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Disclaimer: The following story contains consensual and nonconsensual sex between anthropomophic adults. If you are too young to legally view such content, or if such content does not appeal to you, leave now.

The Reluctant Archeologist

* * *

A few hours after the big cat had gone to sleep, still long before dawn, Sophan's diminished presence inside Ileni made itself known again. Purring in his sleep, the cheetah held the rabbit more tightly as his member returned to full arousal within her vaginal tunnel, curling his hips forward to grind his pelvis against her groin, his tip brushing uncomfortably against her cervix. When she shuddered against his chest, his eyes opened and he blinked blearily.

"Oh, good morning, little flower," he mumbled, then arched his back and opened his jaws in a tremendous yawn, the movement separating their upper bodies while their hips remained joined. After stretching dramatically with his arms over his head, he gently traced his way over her soft breasts down to her middle. Gripping her waist, he pulled her away from his lap, drawing in a quick breath as his bare length moved from her inner warmth to the crisp mountain air, still moist from the rabbit's juices. "Ah, it happened again. Sorry about that."

While the big cat stretched properly, raising his spotted rump into the air with his forearms in front of him on the sand, Ileni lowered her hands to comfort herself. Their separation had shocked her as much as it had him, cold air rushing into her to replace his gently pulsing girth. She tried to coax her folds closed with her fingers, but her mound seemed to have decided that a gaping hole was a more natural state to be in than a narrow slit.

"We need to head out soon," Sophan was saying, "but we should take care of this first." Ileni didn't know what he was talking about until she saw him sitting in the sand, facing her with his legs splayed wide and his erection pointing up at the stars. Gripping his shaft with one hand and pumping it slowly, he beckoned to Ileni with the other. "Care to help?"

Ileni shook her head without a word and tried to stand, but as soon as she put weight on her left foot, she fell back onto the sand.

The cheetah was there in an instant, holding her shoulders and helping her to sit upright. "Are you okay?" He sounded genuinely concerned.

"Fine," she answered curtly, shaking off his helpful hand. "My leg's numb." That was an understatement. With her legs wrapped around the big cat's thighs for so long while he slept, the one he'd been on top of had lost all feeling long ago; she was only now beginning to feel pins and needles from mid-thigh down to her toes. Disengaging herself from him completely as he tried to help her up, then ignoring his half-hearted apology, she managed to limp away from him in almost a straight line.

"You're sure you don't want to have a quick romp before we set out, then?"

It took a tremendous effort to keep her response civil. "We need to get going quickly, don't we? Let's just go."

"There's still time left. . . ." Ileni just kept walking, her leg feeling better with every step, assuming Sophan would catch up with her after he'd masturbated. She made it as far as the line of grass at the edge of the little beach before he pounced.

The momentum of his tackle sent them rolling through the long grass for a dozen yards before they came to a stop, the cheetah holding her on top of him from behind. He laughed huskily above her head as she kicked and squirmed, one hand squeezing her breast while the other cupped her mound and pushed her bottom against his firm belly. "Little flower, if you want a male to forget his arousal, walking away from him is the last thing you should do. Especially with a back side like yours." To emphasize his point, he pressed more firmly against her mound, the tip of his penis sliding into her rump's cleft. She hastily straightened her legs and clenched her buttocks, but ended up trapping his tip between them instead of pushing it out. Sophan groaned happily and hunched his hips forward, his shaft sliding further into the firm grip of the velvety canyon Ileni's flexing formed until it nudged the underside of her tail. She was holding his wrists, trying to push his hands away, but stood little chance of overcoming his strength.

The cheetah rolled them over so that he was lying on top of Ileni's back, then crawled off of her and planted a paw against her spine just above her little tail to pin her in place. "You're right, though," he said, his free hand caressing her tensely curved rear. "There's not much time to waste. We'll have to make this quick." Thumb dipping into her crack, he squeezed her right cheek until her constant flexing wavered. As soon as her rump stopped clenching, the buttock under his grip transformed from a nearly solid hill of muscle with the slightest of indentations under his fingers to a completely malleable pillow of fur and flesh, his fingers digging small trenches into her silky pelt. "Still," Sophan said, ignoring Ileni's muffled whimper and bringing his other hand down her body to close around her left buttock as tightly as he held her right, "we can't rush this too much." Using his thumbs, he parted her cheeks to expose her wrinkled tail hole to the moonlight.

Ileni struggled, clawing at the dirt and grass beneath her in a hopeless attempt to pull away from him, but she paused when the cold, pre-morning air against her anus was replaced by the cheetah's warm breath, bracing herself. His cool nose pressed against the underside of her tail an instant before his big, rough tongue slid over her pucker, tugging the white fur around it upward. As Sophan lapped around the rim of her tail hole, his paws released her rump cheeks, letting them envelope his short muzzle. Ileni tried to drag herself away again now that his hands were off her, but stopped with a yelp when he lightly nipped the back of her mound, growling playfully. His tongue soothed her where his sharp teeth had just pinched her skin before he moved back to her tail hole, his long, slow licks more forceful than before.

Ileni tried to pretend she didn't feel the cheetah's ministrations, but even though his unwanted tongue felt very unusual against her posterior, it wasn't exactly unpleasant. Each rough lick seemed to leave an itch in her skin that the next extinguished. Fists clenched in the dirt at her sides, her bottom twitching around Sophan's face, she closed her eyes and wished he would just leave her alone. When his face finally did pull away from her, letting her buttocks bounce back together, she didn't even notice herself arching her back slightly and raising her bottom away from the ground toward the echo of his licks.

The bunny's eyes flew open and she yelped when Sophan's hands darted under her lap and hoisted her onto her knees, dragging her front half back roughly over the grass. Ileni pushed herself onto her hands, but was stopped from rising the rest of the way by a paw between her shoulder blades. She craned her neck to look back at him over her shoulder, biting back a protest before it left her lips while watching the big cat align himself. He wouldn't respond to any pleas, she knew.

Ileni's head snapped forward and her entire body went rigid when the cheetah's solid tip pushed against her tail hole. Then the pressure diminished, though his pre-slickened flesh never left her skin. After biting her shoulder to keep her from escaping, Sophan closed his hands around her soft cheeks again, thumbs to either side of her anus, and when he squeezed and spread her buttocks, she could feel her sphincter part ever so slightly. His tip spread the tight ring of flesh further, and he had to spare an arm to wrap around her thighs to hold her steady. Now that the broad wedge of his crown had pierced her, the rabbit's body couldn't stop the rest of his penis from pushing its way into her rectum.

Hanging her head between her arms, Ileni gritted her teeth in a tortured snarl while Sophan worked his way fully into her in short little jabs. Her tail hole didn't itch any more with the strange pleasure his tongue had given it; it burned now. The cheetah was too well endowed for such a violation to be anything but painful.

"How is it," he groaned once his furry testicles were plastered against the inner slopes of her rump, lifting his mouth from her shoulder to speak, "that you're even tighter than the last time I did this?" His paws were clenching rhythmically around her buttocks, keeping her from tensing any further.

The rabbit only whimpered in response as he slowly pulled out of her and pushed himself to the hilt again. She didn't think he really expected an answer, anyway, though she wondered at her tightness, too, and grasped at the question as a mental escape from Sophan's abuse. Why was she so tight this time? The cheetah had raped her tail hole the night before, and had slept for hours embedded in her rectum. Surely her body hadn't healed itself already? Of course, Sophan's first night with her had been only hours after she'd been gang-raped by a small pack of wolves, which might explain why he hadn't had as much trouble penetrating her then. His slow, determined thrusts now felt like his thick member was trying to pull her inner buttocks and the back of her mound through her stretched sphincter along with it, no matter how much she tried to relax. Her grip around him wasn't for lack of lubrication, either; he'd bathed his shaft in her vaginal juices for hours while he slept. She didn't think it had anything to do with position, though perhaps her back side was a little tenser now with her knees supporting most of her weight than when Sophan had been holding her like a limp rag doll the first time.

Ileni let her mind continue to explore the inane question, her expression vacant with her head dangling between her elbows, ears dragging through the dirt beneath her, while Sophan moved his hands up to grip her slender waist and began humping her as quickly as her tight confines would allow. One spotted leg lifted up beside her hip to give the cheetah better leverage, his tail lashing furiously behind him. The bunny noticed none of this, aware of his assault only as a distant heat in her behind as she wondered vaguely if her body gripped the cheetah's erection more or less tightly than those of the wolves who had stolen her virginity. She only returned to the present when Sophan's body trembled violently against her back, and with a loud yowl above her drooping ears, he drove himself deep inside her and released his thick seed, his balls quaking against her rump. He held himself inside her while his sperm gushed back around his length and drenched his lap and her rear, trickling down both their thighs. Only after his penis stopped pulsing inside her and began to soften did he pull out and stand behind her to stretch, letting the rabbit fall to her side, shivering while the last of his release dripped from his flaccid tip onto her calves.

Ileni was given no time to recover, though. "Right, then," Sophan said as he grabbed her by her shoulders and hauled her to her unstable feet. "A quick clean-up in the river, then off we go."

* * *

Ileni's sleep deprived mind was sluggish as the sun rose behind them after they'd covered several miles in darkness and twilight. Most of the time she tried to stop herself from looking at the cheetah in front of her. Every time she did, she had to fight a mental battle to convince herself that he wasn't attractive, that she was walking behind him because she didn't want him to be able to sneak up on her, not because she liked to watch his bottom as he walked. His spotted tail swung back and forth like a pendulum, balancing his long strides, and her eyes were drawn against her will to what it was attached to.

Sophan caught and ate a fish midmorning, and Ileni busied herself with finding her own meal among the forest's reclusive berries and mushrooms. There was nothing at all attractive about the cheetah when he was licking blood off of his fingers, that was certain. It reminded her who and what it was she was following. She didn't have as much trouble with not admiring his physique after that.

Shortly after noon, they came across a vine covered beam of metal jutting into the air beside the river, on top of which perched the strangest looking wolf Ileni had ever seen. That's what she thought the creature was until it jumped down onto the path before them and Ileni got a good look at its tail. At HER tail; whatever species she was, she wore no clothing. Ileni's second thought was that she was an odd raccoon, because of the broad dark rings around her unusually bushy tail and the black stripe of fur covering her eyes. Her body was otherwise varying shades of gray, dark in the back and pale in the front.

It was the creature's eyes, though, that made Ileni's breath catch in her throat. The wolf-raccoon was looking right at her, for all the world like she could see her, but her eyes had no irises or pupils. They were portals of empty white.

"Turn back, if you are wise," the raccoon-wolf said, her voice surprisingly youthful. "This marks the beginning of haunted lands." She patted the rusted, overgrown beam she'd jumped from. Ileni could see others beyond. "Only death awaits you if you go further."

Sophan was smiling at the stranger, somehow amused. "Consider us warned." Without another word, he began to walk past her, but the wolf-raccoon caught his upper arm as he stepped beside her and slowly turned her blank eyes from Ileni to his face.

"Two teachers and two students," she said cryptically, "and two lessons that must be learned. If either student fails to learn, if either teacher fails to teach, then teachers and students all will fade to bone and ash."

Sophan shook his arm free and frowned at her. "Right. Don't drink the water near here. Understood." He went on, shaking his feline head and muttering to himself.

The raccoon-wolf looked back at Ileni and gasped, as if she hadn't realized there was someone with Sophan until that moment even though she'd been staring at Ileni until the cheetah walked past her. "Death hungers for you," she said breathlessly, "but its eyes are bigger than its stomach."

Ileni edged around the crazed female, well away from her arms' reach. "Okay. . . ." She walked backwards, following Sophan, then turned and hurried after him. She could feel the female's white eyes on her back long after they were beyond her line of sight. "That's what happens to people who spend too much time around the cursed ruins," she told Sophan after they'd walked amidst the iron beams and fallen pillars for some time.

The cheetah shook his head. "I've spent days in ruins thicker than these, and nothing's wrong with me." Ileni held her tongue. "Some people are just disturbed, it's as simple as that."

The ruins grew denser as they went on, more and more iron poles and crumbled stacks of stone rising around them. All were covered in leafy vines, and most were partly buried in hillsides, but it was clear that nature was only covering up what something else had placed in its midst.

Sophan had been looking back and forth at everything they passed, and finally let out a delighted cry and ran toward four crumbling stone walls that formed a large square in the grass. Two small trees rose from inside the square, one with roots clinging over a stone wall and through holes within it. Ileni followed the cheetah over a gap in one wall and stared, bewildered, as he dug with his claws at the base of the smaller tree.

"This is where they lived," he explained without looking up. "This was one of their homes, a long time ago."

"One of whose homes?"

"Humans, of course. And sometimes, if you're lucky. . . . Ahah!" He pulled a small, crumpled iron box from the dirt and began brushing it off.

"You . . . find garbage?" Ileni suggested.

"Not garbage. Relics!" The box Sophan held had two slots in one side, each big enough to stick a hand inside.

"What's it for?"

"No idea. But a human made it, so whatever it did, it must have been amazing." He placed the rusty box gingerly on the ground and began digging deeper in the hole he'd made.

The sun was crawling toward the western horizon, and Sophan had unearthed several dozen "relics," when a familiar, feminine voice said from the other side of the wall, "You didn't tell me you were being followed."

Sophan didn't look up from the assortment of little metal artifacts he was collecting. "We've been moving quickly enough that they won't catch up for a day or two."

"Then they must want you very badly," the female said. "They are already in the ruins."

Ileni snapped to attention, only now noticing that the breeze had died down to a bare whisper against her fur. They wouldn't be able to smell the wolves until it was too late.

"I take it you do not want them to find you," the wolf-raccoon said. "Then come with me."

Sophan didn't move. "Why should you want to help us?"

She smiled over the wall at him, her white eyes heated. "I should want to help anyone this pack means to harm." She began walking swiftly deeper into the ruins. "If you'd like to learn more of humans than what toasters and silverware can teach you, then you would do well to follow me." Ileni blinked. Was she just making up words now?

"Wait!" Sophan leapt over the wall between him and the departing female. "What do you know about humans?"

"Almost nothing," she answered, "and a great deal more than you."

Ileni hastily slung her pack over her shoulder, grabbed Sophan's stick, and climbed over the wall to follow them.

Sophan tried to ask the female something else, but she placed a finger over his lips and perked her pointed ears. "We must hurry," she whispered, "and quietly."

Ileni found herself glad she'd been behind Sophan most of the time when they'd traveled together. The entire time they followed the raccoon-wolf through the ruins and forest, his eyes never left the trotting female's backside. It didn't help that she held her ringed tail high in the air for balance. Sophan had told Ileni before that her rump must get her into all sorts of trouble. She thought that this other female's bottom didn't serve her any better, and she had a full bust as well. But then, she was at least part wolf, so her curves wouldn't give her the same problems as Ileni's gave her.

For that matter, Ileni wondered why the female hadn't tried to rape her when they'd first met. Maybe it was because she was with Sophan. Or maybe the female's raccoon half ruled her sexual instincts. But then, even full raccoons could prove to be predators as often as not.

They heard howls close behind them shortly before the female led them to what Ileni could only think of as a giant, lumpy glass and metal egg. The white-eyed female touched the egg, and part of its shell lifted above it to show them its insides. "Get in," the female said, trotting around to its other side. "Hurry," she added when Sophan and Ileni only stared.

They did as they were told when footsteps crashed through the underbrush behind them. Ileni looked back just in time to see a large, dark wolf bark, "I found them," before the egg's shell closed behind her.

Ileni realized she had landed on top of Sophan when they'd leapt inside the metal egg. He was sprawled face down on a cushioned bench, and she crouched with her hands on his back and one knee between his thighs. She jumped when she realized what her leg was touching and hit her head hard on the egg's ceiling before repositioning herself and letting Sophan rise to a sitting position. "What is this?" he began, but the wolf-raccoon was seated in a large chair in front of them, her hands darting back and forth between panels full of glowing devices.

"Try not to panic," the female warned, which didn't help Ileni's unease in the least.

The egg rocked as a wolf jumped on top of it and began banging at it with something hard. Another wolf joined the first, then a strange, disembodied voice said something Ileni couldn't understand.

She thought she'd gone as mad as the raccoon-wolf when the ground outside the windows fell away from them. The wolves on top of them yelped and jumped off before they were too high, but they kept rising ever higher, until the towering redwood canopy was actually below them. Ileni felt dizzy. "Are we flying?"

"Humans were ingenious, I have to give them that," the female said. Ileni had to look away from her window, but when she turned her head the other way she found Sophan's spotted yellow and white rump beside her face.

He was on all fours, looking out his window. "This is incredible!" Ileni had to keep batting his tail away from her face while she looked at the back of the chair in front of her and felt herself blush. "I've never seen a human relic in such good condition that it actually works! Where did you find it?"

The female in front pressed a few blinking lights before smiling back at them. "Compared to some of the things we've recovered, this is but a child's toy."

Sophan actually giggled, sounding very much a cub himself. Ileni found herself wondering how old he was.

The egg suddenly tilted in the air. Ileni bit back a scream when she looked out her window and saw the forest so far below them that it looked like a green carpet covering the mountainside. Sophan, on the other hand, whirled and climbed over her to press his muzzle against the window, looking at the world below them. With little room inside the contraption to move around, his thigh was pressed up against her side. She tried to look at anything except the furry white sheath in front of her face.

The egg tilted again, the other way, and in a flash Sophan was back to his window. Ileni tried to ignore him, but his bottom was inches from her face again, his spotted sack dangling between his thighs beside her shoulder. The egg suddenly dove. It was only a moment, but in that instant of weightlessness the cheetah's lifted backside pressed against the side of Ileni's head. "Whoa!" He landed heavily on Ileni's lap.

"Don't worry, it does that sometimes," the raccoon-wolf said.

Sophan chuckled and ruffled Ileni's head between her ears, then returned to his window as though nothing had happened. But while he was sitting there, his genitals had been laying on her thigh.

Why was she noticing nothing but the cheetah's privates? She forced herself to look back out her window, but when she saw a cloud drifting below them, had to close her eyes. And why was this blasted egg vibrating so much? With her eyes closed she was all the more aware of Sophan's scent. Her nose followed it against her will until her short muzzle planted itself against the back of his scrotum.

When she opened her eyes, his tail hole was directly between them. "Um, Ileni?" he said, and she backed as far away from him as she could. He was staring over his shoulder at her in surprised curiosity. Ileni shook her head to clear it, then scrambled over the back of the chair in front of her to get farther away from the cheetah. "Hey, wait," he said. "If you actually want to. . . ."

"I don't." Ileni closed her eyes again and turned away from him.

"But-"

The female Ileni had climbed beside pointed at her window and cut Sophan off. "Oh, look, is that a flock of geese below us?"

Sophan banged his nose against his window, he was so quick to turn his attention back to the sky around them. "Where? Oh, is that them? They're so small I can barely see them. Are we on the other side of the mountains now, or have we turned around?" He went on to ask the female countless breathless questions, but Ileni couldn't concentrate on their conversation. It was all she could do to keep her hands from between her legs. Eventually she had to sit awkwardly on her heels on the chairs' cushion to dampen the machine's vibrations against her bottom. She leaned against her window with her eyes closed and told herself to think about the human artifacts Sophan had uncovered earlier that day, but she was exhausted after two days of swift travel with almost no sleep between them, and had little control over her thoughts. Thinking of the relics made her think of Sophan bending over them, and that led her to picture the cheetah bending over HER. Miraculously, she fell asleep before her imagination could take any more unfortunate steps.

* * *

Wrapped in the warm embrace of Andrin's arms, Ileni let herself absorb all the comfort her friend's presence could offer. He nuzzled the side of her face wordlessly, one hand stroking the back of her head as he held her close. She could feel the firm heat of his unsheathed member pressed along her navel, not yet erect, but not far from it, while his genitals rubbed against the front of her mound.

Andrin kissed the side of her neck affectionately before raising his head and whispering into her ear, "Why, Ileni?" She shuddered as his body grew cold against her own. "Why did you do it? Why did you bring them down on us?" A warm dampness flowed down her chin and neck, and she looked down in horror to see a red stream pouring from Andrin's ruined throat. He stood and looked down at her sadly, his blood flowing down his chest in a small river while deep claw marks appeared in his side and a chunk of flesh disappeared from his bicep, as though bitten off. With one last "Why?" forming on his lips, though no sound left them, he turned and walked away from her, fading into the darkness of her dreams.

She was running now, tears blinding her as she tried to find Andrin, but was stopped by a giant paw grasping her shoulder and spinning her around to face an enormous cheetah. Sophan was hunched over to reach her, but standing upright he would be at least three times her height. "You broke the deal, rabbit." He was a cheetah one moment, something else the next, his features changing subtly and his pelt fading from vibrant yellows, blacks, and whites to a dull tan. Grabbing her neck by two fingers, he lifted her off the ground, features flashing from cheetah to mountain lion and back again between her racing heartbeats. "Why didn't you uphold your end of the deal? We didn't ask much." She grasped a wrist as wide as her hips, trying to keep him from snapping her neck, as he held her in front of an erection longer and thicker than her leg. The giant, flickering cat positioned her to sit on its tip. "Why, oh why, little flower/cunt,"-the two words were said simultaneously, and somehow had the same meaning in Ileni's mind-"did you force our hand?"

The feline pushed her down.

* * *

Ileni awoke with a violent start to sounds and smells of passion coming from the bench behind her. After rubbing her eyes and shaking her head groggily, trying and failing to remember what dream had left her heart pounding so furiously, she turned to look over the back of her seat. The raccoon-wolf had abandoned her position in front of the many lights, buttons, and dials, and was now straddling Sophan's hips, bobbing up and down with his member embedded in her. With so little room in the metal egg, Sophan's legs were bent against the window behind her, both their tails were curving up along the window and ceiling, and she was bent over the cheetah with her hands grasping his shoulders. His own hands were fondling her supple breasts as they bobbed with her movements. They were both growling and moaning urgently, and judging by the smell of them and their laps' damp fur, they'd been at it for some time already.

Sophan noticed Ileni peeking timidly over her seat at them. "Sorry . . . to wake you up, little one. Feel free-" He grunted when the female shoved herself down around his shaft particularly hard. "Mmm, feel free to join in . . . if you like." He leaned forward to tease the female's nipple with his rough tongue, and she gasped, arching her back and smacking her head against the ceiling. The raccoon-wolf winced and thumped the back of Sophan's head with the side of her fist, but he just laughed and began suckling her.

"Um, no thanks," Ileni said, and turned back around in her seat, blood rushing to her face until she was sure her ears were glowing. Their scent was overwhelming, and she was quickly finding herself in a state to match their activity. Ileni's fingers found her moist crotch before she knew what she was doing. She masturbated with one hand while squeezing her breast with the other, pinching her own nipple and staring up at the ceiling with half closed eyes. She gave herself two unsatisfying orgasms before the lustful noises behind her died down to heavy breathing and quiet laughter.

Ileni reluctantly pulled her fingers out of herself, hoping that the carnivores' mixed scents were strong enough that they wouldn't notice hers. After wiping her fingers on the chair beside her, she asked, "Where is it we're going?" The sky was pitch black outside the human machine.

"You are a sound sleeper for a rabbit," Sophan chuckled, disentangling himself from the female on top of him and sitting beside her. "We've already arrived." He touched a panel on the wall below his window, and a section of the metal shell lifted up with a soft hiss.

"Where are we, then?" Ileni found a similar panel beside her, and an opening appeared in the shell beside her as well. Cool air washed over her, and she could see solid ground underneath the metal egg. She stepped out gratefully. "And why were you two going at it like that inside when you could have been out here?"

"It's best not to advertise yourself in this place," the wolf-raccoon answered as she crawled out her own opening. She looked at the moon high above them with her white eyes and made her way around the machine. "He should have been here by now," she muttered.

"We're in an ancient human city," Sophan whispered gleefully, answering Ileni's other question. "One of the biggest they ever built!"

The cheetah was ecstatic, but when Ileni realized the shadows looming up around them weren't trees, she became very nervous. Even small ruins were said to be cursed; no one was supposed to be able to breathe the air in the larger ones and survive. But then, nothing had happened to them so far.

"I really must be going," the wolf-raccoon said. "I've lingered too long already, though I can't claim to regret it." She gave Sophan a small smile. "He'll arrive any minute now, I'm sure. Just wait quietly for him here." Without another word, she crawled back inside the machine, pressed a dozen buttons in half as many seconds, and the metal egg rose from the ground and darted across the night sky. No ominous riddles this time.

"Someone's supposed to meet us here?" Ileni asked.

The cheetah nodded, sitting beside the stick and pack he'd pulled from the contraption. "Cill's friend. He's supposed to know everything there is to know about humans." He looked around at the lurking shadows. "She said we'd know him when we see him. He was supposed to be here shortly after dusk."

Ileni glanced around them as well, but with clouds scudding across the moon and stars, she could barely see her hand in front of her. She found a metal panel jutting from the ground a few feet from Sophan and leaned against it.

A few minutes later a chance beam of moonlight lit Sophan's eyes bright green, and she realized he was looking curiously at her face. "What?" she asked, shifting her weight uncomfortably.

"It's just. . . . I've been trying to figure out what happened to the humans all my life," he said, for once sounding unsure of himself. "I guess I'm just glad to have someone else with me now."

"Oh," was all Ileni could think of to say. She wasn't feeling any more comfortable after that comment.

A moment later torchlight flickered from beyond a tall steel wall, and a tall coyote strode around it and blinked at them, torch in one hand and a strange human artifact in the other, a pair of pipes joined to form a parallel shaft connected to the handle in his hand. "Now here's a surprise," he said, looking them both up and down. "What are you doing alone in the middle of Shigao, stranger?" he asked, addressing Sophan in the wolven tongue.

The cheetah got quickly to his feet. "Are you Cill's friend?"

The coyote was a hair late in responding. "Yes," he said, "yes, I'm Cill's very good friend." He turned his gaze to Ileni, and she didn't like the look in his eyes at all. "I see you've brought a gift for tonight's festivities. That was very wise of you." He stepped closer to her. "Very wise indeed. You might well earn a front row seat with a catch like this."

Sophan caught the coyote's arm and swung him to face him. "What does Cill look like, if you don't mind me asking?" His voice was polite, but his claws were partly unsheathed around the coyote's bicep.

The coyote prodded Sophan's ribs with the tip of his human relic. The cheetah looked down at it, and his eyes widened. "I don't think it matters much what Cill looks like, now, do you?" the coyote growled.

"Ileni, run!" Sophan yelled, and without explanation he surprised the coyote with a swift kick, knocking the canine onto his back, and darted between two iron poles into the ruins. Ileni didn't hesitate. Instinct drove her legs to carry her as swiftly away from the coyote as she could. She caught sight of a blur of yellow dashing behind a wall to her right, but when she rounded the corner, Sophan was nowhere to be seen. She hurried onward, already lost amidst the towering metal structures. She dashed around another bend-and bounced off of a huge grizzly bear's backside.

He gave a startled grunt and twirled, but she was already sprinting in the other direction. Explosive thunder sounded from somewhere to her left an instant before something solid hit her in the back of the head, hard. She collapsed mid-stride and tumbled through the dirt, trying to roll to her feet. Her legs didn't want to work properly. She skidded to a halt on her back, but the world kept spinning above her eyes. She thought she saw something leaning over her, or someone. The bear?

The world went blank.