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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Innocent Bystander #7</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Origins part 1/2</span></p>
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</span></p>
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</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">January 1994</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Savannah after the Songs of Darkness</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Follow me, don't follow me</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">(Follow me) when I was young, I could perfectly see</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Now I'm as blind, blind as a girl can be</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">--My Bones, The Pretty Reckless</span></p>
<br>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"... And I *</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000;font-weight:700">don't</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">*
care what the people on the TV say, Radian *</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000;font-weight:700">was</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">* the best and *</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000;font-weight:700">is</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">*
the best!" The frail, scrawny child paused to catch her breath, but brandished her little black and white action figure aggressively to underscore her point.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"She *</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000;font-style:italic">was*</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000"> quite
the talented mage, yes." Doctor Theodore Kelley responded indulgently, though with a slight emphasis on the past tense.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">The little girl opened her mouth again, but her father Stefan intervened, mussing the fine, short black curls. "Take
a moment, Stelly. You're not quite up to preaching a sermon yet."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"But you are better than you were. Less pain, more strength? That's my doing, though your father has also been improving,
somewhat. Now, spit in this jar."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">She leaned forward and did so with enthusiasm, delighted that such an important and dignified person as a wizard would
ask for such an impolite thing. Theodore pulled his hand back, carefully sealing the container with a cork before producing a handkerchief to remove the evidence of the girl's poor aim.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"What's that for?" Stefan asked.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Tests. To track the girl's progress." He stood. "Take charge of our guests. I have work to do." Theodore made his exit,
taking the jar and its contents with him, along with the blood samples Stefan had brought.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">At the command, Max stepped forward from the dark corner in which they had been watching, unobtrusive. They prepared
to address Stefan, but the girl noticed them first. "Are you a boy or a girl?" </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Estella! Don't be rude!"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Max calmly raised a hand. Turning to the girl, they said, "That's a secret."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Why is it a secret?"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">They smiled. "I can't tell you that, either. If I did, it might give you a clue to the answer. You have to be careful
with your secrets. I'll give you that little tip, for free."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Oooooh..." Estella's eyes went wide with awe, and Stefan gave Max a grateful, gratifying look. Then her mind snapped
back to her current obsession. "I'll bet *</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000;font-style:italic">you*</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000"> wouldn't let on where Radian was, if you
knew. If I knew it I'd probably let it slip around my stupid little sister, and she'd blab it all over." She stroked the action figures' hair lovingly. "I hope they never catch her, though. She's so pretty, especially when she was the Dark Goddess. I wouldn't
have minded if she killed me then."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Oh, sweety..." The expression on Stefan's face was such a mix of love and sorrow and worry, it felt like he was reaching
straight into Max's chest and squeezing hard. They would have offered the frivolity of some minor magical trick, just to make him change it, but then the girl continued.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"That was when I was going to die anyways. But now it looks like I'm not, so maybe it's best that didn't happen."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">That won a smile from her father, relieved and a little bemused. "I'm sure Max here is also happy to still be among the
living. Not to mention your own dear old Dad."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Oh." The pallid girl reddened a little, giving her gaunt face a feverish look. "Well, I'm just as glad to have you,
and Max I guess, and mom... and Mina, when she's not running around being a brat. There's still a lot of stupid people I wish would just die, but that can't be helped." She snuggled against her father, closing her eyes. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"I guess we'll have to be satisfied with that," Stefan sighed, scooping her up. "Enough excitement for today." </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">As Max watched the pair depart from the front door, the mage felt a warning chill down their spine before the warmth
of Laylah's sweet breath registered to their more mundane senses. "I heard most of that," she murmured in their ear, "What a charming little moppet! And the father, Teddy's pet mundane. So handsome! No wonder you've been so distracted lately."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">They stepped away, turning to face her. "I've no idea what you're talking about. I'm as precise as ever."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">She was nothing but friendly solicitude. "You don't need to blush. It's cute! I really think you ought to get out and
meet people more often."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"And right now is the time to start, is it?" They retorted sardonically. Public sentiment was not appreciative of mages
at the moment.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">She sighed. "I meant in disguise, of course. All these years, have I ever done anything to actually earn your distrust?
It's dear Teddy's doing, of course. He doesn't think you're clever enough to deal with me, so he warns you away. Well, do what makes you comfortable. But you'll never win your heart's desire that way." She turned back into the darkness of the hall, leaving
Max to their thoughts.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">*****</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Jacksonville, Present</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Why do you want to get in there so bad? They have guns in there!" Mina sat next to the stricken Maow, carefully holding
one clawed hand and watching her face relax from pain to languor under the influence of some drug skillfully and surreptitiously injected by a camo-clad calico who had introduced herself as A'a'a'a'a. To Mina's relief, the catgirls' first aid skills far outstripped
her own, and they had fixed up their injured in short order while she slumped to the ground in exhaustion. Other felinoids gathered with them behind the mangled wall of the hedge maze, treating the human in their midst with varying degrees of curiosity, suspicion,
and total disinterest.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"That door is closed! How dare they!" Minyang did not respond to Mina's words so much as address the complaint to the
world at large. She was as much of a leader as the catgirls could be said to have, but she seemed as prone to irrationality as any of them.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Of course. And if it were open?"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Well... it would be... less likely to contain interesting things?"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">The single yellow-green eye port in Minyang's helmet was fixed on the big house as she stood boldly in a gap between
the shrubbery. Mina flinched as a bullet slammed into armor, hurling the suit and its wearer to the ground. Minyang was on her feet in an instant, screaming defiance, but from behind leafy cover this time.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Interesting thinnngs to eat in there!" purred an excited catgirl.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Ourrr machine, that we hunt, to make humans less problemmmmmatic."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Oh, yes. That too."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Claw sharpeners!"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Mina closed her eyes, not wanting to think about that house and the awful women who lived in it. If not for all this
noise, she could have curled up for a nap, right here next to Maow. Maow, who had come to her in her hour of need, after being spurned... Why had Mina sent her away? There had been reasons, they had seemed good--they probably still were, but she had trouble
recalling them now. What if Maow hadn't been wounded, but--?</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Brrrrphhhhhrrr." An impressive mass of armored muscle flopped to the ground beside Maow. The catgirl Numnum gave her
unconscious compatriot a sniff and a solicitous lick on the face. "The beast-friends have nnnnot fled. They do not realize that they are free..."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Do you mean those horses? They just want to stay near the stables, probably. That's their home. Usually people who can
afford horses take pretty good care of them."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Numnum appeared to contemplate this silently. Mina had about five seconds to savor the sensation of being listened to
by someone before another voice broke in. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Numnum, prepare. If the furrrrrriest among us shed our hair at the same instant, it should be enough to block out the
sun. Thennnn, under cover of darkness, we strike!"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Gross!" The outburst caused Minyang to turn to her, speculatively. Mina lifted her hands protectively to her own brown
hair, currently bound messily into a ponytail. "What about Maow? Haven't enough people been hurt? They could have fired right through these bushes if they wanted to."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Minyang's helmet was off, and her eye bored into Mina's. "Innnnntolerable that the door remain shut."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Maybe we can talk to them..." Mina was getting the hang of how these catgirls worked, and a glimmer of an idea had kindled
in her tired brain. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Mmmake them open the door?"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"If I do, you can't just go rushing in right away. You have to wait a little. And you can't attack, or eat any of them.
It's not their fault that they're doing this."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Why do it at all, then?"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Because I know where part of the machine you're looking for is, and if you don't hurt anyone else, I'll tell you. Now,
does anyone have anything white?"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">*****</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"We almost shot you. But Robert was sure that looked like a flag of surrender. It is white, I guess."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Thanks?"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"I can smell that thing from here. What the hell(tm) is it anyway?" </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"It's... a white hairball on a stick."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"That's nasty."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"We didn't have anything else white... Look, I'm here. Do you want to talk or not?"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">The eye that had been peeping through the cracked door disappeared, and the sound of fervent discussion erupted. The
door opened again, wider this time, and a whole face appeared: white, mustached, thirtyish. "Come on in. Leave that mess outside, though." </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Mina hesitated.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">There was a sigh. "I swear on my honor as a Southerner you won't come to no harm."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"And I'll be able to leave, right? I can tell you, I wouldn't be much use as a hostage anyway."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Alright, fine. I swear on my honor as a Southerner you won't be harmed or held."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">It would have to do. Hurling her "flag" onto the lawn, Mina stepped into the widening doorway. The door closed behind
her, and she was surrounded by rifles. </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000;font-style:italic">Just pretend you're taking part in some reenactment.</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000"> There
were women here, too--Robertas?-- and though their dresses were plain, unadorned brown, someone had made sure to make them with 19th century patterns. They accessorized well with the rifles. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Why don't you have a seat and you can say your piece?" One of them twanged, motioning towards what looked like a very
valuable antique sofa. Mina settled down lightly as she could, not wanting to know what would happen if she damaged it. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Do you know what the catgirls have come here for?" She looked nervously at the faces surrounding her, trying to identify
traces of personality underneath the blank-eyed fanaticism. She had hoped that distance from Miss Rule would diminish her hold over her victims, and maybe it would with time, but at the moment they still seemed well enthralled. "There's a machine, something
high tech--it wouldn't fit in with your aesthetic, I can tell you--" though she did notice some electric lights in the house, "If you give them that, they'll leave, and won't damage anything else."
</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000;font-style:italic">I hope</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">There were glances exchanged within the group. "I think I know what she means. I helped fetch the dang thing and move
it to the garage out back."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Mina let out the breath she had been holding. "And you don't have to worry about the other buildings, right? Just the
house?" </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"It don't seem right," muttered one of the Roberts, but he was shushed by his fellows.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"You tell 'em where it is and get 'em out of here." Said the man who had opened the door. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Also--the front door--they don't like it closed. Can you open it up a crack?"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Open the door, hell(tm). Why? We'll still shoot 'em if they try for it. They got all that ground to cover."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"I... don't think they'll try. They just don't like to feel you're being... inhospitable. And one more thing. Two of
your men are out by the cistern. They need help. Bring shovels." She'd have to talk to Minyang again, make her understand about the half-buried men somehow. She stood up carefully, looking down. For the first time she noticed the strap of her bag, sticking
out from underneath the couch. "That too. It's mine." </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">The faces around her hardened, a fanatical light in their eyes. "You can't take nothin' from the house."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"... but it's mine..."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"That's for the mistresses to say, and they ain't here. The bag stays, but the contraption out back you can take. We
got a deal?" </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Mina swallowed, her throat sour. The bag had her wallet, her cash... and, unless it had been taken, her fancy gun shaped
laser pointer. Yes, it was only a cat toy... but it was a high tech, super powerful cat toy, the only such item she possessed. But these people were beyond reason... and she was beyond the reach of any help. She reached out to shake the man's hand. "We got
a deal."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">*****</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"And that's how I lost my most valuable material possessions," Mina murmured to Maow, who lay sleeping on a portable
cot. She watched dully as Minyang and her squad hauled their precious mind control device around on a flatbed, causing browsing horses to scatter before them. The sight of the thing caused visions of cherry bombs to dance through Mina's head. If only she had
powers, like exploding things with her mind... From the house, three men marched unspeaking with shovels over their shoulders. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">She stroked Maow's hand absently, listening to the mutters and growls of A'a'a'a'a as she puttered about the catgirls'
tank, making it functional again. What would happen now? Would they take her home? Take her prisoner? They didn't seem bad, exactly, and some were very nice, but the idea of trusting her welfare to them was unnerving given that they occasionally ate people. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">But what choice did she have? She was too tired to run... and Maow... she wanted to be there when she woke up. She owed
the catgirl that much, whatever happened.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">The flatbed, pulled along mostly by the efforts of ginger Numnum, made its way down the drive. As it passed in front
of the house, an object came sailing out of the upper story window. Mina gasped, standing up. Catgirls scattered in every direction, screaming. The object landed on the flatbed and sat there, inert. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Be right back," whispered Mina to the injured girl on the cot, before pelting up the drive. She had less reason to fear
the airborne package, having recognized it as her own bag. As she approached the flatbed, it occurred to her that just because it was her bag didn't mean that it contained her own things and that it might instead contain other, nastier things. She stopped
before jumping aboard, looking around. Numnum, lying on her belly several yards away, gave her an encouraging claws-up.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000;font-style:italic">Oh well. If it's got a grenade I can at least blow up the mind control device,</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000"> thought
Mina as she clambered onto the flatbed. She nudged the bag with her foot. Then she picked it up and tossed it onto the device's console. Nothing. Cautiously she unzipped the main compartment... there were her work clothes, her stiletto heeled boots, her fancy
laser pointer. Everything. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Mina looked up to the balcony. Nothing there but a rocking chair, creaking in the wind.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000"><br>
</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Continued in part 2<br>
</span></p>
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