Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Fiction
vr 3.00
2008-02-16
"Kit/Kat" by Abraxas | 2000-04-07
Chapter Four
The examination room.
The ceiling was ten feet high and framed by struts and pipes of various sizes - faint droplets of moisture leaked from the cast-iron tubes, clung to their curved edifices. Small pools of water formed along miniature basins and depressions - the nearly imperceptible defects that marred the flat surface of the shiny, tiled floor. The walls were a light blue concrete, pockmarked with a rough, glossy texture.
From thin, horizontal windows perched at the fringe between the ceiling and the vast, northern wall, bursts of sunshine mixed with blots of lightning filtered through to illuminate the sober interior. The telltale splatter of rain hitting the glass echoed loudly, distinctly. There was no hint of dampness; there was no trace of moisture wafting in the air - there was, instead, the omnipresent stench of burnt flesh and hair.
At the center of the chamber, atop the small, stumpy table of granite, gray brick was a plate - a deep, metal plate - covered by a white shoal that hugged closely, intimately, the contours of an unseen object. The blanket - stained yellow here and there - was held in place by the weight of knives, scissors and other, heavy implements of forensic medicine.
Three adult Thundercats encircled the draped, coffin-like basin.
“Are you sure you, um, want to go through this, Liono?” Tygra asked, looking at the red-maned lion whose eyes did not leave the sight of that cloaked object.
“I have to, Tygra, I have to.”
“You might want to wear this,” Panthro added, handing his lord a surgical mask. “It’ll help with the fumes.”
“Um, we, um, must all, um, wear them.”
After the three were suitably prepared, Tygra pulled back the white shoal: “I had to shave the body. The fire, um, may have been either, um, weak or, um, weakened by the rainstorm but the charred fibers, um, were just too intrusive for the examination. I also amputated the tail.” He lifted Snarf’s body just a tiny, little bit so show Liono where the tail was.
“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” Panthro asked.
“Tygra, why does the body look so - flat?” Liono held his hands over his already-covered mouth - he had to look away but at the same time he could not move his head for fear he might gag.
“That’s part of the autopsy. I had to remove the internal organs - that leaves the body somewhat hollow. But let’s - let’s start at the top.”
Panthro put an arm around Liono to help him up.
“Snarf, um, was hit over the head with a blunt object. See the indentations around the eyes? That’s, um, where the blows landed. I’m not exactly sure, um, what the object could have been, but by the, um, way the skin bruised, I, um, made out the imprint of knuckles.”
“He was hit over the head with a fist?”
“Yes. That’s, um, what I’m guessing. It’s also the only bruise - the cuts and gashes that, um, mar the rest of the body, um, were inflicted after dead, um, when he, um, was hung on a tree.”
“The rope, the noose around his neck,” Panthro added, “had traces of pine needles - pines surround the candy fruit bushes.”
“So far, that’s about all, um, we found -“
Liono lost track of what Panthro and Tygra were saying as his eyes explored the corpse from head to toe and back again. Snarf’s eyes were open - blackened, charred by flames, rotted by death green and yellow and yet, oddly, eerily, they seemed to be moist. The teeth were blindingly white and clean. The mouth was slightly ajar - the tongue within gagged the back of the throat like a morbid, organic plug.
The Lord of the Thundercats shuddered and broke free of the panther’s hold.
The corpse was totally unrecognizable in that hairless state - and a part of him, a large part of him, could not believe it was true, it was his beloved nanny. Dead - dead and transfigured.
“Dead - death - so cruel and so violent,” he wailed, unable to separate his inner and outer voices. “But - you said you found more?”
“The thumb of the left hand is, um, missing.” Tygra grasped Snarf’s stiff, dead hand and peeled back the fingers to show Liono the jagged stump - all that was left of the missing appendage. “It, um, was torn off rather crudely.”
“Was that it?”
“Um, well, Liono,” Tygra said, trying desperately hard to delay the inevitable. “Um, we found a, um, message in his anal cavity.”
Liono stepped aback utterly shocked. Under the white, facemask the other, two Thundercats could see his mouth, his lips, moving to form words he dared not speak aloud.
“What, what, what drove you to look in there?”
Panthro pressed his hands over his face - over his mask that hid the smile, the smirk forming along his lips. But it was another matter to stifle the oncoming chuckles. He walked to the side. He ran out of the room into the hall, his back to the men, his body shaking and convulsion with the spasms of uncontrollable laughter.
Tygra kept his eyes low down to the floor - he wanted to choose the right words but rather stated the facts as simply as possible: “A candy fruit, um, was sticking out of his rectum. Apparently, that’s how the, um, message, um, was jammed into the cavity, the anal cavity.”
Liono gazed so intensely at the tiger that it seemed his eyes could have popped out of his head. He stepped back, until he was stopped by the recess wall of the examination room. His mind raced, reeled oblivious to Tygra - who remained fixed and immoveable. He was completely, totally unaware of the world, of reality, of existence.
“The, um, message, um, was, needless to say, badly stained. Right now it’s in the lab, Panthro and I are busy trying to, to, to fix it so, um, we can read it.”
“By when do you think that’ll be done?”
“If, um, we, um, were to, um, work on it throughout today and, um, maybe tomorrow -“
“Do it, do nothing else but that, I want to know what, by Jagga, is responsible for this.”
From an air duct hidden within the network of pipes, WileyKat and WileyKit saw and heard the events the events as they proceeded beneath them.
“WileyKat’s apprenticeship will have to wait - this problem is far, far more important.”
“I, um, will tell him as soon as possible.”
“What that boy has seen, what he has gone through - and now this? We must be careful with him, Tygra. Perhaps I should take the responsibility myself, at least until this whole mess is sorted out.”
“Yes, Liono.”
* * * * * * * * * *
“This isn’t good, Kat.”
WileyKat and his sister returned to the safety of the bedroom. After he helped her through the ventilation duct, he secured the wire grid over the long, thin opening. He looked up at her as he arose from the floor. She stood by the windows, the tempest-stirred winds ruffling her clothes, her hair.
“You did that to Snarf?”
“Be silent.”
He walked up to her - she pressed her fingers over his lips.
“I did what I had to do. He knew too much, he saw too much and he was more than willing to tell Liono and Cheetara and the rest about us - he wanted to tell them. Did you want that to happen? Could you imagine what would happen next? You and I, we would be separated. Those, adults, would never let us see or touch each other again.”
She reached down between his legs.
“Would you want that to happen?”
She stroked him, gently, deliberately - and he responded.
“Don’t laugh at me when it happens.” He gazed upon her breasts, unaware of the smile that formed - that angled - across her face. His heart raced, his chest throbbed - he gasped trying to catch his breath. “Kit, that’s incredible.”
“Let’s go all the way -“
“No, we can’t.” He pulled away from her grasp. “Snarf’s funeral is later today. I don’t think we should be doing stuff like that for a while - like that for -“
“You do forgive me, don’t you?”
He leaned into his sister, exploring her mane, kissing her lips: “I could never be angry at you.” Now it was his turn to be sly: he let one hand press against her chest while the other hand run between her legs, under her dress.
“Oh, Kat,” she gasped, giggling. “Oh, you’re so naughty - don’t stop, oh, don’t stop!”
She turned white - almost ghost white - and stared into the distance. Suddenly frigid, stiff, she walked back to the wall, to the darkness of the shadows past the windows.
“What’s the matter, Kit? Did I hurt you?” He ran to her like a moth to a flame: “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No, no, that’s not it. Kat. We’ve got to get that message.”
“What message?”
“The message Panthro and Tygra found inside Snarf. I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote it - I was so upset, I was so angry at what happened, at what I had to do - and at the others. That Panthro, that Tygra - how I want to wring their necks! How I hate them!”
WileyKit cried loudly into WileyKat’s shoulder - holding her tight and close, he rocked her softly back and forth, left and right.
“It’ll be all right, Kit, it’ll be all right.” He lifted her chin, her face. “Tonight, when everyone’s asleep, we’ll crawl into the lab and we’ll take care of that message.”
“It’s important, Kat, if any of them find it, if they read it -“
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. Kit? Did you see how everything’s worked out well in the end?”
She laughed: “Yes. At least Liono will be better to you than Panthro’s ‘friend’.”
“Yeah, his ‘special’ friend.”
They laughed together.
“Liono was always nice to us, ever since we were cubs. I don’t know what’s gotten into his head that now he’s the bedrock of leadership. I bet it’s only an act, I bet that, when you and he are alone, that he goes back to being his usual, fun self. Still, you knew that this day would come, you knew that sooner or later you would have to go through this ‘apprenticeship’.”
“This growing up. I don’t want to be an adult, Kit, I don’t want to have adult problems and adult responsibilities. You know what I would do if I had the power? I’d take you to an island, far, far away and we’d live together without a care in the world.”
“Oh?” she asked, coyly.
“Yeah - and we’d be naked all of the time.”
“Not all of the time?”
“All of the time, Kit - we’d know every part of our bodies completely, totally, intimately.”
She blushed: “But what if it gets cold?”
“Then I’ll keep you warm - in my bed.”
“Tell me you love me again.”
* * * * * * * * * *
A smooth, level stretch of ankle-high grass bordered by moss-covered trees - WileyKat had forgotten about the Thundercats’ cemetery.
The rainstorm dispersed early that afternoon - late that afternoon, despite clear, unobstructed sunlight, the ground was still wet and muddy. Panthro and Tygra - but mostly Panthro - were thankful for moist, loose soil that was by far easier to dig the crypt into than parched, intertwined earth. The two labored while donning thick, canvas overalls that protected them against the contamination of the living dirt yet baked them under the heat of the summer day.
Juxtaposed against that humid, stagnant landscape was a cool, dynamic breeze. Unexpected zephyrs swayed treetops and ruffled branches, synthesizing sounds of disquiet solemnity. Occasionally the gusts were so strong, so violent that remnant dew strung along the green leaves of towering arbors sprayed into the air and fell as a kind of phantom rain - as if Nature itself wept at Snarf’s funeral.
Droplets shoot into Liono’s eyes - he rubbed them, leaving them unusually red. Cheetara’s eyes were red, too, but her lips were curled as if caught in mid-snarl, revolted. The cheetah and the lion clung onto each other’s shoulders, wrapping their arms across their waists in a semi-embrace.
Scents carried by the hazy, gray mists seemed to take WileyKat back - back to the green, open fields and blue, bright skies of long, lost Thundera. A sigh, a yawn - he brooded about the adult Thundercats. He gazed into the hole that deepened slowly, ever so slowly. “And to what depths will Snarf be buried?” he asked in thought. “Or will he be returned to hot hell?”
As he explored he discovered a tombstone - a tombstone twin to the plaque he and Liono carried to the hallowed grounds from Cat’s Lair. But its words were dulled and weathered. And as he looked on, he remembered he had been to the cemetery before, after they had arrived on Third Earth, when the burial grounds were consecrated.
“Why did they burry Jagga? After all, we never found the body.” He drummed his fingers upon each other and slyly, coyly, espied the world. “I suppose it could have been out of respect - if only I remembered.”
The faintest, murkiest visions of the past came back to him, to his mind. He saw Liono fisting the fresh grave, the mounded tomb. He saw Cheetara weeping. Tygra flung the shovel aside. Panthro approached him - yes, Panthro. The panther paid no attention to his sister as he was locked in a deep, warm embrace - it was as if they were the only two in the whole universe.
He did not realize how much he missed that intimacy. Yet, what he did not understand was why neither he nor his sister was moved by what was happening as the others were.
“I guess we just never knew Jagga that well,” he said. He saw WileyKit seated on a mound of dirt and asked: “Where did you come from?”
“I was always right here, Kat, you were just too busy in la-la-land to notice me. What about Jagga?”
He shrugged - he ran his hands through the strands of mane that dropped by her eyes, pushing the hair back. “I don’t know - it doesn’t matter.”
“Those two are looking at us.”
WileyKat turned his head just slightly to see that his sister was right: Liono and Cheetara stared attentively at him. “Just jealous, that’s all. Those two could never have what we have, Kit. We are one, you and I. We are one: two halves of one body; two forms of one soul.”
“We better get back to the others - Panthro and Tygra finished digging up the grave.”
“Do you remember the last time we came to the cemetery?”
“I don’t think we’ve ever been here before, Kat - or at least I’ve never been here before.”
“I think I remember a few bits and pieces -”
“Don’t!” she said, uncharacteristically stern. “Don’t! I’m sure there’s only sadness and pain. Let’s not have any of that stuff today, OK?” She softened her tone - he nodded his head and just like that the matter dropped and died.
The twins walked, hand-in-hand, to the site of the excavated tomb, to the pile of dirt - red, black and muddy - that Panthro and Tygra unearthed. The shovels that had been used in that macabre task stood upright planted in that grainy earth.
“The catapult was right in front of Cat’s Lair,” Liono whispered to Cheetara. “Right in front of the bridge.”
“Tygra told me it was in flames,” Cheetara added, also in whisper.
“It was of a very primitive design - it would have been easy to build from spare parts.”
“What about the Warrior Maidens? Could they have built it?” she asked.
Liono blinked suddenly caught off guard by the possibility. “Did look like an Amazonian catapult - they could have built it, but I doubt they were the ones who did this. Someone might have stolen the catapult.”
“We also found a trail - a mud trail - that led into Cat’s Lair, but it was so thin and the rains destroyed it,” Tygra said, arising from the pit.
Liono and Cheetara took hold of the ends of a long, wooden gurney upon which lay a tightly-wrapped object. It was apparent to all present - simply by the general form and outline of the shoal - that it was Snarf’s body. The remains had been thoroughly shielded to protect - rather, to prevent - the innocent Thundercats from seeing - from knowing - what the murder and the autopsy had done to their much-beloved companion. The lion and the cheetah carefully maneuvered themselves and the corpse into the pit, reaching the bottom one at a time. They were up to their shins in the earth - worms, wet and slimy, crawled about their boots.
Snarf’s remains - and gurney - were interred in the unfathomable, unspeakable darkness of the deep.
The pit was so steep Liono and Cheetara needed help to get out. He was the first to ascend with the aid of Panthro. She was the second to climb free with the help of Tygra. Afterward the four adults took the shovels and filled-in the grave.
The pile of dirt was reclaimed; the hole was plugged by a mound. Vermin and snatches of grass displaced by the dig poked through its fertile surface. The bulge was patted with the flat, working ends of the shovels but the effort was futile so it was left to the elements to correct the matter at its own, natural pace.
The plaque fit into place nicely, neatly - almost perfectly - and uncannily parallel with respect to the other, older tombstone abandoned as it was on the side. The engraved letters had been lined with gold trim. Tygra assured it would keep the words from fading, eroding - at least for a while.
Liono nodded - the Thundercats gathered around Snarf’s grave in a semicircle.
“I tried to think of something to say but none of what I came up with would make much sense to you. Snarf was the closest to me; closer, even, than my own father ever was. I know you’re going to laugh or think this is just a little too unusual but for a while - no - for a good, long while there was a part of me that believed he was my father -“
WileyKat was shocked, stunned although it seemed the rest, even Tygra, were too caught up with emotion, too engrossed with sadness to notice. It was as if he alone was aware that his sister laughed. She laughed, doubled-over with pain - her sides aching, her eyes watering, about ready to cry blood-red tears. Yet it was hard, very hard to tell just where her mirth ended and her grief began.
By that time WileyKit had let go of WileyKat’s hand - free to move, she walked from the outer edge of the semicircle to the inner core to be closer to Liono and Cheetara. By that time, too, the Lord of the Thundercats had finished his speech - he looked down at the boy, his sister’s laughter-sobs coming from the distance, the faraway distance. The red-maned lion reached up to pet the youth’s matted hair and comfort his low-cast shoulders.
“Thundercats,” he shouted, pulling the Sword of Omens free of the Claw Shield.
“HO!” the others shouted.
“Thundercats -“
He stared into the Eye of Thundera - the mystical insignia responded unexpectedly.
“HO?”
The weapon growled.
“Thundercats.”
He looked at the boy, his face contorted in the strangest, most frightening manner.
"HO!"
Silence.
Liono, his eyes transfixed to the muddy earth, turned away from the others. Panthro and Tygra followed their leader, carrying the shovels across their exposed shoulders. Cheetara took WileyKat’s hands into hers and rubbed them - warmed them. He was nervous not so much by the intimate contact but by the fear she might see the cuts along his hands, his fingers wonder where he had gotten the wounds. Instead she hugged him. He wrapped his arms about her neck; he pressed his face above her breasts.
WileyKat kissed Cheetara’s cheek and then -
WileyKit had been quiet but now she pointed and laughed at her brother. Jumping up and down, she giggled almost innocently - almost innocently.
Then and only then, at that very moment, Cheetara realized something was wrong. She broke his hold and eased his body off of hers. At eye-level and arm’s-distance, she studied the boy like she had never done before. She scrutinized his actions, his demeanor: he did more than look back at her, he leered at her in ways men were wont to and on top of that his other, involuntary reaction was clear and undeniable with its implication.
The cheetah stepped back from the youngster. Covering her welling eyes, she ran to the other Thundercats who were well-within the forest trail back to Cat’s Lair.
His sister came to him and whispered: “See, I told you so. I said she’d never let anything happen between you.”
“I didn’t know she’d react that way,” he said, about to cry. “Do you think she still, likes, me, Kit? I mean - she won’t hate me the way Panthro does?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
“No - it just -I don’t want that. I don’t want things to change.”
“Not everything has to change.” She hugged him, reaching under his tunic, feeling, teasing, him. “Let's forget about Snarf and Cheetara and all of them. Over there, by the trees. Let’s finish what we started this morning. Wouldn’t you like that? Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
She did not wait for his answer.
* * * * * * * * * *
The lofty, thin windows of Tygra’s laboratory were covered by thick, lead curtains - odd, for there was little to blot out but the blackness of night. Perhaps it was not to block the daylight; perhaps it was to thwart the interlopers - the Mutants and their allies. The immense, indifferent chamber was dark and shadowy, bathed here and there by the vivid, smoky glow of table lamps cluttered above workbenches.
Tygra lay a sheet of parchment within a clear, hollow cube. Calibrated weights along its corners held it in place and pressed it flat. He shut the box and slid it into a device whose shape, grossly distorted by the murky shadows, reminded the Thundercat of Slythe’s reptilian profile. He flicked a button and a burst of light exploded through the cracks of the machine.
“You’ve been working on that all day,” Panthro said.
The tiger looked up - his friend stood by the machine, its slivers of bright light danced across the blue fur of the panther’s naked body.
“Why don’t you come to bed?”
The dirty overalls they had used hours earlier were crumpled upon the floor between them.
“I have to finish this, Panthro.”
The red-and-black cat covered the device with a protective sheath and once again the chamber was plunged into an eerie, azure incandescence.
“WileyKat?”
“I must be his mentor. Liono doesn’t know -“
Panthro moved behind Tygra, grasping his shoulders.
“It’s the last round of treatment - the message -“
“Can it be read?”
“Barely. No, no. It can’t be read in its condition. Too many stains, too much water damage.”
Spooning their bodies, they embraced - Panthro’s front to Tygra’s back. The panther’s lips met the tiger’s ears - he nibbled softly, affectionately as he whispered unintelligible grunts and recognizable words. Their hearts raced, their lungs panted. The mechanic’s hands slipped down, down but the architect moved away.
“I don’t like how you treat, um, WileyKat,” he stammered.
“Not this again.” Panthro turned and retreated toward one of the blocked-out windows.
“It’s, important, to me.”
Panthro pushed aside a portion of the heavy covers.
“That boy -“
“That boy is important to me.” Tygra reached for a chair and sat. “Everyday I feel like a failure around him - like he can see through me, size me, measure my worth as a man. Oh, I don’t expect you to understand what it feels or means to me. But I tell you, it’s like the sense that I didn’t do - or couldn’t do - something he expected. I don’t know what, I just don’t know what. I do know that’s why I need to be his mentor - because maybe then I’ll put to rest the demons that claw and tear at my heart.”
He stared at the panther, observing him, devouring him with his eyes that at last adjusted to the shadowy darkness of the laboratory.
“What was it, Panthro? What could have happened between you two that could have soured you like this? What could he, a lonely, friendless boy, have done to you?”
The panther shrugged and shook his head.
“Tell me,” the tiger implored.
“He’s different,” he replied - the words, the syllables oozing through his lips.
“What kind of excuse is that? Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe your attitude’s contributed - and to no small degree - to what he’s become after all of these years? Cheetara tells me he’s got the power to sense our feelings and that he’s more than aware of your indifference - and you don’t think, you really don’t think it’s got nothing to do with his behavior? He’s different. And aren’t we different, too?”
“It’s not the same, Tygra, what we’ve got isn’t the same.”
“There’s no difference!” the tiger shouted, standing abruptly. “Or you accept him without question, love him as your fellow Thundercat, or -“
“Or?”
“Or to hell with the Code of Thundera. Why hide behind pretended morality? Loyalty? Friendship? Let’s just all become animals again and separate back into the enclaves of beasts!”
“I don’t like what I get from him. There’s evil there, can’t you see it? That boy’s been nothing but trouble. He’s had a hand in all the ills we’ve suffered ever since the accident with this sister and I wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t had something to do with that, too.”
“Panthro!”
The panther stopped - he caught himself only too late and bit his tongue: “I’m sorry.”
Silence.
“I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry, Tygra.”
“That you could think he -“
“I didn’t mean it -“
“By Jagga, you didn’t!”
“Please,” Panthro begged, running to his friend’s side. “Please.” He held him by his striped forearms. “I take it back. Please, don’t be mad at me.”
“You don’t have to be so -“
“I can’t promise you much, but I’ll try -“
“That would make me so happy.” Tygra’s eyes welled. “It’s important that he trusts me, so he bonds with me.”
Panthro wrapped him in his arms in a tight embrace. Playing with his mane he said: “I know, I know.”
From the background came the telltale sounds of metal clamping on metal.
“What was that?” the panther asked.
“It’s nothing,” the tiger replied, adding: “It happens all the time.” He gazed upon the blue-gray Thundercat and that time he let his own hands wander. “If you promise to be nice,” he said, teasing the mechanic’s nipples. “I’ll promise to -“he whispered into his friend’s ear.
The panther laughed and smiled: “All right, then, I promise, I promise.”
“Why don’t we go take that bath -“
“Now?”
“It’s not too late. You’ve finished upgrading the Thunder Tank and almost everything else - I’ve got nothing better to do. Why shouldn’t we indulge just a little bit?”
“OK.” He rubbed up and down the tiger’s mane, ruffling the red and black fur. “I’ll protect you, so you won’t have to be invisible - so I can enjoy seeing every part of you, my tiger.”
WileyKat held onto the grid of the vent’s portal for dear life. He had miscalculated the force needed to loosen it off its hinges and had almost knocked it onto the floor - possibly with a loud, jarring din.
“I thought those two would never leave!” his sister said. “Careful, careful with that - slip it gently.”
“I know, I know - I’ve done this before.”
“What? Got caught before, too?”
“Keep your voice down.”
The plate landed on the floor soundlessly and with that same ease the Thunder Twins passed through the cramped passage.
The clatter of running water echoed from the bathroom. Strong, white light glimmered through the doorway and as the two got closer and closer they saw gray steam filter and swarm into the laboratory. The doorway was only half-open - WileyKit stared through its long, thin crevice. Tygra’s back was to him - the tiger was relaxing in the large, metal tub that slowly filled with hot water. Panthro spoke to the striped cat with low, raspy tones - the panther slipped into the tub facing forward, facing into Tygra and the boy’s direction. WileyKat watched transfixed as the adult Thundercats locked lips for a mere moment of fleeting passion.
“Gross,” WileyKit said. “Thank Jagga they don’t do that stuff in front of us.”
Panthro and Tygra stopped - Tygra spun around, resting his folded arms and chin atop the tub’s curved, iron lip while Panthro stared blankly into space. Suddenly the panther learned forward, hugging the tiger - cradling his face between the mane and shoulder of his red and black striped friend. Their eyes were shut oblivious to the world surrounding them but yet it seemed to a confused and bewildered WileyKat that Tygra mouthed his name. WileyKit dragged him back, away from the door.
Though he was terrified, though adrenaline pumped through his system, WileyKat found it almost impossible to keep his eyes open. He would rub them, focus them, they seemed so dry, so bitterly dry he could not defy the reflex to shut them. And when he did, it was very difficult to open them again.
“What’s the matter, Kat?” his sister asked.
The twins were in the middle of the laboratory, between wracks and workbenches.
“I don’t know what’s wrong but I just can’t keep my eyes open, Kit.”
Panthro growled and Tygra laughed - and in the faraway distance up-thrust water splashed-down onto the cold, hard floor that surrounded the tub. The spigots had been cut off and through the intermittent calm the two could hear everything that was happening quite well.
“It doesn’t matter - quickly, this shouldn’t take us long.” She turned to the doorway and to WileyKat. “Find that message, it must be here.”
“He said it needed treatment so I’ll take a glance at what machines -“he yawned - “he’s got running.”
“Good,” she said, shaking him, “a good start. Check through the drawers first, just to make sure he didn’t stash it away.” She looked again at the doorway, the partly-open doorway. WileyKat was wobbly, he could not stand still or upright and he kept yawning. Yawning. “Are you sure you’ll be all right? I can help -“
“No, no. I can find it. We’ll just stick to the original play. You keep a look out for me.”
“OK.” She kissed his lips but he broke away with another yawn. “You’re all worn out.”
“That’s all right. The sooner - the sooner - we can - go - to bed.” His speech was slurred, his words were incoherent. He fell, slumping into his sister’s awaiting arms and that was all he could remember.
END OF CHAPTER
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