FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I have no excuse: I just suck at updating.

New chapter: YAY!

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Chapter 9 â€" The Natives

A quiet hiss rose in the air, passing over the sleeping village below. Small, circular buildings built of brick, mortar, and metal nestled up against one another in a loose spiral. In their windows was darkness, no lights flowing out of any buildings except the largest, in the centre of the spiral. Twisted, organic-looking lamp-posts stood in the streets, and the occasional night-walker could be spotted when they stepped under the diffuse glow of the spheres nested in their tips; and the only light save those was the faintest violet reflected off of the massive gas giant nearby.

A light wind blew through the area, rustling the small amount of cloth that clung to one walker's frame. Serpentine features graced its face and a long, thin tail traced a line in the ground as it dangled behind. A well-hemmed loincloth protected the creature's modesty as did a matching mantle protect it's warmth as it's powder-blue skin rippled with lithe muscle, bands of red and white and black upon it's arms and ankles. It just strode through the streets, in it's immaculate clothing, oblivious to the hidden figure stalking in the irregular alleys the round buildings produced.

"They appear to wear clothing for the same reasons we do," Jasyn spoke quietly into his headset, peering around the wall at his mark, and with swift-and-silent footfalls he ran to the next dark corner to observe. "They also seem to be brightly coloured..." he rasped, keeping an ear on everything else around him.

"Keep me informed, don't get caught Jay," Phillips reminded him.

"I'll call if something comes up, Emitt out," he whispered, and inched along into his next dark crevice. 'I'm glad I'm downwind...' the wolf thought, as his cerulean eyes focused in on the creature. About to move, he froze and fell back into his hiding spot as the door of the building he was against was opened. Out stepped a pair of the creatures in what Jasyn could only possibly think was a laughing fit as they ran across and into the building opposite. A sharp scent rose in the air, and the wolf's nose wrinkled at the smell. "Okay... maybe not so glad..." he told himself, grunting as he inched back out and looked to where his mark was.

Seeing nobody, he panicked and sprintted noiselessly down the spiralling street for a few metres, leaning into the middle to get a better view around the buildings. "Dammit... where'd you go," he muttered, looking between the sides of the street. Some native insect chirruped loudly in the distance, and a chorus followed suit soonafter. The eerie noise was punctuated with something between a groan and a hiccup as some black-quilled avian fluttered overhead.

Jasyn stopped his sprint between lights and looked back and forth between alley and street. He slowly curled his fingers around his firearm and listened intently for some clue where the creature he was tracking had gone. The click-click of clawed feet against the ground rose in his ears, a low hissing noise growing closer as wolf tried to pinpoint exactly where it was. He froze, and slowly turned his gaze backward.

There, walking along the street, was the creature he was searching for. Illuminated in the streetlights, Jasyn could see the being's features more clearly. It's face was downpointed, but a long broad nose extended downward, the contours soft as the powder-blue lizard just kept it's eyes down.

Jasyn stayed still a moment longer, not in the light but clearly not invisible, and wondered how he hadn't been seen yet. He darted noiselessly into another alley; but he half-tripped over a discarded piece of litter and barely held his yelp. Tucking into the darkness, he turned and saw the lizard just walk on past. 'Must be thinking about something really important...' the wolf's thoughts trailed.

And still the figure moved, in that ethereal purple glow, down the street between street-lamps. Slowly it meandred through the street, clearly absorbed in thought; or-barring that-hypnotized by some unseen force.

Just as Jasyn made to move, the lizard stopped, darting it's eyes from side to side as though jolted from it's reverie. Ducking back behind weft baskets in the alley, the wolf watched the creature as it's eyes turned back, and he was sure the figure knew he was there from the way the gaze lingered, then darted further back. Jasyn perked his ears to listen, and the faintest sound of calls and cries reached him from well beyond the township's outer reaches.

In his ear, the wolf suddenly heard the shout of Phillips as she warned, "Jasyn, get back to the ship. We've got Crag signals on the scopes."

But the wolf didn't need to hear that to know that, as on the horizon he saw a single fighter. This was not a Crag Swarmship, this was much bigger; and it was headed right towards him. The lizard saw it too, why wasn't it cloaked? He cared not though, stepping out of the shadows and rushing off down the street, back towards his walker.

Many loud screeches reached his ears as a ball of flame lit up the night sky, and the wolf turned to see the massive structure in the township's centre engulfed in it. He saw the Crag ship unleash another volley, and pummel the buildings away from it as it flew overhead, and he followed it with his eyes as it went away through the sky. As it banked he yelped aloud, and started to run for his walker again, cursing the town's design.

"Jasyn! Answer me!" Phillips yelled into his ear again, and the wolf lifted a hand to reply. The creature he'd been tailing had seen him, and sped toward him as the Crag ship unloaded a spray of pulses, peppering the ground. The wolf froze briefly, like a deer in headlights as the shots grew closer and was thrown violently out of the way as a somewhat small, scaly, powder-blue lizard tackled him.

Jasyn's headset fell from him at the force of it, and the ground just shy of their tails was kicked up from the force of the weapons-fire, but this creature had for some reason seen fit to keep him from a deadly fate. It got up slowly and hissed and clicked unintelligibly, reaching a clawed hand out to the wolf as Jasyn too tried to stand. But that fighter had made another banking turn, and loosed another missile.

Kicking the creature's feet from under it, Jasyn caught it on his shoulders and dove out of the path, as the projectile slammed into a nearby house and engulfed it and several others in a bright green fireball. The creature fought briefly, but seeing the devastation it relaxed, and Jasyn set it down.

Using every ounce of common sense he had, Jasyn pointed at the figure and himself with both hands, then using both he pointed down the street. The beast canted it's head from side to side very quickly and then started off, Jasyn in hot pursuit.

Drawing his firearm, he looked up at the sky for any sign of the Crag ship, and heard it's howling engines roar just overhead. The lizard saw it too, and suddenly ducked into an alley on the outside edge of the street with Jasyn stumbling after it. He had no clue where he was going, but he saw as the small, smooth creature tucked confidently through the winding, not-at-all straight-lined alleyways.

They swiftly emerged on the outermost ring of the spiral village, the buildings here not alight, but more of the lizards pouring out and starting to panic and flee from the town. Jasyn just tried his hardest to keep up with the little blue creature as much larger ones ran through his field of view. They didn't even seem to notice him, but he certainly saw them, as he lost sight of the small blue bundle.

He pushed through, growling low as his grip tightened on his pistol, and he managed, finally, to slip through the crowd. "Shit," the wolf grunted, not at all knowing where the small thing had run off to. He looked up and down the street as the howl of the Crag engines roared overhead again. A spray of phased pulses peppered the ground again, and felled several of the large beasts to a mass-shriek from the rest as Jasyn ducked his head at the sound of another building burst alight in emerald fire.

A powder blue arm extended into sight, and he lifted his head to see the small lizard urging him forward with more of it's clicks and hisses. It was pointing towards another alley, and Jasyn saw the faintest hint of grassland between the oddly shaped buildings. He nodded and took the 'kid''s hand, before they took off in a run again. "Phil, Phil!?" Jasyn called, but got no reply. He reached up to his headset, and finally realized it was missing. Pistol lain along the side of his face, he grunted, shook his head, and broke through the city as the small blue creature led him off into the plains.

The Crag ship banked again and Jasyn heard another series of explosions, thanking the gods that it hadn't given chase.

--

Sunlight was on the horizon, day threatening to break as the pair walked through the tall, sparse grasses. They had met with a river, and stopped to drink, but Jasyn stayed ever alert. Now, though, they had found some rocky hills and they stuck to them. "My walker's probably in pieces..." he grunted, and he saw the creature's head turn to watch him.

More clicks and hisses that Jasyn couldn't understand, and a few softer sounds that seemed more like letters he knew, but he still did not understand. He had gathered, though, that the little rapid head-tilt was a yes.

Walking slowly through the rocks, as the sun began to rise, Jasyn watched the lizard with a quiet fascination. The dim light from the distant star still cast much more across the plains than nothing at all, and he again thanked the gods for that. The powder-blue beast gave off a faint scent that Jasyn couldn't quite place. It was not acrid like the other one was, and his companion seemed gentle enough that it seemed to fit them.

As the distant sun rose, much quicker than Jasyn had anticipated, it basked the plains in a dim, almost dusky glow. Slender hips, very lean. This little lizard could well have been an orphan. Jasyn watched the long tail flick from side to side as it used both arms and legs to negotiate the rocky terrain, head perking from side to side.

Jasyn stopped, and looked around himself. 'Best get my bearings now... before I get so lost they can't find me...' he trailed, turning back towards the way they had come. He could barely see the still-burning township, like a star on the horizon. 'If I'd paid more attention...' he sighed softly.

He felt a hand on his wrist and turned to see a curious look upon the lizard's face. That long tongue flicked as the creature made a few noises. Jasyn sighed softly and looked down at the ground. Getting an idea, he knelt down and drew in the sand a little spiral. Pointing at it he looked up at the lizard, who knelt down to look, and then pointed at the smouldering town on the horizon.

Then he drew a little squiggle some ways off, and a bunch of triangles past that, before looking up at the loincloth-laden figure. As it knelt, it reached out a clawed finger and drew a line from the spiral, to the squiggle, then to the triangles before pointing at Jasyn and itself. Glancing up at Jasyn for approval, the wolf canted his head the way the creature had done before.

Jasyn grinned inwardly, before he pulled the canteen. He looked at the lizard, before he poured a little bit into a dip in the rock. The clear liquid got quickly murky, but Jasyn pointed at the squiggle, the river, and then at the falling water. He made a wooshing sound and then pointed at the river again, hoping the creature understood.

It looked down at the squiggle, then up at Jasyn before blinking twice and canting it's head this time in confusion. The wolf sighed.

Pointing at the squiggle, he said aloud; "River..." then waiting a few seconds repeated himself "River..."

Canting it's head, the lizard pointed at the squiggle and in what Jasyn saw as imitation it spoke with it's hisses and chirps.

Jasyn shook his head and pointed at it some more. "River"

The creature blinked again and then quickly stumbled on the foreign syllables. "Ry... ryva?" it said, pointing at the squiggle.

Jasyn nodded, then quickly changed to tilting his head. Moving his finger, he dipped it in the little pool of murky water he'd formed and ran it along the squiggle. "Water..." he said, repeating it a couple of times.

"Wuh...Waht-tur," it said, it's voice soft but punctuated with the slightest hiss.

"Water in River..." he dragged his finger through the river again. Then he removed it and poured a little more of his canteen out so it would flow over the edge of the rock. "Waterfall" he said, pointing at the dripping water. He sat back and pointed at the waterfall, then at the river again.

The creature lifted it's head and blinked a little. Slowly, it looked at the crude map before reaching out and making a dot in the fine layer of sand. Jasyn gasped a sigh of relief. 'Wasn't sure that'd work...' he thought, before reaching out and rubbing the lizard's skull gently. Looking at the 'map' he recalled where the waterfall had been when they had flown in.

Dabbing his finger at the map in the general area he thought the Phoenix had set down in, he dragged it towards the village. He pointed at himself, then the lizard, before pointing at the marked spot again with both fingers.

The lizard lifted it's head from the map and looked around, before pointing off away from the waterfall and across the plains. "You're sure?" Jasyn asked, before he realized the creature didn't understand. He looked at the map again, drawing his own conclusion briefly and nodded. "Better head that way then..." he resigned, lifting himself up and dusting off his flight-armour.

The lizard stood and seemed to mimick Jasyn's dusting himself off, before looking up at the wolf with a canted head. Jasyn chuckled and slowly turned to set off towards where he hoped his ship was waiting.

By the time the night had begun to fall again, Jasyn and the lizard had made it to where they couldn't see the hills anymore. He lowered his head and sighed slightly, looking around for something he could burn. A shrub, Jasyn dropped down and started to pull grass from around it. Clearing a small spot, he watched as the little Lizard canted it's head again. 'This thing is kinda cute...' the wolf admitted in his head, before he drew his pistol again. Waving his companion closer, he wrapped an arm around it and fired a couple of blasts into the shrub, which promptly began to catch fire.

Startled by the weapon's fire, Jasyn felt the little creature cling to him tightly and he smiled softly. Stroking it's head, he safetyed his weapon and holstered it, before slowly sitting down. The Lizard laid against his side, and Jasyn smiled a little more before a low grumble left his stomach. He hadn't eaten all day.

The lizard's head lifted and it looked up at the wolf, while Jasyn just shrugged and looked back down. He had no idea where to get something to eat, but the creature hadn't complained thus far about food or drink. Jasyn ran his paw down it's side and just laid back against the ground, looking up at the stars as they twinkled high above. With the lizard nestled up against him, he eventually passed out.

--

Sunrise greeted him with no company. Their bush had died out, and thankfully hadn't started a grass-fire, but the wolf was completely alone. He stood and looked around, growing a little worried by the lizard's absence. That's when he spotted the shuffle of the tall grass, and stood up a bit straighter to catch sight of the flat-sprawled critter.

On it's stomach in the grass, the lizard seemed to prowl towards something Jasyn couldn't see. With a loud chirrup it lunged forward and Jasyn heard the distinctive dying whimper of some small animal. The lizard stood and turned back, spotting Jasyn and lifting up some small fuzzy animal by the tail. Very stubby legs made sure the poor thing had no chance of fleeing. It's what Jasyn saw in the other hand that worried him.

Hand reaching down quickly to his belt, he felt for his knife and was rewarded with a void slap. "Oh... shit..." he muttered, his other hand finding his pistol where it had been left. 'Well... he didn't kill me,' the wolf thought, opting to refer to the little blue companion as a male.

He hadn't any proof yet, but that didn't stop him. He watched as the lizard walked back and held the knife out, handle first, for Jasyn. The wolf quickly took it and examined the kill. Somewhere between a rabbit and a squirrel is what Jasyn pegged it as. Small, brown, long eared, and bushy tailed. The little Lizard had carved off one of the legs already and was munching the raw meat, and Jasyn pulled a face as he let hunger overtake him and did similar.

They began to walk again not long after, and over the next hill Jasyn heard more wildlife sounds. As he finally managed to look over it, he saw stout little trees, all of the leaves held high as they fought to capture as much of the sunlight as they could. They were all still taller than Jasyn, and his companion just kept on marching toward them.

Nightfall came quicker this time as the trees grew dense, and soon it was too dark to see. Jasyn knew he couldn't light a fire here, but he found a small area clearer than the other areas and leaned against a tree. His company wrapped his arms around the wolf, and Jasyn chuckled inwardly at how friendly this little powder blue critter had become.

Settling down, Jasyn ended up falling asleep against the trunk of that tree with the small 'boy' nestled in a tight ball over his legs.

Slowly, the feeling of something between his eyes roused him, and Jasyn opened them to see the lizard's clawed hand rubbing his head. He blinked a couple times and laughed as the Lizard held out another small animal. Jasyn's ear flicked as he heard the distinctive sound of one of the Phoenix' fighters rumble overhead, but thanks to the canopy he could not see it, or be seen. He cursed lightly and tore a bite off of the critter, as he stood and listened to where the craft had gone towards.

Turning the opposite direction, Jasyn felt his companion's strange fingers wrap around his hand and he smiled as he started off through the woods.

It had taken him about twenty-minutes with the walker's thrusters to get to the village, but Jasyn did remember these woods before the plains. The base of the waterfall was still at least a day's hike away at this rate.

He kept his eyes shifting, knowing that this planet housed many dangers he wouldn't be able to recognize immediately. His little companion seemed to do the same with his gaze, either imitating Jasyn or knowing better of the dangers in the woods.

By what Jasyn had figured was midday, the sunlight was only breaking through enough to make the woods look like almost night, the gaps in the canopy small like stars appear on the sky. He heard something like a cable snapping from his left and dropped to a readied crouch, his little companion doing similar.

The sound repeated once more, similar to a whip cracking but this time accompanied by a loud gurgling shriek. A new noise reached them moments later; slow, wet, and slurping, as though one thing was trying to swallow another thing whole. Jasyn got the feeling he didn't want to be here anymore, and silently stood to a crouched walk as he began to continue his trek.

The powder blue lizard stayed close, trying his hardest to be silent as they crept through the woods. The noiselessness of it was a sense-deadening event, Jasyn trying to concentrate on the sounds to the detriment of his sight. He could barely hear the shifting dirt beneath his companion's feet, and even that was drowned out as a light wind picked up above the tops of the trees.

The air around them still, Jasyn reached out and wrapped a paw around his companion's shoulders, pulling him close as he drew his pistol and continued his quiet walk, his ears perked up as his eyes continued to scan the area.

The whip-like sound caused him to drop to a crouch again, and from the corner of his eye, from the way they had come, he saw it finally.

It was big, long arms gripping the trees around it as it seemed to almost walk on them, just under the canopy. Jasyn lifted his head to get a better look at it, and slowly started to inch backward.

He could make out at least six long, spindly legs with taloned ends and many joints, armoured with thick scales as it traversed. A smaller, ball-shaped segment away from the main body twisted around as though it were scanning the world below it, and it stopped in one moment, causing Jasyn to stop as well.

The two of them stayed still, it's emerald carapace not moving at all as Jasyn's eyes watched it intently. Even the lizard knew not to move as he pressed only lightly against Jasyn's chest.

A minute passed, and slowly Jasyn saw it begin to advance towards them, it's legs bringing it lower as a long and deadly tail came into view. He saw it flick, and the whip-crack it made told Jasyn he really aught-not to mess with this creature.

He could almost make out a wide maw on the main body now, and see the faintest shimmer in five slender, bug-like eyes on the smaller. He pressed his index and second fingers against his charge's ribs quickly in alternation, and got a press backward in response when he pressed three of them against him.

He gripped the pistol tightly and let his grip loose a little on one finger as he remained locked onto the creature, it's descent continuing.

He took a silent breath through his nose as he released the second finger's grip and felt the press become more insistent.

In a rush of movement, Jasyn pushed the lizard around behind him to get him running, turning on place and levelling his pistol at the creature, One shot, then two, before he broke off in a sprint.

Both hits landed just above the central eye, surely blinding the bug momentarily as he charged after the little blue reptile. His feet carried him swift as he could, and he could hear his footfalls interspersed with desperate gasps of breath from his companion. The whip-like noise returned, and Jasyn dared not look behind as he heard trees creaking from the quick motion of the predator.

He just pushed himself, knowing that the kid could at least keep up as he made stride at the lizard's tail. His ears flicked down as he heard the crack again, and this time he did look back. The bug was closing, even with it's bulk to slow it down. He had to think quickly, find shelter or something.

He turned back just in time to see a root sticking out, jumping awkwardly over it so he wouldn't trip. Landing in a roll he twisted and fired another two shots across the bug's face, dazing it again as he stood once more and kicked himself into overdrive. Quickly catching his charge, he wrapped a paw around his hip and pulled him into a hollow, holding him tight to his chest as he placed one paw over his mouth. He buried his face against his charge's head to keep from making noise himself, his fingers on the lizard's stomach gripped at the gun again as he rubbed his thumb gently against the toned tummy.

The whip-crack was loud when they heard it again, and the shadows just beyond their hiding place were shifted briefly as the bug shot past in the canopy, eagerly trying to catch this clearly cunning prey.

The sounds grew further, and Jasyn let his hands fall from his charge's face as he breathed a sigh against his skull. He still held him close though, fearful of him leaving the structure yet.

The lizard didn't seam to mind, pressing back into the embrace and sighing in a very lizardlike way. The tail wrapped tightly around Jasyn's leg, and the wolf found it a comforting gesture as he slowly turned to step past and peek out of the enclosure.

The tree was wide, but their hollow was narrow and slowly Jasyn let his head emerge, looking in the direction the shadow had gone. He could again see the faint silhouette of the bug, it had stopped moving again, just like that first time, and Jasyn quickly pulled the lizard out into the open and ran off to the right of the path they had been taking.

The noise of it returning spurred them to run a few more minutes away until both were sure that the beast had given up.

Jasyn held his charge close for another hour, protectively stroking his thumb over the smooth skin of his hip. He didn't know what else to do, just wanting to keep the kid calm as they walked. Eventually they reached a cliff face, the wall of rock standing tall above them.

He could barely make out the sky along the edge, the light still bright enough for it to be day. He released the little blue lizard and slowly started to walk along the cliff face in the same direction they had been. At least here they couldn't get snuck up on.

His charge just kept close anyway, tail twisting behind 'him' as they made towards what he thought would be the Phoenix.

As night fell, so too did their ability to push forward. Jasyn heard the first complaint from the little lizard as it spoke. "Wah-tur" it said after they had stopped, and Jasyn looked back to see him pointing to the canteen questioningly.

He couldn't refuse, and swiftly unscrewed the cap as he handed it over, watching as his companion tipped the contents into his snouted mouth thankfully. He only drank about a mouthful before he handed it back, and bowed his head thankfully.

Slowly, Jasyn took a swig for himself as he leaned against the rock face. The light was almost nonexistant under these trees, but for Jasyn that wasn't too problematic. He could see the outline of the kid and that was good enough. As he stowed the canteen at his side again, the wolf held out an arm to the kid and quickly felt a body against his.

"If you were right, we'll be there tomorrow." he spoke softly, sliding down the rock face to sit with the little lizard. He got nothing but a quizzical look in return, and slowly he stroked the powder blue spine.

"Sleep," he said with a bit of authority, smiling in the darkness.

This was one word the kid understood, slowly settling down in Jasyn's lap and falling swiftly to sleep. The wolf just stayed awake, his tired eyes focusing on everything in the darkness to try and keep that way.

--

As daylight broke again, Jasyn jostled the little Lizard awake with a bit of a resigned sigh. He heard no complaint, not even a noise out of the roused kid as they exchanged brief glances. He hiked his head towards the direction they had been going and slowly made to stand as he felt the weight lift off of him.

A supporting hand found his spine as the kid walked alonside him, eyes ever alert to compensate for Jasyn's being not so much. Stepping at an even pace, they simply walked along the cliff face towards an uncertain destination.

Another rumbling noise rose from the unseen horizon; the sound of the Phoenix' fighters doing a final recon, Jasyn guessed. Lifting his hand and his head, the wolf pointed his pistol toward the sky and closed one eye as he waited. Waited till he could almost taste the noise, till it was right there, before he fired three quick shots straight up, through the canopy, over the trees and away from the rock face. He saw the fighters zip past moments later through the holes in the foliage, but whether they'd seen his 'flares' or not was another question. He was moving in the right direction, though.

He waited for several seconds, his charge looking quizzicaly at him as he lowered his gaze to look back. He broke a smile, a tired, desperate smile, and leaned in to kiss the top of his head.

The sound didn't fade, it seemed to grow louder again as the fighters doubled backward. Jasyn flicked his ears up and lifted his gun again, shooting this time a constant stream out of the foliage in a narrow arc.

This time one of the shots clipped one of the fighter's wings, and Jasyn grinned knowing that now they knew he was down here. He didn't feel himself falling, but swiftly after that second volley he fell to blackness.

When he woke, the sound of a soft hum greeted him. Beyond his eyelids the blinding glare of artificial lights threatened to break through. He opened his eyes a crack and groaned vocally as he was greeted by their full intensity, throwing his head to one side and rolling the same.

He blinked away the stars and saw a person walking over to him, a hand quickly resting against his shoulder as the white-coated being shone a light quickly between both eyes.

His hearing seemed to fizzle back into reality and the wolf winced a little.

"...feeling, Commander?" asked the voice, familiar to the barely-awake wolf.

Jasyn lifted his head and looked up to see that caramel-haired doctor from the ship standing above him. Silently he sighed relievedly and let himself fall back against the pillow.

"Gods I'm glad to see you..." he spoke gravelly, growling low as he closed his eyes.

"Hard thing to say, eh?" the doctor joked, taking a step back. "There's actually a few people glad to see you, Jasyn."

He felt a pair of arms almost excitedly wrap around his midsection and the familiar scent of his mate filled his nose. He kept his eyes closed for a second too long, hoping when he opened them it would really be him. His chest felt wet as he moved his own arms around the little white bundle, and as he lifted his head to look down he figured out why.

'He's... crying?' the wolf blinked and brought a paw up to run through that thick hair. His eyes closed again as he hugged the body closer, and smiled softly. "Glad to see you too, Kit."

"You scare people a lot, I hear?" came Alpha's voice, and Jasyn lifted his head again to look at the fox. His smirk was wide as he stood there arms crossed. "Epsilon wouldn't leave your quarters for more than an hour the entire time you were gone. He'd just keep looking out the portal like he could see you out there."

"If he's gone any part of Axis' powers, he'd have known I was out there..." the wolf smiled, nodding.

"Whenever we asked him what he was doing, he'd turn briefly and say your name before looking out the window again..." the fox admitted quietly.

"You mean-" Jasyn cut himself off and closed his eyes again. "He's started to do it while awake?" He asked, and he felt the Doctor rub the middle of his shoulders.

"You've been gone for roughly 72 hours, Jasyn. The trauma of having you away from him might have jostled his memories of you," the doctor explained, "or he could just miss you a lot when he's asleep."

"Jasyn" came Axis' voice, and he looked down at the fox looking up at him. He saw a bit of a smile peek and he hugged the kit tighter.

"Yeah, I'm here Kit," he smiled wide and leaned down to touch his nose to the Fox's.

As they touched, the wolf suddenely remembered something. Lifting his head he looked immediately at the doctor. "Where's the kid?" he asked sternly.

"The little gecko? He's with Beta right now. He was released a couple hours ago after I examined him but he didn't seem to want to be away from you," explained the doctor.

"What happened? I remember shooting at the fighters and then... here."

"From what I hear," Alpha started, walking over and placing a paw on Epsilon's head. "Your little friend grabbed your gun, scaled the cliff face with one hand and both feet, and shot at the fighters till they landed. He seemed to recognize that the symbol on your suit was the same as the ones on our fighters because he didn't shoot the pilots."

"He stepped to the edge and pointed down to where you were, unconscious. We thought you'd fallen at first," the doctor started. "But we realize now that you were making your way back to us. The pilots ordered a transport and rappelled down to you, and we got you back here."

"And I blacked out because..."

"Lack of sleep coupled with a rush of adrenaline. You're fine to go but I wanted to watch you till you woke up," the doctor said with a chuckle.

"I brought a shirt and pants from your room for you to change into," said Alpha with a smirk as he canted his head towards the foot of the bed where a white dress shirt and a pair of black jeans waited. "And then I think we need to find out what happened at that village."

"Right..." Jasyn nodded, sitting up straighter and smirking as the Kit sat astride him. The wolf blushed slightly at the familiar sensation, his eyes catching those of the fox. In that moment he could taste his fox on his lips, and for a split second he thought he saw him in those almost blank eyes.

"C'mon, Kit," the other fox said, rubbing his hair as he stood up. The two of them walked past the privacy screen, as did the doctor, and Jasyn got dressed.

--

"So you're telling me that it was a Crag ship?" started the Captain with a sigh.

"I'm sure of it, I recognize their design style any day. This thing was mean, but it didn't have any cloak that I saw, or at least didn't see fit to use it," Jasyn answered, sitting across from her in the briefing room. The waterfall they had landed at the foot of was framed by the window and Jasyn grinned slimly at the sight.

"They must have either traced the transmissions to your headset or stumbled across them by accident. We haven't seen any more signs of them. That ship could have been following us for light-years for all we know."

"But then why would it just raze Charge's village like that?" Jasyn asked with a canted head. He flicked his nicked ear and levelled his eyes at Phillips.

"Charge?" she asked, shaking her head. "You're calling him Charge?"

"Until he can give us a proper name, yes. That's what he was from the moment he pushed me out of that strafing run; my charge," the wolf explained with a grunt.

"Fitting enough, I guess. At any rate our scouts dispatched to the planet nearby have found that it's rich in many combustable gasses and that we can convert a few of them into readily usable forms of fuel for our engines. It'll be a little different but my engineers don't have any doubts that we'll be able to handle the change."

"Think we should try and find that ship?" asked Jasyn with another canted head.

"No need, we saw a slipstream event not a sunrise ago. If there were more Crag in the system they'd have found us by now so my guess is the ship escaped to somewhere else," Phillips sighed as she rubbed her forehead.

Jasyn thought for a long moment, his ears folding to the sides a bit as he concentrated on the middle of the table. The hum of the ship's workings was all around them, though silenced a little by the acoustics of the room. "Well, what do we do now?"

"We refuel for as long and as much as we can, and maybe get your charge to speak to us. If this has happened before, he'll know about it," Phillips smirked with just her eyes, pushing away from the table to stand. Jasyn just kicked off the wall in kind and nodded.

"I'll assume that's what Beta has been doing?" the wolf grinned, walking to the door to trigger it and gesture the Captain out.

"Precisely, Jasyn," the Captain smiled.

"Wonderful..." the wolf sighed briefly as he stepped out onto the bridge.