A Love That Destroyed Time

by Melanie Ray

  Found them.

  M-WIN STRETCHED OUT in her bed. She shared a room with eight other girls, but they only had one window. Oh, how she missed the feeling of sun on her skin. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt the wind blow through her hair. The air felt claustrophobic that night, the humidity making it unbreathable. If only I could open a window. Sleeping was hard, the sheets felt sticky against her skin as she kicked off her covers. How could anyone sleep in such unbearable weather? She closed her eyes, trying to imagine ice-capped mountains.

  She sniffed the air. Had her imagination gone overboard? She smelt something of pine. No, not pine. A lovely smell she could not identify, although it had been familiar. Very familiar. She sniffed the air lightly again. The smell was so intoxicating. She felt her body relax and let out a purr. Nothing around her mattered anymore. She stretched her arms out and then moved onto her side to let her arms hang off the bed. Her breathing slowed and she felt herself drifting off into a peaceful slumber...

  Ooh, what a wonderful dream. M-Win kept her eyes closed as she floated around in the clouds. Her body felt as light as a feather as she swished back and forth, back and forth. Why would she be swishing if she were flying? I must be flying, I feel a breeze. A powerful breeze, cool and refreshing as it touched her skin. She felt herself sinking back down to Earth. Cold, metal bars beneath her, frigid against her tummy. Where had her summer night gone?

  “Wake.”

  M-Win felt the sky shake her and the sensation caused her to wake up. She was so tired, her lids felt heavy as she opened them. Still dreaming? She looked down and realized she was in a cage. Adrenaline caused her to get up as quickly as possible, but her balance fell off kilter as her foot got stuck in a hole. She grabbed the bar beside her in time to keep from falling. Oh no, I told the doctor not to change my prescription. Was she becoming insane like her brothers or was some other identity trying to take over? From her swinging cage, tied with a strong rope to a tree, she saw the strangest sight ever. Men who were her size, who had outrageous hair colors, along with something not so common:

  Tails. Thick like a lemur’s, they were a startling black and-. Ah, the tails are moving. Yes, no doubt about it. She was losing her mind. This isn’t real, I am in Aryu Institution. Relax, close your eyes M-Win. M-Win closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Feeling calm and in control, she opened her eyes. The strange beings were still there. She watched as one approached her cage and she pushed her back against it as far as possible. He wore a tattered purple robe that would need to be washed in bleach for a year to be presentable. His tail was furry black, and the hair on his head was green. He chirped at her, reminiscent between a mockingbird and a pigeon.

  A man with light purple hair upon his head moved closer toward her. He smiled and opened his mouth, speaking in English. "Greetings, female." He seemed to slightly shiver. It wasn’t cold, why did he shiver?

  I don’t want to be crazy, please don’t let me be crazy. M-Win moved up from the back of the cage and stepped forward. Things that were in her head couldn’t hurt her. That's what Yed and X chanted during bad trips. It's not real, keep your head. "Can you please let me go?"

  The translator giggled. "You are pretty. Very." He fidgeted with his fingers. "No, you cannot leave. You are important." His face began to flush. "Sorry kidnap you. Nip from cat used. Sorry." M-Win stared at him. Sorry he kidnapped her? What was up with him? She glanced out at the crowd and saw the same expressions. Some men were adjusting collars on their shirts, and some sweated profusely while others just gave her the goofiest grin. The man with the tattered purple robe waved his arm to the ground and turned to speak to the translator. The translator looked over at her. "Our boss said he happy you back."

  "Back?" M-Win scoffed. "I don’t belong here. I don’t want to be insane, I just took the wrong pills," she tried to convince herself. “This isn’t real, none of this real.”

  The translator fidgeted. "It is. We bring you home."The King frowned at her and chirped again. It was so weird, he didn't press his lips together and blow like someone imitating a bird. His mouth moved like he was talking plain ol' English. What the hell? "Boss said your mom hid you other world and brother." The translator smiled. "Used ancient machine."

  "Huh?" M-Win frowned. "I don't get half the stuff you're trying to say, shut up, leave me alone!" She rocked back and forth. "Visions can't hurt me, visions can't hurt me, visions can't hurt me."

  The man in the tattered robes grinned strangely at her, making M-Win feel uneasy. He handed the translator something strange, and he handed it to M-Win. "These are transears. In ears help talking without me." M-Win looked at him strangely. Maybe if she followed her delusions she would break free. It was never something she asked Yed or X. She put the hearing aid-like things on.

  "Ah, well I'll bet that's much better now, eh?" The man in the tattered purple winked. “Hi. I’m your King. Call me Regwallis. Reg is fine too, or even Wallis, I don’t really care.”

  M-Win’s voice squealed, "I understand you? The bird chirping man. Wow, I really am losing it."

  "Eh," King Regwallis pointed to the translator. "This goof is here because it's not perfect. Words get torn up here and there. Missing words another language has than us. Simple things. Overall, it's dang good. Even translates our slang words to you into yours. Although sometimes that messes up. Heh, that's never pretty. Anyhow, welcome home."

  M-Win confidently stood up. "Alright, King. Where am I and how do I get back to by brothers?"

  The King laughed. "What, there were two?"

  M-Win looked at him oddly. If this was her mind spiralling into looneyville, surely her creations would know that. Come to think of it, why did she even have to have some made up magical hearing aid to understand creatures made up in her mind? Would talking to them really help after all? "Yeah, there's two. Wye and X. They live in the Aryu Institution with me."

  Voices talked all at once around her, their source unseen through the crowd.

  "What's a ‘Aryu’?"

  "What's a ‘Institution’?"

  "Let's go have a mate over by the corner."

  "I make more wiggle, be my escort."

  M-Win blinked. Did two weird beings in a crowd just ask her for sex, prostitution or a simple date? Oh yeah fate, thanks, make me attractive to aliens with tails? Were humans like me too hard to ask for? I got the short end of the stick on this one.

  "Back off you hooligans," A bitter old voice yelled from the middle of the crowd. It’s bickering became louder and a staff was seen moving through the waves of men. M-Win watched the crowd split and saw a very old lady, about two feet high, holding a staff four feet high. She had a thick black fur tail too, but it was also ringed with red and white like a candy cane. She strolled over to the cage, her tie dye orange and red robe swishing along the ground.

  King Regwallis said, "Straighten up. Keep shouting and the Pinks will be here in seconds. Silence." The two foot tall lady came up and smacked the king on the forehead."Ow, not nice," the king said in a childish voice as he grabbed his head. “I’m trying.”

  The old lady looked at M-Win and grinned, a jagged elderly smile. "Oh my gosh, you're really okay, Muinela." She laughed. "I am Ancient Fornotia Marks. Oh, but to you, I'm your Grammy Fornot. Oh dear, it's been so long since your Grammy Fornot saw you, child, goodness."

  "Grammy Fornot?" M-Win looked at her strangely. She shrugged her shoulders, at this point she wasn’t breaking free of her hallucination any time soon.

  "Yes. Where's your brother and the Protector?" Grammy Fornot asked her.

  M-Win sighed. "You mean my brothers, Wye and X?"

  "Wye and X?" The old lady grinned even bigger and looked like she was gonna break her hip in her excitement. "Are you saying the Protector is still alive and well with you? Amnesia too for him? I had a feeling nothing could keep a man like him down! You are all finally back, but wait, where are they then?"

  "Oh, we kind of left them." The translator said sheepishly.
“We used cat water and changed the coordinates to her domicile. We slipped in and out easy with her. Besides, that world was nice, why take them if we didn’t have too?”

  The old lady stepped over to the cage and undid the outside lock. "Idiot, Koko, you were supposed to get all of them," she said. Her expression switched from hard to sweet as she held out her short hand. "Come Muinela, jump down. We must leave quickly. Our true race is not appreciated as much here anymore."

  "Our race?" M-Win jumped down. "As in me?" She noticed the woman looking at her rump a little differently than all the men were.

  "Your poor tai,.” Grammy Fornot shook her head. “There is much to discuss Muinela." The old lady slipped something off her neck and passed it to her. "Here, your mother would have wanted you to have this. It's a picture she always kept close to her."

  M-Win took the necklace and looked at it. "It's X and me?" M-Win wore a cute pink dress and the red shirted boy must have been X. She had a furry ringed tail that matched her sunny hair and X had a bright purple ringed tail. Then there was another individual in the picture she didn’t know, with a vivid red ringed tail. "Who's that?"

  "That was your sister." Grammy Win smiled. "She was a nice gal too."

  "I have a sister?" M-Win stared at the picture. She smelled, she heard, she saw, she felt everything around her. Even her senses that had told her that she was crazy were being tricked into believing everything was real.

  "Yes," Grammy Fornot said softly. "We'll talk more later about that." Her attitude swung back into anger mode again. "They should have brought them all. We needed everyone, especially the Protector. How could they mess that up?"

  "Enough bantering," King Regwallis said, "Come on everyone, we need to move before-"

  It was too late. Shots were heard.

  M-Win watched as everyone but the King and Grammy Fornot scattered. "Eh?" She felt a small tremble run through her as she watched a strange creature ride up on a horse. His eyes were red and his tail was a putrid pink, like on that of a rat.

  The stranger got off his horse and looked at M-Win. "The missing Ring I presume?"

  M-Win laughed nervously. "Hey, how's it going?"

  "My day has been quite pleasurable." He pointed something similar to a gun at M-Win. "Yours has not been I think is safe to say. Leave it to this pitiful race to yank out their last pure female from a safe spot."

  "H-hey!" King Regwallis’ voice interrupted. "D-don't hurt her, we can put her back." He tried to smile.

  The stranger shoved the weapon into the king's face. "You’re a disgrace. I can't believe you actually tried to be brave."

  The king gulped as he stared at the gun. "F-f-furries aren't the best at thinking. Can't we put her back and pretend it never happened?"

  The rat man laughed, "your stupidity is amazing." He stared down at the King. "You made the same dumb choice as your daddy. I should shoot you where you stand."

  M-Win watched as the kings expression became deathly serious. Apparently this rat man had struck a chord. "Furries may not always be smart, but we are proud. You are not taking her." M-Win turned her head, unable to watch, as she heard the sound of the weapon going off. She opened her eyes afterward when she heard a struggle. The stranger looked disapprovingly at Grammy Fornot who held onto his weapon. She must have thrown it off its position.

  "Muinela is the last one, there are only males left," The old woman grumped. "She cannot do any damage, you know that." The stranger grabbed his weapon from her and pointed it straight at her head. "Please child, do you know how old I am? Do you think I care?" The old woman griped. "Like I said, Muinela is the last one. You know you've doomed our race many years ago, leave us be and let us gradually become extinct with our own dignity. Let the king live with his own burden and shame." The rat man scoffed and looked at M-Win. She tried not to meet him eye to eye. She didn't want to go this way, she had to escape. This wasn’t in her head, it was just too real!

  "Fine," The stranger agreed as he grabbed M-Win roughly. "She's coming with me. Any more uprising from this kingdom and this Ring is dead."

  King Regwallis sighed as he watched M-Win being taken away. "She was so hot."

  Grammy Fornot whacked him on the head. "My granddaughter was just taken, and you just mention her hotness?" She whacked him again. "Now what are you going to do? She was safely out of danger, and now look what happened. What's going to happen to her?"

  The king whined as he rubbed his head. "We can't go after her, they'll get rid of her. She'll be safe as long as we stay away. You know that's the way it goes."

  The old lady whacked him one more time. "Be quiet, I know that. You need to get the Protector here. If he's still alive, he should be able to get her out. He was an A class after all. Now, you get him and Xiamipoc here, now!"

  "I don't know." The king shrugged his shoulders. "They're not going to be happy and they might be a little hard to deal with, what with all that happened. Maybe we should cancel this whole-" One more whack for good measure. "-whole thought about not inviting them home because, hey, everyone has to come home sometime, right?"

  Chapter 25

  PROTECTOR

  "You know, if you don't settle down, you're never coming out of those chains." A short man with green hair, a furry black tail and a purple robe sighed as he set loosely on an old crumbled up throne ruin. "Come on, lighten up."

  "Lighten up yourself!" Wye shouted, shaking chains around his feet. He looked around, trying to get a feel for his surroundings. One minute he was in Aryu Institution trying to put together what had happened to M-Win along with the rest of the staff, but he and X were grabbed and taken hostage by weird transvestite men about their height. The delusions got weirder as the men took off the dresses they wore and revealed tails beneath. "Who are you? Are you the goons that took M-Win?"

  "That we be," the man with the green hair said as he wagged his tail behind him. "Welcome back home."

  "Welcome back home?" X said in surprise. "Where are we?" He scratched his head. “Am I genuinely getting this crazy? Nurse, I think I seriously need my medicine this time!”

  “You’re funny,” The man with the green hair stood up. “I’m King Regwallis, and you’ve been kindly brought back to your home planet.”

  Wye was not pleased as he struggled with the cuffs even more. This delusion was out of his control, and he couldn't seem to escape it. Either he was going beyond crazy and, in fact, he needed some guidance from Aryu right now, or he had been hijacked by a bunch of aliens. He didn’t like either option. There’s no such thing as aliens. But if there isn’t, and I can't get out, then I am going downright nuts. Ah holy hell, am I turning into Tar? Was he losing it, going up and down the institution right now saying he was an alien? No, I don’t want to be that crazy. Fine. I’ve been hijacked by English speaking aliens. It was an easier reality to accept. "Give us M-Win and take us back to Dallas right now you stupid alien!"

  The king looked at him oddly, somehow finding hilarity in his words. “I thought Protectors were always calm and collected. Don't worry, you two will be fine.”

  Wye looked over at X, sizing his brother up. He was in the same situation, which wasn’t the norm in his psychotic episodes. He glanced over him and shook his head. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing, X? Aliens with tails? That are speaking English?” He watched X nod his head. Okay, he wasn’t on a solo crazy trip. That made him feel better about addressing the extraterrestrials. What a headline that would be in the newspaper. Crazy person actually sees aliens. It’d be front page news if they could prove it.

  The king strolled up beside Wye and X. "Guess your brains were a little roasted since you didn't have inhibitors." The King bopped his own head. "That sucks."

  "That sucks? That sucks?” Wye repeated. “That’s it; will someone explain what's going on already? Is this some sick joke? Do you think it’s funny to make crazy people think they aren’t crazy?" He stopped a second and thought about what he said. “Well, okay that is kind of funny, but it
’s not funny enough to abduct troubled people from Aryu. Now give my sister back.”

  "Calm down,” The King insisted as he lowered his hand. “Do not be so aggressive towards me. Look, both of you and Muinela escaped to another world. You lost your memories, maybe some of your sanity, but that's it."

  "Are you telling us that you were the ones who sent us to Texas without our memories?" X had to ask. “We’re kind of funny in the head because of you?

  "Not me, but don't worry." The King waved his hand over his head. "You're not missing anything you'd want to keep."

  "Alright." Wye asked, semiseriously. "Fine then, say I buy this. Say we are aliens. How do you speak perfect English? Why did you bring us back?"

  "We put transears in your ears. Like earplugs, so you can understand us. As for the reason we brought you back." The King was quiet for a time. "You know," He signaled for the translator, "I'll let Koko tell you to make sure it comes out right."

  The poor translator was dragged in beside X and Wye. "Hey there. What is going on with you?" Koko scratched the side of his mouth. “Years ago, our race live peaceful. Then, a new race came. They suck. They not like us, they..." the translator seemed to be stuck on a word. "Uhh...hurt us." He finally finished. "In end, all girls taken."

  "Another race took all the girls?" X struggled with his cuffs but accidentally knocked himself over. Wye would have laughed if it wasn't such a terrible time.