Thar Shaddin

Keris fell backwards after the unexpected push, too weak and tired to resist. Her hand tingled as the magic faded, her palm still warm where it had touched the injured man's back. The effort to heal had taken more out of Keris than she could have imagined... and the angry woman quite possibly had saved Keris' life by ending the connection. The girl was untrained and too inexperienced to realize the danger she had put herself in - and in healing the man she might have lost her own life.

Gasping and pale, she tried to comprehend the woman's unfamiliarly accented words.

"Chrish...on Nia mate."

Keris winced as she tried to sit up, moving slowly so as not to provoke another attack. Mate... her husband? Keris wondered innocently.

"I... was trying... to help him..." Keris began breathlessly, "He needs help..."

She was quickly realizing by the blank, yet angry, stare the woman was giving her that much of what she was saying was not being understood.

It felt good to win, and even better to finally be healed of the broken ribs and internal injuries. Keris had been stopped by Niabi before completing the healing process, leaving Chrishton with a shallow bruise and bones that would still be weak enough to break easily, but at least it didn't feel as though he was going to die any more.

He laid there and was hoping to do nothing else for a long time, when his pretend somnolence was interrupted by Niabi's angry voice.

What had she said? Mate? Well, that much was true. True and oh so much fun.

Chrishton turned onto his side and opened his eyes to see what was going on. The sound of the girl hitting the floor after Niabi's push warranted attention.

Uh oh. He thought.

"Woah, woah!" He raised his voice at Niabi while propping himself up to a sitting position. He was a little pale and haggard looking, not unlike Keris, but the man was a fountain of energy, even in his condition. Pointing a finger at Niabi's nose, ye yelled again. "No! Bad! No! Ya dun' 'urt th' nice girl!"

It still hurt to use his diaphragm to yell, but he kept a warning glare on Niabi the whole time, waiting for her to back down.

Quietly, secretly in the back of his mind, he was thoroughly amused by her protectiveness. What a woman!

The reasoning behind why Chrish was scolding her was but one more thing that Niabi could not understand about the strange man. He was a fox but at the same time he acted nothing like any fox that she had ever met but neither did he act like many of the men that she had encountered over the years. There was something different about him.

Rather then try to protest with the man who still looked to be in a good deal of pain, Nia listened to him. She sunk her shoulders and pulled in her head in, in a very submissive gesture that she would give to any mate.

Mate. It was strange to think of anything other then another deer as being a mate but that is what the fox-man had become. Just the thought of mating with a fox seemed almost silly to her, something she would have never considered if it had not already happened.

Though she didn't mind listening to him as long as she knew that she could kill the female if she needed to. She didn't trust her, even if she too looked to be weak or injured. Men were clever killers in that way.

Niabi made sure that even though her body language suggested that she was no longer a threat that her eyes still held a warning for the man. "Man no kill foaks. No kill deer. No hurt Nia mate."

Keris's gaze shifted to the man as he spoke then back to the strange woman again, her expression one of confusion. What is she talking about? the girl wondered, as the only man she saw was on the floor before her - and yet it seemed that the woman was directing her accusations towards Keris - not him. What is a 'Nia'? And I don't see any fox or deer anywhere....

Biting her lower lip, Keris shifted onto her knees. She was still weak - but at least she did not feel like she was going to pass out any longer. Meeting the woman's hard stare, Keris tried to appease her using simple words and holding her hands out with palms facing upward, hoping to be understood. "I no kill - I help... heal..."

Feeling she had done her best, Keris turned her attention again to the injured man. "You are still hurt..." she said softly, "We have a spare room... you should lie down until I can make some bandages. I could get you something to eat...if you want..." The people of Shim were suspicious of strangers, but there was still an innate sense of hospitality that was often found in a farming community. It would not have occured to Keris to refuse to help her unusual guests - and she knew her parents would have felt the same.

Chrishton's attention remained on Niabi following his order. "That's right. Ain't nobody hurtin nobody, an' that includes yerself."

He placed his palm flat against the wall behind himself, and pushed down on it so that he could stand up without straining his core. It still hurt, but compared to earlier it was nothing. His experience with healers in the past told him that even if he felt fine, injuries had a habit of acting up if not given time.

He waited until he was standing to speak. Keris was still kneeling on the floor, so he looked down at her with his back against the wall. "I'm fine, dun need bandages, although some food'd 'it th'spot. Dun' mind m'friend. She's-uh-from down south. Doesna' speak Eyropan. Also she's a bit nuts. Y'ok? Y'look a bit worn out, gorgeous."

Niabi grunted again but there wasn't much else that she could do. She didn't understand what was going on. She was trying her hardest to make sense of the situation but she knew nothing of the way of men.

As she say it, she had confirmed her position with the male and was no longer in jeopardy of losing her chosen mate. The challenger had been pushed into the dirt and because she had not fought back, Nia saw it as a sign that she had won.

She knew that the fox-man was still injured but for some reason he seemed to be in far better health than he had appeared to be only moments before. With him standing again, he was proving to be stronger then she had first thought.

A good mate.

He would make a good mate. He would make strong, healthy fawns and those fawns would help to repopulate the decreasing numbers of the herd. When she was in rut as she was, new fawns were one of her biggest concerns.

Keris flushed red at Christon's light flirtatious tone... she had never been called 'gorgeous' before either. "I...I'm fine..." she stammered before motioning for her guests to follow her inside, leading them through a narrow hall an into a large kitchen. The furnishings were worn, but meticulously clean. A long hand-hewn wooden table with benches beneath sat along one side of the room, while the other had hand-made cabinetry. A soft white curtain covering the window over the sink, with a matching tablecloth on the table, did their best to soften any roughness in the room's appearance.

Motioning again for Christon and Nia to take a seat at the table, Keris worked quickly to prepare a light meal. Bread had been baked early that morning, so she cut generous slices and set them on the table with butter and preserves. She then turned to the stove and began frying salted pork and eggs. It would not be a fancy meal... but it was the best Keris could do in quickly in her weakened state. The meal would be filling - but Keris was a little worried that it might not be suitable for her guest's foreign palates.

Just as she sat the last plate of food on the table Keris heard the rumbling sound of a wagon outside. She looked up with a worried expression on her face. Biting her lower lip, Keris turned to Christon, her voice pleading. "My parents are home... please... please do not tell them what I... what I did for you..." Her face flushed with embarassment as she rambled on, "They wouldn't understand... they are puradynes..." she finished breathlessly.

There was no time for Christon to reply as the door swung open and Keris' parent's entered. Their faces were questioning but not concerned as they eyed their daughter's guests. She had never given them cause for concern before. "Mama... Papa," Keris began, "These people are from the... the South... they are travelers and needed a meal before continuing their journey."

Keris knew that her parent's hospitable nature would accept her story without question... but she was worried about how they might react if the strange woman behaved as oddly as she did earlier... and she was not certain the man would help keep her secret...

Paying little attention to his surroundings, Niabi was Chrishton's main concern as they found their places at the table and had a seat. Well, her and the deft glance he caught of Keris' ass while she went about doing her thing in the kitchen. To him Keris' house was just another country home, but to Niabi it was surely something else entirely. A dangerous cave? Home of the enemy? A trap in the waiting?

As long as it was just them and Keris, things would probably be okay, but if her parents showed up things could get messy. No, things would get messy. If a harmless girl like Keris had Niabi on edge, imagine what another man would do.

His eyes followed hers as she looked around the place, trying to get into that strange head of hers to see what she saw. Nothing in particular caught his eye about the place, but everything about it caught hers. She studied it all from a distance like a child. He wished he could experience that again. How nice it would be to be able to walk into a house and see so much in so little. Seeing her like that might make him feel jaded and old if he wasn't busy living it vicariously through her.

When the food came, Chrishton behaved himself. He led Niabi to a seat beside his and showed her how to sit in it. He made sure she didn't start plowing into the food by holding her hand down and starting with the bread, ripping off a small piece and eating it. He moved on to the fork and knife, which was inevitably hopelessly awkward for her to handle.

Keris' dreaded parents arrived, something that made Chrishton wince. It would be so much easier without them.

When they entered the room he put a hand on Niabi's shoulder and stood up. His insides still hurt, but it didn't show through his oddly polite smile.

"'ello. Hope we ain't too much trouble. Be on our way real soon. I'm Chrish. This's Niabi."

Had it not been for the persistent nature of her new mate, Nia would never have allowed herself to be talked into entering the daunting man cave that loomed before her. Though she would never admit to being at least a little curious about how the strange beast known as man lived, her instincts told her that it was not safe to proceed. There was no telling what could be hiding in the dark, waiting to pounce on her.

It was Chrishton that pushed her onward, he was the one who wanted to leave the safety of the trees, he was the one who wanted to enter the breeding grounds of the man herd and it was he that wanted to not only seek out a man but to enter into it's nest.

She was reluctant to follow him but she had anyways. She told herself that she could not leave him to die in the state that she had left him in, maybe she felt guilty but she knew that there was nothing that she could do about that. She could not help him, she could not heal his wounds and getting herself killed would help no one but she continued on despite the nagging feeling that she was making a bad decision.

Upon entering the cave, she was surprised at the fact that the cave was not nearly as dark as she had expected it to be. Every burrow, hollowed out tree trunk or den that she had ever stumbled upon had been quite dark on the inside, but not this place. The man cave had holes in the sides of it that let in the what remained of the disappearing sunlight but through them she was unable to see the sky above her. What she knew to be a bright, sunny day was blocked off by the top of the cave.

Immediately she had been reminded of a time when she had mistakenly found her way inside of a badger's home and after being frightened by the sudden dark and the inability to move her head, she had fought violently only the make the thing collapse around her. Unlike the badger's den, the man cave was much larger and she feared that if she were to make the thing fall down on top of herself she would not be able to simply walk away shaking dirt out of her ears. This fear of the cave collapsing caused her sink her head down between her shoulders and cling to the the edge of the cave, with her eyes glued to the sky until they were distracted by next fascinating event.

While she had been watching the ceiling for any sign of a crack or crumbling dirt, she had only briefly caught sight of the strange fur covered hole that jumped out towards her. Nia jumped at the sight of the fur coming at her but as quickly as she reacted to it, the thing had returned to covering the hole in the side of the cave. She moved to reach out and touch the fur until it tried to move at her again. Better leave that one alone.

Chrish and the strange man led her through a narrow cave opening and into a much larger cave opening where she found all kinds of unusual sights. In the center of the cave stood what looked to be some very odd looking creature but it was clear that the thing was not alive. For one thing, the head of this creature had been removed and with how flat its stomach was, it was clear that the thing had not eaten in a very long time. Perhaps the thing had been killed, removed of it's fur and left to dry in the sun. If that was not a frightening sight on it's own, the thing was accompanied by it's headless offspring that looked to be gathered around their mother for the one last meal that would never come.

She had to be nearly pulled down on top of the thing to get her to sit on it. It felt wrong, in many ways but she couldn't even begin to describe it. It, like so many other things within the cave didn't feel right.

The next thing she knew, Chrishton was trying to feed her of the food that the man had placed before them. She waited for him to eat of the strange spread before she attempted to try it for herself. This 'bread' stuff tasted nothing like a plant but it had a flavor to it that she couldn't deny finding to her liking. As she tried to mimic Chrishton in eating the stuff, she had not heard the other men enter the cave.

When she had looked up to see the others, her eyes opened wide in fear and she leaned in closer to the fox-man in an attempt to make herself less noticeable. She wanted to run but she felt trapped within the cave and doubted that she could flee with the entrance now blocked.

Keris' parents seemed to take the strange appearance of their visitors in stride, calmly welcoming Chrish and Nia and insisting that they eat well before continuing their journey. Keris' mother even informed them that she would prepare a sack of provisions so that they would not find themselves lacking on their journey to... wherever they were going.

There was a strained moment, however, when Keris' mother noticed her husband staring unabashedly at their female guest... She quickly took him by the arm and led him from the room, chiding him for neglecting his chores that needed to be done - OUTSIDE. Keris flushed with embarassment and did her best to keep her own attention focused on making sure Chrish and Nia had full plates and cups. While Nia seemed completely uncomfortable with the situation, her companion was the complete opposite. Whether his relaxed demeanor reflected his true feelings however, Keris could not be sure.

As they finished eating, Keris' mother returned with a flour sack which she proceeded to fill with a loaf of bread, a small round of cheese and a hunk of dried meat. She offered the sack to Chrish, adding in a half-hearted tone, "If you need a place to stay the night, we have a spare room you are welcome to use." It was clear from her tone that she hoped the pair would decline the offer... but felt it was the 'right thing to do'. While the man seemed 'normal' enough... the woman with him made Keris' mother uncomfortable. From her clothing - or lack thereof - to her strange movements and reactions, there was something... different... about Nia, and the older woman was not sure the difference could be explained away by a difference in nationality.

I only hope I'm not bringing a curse on this place by inviting them to stay... Keris' mother mused, looking at her daughter's flushed face and wondering if she had made a terrible mistake.

Unlike Niabi, Chrish wasn't the jealous type. Keris' father could eyeball Niabi all he wanted. Chrishton knew she was a looker. Boy was she. If only Keris' father knew what he would be getting himself into if he got into her. He would definitely have second thoughts about that, puradyne or not.

Rather than pay attention to the father's wandering eyes, Chrishton tried his hand at one of his many honed talents with Keris' mother. He passed more than a few lengthy stares and suggestive smiles her way. No woman was safe. Of course he had no intentions of carrying things any further with her, and this time he was careful enough to keep Niabi from noticing his behavior. She was, like Keris, 'gorgeous' and 'a real doll' for helping him out. It never hurt to make a woman feel appreciated. It also helped, he noted from his experience, to have a strikingly attractive woman like Niabi with you when flirting with someone else. Especially someone married. He carried his rugged looks and the smell of the road on him quite well. There was no denying he was a hound.

When Niabi was paying attention to him, he all but fawned over her, treating her like a child who had never eaten off a plate before. It was more honest than the treatment he gave Keris' mother. While easing the strange looks Keris' parents gave Niabi by reiterating that she was 'from the south' and 'maybe a little confused' he looked, and indeed was, quite relaxed about it all.

"Well we hate t'be a burden n'all. Y've been real nice t'us, n'hospitable, but a place t'sleep'd be too good t'turn down. We'll be out t'morrow mornin'. Y've got m'word."

He could tell they wanted him and Niabi to leave but... He wanted to sleep in a bed.

Niabi wasn't used to eating such foods as were being fed to her. She lived off of grass, wild mushrooms, bark, berries when they were ripe or a little overripe, and whatever fresh foliage she could kind in the woods. Man food tasted weird, it was warm, and yet it was also filling. She allowed Chrish to help her eat as she cautiously watched the man herd and before she knew it, she had stuffed herself and felt the first signs of drowsiness that followed eating.

She yawned as if to agree with Chrishton's statement but she had no idea what she was getting herself into. She wouldn't think to sleep within the man cave or anywhere near it. This place was dangerous. There were hunters, killers, predictors all around and they would surely eat her if she were to sleep among them.

Of course, she didn't express these thoughts to those that were waiting for a sign of weakness to pounce.

Keris's mother presented a forced smile that her eyes belied at Chrish's response to her offer. She took her daughter's arm, none to gently, and pulled her aside. Speaking in hushed tones so that their guests could not overhear she gave Keris terse instructions. "Show them to their room, provide them with clean linens and water and then get outside and tend to your chores. Do not dawdle... I do not want you spending any more time than necessary with these strangers."

Nodding dumbly, Keris pulled her arm away and returned to the table where Chrish and Nia seemed to have finished their meal. "I... If you are ready... I can show you your room?" she asked somewhat nervously.

With the pair following her, Keris walked down a narrow hall that had two doors on the right and a single door to the left. Motioning for them to wait, she slipped into the first room on the right and returned with an armful of bedding and towels. Keris then led them to the second door on the right, which was to be their room for the night.

The room had a slight musty odor, perhaps from being closed off and under-used. There was a bed jutting into the room on the right, and a single window on the left wall that gave a view of the fields not too far away. Keris set the bedding and towels on the bed, then lit an oil lamp that was on a small table under the window. The furniture was sparse, but the bed appeared to be comfortable, with a large, home-made quilt covering the mattress. Beside the lamp was a large bowl with a pitcher, which Keris removed with the intention of taking it to the well outside to fill.

"I will be right back with your water," she began quietly, avoiding Chrishton's eyes. "Is there anything else you need?" She paused, then continued before he could reply. "And... thank you for not telling my parents about what I did for you..." The words were almost a whisper.

With Keris and her mother pulled away, Chrish finished his meal with a big smile on his face.

"See." He told Niabi. "I telled ya it'd be fine. Just dun do nothin' with 'er dad or ya'll get all three o'us in trouble."

It might happen. Hell, it probably would happen. Something was likely to go wrong and cause a kerfuffle and they'd have to run away, but so what? Chrishton's spirits remained high.

When Keris returned he nodded for Niabi to follow them, and threw Keris' mother another sly wink. He intended to work her over yet... if he could catch her alone.

The room Keris eventually showed them to was a quaint reflection of the peaceful nature of their lifestyle on the farm. Surely it had been months since they'd had a single guest, but they kept it diligently prepared for the possibility. He would never retire to such a life, but it was pleasant to visit.

"Course not, darlin'. We all got our secrets. Y'elped me outta a real bind an' I appreciate it. We're buddies now." He cleared his throat. "But y'want my advice. This town ain't good fer ya. Not if yer different. Consider gettin' outta 'ere when yer older."

He led Niabi over to the bed and sat down on it, indicating for her to sit as well.

Before she knew it, Nia was being led deeper into the man cave. This new part lacked some of the lighting that had lit up the eating place that they come from and it had an odd smell to it. She couldn't place it but there was something about this new area that irritated her nose and made her made her want to sneeze. It was like getting dirt up her nostrils or smelling too many dandelions.

She watched the man-girl intently until she disappeared back into the main part of the man cave. Nia didn't trust her or the others. They were dangerous, blood thirsty killers and she just knew that they had to planning something. What it was, she couldn't say but they were up to something.

Then she yawned again.

Food had made her drowsy, it made it hard to think and hard to concentrate on the important things. She knew that sleeping without others to stand watch was dangerous, but she couldn't fight the feeling to close her eyes, curl up and go to sleep. Too much food did that.

She slowly crossed the small clearing. Her hooves made a dull clomping sound as they hit the wooden floor and left it again to take another step. She nearly completed the distance between Chrish and herself when her nose itched again, and she sneezed right in his face.