by Melanie Ray
"Really?" Tiger smirked.
"Now wait," Grammy Happy quickly amended her statement, "if they were here, they would be trying to teach you right from wrong." She touched Tiger's hand. "What is and what isn't appropriate." Tiger and Carress' tails drooped. "You have made some progress though, and they would have been proud. I am." Grammy bent her head closer to each of them. Oh, her grandkids. They weren't the typical children around the area. All the others were born after The Great Destruction. A war that had eliminated any hope of her race's survival. Every child, woman, and man had been a target for the enemy. Most children who had been alive before The Great Destruction had been killed. All men in their prime had been killed, and all women were taken. Few had survived.
Except them.
The Furry and Sleek males left had craved companionship, so their only choice was more Sleeks or dreadful Pinks. All children born now were a small blend of warno and, of their sworn enemy, waryes. They were either considered Furry, Sleek or Pink. The words warno and waryes barely had any place anymore, except in offense. There was no more pure lineage that could ever be born. Of course, if the enemy had learned of Tiger and Carress’ true lineage? Ancient Happy refused to think about it.
THE NEXT MORNING TIGER and Carress were playing with Dunder, their only friend. They were all on the floor, playing a common old Den game, 'I Bet You Couldn't Eat That.'
"I bet you couldn't eat that," Carress said as she pointed to the old couch.
Dunder went over to the couch and took a bite out of the stuffing. "It needs sugar." He pointed over to the left of the room at an old lamp. "I bet you couldn't eat that, Tiger."
Tiger stood up and looked at the lamp. "Are you kidding? I can't eat a light bulb."
"Ha ha, two to four," Dunder laughed.
Carress crossed her arms. "Tiger we're down 2 points."
"Well you eat a light bulb." Tiger complained. "This is boring, Dunder always wins this game anyhow. Let's play something else."
"Like what?" Dunder asked. "How about 'Bet you can't shove this up there'?"
"Nah, too old," Carress disagreed. "Let's play 'Where'd it come from'." Tiger and Dunder both agreed as they all ran off, in search of things to stump the other with.
Ancient Happy smiled politely as she answered the door. "May I..." Two Pinks dressed in uniform at the door made her smile fade.
"Good morning Ancient." A Pink Tail with black eyes remarked. Happy knew the other bloodthirsty mongrel would stay silent. The dead pink in the eyes, a sure sign he could not communicate, only kill on command. "How is your Den doing today?"
"We have not exceeded any limit." Ancient Happy’s tone was serious. "There are not that many kids here at all."
"Are you at the limit? Sources say, you are at your limit."
"There's nothing wrong with that. That's why it's called a limit. Besides, three left last night for another Den.
"Mm. Yes, they were unlucky. We're lowering the standards to five less."
"They are only children."
"The three that left will count," The Pink grunted. "Already dealt with them last night. Parents too, a little protective. Wouldn't let us take them without a fight."
Ancient Happy squinted her eyes, her voice became harsh. "Where will you take them?"
"Back to our king," he answered. "He hasn't decided whether to kill them or assimilate them yet. So pick two." Screams of protest erupted as parents began to run for their children and hold them tightly. "We are going to take two," he said again. "If any of you get in the way, you're going to wish you didn't."
Tiger, Dunder, and Carress all ran into the room as they heard the shouting. Dunder's dad quickly picked him up in a hurry as Tiger and Carress exchanged a look.
"There, there is your two," one of the fathers said as he pointed at Tiger and Carress. "They've always been out of control, they don't even have parents and no one will put up a fight for them."
"Stop it," Ancient Happy grabbed her staff in anger. "That's not right." Unfortunately, each parent chimed in agreement with the father. "Stop it, those dirty Pinks are not taking Tigeravich or Carressella!" Ancient Happy thumped her staff on the ground. "They are my grandchildren, my only family left, and you will not-" Before she could yell any further, all of the parents grabbed and restrained her. They even took a handkerchief and wrapped it around her mouth. They wouldn't lose any of their kids, or put up any kind of a fight to the Pinks, just to save her grandkids. Other parents with free hands grabbed Tiger and Carress. The children didn't know what to do, they didn't even know what was going on.
"We are sorry Ancient one," One of the mothers said as the parents all turned Tiger and Carress over to the Pinks. "We can't lose our own children." Tiger yelled and swung his legs wildly, but it was no use. The kids were both hurled into a cage in the back of the Pink vehicle. The Pinks didn't bother arguing back as they got into the vehicle and drove off. When they were a safe distance away, the parents all let go of Ancient Happy.
The look the old woman gave them could have turned dirt into glass. "My grandchildren..."
"Daddy?" Dunder looked at his father. "What's gonna happen to Tiger and Carress?"
Dunder’s dad just looked at him. Of course, he could never tell his son.
Chapter 22
NEW FRIENDS
“This is boring," Tiger said as he pulled on the bars of his cage.
"What are they going to do Tiger?" Carress whined. "They held Grammy Happy back when they grabbed us. That can't be good. All the mommies and daddies were holding on to their kids so tightly." Carress hugged herself.
"We'll be okay." Tiger smiled confidently. "Don't worry," he said as he examined the cage. "After all, aren't we experts at escaping?" He fidgeted around in his pants pockets, there was bound to be something in there that could help them. "Gum?" He took the gum out and fidgeted some more. "More candy? I'll save that for later." He fidgeted around again and grinned in triumph as he held his foldable crowbar. His former caretakers when he was younger gave it to him for his fortieth birthday. A prize when it came to getting out of tough situations. He waited, knowing the road was too smooth, and he couldn’t start until the road became rocky and tough before he could start using the crowbar.
It was sometime afterwards, but Carress and Tiger both pulled against the worn out lock with the crowbar. That may work on normal kids, but that would never work on them. They were experts at getting out of these things. Cages. Been there, done that. As the cage finally busted open, they both jumped out and ran away. Free again, but there was a small problem. They had gone far and didn't recognize anything. They started to run back, but Tiger stopped them.
"Wait, we can't go back." Tiger frowned.
"When the Pinks find out we're missing they'll go right back there. All the parents would just grab us again."
"Grammy is there for us." Carress reminded him.
Tiger just chuckled. "Please, Carressy, Grammy doesn't stand a chance. She loves us, but she can't protect us." He put his fist to his chest confidently. "Nope, we're going to be free again. No one will cage us or scold us."
"We can eat whenever we want. Go wherever we want"
"Yeah, and I can keep big collections of frogs and lizards again."
Carress stuck out her tongue. "Grammy hated it when she found out you were hiding them in a broken bathroom."
"Well now, I can have as many as I want." Tiger grinned. "We'll go to bed whenever we want, eat whatever we want, we'll do anything we ever wanted to do that wasn't allowed there."
Carress laughed. "You are right Tiger, we can do it again." She pointed to an old abandoned house that was behind him. "Look, we even have shelter." They both ran into the old house and looked around. Everything was broken. No one had lived there for years. "Tiger, look." Carress had opened an old closet and saw a pathway in the back that had not been closed. "It's a secret thingy." Tiger and Carress ran down it and looked around.
"Doesn't look very neat." Tiger frowned as he l
ooked around. There were no windows in it at all. Only a few chairs, and some kind of old crib. "Huh."
"Have we been here before?" Carress asked gently as she looked around. "I feel like we've been here before."
"Halt! Who goes there?"
Tiger stood in front of Carress protectively as another kid appeared.
"Oh? You're just kids too?" The child smiled who had called them out. He reached out his hand toward them. "I'm Zaria, but friends call me Zar."
Tiger grinned and shook his hand. "I'm Tigeravich, call me Tiger." He pointed over to his sister. "That's my twin, Carressella, you can call her Carress."
"Hi there." Another kid popped out from behind Zar. "I'm called Cooey. I don't have a long name, I'm just cool that way."
"Hi Cooey." Tiger held Carress' hand. "This is my sister, Carress." Carress waved.
"So, what are you doing here?" Zar asked as he went over to an old crib. "Hiding out or something?"
"For now." Tiger smiled. "You guys?"
"We like to stay near here." Cooey smiled. "You see, this is where we were first born."
Zar nodded. "That's our crib. Our parents hid here in The Great Destruction."
"Your parents were there too?" Tiger laughed. "Hey, you're loners like us then."
"You have no parents either?" Cooey smiled at Carress. "We're on the same level." She reached out to shake Carress' hand. "Hi."
"This is neat," Zar laughed too. "You guys can stay here with us for awhile if you want." He ran up the stairs and closed the door behind him and then he opened it back up. "See, it's a great hiding spot." He ran down the stairs. "If you close the door, then it looks like a closet. It's hard to find the handle, unless you know what it looks like from the other side. It's at the very bottom of the door."
"Yeah. I was a bit careless." Cooey shrugged her shoulders. "Good thing I was this time."
"So," Carress said as she looked around, "this is where your mommy and daddy were."
Tiger went back up to close the door. "Those Pinks will never find us in a zillion years now."
The four kids laughed and played in their new home. Home Sweet Home.
Chapter 23
ERF
"So you're saying...?" King Regwallis couldn't believe it. He had been disrupted for this? He was about to sit down to a pleasant meal and have a chat with a few friends when an Ancient burst through the door hole. He had sent everyone away and stood up to let the Ancient sit down. Even if the old woman showed him no respect, as the king it was still his duty, to treat her with respect, such were the old ways. He listened to her go on and on about her grandchildren. Try as he might, he had no choice but to anger the old woman. "Ancient Fornotia, going against the Pink Tails is completely nuts. I'm only alive because I don't do anything to anger them. I only have this broken down castle because it was my families. I only have subjects around here because they're loyal, but I don't have any power."
"My King." Ancient Fornotia bowed her head politely. "I know you have no power, but you do have some loyal subjects, you said yourself. Cooey and Zaria, they are particularly important. We must protect them."
"Uuhhh...” Yeah, King Regwallis knew she was going to get mad. “Why are they so important again?"
"They are my grandchildren," Ancient Fornotia yelled like a cornered cougar. "They are my only little grandchildren left!"
"Okay. Grandchildren. Got it." The King held his hands up in a peaceful fashion. "Alright, your grandchildren are significant to you, yeah, but they are not worth risking countless lives for. There is a chance if they are captured, they will be okay. I think it's best if you keep them hidden as best you can. If we anger the Pinks then we are done for."
"Anger them, don't anger them." Ancient Fornotia growled. "We are already done for. No more Rings can ever be born, male or female. They will keep getting Pink blood running through their veins. More and more, generation after generation and before you know it, everyone will be a pure soulless Pink monster!"
King Regwallis whined, how would he handle Ancient Fornotia? He didn’t want to get hit with her staff again. "I can't do anything about that. Sure, yeah, we're gone. There's nothing I can do about that. Even if I did do something stupid, like declare war or something, they’d win. Furries and Sleeks are going to get hurt. I’m sorry, but I can't do anything. The only thing I can do is not anger the Pink so the rest can at least live out their lives in peace."
"I understand." Ancient Fornotia replied, "but you see, they are not 'tainted'."
"Huh?" King Regwallis was confused. Now what was the old woman chattering about?
"Tainted." Ancient Fornotia said softly again. "They are extraordinarily special. It is why the Pinks won't stop looking for them. Their parents were...Rings."
King Regwallis felt a grin creep up and a sense of nostalgic pride he hadn’t felt for a long time. "Well, isn't that something. Two Rings again? No kids are ever born between two anymore."
"Yes, that's why we need to get them back." Ancient Fornotia tapped her cane. "Do you understand yet?"
"You want your grandkids back." The King rubbed his left eye. "Look, I'm sorry, but even if these kids are Rings, I can't risk it."
"But if only..." Ancient Fornotia admitted slowly. "I told the children their parents were dead, to put them at ease. Truthfully, they illegally landed on a planet without knowledge of aliens. I'm sure if they were alive, they would have come back. They were supposed to."
"Really?" The king felt a small thump in his heart. Maybe he'd be able to help out a citizen after all, with a small bonus on the side. "Well, it's still worth a try. My great granddad kept one extra transporter just in case we needed it in the future. We could bring their mom here and-"
Ancient Fornotia scolded him. "Oh I know what you're thinking, I know that look. She's not a free for all so don't get any ideas."
"Well yeah, but her male’s probably long gone." King Regwallis smiled. "Everybody else is."
"You still belong in the Dens," Ancient Fornotia scolded him again. "Goodness knows, you males can be so-did you say you still have a transporter? " The Ancient grinned when she realized what he said. "We could use that to our advantage. Oh my, if she is still alive..." She started to dig around in a small pouch she carried. "And if the others are still alive somehow?" She pulled out a small rolled up scroll. "Here is the coordinates, I think the planet’s called Erf."
The king took her scroll and stood up alongside her. “Well, let’s go see if it is Erf.” They both walked through the palace and into the secret basement. "Your transporter was probably much older," The king said, "This one is a more recent model. Not recent enough to have an indicator on it, but it should be able to preview. All you do is punch in your numbers and press go." The king looked over at the numbers on the scroll and pressed in the information. The preview feature had worked.
LOCATION: EARTH
LATITUDE: 30.30
LONGITUDE: 97.70
INHABITANTS: UNKNOWLEDGEABLE
ANIMAL LIFE: YES
PLANT LIFE: YES
"According to this, the planet was Earth, and everything was fine." The king shrugged his shoulders. "Well Ancient, it's worth a look, right?" He saw the expression on the elderly woman’s face. "Why not? Nothing else to do with it."
"Thank you," Ancient Fornotia couldn’t help a small bounce. "It will be nice to know finally.”
"I will send my very best man, Hyperion." The king declared with pride. "Koko needs to go too, we’ll need a translator. Don’t worry, we’ll find them.”
Chapter 24
KIDNAPPED TWICE
Koko tried to ignore Hyperion's grouching about his dress as he stared at the object called a computer at the library of the planet Earth. His civilization had not had fancy objects of this type for many decades, not since he was a kid. He had never had a chance to learn about them, but now he had no choice. King Regwallis wanted him to find some missing Rings on the planet, so he got stuck with it. He also got stuck with less tha
n ignorant comrades who didn’t speak one word of English, the native's language, to help him out.
“Koko.” Hyperion complained again. “This dress is bugging me and the aliens are looking at us weird.”
Koko overheard one of the humans as he stared at the computer. He knew what was wrong as he glanced around. A woman nearby pointed in their general direction to a friend. A little girl was giggling at them. Even women behind a large counter had drawn out mouths with their glasses practically slipping off their noses to get a better view. “Yes. Stop talking in our language, we sound similar to their native birds to their ears.” He looked behind him at Hyperion who was still pulling on his dress. “Quit, you are drawing attention.”
“Females wear dresses, not men.” Hyperion pulled at his colorful purple and red skirt. “Others are looking at us.”
“Men wear skirts here. In some areas.” Koko added. He nodded politely to the onlookers. "Maybe not in this area, but we need to hide our tails Hyper, now quiet. I need to talk to a local human again.” He pulled his satin pink skirt up more, making sure his tail was still swirled around his legs. He headed to make contact with one of the local humans who were behind the counter again. “Hello, women. I need info. Search people.” The two women looked at each other. It looked as if one would have to be dragged to help him. Finally, one of the women came from behind the counter over to the computer. She used a contraption to swirl around and hit a spot called ‘Internet’. She double clicked the icon and a new area appeared with a search bar. The human asked what he was searching for. Hmm. Aliens found? No, from the way others acted, no aliens associated on that planet, it had remained isolated. I am in the right area. Maybe tailed people and the name of this town? Or... Koko remembered the power of inhibitors, the reason a warno rarely left their planet. Without inhibitors, they would be crazy. “I want crazy tail humans.”
The woman looked at him oddly. Koko watched as she backed away slowly as if she had a weapon trained on her. She calmly turned around and left. Perhaps he did not give the right words? Koko looked at the keyboard. The hard part was done, so perhaps if he hit the buttons with the native's alphabet upon them? He searched for the letters one by one. When he finished typing, the computer did nothing. There must be a way to signal I am done. He looked around the keyboard and saw a button labeled enter and hit it. Many listings appeared with unfinished phrases below underlined blue letters. Too general? He retyped crazy tail humans and also typed in the name of the town. His listings were fewer this time. Jovial love. Koko found it and pointed to Hyperion. He moved the contraption around that and made an arrow appear on the screen. He clicked it over the blue, underlined letters. A new area appeared with a copy of an article written.