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This story is a work of fiction and contains adult situations. No character depected as engaging in sexual activity is under the age of 18. No one under the age of 18 should be reading past this disclaimer. All characters are copyright Radical Goper.

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PINS AND NEEDLES - Part XI

"It's a dream," George Leonard muttered to himself. "It's gotta be a fucking dream!" He stared unbelieving at the expanse of kitchen that stretched before him. After hours of pounding on the side of his prison he'd finally managed to escape, only to find himself standing stark naked atop a breakfast table equal in height to a four or five story building. Adding insult to injury he found his prison was nothing more than a rusted, old coffee can.

He looked around. Behind him he saw a pair of salt and peppershakers as tall as him. He quickly searched the edge of the table. The only way down was to somehow drop onto one of the chairs, then slide down its leg to the floor. Fortunately, there was a nice, thick cushion on each seat. George carefully edged himself over the lip of the table, grasping it with both hands until he hung vertically above the chair. Taking a deep breath he let go, landing on the cushion. He rolled the way he'd been trained in the army and managed to land without hurting himself. After that, it was only a matter of wrapping his arms and legs around the chair leg and slowly lowering himself to the floor.

Standing under the table he looked across to the doorway. To him, the distance was equal to that of a football field. Well, there was nothing to do but cross it and hope to find some kind of cover in the next room.

* * * *

The cold water reached Pepper's mouth and flowed down her throat. It triggered a gag reflex that immediately brought her back to consciousness. Sputtering and choking she sat up in the tub, splashing a fair amount of water onto the floor.

"SHIT!" Leaning forward, she shut off the faucet and pulled the drain plug. As the water slowly vanished the vixen drew her knees up, rested her arms on them and cradled her head. She wondered what the hell had just happened. She could remember every detail of what she had done and how she'd felt. What bothered her was why. She'd taken her normal suppressants this month, so her cycle shouldn't have hit her so hard. Hell! It shouldn't have hit her at all since she wasn't due for at least another nine days.

She looked back suspiciously at the bottle of urine sitting next to the toilet. Maybe she should have a couple of the lab rats take a look at it. Doing so however would probably involve her cousin, and that she was loath to do.

They'd been close ever since they were kits, or more specifically she was a kit and he was a high school student. He would often baby-sit her when they lived only a few streets over from each other. In fact, he was the only baby-sitter she liked because he never treated her like a baby. He'd been the closest thing she had to a sibling. They clicked, even though he was ten years older. When he'd gone off to college, it had left a gap in her life that had been difficult to fill.

Pepper looked up and saw the water had finished draining. She stood. Her fur was so thick with moisture she had to sit on the edge of the tub and wring her tail out. She stepped out onto the floor and found the bath mat was soaked. The vixen sighed. She took a couple of towels down from a nearby rack and began mopping both herself and the floor. Fortunately, the bathroom came complete with its own cupboard where she found a cache of extra towels. By the time she was finished, she had used nearly a dozen of them to clean up the mess. These she dropped into the tub.

She dressed, smoothing out her fur and hair as best she could and returned to the living room. Saul took one look at his partner and raised an eyebrow. "What happened to you? You look like a drowned rat."

"Don't ask!" she replied stiffly, settling back on the couch. She looked around the room. "Where's Sapphire?"

"She's still upstairs with her friend," the human replied.

"Do you think she's okay?"

"I don't know and I'm not going upstairs to find out," replied Saul. "The answer could be disconcerting at best."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about this house," he responded. "I think it might be haunted."

"Saul... Are you feeling alright?" Pepper asked worriedly.

"Unfortunately... yes."

The vixen raised a hand to his cheek and felt it. He was not running a fever, so his statements made even less sense than before. "Okay, just for argument's sake let's say something strange is going on here. What in the world would make you think this place was haunted?"

Blackthorne didn't reply. Instead he picked up the teapot, held it over the couch and poured a small amount of its contents on the cushions.

"Have you gone crazy!?" Pepper hissed, looking frantically towards the door through which Sapphire had departed earlier.

The human shook his head. "Wait for it." She looked. There was a tiny, almost imperceptible flash of blue and the tea stain suddenly vanished.

"What the hell...?"

"See what I mean... Hey! Where are you going?"

The vixen had jumped up and disappeared in the direction of the bathroom. Saul followed and found her standing at the door, a rather dumbfounded expression on her face. The human looked over her and into the room, but could see nothing except an immaculate bathroom, though he thought it was a trifle odd to put clean, neatly folded towels in the bathtub. "So... What exactly are we looking at?"

"I haven't the faintest fucking clue," she mumbled looking around. Even the small urine stain on the floor had vanished and the air smelled as if it were scrubbed clean. Pepper pursed her lips and looked up at Saul. "Let's go back and wait for Sapphire. I think we both have a few questions to ask her."

"Are you sure? I mean she is your cousin's mate and this is their house. Maybe we should think about leaving well enough alone."

The two detectives headed back to the living room only to freeze in astonishment. There, halfway between the kitchen and the front door was a small action figure. Saul thought it looked like the old, jumbo-sized green army men he'd sometimes played with as a kid. The difference was it wasn't green, it wasn't an army man and it was staring back at them.

The toy gave off a high-pitched squeak and dashed for the nearest cover. Pepper though was faster. She was on it in a single pounce, trapping it between her hands. The action figure collapsed in a heap.

"What happened? Did you kill it?" Saul asked.

"I think it fainted." The vixen picked it up gently in the palm of her hand. She examined it closely then did a bit of a double take. "Look at this," she said, holding her hand out to her partner.

"Is that thing anatomically correct?"

"Not only that... It's our missing fugitive."

Looking closely, Saul could clearly see it wasn't a toy at all, but a miniature human. He sat down heavily on the couch. "Okay... NOW I think we need some answers... cousin's mate or not."

* * * *

"OHHH! IT HURTS!" groaned Gwen. The spasm passed and she began panting as Sapphire had instructed. "Isn't there some way we can just magic him out and be done with this?"

"Sorry, but he was put here by wild magic and neither of us has enough control or power to counter that at the moment," the blue-furred vixen replied. "Just be glad the spell put you near to term. Otherwise you'd be carrying him around in you for months and not just hours."

The skunkette was now lying naked atop the bed. It had been stripped of its normal covers. Clean towels had been spread thickly across the mattress and another small stack of them rested next to a small basin of perpetually hot water. Sapphire had offered the girl her hand to hold onto while she gently mopped the sweat away from her face and spoke soothingly.

"Okay. I think you're ready. One more contraction and then we'll start pushing."

"What do you mean we?" the skunkette joked weakly. Gwen could feel the pseudo dragon moving around within her. Another wave of pain wracked her body. The contractions were coming very quickly now. When it passed she reached down and massaged her swollen belly. She thought about Victor, sound asleep deep inside her and wondered what his dreams were like. She felt another contraction start and the vixen nodded her head.

"Now... push!"

* * * *

For his part, Victor was rather confused. He knew he was in a dream, but his perceptions were crystal clear. He was in his dragon form, watching Gwen as she moved through the museum. It seemed odd. He'd never before dreamed of himself as a dragon. He'd always seen himself as he was, an adult male Zorr.

He looked around to get his bearings. From what Sapphire had told him earlier, he knew he was dreaming about the skunkette as she dream-walked through the dream he'd been having yesterday. The logic behind it escaped him completely, but for some reason, it made a crazy kind of sense.

He watched as she passed through the exhibit room of his own mind, floating high enough above the clutter to immediately see the rose pattern the displays formed. He saw Gwen pause in front of Sapphire's tapestry, shuddering with her to see the expressions of hate on the faces of the two figures.

He followed her, even as she searched for him. He stopped in front of the blue crystal statue of the djin, seeing it as the skunkette had, with her own golden image entwined around the feet of the vixen. Gwen turned away, and as he watched the statue's hand reached down and wrapped itself around the wrist of the golden statue, pulling it up to stand, side by side with it. The arms of the statues enfolded one another and they both looked straight at Victor, smiling.

Another pair of arms reached up from the statue's pedestal. A silver figure, indistinct in appearance, curled itself around the feet of the two others, as if cringing in fear and seeking protection. The dream-walking Gwen did not see this, having exited the room a moment before. Victor raced to follow.

He trailed her down the elevator and into the corridor beyond. Victor watched as she was ambushed by the shadows. He could hear a disembodied voice speaking to her, taunting her until confronted by Gwen's power. He listened, and something suddenly clicked. He'd heard that shadow voice before, but he couldn't quite place where or when.

He watched as Gwen shattered the tendrils binding her. The voice/entity screamed its anger and fled. For one brief instant Victor thought he saw a piece of shadow race by him down the corridor. He followed, straining to see where it went. Again, the fact he could do this didn't make much sense, but somehow he was convinced that it might help him answer a question or two.

Twice he almost lost its trail, catching glimpses of it as it bounced against the walls, like a sparrow flitting against a closed window. He found himself in his display room. The being ignored everything around it and dove straight into the tapestry, piercing the figure of the unicorn. CYPRIANA!

At that moment the dream began to fade around him. Clarity was slowly replaced by confusion. Events within the dream slowly washed themselves from his memory. Desperately the Zorr tried to hold onto something, to some small scrap of what he'd seen He focused on the tapestry, clinging desperately to the image of the unicorn. "Remember... remember... remember!" Then he was falling... sliding down a long tunnel that emptied itself into a bright light. The world around him went white.

Victor slowly opened his eyes and found he was staring at the purist white fur he ever saw. He felt someone stroking the back of his head while another pair of hands massaged his legs, working clenched leg muscles that felt as if they'd been cramped tightly together for weeks.

Not quite fully awake, he closed his eyes and basked in the warm sense of love he felt. He nuzzled into the fur, pillowing his head and cheek ruff against a soft pair of orbs. He reached around the figure and hugged it, pulling himself into a tight cuddle. He kneaded the damp fur on its back with both hands and sighed contentedly. He felt like a newborn kit in the arms of its mother.

"Wait a second," he thought. "Damp fur?" He opened his eyes and looked up into the smiling and exhausted face of Gwen.

"Hello baby," she cooed quietly.

Victor promptly fell out of bed.

To be continued