and
Amanda opened her eyes, blinked at the alarm clock seated on a rock niche across the room, and instantly decided that this was Fuzzy's idea of a joke.
"I'm NOT getting up at this ungodly hour!" she snapped, squirming back under her wonderfully warm blankets. "Look at that clock, fuzzbrain. It says 7:00 AM. Five hours before I wake up!"
"You are so getting up!" said Kurt Wagner, grabbing her covers at her feet and dragging them over her head. "We discussed this last night. You promised to get up when I asked you to."
"I was having an orgasm at the time!" Amanda protested, snatching at her blankets. "I would have agreed to a sex change if you had asked me!"
"Look," sighed Kurt, holding the blankets out of her reach, "we've been planning this camping trip for almost two weeks. You are coming if I have 'port you there in the buff. Now get dressed."
Grumbling under her breath, Amanda slid out of bed while she nursed dark thoughts against her lover. She grabbed a handful of dried foam-flowers and her robe as she headed for the waterfall several chambers away. She got there just in time to see her teammate Rogue strip down and step underneath one of the fall's lighter sprays. No one stood under the main fall just to shower. The force would have swept them right off of the rock shelf as well as broken a couple of bones. Amanda, still grumbling over getting up early, considered hiding behind the dragon statue over-looking the falls and waiting around to watch Cyclops at his shower. But Rogue spotted her first.
"'MORNIN'!" yelled Rogue, waving as she spotted Amanda.
"HI!" Amanda yelled back. The main drawbacks to the falls were mostly that you couldn't hear squat unless you yelled, the falling water always felt two degrees above freezing, and they were lousy for privacy. That last one didn't bother Amanda much at all, but the other two were real pains.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP SO EARLY?" bellowed Rogue, starting to work
some of the dried foaming petals into her hair.
"FUZZY AND I ARE GOING CAMPING OVERNIGHT!! WE'LL BE BACK TOMORROW!" Amanda replied, rubbing the flowers together in her hands to start up a good lather.
"ARE Y'ALL SURE THAT'S SMART? THERE ARE A LOT OF NASTY CRITTERS 'ROUND HERE!" Rogue asked, rinsing off and going back to shore to grab her towel.
"WE WON'T BE GOING ALL THAT FAR!" bellowed Amanda, rubbing the foam over her body before diving under a spray to rinse off as well. She hoped that her friend stopped talking soon. She didn't mind talking to Rogue. In fact, most conversations with her were quite pleasant, but Amanda's throat was starting to hurt.
"WELL, HOPE YOU LOVEBIRDS HAVE FUN!" bellowed Rogue, drying of as she walked back to the chamber that she shared with Maniac. "SEE YA!"
"BYE!" yelled Amanda, doing a final rinse and stepping out of the falls. She wrung out her hair and walked back to her room, rubbing her body briskly with her towel. She was totally awake now, and almost ready to forgive Fuzzy for waking her up.
She pulled on a pair of cut-off denim shorts, an old off-white blouse, and a light jacket. Naturally, she kept on her ever-present running shoes. She checked the backpack that she had packed the night before and satisfied herself that it contained most of what she'd need.
"That's that." she commented. "Now where's my silver-tongued devil of a boyfriend?"
"Right behind you, Liebchen."
"AHH!" Amanda yelped, jumping up and whirling to face him. "You sneaky, devil-may-care,...!"
"Handsome." interjected Kurt, who already had on his backpack.
"...handsome...Don't do that!" snapped Amanda, trying not to grin. "I have a mind to pound you good!"
"You wouldn't hit the man carrying your child, would you?" asked Kurt, not making any effort to hide his wide smile and holding up Kitrina.
"Give me my baby, you brute!" said Amanda, taking Kit from Fuzzy. "What's wrong? Nynaeve refused to take care of her this time?"
"And I quote," said Kurt, "'If you think I'll watch that little monster for two days while you and Mandy go off and try to make another one, you're both nuts.'"
Amanda chuckled, and snuggled their daughter.
"What did Sioned say?"
"Roughly the same. So did Emma. So did 'Shot. So did Blink. So did Victor. So did Rogue. So did..."
"I get the picture." sighed Amanda. "What about Lucas? He loves Kit."
"Oh. Him." A cloud passed across Kurt's face at the mention of Amanda's older son. They didn't get along very well. "He's off spelunking with Antina."
Amanda smiled slightly.
"Between the two of them, they should have this entire rabbit warren mapped within a couple of weeks." she said.
"I guess the only thing to do is take this cutie with us." said Kurt. Kitrina seemed to get the gist of the conversation and grabbed a handful of Amanda's hair, grinning from ear to ear.
"OW!" Amanda detangled the baby's hand from her hair. "She always takes your side."
"Nonsense. She wouldn't alienate the milk machine." grinned Fuzzy, helping Amanda put on her backpack.
"OK, OK." laughed Amanda. "I'll go get her diaper bag. I swear, I never knew how much I could get to miss disposable diapers!"
Kurt took Kit and followed Amanda to the nursery. She packed a stack of cloth diapers into her back pack, along with various powders and a fair substitute for baby oil. Not for the first time, Amanda was glad that the arboretum had survived the crash. Considering how bad some of the other decks had been mangled, she wondered if Longshot's power could have had something to do with it. Most of the surviving plants, as well as the native ones, had been beyond useful to the team.
"Ready?" asked Fuzzy.
"Ready." said Amanda, standing. "Let's get going." She cast a teleport spell, dropping the three of them above ground on the exact spot that they had been standing. "Easier than your brand teleporting, isn't it?" Amanda said, readjusting her share of the load.
"Ja." agreed Fuzzy, impatient to get going. Amanda noticed.
"Well...lead the way."
The two of them started walking, eager for the time alone.
"By the way," said Kurt, slipping an arm around Amanda's waist. "what did you do about Longshot? I thought this bond required that the both of you be near each other, or his powers start to destroy him again."
Amanda shrugged.
"I sapped as much power as I could from him before we left. It should be days before he reaches dangerous levels again. He agreed to it. Besides, worst case scenario, I have one of Angel's communicators with us." She shifted Kit's weight and made another grab for Fuzzy's butt. He grinned and dodged her hand, knowing that Amanda couldn't chase him while carrying their daughter. He teleported a few yards ahead, turned, and waved at her.
"Catch me if you can!" he taunted. Amanda grinned, but kept her walk at a slow, smooth pace so as not to jostle Kitrina.
"You're not worth the waste of energy for a chase." she retorted. Kit watched the exchange with wide, interested eyes. Kurt teleported back, and gave Amanda a hurt look.
"Awww. You don't mean that, do you, Liebchen?" he asked in a playful voice as he nuzzled her neck.
Amanda gave Fuzzy a little push back. "I do while our daughter is watching!" she said. "Little ears are listening, and all that crap."
"*sigh* I really will have to find a reliable baby-sitter next time."
"Come on!" insisted Amanda. "We're not even a mile away yet, and if it were up to you, we'd be rolling around on the ground already. There's nothing really wrong with that, but I'd like to see a little more of this place before we start having fun."
The three of them were moving through a slightly wooded area, mostly saplings and low bushes and scrub. But it was leading into a grand old forest. Even from where they were, Amanda could see time-worn trails worn around trees and boulders. The shade and greenery invited both of them.
"Amanda, duck!" yelled Kurt. His tone wasn't at all playful now, and Amanda leapt for the nearest bush. She came down on her side, with her body wrapped around her child. Fuzzy hit the ground beside her a moment later, and put one arm around her protectively. Amanda followed his gaze, and laid eyes on a dragon circling overhead. It wasn't the monster that Disgruntle had been, but it was about the ten times the size of a large horse, with a wingspan to match. Amanda recalled Sioned saying something about seeing a dragon not that far off a few days ago, and Holo saying the same thing a day or so before that. Amanda hugged Kit and shuddered. She hoped that the team wasn't situated in the middle of the creature's hunting ground or something. After a few minutes of hiding, both of them felt it was safe to come out from cover.
"Did you SEE that thing?" asked Fuzzy, sounding a little out of breath. Amanda nodded.
"I saw it. THAT was intimidating." she said. "But...I kinda wish it hadn't flown off so soon."
"It was a magnificent beast, wasn't it?" replied Fuzzy, brushing himself off. "Still, I'm glad it decided to fly off." Amanda mumbled some sort of awed agreement, and took another glance up at the sky. Everything was clear. The two of them started walking again.
Somewhere far above the two lovers, the dragon, one Teesa by name, watched with the ground with rapt curiosity. For over a fortnight, she had been attracted to this same area, for no reason that she could divine. Now, it was moving she believed that she had a reason. One of the two that had dived for cover had to be a powerful magic-worker.
There simply couldn't be another explanation. Teesa's species was attracted strongly to magic, being of a mystic origin and being magic-workers themselves. Not for the first time, the unfairness of her kind's situation struck her. It seemed that a dragon's mystic ability and intelligence was inverse to it's size. So you could be a whopping big hunk of dragon-flesh and not be able to think or cast your way out of a thornbush, you could be about Teesa's size and be fairly intelligent and fluent in one type of magic. Or you could be like one of the species known as 'dragon-flies.' They weren't much bigger than one of Teesa's talons, but were extremely canny and powerful casters. They were also terribly easy to exterminate if caught off guard, due to their size. Some of the other (larger, meaner) dragon species liked to toast them on the wing, and snap them up before they hit the ground.
Teesa shook herself out of her thoughts, and turned her attention back to the situation. Every time one of those quaint little creatures caught sight of her, they hid...or got unbelievably hostile. Teesa had a scabbing wound on end of her tail where one of a pair of such creatures had driven a sword as she tried to get a better look. Funny thing about those two...the lady had been dressed all in white leather, and that glowing blade had simply appeared in his hand. Well, that was a mystery for another time. Right now, she had to figure out a way to get close enough to those two to explain herself. 'That's simple, berry-brain!' she told herself, 'Be more cautious.' Concentrating on that, Teesa flew off, and watched the pair at a distance. She needed to find a strong magic user. Aside from the close-range telepathy possessed by all of her kind, Teesa's own ability was to nullify magic with but a thought. Useful, considering that simply having a creature as massive as a dragon fly took some magic. Nullify that and any big bruiser coming after you hit the ground like a ton of stone! But she wanted to learn more.
A magic-user could help her with that...
Deeper in the forest, Fuzzy and Amanda were seated under an ancient tree with a complex network of branches about 20 feet off of the ground. Fuzzy was looking up at them with a strange smile on his face.
"Amanda," he said, "do you remember the first time that you walked onto the high-wire?"
"Sure I do." she responded Amanda, sitting cross-legged a little to Fuzzy's left. Amanda put the recently fed and burped Kit down for an instant while she buttoned up her blouse. "I think I was about seven. The thing I remember most was being scared to death. It was just a little drop, I know. But I was scared anyway. The first step I took, I fell off and hit my head." She grinned a little then. "I think the entire circus kept track of my progress by how many bruises I had each day. And when they finally started to fade with no new ones, they knew I was getting better. How about you?"
"I don't remember." said Kurt with that same grin. "It's like walking to me. I don't remember learning, but I always knew how. Probably like you and magic."
"HELL, no!" exclaimed Amanda, scooping up Kit. "I recall learning the ways of the mystic VERY vividly, thank you!"
Fuzzy gave another glance up at the branches.
"Put Kitrina down for a moment." he said.
Amanda did, setting the baby carefully down on her blanket.
"Now, why did you ask me-EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" Amanda's question trailed off in a scream of surprise as Fuzzy wrapped one arm around her waist and jumped for the lowest branch, 6 feet up. A series of leaps to higher branches brought them to the branches that Fuzzy had been admiring earlier. Just below them was Kitrina, laying on her back and watching both of them Amanda was just starting to enjoy the ride...then Kurt let go.
'I'll get him for that!' thought Amanda, as her instincts took over, and she stretched out her hands for the nearest branch. Her hands closed in a deathgrip, and she swung herself around and to the top of the branch, just in time to see Fuzzy propel himself out into space, somersault, and reappear on the ground with a <BAMF!>. Amanda settled for just climbing down.
"You need to have your head examined!" she yelled as she descended. "Or cracked with an ice-pick! I can't believe you did something so stupid!"
"But you enjoyed it. I saw it on your face when you grabbed that branch you were after." countered Fuzzy, picking up Kit.
"That's beside the point!" snapped Amanda. "What if I had missed?!"
"I would have caught you."
"Mmmmmm-hmmmmm." mumbled Amanda, her tone indicating mock-disbelief.
"We're just lucky that the dryad in that tree is dormant or asleep or whatever. She probably wouldn't like us scrambling all over her."
"Nonsense! What else are trees for?"
They started walking again.
Several hours later, Amanda stopped in a small clearing.
"I like this spot, Fuzzy." she remarked. "How about staying here tonight?"
Fuzzy walked out into the clearing, still holding Kit.
"It looks fine." he said. "I'll tell you what, you put up the tent, and I'll try to keep out daughter entertained."
"Oh sure." smirked Amanda. "Give ME the hard jobs."
"It's because I care."
Amanda brought out the tent and pulled a small ripcord protruding from the side. The tent snapped up, billowed out, and settled into a perfect pyramid shape. Fuzzy stared.
"How... what..?"
Amanda's smirk widened into an real smile.
"I know that you expected me to wrestle around with instructions and tent poles like LAST TIME, but I learned from that." she said. "I bought this a couple of weeks before Forge punted us here."
"The woman is as intelligent as she is beautiful." said Fuzzy, wincing as Kit tugged at his fur. "She's got quite a grip on her."
Amanda was busy setting up camp.
"I hope there's dead wood around here." muttered Amanda. "I'm not killing any trees..."
"I didn't know you were such an environmentalist." remarked Kurt, keeping their daughter occupied with her favorite stuffed toy.
"I'm not, normally." sighed Amanda, looking around for branches and logs. "But I don't feel like getting stomped by a ten-foot tall dryad, either! This place is great to be a mystic, but things are so different."
"True." agreed Fuzzy. "How many places on Earth would you find yourself hiding from dragons or wondering about trees getting revenge?"
"None, of course. But it's fun, in a way."
"I'd still rather be home." sighed Fuzzy. "I don't know if I like the idea of Kitrina growing up here."
Amanda dropped a load of firewood about three yards from the tent and went to sit beside her family.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Don't misunderstand, this place has its advantages." said Fuzzy, "But it's nothing like our home. Even the basic nature is different. The entire planet ...maybe this entire dimension... is magic. Suppose we don't find a way home. Not ever. What are we going to do when Kit gets older? When she wants to have a husband or children of her own? Or what if we find a way home 30 years from now. Do you really think that she could readjust to her home dimension after spending her whole life in magic?" Amanda gave a slight shake of her head. She had been intoxicated with the magic energy of this world since they had arrived. The thought of any of this never so much as glimmered in her mind.
"I just don't want something like that to happen to her." finished Fuzzy. "I hope we find a way home soon."
"Well..." sighed Amanda, "we can't do anything about it, Love. We'll just have to do the best job we can." Truth was, the idea of going back to the relatively thin magic of their home dimension wasn't very appealing to her.
"Right. So we sit back and do nothing."
"We CAN'T do anything about it. There's a difference." retorted Amanda, not annoyed in the least. Kurt was simply worried about their daughter. "Unless you feel like salvaging a stasis chamber from the Helicarrier and sticking her in there until or IF we find a way home."
"Point taken." said Fuzzy with a chuckle.
"So don't worry about it until there's actually a chance that it'll happen."
Amanda said with a slight sense of triumph. Feeling relaxed, she snuggled against Fuzzy's side and held Kit on her lap. Fuzzy's stomach growled. Amanda grinned and pretended to ignore it. She started singing "Stay" to Kitrina.
"Um, Amanda?"
"Yes?"
"When do we eat?"
"As soon as you cook dinner."
Not too far off, Teesa spied on the happy couple. She couldn't figure out which one was the magic user. She hadn't seen either of them use any spells, but they had been hidden by the thick forest for so long that anything could have happened. And they stayed so close together that it was impossible to really identify who the magic was coming from. With a sigh she landed almost silently, nearly a mile away. She could hear every word that was said, and tone of voice was important even if she didn't know the language. It didn't help. Neither one spoke to the other with scorn in their voice, or gave a sense that the other was inferior. After an hour or so, the babblings of what Teesa assumed to be a young one faded into sleepy murmurs and stopped altogether. The female spoke to the male in a hushed voice, and got up. The sound of footsteps and cloth brushing against cloth meant that the female had taken the child inside of the temporary dwelling. After a minute, she came out again and sat back down by the male. Teesa waited.
Kurt and Amanda sat side by side in front of the fire. Amanda seemed to be lost in thought as she stared into the blaze. Fuzzy put an arm around her shoulders. Amanda started slightly. It seemed that she had become totally oblivious to the world for a few moments. A soft smile appeared on her lips.
"What?" she asked.
"Your eyes were a thousand miles away, Liebchen." he said. "I was just wondering if you were OK."
"I was just thinking and lingering over the way that this place makes me feel." Amanda replied, a faintly dreamy look in her eyes.
"Really? How DOES it make you feel? I'm curious."
Amanda's brow furrowed in thought for a moment.
"I don't know if I can explain it very well. It's as if back home I was in a room that was far too cold to be comfortable, but I'd always been there so I had kind of gotten used to it. Now, it's like I've just stepped out into the sun, and I'm finally warm for the first time." She smiled slightly. "You're the only other thing that's ever made me feel like this."
Fuzzy raised Amanda's hand to his lips and kissed it. "That's good to know."
Amanda didn't reply. She concentrated on her hand. Or more specifically, the feeling of Fuzzy's lips on her hand. The sensation was one of dry, tickling warmth. One of the many kind that she enjoyed. Amanda waited until Fuzzy lifted his head, and kissed him on his lips. They embraced and deepened the kiss.
Amanda leaned back, with her arms still wrapped around Fuzzy. Caught off balance, he practically fell on top of her. She grinned and moved her hands to the lower parts of Kurt's body.
"Whatever happened to the listening little ears?" he asked, toying with the buttons on her blouse.
"The owner of the little ears are actually asleep for now." she replied, helping her love remove his clothes and her own. "Rare occurrence. I say we take advantage of it." Her voice was light, but she felt like tweaking his privates for saying that. Now she was going to worry about Kitrina hearing them. Which meant that they'd have to be somewhat restrained. Still, tempered loveplay was better than none at all.
"I don't know..." started Fuzzy. But Amanda could see his lop-sided grin in the firelight and feel the erection that he was getting. He wasn't a bit serious about holding off. But she could tease too.
"Well," she said, smothering her own grin and deadpanning for all she was worth, "if that's how you really feel about it..." She sat up and began pulling her clothes back on. Perfect! Fuzzy's face looked as if someone had just thrown a bucket of ice water on him. That was the kind of shocked surprise that should be framed and stuck on a wall in the Louve, as far she was concerned.
Amanda couldn't help it. She collapsed on the ground, half-naked, and laughed until tears coursed down her cheeks. This was the kind of male-torture that she could live on.
"Very funny!" Fuzzy grumbled. "I'll never understand what you like about camping anyway. Most of the great outdoors is just bugs that like to bite and burrow their way into fur." Amanda grinned.
"You just described me." she giggled. Kurt sulked for a moment more, and gave in. A very faint chuckle escaped his lips. That was all the encouragement that Amanda needed. In another minute, they were back in almost the same position, with no pesky clothing to get tangled in.
Fuzzy's kisses left Amanda's lips and traveled southward. Amanda's hands went in the same direction on his body, every now and then pausing in their caresses and strokes as Fuzzy's lips, hands and tongue would explore some sensitive area of Amanda that caused her to pause for a ecstatic shudder.
Fuzzy trailed upwards, and gently kissed around the base of Amanda's right breast. He waited a moment before running his tongue up to the nipple. Amanda moaned softly and shuddered with pleasure as he moved to her left. A few moments more, and neither one could wait any longer. Fuzzy entered her and began thrusting. Amanda snapped her hips up to meet him each time, savoring the build towards her climax. It came surprisingly fast and, as usual, overlapped Kurt's. Amanda always thought that it was funny how one of them could be ready as soon as the other was. As she came down from it, she caught a glimpse of the stars over Fuzzy's shoulder. A brief thought flowed through her mind: 'I wonder what makes them change hue like that?' Then she was staring into Kurt's intense, loving eyes. They seemed to glow in the flickering light from the dying blaze. He rolled off of her and they lay there together for a while.
Normally, such a short session wouldn't have tired them one bit. But they had been walking all day, and their energy was a little low. Fuzzy was ready to stagger into his sleeping bag and call it a night. Amanda was in the mood for a cuddle, and was perfectly willing to join him. A quick mystic shield encased the remains of the fire, smothering it. Fuzzy kicked dirt on what was left and gave it a quick stir with a stick that was in the remaining wood.
Amanda scooped up their clothes and stuffed them into her backpack as they entered the tent. She removed one of her old robes from her pack, and pawed one out of Fuzzy's. Kit would need to be changed or fed when she woke up (which would certainly be before daybreak), and Amanda wanted to be ready.
Kurt (robed) checked on their baby. She was asleep in a corner of the tent, in something that looked a lot like a mini-hammock. Kit didn't so much as stir. Satisfied that she didn't need anything, Fuzzy crawled into his sleeping bag. Amanda lay down next to him. Her love drowsily put one arm around her, and pulled her close to his skin. For a minute or two, she was content just to be lulled by the steady rhythm of his heart.
"Kurt?"
"Hmmmmm...?"
"I love you."
He propped himself on one elbow and gave her a gentle kiss on the mouth.
"I love you too." he said before lying back down.
Amanda smiled in the dark, but it faded quickly. She considered telling her love about what she had found inside herself in Limbo.
"Kurt?"
"Zzzzzz...*snort*...hmm?"
As usual, Amanda lost her nerve, and opted to keep her secrets secret.
"Never mind...go back to sleep."
He did, but something nagged at him before he drifted off again. Maybe it had been the tone of Amanda's voice...
Teesa, feeling more than a little embarrassed to have eavesdropped on the couple's mating, felt a small thrill of triumph. It was the female who was the magic user! When she had killed the fire, the aura of magic had grown stronger around her.
The dragon sighed. She didn't know how to get close enough to make her wish to learn known. Teesa thought about it for a minute, and decided that the only thing to be done was to get the magic user alone for a while. Unfortunately, she couldn't think of a single way to do so. Teesa lay her head on her forefeet/hands and blew thin trails of smoke through her teeth as she thought...and thought...and thought...
Amanda woke as a shaft of sunlight came through the mesh of the tent and managed to land directly on her closed eyelids. Fuzzy's face, a mere few inches away, escaped such a wake-up call.
'Naturally.' she thought muzzily. Kit started to fuss slightly. Amanda sat up and deftly pulled on her robe, trying to shade her eyes from the early-morning sunlight. The child's needed changing. Amanda reached over for the diaper bag and replaced Kit's diaper, managing to poke a minimum of holes in her fingers with the safety pins.
"Happy now?" she asked her daughter. Kit yawned and went back to sleep.
Amanda lay back down next to Kurt and tried to do the same. But she was already up and awake, as much as she might wish otherwise. Amanda sighed and got dressed before plunking herself down by Fuzzy again.
Feeling mischievous, she slid her hand over Fuzzy's side. He rolled over, but didn't wake up. Grinning to herself, Mandy scooted closer to his side, lay her head on his shoulder, and blew into one of his ears.
"URRRRRMMMM..." he grumbled, pulling the top part of the sleeping bag over his head. Amanda ducked under with him and kissed him at the base of his throat. She would have gone for the lips, but she didn't want to risk killing him with her morning breath.
"Morning, Fuzzy."
"Urrrrreval." he muttered, putting his arms around her in hopes that she would let him get back to sleep.
"What's that?" she asked, taking delight in having turned the tables from yesterday morning.
"You're evil. Let me sleep, woman."
"Just for that, not a chance!" Mandy responded, straddling her lover and starting to tickle him.
"Shhh!" he said. "Don't wake Kitrina. I'll be up in a minute."
Amanda continued with her pestering.
"I'm up! Blast it, I'm up!"
"Good." she smirked. "I'll go get the coffee ready."
"Yes..." he said with a grin as she walked out of the tent. "...you do that...and I'll catch another 40 winks." Fuzzy burrowed back into his sleeping bag.
"Wimp!" declared Amanda sticking her head back into the tent. Fuzzy sighed and reached for his clothes.
"I seem to recall having almost this much trouble with you about 24 hours ago."
Amanda ignored him and got the coffee pot and coffee out of his pack.
"Do we have enough water left?" Kurt asked, pulling on his socks. Amanda gave him an odd look. "Sorry." he said. "Dumb question."
Amanda went outside and stacked the wood that was left over from last night on the sight of the previous fire. It wasn't hard to get another blaze started with a simple spell. The next one was going to be a little harder to get right. She put the pot on the ground.
"Ice." she said. The coffee pot quivered for a second and the outside frosted up. Amanda peeked inside. The pot was 3/4 full of ice. With a self-satisfied grin, she put it over the fire on a small tripod and sat nearby.
'It's been too long since we did something like this.' Mandy thought to herself, as she drew her knees up to her chin, waiting for the ice to melt.
Kurt came out of the tent a few minutes later, carrying a drowsy looking infant. Amanda stood up quickly and took Kit.
"Hi, honey." she crooned. "How're you enjoying your first camping trip?" Kitrina stared at her mother with a silly grin on her face. "Look at that!" exclaimed Amanda "She even inherited that grin of yours! She'll probably wind up chasing men with a net when she gets older..."
"I should hope that she wouldn't be chasing women." said Fuzzy dryly. Amanda made a face and walked off a few yards, rocking Kitrina. Smiling, Amanda turned back to Fuzzy...and froze.
In the air behind Kurt, the same dragon that they had seen from a distance was diving towards them at breakneck speed.
"KURT, MOVE!" she screamed. Amanda saw Fuzzy teleport away and tried to cast a teleport spell of her own...but nothing happened. There was no room and no time to run. Amanda turned her back to the huge beast, hoping that her body would provide some protection for her child. Amanda mumbled a quick wish to the Creator, asking Her not to have it hurt too much. There was a sensation of being roughly grabbed around her entire body and a breath-wrenching jerk as both Amanda and Kit were lifted into the sky.
Fuzzy reappeared in time to see his lover and child snatched away in the talons of a dragon. He teleported again, this time onto the back of the dragon.
Teesa banked as hard as she could when she dove. All the same, she nearly crashed into the trees with her burden. She heaved a sigh of relief as she became airborne again, but now there was something clinging to her back. Teesa had prepared herself for the fear that would come from the magic-user and was shielding her mind against it. After all, the female was no longer in control of her powers and had no idea what was happening to her.
But she was not ready for the sheer rage from the male...or for the undercurrent of fear from him. Not of any threat that she might pose to him, but what might happen to the two that she carried in her claws. If she could have, she would have let him know her intentions. But it was impossible. His mind was in too much turmoil to receive her. Teesa firmly shut her mind, enabling herself to think clearly. The creature on her back had crawled down to the hand that held the magic-user, and was prying at it. Teesa clasped her hands together, and changed direction. She had planned to go back to her resting place, but now it seemed that she would have to make a quick pass over Disgruntle's old territory first.
Fuzzy clung stubbornly to the outside of the dragon's fist. The skin provided very few hand or footholds and the force of the wind threatened to tear his hold loose. It was very doubtful that anyone else could have kept a grip. But he was desperate.
"AMANDA!" he yelled, hoping that she could her him. He cursed and dodged as the dragon brought both of it's forepaws together. Fuzzy called her name again.
"Kurt?" Her voice sounded very far away, but he could tell by her tone that she must have been screaming. He could hear Kitrina crying as well.
"Can you reach me?" he asked, shoving his hand between the dragon's toes. There was a moment of silence.
"No. I can't move my arms..." she said. Fuzzy fought down a moment of absolute panic. Were her arms simply pinned to her sides or was she so hurt that her arms would not function? Either way, he couldn't reach her.
"Amanda, you have to!" he said, the desperation that he felt starting to creep into his voice. "I can't teleport you out unless I can touch you!"
"Take Kit." Amanda's voice was oddly calm all of a sudden. "I think I can get her over to you."
"Nein! I'm not leaving you!"
The dragon's paws shifted abruptly. Amanda found herself tossed into the left paw, while Fuzzy was left hanging on to the outside of the right. There was a sudden tremor through the dragon's entire body. Amanda felt a slight thrill, for her arms were no longer pinned. Eagerly, Mandy waited for the sound of teleportation that would let her know that Kurt was still with her.
She waited but it didn't come. The calm that Amanda had managed to scrape together dissolved, and she curled into a trembling ball around Kit. Her first impulse was to change into a wolf and rip the inside of the monster's paw to shreds. But then it might let go and drop them or simply crush both her and her daughter to a pulp. Amanda knew that she was helpless.
Teesa had circled over the gaping hole left by Disgruntle's awakening inside Amalgam Nation, and given her right hand a quick shake. The male hanging on to it had been jarred loose and had fallen straight down towards the deep caverns. She snorted and took off for her home.
To Be Continued...
Or