A quick hunt with her new friend, and it's time to go home. So how will it be once Kendraha returns to her time line after over 2000 years among the beings she's almost always considered animals.
This last section of the saga is a bit longer, I couldn't cut it into pieces and make it work as 2 parts.
Stranded in Alternate Time 25-28,
by Py, (c) 11/13/2000,
--------------------------------
It was just under 9 years ago when Westerton's greatest benefactor Kendra Josalin disappeared without a trace. The entire incident was kept quiet by San Francisco police at the request of Westerton university. However it wasn't long before word got out, and rumors flew that a love affair had gone bad, making Ernest Grub the prime suspect for her murder. Speculation as to motives ran wild, nobody could seem to come up with a good reason for Grub to have done it. He owed very little in back child support from a failed marriage, and he had no access to any portion of the Josalin fortune. So with no known reason for him to benefit, speculation turned to possible failed attempts to benefit from her death, or perhaps one of them turned to blackmail which eventually led to her accidentally or deliberately being killed.
The professor is highly acclaimed in his field of archeology, with a long and fruitful life ahead of him continuing to examine artifacts, and teaching which he says is the most rewarding part of his job. His future at Westerton seems secure, with more than his share of fame for translation work in several ancient languages, with his connection and identification of the 'Eye of Atlantis' bracelet as his greatest achievement so far. In all the years since the incident, no motive has suggested itself as to why he would have killed Kendra Josalin.
Miss Josalin was probably the richest woman in the state, sole owner of Josalin Enterprises, with investments and other businesses owned entirely or partially throughout the world. Her net value was somewhere between 300 and 400 million dollars, and she seems to gain nothing from faking her own death or disappearance. This was the main reason the police suspected foul play, but after receiving no indications what-so-ever to that effect after nearly a year of investigating, and with the PR problems they were receiving from making no headway on the case, the matter was closed. Kendra Josalin's case will remain unsolved and closed unless evidence should turn up in the future. The police also took the opportunity to close the Grub case, although both could be reopened if new evidence turns up.
What evidence we do have seems clear and uncontradicted. Miss Kendra Josalin left a letter behind, indicating that she was planning to kill herself, that her body would never be found, and her will should be acted upon as soon as possible. No body has ever been found, nor clues to it's location, except that her car took her into the woods outside of San Francisco the last morning anyone ever saw her. The Auto-Pilot electric 2 seater car took her and a house guest named Lyra, to a spot in the woods, then returned home alone. The woods in that general area, including an old deserted cabin, have been thoroughly searched, and outside of evidence of a significant cat population living in that area recently, nothing was found. Police are very anxious to find and talk to this Lyra, but she also seems to have disappeared. This suggests that either this Lyra was involved in getting rid of Miss Josalin, perhaps using an assumed name, or perhaps this Lyra was also a victim of whoever killed Miss Josalin. If Miss Josalin committed suicide as her note states, did this Lyra help by disposing of the body afterwards? The police think finding this woman Lyra could be the means to solving the entire case.
As to possible motives for a killing, police have looked to the will. Miss Josalin left 2 years worth of salary to each of her servants, and made the daughter of one of them her heir to the bulk of the estate after the other stipulations of the will are met. The maid's daughter is now 17, but at the time was only 8 years old, and police did not consider her a strong suspect in the case, but did question the mother considerably. Ultimately the maid was released from questioning when it came to light that she had no way of knowing anything about the specifics of the will. Since then the woman has held guardianship and supervised financial control over her daughter's inheritance until the girl comes of age at 18 years old.
The controversy brought out the UFO people, who claimed that Miss Josalin and this woman Lyra who police have no last name for, had been selected by aliens to go to another star system. The Church of Kendraha claimed nothing even after it came out that Miss Josalin had been secretly a Kendrahaite, and that they received a significant portion of the will, which brought much of the speculation of foul play onto them, but that too was dropped by police for lack of evidence.
So no progress has been made in the case, the note left behind by her is not being called a suicide note by the police, who insist it must have been faked or forged. She did put her business affairs in order before disappearing, suggesting a planned leaving and giving no sign of being forced to write it. Police dismiss these facts, continuing to insist the case was not a suicide, although not attempting to dispute the final court declaration of death in 2099. Kendra Josalin left a significant fund to provide yearly contributions to Westerton University, the only stipulation being that they keep and maintain 'Snake Woman Fountain', or the yearly donation will be ended. She also left similar yearly donation funds to the San Francisco Temple to Kendraha, and the World United Church of Kendraha, each with amounts equivalent to her last yearly contribution. This shocked a lot of people, as her connection to any Kendraha organization was only rumored. She also left a similar fund for Amazonia United in an undisclosed amount, one time gifts to the relatively new Amazon tribes in Ameris an Europe, and significant final bonus payments for all her servants, who are working for the heir and her mother now.
San Francisco Trumpeter , 5/12/2106,
Westerton Benefactor mysteriously disappears, and still no clues,
Written by Scot Michelson,,
25. The high speed monorail came to a stop at the station several hundred miles East of San Francisco. Kendraha and Lyrasul disembarked with many other people, and turned for a car rental agency. Kendraha had done all the red tape work with the rental agent by videophone, making herself look like a Strawberry Blonde with slightly differing facial features from her Kendra disguise, in case the video call was being recorded, which was a standard business practice these days. Her reasoning was that Kendra had a history and might be tracked, where as her new disguise had no history except what she had prepared for a sudden disappearance, this allowing her to vanish without a trace anytime she needed, and they only needed a few days more. She had papers ready and all things set to finish arrangements, the deal itself would be in cash, all in the new currency bills, the kind that were the latest in anti-counterfeiting. Lyrasul joined her as they paid for and were given the keys to the red electric van, her hair lengthened to ear length, and the color changed to black. She wore a white blouse with grey skirt, and some short heels she had bought for the trip, while Kendraha wore a yellow one piece outfit which had short sleeves and a shorter skirt.
Driving the van Kendraha noticed that Lyrasul was beginning to relax a bit. Cars didn't seem to bother her as much as the monorail train going over 100 miles an hour, without standard Humalli triple redundant safety systems. However, she thought Lyrasul had done quite well at containing her nervousness on the train, and was recovering quickly. They drove in near silence some of the time, but mostly talked about her experiences on this Earth to clarify what had been read in her mind, and other times Lyrasul talked about or answered questions on their home time line. On manual drive to avoid one more possible link to them, they followed a seldom used road through a wooded area, and pulled off to the side where they were partially hidden. If anyone did come by, they wouldn't think twice about the van even if they noticed it.
They both took off their heels as they got out, and hardened the soles of their feet. Kendraha grinned, "Okay, here's the deal. This is your hunt, I'm just helping you with locating prey on short notice, and with the van of course. Now, I'm going to stay with you just in case, I can't have anything bad happen to my ride home." Kendraha pointed into the trees, "We follow this old bike path about a half mile, there we find a small colony of Ameris Amazons. Two groups of Amazons have started since Amazonia Isle declared itself, both connected and keeping the traditions. One is in Europe, the second is here. They've got about 80 women from what I here, Ralli told me about the place once, saying it's almost as nice as being home on the island. They started with a small core of about 6 island Amazons who came here, plus a bunch of women descended from native Ameris people, and added since then from the surrounding population and of course their own children." They began walking down the rarely used path, "Now." Kendraha continued. "The last thing I plan to do for you is go with you down the path and stay close, the hunt is yours. This will truly be old style hunting like our primitive ancestors used to do, maneuver in secret around a herd of humans, lure one from the pack, and take them to a place where you can have your meal. You wanted to hunt wild humans, this is as close as we can get on this continent. Do you think your up to it, what's your range?" "Not a great range." Lyrasul said with hesitation. "I can handle it though."
At the large clearing the 2 Humalli stooped low, both mentally projecting the idea that they weren't there, Kendraha noting that none had very strong mental shields as she had seen years earlier while scouting for future food sources, and they made sure that the little noise they made wasn't heard by anyone as they walked around the edge of the clearing. As promised, Kendraha did nothing except shield her presence, and watch for danger that might require her to act. They had worked their way around the front clearing area, and past some houses, noting women ranging from about 50 and older to children, the youngest that they could see being about 6. Most of the Amazons were between 20 and 40, the older ones not as active, and the children extremely active. They dressed generally in 2 piece outfits, some denim and cotton, others choosing traditional handmade stitching or a mixture. They did various chores, some sparred with staffs or wrestled, and the children played. Most carried knives, but other weapons were largely out of sight. Lyrasul was finding it hard to get close enough, and couldn't touch a mind strongly enough to get them to come to her. Once she thought a woman made an excuse to leave and come to her, but then she turned and went into a hut.
"Easy." Kendraha whispered. "Patience, it's like fishing, at the edge of your range you just need to get as close as you can to a group, wait for your influence to seep in, and eventually one will come to you." Lyrasul turned to her, "Fishing?!" she whispered. "Local sport, I'll explain later." Kendraha replied. After a while Lyrasul smiled, "The farmland." Kendraha grinned, "I wondered when you'd think of that." Working their way to the land used for farming, they watched from the trees. Six women were working the fields, 2 blondes both with hats on, a redhead, and the rest with dark hair. Lyrasul waited, sure that if she could get within 10 feet of a lone prey the human was hers. She could sense much farther than she could cast her influence, and when her chance came she began moving. Hidden by the tall stalks if she bent over, Lyrasul made her way towards her prey who was doing some sort of weeding with a hoe or similar tool. One last mental scan, nobody else was close except Kendraha, and Lyrasul sprang forward, snapping her mental grip on the mind of the Ameris Amazon Chakla. The petite dark haired Native Ameris woman stood and whirled at the noise, but otherwise couldn't move. The hoe did raise in a defensive manner briefly, then fell as Lyrasul took full control. The woman's lips moved making small unintelligible noises, and her blue eyes went wide in fear, then became stern as she fought to regain control of her body.
Kendraha stepped forward and grabbed the slightly reddish skin of Chakla's bare upper arm, then pulled at her coveralls noting the slim hips and average breasts. Then she examined the woman's hands, hair, and face, "A bit small for an Amazon, but she's got strong muscles, and her hair is cut to shoulder length. I'd say she's been an Amazon for most of her life." "Yes." replied Lyrasul. "I can read it in her mind. She's 24, and joined the Amazons after running away from home at age 8. My goodness her emotions are intense, much stronger than back home." "Can you handle her going back to the van?" Kendraha asked. "Yes, she should be no problem." Lyrasul replied. Kendraha ducked, "Okay then, get both your heads down and lets get moving. If they see us or track us down before we reach the van we'll have to let her go and run." Lyrasul ducked her head, and had the somewhat shorter human duck slightly, "You mean they could catch us, maybe hurt us?" "Of course." Kendraha confirmed. "There's too many of them for us to control if they come in a usual sized tracking group of 6 or more, which they probably will, and they've got weapons. Our best chance is to get out of here before they notice she's gone." Lyrasul frowned, "I hadn't considered the possibility of being pursued." "You wanted a wild hunt." Kendraha said with a grin. "Wild hunts mean unpredictable possibilities, you asked for something other than a predictable tame kill."
All the way back to the van they moved slowly, the Amazon woman doing surprisingly well at hampering the pace. Kendraha lagged behind as much as she could, running back a ways occasionally, sensing for pursuit, then running to rejoin Lyrasul. When Lyrasul and Chakla were most of the way to the van Kendraha came running to them, "I was near the edge of the clearing, there are so many Amazons in an excited state I could sense them as a group. Someone found the hoe and our footprints indicating a struggle, but fortunately not enough indications to be sure which way we went. They're gathering with weapons to search the field, and it won't be long until they find our escape route, so move quickly. Soon they'll pursue, but I think we'll be fine if we don't waste too much time."
Kendraha threw open the sliding side door to the van, climbing in and closing it behind the other two. She noticed how tired both Lyrasul and Chakla seemed to be after their long battle, "Your ready to drop, look in my purse there are some handcuffs. Yes I find them useful at times like these so I brought them with me." Then she softly added, "They have other uses also." She continued at a normal tone. "Handcuff her arms behind her back, and there's some strong cloth you can use for a gag. You'll also find some heavy cord in there you can use to tie her ankles with, it won't damage her skin much, and do tie a piece from the ankle tie to the handcuffs chain to keep her from giving us too much trouble." Kendraha took her seat behind the wheel, and briefly turned to face Lyrasul, "And whatever you do get rid of that knife, we're both in danger if she gets loose and has that." Lyrasul scowled, then did as instructed, not wishing to offend while hunting on someone else's territory.
Kendraha wasted no time in starting the van, and maneuvering to return to the road. As she did so, and hit the button that would lock all the doors so that children couldn't fall out, Kendraha thought that she felt the first sensations of the minds of angry pursuing Amazons. A few minutes later, Lyrasul came forward to the passenger seat carrying the knife, Chakla kicking and making muffled sounds as she tried to scream now that the mental grip was gone. Lyrasul rubbed the temples of her head, "Our ancestors did that all the time, and without bindings!?" Kendraha snorted, "Yes, they had more stamina than us, although their prey wasn't quite so physically... energetic. Don't worry though, unless we break down we're well out of their reach, and I'll change directions in a while, they have no chance of finding us." "You could have helped." Lyrasul said with a pout. Kendraha sneered, "And spoil your wild hunt, you never would have forgiven me." "So, where do we go so I can feed." Lyrasul asked. Chakla had slowed to a calm consideration of her surroundings, but now briefly struggled more wildly. Kendraha chuckled, "Well, it'll have to be a cave or something remote, we don't have time to drag her all the way back to my place in this van, maybe you know where there's another deserted cabin nearby."
Kendraha consulted the van's navigational computer, which had all the most up-to-date information on roads and such as all rental cars did, but not the information they needed most. Inserting a small quarter sized disk from her purse, the computer now had access to detailed mapping data for a 100 mile radius area, including all the things she knew would help them find a place for Lyrasul to feed. Kendraha located an old road she'd have to manually drive on, and after a short walk through the trees, a clearing was indicated where some old houses used to be. Kendraha drove to the spot her distance meter said was correct and stopped the van, "Okay, this is it, we walk her through the trees about half a mile. There used to be a small town there a couple of hundred years ago before the river dried up. The map indicates that the river is back if smaller, but no new town was ever built, and we're at least 20 miles from the nearest human residence, 10 from the nearest paved road."
They both stood outside the van by the sliding door as Kendraha prepared to open it, "Okay, leave your purse here, I've got the handcuff keys, her knife, and a trash bag. When I open the door, take control of her mind again. Untie her ankles and use the longer cord to have her lead you with it still connected to the handcuffs. Do you want to hold the knife on her just in case, or have me hold it?" "I'll take it." Lyrasul answered. "I don't want to use a weapon at all, but I'll need it to encourage her to walk if my mental control slips, and if she fights me it won't hurt to have it. This is still a good hunt, even the ancient Humalli had to disarm the prey sometimes."
Kendraha slid open the door, and the Ameris Amazon ran at them from the interior, screaming a muffled battle cry through her gag. She impacted Lyrasul's body with her head and shoulder, knocking her backwards to the ground. Chakla had worked her ankles free, but was still handcuffed behind her back and gagged as she turned and kicked Kendraha. The impact made the Humalli spin and slam face first into the side of the van. A kick to the back of her knees sent Kendraha down, and a kick to Lyrasul's face as she sat up sent her back down, then the Amazon began running.
Lyrasul first became aware of Kendraha's face as she began to shake off the effects of the attack. "You ought to go get her." Kendraha said with a grin. "She was out of my range by the time I got up." "How long?" Lyrasul asked. "Seconds." Kendraha replied, we didn't even lose consciousness, she just dazed us good. Now it's 10 miles to the nearest road, and with her arms behind her and mouth gagged we can outrun her, but we had better get moving." "This was not what I had planned." Lyrasul grumbled as she rose. "You wanted a wild hunt my dear." replied Kendraha. "There by nature unpredictable, but well worth the effort."
It only took a few minutes to run down Chakla, who had left the road for the trees in a last minute attempt to shake off her pursuers. Before giving in she pretended fear and cringing, only to whirl and catch Lyrasul with a kick just before mental control could take her. The Amazon quickly rolled to her feet, but was mentally caught by Lyrasul, who had managed to get control of Chakla before anything else could happen. Kendraha helped Lyrasul up, "I think your going to need my mental help getting to the clearing, or you could just feed here, this is safe enough with me guarding you. Lyrasul dusted herself off, "Here is too open, a car might come along, there's too much debris and not enough coiling room, and the van's too cramped as well. Help me get her to the clearing, that won't hurt the hunt any more than we've already done."
With Lyrasul having used her mental ability a lot recently, Kendraha did most of the mental controlling as they walked through the woods, the Amazon lead before them on a cord leash to her handcuffs, and fighting for control of her mind all the way. At the clearing Lyrasul held Chakla stationary with mental control, as Kendraha examined her body's bumps and bruises and shifted them away, then Kendraha did the holding for Lyrasul to do the same for her own minor injuries. The clearing was large and empty except for shin high grass, and the remains of some concrete foundation near the river. "Your hunt, time for the kill." Kendraha said as she began untying the cord bindings, gag, and removing the handcuffs.
Kendraha abruptly released her mental control on Chakla, and once free the Amazon whirled and struck at the nearest target, which was herself. Kendraha had guessed it was coming this time and blocked, then moved out of the way, "It's not me you should be worried about." The Amazon started to turn on Lyrasul, then thought better of it and began to run. She froze before moving 2 steps, and Lyrasul said, "Now undress please." The Amazon mentally fought but found herself undressing, then turning to face Lyrasul. Chakla's eyes widened in shock at the sight of Lyrasul, who was now a mottled grey and black 17 foot serpent from her lower rips down.
The Amazon fought her mental battle, but found her body walking slowly to kneel before Lyrasul , feeling coils draping around her body, dragging her to the ground. Then the coils grew tighter around Chakla's chest and abdomen until breathing became very difficult. The Amazon abruptly realized between gasps that the mental control was gone, and she began fighting with all her remaining strength. "Play with her a little." Kendraha said from a short distance away. "Don't just kill her right away, the taste of the emotions really helps the overall experience." Lyrasul took her time and some other suggestions, loosening her coils to let Chakla recover, only to begin with fresh constriction of her prey. She also tried stroking and feeling her victim, in areas recommended by Kendraha, finding that the stimulation of the prey created a strong mix of emotions, and it all made the fear of the prey grow immensely. Something bothered Lyrasul about this part, but she wanted to try this also, back home it was impolite to play with your food.
Finally when Chakla barely kicked in the massive coils as she strained for breath, Lyrasul looked at Kendraha, "Come, share the life force." Kendraha was caught off guard and hesitated, then knelt down next to the hunter form Lyrasul, with the dying Amazon between them. They held hands as the coils tightened again. Chakla's head jerked up as she tried to inhale, squeaking sounds escaping her wide open mouth, then her head fell back as she died. The coils tightened again, and a few moments later both Humalli had their eyes closed as the Amazon's life force escaped the body, and they each fed on it. A small nub of life force escaped, it always had, and Kendraha had stopped questioning it long ago. "What is that? I never have gotten used to that when devouring a human." Lyrasul said in puzzlement. Kendraha sighed, "Who knows, maybe that's what humans call a soul. We can see that too when a Humalli dies, only it looks a bit different." Kendraha stood and backed off, "Now finish eating, your dinner will go cold." Lyrasul wasted no time turning into a 25 foot python, moving her head to the dead Amazon's, and unhinging her jaws to slowly work the prey into her mouth and down to her stomach.
--------------------------------
26. Kendraha's white electric car drove down the dirt road until she saw Lyrasul waiting, standing by the side of the road having reverted to her normal close cropped white hair and other features, wearing a silver pants suit which shimmered in the sunlight. The other Humalli had arrived here the night before, giving Kendraha time to make her final arrangements before meeting her here. Lyrasul didn't understand why Kendraha wanted to straighten things out since she was leaving for good, but she didn't argue with the senior Time Core agent, who clearly had been under significant mental stress in the over 2000 years she had spent on this Earth. Lyrasul had trouble even imagining it, the time that Kendraha had been isolated here was more than her own age.
Lyrasul had come to the cabin with a few items the previous night, and Kendraha had brought the last with her. Kendraha had returned to her Kendra disguise also, wearing a denim skirt and white blouse for this last outing on this Earth. She sent the car home on automatic, knowing it would go very slow on these difficult to auto-navigate dirt roads, and it might never reach the mansion, but she was unconcerned since she wasn't returning. The cars artificial intelligence wasn't even close to being conscious like Rudy and maybe Dolly, and she assumed that was because the trolly AI were exposed to humans far more than her car was, and many different people as well.
Lyrasul pointed to Kato who's 12 foot long body rested behind Kendraha's neck, flowing down just inside her right arm, and looping her body once. His greenish gold scales glistened in the sunlight as his forked tongue went in and out, and his head raised to look at the pointing finger. "You know what the Time Core will say about bringing a living animal back, the Council will have a fit!" Kendraha sneered, "Only if the animal can reproduce. I'm taking Kato with me, if they don't like it, they can sterilize him. But I'll fight that, he's too genetically different to father offspring, and I'm not bringing a mating pair. What about your cats?!" "They came from our time line." Lyrasul answered. "So no problems with them going back."
Walking through the trees with each carrying a small box Lyrasul began, "There's going to be a small hiccup in our return." "Hiccup?!" Kendraha questioned. Lyrasul continued, "Yes, that's the non-technical name going around these days for the time synchronization problem. We still haven't beat that one, and aren't likely too." Kendraha smirked, "Ah yes, how big." "Oooo, not much." Lyrasul said. "However considering we had almost no information on your precise timing, we had to do testing and guess on some variables, so It'll be about plus or minus 2 or 3 seconds. That's really quite good considering the length of time you were away." "Not bad!" Kendraha agreed with a nod. "They can bring us in on the same pad with that." "Yes." agreed Lyrasul. "But all of this stuff your returning with will go right through and arrive with me, your clothing is within that fraction of an inch that will let it stay with you, but Kato's a different matter. He better travel inside a box to be safe." Kendraha nodded, "Yes, since we're not synchronized if I wore him on my neck he'd probably get sliced by the same effect that let's me keep my clothes. In a box is best for him, if I tell him he'll stay put."
At the cabin surrounded by a clearing and trees, they began making final preparations. They had a few cardboard boxes, most for the items Kendraha was returning with, one with a few maps, a compass, and a few other ordinary looking things Lyrasul had required to find Westerton and track down Kendraha, including bowls for the cats, cat food, and money to buy food with until she was settled enough to steal food. They had a bit of trouble with the cats and Kato. Fortunately the cats thought Kato was too big to try and kill, and Kato wasn't hungry, but the 2 Humalli worked mentally with the creatures to make sure that no trouble was going to occur.
While they were setting up the boxes in the clearing, within a radius of some rocks set up as a pick-up marker, Kendraha moved a box and stroked a cat once quickly, "So, how long have you been here, and how long have they been searching this time line for me?" Lyrasul thought a moment, "Actually they started searching this time line in what would be the local 2041. I know nearly 60 years is a long time, but you try tracking a single person who can shift identities at will, and could be anywhere in a group of over 6 billion humans." Kendraha nodded an understanding of the problem and Lyrasul continued, "We sent about half a dozen agents at a time, but each had to rotate to other time lines or to rest regularly which slowed things. We also had 1 other active search going on, not to mention our regular load of research, so we couldn't put more Humalli into the search." Lyrasul smiled, "They finally began tracking your movements and picking up clues such as your Kendraha religion. The Psychology experts said you'd stay close to a temple, or visit them regularly, remaining close for a few years after making an appearance. We closed in on you in 2089 when the San Francisco temple was rumored by rag newspapers to have had a visitation. They said the Goddess Kendraha appeared in the pit, and devoured a man who offered himself as a sacrifice." Lyrasul grinned, "We only thought you were alive from patterns and disappearance figures, and thought we could track your path for most of the last 150 years. We guessed that this was either another rumor, more temple fakery, or you." Kendraha thought back to that year, "That was me."
Lyrasul continued, "Well we searched lots of likely spots and some not so likely over a huge area, which is really hard to do with humans moving in and out and all around constantly. Once or twice agents were sure they had felt your mental presence moving past them in a train or car, and we used these fleeting glimpses and other clues to try and make a pattern and close in. After a few years we thought you had moved on, but the fleeting glimpses continued. Then someone noticed the article on Kendra Josalin, noted the great great grandmother's name was Kennedy, and noted all the symbols surrounding the Josalin building, especially 'Snake Woman Fountain'. It all fit the pattern." Lyrasul sighed, "Someone was due to leave just before we got all that, and I was in line to replace them. For some reason as the new Humalli on the team, and with a fresh outlook or something, not to mention my human form fitting in the best on university grounds, I got the job of confirming your presence there. The others went home the day I confirmed your identity at the fountain, you would have known I was Humalli if you had scanned my mind, so I made arrangements to intercept you later, at the cost of one cat."
Kendraha giggled and stroked Kato, "Alright, my turn." Said Lyrasul. "Tell me about some of these artifacts, we've still got time." Kendraha looked around and opened a box, "Okay, I've never been one for collecting anything much since I always kept moving, but this time has been different since I stayed here in San Francisco so long." She withdrew an object and gave it to Lyrasul, "That deadly weapon your holding is a genuine Amazonian knife, I bought that from a collector for a half million dollars. It's estimated to be about 1500 years old, although the leather sheath has been reworked." She recovered the knife and handed Lyrasul a small statuette, "That little statue is of a big eared African elephant, we don't have those back home, and I'm sure you'll agree it's funny looking. However they weigh about 2 or 3 tons at full growth, stand 8 to 10 feet tall at the shoulder, and can be quite unfriendly if they don't like you." Lyrasul looked amazed and Kendraha continued, "They're plant eaters fortunately, but very protective of their young and the herd."
Recovering the elephant statuette and returning it to the box, Kendraha briefly pulled another out, "You know this one, it's 'Snake Woman fountain". Then she put it back and pulled out another and gave it to Lyrasul, "That's a Priestess Throne, well a miniature one, from a temple to the Goddess Kendraha. This one has a cobra head, and 2 ruby eyes which are actually tiny rubies. The entire thing is made of some sort of metal plated with gold. I love the detail, you can see the individual scales of the snake, and there's a little red cushion at the center of the ring of coils where the priestess or priest would sit. Usually it was a priestess, but not always."
Recovering the last statuette she reached into the box again and pulled out a small replica tablet with the 'Song of Kleopatra' on it in English. "Poor Kleo, she was a very strong queen, and I made so many mistakes trying to walk in her shoes." They went through the several boxes that were each large enough to hold everything, yet were still small enough to be handled by one person, and they briefly examined a few dozen small items. Kendraha stood and pulled a long heavily decorated blue dress out of the largest box and held it to herself to model it, "Ah, a Japinese silk kimono, great stuff that silk, I'm hoping the wizard's back home can duplicate it. I've got several loose pieces here for them to work with so maybe they won't need to destroy the kimono. The Aho-Choy women used to have to learn all the ceremonial ways, how to blend in, how to seduce a man, sometimes to get information, sometimes to kidnap, but usually to assassinate them." Kendraha gently folded the silk and replaced it in the box after letting Lyrasul feel it between her fingers. "Wonderfully smooth, I also hope our scientists can duplicate this!" Lyrasul agreed. They went through a few more objects, Lyrasul expressing weight concerns regarding how much they were allowed to bring back on each trip. Kendraha laughed, "After 2000 years of accumulated weight allowance this is nothing!"
Lastly Kendraha opened one of 5 cardboard portrait boxes, and one by one showed them to Lyrasul, "They're all replicas, this first one is Da Vinci's 'Kendraha feeding', that's me as the hunter form, Da Vinci had his reactions controlled and his memory dealt with, and the model in my coils met with me later to discuss her keeping quiet." Kendraha giggled slightly then moved on, "This is Da Vinci's woman with flowers, that's me again in a different human form, all the rest are in human form." She showed a pair of paintings that weren't her, just good human art in her opinion, both from different times and artists. Finally she showed the last, 'Vampire prey', which she explained was her, but the teeth were added by the artist. "I could have done the teeth for him." Kendraha explained. "But I saw that he felt fully capable of adding the fangs and the blood streaming down my neck into my cleavage, and he made my hair a bit deeper shade of brown than it was at the time. The blonde woman bent over backwards and appearing unconscious was another model, we had to prop her up with a stool to keep her position, and you can see right down both of our cleavages." She smirked, "The artist did that for an exhibit in the late 1900's, and it became a cult favorite piece. I think he had a thing for women's breasts and cleavage, but I suspect few men at that time would openly admit they noticed."
When they were almost done Kendraha indicated 2 boxes inside one of the larger boxes, showing each had a number of journals inside. Kendraha let Lyrasul flip through one, "I never kept records of my life until recently, there was too much chance of something giving me away. However with money and power, and a whole mansion to hide my books in, with my private area and completely loyal servants, I decided I would. If I had been forced to flee I planned to destroy them first, and if I didn't get that chance then I could sneak in using a disguise and destroy them before anyone knew they existed." Kendraha sighed, "I wrote down everything I could remember, in no particular order, and I'm sure some details are wrong. From my years as Kleopatra, to the Amazon creation, escaping Rome, my times in Japin, raising falcons, meeting Vlad, running a number of whorehouses, getting condemned as a witch and barely escaping with my life, and all the wars I usually managed to avoid." Kendraha paused to think, "I've been a doctor and a nurse to humans, as well as a doctor's wife, ambushing and feeding on terminal patients. I've been a gypsy and a rich or moderately wealthy tycoon, even a lawyer a few times, smirking every time I heard someone say that all lawyers were cold blooded or snakes. I've done so much here, I even became a scientist in the early 21st century, but I never did well in science here either, and stayed away from dangerous projects of course, which limited me to assistant to other better scientists. I taught the Anacondas in South Ameris, Oh I'm sure the council will never let me hear the end of that one, but in the end they won't do more than lecture me." Lyrasul nodded her agreement, and Kendraha continued, "I've even been the captain of a ship, a small fishing boat staying close to shore of course, but it helped me reduce my fear of open water I think." Lyrasul snapped the book shut and replaced it in the box, "You sound surprisingly happy and talkative." Kendraha grinned, "Why not, I'm going home!" Lyrasul nodded, "Are you sure you don't want to postpone and try to get your retrieval bracelet back?" Kendraha nodded her confirmation, "Too dangerous and unimportant. Let them wonder over it all they want here, and back home they won't care because it's not that valuable an item." She shrugged, "If I'm wrong they can come back and get it easily enough." "One last thing." Lyrasul said sternly. "Are you going to return as Kendra, I mean don't you think you should return in the form you left in?" Kendraha laughed, "That's a funny question from another Humalli. I've changed shapes so many times since coming here, I honestly can't remember my original appearance back home, and that always changed anyway. I mean, what was your original hair, eyes, or skin like, do you remember, and does it really matter?" Lyrasul nodded agreement and Kendraha went on, "We can always know each other and that we are Humalli by our mental presence if we look, and our specific identity if confirmation is needed by reading it in our surface thoughts, or we can let security go deeper if they have to."
Lyrasul abruptly reached to the crystal on her pendant, and Kendraha also felt the pulses of energy coming from it. A few moments passed with Lyrasul concentrating on the crystal, and she looked up at Kendraha, "I've told them I've found you, and we're ready to return immediately, minus 3 cats and with your considerable luggage. Kendraha was all smiles as Lyrasul reached into her purse and removed a small vial. She poured liquid from it onto 2 rags and gave one to Kendraha, "Like chloroform for cats, or else they go wild for a short time after time transfer. I have nothing for Kato, but he's similar to us. Cold blooded creature's we've done experiments with do fine, it's usually just the mammals and birds that are a problem, so Kato should be okay." With that Lyrasul mentally called all the cats which clustered around her, and the 2 Humalli began giving each a brief smell of the rags, which made them all unconscious. Then Lyrasul had Kendraha stand within the large transfer radius, but with at least a foot distance between her and any other object, then she did likewise for herself. "Ready?" Lyrasul asked. "Absolutely." replied Kendraha. "It's been a nice world, but I want to go home." Lyrasul looked into her crystal and sent the mental signal.
The air for a radius around them, the cats, and all the boxes, began to shimmer slightly, then quickly grew white as if a dome of fog were forming, except that it was clearly not fog but energy. After a few seconds the dome was complete, and it instantly vanished, taking all the time travelers with it, plus some dirt and grass where feet, cats, and boxes had been, and some small pops were heard as air rushed in to fill the void where each had been.
--------------------------------
27. Lyrasul appeared in the chamber accompanied by a number of small pops as her body and that of other objects pushed air aside. She was surrounded by boxes and sleeping cats, but no Kendraha. Lyrasul stood rigid and counted, 1, 2, 3,.." She paused briefly then continued, 4, 5, 6,.." After another brief moment she said in a slightly annoyed and concerned tone, "Maxinto, what's going on!? You said 2 or 3 seconds at the most." Maxinto twitched his tail as he fingered his controls and checked the monitor read-outs, "Things seem fine!?" "Where is she then!?" Lyrasul said through gritted teeth. Silence stretched and Maxinto replied, "Solar flare delay, we forgot to allow for that. She should be here any moment." With that there was another small pop, and Kendraha was in the chamber with them. Cheers rose from the small group of technicians, most of which were in human form. The door in the transparent walled chamber opened, and several Humalli rushed in, Kendraha greeting them with hugs and mental touches. There were big smiles and congratulations for Lyrasul as well, as she had completed her first major solo mission, and succeeded in it entirely.
Kendraha left the others to deal with the boxes, Kato, and the cats. The animals would be taken to their pens or wherever they were kept, cats were new to the time core and she had never asked Lyrasul. The boxes she knew would be taken to a holding area until her report was in, and she would later identify each object, she assumed that much of the time core procedure was still the same. Kendraha managed to work her way to the mission leader, it was still good old Arturokan. She guessed he was nearly 8000, as old as her mother and still as sexy as ever. He told her to report to medical, and report to Steviki's office after that.
Kendraha went to medical, where she and Lyrasul were checked out entirely, and in all 3 shifting forms. Lyrasul was done long before her, having spent far less time in the past, leaving Kendraha to spend hours more going through all manner of deep physical and psychological tests that mostly she knew, and some new ones she didn't know. After most of the day doing such testing, they let her go, telling her to get something light for her stomach, and come in for more testing first thing in the morning.
Something light meant regular food, not a human meal, which she wasn't near due for anyway. Kendraha went to the academy cafeteria just outside the restricted time core section of the building, and had a wonderful hot chicken sandwich with fried potatoes and a raspberry soft drink, followed by a mint. After eating she knew that probably it would be best to report to Steviki's office, but she felt happy and devilish. She almost decided against going today, but disposed of the remains of her light Humalli meal, and went to Steviki's as ordered.
Passing down the colorfully decorated halls with the no slip floor and gentle lighting, Kendraha found herself standing outside Steviki's office door. Steviki was imposing, he couldn't shift any more than Lyrasul, but he was near 9000 years old, and mentally one of the most powerful Humalli on the planet. He was capable of smashing through Kendraha's defenses, and even though he wouldn't do so, it was still a disturbing thought. Kendraha sensed nothing in the room, Steviki had trained himself to put out a gentle blocking field without conscious thought, which he could tone down or strengthen almost at will. If anyone probed him or around him, he new it instantly and could take action. Kendraha wondered if someone could hypnotize him, then shook her head realizing that he was probably prepared for that too.
In the outer office of the Chief of Temporal Activity Kendraha was met by a young blonde Humalli, who buzzed Steviki and ushered her directly in to see him. Steviki had Kendraha sit and was pleased to see her again, insisting that she take her time writing her report. He planned to start with the journals she had brought back, and wanted her to think of other things not included in them, or corrections and clarifications. He told her that she should feel free to take her time as long as she didn't delay too much, and over the weeks and months to come questions would occasionally be given to her. Then he began pointing out the errors and flaws that the time core was not pleased with. Starting a religion, organizing the Amazons, and other major interferences in the history of the other time line. Then he began bringing up Kato, pointing out all the arguments she had expected, and ultimately slapping her on the wrists for it, and informing her that he would be kept in quarantine until the doctor's established that he wouldn't reproduce, or failing that sterilized him.
Steviki then surprised Kendraha by escorting her out of the office and down the hall. Others new a powerful Humalli was passing when they felt his gentle mental blocking field envelope them. However even though Kendraha could not read them while inside the field, she could easily see mixed emotions on their faces at seeing the great Steviki outside his office, and with a significantly less mentally powerful Humalli. "Of course they shouldn't be surprised." Kendraha thought. "Steviki loves the younger Humalli females." Then she gave him a quick and covert glance, reminding herself that with his blocking field up he couldn't read her thoughts either.
When they finally came to a halt, it was in front of the gymnasium, "Does he want to work out or something, maybe loosen me up while asking difficult questions." Kendraha questioned herself. He opened the door and waved her in, she couldn't sense anything through Steviki's block, and couldn't see into the darkened room. She reached inside and flipped on the light, "Surprise!!!" a room full of Humalli cried, as streamers went off and balloons fell. A banner on the wall above a buffet table said "Welcome Home!", and she saw many recognizable faces here including Lyrasul, Maxinto, Arturokan, most of her friends and many she hardly knew. Kendraha turned to Steviki who was reducing his blocking field to a more polite level that wouldn't interfere with others, "You blocked me on purpose!" she accused. He smiled, his grey eyes twinkling and his greying hair getting a slight yellow tinge to it, "Guilty, but it was in a good cause. You would have spoiled your own surprise if I hadn't."
The party went on late into the night, with music from a mixed group of Humalli and human players, and a huge amount of food and drink provided, served by humans in red and white uniforms. Kendraha was made the center of most of things, and she met 3 others who had been stranded and retrieved like her, and they had also been the center of similar surprise parties thrown for them at the time they were brought back. Mostly for the party Humalli stayed in human form, that form was always superior for mobility, and the only one for dancing. However Humalli musicians often found the hunter form more suited to them once they had reached the dais, or wherever they set up their instruments. Shifting without knocking over instruments already prepared was part of the art, or so they claimed, and they had to maintain immobility in their tails while performing. So Humalli musicians who chose hunter form tended to require more space, which generally meant larger areas for the group to perform in. Fortunately only about half Humalli musicians preferred the hunter form while playing, the rest insisting the human form was better for performing music.
Human servants refilled the food trays and drink dispensers all night, cleaning, organizing, and filling special needs as required. Many small groups of 2, 3, or even 4 or 5 Humalli, left the party for a time to find privacy where they could be intimate. Kendraha found herself participating in this activity herself, the first time actually turning down an offer to be a 5th, when a strange feeling of withdrawal swept her. It had been a long time for her not counting Lyrasul, and Kendraha found herself uncertain and nervous. Later though with some more partying and drink in her, she did accept the invitation of a male, then shortly afterward a male and female. By the end of the party she had joined several such groups in nearby rooms, including an orgy of 15 Humalli and 5 humans. The 3 human females and 2 males participated in a daze, the many Humalli minds in various states of ecstasy flooding them until they were lost in the experience. Humalli participated in all 3 forms, human limbs and serpent coils of all colors and patterns entwined together, faces in sensual ecstasy and the pain of constriction, serpent tongues flicking everywhere. They all drank in the emotions of everyone around them, while physically experiencing their own form of daze from the mental confusion that swamped them all. At the end everyone slept in a large huddle until morning, when it was discovered that 2 humans had been devoured. Also, a male Humalli in human form had been constricted to death and swallowed, but which of the 3 Humalli who had eaten had done that wasn't clear yet. It concerned Kendraha a bit, she hadn't devoured anybody here, and it did sometimes happen in such large groups when it was easy to become too lost in emotions. However, she tried to forget it, this was just part of the risks you took, and why so many Humalli wouldn't join in sexual groups larger than 5. It was strange for such a safety conscious race to take chances like this one, but most Humalli didn't, and she couldn't think of what had possessed her to join in this time.
The next day Kendraha woke in a room she had been assigned in the Academy building until she was finished with her medical checks and debriefings. After returning her tail to legs, and following a usual morning routine, she put on Humalli clothes. Someone had sent her some garments patterned on her old clothes, which had grown too old in storage, and Kendraha chose a green top and matching near knee length skirt which gave her a bare midsection, and tan shoes which looked much like the slip on moccasin style of the other Earth. Then she decided to increase her bodies bust and hip size slightly, adjusting the clothes to fit, and gave herself a nice tan. Kendraha lengthened her jet black hair to reach below her shoulder blades, and made her eyes deep blue after removing the bloodshot look from last night.
Once ready to begin her day, she first had to briefly talk with security about the party, but after things were settled regarding the authorities and the accidental devouring, Kendraha was off to see the doctors again. They weren't pleased with the excesses she had put her body through, and after a brief lecture, they proceeded with more medical testing, making allowances for her ragged condition, including giving her a bucket when she needed to vomit. After lunch she was supposed to return for more testing, but upon recovering a bit and talking to Maxinto over some coffee, she decided to take the rest of the day off and see a little of the world she had left so long ago.
Maxinto escorted her out of the main doors after offering to answer questions for her. Kendraha liked him somewhat, he was about twice her age and a bit overweight, which because he shifted it away his weight was only noticeable when you tried to physically move him. Other than that, his chosen shape made him quite dashing, with dark hair and mustache. Kendraha looked at the Humalli as they passed on the street. They all looked good, and were in all the various races and such. She knew that the human appearing half of all Humalli normally looked rather uniformly light greenish at hatching, if they were born in hunter form rather than feeding form, with brown hair and eyes, resembling Europeans more than anything else. Later in life they would choose a relatively permanent shape, all Humalli could change skin color, and other choices were limited only by how far they could change. So everywhere you went you found Humalli imitating almost every race. Humans tended to be regional in appearance, mainly because it was easier to import human servants from nearby human farms, or from personal breeding of them.
Between 40 and 80 the mental abilities and shifting abilities of young Humalli would normally begin to show themselves. Up until then the still dependent Humalli would be cared for by it's parents, who would raise it by bringing live food, and helping them to feed if necessary. While they were too small to kill, the parents would do so for the young Humalli, often letting it kill smaller animals such as mice and birds as soon as they could, which were acceptable food for youngsters, the need for feeding on human emotions would not be there until the mental powers of the Humalli appeared. That complication to feeding would not be a consideration until the young Humalli had developed it's mind enough, and as for size of prey to be swallowed, the young one would practice on small things until capable of devouring at least small humans.
These days forty to eighty years seemed extremely long to Kendraha, humans could live their whole lives in that time. She tried to describe all this to Maxinto, who had enough trouble understanding how any intelligent race could have such a short life span. "I remember my childhood." Maxinto said jovially. "I was only a 2 foot long hatchling from my egg. Mother took pictures of me, born in hunter form like most Humalli, I have a sister who was born in serpent form though. Anyway, I was 50 years old and about 12 feet long before I could mentally call my own prey without help, and almost 60 before I could shift. My sister was some sort of child prodigy, commanded food at 35, and shifted out of feeding form to hunter form at 45." He turned to Kendraha, "What about you?" Kendraha blushed, "I was born in hunter form, mentally called my first food at 32, and shifted at age 17." "Age 17!?" cried Maxinto "That's amazing! I mean I've heard of that sort of thing before, but I've never met anyone like that. No wonder you can shift so well!"
Maxinto had no idea where they were going, he just followed Kendraha, answering her questions and occasionally asking his own. They reached the park area, where lots of Humalli children were playing. At age 20 Humalli children looked like humans of age 6, with tails generally 4 or 5 feet long in hunter form, or if in serpent form they ranged about 7 to 9 feet normally. Hunter form children played catch in a ring, or a game where someone tossed a ball as far as they could towards a goal, then everyone slithered after it. Serpent form Humalli had their own games usually involving swimming, and sometimes the 2 forms had games they played together, such as the same ball tossing game done in water, where no hands were allowed. Serpent form Humalli children though often preferred the solo games involving stalking birds for fun, or just climbing the branches of a tree, or even sometimes dropping down on an unsuspecting friend. Communication was difficult and short range for them, even from their hatching they could mentally talk a little. Humalli adults in human form as well as trusted human servants were always around in the park, but sometimes accidents happened, usually resulting in someone crying or having hurt feelings. However more than one accidental death had occurred among Humalli children left to play without sufficient supervision. After walking slowly through the park, once back on the streets Kendraha hailed a cab, which she gave directions to.
Kendraha examined the cab and her surroundings the entire time she was out of the Academy building. It struck her that the city had hardly changed, most buildings had been repaired but were the same, new buildings fit like they were just as old in design. The electric cab was almost identical to those she had known 2000 years ago, there had been some safety and other improvements, but the cab was still a huge, slow, inefficient, but safe vehicle. She hadn't seen any planes yet, Maxinto explaining that flying was still rare, and only done by humans under orders. She saw humans building the metal framework of a 5 story high rise, the Humalli had nothing like the skyscrapers she had left. It all struck her suddenly as being a bit too safe, and maybe Humalli ought to take a few more chances. Kendraha wondered if perhaps risk taking, or lack of it, had something to do with the slow pace of Humalli technological growth. She couldn't help thinking that in 2000 years humans on the other Earth time line she had just come from had advance from horses and chariots to computers and spaceships, all in the same length of time where the Humalli had made very little change. She wondered if that human time traveler Jessin Criss and his people have it right, cooperation between humans and Humalli was the way to go. "If so, how do you cooperate with animals instead of feeding on them, but of course I've done a lot more than cooperate over the last 2000 years," she thought and laughed at herself, drawing odd looks briefly from Maxinto.
After the cab and short subway ride to the outskirts of the city, they took another cab to a large home. Maxinto expressed appreciation for the large house's design including the well cared for grounds, and asked who lived there. "It's home." Kendraha said wistfully. "I grew up here, and I checked and mother still lives here." They passed through the gate, up a long walk, and passed through a yard with some open area and lots of well spaced trees. Ringing the bell a human came to the door hole. She talked for a while with the human, but he had been instructed that Kendraha was dead, and while the Mistress of the house was feeding he was to let nobody in except the authorities. Kendraha didn't like manipulating her mother's servants against there orders, but she touched his mind, found the way past the simplistic precautions her mother used to keep others from doing exactly what she was doing now, and had him open the door for them. Why her mother still wouldn't use a closed circuit teleview system to keep this sort of thing from happening was beyond her, except that her mother Tyraha was too trusting and old fashioned.
Kendraha had the servant go about his duties after strengthening her mother's mental work a bit, and asked Maxinto to wait in the parlor room. She then went to the feeding room the servant had indicated, hoping her mother hadn't swallowed her meal and gone to sleep already. Finding the door unlocked, Kendraha again decided her mother was too trusting, not worrying that a servant might slip their conditioning, and try to kill her during her sleep. Such danger was extremely unlikely, even less that they'd be clear headed enough and think to try rather than running away, but Kendraha preferred caution while helplessly sleeping.
She slowly opened the door to the feeding room. Inside a naked man, short but muscular with dark hair, was wrapped in several yellow and black coils formed by Tyraha's 22 foot long serpent tail. He kicked and gasped as he frantically clawed the floor, then tried to reach the human part of the Humalli that was crushing him. Kendraha saw her mother from the lower ribs up, she still looked good for her age. The head and upper body looked like that of a 45 year old human female, yet very well cared for. Her mother's eyes were shut as she drank in the human's emotions, and Kendraha fed a little herself as the man gasped for air, the coils growing tighter with every exhale, and his struggling growing weaker.
He was almost motionless, with his eyes wide and limbs barely moving. Kendraha saw her mother lick her lips, a habit Tyraha had always possessed to her daughter's knowledge. Kendraha couldn't help giggling slightly, which made her mother's eyes fly open and stare at her with an angry look. Kendraha didn't have time to realize that her mother was angry because someone she didn't know had broken into her home, and was feeding on the emotions of her meal. Kendraha felt a mental touch brush her mind in the way Humalli identified each other in shifted forms, and her mother's eye's widened. "Baby!!!" her mother screamed as coils quickly unwound from the human, leaving him greedily sucking in air as he lay prone on the floor, while Tyraha shifted to legs.
After the 2 women hugged for a while, Tyraha went to a small pile of clothing in one corner to get dressed. She wore more conservative clothing like most older Humalli, in this case a light blue top with short sleeves nearly to her elbows, and a matching skirt which reached just below her knees. There were many red, yellow, and orange designs, and she wore a gold chain necklace with a small ruby in it. Kendraha noted that her mother still looked very well for her age, even without her own form of large scale shifting. Her mother had undoubtedly shifted away wrinkles and such, but she didn't look 8000 years old. Kendraha had seen some greying hairs before this last mission, but her mother had decided to take care of that apparently. She could have made the grey hairs match her younger color again, but instead had apparently chosen to make all her hair a dull silver to match the greying hairs, just as Steviki and about half the older Humalli did. Before her mother was finished dressing, Kendraha went over to the panting man now laying on his back. He shied away from her but Kendraha's mental grip paralyzed him, as she made sure he would dress, return to his quarters, and be unconcerned that he had almost become food. "I could have done that dear." said Tyraha. "My treat, your tired, and you haven't had a full meal yet." Kendraha replied. "I've just sent him to his room, that will hold him until you either deal with him, or resume your feeding later."
In the parlor Maxinto was introduced, and he stayed long enough to be polite, talking about generalities of the time equipment, and what he knew of the mission to locate Kendraha on her Earth and retrieve her. After that he excused himself so that they could talk, "You both have a lot to catch up on." Mother and daughter nodded, and a servant arrived to Tyraha's unspoken call. The servant saw him out, and Kendraha frowned slightly, "Mother, did I see an egg in the corner of your feeding chamber?!" Tyraha blushed slightly, "Yes dear." Kendraha shook her head in frustration, "At your age mother, what is this, 5 or 6 hatchlings now?!" "Five." Tyraha replied. "Besides 2 died, and I thought you were dead. Our land can support 3 hatchlings now that your back." Kendraha sighed, "Okay mother, but you better not die for 50 or so years, I don't want to raise your hatchling without a mother." "I'll consider it." replied Tyraha with a show of having been wounded, then they hugged again.
--------------------------------
28. Kendraha had several minutes earlier entered the office of a clearly enraged Steviki, and now was before his desk, still waiting to be asked to sit. "It wasn't bad enough that you sneak off to see your mother 3 weeks ago, and have been promiscuous with 1 to 4 Humalli at least once a day, sometimes twice." he growled. "I suppose your making up for lost time, however your still technically under lock down until we finish all the paperwork, and the remaining medical tests! Your forcing me to be hard on you about this, so this is how it will be!" Steviki hesitated as if considering his words or waiting for a challenge, "For the remainder of your lock down time, your not to leave Academy grounds without my permission, nor stress yourself physically as much as you have until you are given the medical okay, or I'll lock you up and lose the key." He paced a little, "I was a nice guy, let you have a little freedom rather than shut you up for 2 or 3 months which this unusual level of mission review requires, and what do you do but abuse the privilege, make yourself hard to find, and physically wear yourself out." "More medical tests?!" Kendraha whined. Steviki stood with hands on his desk, "Yes, they want to compare your results now with results when you first returned. It's not just for you, but for those others who have spent so much time in other time lines!" Kendraha nodded reluctantly, "Okay, whatever." Steviki raised a finger, and Kendraha felt his mind forcing her to sit down. She gasped, she hadn't thought he was so angry as to make a show of strength.
Kendraha's cheeks paled briefly, then she took on a military tone in her voice, "Yes sir, stay here, stop wearing out everybody. Is that about all sir?" Steviki hesitated, then sat down in his chair grinning slightly as he let out a breath, "Well wear them out a little, it'll keep them out of what's left of my hair." Kendraha sensed that the mood had changed somewhat, "Sir, something's bothering you, I mean besides me. What is it sir, can I help?" Steviki sighed and sat back in his chair, "I'm sorry Kendi, I did fall on you a bit hard didn't I?" Kendraha gave a small smile, "Nothing my old bones can't handle." Steviki laughed and she asked again. "My mate died yesterday.", he said after a moment, then the story spilled out. Generally their were few secrets held in Humalli telepathic society, but knowledge didn't circulate extremely quickly, and a Humalli might keep some secrets within a circle of family and close friends for a long time. Well guarded secrets or secrets of powerful Humalli like Steviki might go unknown to anyone else forever, so Kendraha was pleased that he told her, and put her best mental shielding around the knowledge to try and keep his secret for him.
"I might as well tell you the rest." Steviki said in a resigned tone. "There's some sort of new disease spreading around. We can't find the cause or how it transmits, although at this point we doubt it's airborne." Kendraha frowned, "Tell me about it, I did do some nursing work with the humans, and found it interesting." He pushed some computer keys, and pointed to the monitor, which showed a globe which she could rotate with keyboard controls. On it were yellow areas where outbreaks had occurred, each giving relevant information when queried by touching them with a small wand. Steviki took another breath, "This isn't to scale, each yellow dot may represent just 1 or 2 cases in a small area, use the wand and keys for details. This map is updated every minute, and new information arrives constantly. Worldwide we have about 1100 Humalli infected, and over 60 dead." "Are the humans getting it?" Kendraha asked. "No." he answered with a shrug. "Not one human. We believe it takes at least 4 days for symptoms to show, we suspect a week or more. After that it's only a few days until the Humalli is incapacitated, then a couple of more days and they're dead." Kendraha looked at the pock marked globe, "Quarantine zones?" "Tried that." he replied. "Still trying that, but the zones keep getting bigger, which suggests a longer incubation period." "Or a transmitter vector you haven't allowed for yet." she amended. "It could be transmitted by direct or indirect touch if your sure it's not airborne, or perhaps something in the environment your doing these days." Steviki smiled, "You've learned a lot in your time among the animals. I'm sure the medical people have thought of most of that, however feel free to go talk to them. See what their up to, and maybe you've got a knew angle to suggest." Kendraha smirked, "But don't wear myself out right." Steviki couldn't help grinning, "Yes, and don't distract the doctors too much either."
Kendraha did hang around the doctors a lot as they did their experiments on samples of blood and such, all done in the safest possible surroundings. She couldn't help thinking that the precautions were extreme, but for this level of danger she had seen the humans on the other Earth do likewise. The doctors tended to mentally talk a lot, just as often mixing it with speaking out loud, and Kendraha did her best to listen in. Even spoken words triggered the brain hearing them, so she basically could sit in the observation area, look down on the Humalli scientists in human form, and with her mind hear everything that was going on. The scientists were in full body covering isolation suits, and apparently there were a few humans not in suits assisting. The humans were under tight mental control, and they were part of the detection system to see if anything got loose in the lab. They also were basic assistants, doing minor jobs at Humalli direction, and as usual would be destroyed when no longer needed for this research, or along with everything else if there was a breach of laboratory containment. To her knowledge this was the only lab working on the epidemic problem at this level, to decrease risk of accidental release, and it would be completely sterilized with all specimens destroyed when complete. Kendraha wondered if one lab was going to be enough to work at the problem fast enough.
Weeks later the disease had continued to spread and kill Humalli. Kendraha had been around to other areas of the Academy building, but no farther as it was being totally isolated from outside contact these days. She talked with Academy security, learned of the spread of the disease, and heard about Humalli beginning to panic. Such Humalli would already have obtained or would soon make a place of refuge, sometimes what humans on the other Earth had called bomb shelters. They would pack themselves away in small groups, with humans and other food supplies in sufficient amounts to outlast the epidemic, in hopes that with Humalli out of it's reach it would burn out. Even sea Humalli began to come down with the disease, their chosen refuge was to force themselves to swim far out to sea to various islands, with a boatload of humans and other supplies. A few dozen very brave ones took over some of the undersea colonies, planning to stay there where no disease had gone yet. These colonies were normally staffed by humans only, monitored and controlled from a distance by Humalli, and not designed with Humalli feeding needs in mind. Kendraha thought the constant fear of the underwater environment and pressure would make them go mad, or they would lose their grips on the humans and find themselves killed. Boats were used in a similar fashion, and Kendraha expected they would have similar results. Their were few Humalli space stations, and no space habitats on other worlds. All the Humalli had were several small satellite monitoring stations with human crews, and they were totally unsuitable for the needs of Humalli refugees.
Kendraha and the doctors were amazed at the fact that this new disease seemed to love the Humalli body chemistry, yet leave the humans untouched. Even on this Earth where diseases had evolved to take advantage of their shifting traits and odd body chemistry, Humalli had always been much safer than humans, and what diseases they did catch here amounted to little more than a bad cold. Kendraha finally forced herself to put on one of the isolation suits that was similar to a spacesuit, and enter the lab to get a close look at a victim they were dissecting. She hadn't seen a victim of the epidemic close up yet, and the urge to do so now was driven partly from being locked down all this time on Academy grounds, and partly it was a morbid curiosity.
According to reports the Humalli male had transformed into all 3 forms over a 4 day period in an attempt to throw off the disease. It had slowed it's progress while he was in hunter and feeding forms, but it had continued regardlessly, and he had then shifted to hunter form just before death. The body was then retrieved by police using human labor, quickly isolated in a large size containment bag, then the house and all the humans in question were burned. Kendraha looked at the dead Humalli who was reported to be about 4000 years old. "A life cut short." she said as she fingered his long blonde hair with her gloved hand. Then Kendraha looked to his face, the black sores all over it, spreading down his chest and serpentine tail in black pustules which sometimes clumped into larger masses, and sometimes leaked if touched with an instrument. Kendraha stared a long time at the body as the doctors worked, then giggled a few times, and finally she began laughing hysterically. Two of the scientists left their experiments to try and calm her down while escorting her from the room. They tried to contact her mind, and shielded themselves in case she spontaneously released a defensive burst of mental energy. When Kendraha was gone they went back to work, but continued to wonder why Kendraha had gotten so hysterical.
In the days that followed, somehow the first outbreak of the disease appeared in the Academy building, taking the form of a few small black sores on a young female Humalli. The Humalli was quickly isolated by humans under mental direction by putting her in an isolation suit, after which the immediate area and all around was sterilized, and the humans killed and removed by suited Humalli. The sick Humalli was locked in a secure quarantine area where she could remove her suit. Then she was cared for by suited figures as she shifted and tried to shake the disease. New treatments were tried, but the female Humalli grew sicker until eventually she died, covered in black sores as those outside the Academy had. The scientists merely took her body away for further study of the disease.
During this time several others grew ill also, and a large isolation room was maintained for them. Fortunately for the Academy, as the disease grew the Humalli mental abilities weakened, or else there might have been serious problems when the ill Humalli grew delirious in the final stages. After about 6 days from the detection of the first Academy victim, 3 in total had died, and 5 others were isolated in the large isolation room, food and supplies sent to them through dumb waiters, the occasional contact they had being humans condemned to isolation as well so that they could take care of the infected Humalli. When they were up to 11 isolated Humalli and 5 bodies, they were trying to decide where else to put the infected and newly dead, when the science group reported a breakthrough of sorts. They had identified the pathogen, and proven it was not airborne, nor could it be transferred by casual contact. They still weren't sure how the disease was spreading, but they knew enough to tell them blood could transfer it. Therefore, Humalli need not fear contamination, unless they were to get contaminated blood mixed with their own.
This revelation allowed for the partial opening of the isolation areas. Humans and Humalli could go in and out freely in suits, but humans would be killed if contaminated, and Humalli isolated elsewhere until blood tests proved them clean. Kendraha felt the urge to help the isolated patients during this period, and spent more time with them than any other Humalli. One day while working with them, Kendraha was changing bandages on one Humalli when she felt a strong mind behind her, and she was shocked to see Steviki, without a suit, and with a large black sore on his forehead. She cared for him just as the others, if not a little better since he was highly honored for his mental power. Kendraha almost cried feeling that power slowly die, it reminded her so much of caring for the humans who had died while she had nursed them at various points while stranded. Humalli medical science was ahead of anything the humans had shown her on the other Earth, but it wasn't good enough here yet to save the victims of this epidemic.
Steviki was nearly dead, and the isolation areas full to capacity, when a Humalli with a sudden burst of delirium and energy knocked her over. He was weak, but he managed to break open the seals of her suit, and in the excitement others also fought. By the time Kendraha got everything under control again, there was blood everywhere, and several more dead Humalli. Having broken the seals on her suit was enough to put her into isolation, but the mirror showed open wounds on her forehead, and contaminated blood had clearly gotten into her. Steviki tried to console her, but however she tried Kendraha couldn't make herself feel better.
The next day Steviki died, and the day after that others died around her. Kendraha sat among the sick in the remains of her isolation suit, caring for them and no longer afraid to touch them. Bad news came indicating that the disease had at least a 2 day incubation period before symptoms first manifested, which explained to the scientist's satisfaction why quarantine zones had failed. Worse news for her came when she heard that her mother had caught the disease, and was quarantined in her home. Kendraha saw some others she knew arrive, but none she knew too well.
The scientists started poking her with needles after 5 days with no sign of the disease in her, 2 days after that she went into isolation, and after 2 more days they let her go back upstairs. They confirmed that she was clean, and it took some days for others to fully accept the fact. The scientists had her in their labs so much she felt like a lab rat, or a pin cushion. After a few days of that they confirmed that her blood was exceedingly resistant, due to the fact that she had developed immunity. The theory was finally developed after questioning her and consulting records, that the disease was a mutated form of the black plague. Kendraha had caught it back on the old alternate Earth, and after surviving it and becoming immune, it had lived on inside her. The plague in her body had been forced to evolve in order to continue to exist in her different body chemistry, and differing forms as she shifted. So the mutated disease now could no longer effect humans, nor her due to her immunity, but other Humalli could be affected. They concluded also that the mutated disease due to this evolution was far more deadly than the original, explaining why shifting did not expel it as it had with her. Kendraha went into a complete uncontrolled rage at this, knocking down several scientists, and having to be forcibly restrained while they shot her with something to knock her out.
Kendraha took over Steviki's old office, and brought Kato out of his quarantine area, making a small bed for him in her room. Nobody minded as they had other things to do, and so many had died in recent weeks. She knew enough medicine to ask herself how the epidemic, now called the Black Plague H, had been transmitted in the first place. Lyrasul had never caught it on the old Earth, and there had been plenty of time. Likewise Lyrasul hadn't to this day caught the disease, so what was the method of transmission, besides blood getting inside open wounds. Kendraha briefly had a memory of Vlad, and how he tortured his enemies and drank their blood mixed with wine. She talked to a scientist, they were always willing to listen to her ideas, even if they were a bit short with her sometimes. They considered the possibility, examined tissue samples, and confirmed that a Humalli devouring another could do it, but no Humalli had been devoured. He quickly amended for 3 known accidents he was aware of in the past few months, but pointed out that it couldn't count for this degree of spreading. Then she asked them to start checking humans.
Kendraha read the report, humans didn't catch the Black Plague H, but they could carry it. A human would catch it from an infected Humalli or other infected human through sexual contact, then when a healthy Humalli would devour the physical form of the human, they would get the disease. Humalli could also get the plague from blood into open sores, or sometimes through sexual contact where blood was shared. The last was limited, and only occurred in a small number of cases, the blood into wounds transfer also small but a bit higher, and devouring an infected food source was a guarantee of infection. The first 2 methods of transmission applied to humans catching it also, and because they were often found having sex, even with the low provability of infection, the disease had spread around the world easily and quickly.
Kendraha couldn't help snorting slightly as she sat behind Steviki's desk, reading the report that she had gotten a copy of. She gently stroked the greenish gold scales of Kato who was curled up and occupied nearly half the desk, "It's like one of those sexually transmitted diseases of the blood back on the other Earth. Instead of using fleas as a vector like the original Black Plague, it's using humans to spread.' She sighed and Kato's head briefly rose, his forked tongue flicking in and out before he relaxed again. Kendraha sat back, "We have to feed on humans, their vital to Humalli survival, yet their fast becoming poison to us. The scientists say that it's getting weaker with each transmission to another human, and with no Humalli around it will be eliminated from the human system in a few hundred years or so, but that doesn't do the Humalli much good old scaly friend." Kendraha sighed, "I'll be fine apparently because the original made me immune, I'm a carrier like Typhoid Mary, and your tests say you'll be fine also. So I guess we have work to do to help stop this plague."
Weeks went by and more Humalli died everywhere. Kendraha watched the progress of the yellow dots on Steviki's globe, slowly spreading until now all but a few islands and the cold polar regions of the land were yellow. Some sea colonies had developed the disease, leaving the humans there without guidance, other humans had rebelled against the Humalli, then not known what to do next. The story was the same on islands and ships, except for a few that seemed to be surviving so far without having brought the disease with them. What few Humalli which still lived at the Academy had ultimately split, half including Lyrasul heading for the hills, the other half continuing to work. Kendraha counted about a dozen left including herself, only 2 being scientists, the rest helping where they could.
Before the split of Academy personnel, the scientists had tried to make a cure from Kendraha's blood, but it had met with fatal results for several previously healthy Humalli and humans, and it had no effect at all on already infected subjects. After the split, when the last Humalli scientist at the Academy became infected, the remaining few Humalli packed up and left, all taking testing gear in order to sample human food before eating. Kendraha stayed until the last of the patients had died, spending her free time storing items for long term preservation in a huge walk-in vault. The day after the last patient died, Kendraha walked from the building, Kato across her shoulders and once around her body, some streaks of grey showing in her long jet black hair.
Kendraha stood in the middle of the street, looking back at the Academy building which was now blossoming into flames from the fire that she had set. The Time Core section went first, Kendraha knowing the vault would be fine for some future civilization to discover. The entire Academy building began to burn while she watched, Kendraha didn't even notice the humans of various ages and racial groups gathering around her until one touched her shoulder. "What now Mistress?" said the young, gaunt, and dirty human female. Kendraha looked at the haggard woman, examining her up and down, her human clothes were torn and she clearly had barely survived for some time without Humalli guidance. The men and women also surrounding her were in a similar shape, but all had survived, and still wished to serve a Humalli who's mind had unconsciously attracted them, but had not yet done anything to control their potential vengeance on her. Kendraha tried to smile, "I don't know what comes next. I'm alone here I think. There might be other Humalli living in isolation, but they won't survive long enough for the plague to die out." She walked with them all around her, they shied from Kato but wouldn't leave the only authority they had yet found. "The scientists said that some Humalli showed more resistance than others, and maybe some will survive somewhere. I doubt it, but who knows." Kendraha laughed, "Come, we've had enough of that, let's look on the bright side, the plague is over. Now we must find water and get you humans clean. She waved her hand in front of her face, "You people wreak enough to raise the dead!" "There is a river that way about 22 blocks, clean and warm Mistress." the first human female said while pointing. Kendraha rolled her eyes and briefly looked skyward, "And you stupid humans don't have enough initiative to take a bath, you really need my help."
Kendraha clapped her hands and spun for attention, briefly scaring both the humans and Kato, "Okay everyone, it's off to the river! I want everyone to look for clothes shops, places for food, and note other things we might need. If others wish to join us, let them as long as they come in peace and wish to help." She paused, "In a few weeks I may have to devour somebody, if you can't take that you'd better kill me now!" The humans looked at each other, and the first woman Kendraha now thought of as Alpha, who was now some sort of leader by default smiled an bowed her head slightly, "It is your right, you are Humalli." Kendraha smirked at her and the others nodding agreement, "Damn your well trained, I didn't even have to force that out of you. But it's partly training and partly shock, I'll have to get to work on all of you before you decide you don't appreciate the idea of having me around anymore."
As the Academy fire raged behind it's walls, they talked for a short time to choose a song for the march, and they began singing as they walked so that other humans might hear and join them. A few did, a few others ran away. They found some places with still useful food, some with clothing, and some they noted for later use. Alpha finally grew brave enough to touch Kato's head and smiled at the serpent's forked tongue. Kendraha vowed to raise these humans right, and let them become more than just animals. Oh some would never learn, and she still had to eat, but she planned to help them build a better world for them than the one they had lost. Occasional feedings were a small price in her view, the humans might all die without her help. She was only one Humalli, they might simply overwhelm and destroy her someday, but she had lived on the edge like that for so long, she could do it again.
The End
--------------------------------
Epilogue
Humalli civilization had crumbled due to one of the dangers of time travel, unknown pathogens brought back by time travelers. A few Humalli survived with natural immunity, but their numbers were so small that they needed to hide in remote areas, luring and feeding on humans as their ancient ancestors had, keeping their existence secret. There numbers were so small and their reproduction rate so low, that they were in constant danger of extinction from various natural causes, not to mention mobs of fast breeding humans seeking revenge for a killing. As the cities crumbled over two hundred years until virtually nothing remained, small villages and stone or wood walled cities formed. Soldiers mobilized to meet any Humalli menace, and even remote villages managed a spirited defense with traps. Weight had been recognize to be the way to find a Humalli in human form, then a more detailed examination of height and such would prove if the subject really were a Humalli in disguise.
Most of the planet's high technology had been lost in the aftermath of the Plague. Humalli had kept many secrets in order to prevent possible revolt by human workers, thus few humans knew more than their jobs had required. Miners could mine but little else, spare parts were built but few knew how to install them, no new things were built at all as workers once they had realized they were free had burned all the factories. It had only taken a few decades for the last useful machines to grind to a halt, so humans were forced to start from scratch. In one small area of the world development grew quickly from stones and spears, to fire, farming, and other such knowledge, along with warfare strategies and tactics, and the ability to defend themselves as no other group could. They built a huge walled city next to a river across from an old Humalli city, and they called their new city Amazonee.
The soldiers of Amazonee soon were not satisfied with defense, and they sent out armies to conquer neighboring lands. The male warriors did most of the offensive fighting at these times, with female warriors usually holding the places they captured, defending their flanks, and occasionally making peace. The Amazon women were no less feared than the men, and sometimes feared more, however the specter of a woman as a peacemaker, even if she was clad in a soldiers garb, tended to make things run more smoothly at the peace table. The Amazonee did not destroy all who stood in their path, but gladly made peace with all who wished it, and killed all others. Some of their foes had managed their own walls for defense, and these proved to be the most challenging obstacles. However they all fell one way or another, through infiltration by Amazon women in disguise, who would open the gates once inside, or by siege or long range catapults. With the mastery of horses they could run down any enemy on foot, with trained falcons they could learn basic information on enemy movements, depending on how well the Amazonee and the falcon got along. Only 300 years after the disappearance of the old order, the Amazonee ruled most of the countries known in the archives as Africa, Asia, and Europe. At this point the powers that be chose to consolidate more. Surviving cities paid taxes to the Amazonee Empire and went largely unmolested. Places that had been crushed were rebuilt if necessary and occupied by others who paid taxes. There came to be many Amazonee armies around the empire, with soldiers from local areas serving in them, and being paid reasonably for doing so.
A new expansion began 100 years later in 400AP, slower this time, and meeting somewhat more resistance,. By 600AP the empire controlled all land not separated by seas, except some mountainous regions, heavily forested regions, and cold regions to the far North. Plans were made to later cross the water to other lands, and eventually penetrate the jungles and other difficult to reach places, but the empire returned to a quiet consolidation period again while wooden ships were being developed that could make the sea journey safely.
A carrier pigeon flew towards the huge capitol city of Amazonee, a sharp eyed scout seeing it coming and sending a signal. The scout sat in a balloon gondola with several others who played cards while he took his turn watching. The balloon was tethered to the ground as it floated high above the city, and there were 2 systems for sending messages to those below. One was a telegraph which could send dots and dashes to indicate what was seen for miles in any direction, the second was a simple matter of strapping a note to a rock and dropping it to the courtyard below.
The carrier pigeon flew past city walls, ignored by well trained falcons resting on perches or soaring above the city. It flew past Amazon men marching a criminal to an execution, which in this case would be to have him crushed under stones, one of the slower forms of execution they had. Some criminals would be lucky, or unlucky as the case may be, and be granted an audience with the Empress herself, who would consult with the goddess to decide innocence or guilt. If innocent or repentant enough they might be released, otherwise they would face the Sorceress who helped the Empress speak to the Goddess. No person judged guilty by her had ever returned from the chambers of the Sorceress, and no one entered without invitation, not servants nor even the Empress herself. Many often thought that the Sorceress somehow tricked the Empress, but occasionally others were allowed to hear the words of the Goddess themselves, and doubters were very few in the capitol city.
The pigeon flew past the separate training areas for beginner and advanced Amazons, both currently being used. One was used by young men and women just beginning, being taught by several experienced male and female Amazons. Most of these would become soldiers, but those who did well would get advanced lessons in the other training area, and would become part of a city guard, possibly for the capitol city, and the very best females would be chosen for personal guards to the Empress and the Sorceress. Some guards took honored positions as personal guards to former rulers when an Empress retired, the new Empress or sometimes Emperor being selected from a small number of prepared individuals from the upper class. The current Empress was Jontara the 3rd, a tall but slender woman with long dark hair. No one quite knew how many Sorceresses their had been, nor how they were selected. They only knew that occasionally one Sorceress announced that she would soon leave and be replaced, and one day their would be a new Sorceress, possessing all the same ability and going unquestioned, and no one ever knowing what happened to the previous one.
The pigeon came through a window and landed on a perch set on top of a small cobra statue, where a man recovered the bird, placed it in a cage, and read the note it had carried strapped to it's leg. He then went in to see the Empress, after being announced by one of the female Amazon guards at the door. Empress Jontara read the note and excused the man. In a nearby room she found the Sorceress, a beautiful woman with long golden hair, currently standing at an open window in the stone wall. The Sorceress didn't even turn to face the Empress, "I see good news in your mind Empress, a caravan is coming from the West, correct." "Yes." replied the Empress who was no longer amazed by anything around the Sorceress. "They passed through the city of Clouds, and they decided to inform us. The travelers come for trade, and have many fine products to offer. Clouds has sent an escort with them to provide protection against mountain bandits, and requests that we send Amazonee to relieve them. I wished to ask your opinion Kentel."
Kentel whirled, "Come now, I know your the new Empress around here, but you hardly need me to decide such a simple thing." She waited then sighed, "Very well, the signs are good, but danger lurks. I advise you send assistance to relieve the escort from Clouds in escorting the caravan here." The Empress thanked her, and left the room to do as advised. Kendraha turned back to the window, and touching the mind of a falcon, she coaxed it into abruptly leaving it's master. Everyone looked to see what had caused this abnormal behavior, and saw the falcon resting on the bare forearm of the Sorceress in a second story window of the palace. After a few moments they all saw it leave and return to it's master, and Kendraha left the window. She liked to show off from time to time to keep up her reputation, that plus occasionally giving someone a vision, or helping people talk directly to the Goddess, and other simple tricks such as shifting away the claw marks she now had in her arm, all helped to keep people amazed at her power. This in turn kept the awe and respect of the current ruler, and kept the system working with no signs of revolt anywhere. Kendraha sometimes walked among the people as herself or in disguise, and would rarely find people with treacherous thoughts, but if she did then she would discretely deal with them. Kendraha wasn't crazy about the falcon trick though, it was always painful like some others, and required her to shut off the pain receptors in her arm temporarily, but it was amazing to the people and further proved her own power, and that was the main thing.
Kendraha entered her private area and barred the door behind her. Through some curtains she came to a fully carpeted room, where a young woman gasped and weakly struggled in the huge golden coils of a now 30 foot long serpent. Kendraha smiled, "Ah, thank you Kato for waiting to finish your meal. I would have been here sooner, but I had to deal with a dispute among the palace staff, then the Empress needed my advice." The huge greenish gold head looked at her, and a thought flickered into Kendraha's mind, "Kato save life force for Kendraha. Kato only need flesh." Kato's coils rippled as the naked woman exhaled, the tightening coils around her body stealing more of her breath. The young brown haired woman strained for air, her one loose arm pushing feebly as her feet twitched. Kendraha knelt next to her and stroked Kato, "Looks like she's almost finished, perhaps that will teach others not to steal in the capitol city. However Kato, the next one is mine, I enjoy drinking in the life force of your meals, but I need a bit of flesh occasionally. We should have 1 or 2 in the dungeon I can call to see me, or maybe Clouds, Lakeview, or one of the others can send somebody." "Next one yours." Kato thought in agreement.
As Kato's coils tightened to cut off the woman's breathing entirely, she pleaded with her wide blue eyes as she struggled for any wisp of air. Kendraha saw images of the woman's life in her mind, and felt somewhat sorry for her. It seemed to get harder over time to kill humans, but having to focus on Kato feeding helped somewhat, although he could eat like a normal serpent and not feed on humans at all. Kendraha felt the woman's struggles stop, saw Kato's coils grow tighter, then closed her eyes to drink in the escaping life force as it rose from the dieing body, that one little annoying bit of energy escaping as always. "She's gone, you can eat now." Kendraha said and thought to Kato as she stood and moved away.
As Kato maneuvered his meal and began stretching his mouth to swallow her, Kendraha sighed, "You weren't supposed to grow more than 13 or 14 feet long, and your intelligence level has grown far beyond what was planned. Your supposed to be smart like a dog, not like a low grade moron human, and you weren't supposed to live longer than any other snake from your Earth. I ought to find a time technician just so I can give those genetic wizards a piece of my mind." While in the middle of swallowing his meal, one of Kato's eyes turned to her, "Kato sorry." came the mental reply. Kendraha laughed, "No Kato, don't be sorry, I love you. Your almost like a child to me, I love you just as you are!" Kendraha felt joy from Kato at this, and she went to leave, "I'll let you finish in peace. Remember, don't sleep on the hard part of the floor while you digest. Your going to be a weak digesting and you hate changing positions in the middle of it."
Kendraha left, locking the door behind her with a key, and dropping it into the pocket of her long blue tunic. Telling the palace staff that she was going out, Kendraha put on a cloak and left the palace to mingle. Most recognized her immediately as the Sorceress, and gave her plenty of room while going about there business with this merchant or that. Kendraha would feed on emotions of hostility between humans, sometimes controlling one's movements long enough to cause trouble or confusion which often led to anger to feed on. Today while passing through a residential area she found a man beating his wife, and she managed to grab his mind and escort him to a tavern, where under her control he promptly picked a fight with a huge bad tempered man with a knife. The wife beater died, the Sorceress pardoned the man with the knife because it had been self defense, and she felt that it had been a good days work.
She called a pair of uniformed Amazonee guards, one of each gender seemed to be the best mix for city patrols. Their short capes flapped as the male took the body out, and the female verified the situation, including that the Sorceress was present and witness to an act of self defense. When later Kendraha rode out of the city, she stopped her horse on a hill, and surveyed the grasslands around her. The Mountains and hills to the West, the river and old Humalli city remains to the South, more grassland then forest to the East, and the city of Amazonee to the North with it's stone walls and simple humans. Somewhere out here she knew there were bandits, and somewhere in the world there might be other Humalli, or they might have all died out in this unsafe primitive world that was so different from what they had grown up in. She hadn't died though, and this entire planet was her territory now. One day Kendraha knew that she also would be gone, then it would all be human territory. She would teach them before that day, trying to unite them under one banner, helping this now human world to rebuild itself faster. Although Kendraha knew that she had no great specialty in science, she had a lot of general knowledge to share, plus a good amount of basic medicine and advanced concepts, not just her fighting and warring knowledge. Kendraha sighed, "So Kato and I devour a few humans to survive." she said to the wind. "They get dominion over a huge empire and technical supremacy. It seems like a fair trade to me."
--------------------------------
By Py