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Maybe Tomorrow

-

First Light

Chapters 7, 8 and 9

by Dissident Love

copyright 2012

Chapter 7

- - - -

The Royal Welcome

Hir Grace The Royal Crown Princess Kimmi cried.

During their trip from that distat mountainside cave and into the depths of the world, shi had maintained the slim but persistent belief that Bister, or maybe even the fellow captive convicts, would find a way to overpower their captors and fight their way to freedom.

While trapped in that bestial stall awaiting purchase, the thought that shi would one day see the sun rise again, feel the rain on hir face and the soothing massage of shampoo in hir fur was a candle flickering in the darkness, weak but refusing to be extinguished. Perhaps the taurs would free hir, as they seemed to have elected hir the leader of the pack.

While being marched through the hellish subterranean city, even while resigning hirself to hir new life as a slave beneath the surface world, shi hadn't seriously considered that shi would die down there, or that hir life would even be all that bad. Enormous effort had been expended to bring hir to this place in one piece, and shi was clearly a valuable commodity. Surely it couldn't be that bad being property.

But now, in hir mouldering stone cube, surrounded by soiled rags and heaps of moss and the nostril-scouring stench of old dried blood, the candle of hope had gone out. In the cells all around hir shi could hear the other purchased taurs whining and whimpering, chains rattling in the inky blackness of the dungeon.

Shi knew shi was far stronger than the strange, blade-limbed bug-like creatures, and had shi gotten enough of a running start shi could have simply smashed her way out of the simple pens of the market arena. The crypt-like dwelling shi now found hirself in was built of ancient, monolithic stone blocks, the front of which was sealed by rusting but wrist-thick metal bars. Shi had railed against them until hir bones felt shaken out of their sockets, and they had not so much as rattled one iota.

Picking her way blindly to the back of the cell, shi tried to scrape the hideously organic debris out of a corner and curl up into a ball, hir back to the bars, arms and legs wrapped around hirself. For several minutes shi tried to tell hirself that princesses didn't cry, particularly not a princess who had gone through so much trouble to actually leave hir pampered existence of towers and pillows and cakes and experience the real world.

Shi was unable to resist comparing those few minutes of crazy, stupid bravery with the potential for decades of incarceration, and that was all it took. Tears rolled down hir muzzle, and hir whimpers of despair joined with those in the cells around hir.

The other taurs, six out of the twelve that had originally journeyed with hir, lifted their heads, ears twitching. They were worried, of course; they might not operate on a level of civilization that the anthros could understand, but they were intelligent in their own way, and experienced the same emotions. Kimmi might have been envious of the fact that their ability to worry, to become distressed about future events, or even perceive the distant future, was vastly underdeveloped, but they responded only too well to immediate stimuli.

The sounds of Kimmi weeping struck them in ways the reality of their inescapable captivity could never reach. As one, canine and feline and equine alike, their heads rose and they howled.

---

All things fade in time, and eventually the only feeling that Kimmi was conscious of was hunger.

The despair was still there, hovering just beyond the edge of hir vision like a malignant spectre. Shi was sad and scared and angry all at once, but those were vague, poorly-defined emotions, while the hunger was a physical presence that seemed to be chewing away at hir spine. Hir muscles cramped with such violence that each grumble of hir gut caused hir to kick at the slimy stone walls.

Were they just going to forget about hir? Someone or something had paid handsomely for hir and the rest of the taurs, so that seemed unlikely, but hours piled upon hours and blended together until shi didn't even know if shi had slept or not. The darkness and silence were an oppressive weight, so much so that even breathing seemed unbearably difficult.

Maybe I should just stop breathing, shi thought. End it now.

Shi pictured hir parents in hir mind, shocked and horrified both at hir appearance and hir disappearance, and that lost life no longer seemed so dismal. One day of freedom, and hir life was over. What did shi have to look forward to now? There was no chance of rescue, not in this place... there was only the final great release before hir, shedding hir mortal body and venturing into the afterlife. No-one had ever been able to tell hir what truly lay beyond.

The fear of that unknown no longer outweighed the torment of existence.

The slam of hir cell door opening, clanging against the ancient steel frame, elicited a scream so primal shi wasn't immediately aware it was coming from hir own throat.

All six limbs flailing wildly, shi rolled over and shoved hirself as far back into hir cell as shi could manage, eyes huge and terrified. Hir chest heaved, head spinning from the jarring noise. I must have been sleeping! Where the hell did they come from? Why is my cell open? What's going on?!

"Well, hir lungs work," said a dry, raspy voice, heavily inflected but understandable. His tongue seemed to want to roll around the consonants, as though afraid to touch the roof of his mouth. "I'll tell you right now, though, there's no fightin' for this one."

"Mya'ki tilile'lya! T'kya!" rattled one of the vicious little underground beasts.

"You're not serious," said the shadowy figure blandly, much larger than the insectile captors but stoop-shouldered and shaggy. "Shi's not what you want. That cheetah over yon-"

"T'KYA!"

The stumpy anthro just nodded. "Aye, I'll obey, ye dickless freak," he muttered. The four-legged beast nodded in satisfaction, took two steps back, and then smacked the shaggy creature on the back of his head for no apparent reason. The crack reverberated through the dungeon, but the abused furre didn't even flinch.

Chittering to itself, the creature clacked off into the darkness, slamming the heavy main door shut behind it.

Kimmi was starting to calm down now, hugging hir bust and forcing hir breathing to slow. There was a very, very faint glow coming from around the corner of hir cell somewhere, blue and watery, and shi realized some of those luminous insects must have found their way in. Shi stared at the figure in the open door of hir cell, squinting, trying to make out any details...

Shi was on all four huge paws in a flash when it reached out and pulled the door closed, locking it with a 'click'. Shi dashed forwards, slamming hirself against the bars, gripping them and shaking them vigorously, flakes of rust stone and falling into hir eyes.

"Hold on, hold on, there, grrl," the figure said soothingly, his voice actually seeming genuinely concerned. "I'll open it up again in a moment, just gotta get ready."

Shi stopped, realization dawning, hearing those words in a language shi could understand. He must be from somewhere beyond our borders! His accent... so exotic...

The shape had taken a few steps towards the heavy dungeon door, but stopped and glanced back at Kimmi. "You're pretty well-trained, aren't you?" he said softly. "That's good. That will help."

Blast! I'm supposed to be a beast of burden! "Whrurf," shi grumped, settling down onto hir haunches, or as much as hir endowments would allow hir to. Shi could hear the other taurs in their cells, pacing back and forth and breathing hard, but they were otherwise silent.

Metallic screeches echoed back and forth and blinding, piercing light bloomed in the central chamber. Kimmi threw an arm across hir eyes and stepped backwards, tears streaming down hir face. Ow, holy hells! What is that?!

Blinking against the back of hir forearm, shi slowly peeked around the edge of hir cell, and realized that one single candle had been lit in the darkness, sitting atop a rickety three-legged table. The hunched shape turned out to be a slouching, dishevelled black bear wearing only a triangular chunk of cloth around his midsection. Clumps of matted fur stuck out in all directions, reminding hir of a disturbingly bulky porcupine.

What are you doing here? You're obviously a slave... oooooh.

The bear knelt and started to rifle through a rough hemp sack, pulling out an assortment of tools and devices, knives and files and lengths of knotted cord and... and...

Kimmi's heart fluttered, and a slash of delight made her temporarily giddy.Oh my goodness thank you thank you thank you thank you a hairbrush!!!

The bear kept glancing back at Kimmi while he worked, and it was after three or four such surreptitious motions that shi realized shi was staring right back at him each time. Shi made of show of busying hirself with picking knots clumsily out of hir tail, hoping that shi wasn't being too subtle. Here! Over here! Fix my tail! Aauugghh, I think there's bugs in it! Bring the brush!

"Allrighty then," the bear drawled, standing up slowly and making his way to the cell that contained the stormy grey appaloosa taur. "You look like you've got something nasty in yer hooves, there, feller. Let old Uncle Cameron have a look, you know I'm gonna be gentle as a wee babby lamb, there we go..."

The soft, lulling prattle hardly paused for breath as Cameron unlocked the equine's cell and shuffled inside. Kimmi could hear the taur scuttling backwards, hooves clacking on the stones, great lungs pumping nervously, but it seemed to settle almost immediately. It was obvious that this shambling creature was another captive from above, and was likely a herder, possibly even a veterinarian. His voice was easy and soothing, obviously something he'd practiced at length.

It's ok, the tail can wait, shi thought, listening to the bear yanking what sounded like stone chips out of the appaloosa's hooves. That's probably a little more important.

"Hmmm, that's a good boy, very good boy. That should feel a lot better, you just stay off of that for a day or two, you hear me? Very good. Here, I'm just going to take some measurements. The punters need to know your body, but they've no idea of your mind, do they? No, they don't, no, they don't. The measure of a spirit, the measure of your heart, they don't care about. They just want to know you're seventeen knots to the shoulder, there's a big boy, just gonna get the rope under your barrel, there we go, you're such a good boy..."

Kimmi settled against the wall of hir cell, staring at the candle as much as shi could bear, unsure if shi would ever see true light ever again. Cameron finished up with the equitaur, whom he'd dubbed Gris, and had moved on to the cheetahtaur who, rather uncreatively, became known as Speckle. Shi had expected the leopard to attack, or at least growl, but only the sounds of contented purring came out of the cell while the bear worked.

He's good at what he does, shi thought, listening him move from cell to cell. Over an hour, maybe two, he soothed each of the taurs in turn, checked them for injuries and in many cases applied bandages and cleaned wounds. He rattled off their measurements over and over, obviously memorizing them rather than writing anything down, and shi could hardly believe that his voice never faltered. The taurs were sitting at the front of their open cells now, tails wagging, watching the bear work, placid and peaceful.

Kimmi stifled a yawn, the droning metronome of Cameron's monologue settling onto hir brain like a fog. Shi curled up more onto hir side, paws cradling hir tender and bruised nethers, arms clasped around hir breasts, and morosely tried to recapture the despair and depression of just a few hours before... and found shi could not.

It won't be so bad, shi thought. Not with someone to take care of us. He seems to genuinely enjoy his work. The other taurs trust him. He might be a slave like us, but he's here to make sure we're healthy.

Shi was snoring softly when Cameron eventually made his way over to hir cell, unlocking it and swinging it open carefully to minimize the teeth-rattling screech. Hir ears didn't so much as twitch when he shuffled in, loose coils of knotted rope in one hand, a pair of dulled, bent knives in the other. He stood and stared at hir for several moments, taking in hir immense scale and proportions.

"You're not for this world," he said sadly, placing the knives on the rotting straw and taking a step closer. "You should'a be a den mother somewhere, surrounded by pups, playing in the sun. The others can make a life down here, maybe, but you... you're a princess, aren't you, grrl?" A pause, and a grin. "A bloody great mountain-sized princess."

Kimmi ruffled and twitched, shifting a little more onto hir back, one huge paw waving languidly. "Mmrmrrmrmrmrmrrrrr," shi mumbled sleepily. "Thank you."

Shi didn't know how much time passed after that, but when shi slowly opened hir eyes some seconds later, Cameron was still standing there, expression glazed, jaw hanging slack.

Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap-

His jaw closed with a click and he turned cautiously towards the gate, walking back into the main central chamber. Moving very deliberately he placed the candle onto the ground, sat on the short rickety table, and then simply stared at hir through the open door of hir cell.

Moving with just as much studiousness, Kimmi rolled onto hir belly, hir hips hoisted high into the air by hir vastly oversized balls, and stood up. Shi brushed hir hands on hir fur, smoothing hir ruff as much as shi could before raking hir fingers back through hir black and silver tresses.

"Hello," shi said.

The six taurs were staring at hir in what shi hoped was a friendly fashion. Cameron was staring at hir as though he expected hir to burst into flames at any moment. Kimmi took a step forwards, carefully toeing the knives out of the way, but stopping at the door to hir cell.

"Thank you for taking care of the t... of my friends," shi murmurred politely, gesturing to the other cells. The cheetahtaur's head popped up and his tail began to wag.

The response was automatic. "Yer welcome," Cameron said, his eyes growing wide when he realized what he'd just said, and whom he'd just said it to. "Ah," he added, as though that settled it.

"Can I ask you a question?"

He looked hir up and down. "Apparently."

Shi took a deep breath, and had to stifle a tiny smile when the black bear showed that he wasn't completely paralytic by giving them an appraising glance. "What are the chances," shi said slowly, "that I'm getting out of here?"

The bear's face was carefully neutral, but when he started to scratch at the back of his head Kimmi's heart sank. "We-e-ell," he said eventually, but the enormous husky cut him off.

"That's what I thought," shi said softly. Shi didn't notice the other taurs drop their heads to their paws upon hearing the sadness in hir voice, but Cameron's quick darting eyes flickered from cell to cell. "I apologize for startling you. I don't suppose I really need to hide what I am anymore."

"Ah. And... er..." the bear drawled uncertainly. "Well, what I'm saying is... what are ye, exactly? Begging yer pardon," he added hastily, "I'm just not used to the critters down here talking back to me, is all."

Hir lips twitched again. "I can't really fault you for that. I'm... a mistake, I suppose."

"Born on a farm, were ye?"

"Quite the opposite."

Cameron's eyes widened. "Yer kinfolk were normal?! Er... that is, to say..."

Somehow, in spite of hir predicament, Kimmi chuckled. "You're not saying anything I haven't thought a million times. Yes, they were up-standing members of the community, you might say," shi rumbled wryly, settling as much onto hir haunches as shi could.

"Gosh."

"You're telling me."

The bear fiddled with the knotted ropes in his hand. "They're gonna be coming back down before long. Ah. I'm just supposed to assay the wares, as it were, and get the important numbers. Ah." Kimmi realized that he had acquired a much larger number of vocal punctuations speaking to hir than any of the other taurs. "Not to be putting too fine a point on it, but they were very insistent that I get your numbers, too."

Kimmi frowned. "What for?"

Cameron sighed. "Ah. Yes. Uhm. Well..."

Hir frown deepened, and shi started to get an inkling of what was in store for hir. "What do they need the numbers for, Cameron?"

Hearing his name seemed to jerk him out of his fearful reverie. "F-" he started, but caught himself again. Kimmi was inhaling to bark angrily, but shi was paused by the sight of the bear mumbling to himself, fiddling with his paws, and generally looking as though he were rewinding the last few minutes of his life.

"For the Arena," he said at last, with lead-lined finality.

Kimmi blinked. "Arena."

"Yes," Cameron said, unable to meet hir gaze. "This Manor, where ye're now, is very big in the Arena down here."

"Fighting?" shi breathed, stomach plummetting.

"Sometimes! Only sometimes!" he said quickly, raising his paws protectively as though expecting to be struck. "The Arena is... it's everything, down here! Well, not everything, but... it's their entertainment. It's racing, it's games, it's feats of strength and all sorts of competition, and it all fuels their gambling, and the gambling really IS everything! You-"

He stopped dead, and both of them could hear the tiny sounds coming from beyond the heavy dungeon door. The taurs began to growl, low in their throats, and Cameron scrambled to his feet. "Feck! Let me measure you! I've got to get the numbers and get the bloody gates closed or they'll have my hide!"

Kimmi hunkered down, muzzle pulling back to reveal rows of gleaming teeth that had not chewed through anything tougher than rum cake, but shi caught hirself before shi attempted another meager growl. "I'm not fighting!" shi hissed.

"Of course not! Look at you! But please, before they start knocking, they get very impatient, please, whatever you are, I don't know, I will do my best to protect you but you've got to let me take my measurements please!" His eyes were wild and unfocused, straining in each direction with raw, soul-crushing panic.

Kimmi felt a moment of tremendous pity. I've been a slave for one day and I'm crying in filth. How long has HE been here?

Shi turned and backed slightly into the cell, raising hir hands and staring regally ahead. "Be quick," shi whispered.

Quick he was. His paws moved with such speed shi nearly got burnt by the knotted rope, quick measurements taken at several locations around hir barrel, hir torso, hir legs and even hir tail. His muttering increased in intensity when it came time for him to measure hir tenderest portions, not the least because it also required a considerable stretching of his arms. Shi actually had to help him get it all the way around the widest portion of hir sac, and it nearly required the use of a second rope.

Reciting numbers to himself in a panic, he dashed out of hir cell without a second glance, slamming the door shut behind him as the first insistent, metallic knocks sounded at the far door. One of the creatures screeched something, but Cameron didn't reply.

"Sorry," Kimmi said softly, hunkering down, listening intently to the sounds the other taurs made as they were shooed forcibly back into their cells and locked up. Shi knew shi would have a great many opportunities to use those same sounds of sadness and frustration, and shi could do with the practice.

The knocking came again, much louder this time, and the frenetic little black bear sealed the last cell shut and sprinted for the little table in the middle of the room, all but leaping onto the single candle and extinguishing it with his paws. There was a quick hiss, the smell of burning fur, and the return of the palpable, oppressive blackness, squeezing hir temples in a vise.

The door rattled in its hinges one last time, Cameron scrambling blindly towards it and pulling it open. Kimmi found shi could actually track his progress through the dark remarkably well with hir ears, and shi wished shi'd spent more time honing hir skills rather than hir appetite back in hir tower.

"SCYT'TKA!"

"I'm sor-" the black bear started, but was cut off by a whickering crack and a barely-muffled grunt of pain. The creatures gibbered in their grating tongue for several moments, and Kimmi could hear there were at least two of them, maybe three or four.

There were other hard, damp snapping sounds, and the great huskytaur winced at each one. Sorry, Cameron, shi thought, fearful that shi was to blame for his truancy.

Eventually the strikes ceased, and shi dreaded the worst until the black bear said evenly, "Thank you."

The growl that rose in hir throat needed very little fine-tuning to convey hir anger.

The creatures moved closer, tick-tacking of their pointed blade-like limbs echoing confusingly in the small central chamber. Cameron shuffled along behind them. They moved from cell to cell, observing the taurs within, spending the longest time staring at Kimmi.

They stopped just beyond the bars of hir cell, and there was much animated chatter between the creatures, sibilant slithering sounds merging with their staccato, tongueless tongue. They smelled like lamp oil so close, harsh and chemical.

"Shi's not a fighter," Cameron mumbled in response to whatever the creatures had been saying. The only response was another blow to the subservient bear and a smattering of insectile shrieks.

The tour continued. At one of their commands, the black bear started to recite the numbers he had acquired, the excitement level of the captors rising with each taur's statistics. When he, very reluctantly, got to Kimmi's numbers, their gibbering reached fever pitch, and hir stomach clenched. Oh, great, shi thought.There's no way that's good news...

The strange parade finished up, the creatures striding purposefully out of the room, leaving behind the enslaved ursine to lock up. In absolute darkness he collected the little chair, his candle, and the knotted ropes with well-practiced motions.

Very well-practiced.

"Cameron," Kimmi hissed softly when shi was sure the subterranean creatures were beyond hearing.

The shuffling stopped. "Yes."

"How many taurs have been in this dungeon before us?"

The silence was nearly as palpable as the darkness, but was eventually broken by Cameron moving towards the door.

"Where are they now?"

The ursine's footsteps became hollow, and shi was positive he had moved beyond the heavy portal and out into the curving ramp beyond.

"How long have you been here?" shi whispered sadly.

With a rusty squeal, the door closed like the final slab on a tomb, and thereafter only noise was the chuffing and sighing of hir fellow captives.

---

There was no day or night in the depths of the strange carved fortress, and no discernable pattern to the migrations of the glowing insects that provided the only illumination. Kimmi was fairly sure that shi had slept at least twice since the black bear's departure, if only because twice shi found hirself suddenly throwing hirself at the bars to hir cell, growling wordlessly.

The great huskytaur had taken to gnawing desolately on hir own tail in order to give hir jaw something to do, not knowing if shi would ever taste real food again. The stones of hir cell were worn smooth, but they were by no means flat or even, and shi was constantly wriggling and changing positions in order to spread around the bruises and sores. Shi tried to stay on hir back, saving hir tender undercarriage from the abuse, and shi cursed hir size for the millionth time.

The tumultuous rumble of hir stomach had become a constant background to hir thoughts, mixing and mingling with similar sounds from the other cells, when the heavy iron-handled door screeched and swung open. There were yips and chuffs and even an incongruous meow from the taurs, the feral beasts having picked up the scent of food well before Kimmi's untrained royal nose.

Curled up into a ball with hir head buried in the comfort and safety of hir bosom, the true deprivation of hir senses startled hir: the sound of the flint box scraping sparks was deafening, the bloom of the single pitiful candle seared the back of hir eyes.

"Good morning," the bear said gently, significantly less jovial than before. "I know you've not had a good meal for far too long, and... well, that's not about to change. You'll be getting used to it, don't worry."

Slowly, the knotted muscles in hir neck protesting, Kimmi pulled hir muzzle out of the warmth of hir ruff and gazed blearily into the central chamber where the shambling black bear was rifling through several large, lumpy sacks. Hir stomach roared once, twisting and clenching with need and causing hir to wince, but shi refused to demand food. The impulse to beg and plead was strong, but shi knew that if anyone could survive off of stored fat, it was probably hir far more than the other captured taurs.

"Now, ye big kitties might be having some getting used to, since they're not really big on wasting good meat down here, but I've done what I can. You, wolfy, should be getting by ok. Something about canines adapting better, I'm supposing. That goes for you, too, yon huskygrrl."

"My name is Kimmi."

Cameron twitched, but continued dishing heaps of something onto rounded planks. "I'll thank ye not to be doing that around me, big pup," he said calmly. "I do my duty down here in the dens, and I keep my beasties as safe as I can, and I sleep whens they let me sleep, and that's all I'm to be doing."

The hairs rose up on the back of hir neck. "You're just going to ignore me?"

"Ayuh. Here you go, there, Mister Appaloosa. You'll eat anything, won't ya? There you go, show everyone that good old Uncle Cameron's feeding you good chow, that's right." The grey equitaur stuck his long head out from between the bars and snapped at his food with gusto. Kimmi still couldn't make out any details, but shi was pretty sure there wasn't going to be any chocolate sauce.

Shi wanted to flay the hide from his bones with righteous indignation, shi wanted to insist that shi couldn't be treated in this fashion, shi wanted to believe that shi was somehow different or more important than the other taurs, but every time shi tried to put the words together all shi could feel was confused shame. Shi wasn't all that different, and even if some consideration could be given for the fact shi could speak, what did that matter?

"Where did they take the other captives? The ones like you, the bipeds." Shi couldn't keep the snarl out of hir voice when shi added, "The other ones who can speak."

"Different part of the Manor," Cameron said diffidently, moving on to the wolf's pen. "Not my job. I take care of the stables, and I take care of the beasties, and that's all, so you just go on and stop with the talking, ok? Yer not going to be getting good old Uncle Cameron into trouble."

Shi stared, slack-jawed, as he continued around to each of the cells, eventually bringing hir a wide, worn wooden plank heaped with what turned out to be mushrooms, some sort of tuber, and something that certainly looked like noodles but which absolutely could not have been noodles. His banter never ceased, and he didn't even glance up at hir as he passed.

"Be sure to eat everything! It's very nutritious, let me tell you, and they're never all that good about bringing me my rations, so waste not, want not. That goes for you too, little miss husky."

"It has dirt," shi said hoarsely, sticking hir muzzle out from between the bars and nosing at one of the lumps. "It has slime."

Cameron just chuckled. "Oh, ayuh, it's not very appetizing to look at, which is probably why your kin don't bother looking at it that much. Oohh, the fancy folks in their castles love to LOOK at their food. Everyone else, struggling to make it through another winter, well, we're content to not even have to taste it, as long as it stays in our bellies. That's a lesson you'd do well to learn, and from the sounds of yer tumkin, you'll be learning it soon."

Shi nosed at it again, eyes growing wide, lips twitching with revulsion. Shi knew, on an intellectual level, that it was probably nutritious, as were many of the meals shi had eaten in hir tower. Many meals, shi discovered, were made chiefly with ingredients that shi hated on their own, with mushrooms chief on that list. Raw potatoes were thoroughly unpalatable, but mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy was one of hir favorites. Shi could eat this. Shi knew in hir mind that shi could.

Shi just had to convince hir body of that.

"What are the noodles?"

"Gripworms."

One of the noodles, apparently hearing its name, lifted the end that might have been the head and looked eyelessly around. Kimmi's head whipped back through the iron rails of hir cell so fast hir ears cracked like whips.

Cameron laughed, gathering up his sacks. "That happens sometimes, you'll get used to it. They stop moving once you start chewing!" he barked, shoulders shaking. "Yon wolf pal has already finished his!"

True enough, most of the taurs were more than halfway done their meals, and the worms didn't seem to be slowing any of them down. One was even trying to escape from the appaloosa's plate, but a quick nip of surprisingly nimble lips dragged it back. Kimmi's jaw dropped.

"Here, I'll douse the light, and then you won't have to look at the mean, evil food. Sound good?"

Kimmi's growl started deep in hir chest and was enough to cause the taurs to stop eating. The cheetataur's ears flattened and he actually backed away from his food, vanishing from sight. "Are you enjoying this?" shi said dully. "Are you enjoying my pain?"

"Pain? Hah! Your kind get treated like gold around here! I don't know what you were used to before, but if you were caught with this lot you were probably not doing a lot better than this. They've got the marks of chains and harnesses, but none for you, so I'm presuming breeding stock-"

The clang of iron bars flexing under hir assault echoed back and forth through the dungeon, little flecks of stone and mould fluttering down from the roof as the vibrations were absorbed. Kimmi had risen to hir full, impressive height, clutching the bars so hard hir knuckles hurt, breasts pressed against them with such force shi expected to feel vertical lines of bruise forming before long. "What?!"

The surly black bear had scampered back against the door leading to the upper chambers, chest rising and falling rapidly.

Moving slowly and deliberately, Kimmi removed hir paws one finger at a time, visibly calming hirself. The other seven taurs had retreated from their plates; the enormous husky herm couldn't see hide nor hair of them. "I am with them," shi said stiffly, "because we were_fleeing_ Estragonia. Who else would bear my company?" Bister bore hir company, but that was in exchange for a small fortune in gold, and shi didn't feel like making hir story any more unbelievable.

Cameron looked side to side, as though seeking help and finding none. "I am sorry," he said wretchedly, "in as much as I'm sorry for every poor creature who ends up down here, but I'm not serving anyone else's time, least of all a taur that's learned to talk! I keep the beasties healthy and happy, I ready them for the Games, and I get to keep all my fingers, and that's it! Now eat your food and leave me alone!"

They stared furiously at each other, and Kimmi was shocked to realize that they were both on the verge of tears.

"What Games am I for?" shi whispered, settling back onto hir haunches. "Why was I bought?"

His face twisted again. "I can't tell you that," he wheezed. "I've never had to tell the beasties, it's never been my job to do that, just to get them healthy and prepared-"

"WHAT GAME?!"

It was plain that Cameron's spirit had been broken for quite some time. Under the force of hir voice alone, shi could see his shoulders stoop and his eyes close, responding automatically with the hard-earned self-preservation of a slave.

"Champion Breeding."

Kimmi was motionless while Cameron gathered up his bags once more, extinguished the candle, and left the taurs in darkness once again. It took several moments before the sniffling and shuffling sounds indicated to the deposed Princess that hir fellow captives were once again taking an interest in their food, and shi was not nearly as horrified as expected when shi joined them.

Those two words tumbled around in hir head while shi ate, forcing the earthy mushrooms down and washing the taste out of hir mouth with the lumpy tubers. Shi didn't think shi'd ever be hungry enough to eat the worms, which turned out to be faintly luminescent, but shi was surprised at how tolerable the rest of it was.

Shi rolled onto hir side, cradling hir nethers as shi watched the little worms wriggle across the dungeon floor, some of them blinking out of sight as they wandered too near to a hungry taur.

"Do any of you guys understand me?"

The breathing from the other cells changed pitch slightly, which shi supposed meant they were listening.

"I don't want to fight anyone."

One of them chuffed, and the cheetahtaur purred for a moment.

"It's my fault you got captured," shi continued, hugging hirself. Shi didn't know if they understood, but shi had to tell someone. "If I hadn't gone through the Murk, we'd never have met you, and you'd still be... well, beasts of burden, but at least in the sunshine. Not doomed to a... a life, if it can be called that, under the world."

The wolftaur whined, but otherwise the taurs were silent. Shi didn't know what to make of that.

"I won't fight you," shi whispered. "I won't."

---

Many miles away, but closer than either would have dared believe, Bister was laying on his back, idly flicking glowing beetles back and forth and occasionally throwing them full-force down one of the many tunnels that led out of the huge chamber.

The random, misshapen and heavily-eroded cracks and caverns had become significantly more hand-worked, with well-worn footpaths and widened archways. The copper draconian knew he was getting closer to... to wherever it was he was going, but it was also getting significantly more confusing, as the hundreds of tunnels seemed to wander at random. They all smelled like the claw-tipped creatures that lived this far underground, and he'd lost all trace of the taurs. He had encountered a few wandering patrols, and after disarming them, figuratively and literally, they still refused to give him any useful information.

He thought that maybe if they spoke the same language, it might have been a little more successful.

"Come on, little buggies," he muttered, chewing on one of the insect-like marauders. "Show me the way to go home." A little experimentation had shown that the glowing insects were prone to heading towards other occupied chambers, and he found that he could narrow down his selection by sending them on ahead and seeing which direction they travelled.

Unfortunately, most of them seemed to be heading towards him and his collection of snack-sized extremities. He sucked the rest of the marrow out of the chitinous leg and tossed it down one of the tunnels. "No no no, head for more of these things, not me!" he grumbled.

He didn't know how long he had been underground. His kind could live off of virtually anything, and there were enough of the sickle-limbed creatures to keep him well-fed forever, but it was not his preference to eat sentient creatures, even ones as unrepentantly vile and aggressive as these monsters. The first ones he encountered had responded to his polite greeting by stabbing him repeatedly in the chest.

Of course, that did little more than annoy him, but he was mildly upset at the scuff marks to his scales. It would take months to shed all of the damaged discs! Such lack of consideration...

Another dozen bugs later, and there seemed to be a general, albeit extremely slow, consensus to head down and to the left.

"Whatever you say," Bister said, standing up and brushing his hands together. The darkness squeezed in on all sides, and it was hard to breathe, but he had just as much chance of getting out of here with Kimmi as without, so he might as well press on.

And if he was going to die a mile under the world, well, he could at least try and do it in such a heroic, bloody, awe-inspiring way that it would be retold by a dozen species through the ages, and maybe be someday heard by the descendents of his clan.

Chapter 8

- - - -

Into The Pit

There were two more meals, served in great mucky heaps on round, ancient wooden planks. By the final one, Kimmi's gnawing hunger had surpassed annoyance and settled firmly in the realm of pain and had convinced hir to try the gripworms. Shi swiftly discovered just how they got their name, and just how important it was to chew them before swallowing.

Cameron spoke not one word to hir during those visits, keeping up his prattle for the sake of the other taurs and simply tuning hir out. Shi didn't try very hard, though; it was all shi could do not to attack the bars when he was near. Speaking to him with a civil tongue, shi decided, shi would reserve for intelligent creatures, like hir fellow taurs.

Three days? Four? Shi didn't know. There was an awful lot of darkness between those meals, and an awful lot of time to think. Shi lost track of the sheer number of times shi replayed every moment since hir escape, every moment fleeing for hir life, wondering what shi could have done differently, SHOULD have done differently. Shi decided everyone's lives would have been better if shi hadn't been a spoiled, unrealistic brat and had simply accepted the mantle of responsibility. Shi might not have been a popular Queen, but shi would have been safe, the taurd would have been safe, even Bister... well, he was probably off somewhere enjoying his down-payment.

The final time Cameron came down to their little foul-smelling domain, he came empty-handed save for a length of leather strapping, the knotted rope and his candle. Kimmi was initially unaware of this, having curled up into a ball in the far corner of hir cell, nose buried in hir underfluff, just enough eye exposed to take part in hir new favorite sport, Glow Bug Racing. Right now, Violet-Blue was making excellent progress across one awkwardly swollen, fuzzy testicle, pursued hotly by Mostly-Green, with True Blue going completely off course and heading for hir tail.

The other taurs were uncharacteristically quiet. There was normally a great deal of tail-wagging and scuffing of paws and hooves when Cameron came down for their infrequent and insufficient meals, but there was a distinct air of expectation.

Kimmi's head popped up when, without any customary preamble, one of the cell doors squeaked open.

Shi rolled over with a progression of heavy, fleshy thumps, blinking through the bleariness associated with the eye-wrenching brightness of the single candle flame. Cameron was fastening the leather strapping around the equitaur's neck, the grey appaloosa bowing in domesticated acquiescence.

"What's going on?" Kimmi asked hoarsely, swallowing to soothe hir dry throat. "Cameron?"

The black bear ignored hir, murmuring softly to the taur and leading him slowly out of his cell, and out of the dungeon entirely, shutting the door behind them.

Kimmi and the other captives exchanged glances, and not for the first time shi got the feeling that they were a lot more aware than most people seemed to give them credit for.

"Maybe they just need a pack animal for something," shi said softly, trying to reassure the taurs. "That's probably all it was."

The minutes trickled by, though, and the sense of expectation never drained. All taurs, even Kimmi, were on all fours, pacing nervously back and forth, although Kimmi barely had enough room to turn around.Where did they go? Why is it so quiet? One at a time? What's going on?

The heavy wooden door groaned open again, Cameron shuffling towards the next cell in line belonging to the cheetahtaur. "You're next, Mister Kitty," he chuffed, unlocking it and dragging it open.

"Cameron!" Kimmi snapped. "Speak to me! Where are they going?"

He emerged a minute later, leading the cheetah by the same leather strap. He made not the slightest glance towards the incensed huskytaur, but the feline looked back once, brows knit with worry. Another squeak, another slam, and they were gone.

One by one, Cameron fetched each of the taurs until the candle had burned down to a stub and Kimmi found hirself alone. Shi gave up trying to get through to him, since all shi was earning for hir efforts was a sore throat. Besides, shi grumped to hirself, settling hirself down on hir haunches and gripping the bars of hir cell, there was really only one logical answer, based on what the bear had told hir already.

That didn't mean shi had to make it easy on them.

Cameron, it seemed, had also had that thought. When he eventually returned, after a wait so long shi feared the candle might sputter and die, he was accompanied by a small legion of click-clacking guards, each one wearing matching reddish-brown sashes and armed with rough-handled spears.

Shi opened hir mouth and inhaled, prepared to bellow hir defiance, but the black bear cut hir off with a wild look on his face. "There shi is, boys!" he snapped quickly. "I told you shi was going to give you trouble, but if shi knows what's good for hir shi's going to keep hir trap shut and do as I say! Right?"

There was irritated chatter from the guards, most of which probably didn't understand him in the slightest. Three lined up to one side of hir cell, the other three flanking Cameron as he shuffled forwards, twirling the key in his hand. "Ok, ye big beastie, I'm going to open this gate, and you're going to let me put the leash on you, and then you're going to follow me out of here, and if you don't do it, you should know that the brainless idiots all around me have been ordered to persuade you," he said with unnatural calmness.

Kimmi's eyes narrowed. You're warning me, shi thought, more than a little surprised. Why? Why now?

The lock clicked and Cameron pulled, but Kimmi had one powerful paw gripping the rails, and one gripping the gate itself. The bear glared at hir again and pulled harder, digging in his heels, but he might as well have tried to pull the rails out of the stone itself.

The guards chittered loudly, lowering their spears in anticipation. "What are you doing?!" Cameron hissed, shaking futilely back and forth. "Let go! Please! Kimmi!"

When he spoke hir name, shi released the gate and sent him tumbling backwards, two guards falling into a pointy heap atop him. In hir imagination shi fancied shi could burst forth from hir cell, scattering the insectile soldiers with a sweep of hir arms, but shi almost laughed at the sheer implausibility. Speartips jabbed through the bars of hir cell, stopping just short of actually piercing hir flesh.

Cursing loudly, Cameron scrambled to his feet, casting wild shadows on the walls as the candle burned down to a tiny shred of wick in a puddle of wax. "Bitch!" he managed when he extricated himself from the angry guards. "Just.... just behave!"

"Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr," shi rumbled, not so much smiling as baring hir teeth with malice aforethought. Shi stood abruptly, looming high above the crowd, and the spear-wielding creatures took several startled steps backwards, yammering nervously.

"Stop it!" Cameron roared, jerking the door fully open again and storming into hir cell. "All you have to do is not get yourself killed, and you'll be fine! Don't be stupid!"

He reached for hir with the leather strap, elbowing hir capacious breasts out of the way, and shi couldn't help drawing back and twisting hir torso, nearly throwing him headfirst into the stone walls of hir cell. Speartips were thrust through the bars once more, but the glistening black creatures were keeping well out of reach now.

Cameron was growling with nearly as much force as Kimmi now, and the stoop-shouldered subservience had been replaced by fiery anger. "You're putting this on now," he barked, shaking the leash menacingly, "and you're coming with me, and if you ever want to see daylight again, you'll do as I say!"

Kimmi recoiled, the word 'daylight' rippling across hir lips as the candle died with a hiss. The darkness was not as total as shi had expected, the very faintest glow coming from the still-open dungeon door and the spiraling ramp that led to the levels above. It was still far too dim to see any detail at all, and shi only realized Cameron was once again trying to leash hir when shi felt his paws fumbling awkwardly at hir cleavage.

Shi had many years experience of working around hir cumbersome curves, and hir enormous paw found his neck with ease, not squeezing hard but making it very clear that it was a possibility. "If you are lying," shi growled through hir teeth, trying to mute the syllables to all but Cameron's ears, "you will wish I had killed you now."

The bear froze, but only for a second lest he raise the guards' suspicions. "Old Uncle Cameron is a good person," he said slowly, falling back into his gentle background patter. He managed to get the leash around hir neck, and spent several moments carefully tying it. "Old Uncle Cameron has been underground for... for many years. Old Uncle Cameron is a decent old bear who has done a lot of things he isn't proud of and knows he's gonna die alone with a lot of red in his ledger."

When he stepped back and tugged on the leash, Kimmi growled, but moved forwards.

Would I have squeezed? shi wondered, flexing hir once-fluffy paws, now matted and filthy. I don't think I could have done much more than give him a neck cramp. Daylight! He can't seriously think I can escape. Would I get released? I can't ask him right now, the guards can hear! What the hell, why is he talking to me NOW and not ANY OF THE OTHER TIMES when I could have talked BACK?!

After only a handful of days it was still peculiar to leave hir cell; shi had to fight the urge to retreat to the safety of rusty iron bars. The blade-limbed guards kept well out of reach, and even a swish of hir tail caused half of them to skitter backwards, one of them thumping the fluffy mass with its speartip. Shi bared hir fangs again, raising hir arms menacingly and snickering when they backed still further away.

Fear the freak! shi thought grimly, forcing hir anger and sadness and terror back down. The hard part was telling any of those emotions apart.

Walking up the ramp revealed dozens of cramps and sores on hir body shi hadn't known about, not having had enough room to properly stretch or exercise. Hir ribs ached, hir legs throbbed, and hir back was protesting with sharp, stabbing twinges with every bounce and sway of hir breasts. Most worrying, hir hind legs were quivering weakly, barely able to properly support the weight of hir nethers, a weight that shi normally found very warm and comforting.

I better not be about to do anything physical, shi fretted, trying to get some feeling back in hir extremities. If I have to run, I'm in for it.

Two slowly-rising circles later, a sound like the crashing of waves reached hir ears, or at least how hir housemaidens had described the crashing of waves, as the enormous husky had never been allowed to experience the beach hirself. Windy susurrations rose and fell, washing over hir, but instead the clean smell of the ocean that shi could occasionally detect on breezy, rainy days in hir tower, the smell was somehow worse than the cells shi had just left.

More worryingly, there was a great deal more light ahead, enough that shi could make out more details about Cameron, hir captors, and even hirself. Shi was horrified by the streaks of pale, greasy slime that adorned hir fur, shocked by the sheer amount of aged grey in the bear's fur, and intrigued by the complexity of the interlocking chitiny plates that covered the beasts bodies.

"Wha-rrrrt?" shi growled, trying to enunciate a couple letters for Cameron's ears.

He glanced back at hir, tugging on hir leash in alarm, but shi didn't slow. "It's going to be a big day for you," he mumbled, staring ahead once more but slowing his pace until he walked alongside hir, patting hir flanks reassuringly. "There were more delays for this round of Games, and the Family was getting very nervous. Lots of lost money, lots of lost opportunities. You're going to make some people very wealthy today, ye big grrl." He chuffed and frowned, resting his paw meaningfully against hir lower back. "Or make them very poor. And... I hope you don't do that, Missy. For your sake."

"Sk'yu'k! Sk'yu'k!!" one of the guards screeched, thumping him in the back of his head with the butt of its spear. Kimmi winced at the impact, hir frown deepening when Cameron gave absolutely no response or reaction to the blow.

"Rrrrr-" shi started, still trying to work out exactly how to segue into a proper syllable, when the end of the gently escalating tunnel appeared and shi was forced to avert hir eyes. Bloody hell!

The cavernous interior of the... fortress, lair, whatever it was, had been very dimly lit when shi had been brought in from the slave market. Shi had been given the impression of distance, of immense empty spaces, and dozens of eyes looking down on hir. Now, though, a thousand points of light were hung everywhere, some yellow with candle flame and others glowing blue and green and even red, and the true scale and scope were apparent.

"Yip," shi whuffled helplessly, suddenly feeling, for the first time in hir life, very small.

One of hir many nature books growing up had shown the interior of a beehive, and that was the general shape that seemed to be present here. Instead of little fuzzy winged bugs humming back and forth, making honey and doing whatever else it was that bees did, there were countless of the sickle-tipped subterranean fiends crawling in and out of myriad tunnels and passageways, all over the walls, even over one another. Thousands of them. Tens of thousands of them.

The airy symphony of crashing waves was simply the background noise created by that hellish legion, and when Kimmi appeared at the bottom of the vast cavern the noise escalated to deafening levels, punctuated by explosions of metallic screaming. Shi clapped hir dirty paws over hir ears, recoiling from the cacophony.

Cameron leaned close to hir, tugging on the leash when shi seemed in danger of backtracking down the tunnel. "Yer a hit, missy," he said, making another show of calming the skittish taur. "There's a lot on today's Games. Come on, there's a big grrl, come with Uncle Cameron..."

Legs moving of their own accord, tail wrapped around hir body as though to shield hirself from the endless mob, shi shuffled numbly behind the murmuring bear. Hir mind tumbled and tossed like a feather on a breeze, unable to hold still on any particular thought for more than a moment. There's so many! Will I be fighting? Where are the other taurs? Are they betting for me or against me? I don't want to die! Wait, he said Breeding! Who's doing the breeding? Why do they bet on THAT? Someone's going to hurt me! Maybe I can escape?!

Escape was out of the question, of course. The colossal stone doors, criss-crossed with heavy iron straps and hinges, were wide open, but there seemed to be an army of creatures flowing through it on all sides. Running through that mob would be like running up a waterfall.

Shi was led through the vast, smooth-worn courtyard, hir honor guard of spear-wielding brutes poking hir periodically to remind hir who was in charge. The next tunnel was considerably larger, with a ring of more armed creatures working hard to keep the milling throngs back. Apparently this was a 'performers only' entrance.

Kimmi scowled at the terrible attempt at humor. This is what I've been reduced to. A princess, a crown princess, about to be... to be... I DON'T EVEN KNOW! We covered breeding with the housemaidens, but just, like, how to get better corn, how to avoid congenital defects in the livestock! There were some... descriptions... but mostly they just giggled at me and told me they'd tell me when the time was right!

This tunnel travelled in a straight line, a series of candles hanging overhead every twenty paces or so. Each lantern was different, some of them metal, some of them wooden, some of them just candles forcibly stuck to a spike driven into the stone. It was clear that the creatures, whatever they were, did not put a lot of effort into craftsmanship; even some of their speartips Kimmi recognized as being Estragonian military.

The chaotic din faded behind them, but was soon replaced by an even more frenzied howl from ahead. "Crrr-mrrr-nrrrr?" shi quavered through hir muzzle, tugging nervously on the leash.

Cameron segued seamlessly from his banter about 'lovely fur' and 'such straight ears' into slightly more pertinent territory. "Ahhh, the sounds of the Arena, ye big lucky grrl. Winning here, and ye'll have a much easier life! The champions get the better food, well, as better as it gets down here, but it doesn't move nearly as much unless yer into that sort of a thing, and the groomers will visit you before the match sometimes, and yer cell will be much larger, there's no doubting there..."

Win? How do I win?! Do I even want to win?! Hir tail moved from hir underbelly to curl protectively around hir rump, having some fairly poorly-developed ideas about just what sorts of breeding were typically done with princesses.

A few more twists and turns, hir ears ringing with the hollow, reverberating howls of countless alien throats, and shi found hirself dazed, unleashed, and alone in a cell hardly large enough to contain hir. To hir back was a heavy stone door, slammed by an apologetic-looking Cameron, and there was a similar door before hir. The only illumination came from a cluster of glowing bugs in one corner, clustered around a pale rock and chittering happily.

Hir stomach rattled. Hir temples pounded. Bugs crawled across hir paws, and shi didn't even bother to try and shake them off. Shi wasn't concerned about the future, because the future was no longer an endless field of darkness and misery, but it was a tight little ball of immediacy. Whatever hir life was to be, the next few minutes would decide it, one way or the other.

The bugs finally tickled hir paw to the point shi could no longer tolerate it, and shi kicked reflexively. The white stone shattered easily, insects scattering everywhere, and shi saw the telltale shape of distinctly canine teeth poking out of the remains.

And the decision was suddenly very easy for hir.

I won't fight, shi thought to hirself. I won't become a killer, just to be a slave forever.

Shi held hir head high, regal, exposing hir neck to all comers.

"I'm sorry," shi whimpered once, blinking away a tear. "Mother. Father. You deserved better."

Some hidden mechanism thumped and clanked, and the slab of stone before hir swung open, revealing an enormous and radiantly-illuminated expanse of white sand. The cacophony of the audience was a physical force, trying in vain to push hir back, but shi strode out purposefully, heart suddenly calmed. There was no more uncertainty, and that was very liberating.

Kimmi emerged, squinting slightly, into the light. There was a ring of bonfires blazing merrily in several huge stone sconces around the arena, casting a hellish glow on the apparently endless rows of insectile creatures. Orange and black smoke swirled overhead, reminding hir of the illustrations for the scary storybook shi had loved as a pup, Afterlife for the Damned.

The sand beneath hir toes was an impressively pure and pristine white, however, and the thought that it might be bone, or something worse, didn't even give hir pause. To either side of hir, a dozen other doors stood open, and other taurs were emerging from some of them. Shi recognized many that shi had been imprisoned with, but there were a handful that must have been stabled elsewhere, and it was the look in their eye, feral and violent, that eventually caused hir steps to falter.

Win... to become that, shi thought. I don't think they even know what freedom is anymore.

Shi expected the rangy, wild-eyed taurs to attack, but they stayed near their pens, growling menacingly. Expectantly. It was obvious that they were waiting for something. Was there a starting bell? Were there more cells to be opened? Did they have to fight the spear-wielding creatures? Bloody gods above, get on with it! I haven't got all day!

Shi didn't have to wait long. On the far side of the sandy arena, which was maybe a hundred yards across, an enormous pair of doors parted. It was not a taur that emerged, though, but an entire procession of the sickle-limbed denizens of this realm, dozens of them all dragging an great tiered platform. Atop the highest tier were two mammoth figures, one slumped on its side, the other thrashing wildly, only partially subdued by several heavy chains.

The cheering redoubled, and Kimmi's eyes widened in horror. Shi didn't know quite what shi had been expecting, but this definitely had not been it. Hir nostrils flared, faint traces of... something unknown but beguilling drifting on the smoky air.

The platform ground to a halt and the mass of tiny creatures scattered, fleeing the arena. Only one stayed behind, moving with terrified apprehension up the tiers to where the two taurs were manacled. Kimmi moved forward slowly, drawn by something that seemed to bypass hir conscious mind. Shi glanced at hir paws once in mild confusion, but hir focus immediately moved back to the pair of immense taurs.

The prostrate taur was a female cow, the first such taurkind that Kimmi had actually seen, and she was almost appallingly pregnant. She lay on her side, two legs nearly forced upwards by the sheer size of her belly, her eyes glazed and unfocused. She lowed long and mournfully, shifting awkwardly on the platform, a heavy iron chain around her neck and another around her waist.

Standing over her, bound at the neck and both wrists, was a boartaur that would have stood head and shoulders above Kimmi hirself, his fur spiky where it had not been replaced by ghostly white scar tissue. He roared and heaved himself, the platform shaking under his assault, and even at this distance shi could see the muscles bulging beneath his rangy fur, the spittle flying from his tusked maw.

"Oh... kay," shi quavered, glancing back to the tiny cell behind hir. Shi was surprised to find that shi was still walking forwards, and a quick look around confirmed that the other taurs were as well. Shi inhaled deeply once more, the sweet, cloying smells contrasting sharply with the greasy smoke and the musky animal smells of the other captive taurs. The fur of hir tail stood on end, hir ears twitched maddeningly, and a tingling moved through hir body and seemed to settle in hir loins.

What's going on?!

With a throaty whicker, the appaloosa broke into a trot, passing Kimmi and kicking up puffs if sand. Shi wondered what he was so eager for, since the rules had hardly been explained to anyone and shi wasn't sure if they even possibly could be, but an unexpected sight caused most of the pieces to fall horribly into place: bouncing almost jauntily between his hind legs and slamming against the horse's grey belly was a turgid and still-swelling erection.

Shi had never actually seen one before, other than hir own, but the housemaidens had been very helpful in hir education. Many was the night they would describe their boyfriends or grrlfriends in almost painful detail, often supplying the reclusive princess with sketches.

The rising pressure in hir own nethers reached awkward levels, and shi squeezed with hir hind legs in an effort to stifle the rapidly increasing bloodflow. It wasn't particularly effective, as there was simply too much of hir for two slender and underfed legs to squeeze. Hir anxiety rose in kind and shi wracked hir brain, trying to think back to what shi had learned when a word bubbled up from the depths of hir memory: estrus.

"She's in heat," shi said numbly, still walking forwards, nostrils filled with the scent of a female taur primed for mating. If she was really so far along with a litter there was no reason for her to still be putting forth such powerful waves of pheromones, but clearly the rules were different here than in Kimmi's animal husbandry tomes. The cow also shouldn't have been attracting such a diverse number of species, but shi found it difficult to concentrate on the discrepancies.

Shi was finding it difficult to concentrate on anything except for the increasingly-attractive taur, legs kicking feebly, unable to run, unable to hide, unable to do anything but receive...

The appaloosa started to mount the platform, hooves clacking loudly, heedless of the manic boartaur at the top. The chains hummed and sang under the onslaught, the entire platform rattling, and Kimmi noticed the one lone insect-creature tugging on a heavy iron pin located near the uppermost tier.

"Grey," shi called weakly, holding out hir hand. "Stop... it's-"

The pin was yanked free. The boartaur snapped one great arm back and forth, chains rattling as they whipped through the huge iron rings keeping him restrained. There was a stifled screech as the free end of the chain neatly bisected the insect-creature, but that only caused the crowd to cheer harder. The equitaur reached the top of the platform, head bowed low, sniffing at the cow, trotting sideways to position himself...

The audience exploded with delight as the boar, both arms freed and trailing rusty chains, launched himself forwards and tackled the equitaur, bearing them both back down to the sand with a sickening crunch.

That seemed to break the dazed spell, and the taurs surged forwards.

The cheetahtaur leapt nimbly over the boar and the appaloosa, who were far too preoccupied with kicking madly at eachother to notice, and raced up the platform. The feline's barbed shaft was glossy black and primed to mate, but in the time it took for him to straddle the cow's hips the wolftaur had caught up, shouldering the cheetah out of the way with sheer brute force.

Kimmi tried to resist, tried to turn tail and flee, but hir paws were not listening. Shi was halfway across the arena when the boar managed to toss the appaloosa aside like a sack of flour, bellowing in victory. Some of the taurs that were mounting the platform turned at the sound, realizing that they could only claim the prize by removing the competition, and Kimmi finally understood the hideous bloodsport shi was engaged in.

The cheetahtaur launched himself at the wolf, six bunches of claws flashing. The black-and-yellow badger that had always been the most placid of the group bared a tremendous amount of teeth and clamped them onto the mangy coyote's throat. The grey appaloosa staggered to its hooves, one leg buckling, and hobbled painfully towards the boar, who was now engaged in battle against the liontaur and the other equine, and was by all appearances winning easily.

Adding a ghastly dimension to the horror of the scene, each combatant was ragingly erect and kept turning to stare at the glassy-eyed cow.

"I won't," Kimmi hissed to hirself, clenching hir fists and thumping hir flanks. "I won't! I am not an animal!"

Hir body was clearly ignoring this conversation. Hir tail whipped back and forth, hir filthy raven hair had fluffed up wildly, all of hir limbs quivered as shi fought with every fibre of hir being not to leap into the fray. One side of hir wanted nothing more than to turn and hide in hir cell, while the other side wanted nothing more than the cow atop the platform, who was by far the most perfect female specimen ever created and only Kimmi could possibly make her happy... and only Kimmi could be allowed to possess her.

One of hir hind legs slid sideways as hir sheath swelled tremendously, pushing forwards along hir underbelly and forcing a moan from between hir clenched teeth. Shi was not inexperienced with this sensation, not after the many long nights of hir housemaidens reassuring hir that shi was indeed beautiful and not a freak, but as enjoyable as it was shi was definitely not prepared for it while a dozen taurs tried to gore eachother around hir.

The orgiastic cries of the audience were briefly stifled when the great huskytaur could resist no more. Hir sheath tugged back in one single motion, hir only partially-soft cock thumping heavily into the sand, tapered tip pressed up against hir forelegs. Hir cry of fear became a howl of desire, and shi managed to take a few steps backwards, but that only gave hir enough room to harden, heavy veins bulging with each beat of hir heart.

Kimmi stood awkwardly, sac weighing heavily against hir hind haunches and forcing hir tail straight up, forelegs framing a glossy, nearly-black cock that continued to expand, stretching two feet beyond hir barrel, and soon three. Some of the taurs tried to stare at hir nearly as much as they stared at the cow, and more than a few had that same lustful hunger in their eyes.

Hir Grace The Royal Crown Princess Kimmi narrowed hir eyes and pointed at the top of the platform. "Shi's mine!" shi roared, lumbering forwards.

The cheetahtaur was the first to stand in hir way, darting to one side with startling fluidity before striking, leaping at hir neck. Kimmi raised hir hands protectively, feeling arms and legs wrapping around hir, claws digging into hir thick fur. Shi had expected the feline to weigh more, hir gait absorbing the impact easily, and shi used the cheetah as a battering ram, ploughing forward into the press of bodies. Blows rained down on hir from all sides, and hir hind legs lashed out when shi felt teeth against hir rump.

If the audience had seem wild before, they were positively psychotic now.

---

Cameron wrapped his arms around his head, trying to drown out the sounds from the arena. He wasn't allowed to watch the Games, no matter how often he tried to convince the slavemasters that it would help him treat the taur's injuries, but for once he was glad. That undeniably canine howl had come from a feminine throat, and he could only imagine what was happening to that peculiar creature.

"Imagining is worse," he moaned, rocking back and forth in the dirty little stable where the survivors would be dragged after the match. He had so few bandages these days, and often had to re-use old ones, using his water rations to wash them as best he could. He always hoped that they arrived with their legs undamaged, as the lame taurs were deemed useless and more often than not ended up in the larder.

But Kimmi...

The old bear had lost count of how many taurs had passed through his little subterranean Hell. Hundreds, for sure. Maybe a thousand. All manner of slaves were brought down from the surface, and ownership of the anthros were popular as a measure of status, but this manor was renowned for its fearsome taur warriors, and they made a point to purchase only the best. Kimmi had been one of the most magnificent he had ever seen, tall and broad and virile and powerfully built and clearly in prime health, but never in his wildest dreams had he ever expected one of them to plead for their freedom.

Was shi a taur that had somehow learned to speak? Was shi just some sort of horrible mistake born to anthro parents? Was shi magical, or cursed? Were there more like hir?

He had made peace with his life only by telling himself that the taurs were animals, and this was as good as they could expect in their lives: slavery on the surface, or slavery down below. It seemed to be their lot in life.

He pressed his paws to his face but couldn't stop seeing Kimmi's expression of despair, and the accusation in hir eyes.

Another howl from the pit, another cry of pain, another roar of approval from the crowd. It was a big fight today, to make up for the delays in the previous event. The current champion, a boar that Cameron privately suspected was rabid, had been undefeated for months, and the flow of commerce into the manor had trailed off. When the betting was no fun and too obviously one-sides, the creatures placed their wealth elsewhere. Word of Kimmi's arrival had spread like wildfire, and there was more being wagered up above than anyone could recall in recent years. Missy, his name for the cow, had undoubtedly been dosed in order to draw out more of her pheromones and make for a better show, and Cameron had learned not to protest the practice.

"Shi's not a fighter," he moaned. "Shi's not a beast. Shi's just... shi's just lost..."

The walls vibrated with the stamping of claws, and the bear wished he'd had time to properly tell the husky that he was sorry.

---

Kimmi stood halfway up the platform, blood streaming freely from a dozen small wounds on hir back, hir flanks, hir breasts. Hir chest heaved, hir eyes rolled white all the way around, and hir hands flexed as though desperate to crush.

"Who's next?" shi growled, shaking hir mane viciously back and forth. "Who wants some?!"

Several taurs sagged limply against the base of the platform, licking their wounds and quite literally tucking their tails between their legs. The wolftaur lay sprawled on his back, legs akimbo and tongue sticking out, knocked senseless by Kimmi's elbow. The cheetah was keeping his distance, having discovered very quickly that getting too close to the towering princess was a very dangerous prospect.

The boar posed threateningly between Kimmi and the female cow, one eye swollen shut, and spitting blood from the corner of his muzzle. He still knew he was the alpha and the champion, and his mate was still claimed, but there was an unaccustomed uncertainty. This newcomer was not acting as the others had, and was one of the few that was larger than he.

His eyes flickered down to hir colossal canid cock, longer than hir entire body by a substantial margin, and he tried not to back away.

Kimmi took a step closer to the cow. And another. Husky and boar were close enough to touch paws, eyes locked, oblivious to the furious din of the audience.

Why am I doing this!?_shi wailed to hirself, horrified at hir behavior. _I almost killed that poor wolf! I think I really did break the coyote's arm! Oh, ye gods, I haven't been this hard since Shina brought up the ice cubes and feathers after dessert! The housemaiden had been trying expose Kimmi to some different sensations, and had achieved spectacular success. Had that really only been one month before?

Hir muzzle curled back to reveal hir pristine, gleaming teeth, kept meticulously clean until very recently. Shi feinted forwards, throwing hir hands into the air. "Boo!" shi barked, startling the boar and driving him back.

I don't want to breed! I don't really know how! I don't even like her that way! What is up with that smell? Why can't I control my body? Help!

The cow lowed woozily, trying to roll away from the pair of fighters but the chains around her hindleg stopped her. Kimmi glanced down at her, eyes briefly widening with concern, and the boar, who had been champion for a long time for very good reason, seized the opportunity and struck.

The boar was powerfully built, muscles given plenty of opportunity for exercise and fed far more and far better than the other taurs, but Kimmi was still the larger of the two and shi managed to maintain hir footing. Shaggy, stubby fingers reached for hir neck, and one fist managed to clamp onto hir muzzle, grinding hir teeth together. Shi struck at his face, but the boar was pressed so hard against hir breasts shi pushed him aside before the punch could land. Kimmi leaned back, trying to drag him off of his feet, but he dug his sharpened hooves into the platform and twisted hir head painfully around, finally wrestling hir onto hir side.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!" shi rumbled, thrashing hir head back and forth, trying to shake his grip on hir muzzle. Hir feet lashed out at him, but hir cumbersome shaft was simply too big to allow hir to aim with any accuracy. Shi grabbed at his wrists, squeezing with all hir might and struggling to get upright, but the boar anticipated this and landed hard on hir barrel, blasting the breath from hir lungs.

The taur mind was not generally a tactical mind, for which Kimmi was incredibly grateful. When the cheetahtaur leapt onto the boar's back, sinking his teeth into a huge spiny shoulder, the grip on hir muzzle was broken and shi was able to buck hir hips, tossing both of them aside. The boar bellowed with pain and fury, lurching back to his hooves and reaching futilely behind his back, trying to dislodge the vicious feline.

Kimmi wrenched hirself back onto all fours, torn between lunging at the distracted boar and finally claiming the cow as hir own. Why do I want either of those? Stop it! Run away! Augh, why does it keep bouncing?! Someone, anyone, please stop me! My cock is bigger than her entire body! Help!

Dragging the cheetah like a spitting, claw-covered cloak, the boar pursued hir, squealing with frustration. He grabbed at Kimmi's tail, twisting his fingers into the voluminous fluff and yanking hir back. Kimmi hissed in pain, trying to kick behind hir but foiled by the tremendous bulk of hir sac. "Get off me! OFF! OFF!" shi yelled. "She's mine! MINE!"

There was a rising chorus from the audience, and the part of Kimmi's mind that was still clinging desperately to sanity figured it must have been those that bet the heaviest on hir victory. Shi spun with surprisingly speed, shifting both front legs to one side of hir marble-hard shaft, and drove both oversized down onto the boar's head. Their cries of pain mixed when his tusk pierced hir hand, but it was enough to get him to release hir tail and clutch at his own muzzle, blood streaming freely now.

At last, there were no more obstacles. Shi climbed to the highest tier of the platform where the cow was chained, and at this range the heady scent was more than shi could cope with. Shi could feel hir balls churning, growing larger and heavier against hir hind legs each each passing moment, and just the brushing of hir bellyfur against hir shaft was sending shudders of pleasure through hir body.

The cow was awkwardly trying to crawl away, but it was clear that she was not in her right mind, drool trickling from the corner of hir mouth. Kimmi, the tiny part of hir that had been born a princess, watched in horror from the back of hir mind as hir traitorous body ran hir hands down the taur's gravid belly, dipping hir nose down to where her thin, ropy tail flopped back and forth.

Kimmi had seen a few of hir housemaidens' more... intimate areas, but not very often, and they had certainly not been as lusciously overfull as the cow's. Her whole rump was slicked with fluids, and touching hir nose to those pink lips elicited a moan from the bovine that all but drowned out the chaos of the crowd.

I'm so sorry! shi thought, hoping against hope that shi would simply be physically unable to win the sick contest.

Shi grabbed the cow's hind legs jerkily, moving hir barrel back and trying to position hirself. Shi remembered the pictures in hir animal breeding books and had a rough idea of how this proceeded, but there was none of the love hir housemaidens had spoke of, none of the romance. Shi was no better than the animals shi resembled, and once more shi wished that the other slaves would stop hir, would end hir life before shi could succumb completely.

The audience reached a fevered pitch, tiny objects, many of which seemed to be coins, falling like rain. The boar was staggering to his feet, the cheetah still wildly assaulting his back. The wolf's eyes were open while he pawed feebly at the air. The coyote had curled up next to the equine, both of them lapping at their injuries.

Please...

One sound high above their heads managed to overwhelm the others, a windy whistling that drew closer. The part of hir mind that would have looked up or sought cover was no longer in control, so when two enormous legs slammed into the platform, lethal-looking talons digging huge furrows in the ancient wood, Kimmi's only reply was to growl menacingly at the intruder.

"Mine," shi seethed, dragging the torpid female still further, chains groaning in protest.

Bister stared in mixed wonder and revulsion at the scene. Dozens of his metallic scales were chipped, bent or just plain missing, his already skimpy clothing was in tatters, and his daggers had seen so much recent use they resembled miniature tree saws, but all of that seemed downright elegant compared to his former charge and the other assembled taurs.

"Kimmi!" he said brightly, absently kicking at the liontaur when he made a grab for the draconian's ankle. "Come on, we've got to get out of here!"

"MINE!" shi snapped.

The mercenary lowered his arms, sheathing the wicked-looking daggers. "Your Worship, there obviously isn't anywhere I'd like to be except for this... raging gladiatorial monster orgy, but we have an appointment I intend to keep, so if you please." He grabbed hir wrist, taking a step down the platform and hauling hir behind him, intent on making for the cavernous space where the champion and his mate had emerged.

As seemed to be his lot lately, intent didn't quite match up to the reality. When Kimmi hauled hir arm angrily back he spun on his heel to admonish hir, and ended up catching hir counterpunch square on the jaw. He landed on his back in the sand quite a distance away, wings flapping limply like so much canvas, to uproarious approval by the crowd.

The draconian had decided that, perhaps at this point, enough was enough.

"A week," he groaned, rubbing at the tender scales of his head. Ye gods, where did shi learn how to do THAT?! He rolled slowly to his feet, willing the world to stop spinning.

Spear- wielding warriors were leaping over the walls of the arena and even swarming out of the tiny pens on the far side, and even though he wasn't terribly afraid of their pitiful weaponry he knew that there was more than his own hide to look out for now. "I looked for you... for a week. I followed you, for a week. UNDERGROUND. FOR. A. WEEK," he spat, punctuating for emphasis. "I. HATE. UNDER. GROUND!"

He stood heroically, wings spread for effect, waving his claws menacingly. The creatures, whatever they were, stopped and kept at a respectful distance, all but ignoring all of the other taurs.

Kimmi was once again positioning hirself to claim hir prize, a sight that Bister wanted to see purely out of morbid curiosity, but which sadly the situation did not allow for. He cast about wildly, looking for something, anything that he could restrain hir with. Fortunately, the solution was all but crawling over his taloned feet.

The crazed husky was having some difficulty, the reach of hir arms being barely capable of maintaining hir grip on the cow while still allowing hir enough room to lower hir shaft. Growling all the while to keep the other suitors at bay, shi finally smelled victory, until the boartaur's heavy chains seemed to drop out of nowhere, pinning hir arms to hir sides and wrenching hir away.

"NO!!" shi screamed, convulsing vehemently. "MINE!!"

Bister could not believe the strength that the formerly pudding-tough princess seemed to possess. For every step he managed to take, dragging hir towards the platform chamber, shi took one right back towards the cow. The boar was still part of their miniature chain gain, and he was fleeing in a third direction. Worse still, the doors were closing with agonizing slowness, and for some reason all of the taurs had gotten to their feet, paws and hooves, and were closing in alongside their captors.

The copper warrior seethed. "OK! Fine! You want her? You can have her!" he snapped, holding onto his patience with one claw. He raised his arms and snapped the chains down, cracking them like whips. The boar was caught by the sinuous motion and yelped as he was torqued around by his neck, slamming him into the struggling princess and knocking them both down. "But she is coming with ME!"

One single wing-assisted leap carried him back to the top of the platform, and it was a simple enough matter for him to grab the cow's chains and rip the anchors out of the wooden platform. A gasp went up from the audience, more of which were grabbing weapons and tumbling into the arena, and there was a collective grunt of alarm from the taurs. "Getting your attention now, eh? All right, I'm sorry about this, ma'am..."

Working his long arms carefully underneath the bloated bovine, her lowes becoming increasingly more alarmed, he grunted with the effort and lifted her up.

"MINE!!" Kimmi bellowed, shrugging off the boar and rising like an avenging angel.

Bister's tail drooped and he started to step backwards, moving down the tiers and towards the closing doors. "Come on, come on, come on," he gasped, legs shaking under the weight. He stepped on something crunchy and splintery, and the smell confirmed it was one of the insectile critters. "Awwww, ewwww. Come on..."

The great square slabs of stone were just barely wide enough for him to fit through with his wings tucked in, and he winced when the cow thumped her temple against one. "Sorry again!" he muttered, trying to avoid her seemingly accusing glare. "I'm making this up as I go... faster, Kimmi, come on!"

He was now completely within the large, dimly-lit chamber, and all around him the chittering creatures were fanning out, occasionally jabbing him with their spears. Bister was ignoring them as best he could, and they seemed very puzzled about how exactly to deal with an intruder that they could not harm.

The doors continued closing, and he could only see a narrow strip of the arena now. The crowd was frothing with outrage, the sands roiled with armed creatures, and Kimmi loomed menacingly, hir eyes huge and murderous.

And then the doors slammed sedately shut, and Bister sighed. "Ok. Plan B," he groaned, kneeling to set the cow down. "I hate Plan B."

The guards were inching closer; the draconian counted at least thirty of them. In close quarters they likely couldn't bring him down or cause any lethal damage, but he was already exhausted from his subterranean journey, lack of food and fighting his way through an entire city of tiny, vicious brutes. The princess is probably being rounded up back into hir cage, and good luck getting hir out of THERE! Ok, that's it, no-one can possibly tell me I didn't go down try-

The creatures shrieked and skittered backwards as the heavy stone doors thundered and shook, dust raining down on their shoulders.

Bister and the cow exchanged glances again. "I don't know, either," he said blithely, hoisting her back up and looking for another exit. There only seemed to be one, a large but thankfully wooden door against the far wall. "But we're going to be friends for a little while longer!"

The slabs jolted and rattled again, cracks appearing in the soft, easily-carved stone. Bister shuffled over to the wooden door, balancing carefully on one foot and using his prehensile toes to shift the bolt and tug it open. An old, musty, fetid smell assaulted his nose, but it was still preferable to his current predicament. "After you!" he said with false joviality, casting his wings wide to scatter the anxious creatures out of his way and ducking into the next chamber.

---

The far chamber gates slammed shut, and Cameron roused himself, muscles operating automatically. He wanted to crawl under the heaps of moss and never emerge, but decades of swift and merciless education in the slave trade had given him the reflexes of self-preservation.

The audience was still losing its mind, and the old bear choked back a sob. He knew something truly bloody must have happened to whip them into such a state. There wouldn't be enough bandages to go around, which meant the slavemasters were going to be telling him which taurs he had to let die, and from the sounds of it there were going to be a number of them.

He trudged over to the champion's chamber door, expecting it to open and see that slavering boar standing victorious once again. When a copper-scaled giant carrying Bessie as though she were no more than a pile of blankets stepped through, Cameron's well-honed reflexes were suddenly at a loss.

Bister and Cameron stared at eachother for several long seconds, the towering draconian seemingly indifferent to the spears that kept jabbing the backs of his legs.

"Who are you?" they asked.

The stone gate leading to the arena shuddered again, and one of the slabs fell inwards with dreamlike slowness, revealing an incensed and somehow still inordinately aroused Kimmi.

" MINE!"

Bister pirouetted, his wings twisting and flapping to keep him upright, and he pulled the wooden door shut behind him in one smooth motion of his foot, snapping several spears and a few sickle-shaped legs in the process. "Plan B is a loser," he groused, holding the door shut with his talons, while the scrabbling guards frantically tried to open it. "I can't believe that's hir!"

"Who, Kimmi?" Cameron asked meekly, moving away from the strange intruder.

The draconian's head snapped around. "What did you say?! You know hir?"

"I was in charge of hir pens, aye," the bear replied. "Shi came in with the last batch of taurs. Big batch, excellent quality. Did you know that shi can talk?"

"Er. Ah. Yes, I was... aware of that fact."

"I dinna expect that, I can tell ye! Shi-"

The sound from the other room paused briefly, as though the entire world held its breath, and was shattered by a bone-rattling explosion of noise. Thumping, crunching, screaming, and a chorus of growls and yips and other bestial voices.

"Why is shi acting like this?!" Bister groaned, not daring to let go of the door.

"Oh, that's just the epimead," the bear replied, tottering over to his satchel of unguents. "Bessie there got dosed to make her more docile and, ah, attractive."

Bister squeezed his eyes shut, wishing he could smack his palm against his forehead. "That's just terrific," he moaned. "Shi's in heat. Rutting. Both. I don't know."

"Are ye a friend of hirs, then?"

"Can we NOT have this discussion NOW?!"

"Oh, aye. Let me just help Bessie first." Bister watched in disbelief as the bear walked over to them, apparently without concern for the rampaging slaughter happening on the other side of the door, and held out his hand to the cow. "There you go, girl, eat up. You'll be feeling better in no time."

"What is that?"

"Mashua," Cameron said calmly, watching the supine taur devouring the pile of crumbled greenery hungrily. "It helps to counter the effects of the mead. Hmmm. Kimmi seems to be a little smitten."

"You think?!"

"Aye, can ye not hear that? Here, you can put her down now."

"Er. No, I can't."

Cameron took in the copper mercenary's balletic pose and shrugged. "Suit yourself. Here, move your hand for a second." The shaggy bear moved around beside them and dumped the rest of the tiny pouch into his hand, pressing the dried herbs against the cow's almost scalding hot nethers. The scents coming off of her in waves changed significantly, acquiring a faintly spicy, flowery odor. Almost immediately she sagged with relief in Bister's arms.

Relief flooded Bister's face. "Can-"

The door was removed from the frame with such force that Cameron wondered if it had even been secured with hinges at all. The draconian, still clinging desperately to the inside face, was yanked off-balance, slamming his skull against the hewn stone frame and dropping the cow with an agitated honk of disapproval. As large as the doorframe was, the berserk huskyherm trying to force hir way into the smaller chamber had to slouch and wriggle just to get hir shoulders through.

"I... said..." shi rasped, spittle flecking hir muzzle, paws positioned awkwardly astride hir shaft as shi shoved hirself through, "she's_mine!"_

Bister backtracked away from the enraged princess, having taken more than enough devastating blows to the face for one day. "How long does that stuff take to wear off?!" he cried, shoving Cameron back as well.

"Ahm not sure," the bear said with infuriating calm. "I've never seen a reaction quite like this one, but I don't think there's ever been a taur quite like hir, begging your pardon, miss."

"Princess!" Bister snapped, aware the room was becoming very crowded with just himself, the bear, the cow and the one-grrl demolition squad that the exiled royal had become. "Princess, you're not yourself! Snap out of it!"

Kimmi, though, had hir eyes focused hungrily once more upon the slumped, ungainly figure of Bessie, and was reaching towards her legs once more, despite the fact that hir own hindquarters were still stuck in the doorway. The sounds of clattering claws and continued savage warfare filtered through the small gaps around hir bulk, but the husky seemed not to notice. Shi was panting heavily, grunting and growling with each breath.

Cameron frowned. "Shi's well into it, aye."

"Can you do anything?!" Bister asked, already planning his escape route.

The old slavebear would normally have just let the heat run its course, as shi was not in any danger, but he was suddenly far more concerned with Bessie's safety and well-being after getting his first good glimpse of just what Kimmi had been blessed with. "That's... a bit more than I thought shi'd show..." he said nervously, glancing between the husky's forelegs.

"Peep show later, save hir now!" The draconian was trying to move around between Kimmi and the cow, while keeping out of reach of those deceptively dangerous fists. "Do you have any more of that mead?"

"You mean the mashua?"

"Whatever!"

"No."

Cameron didn't speak the tongue of the dragons, but he knew that the words that followed were curses. Curses in any language had a distinct patois.

Kimmi was all but leaping forwards now, repeatedly thrusting hir hips against the stone doorway, hir glistening shaft twitching and bobbing between hir forelegs. Cracks began to appear in the soft rock, the husky scraping at the floor with hir blunted claws for traction. Bister had his arms around the cow's torso and was tugging her away, but that would only buy them so much time.

"Can you do anything?" he cried, resigning himself to having to subdue hir the old-fashioned way.

"Well, I've got something, but-"

"DO IT!"

He had very, very little of the precious root left, but from what he could see beyond Kimmi's heaving rump the other taurs all seemed to be standing and not in immediate life-threatening danger. Of course, he was fairly certain they would all be put to death for rebellion once everyone calmed down, but that was later. The more pressing danger was being torn limb from limb by a psychotically horny taur.

Cameron pulled out the small, slimy white lump, crushed it in his hand, and walked up to the husky. "Missy?" he said almost conversationally, and Bister closed one eye to block out what would almost certainly be the bear's final moments. "Down here, please."

Kimmi's nostrils twitched and shi stared down beyond the slope of hir breasts at the much smaller bear. Hir growl deepened to such a degree that it seemed to echo the cracking of the stones around hir. "Rrrrrr?" shi rumbled menacingly, leaning down and baring hir fangs.

"Just like that, thank you," Cameron said when Kimmi's muzzle was within reach. He hauled back and, as much to Bister's surprise as hir own, slapped hir hard across the face, leaving greyish-white smear from hir eye to hir nose.

Shi recoiled like a snake, eyes huge with disbelief. Shi touched the smudge on hir fur, opened hir mouth as wide as it would go and lunged for his neck, intending to rip his throat so wide shi would be able to see gleaming bone all the way around.

Instead, shi slammed into the ground like a feather mattress, or at least slammed into the enormity of hir cock that shi was straddling, eyes closed and snoring softly. The ensuing silence was almost as shocking as the raucous violence had been. The sounds of combat from the next chamber had also faded, and now there just seemed to be confused yips and growls.

"What... what was that?" Bister asked slowly, helping to shift Bessie over against the wall where she would hopefully be more comfortable.

"I don't have a name for it, beyond calling it Night Time. Sort of my own little joke, I suppose." He paused when there was no response from the draconian. "See, there's no sun down here, so there's no day or night-"

"No, no. I understood. Very clever."

"Thank you. I grow it in my cell, but it doesn't grow very well, or very fast."

Bister nudged Kimmi with a talon. "Will shi be all right?"

"Hmm? Oh, absolutely," Cameron said, carefully wiping his hand on some bandages, in order to preserve what medicinal power remained, but his paw was already going numb. "Applying it to the nose is the best way to get it into the blood. When shi wakes up shi'l feel as good as new, until it wears off."

"And what happens when it wears off?"

"Shi'll probably feel all of those bruises shi gave hirself trying to plough through the door there," he clucked disapprovingly, moving around to hir flanks and daubing some of the goo on hir scraped, bloody fur. "Those are going to need some cleaning..."

Bister stood with hands on hips, wings sagging behind him, surveying the chaos. "Well then. I suppose that's one problem down, ninety-nine to go."

Beneath the slumbering husky's body, the effects of the mead were visibly wearing off. Hir barrel slowly lowered to the ground as hir shaft softened and retreated, and there was a rustling against the doorway as even hir tremendous sac shrank slightly. More of the chamber beyond was visible now; Bister and Cameron both exchanging looks with a dozen haggard, bewildered taurs. There were dozens of armed guards in the room as well, but it was obvious that they would no longer be a threat to anyone in this world.

"So," Cameron said, standing up and wiping his hands on his rag-like clothes. "Who're you, then?"

---

A minute later, and there was considerably more calm in the two chambers. Kimmi, now mostly detumescent and snuffling softly in hir sleep, had been wrestled out of the doorway and was now dozing next to Bessie. The taurs, who had made extremely short work of the insectile soldiers and were now also shaking off the effects of the epimead, were staying close to the towering husky, almost protecting hir, while Cameron moved among them, applying bandages wherever he could. Even the boar had calmed considerably, but still growled whenever anyone ventured too near.

Bister seemed to be the only one aware that there was a veritable army just outside their little safe haven. He wasted no time in wrestling the split slab of stone back into position, sealing them off temporarily from the arena and ripping out the chains that allowed the doors to be opened from elsewhere in the structure. Although there was still a hellish commotion outside, it did not seemed to be focused on the combatants anymore, but rather on eachother.

"I think... I think... I think they're attacking eachother," he called out to Cameron, if only because he was happy to have someone to talk to again. His kind were normally solitary and he could go months without actually engaging in conversation, but after venturing so far below the surface he was desperate for some sort of civilized discourse.

"Oh, aye. You interfered with the betting. I'm not thinking any of them are agreeing as to who exactly won."

"Did_everyone_ bet on this?"

"Of course! The wager is everything here. It's not just wealth, it's status, and they were truly betting large on this one."

"Why?"

"Oh, I think yer knowing why..."

Kimmi yipped in hir sleep and rolled over onto hir side, pawing weakly at the air. Bister looked at hir, sighed and nodded. "Yeah, shi has that effect on situations. So, important question: how do we get out of this... wherever we are?"

"How'd ye get in?"

Bister recounted in short order his trip from the edge of the city-cavern to the slave pens, soaring high above the populace and terrifying them to no end. "I can't speak their bloody clicketty-clack language so I just drew a picture of hir on a piece of rock and they figured it out, pointed me in the right direction. They kept trying to kill me, of course, but that always happens."

"I can understand that," the bear nodded.

Bister's eyes narrowed, but he ignored it. "Getting in here was easy, but if they're halfway intelligent the front gates will be sealed by now." He paused to consider it. "So, fifty percent chance."

Cameron nodded again. "Aye, it might. Most of the beasties are from other Manors, here for the Games, but the Queen would never let that much wealth leave without taking her share."

The effect on the draconian was immediate. "Queen? There's a Queen?"

"Oh, aye. This is her Manor." He finished splinting the appaloosa's ankle. "There you go, Mister Grey. Nothing's broken, but you'll be careful with that for a week, right?" The equitaur huffed once and moved slowly away, drifting as all the taurs did towards Kimmi.

"Where is the Queen?" Bister demanded, putting his eardrum against the wooden door that led to the rest of the underground warrens. "Can you draw me a map?"

Cameron shook his head. "Up there is the best I can tell ye. I'm not allowed out of the stables."

It was unnerving talking to the placid bear. Bister had met many slaves in his life, and had freed more than a few of them, but this broken old ursine spoke at all times as though discussing the weather over tea. "How long have you been down here?"

The bear shrugged ."No idea. No seasons. No sun. I started saying 'long enough' back before my fur started to turn grey. You wouldn't happen to have any rose oil on you, would you? Mister Kitty here has a nasty cut that I fear might become infected."

"Where are you from?"

Cameron jabbed a thumb upwards. "Surface."

"Yes, but..." Bister squeezed his eyes shut and tried to unclench his fists. Ok, show some patience, show some patience. "What nation? Syndian? Manos? Circe?"

Cameron waited a long time before answering. "The second one," he said at last, frowning. "Manos. Hmmm. Not sure why it took me so long to remember that."

"What year was it?"

The bear's head suddenly whipped around, glaring at the mercenary. "Haven't ye got a daring escape to plan?"

"My precious cargo is sleeping off a drug overdose. What year was-"

"Shut it!"

"WHAT YEAR?"

"NINE SIXTY-ONE!"

The taurs shuffled and twitched nervously, inching away from the argument. Bister's lips moved silently, but his eyes widened in shock. "Nine sixty-one?"

"D'YE THINK I STUTTERED?" the bear roared, all of his attention focused on cleaning the cheetahtaur's shoulder.

Forty-seven years, Bister marvelled, turning away from the slave. Forty-seven years down here! Forty-seven years taking care of taurs... in a dungeon... and probably watching them all die...

"Ssshhhh."

"I DINNA SAY ANYTHING!"

"NEITHER DID I!"

Bear and dragon blinked, their animosity temporarily forgotten, and looked over to Kimmi. The enormous huskyherm was batting weakly at hir muzzle and shaking hir head back and forth, tongue flopping. "Qwumt," shi mumbled. "Shleep'n. G'way. Mmmrf. M'tung's numb."

Bister was there in a flash, cradling hir head in one hand and trying to steady hir body with the other without actually touching anything that might set hir off once more. "Kimmi! Can you hear me?"

"Shuddup," shi whined, trying to wriggle away. "Tired..."

"Be tired later, Your Grace, I need you to get up!"

"Stop_calling_ me that!" shi snapped, sounding far more alert, and hir eyes popped open with surprise. "This isn't my bed."

Cameron shoved his way through the crowding taurs and knelt beside hir, peering into hir eyes. "Hmmm, ye recovered from that pretty fast, Missy," he said approvingly, dabbing at the remaining smudges on hir muzzle. "How d'ye feel?"

Shi started to reply, but hir tongue flopped out and all that shi managed was a low whuff. Brows knit with frustration shi poked it back into hir mouth and tried again. "I feel floaty."

"Good! That's good. That's perfectly normal."

Bister was smiling despite his carefully-constructed dour demeanor, but he kept glancing nervously at hir underbelly and the almost frighteningly large bulk of hir nethers, wary that a stray scent might arouse hir once more. Everything seemed to be docile for the time being, though. "Do you feel up to a little more escaping, Your Worship?"

"Nnnnn, I just want to... to..." The last hour came thundering back in one horrifying moment, and shi thrashed hir way to hir paws, tossing Bister and Cameron aside. "WHAT HAPPENED?! WHAT... oh, gods, what did I do?! Bister! You're here! How did you find me? Heavens above, I attacked all those poor taurs! THEY STABBED ME! One of them bit me! That cow... I didn't... I couldn't have..." Shi was sobbing into hir hands, eying the crowd fearfully. expecting them to tear hir apart at any moment.

Bessie lifted her head and lowed. Cameron reached as high as he could and squeezed Kimmi's hand. "Ye dinna do anything too bad. Your big scary friend saved her. And you."

Shi peeked out between hir fingers, counting the taurs that were present. One heavy footpaw reached back to feel at hir capacious sheath and sac. "I never... I can't believe..."

"Shhh, it's alright, Missy," the bear said consolingly. "Everyone's alright for now, and soon we'll be back in our cells and we can sleep it off. Mmm'kay?"

Kimmi froze. "What?"

Bister grabbed Cameron's shoulder, spinning him around. "Hey, hey, hey, we're not having any of that," he snapped. "I'm getting the Princess out of here, with or without your help, but don't go scaring hir anymore. Shi's not like you."

"Princess?" Cameron asked. "Never mind. You can't get out of here if the gates are closed, and after all this time they probably are, and even you can't fight them ALL off. This Manor is one of the most powerful in the city, and they're not about to let their prized possession get away."

"They might be able to stop me, but you saw what shi can do. There's no way they can stop the both of us, and I made hir a promise. Shi _will_be free."

"I'm not a fighter!" Kimmi protested. "That wasn't me! I was crazy! That smell... what WAS that? What happened to me? I'm not going back to my cell!"

"I can't leave you here!"

"You can't escape!"

"I can't go out there!"

"We have to!"

"It's crazy!"

"I'm scared!"

The three-way argument was abruptly cut off by Bessie's incredibly sonorous, reverberating moan. The taurs had separated into two groups, one of them gathering around the pregnant cow, the other standing uncomfortably close to Cameron and Bister, looking ready to pounce.

"I can't leave them here," Kimmi whimpered. "It's my fault they're down here. Oh, gods, Rigus and the others are somewhere, too! Cameron, do you know if any other slaves came in with me? Anthros? A lion?"

Cameron shook his head sadly. "They usually get bought up by the other Manors. No use for them, here."

"What about you? Are there others like you here?"

"Hah! Ah, no, Missy. They're not happy to be havin' me here, I'm thinking, but they need someone to keep their wares alive."

"Wares?"

The bear gestured to the boar, who grunted in response.

"Your Highness," Bister said, steering hir towards the lone ancient door that led to the rest of the Manor. "We can't get out of here with a small army of farm animals. We probably can't get out of here if it's just you and me, but I'm going to give it my best. Cameron wants to stay, and the others aren't my responsibility."

He jerked to a stop, Kimmi planting all four legs and becoming as immovable as a mountain. "They're entirely your responsibility! You freed them, you joined up with them, you led us into the mountains and you left us in that cave! They're down here_only_ because of you! If you're getting out of here, it's with all of us or none of us!" Hir eyes narrowed. "And I am not'Your Highness'!"

The copper draconian stared at hir, arms crossed over hir bust, tail lashing back and forth, every inch the regal bearing of someone born and raised to nobility. Despite the filth encrusting hir fur, the slime covering hir feet, the cobwebs tangled in hir ears, he could almost see the crown still perched atop hir head. The accusing looks coming from the other taurs weren't helping.

He threw up his hands, digging gouges in the soft stone ceiling. "Fine! You know what? Fine! Whatever! The more the merrier! Fine!" He lashed out with a heavy taloned foot, splitting the door like so much kindling and startling the taurs. "Who's coming with me?!"

The boar was helping Bessie to her hooves, her enormous belly leaving her very little room to swing her legs. The appaloosa was leaning against the cheetahtaur, moving into position behind Kimmi. The mangy, yellow-eyed coyote moved up to the shattered doorway, sniffing at the air curiously.

Bister's eyes widened when, as one, each taur swivelled their heads to look at Kimmi.

Shi nodded. "Let's go," shi said.

Chapter 9

- - - -

We Rise Together

The corridor was deserted in both directions.

Bister stood, or more accurately stooped now that the corridors were once again built to the scale of the regular inhabitants, and surveyed their options. "This way," he said, heading left.

"How do you know?" Kimmi asked, following closely behind him.

"I smell food coming from the other direction."

Hir ears perked up. "What? Food? I want food-"

He silenced hir with a gentle finger against hir muzzle. "It's not the sort of food you would want to eat," he said slowly and meaningfully.

Hir eyes widened. "Oh. Gotcha. Cameron, are there kitchens back there? Cameron?"

The corridor was crammed full of taurflesh, the crowd bumping and colliding when Kimmi halted. There were whuffs and yips and meows of confusion, and the husky abandoned any idea of actually turning around in the confined spaces. "Cameron! Where are you?"

Eventually, his shaggy head popped out from around the door frame. "Aye?"

"Are you coming?" shi asked, exasperation creeping into hir voice.

"Where?"

Bister leaned in close to hir ear. "He's been here for forty-seven years," he hissed softly. "I don't think he can leave... I don't think he even knows what it means."

Hir jaw dropped. "Forty... gosh."

"What're you two whispering about?"

Shi stared at him. "You can come with us, Cameron," shi said gently. "Bister can do the impossible. He did it three times last week, even if it did end up getting me captured by slavers."

"Hey!"

The bear shrugged. "They'll be mad if they come to get me and I'm not here."

"Yes," shi continued slowly, "but since none of us are going to be there, either, don't you think they'll be mad either way? Wouldn't you like to go back up to the surface? See the sun rise? Not eat gripworms?"

Cameron just stared at hir as though shi had begun speaking in tongues. "But I have to stay here."

"What-" Shi was cut off by Bister once again, grabbing hir upper arm and pulling hir down the corridor. "No, let go of me, we can't just leave him here!"

"Not our decision, Your Worship, but every second we stay down here is another second they figure out their own problems and remember we're here, so if you please!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Let go of me!"

"Stop yelling!" The taurs swayed angrily, pressing closer to Kimmi but unable to pass hir to get close to Bister. "And get them to stop doing that!"

"Doing what?"

"Doing... this! Whatever you do, they do!"

"I'm not doing it on purpose!"

"Well, then, do it accidentally, Your Highness!"

"I AM NOT-" Kimmi froze, eyes wide with realization. "That's it."

"What's what?!"

Shi silenced him with a gentle finger against his muzzle. One moment, shi tried to communicate with hir brows. Shi inhaled deep, hir bust forcing Bister to take a step back, and twisted around to face the lone holdout. "CAMERON! Do you know who I am?"

"Ah... a great big talking dog?"

Shi drew hirself up still further, if that was even possible, standing head and shoulders above all the other taurs even as they seemed to bow. "I am Hir Grace The Royal Crown Princess Kimmi, first in line to the throne of Estragonia. Our empire encompasses the land encircled by the Crescent Tide Mountains, the skies above... and all that lies below. YOU, until such a time as I deem worthy, are my subject, and YOU, you dirty old bear, are coming with us, RIGHT NOW."

Bister watched a peculiar set of expressions cross Cameron's face, and he would be hard pressed to identify half of them. After what seemed like ages, with the sounds of insectile claws growing louder in the distance, the little black bear shrugged his shoulders and bowed. "As you wish," he mumbled, shuffling out behind the badgertaur.

Kimmi faced forwards once again, the smirk of victory on hir lips.

"You enjoyed that," Bister said accusingly.

"I'm sure I didn't. Come on! Faster! We're supposed to be escaping!"

Bister managed to hold his forked tongue, but it wasn't easy. Ten minutes ago you were a ravening lust-beast, five minutes ago you were asleep, and now you're the bloody Queen Of The World! Don't go ordering me around...

The corridor branched several times, but at each split Bister determined which way to go. Sometimes it was towards the smell of the bugs, sometimes it was away, and sometimes it was because the corridors angled up slightly. There were many rooms, most of them not bothering with doors of any kind, but they moved swiftly and without encountering any guards for several minutes.

"You're just making this up as you go along," Kimmi accused, taking advantage of a wider corridor to fall back slightly and check on the taurs. "You're as lost as we are."

"Not even slightly," the draconian replied haughtily. "Cameron told me where to go."

"No, he didn't. I remember that part, more or less."

"Then you missed the part where he said the Manor was ruled by a Queen, and she lives..." He jabbed a thumb upwards.

"So we're off to pay the Queen of gladiatorial slave-taurs a visit?" Kimmi asked, shocked. "For what purpose, exactly? Outside of crushing her into marmalade, of course..."

The taurs purred and growled threateningly, and Bister stepped up his pace. "A Queen being in charge means there's probably a secret entrance or exit. I've never seen an underground fortress without a royalty-only escape route."

"How many underground fortresses have you seen?"

"Uh.... two. Including this one."

"My hero," Kimmi grunted, rolling hir eyes.

"Please, just be quiet, ok? I'm trying to keep an ear out for the locals, and I really don't want to get into a pitched battle in a tiny hallway. We-" Kimmi and Bister, walking almost side-by-side, rounded the gentle curve and came upon a huge curved balcony that stretched off into the dim distance to either side. They were maybe a hundred feet above the bottom of the vast central chamber, still lit by countless sputtering candles and crawling bugs.

More pressingly, it was still occupied by untold thousands of the insectile creatures that built it, and they no longer seemed to be trying to kill one another.

"Huh."

Kimmi elbowed him in the ribs. "You can smell them, huh?"

"There's... an updraft, or something! The scent isn't going down... down the corridor... oh, never mind," he sighed, drawing his wickedly-curved daggers and passing hir one. The chittering increased tenfold and there was a tremendous rush of motion away from the escaped taurs, but he knew that was only to give the soldiers more room to work. "Feel up to reliving your glory days as arena champion?"

Hir face fell. "That's not funny! I can't use a sword!"

"Fists it is, then."

"I'm not a fighter!"

"You have about three seconds to reconsider that," Bister said warningly, trying to back down the side corridor but finding the way blocked by the taurs. "Cameron! Can you get these beasties to back up?"

The bear's voice drifted up from the depths of the Manor. "Ah... no. They seem to be following something."

"Some_one_."

Kimmi growled warningly. "Don't start with me!"

"Yes, THAT'S the Princess we need right now!" Bister grinned, yanking a torch out of the wall and handing it to hir. "Here, if you won't use weapons, at least try to keep some light at my back. Deal?"

"But what about EEEEK!"

A swarm of spear-wielding creatures appeared over the lip of the balcony ledge above them, hanging from their cruel clawed feet. They seemed equally at home horizontal, vertical, or any angle in between; the short, rough railing was their only deference to the forces of gravity.

"Tilile'lya! Ky'thyak!" the apparent leader snapped, a spear clutched in each wicked hand, jabbing both towards Kimmi. "Tilile'lya!"

"I remember that word," shi growled. "That's a bad word."

"May I?" Bister asked grandly.

"Please."

"Excellent. See you up top." Bister saluted, striking a ringing blow against his forehead with one blade, and leaped off of the balcony. His arms and wings stretched out enormously to either side and took half a dozen of the creatures out into empty air, sending them plummeting like stones to the cavern floor far below.

"This way!" the huskytaur cried, gesturing to the right, which seemed to be slanting upwards slightly.

The other taurs needed very little prompting and surged past hir, howling and braying as they went. Bessie was trotting awkwardly near the back, huffing and puffing and leaning against the boar for support, and Kimmi realized that perhaps he had been champion for more than just fighting prowess. Maybe he had been defending his love... undefeated for six months? The litter must be his!

The few guards that were unlucky enough to stand their ground found themselves trampled or simply shoved wholly out of the way. Several darted down side passages, jabbing at their flanks from relative safety, but they soon discovered that their spears were not as long as the appaloosa's legs, nor as lethal.

Kimmi bravely brought up the rear, telling hirself that shi was protecting the slower cow and the elderly bear. "Think you can keep up?" shi asked, puffing slightly as shi struggled to get up to speed, nethers swaying heavily.

"I can handle meself," he grumbled, keeping his eyes down. "Yer Highness."

"Don't YOU start."

"But yer friend keeps calling you Princess and Your Worship and-"

"Yes, BUT!" shi snapped. "I don't like to be CALLED that."

The taurs were still accelerating, even Bessie and her mate, and they sounded almost delighted. With the curve in the balcony Kimmi could see the vanguard of the wolftaur and badgertaur practically shoving eachother out of the way to fight the insectile soldiers, who were now actively retreating. Shi peered over the edge, but could see no sign of Bister above or below them.

The creatures might have the benefit of vastly superior numbers, but even the smallest taur was ten times their size. Thundering angrily along and finally being allowed to vent their ample frustrations, they were a rolling juggernaught of fur and teeth, ignoring any and all attempts to stop them.

"Are we getting close?" shi asked between breaths.

"How should I know, yer majesty?"

"You've lived here for for... for a long time," shi finished lamely.

"Aye, and you'd be amazed how often the person who mucks out the stables ISN'T the one who brings dessert to the Queen!" he snarked. "Are ye sure you growed up in a castle?"

"Highest room, tallest tower, the whole bit," shi rumbled. "The servants raised me. I never met the Queen until the day before I ended up down here."

"You never met yer mother?" Cameron asked, aghast.

Kimmi was silent, hir eyes locked on the tails of those in front of hir. Shi picked up hir pace, carefully not letting hirself think about life in the tower. Shi had countless pleasant memories, of course, but they were largely either related to hir bath, or hir bed, or hir housemaidens, or some combination thereof, but underlying each was a loneliness, an emptiness, an aching need for something shi could never have-

Cameron moved prudently away from hir when hir growling reached such a disturbing timbre that even Bessie managed to speed up.

Now and then, Bister soared past them, howling with bloodthirsty delight. Kimmi tried to keep track of his movements, but he seemed to be leaping about at random, keeping the enemy forces occupied and off-balance. Whenever the taurs came up against an entrenched defense, spiked barricades and bonfires, the copper draconian was there moments later, slashing his way through with wild and fearless abandon. More of his scales were becoming chipped and broken, more gore streaked his glossy pelt, but it seemed as though nothing in the underground realm could stop him.

"How're ye friends with someone like that?" Cameron asked, trotting breathlessly behind hir. "I remember hearing of Estragonia when I was a cub, and I'm not for thinking they were very friendly with any of those types."

"He kidnapped me."

The bear nearly tripped, but manage to stay upright. They raced through what had recently been another well-defended position, now little more than broken, burnt sticks and assorted insectile extremities. "Ye seem awfully friendly, considering!"

"Oh, I hired him to kidnap me."

"Ah? Ah. Well, then. He's doing a wonderful job?"

Kimmi chuckled, falling back slightly. "I didn't like being locked in a tower, and I certainly didn't like being the inbred royal freak. My housemaidens helped me make contact with the outside world, and he answered the call. If we get out of here, I think he needs more gold, he's really gone above and beyond the agreement. Are you all right?"

Cameron nodded, wheezing once. "Ahm... fine, just... haven't done much running these last few years..."

Kimmi dug in hir heels and snagged the little bear around the waist as he tottered past. He squawked in protest, but even if he weren't exhausted from the climb he would have been nowhere nearly strong enough to fight hir off. Shi twisted and plunked him onto hir barrel, moving his hands to hir waist. "You can ride," shi said gently, and when shi saw the subservient horror in his eyes, shi added, "for now. I can't endanger myself by letting you fail to protect me from rear attacks."

"Ah? Oh. Yes," he said, slightly confused but not willing to contradict hir. "Of course. Your High-"

"Don't push it."

The bottom of the huge, hollow cavern was so far below them now that Kimmi's normally sharp eyes could not even make it out. There seemed to only be a smoky haze, so dizzyingly distant that shi wondered that, if shi fell, shi might die of fright before striking.

How much higher can we go? The taurs were much less rambunctious now, and were starting to show signs of exhaustion, hunger building upon the injuries sustained in the arena so recently. Kimmi's own belly was as empty as shi could remember it ever being, a week of infrequent, insufficient meals leaving hir feeling hollow and unsteady. Are we even going to survive the escape?

The copper-colored mercenary landed with a stone-chipping thud to one side, clinging to the ledge above and panting heavily. His tongue lolled, sweat and blood smudged his face, and he had lost several more scraps of his leathers. "Princess!" he said excitedly, his voice hoarse and raspy. "Good news!"

Kimmi hardly slowed, forcing Bister to flap back out into the open air to follow hir. "What?" shi asked in exasperation when the draconian failed to elaborate.

"There's a tremendously well-armed group about three levels up, with real armor!"

Hir jaw dropped, hir tail joining it. "That's good news?!"

"It means we know where the Queen is!"

"Your definition of good news leaves much to be desired!"

He shrugged indifferently, wings buffeting hir with smoky winds. "As you wish. Regardless, we're almost at our destination, and I would greatly like some assistance from your new friends."

"They don't have armor, and they don't have weapons, and they're going to get slaughtered against a properly-armed defensive position!" shi said hotly. "If that is the Queen's quarters, they will be designed around defeating a frontal assault, and likely against the taurs that this Manor seems to favor!"

Bister frowned. "You seem rather well-versed in this, Your Grace."

"I'll have you know a great deal of my education centered around famous battles from our nation's past," shi said primly, crossing hir arms while shi jogged. "In one famous battle, the invading armies made it all the way to the throne room, before they were finally defeated by a cunning combination of-"

"Fascinating, but do you have anything that might be helpful before your four-legged brethren walk into a slaughterhouse?"

---

As it happened, the Queen's chamber was very near the top of the cavern, and there was soon nowhere else to go. The huge antechamber was nearly as large as Kimmi's old room in hir tower, with dozens of insectile soldiers armed with gleaming weaponry and mismatched steel breastplates, heavily modified to their alien physiology. The space was grandly appointed as far as the underground realm seemed to be concerned, with strips of brightly-colored cloth stretched every which way, a gaudy display of scavenged wealth.

All of this was wasted on Bister when he came swooping in from the void, wielding double fistfuls of flaming debris, hollering at the top of his lungs. Great gouts of smoke boiled out of the wreckage, Cameron and Kimmi having scrounged every greasy, oily scrap they could find from every half-burnt torch and every half-crushed guard. With each tremendous flex of his wings, the smoke roiled and twisted through the antechamber.

Against that sort of bombardment, Bister considered it a miracle that the formations didn't break. Spears soared through the smoke, striking sparks off of his scales and clattering off into the corners. He was as blinded as they were, but with his reach he didn't need to be terribly accurate; frenzied flailing was connecting often enough for his tastes. When the taurs followed suit, howling and growling and leaping all over eachother, he pumped his wings and tried to stay near the ceiling.

"BISTER!" Kimmi cried from the narrow balcony. "YOU OK?"

"LITTLE ow BUSY ow stop it!"

Kimmi and Cameron huddled together just outside of the chamber, listening to the carnage. "I'm sure he's fine," shi quavered. "This is the sort of thing he lives for. He took on my entire kingdom, and... well, I wouldn't say he WON, exactly, but he got away. With me. That can't have been easy."

Cameron just buried his head in hir back, eyes squeezed shut. "Tell me when it's over?"

"I think it's over."

"Don't make fun of me."

The chamber was silent, save for the fairly unconcerned sounds of the taurs and the crackling of flames. Smoke rolled out of the wreckage, and after a moment the blackened, sputtering makeshift torches soared out into the void and vanished far below. It took a moment for the choking clouds to disperse, and when the pair eventually poked their head around the corner they say Bister leaning against the huge slablike doors at the far end, staring at the claws of one hand unconcerned.

"Better?" he asked.

Kimmi picked hir way through the devastation. "You really didn't have to KILL them all, you know. Most of them are probably... I dunno... decent, with, like... kids and stuff..."

Bister shrugged. "Well, excuse me, Princess. They stab me, all bets are off. Personal rule. It's why I'm so successful."

Shi winced. "So what's the plan now? Rip down these giant, armored doors and hold the Queen hostage? I probably could have negotiated something. My kingdom is very wealthy."

"Yes, and you have SO much bargaining power with them right now." Kimmi growled warningly, and Bister bowed. "As you wish. But we shan't be staying long. If the Queen does have a secret way out, she's probably used it by now, which gives us ample time to figure out these doors."

"Ample time?" shi echoed. "How do you figure? We just ripped this civilization a new tailhole, I don't think they're going to hang around while we try to master civil engineering!"

"What do you expect me to do? Knock?"

"This was your plan from the beginning!" shi snapped. Cameron cringed on hir back, and the taurs looked up earnestly. "Go see the Queen, you said, she has her own super-secret special entrance, based on ONE other time it happened, and you didn't count on there being a _door_at some point?!"

"From what I've seen down here, no, I wasn't expecting them to plan ahead this much! Good for them!"

"So what are you going to do?!"

"You want me to knock?" Bister snarled. "Fine! I'll knock!" He pounded on the door several times, spiky knuckles chipping the stone. "Hello, Queenie! Pets for sale!"

Kimmi drew hirself up, the hateful P-word ringing in hir ears, and prepared to smite him with the full fury of hir royal bearing, when the huge, metal-banded doors slowly began to grind and sweep open, shoving the battered bodies of the Queen's guards out of the way.

Bister took a slow, dazed step away from the slabs, resting his hands on his daggers. "Ok, I will admit it," he conceded under his breath, "I wasn't really expecting that to work."

The boar moved protectively between the cow and the door, the other taurs sniffing at the air and rumbling nervously. Their ears folded back, and Kimmie was a little surprised to see most of them inching away from the chamber beyond. Wow, after seeing them smashing their way this far, it's hard to believe anything could spook them! Shi shivered, hugging hir unclothed bosom and trying to hold onto hir temporary courage.

The draconian regained his composure and strode purposefully ahead, wings back and chin high. "Greetings, Your Highness!" he boomed, every inch the implacable warrior, not to be trifled with. "Pleased to make your acquaintance!"

Kimmi yipped nervously, the taurs gathering around hir but none making a move to follow Bister. The room beyond was dark, even by the standards of the underground world, with nary a torch nor glowing bug to be seen. Shi could just make out a peculiar scent, not wholly unpleasant, but definitely unexpected.

"Flowers?" shi murmured, padding very slowly forwards, hir honor guard of taurs moving with hir.

Bister was a faint yellowish blur ahead of them, still boasting and threatening with wild abandon, but there seemed to be no insectile royalty present. The chamber was vast, the echoes of Bister's words bouncing hollowly around them. Cameron was shaking now. "We shouldn't be here, we shouldn't be here, the Queen will be furious, none see her but her suitors, none ever return..."

"Kimmi!" Bister called back. "Go fetch one of those torches, would you, dear? I don't think anyone's home, and I could use some light."

"I do not fetch."

"Oh, for the love of... just get the damned torch, would you?"

"Rrrrrr," shi grumbled, turning around just in time to see the doors slam shut, plunging them from eye-watering twilight into the pure, primordial darkness that seemed to fill hir lungs and squeeze hir heart. "Rrr?" Shi froze, the taurs shuffling closer. They yipped nervously, a peculiar sound from such fearsome beasts.

"Kimmi?" Bister said with forced calm.

"Yes?" shi squeaked.

"Can you see anything?"

"No?"

"You're sure...?"

"Yes! What do we do?"

"I would suggest 'run', but I don't think it would do any good," he said, rustling somewhere nearby. "Don't panic."

"It's just total darkness in a huge prison cell. Why would I panic now, of all times?"

"Because something is holding my arms and legs, and I can't move."

"Oh," shi said, mulling it over. "Wait, what-"

The howling and animalistic screeches of rage filled the room as the unseen assailants swept down upon them. The press of bodies around Kimmi increased, the taurs desperately trying to flee, but one by one they were dragged away.

"Cameron?! What's happening?"

"I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T-"

The reassuring weight of the little bear vanished. Shi didn't hear anyone approach, shi didn't hear anyone depart, and hir nervously swishing tail touched nothing. He was simply gone.

"Bister?"

Silence.

"Cameron?"

Silence.

"Bessie?"

Hir arms waved around, the oversized husky stumbling forwards, looking for a wall, a table to hide under, anything. Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap I miss my castle I miss my tower I miss my mom I miss my cell I miss the gripworms I miss

Shi cried out, cruel and jagged claws gripping hir wrists with terrifying strength. Shi was yanked upwards, hir forelegs dangling uselessly above the ground, and another hard, metallic spur forced its way into hir mouth, choking hir off. A fourth yanked so hard at hir tail that shi thought for a moment it had been ripped free of hir rump. Shi thrashed back and forth, but shi might as well have been a fly struggling against tar pitch.

I'M GONNA DIE I'M GONNA DIE I'M GONNA DIE I'M GONNA DIE I'M GONNA DIE

So slowly that shi thought that shi was simply going mad with fear, light filled the room. It was harsh and white, and seemed to come from the air itself; there were no shadows, there were no bright spots. The light simply was.

And how shi wished that it wasn't.

The creatures that held them were clearly related to the spear-wielding denizens, but vastly larger. Kimmi felt like a puppy, recalling those few times in hir childhood when hir housemaidens were still larger than hir. There were maybe twenty of them, more than enough to subdue the escaped taurs. It took two of them to restrain Bister, the four-armed monstrosities squeezing his arms, his legs, his wings, his neck, even his tail. They were tremendously thick-bodied, resembling animated suits of heavy armor, but their heads were laughably small, their eyes grey and blank.

"Grrrkkk!" shi said, trying to spit out the hideous claw.

Despite looking like a larger version of every other dungeon shi had seen so far, there was a distinctly luxurious aspect to it. Wall hangings, a huge bed with actual blankets, and a collection of silver and gold implements that reminded hir of hir own combs, furbrushes and other beauty aids. These, however, had a sinister, sharp and almost surgical design to them.

What the f-

"Greetings," came a sibilant but eerily soothing voice.

"Gvvvkkffff?" shi managed around the claw.

The strange, ethereal figure drifted out from behind one of the monstrous insects, and Kimmi knew instantly shi was in the presence of the Queen. She was as different from the common soldiery as the giants were, but in direct opposition: she was a pale white, long-limbed and slender, her every move a gentle, dreamlike caress. White gauzy fabric clung to her pointed joints, her enormous eyes a glossy, metallic golden hue. Nearly as tall as Kimmi herself, she moved unhurriedly over to the panicking husky, tracing her claws over her tauric captives.

"It is so rare I have visiting royalty from the light lands," the breathy voice continued, clearly in the language Kimmi spoke but with strange accents, peculiar pauses. "You are a Princess?"

"Gggkkkmmfmfmfphth!"

The Queen waved a thin, needle-like claw and Kimmi's muzzle was mercifully freed. The flood of profanity took several deep breaths to conclude, but when shi was finished the Queen simply seemed to bow her head ever so slightly. "Indeed," she wheezed. "I must apologize for your treatment."

"Better late than never!" Kimmi snarled, struggling uselessly. "You could apologize a little more, maybe by letting us go!"

"Ah. Ah hah. Hah. No," the Queen quavered. "My husbands will do what they must to protect me."

"Husbands?!" Kimmi cried incredulously. "They're all your husbands?"

"Yes," she said, now standing before Kimmi, unhurriedly staring hir up and down. "Obviously they need to be... strengthened, to satisfy me."

To Kimmi's eyes, the Queen looked as fragile as spun porcelain. "Pity they weren't strengthened more," shi grunted, trying to avert hir eyes but finding it increasingly difficult. Shi wished shi'd spent more time learning how to properly insult people, but the housemaidens had been already shocked at the number of expletives shi'd learned and put a stop to it.

The Queen's four arms moved like a spider's, and Kimmi shuddered with revulsion as those stiletto-tips traced over hir legs, hir trunk, hir breasts. Shi tried to swing a foreleg at the Queen, but hir muddy paws touched only air. "Peculiar," she trilled. "Body of taur, and yet you speak. Tell me how?"

"Why?"

One antenna, no bigger than a stalk of wheat, bobbed slightly and the pressure around Kimmi's right wrist increased enormously, sparks erupting behind hir eyes. "Because," the Queen continued without the faintest trace of malice, "it is the... courteous thing to do."

"I don't know. I don't! OW! I have no reason OW not to tell you, but I can't! I was just... BORN like this!"

The pastiche of watchers never budged. The only sign of movement from the taurs, Bister or Cameron was the faint rise and fall of their chests; the enormous royal mates did not even do that much. "Curious," said the Queen. "Rare. Treasure. A prize."

"I'm not a prize," shi grunted, fingers twitching. "I'm not a_slave!_"

"Of course you are," the gossamer royal said diffidently, turning away as though bored. "You will provide victory for the Manor. Much wager. Much wealth. Much status. It is... prudent for you to do so."

"Why should I?"

Another wispy antenna twitched, and a chorus of pain filled the room, a dozen taurs thrashing as their captors applied pressure in any number of cruel ways.

"Because, you are not an animal, but you are not strong," the Queen purred, drifting away. "You will absorb the suffering and woe of those around you. They will die. In painful ways. You will watch. One dies now to... verify my words."

"NO!" Kimmi cried, choked off by a claw forcing hir jaws apart. Across the room the struggling appaloosa, one leg curled up protectively to his belly, flailed with such manic ferocity that even the towering beast could not entirely restrain him.

"It is best," the Queen said, fading into the background as the room began to dim. "You will learn. You will serve."

Bister was rocking back and forth now, but the fiends compensated easily. The hulking figure holding the appaloosa aloft shift its weight, one great arm moving around the long, equine neck. The armor-like chitinous plates bulged with muscle, and Kimmi knew well the power in those limbs.

Shi screamed, but all that came out was a raspy burble. The Queen flitted like a moonlit shadow, growing more agitated as the horse's cries increased. Ye gods, she's enjoying this! Grey, I'm so sorry, I never wanted any of this to happen! I just wanted to get out of my tower! I just wanted to see the world! I never wanted THIS!

Hir heart pounded, brutal waves of pressure at hir temples. It was like the arena, only instead of hir own fate, it was the fates of others, the innocents that weighed in the balance. And when shi was done in the arena, how many of them would be dead? How many would fall to hir hands? How many more would be captured, brought below the surface, for hir to defeat in a medicinally-induced psychotic rage?

The appaloosa's shrieks ended suddenly, his eyes bulging out as the compression around his neck grew. His tongue rolled out, but in the strange, diffuse light Kimmi couldn't see if it was blue. Was it supposed to turn blue? Shi read that somewhere. Why am I thinking about books? He's going to die because of me! They're all going to die because of me, because I couldn't stand BEING A PRINCESS!

Afterwards, Kimmi would swear shi was only aware of the low-pitched buzzing noise, as of some titanic hummingbird flying through the chamber. Everyone else present remembered watching the three-armed behemoth soaring like a ballista bolt through the chamber, smashing with such impulse that it shattered like an egg.

Hir Grace The Royal Crown Princess Kimmi stood, convulsing with rage, the Queen's mate's decapitated fourth arm still dangling from hir wrist. Shi jabbed a finger towards the appaloosa, and said one word, very carefully and clearly.

"Mine."

The Queen's eyes widened, if that were possible, and her slender arms waved. The three mates that were not restraining someone moved in on hir, blank but with predatory intent, but Kimmi did not spare them a second glance. Shi dug in with hir blunted claws, launching hirself forwards and knocking one aside like a rag doll. The second grabbed at hir arms but found itself unceremoniously picked up and tossed behind hir.

The third rose up before hir like a mountain, substantially taller than shi, arms swept wide and moving in with implacable power. Shi did not consider moving around it, instead climbing his splayed legs with hir forepaws, rising up on hir hindlegs and bringing hir head level with its. Shi gripped its shoulders, reared back and slammed hir head forwards like a hammer. Husky and insect fell like two intertwined trees, and shi simply walked over him, the final barrier defeated.

"Not yours."

The Queen tried to dart behind another beast but Kimmi's paw struck like a cobra, encircling her neck and trapping an arm, She seemed to have no mass whatsoever, but the blows that rained down on her were surprisingly painful. In hir current state, however, Kimmi no more noticed them than shi would notice a particularly irritating swarm of butterflies.

Shi raised the Queen up, bringing them nose to mandible. "I'm going to give you one more chance than you gave me," shi said softly, hir eyes communicating all the fury hir eerily calm voice lacked. Shi reached up with hir other paw, grasping a straw-like antenna between thumb and forefinger. "And just to verify my words..."

The snap was no louder than a dry twig, immediately eclipsed by thumps and gasps as Cameron, Bister and the taurs were released.

---

"I still say, that was one of the most incredible things I've seen, Your Highness!" Cameron gushed, walking alongside the husky. "You just grabbed it, and your head, and... POW! Oh, I knew it right when you were brought in to the cells, I knew it..."

Kimmi muttered under hir breath, but did not reply. Cameron's prattle had resumed almost the instant they left the Queen's chamber, the secret passage being located directly beneath her burrow-like bed. Bister had gloated for a minute but he had the good graces to admit that, perhaps, Kimmi had contributed to their escape as well.

"When we saw the Queen, I thought we were dead, I don't mind telling you! None who go see the Queen ever return! I never knew how she watched the Games, but her powers are vast! Or, well, I suppose they were a little less vast than I thought. That light... gave me the creeps, it did!"

The shaggy, exhausted and thoroughly drained group marched through large but poorly-maintained caverns, leaving the Manor far behind them. Bister walked point, sniffing the air for the faintest delectable trace of fresh air or running water, and they were forced to double back more than once, but they did seem to be slowly making upwards progress. Kimmi and Cameron walked just behind him, with the mob of taurs trailing behind.

Kimmi shook the Queen, long alabaster limbs dragging like ribbons. "No-one's following us still, right?" shi asked sweetly. "Remember our deal. When we find a path to the surface, I let you go. I wouldn't want to have to renege on my word."

Cameron looked side to side, holding his torch up high, and then dashed around Kimmi's bulk to kick the insectile monarch. Kimmi looked at in with mild reproach, wagging hir finger. "What was that for?"

The bear looked briefly ashamed, but rage flickered across his face, and he thumped the Queen again before moving back to Kimmi's other side. "FORTY SEVEN YEARS!" he hollered, also not for the first time since leaving the royal bedchamber. "I... I'm sorry, Your Highness, that's not very polite of me."

Shi leaned down, giving him a friendly side-hug and ruffling the greying hair on his head. "As your duly appointed ruler, I promise your punishment will be lenient. Possibly involving kicking her a few more times before we get out of here."

His beaming expression of worshipful delight was all the thanks shi needed.

For hours they walked, not hurrying, trying not to complain about sore paws or sore hooves. Both Bessie and the appaloosa needed considerable help, and whenever Kimmi looked back different taurs were supporting the pair. Several times the boartaur would sniff the cow's neck, nuzzle his muzzle against hers, and then walk up to Kimmi and do the same to hir. Shi tried to push him away the first time, but shi realized that he was, in his own way, thanking hir.

"I guess you're still the Princess," Bister chuckled, watching the boar complete the ritual once again. "Just of the animal kingd-"

"Don't you even think about completing that sentence," shi growled, but hir lips twitched upwards ever so slightly.

"As you wish. This way, everyone, this way, step lively. The moisture is really picking up in this direction. I've got high hopes."

The tunnels were becoming progressively more damp and slick, and the number of trips and stumbled increased dramatically even as the walls narrowed in on them. Not too long after, though, the tunnel joined up with a much, much larger cavern chain, a small and icy creek carving a steep little gutter right through the middle of it. The joy that spread through the ragtag group was palpable, and several minutes were spent with better than a dozen figures laying on their bellies, heads shoved underwater, drinking deeply.

Kimmi held back long enough to let the taurs pass, and shi smiled with pure, wholesome relief when they all knelt to drink. "See that?" shi said to the Queen, still holding her like a ragdoll. "Do you see how happy something as simple as water can make them? I want you to think about that on your walk back. There's wisdom there."

Hir muzzle pulled back in a huge, fang-filled grin, and shi licked hir gums with exaggerated care. "Now get out of here," shi whispered, holding the diaphanous insect out and dropping her back down the side passage. "And maybe tell your friends that, someday, some way... I'm going to be back for the rest."

The Queen struggled to her scimitar-like legs, shaking with either fear or rage; Kimmi couldn't tell. She took a few hesitant steps back the way they had come, and the husky was not surprised to see one of the titanic husband-drones emerge from the darkness, envelop her in powerful arms and whisk her away.

"Bye," Kimmi whispered, waggling hir fingers. Hir resolve crumbled a moment later, and shi all but dove to the ground between the cheetahtaur and the appaloosa, drinking hugely of the black glacial waters.

It was phenomenal, shi marvelled, just how much a tiny creek could change one's mood, could improve everyone's outlook. The taurs walked with their backs straighter, their heads higher, and for the first time shi could recall with their faces clean. Cameron had far more silvery-grey in his fur than shi had ever guessed, years of soil and soot being washed clear, and Bister practically shon in the meagre torchlight. Kimmi wanted to bathe in the waters, but it was so icy that hir heart skipped a beat just by submerging hir nose.

The caverns now were a great deal larger, but were raw and untamed. Stalactites and stalagmites seemed to sprout from everywhere, flat passageways were replaced by endless tiers and terraces, and the splashing, tumbling waters made the stones treacherously slick. Even with Bister and Kimmi working in concert to hoist the ungainly taurs onto ledge after ledge, progress was slow and the water could not replace the gnawing hunger.

"Do you think it's morning?" Kimmi asked, trying to fill the interminable silences. "Or night-time?"

"Don't know, Your Grace," Bister said.

"Don't call me that. Can you smell anything in the water? Give us a clue where it comes from?"

"The funny thing about water, Your Highness, is that it generally smells like water. This particular water happens to also smell like rocks."

"Funny, and don't call me that. Do you think we really are still under Estragonia?"

"I'll keep an eye out for a road sign, Your Worship."

"Haa haa," shi drawled, rolling hir eyes. "And don't call me that."

Water and the promise of freedom notwithstanding, hir arms and legs were quivering with fatigue by the time the bubble-like chain of caverns finally joined up with what clearly had to be the arterial source of the river. Raging whitewaters danced and frolicked, spraying them all and slicking them with sheets of frigid mist.

"WE'RE CLOSE, RIGHT?" Kimmi called over the thunderous noise.

"OH, YES. WE'LL BE OUTSIDE ANY MINUTE NOW."

"DON'T BE SARCASTIC."

"WELL, EXCUSE ME, PRINCESS."

Blessedly, the constant erosion from the main waterway had smoothed out the ground here, and they were once more making excellent time. Kimmi, tired of being seen as the leader, dropped back and took hir turns supporting the appaloosa and Bessie, murmuring reassuringly to them. Shi knew they couldn't understand hir words, but shi couldn't shake the feeling that they still understood hir intent, and shi was finding it easier to imagine that shi could read their expressions.

Will I always be seen as just a beast that can talk? shi wondered, climbing higher. Will that be my destiny? I suppose I can just clobber anyone who tries to leash me to a ploughshare, but I don't want to be known as the Clobbering Taur. They'd lock me up. Or put me in a circus somewhere. Maybe they'll do that anyways. Being free? Hah. I'll just be a slave with better advertising.

Cameron was holding onto a torch now that was hardly more than a wooden utensil with some flickering flames at one end. It spat and sputtered, the river mists doing its best to douse the flames, but in the end it was the icy slick rocks that extinguished it when the old bear slipped and landed hard on his back, the torch flying from his nerveless fingers. It died with a hiss, and Kimmi yipped in fear as the darkness squeezed in around them.

But not from all sides.

Comprehension dawned on the group, and the mere idea of weariness seemed laughable. The caverns ahead were lit by a phantasmal glow, far different than any torchlight or luminous bug.

"I THINK-" Bister started, but was cut off by the stampede. He had to leap into the air, flapping carefully to avoid cracking his head on the cavern roof, to avoid being shoved into the river. He caught a glimpse of Cameron in the middle of the group, clinging to the badgertaur's back. "NEVER MIND!"

The majesty of the caves was only a barely-perceived blur. Sore, blistered feet slipped and stumbled and stubbed, but never did the mob cease its headlong rush. With each twist and bend the light grew, until Kimmi had to shield hir eyes with one arm and cling desperately to the tail of the taur in front of hir.

The sounds of the river became less all-encompassing, and shi realized there was quite a bit less echo. So long had shi been underground that shi had forgotten what it was like not to have every sound bounced back at you while simultaneously being swallowed up by the darkness.

Had it only been a week? A week since shi left hir tower, soared off into the chilly night, tromped through the Murk, hiked up into the mountains and got abducted? Had all of hir tastes of freedom involved running for hir life, being jabbed with spears or acts of brutality? Was there anything for hir in the great wide world except that?

The cheetahtaur screeched. The wolftaur and coyote howled and yipped, reminding hir of the full moons back home. The appaloosa whinnied so long and hard shi worried he might develop a sore throat. Everyone was crowing and cackling for joy, but everytime shi tried to peer around hir forearm the light was a burning lance to hir eyes.

"BISTER!" shi cried. "CAMERON! WHERE ARE YOU?"

It wasn't just hir eyes that were overpowered. Shi inhaled and nearly collapsed, full of a million scents, each a million times more potent than any shi could remember. The echoes vanished, and suddenly the world sounded big, bigger than anything shi could imagine. Icy water still splashed hir legs, but now it wasn't just solid stone underfoot, but gravel, and sand, and... and...

Kimmi didn't care anymore. Shi released the tail in front of hir, flung hir arms out wide and leaped forward, tumbling headlong onto what felt like grass. Warm grass. No sweet treat, no spicy delicacy, no harem of housemaiden hands ever delighted hir senses the way that simple little plant did.

Slowly, painfully only because shi wished shi could get it over with, shi opened hir eyes and stared up into the blue sky.

Bister was swooping back and forth above hir. The taurs scampered around, playing and frolicking and generally forgetting that not so long ago they had been locked in mortal combat. Bessie tottered over to a shady patch of clover and collapsed onto hir side, rolling around gaily and nipping at whatever greenery was closest. The boartaur stood protectively by her side, but even he was dancing in place, shaking his head back and forth and snorting.

"Cameron?" shi called, wriggling around, letting the grass scrub a modicum of mud from hir hide. "Cameron! Is it like you remember? Cameron?"

Shi didn't want to leave the most comfortable bed of hir life, a thin layer of scrub over hard alluvial dirt, but his lack of response was perplexing. Blearily shi focused hir eyes, and saw the world they had emerged into. It was a short, narrow little valley, the tumbling waters vanishing into a surprisingly small cave mouth. Several large sloped meadows dotted their little ravine, the upper edges of which were lined with huge trees, each adorned with a million shades of emerald. Birds twittered, though most were fleeing from Bister, and butterflies, real butterflies, bounded from flower to flower on the gentle breeze.

The taurs were all present and accounted for. Bister had caught a blue jay and seemed to be hugging it. Of Cameron, there was no sign.

Shi would have spotted him in their little ravine, the little bear still quite a bit larger than any stubby little nearby bush, so that only left one option. Kimmi peered into the darkness of the dreaded cave, and hir stomach flopped at the thought of having to go back in there. "Cameron?"

Luckily, shi wouldn't have to go far. Just beyond the outer lip, sunlight dappling his feet, the black bear was cowering fearfully, arms over his head. Kimmi made hir way carefully down to the mouth of the cave, holding out one paw beseechingly. "Cameron? Are you... it's ok, Cameron. You can come out."

He shook his head once. "Nnn," he grunted.

Forty seven years. How...

"I don't suppose I really get to order you around anymore," shi said softly, smiling at him. "Not out here, not anymore. I'm not a Princess anymore... and I'm not a slave anymore."

Shi inched closer. "And neither are you."

"Nnn."

Forty seven years. He's old now. Old and bent. Look at him. It was hard to tell in the caves, in the cells, but... ye gods, how old was he when he was taken?

"Who did you leave behind, Cameron?" shi asked, close enough to touch his hand. "Who missed you, when you were gone?"

His eyes squeezed shut and he turned, actually taking one step back into the caverns, but something stayed his retreat. Shi could see his shoulders shaking, and shi thought shi had pushed him too hard, too far, too fast. He sniffled once, though, and turned back to hir.

"My wife, Mios," he said, hardly more than a whisper. "My son... my son... sometimes, in the dark, I would call him my son, because I forgot his name. But his name... his name is Aran. He... was so small..."

"Cameron," Kimmi said, beckoning him closer. "Take my hand. I don't know what the future holds, for you or me or anyone, but I know it's not_down there."_

His paws twitched, and the old, gentle Kimmi might have tried again, but the new Kimmi knew just how precious and short life could be. It was the new Kimmi that lashed out, gripped Cameron's wrist, and hauled him bodily into the light.

"HEY!" he protested, shielding his eyes with his free hand. "You can't... you... you... gosh..."

Shi led him up to the meadows, the little bear taking in the sights and sounds and smells as shi must have, every step a wonder, every breath amazement. Bister drifted out of the sky, landing a short ways off and making a very deliberate show of checking on the injured taurs, but his attention was clearly on the husky and hir small, stoop-shouldered friend.

"Bister," shi said, not letting go of Cameron's wrist lest he try to flee again. "You got me out of my castle... in a rather spectacular fashion, I would think. A failure, on most fronts."

"Oh, Your Highness, stop, you're making me blush," he scowled.

"And I am afraid," shi continued, "that I cannot release you from your promised task-" He drew himself up to his full affronted height, prepared to argue, but saw the twinkle in hir eye. "- until you have taken dear old Mister Cameron here, to wherever it is he needs to go."

Cameron's jaw dropped. "Your Highness..."

Bister looked from the bear to the huskyherm, and back again, and sighed. "I'm getting really sick of royals," he grumped. "All they do is complain and make demands. Fine. I will fly him first-class to whatever dirty hovel he-HEY!"

The copper draconian, every bit as dirty as the Princess, nearly vanished in hir tremendous hug. He was made aware once again of just how improbably buxom the young taur was, and it took a great deal of his regal willpower to avoid placing his hands anywhere untowards. When he was eventually released by the laughing kidnapee, he turned his head away to hide his blush.

"Well... since you ask so nicely..."

Slowly, the group broke up, climbing out of the ravine in ones and twos. Bister explained to hir that they had emerged somewhere south of Syndian, and the mountains that bordered Estragonia were only barely visible as a sawtoothed ripple on the horizon. The forests here were lush and green, a rolling land made up of rivers and lakes and countless small towns. There was a city a few days to the south, and shi desperately wanted to head there, but shi knew that shi wasn't presentable just yet, nor mentally prepared.

The taurs took their turns walking carefully up to hir, rubbing up against hir, and by all appearances bowing before scampering off into the underbrush. Bister and Cameron tried to point it out, but the Kimmi's blazing eyes silenced them. Mostly. The sniggering was difficult to scare off with blazing eyes.

The sun was low in the sky when the mercenary and his senior passenger finally took off. To start hir on hir new life, Bister gave hir three silvery coins from one of the few surviving pouches on his belt, and explained it would be more than enough to get hir a change of clothes, a few meals, and hopefully enough time for hir to explain hirself to whomever shi came across. Shi clutched them gratefully, but insisted that all shi really needed was directions to the nearest pond.

"I have been free and on my own for more than a week," shi giggled, "and the only thing I really want... is a bath. Then some food. But first... a bath." Shi dragged a finger through the grime in hir fur, and shuddered when shi thought about just how much unspeakableness had been ground into hir nethers.

"I suppose this is goodbye, Princ-.... Kimmi," Bister said with a wink, shaking hir hand and bending at the waist. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but I sincerely hope I don't see you for a good, long time."

"I hope in a good, long time, I can see you long enough to buy you a drink," shi grinned.

Shi knelt and hugged Cameron once more, who just stammered and hemmed and hawed and tried to hide behind Bister's wing.

Kimmi watched them fly off, heading west towards the sunset. Shi watched them until hir eyes ached, watched them until they were no more than a dot, until shi wasn't even sure if shi was looking at the right dot anymore. Shi glanced down at the coins in hir hand, at the tracks leading off in all directions, and then once more at the first real, honest sunset of hir new life.

"Maybe tomorrow," shi hummed, remembering a piece of an old song hir housemaidens used to sing to hir. "Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down... and until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on."

Whistling to hirself, heart as light and unworried as a babe's, shi headed south, towards the promised pond. Towards civilization.

Towards freedom.

Epilogue

---

It was night.

The moon was bright and full, the air warm and lazy. The tall, slender figure, clad wholly in white, moved slowly and silently through the woods. He feared nothing in the woods, despite the many signs and rumors of a sudden invasion of wild animals.

He soon reached his destination, a swiftly-flowing creek that vanished into a jagged gouge, a rocky ravine cut into the earth like a knife wound. The creek tumbled below, into the darkness, but most peculiarly there was a tremendous amount of activity that seemed to have emerged from it, as well. Footprints of a dozen species ran roughshod over one another, no signs of pursuit or violence evident. There were huge, taloned prints, as well, of a kind he'd not seen for years.

Most evident, as they seemed to be the most recent and well imprinted onto all the others, were colossal canine prints, sunk deep into the soft earth.

He sucked on his teeth for a moment, touched the hilt of his sword, and smiled.

Yes, he thought. That will do nicely.