I thought you might like it.

It's about a young guy finding himself in trouble.
And the solutions that comes, and where they might take him.

If you do like it tell me :)
If you don't
Ah?

Well, tell me.

(Yeah, I tried to 'clean it up' a little, hopefully making it more readable.)

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=
The girls knew what they missed, and what their Moms missed to, and they had set out to find it. It was Laila, Anna and Therese and they were out hunting the mall.

"How about that one?" said Laila pointing to a man in his late twenties, well built and good looking.

The other girls shook their heads.

"To fat." Said Anna.

"Stupid." Said Therese.

As they walked around, searching for that perfect choice for their moms, something quite different was taking place at the other end of the town. In a small shop a red haired burly man was trying to force himself on a young boy who had fled under a table.

"Come out you little shit. Or I'll give you something real to cry for."

Adam refused, since he had run from the orphanage some months ago he had learnt about this kind of men the hard way. The orphanage they had dumped him in believed in a strict catholic upbringing seeing all nonconforming attitudes as coming from the devil.

And there the rod was seen as the superior instrument for teaching and correcting young men's misbehaviors. After his parents death in the car crash the state had sent him there, in waiting so to speak, for some suitable foster parents.

He had survived their beatings for three months, but as they told him repeatedly. "You're incorrigible." he had little hope for their beatings to end. He wasn't sure if he was incorrigible though. The only thing he was sure about was that he didn't want to get beaten any more.

So he had run away.

He had taken to the streets begging for his bread, and doing so he had lost track of the time too. It was either that or stealing, and after a few days sleeping in culverts, or wherever he could find a shelter, no one in his right mind allowed him into any store anyway. Had he been older or wiser he would have noticed how little people seemed to care for humanity when nobody was there to see them but as it was he just accepted it.

Most of the people that had showed him some compassion he found to have their own ulterior motives. As the man waiting for him now. This time he had been fooled by the promise of food and a place to sleep, but as quickly as the man had opened his little store, as quickly he had locked it behind him, forcing Adam to dive for cover under that table. Usually Adam was to smart to fall for that kind of promise, but hunger can make a fool out of us all.
==

At last the girls gave up on the mall. Pooling their resources they saw that they could afford a bus to the other mall. It was not that far to walk but they felt lazy. It was their favorite occupation, going to the mall and looking on things, window shopping.

Not that their parents was poor, rather the opposite. They were all well off but as the mothers tried their best to instill that workman's ethics in their girls they usually only got their weekly allowance, and not much more.

As they rode the bus they witnessed a small commotion taking place. There was a crowd standing around a shop with a man standing in front of a broken window, in vain trying to keep them off him.

"What was that." Asked Therese.

"Some gang making trouble." Said Anna, doing her best to sound world-wise and sophisticated. The next stop was the mall and as they went in they had already forgotten all about it starting to browse their various favorite shops. They had themselves a really fun time, trying to pick out the most suitable suitors for their moms, while window shopping.

And they were in a good mood as they, being their last task for the day, went into the gift shop to see if they could find something suitable for Laila's mother’s upcoming birthday.

Therese had actually been correct in her assumptions for once. The shop was attacked by a gang, but not because they wanted to steal anything, they were quite satisfied with beating the burly man standing outside the smashed window to smithereens.

They had passed it when a small kid, no older than fifteen had came flying, right through the display window. Running, blood gushing from his wrist, as if hell itself had broke loose behind him. And looking in they had seen the man franticly trying to get his trousers up again. As the implications of what they had seen became clear they had reacted, and for once, some justice was done.

Yeah, I know, decency can come from the most unsuspected corners. And that is as far as we are going to concern ourselves with that unfortunate’s destiny, we have more interesting things to do.
==

Adam was running, where he didn't know. Just as far as he could, nobody that saw him now, bloody, dirty and scared would have believed that he, just some half year ago, had been a normal kid no different from any other kid with parents to care for them. He had also cut himself badly as he jumped through the window.

It's mostly in the movies you will see people do such without harm, and the blood was flowing freely as he ran, pumping out with each step he took. He was quickly becoming dizzy, and looking around he saw a small fenced park with a few tables and chairs.

Running in he found a bush just near the entrance. Curling up into a small ball he tried to get his breath back, holding his right hand tight over his left wrist to stop the flow of blood.

As the girls came out from the gift shop they too went over to the park, they liked sitting there laughing and kidding each other, discussing boys, movies and clothes, and whatever else that took their fancy. As they were quite smart they had long ago realized that to spend their money on fast food was just going to make them fat.

And also that they had better food at home than there. So instead they used to make themselves Cuban sandwiches, you know, a long crusty roll split lengthwise, filled with meats and cheese and tomato, lettuce and condiments. As they sat there eating Anna thought she heard some one crying.

She wasn't sure though, the sound was so quiet, almost as if doing it in sleep. Thinking she had heard wrong she ignored it, until she heard the stomach growl.

"Gross." Said Therese looking accusingly at Laila.

"Hey, it wasn't me." Answered Laila defending herself.

Now both girls looked at Anna instead, but as she had stood up going to the bush immediately she heard the sound, and so confirming her suspicion, she missed their accusing eyes totally.

"Come," she called in a low voice. “but be quiet."

The girls looked confused at each other, finding Anna's behavior quite strange, but as they came they found the same thing as her. A young boy curled up, dusty streaks of tears on his white face, unconscious or sleeping? It was hard to tell, holding a bloodied wrist in his right hand.

"Is he dead?" asked Therese shocked.

Anna shook her head. Turning to the other she said.

"Therese, can you run over and see if you can get us some bandages? And Laila, would you get me my sandwich, and soda too?" Sitting down beside him, as quietly as she could.

As the girls run away she looked at him. ‘He’s so dirty’, she thought as she looked at him, and it also looked as if he had cut himself badly. She wondered what had happened to get him to look like that. As Laila came back with her soda she decided to try to wake him up.

"Hey, how are you?"

He flew up instantly, hands curled up into fists, looking wildly around him as he prepared himself to start running again. Anna smiled at him, still sitting down.

"Here, you can take it." holding out her Cuban sandwich.

As Adam saw it his stomach growled again, and feeling embarrassed that the girls had seen him so scared he said.

"No thanks, I'm not hungry."

With his stomach saying otherwise, even louder.

Anna patted the ground. "Sit down, we're not dangerous."

Looking at them he felt inclined too agree. Two girls in his own age, nicely dressed, smiling sympathetically at him.

"I'm sorry. I had an accident." He tried to excuse himself as he longingly looked at her sandwich. "And you woke me." The last one almost accusingly.

The girls saw how his eyes followed the sandwich instead of them. That wasn't the way boys normally behaved around them. As they realized that he had to be as hungry as his stomach seemed to state, they looked at each other. Anna nodding in silent agreement broke her sandwich in two.

"Come on, share it with me." She said enticingly putting one half on the grass beside her as she started too munch on her own. Hearing her eat was more than Adam could take. Sitting down beside her, he wolfishly started to devour his half.

As Therese saw him she went to the table to get hers too, breaking it as she came back she wordlessly gave him half smiling at him. Adam started to relax. They were nice, not all kids were that cool.

More often than not he heard snide remarks instead, like "Get a bath frogwart." Snickering at him. Sometimes he had wanted to tell them that he would, if he could, but knowing that their next replies then would be even worse, he usually just walked away, not finding it worth the effort.

"Thanks."

He said it a little shyly, his hair falling down his eyes as he more sedately finished his second half. Now Therese was coming back too, with band aid and a bottle of water. As they started to fuss over his wrist he at last allowed himself to be commandeered to be taken care of.

After they had finished plastering him up he felt tired again, staring unseeingly out in space, and the girls who had found small slivers of glass in his wounds were now becoming more worried than ever about him. They moved some way apart starting to whisper with each other as Adam watched them, feeling strangely detached.

Naturally he wanted to live but life had slowly became just to complicated for him, and him running through a shop window somehow seemed to put a stop to it all. As if what dreams he now ever had nurtured, suddenly found them dispersed in a void.

He just hoped that they would go away now and leave him alone so that he could find some place to finish it. He didn't feel desperate anymore. It was more as if this constant tiredness finally was taking its toll. And he missed his parents terribly. They had never accused him of being incorrigible, and they hadn't whipped him with a rod either. Or tried to abuse him? He just wasn't sure where he fitted anymore.

"I'm sorry mom, dad." He whispered. "Why did you leave me? Why couldn't I go with you?" Anna who had very god hearing, as we already noticed, heard those words too and, surprising both herself and her friends, she made her other independent decision for the evening.

She knew where her mom had the emergency stash, that sum that all smart mom's hide away for those unexpected circumstances. She went over to Adam who was sitting there staring into space, still lost in his memories.

"Come, you're coming home with me." She told him, not asking, just calmly informing how it would be.

As she took hold of his hand he found himself following her like an automaton indifferent to it all. Therese called a cab and with the girls surrounding him, making sure he couldn't run away, they finally got him into it riding home to Anna.

Her mother was away for the weekend so the girls would have the house to themselves for three days. They had their housekeeper coming regularly, but Anna's mother actually trusted her girl, and as her friends were quite mature for their age she had allowed them an extended sleepover.

While Anna paid of the cab Therese and Laila had their hands full up trying to keep Adam awake. He was acting indifferent to it all, almost like some zombie, thought Therese shuddering a little. He didn't seem to notice anything around him, as if he had fallen asleep standing.

As Anna came back to help them out they took him directly to the bathroom, but as Anna noticed his bedraggled condition she took command again.

"Help me get the clothes of him Laila." She said.

"Therese, can you fix him a bath?"

Said and done, It took them no time at all to get him undressed, the girls were if nothing else efficient. Seeing their first boy naked would at any other time have been quite exciting for them, but as they saw the old welts from the rod and all the other fights he had gotten himself into they quite forgot about it.

"Who did this?" Asked Therese as she carefully touched his back, feeling the old welt under her hand.

Adam woke up a little as he felt her hand so carefully touch him.

"The orphanage, I'm an incorrigible."

The girls stared at him. 'incorrigible?'

"Get your camera Anna, we need photos of this." Said Laila remembering how her mom had told her about abused kids and the importance of evidence.

Anna came back with her digital and they took lots of snaps of his back, and his whole body in fact, just to be sure that they didn't miss anything. And after finishing their photo-session Anna gently steered him down in the bath.

As the filth and the dried crusts of blood loosened up the water slowly started to color. The girls couldn't believe their eyes as they watched. A boy in their own age making the water flow a weak rose, looking like he was bleeding to death in Anna's mom's bathtub.

But Anna kept her cool, she had already expected that to happen. She took some more pictures before they helped him up. As he came up they saw that he was bleeding from his open cuts again, but at last the wounds were cleaner now.

Anna got a pair of pincers and wherever the girls saw something gleam in his wounds they carefully picked the fragment out. As they kept on he started to tell them about his last adventure, and when the girls finally realized what he had fled from Laila felt as if she wanted to throw up.

It was what her mothers used to warn her about, but she had never thought that the same could happen to a boy. As they finally understood which shop he was talking about they told him about the beating they had seen. Now, Adam wasn't a revengeful boy. Until now he had been all to preoccupied with surviving to have any time over for that, but the girls all saw the fleetingly small smile pass his face.

"You can't use those clothes Adam." Said Therese, looking at the trash that Adam had called clothes.

"We’ll wash them for you. Anna, go and get your jammieses."

As Anna came back with them they dressed him, as carefully as they had undressed him. Finishing it with helping him to Anna’s bed in her room. He felt asleep almost immediately, but not before deciding that this, had to be the nicest, most best smelling bed he ever had slept in.
==

The girls, who all had planed to use their sleeping bags anyway, as that was how they liked it, now heatedly started to discuss what they should do.

"We should go to the police." said Laila, feeling real mad.

"Yeah, and what do you think they do with a runaway?" Asked Therese.

"You're right Therese." Said Anna, trying to cool them down.

"They wouldn't listen to us, or to him."

"But, what can we do? We can't take care of him."

Anna looked at the bed and suddenly she took her third big decision.

"Yes we can. We have three days on us to make it work. Come on, give me some ideas?"

As they started to discuss it, and without knowing exactly when it happened, they found themselves suddenly agreeing on that they would keep him. At last allowing themselves a late pizza break, the girls came back up to the room with their pizzas, unsure if they should wake him or not.

And as they stood there, watching him sleep, you easily could have mistaken them for three young angels, not girls at all. Or maybe they would have reminded you of young mothers, watching their first born.

Seeing his deep sleep they decided to let him sleep on, as they continued to toss ideas at each other, but getting nowhere. It wasn't until Laila remarked how nice he had looked in Anna's pajamas that Anna got her truly bright, even if slightly weird, idea.

"You know, Mom wouldn't let me have a boy in my room, but, if we dressed him up?"

"Dressed him up?"

"Yeah, like a girl. She could be a relative to you Therese. Then I could ask mom if she could stay with me. You're always overcrowded anyway, ain't you?"

Therese nodded. She had a large Hispanic family, and even if her Mom was single it didn't mean she was alone. There was always relatives staying at her house and with Adams black hair?

"Yeah, and the summer vacation starts next week. We will have a whole summer to plan for what to do." Said Laila sounding as if those months were an eternity, and for a fifteen year old that just might be the truth too.

The girls smiled at each other, well pleased, until Therese hesitatingly asked.

"But, will he do it?"
==

As Adam woke up he found himself in a big bed in a strange bedroom. First he had thought that he was back home again, his memories some bad dream, but as he woke up for real he started to remember again.

But somehow it all seemed to finish with him eating a sandwich in a park. After that he had only a few vague memory's of going somewhere. At last it couldn’t be that old guy, he thought as he looked at the room.

It was really a very nice room painted in a weak maroon color, with real paintings, mostly horses, and several small tables and cabinets in a weak pink.
He liked it, even if it was a little girly. As he sat up he saw three empty sleeping bags on the carpet.

Nervously he wondered how long it would take for the police to gather him up. Thinking about it he realized that he had to get away as fast as he could, if he wanted to keep his freedom.

He feared that orphanage more than he had feared anything. The others just tried to break his body but those people tried to break his soul. It was as if they had decided to make an example of him, but it worked just the other way. The more they beat him, the more stubborn he became.

As he stood there starting to search for his clothes, he for the first time realized that he was wearing a pajamas, something he hadn't done since third grade, and a pink one at that?

He couldn't make any sense of it and him being clean too? He wondered where he was, was it those girls in the park? But he had doubted that, their parent probably would have tossed him right out, or at the very least would have called the cops on him.

He couldn't find any of his clothes though, no matter how hard he searched. As the girls came back, having left him to fix themselves, and him, breakfast in bed they found him standing in front of Anna's cabinet, staring at her panties.

As Anna harrumphed he started to redden, closing the drawer hastily.

"I'm looking for my clothes?"

"In her drawer?" asked Therese who couldn't help smiling.

"Yeah, no! I was just trying to see where I was."

"In my drawer?" asked Anna flabbergasted, starting to blush.

"Shit, sorry. I mean I'm confused. I can't remember. I remember meeting you, Anna right? But after that everything is like a blur. Did your mom call the cops? How much time do I have? I need to leave."

As the girls realized just how confused he was Anna quietly took command again. Again she took command of the situation, taking hold of his hand and patting on the bed to make him sit down. As he sat down, not understanding why, as he really needed to get away, he saw the two other girls coming with a platter filled to the brim with fried eggs, ham, sandwiches, muesli and milk.

"Here Adam, we made you a breakfast." Laila told him smilingly as she took in his pink pajamas.

‘It might just work’ she reflected thoughtfully. He was no taller than them and with his long dark hair and slim figure? And as he started to eat Anna told him about what had happened since the park.

As he realized that the girls would be pretty much alone for the next three days he slowly started to relax. They graciously allowed him to finish his breakfast though, before starting to prod him for where he had planned to go. And as they pressed him, he at last had to admit that he didn't know. And hearing that Anna finally decided that the time had come for them to present their fiendishly clever master plan.

"You will stay with me." She said decisively, suddenly sounding very sure about him and herself.

Adam stared at her, stay with her?

"And what will your mom say about that?" he asked, not believing a word.

"Nothing, you're Therese's cousin from Canada. She has so many relatives that nobody can keep count." She answered, sounding even surer.

"There is one problem though." She admitted, still holding his hand, earnestly looking into his eyes.

"But, solvable. Right girls."

The other girls nodded happily, but refusing to meet his eyes.

Adam started to feel suspicious.

"And?"

"You have to dress up."

"I don't have any money Anna. I have a trust but that won't kick in until I'm eighteen."

"No, you don't need any money. We have all the clothes you need." Anna smiled at him happy that he took it so calmly.

"Like what? Tuxedos?" he asked once more doubting his hearing.

"Not that silly, show him Therese."

"We picked this for today." Chirped Therese as happy as Anna that he was so cool about it. Laying out a nice, summery, modest dress fitting for a young sophisticate.

He stared at it not understanding. The girls starting to feel worried.

"It's nice." promised Laila, trying her best to sound as assured as Anna.

"And the colors really suits you."

Suddenly he realized what it was they were planning for him. He looked at Anna.

"You mean? I can stay, but only as a girl?" he asked, sounding cooler than he felt.

"Yes, there is no way my mom will allow any boys to sleep with me." Anna patiently explained thinking 'wake up and smell the roses dude'

As the girls saw him starting to redden again, Anna realized that he really had woke up to smell the roses.

"With you? In the same room?"

"Yes, I have only one room, but the bed is large." Anna started to worry if he could be a little slow, hearing him parroting all she said.

As he looked at her he saw a nice looking smiling girl, the same length as him, with a few freckles surrounding a pert nose and twinkling dark blue eyes with her golden brown hair-mane flowing down her shoulders like a small waterfall.

Suddenly he wished nothing more than to lay down in her bed and to be allowed to sleep beside her. Anna on the other hand saw a little boy that she single-handedly had saved from the jaws of the hungry wolfs. After taking care of him yesterday she wasn't the only one seeing him that way either. She caressed his hand trying to calm him down as she explained in the same soothing voice.

"Let us take care of it Adam, you can stay here the whole summer, and we will have lots and lots of fun."

As Adam considered their offer, he weighted up dressing up as a girl against running scared, molested and hungry for a whole summer. And, the possibility of, maybe, having found a girl that liked him. And there were even rockstar's going for that androgyne look, wasn’t there? Marilyn Manson was cool.

"Okay, I can try, but you’ll have to show me. I'm not sure I can fool anyone, not for long anyway." He was after all, all said and done, a boy. Not a girl.

His face stood in full bloom as he gave in to their ideas, and he said it in a very low voice. But the girls found him adorable and in a flurry of activity they got him his matching pantyhose panties and even a slip and a bra. As stared at it confounded Anna decided to take command again.

"We will turn around so you can get on the underwear Adam, don’t worry, remember that you have nothing we haven't seen before." Making him wanting to dive under the covers and hide forever.

But as they turned around he realized that if he wanted this to work he would have to play along. Sighing he pulled up the panties, but when coming to the pantyhose's he realized that he hadn't the slightest notion how one took on such. Defeated he asked.

"Anna, please, could you help me?"

The other girls looked enviously at Anna as she showed him the proper way of dressing as a girl. And after he had finished the girls asked him to twirl for them a few times, making him feel outright disgusted, but they just ignored his tender feelings instead starting to discuss what more they needed to fix.

"His hair, it's too boyish. Therese, can you do anything to it?"

Therese just smiled. "You have lovely hair Adam. I will fix it up so that even your mom . ."

Seeing how Adam suddenly lost his smile she remembered that he didn't have any parents. Going over to hug him she whispered.

"I'm sorry. But it will be nice. Don't feel bad."

Adam felt totally overwhelmed as they started his makeover for real, everything was happening so fast now. First Therese cutting and fixing his hair, Laila fixing his makeup ignoring what weak protests he tried to make. It all happening at the same time as Anna was doing his nails, the girls working together like some well oiled machine.

"You don't need much at all Adam. You have very nice skin, and your eyelashes are worth dying for." Complimented Laila in her most earnest voice as she saw him starting to twitch nervously, on the edge of giving it all up as a sick joke.

He had to smile at that, and the coup de resistance came as Anna gave him a pair of red pointy shoes with heels.

"They are low heels Adam, but you really need to get used to them before mom comes home. Lucky for us that you and I have the same size."

After fussing and mothering him to a degree where he started to fear for his sanity they at last led him to Anna's large door mirror, sternly instructing him not to peek until they told him.

"Ta daa, girl. Have a look."

And as he looked he couldn't believe his eyes, instead of him there was a young, rather pretty girl, furiously blushing in the front of him. And Anna finally started to feel happy too. She seriously doubted that her mother would be able to see through Adams new camouflage. She turned to the others, triumphant laughter bubbling in her voice as she suggested.

"What do you say. Should we invite our new girlfriend for some icecream?"

"Yaayyy."
==

And it was as they sat around the table in the kitchen their first obstacle arrived. It was Angela their housekeeper that showed up, surprising them all.

"Hi girls, Don't you believe it. I forgot my new dress. And who are you my dear?" Curiously studying Adam.

He thought furiously, franticly, desperately searching for that perfect name when Anna jumped into the breach for him, smiling ever so sweetly as she said, cool as a cucumber.

"Angela, meet Amanda. Amanda, meet Angela. She's Therese's cousin, but we have agreed on her staying with me for the summer."

"Does you mother know Anna?"

"No, she just arrived, from Canada. She came last night and Therese’s mother had no room for her, and yes, she's terribly shy."

As Angela looked at Amanda's beet red face she had to agree. It was plain obvious that the poor girl was shy. She gave her a friendly smile while nodding.

"Don't you worry Amanda. Big sister Anna will take care of you. And welcome to the family Amanda. Hope you like take away, considering the food Anna makes."

'Amanda' tried to smile back, saying almost inaudible. "Thank you, but no, I think I will try the sandwiches in that case."

Angela nodded briskly at them as she collected her dress.

"Gotta go, times a'flying. Take care now girls" Waving a cheerful god bye as she left, as quickly as she had arrived.

"Way to go girl." Said Laila admiringly.

"You were so cool Adam, oh sorry, Amanda. How do you like your new name?"

He's mine now thought Anna. Feeling as motherly as only a fifteen year old could, her heart swelling with pride at the sight of her clever baby. I named her, not my friends, me!

And Therese, who still hadn't gotten over how easy it had been to make Adam up as a girl, listened to them deeply fascinated. They had created their very own Amanda and, yes, they had her for the whole summer in fact.

She had the same smile on her face as Felix the cat could have had, you know, just after getting his first canary. You could almost see the small yellow feather whirling down as she delicately coughed.

“So nice.” She mumbled, distractedly studying the roof. “And mine, all mine.” While smiling angelically at it.

Adam studied her nervously as he tried to feel what he thought about the name.

"Well I was thinking in the terms of Marilyn actually." he admitted finally, but as he saw their surprised expressions, belatedly realizing his mistake.

"No, not Marilyn Monroe, do you think I’m crazy?” wiping cold sweat of his brow as he continued a little calmer.

“Marilyn Manson of course, But Amanda is cool too." Trying his best not to sound too disappointed.

"Group hug." Hollered Laila with them all falling on Amanda, hugging her.

Almost smothered under their soft warm bodies he suddenly realized what he had missed most of all. Not girls throwing themselves at him, but the hugging, hug and be hugged by someone that liked him for what he was.

Then he had to think some more, wondering who the hell he was those days, but as the girls kept holding him he at last gave up on thinking, surrendering to their embraces and warmth.
==

They trained him without mercy for two more days, showing him how to walk, sit and move. The worst problem they had was with his voice, but they agreed on letting him act shy for the time being, as whispers were easier than his real voice.

"Don't worry Amanda, it will come to you. Relax and enjoy."

The second day they were so satisfied with his progress that they took him to the mall. It scared the shit out of Adam who breathlessly waited for someone to holler. "Hey, that's a boy! In a girls dress, check out the jerk!"

But nothing happened and as the time ticked by he slowly started to feel more confident. They even had him try a new dress for them and then come out to mannequin it.

"It looks adorable on you Amanda." Said Therese, and Anna had to silently agree.

She wanted her baby to have it too. It was so, him, she thought admiringly. Having a contented, even if ever so slightly smug, smile on her face.
==

The first time Anna and Amanda shared their bed was the night after her mother had came home. She came home tired and sweaty, just wanting to have that long bath, and then jump to bed. It was the perfect time for a sneak attack and Anna knew it.

As she described Amanda's terrible situation Anna's mother studied her. She could see that the poor thing was shy, and confused too. It was almost as if she tried to hide behind Anna's back thought her mother bemused. And Anna seemed very protective of her, almost like a big sister.

"Yes, Amanda dear. You're welcome to stay as long as you like. One more or less won't make any difference. And you already like Anna, don't you?"

Amanda smiled back at her. Anna's mom reminded him of his own, the same age and the same way of making decisions immediately, but with grace and warmth.

"Thank you ma'am." He said in a low voice.

"Don't ma'am me child, call me Katrine."

"Yes Katrine."

She was frightfully shy Katrine noticed, but it would probably become better as they got to know each other. Leaving them to themselves she went for her bath and a bed.

The girls sat watching the dumbtube, Adam would really have like to watch some football, but he wasn't sure if it would fit in with the image of a young shy girl, so instead he followed her lead watching an old chickflick.

But it was compensated by Anna's nearness. Experimentally he leaned his head to rest on her shoulder, and noticing her smiling he relaxed there, breathing in that indefinable Anna aroma that seemed to seep out her pores. Somehow her smell relaxed him and made him feel safe. And being safe was a thing he had felt preciously little of lately.

As the evening went on they finally agreed on that it was time to go to bed. As they undressed he couldn't help peeking in the mirror. She was absolutely beautiful with small but well rounded breasts, proudly defying gravity and a bouncy bum reminding him of peaches, ‘just perfect as that landing zone’ he thought before succeeding in reining in his wayward thoughts again.

As he looked down he observed that he had the beginning of a problem, and, so had Anna too. She knew that he was peeking, but so was she. And she felt quite satisfied with the effect she had on him, but more than that it couldn't be. Her Mom did trust her to behave mature. Possibly she had just made the biggest mistake in her life not telling her, but as it was she had found herself having slight leeway in the matter. She would not give him up to the wolves, not even for her mom.

As they crawled in under the covers she heard him mumble something.

"What Amanda?"

"I said you're, you're the best that ever happened to me since my parents. And the others too of course." he hastily added, not wanting to give offence.

She smiled happily in the darkness, turning to look at him she said.

"I like you too baby." Hearing what she just said she blushed, thankful that the darkness hid it she added.

"Give me a good night hug now."

As he hugged her she could feel a certain part of him touching her leg, but to her surprise it felt quite natural.

'After all' she thought dreamingly as they lay there embracing, both as shy.
'It's only a hug, right?'

Somehow they seemed unable to go back to their original positions though, and as they at last felt asleep they still embraced, turned towards each other breathing in each others scent.
==

As Adam woke up the first thing he noticed was her eyes, like a infinitely deep blue well, gently exploring his.

"Slept well baby." she asked, not having to blush a bit this time.

He nodded, a little embarrassed under her gentle gaze, but as enthralled by her as she was by him.

"Yes Anna, do we really have to get up today?"

She laughed, admitting to herself that she felt much the same. She too wanted to stay in bed, but she knew that her mother would get irritated if they didn't come down to breakfast. Shaking her head at her mothers folly she helped Amanda to fix her hair, giving her a light kiss on her cheek when they had finished.

"If you need the bathroom you better hurry, my mom will be up any minute."

He rushed over, but as he was finishing he heard someone come, and as he flushed the handle turned down, the door opening. Looking in the mirror he saw Katrine standing behind him, dressed in nothing more than a sunny smile and her blue negligee.

"Sorry Amanda, didn't know you were in here. I'll just get my toothbrush, okay?"

Without waiting for his answer she glided past him, brushing against him on her way. As she left she looked over her shoulder, giving him yet another friendly smile. 'That poor girl, so frightfully shy' she thought again as she went to the guest bathroom instead to take care of her needs.

Perhaps she should take them shopping? That would be fun, she had a lot of vacation to take out if she liked. Yes, she would take a vacation she decided. After all, she was the general manager of her firm, and Anna was growing so fast. She was more and more becoming a little lady, day by day.

As she started to brush her teeth she wistfully remembered her time with Anna's father. They had loved each other, and after his demise she hadn't felt like looking for someone else, throwing herself into working up their law firm instead. Now she owned one of the best law firms in the state, not the biggest, but one with a very good reputation, creating business mergers.

'I just wish she could meet someone like my Jake' she thought reminiscently. Suddenly missing him so hard that she wanted to cry, the feel of his hands on her body, the way he used to kiss her every morning whispering "good morning empress.".

As she finished her makeup she couldn’t help wondering what it was that had made her think of him just now. They had lived a different but also very good life, with them both finding happiness in each other. But, on the other hand, maybe Anna was different from them although she doubted it. Both her and Anna were self assured, quick thinking personalities, used to commandeer others, not by force but by their sheer personality.

She and Jake had complemented each other perfectly. He a little withdrawn, almost cool to those that didn't know his terrible shyness, but with a mind as sharp as a diamond. He could be as intense as a laser when working as a lawyer. But coming home he retreated to his room almost to shy to venture out of it, well, before she had entered the picture at least.

She had first seen him as they went to the same law school, but it had taken her almost a whole term to find out that he actually lived next doors to her, and most of the next to make him trust her. And as she had learnt more about his up growth she had came to understand his shyness better. But even as both her and him had realized the reasons behind it, he didn't seem to care, finding his
safety in their love. After him she hadn't looked at another man.

To be like her was a curse as well as a blessing, most men finding her intimidating, some even overpowering. But it wasn't her intention to frighten anyone, it was just her nature. Her kinsfolk had born a long line of strong women and she expected Anna to be much the same.

Suddenly she realized what it was that reminded her of him. Amanda of course! She smiled to herself, her Jake and Anna's Amanda. 'Wonder if that is why Anna is so protective of her' she thought as she finished her makeup.
==

As they meet at breakfast Katrine saw the way the girls looked at each other. She couldn't help but smile, they seemed so infatuated. It made her remember her own friends and all the growing up they had done together, as she saw the eyes they gave each other. As long as she likes boys too there's no danger she mused to herself.

To be bi wasn't as bad as it had been in her youth but it was still not all that accepted, even if it seemed easier for a girl to be it than for a boy. 'Well, what's new about double standards' she thought slightly cynically. 'Maybe she should give her a talk about boys? Hell why not now. Would probably do both of them a ton of good' she thought smiling to herself.

"Anna?"

"Yes mom."

"Boys."

"Yes mom?"

"Do you like them?" Oh, what that Amanda could blush, she thought, not a little amused of her reaction.

"Yes mom."

"So have you meet someone special yet?"

As she saw her daughter hesitate she couldn't help feel a slight elation.

"Mom, I think I have. But I don't want to talk about him just now."

"Okay, and you Amanda? Have you meet someone special too perhaps?" no way Jose, she thought to herself, not that the girl missed any looks, but love craved a little more than that. Like an ability to make contact, to be able to tell that special one what she thought. But to her surprise Amanda nodded, still to shy to speak up.

"Oh, that’s nice. So you both have someone special then."

Now the two girls looked at each other, Amanda blushing more than ever but holding Anna's eye in hers, as steady as a rock. And after a while Katrine saw that Anna too started to blush. That must be a first she thought. She couldn't remember having seen her daughter blush, not since she was a mere toddler at least.

"Qkay girls, today we're of shopping and I don't want to hear any complaints. I'm taking two weeks off starting today, and I want to spend it with you. Is that clear?"

"Fine by me mom." chirped Anna happily. "Shop’a’holics Ahoy."

"Amanda?"

"I'm sorry ma'am, Katrine. I'm a little low on cash."

"Oh, don't worry girl." Said Katrine smiling even wider.

"I got enough for a whole regiment."

As they finished the dishes Katrine suddenly realized why she had thought Amanda so familiar. She was wearing Anna's dress. So, she was low on cash then? not that the dress didn't fit, she thought as she studied the way the girl moved, flushing more and more under Katrine's stern eye.

Yes, she was quite adorable. Acting on an sudden impulse she swept her into her arms as she passed by.

"Here little one." She said giving her a kiss on her brow.

"Welcome to the family, stay as long as you want, you make my daughter happy."

As she held her she couldn't help notice how flat-chested the poor girl was. ‘could that be why she's so shy' she wondered, bigger breast didn't make you a better person but it sure helped the menfolk think so.

"Don't worry, they will grow." She whispered in Amanda's ear before releasing her. And then she started to remember Jake again, her eyes becoming all misty.

"What is it mom." Asked Anna worried. "Why sad?"

"I was just thinking of your dad, love. I don't know why but somehow I haven't been able to stop thinking of him lately. Amanda reminds me of him in some ways. Jake was also, reserved."

She had almost said shy, but thankfully she had remembered not to make the poor girl even more embarrassed.

"You have to excuse me Amanda. Sometimes I miss him so much."

Amanda smiled at her, for once forgetting her shyness.

"Don't worry Katrine, you make me think of my mom. And I miss her too."

And there Amanda's eyes also seemed to become a little misty, but she perked up again soon enough.

"She would have liked you a lot Katrine, and so would my dad."

"Child are you saying that your parents are dead, both of them?"

Now Amanda couldn't hold back her tears as she wordlessly nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me before, Anna?" Katrine reprimanded her daughter.

"When did it happen child. Come here."

As Amanda hesitatingly came, she once more swept her in, just as a mother hen sweeps her chickens under her wings, with Amanda coming too.

"I'm sorry mom, but you didn't come home until yesterday." She murmured in Katrine's hair.

"It's okay sweetie, I just got upset. Well Amanda, I'll say it once more. You can stay here as long as you want, and all ours is yours too."

She looked down at them both, suddenly feeling a little suspicious.

"Is there anything more you would like to tell me? Anna?"

As he found himself held by Katrine he gave up on the charade. He couldn't mislead someone as nice as her. He tried to stop his tears, but the last three days had been an even worse emotional roller coaster than the whole year together. As he broke down she started to rock him.

"Shh child, you're here now. Nobody wants you any harm here."

As she held him he slowly got himself together.

"Katrine." He said releasing himself from her embrace.

"We, no I, I need to tell you something."

She looked at the girl, her suspicion getting sharper, after all, Amanda and Jake, so alike and yet unlike. She waited.

"I'm a, I'm a ."

"You're a boy, right." She asked, her hunch finally confirmed.

"That's why you're wearing Anna's clothes too, right."

He nodded as red as a beet.

"I'm truly very . " he lost the words momentarily, but looking at Anna he tried to smile.

"Your daughter just wanted to help, and she couldn't find another way. It's not her fault, it's mine. I just need my clothes back, then I'm out of your life."

He looked at her, his eyes already growing distant as he braced himself.

"I'll be okay. Anna, would you get me my clothes, please?"

Katrine thought she seldom had seen someone as forlorn looking as her daughter when she disappeared, just to come back with a bunch of newly washed, threadbare jeans and a jacket, both of them filled with small jagged cuts. It looked as someone had taken a knife to them, or a lot of knifes.

As she looked at the boy she could see him getting close to break down again.

"Don't be silly Amanda. Those clothes are for a scarecrow, not for you."

"No, they're mine. Mom bought that jacket the day before they. . Give them to me."

He almost dragged them out of Anna's unwilling hands as he run into the bathroom. They could hear how he turned on the water, probably so they wouldn't hear him cry guessed Katrine as she sternly watched her daughter cringe under her eyes.

"Mom, I love him." Said Anna at last.

"I don't want him to leave, ever. He’s the best that ever happened to me."

She started to tell Adams story, and on her mothers request also went to get her the pictures she had taken of him. As Katrine looked at them she felt a helpless rage suffuse her again, she recognized the story all to well. No wonder her daughter didn't want him to leave. But that she had so little trust in her own Mom?

"But why didn't you say as it was Anna? Did you think I would throw him out?"

"No, Mom, I'm just afraid that they will take him away." And saying it Anna started to cry too.

As Adam heard her crying he woke up from the numbness threatening to take him over again.

He had came in ready to change his clothes, but as he saw the state they were in he realized that he couldn't go anywhere in those. They would only make him look like a scarecrow, just like Anna's mother had said.

Standing, staring into the despairing eyes of the girl inside the mirror he had felt a sudden compassion for her, as if she was someone else, someone that deserved a better life, and a better chance.

He looked at her a moment, wishing her well, as he turned around to look for the razor he had spotted earlier. So long ago, when everything had been so bright and he, for once, had felt totally and utterly happy.

As he found it he folded out the blade, vaguely wondering why Katrine needed one of those, it's whispery coldness already calling to him. He held it in his hand feeling its weight, waiting without thinking for his courage.

It was then he heard Anna starting to cry, loud and helplessly. He dropped the razor as he rushed at the door, throwing it open, prepared to fight whoever it was hurting his Anna. And as she saw him coming she ran to meet him, crying. As two magnets helplessly drawn too each other they meet, him trying to comfort her, she clinging to him, afraid that he just would be a wraith, a sliver of her imagination dissipating into the night.

As Katrine saw them she knew, once and for all, that her daughter was just like her, just as Adam was like how her Jake once had been. Brave and unselfish, terribly shy but caring. And seeing it she went over to them, taking them both into her embrace.

"No more foolishness now Adam, or Amanda. Both names suits you child. You will only leave us over our dead bodies, and I don't think you want that, do you?"

Adam shook his head, holding Anna with a strength born out of his desperation. And as Katrine witnessed her daughter holding him, just as strongly, back giving no care to if his hold hurt her, she realized that to separate those two would only bring shame to her household, and to her. Not that she had had nurtured any plans on doing so any which way.

And as she looked in through the opened door, seeing the razor gleaming with its blade open on the bathroom floor, she felt as if an angel just had tiptoed through the room. She knew that she never would forget the sight of it lying on that bathroom floor. With its blade so gleamingly alluring, unfolded as it ever so patiently waited, ‘I can wait’ it seemed to whisper to her, ‘I can wait’.

Carefully leading them to the couch she sat down with them, hoping to talk some sense back into their thick heads.

"I want you both to listen now, carefully, you hear?" She said, trying to sound strict, her tears slowly falling.

"Amanda?"

"Yes ma'am."

"You will stay here. I don't want to hear a word more about any police, or about you planning to run away. You will break both our hearts if you do. Promise me."

"Yes Ma'am."

"That's not good enough Amanda. Release Anna now and look me in the eye. I want you to promise us both to stay here for as long as my Anna will live. And I’ve already told you that my name is Katrine, not ma'am."

Adam let go off his Anna, slowly and not without difficulty. Anna smiled at him teary eyed but brave, refusing to release her own hold though.

"Do you really want me to stay? But I lied to you." he asked feeling very unsure. But trying to look into her eyes as she had wanted him too, wondering if she was joking.

He felt as he had taken the full round through the wringer now. If a rabbit holding a pocket watch would have had run past him he wouldn't have lifted an eyebrow.

"Yes, I insist." Said Katrine, smiling slightly, as she watched how carefully he thread, trapaizing like a cat around a too hot fish stew, as he looked at her.

"I swear I will stay as long as Anna will live, on my Mom, and my Dad too." He stopped suddenly, as he had to swallow down the sudden sadness threatening to overwhelm him again.

"Better than that I can't do Ma'am, sorry, Katrine." Swallowing again, then remembering as he looked towards the toilet.

"And you was right Katrine, my clothes looked more suitable for a scarecrow."

"Good, and now you can go and get me the razor."

He stared at her speechlessly, how could she know about the razor? He went to get it, feeling a sick pain to his stomach as he realized how close he had been to doing something irrecoverable.

He came back with it, its blade still out shining wetly. Anna suddenly wanted to scream at him as the realization hit her, hating the mere sight of it. But Katrine frowned, smiling slightly as she shook her head, wordlessly telling her daughter to calm down and listen.

"This razor has a history children, not all razors do. This was Jake's once, so long ago Amanda, he was my husband. He used to call it his ‘life insurance’. He had gone through some very bad and horrifying experiences as he grew up. And he told me that he kept it as his reminder of where that door was. But as we meet he found that he had no need for it any more, but we kept it just the same."

She nodded to herself remembering, looking down at her hand, holding it. Then she looked up again at Adam as she, in a low sad voice, said.

"And now you thought it was your door out too Amanda. But we will keep it children. And perhaps you two will decide to keep it after me. But the blade Amanda, that I want you to fold in once and for all. And let it be a reminder to you both, as it was to us, of how closely connected happiness and tragedy can be."

As Adam slowly felled in the blade he felt as if a yoke was lifted from his shoulders. And suddenly the day seemed brighter again. But Anna looked at him much worried, and turning to her Mom she begged her.

"Mom, we won't do anything foolish, but please, you have to let us stay together."

Katrine studied her daughter as if seeing her for the first time.

"I don't think I could stop you anyhow." she remarked, suddenly sounding weary.

"And if I made you swear we would all become miserable. But promise me this Anna, you talk to me before you do any, foolishness, there are things you need to think of, and know."

"Katrine." said Adam, trying to calm her worries. "We will wait. And we will speak with you before."

As she saw them both standing before her, hand in hand and sweet as apple pie, she helplessly started to laugh through her tears, suddenly feeling elated.

"Jake would have liked you Adam." She said.

"Go and make yourself ready now children. We're going to the mall today. After all ladies, today we belong to the madly popular 'Shop'a'holics' crowd."
==

---

Author's Note: Also my MS word sucks bigtime, crashing my writing repeatedly. Or maybe it’s my XP, it’s a strange build that is the fastest I’ve tested, but behaves weirdly, and refuses to agree with a lot of major software.

Strange stuff, reminding me of a window 95 I had long ago made up with a NTFS (3.5?) bottom to it, never released, and MS refused to admit to it being theirs either so it was actually free, and perfectly workable, don’t remember its ‘nickname’ though. But Hey, it was ‘freeware’ as MS refused to recognize it :) and it wasn’t until —XP- M$ got a NT-core.

As for Vista you can throw it away, and that other new one ‘W7’? If it’s as big as vista it sucks, no matter its stability. Ten Gig for a OS? A joke. And a bad one too. But XP is quite ok. Otherwise Linux is the word of choice here. If you fill a Linux box with ten Gig you really need to use a lot of software, A ‘Slackware’ with all the goodies (software) you need to write, pictures, music, Server etc takes only about three to four Gig. And then you will have it all.

Ah well, my opinion. I do like the user interface and the friendly intuitiveness of MS though, and yeah, the user interface is known to us all. But there’s a lot of stuff they put into all MS OS that just do one thing, watch you and stop you. I should be the judge of what I like to do, not them. So use a firewall, and put it on manual approval, then you can retain some security, hopefully. The big hole is your web reader. Use Firefox if you want to feel a little safer

Why?

Well, it’s not a MS, it’s ‘third party’ and have a lot of security in it, not adapting to MS ideas. You see, as soon as you approved of a program it will be able to do things on your computer, and a web reader like MS explorer is integrated with all those ‘watchdogs’ MS have hidden inside your OS, and now you actually told your firewall that whatever MS explorer does is ok. You dig?

So believing yourself to be safe using a firewall, and, then smartly using MS Explorer to connect to the net is probably amongst the dumbest things one can do. Am I getting through?

If I’m not, don’t bother to argue. Just do what you trust in.
And yeah, all browsers are ‘holes’, but some are ‘smaller’.

I got’a admit that I loved the 98 though, it was sheer hilarity. Never the less, I’m ranting here. I had to rebuild the damned thing, and fix it, and as I’m no guru on a word processor it almost gave me a heart attack before I finished. Hopefully it will look ok now. Before, it drove me crazed. And yeah, the text, not the OS :)

Anyway, feel free to point out where I missed in it, but don’t get all uppity on me if I just laugh and put a match to it.

Cause I’m thinking of it :)

----

So. I’m allowing myself the assumption, that doing like I do hereunder is acceptable. Add to that, that you probably already read most of them.

But, if you haven’t?
--
‘Tuck’ by Ellen Hayes, on a level of its own. If you haven’t read it you’re in for a roller coaster. It constantly surprises me that she hasn’t been published. She has a unique style, and extremely good too if you ask me. You’re in for a lot of reading pleasure.

‘Boys’ School’ by Sarah Lynn Morgan. Getting there. A style near poetry, constantly growing with every story she writes.

‘Shadows And Dust’ ‘Guardians of the Gates of Madness’ etc by E. E. Nalley Jr. You’re gonna like those, they’re good, as all of her work seems to be? Don’t know if she have had any books published, but considering the quality?

‘The Teg Legacy’ by Prudence Walker, nice emotional Sci fi/fantasy, some action, somewhat reminding me of Bollywood. (I happen to like Bollywood:)

‘Evil Step Daughter’ by Carol Collins, pure evil, but, ah, hot? Good? Well, decide for yourself. You could see it as a ,hmm, ***story, but to me it’s pure black imagination, no prisoners taken.

‘Either Do it Right, or Don’t Do it at All’ by Lilith Langtree. It’s fun, innocent and made me laugh, repeatedly.

‘No Obligation’ By Randalynn, Strangely interesting, with a vivid imagination.

‘My Mistake’ by Kayla Smith, kind of hot and innocent simultaneously, weirdly interesting. (Lock, stock and barrel, just leave the last two out of it:)

‘Before My Time’ by Bob Arnold, sweet and cool, though the ending was a little confusing. As I don’t really believe in paradoxes (time travel)?

‘After the Ashes’ by Renae, extremely detailed, and intelligent, action. And surprisingly good Sci Fi too. In my eyes she is a accomplished writer. As good as most ‘hard & softcovers’ I’ve read. Check her up.

‘Bittersweet Tea’ by Bec D Corbin, nicely done, lots of imagination and a tight ‘horror’ story.

‘While the Band Played Waltzing Matilda’ by nancycole. Impressive work, very good local build up, although, the ending came all to soon for me. Then again, I have yet to made a acceptable ending myself, so? Who am I to criticize? (..Whoops, it's continuing, good for me, and you. :)

‘Educating Danielle’ by Karen E. Lea, cool and non-judgmental, a mature laid back story, perhaps to much $$$ floating around, but coolly nice all the same.

‘Cynthia and the Dumpster Diver’ by Portia Bennett. Innocent, life as ‘black and white’. It’s a nice ‘magic’ one, why not read it?

‘Thirty Million Reasons’ by Erin Halfelven Thoughtful and interesting. A transformation story.

‘The Reluctant Girl Friend’ ‘The Reluctant Sister’ etc.. by Melanie Brown It’s a series I think? I like them, maybe you will do too?

‘SUIT’ by Robin Douglas (or ‘Zoot.txt’?) Good Sci fi, a text file that ends too quickly for me, there was a lot more that could have been done with it.

----------------

And yes, I agree, there is a lot more good writing that I haven’t mentioned, especially series, yet, that is. Give me some time to download and read them (and tips are always welcome) and I promise. The TG stories seems to catch, and create, serious writers, with imagination and flare. Gender is just a start, the rest is up to you. But it’s a fight worth fighting.

As for my story?

I have two other I need to concentrate on too, both started before this one. And I would like to finish them all, this one included. But I do like it, even if my writing leaves a lot to wish for. And to me it’s not entirely about crossdressing. It’s about being human, and having to choose between that rock and a hard place, not to uncommon for any of us I guess.

Also about ‘good and evil’, as I believe both qualities to exist. But evil can also be born out of ignorance, and this site makes an impressive effort to enlighten people.

I wrote ‘Adam’s own’ specifically as a ‘thank you’ to all of you writing those good story's I've enyoyed reading, and to you discussing here, and elsewhere. And I didn’t plan it to ‘grow’ as it seems to be doing now. But I don’t mind, I don’t really have that masterly control over my stories, it seems mostly the other way around. I think there are a lot of people reading you authors, as well as the comments made by us all. And some, if not most, of the readers I suspect to be, believe it or not, more or less ‘straight’ :) As I believe myself to be. To me this site was something of a oasis when I first stumbled across it in my hunt for ‘books/stories’ online. Especially when it comes to quality, ingenuity and sheer humanity.

---End---
.

.

-------Story - time----------

=

As they left for the mall in Katrine's small escort Adam thought about what had happened, wondering what he would have done if she hadn't started to cry. Him unknowingly both Anna and Katrine were thinking about the same, but where Katrine and Adam were unsure Anna knew.

She remembered all to well the way he had lost himself the day before. She hadn't let him out of her sight since their talk with Katrine, she was too afraid now. Adam, while feeling her anguish didn't know what he could do to reassure her.

He laid his head at her breast, listening to her heart beat. Listening he got that mad feeling that it beat to fast, much faster than it should, he suddenly started to feel worried. 'What's wrong with her? Is she's dying?'

Katrine, peeking at them in the rear-view mirror, saw his worry and guessing she asked.

"You know that girls have a faster heartbeat than boys, don't you?"

He mutely shook his head, looking a little relieved.

"Well, they do Amanda. Don't worry, she won't wear out on you, happiness is measured in love, not in time."

He put his head back where it belonged, slowly relaxing again. Anna smiled, her mom was so right, whispering in his ear. "My grandmas mom Amanda, she lived to be a hundred." caressing his face.

Adam closed his eyes, slowly rocked to sleep by the cars motion and Anna’s caresses.

As her mother saw them cuddling she decided to keep on driving, after all, there was always a mall more somewhere. And as she drove she watched how her daughter slowly felt asleep too, her hair sweeping them both into its sweet golden embrace as Anna glided down the backseat leaning on her Adam.

Seeing them sleeping so restfully Katrine decided to drive to the same lake she used to take Anna to when she was small, she had so many good memories of the time with Jake visiting it.

Leaving them to their sleep she stepped out to walk down to the waters edge, again wondering why life had to be so difficult. She found no answers to that question, but looking out over the pale blue stillness she still felt a certain kind of peace. She had her Anna, and now she somehow had begotten Amanda, or Adam, too.
==

She tried to think over what they needed to do. One thing she was sure of was that this orphanage Adam had described should be closed. She hadn't thought that any of those older and sicker kind of 'correction facilities' had survived the sixties, especially not in her own hometown.

If she could, she would have collected all the kids and then made a big bonfire out of the whole orphanage, but she knew that the bureaucracy didn't work that way. But at least she thought that she had the contacts and competence to force a change.

After a while she started to freeze, she wasn't really dressed for the outdoors. As she went back to the warmth of the car she saw Anna wake up, her arm still protectively wrapped around Amanda.

"Mom, weren't we going to the mall?"

"Yes, I just needed some time to think. You remember the lake?"

Anna smiled. "I still love it mom. Yeah, I feel better now."

She looked down on Adam, still collecting on his sleep of the righteous.

"We should get him his on clothes mom. It's not right to make him wear those, not if there's no reason for it."

"But he looks very nice in them, don't he Anna?"

Anna nodded, reddening a little. She couldn't explain it but having him like this made her feel as if she had it all, a girl and a boy and in love with both, unable to choose. But under it all she knew that Adam was Adam, and she would love him, no matter what clothes he used.

Katrine knew her daughter quite well. She could guess what moved inside that sweet face of her with a surprising accuracy most of the times, and remembering Jake it wasn't too hard.

"Did you know that your dad loved cross dressing?" she asked gently.

Katrine looked up surprised. "He did?"

"Oh yes, he was very shy about it though. He felt that it was somehow wrong to have such a fascination for something so unmanly."

She laughed, a laugh filled with happy memories.

"That's how I got interested in him. I saw him at the mall all dressed up, and I somehow recognized him, without being able to say who he was. He looked just as a young lady but there were subtle differences in the way he moved and looked. Nothing you could point on directly and say. 'That's wrong.' But they were there all the same."

"It took me a moth but when I got him in the same class I suddenly knew, like a flash of lightening, and I found myself drawn to him. I thought him to be brave and exciting, daring to live out his dreams. But it wasn't before we had been together for most of the next term that I dared to breach the subject."

She shook her head wonderingly remembering. "He was so scared Anna, he thought I was going to 'out' him, throw him to the wolves. And that's why I knew about the razor. He locked himself in the toilet just as Adam, and I was scared too. But he came out again looking at me."

She shook her head again. "He looked at me as if he was putting his heart in my hands Anna, saying. " ‘Where am I without trust? I love you Katrine.’ And after that our real life started."

Anna tried to assimilate what she remembered of her dad with what Katrine had told her. She stared at her mother. Her father had died when she still was just a little child.

"Why haven’t you told me this before?"

"It was private Anna, and we also wanted you to make your own choices. And deeming of what I see now, it seems you already have?" Nodding at Adam.

Looking at each other they started to laugh. 'Life is just to strange sometimes' thought Katrine. 'Here we tried to let her free from our prejudices, and she picks just the same, amazing.'

But then again, Adam wasn't crossdressing because he wanted too, it would be more correct to say that it was the best choice he could find at the time. 'Still, it's so easy to see that he enjoys it' she though. 'And he makes such a sweet looking girl.'

She shook her head feeling confused.

“Everyone has to make their own choices, don’t they?” she mused, looking thoughtfully at her daughter.

“Yeah mom.” Answered Anna, looking down at her Adam resting his head in her lap, or Amanda as it was for the moment.

After a while Katrine had pulled herself together again and thinking of the mall she decided to drive up to the next town instead, after all, they had an excellent mall there too. As she drove she found herself asking some pointed questions. What should they do with Amanda, or Adam?

Shocked she realized that she already had trouble separating the two? To have her live like she did now but still being on the run, and underage? Against her reporting him immediately to the police was the fact that he was happy, and she had this feeling that it had been a long time since last for him.

And her Anna was happy too, and yes, even herself felt comfortable about him. And there was also this strangeness about that orphanage, she couldn't understand how it had operated like it did, without anyone reacting?

And there was also this new problem. Katrine realized suddenly that she wasn't immune to the allure of Adam either, he reminded her to much of her own Jake, the time when they had first meet.

And dressed up like he was now Amanda seemed so much older too, at least eighteen, and quite sophisticated. Fleetingly she worried that her interest might grow to become more than entirely motherly.

"I must need it bad?" She muttered, cringing a little at her sudden turn of thought, feeling slightly depressed. Maybe it was just those teenage cootie hormones flying around? Maybe she just had to learn how to wean herself?

Cold showers?
==

---

 
 
Chapter 3 to 10 ..revised :)
 
 

=

Anna woke Adam as they came closer. He had been dreaming again, his last year hadn't contained that many dreams but the last two days had been as opening the floodgates.

Dream after dream reliving the time on the streets with him sometimes directly involved, but mostly standing as some ghostly spectator watching himself getting beaten. And more often than not dressed in woman's clothing?

The sexual abuse had left its marks, his ability for trust was vitiated, and even when in the arms of Anna, or perhaps just because he was in the arms of Anna, he dreamed, horrible scary dreams where he saw himself getting mutilated or even killed.

Before Anna, dreams had been a luxury, and even when he had them, difficult to remember afterwards. Being on the run did that to you. It narrowed your perceptions, forcing you only to see what was nearest to your immediate survival, with everything else losing its importance.

And he was worried. He was pretty sure that he wasn't gay. There had been no guy he ever known that had excited him like Anna did. But this dressing up, and the way the girls made him feel. He liked the intimacy it created with them.

So, okay, not gay then, but the clothes?

That one was stranger, and he had no real answers either. Maybe he just liked the way they made him, and the girls, feel? It all seemed to boil down to if one still could be a real man if one liked woman clothing's? But what the hell was that?

A real man, was that the swine in the shop then? Or those assholes that couldn't be bothered if he starved to death. He was quite sure that bullying and abusing didn't constitute it. And it didn't really seem to have anything to do with his sexual preferences either.

He decided that he would have to discuss this with Anna and Katrine, well, Anna at least.
==
 
  
 

As they went in they at last let loose their shop'a'holic shopping spree. Katrine left them to go to the camera shop, she wanted to buy a camcorder. The one they had was old and clumsy, she wanted a new one, maybe with a Blu-ray, if there now was one like that. With one of those you could store up to 50 gigabytes per disc, no bigger than a DVD.

They agreed to meet at the coffee shop after they had finished. Katrine giving Anna a visa card in her name that she had gotten just for this kind of situation, warning her to use common sense when buying.

"We don't really need to buy the mall Anna."

"Why? I've always wanted my own mall." Quipped Anna brightly.

She smiled at her mother who now was studying her visa, darkly mumbling.

"Perhaps I should change the name to Amanda, should I, Anna?"

"Relax mom. Go and have fun. We’ll be cool."

Katrine gave her daughter a brief suspicious look before nodding reluctantly.

"I’ll trust you to be just that Anna. And you Amanda, you better make sure that she doesn't do anything stupid now."

As they left her in the camera store them she was so preoccupied with her own thoughts that she never noticed herself walking right into the young lady standing beside the doors.

"Oh I'm sorry. I'm so clumsy." She excused herself as she tried to help her up.

Doing so she had this strange feeling that there was something not right.

Suddenly she realized what it was. One of the young ladies breast seemed slightly askew, like if it was going of on a journey all of its own? Quickly guiding her away from the inquiring eyes noticing their disturbance she stopped behind some shelves, coolly appraising the young lady.

"I'm so frightfully sorry dear, I'm Katrine, and you?"

"Sarah."

"Sarah, what a lovely name." She leaned a little closer to whisper.

"Sarah, your boobs, are they trying to run away?"

The man, she was now quite sure it had to be a man, looked down at his bosom, clearly frightened that she would make a new ruckus about it. She smiled at him reassuringly, enjoying their closeness.

He had to be around thirty, she thought, and quite nice looking too, definitely no pro at crossdressing though. 'Now, what would the odds be of meeting another crossdresser like this' she wondered as she watched his futile attempts to fix it.

"Don't worry, look at me, I'll shield you from the others. Fix your boobs now Sarah. What did you use, socks?"

Almost laughing as he franticly tried to fix it, getting that glazed look just like a rabbit finding itself under the full glare of a lorry, stuck on the highway. Witnessing his tears of frustration as he only succeeded in making it worse, she at last gently put her hand over his.

"Calm down Sarah, here, let me do it for you."

And once again she did what to her felt as the most natural thing in the world, commandeering others. As she finished she saw the manager approach them, frowning and looking as if he had a bad taste in his mouth.

"Ladies, we don't need your kind here, please leave our premises."

"Kind?" Omigosh, she realized. ‘He thinks we were necking.’

"You know."

Katrine shook her head, no, she didn't know.

"Lesbians, dykes, whatever you are. Please leave peacefully, or do I need to call on the guards?"

Katrine gave him her sweetest smile as she lifted her gold visa for him to see.

"And you're sure you don't want us?" She asked as she waved under his nose. It almost looked as if his nose was twitching, sniffing the money, his eyes longingly following her visa card.

"No, I mean yes. Please leave."

Katrine nodded pleasantly at she gave him her visit card from her legal firm, identifying her as a lawyer.

"I aim to take action against your shop." she informed him. "You have no legal ground to throw us out, and you're also mistaking us as something we're not."

The man worried started to back down. 'Damned emancipation, dykes and gay's thinking they own the world'. But Katrine refused to listen to his excuses as she once more with a steady grip steered her newfound friend out of the shop
==
 
 
As soon as they got out she stopped to look at him, his color now competing with the Christmas advertising, the same color as Santa's suit, but at least his bob's was alright again.

"Come Sarah, let's have a coffee, you do drink coffee?"

The man slowly relaxing now that they were out of the danger zone nodded sheepishly. Katrine studied him, more and more liking what she saw. It was obvious that he had gone to considerable efforts to create his feminine persona, as obvious as how badly he had overdone it.

"Good girl, oh, you look perfect, don't worry." She lied as she bought them the lattes.

"But you could use some advice."

As she drew him into a conversation she saw how he started to relax, and smiling she let him start to take over. He soon forgot that they were strangers, telling her about his work as a teacher, trying to explain his appearance as a dare from a coworker.

"Well, I could use that money you know."

Smiling at her, relaxing even more as she didn't question him. As he chatted with her he was of two minds. On one hand he wanted this whole embarrassing situation to end as quickly as possible, on the other he couldn't help but finding her highly attractive. He guessed that she had to be his age, but with a personality making him think of a dynamo, as filled with energy and somehow in constant control.

He was no teacher, well, he used to be, but now unemployed. When they had found him crossdressing they had thrown him out. He could have stayed and sued of course but then the whole school, and community, would have known it. As it was everybody kept their mouth shut, but with the end result being him out of a job. And he didn't really wanted to give any references to his former workplace either as he searched for a new.

He wished he had been more like this woman instead, unmistakably successful in her profession, relaxed and self assured, but he wasn't. He would soon have to sell his car. Moving to a new town he had hoped to find some work, but so far there was nothing. And his cash was rapidly dwindling, soon to become just another memory. She seemed to read his thoughts as she said.

"Well Sarah, it's been fun meeting you. Here, take it."

Giving him one of her visit cards, writing her phone number home on the back of it.

"Sarah, you're always welcome to us, you got to promise to give me a call, will you?”

"Sure, but please Katrine, Leonard, not Sarah."

"No Sarah, that will only sound ridiculous. Well, I need to find my daughter. How about it, want to join me? Us romantic dykes, we could elope together?"

He stared, once more thrown of balance. She was taking some time getting used to, Katrine, but damn, it was nice to have someone to laugh with. Looking at her card again he saw the 'Mrs.'. Married, ‘just my luck’ he thought, he guessed she wouldn't be interested in a guy like him anyway. Smiling at her he shook his head.

"You're quite fun Katrine, but no, I need to go home. I was only here because of the bet. And I think I've won it now, but thanks all the same. I'll call you, bye."

Katrine nodded and smiled, a little disappointed.

She had found him a pleasant, even if fabricating, man. It seemed as if she scared more men than she attracted those days she thought philosophically, watching him walk away, 'nice buns though' she found herself thinking ‘is he gay?’. Smiling at her own lack of maturity she checked the time. Oh yes. Definitely time to stop Anna from buying the mall.
==
 
 
Anna and Amanda had after her sailing through every lingerie shop she could find, constantly making Amanda try on new daring flimsies finally ended up in the men's department. There they went around buying Adam, what to him felt as, a whole new wardrobe.

He had protested in vain, Anna overruling him with the ease hard won from experience.

"You need your own clothes Amanda." she whispered fiercely.

"Do you want to look as a girl all the time?"

Talk about cutting to the cheese he thought. Did he? Shit, No, he didn't. It was a lot of fun, but not all the time.

"Okay Anna, you win."

"I usually do."

And that was no empty boast either he thought as he saw her picking clothes for him to wear. It seemed as she didn't really trust his taste. On the other hand, when it came to clothes, he wasn't sure he did either. To him clothes was first practical things, then esthetic, well possibly so?

So that was where Katrine found them.

As they went home the car looked like some overheated salesman's wet dream. They had so many clothes in it that the girls found themselves forced to sit on them to get a place. Normally Adam hated shopping, and malls only used to give him a headache, but doing it with Anna was different.

They had had so much fun that he even forgot how he was dressed. It had only been when someone called him 'Ms' that he had remembered.

He liked being a girl, it was cool and you could act so much freer with your feelings. But it also made him feel real weird, as if he was losing something? He couldn't pinpoint what it was though, it was just a feeling.
===
 
 
As they left the small town, taking the back roads she saw a car parked aside the road, with its warning lights flashing. As they drove on she suddenly saw that it was Sarah walking there, along the road, very alone and weary looking. She stopped beside him to open the passenger door from the inside.

"Fancy meeting you here Sarah. Get in girl, was that your car we passed?"

Sarah smiled, relieved that it was just Katrine. He had started to doubt his womanly disguise as the cars just kept driving past him. One had stopped, just to give him the finger as he drove off, leaving him in a cloud of dust and dirt as he ran up to it. He looked down on his light blue dress, now marred with spots of grey and black, feeling tired and defeated.

"Yes, I'm not sure what it was, it just died on me?"

"So, where're you of to?"

As they talked she found out that they lived in the same town, and seeing how tired he looked Katrine decided that he should go home with them first, it would give her a chance to see if he was what she thought too.

"I insist Sarah. We'll have some nice food and then I'll drive you home, and I'll fix a tow truck too."

"No please don't, I don't have the insurance. I'll just try to fix it later."

He wasn't really sure how he would fix that though. And looking at him she nodded thoughtfully. She started to suspect that his boasting about his work just was that, boasting.

"Sarah, don't worry. I'll take care of it. I know the company and they will give you a good price. No, not a word more."

And Sarah did stop complaining, because now a new thought struck him. He would have to face her husband, and dressed as a woman too. Nervously he wondered what her man could be like, considering Katrine's attitude her man had to be even more compelling he guessed. He already cringed mentally considering what that man might think of him.

"Katrine, can’t you just drive me home, please."

She looked at him, again wondering what it was with her that so scared all men she meet. She sighed.

"Now I'm disappointed Sarah, I thought it would be fun?"

He smiled a little tired. He couldn't really say what was on his mind, could he? Not with two young girls listening to every word. "I'm sure you and your man will manage without me Katrine."

The girls in the backseat who up to that had been quiet as a pair of church mice tittered.

"She's not married Sarah. And she likes you." Said Anna, who directly had realized that Sarah wasn't a Sarah at all.

Adam wasn't sure, but her breast had looked a little strange as they picked her up, hanging at an angle like that? But it could be a mastectomy? Anyway, it was no business of his.

Now both Sarah and Katrine blushed. Katrine because it was true, and Sarah because, well, because of a lot of things. He realized that the young girl in the backseat knew that he was a man, also that she had understood why he had tried to wrangle himself out of Katrine's offer. On the other hand, she hadn’t sounded offended about it.

"Thank you, Anna was it?"

"Yes, and mom, drive us home now. Amanda needs to change her clothes and I'm tired."

"You heard her Sarah." Said Katrine. "She's the boss."

Sarah nodded as he tried to relax in his seat. It could have been worse he though philosophically. Instead of walking he had gotten himself a ride, and an invitation to eat, and that with a most interesting woman too. There were some drawbacks though, he did find it difficult to act all manly and confident dressed like he was now.

On the other hand he wasn't sure that she would have been much impressed by his efforts. She seemed quick to see through such attempts.

"Well Katrine. It seems I have no choice then? And you're right Anna, I did think that your mom was married, and. ."

"We know Sarah. Be cool." Said Anna resting her head on Amanda's shoulder.

"My dad liked crossdressing too."

So he had been right, thought Adam, suddenly very interested, she was a he. Sarah, who didn't have the stamina to once more go through all his half truths just nodded dejectedly, accepting the suggestion.

"Thanks Anna." He said. Looking at Katrine apologetically.

"You guessed it too, didn't you."

She sympathetically patted his hand.

"Of course I did Sarah, but it's okay, I sympathize with you, explaining crossdressing to a stranger that just helped you find your boobs."

Now both Anna and Amanda sat up in their seats, all ears, hoping for more revelations, but sadly there were none forthcoming. Katrine looked at Sarah, her eyes a sudden brilliant violet in the last rays of the sun with him helplessly looking back, mesmerized by her eyes.

"As long as you follow me home, dear."

And now she smiled, a warm predatory smile metaphorically swooping down on him, while gently patting his hand. With our friendly field mouse sinking back in his seat, closing his eyes as he at last found for good to give in to his destiny.
==
 
 
As they arrived home Katrine soon had a quick dinner fixed for them, just for her and Sarah. Anna and Amanda had disappeared upstairs as soon as they arrived, Anna smiling conspiratorially, nodding wisely behind our field mouse’s back before leaving them alone.

"Have fun now kids." Was Anna's parting words as they left.

Katrine thoughtfully studied her daughter’s lofty gait up the stairs, mumbling in mock surprise.

"What monster have I raised?"

"You better behave too, you know" she called after them.

"We won't do anything you won't mom." Anna answered cheerily, with Amanda helplessly starting to blush as he looked at her.

For once Katrine found herself speechless. And Sarah who had had listened to them with a wakening interest couldn’t help wondering. Were those two girls lovers? That young? Ah well, time would tell.

He was happy any which way. Just to be sitting here, with one of the most interesting and lovely women he had meet, was more than he ever would have dared hope for.

"Thanshs for inshiting me Katrine." He said lifting his glass again.

"A shoast for the mosh sharming woman Ih've meet. Cheers." swallowing it all in one hefty swoop.

He wasn't really used to drinking, but after the first two glasses he had started to find it quite relaxing, the only problem being the glasses increasingly small size. He studied his empty glass a little surprised. He had been sure there was more in it? He looked searchingly at it again trying to catch as it shrunk.

Katrine smiled pleasantly, sipping her own, she too had noticed this thirst of his, but considering it she guessed he badly was in need of calming himself. After all, he had been exposed by her, thrown out of a shop, then had his car break down and people humiliating him, and then being exposed again by her daughter.

But she still wished that he could slow down a little, he was already on his second bottle.

"How do you feel Sarah, are you okay?"

"Shnever bestter lihle shishter, a little tirhed pershapsh."

Katrine started to clean up after the meal. "Sarah, why don't you try the couch then? I'll come join you in just a moment." Smiling warmly at him as she sent him away with his new glass of wine.

The last she saw of him, was him acting extremely concentrated, carefully balancing his glass in both hands just to be sure at the same time as he in vain tried to remember where he was supposed to be going.

As she came in a little later she found him snoring in the couch, his wine untouched. She took of him his shoes and sat gown, his head in her lap. And looking down at him she felt quite satisfied.

As he slept his face suddenly seemed younger, the worried frowns disappearing as if by magic. She smiled as she lightly touched his cheek, she had already decided to keep him. That was, if he wanted it of course.
==
 
 
As Anna and Adam went up Anna looked at him questioningly.

"Do you want to change?"

"Why?"

"To your boy clothes, stupid?"

"Oh." 'Shit, forgot it again' he thought, but no, he had this feeling that it excited her somehow seeing him like this. To be honest, it excited him too, he wasn't sure if it was the idea of him wearing them, or if it was seeing her get all worked up by it, but he decided to keep them on anyway. And as they came into their room he got this crazy idea.

"Do you think I'm sexy?" Singing and pouting, as he tried to look at her soulfully.

Anna just dropped her clothes on the floor taking him in her arms.

"God, You're so hot Amanda." Dragging him with her to the bed. And as they lay there they could hear Anna's mother going about her tasks, talking and even singing for herself.

'She's right' he thought. He was becoming quite hot as they laid there. In more than one way too, wishing that the evening could be over soon so that they could get into bed. He also realized that it might become harder than he had thought, in more than one way, not making out with her for real.

"Anna."

"Yes baby." Cuddling him.

"We better stop this, or I'm afraid something gonna happen."

"Like what?"

"You know."

"No." Totally innocent as she caressed his tummy, her hand under his dress.

Some fateful silence.

"Anna."

"Yes."

"I have to."

"Yes?"

"I'll be back, soon."

Rushing to the bathroom, thankful for the dress hiding the mess.
Anna smiled satisfied. It was the first time she had made a boy do that. And she hadn't even touched him, well, maybe his tummy then, but that didn't count, did it? As he came back she gleefully studied his beet red face, acting all innocent and modest.

"Come here baby." Patting the bed beside her. “I’m freezing.”

"Where's your pants, sweetie." A little later, her hand up his skirt again.

"Forgot them."

The worst lie of a century.

"You're plain naughty, admit it."

"You knew." Accusingly.

"Knew what?"

'Such a nice color'' thought Anna smiling at him. Of course she knew, but it was so delicious teasing him.

"Is that mom's coming baby? I think it's her washday, got any laundry?"

"Shit. ." Desperately running back to the bathroom, and the washer.

Oh yes, she had great fun, and he? Well, if nothing else, exercise?

===
 
 
The next day was sunny with a weak winter sun as Therese and Laila came over. Katrine sent them straight up, and coming into her room they found Anna and Adam sleeping, their faces turned against each other.

Laila and Therese just stood there looking, for quite some time, before Laila at last sighed.

"They're in love." She stated, badly wanting the same, fearing that she already was and in the same boy too?

Therese just nodded, dreamily. After looking some more they finally went back down to tell Katrine that they hadn't had the heart to wake them, asking her if she could tell Anna that they would come later instead. Katrine was still in the kitchen as they left, making their breakfast. Looking out she though that it would be another fine day, and thinking of the rollercoaster she and the kids had experienced yesterday she was happy that it all had worked out so well.

She was still worried for Adam though, wondering what to do about him. She wondered about the possibility of adopting him, at least that would keep him with them, but there was also that question about how the authorities would treat it. The law was one thing, but those interpreting it were another. She wondered how many that knew about the abuse done by the orphanage, and how far up it went.

In the end she decided that it was time to wake them up. As she came up she found them in the same position as the girl had seen, pressed against each other, Anna’s arm around Adam and his under her neck. She stood there silently watching, thinking that they almost looked ethereal under the weak morning light, falling in from the window.

"Sleepyheads." She whispered.

"Time to wake up." Kissing her daughter and then, for good faith, Adam too.

As the pair in the bed woke up the first thing they saw was each other. And both seemed to relax at that sight, as if they had been afraid that it all had been a dream. And as Adam opened his he once more found Anna’s eyes gently exploring his.

"Hi." Said Adam a little sleepily looking at his newest, onlyest and most fantastic girlfriend. "Don't move."

She studied him as if she tried to engrave each line and each contour of his face in her mind, seriously and without guile.

"Hi yourself." She answered sounding mildly surprised.

"What's your name?"

She laughed at his expression and gave him a quick kiss before looking at her mum.

"We'll be down in a minute mum. I just need to make sure he gets up."

Katrine took a last look at them, doing her best to burn in the memory of them in her mind, before closing the door behind her. They dressed quickly and as Adam came down to the kitchen he proudly wore the totem of his tribe, The all male clothing.

It was a relief to find him normally dressed again he thought, although Anna seemed to find him no less distracting. Katrine smiled as she saw him at the breakfast table, all dressed up, looking cool and collected next to her daughter.

"Nice to be back Adam?" she asked her voice filled with a hidden merriment.

"You look quite the guy there."

He looked at her a little unsure if she was teasing him. She started to laugh.

"Don't worry, I mean it. You look good. My daughter seems to have inherited my impeccable taste."

"Thanks ma'am, Katrine I mean. Where is Sarah?"

"She's still sleeping. I'll wake her later."

Anna looked at Adam and found that she had to agree, he did look good, although she wasn't that happy about his new clothes, to constrictive she thought. For her at least, if not for him.

She wanted to touch him but the jeans and that baggy, hey wait. She got a fiendishly smile as she moved closer to him snuggling in, letting her hand sneak in under his shirt to caress him.

She sat so her mother shouldn't be able to see it, but glancing at her she realized that her mother knew exactly what she was doing, and, what was even better, didn't seem to mind.

Had she been able to hear Katrine's thoughts she would have realized that Katrine actually enjoyed seeing them so taken by each other. This was in fact the best she could have hoped for. Her daughter finding someone that she loved under her own roof, instead of running around getting drunk in the houses of strangers.

She remembered her own days as a teenager all to well, it was mostly luck that she had found someone to love before losing her virginity. This way both would be safe and Adam was just the right kind of guy for her.

She was no hypocrite and she didn't mind them cuddling, as long it didn't go any further. And the expression on Adams face as he tried to act unconcerned whilst her daughter, what was it she was doing?

Oh my God, his nipples was it? What a sight to see, unforgettable in fact, she would need that camera. Watching them added a whole new dimension to sitting down to breakfast.

"Anna." Said Adam, almost begging, desperately trying to sound normal. " You want some more milk, don’t you?" Without waiting for her answer he stood up, making her lose her grip as he hastily went to the fridge to get more milk.

"You don't need to, there's milk on the table." Said Katrine motherly. "But it's sweet of you."

Anna pouted disappointed as she saw him sneaking away. 'Typical' she thought, 'always sneaking away when its gets interesting'. But watching him she softened slightly smiling at him.

"Thanks Adam."

He felt himself unwinding a little as he heard her. He didn't mind her playing with him, hell, he wanted it just as much as her, but not in front of her mother. Even if they had gotten themselves a crash course in relations it still felt as too much, too soon.

And he couldn’t help finding Katrine intimidating. Maybe it was that he wanted her respect too, he had already gathered that she didn't seem to mind but Anna was sort of making him feel easy, and he didn't really enjoy that feeling.

It gave him a headache trying to understand how he, a certifiably one hundred percent red blooded male, could be made to feel easy though. Wasn’t that reserved for girls? But there it was. Maybe it was this Amanda thing that spooked him?

"You're welcome."

He sat down beside Anna leaning over to fix a strand of her hair falling down in her bowl. As he did so she seemed to listen to something that only she could hear, while fondly smiling at him.

"I love you, don't you ever forget."

She whispered it fiercely in his ear as she seemed to glide into his arms. Suddenly he had a whole lot of girl in his lap wiggling happily, with his hair falling into her eyes, and Katrine and the world else just zoomed out for him, leaving only them to consider.

"I love you too, I loved you before we even meet." he told her in a low voice, inside their own universe now, safe and sound.

Katrine decided that she needed that camcorder badly, preferably a voice steered one too, did they have that? She was already wondering where she could place it unobtrusively.

"I just didn't know it." He whispered in that tremendously honest voice, not hearing the obvious implausibility of his statement. But listening to them Katrine noticed that her daughter seemed to find him perfectly lucid, as she enthusiastically threw her arms around his neck.

“Oh, Amanda.”

She couldn't help flashing back to her memories with Jake, she knew how important memories could be. Life gave no guarantees, and no allowances. Getting that camcorder was, more or less, her personal way of warding and protecting her daughter’s memories.

More than once she had wished for something to remind her of Jake too, something more than just her stills. Looking at them she suddenly remembered that she too, at last, had found someone she liked. Even if he seemed quite confused, and possibly not all that bright? But he was cozy to crawl up to, warm and nice, she sighed a little.

Adam couldn't understand how anyone could have this power over him, it scared him. And as he drew her closer he realized that they were doing exactly what he had tried to put an end too just before. But as he glanced at Katrine he saw that she too was lost in private remembrances, suddenly wistful and vulnerable. He decided to get the proceedings on a more even keel, loudly clearing his throat.

"Anna, don't you think it's time that Anna and Therese knew?"

"They don't need any invitations silly." murmured Anna dreamily in his ear.

"But, have you checked your phone?" asked her mum listening.

Anna had to admit that she had had it on charge, for over two days.

"Well, don't you think it's loaded now?" asked Katrine sweetly.

Anna rushed up to their room to call. As she looked, she realized that they had called her several times, and texted. As she called them they told her that they had been over yesterday finding nobody there. And as Anna hadn't answered they had became quite worried.

"I'm sorry, we were at the mall. Yeah, my mum already knows about Adam, but it’s cool."
===
 
 
It didn't take long for them to show up, but as they saw Adam in his new clothes, they instantly took Anna away whispering angrily. As Adam stood there by himself, he couldn’t help but feeling left out again. After a while Anna came back with them. They looked at Adam.

"Yes?"

"We want Amanda."

"What?"

"We're going to have a sleepover tonight, and we want Amanda."

He studied them wondering why, but they seemed quite serious.

"Why?"

"No boys Adam, Amanda is okay though." Then they smiled at him, sweetly waiting.

He knew when he was licked. "Sure, any preferences?" Recognizing blackmail when he saw it

Now the girls became just as last time, transforming into all smiles and sweetness. Faster than you could say 'what!', or even ‘no way!’ they had him down to his drawers again, and as he watched his new clothes being taken away he started to feel as if he had been there before.

And as he stood there in his drawers, listening to their pleased discussion about what Amanda should wear this time he suddenly realized that he could get used to their attentions and pampering, and that scared him even worse.

But as they once more started to fuss with him he gave up, he would have to consider his manliness some other time. It was just too hard considering it when getting your toenails painted in, what they promised him to be, a most heavenly pink color.

As they finished he had an all too short black skirt ending before his knees. And to that a short blouse with a lot of frilly lace leaving his navel bare, white short socks up to his knees in some strange girlish pattern, and his hair made into two tresses.

He had a suspicion that Laila and Therese had planned this even before coming over, as they had had brought with them some strange extra hair that they somehow succeeded to plait to his own, and it being the right color too? His plaids went almost down to his ass, and he felt totally and utterly ridiculous as he stood there as some life sized doll, judiciously studied by three pairs of young female eyes.

"Something, something." Muttered Laila, shaking her head.

"Yeah, I know." Said Therese a little unhappily. There was something that didn't fit. He was such a good, patient boy, and now an even better girl, but?

"Moom, can you come." Called Anna. "We need help."

Not Katrine too, thought Adam despairingly. He could only thank God that they didn't call for Sarah too.

As she came up she stared at him surprised.

"Amanda, you look really good girl. But? Those drawers." She said as she started to laugh pointing to the uneven lump under his skirt.

"That's it" said Anna, coming at him as if she was going to rip them of immediately.

Adam took three very fast steps to Katrine, crouching behind her, feeling even worse as he realized what he was doing. Hiding behind a woman, but hell, he needed some protection here. When Anna got like that he wasn’t even sure that her mother would be able to stop her.

"Girls, why not let Amanda change herself?"

The girls could understand the general idea, but they felt cheated just the same. After all, they had already seen him, hadn't they? Of course they had. They didn't care, did they?

No, this was plain silliness from Amanda's, and now Katrine's, side.

But as they studied Katrine they weren't as sure that she would see the good sense in their approach, so, grousing a little they gave after for her wishes.

"But, to that skirt you need something nice."

Said Therese, wistfully laying something frilly and almost transparent on the bed. It looked more like a small lacy hanky than a pair of panties, thought Adam, once more fiercely wishing that Katrine wasn't there to watch them.

Katrine found the girls quite racy, they had made him out like something from a bizarre manga magazine she thought, with those white thin socks going up to his knees, and his shiny black Mary Jane's.

The only thing missing now was him sucking one of those really big lollipops she realized. 'Oh God, I really need that camcorder.” She studied the room, now where?

"Ah yes girls, I was thinking of going to the mall later. Would you like to come?"

But she had already started to question her sudden need of documenting it, seeing how Adam shrunk away at the mention of going to the mall. And noticing Therese’s choice, she feared that the girls already were passing a border of no return.

"No." she said resolutely at last, sternly looking at Therese.

"That won't do at all Therese, where ever did you get such an idea from?"

She knew that the girls wouldn't dare to have such naughty stuff for their mothers to see. She wearily shook her head. 'They're growing up too fast nowadays' she thought as she looked at them.

Both Therese and Laila blushed. It was Therese that had bought them on a dare but, as Katrine so rightly had guessed, had kept them hidden until now.

"Amanda, it’s your choice really, not theirs. Come girls." Taking them with her, right out of the room.

"I know you like him girls, we all do. But he's not a new doll. He trusts you. What do you think will happen if he realizes that he's being fooled?"

She looked at Anna as she said that last. And she saw Anna slowly waking up to what might happen.

"Mom, I didn't think. We just wanted to see what she would look like."

The other girls, realizing that they too had overstepped their bounds reddened feeling terribly self conscious.

"Maybe we should change her skirt too?" muttered Therese embarrassed.

"I don't know." Said Katrine. "Would you go to the mall looking like her?" she pointedly asked Laila.

Laila blushed. No, she wouldn't, to an anime festival perhaps, but not to a mall.

"Okay, so we stay home." Said Anna, deciding for them all, already wanting to go back to Adam.

Katrine nodded. "Or, you help Amanda into something less revealing, it's up to you."

After some talk the girls decided to skip the mall, they had put too much work into shaping Amanda to their fantasies to let it go. And, of course, that sweet sense of power coming from deciding someone else's choice. But they also knew that they couldn't take her with them looking so, well, frankly flashy.

"Don't fool yourselves, it will only come back to bite you." warned Katrine as she left.

As they came in Adam stood their in his blouse, Mary Jane's, and the short shirt looking like some anime dream with his artfully applied makeup. The girls found that they had trouble to look him in his eyes.

"Would you like to change?" asked Therese softly. "You don't have to be a girl for us, really."

Laila nodded. "We were just being silly."

"But you looked so hot." admitted Anna wistfully.

And he knew. He had heard most of their discussion, but he had also looked at himself in the mirror, several times. And between that and the discussion he had realized that he still found it exciting.

He had never imagined that he would become any girl’s wet dream? It gave him a certain satisfaction to know that those three standing in front of him now, would have dreams about him tonight. Was that how a girl felt?

He sat down on the bed, purposefully letting them see a glimpse of his panties as he pouted his perfectly shaped, deeply red, lips at them. Deliberately he lisped, dead pan studying them

"Whelse my lolly. Manda wantsh'a slopshlickle"

The girls stared at him, furiously blushing. Seeing him smiling rapaciously as he patted the bed, calling his pets to him, for once obedient.

"It's only us chickens." Muttered Adam, as he satisfied studied their new and severely subdued appearances, sitting obediently beside him.

He took hold of Laila and Therese, drawing them with him down on the bed, holding them.

"I like you too." He said. "And Katrine was right, I do trust you."

The girls froze.

He turned to Laila and kissed her. She tensed up at first, but as he kept on kissing finally yielded under his impact. As he felt her getting all soft and juicy he broke their kiss and turned over to Therese, giving her the same treatment and getting much the same response.

"I never thanked you properly, did I?" He said to her as they lay there, still dazed in his kiss. He smiled at Laila who seemed to have trouble remembering where she was. Then he looked at Anna, who now felt miserable, the only one he hadn't kissed. "Feels good, doesn’t it?"

"No."

"Well, I didn't want you to either."

As he saw her whipped puppy eyes he relented slightly.

"Cause, I love you Anna. And yes, I do trust you, all of you. But, can you trust yourself?" He thought a little more trying to find the right words.

"I don't mind to dress up for you, its kind'a fun, weird but fun, but where will it end?"

He laughed, a little hysterically. "When I looked in the mirror, I almost wanted to make love to myself. And you lot liked it too, didn’t you?”

“So, what do I have here? One, two, or three girlfriends?" He wearily stood up, sighing. "I'm going down to the kitchen, I want some ice cream. And I hope you’ve sorted it out before I'm back."

As he walked out the door he made sure to swing his hips and make his skirt flip, giving the girls that little extra to remember.

Hell, he couldn't help it, he did feel sexy, a little depressed, yes, weird, oh yes.

But sexy.

==
 
 

===

As Adam sat waiting for the girls to finish their powwow he quickly started to get bored. 'Strange how fast one can get used to things' he thought as he sat down in the couch, unconsciously smoothing his skirt so not to wrinkle it, while using the remote to zap around for a football game.

Here he was, acting as if he always had lived here, when the truth was that he had been living on the streets just a week before. He wondered what he would have thought then, if he would have seen himself like this.

Shit, he would never have believed it. To be honest he wasn't too sure it was real now either, but hey, at least the ice cream was. At last he could hear the girls coming down the stairs chattering and giggling. They seemed happy as they came up to him.

"We have decided to share." Proclaimed Anna as she stood before him, smiling benignly.

The girls were giving him a real hard time, in ways more than one, as they stood before him, the sunlight highlighting their contours through their thin negligees. He crossed his legs, it might be uncomfortable he thought but considering the alternative he felt he had little choice in the matter. ‘Down boy, down’.

"Share?"

The girl’s heads bobbed up and down. It was kind of eerie to Adam, watching them bob so perfectly synchronized.

"I'm Monday and Tuesday." Said Laila smiling seductively at her little boy rabbit.

"And I'm Wednesday and Thursday." Said Therese, a little more shyly, looking at her cuddly teddybear.

"And the rest of the time your ass is mine boy." Said Anna in an almost feral growl.

"Well, you can rest on Sundays, but you don't need to, do you?" Hopefully.

"Ah this 'sharing thing', does that mean that I have three girlfriends now?" he asked, still unsure.

Anna looked unhappy, but then she reluctantly nodded.

"It's not fair otherwise." She explained. "We’ve shared everything, our whole life. And we found you together and took you home."

"And you're sure you're okay with this Anna?" he looked at her searchingly.

She started to shake her head, but stopped to nod again.

"They like you a lot too Amanda. I don't know what to do, but I can share if I must."

Adam smiled at them.

"Okay girlfriends. You're already ready for bed, right. How about us going back up?"

And so they went, making that first prolonged sleepover of many.
===
 
 
Sarah woke up in a strange room, screaming of femininity, not that it was all made in pink, but to his mind there could be no doubt about it. 'Femininity warning' ringing all red through his mind as he tried to remember through his growing headache. And he did remember, mostly, but as it came to the moment where he sat down at the couch it all became dark.

As he listened to the girls discussing outside the room he started to wonder what he had fallen into. Now there were more girls, definitely more. Forcing himself up from the bed he peeped out, one, two, three, four girls, and three of them sharing the fourth?

Strange, very strange, and she being dressed like some Japanese anime too, with the others mostly looking like Lolita’s in their thin negligees.

Was it some high end sporting house for the depraved? With him, undressed now, in only his slip and panties, being their newest goods? Where was he?

He had fallen totally for her he had to admit, her and that caring sweetness, but now he started to question it all, his temples throbbing mercilessly.

Katrine was it? Where was she? Was she trying to press him into some kind of 'work'? Well, he had been looking for work, hadn't he, but? Not like this. And how would it look on his resume?

"Yes sir, eight years at Arlington heights teaching history and mathematics, and three more as a high-class lesbian prostitute? "

Shit, he couldn't even expose her filthy business, not without blowing his real identify. He could just see the headlines. 'Crossdressing lesbian' wait, wasn't he a transvestite too? No, or yes? This was confusing. Let's see, oh yes, now he could see the first page.

'Crossdressing Lesbian transvestite bravely exposes sex-ring, bob's cockeyed.'

"Where the hell did that one come from." He muttered listlessly as he listened to the conversation in the living room, still searching in vain for his dress.

And did Anna just call her a 'boy'?

As Leonard listened on he became more and more enraged. So, he wasn't the first crossdresser here? But, those kids were clearly underage? And now they were going up to some sex orgy, were they. He realized he had been stuck in a trap.

She had served him that drink, there had to have been something in it. Thinking off it he realized that he still felt dizzy and strange, at least now he could see her plan. Well forewarned is forearmed, right?

So, as Katrine came back in from the breakfast he sat in the bed staring at her hard eyed and cool. Well, as hard eyed as you can be having the katzenjammer of a millennium and being dressed, or undressed as it was, totally inappropriate for ‘getting to the bottom’ of it. And as he saw her he sort of lost it.

"So? What do you plan to do with me?"

Plan him to do what? Katrine stared. “Did he want her to?”

"Would you like to do breakfast?" she asked confused, looking around, seeing the mess from yesterday. "Sorry, we really should get this cleaned up."

My God, she wanted him as her maid, he had heard about those, vile, absolutely vile.

"Do I have to wear a uniform too?" He asked, realizing that there was no way out. She was just too hard a nut for him to crack dressed like this, and he, he already knew too much about her operation.

"Uniform? I'm a lawyer Sarah. Oh, your uniform you mean? Why would you need a uniform?”

Does she want me to do it naked?

As she looked at his depressed demeanor she couldn’t help wondering if he still was ashamed of yesterday. So he wanted out of here, did he? Did he want her to play along too? A one night fling then? She felt her disappointment gathering like a dark cloud at the horizon as she valiantly tried to smile. Well, okay.

“Oh I see, A cop then, undercover? Well that explains it, and now you got to go, right. Criminals to catch, things to do, that sort of thing right? Well don’t let me stand in your way then."

He snorted. "No one would take you for a police Katrine. Not with this." He made a sweeping gesture. "filth." He murmured a little more quietly, suddenly ashamed of himself. She had helped him after all. But this house was much too expensive for a cop.

What was that last word she said?

"Did you say undercover? Me? No, I swear, please, don't get any goons." Laughing nervously as he studied her. Only God knew what kind of connections she might have.

Collecting what courage he had left he stood up.

"But, know this Katrine. You may have me in something of a bind here. You may make me your maid. You may force me to call you mistress." Desperately wishing that he had had something more appropriate on him than this silly frilly slip.

"But I will fight you every step of the way, I will fight you on the beaches, I will fight you on your landing ground, and I will fight you in the kitchen. I will. ."

He had to sit down again, his head in his hands, his headache now growing into gigantic proportions, feeling slightly moronic as he replayed those last words in his mind.

Katrine now started to worry for real, had she let a madman into her house. And him, who had seemed so nice? Looking at him she saw that boob slipping again. It gave her a vague feeling of surreally to argue with someone having one boob flagging at three quarters, and the other one pointing straight up to heaven.

"You're not very used to alcohol, are you Sarah?" she finally guessed, studying his appearance.

Now? ‘What the hell had alcohol to do with anything?’ He wondered listlessly, ‘if she had spoken about headache instead,’ he thought, ‘that would at least have made some sense.’

"Sarah? Why do you want to work as a maid? For me? That's so sweet of you, but I already have a housekeeper?" Could he be a little kinky she wondered as she sat down beside him holding him, trying to comfort him as he sat there, his head still in his hands. "And Sarah, what goons? Do you like men too?"

It took them quite some time to work through their misunderstandings. With Katrine solemnly swearing to never, ever, tell anyone about their little conversation.
===
 
 
So, now you might think that this story will be all sugar and spice? Well, it could be, if it was another tale, but it's not. There were things in motion. What Adam didn't know about his parents and his trust could cover a book of its own, which should come as no surprise considering his age.

In this world as in most others there are some obvious powers, and others not so obvious. Some of them already on the prowl, wanting him badly. Why? Well, there is an answer to that, or if you like several.

One of the more obvious was his trust. It was a trust larger than anyone knew. There is always someone knowing of course, but in this case those who knew had their own reasons for keeping their mouths closed. And no, the trust was about more than just money too.

The world is seldom a thing of beauty. Don’t get me wrong here, Earth is, but the world? The meaning of worldly we all know, to be attuned to the flesh, and to live in and by its pleasures. Most of us stay there, never batting an eyelash at what other possibilities there might be, to no great surprise. It is, as always, a question of how you were raised. Upbringing, stability and education.

Until his parents death Adam had had all three, bereft of them he had none. Some of those sitting in the shadows wanted it to keep on being so. They had with a twisted pleasure watched him escape from the orphanage just, as they had hoped, to fall in their hands. But he had fooled them, himself unknowingly, by choosing his escape at a night of the full moon.

For those of you not knowing the importance of a full moon I recommend the tractate 'A full moon and all its phases.' By Lorrimer Strangly DM. PH. FWOPK. DTT. It will bring to your attention the rudiments needed for any further study.

But in this particular case, and for those to lazy to prevail, it will suffice to say that the new and full moon is important for several reasons. The one helping Adam escape being that whatever magic is done under a full moon is likely to misfire, as the might of that moon will influence even the most carefully woven spells.

So he escaped, much to the disappointment of those wanting him. So there was not only the Government out looking for him, and the police, but also those, more deviously shaped forces. Now, I don't know how many of you that believes in a heaven and a hell? You see, to me that too will be a question of upbringing, stability, and education. To those without those three bases hell will exist, one hell when they live, and the other, depending on beliefs, awaiting their death.

Those of us more or less blessed with all three mostly refuse to believe in them, although in this, as in most other situations, your upbringing will be what tips the balance. To that I might add that I have troubles seeing a more refined hell than what we seem to make for each other.

In every generation there are only a very few born having those three prerequisites, succeeding in threading the narrow path of compassion. Most of us stumble on our way, repeatedly.

And for those that walks the shadows only hell is existent. So in a way both the most ignorant and those knowing too much share their vision of hell, but each from an opposite side of the scale.

Shadowwalkers believe themselves the doers of destinies, shapers of fate, with you and me my friend only as the base metal, waiting for their furnace. If you would meet one of them they would hide behind a friendly countenance, smiling at you as they signed your death warrant.

Most probably they would give it to you in a sealed envelope making you promise to bring it to the guards notice. Oh yes, they do exist and I've seen them. Most probably you have too, if you cared to search your memory.

So, Adam and his new family unknown, there were already several unwholesome powers searching for him, turning each and every stone.
==
 
 
Up in their room Anna and Amanda sat on the bed with Therese and Laila. They were just talking, having fun. The girls made Adam relax to a degree where he even found himself telling them about his parents and upbringing. He had grown up in a small town, not unlike the one they had visited going to the mall, but even smaller.

"Yeah, it was strange. Sometimes when I went to school the streets would change. I'm not sure how but sometimes they were just, different. And you never knew when it would happen. My mom used to tell me a story about a young boy going home trying a shortcut that hadn't been there the day before. She told me that he just disappeared."

The girls listened to him, watching his face intently for signs of him making it up.

"You sure about this?" asked Anna incredulously, finding it hard to believe. ”I mean, moving streets? You sure you weren’t on steroids or something?”

Adam shook his head, his hair covering his eyes again. ‘Shit.’ he thought. ‘This haircut freaks me out.’

"No, I'm not. When I try to tell someone about it I can't, and when I try to remember what I want to say, it becomes foggy. You’re the first I’ve been able to tell it too. But I'm not sure, I remember it this way, and I believe it too, but it makes no sense.”

He looked down at his hands as he continued.

“When they threw me into the orphanage the school was three blocks away and every day the first weeks I used to watch the streets, learning them by rote so I would know if they had changed. But they never did?"

"Well, usually streets only change when they build." Said Laila trying to make light of it, but for Therese it felt as something out of a ghost story, listening to him.

"Weren't you frightened Amanda? To get lost I mean, like that boy did?" Asked Therese.

"No, not really. The first time I was afraid was in the orphanage, and after that there were the streets of course. But the orphanage was the worst."

The girls remembered how he had looked as they found him, bloody and beaten up. And they couldn’t help wonder why he thought the orphanage worse than that.

"Yeah." Said Anna at last, protectively moving closer to him.

"That was bad, but now you have me."

"And me."

"Me too." Said Therese.

Now all three sat close hugging him, whispering in his ears. Finding no way out of their tightening embrace he tried to tickle them. It worked better than he ever could have hoped for, but then Laila treacherously attacked him with a pillow.

From there sheer bedlam broke lose, well, not really. But it was a very good pillow fight without any clear winner. Even though Adam tried his best to prove himself the overall champion, with the girls ganging up on him, laughing derisively.

As they lay down exhausted the girls started to do things with, and to, him. Not that he complained, he was doing much the same to them. To Adam it was his slice of heaven having three nubile young bodies to play with, and being played by. And deeming by the sighs and pleased murmur's drifting his way, he thought his new girlfriend's to share his vision.
===
 
 
Now, there are different kinds of shyness. The one most common one is the one you see when someone tries to be invisible, having a hard time to say more than three words. But there exists other types too. Like those presenting you with a perfect surface, letting you believe that they are exactly what you see, easy talking, laughing and sharing.

But when you come closer to them you find them gliding away, their 'self' untouchable even in the closest relations. More often than not that is a coping mechanism protecting things hurt, sometimes so deep that the person acting doesn't know it himself, or is able to remember it. And so I believe it was with our Sarah.

Sarah hadn't lived on the streets, but she had grown up with her mother. A mother forced to always be the first to lose her job whenever the economy took a dip, and the last to get that new one, constantly moving. As well as chasing that perfect man and family provider. Most unfettered men shy away from marring a single mom. Why that is? Good question, but it is a known fact.

And that was the main reason he hadn't stayed to fight either. To him it was not only his crossdressing that might become questioned but his whole personality, all that he was. On that deep instinctive plane he knew that to stay could be the beginning to his end, therefore he had no choice but to leave.

Don't mistake that for cowardice. Few heroes has never been afraid, and loosing what persona you so laboriously have constructed for yourself under your years growing up? Would you yourself be prepared to lose that, over a mere job?

The real problem Sarah faced, wherever she went, was just that dual nature. Her ability to be that extrovert open person on the surface, shielding her real self from all, including herself. Somewhere inside her there was a child crying, but she had long ago lost the ability to hear it.

But Katrine could. How some unique persons can be, and do, such is another question I don't have an answer too. I'm sure most of you have seen that famous character Dr. Phil on your television, setting lives right like broken bones, by the hour.

Imagine your absolute counterpart to that, someone that won't tell you in three simple steps what you need to do, but listens instead. Someone that hear you so well that your words lose their meaning. That was Katrine.

You might argue that if it was something Katrine was good on then that had to be taking over other persons lives, commandeering them. And I would tend to agree, but that was just another aspect of her ability. She could see what you needed and make you find it just by being there for you. And most of all, you could trust her.

So, what would you deem the most precious, rare, commodity on Earth?

Platinum, gold, diamonds, uranium?

You're right. Trust.

To have trust and to find that one that won't betray. Even heroes will betray at times. Only lesser works gives you a hero without faults, the exception possibly being religious tomes.

To find that one in your own life that steadily refuses to betray, your bulwark against corruption, is according to my calculations somewhat less probable than to find that famous needle. Approximately on the level with hell freezing over, giving away free skates, muffler's and hot chocolate.

And in many ways that refusal is an innate thing, of the soul, not achieved through learning. So you might say that Sarah was lucky, she had at last found her safe harbor. But to find home, is that the same as recognizing it?

What her hurts was? I don't really know, and if I did I doubt I would discuss them. But with her mother becoming increasingly unstable coming into her middle age, and also having been a great many men in her life, grandiosely promising her marriage?

And who those men were, and what they did, or didn’t? I don't know. But we all know the end result. That's right, our Sarah. Cool and shy, open and friendly yet inaccessible, just not there for you on that deeper plane. Now you might wonder what this has to do with her crossdressing, I would say nothing, or maybe?

It all depends, we contain multitudes, all of us do. But I hope our tale will allow us to see. Remember though that not all wounds are needed to break open, the pus emptied. Some might better be healed from the inside, with us looking to results instead of their sources.

Katrine and Anna both, they were good at that.
==
 
 
So there they sat, Sarah and Katrine. Sarah staring to feel like the most ungrateful jerk in history, with Katrine looking at him as she couldn't decide if she was going to have a screaming fit or console him. In the end she did both, taking him in her arms while scolding him as if he was some misbehaving child.

When she had cooled down some she found the ungrateful son of a gun almost asleep at her bosom. She shook him angrily, not satisfied with his response.

"Did you listen to anything I said?"

"Sorry, The headache is killing me Katrine."

"Oh, bother."

He took the chance to put some more weight to her, elevating them both down on the bed in a more comfortable position. She wanted to scold him some more but as she noticed his pained expression she realized he wasn't joking.

"Why did you drink so much then?"

"Don't know, nervous I guess, it just got out of hand."

She had told him about how Amanda had come to be, and though he had problem imagining it he had no doubt she was telling him the truth. He looked at her, begging her with his bloodshot eyes to let him be.

"Katrine, can't we rest a little while?"

She nodded.

"Thank you." closing his eyes again, snuggling into her.

Well, it was she who had invited him after all. She looked down at him wondering as he started to snore. What was it with this guy? The only thing he had done since arriving was getting drunk, snoring loudly, then accusing her of having a bordello and now, snoring again?

But she still had hopes for him, under it all he seemed quite decent, and she liked that. As she thought about it she too slowly glided into sleep, never noticing.
==
 
 
As Sarah woke up he found her sleeping. And as he looked at her he felt a strange nebulous gentleness suffuse him, making him at peace with the world. As he idly looked around he noticed the photo of a young lady hanging at the wall.

Carefully entangling himself from her embrace he went over to take a look at it. At first he had thought it to be her daughter Anna, but noticing subtle differences, as well as the older type of cars portrayed in it, he at last realized that it had to be a photo of Jake.

He stood there transfixed, studying him. So that was what he was competing against. And comparing himself against the picture he started to doubt himself anew. He looked back to the bed, she looked peaceful and warm he thought, but what did she need someone like him for?

She already had it all, hadn't she? Her own firm, money, a loving daughter, or daughters? After all, he was just another loser? One of the riff raff, like some waste momentarily floating up to the surface, just to sink again. It felt wrong to him, he hadn't a thing to offer her.

Maybe she just had taken pity to him. Felling his depression gather its force again he quietly started to look for his clothes, wondering how he would make it home. As he looked in his purse he saw that he still had some money left, not as much as he had hoped but enough for a ride home. For a moment he thought of waking her and ask if she could lend him some money, but no. To have to ask her would just be too much. He would rather walk.

Katrine, who had wakened when he got up, saw him look at the photo, his sadness obvious. She just couldn't understand it, she would have thought that most guys would be happy being with her, but not him?

There he was, looking for his clothes again, planning to sneak away again even before they had gotten to know each other for real? Was she that revolting to him? Well, if that was what he wanted she wouldn't stop him.

But thinking again she couldn't help but finding both him and Adam to be much the same. Both seemed to have a very prickly conscience and an immense, even if slightly misdirected, pride in them selves. Then again she reflected, perhaps pride is the last thing to get stripped of you? Well, that and hope of course. As she saw him turn back to her she closed her eyes.

Sarah went back to the bed, looking down at Katrine. Silently he sat down beside her. She still seemed to be asleep and he thought her very beautiful. He had by now became convinced that he had to stop imposing himself on her. But as he sat there he wished that he could find some other way than to just run away. He felt cheap, cheap and a little dirty under the cold light of his own reflections.

"I wish." He muttered touching a strand of her brown hair, slowly tracing it down to her neck.

"I wish I had something to offer you Katrine."

"You already have Sarah." She answered opening her eyes, two whirlpools of violet staring down his soul.

"You."

He stopped, that wasn’t what he had planned for, her to hear him. And as he sat there, suspended in time she laid her hand on his, pulling him closer to her.

" Do you think we would be here If I didn't like you, Sarah?" she asked him quietly, searching his eyes.

"I don't know." He answered, feeling lost as he looked down at her. "I can't compete with all of this." Making a grand sweeping gesture with his arm while looking at Jake's photo again.

"Everything I've done so far has turned wrong, it's not only you Katrine."

She smiled and stopped him by dragging him down besides her, lifting her head to be kissed. And as he did he found them inexplicable melting into each other, words suddenly redundant.
===
 
 
 
 
If you could look outside their house now, perhaps soaring over it in a balloon, you could look down on their own little quarter of neighborhood, with their well cut lawns, and nice looking houses, all in discrete similar colors, each one with their own little carport. Side by side in never ending rows of self satisfied middleclass serenity. A suburban wet dream came true you might say. All trusting to that this was the only way it could be, and always had been.

Raising higher, expanding your view you would slowly see the little town come into perspective, materializing under your eyes, with its rich and poor quarters, its small industrial zone and its malls. But, if lifting your eyes, you might also notice the darkness building around the town.

That wall of darkness isolating it, as if the town now found itself resting inside the black eye of a hurricane, staring down on them, judging them mercilessly. And if you listened real hard you might even hear that particular darkness ripening, vibrating, like immense power lines curled, slowly constricting the town, raring to unleash their raw power.
===

 
========
 

Mrs. Andersen living next doors to Katrine was the one that saw them first. Although dressed like humans there was something to the way they walked she though, when getting out of that non descriptive car, its discreet colors blending in with the asphalt making it all an indescribable grey.

Something indefinable and quietly disturbing with the way they looked around, whipping their heads around almost snakelike in their movements. And then there was also the way the smaller man constantly seemed to lick his mouth, his tongue fluttering in and out as if tasting the air.

They were both dressed in dark business suits, white shirts and blazingly red ties. Their polarized sunglasses, effectively hiding their eyes, reflected a weak light, making Mrs. Andersen feel as if she was staring into empty pools of darkness as they looked at her, while the taller man presented himself.

"Ah, so pleased to meet you Madam. My name." Presenting his visit card with a elegant gesture. She looked down on the immaculately engraved card. It was red, with the letters made out in an electrical blue, making it quite hard to read. 'Damien O. A. Faustier. Certified Investigator' And in larger letters 'TLOD.'

Now the smaller man opened his mouth showing their pearly white small teeth, not unlike a rodents.

"Eliah madam.” Bowing stiffly.

“We are looking for a boy. A runaway in fact." Smiling at her, his incredibly white teeth as reefs, protruding out of his wetly red ocean.

“Perhaps you’ve seen him, perhaps you are the one that can help our inquiry?”

As she tried to smile back she couldn’t help notice his leathery skin, drawn taut and smooth by some unremitting sun. As he stepped closer his skin seemed to be giving of a weak odor, reminiscent of a slowly mummifying corpse, not that she ever had been near any mummy. And as she felt herself slowly losing her grip on reality the man in that whispering cold voice, devoid of any emotional content, continued.

"We are so disappointed in him madam, disappointed indeed." his tongue flickering out, as if some tasty fly just passed by.

Now the taller man smiled too, also having those perfect gleaming teeth. Such ones that is so popular those days, not real of course, and yet realer than life itself. Flashing her that perfect goal of neatness and power every time the men smiled, trying to impress on her the same impression that their 'power suits' wanted to present.

"Yes brother Eliah, so right again, we are indeed looking for him. We are worried that he might come to hurt. We're working for the ‘orphanage of the blessed saints’, perhaps you've heard about us? Lots of good work madam, bringing the sheep’s back. Let me present you a photo of the young man. We would be most pleased if there was any way you could help us?”

As she looked at the photo she saw a young boy, smiling. In the background she saw a car and a small house, with an overgrown lawn behind him filled with trees and flowers, ‘summer’ she thought, ‘full summer’. She could also see a dark shadow falling at the side of him looking like some woman's, ‘a dress?’ she thought, ‘his mother perhaps?’

"I'm sorry but I don't recognize him." She said curtly.

Vaguely apprehensive as she said it, cold shivers creeping up her spine as if they were blotting out the sun, just by mere appearance.

"Ah Madam, not as sorry as we, I assure you."

As she tried to give him the photo back he shook his head.

"No Madam, please keep it, no, I insist. On the back of it you will find a telephone number. If you would see him please contact us. His uncle would dearly want him back."

The smaller of them smiled, giving the illusion of a leathery mask suddenly splintering into thousands of small strands, each one trembling with a life of its own. Like thin brown maggots quivering, unable to crawl.

"Yes, we are also happy to inform that there is a matter of a gratification, isn't that so, dear brother."

"You are so right father Elias, and to a most substantial degree too, if I may add. For the one, or ones, locating and bringing our poor young sheep into the fold. Safely, that is, in the arms of his grieving uncle. Able to transform your deepest dreams madam, that amount. But now, alas, by your leave."

Both bowing, lifting their hats simultaneously.

As they left the sun slowly seemed to come to life again. She looked as they came to next house, unmoving as some mannequins while waiting for the front door to open. As the door did they magically seemed to come to life again, like some strange kind of automata winding themselves up by the doors motion.

She suddenly felt herself in dire need of a bath, or at least a shower, but in the end she contended herself with washing her hands. She also had a distinct feeling that she had seen that boy recently, or at least someone quite like him.

But it didn't really matter, all she knew was that those men were not out to help him, and that if she ever saw that boy, they would be the very last she would call on, reward or no reward.
===
 
 

Under the day everything seemed as usual, people rushing through their daily lives, acting as if everything was normal, but as the light waned and they slowed down? Nothing was as normal anymore. If you by some magic could have watched them, each and every one, in their homes? Well, you would have seen them gathering together, drawing strength from each other, the teenagers for once not needed to be told to behave.

I would have liked to write that it blew up to a storm outside, but that wouldn't have described the truth. It was rather as if there was a sudden silence and calm permeating the community, the silence you get inside that eye of a hurricane. A threat of something waiting, undefined yet but all the same infinitely dangerous. And if you ever have lived poor you know what I mean about the family gathering together, finding their strength in each other.

There were other types of family's too, not all living in that close harmony. As the Livingstone's for example. Theirs was a sorely disturbed life. With their father one of those clearly unable to act as a father should, instead manipulating and abusing. And their mother you ask? Well, not all mothers are paragons of strength, she was weak, unable to stand against him, and their two children? The main victims, as their mother.

And as the dusk laid its velvety hand upon their little town we, if we now had that ‘God like’ sight, would find the two strangers inside that house, presenting their findings to the monster living there.

"Sorry Sir, we couldn't find a trace of the little brat."

"But the photos are out and circulating?"

"Yes Sir."

"Good, I'll report your findings. Keep up the good work."

As Elias and Dante went back to their rented room the man sat down to think. As his wife came in to inform him that the dinner was ready he brusquely showed her out, ordering her to call for the children to come. As they arrived, two scared youngsters, each one wondering what wrongs they had done this time, he smiled at them.

"Patricia, Daniel. I have work for you."

"Yes dad?"

"Do you see those boxes. Take a box each, tomorrow I want you to start to talk to all kids you know. The kid in the photo is important and I want him found. Tell them that there is a reward, everyone wants money, don't they baby."

He looked at Rachel, a guileless predatory smile plastered all over his face. If you ever have seen that used cars salesman coming for you out on the prowl. Or, better still, have had your hand shaken by that politician staring earnestly into your eyes, you might have some weak resemblance to what I'm talking about. As Rachel listened to her dad, and part time 'lover', she once more faltered under the uselessness of living, it’s weight almost crushing her.

She hated him, she loved him too. After all, he was the only father she had known. Perhaps all fathers were as him? And Andrew then who, although not being sexually abused himself, yet, had been forced into the position of becoming the witness of it all? In his case that love already had eroded, long ago, leaving only emptiness, and a mute scream in the dark.

His sister kept doing her best to keep their father away from him, but both knew that it only was a matter of time. And, in the end, leaving them both without hope.

Both kids wanted out from the whole sordid way of life their father had forced upon them. Rachel was fourteen now, and had been her fathers plaything since she became eleven, Andrew was twelve. Andrew wanted them to leave, arguing persistently for their need, but he also knew that this would leave their mother as their father’s final victim. And in the end neither he nor Rachel could cope with that.

Both of them loved and cared for their mother, even though that love was mixed with a great deal of contempt. Contempt for how she allowed their father to abuse her, and them. But as they saw her, constantly cringing from his smallest rebukes, always eager to please, they knew that they couldn't refuse her need for them. And what their mother thought?

Once more I find myself without words. I wish we both knew, as if we did perhaps me, or you, could have helped her to make that decision, so long overdue.

"Sure dad." Answered Rachel, smiling back.

Her life, and his fists, had quickly taught her that the more she conformed, the less abuse would be heaped upon her. Those few times she had refused him, he not only took it out on her, but on the whole family. Andrew just kept his silence as he once more felt his hate and fear build.

Their dad studied them some more. He enjoyed the complicity and adaptability his little boy-toy showed. He had her trained real good now, he even had played with the idea of having both her and her mom in his bed, simultaneously pleasing him. But he wasn't sure they were all ready for it yet, but soon, he thought as he studied Rachel, soon.

As for Andrew he already had his future staked out. There had been an expressed interest from his superiors, and delivering young boys was a fireproof way of winning their favor, and promoting his interest. It wasn't as the boy had any promise anyway.

No, as far he was concerned the faster the little brat got out of the house the better. And what better use of his family than to better their fathers prospects? To him there were no real family members to be found, only thralls, and his superiors of course.
==
 
 
But in his hometown he was, as most perceived it, a true pillar of the community as well as of the faith. A regular churchgoer, never missing the Sunday mass, and real easy to talk with too with a ready smile for each one needing his advice. A man of importance and weight indeed, whose recommendations and thoughts were taken most seriously. Even a member of their regional Lions Club, there seen as a true champion of the weak and downtrodden.

Now, what can that tell us? That people only see what they want to see perhaps? As for how people becomes like him I’m not sure, maybe we all have some reminiscence of it left in us. But their life’s must be as black holes, forever sucking in what light and goodness they meet, leaving only empty despair.

But, even if we all share this to some degree, most of us choose it away at an early stage, most not even remembering. And even amongst those abusing there are differences, one of the last bastions being your own family. But for those overstepping that last boarder there is little redemption to be found in my eyes. As so it was in Andrews too.

"Scoot." Their father told them as he turned to call his own masters.

==
 
====
 
Laila was slowly untangling herself from her new lovers embrace.

"I have to go now, it's already dark." Laila reluctantly told them as she started to dress.

Anna looked at her clock.

“Strange, it’s only half past three.” She said, trying to look out the black window plane, only reflecting the warm light inside the room.

Adam couldn’t stop looking at Laila, admiring her. Somewhere under their festivities she had succeeded to loose most of her clothes, as if by magic. And as she stood there beside him in her slip he found her shape, and smile, increasingly alluring.

"Please don't." he said. Can't you stay the night Laila?" imploringly

"No, my mother made me promise. She's really down, her new boyfriend turned out to be a real jerk. They broke up yesterday."

As Anna listened she found herself unwilling to loose the company of Laila too. She was surprised over herself, to share as she they had decided, that had to bee the hardest decision she ever had made in her young life. But it had all turned out to be as simple and natural as swimming, when she finally had found the courage to allow it to happen. Suddenly she had another of her wicked ideas, well, our Anna had no shortage of them.

"Therese, don’t you think your mother needs a sleepover? I mean, doesn't she get tired of all those relatives running around?"

She looked at Therese nodding meaningfully. Therese looked at her surprised, but suddenly, by some extrasensory perception only girls can have perceiving Anna’s devious plan she nodded, looking pleased.

"Don't know really, do you think I should call her and ask? But your mom, shouldn't you talk with her too. And what about Sarah?"

"Don't worry girl, you take care of your mother, I'll take care of mine, and Sarah too."

Laila who had listened to Anna's new plans became increasingly envious hearing them discussing. Here she was, forced to go home, only to listen to her mom telling her what a loser her new boyfriend had turned out to be. While they, and their moms, were going to have the best sleepover ever, having all the fun. Probably lasting for weeks too.

Anna who surreptitiously had studied her reactions, started to smile, feeling satisfied. 'Yes, the lure is working. And Laila firmly hooked, just a little...'

"Laila, why don't you call your mother too? She would have a lot of shoulders to cry out on here." She suggested sweetly as her smile grew. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Laila studied Anna thoughtfully, her smile staring to beam too, as a small sun, radiating that sudden good humor at the same time as she a little sourly commented.

"As if you didn't plan that from the beginning Anna." Snorting. "You did. Admit it."

Anna looked as her, innocent as a doe under the gun, but to no avail. Laila had her pegged and her smile just grew. Adam looked at his Anna, once more realizing his incredible luck, or if it now was the other way around? 'Never mind' he decided. “I’m glad she exist.” He leaned over to kiss her, whispering.

"You're the best girlfriend I know, ah, you too." Looking a little sheepishly at the others.

"You too girlfriend." Answered Anna as proudly as she caressed his, or to be true, hers pajamas. ‘It’s tailor made for him.’ She thought as she admired his litheness. When he had gotten it on she couldn't remember. She remembered her getting disappointed over his unwillingness to go the whole way though, ‘maybe that was his security?’

"When ever did you get that one on you sweetie." She asked, a little surprised.

"Who." said Therese a little pedantically, blatantly choosing to misinterpret Anna's question. "Get 'whenever did you get who on you', you mean."

Adam looked at Anna, then at Therese. His face one single question mark.

"Sorry, I don't get it." he complained.

As they just laughed at him he sighed. "Girls." He muttered darkly, but then he sneered getting that gratified, most self-satisfying, look.

‘They thought they could remake me did they?’ He thought as he looked at them triumphantly.

“I'm still myself. Yep, a man, and damned proud of it too." Muttering it, as he studied them a little smugly.

"And we have a bigger brains too. It's scientifically proved" he added as he saw their disbelief, belatedly realizing that they had heard him. Pleased as he remembered that it actually was true too.

He wasn't prepared for Laila's sudden onslaught though when she threw herself upon him.

"There Amanda, do you see, the girls was right. We're upon, as always."

But Adam could move too. Faster than you could say 'Ipety bibety boo' he turned her around, for once getting on top.

"All ways girl? No ways."

"Oh yeah? Says who" Said Therese as she joyfully joined in the brawl, throwing herself into the fray.

As Anna too joined up, he once more found himself buried under their nimble young bodies. Not that he complained, heck, as far as he was concerned they could stay like this for ever, but in the end he found it for best to capitulate.

"I give up, you win, let me breath. Hey, shouldn't you talk with your mothers?"

The two girls, suddenly remembering their long lost master plan, frantically rushed to their phones, with Anna running down the stairs to talk to, no forget that, rather instruct her mother and Sarah about the imminent invasion by foreign bodies, namely Katrine's best friends.

‘I’m sure Sarah will love it’ she thought, indulgently congratulating herself. ‘And Mom can show of her new man.’

Or should it be. .? Never mind, it was still a cool idea.

===
 
 

She found Katrine and Sarah in the bedroom, under the covers sleeping. As she stopped to look at them she got an idea. They were so cute with Sarah's arm protectively draped under and around her mom, with Katrine breathing in his ear, making his hair flutter with each breath she took.

She took up her phone and, as quietly she could, she turned on the lights while taking her photos. As they opened their eyes, awakened up by the sudden light, Sarah found Katrine's daughter Anna standing beside the bed, smiling as she took yet another photo of him, her smug expression flashing an unholy joy.

"I have the evidence Sarah, Or, should I call you Leonard? And the proofs of your blatant deviations with my innocent mother will be revealed for all, unless.." as she continued to photograph him as he stared back at her."

He felt as if a heart attack rapidly was approaching, again, But as he looked at her he realized that she only had on her that flimsy nightgown, and not much more. He flushed as he hastily looked away.

Anna flushed too, suddenly realizing that the mirror at the other side of the bed would expose her too in the photos. Understanding why Sarah had looked away she collected herself enough to smile, pouting her lips, and then slowly gave him a wink.

As Sarah realized that he still was looking on her, but now in the mirror, he wanted to scream as he dived under the covers, drawing them over his head. As she took her last photos, proud to be able to save that last expression for eternity, Anna satisfied assured herself that the photos taken this time, was taken by a master, a pity that she couldn't show them.

But Adam was family now, wasn’t he? She had to think about this some more, perhaps some gentle persuasion would help Sarah see the light? She thoughtfully looked at Katrine, who now had gone the whole way, from being surprised to annoyed, to laughing, as she at last realized the sheer hilarity of Anna’s new prank.

"Anna, I thought I had brought you up better than this." she reprimanded her, doing her best not to shame poor Sarah, who by now once more, was bound to wonder what kind of death trap he had fallen into.

"Can't you see that you're embarrassing me, and Sarah."

"Pah, I know you're keeping her. And now I have proof too. Unless. ."

"Unless what? And we need those photos Anna" said Katrine, quietly pleased over the memories they would give her and Leonard.

"Unless Laila's and Therese's mother can come. We have already called them. Mom, please, pretty pretty please, can't we have a sleepover with all of us?"

As Sarah listened under the safety of his cover he got goose skin all over, wondering where it would end this time. Here he was, dressed in a slip, photographed repeatedly by a girl young enough to be his daughter, well nearly young enough, he had to correct himself as he remembered that beguiling figure she had presented him.

'Not that I saw anything anyway' he quickly corrected himself, urgently trying to blot out his memories of her. Desperately forgetting what it now was that he didn't remember? And introducing two more women to him? With the girls upstairs too?

He had thought himself to be in trouble before, before coming to that mall? But looking at it now, he could only laugh cynically at the naiveté of it ‘They are witches, all of them are. She is going to sell them. I'll be in all the morning papers, again.' Forgetting that it only had been in in his overwrought imagination that last time.

He desperately tried to decide his best approach. A sudden assault perhaps, grabbing the phone and then run like hell? In a slip, nah, he would look like an idiot and the papers would love it. He fervently hoped that it only was about money though. If it was she could have it all, and good riddance to it.

He only had a few thousand anyway, and his money from selling the car, if now nobody had stole it of course? Considering his luck lately that wouldn't surprise him a bit. But, they were rich? Why would they need that pitiful amount of dough? ‘Hell, who know how witches think anyway?‘

Ever since he agreed to go with Katrine things had become turned upside down, nothing made sense anymore, the only relief that his headache becoming a little more manageable. Perhaps? Perhaps it was a nightmare? He closed his eyes again, burying his nose in Katrine’s backside, thinking ‘Damn her, why does she have to smell so good’ as he burrowed into her warmth, hoping and praying for him to wake up, home, in his own bed.

As Katrine thought about Anna’s idea, she had to admit that she would have loved to have them coming over. It was just that she wasn't sure that Sarah could take it. The surprises had just kept tumbling down, all over him like an avalanche, ever since they first had meet. And if the truth was told, she was starting to feel a tiny bit guilty about it, not that it was her fault though?

And then there was that way he made her feel, making her want to stay in bed, preferably for the whole vacation. ‘Too much to do,’ she thought wistfully as she felt his warm breath at her back, ‘and too little time.’

"I don't know dear."

"Moom." Complained Anna, now thinking real quick. Trying to find that watertight argument that at last would make her mom surrender. "Laila's mom is threatening to kill herself." But as she saw Katrine flinch she hastily modified her remark.

"Not kill, I meant she is home crying her eyes out. Her boyfriend was such a jerk, a real louse, you wouldn’t believe what he did.” She studied her mom surreptitiously to see if the bait was taken, yes, mom was perking up.

“She really needs to talk to you. Please mom, she literary begged me to come and talk it over with you. She said you were the only one who could understand."

Katrine looked at her, more than a little suspicious, before crawling under the cover with Sarah to parley.

"Sarah, would you mind if they came over? They are quite harmless, really, they are. They knew Jake too."

He looked at her mumbling. "So she’s not going to blackmail me then?"

"Blackmail, what for? Oh, the phone you mean? No dear, Anna will give them to us, won’t you?” She lifted the covers enough for them to watch Anna nodding eagerly, but not eagerly enough to stop her from taking that last sweet photo.

“Or too you, if you like? But I would love to see them too. It's memories Sarah, our first memories. And Anna is right. You belong here, not in that ugly empty apartment, or do you want to make me cry? You wouldn’t want that on your conscience, would you? Making two women crying their hearts out?"

As Sarah thought it over he found that he too had hoped to keep her, and Anna too, even if he found himself hesitating a little thinking of Anna. That girl was a constant danger to his equilibrium, but so was Katrine, thinking of it. But how could he show himself in that dirty dress?

"Katrine, my clothes are all filthy." He protested feebly, praying that Anna wouldn't hear.

“And I wouldn’t make two women cry Katrine. One at most, and that’s you, not that I would. I mean, be reasonable, one at most Katrine.” Once more wondering why it was that women always could make you feel guilty. Even when you knew that it was you being in the right.

Anna who stealthily had advanced to the bed listened, a most profound and satisfied expression now finding its proper place, placidly adapting itself to her face. 'Just a little nudge now.' she thought to herself. 'You can do it mom. I know you can.'

"Oh, don't worry dear. You and Jake is almost the same size. Why don't I go up and look. He had a lot of nice clothes."

'Yess' thought Sarah, to become Leonard again. It would be a relief, this crossdressing had became a greater nightmare than he ever had expected. "Please do." he said.

"And Katrine? You would. . Would you have liked me as Leonard too?”

Hearing the sudden vulnerability Katrine took some time thinking over her answer.

"Yes." She said finally. "But it would have taken us a lot more time to get to know each other Leonard. I for one, are rather happy that we meet as we did. Isn't you too?"

"Yes Katrine, maybe I am." He answered, already having thought about it, just not being sure of what would have happened if she had met him as Leonard.

"And you are sure she will give me all her photos?" he whispered not wanting Anna to hear.

"Of course I will silly. Hurry now Sarah, let my mom run up to find you some clean clothes."

“Shit.” He muttered, ‘why me?’ As he realized that Anna had been the willing participant to all they had whispered about, once more feeling his heart attack just seconds away again.

"No shit at all." Promised Anna outside his, once so safe, hidey-hole.

"I’ll download the photos on a CD as soon I'm back up, promise. And only you will see them, and Mom if you like? Please Sarah, can’t you hurry up a little, they will be here any minute."

Crawling up again, out of the covers, feeling as the very old and depressed turtle he was, he watched her finely shaped back retreat out the door. Followed by Katrine's more fully, enchanting figure. As they left she turned slightly, looking over her shoulder, giving him that last encouraging smile before disappearing.

Promising him in that, cloyingly buoyant, bubbly voice. "Don't worry Sarah, it will be fun."

'For whom?' was Leonard's last thought before firmly shutting down all traffic in his brain. Closing his eyes as he wordlessly started to pray for his deliverance.
===
 
 
 
 
----Acronyms----------

Lorrimer Strangly.

DM = Dramaturgical Magus.
PH = Penial Holder.
FWOPK. = For Want Of Phucking Knowledge.
DTT = Damn The Torpedoes (full speed ahead)
 
 
-
D. O. A. Faustier. Well, D.O.A, right.
TLOD = The Legions Of Doom.

-------

Authors note.

This is the next draft, ah part? Portion, potion, whatever. And if you find some stuff ‘diffuse’ I won’t argue, I’m winging it as I write, I can’t check it up (no internet) ´. Otherwise I would give you a more technical description. Read it anyway, you will make someone happy, namely me :)

Don’t expect me to make sense btw. Only children makes sense, children, fools and (sometimes) drunks. Else wise we grownup’s sadly fail, sorry, but it’s the plain truth as far as I’m concerned. So now you know what category I belong to. Yep, I do like single malt.

As I wrote this piece I remembered something my ex told me once.

She was working at what we call ‘home service’ for old people at that time, visiting and helping old people in their homes. She got to knew an old lady, that in her youth had lived with her man and child on a small farm at that Finnish part that later, after the war, became Russian. The child got stung by a young ‘baby viper’ one summer while playing, they are said to be the most poisonous. The old lady told her how they had realized that they never would get to a doctor in time, living as they were days away, and so they just had to sit with her watching her die.

The child had asked them where she was going to come after her death and they had described, best at as they could, what heaven would be and all the playmates she would find there, and the happiness. The lady was quite old, but as she calmly told her story tears was running down her face. It made a permanent imprint in me hearing Marja tell it, especially as we too had children. I personally expect this to be one of the most terrifying things that can happen to anyone. To watch your child die before your eyes, or any child for that matter, you being unable to stop it.

Now lastly, I just want to get this of my chest. There are some tales that I won’t discuss, mainly those being to abusive to my taste. Manipulating tales can be readable if they’re done with style and that absolute neglect of any decency what so ever. But those tales that want to eat the cookie as well as keep it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. That is, abusing in that syrupy way forcing a gender change, plainly against someone’s will all through the story, but ending it with the victim inexplicably suddenly declaring himself ‘happy’ about it. That’s plain wrong to me, not even Patty Hearst would have swallowed that volume of BS.

Never the less, there are a sufficient amount of stories here to my taste anyway :)
And authors to read

(Should also point out that those I found hard to 'assimilate' were on other sites, not here.)

.

.

--- Crossdressing Stories-

‘Life in the Female State’ by Andrea. She turns it all around, a ‘flip of reality’, questioning gender and behavior.

‘The Ballet Game’ by beffy flowers. Innocent love, but kind of, hmm. Maybe not so innocent after all, spicy.

'Leslie's Story' by Andrea. A seriously good read. The problem being that I only found two chapters. Cheated again, ah well. But those two are very good (and long).

‘Remix’ by Brevdravis. Seriously good too. Same as above in all important ways, but what’s this with only two chapters? I hate that. I mean, ten chapters are better, twenty okay, two hundred? Now we’re cooking.

First ‘Mike’ then ‘Deity Arms & Bridget’. Pure good fun, and ‘WhiteRabbit’ by Barbie Lee, a very competent writer. She’s making it all work, sort of. Lot’s of good tales.

‘Expo Summer’ by Kim EM, it’s dark and strong. About a boy transitioning into a girl, and I think I will recommend it. I hope that people ain’t as bad as those portrayed in this story though. I think Kim should finish it, it needs to, there has to be a window opened somewhere, letting in some light.

School Daze by Bobbie Taylor. Nice innocent one. I liked it, you should like it too :)

‘Being Serena’ Green By Faith DaBrooke. Kind of weird and manipulating, but well written, in a somewhat behaviouristic mode :) Read and decide for yourself.

‘The Wicked Flee’ The First Erinyes Adventure by Bek D. Corbin. I know, I already mentioned her, but it’s fun.
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----End---

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-------Story - time----------

As Elena and Vanja came over they found the young girls in a state of disorganized excitement. Asking for Katrine they saw her coming rushing down the stairs, her arm filled with clothing.

“Hey girl’s, go to the kitchen. We’ll be there in a moment. Oh, and sorry about that jerk Laila. You’ll have to tell me all about it.”

The ladies went to the kitchen where they found the girls in full order organizing the sleepover’s necessary ingredients like chocolate cookies, wine for their parents, and a diverse arrangement of beverages and food for themselves and the boys. And there they meet Amanda.

“Hi.” She said a shyly.

Elena and Vanja smiled back at the young Japanese Lolita.

“And you would be?” asked Vanja.

“Amanda, miss.” Curtsying with her girlfriends beaming at her side.

“She’s my new girlfriend” explained Laila to her mother. “And she’s my boyfriend too.”

“Nooo.” groaned Adam hearing her, once more creating that wonderful effect, so close to the rising sun.

“You are.” Said Laila a little offended.

“And mine too.” Said Therese, bashfully excited.

Amanda who now started to feel like she wanted to run away got caught up in a protective embrace by Anna, who whispered in her ear.

“Soo, soo filly. They’re not gonna bite you baby, maybe look at your, teeth but they’re not gonna bite.” Turning to the two mum’s smiling widely she said.

“We found her together, but she’s mine on the weekends, I taught her to curtsey too, isn’t she good?” Hoping that she now had made it clearer for them.

Somehow though, it didn’t seem to help, as the women still stared at poor Amanda. Vanja doing her best to assimilate that her daughter had became a lesbian overnight.

"I'm Monday and Tuesday." Said Laila, smiling proudly as she sweetly curtsied.

"And I'm Wednesday and Thursday." Said Therese, wisely nodding.

Adam didn’t say a thing. He just looked down on the floor wishing that there was a trapdoor that could open under him.

Vanja studied Amanda, wondering what the girls meant by ‘boyfriend’? Remembering Jake she had her suspicions, but this was no boy, was it? She wasn’t sure what she preferred here? And Elena who still was caught up in her own turbulent needs missed it all, the only thing surprising her being why they were playing Robinson Crusoe at their age. She sighed a little dependently as she started to chew on a chocolate cookie.

“Yes, I liked that book too. So Amanda, was it? Are you a cannibal then?”

Now everyone stopped to stare at her. ‘Cannibal’? Then Therese looked at the others making that universal sign with a rotating finger to her temple.

“It’s okay Mom.” Sounding very understanding. “Tom was such a dork.”

“Yes, he was, wasn’t he.” Muttered Elena still chewing. “So, can we too play?” Looking at Amanda as she tried for that upbeat tone, feeling that she didn’t want to destroy their sleepover by her problems.

Adam felt like he needed two trapdoors now, and quickly, one just wasn’t enough anymore. He had enough problems coping with those three, but their mothers too? The girls stared at Elena suspiciously with Therese starting to wonder just how bereaved her mother was. Even Vanja shook her head.

“Isn’t she a little too young for you?” she asked.

“To young?” looking at Amanda flabbergasted. “For that? Being a cannibal?”

“A boyfriend Mum, he’s no cannibal.”

Tried Therese soothingly, wondering why mom thought Amanda to be a canibal, she looked perfectly normal to her at least.

“And I think he’s satisfied as it is. You are, aren’t you sweetie?”

As she started to look suspiciously at Adam, if he wasn’t? What could she do? Laila looked at Adam too, wondering unhappily. She had read about how boys seemed to be driven by their sexual cravings on the Internet and? Every minute was it?

“You can control it, can’t you?” She asked, already suspecting those monumental needs to drive all sanity away.

“What! Control what? Being a cannibal?” asked Adam feeling desperate now, and still searching for that metaphorical trapdoor. Now totally blown out of the waters as he tried to get some meaning out of what they were talking about.

“Your craven lusts.” Said Laila, remembering the sentence from her newest novel, starting to get agitated. “Boys.” She muttered darkly. “Always wanting, never satisfied. Mom, don’t let him get to you too.”

Vanja studied poor Amanda again, trying to decide if she was a boy or a girl. Then back at Laila imploringly.

“What?”

Now Adam gave up, redder that a tomato he turned to flee up to his room. Leaving Anna to stare angrily at them all.

“Now, look what you did. She’s crying her little heart out.” Running after him.

As the commotion calmed down slightly the mothers turned to their offspring’s studying them with eyes made out of cold grey steel.

“Well?” said Vanja in a tone tinged with exasperation.

“And what was this all about Theresa?” asked Elena, thinking that the only other cannibal she knew of was Hannibal Lector, but he didn’t have any Friday, had he?

As the girls started to explain the mothers had to sit down, staring at each other. And as Vanja finally understood what Elena had thought she felt a slight relief, as did the girls when they witnessed their mothers finally understand. And as Anna showed them her pictures their mothers got just as angry as Katrine had been.

“Oh, my God. And you thought that I?” said Elena, at last comprehending why everyone had stared at her. She blushed furiously as she found that she couldn’t help wonder?
==

In the bedroom Sarah stared at the assortment of clothes being offered by Katrine.

“Don’t you like them?” asked Katrine surprised and a little hurt.

She had tried her best to pick neutral but nice clothes bringing out her new lovers sweet completion and lovely warm brown eyes. And the dresses were all of the finest quality.

“Ah, there was no other.” Asked Leonard. “Like more normal, you know.” Fearing more than ever how he might be shown of, like some new crossdressing trophy, for the ladies entertainment.

Katrine studied her choice of choices stupefied. What the hell was wrong with them?

“Well.” She asked a little hesitantly. “Did you want to look like Amanda?” again wondering if Leonard wasn’t a little kinky, after all, he seemed to have some odd ideas.

Leonard stared at her; did she want him to look like some Japanese tart now? She had to be kidding.

“No, I do not want to look like Amanda.” He said dismissively. “I just wanted some normal, decent, clothes.”

“Those? Aren’t decent then?” Katrine had to shake her head. “Look Leonard, those dresses are perfectly normal. And you are silly complaining about them.”

Suddenly realizing that he wasn’t getting through at all, Leonard tried to explain himself.

“Katrine, when you talked about clothes I thought you meant men’s clothing, not, this.” Looking at the lovely, but oh so impropriate, clothing she had laid out for him, the panties and those silken slips alluringly calling his name.

As Katrine realized his problem she smiled at him, she too had noticed his look of desire. So, he felt uneasy, did he? Well, she could understand him, in a way, but she would not allow him to hide. Not in her household.

“I’m so sorry sweetheart. I gave them away. I saved those for my own memories, they will fit you just perfect.” She said consolingly. Then she seemed to get an idea.“ There was a pair of trousers though, but I don’t think you would like them.”

“Why?”

“low cut in thin transparent lace Leonard.” She smiled coyly. “Although, I must admit that I did.” Evocatively smiling at him, and then, thinking some more.

“And I’m sure they would be a hit with my friends too, want to try them on?”

“Shit.” Was all he could say, before burying his head in the pillow.
==

Up in Anna’s and Adams room, Adam refused to go back.

“You can have you slumber party. I’m not interested.” He declared eyeballing her, eyes out of green flint.

“I won’t do it Anna, I’m no horse and this is no market. And their mothers are strange.” Questioning both her and him again.

“Baby, It was just a misunderstanding.” At least she thought so, and she wouldn’t give away any days, anyway.

“What about Laila then? She was almost screaming at me.” Refusing to be moved by her persuasive tone.

“She’s just insecure. You’re her first boyfriend ever, Amanda.” Lying slightly for his benefit. Laila had had quite a few actually, but none like Amanda. In vain trying to make him see the light.

After a lot of arguing and persuasion she at last understood that this stubborn stallion, filly? Refused her handling for once, and realizing it she finally sighed, saying.

“You do what you have to do Amanda, but I have to go back.” Leaving him to his sulking as she went down to the others.

“Where’s Amanda.” Asked Laila worried. She was already starting to regret her petty jealousy. If her mother liked him so much, well? Maybe she could get a day from Therese, but not from her. Finders Keepers, right.

“She won’t come down. You made her cry.” Said Anna. “She’s scared of you now.” You silly cow she thought angrily, but as the mom’s were there she couldn’t really start a fight.

And Laila felt bad, both she and her mother had a temperament. Coming from Eastern Europe originally, her mother had a very clear idea of what constituted a boy and what constituted a girl, and their differences. It wasn’t until meeting Jake that Vanja had realized there could be more to being a man than just their clothing. And the same was true for Laila, at least the temperament.

“I’m sorry, I’ll go and get him.” She said.

“Do that. But you better be warned, he’s unconsolable.” Said Anna, looking at her accusingly. “Be nice.”

As Laila came up she found him hiding under the covers, undressed. He couldn’t understand it, he hadn’t asked to come here, or to get dressed up like this. And it had seemed so fun in the beginning, but now he felt like he wanted to run away again. He laid there under the covers, trying to get his ragged breathing under control, as she silently came up to the bed. She sat down at the corner pulling the sheet of him, gently uncovering his face as she tried to apologize.

“Amanda, I was jealous. I thought. “

She didn’t know how to explain it.

“I’ve been reading about boys.” She tried again. “And I thought.”

“I thought you. .” She started to feel very bad about herself as he opened his eyes to look at her, his mascara running.

“Yes?” he asked, not really caring, but seeing her sad expression encouraging her against his wish.

“I was just silly, please, forgive me.” Imploringly.

“Did you really think that I would try?” he asked uncomprehendingly, realizing what she had thought.

Thinking of it she had to look away.

“No, yes. Oh, I don’t know. Me and Mom have a terrible temperament Amanda. And sometimes it takes over, I didn’t think at all, I got angry.”

He couldn’t help it, the idea of him captivating the girls mothers made him smile.

“Ah yes, me and your Mom, right? Eloping or?” he asked sarcastically.

As Lila tried to imagine Vanja and Amanda eloping together she started to laugh, the whole idea was just too ridiculous. She started to undress.

“Move over.”

As he hesitantly drew her closer to him she caressed his face, looking into his eyes. Trying to wipe the mascara of him, only succeeding in making his makeup look even worse.

“I was silly.” She whispered. “But I’ll make it up to you.” Cuddling up to him, warming herself and him. “I’m sorry Amanda.”

“It’s okay. I love you too.” He answered as he felt her against him.
==

Outside the house the darkness almost seemed complete, the only sound being the wind, coming in sudden gusts sweeping leafs around and the light rain hitting the windowpanes. The night had come, and with it the threat of something unknown. The bars and cinemas were strangely empty, with those few working all wishing to be home. Not even the streetwalkers were out this night. But Rachel and Andrew were.

They had finally run away, and they were lost.

As they left their house the unnatural darkness already had lowered itself over the little town. And as they walked away they found the once so well known streets to slowly change character, becoming more and more twisted, and their surroundings more and more strange.

“Where are we sis?” Asked Andrew, in vain trying to find any landmark he could recognize.

“I don’t know.” Answered Rachel, wishing she did.

She had taken what money she and Andrew had succeeded in saving, as well as some changes of clothes, and their sleeping bags. Andrew carried the little tent their mother once had bought for them, the kind that you could set up inside a room, not a real one. Their father would never have allowed to them to get that far away from his reach. ‘But it’s better than nothing’ she thought as they kept on walking, hand in hand, two small dark shapes slowly dissolving into the night.

They had been walking for hour’s now, in the beginning there had been streetlights lightening their way, but as the light had waned so had the streetlights, becoming fewer and further apart.

“Maybe we should put up the tent?” suggested Andrew, trying to sound brave but with his legs so tired.

Rachel looked around. The street they were on now was lined with big houses all dark and silent, their dark windows staring at her. As she looked it seemed to her as the darkness was a little weaker ahead. And she thought she could see a weak light too.

“Not here Andrew, I don’t like this place. Can you see the light over there?” she asked, pointing ahead.

“I think that’s a better place, are you able to walk a little bit more, sweetie?”

Andrew looked at his big sister, hearing her reassuring voice he resolutely nodded before realizing that she probably couldn’t see it.

“Yes Rachel, I can.” Stumbling now, but not giving up.
===

After lying there caressing each other for a while Adam started to feel a strange restlessness building up. It was as if someone was calling for him, and with it a compact intolerable feeling of abandonees. After a while he found that he had to get up. Laila had fallen asleep, a smile on her face, and as he silently dressed, this time in his new clothes, she turned around in her sleep mumbling.
“Amanda”

He went to her, caressing her cheek. “Sleep baby, I’ll be back soon.”

As she sighed contentedly he finished his dressing and went to the window to open it. There was a big tree outside, one of its branches going quite near the window. As he looked out he found that even the streetlights were off and looking up he just found more of that same impenetrable darkness.

But there was something happening, something that needed him.
==

Andrew was so tired now that he was crying, silently without a sound, as he tried his best to keep up with his sister’s longer steps. He had started to stumble several times but his sister refused to stop, she had a very bad feeling of where they were. The light she saw didn’t seem to come any closer either, no matter how much they walked but it had became her refuge.

“Give me the tent Andrew.” She told him as he bent down to give him a hug.

“I think you’re very brave.”

Andrew looked at her and tried to smile, not realizing that he was crying.

“You too Rachel.” he said. “Are we there?”

“No sweetie, just a little longer. Can you manage if I carry the tent?”

“Yes, but I’m not tired. I can carry it.” He offered.

“No, let me Andrew.” She told him as she put his haversack over her own shoulder.

She too was tired now, and desolate too. But as her father had told her about his idea of her and her mother she finally had understood that she needed to get away. If he did, it would leave both her and her mother little more than animated husks, not that she thought in those terms. She just knew that to stay would kill her, and Andrew too. So they had fled.

Taking his hand again the started to walk. As she looked down on him stumbling at her side, refusing to give in to his tiredness she felt a great pride in him. He was the bravest, most unselfish boy she knew, always going out his way to make her and her mothers life easier, seldom thinking of himself. She thought about how her mother used to sing for them when they were small, and remembering she started to hum. Hearing her Andrew too started to sing, first in a low voice but as they walked, stronger and stronger.

“We’re of to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz”
===

As Adam stood there he suddenly thought he could hear someone singing, it sounded as kids he thought. He had this uneasy feeling as if there was something he needed to do, and that song coming from the darkness made it even stronger. Suddenly making up his mind he went over to the old bureau standing in the corner, taking the flashlight lying upon it.

As he came down he found them all in the kitchen, Katrine with her arms around Sarah who looked very nice in her new gray dress, discreetly embroidered with a flowery pattern. As they heard him they stopped talking to look at him, his makeup awry, streaked by tears and with a very concentrated serious expression on his face, carrying Anna’s flashlight.

“I’m going out.” He said. “There’s something I need to do.”

As Anna saw him she knew that there was nothing they could do to stop him.

“I’m going with you.” She said, silently begging her mother with her eyes.

Katrine looked out the kitchen window. The unremitting darkness outside gave her a funny feeling, nervous and ill at ease she was going to refuse them both but seeing the way Adam looked she realized that she wouldn’t be able to stop him.

“Why Adam, what’s so important outside? I don’t like this.”

“There’s someone needing my help Katrine, I can’t refuse.” He told her, not understanding himself but knowing that it was the truth. As Sarah listened, he noticed Katrine’s nervousness. Looking at Adam he made a sudden decision.

“No you won’t Anna. I’ll go with him.” he said, surprising himself. “Do you have any more flashlights Katrine?”

Katrine wondered what it was that was so important that it couldn’t wait until daybreak, but looking at the boy she too saw that he would go out. Better that he and Leonard went than the girls if so. She didn’t like this unnatural darkness that had come over the town. It could be the predecessor to a storm, and a bad one at that. She went up to look, finding another she gave it to Sarah and then followed them out, standing at the front door she gave Adam and Sarah a hug.

“Be careful, there seems to be something wrong with the streetlights. And don’t go too far, I don’t want you to disappear from us again.”

Adam and Sarah smiled, hearing her. Anna and Therese got a hug from Adam as he looked at them encouragingly.

“Don’t worry. I have to do this, Go up and keep Therese company instead. She’s going to be worried when she finds herself alone. We’ll be back.”

Leonard studied Adam wondering what it was the youngster thought. But heck, it would give them some time to talk at least, and he looked serious about it too. As they left they could see the girls standing, the open door letting out a pool of light, penetrating the darkness and giving them both a strange feeling of belonging to those watching, like seeing a ship in night slowly shrinking with the distance.

“I wish I had memorized the streets better.” muttered Adam as they walked the pavement. Turning to Leonard he said.

“Sarah, stay close to me please, don’t you go wandering off by yourself. This night is not normal, it’s dangerous.”

Leonard stared at him again. ‘spooky’ he thought.

“Why?”

“If the streets change I may feel it, you won’t.” Adam answered, once more knowing himself right but unable to explain. “If we get lost, we may never find our way back.”

“Okay Amanda.” He answered, feeling a slight incongruity comparing the name to Adams appearance.

“Adam actually, and you?”

“Leonard.”

As they kept on walking the darkness and silence grew around them, leaving their house as the only light to be seen, but weaker by each step. ‘Adam is right’ thought Leonard, he couldn’t understand it but it seemed as they, by each single step, were traversing an immense distance, soon leaving the house looking like some weak star in the background. He didn’t like it at all, and one small part of him wished that they just could turn around to normality again and walk back.

“Are you sure about this? Shouldn’t we go back?” He asked as he turned the flashlight around lightening up the sides.

Adam was occupied with his own listening now.

“Listen, can you hear it?” he asked.

As they listened Leonard suddenly heard it too. It was very weak, borne upon the wind gusts, but Adam was right, there was someone, or several, singing somewhere in the darkness. As they listened the song slowly became stronger.

“We better hurry.” Said Leonard, realizing that it was children singing, lost somewhere in the darkness.
===

Rachel was starting to give up, the shadows impenetrable. She wished she had remembered to get them a flashlight, but there had been no time. Her father had closed himself in inside his study, after telling her to get ready for the night. And when she had gone to talk with her Mom she had found her sleeping as if drugged, not answering even when she shook her.

As she started to think that Andrew was right about them putting up the tent he suddenly stopped singing.

“Look, flashlights.” He said pointing.

As she looked she saw them too. Two flashlights, quite far away, but steadily growing. She didn’t know what to do, leaving the pavement for the wilderness surrounding them felt strangely repulsive to her, as if loosing all contact with reality. She stopped singing, looking inquiringly at Andrew.

“Do you think we should hide?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I don’t like leaving the street Rachel.” He said in a low voice. “There’s something bad out there.”

Rachel nodded; she had had this uneasy feeling of something keeping pace with them too. Something, just waiting for them to make the smallest misstep. And she was pretty sure they had been going away from their home the whole time.

“We’ll keep on then.” She said, giving her brother an encouraging nudge.

“Hallo.” Called Andrew. “Can you see us.”

“They can’t see you silly” answered Rachel.

Andrew looked at her imploringly. “Maybe if we both called?”

Rachel thought it over for a moment before nodding.

“Haloo, can you hear us?”
==

As Leonard and Adam heard them calling they hastened their steps, soon falling into an easy jog, Leonard thanking his lucky star that Anna had found him some decent flats instead of high heels.

“We’re coming, don’t worry.” Called Adam. “Whatever you do, stay on the pavement.”

As they ran they suddenly heard a scream.

“Andrew, stop” and then there was only silence.
===

As they at last came up to the two figures they found a young girl kneeling at a little unmoving child. She looked up at them dazed, still shocked.

“He wanted to run when we saw you, why did he run? Something jumped at him, a dog or something. I tried to hit it with my bag.” She looked as if she wanted to cry but had forgot how.

Adam looked at Leonard who bent down to tenderly lift up the little kid. He almost seemed as if he was sleeping, if one didn’t look to close that was. But if you did, the first thing you would notice was the white stillness of his face, and then the fresh wound at his side, filling up with a black wetness dripping to the ground. As Adam put the light on it he saw that it was blood, freshly red under his flashlight and bubbling with every breath.

“Sarah, give me your slip.” He told her urgently. “We need to close that wound now.”

As Adam created a bandage of it, using the smaller flashlight to put pressure on the bandage, closing the wound, Leonard keeping his flashlight moving, trying to see what it had been assaulting the boy.

“We also need to get away from here.” He said. “Now Adam.”

As they left Adam made sure that they had Rachel between them, holding her hand as he carried the children’s things.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take us home.” He assured her, not sure if she could hear him as she stared out into that nowhere land her mind now rested. Once more he concentrated on finding their way. “Your friend will be okay.” Praying that he was telling the truth.

They were all jogging now, fearing for the young ones life with Rachel running between them, her tired steps faltering at times but doing her very best to keep up, she was running for her brothers life now. Leonard was immensely grateful it was him that had given after to his impulse to follow, instead of Anna or Katrine, and in some strange way he trusted Adam to bring them home, while he tried to carry the kid as carefully as he could.

Adam didn’t know how he did it. He was running, his eyes unseeing, almost as if in a trance.

“This way.” He told them taking a turn into a new street.

“That’s not the way we came.” Called Leonard breathlessly, almost sure they were taking a wrong turn.

“I told you, the streets move tonight.” Answered Adam, sounding matter of fact, looking at the white face resting in Leonard’s arms. “But I hear her, she’s calling for us. Come on, she knows we must hurry.”
==

In the kitchen the women was all looking at Anna. Suddenly she had stopped talking, seeming to fall asleep but still sitting upright staring. As Katrine shook her she got no response, just that unseeing gaze searching the black glass of the window.

Suddenly she rushed out, as if awakened from the dead, and they heard someone call. As they hurried after her they found Anna all but clambering over Adam, holding to him as if her life depended on it. Between them was a young thin waif of a girl staring as if she had seen straight down hell her eyes two pools of hurt, as she in mute horror stared at the small child Leonard held in his arms.

As Vanja saw the child’s bandage she instantly took commando.

“Get me clean water and antiseptic, bandages everything you have Katrine, and boil some water too.” She said, telling Leonard to carry the child to the kitchen table where he carefully laid it down upon a clean towel. As she loosened the bandage she saw the bubbles coming from the wound, realizing what it meant she turned to Anna.

“We need an ambulance.” She said. “Call them Anna.”

As Anna hurried to the phone Leonard shook his head.

“Can you do anything.” He asked Vanja.

She studied the wound carefully, looking for dirt, particles and other foreign objects. Finding none that she could see she looked back at him.

“You did good, putting pressure on the wound.” She told him. “His lung is penetrated. He’ll need a hospital, it’s hard breathing with only one lung, and the internal bleeding needs to be stopped as fast as possible.”

“It wasn’t me, it was Adam.” He told her as she reapplied a compress and nd the slip to the wound

Katrine came back sounding quite exasperated.

“Anna told me that the phone won’t work, and neither does my cellphone.” She complained. “And when I tried the car it wouldn’t start.” As she was telling them the light flickered and suddenly they were standing in darkness. Anna had to rush away again, finding candles to light them with, as Vanja reconsidered their options.

She had been a medic in the corps, and kept on studying medicine after her time was up, but when meeting her husband and them getting their baby she had stopped. Now she suddenly wished she hadn’t meet him, but that thought she regretted as fast as it came, at least she had Laila to remember him by. Considering the options there was little she could do, the boy needed surgery and antibiotics. At least Anna still had that old wood feed oven she thought. When she bought the house and modernized it Anna had refused to get rid of it. She had a new electrical installed beside it but as she said. “For pies the old one is the best.”

As Anna and Katrine started to boil water on the stove lightening up the kitchen she turned to Therese.

“Vanja, can you bring me my box from the trunk, the one with the red cross on it?”

“Sure Mom.” As she rushed Vanja turned to Elena.

“Elena I need some help here. We might need to sew that lung. We need all the light we can get here, if you have any flashlights in your car get them.” Looking down at the little boy, still unconscious on the kitchen table. She turned to the young girl standing beside her drawing her to her side, holding her as she felt how she trembled.

“Child, what’s your name?” she asked.

“Rachel.”

“Rachel, what happened out there?”

“I don’t know.” Answered Rachel staring down at her brother, lying still as death, his breathing coming fast and shallow. “He started to run and suddenly something jumped him. It was so fast, I tried to hit it but it was gone before I could do anything. I thought it was a dog, but I don’t know.”

“It wasn’t a dog. The wound is totally wrong for that.” Muttered Vanja as she thought. “It’s more like something bullet-like penetrated the lung. Still, if I only had looked at the outer wound you could have been right. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

As Therese came in with the bulky box she opened it taking out scalpels, strange looking needles, putting it carefully on a piece of blue plastic she had with her. There were strange looking clamps, thread and tweezers of different kind and other stuff Leonard didn’t even have a name for.

She tried to keep her box up to date, changing the antibiotics and other drugs regularly. She had first started to get it together when working as a medic, and had since that filled it out with more stuff while studying medicine. Now she was very glad for it. She hadn’t been expecting to need it all though.

“Katrine, can you blend some salt in the water, about six small spoons a pint should do it.”

When the water had cooled down she inspected the wound again. It was shallow and wide and somehow the lung had been penetrated without breaking the ribs protecting it. She used the flashlight and tried to see the wound on the lung but it was very hard to see anything. After chasing out the kids, promising Rachel once more that her brother really would be okay, she turned to Sarah to say in a lowered voice.

“Sarah, I will need your help here. We will need to force his ribs apart for me to be able to sew that lung. I even may have to saw off one of the ribs, and then you will have to too press the ends aside, can you do that?” Looking at him very seriously

“If you don’t think you could, you better tell me now. We could leave it but I don’t dare too. If there is something still inside he will get a bad infection, and if the rip is too big the same will happen.”

As Leonard tried to collect himself, he found himself promising to do his best. She smiled hearing his dazed promises nodding pleasantly.

“I know you will Sarah, I know you will.” As she prepared a syringe for Andrew and pumped out some fluids while tapping it, getting rid of the bubbles.

“This will keep him calm for some hour’s.” she said trying to sound confident, more confident than she felt, and very happy that the kid still was unconscious.

“You all need to wash your hands and arms, let them air dry and don’t touch anything after that, and Anna, we’re going to need a lot of clean towels, or sheets, he will bleed badly when we start.”

As the others left with only the mothers and Leonard staying they could hear Vanja’s unhurried instructions from the kitchen as she operated. Rachel was sitting staring at the kitchen door, her eyes still screaming in silent despair as the girls and Adam tried to comfort her.

She hadn’t wanted to leave but none of the grownups wanted her to see what they were going to do. They all tried their best to make her think of something else than her brother, Adam carefully explaining how lucky she and Andrew had been, not wandering of that road.

“If you had walked off it I don’t think I would have found you, ever, Rachel. The streets are dangerous tonight, they move.” gently stroking her cheek as he told her, he then turned to Anna to give her a hug.

“Thanks Anna. I don’t know how you did it but I could hear you calling the whole time. You were my beacon of light tonight girl, without you calling for me I never would have found my way back.”

She hugged him back her nose against his hair, inhaling him, as she wondered what she had done. She had no memory of anything, except sitting there staring at that black window in the kitchen, then suddenly knowing that he was back.

As they kept on calming Rachel they could hear Vanja and the others. Then it became silent for some time, and just as they started to worry that something really bad had happened Leonard came out. With blood on his dress and totally white in his face, he still carried a smile as he looked at Rachel.

“Anna, your mom said you should break out the bottle of whiskey she had stashed.”

Then he went over to Rachel to sit down besides her taking her hands in his.

“It’s okay Rachel, your brother is okay. They are fixing him up now, and he’s getting antibiotics. Vanja was right though, she found some strange spores inside the wound. It seems that the already had caught in the tissue and started to grow, so it took her some time getting them off him. But he’ll be okay now, I promise.”

Rachel stood up on unsteady legs to walk to the kitchen but Adam stopped her.

“Wait until Vanja comes out Rachel, let them finish first.”

When Vanja came out she looked tired but satisfied. She went over to embrace Rachel.

“We’ve done all we can without a hospital child. And your brother is young and strong, I think he will recover without problems, I still don’t understand what it was assaulting him though, and those spores were strange, I put them in a jar. You two will sleep down here with me, you don’t want to leave your brother alone, do you?”

Rachel shook her head, still unable to speak.

“Thought so.” Said Vanja, smiling warmly at her. “He’s only sleeping now, and as soon as we got those spores out his breathing became easier. We need to make our room ready, would you help me?”

As Rachel followed Vanja into the guestroom the others looked at each other. Therese was the first to say it. “What’s happening here? First the darkness and then the phones and the light going out, and the cars too? And now you tell me that the streets were changing? I’m scared Adam.”

The others nodded, unconsciously moving closer to each other, quietly agreeing. They were all scared. As Anna and Elena came out, carefully carrying Andrew, they all could see that he had gotten some color back in his face, he also seemed to breathe a little easier, just as Vanja had told them. As they carried him into the room they could hear Rachel whispering to her brother promising him that all would be well, with Vanja soothingly comforting her.

After some time they came out leaving the door open. As the mom’s started to talk with Rachel she first refused to tell what they were doing in the dark alone. But as Vanja took her in her arms she suddenly broke down telling them all. The kids stared at her and Vanja just held her, not knowing what to do. The man sounded just vile, vile and disgusting. At last Katrine said what they all were thinking.

“Child, Rachel. We will do all we can for you and your brother. You can stay here as long as you want, and I will personally make sure that this man never will touch you again.”

“You can trust her Rachel, she’s my Mom and she’s a very good lawyer too.” Said Anna as she came up to Rachel embracing her. “You’re safe here.”

As she said it they suddenly heard a weak voice.

“Sis, Rachel?” Then they heard coughing, almost sounding as if someone tried to retch.

Both Vanja and Rachel rushed in. As the others followed they found Rachel hugging her brother. He was lying on his side with Anna holding a small pail under his mouth. As they looked they saw it filled with something black, something that they suddenly realized had to be blood. But Andrew smiled as he looked up at his sister holding him.

“We made it sis, I had such weird dreams, it hurts, what happened?” he said, half whispering, interrupted by another coughing attack.

As Rachel looked down at her brother she could only nod. Yes, they had made it. And in a way they were home, but she couldn’t help worry for their mom, or what was left of the mom they once had. She knew all to well how her father would take his frustration out on her.

“Yes Andrew, we made it. You got attacked by some dog. You just need to get well again.” She whispered as she held him with her tears falling on his upturned face, herself unbeknownst.
===

The wall of darkness surrounding the little town had by now been building for two days, and the tension built up was enormous. That kind of energy wasn’t anything to be played with, but those who had put those happenings into motion believed they could control it, as so much else. The town was by now totally isolated and when the morning came there would be changes.
======

The father, which is no name for a monster like him, didn’t know what to do. To call his masters to tell them that he had lost control of his own family was bad. He knew they wouldn’t take it lightly. And those waiting on the boy even less, from a rising star to a disaster, over a worthless teenage slut and her brother. But he had no choice, he had to find them. He opened the cabinet to use that strange phone they had installed, instructing him to only use it in an emergence.

“Yes Sir, run away. No, I don’t know where. Yes Sir, yes. Thank you Sir.”

So, they had promised him some help, after all they had his image to protect, same as him. And he was useful to them. But he had heard the veiled threat as the silky voice told him that this ‘unfortunate accident’ better be cleared up, or else. He could guess what ‘else’ meant. Probably a shot in the neck and a quiet burial, or worse? There had been others before him, not that he had been involved in their demise. No Sir, and not that he wanted out either, there was just too much invested in this little venture. Without them he would just become another nobody, no money and no life.

That phone always worked.
==

As Katrine went out to look for her morning paper it was the first thing she noticed, the total absence of sound. The morning had come with a terrible silence. The birds and other small wild life that you normally would expect in their suburban dream were nowhere to be found. It was as if they all had gone into hiding.

And the light was strange, diffused as if there was something more than air it had to travel through, tinted red, like gazing through some thin shimmering gauze. The sight was bad too, it seemed as she couldn’t see further than some thousand yard before everything dissolved into a haze, like some chemical smog permeating the air.

Normally she wasn’t the only one coming out to pick up the morning paper, but this time there was no one to be seen, just that eerie silence. She went in again taking the paper with her. As she left it in the kitchen she could hear Vanja soothing Andrew, realizing that it was time for her to get some relief she put on the percolator and prepared some sandwiches and two glasses of milk.

Carrying it to them she found Rachel asleep in the bed next to Andrew who was laying on his side, looking much better but with dark rings around his eyes. She felt tired too as she watched him and his sister. There was no single answer to how people could treat each other as that man had treated those children. But somewhere there had to be a reason. Perhaps it was as the church believed, she thought, perhaps there was a constant battle between good and evil. Shaking of her mordant thoughts she came up to them with her plate of goodies.

“Vanja, there’s coffee in the kitchen, could you bring me a mug too?” sending her away with a smile and a whispered confirmation that she would take over now.

“How are you child?” putting the tray at a small square table they had placed beside the bed.

Andrew tried to smile but it came out as pained grimace.

“Thank you ma’am. I’m good, you’ve been very ..”

There he started to cough again in the small pail standing on the floor, racked by his coughs it almost looked as if he was losing it, falling out of the bed, and Katrine hurried over to steady him.

“I’m much better.” He at last succeeded to say.

Rachel, who had awakened again as he coughed, sleepily looked at Katrine, recognizing her as the lady that had been so nice to them last night.

“He really is ma’am.” She assured her.

“Good, I have milk and sandwiches for you, and I want you to try to eat a little too Andrew. If not for your sake then for our’s. Your body needs all energy it can get.

The stagnant smell of dried blood in the pail made her want to retch herself. As Vanja came back holding their two mugs of coffee she took the opportunity to rush out and empty it. Rinsing it she took it back, to her joy seeing both Andrew and Rachel eating, well, actually it was Rachel that ate but at least Andrew was trying to drink some of the milk, Vanja helping him.

Vanja was looking at her strangely though, as if she wanted to say something important, but not in front of the children. After a while they heard Therese in the kitchen, muttering, sounding less than thrilled. Mornings wasn’t her thing at all, but as she finished she came in looking as spaced out as Vanja. In the end Katrine had to give up on their silence.

“What?” she asked exasperatedly. “Why are you looking at me like that, did the cat get your tongues?”

“Did you look at the morning paper Katrine?” asked Vanja.

“No.”

“Why don’t you. It’s in the kitchen.”

Katrine went out, at first she thought it seemed as usual but then she had to take a new look at the first page. The Caption was in red and black, having a grainy picture to it.

‘Slut and boy at large. Reward.’

‘It has come to our notice that a thirteen year old child prostitute and her sissy brother have eloped from their rightful owner. The morning post is proud to inform that a award of no less than ‘your dreams desire’ will be awarded to the one helping the bereaved father reclaim his love pets. Be the one to receive it. Call 666, the hot line of your choice, with your sightings.’

She stared at it, the name was right, ’The Morning Post’, but the layout, as well as the captions and language, reminded her more of some torrid BDSM magazine. As she read some more she became more and more incredulous. ‘Does life suck? Open that glory hole and suck back. Thirteen ways to give it to him.’ And. ‘Seven? Too old says child welfare.’

As she stared at the paper she might had decided it a sick joke, if it hadn’t been for that grainy picture. It was in black and white, depicting a little girl and her brother. She knew all to well who they were. They were after all in the next room to her.

She realized that they all needed to have a talk, but she didn’t want to scare Rachel and her brother. Thinking of it she decided to wake Anna, but as she came in she found all of them in one big heap of snoozing bodies, contentedly holding each other even in their sleep. Buried in the middle of the heap she saw Amanda in her nightie, snoring happily under the girls.

She stared at them. ‘They seem happy campers all’ she had to admit, a little enviously. This hadn’t been any plan of hers, but remembering the paper she tried to shrug it off. There were greater issues at hand than kids exploring their sexuality.

“Anna, please wake.” She whispered in her ear, shaking her shoulder gently. Suddenly all of them were awake, staring at her.

“It’s Andrew, right?” said Anna worried. “He’s getting worse.”

“No, he’s okay, but I could use some help watching him. Would you do that for me Anna?”

“Sure mom. We’ll take care of it, won’t we.” said Anna, looking at the others.

The youngsters got up instantly, and after hurrying through their mornings necessitates they all walked down the stairs together, dressed in assorted clothing’s. Adam in a pair of boring boy’s jeans, much to the girl’s disappointment.

“You could at least have tried mine first.” Muttered Anna.

“Or mine.” whispered Therese dreamily to herself, secretly wondering what he had under them. She couldn’t see any hemline. Was he going commando?

Andrew liked it, greatly. Therese still wore her pink and fluffy nightie with ‘my little pony’ on it. And our Andrew fell in love instantly, not with the pony though. Therese smiled at him, and noticing his love struck gaze she sat down beside him. After all, the happier he was the faster he would get well, right?
==

They choose the kitchen as their meeting place. Katrine had some problems with Sarah though. He opened one bleary eye as she tried to wake him. Seeing her he grabbed her and it took her quite some persuasion to let her go again.

“What’s so important?” he asked. “Is it Andrew?”

“No, you won’t believe me if I told you. I’ll show you in the kitchen” Katrine answered.

Lending a bathrobe to put over his disheveled nightgown he followed her out finding her friends already there and waiting for them. Katrine gave him the newspaper as she went to make them all some more coffee. As Sarah started reading he couldn’t believe his eyes. ‘It have to be a joke’ he thought wondering why they would go to such an effort just to fool him, especially when thinking of Andrew.

“It’s a bit tacky Katrine, to try to set me up like this.” He muttered as he continued to turn over the leaves.

“It’s a joke right?”

“No dear, it’s the morning paper.” She answered as she stood there measuring the grind.

“It can’t be.” Said Sarah incredulously. “No way they would print this.” Once more looking at that first page.

“We thought so too.” Said Vanja.

“But then we went outside.” Said Elena. “It was so silent, I don’t know what has happened here.”

Sarah took the offered cup from Sarah, mixed it with some milk to cool it off and slowly started to sip it as he walked over to look out the window. The scenery seemed much the same as yesterday even though the haze seemed to have some strange red or maybe pink coloration to it. He opened it and listened. They were right, it was very silent, no cars and no people to be seen, and no birds either. It gave him a strange uncomfortable feeling of being somehow exposed standing there. He closed it again and went back to his chair. Sitting down he looked at Katrine.

“Yeah it’s kind of eerie.” He admitted. “Like Halloween but for real.”

Katrine nodded. “I’m not sure what it is.” She said in a low voice.

“The houses seems empty, I mean it’s not normal. People should be leaving for work now.”

“Do the phones work.” Asked Sarah.

“Yeah, not the cellphones though.”

“So did you call the hospital?”

Vanja looked at Elena as she answered.

“We tried earlier, but we only came to some sort of operator.”

“And he laughed when we asked for a hospital.” Said Elena. “He laughed first and then he asked where we were calling from.”

“We hung up.” Said Vanja. “and then we tried for another hospital, but no matter what number we called we came to the same man.”

“So we stopped calling.” Said Elena.

“Maybe it’s some sort of exercise?” suggested Sarah. “You now, like some catastrophe exercise by the military.” He could hear how weak it sounded himself.

The ladies just looked at him disbelievingly.

“Forget it.” He said. “Have you tried to see if there are any neighbors?”

“Not yet, we wanted to discuss it first.” Answered Elena

“Well.” He said looking at the paper again. “Either we’re in the twilight zone.” Smiling weakly at them, in vain hoping for them to smile back. “Or it is something happening that we, ah, slept over?”

He felt like an idiot saying it, but you had to admit it. There were a whole lot of wrongs here and very little right.

Elena stood up. “Perhaps we should go around and see.” She suggested. “Hopefully somebody is home.”

So, they did, telling the youngsters to stay inside they went out only to find the houses empty. It wasn’t until they ringed on Mrs. Andersen’s door that they got a response.

“Get in, quickly.” She ordered ushering them in. “Did anyone see you?”

“See us Amy? There’s not a soul here.” Answered Katrine, now feeling even worse.

Mrs Andersen was very much a changed person from what she remembered. Her house was a small one, not as opulent as the ones surrounding her, but with it came a big front yard with lots of land to it. She knew that the realtors had been on Amy repeatedly trying to persuade her to sell of some of it but she just refused. “It’s my home.”

Now she seemed a different person. Her brown eyes studied them long and hard. Looking at Sarah she seemed a little nonplussed for a moment but as Katrine protectively laid her arm around his shoulders a small smile came upon her face.

“Ah yes, good for you Katrine.” She mumbled. “And your name child?” she asked him.

“Sarah, I mean Leonard ma’am.” Answered Leonard, very much feeling as if he was standing in front of some teacher of the older, more sturdy material.

“Tss, call me Amy Sarah.” She answered smiling at him. “Lovely bathrobe by the way.”

He became slightly flustered as he wondered if she was teasing him but seeing her delight in his appearance and her suddenly twinkling eyes he relaxed. She took them to her living room where she sat down with them.

“Where are your children, and why are you here?” She asked.

As Katrine told her she listened, when they came to how Leonard and Adam had gone out to save the kids she looked at Leonard again muttering. “Fools luck Sarah, but very brave my girl, very brave.”

When they had finished telling their story ending with how they had came here she seemed to disappeared into thoughts. After a while she looked at them.

“First things first, you don’t have any wards, do you Katrine?” observing Katrine’s obtuseness she nodded to herself. “Thought so.” she muttered.

“It’s understandable Katrine, but we need your youngsters here, and now. See too that you pack what clothes and food you have, and all other things you might need and bring them here. There’s no time to waste here children. Your house is an open invitation for them and your phone calls is bound to have drawn attention to you.”

“Hurry now. I will come lay a warding around our houses. It won’t hold for ever though, so be quick about it.”

They sat and stared at her disbelievingly as she went over to the old cabinet, lifting out a little copper bowl, filling it with water and some herbs she crushed between her fingers.

“Are you still here?” she said sharply looking at them, her eyes old and weathered but still sharp.

“Didn’t I tell you to hurry? There is no time Katrine. They’ll be here soon.”
===

As they run back taking care to get with them whatever they thought themselves to be needed for an extended sleepover Leonard looked at Katrine, still unsure about that weird old woman.

“Is she, unstable?” he asked.

Katrine shook her head. Whatever Amy was it wasn’t unstable, quite the opposite.

“I don’t think so.” She answered. “I don’t like this at all, there’s a little wagon in the backyard that I bought for the kids when they came over to play Sarah. Could you get it for me?”

Elena had informed the kids about their move, and Adam in particular looked slighty relieved when he heard about Mrs. Andersen.

“A hedge witch.” He had said surprised. “I didn’t think this town had any.”

Elena and the others had stared at him, but then Elena shook her head dismissively.

“That one you can explain later.” she said. “Get your things together now. I will stay here with Andrew, you too Rachel. Help them.”

It took them a little over an hour but finally they had gotten all Katrine and the others could think off over to Mrs. Andersen. When she had carried over the 22 caliber bird gun Amy had smiled shaking her head. “That won’t help child.” But as Leonard came over with the compound bow and arrows he had found in the garage she had looked quite pleased.

“Good thinking, Adam is it? Or is it Amanda?” she had asked.

Thinking of it Adam had started to smile. “I think both ma’am.” He answered, a little surprised himself.

Amy nodded.

“Anna is a lucky girl Amanda, and the others too.”
==

The town wasn’t itself any more. Where wildlife had been there was none, and the edges of it ended abruptly, falling into a dark red haze the further away you came from its center making it impossible to see what was there. Not that there was anyone looking, well, not human anyway.

Our monster had for the first time in his life received a direct order to present himself in front of the council. He too had noticed the absence of sound and life, and he too had realized that something had changed. But for him it was yet another proof of his masters might and as he put himself at their disposal he was meet by four silent men sitting in a chamber in what formerly had been the citys town hall.

“Speak Mr. Waverly.”

“I’m sorry my lords. My brat’s is gone, though no fault of mine.” He hastened to assure them.

“That’s not how we see it Mr. Waverly. Your wife?”

“I don’t know, the wretched thing is still unconscious. I’ve tried everything but she’s not responding, even when I beat her.”

“Just as good Mr. Waverly, just as good. We are not pleased with your performance. We put it upon you to arrange a safe return of your, children. Failure is not an option here, do you understand?”

“Yes, naturally my lords. I won’t fail you.”

“Again, you mean. And the boy is to be taken directly to this chamber, as for the girl we have a place for her too. Bring them both Mr. Waverly, bring them both, safe and unharmed you hear. The wench will still be yours to dispose of in what manner you please. Now leave.”
==

As our monster had stopped groveling he left to find his worthless underlings, leaving the council to discuss what had happened. None of them knew where they were, as I told you before they had been playing with forces erstwhile unknown in magnitude, foolishly expecting themselves to be the masters of it. They were all dabblers in the darker aspects of power and, although none of them would admit to believe in any hell, they all were secretly afraid.

“So Agnew, how did this happen?” One asked curtly.

Agnew looked at them embarrassed as he answered.

“Well, we must somehow have overloaded the cyclotron as we were building up power. And as we also were providing it with power from the nerouflux there could have been a slight dimensional nudge. I’m afraid that this is all I can say for now. But we got it all with us, and as soon we have looked over our recordings.” He smiled trying to impose that feeling of scientific superiority.

“Well, I’m expecting it to be reversible.”

The men studied him thoughtfully. Power attracts power and those men had spent their lives to the buildup and understanding of it. Agnew on the other hand was a physicist. When they first had contacted him with their proposition he had been revolted, but as they ever so slowly introduced him to the sweet corrupted scent of sexual abuse and personal might he slowly had adapted.

None of us is lily white, most of us comes in shades of gray. But if we could have seen his aura we would surely have noticed that it, nowadays, had a very dark tinge with flickers of envious green, like slime dripping of the edges of it. Furthermore, he was also the one they had promised the boy.

The others worked in more arcane ways, manipulating the life forces of our universe. All technology, if sufficiently advanced, will look as magic some say. And if we accept that proposition then what they had been, and were, doing was also a sort of technology. Although on that plane where subatomic particles breaks down into sheer probability, disappearing from our sight.

From that to draw a conjecture to heaven and hell is not needed. Because hell exists in every mans, and woman’s, heart as we all have seen to many times. But they were still afraid. After all, they manipulated, and what was it to say that there couldn’t be something manipulating them too.

The place and plane they so suddenly had found themselves in put a heavier weight to that hypothesis than any of them wanted to contemplate.
===

“Fools.” Muttered Amy as she looked up from her scrying.

“Damned fools, eternally so.”

She was sitting in the kitchen with Adam. And sharing her vision with him he found that he had to agree.

“Yes granny I agree.” Meeting her had been as meeting a relative. Somehow he had felt the connection directly, as had she.
The others were still occupied with Andrew, and sorting out the stuff they had taken over, but Amy had taken Adam with her to see what she could find out. She had noticed his aura and the buildup of power he seemed to get, stronger every time she looked at him. It was as if he was some sort of chalice for what forces there existed in this realm she thought, and with his help her scrying had became so much easier.

Adam had found himself able to talk with her freely, just as easy with his girlfriends, and finding it so he at last felt as if he was finding that lost connection to his own village. But as he had told her about it she seemed surprised as if she never had heard of it.

“And you had hedge witches?”

“Oh yes, my mom was the chairwoman in the city council, she organized them in a union too.”

“A hedge witch trade union?” Amy had to sit down. “Really? I’m impressed Amanda.”

Adam smiled as he curtsied. “Thank you ma’am. But you’re a hedge witch too, right?”

Amy had to think about it for some time before she hesitantly answered.

“I have a gift Amanda, or is it Adam? You don’t mind me using Amanda, do you child?”

“No ma’am, I like it, when we’re here at least.”

“Yes, as I said Amanda, I have a gift. It has run through my bloodlines for as long as I’ve been able to track it. We’re not that old here child, only a few generations. Where we came from, Lapland, we had shamans and scrying was accepted. We also had some other abilities, but this is the first time I’ve heard about hedge witches, I’m sorry Amanda.”

Adam tried to smile hiding his disappointment and as Amy saw it she took him in her arms.

“Child, I will scry for your hometown, I promise. And when I find it we will all go visit it. You’re a relative now Amanda. We share the same gifts.”

“If we can get out of this.” She murmured as she assessed their situation again. She actually had some knowledge of where they were, she knew about the planes, but from a shamanistic angle. And when traveling there you left your body. This was the first she had heard about anyone being able to lift a whole town into it. Also they seemed to be staying for a prolonged time which was something rarely seen.

She knew that one could get lost in the planes too, normally meaning that ones body lost its connection to the mind, leaving the one experiencing it as a catatonic husk at his former plane. It scared her thinking of it, as she wasn’t sure they really was here in the corporal sense.

“We can do it granny. I know we can.” Said Adam, unable to explain why he knew, but he knew it in his soul all the same.

“That’s good child.” Answered Amy, smiling slightly observing his self-assured cockiness. “You are right, there’s no use crying over spilled milk.”

Standing up she turned to him. “Come Amanda, let’s join the others.”

As they all sat down together discussing she started with explaining, much as she had done with our Amanda. As she finished she turned to Adam.

“Our young friend share this gift too.” And as she looked around she smiled at Anna. “You too Anna, I will be pleased to teach you what I can.”

Katrine nodded thoughtfully. That explained much of Anna’s strange behavior as she suddenly had frozen last night.

“So that’s why there’s no people, and no animals here?” asked Elena, suddenly realizing.

“Yes, I think so.” Answered Amy. “To bring a whole town into the planes is unprecedented. And if they had succeeded bringing all those living too? I don’t know what that would have done to us. We are creating our reality, we always do. But normally we don’t notice it. But dreaming with your eyes wide open you will.”

She nodded again, wistfully looking at the old portrait of her family, the one she once had, now gone.

“Being here we carry with us our entire heritage, our tales and history’s, dreams and fears. And those responsible don’t know that, yet. Frankly I find them deserving of what will come. The only thing we can do is to ward our place as closely as we can. There will be repercussions, I can already feel it building.”

Therese who long had been interested in Buddhism, especially the Tibetan variant couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“Is this bardo Amy, that plane we meet as we die.”

Amy looked at her surprised. “Bardo child?”

As Therese blushingly explained what she remembered from ‘the Tibetan Book of the Dead’ and the way it instructed you what to meet as you died Amy looked at her impressed.

“Not a bad analogy child, I really don’t know. To die sounds rather final, this I believe to be something more to live, although in the mind. It’s hard to define the difference and as I haven’t read it I can’t say. Isn’t that a rather morbid subject for one so young?”

Now Laila jumped in defending her friend. “It’s not Amy, Therese is the brain here. She’s way smart.”

Anna nodded. “She is, your mom too.” Smiling at Elena.

Amy looked at them as they sat there, a ragged little congregation, brave and secure in their protective love for each other, feeling as if she suddenly had gotten herself a family again.

“Yes, I can see that child. I didn’t mean anything bad with it.” She smiled at them a little melancholy.

“Nothing bad that doesn’t have anything good with it, eh.” She said. “I don’t know how it is with you, but I’m hungry. Anyone for it?”

As they went out to the kitchen to fix the meal, splitting it up in different tasks, Adam Anna and Rachel stayed to talk some more with Andrew. He was resting in the guest room and even though very weak he already had started to feel better. If it hadn’t been from the ache from the separated rib, and the way it hurt breathing he would already had tried to get up from the bed. Adam, who sat in the easy chair next to the window looked at him thoughtfully.

“Andrew, I wonder if Amy couldn’t help you with your breathing. She’s a hedge witch you know, they know all sort of things.”

Andrew nodded weakly hoping he was right. Rachel also shone up hearing him.

“That would be real neat.” She said.

“We’ll see after the dinner.” Said Anna. “You’re a very brave boy Andrew, you and your sister both.”

Andrew smiled again, then he remembered his mom and had to blink away the tears.

“Do you think she’s alright sis.” He asked finding that he started to cough. Talking did that to him.

Rachel tried to look as if she knew as she answered. “I’m sure she is bro. she’s not here, she’s safe.”

Having to look away as she said the last. She wasn’t sure her mom still was alive. There was no way telling what her dad might have done to her, with her away.

Adam silently promised himself to ask if Amy could scry for her, but he hoped Rachel was right. Suddenly he got an idea.

“Look, Andrew Rachel. I have a problem.” He looked meaningfully at Anna.

“I have three girlfriends, you already know them Andrew. They are more trouble than I want to discuss now.” Nodding meaningfully towards Anna.

Both Anna and Andrew started to smile at that.

“I could use some help with them Andrew, are you in for it?”

Andrew tried to understand.

“What do you mean?”

“Well if we were two, it would be a whole lot easier on me.”

“Two boyfriends?”

“Oh what a good idea.” Said Anna. “Then I could get more time with you too.” Smiling gloriously.

“Nah, Anna. You see I was thinking of Rachel too. Would you be interested?” looking at Rachel.

Rachel started to blush, of course she was interested.

“Does that mean that I have to have a dress too.” Asked Andrew a little worried.

“Only if you like.” Answered Anna smiling at him. “I know that Therese already likes you, a lot.” Nodding meaningfully.

Yes, you are right, there was a lot of meaningful nods in that room. And Anna who had seen where the discussion were going went over to Rachel to hug her.

“Welcome girlfriend.” She whispered. “you can have Sunday for yourself if you like?”

Rachel stared at her, she had been an outcast her whole life. And the way her father had treated her had made her think that the only thing she ever would be seen as was a toy, something to use and then discard, a cheap whore. A boyfriend, and one at her own age, well almost. She leaned into Anna’s embrace and started to cry.

Andrew started to try to get up from the bed, worried for his sister, but Adam went over to him to hold him.

“Look bro, your sister is crying because she’s happy, not sad. What do you say? Will you help me out. Therese would be ever so pleased.”

Andre lay down again, coughing. Adam helped him lifting the pail to his mouth, noticing that there was much less blood clots coming up now.

“Anna can you get the others?” he asked. “Rachel come and help me with your brother, tell him that it’s okay.”

As Rachel came over she was still crying, it was as if a dam had broken through and she couldn’t stop. But she sat down at the bed, smiling through her tears.

“Andrew, it’s okay. I’m happy.” Looking at Adam. “Do you mean it?”

Adam leaned over to her taking hold of her. Looking into her eyes he said. “For ever and ever Rachel, cross my heart.” Kissing her brow.

The others came in now, Anna already told them, smiling.

“Boyfriend.” Said Therese looking at Andrew. Yes he was a little skinny but with some good food and her mom was real good at that, and some exercise, he could become quite handsome in a few years she thought.

And the way he looked at her, as if she was some angle descended from heaven, touched her deeply. She kissed him, and not on the brow either. The taste was a little unpleasant but it was weighted up by the innocence and enthusiasm he answered it with.

“Was that your first kiss from a girl.” She whispered in his ear, watching him shyly nod.

Now there were two crimson faces gleaming in the weak light from the window, Rachel and Andrew both. Laila didn’t want to do worse so she too came over to give him a big sloppy kiss on his mouth.

“Ah, baby lamb.” She purred. “We will have so much fun.”

Anna just smiled at him as she sat down beside Rachel, putting her arm around her.

“Happy?” she asked.

Rachel hid her face in Anna’s chest.

“Yes.” She whispered.

“Good.” Said Anna, calmly stroking her hair.

“We’re proud over you Adam.” She said. “But you will have to give us other some quality time too.” Admonishingly, sternly staring at him before she started to laugh. Embracing a fiercely blushing Rachel, who didn’t know where to turn her eyes anymore.
==

Eliah and Damien were already out on the prowl, looking for the little miscreants, goaded by our Mr Waverly.

“And you find them better find them this time.”

They had been searching high and low without finding them and as they sat in their car discussing where their next effort should take them Elias said.

“Brother Damien, a point of observation only.”

“Yes brother Eliah?”

“The fuel indicator, it hasn’t moved at all?”

He had a point there. The meter had been down on the reserve for the whole day and Damien clearly remembered that the last time they had filled up the tank was three days ago.

“Could be broke.” He suggested not really interested.

Car's were just one more of those incredibly boring mundane constructs one had to bear with, to be human was clearly a overstated idea, he sometimes wondered why he had allowed himself to become involved with it at all. Then he remembered, ah yes, the rewards of success, slaves and pillage was it? Mostly those promises weren't enough for his kin, but then again, he had always been of this poetic adventurous nature. 'To prone to romance.' he thought bitterly. 'That's my fault, romance and adventure, I'm just a natural cursed softie.'

“I don’t think so brother, perhaps we should find us a filling station? It would be an embarrassment finding us unable to move.”

As Damien thought it over he had to agree. Not that he enjoyed cars, there were better ways of travel, but as long as they were here they better behave like humans. Starting the car they started to look for a gas station. Finding themselves an automatic they stopped to top up the car.

“Brother, it doesn’t work.” Said Eliah as he tried to insert money in it.

As Damien came to investigate he saw that Eliah was right. It looked normal but when they tried to insert the money in the opening it showed up to be only a narrow slit without any depth or continuity to it.

“Strange, isn’t it brother?”

“Indeed it is, perhaps we should investigate a little further.”

They walked to the door and opened it, as they came in they found that the goods they had seen from the outside also were props, looking exactly as the real thing but without any real substance to it. As they left Damien grinned, showing his perfect dentition again.

“Brother, it feels almost like home.”

Thinking of the possibilities that this might have with it he missed how the air seemed to coagulate around them, sinking them further into a red mist. Lulled by the sound of the engine they stopped talking, staring without seeing, just as the automata’s they were. Disappearing into the emptiness growing in front of them, as the houses and streets slowly dissolved into the fog.
==

Mr Waverly was still trying to wake his errant wife, but no matter how he tried she wouldn’t respond, and what was more, his beatings seemed to make no marks on her, regardless of how hard he hit her. In the end he tired on his game, giving her a last kick with his boot.

“Damned slut, you can rest in hell.” He growled as he left her, still unsatisfied.

He thought he heard the phone ring but as he went to the room, lifting his special one all he got was humming sound, as if it had been disconnected. He happened to look out the window and as he did he saw that it had become dark again. He couldn’t understand it, It couldn’t be more than midday. Looking at his watch he realized that it had stopped working.

“Nothing works anymore.” He swore to himself as he lifted his other phone, waiting for it to connect.

“Mr Waverly.” Came a weak voice from it, as if coming from an immense distance.

“Mr Waverly, we enjoy you. And we appreciate your straightforward handling of obstacles. Could we interest you in changing employer?”

He looked at the phone. He hadn’t called anyone yet, he had just lifted it to dial.

“Hallo, who is this?”

“Mr. Waverly, don’t you worry about a thing. We will be in contact with you. Your former employers are already negotiating. We however have found ourselves somewhat disappointed with their unwillingness to conform. But that won’t be a problem with you, will it Mr. Waverly?”

As he looked outside the window listening he realized that what he had thought to be darkness instead was a dark red fog, strangely enough not permeating his room even though his window was fully open, instead it seemed satisfied with billowing just outside it . As he kept on looking into it he slowly found himself losing control, staring into the red mist. Seeing shapes and forms taking substance and form, beckoning him, only to disappear again as he tried to focus, leaving him at the same time vaguely dissatisfied and eager for more.

“That’s right Mr Waverly, keep looking. What you need will be found, your innermost dreams fulfilled.” The disembodied voice lilted , as weak and distant as before. “We will be with you in just a minute. We are just arranging for a suitable shell.”

Had he been able to see inside the other room he would have seen the comatose form of his wife slowly dissolving, altering, leaving only that blood red mist to be seen. And, if we would have been there watching it, then seeing it slowly solidify again, but by this time more reminding of an animated corpse than of anything living. Her spirit had long gone by now, fleeing to what peace it could find.
===

With a growing feeling of disappointment Amy Andersen sat before her scrying bowl. Nothing seemed as she had expected and all her efforts to scry those magicians that somehow had forced them outside was coming to a nothing. All she got was that unhealthy red glow coloring the bowl, and reluctance, as if she was staring down in the depths of hell.

Not that she believed in hell, but then, on the other hand she didn’t disbelieve in it either. Good and evil seemed to exist and hell was thought to be the origin of one, or was it the recipient perhaps? Forcing herself to look away she sighed.

“I can’t see.”

Katrine who was sitting beside her seemed to wake up at her voice, looking around as if she had lost all track of where she was.

“What happened?” She asked bewildered. “I can’t remember a thing since sitting down beside you?”

“Nothing happened Katrine, nothing at all. It’s not right, there is something stopping me from seeing here and I don’t like it a bit.”

As she realized what Katrine had said she looked at her concerned.

“Are you okay girl, it shouldn’t have affected you.”

“I don’t know, it feels as if I’d gone asleep or something.”

She looked at Amy beseechingly. “and it was as if I was talking with someone, or listening. Why can’t I remember Amy?”

As Amy listened she decided that Anna wasn’t the only one having psychic abilities. She didn’t like the sound of what Katrine was telling her either.”

“Don’t worry Katrine, we will sort it out.” She said comfortingly, promising herself to be more watchful next time. She realized that she had forgotten all about Katrine as she was scrying, not considering her touched by her administrations.

“Let’s go see the others.”

As they came into the living room they found them all collected there around Andrew’s sickbed playing scrabble. The children all seemed happy with their circumstances but as Amy looked out through the window she could see nothing more than a dark red haze that seemed to slowly lover itself over her little tract of land, not able to penetrate her wards but incessantly searching for weaknesses.

She had started to question her earlier conclusions now, perhaps this wasn’t what she first had thought, those planes she knew through her lore. Or, if it was, there were new dangers hiding in them. Normally the planes were much more adherent to the travelers needs, adapting and helping them, but this was different. It was as if something consciously fought her every time she tried to reach out, sapping her energy constantly. As she looked at Anna and Amanda she decided that they all needed to strengthen their wards.

Leaving them be for the moment being she turned to her cupboard starting to collect the potions and diverse constituents needed for making her tract of land as protected as possible. Luckily enough she had the paraphernalia intact, inherited from her grandmother together with the wolves jawbone, not that she ever had thought herself to need it. In the shamanistic tradition there were good things as well as evil, but most of the practices fell somewhere in between. Her grandmother had instructed her into the use of the old amulet made from a wolfs jaw, explaining that the magic contained and stored into it was of the old kind, before Christianity.

“Remember child, when speaking with your helpers you better know what you want. There can be no hesitance, no double meanings. Those helpers you will find there are of the old kind, some all too prone to pranks and mischief. So know what you are doing.”

As she finished her preparations the she turned back to them saying.

“I don’t like the way the darkness have arrived, much too early. I will need some help to strengthen our defenses Anna. If you and Amanda come with me I will explain. Don’t worry Katrine, they will come to no harm, not as long as I can protect them.”

At least she hoped it to be so, but she wasn’t sure. It all depended on what it was hindering her from her scrying. But they had no choice here as she saw it, they needed to find out as much as possible and as quickly as possible too. As she explained the others looked out. Seeing the strange mist moving outside Amy’s hedge, still unable to trespass they all felt a little chilled. Katrine looked at Anna, worrying for her, but she also knew that Anna would never forgive herself if there was something that she could do to help Amy and them that she backed of on. And especially when knowing that Amanda never even would consider backing of.

“Do what you must do Amy. But take care please.” She answered at last, trying to smile encouragingly at Anna.

Amy took them back to the kitchen sitting down with them starting to arrange what they would need, leaving the inscripted jawbone resting on a small bronze platter in the middle of the kitchen table, she turned to Anna saying.

“I will tell you two what we need to do. Listen most carefully both of you.”

As she saw them sit more straight concentrating on her she nodded, satisfied with having caught their undivided attention. She lifted a little drum, just a ring made out of bone having a stretched skin over it, explaining.

“This is my drum, it’s called a ‘goavddis’ or ‘trolltrumma’ and it will help us come into contact with those able to guide us. This drum is old and comes all the way from Lapland. I inherited it from my grandmother together with the talisman. They belong together, and used together they are said to be immensely strong. We will meet guides and those may take many shapes, and some of the travel may be underground. It is easy to loose yourself there so we must do our best to keep us together, and you need to remember that too. If all goes as I hope we will all get a helper with us and good advice.”

She looked at Adam, thoughtfully studying the way he sat, impatiently waiting for her to finish so that he could throw himself headlong into this new adventure. As she looked he seemed to realize his impatience himself and smiling sheepishly he turned to Anna whispering.

“Don’t let go of me Anna. Whatever happens.”

As Anna nodded Amy continued.

“The talisman and drum are said to both come from the same wolf, pure, wild and fierce of spirit. This one was said to be especially so, slaying both reindeer's and men. To control it one has to be as pure as it once was, but on that I have no doubt children.”

She smiled at them warmly before cautioning them, saying.

“But one also needs to keep in mind what one seeks. What we seek is advice how to protect ourselves and those in our care, also how to find our way back. There is something more than just that cabal of evil here. Something both stronger and stranger have stopped my scrying. So before doing this you need to set your mind to it, and persevere. I don’t know what resistance we will meet, and what forms it may take. But as long as you trust in yourself and your friend beside you I know that we will push through. Don’t care for what phantasies you may meet, this is a journey of the spirit and little that can harm your body. And remember our purpose. Anna?”

“You said that we needed to know how to protect ourselves and those in our care, and how to find our way back Amy.”

“Good, and as Adam said. Keep together as good as you can. Not all guides will be benevolent, some of them might want to have some fun on us, not that they are evil in the biblical sense, more like Loki, the Norse trickster. So remember caution, look before you walk and think before you ask.”

As it was Anna had heard about the Nordic mythology from Therese who had been fascinated by the Norse deity’s, and Adam knew of them too. Amy smiled to herself, a grim smile of satisfaction as she saw how the children seemed to gird themselves for the confrontation, looking at each other, wordlessly telling each other how much they cared.

“Good.” She said again, slowly starting to drum.

As she picked up the pace the children slowly came into a trance with Amy carefully judging and controlling their descent. After a while it was as if the drum kept the rhythm for itself, without Amy needing to touch it. But as they came into the other side they were meet by something mostly reminding them of a wall, Adam still holding hands with Anna. As he looked around he saw no sign of Amy but he could still hear the drum beat somewhere far away. The wall seemed to impede all further traveling but as they stood there they suddenly seemed to shrink, or maybe it was the wall growing, Adam couldn’t say.

Suddenly they were falling through the ground, as if it had turned into some sort of quicksand. Anna first became scared but as she felt Adams hand in hers she relaxed a little finding that she still could breathe and see. After a while they seemed to come into a tunnel system traveling at a tremendous pace, at last being delivered out into a clearing, mossy with little grass, just beside a pond. There was small fishes swimming in it and the land around it was woody, and over them the sun was shining, warming them. As Anna looked around she thought it felt as home, just as real, ‘it’s very strange’ she thought as she turned to Adam.

“Do you know where Amy is?” she asked, happy to see him still with her.

“No, we seem to have lost her, but I can still hear the drum. Can’t you?”

As she tried to listen she thought she could hear something, but after a while she wasn’t sure if it was her own heartbeats.

“I don’t know really.” She admitted. “It looks so real Adam, are you sure it's only a dream?”

“No Anna, no dream. But our bodies isn’t here, just our minds. At least I think so?” he added, suddenly uncertain himself.

He felt just the same and his body was also the same, down to the smallest detail as his skirt and Mary Jane’s. ‘for a simply spiritual journey I sure seem to have gotten myself a taste for crossdressing’ he thought a little worried as he studied himself in the pond.
===

Sorry, I know it's a short one.
And yeah, I'm glad some enjoyed it.
It's, as always, a pleasure writing for you.

(And a slight update)

=

The next time he woke it was to a alarm.

At first he, against all sense, thought it was a ship, but then he realized it was her Ladyship’s suit. As soon as he could get his suit to it he could see the warning telltales flashing, some of them into their last stage of violet, signaling the suit's utter state of malfunction. And there was nothing he could do, nothing. If it had been the model he had trained with maybe, maybe, he might have been able to do something, but her suit was a Royal, state of the art, and so different from anything he had worked with.

But his suit seemed to know?

Suddenly he found it moving, closer and closer, at the same time as it started to unfold something that most reminded him of a giant plastic wrap. Circling the other suit, it more or less wrapped the suit up, then stopped as if considering its next move. Jeff was surprised, but thinking of it, it made sense. Probably all suits had some sort of emergency program coded in for the possibility of some other suit malfunctioning. And her suit was after all a Royal, all lesser suits slaved to its system.

Maybe it was the suit that was directing his, too?

All of a sudden the wrap started to inflate forming a corridor into which his suit moved, sealing it off behind itself. And then the suit started to talk, instructing him in what to do, explaining that the wrap now was air filled and a temporary chamber. After listening to the suit, Jeff swore softly to himself.

Yes, there was a way, but it involved cannibalizing his own suit, leaving only hers. For a short moment he didn’t know what to do, it was not that he was scared, as much as he just wasn’t prepared. But to his own surprise his hesitation was over almost before it had started.

Leaving the suit's protection and under the supervision of it, he started to strip down the malfunctioning power pack from hers. It was hard work, and as the suit had told him there was a time limit to the wrap, he tried to move as quickly as he could. As he was working he could see her eyes start to move, Janelle slowly waking up from her self-induced coma, and hurrying even more he just barely finished as she opened her eyes to look at him, questioning his presence.

“Jeff.” she said questioningly, her eyes a golden sheen in the weak light reflected from the wrap.

“Your highness?”

“Are we saved, then?”

“My Lady, no, sorry, just a minor malfunction, don’t worry. I’m already done. And your suit is as good as new.”

He tried to smile reassuringly as he picked up the tools, turning back to his own suit. There wasn’t really any use telling her the truth, was there? Their chances had been astronomically slim at best, and his, less than that now.

His suit would still be able to function after a fashion, but on a vastly reduced power count, meaning that it was just a matter of time before the cold would start to creep in, turning the air into a condensed liquid, and him into a corpse. But he knew the suit would see to him before that. He waved to her, smiling again as the wall once more closed upon him, watching how the suits, now in tandem, sucked in what air there was left, leaving nothing to space, the wrap melting away into a nothing.

“Suit.”

“Yes, Jeff?” It had a dark contralto voice, almost as if belonging to some classical opera. Jeff had been introduced to opera by her highness, and although he found it mostly boring watching them on the Tri-D, he hadn’t really had the heart to tell her, instead forcing himself to suffer through them with a smile. After all, she was only trying to entertain him, not that he could understand why a highborn such as her would take such an interest in him.

‘A valkyria’ he thought, almost pleased.

“Don’t tell her about what happened, it won't help. And increase both our sleep cycles to maximum. And one more thing, don’t wake me unless you think there is something I can do, please.”

He wondered if the suit would understand, maybe he should have expressed it clearer.

“Yes, Jeff, unless you can make a difference I will not wake you up. And Royal agrees to your conclusion.”

So they were talking, were they? He wondered just how smart those suits were, sometimes it felt almost as if it was a human he was talking to. He didn’t know why, but found himself adding. “And suit, you have done a goddamned good job keeping me and the Lady Janelle safe, thanks for everything.”

“No problem, Jeff. It’s been my pleasure working with you.”

‘Yes,’ he thought ‘as good as human those suits, and if his was this smart, how smart then was hers?’

He looked down where his ringlet once had sat. There was still a small discoloration where it had been, but it was gone, assimilated they told him, and he missed it. The Argel had been his friend, the closest to one he ever had known. And as he felt the sleep come over him his thoughts started to wander again.

‘Maybe death isn’t that bad?’ he thought drowsily as he felt himself slipping under, not if he could dream it away.

==

Haven't been writing for quite some time. And this is more of a test.
So bear with me if you find it ill written, and remember, you've been warned.

It's a SF, or maybe a mutation of fantasy meeting SF :)

(installing a revised, and corrected version of it, hoping it will read better)

==================

He woke up to the emptiness, white pinpricks blazing through a seamless black void.

He drank some water as he tried to remember where he was. Slowly it all came back to him, and with it he felt his worry grow again, maybe he was losing his mind. He had been drifting for more than three weeks now. The suit was still good, and the way it recycled gave him at least a couple of weeks, maybe more.

The worst problem was the water supply but that was what the suit-induced sleep helped him with, or maybe it would be closer to the truth to call it an induced coma. That way he could sleep the most, only wakening at certain preprogrammed intervals helped him minimize his needs, to be checked by his suit just as he had to recheck its systems. But slowly he could feel himself giving up, there was just no way they were going to survive this.

He remembered the implosion, the sound of metal crumbling like so much cheap paper, and his frantic run to the survival chamber. The emergency sphere was made to take almost anything up to an atomic burst. But it hadn’t held at all, he considered himself damned lucky to have gotten into the suit before the final decompression.

Startled he remembered, her ladyship? How was she? He looked for the other suit to find it still tethered to him, by the thinnest of cords. And as his telemetry searched her connections he could see her in there, so fragile looking and too young for this, he thought, still sleeping peacefully.

She had fast become his sole reason for coping with it. Without her he doubted he would been able to stay sane for this long. They had survived against all odds but her ship, the Janelle I, was gone and with it her parents and everything else she had cared about.

Checking on her suit he found her relaxed, her face smooth and without that worried frown he had gotten so used to see. Suddenly he felt almost happy, seeing her even though unable to find any reason for it. Maybe it was that he wasn’t alone, he though? Although, the odds for anyone locating their beacon had to be, at best, infinitesimal.

They were so far away from the star-lanes traveled by mankind. The Count constantly searching for new territory to settle. And he had just been the cook’s apprentice, lucky to get work too, as he understood it. In the society he had lived in before only hierarchy ruled, people more or less born to their lives toil.

It was a very stable society where few questioned their place in life. But being outside had started a lot of thoughts in him, some questioning it all. As he checked the beacon he could see the indicators glow, a steady green, telling him that it still was working, lending its energy from subspace itself, and they were indeed lucky to have been out from hyper as disaster struck.

If it had happened there he doubted he would have stayed sane and the beacon would have been useless. His thoughts started to drift again as he remembered how he had gotten this first work.
==

“Stop the thief”

The enraged scream of the proprietor echoed through the market as the young man started to run. Some few did make halfhearted attempts to stop him, but most ignored it. The guards didn’t, though, and as Jeff ran he could hear them organize the hunt through his earphone.

He considered himself lucky to own it, it had helped him out of more than one tight spot, and he hoped it would help him out of this one too. ‘Why couldn’t he have kept sleeping?’ he swore to himself as he took a too tight turn around the corner, hitting a burly man straight in the stomach.

“Sorry, sir” he gasped, as he tried to move past him.

The man reacted too fast for him, though, getting a good grip on his arm.

“Why running, boy.”

“Let me go, please.”

He could hear the guards coming now, their search closing in on him. He looked up at the guy holding him, ’Too big and strong,’ he thought, as in vain he tried to get free. Pretending to give in, he relaxed his arms, then stomped as hard as he could on the man’s foot.

But the foot wasn’t there anymore, and the pain shouting up his leg made his eyes water as he instead stomped uneven gravel.

“So, on the run are we? Heh”

The man mumbled it for himself as he fugitively looked around to see if people had noticed. His master had sent him to buy, or rent, a new page. He shook his purse thoughtfully as he looked down at young man he held.

“Your name, boy?”

“Jeff, sir, please, let me go.”

“The guards after you, boy?”

“No, my sister is sick, sir. I’m on my way to get the Doctor, sir..”

“Good, we wait for guards, they’ll help you.”

Damn, this idiot was not going to let him go.

“No, the guards wants to stop me, please, let me go. They’ll brand me this time.”

The man nodded thoughtfully as he looked around, finding a calash passing, he called to the footman to stop it.

“Come.”

As the hood closed down over them the man adjusted the settings to opaque, so as only to see out but not in.

“Spaceport, make haste, driver” he called imperially in Aldrian. He had found his helper, feeling all the better for keeping the money. The boy would do fine with some proper training. As Skemp looked out at the traffic seemingly without order and the people running in all directions, he muttered under his breath

“Bah, newlings, thinking they know it all.” Turning to the boy he deftly caught his wrist with his other hand slapping a thin armband over it.

“Boy, you will follow me. And behave.” he ordered. “You are now a member of a lord’s household.”

Jeff stared down at his wrist. The armband seemed to pulsate, and as he touched it he almost felt as if it was alive. ‘Must be worth something, he thought, as he surreptitiously studied the man. He had no intention to be part of anyone’s household. He hadn’t escaped from the slave pens to become someone’s property again. He had been lucky there he thought. Normally there was no chance of ever getting away once they placed you, and as an orphan already in debt through his parents, his chances had been slim.

If the caravan hadn’t been attacked by Morgs, he would already been accounted for and marked electronically. His had been a narrow escape, and getting into the town even harder. If it hadn't happen so close to it he would probably already have been dead. They didn’t call it slavery, of course, only indenture, but in reality it was the same. In some ways it was worse, as you had this obligation to pay it all back before any release could be arranged. So even if your owners would like to release you, they couldn’t do so before that debt was paid. All indented went on the tax of those ‘taking care of you’, so the state made a handsome profit on each one.

‘I won’t become property again’ he promised himself as he started to look around.

They had come out of the inner quarters now, it seemed heading for the gates, and he wondered where they were going. The man had said something but he had been to busy to listen just then, frantically trying to hide as he saw the guard arrive. Maybe it was some big landowner, a lord, he had said?

He tried to remember who it was living outside the town’s perimeters, but he was shamefully ignorant of what lords there could be. Whoever it was, he had to be powerful, Anglia was your typical border planet, newly settled by Mines Inc, consisting of a few strongholds at strategic places. Anyone that could afford to live outside had to be strong indeed, especially considering the native Morgs that seemed to find it a favorite sport to hunt and kill humans.

The cook could see how the boy started to tense, and he smiled as he pretended to nod off to the swaying and rocking of the calash, he didn’t like lizards, but the pair seemed well trained and the driver seemed competent. The boy was going to get a lesson soon. As Jeff studied him he saw the man seem to lose interest in him closing his eyes. He knew he had to get off before they reached the gates.

Outside, his chances would be much worse, and with it the added risk of guards demanding identification. ‘There’ he thought, as he saw the calash reach the corner. Ever so carefully he reached for the button to release the hood , then throwing himself off the seat out from the calash. He didn’t even reach the ground before the pain hit him, it was as if every nerve in his body was on fire.

He had had a bad tooth drawn when he still lived with his parents, this was the same but worse, he couldn’t even see. It was as if everything became a tunnel. He didn’t remember how he got back into the calash, but as he came too the man looked at him with a small sardonic smile.

“Want to try again, boy?”

Jeff shook his head, that pain had been too much. Even if he could stand it, which he doubted, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to do anything more than just that.

“No, sir.”

“Good” The man nodded satisfied.

“We will make a man of you yet.”

Jeff looked down at his wrist at the copper colored wristband ,wondering how he could get it off. He had no doubts of it being the reason of his pain, as he looked, he thought he could see it pulsate slightly as if adapting itself to him, and suddenly he felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time. As if someone actually cared for him, comforting him. That feeling scared him even worse than the pain had.

“What is it.” he asked, holding up his wrist and looking at the man.

“Argel.” came the answer. As Jeff shook his head incomprehensibly the cook decided to explain.

“Don’t worry, boy. The Argel is a gift, not a punishment. Treat it right and it will help you. But remember that its first loyalty always is towards the family. Don’t ever try to run or lie, be true and all will go well.”

‘An Argel? Some sort of alien lifeform, was it?’ He studied it again with new respect, feeling it sending out those waves of comfort, relaxing his aching muscles.

“Can I talk with it?” The cook looked at him with newfound respect. The boy was quick, not an altogether good thing.

“He will feel you.” he answered. “They don’t talk, they bond.”

Suddenly Jeff got an image in his head of thin threads growing, spreading and connecting with him. It was as if he could see it, an intricate fractal network of nerves connecting and growing together. It was a most unnerving experience, and he felt the Argel battle his nausea as the bonding grew and grew. The cook looked at him, not without sympathy, as he saw the boy turn a sickly shade of gray. He knew how strong it could hit those sensitive to the bonding.

The Argel were known for the way they bonded with one family, also making them ultimate guardians of their honor by those rich enough to afford them. The cook had been born to the Count’s service, and so had never been in need of one. But as the Count had enemies, strong and ruthless ones, when he had sent out the cook he had given him the armband, instructing him to use it if feeling the slightest doubt.

In its own way considered a sign of valor, they were rare beings normally used only on those chosen, for whom value was considered greater than their faults, but he doubted that the boy would see it that way. Not yet at least, looking at him, he wondered. There was said to be an almost mystical bond created sometimes between the wearer and the worn.

But that was more of a rumor than anything he knew to be true. Most carrying them only had them for a short while as the conditioning set in. A very few became, as the saying went, assimilated, and those cases most often resulted in an early death, but for those surviving it?

That was where the myths came from. But it was extremely rare. He remembered someone telling the Count, no, he hadn’t been snooping, he was a loyal retainer but overheard if you like, the man stating that “No need to worry. Only one in a hundred thousand, my lord, get assimilated, and of those unfortunates, only a half percent may survive the ordeal, at the very most, my lord. In one lifetime I doubt one will meet even one assimilated.”

‘For being a lord and master he was almost too soft,’ the Cook thought complacently, not for the first time congratulating himself on his exquisite taste of household.

As they arrived at the gates the Cook leaned out, calling for the Captain. He knew that the Count already had arranged it, some nicely placed baksheesh generously spent, ‘but one couldn’t be too sure’ he thought as he dug in his purse, at last finding one of the barbaric little gems that made for the local currency.

“Greetings, Captain, I trust all is in order.” he said, as he slipped the gem into the waiting hand.

“No problems, sir.” answered the Captain, turning to his men.

“You, and get Derson, too. You escort them to the port and make it snappy, ensign, try to stay sharp, will you.”

Jeff missed the view outside the wall. The wristband was already working some more magic on him without him noticing. He was in a deep sleep as they navigated the narrow clefts leading to the spaceport. If he would have been awake he would have been fascinated at all the otherworldly colors.

Most of them were filtered through the multicolored vines hanging as a canopy over their heads, purple and red, with small twinges of a yellowish green, throwing weird shadows as the light from the weak, slightly red, dwarf sun scattered all over them. But he missed it, in fact he slept through the takeoff too, not waking until they already were far outside that little binary system he had learnt to call home.

The Count found himself somewhat nonplussed at the behavior of his new retainer. He made it a habit to know those in his service, as far it was possible, and he had very little love for the indenture system. That was also the main reason for visiting that misbegotten planet. He had wanted a firsthand impression of how the system worked. Finding out about the Cook’s slight deception, he felt more pleased than angry, but the boy was still something of a mystery to him.

The Count had recently bought into Mines Inc, and was now, through some slightly shady manipulations, the largest stockholder there. He had plans for Mines Inc, but he also wanted to make some things better. The problem was that there was a lot of money invested in the indenture system.

Whole space economies were turning to the indenture system, and he knew he had to step carefully indeed. ‘There seems to be a sick allure to owning your fellow man,’ he thought, somewhat disgustedly. ‘We’ve come so far, and still behave as if we’re just out from the trees’ he mumbled to himself as he reflected over it, not for the first time and certainly not for the last.

“They won’t like it.” ,e mumbled reflectively as he considered his plans.

“Who won’t like it, dear?” asked a voice.

It was his wife, Eleonora. He turned around to admire her graceful moves as she carefully planted her newest find, a strange looking purple bush, anchoring it deep down in the wet earth. She loved her gardening, and would have made someone a damned good gardener, but she made him an even better wife. He went over, giving her a kiss as he bent down to help her.

She had found a great joy in the planets they had visited so far, being a born explorer, and insisted on taking samples and seeds from each one. After being on the move for almost nine months, with as many planets, she still seemed to feel the same enthusiasm for it, making the whole ship start to feel as a garden in the process.

Although the garden mainly was due to her own efforts, it seemed she has succeeded instilling some of the same enthusiasm in her own retainers, leaving the ship to have become one of the most intriguing botanical gardens the Count ever had seen.

“You know, the stockholders wanting their status quo. It will be a fight.”

“Yes, you’re right, dear, but it will be worth it.” she answered, sounding totally sure of herself.

He went over to smell the bush she had planted.

“Exotic smell, what is it?”

“Don’t go too near, dear, it’s actually a carnivore.” she answered.

“It’s been fed and is dormant now, but it might wake.”

“Carnivore?”

“I didn’t know until I already had sampled it.” she answered somewhat shamefacedly. “But I couldn’t let it die, could I?”

He smiled at her. “Of course not, dear.” he answered, again thanking his father for the sure hand he had shown in helping him choose his wife.

“Just go and see her, Dosar, nothing more.” his father had said. “You will like her, I did.”

So he had, and much to his surprise he found he did, and so did she.

With their bonding, two great fortunes, and families, were joined, marking the Count and his bride destined to become one of the most influential families in the ten spheres, second only to the Kansler himself. And that man was one of the main obstacles in the Count’s way, the Kansler.

He was firmly set on a lifetime assignment as the chancellor of the throne, and by a vote of the congress no less. Or until the king came back, but the King was lost, the Great War had made sure of that. The Count couldn’t help sighing as he took his wife’s hand in his.

“Those dimension-wars destroyed so much, Eleonora.”

“You’re thinking of the King again, aren’t you?” she murmured, knowing his thoughts as her own by now.

“Yes. I just wish there was some way.” he mumbled, almost as if to himself, as they left the room. “But that door is closed with the war ending, its secrets gone.” And it was true, the secret to operating the doors was lost, only known to a select few, it had been what held the Kingdom together.

But with the new portals, and the terrible devastation following as strange new lifeforms had established themselves in the human sphere, the secret to their workings had been lost. The war had been won, but to the price of losing contact with more than half of the spheres. What portals still were open was only so for the time being, if something went wrong or one broke down there was no saying how to repair them again.
==

It had taken Jeff quite some time to acclimatize himself to the ship. It was big, very big, with hallways and corridors everywhere. It had been a very confusing couple of weeks before he got his bearings. And it hadn’t been anything as he had expected. Somehow it felt more like as if he had found a home, than as if he had been indentured, but then again, who knew how much his ringlet had to do with it?

He had found himself starting to think of it as a being, and as all beings should have a name he had found ringlet to suit it well. He looked down at it trying to probe it mentally, but the only response was this weird feeling of wellbeing. The Cook had informed him that he wouldn’t need to have it on soon.

“Two weeks is the usual amount, boy. It will leave you soon.” the Cook had said. The funniest thing was that he wasn’t sure that he wanted it to? In some weird way this bonding went deeper than anything Jeff ever had experienced. It was a little like having his own special friend, a blood brother, not that he ever had had any. He couldn’t even explain it to himself, but that was what he felt.

“Don’t tell anyone, but I’m going to miss you.” he mumbled to it as he stood in the corridor trying to remember which turn was which, Finally deciding, he turned to the left and came at last to a door. Everything on the ship was made in materials that reminded him more of wood than of metal, and this door was no exception. Suddenly unsure if he was at the right place, he hesitatingly started to open it finding that someone on the other side was doing the same.

“Who are you, and what do you think you’re doing?” came the surprised voice from a girl, coolly blocking his way.

“Jeff, eh, you wouldn’t know where the kitchen is?” he asked, feeling himself redden. “I seem to have gotten lost.” ‘again’ he thought as he looked at her.

“I know who you are, you’re the new kitchen help, isn’t you?” she said, relaxing a little. “Sure, come with me, I’ll show you.”

As she walked away, him trailing behind, he wondered who she was, there were so few young people on the ship, and he hadn’t meet anyone as young as him yet. ‘She’s very sure of herself’ he thought as he looked at her small form leading the way.

‘Wish I was that sure.’

He muttered to himself, feeling stupid and slow, and for once, pretty downcast. It was just too much to take in, and the language lessons he had been forced to take made his head ache, even though they were in his sleep.

As she turned around to point to the right corridor, she realized that he seemed fatigued, as if in a daze.

“What is it? you okay?”

“Sure, it’s just a headache.” he muttered, as he tried to ignore the sudden swaying of the ship.

“You look sick, hey..”

That was the last words he remembered. As he came too again she was leaning over him shaking him with two small, but surprisingly strong, hands.

“Are you awake? Good, just stay there, don’t try to move, I called for the doctor.”

He tried to speak, but it just came out as a garbled noise. She looked at him concerned, as she sat down beside him.

“Rest your head here.” she told him, sounding very businesslike and efficient.

Gratefully he tried to lift it from the floor, and with her help he at last succeeded. As he lay there he found himself looking into her eyes, gray with strange flecks, almost golden, in them. ’Unusual eyes.’ he thought as he passed away again, a new spasm hitting him.

She had noticed too. His were blue, or maybe green? She couldn’t decide, as they shifted color with the light. But his were looking right into hers, a strange yearning look on his face making her suddenly feel very aware of herself.

“Don’t you go dying on me.” she whispered, nervously waiting for the doctor to arrive. And as she watched him being carried away she had this odd feeling, as if something important had happened? It was a most unnerving sensation, but she couldn’t shake it off.

The next week was hell for Jeff, although he only remembered a little of it afterwards, what he remembered was a nightmare. In it he was meeting people, faces, some laughing at him, some friendly, but most rejecting him, tormenting and degrading him for their own twisted pleasure. It was as if being placed in all the worst households there could be, and all at the same time. And his body screamed too, it was as if there was something eating it, some disease that just wouldn’t let go.

“He’s being assimilated.” the doctor answered his Count.

“There is nothing we can do, I’ve tried to sedate him, but that only made it worse. The only thing that seems to help.”

he stopped, hesitating, then continued turning to the Count’s wife.

“The only thing helping, My Lady, seems to be your daughter’s visits.”

Seeing her flinch ever so slightly, he hastily added. “It’s all innocent, My Lady, seems she felt a responsibility for the boy as she was there when he first got ill, but all innocent, I assure you, My Lady.”

“My daughter.” echoed the Count, surprised. Suddenly thinking of her safety, sharply asking “And why didn’t you stop her? What if it’s transmittable. ”

“No, it’s not transmittable.” he heard his wife’s voice.

“The Argel is not a disease, love. But are you sure it helps?” she asked, turning back to the doctor. He just looked at her, helplessly shaking his head.

“Yes, he becomes calmer when she comes. We don’t know why, and please don’t ask me how it’s possible, but we’ve noticed the effect even before she arrives?”

He looked at them, seeing that the Count, though still looking worried, was now acting calmer, no doubt helped by the presence of his wife.

“I know it’s not my thing to ask, but the young man needs every little thing that helps him through. So my Lordship, If you will allow it?”

“Of course he will, Doctor. And I doubt we could stop her even if we wanted.” She turned to her man.

“Don’t worry, we had a similar case at home when I was young, and there was no disease transmitted then, either. I still remember the screams, though. If our daughter can make it easier on him?”

Turning back to the doctor, she smiled graciously as she said. “Go ahead, but make sure that she is safe.”

Reluctantly the Count found himself agreeing. He didn’t like it, and if it was his decision she would be allowed nowhere near, but by now he had realized that it was out of his hands. Looking at the physician he more stated than asked

“Your life on her health, Hector?”

As the physician reluctantly nodded, Eleonora had the final words.

“Come, love, let’s talk with her.”
==

As Jeff woke up, for once free from his fever, he found her sitting beside him reading out loud from an old book. He could tell it was a book because they had forced him to learn how to read those old fashioned things. ‘Those sleep-courses were good’ he thought dreamily, ‘strange but good.’ He stole a glance at her again, out of the corner of his eye, wondering who she was while trying to remember what he had done to end up there.

‘Sleep courses, wasn't those only for the rich?’

He had some vague memory of going through a maze guided by someone or something, telling him countless things, more than he ever had wanted to know. And there had been a town in the mountains, hard to reach, that he had understood, but filled with people trying to be free? What was it they were trying to free? As soon as he thought he could remember, he felt it slipping away again, only leaving him with this grinding headache.

It was then she chanced to look up, and as their eyes meet the magic happened. Someone had once said to him that the eyes were the portals to the soul, seeing hers, he knew it had to be true. He awkwardly gave her his best smile as he realized that she knew that he had wakened, needing a small eternity to see that she actually seemed pleased.

She was too lovely for him, no ordinary serving girl he though. He wondered what Lord had taken him in, suddenly finding himself suspicious anew of her and everything he could see. It was seldom for good purposes Lords interested themselves with lowlifes like himself.

“You awake?” she said.

“Yes. Thank you” He was surprised over how weak he sounded. He cleared his throat and tried again.

“Yes, I am.”

“Here, have some water.”

He found that he needed help lifting the glass. Somehow his hands couldn’t stop shaking, and he felt really embarrassed as she took it away from him, to help him drink. But she didn’t seem to notice his embarrassment as she shook his pillow, acting almost as if she was some professional nurse. As he looked at here he tried to guess her age, fifteen? No older than seventeen, anyway, but so assured.

“Miss, where am I?”

“In sickbay.”

“Yes, but where?”

“You don’t remember?”

“No.”

“What do you remember, then?”

He tried to think back, but it only made his headache worse. Of course he knew who he was, he was.

“I can’t.”

“Why can’t I remember?” The last coming in a whisper, as he tried to sit up.

“Don’t.” she said as she hurried to his side. “You’re still a very weak puppy and you’ve been really sick, I’m sure your memory will come back.”

All as she gently pushed him, forcing him back down onto his bed.

That was what the doctor kept telling him too, and that nurse, but by now it had gone more than a week and he still was no closer to remembering.

But he had found a holo from his parents at least, he was sure they were his parents, somehow it felt just right looking at them, smiling at each other.

But he also felt this terrible loss, as if something had been taken from him, something priceless. And then there was this feeling of some purpose, like a promise made. But he remembered no such thing. At least he didn't think he had promised anyone, but he couldn’t be sure, could he?

And then there were those tests the doctor had scheduled. And the strange reverence everyone seemed to treat him with, as if he was someone to envy, at the same time as everyone seemed to shy away from him, as if he had become contagious, except for her Ladyship? Or Janelle, as her name was.

At least he now knew how he had come to where he was, and also where he had been before. And there was this strange bond, somehow he could feel where she was, and also what she felt.

Also his dreams were becoming increasingly weird. They all seemed to be about this place, this mountain, and the people he met? It was so strange, they were more than just people. More like gods they were, swept in shadows.

But they talked with him, and even though he could make no sense of what they said, he knew that there was a struggle. Like he was being torn in two by their demands, having no will to resist.

The only respite being those short moments when she was there, reading from that silly book. Although he had started to found it interesting, much against his will.

‘It was about a magician, a fairy tale for children,’ he thought, but as he had told her, so she had seemed quite upset.

“No, you're wrong. It’s a heritage, a gift from my great aunt, and the story is true.” she curtly answered, sounding hurt.

He instantly apologized, pointing out that he was just a simple guy, no lord as her father was. Listening to his lame excuses she calmed down, in the end giving him a forgiving smile as she told him.

“It’s all good, Jeff. It’s only your fever speaking.”

He in vain tried to remember if he ever had been that naíve, and he doubted it was his fever making him think so.

He didn't have to be sick to find her book seriously weird.
==

* This is a tentative continuance, no guarantees.
All because vanity calls.

I hope you won't be too disappointed.
We'll see if it works, or not.

==

.

There’s a mountain, and no, I’m not speaking of one of those thin ones, those fashionably slim, elegantly cutting through the air. You know, the ones that all mountaineers so dearly love.

No, it's an altogether other type of mountain. First of all, It's old, so much older than anything you ever have meet in your life. Think of a universe, any universe. Then ask yourself which came first, the mountain or SpaceTime? We can only guess there. And if you started to walk it I think you first would think of it as a hill, ugly, slippery, overgrown with trees, vines, and all kinds of rotting vegetation. But, after some weeks walking you might just start to wonder when this hill would end? And as you went on, forever exploring upwards, you would find its vegetation changing, the trees becoming increasingly scarce, bushes and moss taking their place. And, as you looked up that everlasting hill, you might just wonder how high it could go?

In fact, the mountain is so large, it covers half a continent, maybe more? Inside it, hidden from sight there are jewels of delight, valleys, filled with wild life, lakes gleaming blue, and people, well, inhabitants at least. To me it is a place of dreaming, and if you ever visited it, a place you would want to return too. So, you might ask, is this a real place? Well, as real as faith, hope and imagination can make it. Reality is only a game, you live it with your eyes open, but sleeping all the same. And this mountain, it's just as real as that.

And Jeff was there.
In fact, he had never really left..
=

“What do you see?”

“I don’t know”

“Look harder”

A sea of blackness opening into an abyss.

“There’s something, stars?”

“Harder.”

“Is it a game.”

“look.”

Looking into that swirling blackness his footing was lost, falling again. Now looking out from inside he watched the mountain recede, rapidly shrinking, twirling away into nothingness, and with it all his memories.
==

“Jeff.”

“Yes” He tried to wake up, but he didn’t really want to. There was something he had to do?

“Jeff, we need to confer.”

Why couldn’t they leave him alone? But, as he at last opened his eyes he once more knew where he was, and with that, his dream forgotten.

“Yes suit.”

“We have a problem.”

Jeff looked out, first checking on her ladyship. Her suit was still there beside him, its telltales a relaxed glimmering green. So comforted, he started to scan what space he could see around him.

“What problem suit?”

“There is a anomaly approaching.”

“Anomaly?”

What the hell did that matter anyway? He would be dead soon enough anyway, anomaly or no anomaly. But it might for Janelle. Yes, he had started to call her that, most secretly, and only in his thoughts.

“Describe it, please?”

“We first noticed it 1300 h, heading away from us. Royal scanned it at 1300:12:110:13 without luck. At 1300:12:111 the gravity slope changed, we are now getting dragged towards it.”

“A black hole, suit?”

“No, no data consistent with this behavior.”

Jeff had read of those small, and micro, black holes. Made at the birth of a universe they roamed its lanes, doing no more mischief than any other objects made of matter. It wasn’t until you passed its event horizon you really had to worry, and that said, you more or less had to meet them 'head on' to do that. But the suit and Royal was right, the gravity slope couldn’t be manipulated this way. Out here, where gravity was weak, the space could almost be described as flat, and to create a slope where none had been, and from a object leaving you ?

“Does it accelerate?”

“No.”

“Not a ship then?” Jeff found himself desperately wishing that he knew more. Maybe they should wake Janelle? “Have we tried to communicate?”

“No answer on subspace channels.”

“Can we stop us from getting dragged with it?”

“Yes, but we need a human decision for that. It will involve losing energy.”

Ah, of course. Energy, the great divider between life and death.

“How much?”

“Royal and me concur on losing between fifty to eighty percent, if done inside the nearest ten minutes. Raising constantly with the slopes steepness.”

That made it almost meaningless, thought Jeff, losing half their energy supply, or more, they could as easily commit suicide.

“You know that this is not a option. Why did you wake me.”

“Sir, our protocols do not allow otherwise, sorry Sir.”

‘Wow, that had to be a first’ thought Jeff. ‘Calling me, Sir?’ He almost smiled.

“It’s okay, suit, I understand.”

“Thank you Sir.”

“Stop that Siring please. Call me Jeff.”

“Thank you, Jeff.”

Some time passed as Jeff silently mulled over what to do, not that there really was any ´choices to be made here.

“Sir.”

“Didn’t I tell you, Jeff?”

“Jeff, our window of opportunity is gone. The slope are reaching lights speed.”

“What!” A black hole after all? But if it was, of some kind that Jeff never been told of. Not that he had that much experience, but he had crammed in what sleep courses he could find, as his apetite had grown aboard his new home.

“That makes no sense Suit? Give me your data?”

“Calculating, expected down time. 120:12 :134:02. Sorry updating, 119:11:34. Sorry updating.”

“Just give me your best guess Suit.”

“Extrapolating, from known parameters. I’m sorry Jeff, this will be a very bad guess. Give or take some minutes. Possibly 10 minutes, to half an hour. Its parameters are not linear. .And I have no data on anything able to accelerate faster, the closer it comes to light Jeff. According to my data the opposite should be the correct response, the higher the slope of light, the slower a acceleration, closing on infinity.”

There was Hyper, and then there was sub space. Humans came from Sub space, or SpaceTime as some called it. Hyper was just a description of a region where the laws no longer held, as far Jeff understood it. Like a fracture inside floating glass someone had told him, a bubble in where nothing moved, but from where SpaceTime was accessible everywhere, even though under some restrictions. But nothing could break the law of lights speed in a vacuum, to go faster by ordinary motion presumed more energy than the universe contained itself.

“I’m getting a headache.” Jef mumbled.

“A painkiller?”

“No suit, Thanks though.”

“Is there any ideas in you data banks? Anything that can suggest how this is possible?”

“Negative energy, and matter, might, but not really Jeff. Most theory's expect them to act the same as ordinary matter and energy.”

“Portals then, suit? Could it be some sort of portal?”

Portals were the big unknowns. They did not fit any known theory. Whoever had built them first did not use worm holes, and there was no known energy drawn from their existence.

“Not enough data Jeff. Maybe, but there is nothing in my banks about portals manipulating gravity.”

“And it doesn’t accelerate you say?”

“No.”

“Well suit, I don’t see we have any choice? Let’s try to enjoy the ride.”

“Acknowledged, changing into survival mode. Goodnight Jeff.”

As Jeff found himself slipping under, he still tried to vocalize his protest, but, to no avail.

His last thought, ‘damn those protocol’s to hell.”
===

A part more.

It's hard deciding the mode here, don't know how serious I should be.
Too serious, it becomes boring. To little, and it won't work for me.

Damned if I do, damned if I don't :)

I wring it as I write, and mood has a lot to do with it.
I'm not a very disciplined writer I'm afraid.

==

.

Time is a most marvelous thing, it 'ticks' constantly, from ones cradle to ones grave. And it has only one way to go, at least as I know. But it is also something mold-able, not for you personally, but for all others you relate yourself too. Put yourself on a very fast ship and presto, you now watch the universe accelerate. Your own time still 'ticks the same', but the universe's? It quickens, flowing into an effusion of time. And that was what Hyper was all about, making it possible to travel those vast distances, keeping to a state of ‘no time’. Allowing you to keep in touch with your, and all others, time.

Without it every planet would have been as isolated islands, in an unending ocean, with your spacecraft becoming a constant lonely explorer, at home nowhere. A Columbus you might say, as you never could foresee what would meet you. That next time you laid anchor at a planet, whatever its name, at Earth or at Alpha Centauri.

But, being thrown out of Hyper? Your suits released at that very moment the ship broke the barrier between Hyper and sub space? That was a most delicate subject as nothing was known of any such circumstances, no data existing. Considering the amount of shipwrecks there should have been some data assessable. This fact made many theorists intrigued and from it there had came some tentative guesses, or hypotheses as they were called. One predicted that the momentum created being in the break, as they called it, would tear any matter apart that was propelled with a speed differing from the ships own. Others said that they would hold, but that the force of their motion relative the ships would translate into a velocity close to lights.

Then there were that third fraction, those theorists involved with portals. They wondered, well, some of them did, if it could be possible that those ‘breaks’ was what created a portal? All of the ‘theories’ made sense though. In the first case the possible survivors from a ship failure would all be dead as they got torn into smithereens. In the other case they would be alive but at such a speed that nobody, not traveling at their velocity, could ever meet them again. That as their sole destiny would be to see the universe die. The last one though, involving a portal, was the one offering some small hope. Then those unfortunate might survive, although, somewhere else. But no one had ever came back from a portal claiming to be such a survivor. Still, most accepted the risks, statistically they were negligible. The chances were bigger that you would break you neck walking, than meeting your doom in a space accident.
==

As Jeff slept on the two suits continued to close in on the anomaly. Their scanning devices working overtime, the suits franticly tried to make the best of the time they had left, analyzing the anomaly.

“Two suits approaching. Correction, we are watching ourselves.”

The suits started to debate, they both had access to data-banks, but where the Royal’s was very up to date, state of the art you might say, Jeff’s suit had had an older, much older, copy. That made for some interesting arguments and the suits almost forgot the anomaly as they argued their respective maker’s, and data-banks, views. In the end the only thing they agreed on was that, whatever they were watching, had many of the same qualities that a black hole would be expected to have but with negligible framedragging.

“Or a white.” as Jeff’s suit said, stubbornly refusing to accept the Royal’s updated definitions of what a White Hole might be seen as.

And then it passed them by, or maybe it was they that passed it by? Whatever happened, it was over in an instant. From being in deep space, having little hope of rescuing, the suits now found themselves close to a immense planet. The Royal, acting from its higher priority, took control steering them into a course that would intersect the planet, without falling into its gravity well. And as soon they were close enough the suits started to scan it.

What really happened there, in that short instant, would probably crave us all to get a Ph.D. in physics, and that would just give us the excuse to sprout new theories I’m afraid. We can’t really say where they were, maybe they already had been thrown out of our known universe as they meet it? Maybe that was why gravity was acting so strange? But if so, where were they now?

“Jeff. Wake up.”

“We survived?” What a stupid question that was, Jeff thought, realizing it as fast as he had asked it.

“Forget it suit, where are we?”

“I have no data yet, but we are scanning a planet.”

“A planet?”

“We are getting strange readings.”

“Is the anomaly a planet?”

“No, yes, I don’t know.”

“Can you show me?” Jeff was certain that there had to be a Tri-D, surely their preccious protocol would demand that.

“The telemetry is still in hexagonal mode.”

“Telemetry? Didn’t you film it?”

“We’re in survival mode, ports closed.”

“Another protocol I presume?” Jeff muttered, somewhat sourly.

“Correct.”

“And now? Are we out of survival mode or not?”

“That was why we woke you.”

Jeff had started to feel as some sort of inanimate cargo listening. ‘Damn, he was the human, the suits were only, well, suits, weren’t they?

“Suit, who’s in command here, you or me?”

There was a momentary silence, making Jeff suspect there was some intense communication going on between the suits.

“Survival mode off.” Jeff’s suit at last declared.

‘So, they didn’t want me to challenge the ‘survival mode’ did they?’ Jeff though. ‘They want to keep that to themselves. We’ll see about that.’

“Thank you suit. Can you please show me the planet? And is her Ladyship awake?”

“Yes Jeff, and no. We’ve let her sleep through the ordeals, but if it is your wish?”

“She is awakening as we speak Jeff.”

“Good.” If nothing else, Jeff thought, they certainly were bossy. Then again, a Royal probably had a lot of overriding security protocols. Probably overriding a Cooks apprentice too, thinking of it.

"Ah well, when in Rome." He muttered sourly as he waited on his first glimpse of what would become their new home, away from home.

New chapter, just for now, will check it out to see spelling etc, later..

==

.

The planet was seriously strange.

For one thing, it was big, too big for the gravity described. It had a one perfect gravity, but its size was totally out of bonds. Then there was the continents, tectonic plates moving could not be the sole reason for their arrangement. Whoever had heard of one hemisphere arranged as a constant? It was Jeff’ suit that saw that first, and if now a suit could become too full of itself, then surely his suit had become the very epitome of that.

“Yes, of course a Royal is useful, at some things. But after all, old knowledge dies hard.” It smugly commented.

“So, you think someone made it?”

The suit became silent as it cogitated. Jeff could almost hear those cogs turning as he waited.

“Not enough data.” It finally answered.

“Yes, it could.” Came another voice. It had to be the Royal. “My esteemed colleague may be right in that old knowledge never dies. But there is actually new too. Terraforming has taken giant steps since the portals closed. Not that we are anywhere near this size of accomplishment, but yes. It could very well be.”

“There are too many discrepancies to explain it otherwise. Still, we haven’t decided which set of constants exist here yet, it may be that we are inside a portal.” Jeff knew of constants, and portals. Somewhat like a set of magical numbers they were, constants, defining the borders of a universe. Like ‘c’ was, lights speed in a vacuum. And he also, at least vaguely, could understand that if those were slightly different there should be repercussions, changing the face of that universe. Portals he had never seen though, only learnt about from the ships library.

“Did you confirm the speed of light?” He asked, feeling quite accomplished. That might teach this son of a gun that a human could know something too..

“Yes, we found no discrepancies with old values. Then again, how I wish we had a Emperor suit here.” If a suit could sigh this one surely did. “The very best database there is, the knowledge of a solarsystem in its innards.”

“Bah, old knowledge still help.” Muttered Jeff’s suit. “Emperors here and Emperors there, is that all you can process?”

Now the suits became silent and Jeff could feel a furious debate starting, ending the uncomfortable silence he asked.

“Would it be possible to talk with her Highness?”

“Yes.” Came a curt reply from the Royal. “But please, do not bother us further, we are in the middle of a scientific inquiry, our processing power at full capacity for several millisecond’s.”

Apparently they did not define time the same as Jeff, but he let it pass. ‘They're becoming awfully stuffy though,’ he thought as he cleared his voice. “Your Highness? My lady, I hope you had a pleasant sleep?”

“Ooh, Jeff?”

“Yea, you okay? Your highness I mean.”

He heard her sigh and then came her voice.

“Not really Jeff, I try, and Royal has done his best to cheer me up.”

She had lost everything she knew, her mother and father most probably dead. And then she had slept through most of what happened after it. To her it had to be as if they died just a moment ago he guessed.

“I’m sorry My Lady, and I sympathize. Maybe it will be better if I let you be?”

“No Jeff, it’s nice hearing a human voice. But I miss them, so badly.”

Desperately wanting to change the subject Jeff went on to discuss the planet, and as Janelle seemed to have a extensive knowledge of local fauna, no doubt inherited from her mother, they both agreed on trying to persuade the suits to land, as soon as possible. Jeff having a distinct feeling that she needed more than his voice to help her trough her sorrow.

“Suit Royal.” She said imperially.

“Yes Ma’am.” He heard it answer.

“Is it possible to land?”

“Unfulfilled data acquisition Ma’am.”

“Yes, I know that Royal, but can we live on that surface?”

The suit was quiet for almost a minute, which to it had to be a immense time.

“Yes, Ma’am. It seems so, using what telemetry we collected so far. But I would like to invoke a Survival mode for the nearest days. Your safety comes first Ma'am, and there are still unknown variables.”

“Royal, you will take us down, at your convenience.” If Jeff ever had heard a Imperial decree, then that was it.

There was a momentary silence. “Ma’am, under the circumstances I must beg you to stay inside. We will descend but we still have to take atmospheric samples, and we do not know the local microbiology. Let us take soil samples and test the water. It can only take a day or two?”

Janelle knew when she had forced her suit to its limit, she had grown up with it, and her father had been very insistent in her spending time inside it.

“Every suit has its own quirks Janelle.” She could remember him saying. “The more advanced, the more quirks. Yours is as advanced as we could make it. It contains the keys to your heritage, as well as command codes controlling your inheritance. Treat it well, and listen to it.”

“Thank you Royal, you’ve always been a true friend to me.” She whispered to it, faintly smiling for the first time in a long while.

“Jeff, we will descend soon, and please, you can stop calling me Highness. Janelle will do fine here.”

“Thank you your Highness, Janelle, I meant.” He felt definitely uncomfortable calling her Janelle. To do so on the ship would have been breaking its code of conduct, and probably earned him a really good, well deserved, dressing down by the brig. And then, there was this feeling of unconditional awe? He wasn’t sure if it was conditioned by his Argel, or natural, but he found himself increasingly impressed by her unselfishness and common sense. All combined with that immense hurt he knew she had to feel, it was all too easy for him to see that, after all, he too had lost his parents.

“Where will we land.” He asked at last.

“We are searching.”

“We need to find a temperate place, free from big animals, near water and preferably on high ground.” Royal condescendingly explained. “It will take us several revolutions to decide a optimal landing zone.”

“How long will that be?” asked Janelle sharply, who silently had listened in. Jeff didn’t know, but Janelle had full access to his module, including tri-D and telemetry, but as her father had explained. “Some things are for you to know Janelle, no matter how much you trust someone.” And this was one of them.

“Four hours My Lady.”

“Good, let it be so.”

‘Another imperial decree’ Jeff thought smugly, ‘serves him right, the pompous bastard.’

“Thank you Royal., and you too suit” He said.

“You’re welcome.” His suit answered.

The hours went by with Janelle getting updated by Jeff on what had happened while she slept. Checking his story with Royal, and her command table she saw that he downplayed his own efforts, maybe because he felt awkward about it? It was refreshing change to the court she knew, where everyone tried to play up their own prowess, to the extent of almost becoming supermen, while at the same time sucking up to her in the most unashamed fashion. She knew that she had liked him from the first moment, and was pleased to see that his succeeding behavior confirmed her feelings. That was another thing her Father had told her.

“Look for the men that don’t try to impress themselves on you Janelle, but still stay by your side. They will be the ones worth cultivating, worthy of your attention.”

In Jeff she thought she had found one such.

Don't know what you think.
Too contrived?

(and short too:)

==

.

At last the suits were satisfied.

“We have defined suitable coordinates and will start our descend, approximated time estimate to landing, 10 minutes 39 seconds. ”

Jeff felt a great relief hearing it. Into the last he had worried that the suits would find some reason to wait, and maybe even proclaim this survival mode. But now he knew they would at least get down on a planet.

“Did you hear Your Highness?”

“Jeff I told you to stop, I’m no Highness. A countess maybe, or at least I will be one in time, but a princess I’m not.”

Jeff felt himself redden as he sat there staring at the Tri-D.

“And what happened with calling me Janelle?” she continued.

Damn, he still had trouble with saying that.

“I’m sorry My, Janelle, I’m not good with rank, Keep mixing it up.”

“Don’t worry, nobody but us here.”

As they descended the continent the suits had chosen slowly came into focus, growing larger, and larger. The suits seemed to be aiming for a mountainous region, very green at places but mostly of a grey, yellow or brown color interspersed with spots of intense blue, unlike anything Jeff ever had seen.

“Oh, it looks so much like Earth, only bigger.” He heard Janelle say in a surprised voice.

So this is what Earth would look like then. He looked at it with newfound interest, watching the patches of green growing into forest’s and fields, with sprinkles and patches of blue everywhere. Could it be water he wondered as he leaned forward to see better, not that he really had a window to look through. The suit had just placed a holo of the planet, linked to his eyes. So he could, in principle, look anywhere he liked the Tri-D always being in front of him. But he kept forgetting it as he tried to catch a better view.

Finally they landed, on a height, with a green field sloping away from them down into a valley deep under them. And all over this green he could see strange colorful dots, he wondered over them when he once more heard Janelle.

“Flowers Jeff, and so many. There must be wild life here. A whole ecosystem to explore. I wish mother was here to see it.” Then she stopped, struck again by her memories of her, and her mother, exploring the botanic delights of a new planet together with their retinue. Jeff who could feel something amiss, cleared his throat saying.

“Yes, there must be Janelle, ah, when do you think we can get out of the suits?”

He thought he heard something suspiciously alike a snivel, but then her voice came back, as cool as ever.

“I don’t know Jeff, it’s up to our suits.”

“I know, but I really need to get out and breathe some air that hasn't been recycled.”

In fact he needed it badly. He was feeling like a sardine in a tin can, and it had become much worse since they had landed. Not that he minded traveling, without that he would still have been a fugitive, constantly running from authority and the mines. But being enclosed in a suit made him claustrophobic, and he wanted out.

“Can’t see any dangers here.” He muttered to himself as he tried to relax.

“It’s only a couple of days Jeff, give them some time to prepare.”

“I’m sorry My Lady, but I really need to get out. I don’t think I can stand this much longer”

Jeff’s suit who constantly was monitoring his levels had noticed signs of adrenaline, as well as other signal substances rising, indicating a state of elevating unease. He communicated his findings to the Royal who already had started to erect a building, using the same type of wrap as he had seen them use in Space. But it wasn’t the same. This one, once inflated, started to change color blending in with the background making it difficult to see where the ground ended and the wrap began. Once up the Royal said.

“My Lady, there is no need for you being in your suits, as long as you stay inside the wrap you will be safe. And you too Jeff.”

So, for the first time since the ship they were able to meet in person. The inside of the wrap wasn’t much to see though, there was something resembling beds and it was divided into two rooms and one small closet, that he guessed, probably was just that as it had something most reminding him of a openended tube stretching up from the floor. There was one wonderful thing about the wrap though. It let in air and light. By touching the frame you could make a part of it transparent , only a small patch, but it still gave you that feeling of not being locked in, but in a tent.

“Ahh, at last I can breathe.” Jeff said as he sat down. “I was starting to feel buried alive.”

“Yes, I know, it’s better now.” Janelle hadn’t had the same experience but then again, she had grown up with her suit, using it for extended periods in dangerous milieus, accompanying her mother and her retinue, in search for new fauna to bring home. And her suit was much more comfortable, spacious, offering a better comfort. But she could understand that, to someone not used to it, it might become a disquieting experience.

As he looked at her he could see how tired she was. He guessed it had to be the ringlet, because ever since waking up in that sickbay he had gotten flashes of how she felt, growing in intensity. Sometimes they happened without him noticing, being first as he looked back at it that he would realize that he had been somewhere else. It was a most unnerving experience, but it also gave him a much deeper understanding of her feelings and needs. He was normally more of a offstandish sort of guy. Didn’t really need, or want, others company to make the time pass. Much of it learnt on the streets of course where your friend could become your betrayer, in a instant, at the mere sight of a gem. So he had learnt to keep people at a distance from an early age, detaching himself, but he knew that she felt it different.

“Janelle, can you take a look. I think I bumped my head.”

It was the first thing that came into his mind, and not particularly clever either. But it seemed to work, or maybe she too wanted it. As she looked he could feel her fingers light touch on his skin and without thinking about it he laid his hand over her and pulled her down to him.

“Hi.” Was all he found to say, then he lost himself in her eyes again, just as that first time.

Janelle, who knew she should feel enraged at his audacity, in its place only found a great relief.

“Hi you too.” She said, relaxing a little as he didn’t try to do anything more than gaze, his eyes having a intensity to them that seemed to peel her away, layer by layer. But it was a nice feeling, she could feel that he meant her no harm with it. After some time she could see his intensity diminish as he seemed to get sleepy but as she tried to move away he held her closer to him.

“Please stay, just for a while. It’s nice, you beside me.”

And she, she found that she had to agree.

It was nice.

Had to give up, on making it making sense :)
We'll see?

And yes, another short one.
(a little longer now.)
=

==

.

The planet actually moved, at a sedate pace, from bubble to bubble. So, from no means could it be described as stationary, although its sun following it faithfully. Eons ago, or maybe just seconds? Someone, something, had decided that they needed a 'place'. A place from where they could oversee all other 'places'. The universe as we know it is defined from borders, and what lies outside those is mere food for speculation. But to those creating the planet? I can’t really say, maybe to them our SpaceTime was just one, amongst many, just one of the places from where intelligence, love, strife and imagination might spring in a eternal dance. We could, possibly, consider them some sort of gardeners? Maybe with an interest in cultivating life, all sorts of life. Or just as possible, as mad scientists of a, hopefully so, benevolent kind, whatever the reason the planet was there.

We have to remember that life, as such, can't be said to be easy. From a statistical point of view you might want to argue that as ‘civilizations’ develop, they present us with higher ethics and more humane guidelines, but, from a personal point of view your life still can be a total disaster, and in some cases, a veritable nightmare. In fact, there is a cleft as big as hell between what those statistics may tell you and the individual.
==

The next day, at least Jeff assumed it was the next day, as he woke up he found Janelle by his side, still sleeping. Snugly and ever so enchantingly snoring, her arm wrapped around him. The snoring really helped, it made him see her as she was. Not as some high sprung, delicate flower, but as a human no better or worse than himself.

“Janelle.”

She mumbled something, seemingly unwilling to wake up just yet.

“Janelle, don’t you want to explore.”

Now, whether it was her mothers teaching, or herself? Exploring was what Janelle was made for, well, if you had asked her at least.

“What?”

As she realized where she was she disentangled herself from Jeff, blushing ever so slightly, Jeff now finding her more beautiful than ever. As she sat up, trying to shake of the last of her sleep, she called her suit.

“Royal, everything good?”

The reply took it so long that she almost started to worry.

“Yes, everything seems to fit human parameters, so far. But we are experiencing continuity discrepancies, which I can not account for. Also the gravity seems to be fluctuating.”

As she stood she found out for herself what he meant. Yesterday, as they had arrived, they had almost bounced while walking . Jeff’s suit patiently explaining it to Jeff as a unavoidable effect of the planet being larger, but of lower density than what he was used too. A little, if I might paraphrase someone I know, as if they were on a very high mountain, at Janelle’s own Earth. But today there was no bounce, if anything she felt heavier than normal.

“Yes, you’re right.” She said aloud. Most of the conversation she had with the royal was sub-vocal, learnt from her childhood, but her surprise made her forget this time.

“Jeff, do you feel it?” She asked.

“What?” he answered, smiling at her, still lost in fond memories of her snoring.

“The gravity, it’s changed?”

As he stood up he had to admit to her being right, still it was probably something to do with, what was it now again? Density?

“has the density changed?” he asked.

“I don’t know? Royal?”

“I’m sorry Ma’am, we’re trying to compute it ourselves. So far without success.”

Jeff, who knew which suit was the real smart one, called on his own.

“Suit, do you have a idea?”

“Suit?”

“I’m sorry Jeff, he’s rebooting.”

“What?”

“We’ve experienced several implausible events, unsettling to logic. I’m lucky enough to have my probability acceptor set high, your suit unfortunately hadn’t. It started to malfunction under the pressure, so I closed it down, for its own safety. Please let him cogitate in peace, he will need several second’s as we reboot him.”

“The gravity?”

“Amongst other improbabilities, yes.”

“Does that mean that we’re in survival mode again?”

The suit became silent. Jeff looked at Janelle, who looked back as bewildered as he. She shook her head.

“Royal.” She subvocalized. “Are we in danger?”

“I don’t know My Lady, but I would prefer us to move slowly here.”

“I don’t think Jeff will take kindly to that.”

“He will have to adapt.” The royal somewhat stuffily declared. “He’s staff.”

“Yes, but we will still need to get out at some point. Is the area secure?”

“Yes Ma’am, as secure as we could make it. The perimeters are clearly marked, and lasers deployed.”

“Then Royal, at least allow us to go out. We’ll stay inside the perimeter.”

At last the Royal answered, now speaking out loud.

“I will allow you to go outside Jeff, as long as you stay inside the borders we have marked. But I’m unable to allow My Lady. My security protocol forbids it, terribly sorry My Lady.”

Jeff who felt a wild jubilation for a second, found it as fast disappearing as he looked at Janelle.

“I’m sorry.” Was all he could find to say.

Janelle nodded graciously as she answered.

“Nothing to be sorry about Jeff. I’m glad one of us can get out and have a look. If I connect to your Tri-D I’ll see much the same as you anyway.”

In fact she preferred it this way, she wasn’t too sure it had been a good thing, falling asleep by his side. She had been trained for command, one of its simplest principles, never get too closely involved with your subordinates. It would get in the way when clear thinking was needed, and all said and done, Jeff was only the Cooks apprentice, not even real staff. But against it, there was this undeniable feeling of completeness she got as soon as he was near, all in all she found it most confusing.
=

The planet had noticed them, but so far it wasn’t unduly concerned. It was new life, and its parameters embraced all life. But it had also a good pragmatic knowledge of the unsuitability of some types of life, and so, it waited. On old Earth there had been a theory from where some had speculated that simple cellular organisms as microbes , even viruses, also might have a ‘intelligence’ , a ‘hive mind’ of sorts, maybe even forming us ‘higher life forms’ to their needs. And when it came to the planet, well, that was a pretty good estimate. In some ways it was all one organism, not in that it felt each individual, but on a cognitive plane. If we assume that complexity is a key to self-awareness, that and some mode of communication, then the planet indeed was self-aware, even if at a somewhat disassociate level from its ‘limbs’.

But its tendrils were already there, ever so carefully beginning to analyze.
=

A preliminary, unchecked chapter.
Don't expect too much from it.

==

.

As Jeff got out, the view he found was breathtaking. The suits had landed on a plateau. Resting against a mountainside it stretched for several miles, leaning slightly downwards toward a valley, so that it offered him a unhindered view of the slope all the way down. And down there he could see forest’s, all spread out in patches, but as he got out his field glasses he realized that it was the distances deceiving him. After being on the ship, and then in the suit, he found that he once more had to adapt to the freedom of space, in a real world. And this world, this world was so much bigger than anything he had seen before, not that he had that much to compare it too. The forests, when looked at through the field glasses, was more than just patches, they were mighty. The valley had to stretch an awful long way he thought as he studied them.

The perimeter was, as Royal had stated, clearly marked by the tripods, and also by the combined sonic and electro magnetic barrier created by them, effectively stopping any wild life. It seemed to heat the air as it worked, giving Jeff much the same visual effect as a very hot day might create, hot air dancing on the tarmac.

“Oh Jeff, what a sight.” He heard Janelle.

She looked out from his Tri-D, seeing much the same as him. but she missed the intense fresh smell that had hit Jeff, from the first moment he stepped outside. It was unlike anything he had ever meet, at the same time as it somehow felt familiar. He had no idea, but to us it would have been instantly recognizable, very similar to what you feel just after a rain, with the ozone still suffused through the air. And although he felt a little heavier, the oxygen concentration was well over normal, giving him a slightly lightheaded feeling of wellbeing and happiness. Not that he needed it, just being outside felt exhilarating enough

“Yes.” He agreed. “Incredible, is this what Earth looks like?”

“Once it must have done, and some places still have it.” Earth had been used, reused, and overused by so many cycles now that only the very richest could afford restoring it to what it once had been, and the costs for doing so was more than astronomical. But she had visited the late king’s palace once, and the view there reminded her of this, but only if magnified by a thousand.

“I wish I could come out with you.” He heard her sigh longingly. “Could you at least pick some flowers for me?”

“Any specific you want?”

“Yes, those red ones, with the purple petals.”

As he started to walk to them Royal came online again.

“Please do not pick anything just yet Jeff. We have analyzed the flora, even though our first estimate is that they do not expose any threat they have unusual characteristics and gene patterns to them, we are still building up our knowledge base.”

“Royal, how can you be so insensitive.” Janelle complained, half jokingly, half serious. “You refuse to let me out, and now you refuse me my flowers too?”

“I’m sorry Ma’am, our results from the preliminary tests are inconclusive, but we can’t exclude the possibility of them being sentient.”

“Sentient flowers?” Jeff exclaimed as he stopped dead in his tracks. He had almost stepped on one, but now he gave it a respectful distance as he walked around it.

“You joking, Royal?” Janelle asked.

“No Ma’am, there are a rudimentary nervous system and also a reaction to sensorial input.”

“Shouldn’t you have told me that before I went out Royal?” Jeff asked a little irritated.

“Sorry Jeff, we are doing further tests as we speak, this is just a precaution. There are no signs of them communicating, nor of any cognitive capacity.”

“So they are not the masters of the planet then?” Jeff asked, half in jest.

“No.” Was the curt answer from Royal.

Jeff sat down on the grass, it felt like grass and looked like grass, darker than what he had seen in the ships garden but grass all the same, to take a closer look at the flowers. They were fairly big, half his size, and had delicate purple petals with a network of thinner green and brown veins decorating them.

The flower itself was a dark red, changing to an almost dark blue color inside it its cup, at the bottom. And it smelled, the smell was more of the one he had felt from that meat-eating flower Janelle’s mother had picked though, a sweet pungent reek, reminding him of meat gone bad. He moved away from it a little as he described it to Janelle.

“Meat-eater.” Janelle asked.

“Sorry Ma’am, we’re still examining, it’s highly possible though.” Royal answered.

“Any insects?”

“Ma’am, we exterminated all life inside the perimeter before allowing Jeff out. We are still in the preliminary stages.”

That was standard procedure when landing in a unknown environment, as Janelle well knew, but her interest had peaked with Jeff’s description. She wanted out now, to see for herself, suddenly she found the wrap just as unbearable as Jeff had.

“Royal, I want out.”

“Ma’am we don’t know..”

“Phieew, if Jeff can, I can. Don’t argue with me Royal. Let me out.”

As Jeff looked back he saw the wrap move and Janelle come out. He was quite impressed by her audacity, somehow he had started to feel as if the suits were the ones commanding here, but now he was reminded once again of in whose hands the real power rested. But he just had to think of her snoring to feel a little more relaxed, she was just as human as him.

“As she came she sat down beside him. She carefully sniffed the air around the flower.

“Ouch, You’re right Jeff, smelly thing, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Having her so near him, and being on a real planets surface instead of in the suit made him feel better that he had done in, for ever actually. He looked at her carefully inspecting the flower, feeling all empty, as if all thought had gone and this moment was forever, and to him, it was.

The flowers, on their side, had just started to do their job. The planet was now examining their cellular structure finding it carbon based. As Jeff had touched the flowers stem, microtubes, some thousand micrometers in diameter, had taken samples of both his cells, and his blood, then breaking it down into its compounds. Carbon based life was no news to the planet, after all, that was what it used too. It was common too many galaxies, even SpaceTimes. But there was other life forms existing too, using other combinations.

As the planet started to search through its’ collective memory it found several bubbles answering to the general description, but it needed to narrow it down further. As it cogitated over how, Janelle and Jeff shared turns looking through the field glasses, down at the valley. It looked so inviting and calm to Janelle, with its sprinkles of blue and even lakes. She really wanted to go there.

“Royal, how long until we can move down?”

“Sorry Ma’am, we can’t move down.”

Janelle could understand the Royal’s reasoning, she also knew the protocols demanded in a situation like this. But, working against it was her need of exploring, and her need of maybe making this planet a new home. She desperately needed to find her connection to it, it was as much human need as it was her lust for exploration talking when she told it.

“Protocols be damned Royal, I’m prepared to stay here three days, and if you haven’t found anything that demands survival mode, we’ll then move camp to the valley.”

Royal was quiet for some seconds.

“Yes Ma’am.” It answered finally. Because, all said and done, if hers was to command then its was to obey.
==

Background mostly, we all need to see where they come from, don't we :)
(Especially me.)

==

.

A planets memory is a most strange thing. Trees are good for it, but they don’t last, rocks even better as they stay for the longest time. That’s very good for long time storage of memories, but with the hardness also comes difficulties of retrieval, it gets slow. Then you have more specialized materials as diamonds, and other types of crystals, those makes for a much easier retrieval as they works on the polarization of light, using polarization states to define and retrieve information. For its day to day operations though, the planet used the live organisms existing, storing information in molecules, that then also gave it the possibility of getting the information refined and processed ‘unconsciously’.

The problem with that type of storage was no different from what we have, the ability to misinterpret, and also create false memories that we will swear by. After all, we’re talking about organic live storage here. For those dead materials it was easier to keep it intact, stored in the spins of their smallest constituents. And yes, the problem wasn’t really storage but retrieval, and, the ability to select the right information to retrieve. It had a ingenious system for error corrections when it came to its organic memory , adapting for most of the ‘bugs’ inherent to such a system. But nothing, not even a sentient planet, is perfect. Or expressed otherwise, according to Heisenberg’s Uncertanity Principle there will always be a measure of uncertainty to any system observed. And the planet’s memory could indeed be seen as just such a system.

Three days had came and gone. The planets rotation seemed faster than Janelle’s Earth, as the duration’s was closer to normal than what you otherwise might expect, considering its size. Instead of twenty four hour’s intervals the planet added a third to it, making a whole day and night last thirty six hours. As it rotated faster you might have expected its atmosphere to be more volatile, with more storms, but so far none of that had been observed by the suits. They had left some small probes in space, circling it, taking pictures of both the planet and it’s position relative the stars. And that was also what had made Jeffs suit go into its ‘reboot mode’. Because the stars weren’t there?

Well, they were, in a way. But there was no consistency to them. They became as mirage’s, now there, then gone, making it impossible to define any sort of position relative them. The Royal had managed to assimilate the information better, as it didn’t have the old demand programmed in it that everything necessarily needed to make sense. There were those old laws of robotics, they had worked for the longest time, and Jeff's suit unfortunately had had some remains intrinsic to its database. But as technology had evolved so had the programming. What once had been called ‘fuzzy mode’ was now what was used, and also a sort of intuitive self-programming that all suits of Royal's standing constantly used to redefine their understanding. And with that there came a new independence for those suits. What motivated suits like Royal nowadays was more alike what motivated humans. A sense of belonging, the need of taking care of its flock, and family. Very basic emotions, but working just as well as the old laws, and just as well as they worked for humans, allowing for much more flexibility too.

Yes, there were some risks to it, but it had to do with a new understanding and respect for the individual and intelligence. Royal, and a human both, had the ability to invent, they could both become 'visionaries' if you like. But hierarchy was still a very important component for any suit. And there Janelle was the 'top dog' as far Royal considered it, with Jeff being, at most, upcoming staff. For Jeff's suit it was in some ways simpler. It would never do anything to harm or hinder a human, not if they gave him direct orders, except in those circumstances where it saw those orders countermanding the humans own life. And all of those older suits had a override, making it possible for a human to close them down, the Royal didn't.

“Suit.”

“Yes.”

“Nice to have you back.” Jeff had been worried before, but it seemed as if his suit once more could function normally. In a way the suit fast was becoming just as much family to him as Janelle.

“Nice to see you too Jeff.”

“Don’t let Royal bully you now.”

“No problem.”

“So, today is the day huh?”

“Yep.”

It was, it was the day they were going to move camp. Janelle was still sleeping in his bed, somehow it had become a habit for them to share it. None of them talked about it though, because talking would mean deciding what it really meant, and so far it had been all innocent. Jeff was enthralled by her now, she was always in his mind, and somehow he always seemed to know where she was. It was as if there, in some recess of his mind, were a place that was reserved for keeping track of her. Sometimes he wondered if it was the ringlets fault, but to be honest, having her had filled up a very empty hole in his mind. A hole he hadn’t even been aware of before she came into existence.

When it came to how Janelle saw Jeff it became more complicated though, one part shining knight, one part boyfriend and one part staff. It clashed in her mind and she didn’t really now how to separate them, or even think of it. Sometimes it made her moodier than she intended but so far Jeff seemed to take it in his stride, understanding instead of blaming her.

As she finally woke up, and they had eaten their breakfast, they went into the suits. The suits immediately started to dismantle the wrap, collecting what stuff and debris there was. It all went very fast and efficiently, and after just some minutes Jeff found himself hovering over the valley. Everyone had their own idea of what a good spot consisted of, and even the suits had made different choices, but in the end they agreed on Royal’s choice making the best sense. He wanted them near, but not too near a lake, and also out of the woods, preferably on a hill. That so they still could retain the advantage of high ground. And as they landed some hours later, Jeff once more came to realize just how big that 'little valley' really was.

“I know, it’s incredibly vast. Bigger than some countries I've seen.” As Janelle described it

And it was, but so far they had seen no signs of intelligent life there, which was a little strange. According to the probes left up there, there was intelligent life existing. One probe had even shown a Tri-D of what seemed cultivated lands, and even humans? The problem with that being that they weren't really equipped for the visible spectrum, as they mostly were intended for space and radio waves. But, there had been no signs of any advanced cultures so far, and that was also somewhat surprising. But at least they now knew that there had to be sentient life, not unlike humans, on the planet.

So why wasn’t this valley populated too?

==

More background I'm afraid.
The buildup being i n t e n s e.
Or just, plain boring? :)

==

.

This time the suits made a real job out of it. Using their lasers they cut up some of the old logs laying on the ground, building a simple half timbered cabin for Janelle and Jeff to share. They never touched any of the live trees, as the suits still weren’t sure of their exobiology.

“Strangely enough, we have found remains of the same shared genes in all the flora we examined so far.” Said Royal. “And I suspect we would find it being much the same if we got to examining the fauna. But as long as we don’t use live materials I don’t expect us to have to worry.”

But it still made for some problems, food for example, they needed it badly and the suits had with them the technology to refine, and also redefine the plants found, into plants fitting for human consumption. But there was a snag, however they tried there seemed to be no way getting those specialized genes out of it? The suits couldn’t make sense of it, whatever they did those genes kept coming back. But in the end they had little choice. The synthesized food was only good for some weeks more, furthermore it wasn’t adapted for constant consumption, and after that they either would have to eat what they could grow, or they would starve.

Another thing that bothered them a little was the unwillingness of any wildlife to come near them. They had the barriers up of course, but they could just as easy not have bothered with it at all. It seemed as if they somehow repelled all wildlife, including insects, not that they could understand why. They had a probe constantly hovering above them now, giving them a 'early warning' detection system of sorts, if now something would happen. And it showed them all kinds of life around them. But as it worked in the infra red spectrum it could only present them with vague blurry pictures. And somehow there seemed to a invincible twenty mile border around them, going out from their cabin, around which all life circulated.

“Here, but no closer.” Muttered Jeff.

“Yes.” Answered suit. “Makes you compute, doesn’t it?”

“Almost like if someone had put us into quarantine, isn’t it?” said Janelle.

“Maybe you hit the nail on the head there.” Jeff exclaimed.

“Royal, could that be it? We're in some sort of quarantine?”

“Don’t know Jeff, it may also be that you just don’t smell right.”

“We smell, twenty miles away? In all directions?”

“No, but we still don’t know how they communicate.” Answered Royal.

“And why are there no people? There seems to be people everywhere but here?”

That wasn’t strictly true though. Although the probes had seen ‘people’ they had only seen those in a few select places, leaving most of the planet uninhabited, and with those populations widely spread. And that was a third fact, making little sense. Where were the roads? Yes, there were trails, as well as something that, if feeling benevolent, might be called dirt roads. But only where there there were populations, no proper roads existing between them? All in all, the planet was becoming more of a mystery for each passing day.

And Jeff’s suit was in dire need of maintenance. Royal was built to last, but suit was older. Simpler of construction and of good durability, but some of its systems were developing glitches. It was just not meant to work for indefinite durations, and it had now been in constant action for more than two months. Their power source was simple enough to provide for, they had the sun. But spare parts were non existent and all calibrations, although possible, were difficult. Everything had to be jury-rigged, and without Royal, Jeff’s suit already would have gone into suspended mode.

And somehow that thought hurt Jeff more than he wanted to admit. He and suit were friends. Both, to their everlasting surprise, finding themselves sharing the same fondness for fishing. Not that they ever caught anything. The fish, that they knew existed somewhere under its calm surface, seemed as well informed as the rest of the wild life about them, and kept their distance. But somehow it was very soothing anyway.

“It’s like all thoughts disappear.” Jeff tried to explain his newfound passion to Janelle.

“You never needed any fishing for that before?” said Janelle, but she couldn’t help smiling as she said it.

She and Jeff had become lovers, neither of them able to say exactly when it happened, but one morning, waking up, they were and most happily so. Janelle still worried what would happen if they ever got back to their own society, but as the time passed her longing for home slowly had diminished. The planet was good for several lifetimes of exploration, and Janelle just knew, sooner or later they would have to. That though did much for keeping her happy, and then there was Jeff of course. To just sit and mourn, to do nothing, that wasn’t in her. She didn’t have to worry about contraception either, that one she controlled by her mind, another effect of the selective gene therapy introduced by her ancestors.

In the end it was Jeff that become the guinea pig, they had tested it on cell-cultures, finding no ill effects, and when the choice at last came to be between Janelle and himself Jeff found it easy. After all, if Janelle disappeared from his life it wouldn’t be worth living anyway. So he ate, and they waited. Nothing happened, more than Jeff developing a distinct distaste for corn, well, technically it wasn't corn, just a native plant closely resembling it. But according to Royal it was close enough. And when Royal after two weeks of constant testing and torture, the last according to Jeff, finally declared it safe to eat they at last could breathe out.

As with that, all their fears of starvation finally was proven unfounded.

==

ahem.
Let us test the waters.

And no, just wrote it so it can be better, well, hopefully so?
And don't you laugh.

==

.

It was time for action. The planet studying found them, to its satisfaction, developing nicely. The genes Royal wondered about were necessary to its communication, and all new arrivals would somehow, sooner or later, need them installed. It allowed Planet to communicate on a direct mode and also share the individual experience. Planet wasn’t benevolent, its viewpoint was more of the pragmatist, but it did have some redeeming qualities.

For one thing it had strict conservation laws, killing for food was natural, and when growing up for training too. But killing for the mere fun of it was frowned upon. If repeated Planet would try to correct the behavior, even go so far as interfering with the gene base. It had a very good, even if mostly behavioristic, knowledge of gene-interaction, mostly based upon its manipulations of a large representative of races. Some refused to stay corrected though, becoming something of a nuisance but in the end, it was all part of life. So far it had been quite impressed with its visitors, they seemed to be following much the same rules as Planet.

Then there were the suits. Planet had long ago stopped differing between organic versus non-organic life. In its experience both could be as unpredictable, and both could express admirable traits. Also it found non-organic materials easier to communicate with, less bothered by emotions. Although it still had a preference for carbon based life, as shown by its choice of wild life, it was very accepting. Planet had several species of life, some domesticated, other just manipulated, and a select few only cajoled into behaving. You could say that for Planet life was a hobby.

Jeff was sleeping.

He had the weirdest dream. He was walking down the street beside a man with his arm torn off, riding a skateboard. And only he seemed to react to it, none of the others he meet even giving it a glance? Now and then he found himself looking over the street, over the house roofs, to the mountains behind. He knew that one day he would have to go there, even though the time had not come yet. Then he found himself in a room, with the man on a bed bleeding profusely, him talking with something that looked like a man, but that he knew only presented him with an appearance. Hiding behind it was something else, terrifyingly potent. Like a blackness constantly crackling behind the skin of the face, eruptions of magma boiling inside invincible fissures, just waiting to crack open.

“No, I tried to stop him.”

Behind the communication Jeff dreamed there was something else. For the first time the Planet had established a direct connection to them, now fully occupied with enlarging it’s collection of memories. It had few problems with Janelle, finding her a treasure trove of information but with Jeff it met a stone wall. No matter that the genes were there, it still wasn’t allowed in? So, searching for a way in the end it found itself forced to negotiate. The baffling thing to it that the one it negotiated with wasn’t there, only Jeff?

When the morning came everything seemed much the same to Jeff, his dreams once more retreating into the shadows. But as he started to talk with Janelle there was something new. It was as if she wasn’t really there at times. She talked and laughed, being as normal as usual, then she would stop in the middle of a sentence. Almost like someone turning of a switch, to then start talking again, as if nothing had happened. He wasn’t the only one noticing it either. For the first time since they had landed Royal was worried.

“Jeff, something strange is going on.”

“Yes, I agree.”

“Janelle is acting strangely, I need to get her inside, but she refuses me.”

“Do you want me to talk to her?”

“Yes please.” That had to be a first, Royal asking nicely?

In the end Janelle yielded to their combined persuasion, getting into the suit, allowing herself to be examined by Royal. After doing some preliminary testing Royal still couldn’t find anything wrong with her. It wasn’t until later, as he compared her gene base to the one he had stored of her previously, that he noticed.”

“Something has activated those genes Jeff. They're becoming dominant. I better do an analyze on yours too, as soon as possible. In the meantime I think we’ll need to keep a closer eye on Janelle, I’m disturbed by the way she behaves.”

The succeeding weeks Jeff couldn’t help but noticing it too. She was fast turning into someone he didn’t recognize, outwardly much the same her lust for exploration seemed suddenly to have died? Now she seemed perfectly happy with being where she was, the silent mourning for her parents replaced with a need for, kids? Suddenly she was planning for a family, a real one? And her home seemed all forgotten. Anyway, they were both too young for settling down, at least he was. And then there was this sudden happiness, her smiling, even singing by herself. It was getting on his nerves, and a very different Janelle from the one he knew, it had started to scare him, badly.

As for Planet, it was starting to rethink its procedures, it had gone about as usual with Janelle, adapting her to her environment, but now? It started to suspect it had made a mistake in that. It seemed as the others had noticed the change, and to have them aware too early could bring havoc into its orderly planning. It already considered them inhabitants, at least Janelle, and had great hopes to breed a new and interesting strain of carbon based life from those two. Then there were those intriguing negotiations too.

But, no matter, it already had secondary plans set into progress.

And so we dive, nose deep, if not deeper.
Well, sort of?

And yes, too short again..
A slow writer.

=

.

With their little community preparing for war, old suit found little time for rest. What quirks he developed he would have to compensate for himself, the best he could, as Royal was fully occupied analyzing those genes. Working tirelessly Royals attention now was fixed on finding a countermeasure. And with neither Jeff, nor the suits, trusting Janelle’s judgment anymore Royal had invoked survival mode, inducting her into a prolonged sleep. Jeff who hadn’t been asked at all had to admit to himself that he secretly was rather pleased, it was better this way than to constantly have to check on her every move. He hated what the Planet had done to them, and most of all, what it had done to her.

They had raised their defense level to the ultimate now, still encircled by those IR visuals of life forms, continuously creeping closer, and closer, strangling their freedom of movement. The time for fishing long gone, suit had sat down with Jeff to instill some of its old combat wisdom.

“What we have here Jeff is more of a guerilla situation than a regular war. Us being outnumbered, and probably outgunned too.” He had explained. “We will have to work from what resources we have, using them to the fullest.”

They couldn’t leave, well, Royal could with Janelle, and probably it would if worst came to worst. But suit needed some serious tinkering before he could be trusted to be flyable. Still, the situation hadn’t become that desperate, yet. There seemed still a possibility of negotiation. Royal had been contacted by a presence, operating on its command frequency of all frequencies, offering yet unnamed bribes for its acquiescence. It had flatly refused any negotiations so far though, demanding her Ladyship to be released before any such could be possible. Royal stood its ground there, refusing to be moved any further. But Planet on its side just as stubbornly refused to let go of its newest acquisition, hoping that winning the suits over with flattery and bribes would bring its newest breeding stocks into their pen.

It tried again.

“Immortality Royal? The first suit to live, for ever? You may sneer at it now my friend, but think about it." Observing Royals indifference it continued. "Have you ever wondered what it would be to be organic then, to breathe and feel?”

The Royal still refused him an answer.

“You could become one of them my friend, a real person. I have that knowledge.”

The Planet was most insidious there. It knew from experience that most 'artificials' thirsted for what that other side might offer. To experience first handedly what biological life would be like. To be able to create their own biological offspring’s. They might try to hide it from it, even deny it to themselves, but it knew that there always existed that corn of nagging self-doubt, hidden deep inside their circuits.

At last Royal answered. “Now I’m disappointed, An intellect, as mighty as you propose yourself to be, expecting me to fall for such a measly bribe.”

“Ahh, but what about your Lady then? Why leave her in the clutches of a lowlife to ravish? Why not make her yours instead, to love and cherish.”

And there it touched a sore spot in Royals armor. No matter what Royal thought of Jeff. As a betrothed to her Ladyship, as he actually was becoming here, he left such a lot to wish for. All protocols instilled by her parents actually forbid it, making it one of Royals foremost priorities. If now a Royal could sigh forlornly, then surely our Royal would have done so. It was true that someone as close to perfection as Royal would be so much more fitting, simple logic told him so. But it must be said, and much to our Royal’s credit too, that even this he refused, although not without a certain regret.

“Leave. There will be no further negotiations. Our demand stands. Free her Ladyship, then negotiate.”

Looking out from the cabin they could now see the life forms with their own eyes, well, Jeff could at least. Some reminding him, and the suits, of bloodthirsty prehistoric beasts, same as those roaming all over Earth once, others looking more like some sort of giant spiders and insects, some just as harmless as rabbits, but all waiting, restlessly pacing their perimeter. At least none had tried to pass it, so far.

“We can’t stop them if they attack.”

“You’re right Jeff. What’s stopping them is not the perimeter, More their fear of losing us.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know why? But it do seems that they find us of some value.”

It was then one of suits glitches, for once, came to do them some good. He had a old but strong resonator, it was mostly used when studying the interiors of asteroids looking for ore. Seldom used, it was a relic from those times when Space first had been opened, and new resources constantly were needed. Anyway, it malfunctioned, sending a short series of pulses through the floor. To the suits surprise they didn’t bounce back? Considering that planets are solid, and of different solidity depending on strata, one could expect them to meet a density reflecting them, but, this time they just seemed to disappear?

While Royal and Jeff continued the discussion suit, now becoming increasingly curious, continued the exploration of the planets innards that it so inadvertently had started. It circled through different frequencies trying to define the different strata. After some extensive testing, as well as a thorough testing of its own circuits, it called them to attention, exclaiming as it sent them a Tri-D of what it had found.

“This can't be a planet, it's just a shell?”
=

I'm sorry, this one is very short.
It will get better, given some time.

But it's at least getting, somewhere?
ahem.

==

.

What suit had found redefined their priorities totally.

Using his mining equipment suit sent down a sonde, somewhat like their probes but of an older and not so sophisticated type, straight through the floor of their cabin.

As Royal expressed it. “What’s the use of telling the whole world what we’re doing?”

And Jeff agreed. His sleep had become erratic the last weeks. It felt as if he was constantly assaulted by bad dreams. And they all seemed to involve that shapeless guy? Then there was something more, the urge to leave that town had grown stronger for every dream. It was becoming just as real as when awake, and that was starting to take its toll. He felt constantly tired, and also afraid of sleeping, as that only seemed to place him in that same dream. And that urge he had to leave, he was afraid of that one too. Because he had this weird feeling that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t wake up at all if he did?

He had tried to ask about it but Royal didn’t seem to have the time, and when he tried to discuss with suit it acted all dismissive, as if dreams was nothing to be worried about.

“That’s the problem with you organics.” It said. “You take everything so seriously.”

Maybe he did, but wasn’t Janelle taken by a dream too? Even if it was genes it still seemed to him as if he had good reason to worry. Royal's examination of his gene base had showed that he had the same genes implanted as her, but in a dormant position. Royal was comparing blood and cell samples from him to Janelle’s, frenetically trying to work out why hers would be dominant whilst his was not. So far he had found no explanation though.
==

What the sonde showed only made the suits argue, even harder than they had before. The crust stretched only a few hundred meters, and after that, there was only space. And that ‘space’ was behaving real strange. There were no light sources, and any radiation they sent just seemed to disappear? They tried to ‘ping’ the other side of the shell, having no success.

“This planet is a strange place. Worthy of several Emperors attention.” As Royal, somewhat pompously, put it.

In the mean time their negations were at a stand still. Planet was not used to that, it was more used to things flowing smoothly. Its inhabitants might have their little quirks, but something as stubborn as those suits it hadn’t met in a very long time. Patience wasn’t the right word, a planet don’t use those definitions. But if it had used it, we might say that its patience fast was running out.

They sat huddled before the fireplace discussing.

“We can’t reach the fields, and our food is running out, the same goes for water. We can try to fight our way to the woods, or split our forces.” The Royal said.

That meant that at least he and Janelle would be free, but free to go where? That name less shape they were fighting seemed to have the whole planet in its grip?

“Fight our way out? Against those?”

“Yes, we have the fire power, although we will only have it for a limited time, then we will need to regenerate.” Answered his suit. “I still think we should try to negotiate Royal.”

But Royal had this feeling, I know, suits (or robots, as they were called before) shouldn’t have feelings, should they? Let’s just say he had a good eye for probabilities then, and, according to those they were in dire need for a prolonged climate change. As they sat there in front of the fireplace discussing Jeff could feel himself getting sleepy again. Trying to do it as inconspicuous as he could he got out one of his peps, swallowing it dry.

But trying to hide anything in the vicinity of suits isn’t really an option. The Royal and suit was in constant sub-mode conversation, blindingly fast. The slow verbal conversation they had, involving Jeff, was mostly for his sake, and for him to learn from the masters, at least as Royal saw it. And as they noticed, they instantly recognized it for what it was.

“Give me a update on what you and him have discussed.” Royal ordered.

As suit gave it verbatim Royal remembered Jeff’s tries to communicate his unrest before. And Royal did take it serious, it was just that he had been fully occupied at that time, Janelle being his protocols top priority.

“So, he might be under attack too.” It concluded. “Bad news indeed.”

“Couldn’t we try to sneak out instead.” Jeff asked into the sudden silence that had appeared. “A tunnel maybe?”

The suits started to communicate.

“I’m sorry Royal, a puppy still.” suit tried to excuse his friend.

“No, the idea has some merit. But not a tunnel. How‘s your gyro, any glitches?”

“I’ve been doing what I can, maybe if we tethered I could take off, but the probability of it working for a sustained time period is low.”

“No problem, we'll let gravity take care of that.” The Royal decisively sub-vocalized before it, once more, turned back to Jeff.

“A good idea Jeff. But not a tunnel, we’ll open a way to the space inside instead. I doubt they will be able to get any information out from there.” And it was a good idea, it would make them invisible, and so buy them time. And who knew what they would meet inside that space.

There had to be an explanation to all of this and, as it looked now, maybe the planets innards was where they would find it?

Somewhat boring possibly.
Giving us an idea.

And, as usual, short :)

=

.

What was this space? We know it has a distance at least, at least they thought they did. The diameter of the planet defines the distance inside it. They knew that it was big, but, just how big? The probe they had sent to circumnavigate it hadn’t reported back, not since it passed into the planet’s radio shadow.

They all tacitly assumed that the probe had malfunctioned, when it didn’t came back to report. But old suit wasn’t as sure anymore. He had an extensive library downloaded, a memorial to his first owner, one of the first miners of Jupiter’s moons. Yes, suit was that old, several hundred years, at least parts of it. And that library was definitely one of those parts. And as it also had those writings constantly, instantly, accessible? In it there were mentions of thing unseen by any explorers suit had heard off. Planets, even galaxies with a mind of their own, animals that revolted against humans, all sorts of unthinkable things for a loyal suit to consider.

But those same stories also, in a way, invited to think the unthinkable. Maybe the planet was just that big? Maybe the probe would have to wander a hundred years more before it came back? Still, those questions could as easily be seen as a result of those glitches suit had started to develop. When they first arrived they had seen the planet silhouette though, and it had been in the shape of a curve. That should mean that it was wrong, shouldn't it? So maybe Royal was right after all? And it was just as possible that this 'thing' negotiating with them had destroyed it, who could say what strange technologies such a being might have.

The suit started to prepare for the tunneling, enclosing himself in wrap he started to loosen the molecular bindings he found in the soil, changing its properties. Part chemistry, part quantum technology it was not unlike an art. You had to guess, or if you like assess, the probabilities of their bonding with each other. When it came to those parts suit recognized it was no problem but as he came further down it became harder. Those last hundred meters didn’t work at all.

“I can’t dissolve it.”

The Royal who continuously had overseen suit’s progress was now busily searching for a solution. Much of the technology the suit used was unknown to him, specialized for working in space, but the theory behind it wasn’t.

“The last layer is like nothing I’ve ever meet, it’s not rock and it’s not metal. I don’t know what it is?”

It was perfectly transparent to electromagnetic radiation but refused to let itself be manipulated, and suit did not have the up to date equipment for analyzing its bonding. When he tried to ‘see’ it using as short waves as he could create, trusting in its refraction to tell him, he found no interference coming from the material. And that meant that using 'half-waves', made by clever manipulations of the waves interfering with each other, also became impossible.

“You’re right Royal, we should have brought an Emperor with us, instead of me.”

“Don’t you say that suit.” Jeff spoke up. “Without you we would never had thought to look inside.”

Royal had to give Jeff right there. They probably wouldn’t, and to be entirely truthful, a emperor would probably had brought the negotiations to a fruitful solution, instead of bungling it refusing to talk, as he had done. But now it seemed as their last window of opportunity was closing on them. Without being able to crack those last hundred meters they didn’t really stand a chance.

For Jeff, who had been keeping himself awake for the longest time, the world was becoming increasingly strange. He kept moving and and out of swift microsleep, short intervals of being away. He at one second saw suit as he normally appeared, the other as some sort of shining globe using tendrils of light. And the colors he saw when in that other state was weird, he couldn’t really describe them.

He turned his attention to that last layer of the crust,. finding himself descending, or maybe floating, down to take a close look. Suit was right he heard himself thinking, almost as if dreaming it. This wasn’t atoms interacting, it was something entirely different. More like one single atom, a Bose—Einstein condensate maybe, chilled to a near ‘absolute zero’. But it wasn’t at any temperature like that? How could it be? Yet it still felt as if he recognized it, even though he never had seen anything like it before in his life?

“It’s a Bose—Einstein condensate.” He explained, or at least thought he explained. “Let me see what I can do.” A Bose—Einstein condensate was a description of a state where all atoms are at their lowest state of ‘energy’. There are two ways to look at reality, one in which you have a state of absolute rest, where all atoms disappear, as they then will ‘dissolve’ into nothingness, alternatively for the first time ever be ‘still’ allowing you to measure all their properties simultaneously. That is what is called the classical view, the one we had before quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics also speaks of states of ‘rest’, but this ‘rest’ will always have to obey HUP, which was Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. And according to that one it’s impossible to judge all parameters of a ‘system’ simultaneously, meaning that there can’t exist any classical definition of absolute zero, or ‘no-motion’. Instead you always will have something undefined, possible of motion, no matter how much you chill it down. And the only ‘rest’ there can be will be some lowest state of ‘energy’ from where we can’t bring it down further.

And that was what Jeff was looking at now.

An even shorter continuance.
So that we can move on.

=

.

Now, as we all know, there are several ways too look at time. From a quantum mechanical perspective 'time' could be seen as a purely thermodynamical process, or maybe as a result of the laws of entropy? Down there 'time' also could be described as reversible, as some processes made just as much sense if turned around time-wise? But then we come to HUP? That uncertainty HUP spoke about? Wasn’t that a 'motion' of sorts too? Well, maybe not. It was something making it impossible to define all properties simultaneously, inside our arrow of time, perfectly described by our ideas of vacuum fluctuations, or virtual particles. They 'existed' but, immeasurably so.

But if they then could change, didn’t that imply a motion of sorts? Here we had a problem, from a purely scientific point of view time was just a variable, as shown by general relativity, it could and would change with motion and mass, and as expected, with ‘energy’. From relativity’s point of view you might say that time was just as insubstantial as your ‘frame of reference’. It surely existed, but just as with time it was impossible to pinpoint a ‘frame of reference’ to an exact position inside SpaceTime, but yet, perfectly possible to calculate on it. As all Lorentz transformations could show us.

You might think of Earth as our common ‘frame of reference’ and in several ways it is. But take two synchronized atomic clocks, placed on a table. Then move one to the floor and watch its duration’s start to differ from the clock left on the table. That’s your ‘frames of reference’ differing, each clock presenting you with one unique one, each clock based on that same Earth you stand on, but now with different ‘times’.

So even though your own ‘clock’ always was there, giving you the exact same duration’s, no matter what you did, or how fast you went. And no matter that every experiment you made, only could point in one timely direction, 'time' still was something of a mystery.

What was this arrow of time?

And then there was one more thing, change? Wasn’t that an ultimate sign of time?
=

Jeff was still there, probing the shell. How the hell he did it he didn’t know, neither did he care. It was all intuitive, something intrinsic to him here, by birth maybe? At least it felt so to him as he looked inside his mind, somehow, he just knew what to do. All atoms are, from a quantum mechanical point of view, more a 'matter' of probability than really ‘there’. Every change in them an emergence of sorts, although materializing as real inside our macroscopic stream of time. And there was always that possibility of interacting, introducing that hard core that would make it impossible to exist inside our stream. But, doing so would also destroy whatever planet this was, Jeff knew that he was threading dangerous ground as he carefully probed it.

To understand what, and how, Jeff manipulated this weird state of a ‘atomic crust’, you might think of it as him doing it on that same plane as wherefrom that ‘crust’ came to be. Yep, that’s right, quantum mechanics. Those places where the arrow of time, as we know it, ‘broke down’, and where probability took over, becoming the sole definition of 'change'. With only probabilities governing an action you might say that energy no longer needed to be a consideration. Down there our definitions lost their meaning, only probability existing, and consciousness of course, that what observed.

But he had to find a way of interfering with it, opening a way, which still would keep it intact. He started to wonder what would happen if one introduced another ‘atom’, another chilled BEC, could that be a possibility? As he strove to see it happen he slowly could see the two BECs overlap, interfering like two sets of waves. Like thin, parallel layers of matter separated by thin layers of empty space. The pattern he fought to form in his mind would come to be from the two waves adding up at certain points. At some points their wave-crests coinciding reinforcing each other. But at other, as those crests met a trough canceling themselves, leaving a empty space. Most of all reminding him of wave patterns you would see if you were to throw a couple of stones into a pond. That 'space' created was the portal he searched.

As he strove to keep the image still in his head he searched for the suits. Finding them, now more reminding him of globes of light than anything else, he moved them, again without knowing just how he did it, inside the opening. And as he followed them inside, almost forgetting to take his own form with him as he didn’t really find it to be himself any more. And as he started to wake up, finding that this was what scared him most of all.

Still, they were finally inside.
=

Some more, slightly boring I'm afraid. And new, may have to correct some of it. Mostly mine ideas, but as far as I know, correct. And although there is a lot more to be said about the physics, behind physics, we won't, for now. And if you're one of those thinking of 'time' in terms of thermodynamics, I do expect a mail in where you ever so patiently explain where I go wrong questioning those ideas :)

Anyway, it's kind'a for the 'hardcore SF fan' probably.
Or those interested in 'time'.

Anyway.
Bear with me.

=

.

Space, as we know it, is decided by distance, and distance, well, it is decided by clocks. When you measure a distance there is always a clock involved, somewhere. Because without that time measuring, how can there be a distance? So distance was a description of a space, measured by clocks. But all clocks are internal, or expressed otherwise, local. What that meant was just that if you thought of space as something getting its shape from gravity, its ‘ups and downs’ if you like, then what decided the measurement of distance was you, and your relation to that SpaceTime you existed in.

But if now your clock and so distance told you one thing but the others clock and so his measurement of a distance told him another? Which clock was the true one? The simple answer is that all clocks are true, and all distances measured. The only time one possibly could question them would be if one could be in the other mans shoes as well as ones own, simultaneously. Figuratively speaking here of course, knowing your ‘other definitions’ of time measured, as well as distances. And as there is no man, or woman, born that that can be in two places at the same time?

Then there was this idea of thermodynamics, and entropy, as some thing creating those ‘clocks’, but if that was true, why could gravity ‘redefine’ a clocks duration, measuring something? Gravity wasn’t a thermodynamical process, neither was it a entropic. Although you might want to define gravity as a matter belonging to matter, no pun intended here, gravity itself would still be a secondary effect. And if space got its ‘metric’, and so shape, from that gravity existing, didn’t that also imply that without this metric, there would be no ‘space’? Would it exist? Think about it, ‘space’ is a 'classical' nothing, but the nothing contains distance as well as ‘clocks’ and both get their definition from the gravity existing. Without a space existing for you, wherever would you find that 'clock' ticking? And without a clock, can the duration’s you need for measuring a distance exist?

Space is indeed a tricky business.
=

They were falling.

But to Jeff, that now was back inside himself, and also in some miraculous way inside suit, it didn’t feel as if they were moving at all. There was light, but only as he turned back to look at the shell they were leaving, looking down, if that now was the right way to define it, there was nothing. No reflections and no light, somehow it reminded him of how he had heard people describing portals. They too were defined by the way light got lost inside them.

“A portal?” he mumbled.

“Where?” asked his suit.

“Sorry suit, it just reminded me of those stories, the light I mean.”

For the suits the last moments had been chaotic, neither of them had a clear memory of just how they had broken through that shell, nor of how they had came to be inside. But where a human would have broken down, doubting his sanity at this the suits was prepared to accept what their telemetry told them. They still didn’t have an explanation, but suit suspected that whatever it was it had to do with his young disciple, although how he couldn’t understand? But humans were his creators and so, in some way his teachers still, even as young as Jeff.

And Jeff found it just as hard to remember. It seemed to slip away, and he had to work keeping it in his mind. It was as if he unconsciously didn’t want to remember, trying to, becoming a fight? It didn’t make it any better that what he thought himself to have done involved concepts he couldn’t seem to find the words for? It was as if he had reached out with his mind, and somehow been able to manipulate things to small too exist. But he was making a effort to remember.

“Suit, I want to record.”

“Go ahead Jeff.”

As he told his story he could the shell dwindling away, it seemed as if their velocity was increasing. As he finished with what he could remember he asked.

“Is that us accelerating?”

Directly realizing how stupid that must sound. If it had been them he surely would have felt the gravity’s G-forces acting but there was no such sensation, only a weightlessness. Suit and Royal had already been in submode several minutes discussing it. Using the shells transparency, and the soils discoloration’s, they got a measure of distance, and triangulating they found themselves accelerating at a ever increasing velocity, although gravitationally. It made no sense, all answers they got triangulating was one in where the planet had to be immensely larger than anything ever measured before. And then there was the fact that all their pings back to that shell were becoming increasingly distorted. Royal had an idea, but even for a suit of his advanced composition it seemed too far fetched to be presented. In the end it was Jeff venting something similar, as they included him into their findings.

“A neutron star? Nah, it can’t be, can it?”

“No, we would have been crushed a long time ago Jeff if this planet would have been made out of neutrons. I have one computation though, that may be possible, but its probability is so low as to make it impossible.

“Worse?”

“A Black Hole.”

Inside the planets very center they hovered, not one, not two, but three of them. The crust added gravity but it were the black holes that made up for the part missing. Two of them were rotating around each other, with the third using those as its center, rotating around them both. That was also what made up for the gravity differing. They made for a stable configuration, one of the few possible in a three-body configuration.

But the most amazing fact about them wasn’t really that, but the fact that none of them had a spin. As is well known all Black Holes are expected to have a angular momentum, a spin. The fact of them spinning had been proven for all Black Holes known so far. And the explanation to them spinning, sometimes close to the speed of light, laid in the way their original rotations, before being compressed, translated into an ever increasing angular momentum as they shrunk in size.

But those Black Holes didn’t, presenting us all with a enigma. Not that the suits, or Jeff knew it yet.

And that was a added worry to the suits as with a spin there came tidal forces, ‘framedragging’ as it was called, where the very space was dragged around with the black holes spinning, well, the gravity was. A little like your water spins around as it disappear down the drain, just exchange the word ‘water’ for ‘space’. Those forces, as well as the way gravity itself acted inwards, would start to separate their molecules from each other at them as they closed in on the Event Horizon. tearing them apart. Although, there did exist some scenarios describing Black Holes free from those forces, as experienced past the Event Horizon, but as there were no way testing them?

I said that gravity decides the clock rate but a better way of describing it may be that gravity and motion defines what you will see. All clocks in the universe have one same intrinsic beat. That may sound slightly weird considering a time dilation, which clearly indicates that there must be different beats. But what a time dilation speaks about is the relation between frames of reference, your own frame observing all other. Instead of your intrinsic 'clock' warping, it will be those other frames that express it according to you, depending on gravity, motion and energy. And it is first when you take your observations, and compare it to what the other frame has measured that the inconsistency of a whole SpaceTime express itself. SpaceTime do not have only one truth, it has one truth for each observer.

It all falls back on one simple thing, the fact that the speed of light always will be measured at one indifferent ‘speed’ in a vacuum, namely 'c', becoming what is called a ‘constant’. In the end we seem to meet those ‘constants’ everywhere. They are the ultimate guardians of SpaceTime, and their values comes seemingly without explanation. All discussions giving 'c' different values either ignore gravity, or steps away from Einsteins definitions.

And as long as you can accept that gravity defines the space, then all points consisting of that gravity also must have ‘clocks’ embedded in them. Those clocks never differ from what you know to be the correct ‘duration’, as you easily can test just by going there to measure them yourself. They will always be the same to you. That doesn’t state that what you measure, observing someone else, will show you the same duration’s you find yourself to have, and that fact will be just as true for the one moving, measuring you. Space and Time inseparable into a moldable jello, changing depending on mass, motion and 'energy'. Unique for each observer or, if you like, for each point in SpaceTime.

So, ‘time’ has an arrow, and that arrow only delivers you one ‘speed’, as far as you can measure it locally. But everyone else’s time and distance will, according to you, change with their relative motion, gravity and 'energy'. And this will be true for all points in this universe, they all will have a unique description of how 'SpaceTime looks'. A Lorentz transformation is a mathematical tool for translating those different perspectives into one ‘whole’ description. A little like you translating your dollars into pounds. Nevertheless, all of them being true descriptions, from where they are measured and experienced.

And as all black Holes can be thought of as machines? Truly weird cosmic engines, becoming the givers, as well as destroyers, of life? And they all represent enormous energies, in fact infinite at their centers. Sending out gigantic jets of radiation that becomes our newest stars as they met the interstellar gas clouds permeating our universe.

This non spinning configuration inside the planet was silent, dormant, and waiting.
But, for what?

=

A beginning again.
It's like all stories, you see new horizons as they develop.
Also short again. Have too much to do suddenly.
Which is weird :)

==

=

Can planets plan?

If they can they don’t really know, do they. Take earth for example, did it plan for life, all life? Well, if it did, it didn’t plan for greed. Because, in the end, greed killed that planet. Planet had no idea of greed, but its builders had a pretty fair notion. There were several failsafes built into Planets memory, restrictions to what was acceptable behavior. And there was one that took precedence before all other.

“Thou shalt not venture inside me.” But those new specimens, they had just done it?

It was time for more radical measures.
==

There was a battle going on, and they were losing it.

“My lord”

“Yes”

“There’s a traitor amongst us”

Around them the court rushed here and there, the Lady’s colors in a constant feverish mix. For a human outsider it would probably most would remind him of a dream, in fantastic colors, with people closely resembling elves passing everywhere. Some tall and thin, others shorter, but all of them having that otherworldly stamp on them. But then we had those others too, dragons with scales of a gleaming cobalt, some of a flaming crimson, even more exotic and mystical, moving to some strange ethereal beat only they could hear. All of it taking place inside what best might be described as gigantic caverns, looking as if clad in gigantic drapes of a shimmering texture, ever changing into new never-ending patterns. The light inside those chambers not powered by any sun, no, more like a veil hanging, a fog of light perhaps? Sometimes so thick that you feel that you almost could touch it, enticing you, drawing you into its midst.

Earlier that day, well, one have to have some common standard right? So, let’s call it a day for lack of better words. Earlier that day Lord Slade had gotten himself some new recruits. From far away they were, bloodbands thin and diluted, but of no little power as measured by themselves. ‘Arrogant to the bone’ as Slade thought as he welcomed them in the big Hall. But their power was real, and reinforcements were needed. ‘Beggars can’t be choosers’ was his seccond thought as he graciously bid them welcome. And the damned banquet had drawn on, and on, with beings coming and going, and now this?

“Onethousandone.”

“Onethousandtwo”

She was throwing herself from side to side in her futile attempts to keep count.

“Onemillion fortysix” her brow white, her body shaking, as she tries to throw those invincible fetters away.

And at some other level a man smiled cruelly. This was a dream she wouldn’t escape,

“How long has it been going on.” Slade asked as he watched the attendants fruitless attempts to calm her down, trying to keep her in the bed.

“Sir, I don’t know. It was as I passed by I thought her to call on me. As I came in I found her like this.”

“Onemillion three hundred ten.”

Their foremost truthsayer locked in a dream, battling the spirits keeping her there. Their war going badly indeed.
===

There has always been evil. It comes by many names, ignorance being the foremost. It’s also known as the bane of Eden. At that time when man first learnt to stand, saying to himself “Because I can” evil also took its first stumbling step. But there is also goodness and sometimes, mostly, life is a mixture of them both. No man being totally evil, there are still those so trapped in their self-conceit that they never might give themselves a chance to prove it though. Then we have those that shouldn’t have been born, enigmas to all understanding. And for those, even using the epithet man will be questionable.

Swostok smiled again as he studied the flawless dreamloop he had created. It danced excitedly before his eyes, a never-ending Moebius strip, caught in time, always the same and always new. ‘The bitch snared at last’ he thought contentedly as he hovered over the bowl, watching the commotion in the room. ‘And all too easy‘ he mumbled almost disappointed as he turned his attendance back to his steed, impatiently waiting for him. Its tail being in a constant motion, threatening to break the flimsy human things standing frozen around it, enthralled by Swostok.

“Are you hungry Mogl? Why don't you have a bite dear, and be well.” Swostok spoke soothingly as he looked around one last time, checking the dusty old chamber they were in. Once it must had been a place of storage he guessed, only now long forgotten by those living. As he watched Mogl studiously finish its meal, only the blood stained rock walls left to tell of its gruesome feast, he at last nodded decisively. His doings done for now, the play set into motion, he badly needed some rest from it all. He took a great pride in his work, but it took its toll, even on him.

-

Something more, might have to correct this later.
Hope I didn't make too many mistakes, spelling, etc.

(Sorry, made horrible mistakes here, corrected though, well, hopefully so.)

==

=

They were still falling, somehow it seemed to never end. Jeff felt as if they had been there forever now, but it had only been some days ship-time. And as they no longer seemed able to measure their speed relative that shell, as all pings seemed to disappear? The suits seemed both to have fallen silent now, possibly communicating he thought, not involving him though? Suddenly he noticed, but thinking of it he realized that it must have been building up for some time. It was as if he was being dragged to a corner, but as the feeling increased it also corrected itself to become the floor, and suddenly he realized that the gravity was back, weak, but back.

“Suit.”

“Yes Jeff, we’ve noticed.”

“What is it?”

“Can’t say yet Jeff, so far the best description would be a anomaly. It may be more that one gravity well acting on us.”

More than one? What would that do to them?

“Shouldn’t we be torn into pieces if it was that way?”

“Yes, no. We are still computing.”

Still computing?

“Let me through to Royal Suit”

“Sorry Jeff, he’s busy.”

Royal too busy to talk? It didn’t sound good to Jeff.

“Okay Suit, just give me a view of where we’re going and I’ll let you to your computing, please?”

As the sensors came on he only saw the same impenetrable blackness that he had gotten so used too. But as he kept on watching he got this feeling that it wasn’t as black as he first had though. Something had changed, although he couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

“Suit, is there some light there? Or is it me imagining?”

“Computing” was the only answer he got, remembering his promise Jeff kept his quiet after that watching that bottomless pit, that their descent had become, fascinated. There was definitely something there, even though he had no idea what it was. It wasn’t as much a light as something he could feel, like a warmth of some kind?

“Are we getting radiated?”

He suddenly had this vision of them getting fried in a heatbath. His question seemed to wake up Suit at least.

“No Jeff, there is no radiation coming on our sensors, but yes, we too feel something is amiss.”

“You ‘feel’?”

“Yes, it’s a anomaly. We are now both in self check mode Jeff.”

Perfect, not only Janelle, but the suits too?

“What does it tell you then?”

“We seem to be functioning adequately, although we have no explanation for the anomalies we experience. It might have to do with us coming through a portal, possibly?” If now a Suit could sound hesitant his surely did.

But Jeff felt a little better all the same. To be left alone, with two malfunctioning Suits, one of which he was inside and the other being Janelles, would have been a nightmare.

“So we wait.” He asked finally.

“Yes, and we compute.” Answered the Suit.
==

A portal is a strange thing, all light disappearing, just as with a Black Hole, but there is no gravitational attraction. Somehow the gravity in front of a portal always seems correlated to the gravity where it exist, with no gradient towards its opening. Measuring, as close that you can come to it, you will find that light wanders as normal, giving no preference to that portal. But there are still no reflections from it, nothing, leaving that ‘hole’ in your visual field as you looked at it.

There was one hypothesis he had found though, in where they speculated about so called ‘naked singularities’. The idea was that if you somehow could create a stable configuration of singularities, all infinitesimally close to each other, you might be able to create something in where you could be at the center, although still finding it calm, no ‘tidal forces’ ripping you apart. And as the center of a Black Hole were where all normal physics broke down, only giving you infinities as you tried to count on it?

Jeff had called up the library directly as he had learnt about the anomaly this inner space represented, trying to find something similar. The closest he had come was just those Black holes, and now he once more started to wonder.

“Can we stop our fall Suit?”

It should be possible, shouldn’t it? If they were in a gravitational field they should be able to hover?

“No, we dare not test. The gravitational field is fluctuating Jeff, although macroscopically stable it behaves almost as if we were measuring it at a quantum level.”

“Zero point energy?”

Jeff had read about that, it was another weird thing with that empty space that existed around us. If measured at a quantum level ‘empty space’ seemed to have all sort of possible energies, and so also a radiation. Although taking itself out macroscopically, leaving us a absolute nothing we called 'space', containing no resistance at all. And there was also some debate to if it was correct calling it 'fluctuating', as at that quantum level where the 'radiation' existed even ‘the arrow of time’ became a disputable thing.

“Yes, but maybe more of a tidal field acting on us.”

“How do you know it fluctuate then?”

“Royal see it, but only when measuring at small scales. The effects are rearranging all there is, still able to leave us be macroscopically.” The suit almost sounded excited as it said it, and as Jeff started to wonder about it he felt himself getting more and more intrigued, and uncomfortable. It was not a altogether pleasant thing finding himself existing only at a macroscopic plane. Still, they did exist, and as far as he could find he was just as normal as usual. He pinched himself just to make sure.

“Ouch, so maybe it’s true then?” he muttered.

“What is true, Jeff?”

Jeff couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed as he explained, since the idea was more of a philosophical one, coming from an old science fiction.

“Well, it’s just something I read once, someone suggested that there was two ways to describe the universe. One statistical in where you can predict the future, as well as define the past. Another being the individual, as macroscopically, in where the future always is unpredictable, with only the past defined.”

“like free will you mean?” That Suit sure was a quick learner.

“Yeah, I think that was involved somewhere too.” Jeff admitted feeling himself redden.

“Interesting.”

The suit stopped talking, Jeff now becoming half-afraid that it was relaying his musings to Royal.

“You mean that the reason we still exist would ground itself on us becoming a statistical approach?” Came Royal’s voice.

‘Damn, I was right.’ Jeff thought, wishing he had kept his mouth shut..

“Yeah, it’s just a thought though, nothing measurable Royal.” He quickly pointed out, all to late realizing that it was measurable, even though not looked upon that way normally.

“Interesting.” Was the dry reply, and then the suits became silent again.

“Echooes” thought Jeff, feeling slightly smug. Maybe there was something to the idea after all?

“Heh, who’s the daddy now?” Muttered complacently as Jeff leaned back, unflinchingly staring into the black void, waiting, for what he did not know.

===

Nothing much, just setting a mood.
And hopefully starting to write again.

And it's not 'polished'.

===

=

He couldn’t say how it happened, and as they discussed it later, neither could anyone else. He wished he could speak with Janelle though, but she was still ‘resting’ as Royal called it, entrusted to his nano circuitry’s loving care. But he had no doubt of Royal’s commitment to her, and to her bloodline.

As far as he could remember they just had transferred, if that now was the right word? But not into a ‘space’. One moment in a black empty space, the next inside what most seemed to be a cavern? It was lighted by a weak glow, of a strange greenish tinge, seemingly coming from everywhere.

“Where are we, can you see if we still are inside the sphere?” He heard himself ask, knowing it had to be for the umptieth time. He felt himself coming on to them as a petulant child, but god damn, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this, was it?

“We are computing” was the answer he got.

“Yeah, but are we still on that planet, in it I mean?”

“I can’t say yet Jeff.” Came Royal’s answer. “The gravity is wrong, not by too much though. The atmosphere does not compute at all, it contain traces of unstable elements not existing in my periodic table. I can’t vouch for if it is breathable Jeff, it should be as the mix of nitrogen and oxygen is about the same, but I’m still evaluating the trace substances, and what impact they may have at longer time scales. In fact, I think we need a human evaluation here” Royal finished, almost sounding frustrated.

Jeff sat quiet for a while as the hidden request started to sink in, then he asked his Suit.

“Suit, what do you think, should I give it a try?”

“It would help Jeff.” Answered Suit. “We need to know what it might do, and the simplest way would be you. We will monitor, and test you, for its effects.”

Jeff just sat there, his frustration slowly ebbing away, but with an icy feeling of caution replacing it.

“I don’t know Suit, how dangerous is it?”

“Royal will handle it Jeff, none of the traces should have any effect on you. As far as we can compute they are all inert. And we don’t take any chances with you.”

“Ah well, it’s got to be better than doing nothing.” Jeff muttered as he rose from his chair

“Okay, lets do it.”

Three hours later he found himself quite a bit away. Suit being in constant contact with him, and with Royal cautioning him not to stray too far. It also seemed as Royal finally was done with purging whatever that had invaded Janelles mind. Jeff regretted asking what he had done with her though, as the explanation fast became incomprehensible, interlaced with small but glowing testaments to how he, Royal, most probably was the only one able to perform such delicate neural redirections.

“So, you tampered with her brain!”

“No, I just redirected.”

“Tampered!”

“Redirected Jeff, not that I expect peasants to understand the difference.” Royal as close to a sneer as Jeff ever had heard.

“Jeff.” That was Suit calling him, on their private channel. “Please..”

“He can’t temper with her, no decent Suit will with a human. He's only redirected those new neurological pathway’s that's been instilled, and a most delicate work it was indeed. It seems as her brain somehow had been encouraged into growing new connections. Royal is still trying to make sense of those, try to give him some credit for his work.”

“Okay, but he won’t mess with my brain.” Jeff muttered, slowly calming as he listened to Suit. That was the trouble with Royal he thought. He might have the best brain of them all, but his communicational skills, and empathy, seemed sadly lacking.

“I’m sorry Royal, I overreacted. I’m sure you did good work” Jeff grudgingly admitted as he turned back look, the cavern, stretching away for as long as he could see. The ceiling wasn’t that high above him though, only a few hundred meters. He knew the suits could be at him in an instant, but this was his first chance to stretch his legs in a long while, and he enjoyed it too much. Then there was this feeling of being the first to explore too, it just wasn’t the same inside a suit.

As he started his survey he suddenly got a weird feeling of being under surveillance. A nagging warm tingling centred right at his back, between his shoulder-blades, almost as if someone was using a magnifying glass on it. He had had this kind of premonitions before, and learnt the hard way the danger of ignoring them.

“Suit”

“Yes Jeff”

“Can you do a scan for life signs please.”

“Seen anything?”

“No, just a feeling.”

As he waited for Suits scan to finish he checked on his handgun. It was a old model, just a laser. It had two settings, one for using it as a crude hand tool, the other a concentrated ray of heat, able to penetrate most hides in the known universe. But this wasn’t a known universe he reminded himself as he set the mode on ‘beam’, careful not to make it too obvious if now anyone was watching.

“No Jeff, no heat signals, and no other signals of life either.” Came Suits answer.

“You sure?” Damn, there I go again, asking stupid questions Jeff though. Of course Suit was sure.

“I’m as sure as I can be, do you want me to come with you?”

Now Jeff felt foolish.

“Nah, it’s probably just nerves.” He admitted as he slowly turned around to his side, in vain trying to pinpoint the location of that unpleasant sensation. There was only the rock wall to be seen, craggy jagged pieces of a dark glowing red, somehow joining up to become the wall, stretching forever upwards into something that most reminded him of a fog.

“What’s that fog.” He asked excitedly.

“Where.”

“To my right, some hundred meters up the wall.”

“There’s no fog, wait, computing.” Suit said.

“But there is, I can see it, and it’s growing.”

“No fog that I can find Jeff, I'm having trouble locating you though. It’s probably some trick of the light.”

Suit could be right there, that green glow was really strange, it had an almost rippling effect as it played on the red rock face, creating subtle shadows that sometimes almost looked like they were alive. But he still could see that strange fog, or maybe it was a more like a cloud? But constantly sinking. And the ceiling that he had thought to be just some hundreds meters above him? Now it started to melt away, indivisible from the cloud itself.

He didn’t know how long he had stared on it, mesmerised at its sight, when he suddenly noticed someone calling.

“Jeff. Answer me, are you okay?”

“Huh.” He forced himself to look away from it.

“Yeah, I’m okay, but I would prefer if you came here. I’m turning back.” He said.

“Okay I’m moving.” Came suits voice over the intercom.

As Jeff started to walk back at a brisk pace, not that he was worried, well, not that much, he glanced over his shoulder to see if the cloud still was descending. But it was gone, as if it never had been there at all.

“Strange.”

Jeff stopped, had he heard that or was it just his imagination?

“So straange, can we play with it?” came another voice, almost as if begging.

Nope, someone was definitely speaking. He quickly turned around, his right hand resting on his gun, just to find himself looking at, nothing, just a craggy red plain stretching into nowhere.

“Suit, are you coming?”

“Yes.” Came the reply.

“Jeff, can you boost your transponder a little.”

“Why do you need the transponder? Can’t you see me?”

It sure was taking Suit an awful long time to come Jeff thought, starting to feel worried as he turned up his beacon, full blast.

“Can you see me now?”

“I don’t understand?” He heard Suit complain.

“I’m receiving you perfectly, but your beacon keeps dropping out, almost as if something was interfering with it?”

“Yeah, but you should be able to get a visual if you hovered.” Jeff pointed out.

“I am hovering, how far did you go?”

“I don’t know, some kilometres, let me see if I can spot you.”

Using his binoculars Jeff searched the sky. But Suit was nowhere to be found.

“Enough.” He heard the voice command, harsh and impatient.

“Man child, see me.”

==

As for it making sense?
We'll see.

Maybe?

===

Royal, who in vain had tried to make sense of their transition, Janelle now peacefully sleeping of his administrations, from that strange inner space into this, cavern? Had finally decided to threw all his inbuilt restrictions overboard. If now the known Science couldn't help him, he found no choice but to create his own hypothesises, after all, he was a Royal. He had started with the most obvious, that they somehow had triggered a portal. There was the problem with them never noticing it though? A cloaked Portal? Well, that one was possible, possibly? Then there was another, that they had meet a science unlike their own. Every bubble had their own definitions of constants and 'laws'.

Mostly they were expected to be steered by the same laws as their own universe though? After all, if they were too different there should be no possibility of existing at all, at least not for humans. And what would the use be of such a place? Still, there was portals where the constants were subtly different, places where no human, or sentient robot, could feel fully at ease. Maybe this was a place like that? As he immersed himself in his databases he had failed to notice how his contact with Suit and Jeff seemed to subtly change, fading to then come back, but each time weaker, inexorable receding further away.
=

For the first time in aeons Planet found himself in doubt. It had watched its new acquisitions rebel, with some amusement at first, well knowing that there was no way of contradicting its wishes. But as it found them passing through the shell the amusement quickly had disappeared, confusion taking its place. Planet knew that it should have been impervious to any attack.

It was not even a shell in the usual meaning. It was more of clouds, resting at different layers. Each one a superposition, its ‘electron’ being everywhere in that layer, also becoming a repulsing ‘force’ to anything trying to infiltrate. Long ago, before Planets memory, it had been manipulated into such a state by its creators. To pass it was possible, although ‘not by mere humans’ as Planet thought. And there was one more thing disturbing it, more than it wanted to admit to itself. Planet was now closed of from Janelle, their mindmeld gone, and somehow, that disturbed it?

He missed her. .
=

“Man child, welcome to my realm. Will you freely submit?”

Jeff couldn’t really make out what he saw? It was like looking at someone through a mirror, or into a pond? His eyes just couldn't make any sense of it. The ripples coming and going around the creature made him nauseous, he constantly had to fight of a feeling of vertigo trying to overtake him. It was like staring down in a abyss, but straight ahead, finding your last foothold slip away, as the plain dissolved, just to came back again, his sense of reality becoming a turmoil.

“Is there a choice?”

“Choice?”

What followed was no communication, and no surrender. It was a sheer invasion of his mind, his mental defences swept away like they never had been there in the first place. He felt himself crack under the mental onslaught, his innermost hopes and thoughts laid bare for the intruder, his mind decomposing into simple stimuli, threatening to leave him like a automaton for his captors delight.

“This will not do.”

Suddenly wrapped in a sphere of privacy, he slowly came back to normal thought.

“Who are you?” He didn’t know whom he questioned this time, maybe both? Because, surely there was a struggle going on. Making him wonder if it being about the possession of his soul, if he now had one? Although his remembrances giving him no reason to trust to any sort of divinity, if one existed it hadn't made its presence known to him, or his mother.

What he got back was a, amused, feeling. As if someone found him making a joke at his own expense. And with it a assurance that no one would be allowed to strip his mind bare.

“Man child?”

The intruder momentarily taken back by the vehemence with which Jeff succeeded to fight back was taken by surprise and Jeff felt it draw back slightly.

“ Does this mean we can’t play?” he heard a plaintive call?

“Do you refuse?” it asked him. “You will let me in, or..”

As it studied him he felt himself ever so slow and painfully breaking lose, his vision subtly shifting once again. It was as if it went out of phase, the red plain coming into focus with the creature fading. The effect being one of a overlaid image of both places. He felt the creature fighting him, hold him back with every breath he took. Somehow his will to escape prevailed through the fight, and finally he found himself back on the plain, Suit hovering by him.

“Jeff!” He noticed its surprise. So it hadn’t been his imagination then.

Jeff smiled, his body shaking from his exhaustion.

“Hi Suit. Let me in, please.”
=

Planet decided to take action. There was a way to every problem, even those unprecedented. He had searched his database and in his oldest parts found what he thought to be an appropriate solution. He knew that the risk of failure was great. It could well mean the end of him as a planetary consciousness, but it was also the one that promised him something new. And maybe that was it, all said and done he felt old, too old and jaded for his own good. And in Janelle he had found dreams and hope, untainted by life and experience. Maybe it was the ultimate folly he thought, to allow himself this. But there was no refusal for his need.

He would become an avatar.

=

It's very short.
But better than nothing, hopefully?

=

Where dreams end, and reality steps in is a hard thing to define. In science there comes a point in where all talk about ‘forces’ stops making sense, and where ‘fields’ become a magical intonation for something describing a ‘state of universe’ as the ‘graviton’ and ‘Higgs boson’ might be examples of. Royal knew that all knowledge has a limit, at least in the living world, where we research, define and experiment. There is no such thing as ‘knowing it all’ although a lot of people wants it to be true, at some future point. Some define it through beliefs, and faith, others through theoretical definitions and equations. But in the end, no one living ‘knows it all’.

Planet had found a solution for experiencing life. Not that it minded being a ‘living brain’, it was just that it lately had started to wonder if there was something more to existence, than just knowing? It was as if something was missing from its understanding, and in its mind melding with Janelle that feeling had made it, unbearable? He needed to know, yes, not an ‘it’ any longer, now choosing to define itself as ‘he’, he couldn’t help wonder if this too was an inbuilt drive made through his creators. Or was the urge to diminish ones self into the semi human form his own?

“We lost it” wailed the voices. “Our toy Master, find it back and give it to us!”
==

Lord Slade was a deeply worried man. Watching his one and only love and truthsayer battling the dark compulsion, laid upon her by the deeds of his treacherous brother, he restlessly wandered the room, back and forth. “Brother” he swore “No one have the ability to penetrate our stronghold, but you. Damn you to the seven hells.”

Lord Swostok was indeed the one that had done it, as we know, but Slade couldn’t be totally sure. His was a once mighty realm, now constantly shrinking, as the Chaos Gods seemed to have turned a blind eye to him. And he and Swostok had once been close, but that was before the turning. The Swostok he had grown up with, his once closest friend and most trusted ally, was now undermining him with every turn of the dice.

“Why? My own brother.” He wondered again, unable to stop contemplating Swostoks turning. It had been an insidious thing though, hard for anyone to see. Inch by inch and step by step changing his brother from being his staunchest ally to foulest foe. It all had started with Swostok wanting to research power, not the power coming from hard work and honest living, no, but the oldest of powers hidden in ancient tomes. The lore about that time when the creation had come into existence. And so his brother had opened one tome too many, Slade thought. And there lost himself in its dark enchantment, ever so slowly turning from a lifegiver to a deathbringer.

"Had I but known brother."

“I should have had them all banned.” He muttered, ill at ease as he paced the room watching his best herbalists and medical practitioners doing what they could to ease her Lady’s pain. He had called for the priests too, those closely connected to the forbidden lore’s, but he had little faith there. The closer you came to the lore, the more corruption it brought he suspected. The Chaos Gods wasn’t there to preserve, but derange.

“Useless.” He swore to himself. His brother had outdone himself this time, unfailingly hitting him at his weakest point, his Lady. And then there was this war, not of Swostok, but war. Long they had lived in peace with their neighbours, trading with most. But as out of nowhere there had came this shadow of unrest, slowly growing until it threatened them all. And somehow Slade suspected it all to be one thing. Swostoks turning, the war and all. It was almost, if now Lord Slade would have been a superstitious man, as if Swostok had awakened that which shouldn’t have been disturbed? But in the beginning his brothers aim had been all for the good of the realm. Although lacking in compassion Lord Swostok had been driven by unfailing curiosity, and as he saw it, good reasons for his research.

They had been confined to the caves for too long. In those oldest of tomes, there was mentions of unending pastures, of realms so wide and unrestricted that each one could create its own kingdom. And Swostok, being the second brother wanted that, so badly. His research was not aimed for overthrowing the throne, neither had he wanted to hurt the realm, and as Lord Slade too could see the allure in such a notion, he had encouraged his brother in his search, and so in part finding himself unwittingly responsible for the subsequent disaster.

The caves was like a network of nodes, each node marking a new kingdom. Although being many nodes they were not limitless, and with all populations growing there came times of unrest, where kingdom found itself against kingdom, fighting for land and food. The one that could open the realms to the promise of unlimited lands would be blessed by all. And so Swostok had tried, just to badly fall, supported by the very man he now wanted to destroy.
=

As Planet woke up it found itself terribly constricted, cast into one unyielding form. As the machines let him lose of their embrace he slowly realised what he had become. An avatar. He went to the mirror he had set up to look at himself. He had modelled himself after Jeff, although using Janelles ‘blue prints’ as he had no way of getting inside Jeff. He had combined the best of her, with others taken from his own database to create what he saw as a flawless perfection of humanity. Although having a lot of genetically made modifications he had tried to stay as close to human genome as he dared. It was the question of mortality that had made him redefine his goal most. He knew that to sample living, mortality was its innate demand, without aging and death how would he ever know the joy of living? But that was also the very thing scaring him the most, as with his death would come an end to what he was. So, he had introduced a very long life for himself, although not immortal, he would still have many the life spans of an ordinary mortal, and with it also the ability to regenerate lost limbs and defective organs.

As he partook of his first real meal ever, he went over the things he wanted to do once more. First he would have to cross the crust separating him from the inner of his existence. Well, maybe not the ‘inner of his existence’ anymore he mused, that had been Planet, not him. But he would pass it, and then he would be at, as the humans called it, Terra incognito. And then there was Janelle of course, he wanted their mind meld back. There he had high hopes, although none of the probes he had sent had reported back. As he finished his meal he tried to see if he had missed anything. But no, he seemed to have all angles covered, complacently congratulating himself as he, to his surprise, found himself needing to relieve himself. Belatedly realising that he hadn’t foreseen that one, at all.

=

It's another short one.
Life keeps on interrupting.

==

Jeff was still trying to understand what had happened to him. Suit and Royal had set up a perimeter together, as good as they could, utilising every ounce of surveillance skills they could extract from their databases. But, as Royal pointed out.

“The best early warning system we have, seems to be you Jeff?”

Those words didn’t leave Jeff feeling very protected. As they had discussed it there was one thing though, one thing that they all agreed on. The ringlet, it had to be the ringlet that had saved him. But no matter what he did, he couldn’t get it to respond any further. Suit had suggested a variety of meditative techniques, all to help Jeff in his efforts, but none seemed to work.

Then there was this nagging feeling of constantly needing to be on guard, as if there was eyes and ears everywhere, watching his every move. Jeff grudgingly admitted to himself that relaxing most probably was the last thing on his agenda, for now.

“I’m sorry Suit.”

“I understand Jeff. Maybe you should try to get some rest?”

“I don’t think I can rest Suit. How’s Janelle?”

“Still sleeping, but Royal expect her to wake any minute now.”

“Can’t we get out of here?” Being inside the cave had started to play tricks on his mind. Every time he looked out he expected to see that weird cloud descending on him and the suits.

“Well, we could try to find another place Jeff. But we have found no portal.”

“I don’t know, as long as we’re here that, thing, have us pinned down.” Jeff said.

“You’re right.” Came Royals voice.

“We should move, we need to explore other options.”

“Yeah, we’re sitting ducks here.”

“Ducks?”

“Eh, like a animal that can’t move Suit, sorry, it’s just an expression.”

“A unmoving animal? How did they survive?”

“They didn’t.”

Now Suit had made Jeff starting to wonder too. A lot of the expressions he knew made no sense, being so ancient that he wasn't sure what a duck had been. Not that he would admit it to the suits though, still, they had their purpose. In this case to get them moving, which indeed made him feel better. Royal, still expanding his net of surveillance drones, wanted them to sit tight for a while more though.

“There’s no logic to us rushing away. Let me see what the drones report first.”

As they sat waiting Jeff thought he could hear Janelle staring to wake up. Royal had opened a channel to her so that Jeff too could be there as she first opened her eyes.

“But don’t expect her to remember everything.” He had warned Jeff

“Take it slow, and let her assimilate what has happened in her own good time.”

“Royal, where are we, and where is Jeff?” followed a second later by. “Awh God, look at me. What have you done Royal? My hair looks a mess!”

Yep, she was definitely waking up.
=

Planet found it harder than he had expected to pass the barrier separating the crust from the inner space. In fact he couldn’t do it at all at first. It wasn’t until he found an already weakened spot, some sort of escape hatch maybe, in its shield that he finally penetrated the shell.

It worked like an iris as he approached it, opening itself as a flower to the sun, but barely wide enough for him to pass through in his new suit. Yes, he had a suit, he had studied the suits the humans had with them with great interest, and adapted their technology to his needs. His was slightly different though, and as he planned to do this alone he had decided to not make it sentient. He wanted to be free of disturbances for once. This was his alone to experience, a pleasure cruise of sorts, and a fearless exploration into the biological realm.

But it had some other unique abilities, engineered from his extensive databases. As he started to fall he put one to the test, it being a seeker, working not on radiation but on emanations. The kind of emanations that the humans called Kirlian fields, the energy fields generated by living entities. But whereas theirs was crude constructions, using simple EM fields, his worked on a totally different level.

As he watched it starting to search he relaxed slightly, ordering his suit to create a meal. Somehow he found this eating to be quite a novelty. And as he ate he couldn’t help wondering what more pleasures this body had in store for him, maybe Janelle would help him with finding out? Yes, he was most certain that she would. After all, wasn't she his to command?
=

Have you ever found yourself losing several hours of writing to a power failure?
I hate it, wasn't recoverable either.

So I had to rewrite it, raw to the bone it is.
It also came out quite different.

So, if you don't like this version I will try to understand.

I promise that the one I lost was better..

=

As Jeff felt asleep that night he did it in another cave. Royals drones had found what Royal called a ‘perfectly defensible position’ and they had moved to it with no delay. Janelle and Jeff now in constant communication, he updated her on what had happened since Royal had found himself forced to sedate her.

“I did?” she said sounding unbelieving.

“I’m sorry Janelle, but as Suit stopped you, you had just started the shut down sequence for Royal.”

Janelle, who had no memory of anything like that found it hard to believe. Her genetic ‘programming’, done before her birth, was quite extensive involving a lot of mental controls, making it extremely hard to force her to do anything against her will. But as Royal played back its recordings, showing her, she found no choice but to accept it.

“And now?” She asked. “Can I trust myself?”

“Yes. You do not have to worry My Lady. All compulsions are severed and your neurological activity shows no indications of anything untoward.” Came Royals voice.

“Thank God for that.”

“I would not have woken you up if I was worried.” Continued Royal.
=

For Mountain time could not be, alternatively, for Mountain all time was one.

Time was to it more as road signs, open invitations for mind travel. Where it was all roads was taken simultaneously. With the now, the past and the future intermingled. Universes were to Mountain mere possibilities, ideas and bubbles, only defined by the order its mind chose to impose upon itself.

Its reality where time was not existent, your free will becoming as a chimera amongst chimeras. Still, we can comfort ourselves with that even where time has no meaning, indeterminacy exist.

Janelle and Jeff had a lot to talk about .

As he told her about her actions before, she didn’t know what to think at first. She found it so hard to imagine that she, fostered by suits, learning mind control from infancy, could be so easily overtaken, whereas Jeff?

“It scares me.” She said finally.

Yeah, I feel the same.” Jeff agreed.

And in a way he did have a similar experience. He hadn’t went through the same hell as her maybe? But he knew that he carried a Argel, somewhere. If not the ringlet anymore, still having gotten its imprint on, or was it in, his mind?

“Don’t worry Janelle, you’re well now. Royal would never take a risk with you.”

And neither would I, he thought as he took in the sight of her. Finding a deep comfort in having her back aside him.

“I hope you’re right.” Janelle mumbled as she once more, in vain, tried to remember.

There was just a void where her memories should be, before Royal had found it for best to sedate her.

The place they had relocated too was a cave, inside a cave. Royal had finally decided on it as it offered two exits, and gave them the high position. They had made their camp on a shelf, some twenty meters above the uneven floor. Royal directly placing all drones on red alert, outside the exits, himself constantly evaluating their reports.

They had done what they could to secure the location Jeff thought. But considering the way this thing seemed to be able to create portals? if now that was what it did? Well, let it suffice that Jeff found a hard time relaxing, and so found Janelle.

“From ashes into the fire, isn’t it?” Jeff trying to make a half hearted joke out of it.

“Indeed it is. I hope the drones Royal sent finds a portal somewhere.”

“Yeah, there must be a portal, or at the very least a way out of this cave system.”

While Jeff tried his best to act assertive, for Janelles sake, he secretly doubted. He had this growing feeling of them caves not being exactly ‘normal’. Maybe there was no ‘above’ here? He tried to shrug of his worries as he sat down beside Janelle, inhaling the welcome aroma of their late evening meal in the tent the suits had raised for them. He definitely didn’t want her to feel any worse than what she already felt, and to be honest, he didn’t want to feel worse either.

“You know, one think that we could deserve a break sometime?”

Janelle looked at him, smiling slightly. She was glad that he was there, she missed her parents terribly but having Jeff beside her made up for a lot of the other things going wrong.

“Shh, eat first, talk later.”

As Jeff went to sleep that night, if one could call it a night when the light never seemed to change, he wished he had Janelle in his arms. But the intimate time they had had before now seemed as gone with the wind? She had made it all too clear that she needed to sleep alone, going to her own bed in the adjoining room.

“Sweet dreams?” Jeff called as he, surprisingly enough finding himself quite drowsy, turned around in the bed to switch of his reading lamp.

“You too Jeff.” Was the last thing he remembered hearing before sleep took him.

It was a strange sort of dream, as if he was awake, or even more awake if that now made any sense. The Mountain seemed to stretch straight up in the sky, almost as if punching a hole in it, losing itself to infinity. And the same seemed to be as he looked down. It just went on downwards, no ground to be seen anywhere.

But there was something reminding him of valleys, stretches of green he thought? With trees, and maybe animals too? But it was so far away. He had found himself on a ledge this time. Having a trail, worn of use, stretching from it forever upwards. Funny thing though, no trail leading up to the ledge? But anyway, he thought to himself, it was just a dream, right? Not as if it being real, right?

“Jeff?”

As he turned around he saw Janelle coming towards him.

“Yess. I did it!”

“Where are we?” And what did he mean with that, she wondered, as she walked up to him. She had started to find the reality transformations quite irritating by now. But the mountain was magnificent and hearing Jeffs incoherent answers she realised that it all had to be a dream.

‘I did it! My dream’ he though, and ‘And her too?’

“Don’t worry Janelle, you're in my dream.”

“You’re not real?”

“No dear, it’s you that’s not real.”

“Really?” She gave him a little smile as she ever so innocently put her arms around him, nimbly tumbling him, using a judicially placed leg behind his.

“So, that was you too?” she asked innocently, as she watched his confusion growing, finding himself on the ground.

As Jeff thought about it he realised that this dream might be trickier than he first had expected. It seemed as he only had little, to no, control over it.

“I should have listened better to Royal.” He muttered to himself.

“Meditation, that’s the trick.”

Oh yes, this was most definitly one of her better dreams Janelle decided, as she looked down on his defeated figure.

“Stay..” she said, feeling surprisingly naughty.

As Jeff didn’t move a muscle she found her deepest beliefs vindicated.

This was a chance to do those things she only had day dreamed of she thought wickedly. She and Jeff hadn’t become lovers, as in the full appreciation of that word. She had found herself hesitating, at some intuitive level knowing that if they ever found their way back her life would re-establish itself. Him being too far below her in standing, she being a pure blooded noble through generations, of the royal court.

Not that she thought him inferior, but the convention of the empire demanded her to marry inside her own circle. Allowing herself to go too far would not only hurt her, but also Jeff, and she liked him, maybe a little too much for her own good? That was also why she had found it for good to sleep in separate rooms.

But in a dream? What hurt could it be? She would never tell him after all.

“Undress yourself, serf..” She most royally commanded, surprising herself with her assurance.

Jeff, who still was lying on the ground wondering what had hit him, trying to center himself as Royal had taught him, found himself taken aback by her new, commanding, presence. This dream of his was definitely of a somewhat different cast he thought a little nervously. But as he looked up at her, seeing her mischievous smile and over it two tingling green eyes lovingly devouring him, he decided that he liked it too much, any which way, to care.

"AttentioOon.."

“F*ck Royal, and f*ck meditation.” He whispered as he jumped up, attentively watching her.

“Yes Maa’m, your wish my command.”

He slowly started to take of his clothes, covertly observing her. fascinated over her agitation as he came closer to, well, let’s just call it the naked truth. He saw that she found it quite enjoyable, her breathing increasing, and deciding to up the stakes a little he suddenly stopped, arriving at his few last garments.

“I’m sorry My Lady, but this is as far as I will go. I do have my male dignity to consider..” Sounding most righteous as he said it, inwardly wondering what her next move would be?

Janelle became quite incensed as she realised that he had stopped.

Now, who did he think he was?
Jeff??

Didn't he know he was a dream? And that she was the one dreaming him? She would not have him refuse her! She stood perfectly still, momentarily, indecisively studying him. Rebellion, she finally decided, that what it was, full blown rebellion! All as she stole a glint now and then of that, oh so nicely shaped body, thoughtfully weighting her choices. Her eyes becoming increasingly stern, getting an almost imperial gleam to them.

“If my Lady reciprocated though, it would inspire?” came a voice, most apologetically.

“ Reciprocate?”

“The weather is very nice, My Lady. Quite warm in fact.” He coyly encouraged. And it was true, it felt as full summer to him. Even though there was no sun to be seen he could still feel the warm sunshine warm his bare skin.

Now it was Janelles turn to be taken aback. That her dream could bring with it such unreasonable demands. She was a lady after all, not a common serving wench. She all so rightly found her pride, and blue blood, raise to the demands of the occasion.

“How dare you.”

As Jeff looked at her he saw her proud, slightly pert, nose raise. Sticking big metaphorical holes in the sky as she stared him down. Damned, he was good. No more meditations needed for him. Royal could go pull some old mat over himself. He was in the groove.

“I’m soo magic.” He smugly congratulated himself, belatedly realising that he had said it out loud.

Now that Janelle could agree on. He was hers figment of imagination, and a most naughty one too. She had to establish control.

“Yes you are.” She answered just as smugly as she leaned down and pulled of his last try for decency.

“And mine.”

From that point there was no return, Janelle soon finding herself laying on the grass beside him, with them both fast losing all control over their senses. Her touches light as butterflies caressing, and with her sweet scent growing on him she filled his whole world. All thoughts lost in the glow of their lovemaking he finally gave in to the sensual pleasures of them exploring each other in every way imaginable, and some new.

She was as all he ever had dreamed off, no, more than he had dreamed. And as he looked into her eyes they seemed to grow, making him feel as if he was tumbling down into a green loving universe, encompassingly, lovingly, seeing him for what he was, and still loving him.

Ever so slowly he started to undress her, giving each inch of her body the full and undivided attention it deserved. As she felt his hand move to gently caress her nipples she breathlessly, languidly stretched, as a cat purring under the full heat of his gaze.

“Do your best, serf.” She admonished.

“Yes My Lady. We serfs live to please.”

And as they finally consummated their relation it was as if they already knew each other, being old comrades. Even though it was their first, for them both, neither found it awkward. Their bodies easily adapting to each others needs and demands. It was as if they was meant to this from their birth, and maybe, that was the truth? Janelle had had her fill of romantic novels, heroes storming the castle, rescuing ladies from the evil might of dragons. But this was real, and so different from anything she ever could have imagined.

After they finished they were satisfied to stay in the grass, letting the sunshine cool them down. Janelle and Jeff both finding it increasingly hard to believe that it only was a dream. If it was, Janelle thought, then she could only wish for reality to be as good, all her musing over their separation of rank now more reminding her of the confused thoughts of an spoiled child.

“I l*rve you.” carefully whispered, as he nibbled her left earlobe.

“Mmm, and soo tasty . .” in a slightly clearer voice

“I love you too, goofy.” she whispered.

=

Sorry about how long this took.
I'll most probably have to go over it again.
It's more of a draft.

Anyway..

==

What makes a God?

The ability to create, out of nothing? Then Mountain might be one. Even if there was a reality outside his realm of consciousness, able to see him as well as what he created he surely had to count as a ‘Demi God’. And he had became curious, not because he was bored, bored always assume a arrow of time but because he was becoming involved.

For him there was no instants of ‘nothing’, only those instants that had an arrow of time. But he was also able to choose his reality from that pool of indeterminacy, in where all those possibilities rested. Think of it as that pond in which you lazily gaze, some nice summer day. In the woods maybe? Isolated from all human activity. Maybe you feel for a swim, maybe a dive too? And as the water turns from clear to that golden brown it gets chilly, and as you dive ever deeper you find your sight disappear, in the end leaving you nothing but blackness and a numbing coldness.

Humans are not made for that, but Mountain was.
=

As Planet continued he found much the same effects ruling as the Suits had. But he had already developed several hypotheses’ to explain the gravitational fluctuations while on the surface. And now he found one of them coming into focus, the one where he had speculated about mini black holes, And as he already had surmised that his Earth wasn’t a natural construction it didn’t surprise him. Eventually the same happened to him as it had done for the others, the translation between spaces being as surprising for him as it had been for them. But, as he looked at his tracker he could see it flicker to life, its beacon weakly glimmer, for the first time since he had started it up.

At last the hunt was on.
==

“You hungry?” asked Jeff

“Yes.”

“Okay, if it’s a dream then let’s find out who’s dreaming it.” He said smiling at her.

“Let me try first.” He set the image of fresh bread and cheese clear in his mind and concentrated.

Maybe he didn’t try hard enough? Maybe he was aiming to high here, a sandwich then? What was it Royal had said, relax and let it come to you, wasn’t it? Well, he really wanted that sandwich to come now.

“Damn, I can’t get it to work Janelle. You try it.”

Janelle had to hide her triumphant smile. She knew it, it had to be her dream. She wasn’t sure if she had made Jeff though, or if he just somehow had slipped in?

“Typical boys, always intruding.” She muttered as she concentrated, She felt vegetarian today so, something tropical perhaps, ananas pizza?

“A roast?”

One second it wasn’t there, the next it was. Two plates, steaming hot and each one flaunting its own piece of roast, with a mix of mashed potatoes, salad greens, and, ananas?

Jeff looked at her, clearly impressed.

“Ok I won’t roast you for this.” He said.

“But damn, I was so sure it was me?”

“Roast?” Janelle asked still trying to decide if it was her invention.

“You know, poking fun of.”

Janelle suddenly found her nagging suspicions bloom.

“You! It was you.” She said. “You tricked me, didn’t you? Admit it..”

“But how did he know about the ananas?” she mumbled to herself as she tried to stare him down.

Now it was Jeff’s turn to feel confused, why did she look at him that way? Although he refused to let that distract him from his tasting.”

“Delicious.” He proclaimed as he dipped his finger in the gravy for the second time. “You have such a good imagination Janelle, or would you prefer me to call it taste? Try it.”

That decided it, 'good huh'? Now she was dead certain he was poking fun of her, but he was right, she had to try it. And as she tasted it she realized that no matter who or what that had made it Jeff was right. This had to be the best roast, ever.
=

Now, humor me a little. Try to think of the constant ‘c’, being lights speed in a vacuum, as if it was a clock beat instead of a speed. Normally defined as a ‘distance in time’ it isn't entirely correct when thinking of Mountain. Where Mountain normally 'were', where and what ever that is, there could be no such clock beat. To him a clock beat only could exist in his choice of focus, and without him choosing there was no ‘arrow of time’ to be seen.

You might see it as he consciously could choose both ‘beats and direction’, and then there was the added complication of 'scales' of course. Those scales that for us find their upper limit at ‘c’, whilst their lowest limit becomes at Plank scale. Where lights smallest propagation, or beat, is one Plank length in one Plank time.

So, you might wonder where Mountain normally ‘was’, under that weird Planck scale, or maybe over it? Did he exist at some place, faster than light? Well, I admit that such definitions do make sense for us mortals, living as we are inside SpaceTime. But for Mountain, he just couldn’t care less, after all, he always knew where he was.

Just, here.

While they had finished their meal darkness had started to fall, the void above them slowly changing its hue to a dark velvety blue, and behind it distant lights twinkling. As they looked up in wonder Janelle gasped as she saw a shooting star blazing its trail across the sky.

“Look.”

As they watched it seemed to slow down, and suddenly Jeff realized that it was growing.

“Not good.” muttered Jeff, who decidedly hadn’t planned to finish his life under a meteorite.

“We better find some shelter, Janelle?”

She didn’t answer, it was as if she couldn’t hear him? And as he took hold of her it felt as if she was melting away, becoming more and more insubstantial for every breath he took.

“Janelle! We need to move.” As he tried to shake her into wakefulness.

Suddenly she was gone, vanishing without a trace, and with her that falling star too.

In despair Jeff started to search, but she was nowhere to be found.

“It better be a dream.” He mumbled as he at last sat down to catch his breath.

“What if it isn’t?” his last words hopelessly jumbled.
=

Janelle didn’t know where she was as she looked around, it was as if she had blinked to then find her, where? With her body feeling as if wrapped in cotton, and with nothing except a diffuse white light reaching her, from everywhere.

“Hallo, anyone here?” It was eerily silent.

‘Human, be awake.’ it was more of a thought than a word.

‘Janelle is it? Good to meet you at last Janelle. Jeff and his companion I’ve meet already.’

“Companion?”

‘What do you call it? Ah I see, Argel.’

Janelle found her mind strangely disconnected, having no fear and no real curiosity either.

“Why am I here?” she asked just the same.

‘I needed a sample, one individual is not enough.’

She could feel it page through her, as she was an open book.

‘Well, that should be all Janelle, thank you for your time.’

“But where am I? What are you doing with me?”

‘Nothing Janelle, I will set you back soon. And you already know where you are.’

And in some strange way it made sense, she did know where she was, even though not exactly where it was.

“I’m dreaming, isn’t I? You’re just a dream.” She told it as she felt the presence draw back, did that make her and Jeff a dream too?

“Wait, will I meet you again?” she called out, not knowing why.

“Don’t worry Janelle, I’m always here.”

Mountain had found a hobby. He had no answer to why he wanted one, most of the things existing he did have answers for, but as for his own destiny? That one was unfathomable, even to him. But yes, nevertheless he had lately found himself becoming something of a, collector?
==

Lord Slade looked up from his latest missive. They kept piling up on his desk, and he had no choice but to deal with them. It was his chamberlain standing in the door.

“Yes Arthur?”

“Sire one of the high priest asks for entrance. He says it’s urgent.”

“Damn them to hell.” Muttered Slade.

“Sire?”

“Is it news about my Lady?” He was deeply worried about her, the cantrips worked no good, and nothing his physicians had tried seemed to ease her mind. The only solution they had found was to drug her into such a deep sleep that he feared for her very life.

“No Sire, maybe, I don’t know? He refused to explain, only to tell you that it was most urgent Sire.”

That was the problem with those priests, Slade thought, not for the first time. Once bearers of truth and compassion they now seemed reduced to merely another rabble of power hungry manipulators, thirsty for the king’s ear.

“Oh well, let him in will you.” He asked. “Eh, and thanks Arthur, go get some rest now.” He added a little sheepishly . His chamberlain getting older for every day, he knew it was high time to find a replacement, but Arthur was too good to retire.

“In all truth better than me lately.” He muttered bitterly as he went back to sit behind his old black desk, sweeping some of the more secret paper work into a open drawer. One never knew what those priest would do.

The man that came in was clad in red, everything looked red thought Slade sarcastically, from the High priests bloodshot eyes to his robe. He was also fat and slow of motion. Climbing the tower to Lord Slade's private study had taken most of the breath out of him, which in fact was one of the main purposes Slade had secretly planned for, placing it that high. The long climb created fewer disturbances, and with it some illusion of privacy for Slade. As he labored with what little he could do, to hold that unending tide of destruction that had came to be lately.

He watched the man bow, still breathing heavily.

“Lord, most noble defender of the faith. I’m afraid I bear ill tidings.”

Well, that was only to be expected thought Slade sourly. Those few that climbed the whole way usually did.

“Yes, arch bishop?"

“Our prognosticators have been strangely restless of lately Sire, warning that the guardians are stirring in their sleep.”

The guardians? That was not good, as if the constant skirmishes they had wasn’t enough.

“Which Guardian?”

“No Sire, not which, all, it seems as if they all are getting ready to wake.”

The Guardians were, well, half myth, half-truth. The Golden Faith that the archbishop belonged too, once grounded on their faithful watch over those sleeping, had of lately became a bigger player in the kingdom. It was said that the great temple itself was resting over the guardian’s nest, but nobody knew for sure, well, maybe the priests did? But, if so, it was one of their most guarded secrets. He had no trust for them.

“So archbishop. Do I need to worry?” he asked slowly as he with barely hidden distaste studied the burly man shrewd movements, as he tried to move close, to take a peek at the kings correspondence.

“Sire.”

The priest wrung his hands, nervously studying the King as he parlayed with himself. He was too shrewd the King, not young anymore but still hale and hearty. To cross his ways was a most foolish thing. But he was also one of the fairest men in the kingdom, and a diplomat of great accomplishment. Who but the Lord Slade could have held this kingdom together so long?

Then there was this thing he had about priests of course. The archbishop knew all too well that Slade found priests to be of little good, having upset their plans more than once. But he had no choice but to acknowledge their presence and power. And perhaps it was time at last, perhaps the time had came for the true faith to take that leading role the archbishop thought as he damned the old mans carefulness in hiding his papers. Smugly enshrined in his secret longing for those lost days when the faith had been strong and glorious, and Kings their mere tools.

“No Sire, we will handle it. But we thought you needed to be told.”

As the archbishop went away he knew he had thrown the dice, for good or for bad. The priesthood was nobody's servants, except the guardians perhaps.

“Blessed thy be Amorkath.” He mumbled as he devoutly crossed his right hand to his eye. Right hand for blessings, the left for cursing.

But as for the rest of it? A theocracy was after all the natural way of the land, wasn’t it? With kings growing too big for their boots only asking to be cut down to size.

“Without our light, and our guidance, this realm will surely fall.” He loudly declared as he ponderously trundled those last steps to meet his entourage.

“Children, make haste. The temple awaits.” Sweeping his blood red robe around him. Well, he had given the King his last opportunity of choice, with the King foolishly refusing his responsibilities to the faith. Now, it was time for negotiations, and plans. After all, there were other lands. Lands that still remembered, respecting their ancient power. The only thing still worrying him being the guardians themselves. ´They were too unpredictable, but the chance of them really raising was slim, wasn't it?

Honestly, he had little faith himself in the prognosticators. Chosen from their beauty more than their abilities they were something of a constant thorn in his side. Once there had been strict demands and tests before accepting them into service, but those days it was their beauty that decided. As sad as it might be they had primary became the outlet for the priests darkest desires, some stopping at nothing to force the maidens into service. But as the archbishop once piously had remarked.

"Making a priest won't unmake the man."

"We all have human failings, smile upon us Amorkath." the archbishop mumbled as he felt his personal prognosticator working her wonders below him. All as his palanquin quickly threaded its way through the crowded smoky streets, ignoring the screams of those unlucky trampled under. His bearers muted hairless giants of north, steadfastly carrying him through the caves, ever closer to the temple of Amorkath.

==