Book IV: A New Beginning

Part One: Return

Amber slowly opened her eyes, seeing mainly the back part of her body and the start of her tail. She lifted her head off her tail and looked around. The room she was in was a fairly large one, and all the walls and the floor were made of smooth black stone. There were a few windows, and sunlight was pouring in through them. Her friends were all lying in different spots on the floor, asleep. All except Dash, she thought. Poor guy. Just a few hours ago, they had all been facing “the Dark One,” a really bad human. When the human tried to blast Ragnarok into a ball of darkness, Dash had knocked Ragnarok out of the way. He had used his ice powers to destroy the Dark One’s source of strength, but he had been knocked into the darkness instead of Ragnarok. A tear ran down Amber’s cheek. All those times he saved us…. Every day we live is thanks to you, Dash.

She stretched and yawned, then looked at Ragnarok. He still looks pretty tired, she thought. After Dash had saved him, Ragnarok had used all his strength to call forth a powerful burst of fire to destroy the Dark One, but it had taken a lot out of him. After he had fallen asleep, the others had watched over him until they fell asleep too. And it looks like I’m the first one up. Amber walked over to the twins. “Keera, Terra,” she said quietly, nudging them with her nose, “it’s time to get up,”

“Mgh, already?” Keera mumbled. “We’re tired,” Terra added as each one covered her head with her wing.

Amber smiled. “Fine, if that’s the way you want it…” she said. She slowly ran the tip of her tail across the edge of Terra’s tummy.

The edge of Terra’s mouth twitched up, then she burst into giggles. “All right! We’re up! I give!” Terra spluttered around the giggles. The twins stood up, and Keera eyed Amber. “You tickled her? That’s playing dirty,” she said.

Amber laughed. “Well, it got you up, didn’t it?” she responded. Keera glowered at her. Amber moved to Sabre. “Hey Sabre, time to get up.”

“I’m already awake,” he muttered, popping open one red eyelid. “It’s not easy to sleep through all that.”

“You can say that again,” Ragnarok agreed, standing up and stretching. “Ungh. Good morning everyone.”

“Good morning, Ragnarok!” Amber replied, walking over to him. “How are you feeling?”

Ragnarok stretched out his wings, then lay back down. “Much better than last night,” he said.

“Last night,” Keera muttered softly, the twins hanging their heads. Poor things, Amber thought. They were really attached to Dash, and now he’s…. Amber shook her head sadly.

Ragnarok walked over to them. “C’mon girls, cheer up. All this gloom won’t help anyone,” he said, smiling reassuringly.

Keera sniffed. “I guess not,” she said, looking up.

Sabre walked over too, grinning. “Remember, we’ve still got a big trip ahead of up, and we’ll need your help to make it quicker,” he pointed out.

Terra’s look brightened. “Yeah, our wind powers will sure come in handy!” she chirped.

Amber smiled and nodded, then turned to Ragnarok. “Can you figure out a way back to the village without the map?”

Ragnarok nodded. “Yup, I can still remember it perfectly,” he said. He lay down and started scratching lines into the floor. “Just give me a minute or two to figure out which way we should go.”

Keera and Terra watched him over his shoulders. “Yeah, we’ll need a different path-“ “since we can just fly straight there this time!” they verified.

“Hmm… we probably ought to land before we get there, since making all that wind in the middle of the village would really make a big mess,” Amber pointed out.

“Okay, so if this way is that way, then we go this way…” Ragnarok muttered to himself.

“So when we get back, do we just tell them what we did and leave?” Terra asked.

“Maybe we should take something to show them,” Amber suggested.

Sabre’s head perked up. “I’ve got an idea,” he said. “Be right back.” He pushed open a door and ran back into the room where they had fought the Dark One. A minute later, he walked back in with a piece of clear black rock in his mouth.

“Oh, his ‘kristull!’” Keera exclaimed. “Good idea!”

“Tathe phummy,” he muttered around the crystal, and set it down.

“Okay, I think I’ve got it,” Ragnarok announced. “Let’s get back outside.” Sabre sighed and picked the chunk of crystal back up, and the group walked back through the dark room to the bit of floor that stuck out from the side of the building. “Considering how long it took us to walk here, I’d guess that we’ll have to do about a full day of flying, but we’ll be able to walk the rest of the way the next day.” Thus announced, he dove into the sky and started flapping his wings. The rest of the drakens followed suit.

They flew all day, except for a few breaks for food and rest. Fortunately, the heat rising from the canopy, as well as a bit of tailwind supplied by the twins, made it easy to glide a lot of the way. Still, it was a lot of flying to do in one day, and the group was glad when the sun set and they could finally land.

“Agh, my wing hurts,” Keera moaned. “Mine too,” her sister added.

“Well, make a hole so we can land then,” Sabre suggested.

Keera and Terra closed their eyes, still flapping their wings. A stream of green sparkles flowed to their wings, collecting with a bright green glow that showed brilliantly in the darkness. The twins’ eyes snapped open and they powered their wings forward, sending the green energy spiraling into the treetops below. The energy swirled and swirled, turning into a small but vicious whirlwind, tearing leaves and branches off the trees and making a hole big enough for the drakens to fly though. Keera and Terra dove through, gratefully touching down on the ground, the rest quickly following. “Ahhh, that’s better,” they both murmured, laying down and folding their wings.

“Phew, that was quite a trip,” Ragnarok quipped as he landed.

“I agree with the twins, “Sabre remarked, setting down the shard of crystal, “my wings sure ache.”

“Oog, yeah,” Amber remarked. “A full-day flight isn’t something I want to try again.”

“Well, it got us here, didn’t it?” Ragnarok remarked. He spread his wings out on the ground to help rest them. “Let’s get some sleep.”

* * *

The next morning, they all woke up bright and early. Well, early at least, since all those trees were cutting down on the bright.

“Good morning everyone!” Ragnarok commented as he woke up, then blinked. “It is morning, right?”

Amber nodded. “It sure is dark today, huh? It must be really cloudy,” she figured.

“Well, shall we get walking?” Terra remarked.

“Might as well,” Sabre replied, and the drakens set off.

About an hour later, they arrived at the human village. Coincidentally enough, Toby was the first one to spot them as they walked into the village. “You have returned!” the boy exclaimed. “We feared that the strange darkness meant awful things.” He ran to the elders’ hut, the drakens following him. “Elders! They have returned!”

The elders emerged from the large hut. “It is good to see you return,” one said. “Have you…?”

Ragnarok nodded. “We defeated the Dark One,” he said.

Sabre set down the bit of crystal. “This is part of the ‘crystal’ he got his powers from,” he announced.

The villagers that had gathered around them threw up a cheer. One ran up and hugged Ragnarok around the neck. “That you!” she said.

“Um, you’re welcome,” Ragnarok replied, hesitantly patting her on the back with his wing.

“Thank you all,” an elder said. “Without your help, we all would have perished. We owe you all our lives.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Amber said. “We were glad to get rid of the evil creep.”

Toby glanced around. “Where is the white one?” he asked.

“He was…k…killed in the fight,” Keera said, tears coming to her eyes. “But it was thanks to him that we managed to win.”

“Oh…” Toby said. “I…I’m sorry. We will mourn his loss greatly.”

Keera wasn’t entirely sure what all that meant, but she understood the intent and smiled a bit. “Thanks,” she replied, nuzzling him a little.

“Please, stay for the celebrations!” a villager said.

Sabre shook his head. “I wish we could stay, but we’ve got to get back to our home,” he said.

“Well then, we shall not hinder you,” Elder Oma said. “Is there anything we could do to help you?”

Ragnarok shook his head. “No, but thank you for the offer.”

The elders nodded. “Then may good luck be with you all on your quests.” As the drakens turned to leave, the villagers threw up another cheer.

* * *

“Well, what now?” Amber wondered. “It’s just one big, hot forest here.” They had been walking for an hour, and this day seemed to be a lot hotter than the rest had been.

“I suppose we could just wander around aimlessly,” Sabre remarked.

“In this heat?” Keera said, fanning herself with her wing. “I’d rather just lay down for the rest of the day.” “Just be thankful that we don’t have fur or feathers,” Terra pointed out.

All of a sudden, a familiar low noise washed through the area. “Another portal!” Ragnarok exclaimed.

“I saw the flash!” Amber said. “This way!” The drakens ran between the trees, and stopped near the familiar blue pond.

“Has anyone else noticed that these things always appear when we need them to?” Sabre asked.

“Yeah, and they always take us somewhere we can help someone,” Keera added.

“Well, let’s see who we’re helping this time!” Ragnarok said, jumping into the rift. The twins hopped in after him, followed by Amber and Sabre.

* * *

Ragnarok dropped from the portal, and his claws clicked on the ground as he landed. As the other drakens landed around him, he looked around their new location. The ground was some sort of grey rock that had cracks in it that made big square patterns. They were standing between two really big square-shaped rocks that went really high up into the sky. “This seems very familiar,” Ragnarok muttered.

“Whoa…” the twins remarked.

“This place sure has a lot of rocks,” Sabre commented.

“Yeah,” Amber agreed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere like it.”

“I think I have,” Ragnarok said. “I don’t think we’re in the past anymore.”

The twins looked around. “Then are we…” “…in a city?” they asked.

Ragnarok nodded. “I think so,” he said. He walked down the narrow path they were on toward the end that looked like it led toward open space.

Emerging from between what had now been identified as buildings, they blinked in the sudden sunlight, even though the sun was setting. More of the grey stone extended off to their left and right, as did a wide stretch of black stone that Ragnarok called a “road.” Big metal objects, “karrs,” were going back and forth across it very quickly. The twins looked around in wonder. “Whoaaaa,” they murmured.

A human walked past them, then noticed them and turned around. “Hi there,” she said. She looked the group over, and stopped on the twins. “Well, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any drakens like you before,” she remarked, then refocused her attention on the whole group. “You guys look a little lost. Are you from out of town?” The drakens didn’t say anything, acting like normal animals, and the human grinned. “What’s the matter, cat got your tongues?”

Ragnarok blinked at her. “You know we can talk?” he asked in surprise.

The human laughed. “Of course I do! All drakens can talk.” She looked closely at them. “Now that I think about it, you seem familiar, like someone else I know…. I know someone’s told me about you,” she remarked, touching Ragnarok’s birthmark.

Ragnarok flinched as her hand came near his eye. “Um…” he said uneasily.

The human seemed to snap out of it, and noticed where her hand was. “Oh! I’m sorry; I sorta lost myself in my thoughts.” She stuck out a hand. “My name’s Meryl.”

Ragnarok stared blankly at her hand, and then he remembered something he’d seen Pike do with other humans. He put his wing in her hand, and she moved it up and down. “I’m Ragnarok,” he said.

“I’m Amber,” Amber greeted, offering her wing. “It’s nice to meet you, Meryl.”

“I’m Sabre,” the black draken said from the back of the group.

The twins bounded up to Meryl. “I’m Keera-”“-and I’m Terra!” the respective twins said.

Meryl shook their wings with some amusement. “You all seem familiar, like I’ve heard of you before,” she said, then shrugged. “Ah well. So, you guys new here?”

“You could say that,” Sabre remarked. “Where are we?”

“Well, you’re on Turner Street, in New Halipont,” she said.

Ragnarok’s head perked up. “New Halipont? That’s where Pike was from!” he said to the other drakens.

Meryl overheard this. “Oh, are you guys on some sort of pilgrimage to learn about your origins?” she asked.

The drakens stared blankly, understanding everything except the important parts of the question. “Um, maybe?” Keera hazarded.

Meryl stared at them with a curious expression, then snapped her fingers. “Now I know who you guys remind me of!” she exclaimed. “He was pretty confused when he first got here too.”

“What? Who?” Ragnarok asked, thoroughly lost.

Meryl ginned mischievously and pointed down the street. “Go that way until you reach the park. You’ll find someone certain there. Believe me, you’ll know when you’ve found him. About this time, he likes to sit on the hill near the fountain.”

“Who is ‘he’?” Sabre asked.

The human shrugged. “I misremember his name. Run, Sprint, something like that.” She looked at a black thing wrapped around her wrist. “Whoa, look at the time! I gotta go. See you later!” With that, Meryl jogged off.

“Well, she’s an odd one,” Sabre remarked.

“Yup,” Ragnarok said with a grin, “but we might as well do what she said.” The drakens set off toward the park.

On the way, they passed humans (who greeted them warmly), a surprising number of drakens (who were very friendly), and creatures that seemed like the beasts from the past! They looked like animals, but walked on two legs and were shaped like humans, like the beasts had been. The drakens had steeled themselves for a fight, but the animal-human merely greeted them and went on his or her way, leaving the drakens rather confused. They saved it for later, though, and went on to meet the mysterious ‘he’ in the park.

Eventually, there was a break in the buildings, and they came upon an area full of trees and grass, with humans, drakens, and the new kind of being all playing there. “This is it,” Ragnarok announced. “Now we just need to find a hill….”

They walked into the grassy area, and soon found the gentle uphill slope. A figure was sitting at the top, facing away from them, absentmindedly flicking a finned tail. The twins saw it first. “No way….” “Can it be…?” They broke into a run.

Upon hearing their voices, the figure started and turned around, eyes wide in surprise. “Kee-oomph!!” he said as the twins tackled him.

“Dash!” “You’re all right!” “We thought you were dead!” the twins babbled, nuzzling him frantically, as if he might vanish suddenly.

The rest of the group ran over, as shocked as Dash was. “Dash? But…” Ragnarok noted.

Dash nodded. “Believe me, I feel the same way,” he remarked as he lifted the twins off him and sat up. “I’m sitting here thinking about how much I miss you guys, I think I hear the twins, and wham, you guys are back!”

“Yeah,” Sabre agreed. “So what’s up here? Humans, drakens, and all those animal-people?”

Dash laughed. “I’ve got a lot to catch you guys up on. C’mon, let’s go to my place. I’ll explain it to you there.”

* * *

Part Two: Dash’s Story

Dash led his friends out of the park. “So, what happened after I got knocked out of that battle?” he asked.

“Well, your attack destroyed the ‘crystal,’” “and Ragnarok thought you were dead,” “and completely roasted the bad guy!” the twins related enthusiastically. Keera rubbed her head on Dash’s side. “I’m glad to have you back,” she said.

Dash smiled and rubbed her head. “And it’s really great to see you guys again,” he responded. “C’mon, it’s not much further.”

They walked across a few streets, then stopped in front of a tall building. Dash looked around the group. “I think we might be a bit too much for the elevator,” he remarked, “but I’ve got a draken-friendly apartment. C’mon!” He leapt into the air and started flying upward. The others did likewise. They rose quite a distance, until Dash stopped in front of a really big window. “Here we are.” He tapped a claw on the glass, and it moved aside, letting them into the building.

A voice called out quietly from another room. “Dash, is that you? The cubs are asleep,” the voice said. The drakens all landed on the soft floor, and the window closed behind them.

A strange animal walked into the room they were in. It was about as big as they were, had four legs and a long tail like theirs, but it didn’t have wings. It had paws like a lot of four-legged animals did, long ears on its head, and was covered in short golden-brown fur, except for the top part of its body. Instead of fur, there were a lot of grey plates that were pointed along its head and rounded on its back. “Oh? Who are you all?” it asked them kindly.

Dash grinned. “These are my friends that I told you about!” he told her. “Guys, this is my friend, Teyaka.”

Teyaka looked surprised, but smiled. “Really? You’re the ones that saved him in the past?” she asked?

The twins nodded. “Yep, but he’s saved us,” “more than a few times too!” they chirped.

Ragnarok was looking at her with his head cocked, then recognition dawned. “Hey, are you an…ar-ma-dill-o?” he asked Teyaka.

She looked at him curiously, then laughed. “No, I’m not,” she said with a bright smile. “You’re Ragnarok, right?” Ragnarok nodded. “So you’re Amber, and Sabre, and you two must be Keera and Terra,” she said. They all nodded.

“All right Dash, so what happened to you after you got hit into that ball of darkness?” Sabre asked.

Dash laughed. “I figured you’d ask that,” he replied. “It’s a long story, but here we go….”

* * *

In a dark alleyway, a sudden flash of light made a stray cat bolt for cover. A white figure was hurled out of the light, crashing into a wall and falling to the ground, and the light disappeared. Wisps of smoke rose from the figure’s torn clothes. “That…hurt…” the figure mumbled, lying limply against the wall.

A humanoid wolf heard the noise and ran into the alleyway, trying to see what was going on. He glanced around, then noticed the battered figure slumped against the wall and ran over to it. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked.

The figure groaned and tried to stand up. “Gotta… help Ragnarok…” it said.

The wolf took a closer look, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. Wings, big tail, crest…this was a draken! But there were no anthro drakens…? He shook his head to clear it. The draken had a horn, so it must be male, and he looked really beat up. He had bad burns all over, a few bad cuts, and his clothes were in bad shape. “You’re not in any condition to do much of anything,” he told the draken. He helped him up, slipping his arm around the draken to help support him. “My place is right over there. C’mon,” he said.

The draken stumbled, but managed to stay upright. “O…kay,” he mumbled groggily. The wolf led him into the building he had been next to, up an elevator, and into one of the rooms, where the draken collapsed.

* * *

Dash’s mind swam out of the darkness again. His head hurt, his chest hurt, his legs hurt, his wings hurt, and everything else hurt too. Even his tail fin was hurting. Ugh, this keeps happening to me, he muttered inwardly. Why am I the one who always gets knocked unconscious? He opened his eyes. He was in a room that didn’t look like anything he’d ever seen before. The walls were white, with little flat squares on them, and the floor was covered in some sort of grey fur. He was lying on a mat, only it was a few feet off the floor. As he glanced over at the door, it opened, and in walked… a beast! Dash tried to leap out of the bed to fight it, but his legs buckled and he fell to his hands and knees, which barely supported him as well.

“Whoa!” the beast exclaimed. It ran over to him. He couldn’t fight back! Dash knew right there that he was finished…. “Calm down, man. You’re safe here,” the beast said, pulling him back up onto the edge of the bed.

Dash stared at the beast. It…talked? He looked at it a little closer. It was pretty small for a beast, and it wore human clothes. “Huh- who…are you?” he managed to ask. He felt so weak!

The beast smiled. “My name’s Cory,” it said. It was obvious now that he wasn’t a beast. What had that man called them? Wolves, that was it!

“A-are you a…wolf?” he asked. Cory nodded, and Dash asked, “What happened?”

The wolf shrugged. “I found you laying in that alley over there. You were barely conscious. I brought you up here, and you conked out.” He cast a discerning eye over Dash. “How are you feeling?”

Dash laughed weakly. “Terrible,” he replied. “I feel so weak, and I hurt all over.”

Cory looked at him again. “What happened to you? Does it have anything to do with you being an anthro draken?”

Dash lifted his head to look at the wolf. “Anthro?” he asked.

“Well, you’ve got two legs and two arms, don’t you? And all drakens have four,” Cory said, pointing to his own legs.

Dash pondered this. “Oh, ‘anthro’ means you’re shaped like a human?”

Cory nodded. “Pretty much. It’s really a shortening of something else, but that’s not important. What’s really puzzling is that there aren’t any anthro drakens,” he said.

Dash laughed weakly again. “I’m a special case,” he informed the wolf. He flicked his tail, then winced. “Ouch,” he said.

“You going to be okay?” Cory asked.

Dash waved him off, with another wince. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “Anyway, what happened to me is a really long story. The short version is that I got hit with some dark power and got knocked through some kind of portal to where you found me. It’s probably because of the attack and the trip that I’m in as bad a shape as I am.”

“Dark power…?” Cory commented.

Dash grinned. “Like I said – ow – it’s a long story. It’s a little strange, but I’m from the past, but during a battle to save the world, I got knocked into a gateway to now.”

“From the past?” Cory echoed skeptically. “Are you sure that you didn’t just fall from the sky and hit your head?”

“I probably did hit my head,” Dash said, “but the story’s true.” He closed his eyes and pulled in energy from the air around him. It gathered in a shimmering glow around his right hand. He opened his eyes and locked his glowing gaze on the wolf. He used the energy to create a small icicle that rose up from the floor, much to Cory’s surprise. “Does this throw my story into a new light?” he asked with a grin, then winced again.

Cory rubbed his eyes and stared as the icicle slowly melted. “How… did you do that?” he asked in amazement.

“Honestly, I’m not entirely sure,” Dash replied, “but it sure comes in handy.”

Cory shook his head to clear it. “From the past, you said? Then you don’t have anywhere to live now, do you?” he remarked.

Dash thought about it. “Um, I guess not,” he said. “I could probably just go find some woods or something….”

Cory shook his head. “Not in your condition; you can’t even stand up!” he pointed out.

“Well, I can’t argue too well with that,” the draken remarked.

The door into the apartment opened. “Hi honey,” another wolf said, walking in. This one was a little shorter than Cory, and was a lot curvier. Dash didn’t know too much about non-drakens, but he supposed that the new wolf was female. “Oh? Who is this?” she remarked upon seeing the draken on the bed.

Cory looked between the two. “Dash, this is my mate, Calli. Calli, this is Dash. I found him lying in a nearby alleyway. He got messed up by some sort of dark magic,” he told her.

Calli raised a furry eyebrow. “Dark magic?” she asked, then shrugged as she looked back at Dash. “Well, you sure look like it.”

Dash looked at himself. His skin had lots of dark burn marks on it and a bunch of cuts that were bleeding slowly, and his clothes weren’t in much better shape. “Yeah, I guess I do,” he remarked. Calli gingerly touched one of the burns, and Dash flinched, barely holding in a yelp of pain. “That hurt,” he remarked.

Cory examined the dark spots on the draken’s snow-white skin. “Yeah, you’ve been burned pretty badly by whatever hit you,” he said. “I think we might have some sort of salve or something….”

Dash cocked his head. “Well, the twins could do it, so maybe I can…” he remarked to himself.

Calli looked down at him confusedly. “Twins? What twins?” she asked.

Dash slowly closed his eyes. The wolves moved to him, thinking the worst, but then they noticed a glowing breeze go past that seemed to move to the draken’s clawed hand. Calli’s eyes widened. Dash grinned and pressed his hand carefully against his chest. The glow surrounding his hand spread across his body, and wherever the glow touched, burns healed, cuts closed, bruises vanished, and drained muscles regained their tremendous strength. The glow faded, and Dash opened his eyes. “Wow, I feel like a whole new draken,” he said, still grinning.

“Okay, that was just cool,” Cory admitted. “What was it?”

“I used my powers to heal myself,” Dash explained. “A couple of my friends from the past saved themselves from a wound that might have killed them by using their powers to heal themselves.” He stood up, noticing that he was about as tall as Cory, and a few inches taller than Calli.

Calli smiled. “Well, you may be all healed up, but you’re still a mess, and your clothes are in tatters.”

Cory’s eyes lit up. “Hey, why don’t you go have a shower and clean up, and while you’re doing that, Calli might be able to get some of my clothes to fit you!”

Calli’s eyes lit up too. “Great idea!” she said. “You two look about the same size, so it should work. I’ll just need to make holes for your wings, and widen the tail hole….”

“Um, shower?” Dash remarked quietly as the two conversed.

“Here, just let me see how big your wings and tail are,” she said to him, grabbing a long bit of yellow cloth with lots of lines on it and pressing it against the base of his wings and around his tail, then hurrying off into another room.

“Um…?” Dash said. “Thanks?

Cory laughed. “She just hasn’t had much to do lately, been bored stiff,” he said confidentially. “She likes playing around with the sewing machine, and you’ll definitely be a challenge.” He winked. “Anyway, the shower’s in the bathroom over there.”

As Dash started off, Calli walked back in and said, “Oh, could I borrow your old clothes? For a reference of where to put things.”

“Sure,” Dash replied. He pulled off his clothes and tossed them to the wolf. “Just… make sure I get them back, okay? We’ve been through a lot together.” He nodded and walked into the bathroom.

Cory looked at him, then grinned at his mate. “Well, he sure isn’t shy,” he quipped.

* * *

The inside of the “bath room” was rather strange. It had a lot of things in it that he had absolutely no idea what to do with. Near the door, there was a sort of table with a bowl built into it. Above the bowl were a curved metal thing and two metal knobs. He turned the knobs, water came out of the curved metal thing. He turned them the other way, and the water stopped.

On the wall above the table was a window. Looking into the window, he saw another room, with another draken in it, who was looking back at him. The draken was white, male, and had only one crest spike, which curved down. He looks familiar, Dash mused. He reached up to scratch a sudden itch, and the draken in the window did the same. Realization dawned. Ohhh, the draken in the window is me! He grinned.

Next to the table was some big, weird white thing that looked like a chair, which he decided to leave alone for now. A little way away from that was a sort of really big rectangle-shaped bowl that had cloth hung around it. Dash stepped inside the cloth, and noticed more knobs and curved metal things. There were three knobs, one with a red H, one with a blue C, and the one in the middle had a triangle pointing down. He turned the right knob, the one with the C, and cold water poured out of the lower metal thing onto his feet. He turned the knob back off. Curiously, he turned the triangle knob so the triangle pointed upward, then turned the H knob. Water blasted out of the top metal thing into his face. “Blmth!!” he exclaimed in surprise. He almost fell over, but caught himself with his tail. He backed out of the flow, spluttering. “Guess this is the shower,” he muttered soggily.

Using the water, he washed himself off. Even though he had cured the burns, there was still soot from the marks on him. He scrubbed off some grime on the bottom of his tail and fin, which he supposed had come from when Cory lugged him here. Wiping off his wings proved a little more difficult, and he eventually decided to just thoroughly rinse them off, in the hopes that it’d clean them off.

After a while, he deemed himself clean. He turned the knobs back to where he’d found them and stepped back into the main area of the bathroom. He crouched down, put his hands on the floor, and gave himself a good shake, drying himself quickly. He opened the door and walked back into the room he came from.

Calli looked up as he came in. “Wow, you look good when you’re clean,” she commented. Cory rolled his eyes. “Anyway,” she continued, “you’ve got great timing. I just finished these.” She handed him two pieces of clothing. One was white and looked like a shirt without sleeves, and the other was a pair of pants made out of some tough blue material.

He slipped them on, marveling at the fit. “Wow, it goes tight around my wings and tail,” he remarked, moving his wings and tail around.

Calli nodded. “I made it for a perfect fit. I also reinforced the edges for the wings and tail, so they won’t tear like your old ones were starting to do,” she informed him.

Dash grinned at her. “Thank you so much!” he said, hugging her.

Calli looked surprised, then hugged him back. “It’s no problem,” she replied.

“Yeah, a friend in need is a friend indeed,” Cory said, patting the draken on the shoulder. “Well, c’mon, let’s see if we can do anything about getting you a place to live.”

“Oh, really,” Dash said, “you don’t need to take up so much of your time for me. I’ll just go find a nice forest or something….”

Calli shook her head with a smile. “No, we’ll help you,” she said firmly. “Since you’re from the past, you probably don’t have any money, do you?”

Dash looked at her. “Um, maybe,” he replied. “What’s ‘munney’?”

Cory sighed. “Well, that answers that question,” he remarked. The wolves headed out of the room, and Dash followed them into the elevator and down to the first floor. The doors opened, and they all stepped out and walked toward the main lobby.

Just before they turned the corner, they all heard something, a rough voice saying, “Everyone on the ground!” Cory pulled Dash up short behind the wall, while Calli took a peek around it. Dash looked with her.

A very big animal-man was standing in the room. He had short brown fur, a short-ish muzzle, and small, round ears on top of his head. He was wearing clothes that looked a bit like Dash’s new set. He was waving some sort of metal L around the room and saying things that didn’t sound very nice. “Oh man, and he’s a bear too,” Calli muttered as she hid back behind the wall. A lot of people, drakens, and the human-like animals were laying on the ground.

“Are bears bad?” Dash asked quietly.

“Generally, no,” Cory said, “but this one is, and bears are really strong.

“Okay, you, get up!” the bear ordered, motioning to a round-looking human. The human stood up, and the bear pointed the L at him. “Now get me all the money you have in this dump!” he said, jabbing the man with the L.

Dash’s sense of justice got to him. “This isn’t right,” he said quietly, then ran around the corner. “Hey pal!” he called. “Leave him alone! That money isn’t yours!”

The bear whirled around and stared at the draken. “Oh?” he said, walking over to Dash, towering over him by about a foot. “And are you gonna stop me, shrimp?” The bear swung a fist at him.

Dash dropped low and spun in a quick circle, sweeping the bear’s feet out with his tail. Before his opponent hit the floor, Dash kicked straight out, catching the bear in the chest and flinging him back several yards.

The bear grunted and got to his feet. “Oh, so you think you can fight, huh?” he growled, walking back over. He suddenly lunged at the draken, trying to knock him to the ground.

Without slowing his attacker’s charge, Dash grabbed him by his shirt, rolled onto his back, and used both feet and all his power to kick the bear halfway through a wall. Dash continued the roll and flipped back onto his feet, but the bear didn’t look like he’d try to fight again. The crowd stood back up, and cheered for the draken who had just single-handedly stopped an armed robbery, crowding around him. Calli and Cory pushed through the crowd to him. “That was amazing!” Cory exclaimed.

The round human walked over to them, grasped Dash’s hand, and shook it heartily. “Thank you, sir! You just saved my business, and possibly my life!”

Dash smiled. “You’re welcome. I saw him bullying you around, and it just didn’t sit right with me. I’m glad to have helped you,” he said modestly.

The man released Dash’s hand. “I owe you more than I can say. If there’s anything I can do to repay you, just name it.”

Dash looked at his new wolf friends. “Well, do you happen to have a place I could live?” he asked.

The human smiled. “Of course! I own this building, after all!” he told the draken. “Hmmm….” He glanced at the wolf pair. “Actually, there’s an open room right next to theirs. It’s made to be draken-friendly as well, and I think that may suit you.” The owner walked over to a wall and tossed a bit of metal to him. “The room is yours, no charge.”

Cory stared, then broke into a grin. “Awesome! You get to live next to us!”

Someone in the crowd shouted, “Hey hero, what’s your name?”

The draken grinned broadly as he turned to them. “Call me Dash.”

* * *

Part Three: Teyaka’s Story

The rest of the drakens were lying around Dash as he finished his story, the stars shining gently through the window. “Wow,” Amber remarked. “So that’s how you got to live here?”

Dash nodded, and Ragnarok asked, “So you live next to a couple of wolves that are…‘anthro’? What’s the story behind that?”

“That one’s a lot shorter,” Dash said. “A while ago, humans figured out ways to mess with what makes creatures what they are. One thing they managed to figure out was how to sorta combine animals with humans. They did it with all sorts of animals. The term for the animal-humans is ‘furries’ or ‘furs,’ after some type of art that some humans liked back then. They did try to do it to drakens, but it didn’t work for them for some reason, so it looks like I’m the only one,” he said with a smile.

“Ah,” Ragnarok said, then noticed that the twins had gone over to talk with Teyaka.

“So, you’ve got fur?” Terra said. Teyaka nodded, and Keera said, “I’ve got to admit, I’m still getting a bit of an urge to pounce on you,” with a grin. She stretched out her wing and used the long part to pet Teyaka’s fur. “Ooh, you’re soft….”

Teyaka giggled. “Thank you,” she said as the twins rubbed her side with their tail.

Dash laughed. “She’s probably one of the first things with fur that you haven’t tried to eat, huh?” he remarked with a grin.

Amber looked from Dash to Teyaka, then back again. “Teyaka said she had kids, right? Are you their father?”

Dash and Teyaka both stared at her, then at each other, then practically fell down laughing. When they could breathe again, Dash said, “I…don’t think it’d work that way, Amber.”

“Oh,” Amber said. “Well then, who is the father?”

Dash and Teyaka looked at each other again. Teyaka said, “Um, technically... there isn’t one.”

Ragnarok blinked “I may be wrong, but I think a father’s pretty necessary for that sort of thing,” he remarked.

“Normally it would be, but Teyaka’s sort of a special case,” Dash said. As he said that, a sleepy-looking small version of Teyaka walked out of a doorway. She was about three feet long, and wore a blue collar and a light blue blanket that was draped over her.

“Hi mamma,” she said, yawning, then noticed the new visitors. She walked over to them “Hello there! My name’s Kaya!” she said.

“Hello Kaya. I’m Ragnarok,” Ragnarok said.

“Ragn-na-rok?” Kaya repeated, then her eyes lit up. “Oh! Are you guys Uncle Dash’s old friends?” she asked.

“Yup!” “We sure are!” the twins said.

Kaya smiled at them. “You’re kinda funny,” she said, not unkindly, then turned to Teyaka. “Mamma, could I stay out here for a little bit?” she asked.

Teyaka rolled her black eyes with a smile. “Fine, for a little bit,” she allowed.

“Yay!” Kaya said. She ran over to the twins. “Could I sit with you?” she asked politely.

“Sure!” the twins said in unison, smiling warmly.

Kaya stretched and yawned, then curled up next to the twins. Something occurred to her. “Oh, would you like to share my blanket?” she offered. “You don’t have fur, and you might get cold.”

The twins smiled again. “No, but thank you,” Keera replied. “I don’t think we’d fit under there very well,” Terra added.

“Okay,” Kaya said. She rubbed one of her big ears, and snuggled into the twins’ tummy.

Sabre smiled. “Now that’s just cute,” he remarked with a grin.

“So, Teyaka’s a special case?” Ragnarok asked the room in general, getting the conversation back on the course it had been on.

“Yup,” Dash said, scritching the side of Teyaka’s neck, below the edge of her armor. “It’s another long story, and I think Teyaka ought to tell this one.”

“Ooh, a story about mamma?” Kaya said, her ears perking up a little.

Teyaka nodded. “All right, I’ll tell you my story.” She sat up higher and smiled. “It all started in a dark room….”

* * *

In a dark room, a light on a small screen flashed. In response to the small light, a door opened, and two men walked into the room. One examined the screen, then looked at the other object in the room. The screen had two cables coming out of it, and the other ends were attached to a tall pod. The pod was made of thick glass, with a black metal base and top. The inside of the pod was lit, and the contents were fairly visible. In the pod was a thick greenish liquid, and suspended in the liquid was the body of an animal, curled into a circle

.

“How is the subject?” the second man asked.

“Ready,” the first replied. “Should we go get the others?”

“No,” the second replied, “if she’s ready, deactivate the pod.”

The first man nodded and pressed the screen, where the light was still flashing. The liquid slowly drained out of the pod, the form inside settling on the bottom. A line appeared in the previously seamless glass, and it slid open. The animal fell out, but the men caught her and laid her carefully on the floor. As she took her first breath, the men grabbed nearby towels. One dried off the light golden-brown fur on her body, long ears, and longer tail, while the other cleaned off the dark gray natural armor that covered her back, starting in spikes that began between her eyes, smoothed down at the back of her head, and went in smooth ridges down her back to the tip of her tail.

In response to their tender ministrations, she took a deep breath and slowly opened her deep black eyes. She lifted up her head and looked at the man in front of her, and he held out his hand to her. She sniffed at it, then licked it and smiled nicely at him. She twisted her neck around and looked back at her body. Using the armor covering the tip of her tail, she felt the spiked plates on the top of her head.

“Wow,” the man behind her said. “Here, let’s help her up.” They put their hands under her body. She looked at them curiously, but then seemed to realize what they were doing and stood up shakily. “Oomph! She’s heavier than she looks!”

The first man laughed and replied, “Yeah,” then surveyed the creature standing before them. “She sure looks a lot bigger out here,” he remarked.

“Yeah, almost as big as that Pike guy’s drakens,” the second man agreed. The animal stood a bit less than hip height at the shoulder, around thirty-two inches, and was eight feet long, about half of which was her reptilian-style tail. She looked at the two and made a happy barking noise. “Y’know, we probably ought to name her. Something nicer than ‘the subject.’”

The first man crouched down next to her and scratched her behind one ear, which she seemed to enjoy. “How about ‘Teyaka’?” he suggested.

“It fits,” the second man replied. He crouched down in front of her and held her chin gently in his hand. “Teyaka.”

Teyaka cocked her head at him, then opened her mouth. “Teyaka!” she repeated with a smile. Both men started in surprise. The sudden movement startled her, and she scurried back a few steps, a worried expression on her face.

The men recovered their wits quickly. “It’s okay,” one said soothingly. “We didn’t mean to scare you.”

She warily walked toward them a step. “Teyaka?” she said questioningly.

The other man smiled and pointed at her. “Your name is Teyaka. My name is Frank,” he said.

“And my name is Carl,” the first man added.

She walked a bit closer. “My… name is… Teyaka?” she said hesitantly. They smiled warmly at her and nodded, so she said, “My name is Teyaka,” again with more confidence, as well as another nice smile.

“Very good!” Carl praised. “Teyaka, stay here for now, okay?”

“Stay!” Teyaka agreed. She curled up on the floor, looking at them curiously. The two men walked a few yards away, and she quickly lost interest and started looking at the thinks in the room.

“Wow, she’s pretty quick,” Frank remarked. Carl nodded, and they glanced back at Teyaka. She rubbed one of her big ears with a forepaw, obviously paying them no heed.

Carl glanced around. “Say, why is it so dark in here anyway?” he asked.

“That pod was taking a lot of power to run,” Frank replied. “The lights would’ve blown a fuse. But now that the pod’s offline….” He reached over and flicked the light switch on the wall. The lights flashed on, startling Teyaka enough that she was up in a flash, ready to take on any threat. However, seeing only the two humans, she quickly calmed down and curled up on the floor again, studying the lights.

Carl laughed at the show. “I suppose we should show her to the rest of the team,” he remarked. “They’ll want to see that our work has finally paid off.”

Frank nodded and called, “Hey, Teyaka!” Hearing her name, Teyaka’s ears perked up, and she looked around to him. “You can get back up now. Come over here.”

She stood up and walked over. “Here?” she asked.

“Yep,” Carl replied. “Now, we need you to follow us, all right?”

Teyaka smiled. “All right!” she chirped. The men laughed, opened the door, and walked through, Teyaka close behind them.

They walked down a hallway and went through another door. “Frank, Carl, you’re back. What happened over there?” a human in the room asked.

Teyaka walked into the room. “Is that…?” another man asked.

“Yes, she’s our subject,” Frank replied. “She was ready, so we let her out of the pod.”

“She’s progressing very fast,” Carl added. “The protein encoding for data seems to be working fine. She just needs to be reminded of something to unlock the stored knowledge.”

“My name is Teyaka!” the subject of the discussion piped in, sounding very proud of it.

“You see?” Frank put in. “She knows how to use words, she just needs to hear them first.”

“Interesting,” someone remarked. He stood up and walked over to Teyaka. She looked at him, and he tapped one of the dorsal plates of her back. “Her armor is fairly hard. That’s good.”

She looked back to where he had tapped. “My armor?” she asked, looking back to the group.

“Yes,” the man said. “It keeps you from getting hurt.”

She looked at him, then swung her tail around and bit the end, where the armor covered it all the way around. “It doesn’t hurt,” she remarked.

“That would be the point of it,” the man replied with a smile.

“Why?” she pipped.

“Do you mean to ask why you have armor?” Frank interpreted.

Teyaka paused, as if something had occurred to her, then nodded.

“Well, we felt that it would be a good idea for you to have it,” another man replied. “You getting hurt would be a bad thing, and we don’t want that to happen to you.”

Teyaka considered this, then nodded. “Hurt is bad,” she agreed. She stretched and yawned.

“Uh oh,” Frank said. “It’s probably time for you to go to sleep. You’ve had a big first day, after all.” She nodded, eyes half closed, suddenly very tired. Frank led her to a room that had an open door. In it were two big dishes and several cushions arranged in a circle. “This is your room, Teyaka,” he said. “You can eat and sleep here Right now, I suggest you go to sleep.” Teyaka walked to the cushions, rearranged a few, then lay down on them. Frank walked to the door. “Good night,” he said.

“Good night!” Teyaka murmured. Frank turned off the lights and left, and Teyaka quickly fell fast asleep.

* * *

A month passed. Teyaka read a few simple books and expanded her vocabulary. The men at the lab became fairly fond of her. She had free reign to wander the lab, and the humans always left the doors open, except for a few, and she was very curious about what was behind them. Whenever she asked, though, the men just laughed and said not to worry about it. She didn’t worry, but she was still quite curious.

One day, she was walking around, and wound up standing in front of one of the closed doors when one of the humans came out. “Hello Teyaka!” he said, reaching down to ruffle her ears.

“Hello!” she replied, dodging playfully. The human laughed and walked off. Teyaka was about to leave too, but then she noticed something unusual. She walked over to the door and pushed at it with her nose. It swung open a little! She looked around the hallway, but didn’t see anyone, so she walked into the room.

The room wasn’t very empty. It had a lot of tables with all sorts of glasses and equipment on them. She reared back a bit and put her paws on a table to get a better look at something, but, in doing so, shook the table, causing something balanced high up on some stands to topple over and hit her on the head. The container cracked, bounced off, and broke open on the ground, but the armor on her head kept her from getting hurt. “Ow,” she muttered. The contained had held some sort of blue liquid. She sniffed at the puddle on the floor. It smelled all right, so she dipped the tip of her tongue into it. It tasted good, and she started lapping it up. As she drank, she noticed an odd tingling sensation behind her tummy, but in front of her hind legs. She disregarded it and kept drinking the nice tasting stuff.

Suddenly, two of the men ran into the room. “Teyaka, no!” One grabbed her around the neck and pulled her back from the puddle. “How did you get in here?” he demanded.

“I…um…” she stammered, her ears drooping.

“I…must’ve left it open when I left,” the other man said.

“How could you be so careless?” the first man scolded. “This is delicate stuff in here! Not to mention bad for her!” He continued scolding, not noticing Teyaka’s reaction to all this. Her body was all bunched up, tears starting to form in her eyes, obviously upset by their reactions. As the man kept yelling, Teyaka suddenly bolted out the door. She ran until she found a nice dark corner and curled up into a tight ball, quietly crying onto her tail.

Eventually, she stopped crying and she unwound herself. She wiped off her cheeks with a forepaw and looked down the halls. Nobody had come to look for her, so she stood up and started to look around. The area she was in was fairly dark, since no humans were around to turn on the lights. However, a nearby door was open a crack, with bright light coming through it. The area behind her tummy started tingling again, but her attention was fully taken up by this door. Sticking the armored tip of her tail into the gap, she levered the door open, watching the light pool on the ground. She stuck her head curiously out the door.

The room was really big, so big that she couldn’t see the walls. The ceiling was painted blue and white, and was really high up. It only had one light, which the last person must’ve left on, but it was so bright that it lit the whole room. The floor was covered with a tall green carpet, and had flowers and trees in it. She walked into the room, eyes wide in wonder. Not wanting anyone to get in trouble this time, she grabbed the handle in her mouth and pulled the door shut.

* * *

“What’s going on?” the head of the lab asked Carl.

“Um, apparently Swanson left the door to his lab open, and they found Teyaka inside drinking his project. Marc yelled at Swanson for the carelessness, but that must’ve upset Teyaka, since she ran off. We haven’t seen her since. We figured we’d let her calm down a bit and then go look for her,” Carl explained.

“Swanson’s project?” the man repeated. “This is bad.”

“Why?”

“That liquid was a test of a few new chemicals. It causes the egg cells to abandon their half-strand of DNA and absorb DNA from the surrounding cells, causing them to have a full set of chromosomes.”

“You mean…?”

“Yes, the cells will replicate as if they had been fertilized. Another chemical in the mix drastically increases the rate of development.”

Carl looked at him with a stunned expression. “We’ve got to go find her.”

* * *

She had been wandering the room in wonder for a while, but now she was starting to get hungry. Unfortunately, she couldn’t figure out how to get back to her room from this one. Oh well. Maybe someone had left some food in this one.

With this hope in mind, she scanned the trees. One of her books had said that trees had apples, and that apples were good to eat. Finally, she spotted one that had round red things in it. They did turn out to be apples, but they were really high up in the tree. She tried to jump for them, but they were too high. “Too high to jump to, so how do I get some?” she mused. Her tummy rumbled. “Oog, I’m getting really hungry.” She impatiently thumbed her tail against the tree, shaking it and causing an apple to fall in front of her. “Hey, it worked!” she exclaimed, and snapped up the apple. Spurred on by this success, she tried again several times, and ate several more apples. “Mmm,” she remarked. “I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much at once, but I don’t think I’ve ever been that hungry before, either.” In fact, when she looked under herself, she could see a slight bulge in her tummy from her big meal. “Well, I’m not hungry anymore, so I guess I should get moving again.”

Later, she noticed that the one light had moved way down onto one wall, and had turned red. Slowly, it moved further down, and it got darker, and, strangely enough, water started falling out of the ceiling, making her very wet. “Dark means it’s bedtime,” she muttered to herself, “but why is it so wet?” But, true to form, she curled up and had, for the first time, an utterly miserable night.

When she woke up, her fur was thoroughly soaked, and she was very cold. She shook herself to get rid of some of the water. “I want a warm bath,” she moaned, trying to clean some of the mud out of her fur, noticing with some surprise that her tummy seemed a little bigger than it had been last night. How had that happened? She hadn’t eaten anything since then. She decided to put the question aside for now and keep trying to find someone who could help her. Unfortunately, this place was oddly empty of people. Suddenly, something occurred to her. Maybe this wasn’t a room in the lab. Maybe this wasn’t in the lab at all! She looked at the light, which she had now figured out was the “sun.” If she was outside of the lab, then she wouldn’t be able to find her way back on her own. In the middle of this line of thought, she realized her throat was itching a bit, and she coughed lightly to clear it. Anyway, now she needed someone else’s help more than ever. She quickened her pace.

Later that evening, she felt really thirsty, and she stopped at a shallow pond on her way and took a drink. “Ah, that’s better,” she tried to say, but as she said it, she noticed that her voice sounded really scratchy and a lot quieter, even though she was talking normally. “What’s going on?” she cried, making her throat hurt, and she coughed hard. “I…c-can’t…” she whispered, then her voice shut off completely. No mater how hard she tried, no sound would come out of her mouth, and when she tried, it made her cough. A wave of despair washed over her, and she curled up on the ground and cried herself to sleep.

* * *

She awoke curled up on her side a little, as her tummy had gotten even bigger overnight, and her cough had gotten worse. What’s going on with me? She thought, unable to say the words aloud. She shook her head, then stood up, ready to start going. Off in the distance, she saw something that looked familiar. A city! She exclaimed mentally. People live there! With a little hope restored, she ran towards it.

* * *

The city wasn’t as helpful as she had thought it would be. By running the whole way, she had made it when the sun was overhead. She had at first tried to see someone she knew, but nobody looked familiar. Nobody seemed to want to help her, either, and actually seemed to be avoiding her. She looked over herself. She had lots of dirt and mud in her fur, and her armor wasn’t much cleaner. After all that walking and running around, however, her legs didn’t feel like they were going to hold her up much longer, so she lay down on a path near the outside of a wall, her hind legs sticking out to the side, since her tummy had gotten so big. I want a bath, she moaned inwardly, ears drooping. Someone walked past, and she looked pitifully at him, but he kept walking.

She closed her eyes. I’m never going to get any help. She heard footsteps coming towards her, the person’s shoes clicking on the ground. She expected them to keep going past, but the footsteps stopped in front of her. She opened her eyes and saw a pair of big, white, clawed feet. Their owner crouched down next to her.

“Hmm. Don’t think I’ve seen one of you before,” he remarked warmly. He obviously wasn’t a human, even though he wore human clothes, a black t-shirt and red pants. He had white skin, three-fingered hands with sharp claws, big wings that didn’t have any feathers on his back, a tail with a funny fin on the end, and a face shaped more like hers than a human’s. She looked pleadingly at him, then coughed hard. “That’s a nasty cough. Hmmm, not wearing a collar, and you’re a real mess, so I guess you aren’t anyone’s pet. Here, I’ll take you home. Maybe I can do something to help you.” Hope shone in her eyes, and she tried to stand up on her worn out legs, but they didn’t support her very well. “Yikes,” the nice not-human exclaimed, “you’re in worse shape than I thought!” He stopped her from getting up. “No no, just let me handle this.” He rolled her onto her side and curled her into a tight ball, being careful of her tummy, and picked her up in his arms. “Whoa, you’re pretty heavy,” he said conversationally. “I’ve got a lot of friends that are about your size, but they’re a lot lighter.” She stared at him, but then set her head down on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

* * *

He carried the odd creature into his apartment, and, noticing she was asleep, set her down carefully on his bed. Whew, that was a workout, he thought. Well, she doesn’t have to fly, so weight wouldn’t be as much of a problem for her as it would be for a draken. He ran a hand softly down her back. And that armor isn’t going to make her lighter. He sat down on the floor and looked thoughtfully at her, the end of his finned tail twitching. Wonder where she came from. She sure looks like she’s been from here to the Plains and back, and during a flood to boot. His eyes moved to her belly. Plus, she’s pregnant! This can’t have been good for her, or her kids. He smiled and rubbed her furry, gravid belly. She smiled and moved her mouth, almost as if she was trying to say something, then gave a few coughs. That doesn’t sound too good either. He ran a claw over the spikes on her head, then decided to take a shower to wash the dirt off himself before his guest woke up.

* * *

She slowly woke up, but kept her eyes closed. It felt like she was on her cushion bed back home, instead of the hard ground she had been sleeping on lately. Was it all a bad dream? she wondered. She slowly opened her eyes. She was curled up sideways on a human’s bed, sideways because her tummy had gotten big enough that she couldn’t lay straight up. She started to panic slightly, not knowing where she was. She bunched up, looking frantically for some pointer to something familiar. A door opened, and the not-human who had helped her calmly walked in, his black shirt slung over his shoulder. He noticed her posture and ran over to her. “Don’t worry,” he said soothingly, stroking her fur, “I’m a friend. Calm down girl, calm down.” His methods were effective, and Teyaka slowly relaxed her tensed-up body. “There, that’s better. You don’t need to worry about anything. You’re in my home. I took you here earlier, remember?”

She looked at him and tried to say something, but her scratchy throat wouldn’t cooperate, and she started coughing again. “Step one should be to take care of that for you,” the not-human remarked. He closed his eyes, and Teyaka watched him curiously. He held up one hand in front of his face, and a rush of cold wind seemed to blow past her, even though the doors were closed. It blew to the not-human’s hand, and seemed to glow slightly. He pressed the palm of his hand to her throat. A cold rush blew across the insides of her body, radiating from where his hand was. It flowed through her neck, and her throat stopped feeling scratchy. When it reached her legs, they stopped feeling sore and achy. She reeled back a bit and stared at her helper. He laughed and said, “Well, that should take care of that.” He rubbed at a dirty spot on her armor. “Now we ought to get you a bath.” A bath? A bath! She smiled wide and jumped down off the bed and ran a circle around his legs. “Okay, okay!” he laughed. “C’mon, over here.” He led her through the door that he had just come out of. It was a bathroom, and had all the things that normally accompanied a bathroom, but her new friend led her to a big bathtub. She grinned eagerly and hopped in. Her friend laughed again. He turned the knobs and water flowed out of the taps. “Fortunately for you, I was just taking a shower, so it’s already warm,” he remarked. Warm water! She could finally be clean! She waited expectantly as the water level rose. When he finally stopped the water, it was most of the way up her chest.

Happy to finally be in a nice warm bath, she splashed around playfully getting some water on her friend, who laughed and splashed her back. She giggled and prepared to return fire, and then stopped as she realized what she had just done. She worked her mouth a little. “I… I c-can… I can talk again!” she exclaimed. Her friend seemed surprised that she could talk at all. “It must’ve been when you made my throat feel better! Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou!” She jumped out of the tub and started nuzzling him thankfully.

“H-hey! I just got dry!” he exclaimed with a laugh. He rubbed her neck, then held her at arm’s length. “So, you can talk?”

“Yes, and it feels so wonderful to be able to do it again!” she cried jubilantly.

“So therefore, you were able to talk before, but stopped being able to,” he hypothesized. She nodded, and he continued. “Well, let’s get you back in the tub, and you can explain while I get all that muck off you. I’m Dash, by the way.”

“My name is Teyaka!” she happily replied, hopping back into the bathtub. As Dash had suggested, she told him what had happened to her, while he scrubbed the muck and mud and who-knows-what-else out of her fur and off of her armor. When she was all clean, and had caught up to the present, she hopped out of the tub and shook herself off. “Thanks for the bath, Dash! I’m still pretty wet, though,” she remarked.

“I can fix that,” Dash said with a grin. “Stay there.” He backed up a few yards and crouched down, hooking his hand-claws into the carpet. He started flapping, the powerful strokes of his broad wings blowing a huge amount of air at her, blow-drying her in no time flat.

“Well, that worked,” Teyaka remarked as she shook herself to get her fur to lie back down right.

“So I’ve been told,” Dash laughed as they walked back to the bed. Teyaka hopped up and lay down, and Dash scratched her pronounced tummy. “So, when did this happen?” he remarked casually.

“When did what happen?” she replied, confused.

“Well, you’re pregnant, aren’t you?” Dash responded.

“Pregnant?” She cocked her head, not understanding, then the association hit. “Pregnant?!” she exclaimed. “I’m…pregnant? But….” She looked at her belly.

“You didn’t know about it?” Dash asked incredulously. “How…?”

“I don’t know how….Dash, I’m only a month old! How can I be pregnant?” She looked worriedly at him. “I’m scared….” He hopped up next to her and hugged her tight, closing his wings tight around them, and it seemed to her like they formed a protective wall between them and the rest of the world.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I can help you through this, and I’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you.” He let go with his wings and pulled back, holding her shoulders loosely, grinning. “After all, we’re friends, right?”

She looked into his eyes and smiled. His happy-go-lucky charm helped to chase her fears and worries away. “Right!” she said confidently.

Dash grinned wider and scratched the gap between her left ear and her armor. “So, now that we’ve got that settled, what should we do next?”

Teyaka’s tummy rumbled. “Get some food!” she suggested with a grin.

* * *

“Thanks for waiting, Teyaka,” Dash said. Teyaka had stayed in his apartment and explored while he had gone out to get some food.

He set the bag down on a table, and she immediately went over and stuck her nose in it. “What’s that?” she asked as he pulled something good smelling and wrapped in paper out of the bag.

“A rare regional delicacy,” he said, unwrapping it.

She stared at him as the definition clicked. “You went and got something that rare?” she asked incredulously.

Dash laughed. “Nah, I’m just joking around. It’s a cheeseburger. Want some?” he offered.

She sniffed it. “Cheese-burger? Oh! Okay, I’ll try it,” she replied. Dash tore it in half and handed one to her, scarfing his own. It had a lot of flavors in it, all of which were good. “Mmm!” she added.

“Thought you’d like it,” Dash said. “And now to the stuff that’s good for you.” He pulled out a water dish and put it on the floor in front of her. “It’s not the most elegant, but it’ll probably work better than a glass. Is it all right with you?” he asked.

Teyaka nodded. “Yup. I had one of those back where I came from.”

“Okay then,” Dash said, and pulled out a tall, round container, but he kept his hand over the label so she couldn’t read what it was. He took off the top and poured some of its contents, a brownish-yellowish liquid, into her new bowl.

She carefully tasted it, then eagerly drank some. “Mmm! It tastes like apples!” she exclaimed to Dash, then went back to drinking.

Dash laughed at her enthusiasm. “Well, it ought to; it’s apple juice.”

She stopped drinking to stare at him. “You can get the juice out of the apple without the apple being there?” she asked in surprise. Dash laughed again.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. “Now who could that be?” Dash muttered to himself. He walked over and opened the door. Behind it was a human.

“Carl!” Teyaka exclaimed.

“Teyaka! You are here!” Carl exclaimed back.

“I take it you two know each other,” Dash remarked dryly.

“Yeah, he’s one of the people from where I used to live!” Teyaka explained excitedly.

“Yes. We tried to find you, but it took longer than expected. We got a call that someone had spotted you on a street near here, so we came, and someone told us that they had seen a ‘Dash’ carry her off.” Carl explained. He looked over Dash with some astonishment. “And…um, who are you?”

“This is Dash!” Teyaka explained to him. “He helped me!”

“Well then, thank you very much, Dash,” Carl said.

Dash smiled. “No trouble at all,” he replied. “I kinda like her.”

Carl nodded. “Well Teyaka, it’s time to come back. We need to see how you’re holding up.”

Teyaka looked between Carl and Dash. “Um, actually… I’d like to stay here with Dash,” she said. “I was really sick and he helped me, and I like him.”

“But… we made you! You need to come back with us!”

Dash coughed. “Made?” he asked.

Carl nodded again. “We used genetic technology to create her. That’s why we need her back. She’s the only one of her kind!”

“Not for long,” Dash remarked, patting Teyaka’s gravid tummy.

“All the more reason she needs to come back!” Carl argued.

“But I want to stay with Dash!” Teyaka protested. “I was sick and tired and dirty, and he helped me get better!”

“Come on Teyaka, it’s time to go,” Carl said with finality.

He made a grab at her, but she jumped back. “No!” she said.

He prepared for another try, but Dash interposed himself between the two. “Hold it, pal,” he said, holding back the human with a broad, three-fingered hand. “You may have made her, but she’s her own person, and it’s her call that matters here.”

Teyaka ran behind Dash and curled her tail around his legs. Carl sighed. “I suppose you’re right, and I can’t fight both of you, anyway.” He walked to the door and opened it, then turned back to them. “There’s something I suppose I ought to tell you before I go. Back at the lab, Teyaka drank a form