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Maybe Tomorrow

-

I Fought The Law

by Dissident Love

copyright 2014

Chapter 10

Hir Grace The Royal Crown Princess Kimmi cried.

Unlike the last few times tears rolled down hir stormy grey cheeks, though, these were tears of hard-fought joy.

Walking through the forest, all through the setting sun's rays, and slowly, gingerly through the night, guided only by the full moon's glow, shi thought that shi would never free hirself of the grime and the gore and the filth and the blood of the underground world. The blood was the worst of it, shi realized, alone with hir thoughts except for the chitter of the night-critters around hir. A considerable amount of it was, figuratively and literally, on hir paws.

Some of it wasn't my fault, shi had thought. I wasn't myself! I was... well, I wasn't in my right mind for most of it, and that creature, that Queen... shi had it coming.

_ _

Hadn't shi?

Mind reeling, hir newfound hope faded to a leaden weight of uncertainty, the dawn's early light showed a colossal huskytaur wandering in morose circles, nearly wearing down a brand new path, wondering if shi would ever find the pond that Bister had promised hir.

Shi realized the extent, or rather the lack, of hir survival skills when the golden sunrise illuminated the broad, shallow body of water no more than a hundred yards to hir right. How many times had shi passed it during the night, shi wondered. Did a creek feed into it? Did I just keep splashing through the same little stream like a moron? How do I plan to take care of myself in the world, when I can't even figure out where a LAKE is?!

_ _

Crunching slowly through the underbrush, Kimmi emerged onto the broad, grassy shore, an emerald ring encircling a blue-black, mirror-smooth lagoon. Shi dipped a toe into the water, expecting the brutal, biting chill of the roaring cavern river that had led hir back to the surface, and instead discovering that it was only slightly cooler than the morning air. Mosses and grasses and any number of plants shi distantly remembered from hir puphood education struggled for dominance in the few inches of water, squishing wetly under hir paws.

Shi took one full step into the pond, sinking up to hir ankles in the blessedly clear, pure water.

Then another, ripples spreading out in all directions, casting rainbow reflections against hir fur, sparkling in the sunlight filtering through the oaken boughs.

Hir third step elicited a choked, wuffing sob from the deposed princess, and shi threw decorum to the wind. Shi dug in hir paws and leapt, tumbling headfirst into the pristine little pond, laughing and crying and babbling nonsense words to hirself. Some of them sounded like apologies, some of them sounded like prayers, and some just sounded nursery rhymes, the last remnants of hir former, safer, life.

Rolling side to side, shi scrubbed hir paws through hir matted, crusty fur, clouds of greyish brown spreading out all around hir. Shi felt a twinge of guilt for sullying such a beautiful, natural spring such as this, but shi knew it would recover.

All shi truly cared about now was that shi was, finally, getting hir bath.

"Next time I get money," shi burbled, dunking hir head repeatedly, horrified at the quantity of sticks, mud and bugs emerging from hir formerly glorious raven tresses, "I'm buying bubble bath. I am never being without bubble bath again. Bubble bath and swords. That's all I really need."

The very centre of the pond was just deep enough for hir to submerge hir entire body, though shi had to duck slightly to accomplish it. Hir torso continued to bob defiantly to the surface, though, and even hugging hir considerable breasts to try and get them under control shi couldn't stay underwater for more than a few seconds. Back home, in hir royal baths, shi could grip any number of contoured golden handles and dunk hirself for as long as shi liked!

Back home...

Shi surfaced, fur slicking down and finally starting to lose the greasy patina of the underworld, and sighed. "Not my home anymore," shi muttered to hirself, doggy-paddling back towards the shallower portions, intending to seriously work the knots out of hir bellyfur. "THIS is my home now. The whole world."

"All of it," shi swallowed. Outside of this little clearing, the world was a thousand times bigger than hir former empire had been. The maps shi had known were... not 'wrong', exactly, but slightly skewed, to give their secluded, mountainous kingdom a sense of power and security. Bister's maps, drawn in the dirt, showed that all of Estragonia encompassed only a small portion of a jutting mountain range on the Western portion of just one single continent. On the grand buffet table of societies, shi had nearly ruled a single puffed shrimp.

Kimmi hunkered down in the pond, suddenly feeling very agoraphobic. "I don't need to see the whole world," shi told hirself. "I just need to find my little place in it."

The sun rose higher, the birds chirped and twirled and tumbled overhead, and shi couldn't keep hir spirits in the dumps for very long. At one point, while meticulously running hir blunted claws through hir vast and fluffsome tail and slowly working out the brambles and goo, a family of deer, real feral deer, appeared at the edge of the pond for a morning drink. For several long minutes shi simply sat, and stared, and smiled, and thought about all the infinite sights there were still to be seen, and how something as ostensibly commonplace as a couple deer in the forest could seem so thrilling.

"Hi," shi eventually hazarded, waggling hir fingers delicately.

As expected, they bolted into the brush with lightning speed, leaving nothing but their own ripples in the water.

Shi shrugged and smiled, rolling partially onto hir back in order to better reach hir tail. "You can't blame me for trying," shi sighed. "At least I didn't try to eat you..."

Hir tummy rumbled and shi frowned, poking at hir belly. Shi had always been a little... soft, shi knew, but shi had preferred to think that shi was fluffy and cuddly. The events of the last week, borderline starvation high among them, had seriously reduced hir fur's natural density and bounce, and the flesh beneath was growing unpleasantly lean.

Was that supposed to be a good thing? Bister didn't have any fat. It's not like my fat was the BAD kind of fat, I wasn't like the housemaidens! Well, most of them. Mostly. Does fat turn into muscle? Is this all muscle now? What is muscle?

_ _

For all of hir lovely old biology books, some of the fundamental details, shi realized, were missing.

Resting in only a foot of water, Kimmi wriggled more fully onto hir back, all four big paws sticking up out of the water and cradling hir nethers while shi tugged and yanked at the burrs in hir tail. "Gonna be here all day," shi grumped, but truthfully shi wasn't too upset about that. The water was pleasant, faint currents pushing hir back and forth and relaxing hir sore, travel-worn joints.

Another mittful of thorny nubs were yanked free and tossed aside. Hir fur was starting to finally feel clean, but that was only the first stage of hir grooming rituals. "Why didn't I get my brush back from Bister?" shi huffed. "A comb. A fork would be better than nothing. Next town... definitely."

The water continued to warm around hir, which was peculiar, as the sun had only just started to rise above the tops of the lush, broad trees around hir. Surely it couldn't be absorbing too much sunlight, could it?

Another pluck, another burr, another sigh. Patience, shi counselled hirself. Today is the first day of the rest of your life!

_ _

Shi shifted hir weight to better see hir tail, and frowned. Why were hir legs getting in the way so much? The huge , recumbent huskytaur glanced down between hir forelegs and paused, eyes widening. Oh. That would do it.

_ _

Hir two huge hindpaws carefully nestled against hir sac, kneading slowly but surely and sending warm waves of pleasure through hir body, while hir forepaws hugged hir sheath to hir underbelly. With each breath that long, dense column of wet fur and flesh filled out longer still, growing thicker and pushing hir paws apart, in turn shoving hir tail aside.

Hir head snapped up, scanning from side to side, half-expecting to see one of the escaped taurs spying on hir, or Bister, or... or... or some sort of wild frontier lawyer, or something. They had those, right? But there was nothing, nothing except for the buzz of insects and the fluttering singsong of the birds. Shi inhaled, nuzzling hir breasts as they shifted heavily, and sat up slightly to better see hirself.

"I guess I've earned a little fun," shi growled, wishing shi had half a dozen housemaidens there to help. All those tiny hands could cover so much more area than shi could alone, and it would have been nice to just share the moment with friends, but shi would have to learn to get along by hirself. "Until I can find some new people to help me..."

Hir paws moved a little bit faster, toes digging in with practiced intent, and a low, almost feline mewl filled the clearing as hir unusually-proportioned body rose to the occasion.

---

Shingen could follow a rat through the great sewers of the Hanging Palaces of Kult. He could track a salmon through the thousands of tributaries flowing into the Ocean of Fallen Stars. He could hunt an ivory ermine through the frozen wastes of Nador, he could track a falcon on a cloudy day, and when absolutely necessary he could return an injured mayfly to it's family, where hopefully they could nurse it back to health.

Needless to say, tracking a nine-hundred-pound huskytaur through the mossy, temperate forests he now found himself in was not exactly difficult.

The lean rat hopped from giant pawprint to giant pawprint, hardly even leaving the tiniest impression in the muddy soil. His white robes flapped softly, somehow still clean despite his travels, and the short white fur he wore beneath equally pristine. He wore a large, boxy leather pack on his back, but it didn't slow him down in the slightest.

He hummed a little nonsense tune to himself, wondering just what the great beast would look like. Large, to be sure, and canine, but beyond that... he could only hope. Something dramatic, mayhaps? A powerfully-built timberwolf, with black spiny scruffs at all angles? A deep-chested bulldog, all fangs and grunting fury?

Shingen smiled. A beast, worthy of him.

His sensitive ears twitched and he paused. Splashing in the distance echoed haphazardly through the trees, and he scampered nimbly up the nearest trunk. Gnarled branches and thick, wet leaves flashed past, until he was nearer the top boughs than the ground itself.

A beast worthy of him probably couldn't climb this high, he hoped.

Moving on all fours from branch to branch, and soon tree to tree, he closed in on the source of that splashing. There was a clearing up ahead, and the enticing scent of fresh water. Good sense of smell, he thought. Though why it headed here from the gorge, where there was plenty of fresh water... must be heading south for some other reason.

He adjusted his pack, planning to find a safe, secure perch outside of the beast's field of view, and review his scrolls one final time. There would likely be no second chance with this creature, if it was as impressive as he imagined. He had to get in close, and finish the job quickly...

He strolled nimbly along a high, forked branch, pushing the leafy boughs aside silently, and poked his slender little muzzle through the outer reaches of the great oak to finally identify the target of his pursuits.

When he remembered to blink, unclenching his paws from his robes with a popping of knuckles, Shingen started to have second thoughts. "Oh... oh my," he whispered to himself, tail standing ramrod-straight up behind him.

The beast was, indeed, down in the pond. It was, as expected, a tremendously large and powerful-looking taur. If any steed would immediately place Shingen in the minds and hearts of the populace as a warrior of authority and respect, it would be shi.

For the first time in years, though, the petite white rat suddenly felt very... inadequate.

The silvery taur, easily as large as his entire hut had been back at Imperial Maunganui, lay on hir back in the shallow waters near the shore. All four footpaws were stroking languidly, back and forth across the straining, gleaming black flesh, while the husky's arms seemed to be hugging the alarmingly large maleness against hir equally-oversized breasts. The beast was kissing and licking at hir shaft, which extended so far beyond hir head that Shingen seriously doubted shi would be able to reach the tapered tip, and shi seemed to be struggling to get hir legs all the way around its shocking girth. Sitting largely proud of the water, hir tail was pinned by a pale, silvery sac, fluffy flesh stretched snugly around a pair of testes that were likely each larger than Shingen's entire body.

Moving slow, paws numb, Shingen retreated back into the depths of the tree to consider his next move. And maybe take his own icy bath.

---

The day passed in a warm, sensual haze for Kimmi, luxuriating in the sun beating down on the underside of hir midnight black cock, fingers and toes and claws and tongue working the stresses out of not just hir body, but hir mind. It was only when shi beheld hir true size did shi remember why shi often needed the housemaidens assistance with this; there were several feet of taut, moist skin that shi simply couldn't reach.

"Someday," shi rumbled, nuzzling hir shaft and grinning goofily to hirself. "Someday soon, I hope..."

Minutes turned into hours, and as hir so-called 'tender moments' so often did, ended with the young huskygrrl falling asleep, arms and legs wrapped around as much of hirself as shi could manage. Shi had wriggled around enough such that hir head was on the shoreline... even in the throes of passion, shi could spot a drowning hazard when it presented itself. The pressure building within hir gravidly swollen pupmakers was unusually intense today, but shi just chalked it up to the stress of hir miraculous underground escape.

When shi finally heaved a contented, drowsy sigh, shifting onto hir side and cuddling up to hir maleness as though it were an immense teddy bear, Shingen dared to emerge from the safety of the tree's thicker branches. He had been watching hir for the better part of the day, and had nearly managed to convince himself it was to better understand and appreciate his opponent. His ascetic virtues had certainly taken quite a pounding from his subdued, animalistic instincts, but he knew he was going to have to spend a considerable amount of time meditating and cleansing himself. With sandpaper, if he could find it.

He climbed down from the tree, frowning to himself. Clearly a sexual creature, but why didn't it finish? I've never known anything to interrupt a taur's coitus. Heck, forest fires only slow it down and change the scenery slightly...

_ _

At the base of the great oak, he stashed his pack carefully underneath an arching root and covered it with a few leaves. He didn't plan to be gone long, but he also didn't plan on having his precious scrolls being flattened by an angered taur in the midst of some sort of post-sexual frenzy. Perhaps I should wait awhile, he thought, suddenly nervous. A little more practice never hurt anyone, and a little less practice hurts everyone.

_ _

"No," he whispered, clenching his tiny fists. "I have waited too long. I have practiced enough."

Moving on tiptoe, whip-lean body not wasting a single motion, Shingen crept through the underbrush and onto the verdant green shores of the still pond. Before him, not thirty feet away, the great beast lay snoring, chest and barrel rising and falling, still cradling hir slowly-softening shaft. Hir sac rose majestically behind hir, occasionally giving a rumble and sending rings of rippling light out into the pond. Shi was... well, shi was... he wasn't entirely sure what shi was. He'd seen many taurs in his time, ridden his fair share across this vast and untamed land, and he couldn't recall ever seeing one quite like this.

Almost imperceptibly, his frown turned upside down, and his tail started to swish eagerly. Yes... shi is unique. Shi will be perfect.

_ _

"Gan y p?er a freiniwyd ynof fi, yr wyf yn gorchymyn i chwi i fod yn fy farch," he murmured, moving his paws slowly back and forth, creating intricate sigils in the air. "Byddwch yn garlamu rymus rhwng fy cluniau, marchogaeth i mewn i'r machlud."

Kimmi yawned, opening a maw that could probably swallow his arm, and whuffed something nonsensical into hir cleavage. Shi blinked blearily, not entirely pleased to be awoken from hir post-tender-moment nap. At first shi mistook the white-robed rat for a stick poking up out of the soft earth, and continued to search. "Fllb?"

Shingen sped up his chanting, lips moving around the awkward syllables. He had been gone from his homeland for so long, it was almost like speaking a foreign tongue. Has it really been five years? "Peidiwch â bwyta i mi nes i mi orffen castio sillafu hwn," he intoned, feeling the hair rising up on the back of his neck. "A oedd yr wyf yn ddeg gwaith yn fwy, hoffwn i archwilio eich corff gyda fy nhafod!"

Kimmi realized that this wasn't your ordinary, run-of-the-mill stick. Shi glanced down at hirself, patting the sides of hir slowly-retreating doghood, and started to roll onto hir front. Shi was still a little too bulky to get it on the first try, and the impression shi had formed in the marshy grass sucked at hir fur. "Wnngg," shi mumbled, hir brain resisting every attempt at wakefulness. "Mmmf!"

"Bachgen Rwy'n gobeithio y mae hyn yn gweithio!" Shingen cried, reaching up, well within the great beast's bite range, and touching hir forehead with one outstretched finger.

For months, ever since he had finally managed to successfully translate the final sigils, he had wondered what would be the ultimate reaction, the result of this scroll. A bolt of lightning? A ball of fire? Some sort of crimson radiance that fills his heart and mind and soul with ineffable knowledge?

He was not expecting the huskytaur's eyes to cross, an irritated expression to cross hir face, and for hir to snap at his rapidly-retreating arm. "That's rude," shi said, managing to heave hir barrel across hir maleness and rise to hir full height, all four legs straddling hirself. Shingen's tail dropped so fast it dug a furrow in the grass, and he swallowed nervously.

"I command you, beast!" he declared, stepping hastily back and raising his arm in Authoritative Pose #3. "I can understand you now, and you can understand me! I command you to kneel!"

The grumpy taur stared down in bemusement, the little figure not even up to the undersides of hir breasts. Do I ask him to leave me alone, or do I step on him? The second one might be easier."I'm not really the kneeling type," shi yawned, shaking hir rump as shi retreated further into hir sheath, the exposed maleness still considerably larger than the entirety of the uppity rat. "Do you have a fur brush?"

This isn't going as planned, Shingen thought. The scroll said nothing of this! "Kneel, or I shall be forced to compel you to kneel," he stated, trying to keep his eyes on hirs, and not on the breathtaking curves and lines of hir body. He was as impressed by the powerful motions of hir arms as shi raked hir fingers back through hir raven tresses, as he was by the way hir bosom shifted and bounced with each motion.

"Sorry, I'm all done being a slave," shi said with forced politeness, rubbing at hir sheath to coax hirself back into travelling shape. Hir sac seemed remarkably heavy, even for hir, and pressed very firmly against the backs of hir hindlegs. "Hmmm, I'm going to have some swagger today, it seems," shi chuckled under hir breath, not sounding entirely displeased.

"I apologize, mighty beast," Shingen said, drawing a steadying breath. "But if I must subdue you, then I must. I assure you, I am a kind and benevolent master, and you will enjoy your noble bondage."

"OK, that's quite enough," Kimmi said briskly, clapping hir hands together and stretching hir long spine one final time. "I've got a long day ahead of me, and I'm going to chalk you up to a random little bit of wandering rudeness. Good morning." The vast taur began to walk, as always taking a few steps to really find a good rhythm that worked for hir; eighteen years in a circular stone chamber, palatial or not, hadn't given hir much experience with marching.

Shi moved around the little rat and his peculiar dress, sincerely hoping that not everyone in this country would be quite so unpleasant, but he moved to intercept hir, a tiny paw moving to the hilt of the sword slung from his sash. "Halt, beast!"

"You keep using that word," shi grunted, growing irked. "I do not think it means what you think it means. Surely, from the fact that you can understand the words coming out of my mouth, I must not be a normal beast, yes?"

"The incantation has granted me understanding of your rough animal tongue, and you mine," Shingen said, still trying to sound impressive, "and you must know that I am now your master!"

"I really... really don't want to hurt you," Kimmi said wearily. "So please just leave me alone."

Shingen stood still as shi moved around him once more, mind racing furiously. "This is not how the incantation is supposed to work," he grumbled to himself. "If I must defeat you, in order to teach you humility, then... I must."

"Good luck with that," Kimmi called over hir shoulder, heading into the woods, approximating south from the shadows cast by the noonday sun. "Could you let me know if I'm heading towards a... town... hello?"

Shi stood at the very edge of the clearing, fur still dripping, wishing shi could enjoy a little more sun to dry hirself off, but shi stood there alone. The rat, whoever he was, had vanished.

"Huh," shi mused, inching back towards the shoreline. "What a strange little person."

"Obey!" snapped a voice from directly behind hir, far closer than was comfortably. Hir head whipped around to see the obnoxious little creature standing on hir back, arms raised threateningly.

Shi swung out hir arm, fully embracing the 'clobbering time' plan of action, and hit nothing but air. The rat ducked and straightened so fast shi almost couldn't believe hir eyes, but the thunderously powerful strike he landed across hir muzzle was indisputably real.

"Obey!" he cried again, already circling around to hir front as shi dizzily tried to orient hirself. OK, shi thought, you want to play rough? This princess learned a few things recently...

_ _

Hir great damn tail swung hard to the right, hir left forepaw slashing out as hard as shi could manage. Shi thought shi detected the faintest contact of one blunted claw on fabric, but otherwise shi only succeeded in giving hir shoulder a slight cramp. "Damn."

"Obey!"

"STOP SAYING THAT!"

Kimmi lurched to the side, planning to get the water at hir back and hopefully cut off some of the leaping, dancing little fighter's angles. He had the same thought, it seemed, and a staggering kick to the back of hir hind leg nearly sent hir tumbling. Shi yelped in pain, drawing hir leg in against hir sheath protectively, and lunged with a wild swinging arm, nearly striking hirself.

Ok, this isn't working, shi growled, baring hir fangs at the smug-looking rat as he hovered out of range once again. "You want me to obey?" shi hissed. "Why? Want your very own talking 'taur? I am no-one's sideshow. We could have been friends, had you but asked."

That was the first thing that seemed to give the little robed rat pause. He blinked, arms still raised in what shi could only assume was some sort of fighting stance. "You're talking?"

Kimmi screeched in exasperation, throwing hir hands up in the air. "Great, the first person I meet in the free world, and he's not just a jerk, he's an idiot!" Shi stamped all four paws angrily, dugging great long gouges in the soil, drew hirself up and pointed south. "I am leaving. You can keep trying to get me to obey, but that's not even close to the worst pain I've dealt with this week, so good luck."

Back straight and regal, nose up as shi was taught, drawing nobility around hirself like an invisible cloak, the former Crown Princess stormed into the woods, muttering uncouth expletives under hir breath. Shingen only recognized half of them, and the other half were very... evocative. He was left staring at the hole shi made in the foliage, not so much passing through the forest and shoving it brutally out of hir way.

"That... doesn't seem right," he said to the returning silence.

---

Kimmi marched through the forest, grumbling about the leaves already tacking onto the fur of hir legs, tail acquiring new brambles, hir still-swollen sheath and sac occasionally bumping roughly against the ground. "Mmmf... what is with those?" shi winced, trying to walk with hir rump hoisted higher. "I took care of you already!"

In full daylight, the woods were remarkably bright, the trees nowhere near as menacing as they had been during hir initial escape, in the Murk. Birds flittered about, butterflies hopped from sunbeam to sunbeam, squirrels stared down at hir curiously, and in spite of the apparent bandit trying to enslave hir, shi felt pleased. I showed him! This is one husky that doesn't take anything from anyo-

_ _

"Halt!"

Blast.

The little rat stood in hir path. Shi hadn't seen him step out from behind a tree; he just seemed to materialize out of nowhere in a puff of fallen leaves. Lips curling back, hands on hips, shi stared down imperiously at him. "Get out of my way," shi snarled, raising one huge paw meaningfully. "I have nothing further to say to you."

Shi took two steps, but he refused to budge. His similarly black hair was tied back in a strangely effeminate ponytail, which he shook back and forth. "I cannot," he said, his strange accent more noticeable now that he was speaking calmly. "We are bonded, you and I. You are my... my mount. You are my Great Beast."

"Consent doesn't mean a lot anymore, does it?"

"Cons-... no!" the rat replied, seeming surprised. "The beasts are not asked to serve, they are gentled. Domesticated. They are given food and shelter, safety. Protection."

Kimmi thought back to the taurs shi had escaped Estragonia with, shackled together in chains, fur rubbed raw, underfed and easily enraged. "Yes," shi growled, eyes narrowing. "That's exactly what happens. Every time. Of course."

"I had not known the beasts spoke amongst themselves in such words," the rat said, head lowering slightly in what could almost have passed for a faint apology.

"They don't. Stop following me." Shi sidestepped the rat and continued on hir way, not really expecting that he would take the hint. He didn't seem to be particularly intelligent, and stupid people never really knew when to give up.Shi was not disappointed when the pitter-patter of tiny feet crunching dry leaves reached hir ears. Hir shoulders tensed and shi cast about, looking for something shi could use as a weapon.

Shingen circled around once again, now carrying a large, boxy leather satchel on his back. "Halt!" he commanded again, because his previous commands had all been obeyed so readily. "I insist that you-"

The uprooted birch hummed mere inches above his head, gnarled roots flailing and spraying dirt in a wide circle. The wrist-thick former tree twirled like a baton, smashing several other low-hanging branches out the way before Kimmi could halt its momentum. Shi felt a momentary pang of remorse for killing the defenseless tree, but shi hoped that whoever kept track of hir karma would give this one a pass.

"Insist?!" shi howled, twisting around to find the remarkably speedy rodent. "You insist?! What gives you the right to insist?!"

_ _

Shingen calmed his breath, thirty feet up in the forest canopy and doing his best to blend into the light grey bark around him. That is an unusual fighting style for a taur, he thought, remembering the angry reverberating hum of that makeshift club and the immense force behind it. I suppose there is only one thing to do.

_ _

"Come back!" Kimmi continued to bellow, hir hindquarters accidentally toppling other saplings, creating hir own clearing in the young forest. "If you're going to keep following me, at least make it sporting!"

Another rustle at hir back, and shi stifled hir ear's reflexive twitch. He didn't seem to be advancing, or retreating, and this time he also didn't attempt to yell at hir. That's progress, shi thought. But I've got sharp ears!

_ _

Shi swung back with all the considerable power shi could muster, shoulders flexing, and was rewarded with a very satisfying and woody smacking sound. Shi spun on hir heels, prepared to follow up with whatever else shi could find to throw, when it occurred to hir that there was substantially less mass being carried by hir arm.

Sure enough, the rat stood easily, a faint dangerous smile on his tapered muzzle, sword held before him. The lower half of Kimmi's tree-club hurtled and smashed its way through the underbrush, expending its momentum on the environment, while the considerably smaller portion still clutched in one hand drooped sadly.

"My name is Shingen Takeda," the rat said softly when the noise of the runaway missile eventually faded.

Kimmi opened hir mouth to snarl something definitively unladylike, but the events of the last week had not erased all of hir fine breeding. Hir jaw closed with a snap, and shi straightened, lowering both hands and the weapon held there. "My name is Kimmi," shi spoke, shaking hir black curls in an attempt to make hirself presentable. Shi felt no need to go into hir royal lineage, particularly since shi no longer technically held any such titles anymore. "I am passing through this wood, and want no quarrel. I simply wish to seek money, food and shelter. And clothing. And a fur brush." Shi thought for a moment and added, "And shampoo."

Shingen stared up at the titanic taur, brows knit curiously. "What are you doing on your own?" he asked. "You emerged from the gorge north of here, with many taurs and a draconian."

"Were you stalking me?" shi asked, hackles on the rise again but wary of the sword facing hir. It was tiny, hardly larger than one of hir dinner knives back home, but it certainly seemed sharp. Shi glanced at the mirror-smooth end of hir bisected tree stump and dropped it to the ground. "I'm not going back there."

"As well you shouldn't," he agreed. "There was a stench of evil upon the walls of that cave."

"Good description," shi muttered, remembering the blade-armed creatures that had attempted to enslave hir, until Bister went far above and beyond the call of duty to rescue hir. "But you are stalking me."

"Pursuing," he corrected. "You are a magnificent beast, and I have claimed you."

Kimmi blinked. "A-a-a-and we're back at square one. Get out of my way. I have no shortage of trees to hit you with, and one of them will eventually connect."

"No, it won't," he said with a disarming matter-of-fact tone. "I do apologize if this hurts."

"If what-" shi started to ask, taking a half-step back, but Shingen closed the distance in the blink of an eye and slashed at hir hand. The sword blurred, a rainbow-hued crescent fairly glowing in the trickling sunlight, passing through hir fingers with no discernible resistance whatsoever.

Hir scream pierced the placid stillness of the forest. Shi clutched at hir ruined paw, expecting blinding pain and spurting blood, mind boiling over with rage and betrayal. One day, Bister! shi anguished. One day without you, and I'm a cripple! Why did you leave me? How could you think I could ever survive one day on my own?!

_ _

Shi brought hir paw to hir mouth, hir scream cut off in a choked, confused sob when all five digits presented themselves, intact and apparently pain-free. There was a line where it seemed hir fur had been trimmed low, nearly shaved down to the skin, but the skin itself was pink and healthy. Hir eyes bulged out and shi stared down at the little rat in disbelief.

"What-...!"

Shingen just stared at his blade, flicking a few errant strands of silvery fluff off the edge, and frowned. "Interesting," he mused. He sheathed the blade with one fluid motion, bowed to Kimmi, and scampered off into the woods, soon lost from sight.

"-... the..."

Hir jaw moved, tongue wagging, but no further words tumbled out. Shi continued to stare at hir paw, observing the narrow stripe of pink skin that crossed hir knuckles. For just a split second, shi swore shi could feel the blade cutting through hir flesh, and even now shi imagined shi could still feel it, but all hir digits wiggled and moved normally.

When shi eventually remembered to look around for hir assailant, the birds had already returned from their terrified flight at hir shriek. They fluttered and twittered, the butterflies continued to inspect hir for pollen, and a squirrel chittered down to hir, probably asking hir to please leave the area.

Shi shook hir head and heaved a sigh. "One day, Bister," shi murmured sadly, hugging hirself and marching resolutely forward. "On my own... for one day."

---

It was nearing sunset and hir stomach was rumbling with angry insistence when shi came across the wide-rutted road cutting in a knife-straight line through the forest. Kimmi was nearly as pleased to see that road as shi had been to see sunlight just the day before, emerging from hir underground hell. Shi had begun to privately believe that shi was heading in ever so slightly the wrong direction, and would pass by towns and cities and kingdoms for the rest of hir natural life, and the road was a blessed reminder that shi could occasionally do something right, even if it was by accident.

Shi stood in the middle of the road for several long minutes, trying to figure out of shi should go left or right. There seemed to be no traffic at the moment, and shi found couldn't discern any clues from the tracks and prints in the hard-packed dirt grooves. To the right, heading slightly north-west, there were mountains in the distance, and to the south-west there just seemed to be trees as far as the eyes could see.

Eventually shi shuddered, not wanting to take any path that took hir anywhere near mountains, cold air, or Estragonia, and set out resolutely in the opposite direction.

The sun was low and heavy in the sky, dipping below the mountains behind hir and giving the formerly pleasant, inviting forest around hir a dark, menacing appearance. The Murk hadn't been all that dangerous, except for the sucking mud and the roots to trip hir, and by and large the underground realms hadn't been very dangerous except for the vile beasts that kidnapped hir. The idea of running into a wild animal seemed unlikely, and given hir size they'd likely be a lot more afraid of hir than shi was of them.

Even so, every crackle of a stick, every rustle of a leaf, every rusty-sounding crow call gave hir chills and quickened hir pace, until shi was jogging with hir arms wrapped around hir chest to try and keep hir bouncing under control.

"I need nice clothes again," shi grumbled to hirself, seeming to be hir default mode of speech as of late. "Taurs don't wear clothes, which is going to be a problem, but I just need some way to earn money. Surely I have SOME form of marketable skill." Shi thought back to hir mounds of books, many of which shi had read to the point of rote memorization, wondering if any of them could be considered useful.

The sky was a radiant field of fuschia and indigo above hir, but despite the wondrous display it provided very little actual light, and shi began to fear that shi would be wandering all night again, without food. Shi had been casting about for hours, hoping to find some form of berry, or fruit tree, or a random patch of carrots or wild asparagus, but the forest primeval was not very forthcoming with food. Surely there had to be something, shi thought. Farmers had to get their first crops from somewhere, right? How can I know everything about planting cycles and crop rotation but nothing about where to actually FIND a strawberry?!

_ _

Hir pace increased yet again, anxious to get somewhere that could pass as civilized, and partly because the sense that shi was being pursued only increased as time passed. Shi couldn't see or hear anything, but there was the faintest... pressure, at the back of hir mind, feather-light but unable to be ignored. Shi imagined eyes staring down at hir from the trees, but other than the steadily mounting numbers of crows, there were none there.

"Nothing to be afraid of," shi huffed, breathing deeper as shi tried to reach a full lope but nearly took hir hindlegs down with a careless sway of hir sac. "I'm a thousand times bigger than the crows. Brigands wouldn't try to rob me, I don't HAVE anything. Well, almost nothing." Tucked into a small pouch and snuggled into the safety of hir cleavage, the handful of coins shi'd received from Bister occasionally jingled, but brigands wouldn't know that. They would just see hir as an escaped pack beast, or perhaps a wild and surprisingly well-groomed taur, on hir own. No large, protective pack. Easily captured and tamed, and then sold for a tidy profit.

Hir fists clenched against hir breasts and shi glowered. "Yeah, just try that."

Chapter 11

The fuschia had faded completely, the heavens above a rich deep indigo, by the time shi passed hir first farmhouse. The forest abruptly ended at a weathered wooden fence, birch and spiky conifers giving way to a broad field of... something. Shi couldn't recognize the vegetables when they were still underground, shi was also annoyed to realize. Potatoes? Aren't the above-ground parts of those poisonous? Or was that tomatoes? Maybe it's both? Dammit!

In the distance, a large, low house sat grumpily and protectively at the centre of the four huge fields. Smoke puffed from the chimney, and some of the windows glowed with inner light. Kimmi's heart pounded, and shi had to fight the urge to leap the low fence, bang on their door and introduce hirself.People. Real people! My first ones! I probably shouldn't bother them, it's very late. But at least the road is going somewhere!

_ _

The vegetables turned out to be turnips, small and tender and clearly not quite yet ready for the harvest. Shi grabbed a double handful, dropped a silver coin on the pile of turned soil and carried on hir way, tail held high with a spring in hir step. "People!" shi mumbled, chewing on the bitter but satisfying tubers, wondering exactly what one had to do in order to transform vegetables into food. Shi's never actually asked for a cookbook, shi realized with a guilty little feeling. "Actual people! I can't wait!"

A few minutes later, after Kimmi's huge pawsteps had faded into the distance, Shingen emerged from the trees. Following the great beast had been simple, even at a distance, and sure enough shi was heading towards Ashcroft at a respectable speed. He wasn't sure why a taur would purposefully head towards a populated area, particularly in such an arrow-straight path, and a quick inspection of the turnip field turned up two more shocks.

For one, the huskytaur was eating turnips, which was about as unlikely a food as was imaginable for a carnivore of such a size.

For another, and even more puzzling, was that taurs generally didn't carry money, to say nothing of leaving money in exchange for pilfered crops. The rat turned the coin over in his fingers, recognizing the imperial crest of distant, war-like Tahsis. It was pure silver, and could have easily bought half an acre of turnips.

"How can this be?" he whispered to himself, pocketing the coin and replacing it in the dirt pile with a much more economically-viable hand-stamped tin coin. "Surely the Scroll of Ceffyl could not have worked such magic..."

He shouldered his pack and continued on down the road, hoping that the beast, or Kimmi as shi apparently styled hirself, did not cause too much trouble in Ashcroft. The region was held under sway by the Law of the Land, and Shingen had been quite happy to leave the week before, but now... this taur was now his responsibility. He couldn't let hir simply wander around, naked and oblivious, and probably get hirself killed.

---

"Hello!"

Shi had seen many paintings and woodcuts of towns and villages, and they really didn't capture the essence of what they, apparently, really were like. In hir books, they were quaint and low, with well- scrubbed wooden buildings, women in poofy skirts with white aprons even when they were outside, and bonnets everywhere. Sometimes there was bunting strung between the buildings. Kind-hearted old women would hawk wares from small booths, fruits and vegetables and various other goods.

Ashcroft, as the slanted wooden sign had named the town, resembled those towns, but perhaps after ten years of bad crops, dust storms and poor laundry service.

The farmhouses had become progressively more dense as the road meandered slowly southwards, until the fields became simply yards, perhaps with flower or herb gardens, but nothing that could be considered 'crops'. The road became a street, shi was pleased to discover, flat and hard and well-maintained.

But rather than the road being deserted, now it was the streets that were bare of all life.

By the time shi reached the eight cross-crossing streets that represented the town itself, adorable and quaint and even more rustic than shi could have hoped, the sense of being watched from a distance was maddening. Many buildings had lights on in them, but no doors opened to hir polite knocks. Shi was positive that shi was being scrutinized from the higher windows, drapes being twitched aside whenever shi glanced back, but shi couldn't be absolutely certain.

In short, it seemed to be a town that was closed to outsiders.

"Hello?"

Another building, built snug up against the structures to either side, carried a nicely carved and painted sign reading General Store, but it was also closed and locked. Shi could hear shuffling about beyond, but as polite as shi could make hir voice, trying not to speak too loud, shi couldn't seem to get anyone to acknowledge hir presence.

"I have money...?"

The sky was dark, and while Kimmi would often stay up well into the night, staring at the stars and singing nonsense songs to hirself and cuddling with hir housemaidens, shi knew that honest hardworking farm-style folk probably went to bed early since they had to be up at dawn, or possibly even earlier. Still, SOME of the lights are on... maybe they don't like strangers?

_ _

The town was clean, dry, and ghost-like. It was as though everyone had packed up and hidden inside, which set hir down a whole new line of terrible thoughts. Maybe monsters roam the streets at night... maybe brigands kill anyone who steps outside! Maybe by night, the dead rise and claim new victims... WHAT WAS THAT SOUND?!

_ _

Tail shivering in the completely absent wind, clutching at hirself lest hir flesh fly away to unseen claws, shi peered around the corner and beheld likely the largest building in town. The lower portions were made of real, solid stone, like an extremely miniature castle, while the upper fortifications were composed of heavy timbers, far stronger than the clapboard buildings around hir. Huge, broad stairs climbed to the arch-topped doors set back from the street, doors that were big enough for Kimmi hirself to pass through. The whole building seemed to radiate authority.

One of those doors was open, light streaming out, next to a sign that said in friendly red letters, 'WE CAN HELP'.

Hir ears perked up and shi straightened, knuckles popping as shi released hir grip on hirself. "Well, it's about time," shi sighed, smiling as hir stress seemed to trickle out through hir toes. Shi ran hir fingers back through hir hair, smoothing down hir ruff and making the futile gesture of trying to maximize hir bust. "I just need a good night's sleep, and in the morning, this will all be just a bad memory."

"It will be an even worse reality," Shingen said, smiling down at hir from a nearby window sill, "if you go through that door."

Kimmi had dug deep gouges in the wood-planked sidewalk, skittering sideways in shock at the unexpected voice. Shi stood in the middle of the street, gasping for air, fur standing up on end. "You," shi hissed when shi was sure shi wasn't going to cry or scream. "You _are_following me! I knew it!"

"You were hardly difficult to follow," the little rat said, balancing on a ledge hardly two inches wide, looking for all the world as though he were just out for a stroll. "Particularly since you were walking into trouble."

"What trouble?" shi snapped.

"Shhhh!" came a voice from a window behind Kimmi. Shi spun around, but the little square was already slammed shut, the echo reverberating up and down the streets, somehow amplifying the bleakness of the dead night.

"That might be a clue there," Shigen smirked, twirling once on the sill in defiance of physics and gravity. "This town is currently and most recently under the rule of the Law of the Land. You will undoubtedly find them to be a law-abiding and thoroughly distasteful lot, particularly if you walk through that door."

"The law is not a villain!" shi growled. "The law protects the good and punishes the wicked. The laws are set down by the kings, or whatever rulers they have here, for all to abide by!"

"One hundred percent true!" Shingen agreed. "But what if, say, it was the law that taurs needed to be locked up when not in use?"

Kimmi prepared to fire back an angry reply, but stopped hirself. That law was... well, it wasn't... fairness didn't mean... "Well..."

"Or what if it was the law that curfew was sundown, and setting foot outside during the dark of night was punishable with fines and imprisonment, and hard labor? Or, and you'll eventually find this one to be quite unfortunate, all manner of alcohol, stimulant and relaxant, were outlawed? To stretch the imagination, what if it were the law," he spat the word out with an anger that seemed utterly alien on the placid little rat's face, "that you were born into a single profession, and to deviate, even to excel, was punishable by death?"

A tumbleweed rolled between them, and Shingen shook himself. "You can have my help if you want it," he said simply, anger vanished, "and I would greatly recommend it, but I clearly can't make you do anything. I think our last encounter proved that."

"Come closer and we'll see what I can do to you," shi growled.

"An enticing offer, beast," he smiled, bowing low to hir, "but I will have to decline."

"Good. You're not my type anyways," Kimmi grunted, smiling to hirself at Shingen's bemused expression. "So this town has some unfair laws. It's still just a town, and I can still get myself some food and some clothes and a bed for a night or two, while I figure things out. What harm can there be?"

Shingen shrugged, leaping nimbly down the twelve feet from that high narrow ledge to the dusty earth with no apparent difficulty. "I'm trying my best to help," he said, arms spread wide.

"You could start by trying to get someone to open the door for me. I would settle for a blanket and a nice glass of milk right about now."

"Glass of..." Shingen shook his head. "I think you and I need to get some facts straight."

"That's what I've been saying!" shi cried, taking what shi hoped was a menacing step forwards. "But ever since I got out on my own, everyone's been trying to kidnap me, rescue me, buy me, sell me or KILL ME!"

"SHHH!" came another warning from further down the street, followed by the slam of a door.

"OH, SHUT UP!" Kimmi bellowed, no longer concerned about privacy.

Shingen sighed, and looked towards the open, inviting but ominously fortified building. "In that case... I'll see you around."

"What?" the huskytaur snapped, whipping hir head back around. "What does that m.... oh, gods dammit." Except for hirself, and a rapidly dwindling number of illuminated windows, the town was silent and dark.

The last of the candle-lit squares dimmed, and shi felt strangely as though shi were back in the woods. Even worse, shi was positive that the number of eyes trained on hir only seemed to be increasing.

"Welcome to the freak show," shi mumbled sadly, shaking hir tail and heading for the city hall, or whatever it was. The light there looked warm and inviting, unlike the rest of Ashcroft proper. A breath later, though, that dimmed as well, and shi threw hir head back and howled at the sky. "Oh, COME ON!"

The doorway darkened not because of the light beyond being extinguished, but because the figure emerging took up the entire archway, and still needed to turn sideways to fit through. He was... Kimmi wasn't entirely sure how to describe him, other than 'massive', 'bulky', and some words that were more commonly used to describe masonry. Shi eventually settled on 'blocky' to describe the canine, snub-nosed and bow-legged and clad head to toe in white robes, with red belts and sashes criss-crossing everywhere. The whole outfit gave the impression of keeping the anthro within from exploding. He wore a golden circlet around his brow, giving him an air of authority that also made his tiny eyes seem even more black and hollow

Kimmi raised hir fingers to wave when the beast inhaled mightily and roared with a mighty thrumming voice that rattled the very windows, "WHAT'S GOING ON OUT HERE?!"

Hir tail dropped, "Figures," shi whimpered, ears folding back. Straightening hir back, shi tried to engage in hir first conversation as a free woman. "Excuse me, sir, I'm looking for-"

"CURFEW!" he roared, tromping down the stone steps and marching across the road, directly towards hir. "VACATE THE PUBLIC AREAS IMMEDIATELY OR FACE IMMEDIATE IMPOUNDMENT, SEIZURE AND IMPRISONMENT!"

Kimmi looked around. "Uhm... I don't have anything to impound, and I don't really want to go to prison-"

As he neared, Kimmi was presented with the nearly-new experience of staring someone straight in the eye. Bister had been hir height, possibly an inch or two taller, but beyond that shi loomed over everyone, even other taurs. The brutish bulldog was hir equal there, though considerably more massive in the upper body. Ye gods, he looks like he could crush rocks with his shoulders. "YOUR TAUR WILL BE... WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Kimmi waved again. "Hello."

The bulldogs's eyes widened, which is to say the tiny orbs seemed to open for the first time. The little upturned fangs quivered, his jowls fluttered, and he fumbled at his belt for something. "ABOMINATION!" he roared.

The former Princess sighed, wiping hir palms on hir flanks in preparation. "Now we've got a problem," shi lamented, taking a few steps back and preparing to leave the area. The bulldog certainly didn't look like he would be able to keep up with hir; his legs seemed to be working at cross purposes just keeping him upright. "Thanks for your help, everybody!" shi yelled sarcastically at the dark but occupied buildings around hir. "Real hospitable of you! Mighty neighborly!"

Shi didn't want to leave, but it was clear that hir first venture into the 'civilized' world was going about as well as the tiny, pessimistic voice in the back of hir head had predicted. Cameron had said that these areas were, if not exactly fantastically accepting, at least peaceful and open-minded. Perhaps his standards were a little skewed; he hadn't exactly taken easily to the idea of a talking taur.

Kimmi turned and marched away, haunches held high and swishing hir rump at the bulldog in what shi hoped was simultaneously a smug and offensive way, fully prepared to walk back to the turnip farm for another unpleasant but nutritious meal. The bulldog grunted in satisfaction, and shi relaxed a fraction, believing hirself to be home free.

The air whistled, and hir head snapped back around to see the hulking brute extending his arm, the silvery-white whip gleaming like polished bone in the moonlight. It twirled once, building speed, and shi was unable to move quick enough to avoid its strike. Shi expected a brief, stabbing pain, having seen all too well what whips could do to the taurs shi had escaped Estragonia with.

Shi was thoroughly unprepared for the crackling electrical agony that ripped through hir body, hir fur standing straight up on end. Writhing azure bolts of energy sizzled along the whip's length, the slender tip wrapped around one wrist and pumping hir full of torturous pain. The great huskytaur threw back hir head, intending to bellow defiance, but hir lips drew back to hir fangs as shi screamed in torment.

"KNEEL!" the bulldog roared.

Kimmi tried to kneel. Shi wanted to kneel. If kneeling would give hir one second's reprieve from the cruel, eldritch whip, shi would kneel for as long as was required, if only the pain would stop.

A tear rolled down hir cheek when shi came to the hideous realization that hir legs were no longer responding to hir commands, and as much as shi wanted to drop to the ground, shi physically could not.

Hir scream ended, hir lungs expunged of all air and unable to draw more. Darkness crept in around hir vision, hir chest hitching and spasming as shi struggled to draw breath. Kneel! Move your arm! Stop, drop and roll! DO SOMETHING! WHY CAN'T I MOVE?!

_ _

And just like that, with a whispering 'snip' that hardly had the impact of a single drop of rain on a dusty road, the pain ceased. Kimmi whimpered and collapsed, curling up on hir side, arms and legs and paws drawn in protectively around hir nethers. Shi shuddered, gasping for air, before allowing hir curiosity to take hold, one eye staring around wildly, wondering what punishment would be visited upon hir next.

The bulldog stood there dumbly, holding half of his whip, a few weak sparks trailing from the truncated end. Shingen stood between them, near hir tail, sword moving in slow, menacing butterfly-wing patterns in the air.

"YOU!" the bulldog barked.

"Me," Shingen said easily. "If you'd like to stand up, Starlight, and lend me a hand, I certainly wouldn't object."

It took Kimmi a moment to realize that the tiny rat was speaking to hir. "Wh... wha... I... I can't..."

The diminutive warrior shrugged. "Worth a shot, I suppose. Excuse me."

Shi watched, dumbfounded, as the white-robed colossus charged at the white-robed pixie, swinging the stubby length of possibly magical whip. Shingen ducked the first clumsy strike easily, spinning like a ballerina and slamming the pommel of his sword into the bulldog's kneecap with a crack that managed to snap the stunned huskyherm out of hir stupor. The officer of the Law, whatever that meant in these parts, howled in pain, giving the former Princess a sick satisfaction.

"Whhnnnggg," shi grunted, struggling to get hir six limbs to remember which were which and rolling awkwardly onto hir feet. "Sshhhnnngnnn..."

Shingen dove nimbly through the canine's legs, coming up on his delicate footpaws and spinning once more, driving his shin into the back of the bulldog's other knee, a nearly perfect rendition of the same blow that almost felled Kimmi hirself several hours earlier. The bulky brute staggered, briefly taking to one knee before coming up like a shot, enraged, spittle flying.

"I can do this all night," the rat said placidly, and Kimmi believed him. The tiny warrior didn't seem to move the way a normal person moved... he_flowed_ from place to place, paw to paw, position to position. It was a little upsetting to watch; shi felt cumbersome by comparison. "You would be advised not to make the same mistake as your predecessor."

"YOU WILL BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE!"

"Ahh, same script. Refreshing," Shingen sighed.

The bulldog raised a fist the size of a rainbarrel and drove it down, striking nothing but air but still rattling all of the buildings around them, loose roof tiles tumbling pitter-patter down to the street. Shingen danced closer and slammed the hard outer edge of his elbow into the soft inner hollow of the bulldog's elbow. Incredibly, the beast hardly seemed to notice, despite the audible wet-meat sound of the impact.

Maybe I should just sit this out, Kimmi thought. It's not like I have a chance of winning... especially since that little fella seems to be doing all right without me! Why doesn't he use his sword, though? Cut a toe off, or something! Show him you mean business!

_ _

Shingen appeared from around one of the anthro's huge, stubby legs, still looking for all the world to be leading the much larger battler in a ballroom dance. "We don't use our blades when it is not necessary," he explained peacefully, making brief eye contact with the taur. "It would be cruel to inflict lasting injury, would it not?"

How... how did he...

The white-robed canine bayed savagely, turning once more and trying to stamp out the persistent little rat. "SUBMIT TO THE LAW!" he spat, barely managing to form coherent words through his rage.

"I do," Shingen smiled. "Just not yours."

"GRRAAGGHH!"

The pig-headed bulldog swing once, twice, three times, tree-trunk arms ripping through the air like tearing leather, but never came close to striking the rat. Actually, they came EXCEEDINGLY close, touching his robes and not his fur, but Shingen never once seemed worried. Everything seemed to go according to whatever plan he had, and that plan seemed to involve waiting until the giant warrior tired himself out.

In a hot flash, erupting from the back of hir head and flooding hir body, erasing hir pain and fear and replacing it with the righteous indignation only the freed slave can feel, Kimmi decided not to wait. Shi took a single step forwards, closing the distance between hirself and the vile Law, fists raised, flashing back to hir brief time in the arena, out of hir mind with estrus and strange mind-altering potions. Shingen paused in the middle of another ribbon-like pirouette, eyes wide with shock at the sight of the advancing, improbably- proportioned huskytaur.

"Wait-" the little rat said.

Kimmi did not.

Hir fist was a good deal smaller than his, hir arms much more slender and feminine, but based on the half-remembered fragments from the underworld shi had an inkling that shi was a lot stronger than shi looked. Shi hoped to see him go flying, his snub nose knocked back so far shi could use his face as a milk saucer, that stupid gold circlet tumbling off down the road.

Instead it was very much akin to striking a stone wall, the impact shock rattling hir teeth, twisting hir spine and drawing aching spasms through hir nethers. Kimmi yelped in pain, drawing back hir injured paw and glaring at the bulldog resentfully. That wasn't supposed to happen! shi thought hotly, for though the canine staggered and seemed rocked, spitting in confusion, he certainly wasn't terribly injured.

_ _

"Their power is unnatural," Shingen said quickly. "And now I would advise you to run!"

The bulldog swung, and Kimmi jerked back so hard shi nearly toppled over backwards. Shi avoided his blow, but he took a step forwards, closing the distance before shi could get all four legs underneath hir once more. He raised his fist triumphantly, and shi could see his immense muscles tensing and bunching beneath his robes. Shingen clenched his teeth, aiming another pommel-strike at the bulldog's knee, but it had no appreciable effect.

I can't hit him... but that leaves me an option...

Arms moving of their own accord, the idea only half-formed but put into action with desperate need, shi didn't try to dodge. Shi snapped hir upper torso forwards, slamming hir breasts against his chest and moving well within the arc of his devastating punch. Gripping him beneath his arms, shi let his momentum barrel them both over, twisting and heaving with hir powerful barrel. His bellow of fury became an almost querulous bark of uncertainty as his path became that of a very short, tight rainbow.

The concussive force of the impact shattered several windows in nearby buildings, as well as sent a small hailstorm of roof tiles pelting to the earth. Shingen kept his footing with some difficulty, his robes billowing from the expanding dust cloud. There were cries of shock and fear from the unlit buildings, reminding the warrior that their brief scuffle was not without spectators.

"Starlight!" he cried, sheathing his blade with a deft flick of his wrist and dashing into the choking dust. "Move clear of him!"

"I... don't think I can..." shi coughed weakly.

"Why?!"

"He's... on... my arm..."

The shadowy mound slowly resolved itself into the white-robe behemoth and the silver-furred taur. Kimmi lay on hir side, struggling half-heartedly to extract hir limbs from beneath the still, barely-breathing form of the local Law enforcement. With a grunt of satisfaction shi freed hirself and got gingerly to hir feet, patting hirself down and sending little dust whorls tumbling off into the night air. "That went... MOSTLY as planned," shi wheezed, twisting hir torso, bones popping and creaking audibly. "Dammit, I JUST had a bath..."

Shingen tried to tear his eyes away from the impossible creature, so bountifully buxom and overwhelmingly hung that it was hard to believe his own eyes, and focus on the task at hand. He darted around the complaining taur and quickly inspected the bulldog, whose head was partially buried in a crater big enough that the little rat could have had a perfectly acceptable bath in it. "I can't believe it," he said.

"Why? It's not like I hit him," shi said with a faint smile. "Bloody hells, my hand hurts. I thought I had a better punch than that."

"You probably do," Shingen replied slowly, digging his fingers into the golden circlet and tugging. "If that throw was any indication, it probably would have killed him."

Shi frowned. "Oh. But... well, I'm glad it didn't, but... why didn't it?"

With another snap of unexpected electrical energy, he pried the circlet free, holding it in one outstretched paw as though it were a piece of vile refuse. "Because he was empowered by the Law of the Land," he said, spitting out the words once again.

Around them, doors were opening slowly, dozens of heads peeking out. Kimmi saw in their eyes the same general fear shi remembered from hir Royal Premiere, the mixture of disbelief, disgust and frank animal curiosity. None could have watched the battle without hearing the taur speak, so hir secret was most definitely out. Oh well, shi thought. At least I don't have to worry about how to do THAT.

_ _

"Is that magical, or... something?" shi asked, waving hir hands vaguely at the golden hoop, which could have wrapped around the bodies of three Shingens. Shi felt naked standing in the middle of the dark street, even though lights were once again coming on in the windows and shi was about as naked as shi had been for the entirety of the last week.

"Of a sort," he said, glancing up at hir. "What do you know of magic?"

"Not much. The last person who tried to use it on me got her antennae ripped off."

Shingen blinked, glanced at hir enormous paws, and just nodded in approval. "Understood. We... need to talk more."

"We aren't talking now?" shi asked, now working the kinks out of hir barrel. Ye gods, I think I definitely pulled a muscle doing that. I need to get in better shape...

"I fear it's going to get a little delicate in short order."

All around them, the crowd moved with a slow, shuffling, dreamlike quality. There were murmurings and susurrations, words spoken in accents that tickled Kimmi's ears. Excited pups and kits peeked out from behind aprons and overalls and were swiftly shoved protectively back by terrified parents. Kimmi's tail drooped at that, but shi was hardly surprised. Maybe I need a cute dress. Something that tells the world, 'Hello, World! I'm not going to hurt your babies!'

_ _

The crowd seemed to form a halo around them: Kimmi, Shingen and the wheezing, haggard breath of the bulldog. "You know, it's strange," shi mused, drawing more astonished gasps from the crowd. "I don't even know his name. He just started... yelling at me."

"His name is Cumberland," spoke a hollow-voiced old pony, wearing a sombre black suit and a tall hat, even at this late hour.

A small, rotund figure, elderly and female and wearing a collection of dull grey dresses that made her resemble nothing so much as a ball of escaped laundry, dashed out of the crowd, landed a solid kick on Cumberland's forehead, and sprinted away.

"Well," Kimmi said with a faint smile. "That answers the question of how you all felt about him."

---

An hour later and the town had become transformed. There was music, there was dancing, there was laughing and crying and the distant, muted sounds of passion everywhere. The youngest and fittest folk in the village had been sent off along the four major roads, knocking on the doors of farmhouses and alerting the outlying regions to the news.

Kimmi sat inside the town hall, which had erstwhile been Cumberland's office, home, and the county's prison. The cells were opened and a dozen furfolk of all ages and sizes were reunited. Initially Shingen had been apprehensive, but when the crimes committed had been revealed to be among the sort conventionally referred to as 'harmless', including but not limited to ringing the dinner bell seven minutes early, even the law-abiding rat couldn't object.

In the largest cell lay Cumberland himself, sprawled out such that he touched all four walls with all four paws. His breathing was more regular now, smears of dried blood flaking from his lips, his nose, his eyes. No-one seemed particularly upset at his condition, and Shingen, as well as a few of the larger locals, had to physically restrain people from trying to pelt him with vegetables, rocks, or just outright stab him with everything from daggers to pitchforks.

"Not well liked," Kimmi mused, curled up on the polished stone floors and digging into hir seventh bowl of soup. Several of the older ladies in town had pooled their meagre resources for a feast, most of which consisted of an endless variety of soups and stews that all used the same six ingredients but all still had their own unique family touches.

The aged pony, who happened to be the Mayor of Ashcroft, sat behind the huge mahogany desk, going through all of the papers with a slow, systematic approach. "He was selected from the ranks of our more... permanent inmates," he said slowly. It seemed he did nearly everything slowly. "The Law declared that, in order to make an example that none are beyond the reach of The Law, and none beyond redemption, he should be the Law for the region."

Kimmi nodded. "Makes sense why he was... well, you saw how he was."

But the Mayor just shook his shaggy head. Slowly, of course. "Not at all. Cumberland was a thief, and a drunk, and a lech, but he was never violent. Not once did he ever raise his hand in anger, not when he could raise it for another bottle. He certainly couldn't have remembered, or likely even used, half the words you heard him bellow. The Cumberland we knew was... a persistent nuisance, but he was not a warlord. The Law turned him... into that."

_ _

Hanging on an iron hook set deep into one of the huge oak posts that made up the structure of the large building, the golden circlet glinted dully in the lantern light. "What a terrible object," shi muttered, hugging hirself.

Shingen appeared from down the short stone corridor that led to the cells. "This is why I bade you not head this direction," he said softly. With his hands clasped together, sleeves drawn together to hide them, he looked rather like one of Kimmi's old housemaidens, although far less enjoyably plump. "The entire country for a hundred miles in all directions is under the jurisdiction of the Law of the Land."

"Why do you keep capitalizing that?" Kimmi asked.

The central chamber of the town hall sported many windows, and there were half a dozen eyes at each, all trying to get a peek at the mysterious creature that had freed them from Cumberland's grip. Word spread that it was a taur, but not just any taur... one that could speak, almost like a real person! One that used a spoon to eat soup! One that swore when it was hurt! Perhaps the least fantastic part of the tale were the taur's proportions, buxom to a shocking degree and endowed enough to make even the bravest draft animal cower.

"You know, they can come inside, if they really want," Kimmi whispered to Shingen.

Shingen and the Mayor, whose name was Cisco, exchanged glances. "Maybe tomorrow," the Mayor said. "It has been a confusing enough evening, and you look as though you need your rest."

"I just don't want them spreading stories about me that aren't true," shi explained, draining another bowl of soup and finally starting to feel the edge being taken off hir hunger. "I heard one of them say that I can fly, and that's most certainly NOT the case."

Shingen chuckled. "A talking taur is a crazy enough tale," he agreed, glancing briefly once more at the Mayor, who declined to return the favor. "And one that, I am sorry to say, I hope I did not have a hand in starting."

"Yes, about that," the huskyherm said grimly, shifting hir weight to bring hir full Royal countenance to bear on the tiny rat. "What in the _world_did you think you did to me back at the pond?! I woke up, you were babbling, and you SLAPPED me! Then you started ordering me around! Honestly, you sounded like Cumberbatch there, before I clobbered him!"

"Ye-e-es," Shingen said, doing a passable impression of Cisco's laconic cadence. "I... was... capturing you. To be my noble Mount."

Hir eyes narrowed. "That sounded capitalized, as well."

"It was supposed to be a simple ritual!" he wailed, but it was a quiet, composed wail. Not easy to do. "I would gain the ability to communicate with you, and you with me, and together we would fulfill our righteous destinies!"

"And it called for a taur."

"Yes."

"And you picked me. And followed me."

"Yes! You were a magnificent specimen!"

"And happened to pick perhaps the only taur in the world who happened to also be an exiled Princess, raised in the tallest tower of the royal castle, fluent in a dozen languages and trained in the noble art of fencing?"

"Ye-e-es," Shingen said again, tail dropping, taking a step backwards. "I... wait, Princess? Capitalized?"

"Yes!"

Cisco looked between them. "I can see you two have a lot to catch up on," he neighed, gathering up the papers into his arms and moving towards the huge door. "Ah. You are welcome to stay here the night, ah... Kimmi," he added, remembering that the beast had a name. "Our thanks cannot be expressed sufficiently, and tomorrow we will endeavor, all of us, to hear your story and help you on your way."

Kimmi's expression softened. "Thank you," shi said hoarsely, smiling at him and moving to hug him, but he danced remarkably fast out of hir reach, hooves clopping. "Ah. Sorry."

"Think nothing of it," Cisco said, nearly at a normal pace, ducking through the door with the aplomb of a professional politician exiting a particularly difficult meeting. The great antechamber seemed especially silent after his departure, broken only by Kimmi licking hir bowl, and Cumberland's ragged wheezing from the cells.

"I think we should try and start our... relationship over," Shingen said, scratching at his short black ponytail.

"I think when the sun comes up, you walk one way and I walk the other way, and we chalk this up to a terrible experience," shi replied, carefully stacking hir bowls and wondering if shi needed to offer to help clean. People outside of castles rarely seemed to have their own servants, and it didn't seem right to ask strangers to pick up after hir.

"I don't think we can do that."

"Hmmm? And what makes you think you can stop me?" shi rumbled softly, hir fur ruffling.

"There are many questions we both need answered before we part," he said patiently.

"I couldn't agree more," Kimmi said irritably, scratching at hir underbelly and wondering if it would be greedy to ask for more soup. There was still music and dancing happening outside, but it was nearing midnight and the locals were slowly drifting back to their homes. "For instance, how come you could kick and punch him and actually seemed to be winning for a minute, and I nearly broke my damn paw when I tried to help?"

"You cannot strike the Law in anger. Whatever that artifact does, it confers certain... protections to it's wearer."

"You weren't angry?" shi asked dubiously.

"I am never angry." Truly, Shingen did not seem to be ruffled in the slightest. "There is nothing to be gained from living a life of blind passion."

Kimmi opened hir mouth to protest, but shook hirself. Not the time to get into that kind of argument, shi told hirself. "OK, fine, whatever. So I was angry. Fine. How do you know so much about the Law?"

"I have been passing through this region for the past month or so, and I have run afoul of them several times. I, apparently, offend their peaceful sensibilities. Many times, merely openly carrying my sword was enough of a crime."

"How many of them are there?" shi asked, suddenly terrified that there was going to be reinforcements. "Do they all have those magic circlets?"

"They do," he nodded, ears briefly turning back. "The number is small, usually no more than one per township. I fear they may return, but... their Law is a peculiar one. The town must willingly accept the rule of Law, and with the wars to the south and the influx of raiders, many towns were quick to accept the protection."

"Wars?!"

Shingen nodded. "Indeed. How long have you been wandering?"

Kimmi hung hir head in shame. "On my own, since... yesterday afternoon."

The rat blinked. "Ah. Well. Surely, as Princess, you must have been privy to diplomatic-"

"Not that kind of Princess, sadly."

"Ah. Well. You may find that the world outside of... where are you from, exactly?"

"Estragonia." Shingen coughed, a little too quickly for hir liking. Hir hackles rose again in a flash. "Something wrong with that?!"

"Not at all," he replied smoothly, but his tail twitched back and forth. "It just seems to be a... peculiar place for someone like... you to hail from."

Kimmi glared. "Your pauses are very... strategic," shi grumbled. "But now it's my turn."

---

The small crowd gathered outside the Ashcroft town hall had mostly dispersed, but a handful of the more curious, persistent and excitedly disobedient youngsters had stayed behind, tucked safely behind the shrubbery, taking turns standing on shoulders to peer through one of the tall, arched side windows.

"What are they doing now?"

"I think they're arguing."

"About what?"

"Uhm... everything?"

"Let me see!"

"You just want to see hir nethers!"

"NUH UH!"

There was a shuffle, some cursing, and another rearrangement of bodies. A long-bodied weasel climbed on top of a shorter, much thicker wolfboy, while the group's lone female member slouched against the masonry, chewing on a piece of straw. "Boys," the porcine girl muttered. "Mind always on one thing."

"Shi's got a lot more than one thing!" the wolf whistled.

"Pervert!"

The sounds of shouting from within increased. "Whoa, now the little rat guy is getting in on the yelling."

"He's a great fighter! Did you see him against Cumberland? He was like... like... I don't know, but it was amazing!"

"He didn't even hurt him, though!"

"He was GETTING to it! He had that SWORD!"

"The sword was as big as Cumberland's pinkie!"

"Nuh uh!"

"Yuh huh!"

The young female pig aimed a swift kick at her cousin's shin, toppling the two-person tower. "It's my turn again!" she said brusquely.

The mink and wolf picked themselves up, the latter hopping on one paw. "You know, you could just ASK," he grumbled. "And you just had a turn!"

"Yeah, before YOU, and before YOU. Unless there's a fourth person, or you guys get to go twice, it's MY turn!" She crossed her arms, daring them to rebut. Having known her for most of their lives, they dared not, and quickly shuffled around to each bear the brunt of one of her little hooves.

"What... are they doing... now?" the mink wheezed, back shaking.

"Oh, you relax," the piggirl snorted. "I'm not THAT heavy."

"Of course... not."

"Well, right now, they're mostly staring at eachother, and... uh oh."

"Wha...t?"

"Kimmi is holding the desk."

"Is shi... ok?"

"Uh, yeah. Shi's holding it over hir head."

---

"You never even saw it done ONCE?" Kimmi howled, chest heaving.

Shingen stood on the far side of the chamber, well prepared to duck behind a heavy timber column, eyes never leaving the colossal mahogany desk waving back and forth, dangerously near the ceiling. "It is... very difficult to perform," he said warily. "It was extremely uncommon."

"So how do you know you were even doing it RIGHT when you performed your magic midden heap on my brain?!" shi growled threateningly. The desk seemed to weigh nothing in hir paws, but shi couldn't spare a thought to analyze it. "You could have done anything!"

_ _

"You could have said something first!" Shingen snapped. "You could have... worn clothing!"

The huskytaur's eyes blazed. "Are you saying you only took advantage of me because of how I was DRESSED?!"

That was probably the wrong thing to say, Shingen thought, brain fizzing with unaccustomed panic, frustrated at his own lack of self-control. He successfully dodged the desk, the furniture's impact shaking the well-built building, but there were several chairs and a few large bookshelves that he wasn't feeling extremely confident about. "You were a taur!" he shouted, darting to another column. "You don't walk up to a tree needing firewood, thinking 'What if THIS tree can talk?'!"

"WRONG ANSWER!" Two more chairs streaked like meteors, detonating hard and sending shrapnel and splinters in all directions.

"Starlight, calm down!" Shingen yelled, climbing up the back of the wooden post, up among the braces and trusses in moments. "This town just became indebted to you! It's unseemly to demolish their finest possessions in gratitude!"

"Get down here and I won't have to keep doing this!" shi snarled, moving to hoist an immense bookshelf, but pausing at the sight of so many books. As furious as shi was, shi couldn't bring hirself to damage the bound word.

Shingen paused, taken aback by the sudden sense of reverence washing out from the huge beast. "Interesting," he murmured, moving higher into the forest of buttressed timbers. "You read?"

The brief eye of the storm passed, Kimmi's eyes bulging. "You think just because I've got four legs that I DON'T KNOW HOW TO READ?!"

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT AND YOU KNOW IT!" he shouted, dodging another exploding chair.

"I THOUGHT YOU DIDN'T GET ANGRY!"

"I DON'T! I THOUGHT WHEN YOU PAWED YOURSELF OFF, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO FINISH!"

"I DID! I THOUGHT WHEN YOU MET SOMEONE FOR THE FIRST TIME, YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO CUT THEIR FINGERS OFF!"

"I DIDN'T! I THOUGHT... I THOUGHT... I thought..."

Shingen froze, perched high above the furious huskyherm. His jaw moved silently, replaying the last few minutes in his mind. Kimmi was panting, bosom rising and falling, sweat starting to slick hir brow. Why does this have to be how every first meeting goes with me? shi wailed on the inside. Why am I trying to clobber someone who tried to protect me? I mean, sure, he tried to MIND CONTROL me first...

_ _

Shi shook hir head, forever giving up ever understanding how anthro society worked, when Shingen started to laugh.

"And what, exactly, is so funny?" shi rumbled, lowering one of the few remaining chairs to the ground and surveying the damage with a guilty heart. "I swear, you people start laughing at the most inappropriate times! My housemaidens would always start giggling, and they would NEVER tell me why..."

Slowly, carefully, one eye on the enraged hermtaur, Shingen climbed down to the ground. "I am laughing," he said between chortles, "because I think that this is proof that the ritual did, actually, work."

"What is? Me trying to murder you? Because I can prove it a little more if you want...!"

He reached the polished marble slab floor, but kept his body against the post just in case. "No. I was angry just now."

"Perfectly normal! You're an assho-"

"Actually," he continued hurriedly, "it's a sign that the ritual worked. Another sign, actually. As my Noble Mount, I can feel your emotions, and you can feel mine. To better communicate in combat, to understand when the other is in trouble. To fight as a single unit."

Kimmi frowned, but hir lips kept trying to wriggle up into a faint grin. "That sounded rehearsed. What do you mean? You're angry because... I'm angry?"

Shingen chuckled again. "Indeed. Which, I believe, is also why you're trying so hard not to smile right now."

"I'm not smiling!"

"No, but... bu-u-ut... there it is."

Kimmi spun, glaring at the remains of a small mirror on the wall and saw that, true enough, shi was smiling. It was faint, and it was most certainly not reflected in hir eyes, but it was undeniably there. "I'm not happy!" shi pouted, stamping a paw.

"Oh, I know," Shingen chuckled, moving a little closer. "But I am, so you're feeling it. And you're angry, so I'm feeling it. And as my Noble Mount, it is impossible for me to harm you, which is why my blade passed through your lovely flesh."

The exiled Princess thought about that, and the smile was successfully forced off of hir face. "Are you telling me that, if the ritual hadn't worked," shi said slowly, "you WOULD have cut off my fingers?"

Shingen shook his head. "Not at all, I would have stopped my blade before it cut very deep-"

Perhaps as an additional advantage to the peculiar bond they now shared, he was able to dodge the next projectile before shi was even halfway through hir swing, the chair whistling like a swarm of mosquitos before shattering at his feet. "You are a terrible person!"

"Maybe!" the little rat laughed, once again in the rafters. "But I am a magnificent swordsman!"

"Get down here!"

"I don't think that would be good for our relationship at the moment. We still have many questions that need answering."

"Like what?!"

"Like who did Cumberland work for," Shingen said pointedly, gesturing at the golden circlet that still hung menacingly on the wall, "and who is going to come investigating his sudden disappearance?"

Kimmi's eyes widened, and shi smacked hir forehead. "I'm really terrible at this," shi moaned, flopping onto hir side and burying hir muzzle in hir cleavage, a sight that the rat might have found cute and possibly endearing were it not for the unfortunately blatant sexuality. "You're right. Oh, gods, I just made things worse, didn't I? That's all I ever do. I try to escape Estragonia, and I end up getting a dozen taurs and a dozen prisoners kidnapped, and I don't even KNOW what happened to most of them. They could be eaten for all I know! Then I get out, attack the first person to say hello to me, and probably bring down misery on this whole town because I can't just SHUT UP AND ACT LIKE THE BEAST THAT I AM!"

Shingen's heart fell, and he knew it wasn't entirely due to the bond between him and his new mount. A Princess... escape Estragonia? That's for later. "It was bound to happen," he said gently. "You could not have passed through this region at all without meeting the Law. We will leave in the morning. We can't fight all of them, however many of them there are."

Kimmi sniffled. "You just want... want to leave them? Leave them with an unconscious giant in a prison cell, and act like they had no part in it?"

The rat frowned. "Not exactly, but they would be able to swear, under oath, that it was not their fault. The Law has many ways to determine the Truth."

"And they won't be punished?" Shingen said nothing. Kimmi heaved another sigh and buried hir nose further still. "Great."

"It is late," the little warrior said. "You are tired. No, you are exhausted. Trust me, I can tell. In the morning, we shall... consult with the town elders, the Mayor, and determine a course of action."

"You make it sound like there's a right answer," Kimmi whimpered. "One plus one equals two. I... I thought that was how the real world would be. It's not."

A rustle of fabric, the tiniest of sounds like a crumb falling, and Kimmi jerked when Shingen's paw stroked hir black, glossy mane. "The world is not simple," he said soothingly, and not unkindly. "The world is too vast to be uncomplicated. You are young, and you are a good soul, and you... you will learn."

"Don't wanna," shi mumbled, eyes drooping. "You... said soul..."

"Yes."

Kimmi yawned enormously, ivory teeth flashing in a maw big enough to swallow half of Shingen's body. "S'nice," shi managed, reaching out to stroke his foot as though it were a pet. "Th'said taurs... don't have souls..."

Shingen spent several long moments staring at the immense, fluffy taur, snoring softly on the ground. Five years in the world, on his own, since leaving his home, and this beast... this grrl had apparently endured so much more than he had, and based simply on the shape of hir birth, would continue to endure more. He considered himself peaceful, open-minded, and he had gotten into two separate battles with hir in the space of a day.

He sighed, adjusted his robes, and set about searching the building for a broom. There was a great deal of mess that it simply would not do to have the Mayor discover.

Chapter 12

The Mayor, as it turned out, was the owner of all that former-furniture prior to The Law assuming control of the city's affairs, and noticed its absence right away. He was also an arbiter and peacemaker, and knew when it was the time to press an issue and when it was time to let the one-ton rage-fueled and apparently quite intelligent and well-spoken taur sleep.

He stepped carefully around the basking bulk of their town's saviour, snoozing on hir back in the early morning's rays slanting in through the tall arched windows, and tried to keep his eyes away from hir more... inappropriate portions. He was wearing his good hat this morning, the black velvet freshly brushed and dusted. It felt good to be in charge again. Nominally, at least, he smiled wanly. In hir current position (metaphorically speaking, of course), this Kimmi and hir little companion could easily become the town's new lords.

If it keeps The Law out...

He sat in one of the few remaining chairs, placed the neatly sorted papers on the small end table that would have to make do as a desk for the time being, and started trying to compose his thoughts. There was a great deal of disarray in the community, after the night's events. Suppressed joy and freedom quickly gave way to worry and uncertainty. What would the future hold? The trade with the southern communities was nearly stagnant, now that The Law controlled the commercial hubs. Without that paltry business, would they survive? Should they return to the protection of The Law, if the alternative was worse?

"Good morning," the rat said softly, emerging from the corridor to the Mayor's right. He was sipping from a tiny steaming cup, and looked much as he had the night before. Small, unassuming, but with an undeniable air of barely-restrained lethality. "I trust you slept well?"

The Mayor smiled a thin, equine smile. "As well as can be expected," he nodded. "I notice there were some problems after I left."

They glanced up, at the scratches and gouges and dents that no amount of sweeping could repair. "I do apologize on hir behalf," the rat chuckled. "Shi is going through a difficult period in hir young life. I will, of course, pay for all the damages to the best of my ability."

The Mayor waved his offer away. "It is just furniture. We have more in the basement, collecting naught but dust."

"Even so. I have more than I need."

The aged pony chuckled. "What a problem to be forced to live with."

Kimmi inhaled, wriggling around on hir back and kicking up some sawdust from the areas that Shingen couldn't reach with the broom. Hir hindpaws cradled hir sac, hir forepaws cuddled hir immense sheath, and hir arms wrapped lovingly around hir breasts, a peculiar but undeniably cosy pose. The two men exchanged glanced, both working hard to keep their expressions flat.

"Goodness," the Mayor said.

"Indeed."

"Known hir long?"

"Since yesterday."

"Mmmm. Is that tea?"

"It is. Would you like some?"

"Please."

"As you wish. However, I do have something I wish to discuss with you," Shingen said, gesturing down the corridor with the cup. "And some questions concerning your former... official."

Cisco frowned. "Cumberland? What of him?"

A minute later, standing in front of the three small cells that comprised the entire prison system for the region, the Mayor understood. The night before, the cell had been occupied by a bulldog of grossly heroic proportions, to the point that he had to be rolled onto his side in order to be dragged through the small cell door. This morning, the cell was occupied by a short, barrel-chested but otherwise normally- proportioned bulldog that was snoring pleasantly in the tent-sized robes he had worn the night before.

"Is this-"

But the Mayor was already nodding. "This is what he looked like, before he was selected. We were not sure if he would... return to this state, with the removal of the circlet."

"That is a dangerous item," Shingen huffed, sipping his tea. "Do you know how many there are?"

"No. When The Law came through, he selected Cumberland and bestowed him with the circlet, but he only had the one with him. If the word of the travellers are any indication, though, there are more than a dozen like it, each one worn by a criminal, and each one with... such effects."

A dozen, Shingen thought with a tiny smile. A worthy challenge. I hope they're up to it. "So there must have been one, originally, to wear the crown. Mayhaps they found a collection of them."

The Mayor shuddered. "You would know him if you saw him. He loomed over Cumberland here, even after his... transformation. We... we were unable to resist against something like that." He took a deep breath and smoothed his paws on his formal black suit. "I think I'll take that tea now."

"Of course."

Back in the main central hall Kimmi was rolling gently back and forth and mumbling to hirself, eyes squeezed shut against the intrusion of the morning light, when Shingen and Cisco returned with their teas. The great huskyherm sniffed and purred loudly, craning hir neck. "Tea'n biscuits," shi murmured, pawing weakly at the air. "N'waffles?"

The Mayor stared, and Shingen just chuckled. "Shi is a creature of refined tastes," he said drolly. "I find more and more that I believe hir story."

"Which is...?"

When Kimmi finally surfaced from hir awkward, uncomfortable and restless sleep on the hard marble floor, shi found the frustrating little rat and the quiet, stoic pony sitting in the room's remaining two chairs, sharing tea on a small wooden end table and speaking in hushed tones. There was a neat stack of papers on the floor, and otherwise the evidence of the previous night's destruction was absent. Hir hands moved reflexively to cover hir nipples, hir paws attempting the same with hir nethers and failing miserably. "G'morning," shi mumbled, yawning hugely. "Thanks f'r lettin' me sleep inside..."

"It was the least we could do," the Mayor said again, graciously. "Good morning, your Grace."

Kimmi froze. "You told," shi said with dull accusation to Shingen.

The little warrior shrugged. "It seemed as though your host deserved a little bit of an explanation. In exchange for a story, he has agreed not to sue you for damages to his family's heirlooms."

Hir eyes flew open and shi leapt to hir feet with such alacrity that Cisco nearly tumbled backwards out of his chair, his amused protests silenced by sheer terror. "I'm so sorry!" shi said fearfully, moving backwards until hir rump bumped heavily against the far wall. "I was... I don't always know how strong I am, and we were arguing, and I didn't know they were heirlooms, and I will of course pay for everything...!"

Shingen held his head in his paws, elbows on knees, shaking with mirth, and Kimmi felt the strangest urge to join him tickling at the back of hir head. Shi frowned and growled low and menacingly in hir throat. "That's not nice," shi grumped, crossing hir arms under hir breasts.

"It was amusing, nonetheless," Shingen snickered, patting the Mayor's hand reassuringly. "There are no worries, I can handle the costs."

Kimmi fished the tiny leather pouch out of hir cleavage, giving both men pause as they wondered just how much supple, crushing weight was needed to keep it tucked away so safely for so long, and rummaged around inside it. "Not at all, it was my fault," shi insisted. "I... uhm... I don't know what all of this is really, uhm... worth. Could you help me, maybe...?"

Shingen chuckled again, moving to help the floundering Princess. "Here, allow me to help. Based on what you left that lucky turnip farmer yesterday you could be a boon to the local economy, but you would soon find yourself penniless. If you actually had any pennies to start with. OK, let's see... this is an Estragonian twin, which I feel could safely purchase most of this building. You should hold onto that. This," he continued, holding up a small silver disc, "is a Yupting cedi, and would possibly be the most in line with the broken furniture, assuming it was all made from ancient, exctinct trees. Where did you find most of these coins?"

"I got them from my friend," Kimmi said in a tiny voice, settling onto hir haunches as best shi could. "Gods know where he got them all. He just... gave me some, and sent me on my way. I've never had to buy anything before. Just... just take whatever you think is appropriate."

"With careful budgeting, this could probably keep you in soup and stables for many years," he said gently. "But we should seek a money-changer as soon as possible. Mayor, do-"

"Cordoba, to the south," Cisco said without hesitation. "But that is... further into the Law."

Kimmi's ears flipped back, but hir fists clenched. "There's more of them?"

"We have much to discuss," Shingen soothed, patting hir elbow, which was about as high as he could reach. "Over breakfast. Mayor, do-"

"The Solace Inn."

"Ah. Sounds pleasant. Will they-"

"On the house."

"Ah. Well, then. Come, your Highness-"

"Don't call me that."

"Ah. As you wish."

---

Several hours later shi was still rubbing the sleep out of hir eyes, hir body's desires to sleep well unto the afternoon fighting with hir new life as a self-reliant explorer and wanderer. They had spent more than an hour at the Solace Inn, Kimmi happily dining on whatever the overworked chefs felt like creating. It had been many months since they had been allowed to open at their customary hours, since they had been able to offer certain herbs or spices, since they had been able to offer coffees and stronger beverages without fear of reprimand, and they were more than happy to feed the eternally-hungry taur.

Throughout the never-ending meal, more locals came to peer at hir through the windows, around doorframes, and very occasionally approached hir in person. They found that the room-filling taur, the tops of hir ears touching the highest of the swinging candle-filled age-blackened chandeliers, was extremely open and friendly, talking animatedly with anyone about nearly any subject. Shi demurred whenever the younger pups inevitably asked hir about hir fighting skills, but Shingen was more than happy to steer the conversations in new directions.

After forcing the innkeep to accept one half of the silver coin, which Shingen helpfully cut in half with his sword in a display that drew considerable applause, they spent the other half on acquiring some basic travelling clothes for Kimmi. The results were swift and serviceable, and would suffice until they found a larger population centre where shi could spend more money and considerably more time getting an actual wardrobe put together.

"I'm still not happy that you_have_ to tag along," shi grumbled, shuffling slightly as shi acclimated to hir new outfit. Very few people had ever had to create actual clothes for a taur, to say nothing of a taur Kimmi's size. "You sure you can't just head North, and we won't be bonded anymore?"

They had been on the road for an hour now, heading south, Shingen walking beyond the taurs reach. The barrel hoop-sized circlet was tied to his square leather pack, swinging back and forth gaily in the bright late spring sunlight. "It doesn't work like that," he said, again. "Time, and space, and... and death, if the tales are true, can keep apart the Bonded Warrior and his Mount."

"Your tales can go toss themselves off a tall tower," shi grumbled, but hir heart wasn't in it. Shi had been raised on tall tales, the more fantastic the better. Shi just didn't take those tales with hir out into the world and assume they would be hir guide.

Well, you sort of did... and discovered that was the quick way to get killed. Or worse.

Shingen sniffed. "The Scrolls of Wybodaeth are not merely tales. They are repositories for the knowledge and wisdom and ancient martial skills of my people. They are our path to manhood, to the way of the Warrior. They are where we seek enlightenment when our judgement is clouded."

Kimmi nodded, hands folded in front of hir new simple white blouse, forest green cape thrown back over hir shoulders to drape elegantly, shi thought, at hir barrel. "I can... I can understand that," shi replied at length. "I am sorry. I did not mean to offend. I am unaccustomed to speaking to anyone who isn't bringing me food four times a day."

Shingen coughed, but tactfully said nothing.

"I can feel you laughing at me," shi grumped. Hir tail swished behind hir, sticking out from underneath a dark blue woolen skirt that was really several curtains stitched together. It looked a little peculiar, tenting awkwardly around hir sac and moving oddly when hir sheath swayed back and forth, but for hir first pair of real, actual clothes, shi couldn't imagine anything better.

"It's not laughing at you, it's... the situation," he said with a smile. "I had made up in my mind what your life must have been like, prior to meeting you in that glade. I am a hunter, and a tracker, and if I may say so quite gifted with the poetic word, and I am skilled at determining a being's past, be they taur or norm... taur or anthro. But with you, I literally could not have been more wrong."

"It still feels like you're laughing at me."

"Think of it as the mirth of camaraderie," the little rat said. "I can feel your emotions as well, or at least I think I can. It is a new sensation. They are very simple."

"Oh, don't you know how to sweet-talk a grrl."

"Ah, and there is anger again. Anger is easiest with you. Please do not mistake my words for condescension, Starlight. Simple is... unusual. Remarkable."

Hir brows knit, paws flexing meaningfully where he could see them. "Keep explaining."

He took a deep breath. "I am so used to speaking to people who say one thing, mean another, and secretly work towards a third end. Their anger is mired in confusion, their pride is tied to lies they tell themselves, their altruism a mask for selfishness. The folk of these low lands are... complicated. You are simple, which is refreshing. When you feel angry, there is ONE reason. When you feel happy, it washes your anger away. When you feel sad, you throw yourself into it, experience it. Many could learn from your lessons."

"I still feel like I'm being insulted, and I just can't figure out why," shi said softly, plucking at hir blouse. Thick woolen bedsheets had been used, and they didn't hug hir figure perfectly, but shi wasn't in danger of losing a button with a careless sneeze.

Shingen closed the distance and pat the great huskytaur's back, where hir torso met hir barrel. "I would never insult you, my lady," he said levelly.

Oh, ye gods, he's telling the truth, shi thought. I can tell. Why can I tell?! "Am I going to have you in my head forever? Always plucking away at my thoughts, flipping through my feelings like some sort of pop-up book?"

"The scrolls say that, with time, we will learn to block eachother out, when we need to. Even the ancient mystics knew that bonded warriors, even soul mates, needed their solitude."

"You better not go peeking in my dreams," shi said with a chuff, muzzle turning up in a faint smile. The miles seemed to be passing swiftly and easily, how shi had always imagined the fantastic heroes of hir stories travelling. "That's Kimmi's time."

"As you wish, Starlight."

Shi kicked a rock at him, missed completely and nearly took out a sapling. "That's another thing. Why do you keep calling me that?"

"In my language, khimi means the light that showers down upon us from the stars above, and their blessings from the past, and the future. The stars are eternal, and have seen everything that has ever been, and everything that will ever be."

Hir eyes widened. "Gosh. It was just the name of my great-grandmother here. If I had been a boy, I would have been Gareon. I think I like your version better."

He held up his sheathed blade, glossy black wood looking for all the world like an unremarkable, if well-polished, walking stick. "I very nearly named my blade thusly. I might have believed in destiny, otherwise."

Shi peered down at the tiny sword, still not trusting it after the events of the previous day. "What did you end up naming it?"

"Anorchfygol."

"Bless you," shi grinned. "And what does that mean?"

He slipped it back through his belt, fastening it with practiced ease. "The indomitable will, the force that passes through stone and steel, life and death."

They walked along in silence for many more miles, the countryside around them slowly becoming less wild and wooden, more tilled and tended. Small offshoot roads periodically branched off, and soon they started passing regular stone markers in the road, giving distances to Ashcroft behind them, and Cordoba ahead of them. Some extremely weathered markers indicated cities more than three hundred miles away, and one made of black marble made reference to a Merasheen, the improbable distance of two thousand, five hundred and eight miles distant.

"Surely that can't be miles," Kimmi murmured. "They must have used another measure."

"Given its age, I would say they used leagues."

"Mmmm, and how far is that?"

"A little more than two miles."

They walked along in silence for many more miles, Kimmi feeling a stomach-flopping fear at the sheer size of the world. Shingen picked up on it easily, even without the bond they shared, but knew that the only way to help hir was to help show hir the world, as much of it as he could. "I have wandered for five years," he said reassuringly, reaching up to squeeze hir paw. "I have seen... more than I thought there could have possibly existed, and I know that is still but a fraction of what there is."

"Can you see all of it?" shi asked hoarsely. "I mean, is it possible? Can anyone see all of it?"

"If anyone can, I believe it could be you."

"Mmmm, and why do you say that?"

"Your legs are very long. You walk quite fast."

Shi turned to stare at him in disbelief, and burst out laughing. "I will keep that in mind," shi snickered, ruffling his neat black ponytail. "I can't tell if you're joking or not, with this... this bond. It always just seems as though there's something I'm just forgetting, something I'm half-remembering, just at the back of my mind. Like a memory of a dream."

"Skill will come in time," he said carefully. "I do not believe the scrolls ever said anything about the mount requesting time alone, but... I am sure that it works both ways."

"You seem to have no problems feeling what I feel," shi said, faintly accusatory.

"Perhaps I know more of what to look for. I have read the scrolls so many times, I could probably re-draw them if I needed to." He sounded almost... bashful about that, and a little self-searching revealed to Kimmi that shi could almost detect that sensation coming from hirself. No, not me... the little piece of him that's there.

_ _

"So, if I were in trouble..."

"I would know."

"If I were hurt..."

"I would feel it."

Kimmi slowed, hir huge paws moving in a complicated pattern beneath hir skirts, kicking up little puffs of dust. "That's interesting," shi said, moving hir legs across hir sheath and sac. With each step, shi stroked and pet wherever shi could reach, hir body responding almost immediately, skirts filling out to either side and especially at the back, nipples poking eagerly at hir blouse. "And what about this?"

Shingen's eyes widened, his ears humming, his whiplike tail snapping up to attention. "Ah," he coughed with strained casualness, adjusting his robes slightly and walking a little faster. "Yes, that's certainly... something."

Hir laughter startled a flock of birds from a nearby trees, and followed them both down the long road.

---

"Hello?"

The Mayor's head lifted slightly. The doors to the Town Hall had been open all morning, a steady stream of townsfolk filing through briskly. Under the rule of The Law, the town's normal bureaucratic operations had been suspended, with the exception of tax collection which had been a little... overzealous. Naturally, the first response to Cumberland's deposal was folk requesting their taxes be re-assessed, and Cisco had been issuing scrips all morning. Many people would be tax-free for at least one year, several for two or even three, as they could not be properly reimbursed. The town's vaults and coffers, despite the very active collection, were all but empty.

"Hello?"

The Mayor raised a hoof, pausing one of the local supplicants. "One moment," he said gently, a cross expression passing over the rebuked feline's face.

"Anyone?"

Cisco apologized to the lineup that extended out the hall doors and down the steps and excused himself down the side corridor, where a confused, bleary-eyed and rather inappropriately-dressed Cumberland was huddled in the corner of his cell. The white robes were gathered around him, clutched tight to his neck. "Ah," Cisco said. "Yes."

"I'm really sorry," the bulldog said, fast words tumbling from slow lips. "I didn't mean t'do none of those things, I really didn't. Th'Law made me an offer I couldn't refuse! You saw it! You all saw it! He gave me the crown! I didn't want no crowns! I ain't royalty! I was... I just... I didn't mean it!"

Cumberland had been as recognizable character in Ashcroft as anyone, living there nearly as long as Cisco himself. He was a handyman, a day laborer. He was a drunk and a lech. He was a surprisingly gifted pianist and could rouse any room in town into lively song. He had many debts, and there were certain doorways he did not darken, lest he find his lips and eyes darkened as well. He was a lout, sometimes a brute, always with the careless word and the best of intentions.

The Cumberland laying on the floor, wrapped in robes several sizes too large, was a terrified backwoods drifter who had been given a taste of a world frighteningly, overwhelmingly large and powerful.

"Just settle down," The Mayor said, not unkindly, backing out of the small room and back to the waiting townsfolk. "I'll send someone over with some tea, and then you can tell me everything."

"No!" the bulldog gasped, trying to stand while simultaneously keeping his paws against his chin and his back against the wall, stubby legs pedalling madly. "He saw! He saw everything, through the crown! He's coming, because I disobeyed! He's coming for me!"

"Now now, I'm sure he's not coming for you. If anything, our... visitors were more to blame-"

"You don't understand! When he's done with them, he's coming for ME!"

"Done with-..." the Mayor muttered, frowning. "Oh. Dear."

---

Cordoba took quite a long time to resolve into real town, and for hours Kimmi had thought that they were just going in circles. By mid-afternoon there were travellers on the road, moving north and south along the main highway, filtering in and out from the much smaller, much rougher dirt roads that branched off periodically.

Kimmi had expected much worse for hir first day among 'normal people', but it was still proving to be a little more repetitive and frustrating than shi would have liked.

"What's wrong with your taur?" came the periodic guffaw from a man high atop a passing wagon. Similar cries came from women carrying heavy loads across their shoulders, young porters loaded down with crates and boxes, and all manner of producers and merchant. "It ain't fair, dressing it up like people!"

The first time it had happened, Kimmi thought it great fun to yip and whuff and bark, glaring down at Shingen before turning hir surprisingly intelligent gaze on the speaker. By the tenth, shi just rolled hir eyes and made no noise, letting the well-spoken rat wave off the comments. Shi lost count around the fiftieth, and it was on a passing family of grizzled felines where shi lost hir temper.

"Momma, lookit the doggy!" piped up a wide-eyed kit no larger than one of Kimmi's legs. "It's got the same shirt as you! Same cloak, too! It looks so funny!"

The family rode in the back of a large, low wooden cart, being pulled by a lean, bony grey equitaur wearing only a heavy leather harness and a thick, sleeveless woolen vest. The kits romped in and around several large crates of lumpy orange fruits of a type Kimmi didn't recognize, but the father certainly seemed to be enjoying the one he was eating. "Now, now, Izzy, it's not nice to point. That little feller can dress his taur any way he wants." He glanced at the pair as Kimmi and Shingen passed them, swifter than the cart. "Though it's a little daft to be carrying his own pack."

Shingen just nodded and waved, eternally unflappable. "I can carry my own," he replied.

"Makes sense," said the mother, winking at her husband. "Looks like the poor creature has more than enough to carry already! Is shi with child? Shi seems swollen with milk..."

The rat glanced up at his companion, feeling the red pressure gathering in the back of his mind. "Easy, grrl," he said calmly, patting hir skirt, well within the safe territory of hir back. "Don't mind the rabble."

"Rabble?" the older feline laughed, whipping the reins gently to spur their grey stallion on. "Better watch your word, boy. You're under the Law of the Land, and they don't take kindly to strangers 'round these parts. Might just decide to take your taur, with lip like that. It-"

"Shi," Kimmi snapped, under hir breath but still with more volume than shi'd intended.

The kits' eyes widened. "Daddy, it-"

"Shi," Kimmi repeated, louder this time.

"What's that, boy?" the father asked, still staring down at Shingen curiously.

"I said," Kimmi continued, growing louder with each syllable, "that I am not an 'it', I am a 'shi', and my name is Kimmi, and I CARRY LUGGAGE FOR NO MAN!"

The startled grey stallion and the cart towed behind were but a speck on the horizon when Kimmi got hirself under control, focusing hir breath and counting backwards from a hundred. Shingen also took some time to recover, but from laughter. "Well, that's certainly one way to break the ice," he smiled up at hir. "But may I suggest, the next time, you engage in more... civil discourse? Perhaps ask them about the weather before scaring them half to death."

"I didn't mean to do that," shi muttered.

"Yes, you did."

A few footsteps. "Yes, I did. But I shouldn't have."

"Did you learn something from that?"

Shi frowned and fiddled with hir blouse. "I learned that I need to be careful when I'm yelling," shi pouted, fingering the loose threads where the top button had once been.

"You will learn. You are young."

"You're not much older than me, little rat."

He nodded. "Maybe, but where were you a week ago?"

Hir frown deepened, remembering the lovely morning spent with hir housemaidens, followed up by cake for breakfast. "Shut up," shi grumbled. "Oh, look, here comes another cart. Should I quote poetry, or bark and chase my tail?"

"Can you do both?"

"Grrr, I say, grrr. Woof. Bark."

The farms around them grew denser, many of them clusters of houses dotting the landscape amidst increasingly smaller fields. They had been walking through these rural clumps for hours, and Kimmi had lost count of just how many families must live just within sight of the road. "There's just so many people," shi whispered, trying not to draw the attention of the other folk on the road. "So many, just a part of this one town, this Cordoba. And this is a small town. In a small country."

"Indeed," Shingen nodded sympathetically, feeling the fear gnawing at the back of his mind, and tried to push back with reassurance. A True Warrior was said to be able to calm his Noble Mount without words, using only pure thought. "I have seen cities that would stretch from Ashcroft to Cordoba, and you will, in time. You will learn to not fear the oppressive weight of people, but take comfort from your anonymity."

"That's surprisingly not comforting."

"Give it time."

"Are you always so insufferably indifferent?"

"Sometimes."

Cordoba ended up being very similar to Ashcroft, just with considerably more sprawl. Walking on sore paws into town in the early evening, hardly even stopping to eat the remainders of their breakfast (one apple and a tiny smoked fish for Shingen, nine pounds of assorted fried groceries for Kimmi), shi wondered when exactly they would get to the town proper. For more than a mile they passed through close-knit clusters of buildings, offering every product and service imaginable. There were blacksmiths and silversmiths, seamstresses and milliners, lawyers and barristers, candy shops and bakeries and tea houses, most of which were shuttered and locked and with signs indicating that they were either out of business, or closed by order of The Law.

The roads were thronged now, split evenly between the press of bodies eager to make it either in or out of town before the night's curfew. Faces were wrought with worry, but there were still more than enough glances spared for the oddly-dressed huskytaur that towered over them all. Every few blocks there were freshly-painted red and white signs nailed right at Kimmi's eye level, indicating all of the most recent amendments to the existing code of laws, and the much longer lists of punishments that would be meted out for infractions.

"Apparently you need to have me leashed," shi said, voice flat and unnervingly tranquil. "With no less than three cables of the appropriate thickness as per Livestock Appendices Act (p.81), and cuffs binding no less than two non-adjacent legs and chained with approved Chain Restraints, if not actively pulling an approved Product Conveyance Unit, under penalties outlined in Dangerous Animals Act (p.613). I hope that doesn't upset you."

Hir face was placid, hir hands clasped gently at hir tummy, hir tail waved back and forth, but Shingen's eye was twitching quite actively. He could feel hir mood, and if he were asked to describe it, he would have to resort to trobwllgwaed, 'an impending storm of insurmountable ferocity and violence, where the clouds are composed not of air and water but of blood'. It was a word he had never had opportunity, let alone cause, to ever use before. "We're not just here to seek the moneychanger, are we?"

"Moneychanger is closed," shi grunted, tearing hir gaze from the sign and marching resolutely, though careful not to trample the citizens in front of hir. "Should you be swinging that thing around?"

He blinked innocently. "What?" the rat inquired.

"Your little sword. People are looking at it almost as much as they're looking at me."

Nearly as numerous as the epistles announcing the latest and greatest laws were the signs dedicated to one single fact: weapons were outlawed. There were extensive definitions for weapons, to separate out the butcher's knives from the daggers, the cleavers from the machetes, the mallets from the morning stars, but from the conspicuous absence of even the most basic lethal items carried by the locals, Kimmi assumed that even those definitions were merely suggestions.

"It is sheathed," he said simply. "And I will not conceal it."

"You want to just openly carry a lethal weapon in a peaceful land?" shi smirked. "Brave boy."

"They can try to pry it from my cold, dead hands, but they might find that difficult, for... several reasons."

"Well, come on," shi grumped, tugging hir cloak a little tighter around hir shoulders, as though shi could protect hirself from the confused, amused and horrified stares. "Let's just find a place to eat, and maybe sleep. We'll have better luck in the morning, and my paws are absolutely killing me."

Shingen was about to ask one of the locals where they might find inexpensive lodgings for the night when Kimmi, apparently ignoring hir own advice to lay low, decided to take matters into hir own hands. "Excuse me," shi addressed one group pleasantly, melodic feminine voice contrasting with hir towering height and overabundance of legs. The men were all large and dangerous-looking, the women weary and nervous, a condition exacerbated by Kimmi's sudden appearance. "We're looking for rooms for the night. Two rooms. And hopefully a hot meal."

To Kimmi, the men looked slightly like Rigus and his band of escaped convicts in the way they carried themselves, glanced side to side, and seemed to have faces carved from wood. Their eyes twitched, their muzzles quivered, but they were otherwise unaffected.

One of the women let loose a high, warbling cry, and fainted. No-one thought to catch her. They were casually standing outside of a closed greengrocer, and her head made a hollow thump when it hit the boardwalk.

Eventually, when Kimmi was worried shi was going to have to repeat hirself (and shi hated to repeat hirself), the largest male, a burly bear wearing rough but effective-looking studded leather armor, pointed further down the street. "Two blocks, turn right. The Feathered Cap."

"Thank you kindly," Kimmi said, bowing slightly, silver-furred cleavage billowing up from the damaged neck of hir blouse. "This way, Shingen."

They all watched hir trot off, Shingen included. He glanced at the group and shrugged. "Shi's new," he said by way of apology, moving swiftly to catch up with hir.

"I'm not cut out for the road life," shi muttered when he pulled alongside hir once again. "What do you do? How do you do it? There's no way you keep blankets and pillows in that little pack of yours."

Shingen snickered. "Blankets and pillows are luxuries I neither want nor need, mighty steed," he said, trying to keep a straight face. "Everything I need, I find."

Shi swallowed nervously. "That sounds... rustic. How much money do I have again?"

"We can talk about that in more... private quarters, your Highness."

"Don't call me that! People will stare!"

"I do not think any more could be staring than are right now, my dear."

Shi glanced around, eyes wide, and swallowed again. "I'm never going to get used to this."

He rubbed hir paw, gently leading hir to the boardwalk in front of a large, sprawling structure of wood and stone. Projecting several feet into the air and over even Kimmi's head was a single feather larger than Shingen was tall. "You will, with time. All you need is time." He grinned again, trying to push against hir fear with good humor. "And maybe a bath."

"Are you saying I smell?!"

Well, that didn't work, he chuckled, heading through the large, swinging double doors. Sometimes I feel like shi's just LOOKING for an excuse to get angry...

_ _

"Hey!" snapped the weathered older husky behind the counter. "You can't bring your animal in here! Stables are around back!"

Uh oh.

Kimmi pushed through the swinging doors, taking care to stretch dramatically, arms swinging back and thrusting hir chest out further, nearly losing another button in the process. The main lobby was large, dark and somewhat dusty, leading off to sizeable dining rooms, drinking parlors and other sundry facilities. A huge staircase led upstairs, splitting into a half dozen tiny corridors. "Quaint," shi said.

"Didn't you hear me?" bellowed the innkeep, waving his arms at Shingen. "It can't... I mean... did it just talk?"

"Are you sure this place is safe?" Kimmi asked in conversational tones. "I'm not sure I trust those men on the street. They seemed like ruffians."

"I'm sure it's perfectly safe," Shingen said calmly, amidst a rapidly growing hubbub in the lobby. Furs of all stripe and scale peeked out from the public spaces, gathered at the top of the stairs, taking in the peculiar sight of the oddly-dressed, well-spoken taur. "Didn't you hear? All of the animals are kept in the back."

"If you say so, dear. I desperately need a cocktail. See if they have any rooms side by side, would you?"

It took all of his considerable self-control to keep a straight face. In the back of his mind, hir anger burned like a forge fire, but smothering it was... something that felt like satisfaction. Shi was filled with rage, shi was stifling it expertly. Shi's actually taking pleasure from this, he thought wonderingly. There may be hope for you yet, my noble steed. "I will try. Good evening, sir. We-"

"What's going on here?" the husky demanded, tugging awkwardly at his black vest, clearly trying to hold onto the last vestiges of his dignity while asserting his minimal authority. "You can't... it can't... I mean..."

"We would like a room."

The laughter rippled through the crowd nervously, like a second-rate pickpocket, but if there was one thing the world-weary masses enjoyed, it was a show. "Go on, give 'ir the wedding suite!" someone shouted.

"It's the only one big enough!"

"Where's hir luggage?"

"Under that skirt!"

"Hey, how's shi making that voice?"

Kimmi shrugged. "The normal way. I breathe in, I breathe out, I move my lips. Why, how do you do it?" This time, the laughter was accompanied by a smattering of applause.

"Uh," the innkeep grunted. "Look, you're clever and all, but-"

Shingen produced the silver coin he had removed from the turnip field just the night before. "As we have not yet been able to locate a moneychanger in this fair and _friendly_land," he said meaningfully, thumping the heavy coin on the countertop so hard it left a mark in the aged wood. "I hope this will be sufficient?"

"Uh."

"For two rooms?"

"And meals," Kimmi added helpfully.

"Well."

"And I assume an establishment of this fine vintage would have bathing facilities," Shingen continued blithely. "Shi has spent quite a long time travelling."

"Shi."

"Shingen, the poor fellow can hardly get a word in edgewise. Please, let him talk! I'm sure he just wants to direct us to our rooms as soon as possible."

Whil glanced from the tiny armed rat to the room-filling, eloquent taur, and back again. The husky had managed his inn for more than three decades, two wars, four riots and five marriages, but this was certainly straining his diplomatic aplomb. Kimmi could almost hear it snap back, swayed by the calming influence of hard currency.

The silver coin vanished in a blur, and the innkeep was all smiles once again. "I am sorry, we don't have two rooms available at the moment, but I can certainly give you a _discount_for the Royal Suite, which does have two stalls... er, rooms," he correct with hardly a pause. "The kitchens will be open for dinner and breakfast. Will it just be for the one night?"

"I'm sure that would cover two nights, at least," Shingen countered, knowing it would easily cover a week. "We shall certainly be on our way the day after tomorrow."

The import was not lost on the innkeep, who had a genetic predisposition to profit. "But of course. I apologize for my brusqueness earlier, it has simply been terrible business around here lately. I don't know where my manners are at. That said, we are a law abiding establishment," he said pointedly, "and I am afraid that no amount of silver will permit me to allow you to carry a weapon on our premises. The official lockup is just south of here, red and white banners, you can't miss it..."

Whil withered under Shingen's glare, and Kimmi could feel... something at the back of hir mind. It wasn't anger, for that never seemed to cross the little warrior's thoughts, but there was a certain revulsion. The very idea of giving up his weapon affected him to such a degree that Kimmi felt hir stomach flip.

But in an instant it was gone, and Shingen smiled. "But of course. I shall go deal with it forthwith. Kimmi, please fetch our keys, and I will return shortly. Don't eat anyone while I'm gone."

"Awww," shi pouted, causing the crowd, innkeep included, to take a surreptitious step backwards. "In that case, can someone tell the chef that I will require his immediate services?"

---

Cordoba was rapidly emptying of street life as the sky darkened, giving Shingen no doubts as to who was truly in charge of the large town. He couldn't bring himself to call it a city, not after seeing the great translucent marble towers of Bohlke, the ten thousand steel-clad regimental guardians of Aroni, the seemingly endless stairs and tiers and maze-like tunnels of Pullan. A hundred generations carved timeless corners of eternity for themselves, whereas Cordoba could be completely done in by a particularly ornery cow placed too close to a poorly-supported lantern.

Shingen bounced effortlessly from rooftop to rooftop. The lockup was where promised, and if any building in this city could silently scream 'prison', he had found it. It was vast, taking up an entire city... town block, and true to the practical habits of the locals there were wooden buildings built right up against its stony fortifications. Posted to the huge iron standards flanking the great oak doors were signs explaining the Law to all, particularly how to relinquish all 'dangerous goods' to avoid paying 'stiff penalties'. A penalty would still have to be paid merely for possessing the goods, but it was significantly less than trying to conceal.

"Right," he grumbled, stroking the hilt gently.

Doors slammed like fireworks going off at solstice, and with eerie compliance the streets became deserted. Stars were beginning to twinkle above, and even in cities... towns that were gripped by war or famine, there were normally bars or pubs open, social clubs meeting, kids playing, minstrels entertaining with a song or a story. But not here.

With their tails tucked collectively, if metaphorically, between their legs, the populace fled for the safety of indoors.

The little rat shrugged. "Just makes it easier for me, I suppose," he chuckled to himself, coming to rest with a grunt of effort on the thatched roof of a ramshackle three-story building leaning tiredly against the side of the lockup. He placed his palms, and then his ear against the great stone slabs, breath held, quiet as a mouse. Probably quieter, he thought to himself. Mice never last very long, these days.

_ _

The building was, by all accounts, just as quiet. The Law tended to stomp around bellowing with no regard for stealth, often giving Shingen more than enough time to escape, and if there were any within the lockup they were being uncharacteristically still and silent. Even sitting and filling out their endless forms, their breathing sounded like forge pumps.

Nothing.

The silence from the monolithic structure was eerie, broken only by the occasional rattle and clank of a chain somewhere deep within. Prisoners, no doubt. He climbed nimbly, tiny claws finding chinks and cracks in the mortar, and peered through one of the high, narrow windows, stifling an unexpected yawn as he did so.

"Nothing," he whispered, moving to another window. And then another.

The Law never left their strongholds, unless it was to enforce their twisted version of justice. So where, pray tell, were they off enforcing?

Shingen cried out, clutching at his skull and only barely managing to cling to the stone wall with one paw and a few toes. He had been dimly aware of Kimmi's presence in the back of his head, a slowly shifting rainbow of hunger, amusement, satisfaction, sadness, longing and desire. All at once, that presence seemed to explode into a crashing avalanche of pain and terror, and a moment later his ears detected the faint distant growls and screams drifting on the night air.

---

Dinner was a very similar scene to breakfast, where the inn's kitchens were kept hopping, bringing out meal after meal for the hungry and well-paying taur. Several tables had to be dragged out of the way in order to seat hir in the corner, near the kitchens themselves just for ease of transport, and even sitting as best shi could shi loomed over all the other diners. There were blatant stares and subtle whispers and hand gestures that Kimmi could almost recognize, some of which were clearly aimed at hir barrel and caused hir to blush.

"Mmmm, this is delicious," shi purred gratefully, downing a plate of noodles in some sort of spicy brown sauce in three bites. "Definitely bring more of this."

The serving girls reminded Kimmi enormously of hir housemaidens: they were bright-eyed but subservient, plump but nimble, and more than a few of them were of similar lapine heritage. Shi smiled widely at them, thanking them profusely, but their responses were generally more along the lines of barely-restrained terror, which was a little discouraging. Only one of them seemed to be willing to make eye contact, a petite and alluring grrl that the Princess assumed to be some species of deer, but shi was the quickest to scamper away after dropping off hir tray.

I guess this is pretty good, Kimmi thought to hirself, drawing a gasp and a chuckle from the audience by juggling four dinner rolls, snapping them out of the air and swallowing them one by one. No-one here is trying to kill me or anything. They got over seeing a talking taur pretty quick. Though from the way the innkeeper reacted to that coin, maybe they just want to be nice to me to get more money.

That thought was discouraging, but not entirely unexpected. Bister had warned hir that money was influence, money was power, and money was often motive enough for the worst crimes imaginable. Really, hir brief period of slavery was entirely due to hir value as a gladiator of sorts, and the wealth to be amassed from the society of gambling-obsessed creatures.

A platter of drinks was deposited in front of hir, and shi clapped happily. "Yay, thank you!" shi giggled, forcing hirself to slow down and only drink one at a time, pinkie extended. Feeling parched from the road, it was a struggle not to simply ask for a pitcher of each. Most of the other patrons were no longer eating, instead simply sticking around for the strange spectacle.

Might as well try to work on my 'people skills', shi mused. "So," shi said to the room at large, downing a flute of orange juice, "what's with all this Law of the Land business? I see their signs everywhere."

A fork clattered, the only sound in the dining room except for hir own chewing and the persistent creaking and straining of our outfit. Even the serving girls were frozen in place, ears folded back

Kimmi frowned, absently stripping an enormous turkey leg of meat with one swipe of hir maw. "Touchy subject?" shi asked, blinking innocently.

A group near the far wall stood, adjusted their clothing, and departed without comment. The serving girls deposited their cargo, swept away the teetering stacks of empty plates, and vanished back into the kitchens. Glasses were polished, rings were spun, necklaces were fiddled with. A million words cried out to be spoken, but in the end the crowd settled for one elderly but well-kept old fox woman clearing her throat and saying, "They keep the peace."

Wow. That's... tactful. "Peace is good," Kimmi agreed, nodding emphatically. "I imagine if you've experienced war, you'd trade ANYTHING for peace."

The way their eyes hardened, Kimmi briefly thought that some paralyzing poison had been slipped into everyone's drinks. The fox woman stood, smoothed her plain grey travelling clothes, and said "You should only stay one night, dearie." Nodding once to the room at large, she turned and left, the beginning of a slow, polite, but very purposeful exodus that eventually left Kimmi alone with hir meal.

"That went well," shi muttered, turning hir attention back to the food, not wanting any of it to go to waste. When the bunnygirl poked her head out from the swinging kitchen doors, Kimmi shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare off all your business."

"They already paid," the girl said, not moving out from behind the door.

"Ah. Well, that's good." For the first time since prior to hir Premiere dress-fitting, shi was starting to finally feel, not full, but at least no longer hungry. The muscles of hir shoulders were starting to untwist, and shi rolled hir neck luxuriantly. "Mmmm, thank you for all of your hospitality, though."

"You're welcome," the bunny nodded, still not moving.

Kimmi frowned. "Is there a reason you're hiding?"

"No."

"Oh. Good." Sitting all by hirself, hearing the vague bustle and din from the rest of the inn as the patrons retired for the evening, no doubt due to the curfew, Kimmi braved new territory. Shi pat one of the nearby seats, gesturing with hir muzzle to the heaps of food that remained. "Would you like to join me?"

The girl's eyes widened and she scooted an inch backwards, but seemed to strike an obstruction. "Er. No! That's ok!"

"You sure?" Kimmi smiled, hir ears perking up at the sounds of muffled laughter. "There's plenty to go around. For all of you. I already paid for it."

The bunnygirl turned to look behind her and there was an obscured scuffle, complete with the unmistakable sound of furry kicks landing, before she emerged once more, running her fingers back through her dirty blonde hair. She was followed swiftly by the rest of the serving staff, and much to Kimmi's surprise and delight by two burly, sweaty hogs wearing chef's whites. The porcine cooks nearly tripped over themselves when they first laid eyes on hir former Highness, but years of long, hard and generally thankless days had predisposed them to consider anyone who ordered that much food to be 'friend'.

"Hello," Kimmi tittered, waggling hir fingers. One of the chefs waggled back.

The meal they shared was almost normal. They talked, they laughed, and the great taur learned a lot about the spreading wave of Law that was making the land safer, for a strict and technical definition of safe. Kimmi was nearly full, and managed to keep from devouring the remaining food, at least until one of the waitresses stole off into the kitchen to bring out a cooling pie. At that point, it was a brand new struggle to keep hirself from slapping their hands away so shi could have it all to hirself, but seeing hir hunger, the chefs agreed to send up a fresh pie that night, and another for breakfast.

Moving slowly, hind paws occasionally brushing up against hir overstuffed tummy as well as hir outsized nethers, Kimmi padded gingerly up the grand staircase to hir room. The innkeeper sent along a porter, a young fox kit that was hardly up to hir waist, as a guide, which shi was grateful for. Shi had heard from hir housemaidens back home that servants were often given a gratuity by the visiting nobles, be it in the form of food or a present or sometimes simply hard foreign currency. Kimmi knew that most of hir remaining coins could buy the inn, and shi did not want to insult him by offering him nothing, so shi made a mental note to buy some sort of tiny present for everyone who had been kind to hir during their stay, as soon as shi had the proper funds for shopping.

At the moment, though, shi wanted to make him feel appreciated. As soon as hir door was unlocked and shi had maneuvered hirself to attempt to wedge hir bulk through the opening, shi turned and bent at the waist, enveloping the young fox in a hug that nearly caused him to disappear into hir cleavage. Shi hadn't realized that shi had lost another button until he surfaced from hir silvery bosom, eyes wide with a combination of fear and something shi wouldn't recognize as lust for quite some time. "Sorry," shi whispered, trying to give him an earnest smile. "I just wanted to say thank you."

"You're... we... we... we..." The porter's lips moved numbly, his hands waving weakly in front of him when he was released. "I... you're... thank... bye." He spun on one footpaw and marched himself down the hallway, vanishing around the corner with a nervous squeak.

Kimmi straightened and sighed. "That may have been the wrong thing to do."

The door was wider than it looked, and shi managed to stuff hirself through with a minimum of friction. The interior was not quite as opulent as shi had been led to believe, with thin strips of fabric hung to give the illusion of depth and style, but shi immediately locked hir eyes onto the two modern conveniences, which shi intended to use consecutively.

Shi sidled up to the bathtub, which was not filled with hot water just yet but there was a note explaining how to request the porters to bring it up, and frowned. Shi stepped one leg over the edge and placed it within the great porcelain bowl, gauged what little volume remained and sighed. "Well, it's better than nothing," shi snickered in resignation. "Maybe Shingen can use it when he gets back."

Shi read the note, pulled the rope hanging near the wall and heard a bell jingle in the depths of the building. "Ingenious," shi mused, settling hir bulk onto one of the large yet still inadequately-sized beds. "I wonder why we never had those back in Estragonia..."

Kimmi yawned, the meal or eight shi had consumed starting to catch up to hir, belly finally propped up by something more comfortable than stone slabs or hard earth. In the back of hir mind, shi could feel Shingen's presence, curious, question, calm. He wondered if he was receiving whatever shi was emanating, whether he suddenly felt the urge to curl up and have a little nap, or a brief bath, or call up a few of the inn's waitresses for a cuddle. That last thought made hir chuckle. "As if they'd not run screaming," shi mumbled, leaning forward slightly, muzzle propped up by hir bosom. Hir great tail swished low, bumping against hir sac and drawing a pleased rumble from hir chest. "Maybe they could just bring me some... scrubbing brushes..."

Hir warm, pink reverie was interrupted by a knock at hir door. "Fwwzzwh," shi called out with a bemused blink. "Er. Sorry. Come in? Oh, is it my bathwater? Goodness, that was fast!"

The handle rattled and the door swung open, but there seemed to be nothing but a white fog beyond. Kimmi squinted. "If that's steam, I should probably tell you I don't like my water THAT hot..."

What shi had assumed to be steam turned out to be a nearly solid wall of pure ivory fabric, tied at the waist and joints with lengths of sturdy red rope. The blocky mass of the mustelid had to bend nearly double to squeeze through, flowing with disarming fluidity. Kimmi squeaked, backpedalling and tangling hirself in the bed's cheap, thin sheets, trying desperately to cry for help.

The wolverine's thick head nearly touched the ceiling, higher even than Kimmi's had been, and the sabre-tusked boar shoving his way through the doorway behind him thumped his skull solidly on a rafter when he eventually straightened. Eyes calm and blank below their golden circlets, they removed coiled whips from the ropes around their waists, gesturing with their free hands as though attempting to help the terrified princess stand.

Shi shook hir head frantically, panic driving the air from hir lungs. Their hands dropped in eerie unison, and shi could only stare in horror as the whips uncoiled onto the floor with slithering, sinuous menace. They took a step to either side, giving eachother room, tiny black eyes unblinking in the room's dim lantern light.

Shingen! shi cried out into hir mind.

"ABOMINATION!" the Law cried together. The floorboards creaked and flexed beneath them as their arms snapped back. Their whips leapt into the air, twirling almost delicately in the confined space of the suite before striking like the snakes shi had read about in hir youth.

Shi raised hir arms to shield hir face, but it was no use. One of the bone-white whips snapped like a steel vise around hir right foreleg, the other near hir left shoulder. The night before it had felt like lightning, pure distilled torment flowing through the enchanted weapon and into hir body, filling hir to the brim with agony. Shi had been at least able to think, raging against hir unresponsive body, but against two such devices shi could not even lament hir lot in life. The scream shi had sought finally arrived, though, washing away every other thought and leaving black oblivion behind.

Chapter 13

Shingen arrived atop the building opposite the Feathered Cap just in time to see two agents of the Law, larger than Cumberland if such a thing was possible, dragging an unconscious Kimmi out onto the street. They were apparently quite unconcerned either with the property of the inn or the state of their prisoner, emerging from a gaping, sundered hole in the wall and hauling the great huskyherm over the jagged fang-like splinters in their efforts.

Hir shoulder was bent at a hideous angle, one of the whips jerking on it repeatedly in their cruel apprehension. After just a few moments of skill-splitting sympathetic fever, Kimmi's presence had all but vanished from his mind. Small mercies, he thought furiously_, that you are not awake to feel this, nor to see what disgraceful and dishonorable things I am about to do!_

A crowd gathered at the hole, guests and servants alike, as well as at every window and doorway up and down the street. Shingen had hoped never again to cross paths with the Law, but in his quest to pursue his Noble Mount, it seemed he was destined for misery compounded on misery. To see someone treated so atrociously was as nothing compared to being forced to watch a hundred, a thousand good men and women stand silent, complicit.

For his own, he kept his muzzle shut, the little rat remembering all too well what happened to those who spoke out against the Law. Truly, Kimmi's actions the night before was the one single lasting victory he had seen against their insidious spread. Some part of him had hoped that maybe, just maybe, together they could strike a blow against their regime.

The comatose huskyherm mewled piteously as the two officers, an unnaturally swollen badger and boar, hauled hir limp body into the middle of the street and roughly unleashed their whips. They stood to either side of hir, staring down with their hands on their hips.

What are they waiting for!? Shingen thought, teeth grinding. He peeked out from behind a red brick chimney, wanting nothing more than to leap down to the street and slash them to ribbons, but a lifetime of discipline stayed his bloodlust. He knew he was unparalleled in these lands with a blade, but these were no ordinary opponents. Why hir?! Why now??

_ _

They nodded, apparently reaching some silent consensus, and knelt. Shingen watched in horror as KImmi's new travelling clothes, painstakingly cut and sewn and fit just that morning, were ripped from hir body and tossed into the gutters like so much garbage. The onlookers cried out, some shielding their eyes but still none raising a hand to stop the Law, as Kimmi's bestial body was revealed to the world, fairly glowing in the night's early moonlight.

In moments it was complete, with Kimmi as nude as the first time Shingen had laid eyes on hir. Shi had been just a beast to him then, a great and majestic and unique creature that was all but his to be possessed. Shi was to have been his Noble Mount, his final step in freeing himself from the fear and shame that followed his every waking moment, but now... now shi was very nearly the only person in the vast uncivilized world he could consider his friend.

And still, he did nothing.

Using handfuls of the red rope that bound their white robes they tied hir wrists and ankles together, lashing those loops to give the mountainous badger something to grip. Without so much as a nod, the two agents of the Law parted ways, the boar heading west with an imperious air, the badger returning to the stony fortress Shingen had so recently visited, dragging Kimmi like a sack of potatoes.

One by one, the onlookers returned to their tasks, heads held low. At the Feathered Cap, porters were already stacking some of the shattered planks, preparing to patch the hole. A handful of serving girls watched the Law go, and Shingen was struck by how they actually seemed saddened; everyone else, even the innkeep, had the blank stares of resignation.

Shingen watched the hulking brutes go, unsure of which to follow. The boar was surely up to no good and no longer had the badger to back him up, but Kimmi no doubt needed medical attention. Still, as a prisoner, shi would be safe, comparatively, were shi to be locked up. The Law might be vicious single- minded sociopaths, but they did adhere to their own twisted morality, and shi would not be mistreated while in their custody.

He could rescue hir, possibly, but then what? Another town, another inn, another attack? They could escape into the woods, possibly, but even after their brief time together he knew shi would rebel against that idea outright.

No, he thought. I need more information.

_ _

With one final glance at the captive Kimmi, Shingen stole off into the night, heading west.

---

"Shingen," shi moaned, pawing limply at the rough stone floor. "H-help..."

Memories drifted back like clouds forming before a storm. They were jumbled, oddly juxtaposed, confusing. There was a bathtub, only large enough to hold a single berry pie, still hot from the oven. There was a pile of scantily-clad serving girls, far too many for the tiny bed, which was odd since shi was positive hir bed could hold far more than that. There was an endless field of delicious food, encircled by a moat of steaming vegetable soup, but every time shi reached for a piece shi was struck by lightning.

Lightning...

Emerging from the soup were two mountainous giants, clad in white robes slashed through with ropes woven from fur and blood. They stared down at hir with disdain, the naked taur hardly up to their waists, and screamed formless obscenities at hir.

It hurts... I just want it to stop...

"Shingen," shi mewled. "Where are you..."

Shi opened hir eyes, and for a brief moment of hideous horror shi thought shi was back in the underground city, back in hir slave pen surrounded by mouldering mosses and the decomposing remains of meals shi was too disgusted to eat. This cell was certainly larger, and slightly cleaner, and despite the iron bars on the window behind hir and the iron door before hir, seemed to be composed largely of heavy wooden timbers.

"No," shi said fearfully. "It couldn't be."

Shi glanced back over hir barrel, and saw the trough, next to the slop bucket.

I'm in a stable.

Kimmi shifted hir weight, rolling onto hir belly, rump hoisted high into the air by the unavoidable bulk of hir sheath, and tried to stand up. Hir muscles ached and hir joints popped, but there seemed to be very little lingering pain from those vicious whips. Shi straightened hir torso, or tried to, and too late heard the clink of chains. Shi barked in shock when the manacles pulled tight, wrenching hir left shoulder with a blossom of red-hot fury. Shi took a step back and two more made their presence known around hir ankles, criss-crossed and nearly making it impossible to move.

Shi stared down in disbelief. All four chains were anchored to iron rings set into the stone floor, and it was clear from a curious jerk that they were anchored very securely. Hir shoulder throbbed, a bone-deep burning that shi couldn't identify. Shi tried to remember what had happened back at the inn, but it was still a hazy blur. Hir stomach dropped when shi remembered some of the stories shi'd heard from the housemaidens. Oh, gods, what if it's broken? Can you break a shoulder? How do you fix it? AUGH, that chain is heavy!

_ _

Carefully gripping hir left arm with hir right paw, trying to keep it snug against hir side, shi scanned the stable cell, looking for something, anything that shi could use. It was edged with hay, clearly shoved aside when shi was dragged in, but there didn't seem to be anything useful. "What I wouldn't give for that stupid little sword now," shi grumbled. "It's not like he was using it..."

There was a rustle from further down the stable, and it was only then that Kimmi realized shi was far from the only occupant. Leaning hir torso forwards shi could just barely bring hir muzzle up to the iron bars, but that was enough to reveal at least three other taurs. A majestic, almost regal-looking black equitaur whinnied softly at hir from one cell down, and beyond him there was a snowy speckled leopardtaur and, to hir surprise, a chocolate-colored female minktaur.

"Hi," Kimmi grunted, leaning back into hir cell. "I don't suppose anyone down there has a lock pick? Maybe a hair brush? Or a pie?"

The horse neighed, the leopard yelped softly and the mink just squeaked. From elsewhere in the long stable there was a brief chorus of barks, whuffs, moos and other animal grunts.

"Thanks, anyways," shi sniggered sadly to hirself, wincing as the motion disturbed hir shoulder. "Sorry to disturb your evening. Please go about... whatever it is you do."

Shi settled down, plucking at hir fluff. Shi had been so pleased at hir clothes, the first real outfit of hir life, and judging from the stray fibres shi found mixed in with hir silvery fur, it had been ripped to shreds. "I really liked that outfit, too," shi pouted.

Kimmi turned at the faint sound of scratching. A paw crept around the edge of the cell to hir right, small and ruddy red and clearly not manacled. Hunkering down, always alert to keep hir injured arm against hir breast, shi reached out and touched the paw with hir hand. It jerked back, but only briefly, and soon crept closer once more. It couldn't intrude very far into hir cell, but it at least showed Kimmi that not all taurs were manacled.

"And what's your name?" shi asked, as much to pass the time as anything. "I love whoever does your claws. They really go nicely with your fur. Fox, are we?"

The taur yipped, the tip of a black-nosed muzzle appearing for an instant, and Kimmi had to smile. "Well, I appreciate the gesture, sir... er, madam," shi corrected hirself, not knowing entirely why or how shi knew. "But I'm afraid it's going to take more than a little paw-holding to cheer me up. Didn't you hear? I'm an abomination."

The paw squeezed once, and the fox whuffed, a sound that could almost be taken for comforting. Kimmi blinked, straightening and pulling hir own paw back. "What?" shi breathed, eyes wide. "What did... you didn't say anything, did you? That-"

"Princess."

"Not now," shi said absently, waving away the rat's familiar voice. "This fox just said something to me!"

"Uhm," Shingen said slowly, scratching his chin. "Princess?"

"What?!" Kimmi snapped hir head around, looking for the intrusive voice, but hir cell was empty. A flicker of motion caught hir eye, though, and shi glanced up to see Shingen hanging from a rafter by one slender arm. "What do you want?"

Swinging back and forth like a covered lamp, his jaw dropped. "I was rather hoping," he said, "that we could, oh, I don't know, get you out of here? There's trouble headed this way, and I would rather you not be here when it arrives."

"But she talked to me!"

Oh, dear, he thought grimly. Maybe those whips do more damage than I thought. "That's all well and good," he said gently, "but right now we need to get you out of this town, and out of this area. This is a poor land for talking taurs, it seems."

"It's Law as far as the eye can see, to hear the people talk," shi grumped, watching the fox's paw retreat. "Where are we going to go?"

Shingen took a steadying breath, swaying back and forth. "We can't stick to the main roads. It won't be safe. We need to head into the hills-"

"No."

"-cut through the forests to the south-east of here-"

"No."

"-there will be ample farms through there, we can pay for our food until we get somewhere more clement-"

"I said, no."

Shingen snorted. "Yes, Starlight, I heard you."

"Then why did you keep talking?"

"Because, sometimes, in this big scary world," he sighed, "all the no you can come up with can't change reality. The reality, your highness, is you cannot handle what is coming, and it is coming quickly. So we are going to get you out of those chains, we are going to get you out of this stable, and we are going to get you out of this town. Clear?"

"No."

"Well, then we've got a problem-"

Kimmi shifted a fraction onto hir side, the hindpaw that was not shackled caressing the underside of hir sheath. Hir tail dipped down low, curling around hir sac and hugging it as tight as shi could manage, though being a tail it wasn't an especially powerful grip. It was enough, though, to spread a ripple of pleasure through hir body that the spike through hir shoulder couldn't stop.

And, as shi had hoped, Shingen's eyes widened in disbelief, the hanging warrior moving quickly to adjust his robes. "If you're trying to make a point, you can consider it made, but it's going to take a little bit more than that to convince me. Princess, this is a dangerous place to be, right now."

"Yeah, I'm getting used to that. What's so dangerous? I handled one of these fellows with your help, and knowing what we know now I'm sure we can handle two."

"It's not just two."

"Ok, then, what... three?"

Shingen pinched his nose and sighed. "It's worse than that."

"Well, WHAT then?!"

"It's the Law."

Kimmi just stared. "Uh, yeah. That's kinda what this is all about!"

"No, I mean, it's him. It's their leader. It's the one who put the circlets on Cumberland, who put them on the two that abducted you tonight, and put who knows how many others on convicts and criminals. We don't know what he's capable of, beyond making... making more of those brutes. But I do know what I saw."

Kimmi's heart sank. "What did you see?"

The feeling that pushed against the back of hir mind was not fear, exactly, but it was nearly a river of apprehension and second thoughts. "Something that you're not going to beat with your fists, Princess," he said flatly.

"Then I'm going to need a weapon, aren't I?"

Shingen growled, a tiny streak of anger cracking his cool. "There are no weapons in this city. They have all been confiscated except for mine, and mine would not do you any good."

"Isn't this a, a, a, what do you call it, a barracks? Isn't this where the Law would keep those weapons?"

"I checked high and low," he said urgently, finally dropping down to the floor of the cell with hardly a sound. "Either they're melted down, or they're exported, or... look, that's not important! What's important is we get you OUT of here!"

Shi sighed and nodded. "I appreciate that," shi said slowly. "But I'm not leaving. I'm not running away any more. And you're not going to convince me otherwise. So the way I see it, you've got two choices."

Shingen's ears folded back, having a good idea what the options would be. He moved alongside hir, carefully running his paws along hir injured arm. "Go on."

"One, you stay here and you help me knock some sense into these... these ruffians," shi declared, nearly spitting that final word as though it were the most despicable form of war criminal imaginable.

"Or...?"

"Or, you free me from these chains and we go our separate ways, and you get to experience my gruesome, grisly death through our mental bond." Shi spoke with such flat finality that the tiny warrior knew, youth and sheltered noble upbringing notwithstanding, the deposed princess spoke the plain truth. "Your pick."

He sighed. "It's going to be like this quite often, isn't it?"

"Are you saying you want to keep me around?" shi smiled, tenting hir fingers against hir bust.

"I don't have much choice, do I? It's my mistake that got you into this mess." His tiny paws moved carefully over hir injured arm, standing on his tip-toes to feel the flesh hot and swollen at hir shoulder. "I saw them do this. I saw them pull you out of the Inn. I wanted to help, but... I needed to wait."

Kimmi's jaw tightened, but shi nodded. "I understand. There were two of them. And whatever's so much worse than two of them."

"If we don't get you out of here, you're going to find out. I am afraid I must apologize for this."

"You've apologized enough for one night," Kimmi started to reply. "I don't think that-"

Shingen spun on the balls of his feet and yanked back on hir wrist, driving his palm up under hir tricep, twisting, shoving, a gristly pop echoing through the stable and setting all of the taurs to barking and yipping and squeaking once more.

"-AAUUGGHH! BLOODY HELLS!"

"I said sorry," Shingen said quickly, eyes wide and apologetic, already back in the rafters and safely out of reach of the enraged huskytaur. "That's almost impossible to do if the person is expecting it, and can actually make it worse! Please don't kill me!"

Kimmi hugged hirself, eyes crossing from the splitting pain in hir shoulder, but bit by bit shi had to admit that the aching, disjointed sensation was gone. It was replaced by a much more _immediate_burning, but shi knew how to deal with that. "RAUGH!" shi barked.

"I will return!"

"With... a..." shi panted, staring at hir paws and flexing hir fingers. "With... a..."

Shingen paused, already scampered up along the underside of the wooden beams and nearly disappearing through the eaves. "A what? Do you need medicine? Water?"

Hir eyes narrowed, hir barrel vibrating at a frequency low enough that the other stabled taurs bowed their heads and cowered. Shingen watched them deflate, tail twitching nervously. "No," shi growled. "With a weapon!"

_ _

---

Cordoba was dark and silent after the night's events downtown. Word had spread quickly from building to building, home to home, whispered between windows and hastily-tossed notes. The braver locals, defying curfew blatantly, had knocked out some of the walls separating basements, and could move about nearly undetected.

"A magical beast from the mountains attacked the Feathered Cap!"

This was believable enough, given the roars that had been heard across the district, and especially considering the Law was, if the stories told by those who saw first-hand were to be believed, a magical beast from the mountains as well.

"It fought off three of the Officers of the Law!"

This was considerably less believable. The residents of Cordoba had spent too much time under the politely, infuriatingly benevolent martial rule of the Law, and had witnessed how swiftly dissent was stamped out.

"It has four legs, an immensely powerful and plump body like three normal-sized taurs, yet talks like an innocent young girl!"

For obvious reasons, this was the most ridiculous claim of all.

---

Shingen muttered, moving from rooftop to rooftop, not making any real effort to act with stealth. The city was under lockdown, and the Law moved with earth-shattering footsteps that gave him more than ample warning to duck behind a stovepipe or a rickety wooden eave. There were three Officers of the Law in the town, tromping around and bellowing the hour, reminding everyone to stay indoors, and updating the populace on any new amendments to the local by-laws.

"Where am I supposed to find a weapon?" he grumbled to himself. He was not sure why he was grumbling to himself. Before meeting Kimmi, he spent his solitude in quiet contemplation, or writing poetry, or examining leaves, or training. He was experiencing a host of new sensations, not the least of which was the peculiar presence at the back of his mind, and he found most of them largely unpleasant.

Kimmi was... shi was... well, in deference to hir youth, he could say shi was...

"Shi's just so bloody impulsive!" he snapped to a fat, bored pigeon, surprising himself.

Five years on his own. Before that, three years of studious, dedicated, day and night training. Before that, twelve years of rigid school, perfect grades, bringing honor to his family. Before that, a short, polite childhood, learning, watching, waiting. Dreaming his quiet little dreams. Every action was thought out, weighed, measured.

And this supposedly noble-born Princess? Any time shi was presented with a patently terrible situation, shi charged headlong into it, swinging hir fists and whatever poor trees happened to be around. What did shi have to show for it? A ruined outfit, a dislocated shoulder, and manacles.

The Law wasn't hir problem, he thought. Shi was like him, a traveller, unable to return home. Why was shi so concerned with these golden-crowned brutes? Shi might have beaten one, purely by accident, but two? Three? What about... him?!

_ _

"Bloody hells," he hissed, leaping nimbly off of a cold slate roof and landing on a sheet of tin that nearly burnt the pads of his toes. He danced briefly before leaping backwards, scrabbling back onto the slate, knocking a few tiles down to the boardwalks below. Soot smudged his robes, staining his paws dark grey. "Blacksmith. Figures. Now how am I supposed to..."

He blinked, wiped his paw on his leg, and smiled. Well, that's better than nothing.

_ _

The blacksmiths in the larger population centres couldn't allow their fires to go out, their coals to smother, not entirely. A rust red glow seeped through the aged, cracked seams in the metal roof, and although there was no work being done at this hour, his keen ears could hear the telltale sounds of shuffling and cleaning. Even more important was the scent of tea lingering on the fringes of the charcoal and scalded oil.

With one final scan of the street, ears straining to detect any hint of the Law, he crept down the stone walls and slipped in through one of the permanently propped-open windows. A smith's forge with poor ventilation very quickly became a funeral.

The interior of the smithy was dark, save for the banked glow of two forges and one oven, but Shingen supposed for such a business it was fairly clean. He had expected significantly more soot. "Hello?" he called out softly. "I realize I am here after-hours, but I come with an urgent request." The smell of tea was stronger here, mixing strangely well with the mechanical odors of the modern metallurgist.

"And locked doors meaning nothing to you, I assume?" came a friendly, sing-song voice from somewhere near the back of the smithy, or at least where Shinen assumed the back was. "For I am sure the locks on the main entrance are still firmly in place. I made them myself."

"Ah... window," Shingen said a little bashfully. "Sorry. I was on the roof."

"Oh, I am so reassured." The unseen speaker still seemed perfectly friendly, which was perhaps more off-putting than an angry shop owner. "I should really probably just put some bars on my windows, but I feel it lends such a penal aspect to the sunlight, don't you?"

The little rat had to nod, remembering his room as a child. "If they ever allow a criminal to enter I would consider it, but I assure you I am a paying customer. It's foreign currency, but I would hope as a smith you would-"

"Be able to prove gold is gold, silver is silver, love is love?"

What sort of a blacksmith is this? "In so many words, yes." He moved past the forges, feeling the baking heat weighing oppressively on him from either side. "Ah, could I please discuss this with you face to face? I am starting to feel like a thief in the night."

"A thief who has given me more than enough warning," the voice tinkled sweetly. "I suppose. Would you like some tea?"

"Oh, my word, yes."

An unseen door opened up at the back, spilling bright lantern-light into the main chamber of the smithy and revealing a slender but oddly-proportioned silhouette armed with a small tray. "I will be very put out if you rob me, after all this," the kangaroo rat chuckled, instantly-identifiable ears swishing softly. "Sugar?"

Shingen was pleased to see another rat, even if it was distantly-removed branch of the racial line. He bowed swiftly, moving to take the tray from his host but was waved away. "Please," he said, squinting into the bright light from the neat living quarters beyond, not helped by the fact that the smith was carrying another lantern in his other paw. It was strange, someone so small and delicately-featured operating a fully-equipped forge, but the heavy leather apron and broad studded belt was unmistakable.

What was also unmistakable, at least after his recent association with Kimmi, was that the male kangaroo rat was so prodigiously endowed that Shingen's first thought was that the smith was female, and catastrophically pregnant to boot. Flaring out from a waist no larger than Shingen's, the smith's hips were immensely wide and full, and were still dwarfed by a collection of muted bulges that could have made up half of the kangaroo rat's mass.

"New in town, are you?" the smith said, amused expression on his lips.

"Y... yes," Shingen said at length. Is this my destiny from now on? Ye gods, where do these folk come from? "I apologize for my rudeness. It would be best if I left."

The smith put the tray down on the edge of an anvil, setting the lantern next to it, and clucked his tongue. "So soon? After going through the trouble of breaking into my place of business, the least you could do is stay for a drink." His face was masculine, but there were touches here and there behind the sooty smudges that could have been more than feminine. He moved remarkably easily, considering the vast weight beneath that heavy apron, enormous footpaws carrying his burdens without difficulty. "My name is Siyu," the smith added meaningfully.

Shingen jerked, remembering his manners. "Shingen Takeda," he replied smoothly, anchoring his eyes squarely on Siyu's. That quickly became awkward, however; the smith's eyes were knowing, amused, and seemed upsettingly inviting. His nose twitched and his attention focused on the tea, which seemed safe. "It has been difficult to find good tea in these lands. Is that aster'aceae? Or lami?"

Siyu smiled more broadly, ears swishing with each nod. "Indeed! My own blend, but chiefly those, with some cassia for spice." He poured from a heavy stone teapot into two delicate cups, steam rising. "It's nice to find someone who appreciates a good leaf."

The pale rat took the cup almost reverently, inhaling. "Indeed," he murmured. "I have no gift to offer in exchange, but with luck I can make a purchase at a significantly inflated price to make up for it."

The smith smirked slightly, finding something amusing, but moved on with brisk professionalism. He sipped his own tea, eyes closed, and sighed. "My prices are fair, sir, and-"

"That's not what I meant!" Shingen said hastily. "I merely mean, I come to purchase one item, and have no local currency. My coins are likely far more valuable than anything I wish to purchase, but time is short and money is of no consequence to me."

Siyu's ears perked. "As much stock as I place in my honesty and integrity, I certainly can't FORCE you to pay less than you want... what are you looking for?"

"I require a weapon. A very large weapon. Battle-axe, perhaps?"

Siyu blinked, and sighed again. "Perhaps this is destined simply to be tea between two fellow rodents."

"What do you mean?"

"Look around," the smith said, gesturing to the many impressively-wrought artifacts adorning the forge's walls. "I am a craftsman of integrity, not implements of death. I do not _make_weapons."

---

Kimmi was slouching against the side of hir stable cell, plucking bemusedly at the chains, intrigued by the tones they made under tension. Shi could nearly get proper notes out of them, reminding hir of housemaiden Lucianne's lute, but it was quite the strain on hir muscles to pull the chains tight enough to play a tune.

The foxtaur in the next stall whuffed and yipped, pausing to chew on something; Kimmi thought it might have been the taur's tail. Kimmi hirself had already acquired several frustrating gummy knots on hir fur, from whatever substances were permanently buried into the wood and stone of the stable. "I'm sure he'll come back," the husky said. "He wouldn't dare leave me here. He seems honorable."

What do you know about honor? shi thought to hirself. Bister only rescued you in exchange for enough gold to buy his own kingdom. Cameron only helped you out due to fear of torture. Rigus only helped you because... well, because it amused him. And now he's dead. The police in this town are supposed to be the Law, but I'm in prison for talking!

_ _

Shi only realized shi was growling when the collective whining of the taurs around hir snapped hir out of hir reverie. Shi cleared hir throat and blushed, shrugging helplessly. "Sorry, everyone! I didn't mean to upset you." Rumbles and chuffs echoed around hir, along with the ineffable implications that the sounds were just as apologetic as hirs had been.

"He just better come back," shi mumbled into hir cleavage, twanging clumsily on the single-note chain-lute. "He knows I'll find him..."

Yeah, unless he also knows the way to break the connection between him and his Noble Mount. He might have been lying about that.

Shut up, brain!

Make me!

At the far end of the stable, one of the great wooden gates slammed open hard enough to rattle the iron bars of hir cell. The captive taurs, or at the very least domesticated taurs, yelped in alarm at the sudden noise. Kimmi could feel the soft, meaty thumps as the foxtaur in the next stall scrambled to escape, burrowing against the thick wooden wall separating them.

"Shhh, it's ok," Kimmi whispered, immediately rejecting hir half-formed plan to try and pass hirself off as a dumb beast. "I'm sure whatever it is, it's not here for you."

Sure enough, tromping down between the stalls was an Officer of the Law, so vast that his shadow filled Kimmi's entire cell. It took the husky a moment to realize that, beneath the shape's over-muscular physique and distorted features, he must have once been a handsome and svelte mink, possibly a weasel. The stubby arms and legs seemed to be composed of rock-hard spheres, his neck so thick it was as though his blank-eyed head were simply mounted atop a pyramid of gristle.

"ABOMINATION!" it roared.

Kimmi sighed. "That's me. Please form a line. Single file, if you don't mi-"

"SILENCE, FIEND!"

"You're not getting a hug with that attitude..."

The brawny mustelid moved faster than hir eye could follow, slamming one heavy palm into the iron bars and setting the entire structure vibrating. Dust and mortar sprinkled down onto hir raven black hair, and the other taurs started to keen and howl piteously. "CEASE!" he hollered, flattening hir ears against hir head. "PREPARE YOURSELF FOR JUDGEMENT!"

Kimmi shook hir head, distant bells still ringing in hir skull. "And what," shi seethed calmly, "is my crime?"

For the first time, one of the Law seemed taken aback. He blinked, his jaw clenched, and when he spoke it was very nearly below yelling at the top of his lungs. "DEFYING THE NATURAL ORDER, BEHAVIOR ANATHEMIC TO JUSTICE, AND RESISTING ARREST!" It was clear the last one was the most heinous.

"Do I get a lawye-"

"SILENCE!"

"Barrister?"

"SILENCE!"

"Last meal?"

The absurdly stout weasel seemed on the verge of detonating. The Law might be extremely well-suited to enforcing their own particular brand of justice, but their conversational skills clearly suffered as a result. Strange muffled squeaks slipped out from the weasel's furiously clamped muzzle, and when Kimmi thought he was ready to rip the door out of the stonework itself and charge in, he simply blinked and settled down once more, calm and stoic and statuesque. "PUT THIS ON!" he roared, shoving a loosely-tied bundle of white fabric through the bars and storming off.

The other stalls were silent, except for worried panting and idle scratching at the hay-strewn floor. "Consider yourselves lucky you can't understand him," shi muttered, poking the knotted cloth with one toe. "And especially that you can't talk. Civilization isn't all that great."

Knotted... with red cord...

Shi hastily tugged the bundle loose and held it up, seemingly endless yards of fabric spilling around hir paws, stomach plunging.

"Oh no..."

---

"But how?!"

_ _

Siyu sighed and rolled his eyes, immaculately-manicured brows arched delicately. "There is more for a skilled artisan to produce in this day and age, gentle warrior, than implements of death and destruction."

"But... how can you not make simple things, like axes?" Shingen was stalking around the smithy, trying to find anything that could potentially become a lethal weapon in Kimmi's hands. Realistically, anything could be lethal in HIR hands, but he'd feel a lot better about the duration of their lives if it could be sharpened on one side. "Half a plow? Sledgehammers?"

"I have sledges, obviously," the smith sighed patiently. "They are unhandled at the moment. Likewise, I produce axes, but on a made-to-order basis, lest the edges corrode. I have some blanks, if you're just looking for something to cudgel a skull, but I am not sure you would be able to carry them very far..."

"It's not for me," the frantic rat snapped, instantly regretting it. He paused, smoothed down his robes and pushed back his fraying mop of black hair. "I apologize. This has been a difficult day for me."

Siyu chuckled, leaning back on his stool and presenting far more rounded apron than Shingen was comfortable seeing. "You think you had it rough? Someone broke into my smithy tonight and started screaming at me. My nerves are absolutely shot."

"You don't need to be quite so sarcastic," Shingen grumped, looking under tarps, behind crates, searching for anything. There were armor pieces scattered around, hanging from pegs, swinging from chains, resting on heavy cotton pads. Horseshoes, utensils, candelabras, stoveplates, hinges... "Could I pay you to sharpen this?" he asked, rapping his knuckles against a recurved length of dull iron taller than he was.

Siyu snorted once. "That lamp standard has taken me over three weeks, and Lord Purdy has already paid me the full value. Additionally, it's hollow, so you're not likely to get a very good edge on it."

Shingen ground his teeth. "Do you have anything? Anything at all? It truly is for a noble cause... even though we're probably going to get killed before the night is out. In fact, do you know what? You can take all of it. Here." He dropped the little coin purse heavily onto the anvil in front of Siyu, trying to suppress the urge to place the coins on the smith's overabundance of lap.

Siyu hefted the little pouch appraisingly, picking through the dull coins and scratching the soft metal expertly. "That is very... enticing," he admitted slowly, knowing an exceptionally profitable night's work when he saw it. "But there are practical limits. I would not be able to make any sort of reasonable item before tomorrow at the earliest, and that's pushing the alloying and hardening to the limits. It most certainly will not be a sword-..."

Shoulders slumped, Shingen sagged against the smithy's sooty walls, leaving a smear of onyx on his robes and a smear of knotty pine on the aged partition. "I understand," he mumbled softly, feeling the fear and panic rising in the back of his mind, waves of it coming from the frightened husky princess. "I... apologize for upsetting your evening."

He straightened, turned and bowed to the soft-spoken kangaroo rat, averting his eyes from the almost painfully overendowed craftsman's loins. "I will take my leave. If you don't mind, I should probably use the window once more, as there is still a curfew." Siyu nodded and held out the small coin pouch, but Shingen waved him away. The smith blinked, but made no effort to protest. "Keep it. As I said, I will likely have no further need of it."

Five years, he thought to himself. Five years on my own, travelling and training, reading the scrolls, becoming the Sword, fulfilling the destiny they said I could not have... all undone, with a moment's lack of thought. Had I only picked another taur, any other taur...

_ _

He hopped up on top of a crate, the smell of tea taunting him as he stole away into the night. Kimmi was strong, no doubt, but he had seen the Law striding through town, rattling windows and setting heavy timbers quaking. He himself was undefeated, the warriors and brigands of these strange low lands putting far more emphasis on brute strength than pure skill, but there was a certain point where brutishness could simply not be fought against. He kicked the wall petulantly, sighed one final time, and reached up to the window's ledge...

... and caught sight of the objects hanging just to his left, gleaming dully in the damped lantern night. They were immense, and intricately complicated, but bespoke a powerful, indomitable strength that convinced the weary rat of Siyu's skills.

"How much for these?" he whispered, reaching out and tapping a single claw against them.

The kangaroo rat was sipping his tea once more, juggling the coin pouch in his other paw. "You can't be serious," he scoffed. "They're not just too big for you, they're too big for TEN of you! I have been paid quite handsomely by the Agents of the Law for those, and I am presenting those tomorrow-"

"How much?"

"It's... it's not a matter of price! If he comes into my smith tomorrow, and he will have the signed contract on him, I have NO doubts about that, and those are not prepared for him, then no amount of money is going to save me from the cells-"

Shingen whirled around. "These are for him?! The Law?!"

"Yes!"

The grin that split the little warrior's muzzle was not exactly befitting the lawful and heroic image he tried to hold himself to. "In that case, you may be able to truthfully tell him that you were robbed. I do apologize for this, but if all goes well, the Law may no longer be quite so bothersome around these parts." Siyu's jaw dropped as Shingen, despite his slight build and slender arms, heaved the metal objects off of the pegs. Legs quivering slightly, he managed to squeak, "May I also steal a large sack and some rope? Please? Er... quickly?"

---

Thump.

The taurs in the stable whined and whinnied sadly, chains rustling. They were unaccustomed to so much activity in their little boxy universe, generally spending their evenings eating and napping and trying to groom themselves. Their lives were fairly straightforward, their masters more indifferent than benevolent, and they considered themselves happy.

The newcomer was extremely upset, however, which was very upsetting to them, disrupting their laconic lifestyle.

Thump.

The foxtaur poked her paw around the edge of her stall once again, wondering about the safety of the enormous husky. Shi had been silent for quite some time, ever since the colossal bellowing anthro had marched screaming through their stables. Silent, save for the periodic plank-rattling impact of flesh and fur against the wall that separated them.

Thump.

"Yrr'ooh?" the foxtaur warbled, brows knit with concern.

Kimmi rest hir forehead against the edge of the stall, feeling the bruise rising there and not particularly caring. The bundle of white cloth was stuffed into the opposite corner, limp stalks of straw covering it, the best shi could do to put it out of sight and out of mind.

"I'm fine," shi murmured sadly, patting the foxtaur's black paw. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Fwh'oop?"

"I'll take that as a 'no', then," shi chuckled remorsefully. "It's nice to pretend, I guess."

"M'yurr," the fox chirped, dragging her blunt claws along Kimmi's forearm.

The bulky huskytaur bristled, wondering if shi had said or done something wrong, but hir brittle demeanor gave way to understanding. Shi scratched the vulpine with hir own nails, and was rewarded with a long, rumbling churr. "Is this how you bond?" shi whispered, flopped over onto hir side, hir free arm cradling hir breasts, hir muzzle buried in hir cleavage. "I guess biting and scratching and clawing works. It kinda feels good..."

"Frr'hff?"

"I don't know," Kimmi moaned. "They want me to become one of them? If Shingen is smart, he took off for the hills. He can probably block me out until it's all over." Shi sniffled. "I don't want to wear one of those crowns. It's just another kind of slavery, and that's all I've experienced. That's... that's all taurs seem to be good for."

The fox's claws dug in a little deeper, sending a shiver through Kimmi's body, hir tail fluffing up and batting gently at hir immense sac. "I wasn't saying that as though it was my idea!" shi said quickly. "Just... oh, I don't know. I'm glad we met, before everything went horrible. I wish I could tell if you were happy or not..."

"Well, her tail is wagging," Shingen said from the rafters, amused.

Kimmi was a little pleased at hirself for not reacting. "We wag our tails when we're angry, too," shi huffed, wagging hir tail meaningfully. Hir hind legs shifted awkwardly around hir nethers, feeling considerably more full than they had just the day before. And every time the fox does that thing with her nails, they tingle. What the hell does THAT mean?"I didn't think you were going to come back."

The entire stable shook with a stone-cracking metallic clang, a heavy cloth-wrapped bundle dropping like a comet next to hir. Shi cried out and scrambled to hir paws, the chains tangling almost instantly and tripping hir up. Shi eventually came to rest partially on hir back, partially on one shoulder, fists clenched and staring balefully at the tiny rat as he dropped effortlessly down to the flat, smooth stones. "I am a man of my word."

Kimmi growled, struggling to straighten up despite hir restraints, heavy forged chains creaking alarmingly. "You delight in upsetting me," shi seethed politely, hir smile utterly devoid of mirth. "Clearly you don't know me as well as you think you do. What,_pray tell, is _that?"

Shingen glanced back at the still-ringing sack. "A present," he said simply, slowly drawing his sword, careful to keep the blade well away from hir. "You wanted to make a final, stupid last stand, correct? Fighting for truth and justice and the Estragonian way?"

The huskytaur winced as though slapped. "No, the Estragonian way probably wouldn't be so different from the Law," shi muttered, glancing about for the fox's paw. There was no sign of it. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea. They... seem to have plans for me."

"Plans?" Shi gestured towards the bundle in the corner, and Shingen nodded slowly. "I had feared that. Those circlets... truly a damned blessing."

"Yes," shi snarled, voice dripping with bitter honey. "How dare_they try to take control of a taur's body, mind and spirit against hir _will, right? What sort of a vile, contemptible person would do that?"

Shingen picked his words carefully. "We're still going to have to discuss the Noble Mount ceremony, aren't we?"

"YES!"

"As you wish. When the sun comes up, we shall do NOTHING except talk."

"GOOD!"

"But since sunrise is still six or seven hours away, I was hoping that maybe we could focus on living long enough not to make me a liar. Agreed?"

Shi stared down imperiously at him, unable to rise to hir full height but still dwarfing him in all dimensions. "Agreed."

For several seconds, there was no sound except for the breathing of the other taurs in the stable, and Kimmi couldn't shake the feeling that they were all listening. "So," shi said at length, settling down again with a rattle of chains. "How do you suggest we do that?"

"I have," Shingen said, breathing deep, ears twitching nervously, "a plan."

Further silence. "And?" shi prodded.

"You're not going to like it."

"That's probably a given," shi groused, crossing hir arms. "Three on two, and one of us is as big as my toe?"

"Four," he corrected. "Three Agents, and... the Law himself." It was clear from his tone which he felt were more dangerous. "And, if I may be so bold, you are not a warrior."

"I can fight!" shi cried, fists shaking. "In the last week, that's the ONLY thing that I seemed to not completely fail at!"

"You can fight, but you are not a warrior," he placated hir, resting his palm against hir elbow. "There is an important difference. You have strength, and you have fury and passion, but it will take more than that."

"I've got desperation on my side, too!" Kimmi wailed, pointing at the bundle of white cloth. "I don't want to become THAT!"

"Will you do as I say?" Shingen thundered, suddenly seeming larger, and older. "Will you defer to me, for this one night? Will you allow me to help you secure your own freedom?"

Kimmi quivered, and for a moment the tiny rat feared that he was going to have to dodge another bone-shattering blow, but in the end the huskytaur just twitched hir muzzle. "Yes," shi managed, flews pulled back, fangs flashing.

"In that case," he grinned, stepping back and nimbly cutting the cords on the heavy burlap package, "I have a present for you."

The cloth tumbled away, and Kimmi's confusion turned alternately to wonder, and then excitement, and then barely-tamped rage. "Yes," shi rumbled, tail wagging furiously. "_Yes._All I need now is to get out of these blasted chains. Quick, do you think you can find a set of keys? They probably hang them by the door-"

"No need," Shingen replied, sheathing his sword once more.

"What? Why not?!"

He angled his head meaningfully, and hir gaze followed. All four chains were still connected to the wide, hinged manacles at hir wrists and ankles, but the chains were no longer anchored to the huge rings set deep into the stones. Shi stood, and eight semi-circular chunks of metal rattled free, neatly sliced clean through as though mere rope cut by a razor.

"Get dressed, Starlight," he piped, tossing hir the bundle of white cloth, privately amused at the shock in hir eyes. "You don't want to be late."

---

The Law strode purposefully through the barren streets of Cordoba, fists clenched. This was not unusual for him; his fists were nearly always clenched, and there was no other way for him to move from place to place. He was not the sort of figure that could saunter, and certainly would never be seen wandering. Each step was infinitely deliberate, colossal hooves striking defiantly at the dusty packed earth. Even if there was not a curfew in effect, the sight of the towering bull would have driven everyone to their basements out of simple blind terror.

"SIR!"

The Law turned and beheld one of his newer Officers, a convicted arsonist and thief formerly named Hull. The weasel walked awkwardly, his natural dimensions somewhat unsuited to the gifts the circlet provided, but he never gave it a second thought. He couldn't give it a second thought. "Yes, Officer?" he replied in a calm, almost soothing baritone.

"THE PRISONER IS PREPARED FOR RECLAMATION!" the Officer saluted, or at least tried to, paw frozen a little more than halfway to his forehead. "WOULD YOU LIKE TO INSPECT THE PRISONER?"

The Law nodded, fists loosening just enough to clap his palms together. "I would, indeed. If the stories are true, this is-"

"THIS WAY, SIR!" the weasel bellowed.

The bull sighed and followed, if only to postpone another bout of yodelling. His fingers briefly found their way to his own golden circlet, larger and heavier than the ones that his Officers wore, and he managed to entertain a thought just for a moment, a thought that had crossed his mind many times before: how different am I now, than I was before? Was I different? What did it do to me?

_ _

And then it was gone, and his fists dropped to his sides, and his great thunderous steps caused him to catch up and nearly overtake the bulbous weasel. At one hip bounced his whip, tarnished with unthinkable age and use, and at his other was another golden circlet, so small he could almost use it for a bracelet. It mattered not, he knew. They fit. They always fit.

"IT IS IN THE BARRACKS STABLE!"

He still had a few shreds of imagination left, and he could almost find some mirth in the mindless, heedless, shameless braying of his subsidiaries. They were single-minded, virtually unstoppable and rigidly dedicated to upholding the Law, whatever forms the Law might take. It always seemed there were more Laws when he made his rounds, moving from town to town, city to city, making sure that peace and calm reigned.

"Our Power expands," he spoke softly. "Soon the whole world will once again know the comfort and security of absolute safety." There was something in the way he spoke the word 'absolute' that annoyed him, but before he could consider it, it was forgotten. "This convert will be very useful."

"YES, SIR! SWIFTLY SHALL THE RULE OF LAW BE CARRIED TO THE ANARCHS!"

They rounded the corner, the other two Officers standing at attention at opposite corners of the public square. On a night like this, there had used to be dozens of people standing about, chaotic, unruly, unguided. Different songs would play, jarring unpleasantly with one another. Arguments would be had, ruining the laughter of others, that same laughter interrupting well-intentioned discussions. Truly, it was a paradise now, my comparison. Quiet. Deserted. Safe.

"SIR!" the Officers shouted, boar and wolverine saluting.

"At ease," the Law replied. The Officers complied by remaining utterly unmoved.

What are your crimes? he thought to himself. What will the circlet find to bend you to the will of justice? He rubbed his palms together, eager to find out. It was always a refreshing, cleansing experience, to witness the conversion of a wastrel, a brigand, a felon. Never had a beast been susceptible to the power of the circlet, so this would be a night of many firsts. Would that we could harness the power of your wild, mindless kin...

_ _

The city hall stood proud at the far side of the square, heavy stone walls buttressed and topped by towers that were more decorative than defensive. The barracks stable had been built as an afterthought, likely many decades after the main structure, but was no less an impressive fortification of stone slabs and heavy timbers, with doors that would do a castle drawbridge proud.

Those doors rattled in their hinges, the echoing explosions of impacts bouncing back and forth around the square before dissipating into the night. Blow after thunderous blow struck from within, splinters dancing off like fireflies in the moonlight.

The Law stopped his stride, hands gripping air as though wishing there were a neck handy, wanting to investigate the disturbance but waiting for further evidence to present itself. The other three Officers moved towards the gates, but he stopped them with a raised paw.

One final shattering collision, and the stable gates opened much like a castle's drawbridge would have. That is to say, they were no longer attached to their heavy iron hinges and simply collapsed outwards, blasting great clouds of dust and debris into the air. The breathtakingly statuesque huskytaur stepped angrily through the yawning portal, paws shaking furiously, eyes locked onto the giant bull.

"Ow, that really, really hurt!" shi hissed under hir breath, trying to unclench hir fists but the throbbing pain preventing it for the time being. "I really did that to doors made of stone?! I must have been out of my mind!"

"Hush, Starlight!" Shingen replied from his secluded location. "Their hearing is excellent! Remember the plan!"

"I remember, I remember... kinda wish I didn't..."

Shi wore the white robes of the Law, inexpertly tied at awkward points around hir waist and around hir barrel with tight red cords. Shi didn't like the way it fit, constricting here and far too loose there, but shi had to admit that it rather flattered hir bust. If only it wasn't the representative symbol of an oppressive oligarchy, shi might consider looking into more such robes for future use.

"Assuming I live long enough..."

"Hush!"

Kimmi laid hir eyes on the four figures standing around hir, remembering the three Officers from their brief, violent meetings earlier that night. The fourth was dressed similarly, but seemed distorted with distance somehow. "He doesn't look as... big, as the other ones."

_ _

"How far away is he?"

Shi squinted, and hir stomach flopped once over. Shi had thought him to be considerably closer, likely standing in the middle of the square where the cobblestones formed a series of concentric circles, differentiated by the slightly different hues of each stone. Seeing that he was beyond the farthest circle, hardly stepping beyond a vacated vegetable stall, hir sense of scale reasserted itself more accurately, and shi swallowed. "Oh hell."

_ _

"Do not be afraid! We fight together! I believe in you!" In the back of Shingen's mind, he could feel Kimmi's presence quivering like a droplet of water, fear radiating like heat from an overfilled woodstove. His confidence never budged, though. He was starting to understand how hir mind worked, and he knew that hir fear would not last. "Challenge him! Now, while the Officers are still held in check!"

_ _

Kimmi pointed one finger at the Law, pleased that the throbbing had faded enough to actually allow hir to control hir paws to that extent. "You!" shi shouted, worried that shi wouldn't seem nearly imposing enough. The Officers were far better at shouting than shi was. "You... you... you locked me up!"

"That's it?" Shigen whispered, bemused.

"I'm not good at challenging people!"

"That's what you think..." he grumbled.

_ _

The Law stood with one hand upraised, an unnerving pose. "My loyal Officers locked you up," he called back, causing Kimmi to blink. Shi had expected further shouting. "I merely required them to enforce the Law of the Land, and they have done so. You have broken out of lawfully empowered detention, damaged city property, and violated curfew."

Kimmi blinked. "I 'broke out' of a stable, where I was chained up like an animal for the apparent crime of 'wanting to take a bath'. I damaged city property because it was in my way, and I'm only violating curfew because I didn't feel like waiting until morning to feel your face broken and bleeding underneath my big damn feet!"

Shi was bellowing by the end of hir little rant, and Shingen smiled, feeling hir fear being slowly replaced by red-hot coals of anger. Good grrl, he thought to himself, throwing some more fuel on the fires of their bond.

The Law sighed, and lowered his hand. "You will be made aware of the reality of the situation," he intoned gravely, reminding Kimmi of when hir housemaidens cautioned hir not to have a fourth dessert or it might give hir a tummy ache. "Surrender."

"I will not-" shi started to say, but the three Officers were already on the move. Their hands moved easily to the whips at their belts, and even the weasel looked significantly more dangerous with the crackling silver cord snaking out of his paw. "Siccing your dogs on me? Afraid to face me yourself?!"

"No," the Law smiled thinly. "I merely require the use of force to be... appropriate. Take it into custody."

"I am not an 'it'!" shi barked. "My name is AAAUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!"

The whips cracked, three hissing, sizzling thunderclaps complete with the smell of char and ozone. The strange, unnatural energy poured into hir body, numbing one of hir footpaws even as the muscles of hir shoulders bunched and tensed so hard shi feared something might tear. Another wrapped around hir wrist, hir arm slamming tight against hir side as shi fought to keep hir blunt claws from passing clear through hir palms. Shi only had an instant to notice those two points of contact before the boar's whip seized hir neck, driving all rational thought from hir mind.

Shingen winced in his hiding place, hearing hir wail of agony split the night. If anything, he knew this would bring the eyes of Cordoba to their windows, would give them the attention that they needed, but that didn't make it any easier to listen to. Just remember the plan... I hope some part of you can remember the plan...

_ _

The Officers jerked and Kimmi staggered, one leg yanked painfully to the side, arm tugging hir in the opposite direction. Hir torso was hauled forwards by the neck, breasts nearly thumping into the cobblestones. Shi tried to right hirself, but hardly even hir tail was responding to hir commands.

"Kneeling is a sign of respect," the Law said, approaching swiftly but calmly. "Do not think that these actions are vindictive or merciless. Your Conversion will be the apex of mercy."

Hir neck snapped back, hir spine trying to bend full circle as the searing bolts of energy ripped up and down hir limbs. Spittle flew as shi tried to force words through hir jaws, but all that came out was formless, mindless growling. Closer, shi managed to think, pleased at forming a whole coherent word. Closer...

_ _

The Law slowed, a faint smile on his features, and Kimmi could finally get a really good look at him out of the corner of one wildly rolling eye. The bull was staggeringly large, and shi doubted the tops of hir ears would actually reach his boxy chin. He wasn't quite so heavily-muscled as the officers, but there was no doubt his robes his an incredibly powerful body, moving with a deadly, unnerving grace. Great horns sprouted from his shaggy dun hair, and it was then that shi understood what Shingen had meant about the difficulty with removing the circlet.

That thick band of gold wrapped around his forehead at the narrowest point, looking as though it were forged in place. It would be impossible to remove over his horns, and seemed to be impossible to have ever been put on.

That won't stop me, shi snarled, hir muzzle angling back down degree by painful degree, hir free front leg managing to push hirself up into an awkward standing position. Closer, you bastard...

_ _

The sheer size of the bull defied logic. More than ten feet tall to the circlet, more than twelve to the top of the horns... even Bister would have hardly weighed half of the vast bovine. Still, shi knew better than most that size wasn't everything.

The ground shook as he closed the final few steps, staring imperiously down at the huskytaur being cruelly restrained by his three Officers. "Your crimes are numerous," he said almost gently, brushing a lock of hir crazed raven hair out of hir eyes with one finger. "Ending a royal lineage, throwing an entire nation into chaos. Aiding and abetting dozens of escaping convicts, and then abandoning them in cruel and unusual servitude in a hostile territory. Assault, battery, attempted rape, theft... my, my, attempted regicide! You've had quite the life!"

Kimmi's eyes widened, hearing his words and realizing, on some level, those were all true. But... I didn't intend to do any of those things! Freeing convicts was Bister, I thought it was a bad idea! Attempted rape... I wasn't in control of myself! It was pheromones! Regicide?! I... I didn't... yes, I did, I wanted to kill the Queen, and I would have if no-one had been watching... Shi remembered the tooth-shattering anger shi had felt, standing face-to-face with the ethereally beautiful, insectile Queen of that subterranean manor, hearing hir indifferent words sentencing them all to death. And I would do it again...

_ _

"There is no remorse in your mind, no regret, no culpability," he clucked disapprovingly, reaching for the circlet at his belt. "You will know penance, beast. You will be absolved and rehabilitated, and you will serve the Rule of Law, bringing justice, and peace, to the world."

Now, Shingen! shi cried into hir mind, hir lips twitching but unable to form words. Now! I don't want to die like this!

_ _

He held up the band of gold, large enough to fit his entire arm through, and shi watched in astonishment as it seemed to shrink. He held it reverently, raising it up high above his own head and lowering it slowly onto hirs. Bit by bit the circlet drew inwards, until Kimmi knew that it would be exactly as large as hir old crown had been. Oh, ye gods, it sees me... how can it see me... Shingen! Help! HELP!

_ _

The panic and chaos at the back of the little warrior's mind reached fever pitch, and he knew he couldn't cut it any closer. Legs tensed beneath him, he coiled like a spring, his elbows forcing outwards to give him enough room to maneuver. He held his sword easily in one paw, wrist turned to hold the back of the blade against his nose, enchanted steel always cool against his flesh. He knew he would need to apologize profusely to Kimmi when they were finished, if they survived, but shi had performed far more admirably than he could have hoped, standing proudly in front of the Law.

His legs snapped straight and he leapt, sword cutting through the white fabric of hir robes. Static electricity leapt from the fur of hir cleavage, crackling and snapping between the two as he exploded from his warm and intimate hiding place. I still can't believe I fit in there, he thought wonderingly, ashamed at his salacious ponderings.

He took in the scene in an instant, the sword flicking out to one side and neatly severing the whip that wrapped chokingly around Kimmi's neck. The blade's arc continued, swinging back and missing the huskyherm's head by scant inches, neatly bisecting the circlet that was nearly upon hir brow. Still moving in his own trajectory, his foot lashed out, striking the Law in the neck and feeling that tough, leathery hide buckle.

The bull grunted, taking a tiny step backwards as the twi golden semicircles fell harmlessly to the ground with a clatter. "Assaulting an Officer of the Law!" he bawled, bunching his fists and hauling back, ready to strike.

Shingen landed nimbly on his feet, the deadly little rodent not even tall enough to reach the Law's belt. Kimmi loomed behind him, shaking the cobwebs out of hir head. The boar stared in confusion at the end of his truncated whip, mental wheels still struggling to catch up. Badger and weasel hauled mightily on their own whips and managed to draw hir limbs out briefly, but were nearly yanked off their feet when the enraged princess drew hir paws in close.

"Duck, Starlight," Shingen called, rolling easily to the side to dodge a devastating kick. Kimmi obliged, hir body still aflame with electrical pain, the Law's fist whizzing through the air just above his ears. He came up running, his sword flashing and removing the threat of the whip around hir ankle.

Shi cried out with relief, now only being caught by one of those vile weapons. Shi set hir gaze on the weasel, still attached to hir wrist, and snarled, hair standing out in all directions. "Now you!" shi spat, snatching hir arm back and dragging the bulbous mustelid towards hir like a stack of boulders. His legs shuffled, trying to keep his balance, but he ended up tumbling forwards towards hir bared decolletage, hir robes ripped to reveal yards of silvery fur.

He would have struck that fur, too, if hir forehead had not come crashing down on his, driving him to his knees and blasting the air from his lungs. Kimmi howled, a mixture of triumph and pain, and lashed out with hir recently-freed leg, connecting between his legs and sending him backwards in a boneless heap. As soon as the handle of the whip tumbled from his fingers, the last of the invisible force thrumming through hir body ceased.

"That's-" shi managed, before the Law's follow-up haymaker struck hir broadside along hir muzzle. Shi screamed, hir skull clanging like a blacksmith's anvil, and rocked backwards on two legs before collapsing onto hir side with a crash and a clank. Shi tried to roll, footpaws kicking weakly, body twisting away from the advancing giant. A little further! Just a little further! I can make it...

_ _

Two immensely powerful hands gripped hir shoulders and hauled hir bodily upright, bringing hir face-to-face with the enraged, magically-empowered bull.

Crap.

"My Officers will deal with your accomplice," he said grimly, squeezing hard, hir recently-dislocated shoulder grinding and ripping another scream from hir. "They have dealt with him before. As for you... do you not think we have more circlets? Many, many more?"

"I know you have more," shi wheezed, the searing torture of hir shoulder crossing hir eyes. "I don't care. You won't catch him... and you won't control me!"

"And what, pray tell, makes you think that?"

Kimmi knew that hir shoulder was hir weakness, and had counted on the Law knowing that as well. As much as shi dreaded how it would feel, shi knew that it would be necessary in order to keep hir hands free. Hir robes were falling loose, the poorly-tied knots already coming undone, not nearly enough red rope present to keep hir outfit in place. Hir paws dove beneath hir robes, though, where the remainder of the cord kept Shingen's purloined treasures flat and tight against hir belly.

Shi grunted, feeling hir fingers sliding home and jerking hir hands free, ropes snapping. "Because unlike some people," shi snarled, "I believe in a fair fight!"

Fists gleaming in the moonlight, shi drew the hardened steel gauntlets out from beneath hir robes and struck. The Law's eyes widened in surprise, his face briefly distorting under the sheer bone-rattling force of the blow. Kimmi bit back another scream, hir shoulder burning in protest from the shock up hir arm, but the satisfaction of watching the bull stagger and drop to one knee more than made up for it. Hir other fist swooped in fast, rising from the rip and with all the force hir four legs could muster. The uppercut lifted him clear off the ground, the crack echoing around the square and drawing the eyes of both remaining Officers, and an approving nod from Shingen.

"Told you!" he whooped, easily dodging a clumsy blow from the salivating honey badger. "Aren't you glad the blacksmith doesn't make weapons?"

Sweating, panting, and bleeding profusely from the bruised side of hir mouth, Kimmi held up hir steel-shod fists and grinned foolishly, kissing each one. "I could get used to this," shi groused, spitting crimson. "At least it's something I'm _good_at."

The Law rose like an avenging angel, arms outstretched, obsidian eyes filled with menace. "Theft of personal property, and theft of property belonging to an Officer of the Law," he seethed. "The blacksmith Siyu crafted those for me!"

Kimmi's eyes widened. "You stole these from him?!"

"I paid for them!" Shingen shouted back. "Mostly!"

"Don't worry!" shi laughed manically. "I approve!"

"Ignore the rat!" the Law ordered. "Detain the beast!"

Well, that was part of the plan, too, shi grumbled, still pumped full of adrenaline. Shingen had explained the likely events that would follow escaping the stable, and sure enough he had been correct to an almost eerie degree. The weasel continued to groan on his back, but the boar and badger immediately turned their attentions to hir, moving to flank hir and ignoring Shingen entirely.

"You cannot escape the Law," the bull spoke, once again in a peaceful and soothing tone. "Certainly not after the heinous crime of assaulting an Officer.

Kimmi flexed hir fingers, the magnificently-jointed gauntlets tinkling like fine silverware. "On the contrary, I'm rather proud of my latest crime. Certainly among my favorites. I look forward to expanding the offense, in fact."

The two Officers lunged, the boar tripped at the last moment by Shingen's shin flying hard into the back of the ungulate's knee. Kimmi raised hir arm protectively to shield hirself from the badger's tackle, bowing under the impact but not going down. His arms gripped hir like a vise, not attempting to wrestle hir to the ground but just trying to slow hir down, and to hir dismay it was working. Hir free gauntlet swung out wide, forcing the advancing bull back, but for the moment shi was stuck.

"Shingen!" shi cried out, thrashing back and forth like hir more primitive ancestors and trying to shake the badger free. "Little help!"

"Paws full, Starlight!" The boar was on his feet again, almost close enough to strike the huskyherm, and it was taking all of the rat's ingenuity to keep him distracted. The Officer was dutifully ignoring the little warrior, enduring strike after strike to his vulnerable points, moving slowly but inexorably forwards.

Kimmi growled, the badger locking his paws around hir midsection now and squeezing so hard shi felt something in hir back pop, one arm pinned to hir side. Shi yelped, kicking out reflexively and sweeping the badger's feet from under him, which only served to drag hir down even harder than before. Shi swayed, straining mightily to stay upright, pounding on his arms uselessly with hir gauntleted fist. The Law watched them, smiling grimly, or at least baring his blunted teeth. "I... can't... can't breathe..."

"You have teeth!" Shingen snapped, leaping straight up and driving the hilt of his sword into the boar's muzzle, sending a spray of blood out of his porcine nostrils.

The huskyherm twisted hir head around, trying to see the badger over the vast expanse of hir bosom, and shi could just make out the glint of gold crowning his broad, striped dome. What the hell am I supposed to bite?! shi thought panic rising as hir lungs screamed for breath. He's a badger, his skull is thicker than mine! His ears are the size of pennies! I can't even see his eyes over the circlet! How the... oh!

_ _

Hir muzzle dipped down, nipped delicately with the practiced ease of someone who spent many hours snagging individual noodles out of hir soup, and came up triumphantly with the golden loop clutched in hir teeth. The pressure around hir midsection eased slightly, but it was enough to turn hir wrist. "Fnngk yyrrhh!" shi growled around the circlet, wrenching hir arm free and backhanding the startled badger with all the force shi could channel into hir armored knuckles.

The badger squeaked once, staggered, and collapsed into a boneless heap at hir feet.

"I did it!" shi yelled joyously, spitting the circlet out onto the dusty street. "Shingen! Did you see? I-"

The Law lashed out with lightning speed, a low hook that caught hir in the ribs and blasted hir single fresh breath out of hir. Shi shrieked in agony, clutching protectively at hir flanks with one gauntlet and countering wildly with the other. The bull danced backwards, easily dodging the crazed swing and rushing in again, smashing hir repeatedly-wounded shoulder and knocking hir to the dirt.

"SURRENDER, ABOMINATION!" he bellowed. "SUBMIT TO THE LAW!"

Ah, there's what's been missing, shi thought despairingly. Shi coughed weakly, hir torso throbbing, one breast feeling more swollen than the other, and not in any way shi would normally consider good.

The Law bent and picked up the discarded circlet, gesturing for the boar to seize the fallen huskytaur. Kimmi stared around blearily, but there was no sign of hir new friend. Shingen, shi whimpered to hirself. Where did you go?

_ _

The Officer hauled hir roughly to hir feet, gripping hir by hir elbows to keep hir gauntlets safely down. The Law was bruised, one eye swelling darkly, his white robes dirty and ripped, and he clutched the fallen circlet as though half-expecting it to explode. "YOU WILL BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE!" he bellowed, raising the magical band with far less ceremony than before, holding it over hir brow. "REPENT, AND YOUR RETRIBUTION WILL BE BRIEF!"

How are we going to beat him?! How are we going to get the circlet off of his head? I don't want to split his brain in half! He might need that! Underneath, he might be just a regular person! SHINGEN!

The strange ball of sensation at the back of hir mind seemed to pulsate. Images trickled through hir mind, half-remembered as though from a dream, snippets of words, even familiar scents. What... Shi could see hirself shaking off the boar, striking down the bull, and standing triumphantly, but shi dismissed that outright. I can't... too strong...

Shi tried to force hir own images back through their shared bond, but it reminded hir of hir housemaidens trying to force hir into hir pyjamas after a bath; far too much substance and far too few openings. Shi whimpered, feeling overwhelmed by not just hir own thoughts, but the thoughts of the little rat sharing part of hir mind.

"DO YOU REPENT?!" the Law screamed in hir face, blowing hir hair back. The circlet was poised just above hir hair now, so close shi could see hir own reflections distorted in the gleaming metal.

More foreign thoughts intruded, loud and insistent, but Kimmi could just make out some new additions and shi finally understood. Shi realized how useful the bond could be, even if it had been forced upon hir with no warning, and shi supposed that there were far worse people in the world shi could have ended up bonded to. Feeling a renewed sense of confidence, shi straightened up as much as shi could in the Officer's crushing grip.

"Never," shi spat, shaking hir head and sending hir onyx tresses flying.

"I AM THE LAW!"

"Not anymore," shi grunted, swinging hir arms out wide. The boar resisted, thoroughly ignoring the rat standing on his shoulders, holding his circlet high over his head, but he was no longer any match for the righteously enraged princess.

The Law dropped his hands down, and Kimmi could feel the cold metal against hir brow, but shi ducked as fast as shi could, driving both of hir fists forwards with all of hir might. The bull's stomach yielded, driving the two combatants apart, and the boar stumbled backwards as his grip was broken.

"I would never abandon you!" Shingen landed hard and rolled away from the stomping giants, clutching the final Officer's circlet to his belly. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm at a slight disadvantage."

Kimmi stretched and twisted, fists up protectively, eyes never leaving the unsteady outline of the Law. "You're the only person here NOT bleeding," shi laughed harshly. "I think I broke something."

"ABOMINATIONS!" the Law brayed.

"How are we supposed to get HIS circlet off?" Kimmi hissed out of the corner of hir muzzle, shuffling sideways, squaring off against the giant bull. The boar, still not entirely sure how Kimmi had broken his grip, swept in to grapple with the huskytaur and earned a faceful of gauntleted fist for his troubles, folding him up like a paper fan. "Can I borrow your sword for a minute?"

"We talked about this!" Shingen replied, hopping up on the boar's raggedly breathing form, watching canine and bovine warily circling eachother.

"Right, it's like the finger thing. Which I STILL haven't forgiven you for!" Shi deflected a blow from the Law with one fist, absorbing another on the opposite side, and ducked a third, but hir attempt to strike back was just as easily dodged. "He's fighting fair now! That's not fair!"

"The sword passed through you because you were a good person," he explained, relaxing the iron grip on his thoughts enough to try and share some of his culture with hir. Heavily edited and redacted portions of his training filled hir mind, and shi nodded slowly. "It is not that I must not hurt an innocent. I cannot harm an innocent!"

"That's it!" Kimmi cried.

"What's what?!"

"Your sword! The circlet!"

"I cannot! He is everything that is wrong with blind faith!" His eyes narrowed, and Kimmi could easily feel a brief flare of anger bright enough to rival hir own. More thoughts trickled like sand through his mental fingers, and shi saw glimpses of his past, a great and ancient walled city, endless legions of warriors, wise leaders looked upon as demi-gods, and a small wood-and-thatch hut burning fiercely, black smoke spiraling up into the clear spring sky...

Feeding off of eachother, Kimmi and Shingen surged forwards. The huskyherm batted aside the bull's fists, taking a short punch on the jaw in hir efforts to close the distance, and driving hir steel-shod paw into his face with deranged strength. The little rat's elbows slammed into the backs of the Law's knees, tendons bowing under the strain, and the colossal beast fell back onto the cobblestones for the second time.

Kimmi pounced, two heavy paws landing hard on the fallen dictator, one gauntlet squeezing his shoulder, the other trying to hold onto his neck without giving in to the urge to crush. Shi didn't know how shi managed to hold onto that last sliver of civility, but shi forced words through hir clenched jaw, blood still spattering hir white robes. "He is not... a bad... person... underneath that crown," shi snarled. "I know it. I know it. Before he became this, he was like you or me!"

The tiny white warrior leapt onto the Law's chest, sword raised, eyes boiling with fury. "He is the worst of them," he panted. "He was not converted. He put the circlet on by choice. It was his choice!"

"And he made it wrong!" shi wailed, feeling both of their anger dripping out through hir toes. "Does that not deserve our help? Forgiveness?"

He looked back over his shoulder at hir, jaw working. "You can't know," he repeated again, uncertainly.

"But I do," shi said soothingly despite hir cracking voice, arms dropping to hir sides. Shi straightened and the gauntlets slid off, clanging heavily to the ground as shi reached out to touch his shoulder. "I have to believe. And if our bond means anything... then so do you."

The Law groaned and stirred, limbs moving awkwardly as he strove to sit up. "As you wish," he said hoarsely, driving his foot into the bull's neck and knocking him back down. "May his fate be on your conscience!" He had expected hir to be full of little else but fear and anger, but the concern filling their bond was more than he could bear. He raised his sword high above his head, reminding Kimmi all too much of how the Law had held the circlet above hirs, and closed his eyes.

And struck.

Chapter 14

Morning in Cordoba came and went, thousands of locals quietly going about their daily routine. Unusually quietly, in fact. Word of the night's events had spread quickly, and of the events that immediately followed, as well as first-hand accounts from Ashcroft to the north. While there was no shortage of celebrants and well-wishers, there had been the very specific request of as much silence as could be mustered. Even the construction crews repairing the stables and the Feathered Cap were managing to hammer softly.

Shingen oversaw many of the meetings and discussions that were required. His first stop in the morning had been to Siyu the blacksmith, bringing with him the somewhat battered and beaten gauntlets and a brief letter of apology. He had fully expected to leave the kangaroo rat with the little purse of money and the gauntlets, but at the strange hyper's insistence the coins were divided up fairly and the gauntlets were to otherwise be a gift from the townsfolk to the valiant huskyherm.

"Just let me repair them first," Siyu said with a saucy grin, carefully placing them on a sledge and dragging them over to his work bench. "They were designed to be more decorative than functional, but I can see that will be... insufficient. Also, some careless soul seems to have gotten blood and fur all over the gromets."

"Er... sorry?"

The smith waved him away. "It is of no concern. I don't make weapons, so I'm sure it was an accident."

"Well..."

"Accident!"

Afterwards there were meetings with the city council and local law enforcement, who had been unofficially retired for the last several months. Shingen had expected to get yelled at, or maybe at best given a cursory thanks and a hurrying on his way, and was wholly unprepared for the sight of a huge, grizzled bear wearing an ill-fitting policeman's uniform complete with copper badge crying tears of joy and furiously pumping the little rat's hand up and down.

More coins were distributed to the Feathered Cap, who adamantly refused payment and insisted that the strange pair could stay as long as they wanted. In the end Shingen was forced to find a money changer and swap out some of his larger and more exotic coins for a sizeable pouch of smaller denominations, which he surreptitiously handed out to all of the individual employees, particularly the serving girls.

Walking up the street now, fur freshly scrubbed, hands thoroughly shaken and money pouch considerably lighter, it was hard to believe that this was the same city they had arrived at just the day before. People were smiling and laughing, music streamed out of a dozen doorways, pups and kits were playing gaily in the street. There had reportedly also been several robberies that morning, as well as numerous acts of vandalism, but the newly reinstated police force had publicly vowed to get back to work as soon as possible.

He owed the princess, he knew. Five years out on his own, and except for a few brief, regrettable and ultimately uneventful incidents he had managed to keep his emotions in check, particularly the anger he knew he felt. He pushed it down, held it back, buried it with training and discipline and medication, but now when he pushed it down, Kimmi pushed it back. He could have... he would have killed that bull, the physical personification of the blind obedience that drove him from his home. But instead, shi showed him that he could still feel mercy, forgiveness, optimism. They did not replace the anger, but existed side by side.

It was a strange experience, but perhaps it truly was destiny that he had found hir in that pond.

He stepped through the partially-repaired hole in the side of the inn and handed out several large handfuls of twopennies to the workers, who accepted them graciously and whispered their thanks before going back to gingerly tapping nails into place. Up the stairs it was easy to find the slightly damaged doorway of Kimmi's room, and he knocked once.

There was, as expected, no reply.

He turned the handle and stepped through, into the dark, still steamy interior of hir room. Dull light filtered through three layers of curtains, just enough to allow the little warrior to make out the mountainous heap of fluff and blankets dominating the centre of the bedchamber. The bed frame itself was shoved into the far corner, all bedding removed to supply the makeshift nest that Kimmi had created for hirself.

He spent several long minutes tidying up hir room, moving silently on padded tip-toes. The bloody, filthy remains of hir robes were shredded and hanging from every projection and piece of woefully-undersized furniture, while the bits and pieces of hir previous outfit were gathered together in a neat pile in the corner, in the hopes that shi could someday get them repaired. The adjoining bath room was strewn with damp towels, the scents of various expensive bath oils mingling and soaking into the floor boards.

Shingen chuckled, folding the towels by the door for the serving girls to deal with later. Hir bath had been hot, short and violent, furiously scrubbing hirself into a bubbly frenzy before rinsing hirself with an endless chain of icy water buckets and burying hirself in as many blankets as the inn could spare. Kimmi had expressed truly sincere gratitude for their hospitality, fully expecting to be evicted, but hir only plea was for time to sleep in comfort, and should it be possible, silence to do so.

"Starlight," he whispered into hir ear, when he could eventually find one among the multicolored landscape of sheets and comforters.

The mountain heaved once. "My name is Kimmi," shi murmured woozily.

"Same thing," he chuckled. "But I apologize. Kimmi."

A finger emerged from the cottony drifts and poked him in the belly. "I'll let you call me that... sometimes... it sounds nice when you say it..." Shi yawned hugely, stretching but somehow managing to remain fully covered. "Wha' time is it?"

"Lunch."

"Mmmm. I like lunch. Are we being kicked out?"

He laughed. "On the contrary, I believe they would be quite happy to have you stay as long as you wanted. If you thought they were grateful and gracious in Ashcroft, well, you should prepare for a great deal more backslapping when you head down those stairs..."

The huskyherm moaned, starting the long process of sitting up. "Everything hurts," shi winced. "Why can't I seem to avoid getting hurt?"

"Your Highness, life is about getting hurt," he sighed, rubbing hir forehead when a minor landslide revealed hir sleepy, pretty face. "The trick is making your life worth the hurt."

Shi narrowed hir eyes. "I can't tell if that's wise or stupid."

Shingen shrugged. "I read it on the back of a bottle of whisky. It always seemed somewhat clever to me. Come on, my lady. I believe you have a busy day ahead of you."

"Awwwwww."

"Would you rather we were evicted?"

"No-o-o-o..."

"Would you rather there was not an enormous buffet being laid out in the dining room?"

Kimmi stood with such force Shingen had to avoid the urge to draw his blade defensively. When the explosion of sheets and pillows finally calmed, he was face-to-bust with the freshly-scrubbed but still-bruised majesty of the vast huskyherm, who continued to yawn and stretch. One leg at a time, shi shook the sleep out of hir body, the last two giving him a far better view of hir nethers than he ever expected, or wanted. "Maybe you've convinced me," shi chuckled, swatting playfully at his ponytail when he turned chastely away from the nude princess. "Am I so horrible to look at?"

"It is not proper."

"You didn't mind when you found me in that pond..."

"That was different."

"In what way?"

"Because..."

Hir laughter followed him as he retreated from the bedchamber, cheeks burning, unable to think of any further reply.

---

The lunch was very well attended, with some of the housemaidens on duty to ensure only the most important local officials attended. When Kimmi eventually padded carefully down the stairs, wearing a makeshift top that mostly covered hir breasts and a short skirt that kept hir hindmost portions covered, the assembled crowd burst into applause. The cheering quickly spread out into the street where a sizeable mob of Cordobans had gathered to get their first sight of the strange, wandering warrior that had somehow defeated the Law.

Hir eyes widened, and it took all of hir newfound bravery not to retreat back up the stairs. Cripes, this is way scarier than last night! "Hello," shi said timidly, waggling hir fingers. "Uhm... this is a lovely town you have..."

Blessedly, Shingen emerged from the crowd to lead hir to the food, swiftly introducing hir to some of the locals. There was the expected confusion on their faces, giving greetings to a taur and having them politely returned, but they seemed generally open to the experience. There was also a great deal of flustered embarrassment at the sheer amount of huskyflesh on display, and shi wanted to apologize for that, but the swift little rat apparently picked up on hir thoughts before shi could act.

"My friend is very grateful for your hospitality," he called out loudly, still tugging hir by one finger. "And shi hopes that shi will be able to make use of your fine local clothiers and seamstresses later. For the time being, though, I think shi deserves a quiet meal."

Despite being head and shoulders shorter than most of the crowd, Shingen had an impressively powerful voice, and the crowd seemed vaguely surprised to find themselves dispersing. "You're my hero," shi whispered, leaning down to nuzzle his ear appreciatively. "Do we have enough money left for some outfits?"

"The problem may lie in forcing them to take your money," he smiled, blushing furiously once more when hir tilted torso brought hir bust to bear against the back of his head. "Er... this way, your highness."

"_Definitely_don't call me that. Starlight is fine, but, not... that."

"As you wish."

Lunch was delicious, and this time the few guests that hadn't fled the commotion were far more courteous than they had been the night before. Many of the local city council, guild leaders and policemen stayed for the repast, filing past Kimmi's table one by one to offer their thanks and shake hir paw on a more informal level. Shi struggled to eat slowly and politely, so when shi had to utter hir own pleasantries shi didn't spray anyone with crumbs.

It was during hir fifth and hopefully final round of cheesy pastries that there was a new commotion outside the inn. The good-natured crowd noises faded slightly, and there was a definitely negative tone to the new additions, including a few epithets and other curses. Kimmi leaned down to Shingen, who was sitting placidly at hir side and sipping a tea. "What's going on?"

"There's one more guest of honor, I believe. Please... please do not be alarmed." His tiny paw looked almost comically pathetic against hir thigh, but shi understood the import.

After the climax of the night's events, with a thoroughly drained and exhausted Kimmi having hir wounds tended by Shingen among the four wheezing, unconscious Officers of the Law, hir memories were a little fuzzy. Shi knew that many of the locals had emerged from their homes and businesses, having watched the brutal battle through their shuttered windows, and it wasn't long before lengths of rope and chain were produced to tie up the fallen dictators. Shi hadn't watched them get dragged away, and honestly shi hadn't cared.

The entire inn shook with rhythmic thumps, and hir body stiffened when an immense horned shape suddenly appeared at the great double doors that led to the main hall. The bull was wearing the dull grey of a prisoner, clearly assembled from two smaller uniforms, and his eyes were huge and remorseful underneath a mop of sandy hair that seemed to have had the middle portion shaved clean off.

"What the-" Kimmi said, straightening and groping blindly for gauntlets that were no longer there.

"Wait!" the huge bull cried, raising his palms in front of him and dragging half a dozen deputies forwards, each one holding onto his chained wrists for dear life. "Let me explain!"

Clutching a butter knife in either hand and trembling, Kimmi stood frozen, hair rising all over hir body and giving hir an extremely plush, puffy appearance. Shi examined his forehead and, sure enough, no circlet. "You're you again?" shi asked cautiously.

He nodded wretchedly, hunched over so his horns wouldn't stick into the wooden ceiling beams. "Yes, I am. I want to thank you, and... and apologize to you. And everyone. I am already planning a very widespread letter-writing campaign for my more severe apologies in the near future, once I am able to procure sufficient parchment and ink, and once they will let me have anything in my cell except oats."

Kimmi blinked, listening to the clipped, educated words of the giant. "What was your crime?" shi asked, eyes narrowing. "How did it convert you?"

The bull shook his head, horns swishing dangerously. "No crime. At least, not any I was aware of at the time. I am... I was an archaeologist, investigating a series of ancient bronze-class ruins in the Tavarua Mountains, far to the south-west of here. They were a fascinating people, rigidly stratified, and organized by a group of legally-empowered priests serving the god, uhm... well, I never managed to translate the god's name. I was able to locate a cache of relics in one of their prison-temple complexes, however, and... one night..."

"You put it on," Kimmi said flatly.

He nodded again, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It seemed like a good idea at the time," he whined, an incongruous sound from such an enormous chest. "I... I was watching myself do all these things, but the strangest part was that it all seemed to make sense! No matter how I thought about, it always came around to safety and security, and that everything I was doing, everything, was good."

Kimmi nodded slowly. "I bet that was what they thought," shi mused. "Whoever those people were. I wonder what happened to them."

The bull swallowed. "The evidence pointed to... civil war. Rioting. There was destruction everywhere, but no sign of any other cultures moving in either before or after. They just... collapsed."

The crowd whispered to themselves, listening raptly to the peculiarly polite conversation between the two titans who had nearly destroyed eachother hardly half a day before. "So is it all over?" shi asked, putting the butter knives back down. "What about all the other Officers in all the other towns? Are they going to keep screaming about curfews and abominations?"

"I'm not sure," he pouted. "I lost track of how many I converted. I spent all morning trying to count, and I think there's about... twenty? Twenty two?"

The crowd noise swelled at that, nervous and skittish rumblings of fear. Kimmi heaved a sigh, nearly losing one already precariously-positioned shoulder strap. "I guess we're going to have to go and find out. Right, Shingen?"

Shingen coughed, caught in the middle of surreptitiously nibbling a cheese bun. "We?"

"Well, I need to go and make sure they're not wandering around without any sort of control or oversight, and you need to come with me to make sure I don't wander off and get killed, and HE needs to come along and atone for, you know... being stupid."

"Hey!" the bull protested. "I wasn't... I... ok, I was stupid, but it was only for a minute, and then-"

"Yes, yes," Kimmi waved him away. "That's all it takes. Trust me, you're talking to the deposed princess of stupid decisions right now."

"You really are," Shingen said dryly, earning a brief chuckle from the other lunch patrons.

"You can keep comments like that to yourself," Kimmi said primly.

The bull nodded. "Yes, I will come with you, but it's not up to me. The local police... the real police, have me locked up pending trial, and-"

"He's all yours!" the tatty-looking Chief said, rapping his knuckles against the chains. "We've already locked up the others, who don't remember much of anything before meeting him. It's not like we've got any cells that are really big enough for him, and it would be cruel to stick him in the stables."

For a good ten seconds, you could have heard a pin drop, with all eyes on how the easily-angered taur might react. The innkeeper in particular, sitting just one table away, looked as though he were trying to swallow his poorly-chosen words from the night before, and found himself choking on them.

"Indeed," shi said at last, wiping hir mouth with a napkin and folding it absently. "We wouldn't want that, would we?"

The bull looked around, a little dazed. "I can... go with hir?"

"In the absence of a real judge, at the moment," the Chief grumbled, "I have to say this sounds like close enough to justice to me. Besides, we _know_shi can handle you."

The former Law flinched, reaching up to rub the sizeable bruises lumping his own face, a face that from a certain angle might have been considered handsome before. "True," he murmured. "I... thank you. For your mercy."

"Mercy, nothing," the Chief grinned humorlessly. "All them other cities got enough history with you already, and they didn't see you get your skull knocked around. You're gonna have a lot of forgiveness to beg for, and a lot more explaining to do."

He's not the only one with the explaining, Kimmi thought, somewhat dreading going to a dozen cities, and each time having to prove that shi's not just a beast that's earned a clever trick. At least this time, shi mused, shi'd have some help.

"I just have one question," the huskyherm announced, standing up from the lunch table.

The bull cocked his head quizzically. "Anything."

"What's your name? I can't just keep calling you 'the bull'."

He blinked, and smiled, the first genuine smile in a long time to touch his lips. "Lawrence," he said softly, bowing slightly at the waist. "Lawrence Pisceflamme. At your service."

---

There was a much more subdued farewell ceremony, heading out of Cordoba the next morning. In Ashcroft, nearly the entire population had turned out, but Cordoba was too big, too busy, had far too much time to make up for. The serving girls at the Feathered Cap lined up for polite hugs, the innkeeper shook hir paw warmly and laid out an open invitation for hir to return, and the chefs bid their best customer safe travels.

Outside was a small crowd, mostly just locals eager to see the two strange creatures one final time. Lawrence stood proudly, head and shoulders, as well as chest and elbows, above everyone else around him, though still chained up and attached to a sturdy iron-framed police wagon. His clothes were still dull grey, but they seemed a little more well-built today. Kimmi nodded to him, and he nodded back.

"Nice clothes."

"Thanks. You, too."

Kimmi smiled and tried not to preen, hir new outfit of pale yellow fringed with pink giving hir a truly inordinate amount of joy. Shi had another of nearly identical cut but of rich green cotton stashed away in hir new travelling pack, the seamstresses of the city more than happy to work overtime for what the huskyherm was willing to spend. Shi also had a wide assortment of brushes, both normal and the taur-grooming variety, and two small bottles of quite expensive bubble bath. Shi was running dangerously low of tradeable currency, but shi knew there would be opportunities to earn more. "Thank you. I'm glad they were willing to fix yours up, too. They were a little rough."

"More than I deserved," Lawrence insisted, not for the first time.

"Oh, you cut that out. You deserve to make things right, as best you can. And we'll get you some new clothes later on, when you eventually shrink back down to normal size."

The bull's brows knit. "This is my normal size."

"Oh. Goodness."

In the back of hir mind, shi saw a brief mental image of the overly-curvy taur taking the colossal bovine in a passionate embrace, arms struggling for dominance as their muzzles pressed together, gasping and moaning and sweating and swelling and-

Hir hindleg lashed out, nearly flattening Shingen against the wagon. "Cut that out!" shi snapped, causing the crowd to gasp and take a collective step back.

"Just trying to help," the little rat smiled, dancing easily out of the way. He hefted his own boxy, wooden luggage and bowed to his bonded mount, and the prisoner remanded to their custody. "Don't worry. I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about. The next city is about three days easy walk south of here."

Lawrence looked back and forth between them, his lips curling with curiosity. "Do I want to know?"

"No," Shignen and Kimmi replied together.