When Eliot opened his eyes again, his first thought was that he had been killed and somehow made it to heaven, because there was a pale face surrounded by a white halo filling his field of vision. Then as his eyes focused, he began to wonder why this angel had so much fur.
"Vyktorea!" a voice said sharply. "Leave the Terran alone!"
"Mama, he's awake!" cried Vyktorea (for, of course, it was she). She backed away and Cazondra came into view.
The healer ran her paw-like hands over Eliot's face, neck, and shoulders, staring at him with her intense blue eyes. He barely noticed the now-familiar shiver as she used her channeling to examine him. "You'll be all right," she said finally, standing up in one fluid movement. "But you're lucky to be alive."
She moved away and Vyktorea took her place beside Eliot. He assumed he was back in Cazondra's home, lying on one of the mats in her sick room. He wanted to sit up, but couldn't find the strength to do it.
"My head hurts," he told Vyktorea. That was an understatement; his whole body ached, likely from impact with the ground, but his head positively throbbed, with the pain extending down into his neck and shoulders. "What happened?" he moaned.
"You were attacked by a pollicle," Vyktorea told him.
"A what?" he struggled to focus on her through a red haze of pain.
"A pollicle," Vyktorea repeated. "Admeetus says we were too near her territory."
"Admeetus?" Eliot said sharply, suspicion cutting through his pain like a knife. "What would he know about it?"
"He was watching us."
Eliot filed this away for later fulmination and continued with his questions. "So, did Admeetus kill the p-uh…whatever you called it?"
"No, Rhumpus did."
"What's a…Rhumpus?"
Vyktorea shook her head in frustration. "Let me show you," she said. She covered Eliot's face with her velvety hands and suddenly he was back walking in the forest.
"Wasn't the Phantom in more of a field…?" Jabez's voice asked behind him.
What the hell? Eliot thought to himself. He tried to turn toward Jabez, but found he couldn't control his body. Then he heard his own voice say, "I know where we're going," and realized that he was walking next to himself.
"Did you really crash so deep into the forest?" Vyktorea's voice echoed in his head, and now he understood that he was seeing this from her perspective.
This must be some of the mind-sending she was talking about, he thought. He watched the argument that ensued and couldn't help thinking how stupid he had been to do all that shouting in unknown territory. I was asking for trouble and I got it, he thought glumly.
Just then, Vyktorea turned and spotted the angered "pollicle", which looked something like a wolf the size of a grizzly bear. With a sweep of her mighty paw, the huge beast knocked Eliot clean off his feet and sent him flying about two meters, before he landed approximately on his head. The Eliot watching through Vyktorea shuddered inwardly at the sight of himself lying on the ground with his neck bent in an unnatural way and blood running down his face.
As the pollicle reared for another attack, Vyktorea stood protectively over Eliot's limp form, her white fur bristled and her tail lashing, hissing and growling at the beast. The snarling pollicle approached her warily, tensed herself to spring, and then…
There was a flash of black fur and Vyktorea was knocked over onto Eliot. When she looked up, the pollicle lay on the ground with her throat ripped out. Standing over the carcass, arms akimbo and tail lashing, was a sleek, black male Coricat, Rhumpus apparently. He was almost as big as the pollicle, and he was all black but for his white-tipped tail, his muzzle, once white, now blood-stained, and a few white stripes on his ears and head. He had golden-orange eyes that burned like fire as he grinned proudly at Vyktorea.
Eliot had little time in which to observe this, for the pollicle wasn't alone. Another, much larger one suddenly appeared and attacked Rhumpus, furious over the death of his mate. Eliot almost thought that Rhumpus was done for when a grey streak flashed through the air and turned out to be Admeetus, who landed on the pollicle's back, dug in all his claws, and sank his teeth into the back of the monster's neck.
The creature roared and threw Admeetus off. The large, grey Coricat hit a tree and lay on the ground for a moment, stunned. But the distraction was all Rhumpus needed, and he soon found the pollicle's throat with his teeth.
The last thing Eliot saw before the telepathic replay ended was Rhumpus hovering over his kill with blood trickling out of his mouth and down his face from his temple. Then everything went black, and then he saw Vyktorea's face again.
"Now my head really hurts!" Eliot groaned.
"Vyktorea, what are you doing?" Cazondra demanded, coming into view once again.
"I was explaining to Eliot what happened in the forest," Vyktorea said defensively.
"There are better ways of doing it," Cazondra said disapprovingly, then turned to Eliot. "Can you move your arms and legs?" she asked.
Eliot tried and found that he could, albeit with difficulty. "The pollicle almost broke your neck," Cazondra told him. "It may be some days before you have full strength again."
Eliot struggled to sit up again, and had no better luck than the first time. Cazondra and Vyktorea each placed a firm hand on his back and pushed him into an upright position. His head swam at first, but eventually his vision cleared and he looked around.
There was Rhumpus, reclining on a mat on the other side of the room, picking at a bandage on his shoulder. He turned his flame-colored eyes on Eliot for a moment, then looked away. He reminds me of Admeetus, Eliot thought, taking in the black Coricat's huge, well-muscled form. The strong, silent type, Eliot concluded.
Cazondra followed Eliot's gaze and gave an exasperated cry when she saw Rhumpus trying to pull off his shoulder bandage. "Stop it, Rhumpus!" she said sternly, and coming over, smacked his paw away. He hissed at her, but she ignored him as she set the dressing to rights. "That bite will never heal if you keep picking at it," she said, echoing a universal admonition. She removed a smaller dressing from his temple, saying, "This one can come off now, but that one must stay on for another day or so."
Rhumpus made a sort of "myrarl" sound.
"It's no good complaining to me," Cazondra said peevishly. "If you try to fight pollicles during the mating season, you have to take what comes to you. Of course," she now switched from Coricus to Terran and turned to Eliot, "if you hadn't invaded the pollicles' territory, then Rhumpus wouldn't have been hurt trying to protect you."
Eliot started to say something in his own defense, but just then Alahnso came in with Jabez and Pavel. When the two Terrans saw their friend sitting up, they rushed to him. "Are you all right, El?" Jabez demanded. "Man, we thought you were a goner!"
"I'm okay," Eliot said with more conviction than he felt. "Just real stiff."
As he spoke Admeetus slipped in unnoticed and sat by Rhumpus, nuzzling him. Eliot's attention was attracted when Rhumpus started making a buzz saw kind of noise in his throat that was probably supposed to be a purr.
"They're brothers, I hope," Eliot murmured, faintly disgusted by this unusual (to him) display of affection.
"No," Vyktorea corrected him. "Rhumpus is Admeetus' oldest kitten."
"That's a kitten?!" Jabez hissed incredulously, staring at the giant black male.
Now Admeetus turned to the Terrans, his mouth in a wide grin that displayed his teeth to their best advantage. "I see the off-worlder is returned to us," he said with a self-satisfied smirk.
Eliot found Admeetus' smugness irritating. "You bastard! You were following us, weren't you," he said accusingly. "After I said I didn't need you."
Admeetus cocked his head and gave Eliot a look of innocent inquisitiveness. "And what if I was?" he returned.
"Are we your prisoners?" Eliot demanded angrily. "Do you trust us so little that you have to watch our every move?"
"Do you trust us?" Admeetus countered.
Eliot was caught off guard. "Well, no, not entirely," he admitted.
Then why should we trust you, who are the invaders of our home?"
Eliot had no answer. Admeetus continued, "I followed you today because Munkustrap asked me to keep you out of trouble."
"You didn't do a very good job," Eliot grumbled.
Admeetus narrowed his gold-green eyes. "You're just lucky that Rhumpus was nearby," he said grimly.
"Come on, El, give Admeetus a break," Pavel urged.
"He did help save our butts, after all," Jabez pointed out.
Grudgingly Eliot nodded. "Yeah, I guess," he muttered.
"Good," Admeetus' toothy grin returned. "And now we should go to the feasting. Tonight we'll have pollicle to eat!"
©1999 Delilah