The Lost Soul

The next morning, they began the march again. Things went swimmingly for the first half-dozen rooms or so, until... "Ugh, another of these," Oro hissed, rolling his eyes, as he was greeted by the sight of a pair of walls ahead, splitting the room into three hallways. They'd seen enough layouts by now to guess what this meant: a miniature maze, with lots of blind corners, loops, and the occasional dead-end. Navigating these wasn't terribly difficult; the problem was that it gave the monsters lots of cover to hide behind, and jump out of, and strike around. They listened for a moment for the tell-tale noises the emus made, or the scraping footsteps of the undead, but heard nothing to give them a clue what the room contained.

"Alright, I'll go first," Sarahi sighed, readying her shield, "Stay close and keep an eye on the rear." Then she padded into the room and immediately took a sharp left, making for the corner ahead with her spear levelled behind her shield, ready for a thrust. Oro followed, then Nayeli and Tuli, and finally Kylan and Diya riding on Sonny at the back. The twins kept glancing over their shoulders regularly, though the wolf beneath them seemed relaxed at the moment. "Rats. Fence," Sarahi whispered over her shoulder, indicating a tall, barb-topped iron fence barring the hall ahead of them. Just a few feet on the other side, they could already see one of the doors they were aiming for, taunting them with its proximity. Without a word, Sarahi turned into the maze at the next opening, intent on hugging the left wall until they reached that door...or any other, for that matter. They weren't picky in these rooms, and the old trick had worked quite well in getting them out quickly.

Oro grabbed her tail, still standing by the fence and looking through it. "Check my eyes. Is that door open?"

"What?" Nayeli stepped up beside him, catching the significance almost immediately. "...It is! Or it sure looks like it from this angle," she agreed, not having the best view of it from where they stood in the hall. But the shadow on the frame suggested the door had been opened inward, as if someone had already gone through here, or else pulled the door in from the connecting hall.

Sarahi blinked at them both. "No way. You think...someone else is in here?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin, along with all the rest of the family, when their suspicions were confirmed by a shrill, delighted screech from somewhere else in the wall-riddled room: "BROTHER!! I FOUND YOU!!"

Before they could fully process those words, a sound like cloth whipping in a strong wind began approaching quickly, zipping through the nearby halls of the room. A dark green cloak with a broad-nosed muzzle protruding from inside the hood swooped around the corner ahead of Sarahi. It was impossible to tell if the wearer was running or flying, but it was swift and smooth and silent except for the flap of the trailing cloak. Sarahi instinctively thrust at it without entirely meaning to, but the cloak side-stepped her spear by less than an inch, and tapped a hand against her belly as it passed. Not hard, but enough to declare, "I had you if I wanted you!"

It hit Oro full-speed, and his head momentarily disappeared inside the broad hood as the body inside came to a dead stop and the cloak flipped forward over them. There was a deep, satisfied hum, the faint pop of sealed lips separating, and then the none-too-gentle thump of a skull hitting the fence.

Oro held her at arm's length, pinned to the fence with a fist around her throat, eyes wide and baring all his teeth like a cornered animal. He spat on her feet in disgust. But the young Tricolor Hound in his grip only looked all the more pleased to be in his grip, holding his arm in both hands only to help keep her body weight off of her neck and wagging her tail furiously. Her delight seemed to annoy Oro, and he squeezed tight enough to make speaking impossible for her and to force the bones in her neck to begin popping.

"Oro!" Nayeli gasped, also grabbing his arm and trying to pull him away. But he wouldn't budge, even for her.

"The bitch kissed me," the Rabbit snarled, "Kissed me! On the lips!"

"What does—oh," Nayeli's grip weakened as she suddenly realized the source of his fury. "...Honey, let her breathe," the Lioness urged gently, "She didn't know."

It was impossible that she could have. And if she had, surely she would not have done what she had just done. Actually, it wasn't unthinkable that she was fine, and that the effect of Oro's kiss had worn off a long time ago. Maybe it had only lasted the day, as part of establishing the curse. But if not...quite unknowingly, this girl had just inserted herself into Oro's harem...the Oro who never wanted such a thing to begin with, despised himself for having dragged his dearest friends and family into it, and who would hate very few things more than the idea of adding to their number.

For her part, the girl's smile refused to falter, though her body was beginning to strain for air and her eyes were threatening to roll back in her head. She was small, even shorter than Oro, though still taller than the Runepaws. Her face was young and excited and sweet and innocent, but her large, bright eyes were sharp in a way that suggested she'd seen more of life than a child could endure. Oro's instincts were giving him mixed signals, which just pissed him off even more. Wrenching his arm free of Nayeli's grip, he threw the girl to the ground at Sarahi's feet, leveling Gorgorond at her even as the Sha'khari held out her spear to keep him at bay. "The fuck is wrong with you?!" he barked at the girl on the ground, heedless of the spear aimed at him.

"...A...lot," she gasped, still smiling as she rubbed her throat a little to open it back up and relieve the pressure in her lungs. She made no effort to rise, seeming content to lay there and gaze fondly up at him. "But it's...fine now. I...finally...found you...brother."

"Are you blind, or just cracked?!" he sneered, tapping his thumb to his chest, "I'm a fucking Rabbit! You're a Dog! We're not even on the same fucking branch!"

The girl just rolled her eyes with a grin, as if he was teasing her with a riddle she'd known the answer to for years. "Well yeah, but I was Eladrakin before I turned Houndain, so it's hardly surprising you'd be transformed at some point, too. Heh...the rabbit-theme really suits you, too, brother." Lifting her eyes to look at the (admittedly equally stunned) Sha'khari standing over her, the little Dog took a long, deep whiff through her large nose. "So who are the new girls?" she asked innocently, looking from one shocked face to the next with a grin, "Did you develop a taste for cats?" Having surveyed the group, however, she apparently didn't find one in particular she was expecting. "Wait, what happened to Illililliven?" her smile faltered finally, for about half a second, "Aww, I'm gonna miss her..."

He was at his limit. She'd shocked him, and now he'd swear she was mocking him. Nayeli touched her husband's shoulder, sensing the swelling fury in him, and it was like touching a gun with a hair trigger. The fence screeched as Gorgorond gnawed through the rough iron once, twice, and then a third time all in the span of a breath. A few bars started to fall out of the resulting gap, and Oro sent them skittering across the floor with a kick to fetch up beside the open door. "Get her in the fucking hall," the Rabbit growled softly, his knuckles popping from the grip he had on his demonic bat, "I'll hear her out before I kill her."

"Stop it, Oro!" Sarahi hissed, taking a protective step forward over the girl, "We want to know what this is all about, too. We need to know everything we can. We're not just going to kill her after that. Especially if she's not an enemy."

The Dog underneath her burst into giggles. "Enemy?! Me? Not possible," she declared confidently, "I'll tell you anything and everything you want to know. Brother and I have no secrets...and I do mean none," she grinned slyly at the Rabbit, very nearly prompting another attack. "If he wants to kill me afterward...well, that might be fun."

Sarahi backed up to give the girl some space...and also to bring her back into range of Sarahi's own weapon. Whether unexpected friend or foe, there was definitely something wrong about this girl, and the Sha'khari was strongly sympathetic to Oro's wariness.

Sarahi motioned for her to get up, and followed her as she went skipping after the rest of the family, already making their way cautiously after Oro. They paused at the brief but loud sound of furniture smashing, and Nayeli took a quick step back as the splintered remains of a table and stack of shelves were hurled into the room. Since the scrap-wood effectively blocked the door, Oro was quick to follow it out, batting it all to the far corner of the room before stomping back into the (now very clear) hallway and leaning sulkily into a corner.

"Okay," the Rabbit growled through clenched teeth as soon as everyone was inside, including the new girl, "Let's start with the obvious: what in all the fucking fires of Hell makes you think I'm your brother?"

"The smell," she answered without missing a beat, once again smiling like the answer itself would make everything else obvious.

Oro's scowl did not falter in the least. "I...smell...like your brother?"

She giggled. "Of course! I can sniff out any_thing," she grinned, tapping her broad nose. Then she walked right up to him, put her nose against his chest, and took a deep...deep...almost impossibly deep breath before releasing it with a dreamy sigh. "Oh, yeah...there's some new stuff, of course. Some entanglement with a demon, wisps of a caster, rage enough to intimidate a werewolf...you haven't been doing your meditations, have you?" she grinned, "But beneath all that, you are _definitely brother. I'd know the scent of that soul anywhere, anytime." Her smile slipped into a mild disappointment for a second. "I'm a little hurt you still don't remember me, though. It hasn't been that long."

He was rubbing a hand across his eyes, grinding his teeth, and working extra hard to restrain his instinctive reactions, for the sake of his family. Information was important here. He just wasn't sure how much this girl had. "How long has it been? When did you last see your brother?"

"Um, before that," Nayeli piped up gently, "What is your name?"

She turned on her toes to flash a bright, friendly smile at the Lioness. "I am Kittkattarevielleketikit, of the village Eldriven."

Diya blinked at the announcement. "Was...was that a name, or a sentence?"

The patch faced Dog tilted her head curiously. "What? It's cutely short for Eladrakin. Not as short as Illililliven's, granted, but that was just a nickname."

"I heard ‘Kitt'," Oro grunted behind her, "Good enough. When was the last time you saw your brother?"

She didn't turn around, but just tipped her head back until her nose pointed at the ceiling, and then tipped her balance back to rest the top of her head against his chest, leaving her staring up at his chin. "The last time I saw you was...well, to be honest, I stopped counting after about a hundred and twenty. It was getting depressing, so I stopped marking the wall and just decided it would take as long as it took. That wasn't very long ago, though, so...maybe two hundred?"

That made the Rabbit arch a brow, but it was Tuli who spoke what everyone thought at that moment. "Two hundred days? You've been trapped in here for over six months?! You poor—"

The girl burst out laughing. "No no no," she shook her head, "Who would bother with days? I'm not that clingy. I added a tic once a year. Well, close as I could guess, anyway. There are no stars here, and the seasons don't change, so it's hard to tell for sure."

The atmosphere in the room changed. Several different concerns arose at once, some completely unrelated to the girl herself. The family that had been concerned about facing as much as a week in this trap were suddenly confronted with the threat of decades in it. Their hope almost cracked under that weight alone.

While they tried to sort their priorities and the many questions wrestling for dominance in their heads, Kitt let her posture relax, resting her shoulders and back against Oro and rubbing them back and forth with a contented smile. Oro responded to this by clamping a hand on the back of her neck, turning her to the side, and shoving her nose into the corner. "You are fucking cracked," he declared, "What the fuck makes you think your brother's even still alive? Was he not in this place with you?"

He could feel the tremble run up through her spine as he held her in the corner, and she pushed her hips back in his direction. "Weeell, he's holding me, for starters," she cooed, adding more softly, "By all the gods above and below, I've missed this." Oro pressed her nose more firmly into the corner, causing her to squeak. "Yes, obviously, you've been in here too. We just got separated at one of the gates. But you've killed werewolves, ogres, dragons...you're the Hero of Eldriven! You couldn't die to anything short of a god! You can't die. Youcan'tdie. Youcan'tdieyoucan'tdieyoucan'tdie..."

Nayeli put her arms around Oro, pulling his whole body back from her, and the Rabbit even let go of his grip entirely just to assure her the Dog wasn't responding to any kind of torture from him. The Lioness stepped in front of him, then, turning the girl to face her. But the bright smile and sharp look were already back by the time her nose was out of the corner. "Whew!" she breathed quickly, "Sorry about that. I did get kind of depressed, not seeing you for so long. Thanks, miss...?"

"Nayeli," the Lioness sighed in relief that she had recovered, at least for the moment. Nayeli wasn't entirely sure how much she trusted the girl to stay that way. "It's okay. We're going to get you out of here now. You'll follow your brother and listen to him, right?"

"Naturally," the Dog nodded with a smile, "Not that you'd know, but I've never done anything else in my entire life."

Oro gnashed his teeth with a sneer, but nodded when Nayeli gave him a stern look over her shoulder. He didn't like it at all...but he'd humor the girl, and play the role of her "brother", at least long enough to get them all out of here. If anything she said was true...if she had survived this nightmarish place for any noteworthy time, even if it was just a hundred and twenty hours instead of years...she was a capable person, and no doubt knew a good deal that might help them.

"I'm almost afraid to ask," Kylan started slowly, "But...how old are you? Sorry if that's rude, but a hundred and twenty years is kind of outlandish."

Kitt tilted her head curiously. "How so? Eladrakin aren't even considered fit to follow their own song before their second hundred spring." She giggled again at the little Feline's blank stare. "Well, let's don't count the years we've been in The Labyrinth, since time is unreliable in pocket dimensions. Before that, I traveled with brother and his entourage for sixty years. Before that I spent six hundred years studying every art in the world, mundane and otherwise. And I began that education in my second-hundred autumn. So I have seen at least eight hundred and sixty springs before we entered The Labyrinth, in any case."

"...What are you?" Sarahi whispered, staggered by the thought of such a number, much less the experiences of a life that long...and she still seemed to be so young, just by her mannerisms.

"Fuck it," Oro grunted, "We're losing daylight, and I need to break something. A lot of somethings, if I can find them. She can tell us more after dark." Gently pushing Nayeli aside, he sneered down at the little Dog. "I'm convinced you're not an enemy. So I'll do what I can to help you, as long as you don't pose a threat to my family. I don't care what else you think. Tell yourself whatever helps you sleep at night. Can you live with that?"

"Anything you want, brother," Kitt grinned, wagging her tail happily, "Just so long as I can be with you."

He wasn't entirely sure he liked how she said it, but she probably didn't like how he was saying anything so far, so that was fair enough by his estimate. "Okay," he grunted, jerking his thumb at Nayeli, beside him, "Nayeli," he declared, even though the Lioness had already introduced herself. He pointed to each of the others in turn: "Tuli, Diya, Kylan. The one with the spear is Sarahi. She and I are on point, the twins are in the back. You stick with Tuli and Nayeli in the middle until we say otherwise. Got it?"

"Of course, brother!" the petite Dog smiled happily, sliding passed him and Nayeli with a swift grace that surprised them to plant herself at Tuli's side like a dutiful daughter.

Oro frowned. "I have a name, too," he growled.

She nodded immediately. "Of course! Kekatavaratet'tekel—"

He clamped his hand around her muzzle to shut her up. "Oro," he corrected, "Just Oro. Use it."

Her eyes were closed, her tail wagging happily, and she nodded her trapped muzzle in his tight grip as if she relished the touch. He released her, and she immediately confirmed, "Anything you say, bro—Oro," she grinned, "Heh...might take me a minute to break the habit, though."

"Work on it," the Rabbit grunted, taking up Gorgorond and thumping it on his shoulder once before kicking the door behind him open. He still had the presence of mind to check for traps before blindly striding through, but he'd abandoned any desire to make the first strike in stealth. Whatever waited in here, he wanted to just beat the life out of it, thoroughly and brutally.

The room was empty. Completely. "Fuck," he hissed, remembering the door to this hall had been opened before they reached it. "You came this way, didn't you?" he glared over his shoulder at the Dog walking casually beside Tuli.

She just nodded with a proud smile. "I come this way pretty regularly," she informed him helpfully, "This zone spawns lots of cockatrices and mandrakes. I like to mix them with caps from the turgid mychonids in the next zone for a hearty stew. A little on the sour side, but it's very nutritious."

Oro flopped straight down on his tail, took a deep breath, and exhaled very slowly. He did this two more times before speaking again. "You know ‘ways' in this place?" She nodded, smiling innocently. "You know what can and can't be eaten?" She nodded again, tapping her nose as if that explained her knowledge. "...I take it back," the Rabbit sighed, his fury finally abating, "We need to talk now. Let's take a lunch break here."

That suggestion was met with sighs of relief all around, as the group began shrugging off their backpacks, and a particularly happy cheer from Kitt. Unclasping her cloak, she swung it around and spread it on the ground like a blanket, seating herself near the hood and looking at Oro, just beyond the far edge, expectantly. Gnashing his teeth, he scooted forward onto the thick cloth. "I've been saving this for our reunion," the Dog announced suddenly, pulling a large, seemingly empty pouch from her belt. Loosening the string and pulling open the mouth, she reached inside and drew out a long, thick clay bottle, setting it by her knee. This she followed with a pair of cups that looked to be made of cut crystal.

Oro arched a brow at this little display. "I don't drink," he grunted honestly, "So, you're a magician?"

"Barely," Kitt smiled, ignoring his first remark, "Only second tier. But this is just a hole, like a door to a much larger storage room." Without so much as a blink, she produced two more cups as Nayeli and Sarahi quietly joined them, somewhat relieved to find the new girl did not seem bothered by their subtle possessiveness of "her brother". Kitt filled each of the cups with the dark red contents of the bottle before lifting her own cup to her lips. She swirled it under her nose for a moment, nostrils twitching as she savored the scent, before tipping the whole cup into her mouth and swallowing. "Mmm...there is no sweeter wine than elven ruberry," she smiled.

Giving her a hard look, Oro silently passed his cup over his shoulder to Tuli. The older Lioness giggled and thanked him quietly as she accepted it. Sarahi sniffed her serving curiously, tipping the cup against her lips just enough to touch her tongue with the ruby liquid. Nayeli simply ignored hers, and the twins were content with the filtered water the group had brought. They handed out some of the ready-to-eat meal pouches they'd brought with them, including one for Kitt. The bright-eyed Dog blinked curiously at the package, turning it over in her hands for a moment to examine it before sniffing it delicately. "Oo! What kind of material is this?" she asked, opening the foil-wrapped package by watching how her new companions did it, "Isn't that clever?"

"Yeah, but we don't have a whole lot," Oro noted, "Enough for a week, tops, and we've already been here for a few days. We figured we could eat the giant, featherless birds...," he waited to see if she'd give that a more formal name, but she was busy slurping down a pouch of liquified spaghetti, "But we're not sure about anything else. I thought the murder-carrots might be poisonous, and everything else we've met was either nothing but bones or a little too close to ‘people' for comfort."

She nodded sagely at that, but finished her "meal" before answering, apparently fascinated by the taste and texture of the preserved food. "Good call as usual, br—Oro. The cockatrice is about as simple as any animal to prepare. The mandrakes are mildly poisonous, but you'd live, and boiling them with cockatrice liver neutralizes it. Mychonid caps are delicious, nutritious, and safe, but only the caps. The rest of the body will drive you mad. There are other things in the later zones that are edible, too, but they're tough to kill and almost as tough to prepare, so it's generally not worth the effort. That's why I came back to the second and third zones to wait for you: the food supply is stable, and the denizens not particularly dangerous."

"You keep mentioning these ‘zones'," the Rabbit pointed out, "How many are there? How do you even get back to previous ones? We didn't see any way back after going through the first portal."

"You didn't?" she tilted her head, tapping her chin, "Gosh...you must have got pretty close to the exit to have encountered something that could blind you that thoroughly. Maybe that explains why you don't remember me," she added with a shrug and what Oro took to be a comforting smile. "Don't worry. That sort of thing is always temporary. Anyway, there aren't as many as one would think for a labyrinth. I've explored four, and there might be a fifth, but I don't think so. I think the fourth contains the exit, but I never could sneak passed the guard. I nearly died the first time I tried, and haven't dared do more than peek into the room since then," she admitted, looking a little ashamed.

Oro stared at her hard, looking for any indication she was lying, or at least not telling the whole truth. Nothing was jumping out at him, though. So, if he understood her correctly, they had picked up a guide who knew the way to the exit already. "Well, sneaking isn't really our style," he grunted, nodding to Sarahi and her bright, glowing spear, "But we can put a smack-down on just about anything, when we put our minds to it. We'll get passed the guard, you just lead the way."

"Uh...not to be doubting-Debra," Sarahi winced, "But that last one just about did us in. Some of us, anyway. Maybe we could try sneaking passed the big bad?"

"We had trouble because we tried to sneak by," Oro sighed, "Not saying it was a bad idea at the time, or that I'm not open to trying it again...but it's not our strong suit. I'm way better as simply beating shit down, and you're great back-up in that capacity."

Kitt giggled. "That's my brother, alright!" she winked, "Always the direct route."

Oro cringed at the comparison. "You really think I'm a great match for this guy, huh?"

"Obviously!" she smiled.

"Speaking of which," Nayeli broke in on the conversation, "You said you can smell his soul? How is that even possible? What else can you smell?"

"A lot of things," the Dog beamed, tapping the side of her nose as it quivered in Nayeli's direction. "I wished for the power to find anything I sought...and, typical of genies, I got my wish with a bit of a twist. I was careful with my wording, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but the power was given to my nose and my body got reshaped as a Houndain. Not too bad a price, I'd say. Brother thought I made a cute puppy...though maybe not so much now that you're into kittens?" She actually looked a little nervous. Oro and Nayeli glanced at each other...but some questions would be better saved for later, they both seemed to agree. Closing her eyes and sniffing carefully, Kitt gave a big smile to Nayeli. "Mmm...you're good. Really good. Kind and sweet, and I don't just mean as a flavor. It's been a while since I smelled anything that pleasant. Can I sleep next to you at night?" she asked, though she was already turning toward the twins, behind the Lioness. One deep breath and she flashed a knowing look and smug grin. "Well don't you two just reek of lust and taboo? Teehee...don't worry," she winked, "You can't hold a candle to brother and me." Her nose quivered again as she looked at Tuli. "Nice. I see where Nayeli gets it from. You've got some hangers-on tainting you, though. Demon-scent. Three babies? You and she might be able to turn them around, though." And finally she whiffed Sarahi. "Whew! Haha! You smell a lot like me!" she laughed, pulling her own shirt open a little and tucking her nose down for a whiff, "Well...better, actually. I haven't gotten to bathe in a while. More loyalty than lust, courage with hints of envy...you're a rare mix, and all of it strong. I'll be counting on you."

Faces were red all around the group, and Oro rubbed his face again. "Alright. You've made your point. Now I expect you to respect my family's privacy, and not go spreading embarrassing rumors."

"Never!" the Dog promised, looking a little offended at the insinuation...but only a little. Something else about what he'd said seemed to have caught her attention, though. "When you say ‘family'...?" she cocked her head curiously.

Oro quirked a brow, and jerked his thumb at Nayeli. "Married. My wife. Also my wife," he pointed likewise to Sarahi, who grinned sheepishly, hoping that arrangement wasn't as unacceptable in her culture as in theirs.

Kitt's face went limp. "You...got...married?!" she shot forward, stopping nose-to-nose with him and searching his eyes as if hoping to find dishonesty there. Oro's reflexive response was to catch the back of her neck and thrust her face-down on the ground in front of Nayeli's knees. The Lioness caught his wrist, but Oro was unyielding.

"That's right," the Rabbit growled, "I did. And you're going to respect them exactly as much as you respect me. Is that going to be a problem?"

"Oro!" Nayeli hissed, leaning her shoulder against him in the effort to get him to relieve the pressure on the back of the girl's neck. But Kitt wriggled her head back and forth quickly, and Oro let her go as soon as she'd answered.

Kitt sat back up on her knees, rubbing her neck and looking...sad? Disappointed? "Wow," she said demurely, "That was...unexpected. I never thought you'd...especially not in here...without me..."

Oro snorted. "Yeah, well, it's a fucked up world and weird shit happens. Deal with it."

That, surprisingly, got a soft chuckle out of the young Dog. "Always, br—Oro."

Oro took a deep breath through his own nose, and exhaled slowly. "Okay. Will you still lead us to the exit, or as close as you can manage?"

"Absolutely," Kitt nodded, flashing a bright smile again as if nothing had happened.

Sarahi leaned over to whisper in the Rabbit's ear. "Oro, there's a lot going on with this girl. I don't think we know the half of it. Go easy on her, okay? At least until we know more of the story."

"Yeah, yeah," Oro growled, making no effort to keep his voice down, "Nothing to be done about it in this place, though. We've got to get home before we can handle it ‘properly'. So let's get going." He gestured around the room at the four other doors leading out. "Which way?"

Gathering up their things, the group assumed their marching order again, this time with Kitt right behind Oro and Sarahi. It was a relief to be moving with purpose again, actually toward a goal instead of searching around for one. And the next little stretch went smoothly, as Kitt lead them through a handful of rooms she'd already passed through that day, leaving them empty except for the remains of the monsters that had once inhabited them.

"How do you fight these things, anyway?" Oro kicked aside the corpse of one of the little blue-skinned people they'd met before, "The way you got around Sarahi's spear, I can believe you're good at dodging, but what's your counter-attack?"

Her answer was to toss a small knife into the air, drawn so deftly Oro wasn't entirely sure where she'd pulled it from, and actually catch it on her muzzle, balancing the flat of the blade across it effortlessly. "I'm a good aim. I've got a couple of spells for the golems, too. Sometimes I just sneak through, if I'm tired or in a hurry, but a lot of things in here don't ‘see' in the normal sense, so it's hard to get by without a fight. Another part of why I came back to the early zones. The sky-clops in later zones are hard for me to handle, and don't even get me started on the bone-callers. Skeletons? Easy. Undead wizards who summon them by the swarm? A lot harder."

Oro actually grinned at that. "Sounds like a stress-reliever to me."

"It would," Kitt and Sarahi remarked off-handedly at exactly the same time. The Sha'khari blinked, the Dog laughed, and Nayeli giggled behind them. Kitt waved for them to stop as they approached the next door. "Before we get into this hall, I need to warn you the next room is occupied. It's the gate to the next zone, and the Skull-King is guarding it right now...along with about fifty or sixty of his subjects."

Sarahi blinked at that. "You snuck by that big a group? Unnoticed? Wow, you're good."

But Kitt shook her head. "Not exactly. More like I move too fast for them to be confident. They can sense the living from a long way off, but their sight's not good, per-se. They have to get within a stone's throw or so to aim at a target clearly, and they won't charge before that. So when I go through, I run a lap around the room to get them all clustered up on one side, then sprint for the gate. The King has better eyes, but he's easy enough to dodge by himself."

"...Wait," Oro gave her a narrow look, "Are these those skulls that float through the air and look like they're on fire?" Kitt nodded...and Oro's belly growled loudly.

Sarahi could practically see the hunger boiling up in his eyes. "Oro...that's a lot of them. If there's not a way to channel them, like we did the first time, I don't think we could intercept them all."

Oro gnashed his teeth. "Even a few would be good. It's not unbearable, but I'm fucking tired of feeling like my belly's always empty."

"...I could make some walls," Kylan raised his hand, "If Kitt runs that lap like she talked about, that should give me enough time to scratch out some runes right next to the door. It won't be a very long hall, probably, but if they aren't smart enough to come over the top then we can narrow them down to a pretty tight space."

"You know rune magic?" Kitt clapped excitedly, "Oh br—Oro, you always find the most interesting people!"

Kylan tilted his head curiously. "Do you know any runes? I've only got a handful. I'd love to learn some more."

"Not yee-ett," the Dog grinned, leaving the request subtly heard but unspoken, "It's forbidden knowledge, so it's hard to find anyone even willing to admit they've heard of it."

"...Forbidden?" Kylan blinked, "Why?"

Kitt giggled, as if the answer should be obvious: "Because peasants who can use magic themselves don't need wizards. And an unneeded wizard is an unfunded wizard. Wizards don't like things like that, so several groups of them tried to wipe out everyone who had the knowledge centuries ago."

"Not the time for a history lesson," Oro grumbled, thumping Gorgorond in his hand, "Let's give that a try. We'll have to fight them in almost any case: the backpacks slow down some of our party, so dodging and sprinting are pretty well off the table."

At the end of the connecting hall, Kitt waited by the door with a big, confident smile, and held up three fingers. She slowly lowered one at a time in a silent countdown, then pushed the door open and ran off to the left. The room on the other side was wide and square, lined with rows of columns much like where they'd fought the giant. Hovering in the center, directly above the gate, was a burning skull as tall as Sarahi, with a red-hot crown resting on the flaming bone. It was surrounded by several dozen of the smaller skulls they'd first encountered in The Labyrinth...and all of these turned to follow Kitt's track as she reached the nearest corner of the room.

"Wow, she's fast!" Kylan observed, quickly hopping through the door and beginning to draw along one side of it. A handful of the small skulls near the back seemed to notice him, turning away from the main group and floating ominously in the direction of the door.

"Keep working," Oro hissed, stepping passed Kylan with Gorgorond in hand, "I can handle this much." Sarahi likewise stepped out, putting herself and her shield between the threat and Kylan, but letting Oro stay out front to...feed.

Not one made it passed him. As Gorgorond snuffed the last flame, seemingly absorbing it into the bat's fleshy wood, Oro shuddered. "Ooooh fuck that's good!" he hissed, trying to keep his voice quiet.

"Oro!" Sarahi called his attention back to the mass. His brief killing-spree had already drawn the attention of the King, who was now eying the Rabbit with baleful fire in its gaze...

Kylan pushed Sarahi, urging her to get out of the way, then placed his hand over the runes he'd completed and...did whatever it was he did that required his concentration. A section of the wall extended itself straight out from the runes for about eight feet, stopping a little beyond Oro's shoulder. Kitt was nearly three quarters of the way around the perimeter now, but she was having trouble keeping ahead of the main force. "Is...is she slowing down?" Kylan asked as he scurried to the other side of the frame and began drawing frantically, "She's not going to make it in time!"

"Sonny! Fetch!" Diya commanded, and the snow-white wolf bounded out the door as fast as its four legs could carry it. The beast doubled back as it got even with Kitt, snagging her cloak in its teeth and hoisting her like a pup as it picked up the pace for the return trip.

"You can do this, right?" the Rabbit growled softly to his demon bat as he wedged his short thumb-claws into the center of the wood. Oro forced it to split, and actually pulled the weapon into two halves. As they separated, each one rounded itself out into its full figure again, giving the Rabbit a weapon in each hand. "Aww yeah!" Oro laughed, clapping the two bats together and grinning fiercely at the approaching king. It was hard to say whether it or its minions would arrive first...and they'd end up facing a barrage from both before it was done, either way.

Sarahi's spear thrust passed his shoulder, leveled at the Skull-King. "I can handle the big one," she growled, "Fist of Heaven..."

A terrifying thought went through Oro's head. A thought that he hated. A thought that made him regret the trust he'd come to have in this unnatural weapon in his hands. The spear flared, as if sensing this sudden, malevolent intent even as he quashed it, and silently told Gorgorond where he could shove it later.

He wanted to eat that big, burning soul...but Sarahi was right. It was a better division of their abilities for her to shoot down the one large target while he beat down the dozens of smaller ones. He trusted her judgment. He trusted her. And if the demon posing as his weapon thought for one single second he would allow it to consume her to get its way, he'd throw it back into Hell with his own two hands.

The fact that it had even gotten that thought into his head pissed him off. His jaw ached from the clench of his teeth. Kylan was still trying desperately to finish making his wall as Sonny bounded up to them, dropping Kitt at the threshold of the door, where she curled up against the newly formed wall and panted desperately for air. The explosion to Oro's left declared Sarahi's strike victorious, and Kylan managed to get the second wall extended before the first of the smaller skulls could charge. It wasn't quite as tall as the first extension (he'd skipped the top rune in favor of getting the completed ones activated), but enough to cut them off from sight, hopefully coaxing the floating skulls into meandering around to the "mouth" of the newly-formed channel.

"Alright. Back up. It's my turn," Oro growled, pressing his back against the wall to let Sarahi slide by, then stationed himself in the center of the narrow space. Kylan had almost made it too narrow for him. He couldn't swing his bats out to any appreciable distance on the sides, but began loosely twirling them in a flourish that filled the gaps. He crossed them in front of himself a couple of times, getting a feel for how much area his strikes could cover as the first skull appeared at the end of the channel.

The first skull charged, and was snuffed. The second met the same fate. Behind them, the host became a torrent of fire flooding the narrow channel...a torrent that ended in a furious blaze at the Rabbit's feet. He was fast. He was strong. And he was determined not to let a single one of them through.

He was succeeding...but he wasn't winning. "AUGH!" the Rabbit roared, "YOU FUCKING BASTARD!! I'LL BITE YOUR FACE OFF WHEN I GET TO HELL!!"

"Oro!!" Sarahi cried, and began to charge forward, intending to take his place as she realized the crimson stain was beginning to creep further down his ears. Gorgorond was growing.

"STAY BACK!" Oro barked. He was in the thick of it now. There wasn't a second in which he could relent, or the horde would overwhelm the group behind him. The Rabbit fought on, holding the line desperately, though he had begun to scream almost uncontrollably now.

It couldn't have lasted more than a handful of seconds, but it felt like nearly a solid hour before the last flare was snuffed, and his arms fell to his sides. Dropping the bats, Oro crumpled into a little quivering ball on his hands and knees, right there in the middle of the channel, and the only sign that he was still alive was the tremor in his body. His clothes were little more than tattered strips barely clinging to his hips, having been either burnt off by the dying skulls or eaten by the spreading demon (it was hard to guess which at the moment). The scarlet stains that had tipped his ears and limbs now consumed the whole of his body.

"Oro," Sarahi gasped as she trotted up to him, with Nayeli hot on her heels.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" their husband barked with surprising strength just as the Lioness was reaching out for him, "Don't...trust...this...body," he huffed, struggling for breath between each word, "Just...get...through...the...gate."

"No way are we leaving without you," Sarahi frowned, but gave him space and time to pull himself together without trying to touch him. Nayeli did the same, though she kept having to catch her hands, as she desperately wanted to hold and comfort him.

"Oro," the Lioness asked softly, "What happened?"

"...Ate...me," he hissed, still refusing to lift his head or look at either of them, "Not...gonna...die. Just...need...to...teach...this...fuck...who's...boss."

Behind them, Tuli heard Nigel whisper to her, "Mom, Gorgorond got real big just now. Is Dad gonna be okay?"

"I'm sure he will, dear," the older Lioness tried to sound reassuring, though Oro didn't look so good from where she was standing, and the fact that neither of the other girls was touching him had her worried. Stepping through the door, she knelt down to check on Kitt, still lying curled up beside where Kylan had slumped over in exhaustion. "Are you alright?"

The little Dog's face was deep red across both cheeks and all the way down her neck, and she was breathing hard. But she smiled sheepishly as she answered, "Eh...I might...have worked up to...more than a sweat," and squirmed with her hands between her thighs.

Tuli blinked...then sighed. "Well, that's another question answered, I guess. The spell finally got to you."

Beside her, Diya helped Kylan back to his feet as the little Feline recovered his breath. "Activating that many takes a lot out of you," her brother explained, rubbing his head.

Diya nodded, looking at the little Dog beside them. "I can walk for a bit. Let Sonny carry you and Kitt while you catch your breath. You guys did good."

They gave worried looks to Oro and the girls as they came up to them, but Sarahi just motioned for them to pass on by. "Careful not to touch him," she warned, pressing herself as flat against one wall as she could manage so they could step around on the other side, "We can't tell if he's hurt yet."

"Go on through the gate," Nayeli added, "We'll be there in just a minute. Those things don't close, do they?" she asked Kitt to confirm.

The Dog shook her head. "No. The guards will be replaced by morning, but the gate will remain. Take your time, and don't worry too much," she smiled, "It'll take a lot more than that to knock brother off his feet."

Sarahi dipped a dubious brow at her, and wondered if they were looking at the same Rabbit. But the group nodded their understanding, stepping carefully around and over Oro, and slowly made their way through the portal to the next zone.

Finally, only the Rabbit and his wives remained. "Dear—" Nayeli started gently.

"Don't touch me," he repeated quickly and bitterly, "Fucking bastard demon got me. It was a fucking trap. Fucking hurt, too. Damn fucking bastard..." He trailed off into a string of obscenities, and Sarahi and Nayeli let him have the moment to vent what was obviously both a physical and emotional pain. Having finished his short tirade, the Rabbit flopped weakly onto his side and rolled onto his back, taking several deep breaths to calm himself. "I don't trust this body. It's Gorgorond's now. I am Gorgorond. He's letting me control what's left, fuck if I know why, but I'm done. My fur. My skin. My eyes," he opened one ruby-red iris set in a dark amber orb to peek at them briefly, "My entire fucking digestive tract. I felt him chewing through all of it," he sighed, weariness creeping in to replace his slowly dying rage. "For all I know, he'll bite you the minute you touch me. So don't. Never touch me again," Oro winced as he said it, but continued, "I'm sorry. So. Fucking. Sorry. We're never going to hug again. We're never going to kiss again. I might as well—!"

Defiant of his insistence, Nayeli laid a firm hand over his mouth, interrupting his roll down the spiral of depression. "If the only way I can kiss you from now on is through the skin of a demon," the Lioness declared softly...then bent her head down to press her lips to his before continuing, "Then it was damned for its ungodly luck."

Oro looked equal parts shocked, ashamed, and grateful. "...I do not deserve you," he whimpered as his last shred of self-control broke. His bitterness was spent. Even his wrath was dead. A lonely, broken, homely Rabbit was all that was left there now, curled up on the ground and sobbing out the grief he had not expressed in years.

Sarahi curled up at his back, patting his trembling shoulder gently, and Nayeli lifted his head into her lap. "You've got that right," the Sha'khari said softly, "But you have her. And me. I've followed you into veritable Hell more than once now. One more demon isn't going to scare me off," she promised, leaning down to kiss his dry cheek. Despite the shudders wracking his body, his demon-replaced eyes seemed incapable of producing tears.

They didn't rush him, though they all knew the rest of their family would be getting worried. True to his usual character, Oro didn't stay down for long. Having bled out the worst of his regret, he began wrapping the rest in mental bandages, wiped his nose on his arm and heaved himself first to a seat and then to his feet. "Right," he sighed, still far from strong, but collected again, "I'm getting you out of here. Whatever happens after that...will happen," he gave a meaningful look to Sarahi's spear, which the Sha'khari did not appreciate. "Fuck, that thing burns," the Rabbit muttered. He still hadn't moved when the girls got their feet under them, though...and met their questioning look with a heart-broken and grateful gaze. "...I love you. Both of you." Two sets of Leonine cheeks turned bright red as they smiled back, and nodded. "Let's go," Oro said, more to his own feet than his cherished wives, and finally took a firm step toward the gate.

"I'm starting to think you just like hanging back to scare me," Diya accused when he finally appeared on their side of the portal. The stonework here was a dark, glossy grey that bordered on black, struck with veins of scarlet as red as his new coat of fur. Diya looked him over briefly, noting the spread of that new color as Sarahi and Nayeli appeared beside him, and asked more gently, "Seriously...are you okay?"

"No," he answered honestly, but without the usual venom, and that change did not go unnoticed by the little Feline, "But you've known that for a while now. I'll live. Long enough to get you all out of here, at the very least. That said...I'm going to need a nap soon," he admitted, sounding and looking exhausted. He couldn't seem to manage to lift his eyes much higher than even her short knees, either. "So let's clear what ground we can, and fast. Which way?"

"Mmm...north from here. That door," Kitt pointed lazily with one hand while keeping the other cupped between her legs and shamelessly eying-up Oro's very naked body.

"Oro, you're already worn out," Tuli cautioned, "And she is feeling...the effects of the kiss. I think now would be the better time for a break."

Oro shook his head slowly. "I couldn't get it up for anyone right now, much less a stranger. And I feel like I could sleep for days the second I lie down. No telling how long I'll be out once I go. We should make what progress we can." He held a hand out to the Dog, ignoring her behavior at the moment. "Can you hold out?"

"Sure," she nodded easily, accepting his hand and getting to her feet, "It's no worse than it was the first year we were separated. Although I could give myself some relief back then," she shrugged, "Just don't ask me to perform any acrobatics."

"Then let's go," Oro grunted, starting toward the door she'd indicated with a slightly unsteady gait.

"Um...did you forget your bat?" Kylan asked, noticing the Rabbit's signature weapon conspicuously absent.

Oro shrugged, never breaking stride. "Don't need it anymore."

Diya arched a brow, increasingly concerned by this despondent tone. "How about clothes?"

"Oh, he doesn't need those, either," Kitt hummed, as if oblivious to the change in mood. Diya caught her cloak just as she went skipping off after the Rabbit, shaking her head in clear warning to the petite Dog. Now was not the time for jokes. They didn't know this Oro...and even the old one could be dangerous if you caught him in the wrong mood.

But the scarlet Rabbit didn't seem quick on the response to anything right now, much less snappy. With a slow but determined step, he trudged into the next room...where he was greeted almost immediately by a quartet of large, red-skinned cousins to the little blue people that had been shooting them with crossbows in earlier zones. These four instead carried over-sized cleavers half as tall as the Rabbit himself.

Sarahi trotted out to challenge the pair on the right and, trusting even a dejected Oro to handle the two on the left, realized too late that he was making no effort to defend himself. "Oro!!" she shouted, doubling-back as the first creature's blade came crashing down on his shoulder, angled to cleave him in two from there to his hip.

But whatever part of its weapon passed into him did not come back out, and it was the metal blade that fell in two at the end of the swing. Oro caught the surprised creature by the neck, clamping one hand on each side and, with hardly any visible effort, squeezed until the bones of its spine separated and the body fell twitching on the floor. Sarahi was so shocked by the callousness of it that she almost forgot to defend herself, and the spear in her hand had to urge her to move her own body to intercept the cleaver at her back.

It was a short battle. Oro killed three of the four. And he pulled the last one into himself, keeping his back to his family as he stuffed the corpse into his own belly like he was pulling his entrails back into himself. "Well...it's sort of a soul," he sighed when it was done, "Airy. Hollow. Like stuffed pastries, if you forget the stuffing...and the sugar."

"Honey-bunny," Sarahi approached him slowly, "I get that you're trying to figure out what you can do now...but this is scarey. Even for you. I'll take all the vulgarity and violence in the world over this cold apathy, even toward monsters. You should rest."

He shook his head again, but didn't argue. In his heart, he didn't like it, either. But his heart was tired now, and having trouble just keeping his body moving, much less showing any energy. "Which way?" he asked Kitt again...and even the delusional Dog finally seemed concerned about him.

She took care from the first syllable to use the name he'd told her. "Oro, you've taken a shock," she reminded him, trying to keep a confident smile despite the worry creeping into it, "I've seen you fight through worse, but there's really no need to hurry right now. The exit isn't going anywhere it hasn't been in the last hundred years. You can take some time—"

"I'm not going to keep them here for a hundred years," he grumbled, showing a little of his usual self in the cold look he gave her, but his head still drooped and his body stayed still, "Which way?" A little reluctantly, she pointed to the next door. He trudged to it, then through the hall on the other side.

Nayeli wrapped an arm around his chest, and the other under his chin, pulling him back from the door at the end before he could open it. "Sarahi, block the door," she said softly, "We're stopping here. Kylan, lock it down, please." The Lioness pulled his back snug against her chest, holding him to the side with her and giving the other two room to walk by.

Oro didn't struggle. Part of him feared that resisting her, showing even the least hint of something that could be interpreted as aggression, might prompt his demon-skin to bite her...to chew through her hands as it had the flesh and bone and iron of his enemies a moment ago. He wouldn't risk it. So when she buckled her knees to kneel down behind him, he nearly fell flat on his back rather than pull against her. Nayeli caught his balance for him, guided him down, and pressed him down on his back with his head in her lap again. "Stay," she insisted, laying one hand on his chest and the other lightly over his eyes, "Rest. It's been a rough day. Two of them. And you and Sarahi are carrying most of the burden of them. We can't have either of you go out there in less than the best shape we can manage. Even if it means losing some time...we need you to recover. So rest now."

He took a deep breath, exhaled it slowly, and carefully adjusted his position on the floor. "...Fine," he sighed at last, relaxing his head under her hand, "Sorry."

"It's okay," Nayeli smiled at him, patting his chest gently, grateful that he wasn't arguing anymore. Sarahi curled up with her back to the door after Kylan finished using his runes to wedge it in place, plenty grateful to take a load off her paws for a while.

Oro tensed when she laid her spear down against the wall, though, with the glowing blade near to his leg. "Can you cover that?" he asked in a low voice, "It burns."

"Sure," she nodded, and asked Kylan to bring the little golf-club cover they used to "sheathe" her weapon back home. Everyone began offloading their packs and settling in, getting as cozy as they could in the narrow space. They'd managed it several times now...but the addition of another body, even a small one, was making things a little cramped. In the end, Nayeli let Kitt sit beside her and lean against the Lioness' shoulder.

The Dog was plenty content being this close to her "brother"...and also appreciated the pleasant scent she claimed wafted from Nayeli. Oro's breathing was soft and deep within seconds, and Sarahi took the opportunity for a quick nap as well, but sleep wasn't coming to Nayeli or Kitt nearly so soon.

The Dog looked a little bothered by Oro's sleeping face. "Maybe...he's not my brother?" she pondered quietly, "Brother never looks like that." Leaning down, she took a deep whiff through her nose, then shivered as the blush on her cheeks deepened. "No, my nose doesn't lie," she sighed, leaning against Nayeli again and recovering her smile, "Even now the demon can't overwhelm that scent. Mmm...gods above and below, he smells wonderful..."

Nayeli quirked a brow, but refrained from stating the obvious. They'd tried that already. The girl's delusion would not be broken that simply, and there was no telling how she'd behave when it was. The Lioness just hoped she could manage it herself, and gently enough not to break whatever remained of her sanity. "You really love your brother, don't you?"

"Yeah," she grinned, "It's rare for Eladrakin to have siblings, so we were encouraged to be close and get along. Hmhm, not that we needed it, but it was convenient."

"What sort of person is he?" Diya, sitting nearby, inserted herself into the conversation, "You've hinted at some pretty impressive things he's done, and called him a hero, but you don't seem surprised by Oro's...attitude."

Kitt giggled. "Oh no, that's brother, alright: rough, aggressive, uncowed by anything, no matter how reasonable. He does what he pleases, and you can either pity the fools in his way or die beside them. He won't hold it against you, at least." Her remarks only deepened Diya's curiosity, and Kitt seemed to understand it sounded anything but ‘heroic'. "Yes, he is called a hero by those who don't know him personally...and even by some who do, but not too well. He has done things that only a hero could supposedly do, so it's not surprising. But he doesn't care much, and he always did what he did for his own reasons," she tapped her chin, thinking of an example, "Like the time he killed the red dragon. Aldor is still a kingdom only because brother stepped in, but I'm not sure the king understands he did it to keep the humans from being driven into our woods. We don't get along with them. And the dragon would have had an eye for our villages next anyway, so it was better to prevent both problems before they arose."

All the family tilted heads at her. "...‘Humans'? What are those?"

Kitt blinked...then laughed. "Where are you people from?! Your lands must be blessed by many powerful gods to have stayed so well hidden from humans that you don't even know what they are. Hmm...then again, based on the make of your clothes and wrappings of your food, your society must be very magically advanced indeed."

Nayeli chewed her lip, debating whether she should ask what was on her mind...but ultimately decided the girl needed to be aware of this. It would be cruel to spring it on her when it was too late for her to think it over. "This place...‘The Labyrinth'...we were pushed into it from another place claiming to be its sister, ‘The Gauntlet'. I know nothing about magic, so this may seem obvious to you: is it possible we're not just in a different ‘place' in our own world, but in another world entirely? A different universe? Somewhere that your land and our land could never meet each other by mere physical travel, no matter how far we went?"

Kitt nodded as if the answer was obvious. "A different sphere of existence? Sure, there are plenty. Never heard of one populated entirely by Ferruda, though, and humans have made incursions into most. So that's where you're from? How did you come to meet brother?" Her eyes went suddenly wide, and she rolled around to look Nayeli in the eyes, practically touching noses with her, smiling wide and tail wagging happily. "Did he make it out?! He came back just for me?!"

Can of worms: opened. Tuli came to her daughter's rescue. "Kitt, sweetie, I don't think you're going to like our side of the story. I'll tell it, if you promise not to get upset, but it's not going to be reassuring to you."

Kitt quirked a brow, looking dubious, but in that amused sort of way a parent has when their child insists there is a very sensible and respectable explanation for why all their clothes are in the bathtub. Settling in again beside Nayeli, the petite Dog nodded for the older Lioness to go on. Taking a deep breath, Tuli told a brief and glossy version of Oro's life up to that day, beginning with the day he moved in with her and Nayeli. She didn't know many details from before that day anyway (Sarahi actually knew more than she did), and she didn't spend much time explaining social details like how and why schools work. She was trying to keep the story tolerably short, and focused on Oro's actions and attitude, as best she understood them. She did include the part about the witch, and the spell that had been placed on all of them (now including Kitt), which had lead to them becoming "family". Nayeli, Diya, and Kylan added their thoughts and observations from time to time, but let her tell her version of the story largely uninterrupted.

At the end, Kitt was rocking her head thoughtfully, her smile momentarily lost, quietly considering everything Tuli had said. "No memories...a complete history...if it's a spell, it's of the highest teir," she muttered, taking another deep breath through her nose, "No...I'd smell that for sure. The witch's bond...that's there. And the demon. And brother's soul. Nothing else arcane," she sighed, "The only other explanation...no, that's impossible. I don't know. You're right: it's not reassuring."

"And yet...you're still convinced Oro is your brother," Diya stated more than asked.

Kitt gave her a sideways look, and smiled again. "He's traveling with you, and seems to like you, so I don't mean this to insult you...but I trust my nose more than your story, which I can't even begin to verify. Keeping a bunch of girls around for company is typical for him, too. There are always plenty who want the attention of a hero. I'm not questioning your motives or anything, just saying his behavior remains consistent. He's definitely brother. Hmhm...I'm going to have some choice words for this witch when I meet her, though," the Dog smirked, leaning her head back against Nayeli and pulling her cloak around her, obviously intent on attempting a nap. Glad that the exchange had not soured the girl, the rest of the family did the same.

Nayeli's legs fell asleep well before she did, but she wasn't about to complain, or attempt to move Oro. It was a testament to how exhausted he'd been that he'd actually slept through that entire talk. She wondered if maybe he'd been pretending for part of it, like he used to do. But he was sure to say something about it when he woke up, if that was the case, so she'd wait to find out then. The Lioness was just on the verge of falling asleep, herself, when Kitt whispered to her: "Did you really get married?"

Peeking an eye open, Nayeli saw the rest of the family soundly snoozing beside them, and Kitt herself still pretending to be. "...Yes," the Lioness answered softly.

"Of your own will? Or did the spell drive you to it?" Kitt clarified.

"By my choice and insistence," Nayeli whispered back, "We endured the effects for several unnecessary hours because of it," she sighed, "And when the spell is lifted, I will still be his wife, and happily so. Sarahi will be the same," she insisted. Kitt did not immediately respond to that. "Do you hate us for it?" the Lioness asked, half in suspicion and half in sympathy.

The Dog shook her head subtly. "No. Well...not much, I guess. I always thought...if he ever settled on someone like that...it'd be me. I'd be first, at least. That's what I wanted." She adjusted herself, working hard now against the desire born of the spell, especially in the quiet and with this particular topic in mind. "Will you hate me? If I marry him, too, I mean?"

Nayeli suppressed a chuckle, not wanting to make light of the girl's wishes or ridicule her. "I like to think I don't hate anyone. Not even a rival. But relationships like that are taboo in our culture...even if some still engage in them," she admitted, clearly thinking of the Runepaws, "So don't be disappointed if he refuses."

"You're like the mortal races of our world, then," Kitt shrugged, "Not that it matters. No one ever stopped us before. It'd be entertaining to see someone try."

The Lioness let that chuckle to the surface. She wouldn't encourage the girl in this, or give her false hope, but Nayeli agreed with that last sentiment.