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Counter Earth Chronicles - Dual Realities

Chapter 20: When The Very Thing You Are Looking For Is The One Thing You Can't Find.

April 7th YOE 35

7:22 PM Castle Wundagore, World One (Counter Earth)

The hub news was dominated by the fact the tracker tracer system which had just went online now was in the same condition as its predecessor- offline.

It was amusing to see the beastial technicians desperately trying to restore the system to operation. The weird thing was that I knew who was behind their troubles and like the prior system they were going to make sure that it was going to remain a embarrassing blunder for the empire. I found that very amusing.

Still under home confinement, I decided to clean the lair. I then made dinner and attended a video meeting before my overseer arrived home:

"Dongo, Doria, Bess and Tess organized a local job fair for tomorrow afternoon to help out those that are having a hard time right now with the empire's um... humanity restrictions." Cinder announced.

"Yeah that was an incredible feat to pull off how did those four accomplish it?" I asked the two aardvarks on the view screen.

"A lot of planning especially making sure that it wouldn't violate the human's curfew. Although that issue has lessened a bit.... well a lot." Ember added. "If this proves successful they plan to hold one in each of other the cities."

"That is quite remarkable." I said smiling. "The consortium at its best."

"Are you planning on attending Alex?" The smaller of the two aardvarks asked.

"You could say that it is community service." Cinder's cousin added.

"I would really love to- but I got spanked earlier for being in place I wasn't supposed to and that was within the castle." I replied to Ember and Cinder.

"But the tracker tracer system is down." Cinder replied. "You are free to go anywhere, if you know what I mean."

"Besides we can make it and/or worth your while." The young genius said with a gleam in his eye. "I checked your schedule- you do have a session scheduled with Sir Ram tomorrow. But I have a distinct feeling he will cancel on you because of higher priorities."

I stared at my two consortium members on the viewscreen.

"Really?"

"Remember that side project you gave us... about the timeline?" Cinder asked.

"Lower your voices!" I whispered looking around the great room of the lair. "Yes what about it?" I asked the grinning aardvarks.

"There is someone we would like you to meet." The boy genius replied.

"Please don't tell me it is the KLIS!" I whispered.

"No, they won't be abducting anyone tomorrow or the rest of the week. At least in World One and Four." Ember replied.

(???)

"And how do you know that?" I asked cocking my head.

"Cinder pleaded with them to give us a head's up when they are in town."

"You mean they are now scheduling your abductions?!"

"They are trying to terrify Cinder a little less." The older of the two replied.

"Let's just say we are glad the job fair is happening this week because the following week we will be uh... unavailable." The boy genius replied. "I am having a brain scan whether I want to or not...."

(WOW.....)

"Gotcha. If I spin it as some type of community service maybe I might be able to convince my Overseer to let me attend." I said replied hopefully....

8:45 PM a fatigued warrior returns home...

The warn out brown bear found me painting as she entered the home she shared with her human pet.

"Well it looks like someone had an uneventful evening." She grumbled.

"Mistress!" I replied as she walked through the front door into the great room.

"You are painting...."

"Yeah. It was a beautiful sunset on a beautiful spring day besides I had nothing else to do." I countered putting down my brush to meet her at the door.

"What about your chores?"

"Done." I replied.

The ursine warrior looked around. The townhome was spotless.

"Dinner?"

"On the high table ready and waiting my overseer. One of your favorites."

"I guess you did have some free time pet."

"Yes mistress, here let me get that for you." I replied taking her sword. "So how was your shift?"

"Tiring. There are more and more running amok out there than are locked up- especially since the tracking system went offline." She said following me to the closet.

"I see."

"And then there is the exodus."

I looked at her as she bit her lip.

"Second class citizens who are departing the empire... violating the statue settlement."

"You mean like the Legends" I replied remembering our first mission together several years ago.

"Yes. The knight core is very busy trying to prevent that and rounding up those who have done so."

"It is THAT bad?" I asked escorting her to the high table near the kitchen.

"It is worse pet." She replied taking her seat.

That was my opportunity.

"What if there was another way to blunt it...." I asked as she started to dine on the baked salmon I prepared for her.

"You mean the Consortium For Mutual Coexistence?"

I nodded.

"They are having rally tomorrow morning and you are going to ask me if you can attend as some sort of community service because you have been inactive with that group for over a year and wish to start contributing again."

I stared at her- she had read me like a book.

"I have come to know you very well pet. I am your overseer after all."

"Please?" I pleaded. "It is really a job fair for the disenfranchised. Tess, Bess, Dongo and Doria have been planning it for a while."

It took her five seconds to announce her decision.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!"

"Thanks mistress I.... wait, what?"

"Alex I said no." My overseer replied.

"Are you going to tell me why?"

"Now you are questioning my actions?!" She growled.

(UH OH...)

"If you must know you are still on a short leash." Lady Ursa said quite sternly.

At that point I just simply lost it.

"Cheese and biscuits mistress!! I made a mistake, I served my time, I attended conditioning therapy!"

"And continue to do so." The golden eyed ursine said like she was goading me.

"I have become a subservient, docile beta male who is obedient to his overseers!"

(To the point of revulsion.)

"What more must I do? When will I be forgiven?"

My perfect person growled again.

"Are you pet? You just repeated that which you did to our high master on the day of your judgement."

"You mean questioning those who have authority over me?" I said growling.

"What you did was a grievous, grievous crime. I can forgive your actions just now, it was borne out of frustration- but our high master on the other paw... holds grudges for a very, very long time."

(DAMN IT.)

"So you are saying that things won't go back to the way they were before?"

The female brown bear silence shamed me.

"Okay so the high master was pretty pissed at me but you think a year and some months later he would have gotten over it." I suggested.

The fierce ursine warrior lifted her eyebrow at that stupid remark of mine.

(Ok I guess not.)

Bedtime was very awkward that evening the tired warrior made me massage her back, arms, shoulders, legs and behind. Normally that beautiful posterior would have made me hornier than all get out- but not tonight. I was mad at the High Evolutionary, mad at her and mad at the empire. I felt like a caged animal. Especially after all that I had done for each of them- the many, many, many sacrifices I had made over the years.

As the bear woman cuddled me like a plush doll- I couldn't sleep; my mind was working in overtime. Come hell or high water I was going to make it to that event but how?

April 8th, YOE 35

10:43 AM Community Center, basement of World One.

"Alex you made it!" Bess said greeting me within the small building.

"So you convinced Lady Ursa to let you attend?" Tess asked.

"Not exactly." I replied as Dongo and Doria came up to greet me.

"Alex!" Ember said walking over to me.

"Yes, yes I did."

"Dongo, Doria- Alex will be at our booth." The aardvark announced.

And so I joined the Cinder and Ember at their both as they directed the crowds to prospective employers.

"Wow, look at the attendance."

"Hoping to make a difference in some lives here." Cinder replied.

"Speaking of which we have arranged a meeting with someone who can corroborate your findings." Ember said cryptically.

Cinder took me to a nearby tent with a table and three chairs inside. I was instructed to wait there.

And so I did wondering who or what was going to join me. I didn't have to wait long; I was joined by a cat boy and rabbit girl.

"Primrose Willow and Cody Spencer will you look at yourselves- must be an adolescent growth spurt!" I said greeting the two as they sat down.

"That is what every beast believes but it is not true." Cody said hugging me.

"Huh?"

"Mr. Alex we have a deep secret we have been hiding. Something we thought could keep secret- but no, we needed to tell someone." The cat replied.

"When Cinder contacted us we realize that it might as well be you." The rabbit girl added.

"Huh?" I replied cocking my head.

To Be Continued....

[MEANWHILE]

April 7th YOE 35

7:22 PM Upper atmosphere of Chaundoon

"Dear where are you and Hon Hon with the propulsion systems?" Hue asked his mate.

"We are going to need a couple of hours to truly diagnose what that dark moon did to the ship." She replied.

I looked at Panda Lee and Milo.

"Ok then. We just have thrusters. Everyone hold onto to something!" Mr. Manassas warned.

"Hue?" Panda Lee asked scared to know the answer.

"We are going to ride the wake of one of those pulses from the moon." The red tentacled eyeball responded.

"We can do that?" Milo asked.

"That is the only way we can re-enter the planet with propulsion down Snacks." Mr. Manassas concluded. "Or would you rather stay out here indefinitely?"

"I don't feel so well." I quipped as Cassia grabbed hold of Milo, Panda Lee and myself. Wrapping the three of us within her tentacles. That really made me nervous.

The Manassas' space ship rode the next wave of dark pulses through the upper atmosphere to the lower like a surfer on a surf board. About 30,000 feet from the surface of the planet, Hue engaged thrusters slowing our descent.

The ship shook violently retching this way and that before bouncing on the surface of the planet like a ping pong ball before coming to a complete stop.

"Everyone ok?" Cassia asked releasing Milo, Panda Lee and myself.

"All good here." Milo said returning to his platform.

"Yeah." Panda Lee said finding her footing.

"I think I realized something." I replied hugging Mrs. Manassas' 'limb'.

"What is that Alex of Winter?" The female tentacled eyeball asked.

"I hate space travel!"

"Why is that?" The she panda asked as the rest of my hosts looked at me.

"Because if there is a problem, you can't simply get out and walk!" I bemoaned.

Hue, Cassia, and Panda Lee all laughed while I ran off of the bridge to find the bathroom again.

"Hey, I think I have something!" The chubby wolverine boy said tapping a few buttons on his circular platform. "I recorded this as well landed."

"On screen!" Hue ordered.

The images were very eerie. The pulse wave we had ridden radiated in all directions after making contact with the planet's surface.

"What is everyone looking at?" I asked the space family as I returned to the bridge.

"Remember that comment you made about getting out and walking Alex dear?" Cassia asked me.

"Yes?"

"You are going to be doing just that." Panda Lee said.

"What?"

"You and Snacks are going to go on a little away mission." Hue said cryptically.

7:40 PM Some where within a large vast forest...

"Man this planet is unique and bizarre at the same time." Milo said as we entered a forest a mile from where the Manassas skyship had landed."Weird looking sky, weird looking trees, weird looking plants and animals."

"It is." I replied observing floating platforms in the distance amid a yellow sky. "So which way?"

"It really doesn't matter- that pulse from the dark moon radiated in all directions after striking the planet's surface." The wolverine boy said checking some provisions he had taken from the ship. "So pick a direction."

"Um, let's go somewhere safe- so I don't have to use my grappling hook or med-kit. If I am not mistaken, the Chado village isn't far from here."

"I think we are long overdue for a visit." The chubby wolverine replied.

"Manderine was helping King Dragon after his anointment and assent to the throne for a few months before heading back to his own people."

"Was that when Duchess Jua stepped in?" Milo asked me.

"Yup and those two have been inseparable ever since. This way, there are some others we can check in along the way- the tree folk have a settlement not far from here." I suggested.

"Ok let's head there first."

So while Cassia, Hue and Panda Lee tried to get the propulsion drive operational on their ship, Milo and I checked a few settlements nearby.

7:55 PM Tree Folk Settlement

"Should be around here some where." I said we entered a picturesque section of the forest that had many trees with canopies resembling weeping willows. Only they were purple.

"I see it! Over there!" Milo replied.

What should have been a bustling village with much activity was just a deserted clearing in the forest.

"Wow that is eerie." I said looking around. "It is like they up and left."

Not finding anyone at the their settlement we continued on passing a pond which oddly did not contain any merefolk.

Then there was also a mudpit that did not contain any of the mudfolk.

"Picking up on a theme here. No one is around." Milo replied. "Was it the dark pulse?"

"Serious mysterious." I said channeling Arthur. "I haven't seen any animals around either."

We continued on looking for signs of life from any of Chaundoon's inhabitants in the area coming up with nothing.

8:06 PM Chado Village

"Notice how still it is?"

"Kind of like the calm before the storm." I replied looking at the wolverine beastial as his ears started twitching.

"What is it?"

Milo froze in his tracks as he pointed to a figure that had emerged from the brush next to us.

The creature was humanoid mostly, white face, black circular eyes, black circular mouth, beige in color with long arms. It looked like it was right out of a nightmare.

"Finally ran into somebody out here. Hi, my friend and I are looking for the Chado Village." I said cheerfully.

The creature didn't say anything only pointed in the direction we were going.

"Thanks. Milo let's go!" I said pointing.

He stepped carefully around the creature trying not to make eye contact. The chubby wolverine ran after me only stopping after I had stopped dead in my tracks.

At a particular dense part of the forest we saw what appeared to be feet and legs being dragged into some brush right in front of us!

"Was that what that creature was pointing at?!" I started to say while the wolverine boy shushed me- his ears twitching.

"Alex- I hear something."

Milo ushered me to follow him. Carefully we entered the brush. We had arrived at the Chado Village but what we saw there made our blood run cold.

There was a huge brawl- the merfolk were fighting the Chado and the Chado were fighting the mudfolk in some type of huge battle royal like some type of ultimate fighting match!

One of the mud folk was dragging one of the Chado from the forest into the village center. Apparently he had tried to escape.

"The hell?" I whispered.

"Is this what happened in the council chambers?"

"Yeah, pummeling, scratching, clawing, biting between all combatants and four died." I responded as I watched two Chado mauling a merfolk female. Two others had been enveloped by the mudfolk and became mudfolk themselves. Creepy.

"We need to leave now." Milo said pulling me away.

"Those three species are all friends... what did we just observe?!"

"The validation of a theory?" The wolverine boy said. "I think it is the dark moon that is corrupting the planet and causing the crazy."

"And the other weirdness- the levitating Penny and Psi experienced on their recent away mission?"

"Maybe the dark pulses affect different regions differently." The chubby wolverine concluded as we quietly backed away from the brawl back into the brush.

We started walking quickly back into the forest retracing our paths back to the Manassas' ship.

"Um, Milo how much physical activity have you participated in since arriving on Chaundoon?" I asked looking over my shoulder where we had just been.

"A little- Cassia was strident that Panda Lee and myself get plenty of exercise even when we were traveling in space. Why?"

"I think you are going to get a lot starting right now." I replied looking back over my shoulder to see several Chado in heavy pursuit. "RUN!!!!"

*Screech* *Screech* *Screech* *Screech* *Screech* *Screech* *Screech* *Screech*

8:26 PM Manassas' Spaceship

"Alex, Milo was your away mission successful?" Panda Lee asked tapping a few buttons on her console as Milo and I rambled into the bridge.

"In a manner of speaking." I said dropping to my knees trying to catch my breath.

"Please tell me that the propulsion systems have been repaired!!" Milo said.

"Not exactly, why?"

"We are about to be up to our eyebrows in Chado!"

Panda Lee pressed a button that activated the ship-wide intercom.

"Hue, Cassia to the bridge please we have a situation!!"

"What is it Hon Hon?"

"We are under attack!"

"On our way! Prepare for launch!"

The Chado arrived just in time to see a metallic disc levitate from the ground ascending into the sky in front of them.

"Everyone Alex and I confirmed that it is the pulses from the dark moon that is disrupting the order on this world." Milo announced.

"Well we observed after the fact, I volunteered. We didn't exactly see those affected get hit by the pulse waves... but they were in the area."

"Good job boys." The red tentacled eyeball replied.

"Well now we know the problem." The she panda said.

"And its probable cause." The female tentacled eyeball replied.

"But how to we resolve it?" The male tentacled eyeball asked.

I realized the space family was right how does one stop a celestial body from influencing a another?!

_ 8:43 PM Knight Patrol_

"Shakara is this is your first away mission?" Lady Ursa asked the horny lioness.

"It has been quite some time, big cutie- the last away mission.... let's see it was during the year of hell when little cutie, adorably cute and myself were looking for supplies in World Two."

"Where you met Nezera." The warrior bear said.

"If not for Alex and Corbin she would have drained me dry." Shakara said looking out of the passenger window of the blue coupe.

"And now she is a friend and colleague."

"Yeah life is funny like that." Shakara said looking at the copilot monitor.

"Anything?" Lady Ursa asked.

"Umm.... how can you make sense of this ready out?"

*The dot in the center is the prototype and everything in the circle is what the probe is scanning Ms. Kubari.*

"Thank you Overwatch. This tech is rather confusing."

"Hmm... Alex always loved the tech." The fierce ursine warrior teased the leonine healer.

"Yes but he is enjoying the day off and I am here in his place." The red eyed lioness said. "Look! There is a patrol below us."

"Overwatch magnify."

*It appears to be Mathias, Ripple, Psi and Mattimeo. They have resumed the search for Ambassador Umbeo. Most likely under the duchess' orders.*

"Everyone has been looking for him and the stone folk since he escaped during the blood fly attack." The lioness replied.

"Boris and the cleaning crew finally finished cleaning up the mess from that- he said that it was quite ghastly." The female warrior added.

"Big cutie! I have something!"

"Where?"

*Behind us. Switching to rear camera.*

The bear, lioness and automated assistant watched as a metallic disc ascended from the planet's surface at a rapid rate.

"Was that the Manassas' ship?" The red eyed lioness asked?

"It certainly looked like it." The female brown bear replied piloting the blue coupe toward the scene. "Overwatch?"

*Confirmed, it is the Manassas' sky ship.*

"But why were they moving so quickly?"

*Lady Ursa, Shakara I am detecting....*

*FWOOSH*

The blue coupe was sent spiraling through the sky like a stone being skipped on the surface of the water.

System failures started to appear on the upper right monitor of the center stack as Lady Ursa tried to regain control.

"What the hell?" Shakara gasped.

"Attitude control is down!" The ursine knight shouted.

*Passive restraints are deflectors are engaged.* The automated assistant announced.

"Meaning?" Shakara asked nervously.

"We are going down!" The bear said to the lioness.

*KRAAAAASH*

"Overwatch report!" The female knight asked coming to.

*It was some sort of atmospheric phenomena. No, cosmic phenomena. I have a visual.*

The female observed what looked to be a dark pulse hit them from above.

"According to this it knocked down propulsion." The lioness said looking through the system failures. "We survived the fall because of the deflector shield my lady."

"But we won't be flying out of here anytime soon." The warrior bear said looking out of dome.

They had landed on a canopy of tree in a giant forest.

"What about drive out?" The horny lioness asked.

*No roads.*

"And no way of calling for help." The warrior bear said thinking. "Overwatch I need a complete systems diagnostic. Damaged systems, operational systems all of it."

*Right away Lady Ursa.*

What the ladies found dictated their next actions...

"Are you sure about this big cutie?"

"Given our situation we have few options." The fierce ursine warrior said the lioness.

"Meaning?"

"We have to rely on ourselves." The bear said wrapping several tractor hooks around the probe from the cockpit of the dome before nodding at her copilot.

*It is quite ingenious Ms. Kubari. The probe will lift the prototype out of the canopy to the river over there.*

"Then we can engage hydrofoil mode, follow the river hopefully to some place where we can limp back to World Seven." The bear said completing the automated assistant's words.

"So this should work... famous last words." Shakara said typing on the co-pilot keyboard.

There was some creaking as the probe strained to lift the blue coupe off of the tree top canopy and into the giant-sized forest.

*So far so good. You have about 1000 feet... 800... 600... 400... 200... now.*

*SPLASH*

"Engaging hydrfoil mode." The bear said pushing a button adjacent to the steering column.

The wheels of the blue coupe folded and skies extended from underneath allowing the blue coupe to float on the river.

"Disengaging tractor hooks."

"Recalling probe." Shakara said. "Whoa, what is that?"

In the center of the river stood, there appeared to be some light blue diamond shaped something. It stood oscillating about six feet above the water.

"Overwatch?" Lady Ursa asked the automated assistant.

*Unknown.*

"It appears to be alive." Shakara said zooming in on the image.

"Let's find out."

Carefully the bear maneuvered the blue coupe around the object which then followed.

"And sentient." The lioness concluded.

*You two should see this.* Overwatch replied bring up the rear camera.

"My word! It split into two and now is following us!" The lioness replied.

"Theresa Branch and Oliver Justice would have field day with this!" The bear added.

*I recommend no sudden movements and do not display any acts of hostility.*

"Acknowledged."

The warrior and the healer continued down the river watching this whatever it was follow. All the while it kept dividing and dividing, before long there were fifteen of the things following the prototype.

*Alert the current is picking up.*

"I think I know why. Rapids!" The lioness said magnifying the display.

"We can't go through that." Lady Ursa replied turning the coupe around flooring it. The fifteen diamond shaped entities observed the damaged hover vehicle's lack of progress.

*No good the current is too swift Lady Ursa.*

"Looks like we are going in." The bear replied. "Engaging deflectors."

The invisible bubble formed around the blue coupe as it was taken through the rapids, bumping into ever increasingly larger rocks as they went down river and then failed.

*Deflectors failed. This is bad!*

"We are going to be smashed on the rocks!" The female feline screamed.

"Trying to maneuver..." The bear said steering.

That was when the hover vehicle was lifted off of the river.

*Well will you look at that!*

"They weren't hostile at all." The bear said as the fifteen diamonds thingies gently removed the blue coupe and its occupants from danger.

"More like guardians." Shakara said waving at the entities returned to the water. As they disappeared there was a bright flash.

The females within the blue coupe soon found themselves in place there have never seen.

"What is this?"

"Engage the probe and take a look see." The bear ordered the lioness.

Shakara launched the probe. When it took off the females realized they were on some sort of shallow pond that extended in all directions. It was complimented by a blue sky with white clouds also in all directions.

*This is beautiful. But exactly where are we?*

"I was about to ask you the same thing Overwatch." Lady Ursa replied.

"Are we still on Chaundoon? Or somewhere else?"

"And if it is somewhere else... where exactly?" The bear asked looking at the lioness.

*I have something! Panning camera!*

"The stone folk!" Lady Ursa announced. "They don't seem to be on the warpath."

*They seemed to be scared are terrified.*

"Or in hiding." Shakara observed.

"And there is the person of interest... ambassador Umbeo." The bear said pointing to the image on the upper monitor. "We have found him."

10:00 PM Three Rivers Territory S'mar Nation

"Do you find it?" The freckled human asked the female feline as she entered the hut.

"It took me a while to find where the master had disposed of your clothing." Annette replied as she handed the teen a rhomboid looking device.

"Exactly how was my clothing disposed of?" Naomi asked her co-slave.

"It was burned."

"Goodness!" The brunette off-worlder said turning over and over the device in her hand before pressing a button.

Personal journal I think I have found a way to escape my bland subservient existence underneath beastial domination- one of their inventors has created a device that can look into other realities. Is it possible to use it to visit them?

"Seems fine." Naomi said pressing a button. Instantly the rhomboid became a bracelet which she attached to he left wrist.

"Your... voice! That thing stole your voice!" The S'mar female gasped pointing.

"More like recorded it." The teenage comfort woman replied.

"Sorcery!!" The female feline said backing up.

"Whoa, easy. It is not sorcery. It is a um, a tool like you would use a knife, saw or axe Annette there is nothing to be afraid of." The teen said presenting the rhomboid bracelet to her friend."

Annette took a good look at it.

"Think about it- if you were to show say a hammer to someone who had never seen one what do you think their reaction would be?"

"They would be curious of it maybe even a little fearful." Annette replied.

"As you are now." Naomi said smiling from the chair she had been sitting in.

"So what does this tool of yours do exactly?"

"Where I came from, it allowed its users to communicate over vast distances, here it is only useful for recording my thoughts." The freckled brunette said to her fellow slave.

"Well don't flaunt it too much, the master might take it for himself." The feline female with the big breasts and wide-butt advised.

"I just wanted a little reminder of where I came from. Thanks for fetching it for me." The teen said standing. "Ow."

"Your leg still sore?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Naomi replied as Annette went to inspect the teen's wounds from her arrival on the planet.

"Well the brush-burn on your elbow is healing and the bruising on your leg and big toe seems to be lessening, which is a good sign. But the claw on your big toe is very loose." The barren S'mar female said playing with Naomi's toe nail.

*POP*

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Naomi screamed.

"Sorry! It just slid off! Are all human's claws this fragile?"

"What is going on?!" Barb shouted running into stone and wood hut. "Sounds like someone is getting skewered in here!"

"No ma'am." Annette said bowing toward the female warrior. "Namoi's claw on her left toe popped off."

The female warrior who carried the double edged pike looked at the freckled teen who was writhing in pain.

"I wasn't aware that humans were that fragile." The slave said to the Three Rivers Pride Warrior.

"Let me see." Barb said looking at the what was formerly covered by the teen's toe nail. "I remember the day you arrived in our territory you stubbed this badly."

"It hasn't been looking right since then." Naomi volunteered.

"That is probably why your claw fell off. It will grow back." Barb replied standing. "Eventually."

The female warrior made Annette clean Naomi's toe and applied the savages version of ointment before bandaging the area.

"Now that that is settled you will come with me." Barb replied coldly.

"Both of us ma'am?"

"No just her. Saber's orders."

(Uh oh.)

"Am I to be skewered?" The teen said quivering.

"TCH!" Was the female savage's reply.

Naomi was escorted out of the hut, through the center of the settlement. The residents seemed to smile and snicker at her as they went about their evening activities. She saw parents settling their young down to bed, cleaning weapons, sharpening weapons and carving weapons. Typical savage warrior actives.

In the fields surrounding the village near the three rivers she found Saber conversing with a younger male feline half his size.

"Wait." Barb said blocking the teen.

*ARGH*

The female watched as the feline warrior went sailing by landing face first on the ground. He had a thin build on him, a orange bandana and green arm and leg bands.

"I have learned something from this.... you are nothing." Saber said mocking the diminutive feline.

"Kenja pride will conquer you all." The young warrior wheezed.

"Kenja pride is all but gone." Saber replied.

"No!!!"

"Oh yes, most definitely yes." The leader of the Three Rivers Pride taunted. "You could submit to me, if you cherish this life and are afraid to depart it."

To Barb and Naomi's amazement the young brave prostrated himself in front of Saber. Who then kneeled and picked up the brave by his neck!

"So sorry I don't take prisoners- too much treachery abounds these days."

The young feline was tossed upward. Barb and Naomi watched as Saber jumped up into the air to catch and ride him like a sled back downward where he belly flopped on the ground landing face first.

*KRUNCH*

Saber the vicious was well... vicious.

"Sir. I brought her." Barb said interrupting.

"Good. You can take what remains of that away." He ordered.

"Master?" Naomi asked dropping to one knee in reverence to the being that owned her.

"Sit." Saber ordered his slave.

She did as ordered right next to him. Barb sat down right next to her after she disposed of the tribe's most recent capture.

The leader of the Three Rivers Pride inhaled and exhaled deeply his eyes closed. Naomi tried not to stare. She wondered why she had been brought here. Had she done something wrong? Well it was true that her limited mobility due to arrival injuries hindered what work she could perform the last few weeks but she seemed to be recovering. Were they going to put her down like that warrior from Kenja pride?

"Look up. What do you see?" The savage asked.

"The night time sky?"

"What do you think the lights in heavens are?" The female warrior asked her.

"Where I am from we call them stars." The freckled teen replied.

"What do you think they are exactly?"

"Balls of hot gas in space that bring life to planets similar to this one." The teen replied. "Do you believe they are something different master?"

"We believe they are those who have come before and those who are to come after looking down on all of creation."

"That light to right is Sword the first warrior...." Saber said coaxing his comfort woman to sit down in his lap. "Next to him, his mate Shield. Together they created the first pride and founded the S'mar nation."

"All prides trace their lineage back to those two." Barb added.

"Fascinating." The teen replied.

Saber and Barb continued their history lesson. Naomi realized the reason she had been led to the fields outside the settlement, her master had indeed followed up on his word to take her stargazing.

As nightfall came, Saber, Barb and Naomi were surrounded; they approached crawling on all fours through the tall grasses quietly, secretly holding sharp daggers in their mouths. The human girl did not notice until it was too late.

When Naomi looked around she was surrounded by feline warriors.

"Aiiiieeee!" She screamed darting behind Saber. "We are under attack!!!"

"Actually girl it was a test." The savage said grabbing her.

"Very good everyone." Barb said standing. "You all passed. We will continue training tomorrow." She said addressing the warriors.

"Training?" Naomi said quivering.

"I am teaching our warriors how to move about undetected." Saber said as he placed his paws on Naomi's shoulders. "One by one, they arrived here without you noticing.... until it was too late."

"like ninjas." The teen said composing herself.

"It is, a very useful skill and trait when preparing to vanquish enemies." The female feline warrior replied.

"You also passed." Saber said staring at her.

"I did what now?" The teen asked.

"You demonstrated that you are fully healed." The S'mar leader replied.

"You will be taking on more chores, duties and labors from here on." Barb added.

Naomi squeaked as she felt some feline paws move from her shoulders to her breasts which were promptly squeezed.

"A healthy slave is a very productive slave." The feline warrior replied as he started nibbling on her shoulder.

*OAH*

Barb heard the human female moan.

To Be Continued...