Departing

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

01/31/97:

Wet, the was the first thing I though as I returned to where
I had my camp setup. It had been a week sense Sora's ship
had made such a spectacular entrance, and for most of that
week it had been raining out the water that had evaporated
when the ship had crashed.

Though I'm rather sure the resulting Tsunami also helped
with that to, as well as flooding most of my camp. Some of
the tent was all that was left, marking where I had spent so
much time at, the rest was gone.

I sighed, shaking my head. "Glad I didn't stay for the
party." I muttered to myself, as I walked closer to the
cliff side.

"Are you sure you have to go?" Sora asked, as she followed
me. "The rescue ship will be here soon, I'm sure you could
come along."

I glanced at her from over my shoulder. "Really, I rather
doubt with how you acted that my reception would be any
better."

"No... it wouldn't be much better at all. The truth is that
most people are far more frightened of demons then I am.
They wouldn't even think twice before panicking."

I stopped, and turned around. She stopped as well, the wind
causing the cloak she wore over her wings to flutter a bit.
"Generally, panicking implies NOT thinking twice, or even
once before you start to act foolish."

She shrugged, more with her wings, which pushed up her
cloak, then with her shoulders. "I guess that's true. I
didn't when that snapped into play. It was hard enough
considering you something other then a demon the first time
I saw you."

I smiled, pulling my backpack up a bit. "I do have that
effect on people."

She shook her head, as I walked forward a few more feet to
the fold. I turned, and gave her one last smile. "It's been
nice meeting you."

She smiled a bit on her own. "Been a bit more then nice for
me. If you hadn't come along, I would have been stuck here
for who know's how long."

"Hey, maybe I see you around again some day. I could always
dig around in this area, see if I can get a ship through."

"Don't be to rash if you try to though, it's not exactly
easy to do." She said with a small sigh.

I gave her a final nod, then turing, felt for the fold...

And it wasn't there.

Frowning, I reached out about as strong as I could, sweeping
about. I found it all right, it was still there, but almost
gone. I grumbled, hopping that something hadn't shifted in
the universe to close this fold.

Digging out my portal controller, I flipped it open, and set
it to scanning what little of the fold was left. Holding it
in front of me, I watched as the display blinked 'scanning'
at me.

"Something wrong?" Sora asked, moving to stand beside me.

I nodded. "Yes, something is wrong with the fold. I'm not
sure what yet."

She gave her own frown, that was part smile. She didn't
believe me when I told her about the folds, and rather
didn't expect me to open one in front of her.

After what seemed like an eternity, the controller gave out
a little beep. Looking at the display, I saw what it's
decision about what happened was. My response was a low
growl.

"What is it?" Sora asked, with an air of sarcasm.

I frowned even more. "It's a long term intermittent fold, it
won't be usable again for," I paused, and punched a button.
"TWO YEARS!"

She frowned on her own, more at my reaction then I suspect
the news. "That's bad?"

I nodded. "Oh VERY! I never bother to see if I could make a
scan for other folds, and this makes it very TO late! I'm
stuck here."

She shook her head. "You could come with me." She suggested.

I looked over at her. "I could, but that gives it's own
category of problems. The least of which is I'm rather not
someone who would fit in on your world."

She tilted her head, fluttering her wings under her cloak
again. "Maybe... maybe not though. I have an idea... come
on." She said, turning around, and walking back towards the
ship, taking careful paces in the soaked ground.

I followed a short distance behind, not exactly sure what
she had planed. I wasn't sure she did either, as she keep
flexing her wings under her cloak.

That cloak had given me a bit of a start. The day after we
had meet, the more to be more accurate, she came out of the
room she had sleep in (I, as always, took the floor). She
had changed clothing for that toga thing and into a shirt
that had a neat way of going around her wings, and a pair of
rather uncomfortably (for me) tight pants.

What got me most was the long cloak she had put on. It
covered her wings almost fully, only exposing a bit of them,
which, like on most creatures with her type of wings, folded
down around her shoulders and neck, almost making a cloak of
there own.

I had made a passing comment wondering if the cloak got in
the away of her ability to fly.

Her response was a long burst of laughter, after she calmed
down some, she explained that her spices didn't have the
right muscle structure to actually fly. Though with a lot of
workouts, some of her species could glide for some short
distances, though the muscle development gave them a grossly
large chest.

After a good hour, we finally reached where the escape-ship
had so ungracefully landed. She stopped, taping a single
finger on the hall, the turned around quickly, slapping her
paws together. "Got it!" She said.

"What?"

She took two steps over to me, and places a paw on my
shoulder. "You look a lot like my species."

I nodded. "Yes, we've been through that."

She smiled. "Well... I do have an idea how you can come with
me, with out people panicking."

I raised an eyebrow. "How?"

She reached up to her chest, and in one move undid the clasp
of her cloak, pulled it around in a circle, settling it on
my shoulders, clasping it again. She adjusted it a bit on my
shoulder, then smiles. "There, no one can tell you don't
have wings, and cloaks are common enough no one will care."

I tilted my head. "Well that works, but what about
everything else?"

She shook her head. "Your coloring is a bit brighter then
normal, and your ears are slightly longer, but it's nothing
that can't be explained as heritage. The white spot is the
only problem I can see, but that can be explained as some
kind of scaring under the fur."

I blinked, I didn't know what she meant by white spot,
though I didn't want to find out, but there was more
pressing problems. "What about me being on your ship? That
would be recorded."

"Actually, not as hard as you think. There was a time frame
of about two hours from when are data systems were backup
onto the station, and when we left. It's possible to have
book a passenger in that time, if they didn't mind a five
month trip and not a two week one."

I blinked again. "Meaning that you could pass me off."

She nodded. "That's right." then turned again, and headed
back into the ship. I shook my head, following. I guess her
plan would work, but I didn't like the idea of trying to
find a fold with out any kind of pre-set reference.

Walking into the control room, I stopped at the door frame,
and leaned against it. "So, when does your rescue arrive?"

She glanced down at the controls. "Actually, there waiting
for us to get into orbit, and dock with them."

I blinked yet again. "But... we only got the radio fixed
three days ago!"

She nodded. "Yes, and the main starport is five days away.
The ship that came here must have been on a patrol in this
direction. Now sit down, I've got to fly this thing up to
them."

I followed her directions, sitting into a large, SOFT open
back seat. "Can you?"

She gave me a dirty look. "My landing may not have been the
best, but yes I can." She flipped a switch on the control
panel, and the engines started to thrum in the back of the
ship. "Now shut up, and hang on!" And in one tight move, she
hit something on the controls, and we started to ascend at
at least three g's.

It was a quick trip to the rescue ship.

* * *

Hours later I walked into a semi-small room on the ship,
followed by Sora. I had spent a good two hours being quested
every way I could be about who I was. Finally the caption of
the ship seamed to be happy that I was me, and sent both me
and Sora to a room.

One room.

One SMALL room. With one large bed. Taking a step inside, I
looked back at her. "Get the idea they think we're bed
partners?"

She looked at me strangely, then 'ohhed'. "I get what you
mean. Actually its noting like that, sharing a bed is a
common thing with us. There's nothing sexual about it."

I looked down at the bed. "I... guess... it's a large bed,
and there is much floor room."

She nodded, then slapped me on the back. "Listen, when was
the last time you had a shower?"

I chuckled. "Um... about a month I would guess..."

"Well then," she pointed to a side door. "Over there is the
bathroom. Go take a shower, and wash your fur at least
twice. While your are it, stick your clothing in the small
cubbyhole on the side, it will come back clean."

I gave her a half smile, but walked around the bed, and into
the bathroom. Closing the door (it was one of the slide into
the wall kind) and locking it. I looked around.

It wasn't to terrible large, but had big shower, as well as
a full sized, full body, fur dryer in the walls.

I smiled, and pulled of most of my clothing, shoving them
into a small hole in the wall. Hitting a button next to it,
it closed, and my clothing where sucked away.

Starting for the shower, I saw something out of the corner
of my eye. Slowly I turned, and gasped a bit. "Holly shit,"
I whispered, "is that me?!"

The answer was of course perfectly clear. It was me, and a
very DIFFERENT me. Raising a paw, I touched the side of my
muzzle. I looked... well, not perfect, but close. My fur was
mostly a semi-dark red, with light red spots here and there.

The tip of my muzzle, and ears where both black, though I
didn't have the typical black 'socks' on my arms and legs
that most foxes do have. There was also a wide swath of
white from between my eyes, and back until it was even with
my ears. There was also a good sized with patch starting
about mid way down my belly, and continuing down, ending
around the knee on the inside of my left leg.

As a final touch, I saw that my eye colour had changed from
blue to a light brown, and had become slitted. That might
end up a problem some day, as Sora's eyes where round.

I twitched an ear, amazed to actually see it move. Sticking
out my tongue, I licked my nose. That caused me to break
into a fit of light laughter.

Finally breaking my eyes away from the mirror, I continued
onto the shower. Wondering how long this transformation
would last.