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Cat's Eyes Ch.4 1/4
All stories on this web site are purely FICTIONAL. The people depicted within these stories only exist in someone's IMAGINATION. Any resemblence between anyone depicted in these stories and any real person, living or dead, is an incredible COINCIDENCE too bizarre to be believed. If you think that you or someone you know is depicted in one of these stories it's only because you're a twisted perverted little fucker who sees conspiracies and plots where none exist. You probably suspect that your own MOTHER had sex with ALIENS and COWS and stuff. Well, she didn't. It's all in your head. Now take your tranquilizers and RELAX.
Tail -- Catseyes IV
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© 1994 Tenebra
Part 1.
"May the Huntress and her wolves take the whole class of merchants in
Corelis!"
Taryn simply looks at me calmly, moves away from the wall he's been
leaning against while waiting for me to finish my interview inside,
joins me. The crowds aren't bad, it's early evening, most people are
home having supper. Home sounds wonderful. We turn in that direction.
"What happened?" he asks.
"I've been getting suspicious -- lately no one will hire me, when I used
to have very little trouble getting a job. He just explained it, in
detail. A while ago, I had an employer who wanted me to do something
positively suicidal. I told her no, she threatened me, so I told her
precisely what I thought of her and her sheep-brained son who kept
trying to get me into bed. She told all the rest. There's no chance
I'm ever going to get a job in Corelis again."
He sighs, shakes his head. "It's such as this that make me wish all the
world were like ri'Shalhas, monotony and all." He slides an arm around
my waist, I shift closer and do the same, taking comfort from that.
"I wouldn't have a job in ri'Shalhas, either, from what you say."
He glances down at me -- not far down, tall as he is I'm only a couple
of inches shorter -- and smiles. "There would be something requiring
your skills, though not necessarily as you use them now."
Neither of us says any more. We reach the building where my room is,
climb the steps. Taryn's been here for ten days now, and I refused from
the first night to let him sleep in an inn. I bullied him into fetching
his belongings and staying with me.
Taryn pauses, lays a hand against the door, expression shifting to
concern. The lock snaps open before I can put the key in it --
witchcraft, I'm getting slowly used to that -- and he pushes the door
open.
Then we can see, and hear. Amber is huddled at the head of my bed,
sobbing to himself.
I cross the room as fast as I can, sit on the edge of the bed to run a
hand gently down his bare back, over the soft fur. "Amber, what's
wrong?"
He raises his head, looks up at me with tear-bright eyes. "Somebody
s-stepped on Am-Amber's t-tail...." He reaches down, he has his tail
coiled tight against him, and lifts it carefully in his hand. The tawny
fur in one place near the end seems to have mud worked deep into it, and
there's an unnatural kink at about the same location. Stepped on it
right well, it seems.
Taryn seats himself on the other side of the bed, leans over -- Amber
flinches away before Taryn's hand can touch his abused tail.
"I can't heal it if you don't let me touch it, kitten," he says
soothingly. "I won't hurt you."
I kick off my boots, move further up on the bed so I can cuddle Amber
against me. He resists, then relaxes against me, buries his face in my
chest, trembling, still crying.
Taryn closes his hand loosely around Amber's tail, well below the break
-- how painful must that be, not to mention the damage to his pride? --
and slides it carefully along until he's cupping the muddied, bent place.
His other hand he lays over it, very gently, but Amber shudders, whimpers
but it's muffled against me. I keep stroking his hair, wishing I could
help more. Taryn closes his eyes, and goes very still, expression
smoothing away to the blankness I'm starting to recognize as intense
concentration.
After a moment, our witch lets go, goes to the bathroom to fetch a wet
cloth so he can carefully work the mud out of the fur. Amber's sobs
have quieted, but he doesn't move, just lets Taryn do what he will.
"All healed and all clean, kitten," Taryn tells him. "It'll be sore
still for a day or so, but that's all."
Amber pulls away, twitches his tail into his reach -- wincing as he
does -- and inspects it thoroughly. "Not kinked?"
"Not kinked with me around," Taryn reassures him.
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End of Part 1.
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