Old Friends, Yet Unsung

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

01/01/96:

I yawned as I walked into study room three, in the Marble
Hall, which was currently filled with stacks, and stacks of
printouts.

Rathal and I were using the place (which was the size of a
small office) to go through the files of everybody cleared
for running around the multi-verse, trying to find someone
with whom I could be side-kick. Out of the total of
fifty-thousand registered we had narrowed it down to five
thousand very quickly by taking into account basic things.

Things like: they had to breathe oxygen, they must not think
of me as food, they shouldn't have problems with me being a
skin, and of course, they had to be someone that the Council
Head would actually approve of.

So since early Saturday morning we had both been going
through them all to find someone. We already had about a
thousand as 'no-go' and twenty as 'maybe'.

I closed the file I had been reading, and yawned again,
causing Rathal to look up from the pile he was going
through. "You look tired," he commented.

I nodded, rolling my shoulders as I set the file in the
'no-go' pile. "Late night," I explained as I grabbed a new
file and opened it.

A few minutes later I heard Thal's halting laugh. I looked
over the top of my folder. He was currently on one with a
blue tab on the side, meaning whoever it was on had just
gotten cleared.

"What?"

He was grinning widely, "You're really going to get a kick
out of this one."

I raised an eyebrow. "Shoot."

"According to this, this lady's occupation is Lion Tamer."

I shrugged, "So, she works at a circus."

"Not exactly. She's Lidr'ran. Her species are lion-morphs,
and she tames 'em all right, at a brothel. According to
this..." before he could finish I had the folder in my
hands.

There was no picture, which was normal for someone just
cleared, but the name I knew. "Oria." I said, grinning like
a madman.

"What?"

I set the folder down, "Oriana Shripon. She was with me for
a few verses. I dropped her off back at her home world, days
before I told Becky about this, and she signed on as a
side-kick."

Rathal looked at me, "If she does agree, it's not likely the
Council Head would approve."

"She will," I countered, glancing over her file, "It doesn't
say in here, but she will only bed her own species. I can
tell you this from trying."

He shook his head, "So, are you saying she's the one?"

I stood, and started feeling around for a slight fold that I
could use. A few seconds later I found one (the Marble Hall
is on a nexus of folds) and opened a portal. "Yep. Care to
come?"

He stood, "You think I would have a job here if I didn't
come?"

I shrugged, "Good point." Then I turned, and walked through.

Unlike Friday night's trip through the portal, this one was
easier to take (with my being somewhat back in practice). It
took a few seconds of drifting, a quick drop, and I stepped
onto the sidewalk in Oria's Verse.

A few seconds later Rathal came through after me, and I
closed the portal, keeping it cold, so no one could track
us.

"How close are we to the brothel Oria works at?"

I pointed down the street, "It's that way." Then we started
through the crowd of stunned lions who saw us enter their
Verse.

As we headed down the street Thal come up next to me,
"What's the verse number here?"

I though for a second; since I was a natural, I never really
used them, "Ah... fourteen dash... one-twenty-seven."

Rathal nodded, "One of the limited contact verses. You do
know how many rules we're breaking?"

I shook my head, "You're the Council member, you tell me."

"About twenty-four."

"Ok," I said, "and what is that when you add in my ranking
as a Natural?"

He paused, "Nothing. There are lots of minor rules a Natural
can break. The ones you can't, are big."

"Don't remind me." When Becky and I first went to trial most
of the members wanted us killed. We only got exiled by a
margin of one vote.

I turned another corner, onto a side street. After a few
more minutes, I turned and went up to a normal looking door
on the back of a normal-looking house.

There was a slight pop, and the door swung inwards. Standing
against it was a lioness, wearing a long, flowing, satin
dress that blurred key features enough to be street legal.
"Hello, boys," she said in a low sultry voice, "How may I be
of service to you?" She didn't seem to be surprised in the
least that we were not of her species.

"Two ways," I snapped, "one, you can stop trying to seduce
us, as we're here on business other than sex, and two, you
can take us to see Oriana, without saying who, or what, I
am."

She looked at me, "Oh," she said, her voice back to normal,
and sounding disappointed. "Come on in, then," and she
stepped back inside.

I followed, pulling Rathal after me. The lioness opened up
an inner door for us, "There some are seats next to the
door, sit down please. I'm going to find if Oriana is free."

I nodded, went through, and sat down. Rathal followed,
looking very stunned.

"Now you two don't move," she said. "I'll be right back,"
and she departed.

I glanced over at Thal, "You all right in there?"

He nodded. "Yes... It's just... I've never been in a place
like this before."

I grinned, "You get used to 'em when you spend as much time
as I have in them."

This got a _very_ sharp look from him.

I shook my head, "In my Doctoring days," that's what I
called my wondering around the multi-verse before I was
exiled, "I ended up staying at many when I couldn't find any
place else, and no, I never used their services, as I was
underage at the time, and generally knew better."

He blinked, and muttered something, which I registered as a
simple 'truth of statement' spell. He looked at me, "Well,
you're telling the truth."

"Of course, have I ever lied to you?"

He looked like he was about to say something, but the
lioness came back just then. "Oriana is free, and in her
apartment upstairs. She said you could go up, it's room
three-fifty-three." Ah, she was still in the same room, so I
knew exactly where she was in the house.

I stood, "Thank you, my dear lady, you have been of great
help."

She blushed a bit, which you would not have expected,
considering her occupation, "Thank you. And do stop by
sometime and use my services."

I grinned, and started for the elevator, "I'll think about
it." I said, for once, actually planning on thinking about
it. As I entered the lift, I looked for Thal.

I saw him talking to the lioness, after a minute he came
over and got into the elevator with me. I hit the button for
the third floor.

"So," I said, "How are you going to wrangle clearance for
your appointment here?"

He looked at me, blushing to the tip of his ears, "What?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Remember this is a limited visitation
verse. How are you going to get clearance to come back? And
don't try to deny it, you're too new at this."

He rolled his eyes, "I have my ways." Which meant that he
didn't want to talk about it, which was fine with me.

We got off of the elevator on the third floor, and walked
down the hallway to Oria's room. I paused a moment to
compose myself, and knocked on the door.

"The door's open, come on in." Oria's voice said from the
other side of the door.

I opened the door and stepped into her apartment: it was
nice, though not large. There was the main room, which had a
kitchen attached to it. Through one door was a bathroom, and
through another, the bedroom. The bedroom door was closed.

"I'll be out in a minute, I'm getting dressed," she said
from the bedroom.

I sat down on the couch, moving a whip and a large hoop out
of the way, and Thal sat down on a chair in the corner.

After a few minutes the bedroom door opened, and Oria
stepped out. She was about 5' 7", give or take. Her face was
framed by long flowing dark yellow hair, ending about midway
down her back. Her ears, poking though her hair, were
slightly rounded. Her nose and mouth were extended in a
slight muzzle, and she also had normal feline hair-lip.

She was wearing a tight spandex one-piece, that covered her
from her crotch, and high on her hips, to her neck and over
her arms, showing her slight muscular form, and her nipples.
The spandex was a dark yellow from under her medium-sized
breasts down, and a light yellow every place else. On each
of her wrists she wore a thin metal band, tokens from one of
our few trips together.

Her legs were human-like, and like the rest of her exposed
body were covered in short light yellow fur, except the tip
of her tail, which ended in a soft tuft of darker fur that
was the same color as her hair.

She blinked her slightly slitted green eyes at me, blinked
again, yelled out "Foxer!" and then pounced me!

The pounce lifted me off the couch and over the back, where
I landed on a pile of forgotten clothing, with her on top of
me. "Hi, Oria."

She stood, pulling me to my feet, and wrapped her arms
around me in a tight hug.

I hugged back, "How have you been?"

She broke the hug, and looked at me, "Ok, although things
have changed. Where have you been? I haven't seen you for
over a year!"

I looked down a bit, "I've been exiled."

She shook her head, "finally pushed it just a bit too far?"

"That," Rathal said, "and it looks like someone is covering
up something bigger, and making Fox, here, the fall guy."

Oria turned and looked at him, "I believe it. Now, who are
you?"

"I am Councilor Rathal Decarn, second level, seat twelve. A
pleasure to meet you, Oria."

She looked him over, then looked back at me as if to say
'You, with a Council member? I don't believe it!' Then she
looked back at Thal, "Only Foxer and Becks can call me Oria,
everyone else uses Oriana."

He nodded, "Very well, Oriana."

She turned, and walked over to me. "Four things. One," she
hooked her finger around my collar and tugged a bit, "I like
this. Two, what happened. Three, where's Becky, and four,
why are you with him?"

I sank down to the couch, "Becky's dead."

She paled, her ears dropping down into her hair, "What?"

I nodded, "I'll begin at the beginning. Now let's set the
way-back machine for the morning of December eighteenth,
nineteen ninety four. Twenty or so days since I had last
seen you. It was a cold and damp morning..."

* * *

"...and that," I said, finishing off my story after three
hours, "is why we came here."

Oria nodded, stretching her arms as she sat next to me on
the couch. She then hugged me tightly, "I'm sorry about
Becky."

I hugged her back, "I know."

There was a pause, "I think I will do what you're asking me
to do," she said.

Rathal looked up from the chair he was sitting in, "Really?"

She nodded, "I have some time off, and I've been needing to
get away."

I looked at her, "Will Lady Shandin let you go?"

She laughed a bit, "She's retired."

"Oh, how about the new Lady?"

A wide grin split Oria's small muzzle, "No problem at all
with her."

"Why?" I asked, getting the feeling I was missing a joke I
was suppose to get.

"Because I'm the current Lady of the house!"

I looked at her, shook my head, and started to laugh out
loud; she quickly joined in.

Rathal looked at us, "What?"

Oria stopped laughing a bit, and grinned. "When Foxer first
ran into me, I was dead set against working at a house.
Instead I wanted to work the street, thinking it would be
better. Now here I am, *running* a house!"

Thal shook his head a bit, and muttered, "Of course, you're
one of Fox's friends. Why should I be surprised?"

If Oria noticed she didn't show it. "Listen, when I was told
someone was coming to see me, I assumed it was one of my
special clients setting up an appointment to have me run
them on the training ground. That's why I'm dressed up in
these, they're my work clothing. I'm going to go get
changed, wait right here." She then hugged me again, turned,
and picked up her whip and hoop. Then she went back into her
bedroom, and closed the door.

I sat back down on the couch, shaking my head a bit, "She's
really lightened up in the past year."

Thal looked at me, amazed, "Lightened up?"

I nodded, "Long story."

He 'ahhed', understanding that was my way of saying I didn't
want to talk about it.

A few minutes later Oria came back out dressed in a pair
semi-tight jeans, a loose shirt that said "Life is a party.
Do what you can, and _enjoy_ it!" in English, and a tote-bag
over her shoulder. She was still barefoot, as all Lidr'rani
go.

She patted the tote, "General stuff. I called downstairs and
put myself on variable listing, so I can come back when I
want to."

Rathal headed for the door, "Well lets head back to the fold
so we can head to the Hall."

I shook my head, "No need, there's a ripple coming." A
ripple is like a fold, but moving; someone skilled with a
portal control can open one on a ripple, but it's very
difficult. A Natural like me has a much easier time.

"Everyone gather around, it's going to be right under us."

Rathal and Oria moved right next to me, and as the ripple
neared I prepared myself. As it went past us, I opened the
portal on the floor. There was a lurch, and we fell through.

A few seconds later we landed in a pile in the outer office
of the Head of the Council.

I stood up, and then helped Oria stand as well. A youngish
looking bat was the secretary. He looked over us and said,
"Wild guess--, no appointment, 'ya?"

I nodded, "No and Yes, is she free?"

He nodded, "I take it you're this Fox Cutter fellow that she
told me t' watch for."

"That's me."

He waved at the inner door, "Head on in then."

We did so. I was in the lead, Oria behind me, and Rathal
last. The office wasn't that big, but it was clean. The
Council Head sat behind her desk and looked over us.

"Hello, Fox, Rathal," she said in a normal speaking voice.

I blinked, "You're not whispering."

She grinned, "I only do that at Council; it makes people
shut up and listen."

"Ah," I said, sitting down in a nearby chair.

The Council Head looked over Oria, "Hello, what is your
name?"

"Oriana Shripon. I'm here for you to approve for sticking
with Fox, Ms. Council Head."

The Council Head nodded, "Please, call me Rachel here, all
of you."

She looked at me, "Do you have Oriana's file with you?"

"No," I said sheepishly, "I forgot it."

"Ok." She turned and typed at her computer some, "It says
here you work at a brothel."

Oria nodded, "Yes, I enjoy my work."

"I see. Do you have any experience with portals?"

"I traveled with Fox some, that's how I got to sign up."

Rachel nodded, "I see... did you ever practice on him?"

Oria blinked, "No, I stick to my own species."

She grinned, "I see, pity, that. Now, I really don't see any
problems clearing you to stick with Fox."

"But?" I prompted.

"Don't do anything you normally wouldn't do with him," she
said, grinning. "Now, Rathal, take Oriana down to supplies
and get her a portal control."

Rathal nodded.

"And Fox," she said, "you look half asleep. Go home and take
a nap."

I nodded, I was half asleep having gotten only four hours
the previous night.

She looked at us all, "Well, what are you waiting for? Go!"

We went.

-----

This story (AFiW #103) is copyright 1996, 1999 by Fox
Cutter, hardcopy reprints limited to one a person, all other
rights reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee
except by permission of the author, and this copyright
notice may not be removed.