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Counter Earth Chronicles

Chapter 69: Everything, Almost.... (All Or Nothing Part Three)

Day 232 continued

"Oh hi!" I said. "Who is that with you?" I asked the incredibly muscular ox who was planning on doing me in.

"This is my girl Reenie."

The ox did indeed like apes well sort of- he was with a pretty monkey.

"Hi ya! So you are the one that encouraged my Oxy to chuck that rabbit down the hole!" She said to me.

"Um, not exactly." I replied as the song continued on and the set changed once again. "He was the one that wanted to prove a theory no matter how unsporting it was."

(HELP!!!)

As I was talking to my would be assailants I noticed that the new set was surrounded by haze and the background had turned dark red. The remaining dancers and I were on another large cubic platform which seemed to be rising. Above us were reddish geometric shapes- transparent cubes, triangles, spheres and rectangles moving left to right, back and forth gesticulating in time with the music- like geometry come to life! A mathematician's dream and it was also quite weird.

*** Uh ha! Music gets the best of me, but guess who gets the rest of the me? There is no need for jealousy- music gets the best of me! ***

"So Mr. Ox and Ms. monkey are you going to throw me off the stage like you did the rabbit?" I asked nervously.

"Nothing personal, it's just business little fella! Besides you're young, you will BOUNCE back in no time!" Contestant sixteen snickered to me.

"Besides darling there can only be one winner! Say why isn't your mouth moving?!" The brown monkey asked me.

"Um, I'm a lemur?" I said looking toward Tauren and Lurie in desperation. Both were barely dancing in time to the song- Lurie obviously still was very mad and stewing at Sorren's elimination to notice I was in trouble- big trouble.

The she beast moved around the ox and started sniffing me as if I was one of her own young. I was really off-put by the attention, but was even more off put by the geometric shapes that seemed to be moving closer and closer to the stage, the dancers and us.

"Man-cub!" She hissed "I know that stench anywhere! You aren't a beastial at all you are a man-cub!"

"No Reenie darling, I think he is an adult- cubs aren't allowed in here..." The ox said to the monkey.

"EVERY BEAST, DUCK!" I screamed as a rather large sphere and cube descended on us.

"Where? Where?" The she monkey asked.

Reenie had failed to understand the meaning of my warning and paid dearly.

**KLONK!**

I narrowly dodge a very large virtually transparent cube that tried to take me out, but instead hit the she beast right in the face and sent her sailing into her ox! The force from the impact knocked her out and sent the ox over the edge of the platform. Oxy err, I mean the ox grabbed the leg of another dancer to try to save himself. It didn't work. He only ended up dragging another contestant, a feline with him into the abyss below!

*** Uh ha ha! Music gets the best of me, but guess who gets the rest of the me? There is no need for jealousy- music gets the best of me! ***

(I guess it nearly did!)

Tauren, Lurie, a tiger, squirrel, chipmunk, jackal and a panther managed to dodge the geometric assault as the song ended.

"And that is the name of that tune! Mr. Roll!"

"Right you are Mr. Rock! Looks like contestants eight and sixteen were mauled by attacking geometric shapes!"

"While poor contestant thirty-two was taken along for the ride! What a CATastrophe Mr. Roll!"

"Our pool of dancers have shrunk even further Mr. Rock!"

There was a large belch as the geometric shapes rose and scattered from the spot where the female monkey had fallen. Reenie was gone and we were given the impression that she had been devoured.

"Thanks for the warning!" Contestant nine, a cute and reserved panther wearing a nice collar said dancing over to me. "Without it we would have been goners."

He was accompanied by the jackal who had taken out Sorren earlier.

"Is he yours?" Lurie asked her.

"Umm hmm. He is, not as handsome as your studs. But he is good company." Contestant seven said to Lurie.

"Speaking of my studs, what you did to Sorren was despicable!" Lurie growled.

"You mean this?!" The jackal female said as she stepped behind me and ripped off my mask dropping it to the floor.

(Oh crap!)

I had been outed by the same contestant who had brought down Sorren!

"Alex!" Lurie and Tauren gasped when the saw what had happened.

I quickly picked up my mask and tried to reattach it to my face. But it was too late.

"I heard what that monkey girl said before she was taken out. That explains why your mouth didn't move when you spoke!" The female jackal said to me.

"Hey!" I shouted to her. "Why did you do that?!"

"Sorry sweetie, but I have to win the grand prize at all costs." The she beast said.

"You are really not a nice person!" I growled.

"Nothing personal sweetie, it was nice of you to warn us of the attacking set and all, but this is a competition and there can only be one winner!"

"Oh and lookie what we have here Mr. Roll!"

"Looks like a club crasher Mr. Rock, and exposed one at that!"

"Honey, you will make it up to him?" The panther asked his date as I started to fade from the dance floor.

"ALEX NO!" Lurie and Tauren screamed.

I was expecting to reappear in the seating area on the third level above with the rest of the disqualified contestants, but it didn't happen. Instead. I was transported to a darkened room where I was restrained by the two gorillas who were at the club entrance earlier.

"Uh, hi guys." I said sheepishly as they growled at me.

(Restrained in a darkened room that seems awfully familiar....)

"Mr. Roll play that one by Breathe. I think it would be a good fit for the remaining eight contestants."

"Right, and you should use the pyramid stage with the large sky wheel in the background. The dancers will all be on edge after the last set."

I was behind the scenes in the control room listening to the announcers! They weren't just running the play-by-play they were calling the shots as well!

"Mr. Rock and Mr. Roll I presume?!" I asked stepping forward.

_"Human you illegally entered this club and participated in a contest that was closed off to your kind!" _

"What do you have you to say for yourself?!"

"Um, I'm a lemur?!" I said sheepishly trying to reattach my mask to my mouth.

"Human, you are most definitely not a lemur!"

"Oh and how do you know that?" I asked the two shadowy figures who were obscured in the darkness.

"Because WE are lemurs!"

With that both announcers turned around in their chairs to face me as one of the gorillas turned on the lights in the control room.

(So that is what they look like.)

As it turned out both announcers were small primate like thingies with black faces, large goofy eyes, white manes that were offset by grey fur and black and white striped tails. I looked nothing like them. Not in the least.

"Contestant forty, you are in a lot of trouble- being a human in a nonhuman zone, participating in a contest that was closed to your kind and on All Beast Day as well!"

They had me dead to rights. I had to think fast, what if this got out? My friends and not to mention mistress Ursa could also be in a lot of trouble.

"Please! I just wanted to dance and have a good time! It is not fair that you only allow those who have, paws, claws, fangs, fur, scales, and tails! What about those of us who don't?"

My dramatic plea was punctuated by a very large stench of indifference that moment in the control room.

"That was a nice heartfelt plea but that does not change things. Your kind is not allowed in here."

_"You are absolutely right Mr. Rock, Mr. Roll but I thought for sure I would have been stopped at the club entrance and turned away by your strong muscular bouncers here. Why wasn't I- was it because your human detector broken?" I quickly shot back at them. _

"......"

For the first time that night the announcers were speechless. I decided to lay it on really thick.

"Besides didn't you weed out all of the disguised humans earlier? Gee, I would hate for it to get out that your detector was broken and that your attempts to compensate for that were unsuccessful. I would surmise that the dictator might not be happy about it either." I said laying it on even thicker. "Isn't it true that the detector is supposed to be working all the time?"

"State your terms contestant forty." One of the announcers said to me.

"Could you award me the grand prize?"

One of the lemurs gave me such a look as the gorillas started to take me from the control room.

"All right, all right! Could I at least stay and see who wins the contest?"

"Sounds fair." One of them said as they started the next song.

One of the gorillas plopped me down into a chair next to the announcers. I was ordered to pipe down and be quiet while the lemurs went back on air to continue the play by play.

*** How can I fall? How can I fall? When you just won't give me reasons- when you just won't give me reasons at all? ***

"Will you look at that? Contestants seven and thirty seven are fighting!"

_"MEOW!! What a cat fight!" _

"I think they are both canids Mr. Rock!"

"Still, look at them go!"

*** When our faith is gone, I FIGHT myself to carry on what more can I say to you? Now I hold this line the choice to leave is mine- I can't HELP what I feel INSIDE- what more can I say? How can I fall? How can I fall? When you just won't give me reasons at all? ***

"I think I can explain, my friend- the female coyote is very upset that the female jackal cheated to eliminate our mutual friend and myself."

"Actually she didn't cheat." Mr. Rock said to me off air.

"Wha? How can that be?"

"Remember the only rules of the competition were to dance dance dance! The last beast standing is the winner. We didn't say you couldn't hurt, maim, injure, or breed your competition. Only that we aren't responsible." Mr. Roll said correcting me.

"Contestant seven not only took out you and your friend, she also took out several other contestants- she hypnotized the two contestants at the start of the competition, tripped the bat from earlier, knocked off one of the vomiting contestants from the stage and then she got to you and your dragon friend."

"That was all her? Damn, she is evil." I commented.

"Or she wants to win very badly." Mr. Roll said to me.

"It's not going to happen though. Both her and thirty seven are disqualified."

"Huh? I asked.

"They both stopped dancing to fight." Mr Rock said to me.

"Will you look at that! It looks like it is a draw because contestants seven and thirty seven could not get the upper paw. Mr Roll!"

"Doesn't matter Mr. Rock as they both stopped dancing so they are disqualified so they both lose!"

Lurie and the jackal female stopped their tussle on the dance floor when they had heard this, stood up, looked at each other and resumed their fight as they literally faded to black.

"That means contestants nine, thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-six and thirty nine you are top five!"

"Who will be the next to fall?"

"I don't know Mr. Rock but I have the appropriate song for the occasion! How about a little Drop Out!"

Tauren and the panther eyed each other as the reality of their situation dawned on them and the next song started. They had made the top five! They had almost made it to the end!

The staged changed to a large hexagonal platform that was yellow and black. The walls of the room were also punctuated by the same hexagonal shape which seemed to oscillate from horizontal to vertical and back. The song Drop out also started playing it was another beat heavy, pulse pounding, chaotic sounding instrumental.

"Come on Tauren! You just have to outlast them! You can do it!" I shouted before I was shushed by one of the gorilla bouncers.

"Good keep on going number nine!"

"Absolutely wonderful!"

"Despite having been at if for three hours contestant nine still appears to have enough stamina to keep going. While number thirty-three looks like he is growing tired and very sore."

"Hey thirty-three keep steady until the end!"

Tauren was also growing tired. Anyone would be dancing three hours straight. The high bpm rate of this song was not helping either. It was about as fast as the Paranoia song at the start of the contest- the panther's movements were beautiful and majestic while the minotaur's were not so much; he was struggling to keep up in time to the music.

"Get ready dancers here is the best part!"

(Best part?!)

The bpms in the song went off the chart as all dancers struggled to keep up to the beat.

"What happens if all of them collapse in a big heap?" I asked to any beast listening.

"Then they all lose. It happened during the other competitions from earlier." One of the gorillas responded as the song ended.

(So that is why there weren't any winners.)

"Oh ho ho! We got another one Mr. Roll!"

(Uh oh!)

"Contestant thirty-six collapsed on the stage- looks like the bpms were too much for him!"

Phew! It wasn't Tauren but the chipmunk who could no longer find a nut to move his butt on the dance floor- he had collapsed from exhaustion.

"Sorry Alvin!" Mr. Rock said off air as he pressed a button on his console and trap door opened up underneath the resting chipmunk and he fell through the stage!

"Four left Mr. Rock! Ok dancers try this one on for size!"

The set changed once more this time it turned into yet another floating cube like platform floating in air but was slowly descending. Above the dancers rows upon rows of red and white cubes were spinning. Unlike the set from earlier, these weren't attacking just dancing in time to the music. Tauren and the panther looked at them wearily and the other dancers as their dance off continued.

*** Is it the first time in your life or is it just another one-night stand? Do you wanna make a fool of me just like you do it to all those other guys?

Now i'm leading my life on my own these days and I don't want to mess with no woman- get me out on your skin no, that's hard I can see but you're back to save your love but you can't...

Give me up!- Oh! Give me up!- Oh! Give me up- Oh! Give me up!- Give me up! Oh! Give me up! Oh! Give me up, Oh! Give me up! ***

"You implying something Mr. Roll?"

*** Give me up!- Oh! Give me up!- Oh! Give me up- Oh! Give me up!- Give me up! Oh! Give me up! Oh! Give me up, Oh! Give me up! ***

"Perhaps these dancers should give up so we can call it a night Mr. Rock! It has been a long day after all!"

*** Give me up!- Oh! Give me up!- Oh! Give me up- Oh! Give me up!- Give me up! Oh! Give me up! Oh! Give me up, Oh! Give me up! ***

"Perish the thought Mr. Roll these dancers are giving it all they got and then some! Right contestants?!"

"Yay." Came the response from the bull, panther, tiger and squirrel as the song which was quite good, ended.

"Still ready to give it some more dancers? Alright how about Two Months Off?"

"I have a feeling after the end of this competition many of the contestants will wish they could have that!"

The next song immediately began and it was another electronic song that reminded me very much of something one would hear at a rave. The lyrics were simple and very repetitive. It didn't mean that it wasn't a good song though.

*** You bring light in! You bring light in! You bring light in! You bring light in! You bring light in! You bring light in! Cool wind following... Following after you... Rising for you... Your fur beautiful... Everything comes natural... Fantastic fan- Rocking rocking floating!! ***

I also noticed that the lights on the four remaining dancers went dark while the stage remained illuminated with lights pulsing in the background, smoking billowing to the sides of the floor and fire light illuminating on the walls.

"I love this set Mr. Roll!"

"Why is that Mr. Rock?"

"The dark lighting we use looks so mysterious Mr. Roll!"

"It also looks like you are trying to encourage the dancers to do something- something to each other so that we can go home!"

"Who me Mr. Rock?"

It sounded like the announcers were growing equally tired as well and just wanted the contest to end. But with four determined contestants it looked like this would go on past the third hour. It did.

Hour three ended and hour four began. Much to the chagrin of the announcers.

"Aright dancers this is it hour four! You all have shown much resilience and even outlasted the contestants from the previous competitions. But I foresee that it will end this hour!"

"Why is that Mr. Rock?!"

"Because Mr. Roll you are going to play Paranoia!"

"We played that song and its remix earlier Mr. Rock!"

"True but this is going to be Paranoia Hades Mr. Roll!

"Oh no not that!!"

Hearing the fear in Mr. Roll's voice, I think Mr. Rock had finally grown too tired and was throwing the four remaining dancers into a sudden death round.

"I love this song Mr. Roll. It is one of the best songs in your library and features a stage unlike anything else the dancers have ever seen or experienced!"

(Uh oh, I didn't like the sound of that.)

With that the stage before us disappeared replaced by total darkness as the song, a demonic sounding remix of the Paranoia instrumental started extremely punctuated by fear and dread.

The dancers soon found themselves on a dark celestial grid in what looked to be hell surrounded by fire and flame on all sides. It became extremely obvious that the four remaining dancers should not dance off of the grid (stage) at any time, for any reason.

As the song progressed, I realized that the fire on all sides of the dance stage seemed to stretch into infinity in all directions. It looked quite eerie like the dancers had failed to arrive at the Great Beyond and were at the entrance to the bad place.

Tauren, the panther, tiger and squirrel tried their hardest to keep up with the demonic sounding instrumental when a red specter appeared in the foreground in front of the flames looking rather anguished.

The tiger and squirrel were startled but kept moving as even more faces appeared- all in anguish, all gyrating to the song.

"I really love this set." One of the gorilla bouncers said to me. "It is so ominous and mysterious- the perfect way to impress bystanders while also scaring the Hades out of them!"

He was right! There was a demonic laugh that echoed throughout the room as a large arm and hand with nasty looking fingernails appeared from from the flames adjacent to the stage every beast was dancing on!

The large hand lunged at the dancers its sharp digits gripping on to the squirrel like a snake wrapping its coils around its prey and forcibly removing that dancer from the grid.

"Stop, hey let get go of Meeeeee!" The squirrel screamed as he disappeared with the hand and arm into the fire!

(WTF!)

Damn! I was glad I wasn't down there!

Another hand with nasty looking fingernails reached for Tauren and the panther- they both danced out of the way just in time as it grabbed the tiger and slowly dragged him into the fire.

"Hey! Wait! Stop!" The tiger screamed as he was also forcibly removed from the stage by trickery.

Yup, they don't play fair alright. We were down to the final two! Tauren and the panther! Who was going to win this?

Tauren and the panther fell into trance like state as they dodged the demonic hands trying to drag them into the fire. Somehow they managed not to miss a beat with the music. Tauren was trying his hardest to outlast the panther despite his extreme exhaustion. Then it happened- a spectral face appeared in front of Tauren and the panther- its eyes flashing multiple shades of red in a nasty looking strobe.

"Hypnotism?! Come on guys you tried that hours ago with that love song. That isn't going to work...." I started to say to the lemurs.

"MOOOOO!!!!!"

Apparently it did. There was a thunderous sound from the dance stage as Tauren apparently entranced by the strobing red lights in front of him charged the face, ran off the stage and into the flames and fire!

"TAUREN! NO!" I screamed.

"Once a bull, always a bull!" Mr. Rock snickered to Mr. Roll off air.

"Contestants thirty-three, thirty-four and thirty-nine have been eliminated. Mr. Roll!"

"Right you are Mr. Rock and that ain't no bull!"

Immediately the song ended and the demonic set disappeared; the panther was returned to the grey room every beast had been in when the competition had started.

"Contestant nine wins the competition! Now let's go home!"

Thunderous applause echoed throughout the club as multicolored lights flashed, smoke cannons fired and victor was flashed on the stage and walls! The panther raised both his paws in victory before collapsing from exhaustion.

"Why of all the low down, double crossing, dirty underhanded things to pull!" I started to scream at the announcers.

"Let's go little human!" The gorillas said as I was forcibly removed from the control room. "Let's not cause an incident, now!"

I decided at that moment I did not like them- any of them. The boar from earlier was right. These guys did not play fair at all. Instead of letting the competition come to a natural conclusion- they just ended it because they were tired of judging and narrating the play by play after four hours. Evil, very evil.

The gorillas left me at the front door of the club where I watched the audience and the other contestants some in bandages, slings and on stretchers leaving the club some were on their way home others were headed to their healers.

"Better luck next time little fella!" I said to the ox and monkey as they were being carried away to I assume the hospital. They both had sustained multiple injuries including some broken limbs.

"Alex!"

"Sorren, Tauren and Lurie! You are all ok!" I said running to them.

"I have some bumps and bruises but I am ok!" Tauren said humbly.

Lurie has some scratches on her but was otherwise was fine and Sorren was exhausted as well but he like I was unhurt. Seeing what happened to the other contestants, I think we were very lucky.

"We were worried that you had gotten into serious trouble after you were exposed." The dragon said to me.

"No, I am fine. I just had to blackmail my way out of my circumstance- in exchange for not turning the club in for having a broken human detector, they let me watch the rest of the competition from the control room."

"You mean you saw ME?" The bull asked.

"We all saw you do that love." The dragon responded.

"So Tauren how long have you had that problem?!" I teased.

"Enough boys we have a bigger problem." Lurie interjected. "The last transport to the castle was hours ago and since we didn't win the grand prize, we are stranded."

"It's going to be a long walk back too." I said. "Um, how about Lea?"

"We tried contacting her. No answer." Tauren said. "And everyone else we could think of for that matter."

"I think someone may have started dating again." Sorren added.

(So soon?!)

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!

The sudden sound scared me half to death. I ended up jumping into Tauren's arms.

"Well, well if it isn't my rival and her studs!" A voice from an arriving hover vehicle said.

It was the dance competitions winners- the jackal and her panther boyfriend.

"Well what do you think? It has room for six, premium seating, a premium sound system, eight solar panels and a maximum range of 200 miles." The panther said just gushing.

Sorren, Lurie and myself were extremely quiet.

"I say something wrong?" The male cat asked.

"I think my friends are a bit sore." Tauren responded.

"I guess a four hour competition will leave one like that." The black cat said.

"It wasn't the competition, friend it was your date." The bull said to the panther.

"What?" He asked looking at us.

"She didn't respect us enough as competitors to compete on a level playing field." Sorren said to the bewildered panther.

"She cheated and sabotaged her competition instead of letting us compete against her fairly." I added.

"Mackie? Is that true?" The panther said asking his girl.

"It is what she did." Lurie said growling.

"It wasn't cheating." The she beast said stepping down from their new red hot ride.

"What you did was sneaky and devious." Sorren said looking at her sternly.

"Yes it was cutie!" The jackal female said pinching the dragon and me on our butts. "But it was perfectly legal."

"Legal?" Tauren asked.

"Yes it was." I said. "The announcers confirmed it."

"Sorry everyone." The panther said to us. "It was nothing personal. We just really, really, really needed this vehicle- badly."

"As did we!" Tauren shot back. "We risked EVERYTHING for the grand prize. We were confident that we could go the distance until my friends here were PREVENTED from doing so."

"Well, we could just take it from them!" The dragon said menacingly.

"SORREN!!!" Lurie, Tauren and I said to the goofy dragon.

"What do you mean by everything?" The panther said astounded. "You mean you don't have any transportation?"

There was a pregnant pause while the trio and I exchanged glances with the contest winners.

"Can we offer you a ride?" The panther asked.

"Catch a ride with you?!" Lurie huffed. "After what you did? I would rather walk!" Lurie grumbled.

"Lurie!" I said running to her side. "We humans have a saying- pride cometh before a fall."

"Besides it is going to be a very long walk love." Tauren said taking her paw.

"We are stranded- remember?" Sorren said turning to Lurie..

"I know that!" Lurie grumbled.

"I think what my grumbling 'yote girl means is that you can compensate for what you did to my friends and myself by driving us home." I said to the panther and jackal.

"We would be honored. Right Mackie?" The panther asked his girl.

"Yes, sweetie it is the least we could do." The jackal said as she approached Lurie paw outstretched. "Bygones?"

Lurie just growled growled.

"I think what our sweetie means is that she wants to re-challenge you in a fair dance off to see which one of you would have legitimately won." Tauren said as he moved Lurie's paw to meet the jackal girl's.

"In a fair fight she would have whipped your butt!" Sorren added.

"Right then, I think the trio should sit in the back and I will sit in the front with these two." I interjected.

"Hi, the name's Chip and that is Maki." The male panther said exchanging greetings.

"So exactly where were you going?" The female jackal asked.

"Castle Wundagore." Sorren responded.

"All of you?" The male panther asked.

"Yes." Tauren responded. "We live and work there."

"Even him?!" Chip asked surprised.

"I live and work there too. Not all humans are prisoners and criminals of the empire."

"Yeah some of them are housepets!" Sorren said snickering.

"SORREN!!!" Lurie and Tauren shouted in unison. As the gorgeous six seating convertible took off from the club for our twenty minute ride home.

"Said the dragon who torched his fellow dancers." I said glaring my eyes at Sorren who tried to look very innocent.

"It is quite obvious that you four are all very good friends." Chip commented.

"Yeah they are like the older siblings I never had growing up." I replied.

"Interesting, it is not common for beastials and humans to associate with one another. So how did you meet?" The jackal asked me as the hover car departed from the theater district.

"It is a long story." I said to the couple. "I was imprisoned at the castle- convicted of a crime, but ultimately pardoned."

"What was the crime?" The female jackal asked me.

"Entering Counter Earth without permission." The couple just looked at me.

"That is another long long story. During my incarceration, Tauren was my guard- he looked out for me and we became good friends. A short time later I met some friends of his. After an adventure or two or three, we all became really good friends." I said to the panther and jackal.

*Housepet!* Sorren coughed.

"I love those three very, very much even when they pick on me." I said given Sorren a weird look.

"So that is why you are with them." Mackie said.

"What about you and Chip?" I asked the couple.

"Huh?" The jackal female responded.

"So how did you end up meeting?" Sorren asked the jackal. It obvious you two are polar opposites.

"We aren't completely polar opposites." The panther responded. "We like the clubs and the nightlife. In fact that is how we met."

"Unfortunately my parents and Chip's didn't approve of our relationship, so despite our belief that we completed each other."

"Complete each other?" Tauren asked the couple.

"Yes, he makes me laugh a lot!" The she beast said as Chip set the hover vehicle set down at a side entrance of the castle.

"Here you are safe and sound." Mackie said.

I was the first to get out of the beautiful vehicle. I was growing increasingly depressed that we had not won it. But at least the winners were nice enough to give us a ride home.

I rushed around to the driver's side of the vehicle to thank Chip for his generosity and kindness. While Mackie let the trio out of the backseat of the vehicle.

"Thank you for the ride."

"Not a problem." The panther said fist bumping me.

(Funny, his paw didn't feel like a paw.)

"Did you have a good time this evening?"

"I think we all did. Up until we were eliminated and the announcers decided to end the competition instead of letting it conclude naturally." I said to him.

"If you and your friends had a good time that is all that is important. Perhaps we will see you in the club again the future." Chip said.

"I don't know if that will happen any time soon. This experience left us all very very sore and it will be a while before we feel like dancing anytime soon." I told the panther.

"Well at any rate keep practicing. We second classers have to keep pressing forward and making progress every day, regardless of the obstacles placed in our way." He said pressing a tag that was attached to the collar around his neck.

"Second class?! You furries are all first class citizens. I am only second class citizen here." I responded.

Chip paused for a moment before he said:

"Alex, your costume was ok for something made on such short notice. But next time you should try something a little more durable like mine. Cursor pause program."

As he said that the panther I had been talking to disappeared and was replaced by a human?! He appeared to be in his early twenties, with blond short hair, blue eyes and a slight build.

(OMG! The dance competition had been won by a human and on All Beast's Day!)

"Now resume program!"

I stood there in total shock as the panther's image resumed and the human turned back into a beastial! Chip and Mackie were yet another mixed couple- human and beastial and from what I could tell were just starting out most likely after defying their parents.

I stood there dumbfounded as the pair waved and then drove off into the night. Perhaps they really did need that grand prize after all.

To Be Continued....

Featured Songs:

Music Gets The Best Of Me by Sophie Ellis Bextor

How Can I Fall by Breathe

Drop Out by NW260

Give Me Up by LH Music Creation

Two Months Off by Techno Masters

Paranoia Hades by ATYPE-300