$Now to reply to a few before I C&C anyone else.

Oopsie: Not sure how I missed these other October fics, Going to do this
one
in chunks:

	$I understand well.  It did end up kinda large.

Finally!  I've only been working on this chapter for over six months.

Wow! Though at the rate I'm going, that might be when I get my next fic
done
^_^

	$Surely not!

Of course, it DID end up being somewhere around 260k.

I think I had one nearly 220K once, but that was it. Congrats on beating
me.

	$If I didn't have a reason for there being seven chapters in Aurora of
Rainbow Fire, I would have broken this and chapter six up into three
chapters each.

  I really hope

this part goes through, it's bigger than the original Needful Things.

Bigger than the Stephen King novel? I am impressed. ^_^

	$Damn having the same title.

Hopefully better, too.

Just for your added entertainment, I reccomend downloading a copy of
Sir Mix-a-lot's Baby Got Back and having it ready to play when you're
reading this.  You'll know when to play it.  Yes, I tried my first
songfic.

Heh. Amusing.

	$I think it worked out pretty well, given the tone of the series.

Sunlight streamed down through the cloudless sky, bringing
new life and vitality to the jungle.  The temperature rose
steadily, evaporating much of the rain that hadn't soaked into
the ground and giving everything a musky, sticky pall.

Wow! Just like my backyard.

	$And mine.

High in one of the tallest trees around, Kiyone slept
soundly, both hands grasping the limb behind her and her feet
crossed behind the branch that supported the other end of her
makeshift hammock.  Her hair was tangled and matted, full of
twigs, leaves, and dirt,

and mostly naked, as I recall.

	$Only mostly.  ^_^

as well as a broad selection of the

native wildlife.  She could be considered a ravishing beauty, a
being straight from the most precious of fantasies, but only to a
trained entomologist.

Heh.

	$^_^  I had a lot of fun with the tree and the monkeys.

Another, more primitive humanoid shared the hammock with
her, a medium sized monkey curled up on her chest and stomach,
well out of reach of any possible predators

Not counting Kiyone, who was the most lethal predator of them all. ^_^

	$Even she ran from the leopard.

A particularly raucous scream in a nearby tree caused the
monkey to jerk awake, instantly scanning for

scanning the trees (sounds better to me)

Chittering in delight, the monkey scrambled down the tree
and hurried off to find its family troop.

Several minutes later, Kiyone woke as well, groaning in
agony as once silent muscles made themselves known to her again.
Carefully, she brushed as many bugs as possible off and scratched
herself all over, paying particular attention to her tangled

the tangled (sounds better again)

	$True.  Will change.

 mass

of hair on her head, which seemed a few short steps from getting
up and running off of its own accord.  Her thighs and crotch were
also subjected to vigorous scratching, eliciting many small cries
of delight as she finally stopped some of the itching.

Or, in other words, Kiyone woke up that morning just like
men do every day.

Yeah, pretty much.

	$I wonder why that is, really.

Again, it wasn't easy.  The knots had swollen with water
during the night, rendering them all but impossible to untie.
Several broken and bent nails later,

Wouldn't expect her nails to be long since she is an officer.

	$Well, they are short, but even short nails break.

 plus climbing around to the

other limb to get that side, Kiyone finally looped the clothes
around her middle and tied them off with a few simple knots.  The
bra she left where it was, deciding that it was far too much
effort to retrieve.

And making herself eye candy for any pygmies watching.

	$Damn straight.

Scratching awkwardly, she planned her route down.

Falling was easiest, but carried the most risks.

	$Heh, yeah.

Kiyone chuckled at the difficulty.  Her initial ascent had
been based so much on speed she had practically skimmed up the
tree, touching it only briefly before launching herself up to a
new handhold.  Now she'd be a bit more careful, however.

drop 'however'. Perhaps 'She had to be a bit more careful' and drop the
contraction.

	$Alright.

One of the things about free climbing was that it made her
very aware of her body as muscles strained and fingers slipped.
Very recently she had became aware of several somethings crawling
around on her head, back, ankle, and in her pubic hair.

That's what she gets for not taking care of the crab problem she had.
Nothing worse than space herpes, after all.

	$Actually, they're all earth lice.  But I make that joke later.

Her short second scream was punctuated by several grunts
and groans as she fought for grip, nearly finding purchase once
but her downward momentum proved too much for it.  She ended up
sliding almost another ten feet before she successfully halted.

Against bare skin that's going to hurt.

	$A bit.

Misjudging her speed and distance, she put a hand where a
foot should have gone.  Suddenly she was falling again, and this
time there was no stopping it.

Twenty-two feet were covered in the blink of an eye, and
Kiyone landed heavily on the ground with an "OOOF!"

Ouch.

	$Fortunately, she missed the roots.

Only when she was covered in so many red marks that she
looked like she'd been beat with a freshly inked wet road map did
she stop, and then it was to examine one of the insects that had
been plaguing her.

She didn't know its actual species, but it did look a lot
like the common louse, which she knew from school.  Another one
was immediately recognizable from the time Ryo-Ohki had been
infested with fleas.

Blech! Now that paints quite the picture.

	$Ryo-Ohki and fleas?  Yeah, kinda harsh, I'll admit.  I do worse to the
poor cabbit later, though.

The poor lost GP officer immediately pulled on her clothes
and started searching for a river or lake, intending to drown her
pests if nothing else.

Probably get a croc to try and nibble on her.

	$Wouldn't be Africa without it.

The water tasted strongly of decay and mud, and was quite
gritty in her mouth, but it, too was welcome after almost a day
without.  She drank deeply, filling her stomach as much as she
felt able.  Hunger pains hadn't set in yet, but she had sweated
out much of her body fluids in the jungle heat.

Wait until she gets a case of the runs and has to leaf it.

	$Again, wait for it.

Once back in water only about as deep as her chest, she
lowered herself in the water

she doesn't need to lower herself if it only comes up to her chest.

	$Why not?  She's dunking her head and doesn't want to go out any
further.

 >

They were larger, and their tails didn't look like they
could be used for grasping like the other one's had.  Longer
faces and bright, hairless bottoms further served to set them
apart.  One yawned hugely, displaying a fearsome set of canine
teeth.

Of further interest was that one of them was draped in her
shirt, two were playing tug of war with her skirt, and another
was climbing a nearby tree with her panties in its mouth.

This is going to be bad for her.

	$She's got to end up naked at some point or another.

"HEY!" she yelled, startling all of them.  "You bring that
back!  Leave those alone!" she cried, splashing toward the bank
to retrieve her clothes.

Mistake. Now they'll run for it.

They scattered,

Yep.

	$She's not thinking too clearly for the purposes of this fic.

"Alright, you forced my hand," she grumbled, searching for
a rock to throw.

Unfortunately, there were none to be had.  The bank was
made entirely of mud and tree roots.

It would just make them run for it anyway.

	$That's fine with her, as long as they drop their loot.

As expected, the wad broke apart immediately, peppering
over half the group with small pellets of dirt.  The troop
screeched in alarm and scattered, running along the limbs towards
trees on the other side.  Fortunately, both her panties and the
shirt were dropped in the confusion, landing with soft splashes
close by her skirt, which was just starting to sink beneath the
surface.  If she hurried, she could get all of her clothes back.

But I doubt she'll be so lucky.

She arrived on the bank in record time, but her flight
didn't end there.  She was crouching on the limb the monkeys had
so recently vacated before she allowed herself to stop, panting.

Heh

	$Well, you never know if whatever it is with the teeth can come on land
or not.

And for the first time that day, Kiyone had cause to wonder
where her partner was.

Comfortable, I'd wager.

By and large, though, she was comfortable.

Thought so.

	$Not always, though.

This particular animal recognized the being curled up on
the ground as a human, because it had a very good memory.  Its
name, at one time, had been Jumbo,

Heh. Now she's going to get transportation.

	$Or not.  Mihoshi of the jungle did cross my mind at one point, though.

The universe is a vast and wondrous place.  Very vast.
Amazingly wonderful.  It is home to a vast and wondrous
population.  However, it is also home to a number of, well, not
so wondrous beings.  Demons, Evil Overlords, disease causing
organisms, Juraians, lawyers, and many many more creatures large
and small that should be exterminated for the good of the whole.

She thinks Juraians should be executed? Interesting.

	$Popular sentiment among the other galactic empires, mainly because
they're outclassed and know it.

However, in all of her adventures, all of her travels, and
all of her missions, Mihoshi had never met and been forced to
deal with a perverted tentacle monster.  They were as tall as a
person and twice as heavy, made of inhumanly flexible moist grey
flesh and possessed of singular intelligence.  They were the
stuff nightmares were made from, at least for Mihoshi.

Come on, she might like it. I bet she would. (Just a little self-plug
there.
More subtle than usual, really.)

	$I'd thought about that, and decided that, to both plug your fic and
make a few jokes at the same time, if she ever did run into one, she'd
like it.  Until then she's just in denial.  Not sure if she'll eer run
into one, though.

Later, they became a symbol of male power, always a
controversial thing in the Juraian culture.  Some especially good
male scientists, tired of being second-class citizens, started
making changes in the species, making them fully intelligent,
hermaphroditic, and increasing the sex drive they possessed.  The
target, of course, was their very own overbearing wives.  This
was the start of the first MenLib movement.

Tentacle Monsters as tools of revenge. Interesting.

	$Occasionally, I look back at this and say, 'What was I thinking?!'

Illicit sex clubs ran largely by males were rumored to have
these mutated strains and would set them loose on lower class
women for the entertainment of the hen-pecked men.  Some were
even released, and soon roving packs were believed to inhabit the
sewers and back alleys of many major cities.  As they would never
attack men, only men were able to move freely and confidently,
doing wonders for their self-esteem.  Tentakajin, as they were
now called, were hunted exclusively by men, and these men
gradually grew in political power and influence.

Hehehehe.

	$It's plausible.  If this was the LA Blue Girl, Urotsukidoji, or Angel
of Darkness universe.

The tentakajin, fearing for their lives, immediately left
the Juraian Empire in stolen ships, spreading their light shower
of terror across the rest of the universe, which immediately
blamed the Juraians, as usual.

Heh.

	$One of the reasons Jurai isn't very popular.

Mihoshi blubbered in fear for a moment, cringing as the
huge beast crashed through the jungle, but quickly realized that
it was not one of the loathsome tentakajin.  Giving a little
shrug, she rose and set off into the jungle.

She does recover fast, you have to admit.

	$She knows it was an honest mistake.  And yes, she wears herself out
quickly.

Broadleaf plants work fine, it said.

Kiyone swore briefly under her breath and made mental note
to gather up a few bundles of a smooth textured broad-leafed bush
that grew abundantly in the area.  And when she got back to GP
headquarters, she was going to distribute them in lieu of toilet
paper to several people who were in charge of her field training.

Heh

	$Leaf it, indeed.

"Arg," she said out loud, the first such sound she'd made
in hours.  Indeed, it was the second sound she'd made since her
happy cry of discovery when she found the path full of human
footprints.  The next, of course, had been her unhappy cry upon
discovery that she was highly allergic to the juices a certain
smooth textured broad-leafed bush secreted on its leaves.

Heh. The 'everything that can go wrong' kind of day. Gotta love them.

	$Thought about a lemon addition to this at the end that just continues
the pattern, but didn't feel like it.

indignity?  Hadn't she managed to deal with the complete absence
of a love life?  The ridicule of her peers, and worse, their
pity?  And in that time, she hadn't killed anyone who wasn't
actively trying to kill her, and had even made the morally right
decision every time it _seemed_ that Mihoshi was actively trying
to kill her.

I have a feeling that if Mihoshi tried to plug you, you'd be dead before
even she knew it.

	$Heh heh.  That's probably true.  ^_^

She had no outlet for her frustrations, of which there were
many, many more than normal.  No gun to shoot things.  No one to
beat within an inch of their life.  And she couldn't even leave,
because that was another one of the problems she couldn't seem to
solve.

Heh

Somewhere outside the thicket, a huge striped feline roared
in anger.  It wasn't hunting, but it had chased a screaming
Mihoshi through the jungle, breaking it off only when she had
dove into the nearly impenetrable mass of brambles.

Hmm. Now she has the bad luck.

	$Just not quite as much, and she wouldn't have had that problem if
she'd thought harder.  Mommy kittys don't like strangers.

So it was with some surprise on both parts when a large
naked African man stumbled out from behind a bush and nearly
stepped on her.

Man: <Gods, I hate it when the city idiots blunder out here and I have
to
save their sorry behinds.>

	$Appropriate enough, except he is a city idiot.

"Jesus Christ, lady, you scared the shit out of me!" he
yelled in an obscure dialect of Swahili.

"Stay where you are and put your hands where I can see
them!" she yelled back in the Earth dialect of Juraian, which was
Japanese.

Heh

	$I've heard many women go for large, handsome black men who don't speak
their language.

Physically he was impressive, over a foot taller than she
was, with clean-cut muscles standing out in his arms, legs, and
chest.  He also had the biggest penis Kiyone had ever seen in her
life, and it was still soft.

Heh. Nice to see she's paying attention to details.

	$There are legends in British journals of sexual physiology from the
16th century about an African tribe where all the men had ridiculously
huge penises.  Hey, it's just that kind of story.

Kiyone correctly divined that he was asking if there were
any others with her.  Hesitating barely a second, she shook her
head.  "Nope, just me!" she replied brightly, pointing first at
herself, then at the jungle and waving her hand dismissively.

"Just you, then, good."  He turned and beaconed

beckoned

	$Whoops.  I'd thought it looked funny, but couldn't figure out how, and
spellchecker agreed with me, so...

They walked in relative silence for bout

about

	$I just plain missed that one.

half an hour,

following a bewildering series of twisty trails.  Dretric stayed
in front, figuring that she'd feel safer if she didn't have to
watch his back.

If he's in front, than she is watching his back. I assume you meant 'her
back'

	$Yep.  Another I missed.

Kiyone held up as long as she could, not wanting to appear
weak, but she finally had to tell him to stop.  Her rash was
getting worse and worse the more she walked.

"What?" he asked, turning around to see her stop, spreading
her legs far apart.

Heh. Now this could be open to interpetation.

	$Yeah, I dropped the ball here.

Kiyone sat gratefully, hoping that she'd understood his
gestures correctly.  She watched with interest as he disappeared
into the bushes, then snickered as what was undoubtedly a curse
floated back to her ears, along with the sounds of breaking
limbs.  She shook her head.  Handsome, well hung, and dumb as a
brick.

He's not the one with the rash that needs help, though. One could debate
the
dumb part, though.

	$He's clumsy in the jungle, whereas she was moving quite well.

Kiyone reluctantly wrapped her arms around his neck and her
legs around his waist, allowing him to carry her.  She was
assisted by his strong, muscular arms grabbing her thighs, and he
seemed to bear her weight with little effort.  It was certainly
much easier for her than walking.

And probably serve to turn her on, though this isn't a lemon chapter.

	$Should have been.  It should have been.

The village was populated by twenty to thirty adults, with
a little more than half that number of naked, screaming children
running around chasing assorted wildlife, including, much to
Kiyone's annoyance, several monkeys.  No one seemed to be wearing
clothes, in fact.  Kiyone guessed that it had something to do
with the oppressive heat and humidity.

Yeah. Would imagine so.

	$Clothes suck, or so I've always maintained.

Dretric chuckled and continued in English, "She followed me
home, can I keep her?"  Seeing their looks of fear and
apprehension, he hastened to add, "Don't worry, it's cool.  She
doesn't know a word of Swahili _or_ English.  You can act normal
around her."

Heh. Now this should be amusing.

	$They have to keep up the ignorant african villager routine whenever
tourists or cultural anthropologists stop by.  They make more money that
way.

"Eh heh heh heh," chuckled a skinny old man, proof that
some people should be required to wear clothes.  "She's a cute
one," he said in a quavering voice, using English for her
benefit.  "She'll be perfect for the gang bang and sacrifice!  Eh
heh heh heh!"

Cute. Assuming he is joking.

	$Yep.

"I said," he said, leaning in toward the old man, "SHE
DOESN'T SPEAK ENGLISH!  YOU'RE WASTING YOUR TIME!"

"Ahhh!  My ears!  Don't yell so loud!" complained the
toothless old letch.  "You should respect your elders, boy!"

Dretic: I always show my elders the respect they deserve,

	$Which is so low it's almost negative.

In the end, she did what she usually did when faced with a
question of which where to go.  She spun around until she got
dizzy, and went in the direction she ended up facing when she
finally fell down.

Hehehe. And the worst part is, it's as good as any way to decide.

	$Sad but true.  I usually find someone or something that looks like
they know where they're going and follow them.

monkey arm.  It was tough, but strangely satisfying.  Kind of
like soul food.  Her scrapes and cuts had been smeared with salve
and the nasty bite on her ankle was covered with a leaf wrapping
held in place with a few twisted vines.  She'd waved him off when
he'd started to do the same to her hand.  Her artificially
boosted immune system was more than up to the task of keeping it
free from infection.

At least she has that going for her.

	$One thing she's not worried about is the possibility of catching any
strange diseases during her stay.

Kiyone sniffed, regarding that as a curiously primitive
trait.  She had seen what lived in the local water, and wanted no
more part of it.  Alcohol was much to be preferred.  Still, she
was glad he'd invited her to dine with him.

Heh. Now she's getting loaded.

	$Yeah.  And if she knew how they made the local beer, she would
probably be drinking water, bugs be damned.  D'Amour would still like
it, though.  It's supposed to be pretty stout.

She was so involved in watching the flames flicker and leap
up that she didn't noticed the man throw a Bic to another guy
with a word of thanks.

Heh

	$She's stereotyped them, and its the wrong one.

"Fire and pointy sticks.  Always the first two things to be
invented by an evolving species."  She sat thoughtfully, taking
another drink of the thick, chunky brew.  "Except for that fifty
armed bunch that came up with the aerosol deodorant first,"

Heh

	$My homage to the great Douglas Adams.

"You're different aren't you?" Kiyone asked him, knowing
that he couldn't understand.  "You're the sane one, the one that
always knows what to do, and does it.  I can tell just by
watching you."  She sized him up.

Ah, so she's trying to find common ground between the two of them.

	$No, I think you misunderstood that last line.  She's really just
looking at his penis again.

"Hah, I knew it," she laughed, smiling when he smiled back.

He idly wondered how long she had been in the jungle, and
whether or not it had affected her mind.  Never mind, just smile
and nod, smile and nod.

Especially since she's probably getting tipsy now.

	$If Mihoshi hadn't shown up, she probably would have been the one to
sing.

She sighed.  "Not that Tenchi is that bad of a guy.  For a
human he's downright civilized.  Serious.  Smart.  The kind of
guy a girl could really go for."  She gave her audience a wan
smile.  "Kind of like you, only he's a lot smaller."  She glanced
down before she could stop herself.

Heh

	$Hey, there's normal, and then there's Holmes.

"And Washu.  Almost the silliest one of them all."  Kiyone
cursed lightly.  "She's a _genius_.  Supposedly the smartest
being in the universe.  Yet she acts like a seven year old on
Sugarsmack,"

Washuu: Emphasis on the term, 'act.'

	$I still think she's trying build something that can destroy the
universe.

she continued, referring to a popular Juraian

breakfast cereal blend of sucrose and heroin, noted both for its
ability to get you going in the morning and the withdrawal
symptoms it caused when you ran out.

Heh. Interesting mix.

	$It even sells better than the next most popular cereal, Cocaine Puffs.
You'll go cookoo for them!

Dretric remained silent, worried about how her mood had
went from somber, to humorous, to morose in the space of a few
minutes.  Then he remembered that she was a woman, as well as
possibly drunk, and promptly wrote it off as 'one of those
things'.

Smart.

"And then there's Mihoshi, _the_ silliest one of all,"
Kiyone said, following her line of thought to its logical
conclusion.  "I guess I miss her.  I wish she was here," she said
wistfully.

"Hello!  Do any of you speak Japanese?"

And here we go.

	$Speak of the Devil, and Miss Mihoshi, and should she appear...

Kiyone braced herself as Mihoshi's face lit up, knowing
that she'd been spotted.  Wait for it, here she comes... "OOF!"
Now, try to breathe.

Heh. She has it down to a science.

	$Mihoshi does like the glomp.

babbling again.  "I see you found a native village, do any of
them speak Japanese?  Maybe we can call Mr. Masaki and have
Sasami get in touch with Ayeka?"  She looked over at the tall man
standing close beside the dark haired girl.  "Is this your fri-
GOODNESS!  That's a very large penis you have there Mr. Human!"

How very kind of her to notice.

	$It's kinda hard to miss.  If he ever spun around he'd probably knock
someone out.  I should have had that happen.

"And why are you naked?  Am I interrupting something?" she
asked, the sexual implication clear in her voice and grin.  Then
she looked around again.  "Oh, is it because everyone else is?
Should I take my clothes off, too?  I guess I'd better, I'm
standing out like a sore thumb..."  Mihoshi giggled in both
relief and mounting nervousness, then started taking off her
clothes, much to the delight of the village males.

Well, it's not like any of them have clothes on now.. One would think
they
find it normal.

	$There's not having any clothes on, and then there's naked.  Mihoshi
just got naked.  They just didn't have any clothes on.

The sudden voice startled him when it came from his right.
He hadn't known she was so near.  "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Why aren't you back there, watching Mihoshi?" Kiyone asked
bitterly.  "Everyone else is.  Everyone always is."

Well, in all defence, she's kind of hard to miss. :)

	$Unless you're trying to shoot her, then it's real easy to miss.

Get to the rest at a later time. Nice work so far. Story flowed well,
and
only having other commitments right now keeps me from finishing it.

	$That's cool, I got the rest before I ever got a chance to reply to
look at this one, anyway.  I really appreciate your help with this, and
I know the story is better for it.

D.B. Sommer

	$Thanks!

-Ragun



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