“Miss La, what do you mean by ‘mass psychosis manifestation’?” The cyan-blue haired Pwah asked, holding up her hand while tilting her head. Her dull yellow, pupiless eyes stared at the screen, her eyebrows raised. “That doesn’t… it doesn’t sound real. It sounds more like some kind of illness, or mass hallucination.”

  Miss La, wearing her favorite cable knit sweater and blue jeans, tapped her draconic foot on the decking. “What are you asking, exactly?”

  “Well…” The Pwah looked around her at the other students, their eyes as questioning as hers. “I mean, gods… aren’t real, that’s mysticism. It’s not based in science or any other kind of higher intellectual learning.”

  Miss La shrugged a shoulder. “Alright, then explain to me how a pre-space faring race can survive a genocide by The Pactless when no others have?”

  “... Tenacity?” The Pwah asked, pulling a few quiet chuckles from the students around her. “Their determination?”

  Someone began to hum an odd little tune, one that was well known to Humans as a “meme” song.

  Miss La exhaled out her nose in a puff of laughter, then went to the next slide. “Normally, you would be correct. There has been no evidence of higher life forms, otherwise known as ‘gods’ or ‘deities’, in the records of the Inner Dolcir Coalition. There has been no way to track any such evidence or even prove it, as the only evidence we have is it being disproven. But, there are those of us who believe that the Humans had a particular leg up during their fight for survival.”

  Miss La took a data-slate stylus and set it on the table, opening her palm to it. “No matter how much I pray to whatever god within the void, this pen will not move until either I or another physical force act upon it. This pen will rest here, forever, in eternity until something places a physical force upon its body and causes it to move. This is an easily understood cosmic force that all races, including Humans, can agree to.”

  “However, things changed once we came to Earth and came within contact of something known as the ‘Human miasmir’.” Miss La intoned, turning on a small recording to play upon the Qua-quid screen. “Watch the ball.”

  All of the students, including Tyllia and Lirya, watched the screen; Sitting upon the ground of an older building was a Pwah and Kafya researcher, resting in between multiple Humans decked out with sensory gear. In the middle of them all sat a ball on dirty concrete, the lack of light and usage of flashlights indicating it was late at night, or early in the morning. Their voices were clear, though there was an echo to them that made everyone’s ears twitch.

  “Are you sure no air can get inside the barrier?” The Kafya asked, his fur a rosey-red and spectacle-goggles tight to his eyes.

  The Pwah nodded, his ice-white hair and matching eyes bright in the flashlight glow. “We have blocked all avenues of air flow coming into this room, my sensors read only our breath, and we know those cannot move the ball.”

  “We have also laid the keyboard next to the ball as a double safety.” A male Human said, adjusting the camera perspective to the bright, plastic toy normally used to excite babies and keep them occupied. “Are we ready?”

  “There is no way it happens again this time.” The Kafya said with an odd determination. “We have every avenue covered, every variable controlled, this is the final test!”

  The Pwah slowly looked towards the rosey-red Kafya, clearly shaken by something. “What if it does?”

  “It won’t.” The Kafya growled, crossing his arms and ruffling the nylon jacket he was wearing. “Commence the test! We have spent too much time in this old barracks as it is!”

  The Humans all smiled to each other, though the man behind the camera spoke up again. “We would prefer if you asked the questions, as you can’t use us as an excuse of knowing what would come next and transmitting signals. Just remember to keep your voice cordial.”

  The Kafya rolled his eyes, then straightened his already straight goggles as he mumbled to himself. “I can’t believe… spirit, if you are still here, please give the Humans here a signal on their EMF reader.”

  The dots all lit up again, and the Humans nodded. A female smacked the Kafya on the arm, who gave her a glare before rolling his shoulders.

  “Thank you for responding, spirit. If you would, light up the yellow light on the keyboard, playing A-flat.” The Kafya said, his voice sounding either exhausted or exasperated.

  The keyboard lit up, the yellow bee glowing with light as it played the corresponding sound, the Pwah shrinking away from the keyboard as if it had growled at him.

  “No way…” The Pwah whispered, his eyes only growing wider, appearing like a pair of oval moons on his slightly tanned face. “It lit up! It lit up despite the jammer-bank and the foil barrier around us! This is so insane!”

  The Kafya, frown growing as his eyebrows came together, leaned forward, pointing at the keyboard. “Humans, everyone place your hands above the keyboard.” He then cupped his hands in front of his mouth, whispering as he turned his head away.

  Slowly, one by one, the keyboard lit up with two yellow bees, the blue cow, a yellow bee, and the green tuft of grass, the notes playing along merrily despite no keys being pressed.

  “Is that correct?!” The Pwah cried out, now scrambling towards the keyboard and eyeing it as if it were alive. “Is that what you said to do?!”

  The answer was evident enough, as the Kafyan researcher was growling so hard his teeth were bared.

  “It’s im-possible!” He snarled, standing. “Everyone stay here! Whatever is in this room, come with me.”

  The Humans chuckled as the rosey-red furred Kafya stalked away, turning into a hallway.

  “... How do we know it’s following him?” The Pwah asked, turning towards the Humans around him. “It’s invisible, isn’t it? This dead Human? Should we use the thermal trackers again?”

  “Just wait.” Replied a woman, her soft brown eyes glittering in the flashlight beams.

  It took a minute or two, but soon the keyboard began to play.

  Blue cow, blue cow, yellow bee, red apple, red apple, then all the lights lit up at once.

  “What did it play?” The Kafyan called from down the hallway.

  The Pwah shuffled on his knees as he spun around, his voice bright and excited. “Blue, blue, yellow, red, red, and then all the lights lit up!”

  “Son of a bitch!” The Kafya screamed down the hallway, causing all the Humans to laugh and chortle to themselves.

  “It played the music, so it’s around us! Right?!” The Pwah called out as the Kafya slowly stomped his way back. “Let me show the ball is untethered for the camera, spirit!”

  The Pwah quickly picked up the small soccer ball and bounced it off the wall a few times, running it around his body a few times before setting it back down on the dusty concrete. He then ran a detector around it, speaking excitedly as he ran these final tests. “As everyone can see, there are no strings on the ball, and the sound was obviously hollow as it struck the wall, nothing is inside here or we would have heard it.”

  “Alright… alright…” The Pwah whispered to himself, forehead spotting with sweat. “Spirit… please, move the ball towards Doctor Escot.”

  Doctor Escot smiled to himself as the ball slowly, purposefully moved towards him, the old soccer ball coming to a rest against his knees.

  The recording stopped as Miss La pressed her finger against a place on her palm, and she turned towards her students.

  “Researcher Lopify and Fikish spent five days with Humans hunting spirits, and despite their best efforts, they could not explain what was happening to the objects. This is only one of several recordings made during their time with the ghost hunting teams.” Miss La said, though her voice took a hard edge. “You would also know that Researcher Fikish has been missing for several years, going missing during his return to the Kafyan home system, while Researcher Lopify has not been allowed to leave Earth and is currently in forced exile.”

  Several sets of Pwah and Kafyan eyes blinked; They had not heard of these people at all, despite recognizing their marks of title and rank present on their uniforms.

  “How does a Hashi wallari yinwo go missing without anyone noticing?” Tyllia said aloud, her eyes narrowed. “That is an extremely high ranking research official tasked with gathering information on new species, it takes decades to reach that level within the Kafyan colleges.”

  A male Pwah, his hair a vibrant red with blue eyes, turned towards Tyllia. “That Pwah held the rank of Delegate, which is just barely below royalty. Exiling someone with that much knowledge is unheard of. Some Delegates have committed murder, but are still working within the Pwah home systems.”

  “Makes you think.” Miss La said loftily, though her eyes lingered on Lirya, something that made the white Kafya feel hot under her fur.

  Lirya cleared her throat, looking anywhere but at the thickly muscled Skalathir.

  “Despite what we believe in the IDC, something odd is happening on Earth that many of us can’t explain, something that comes in tandem with the Human miasmir. Something is down there, and it follows Humans wherever they go.” Miss La began to explain, itching at her broad, slightly flat stomach. “The planet experienced so much bloodshed that it was said the soil of Earth stayed wet with blood for weeks after, and the world was awash in flowers that only grew in the iron-rich colors of red and crimson. Earth was torn asunder and awash in the emotions and turmoil that only a planet under the threat of genocide can have, and as Humans smote their enemy and turned their bones to ash… there is a theory that something was born on that iron-cored hellball that we Skalathir first called Anskran Kirr, the blue jewel.”

  A male Lilgara squinted an eye, the scale ridge of his eyebrows arching. “Are you to make usss believe that the thing pushing that ball around wasss… a dead Human?”

  “Why couldn’t it be?” Miss La asked, posing the question to the class at large. “It is a well known fact that energy, whether life or otherwise, never dissipates. Is it not a saying amongst us all that when we die, we return back to stardust?”

  A female Lilgara, wearing a hoodie adorned with prancing, multicolored ponies, held out her palms in question. “But that doesn’t make any sssense! What is dead doesss not linger, nothing holds’sssway over it anymore! The vesssel is empty.”

  “Then what moved the ball?” Miss La asked, pointing up to the ball still paused on the Qua-quid screen. “We can argue all day that the keyboard could be manipulated with all kinds of means, despite the best efforts of the researchers, but what pushed the ball towards the designated target?”

  Silence answered her, and she smiled to them all.

  “Who is to say the combined suffering and battle rage, that deadly hurricane of raw emotion and nerves, the excited stages of energy and matter being brought to their psychological boiling points… didn’t create something that only Humans could bring to life.”

  Miss La once again flicked her eyes to Lirya, who was watching the Skalathir closely. “Who’s to say they are the only ones… who can?”

  —

  Lirya quietly looked around at the store she was in, something that catered to the persuasions of cartoon and movie lovers.

  Her mind found itself rather disquiet, ruminating over that video again and again until it was all she could think about. The researchers had taken every precaution with the ball, from wind blockers to bouncing it against the wall… yet it moved towards a direction the Pwah had chosen.

  What.

  Moved.

  The ball?

  Lirya frowned as she looked at a t-shirt, something that involved the odd polyhedral casting stones that Humans loved for some reason, rubbing the pad of her thumb along the soft cotton.

  Mass psychosis manifestation, that was what Miss La had said while she was discussing Human belief systems and going over their history of religions. To Lirya, it seemed that the Skalathir believed that the Human religions were real, going in depth over the main three religions and their cataloged events of record.

  Lirya released the shirt and moved along, casting her eyes along the many rows of stuffed animals as she recounted them.

  The Buddhists who formed the Hands That Cradle painted their faces in the motifs of skulls, their symbol that of hands cradling a broken crescent moon. They realized their foundational beliefs after spotting someone known simply as the “Burning Man”, a Human wearing ancient armor but fighting on as he burned, the flames causing him no damage. Pictures taken of the man show that his armor had the images of the blue lotus burned onto the steel in patterns, and he himself beheld no damage upon his flesh.

  He of course had no body hair, but his flesh was unharmed.

  Next came the female Human who, when reduced to being the last combat-able soldier in the field hospital, could not be felled, even as she fought with her hands, elbows, knees, and feet. Recordings of her, blurred as they may have been…showed she floated through the air, ducking and whirling as she stood her ground, protecting the field hospital and the wounded on her own accord.

  When her enemies lay broken and defeated, with reinforcements finally within sight, it was recorded that when her body gave up, falling to the ground, blue lotus leaves flew from the cuffs of her uniform sleeves and pant legs.

  They fluttered around her form, casting bright and brilliant blue to the warm, bloody grass that surrounded her. When she awoke, she found one final blue lotus blossom laying near her heart under her uniform, stuck fast by her sweat and blood.

  The Templars of the Cold Ashes witnessed their greatest miracle when the 9th Division of the Human’s last stand units were caught in a great inferno device, deployed by The Pactless as they sought to destroy the entire Division to the man in purifying flame.

  The last stand units were designed purely to buy time, outfitting their more stalwart fighters in the best armor of iron and steel that they could find, wielding melee weapons that no emitter shield nor phosfass armor could seek to stop.

  The device had roared to life, spewing flame twenty acres wide and forty acres deep and scouring the land down to the dirt itself. Trees wilted and burned like lit match sticks, buildings and walls crackled and turned to dust under the immense heat, and the very air became nothing more than a heat wave where oxygen could no longer linger.

  When the inferno device rattled to a stop, the entire landscape, forest, and military fortification base had been reduced to nothing more than pure, white ash. The Pactless launched their ground troops to mop up what was left on the flanks of the outpost, intending to merely do a sweep for anything of use that they could use.

  They instead found themselves halted by the “first miracle”, where Humans in flame-blackened armor rose up from the ashes, their eyes burning with furious purpose as they shook themselves of the dust. Despite the inferno device’s best efforts, flesh and metal had refused to be touched by its scouring flame, the Templars’ skin turned gray-white by the ash that clung to them like war paint.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The war cry of “deus vult!” was the first word spoken by the Humans after emerging from the ashen fields, born by air breathed by General Advantis. A female Human whose blonde hair was said to glow with ethereal light as she charged through the foot-thick ashes, she held her bastard sword aloft into the air as she pushed ahead, her men swelling around her like a rolling tide of risen dead.

  As they surged against the Pactless soldiers sent in to clear the area, observers from on high watching the battle noticed that weapons of pure heat and plasma ricocheted off the ash-stained armor of the warriors, and their blackened weapons cleaved through armor and flesh as if it was nothing more than the flesh of fish to a butcher’s knife.

  Then there were those who followed the Odinic Shieldwall of Ragnar?k, who were said to bleed so fiercely as they fought that they looked like red wraiths of war, refusing to die even as The Pactless piled upon them.

  Recordings still existed of their followers fighting with spear, axe, shield, and blade, despite their necks glinting with severed bone, skulls shiny and white while exposed to the light of the sun, or spines obviously split at the middle but their legs unyielding, arms wielding, mouths roaring.

  Only when the battle was done did they fall to the ground, and medics confirming that they had been dead tens of minutes before they had crumpled down into heaps of armor and broken weapons.

  Further corpses of dead Human fighters had evidence of Pactless flesh in their teeth, giving credence that many had died while using the one weapon they had left after all others had broken during the over-taxing tide of battle.

  Biting, tearing, and gnawing like animals hounding after the enemy that they still hunted, despite death having already taken them.

  Lirya had seen those videos, the countless pictures, the subtle miracles that could not be explained… but were they really?

  Could they not be explained?

  Or was something greater at work?

  Lirya couldn’t shake this unfamiliar yearning in her chest, something that played with her heart strings like a skilled musician plucking and strumming at a guitar.

  “Till my bones can no longer bear the weight of my spirit.” Lirya murmured to herself, remembering the war cries of the Odinic Shieldwall that she had heard in the recordings. “Till my flesh frays and blood drowns the roots of the life tree.”

  She moved along and picked up a small stuffed tiger, tilting it in her hands.

  “God wills me, duty binds me, contempt fuels me.” Lirya whispered, running her thumbs along the furry cheeks of the tiger as she remembered the chants of the Ashen Templars.

  “I have become your doom.” Lirya breathed as she set the tiger down, looking up to a great stuffed dragon as she remembered those skull-faced monks, the mouth of the dragon roaring out sewn flame. “I am your demise and undoing.”

  “Humans barely seem real, at times.” Lirya muttered to herself, turning and walking towards the racks of cottagecore clothing. “The inferno machines reduced six foot thick trees to ash, yet they rose. A man was on fire, burning like the engine of a destroyer, yet no fire touched his flesh. Humans fought on like rabid animals, despite their necks being severed and bodies lacking enough blood to fuel a single beat of the heart.”

  In some regards, Lirya felt so… small in comparison. She was a weepy eyed, white furred Kafya that still got nervous asking the workers for food, and still got permission for everything she did. Humans snapped to any danger like they were magnetic, and didn’t falter in their step unless ordered to.

  How was she to compare?

  Lirya let out a sad sigh, then looked over her shoulder at the large wall of plushies. She had seen a lot of Human kids running around with these, but had been surprised to learn that a lot of adult Humans also collected them as well.

  She padded back over towards the wall, looking up and around at the many animals, and spotted an odd one that caught her eye.

  Lirya had never seen an animal like it before, and reached up for it, standing on the tippy toes of her pawed feet to pick it up; It was an odd looking deer, or perhaps a bear, but it seemed to both have horns and a face devoid of flesh or fur, looking more akin to pearly bone with black holes for a nose and eyes.

  “What are you?” Lirya said with a smile, rubbing her finger along the red, painted eye at the top of its skully head.

  When she had gone to check out, the Human gave her a look she couldn’t place, but she paid and happily left the store, tucking her new little friend under her arm.

  Lirya decided to take the long way around the station to get some exercise, having been sitting all day in class, and found Mohki leaning on the bulkhead wall near the entry point into the station.

  “Mohki?” Lirya called out, jogging to stand next to the taller brown furred Kafya and holding up her new find. “Look what I found in the shops! What kind of animal is this, anyway?”

  Mohki cocked a tired eyebrow at the wendigo plush, then flicked her eyes to Lirya. “... It’s a deer.”

  “Odd looking deer…” Lirya mused, holding the plush up for a second before looking over it at the bustling transit hub. “Awfully busy today, what’s going on?”

  Mohki lifted her chin at a huge number of Kafya going through the station’s identification terminals, along with a huge throng of Pwah waiting their turn behind. “New imports from the fringes. The Humans have been offering free ‘vacation’ visas to the non-core planets for whatever reason, and this lot chose Earth proper.”

  “What was the other option? Goldilocks?” Lirya asked, then smiled when the brown furred Kafya nodded to her. “Ah, any like me?”

  “What, white ones?” Mohki asked with a laugh, then rustled Lirya’s hair to mess it up properly. “Nah, afraid you’re still the only moon fur on this station.”

  Lirya, despite giggling at her hair being tussled, felt crestfallen at the news, her smile faltering at the corners. “Oh. Well… maybe next time.”

  “Maybe.” Mohki murmured, though she narrowed her eyes as two more Kafya came in behind the Pwah. “Who the hell are they?”

  Lirya looked around at Mohki, then followed her line of sight to a pair of Yellow Kafya with a team of other yellow Kafya behind them in matching uniforms. “Huh, I don’t know. Actually, the female one looks a little… a little like…”

  Lirya swallowed as she realized who she was looking at, the male having eyes the color of fresh pearl, the female eyes of light purple, and both with a shade of yellow fur that Lirya had become quite accustomed to.

  “Are those…” Lirya breathed out, sensing the social power that radiated off the pair as they slowly stepped forward with the line.

  Mohki bared her canine with a curl of the lip, then rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah, that’s them alright, I can see their official travel visas in the hands of their staff.”

  “How can you tell an official visa from this distance? I can’t even read the lettering of the uniforms.” Lirya said with a squint, holding the ‘deer’ plush to her chest.

  “No, that’s them.”

  The voice from behind caused them both to startle and turn to center, revealing the tired lilac eyes of Tyllia.

  “Fuck’s sakes, Tyllia.” Mohki growled, turning around fully and setting her hands on her hips, taking in the sorry state of the yellow furred Kafya. “The hell have you been doing? Replacing sleep with staring at the ceiling?"

  Tyllia smiled weakly. “Yeah… kinda.”

  “What’s wrong, Tyllia?” Lirya asked, placing a worried hand on the yellow furred shoulder of Tyllia. “You look awful.”

  Oddly enough, Tyllia perked up a bit from Lirya’s touch, like a dead car battery getting a jolt of energy from a jump box.

  “It’s just… I think my mother is gonna make me go home.” Tyllia said, the truth spilling from her lips as easily as a lie would, something that caught her by surprise.

  Mohki was as taken aback as Lirya, not for the statement, but at Tyllia being so open about it.

  “Make you go back?” Mohki asked, bending forward at the waist a bit to look at Tyllia. “You’re a full grown adult, they can’t make you do anything.”

  Tyllia grumbled in her throat, crossing her arms and blinking her tired eyes. “You wahdah wouldn’t understand the shit we anili have to deal with. There is a whole other level to things when it comes to children being subordinate to their parents… especially successful ones.”

  “They still can’t make you go anywhere, Tyllia.” Lirya joined in, tugging the yellow Kafya’s sleeve. “We’re on a Human station, remember? Remember what you told me?”

  Tyllia looked at Lirya with tired eyes, blinking in confusion.

  “You’re under Human watch.” Lirya said with a smile. “Remember? Same as me!”

  Tyllia half smiled, but it died away as soon as she looked back over towards her mother. “Yeah… but, something tells me my mother came ready for war.”

  “Whatcha’ talkin’ about?” Mohki asked, leaning heavily on a Human accent that Tyllia found wretched.

  Tyllia gave the brown furred Kafya the stink eye, but nodded her head towards her mother and father. “I think my mother has only half the fight for my sister, and if she fails there, she is going to put every ounce of her being into dragging me back home. She is not exactly fond of Humans…”

  As if on que, a piercing, aristocratic voice cracked through the air like a whip, causing the three of them and dozens of others to look towards the intake desks.

  “I do not want a funding-slate, I have my own! Do you honestly think I would come all the way here to this ramshackle station in my own ship, with my own crew, and not have my own funding-slates?!” Tyllia’s mother fumed, her fur raising to hackles from under the exquisitely cut dress that was clearly Human made.

  Tyllia’s father politely cleared his throat, smiling in a way that told the Human worker that he was able to handle the raging inferno that was his wife’s temper. “Darling, he is asking if you want the collectable funding-slate, to mark your trip to the station.”

  Tyllia’s mother glanced back down at where the Human was pointing, and her raised hackles flattened as if someone had flicked a switch.

  She brought her shoulders back, regaining her poise.

  “No, I do not want your peasant memorabilia from this rusting tub of a station.” She said icily, her crew trying to look at either the deck or the ceiling.

  Tyllia’s father, however, flashed a bright smile. “I’ll take four, please, with twenty thousand per slate.”

  “Anshuki, no, don’t buy those grubby things! They’re just trying to gouge us for extra credits.” Tyllia’s mother said, suddenly turning rather kittenish as she held onto her husband’s arm. “You’re just playing into their schemes!”

  As the Human worker gave his head a micro-shake and started inputting the commands, Tyllia’s father kissed his wife on the cheek.

  “Come now darling, I think they will look quite nice on the shelf! Plus our lovely daughters could use a little treat, don’t you think?” He said, touching his nose to hers lightly, but still in a loving way.

  “... What in the fuck is wrong with your parents?” Mohki said in open horror, watching the change in Tyllia’s mother the same way one would watching someone peel off their skin to expose a new person underneath. “Why is she speaking with a German accent?!”

  Lirya smiled in an awkward way, looking towards Tyllia with faltering turns of the head. “W-... Well, she has… a wonderful mastery of English, eh? Don’t you think so, Mohki?”

  “Where did she learn it from, a movie villain?” Mohki responded, which pulled a nervous laugh from Lirya in a hope to diffuse the situation.

  Tyllia let out a world weary sigh, the dark ring around the bottoms of her eyes coming back with full force. “They uh… they’re… unique. At least they only brought their station staff and left the rest of the crew on the ship.”

  Mohki whirled around in outrage to once again look at the crew standing awkwardly beside Tyllia’s parents, as she had assumed that was the entire crew of the ship, not just on-station staff.

  “They’re going to call for me soon, and will want to leave the station as soon as they have me so they can go see my sister.” Tyllia said with a groan, watching her mother and father depart the desk. “They’re going to have me cornered.”

  The twinge of fear in Tyllia’s voice spurned something inside Lirya’s chest, and she looked towards Tyllia’s parents. She felt like she needed to do something brave, to do something… selfless, like the Humans who had given it their all during their fight against The Pactless.

  If no one was there to be Tyllia’s last stand unit…

  Lirya looked up at Mohki, who looked back at Lirya… then squinted at the Kafya as she wagged her fluffy, white tail.

  “No.” Mohki growled, shaking her head curtly as Lirya began to smile. “Nooo way.”

  “Oh come on, Mohki.” Lirya said sweetly as she wrapped her arms around Tyllia’s, who looked around in confusion.

  “No and come on what?” Tyllia asked, her fur suddenly hackling as hard as her mothers. “What are you two talking about?”

  “We are not going with her!” Mohki shout-whispered. “You saw her mother, that would be like getting into a tarry-lift with a demon!”

  Lirya pouted. “We can’t leave her alone, you see how distressed she is! It’s not like you don’t have seven months of leave time you haven’t used, you told me yourself that they have been… marching up your butt about it!”

  “I said they were getting up my ass about it, but the answer is still no!” Mohki growled back.

  Tyllia, understanding what was going on, whirled her eyes around to Lirya, aghast. “Lirya are you crazy?! My mother would be able to reach escape velocity if you got on her ship! She only hires anili for a reason!”

  Lirya just smiled at Tyllia, patting her bicep with a calming, pawed hand. “It’s alright, I have dealt with that kind of stuff all my life! If being alone with your parents leaves you in this state, at least I would take the heat off of you for a while.”

  The offered sacrifice caught Tyllia so off guard that, for a moment, she felt a little emotional, a lump budding lightly in her throat.

  “You… Lirya, you would be miserable around my mom.” Tyllia whispered, then cracked a smile. “I mean, I was miserable around my mom, even before I got here.”

  Lirya shrugged. “Well, better to be miserable together than alone, right Mohki?”

  Mohki, resigning herself to the death sentence out of pure entrapment by Lirya’s unwavering loyalty, slowly pulled her data-slate away from her belt. “Yeah… sure. Why not.”

  After a few minutes, Mohki was given three months of paid time off by her overjoyed HR department, Lirya and Tyllia got a leave of absence authorization from Miss La, and Tyllia got a message from her mother to meet them at the terminal so they could leave.

  Lirya was surprised Miss La approved their leave of absence authorizations so quickly, but just shrugged and tried to keep Tyllia from going to pieces as they slowly walked towards her parents.

  Tyllia’s mother and father, more to the case of her mother, chose to simply wait at the terminal than venture further inside the station. Her father was rather keen to look around, but he knew that his wife would throw a fit, and instead decided to do his looky-loo’ing on Earth instead.

  When Tyllia arrived with not only a brown furred Kafya, but a white fur standing at her side holding some kind of horrible stuffed animal, the three were surprised that Tyllia’s mother didn’t combust on the spot.

  “What in th-?!” Tyllia’s mother had begun, her eyes bulging at the sight of the warrior-clanned Kafya and the curse-fur, but her husband was more keen.

  “Tyllia, my sweet child!” Tyllia’s father called out joyfully, wrapping his daughter in a great hug. “You made friends! I always knew you were able to! Darling, look, your daughter made friends!”

  Up close, Lirya was further taken aback by Tyllia’s parents; Her father was far more slight than he had appeared, clearly bookish in nature with soft eyes that spoke of a character not normally known to those of the yellow fur. Her mother on the other hand was lean, wiry, and coiled like a beautifully forged spring, her beauty only second to her temper.

  “It’s a… you’re socializing with a…” Tyllia’s mother stammered out, her ears pinned and face enraged as she looked Lirya from toe to ear tip.

  “Goodness.” Tyllia’s father said, setting down his mentally exhausted daughter and looking over her shoulder. “You have certainly chosen unique companions!”

  Tyllia’s mother spat out “Nedwo tra-” but her husband swept in front of her, blocking her hackled fur from view.

  “Let’s see now…” Tyllia’s father said, setting his hands on his hips in a friendly manner and leaning back, looking up at the taller Mohki. “Piercings! And you seem to like your black clothing! Goodness, you must be one of the fearsome warriors of the Blackmoon clan!”

  Mohki’s ears perked up at this, and she let out a wry smile, offering a spike bracelet-adorned hand to Tyllia’s father. “Uh… yeah! I am, actually. I work here on the station and hang out with these two when I’m not on duty.”

  “In the warehouse no doubt! Judging from that muscle tone.” Tyllia’s father said chirpily, nodding his head towards her well muscled arm.

  Mohki let out a girlish, embarrassed laugh, something that made Lirya smile and Tyllia roll her stressed eyes.

  “She’s a filthy-!” Tyllia’s mother spat out as she leaned to the side to point at Lirya, but was once again blocked by her husband.

  Tyllia’s Father smiled at Lirya in a different way, offering his hand to Lirya with a kindness she had never known a yellow to do. “Anguin adi Lirya, it is good to see you so safe and happy here on this station. Thank you for seeing after my Tyllia, she can be quite the handful.”

  Lirya, for lack of words, was starstruck by Tyllia’s father, her eyes wide, ears perked, and tail wagging as she happily shook his hand.

  “I am Kohan Rhidi, and this is my wife Icirit.” Kohan said graciously, pulling his wife around to his side with a guiding arm. Despite her clearly over-boiling rage, Icirit behaved within the arm of her husband. “I don’t think you may meet my other daughter, Nam-”

  “Lirya and Mohki want to come with me, Dad.” Tyllia said, the words bursting out of her mouth in a rapid onslaught before she passed out from holding them, pointing to the Kafya beside her. “They haven’t been to Earth yet and don’t want me going alone.”

  Icirit visibly recoiled at the words and vibrated like the contents of a shaken soda can, while Kohan brightened at the idea like it was an icecream bar.

  “Your friends want to come with you?!” Kohan cried out, clapping his pawed hands together. “Smashing! It would be like a girls trip! Darling, I don’t think Tyllia has ever had a girls trip before…”

  “On our ship, on our decks!” Icirit hissed, her muscles so flexed that they were visible under her fur, her well cut dress straining at the leg. “On our ship?!”

  “Of course, darling.” Kohan said, touching his nose to her cheek and diffusing her rage like an icecube to a burnt finger. “How could we make Tyllia’s friends travel separately? Come, come, let’s all go then!”

  Icirit looked positively alarmed, turning to look at her husband in a panic. “Anshuki, no! We can’t allowing a bedamned ned-”

  “Of course we can, darling, she is the same size as the rest of us!” Kohan said with a kind smile, and his wife pouted at him before glaring over her shoulder at Lirya as he turned her. “Now come, let’s get aboard so we can go down to Earth, we have an express beacon thanks to checking in on station. Don’t worry about clothes now, we’ll buy you all whole new wardrobes down on Earth, fine shops down there so I hear, very fine. Now, great warrior Mohki, was it? I have always wondered why your clan was so very much into Human piercings, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?”

  “Er… I suppose, Mr. Rhidi.” Mohki called out as she trotted up beside the yellow furred Kafya, Lirya trotting after her as Tyllia tiredly brought up the rear with the staff. “What exactly were you wanting to know? Before you ask, yes the one on my lips hurt like a bitch and bled, its why a lot of people have fake ones, and you can’t see all the piercings, some are on my-”

  “Mohki!” Tyllia cried out as Lirya giggled, slapping her hand to her face and dragging it down her face so her eyelids stretched. “Do not tell my father that!!!”