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From: Won Tolla <WegianWarrior@gmail.com>
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Subject: FUR: Repost, Stranger among strangers, full text (chapter 1-20 / 40)
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===================

Some of you might remember this.. it's a story I wrote a few years ago.

Hopefully people will like it this time around as well =)

-+-+-+-
1
I awoke that day as first rays of sunlight hit my face. I stretched and
yawned. It was the last day of my summer vacation, and the rain had
finally stopped. I ate a quick breakfast, finishing of my supplies, and
started breaking camp. I had a long hike in front of me before I
reached the railway. Before I left, I looked longingly around me,
drinking in the sight of untouched forest. I really enjoyed spending my
free time out here, in the middle of nowhere. No interruptions, no
stress, just the woods and me. The world could go under and I would not
know, nor care.
The sun was higher in the sky as I was working my way through some of
the denser parts of the spruce-forest. Just a little way ahead was a
clearing, I remembered, and there I had planned to rest a while. Even
if my five feet eleven  frame is fairly muscular, it isn't able to go
on forever. I pulled one hand through my short brown hair, trying to
keep the sweet out of my eyes as I was cursing under my breath. I
always filled my backpack with too much heavy equipment. It made life
in camp a bit more comfortable, but it doubled the weight I had to
carry. Then I brightened up, as I noticed the clearing between the
threes. Just a few more steeps, and...
The flash of light blinded me, but what shocked me most was the sound
that accompanied it. It was as if the air was torn in two, wailing in
pain. I dropped down, putting a fallen trunk behind the clearing and
myself. Somewhere behind me the sound of a falling three was heard.
Carefully peering between the branches, I saw a number of figures out
there on the clearing. I shook my head and risked another look. They
looked vaguely like humans, but either they was dressed up, or they
wasn't human at all. Shorter than most people I knew, their heads
immediately caught my attention. Looking vaguely wolfish, dominated by
a muzzle. Their eyes were closer together than a wolfs, and their
pointed ears were high on their heads. Looking closer, I saw much to my
surprise that they were dressed in leather armour and carried various
old fashion weapons. Very slowly I brought up my camera. People
wouldn't believe me without photographs, and I knew that certain
people should know about this.
It was a few days later. I was back on my job, repairing and readying
fighter-aircrafts. My photos had caused laughter first, but as reports
of violent attacks had begun to trickle in I was suddenly taken
seriously. A couple of recognizance flights had been made to the spot I
had seen what was now called 'the wolfmen', but neither had
returned. This, and the fact that most of their attacks was lightning
quick and totally devastating, was leading to widespread panicking.
There were even rumours of them using magic, which would explain how a
force armed with swords and arrows could win against a modern army. My
workmates and I knew it was only a matter of time before the shit
really was going to hit the fan.
Then it did, big time. The wolfmen descended on the airbase, killing
anyone the saw and blasting buildings apart with bolts of energy. I hid
in an old trench, trembling in fear. I had tried to shoot one of the
wolfs, but after taking a couple of shoots in the chest, the wolfman
had simply disappeared. Covering up with old leaves, I just wanted to
wait out the assault, then run away. From what little I had heard of
the briefings, I knew that it was suspected that the wolfmen was trying
to protect a single spot - the spot where I had first seen them. I
fell into an uneasy sleep after making a rash decision.
A few days later I was sitting in hiding near the clearing again. I had
walked hard every night and hid every day to get here, and now I
wouldn't be able to move further without running into one or more
enemies. Cursing myself for my stupidity, I regretted my sudden
decision to return there. There was 'wolfmen' all over, and in fact, I
could see several right then, standing in a clutch at the edge of the
clearing. They were dressed differently than the ones I had seen
before, richer and more opulent. Their metal armour was glittering in
the rays of the raising sun. As the sun climbed higher, I examined
them, noting how most of the group appeared to be females. So far on my
journey here I had only encountered males, so it was a small shock for
me.
Suddenly one off the creatures turned her head, her nostrils flaring.
She extended an arm toward the spot I was hiding as she said something
to the rest of the group. I cursed under my breath, and without wasting
any time readied a hand-grenade and tossed it towards the group. As
soon as the sound of the explosion died out I jumped to my feet, my sub
machinegun stuttering and shaking as I sprayed bullets towards the
group. They just stood there, a glittering shield before them seemingly
deflecting the flying lead. Then, as the bolt fell on an empty chamber,
the shield disappeared and one of the females lifted a crossbow. I
tossed the sub machinegun at her as I dived and rolled, drawing my nine
inch sami knife as I leap to my feet again.
«Jeg skal kan hende dø», I growled as I pointed my knife towards the
closest creature «men jeg skal ta dere med med til helvete!»
Much to my surprise she seemed to smile, drawing a two feet long sword
from her side and coming to a guard position.
«You honour me," she said.
I couldn't believe my ears. Were she really talking English, even if
the ascent was odd and her pronunciation unfamiliar? Maybe I could find
out more afterwards, if I was still alive. I watched her closely as I
drew another knife, with a three inch blade, from my belt, holding it
in my left arm. The rest of the group formed a rough circle around my
opponent and me. I waited, both knifes at ready, waiting for her first
move, taking the opportunity to study her closer. She was about five
feet high, slender built. Her hair, as well as her tail, which she
wagged behind her, was blond, almost white, and so was her fur too. She
had large brown eyes, with a look of happy mischief in them. She was
dressed in what looked like scale mail, brightly polished.
Suddenly she exploded into action, trying a low stroke, and I brought
down my left knife, blocking the stroke. The force of impact made was
felt all the way to my shoulder, but I made a quick stroke with my
longer blade, aiming for her left arm. She quickly blocked with her
blade, twisting it in her hand. I took a step backward to get a clear
line of attack, but she followed up with a low sweep, opening an ugly
gash in my right leg. I grunted, and tried a fast and straight stab
with my short blade, managing to penetrate her armour. A small red
stain appeared on her right shoulder, but it didn't seem to stop her.
As she brought her sword around in a tight arc coming straight for my
head, I crossed my blades in the path of hers. The force of impact made
my knees shudder. She disconnected her sword, and faster than I could
see, she twisted around, her sword heading for my right arm, forcing me
to a clumsy parry which not only shattered my short blade, but my left
hand too. I momentarily fell to my knees, pressing my broken hand
toward my chest.
My opponent stood over me, sword at ready.
«Pity. I really had hoped for more.» I heard her say, her breath
somewhat quicker than it had been a little wile ago.
No doubt about it, she really was speaking a tongue I understood. I
leaped back to my feat, and faster than I thought possible I lashed
out, opening a long gash in her sword arm, making her drop the sword.
«Jeg er ikke ferdig enda,» I shouted «men det er du!
 I struck again, aiming for her heart, but she tossed her left arm up,
sending my knife flying. Both now disarmed, I decided that my larger
height and bulk might carry the day. Jumping forward, I knocked her
over, locked my right arm around her slender neck and squeezed. Blue
dots started swimming before my eyes as she raked her claws across my
face and chest, but slowly her struggles became less, her eyes bulging.
Then several strong hands pulled me away, a cloth was pressed over my
mouth and nose and darkness fell.

2
I slowly surfaced the ocean of consciousness again. The fourth thing
that I noticed was the fact that I was in a soft and comfortable bed,
the third thing was throbbing pain in my leg and hand. It took some
time before I got so far and the reason for this was the second thing I
noticed; my head was spinning and hurting like I had been at the mother
of all parties the night before. It hurt so much that I couldn't
concentrate on the first thing I noticed, a pungent, almost nauseating
sweet smell in the air. As my head slowly stopped its mad spin and I
found myself in a bed, I carefully opened my eyes to see where I was.
Some distance away from the bed, large canvas walls rose from a
makeshift wooden floor, joining up with a roof in the same material.
Some sort of tent then. I looked around me, noting a seated figure in
one corner of the tent. Unlike the one I had fought with, the fur on
this one was motley brown, and the hair was short.
I lay still a few minutes, trying to decide what to do. Settling on
escape as the appropriate action, I tried to slide out the bed
noiselessly. But alas, no sooner than I had started pulling at the
covers, a soft bell rang, and the figure in the corner looked up at me.
I stayed motionless as she came closer. She was dressed in a simple
grey tunic and a half-long skirt in the same colour. Her tail was
wagging as she leaned over me, curiosity in her eyes.
«So you're awake, right?» she asked.
I decided quickly not to give away the fact that I understood her, so I
decided to play on the fact that she spoke what seemed to be English,
and not Norwegian.
«Unnskyld, men hva sa du?»
She shook her head, a smile growing on her lips.
«Give in,» she said, «you talk in your sleep.»
I cursed beneath my breath.
«Okay,» I said, «you got me then. Now what?»
Half an hour later I knew. I had been given a chance to wash up, and
was dressed in my dirty uniform again. Even if my wounds were obviously
cared for, I still felt shaky from the loss of blood and the heavy
odour in the area wasn't helping any. At my back were three soldiers,
all males and all with their swords drawn. In front of me were more of
the 'wolfmen', all females and clustered around a table, and among
them the one I had fought with. She too was dressed in grey, and her
right arm was in a sling. On all sides around us, as far as I could
see, the ground was covered in little pink flowers. A little way of two
wooden post was erected, the air between them shimmering. She noticed
me and came closer, almost close enough to touch.
She looked at me, up and down, before she opened her mouth and said in
a cheerful tone «Hi.»
I didn't reply, so she continued «I'm Xaviera, High General of the
Lupa armed forces.»
Still I held my tongue, and in the embarrassing silence that followed
you could hear a needle fall.
She started talking again: «My friends call me Xav. What are your
name?»
I straightened up, and looking her in the eyes I said: «I'm Hans
Johansen, first Lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Airforce, my service
number is 194/030193.»
"An officer? Does your officers let themselves be captured then?"
Her voice was light, her tone taunting. I looked away as I replied: "I
most certainly didn't plan on it."
I looked back at her, my voice growing mocking: "But I know it wasn't
you who captured me, I was doing my best to kill you at the time."
This time she looked away, and I could see her skin turning red under
her fur.
"You fight well Hans... I've never lost a fair battle before."
I held my tongue, even if her ideas of fair didn't match mine. About
then another one came running up, delivering a scroll to Xav. She
unrolled it; frowned and signaled the guards to take me back to the
tent.
As I was ushered back inside I noticed that the female whom had been
there when I woke up still was there. I nodded to her and sat down on
the bed. She walked over and sat down next to me, a tad to close for my
taste.
Turning towards me, she said, "So how did your meeting with Xav go?"
I looked at her, then said, "She told me her name, I told her mine.
Then she got busy."
"And what are your name then?"
I gave a short laugh.
"And what makes you think I'm telling you?"
She looked away for some time, then said in a low voice "I'm Kidera.
I'm Xav's friend, and one of her advisors. I'm the one who tried to
shoot you with the crossbow, I'm the one who fell you in the back as
you was victorious, but I'm also the one who tended your injuries. I
think the last bit have given me the right to know it."
I nodded, then said, "I'm Hans. Who I am or what I am not very
important right now. Where I am, and why, is. Will you tell me?"
She still didn't look at me, and an awkward silence erupted.
I licked my lips, deciding to let caution take a vacation. "If you tell
me Kidera, I might be able to make it worthwhile for you, one way or
another."
She looked at me for what felt like a long time, a slight smile on her
face.
"Very well then. You're at the Plains of Pantangeon. And that is
because the rift hasn't closed yet."
"A nice start Kidera, but you still haven't told me anything."
Kidera sighted.
"The Plains of Pantangeon lies in the middle of the Lupa Empire. It is
in many ways the centre of the empire. Every few hundred years, the
flowers which have given the plain its name blossoms, and for some
reason this opens a rift to your world."
I clenched my hand hard as she continued.
"And every time the rift opens, your people comes through in greater or
lesser numbers, disturbing our fragile peace. This time Dumare and Xav
wanted to find out what lay beyond the rift."
I was quiet for a long time, and then I said softly "Your people
attacked us. You killed thousands of innocent men, women and children.
You burned our cities. We never knew of the rift. But that still don't
explain why I am here, instead of being killed."
"Xav ordered you brought back. You're the first one we ever captured
alive. Besides," she grinned and gave my side a playful tap "I think
she likes you. You're the first I have heard of who has bested her in
combat. I know I kind of likes you anyhow."
I closed my eyes, trying to understand what she was saying.
"What happens when the flowers wither?"
"The rift closes of course."
I turned towards her smiling face, and asked with a voice that cracked
"When?"
"We do not know to tell you the truth. They have been in bloom for more
than four weeks now. Xav hopes to get enough warning to bring the
troops back, since we have no way of reopening it."
My mind was racing. If the rift closed with me on this side, I might
never make it home again, never. One way or another, I had to cross the
rift back home. I pretended to yawn, and half-closed my eyes.
Then I said «One thing Kidera. Don't stand in my way. I really
don't want to hurt you, not after what you have done for me so far.»
«What?» she replied, obviously confused by my sudden change of topic.
«Just promise me, okay?»
«Whatever,» she shrugged «I promise.»
I pretended to fall asleep. Minutes later I heard she leaving the tent,
and I opened my eyes again. Moving as fast and as silent as I could I
got up, and peered through the flap of the tent. Two guards were
blocking my way, their backs towards me. I quietly let the flap close
again and walked over to the back of the tent. I lay flat on the rough
wooden surface and lifted the canvas a little. Then I squeezed my way
under it, rolling over hundreds of the little pink flowers that covered
the plains. The heavy aroma made my head spin madly again. From this
close I could clearly see how many of them was turning grey and slack.
Clearly, I had no time to lose. I worked my way as fast as I dared,
hiding behind tents and crawling flat through the calf-high vegetation.
As I reached the last tent I saw the rift dead ahead, and a little off
to the right, the group that, as far as I could see, included both
Kidera and Xaviera. They were still standing around the table, but
there seemed to be a lot of activity. If I were lucky they would not
notice me.
As I started for the rift it seemed like I would be lucky, but halfway
there I heard raised voices behind me. I tried to walk faster, but the
pain in my right leg was preventing me from gaining much. I cast a
glance towards the noise, noting that while some of the lupa was
running after towards me both Xaviera and Kidera was standing still.
Kidera held her face in her hands, but Xaviera held hers high, and
seemed to be chanting something. I looked forward again. Less than a
hundred meters was left to salvation, but then a flickering blue light
engulfed me, and suddenly it felt like I was walking through moving
water. My muscles tensed on their own accord. I bit my teeth together
and keep moving on. After a few dozens steps I heard Xaviera cry out,
and the strange blue light that engulfed me increased in luminosity.
Walking became even heavier, almost like walking through jelly. Still I
moved on, every step bringing a dull pain to my joints. Just a few
meters stood between my home world and me. Again Xaviera cried out, and
the light grew until it almost blinded me. The very air seemed to glow,
and the smell of ozone was overpowering. I managed a few more steps,
even if it felt like moving through earth and my joints and muscles
hurts like if they were on fire. Then, just as my outstretched hand was
about to touch the rift, a thin, high-pitched tone was heard, and it
simply stopped being there. I stood frozen in a blue sphere as it hit
me. I was stranded, a stranger among strangers.

3
As the blue sphere suddenly disappeared I tipped forward, hitting the
ground hard. All my joints was stiff, none of my muscles wanted to obey
my brain. Then, as it slowly dawned on me how close I had been to the
rift, I started crying. My family, all my friends, my home, my entire
life in fact, was utterly and irreversible lost to me. I finally
managed to get enough control over my own body to sit up and through
tears I saw Kidera and a few other lupas approach me. For whatever it
was worth, none of them had drawn their weapons. I managed to get up on
my own feet just as they reached out for me, then my knees gave in and
I fell like a tree. The next thing I knew, Kidera had taken hold of my
face, forcing me to look at her.
"You misbegotten son of a whore! We still had people on the other
side!" she hissed between clenched teeth "And poor Xav is knocked out.
I never seen her pour so much into a spell before."
"How many?" I managed to say through dry lips.
"What?"
"How many did you lose on my world?"
She seemed to relax a little as she lapsed into thought.
"About one-third of our forces. Say around two-thousand troopers and
close to three hundred officers."
"I see..." I looked down before I continued, my voice barely holding up
"Twenty-three hundred are many casualties in one day. But at least they
are lost together. I, on the other hand, am lost all alone."
She looked at me for a little while, then started barking orders to the
others around her. Quickly I was lifted up and carried towards the
tents again. Once there I was helped to sit on a low bench, and Kidera
sat down a little distance away. We sat in silence a long time, I
weeping silently for my loss. Finally, she broke the quiet, softly
asking me how I was feeling. I quickly took stock of myself before I
replied.
«Physically, I've not too bad. My joints hurt,» I made a small
pause before I continued, «but I think that is some sort of
side-effect from whatever spell Xaviera used. The wound in my leg is
painful, and so is my broken hand.»
I stopped again, and just as Kidera was opening her mouth I went on;
«I'm feeling famished as well.»
"The pain in your joint should pass in a little while." She tilted her
head slightly as she went on; "I have seen that spell stop five
attackers once, and with you she had to cast it three times."
She scratched her muzzle thoughtfully, before talking again.
"It might be that you're different in ways we can't understand, it
might be that the flowers of Pantangeon somehow disturbs magic, or
maybe it was just your willpower that made your body move."
She was lost in thought for a few seconds before she stood up.
"But I'm losing track of my tongue now, I'll make sure you get some
food. Then I'll take a look on Xav. She passed out from the effort of
stopping you."
She left the tent, leaving me sitting there, feeling very alone and
lost. Shortly thereafter a male entered the tent, carrying a tray with
food. He looked somehow younger than the once I had seen so far, and
keen to learn more about the world I was stranded in I asked him what
the different food was.
"Eh... that's bread... rye bread." he stuttered, obviously either
surprised I needed to ask, or scared.
He continued "That's some cold meat of poultry, and in the mug there is
a measure of small bear. It ain't much, but we've been in the field for
most of the season."
I nodded as I replied "I understand. It's better than I had feared,
being a prisoner and all."
He hovered behind me as I started tasting the food, clearly trying to
work up the courage to say something Finally, he worked up his courage.
"The soldiers says you're a officer?"
"That's true." I replied.
"But you're a male. How can a male be a officer?"
I turned to look at him. He was obviously confused.
"Hmm," I said, "you're still pretty young aren't you?"
He nodded slightly, as he said; "I'm fifteen summers now, but I have
travelled with the army the last year. I hope they will let me be a
soldier next year when I'm finishes my apprenticeship."
I looked at him for a long time, then finally said; "I'm twenty-seven
years old, as we count in my world. While I'm not old, neither am I
young. But it still shocked me to see women commanding men."
I returned to the food, and after a little while I heard the boy leave.
I idly wondered right then if I should think of him as a boy or as a
pup.
Having eaten, I sat still for some time, trying to comprehend what had
happened the last day or so. While the rift was closed, and all I held
dear safe from the lupas, I was a prisoner on a strange world. While
the closing of the rift made sure the lupas could not attack my home
anymore, it also meant that I had no real hope of ever coming home to
any of it again. I sighted. Somehow, I just had to take one day at a
time. About then Xaviera entered the tent. She sat down on the bench I
was sitting on, her back toward the table, twisting slightly so I
mostly saw her back. She looked like she had been hang-gliding through
hell without enjoying it. After what felt like a long time, I broke the
silence.
"How's your arm getting along?"
She looked at me for a second before she replied; "Well enough I guess.
I have not time to dwell on it thought."
Again a gloomy hush fell in the tent. Finally she broke it.
"Tell me Hans... what do your people do with captives?"
"Captives?" I said, "You mean prisoners of war?"
Xaviera looked thoughtfully for a long time, and then nodded slowly,
saying; "We have never called them that, but I think that would be what
I'm meaning."
"We're supposed to treat them well. But we don't always live as we
teach."
"I see." she murmured "I just hoped that your people didn't kill
prisoners like the dark ones do. We use to say that if you fight the
dark ones and lose, you're lucky if you die at once."
I decided not to follow that reference at the time, but rather follow
up on something she hadn't said.
"But how bout your people Xaviera? What can I expect?"
She shrugged.
"We aren't used to captives. No follower of the dark path has ever been
taken alive," she paused before she went on "or dead. They always bring
their dead with them."
We sat in silence a long time, then she spoke again, her voice a little
shaky; "We will probably try to get as much information out of you as
we can... after all, I lost almost twenty-three-hundred of my best
troops in exchange for you."
"I can not, and I will not give you any information," I replied, "I'm
many things, but not a traitor to my land, race or world."
Again the silence descended, until I broke it, saying; "But know this,
even if your troops are lost to you, I'm certain that they will be well
treated if they choose to surrender."
As I said that, Xaviera started sobbing low, and in between the sobs
she managed to say; "Twenty-three hundred... one in every three I had
on this assignment... and I have, or rather had, one third of the
entire defence-force here... and when the crops are harvested, the dark
ones will attack again."
I didn't know what to say, so I made some vague, sympathetic grunts.
She didn't seem to notice, but went on sobbing.
"I've lost one ninth of my already slim forces to keep one prisoner. We
will lose many of the outlying farms this winter. Dumare might even
have to have me executed, and order any information you might have
extracted at any cost."
"Dumare? Any cost?" I asked.
"My sister, and Empress of the Lupa empire. And we have a way, seldom
used, to break the strongest will; torture."
"She cant really want to torture me," I paused, shivering as I thought
about it "can she?"
Xaviera just looked at me for a long time before she drew a knife,
placing it on the table between us. I glanced at it, noting she had
placed the handle towards me.
"She will do it," Xaviera said, "if she considers it important enough.
But if you wish to avoid it, and at the same time avoid living in a
strange world, I will not stop you.
 I looked at her as she turned away, then at the knife, then back at
her.
"I see. And if I instead choose to use this knife on her whose fault it
is that I am stranded here, whom at the same time feels the loss of
twenty-three hundred on her shoulders?"
Xaviera shuddered visible.
"You... you have already beaten me once... in fair combat. Now, unarmed
and with my back turned, I... I wouldn't even have time to fight."
I thought for a long time, then carefully picked up the knife.
"It's a wicked blade you have picked," I stated as I examined it,
"the serration along the back ought to be able to cut a spine easily."
She didn't reply, but I saw how her muscles tensed in fear for what she
thought could happen. I adjusted my grip, and with a quick stroke
buried half of the blade in the table. Xaviera jumped several inches of
the bench at the sound then folded her head in her hands, shaking
uncontrollably.
"No," I said softly, "I'll never kill myself in fear of the future, and
I won't kill you to ease your conciseness. If I can live with my fears,
so can you."
"I see..." she replied after some time, "Kidera was right about you.
You are like us in many ways, but so totally different in others."
She slowly stood up, her legs a bit wobbly. As she turned towards me, I
noted how the fur on her face was wet, telling me she had cried. I
resisted an urge to stroke her chin, telling her everything would be
okay.
«You better try to get some sleep,» she said, «tomorrow we start the
journey to the capital.»
She left the tent, leaving me and my thoughts behind.

4
Someone pulled at my arm. Slowly I lifted my head, having fallen asleep
at the table. I shock my head to clear my mind and looked around the
still dark tent. Next to me stood the young male from yesterday.
"You awake?" he asked, adding "Kidera says you most be ready to leave
before sunrise."
I nodded, still too sleepy to talk. Getting up, I walked over to a
water-bucket in the corner and plunged my head into it.
"Ah," I said when I pulled my head back up, "that feels a lot better."
I stripped of my shirt, and gave myself a quick wash, which wasn't easy
with a broken left hand
 "I feel uneasy when I don't know what to call people. You have a
name?" I asked as I put my uniform back on again.
"For the time I'm called Bantam," he said, "since I'm the smallest pup.
Of course, I'll pick another name when I'm coming of age."
Bantam had brought some more food with him and placed it on the table,
along with a bundle of grey fabric. As I started to eat, he spoke up.
"You must wear this clothing when you travel, Kidera says."
"Really?" I replied "And if I refuse?"
"Then we will make you wear it." came a voice from behind.
Both Bantam and I turned, seeing Kidera walking in through the flap of
the tent. She gave a jerk with her hand, and Bantam left the tent. She
sat down on the bench on the other side of the table, then opened her
mouth.
"It is for your own protection, and ours. If you wear the same as the
rest of us, and keep the hood up, it will be difficult to see that you
are not a lupa."
While she talked I quietly resigned, and started pulling out of my
uniform and into the coarse clothing. While the shirt was almost the
right size, the breaches were short, ending well short of my feet. The
rough, grey fabric rubbed against my skin, promising bruises if I
walked too much in it
 "So," I said, "where are you taking me dressed like this?"
"To see the empress. But first we must reach the city of Whitewater
Ford."
I looked at Kidera, but didn't say anything.
"It really isn't far," she continued, "about a day and a half
marching."
"I limp when I walk." I pointed out "There is no way I can march for a
day and a half with the wound I have."
Kidera stood up.
"We know." she said, something resembling a smile on her lips, "Now put
on that cloak and follow me."
She led me in silence a little way out of the camp in the predawn
gloom. Pointing to a line of four-wheeled wagons, she spoke up again.
"Our wounded rides in those. You will stay in the rearmost, together
with two guards."
She gave me a push, and I climbed into the hay covered wagon.
Just before Kidera raised the rear, I asked "Why all this secrecy? If I
am all you have to show for losing one out of three, you not parade me
on the streets?"
"For your safety," she replied, "once people hear about our losses on
your world, they may blame you."
"And I'm too valuable to risk?" I countered.
As she closed the wagon, she murmured "That too. We might need the
knowledge you represent."
I sat down, taking care to put my right leg high, and waited. The day
passed, hot and slow. I could see only see a little of what was on the
outside of the wagon, and what I saw was mostly marching troopers,
their tongues hanging out as they panted. The two guards that travelled
in my wagon were sitting with their back turned, not talking neither to
me, nor between themselves. The only thing that broke the monotonous
silence was the occasional shouts of the ox-drivers. As the light was
waning I noticed that the landscape was changing. No longer just a flat
plain, it started getting a little hilly, and more bushes could be
seen. The wagon slowed to a halt, and I heard the oxen being led off.
After waiting some minutes more I grew restless. The guards that had
been sitting on the wagon all day had disappeared, and as the sun had
fallen, almost all sounds from the troopers around me had died out.
Just as I was about to rice up to take a look, a noise behind me in the
wagon made my head spin round. It was Kidera, and for some reason I
wasn't too surprised. Silently she handed me some bread and a
water-skin, and, more concerned about substance than conversation, I
pulled down my hood and ate. As I finished off the last bit of bread I
felt her moving closer to me. Suddenly I had her legs on either side of
mine, her torso lightly touching my back and her arms around my belly.
I tensed.
Placing her muzzle close to my ear, she softly said «You said
yesterday that you would make it worthwhile for me if I gave you some
information. Did you mean it?»
I lapsed into thought a long time before I answered.
«I did not plan on staying long enough for you to claim on that
promise. But, here I am, and I have never gone back on my word
before.»
«I see.» was all she said.
 For a long time we sat in silence, and all I could sense was her arms
around me, the soft fur of her muzzle and chin against my neck and the
sound of her breathing in my ear. Somehow, it was feeling both scary
and safe at the same time.
«I do make the claim on your promise,» she whispered after a long
time «and I claim it tonight.»
I tensed again; hoping she would not ask for something I neither
wanted, nor was ready for.
She continued; «Tell me about your world.»
«I can't.» I replied, «If I tell you anything about our army, our
people or our nations, you can use it against us. Even if it means I
must break my word, I can not and I will not be a traitor.»
«No silly. Your world, not the people on it. What's it like to live
on? How does it, I don't know, feel?»
I fell silent for a long time, then started talking.
"It was the place I fitted in. I could sit outside, on nights like
this, and watch the stars."
I pointed upwards as I spoke, my hand visible as a dark shadow against
the rapidly darker sky.
"And I knew every constellations, by sight if not by name. It felt, how
shall I say, right. Here on the other hand," I sighted, "the stars are
unknown."
Kidera moved closer to me, pressing her body against mine. She nodded
silently in the dark, her furry muzzle sliding up and down my neck.
Then, as moisture gathered in my eyes, I started talking again. I told
her about walking in the forests for hours, spending the nights in the
mountains and long, slow afternoons basking in the ocean. I told her
about the warm, dry summers and the long winters when all was covered
in a thick layer of snow. I told her of the joy of the first flowers
and the happiness of leaves changing colour in the autumn. I told her
in lengths of children smiles, of lovers walking hand in hand and old
couple's pleasure in being together.
"All those things are lost to me now," I finished "lost just like the
stars I once knew."
After I finally finished she was quiet for a very long time.
«It sounds like a place I could enjoy living in. You make is sound
like home.» she finally said.
I just nodded in the dark. Again she was quiet for a long time before
she spoke in all but a whisper.
«You miss it?»
«Yes. It's more of me than I ever realized. I guess I never really
thought about it when I lived there, but now, when all hope of
returning is gone...»
I didn't finish the sentence. Kidera hugged me even closer, muttering
in my ear.
«You may be different in many ways Hans, but I too know loss. My
betrothed did not come back from your world before the rift was
closed.»
I felt moisture running in her fur, spreading out as it meet my neck.
"I understand." I said, then thought about it a little while before I
went on, "No, I can't claim to understand you. I have no idea of how
you think, nor what emotions you lay in a betrothal, But I share your
pain, as you share mine.»
Again we lapsed into silence, and I stared unseeing at the unknown
constellations as I thought about my loss. Suddenly Kidera moved. She
gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, her lips felling at the same time
familiar and alien, then stood up.
Speaking low, she said, «Thank you Hans. Now I know.»
Then she disappeared out of the wagon and was gone, leaving me
wondering what she had meant. I shrugged it off, and buried myself in
hay, embracing sleep and oblivion.

5
I awoke early the next day by the sounds of a few hundred troopers
getting ready to march. I felt a certain need, and scampered out of the
wagon to relive myself against one of the wheels. Just as I was
finishing, Bantam came towards me, carrying a large bundle. As he
spotted me standing outside the wagon, without the long, hooded cloak,
he froze. As I started getting back into the wagon, he started
sprinting the remaining distance, then quickly got up into the wagon
seconds behind me.
"Are you crazy," he asked in a hoarse whisper, "letting everyone see
you like that?"
I shrugged as I examined the bundle he had brought with him.
"Kidera will have my head if she finds out, she told me to keep you
hidden until we reach Whitewater Ford later today."
I bit into the bread I had discovered in the bundle.
"Relax," I told him between two mouthfuls, "if she hears about it I'll
tell her you hadn't reached me yet."
He still looked a little downcast, so I ignored him. As I sat there
eating, I noticed the wagon staring to move again. I looked at Bantam,
an unspoken question in my eyes.
He shrugged, saying; "Kidera told me to keep an eye on you. She didn't
say from where."
I stretched out, looking out through the sides of the wagon, noting how
we seemed to be travelling slightly downhill.
"Since you decided to stay," I said to Bantam, "you might as well tell
me about yourself."
He looked uncertainly at me, but finally started.
"Me lieutenant? Not much to tell really. I was born in Fourway Ford
fifteen years ago..."
I remained quiet as he talked for the best part of three hours, as far
as I could judge by the sun. He talked about losing both parents when
he was young, how he lived on the streets of Enyo the capital city,
until he joined the army as an apprentice. He talked about how he had
become Kidera's aide, and his plans for the future. Finally he too
became quiet, and sat staring at nothing.
As the wagon turned and started rolling parallel to a wide river, he
raised his voice again.
"I saw Kidera climb into the wagon tonight."
"Really?" I replied, not understanding what he was after.
"Yes. Did you, I mean, what did..."
I looked at him, and noted that he was turning red under his grey fur.
I waited, and finally he spoke bashfully; "You like her, lieutenant?"
"Hmm." I said, thinking, "I'm not sure. She seems to be trying to make
me like her, but hell, Bantam, I've never been much good with women,
and she isn't even my own race. Besides," I sighted, "I has to be
careful what I say to her. I'm a prisoner, remember?"
He looked away, and said with a low voice; "Good."
I thought for a second, then it hit me. The boy had fallen in love with
his superior. I couldn't resist smiling at the idea. Just as I was
about to ask him, a shout went up from the marching troopers around us.
Bantam stood up and looked forward for a couple of seconds, then sat
back down.
«Whitewater Ford. Kidera told me that you must be kept hidden until
she comes.»
The wagon had been driven into what I guessed was an enclosed
courtyard, and I had dozed off in the sun before Kidera showed up.
Without saying much, she pulled my hood up and led me through a
bewildering array of cramped, barely lit corridors, up and down stairs
clearly made for people shorter than myself. Finally I found myself in
a fairly large room, brightly lit by large skylights. I blinked a
couple of times, then noticed Xaviera and two other females sitting in
chairs along one side of a table. I pulled myself into something
resembling attention.
"General," I said, "I guess you wanted to see me?"
"Yes." she answered, ignoring the sarcasm in my voice, "We want some
answers from you."
I saw, in the corner of my eye, Kidera bolting the door we had entered
by. Then she too sat down in a chair behind the table, making me feel
rather alone and exposed. Xaviera cleared her throat, and started
talking again.
"This" she pointed on the female on her left, "is Chloe, matriarch and
protector of Whitewater Ford"
I nodded to the old lupa, noting a look of curiosity in her yellow
eyes.
"On my right," continued Xaviera, "is Jemine, who represent the
Empress in this town."
Unlike Chloe, Jemine gave me a short nod.
"And you have already met Kidera. Now Hans, take off your hood."
I shrugged, then did as she had asked. The look on Chloe's face turned
from curiosity to shock, while Jemine gasped and looked away. After
giving them a minute or so to recover, Xaviera cleared her throat and
looked at Chloe, whom in turn was looking at me, her lower jaw almost
at the table.
Finally she snapped out of whatever trance she was in and said, "As the
protector of Whitewater Ford I need some information from you...Hans."
I shrugged, saying; "You might ask, but I don't think I'll be able to
answer."
She shook her head, obviously not understanding what I meant
"But some of them was captured with you, so surly you must know..."
I interrupted her, trying to get my point across.
"Let me be more specific. I might know, but I sure ain't telling you,
nor anyone else."
She stood up, anger visible in her face, growling.
"I am the matriarch. I am the protector. I need knowledge of the use of
the weapons conquered from your world, to make up for our losses when
the rift was closed. You will tell me what I need."
"I'm Hans Johansen," I said in a vicious monotone, " I'm a First
Lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Airforce, my service-number is
194/030193. That is all the information you are entitled to in
accordance to the international treaties on the conduct of war. It is
also all the information I am willing to give."
Chloe's lips drew back, exposing her canine teeth, as she extended a
finger towards me.
«General,» she hissed, «I want this, this, this male tortured. I
will have that knowledge before the dark ones come down from their
mountains.»
Silence descended in the room, only Chloe's agitated breathing
breaking it. Then suddenly Jemine broke it, softly speaking up.
«No. Whatever this creature is, or what it knows, one thing is
certain. It is the property of the empress. As General Xaviera pointed
out earlier today, it is vital to bring this,» she waved her hand,
seemingly looking for a suitable term, «this spoil of war to the
capital with all haste.»
I felt anger rise within. Unable to hide it, I burst out.
«Male? Creature? Spoil of war?»
I breathed deeply, seeing in the corner of my eye Kidera holding both
her hands around her muzzle, her tail wagging furiously.
«Well then,» I continued, my voice slowly returning to normal, «why
don't you ask the right honourable General Xaviera how she stumbled
over this humble piece of flotsam on the battlefield?"
«No, Hans, please don't...» Xaviera muttered, her eyes wide,
«I'm sure neither Chloe nor Jemine meant it...»
Her voice trailed off, and she sat uncomfortable under the stares of
the two vixens. I waited; rubbing my bandaged left hand and making sure
Xaviera saw it. Finally she took a deep breath, and as she exhaled she
spoke softly.
«He came to our camp on his world, alone. He... he never hesitated,
but attacked as soon as one of my officers smelled him.»
She made a small pause, and for some reason I felt pity for her, having
forced her to admit a personal defeat.
«Only my magic saved the lives of my staff and myself, as the weapons
of his world are terrible and kills from far away. Then he closed in,
engaging me in personal combat.»
«And then you beat him and captured him?» Chloe interrupted, «So
this male has guts, but...
 «No,» Xaviera said, hiding her eyes behind her hands «he bested me
in fair combat. We fought blade against blade, and he won.»
«But then...» Jemine said. «I know. All our laws and traditions says
that he should have been free to go.
 «Not only free to go,» Jemine started to say, but Kidera placed her
hand on her shoulder, silencing her.
There was another long and awkward pause.
«I have no more to gain here.» Chloe said as she finally stood up.
«Me neither,» Jemine concurred, «this is a matter for the Empress
herself.»
She too stood up, and they both left the room. Xaviera collapsed on the
table, her hands over her muzzle as she quietly sobbed. I sat down at
the edge of the table. Reaching out and stroking Xaviera's long,
white hair, I muttered.
«Sorry I had to do that General, but I really don't like being
talked about like that.» I moved my hand slightly as I went on,
scratching her behind her ears, «Your people might look down on males
and people whom look different, but mine does not... at least most of
us don't.»
She muttered something. I leaned down to hear her better and asked her
what she had said. She lifted her head slightly, then repeated.
«Xav. Please Hans, call me Xav.»
I shrugged, looking up at Kidera. She was looking back, her face
unreadable. Xaviera pulled herself visibly together then spoke in a
clearer voice.
«We must get Hans to the Empress as soon as we can, and with as little
publicity as possible. The only solution I see is to travel straight
trough Dourwood.»
Kidera gasped, looking genuinely shocked
 «Dourwood?» I said, «I'm not sure if I like the sound of that
name.
Xaviera shrugged, saying; «It ought to be safe this time of year, and
it will cut at least two weeks of our journey. Can you ride?»
Now it was my time to shrug my shoulders.
«Maybe, but not with a broken hand.»
Without saying anything, Xaviera took my left hand between hers and
closed her eyes. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, I felt my
hand heat up, and a strange sensation filled my arm. After a long while
she dropped my hand and I looked at her.
«Try flexing your fingers.» Xaviera said, and I did.
To my utter disbelief, my hand worked perfectly, with not even a hint
of pain.
«Amazing.» I muttered to myself.
Xaviera, on the other hand, transferred her attention to Kidera.
«Get some horses and supplies ready. We leave tomorrow morning, as
soon as the gates open.»
Kidera just nodded, then stood up. Placing her hand on my arm, she led
me out the door. Just as she went through it, she turned to Xaviera.
«We are close friends Xav, but know this: Some things I won't
share.»
What answer Xaviera gave, if any, was unheard by me. Walking slowly,
and with Kidera's hand on my arm the entire way, we returned to the
wagon.

6
Early next morning I was roused from my sleep by the sound of voices. I
dragged myself out of the hay, and in the bright light of the new day I
surveyed the scene before me. About ten troopers in leather armour,
Bantam wearing chainmail and both Xaviera and Kidera in brightly
polished scale. And if that was not enough, there were more sharp
points visible than a hedgehog. I greeted the vixens, then asked
Xaviera;.
«Why all the hardware? You planning on a fight?»
«What? Oh,» she answered, «you refer to our weapons? That's for
Dourwood of course. Now put your cloak on before we mount up, we
don't want the average citizen to see that you're not a lupa.»
I gave a short mirthless laugh at that, shaking my head.
«Look Xav. A single unarmed, unarmored rider in this party, and you
fear I'll look strange? Anyway,» I pointed on my unclad feet,
«anyone who sees these will know I'm not one of you, not to mention
my hands.»
Xaviera just shrugged.
«You'll ride in the middle of the group. Partly to hide you, partly
to make sure you don't run away from me, I mean us.»
I gave up arguing; sensing that she just would not listen.
As the handful of troopers Kidera had picked as an escort made camp in
the rapidly failing light of evening, I was lying face down in the soft
grass. I was feeling pain in muscles I didn't even knew I had before,
and Kidera sat close by.
"I thought you said you could ride?" she said after watching me for a
while.
"I never said I could," I countered, "I simply said I couldn't with a
broken hand."
I thought back. Even getting up on the docile mare had been difficult
enough, and while both Xaviera and Kidera had looked like they were
born to ride, I had probably looked like a sack of flour.
"Besides," I said as I watched Xaviera coming closer after giving the
soldiers some kind of orders, "your saddles are for made lupas, not
humans. The slot down the middle for the tail is, to be blunt, a pain
in the ass."
I nodded to Xaviera as she sat down, and we all grew silent. I sensed
that something wasn't quite right, there was a tension in the air
between the two vixens that had been lurking in the back all day. I
looked from Xaviera to Kidera and back to Xaviera, then shrugged and
looked towards the fire, where Bantam was preparing our supper.
After a while, Xaviera broke the silence.
"Why wouldn't you say anything to Chloe yesterday Hans?"
"I told you." I replied, " I can't give any information other than my
name, rank and service number."
"But what does it matter? You'll never go back to your own world, and
neither will any you tell it to. No one will know about it."
I sighted, and was quiet a long time before I raised my voice again.
"That changes nothing what so ever. No matter what happens, I can not
and I will not volunteer any other information. Besides, I'll know
about it."
"But you could tell Kidera?"
Xaviera went on.  I raised myself on my elbows and straight into
Kidera's yellowish eyes until she looked down, her short brown hair
hiding her eyes.
"I told Xav we had spoken," she muttered, "nothing more."
I flopped down again, and addressed Xaviera.
"Xav, that was different. I had promised Kidera a bon, and she claimed
it. Besides," I looked sidelong at Kidera; "it was rather personal."
"Something about the stars?"
Xaviera asked, probably hoping to hear more. I just smiled a tired
smile as I shook my head, then got up as gracefully as my sore muscles
would allow, which wasn't very. I limped over to the fire, sitting down
next to Bantam with my back against the two females.
"So," I said as I grabbed a piece of bread from the bag of supplies he
had besides him, "what do you think is wrong with Kidera and the
general?"
Bantam looked first at me, then towards the two vixen, and then into
the flames.
"You mean why they are so uneasy about each other? I think that they
both want to stop the other one from claiming you."
"Claim me?" I asked, "What you mean?"
Bantam scathed his muzzle, then started talking with a low voice.
"I think General Xaviera believes Kidera wants to claim you, since she
was with you in the wagon the night before last."
I nodded, urging him to go on.
"And Kidera told me, just as the general helped you remount the fifth
time, that she thought the general might claim you because you can make
a claim on her, sort of racing you to it to preserve her honour."
I didn't really understand what Bantam meant, but I didn't waste time
pondering on it. Just as he started pouring the stew he had prepared
into wooden bowls, I grabbed my share and went over to the bedroll I
had been given, to eat, think and then sleep on it.
Halfway into the night I awoke suddenly by a movement close to me. I
looked around me, and in the lights from the dying embers on the fire,
I recognised Xaviera sliding towards me.
«Xav,» I started saying, but came no further as she gently put her
hand over my mouth, hushing me.
I silently watched as she sat down next to me and stared into the
glowing remains of the fire. She looked thoughtful, as is she was
trying to find a way to say something. Finally she spoke quietly.
«Why Hans? I just can not understand why?»
I looked at her a little while before I answered.
«Why what?»
She just kept staring into the embers, then said; «Am I that
unattractive to you? Am I unworthy of your attention? Do you feel I
deserve no honour?»
I pondered her questions a long time, joining her in staring at the
embers. After several minutes I sighted, then spoke.
«I'm still not certain what you mean Xav. If I have done something
to dishonour you...»
Xaviera raised her hand, stopping me
 «You best me in a battle blade to blade. You refuse to end my life,
condemning me to live in the shadow of defeat. You order me to admit it
in front of other vixens. Yet you do not,» she made a pause, as if she
had trouble speaking her mind out loud, «you do not make your claim,
as if I mean nothing to you.»
I didn't know how to reply to that, so I didn't.
Instead I felt that some sort of physical reassurance was the thing to
try. I reached out, placed my arm around her shoulders and pulled her
gently towards me. Xaviera sighted, and I felt her long, bushy tail
wrapped itself around my back.
«You're not unattractive,» I said in her ear, more because I
realised that she needed to hear it from me than because I meant it,
«but you are very, how shall I say it, alien. If I've slighted your
sense of honour, it was without intent.»
I closed my eyes, trying to remember the face of the last woman I had
made love to before the war and failed.
«But this speaking of making claims,» I continued after a little
while, «I do not understand. It is a concept I'm not familiar
with.»
Xaviera placed her hand on my knee. I gently removed it again.
«Making claims,» she said after a while, «is when you make public
that a male belongs to you.»
She gave a small chuckle, the first time I had heard that sound from
her
 «Of course, for you it will be opposite. The only time a male may
claim is if she loses her honour to him.»
«And you think you lost yours to me?» I asked, hardly believing my
ears.
«Yes.» Xav replied gravely, «The instant you made me admit defeat
you even made it public.»
«I'm sorry bout that.» I muttered, «I lost my temper.»
We sat together for a while, Xaviera ever so often trying to make small
passes on me, and I either ignoring them or turning them away.
«Tell me one thing Xav,» I said as the last embers winked out, «how
long has you known Kidera?»
«All my life,» she replied, «why?»
I shrugged.
«Then you shouldn't fall out over an outworlder whom stumbles in to
a minefield of traditions he knows nothing about.»
«Minefield?» she asked, looking confused.
«A highly dangerous place.» I corrected, then lowered my hand and
gave her a gentle pat on her butt.
«I need some sleep Xav. Talk to Kidera tomorrow, and we might chat
again tomorrow night.»
She got up, then turned to me.
«I'll talk to Kidera since you tell me to Hans. But I don't think
we will chat tomorrow night. We'll be deep inside Dourwood then.»
As she left as silently as she had come, I laid back, falling asleep
almost before I hit the ground.

7
As the small band started out the next day, I noted a change in mode
among the few soldiers that accompanied us. The day before they had
been talking among themselves, but this day they were quiet, and
everyone of them was looking downcast, as if they were travelling to
their execution. I wanted to ask either Xaviera or Kidera about it, but
they had pulled away from the group early in the day, riding several
hundred meters in front of us. And since the troopers never responded
when I talked to them that left me with...
"Bantam? Why is everybody looking like they are about to die? It's a
beautiful day."
Bantam looked up from whatever dark thoughts he had mused over and
looked at me a long time before he finally replied.
"Dourwood. By noon today we will enter it, and pass from the world of
the living. It's a dark and forbidden place."
I looked around me, struggling not to fall down from the horse. From
the small hill-lock we were riding over, I could see far and wide.
"The only woodland I can see is over there," I told Bantam as I nodded
in the direction we was travelling, "and I think it looks rather open
and light."
"That's Dourwood," he said after some time, "but don't let your eyes
deceive you. I could tell you stories that would freeze the blood in my
veins."
I shrugged, and we rode on in silence.
The sun was high in the sky, and I was sweating heavily under the grey
cloak as we finally reached the edge of Dourwood. As my initial
impression had been, it was neither particularly dense, nor oppressing.
It was, or at least the part I could see, made up of birches, elms and
other leaf-threes. The ground was covered in shrubbery. The lupas on
the other hand was regarding it like I would regard a toxic wasteland.
"It won't get any better," Xaviera finally said, "a little to the north
there shall be an old road through. If we find it, and if the dark ones
haven't come down from the mountains yet, we won't use more than a
week to the other side."
After riding a few kilometres, as far as I could judge, a narrow pawed
road appeared, heading straight into the woods. I studied it while the
lupas sat silently, looking gloomy in the bright sun. Large slabs of
stone had been laid close together, but age and disuse had moved them
so large cracks were visible. Some had sunk as well, making the surface
uneven and possible dangerous for the horses. Silently Xaviera started
to ride slowly forward, into the woods. I happened to catch a glimpse
of her face as she passed me, and while I still found the wolf-like
faces hard to read, the expression on her face spoke volumes.
The ride ought to have been pleasant, considering the fine weather, the
birdsong and the nice open forest around us. It was not however, partly
because of my lack of skill, but mostly because of the company.
Everyone seemed nervous and highly strung, as if they expected the
threes themselves would attack. Not long before dusk I managed to
manoeuvre the mare I was riding next to Xaviera. After exchanging a few
general remarks about the weather and my sore back, I popped the
question.
"So you and Kidera got a little chat today?"
She nodded while she kept looking around, then spoke quietly.
"We did not agree on whom of us has the right. But we did agree that we
should let it rest until we see who survives this journey."
I shuddered.
"As my people sees it, 'claiming' is no right. Both parties has to
agree on it"
"But remember Hans," Xaviera said as she turned towards me, "we are not
your people and this is not your world."
"I know Xav."
I felt moisture gather in my eyes as I thought about it.
"Be assured I know this is not the world I was born and raised in."
We rode in silence a few minutes, before I decided I had to get my mind
on other things.
"Xav?" I asked, "Why does your people fear this woods?"
Xaviera looked at me, bewilderment clear in her eyes, then mouthed
three short words.
"The dark ones."
I stared back, until she explained a little more.
"They live here part of the year. I hope," she looked around again, "I
really do hope they haven't come down from the mountains yet."
"I see," I said, even if I didn't, "so tell me of the dark one, as you
call them."
«They are vile,» came Kidera's voice from behind me, «and they are
dangerous. We have been fighting them since the dawn of time.»
I nodded sagely.
«But that tells me more about you than of them. What are they? Why do
you fight? And if the two races has fought for as long as you remember,
who built this roadway we are travelling on now?»
«You ask about things we are not certain of ourselves.» Xaviera
stated after a while, and Kidera added, «Too much knowledge was lost
when Pantageon was razed.»
I waited while the two vixens looked thoughtfully. Then, Xaviera
started talking.
«There are some that say that they are our kin, turned away by some
great treason. I do not believe that. Others claim they are a race as
alien to us as your race is. I find that easier to believe.»
I gave a small chuckle at that, murmuring; «And of course, it is
easier to kill someone who is not family.»
Xaviera grew quiet at that, and as I could not see her face in the
failing light, I assumed she was pondering my statement. Instead,
Kidera spoke up.
«We do not know why we started fighting, whether it was over land or,
as some theorize, a treason, or any other reason. Now we fight because
we have always fought. Lupa kill dark ones simply because they are dark
ones. Dark ones kill lupa because we are lupa. And of course, they raid
our farms for food.»
Kidera grew quiet too, and we rode in silence until the failing light
made further progress dangerous on the uneven road. As we dismounted
more or less gracefully, I hinted.
«And the road?»
«Oh,» Xaviera said, «The dark ones did not come to Dourwood until
about a thousand years ago. This used to be the main road from
Whitewater Ford to Enyo.»
The warm night passed without incidents as we rested in a moonlit
clearing near the road. I lay awoke most of the night, as the sounds
made by the guards was enough to wake the dead in my ears. If there
were any dark ones close by, they wouldn't need to see us to find us.
I could see that Kidera and Xaviera was awake too, and both seemed like
they wanted a nightly chat again. They would rise halfway up, spot the
other looking at them and sink back down again. Finally I dozed off in
to an uneasy slumber, only to drift into a strange and disturbing
dream.
I stood on a hill-lock, watching the forest. The forest of my dream
looked just like the forest proper, yet it felt more sinister. It was
as if every shadow cast by the trees was not a shadow, but a mirror
opposite of the tree, black as sin, with gnarled bark and a rotten
core. I shuddered, realizing, even in my dream, that this was how the
lupas saw the woods. I turned, or rather, the woods turned around me,
bringing me face to face with three figures, mere shadows against a
strange light emitting from somewhere behind them. Around the feet of
the figures I saw other figures. Dead lupas and broken figures in heavy
hooded cloaks littered the ground, their blood darkening the soil. The
three figures raised their arms; their fingers pointed straight towards
me, and said, as with one voice;
«Chose wisely, Man. For the issue is again in the balance, and your
thumb is upon the scales.»
The light faded away, and the woods spun again. As it stopped, the dead
had gone, but the three figures remained. One in a heavy, hooded cloak.
Two in scale mail. Xaviera and Kidera. They looked, well, dead, but
still alive, as if I saw them between the slivers of time. I wanted to
speak, ask them what was happening, but I found that I could not utter
a sound. A melodious voice behind me boomed loud.
«One offers companionship and compassion. The other wants to give and
receive love, passion and raw lust. The last is the big enigma, for she
does not know her own mind. Choose well, O Man, or be doomed for
eternity.»
I woke up, sitting bolt upright and wide-eyed. Just meters away I saw
Kidera and Xaviera, both looking straight at me. I shuddered, then
huddled together, muttering.
«Just a dream.»
They looked at each other, at me and then at each other again. Then as
one they moved closer.
«In here, or anywhere the dark ones live, dreams are not just
dreams.» Kidera whispered, while looking around.
Xaviera nodded, adding; «They say that the magic of the dark ones are
different from ours.»
«They can make you dream prophecies,» Kidera whispered, «or they
might plant a dream in you, for some sinister reason of their own.»
«Or so it is said. But what's make it dangerous and unpredictable,»
Xaviera picked up again, «is that any kind of magic I know about may
linger after the spell is cast. It might just be that you felt the
aftershock of magic crafted years ago.»
I sat in silence, thinking over what they had told me. No, I decided,
this was no aftereffect. The dream had been too direct, to targeted to
me, as a human. After a while, Kidera spoke up again.
«What did you dream?» I shook my head. «It was rather, well,
personal. I rather not tell.»
She nodded, and both she and Xaviera lay down next to me, barely a
couple of feet away. I lay down between them, trying to get a grip.
Choose well, I had been told. Choose between what? For what stake? And
well for whom?

8
Early next morning we started again, as Xaviera wanted to travel as
fast as was possible through Dourwood. As I looked around, I noted with
a certain perverse satisfaction that both vixen, Bantam and all the
troopers looked as sleepy as I felt. If all nights were going to be
like this one, we would fall asleep on the horses before we reached the
other side. Cursing the lack of proper stirrups in a low voice, I lent
over the mare's neck and tried to relax and thought about the dream I
had. If I were to choose, then what did I have to choose between? And
what was the issue that was in the balance, and in what was my part in
it? I pondered deeply, staring into the mane.
I had almost dismissed the entire thing as just a dream, when I noticed
that both Xaviera and Kidera sat still, their ears standing up and
moving slightly. I scratched my week-old beard, straining my hearing to
find out what had caught their attention. At first, I didn't hear a
thing, but as the wind picked up slightly I faintly heard something
aver the rustling of the leaves.
«Drums?» I said, more to myself than anything else.
«Yes,» came Kidera's voice, «drums. You were mistaken Xav. They have
already come down from the mountains.»
I looked at Xaviera. Her face had darkened, and her jaw was set.
«We ride onwards at once,» she said softly, but loud enough to let
the entire party hear her, «they sound a long way of. Neither is there
any scent on the wind.»
No one said anything more as they dug their heels into their horses,
urging them on. Seconds later Xaviera had to stop to help me remount.
It was only after the last rays of the sun had disappeared, that
Xaviera allowed us to dismount and rest. Even if Kidera claimed that my
horsemanship had improved in the three days we had been on the road, my
body did not agree. I gingerly sat down, with the vixens on either
side.
«I have not heard any more drums today.» I remarked.
Xaviera and Kidera exchanged looks, then Xaviera replied.
«We have, most of the day. Your hearing is maybe not as good as
ours.»
I nodded in the dark.
«Probably not,» I agreed, «and I know from our first meeting your
sense of smell surpasses mine as well.»
This time it was their turn to nod.
«So if you can not hear nor smell well,» Kidera asked after a while,
«how do your people hunt their meat?»
«O dear,» I said after thinking a second, «this is getting close to
the edge of what I can not talk about.»
«But not crossing it?» Kidera insisted.
«No. Not crossing it, I think.»
I grew quiet again, before I continued.
«Mostly we don't hunt, but when we do we hunt by sight. Our visual
faculties are among the better on our world.»
Silence embraced us once more. I had a feeling that Xaviera wanted to
say something, but I didn't encourage her. Instead it was Kidera whom
broke the tranquillity first.
«It must be strange to live in a world where sound and smell does not
dominate. I can not imagine how it feels.»
I felt my lips draw themselves up into a smile as I replied.
«And I can not imagine how I could live without trusting my sight.»
«Enough light talk,» Xaviera suddenly broke in, «if the dark ones
finds us, we will not live any length of time no matter which sense we
use most.»
She flinched, as if she was about to say something she was not sure of.
«Hans, you're sort of our captive.»
I shrugged, indicating that my status did not bother greatly me at the
time.
«The way home is closed for me. So even if you sat me free, I would
have no place to go. And, considering why I came to your world, I might
as well consider me a prisoner of war.»
«Captives are new to us Hans, I told you that the first day. But if we
are going to live through this woods, we can ill afford idle hands.»
Both Kidera and I turned towards her, trying to figure out where she
was heading. Xaviera stood up and went over to her horse. As she
returned, she was carrying a sword, which she handed to me. I did not
take it.
«Take it,» Xaviera said, «you may need it before you know it.»
I raised one eyebrow as I countered.
«Are you willing to rearm a prisoner of war and an enemy?»
«For a time, I'll take that chance. All I want in return is your
word of honour that you will not use it against us.»
I shook my head, then said, «I can not give you my word of honour.»
«Can not,» Kidera broke in, «or will not?»
«Another law of warfare on your world Hans?» Xaviera asked, a note of
irritation in her voice.
«No law,» I said, «but a Royal resolution.»
I took a long breath before I went on.
«In accordance with the Royal resolution dated 10th of June 1949, part
II, paragraph 8, subparagraph F; No officer or NCO may give his word of
honour to the enemy if captured.»
The only thing they did was to stare at me in the thickening dark. I
shrugged, before I went on.
«And in accordance with subparagraph B, same reference, I would have
to attack you if you hand me that sword.»
«But that don't make sense,» Kidera burst out, «you might take one
or two of us, but then you would die.»
«I know,» I said, «but I swore an oath once, and the resolution does
say 'even if the situation is difficult or hopeless'.»
«You know,» Xaviera said after a long silence, «I really wish I
could understand the way you think Hans. There is something about you
that...»
She stopped abruptly and went off. I followed her with my eyes as she
went from trooper to trooper. Kidera moved closer to me, and I felt her
hand on my shoulder.
«I too sense something for you Hans,» she breathed in my ear, «but I
think that is different from what Xav is sensing.»
I shrugged as I ransacked my mind, trying to remember what the voice
had said in my dream. One would offer lust and passion, so much I
remembered. One was an enigma, for she didn't know herself. But the
last one? Compassion, wasn't it? How did I fit Xaviera and Kidera
into any of those, and who was the third figure? I laid down, gazing
upwards at the gathering clouds. Kidera was still beside me, her hand
moved to my chest, where she traced abstract patterns. After a little
while I seized her hand with mine, and muttered into the darkness.
«Stop it Kidera. You and Xav had a deal had you not?»
Even if I could not see her clearly in the dark, I sensed her smile.
«We have,» she agreed, «but it don't stop us from, hmmm, trying to
influence you.»
«You can try that in the morning Kidera. Right now I want to sleep,
and I want to sleep alone.»
She did not say anything, but she still managed to convey a sense of
being rejected.
«Alright then,» I gave in after a while, «you may sleep here to, but
no foul play.»
With that I turned over and tried to rest.
I was standing on the hill-lock again, watching the forest all around
me. To the naked eye it still looked open and inviting, to my inner eye
it was gradually turning into a dark and forbidden place. I looked
around. No, I could see no one. For some reason that disturbed me more
than the images I had seen last night. I sat down, and waited. The
forest was unnaturally quiet, but I could sense the sound of drums. No,
not the sound of drums, but the ghost of the sound of drums. Somehow, I
knew that a lupa would have heard them. At the same time the memory of
a smell filled my nostrils. A smell I would not notice, but a lupa
would. I remained sitting, watching the shadows of the trees move over
the landscape...Finally I heard a noise behind me. Not turning, I
spoke.
«Who are you, really?»
«A true man,» the melodious voice from the last dream rang out,
«always seeking to classify and dissect. Is it not enough that I am?»
«You offered me advice. I like to know what your part of this is, and
mine.»
There was a long pause before the voice returned.
«If you had not chosen to be blind Man, you would see it as clearly as
you can see the forest before you.»
I awoke. As clearly as I could see the forest? But in my dream I could
see two woods at the same time, one light and pleasant, and one dark
and boding. I thought hard as I watched the troopers on guard move
slightly. In my dream I saw and sensed like a man, but I got a feeling
of how a lupa would see and sense. It was then that I suddenly realized
something that had been at the back of my head some time. The drums
were closer, and there were at least two distinct sets. I gently nudged
Kidera to break the news.

9
I told Kidera of the drums in a low whisper, and she disappeared like a
ghost in the night. It felt like mere seconds later when both she and
Xaviera appeared like shadows in the darkness.
"Curse these clouds," I heard Xaviera whisper as she slipped next to
me, running her hand through my hair as she sat down, "had the moon
been visible we might have mounted up and left at once."
"So what you plan on doing instead," I asked in a hoarse whisper, "wait
for them to find us?"
"We wait, that's right, but at the first light we must ride. Until
then, stay alert."
I settled down, uneasy, but unable to do anything. In the darkness the
superior hearing of the lupas would hear any attackers before I could
see them.
At first light we mounted up and rode onwards. The others saw enemies
behind every tree, and their feverish activity soon had my hair on the
edge. I had a feeling that we would not be attacked on the road, but
rather under the cover of darkness. I tried to tell Xaviera about it,
but she would not listen.
"They attack at all times Hans. I have fought dark ones for ten years
now, and I know how cunning they are."
"My point exactly," I countered, "if they are so cunning, they will
attack at a time where the odds are against us. And the worst time we
could be attacked is at night."
Xaviera thought about it for a while, her ears laying themselves flat
against her head, then spoke softly.
"You might be right, but..."
Before she could finish the sentence the trooper riding in the rear
gave an odd gurgle and fell of his horse, an arrow stuck right through
his furry neck.
"Forward!"
All the horses speed up as Xaviera shouted, making me hang on for my
dear life.
As the sun started falling again, Kidera and I finally caught up with
the rest of the group. Keeping myself on top of a walking horse was
difficult enough, but a running horse had been close to impossible. If
Kidera had not stopped and helped out by holding my horse each time I
had fallen off, it would certainly have run after the others, leaving
me stranded in the forest. Luckily we had avoided any encounters with
the dark ones, but by now the horses was tired and in no condition for
another mad dash. While I did not say that out loud, it suited me fine.
Setting a more sedate tempo, I approached Xaviera again.
"Sorry," I muttered, "but it seems like my idea of when they would
attack was wrong."
"Don't blame yourself." Xaviera said, "I guess we just happened upon
one. That is good because we did not lose more than one trooper, but it
is a loss I can ill afford. It is also bad news for us because they now
know we are here."
I cast a glance at her. She looked very tired all of a sudden, her
muzzle downcast, her ears flat, the gloss in her white fur gone and her
eyes clouded.
"So," I said, "how long will they wait until they act upon that
knowledge?"
Xaviera just shrugged, and then said so low I could hardly hear her.
«In another minute, in another day? I don't know Hans. In all my
experience with the dark ones I have no clue to how they will react.
But be assured, my strange prisoner, they will not capture you alive. I
will see you dead first... I feel I owe you that much.»
I shivered, despite the warmth of the day, and tried to think of other
things. In the background drums still sounded at irregular intervals,
both from behind us and, more spine chilling, from before us.
As the shadows grew longer and the forest denser, I noted that several
of the other lupas showed the same signs of fatigue and disillusion
that I had first noted in Xaviera. Worst stricken was Bantam, the once
lively teenager acting like a man waiting for his execution. He
answered all my attempts to cheer him up with shrugs. Kidera on the
other hand seemed to take things more easily, while still visible
worried. Still, my attempts to get her to talk about her betrothed,
whom she had lost when the rift closed, was answered by nothing more
than a shrug and a sight.
They came late that night. One second I was staring at the woods in the
faint light of the stars, the next I was staring at dozens of attacking
figures. Sounds of battle erupted all around me, the crashing blades
making rains of spark. I tried to hide in the shadows of a thicket, but
one of the figures approached me. As he slowly came towards me, I tried
to make out more details in the dim light. He was short, even shorter
than the lupas, but his face was hidden under a dark hood, not unlike
mine. He suddenly lounged out with a long blade, forcing me to do an
awkward side step and I promptly fell over. I twisted onto my back as
he came for me, and just as he raised his blade to strike I kicked with
all my might. My foot hit him square in the belly, propelling him
backwards. The figure lost his blade as he collapsed, gasping for air,
and I scrambled up and jumped him. As I landed on top of him, I felt
sharp claws making gashes in my arms. I locked my hands around his
neck, he tried to do the same to me and we started rolling on the
ground. While I had the advantage of weight, he possessed agility far
beyond mine and a strength that matched mine. I have no idea how long
we might have fought before he managed to get on top, his hands pinning
mine down. I made a couple of futile tosses, managing nothing more than
loosing my hood. Just then the moon climbed the treetops, bathing the
battlefield, and my now exposed face, in a silvery sheen. The figure on
top of me gasped, then shouted something in a tongue I didn't catch.
Then, as suddenly as they had attacked, he was gone.
I regained my feet and looked around me. It seemed that all of the dark
ones had chosen to break of, leaving us alive for the time being. I put
my hood back on, and picked up the blade the assailant had dropped. It
was somewhat cruder than the blades the lupa used. About two feet long,
it was slim, straight and edged on both sides. The grip was small in my
hand, and the guard was merely a short bar mounted on the blade. Its
balance was different from other blades I had tried, with most of the
weight towards the rear of the weapon. It felt like a fast blade made
more for thrusting than cutting. I secured it in the breaches I was
wearing, concealing it under the cloak. Then I went looking for
Xaviera, Kidera and Bantam in the pale moonlight. I soon spotted both
the vixens, Kidera walking round, obviously talking to the troopers,
and the white-furred figure of Xaviera kneeling beside someone who lay
flat on the ground. I walked over to her, curious on what she was
doing.
I stood beside her as she held her hands over an ugly gash in the
recumbent lupa's belly. The figure on the ground moved a little as
she moved her hands, letting me see his face. It was Bantam. As the
situation dawned on me, I noticed a dim, fuzzy blue glow emanating from
Xaviera's hands, slowly spreading across the wound. Bantam seemed to
relax, as if the pain lessened somewhat. As Xaviera lifted her hands
and let out a sight, I spoke in a barely audible voice.
«Will he make it?»
«Maybe, maybe not.»
Xaviera turned towards me before she continued.
«But why should you care? You claimed yesterday that you were still at
war with us? You ought to be happy for each dead lupa, and there are a
handful here.»
I sat down on my haunches beside her as I carefully considered what she
had said. Putting one hand on Bantam's shoulder, I spoke slowly.
«I ask because I care about you... you all.»
I nodded at Kidera sitting down beside us, she too placing a hand on
Bantam.
«Just because our nations are technically at war, a thing which cannot
be changed now that the rift is closed, don't mean I can't see past
that and... I don't know... see the people behind the nation, I
guess. Besides, you three are the closest I have to a family now, or
even a link to my own world. I would hate to see that link weaken.»
We were all quiet for a long time, before Kidera finally broke the
gloomy hush.
«We lost only two more Xav. But I don't understand why they broke
off.»
«Me neither,» Xaviera replied, «maybe they just wanted to test us or
something.»
«I might know why.» I said after another long silence, «One of them
saw my face. Faced with the unknown, they might wish to consider their
options.»
Kidera looked at me for a long time, the expression in her eyes
unreadable. Then she shrugged and turned to Xaviera.
«Will he live? If he can ride tomorrow, we might have a slight chance
to escape.»
«I can try.»
Xav leant forwards without further words, placing her hands on the
wound again and closing her eyes. Kidera and I stood up and left her to
her work.
«I saw most of your battle,» she said as we found a fallen timber to
sit on, «and I must admit a certain admiration for your way of
fighting. You ought to be dead at least twice.»
«Luck, not skill.» I replied.
«Maybe. But I also saw what you did after the dark one had run of...»
I looked at her, waiting for her to take the next step.
«You can't hide it for long Hans. Give me the blade.»
I turned, looking her straight into her dark eyes, then spoke in a
monotone just short of having knifes in it.
«You didn't see anything Kidera, understand? If you tell anyone, I
have no choice than to use it... on my self if I have to. And don't
ask me to give my word not to use it against you, because you know I
cant.»
She looked into my eyes for a long time, then looked away
«You did not kill Xav when she offered you the opportunity... yet you
threaten us? I wish I could understand you better Hans... and learn to
know you better in all ways.»
She laid her head sideways as she pushed her breast a little forward,
and looked at me through the corner of her eye. Her lips drew a little
up as she spoke in a warmer tone.
«If you give the blade to me Hans, I might... be able to make it
worthwhile for you... one way, or hopefully in another.»
I shook my head as I smiled
 «I'm gonna try to get some sleep now,» I said as I placed a finger
under her muzzle, twisting her face towards me, «alone.»
As she got a disappointed look on her face, I continued.
«I know you and Xav for some bizarre reason is competing, but lets see
if we live to see the other side of the forest first.»
I left before she could say anything more.

10
The remainder of the night passed in peace. The drumming had increased
to a peak about an hour after the attack and then they stopped. The
only sounds that I heard was the low moaning of the wounded troops, and
Xaviera's sights from time to time as she worked on Bantam. Something
started to tick in the back of my head... something I couldn't quite
get a solid hold on. I shook my head to clear it, but it eluded me. I
settled in for a sleepless night, unable to relax for more than a few
minutes at a time.
Long before the sun had cleared the tops of the threes, the troopers
and Kidera started putting the harness on the horses. I went over to
Bantam and Xaviera, finding her spread out flat out next to him.
Carefully I placed my hand on his belly, gingerly feeling the vividly
red, but unbroken skin where he had, just hours before, had a terminal
wound. I could not bring my mind to understand it, but just as Xaviera
had healed my broken hand, she had now saved the life of Bantam.
Convinced that he was all right, I checked on her. She looked
exhausted, her tongue hanging out between her sharp, yellowish teeth
and her legs merely slumped under her. It seemed like she had just
collapsed after she was finished doing whatever she did on Bantam.
Taking care not to wake either of them, I stood up and found Kidera.
"Neither of them can ride as far as I can tell," I told her, "and from
the look of Xaviera I'll be surprised if she even could sit up."
"May I be damned from now until the end." she muttered. "If we don't
get moving today, we are dead as the night falls."
I was not certain she was right, but I wasn't sure she was wrong
either. After thinking for some time I saw one solution to our
predicament.
"What if we ride double?" I asked Kidera, "If I take Xaviera in front
of me, and you take Bantam in front of you, we will at least get away
from this spot."
"What if we are attacked on the road?" she protested.
"In my case, it would not matter. I can't fight from horseback anyhow."
I scratched my growing beard, again wishing for a razor, before I
continued.
"And in your case... I'll say we must risk it to get Bantam with us.
His wound are healed, so maybe he will be able to ride himself later
today."
Kidera rubbed both her hands along her muzzle.
"We can't leave him here," she muttered, "we must try."
She looked around the remains of our campsite.
«I told Xav tonight that we only lost two... what I didn't tell her
is that two of the troopers are in no condition for a prolonged
fight.»
I shrugged.
«It don't look bright," I said as I turned around, "I'll second
that, but what can we do about it now?»
I went to wake Xaviera.
We had finally managed to get Xaviera out of her scale mail and up on
the horse I had started to think of as mine, and I clambered up after
her. Gingerly I reached around her with both hands, placing one hand on
the pommel and taking the reins with the other. I nodded to Kidera, and
the rather ragged lupa and I sallied forth. Xaviera had trouble sitting
straight, so I had to move my hand from the pommel to her hip, noticing
for the first time how slim she really was. I had of course noticed how
light she was when I helped lifting her up on the back of the beast,
but I suddenly realized I could almost reach around her waist with two
hands. I concentrated on keeping both myself and her on top of the
mare, and her bushy tail that lay along my chest and tickles my face
made it harder than it ought to have been.
The sun had not climbed much over the threes before we reached a fairly
wide stream, an old stone bridge spanning across it.
«Finally,» Kidera said, «if the old maps in Enyo Castle is right,
this is the Woodheart stream, whom many now call Darkroot. That puts us
more than halfway through this damned forest.»
Xaviera stirred under my hand, raised her head and looked around as if
drunk.
«Why have we stopped?» she asked, «Have they come to finish us of?»
I simply pointed at the bridge, and she sighted.
«Good,» she muttered as she let herself sink against me, almost
making me fall of the horse again, «lets keep going.»
The others had already starting crossing the narrow stone arc in ones
and twos, and I got the mare moving again. The weight of Xaviera
pushing against me made me unsteady, but a few gentle hints for her to
lean forward again went unnoticed. In the end I had no other choice
then to lean forward to compensate, and she pulled her tail away from
between us, instead placing it around my waist. Since this placed my
mouth near her ear, it felt naturally to start talking to her.
«How you're doing Xav?» I whispered.
«I'm feeling better Hans,» she muttered in return, «the fatigue
after magic is severe, but as luck have it, it don't last long.»
She snuggled closer to my chest as she went on.
«Besides, sitting here would make me feel good even if I'm dying.»
«You're not altogether subtle all the time, are you Xav?» I
responded after considering what she had just said, «I believed you
and Kidera had an agreement to let ting rest until we was through
Dourwood?»
«She tries to influence you, I try to influence you. But even if she
comes out on top, I'll cherish the memory of riding double with
you.»
Shaking my head, I tried to change the subject before I got to
involved. While both vixens were, well, attractive in their own ways, I
reminded myself that they were still enemies. Grabbing after what had
nagged me before, I asked something that had been on my mind the entire
day.
«Why is it always you and not anyone else who uses magic?»
She didn't reply at first, but finally spoke up.
«Whatever you think magic is, you are probably wrong. Magic is partly
a learned skill, partly an innate ability.»
«So even if I learned the skill, I still couldn't use magic?»
Xaviera twisted her head and studied me through the corner of her eye.
«You might have some magic in you Hans. Both when I tried to... keep
you on this side of the rift, and when I mended your broken hand, I
sensed a resistance that was not normal.»
I looked away for a minute, then looked back at her.
«It may be that beings from my world are naturally resistant to
magic," I muttered, "as it is something we do not master.»
«Maybe,» she agreed, «but the results are the same.»
«How about Kidera and Bantam?»
I had to ask, attempting to get the discussion away from me.
«Bantam is a male, and Kidera just don't have it in her. It's not
that common, you understand. No more than one in ten has the ability.»
«Maybe just as well,» I observed as I navigated the horse around a
hole in the road, «otherwise you might have unleashed enough power to
destroy this world.»
Rubbing her hands over her face and muzzle, Xaviera shook her head.
«It could not happen. One of the basic rules of magic seems to be that
you must use as much power to do it with magic as without magic.»
I was quiet as I pondered her last statement.
«But that means that you spend as much energy healing Bantam as his
body would have done itself?»
«Yes,» she muttered, «it was the hardest healing I ever has
attempted.»
I pondered more, then suddenly thought I had found a flaw in her
explanation.
«But how about the spell you used to stop me? Kidera says she has seen
you stop five attackers with it. That much power should have killed
you, or at least stunned you.»
«That is a different kind of spell.» Xaviera muttered, «That spell
works on the mind of the target, not his body. I convince the mind to
stop, and it does.»
I fell silent. Clearly, there was more to magic than I had believed,
but Xaviera's willingness to talk about it was slightly puzzling. I
could see no good reason for her to freely tell a captive, and no
reason what so ever for telling a captive which she might suspect had
some ability for it. Unless, of course, it was a ploy to influence me
to choose her over Kidera. Those thoughts on the other hand made me
think about the odd dream again. One whom offers compassion, one whom
offers love and lust and one whom was an enigma. Was I really to choose
between them, or was it just a dream?
As the sun dropped behind the threes again, we found a fairly large
open clearing just beside the road. Dismounting and unloading the
horses was quickly done, and soon we once more sat and awaited an
attack. I spend most of the time observing Bantam, marvelling at his
recovery. He seemed like he had never been wounded at all, the only
give-away was the large tear in his chain mail. Not far behind me sat
Xaviera, whom had recovered almost fully by now, and Kidera and talked
in hushed tones. I relaxed and dozed off.
I suddenly awoke. Again I had had the weird dream, but without neither
strange voices nor inanimate vixens, just the wood and me. I realized I
had slept for some time, for the night had fallen but the moon was up,
giving me ample light to see by. At first I did not understand what had
woken me, but then I saw them. All around the clearing stood figures
clad in dark cloaks with deep hoods. I quickly looked around me, noting
how they had encircled us completely. I quickly walked over to where
Xaviera stood sword in hand. Placing one hand on her shoulder, I spoke
softly.
«I think you ought to drop your arms, all of you. If they wanted us
dead, we been dead last night.»
She just shook her head.
«Look Xav,» I almost pleaded, «half of the figures around us carries
bows, and there is enough light to shoot by. There will be no fight,
but a slaughter.»
Reluctantly she dropped her blade on the ground, and spoke softly yet
clearly over the sound of the other lupas dropping theirs.
«This is one you owe me Hans, and I might demand more in return than
Kidera.»
I couldn't help but to smile as I whispered my reply.
«At least you'll be alive to claim it.»
As we stood huddled together in the centre of the clearing, awaiting
our fate, I spotted a light moving through the woods. It drew nearer,
and as it came onto the clearing I saw that it was tree figures, two of
which carried torches. They came closer, stopping just meters away from
us. The figure in the middle stepped a little closer then spread its
hands apart in front of us, showing us that he carried no weapons in
its paws. I looked again. Paws?

11
The figure slowly came closer, walking carefully, almost hesitantly,
and stopped a few armslenghts away from where Xaviera and I stood.
Staring at it, I got the sense that the figure was uncertain of what to
do as it remained motionless for some seconds. I moved a little
sideways, placing myself in front of Xaviera, and placing a foot on the
sword she had dropped. I lifted my hands, mimicking the figure. The
figure then raised its paw-like hands, and in the flickering light it
opened its cloak and pushed it of its shoulders, leaving it without any
other clothes apart from a loincloth. I drew a deep breath when I saw
what the cloak had hidden. Standing there in the flickering light of
the torches was a seemingly young female of an unknown race. She was
short, at least a head under my height, and lower than most lupas too.
I quickly scanned her up and down, feeling a blush spreading on my face
as I did so. She too, like the lupas, looked like a cross between
animal and human. Her muzzle was shorter and more rounded, her ears was
not as pointed. Lower down, her well formed bust held my attention for
several seconds, before I noted her rounded hips. Her fur was a reddish
colour, almost like deep, rich copper in its hue, but her uncovered
chest, as well as the lower part of her face, was off-white and had
dark, circular patterns in it. Held behind her was her tail, much
shorter than I first expected it. As she slowly took another step
towards me, I looked closer at her ears, noting the thick, black
strands of fur emerging from the tips. Looking closer, I felt my eyes
go wide. I failed to withhold a mutt as the connection hit me
"Gaupe."
"What?"
Xavieras mutter from behind me was all but a whisper on the wind.
"Lynx," I translated in a slightly steadier voice, "she look like a
lynx."
I came no further as the unknown female stopped right in front of me,
trying to peer into the darkness of my own hood. I was vaguely aware of
the moonlight reflecting in her eyes as I looked down at her, but
before I could react she stood on tip toe, lifted her arms and, not
ungently, pushed my hood back. The scent of her hit me like a battering
ram, sweet, musky and rather pleasant, reminding me for some reason of
a summer day in the forest. As the hood hit my shoulders and the
flickering torches illuminated my face her jaws dropped as her eyes
went wide open. As if she was not sure of what she saw, she gently slid
one hand across my face, letting it rest on my nose for a few seconds.
Then she quickly stepped back, lifting her hands to her mouth, covering
it as a small, joyful scream escaped. Standing still, I grabbed the
opportunity to study her closer, taking in a few details I had missed
in my first look. Around her lower arms, I noted, she wore bracelets
off some reddish material, probably copper. Deeply engraved in them,
covered the entire surface was a spiral pattern. The same pattern
repeated itself in a medallion which hung around her neck, resting in
her cleavage, and again painted or sewn onto her loincloth.
After staring wide-eyed at me for a couple of minutes she seemed to
visibly pull herself together, and lowered her hands again, Pressing
her palms together in front of her chest, she started talking. Her
voice was melodious but high in pitch, while the language she spoke was
one totally unknown to me. Twisting halfway around I looked at Xaviera,
but her face was an mask of terror and incomprehension. Looking at the
stranger in front of me, I raised my right hand to silence her. Still
with wide open eyes she stumbled into silence, her eyes darting between
my face and my hand. I cleared my throat.
"Det er mulig vi har mye til felles," I said in a clear voice almost
devoid of any quiver, "du brystfagre ukjente, men språket er ikke en
av de tingene."
She shook her head, then said something which by the sound of it was a
question. I smiled at her, as much to calm my own nerves.
"Jeg forstår ikke."
Her gaze wandered around a bit as she was clearly confused. With an
small bow to me she turned toward one of the two torchbearers and held
a short, whispering conversation with him. Turning back to me, she
bowed deep and spoke slowly.
"Many many sorry. You understand  better?"
"Yes," I said as I nodded, "I understand you now."
"Many good," she said, happiness shining in her eyes, "me say again.
Me Brætàs. Me many happy seeing flatface. El'ane all many happy."
She positively beamed.
"I am Hans," I relied, adding "who is El'ane?"
Her head tilted slightly as her lips moved, seemingly trying to
understand my question. She brightened up again and spoke faster.
"Brætàs is El'ane."
Turning and pointing towards the two cloak-clad figures behind her she
continued.
"Wyrmòr is El'ane. Gràvìas is El'ane. All El'ane. Flatface
understand?"
The last was spoken with a note of uncertainty as she turned towards me
again.
"I think so," I carefully said, "El'ane is what you call your race,
your people?"
She nodded, but before she could say anything Xaviera interrupted her.
"Where have you learned our tongue," she said loudly, "dark one?"
Brætàs simply ignored her, not even giving her a glance. Curious
myself, I decided to pick up the thread.
"How come you speak the tongue of the Lupa, Brætás?
 She looked at me while her lips moved, seemingly trying out the
sentences in her head before saying them loud.
"Many bushytails... not all die. Some talk."
I heard Xaviera taking a deep breath behind me, but she kept her
tongue. Brætàs shrugged, then carried on, again sounding really
exited.
"All El'ane many happy, now flatface bring peace! No many dead, all
bushytail leave, yes?"
I felt my brows furrowing.
"Peace? Why you think I bring peace? What can one man do?"
Her jaws dropped again, and a note of panic crept into her voice as she
spoke again.
"All legends speak that flatface bring peace again. Flatface bring
peace last time."
She looked at my face as she went on, and I noted moisture gathering in
her eyes.
"Many please flatface... many kittens, no fathers, no mothers..." she
blinked the tears away as she went on, her voice growing more pleading
"flatface ask anything, Brætàs give... anything?"
I thought for some time, Brætàs looking at me through eyes rapidly
filling with tears. Behind me I heard Xaviera and Kidera whispering,
even if I did not catch the words.
"Tell me the legends," I said gently after a while, "why do you need a
man with a flat face to bring peace?"
"Me 'gode'," she said, using her paw-like hands to rub the wetness from
her eyes, "me speak spirits, spirits speak me."
I just nodded, urging her on.
"Many legends, many old, speak of tall people, no tail, face flat, kill
bushytails, give peace to El'ane. They go away, legends speak they come
back one time. You here."
I scratched my hair as I thought. While it was clear whom the
'bushytails' was, I certainly had no intention of killing every lupa I
saw.
"I can't and I won't kill every lupa, whom you call bushytails," I
stated finally, "but I am being brought to their empress. I can talk to
her about peace between your races."
As she was about to say something I lifted my hand to silence her and
turned toward Xaviera and Kidera
 "This might be easier if you were not so close," I suggested, "she
might be scared from having enemies this close."
Kidera spat as she gently to Xavieras arm and gingerly stepped away.
"And who", I heard her mutter, "say we aren't?"
Turning back to the catlike female in front of me, I tried another
smile.
"If I come with you, what can you offer?"
Happiness broke forth I her eyes as she started talking fast.
"All flatface want, flatface get. El'ane prepared."
I scratched my growing beard.
"How about a razor and a shower? No, forget that... what I meant was,
what sort of life?"
She cocked her head, looking puzzled.
"Flatface live as El'ane? Live for..." she paused, obviously trying to
find the words, "for nature."
I considered her reply.
"You mean you live off the nature?"
This time it was her turn to consider, her eyes flickering, every line
in her face set in a serious mask. I noted that her tail had stooped
its gentle moving too.
"No," she said at last, "for nature. Bushytails not live for nature.
El'ane live for nature, nature... nature lives for El'ane."
Her face loosened up again, and she went on before I could reply.
"Please flatface, make legend speak real. El'ane prepared, give
flatface all."
"All?" I said as I looked at her, "What does the legends say flatfaces
want?"
Brætàs squirmed under my gaze, finally muttering a barely heard
reply.
"All El'ane female prepared. Flatface ask, female give must... Small
price for peace is."
I shook my head in disbelief. She could not mean that? Or could she?
"What happens to these if I join you?" I asked, indicating Xaviera,
Kidera, Bantam and the other lupas.
"Bushytails no more," Brætàs replied, "please come give peace?"
I shook my head slowly.
"Peace must come from within. Killing all the lupas is the wrong way to
do it."
Brætàs looked shocked, but I went on
"I'm being taken to talk to the leader of the lupa... I can try to make
her stop killing El'ane, but only if you let me and all the bushytails
here get through the forest alive."
Brætàs nodded slowly, looking sort of sad
"I will come back to tell you if I made her stop attacking your
people," I said, "I promise that."
"Bushytails live," she muttered, "flatface order, El'ane do."
I stepped closer to Brætàs and lowered my voice.
"One last thing before we separate for now," I almost whispered, "my
'escort' tell me your magic may make people dream strange dreams?"
"Dream future yes," Brætàs agreed, obviously taken aback from my
change of topic, "but many times it take. You dream want?"
I shook my head, wondering how much I ought to tell her.
"I've had a dream a few nights ago," I started, "a dream which scared
me somewhat."
Quickly I sketched out the first part of the dream and the voice,
taking care to remove any trace of the three figures I supposedly was
to choose between.
"Tell me Brætàs," I finished, "who is the voice? What issue is in the
balance? What part should I play in this?"
She did not respond at first, but at length she spoke again "Brætàs
think you not all speak. You hide some of dream, yes?"
I just nodded, waiting for her to go on.
"Voice is... many. Life, death, El'ane, bushytails, flatface... all
together voice is. In balance all is - flatface upsets balance on
world... so legends old speak."
She looked away for a while, then looked straight into my eyes. I felt
my knees wobble as her gaze penetrated me, seemingly reading my
thoughts.
"Brætàs can not advice give. You find out. You flatface... almost
spirit. El'ane must you trust."
She reached up and lifted her medallion over her head.
"This many luck," she said as she handed it to me, "flatface need.
Brætàs follow flatface to wounded land. You not see, but Brætàs
there."
She quickly turned and left, picking up her cloak as she walked away.
As I stood still, considering her guesses about my dream and staring
unseeingly at the medallion I had been given, the other of her people
disappeared too, like ghosts in the night.

12
I closed my hand around the medallion, felling how it still was warm
from cradling in Brætàs' cleavage. I turned towards Xaviera and
Kidera, noting that Bantam had joined them to.
"What happened?" Kidera asked, "What did the dark... the fem... I mean,
what did she say?"
I pondered for a second before I replyed.
"I think we are safe for now. We will make it out of Dourwood alive."
"How can you be so sure?"
Xaviera straightened up, the terror in her eyes starting to be replaced
by anger.
"I can't," I said softly as I closed the gap between us, "but I have
no choice but to believe her when she says they will let you live."
Bantam shuddered visibly as he spoke up, his voice unsteady.
"Us? What about you?"
Turning so I faced him fully, I frowned slightly in the darkness.
"Me? If the 'dark one' had done what she first proposed you would
be dead and I would be travelling with them instead."
I felt a small smile grow on my lips as I turned to address all three
of them.
"Still, I'm still here and you are still alive."
Seeing their faces still filled with a rare mix of anger and disbelief,
I shrugged and walked away, feeling a need to think things over.
Looking over my shoulder, I could not resist pointing out a simple fact
to them.
"But remember; no matter what I had chosen, I would have survived."
I sat down on a fallen log and stared at the unknown stars above the
forest.
"Maybe I made the wrong choice," I muttered after a while, "maybe I
should have gone with the El'ane and lived as a legend among them?"
The stars did not answer, but I felt a hand land gently on my shoulder.
I glanced down on it. It shone white in the faint moonlight. I laid my
chin against it as I muttered halfway to myself.
"So what do you think Xav? Should I have gone with them as a free man
instead of remaining with you as a captive?"
She did not reply at first, but bent over me, softy kissing my cheek. I
felt myself starting to blush; hoping it was dark enough so she would
not notice.
"Thank you Hans," she whispered as her lips had withdrawn, then kissed
me again before she continued "thank you for saving us all."
I did not answer her; unsure of why I had done it. After all, Xaviera
was the general of the lupas, and the lupas where responsible for
attacking my home. They had killed innocents in large numbers. They had
massacred my friends and workmates. They had captured me, and might
want to torture me to gain information. So why had I not let the
El'ane kill them? I felt Xaviera straddling the log I was sitting on,
her hand still on my shoulder.
"What's on your mind Hans?" she asked after she had put her other
hand around my waist.
«We are all alive," she continued, "largely thanks of you. If you had
not made me drop my blade back then..."
"I know," I replied, "but I cannot stop wondering if it might have been
the wrong choice."
Xaviera remained silent; her free hand trying to works its way under
the layers of cloth on my upper body.
"Tell me Xav," I said after pulling her hand out of my skirt the second
time, "would you have dropped your sword if anyone else had told you
to?"
"No lupa would ever have suggested it," she said with a hint of
playfulness in her voice, her hand once more diving into my cloak, "but
if they had I would have struck them down."
"So why did you do it when I asked you to?"
I pulled her hand out again, and to make her stop trying to reach my
skin I took it in my hand, gently weaving our fingers together.
"To tell you the truth, I don't know. But," she whispered, placing her
muzzle close to my ear, "I am very happy I did. If nothing else good
come of it, it means I have more time with you."
I didn't quite know what to say to that, so I didn't. Instead I
thought about the last few days, which seemed to contain more than most
of the years I had experienced before. I sighted, something that
prompted Xaviera to try to lick my face from behind. Raising a hand, I
nudged her muzzle away from my face.
«Why cant you just relax Hans?» she muttered, sounding a little sad,
«If you could just make up your mind, I'm sure I could show you a
good time.»
Shaking my head, I felt the blush spread.
«It's no more than a week since I first saw you Xav,» I softly
said, «if nothing else, it's way to early.»
She froze for a second, then muttered softly, her voice carrying a note
of curiosity.
«So a week is seven days in your world? That's interesting...»
I swore under my breath as I replied,
«Yes. More information I maybe shouldn't have given out.»
«I won't tell,» she whispered back, taking my free hand in hers and
holding it out while she again placed her muzzle next to my chin, «if
you only give me a little bit back.»
«You're scaring me.» I muttered as I felt her hot breath against my
skin, «I told you, this is far to early... I hardly know you...»
In my mind I added 'and besides, you're technically an enemy'.
«Seven days are a long time Hans. I've mated males the day after
meeting them before...»
Desperate to stop her before I lost control, I suddenly twisted on the
log, dropping one of her hands and twisting the other one up between
her shoulders. She grunted in pain as I spoke sharply.
«Maybe you have Xav, but that was not me. I need more time... there is
more at stake than just us two, or a silly contest between you and
Kidera.»
I held her hand until she suddenly sank a little together.
«Please. It... it hurts Hans. I... I will give you time to think. Now
please let go?»
As Xaviera tried to stand up, rubbing her sore arm, I placed a hand on
her shoulder, turning her around so I could see her in the eyes. Her
face was downcast, sadness of being rejected written clearly all over
it, which made my stomach turn.
«I'm sorry Xav,» I muttered, «I really don't like hurting you,
but you... you scare me Xav.»
Slowly her face came up, her gaze holding mine.
«I'm sorry too Hans,» she muttered back, the moonlight reflecting
in the moisture in her eyes, «I'm sorry I tried to push you to fast.
I forgot you are not a lupa.»
Without saying anything else, she turned and walked briskly away, her
hands held before her face. I looked away, feeling, somewhat to my
surprise, a sting in my heart.
As I slid down on a mossy spot, intending to get some sleep, Kidera
turned up. I cautiously greeted her, thinking she had seen Xaviera and
had come to shred me to pieces for hurting her. But instead of
attacking me, she simply sat next to me, her hands around her knees.
«I don't get it Hans.»
«Come again?» I asked, being taken aback by her words.
«Why you didn't let the dark ones slaughter us and following them
instead. You have complained often enough about you being captive.»
I remained silent, pondering her questions. Before I had any answer to
give her, Kidera carried on.
«I know it gnaws at you not being your own master, the fear of the
future. Who knows what's in store for you in Enyo?»
«Xaviera mentioned torture,» I muttered, «although I hope she is
mistaken.»
Kidera simly shrugged, but said nothing.
«As of why I convinced the El'ane to let you live?»
This time I shrugged, before plunging on.
«To be frank with you Kidera, I don't know. But as I told you and
Xaviera last night, you two are among my last links home.»
I lapsed into silence. Kidera stared in front of herself for a long
time, before she finally spoke again.
 «I try to understand you Hans, but how can I do that when you don't
understand yourself?»
I just shrugged again, and stretched out on the ground. Slowly the
brown vixen stood up, regarding me through half-closed eyelids.
«One last thing before you sleep,» she said, «if you ever hurt Xav
like that again, I'm not sure what I will do. I think I care for you,
but she is one of my closest friends.»
I closed my eyes as she left, falling asleep almost at once.
Again I found myself on the hill-lock. As I had dreamt before, the
forest was open and inviting to my unaided eye, but in the corner of my
eye, just outside of my vision, darkness rules. Dark echoes of the
lupas fears filled the nothingness between the something in this
forest. I shuddered in my dream, looking around me. Between the threes,
partly hidden, I thought I spotted a few figures in heavy cloaks. The
ghost of smells filled my nostrils; to weak for me to notice when I was
awake. This time I knew what they was, they were the smells of El'ane
and Lupa. I turned, and spotted three figures frozen in time again.
Kidera, Brætàs and Xaviera.
«Really,» I said, «you could at least have come up with something
new this time.»
«Man,» the voice boomed back, almost knocking me over, «you have not
chosen. The balance is not restored.»
«How can I choice?» I challenged the unknown originator of the voice,
«If I make a wrong choice, the balance might never be restored. If I
choose Kidera or Xaviera, the El'ane lose. Choose Brætàs, and I
might end up crushing the Lupa Empire. And either I choose Kidera or
Xaviera, the other will feel disappointed and rejected. Sometimes the
right alternative is not to choose!»
The figures before me flickered, wavered and disappeared like a cheep
special effect.
«Well spoken Man.» the voice said again, «but can you keep it up? At
some point you must choose.»
«Is there a point in having to choose, when all paths may lead to
evil?»
I awoke, sweet dripping from me. I really started to dislike these
dreams. Looking up, I noted the sky turning pink. Sighting, I prepared
myself mentally for yet another day on horseback. Riding, I decided,
was even more a pain in the ass than the recurring dreams.

13
We rode more slowly the next day. The troopers was visibly more
relaxed, even thought they were still scanning the trees carefully. So
did I for that matter, even if the reason was quite different I was
hoping to catch a glimpse of Brætàs again. Xaviera looked rather
downcast and dejected, but as I tried to get alongside her on several
occasions, she either rode away before I managed to get next to her or
looked the other way. For some reason I could not put my finger down
on, this bothered me. Even when I remembered how uncomfortable she had
made me feel just a few hours previously, her mood and her
unwillingness to talk to me, or even acknowledge my presence, made me
feel queasy. I somehow wanted to reach out and touch her, telling her
everything would be all right. Wanting to do that on the other hand
made me wonder what emotional minefield I had stumbled into. She was
very nice in her own, alien way, and clearly interested in getting to
know me, but as I had to keep reminding myself, she was an enemy when
all was said and done. I feel into deep thought, growing unaware of my
surroundings.
"I would not worry to much Hans."
Kidera's voice made me jump in the saddle, but I managed to stay on.
"She will come over it if you give her time," Kidera continued, "and
you talking to her wont help."
Pondering over what she had just said, I felt a question take shape on
my tongue.
"She been like this before?"
Kidera spent a few minutes studying the tip of her tail, holding it in
one hand and grooming it with the other.
"No," she said at length, "that was not like this."
She glanced over at me as she kept talking.
"She was stricken pretty hard once... but that is in the past, and it
was... different. The point is..." Kidera sighted as she let go of her
tail, "the point is that Xav never behave like she did last night, it
just isn't her way of doing things."
I looked at her, felling my jaw drop.
"Come again?" I heard my own voice say.
"Xav is just a bit shy around males," she said with a weak smile on her
lips, barely barring her teeth, "I guess she just is a little bit
unsure about what do say and do."
A thoughtful and faraway look came over Kidera's face as she
continued, speaking slightly slower.
"She have always been more happy with the harsh realities of battle
than with the soft guessing game of romance."
This time it was my turn to ponder for several long minutes.
"You know Kidera,» I muttered, «I never would believe that. She sure
didn't seem very shy or particularly unsure a few hours ago. But then,
I never been any good around women myself, so I really don't know how
they are supposed to act."
"She was not quite herself I think," Kidera said after a time, "maybe
the shock of the dark ones... the joy of being alive after all... or
the fear of losing to..."
Suddenly her face grew rigid. Not wasting any more words, she dug her
heels into the sides of her horse, riding up to Xaviera. My last
thought, that what Xaviera had tried felt closer to rape than romance,
died unsaid.
Barely noticing the forest around us, I returned to my reflections. So
deep in thought was I that if Bantam had not stopped my horse when
Kidera called a halt, I would have ridden right on. I gave him a faint
smile, and dismounted without hurting myself.
"So what was on your mind Lieutenant?" he asked as he lead the mare and
me back towards the others.
I did not want to answer him directly, so instead I turned the question
around before I spoke.
"Tell me Bantam; if a woman, sorry, vixen, had... well... tried to get
into your pants, what would you have done?"
He looked at me some time, clearly trying to figure out my meaning,
before he lighted up.
"What kind of question is that? All males would do the same; play along
and enjoy it."
I scratched my beard as I reconsidered my approach, then found a new
angle on my question.
"And if the vixen in question wasn't Kidera?"
Bantam's eyes flickered from side to side.
"Who told you?" he demanded.
"No one," I admitted, "it was easy enough to spot. So, how about it?"
He looked away for a while, then down at his own hand. I walked
silently beside him.
"I don't know. I guess I wouldn't enjoy it...» he muttered at
last, «or enjoy it as much, anyway. But I am a male, and if a vixen
wants her way with me..."
He shrugged, leaving the remainder of the sentence unsaid.
"Is that what happened?" he asked softly as we sat down to eat a meagre
lunch, "Did the general and you...?"
Carefully considering my choice of words, I muttered quietly.
"Close enough. Things moved a bit faster than I liked, and I... I
panicked and I did... something I probably should not have done."
Bantam looked at me, surprise and shook in his eyes.
"Remember this Bantam;" I simply said, "I'm not a lupa. I'm human,
and humans are different."
He simply nodded, but the look on his face did not change. I ignored
him and turned my attention to the food, my eyes scanning the trees
from time to time.
We remounted and I made sure to keep close to Bantam at the rear of the
small band. Although I did not intend to talk to him, this gave me an
unequalled view of Xaviera and Kidera. They were riding near each
other, but seemingly not talking. As the hours towards sunset dragged
on, I wondering again if I had made the wrong choice. Had I not been
better of among the El'ane? True, Xaviera and Kidera was the only lupa
I knew for sure had visited my world, and as such were among my last,
tenuous links to what I already considered my past life. On the other
hand, would I be better off by simply burning down the bridges and
start again? Almost unaware of it, I started sketching out a simple
plan for a quick escape. Brætàs had said she would follow me to what
she had called the wounded land. Surly she would do that in case I
changed my mind? As the plan grew and got more daring, my bleak mood
lifted, allowing me to smile for the first time in several hours.
As we stopped for the night, I noted that Xaviera cast several looks my
way, but I did not feel for another confrontation, so I looked away as
soon as I noticed. The look on Xaviera's face was strange, partly pain
and partly anger. Clearly, I was not the only one that had been marked
by what had passed between us. I picked a spot a little away from the
bonfire for my bedroll, not wishing to be involved in any
conversations. Still, I was close enough to see Xaviera's hunched back
as she sat next to Kidera. It was then it struck me: her tail, which
usually stood up or went from side to side, was laid flat along the
ground. Thinking back, I could not remember seeing it move all day. I
shrugged, and dismissed a sudden urge to walk over to the two vixens.
If they had wanted to talk with me then, I might have abandoned my
resolve to carry my plan through. Instead I laid back, and pretended to
sleep. As I was laying there I heard someone walk up to me. Glancing
through my half-closed eyelids, I saw Xaviera standing over me, looking
down. The last light from the dying flames cast an eerily light on her
face, clearly showing moisture in her eyes. Her mouth opened and closed
a few times, as if she wanted to say something. Then she was gone.
I waited a little longer, then carefully got up on my knees, and looked
towards where the bonfire had been. A single figure was sitting by the
dying embers, looking hunched and crest-fallen.
"General Xaviera av Lupa-imperiet," I muttered to myself, "jeg håper
du kan tilgi meg for det jeg skal nå. Men det er enhver krigsfanges
plikt å flykte og føre kampen videre."
I turned away and headed for where I knew there had been a gap between
the sentries a few hours before and silently slipped away. As I judged
myself outside the circle of guards, I stood up and lifted my hand as a
last farewell towards the barely seen embers.
Suddenly an arm was laid around my neck from behind, and a voice
muttered quietly in my ear.
"Going anywhere Hans?"

14
I froze in my tracks, and swore beneath my breath. Trying to sneak
silently away from beings with an acute hearing was not that easy. The
fur-clad arm rested lightly against my throat, but the implication of
it squeezing hard was apparent. I tried to swallow.
"If I said I wasn't Kidera," I whispered back, "would you believe me?"
Kidera tightened the grip slightly as she replied.
"No, I would not believe you."
I relaxed, letting my arms drop, and waited. After a few seconds she
tightened the grip further, but I did not try to fight her. For all I
knew she might have a blade in her free hand, and being stabbed was not
a part of my hastily conceived plan for escape. Kidera finally let go
of my neck and came in front of me. I could not see in the gloom
whether she was armed or not, but I had lost my will to run off.
"Why?" she asked as she looked at me through the darkness, her voice
barely above a whisper, "Why did you try to run of?"
I looked at her, then half turned and looked towards the remains of the
bonfire, where the slumped figure of Xaviera could just be made out.
"You would not understand," I finally muttered, "I realized that when I
talked with Bantam at lunch."
"Try me," she replied softly, "unlike him I attempt to understand."
I sat down before her, scratching my beard. Kidera sat down in front of
me, and waited.
"To take the short version," I whispered to her, "I hurt her, and that
hurt me. So I guess I wanted to burn the bridges and start again."
Kidera remained silent for a long time.
"I'm not sure I understand you," she whispered at last, "surly it must
have been more... fulfilling to stay and, so to speak, unhurt her? And
what bridge are you talking about?"
Not wanting to be forced into talking about Xaviera before I had more
time to contemplate the issue, I quickly took the conversation down
another road.
"I told you. I knew you would not understand."
She moved closer, gently placing a hand on my knee.
"But I wish to understand," she almost pleaded, still whispering, "I
feel there is so much I could gain."
I scratched my beard again as I tried to think a way to phrase what was
on my mind.
"I have much the same trouble," I muttered after a while, "I try to
judge your actions by human logic and human thought, and consequently
find your behaviour and reasoning impossible to fathom."
Kidera moved her hands a little higher on my leg and started rubbing
her finger over it, almost as if she was to busy thinking to notice it
herself. I let her do it.
"I can understand every word you are saying Hans," she muttered as she
rubbed my leg, "and I think I get the idea of what you mean. But I
still can't get to the deeper meaning..."
"Consider this then: the El'ane, whom you call the dark ones, are an
alien race to you. Can you understand the way they think, the reasons
for their actions?"
Kidera's hand stooped moving for several seconds, then started again.
"No,» she admitted, «I don't think I can."
"And yet," I pointed out, "you have been sharing this world for
millennia. I on the other hand is not even of this world."
"And your point Hans? What has understanding the dark ones to do with
understanding you?"
I sighted, before I whispered wearily.
"Any human would have seen the connection I tried to make. Again I
attempted to use human logic to explain, and again you fail to
understand. If you can't understand the El'ane, what makes you think
you can understand humans?"
For a long time we sat in silence, until Kidera finally whispered back,
confusion clear in her voice.
"But I don't need to understand the dark ones..."
Placing my hand over hers, I whispered my reply.
«It's just an example. It doesn't really mean anything if you cannot
see the connection. The entire point I'm trying to make here is that
you and I are not just a couple of people. We are two different people,
two different races, two different worlds even."
I half-turned again, glancing towards Xaviera, before I turned back.
"We have little, if any, common ground to stand on."
"You talk in riddles," Kidera muttered, "there are plenty of ground to
stand on for both of us here."
I repressed an urge to scream loudly; instead I groaned softly.
"It's just a way of saying something. What it means is that we are so
different, our background and our experiences are so unlike, that we
can not really understand each other, or the way the other think."
"But," Kidera whispered in a puzzled voice, "that is what I try to do."
I squeezed her hand gently, giving up on my attempt to make her
understand.
"Right... keep trying, but don't think it will be easy."
I stood up and walked over to the others, not bothering to see whether
or not Kidera followed. Instead I stepped softly towards Xaviera,
hoping she did not notice me. She had dozed off from the looks of it,
her head tilted forwards towards her knees, her arms around her legs.
She looked very different from what she looked like when she was awake,
somewhat softer and more vulnerable.
"Xav," I muttered, "jeg kan nok aldri forstå deg, men jeg kan føle
med deg allikevel."
I carefully sat down behind her, reached around her shoulder and pulled
her towards me. She half-twisted in her sleep, resting her head on my
chest. For some reason it felt right on one level, but wrong on several
other, but I choose to ignore that at that point. Right then it was
more important to try and heal some wounds before they left scars, but
whether the wounds was Xaviera's or mine I could not tell. Breathing
deeply, I relaxed and dozed off.
I awoke early the next day by Xaviera softly stroking my arm, which
still lay around her. Her head was still on my chest, and as I glanced
down at her I saw she was studying my face from below, a content look
in her eyes. I smiled to her, but did not stir.
"Why?" she asked softly, still stroking my arm.
"Why what?" I replied, not quite awake.
"Yesterday you say I scared you," she snuggled closer, "but tonight
you... you held me in the night."
I shrugged, not quite sure why I had done it.
"You looked like I was hurting you by what I said and did," I tried to
explain, "and seeing you hurt by me hurt me in return."
She looked away and a tone of sadness crept into her voice as she
muttered dejectedly.
"So you did not do it for me..."
Letting out a deep sight, I brought my free hand up between her ears
and scratched gently, making Xaviera murmur of satisfaction, her tail
gently slapping my back as it moved from side to side.
"To tell you the naked truth Xav," I murmured in her ear, "I am not
sure why I did it, nor for whom I did it. I sensed you needed
something, and I needed to give it to you. But this changes nothing, I
still need time to get to the bottom."
She remained silent, and I carried on to fill the akward silence.
"I was almost afraid to do it after last night. I feared you might try
to rape me in my sleep."
"I thought about it," she giggled, making her head jump on my chest,
"but then I thought; If you trusted me enough to give me a chance to do
it, I would not break the trust."
She kept stroking my arm for a long time, then suddenly stopped, and
looked straight into my face, her eyes serious.
"Now it is my time to tell you the truth Hans," she said, her voice
shaking a little, "I really feared you would try to run off tonight, to
join the dark ones. I thought that I... that I had scared you of last
night."
She smiled, barring her teeth, as she finished with a brighter voice.
«I'm glad I hadn't."
I thought hard. Should I tell her, or should I not? I settled on
something in between.
"Ask Kidera about it,» I told her, «she might have something to tell
you." Xaviera did not reply, but started stroking my arm again.
Suddenly she stood up, attempting to drag me up too.
"We must saddle up now, I've been awake since dawn. This evening I want
to be out of these woods."
I got up, idly wondering if leaving Dourwood would stop the dreaming. I
shrugged. If nothing else, the last two nights has helped me find out
who which offered what. That was, if I could trust the dream to be
truth. I walked over to where Bantam had already saddled up the mare
that I had started to like, even if I had spent far too much time
getting onto it and falling off again. He grinned as I came closer, his
tail flicking from side to side.
"So," he said, "I guess the general didn't make you panic tonight?"
I felt my brow furrow. On one side I wanted to stay on friendly terms
with him, but on the other I did not want him to get ideas and start
rumours.
"If you ever become an officer Bantam,» I told him as I mounted the
mare «you'll understand that one must fight ones fears."
Seeing his by now wide grin, I frowned.
"And if you ever become a soldier,» I added, «you'll learn something
more important: That which happens between officers stays between
officers. You understand?"
His grin dampened somewhat as he gave me the reins.
"I understand lieutenant. I won't tell anyone."
I nodded at him, and tugged the reins. Seconds later I sat on the
ground, watching Bantam trying to catch the horse again. I sighted. A
jeep would be nice instead of the horses, but just like a razor and a
hot shower, cars were obviously not an option. I sighted, and followed
Bantam in a more leisurely pace.

15
As the sun had started to fall again, the wood started thinning
considerable. Clearly, Xaviera was right in her hope to quit Dourwood
before the night fell. I was not too thrilled by the fact, as it meant
that I probably would not see Brætàs again. Scanning the lines of
trees on both sides of the track, I hoped for a glimpse of her. Even if
I had not joined the El'ane the night before, I had gotten the first
glimpse of an idea of how to prevent further bloodshed between them and
the lupas. The only problem with it was that I had to get a few lupas
to understand what I was talking about. If Kidera's attempts to bed her
mind around my logic was anything to judge by, that was not going to be
easy. Most of the afternoon I had spend riding close to Xaviera and
Kidera, not talking much. Kidera was lost in deep thought most of the
time, while Xaviera on her side sat erect in the saddle, her ears
straight up, her tail swinging from side to side and a strange
half-smile in her face. If I was to guess what they was thinking of, I
would have said that Kidera was wrestling in her mind, trying to get a
grip on our talk during the night. Xaviera, on the other hand, I would
have hazarded that she believed the contents between herself and Kidera
was won. I had to smile at the idea, as I had other plans than to
settle down with either of them.
As the sun dropped beneath the treetops, we emerged from the forests
and onto what I guessed to be grasslands, rolling hills stretching as
far as I could see. I sighted, holding the horse back as I turned,
scanning the growing darkness. There, some distance away, I spotted a
figure I recognized at once. Brætàs was standing in clear view, the
white fur on her chest and belly shone through the darkness like a
beacon. Carefully, I raised my hand, and she returned the gesture. Then
she made a questioning gesture toward her breast. I nodded; grasping
the medallion she had given me, and held it out so she could see I
still had it. Even at the distance I could she her face light up as I
showed it, and then she gave a wave and disappeared. For some reason, I
felt like a chapter of my life had closed before me. In the failing
light I lifted the medallion closer to my eyes, studying it close up
for the first time. Deeply engraved in the surface of the disc were two
interwoven spirals, one going with the sun and one against. I noticed
that depending on the angle I looked at the medallion, either one or
the other was dominant, seemingly standing out of the copper. Clearly,
it merited further study in better light, so I placed it around my neck
again, letting it rest next to my chest. Then I turned and rode up to
where Kidera was waiting, the others having ridden on.
As I reached her and she brought her horse parallel with the mare I was
riding, I raised my voice.
"So how much longer today?"
She looked at me sideways as she replied.
"Not much more. Why? Are you tired?"
I looked over my shoulder, back towards Dourwood.
"Not really," I said after a while, "just wondering."
"Xav said she wanted to camp so far away you could not sneak away
again."
Kidera looked at me for a few seconds, then looked away as she
continued.
"I... I told her that you was heading off last night. I'm sorry."
"It's alright," I assured her as we got the others in sight, "I really
didn't expect you to be quiet about it."
No sooner than I had uttered the sentence, I knew that they were the
wrong words to use. Instead of comforting her, telling her that I
didn't mind at all, the words seemed to hit her like a physical pain.
Kidera's ears flopped down, and her tail dropped several inches. I
cursed silently, both at my inability to use the right words and at her
inability to understand human thought. We dismounted, and Bantam took
the horses away. I gently placed my hand on Kidera's shoulder and made
her look at me.
"If it may comfort you some, I would have told her myself. She would
have found out anyhow."
Kidera brightened slightly, and I got a feeling that something more was
needed to make her really understand that I was not angry with her. At
the same time, she seemed less like a human and more like an alien than
she had been just moments before. I turned and went after Bantam,
reckoning he had started preparing supper.
After supper I sat and stared at the stars, which were shining brightly
from a cloudless sky. Xaviera had posted guards I noticed, even if we
were out of the forest, and most of them was posted between our little
camp and Dourwood. As I idly pondered whether they were there to stop
the El'ane from reaching us, or me from reaching the El'ane, Xaviera
came and sat next to me. I took the opportunity to ask her, but she did
not respond. She just sat watching me for a long time, her face barely
visible in the light from the stars. Finally she sighted, and as Kidera
suddenly appeared on the other side of me, she poke up.
"We will probably reach Eastoak tomorrow."
There was something odd at play here, her voice was light while I could
see how her body tensed as she spoke, as if expecting trouble.
"Eastoak?" I asked, buying time, «The name says me nothing.»
"Once an important town," Kidera said as she moved closer, "but barely
more than a hamlet now."
"Let me guess," I muttered as I started to feel that I was not going to
enjoy the outcome of the conversation, "it started its downfall when
the El'ane came here and blocked the road?"
"Yes. But it's not the settlement that is important here," Xaviera
pointed out as Kidera was about to say something, "but how to stop
rumours from spreading."
She looked at the sky for a few seconds before she carried on.
"It is strange enough that Kidera and I appear there when we ought to
be in Fourway Ford."
She sighted heavily, her muzzle moving slightly as she looked towards
the stars as if for guidance.
"Two members of the high counsel might be explained, or rather, no-one
would dare question it. To explain your presence would be next to
impossible."
As soon as Xaviera had finished, Kidera started talking.
"The people of Eastoak live in mortal fear of the dark ones. If they
have heard of the loss of a large part of the defense force, and they
realize you caused it..."
"I never caused anything," I interrupted, "if anyone 'caused it' it was
Xav using her magic to stop me from escaping."
Kidera stared at me as she shook her head, obviously surprised that I
had interrupted her. Xaviera on the other hand sobbed and hid her
muzzle in her hands. I swore under my breath again, angry with myself
and my big mouth. Reaching out, I pulled Xaviera towards me and held
her until she stopped sobbing.
"Another step into the emotional minefield.»
I saw Xaviera's ears perk up at my muttering, but instead of trying
to explain I nodded to Kidera, urging her to go on.
"Eh... If they realize you are the probable reason for it I mean, they
may get upset and... take it out on you."
I shrugged as I held Xaviera, feeling rather good and not to bothered
by the next day.
"So?" I said, "Having travelled and talked with you two, I guess you
have an idea of how to avoid it."
Xaviera untangled herself from my arms as she softly said, "We have a
plan Hans."
She gently let her hand glide across my cheek.
"You won't like it," Kidera said as she stood up, "but wearing the
cloak it might work."
"What might work?"
I put one knee under me, ready for anything.
"We will pass you of as a dark one," Xaviera muttered, "or an El'ane as
you call them."
"Why should an El'ane ride with you?"
I had to ask, even though I knew that I was going to hate the answer.
"Because the dark one would be a captive just like you really are,"
came Kidera's voice, suddenly full of fangs, "but helplessly tied to
the saddle."
I exploded into action; dived towards my bedroll and the blade I had
secured there. Blade in hand, I leaped to my feet and came to a battle
stance.
"You may tie me to a saddle when I'm cold and stiff,» I growled, «not
before."
Kidera pulled her blade, bringing it into a low guard. Xaviera too
pulled, but just stood with it in her hand, not lifting it. Instead,
she looked at me for several heartbeats.
"Please Hans,» she said in a soft voice, «don't..."
In the corner of my eye, I noticed the troopers moving, slowly getting
closer. If I were to do anything, I had to be quick. Xaviera was
quicker. She dropped her sword and got between Kidera and myself, her
hands held out and her throat barred.
"Please Hans," she whispered, "don't do this."
I relaxed slightly, as I lifted my blade so it touched her chest.
"I could have killed you the first day on this world," I muttered, "but
I didn't. Will I do it tonight? I'm not certain myself Xav. Don't push
me."
"You... you owe me a favour... from the night before last," she
whispered, visibly shaken, "you remember, don't you Hans?"
I nodded as I replied.
"I remember. I... I remember two favours I owe you from the night
before last."
I lowered my blade as I talked.
"One large one for drooping your blade, and a small one for your
silence."
Xaviera nodded slowly.
"I claim that favour now. Agree to enter Eastoak bound, and I'll
consider your debt paid fully."
I sighted as I drove the blade into the soft earth.
"And which of the favours would you consider it as?" I asked softly,
still unwilling to be tied up, "The small one, so you can save the
large one to another day?"
Xaviera held up her hand, as she half-turned for a second, telling
Kidera to get troopers away. When the last trooper was back at their
post, she turned back to me and drooped to her knees.
"You decide Hans," she muttered, "small one, large one, both... I'm
even willing to step back on my wish to claim you if you please do as
we ask."
I stared wide-eyed at her for several minutes. Finally I let go off my
blade altogether, realising that I had won one battle even if I had
lost another.
"Alright," I muttered, "I'll do it. But don't blame me if I fall of the
stupid horse tomorrow."

16
I slept fairly well that night, even with both Xaviera and Kidera
sitting close by. Apparently they were watching me to prevent any more
attempts to flee, but I could see that they were more concerned about
watching each other. From what pieces of conversation I overheard
before I dozed off, Xaviera was hoping for a repeat of the night before
while Kidera was arguing that it was her turn this night. It made me
think. Obviously, I had made some kind off impact on both the vixens,
but I had no idea how. Xaviera might be explained by the strange
customs the lupa had by 'claiming' and 'being beaten in fair combat',
but I sensed it might go much deeper than mere tradition and a warped
sense of honour. Kidera's attempts to raise my interest were on the
other hand incomprehensible, at least to me. I had a nagging suspicion
that it made perfect sense for her. Not that I minded too much, having
two females, albeit of an alien race, competing for me was a new
experience in my life
Much to my pleasure, I was not to be tied up at the start of the ride
the next day. Xaviera seemed to think it would be better to wait until
we were closer to Eastoak, and I sure wasn't going to argue. The
weather was turning grey, for the first time since my capture, and the
landscape itself seemed harder than it had on the other side of
Dourwood. In spite of this the lupas seemed high spirited and quite
pleased with themselves. I, on the other hand, was feeling downcast,
partly because of the weather and landscape, but mostly because I knew
that in a few hours time I was going to the tied up. I almost regretted
having dropped the sword, but as it was now hanging in Xaviera's belt
there was no much I could do.
When the first pillars of smoke was spotted, the vixens decided that it
was time for me to end my time of relative freedom. Xaviera and Kidera
both dismounted, and while Bantam and the troopers waited some distance
away, they walked up to me. I sighted, and held my hands out in front
of me.
"I won't enjoy this," I pointed out as Xaviera took my hands in hers,
gently muzzling them before she started winding a thin rope around
them, "I has never liked the idea of being helpless."
"I too wish we could avoid it," Xaviera muttered as she tied my hands
to the pommel, "but we can't... or at least I see no other way."
While Xaviera secured my hands, Kidera busied herself roping my legs to
the saddle. As the ropes got tighter, I felt more and more
uncomfortable.
"There is one thing we didn't mention yesterday Hans."
Kidera voice sounded almost uncertain as she stood looking up at me. I
looked at her in return, noting how her ears were twitching and her
eyes avoided mine. As the silence grew longer and more embarrassing,
she gave in and muttered apologetic.
"We can't let any of the lupas at Eastoak see your face Hans. Some have
fought dark ones for years, and might have glimpsed their faces. If
they see yours the secret is out."
I pulled on the ropes as Xaviera pulled a dark bag over my head,
shutting all light out.
"I never would have agreed to this," I growled, "I would rather have
run Xav through and then died gloriously, fighting you all until my
last breath!"
I heard Xaviera gasp behind me.
"That's why we didn't tell you," came Kidera's voice, "I might not
understand you yet, but I'm getting better at knowing you."
Trying to get my voice to sound cold and hateful, I spoke in a
monotone.
"I'll correct that: I think I care too much about Xav, I wish I had run
you through last night Kidera."
"You really mean that?"
Xaviera's voice came from behind me, sounding at the same time scared
and hopeful. I ignored her for the time, instated I tried to toss the
bag of my head.
"Think of it as the lesser of two evils."
Kidera seemed to walk next to me as I felt the horse start to move
under me.
"Really?" I asked, "And just what would the other be?"
Someone placed a hand on my thigh, digging the claws into my flesh. As
I winced in pain, Kidera's voice sounded cold yet interested in
exploring the possibilities of what she said.
"Me."
I felt how one of her fingers inched closer to my crotch, and her voice
dropped slightly and grew noticeable warmer as she continued.
"Or rather me, you and a whole night."
The hand withdrew, and I tugged at the ropes again a few times before I
spoke to the world in general.
"Kidera and Xav, I'm going to get even for this, somehow, sometime."
"Kidera is up ahead Hans," I heard Xaviera's voice from behind me, "but
I will look forward to it myself. Eh, when you say 'get even' you mean
'doing the same', don't you?"
Grinning in the darkness under the bag, I tried to relax on top of the
moving beast, and waited.
After what felt like an eternity, someone halted my horse. I turned my
head this way and that, trying to figure out what was going on. For the
first time since the lupas had attacked the airbase where I had been
stationed, I was scared. Hearing a horse moving up from behind, I tried
to turn in the saddle and almost lost my balance as a result.
"Relax," came Bantam's voice, "we are just stopping so we can adjust
the rank and file. That gives me an opportunity to tell you what the
General might have forgotten to mention."
I did not reply, instead turning back in the saddle.
"Kidera says you must remember this is an attempt to preserve your
identity," he continued, "so she told me to tell you that you must not
talk, nor betray that you understand what we says."
Feeling a spark of fighting spirit raise within, I replied softly in my
own tongue.
"Ja vel småen, jeg skjønner ikke dere, dere skjønner ikke meg."
There was a long pause until Bantam finally spoke again.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'."
Just then, there was a shout from up ahead and the horse started moving
again.
After a few more minutes the sounds changed markedly, and I guessed we
had ridden into the town itself. Pretty soon exited voices could be
heard around us, and even if I could not hear what every voice said, it
was clear that most knew either Xaviera or Kidera by sight. Equally
clear was the fact that they wondered who, or what, I was, but no one
in the party answered. Just as the din was at it loudest, it died away.
We had, judging by the sound of the hooves, reached a paved area.
Someone stooped my horse, and I waited. Ringing clear and loud over the
hush of what I guessed was a crowd; a female voice rang out.
"Greetings General and High Councillor. How may Eastoak serve the
Empire?"
"As it always has," Xaviera answered the voice, "faithfully and
valiantly."
A ragged cheer went up from behind us as Xaviera finished speaking, and
I got an impression that she had said more than she had to.
"That is kind of the Empire to say," the voice continued as the cheer
had died down, "and twice as nice coming from you, General Xaviera."
I sensed that something had passed between Xaviera and the owner of the
voice, but unable to see them, I could not speculate. Xaviera did not
reply to the hidden sting, so I could not be certain.
"Two members of the High Counsel is an unexpected sight, your Highness.
To what do we own the pleasure?"
"To our haste," Xaviera replied, "I have to reach Enyo quickly, and the
most direct path passes through Eastoak."
"We must talk," the voice said after a short silence, "you may bring
your troopers inside General."
Seconds later the horses started again. I heard, more than anything
else, myself being taken through an archway, barley higher than my
head.
Well inside I heard a dull thump, and realised with a shudder that
someone had closed a heavy door behind us. After sitting still a couple
of minutes while the others dismounted, I felt someone untie my legs,
then my hands. I slid down from the horse, landing in a heap on the
floor.
"Remember," came Bantam's voice as he helped me to my feet again,
"don't say anything. Kidera says that the General doesn't trust Lekie
too much, but Eastoak is her town. Now get your hands behind your back,
please."
I placed my arms behind me, and he tied them again, much looser than
the vixens had done.
"One more thing Lieutenant," Bantam muttered in my ear as he lead me
away, a hand on my shoulder, "there are four troopers with drawn blades
behind you, so don't do anything stupid."
I sighted, then muttered a soft reply.
"The only really stupid thing I have done lately was to go back to your
bridgehead after your army had killed all of my colleagues. Everything
else pales in comparison."
He squeezed my shoulder, indicating I should be silent. I idly wondered
what the immediate future would hold in store for me.

17
I heard the voices before I was able to hear what they were saying.
Judging by the pitch and the volume of it, Xaviera was upset about
something. I stumbled down a step, and guessed myself to be in some
hall or other from the way the sounds changed.
"You can not get what I can not give."
It was the voice I had heard outside a little earlier, but it has lost
what little cheerfulness it had had then.
"All I ask for is a handful of troopers. I could order you to let me
have them."
"No," said the voice, "as long as I am the matriarch of Eastoak, the
responsibility of defence is mine and mine alone. The Empress herself
would not get a single trooper, for I has none to spare."
There was a short pause filled with the sounds of several people trying
not to be angry, and then the voice continued.
"That is, I have none to spare until the ones you and the High Counsel
requested for the insane task to go beyond the expected rift returns."
"But I need an escort now," Xaviera said, "not almost three weeks from
now. They can't have come much further than Fourway Ford by now."
There was a long, drawn-out pause in which no one spoke. Finally
Kidera's voice broke the silence.
"Lekie, where is the Empress's representative? Unless you two agrees
soon, I think he might be needed."
"Stotels? Don't you know? He was summoned to Enyo three days ago, by
pigeon, no less."
"Pigeon?" Kidera said, sounding surprised, "they would not use pigeons
unless it was critical."
"If it is important enough to summon Stotels, we must get to Enyo as
fast as possible. If you will not supply me with fresh troopers,"
Xaviera made a short pause, as if she wanted to give Lekie a chance to
give in, "you will provide me with fresh mounts."
"No," came the short reply, "I will not."
Xaviera's voice grew harder and more vicious than I had ever heard it
before as she growled.
"That was not an request Matriarch."
Another female voice broke in; sounding both amused and irritated at
the same time.
"When will you ever learn General Xaviera? You can't get what you want
all the time."
I noted how sarcastically she had used Xaviera's title.
"Be quiet Zoe," the voice I had identified as Lekie's snapped, "this is
not the time nor the place."
"Still holding a grudge?" Xaviera muttered, "Or is it just envy now?"
I heard someone stand up, and then the one called Zoe spoke. I had
heard people threaten others in kinder voices than the one she used.
"If it had not been for your sister, you would never had been anything
more than a knight-lieutenant. You should have been stripped of your
command the last time you visited here."
"Don't Xav,» Kidera started to say, «we have more important..."
Xaviera interrupted her. If I had thought her voice hard before, it
could be used to cut steel now.
"You have the guts to back that Zoe? Because if you have, and it is not
only in your mouth, I'll have you in a circle of steel."
"Anytime," came Zoe's reply at once, «anywhere.»
"Right now," growled Xaviera, "in the square where all may see. That
will keep you from foul play this time."
There was the sound of someone standing up, and then footsteps.
As the sounds of feet slowly died out, Lekie spoke quietly.
"Colonel Zoe is a capable commander and the best blade I've meet, even
if she is a hothead."
"I have seldom seen the General lose her temper like that. I hope she
don't do anything... unwise."
"A dead general might cause problems..."
Lekie muttered half loud, sounding thoughtful. After a long silence
Kidera spoke in a similarly subdued voice.
"General Xaviera has never lost to any lupa, hothead or not."
I had to smile in the darkness of the hood. She might never have lost
to any lupa, but I had beaten her.
"Ah," Lekie said, "but how many has she fought the last few years?
Colonel Zoe is making a habit of challenging and killing anyone who
opposes her... a problem off course, but with her rank to back her..."
The rest of the sentence died unspoken and another long silence
erupted, the sound of steel hitting steel could just be made out. The
lupas, I guessed, could probably hear it much clearer with their
superior hearing.
"And what is that?"
Lekie asked as if looking around for something else to talk about. I
was roughly pushed forward, something sharp being pushed into the small
of my back.
"One of the reasons we are in haste to return to Enyo."
"A dark one?" Lekie inquired.
"A captive," Kidera said after a short pause, "whom the General and I
thought wise to get to the Empress."
"But," Lekie went on, "is it a dark one?"
"Have you ever captured one?"
Kidera countered Lekie's questions fast, turning them back to the
matriarch. I got a feeling that she was trying to protect what I really
was, simply by telling just part of the truth and avoid direct answers.
For some odd reason I was thankful for it, as it meant I did not have
to confront more questioning of the kind I had been through in
Whitewater Ford.
"One time must be the first I guess," Lekie said softly after a long
time, "I would like to see its visor. I've never seen more than
glimpses of it in the twenty seasons I fought against them."
"Her highness General Xaviera ordered its face hidden," Kidera said
fast, "so it might not know where it is taken."
I felt my pulse quicken.
"A short glimpse of a room will not help it. General Xaviera might
never even know about it."
Again, silence erupted. The clash of steel was still audible, the pace
haven quickened considerably.
"They say, your graces, that the dark ones might cast magic with their
eyes. I ask to be allowed out if you plan to take the hood off."
It was Bantam's voice, coming from behind me. I let out a sight of
relief as I relaxed slightly.
"That is merely an old legend, little pup."
Lekie spoke in gentle tones, her voice sounding almost caring like a
grandmother would talk to a young child.
"Still," Kidera muttered slowly, as if she was thinking deeply, "all
legends must have a core of truth, otherwise it would never have
risen."
"Well spoken High Counsellor Kidera. We better let caution go before
curiosity."
Lekie paused, and I realised that the sound off steel hitting steel
could no longer be heard.
"Besides," Lekie continued, "it seem we have run out of time. I fear
that Empress Dumare might have to find a new commander..."
Even I could hear someone approaching, clearly limping by the uneven
sound of the footsteps. Then my heart jumped as I heard Xaviera speak.
"Fresh mounts, lodgings for my troopers and provisions. Otherwise," her
voice hardened, "the Empress would have to find a new Matriarch of
Eastoak."
Then there was the sound of a dull thud, and the room erupted into
action. From what I gathered be the broken pieces of conversation I had
picked up, Xaviera had passed out. I stood motionless, torn between
Xaviera's and Kidera's wish to keep my identity secret and my wish to
help the vixen. The tied hands made the choice easier. After some time
the din died down and I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Let's go," Bantam said softly, "the others have left already. I just
hope I can get you a room instead of a cell."
I cautiously walked, guided by his hand.
"Bantam?" I muttered after a short while, "Thank you for speaking up
back there."
I felt his hand move, as if he shrugged.
"To speak up in the presence of a Matriarch and a High Counsellor is
not easy. Thankfully one of them was Kidera."
He sighted, sounding almost wistful.
"She would have given me ten lashes if I hadn't."
I shuddered as he lead my up some stairs, only hurting my toes twice.

18
I ended up spending the night in a damp cell in the basement. One small
mercy was the thick, solid oak door. Since there was no opening in it,
Bantam removed the hood and untied me before he left.
"I'll be sitting outside the door all night," he said, "Kidera thought
it wise to be on guard."
I had raised my eyebrow slightly as I had quipped back.
"But will you stop me from leaving, or them from entering?"
He left without a reply, and the sound of the heavy lock was like the
closing of a coffin. I shrugged and collapsed on the narrow and hard
cot. In the dark I absentmindedly toyed with the medallion Brætàs had
given me. If felt as it was warmer than it should have been, and the
deep patterns of interwoven spirals were easily felt. Turning it
between my probing fingers, I detected some markings on the other side
as well, much like scratches, but even and seemingly placed in some
sort of order. I resolved to take a good look at it when the
opportunity presented itself. Half turning to get into a more
comfortable position, I started thinking about Brætàs. I still
half-regretted that I did not follow her when she offered me the
chance. Getting to know her better would have been interesting, in more
ways than one. I grinned in the dark as I let the eyes of my memory
rest upon her graceful forms.
As I opened my eyes I knew I was dreaming. I found myself floating
several feet into the air bathed in bright sunlight, at a place
somewhere between Dourwood and Eastoak. As I turned in the air, I
noticed I could see both places, but in opposite directions. I looked
towards Dourwood, and noticed dark clouds hanging over it. I twisted in
the air and looked at Eastoak. The sky there was clearer, but darkness
filled the streets, pouring out over the surrounding countryside. Just
then my mind rebelled, and it took me a few seconds to understand why.
If I was hanging suspended in free air, then what was I pushing against
to turn around? As I struggled with the thought, the now familiar voice
boomed over the landscape of the dream, making my very bones resonate.
"Damn you Man," it said, "and damn Man's logic too."
I shrugged, making me bob gently in the air.
"If you're trying to tell me something," I muttered, "then you might as
well try to make it believable."
I paused, noting that a band of El'ane in dark cloaks was moving out of
Dourwood and towards me.
"A lupa or El'ane might not have thought about it," I continued as I
glanced over my shoulder, spotting a armed group of lupas riding out of
the darkness that was Eastoak, "but a educated man knows that you have
to act against something to produce a force."
As the two groups drew closer to where I was, I felt the ground drop
away from me, making me soar a few dozen feet upwards.
"Eh... maybe it could be caused by magic?
The voice sounded uncertain, as if the one behind it was grasping for
control.
"Never mind," I muttered as the wolfmen and the lynxmen fell upon one
another, "tell me what I am seeing."
"Future."
"The future or a future?"
Silence fell. I inquired again as the grass started to redden. There
was another long silence, before the answer came.
"A future. Mans choice may prevent it, or promote it."
Thunder rolled over Dourwood.
I awoke as thunder rolled again. As I shook my head the pieces fell
together. Someone was knocking on the door, but as the lock was on the
outside, the reason was beyond me. Bantam entered the room, accompanied
by one of the troopers that had escorted us all the way from Whitewater
Ford. I peered at him in the sharp light coming from the hallway.
"We must leave now," he said as he started coiling the rope around my
wrists again, "Kidera says that if things are grave enough to summon
the representatives to Enyo then she and the General should be there
too."
I sighted as he placed the bag over my head again, robbing me of
vision.
"I'll tell you one thing," I muttered as he started leading me out of
the cell, "this is one town I won't miss."
"How can you say that," he muttered as I stumbled my way up a
staircase, "you have not seen it?"
The ride out of Eastoak was as uncomfortable as the ride into it.
Clearly, the weather had turned out nice again, so it soon became
uncomfortably hot beneath the bag. Judging by the sounds the unshod
horses made, I guessed we were moving along a paved road, and judging
by the way my stomach twisted and churned, we were moving at a fair
pace. I soon lost track of time.
When my eyes had finally gotten used to the bright light again, Bantam
and Kidera had finished untying me. I half-fell from the horse and
darted behind a bush, making a much needed use of the concealment it
offered. As I went back to see if I could get hold of something to eat,
I noted Xaviera sitting in the shade. She did not look good. All
thoughts of food gone, I walked over to her and knelt beside her.
Kidera was there too, looking worried. Looking closer at her, I spoke
out of the corner of my mouth.
"What's wrong?"
"Her wounds must have been graver than she thought herself, "Kidera
muttered, "it may be that the faceless one is beckoning her already."
My mind was in uproar. One small part of it was telling me that this
was good, since Xaviera was an enemy and a leader of enemies. Another
part of my mind was, much to my own shock, scared of loosing her. But
the part that carried the day simply told me that she was a living
creature, and I ought to make sure she remained that way. Gently laying
her down, I started a rough examination of her body, mentally noting
her wounds as I found them.
"What are you doing?"
Kidera's question caught me slightly off guard. Clearly she could see
that?
"I'm not just an officer," I told her as I opened Xaviera's cloak,
"I'm a technician and, more important right now, I'm trained as a
battlefield medic... Svarte faan i innerste hælvete!"
I looked straight into Kidera's eyes, my hands covered in Xaviera's
blood.
"Clean bandages," I muttered, "lots of clean bandages and clean water,
right now."
As she left, I reached out and grabbed Xaviera's dagger from her
belt. Thinking fast, I decided to concentrate on the large wound
Xaviera had in her chest. The wounds on her leg did not bleed much, and
the bandage around the head was not even red on the outside. I worked
quickly; cutting away the blood soaked bandage and laid bare the cut.
As I pulled the last piece of it away, Xaviera gave a yelp of pain and
the flow of blood increased. Gingerly I inspected the damage, trying to
make up my mind what do to. It looked like Zoe had managed a sweeping
cut, tearing through Xaviera's scale mail and opening an ugly gash
across her chest. I carefully examined the wound, noting how jagged the
edges were; probably caused by the ruptured armour that had been
tearing into her skin. Praying for the best but expecting the worst, I
then placed my ear close to it, trying to judge whether her lungs had
been punctured. As I heard the telltale gurgling sound I started
cursing.
"You should never have ridden today," I told Xaviera as I started
cleaning the wound as best as I could, "you should been in bed a week
or so at least first."
Even through her pain and drowsiness, a week smile appeared on
Xaviera's lips.
"Would that be one of our weeks," she asked in a whisper, "or one of
yours?"
"One of yours would have done it," I told her, "but now the wound has
worsened from movement."
She twisted her head slightly then and spoke in a whisper to Kidera. I
got busy placing a new bandage over the wound, something which included
a lot of touching her breasts. As I started thinking about it, I felt a
blush spread from my neck and up. I quickly finished and turned my
attention to the wound in her leg.
"I have done what I can," I told Kidera a little later, "but what she
need is a good doctor, not just a hack of a medic."
"But she claimed..."
Kidera got no further before I interrupted her.
"Her wound might not have been too serious before she got onto the
horse, but the constant moving of her... her... you know," I said
lamely as I held my hand in front of my chest, indicating her breasts,
"has opened it up."
I looked over to where Xaviera laid.
"It might have her anatomy that saved her, you know. If her...uhm...
female parts had not cushioned the impact..."
I let the rest of the sentence hang in the air.
"Pity we don't have a magician with us," Kidera said, "that might have
helped us."
I looked at her. She looked downcast, her ears hanging and her tail
straight down.
"What about Xav herself?" I asked, «She's a magician.»
"Won't work, even if she had the strength." Kidera sighted. "It's a
basic rule of magic; Do unto others, but it won't work on yourself.»
I fell in deep thoughts, then I got an idea.
"What if we send someone back to Eastoak and see if there is a
magic-user there?"
Kidera just shook her head.
"It ain't many magic-users around Hans, I know Xaviera told you that.
Most either join the defence force or move to one of the bigger
cities." She fell quiet for a while, and when she spoke again her voice
was harsh.
"The defence force magician in Eastoak was Colonel Zoe. Even if Xav
hadn't severed her head, she wouldn't be likely to help us."
"Then we can only wait here," I muttered, "wait here and hope she'll
recover on her own."

19
As the afternoon grew, I was constantly checking on Xaviera. She was
asleep most of the time, but it was not the healthy sleep she needed.
Instead, it was the laboured sleep of a gravely wounded female trying
to keep herself alive. All I could do to help her was to try to make
her comfortable, by placing her sideways with her injured side down.
"Why do you lay her like that?"
I looked up at Bantam's face, a curious look in his inhuman eyes.
"She bleeds into her own lung," I explained, "so if she had been laying
on her back, or worse, on her other side, the blood-filled lung might
press on her heart, stopping it."
He nodded as he sat down beside her, accepting my explanation.
"I'll watch her for a while," he said softly, "there is some food by
the horses if you want to eat."
I nodded at him as I stood up. I had not really eaten since the day
before.
"Is there nothing you can do?"
I looked up from my meal, swallowing what I had in my mouth before I
replied.
"I'm sorry Kidera," I muttered softly, "I'm not a doctor. All I can do
now is to pray help might arrive, and I've been doing just that for a
long time already."
I sighted, then patted the ground beside me, inviting her to sit down.
"If she won't pull through," I continued, "what will happen with me?"
"We will bring you before Dumare," Kidera said after a while, "but if
Xav obeys the Faceless God's call..."
Her voice tapered off into silence as she twisted to look at Xaviera.
The wet, unpleasant sound of her breathing was all I could hear.
"If the general is not there to... check her sisters anger... I fear
for your life Hans. Dumare is the oldest, but she has much of her
mother in her... impatient and proud."
I shuddered as I attacked my food again.
"A most dangerous mix," I muttered softly, "and even more so when
opposed by a stubborn fool."
Kidera turned and looked at me for what seemed like a small eternity,
her face unreadable for me, before she mouthed a simple question.
"Who?"
I did not reply, but instead I gave her a weak smile as I pointed to
myself.
"I see..." Kidera said, "name, rank and number, wasn't it?"
Still, I did not give her an answer, instead turning to look at
Xaviera. For reasons I did not know, and did not want to find, the
sight of the wounded lupa made my heart bleed.
"If you won't reconsider, "Kidera said after another long silence,
"that is likely to send you to the land of the Faceless."
I shrugged as I started speaking again.
"I'm alone, cut off from my home and family. I'm captive among a
strange people whom I can't understand and whom cannot understand me."
I held up my hand, stopping Kidera's disagreement to the last statement
before it had even begun.
"Everything I ever cared for, believed in and lived for turns out to be
either out of reach or simply mirrors and blue smoke."
I sighted, before I softly finished.
"Maybe it would be better to take the long sleep?"
We sat quietly for a long time. Bantam had joined us, but did not talk.
Both he and Kidera looked sad, ears hanging, tails unmoving. Finally,
as the sun was almost touching the ground, Kidera heaved a big sight
and turned to me.
"I beg you to reconsider Hans. You will be wasting your life
needlessly, without any honour or gain."
Bantam looked curiously at us as I replied.
"My life is mine to waste Kidera. As for honour?" I shrugged and
carried on, "If I tell your empress more, I will be a traitor to my
land. My oaths will be broken the confidence others placed in me
misused. I will live, certainly, but without honour."
"But... if you live I'll still have a... I mean, you'll still..."
She was interrupted by shouts from the sentries. I remanded sitting as
she and Bantam stood up. Then, as new shouts erupted, I got to my legs
too. Dark ones here? I pulled my hood up and went after the others.
A single figure was standing a dozen feet from the ragged line of
lupas. He had thrown his the hood on his cloak back, and held his hands
away from his body. He looked young to my eyes, a little higher than
Brætàs had been and much skinnier. I slowly walked over to where
Kidera was standing, and whispered in her ear.
"Has he said what he wants?"
Kidera shook her head.
"Have you asked him then?"
This time Kidera turned slightly towards me and answered.
"We don't talk with dark ones. We fight them."
As I was about to tell her my honest opinion on the matter, Bantam
interrupted.
" Kidera, if I may? I'm still young and far from ending my
apprenticeship, but you have taught me much. It is... he is, I mean,
unlikely to travel alone so far from their forest. And he has not
attacked yet."
"A trap?"
Bantam tilted his head slightly before he shook it.
"I've been lucky enough to have spent a long time talking to the
General about the dark ones. She was gracious to take her time to
educate me on our long battle with them, and they have never set a trap
before."
Kidera was silent for a long time. The El'ane on the other hand was
standing motionless. Finally Kidera nodded slightly, and muttered.
"Hans showed us that we could talk to these creatures."
She took a few steps forward, stopping just in front of the line. I saw
her open her mouth, but before she could say anything the El'ane spoke
in a loud, heavily accented voice.
"Me flatfaced one seeks. To no other speak I will."
I pushed away the lupas in front of me, stopping as I drew level with
Kidera.
"You have found him," I said as I pulled my hood back, "why do you seek
me out?"
The young El'ane fell to his knees and inclined his head.
"Me Banradàs. Brætàs says 'Flatface singer needs'. Me one night, one
day walks. Banredàs obeys."
I scratched my beard while I looked from him to Kidera and back to him.
"And what is a 'singer'?"
It might not have been the best question, but it was the one uppermost
in my spinning mind. Without that knowledge, I couldn't even start at
guessing why I was supposed to need him.
"Flatface Banradàs tests? Banradàs singer. Me magic sings."
I felt a tiny hope growing inside me. I had no idea of how Brætàs had
found out that I was needing a magicuser, or how she knew it before I
did, but I was not going to question fate.
"Tell me Banradàs; how good are you on healing wounds?"
Kidera and I were standing next to Xaviera, while Banradàs was
kneeling down, looking at her.
"She bushytail is," he said in a half accusing voice after a long time,
"still flatface heal says."
I nodded at him.
"If she dies," I told him, "there would be no hope for peace between
your people."
I crossed my fingers behind my back, hoping my little lie would
convince him.
"Long away woods is. Time take it wills."
He inclined his head towards me again, then muttered meekly.
"Flatface asks, Banradàs gives. But enjoy it not me will."
With that he gestured that we should leave him alone with Kidera. As we
were slowly walking away, Kidera turned and looked at me.
"Do you trust it... I mean, him?"
I shrugged as I pondered her question.
"He sounds honest enough, but if he wants to kill Xaviera I can't see
how we can stop him. But if Brætàs sent him, he is likely to view me
as some kind of legend come to life."
I sighted, letting my thought finish before I voiced them.
"I think he will do exactly as I told him, but not anything more."
"So..." Kidera said softly, "Xaviera ought to be healthy enough to ride
tomorrow?"
"I believe so...» I agreed, «but it all hinges on whether I guesses
right about the El'ane."
"You guessed right when they overwhelmed us in Dourwood," she muttered
as she slid her arm around my waist, "I think you're right to trust
this dark one."
As she ran the fingers on her free hand through my three week long
beard, I forced myslef to smile at her attention.
"It seems like you're not worried anymore at least."
"We're out of Dourwood," she muttered as she gently pushed me down with
my back towards a bush, "I would have come to you last night if you
were not in the cell."
I tried in vain to push her off.
"What about Xav?" I asked in desperation, "How can you do this while
she lies wounded?"
She pinned my arms down with hers as she replied.
"What better time to make you change your mind?"
I felt my brow furrow as she started licking my face and neck.
"What do you mean?"
"It's no use hiding it Hans," her muffled voice came, "I've seen the
looks she gives you. You care more for her than for me, don't you?"
I sighted, fearing the possible outcomes of that kind of talking.
"I really don't know Kidera. I ought to dislike both of you, for what
you represent..."
Slowly Kidera stopped her attempts to remove my beard with her tongue.
"What we represent?"
I managed a weak smile as I spoke in a hushed voice.
"You are, when all is said and done, enemies. Even if I must admit,
this is far more pleasant than what might await me in Enyo."
Kidera giggled, and laid her head on my chest.
"But even so, you don't wish for it?"
I shook my head.
"It's not the way of my people. Maybe later, when and if I manage to
choose between the three of you..."
"I'll bend this time Hans... It might help me understand you... But I
will not let go off you while we sleep..."
I sighted, but decided not to press the issue. It was not that
uncomfortable, after all.
-+-+-+-
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