Just minutes before dawn, as the first hint of natural light
began to supersede the artificial illumination, Laurel found herself sitting up
in bed, ramrod straight and senses on full alert. Had there been a noise? Why
was she awake? The hackles rose on the back of her neck. Her Inner Sight told
her that the shadows in the room where not quite what they ought to be—
Instantly, she leapt from the covers and landed atop a dark,
wiry, fur-covered creature. In the slow-growing light of the morning, the
creature seemed to have no form—and claws in unexpected quarters.
By now Laurel was ready to wrestle the creature within reach
of her knives, but then found herself with a face full of fur. The creature
underneath her quickly twisted her arms, trapping them, while the heavy, furry
covering on her head threatened to suffocate her unless she held still. If it
was a creature on her face, it seemed to be sitting on her head with little
intention of moving until she stopped struggling. Laurel immediately took the
hint and lay still.
The furry lump moved off her face, and Laurel blinked as during the time she was blinded someone had turned on the lights. Her eyes finally adjusted, and she saw Renata cowering behind her blankets, and Carsius and Augustus grinning down at her. Standing right above her head (for he had been the one sitting on it) was a squat, furry, bear-like creature. Her limber assailant proved to be a four-limbed feline creature with dark fur and vivid green eyes, which glared down at her.
Augustus stepped into the room, chuckling as Laurel’s cheeks
burned.
“I see you’ve met my allies,” he remarked, gesturing to the
feline. Laurel sighed as the strange creature jumped to its feet, releasing
her. Carsius rushed forward and helped her to her feet. The creature’s long
claws had cut her in several places on her legs and arms, and Laurel felt the
burning sting of a cut on her left cheek as well.
Augustus announced to his compatriots, “May I present
Gorrmunsa Kisora, a Kytarr; and this is Deej Horuku,” he pointed to the short
creature, who nodded in acknowledgement, “a most esteemed ancient Ewok from the
planet Endor. These two are here to help us with our plans.”
 |
| Gorrmunsa Kisora (*Not the original image; I could not find the original, so I had to make do with something else that still sort of fit the description!) |
“Need I remind you, hoyden,” the Kytarr hissed, “it was you
who attacked us first.”
Laurel staggered to her feet in spite of her wounds, “I’ll
show you hoyden, you—“
“Laurel!” Carsius laid a hand on the Elf’s shoulder. “Please
try to behave. Kytarr rarely use doors, and certainly never on the ground floor
if they can help it.”
“Doors are too dangerous,” Gorrmunsa muttered, flexing his
long claws, “too many guards, too much security.”
“All the same, Gorrmunsa,” Carsius stood and faced the
Kytarr, who towered a full head over him, “you knew that you were entering the
private quarters of someone, stranger or no. You could have chosen another area
by which to enter the house, that would not be so perceived as a threat to the
safety of these people.”
Gorrmunsa bared his teeth, but tucked his tail between his legs
submissively.
 |
| Deej Horuku |
Laurel took the tin and smelled it, surprised that she
recognized the scent. “Talatha?” she asked in amazement.
Deej nodded, pleased that she had identified the plant from
which the paste was derived. “Talatha,” he confirmed. He gestured to her
wounds. “glavaf oy talatha terriakelle oy ondyoruanaf,” he instructed in Andarian, accompanying his words
with a spreading motion over each of the cuts.
Laurel was stunned; she had never heard a non-Elf speak her
native tongue so perfectly. She immediately began spreading the talatha-balm
over the cuts made by Gorrmunsa’s claws.
Meanwhile, Gorrmunsa busied himself with unpacking the pack
he had carried on his back the whole way to Eillumaeia. He pulled out a small
canister, and several prepared vials of liquid.
Augustus picked up one of the vials, ignoring the flicker of
annoyance in Gorrmunsa’s eyes. “This is the althraxine that must be transformed
into vapor?” he asked.
“That is the analthraxine,” the Kytarr corrected, snatching
the vial back. He loaded the analthraxine into the top half of the canister,
and a second vial into the base, “this one’s the althraxine. This is the
dispersion device.” He held it up for the two men to see, but seemed reluctant
to let them hold it just yet.
It was silver, roughly the size of an earthenware pot,
seemingly split in half horizontally across the middle. A timer graced each
half, next to an automatic valve.
“The althraxine must be released first,” Gorrmunsa
explained, “so that’s the top half; when this timer runs down, the valve will
seal tight, causing the pressure to build so much that all of the liquid is
turned to vapor and explodes, releasing the pressurized vapor. Once this
explodes, it will automatically trigger the second timer, set just long enough
for the althraxine vapor to disperse, then comes a similar chain reaction to
release the analthraxine, which should render all alternate neuro-systems
invisible to the wyrts.”
“Hmph, should,” Laurel snorted. Everyone turned to her and she shook her head, “It will be a marvelous sight when a simple chemical reaction could bring the end of centuries of neural slavery.” She rolled her eyes.
Augustus waved her off, “What’s the range of these things,
Gorrm?” he asked.
The Kytarr regarded the canister carefully and set it gently
back into his pack. “Roughly a ten-kilometer radius, last I checked.”
Carsius pondered this, “So in order to cover the whole city
of Eillumaeia, we would need—“
“A set at every point of the compass,” Laurel finished.
“Better put it ten klicks away from the edge of town, just to cover
everything,” her multicolored eyes danced, “not that it will work, anyhow.”
Carsius shook his head at her skepticism. “Perhaps we should
even place a few canisters at the center of town, just to be safe? How many
canisters do you have, Gorrmunsa?”
The Kytarr shrugged and glanced at his pack, “I have eight
of these, but not enough vials to be able to set them right away. Deej has the
mushrooms, I was going to ‘cook up’ more of both drugs when I got here. Deej!”
Gorrmunsa called the Ewok away from where he was trying to become acquainted
with Renata, who still did not know what to think of these newcomers, much less
of the fact that the men were already dressed, but she and Laurel were still in
their nightgowns.
“Deej, what did you do with the hourosh mushrooms?” Gorrmunsa rapped out in the Endo tongue.
Deej shook his silvery head, “Do not be so brash, my
hasty friend! I have the fungi right here in my pack. You’re lucky they did not
get crushed, the way you insisted on rushing helter-skelter across that
intergalactic bridge!” The Ewok dug a small
package out of his pack as he spoke, and at the first sight of the squashed,
wrinkled, blackish-green-looking mushrooms, everyone expected a toxic smell and
prepared to grimace, but the scent wafting from the small bits of fungi was
more like the smell of freshly-turned dirt after a rainstorm.
Deej turned to Laurel, respectfully acknowledging her as the first tenant of the home. “Laiddrynn,” he used the Andarian term for “lady”, “does this house have a cooking pot of some sort?” he asked in what Carsius and Augustus recognized as English, but Laurel knew as the Murindan dialect.
Laurel considered, “I believe it does,” she said, “down in
the kitchen.”
“Would you be so kind as to show me where it is, that I may
prepare the mushrooms in the manner of my people to acquire the althraxine and
the analthraxine?”
Laurel stood—and remembered that she was in her nightgown still. “Sure, I will show you,” she glanced up at Carsius, “and then Renata and I will get dressed, so all of you better move into the parlor.”
Gorrmunsa twitched his tail and cocked his head curiously.
“Who is Renata?”
“I am,” the shy redhead answered from the bed.
Gorrmunsa sidled over to her. Her hair reminded him of a certain Kytarr with a red pelt he had once considered mating with—
“Gorrm,” Carsius had seen the fear in Renata’s eyes as the strange creature hovered closer.
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