6: Freedom!! ...Or Not...

I followed Aiden, hooded and docile for a while, planning my escape. “Miss Lotus, you are awfully quiet,” he observed.

            I stayed quiet. “Miss Lotus, you are not yourself this morning,” he remarked. I still remained quiet.

            “Miss Lotus-“I cut him off with a roundhouse to what I’d hoped was his stomach. He fell to the floor with a whimper. Huh, may not have been his  stomach… I slid the hood off and looked around. I was standing in a long, white corridor that I didn’t recognize at all. I wandered around a bit, ears on alert for any sound. The building had the feel of a large, rather empty hospital. Good thing, Aiden might need one.

            I heard frantic pawsteps behind me and took off “not again!” I thought to myself, running as fast as my paws could carry me. I skidded around a corner, almost losing my balance, very nearly slamming into another door. Only this one had a window.

            Looking into the small, hospital-esque window, I saw row upon row of unconscious furgirls.

            “Oh crap,” I thought to myself as I pushed the door open. I walked among the rows of girls, there had to be at least several dozen girls. I looked at the charts on the bed, hospital bed, and they were listed by name, ability, species, origin and destination. A majority of the girls under ability had the listing of “???”. The oddest, but most powerful creature I saw there was a zebra thing with wings. I read her chart several times, confused. “Heaven?” I asked allowed.

I kept walking around the room, looking at the girls, worried, confused, angry and scared. The girls lying in hospital beds were attached to machines, some monitoring there vital signs, others, making flashes and beeps that made no sense to me.

“What is all this?” I asked the air. “Why are all these girls here? Are they ill?”

“No, they are merely being trained and observed,” answered a deep voice behind me.

I nearly had a heart attack as someone walked up behind me and grabbed my arms. “Aw crap!”

5: Learning

“Reach the lever, Miss Noetis,” that same damned cyfur instructed.

“Yeah, what do you think I’m trying to do?” I jumped again, and didn’t reach it. It was about three feet above me, and I was tall for my age. “Why can’t I just fly up there to get it?”

“You’ve come to depend on your wings, Miss Noetis. They might not work so great one day, or you might realize you don’t have them at all; accidents happen. You need to learn to rely on your inner talents. Be resourceful; if The Powers That Be weren’t sure you could do this, the simplest of the tests, they wouldn’t have allowed you to come,”

“Allowed me! More like kidnapped me!” Jump, miss.

“Each subject is here according to their own free will.” Jump, miss. “I’ve told you before, your physical body is not here—why do you think physical things will work? You know you’ve got the ability; you discovered that ten minutes ago.”

Jump, miss, think. Okay, she was right—something weird had happened ten minutes ago. Still lamenting my lack of clothing, the voice had suggested I bring myself a pair, if it bothered me so. After a few moments, my favorite T-shirt and jeans were on my “body”. What does she mean, ‘my physical body is not here’? Jump, miss.

“I can see we are going to be here awhile,” the voice noted. “You refuse to listen. Stop jumping. It’s obviously doing no good.”

“Well, what else am I supposed to do, climb?”

“Use your ability.”

“What does that even mean!” I sighed, and tried to do the same thing I’d done with the clothes.

“That’s right, Miss Noetis. With the Power of Self, you can attain anything you desire with great ease.”

“I don’t desire the lever!”

“You desire to leave.”

Grumbling, I shut up, and tried to focus on the red, plastic ball that was the handle of the lever.

“Would you like help?”

“I’d like you to shut up!” I focused more. Nothing. “…On second thought, it never hurts to have help, right?”

“Have you ever been to a rodeo, Miss Noetis?”

“A rodeo? What does that have to do with—“

“It’s a simple question.”

“…Once, when I was a foal…”

“How did they catch the calves to tie them up?”

“They lassoed them, and pulled them do—Oh! I get it now!” I fell silent, focusing again.  I tried to focus on conjuring up a rope.

Rope. Rope. For once, the cyfur was being silent for once, which was helpful. Rope. Rope. Yes! The lever pulled down towards me, opening the door. It had been pulled down by a very material rope stung over it. The rope was taut, but I hadn’t pulled on it. Curious, I followed the trail downwards, to where it ended—

--jutting out of my chest.

With a shriek of alarm, I pulled back. “Nya! What’s this?”

“Calm down,” the automated voice commanded. “That rope is no more real than you are.”

“Well, it feels pretty dang real!” And it did. It was almost as if there were nerve endings in it, and it was just an extension—an arm really—sticking out of my front. I bet I could control it if I wanted to, I thought, though I was repulsed by such a thought.

“Yes, you can control it, and no, it doesn’t have nerve endings; nerve endings have only been imagined by your mind in order to cope.”

“How did you—“

“All your thoughts can be heard here, they are the same as when you think you are speaking aloud. Speaking is only your brain’s imagination, trying to cope.”

4: Another Side Of Aiden

“Ow!” I kicked the door again, I  was pretty sure I bruised a few bones in my foot. “Let me out of here!” I hollered, kicking the door again. “This isnt working!” I muttered to myself. I limped over to my cot and lied down. “What am I going to do?”

            Aiden locked me in here last night with a sternly growled warning to not cause a disturbance to his amster, actually, what he said was, “It would be in our best interests to not disturb our master, Miss  Lotus,” after he muzzled me and removed my blindfold. 

            “Why did you just muzzle me?” I attempted to whine. It was more like “wh d d oo us muzzle me?” he must’ve done this a few times before, because he answered me

            “Miss Lotus, I put that on so you’d be quiet. You are defeating the purpose by asking me why I put it on you. I need you toe stay quiet so as not to disturb the master,” he replied with the patience of a saint.

            “Why?” I asked, inquisitive as always, pulling off the muzzle.

            “He has a temper,” Aiden sighed, glancing at his shoulder.  I then noticed a web of scars barely noticeable under his thick fur.

            “Oh my goodness! What did he do to you?” I asked, alarmed.

            “I angered him, so he punished me,” he replied quietly, looking at his feet.

            “That’s terrible! He shouldn’t be allowed to hurt you! Someone needs to do something about this!” I exclaimed

            He looked at me alarmed, “No Miss Lotus! You mustn’t talk like that! That’s why he was angry!”

            “Because you disagreed with his personal relations techniques? I sure as heck disagree, Aiden!”

            He grabbed my by the shoulders hard, probably bruising me, and stared into my eyes, “Stop it!” then he pushed me onto my cot and stormed out of the room.

            Then I got up to kick the door.

            After I woke from my reverie, I limped around my room a little, half-heartedly hitting things. And then the door slid open again.

            Aiden stepped into my room, his prescence commanding and intimidating . He looked at me, coldly, expressionlessly, and he stepped toward me. The look in his eyes terrified me as he reached out toward me, a hood in his massive paw.

            “The master wishes to see you,” he growled. Then the world went black.

3: Fear

Bzzrt! Bzzrt!

Groggy eyes. Heavy, as if they were weighted down. Or as if my eyes had gone on strike and were refusing to open. I flailed my hoof in front of my face blindly, searching for the cause of the sound: a small alarm clock next to my bed.

Bzzrt! Bzzrt!

As my brain was working just as well as my eyes were, I remained blissfully ignorant of the simple fact that I did not own an alarm clock until I had—by some strange luck—managed to hit the correct button to stop the noise.

Strike over, my eyes bulged open to a strange scenery as I bulged upward revealing—

“What the—Where are my clothes?!” I shouted. “Where the yiff am I?!”

Using the blanket to cover my chest and protect the shred of dignity—and modesty—still intact, I looked around. The room wasn’t all that dissimilar to my own, back at the stable, but it didn’t have that “lived-in” essence of a real room, and my heart fluttered in fear. I had been taken to a strange house—was it a house? I couldn’t be sure—and placed in a strange bed. And me without my clothes!

“Hello?” I called out, and a small, slightly robotic female voice responded almost immediately.

“Hello, miss Noetis, and welcome to the Foundation for the Study of Gifted Females, or FSGF. You have been taken, as per your request, on the morning of your sixteenth birthday to have your unique abilities studied to further furkind’s understanding of the recent uprise in—“

“As per my request?!” I screeched. “I have no idea what this place even is! What do you mean, unique abilities?! My wings aren’t that unique!”

“Please refrain from asking questions until the end of the orientation,” the disembodied voice responded simply. “As I was saying, you are going to be studied so that all may better understand why recently furs born are being given special talents by the Powers That Be. I cannot tell you what your abilities are—I am not programmed with such information—but I can tell you it has nothing to do with your wings. I would like to begin by asking you a few questions.”

“If I answer, will I get out of here faster?”

“Most assuredly.”

I sighed, sitting up a bit. I had nothing to be ashamed of from a robot. “Fine,” I agreed after a moment of consideration. My will for freedom—and my curiosity to find out why I was here—was far stronger than my secretive nature.

“I appreciate your cooperation, Miss Noetis. Species?”

“Zebra Pegasus.”

“Very good. Age?”

“You know my age.”

“Age?”

Once again, I sigh was forced out of my throat. “Sixteen, today.” Happy sweet sixteen, I thought to myself, stuck in a room, naked, with a robot asking redundant questions!

“Thank you. Mateship status?”

“If I’m sixteen and have a mate, there’s a serious problem,” I snapped tritely, but then added, “Single,” lest the question be asked again. It irked me to have things repeated.

“I see. Place of origin?”

I tensed. “How ‘bout I not…answer that…?” I mumbled, shifting uncomfortably in the bed.

“Error. Subject shows reluctance to reply. “HowboutInotanswerthat is not a valid location.” So much for Artificial Intelligence—it was obvious this thing wasn’t as smart as it first seemed to be.

“I’m not going to answer that question, cyfur,” I retorted, adding an insult to the end, though I wasn’t sure if insults were even effective on robots. This one did not seem phased however.

“Warning. Invalid Place of Origin data leads to the subject being detained, indefinitely.”

“What! How about I tear you to bits of circuitry, you hunk of lifeless scrap?!”

“Impossible. Your hooves are not tangible, merely a representation built in a collaborative effort of your mind and my creators to make this setting more familiar. Your actual body is elsewhere.”

Oh, because being naked in a strange room, arguing with a robot about whether or not I could break it is totally familiar!

“Elsewhere in…your Place of Origin,” the voice amended. “Now, Place of Origin?”

“…Nevada.”

“Error.  Nevada is not a valid place of origin.”

“What! I was born there!”

There was a silence for a moment, and the robotic sounds announced, “Rewording: Where did your soul originate?”

“My s—uhhhh, Heaven?”

“Place of Origin confirmed. Subject ‘Erren Noetis’ will be returned to place ‘Heaven’ once final tests are complete.”

And suddenly, I knew what real fear was.

2: The Confrontation

I woke painfully in a small white room, completely bare except for the small, hard cot I was sitting on. There was a heavy steel door with no handle on my side, but with a small slidey-thing that let me talk to someone one the other side. As I was surveying the room, the door slid slowly open and this huge wolf walked in. he was a younger looking guy, mid-twenties maybe, tall, dark-furred, yellow-eyed, and very very muscular. He struck quite the intimidating figure.

            “Alice Lotus,” He growled, “Do you know why you’ve been brought here?” He was obviously not the same beast that clapped the chloroform rag on my muzzle, judging by the timbre of his voice.

            “If I knew, I wouldn’t be sitting here waiting on you to tell me, Wolf-boy,” I replied snarkily.

            “Miss Lotus, you have been brought here at my master’s request, I am to bring you to him presently,” he replied, ignoring my sarcasm, grabbing both of my wrists securely in one of his massive paws.

            “My, what big hands you have, Granny!” I said to the wolf. He merely grunted at me, pushing a blindfold over my eyes. “Hey! I can’t see!”

            “That, Miss Lotus, is the point,” he said, sighing, as if weary of my teenage idiocy. He pulled me out the door by my trapped paws. After what felt like hours later, Wolfie removed my blindfold, and I was assaulted by the harsh brightness of the fluorescent lights that bleached the already painfully white walls.

            “So,” said a deep, gravelly voice, “You are the infamous cat, Alice Lotus,” The speaker was a dark brown grizzly with a silvering snout.

            “I am she,” I replied warily, “Why have you and your goons brought me here? I have, to my knowledge, done nothing wrong. Yet,” I said.

            “Is that a threat Miss Alice?” he asked, the threat in his words just as blatant as in mine.

            “That depends on how long I am held here, sir,” I replied calmly, unfazed by his controlling demeanor.

            “Why, Alice, may I call you Alice? You are my guest, you are not being held here. I’m sorry for the confusion, did my friends treat you harshly, my dear?” he asked with mock sincerity.

            “Chasing me around my city, attacking me, chloroform, blindfolding me…” I looked at Wolf-breath, “Does that cover everything?” he shrugged noncommittally.

            “Oh my!” exclaimed the grizzly, “I explicitly told them to be kind to my lovely guest!” I rolled my eyes, lovely guest my fluffy gray tail, I was a prisoner and we both knew it. He must have seen my skepticism, because he then clasps his huge paws together and said, “Now down to business,”

            “Business?” I asked.

            “Yes! I’ve brought you here to my humble home because you are going to keep me in power and you are going to make my family the most powerful Clan in the Underground,”

            “Uhh, what?” I asked. Really witty comeback, no?

            “I said, you are going to-“

            “I heard what you said, I meant, what do you mean, Bear?” I clarified using his Furname.

            “Alice, you are going to use your unique abilities to defeat my enemies, and then you will pass on your unique abilities to my son’s children, making mine the most powerful Clan,” he said. At this statement I did a wonderful fish impression.

            “Are you kidding me?” I exclaimed, “Don’t I get a choice in any of this? I am, sixteen! I am way too young to be “passing” anything along to anyone’s children!

            “I do not believe that you will bear his children until after your wedding-“

            “Wedding?!” I exclaimed

            “Yes, after you and I use your abilities to squelch those who would take my place of power from me,” he said, as if this were an everyday conversation.

             “I don’t even know what you are talking about!” I yelled, “How do you expect me to do any of this when I don’t even know what ‘abilities’ you are talking about! And I am not marrying your son!”

            “You won’t?” he asked, warningly.

            “ I won’t,” I replied.

            “We shall see,” he growled, “Aiden! Take our guest back to her room,” the burly wolf, whose name I now knew was Aiden, grabbed my wrists again, and then blindfolded me.

1: Escape... Or Not

            I ran through the alleyways, frantic for escape. I could hear the footsteps of pursuers resounding off the walls. “I’ve got find that door!” I thought to myself. I came up to a seemingly plain brick wall at the back of some nondescript sandwich shop.

            “Identification please?” Requested an annoying cheerful, computer-generated female voice.

            “Alice Lotus,” I replied, breathlessly. I could hear them closer now.

            “Identification not recognized. Please try again,” said the voice.

            “Alice Lotus,” I replied firmly, attempting to squelch the edge of panic creeping into my voice. They were even closer now; I could even hear one of them panting hard!

            “Identification not recognized. Please try again,” the voice repeated.

            “Alice Lotus! Alice Lotus! Oh, God, just let me in!” I cried desperately, my pursuers were entirely too close. They would be here any moment.

            “Identification not recognized. Please try again.” The voice said again.

            “Alice Lo-“my answer was cut off by a thick, sweaty paw covering my mouth.

            “Keep still and you might live, Kitten,” snarled a nasally voice in my ear.

            The last thing I heard before a chloroformed rag was pressed over my face: “Identification not recognized. Please try again.”

S'more info

Okay, so since Alice didn't really give a lot of information, I'll post some now.

Hi. I'm Kila, Coauthor of the (as of yet unnamed) bit of literature Alice and I are working on. So far, it is about anthropomorphic animals in what I am taking to be a post-modern setting. Yes, we are furries, ad yes, it is going to involve exclusively anthros, because writing about such characters is, to me, the ultimate use of symbolism in literature. A bit of information can be found about us at these links:

http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Equivamp for information on myself, and

http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Alice_Lotus dor information on Alice.

We look forward to providing you with a (hopefully) wholesome, interesting reading experience!

--Kila