Gold Digger Fan Fiction ❯ Razor's Edge ❯ Razor's Edge 1-5 ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

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

He was right.

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

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

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

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

****

"What be all this ruckus?!" O'Keith demanded.
"The winds be a moaning in the night, sir!" a security technician said.

"What?" O'Keith asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What is it?" O'Keith asked.

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

****

The castle shook again and three rats held still, hoping the ventilation vent they were in would suddenly give in and drop them into the waiting arms of the Shamrock Brigade below. When the shock settled the rats breathed a sigh of relief and continued walking through the vent, the three of them walking abreast through the hidden passage.
"Why don't we, like, just get out of here?" Moisha asked in her small rat voice.

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

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

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

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

"But I¡¦"

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

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"A d..d¡¦dragon?" Lydia asked.

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

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

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

****

The fire dragon Phume sniffed at the air as something small passed through the waterfall behind it. The extradimensional space of the vault itself had expanded to accept the dragon's great bulk, the outer vault would do likewise once he left the room. He had been thinking of staying actually. Why bother moving all this gold when he had a perfect lair right here. He smirked as he realized that what had entered the room with him was no Leprechaun.
"Well thief, I can smell you, and feel your motion, hear your breath," he growled, his voice echoing through the vault. "Come forward, there is plenty for all of us to gain at the leprechaun's expense."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

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

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

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

****

As soon as they got out into the open air the rats saw a shadow spread out behind them.
"Ah #$%#$," Lydia shouted as something swept down and smashed the three of them into the ground. There they were, dead, for purposes, beneath his feet. A second claw reached down to gingerly pick up the magic bag of gold.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Like what now?!" Moisha asked.

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

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

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Romeo and Moisha were dead.

And it was her fault this time as well.

*****

An ocean away a similar light show entertained onlookers as it flashed into existence and then faded away. There was no huge dragon to alert the citizens of Lrith City that it had been an accidental and out of control gate. So no one really witnessed two figures appear about two hundred feet above the ground and then fall to the ground, screaming in panic, until the loud thud that signaled the end of their travels.
After being pelted by gold for several minutes Romeo and Moisha finally woke up and stretched as well as they could. They weren't completely healed yet, but it wouldn't take much longer. In the mean time they glanced around curiously.

"Chwa¡¦ that hurts," Moisha moaned irritably.

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

"So, like, where are we?" Moisha asked, ignoring the fact that Romeo just asked that question. She looked around the town with a somewhat nervous expression on her face. "This looks like one of those renaissance fairs."

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

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

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

"Shopping!" Moisha declared happily. Romeo moaned.

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"We¡¦ we¡¦ we figured that," Romeo said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"R¡¦right," Romeo said, nodding.

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

"G¡¦gotcha," Moisha said in a weak voice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Are all Edge Guard w..w¡¦w..w..w¡¦," Romeo started to ask.

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

"Uh huh," the rats said.

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

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

"BACK to Earth!!!?"

****

Lydia woke up to find herself more or less in one piece, in a comfortable bed. None of this was expected. She was supposed to be dead under a pile of rotting lizard. She was quite certain the dragon was dead, she remembered that. The scratch she'd given its throat must have been plenty to kill it when one considered it's other injuries. She sniffed about, but couldn't seem to identify any smells in the room, her head was pounding enough to distract her.
Lydia pushed herself up in the bed and leaned against the headboard. The movement did bring several things to her attention. Her head began virtually screaming in protest, and her legs or spine were not quite healed yet. The wererat clutched her head and glared uselessly at the virtually useless limbs. The glare faded slowly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Cops?" Lydia asked.

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

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

****

"There's something about that girl, Mistress," Kayla said as she saw Sheena next.
"She's not from Jade," Sheena said. "I thought so, didn't think any of the rats came with our ancestors."

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

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

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

"She's sad," Sheena said.

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

"Broken is a better term," Sheena said.

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

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

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

****

Lydia woke up to the sound of people running about and shouting for attention and help. She had been there a week since she had woken up, and hadn't recovered much. Enough to virtually drag herself to the chamber pot and back, and she didn't want help. When she needed to that is, and she hadn't been eating much of late. In fact she had mostly been sleeping.
They knew her name now. They had learned it from the silver dagger Lord Gothwrain had given her. This had come up when the Edge Guard had come to talk to her, a slender fox looking fellow. Since then they had been tormenting her by acting nice. They all knew she was a prisoner, yet they refused to treat her like one. As if she were an idiot of some kind.

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

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

****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sheila whispered appreciatively.

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

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

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

****

Lydia blinked awake again and pushed herself to a seated position as usual so that she could have a good view of her lap. She immediately noticed that she wasn't a lone in the room anymore. What made her aware of her new roommates existence was terribly easy to pinpoint/
"Hey," Raphiel waved to her. "I was fighting the fires last night. Cool, huh?

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

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

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

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

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

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

****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Whenever he wants," Sheena answered.

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

"Thank you for the complement," Sheena said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"She is pretty," Raphiel said.

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

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

****

"Chwa," Moisha said. "It's like, another one." She pointed to the werepantheress walking down the street next to an elf and laughing cheerfully.
"That's what?" Romeo asked nervously. "Ten just this morning?" Neither of them had yet gotten used to the sheer number of werecats around. Granted their weren't as many cats as their were other people, like elves, dwarves, trolls and other such things, but they were far more common than they were on Earth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

****

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

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

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

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

"That is all?" the man sounded confused.

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

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

*****

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

"What is it?" Brittany asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Well that was nice," Brittany said.

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

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

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

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

****

Lydia woke up and looked around the room again, no roommate this morning. That was good. The older weretiger that ran this hospital was enough to deal with. She didn't understand these cats at all. They were just letting her sit here, they didn't ask about any other rats. They didn't ask about her superiors. They didn't interrogate her, not really.
Sheena tended to ask her how she was feeling and if the dragon talked to her. Lydia typically refused to answer at all. She didn't understand why it was important to say if the dragon talked to her or not. She remembered some vague past stories about the power of a dragon's voice, but those were all fantasy novels, not real.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What game is that?" Kayla asked.

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

****

"We're not going to get anything from here," Romeo said. "If she's alive and on this world, it's not anywhere near here."
"What do you mean 'if' she's alive?" Moisha asked. "I mean, she just went somewhere like us, right?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Mmmmm," the servant groaned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Like, bye," Moisha said.

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

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

"Stay¡¦" the Frankenstein look-a-like groaned.

"Uhhhh¡¦hehhehhehhehheh," the two rats said nervously.

****

~They're back,~ Lydia grumbled to herself as she held the deck that was put into her hand. If she didn't play a card when she was supposed to, then one of them would play for her, and that meant they had to get close to her. So she played a card when it was her turn.
This had been going on for several days now. As evidenced by the growing number of flower vases in her room. Of course the topic of conversation was leaning toward the Edge Guard at Sheila's subtle guidance. Lydia was hearing shades of the wererat that had convinced her to become a warrior for her clan, though slightly different. Sheila wasn't talking directly at Lydia, she was instead talking about her past adventures and the people she'd helped, occasionally pausing to remind Raphiel to keep up his training so that he could become an Edge Guard as well.

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

"Is everything all right?" she asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I don't¡¦"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

****

"Hey, you're getting faster Raph," Brit said to her "cousin" as she insisted on calling him. ~No way they make me marry a cousin.~
"I'm not as fast as you though," Raph noted.

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

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

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

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

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

*****

"What is she, seventeen, maybe nineteen?" Britanny asked. "What kind of freak asshole turns a kid into a weapon like that?"

After her little run with Raphiel to test his speed, she was spending some quality time with her husband. She was having a hard time settling down after the events of her arrival in Main Guard.

"Calm down, Britanny," Stripe said soothingly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

****

Lydia woke up, though certainly not by choice. She much preferred the oblivion offered by unconsciousness than the nightmare she faced waking up. She didn't move as her eyes cracked open to see the sun streaming in. The smells in the room told her everything she could know.
Sheena was in the corner. There were more flowers in the room, she could faintly detect Raphiel's scent on the blooms despite their natural fragrance. And, of course, there was the smell of hot food, probably on the table.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What are you doing?" Lydia demanded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Wait a minute," the woman said. "This is the apprentice's room." Another... apprentice entered and... barked.

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

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

"Is that right?" the woman said, then gave a lop-sided smirk. Lydia frowned, they were obviously plotting against her, speaking in a foreign tongue like that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What did I say?" she asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Oh!" Sheena said. "This is MY fault."

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

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

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

"This IS my fault," Sheena said. "I hoped that exposing her to more daily life would improve her attitude." She calmed down and began to quietly cast a spell of soothing over the girl.

Suddenly a black nimbus formed around the wererat and seemed to become a pair of jaws that reached out to snap out the healer apprentices around it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

****

"Hello," Raphiel said cheerfully as he walked into the clinic next to Sheila. As they entered people stopped and glanced among themselves before looking toward them hesitantly.
"Something's wrong," Sheila said. The appearance of tired looking Mistress Sheena confirmed that.

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

"Bad news?" Raphiel asked worriedly.

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

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

Sheena and Sheila were only a couple of moments behind him, and found him sitting next to Lydia, holding her back upright and waving a hand in front of her face.

Sheila looked into his face and saw a look of sorrow and regret that had only appeared once before on Raphiel's face. When he had heard how heartbroken Cheetah had been over the possibility she'd have to marry him instead of her true love.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

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

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

"Which thing was that?" Romeo asked quietly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Oh, ratties," a high pitched whine called out. "Where are you little ratties, I have another game to play."

The same basic thought went through each of the rats' heads.

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

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

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~There were no werecheetahs to kill us when my parents died,~ Lydia thought again, still trying to bury the line of thoughts.

~So what happened to my parents then? Gothwrain's men rescued me from the attackers, I could smell the blood from the battle they had... I could smell all... that....~ Lydia froze and stood in the field of bodies, barely noticing the carrion dreamscape begin to fade away.

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

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

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

She glanced about stiffly and frowned.

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

"Hi!" Raphiel said to her, drawing the rat's attention to his face.

She looked somewhat surprised and irritated for a moment before weariness took her and she fainted asleep.

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

****

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

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

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

Julia Diggers saw the girl being sick and then faded back out of the room. She leaned against the door and listened, waiting for the heaves to cease before going in. There was no sense in humiliating the girl by making her aware that this scene had been witnessed.

It was a full minute before Julia heard a weary and confused "where the #$%# am I?" emanate from the room. She pushed away from the wall and walked into the room.

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

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

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

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

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

"What the #%$$#@ do you @#$@#$ know about what I can @#$@$ do, @$@#$?" Lydia demanded angrily.

In the next instant Julia's fist was coming at her in a flash of movement that would have made Zero insane with jealousy. Lydia could barely track it, and her body refused to move at her call. She was expecting the impact when two fingers stopped about half an inch away from her eyes.

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

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

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

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

"What did you say?" Lydia asked.

"Your wounds are almost gone," Julia said.

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

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

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

"Damn it," she muttered.

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

"Whatever," Lydia responded irritably.

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

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

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

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

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

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

*****

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

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

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

"Eat," Julia commanded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Lydia always behaves fine," Raphiel said.

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

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

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

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

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

"How did you...?"

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

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

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

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

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

****

"Finally," Romeo said. "We're out of there."
"Did you see the Thing?" Moisha asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Hey," Moisha snapped angrily. "What did you do that...for?" Romeo was pointing panickly at where the apple had landed. The little apple had somehow developed a mouth full of sharp, stick like teeth.

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

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

"Are you, like, KIDDING?!" Moisha asked. "This is, like, the ULTIMATE, shopping accessory!! You know?!"

Romeo glanced back at the growing horde of mobile and fanged apples. Given such a visual stimulant he found himself capable of adequately stating his opinion on the subject.

"GAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

****

"There's really no telling where they ended up," Sheila said. "I suppose the Observatory is most likely, Raphiel does know that after all."
"This is my responsibility," Sheena sighed. "I should have known better than to try to push the poor girl."

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

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

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

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

"What's a miracle?" Lydia asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sheila blinked, finally recovering her wits, and then smirked.

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

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

*****

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

*****

"This is still weird," Britanny said.

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

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

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

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

****

"That's enough for today," Sheena said. Lydia glanced at her and continued her efforts. "That's enough, Lydia."
"I can get another pull-up in," Lydia insisted, glancing at Sheena from the corner of her eyes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What's that?" she asked.

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

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Hey, ssshh," Raphiel said. "The music's starting."

Raphiel didn't seem to notice Lydia reaching her hands up towards his neck, her eyes twitching. Then she jerked her hands down and growled through gritted teeth.

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

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

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

(Lydia has never heard any of the heavier symphonies, like "In the Hall of the Mountain King" or "Ride of the Valkyries")

****

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