She had failed.

The only reason she was probably still alive is that
Lord High Elder Gothwrain probably considered this
imprisonment a worse torture.

He was right.

She would rather be dead than where she was right now.
In cell, with a water bottle, forced to contemplate
that it was all her plan that had placed her and her
partners in this situation.

Gothwrain had known the whole time, and instead of
giving them a second chance to prove themselves. He
had abandoned them.

Her reason for living, since she was a little cub, was
over.

*****

"Hey, you know, she's like been quiet for two days
now," Moisha said in the wererat sign language,
glancing at Lydia in the middle of the room huddled
over her knees. The normally angry expression on her
faced replaced with one of blank apathy. "Shouldn't
she like, be figuring out how to get out of here?"

"What's the point?" Romeo asked, signing back. "Didn't
you hear Lord Gothwrain? We're stuck here. We screwed
up and he caught us on it. I'll bet he's already
training some replacements for us."

"Chwa," Moisha responded, translating the sound into
sign by some freak of savant genius. "He can't do it
that quickly, we're like the product of years of
training, you know."

"I'm sure there are back-ups," Romeo said. "Face it,
unless something unexpected happens, we're stuck in
Munchkin Village until the cows come home."

At which point the alarms started blaring They looked
up, except for Lydia who didn't seem to have heard,
and then the entire castle shook, causing the glass
cage wall to fall out away from them and smash open.

"Would, like, that count?" Moisha signed, putting a
sarcastic accent on it. Romeo didn't bother to answer.

"Lydia the cell is open," he shouted, grabbing her and
drawing a slow uncaring look. "Let's get out of here,
come on." Lydia stared at the open cage for a moment,
blinked and then stood straight up, almost knocking
Romeo to his feet.

"Right," Lydia declared. "But first we're going to
make a little withdrawal. Gothwrain wants us to pay
back Zero, we'll pay back Zero!! COME ON YOU &#$#$$!!"
She stalked out of the cage carefully keeping an eye
out for guards.

"Well, she's like feeling better," Moisha said, as
they followed their determined and driven leader.

*****

"What be all this ruckus?!" O'Keith demanded.

"The winds be a moaning in the night, sir!" a security
technician said. 

"What?" O'Keith asked.

"The fire's red and it's flamin' spread! The trees
like torches blaze with light!"

"Make yourself clear corporal!" O'Lura demanded
stalking, into the room. "Before I have your blarney
stones in a sling an' use them for tiddlywinks!!"

"There be a great bloody gold stealing worm attacking
the Castle o' Shoes McKeith," the tech said.

"What?!" O'Keith demanded. "I thought all the Dragons
were up North aways, fighting the Diggers and
friends."

"Well one o' them came this a'way," the tech informed
them. "An' this dragon's ire is more fierce than
fire!"

"And the bloody mecha are still in the shop," O'Lura
snapped. "An' most of our forces are tracking the
dragons to their lairs to lay claim to their gold!!"

"Oh," the tech said. "One more thing."

"What is it?" O'Keith asked.

"Those three rodents have gone an' skarkered away."

*****

The castle shook again and three rats held still,
hoping the ventilation vent they were in would
suddenly give in and drop them into the waiting arms
of the Shamrock Brigade below. When the shock settled
the rats breathed a sigh of relief and continued
walking through the vent, the three of them walking
abreast through the hidden passage.

"Why don't we, like, just get out of here?" Moisha
asked in her small rat voice.

"I have no idea what's going on, Lydia," Romeo said.
"But I DON'T want to get caught between those little
green people and whatever it is there fighting."

"That's why we're not going towards the #$%#
fighting," Lydia snapped. "Like I said. We get our
stuff, get some gold get @#$ outta here!" She sniffed
about, following her own scent to its source, an
almost manic look in her little rat eyes.

"She's like, gonna get us killed," Moisha muttered.
"Ain't she."

"Die here, or die when Lord Gothwrain finds with
nothing," Lydia snapped back. "So get a @#% move on
and stop @#%@# chattering."

"But I?

"SHUT UP!!!" Lydia stops at a ventilation shaft and
wondered briefly why the vents hadn't been shut off.
Whatever it was the leprechauns were fighting, the
halls were starting to fill with its foul reek. She
almost didn't find this trail to their gear. "Here's
our stuff, so let's not blow it this time!"

*****

"O'Keith, sir!" a technician shouted. "We've spotted
the rats. They're in one o' the lesser vaults am'
takin' back their gear."

"Cush la McCree," O'Keith shouted. "An where be the
dragon?!"

"Layin' low our reservers frail!" another tech
shouted. "They all four be makin' for the vault I
reckon."

"Still can't reach the Danny's column o' iron in the
hills," another tech said. "The dragon must have
destroyed the Raven relay sattelite dish on first go!"

"Ahh!" O'Keith said. "All that's left is them bloody
Crows, an' that'll let everyone know the Leprechauns
be gwttin' atomped under the hills."

"Oh," O'Lura snapped. "For the love of St. Pete, I'll
wink over in a jiffy and then Danny o'the Iron will be
right over those hills quick as you can blink."

"Well, hurry on it Princess," O'Keith shouted. "Or
they be havin' us over a barrel for sure."

*****

The rats stopped as they came to a section of the
ventilation shaft that was twisted and torn and open
to below.

"This is not good," Romeo said. "This is not good."

"Quiet!" Lydia snapped. "The vault's around her
somewhere. I'll head in and distract whatever's there,
and you two take the bag and snatch as much @#$@ gold
as you can. Just don't touch that $@#@ machine or
they'll really be after us. I'll give you three
minutes got it? Then I #$% book."

"Ain't this, u know, the same plan that got us caught
before?" Moisha asked.

"You know what they say," Lydia growled. "Third @#$%
time pays for all."

"Lydia," Romeo said cautiously. "This is our SECOND
attempt!!!"

"Well, we ain't gonna need a third!" Lydia growled.
"After all the #$@# messes we've been in, fate owes a
#$@# reward. Now move it."

The path to the vault was easy to find, miniature
versions of light armored vehicle lay scattered about,
like some landscape after filming a godzilla movie.
The rats snuck forward and found the vault wall, torn
open by something monstrous and gulped, before heading
into the vault. It was the same vault from before,
with no visible damage, but it smelled of something
reptilian. And it smelled of fire.

"You know," Romeo said. "I'm beginning to get a bad
feeling about this."

"You always have a bad feeling, Romeo," Lydia
muttered.

"So, like, what's a red lizard that breathes fire and
likes gold?" Moisha asked, sounding somewhat shocked.

"How do you know whatever it is, is red?" Lydia asked.
The pink wererat pointed to a massive red tail lifting
out of the water and cutting through the waterfall.
Lydia and Romeo nearly choked on their own lungs at
the sight of the tail. Moisha was merely in shock from
having discovered it first.

"A d..d...ragon?" Lydia asked.

"You want us to sneak gold past a dragon?!" Romeo
demanded.

"Sssssshhh!!" Moisha insisted. "It'll, you know, hear
us."

"P�plan's the same," Lydia said. "Get to it!"

*****

The fire dragon Phume sniffed at the air as something
small passed through the waterfall behind it. The
extradimensional space of the vault itself had
expanded to accept the dragon's great bulk, the outer
vault would do likewise once he left the room. He had
been thinking of staying actually. Why bother moving
all this gold when he had a perfect lair right here.
He smirked as he realized that what had entered the
room with him was no Leprechaun.

"Well thief, I can smell you, and feel your motion,
hear your breath," he growled, his voice echoing
through the vault. "Come forward, there is plenty for
all of us to gain at the leprechaun's expense."

"Hell no," a small voice squeaked out. "I'm not here
for the treasure, and can't have the little twerps
following me around. I merely wished to look and see
who had knocked a hole in that #@^% cell wall so I
could get out. Damn, but I didn't expect anything at
all like this."

"You have?some manners for thief and liar," the dragon
growled. "Why might I ask were you in the cage to
begin with, and who might you be? If it is all right
to ask."

"Sure you can ask," the voice called out. "What's
wrong with #@! asking. But I don't think you're the
least interested in me. Shouldn't you be worried about
the Green Corps and their box top army?"

"Ha!" the dragon laughed, and the cavern shook. "My
armor is like five layers of kevlar, my teeth are
knives, my claws chainsaws, my tail a cruise missile,
my wings a EMP and my breath, taxes. What need I fear
of little men with toy bombs?"

"So, you ain't got nothing to worry about underneath
then," the voice asked.

"You listen to those old tales?" the dragon laughed,
and then turned itself over. "See, armored above and
bel...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKK!" The last was the sound of a
dragon being struck by multiple magic shurikens after
exposing a very sensitive and vital part of HIS
anatomy. Lydia ran through, and grabbed Moisha and
Romeo as she passed.

"Let's get the #@$^ out of here!!!" Lydia shouted
dashing along.

"You were going to give us three minutes!" Romeo
protested after saying the magic word to shrink the
sack.

"I ran out of @#&* ideas!" Lydia snapped. Moisha was
laughing for some odd reason.

"Chwa, did you here that big lizard screaming like a?

"LITTLE RAT!! I KNOW YOUR SMELL!! AND YOU BOTH YOUR
FRIENDS SHALL SEE WHO IS THE TRUE TERROR IN THIS
CASTLE!!!"

"Like... think he's mad," Moisha whimpered. She
glanced back in time to see a huge claw come out of
the torn open vault and shift into a human form. Then
what seemed to be a human limped out with as much
speed as it could muster after them.

*****

"Ah ha!" O'Keith said, watching over the viewer as the
reinforcements started arriving. "Now we are not
helpless, now we have an army t' fight the
blatherscapes with!"

"Most of our forces are still chasing that flight o'
dragons that little insane bugger told us about. And
they'll be fighting at the very gates of the
mountain," the tech said. "Them thievin lot be a
leaving right now."

"Let loose the outer alarms, let em know company be a
commin'!" O'Keith shouted. "And someone wink out to
tell the others about the dragon's weak spot. At least
we have to thank them scoundrel rats for that little
piece of information."

*****

As soon as they got out into the open air the rats saw
a shadow spread out behind them.

"Ah #$%#$," Lydia shouted as something swept down and
smashed the three of them into the ground. There they
were, dead, for purposes, beneath his feet. A second
claw reached down to gingerly pick up the magic bag of
gold.

"Ahhh," the dragon roared, scooping up the rats and
standing up. "This is mine I believe. And now I shall
swallow you three down like the�where the? The
dragon's claw was inexplicably empty.

"NOW!!!" Lydia shouted, shifting into her hybrid form.
On top of the dragon head, the three wererats slammed
down their blades into the dragon. The dragon reared
up, roaring angrily as it lost an eye to the
irritating pests upon its body. At the same time the
tramp of doom could be heard in the form of a column
of leprechaun artillery and armor lumbering minutely
over the hills.

"FIRE!!!!" Princess O'Lura shouted as the dragon tried
to shake off the rats. A roaring sound shook the area
as over a hundred guns fired off, aiming for the same
target.

The dragon shuddered and froze, shuddering and trying
to roar in pain. Nothing more than a small gasp of
shock squeaked as the dragon gripped the magic bag in
two claws and, with a shocked, disbelieving
expression, ripped it in two.

Many miles away, at the same moment, a flash of light
signaled Brittany destroying the Dragonblade as the
host of dragons and dragon-kin that had invaded the
Earth were sucked back into their own world. All
except for one that had choice torn up an
extradimensional pocket.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" The dragon finally
shouted, shaking away the rats, mostly by accident.
Twisting out from the torn bag, and mixing with the
gate sucking in all the dragons, the essence of magic
swirled around the four beings, (one no longer
possessing of gender). It was incredible light show,
of course the rats were encompassed in it, the dragon
was otherwise occupied and the leprechauns were busy
chasing the gold showering down from the broken bag,
and in some cases being buried by it. So no one saw it
enough to appreciate the asethetic.

"I knew this was a bad idea!!" Romeo shouted.

"Like what now?!" Moisha asked.

"#@##*$#*&^%*%*$#*^#*^*$*$*%*&*#(&$(*#*^%*#&*#*^#*#^*#*^%#*#!!!!!!!!"
was Lydia's response.

Lydia reached and snagged a scale on the shoulder of
the dragon as she was passing it, slicing in with her
sword and swinging to catch a grip back on the dragon.
She twisted around again and reached out to grab at
Romeo and Moisha as they swept by her. She just missed
catching Romeo's hand as they fell into the center of
the magical chaos. Lydia actually screamed as she saw
what seemed to be them being torn apart. And then
everything whited out.

*****

It was a peaceful evening in Jade, a few miles west of
Main Guard. Travelers were making the last few miles
of the Journey towards the city of the famous Edge
Guard, eager to be in the bounds before nightfall and
sleeping in a nice cozy inn-bed. Then the skies were
torn open above them.

Men looked up with their faces pale, and saw the
dragon descend from on the heights. Bells were ringing
in the town as Edge Guard were summoned to deal with
the problem. Dragons could be friendly, but they
rarely dropped out of the sky screaming like little
girls, so they sort of doubted this one would be one
of the nice set.

"You are dead, wererat," the dragon shouted in a
distinctly falsetto voice. "Your friends are dead.
Your whole family shall be wiped from existence and I
shall use their blood to drink and to polish my scales
over a thousand years."

She shouldn't have been listening to it, for dragon
speech had the power to enforce doubt and guilt even
when spoken by a dragon in seizures of pain and rage,
but she heard it any way as she climbed up the
shoulder. To the creatures throat.

"$%##%@! YOU!!!" Lydia shouted as she stabbed upwards
with her sword into a soft piece of flesh under the
dragon's chin. The dragon barely noticed the pain, but
brought a claw up to swipe at its puny attacker. Lydia
felt the claws smash into her and tear her open,
snapping her spine, crushing her entirely, but merely
stabbed up again, and swiped out, neatly cutting the
dragon's throat.

Then they finally landed on Jade, a small shower of
gold coins hitting the ground with them.

Lydia had already sunk down into herself before the
Edge Guardians were about her and drawing her body
away from the dragon's blood seeping into her wounds.
She wasn't aware that she still lived, she was only
certain of two things.

Romeo and Moisha were dead.

And it was her fault this time as well.

*****

An ocean away a similar light show entertained
onlookers as it flashed into existence and then faded
away. There was no huge dragon to alert the citizens
of Lrith City that it had been an accidental and out
of control gate. So no one really witnessed two
figures appear about two hundred feet above the ground
and then fall to the ground, screaming in panic, until
the loud thud that signaled the end of their travels.

After being pelted by gold for several minutes Romeo
and Moisha finally woke up and stretched as well as
they could. They weren't completely healed yet, but it
wouldn't take much longer. In the mean time they
glanced around curiously.

"Chwa...hat hurts," Moisha moaned irritably.

"Hey," Romeo asked, setting his leg to speed the
healing. "Where are we?"

*******************************************************

"So, like, where are we?" Moisha asked, looking around
the town with a somewhat nervous expression on her
face. "This looks like one of those renaissance
fairs."

"It�s a little big for a renaissance fair," Romeo
said, nervously. "And everything looks too�real. They
don�t build huge stone walls for ren fests." They
stayed on the hill and watched the town a little
longer.

"So, like, what now?" Moisha asked. Romeo hesitated,
it was unusual, to say the least, for either of them
to actually have a say in matters. What Lydia said,
went, period, or else pain followed. Only problem now
was that there was no Lydia.

"I don�t know," he said. "Change to human form
first�and then?" Moisha glanced at the bag of gold
they had collected.

"Shopping!" Moisha declared happily. Romeo moaned.

*****

"OOOOooo!" Moisha cooed. "Look, they have pants with
tail holes!" Romeo flinched and then smacked his hand
into his face.

"If you mean the breeches, milady, of course," the
merchant said. "I need something to sell to the
werefolk. Do you wish to acquire some, you certainly
seem as if you could use some clothes."

"You know, Lydia would like these," Moisha said. "I
think I'll get them and some dresses�and some of those
and?

"For goodness sakes Moisha!" Romeo said. "We're going
to need money for supplies and boarding! We have no
idea where we are, how we got here, how to get back or
what happened to Lydia and that dragon!! Why can't you
settle for one outfit?" Once Romeo stopped shouting he
looked around noticing that all eyes were on him.

"Chwa," Moisha said. "Romeo, like chill, you're
freaking out."

"I'll have a cloak and backpack," Romeo said weakly.

"Is there a problem here?" someone asked behind them.
Romeo and Moisha turned about to say know when they
saw what was behind them. It was a werecat, but not a
werecheetah.

"I don't think so," the merchant said. "They were just
arguing about how much to spend. It sounds like
they're lost though."

"I could probably help with that." The Jagwere said
behind them, he looked down to the other two and
paused at their smell, then smiled. "Where are you
trying to get to?"

"Uhhh?Atlanta, Georgia," Romeo said, that being the
first place that came to mind.

"Uhhh�heh," the Jagwere said nervously. "You're a
LITTLE off track."

"We�we�we figured that," Romeo said.

"I've never even heard of the place," the merchant
said, confused.

"S�s..so like, h..how�which way do we go?" Moisha
asked, swallowing and staring at the Jagwere.

"You'll have to find a mage," the jagwere said
nervously. "Actually, I'm planning on heading there
myself to spend some time with my teacher and do some
training. I'm sure her husband can take you?.back to
Earth�as well."

"B..b..back to Earth, right," Romeo says, not
registering the words, and focusing on the jagwere.

"L�like, thanks f�for the help," Moisha said.

"No problem," the jagwere said. "Werefolk have to
stick together right?"

"R�right," Romeo said, nodding.

"Oh by the way," the jagwere said. "Don't bother with
human form on Jade, some people will actually think
its rather deceptive to do that."

"G�gotcha," Moisha said in a weak voice.

"You could travel with me if you want," the Jagwere
said confused at their behavior.

"No, that's fine!" Moisha and Romeo said at once.
"Don't want to trouble you."

"We have to, like, find someone else anyway," Moisha
said. "And that could, you know take a while."

"I'm sure I could help," the Jagwere said.

"No, you have plans," Romeo insisted. "We'll find her
on our own."

"Well, if you change your mind just find the nearest
Edge Guard," he said. "And ask them."

"Are all Edge Guard w..w�w..w..w?" Romeo started to
ask.

"Werefolk and Kitsune, mostly yes," Gar nodded. "It's
not like I hear it is on Earth though, most races are
friendly to each other in general, just watch for
bandits." The rats, still in human form, nodded
furiously, most of the conversation was still unheard
by them. "Well, good luck, and keep an ear out. If you
got here the way I think you did, rumors of your
friend's arrival should travel pretty fast."

"Uh huh," the rats said. 

"Oh and like I said, I'm sure Dr. Diggers would be
fine with transporting you back to Earth," Gar said
before leaving.

"d�d..Dr�d�d..d�Diggers?!" Moisha gasped, nearly
fainting. Gar was already gone down the street though,
now that there wasn't a werecat present to clutter
their thinking, they latched upon a certain fact.

"BACK to Earth!!!?"

*****

Lydia woke up to find herself more or less in one
piece, in a comfortable bed. None of this was
expected. She was supposed to be dead under a pile of
rotting lizard. She was quite certain the dragon was
dead, she remembered that. The scratch she'd given its
throat must have been plenty to kill it when one
considered it's other injuries. She sniffed about, but
couldn't seem to identify any smells in the room, her
head was pounding enough to distract her.

Lydia pushed herself up in the bed and leaned against
the headboard. The movement did bring several things
to her attention. Her head began virtually screaming
in protest, and her legs or spine were not quite
healed yet. The wererat clutched her head and glared
uselessly at the virtually useless limbs. The glare
faded slowly.

It didn't matter that she was healing from the
dragon's attack. It didn't matter that she'd be able
to walk soon. She had failed, again. At every corner
she had failed. The dragon had confirmed it when he'd
told her that Romeo and Moisha were dead. She'd
thought they were ready to take the cheetah, they
weren't. She had been the one to hack Zero's account,
and that was stupid. She'd been the one that led them
on this last mission, they were captured. She was the
one that commanded the escape, and now they were dead.

The sight of the wererat sitting up and staring dully
down at her lap did not go unnoticed for long.

A young elf with deep brown hair blinked as she looked
into the room to check on the patient.

"Oh my," she turned to call down the hallway.
"Mistress, she's awake!" She was into the room in the
next moment and at the rat's side. Lydia looked toward
her cautiously, and tensed to fight if the strange
looking woman made a hostile move. Not that she could
do much in her state, but she'd do something if she
had too. The apprentice stopped as she noticed the
girl staring at her.

~What does it matter?~ Lydia asked herself, sighing
and relaxing her guard, staring at her lap again.

The elf sighed in relief as she moved to sit next to
the bed and started to cautiously examine the girl,
keeping an eye out for sudden motion from the girl.
Lydia allowed the woman to feel her forehead and check
her pulse with little more than a bare glance. She was
in a hospital of some kind, that was obvious, though
those ears of the nurse's were more pointed than
anything she'd ever seen on even other werefolk. Her
head hurt too much to make anything of the woman's
scent or any of the scents around, but she didn't
really care.

"Can you feel this?" the elf asked, tapping her knee.
Lydia grunted noncommittally and shrugged. "Can you
move your legs or feet at all?" Lydia shrugged again,
she could wiggle her toes, that was about it.

"You said she's awake?" a purring voice said from the
hallway. Lydia froze and turned to see a tall
weretigress walk in, dressed in a clean white gown.
The elf woman immediately felt her tense up.

"Oh, this is Mistress Sheena," the elf said. "She's
the healer here, I'm just an apprentice."

"Great," Lydia muttered weakly, still fixing her look
on the Tiger. The elf smiled.

"You do speak," the elf said. She turned to the
tigress. "She hasn't answered any questions, she still
has a fever and she's obviously listless."

"That's fine, Kayla," Sheena said, walking forward and
thinking about the patient. "Go see to the other
patients I'll handle her."

"Are you certain, Mistress?" Kayla asked, thinking of
the rat's behavior when she entered the room, tensing
for battle almost.

"I'll be fine," Sheena said. The elf reluctantly stood
up and curtsied before walking out into the hallway.
Sheena turned to Lydia, frowning in a concerned
manner.

"So this is it then," Lydia muttered fearfully,
looking to the tigress. The rat slumped in resignation
as the woman sat next to her.

"No, this is just the beginning," Sheena said. She
took the rats hand and checked Lydia's pulse herself
and the forehead. Watching the rat the whole time with
concern, but in such away that Lydia knew she was
watching for any motion. "You've been unconscious for
three days, and there is still some of the dragon's
blood in your system if the signs are right." 

Lydia's face expressed nothing but confusion. The
tigress looked at her and frowned, pulling back. 

"Did the dragon talk to you as it was dying," she
asked. Lydia didn't respond. Lydia was still staring
at the woman, confused as to why she wasn't dead yet.
"Did it say anything at all." She waited a few moments
before continuing. "The Edge Guard might send someone
to talk to you soon."

"Cops?" Lydia asked.

"I'm not sure what that means," Sheena said as she
confirmed her suspicion, the girl was not from Jade.
"They're sort of an elite group of law enforcers."
Lydia nodded, not taking her eyes from the cat. Sheena
went hunting sometimes, the way this girl was acting
reminded her of a deer that knew it was caught and had
given up. "There shouldn't be a problem, they'll just
want to know where the dragon came from and what you
were doing and such. Now, you just rest and don't
worry about that, I'll be back later to check on your
bandages, or maybe I'll have Kayla do that, if it
would make you more comfortable."

Sheena took the blanket and pulled it up towards
Lydia, covering her mostly. Then she stood up and
backed away from Lydia, watching the girl. Lydia
watched the tigress's every step, until she was out
into the hall, then she slumped against the headboard.
Above everything else, she was a prisoner too and they
obviously had plans for her.

*****

"There's something about that girl, Mistress," Kayla
said as she saw Sheena next.

"She's not from Jade," Sheena said. "I thought so,
didn't think any of the rats came with our ancestors."

"That's not what I mean," Kayla said. "She didn't seem
to like you at all."

"Don't worry about that," Sheena said, waving aside
that fact. "Just watch her carefully. She's more
likely to hurt herself than me."

"What's wrong with her?" Kayla asked. "She should have
been healed by now."

"She's sad," Sheena said.

"Just sad?" Kayla didn't seem to understand. Sheena
directed her to a table and told her to sit.

"Broken is a better term," Sheena said.

"And how does that affect her healing rate?" Kayla
asked. She was Sheena's youngest apprentices, speaking
in terms of maturity and seniority rather than
straight years. She was, after all, an elf.

"You The soul has a hand in healing the body of all
things," Sheena explained, the young elf-woman nodded.
"And when the soul is strong, and the will to live
vigorous, then healing takes place quickly. When the
soul is tired and the will to live is gone. Healing
slows down, health can even decrease if the patient
isn't taken care of. For a werefolk, that depends so
much on a magical soul for healing?"

"Oh," Kayla said, quietly looking to the room. "I
think I understand."

*****

Lydia woke up to the sound of people running about and
shouting for attention and help. She had been there a
week since she had woken up, and hadn't recovered
much. Enough to virtually drag herself to the chamber
pot and back, and she didn't want help. When she
needed to that is, and she hadn't been eating much of
late. In fact she had mostly been sleeping.

They knew her name now. They had learned it from the
silver dagger Lord Gothwrain had given her. This had
come up when the Edge Guard had come to talk to her, a
slender fox looking fellow. Since then they had been
tormenting her by acting nice. They all knew she was a
prisoner, yet they refused to treat her like one. As
if she were an idiot of some kind.

Then again, she was an idiot. She was an idiot that
had gotten her team and her friends killed, and
herself captured. She settled back into the bed,
trying to ignore the loud sounds outside, sleep was
most of what she had been doing recently. Letting go
of the waking world and just slipping deeper and
deeper into sleep.

She was dead to the world by the time they put someone
in the second bed in her room.

*****

"YOU do not set foot on these premises," Sheena
snapped, pointing an accusing finger toward one of the
approaching werecats. The five stopped and paused,
three of them turning toward the weretiger of the
group.

"Oh, you recognize me," Tirga said nervously.

"I don't have time for slame like you," Sheena snapped
angrily, drawing surprised looks from her apprentices
as well. Tirga shrugged and backed away without so
much as a protest, a surprise to all involved. "I
suppose you were all helping stop the forest fire?"

"Yeah," one of them said. The werepanther and werelion
were supporting him between the two of them. "It was
great! We stopped the fire and saved a whole bunch of
people." The speaker was a thoroughly charred, if
cheerful mass of flesh with perky ears.

"You got a little burned yourself," Sheena noted
sharply. "What were you before the conflagration?"

"Oh I'm a werecheetah," the burned mass said. "And
I'll be fine, but they all think I should come to the
healers."

"We thought it was a good idea to bring him to a
healer," Sheila said. "We think the fire had a magical
origin."

"Well, I don't think it'll be a problem," Sheena said.
"Otherwise he'd probably be dead already, but I'll
watch him for the night." 

"Uh...mistress," Kayla said. "We only have one room
left with open beds." Sheena glanced at her a moment
and then a look of comprehension dawned on her face.

"It can't be helped," she said. "Maybe the company
will do her good anyway."

"Is something wrong?" Onoli asked. "We can go to
another healers if you don't have the room." Thropan
gave Onoli I curious glance, as if to say "are you out
of your gord?" Raphiel was friendly and nice and all,
but he tended to get to be a lot very quickly.

"Just a long time patient we usually keep to herself,"
Sheena said. "But there is another room, and she needs
company."

"Who is that?" Thropan asked. "Because she isn't just
getting company with Raphiel."

"Bring him in, bring him in," Sheenan interrupted.
"I'll talk after we get him in a nice comfortable bed.
Kayla, show them the way." The woman nodded and
directed Onoli and Thropan to follow her with the
fried werecheetah.

"So this is like a hospital right?" Raphiel asked as
he carried to bed. "Cool."

"By the way," Sheila asked, after a long moment. "What
did Tirga do to you? No offense, but you seem a little
older for his tastes."

"None taken, child," the woman growled. "All I will
say on the matter is that he mishandled my daughter."

"Ahh," Sheila said. "I see." Then Onoli and Thropan
were on their way back with thoughtful expressions.

"You know who's back there?" Thropan asked Sheila.
When she shook her head he continued. "It's that
wererat that appeared out of nowhere fighting a
dragon."

Sheila whispered appreciatively.

"I'll have to talk to her later," she decided. "Maybe
she'll have some tricks I can use with this body." She
indicated her tiny jagwere body.

"If you can get her to talk," Sheena said as she
shrugged. "And I find she clams up more around
werecats like myself and the rest of you."

"Well, I'll come to see Raphiel anyway," Sheila
decided and turened away.

*****

Lydia blinked awake again and pushed herself to a
seated position as usual so that she could have a good
view of her lap. She immediately noticed that she
wasn't a lone in the room anymore. What made her aware
of her new roommates existence was terribly easy to
pinpoint/

"Hey," Raphiel waved to her. "I was fighting the fires
last night. Cool, huh?

Lydia froze. They'd stuck her in a room with a
werecheetah. A werecheetah of all things.

"Whatever," the rat mumbled nervously. ~Wait if we
bring Gothwrain the head of a werecheetah, he'll no
that we're...~ Lydia's shoulders slumped as her
thought was interrupted. ~He'll know that I'm capable
of doing the job.~

"Are you okay?" Raphiel asked, concerned, standing up
and limping towards her bed to check on her. Lydia
grumbled a noncommittal grunt and stared nervously at
the wererat. "I know. You need something to eat." He
zipped out of the room.

"Hey, come back here with that!!" Lydia heard one of
the apprentices yell, and then Raphiel was at her bed
with a tray of food and set it down in front of Lydia.
Then the werecat sat AT her bed and proceeded to munch
and talk to Lydia. It wasn't long, comparatively,
before Lydia reacted.

"Would you please shut the @#$^ up!" she shouted.
Raphiel blinked and watched as the wererat threw
herself under the blackets, staying there.

"You CAN talk!" Raphiel said finally. "Cool, you know,
I've never met a wererat before?." Lydia growled under
her blankets and started planning ways to kill the
pest.

******************************************************

Sheila came into the room to check on her friend and
Edge Guard trainee, Raphiel. Most likely she'd end up
taking him back to the Edge Guard training grounds as
well. The healer was right, he probably would be just
fine, and by the end of the day he'd most likely be
just a little stiff. Considering that being fried
hadn't particularly dampened his attitude, she
imagined that he'd hardly notice that.

"Oh hello," Kayla said. "Your friend is feeling much
better, he's in that room over there."

"Thanks," Sheila said cheerfully. "Is Mistress Sheena
around? I was hoping to talk to her."

"She's busy with some of the other patients right
now," Kayla said. "But she'll see you when there's
time."

"Thanks, is Raphiel going to be able to leave today?"
she asked.

"I don't see why not," Kayla said. "But the Mistress
will tell you for certain."

"Right, well, can't keep him waiting," Sheila said and
walked towards Raphiel's room. She found him sitting
on one of the beds next to a lump of blankets and
snacking away on a tray of food.

"Hey, Sheila," Raphiel called out cheerfully. "How're
you doing?"

"I wasn't the one doing an impression of a charcoal
briquette last night," Sheila reminded him playfully.
"Hey, wasn't there supposed to be someone else in
here?"

"Mmhmm," Raphiel said. "She's under the blankets. I
brought her some food but she won't come out to eat
it. So I've just been talking to her instead." He
shrugged cheerfully.

"Oh," Sheila said. She walked over to get a look at
the slightly quivering lump of blankets. "Well, why
don't we move to the table and eat there? She might
just want to sleep for now." Sheila picked up the tray
of food and carried it to the table halfway between
the two beds.

"Lydia gets enough sleep as it is," Sheena said as she
entered the room. The lump of blankets made an
unintelligible noise. "Kayla said you wanted to talk
to me?"

"Yes, but it can wait," Sheila said glancing at the
onlookers. "Is Raphiel ready to go?"

"Whenever he wants," Sheena answered.

"We'll just finish eating then," Sheila said, taking a
bowl of stew. "This is great stuff."

"Thank you for the complement," Sheena said.

"Her name's Lydia?" the small jagwere asked. The
healer nodded.

"That's a pretty name," Raphiel said in an off-hand
manner, munching on an apple.

"Yes it is," Sheena agreed. "But I've got to go help
some other patients now. Just talk to Kayla on the way
out, and she'll tell you how much you need to pay."

"Pay?" Lydia asked, peaking out over the blankets and
watching the healer suspiciously.

"Don't worry dear," Sheena said. "They brought enough
gold in with you to stay for two years." Lydia
grumbled again and disappeared back under the
blankets. Sheena sighed. "That's about as many words
as she'll say in one go." Then the tiger woman was
walking back out into the hallway.

Raphiel munched on his apple and looked at the lump of
blankets thoughtfully. Sheila looked from Raphiel to
where Lydia was under cover, and back. She smirked and
went back to eating

"So, what did you think of your roommate?" Sheila
asked. Raphiel scratched his head and blushed
slightly. "Ahhh...you like her! Don't you?"

"She is pretty," Raphiel said.

"I didn't get a good look, but I'll take your word for
it," Sheila said, smirking. "She needs a lot of
cheering up though."

"I could do that," Raphiel said confidently. Sheila
was under the personal impression that Raphiel could
cheer up an inanimate cliff face, so she admitted it
was possibly. This case had her doubting the effect
that the young man's positive outlook would have on
the wererat.

*****

"Chwa," Moisha said. "It's like, another one." She
pointed to the werepantheress walking down the street
next to an elf and laughing cheerfully.

"That's what?" Romeo asked nervously. "Ten just this
morning?" Neither of them had yet gotten used to the
sheer number of werecats around. Granted their weren't
as many cats as their were other people, like elves,
dwarves, trolls and other such things, but they were
far more common than they were on Earth.

"How long are we, you know, going to stay here?"
Moisha asked. Romeo swallowed nervously.

"We need to know if Lydia appeared anywhere," he said,
fidgeting. "To do that we need to get rumors."

"But then we, like, need to go out there," Moisha
said. "You know? With the cats?"

"We have to go out their sooner or later anyway,"
Romeo said. "To find a wizard you know?"

"So we just, like, head on out and hope to find a
yellow brick road to follow?" Moisha demanded. She
snapped her fingers. "I should have brought my red
shoes with me." Romeo smacked his hand into his face.

"Let's just go quietly and maybe they won't pay
attention to us," Romeo said hopefully. He walked to
the inn door and cracked it open, peaking out into the
hallway. "Okay its clear, let's go." He snuck out into
the hallway, hugging close to the wall and glancing
around. Moisha followed behind him closely, quietly
closing the door behind her. They turned a corner and
passed hobgoblin janitor, who glanced at them and
scratched his head a little in confusion at how they
were skittering along the walls.

"Excuse us," Romeo said, embarrassed as he went back
to walking normally.

"Yeah, we're, like, just staying out of the way, you
know?" Moisha added as they walked by. 

"Crazy kids...wannabe adventurers," the hobgoblin
muttered, shaking his head as he continued down the
hall.

*****

"Well," the speaker was old, and his voice was a
hoarse and hostile thing that promised pain and death.
"They attempted to defy my judgment." He tapped his
fingers and watched the footage from the satellite
again. Perhaps it was just as well, of course, now
he'd need another set of scapegoats. The three of them
had just managed to set his plans back quite a bit.

"And they paid for it with their lives," the bodyguard
behind him noted.

"Perhaps, perhaps," Gothwrain said, watching the film.
"On off-chance that they are alive, kill them on
sight. They're attracting far too much attention to
us."

"Yes, milord," the bodyguard said. "And give Zero the
same instructions."

"Just tell him we no longer support them," Gothwrain
said. "So he is free to do whatever he likes to the
little thieves."

"That is all?" the man sounded confused.

"If we asked him to kill them, it would cost us
money," Gothwrain reminded his bodyguard with an
irritated tone of voice.

"Oh, of course," the bodyguard said nervously.

*****

"Hey, Brit," Brianna called out. The werecheetah
looked up at her sister, and noted the look on her
face.

"What is it?" Brittany asked.

"Those three wererats, they're dead," Brianna said.
Brittany sat bolt upright.

"What?" Brittany demanded. "They're just kids. I mean,
they want to kill me, but they're just kids. How'd
that happen?"

"I'm just back from the leprechauns," Brianna said.
"They had some damages from this dragon that attacked
them during that whole Dragonblade fiasco you and Gina
went on. The rats got killed fighting the dragon."

"Hey, why didn�t they tell us that at the time?" Brit
asked.

"Communications were down," Bri said. "Apparently the
leprechauns with you didn't know about the attack."

"Damn," Brittany said. "I was hoping to talk to them.
Maybe find out why they're out to get me."

"Well the leprechauns were very magnanimous," Brianna
said. "They're going to consider the lost gold as
belonging to the rats for helping get rid of the
dragon."

"Well that was nice," Brittany said.

"Not really," Brianna said. "The lost gold is some of
the stuff they wanted to get rid of. And if the rats
had lived, they'd probably be right back in the
slammer."

"Damn," Brittany said lounging back. "Makes you think,
doesn't it."

"Yeah," Brianna said. "Well, I got to get back. Have
to help Genn with something." She sounded rather
irritated as she left the room.

"Damn, this is going to put a damper on my vacation to
Jade," Brittany said.

*****

Lydia woke up and looked around the room again, no
roommate this morning. That was good. The older
weretiger that ran this hospital was enough to deal
with. She didn't understand these cats at all. They
were just letting her sit here, they didn't ask about
any other rats. They didn't ask about her superiors.
They didn't interrogate her, not really.

Sheena tended to ask her how she was feeling and if
the dragon talked to her. Lydia typically refused to
answer at all. She didn't understand why it was
important to say if the dragon talked to her or not.
She remembered some vague past stories about the power
of a dragon's voice, but those were all fantasy
novels, not real.

She glanced to her side and blinked in surprise. There
was a bouquet of flowers sitting in a vase to the side
of her bed. She stared at them suspiciously and
reached out to take the card gingerly between her
claws. She stopped and frowned, they wouldn't poison
her like that, with a contact poison. Even if they
did, then it would be a release more than anything
else. Besides, that tigress had told her how long she
had. Two years, and the money would run out.

"Get," she read dryly. "Well." She narrowed her eyes
and grumbled in confusion.

"Looks like someone has an admirer," Kayla said in a
sing-song voice. 

The apprentice came in smiling. Lydia watched her
approach with a tray of food carefully. Lydia crumpled
the note in her hand and tossed it across the room to
trashcan. The elf's sunny attitude faded a little at
the action, but not much.

"Now, don't be like that," she said, lecturing. "We
have beef stew for lunch today." She handed Lydia a
bowl and fork. "You missed breakfast, slept right
through, but you do that most of the time, so I
shouldn't be surprised. Now let's see your legs."
Lydia stabbed at her stew and nibbled some beef as she
bore the humiliation of having the girl examine her
slowly healing injuries.

"Why doesn't the cat do that?" Lydia asked,
suspiciously. Kayla looked at her in surprise. Lydia
didn't usually talk.

"Mistress Sheena?" Kayla said. "Well, to tell you the
truth, she thinks you would be more comfortable with
me."

"She lets the apprentice handle the rat," Lydia
grumbled.

"You're accusing Mistress Sheena of giving you
haphazard care?" Kayla sounded insulted. "I'll have
you know that she is very concerned with your health."

"I'll bet she $#%&$ is concerned," Lydia grumbled.
Kayla turned a cross look to the wererat, but before
she could say anything somebody else walked in.

"Hey, is she awake yet?" Raphiel asked. Lydia flinched
and glanced toward the werecheetah, the bowl of stew
in her hands shook a little. "Oh, hi! I hope you liked
the flowers."

"Y..you sent them?" Lydia said, looking back at the
wild flowers with a little more fear. She wanted to
hide again, but the apprentice had taken away her
blankets to examine her legs. She narrowed her eyes,
had they planned this?

"You're going to spill your food," Raphiel said
pointing down. Lydia didn't take her eyes off of the
werecheetah.

"No offense," Kayla said. "Aren't you supposed to be
training or something?"

"Oh yeah," Raphiel said. "Sheila is teaching me the
ropes of being an Edge Guard, but she said we could
take a break."

"I got the cards," Sheila called from the hallway.
Lydia tensed up again as the jagwere entered the room,
then blinked at the small size of this werecat. The
other girl was at least as short as she was.

"Cards?" Kayla asked, as the two werecats sat on
either side of the shaky wererat.

"Don't worry," Sheila said. "I talked to Mistress
Sheena. She's okay with us being here."

~They are all plotting against me,~ Lydia reasoned
nervously. It was the only explanation for things.
They wanted her to let down her guard and give some
information away.

"What kind of cards are these?" Kayla asked, picking
up one of the decks Sheila had brought and looking at
the cards.

"It's an Earth deck, three of them," Sheila said. "One
of my Earther friends taught me this real simple game
you can play with them." She was shuffling one of the
three decks as she spoke and then set it in front of
the silent Lydia, who was still clutching her bowl of
stew in both hands. Sheila took the remaining decks,
shuffled them and handed one of them off to Raphiel.

"What game is that?" Kayla asked.

"It's called 'war'," Sheila said. Lydia flinched, and
glared down at the deck in front of her, that game
took forever. This could be a long, hard day.

*****

"We're not going to get anything from here," Romeo
said. "If she's alive and on this world, it's not
anywhere near here."

"What do you mean 'if' she's alive?" Moisha asked. "I
mean, she just went somewhere like us, right?"

"She was with the dragon, Mo," Romeo reminded her.
"That big, nasty fire-breathing monster!"

"Oh, come on," Moisha said nervously. "It's Lydia, she
can handle anything."

"Yeah, well, we aren't finding her here," Romeo said
quietly. 

"Well, we like need to find a mage anyway, right?"
Moisha said. "Couldn't they, you know, find Lydia."

"Yeah, so now we just have to find a mage," Romeo
said. He glanced to the west and one of the towers at
the edge of the town. "I guess it's time to start
knocking on doors." It wasn't until the eleventh mage
tower that they got an answer, other than a door
slammed in the face.

"Yes," the servant at the door said. The man, they
thought it was man, towered over them and glared down
at them with watery eyes staring out of a green face.
His voice was a low croaky moan that sent shivers up
the rat's spines.

"Uhhhh�we're looking for a mage?" Romeo said staring
up at the�person and rethinking the wisdom of avoiding
the Edge Guard that jagwere had mentioned.

"Mmmmm," the servant groaned.

"Kirch, kirch," someone shouted from inside the tower.
It was a cheerful voice and belonged to a small
round-faced man with a broad grin and greasy black
hair. "Is that someone at the door."

"Guests," the huge green?thing said in drawling groan.

"Ah yes, so I see," the little grinning man said.
"Well, well, what are you coming to this little piece
of darkness for?"

"Uhhh, like,�we" Moisha swallowed. The man's grin
wasn't any better than the huge servant.

"Darling," a woman said from inside. A moment later a
tall woman dressed in black glided to the front door.
"Did I hear there was someone at the door?"

"Why yes Morgana, dear," the little man said. "A
couple of young and lost looking wererats."

"Wererats?!" Morgana said in cool surprise. "How
quaint, why Domez Edemms, where are your manners do
invite them in for a chat."

"Uh...that's okay," Romeo said, backing away along
with Moisha. "We'll just go find some werecat and ask
for their help. It might be safer."

"Like, bye," Moisha said.

They turned around and smacked dead into the huge
green servant guy, wondering how he got behind them
without them noticing.

"No, no," Domez said. "You came here for help, and
we'll do everything we can to help you in whatever it
is. Besides, Kirch would just be so heart-broken if
you left so early, right Kirch?"

"Stay? the Frankenstein look-a-like groaned.

"Uhhhh�hehhehhehhehheh," the two rats said nervously.

*****

~They're back,~ Lydia grumbled to herself as she held
the deck that was put into her hand. If she didn't
play a card when she was supposed to, then one of them
would play for her, and that meant they had to get
close to her. So she played a card when it was her
turn.

This had been going on for several days now. As
evidenced by the growing number of flower vases in her
room. Of course the topic of conversation was leaning
toward the Edge Guard at Sheila's subtle guidance.
Lydia was hearing shades of the wererat that had
convinced her to become a warrior for her clan, though
slightly different. Sheila wasn't talking directly at
Lydia, she was instead talking about her past
adventures and the people she'd helped, occasionally
pausing to remind Raphiel to keep up his training so
that he could become an Edge Guard as well.

The entire thing just completely confused Lydia. What
were they hoping to do with her? Then she smelled HER,
and everything fell into place. Lydia slumped forward,
the deck slipping out of her hands and scattering over
the bed, and started shaking stronger than she had
yet. Sheila quieted down and glanced to the wererat in
concern.

"Is everything all right?" she asked.

"Hey Sheila," a voice called from the hallway.
"Whatcha doing in the hospital?"

"Hey, is that Brittany?" Raphiel asked, sniffing at
the air. The werecheetah in question walked in,
completely decked out in her designer clothes as
usual.

"Oh yeah, hey Raph," she said cheerfully. "Brianna
says? Brittany stopped and focused on the girl on the
bed, looking over her sunglasses. "Hey, my sister told
me you were dead." Sheila blinked and looked back at
Lydia remembering the stories she had heard about the
wererats after her friends.

"W�well, g..get on with it then," Lydia said. "Th�this
is your chance, isn't it? Start killing us rats off
now."

"For goodness sakes," Brittany said rolling her eyes.
"How many times do I have to tell you three..."

"ONE!" Lydia snapped, staring down. "There's only one
of us�you #@%#!" Brittany looked at her and noted the
tears falling down from the girl's face to her lap.

"I don't?

"JUST GET IT the @$#$# OVER WITH!!" Lydia shouted
glaring around at all three of them, tears running
down her cheeks. "You've GOT me! I can't walk more
then twenty feet at a time! Romeo and Moisha are dead!
STOP @#$@#$ around and just KILL ME!!"

"Listen girl," Brittany said coolly. "I don't want to
kill you. I'm sorry about your friends, I'm sorry
about what happened to you, leave me alone I'll leave
you alone. I'll see you outside Sheila and Raphiel."

"Stop #%# playing with my head!" Lydia snapped back.
"You cats were made to kill us rats, there's always
going to be war between us!!"

"I've never killed anyone," Brittany snapped back. She
almost had once or twice, but she never had quite. The
only time she was certain she would have, fate had
saved her from the chance. "I'm not at war with
anyone." Brittany left in a somewhat angry mood.

"Everybody leave," Sheena said coming in. "You can
come back later, maybe." She looked to where Lydia was
crumbling on the bed.

"Yeah, come on, Raph," Sheila said. "We have to get
back to your training."

"Bye Lydia," Raphiel said. "See you tomorrow." Lydia
flinched at the words and went into a new series of
sobs. She didn't watch as the cats left, only looking
up when Sheena was the last one left in the room.

"This is Jade," Sheena said. "Werefolk are werefolk
are werefolk. Over here we don't have to follow some
ancient grudge set by someone that saw us as slaves
and tools. But I'll let you alone for now, Kayla or
another apprentice will bring your dinner as usual."

Lydia looked up and glared through the tears. They had
to be lying, it had to be a huge hoax to get her to
reveal something. Because if there was no war, then
her entire life to that point was a lie.

*****************************************************

"Hey, you're getting faster Raph," Brit said to her
"cousin" as she insisted on calling him. ~No way they
make me marry a cousin.~

"I'm not as fast as you though," Raph noted.

"I've been training up my whole life Raphiel,"
Britanny said. "But you SHOULD be faster than me I
think. You've got my Dad's build, and I'm supposed to
be slow for a cheetah."

"Cool, can I get as strong as you too?" he asked.

"Probably not," Britanny said, reluctantly. "But
listen up, all you've got to do is break the sound
barrier, and after that everything is easy."

"Hey, thanks, Britanny," Raphiel said. Then he looked
upset and glanced away. Britanny frowned as she noted
the direction.

"Everything's going to work out fine," she assured
him, not explaining what she was assuring him of.

*****

"What is she, seventeen, maybe nineteen?" Britanny
asked. "What kind of freak asshole turns a kid into a
weapon like that?" After her little run with Raphiel
to test his speed, she was spending some quality time
with her husband. She was having a hard time settling
down after the events of her arrival in Main Guard.

"Calm down, Britanny," Stripe said soothingly.

"Sorry, baby," Britanny said. "I know we're supposed
to be on vacation. But this is the same guy that set
up my clan to be killed, the werewolves to be enslaved
and had those kids put that damned collar on me. Do
you know how hard it was to coordinate my outfits to
that thing? Not to mention the jokes about a
WERECHEETAH wearing a bell put on her by a bunch of
WERERATS!"

"Yeah, well I believe you have your sisters to thank
for that last part," Stripe reminded her as Britanny
huffed indignantly at the end of her rant.

"This was supposed to be a vacation," Britanny said
sitting down in something of a pout that quickly
became a truly worried expression.

"What's really got you worried, Cheetah?" Stripe asked
cautiously.

"I look at her and I wonder if any kids we have will
grow up like that," she said quietly.

"We'll make sure that won't happen," Stripe promised
her quietly.

*****

Lydia woke up, though certainly not by choice. She
much preferred the oblivion offered by unconsciousness
than the nightmare she faced waking up. She didn't
move as her eyes cracked open to see the sun streaming
in. The smells in the room told her everything she
could know.

Sheena was in the corner. There were more flowers in
the room, she could faintly detect Raphiel's scent on
the blooms despite their natural fragrance. And, of
course, there was the smell of hot food, probably 
on the table.

"You're not fooling anyone, child," the weretiger
said. "I could smell the change in your scent when you
woke up."

"I thought you said you'd leave me alone," Lydia said
woodenly.

"Britanny Diggers said that," Sheena said. "I have
left you alone far too much already." Lydia did not
answer. She could hear the weretiger tapping her
fingers on the table. "If you insist I can run this 
like the prison camp you seem to think it is."

"About time you @#%$#% stopped pullin' my #@$%#
chain." Lydia snapped.

"If that's the way you want it," Sheena said. Lydia
heard the woman standing up and approach her.

~This is it,~ Lydia thought. ~They finally realized
that I won't give them any help.~ Lydia braced herself
for the feel of sharp cats 
talons tearing her to pieces, and it never came. 

Lydia hands were grabbed and held uselessly together
by the tigress's greater strength. Then the rat
assassin felt herself lifted up and cradled like a
little baby. To add to the humiliation, she was
carried thusly through the hallway into a lounge like
area and set down at a table.

Lydia looked up confused and angry as Sheena left the
room.

"What are you doing?" Lydia demanded.

"I'm getting your lunch," Sheena said firmly,
permitting no contradictions. Lydia's mouth flapped
soundlessly as Sheena left the room. Less than a
minute later she had a tray of food in front of her.

"My apprentices will start breaking for meals in the
next few minutes," Sheena said. "You can eat with
them." Lydia mumbled a few moments before answering.

"How do I get back to my room?" she asked irritably.

"Walk," Sheena said. "Like the rest of us."

"I can't walk that far," Lydia reminded her, though
the older were had already left the room.

As the tiger had told her, it was only a minute or two
before the first of the apprentices started to appear
in the room. The first was a human woman at least a
decade older than Lydia.

"Wait a minute," the woman said. "This is the
apprentice's room."

Another...apprentice entered and...barked. 

Lydia wasn't certain what the next...person was. "It"
was female, but other than that she wasn't really
certain. She looked like some sort of hyena creature,
but was most certainly not a werecreature of any kind.

While Lydia was trying to puzzle out the scent and
appearance of the gnoll woman, the other woman went
ahead and spoke in her own barking language to the
human.

"Is that right?" the woman said, then gave a lop-sided
smirk. 

Lydia frowned, they were obviously plotting against
her, speaking in a foreign tongue like that. 

"Sorry girl, didn't mean anything by it." Lydia looked
her up and down a moment.

"You...are an apprentice?" she asked doubtfully. The
woman had the carriage of someone trained to the
shadows and fighting. So did the...other.

"Not really girlie, I just work here," the woman said,
sitting down. "The name's Hannah and that's my partner
there." The hyena person waved and barked. 

"She says hi. Gnolls can't speak the common you see,
but she probably understands it better than I do." The
woman said the last with a bit of a roguish smirk.

"Uh right," Lydia said with narrowed eyes watching
both of the apprentices. ~Ringers, here to make sure I
don't hurt any of the real apprentices.~ She almost
snorted at the thought. ~As if I CAN right now!~

"How's the stew?" Hannah asked dishing out her own
portion and sitting down next to the gnoll. 

The gnoll was currently eating a hunk of meat with her
hands, and somehow managing to look more civilized
than the woman eating the stew with the proper
utensils.

"And what did you do before working for that...cat?"
Lydia asked suspiciously. Hannah seemed to consider
the way she said 'cat'. Certainly these two were meant
to get rid of her without the werecat getting any
blame. 

Certain highly trained tactical and strategic portions
of Lydia's mind were balking at the idiocy of this
"plan," but they weren't nearly vocal enough to be
heard.

"We were in the import and export business," Hannah
said coolly, with the same lop-sided grin. The gnoll
rolled her eyes and barked a string of comments,
though the human seemed to ignore her. "Anyway, then
we got caught in some fracas with Rook's crew and had
to ally with Edge Guard to save our necks. To make a
long story short, as a little thanks we were given
something the new judge around here calls 'community
service' as compensation for the help. Basically it
means we don't go to jail, but we do shitwork for
locals for a while."

"Like dealing with unwanted...persons," Lydia noted.

"Like taking care of the bedridden unfortunates around
here," Hannah gestured. Then she leaned forward
conspiratorilly. "Speaking of which, did you know you
have a tattoo on your rear end?"

Lydia's looked up in confusion at that, and narrowed
her eyes angrily. She growled a little.

"What?" Lydia asked. The gnoll shook her head wearily,
barked something and went back to eating.

"It's all in good fun, Chublaka" Hannah protested to
the gnoll. "Yeah, you do...'Property of Romeo Ellis
and Moisha Rich.' So who are these two?"

Lydia's eye twitched angrily for several moments
before she more visibly reacted.

"I'LL KILL THEM!!" she snapped to her feet, gripping
the edge of the table, tightly and glaring into space.
"I'LL TEAR their...I'll...I'll..." She started
deflating quickly as memory started to kick in over
shock.

"Whoah girl!" Hannah said, backing off at Lydia's
exclamation, still smirking. 

As the wererat visibly started to shake, Kayla and a
youthful seeming man walked in. 

"Hey, are you all right, kid?" Hannah asked leaning
forward, not noticing the people coming in behind him.

"I'll never see them again...." Lydia whispered almost
too quietly too here before her momentarily steady
legs gave out from under her and she nearly smacked
her head into the table on the way down.

Kayla rushed forward to catch the wererat and prevent
any further harm that the girl would have to heal. She
silently cursed herself for being too slow, she should
have gotten to the room BEFORE the smuggler had. 

"Hannah!!" the youth shouted stomping forward into the
woman's face.

"What did I do?" she protested. The gnoll barked some
comments as Hannah's apparent accuser glanced to Lydia
who was currently shaking in Kayla's hands and staring
forward into space. "I was just kidding around."

"Why Mistress Sheena would let a scruffy-looking
flomph herder like you NEAR one of her patients is
beyond me," the woman said.

"Hey, who's scruffy lookin'?" the woman demanded.

"Get a mirror," the other said, obviously irritated. 

"Whatever you say your Lordship," Hannah said,
standing up and sketching a bow. Said Lordship looked
around her at Kayla, ignoring Hannah. 

"I'll get Mistress Sheena, Kayla." he said, leaving
the room. Hannah glanced back at Lydia and looked
confused.

"What did I say?" she asked.

"We believe her friends were killed by that dragon,"
Kayla snapped. Hannah looked stricken for a moment,
and Chublaka gave a long mournful sounding moan.

"Aw, man, she gonna be allright?" the woman asked.

"I don't know," Kayla said frostily. "She was quite
near suicidal already. We'll have to wait for Mistress
Sheena."

"Yeah, her..." she seemed to think of something.
"Awww! That half-elf is going to blow this out of
proportion. Layan! Wait! It ain't my fault!!" Then she
ran out of the room after the half-elf.
Chublaka mumbled a little something in her barking
tongue, shaking her head.

"I don't think there is anything you can do, thanks,"
Kayla said. She continued to hold Lydia as the
wererat's teeth chattered, and she stared forward.

"I failed," Lydia whispered. "Everybody's dead."

"What," Kayla asked. "Did you say something? Lydia?"
But the wererat apparently hadn't been responding to
her.

"It isn't my fault!" Hannah's voice called out,
announcing the arrival of Mistress Sheena before the
werecat appeared.

"Would you just be quiet and let us handle this,
Hannah?" Layan asked.

"Oh!" Sheena said. "This is MY fault." 
She moved to Kayla and slowly took hold of away from
Kayla Lydia and checked her over. Her apprentice also
looked over the girl, concerned for the patient that
she had been helping take care of the last few weeks.

"Yeah!" Hannah responded. "Errr, wait...It's not my
fault because I didn't know, it's still her....my..."
The gnoll barked something. "Responsibility...yeah."

"I would comment about Hannah Thola actually taking
responsibility for her mistake," Layan said as he
brought over some potions. "But there are more
important things to do at the moment."

"This IS my fault," Sheena said. "I hoped that
exposing her to more daily life would improve her
attitude." She calmed down and began to quietly cast a
spell of soothing over the girl.
Suddenly a black nimbus formed around the wererat and
seemed to become a pair of jaws that reached out to
snap out the healer apprentices around it.

"What the hell was that?" Hannah asked. The two
apprentices shook their heads, also stupefied.
Chublaka, however, barked something that sounded very
sorrowful and sympathetic. "Uhh...that's a myth, I
don't believe in all that old mumbo jumbo."

"It is not a myth," Sheena corrected. "This is a
dragon curse, the old dragons could all leave a boon
or curse when they died, but the knowledge was
eventually lost as the younger dragons decided the
idea was pointless since none of them ever thought
they'd die. This is actually a weak curse."

"This...is weak?" Kayla asked, her throat dry. The
black nimbus was only now slowly regressing into the
shaking wererat.

"One curse eventually led a brother and sister to be
separated for many years, lose their memories, get
married to each other, and accidentally cause the
destruction of all their family and every land they
ever called home," Sheena said grimmly as the darkness
finally descended.

"And...what does this one do?" Hannah asked nervously
eyeing the girl.

"It appears to resist emotion-based magics and turns
this girl into a catatonic wreck," Sheena said
clinicly, trying not to give up herself.

"Mistress!" Layan called out, pointing. "She's
bleeding!" 

Sheena looked down at Lydia to see the blood stains
growing from where the dragon had clawed her back and
legs. Everybody sprang into action again.

*****

"Hello," Raphiel said cheerfully as he walked into the
clinic next to Sheila. As they entered people stopped
and glanced among themselves before looking toward
them hesitantly.

"Something's wrong," Sheila said. The appearance of
tired looking Mistress Sheena confirmed that.

"Sheila, Raphiel," she said. "There is some bad news."

"Bad news?" Raphiel asked worriedly. 

Many people thought he was rather dense, this wasn't
particularly true. He was bright enough to know that
being sent to a bunch of women known as "amazon
breeders" was probably a good thing for a man. Maybe
even smart enough to talk his way into the
possibility. However, Raphiel was rather naive. Though
the Amazons would probably have seen that as a very
strong point in a male as well.

A swift breeze of air was the only clue people had to
his passage as he edged near the sound barrier on his
way to Lydia's room.

Sheena and Sheila were only a couple of moments behind
him, and found him sitting next to Lydia, holding her
back upright and waving a hand in front of her face. 
Sheila looked into his face and saw a look of sorrow
and regret that had only appeared once before on
Raphiel's face. When he had heard how heartbroken
Cheetah had been over the possibility she'd have to
marry him instead of her true love.

"We healed the wounds closed again," Sheena said. "But
I don't know how to face the curse yet, it's weak, but
none have been documented since well before most of my
tomes were written."

"Curse?" Sheila asked. "What curse?"

"The dragon must have been from an old dragon realm,"
Sheena said quietly. "It knew how to lay a curse of
revenge on the girl."

"She won't wake up?" Raphiel asked.

"And she won't go to sleep," Sheena said. "She just
stares." Raphiel frowned and hoped for the rat-girl to
snap or growl at him or just grumble. Something other
than shake and snap her teeth together.

Then he remembered something from a book his friend
Brianna had given him. Some story or something called
"Is" or something by some king or another. The guy at
the end of the story had brought his girlfriend back
by outrunning something like this on a bike or
something.

Certainly he was faster than a bike. Britanny said he
should be able to get faster than her, even if he
wasn't as strong.

"I got an idea," Raphiel said. Before anyone could
protest, Raphiel and Lydia were both gone.

"Oh damn! Raph!!" Sheila shouted. "Come back here!!!"

*****

"Mo..." Romeo whispered as he peeked around the room.
"Mo...is that you?"

"Ewwww...." the other rat said in a distinctive manner
that quiet definitely identified the rodent as both
lycanthrope and valley girl. "That...that....thing
almost got me."

"Which thing was that?" Romeo asked quietly.

"You know...like...THAT...THING!" Moisha whined.

"Mo....there are a LOT of 'things' in this house,"
Romeo complained. "These crazy kooks are spooky."

"And, like mysterious and junk too," Moisha said.

"And who names their kid 'Odinsday' anyway?" Romeo
demanded. Moisha seemed to pause in thought for a
moment.

"Why do I like, have this urge to snap my fingers, you
know?" she asked.

"Not to devolve into your particular vernacular,"
Romeo said dryly. "But yeah, I know what you mean."

"Ummm, what?" Moisha asked, scratching her head.

"Just forget it," Romeo said. "Did you find a way out
yet? What am I saying, if YOU'D found a way out you
would have taken it by now."

"Hey," Moisha protested. "Lyds would have my hide if I
like, you know, left you to die or something."

"Yeah, I guess that's true," Romeo said. "So what now.
Spend the rest of our lives dodging spooky kids and
Frankenstein's monster..."

"Don't, like, forget, you know, that thing," Moisha
reminded him.

"Oh yeah," Romeo said. "'That thing.' That or..."

"Try to climb down the carnivorous apple tree?" Moisha
said.

"Oh, ratties," a high pitched whine called out. "Where
are you little ratties, I have another game to play."
The same basic thought went through each of the rats'
heads.

~Oh no, (like) a 'game!'~

"Where's the tree! Where's the tree!" pretty soon two
rats were charging for the nearest window.

*****

Everywhere she looked, as far she could see, there was
nothing but bodies. Her parents, her friends. Most of
the wererats she had ever known and anyone that had
ever helped one lay in a vast pile that she was wading
through, unable to close her eyes. She hadn't seen
Gothwrain or most of his closest assitants yet, but
she feared they weren't far behind in appearing.

She refused to look directly into the darkness that
made up the sky. Certain that somewhere in that
darkness lurked a flash of black, white and orange
that would soon be coming to rip her to pieces and end
the war forever.

And now there was a wind, coming out of the darkness
and whipping around her with nearly gale force. The
rush of the wind was almost maddening already, and
added to bleak and hopeless scene she was looking at.

She had no idea how long she had been wandering this
deathfield. She didn't care. It was all her fault for
failing the clan of rats.

Just like her mother and father had been killed by
werecheetahs when she was a child. Like so many of
their clan had vanished at the claws of the cats.

Some part of Lydia's mind complained at that. It
always had, and she never really listened to it
before. It was part of the dragon's curse, however, to
show her ALL her failings, real or imagined. And that
magic was giving her unconscious more weight as time
passed in the void.

This would normally have been a very bad thing, and
would merely have condemned the rat to more suffering.
The dragon had not really counted on just how
vindictive it's small opponent really was. Vindicative
enough that if she knew the secrets of the dragon
curse, that her death curse could be the stuff of
legend.

~How could the werecheetahs have killed all those
wererats?~ a small part of Lydia asked, aided by the
magics. ~Britanny is the last, on Earth, and has been
the last for twenty years or more.~ Lydia didn't
counter the argument with Raphiel's existence, instead
she tried to ignore her own doubts.

~There were no werecheetahs to kill us when my parents
died,~ Lydia thought again, still trying to bury the
line of thoughts. ~So what happened to my parents
then? Gothwrain's men rescued me from the attackers, I
could smell the blood from the battle they had...I
could smell all...that....~ Lydia froze and stood in
the field of bodies, barely noticing the carrion
dreamscape begin to fade away.

"Rat...blood...all over...all over the
UNINJURED...warriors...." Lydia shook angrily, teeth
clinching as she heard her "master's" laughter fading
in from the darkness. "Lord Gothwrain is still
alive....that clumsy cat couldn't have taken HIM." 

The curse was ALMOST sentient, but not quite enough to
respond effectively as Lydia's rage at this discovery
erupted into a mental fire whipped to brutal fury by
that strange wind sweeping the dreamscape. The one
neither the curse nor Lydia were responsible for.

*****

Raphiel looked down and saw that his passenger was
still unresponsive, though she looked slightly
different somehow. Then he saw a rim of darkness
surround her and almost tripped in surprise.

Raphiel recovered and pushed himself faster. Britanny
had mentioned something about a sound barrier, but he
didn't know what that was precisely. He just knew it
had something to do with speed.

He was getting tired as he started to push his sprint,
and only periphally noted the writhing aura of
darkness around Lydia as he took a wide turn to break
from his circular path around Main Guard.

The thundering boom occured simultaneously with the
sudden burst of the darkness around Lydia, and then he
was breezing through the wilds, having troubles
avoiding obstacles until he spotted the Observatory.

The speed boosted leap nearly pushed him past the roof
of the structure, but he stopped on top of it, though
he had to turn about to keep himself from falling.

As he settled to the ground, tired from the run, the
sun began to dip below the Western horizon, filling
the sky with a wonder of glorious colors. Though
Raphiel only paid note to one thing.

Lydia blinked.

She glanced about stiffly and frowned.

"Where the @$@$@# @$#@$#@ am I?" Lydia asked wearily,
voice exhausted.

"Hi!" Raphiel said to her, drawing the rat's attention
to his face. She looked somewhat surprised and
irritated for a moment before weariness took her and
she fainted asleep. 

"Yeah, sleep's a good idea," Raphiel agreed, panting,
before he closed his eyes and started snoring.

*****************************************************

Lydia woke up slowly. Her head felt like she had drunk
herself into about twenty bottles the night before.
This was somewhat more painful physically than the way
she had been waking up the past few weeks. It almost
masked the intense nausea she felt.

Almost.

Lydia's higher thought processes were blocked by the
effort to get out of the bed and find a toilet or
something else suitable before she lost her cookies.
She practically fell out of the cot, and, after
dizzily climbing to unsteady feet, made a stuttering
dash for the pot she saw in the corner.

It didn't take long for her body to empty her stomach,
and then it was on to dry heaves. She was still
trying, for all appearances, to disgorge her stomach
itself when someone came into the room she had woken
up in.

Julia Diggers saw the girl being sick and then faded
back out of the room. She leaned against the door and
listened, waiting for the heaves to cease before going
in. There was no sense in humiliating the girl by
making her aware that this scene had been witnessed.
It was a full minute before Julia hard a weary and
confused "where the #$%# am I?" emanate from the room.
She pushed away from the wall and walked into the
room.

"This is the Observatory," Julia said. "On Jade, about
fifty miles south and east of Main Guard." The girl's
eyes turned toward her and a look of fear and then
determination crossed her face. Julia nodded, the girl
recognized her, that cinched it. This was one of her
daughter's enemies.

"How the %&^# did I get here?" Lydia demanded, and she
concentrated a moment.

"I'd like to know that too," Julia said, crossing her
arms. "But I'm more concerned with why you're here."

"Wait a minute," Lydia said. "There was a fire, and
then I was outside with that cat-boy..." That was
about all she could clearly remember.

"You mean, Raphiel?" Julia asked, sitting on the bed.
Lydia nodded, recovering her focus enough to watch
Julia cautiously. "Don't bother, you couldn't move
near fast enough to counter anything I decided to do."

"What the #%$$#@ do you @#$@#$ know about what I can
@#$@$ do, @$@#$?" Lydia demanded angrily. 
In the next instant Julia's fist was coming at her in
a flash of movement that would have made Zero insane
with jealousy. Lydia could barely track it, and her
body refused to move at her call. She was expecting
the impact when two fingers stopped about half an inch
away from her eyes.

"Guh...guh...guh....guh...guh," a rather pale seeming
Lydia blubbered.

"You saw it coming," Julia said, moderately impressed.
"You've had seem decent training at least, but you're
body's too weak to put up a fight right now."

"A dragon tried to eat me," Lydia said, growling and
refusing to be intimidated by this woman. Well, she'd
settle for refusing to appear intimidated. She dropped
the profanity though.

"I'm not talking about your wounds," Julia said.
"Those are almost gone." Lydia blinked.

"What did you say?" Lydia asked.

"Your wounds are almost gone," Julia said. 

Lydia blinked and began to examine herself excitedly.
Just as the woman said the crushed leg and great tears
in her flesh were almost totally gone. She could feel
just the barest trace of a raised scar in the places
where the worst injuries had been. 

"Well, Lord Gothwrain," Her mouth split into a grim,
joyless smile as she tried to stand up again. "Looks
like time for the staff to voice some complaints." At
least she thought so until she found herself tired and
dizzy just from the effort of standing.

"Whoah!" Julia said, moving to help support the rat.
"Not too fast. I said your body was too weak and I
meant it. It looks like you haven't been eating well
and on top of that my husband said that you seem to
have fought off a powerful enchantment. You're going
to have to take it easy." Lydia felt too weary to
complain.

"Damn it," she muttered.

"Maybe we should continue this discussion over
breakfast," Julia suggested.

"Whatever," Lydia responded irritably.

"You're just bound and determined to piss me off to
the point I kill," Julia complained as she helped
Lydia out of the room. "Aren't you?" Lydia mumbled
something incomprehensible.

"Lydia!" a familiar voice yelled. Lydia winced as she
turned to see Raphiel. "Good morning!"

"...." Lydia grumbled wordlessly for several moments
before begrudgingly muttering, "good morning" back to
the werecheetah.

"Mesha and Tark are almost done with breakfast!" he
said. "Come on or it won't be hot." 

Julia was about to bring attention to the fact that
she couldn't really move fast when the wererat was
suddenly removed from her grasp and following the
werecheetah in a blur down the stairs. She wasn't
moving under her own power. A fact that was emphasized
by the sounds erupting from Lydia's mouth.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee........."

*****

Julia came down stairs to see a highly ruffled wererat
shakily holding a kitchen knife over an oblivious
werecheetah's head. 

Lydia's face was a mask of barely contained rage as
she held the knife, the steel knife, over her head and
breathed heavily. Raphiel seemed to pay most of his
attention to the food, though he was talking to the
unresponsive wererat between mouthfuls.

Julia calmly walked around behind the distracted Lydia
and turned her around to face the plate in front of
her. She firmly forced the girl's hand down to he
table, ignoring the wordless complaints she got from
Lydia. Then she took the knife away, set a bowl of
soup in front of Lydia. Finally, she put a spoon into
Lydia's hand and directed her head to look down at the
bowl.

"Eat," Julia commanded.

"Chicken soup?" she asked, after sniffing for a
moment.

"It's the best thing there is," Julia said. "Eat it."
Lydia was about to tell her that she didn't feel
hungry, but realized that for once she did. 

Julia sat and watched Lydia eat the bowl of soup,
which was quickly replaced with another by Tark.

"Care to explain to me what you're doing on Jade,
now?" Julia asked. "We'd heard you died months ago."
Raphiel answered before Lydia could.

"Oh, the dragon brought her here," Raphiel said. Julia
glanced to Raphiel in surprise, and remembered that
Lydia had said something about a dragon earlier.

"That would explain the remnants of the curse I found
about you," Dr. Diggers said as he came into the
dining room.

"Excuse me," Lydia said irritably. "I can..." she
almost dropped her spoon as she identified the mage
that had come in.

"As long as you behave yourself," Theo said,
recognizing the look. "Then you don't have anything to
fear from us." Lydia shook her head out and smirked to
herself.

"I should have known better than to not expect that
you'd be here," Lydia said. "After all, so is she."

"Lydia always behaves fine," Raphiel said.

"I do not!" Lydia growled, then blinked as everyone
stared at her after that outburst. "err...I do not
need a werecheetah defending me."

"Sorry," Raphiel said. "Hey, wait a minute you're
right. You don't talk a lot, when you do talk you
swear, you complain at the healers and refuse to eat a
lot. You really don't behave well!" It was hard to
tell whether Raphiel was joking or serious.

Julia stood up and again repositioned Lydia to pay
attention to her soup. Though Julia was just a little
curious to know what Lydia had planned to do with that
wooden spoon.

"Anyway," Lydia grumbled after fuming for a minute or
so. "Britanny can go off herself for all I care. My
problem's with my employer now."

"Gothwrain," Theo said grimmly. This time Lydia did
drop her spoon.

"How did you...?"

"I've had run-ins with him before," Theo explained.
Lydia swallowed nervously as she considered this new
information.

"I've never had the pleasure myself," Julia said. "But
I've certainly wanted to a few times."

"He's mine," Lydia snapped angrilly, clenching her
fist around her spoon.

"You don't have to worry about him on Jade," Theo
said. "And what's to gain in vengeance, whatever he
did to you?"

"What's to lose?" Lydia asked, pointedly looking down
into her soup.

*****

"Finally," Romeo said. "We're out of there."

"Did you see the Thing?" Moisha asked.

"Which thing?" Romeo asked wearily. "I keep telling
you there were a lot of 'things.'"

"Oh, like, come on!" Moisha said. "The Thing! You,
like have to know the Thing! You know?"

"Uh, right," Romeo said. "You know, for a carnivorous
apple tree, that was a pretty easy climb."

"Yeah," Moisha said, lifting an apple from her bag and
starting to bring it to her mouth. "Weird they'd call
it that, isn't it?"

"Umm, where did you get that apple?" Romeo asked
nervously.

"From the tree," Moisha said. "I put a whole lot in
this bag of holding I bought." 

"Uh huh," Romeo sweated for an instant, before
stepping forward and knocking the apple out of
Moisha's hand.

"Hey," Moisha snapped angrily. "What did you do
that...for?" 

Romeo was pointing panickly at where the apple had
landed. The little apple had somehow developed a mouth
full of sharp, stick like teeth.

"AHHHHHHH!!!!" Both rats screeched before taking off,
Moisha dumping the contents of her bag behind her.

"JUST DROP IT!! DROP IT!!!" Romeo shouted.

"Are you, like, KIDDING?!" Moisha asked. "This is,
like, the ULTIMATE, shopping accessory!! You know?!"
Romeo glanced back at the growing horde of mobile and
fanged apples. Given such a visual stimulant he found
himself capable of adequately stating his opinion on
the subject.

"GAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

*****

"There's really no telling where they ended up,"
Sheila said. "I suppose the Observatory is most
likely, Raphiel does know that after all."

"This is my responsibility," Sheena sighed. "I should
have known better than to try to push the poor girl."

"Don't worry," Sheila said. "We're the Edge Guard, we
can track them down and..." Sheila was cut off by the
sound of an arriving teleport. Suddenly the pair they
were planning to search for was standing in the room
with them, and the elder Diggers were there as well.

"I think you're looking for these two," Julia Diggers
said with a smirk.

"Ohh, Hi Sheila!" Raphiel said. "Lydia's awake now!"
An irritated wererat waved from her position in the
middle of several people that she still figured wanted
her dead.

"By the heavens," Sheena gasped, racing over to
examine Lydia who was unwillingly being supported by
Raphiel. "It is certainly a miracle."

"What's a miracle?" Lydia asked.

"You seem to have overcome the dragon curse," Sheena
said. She glanced at the distrusting look in Lydia's
eyes and ignored it. "How's your appetite?"

"I'm not hungry," Lydia said. Sheena appeared
disappointed for a moment.

"She just ate about ten bowls of chicken soup," Dr.
Diggers said.

"Well," Sheena said cheerfully. "It seems you are
feeling better." She frowned as she further examined
Lydia. "But perhaps you should go back to bed for now.
Tomorrow we'll start getting you back to your prime."

"Whatever," Lydia grumbled again. Sheena started to
take hold of Lydia, but the rat shook her off. "I'm
fine."

"Well." Sheena said, with an arched eyebrow. She
watched Lydia watching the rest of them. 

She didn't seem to be paying attention as much to
Raphiel. There was a distinct lack of distrust in her
expression when she glanced past him. Though that was
perhaps because it must become quite obvious to her
that Raphiel probably couldn't lie to save his life.
Sheila blinked, finally recovering her wits, and then
smirked. 

"And hey, the four of you are just in time," she said.

"In time for what?" Julia asked as Sheila smiled
wickedly.

*****

Lydia looked down at the deck in her hand. Just where
had Sheila come up with five more bicycle decks
anyway? Lydia's mouth twitched as she played her card.

*****

"This is still weird," Britanny said.

"I agree," her mother said. "Though she doesn't appear
to be an immediate danger to anybody, and if she tries
anything, I'm watching her."

"Thanks, Mom," Britanny said. "Do you need me to..."

"This is your vacation time, Brit," Julia said. "Enjoy
vacation. Besides, best to get in the habit of just
lying around right now."

"Huh?" Britanny asked, confused. Julia winked at her,
but that only confused her more. "Okay, Mom, whatever
you say. And thanks again." She spared the odd image
of Raphiel helping Lydia do situps one more glance
before leaving.

*****

"That's enough for today," Sheena said. Lydia glanced
at her and continued her efforts. "That's enough,
Lydia."

"I can get another pull-up in," Lydia insisted,
glancing at Sheena from the corner of her eyes. 

Sheena frowned, the girl had gone from catatonic to
obssessive over getting better as soon as possible in
what amounted to an eyeblink. Perhaps she was not as
recovered mentally as had first seemed.

"You'll only slow yourself down if you push to hard,"
Sheena said. Lydia seemed to consider it for a moment
before dropping to the ground.

"Fine," Lydia said before shuffling away from the
small room that had been set up for Lydia. 

She was getting around on her own now, walking
normally most of the time. But she almost always left
the workout room looking like she was on the verge of
death by exhaustion.

"She still doesn't care about herself," Sheena
decided. She considered the problem for a moment, and
thought of something. "Lydia, I thought of something
you could do to help further your recovery."

Lydia shuffled back to the room and looked at her
expectantly, waiting for the catch.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Let me just call someone to help you get around,"
Sheena said. "Do you have any preferences?" Lydia
frowned and her mouth twitched.

*****


"I don't see what this has to do with getting better,"
Lydia muttered as she sat down in the small auditorium
next to Raphiel.

"It's fun though," Raphiel said. "They play great
music, I sometimes hear when I'm passing by. There's
good food too, but I've never been able to afford a
ticket before."

"I think this one's on my tab," Lydia said blandly.
She looked down at the dress she was wearing,
presumably to encourage her not to do anything too
athletic.

"Oh yeah," Raphiel said. "That's a nice dress. It
looks good on you."

"Uh huh," Lydia said deadpan. "Which one told you to
say that?"

"Nobody," Raphiel said. Lydia stared at him in
surprise. "Britanny told me to tell you your hair
looked nice, but at the time you were just waking up,
so I think she was trying to tease you." Lydia worked
her mind around that comment for a few seconds.

"What is wrong with my hair when I wake up?" she asked
in a growl.

"Well, it's all sort of...everywhere," Raphiel said.
"It looks cute, but I didn't think you'd want me
saying it looks nice."

"I look 'cute'?" Lydia repeated, mind sent reeling
again.

"Hey, ssshh," Raphiel said. "The music's starting." 
Raphiel didn't seem to notice Lydia reaching her hands
up towards his neck, her eyes twitching. Then she
jerked her hands down and growled through gritted
teeth.

"OOOhhh!!" Lydia snapped. ~He does that on purpose, I
know he does.~ Which was about when the cannon went
off about twenty feet behind them, and Lydia found
herself clutching Raphiel in a death grip.

"Yeah," Raphiel said, apparently not unhappy about
having the girl cling to him. "Neat way to start a
song eh?" 

Lydia returned indignantly to her seat and convinced
herself again not to strangle the werecheetah. The
music was kind of enjoyable...like an orchestra
version of heavy metal or something. 

(Lydia has never heard any of the heavier symphonies,
like "In the Hall of the Mountain King" or "Ride of
the Valkyries" and so was unaware that symphonies
could get just as loud as a Metallica concert)

*****

"Ahhh," Gar said looking out from the boat as the
docks of Main Guard appeared on the horizon. "Almost
there." 

=====
"Caffeinated Kender?  What's that, a berserk spell?" - 
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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