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Candy bit her lower lip as the elevator descended to the planet's surface. The opossum tapped her foot, still hoping there had been some mistake. She couldn't live with herself if there hadn't been. Her mind went back to when she'd last seen her brother.

She'd yelled at him, called him worthless, told him he'd never amount to anything. She hadn't meant it, no she hadn't. She wanted to take it all back. She wanted to go back and live that day again and never say that and hug him and kiss him and tell him she'd help him find a new job. That he could stay at her place as long as she needed. Why hadn't she done that?

The agonizing minutes of the elevator ride ended, and its inhabitants slowly shuffled, giggling and laughing about the fun they were going to have, straight into the waiting maglev train. The train wasted no time in taking off from the platform. As it sped silently along its rail, Candy stared out the window at the barren desert.

***

Ragtime piano music played from the speakers hidden about the park. The park goers filled the orange dirt road, walking to and fro gabbing and laughing. The smells of popcorn, cotton candy, nachos, hot dogs and a myriad of other foods mixed in the air.

A gazel mimed shooting a tiger in western garb. The tiger pressed his paws over his chest as he sunk down to his knees. The gazell laughed and the tiger joined her. A badger working the snack stall chuckled with her guests as she handed them their cottor candy. A wolf snorted cola out her nose as she laughed at her friend.

A large circle formed as a dingo mimed punching a fennec.

The fennec fell back.

The dingo said to get out of town before he ran his ass out.

The fennec said they hadn't seen the last of him.

The dingo made a crack at the fennec's penis size.

The crowd laughed.

The fennec stomped off.

The dingo made another crack.

The crowd laughed again.

Candy pushed through the crowd looking from building to building, unsure of where to go. Finally she gathered the courage to ask a hyena in western garb whose expression looked rather more official than the other actors. He looked at her confused for a moment, but quickly realised what she was about.

He escorted her through a wooden door. Candy shivered at the chill as they left the hot desert air and entered the cold white air conditioned hallways, her vision hazy as her eyes adjusted to the light. The hyena led her down some stairs and through a series of tunnels. "In there," the hyena said, and let the opossum step through a set of automatic doors.

She entered a large room with a stainless steel table at its center. The wall to her left was covered in stainless steel doors. To her right sat several carts containing bottles of chemicals and other materials. At the far end of the room a wolf looked up from his desk. "Candy Williams?"

"Yes," the opossum said softly.

The wolf stood up from his desk and walked carefully over to her, "I am Desrod James, the coroner of Westland."

She extended her paw and he shook it lightly. She swallowed. "I... don't suppose there could be some mistake."

"Possibly," the wolf said slowly, "but I do not wish to get your hopes up." He walked to the wall of doors, opened one, and slid the drawer out. Candy bit her finger fearing what she'd see, but the body on the drawer was wrapped in a white silk. "I apologize sincerely if I have violated any religous tennants you may have. I find that this is the most respectful manner to treat the deceased until proper arrangements can be made."

The wolf brought a cart over to the drawer and via a mechanism raised the platform of the cart to the drawer. He detached the drawer from the wall then lowered the cart platform. Candy continued to bite her finger. "Are you ready?" he asked.

She nodded as tears rolled down her cheeks. She begged it be someone else. The wolf carefully pulled back the silk from over the body's head. Candy let out a cry. There had been no mistake.

Candy clenched her eyes tight as she cried. Finally she said, "That's him." She looked down at his unmoving face. She reached down and stroked his head. "How?" she said.

The coroner slowly replied, "I can tell you if you wish, though I advise against it."

She thought for a momen, "Tell me."

"He was shot twice. Once in the course of the duel, once more as a final blow." The possum dropped to her knees as she sobbed. She cried so much she thought she'd never stop.

She didn't know how long she stayed on the floor before finally pulling herself up. The wolf simply watched her solemnly. "I... I'm sorry for keeping you," she stammered.

"It is fine. Please, take as long as you need." The opossum pet her brother's head again. "I'm sorry, Pace, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I love you. I really do. You, you can come live with me. I won't bug you about getting a job anymore. Please, just get up and come home with me. Stop playing. He is playing, right? This is all just to get back at me, right? Please, tell me this is just a game." The wolf said nothing, the same solemn expression on his face. "Stop it! Stop it! Make him get up! Make him... make this not be real...," Candy again dropped to the floor sobbing.

Desrod covered the face of the dead opossum again. Eventually Candy again composed herself and climbed to her feet. She looked down upon the now covered form of her brother. "I'm sorry, would you like to look upon him some more?" the wolf asked.

"No, no, that's okay."

"There is the matter of transferring the body."

"I... I haven't made any arrangements. I... hoped there had been some mistake."

"I understand. This is not a problem, I can arrange everything myself, however you wish. Simply inform me of what you would like done. However, I must emphasize that there is no reason to rush the matter. Please, take as much time as you need."

"Can I come back later?"

"Of course. Again I stress there is no rush. I will hold him here for years if that is what you need."

The opossum nodded, then turned to walk toward the door. "Do you need an escort out?"

"No, I remember the way," Candy headed out the door then turned around to add, "and thank you." Desrod nodded.

***

That night Candy spent in a hotel room in the park cuddled up to a snow leopard female whose company she had purchased. They did not engage in any sexual activities. Candy simply lay in the cat's arms, awake and staring off. She never told the girl the reason for her sadness, though she imagined it wasn't hard to guess.

She spent the next few days wandering the park's various attractions aimlessly, trying to figure out what this place was about but not really taking anything in.

Those nights she spent alone, and on rare occasion sleep managed to claim her.

After several days she finally made her way to the street where the duels took place. She arrived early in the day and sat on the boardwalk in front of one gift shop while she waited. She sat there for hours as the park goers walked back and forth eating their snacks and chatting and laughing.

The atmosphere slowly changed as the security guards began to assemble sets of wooden bleachers for guests to stand on. Candy moved to the front of one immidiately to make sure she had a good spot. The population in the middle of the street slowly dwindled as more furs lined either side. It eventually reached the point where the only furs in the street were those that occasionally darted from one side to the other.

Finally the duelists themselves arrived; two females: a vole and an asiatic porcupine. The judge presented the two duelists with their armaments, and everything was set. Candy swallowed.

The bell rang starting the duel. The porcupine drew and shot the vole. The vole jumped and fell back. She climbed again to her feet and the porcupine shot her twice more. The vole collapsed to the ground lifeless.

The crowd around Candy cheered. Candy only imagined if that had happened to her brother. The bell rang, him shot once, stumbling, falling, climbing to his feet again only to be mercilessly shot a second time, and then falling dead to the ground.

Candy clasped a hand over her mouth to keep from vomitting as she turned and pushed through the crowd of cheering spectators.

Candy spent the night again in the arms of a prostitute, a rabbit female this time. Again there was nothing but the hired girl cuddling and stroking the poor opossum as she lay awake. Candy's sole words to the girl that night were, "Why would some one kill another?"

The rabbit's reply had been, "Most do it for the money, I think." Money? Candy would have given her brother's opponent every cent she ever made for him not to have killed Pace. Tears rolled silently down her cheeks.

In the morning, she had to feel for herself what it was like. She had to know for herself why one fur would slay another.

She made her way to the duel office, signed herself up, and paid the entrance fee. She briefly wondered where Pace had gotten the money for that.

Then she had to wait as she entered the ordeal leading up to the duel itself. The worker called this the 'Process.' It was two days before she was brought in again, the nights of which she spent alone, to be 'Read the Rules.'

The activity was carried out by a male human and a female cat who did not seem to care much for one another. They asked Candy to sign a document saying that she acknowledged she could be killed in the course of the duel. She signed it. They asked Candy to sign another document saying she acknowledged she could kill someone else in the course of the duel. She signed it as well, briefly thinking that her own brother had agreed to such a thing.

Then the two judges proceded to read her a long list of rules. She didn't pay attention to half of them. The judges then had her sign a document saying she understood the rules fully; she did.

The next day that she came back in for 'Weapon Selection.' An African wild dog took her to a room deep underground that contained a firing range, a small couch, and a table with a long box on it.

The dog explained, as she vaguely remembered the judges the day before having done, that the box contained ten revolvers for her to test. The drawers of the table beneath the box held bullets and paper targets. She then demonstrated how to load and fire the revolver, and how to change the targets.

"You have a whole six hours. You can leave anytime and come back in that six hours, if you'd like. Also feel free to ask for more ammunition if you need it. And you can request someone escort you to the restroom or cafeteria, if you need. Okay, sweetie?"

"Okay," she said softly. The dog left Candy to her own devices.

Candy opened the box and took gun number four. She studied it then loaded it. She stepped up to the firing range and fired all six shots. She activated the mechanism to bring back the paper. She studied it.

The paper had four holes, two outside the feline silhouette completely. Another rested in the cats arm and the final dead center of the heart. Candy dropped the paper to the floor then placed the gun back in the box.

She sat down on the couch and stared off for several minutes. She stood and inserted a new paper silhouette into the mechanism; an opposum this time. She picked up gun number eight from the box and loaded it. She stepped up to the range, aimed and fired once. The bullet hit the shoulder.

She lowered the gun then raised it again, pulling back the hammer. Was this what Pace's killer saw? She lowered the gun and looked down at it. Tears fell from her face onto the metal object.

Why had she yelled at him? Why had she driven him to this? She wanted so bad to tell him she was sorry. He died thinking she hated him. She wanted to tell him it wasn't true. She wanted to tell him she loved him and was sorry. But now she'd never get that chance to apologize. Never.

She choked up as she cried, then looked up at the paper. She raised her head to the ceiling. She breathed a few deep breaths, then put the muzzle of the gun beneth her chin. She pushed the trigger back.