The Shadows Book Two: The Legacy of Man and Machine.

Prologue.

Liki Wolfspirit.

Tetrin woke up late the next day. His three Aquari roommates were already up and gone. That scared him. It might mean his Master noticed that he was still asleep and not doing his given chore for the weekend.

Before he could truely enjoy the freedom of the weekend, Tetrin and the other students all had to do a set chore. Their Master warned once at the start of each term to new students that not doing this chore could result in...something. Tetrin had never left his chore undone becuase he didn't want to find out what that something was. Master was enough of a annoyance as it was. He wasn't mean, just his teaching method stunk hugely.

Master would always post a list of the chores and the student responsible for doing them on Friday, each of them assigned one thing to do over the weekends. Everyone dreaded being the one to be listed to clean the restrooms, of course.

Tetrin had been the same once, up until the point that he was once assigned to clean the outside of all the student cabins. It had been a fine task to do, at least it wasn't the restroom. That was, at least till he suddenly came across a mess of...

He shuddered, his whiskers quivering, not wanting to remember the mess of...white...It was bad enough to be a teen in a male only camp/school. So far away from any other people, and forced to share a cabin with three other guys, it was hard to get a private moment long enough to ease down the sexual tension. That was another thing Tetrin used his secret pond spot for, but not last night. Trip had distracted him with his story last night though. Apparently, other students felt the same, but instead of keeping it to themselves, hid out behind cabins together and made a mess! At first he had tried to convince himself that it was bird droppings. The only problem with that was there were no birds in the Basin.

Being forced to clean that up, he wondered if somehow perhaps he could get into that, but he strayed away based on his beliefs, and continuously telling himself that he'd rather a female. Trip's story unlocked that a bit, he knew. It let him know what he felt wasn't unnatual, and he admired Liki for being able to see over it the way he did. Then, he came back to his cabin, only to have his roommate Kel say he had a 'good' dream abot him! It wasn't helping!

Tetrin got up to his feet quickly, trying to cool off from his thoughts. He rushed to the nearby dresser, which had four different drawers, one for each of the resisdents of the cabin, and opened his own. He fished for and quickly put on a pair of boxers - he slept naked - brown shorts, and a simple white shirt. Tetrin realized how loose fitting his clothes were now, one of his roommates actually had to lend him a belt now to keep his shorts on and his shirt went below his waist lazily.

If it was one thing Tetrin got from living in a jungle, it was a good body and a confidence to live in the wilderness.

He had came to this a pudgy child, but he grew up to become a thin, more muscular, teen. Just like his friend Kel.

Who he had a crush on...

Gah! He shook his head harshly and ran out the door, Thought's not helping!!!

The Aquari ran across the camp to his Master's cabin, a peice of paper was posted on the door there. He scanned the paper quickly, looking over the names and chores until he found his own. He barely noticed everyone already walking around, doing their own chore or whatever it was they had to do. Tetrin didn't know everyone in camp, only about half of it. That half was the half that he went to class with.

He finally found his name on the list.

Tetrin - Dinner cleanup.

He pumped his fist, "Yes, easy one!" All he had to do was make sure the mess hall was clean while everyone was there. It was a good thing it was dinner and not lunch. He would have already missed that.

Curious, he went down the list until he found Kel's name too.

Kel - Cabin Duty.

Tetrin's happiness drained. Kel was cleaning the cabins. The thought of his friend discovering another white mess like his, left behind by two others, was...for some reason it made him worry...he knew that it wasn't always there, but just the thought of it worried him.

He knew why too. He didn't want the otter to suddenly be opposed to liking him.

Tetrin turned and dashed off. Since his chore wasn't until later that day, he'd find Kel and give him a hand. If there was a white smear on the cabin walls, perhaps he'd be able to talk Kel through it without him freaking out.

There were fifteen cabins in camp, only three of which were not used by the students as a home. The Master's cabin was both the classroom and his office and bed, and of course was the biggest for that reason. The Mess Hall was just a tad smaller than that, and used only for lunch and dinner. Master was the one who cooked. He liked cooking, and Tetrin admitted it was one thing he did like about Master. His food was great. The third was a storage shelter for all of Master's scrolls and records of events that he used to teach or that he made.

That left twelve cabins for Kel to clean. Each cabin held four students. Twelve times four was forty-eight.

That's a lot of hormones...

Tetrin shook his head, No! Stop that! Just becuase you're sexually dissatisfied doesn't mean you should start tacking on some inneundo to everything. Like...how fun would it be to clean up someone elses cum with your best friend and-Damn it!

Tetrin tried to ignore his thoughts, running from cabin to cabin and trying to find Kel. He checked them all, finding no sign of his friend. He stood stupidly in the middle of camp then, watching the other students and trying to find Kel amoung them.

The Aquari finally appeared, walking into camp with a bucket of water. He must've had to go get a new bucket to keep cleaning. Tetrin ran up to Kel quickly, while the other otter walked over to the nearest cabin. He had a sponge in his other hand already.

"Kel!"

Kel looked up to see Tetrin, and a smile broke across his face brightly, "Tetrin! What's up?"

Tetrin stopped beside him, "I got Dinner duty tonight. I was wondering if you'd like some help."

Kel shrugged, "Well sure. You'll have to get another sponge from Master though." He dipped his sponge in the water as he said it.

"Great, I'll be right back!" He dashed off to Master's cabin again and knocked on the door loudly.

When the adult Aquari answered, Tetrin gave him no room to say no, "Master! Can I get a sponge please?"

"Um...sure." Master turned, but he looked back a moment, "Why do you need a sponge? You don't have any chores that require a sponge."

"I want to help Kel clean the cabins. It takes awhile to do when you're the only one doing it." He smiled.

"Hmm. All right." The otter left the door and returned with a yellow colored sponge. He gave it to Tetrin and closed the door as the teen dashed off to rejoin Kel.

Tetrin and Kel spent the day cleaning the cabins together. All the while they would steal glances of each other on the side, but whenever they caught eachother doing so, they would look away and blush for a long time.

It was obvious to Tetrin now. There was something here, and he liked it. He liked the feeling of seeing Kel smile, it made him feel happy too, even when he had nothing to smile about to begin with.

Kel seemed to like it too, he wasn't trying to put distance on Tetrin at least. They purposely stayed on the same side of the cabin, and they would each start on the ends of the wall and go toward the middle until they met up there. They finished faster that way and it was almost exhilerating to Tetrin to become so close to Kel.

When they finished the last one, it was very much near supper, and time for Tetrin's own chore of dinner duty. Kel took his bucket and dumped what water was left in the jungle nearby. He returned the sponges to Master and the two of them went to the mess hall together.

Walking beside Kel, it was tormenting Tetrin to not hold the other boy's hand. He wanted to try so badly to make the connection, he could only hope that Kel felt the same, so that once he or the other actually tried, nothing bad would come of it.

Not here though... He thought, Not around everyone else, not yet.

He and Kel sat together with their meals though, eating and joking around with the rest of the students.

Tetrin had to wait though now until everyone else was gone and stay behind to clean up.

He was waiting for Master to come out of the kitchen and give him a broom when dinner was over, when Kel suddenly walked back in after he had just left.

"Kel?" Tetrin asked, just as Master came out with a broom.

"Master," Kel started, "I was wondering if I could help Tetrin with his chore. He helped me with mine so it's only fair."

"Of course," Master said and reached behind himself to take another broom by the doorway, "You know, you guys all treat me like I'll snap at you at any moment. Do I really come off as that bad a person?"

Tetrin smiled, "Oh no Master. It's just...being in a jungle for this long, kinda gets to you...you know? It's the tension."

"Hmmm..." The adult otter walked away after handing Tetrin and Kel the brooms, but he wondered aloud to himself, "Perhaps I should schedule a class trip to Camelot or Bremen...would be a nice change of pace."

Tetrin and Kel stood a moment, smiling to each other.

"Thanks Kel." Tetrin said and started to sweep up the left over food by his feet.

"No problem." Kel walked over to the other side of the mess, "I'll get this half and you get that one, we'll met up in the middle."

Tetrin grinned again.

Over all that excitement and his friendship with Kel evolving a bit, Tetrin scarcly remembered he had to met up with Trip again to continue the story about Liki. Liki had quickly become a rold-model to Tetrin, and he wanted to know everything about the adventures he had.

He was dressing himself in the late night to go out to the jungle again, as Kel watched from his own bed. Their two roommates were already fast asleep.

"Do you really have to go out there again?" Kel whispered.

Tetrin turned and looked at his friend, seeing how sad Kel really seemed to be hurt him.

"I have to..." Tetrin told him, "There's something out there I have to know."

Kel stared at him, his blue eyes shining against his brown fur. Tetrin wondered if that was what Liki's looked like to Blackpaw and Kaz...Tetrin turned to start leaving.

"Can I, maybe go with you?" Kel's voice asked quietly, but it held a certian desire in it that the other boy couldn't ignore.

Tetrin paused, his hand about to take the doorknob. He sighed. What would Trip say if Kel came along? Would Kel even be accepting of sitting down to listen to a story?

"I don't know..." Tetrin whispered, "Do you really want to?"

"Yes." Kel started to stand already, but he was waiting for Tetrin to say it.

He nodded, "All right, you can come, but don't say I didn't warn you if you get bored."

"I won't!" Kel whispered excitedly and put his own clothes back on.

Tetrin took Kel to his secret pond in the jungle, the other otter was amazed at how the pond glowed in the night.

"So this is where you go each day..."

"Yeah, it's...calming..." Tetrin said and looked at Kel's eyes as they drank in the sight.

"Just not as calming as his own eyes eh?" A voice suddenly said and Trip emerged from the nearby foilage.

Kel jumped and gave a 'eep!' of surprise, "Who's that!?"

"Relax Kel." Tetrin said, "He's a friend, I meet him last night."

"That why you were out all night?" Kel asked him.

Tetrin nodded, "He was telling me a story, a really good one...and he's going to continue it tonight."

"Oh..." Kel said with a slight tone of dissapointment. Apparently he had been hoping for something else completely different.

Trip chuckled, "If you would rather Kel, I'll leave and give you the privacy you want with Tetrin."

Trip turned and made to leave, and that made Kel 'eep!' again and say, "No-no! Stay...tell me your story too..."

"I promise you'll like it." Tetrin told him as Trip turned around with a knowing smile.

Trip sat down at the edge of the pond then, and the two boys did the same.

"All right. Kel, you'll have to try and keep up since you don't know what Tetrin already knows, but this second part doesn't rely much on the information from the first one. This one starts with a Fangren and a Foxen, two boy's about your age, who are exploring the mountianous region of Midland..."