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"Uh...Uh...Uh...Uh..."

Walter's eyes were hard and locked, his chin to his chest as he gazed down his own body. The still night air outside his open window gave the barest hint of the insects in the distant woods and the farmers fields. The wet crack off flesh on flesh echoed faintly by the squealing whimper under the mound of pillows in front of him.

In some chauvinistic part of his brain, he wondered idly if all Mekid were just talented in the art of orgasm, or he was just that damn good. Tyzer had never allowed him this, not since they first met. Every time they tried the little tease squealed about it not feeling right, that it was "too much". Now he knew that to be true, among several other things.

"Please come!" The woman, cause there was no other way to look at the body under him, groaned. Reaching back with a twisting body to grip at his forearms as he kept firm grip on those hips. He'd always thought of Fu as...muscular. A tomboy, built and chiseled. He'd never realized how much of that ass was pure fat till he was slamming it halfway up her back. He'd honestly expected resistance, reluctance, hesitation or...well, anything but exuberant acceptance when he asked to ...taste her ...there. He found the thing that Riz had told him about, it was the size of a fucking thumb how could you miss it?! Three minutes later he was balls deep in a girl who was literally shredding his pillowcases trying not to embarrass herself with how much she was enjoying this. He did not know that anal orgasms could be so violent, he did not know that mekids could self-lubricate back there....and he did not know that Fufu was so...gorgeous when she got the bedroom eyes.

"I'm close." He grunted, pulling her back and holding himself as deep as he could to catch his breath. Apparently he fucked really fast by most guys standards or so Fu and Tyz screeched. He learned a while ago to pace himself about half as much as he wanted to go until Tyz was close, then go full speed at the finish. This actually felt good most of the time, and as he leaned over the back of the voluptuous body beneath him he decided to go with his usual fair.

"UwuuaaaAAAH!" Phula's wail wound up in surprise as the clap of flesh she'd been feeling nearly trippled in pace. A hand on either side of her neck pressed into the matress to stabilize her lover and she gripped them like the safety barrs on an amusement ride. And it was a hell of a ride, she could feel herself leaking; everywhere. Cum, Precum, tears, sweat....he was fucking her absolutely dehydrated. She'd been on her knees, but there was no way her legs would stay working under this kind of treatment, and in what would have been about 5 thrusts before, probably more like 25 currently, she was driven flat into the mattress. She didn't even possess the motor-control to kick her feet; toes curled and together, heels apart...and that was how she stayed.

"Here--UUUUHHH!!" Walter buried his face in the pillow the beautiful woman, the first he'd ever had sex with honestly, had pulled over her own head. A few inches of cotton were all that kept him from screaming into the back of her head as she screamed into her own pillow below her, a tower of pleasure echoing off fibrous walls. The deluge of copious virulence that followed was ...problematic to most. Walter had come to terms with it more than a decade ago. He was a splice that combined Lapine and Rodentia ...two species that had survival traits relying on numbers. Alone time when he was younger involved half an hour of privacy and a bucket, he envied the boys who could make do in the middle of the night at the orphanage; in their bunk with a sock, the lucky fucks. He could hear the strangled astonished gasp of the woman under him and he knew she was feeling it too. "Like fucking the showerhead, and getting it stuck." as Tyzer had once put it. The young man rolled to his side, only to feel a set of very sharp nails catch his hip-bone.

"Please," the soft feminine voice was trembling, but it didn't sound upset, "just lay with me like this a bit more?" She groaned appreciatively as he rolled back into place, sinking to the hilt before squeaking as he cupped her chest rolling them both on their side.

"You do realize you're sleeping here tonight?" The young man chuckled. He didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't the teary eyed beaming smile she through over her shoulder.

"Has Tyzer ever 'tailed' you?"

The soft rays of the sun gleamed into the window, the dust in the air making sheets of vanilla heat stabbing in through the curtains. The two bodies on the bed were clutched together tightly, one limp the other holding strong.

"Mmm.."

Patera's eyes fluttered open. This week really sucked so far. She tried groggily to remember where she was. Her first instinct was hospital, cause of the soft bed. This lead to memories of...him. This also lead to the ice cold realization she was not alone. In the bed. Tense and still she tried to assess the situation behind her.

Equal or lesser in size, Pawn, maybe Queen, probably not a Knight? Tits so it had to be knight or queen. She wasn't sore, so queen? They were less likely to go 'digging' when they had their fun.

Catrina's eyes fluttered open, the shifting in the mattress making her realize that her charge was rousing slowly. She blushed as she realized at some point in the night she'd used the poor...girl?boy? She had forgot to ask. Either way right now it was a teddy bear in her bed getting squeezed for the fun of it. She couldn't move her hands, since one arm was trapped under the Echidna. She laid there, listening to the other girls breathing.

Patera could feel the arms around her tense, flexing and ever so gently tugging...testing. They were awake, and they were trying to get their arms free? Try as she might she could not reason out what the fuck was going on, but one thing did stick out in her head.

That smell. Lavender and Mint. It was an odd combo. She'd smelt it before, right before--

Catarina felt the person in her arms lurch out of bed suddenly, and she watched the quadruped scamper to the window, backing into it and quickly scanning the room.

"Where am I?" The voice was musically dangerous, Catrina realized the fear right away, but also the edge of danger. The being felt caged, that much was immediately evident. "Who are you? What is going on? The warden--"

"Is a bastard." Catrina barked out. Vanessa had been very thorough lately on ingraining blunt honesty into her. "He's a tool and horrible person and...and..." She ran out of steam surprisingly fast; but she was still getting used to cursing, let alone being a 'queen' as they supposedly were raising her up to be.

"Well...yeah." Patera was caught off guard by the sudden and open honesty. The person in front of her was a Demi. the bed four-poster, the room wallpapered. Obviously money, what was the play? Rich girl's fucktoy? New Pet? "Why am I here."

"You were contracted to protect me."

"Does that include in your dreams?" The four legged being nodded towards the bed that Cat was lying half on with a raised eyebrow.

"You were injured, it was our fault. We took you with us. I insisted that you not ...be let out of my sight." Catrina bit her lip. It was so much to tell, it was all too soon, moving too fast. But the plans would not wait for them forever.

"Well," Patera blinked at the kindness, especially from a Demi of all people. Usually the 'new humans' were upper crust fucking snobs. 'Domers' the rest of the world called them. Half the time they wouldn't piss to put out an orphanage of WTF'rs, let alone Mekid. "Um...thank you."

"I do have something to talk about now that you're up actually. It's kind of personal." Cat blushed.

Aha, there is was. Patera's guard was back in place, and the glassy professional demeanour returned. "I don't do personal relationships with clients, it's Detention Center policy." she internally rolled her eyes adding in her mind 'except for the right fee'.

"You're never going back there. That's part of what I wanted to ask." Catrina rose to her knees on her bed, her fist over her heart. The gesture making Patera roll her eyes.

"Miss....you seem really sweet--"

"On the authority of the Midwestern Dome and the North Eastern College, by pardon, grove and ...and clutch." Catrina stumbled over the words she'd remember from Chagotha, on how to phrase this properly. "You are no longer under the authority of either." She sat there, watching confusion, comprehension, shock, and finally awe wash over the young Soldier on the floor beside the bed.

"H-how...why--who are you?!" Patera couldn't really process what the fuck she'd just heard. Especially the later terms coming from some Demi in a nightgown. A really pretty, almost see through nightgown--What the hell was she thinking again? She'd been freed from her bonds, of basically the ancestral crime of being ...well, being alive? Who had the power to do that sort of shit? There were no 'Mekid' authorities anymore, the old ways were gone; hell, before she was born anything approaching an empire was dead and buried in prison walls!

"I am Catrina Stillwater, 3rd daughter of--that's not important. What is important is that you and I...If you're willing...are to be...clutched." Catrina blushed at what she now new all the implications of that could mean, especially when she saw the facial reaction of the teen in front of her. She hadn't just chosen Patera because of her breed and gender, but also her age. The two of them were a few years younger than the group who were already if not rapidly approaching their twenties. Watching the locked on stare as the muzzle blush washed over Patera, she remembered the joking words of Tyzer the other night by the campfire. They'd been talking about the way they all casually walked into this clutch and he'd jokingly thrown a pickup line at her.

"Oh you seem nice....care to be my fuck-buddy in the cuddle orgy?"

It was absurd, it was ridiculous ...it was all true. They were looking into each other's eyes knowing the exact same thing. She'd offered a chance to have sex, no more than that, to be life partners together in a group of life partners. Not only herself but a group of unknowns in what was effectively as Ekidna knew it to be mass marriage.

"How many are there?"

Catrina snapped out of her inner thoughts to see Patera sitting on her haunches eyeing the girl suspiciously. The two sat there for half a second before Cat registered it as a question. "Oh, um, you and me, another 6--"

"Breeds?" Patera seemed rather tense for some reason. Caterina could see a bit of fear, anger, possibly something else coating her entire being like she was soaked in it.

"Me, you," Catrina paused for a second taking in the pose, "2 females," this caused Patera's eyebrows to raise, the specific use of the gender description clearly denoted non-mekid, "a pawn, a knight, a male, and a king."

"No." Patera grumbled out, to Cat's shock, "I don't work well with Males or Kings." She turned, as if that was all there was to the conversation.

"What?" Cat startled, getting up from the bed she reached out, drawing back her hand as the soldier reflexively looked over her shoulder. "Walter is very sweet, he'd never hurt you. Rizak is as well, they were the ones who helped me save you from that place." She watched the...she really needed to find out the form of address, for now they would have to suffice as they turned and looked back at her.

"You said Rizak." Patera's voice seemed to have risen an octave, "are you fucking with me? Rizak the Shepherd? You're joking badly, because that's not funny." They turned back around, and Catrina took a half step back as they approached very suddenly. "You seem like a sweet girl, and you're not hard on the eyes. The only thing that would keep me from getting back in that bed is the freaking lies coming out of your mouth." They turned and began walking away. "For the record, the shepherd died in the war."

"What are you talking about?" Catrina started to follow her as she watched them hand walk up one of the double doors to the bedroom and began fiddling with the knob with one of their hands. "Rizak is waiting for us at dinner, maybe it's a different Rizak?"

"No one would have the balls to name their kid that, not if they were gonna be around soldier kids." Patera grumbled as they got the knob turned, it wasn't hard, but they was distracted by the pack of lies flowing out of her mouth. "Next you're gonna tell me you're the savior of all my kind..." they growled and yanked the door open while leaning on its partner. Flopping back down she made it one step into the hallway and froze.

Cat watched the Ekidna stand there, from this distance she almost seemed to be trembling, then suddenly she bolted back in the room. The demi watched curiously as Patera slid sideways against the still open door, cowering low on their belly and making a half-assed attempt to hide for some reason. Catrina got her answer a few seconds later.

"Hello Catrina." The doorway filled with two figures, and they stepped up to the threshold as one spoke. "We're going to breakfast if you want to ...where's the bishop?" Chagotha looked around the room curiously, Thueban at her side looking more bored and hungry than curious.

"I-in the bathroom, Chagotha." Catrina supplied quickly, glancing for half a second at the soldier cowering on the floor not a foot from Chagotha's feet.

"Oh," Chagotha stopped for a second at being addressed by her full name, and Catrina could swear she could see the Queen's nose twitching into a smile from here, "well, bring them to breakfast, my son and I are both anxious to meet them. Rizak has always had a soft spot for any kind of soldier, and if you picked them... they must be something special."

With that the two were gone. Silence reigned as they sat there in the aftermath. Slowly Patera rose to their feet, then dashed across the room like a beaten dog till without warning Catrina was bowled over onto the bed. Laying chest to chest the Mekid stared into her eyes with a sense of panicked wonder.

"That was the Black Queen." Patera said the words like they were supposed to mean something, though for some reason Cat felt like she'd read the term before, "Girl, who the hell are you?"

"Whoa damn!" Cecilia giggled stepping into the hallway. One of Rizak's arms over her and the other over Sylvia they were making their way to breakfast in passable sleep wear. The reason for her outburst was the two coming down the hall. Walter looked ...beat. Absolutely tired as he stumbled down the wall in a pair of pajama pants much like what Riz was wearing.

Phula on the other hand looked positively glowing. Hair let down in flowing mane, a bright yellow sundress to her ankles outlined every curve and form as she strode with confidence and purpose hand in hand with the zombie of a fur beside her.

"Fufu?" the voice was small and timid from under Riz's arm, and the amazon stopped mid stride, eye gleaming with love over at it. Turning to Walter she caught him off guard with a soul burning kiss and embrace that only seemed to make the little mousey girl shrink more before she pulled back.

"Go find Tyz." She proclaimed with a breath as she patted him on the butt. Turning back she reached out faster than Sylvia could react, causing the girl to panic for half a second as light handling was something Sylvia was always known for and she appreciated. "My love," Phula groaned the word into her ear as she squatted down slightly to embrace the girl with a hug, "I finally feel at peace with who I am. It's silly I know, but I needed to know myself more, before I could know us more." The white furred chinchilla like girl nodded into the neck of the bigger woman, her girthy meaty thighs wrapping around that muscled waist on instinct as she was lifted and pressed against the wall. Breasts mashed together as the two shared a kiss, and Ceclia blushed as she knew all to well what being fed a mekid tongue could do to you in more ways that one. The kiss lasted several seconds before Phula pulled away. "Let's go to breakfast my darling Sylvie....I want to spend the day with you, and our family. Make sure you...clean yourself." Phula smirked as she glanced out of the corner of her eye at Rizak. "We'll eat a good breakfast, and a heavy lunch today....I have a blanket and a picnic basket for tonight." The girl leaned in to the panting body she was holding aloft, nipping at the ear, "For dinner, we will have only each other under the stars....and unless my strength fails me, the same for breakfast tomorrow." The whisper was unlike anything Sylvia had heard from the girl. Fu had always been uncomfortable in her own skin, the lack of confidence was sort of charming. This new woman was vivacious and lewd, powerful and almost confidence in herself, it was terrifying and exciting. They would have to talk, but for now Sylvia was just worried about the consequences. From the sound of it Fu was getting comfortable in Fu's own flesh, and had every intent tonight on trying to get comfortable in HERS.

Donald sat at the breakfast table, forking a pancake as he watched the group. It had been an odd couple of months. First Vanessa's ramp up of the plan. The supplements, injections surreptitiously, the paperwork and pledges. There was no way half the things they were promising were going to come to pass, what game was she playing.

The kids were all gathered around the table, this big oval they'd bought years ago to accommodate such a number, now grown they all barely fit. Riz and Tyzer were shoulder to shoulder as always, Wally and Ceci on either side. Sylvia was next to Cecilia like always, and on her other side was Phula staring across almost half the circle at Walter trying to act like she wasn't. Beside her was the new kids. Catrina poking at her pile of cheeses, go figure stereotypes, and the new...person. Sitting in the chair the quadruped looked incredibly uncomfortable. Not by the chair, but eyes darting back and forth between all the other Mekids at the table, they looked like they were going to piss themselves any second; whether it was fear or excitement didn't really matter.

"Alright then," the Raccoon faced man stood, tapping his glass, "I wanted to say a few words if I could, since we have a new member to the family." He gestured, then bit his lip trying not to laugh. Poor....Patera, that was the name, was barely visible above the table except for eyeballs and hairline as they looked at everyone looking at them. "Patera comes to us from a hard life, let's traumatize them with a hard welcome shall we?" His comment was met with chuckles he'd expected and he lowered his glass, "Seriously though, make them feel at home guys. You're all a bunch of weirdos and that makes it hard to get to know you."The plap of a biscuit hitting his chest made everyone laugh, and he looked over deadpan at Chagotha pretending to scowl at him. Without more than a shrug he smirked and sat back down to the table.

"You okay?"

The soft mumbled words from Catrina almost made Patera jump in their seat, and they didn't move their head glancing up at the Demi-human. Where the fuck were they? The people around the table were legends! Well not really legends but it was like reading a book of what went wrong with the culture.

"Where did you find these people?" They risked a whisper, and it wasn't enough as several forks stopped on the way to their mouth and Pat ducked even lower into the table.

"They found me." Cat reached out, risking physical contact to stroke the back of the soldier's neck. The response was palpable, the form rising slightly to meet the fingers, a low purring sort of sound emanating from the body as it blushed looking around the table.

"You seem to know who some of us are, but I should tell you that even we do not all have that luxury." Chagotha smiled, her voice soft and even as she locked eyes with the terrified young being across the table. "In a month's time we will all be living out in the middle of no-where, I suppose its time for some of these family secrets to come out."

Several of the younger ones squirmed in their seats, and their partners eyed them curiously. The only people in the room to not visibly react were Catrina, Donald, Vanessa, and Thoo. Chagotha didn't stop, gesturing to Patera who sat up much straighter. She could almost guess what the first question would be, but she waited for it anyway.

"You....you can walk?"

Everyone stopped, processed, then followed the soldiers eyes to a very sad looking young man sitting beside Cecilia.

"That would be my doing." Chagotha spoke up, something for which Rizak looked very grateful. "It's not common knowledge here, for his privacy. It was also one condition of my surrender to the allied forces against us back in the day that they help him." Everyone looked back and forth between Rizak and Chagotha till the young man took a very deep, shuddering breath.

"Remember, when I told you guys I used to help raise soldiers? It was my job ...back then." He fought for the words, "It's because ...I couldn't walk. I used to go around on just my hands."

"My sons," Chagotha smiled at him, and Patera's eyes got wide as saucers, "were caught in an explosion when they were very little. The blast did something to the bones in Rizak's hips. With the limited medical knowledge we had after the fall of the 'masters' I had no way to fix it. He was raised alongside the soldiers, given rank over them and teaching them. When I ...defected," she looked around at the furs in the room, some of which obviously having heard this the first time just now, "I made them help him."

"I did the surgery myself," Vanessa smiled softly, "and the physical therapy. We learned more about Ekidna ambulation in 6months than--"

"Thank you," Chagotha cut her off, reaching over and cupping the Rabbit-like woman's hand softly, lacing their fingers together as they relived the memory. The two leaned in and shared a kiss, and several of the younger furs got very curious looks on their faces, not from the action, but the lack of the followup response.

"The black queen...." Patera smiled as she spoke the words, only to frown as the reaction almost looked like it struck poor Chagotha, as well as making Thoo and Vanessa tuck their chins to their chests. "What happened to you? The stories in the jail--"

"I was captured..." Chai held her head up, eyes closed, "tortured, interrogated ...one of my enslaved returned to betray me, caused that explosion when rescued and captured the lot of us." She opened her eyes, shaking her head negatively as the soldier across the table was on the verge of snarling. "What we did there, it wasn't right. I know that as much now as I did the days I felt the very treatment that was given those beneath us. In the end it was that same betrayal that...set me free."

"Everyone," Patera raised their eyebrow, "every thinks you and the Red Angel killed each other." they watched the woman grin and grew even more confused, "everybody thinks you died, you're a martyr to our people! And you're just living here like some--"

"We're going to make it alright," Vanessa spoke up, startling everyone with the hardness in her voice, "your people deserve to live their own life. We're going to set up a colony, we're going to put Mekids in charge of their own fate again. Your people are not savages, not evil, and you're not tools of war. You didn't choose to be born this way, made this way." Sylvia stood, and everyone watched in silence as she circled the table to hug her mother. Cecilia bolted the distance in a third of the time to follow and get the other side.

"Who are you?" Patera didn't want it to sound disrespectful, but this random fur had apparently earned the respect of what would in old days be a fucking Empress if she wanted to be. The woman in question raised her head, wiping a tear from her eyes.

"I'm just a pissed off mom trying to protect her kids."

"Soo...."

Cecilia bit her lip as she sat on the porch swing, watching the group play outside. After a bit of cajoling everyone was forced outside for some sunshine, much to Tyzer, Sylvia, and surprisingly Patera's groaning.

"Yeah," Rizak let his chin fall to his chest, his arm around his girl not even flinching at what he knew what was coming. He could feel the eyes, not anger but curiosity and worry. It was not exactly a small detail to leave out of their lives. "Where do I begin?"

"At the part where you feel comfortable telling me..." Ceclia rested her cheek on his pectorals, looking out at the crowd, quietly whispering as she hugged onto him, "then go about half a mile deeper."

"My birth mother..." Riz swallowed hard, "she was in Chai's clutch. They were friends for years, finally deciding to all get, well get together I guess. Kind of like what we're doing." He looked down smiling. "My mom was very, very pregnant with me and Tyz during the war. There was an...well at the time I learned about it, an accident. Mom barely survived long enough to have us." Cecilia hugged him tighter listening to the story. It was easy by the timber of his voice to tell it was not something he was going to tell twice, she hung on every word. "I was born ...broken. My legs were in the wrong shapes from the hip down. No one had the knowledge during the regime to fix it. They didn't tell Chai we'd been born. Tyz was sent to the pleasures and I was wasted. She found me a day later, finding Tyz took a few years."

"Wait, back up. Wasted sounds really bad." Ceci looked up, pulling away from him, "and how would it be so hard to find Tyz if he was just a baby?" She watched the strong young man she'd known as a lover and a friend for almost 5 years start to tear up.

"They left me, outside the city." He blinked away the tear in his eye. "They put me on the edge of the beach to die, C. When Chagotha found me, told me I didn't have the strength left to cry." He held on tight to the girl who nearly broke his ribs.

"Your culture fucking sucks." She gritted her teeth, not expecting the pained chuckle that came from him.

"That was the regime baby. The Queens that took over when we overthrew the people that made us. We went full savage, we smashed everything and anything to do with the people that built us for war and just took over the island as our own private empire. Chai says in 10 years we managed to remove the entire indigenuous population from the map. We didn't fight anyone, we bred them out. Anything too weak or too timid to survive was a pleasure or food."

"You fucking ate people?!" Ceci looked like she was going to throw up as she made a fist of the front of his shirt, "that's fucking sick--"

"The sick," Riz swallowed the lump in his throat hard, "and the dying, and the injured, and the weak ...I would have been food if I'd been big enough at the time." he shook his head, "Chai brought me back, and when her own commander Queen told her to toss me away she...." he looked up, watching Sylvia pick apples sitting on Phula's shoulders across the yard in the tree line. "She killed the woman in her sleep."

"What?" Cecilia blinked a few times, slowly watching her lover fight with his own emotions as he looked back and forth between the group and her.

"We don't...we don't normally hurt our own." He mumbled, "Not actively, I mean...you know we 'hurt' each other...but it's kind of a really big ...taboo to, you know, take a life." He glanced up at the taller older women standing off to one side of the porch conversing casually as they passed a cigar back and forth, their men pointing and laughing at the antics of everyone carousing in the yard. "The reason Chai is called the black queen...is because she invented the Feast."

"The what?"

"That thing, that your mom did to us? When you were--"

"That? Walter told me it was scary but ..." She looked up at Riz who was genuinely appearing frightened.

"It's the most amazing thing, but it's terrifying." he smiled, then frowned, "it's like the most amazing, beautiful, dirty, loving thing you can ever imagine." he looked down at her, "imagine the one thing you want more than anything in the world, now imagine the most important person in the world you can think of giving it to you ...now multiply that by 10."

"Damn, that sounds pretty good actually." Ceci barked a chuckle but Riz shook his head.

"She can make you do anything with it, its horrifying. She killed off the ruling counsel, murdered them with their own lovers, that she then bedded in an orgy to pay them, why its now called the Death Feast." He looked up at the woman who'd saved him, in a gaze that painted her as anything but a savior. "She practically crashed our society all for the sake of some crippled kid." The two sat in a moment of silence before Cecilia tilted her head, then pinched and twisted one of his nipples. "OW, what the fuck?!"

"You said your birth mom and her were clutched? First off; That makes her your mom too. Second; you better fucking believe that if anyone comes after Sylvia or Tyzers kids, I will make what she did look like fucking charity work." She cupped his face. "Your mom was one of her best friends and lovers, and your telling me they tried to kill you because you didn't fit into some fucked up master plan? I need to get her something really good this holiday season." The two shared a mirthless chuckle. "So you said it took her a lot longer to find Tyz? Like how long?"

"10 years?" Riz shrugged, "One day... he was just there, my brother. The pleasure pits had taken their toll too, it was probably another year before i could hug him. Most pawns and smaller sized knights ended up ...servicing the upper echelon of the old society. I think the old world term is brothel, basically a communistic brothel. Sex was a form of military service back then."

"They would do that to--"

"Younger one's serve drinks, give massages...." Riz grimaced, "it's rare but other--"

"I'm starting to appreciate the fact they bombed your fucking island a little more every day Riz. You're a great guy but the world you grew up in was fucked."

"Yeah," he laughed, "I know. Well, Anyway mom...Chai....she sent me and Tyz into hiding with Thoo and Fu and turned herself into the Continental Alliance. We didn't see her for 2 years. Then one day she shows up, kisses Thoo on the lips and tells us to pack our bags we're moving to a farm."

"Mom always tells us she met you guys selling fruit on the road in her old home town." Ceci cocked her head, looking curiously over at the woman puffing the cigar. Her long red braid tight as the expression on her face as she stared out at their children.

"Honey, your mom was in the war." Riz whispered, "and Chai and her knew each other long before you and I did." He kissed the curious forehead as he peaked over it at the woman who glanced back at them through cigar smoke. "Your mom is a scientist, a genetics scientist, and a soldier...do you really think our mom's met AFTER the war?"