Keiko brushed up against all of her siblings (Akira included) with her tails, her way of
saying ‘good-bye and good luck.’ ‘You won’t catch me saying it Anna, but I understand
you need one of us to stay behind as the emergency back up... I just hope I can -do-
something useful before those absurdly numbered genies I keep hearing about descend
like a comet.’
As much as Jasmine would have loved to use her new seniority to call off this fool’s errand
and disperse this ship -of- fools, she had still made a promise to Tabra to follow through
on this mission. And indeed she wanted to see Tabra’s last idea fail in flames first hand.
And if this material form got accidently obliterated when his 10,000 dijinn descended to
cleanse the desert of Karther's infection, well, no big loss.
It still like for the new and old angels alike like wearing a straight with their wings hidden.
(Story tellers sometimes get things right.)
Kyriel said, “We can’t teleport directly to the city, Tamthis’ -will- sense it, no matter how
good our camouflage. We’re going to have to leg it.”
Erica stiffened slightly, the idea of marching in the desert heat with fur underneath full
body coverings wasn’t pleasant. ‘Don’t complain soldier.’ She told herself, ‘ If you don’t
have a better solution then, you’re just going to make it worse for everyone else.’
“Geeze!” Moaned Akira, “Maybe I should create an illusion caravan out of some leafs to
carry all my junk. Any of you mind being turned into muscular human, er, fox pack
mules?”
“No,” Kyriel injected, “The less attention we draw the better. You’re going to draw enough
attention as is. If we had time to put together a more stealthy plan I’d be all for it...then
again we had that sort of time...I wouldn’t be standing here.”
That shut most everybody up. Her reserves fully charged and greater than they had ever
been before, Kyriel teleported her siblings and Jasmine to the surface out of their
sanctuary.
Kyriel actually took a minute to observe the desert sands and the cruel hot sun and the
pale blue sky it sat in as if she was seeing them with her own eyes for the first time. Oh
right. She was.
“Lead the way oh husband.” Jasmine said her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Karthis City is that direction.” Alexandra pointed with all the precision of a
compass. 'We're coming back for you my prince.'
“Off we go then!” Akira more cheerfully than most would going straight into a deadly game
of hide and seek. He considered a great sacrifice on his own part that to play the part of
one of the people tricked by Tamthis, he had to appear to have only one tail.
++++++
Samir didn't know what to think the populations of some nearby population centers
vanished into thin air. Rumor spread like wildfire about... well... EVERYTHING! New
American-pig vaporization ray, Sneak attack by some clan out for blood, (the fact that
those who vanished were from conflicting clans slipped the minds of all), to some ultra
strange sand storm were all considered by someone to some degree.
In the mist of this curing soup of fear and confusion, the appearance of a fennec creature
giving warns of an army of 10,000 dijinn coming to systematically destroy them all just
happened to occur when this mix of paranoia and lack of information was right at it's
peak.
Samir, scared for himself and his sons, was eager to believe anyone who actually seemed
able to -back-up- their story. And the fennec, was no dijinn, explained that the king of
the desert foxes, was offering the humans on the outskirts of his kingdom protection... for
a price.
Of course many rejected the sheer idea as pure blaspheme. This number decreased when
it was sublimely hinted at, but not right out said, that the dijinn were responsible for the
vanishing of so many people, some of whom their great king had rescued from the dijinn.
The fennec then revealed himself to be from one of the clan that had gone missing and
proceeded to go on and on about how it was transparently clear that Tamthis was a gift
from the One God himself to protect his people from these evil spirits.
And Samir, like nearly all people now, eager for anyone who could give them a answer for
what was going on and a solution, accepted this message that was given to him at last.
The transmutation as promised had been quick and painless, and Samir swore he could
comprehend the world in a much clearer way now. Samir and his sons (along with his wife)
were eager and excited now to enter and visit upon King Tamthis' glorious city. Where they
would be protected without fail from the evil dijinn army!
Samir was glade when his family met with what was apparently a wealthy oil sheik. The
sheik had no less than seven wives! Neither the sheik or his wives spoke much about
themselves, apparently wishing to keep to themselves. One wife stood near the sheik
always glancing at the horizon. Four stood in along a marching order. One kept looking at
everything. The last one, walked calmly behind the others.
Samir seeing their swaying tails, and not being able to take his eyes off them shook his
head. Clearly, these new body parts would need to be declared required covering in the
immediate future. All the same, he was very very glade to have happened to be in the
company of a sheik. He felt safer like he was within the walls of Karthis already.
Jasmine was grinding her teeth every time someone mentioned the 'evil dijinn army.'
++++++
Julio sat down to play solitaire. With Jasim in the picture, there was no way Julio could
hope to get into Karther's city to try and root out any new divine truths to add to his
brain's library. Real pity. Worst pity was not being able to see T's final hours. Yes he knew
it was what was going to happen naturally. But T' for better or worse had been someone
Julio had known on and off over the centuries for better or worse, and ultimate had been
one of the things that had kept Julio sane in his seemingly endless question for achieve
ultimate truth while still a living man. He mourned the loss of his centuries long
acquaintance. 'Good-bye T'. Was fun while it lasted.'
"Red five on the black six."
Julio started and nearly called a rocket launcher into existence when he saw the kitsune
Keiko sitting calmly in front of him.
"What did, when did -you- get in here?!"
"My sisters told me about this spot before Jasim came back with Janice.... my sister really
is gone isn't she?"
"Yes. She no longer exists. Kyriel is her own person. No two ways about it. I'm sorry little
fox."
"I guess I'll have to get to know my -new- sister then... wanna play cards?"
"With a kitesune?"
"Keep that paranoia as Anna would say, it'll serve you well among many trickster animal
spirits. But seriously, I want a harmless way to both of us to pass the time."
Julio consented and soon enough after a short explanation of the rules the two of them
were playing the japanese cousin to Go-Fish. Keiko was using her tails to somehow hold
her cards.
"So what'll you do if they fail?" Keiko asked calmly.
"I'll do what I've always done. Move on. It's something you learn when you've been alive
long enough."
"I'll take your word for it."
"You won't need to when you see your friends and family die of old age, and their children
then die of old age, until you are but a legend to your own family."
"You would know?" Keiko asked not looking up from her cards as they played.
"Yes. So what about you?"
"Oh. Going to be a heroic idiot and try to save my sisters in a last ditch effort before the
trumpet calls and the genies lay down the law. And do my absolute best to trick, bribe, or
force you to come along because I know I'll need all the help I can get."
"Isn't tell me before hand kinda self defeating then?"
"How do you know that isn't what I want you to think?"
Julio realized he had no retort to that. Ugh. She may been a kitesune for only a day or two,
but she already had the 'play with someone's head like a fiddle' down pat. "You really think
you'll be able to?"
"I doubt it'll really end with the genies obliterating Karther's kingdom. The fall out from
that kind of conflict is bound to leave a lot more chaos, and possibly destroy or loss a lot
of precious knowledge."
Julio shuddered, leave it to a kitesune. "So do you think your adopted siblings will be able
to save us all?"
"I pray so."
"You pray so?"
"This is the land of the faiths, if praying can have any effect, it's here. So I pray for no
deaths, and Tammie being knocked back to her senses."