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     FLYING COMPANION
     
     (c) 1991 Watts Martin
     
     
     DA PREFACE
     ----------
          "Flying Companion" is a story I've known--or at least, I've known 
     pieces of it--for a while; some of it was in my mind before I had 
     finished "A Gift of Fire, A Gift of Blood," to which this short could 
     be termed a "back story" to.  There are back stories, at least in 
     principle, for the three main characters in that tale.  This one is 
     the only one in real story form, probably because I knew it'd be the 
     easiest to write.  Since there isn't anywhere to "put" this story for 
     publication (I wrote it mostly for my own benefit, anyway), its 
     appearance on the furry ftp site will likely be its only one.
          Both this story and "The Lighthouse" (currently running in YARF!) 
     deal, in different ways, with vampire bat psychology.  Until a bat 
     decided you were worth talking to, she would have a small voice in the 
     back of her head chastizing her for, in effect, trying to be cordial 
     to a Big Mac.  This should not be held against them; it is 
     quite literally in their nature (they were created with magic they 
     themselves are not aware of, which also is responsible for both an 
     inability to thrive without actually hunting live food and an 
     extremely strong innate attraction toward sapient prey).  I only bring 
     this up as a partial explanation, if not excuse, for some scenes in 
     this piece which more sensitive readers might find disturbing.
     
     
          /When in flight, the wind is your only companion./
          Revar had always wondered just what that was supposed to mean, 
     one of her father's many cryptic wisdoms.  But until recently, she had 
     always flown by herself; now, if she wanted to talk to Jemara she 
     would have to wait until they landed.  The wind was your only companion 
     because you couldn't hear a damn thing except its roar.
          She glanced back at her friend, a few hundred feet behind and 
     struggling to keep up.  Flight was one of the few skills Jemara was 
     less proficient at than Revar.  The other bat noticed the look, and 
     gestured at the ground with a claw.
          Far below, a human was stalking a zoomorph--probably a Melifen, 
     but at this distance it was hard to be positive.  Jemara was already 
     dipping down for a closer look; Revar wheeled and followed.
          It was indeed a Melifen, blissfully unaware she was being pursued 
     from behind and watched from above.  Jemara flew close enough that 
     Revar could see her grin, long teeth dazzingly white against her tar- 
     black fur, and headed down.  Revar sighed.  "We're going to play 
     vigilantes again, aren't we?" she said to the wind.
          Jemara's motivations for the sport were less than noble; if it 
     had been a Melifen stalking a human, she might have just gone on, or 
     perhaps even gone after the victim, although with less fatal intent.  
     It wasn't that she didn't like humans--Revar had considerably less 
     tolerance for the cratures than Jemara did.  She just found them 
     immensely fun to play with.
          Both the human and his intended victim saw them before they 
     landed; the Melifen screamed and started running.  The human backed 
     away, trying not to look frightened, as Jemara came to rest a scant      
     
     
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     eight feet from him.  He pulled out a dagger.  "Stay away from me."
          Revar landed a second later, just behind Jemara, and he raised 
     the weapon threateningly.
          "What--what--"  The Melifen was gasping, still backing away.
          Revar turned toward her.  "We may be saving your life."
          Jemara surveyed him, taking in his ripped jeans and leather 
     jacket, unshaven face and scraggly hair, then turned to Revar.  "He 
     has a knife," she said mildly.
          "I'm not afraid to use it."
          Jemara shook her head, letting dyed red hair cascade across her 
     shoulders, and started walking casually forward, looking as peaceful 
     as a vampire bat possibly could.
          "Stay back," he repeated, looking nervous now.  Jemara didn't 
     break stride.  Revar smiled; her friend shouldn't have /all/ the fun.  
     She started walking toward him, too.
          When Jemara was within a foot of him, he thrust out with the 
     dagger.  It would have been impossible for his comparatively poor 
     visual system to follow the bat's movements then; one instant he was 
     aiming at her side with his full strength, and the next he was 
     suspended in the air above her, one clawed hand gripping his shoulder, 
     the other his thigh.
          "Now," Jemara continued, her tone still mild.  "What were you 
     planning to do to that pretty little cat?"
          "Put me down!" he yelled.
          "That's not an answer."
          "It's none of your fuckin' business!"  The human was obviously 
     furious; Revar couldn't help giggling at the absurdity of railing at 
     someone who literally held your life in her hands.  The giggling made 
     him angrier, of course.
          "It is now," Jemara said.  "You have a thing for cats?  Looks 
     like you were quite turned on by her."
          "Yeah?  How would you know?"
          "I have my hand next to your crotch, bright boy."
          "Samuel?" the Melifen said, her voice small.
          "Bitch!" he said, spitting in her direction.
          "I told you I didn't want to see you again!" the cat cried.
          Jemara looked over at her with an angelic smile.  "Well, maybe we 
     can do something about that."
          "I don't want to make trouble with you," the human said.
          Jemara laughed softly. "I'm sure you're not going to."  She turned to 
     Revar.  "Do you want any?"
          "I'm not all that hungry."
          The human looked between both of them, as if the full implication 
     of his predicament was just now sinking in, and started struggling 
     violently.  His captor merely tightened her grip.
          "Well, I'm famished."  Jemara tilted her head back to stare at 
     her victim, and grinned.  "And maybe it's me, but stupid people just 
     taste better."
          "Oh..."  Neither bat needed to look to know the Melifen was 
     running away in terror.
          Revar laughed in spite of herself and moved to stand next to 
     Jemara, staring up at "Samuel."  Even by his own species' standards, 
     this one was not going to win any beauty prizes.  "Well... maybe a 
     little."
          "Put me down," the human said again, his voice becoming a bit 
     desperate.  "I have friends.  You don't mess around with one of us.       
     
     
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     When word gets out you're dead!"
          "Oh," Jemara said, her expression becoming mock-thoughtful.  "So 
     when we let you go, you're going to go tell someone we scared you, and 
     they're going to come and hurt us."  She gently lowered him to the 
     ground.  "I suppose that settles it, then."
          He started to back away, but she caught his wrist, forcing him 
     to a kneeling position.  As he started to kick, Revar was on him, 
     pinning his legs to the ground.
          The human's eyes widened, the last vestiges of bravado fleeing 
     his demeanor.  "But you said--"
          "I said you've convinced me," Jemara said.  "We can't let you 
     go."  She sat beside him and caressed his cheek with one claw.  "As 
     long as we have this moment to share, I thought we could get a little 
     creative.  What really scares you, dear?"
          He opened his mouth as if to answer; after a moment, a pitiful 
     squeaking noise came out.  He began to struggle frantically.
          Jemara turned to Revar and giggled.  "I swear he almost just told 
     me.  You have to wonder how he made it this far without divine 
     protection."
          "Please," he said.  "I'll do anything--"
          "Anything?" Revar said, smiling a little.
          "Yes!"  His eyes were wild.
          "I'll tell you what," Jemara said.  "If you can come up with 
     something you can do for us--anything we can't do ourselves that we 
     might want done--then I'll let you go."  She turned to Revar.  "Is 
     that fair?"
          Revar nodded, knowing that it almost certainly wasn't going to 
     be.
          "Fine."  She turned back to the human, placing one hand on his 
     left shoulder and the other on his leg.  "Start thinking, dear.  Just 
     don't take too much time."  Then her entire pose--changed.  There was 
     no movement, no sound; something simply /changed,/ and the blackly 
     humorous air about her was gone.  The little zoomorph threatening a 
     much larger human had become a powerful, impassive carnivore closing 
     in on her defenseless prey.  When she bared her fangs and opened her 
     mouth wide, he screamed.
          Revar felt it, too.  The prey's blood scent had increased with 
     his fear; the more terrified he became, the more desirable he was.  
     She bared her own fangs, unconsciously running her tongue over her 
     teeth.  When he saw her open mouth, he cried out again, and the 
     delicious smell grew stronger.  Revar fought the urge to simply leap 
     forward and bury her teeth in his neck.  This was Jemara's game, and 
     even if she didn't approve of the glee the other bat took in playing 
     with her food, she would let her have her way.
          The human's eyes darted back and forth between them, and tried to 
     pull away, but their grips had become so strong he might as well have 
     been trying to move a stone pillar.
          Revar saw Jemara inching her mouth slowly closer, and started 
     doing the same.
          "Oh, God," Samuel moaned.  "Please don't.  I'll do... I 
     could... I..."  He whimpered, shutting his eyes and muttering under 
     his breath.
          They were within six inches of him.  As they shifted their bodies 
     closer, Revar moved her hand up to the back of his neck, holding it 
     still.
          His muttering had increased in pitch when he opened his eyes and      
     
     
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     stared into Jemara's solid black ones, three inches from his own.  He 
     choked, forgetting whatever he had been going to say.  Well, that was 
     it, then.  The smell was so strong now, Revar was salivating.
          He spent the last inch screaming.
          When Jemara's nose touched his skin, she seemed to lunge forward, 
     wrapping herself around him and biting into his throat like a child 
     with an apple.  Revar tried not to be as melodramatic, but the 
     exuberance of her own attack was uncontainable.
          She hadn't planned to drink much, but Jemara had been right--he 
     tasted /good./  And he was dead, anyway.  She leaned against him, one 
     wing around Jemara's shoulder, and shared her friend's meal.
          Revar drew back long before the other bat did.  The man was still 
     screaming, his lungs working admirably well for someone who had never 
     had a higher brain function in his entire life.  Of course, Jemara was 
     going out of her way to terrorize him even now; she wasn't simply 
     drinking from one hole, she was chewing her way across his neck.  
     "That's disgusting," Revar said.
          Jemara pulled back, still holding the man in her arms.  "No, 
     /this/ is disgusting."  Her head darted down, mouth impossibly wide, 
     and she sank her teeth deep into the front of his throat; then she let 
     go of him with her hands, supporting his weight only with her clenched 
     jaws.  Then she shook him, like a bulldog with a rag, and ripped 
     upward; he fell back, still screaming, with a stream of blood shooting 
     into the air.  Jemara tilted back her head and let it fall into her 
     open mouth for the few seconds before his eyes rolled back, his heart 
     giving up on its now fruitless effort.
          "Yuck."
          Jemara wiped her mouth.  "How many times have we been over this, 
     love?  People who live on blood shouldn't get faint at the sight of 
     it."
          "It's not the sight," Revar snapped.
          "You didn't enjoy him?"
          "He would have tasted just as good if he hadn't been terrorized."
          Jemara snorted.  "By the time you got your teeth into him, you 
     were literally licking your lips.  Fear is a potent flavoring.  Yes, I 
     knew I was going to kill him--so I took advantage of it.  It's not as 
     if he would have enjoyed dying better if I had been polite about it."
          "That's not--"
          "I'm sorry," Jemara said in a little-girl voice, looking down at 
     the body.  "But I think you're a blight on society, and since I need 
     to feed on someone, it might as well be you.  Here, have a nice book 
     to read while I drain you of most of your blood.  Since you won't have 
     much time, I've underlined the best parts.  'Kay?"
          Revar laughed, shaking her head.  "You're missing my point on 
     purpose."
          "No, you're missing mine.  You've got to get over this tragic 
     hero complex, love.  We're not noble creatures.  Villains may not have 
     many friends, but they have more fun.  And they always get the best 
     lines."  She yawned, stretching her wings.
          Revar folded her arms.  "Now I'm going to go out of my way to 
     find humans in this one's gang to catch, and it's your fault.  'Stupid 
     people taste good,' indeed."
          Jemara started walking.  They were some two miles out from town, 
     near the side of a deserted dirt road.  "Bring steak sauce."
          Revar caught up with her friend, glaring at her.
          "No, really.  There was this human who kept annoying me at a bar.       
     
     
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     When I got fed up I opened a bottle of steak sauce, held him down on 
     a table and poured it over his neck."
          "And?"
          "And he said, 'You wouldn't dare.'"  She shrugged.  "I didn't 
     take very much, but I /had/ to take some.  It adds an interesting 
     flavor."
          Revar chuckled.
          "Of course, it didn't really work."  Jemara grinned.  "When he 
     recovered, he looked me straight in the eye and said, 'If I get 
     poisoned and they tell me it's because I have steak sauce in my 
     bloodstream, I'm going to send /real/ vampires after you.'  I said, 
     'What, you have undead friends?'  He said, 'Worse.  Lawyers.'"
          "You didn't kill him, did you?"
          "Of course not.  Anyone who can insult me /after/ I've fed on him 
     deserves some respect."  She dabbed at her face.  "Do I still have 
     blood on me?"
          Revar sighed, pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket.  "All 
     over your face.  If you won't stop torturing your food on moral 
     grounds, you might stop on the grounds that you're a lot less 
     attractive when you look like a slaughterhouse floor."  She wiped 
     Jemara's face dry.  "You're still going to have to splash water over 
     yourself.  Hold on a minute."  She ran back to the body and put the 
     soiled cloth over its ravaged neck.
          "Oh, that looks /much/ better."
          Revar coughed, feeling slightly uncomfortable.  "You know I'd 
     rather not kill my meals."
          "I'd rather not, either.  But when it tells you it's going to 
     come back with lots of its other little food friends and kill you 
     because you had the unmitigated gall to stop it from raping its ex- 
     girlfriend, you really shouldn't waste any anguish over it.  Who 
     knows.  Maybe in his afterlife, he'll get points for doing something 
     nice as his last act.  Instead of committing another crime, he 
     selflessly fed two starving vampires.  Maybe his gang could set up a 
     foundation in his name, where bats from all over could come and curl 
     up with a nice, juicy stupid person."
          "Stop it."  Revar tried not to laugh, but it was a losing battle.
          "Your problem is you're just too /nice,/ love.  It was their idea 
     to make us outcasts.  Besides, you're a fine one to get self-righteous 
     about playing the big bad monster.  If I remember correctly, the last 
     human you lifted over your head, you lowered his neck into your mouth 
     and held him there while you drank.  Tell me that wasn't just a wee 
     bit melodramatic."
          "He was a thief."
          "Dear, I think you'd like nothing better than for all the humans 
     in Ranea to shrink to six inches tall so they'd be snack size, and 
     squashable when you weren't hungry."
          "I would /not./"
          They walked on, reaching the town's edge.  Jemara walked into the 
     public bathhouse; the water was rank, but would smell much better than 
     dried blood would.  "Now what?"
          "I don't know," Revar replied.  "The night's still young."
          "How about dessert?"
          Revar flashed Jemara a reproachful look.
          The red-haired bat cleared her throat.  "I was thinking about ice 
     cream, fluff-fangs."
          "Oh."  Revar colored slightly under her fur.  "I don't know if I      
     
     
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     can really afford--"
          "Nonsense."  Jemara scooped Revar into her arms, ignoring the 
     other bat's squeal of protest, and started marching forward.  "Are you 
     going to come peacefully, or am I going to have to carry you all the 
     way?"
          "If you don't put me down I'm going to bite /you./"
          Jemara looked at her and grinned.  "That could be fun if you do 
     it right."
          "Put me down!" Revar shrieked.
          "Oh, piffle."  Jemara set her down, ignoring the looks they were 
     beginning to attract from passersby.
          Revar straightened her clothes, pulling her half-shirt back into 
     place and brushing down her fur.  "That's so... so...."
          "Undignified?" Jemara suggested.
          "Yes.  Exactly."
          There was only one ice cream shop they knew of that would be open 
     this "late."  The counterman knew them by sight, and was civil, if not 
     aggressively friendly, so they always sat at the shop's bar.
          "Two large mocha shakes?" he said as they entered.
          "Unless you have blood as a new flavor," Jemara said, sitting 
     down and smiling.
          The fox frowned disapprovingly.  "You're both sweet ladies.  Try 
     not to go out of your way to scare off my customers, hmm?"
          "You have no sense of humor," she pouted.
          As he returned with the shakes, he smiled slightly.  "Well, I 
     could ask you what you've been doing with your evening, but I might 
     not like the answer, eh?"
          "We'd rather not tell you anything that might incriminate you," 
     Revar said.
          He threw up his hands.  "It's already too late for that.  You 
     might not tell me anything, but when some thug comes in on the evening 
     shift and talks about one of his buddies being found dead with his 
     throat slashed and barely enough blood in him to fill a tumbler, I can 
     put it together."
          Jemara grinned slightly.  "We're harmless.  Really."
          "Mmm-hmmm.  Most of the dock lowlifes around here are more 
     worried about one of you catching them than the Guards."  He paused, 
     looking a little embarrassed.  "Uh, when you're looking for... 
     for...."
          "Sapient food," Jemara supplied cheerfully.
          "Uh, yeah.  Do you look for thugs?"
          "When we can," Revar said quietly.  "We try not to kill people 
     when we feed."  She sighed.  "I haven't ever deliberately killed 
     someone who I didn't think deserved to die."
          "You don't have to talk about this if you don't want to.  Hey, 
     you should just know that whether you're trying or not, a lot of 
     people think you're working at cleaning up the waterfront the hard 
     way.  You have a few fans."
          Jemara sat back, looking genuinely stunned for one of the very 
     few times Revar could remember.
          "And you also have a lotta enemies."  He leaned over the counter.  
     "You both sometimes give me the willies, but I like you.  Watch 
     yourselves out there."  He headed back into the supply room.
          "Well," Jemara said.
          "I wonder if I've let people die I wasn't... sure deserved it," 
     Revar said thoughtfully, staring at her drink.     
     
     
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          "Don't get melancholy on me.  We're supposed to be heroes now."
          "Only as long as the Guard keeps looking the other way.  We've 
     certainly attacked more than a few innocents when we were hungry and 
     obvious thugs weren't around.  From what I understand, their tolerance 
     for vigilantes only stretches so far."
          She shrugged.  "We can't worry about tomorrow."  Then Jemara 
     smiled.  "I'm really tempted to look for Sammy's friends."
          "Resist it," Revar said, finishing her drink.
          Shortly they were back on the street, wandering toward the 
     waterfront.  As they rounded a corner, Jemara put a hand on Revar's 
     shoulder and pointed to a store window.
          It was a thaumaturgical apothecary.  The sign she was pointing at 
     read: TYNDA BRAND MINIATURIZING SALVE, 1 oz., V 4000.
          "Don't start again," Revar snorted.
          "Come on.  With that much you could make at least a dozen thugs 
     into hors d'oeuvres."
          "It probably doesn't work on living things.  And there's 
     something really... sick about that."
          "Only if you don't really think about it.  Would Sammy have done 
     much worse if I had popped him whole into my mouth?  Hell, it'd 
     probably have been less painful."
          "I /know/ you.  You just figure it'd be more terrifying."
          "Of course."
          Revar shook her head.  "Anyway, it's four thousand vars."
          "Only if you pay."
          She yanked Jemara back down the street.  "Sorry, I'm not going to 
     let you mess with a magic shop's burglar protection.  I want to return 
     home with you in your normal exasperating state, not as a furry 
     torch."
          "You never let me have any fun."  Jemara slouched as they 
     continued walking.
          When they reached the waterfront, Revar sat down on a dock, 
     dangling her legs over the ocean's darkened surface.
          "You seem even more morose than usual," Jemara observed.
          "No, I'm not."
          "Yes, you are.  This is one of your moods again."  She stood 
     behind Revar, rubbing her shoulders gently.  "You're not going to stop 
     being a bat, and that means you're not going to stop needing to hurt 
     things to live."
          "I don't want to stop being a bat."  Revar laughed.  "Just a few 
     minutes of flying is all it takes to remind me of that.  But...."  She 
     looked up at her friend.  "Sometimes I really wish you weren't so... 
     calm about being violent.  You bring out things in me I'm not sure I'm 
     comfortable with."
          "Oh, love."  Jemara sat down beside Revar, cuddling her close.  
     "Have you thought about how other races eat?  Every animal they go 
     after is killed.  Most of the ones we feed on aren't.  I've never 
     believed that terrorizing sapients will win me any morality awards.  
     But I don't see how raising hundreds of times more non-sapients to be 
     used as food and killing /all/ of them puts our prey in a more 
     righteous position.  Just a more self-righteous one."
          "No, you're right."  Revar sighed, leaning forward.
          "But you've never liked hunting."
          "I love hunting.  What I don't like is the killing.  Except that 
     I know I won't think about that during a hunt.  Or a feed."
          "That doesn't make you evil, fluff-fangs.  It makes you a bat."     
     
     
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          Revar sighed.  "You never think about things like this, do you?"
          "Not for a long time.  I've never been too bothered about what I 
     am, and what that means doing."
          "What do you do when you're depressed?"
          "Get a chocolate milkshake."
          "When you're really depressed?"
          "Find someone I won't feel guilty about killing, and spend an 
     hour or two playing with him." It was said matter-of-factly, the way 
     some people might say, /I go out to a concert./
          Revar laughed weakly.  "That's certainly not what I'm looking 
     for."
          "Don't knock it until you've tried it."
          "Perhaps."  She shook her head.  "So now what?"
          "I'll take a wild guess and say you're not in the mood to go 
     gang-hunting.  We could just spend the rest of the evening at home if 
     you'd like."
          Revar nodded and rose gracefully to her feet, taking Jemara's 
     hand, and they started to walk back to their flat.  The course took 
     them along the waterfront for another half-mile, then back into dark 
     alleyways.
          "We're being watched," Revar said.
          "I noticed that."  Jemara shrugged.  "I think they've been there 
     ever since we left the ice cream shop."
          "If they're going to attack us, I wish they'd hurry up and get it 
     over with."
          "They've been staying well out of sight.  Perhaps we have 
     something of a reputation."
          Revar smiled a bit.  "Feeding on your opponents probably does 
     that."
          Even when they turned on the glow-torch, the flat would have been 
     dark by most species' standards; a human would have trouble seeing 
     anything except the dull orange light itself.  Jemara sat down on the 
     bed, quickly stripping off her clothes.  "Much better," she breathed, 
     stretching out across the mattress.
          Revar followed suit, sitting up in bed and taking a book down 
     from a shelf beside her.
          "You're not going to read again, are you?"
          She gently rapped Jemara's head with the bookcover.  "Just 
     because you choose to be illiterate doesn't mean I have to.  Reading 
     is a luxury I haven't had until very recently."
          "You weren't /able/ to read until very recently.  And it's my 
     fault you learned," Jemara grumbled, burying her face in a pillow.  
     "Just what the world needs.  A vampire bookworm."
          After a few minutes, Jemara pulled herself up to sit against 
     Revar, her head resting on the brown bat's shoulder.  Revar stroked 
     her red hair absently.
          Then she became aware of Jemara gently nuzzling her neck.
          She set the book down and pulled back, looking at her friend.  
     Jemara started, her eyes clouding over with an uncharacteristic 
     timidity.  "I didn't mean to...."  She looked down at the pillow, 
     clearing her throat.  "Offend you."
          Revar stroked down her back lightly.  "You didn't.  But you 
     surprised the hell out of me.  I've heard of 'sisterly kisses' before, 
     and I'm fairly sure that wasn't one."
          "Oh, fluff-fangs."  Jemara closed her eyes.  "How long have we 
     been living together?"     
     
     
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          "Four months."
          "And sleeping in the same bed.  As close as we already are...."  
     She shivered.  "I love you so much.  And you're so pretty...."  Her 
     voice trailed off.
          After a moment, Revar slid down, pressing her muzzle against 
     Jemara's neck, and returned the nuzzle.  Jemara stiffened; when Revar 
     drew back, the red-haired bat was wide-eyed.  Revar smiled sheepishly, 
     reaching up and turning off the light.
          Jemara nestled against her, the way she had off-and-on since they 
     had been sleeping together.  It felt better than ever.
          "Revar?" she whispered shortly.
          "Mmm?"
          "Am... I expected to keep sleeping chastely with you?"
          There was a long silence, followed by a sigh.  "I've never... 
     made love... to another woman.  The idea makes me a little nervous."
          "Oh."
          "But honestly..."
          "Yes?"
          "You're tempting."
          "Thank you."  Jemara snuggled a bit closer.
          Almost five minutes passed before Jemara spoke again.  "I want to 
     go back and get that shrinking salve."
          Revar laughed in spite of herself.  "Cut it out.  What would you 
     do with a bunch of hand-sized humans?"
          "Party favors?" she suggested.  "Dip them in chocolate."
          "Jemara!"
          "Sorry."  She giggled.  "I'm also struck with this perverse 
     notion of dropping a little human between your legs and trying to fish 
     him out with my tongue."
          Revar remained very quiet, breathing heavily.
          "Whoops.  I really did offend you with that one, didn't I?"
          "What offends me is how much that idea turns me on."  Revar 
     groaned.  "I'm trying to get over my prejudice against humans, and 
     you're making me fantasize about using them as sex toys.  Some help."
          Jemara laughed wickedly.
          Revar rolled to face her, then kissed her on the muzzle.  Jemara 
     let out a muffled squeak of surprise, then returned the kiss, wrapping 
     her wings and then her legs around Revar and locking muzzles with the 
     same fierceness she went after prey with.
          When they broke off, Jemara laughed softly, then nuzzled Revar's 
     ear.  "I don't want you to do anything you can't live with, fluff- 
     fangs."
          Revar made a soft, purrlike noise of contentment.  "If I get 
     uncomfortable, I'll tell you."
          "Promise?"
          "Yes."
          Jemara moved her face against Revar's again; shortly they were 
     exploring each other's bodies more intimately.  Revar grew more, not 
     less, comfortable as the nuzzling progressed, and when she found 
     herself licking Jemara's thigh, feeling her friend/lover trembling 
     around her, she let herself do what came naturally.  Jemara sucked in 
     her breath, her hands gripping the backboard for support, and moved 
     her legs across Revar's back.
          By the time Revar had rolled over to allow Jemara to return the 
     attentions, the backboard had been shattered.  The part of her mind 
     still worrying about such things hoped the bed would survive the      
     
     
                                                                      10   
     
     
     night.  They couldn't afford to replace it.
          When Revar woke up the next morning, Jemara was already gone, but 
     that was common.  She watched the light fade from the apartment's one 
     window as she made coffee.
          Jemara returned before it was completely dark.  "Hello," she 
     said, throwing a bag on the table.
          Revar opened it and peered inside.  "Donuts?"
          "Yes, donuts.  We're having company."
          "Who?"
          "Four members of Samuel's gang.  I passed them on the way here.  
     They're armed and look quite angry."
          "Wonderful."  Revar took out a donut and bit into it.  "Why do 
     you look so happy about having four humans planning to kill us?"
          She smirked.  "I know a little bit about how to get around 
     magical burglar alarms, fluff-fangs."  She reached into her pocket and 
     held up the jar of shrinking salve, along with a matte-black 
     applicator wand.
          "Oh."  Revar's eyes widened.  "Oh, you wouldn't."
          A loud, threatening banging came from the door.
          "You wouldn't," Revar repeated.
          Jemara smiled innocently.
     
     
     [10/26/91, 4800 wds]
     ristic 
     timidity.  "I didn't mean to...."  She looked down at the pillow, 
     clearing her throat.  "Offend you."
          Revar stroked down her back lightly.  "You didn't.  But you 
     surprised the hell out of me.  I've heard of 'sisterly kisses' before, 
     and I'm fairly sure that wasn't one."
          "Oh, fluff-fangs."  Jemara closed her eyes.  "How long have we 
     been living together?"     
     
