You Only Live 18 Times #15

Dar-Amon awoke to pandemonium. An alarm was sounding and he was rudely thrown from his place between Deej’s breasts as the two argonians rushed to get ready. Dar-Amon remained safely out of the way in a corner as they scurried to-and-fro. In less than two minutes, they were both out the door, leaving Dar-Amon to blink at the sudden silence.

He thought briefly about the night before. Already his subconscious was trying to make him forget the unimaginable horror that was argonian sex, and he shivered again involuntarily at the thought, but refused to remember what he’d seen. Whether she knew it or not, Deej’s gentle treatment of him afterwards had allowed him to return to sanity and the ability to tolerate close proximity to their race again.

“No good will come from thinking of that,” he said aloud at the silence. Outside he heard the sound of many other argonians rushing about. A few minutes later and he’d managed the basket trick again and was back on the ledge. By then, no argonians were in sight but he heard quite a lot of noise from somewhere by the beach. He had to get out, and quickly!

He worked another thread loose and tried to shove his head through. It was close, but not quite. He worked at the next thread of he screen as fast as he could. Finally it broke and he SQUEEZED his head through, scrabbling with his claws on the window sill to get more grip. Another thread popped and he was through, falling unceremoniously to the ground outside. He shook his dignity back into place and loped towards where all the activity was – mostly near the dock but also farther out by the beach.

He’d never seen so many argonians in one place. An involuntary shiver ran through him. All those scaly bodies writhing over and around each other…

“NO! They’re just talking!” he shouted to himself, recovering from his imagination.

They seemed to be arguing with each other, but he saw that the Dominion had already set sail. Then he also noticed there wasn’t an altmer in sight. He nudged his way into the center of the crowd, and noticed Deej and Skalen were part of the outer crowd as well.

Inside an old argonian was talking loudly, answering others.

“No! They are not our friends. Listen, I don’t care how well they’ve treated you, they are killing other sailors with that ship!”

“But not argonians!” shouted another nearby.

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. The other ships have many argonians on them! They may be from Hammerfell, but they’re manned by all races, and argonians are a majority of those!”

“And besides,” said a voice Dar-Amon recognized. “Since when do we kill other races anyway? That is not the way of the Hist!”

“Well, we’re not killing them. We’re just… letting them kill each other!”

“Not,” said the elder, “if we’re helping them with this ship. And besides, do we really want another race to take over this island? True, it’s not Argonia, but there are lots of small islands all round us. If the other races take over all those islands, they can easily attack us after they’ve built up their forces.”

That, Dar-Amon realized, was a good tactic. Self-defense of their homeland was a prime motivating factor for argonians. The murmuring in the crowd took on an ominous tone.

Geeus’ voice came back then. He obviously had already made the assumption that the crowd was now with him. “It is not enough that we run the almer off the island either. We must destroy this entire facility. Go back to your rooms and get your belongings and bring them back to the beach. Then we must destroy.”

“What do we do with the altmer? Most of them are on the ship, but there’s still some hiding in the buildings and around the island.”

“We are not killers, and they have magic. Let them know we are here only to destroy what they’ve built, not them. If they attack you though, call for help. They will fall to our numbers, magic or not. If we keep them from building on this island, they will leave on their own. We made a mistake in letting them take this island. We must fix that mistake.”

A cheer went up, and even Deej and Skalen joined in, he saw. Deej looked down and saw him. She picked him up. “Mekal! What are you doing here? You’re going to get stepped on!”

The argonians were splitting up, going back to gather their belongings.

“Well,” Deej said to Skalen. “It was good while it lasted.”

The male put his arm around his mate. “We’ll do alright Deej. We’ll find another place.”

She nodded, and looked at Skalen and kissed him, in the argonian manner. “Yes, we will.”

Suddenly someone came running up to them. “Excuse me. Ma’am? Um… that’s my cat.”

Deej looked at the new argonian and Dar-Amon saw Geeus when she turned her body around.

“Awwww!” she cried. “Really?”

“Sorry Ma’am. Yes. I… really need him.”

The two argonians looked at each other sadly.

“Look,” Geeus began, “when you get back to the mainland, look me up. Name’s Geeus. I’ll get you another cat, okay?”

Skalen nodded. “We will. Thanks. They’re hard to find in Argonia.”

Geeus took Dar-Amon and retreated behind a building.

“What happened?” they both said at once, as soon as they were alone.

“Well,” Dar-Amon started, “Ra’Jirra got captured trying to sink the ship. I think she is a prisoner somewhere in that big building. I got caught by those two though and have been trying to get away ever since.”

Geeus shook his head. “She’s not a prisoner. We saw her on the CAT heading after the Dominion, along with an argonian. I think it was Wears-Only-Ropes but I can’t be sure. As for me, once I explained the situation to the elders, they gathered every able-bodied argonian around for miles. We swam all the way across and got here just as the Dominion was leaving. But I think we got here in time to keep most of the argonians out of the ship.”

“So, it’s manned only by the altmer?”

Geeus shrugged. “I don’t know really. We argonians are a very family-oriented lot though. When your mother is yelling at you to get out of the ship, we tend to do exactly that no matter what the altmer are threatening.”

“Are you serious? Their mothers?!”

“Well, some at least.”

“Good thing the altmer didn’t fight back.”

“They’re not that stupid. We would swarm the place and rend them limb-from-limb if they tried. They probably would have if we hadn’t outnumbered them.”

“You’ve done a good thing here, Geeus. You’ve definitely shut down this operation. But if Ra’Jirra and Wears-Only-Ropes don’t managed to protect that Hammerfell ship, a war between Cyrodiil and Hammerfell is still likely. Once a war starts, even if we can prove it was caused by the Aldmeri Dominion, it’s a hell of a thing to try and stop.”

Geeus nodded and they both looked out from behind the building. Already a stack of belongings from the argonians was growing, and one of the buildings was burning as the argonians began their destruction of the base. Others were dismantling the dock as they watched. But out to sea, the Hammerfell ship had sailed out of sight beyond the cove to the right and the little CAT was nowhere to be seen.

“Come on Dar,” Geeus said, offering his hand to the Alfiq. “Lets get to the other side of the cove and see what’s happening out there.”

Dar’Amon jumped aboard the proffered hands and Geeus began running across the cove.

They’d just topped a ridge and spotted the Hammerfell ship under full sail and turning aside when a tremendous explosion was seen and the ground shook, knocking Geeus to the ground and sending Dar-Amon rolling across the sandy ground. Dar-Amon looked up to see a tower of water far out to sea where the Hammerfell ship had been. The tower resolved into a sort of cloud on the surface of the ocean, blocking view of anything within.

Dar-Amon looked to Geeus, who looked back at him, a worried expression on his scaled face.

“Damn,” Dar-Amon said. “God DAMMIT.”

“I guess we should get back to Elsweyr as soon as we can,” Geeus said mournfully, the whole island now gone silent in the wake of the explosion. “It will take some time before Hammerfell learns of this. Maybe our story can help.”

Dar-Amon nodded, still staring out to sea. “I suppose so.”

Geeus picked up the little Alfiq and headed back towards the cove.

**********************

Inside the Dominion, Number 4 wasn’t worried. True, the altmer that now manned the ship were woefully incompetent at actually doing the work that the argonians had been trained for, but they had plenty of time. As he watched through the periscope, he had to give the spunky khajiit respect for having managed to stop two of his torpedoes. But he had plenty more and it was obvious that the mines she’d wielded were only the surface type, and she couldn’t have many aboard that little craft.

“How long before the tubes are flushed?” he called to the Captain.

“Dammit, I don’t know. I’ll get down there and clear them myself if I have to! XO, what is the status of the tubes!?” he called down a voice-pipe.

“It’s slow, Skipper. We haven’t the muscles of the argonians. Pumping the water out is taking longer than expected. Another 15 minutes and we should be done.”

The Captain began to relay the update to Number 4, who shut him up.

“I heard the man, Captain,” he said impatiently. Then he turned to his bodyguard. Pak-Sha had been the only argonian who hadn’t left the ship when their damn relatives came ashore. He, at least, was completely loyal.

“Pak-Sha, get down there and help them with those pumps. Show them what real argonian muscle can do!”

The argonian nodded and began climbing down the ladder while Number 4 returned to his periscope. The Hammerfell ship was moving away, but that really made no difference. They could easily catch up once their weapons were functional again. Then he swung the periscope around to look for Ra’Jirra. But she was no longer where he’d last seen her. He spun the periscope farther around and his eyes went wide. She was practically on top of the periscope and the argonian with her was doing something.

Suddenly he realized what he was seeing and screamed. “PAK-SHA! STOP! NEW ORDERS!!!”

You Only Live 18 Times #14

“If I could risk kicking it,” Wears-Only-Ropes said to Ra’Jirra,”I’m sure it would give way.”

“Yeah, but I’m sure that guard would hear it.”

“Not much of a guard. Hell, he might not even be there for all we know.”

“True, but I’d rather not risk it. Maybe a thunderstorm will come up or something.”

“It is pretty common in the afternoons around here. Can we wait that long?”

“I don’t think so actually. My best guess is that the Hammerfell ship will be coming along before then. Hell, I don’t even know what time it is without any windows in here.”

Wears-Only-Ropes nodded. “Yeah, I think we need to…”

And then an alarm went off. It wasn’t the same sound as the klaxon that had gone off when Ra’Jirra had tripped a ward though. The two looked at each other, and Ra’Jirra nodded.

Wears-Only-Ropes waited till the siren was at its peak, then kicked. The plank they’d been working on bent outwards, but made no significant sound at all.

“Dammit, we could have done that an hour ago!” Wears-Only-Ropes complained, but Ra’Jirra was already poking her head through the space.

“No one here, and the doors closed. Come on!” she said as she wriggled through.

Her bikini caught for a moment, doing yet more damage to the frayed garment, but she made it to the other side and helped Wears-Only-Ropes squeeze through. The door had no window, so they couldn’t see what was happening in the hallway outside, but they heard shouting and feet running past. Ra’Jirra risked a peak through the outside windows. Argonians were running in the direction of the dock, though. She waited till they’d passed, then unlocked the latch and slid the window up as quietly as possible.

“Are you thinking what I am?” Ra’Jirra asked Wears-Only-Ropes.

“The Hammerfell ship has been spotted,” she said.

“I think so too,” Ra’Jirra nodded. “Okay. Go through the jungle and swim to Argonia as fast as you can. I don’t think I can stop the ship directly, but I’m going to see what I can do with the CAT. I might be able to drop a mine on it before it goes deep.”

“The CAT?”

“No time to explain. It’s a very fast little boat I moored on the other side of the cove. It has shallow water timed mines made to stop pursuers, but they don’t go deep. Come on, there’s no time for this.”

Wears-Only-Ropes put her hands on the khajiit’s shoulders and looked at her seriously.

“Ra’Jirra, I’m going with you.”

“Dammit, no! Even if I fail, you can still stop a goddamned war! I’m just an Elsweyr agent. Nobody would believe me!”

“We’re going to stop that ship before it kills more sailors, Ra’Jirra. You AND me.”

“Fuck it, I haven’t time to argue, Ropes. Damned if I know what good you can do, but let’s get the hell out of here.”

They climbed out of the window and peered around the wall of the building. All the action was at the ship. They sneaked back the other way and then raced through the jungle towards the CAT as fast as they could.

The alarm stopped as they crossed over the hill and descended towards the open sea where she hoped the CAT still waited. It took her a few minutes to find her way back to the rock shelf, and she lost the bikini bottom totally when it scraped against the side, but she had no time to worry about that.

The CAT was still floating where she’d left it.

“Okay Ropes. Here’s how you can help. Under the seat is where the mines are. They are set to go off 15 seconds after I drop them, but there’s a dial on top where you can change that. If we can get in front of the ship, make an estimate of how long the mine should wait before it goes off based on our speed and the speed of the ship and set the timer, then set it back into the rack and tap my shoulder and I’ll launch it. We only have four, so we don’t have a lot to work with. Better to take a little time and get the estimate right first. Got it?”

Wears-Only-Ropes took out one of the mines and examined it, then put it back on the rack under the seat. “Got it.”

Wears-Only-Ropes cut the rope holding the CAT to the rock, pocketing it. Ra’Jirra was going to ask why she did that, but she’d already fired up the engine and had no time.

“Hold on tight, Ropes!” she called. “This thing MOVES!”

She felt the argonian’s grip around her waist. Good. Nice and firm.

Then they were off and sailing across the waves, gaining speed rapidly. Once at full speed, the G-forces leveled out and she felt the argonian’s hands release her waist. She was doing something with the rope back there, but Ra’Jirra had no time to worry about it. She was looking towards the sea. On the horizon, she saw the Hammerfell ship.

Then they passed around the corner of the cove and saw the Dominion. It was already under way and she turned towards the open ocean to intersect it’s path. There were three Almer on a raised tower that hadn’t been there before, apparently piloting the ship. They were looking out to sea towards the Hammerfell ship and hadn’t spotted her yet. The Dominion was fast, but no where near what the CAT was doing.

Then Wears-Only-Ropes tapped her shoulder and she turned around.

“LOOK! IN THE COVE!”

Ra’Jirra shifted to look directly behind them. Hundreds of argonians were rising out of the ocean into the complex. Too many to have been Dominion employees. She smiled. She couldn’t be certain from this distance and with the motion of the CAT, but one of them looked an awful lot like Geeus.

But she had no time to worry about that. She was almost in the path of the Dominion. She turned back and saw that on her current course she would intersect very near the bow of the ship. She turned right slightly to end up farther in front of it.

Then she heard the crack of a rifle. She’d heard that before. She didn’t see where the bullet hit, nor how close it was to the CAT. It had obviously missed, but there would be more. Wears-Only-Ropes was unaware of the danger of course. Rifle and gun technology had a long way to go before it became mainstream. Her own gun was in the storage compartment, but with the amount of motion of the CAT, she didn’t even bother.

“SET THE FIRST MINE!” she called as she turned the CAT farther right, now directly in the path of the ship.

“15 SECONDS LOOKS ABOUT RIGHT!”

“OKAY, HERE GOES!”

Ra’Jirra pulled the mine release lever, then hit the accelerator and turned sharply left out of the path and away from the Dominion. She looked behind her. One of the Altmer was doing something with the rifle, so she began turning randomly as she sped away.

And then the mine went off, raising a tower of water from where it floated just a foot under the water. However, she saw the Dominion plow through the explosion without slowing. Then it veered towards it’s right, farther away from her.

The Altmer may have taken another shot, but if he did, it must have missed. But now the Dominion was heading away from her, so she turned back to intercept it again.

She risked a glance towards the Hammerfell ship. With it’s own speed heading towards them, ad their speed heading towards it, it had already become much more than a dot on the horizon.

Wears-Only-Ropes yelled in her ear, “Look! The altmer are going inside!”

She nodded. Damn. The thing was going to submerge. She had to get to it before then!

She turned and headed at full speed again directly to where she estimated it would be by the time she got back to it. She saw it was slowly going under the water, but she’d gotten too far away from it. She wasn’t going to make it.

As she got back to it’s path, all but the tower was underwater and the tower was sinking fast. She slowed the CAT.

“We can still hit the tower!” Wears-Only-Ropes said, a mine in her hand.

She put her hand over the argonians’. “No, Ropes. It wouldn’t cause enough damage. Put it back. We’ve got to hit it on the nose so the explosives inside go up. Otherwise they’ll just take it back and repair it.”

“But, we can’t just let it go!!!”

Suddenly they heard a new sound. A ominous whirring coming from underwater. The Dominion was passing directly underneath them now, dark underneath the sea.

“What the hell is that?” Ra’Jirra said, looking at Wears-Only-Ropes.

The argonian’s eyes were wide. “A sea-arrow! They’ve shot a sea-arrow at the Hammerfell ship already!”

Ra’Jirra turned back towards the other ship. It was still a good distance away, but there was an odd white line heading towards it at high speed.

“HOLD ON!” she screamed and pulled the throttle. Wears-Only-Ropes had managed to get one hand around her, just enough to stop inertia from tearing her off the CAT.

Then they were at full speed racing towards the speeding sea-arrow. It was fast, but the CAT was faster still. They were fairly flying from wave to wave and they passed directly over the sea-arrow. They could see it’s shape, barely underwater, but Ra’Jirra continued on aiming for the Hammerfell ship.

“LAUNCH THE MINE!” Wears-Only-Ropes called over her shoulder.

Ra’Jirra pulled the lever a second time. It could have been no more than three seconds afterwards that the mine exploded, and with it, the sea-arrow as Wears-Only-Ropes had dubbed it, but the explosive in the arrow was incredible. The CAT flew high through the air, but Ra’Jirra didn’t notice. She was flying in the opposite direction. She had no idea where Wears-Only-Ropes was.

She hit the water hard and came up gasping for air, looking around. She was not a bad swimmer, but now she was alone in an ocean that suddenly looked incredibly big. Yards away, she saw the CAT, still sputtering and amazingly upright. She started swimming towards it when powerful hands grabbed her waist and she began to sail through the water like a fish.

She looked back and saw Wears-Only-Ropes underwater but swimming hard back to the CAT. She climbed up on it and the argonian climbed up behind her. However, her shirt was gone. In its place, Wears-Only-Ropes wore her namesake. The rope from the CAT was now fashioned into a bra of sorts, but it was a quite long length of rope and it curled around her breasts and chest with knots and crossbacks that couldn’t have been easy to fashion. The argonian was obviously skilled in creating such a “garment”, if that word even worked.

Ra’Jirra thought momentarily about how impressive Ropes would be to an S&M aficionado. “Nice,” she said.

“Better water-dynamics,” she explained hastily. “I can swim faster this way.”

“You know, between your pants and my bikini top, we make one fully dressed person.”

“And one not-so-much,” Wears-Only-Ropes laughed, but then her eyes focused on something beyond Ra’Jirra and she pointed back towards the island.

“ANOTHER ARROW!”

“Goddammit!” Ra’Jirra cried but was off again.

The Hammerfell ship was already getting damn close, though it was turning aside after having seen the explosion. The crew were probably getting some great views of her and Ropes too, but she had no time to worry about that. Another white line was speeding their way and the big Hammerfell ship didn’t look like it was going to get out of the way fast enough.

You Only LIve 18 Times #13

It was well after dark when Deej finally returned. Dar-Amon had actually made a little more progress on the screen as the male argonian had put him back in the window when he kept mewling towards it. However, he had to be careful not to alert him to what he was doing.

The two argonians greeted each other with a hug and Deej took Dar-Amon off the window and he let her pet him for awhile as the two settled into their bed for the night.

Skalen patted the bed beside him, asking his mate, “How did work go?”

“Busy. They expect to go out again tomorrow afternoon so we’ve been prepping the ship both inside and out. Some crazy argonian tried to sabotage her, and they said something about a khajiit that tried to do the same thing. Can you believe it? We had to go through every damn system making sure all the valves and controls were back in their proper place. It was a mess!”

“Oh, I heard! We had a new group of recruits in to to do ballast training and they were all talking about it. She came over with them, but they didn’t know her. The altmer seem to think she and the khajiit are working for Elsweyr.”

“I sure hope not! That would mean they know about the ship! We’re supposed to be secret. If word gets out we’ll probably all be out of a job.”

“I know.”

“Say Skalen, do you ever wonder what they’re doing when we’re out at sea? They never let the crew see anything. Just order us around.”

“Oh, I’ve wondered plenty. Those tubes they launch seem to be the main purpose. And you say the whole ship vibrates afterwards?”

“Oh yeah! Violently! I thought she was coming apart! One of the compartments completely filled with a burst bulkhead before the argonians inside managed to patch it and pump out the water. If there were any altmer in there at the time, they’d be drowned. It was a huge shake to do that, I promise you! I still think it was some sort of explosion.”

“Well, they never told us that we’d know all their secrets. Still glad we joined?”

Deej crawled on top of Skalen and they touched tongues. “As long as I can live with you here, I’m fine.”

Dar-Amon decided now might be a good time to return to his blanket-bed and he padded off across the floor, unnoticed.

“Yeah. Me too. But this may not last forever.”

“Don’t say that. You’ll jinx it.”

“I hope you’re right, but if we ever get pregnant, we should go back to the Hist anyway.”

Deej wrapped her tail around her mate’s tail tightly. “That would be awfully nice. Wanna try again?”

“Forever I want to!” Skalen smiled and she snuffed out the candle with her fingers deftly.

Dar-Amon had been watching, fascinated. The biologist in him was suddenly alert. While argonian bodies had been prodded and examined plenty, as far as he could tell, no one of any other race had ever actually seen argonians copulate – and the argonians wouldn’t talk about it.

Though the candle was out, and the room was certainly dark to any human or argonian eyes, his khajiit eyes had plenty of light from the moonbeams coming in through the window. They might as well have been kissing under direct sun to the gaze of a khajiit. And if he might have some not-quite-so-pure reasons to watch them as well, he still convinced himself he wasn’t being some common voyeur. He was doing it for science!

Two hours later, the argonians finally parted for the last time – Skalen rolling back to lie beside Deej on the bed.

“Damn, Deej. You were fantastic! Something gotten into you?”

“Just you, Skal. Just you. Maybe if you let me have a pet more often, you’d get more of this!”

“Lady, I don’t think I could take much more of you! I swear I felt you up to my chest!”

“Heh. Same! I could feel you under my scales. I bet one of us is pregnant this time!”

“I almost hope not. I want to do that again tomorrow night.”

“Hell with tomorrow night, I’ll wake you up in the morning!”

“I dare you!” he said and leaned over her.

The two argonians opened their mouths wide to apply their tongues to each other’s, before professing their mutual love. A few minutes passed, then Deej nudged Skalen.

“Skalen?”

“Yeah?” he replied sleepily.

“I think something’s wrong with Mekal.”

“The cat? Why?”

“Look at him. Does that look right to you?’

Skalen slid over his mate and lit the candle again.

The cat was backed up against a wall, shivering, his eyes wide and staring at the two.

“Aww. Poor thing. I think we scared him. Come ‘ere Mekal. Come on, I won’t hurt you.”

The cat’s eyes just stared at him, as if the mind behind them was completely blasted by something he’d seen.

“Silly cat,” Deej said, and stood up. The cat’s eyes kept staring at her lower body for some reason. She picked up the shivering cat. It didn’t resist, and it began to calm down after she’d talked to it softly for a while. Skalen returned to the bed, but Deej sat up with the cat long into the night, singing it argonian lullabies until finally it went to sleep between her breasts.

***********************************************

“Ropes… wake up,” Ra’Jirra whispered.

The argonian shifted a little, and Ra’Jirra had to nudge her.

“Mmm?”

“Your turn. I’m tired.”

Wears-Only-Ropes got up off the blankets that their captors had thrown in and groggily traded places with the khajiit.

“Oh!” she whispered when she’d seen the work Ra’Jirra had done. “You’ve almost got it loose!”

“Almost,” Ra’Jirra yawned. “Wake me when you’ve finished it. I’ve got to get some sleep.”

“You let me sleep longer, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. A little. If we manage to get out of here in the morning, you’re going to need energy to get away.”

“That was foolish, but I thank you anyway, Ra’Jirra.”

“Don’t mention it. Just get that damned plank loose. I’m tired of looking at it.”

The guard had come in a few times, with food and drink as well as to change out the pot, but he fortunately hadn’t been interested in looking about the place and left as soon as he’d accomplished his task. Wears-Only-Ropes tried to talk to him, but he didn’t say a word even in Jel.

“Well,” Ra’Jirra thought to herself as she fell to sleep, “At least we’ll have a way out before too long.”

She never really had much hope of the Alfiq rescuing them. In fact, she was more worried for him. He was a pretty small khajiit, after all. Maybe some kind argonian took him in. The world could be a dangerous place for a little cat like him.

You Only Live 18 Times #12

Dar-Amon looked down at the cove below him as he stood on the edge of the jungle. From this vantage point he could see the whole of the complex of hastily-constructed buildings, the dock, and the underwater ship there. He’d have to remember the layout as best he could, because once he loped down into the area he would be looking at everything from about a foot and a half from ground level, and from that perspective it was easy to get lost.

Though he never said it, that was one of the reasons he tolerated being petted like a true cat. It gave him a better view. Of course, there were other reasons too.

And then the warning alarm went off. Expected really. The altmer were fond of their wards, and to erect a base like this without them would have been more of a surprise. What he could do, he wasn’t sure of. His specialty was espionage, sneaking in where unsuspected and eavesdropping were his stock-in-trade.

Then he saw Ra’Jirra race from the jungle on the other side of the cove towards the ship and he decided he had to do something. She was obviously going to get caught or killed – it looked like she was on a suicide mission to blow up the ship. Not much he could do to help her there, he convinced himself. And, to be honest to himself, it didn’t sound like much fun. He had his own heroic streak, but the opportunity for an Alfiq the size and shape of a small cat to do anything truly heroic was limited.

Still, if she survived and was imprisoned, maybe he could do something for her there. He started down into the cove at a trot and saw her descend into the ship, with a large contingent of argonians and altmer running after her. If she managed to blow the thing up, it was going to be a terrific explosion, so he kept one of the buildings between him and the ship for protection.

But a few minutes passed and nothing happened, so he peered around the corner and saw her being unceremoniously manhandled by a large argonian and carried bodily towards the large building that was obviously the altmer headquarters. The ship showed no signs of being damaged in any way. Plus, he couldn’t help noticing that her bikini bra had been rendered pointless, and he felt a bit ashamed at himself for that.

“Ah well,” he decided when she was out of view, “I can’t help what I am. I guess I’m on a rescue mission now.”

He circled around in the back of the various smaller shacks and buildings towards the main one until it came in sight. Argonians were milling about now, the excitement over, and the routine was getting back to normal. He noticed a tall palm tree beside the headquarters that he could climb. He could leap from there to the roof, then onto one of the balconies on the top floor. If he could catch one with an open door…

Suddenly he felt hands wrap around his abdomen. “Aww! Look at you, little kitten. What are you doing here?”

He looked around at the face of a female argonian. The teeth looked strikingly large and he hoped she was just smiling.

“Skalen, come look!” she said to another argonian nearby. “A kitten!”

The male came close and made as if to pet him. Dar-Amon had to decide quickly if he wanted to fight or go along with the ‘Nice Kitty’ routine. But circumstances being what they were, he decided to play nice. He started to purr as the male scratched his neck.

“Aww. He’s so cute!” said the male. “What are you doing here little fella?”

“Oh Skalen, can we keep him? I’ve always wanted a pet!”

“Deej, you know what happened last time.”

“That was an accident! Oh, look. He’s purring. He likes you.”

“He is cute. But surely he’s somebody else’s pet. Somebody must have snuck him over on the ship.”

“Well, we can’t just let him wander around. It’s dangerous for a little kitty out there. If someone owns him, I’m sure they’ll be looking for him. We’ll just keep him safe till then. Come on, what do you say?”

Dar-Amon began to worry. He’d played the pet many times before. He could handle that. But that bit about it being dangerous worried him in two ways. First, it implied he might be stuck inside or in a cage and not be allowed to roam. But second… dangerous? He’d seen nothing so far to worry about on the island, but he’d just gotten here. Maybe there were cat-eating beasts roaming around out there! And then, of course, there was the question of just what had happened to this female argonian’s last pet. It sounded ominous.

“Alright,” the male relented. “But you’ll have to train him to use a sandbox.”

“Oh, I will! You wouldn’t shit on the floor, would you little kitty?”

“If it gets me out of your house, hell yes I will!” he thought.

But he played the nice kitty and let her carry him into a small room in a dormitory building. The room had only a bed, door and a window, but the pair of argonians seemed to not mind. After they’d set him up with a sandbox, a blanket for a bed and a pair of bowls for water and food, the male had left to go back to whatever work he was assigned.

The female doted on him for hours though, and he began to get anxious about getting away. He mewled at the door, but she just picked him up and put him in his sandbox.

“No, dammit! I don’t have to piss!”, he wanted to say. “I want to go outside!”

Finally he gave up though. It was obvious he wasn’t going to be let out anytime soon. This female needed some cuddle time, so he did his duty and snuggled up with her. He did rather like the stroking.

“What’s your name, little kitty?” she asked as she lounged with him on the bed. “I guess I’ll have to give you one!”

Dar-Amon moaned internally. He’d had a spate of names in the time since he’d been turned into an Alfiq. None of them he liked. Most were too cute, some were so obscure that he never did figure out their meaning, and some were just some bad pun. He’d been ‘Boots’ three times already, but he’d decided ‘Chairman Meow’ was the worst.

“Whiskers?” she seemed to ask him, and he hissed his displeasure. “No? I know. How about Mekal. It means Fierce Devourer. You tore into that food. Are you a Fierce Devourer?”

He considered that. Yes, he decided. ‘Mekal’ would do. He rather liked it actually. Besides, he liked the word ‘fierce’. He started to purr and pressed his head against her hand.

“Mekal it is then,” she decided.

Then she stood up and began to undress, saying, “Now you stay here, Mekal. I’ve got to get ready. I’m working on the ship tonight and Skalen won’t get back for a few hours yet. Will you be alright all by yourself?”

Dar-Amon made a nest for himself on the bed and settled down, cleaning himself while he watched her move about the room. While he preferred his own species, he could still appreciate a finely-tuned female argonian figure too, and Deej was a prime example of her race. He purred. Sometimes his job had its perks.

An hour later she left, closing the door behind her and Dar-Amon was left alone. “Finally!” he said aloud, disregarding the fact that he hadn’t even attempted to leave while she was dressing.

He looked up at the window. It was open, but screened. At least it was inset into the wall so if he could manage to get to it, he would have a place to sit and work on that screen. The daylight was waning and there were no lights in the room. He judged the distance. This wasn’t going to be easy. He leaped.

He was shy of the distance by no more than an inch, landing back on the tile floor gracefully. He tried again, this time with a bit of a running start. He almost managed to get a claw on the ledge before he tumbled back to the floor.

Once more. Same result.

“Damn,” he said. “So close…”

He looked around the room. There was the wardrobe where Deej had got her clothes, but that was far too big and heavy for him to budge. Then there was the laundry basket where she’d put her old clothes. He tried pushing it, but it didn’t move either. There were a lot of clothes in there. The blanket might work, if piled up, but it was pretty heavy for a cat too. Other than that, there just wasn’t much to work with here.

And then he realized what he had to do. He looked back at the basket and looked within. Yes, it would probably work, but he’d have to get everything out of it by hand first. Well… by mouth.

He swallowed his pride and jumped into the basket, then back out with the argonian’s bra in his mouth. This was going to take a while…

When he was done, there was a pile of clothes on the floor, both feminine and masculine. The pair obviously shared this room. But the job was done and it was time to try to flip the basket. He jumped onto the edge and the basket rolled out from under him, skittering across the floor. The second attempt worked better, but he ended up underneath it. For a second he was worried he’d be stuck here, but the basket was light and he managed to pry a claw underneath it and scurry out from under it. Then he nosed it towards the window until it was just underneath. With a running start, he jumped from the floor to the basket and immediately up to the window sill.

“Yes!” he cried, though keeping his voice down. By now, night had come on in full and he heard voices outside the window. Fortunately he was on the ground floor. Then he began working on the screen.

It was made of a metallic grid. Fuck.

The strands were small, but not easily torn with claws. He extended his own and looked at them, then back at the screen. This was going to take a while, he realized. Too long. The male would surely be back before he even came close.

“Oh well,” he sighed to himself. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Then he got to work, concentrating on a single strand near the bottom of the screen, so it wouldn’t be obvious when the argonians returned. He’d managed to get three strands cut before the door opened again.

“Well hi there Kitty!” said the voice of Skalen and he withdrew his claws as the argonian picked him up off the sill and sat him back on the floor, up-righting the basket and putting the clothes back in.

“Smart little guy, aren’t you?” he said. Dar-Amon meowed.