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WARNING:

This fic is rated NC-17 for lots of fighting, a tad bit of blood and a lot of F/F/Herm sex. If you find this stuff intriguing and are over whatever the legal age is in your area then go on as normal. Otherwise please move the cursor up and click the 'Close' or 'Back' buttons at the top of the page, this stuff isn't for you kiddies!

NOTES:

Okay boys and girls, here comes the next instalment you've been waiting for. My most sincerest apologies that it took so long for me to get this done but school and work, not to mention a myriad of commissions and other projects I've had scheduled for some time, have been getting in the way a lot as of late.

Again everything you read from here on in is copyright Klesk Vadrigaar 2005. No copying, altering or redistributing without my consent, PLEASE!

All comments to [email protected]

Legacy of Chaos

Stave II:

A Skewed Reunion

Written by Klesk Vadrigaar

-Day ten of the first passage of Blune, 151,161-

"So what's our next port of call Kitya?" Kai Sikahr asked as they sat round the campsite eating breakfast.

"Well, Sinnakka is about as far west as you can get before hitting open water. It took me a good seven or eight days to get there the last time." the kitsune had the map of Pengar laid out on the ground. "Fortunately the next big city is Kreynal, a very mercantile area that imports just about anything you can think of. I say we stop there and stock up on supplies and stuff and see about acquiring faster transport."

"A wise idea." she said wiping her mouth. "How far will we have to travel to get there?"

"Not much, it's very close." Kitya looked up to regard the position of the sun in the sky. "In fact if we set off within the next two sun movements we should be able to get there before nightfall with ease."

"Well what are you two waiting for then? There's nothing to say today's going to be any less crazy than yesterday was so eat heartily and don't skimp on the washing up!." the other female smiled before sticking her spoon back into her mouth.

Kai nodded as she munched on a bread roll.

*Yes it has been a most interesting last couple of days.*

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• Palace Stronghold of the Demon Master, Mueradav, two days earlier-

*Okay one more time, what in Madeus are you doing girl!? This is beyond crazy!!*

A small cloaked figure materialised and stepped out of the jaunt gate situated outside Xanathan Kryegore's fortified palace. Adjusting her hood she briefly checked the well-being of the item she carried with her and, seeing all was well, turned to survey the homeland of the demons.

*Well even if he did it with less than noble intentions, you can't fault the guy on his redecoration of the place.*

Indeed Mueradav was no longer the barren wasteland it once was. After Kryegore came to power one of his first and most popular decrees had been to divide his kingdom up into several smaller areas, each of which would then be terraformed to a different climate. The resulting effect was that Mueradav essentially became a microcosm encompassing every type of weather, land formation, water body etc. found on the whole of Artauk. The female looked in quiet admiration as every environment imaginable rolled out before her, the difference between each one being so distinct that one could stand with one foot in sandy desert plains and the other in a sweltering rainforest. Ice capped mountains overlooked luscious green meadows which rolled right into boggy swamp land that eventually dispersed into deep sea. In fact the only area that remained as wasteland was where she was right now, Kryegore having opted not to terraform the area around his palace as a sort of memento.

The demon races had of course benefited greatly from the change, the Grynwerts now had a whole new variety of materials with which to use in their metal works and engineering and the Mangek soldiers could safely be trained in how to operate and survive as efficient battle units anywhere on the planet.

What nobody knew however was that Xanathan actually had an ulterior motive in doing this. In addition to bettering the lives of his races he also held hopes that the alterations would attract more Toah spirits to Mueradav, which would inevitably result in more demons being hatched as carriers, which meant more potential warriors to add to his legions. The plan had been risky and for a while there was no notable increase in the number of elemental spectres hanging around the province.

Ironically it was Chasos that eventually saved the day.

With their safe havens contaminated and dangerously unstable, more and more Toah spirits were now cropping up in Mueradav for the sheer reason of having increasingly few other places to thrive on the planet.

*Cunning little syrkon, always knows how to get what he wants.*

The female sighed as she drew her hood further over her head, leaving only her red glowing eyes visible. Deeming that she'd obscured her identity as much as she could; she turned around and approached the many Trubendak guards standing to attention around the main gate.

"Halt!" the first one said, spear at the ready. He was attired in black and gold armour which clung tightly to his body. The female noted that he seemed unusually thin for a warrior but that was primarily because demons had very little body fat, most of them were just bones and muscle so even a seriously pumped up one would still look rather gaunt.

"State your business!" The second one commanded, claws gripped tightly around the hilt of his samurai sword. His tusks glinted under the mesh part of his helmet as he spoke.

"I'm here on a matter of personal urgent business for Kryegore." Her decision to refer to him by name was not done out of spite but because Xanathan believed that titles were just empty words made up to fuel a morph's ego and had henceforth decreed that everyone who wished to be respectful (or in this case were trying to avoid being slaughtered) should never address him as 'ruler', 'lord' or, most dreaded of all, 'king'.

The two guards remained unmoved and kept their weapons pointed at the female as a third approached. "The Demon Master does not appreciate house calls. Show us some proof of his need for your services!" he placed his spear threateningly on her shoulder. The female did her best to remain calm as she removed her hands from her cloak.

"Here." She said holding up a sigil "He gave this to me as a means of identification for when I returned."

*More like IF I returned.*

The first guard snatched it out of her hand and studied it intently as though it was some rare antique and he was an auctioneer trying to price it. After many long moments of intense scrutiny he lowered his spear and gestured to the other two to go open the gates. As they did so he cast his large opaque eyes skywards and made a waving motion with his hand. It was only then that the female looked up and noticed several dozen mangeks with longbows scattered across the parapets, all coming down from full draw. Had she tried anything during the brief conversation she'd no doubt have been fit for the centrepiece in a demonstration of extreme acupuncture.

"We will escort you inside." the first guard stated emotionlessly before he and the second one pointed their spears at her back and marched her inside the palace gates.

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Inside, the palace consisted of a massive labyrinth of corridors that snaked through the infrastructure like concrete serpents. Some connected one chamber to another, others just led to dead ends (to aid in the hindrance of any warriors or assassins that managed to get inside). As the female was lead up and down the labyrinth she couldn't help but stare in awe at the 20 foot pillars that rose up into the heavens supporting an ultra-gothic looking ceiling filled with black iron stalactites that seemed to loom over anyone passing underneath like numerous swords of Damocles. Though the female knew that Xan, being a syrkon (which are naturally quite tall), needed the dimensions of his residence to be larger than normal she couldn't help wondering a little if he was also trying to make everyone else seem inferior by comparison.

At last after trudging through the maze for what seemed like hours, the guards brought the female to a pair of metal doors. They stretched from floor to ceiling and were decorated with a simple tree like pattern. As pretty as they were, the female couldn't help picking up on one rather minor but nonetheless unnerving point: both were scorched black as if they'd been regularly exposed to searing hot temperatures.

She was soon to find exactly why that was.

The first guard walked up and banged his spear on the ground. As if on cue the hallway was suddenly alight with the intense blaze of two massive pillars of fire which shot up the walls and, in an almost sentient display, spread over the doors like ivy and wrapped around the handles. The flames then immediately receded and died down, pulling the doors open in the process. The guards slowly left the female and lined up along the side.

"Enter!" one of them said.

*Well, we're certainly getting the welcoming treatment.* She thought cynically as she again checked the item in her cloak and proceeded onwards.

Xanathan's throne room was around 20 feet high and encompassed nearly the size of a football field. Dwarfing the centre was a massive pool of enchanted fire that blazed brightly but silently while the east and west walls were occupied by ornate fountains that spewed molten lava. As surreal as the room was she knew it was necessary for it to be done up as such: Kryegore, by some twisted miracle, had been fused with a fire Toah at birth.

Though Toah spirits generated from the four base elements were even rarer than the secondary ones, his mother had managed to brave the dangers of the natural world and locate a haven. Over the many, many cycles of his life, Xanathan's affiliation with the element and its influence on him had grown to the point where he was now essentially a raging inferno wrapped in scales. Fire flowed through his veins as naturally as blood and it was said that a simple word from his lips was all that was required to make everything around him burn with an intensity that would make night brighter than day. Needless to say, he liked things hot around his residence; it kept him close to his element.

At the far end of the room was a huge throne made of gilded bones, seated on which was the Demon Master himself.

The female stepped around the burning pool as Xanathan regarded her first in surprise and then commendation. He was decked out from head to toe in a full suit of plate armour and chain mail, ivy green in colour, which was lovingly decorated with spiked shoulder pads, kneepads, toe caps, gauntlets, greaves and elbows. Like his soldiers, it too clung tightly to his skeletal but muscular frame. On his head he wore an intimidating sized helmet done up in the likeness of a dragon's skull which concealed any hint of features save for the thick mane of dirty white hair that draped out from the back. Like the rest of his armour it incorporated an array of spikes: several small ones clustered in between four large ones arranged around his head like some grotesque crown. A heavy black cloak flowed down his back and spread out over the bottom of the throne like a polluted waterfall, his spiked tail twitched restlessly on top of it. Gold rings mounted with precious stones adorned each of his fingers and around his neck was a silver necklace. The cloaked figure walked up and stood before the throne as the Master of Demons looked her over with his smoking red eyes.

"So, my little retriever has successfully returned. I must admit I'm impressed." Kryegore's voice was deep and commanding yet at the same time somewhat scratchy and distorted. It was almost as if a bad quality recording was speaking. Nonetheless it still befitted and mingled nicely with the power and authority that radiated from this syrkon titan.

She remained mute. She was too busy trying not to tremble to think of anything to say.

"You know it is considered courteous to bow to me upon entering my throne room."

"Yes well I'm not quite ready yet to accept you as my leader, Xanathan Kryegore. Heck I barely even consider you an employer."

A slightly annoyed growl escaped Xan as he drew himself up to his full height, well over 11 feet, and stepped towards her.

"Regardless of what I might mean to you let us not forget it was me who agreed to help you out. You need me to fulfil your little 'desire'." He spoke calmly and authoritatively, his eyes continually scanning her like a hawk as thin columns of smoke rose from them.

"And you need me to help you out with your problems as well." She swallowed hard trying desperately to appear unperturbed.

*Just remember to stay out of his reach. As long as he's not touching you he can't outright kill you.*

The hooded morph pushed the thought aside, finding no comfort in it.

"I assume you were successful in obtaining it?" The Demon Master asked.

"Well do you think I'd have made the practically suicidal gesture of returning here if I hadn't?" Her hands quickly went up to reach into her cloak but were suddenly stopped by a violent tremor reverberating through the ground beneath her. The cloaked female managed to catch sight of an object sailing through the air towards her like a bird of prey making a snatch before the continuing shifting of the floor caused her to lose her footing and tumble onto her back. Frantically she grabbed her hood to prevent it from falling off as she attempted to sit up, only to find a blade now aimed at her throat.

"You moved a little too fast for my liking. Please, hand it over slowly, you have my word there'll be no bloodshed in this chamber." The voice paused. "That is unless you initiate it first." It added acidly.

She looked along the length of the blade to find it being gripped by another mangek. Unlike the ones at the gate however this one wore no armour, or for that matter any clothing whatsoever on his torso. His face looked vaguely humanoid but there was also an odd reptilian element to it too (a feature common to all demon races). Long white tusks stretched out from a short snout framed by black lips which clashed with the mixture of red and cream skin on the rest of his face. On the sides, where ears would normally be, two elegant ebony horns projected out, following the natural curve of his head upwards and behind it. On his torso, muscles rippled across a cascade of brown skin on the chest and stomach and cream skin on the arms and shoulders, all of which seemed to reflect the light as though it had been varnished. Looking it over, she briefly made out the weak glow of several green rune patterns fading away. She looked up and noticed that in her fright she'd also completely missed the tell-tale green glow of his eyes.

*Well that explains the earthquake. This guy must be carrying a rock Toah somewhere in that body.*

Indeed it would also account for him leaving himself so exposed; the spiritual entity in him most likely had hardened his skin to the point where it acted like its own armour.

Covering the demon's lower regions was an ankle length cloth, deep turquoise in colour and emblazoned with the mark of the Trubendak. Underneath he wore tight armoured pants and toeless boots. Belted on either side of his waist were two samurai swords around which his free hand was tightly clasped in preparation.

The female groaned inwardly and looked up at Xanathan "Could you please exercise a little more control over your minions? It's not a good idea to their paranoia run rampant!"

"General Kyrnas was not being paranoid. He was stating a very valid fact: morphs who feel the need to rush through their actions are obviously harbouring a distrust of those around them and clearly you do not trust us at all." He stepped back and folded his arms across his chest. "Stand down and let her get up Kyrnas. Let's try to reduce the tension in here."

The mangek demon nodded and lowered his sword (although she now saw it was actually a long, double bladed bisento.). He held out his hand respectively. "Still, if you please."

The female watched him for a second before slowly reaching into her cloak and tugging out a large mahogany box which she cautiously placed in his hand.

"Thank you." Kyrnas replied in a surprisingly sincere voice. Setting his weapon down he opened the box and studied its contents intently. The hooded morph sucked in a breath as the moment of truth dawned. They had what they wanted, she was no longer of any use to them and here in the middle of the demon homeland it was highly unlikely anyone would pay attention to the dying screams of a female that had made the caustic mistake of taking someone at their word.

But the moment passed without event and Kyrnas closed the box again. "She's come through for us my Master."

Kryegore swept his cloak out of the way and sat back down on his throne. "Time and time again the inhabitants of this world never cease to surprise me. Even after the long falling out with the other kingdoms my subjects are still allowed to roam freely throughout this world and any trust I might place in one of another race is repaid in full." He linked his fingers together and closed his eyes temporarily shutting off the steady plumes of smoke. "I never thought that anyone would be prepared to let bygones be long gones and move on."

"Well of course. It's you we hate, not those whom you rule over." The female said with underlying anger in her voice. "Now I've held up my part of the bargain, what about you huh?"

As if in response, a smaller pair of doors set off to one side snapped open with the same flame effects. In walked two more demons clad in black robes supported by a big gaudy pair of red shoulder pads and belted with red sashes. Their heads were shaved which showed off their equally black scales to no end. Their expressions looked blank, emotionless, but still seemed to pierce her to her core. Their hands were folded together in the traditional prayer position, heads bowed in contemplation as they approached the three. The female recognised them as two monks of the Dyrkins, the race of demons renowned for their staggering knowledge and functions of logic as well as their understanding of all forms of magik (not to mention that, despite their behaviour and titles, they had nothing whatsoever to do with any actual religion).

"What's all this?" she asked confused.

Xanathan opened his fiery eyes and smoke again spilled out from them.

"As you say, the many consider me to be the scourge of Artauk, and while that may or may not be true it doesn't give me the right to back out on my promises!" Xanathan stated firmly. "You delivered what I asked of you, now I intend to carry out your request."

He turned to the Dyrkins. "You've both been briefed and given time to prepare. I believe you have a fix on where she wishes to go now?"

"Yes, master." they both said in unison.

"Then do as she says and send her there!" he commanded.

The Dyrkins bowed in obedience and spread their hands out, revealing identical red jewels clasped between them. Slowly they parted and glided across the room until they were standing face to face on opposite sides of the flame pool. Bowing their heads they raised the jewels and began chanting like Shakespearean witches: quick, rhythmic and in unnervingly eerie voices. After several moments of this the jewels began to radiate a strange aura around them. Gradually the monks brought them up on level with their eyes which the female noticed where also radiating the same aura. Drawing in a huge breath of air they unanimously cried out in some form of bastardised basic and beams of vaporised blood shot out of their eyes, surging through the jewels and into the flames. Stomping down a sudden desire to just run like hell from the premises, the hooded female watched as the flames shift and part. Out of the void rose another jaunt gate, crackling with pent up energy and ready to transport individuals into the far reaches of the lands.

"This gate is designed to send morphs to any location in the whole of Artauk; through here you will find what you seek!" The monks cried out. "Go now!"

She closed her red eyes and sighed to herself, if nothing else at least it was a way out of this mad house. As she gripped her cloak and leapt into the gate her mind could only focus on one thing:

*Kai, I'm coming for you!*

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• Somewhere outside of Rencort -

The aforementioned gecko took another long drink from her water bag as she and Kitya walked down the pathway through the countryside. They'd been making steady progress through the day but now that the sun had reached its peak in the sky the summer heat was starting to get to them, Kitya especially.

Eventually they came to the bank of a river and decided to rest there for a while.

"Gods, I can't believe I'm saying this but if there's anything to be said in defence of Larathaan it's that it's never too hot down there." the kitsune dumped her stuff and sat in the shade of a large tree, mopping sweat off her brow.

Kai knelt next to the river and refilled her bag. "I find the heat to be quite enjoyable."

Kitya smiled wearily "Yes well you're a reptile. This is supposed be ideal weather for you." She wiped her brow again. "Having thick fur is definitely not an advantage around these parts."

"Well the sun has completed its midday movement so it can only get cooler now." the gecko gripped her bag and placed two fingers on the leather hide. Closing her eyes she focused on cultivating an ice flow, feeling the prickly sensation as the freezing process inside her body began. Taking a breath she concentrated on coursing it through her finger tips as she slowly ran them over the leather, cooling the water inside. She handed it to Kitya who took a long drink and then poured a small amount into her paw and splashed her face.

"Brrrrrr, THAT was welcome!" She handed it back. "Thanks Kai, no one's been kind enough to give me ice water since my first cycle on the Plane."

Kai sat on a rock opposite her. "That's something I've been meaning to ask you about, Kitya. According to legend, Larathaan is supposed to be a nightmarish experience beyond imagination yet despite what you've told me and the permanent reminders the deceased left on you, you don't seem that bitter about it."

Kitya shrugged. "One must keep in mind that the key part in creating a legend is to make things seem far better or worse than they actually are. The deceased among the Plane did the most depraved things they could to me yet here I am, alive, healthy and not that much worse off than before. And unlike me they have no hope of salvation. Nothing remains for them except eternal punishment." She paused for thought then continued. "I guess what I feel for them now is more along the lines of pity rather than hatred." Kitya looked down at the ground "Besides, if I had to be truthful not all of the demons down there are bad. Some of them actually regret what they did in life and try to make amends. They of course don't do it publicly since most don't feel sorry at all but in private, like when it was their turn to use me, they tried to be gentle and not do any of the painful stuff like burning or skinning."

The kitsune gazed off into the distance. "They're the ones that helped me keep my spirits up, the ones who actually spurned me on to continue enduring the endless degradation." She exhaled as Kai contemplated her words.

"Your wisdom is quite astounding Kitya. I doubt anyone would be able to find it in themselves to forgive after everything you went through."

"I know. Being what I am now helped me to realise being a demon doesn't necessarily entail you're evil."

"Yes, I guess to extent that is true. Just because the one in charge is a bad apple doesn't mean every single soul that hails from Mueradav is the same."

*Although that's a fairly accurate description of the majority.* She thought bitterly before continuing. "Though what I find puzzling is why public dislike for the Demon Master was cemented long before he ever began his conquests."

Kitya took another drink from the bag. "Master Rathiman told me it's because he became a Fire Toah carrier at birth but went on to learn sorcery as well. If you're not aware, it's a cardinal rule enforced every where in the world that Toah carriers be banned from ever dabbling in the arts of magik. It's to prevent any one morph from ever becoming too powerful. But Xanathan carried on regardless and he became quite proficient in many areas of magik, especially those pertaining to the forces of nature."

A chuckle rose from her lips. "It's actually kind of ironic, if he hadn't directly violated the sacred law he'd have never discovered the power of the Genesis stones and opened a new field of possibilities for other mages."

Kai cocked her head. "Rathiman said Kryegore was the only one who knew how to use that power."

"He alone knows how to create the stones and infuse them with energy but his methods proved that the natural world can be tamed and bent to a single cause if needs be. Before then all mages just assumed it was a force beyond our control, now we can grow crops even during a drought, lessen the damage of torrential rainstorms and tons of other things to help sustain life for longer."

Kitya looked to the distance again. "Then after that he took control of Ateir, learned all about Necromancy and...well you know the rest."

"That I unfortunately do." Kai clenched her hands into fists. "Xanathan will never get a chance to use the Arctic Diamond. I'll make certain of that."

Kitya stood up. "And you have my word I'll be there to assist you."

Kai smiled at the kitsune. "Your aid is most appreciated but unnecessary. One of the crucial things a ninja must learn is how to survive on their own." She stroked the kitsune's shoulder "You'd be of far greater help to me just being my friend and companion."

Kitya smiled back. "You've already got that from me."

"Then I am that much better off." Kai gauged the trajectory of the sun before picking up her equipment. "Come on we can still cover a few more shindals before nightfall."

Kitya nodded and began gathering up her stuff as well. She got as far as putting her paws on the straps of her travelling case before the arrow zinged through the air, pierced through both straps and buried itself in the trunk of the tree. Kitya froze and blinked, not sure if she'd imagined what she just saw. She blinked again to clear her vision but the evidence was still there: two small holes through the leather. With trepidation her eyes turned to the shaft of the arrow and studied the angle it stuck out from the trunk, too far to the right to have hit her, probably a warning shot. The kitsune turned around to see if Kai had noticed but the gecko was still busy hauling stuff onto her back.

"Uh...K-K-Kai?"

The gecko turned in response. She stopped momentarily when she saw the arrow before spinning around to face the river and assuming a combat hiju. She was rewarded by another arrow zipping past at an angle, nicking her on the arm before it joined the first one in the tree.

"Nice reactions girl, but don't yea think it's a little late in the day for kung-fu?" A sinister voice called out from the trees.

Kai said nothing but remained focused, ignoring the wound on her arm. Kitya just looked around uneasily.

"Not a talker scaley girl? Fine wiv me. Just to let you know Lebak and Rynskav 'ave an arrow each pointed at you and your friend's 'eart so you best not be startlin' them wiv any fast moves 'kay?"

*Bandits!* Kitya thought nervously. "W-What are we going to do Kai?" she whispered.

The gecko surveyed the surroundings with a seasoned awareness that would rival any predatory bird. Slowly she lowered her arms and resumed a less hostile stance. "We'll do what they tell us to do." She prompted her statement with a subtle wink to the kitsune.

"Thas' better girl. Now yea must be finding those bags to be a might 'eavy. Place 'em on the ground in front of yea slowly, especially yer weapons!"

Kai gave an annoyed growl as she slung the bags off her back and place them on the ground as instructed. She turned to Kitya and motioned for her to do the same as she lay down her ice lance and placed her shuriken discus and throwing knives on top of it.

"Right now you do the same foxy."

Kitya moved over nearer to Kai and placed her stuff with the geckos along with her Wurbeinger daggers.

"Lovely, good to see not everyone around 'ere feels the need tae be a hero."

Kai looked up into the trees. "We are defenceless. You have no need to remain hidden now."

"That yea be right about." The voice said as the trees rustled with the sound of several morphs dropping out of them. Kai tensed as her eyes calmly scanned left and right, readying her for anything. More rustling and out stepped nine male morphs: a shepherd, two wolves, a tiger, an elk, a wart hog, two sheep and a sand goanna. All were sneering at the women with a mixture of lust and greed dominating their features. A variety of short swords and daggers decorated their waists while the wolves' paws were gripped around longbows, both still at full draw.

"Very nice" the shepherd said as he bent down and searched through their possessions. "Though not have as nice as you." He said bearing his teeth at the gecko and kitsune. "Not often we get two girls as pretty as you wonderin' round these parts. Eck me mates were starin' at you like yea were bloomin angels from the heavens when yea first stopped."

Kai remained silent while Kitya swallowed hard. "You...you were watching us the whole time?"

"Yep." The shepherd sneered. "Lovely bit o 'eart to 'eart yea girls were 'avin. Sorry we 'ad to break it up but then we couldn't just let yea leave now could we?"

He groped Kai's breasts as the gecko stared back emotionlessly.

"Yer scaled friend ain't got much of a voice 'as she?" He commented snidely as he gripped her chin. "What's a matter girl, too much for you to handle? Taken the breath from your mouth 'ave I ?" He taunted.

Kitya steeled herself. She knew Kai had something planned but guessed she couldn't strike while all eyes were on her.

*Well, maybe I can fix that.* The kitsune thought. "Excuse me but could you please stop calling us 'girls'? We do have names."

The shepherd looked at her like a parent would look at a disobedient child that was need of a good smack. "Foxy 'ave a look around, me mates and I 'ave your weapons in addition to our own, we've got you outnumbered and we've got your lives 'anging by a thread." He grabbed her muzzle and squeezed it painfully shut. "As I understand it I've got every right to call you whatever suits me!" He belted her across the face with his other paw. Kitya tumbled to the ground as the shepherd watched with misogynistic amusement.

"Pah, who do you think you are anyway?" He kicked her sharply in the ribs forcing a small whine from the kitsune.

"She is Kitya Anor." Kai slowly turned to regard the canine. "And I am Kai Sikahr. Remember both names well for this shall be the only time you ever hear either of them."

Kai let a tiny smile pass across her face before she nailed the shepherd in the chops with a lightning fast spinning kick. The dog's brain barely had time to even register the movement before pain shot through his jaw and he found himself sailing into the tree trunk. Kai let her legs slip, causing her to sink to the ground into a splits position as the wolves' arrows sailed over head. One pierced the shepherd's ear; the other landed a mere inch from his cheek.

Anger seeped through her body as Kai felt her Toah powers begin to rise in preparation for an all out assault. Taking advantage of the brief lag while the wolves drew again, Kai grabbed their bows and froze them solid before ripping them out of their paws and shattering them on the ground.

"A carrier! The girl's a vlesking carrier!" one of the thieves yelled.

*Wonder what gave it away.* The lizard thought sarcastically as she swept her foot out and nailed both of the wolves in the shins before doing a back flip and catching them on the chin with her boots. They grunted in unison as they crumbled to the ground.

Kai landed on her feet in time to hear the foreboding sound of several blades being unsheathed. Relaxing her body the lizard again dropped into a crouch and stretched one foot out to hook underneath her lance. With a quick flick of her leg she flipped it upwards and shot up like a coiled spring to catch it.

"This wench is mine!" the sand goanna yelled as he held up his knife and leapt into the air. Kai stood her ground until the last minute then rolled underneath him and latched firmly onto his crotch with her free hand. The goanna's eyes went wide with surprise and pain as his pants and genitals were encased in a thick shell of ice which was then joined by the agony of sudden impact as Kai tightened her grip on his nether regions and threw him off course. He crashed onto the ground and curled up into a ball, whimpering in agony.

Kai whirled around to face the remaining assailants, lance now in hand and grevious bodily harm very prominent in her mind.

"Alright, thas enough girl! My patience cannae only go so far!!"

Kai's eyes darted left at the voice. Cautiously she turned around to see the shepherd, blood dripping down his face from the tattered remains of his ear and one paw pulling Kitya's head back at an alarming angle while the other held a blade at her throat.

"Drop the pointy stick now!"

Kai stared at the canine with the utmost loathing in her blue eyes but nonetheless she put down her lance.

"Now close yer eyes and put yer 'ands on that rock. And if yea ever so much as breathe too deeply then foxy here's gonna be sportin' some nice shades of red fur tae go with the white!!"

Kai gave Kitya one last glance, just enough to say she hadn't let the gecko down and she needn't blame herself later on if anything happened to her. The lizard shut her eyes and rested her hands on the rock waiting for whatever these scum wanted to do to her in retaliation. She soon got her request as a remarkably well aimed foot vaulted down onto the back of her head, smashing her into the rock and causing no small amount of agony.

"That's for Silverclaw's gonads scaly."

Kai didn't move, not wanting to make the situation any worse for either her or Kitya. Another foot connected with her stomach. Fortunately it encountered some resistance with the padding of her belt and the muscles down there so the damage wasn't as severe.

"That is for Lebak and Rynskav, who by the way yea now owe some new bows to."

Kai then felt the cold crystalline edge of a dau-thadi knife grazing over the skin of her neck. It soon left as the shepherd drew back in preparation.

"And this is for me ear bitch!!"

Kai inhaled and braced herself for the searing pain of her scales tearing apart as the crystalline blade found its way into her body but inexplicably it did not come. Instead she gradually became aware of a high pitched humming as well as light beginning to seep back into her eyes even though she had them shut tight. Deciding to risk it, Kai opened her left eye just a crack and was greeted with the sight of the thieves and Kitya staring up in bewilderment as a shimmering bright hole formed in the canopy of the trees. Before everyone's eyes it grew to become a ring of light around a dark circle.

"What the?" was all the shepherd managed to get out before the gateway pulsed and spat out the hooded figure from Mueradav. Kai watched in amazement as she spun down through the foliage with remarkable grace and precision to land right in front of her, her cloak tumbling around the rock between them.

"Geez, you'd think he'd at least have had the decency to provide a slightly less hectic mode of transport." The female grumbled as she dusted herself off. "Then again, I guess I shouldn't complain. I mean he did let me leave in one piece and it's not like I ever specified 'Method of travel must not involve enough tossing and tumbling to rival a bowl of salaaa...'"

The female stopped as she looked up with her red eyes and found herself staring into Kai's blue ones. For a moment the two regarded each other in shock silence before the stranger again found the wind to speak. "Oh...oh gods...Kai?"

The gecko nodded slowly as she looked the female over. Right now her cloak still concealed much of her body and the hood was pulled up far enough to obscure any hint of identity.

All of this suddenly ceased to matter however when the stranger brought her hands up to her face and squealed in utter exhilaration.

"Kai it's you! I can't believe it's actually you!!" She took hold of Kai's hands and felt them over as if trying to further confirm her statements. "Oh mehesus, I can't believe it. After all these cycles I've finally found you!! Gods I knew it was a risky move but dang it if it wasn't worth it!! Oh Kai you have no idea how long I've been waiting for this moment!!" She sounded quite jubilant which put Kai a little more at ease even if she had no idea who she was.

"What is this!? A bloomin' acrobat's reunion!?" The shepherd spat out causing the female to stop her exuberant rantings and turn to regard him. "Right then girl, if yea so 'appy to meet with the wench then maybe you'd like to share in her pain too!" He looked over at the others. "Hold both of them down fer me while I introduce me knife to the cold sheath of scaley blood!"

The stranger cocked her head and turned back to Kai. "Are these guys giving you hassle?"

"Something like that." the lizard replied.

"Okay hold on for just a little bit longer." She ducked under the swing of the tiger's claws and rammed her elbow into his stomach. The tiger doubled over coughing and wheezing and was rewarded for his actions by a fist being delivered to his face followed by a boot being rammed into his gut, knocking him into the river. The stranger snapped up Kai's lance and handed it to her again.

"Here, this is yours I take it?" she asked.

"Yes, it is." Kai accepted it with reserve.

"What do yea think yer up to?" The shepherd snarled as he and the other thieves circled around the two.

"Rules just changed hot shot." The hooded morph's eyes narrowed as she reached up to undo the clasp of her cloak. "If you mess with Kai," Her hands disappeared inside again as she pulled something metallic from its scabbard. "Then you're going to have to mess with me too!"

With a flourish the stranger threw off her cloak and Kai received her second surprise of the day.

Standing before her in all her glory was another gecko, virtually identical in appearance to her. The only visible difference (aside from the red eyes) was that while Kai's scales were deep green in colour, the stranger's were slate grey with hints of black here and there. She was dressed in an open black leather vest with a pink undershirt, belted pants, greaves, boots and wrist length gloves. Around her head was a headband like Kai's (though grey in colour) and in her hands were clasped a pair of meaty scimitars. The stranger cracked her neck and stood ready for action. "Alright then boys, let's see how you fare against less favourable odds!"

The shepherd merely raised an eyebrow and turned to his cohorts. "Change of plans mates, bleed the grey one till she's dry, I'll handle the green one!"

They charged.

"Just trust me." The grey lizard said to Kai as she simultaneously parried a slash from one of the sheep and the hog. The stranger quickly followed up with a kick to the hog's crotch and swished her free sword down to plant a long gash on the sheep's arm.

Kai, though still bewildered as ever, decided that since this newcomer was on her side then it probably wasn't best to argue with her right now. She spun her lance around and deflected a slash from the shepherd's blade before spearing it in between her own and knocked it aside.

"Right I've 'ad just about enough of you!!" The shepherd snarled as he switched his blade to underhand and pounced.

*Makes two of us.* Kai thought bitterly as she scanned his every movement and somersaulted backwards, deflecting his sideways thrust with a well aimed kick. The shepherd quickly pulled another knife from his belt and spun around to face the gecko again but Kai saw to that by first delivering a roundhouse kick to knock the blades out of his paws and then pole vaulting into the air to slam both her feet down into his head. Knocked for a loop, the canine barely put up a struggle when Kai speared both his knives with her lance and flicked them into the river.

"ACKPTH! YOU SKULKING BITCH!" Kai heard a voice cry out. It was the tiger, fresh from his bath and with murder in his eyes. He growled ferociously and charged for the grey gecko as she danced her way around the thrusts and slashes of the two wolves and the sheep.

"Behind you!" Kai called out as he ran towards her. The stranger quickly glanced behind and a little smile found residence on her face as the tiger surged forward. "YOU'RE DEAD!!!" he roared.

"Can't kill what you can't see." The grey one smirked as she crouched and closed her eyes. For a moment all was still, and then Kai suddenly became aware of it growing very dark very quickly. She looked up to see a thick massive cloud of smoke forming around the morphs, blotting out the skies and casting everything into darkness.

"Wha...what's going on?"

"Hey what happened to the sun?"

"Bring it on boys."

Kai searched blindly as the sounds of fighting continued all around her but her visibility in this fog obviously wasn't going to be much.

*Remember, a true ninja is able to use any one of their senses to determine their surroundings.*

Closing her eyes, Kai concentrated on listening to the sounds of metal clashing with metal, the swish of blades cutting through the air, the whoosh of a foot sailing down to land on her...head!?

Kai threw herself to the right and swung her own foot around to nail her assailant, the sand goanna, in his still tender nether regions. The poor reptile didn't even have a chance to scream as the ice covering them shattered allowing her boot to make contact. He crashed onto the ground again and was mercifully knocked unconscious by the impact. Kai smiled slightly but her moment of joy was quickly ended when the sound of a female in pain rang out. Sunlight suddenly began breaking through the smoke cover as it dispersed, revealing the elk holding a bloody sword and standing over the stranger who, Kai noticed, was now sporting an intriguing variety of red rune patterns on her face, arms and tail.

"Okay, you got one on me finally. Your ego can rest safely now." The female said sarcastically as she held her hand over a nasty gash on her leg.

The elk raised his sword up to finish the job, only for Kai to blast his arm with an ice flow and freeze it in an upraised position. The elk grit his teeth as he ripped a knife out with his good hand and hurled it at Kai but the lizard simply primed another blast and froze the blade solid in mid air before shattering it with her lance. The elk sneered and raced towards her while trying to break his iced over arm free.

"I don't think so boy." The stranger said scornfully as she slashed him across the top of his hoof, severing numerous tendons and severely damaging his leg. Kai spun her lance around and slapped him hard on the wrist, breaking through the ice cover with enough momentum to slice into his skin as well. The elk bellowed from the combined pain and fell to his knees in mortal agony. Kai silenced him with another hard round house kick to the head which broke his antler and knocked him completely senseless while the stranger grabbed onto one of the sheep which was trying to attack her from behind and threw him over her shoulder and onto the elk.

"Oh vlesk it! I forfeit!" The tiger said as he dragged himself back to his feet and ran off into the trees with the sheep hot on his tail.

"Yer goin nowhere mates until we're up to our knees in lizard blood!!" the shepherd screamed as the wooziness wore off.

"Forget it! I'm not going up against two carriers!!" The hog ran off followed by the wolves.

"GET BACK HERE YEA BLOODY COW..." was all the shepherd managed to get out before a bolt of white light hit him in the back and knocked him to the ground again.

"They saw the error of their ways. Why can't you?" Kitya calmly approached.

"You go to hell wench!!" The shepherd seethed.

"No thanks, I just got back from there," Kitya held up a spell parchment. "And let me say this: they've got a lot more culture down there than you'd think." She said the necessary incantations and another bolt of light slammed down into the shepherd's head knocking him unconscious.

"Thank you." Kai said as she held her lance over the canine and immobilised him in a full body shell of ice.

"Don't mention it." Kitya smiled as she walked over to the grey lizard. "I think we should both be thanking you for leaping in when you did. I doubt the outcome would've been as happy if you hadn't turned up."

"Hey I'll do anything to protect Kai and her friends." She removed her hand and let Kitya observe the wound on her leg. "But how'd you finally put the damn nuisance down like that?"

"A little spell my master taught me. It's called 'The Illuminous Battering Ram.'. Quite handy for when you're trying to break through a door, or in this case getting someone to shut up but don't want to cause any lasting damage."

She reached out and took hold of Kai's arm. "And speaking of damage, let's see what I can do about fixing yours." She chanted another incantation and a slowly pulsing cloud of warm, pink vapour rose from her paws and drifted into the two geckos' wounds taking away the pain and stopping the bleeding. "There, feel better now?"

"Much better. You're quite handy to have around, Miss?"

"Oh my name's Kitya."

"And you clearly already know who I am, so that only leaves the obvious question of who are you?"

The female responded by sheathing her scimitars and reaching into her vest. "Before I tell you I need to try something, something I was told to do if and when I found you." She brought her hand back out and Kai's eyes nearly popped out of her skull, for clasped in the stranger's paw was, a shurikin discus! Kai grabbed her own from the ground and compared the two; they were identical in all aspects.

"Who are you?" Kai repeated barely able to hide her surprise and apprehension.

The gecko smiled brightly as she gently took hold of Kai's hand and locked her red eyes with her blue ones. "My name is Assaiis Sikahr, I'm your twin sister."

Kai just stood frozen to the spot with shock as Assaiis smiled and hugged her tightly while Kitya watched with relieved joy. "Mehesus, I can't believe it! Kai isn't this wonderful?" The kitsune said with excitement.

The gecko just nodded as she tried wrapping her head around the revelation.

*My sister?? Is it really possible?*

Doubt began creeping into Kai's mind but as she looked down at the grey gecko it soon gave way to any overbearing feeling of happiness.

*So Rathiman was right! I do have siblings!!* Kai thought as she dropped her lance and hugged back with as much enthusiasm.

"May the gods be praised we're finally together, even if it had to be under less than pleasant circumstances!" Assaiis said as she looked around at the remains of the fight that had just taken place. Kai followed her gaze and disentangled from her sister as her more rational side surfaced again.

"Yes, and unless you wish to see a repeat we should really be moving out of here. There's no guarantee those lyeserks won't suddenly get their courage back and return for a second round." Kai started grabbing her belongings off the ground as Kitya followed suite.

"Sounds good." Assaiis quickly retrieved her cloak and rolled it up. "I hope you don't mind carrying this, I sort of had to travel light to get here when I did.'

"Oh, think nothing of it." Kitya smiled sweetly as she took it from the lizard and tucked into her carrying sac.

The three quickly packed up and left down the road as a distinctly large black bird up in the trees chirped in relief.

*Gods be praised indeed. I'm just glad those two managed to find each other in the nick of time.* It thought as it looked up at the sky in contempt.

*Now if only this blasted sun would set I'd be able to share in the reunion!*

**************************************************************************

-Meanwhile, back in Mueradav-

General Kyrnas slowly walked down the corridor to Xanathan Kryegore's private laboratory. His face was clouded by unease with a subtle amount of anger mixed in; his steps were heavy with trepidation. Though he considered himself to be one of, if not the most trustworthy member of the Demon Master's inner circle his heart was still filled with dread at the message he'd been asked to deliver from the Dyrkin monks.

*Why should I be worrying? I've always been loyal to my master.*

Kyrnas inhaled deeply and steeled himself. Whatever happened he would not show unease, Xanathan deserved to see him as what he was, the confident and eternally faithful commander of his legions.

The doors swung open with the unsettling flame effects to reveal another massive room stocked with potions, scrolls and books with a huge conical vat of bubbling liquid occupying the centre.

Xanathan stood leaning on one of the table tops, fingers gently tapping the surface as his eyes scanned over three large gems floating in front of him. Each was a sickly shade of brownish red with revolting thick purple veins snaking out and intertwining all over the faces.

Kyrnas walked up to stand by the Demon Master's knee and cleared his throat. "Um, master?"

"I know, unimaginable isn't it? Even though I've managed to contain the Chasos samples within my Genesis stones its power is still sufficient to enable it to seep back out in very small quantities."

He stood up and folded his arms. "In their present state they will stop the samples from spreading, but if I attempt to use them they will shatter as all the others did." Kryegore closed his smoking eyes and bowed his helmeted head. "A power so strong it can even break out of my impenetrable Genesis stones, what a truly devastating force that has been unleashed on our world."

He turned and walked away from the table. "Kyrnas, send four more of your most experienced warriors to the fissure in the Richi forest. I must have more Chasos if I am to continue my studies."

Kyrnas narrowed his glowing green eyes. "Master, if I may speak freely for a moment?"

Kryegore looked back and nodded. "Do so. As I've said before you needn't fear losing favour with me."

"Sir, you have already seen more than substantial evidence of the true might of Chasos, why must you keep putting my best soldiers at risk when we already know that it is a most formidable weapon?"

Xanathan spread his fingers as a small ball of fire sprouted in the palm of his gauntlet.

"A weapon may be formidable, but it is only useful when one has the assurance that it will not wreak the same havoc on allies as well as enemies."

He waved his other hand over the fire in a slow circular motion, causing the flames to gradually grow in both size and intensity under his perfectly focused control.

"If I am to ever use Chasos against the common enemies of the demons then I must learn everything there is to know about it. Containing it is not enough, I must know how to make it obey my every command, I must learn how to keep my troops protected from its lethal effects. If possible, dare I say, I must even learn how to destroy it!!"

As Xanathan's words grew in their intensity so did the fireball, enlarging and spreading over the Demon Master's hand and fingers. Seeing this, Xan growled quietly and curled his now flaming hand into a fist. Kyrnas watched in amazement as the fire thrashed around trying to reach the air it was being denied and was then forced to extinguish itself. Kryegore nodded in contentment and walked over to a huge tankard of water to clean off his gauntlet.

"Now, what did you need to see me about?" He asked the mangek as he wiped his rings clean.

Kyrnas swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "The Dyrkin monks have finished testing what our retriever brought back."

"And?"

"It appears she wasn't quite as honest as we initially believed her to be."

Xanathan stopped and tilted his head down to face the mangek with a piercing stare. "What do you mean?"

Kyrnas breathed again as he fought off the uneasiness. "What she presented to us was not the genuine thing, but a very clever, yet useless, forgery."

The Demon Master scanned his general for several seconds, peering right into the very core of Kyrnas' body before exhaling and storming out.

"You must understand sir," Kyrnas pleaded as he followed behind. "It was absolutely flawless in design. Neither I nor the monks could find anything wrong with it until we tried summoning its powers and found it empty."

"Yes I do understand Kyrnas, and perhaps I should've expected as much." Xanathan said reproachfully while several guards and servants leapt out of his way in fright as the gigantic syrkon marched up and down the corridors, eventually arriving at the doors to his throne room. "But the only way she could have come up with a forgery so perfect it would fool even you is if she actually had the object in her possession to use as a model."

The doors burst open and Kryegore approached the flame pool which two monks were tending to. "She certainly was successful in obtaining it, ergo she either still has it with her or knows where it is." He folded his arms behind his cloak as he contemplated something.

"Shall I prepare a full battalion to go and bring her back?" Kyrnas asked, thankful that his master's reaction hadn't been as violent as he'd feared.

Xanathan gazed down into the fierce but silent flames. "While the idea does have its appeal I do not wish to risk worsening relations with the neighbouring provinces further by sending armies out at this moment." Xan turned back to his general with a knowing glint in his smoking hot eyes. "Which is why I took the liberty of having a back up plan in place should something like this crop up."

As if on cue another set of side doors snapped open, revealing a black female Anubian Jackal dressed in yellow ninja gear. Her head was bowed low in respect as she entered the room, light reflecting off her arm bands and the golden rune designs around her eyes as well as the trim of her braids and the crystalline dau-thadi blades of the two sappara swords strapped to her back.

"Well well, so the great Kyrnas Verakna has been outwitted by a common thief has he? How embarrassing, yet fitting." She sneered under her mask at the mangek.

Kyrnas regarded her in a mixture of shock and contempt as she approached the Demon Master and looked up at him with the milky pupils of her almost totally white eyes.

"You're sending HER after the lizard?" The mangek asked in disbelief.

"Her tracking abilities cannot be faulted; neither can her fighting skills or her deadliness." Kryegore folded his hands over his chest. "You are to find Assaiis and use whatever means necessary to discover what her true agenda is and where she has hidden what I sent her to retrieve."

He stepped away from the pool as the Dyrkins repeated their little ceremony, causing the Jaunt gate to again rise in preparation. "She can't have gotten far from the location where the monks transported her. Start there and do not disappoint me!"

"You have nothing to worry about master. She will get her comeuppance!" the jackal bowed and flexed her impressive biceps, displaying the black canine skulls on her arm pads before leaping into the gate and vanishing away.

"Sir, with all due respects, do you really think this is a wise idea?"

"She has proven her worthiness to us many times Kyrnas. You of all my commanders should remember that foremost." Xanathan said as he went and sat down on his throne.

"Yes that I do." Kyrnas sighed and turned to leave. "I just wish she weren't so disrespectful of everyone that outranks her."

**************************************************************************

-Somewhere between Rencort and Faltadt-

Seconds later the jackal found herself falling through the trees as Assaiis had done earlier, gracefully tumbling down the length of the foliage to land in the exact same spot. A look of confusion briefly over came her features as she looked over the still unconscious sand goanna and elk which was then replaced with evil glee when she saw the frozen cocoon of the shepherd.

*So she just waltzes out of Master Kryegore's palace and then immediately sets about beating the tar out of a bunch of marauding males.*

The jackal knelt beside the iced canine and placed her fist on a spot over his torso. With clear and precise aim she pulled her fist back and drove it down into the ice, shattering it with ease.

*I might just consider adding this little bitch to my own collection. After I'm through punishing her for her crimes of course!*

She finished breaking the shepherd free and laid him on the ground, surprised that he was coming round so quickly after being in the ice cocoon.

"Oooogghh, wha...wha...wha, th-th-th-the 'eck?" He shivered as he blinked his eyes as though trying to get his vision to focus.

"Just relax sir, I've gotten you out of that cold prison." she said as she stroked through his wet head fur. "Ssshhh, you're disorientated and in hypothermic shock. It'll pass."

"W-w-who...who a-a-are you?" The shepherd reached up to feel over the head band around her ears and then caressed her masked muzzle.

"Just a concerned passer by who hates seeing a fellow canine in distress." She said in a deceptively seductive voice. Placing her paw behind the shepherd's head she helped prop him up to a sitting position. "Now can you tell me who did this?"

"B-b-b-b-bitch of, of a g-g-gecko!"

"A gecko hmm? Grey scales with red glowing eyes perhaps?"

"Y-y-y-y-yeah. 'Er and th-th-th-th-that other one...in, in the b-b-b-blue n-n-n-ninja outfit."

The jackal raised an eyebrow. "Two of them? You poor thing, why did they attack you?"

"B-b-b-because o-o-o-of the f-f-foxy companion." The shepherd continued to shiver terribly from the ice.

"Any idea where they may have gone?"

The shepherd tried to come up with an answer but his thinking was clearly still sluggish. " D-d-d-d-don't know." He kept trembling. "P-p-p-please, s-s-so c-c-cold!"

The jackal observed him in contemplation. "Nobody should have to suffer like you have."

If the shepherd had been a little more alert, he may have caught the sinister edge creeping into his jackal rescuer's voice as she said that.

As it was his first inkling of anything being wrong with the picture came only after the blade had been driven clear through his brain and pierced the front of his skull.

"Suffer no more." The jackal said as she felt the body in her arms seize up and then go limp.

Satisfied, she dropped the corpse and rose to survey the sand goanna and the elk.

"Now then," She walked over and placed a paw on each of their heads. "I have need of you two in a more active state."

Bright yet eerie waves of light flowed from the jackal's paws into the other morphs' minds.

"However I demand that your total obedience to me comes without question."

**************************************************************************

• Meanwhile -

Kai, Kitya and Assaiis walked along the path in high spirits. The warm orange glow of early evening mingling with the glow of contentment each felt in their souls.

"So who would have thought it? My twin sister, a Laniian ninja and an Ice Toah carrier." Assaiis smiled as she wrapped an arm around Kai's waist. "I don't think I could ask for a more perfect embodiment of the Sikahr's most positive attributes."

"You seem to embody them fairly well yourself." Kai commented.

"Though if you don't mind my asking, what's your story of how you came to be?" Kitya asked with intrigue. "I'd love to know more about you."

Assaiis let go of Kai and crossed her hands behind her back. "Well my life could be described as a sort of reversed version of Kai's." She noticed they were coming to another outcrop of rocks and motioned for them to go over and take another break. "Our mother laid me in the fire pits of the forest of Tomagahl. It's a damn sight warmer than Mt. Fuschia so I didn't have to struggle as much to stay alive after I'd hatched." A smile crossed her grey scaled face as she sat on one of the rocks and leaned back. "And as you may have guessed it also turned out to be a haven for Smoke Toah so now I can bring particles together to form clouds of the stuff and pass unseen from place to place as well as confuse the hell out of my enemies."

She demonstrated by holding out her hand and focusing. Slowly her red rune patterns revealed themselves again as a small cloud of soupy grey vapour formed around her arm. Assaiis moved it around a bit for all to see and then shut off her powers. "Cool huh?"

"Very impressive." Kai nodded. "So what happened after that?"

"I was found by a ferret called Talmein, a member of some underground network of thieves who was using the forest as a refuge to hide from the authorities."

Assaiis shrugged "I'll never know why but finding me seemed to spark some paternal instinct in him. He took me back with him to raise and train me to be his own little prodigy. Even did me the courtesy of hooking me up with several swordsmen and warrior buddies of his so I could also learn how to fight." She leaned back and looked up at the sky. "It was a hard life for both of us, stealing what we could to survive, hiding underground most days but he kept me imbued with the drive to keep going."

Kai closed her eyes and nodded. "I've always believed that even thieves have some redeemable quality about them." She smiled at her sister. "He must be proud to know of what you've become."

The happiness faded from Assaiis' eyes at that comment. "Well, I wouldn't really know about that." She gazed down at the ground as a by now all too familiar look of sadness came over her features. "He got trapped while trying to flee through the sewers of a village as it was being ravaged by Chasos during my 17th cycle." She hugged her legs and sighed in remorse. "I never even knew about it until one of his buddies passed on that he'd overheard some warrior bragging in the local tavern of how he'd fought and decapitated this rahab monster on the outskirts of the city that vaguely matched Talmein's description."

Kai lowered her gaze and sighed in acknowledgement while Kitya got up to go over and wrap a comforting hand around the grieving gecko. "I'm sorry to hear that Assaiis. Seems we've all been through a world of hurt."

Assaiis looked up at the kitsune and gave her a reassuring smile as she took hold of her paw and squeezed it.

"Well if nothing else I've always taken comfort in the fact that he considered me to be the most promising and ideal pupil he'd ever had."

"A relationship which I similarly shared with my sorsa." Kai said.

"And I with Master Rathiman." Kitya added.

Assaiis' smile grew wider at the mention. "Ah yes Rathiman, may the gods bless his heart for all eternity." She released her "I remember the day as clear as if it had been this morning. I was wandering through another of the cities, alone, lost, no idea what the heck I was going to do with my life. Then I saw this exotic weapons smith and decided that as I'd just successfully picked the coffers of a rather wealthy merchant I'd might as well indulge myself and invest in some customised weaponry more suited to my profession." She sighed. "I don't what possessed me to do it but I commissioned the guy to make me a shuriken discus. Even gave up a small amount of my blood so he could 'fix' it to my hand."

Kai nodded in recognition.

"But the biggest surprise was when I went back to collect it the next day and he asked me if I'd be willing to pay extra to have the Sikahr emblem imprinted on it."

Kai contemplated the discus on her belt. "Perhaps he's the same one who made mine."

"Probably so. I told him he must have mistaken me for someone else but he said there was no mistaking a member of the legendary Sikahr clan." Assaiis smiled knowingly. "I pressed him for details. He told me he'd been contacted by our family retainer and guardian who'd confirmed I was one of them." She got up off the rock and stretched. "I decided there obviously was more to me than I'd been lead on to believe." The gecko stepped towards her sister. "I started asking around, found out about his place in Rencort and then set off to see just what he had to say about me."

"He explained what happened to our family?" Kai asked apprehensively.

"In as much detail as he could. It was deeply saddening to hear, but then I did ask him not to omit anything so I guess I've no one to blame but myself for that."

Assaiis knelt and gripped Kai's shoulders, staring at her with contentment on her face. "But at least he put a positive spin on things when he told me about you. How you'd been recovered from that ice cavern and were exceeding all expectations in your ninja training, I tell you it was the first time in a long while I actually felt happy."

Kai sighed and smiled under her mask as she digested the information. "So Rathiman knew about you all the time."

Assaiis nodded. "He said he couldn't bring us together just yet as it would jeopardize your training so I left to find an alternate means of getting to you, much to his chagrin of course." Assaiis chuckled.

"Well your timing on finding us was impeccable." Kitya say. "And for that I am truly thankful."

Assaiis turned around and patted the kitsune on the shoulder. "Don't mention it Kitya. I'm just glad we're finally together at last."

And with that she brought both gecko and kitsune together for a group hug, feeling nothing but utter contentment radiating from all sides.

The moment was quickly ruined however by the sound of feet hitting ground at speed behind them. Immediately letting go of each other, the three morphs turned around to see a less than welcome sight: the elk and Silverclaw, the sand goanna slowly ambling towards them, heads bowed, eyes closed.

"Figured they'd get their balls back eventually." Assaiis said wearily as she stared with disdain at the morphs. "Guys, what ever you're planning, it's not worth your effort. Please can't you just admit defeat and give it up?"

Kai however studied them with a little more suspicion. "I'd assume you'd come back in full force with your cohorts."

The goanna and elk lifted their heads, revealing eyes that were completely black and totally devoid of life.

"Not...this...time!" the elk said in a flat, dead voice.

Kitya cautiously took a step back as the two former bandits brandished their blades and assumed combat stances.

"Uh, okay this has started to get creepy." Assaiis intoned, following the example.

"Be vigilante sister, I sense there's something decidedly more sinister at work here." Kai breathed before twirling her lance around and standing ready for battle.

The former bandits stared back with no hint of any emotion as they began to slowly circle around the three.

"Guard our supplies Kitya." Kai instructed. "Two on two, seems like a fair fight."

"Kai, in my experience there's nothing worse than a fair fight!" Assaiis groaned as Silverclaw leapt into the air and descended with a downward thrust of his blades. The geckos leapt in opposite directions as the lizard initiated a spinning move with his knives which Assaiis deflected and countered with a head butt. Silverclaw reeled back from the impact but strangely didn't seemed to be that fazed as he then launched a whirlwind kick to the gecko which she barely managed to evade and then followed that up with another kick and two backwards stabs.

"Damn, you've suddenly become a lot perkier!" Assaiis noted in confusion while twisting and turning herself to dodge the attacks.

"Far too much to be in character for these two." Kai answered while blocking a double thrust from the elk and knocking him to the ground with a swift roundhouse kick to the head. Assaiis nodded and parried another slash from the goanna before bringing him down to join his companion with a foot sweep. The two geckos backed away from their opponents and watched in surprise as both instantly leapt up to their feet and initiated a simultaneous flurry of punches and stabs. Kai ducked and spun her lance around like a pinwheel, her blades clinking and clashing with the elk's like a symphony of metal as she threw herself to the right, landing on her hand and using it to balance herself while she brought her legs around and pummelled the cervine in the gut with two successive kicks. Assaiis meanwhile had cart wheeled out of Silverclaw's assault trajectory and thrown him off balance with a backward kick. The move proved to be of little help as the sand goanna merely twisted his body around like a corkscrew and swished his knife in an upward curve, forcing the grey gecko to follow the example and slash him across the wrist before whipping around to knock the blade free of his hand with her tail.

*What's up with these guys?? Some passing warriors give them a crash course in kicking the shit out of morphs while they were licking their wounds or something??*

Still spinning herself out of the way, Assaiis' pondering was suddenly interrupted when her back collided with someone else's. Getting ready to skewer whoever it was, the grey gecko turned her head to see where to thrust her blade and went wide eyed when she was met with the sight of her sister staring back at her.

"Oh gods, sorry Kai! Guess I'm starting to jump at shadows here."

"Take a deep breath and stay focused, your senses won't lead you astray." Kai assured while she gauged the two morphs who were now charging at them from opposite sides. "You ever try a move like this before?"

"Sure, once or twice. Care to take the lead?"

Kai nodded and Assaiis sank to the ground, allowing her sister to nail the sand goanna with a flawlessly aimed boot to the face. "Okay now you!"

Kai similarly lowered her body so Assaiis could perform her own kick to the elk's chest. The elk grunted in discomfort but still charged on, forcing her to drop her lance and catch his hands, freezing them again before laying the cervine out with a swift uppercut and backwards somersault kick.

"Your technique is good, Assaiis." Kai said as she grabbed her lance and got back up. "But next time you may want to try aiming a little higher."

"Good advice. Let's just hope I live long enough to put it into practice." The grey gecko replied, looking in worriment as the bandits again leapt up and stood ready for the next round. "By the gods, don't these guys ever get tired?"

The geckos assumed combat stances again; their blades ready for whatever the other two morphs might have planned as they inched forward.

The fight came to an abrupt end however when two large spinning objects, connected to what looked to be long spinal cords, swept out of the trees and neatly sliced through the gonna and elk's midsections.

"Pah, this is taking far too long for my liking." A sinister female voice commented as the four bloody halves of the deceased bandits fell silently to the ground.

Kai watched the spinning objects as they were retracted back up into the trees, her highly trained eyes following them until she at last spotted their owner: the Anubian jackal ninja, standing on the branch of a nearby tree, with Kitya tied up and gagged beside her!

"No matter, they gave me the time I needed to acquire another bargaining chip." The canine sneered as she retracted the objects (butterfly knives made of bone as Kai now saw) into her paws, the blood of the sand goanna and elk dripping off them.

"Who are you?" Kai asked, her hands tightening around her lance.

"Just a mere courier, sent to retake possession of what rightfully belongs to Xanathan Kryegore and deliver it to him!" A snide smile passed the jackal's lips under her mask as Kai went wide eyed in shock and Assaiis shot up to regard her in horror. "You may address me as Hathor Sakhmet!" She concluded.

Assaiis swallowed hard and shivered as the terrible reality of what was going on shot through her mind. "Let her go! If Kryegore sent you here, then it's me you want, not her!!" she yelled.

As a response, Hathor looked down in contempt at the grey gecko under her and tutted in disproval. "On the contrary Assaiis, I need her to ensure you suffer dearly for your deception!" She permeated her statement by forcing one of her bloody butterfly knives up against the frightened kitsune's neck. "I'll get you in due course, for if either of you wish to ever get her back alive," She grabbed Kitya by the hair and hauled her up to a standing position. "Then I expect to see both of you, at a more suitable meeting place further along this path, by the first rise of darkness tonight!!!"

Before either gecko could make a move, Hathor threw herself and the kitsune off the tree branch. As Assaiis watched in horror a spinning pentagram, filled with bizarre shapes and patterns materialised on the ground under the falling morphs. In the wink of an eye, a pillar of orange light shot up out of the centre and both jackal and kitsune vanished from sight.

"KITYA!!" Assaiis screamed as she raced forward, only to be stopped by Kai grabbing her arm and dragging her back.

"It's useless Assaiis, there's no way we can follow them via that route." She whipped the gecko around and stared at her with her glowing blue eyes. "Right now I think you've got some explaining to do!"

Assaiis began to protest but one look into the stern gaze of her sister and she felt herself wilt. "Alright, then I guess there's no point in trying to deny it now." She sheathed her scimitars and sat down on the ground. "Thing is, after Talmein was killed, I decided to rethink my life and try going legitimate. Since I'd gotten to be so good at secreting stuff away from one place to another, it seemed a natural course of action for me to become a bounty retriever, helping to stealthily recover anything that morphs had had stolen from them and returning it for a price. With all the skills Talmein had taught me, plus the powers given to me by the Smoke Toah in me, I got to be very good at it." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Maybe a little too good."

"Enough to attract the attentions of the Demon Master?" Kai asked.

Assaiis nodded slowly. "Seems that for some of his latest experiments he needed something called the Night Jade, it's one of his Genesis Stones that he created to harness the power of darkness and hid away in the lands of Erenheid. But something had gone wrong. Most of the warriors he sent to guard it were slaughtered trying to protect it from something and he decided it was no longer safe to leave it where it was."

"So he sent you in to get it back for him!" Kai knelt and grabbed hold of Assaiis' shoulders "Why sister? Why did you accept?"

Assaiis shot back from the sudden movement and averted her eyes from her sibling's in shame "I-I'd developed a reputation for doing my job discreetly and quietly. I never reveal my contacts or my clients, nobody knows anyone else knows me so he felt safe using me. The fact I have a near flawless track record was probably also a plus." She closed her eyes and wiped away a tear. "I drove a bit of a hard bargain. I made him swear that if I successfully retrieved the Night Jade he had to help me in my quest to find you. Please understand, I never stated who I was after, I just gave him a specified location on Artauk and told him to send me there after I'd returned with his precious Genesis Stone."

"The clearing by the river?"

"I figured it was a good non-descript place, nothing to arouse their suspicions. See by this time I'd heard you were nearing the end of your training, so I figured I could go back to Rathiman's school and wait for you to turn up."

Kai was confused. "How did you know I'd end up there?"

Assaiis smiled weakly at her. "I'm your twin sister Kai, I'm supposed to just know these things. Course I never expected you'd be there at the same time I arrived, that was just a welcome coincidence."

Kai nodded slowly. "Then what was the deception she was referring to?"

Now it was Assaiis who looked confused. "Well come on, you don't honestly think I'd actually let Kryegore have such an awesome and potentially deadly item do you? The guy's dangerous enough with all the power and armies that he already has, no way was I gonna help him grow even stronger." She looked reproachfully at her sister. "I may be a thief but I'm not stupid."

"You kept it?"

"No, I used my skills of forgery to make a very convincing copy, then I hid the original in another more remote area of Erenheid, some place they'd never think to look, before jaunting back to Mueradav."

Kai let go of her sister and exhaled as she processed what she'd just been told.

"And now Kryegore's sent that ninja to force you to say where." Kai concluded.

Assaiis nodded sadly and rubbed her arm. "I was just so desperate to find you after all the years of searching I didn't stop to think about what I was doing or what the repercussions might be, I just leapt at the opportunity." She looked up pleadingly at her sister as tears ran down her cheeks. "I-I'm s-sorry Kai." Her gaze fell on the bleeding corpses in front of them before she turned away in revulsion. "All I wanted was for us to be together."

The green gecko looked down at the grey one, her blue glowing eyes looking into her sibling's red ones before she sighed and gently reached out to cup Assaiis' face and wipe her tears away.

"All right then Assaiis, I can see you understand what you did was poorly judged and could prove to be a very costly mistake, even if that's not what you intended for it to be. I can also see that at the core you're still as good and true as any other member of our family and from what you've told me I do believe you really did do what you did out of love for me."

She gently stroked Assaiis' cheek, causing her to murr quietly at the touch. "Also it did bring you to me, and together we stand a better chance of facing this adversary. So if it's any consolation, I'll forgive you for this." Kai said softly as she brought the two of them together for another hug, wrapping her tail around her sibling while she let her enjoy just being in the comforting hold of her arms before letting go.

"Thanks Kai, thanks for being so understanding." Assaiis looked out at the path ahead. "So what do we do now?"

"Keep on walking, find this meeting place Hathor stated and save Kitya!"

Assaiis touched Kai's shoulder. "Lead the way sis, I'm right here by your side!"

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• Some time later -

Kai and Assaiis looked on at the sprawling graveyard in front of them as the last remains of day were fading from the skies. They'd kept their pace swift, trying to find the location Hathor had given them by her stated time and finally coming across the cemetery after a frantic jog through the countryside.

"Well now isn't this original?" Assaiis mused sarcastically as the two geckos began walking along the orderly rows of tomb stones. "Can we expect anyone to suddenly wake up with a raging appetite as we walk past?" She followed the question by deliberately stepping closer to one of the graves, to no effect. "Hmm, okay guess not."

Kai stayed silent, preferring instead to continue to observe her surroundings while she listened out for any sign of impending trouble. The morphs rounded a corner and walked further into the graveyard, looking for any sign of their kidnapped friend and finding none.

"You don't think she may have been pulling our leg do you Kai?"

The lizard shook her head. "If she's any ninja at all then she'd never do something like that, it's not part of our code."

"Well then there's the first area where I'd have failed at being a ninja."

The geckos continued their search efforts, looking through every nook and cranny yet still coming up empty handed. Eventually they reached the end of the graveyard and found themselves in front of a large mausoleum, decorated with pillars surrounding the structure under an ornate roof with a large, barred iron gate blocking the entrance.

"Think we should try in there?" Assaiis asked hesitantly.

"We have no choice." Kai walked up and tested the gate, finding it to be locked. "Can you open this?"

Assaiis looked at her sibling and smiled as she reached into her vest. "Hey, a good thief is never without her lock picks." She stepped up and began working on the gate, managing to get it open in record time. "There, not really much of a challenge but I suppose any practice is good."

The two entered the mausoleum, never once noticing the large brownish red cloud that had begun seeping into the graveyard after them, slowly tracing their path along the graves, warping each one into a bizarre and hideous shape as it advanced along, inch by precious inch while a familiar black bird looked on in terror from above.

*FRITH!!! Can't anything go right today!?* The bird groaned in exasperation as he looked out towards the still setting sun. *Please mighty gods, bring the darkness soon, before it's too late!*

**************************************************************************

Inside the mausoleum, the geckos found numerous stone sarcophaguses set neatly in wall recesses underneath numerous marble commemoration plaques but sadly still no Kitya.

Kai's expression turned to one of surprise and then despairing confusion as she stepped further into the mausoleum.

"Kitya?" she called out, her voice echoing across the expanses of the room indicating how big and devoid of life it was. Kai continued to look around, trying to quell the awful sense of doubt that was fermenting in her body. "She can't have lied to us. It's a sign of bad taste and extreme weakness!"

"I don't think she did Kai." Assaiis reassured her as she walked up to a sarcophagus which had a small symbol of some kind imprinted on the lid. "I think you're just paying to much attention to details, as I'd expect you'd have been trained to do, at the expense of ignoring the obvious."

Placing her hand on the symbol, Assaiis turned it a quarter turn to the right, causing it to slide several feet out of the recess and revealing a large hole in the floor and a flight of stairs leading down into an underground cavern.

"Rule one of dying: if you led a more than a moderately successful life and wish to continue proclaiming this in death then it's always worth the investment to locate your final resting place underneath those less fortunate than you." She explained cheerfully. "Helps deceive the grave robbers. Shall we?" She gestured to the stairs.

The geckos walked down into the cavern with trepidation, finding themselves in a large room lit by burning torches with several much more expensive looking sarcophaguses trimmed with gold and precious stones, something which Assaiis found made her hands twitch slightly with the old ingrained want to just quickly snatch up whatever she could physically hoist away.

That is until she looked down the centre of them and noticed the dishevelled kitsune chained to the wall on the opposite side.

"KITYA!" Assaiis yelled in relief, all thoughts of looting the place, as well as any semblance of caution, immediately leaving her mind as she began running down the length of the room to her.

"Assaiis, don't it could be a-" Kai began to yell out only to fall silent in shock as a figure somersaulted out of the darkness and nailed her sister in the head with a vaulting axe kick before sending her flying back along the length of the room with a backward roundhouse.

Kai immediately rushed to her fallen sibling "Assaiis are you alright?"

"Oooogh, yeah I'm okay, just got a bit of a headache." the gray lizard said as she rubbed her head.

"I advise you treasure it scaly."

The two siblings looked up to see Hathor standing in front of them, well toned arms folded over the triangular part of her yellow ninja outfit, milky eyes staring down at them in utter loathing. "Cause once I'm through with both of you that headache will seem like a slice of the heavens!"

Assaiis stared daggers back at the jackal as Kai helped her back up. "Okay we're here now, as you requested. Let Kitya go, you're objective is to haul me in for questioning, she can't be of any more use to you."

Hathor simply shook her head as she positioned herself for combat, with one arm bent upwards in the snake position while her other remained close to her body with the paw forming a claw shape. "That is my objective yes," Her arms bulged slightly as something under the fur shifted position and moved towards her paws.

"However my intention is to make all of you suffer dearly first," The pads of Hathor's paws tented outward as the aforementioned something tried to force its way out from inside.

"And then send you swiftly to your deaths!"

The skin of her pads finally gave into the strain and was subsequently ripped open by the butterfly knives making their grand reappearance.

"Now don't move." Hathor taunted as the knives folded out into their familiar X shape. Without another word she thrust her paws out, sending the blades spinning wildly towards Kai and Assaiis on their long spinal cords.

Kai grabbed her sister and leapt behind one of the sarcophaguses as the blades zipped past before doing a U-turn and heading right for them.

The geckos flipped themselves over the sarcophagus and tore across the room to take cover behind one on the opposite side as the blades made another dive for them and were then retracted back into Hathor's paws.

"Nice moves girls, but I'm not known for missing often. Move an inch from where you are and you're shish-kebab." She said calmly as she stood waiting for the geckos'' re-emergence.

"You know, I think she might mean it." Assaiis said to her sister.

"Stay calm and focus, she may be resilient but she's not infallible." Kai soothed.

Assaiis nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay what do you want me to do?"

"Stay here while I give our friend a little incentive to come after me." Fierceness burned in Kai's glowing blue eyes as she readied her shuriken discus. "Then while she's distracted I want you to free Kitya."

"Well, okay." Assaiis grabbed her sister's hands. "But for the sake of the gods, please don't die on me Kai!" She pleaded while rubbing over her sibling's blue gloves. "I've just finally found you after searching for so long; I'd never be able to live with myself if you were taken away from me again."

Kai shook her head and patted Assaiis' hand. "Trust me, I'll be okay." A smile briefly appeared under her mask before she stood and leapt back into Hathor's line of sight.

The jackal sneered gleefully as she again sent her blades whirling towards the reptile, only for her to duck and shuffle sideways as they closed the gap. Never missing a beat, Kai slashed her discus at the extended spinal cords and neatly cut one of the blades off. The remaining butterfly knife attempted to counter by zigzagging towards her but she simple held her ground until the last minute then leapt to one side while drawing one of the throwing knives from her belt which she used to pin it to the wall.

A slightly annoyed growl radiated out from Hathor as she tore the spinal cord free and pulled both back into her paws.

"Those were only a small demonstration of my abilities, Kai. Regardless of how accurate you are, your scales will still belong to me!" The canine ninja swore as she did a flip towards Kai and initiated combat with a flurry of punches.

Kai deflected blow after blow, her body moving with a grace that would've made any dancer proud as she manoeuvred around the canine's assault, every fist met with a block or was knocked aside.

Eventually however, Hathor seemed to catch on that her strategy wasn't working and compensated by throwing a scissor chop at the gecko, then twisting her arms around when she was deflected so Kai found her arms suddenly crossed over each other and unable to follow up with a counter attack. A fact which Hathor was all too happy to exploit by flipping backwards and landing two on the gecko's chin.

Kai stumbled backwards, momentarily disoriented from the blows but she quickly shook her head and readied herself for the next round as the canine flipped back over onto her feet and assumed a ready stance. With nary a flicker in her eyes, Hathor launched herself forward, her legs sweeping up to give Kai the same double bashing her sister had had to suffer.

But Kai was quick to demonstrate how much better prepared she was for such an attack as her torso swung underneath to catch the legs as they fell towards her and swing Hathor around, sending her flying into one of the stone pillars. The canine hit the structure and smashed through it.

Kai assumed position again as Hathor leapt back to her feet and stepped away from the rubble. The two combatants began to circle, each staring piercingly at the other as if trying to peer into the depths of the other's soul. Eventually Hathor again took the initiative, kicking up a large piece of stone and sending it Kai's way, forcing the gecko to dodge as she swung her foot around to smash the gecko in the jaw. Kai felt the blow but it wasn't enough to stop her as she lowered her stance and knocked Hathor off balance with a reverse kick to the shins.

Hathor hit the floor again, then surprisingly she countered by quickly curling her feet behind herself, which hit Kai around the ankles and sent her to join the canine on the stone slabs.

Tasting blood in her mouth, the lizard lifted herself up onto her elbows and stopped when she saw Hathor was already on her feet again with an evil glint in her eyes.

"Prepare for paradise scaled one, just don't get too comfortable, you won't be staying there long." Hathor sneered before leaping into the air to deliver a flying kick.

*I'll never be able to slide out of her way in time, better try one of my newer techniques!*

Quickly spreading her fingers out, Kai focused on cultivating her powers in between them, slowly forming and shaping the ice until she'd created three large, razor sharp snow flakes. Turning to gauge the jackal, Kai curled her fingers around and launched the flakes at the ninja. They neatly slashed into her outstretched leg, her right arm and her midsection, creating enough of a distraction to break Hathor's concentration and allowing Kai to kick her feet up and knock the jackal out of her way. Barely a groan came from Hathor all the while she went tumbling to a most undignified halt.

"A nice bit of fast thinking girl, but you're only delaying the inevitable." Hathor said as she pulled the snow flakes out and crushed them in her palm before continuing to lay into her opponent.

Meanwhile, the fight had given Assaiis enough time to pick the locks on Kitya's chains and free the kitsune.

"There, you okay?" She said as Kitya rubbed her wrists.

"I've felt worse, course I've also felt better." She turned towards the two battling ninjas and her three tails shot up in alarm. "Oh no, we've got to help her Assaiis, she won't be able to last much longer!"

"I know, but what can we do?"

Kitya watched the two duke it out as her mind raced for a solution. "It's risky, but I've got to try!" She slipped her boots off and undid her belt before grabbing her tunic and pushing it off her shoulders. Assaiis watched in surprise as the kitsune slid the garment down the length of her body and let it pool at her feet to be joined soon after by her panties.

"Uh, Kitya I don't know if that's a good idea, I mean considering the circumstances and all." She said as the now nude kitsune stepped out of the puddle of fabric.

"Just trust me Assaiis, I know what I'm doing."

The gecko started to protest again, but immediately fell silent when Kitya closed her eyes and began to transform. Assaiis gaped in amazement as she quickly turned from a normal white kitsune to a black flaming one with wings and elongated claws. She was about to intone what the hell was going on when Kitya turned around and Assaiis felt her voice again leave her when she looked down hir body and caught sight of hir new added endowment.

"I'll explain later Assaiis, just please help me put a quick end to this!"

"Uhh...." The gecko couldn't stop staring at the kitsune's new sheath and ballsac.

"Assaiis!"

"What? Oh right, okay what do you need me to do?"

"Help Kai manoeuvre her over to me."

"Right!" Assaiis nodded and turned to see how her sister was doing. Kai seemed to be holding her own but Hathor was clearly gaining the upper hand with her relentless and endless assault of flying kicks and punching volleys.

"Hey, lay off my sibling will you!" She said as she took a running jump and leapt to give the jackal a good belting to the head.

Hathor initially seemed not to notice as she battled on with the green gecko. But then, just before the moment of impact, a pentagram formed on the floor and she again vanished from sight.

"Huh? Oh vlesk!!" Assaiis cried as she saw she was now on a collision course for her sister. Kai however stayed right where she was and fluidly twisted to the side as her arms grabbed onto Assaiis and stopped her from going any further. The grey gecko allowed herself a quick breath of relief as she felt herself being wrapped up in her sibling's strong arms and lowered to the ground.

"Whew, thanks I almost did something I'd never be able to forgive myself for!"

"Don't let your guard down yet Assaiis, I hardly think she'd give up that easily."

As if in confirmation another pentagram formed on the ground behind the two and both reptiles suddenly found themselves being knocked senseless as Hathor announced her grand re-entry with a tornado kick.

"For once Kai, you are correct." The jackal said. "Allow me to continue in my demonstration!"

She began to slowly whirl her arms around in a circular motion, creating an inky black vapour which merged to form an orb as she brought her paws together. With nary a flicker, the jackal took a wind up and hurled it at Kai and Assaiis who were barely able to leap out of the way as the orb hurtled into the wall behind them and exploded, blowing out a very large chunk of stone.

"Now then, since you both seem so eager to play this game together." The yellow ninja reached behind her back and drew her crystalline sappara swords. "Let's up the ante!"

Grey gecko looked at green in weary disbelief. "Hope you aren't too worn out Kai," Assaiis ripped her scimitars out of their sheaths and caught Hathor's downward slash between the blades. "Cause I sure as hell am gonna need some help here!"

Kai growled inwardly as she rolled onto her belly and yanked her lance off her back. "No matter how dangerous the challenge, I will never abandon my family."

Like spring boards, Kai's legs launched her backwards into the air while her hands began spinning her lance around like a helicopter rotor towards Hathor. The jackal barely paid her a passing glance before her swords whipped round like lightning to counter the assault, giving Assaiis the split-second window she needed to get back to her feet and get in on the action with her own upward slash.

For an instant it seemed as though the tables may have finally turned for Hathor. Up until the moment one of her sappara swords found its way on top of Assaiis' scimitar while the convex side of the other one, flipped to underhand, glided across to slice the scales of her arm wide open.

"OWWW! Oh come on, once is enough for one da-oomph!" Assaiis was interrupted with another sock to the jaw.

Which mercifully was all she had to suffer as Kai was able to deflect Hathor's follow up stab and then give her a taste of her own treatment with a swift non-lethal slash to her leg. Hathor backed away and assessed the damage with an air of what seemed to be amused curiosity.

"A flawlessly aimed strike, Kai. One that can only come from a perfect understanding of koritsu." She allowed a moment for her words to hang in the air before leaping up to join them, swords spinning like crazy. "But can you endure as much as you give?"

Kai hardly heard the final part as she did her best to leap out of the way of the deadly curved blades but still couldn't move fast enough to prevent the edge from snagging the scales of her leg and tearing a gash down to her knee. Kai rolled over and grabbed her leg. The wound was a fair size but nothing that would inhibit her ability to continue fighting. She shot her sister a quick glance of reassurance and then swung her lance around to stop Hathor from making any more serious marks on her.

Hathor looked down at the gecko and grinned evilly under her mask as she continued to force her sapparas down on the gecko's metal lance. "I must say what a relief it is that reptilian spirits are so stubborn. At last I can say I faced a true challenge." She leaned in and sneered as the gecko began buckling under her force. "But everything must break at some point, and now it is nearing time for you to-" Hathor broke off when she suddenly noticed the room was steadily growing darker.

Confused she whirled around to be met with a thick cloud of smoke that enveloped her and shut off all semblance of vision.

"Tell me Hathor," Assaiis called out. "Am I making this even more honourable for you by taking away your advantage of sight?"

The sound of a foot making hard contact with a ribcage could be briefly heard, and then Hathor went flying out of the cloud towards where Kitya was standing. Growling more loudly, the canine stood up to stare back at the smoke cloud which hid the lizards from her sight.

"I see your deceptions know no bounds, carrier!" She calmly tapped her swords together. Two eerily similar streams of inky vapour began flowing up the curve of the blades. "Fortunately, unlike you I need not worry about being hindered by distance!"

She slashed her blades downward and sent two large sickles of black mana towards the cloud. The sickles sliced cleanly through the smoke, forcing it to dissipate and revealing Assaiis trying to tend to Kai's wound.

"Now Sikahrs, this debacle has gone on long enough, time for both of you to surrender your souls to me!" The jackal cried as she prepped herself up for a final all out assault.

And was then immediately stopped in her tracks by a flaming green blade piercing through her stomach.

Kitya stood behind her, shaking with trepidation as the jackal slowly tilted her head down to look at the Daizan Edge blade impaled through her gut.

"I..I'm sorry but I can't let you hurt my friends anymore." The kitsune gasped.

Hathor lowered her blades, her eyes widening as her body shook with the notion of having received such a fatal wound.

Then she tilted her head back and started to laugh.

As the other three morphs watched on in confusion, the yellow ninja grabbed the blade and turned to shoot the kitsune a sinister grin. "A helskin huh? Fresh from Larathaan no doubt. And you even brought back some souvenirs! How nice!"

Kitya was too shocked to even cry out in pain when Hathor sent hir flying to the ground with a roundhouse kick to hir side.

"Too bad you never picked up on a very fundamental rule there," Hathor slammed her foot down on the battered kitsune's chest. "Namely that those aren't nearly as effective against what's already dead!!" She began to laugh again.

"She's....deceased?" Assaiis couldn't believe it.

"Of course! The first ever warrior to be resurrected by Kryegore in fact!" She grinned evilly at the gecko as she spread her arms and displayed herself. "As you can see, flawless, even for his first attempt!" A clash reverberated around the tomb as Hathor punctuated her statement by bringing her sword down to parry Kitya's attempt at an upward stab and held the kitsune's blades against her chest.

"You're only humiliating yourself further kitsune, get rid of those and stop with the futility."

Kitya stared back at the jackal as sadness overcame surprise on hir muzzle. Closing hir fiery green eyes shi waved hir paws and the Daizan Edge swords shrank to merge back into the flames on hir arms.

"Now on your knees, head lowered. And don't even think about shifting back!"

A sorrowful sigh escaped Kitya's lips as shi got up onto hir knees and sat like a convict awaiting execution.

"Kitya, what are you doing?" Assaiis asked in disbelief.

"I..I have no choice. In this form, I'm compelled to submit to any and all commands." Shi admitted.

"Indeed, such a wonderful idea for the Plane's inhabitant's to do this to all of their fresh meat don't you think?" The jackal slowly scrapped her crystal blade along the black flaming neck of the trembling kitsune, drawing a thin line of blood as Kitya tried hir best not to shed any tears. "Makes getting rid of the deserters all that much easier!" She said.

Kai slowly turned towards the canine. "Hathor Sakhmet, I swear, if you do anything to her I won't hesitate to make sure the second time you die is twice as painful as the first."

Hathor gazed down at her shivering captive for a moment longer before she turned to lock eyes with the gecko. Several seconds past, during which Kai showed nothing but hatred in her eyes before Hathor casually lifted her gaze to focus on something behind them. "Fighting words gecko, but right now I'd concern myself more with how you're going to get out of here."

Kai blinked in confusion as to what the canine was getting at.

Presently though she felt a shaky hand grab her head and looked up to see Assaiis staring in terror at the reddish brown cloud that was slowly oozing out from the staircase, a subtle sound of stones cracking as each step lost coherency and began breaking up or warping itself into a impossible shape.

"It..it's...CHASOS!!" Assaiis screamed in terror as she tried to back away and ended up falling over the sprawled body of her sister. Kai wriggled out from underneath and helped Assaiis get up as the Chasos cloud grew to envelop a wall torch. The light rays from it began bending and twisting around the pillars as the flames splayed out in all directions like some demented flower blooming while icicles formed and broke off underneath.

*What convenient timing.* Hathor mused in contentment as she gazed at the ceiling. *Someone up there must still like me.*

Kai and Assaiis kept backing away from the cloud, stopping only when they heard the banging of crystal cutting into stonework.

"No point in delaying anymore Sikahrs, your means of escape is blocked, nothing but death awaits you now. I could just leave and kill you after you've been turned into rahabs but that would be unnecessarily torturous for you."

Both geckos turned, only to find the sappara swords at their throats.

"Make your choice!" She demanded right before something that sounded like an explosion rang out overhead and the ceiling of the tomb caved in on the morphs.

Thinking quickly, Kai grabbed onto Hathor's sword and encased it in a shell of ice. With the blade now dulled she was able to jerk her head underneath and knock Hathor aside before quickly grabbing Kitya and dragging her out of harm's way.

"May I offer up an alternative exit?" A distinctly familiar male voice called out.

All morphs looked up to see the welcoming sight of a hooded feline robed in black standing on the edge of the hole.

"Rathiman!" Assaiis cried out in delight.

Hathor raised an eyebrow in confusion before her gaze centered again on her targets and she took a step forward.

"Uh uh, not today you don't." Rathiman said as he held his armoured paw aloft and blasted the space in front of her with a bolt of dark lightning.

Hathor stepped back and turned to face the mage again. He looked right back with equal determination as magical energy surged through his arms.

She turned down to examine her ice encrusted sword and the bleeding gash in her leg before looking at her adversaries and shooting them one last glaring sneer. "Your suffering has only begun, friends."

A pentagram formed on the ground and she vanished from the premises.

Kai rushed forward but Assaiis grabbed her arm. "Let her go, we need to focus on getting ourselves out of here."

"Indeed, I'm afraid the Chasos has almost totally consumed this place." Rathiman said as he leapt into the tomb and raised a magical barrier in front of the cloud. "That won't hold for long. Get dressed, Kitya."

Kitya quickly shifted back to her normal self and ran over to put on her clothes.

"Now stay close to me you three. Been a while since I last tried doing this without a gate." Rathiman held his staff out horizontally and began concocting the jaunting spell as the two geckos and the kitsune crowded around him. Kai said a quick prayer and then grit her teeth as the white light cocooned them again and teleported them away from the Chasos's destructive path.

**************************************************************************

• Somewhere just outside of Faltadt -

The mage and his companions materialised outside the walls of a city, a collective sigh of relief rang out as all four embraced each other.

"Rathiman, you truly are a blessing to all of us." Kitya kissed him on his unseen cheek while Kai watched in pleasant surprise.

"So, you decided to come along with us after all."

"Had to, after Assaiis ran away I couldn't risk losing track of you too. Especially with Kitya in tow." The Dark Mage shook his head and sat down on a tree stump. "Course I probably should've figured her passion for you would lead to her re-emergence eventually."

He looked at the three dishevelled females. "Sorry for not lending a paw sooner by the way but I couldn't risk facing her with daylight still sapping away at my powers." He glanced up at the blissful darkness of the night sky and groaned. "I hate summer."

Kitya smiled and hugged him. "Don't feel bad, you came in at the right time and because of that we're all safe and sound."

Though the kitsune may have sounded thankful, Assaiis found she couldn't share in the feeling. "Regardless, you should never have had to go through that ordeal in the first place Kitya." She sat on the ground and ran a gloved hand through her slate coloured hair. "I should've known better than to get involved with the Demon Master, and my stupidity nearly cost us all our lives." The lizard winced as she gingerly touched the cut on her arm. "All my life I swore to never repeat the mistakes that Talmein made and I ended up being even more of an idiotic lyeserk. What an utterly sickening irony." Assaiis closed her red glowing eyes and clenched her fists, feeling so disgusted at herself.

Presently however she felt the gentle softness of fur grazing across her arm and opened her eyes to see Kitya running her fingers over the cut, healing it as she had done before. Smiling warmly the kitsune placed her paw on the gecko's shoulder. "Assaiis, you did what you had to do to find Kai. Even if it had unforeseen circumstances you did your best to make amends and aside from maybe a few bruises I'm okay." She kissed her on the forehead. "We're all willing to forgive you and move on, what I need is for you to do the same for yourself."

Assaiis regarded the kitsune in silence before turning to the mage. "Rathiman?"

"She speaks the truth Assaiis. Times are growing dangerous; you're going to need to all be strong for each other in order to survive. Especially if you wish to continue in your quest to find the Arctic Diamond."

"The Arctic Diamond?"

"Yes, it's another of Kryegore's Genesis stones which can hopefully give us the edge we need over the geldorns and maintain the Sikahr's reputation as peacekeepers of the lands." Kai locked eyes with her sibling and held out her hand. "From what Rathiman told me it's going to be a fair challenge to obtain it. Any help I can get would be appreciated."

Assaiis looked at Kai then down at her hand, scarcely able to comprehend what she was hearing. Gradually however light began to dawn and she finally took hold of her sister and smiled brightly. "Kai, if you even think I'm ever going to leave your side again then you're even crazier than I am!" She pulled her sibling into another tight embrace as Rathiman looked on bemused.

"Right, then if all is settled I think you three have had enough adventure for one day." He stood and turned towards the gates of the city. "Faltadt is renowned for being one of the more secure areas against Chasos. I think it's best you find some accomodation for the night here while I jaunt back to Rencort and pick up one or two special items which I think you'll have great use for later on."

"Sounds ideal." Assaiis smiled. "I don't know about you all but I'm bushed."

"Good, though if you don't mind, there's something here I have to do first." Kai stated as they walked through the gates. "I need to deliver a message to some morphs that are staying here, just to let them know how a dearly loved relative of theirs is progressing."

Rathiman smiled his invisible smile as he looked back at the gecko knowingly. "I'm sure he'll be very grateful to you for doing so."

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• Soon after -

"So it's the Arctic Diamond they're after?" Xanathan stated as he stared down at the yellow clad jackal standing before him.

"Indeed master, I knew that mage would teleport them to Faltadt as it's the nearest safe haven to the graveyard that lies in the general direction they were originally heading. It was a simple matter of getting there before them and then lying in wait to pick up any useful bits of information." Hathor folded her arms over her chest and grinned. "Feline logic is so predictable."

The Demon Master reclined on his throne and steepled his fingers as he chewed over the info. *So there are more Sikahrs left in this world than I was originally led to believe. What incredible survival instinct those reptiles have.*

"What do you suggest we do about this?" Kyrnas asked, stepping forward to stand beside the ninja.

Kryegore continued to contemplate, his tail curling around his feet. "The lands between Faltadt and Sinnakka are rife with many dangers and perils, even more so if the Chasos has reached that area. There's still every possibility that they'll never even get to Sinakka, let alone the mountain."

He looked down at his warriors. "We will leave them be for right now and watch them from a safe distance."

He narrowed his smoking eyes. "And then, if and when they reach the mountain summit and are weakened by the environment, then we will strike without mercy!" He slammed his fist down on the arm of his throne, much to the bemusement of the mangek and the jackal. "In the meantime, Hathor Sakhmet, I want you to go to Erenheid and see if you can recover the Night Jade as well as try to figure out what killed my warriors who were guarding it."

Hathor's expression suddenly went from smug to shocked as she looked up wide eyed at the syrkon. "WHAT!?...Ahem...Master don't you think I would be of more use keeping a check on the Sikahrs, and perhaps doing what I can to hinder their progress?"

Kryegore thought about the prospect and shook his head. "As was demonstrated today, even your advanced fighting abilities are no match for their combined might. And with your exceptional tracking skills I'm sure you'll have no difficulty finding what I need. As for monitoring their progress," He closed his eyes and touched the centre of his helmet with a gauntlet covered finger. "Leave that to me, I've no doubt they will give themselves away soon enough."

Hathor clenched her fists and took a deep breath. "Sir, I implore you! Let me go back, there's no way they can escape me a second time!"

Xanathan's eyes snapped open and he leaned forward to regard the canine ninja. "Be patient Hathor! Your time for revenge will come in due course." He said in a way that seemed assuring but carried a subtly threatening tone that suggested she'd best be silent.

Hathor continued to stare back at the Demon Master. For the first time that day, maybe the first time ever, her eye twitched before she composed herself and bowed in respect. "Master, I submit to your will." She turned and walked out of the throne room.

Kyrnas watched as she left, suspicion simmering momentarily under his Toah hardened skin. "Do you wish I send a legion to guard the Arctic Diamond in the meantime?" He asked.

Xanathan rose from his throne and crossed his arms behind his cloak. "You know how unforgiving conditions are up there Kyrnas, and as I recall, you've become quite concerned for the welfare of your troops as of late. I think it would be most wise not to place any more at risk unless we absolutely have to. Do you agree?"

Kyrnas gaped in surprise but nodded. "Yes my master, I understand. We'll take no further actions for now."

**************************************************************************

Elsewhere in Xanathan Kryegore's palace, another jackal sat meditating in a comfortably furnished room. She wore a red mask over her muzzle while her lithe athletic body was clothed in a more Egyptian oriented scarlet outfit with a long wrap draped over her legs. A pair of elegant hook swords lay crossed on her lap and her arms were also adorned with gold bands and canine skull decorated pads. Light gleamed off the two pronged gold rune patterns surrounding her closed eyes as she calmly breathed in her meditative trance.

Presently her thoughts were interrupted by the door to her room swinging open and a rather ticked off yellow dressed jackal entering her domain.

"Asks me to play investigator and go find his precious stone just because he didn't consider me to be reliable enough to do it the first time around will he? Hasn't he figured out yet that I'm better than that!?" Hathor leaned against a small table as she seethed.

"Good evening Mistress, I am pleased to see you've returned successfully and untouched." The scarlet jackal bowed her head in reverence, causing Hathor to look over at her and soften her gaze.

"Maybe not quite untouched my fair Kanika." The yellow ninja said looking over her now healed wounds. "As for successful, perhaps so, if I hadn't allowed myself to be so blinded by pride."

Kanika regarded her commander with sympathy. "I apologise mistress."

Hathor waved it off. "My fault I suppose. I should've remembered that wherever Sikahrs tread, that wretched cat wizard is never far behind." She knelt and took her companion's muzzle in her paws. "I shall simply have to see to it that it doesn't happen again." She stared into Kanika's equally milky white eyes as a solitary finger gently traced over her cloth covered lips, prompting a low murr of approval.

"So what are our orders now mistress?"

"Kryegore has decreed that we are to go into Erenheid and discover the culprits behind the slaying of his precious stone protectors after we retreive the Night Jade." She growled slightly "As he should have asked us to do in the first place!"

Kanika nodded and placed a paw on Hathor's shoulder. "Then he still suspects nothing of us?"

"Yes, and until I am able to increase the strength of my forces tenfold it would do us well to maintain our air of allegiance. That is why we are going to go ahead and do as he commands for now, whatever it takes to keep earning his trust." A sinister smile crossed under her yellow mask. "Besides, who's to say we won't find ourselves more allies in the lands of darkness?"

"Your optimism is greatly encouraging." Kanika replied.

"Yes, well anyway that can all wait until tomorrow." Hathor gently took hold of the other canine's paws and helped her stand up. "For now, I wish for you to help me forget about the woes of the day with some more 'sensual' practice."

Kanika knelt and kissed the yellow jackal's paw before picking up her hook swords. "Mistress, I am and will forever be yours to command."

Hathor draped an arm around Kanika's waist and caressed over the scarlet ninja's curvaceous figure as the two entered the adjacent bedroom.

**************************************************************************

• Back in Faltadt -

Assaiis opened the door of the double room they'd paid for and flopped down on one of the beds in relief.

"Oh mehesus, what a day it's been."

"Indeed," Kitya commented as she set their bags down in a corner and sat next to the gecko. "Though I can't help but wonder when along the line we're going to run into that ninja again." She looked up at the ceiling. "You know how it is, things like this always have a way of coming back to haunt you." She turned to Assaiis who was smiling happily at her.

"Perhaps, but that's something we can worry about later on when it comes. No sense dwelling on it any more tonight." She rolled over and patted the kitsune's paw. "And anyway you've got both me and my sister to protect you now, you're safer with us than you'll be just about anywhere else in this world."

Kitya smiled and squeezed the lizard's hand. "I know, I was just making an observation." She leaned over and traced along the curve of Assaiis' neck. "Really I've never been one to let worry get the better of me. Even for a kitsune, life is too short to waste concerned about things that, for all we know, may never happen."

Assaiis smiled and murred quietly at the feeling of the soft furry paw on her scales. "Rathiman said you were a very strong spirited, positive thinking individual."

"Yeah, I've always been good at being the morale inducer. I just find it's easier to deal with stuff when you try to make a positive rather than a negative out of things."

Assaiis nodded. "Though he didn't mention you could pull that cool transformation trick. How the heck did you do that?"

Kitya withdrew her paw and looked unsuringly at the gecko before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Did Rathiman ever tell you what had happened to me when you were at Rencort?"

Assaiis thought for a moment and shrugged. "He mentioned something about you being away somewhere but to be honest he never really revealed much about your whereabouts and I never pressed him for info."

Kitya sat up and swallowed. "He was right, somewhat, I was trapped on the Plane of Larathaan."

Assaiis suddenly sat bolt up right, staring at her white furred friend. "What!?"

She nodded. "Almost ten whole cycles, till your sister managed to pull me free. The only problem was that I came back as a helskin, half kitsune, half demon. All the changes that were made to my body while on the Plane stayed with me."

Assaiis cringed. "Geez, that sounds awful."

Kitya shrugged and held up her paws. "It sounds worse than it is. I don't feel like I've been changed that much as a person and I can't deny it does have advantages." She closed her eyes and bowed her head, almost as if in sadness. "The only downside is having to hide it from everybody. I mean I'm willing to accept what I am now and move on, but I've seen the general attitude my race has towards demons and I dread to think how'd they'd feel, and more importantly what they'd do, to one who was forcibly re-made as a hybrid of the two." She sighed. "It's times like this I really wish morphs weren't so quick to judge based on mere appearances and reputations."

Assaiis propped herself up to watch the kitsune as she spoke. Seeing how down she felt, the lizard moved over to sit behind Kitya and gently massage her shoulders. "Kitya, I know just how you feel right now. But while that sadly may be true of most common folk, you can at least take comfort in the assurance that I, like my sister and your master, am not among their ranks."

Kitya craned her neck to look back at the gecko while she murred contentedly at the soothing feel of the massage and at her kind words. "You really mean that?"

"I've seen nothing to convince me otherwise today, you're as kind and wise as Rathiman made you out to be and I'm very thankful that you're accompanying us on this trip." A slightly slyer smile creapt onto the gecko's face as she leaned down to nuzzle into the kitsune's fur. "Besides, for what it's worth, I think you're very attractive both as you are and in your demonic form. Especially with that added...well...you know what."

Kitya looked rather embarrassed at that but nodded in agreement. "Yeah, well it's to be expected as a part of the package. Wouldn't be much use as a sex slave if I wasn't able to service females as well as males." She couldn't help murring again at the feel of Assaiis' muzzle against her neck. "Are you always this affectionate towards other morphs?"

"If I feel they need to be cheered up." Assaiis withdrew. "Why? Do you not like what I'm doing to you?"

"No, no it feels fine, just surprisingly direct of you that's all."

"Well a thief must have many surprises to spring, lest they soon find themselves being outwitted and outmanoeuvred." Assaiis grinned.

"I'd expect as much." Kitya tilted her head up and around to look into the eyes of her new friend.

*Well there's another place where they're different from each other.*

Indeed while Kai's blue eyes had a calmness and serenity to them, Assaiis' red ones emanated a sense of outgoing frienship and ambitiousness. Kitya found both to be equally appealing as she reached up to stroke along the lizard's jaw. Assaiis smiled sweetly and reached down to run over the kitsune's arm. The two continued in their increasingly intimate explorations of each other, sensing nothing but a mutual contentment and pleasure at being in the other's company as they gazed into each other's eyes. Gradually, perhaps by choice, perhaps driven by some lesser known force, their heads leaned closer and closer together until at last their lips made contact.

Kitya let a quiet sigh of relief escape as she was kissed, feeling herself start to unwind from the events of the day while the gecko wrapped her arms around her and held the kitsune in a loving embrace as she probed over her lips with her reptilian toungue.

Sensing this, Kitya opened her mouth and allowed the long cool muscle to slide into her mouth and probe along the inside of it, running gently over the roof before moving down to tease her tonsils and then stroke along the moist length of her own tongue until Assaiis was forced to break off for air.

"Well, I guess we both needed that." the kitsune mused contentedly.

"I know I certainly did." Assaiis said while stroking over the kitsune's cheek.

Kitya licked over her lips and chuckled slightly as a thought came to her.

"What?" the gecko asked in bemusement.

"I was just thinking about how similar you taste to your sister."

Assaiis' bemused smile grew wider. "You've kissed my sister?"

"Sure, after she pulled me free from the Plane." Kitya shrugged. "It seemed a fitting way to express my thanks to her after all she went through for me." She looked down at the bed sheets as if in embarrassment. "In fact, and I know this is going to sound strange, but I kinda wish I could have done more with her. She, like you, is very comforting to be around."

Assaiis smiled sweetly. "Well, I've always been open to the advances of another if the morph in question is trustworthy enough. All you have to do is ask first."

Kitya pondered for a moment, and then straightened up as she made her decision. "Very well then, Assaiis do you mind if we take this further?"

The gecko contemplated the request and then responded. "Can I ask a favour of you first?"

"What is it?"

Gently she took hold of the kitsune's paws while continuing to stare into her eyes. "Would you please transform for me again?"

At that the kitsune suddenly looked decidedly less sure. "Umm, why Assaiis?"

"I've never done anything with a herm before. You've piqued my curiosity." " She squeezed her paws. "And don't worry; I swear I won't exploit your enforced obedience, just as long as you promise to tell me if it gets to be too much for you."

Kitya again pondered, she was rather concerned about the prospect of shifting to the form she was most vulnerable and submissive in, but then Assaiis, strictly speaking, had proven to be all round quite a good willed morph over the course of the day, also added to that was the fact that she did want to show the gecko that she was forgiven for what had transpired so...

"Alright then Assaiis, I feel I can trust you enough for this." Kitya answered at last. Hesitantly she undressed and neatly folded her clothes on a nearby chair. Exhaling slowly she then closed her eyes and shifted into her demon self.

Assaiis smiled in satisfaction as she got up to observe the flaming black winged kitsune that now stood before her, drinking in hir athletic body as Kitya stood there waiting patiently.

"So what do you think?"

"Beautfiul, absolutely beautiful." Assaiis responded kindly while her hands ghosted over hir form, yearning to touch but dissuaded somewhat by the green flames engulfing it.

"It's okay Assaiis, I'm quite safe to handle."

Assaiis nodded and removed her gloves. Slowly she extended her hand outward until her finge tips at last made contact with the kitsune's side, feeling nothing but normal warm fur underneath as the flames shifted position away from the touch.

"Oh, cool." The gecko said rather surprised. Feeling more confident she placed her hand on Kitya's hip and gently stroked over the curves before gently tracing along to feel over hir soft stomach, prompting a low sigh of approval.

"So you like that huh?"

"I'm rather more sensitive in this form." Kitya said, moaning quietly as shi felt the gecko began to run her hands up and down the curves of her hips and then around her body to lightly skritch over her back, all of which felt decidedly wonderful to the the kitsune. "Oooh, you know its funny Assaiis, personality wise you and Kai couldn't be more different, but physically you two really are almost identical. You have the same tenderness about you, the same affectionate care towards others," The kitsune stepped closer to wrap hir arms around Assaiis. "And you're both incredibly beautiful reptiles." She smiled sincerely.

"You think so?" Assaiis asked, a little surprised.

Kitya just nodded while continuing to smile sweetly.

"Well, then perhaps you'd like to further confirm that statement with a full body comparison." Assaiis grinned as she stepped away to place her scimitars down and then slid her vest off.

Kitya sat on the bed and watched in excitement as the gecko removed her leather greaves and then reached up to untie her head band.

"You Sikahrs sure do like your hair long." Kitya noted as the gecko shook her mane free, leaving it to tumble down past her waist.

"It's a family thing, I guess." Assaiis shrugged as she pulled off her shirt, trying to be as playfully slow as possible, and then did the same with her pants before tinkering with some more leather padding that wrapped around her breasts. She completed the striptease by tossing her panties aside and striking a pose for the kitsune who was now practically panting with lust.

"So, like what you see?" The gecko asked as she moved to another pose to show off her grey scaled form that while thickened and toned in the way necessary to survive a hard life on the streets still held all the defining curves and allure of femininity.

"You look incredible Assaiis." Kitya at last responded, hoping shi wasn't drooling too much.

Assaiis smiled and walked seductively towards the bed, her tail swinging happily behind her as she sat down and stroked the kitsune's arm. "Why don't you lie down for me?"

Kitya nodded and unfolded hir draconic wings, letting them flop over the sides of the mattress as shi lay down and let the gecko again admire hir form again. Assaiis sighed happily and lay down on top of the kitsune, letting her lose herself in Kitya's ethereal gaze. Tenderly she traced over hir lips, running her finger around the burning muzzle of the kitsune before lightly tracing down her neck, the claw delicately tracing a line through the black fur until it found itself in the valley between the kitsune's breasts. Assaiis gazed down momentarily to gauge whether to go on but upon looking back up into Kitya's eyes she found all the permission she needed. With no hint of aggressiveness or envy, Assaiis placed her palm over the nipple of Kitya's right breast and gently closed her hand over it, feeling the soft fur filling up her palm and hearing a slight moan coming from below her. Smiling she took the other one in her other paw and squeezed it gently, relishing how good the kitsune's chest felt as a soft coo came from Kitya's mouth followed by a much louder moan when she started massaging them.

"Enjoying this yet?"

"Oh Assaiis, I can't even remember the last time anyone was gentle with me. It's wonderful." the kitsune replied as shi ran her hands up the gecko's arms.

"Well then, perhaps I'd best continue. Though feel free to caress me over too, your paws are so nice and warm."

"I like the coolness of your scales too." Kitya moaned again as Assaiis rubbed her thumbs over hir nipples while continuing to move her hands in small circular motions over the kitsune's tits, watching in fascination as the flames licked harmlessly around her fingers.

Now feeling a bit more daring, Assaiis decided to up the pleasure a bit and took her hand off Kitya's left breast so she could lean in and lick over the round nipple, prompting a loud burst of approval from her lover. Spurned on she opened her snout and took the areola in as well and began suckling, trying not to do it too hard as the kitsune's breasts were a lot more sensitive than her own reptillian ones. Kitya placed a paw on the back of Assaiis' head and began stroking through her long silky hair while hir other paw moved down in between them to feel along the swell of the gecko's own breasts. Assaiis' set were on the large side, much like Kai's, and were shaped like perfect tear drops. They felt so wonderfully cool to the touch as Kitya circled over them, murring and moaning even more as hir own was gently milked by the gecko.

"Mmm, you're really enjoying this aren't you?" Assaiis asked as she licked at the tender flesh of the areola.

"You're doing a v-very good job." Kitya gasped. "M-My whole body's tingling with excitement."

"Really?" Assaiis smiled slyly. "Feeling a stiffening anywhere perchance?"

Kitya looked down at her scaled friend and copied her expression. "W-Why don't you find out for yourself?"

Assaiis nodded and switched to suck on the other breast while her hand slowly ran down the contours of Kitya's stomach until it encountered hir now heavily engorged sheath, stretching and enlarging as the cock inside grew with arousal.

"I-I think you can see that I-I'm enjoying it."

The gecko looked up with her red glowing eyes and winked before she took hold of the sheath and squeezed it.

"Oooohhh" Kitya moaned as the head of hir cock poked out followed by the first inch.

Assaiis took her mouth off the breast and glided down her friend's stomach, dragging her tongue down through the black burning fur which caused the kitsune to writhe slightly as she felt the moist flesh licked over her form until she at last reached her objective in between hir legs.

Tenderly Assaiis began stroking over the furry sheath, watching with pleasure as inch upon precious inch of kitsune flesh emerged until it finally stood at full erection, a 10 inch fiery black staff, plus a rapidly enlarging knot, quivering with anticipation.

Feeling her breath quickening, Assaiis moved her hand up to take hold of the cock, it felt hot and hard against her scales and was quite a handful, all of which delighted the gecko even more. Delicately she wrapped her fingers tighter around the shaft and began to stroke it up and down which caused Kitya to gasp and then murr as shi felt electricity surge up through her spine from the touch.

"You know I have to admit, this actually looks pretty good on you Kitya, adds an extra dimension of sexiness to your features." Assaiis said as her other hand move down to cup and fondle hir ball sac. She gently rolled them around between her fingers and thumb admiring how perfectly formed they felt while the cock in her other hand twitched from the sensations. "It also suits what's underneath perfectly." She added and let her fingers grace over the moist folds of the kitsune pussy lower down.

"G-glad you...ahhh...like it so much." Kitya gasped which segued into a very loud "yiff!" when Assaiis leaned in and delivered a long sensual lick to hir shaft.

*GODS!! Even after all the years on the Plane I still feel as sensitive as the first time!*

Kitya brushed a strand of hir hair out of the way and watched in amazement as hir cock disappeared into the snout of her scaled friend before closing hir eyes and gritting hir teeth when the pleasure shi was experiencing made an astral jump. Never before had making use of her added parts felt so good or so comfortable to the kitsune. In Larathaan shi'd have had to endure being skinned or broken or burnt first to ensure the pleasure was dulled out by pain and then after shi'd healed up hir captors always insisted on having hir fuck another poor trapped morph painfully hard and fast, knowing how much it tormented her gentle soul to do so, and threatening hir with more bodily harm if shi refused.

Those had been harsh times indeed but with Assaiis sucking hir off and hir mind being clouded by long sought after pleasure they seemed more and more like a distant memory and whatever brutality of them that shi still remembered only served to accenuate how real the situation shi was in right now felt.

Tears began trickling down the kitsune's burning cheeks as shi reached down to take the gecko's head in hir paws and start bucking gently into her mouth, hir breath becoming ragged as Assaiis looked up and gave her a reassuring smile while her tongue lapped up some of the pre dripping out and then snaked around to give the whole length including the knot a good bathing.

"Oh Assaiis, please d-don't stop...oohh your mouth is so heavenly!" Kitya moaned and then yipped when shi felt a finger stroking over hir increasingly wet folds. Gasping shi moved hir hands under the lizard's cheeks and lifted her head up. "C-Could you please get back on top of me again? I want to make you feel good too."

Assaiis grinned before gripping the kitsune's muzzle and bringing hir together for another kiss. "I'd be more than happy too." Without another word the gecko climbed back onto the bed and swung her legs around so Kitya found hirself faced with her soaked pussy.

Taking a moment to savor the wonderful smell, the kitsune gently gripped hir friend's hips and began licking along the wet petals getting hir first ever taste of reptillian juices. They were decidedly more tangy than what she was used to but tasted just fine so shi began licking more reverently, trying to give back as much pleasure as she was receiving.

Assaiis sighed and began moaning herself at the feel of the kitsune tongue gently lapping over her depths while she sucked on hir tasty cock. Having spent such a frantic period searching for her sister, the gecko had had little time to tend to her own needs sexually and it felt so perfect to finally get to do something intimate with such a wonderful, caring friend.

Happily she locked her lips around the tool and began suckling with renewed vigour, giggling slightly as the flames tickled her snout. While doing so she slipped a finger into the kitsune's female sex and then added another while continuing to love hir prick, wanting nothing more than for both of them to touch the stars together.

"Ngah, Assaiis that feels so good." Kitya moaned before burying hir muzzle even further into the gecko's depths and stroking hir tongue over every possible square inch twice.

"Oooh, that's quite a pleasurable sensation too." Assaiis replied, moaning happily at the kitsune's frantic licking of her lovebox, wishing the moment would just go on forever.

That is until both morphs heard the door to the room click and begin to swing open.

"Huh? What?" Kitya asked as she shot up in alarm.

"Oh right, she did say she'd be back as soon as she got done with whatever it is she had to do didn't she?" Assaiis suddenly remembered as Kai entered the room and practically stopped dead when she saw the scene before her.

"Um, hi sis." Assaiis said rather sheepishly, trying to push Kitya's rock hard endowment out of the way so it wasn't blocking her face.

"What in the world?" Kai asked

"Assaiis and I fell into talking, I told her about what happened when you went to Rencort and how you rescued me and the like and she seemed to really like this new side of me." Kitya dipped her head and tried to hide behind Assaiis' rear. "Things kind of got quite intimate after that."

"So I see." Kai mused as she set her bags down and walked around the bed to observe the two from the side. "From I heard outside, it seems you're both finding the experience to be quite enjoyable."

"That we are sis." Assaiis said as she briefly contemplated the demonic kitsune cock before her and gave it a loving kiss. "Though to be honest I think this'd be a whole lot better if you joined in with us." She looked pleadingly at her sister. "Please?"

Kai gazed over her companions, while it was a bit of an unexpected development, she had to admit that seeing her sibling and her newest friend engaging in the more carnal pleasures of love was kind of getting her aroused, and it wasn't like she'd taken any vows on celibacy so...

"I'd be more than happy to, Assaiis." Kai smiled gently as she reached up to take off her mask and then undo the lacing on her outfit.

Assaiis rolled off the kitsune and sighed happily as she watched her sister strip, drinking in every inch of her flawlessly sculpted body as it was revealed to her bit by bit. Beamingly brightly, she got up off the bed and walked over to the green gecko as Kai finished undressing and turned to observe her. The grey gecko first felt a sense of overwhelming amazement at the sight of her sibling's incredible looks and physique which then faded to a suprising sense of lust.

Still staring incredulously, Assaiis stepped forward and placed her hands on Kai's shoulders. Tenderly she let them trail down her strong, lightly muscled arms before doubling back and pausing as she came to the top of Kai's chest. For a second Assaiis hesitated on going further but one look into her sibling's blue eyes told her she was more than welcome to do .

Holding her breath, the grey scaled lizard let her hands slip down over the green scaled breasts, letting the air rush out of her in an amazed gasp at how full and how perfect they felt, exactly like the numerous times she'd caressed her own. Shaking her head in astonishment Assaiis continued downward to feel over her muscled abdomen, her agile legs, all the way down to her shapely feet. Leaning back and sighing, Assaiis lifted her head up to see Kai staring down at her with gentle approval.

*Damn she's gorgeous!*

Feeling a smile taking residence on her snout the grey gecko stood again and embraced her green counterpart in the type of loving hug that only siblings can share.

"By the gods how I've been yearning for this." Assaiis mused quietly as she closed her eyes and nuzzled Kai's neck, relishing the feeling of there not being any clothing or barriers between them, only the smooth sensation of their scales pressed against each other. "I've missed you."

"Well you have me now." Kai responded as she brought her sister's head up so she could continue to gaze into her eyes. "And whatever happens I'm going to make sure that's the way it stays."

Assaiis murred softly as she felt Kai's hand stroke over her cheek, the movement feeling almost as soothing and assuring as her words. Looking back at her calm, serene features, Assaiis felt a most strange desire burning in her and decided to act on it.

"Kai, would you mind terribly if I kissed you?"

Kai shook her head. "If you want to enjoy yourself with me then go right ahead."

Assaiis didn't need to hear another word as she took hold of her sister's head and pressed their lips together, feeling a blend of excitement mixed with sweet relief when their lips parted to allow their tongues to intertwine.

Feeling her daringness start to return, Assaiis ran her hands down Kai's back to stroked over her rear and her tail base as the two lizard's breasts rubbed together, producing a tingling spark in each morph's body. Assaiis gasped inwardly at the sensation of what she was doing, followed up soon after by a muffled moan when Kai took hold of her wrists and moved them around to her front so the grey gecko could feel over the wet lips of her sex. Assaiis broke the kiss off and bent forward to lick at Kai's neck, the feeling of lust in her slowly building up at the feel of Kai's intimate and increasingly wet flesh against her fingertips.

"Mmmmph, I can see you have been wishing for this for a long time." Kai sighed happily as Assaiis started stroking her more vigorously, no longer caring who she was or whether or not they were related but knowing only how badly she wanted this beautiful reptile holding her to feel like heaven settling down on Artauk.

"Uh girls, while I hate to break up this heartfelt reunion, I would like to remind you there's a rather needy kitsune here."

Both geckos turned to see Kitya smiling sheepishly at them, tits trembling with want, pussy glistening with expectation and cock throbbing for release.

"Of course, we must include you as well." Assaiis took Kai by the hand. "And I think I know just how to go about it." She led her over to the bed and placed Kai's hand on the kitsune's flaming shaft. "You said you wanted to take it further with Kai, well now seems like a perfect opportunity." She turned to her sister. "Don't you think?"

Kai said nothing as she stroked over the hot demonic kitsune cock. Want briefly crossed her face which was then replaced with an extremely rare look of apprehension.

"Kai? You okay?" Assaiis asked upon seeing this.

Kai turned to her sister and sighed. "Everything is fine and I would more than relish the prospect, it's just that ninja training doesn't leave a lot of time for other more personal things and given that I also had to add in my Toah carrier practice, I've just never had the chance to try anything sensual." She gazed down at Kitya who first looked confused, then shocked when shi realised.

"You mean you're a..." Shi started to say and then stopped when the gecko nodded. "K-Kai, are you sure you want me to..." Again she broke off.

"I have fulfilled all the other requirements necessary to qualify as a responsible adult. I think it's time I learned to enjoy the more carnal aspects at long last." Her hands moved over Kitya's flaming body as she climbed on top of the kitsune and positioned herself over hir cock. "Please Kitya, I want you to have this honour. As a symbol of both my trust and my desire to deepen our friendship I willingly wish to give up my virginity to you."

She leaned in and kissed Kitya, bringing a fresh set of tears to trickle down the kitsune's burning cheeks.

"Kai, I...I can't even being to describe how deeply you've just touched my heart." the kitsune sniffled as shi reached up to embrace the gecko before gingerly taking hold of her hips and helping Kai to push down slowly onto hir shaft. A sharp intake of breath reverberated from the gecko's mouth as she felt the tip touch her wet lips which segued into an even louder gasp when Kitya pushed a little harder and it began to slip into her depths.

Kai gripped Kitya's shoulders and closed her eyes as the first inch gradually entered her passage and stopped there. Kitya breathed rapidly as she checked the lizard was okay but Kai didn't seem to be in any distress. On the contrary, she actually looked like she was quite relishing the prospect.

Feeling herself being spurned on, Kitya began to push further in, inch upon invading inch disappearing into the reptile's pussy until at last shi felt the tip of hir shaft press against the membrane that had kept the true treasures of her sex guarded and pure.

Still breathing quickly, Kitya leaned up to lock eyes with Kai. "Well, I'm here Kai. Are you still sure about going through with this?" Shi asked tentatively.

As a response, Kai leaned in and peered deep into Kitya's ethereal gaze. "Do you love me enough to want to continue on?"

Kitya paused for a moment but could only think of one answer. "Yes Kai, more so than anything else on Artauk."

"Then do it Kitya, make me a full woman!"

Kitya took a deep breath and then pushed in quickly and decisively, tearing through the gecko's hymen with ease.

Kai grit her teeth but never cried out once as she was deflowered, nor when the remaining inches slowly slipped into her and she felt herself plop onto Kitya's legs.

"Oooh, oh my gods' you're tight." Kitya moaned and then shivered when she felt a slight tickling sensation on the side of her balls which she realised was a tickle of Kai's blood running out of her sex.

"Gods, Kai are you okay?" Shi tried to sit up but the gecko tightened her grip on hir shoulders and held hir down.

"It's alright Kitya, it hurts a great deal but at the same time it also feels oddly satisfying." She breathed and kept her eyes closed as she felt a hand kindly take hold of her arm and stroke it lovingly.

"First time's always the worst." Assaiis said. "But it'll start to get better shortly."

"It already has, somewhat." Kai continued to pant as the pain from being impaled on Kitya's shaft began to dissipate a little. "You can start pulling out if you want." She said to the kitsune.

Kitya looked decidedly unsure but nodded and began to lift the gecko off hir cock little by little, the pain slowly withering away with the passing of each inch to be replaced by a pleasurable heat. When the two morphs were joined only by the head, Kai loosened her grip on Kitya's shoulders and began to push back down on her own.

"Errrgh, oh mehesus that feels good!" Kitya almost cried out as her throbbing length was slid back into the soft tightness that gripped it so well. Kai just relaxed her jaw enough to moan, deciding that there weren't any words fitting enough to describe the feelings produced by having her passage filled up again.

Yearning to experience it more, the gecko lifted herself back up again slowly, almost straining the cock in the process as it slipped out before slamming her hips back down, the pleasure she was feeling gradually growing strong enough to override even her attuned ninja senses. Kai slipped her hands over Kitya's breasts to continue with the fondling and massaging her sister had begun as she began to build up a rhythm.

"Oh...ahh...oh gods Kai you feel wonderful!!" Kitya said through clenched jaws as torrential currents of sexual pleasure radiated through hir body.

"This...is...ooh...so much better...nnn...than I imagined." Kai got out in between moans as she bobbed her tight love box up and down on the kitsune shaft. Glancing momentarily to her side she noticed Assaiis was now kneeling by the bed, one hand down in between her legs as she watched the two go at it.

"Please sister...come up here and...ooooohhh gods....lie down next to us."

Assaiis nodded as she got up and walked almost hypnotically to the other side of the bed, her eyes never leaving the writhing morphs as she moved Kitya's wing out of the way and lay down next to them.

"S-spread your le...ahhhh." Kai broke off as Kitya lifted her rear off the bed and began thrusting into her, bringing about a fresh pang of pain that was quickly overtaken by a stronger bolt of ecstasy. Breathing heavily, Kai curled her tail around and tenderly ran the tip over Assaiis' wet lips, bringing a groan out of the grey scaled gecko then a louder moan when she deftly began pushing it in.

"Oogh..oh Kai!" Assaiis wailed out, closing her red glowing eyes as more and more of the thrashing tail was fed into her. She reached out to grip Kitya's paw as a harmony of moans saturated the air from all three morphs.

Gasping, Kai started to thrust her tail in and out in time to her being penetrated by the ever more enthusiastic kitsune underneath her. Opening her own blue eyes she leaned in to stare into Kitya's green ethereal ones, noticing how while her pupils and irises were still visible, the kitsune's were blotted out by the brighter green glare. She had only a moment to observe as Kitya soon shut hir eyes and threw hir head back, no doubt signifying an increase in sexual lust as the gecko's almost vice like walls clamped desperately to hir shaft.

"Oh yeah, that's it! That's what I need!" The fiery black kitsune yipped out, hir wings trembling as the pleasure even managed to spread out to them too. Shi wrapped her arms around the gecko's waist and increased the rate of her thrusts, bringing about a very approving cry of euphoria from the lizard.

Now feeling the kitsune cock pistoning rapidly into her rather than just thrusting, Kai found herself ascending to an even higher plateau of pleasure, something which she was more than happy to share with her sister as she began ramming her tail in harder.

"Y-yeah Kai...ahhnn, that tail of yours feels so wonderful in me!" Assaiis moved one of her hands went up to massage her own breasts while her other trekked south to fondle her clit as she watched her sister continue to make love with her flaming companion, content in the knowledge that they were both getting what they were so desperately in need of.

And in need they both indeed were as Kitya's relentless pounding of Kai's tunnel finally caused her knot to pop in and tie them together while shi tightened hir grip on the gecko even more. Kai did the same and held on for dear life, sensing the kitsune's increased efforts were pushing her closer and closer to the edge. Yearning at that moment for nothing more than the feeling of hot canine spooge flooding her depths, Kai dropped her hands in between them and took Kitya's breasts in a firm but not painfully tight hold as she tried using what little semblance of her logical mind that hadn't bowed to the pleasure onslaught to focus her Toah powers.

As Kitya continued to yip and moan at the sensations of being able inside such a strong, caring individual, Kai grit her teeth and began coursing a low level of her ice ability through her hands and onto the kitsune's breasts, producing an almost ear piercing 'YIFF!' from hir.

"K-K-Kai...nnngaahh...w-what are.."

"It's...mmm...only a small amount, n-not enough to freeze anything...oh gods!...Just enough...uuuhh...to make things chilly!"

"Oh wow, oh gods, OH GODS!" Kitya screamed as her extremely sensitive nipples were subjected to a sudden burst of icy coldness.

"Sweet Kai, I'm, I'M AAAAAHHHHGGHH!" Kitya threw hir head back onto the pillows and arched hir back, screaming and yipping all the way through hir orgasm as the dam of hir balls burst, sending a torrential flood of cum up through hir cock and into the soaked depths of the lizard riding hir.

Feeling her inner treasure at last being pumped full of blissful spoogy goodness it took only a few more seconds for Kai to hit her peak too. She quickly raised her hands off Kitya's tits in case she actually did freeze something while her body was wracked and twisted and squeezed by the strong hand of near astral level pleasure.

The chain reaction at last concluded with Assaiis twitching and grabbing at the bed covers as the frantic ramming and pistoning of her sister's tail brought her off too.

Exhausted but sated, Kai just let herself fall forward and collapse on top of her kitsune friend, content to lay there and be held lovingly as her snout was gently licked over by Kitya's snake like tongue while she panted with the physical exertion of her first ever session of intercourse. Her pussy still felt rather sore and was leaking cum from the surprisingly substantial amount Kitya had shot into her but it still mingled nicely with the overall sense of satisfaction she felt at having finally completed her journey into womanhood with the two most important morphs to her.

Turning her gaze to the right, Kai slowly extended a hand to hold on to Kitya and Assaiis's which were still clamped tightly together.

"So... (pant)...I guess you liked that... (pant)." Assaiis said, her red eyes radiating out the mutual satisfaction, and more importantly the love she felt for her sibling as she held her hand.

"That I did... (pant)...even more so since I got to do it with you two." Kai replied, her own blue eyes sending the exact same message.

"It was a great honour Kai." Kitya took hold of the reptile's head and kissed her gently. "I don't think I've ever met anyone in my life that I love and respect more than you right now." She said as she wiped more tears off her cheeks. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Kai gave the kitsune a kind smile as she reached up to stroke through hir flaming raven coloured hair.

"Well I think this has been a very welcome end to the day." Assaiis gently eased Kai's tail out and licked it clean before crawling over to embrace the kitsune. "But now I think the one thing we all need is sleep."

"I agree, though it's probably not a wise idea to get under the covers, seeing as how these flames on my body burn off anything I use to cover my form." The kitsune pondered for a moment before inspiration struck. "Why don't you get up for a moment Assaiis so I can fold my wing out again."

The grey gecko did so.

"Okay now you can lie back down."

Assaiis smiled and lowered herself back onto the bed, only to immediately find herself being rolled next to the kitsune as shi draped hir wings around the three of them.

"There, that's much cozier." Kitya smiled as both reptiles embraced her and nuzzled in the warm confines of the wings.

"Mmmm, I'm so thankful we're finally together Kai." Assaiis smiled at her sister.

"I feel the same way Assaiis." Kai looked up at her kitsune friend and patted hir shoulder. "And don't you worry Kitya, we'll both be here for you if you have any more nightmares."

"Considering all that I've gained in the past few days," Kitya began to murmur. "I don't think (yawn) my dreams will be all that troubled any more."

The three morphs were all peacefully asleep soon after.

**************************************************************************

• Later on, back in Mueradav...-

Hathor stared out through the balcony doors as night also descended on the homeland of the Demons, a calculating and sinister smile residing on her now unmasked face as she stroked over the nude body of Kanika that lay sleeping in her lap.

*Enjoy every moment of your existence Sikahrs.* She thought as she leaned back on the pillows of her bed and traced a finger over the swell of her right breast and then down over her black furred abs before bringing her paw up to her face.

*For if there's only one thing that's certain about life...*

The evilness of her smile increased as a regenerated butterfly knife again tore through the skin of her pads.

*...it's always guaranteed to end!*

TO BE CONTINUED...

**************************************************************************

Abandon this search for an ultimate reality

Your words only used to conceal the true meaning

Never speaking from the heart

As you've built a wall of lies, silence falls

Awakened all that you despise

These lies, our chosen roles

force-fed your values and your goals

Why? You won't see

Truth : unity

Bound eternally

Reincarnation of the eternal soul

This struggle forever in our blood boils

Withstanding these attacks

Lay waste to all your claims

Kept chained no longer

Finding strength in all your shames

These lies our chosen roles

Force-fed your values and your goals

Why? You wont see

Truth: unity

Bound eternally

Forgiveness for those who stray

Protection through unity

Forgiveness for those who stray

Protection through unity

These lies, our chosen roles

Force-fed your values and your goals

Why? You won't see

Truth : unity

Bound eternally

Forgiveness for those who stray

Protection through unity

Forgiveness for those who stray

Protection through unity

Shadows Fall - Of One Blood

************ FINIS ************