand slowly and asked, "Teacher?"
	The rest of the class groaned as the teacher grasped a large 
pointer from the chalkboard tray and slapped its tip against a 
nearly illegible cursive scrawl near the top. "My name is Mrs. 
Stephenson. MISSUS-" *slap-tap* "STEEP-HEN-SON!" (slap slap slap.) 
"I am not 'teacher' or 'sensei' or 'jan' or anything other than 
MISSUS- STEEP-HEN-SON!" (Slap-tap, slap-slap-slap.) "Class, say it 
for Ms. Shidou, please- MISSUS! STEEP-HEN-SON!" (Slap-tap, slap-
slap-slap.)
	"MIZZIZ! STEEP-HEN-SON!" (Slap-tap, slap-slap-slap.)
	"Very good, class. Now, Ms. Shidou, if you wish my attention, 
you raise your hand and wait silently until I call upon you. What 
do you need?"
	Hikaru, feeling about a foot tall at this point, held up her 
textbook and said, "I, um, the handbook says we're supposed to take 
eight classes a day. Classes begin at eight AM and end at three PM. 
With an hour for lunch and study hall, that leaves only three hours 
for all those classes... isn't that a little short?"
	The entire class, except the elf, stared at Hikaru in total
noncomprehension. Mrs. Stephenson spoke for all the humans present 
when she said, "I'm afraid I don't understand your question, Ms. 
Shidou."
	"How can you fit eight classes into the morning and still 
leave time for afternoon physical training?" Hikaru asked. 
	"Ah," Mrs. Stephenson said, pulling a thin book out of her 
drawer and flipping to 'S' under it. "I see the difficulty. I did 
warn you, Ms. Shidou, that our curriculum is different from yours. 
Salusian primary and secondary school runs on a thirty-year 
curriculum with half the time focused on physical fitness. This 
school does not put such a premium on physical education; we only 
require two credits of it in four years for graduation, with no 
more than one credit taken in any one year."
	"But one credit-"
	"Is a single forty-minute class, yes I know," Mrs. Stephenson 
said. "I'm afraid you'll be spending rather a bit more time with 
your schoolbooks than you'd anticipated, Ms. Shidou. Does this 
answer your question?"
	"Four-ears probably needs that extra gym time," an anonymous 
voice spoke from the student crowd. "She looks too stupid to pass 
anything else!" Laughter rang through the classroom, and while Mrs. 
Stephenson tried to bring the class to order and find the guilty 
party, Hikaru slid down into her desk, feeling about an -inch- tall 
now. Not only would her finely-trained body go to pot under such a 
lackluster regimen, but her ignorance had made her the joke of the 
class. 
	"The world is a loose-leaf binder," a quiet voice said from 
beside her, soft enough that no human could hear it, "and it's just 
fallen on top of you. Am I right?"
	Hikaru turned to look at the elf boy, who faced her with a 
soft, quiet expression. Light green hair framed a soft, 
contemplative face with soulful blue eyes. The effect wasn't quite 
ruined by the long, pointed ears which stuck out to either side. "I 
know exactly how you feel. My family moved here from Hyeruul last 
year, and ever since I feel like I'm drowning in schoolbooks."
	Hikaru looked at the reading list for Mrs. Stephenson's 
class- a book a week, every week, until May, including four 
Shakespeare plays over the winter holidays. Seven other classes 
like this one, she groaned to herself. Only one, -maybe- involving 
physical activity all day. Most of the subjects on the list were 
things she'd never touched before- calculus, Earth History Pre-
Renaissance, astrography, physics, a dozen different flavors of 
art... Hikaru's head began to spin.
	"It's worse for me," the elf said. "Hyeruul doesn't -have- a 
public school system. We're expected to teach our children in our 
homes. Fine for a bunch of rural village people, but not so good 
when dealing with races with one-tenth our lifespan." He shook his 
head, sighing, "Humans are so impatient.
	"By the way, I'm M'lyk'kan'thn'nyl 'S'trg'ken'tya," the elf 
said. "The humans call me Mark Anthony or Mike; you can call me 
either if you wish."
	"Thanks," Hikaru said. "I'm Hikaru. Nice to meet you." 
	Mark Anthony raised an eyebrow, and an ear along with it. 
"You don't seem very pleased."
	"I'm a long way from home," Hikaru sighed. "I wanna go 
-home-."

	Hikaru spent most of her lunch hour picking over her freshman 
courses. Since she planned to either carry on the Kumbarlyn school 
or become a forester when she grew up, she decided against the 
honors and advanced tracks. Instead, she picked what seemed like 
the most basic courses available to meet her requirements and, in 
the space remaining, picked electives in Earth history, biology, 
and fencing. The registration computer, in its wisdom, accepted her 
choices, chewed on them for a few seconds, and then ignored them. 
All her requirements jumped one level of difficulty. Biology 
vanished, replaced by home economics. Her fencing class wasn't 
merely replaced- athletics just plain evaporated, replaced by a 
language course she'd wanted to save for her sophomore year. 
	Centauri! she grumbled as she took her schedule to the 
administration office to complain. What language did she want to 
learn -less- than Centauri? Pak'led, maybe? Hyelian might have been 
interesting- her brief meeting with Mark Anthony had her curious- 
but the school didn't offer it, and, as the secretary explained 
patiently to her, the computer's final selections could not be 
changed in any case. After all, the computer knew best which 
courses Hikaru needed to take to round out her education.
	Depressed and hungry (she hadn't eaten at lunch, and it was 
too late now) she made the rounds of her new classes, on the 
accelerated afternoon schedule. Her locker was assigned, her 
handprint coded into the lock, and then she was off on a whirlwind 
of orientation. Textbooks were handed to her casually, with the 
usual dire warnings about the cost of replacing a damaged book. 
Computer sciences, the one class you'd expect to dispense 
altogether with hardcopy, gave her -two- textbooks. Home Economics 
loaded her down with -three-. Galactic Comparative Religions tossed 
six books onto her- the Bible, the Koran, the Edda, the Book of 
Love, the Book of Tr'yne, the Principia Discordia and the Testament 
of Kalidor- and promised more to come. 
	The grand prize winner of them all, however, was her 
homeroom, which loaded her down with the first two months' worth of 
reading all at once- Homer's Odyssey, Plato's Republic, Sun Tsu's 
Art of War, Tacitus' Observations, Beowulf, the Way of Confucius, 
the legends of Charlemagne, and the Tolkien translation of 'Gawain 
and the Green Knight.' By the time the last bell rang of the day, 
Hikaru was peeking out from behind a total of twenty-three books, 
stacked up so tall in her arms that she couldn't see over them.
	For that reason she never saw the leg stuck out in front of 
her until she stumbled forward over it. She caught herself before 
falling, but the stack of books continued forward, scattering 
across the carpeted hallway in a crashing wave of paper and 
cardboard.
	Laughter filled the hall as the owner of the offending leg 
stood up from his slouch against the wall and smiled down at the 
much shorter Hikaru. "Whoops," he said, full of fake solicitude. 
"Looks like clumsy little four-ears had an accident. Want some help 
with your books?" He bent down as if to pick one up, then kicked it 
hard enough to send it down the stairwell at the end of the hall. 
"Aww, how clumsy of me."
	Hikaru, not being any kind of fool, had made a fist with her 
right hand and was just about to send the offensive human to the 
Land of Nod when she noticed the hand clamped down on his shoulder. 
"Excuse me," the hand's owner said, "but you had better not be 
picking on my sister."
	Masaru was almost as much taller than the punk as the punk 
was taller than Hikaru. The unfriendly stare boring down on said 
punk from above caught his attention almost as well as Hikaru's 
fist would have done. "Ah, no, of course not," the punk smiled, 
picking up one of Hikaru's books and handing it to her without 
taking his eyes off of Masaru. "That would be unhealthy, wouldn't 
it?"
	"Extremely," Masaru said. "Get lost." Masaru released the 
punk's shoulder, and the punk backed away until his foot caught one 
of the slick-covered computer science books. He flopped gracelessly 
backwards to the delight of the same students who'd laughed at 
Hikaru. With a sheepish grin, he crab-walked backwards, not 
righting himself until reaching the stairwell; then he just plain 
fled.
	"MASARU!" Hikaru snapped, looking up angrily at her brother. 
"I could have taken care of him!"
	A smaller shadow crossed her brother's; Mrs. Stephenson 
looked at the students and the scattered books and said coldly, "I 
trust you were not fighting, Mr. Shidou?"
	"No, ma'am," Masaru answered politely.
	"Good," Mrs. Stephenson nodded. "If you had been, I would 
have had to stop it..." She looked angrily towards the stairwell 
and added, "I would very much have hated to do so, considering how 
much trouble that young man gave me last year." Turning her 
attention back to Hikaru, she snapped, "Pick up your books, Ms. 
Shidou. Tomorrow morning I shall quiz you on the first section of 
Beowulf, concerning Beowulf and Grendel. The quiz will be graded, 
so be prepared. First thing tomorrow morning." With that, Mrs. 
Stephenson picked up the book in question, slapped it into Hikaru's 
open hands, and strode off down the corridor. 
	"Well," Masaru smiled, hugging his little sister's shoulders, 
"that wasn't so bad at all, was it?"
	Hikaru glared at Masaru and said, "-YOU- don't have homework 
tonight," then began picking up her books. She noticed Masaru's 
empty hands, and halfway through restacking her load, she asked, 
"Where are all -your- books?"
	Masaru shrugged. "You don't have to take -all- your books 
home -every- night. You'll just have to lug 'em back to school 
again the next day. Here," he said, picking up the rest of Hikaru's 
books, "I'll help you carry these home, and tomorrow you can see 
for yourself, 'kay?"
	Scowling at her carefree brother, Hikaru walked with him back 
to the motel, thinking about planet-sized notebooks, mountain 
ranges of textbooks, and a sea of laughing human faces surrounded 
by ugly concrete cliffs. 
	Hell, Hikaru thought to herself, I am in Hell. I wanna go 
HOME.

	Hikaru stopped by the hotel room just long enough to drop off 
her books. Masaru vanished almost instantly. Kakeru had left for 
the WDF Academy dormitories. Satoru was either giving or receiving 
lessons at the Kumbarlyn school. Left to her own devices, Hikaru 
decided to get awayfrom the hotel, away from the city, as far away 
as she could without actually running away. As an afterthought she 
stuffed the slim volume of Beowulf into her satchel before rushing 
out to catch the N. 
	Hikaru's desire for elbow room worked against her, as she 
chose the least crowded train cars without regard to destination. 
She ended up in Union Station at about 3:50 PM, as deep into the 
heart of the city as she could be. Frustrated, she gave up on the N 
and walked outside, past the vast pyramid of Aztechnology, the 
soaring spire of GENOM Tower, the relentlessly art-deco titan that 
was the Entire State, and through the caverns made by the lesser 
skyscrapers of downtown New Avalon. 
	Half an hour of unattentive wandering brought her to 
Shoreline Boulevard, and only when the sound of shoes clacking on 
concrete changed to the rustle of grass did she take note of her 
surroundings. Behind her, a wall of skyscrapers and elevated 
highways blotted out the horizon, but in front of her was the vast 
expanse of Lake Daniels, and a short distance offshore, islands.
	Green islands. Forested islands. Three or four with small 
villages on them, reminding Hikaru of the hills on the outskirts of 
Clarsu. The largest island, however, lay out several kilometers 
from the shoreline, its rolling green expanse broken only by the 
speeder port on the northern tip. As she stared, she saw a large 
speeder ferry lift like a fly from the island and soar, thirty feet 
above the water's surface, towards the city. It landed a couple of 
blocks away, in one of the smaller docks of the Downtown Ferry 
Terminal, and Hikaru ran to catch it before it flew off again.
	Most of the ferries were operated by various droids- Hikaru 
counted two Cybot Galactica C-series and a Sirius Cybernetics 
Corporation android, plus a few she couldn't identify- but the 
ferry she wanted lay under the hand of a living person, a grizzled 
old Sirian with black fur turning grey at the muzzle. Hikaru, for 
the first time, gave thought to the humanization process and felt 
embarrassed at having lost her fine, shiny white coat. "Um," she 
said, "does this ferry go out to that island over there?"
	"You mean Great Cranberry Isle? Itt certainly does," the 
Sirian grinned, "whenever I feel like it. Not a lot of passengers 
on this run. There's nothing over there," he pointed to the island, 
"except trees, hills and rocks. You still want to go?"
	"Sure!" Hikaru said, smiling for the first time that day. 
Trees, hills, rocks, and water- a perfect place to be alone in. 
	"Well," the ferryman said, tail wagging slowly, "get yourself 
a seat, young lady, and we'll have you over there in just a few 
minutes." 

	The ferryman docked the ferry long enough to let Hikaru off 
and to warn her to be at the dock no later than eight PM if she 
didn't want to stay the night. "It can get nippy out on the lake at 
night," he said, "even in summer, so you be here, right?"
	"Yes, sir!" Hikaru bowed to the ferryman before dashing off 
past the cluster of boathouses and shelters into the forest. It 
took mere moments for the ferry to be lost to sight, cut off by the 
trees. The trees seemed young to Hikaru, young and strange, but the 
smell of the thick pile of leaves underfoot, the humidity under the 
trees' broad branches, and the quiet sighing of the great lake's 
waters all reminded Hikaru of home. 
	Laughing, Hikaru ran tirelessly through the trees, up and 
down hills, jumping across high roots and ducking beneath low 
branches. Once she swung herself up onto a low-hanging branch and 
spent a few minutes running from tree to tree, before a beech 
tree's loose bark dumped her back to the forest floor. Finally, 
Hikaru found a small clearing, grass waving in the afternoon breeze 
that fell down through the gap in the trees. In the center of the 
clearing, a group of mushrooms formed a ring, and Hikaru sat down 
in the middle of the mushrooms, pulled the book out of her satchel, 
and began reading the dry, analytical introduction to Beowulf. 

	(*Asia, "Aqua I," Aqua*)

	As Hikaru struggled through the explanation of the Earth 
bardic tradition, she began to imagine the sound of a bard in a 
crowded, torch-lit hall, picking notes on a harp as he spoke. It 
took a moment for her to realize that the soft strumming of strings 
wasn't her imagination. Her primary ears perked up as she tried to 
locate the faint sound, zeroing in on the direction almost 
instantly. The song seemed half-sad, half-contemplative, and all 
ethereal... and Hikaru wanted to know who was playing it.
	Hikaru couldn't remember putting the book back in her satchel 
or leaving the clearing, only the run through golden shafts of 
light and the shadows of a hundred Earth trees. The sound of the 
harp strings grew louder as she ran, until she stopped at the edge 
of a much smaller clearing- in reality, an open grove instead of an 
actual break in the woods- and saw the elf playing the music.
	Hikaru was shocked to discover that the harp sounds were 
wrought not from a harp or lute, but from a cheap-looking acoustic 
guitar. The long fingers and slender hands which held it danced 
slowly across the strings, without glove or pick, repeating the 
melody again as the guitar's owner nodded the slow beat with closed 
eyes. Around him, a few birds gathered in the trees, watching him 
closely, and a squirrel bounced across the thin grass for a closer 
look.
	The music ended with a sour SPANG, and the elf nearly dropped 
the guitar, shaking his playing hand and saying several nonsense 
words which Hikaru guessed, from the expression on his face, was 
very foul language indeed. The birds scattered, the squirrel fled 
up a tree and scolded the two, and the sun slipped behind a thin 
cloud, leaving Hikaru staring at an elf in ordinary clothes rubbing 
a red welt on his hand. 
	"Are you all right?" she asked hesitantly. 
	The elf looked up from his hand and noticed his audience. "It 
will be. I'll put some salve on it when I get home." He smiled a 
quiet, shy-looking smile and added, "I'm sorry if I disturbed you. 
I thought I'd have this island to myself this late on a Monday."
	"That's okay," Hikaru smiled. "It was beautiful. I'm sorry 
about the string."
	The elf shrugged. "It happens. I like to get away from the 
house when I'm practicing a new song. Out here I can make mistakes 
without my wife laughing, scolding, or," he flexed his hand by way 
of demonstration, "fussing over me. This is a good place for being 
alone."
	Hikaru nodded, her smile fading as she remembered why she'd 
left the hotel room in the first place. "I know," she said. She'd 
managed to forget about the day at school, her homesickness, 
everything. Now the woods around her no longer comforted her; 
instead, the wind in the branches mocked her, singing of her home 
back in Clarsu that she'd probably never see again.
	The elf pretended not to notice Hikaru's mood, extending a 
friendly hand and saying, "My friends call me Tom. What's yours?"
	"Hikaru," she mumbled, giving Tom's hand a light shake. 
"You're the second elf I've met today."
	"Did the other one have a long unpronounceable name with a 
lot of apostrophes in it?" Tom asked.
	"Long name, yeah," Hikaru said. "I don't know about 
apostrophes. How can you hear an apostrophe?"
	"It sounds like this," Tom smiled, and made a little sound 
like an interrupted burp. "All the other sounds drown it out, but 
you can hear it if you have ears this big." He twitched his long, 
pointed ears meaningfully, and Hikaru couldn't help but laugh. 
	"That's better," he said. "You look a lot cuter when you 
smile." He shifted the strap of his guitar around and slid the 
instrument onto his back, then knelt down a little to be at eye 
level with Hikaru. "Now what's troubling you so much, Hikaru?"
	Hikaru shrugged in that universal teenage gesture that means 
the universe is out to get them. "Homesick," she said. "Daddy left 
us five years ago so we had to sell our home and move to New 
Avalon. And everything here is buildings and gardens and cars and 
landspeeders and everyone hates me at the school and they want to 
dump all this schoolwork on me and... oh, I just wanna go HOME!!"
	Tom nodded sagely, leaned back against a tree (carefully, so 
as not to hurt the guitar) and looked thoughtful for a moment. 
"Well," he said, "you certainly do have it rough."
	Hikaru watched and listened. Somehow she knew that the next 
words to come from Tom's mouth would be profound, touching, and 
would provide the solution to all of her troubles. 
	Hikaru was wrong. "Unfortunately, I've never been homesick in 
my life," Tom said. "I couldn't -wait- to leave Hyeruul, and I've 
only been back about four times since. I'm pretty much at home 
wherever I am."
	"Thanks a lot," Hikaru muttered.
	"But wanting to get out of the city," Tom said, "-that- I can 
understand. That's why I volunteer as park ranger here- it gives me 
an excuse to get out among the trees, the squirrels-"
	A loud, high-pitched howl rang through the trees.
	"The wolves?" Hikaru asked.
	"Wolves?!?" Tom nearly fell on top of his guitar. "There 
aren't supposed to be any wolves on this island!"
	A second howl followed, cut off by a canine squeal of pain.
"Something's in trouble!" Hikaru shouted, and she was off like a 
shot into the brush, the red of her school uniform fading into the 
deepening shadows of the forest.
	"Hey, wait! Come back!" Tom shouted, chasing after Hikaru, 
barely keeping her in sight as she zeroed in on the loud growls and 
yips of two fighting canines. When he finally caught up to her, she 
was standing between two large dogs; one could have been a wolf, 
grey, black, and shaggy, lying on the ground with large claw marks 
in its sides. The other was unmistakably a feral dog of mixed 
breeds; a thick coat of orange fur, leading up to a stiff mane 
around the head, atop a lithe but powerful body that stood slightly 
higher than hip-height on Tom at the shoulder. This dog was 
snarling, head lowered, at Hikaru, whose held her fists at the 
ready. 
	"Go home!" she shouted, stepping towards the big orange dog. 
"Go away! I don't want to hurt you!" The dog, already angry at the 
intruders on his territory, charged Hikaru, running and leaping to 
bring her to the ground. Hikaru ducked underneath the leap and, as 
the dog passed overhead, sprung up to punch him in the gut. The hit 
lifted the dog up and flipped him over; he landed on his back, 
bouncing, then rolling over onto his feet. Hikaru, meantime, picked 
herself up from her hands and knees; for the first time she missed 
her tail, and the counterbalance it provided her when fighting.
	Hikaru and the dog circled each other slowly, Hikaru watching 
silently as the dog growled its defiance at her. After a long, 
tense minute, the dog charged again, this time running low and 
fast. Before it could seize her leg, Hikaru spun around and brought 
her fist down onto the dog's skull, knocking it chin-first into the 
dirt. 
	The dog was slow to get up, and Hikaru didn't give it time; 
she brought both hands down to hold its neck to the ground. The dog 
struggled, unable to break Hikaru's hold or work its jaws around to 
snap at her. Slowly, barks and growls turned to yips of fear, and 
when Hikaru finally released it, the dog scrambled away, tail 
between its legs, pausing only momentarily to look back at Hikaru 
in fear. 
	"Now, what was the phrase my former commanding officer would 
have used? Oh yes," Tom said, stepping out from behind the tree and 
swinging his guitar by the neck. "KABONG!" he shouted, as with a 
thunk of wood and a jangle of strings the guitar struck the dog in 
the hindquarters. This was the last straw; the dog, outfought and 
confused, fled, leaving Tom and Hikaru alone in the gathering 
twilight.
	The grey dog whined softly, its tail wagging slowly as it 
looked at the two of them. Hikaru rushed to its side, looking the 
wounded dog over; Tom followed more cautiously, mindful of how an 
injured animal may react to strangers. After a few seconds, Hikaru 
asked, "Do you have a phone on you?"
	"No," Tom said softly. "No phone, no communicator, nothing. I 
didn't want to be disturbed."
	Hikaru sighed, stroking the grey dog's thick fur. "Then we're 
too late," she said simply, and hugged the large animal gently 
around the neck, wiping her tears in the blood-matted fur. Even in 
the sunset light, it was obvious the dog's eyes were glazing, its 
breath labored; even so, it nuzzled back at Hikaru's hugs, wagging 
its tail weakly at her soft voice. 
	"Yip!" A smaller bundle of fur crawled from behind the grey 
dog, tiny black eyes looking up at Hikaru. The larger dog looked 
down and slowly nudged the puppy towards Hikaru, giving him a lick. 
Hikaru released the larger dog's neck and looked down at the little 
pup, who barked back at her. 
	"Protecting her cub?" Tom guessed. 
	Hikaru nodded, stroking the mother's headfur slowly as she 
watched the little pup walk around. The mother looked up at Hikaru, 
leaned slowly up on its forepaws, and licked her on the cheek; then 
she lay down and closed her eyes, her breathing slowing and, after 
a few watchful minutes, stopping altogether.
	The puppy nuzzled against her inert body, yipping playfully 
at first, then whining sadly as no response came. Choking back a 
sob, Hikaru picked the puppy up and held it in her arms; beside 
her, Tom rested a hand on her shoulder and guided her back, step by 
step, towards the ferry dock.

	Halfway back, Tom paused to pull a flashlight from his 
pocket. Hikaru could still see without a light- the sun had just 
set a few minutes before, and they had at least half an hour before 
the last ferry left the dock. Apparently the light made Tom feel 
better, for after he switched it on, he he broke the long silence. 
"When I get home, I'm going to call the county park service and get 
animal control out here on the island."
	Hikaru looked up from the puppy, asleep in her arms. "I 
thought you were the park ranger," she said.
	"Technically, there isn't one," Tom said. "The last full-time 
ranger retired four years ago, and the Avalon County Park Service 
hasn't been able to find anyone willing to live on this island, 
even rent-free. Speeders are prohibited off the dock, to say 
nothing of cars and the like, and the ferry runs when the ferryman 
feels like running it. Nobody wants to live here unless they can 
own and develop the land, and the Park Service isn't selling."
	"You mean there's a house on this island?" Hikaru asked.
	"A couple, actually," Tom said. "Gryphon built a small cabin 
here, but he only used it once before donating the island to the 
parks. It has all the facilities- here," he said, pointing the 
flashlight down towards the handful of lights at the ferry dock. 
"You see those two buildings over away from the rest? With the 
fishing pier? That's the rangers' cabin and dojo."
	"Dojo?" Hikaru asked. The word was familiar, but it took a 
few seconds to remember why. "Oh! That's what humans call a 
meditation hall."
	"Um... I guess," Tom said. "Gryphon's into martial arts. 
Grand Master of his school of swordfighting. He always has some 
sort of-"
	"Swordfighting??" Hikaru couldn't believe her ears. This 
sounded better and better. "Can we go and see, please? We have 
time!" It couldn't be true. She just -had- to see for herself! A 
forest- a lake- a proper meditation hall- and all for free?

	Satoru and Masaru were waiting for her when Hikaru returned 
to the hotel room. "Where have you been?" Satoru asked. Looking at 
the gray, squirming bundle of fur in her arms, he added, "And where 
did you get that thing? This hotel doesn't allow pets without a 
deposit!"
	"We are keeping him." Hikaru's voice and glare made it plain 
that she was not going to accept any argument  on the subject. "He 
lost hismother today and I'm going to take care of him from now on, 
do you understand?" The puppy barked his agreement, wriggling his 
forepaws up over Hikaru's arms. 
	"He's just like you, Hikaru!" Masaru laughed, reaching down 
to ruffle the puppy's fur. "A regular little Hikari for Hikaru!" 
Hikari barked again, liking the sound of his new name. 
	"Nonetheless, we cannot keep him," Satoru frowned. "I have 
not yet been able to find a place for our school within our budget, 
and I do not know how much longer we will be required to stay at 
this hotel."
	Hikaru handed her puppy to Masaru and pulled a piece of paper 
out of her satchel. "I found our home today," she said. "My friends 
Tom and the ferryman had to wake up some people at the parks 
department, but I got you an application. All you have to do is 
agree to work part time as a caretaker for the park, and we can 
live on the island for free and use the meditation hall there for 
our school!"
	Satoru wasn't following this at all. "What home? What island? 
What ferryman?" He scanned the application, hoping for 
enlightenment there.
	"Eeeew! Bad, bad Hikari!" Masaru held the puppy, which had 
just wet on his shirt, at arm's length. 
	Satoru ignored Masaru, reading with greater interest the 
application and attached documentation. "I will have to examine the 
site myself," he said at last, "and the ferry will have to be made 
regular so that students can attend classes..." He looked at 
Hikaru, who was reclaiming the puppy from her brother. "You will 
have to drop the puppy off at an animal doctor on your way to 
school tomorrow," he said. "Call the closest one you can find and 
make an appointment, and then we shall go to the Waffle House for 
dinner."
	"Yes, sir!" Hikaru smiled, setting Hikari down on the floor 
as she keyed up the room's comconsole and flipped through the 
veterinarian listings. Things, she thought, were definitely looking 
up.

	In the desk next to Hikaru, Mark Anthony rubbed his head and 
groaned. He'd stayed up too late the previous night studying, and 
Mrs. Stephenson had interrupted his morning nap with a well-thrown 
eraser. Hikaru herself was wide awake and alert, waiting with great 
trepidation for the promised quiz on Beowulf, which had been a 
quick read once she'd finished the boring introduction.
	The first few questions were simple data questions- who built 
the great hall, where did Grendel live, what country was Beowulf 
from- designed to prove that Hikaru had actually read the story. 
These Hikaru fielded with ease, the story still fresh in her mind. 
It was the more complex questions that worried Hikaru, and Mrs. 
Stephenson wasn't long in coming up with them.
	"So," Mrs. Stephenson said at last, "Ms. Shidou, what kind of 
story do you think Beowulf is? An epic? A morality play? An 
allegory for the human condition?"
	"What do I know about the human condition?" Hikaru asked. 
"I'm a Salusian, not a human, and what I read was an adventure 
story! You have a good guy and a bad guy, the good guy beats the 
bad guy, and there's a sequel. Nothing to it!"
	"I see..." Mrs. Stephenson scribbled something on her paper, 
then continued, "How effective did you find the meter of the bardic 
verse?"
	This was a question Hikaru hadn't anticipated. "Huh? Um... I 
didn't really notice. I was too busy reading the story. All that 
stuff about the dark feasting hall, the slimy misshapen Grendel 
coming to do his murderous work,and Beowulf kicking the living 
daylights out of him- um," she blushed a little bit at her 
outspokenness, "that's what I was paying attention to, Mrs. 
Stephenson."
	"Ah," Mrs. Stephenson nodded, scribbled a few more notes, 
then picked up a copy of Beowulf and read aloud:

Out from the Marsh, from the Foot of Misty
Hills and Bogs, Bearing god's Hatred...

	Hikaru blinked as Mrs. Stephenson emphasized the words, her 
voice providing a slow, threatening cadence to the lines of the 
saga. Her mind filled in the capital letters whenever Mrs. 
Stephenson hit a beat, as her mind echoed with the strum of a lone 
harp in a crowded wooden hall.

Grendel Came, Hoping to Kill
anyOne he could Trap on this Trip to High Herot.
he moved Quickly Through the Cloudy Night,
Up from his Swampland, Sliding Silently
to that Gold-shining Hall.  he had Visited Hrothgar's
Home beFore, Knew the Way - 
but Never, Before nor After that Night,
found Herot deFended so Firmly, his reCeption
so Harsh.  he Journeyed, forEver Joyless,
Straight to the Door, then Snapped it Open,
Tore its Iron Latches with a Touch
and Rushed Angrily Over the Threshold.
He strode Quickly aCross the Inlaid
Floor, Snarling and Fierce; his Eyes
Gleamed in the Darkness, Burned with a Gruesome
Light.  then he Stopped, Seeing the Hall
Crowded with Sleeping Warriors, Stuffed
with Rows of young Soldiers Resting Together.
and his Heart Laughed, he Relished the Sight,
Intended to Tear the Life from those Bodies
by Morning; the Monster's Mind was Hot
with the Thought of Food and the Feasting his Belly
would soon Know. 

	Mrs. Stephenson closed the book, chuckling to herself as she 
noted the group of spellbound students centered around Hikaru. "It 
sometimes helps, Ms. Shidou, to read the older works aloud as they 
were meant to be read. You weren't paying attention in the 
introduction about the importance of meter and cadence to the 
storytellers. Still, there is one other question I have for you." 
She smiled coldly at Hikaru, staring down her nose at  her as she 
asked, "What do you think Beowulf has to say about the -Salusian- 
condition?"
	Hikaru gave it a moment's thought, trying to think of what 
the critics and literary experts expected her to pick up. Nothing 
came to mind. Desperate for an answer, she went with her gut 
response: "I think it says that every once in a while, there comes 
a time when a person just has to get in there and kick some ass!!" 
	A second too late she realized that 'ass' was not approved 
language for young human company, and -especially- not for a 
classroom, and -most especially- not to one's teacher. The 
classroom erupted with laughter, and it took several seconds of 
rapping with the chalkboard pointer for Mrs. Stephenson to call the 
room to order... and for Hikaru to get her blush under 
control.
	When the snickering subsided to a tolerable level, Stephenson 
smiled an honest smile and said, "Good answer, Hikaru."
	The snickering went totally silent. The class stared at 
Hikaru and Mrs. Stephenson as the teacher continued, "Sometimes a 
cigar is just a cigar, to use Sigmund Freud's most famous quote. No 
matter what some so-called expert says, there is -not- a hidden 
message in every bit of fine literature, nor does hiding a message 
make a piece of literature 'high art.' 
	"This class isn't to tell you what you should and shouldn't 
like,students. This class is here to expose you to the broadest 
possible range of Earth literature so that you may decide for 
yourselves whether or not you like it.. and -why- you do or don't 
like it. I'm not here to tell you that all Shakespeare is golden 
prose- anyone who's ever read 'Coriolanus' knows that's a lie," she 
smirked. "But you -will- be able to tell me how the author did what 
they did, and why they were or weren't successful in entertaining 
you.
	"And when it comes to the question of, 'was it good or not,' 
there are no right or wrong answers." Folding her arms, she 
concluded, "B for you, Ms. Shidou; I recommend you read about 
poetic meter in the style book over the coming week. In the 
meantime, class," Stephenson said, seating herself at the desk, 
"since this is a short week, let us turn away from ancient Europe 
for now in favor of ancient China, during the Warring States 
period. Sun Tsu and the Art of War shall be our first assignment... 
light reading for a light week. Mr. Kalak, please begin reading 
from Chapter One, beginning on Page Thirteen."

	In full daylight, the house on Great Cranberry Island shone 
with its fresh coat of red paint, the baskets of roses under each 
window still blooming after a gentle summer. Hikaru had helped 
Satoru, Masaru, and the ferryman bring the last of their personal 
belongings into the house, and now she sat on the front porch 
cuddling little Hikari, thinking about this and that. 
	It was a peculiar house, at least to Hikaru� and NOT one 
she would have described as, "a little cabin." The core section- a 
cozy little two-story, four-bedroom farmhouse- had been added on to 
here for a laundry room, there for a fusion power plant, again for 
an entire new house for guests staying the night. There were seven 
bedrooms in all, three with their own bathrooms- Hikaru had chosen 
one of those- two kitchens, two living rooms, and of course the 
"dojo."
	Hikaru had never seen such a magnificent private hall in her 
life. It was nearly as big as the public hall at Pegwe used for the 
certification of masters of the art. Compared to the Kumbarlyn 
meditation halls she'd seen, the dojo seemed fragile, with doors 
and windows made of paper and walls of light, smooth wood. A bit of 
testing showed that nothing was as it appeared; the paper held in 
heat and wouldn't tear, and not even Hikaru could punch through the 
walls. Practice dummies, workout clothes in various sizes, and even 
human-style kendo practice swords had been stockpiled thoughtfully 
by the original owner, and never used by the handful of park 
rangers since.
	Outside, the house was surrounded by woods on two sides, a 
large grassy meadow on the third, and the lake on the fourth. A 
small wall had been erected on the upslope, forest side of the 
house to guide potential snowslides away from the buildings. At the 
rocky shoreline, a long fishing pier jutted out into the lake, 
pointing like a finger towards the lakeward end of Main Street, New 
Avalon. On the edge of the meadow, a small pile of earth rose to 
cover Hikari's mother's body; Tom had helped dig the grave earlier 
in the afternoon.
	Hikaru watched the shadow of Cranberry Hill flow across the 
ground as the sun slipped behind the island. Above her, the orange 
light of sunset reminded her of the long, glorious afternoons of a 
Clarsu summer, or the short, brisk days of the long Kumbar winter. 
The home was strange, but welcoming; the people a mix of friendly 
and unfriendly, as back home. School was a bit tougher, but she 
could learn to adapt, especially since the computer had given her 
fencing class back again. 
	Yes, Hikaru smiled to herself, leaning back in that strange 
human invention called a 'rocking chair', it's good to be home.
	And across the inlet, the late afternoon sun shone on the 
glittering, beautiful jewel that was New Avalon.

               UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES: FUTURE IMPERFECT
                      IF YOU CAN MAKE IT THERE

CAST						Start spreadin' the news
Satoru Shidou					I'm leaving today
Mysune Ysagg					I want to be a part of it
Hikaru Shidou					New Avalon
Masaru Shidou
Kakeru Shidou					This hyperspace cruise
Gladys Stephenson				Will bear me away
Charles 'Gabby' Wendt			Right to the very heart of it
M'lyk'kan'thn'nyl 'S'trg'ken'tya		New Avalon
Esteban Shaughnessey
Raelkur Ralph					I wanna wake up in the jewel of 
Tom M'krelth'nyr'knet					the galactic night
Mama						I'm gonna find me a place
Baby							In the city of light
Hikari
Kaim Kalak					These Outer-Rim blues
						Are melting away
Travel Agent					I'll make a brand new start of it 
Kris Overstreet				In New Avalon

Mayor of Simpleton				If I can make it there
Benjamin D. Hutchins				I'll make it anywhere
						It's up to you, New Avalon
Consul from Hyeruul
Martin Rose
						I wanna wake up in the jewel of
With additional assistance by			the galactic night
Philip J. Moyer				I'm gonna be the brightest thing
and the EPU Usual Suspects				In the city of light
						
Apologies to Fred Ebb			These Salusian blues
and Joe Kander				Are melting away
						I'll gonna make the most of it
� 2001						In New Avalon

A White Lightning Production		Yes, I can make it there
in association with				I can make it anywhere
Eyrie Productions, Unltd.			It's me and you, New Avalon

Merry Christmas				(dum, dum, dah da dah da, etc.)

                          ... and life goes on...


Kris Overstreet, aka Redneck Gaijin
publisher, White Lightning Prod. - www.wlpcomics.com

Laugh, make merry, and make love...
do not let the terrorists win.


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             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'