Tali yipped loudly, quickly hushing her notebook computer by stuffing it into another bag. Amidst the stares from her fellow passengers, she blushed hotly and opened it up, quickly turning the volume down. 

One of the fellows across from her went back to eating some snack he had brought with him, while his companion kept on staring at her. She glanced in his direction and flicked her large tail around, a trick she had learned in College. He quickly averted his eyes and spoke to his friend. Seems he didn’t want to take a chance with a skunk, no matter how she looked. 

She had good looks, but wanted to lose a little weight, as she had a bit more on her bones than some, her body having a "motherly" look about it, most of the spare weight in her chest and hips. She had long white headfur that was always tied up in a ponytail behind her head, her purple eyes looking upon the world from behind silver-rimmed glasses that were constantly sliding down her stubbed muzzle. 

Tali wrinkled her nose up at the scent coming from the couple in front of her, who were obviously newlyweds, judging by the tinge of the smells coming off them. She chuckled a bit to herself and retuned her attention to her computer. 

"And I wonder just who decided they would be smart enough to change the email notification sound to that wave file…?" Tali shuddered a bit at the coldness and sterility of that sentence. 

"I really have to stop that. Its what keeps men away." She brushed the thought aside and smiled a bit. She went about her business, opening the email up. 

FROM: Sasha McKenzie <sasha@usc.donnell.edu>
TO: Tali Mouffonte <tali@mcnaughton.com>
SUBJ: Vacation Goodies!!!! 

Hey Babe! 

Just thought I’d drop you a line to see if you brought that damn notebook with you. You KNOW this is supposed to be a vacation, right? Not just another place to do work. 

Anyways. I guess I got your letter too late. I would have come with you to the WaterWings resort, but you know how I am with computers and stuff. Not very good. I really hope you have a good time there, and DON’T DO ANY WORK. Hear me? 

Ok, ok. I’ll go away. But before I do, here is something to keep you happy. J 

<ATTACHMENT: SUPRISE.JPG  50,576KB> 

Seeya later, honey. Call me when you get back. 

Kisses -
Sasha 

Tali chuckled and moved her trackball over to the attachment link. Clicking on it, the computer churned and cranked a bit, before spitting out an image of an extremely buff male skunk, bare as the day he was born and proudly displaying all his charms on her vivid LCD display. She squeaked loudly and closed the file, not before the large puma across from her caught a glance of it. 

She leered at him again and flicked her tail, sending his glance over towards his friend, where he feigned talking over something. "Works EVERY time," she said to herself. One of the advantages of being a skunk. But one of the disadvantages, also. 

Sasha was one of her friends from college. Actually, she was her best friend, the two of them having been living together since college. Or, as Tali preferred to call it, loving together. It had a more pleasant ring to it, and reflected what they really did in the first place - although neither of them considered each other lovers. Just roommates. 

"Five years of sleeping in the same bed, and we still consider each other roommates. By some accounts, that’s enough to be married," Tali chuckled to herself, shaking her head at her own "sins of the flesh." 

Still, life with Sasha hadn’t been that good…Tali;s work kept her away from her quite a bit of the time. Add to that Sasha was down in the midlands, doing some sort of odd soil research. She was a botanist at the local University, and had gone down there with some of her colleagues for two months. This left Tali without a steady lover, causing her to be just a mite frustrated, adding to the stress she already had. 

Tali smiled to herself and closed the notebook up, putting it back in it’s case….this time, with a muzzle on it’s speaker in case her coworkers had anything else planned for her. Invariably, they always did. 

Tali leaned on the cabin of the plane, looking out the window and down at the islands below her. Her coworkers told her to go to WaterWings resort as a way to calm her nerves, and get away from her job. 

Tali worked at McNaughton Industries, one of the largest software development firms on the globe. She was just a Junior Network Administrator, but was starting to go up the chain of command rather fast. Maybe too fast. 

She had started her job only a year ago, and moved up from telephone jockey to where she was now in a matter of eight months…something that was completely unheard of in the McNaughton camp. But it came at the expense of her social life. Here she was, 24 years old and driving a Beemer already. It felt like she was a yuppie the minute she walked into McNaughton headquarters. This was not a thought that she liked to spend much time on. She didn’t have a boyfriend to speak of, and her only friends were ones she either knew from school, or from work. And even those were few and far between. Add to that the fact that she spent a lot of time hanging out on network chat rooms, and her life had gotten pretty dull. 

Tali stared out the window of the propeller-plane, enjoying the view from thousands of feet up as her mind wandered around. The propellers of the plane brought her to question when the last time she rode an old-style plane was. She used to have her pilot’s license for old Cessna props, but had long since let it fail. Maybe she’d ask the pilot if she could fly the plane once…slip her a couple hundred bucks…she could come along…. 

"Shit!" Tali cursed out loud, blushing as she got looks. She went back to staring out the window. 

Tali cursed at herself for thinking like that. Money had always been short up until recently, and here she was becoming everything she didn’t want to be…thinking about bribing a rather beautiful vixen when all she really had to do was just ask with a smile and a promise of a favor in return. So it was lately. Maybe it was time to give it up and look for something simpler. Tali felt very removed from her past, and it started her bottom lip quivering as the thought kept on reeling inside her head. 

She pushed it to the back of her mind and just stared blankly out at the passing clouds, hoping this next week would calm her nerves.
 
 
 

The trip to the resort did more to heighten her anxiety than it did to soothe it. As the plane neared the islands, the weather got choppier,  headwinds that battered the plane making her a bit airsick. She looked down at the paper bag in front of her and flicked her tail around once, turning a bit green under her white fur and averting her eyes. 

She propped up her silver-rimmed glasses on her nose, wishing for once that her family had better eyesight than hearing. Then she wouldn’t have to hear the noises the plane made, the fuselage straining against the winds, the rudders and airfoils shuddering under the turbulence. This was an old airplane. She shifted her weight a bit in her seat, murphling softly. None of the other passengers could hear what she was, and every sound made her even more anxious to get off the plane. 

The plane landed a few minutes later, gliding along the water until it came to rest by the docks of the WaterWings resort. She quickly gathered her belongings, making sure everything was zippered tight, preparing for the rain her nose told her was coming. 

She emerged from the plane right after the two fellows that sat across from her. She had nicknamed the one that kept on staring at her "Tom," as in Peeping Tom. She’d have to watch herself around him, she figured. But it was his companion, whom she had found out was named David, that interested her. 

Six and a half feet tall, and all muscle, the ursine morph found a place in her heart, elbowing his cohort around from time to time for staring at the other passengers. He was dressed in a pair of bluejeans and a green dress shirt….nothing remarkable, but it just fit him, accenting his muscles, his burly form. 

Tali blushed as she caught herself thinking about things that his pants highlighted, her tail bobbing around a bit as she laughed to herself. David turned back to look at her, and she regained her composure, smiling gently, and propping her glasses up again. 

A  border collie approached her as she stepped out of the plane and onto the docks, looking up at her for a second and then speaking up. 

"Tali Mouffente?" the collie looked a little bit odd, as if he thought he got the pronunciation wrong, the tip of his tail twitching a bit. 

"That’s right hon. And you said it right. Just say it like it’s spelled," Tali smiled gently, shifting the weight of her bags a bit. She had always been a bit empathic, being able to tell what people were thinking just by picking up their subtle facial expressions and body language. Tails told a whole volume in themselves. 

"Oh. Ok. Well, follow me, and I will lead you to your cabin. My brother, Rale, said it’s going to be a rough night tonight. I’d believe him. He knows this area better than the whole lot of us put together. It would be best to get your bags into someplace dry soon. Oh! And my name’s Lucas, just so ya know." He took some of her bags for her, motioning for her to follow him up a small incline towards her cabin. 

She looked up at the sky and sighed a bit. If the ride over was any indication, The collie’s brother was only partially right. It was going to be one hell of a rocking night. She picked up her remaining bags and followed Lucas on the path towards her cabin. It sure looked like her first night here would be spent inside. 

"Ohwell. No change from normal." 

Tali followed Lucas up the hillside, towards the cabin that was going to be her home for the next two weeks.