TygrisHawk shoved the door of
the fortress open with her front paw, “I'm baaaack!" she yelled, her voice
echoing in the empty foyer.
Realizing that no one was home, she turned back thinking, "Serves
me right, should've sent some notice!".
The tigress headed over to The Peach Pit, and was rewarded to find
Peachyra wiping glasses behind the bar, and Spark and Chanur keeping her
company.
As she made her way across the crowded pub she reflected again, how odd
it was that Peachy seemed to enjoy doing the most mundane chores, as a goddess
and their leader, she could probably snap her fingers and everything would be
done instantly, but it was almost like running the bar gave her a sense of order.
Sparky was the first to notice her arrival, "TYGRIS!!!" she
squealed "How are you?, ooh! I've missed you so much! are you back for
good this time?"
The woman threw her arms around the large furry neck, in turn Tygris
wrapped a heavy paw around her friend. "No, Axelle said she had an
assignment, and ordered me to come back here for two weeks"
"Oh!, did she say what?.....or whom?"
"No, and there are certain things even I won't ask her"
Spark nodded sagely "Good point!"
"S'ok", Tygris shrugged "I could probably use the
rest"
As they reached the bar Chanur nodded his greeting , the tigress nodded
in aknowledgment.
"Hi ,Peachy!"
"Hey, Girl!" The avatar placed a bowl of liquid in front of
Tygris, who sniffed at it suspiciously, "MILK?".
"Milk!" said Peachy firmly "you're not full-grown yet,
and if you're as tired as I think you are, then alcohol won't do you any good
anyway!"
"Yes, Peachy" resignedly she lapped up her drink.
Sparky perched on her stool, obviously impatient for her to finish,
bursting with some kind of news.
"So, what's up? Anything new since I've been gone?"
"We, have a new FF!" exclaimed the aztec
Tygris' ears perked forward interestedly "Oh really?, who?"
Peachy smiled as the woman pointed across the smoky room,
"Her!"
Tygris looked in the direction her friend was pointing, her jaw
dropped.
With Sparky being so excited, she expected another feline like herself,
or at least one of the warrior maidens. Instead, what she was looking at, at
least in the distance; appeared to be a very young child, with forest green
skin and a wild mop of multicoloured hair, green, orange, yellow, red, almost
autumn colored .
She was about three feet tall, and was wearing what was obviously one
of Sparks old tunics, cut down to fit
her diminutive figure, a pair of green sandals that laced up to her little
green knees, and a choker with tiny gold acorns hanging from the chain adorned
her throat.
Slung over her shoulder was a bow and quiver-full of arrows, and a
sling-shot and leather pouch hung from her belt. Apparently oblivious to all
the attention being paid her, the girl was industriously cleaning tables and
bringing glasses to the end of the bar to be washed.
Tygris turned back to her grinning friends, too stunned at first to say
a word.
Sparky spoke first, "Her name is Salix", then added proudly
"I named her!"
For the moment, ignoring this bit of information, the tigress turned on
Peachy and sputtered out; "You can't be serious, can you?!?, I mean, isn't
she a little young to be here?, she can't be more than five years old!, and she
looks like one of those characters from one of those ancient movies,
Dinser....Dincey..."
"Disney?" supplied Chanur dryly
"Right"
Peachy chuckled, "Actually, she's much, much older than she
looks"
Tygris stared at the avatar as if she had lost her mind.
"She's 203, and a dryad, which accounts for her size"
"Or, lack of it", muttered Chanur.
"Dryad?"
"Dryad, tree nymph"
"I know what a dryad is
Peach, I just thought the stories about them were just that.....stories…
myths"
"That's what they'd have you believe" said Peachy "They
really don't usually seek much contact with other species, except for breeding
purposes"
Tygis was confused, "But if her kind is so hell-bent on being
anonymous, why the weapons? and how did she get here?" shooting a look at Spark, "And what do you mean "
you named her"?"
"Well, dryads tend to get a little irritated when you try to cut
their trees down", Peachy glanced down to the end of the bar "and as
to the rest, Spark will have to fill you in...", with that she hurried off
to serve a customer.
"Ok" began the woman, "here's how it happened, Things
were pretty peaceful here , we were getting ready for winter, Chanur was
hunting nearly every day, stocking up, when Peachy started getting bad feelings
about the Unicorn Forest..."Intuitions" she called them... so she and
I set out to find out what was wrong, When we got there....all the vegetation
was withered and brown...not like it was ready for snow but like it was
dead....and all the unicorns were very sick, their keepers were frantic"
Tygris, horrified whispered, "Did they....."
"Die?" finished Peachy, who had returned unnoticed, "No,
we had them moved to the fortress, after they recovered, the keepers moved them
to a new location....no one knows where, I think they're afraid that if they
tell anyone, it would happen again, you
see they knew...before we did, that this wasn't a natural illness"
"So, what was it?"
The avatar's face hardened, "The Mutants decided to dump their
garbage and waste chemicals into the water that was the main water source for
the forest"
Sparky continued, "Desperately, we searched for any more signs of
life, we found three dryads near their trees, close to death, we had them
brought back to the fort, and their trees transplanted, but it was too late for
two of them, Salix was the only survivor"
Peach interjected, "Spark nursed her back to health, and I took
care of the tree, and when they both got better, she decided to stay, because
she had no one left, and she said she owed us a "life debt", I
thought
"Well, hell I could always use another waitress", Sparky
named her, because at first she didn't speak our language, it made her original
name the very devil to pronounce, she's been here ever since"
“"Salix" is the Latin word for "willow", which is
her tree" added Spark.
The door to the pub swung open and a tall figure stepped in.
"ZHY!!", she
squealed, and ran throwing her arms around the violet-haired angel.
Zhyan laughed and wrapped his wings around them both, the sounds of
giggling ensued from within.
"Hey, guys! get a room!" Chanur piped up.
Spark poked her head out and sent a raspberry to the big cat, then
kissed her angel full on the lips and led him back to the bar.
"Hello, Tygris, nice to see you again"
"You too, Zhy" she smiled
"The usual?" asked Peachy.
"Sure, Beautiful"
Peach raised one eyebrow ever so delicately, and poured a satyre wine
for him. Zhyan grinned and turned to the others, "What are we talking
about? am I interrupting something?"
"No, we were just telling Tygris about Salix"
"Aaah!.. Salix, how IS
our resident dryad doing?"
"She's doing well today..."Spark said, "Hasn't lost her
temper once"
"Temper?" the tigress exuded disbelief, "What temper?,
not to knock her, but she looks like a pixie could kick her ass!"
"That's ok", Sparky grinned "ThunderWolf made the same
mistake"
"TW?" Tygis' ears perked forward.
"Yes, he came in last week for a drink, took one look at her,
asked Peachy who the squirt was, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere 200 pounds
of rose petals fell on him, burying him"
"He wasn't impressed" added Peachy.
"But he smelled springtime fresh for the next three days"
said Chanur with a smirk.
"A vast improvement if you ask me!" sniffed Spark.
"But, Spark" scolded the avatar" I thought you liked him!"
"I do", retorted the woman "but when he comes in from a
hunt, he smells like a slaughter-house, and besides, he has this fondness for
fish and onions" she wrinkled her nose "the aroma clings to his
fur"
Then her brown eyes lit up with mischief "Of course, there was
also "The Acorn Incident""
Chanur rolled his eyes.
"Oooh! This I gotta hear!" Tygris leaned in eagerly.
"Well, sh-"
"That green midget left one of her exploding acorns on my
chair!" the felinoid snapped "satisfied?"
Amidst a flood of giggles Spark managed; "He sat right on it! it
really gave new meaning to the phrase "tearing someone a ne-""
"I think they get the picture!" he bit out acidly.
This was too much for Sparky, who collapsed on the floor in helpless
laughter, even Peachy couldn't hide her grin.
"We had to call Zhie in to fix it"
"obviously she did...you're still sitting here" smirked
Tygris
"Yes, she fixed it "said Chanur in an injured tone" as
soon as she could stop laughing"
"Y'know Chan, it was an
accident" said Peach "and you two should really make peace
sometime"
"I'll make peace with the side-salad when my fur grows back
in!" he retorted rubbing the bald spot.
Sparky, who had nearly recovered, started laughing again, tears rolling
down her face.
Chanur muttered something about "preferring Salix in ranch
dressing"
Peachy glanced over and noticed the dryad at the end of the bar
"Be right back!", and hurried off
to see what she wanted.
After a moment of companionable silence, the three friends lapsed into
other conversations, Chanur, Zhyan and Sparky filled the tigress in on the rest
of the news, Peachy contributed whenever she wasn't busy. Tygris told of her
adventures outside the fort, many inside jokes were shared and old memories
recounted. A few hours later, when the pub had emptied for the night, Spark got
up to help the dryad clean the tables and sweep the floor.
Once everything was done she brought Salix over, "Salix, I would like
you to meet TygrisHawk, and Tygris, as you already know, this is Salix"
"Welcome to the Ferocious Females, Salix"
The dryad blushed a little,"Thank you Lady TygrisHawk"
"Oh,please!" she waved a paw, "just plain
"Tygris" is fine....that's what my friends call me"
"Are we friends?"
"That's up to you, I'd like us to be"
"Thank you Tygris. I'd like that too!" and smiled.
"That takes care of that" said Peachy briskly, "All done
for the night, girl?"
"Yes my Lady"
For a fleeting instant, a look of awful patience crossed the avatar's
face, then she smiled. "Well, you have an early day tomorrow, best get
back home and get some sleep"
"Yes my Lady"
Peachy gritted her teeth.
"Well, goodnight then"
"Goodnight, 'night Sparky, Zhy , Tygris...." and with a wary
look "Chanur"
Peachy poked him warningly "Goodnight Salix" he growled
through clenched teeth.
They all watched her leave and Zhy said "you seem to be
particularly.....sensitive to that form of address...My Lady"
A grunt was her only answer.
"She has this little problem" said Spark "Salix seems to
think Peachy is her personal Goddess"
"As if I would take responsibility for the dryads!", said the
avatar in a frustrated voice," and besides, everyone's had delusions of
grandeur at some point or another, but this is going entirely too far!"
"But Peachy!" ,gasped the woman, mocking her friend's earlier
tone, "I thought you liked
Salix!"
"I'm very fond of her," she said loftily," but if she
"My Lady's" me one more time, I'll have her strapped to a cactus and
flogged!"
"So modest!" murmured Zhyan.
"Modest" snorted Chanur, "Hell, sh-" The felinoid's
voice trailed off when he caught Peachy's look.
Male and female stared at each other some minutes, her eyes flinty, his
slightly panicked, till he finally broke, "What?!?"
"Did you have something to say?"
Chanur shut his mouth guiltily.
When she received no answer, she continued, "because if you do,
we're all waiting eagerly to hear it"
"Uuuummmm...no...not really Peach"
"I was just making sure....you're certain now....nothing to
say?"
After a moment of silence she turned back to the bar, the victor.
"You're a hard woman, you know that?"
"Yes, Dear and that's just the way you like it, isn't it?"
She faced him with a smirk and patted his paw.
Chanur bared his teeth in a feral grin, Peachy leaned in with a sultry
look, and growled low in her throat.
Zhyan discreetly coughed, "Now,
who needs a room?"
The avatar winked at the angel, and clapped her hands briskly,
"Ok, everyone, get out! I need to close up, goodnight, and you.. "
looking at Chanur, "We'll continue our discussion later!"
He broke into a laugh, "That's a promise!"
When they got back to the fort, they all bade each other goodnight,
Sparky hugging Tygris extra hard.
Then she turned to Zhyan and whispered, "I'll be there in a
minute"
The woman made her way to Salix' room and opened the door a crack to
peer in. The cot was still perfectly made. Opening the door a little wider, she
craned her neck and chuckled fondly when she found what she sought, not used to
a regular bed just yet, the dryad had curled up in a potted fern and lay there
still, snoring softly.
"Goodnight, little one", She whispered, shut the door and
went to find her angel.
THE END