Wickaninnish � A Traveller�s Beginning

This chapter is rated R for sexual situations and violence.

Surprised Awakenings

Kit slowly returned to consciousness, his head was pounding and the room spun. Somewhere in the back of his mind was the feeling that something was very wrong but he couldn’t dig it out through the haze. He was just becoming aware of the warm body next to him when someone suddenly seized him and threw him bodily from the bed. He crashed with a yelp of pain into a dresser. A bottle of perfume shattered splashing his body. He tried to focus on his attacker, a large male coyote but found it hard in the spinning room. “She’s mine!” The male cried. “If you will have her, you must challenge me!” Kit barely had time to regain his feet when the male charged again.

Kimimela sat on the bed with the sheets with a stupid grin on her face.
‘A challenge fight, over me!’ She thought and giggled as the two males savagely tore into each other driven on by the scents and pheromones saturating the room.

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It was late; Tallia had just finished her shower and put on a robe when the door chime sounded.
Kit fell in the door as she opened it. She grabbed him before he could hit the floor and helped him over to the bed. Wearing only pants, he was covered in blood, his fur matted and tangled. Wasting no time she immediately dropped to his side examining his wounds. There appeared to be several scratches and bite marks but none appeared immediately serious. There was more blood than could be accounted for by his wounds suggesting he had given as much as he got. She reached for the bedside comm. terminal.
“No,” Kit choked out. “No calls.”
“Ok, no calls but I want an explanation.”

The explanation however wasn’t coming as Kit satisfied she wasn’t going to call someone relaxed into unconsciousness. With a sigh, Tallia went into the bathroom for some wet towels and her field medikit. Returning she set about doing a more detailed examination to ensure she hadn’t missed any critical injuries. The blood stains and tears on the pants made it plain she couldn’t afford to leave the lower body unexamined so she removed the pants. Finding no serious wounds, she picked up the towels and antiseptics and started cleaning the coyote up.

She had, of course, seen Vargr in the nude before, the close quarter environments and long star flights made by Scouts soon eliminated most of the nudity taboos one held but this was the first chance she had to examine a Coyote Vargr up close and her curiosity soon had her looking for comparison with other Vargr. The obvious differences were the ones she had already noted. The muzzle was narrower, the tail bushier, the ears longer and more pointed and the Coyotes were shorter than the regular Vargr but otherwise they were much the same.

As she cleaned up the blood she noticed a strong smell coming from him. It seemed that in whatever altercation he had gotten involved in he had rolled in some form of perfume. The smell combined with her stoking the fur with the towel seemed to be having an effect on Kit, she was slightly embarrassed to note his manhood start poking out from the furry sheath that covered it.
“Butterfly,” Kit moaned in his sleep.
Tallia continued cleaning wondering idly what a butterfly was and whether she should stop cleaning until he calmed down. Oddly she was finding looking at him slightly intriguing.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the comm. signal sounding. She walked over to the desk to take the call.
“Sorry to bother you, Scout Dranow,” Takodah said over the link. “Have you seen Wickaninnish?”
Tallia glanced over at the bed remembering the Coyote’s request for her not to call for assistance.
“Is he in some sort of trouble?” She asked.
“He may be and I’m very worried about him. The Peacekeepers are looking for him. He appears to have involved in some sort of altercation with a mated couple that ending in a challenge fight. This is strictly forbidden behavior in our society but if the initial information I have is correct there may be extenuating circumstances. If you hear from him, please call me.”
“You will be the first person I call.” Tallia said as she closed the connection.

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Kit awoke with a pounding headache, through a thick haze he recalled the events from the night before.
‘Great Spirit, did I challenge a mated male?! I did and I slept with his mate, Spirits I’m yiffed.’
He moved from the past to the present with the realization that he was lying in a strange bed. The silky feel of the sheets against his fur let him know that he wasn’t wearing any clothing either. Opening his eyes he realized he was in Tallia’s room. His wounds had been treated and cleaned up. Getting up he found no sign of the Scout but he did find a clean jumpsuit in his size at the foot of the bed with a note.
“I have gone to see Takodah. Don’t go out the Peacekeepers are looking for you.”

Looking around he saw she had begun packing her gear for her departure in the morning but her computer was still out. Sitting down he quickly logged in, thanking the Spirits that she had given him access during his service to her. He quickly found the information he hoped to find and gathering his things left.

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“You understand Scout Dranow that this would be considered an internal Istaqa affair and I’m under no obligation to discuss it with you,” Takodah said.
“I understand,” Tallia replied. “But I feel I am involved if for no other reason that he probably would not be in whatever trouble he is if I had not interceded with the government on his behalf.”
“Nonsense, you were simply trying to help. That is the reason why I’m willing to discuss this issue with you as I feel you have Wickaninnish’s best interests at heart.”

Takodah consulted his terminal.
“Actually the situation is not a serious as I first feared. When I heard that Wickaninnish was involved in a challenge fight over a mated female, I was quite surprised. It just wasn’t like him. You have to understand that in our society the violence that normal Vargr display in dominance and rank challenges has been carefully restrained by emphasizing alternative means of challenge such as counting coup. We also control violence over mates by strongly emphasizing the fidelity of life mate pairs. Fortunately, mating for life is part of the instinctive behavior of canines so the latter is not that hard. As you can see this incident has Wickaninnish violating two of the highest cultural taboos our society has.”

“So I gather,” Tallia said. “I know I haven’t known him that long but it just doesn’t sound like him.”
“That was my thought too but the investigation has turned up information that the female involved in this incident was the actual instigator. She was using bio-chemical means to influence him. I don’t know how much you know about the biochemistry of Terran canines, so I won’t go into detail but I can tell you that Wickaninnish was under the influence of mind altering substances at the time. I’m sure this factor will weigh heavily in determining his punishment.”

Tallia remembered the perfume smell on Kit’s body and the arousing effect it was having on him and thought she understood.
“But if he wasn’t in control of his senses, surely that would absolve him?”
“I’m afraid not in this case, as I said these are very serious offenses in our society. Given the current conservative bent of the Council, I don’t see him getting off without some punishment.”
“I see,” Tallia said rising up. “Well thank you for your time and if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

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Tallia spent the rest of the next day prepping her ship for lift off, loading her gear and attending a fair well meeting with the Council. She thanked Zarquan that Takodah interceded on the peace pipe on the basis she needed to be able to fly her ship.

Takodah saw her off. He handed her a data chip as they said goodbye.
“This is a personal message,” he said. “I would ask you not to play it until after you jump out system. The message will explain.”
“Alright,” she said looking confused but took the chip.
“Good journey, Scout Dranow.”
“Thank you and say goodbye to Kit for me.”
Takodah smiled, “I most certainly will the next time I see him.”

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“Scout/Courier DY-500-D to Istaqa traffic control, I have cleared the gravity zone. Requesting clearance for Jump.”
Tallia waited the couple of moments for the signal to travel back to the planet and back again.
“Istaqa Traffic Control to Scout/Courier DY-500-D, you are clear to jump. Good journey.”
“Thank you Traffic Control, DY-500-D out.”

Tallia reviewed and updated her navigation data one more time and initiated the jump sequence on the computer. She could feel the vibration through the deck plates as the jump engines in the rear of the ship began building up the initial surge of power that would lift her ship out of the realm of Normal Space and into realm of Jump Space. As the engines reached their peak the star field through her view port disappeared into a series of rainbow streaks. The gut wrenching feeling like being turned inside out struck her. She was of course used to this as well as ‘the sound’.

No one had quite been able to quantify the sound of entering jump space. No instrument recorded it and most experts thought it was a illusion of the brain’s disorientation by the jump effect. Her rather crude brother described it as the sound of a thousand virgins being simultaneously deflowered. She hated him since before she always imagined them as heavenly spirits but now she couldn’t get rid of the virgin image.

Her stomach and senses settled down and she reviewed her instruments to ensure the systems were operating normally. Satisfied she settled down to working on her post mission notes on the computer. Two hours later she yawned, closed down the report file and shutdown the cockpit controls, turning the flight systems over to the AI. There was nothing required to do at this point but monitor the jump drive for problems for the next week. She did a quick visual inspection of the engine room, air/raft bay, cargo hold and gun deck.

Finding everything in order, she turned the lights out in the ship and made her way to her cabin by the dull glow of the hatch safety lights. She stripped out of her clothes as she went. Her favorite thing about being a Scout was being alone in space, she didn’t have to worry about leaving clothes on the floor or wearing night clothes. She entered her dark cabin and, finding the bed by feel, climbed under the covers and was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

She was shortly pleasantly enmeshed in a dream starring that hot hunk she had spent a night with on Dranish-3 six months ago. She moaned as he pulled her close to his warm bare chest. She wrapped her arms around him stoking his muscled back. She frowned as something seemed wrong. She didn’t remember him having such a hairy back. Her dream vanished as this thought awoke her. Her arms were still around a warm and very furry body!

Her scream in his ear sent Kit crashing out of sleep and into the bulkhead.