Run Around

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 5

The rest of that day was uneventful, we keep marching on
through the woods on no real path. I was asked a few
questions about Fox's curse, but neither Little Fox or
Jaffee seemed to want to get to deep into the details.

That night though was interesting, Little Fox had gone into
a full fox form, basically an animal. Then curled up on top
of Fox as she sleep. I wish I had a picture of that, I knew
Fox would want one when I told him about it.

The next day though, about an hour before noon, things
starting to get a bit more interesting. We were walking
along the trail with Jaffe in the lead, then Little Fox,
then me and Fox was just behind. Occasionally I would look
back to make sure she was still there, just to be safe.

Little Fox twitched his tail a bit then drifted back towards
me. "Oriana," he commented, "I've been thinking."

"About what?" I asked.

He licked his lips, his ears twitching slightly. "Well,
something just came to me, but I'm not sure if you would
want to talk about it."

I smiled to him. "Tell me then and I'll let you know if I'm
offended."

He nodded. "Before we left the Keep, you said you're only
interested in lions, yes?"

I felt myself blushing softly. "That's right."

"In general, or only your species?"

I smiled a bit. "In general, I've been with a few people who
are not of my species. A year and a half ago I actually put
together a way to make Fox a lion, though for only a few
weeks."

"What happened?"

I frowned. "I found out that he didn't love me, so I set it
up to make him a fox and gave it to him as a gift before I
left."

Little Fox perked his ears up a bit.

"And before you say it," I quickly said, "I can't do it
again. Something in the spell stuck in his system."

He nodded rubbing his chin slightly. "That wasn't what I was
thinking actually."

"You have an idea then?" I asked.

He paused for a few seconds, then nodded. "Maybe, just
maybe. Another question first, you said that you never broke
Fox's curse."

I nodded with a frown. "No, not yet."

"So," He continued, smiling softly, "basically the pendant
forces his old form on the new body?"

I nodded again. "Yes, that's why he has to spend these days
as Rhea, or else the resistance of keeping the spell on him
would cause it to break."

He nodded, now grinning. "So doesn't that mean that even as
a human he really is, on some level, a lion?"

I stumbled a bit, feeling like I had just been hit by a
large rock. I had never thought of it like that before,
but... but if I could... I shook my head in amazement. "I'll
have to think about that."

Little Fox laughed and patted me on the back. "Nice
revelation isn't it. The curse might just be the catalyses
to get you to really together!"

I nodded. "I'm sure the irony is terrific to who ever made
the curse in the first place. It was suppose to destroy me,
force my mind under that of a real lioness' and let me watch
as she killed my friends." I shivered softly.

He nodded. "So that's Rhea then? The real lioness."

"Yes."

He frowned. "Is that you 'lost him' for a week?"

"Yes," I said again.

He shook his head slowly. "Hell of thing to happen to
anybody."

I nodded in agreement.

Then like a shot my Fox ran past us then right around in
front of Jaffe. Stopping so fast that the he barely keep
himself from falling over her.

I took a few steps forward, she was sniffing the as air her
whiskers twitched softly. She then looked back at me and
snorted a bit.

After breathing in a few deep breaths of air I shook my
head. "I don't smell anything."

"I do," Little Fox said, "it's very very faint, but I do
smell something."

Jaffe shook his head.

"Should we see what it is?" I asked.

He thought for a few seconds. "I believe so, it might be
something important."

I nodded. "Lead on Fox."

She nodded to me and started walking off to the right. We
all followed closed behind, no of us sure quite what to
expect.

After a few minuets I could start to smell something as
well, if was faint but also familiar. I was starting to like
this side trip less and less.

We came upon an open clearing after another minute. Inside
of it was pitched a series of tents in a seemingly random
fashion. Some were only half up and most looked badly made
to start with.

Little Fox swore. "Death, this place smells of death."

I nodded realizing the same thing myself as he said it.
Something had happened here, and recently too.

Fox took a slow look around the camp and then walked inside
of it. I could see her for a few seconds before she vanished
behind one of the tents.

"Lets look around," Jaffe ordered, "we must be careful."

We moved forward a bit, each of us taking one of the tents
and checking inside. Opening the small flap of the tent
nearest to me I stuck my head in. Inside, curled up on the
ground, was something that looked like a twisting man, a
short little thing as well. It's throat had been neatly slit
from one side to another.

I pulled my head back out, shaking softly and trying remove
the image from my mind. "What is that?" I asked.

Jaffe walked over to me, looking slightly pale, and glanced
inside the tent, "A dead lutin. Same as in the other tent."

"I found the same thing," Little Fox commented. "Should we
bother checking the rest or assume they're all dead?"

Jaffe paused to think for a few seconds. "If there were any
large number alive they would have attacked us by now." He
shook his head, "But to be safe we must check each tent."

Fox came back then, peaking her head around one of the
tents. She motioned with her head for us to follow her then
turned around and went back the way she came.

I followed right after her, the others were right behind,
almost on my heels, the search of the tents abandoned. Fox
lead us through the maze of tents and into the center of the
came.

Littered around a smoldering camp fire were the bodies of
five lutins. They hadn't been killed as elegantly as the
others, instead they had gone down fighting.

Fox snorted softly as we stopped and went up to one of the
largest tents in the camp. As she stuck her head under the
flat a voice from inside yelped.

We all ran over, pulling the tent flap open we crowed around
Fox to look inside. Huddled at the back of the tent was a
lutin, this time alive.

He took at us, panic stricken. "Don't hurt Dree, please
don't hurt Dree!" It cried.

"We won't harm you unless you attack us." Jaffe said,
stepping back a bit.

He tilted it's head. "Not with big lady?"

Jaffe shook his head. "No, we just arrived here."

The lutin seemed to relaxed a bit.

"Come on outside, it will be less crowded there," Little Fox
said, motioning for the rest of us to step back, which we
all did.

The little man stood up and walked out of the tent. He was
timid, looking all around as he came out into the open.

"What happened here?" Jaffe asked.

He shivered. "Bad thing last night, kill others."

I nodded. "We saw."

He shivered again. "Thirty of us came, I'm only one left."
He frowned. "Lady kill others."

"What lady was this?" Fox asked.

He looked a bit panicked. "Big lady!" He said, raising his
hand as high as it would go. "Human, long hair. She killed
others first, in tents. When we find only ten of us left.
She found us here, she killed some the rest ran away. She
hunt others, find them, find me, tell me I'm not leave, then
lady went away."

Jaffe shook his head slowly. "I don't like this."

"Who would like it?" Fox asked, "whoever this lady was, she
killed everyone but him, and from the looks of it, it was
easy for her."

"I wonder why she did it?" Jaffe asked.

"I'm more worried why she didn't kill us," Little Fox
answered. "We were close and would have been a lot quicker,
if that's what she was interested in."

My Fox snapped her teeth and started to growl softly. I
looked around were we stood and saw the problem. "Our little
friend has run off."

Jaffe looked around himself and seamed angry, "A loss, but
it would be a waste of effort to hunt him down."

"I'm not too worried about him," I commented, "that's for
damn sure."

* * *

Three days later we were back at the Keep. Little Fox had
wanted to go back right away but Jaffe had insisted on
finishing the patrol.

Nothing much more interesting happened after that, the night
after we found the camp I went able to go back to my normal
self and much happier for it. Rhea stayed quite in her
mental cage, only protesting on the first day, after that
she was silent.

Current though we were more involved in explaining what we
had found to the Keep's ruler, Thomas Hassan. We had already
told our story to Jack when we had returned to the Keep, but
Thomas had insisted on hearing it first hand.

Little Fox and Jaffe had just finished telling him what we
had found at the lutin camp. Oria and I sat to one side and
just listened.

"Whoever this lady was," Fox finally commented, "she has
been trained to kill, and is very good at it."

Oria nodded her agreement.

Thomas looked at us. "You two have been silent through all
of this, is there anything you wish to add?"

I shrugged. "I think the lady had been following us since we
left the Keep." I answered, this came as a shock to everyone
else around the small table. "I sometimes picked up her sent
in the air as we traveled, and it was all over the camp when
we found it."

We had filled in Thomas on my curse, and just my curse, so
he would understand how we had found the camp in the first
place.

"Why didn't you mention this before!" Jaffe demanded.

I frowned. "Because I could still smell her following us up
until I changed back."

That brought a small course of swears from around the table.
"Are you sure?" Oria asked.

I nodded. "Yes, I'm sure."

Thomas sighed, rubbing the top of his muzzle. "So she might
be here at the Keep?"

"I doubt it," Little Fox answered. "If she had been from the
Keep the lutin would have been sure to tell us. The local
women are quite clearly from here. No, I think this lady was
showing us what she can do."

"Why?"

He smiled. "I think she wanted you to know about it. An
example maybe."

"She's decided to join the game," I commented.

Little Fox nodded, "Yes, I think so. Though I don't know
who's side she would be on, other then her own."

"What I fear," Jaffe said, "Is what Nasoj will do when he
hears of this. Would he consider it an act of war?"

Thomas shook his head. "No, I don't believe so. Our enemy is
an intelligent man, he knows what we do and what we don't
do. This was as much of a message to him as it was to me. I
think you're right, I think this Lady has left her calling
card for us, we need to be careful of her."

He rose from his seat. "I'm sorry, I need to talk to Jack
about this. Thank you for talking to me though." He said
before he left.

I sighed, sitting back in my chair, looking at the ceiling
of the library as it hung above us. "Is this good or bad?" I
asked.

"I don't know," Fox commented. "It may not change anything
at all, unless she returns."

There was a pause for a few seconds before Jaffe excused
himself. We all said are mutual farewells as he went.

Little Fox sighed as he stood up. "This has been an
interesting week." He said.

I nodded as I stretched. "Agreed."

He chuckled. "At least the two of you can go home in two
days. I have to stay here and have everyone ask me about it
over and over and over again."

Oria smirked. "We have are own problems back at home."

He smiled. "Like?"

I shrugged. "Well, first off we were only suppose to have
been gone a couple days. I'm pretty sure Ken is worried sick
by now and Newt is somewhat panicked."

"They're friends of yours?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Ken... was a friend, once. We're now more
of associates, he's training Newt it magic."

He nodded. "Very well then. Who then would Newt would be?"

"Naomi," I answered. "My daughter."

Fox's mouth nearly hit the floor. "You have a child!" He
nearly shouted.

Oria snickered softly.

"She's about ten years old." I answered, "A skunk morph. I
adopted her late last year after her world died."

He frowned. "Died... how?" He asked, from the look on the
face I could see he already had his own thoughts on the
idea.

"A Plague," I answered.

He shook his head softly. "I saw a plague ravaged village
once. It was an ugly sight, I can't image it on a world wide
scale."

I nodded.

"Well," Oria said, "on that note shall we go get some food?
I'm starving."

   To Be Continued...

-----

This story is (c) 1998 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.
"Metamor Keep" (C) 1998 by 'Copernicus' all rights reserved.
Thomas Hassan is (C) 1998 by Thomas Hassan.