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Journal Entry 00100 243 000 Geographic Family Photos

Geographic: family Photos

Journal Entry 243 / 00100

Anar, Narquel 32, 00100

October 30, 1984

"So, Wolf, I take it you're enjoying your first day here on Pendor?"

The other gentlemen, an older Terran with greying hair, goatee and

mustache, turned to Ken Shardik. "I am, thank you. The Ring was quite

a shock! And thank you for not calling me 'Zebediah.' It seems it took

me forever to convince Sh'Vah to call me something other than that."

"'Appointed by God.' That's what it means, you know."

"I know." Wolf smiled. "And there's nothing wrong with that. I just

prefer the nickname."

"I can understand," Ken replied. "I've been meaning to ask you-- have

you decided what you're going to shoot? I was surprised to hear that

Christiane had already embarked on a fascinating subject-- she wants to

talk to the oldest Pendorians, to illustrate how time changes us, if it

does at all. Apparently the news that we're unaging hit her pretty hard."

"It hit us all rather hard. Do you know what it means to know that I'm

going to die in, if the averages are to be believed, in twenty years or

so, and you'll still be young and handsome and strong?" Ken bit his lip.

"Ah, I see it makes you uncomfortable too."

"Immortality is something that a species needs to earn, Wolf," he said. "I

can't say that it's going to be any better for us to live longer."

Wolf nodded. He'd done a lot of thinking on the subject but it wasn't

what he was interested in-- Christiane already had that subject.

A voice interrupted his musing. "Hey, Grandpa?" He turned his head and

was surprised to see a Centaur walking across the room. She was small

for what Wolf had seen in Centaurs and her face didn't show even the

scant physical maturity many Pendorians carried with them. Ken extended

his hands and greeted her warmly with a hug and a kiss. "Donna, my

Hyzen. Good to see you again."

"You were gone for so long! And I couldn't get away from classes until

today." She kissed his face quickly, giggling. Ken turned towards Wolf.

"Donna, meet Wolf. Wolf, meet my granddaughter, Donna Lewis."

"The daughter of Paul and Carroll, right?"

Donna nodded. "You're from Earth!"

It was Wolf's turn to nod. "I'm here to photograph Pendor and its people."

"Well, there aren't a lot of those compared to what you have on Earth!"

she said with a smile.

"You have a lot more land," Wolf said. "I wonder what secrets are out

there, waiting to be discovered."

"Well," Donna said. "For that you'll want to talk to Maha. He's the

mapmaker."

Wolf filed that name away but he already had an idea forming for his

first photo shoot. He suddenly wondered if he wouldn't be better off at

this point shooting for Life instead of Geographic, but he had his career

chosen and sometimes the articles in Geo were almost Life-like anyway.

"You called him 'grandpa'?"

"Yeah!" Donna said with a grin. "He is my grandpa."

"And I spoil her," Ken said with a grin. "Sweetie, go see if you can

find Ress and Ember and find out if dinner's going to be ready."

"'Kay," she said, clopping out on her four hooves.

"This is a bit presumptuous of me, Kennet," Wolf said, looking up with a

grin, "But I was wondering if you would mind being my first photographic

subject while I'm here?"

"How so?"

"Well, I'd like to photograph Pendorian families," he said. "It sounds

to me like you mix it up quite a lot here. A Centaur calls you grandpa;

your wife-- excuse me, your partner-- is a Tindal. I'd like to photograph

that."

"You can do more than that. This has been a busy decade for new species.

This year the Ssphynx were released; you can still find new families just

formed of a tliel Ssphynx and the family that has chosen to guide him or

her through incorporation shock. If you happen to be rather unlucky you

might end up the adoptive parent yourself, guiding a Ssphynx, Mephit,

or a Markal through that awkward stage yourself."

"Why 'unlucky?'"

"Because I can't imagine it's the kind of complication you're looking

for in your life right now. It would happen entirely by accident. You'd

meet someone of one of those species and they'd start talking to you and

you would need to find someone else to take care of this person who has

suddenly become your charge. You're not one of us; you're not under that

kind of obligation. Besides, you don't speak the language."

"Annolea linte," Wolf said with a grin.

"Yes," Ken said, surprised. "You are indeed learning quickly, apparently.

I hope it proves useful to you."

"Ath."

"Good," Ken said, refusing to be drawn into Quen. Wolf had heard him speak

it clearly and profusely among his own people. He imagined that Ken had

few opportunities to use English, although it was clear that at least half

the people living at Castle Shardik spoke it with precision. Ken spoke

at least three local languages, apparently: English, Quen, and Felin,

the easier of the two feline tongues. Wolf suspected that he spoke Unci

just as well, and Christiane had mentioned that while he may not speak

it he clearly understood the whistles and clicks of the sentient Dolphins.

"Ken? Mr. Christiensen? Dinner is ready."

"You're lucky, Wolf. Tonight is the one night of the week where the whole

family gets together. Either on the roof or in the commons room. Sometimes

we take care of family business, especially on nights like tonight where

there's a lot to talk about since I've been away. But you'll get to see

everyone. And if that's what you want to shoot, tonight might be a good

place to start."

"I'll take my camera, then."

Donna led the two men through Ken's home, out into the hallway to the

grav tube that led to the roof. "Who's cooking anyway?" Ken asked.

"Mom," Donna replied. "I think she went with something complicated."

"Hopefully not too complicated," Ken replied. Donna laughed and Wolf

found himself fascinated by the simple and commonplace banter. It was as

if he were still on Earth, except that this somewhat father-and-daughter

conversation was happening between a Human and a Centaur and that if

one looked too far towards the horizon it curved upwards.

"It's not too bad," said a larger femCentaur with black hair, white skin,

and the most dazzling smile Wolf had encountered in years. "You must

be Mr. Christiansen. I'm confused. You're not related to Christiane,

are you?"

Wolf shook his head rapidly. It had never occurred to him that Pendorians

might make a connection between the two admittedly similar names. "No,

not at all. Christiansen is my familial name; Christiane is her given

name. I don't think her parents knew mine at all, at any time."

"I see. I'm Carroll."

She held her hand out awkwardly, as if she rarely shook hands. Wolf

supposed that might even be the case. Pendorians didn't seem to be the

kind of people who shook hands; they either kept a polite distance or

they were instantly embracing. "You don't have to shake my hand if you'd

rather not," he offered.

She grinned, knelt, and pulled him close into an intimate embrace. Wolf

found himself buffeted by her substantial strength and comfortably large

breasts. "Then you'll have to take this," she replied. "I'm afraid we

don't have much in between."

Ken smiled. "Around here, you either work together, play together,

or sleep together. Anything else is just bad manners."

"And around here there's a lot of playing, I take it," Wolf said.

"Has to be. We live together. Play defines us and takes off the tension

at the same time."

"Eat," Carroll said. "There's something in the bowl, it's a salad. It

has some seaweed in it, I know you don't like that too much Ken, but

it's there. The dinner is some bird on a bed of rice. And the spices I

mixed myself."

Wolf sampled the offered meal and found it quite delicious. He dug

into the offering until he was stuffed, all the while listening to the

conversations around him. He wondered if he was oddly privileged or if

the Pendorians thought of the conversation as strictly banal. It wasn't

the kind of stuff spies would slather over, he imagined. Carroll and

another male Centaur, Paul, handed him a pair of flat pads about the

size of a large book. The three of them were talking about Ssphynx and

a species he hadn't heard of yet called "Markals." He wasn't sure what

to make of the discussion.

"Would you care for some desert?" a new voice said, interrupted his

observations.

He looked up to see a Felinzi leaning over and offering him a large

plate on which he saw two small paper bags. "It's a hot fruit pie. The

fruit is called a wirr around here. It's similar to your apple." She

smiled. "May I sit with you?"

Wolf looked at her closely. She was half black, half white, with a shaft

of white down the middle of her muzzle. She had small breasts that the

loose shirt she wore did nothing to hide as she bent over. Wolf had the

distinct impression she knew exactly what she was displaying. "If you

tell me your name," he replied.

"Ember," she murred softly. "You must be Wolf."

He took the bag from her and was surprised to find it still hot on the

outside. "Ouch!"

"They were baked in the bag. I did tell you they were hot."

"Yes, I guess you did." He shook his burned fingers and dipped them into

the glass of water he had at his side. "Do you always do this? Picnic

outside?"

She nodded. "When it's not raining."

It was another of those banal little details that Wolf found so

fascinating. He had no idea how these people worked together so well,

or even if this was the normal state of affairs. Wolf looked around and

found Ken playfully nuzzling another Felinzi, a tawny-colored creature

with a curious air of maturity to her, a smile that seemed to echo more

years than even Ken carried with him. "Who's that?"

"Mom!" Ember said. The Felinzi he had been asking about looked up,

disentangled herself from Ken's grasp, and walked over, giving the mottled

Felinzi a kiss on her muzzle. "And how is my daughter today?" the older
one asked.

"Pretty good. How's work?"

"Work is work."

"Oh," Ember said. "Not good?"

The other shrugged. "It's always good or I wouldn't do it. But I can't

seem to get a behavior pattern down in the hardware. Do you want a go

at it?"

"I'm no good at reading your work, Mom. But I'll try. Mom, this is Wolf

Christiansen from Terra. Wolf, this is my mother, M'Ress." She pronounced

it 'em-ress.'

"Pleased to meet you."

"And to meet you," M'Ress replied. "Bawr, don't be too hard him."

"I won't, Mom." She grinned as the other walked back to where Ken was

sitting, now with someone who was clearly P'nyssa Traken.

Wolf wasn't sure what to make of that exchange. "What did she mean,

'Don't be too hard on me?'"

Ember smiled secretly. "Maybe she expects me to invite you home tonight."

Wolf nearly choked on his dessert. "She expects that?"

"It's possible. I might if you were a Pendorian and I liked you. But

you're not a Pendorian, are you?"

Wolf shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He had chosen to take a table by

himself and to just watch the ebb and flow of people eating and talking.

It seemed a close-knit group of about twenty people, although when a

dog walked through he wondered if that was part of the family or just

a pet. He had never had a pet himself; being constantly on the move from

assignment to assignment, having a dog would have been a cruelty. "Ember,

how do you feel about dogs?"

The change in conversation startled her for a moment but she took it

calmly. "Ken has a dog. His name is Ozymandias, but everyone just calls

him Ozzi." She shrugged. "He's a dog."

"But he could just as well be a cat."

"I have a cat." She looked puzzled, then her face brightened. "Oh! I see

where you're going. No, pets are just pets. They're not people. To be

people, I guess, we have a good feel for it. Dogs and cats aren't people."

"But doesn't it seem weird, I mean, looking at a cat and seeing yourself?"

"I don't see myself any more than you would looking at a monkey. And

besides, I think my genetics are closer to yours than they are to a cat's.

There are a lot of physical difference because of our heat requirements,

but my mind is more like yours than a cat's."

"Heat requirements?" Wolf asked. "You mean, you go into heat?"

"No, silly, I have fur!" She bapped him playfully on the arm. "So managing

my body temperature without my constantly panting is something Ken worked

hard to get right."

"Oh," Wolf said, grinning abashedly.

A tall figure walked around Wolf and into his field of vision. "Hi. Mind

if I sit here?"

Although Wolf had gotten used to the sheer loveliness of the people around

him, he was not prepared for this human girl. She stood at least as tall

as he, with hair halfway between red and blond that framed her face in

a long, flowing fall behind her shoulders. She had full breasts that

didn't seem to get in her way and a face of high cheekbones, green eyes,

and a lush mouth. Wolf felt that at his age he should be over such things

but there he was, stuttering like a schoolboy. "Uh, uh, yeah. Sure."

Ember laughed. At least, Wolf hoped that yowl was a laugh. "Chaz, if

you're going to do that to the poor man, you should at least explain

yourself," Ember suggested.

"Explain what?" the other woman said casually.

"Chaz Stearmin, meet Wolf Christiansen. Wolf, this is Chaz. She doesn't

live at the Castle anymore. I bet you came over just to meet Wolf."

"Of course," Chaz said with a laugh that may have been the sirens singing

a chorus. She was drinking from what looked like a stein. She didn't

have any dinner. "I hope you don't mind my crashing."

"Nobody minds you crashing, Chaz," said the now familiar voice of Ken

Shardik. "But, panta nai nwalya Wolf nae, vistali." Wolf recognized his

name and the verb 'to be,' but not much more.

Chaz blushed and nodded. "He's right. I'm sorry. Excuse me for a moment.

Ken? Would you make my apology more, um, coire?" Clear, understandable.

"Nathen." Of course. "Ember? Would you give us a moment?"

The two fems-- Wolf remembered the term-- moved away as Ken had asked.

"You didn't encounter this much on the ship because the ship is full

of professionals of one kind, Wolf, but I guess I should have warned

you before we landed. Earlier I mentioned that we don't have much fake

intimacy around here-- you either work together, in which case personal

space is respected and observed-- or you play together, in which case

physical contact is the norm. Around here, without the social controls

Terra went through, there's a lot of playing and, sometimes, the quickest

way to get to know someone, to know if you want to play with them,

is to sleep with them. People reveal things in bed that they wouldn't

anywhere else."

Wolf wasn't sure where to take the conversation. "And they would like

to--"

"Well, that and something else. You're a Terran. They want to know what's

different about you from Pendorians, if anything. And you have stories to

tell that they want to hear. All they've ever heard about Earth has been

from me and from books, and the books aren't really enough. So much as

been published that we don't have, so much has happened we know nothing

about. They want to hear everything. You're as much a resource to them

as they are to you."

"So if I'm asked--"

"Accept!" Ken said, spreading his arms wide and smiling. "I mean, if

the asker is interesting to you. Don't be fooled by Chaz, though. Oh,

she's delicious, make no mistake, but that's her job. She specializes

in vanwa maile, as we call it here on Pendor. Sex is her profession."

"She's a prostitute?"

"More or less. Around here, making people happy is a high and honorable

calling. And she's damned good at it. And there's no reason not to

call on her services, but you're hardly the sort of man who needs them,

I imagine. She a sort of therapist that way. She works mostly for people

who need her, rather than those who just want her. And if I know her,

she was working hard to seduce you. Her hair is rarely that well done

for casual meetings, and that perfume, a maile vista'atan, works best

on you and me because it's made specifically for human males. A powerful

and effective pheromone."

"She was trying to--"

"So was Ember, except Ember was being a little more coy about it and

listening to you. I like that in her. It's one of her better features,

her patience."

Wolf suddenly saw the entire room in a different light. These weren't

humans in costume. They had certain freedoms-- and taboos-- different

from what he had become accustomed to back on Earth. "I'll keep it in

mind. If I should, with, um, Ember..."

"Have a good time," Ken suggested. "Just remember that, to Ember,

a love-bed is a place to cut loose."

"She's not, um, dangerous, is she?"

A wistful look crossed Ken's face. Wolf wanted to ask about it but

decided to hold back. "If you're just right you'll get a few scratches."

"I see."

"I'll tell her it's okay to come back. And if you run into Chaz again,

hopefully she'll be a little more polite."

"I'll look forward to it," Wolf said as Ken stood up, taking his glass

and leaving him alone again.

A minute later Ember sat down in the seat Ken had vacated. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Wolf asked. "I understand now what you were doing. I don't

think you were doing anything to apologize for." He looked at her,

still unable to get out of his mind the idea of her having a cat. "You

said you have a cat? Can I see her?"

"She's in my cabin, but I don't see why not. Follow me."

Wolf followed her down into the castle. Ember lived just a few doors down

from Ken's own residence. Hers had a window that likewise looked eastward,

or spinward as the Pendorians preferred to call it. Oddly, they still

felt comfortable with North and South for the edges of the ring, the walls

that kept all the air from flying off into space. As she opened to door,

she walked across to a low, flat platform covered with a black mattress.

"There you are," she said, picking up the effectively camouflaged black

cat. Like herself, the cat was a long-hair, but where Ember was a mottled

black and white, the cat was all black. "This is Ulgundo."

"I don't know that word."

"It means 'hideous beast' in Quen." She grinned again. "And sometimes

she can be."

"Could I get some photos of you with Ulgundo?"

"Sure!" Ember said, smile widening. "If it helps with your work, I think

that would be wonderful! Where do you want me to sit? Or stand? Or "

Wolf laughed. "Sit on that--" He looked for a descriptive word.

"It's just a futon," Ember offered.

"Oh," Wolf said, feeling abashed. He knew what a futon was. He just hadn't

been prepared for so mundane an item in an alien household. Ember had

taken up a position on the couch with her legs crossed in front of her,

the cat in her lap. Wolf knelt down on one knee and took a picture.

It was almost an hour later when he'd finished shooting the whole roll.

"Thank you," he said. It had grown dark outside during the simple session.

It had been a long time since he'd shot an entire roll on one person,

but for some reason his camera eye kept coming back to Ember, wanting

to take more of her. It was a rare occasion when he was alone with

a Pendorian who wasn't Sh'Vah, his translator and assistant. He was

extremely grateful that the Shardik household habitually spoke English,

or 'Anglic,' as they called it.

"What time do you usually go to sleep?" he asked around a large yawn.

Although he had adjusted to the Pendorian day surprisingly well, he still

seemed to feel sleep earlier than most Pendorians, although he had also

noticed that he was typically awake earlier than most of them. And like

most Pendorians, he appreciated the seraren, the Pendorian word for

siesta, a mid-day nap.

"I usually go to sleep around six," she said. "It's only one now. Are

you tired already?"

"I think my Pendor schedule is going to be 'early to bed, early to rise."

Ember twitched her whiskers. "Like P'nyssa or Paul. Morning people."

Wolf grinned. "That's not what I'm like back on Earth," he tried to

assure her. "Really."

"I guess being on a new world would cause some changes," Ember sighed.

"Something wrong?"

Ember scooted across the futon to where he sat and casually reached out

to touch his cheek. "My mom was right. You're welcome to spend the night

here if you like."

Wolf trembled slightly, at the tickle of her touch against his beard or at

his own inner fears he wasn't sure. "Ken told me that if I was offered I

should accept. What would be worse-- accepting and doing poorly, or not

accepting at all?"

"I think," Ember purred in replied, "That you should accept." Her hand

caressed his cheek, the fur gently playing along the exposed skin. "What

could be wrong?"

"I'm not like you, Ember. I'm an old man. My I'm not as strong as I used

to be. I don't know if I can keep up with someone as strong as you. As

young as you are."

"Trrrry." Her voice was so sweetly feline Wolf felt his resistance

crumble as she kissed him. He felt her muzzle press against his mouth,

her tongue flickered out against his lips. It wasn't rough the way

he would have expected from a cat's. It was warm and thin and almost

human. It had been a long time since he'd been with a woman, a long time

not even counting the voyage from Earth into the numbers. Like having a

pet, having a girlfriend would have been a kind of cruelty, and he had

long ago given up buying favors from women. He found that he couldn't

respond. No, that wasn't it. Ember noticed his withdrawal and pulled

back herself. "What's wrong?"

"I think... I think I've forgotten how to do this."

She smiled. "Nobody ever really forgets how! You just have to learn how

to feel it with someone new." Her paw touched his chest gently and he

felt himself being pushed down onto the bed. He went willingly.

She straddled his hips, her body lengthwise over his, and for the first

time the reality of the Pendorians hit him full force. For the past four

months he had been treating Ember, and Ken, and the whole trip as some

sort of abstraction, something over there, something he wasn't involved

in. Suddenly the weight of this very feminine body on top of his own made

his breath catch in his throat and his stomach tense in ways familiar

to a much younger memory of himself.

He reached up with one hand behind her shoulders and pulled her down to

his mouth. He kissed her, his tongue reaching out as hers had a minute

ago. As he kissed her he reached up into her shirt with that schoolboy

enthusiasm he had felt a few hours ago, confronted with Chaz. But now,

it wasn't artificial, driven by scents and hints. He didn't even know

if he should be naturally attracted to Ember's scent. He knew that the

purr that came from between her collarbones was as real as any kitten's

and just as convincing. "Ember?" he asked, looking up.

"Yes, Wolf?" she asked, grinning. "I like the way you kiss."

"How old are you?" he asked.

"Fifty-two."

"Oh," he said. He tilted his head in a suggestion and she took to it

immediately, kissing his lips once more. He felt his mouth get used to

the geometry of hers quickly enough, found the texture of her lips and

her whiskers against his skin fascinating. His hand finally found and

closed around one of her furred breasts and squeezed gently. Her purring

crested like a wave as his fingertips brushed over her tiny nipple and a

gasp erupted from her when he pinched it. "Careful," she breathed. "I'll

like that more when I'm more excited."

"Then let's get you more excited," he suggested.

"I'll start," she agreed, undoing the buttons of his shirt and opening

it up, exposing his skin underneath. "Oooh," she purred, "You're almost

furry." She dipped her head and ran her tongue over one of his nipples. He

moaned with his own pleasure.

"I hope humans aren't too unusual for you," he said, reaching out to

pull her closer after she had tossed the wrap-around shirt she wore onto

the floor.

"Not at all. I like humans. Especially Terrans."

"Have you had many Terrans before?" he asked, kissing her cheek.

"You're my second," she breathed.

Wolf wondered who the first could have been. He was distracted by the

feel of her hands at his fly, pulling open his belt. When she unzipped

his pants, his erection popped out at full staff. "Wow," she said. "I

thought you said you couldn't keep up?"

"It changed my mind," he said, waving one hand towards his erect sex

casually.

Ember grinned and then lowered her head to his crotch. Wolf felt the

warmth of her mouth against the head of his cock and then felt the

entire length of it disappear into her. Her thin tongue caressed one

side of it as she turned her head back and forth, sucking the length of

it. It had been so long since Wolf had had the attention of any woman,

human or otherwise, that he felt his excitement rising with a speed he

would almost have been annoyed at. But instead it simply overwhelmed

him and he came with a shout and a gush inside her mouth. Ember gave

a loud pant but swallowed every last drop he had to give. "I'm sorry,"

he said. "I didn't know. It's just been a long time."

She looked up at him with that predatory grin. "Can you do it again?"

"At my age?" he said. "I might have a heart attack first. But I'm

determined to try."

"Good," she said. "Just take a break, then." She kissed his cheek. "Take

those pants all the way off." Her hands stroked the hair that grew in

a thatch on his chest. "And if you have a heart attack, one of the best

doctors on the Ring is right next door."

"Ken?"

"P'nyssa. Ken isn't a doctor." She rose to walk into what looked like

a small kitchen. He complied with her wish and took his pants off,

folding them in half carefully and placing them with his shirt, which

he also folded. He had never been a particularly neat person, either,

but ironing rarely appealed to him. The longer he could keep his clothes

pressed the happier he would be. Naked, he surveyed the apartment.

It looked like a small studio apartment. A table in one corner

near the door was covered with what looked like small electronics

components. The woven rug, over which the futon covered about a

quarter, had an intense, geometric pattern on in it brown, red, gold

and white. One wall had another apparent rug tacked to it, this one

with some kind of illustration. He wanted to get close and look at it;

from this distance it appeared to be some kind of hunting scene. Another

wall had a complex diagram that looked like the kind of thing one would

expect in a programmer's quarters. He noticed on one wall a photograph

of a Felinzi with coloration similar to Ember's.

As she returned from the kitchen with a pair of coffee mugs he pointed

at the photograph. "Who's that?"

She looked up, took a deep breath, and sighed. "Maha Oren. My dad."

"Something wrong?"

"He wasn't much of a father. Both mels and fems can choose to be made

sterile, which is fully reversible. Maha never had; he relied on Mom's

choices. mom decided she wanted a child. I guess it wasn't fair of her

to spring it on him but when he found out he left. I've never actually

met him."

"I'm... I'm sorry."

"Don't be!" she said. "I had a great family growing up. mom loved me, and

so did Paul and Carroll, and Ken was here, and Chaz and Rick always wanted

to play with me. I grew up with a lot of people who loved me very much."

"But, to have your father abandon you..."

"He didn't abandon me," Ember replied. "He abandoned my Mom. But it was

her choice to get pregnant and keep me, so if I feel sorry for her I

guess I can understand how he felt, too. He didn't know me."

"But you were his child," Wolf protested.

"So what? He didn't know me. He didn't want me. He didn't have a

relationship with me and he didn't want one. I think he did me a favor

by leaving. Better that than to have an angry and resentful mel around

all the time. You haven't tried the drink I brought you."

"What is it? Some kind of aphrodisiac?"

"It's just a tea," she said. "No thylleine. You said you wanted to go

to sleep soon."

He nodded and sipped at it. It was agreeable; he'd had worse in some

supposedly "civilized" cities. He also found his strength slowly returning

to his limbs as he rested. "I still can't believe I'm sitting here,

having civilized tea with a lovely girl who's just given me my first

blowjob in nearly five years, and she's all covered in beautiful fur, has

a tail and a muzzle and lovely green eyes that are slitted vertically. I

feel as if I've wandered into a well-done version of Fritz the Cat."

"I've never heard of it," Ember replied.

"Be grateful. It's not that good a movie. Very violent, very sad. The

artists responsible chose to use cartoon animals because it made the

violence seem more distant. It took longer for the message to sink in

that way, but when it did was very effective for exactly that reason."

"Oh," Ember said seriously, sipping her tea. "It's maybe not a movie I

want to see, then."

"I don't think you'd get it," Wolf agreed. He reached out and with one

hand began idly stroking the fur of her thigh, touching her with ease. "I

wonder if I'd be so comfortable if you were human."

"Comfortable doing what?"

"Touching you," he said, running his hand up along her thigh almost to

her groin.

"Oh," Ember said, thinking. "Do you think I'm less human, then? I don't

deserve the same kind of respect a human fem would?"

"Would it be respectful to not touch you?" he asked. "After all you've

told me, I think it would be preferable to you if I were touching you. I

think it makes you more touchable. Approachable. If you weren't, you'd

tell me, right? You've got claws, after all."

She flexed her fingers, causing her small but sharp claws to splay as she

did so. "I'd tell you. I like it when people want to approach me. Most

Pendorians do. But now I'm curious. Why wouldn't you want to touch a

human afterwards?"

Wolf thought. "I don't know. It's weird. People are like that. The

barriers go up after intimacy, like they're reacting to opening up

so completely by shutting down again hard. Maybe we're ashamed of the

animals we become when we're making love. I've never been proud of that

part of myself."

She touched his face. "You were nice to me afterwards."

"Being nice is easy. It's maintaining the connection that's hard." He

reached up and gestured with his hand for her to come join him. He did

and their kiss was warmer and more friendly this time, less frantic in

the buildup of something new. He took his time enjoying her fur and her

warmth; she responded by stroking his stomach and his sex with her paw,

scratching at his thighs gently with her claws and causing him to tense.

He could feel her smile when she did that.

Wolf pushed himself up with one arm, guiding Ember down to the bed.

Stretched out, she was a lovely vision; her belly had longer strands

of fur than her chest, and the blending of white and dark patches that

swirled around her shoulders and up the sides of her neck made her look

somehow innocent. Wolf realized these were just his impression, but

he couldn't help but wonder if Pendorian standards of beauty somehow

didn't approximate his own. She had small breasts that flattened out

under gravity the way breasts should (and rarely did on some of the

human women whose services he had once purchased). Wolf was reluctant

to label her beautiful, but 'cute', 'lovely', and 'desirable' all came

to mind. It was funny how easily his mind accepted the idea that he was

about to have sex with an alien from another world. He'd never been a

fan of science fiction, after all.

He kissed her shoulders and made his way down between her legs. He

suddenly realized that he didn't know what she looked like down there or

if he would be able to recognize any of the usual parts. "I can always

ask," he muttered.

"If?" she said, raising her head.

"If I don't know what I'm doing," he replied with a grin as he pressed

against her thighs with his fingertips, pushing them apart. She took

his hint and opened her legs for him.

"You'll know what you're doing," she assured him.

"Apparently," he said, spotting familiar shapes cast in unfamiliar

textures. He had rarely gone down on women; it wasn't the sort of

privilege one looked for in a whore, and Ember was hardly a whore. He

somehow realized that Chaz might have appreciated this gesture as much

as any woman would have; her "prostitution" had a different flavor when

she did it for free.

He stretched out on the bed to bring his head level with her sex

and inhaled. She smelled delightful. He didn't know what he had been

expecting; she didn't smell like a human but she surely smelled good. He

felt his heartbeat quickening and his cock surging with desire as he

lowered his mouth to her sex and licked at it gently, parting the lips

eagerly with his tongue and seeking out her clitoris. "Oh, Fah," she

moaned softly, turning her head as he licked his way between her lips,

pressing upwards against her clitoris and the spot above her hood.

"Yes..."

She tasted like no woman he'd known, and he'd known a few, if none

recently. He pressed his lips to her sex firmly, trying to encase her

warmth with his mouth, dipping his tongue between her lips and lapping at

the flavors he found there. He found her taste entrancing. She apparently

found his fumblings effective; her hands found his arms where they rested

in his thighs and she held him tight as he licked at her sex. "Oh, oh...

Oh!" she moaned loudly as her hips jerked downwards, her body suddenly

tense and then released.

Wolf looked up, wiping her juices from his beard with one hand, and

grinned. "More?"

"Come here," she said, her hands on his arms pulling him up the length

of her body. He went willingly, his body covering hers now. His sex,

hard again after her excitement, batted between her thighs. He felt the

silky sensation of her fur on the underside of his cock and he wondered

what it would feel like to actually be inside her, to feel that furred

body completely against his. "I want you," she said. "For tonight." She

parted her legs again in invitation.

"I'll stay," he assured her as he found his way against her mound and

then, slowly, he entered her. The sensation around his cock was familiar,

the excitement a kind of old friend long missed. But the rest of her,

the feel of her fur underneath his skin, the glassy sweet sensation of

her thighs and the delicate brushes of the fur on her arms surprised

and distracted him.

But years of evolution would hardly give way to distraction. His body knew

pleasure, and Ember was certainly giving that to him. She would meet his

thrusts with her own, her hips pressing up as he pressed down. When he

looked down into her eyes she would nod in time with his lovemaking. Her

eyes were wide and her smile obvious. She caressed his arms as he loved

her. He could feel it somehow, in her body, her purring, her smile--

she was enjoying this as much as he. This was the kind of pleasure her

body knew.

But it wouldn't last forever. As he held himself up and kept to a steady,

gentle rhythm, even his release earlier that night did little to delay

the climax that seemed very close suddenly. He moaned softly as his

climax rolled through his body.

His energy spent, Wolf rolled to one side. "Sorry. I couldn't keep going,"

he gasped.

She rolled with him, until she was lying on her side next to him. He was

still trying to catch his breath. He hadn't worked so hard in months.

Certainly not in the exercise program Sh'Vah has insisted he take on

the starship. She touched his nose gently and said, "You were great."

"Really?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. "Really. Now, for bed... Do you want to spend them in

your quarters or here?"

"They're both unfamiliar beds. This one has company." He let his hand

stroke down between her ears and was rewarded with that lovely purr of

hers again.

"Then you're welcome to stay," she said. She reached under a low table and

pulled out a blanket and a pillow. "I'll have to get another one for you.

Stay there." She rose, then seemed to sink into the floor. Wolf shook his

head and watched in amazement as she reappeared with a new pillow in hand.

"Where did you go?"

"There's a whole second floor to these rooms, but I don't think I need

that much space so I just use it as storage."

"Oh," Wolf said, deciding not to inquiry too closely about how she'd

gone down there and returned. He was sure he'd find out soon enough.

He snuggled next to her and found her fur distracting again. It took him

a while to get to sleep, and when he did he had strange dreams. But they

were good dreams too.

He awoke sometime in night. Easing himself out of bed, he made his way to

what he thought would be the bathroom and was gratified to discover that

not only was he correct but that the fixtures were recognizable. After

closing the door and making use of the facilities, he glanced around.

"Dave?"

"I'm here, Mr. Christiansen."

Wolf shivered at the immediacy of the AI's response. "What time is it?"

"A clear answer would be that you have been asleep for nearly eleven

hours. Another clear answer would be that it is an hour and a half until

dawn. The exact time is thirteen twenty."

Eleven hours! Wolf wondered if he'd been slipped something in his drink,

or if Ember had just worn him completely out with what had seemed quite

gentle lovemaking despite his being out of shape. He left the bathroom as

silently as he could manage, then Ember's room to return to his own. He

took out a notebook and opened it to the first blank page.

Pendorians live in a state of intimacy that one could find seductive--

or stifling. Nothing holds them back from making new friends in the

most intimate manners possible-- no fear of disease or pregnancy or

rejection by family. They all believe they are physically invulnerable,

so emotional vulnerability comes easier to them. Their first needs are

already met. Pendorians live in a Garden of Eden where the world gives

them everything they want. I can't help but wonder, though, if they have

yet to taste of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. How will they

react when Cain murders Abel? Will all this openness, this friendliness,

this intimacy, disappear in a haze of anger and new-found fear? I can't

help but suddenly wish them well.

I remember that if you ask a class of kindergarten kids how many of them

can draw, they all raise their hands. If you ask a class of six graders,

though, only one or two will. The rest of them have had it beaten into

their souls that what they used to call "drawing" isn't good enough for

adults. Only a few have the courage to keep trying. Pendorians are like

those kindergarteners when it comes to love and intimacy. They know how

to do it. I hope nobody ever tells them otherwise.

Wolf closed the notebook and wondered where such thoughts came from. He

slipped the spiral-bound sheets back into his pack and left the room,

watching with amusement as the room registered his leaving and shut the

lights off even as the door closed. He sneaked back into Ember's home

and, just as carefully, back into the bed they had shared. She didn't

stir at all, which he thought unusual for a cat. Despite the long night

of sleep, he floated comfortably in a drowsy aze until Ember awoke and

the day began.

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The Journal Entries of Kennet R'yal Shardik, et. al., and Related Tales

are Copyright (c) 1989-2000 Elf Mathieu Sternberg. Distribution limited

to electronic media not-for-profit use only. All other rights are reserved

to the author.