Fur-Piled- Feel the Music
Chapter 1- Tomorrow's Dream (Black Sabbath)
It's a late evening at the diner, the regular crowd shuffles in. They talk and laugh and have a good time, yet a new girl came through the doors on that hot summer night. A young she-wolf whom just reached the age of 22 came up and sat in one of the spinning chairs at the counter. She placed a guitar case under the seat near her right leg.
Rose, a Jaguar and the owner of the establishment, came up to the visitor holding a pot of coffee, "Hey can I get you anything?" She asked but got no response. The She-wolf was just staring off into space and looking up at the ceiling fans, looking for a song idea. Rose nudged the wolf in the shoulder to get her attention, "excuse me…,"
"AYE?" The wolf gasped, nearly flying out of her pants to the delight of the regulars, "oh…uh…I'll take a double-double," Rose looked at her as if the wolf was from outer space, notably Mars. The wolf shrugged her shoulders, "What?" She asked and sighed with frustration, "this isn't goin' to be easy…I'll take a coffee…two cream, two sugars,"
"Hey this isn't an In-n'-Out, punk ass," Ian commented as Rose gave the wolf her cup of coffee and two small containers for cream and sugar. Ian looked over at the she-wolf; it was obvious she wasn't a local. She had an exotic look. She had graphite gray fur with a silver underbelly going up to and covering her lower jaw and a big bushy tail.
"Its coffee, you twit," the wolf said overhearing the comment Ian made but not bothering to look back at who was talking, "two cream…two sugars, yah get me?" She has boyish dirty brown-blond beaded dreads which looked like a mop made a home on her head. Her ears stood out dreads like horns, and had a gold earring on her right ear.
Her eyes were bright and pointed and looked as warm as honey in a cup of tea. She was wearing a dark red, loose-fitting hemp long sleeve and shiny black snakeskin spandex leggings with white socks and Adidas 3-strip shoes. The wolf slowly turned to get a look at the coyote. It turned out there was a lady under that mass of dreadlocks,
"Whoa…what a woman," Ian thought admiring the wolf's exotic looks, "I haven't seen you around here before, what's your name?" Ian asked, the wolf chuckled a light titter that had a slight masculine tone to it but sexy at the same time. The wolf had been living in Santa Monica for four years at the time she met the coyote and her friends.
"Yah, just moved to the area from Montreal a few years ago, I've heard about this place, and I thought, 'Hey might as well go check this place out'," She replied back shifting an eye and looking to see the coyote talking to her. Toby's long, bushy tail moved about in all directions, "the name's Toby," She added with her French-Canadian accent
"Marf? A Canadian in California…the invasion has begun," Husky joked, "I'm Arthur, that's Ian," Ian shook Toby's hand as did the rest of the crew, but the box below her caught her attention of her ADD. Toby seemed to take it the other way. Toby was actually born to a French-Canadian mother, and an Armenian Father, both wolves.
"Uh…Ian, my heads up here, not down there," Toby joked with a light grin and a small titter as she was casting her honey-colored eyes down at the slightly shorter Coyote,
"Oh sorry," Ian blushed, Ian was already mated to Tanya but the this wolf was a real fox of a lady, "I was looking at that case under you," Toby nodded with understanding although she still gave her the bad eye out of suspicion mixed with her smile, "so...Uh…what's in that box anyway?" She asked, Toby picked up the case from under her feet.
"My first love," Toby replied, Ian's fur stood like she saw Johnny from 'The Shining' and Husky hid under the table, "chill, it's my guitar," Toby unlocked the case and pulled out 'Razorblade', a Career Dragon CG31. She ran her hand across the neck and pulled a pick out of her pocket, "other than sex, there is no love quite like music, ya dig?"
Husky came up from under the table, "Oh, I dig where you're coming from, Toby," He said admiring her guitar as Toby was adjusting the tuning and thumbing the strings for the perfect sound. Her guitar was her passion. The body had a mother-of-pearl motif of a Chinese dragon with a scalloped neck and everything, "c'mon play something,"
"Sure," Toby replied as a good song came into her head, this guitar she usually saved for big concerts, most of the time she carried a Jackson Soloist with a custom 'Gryphon' motif. She looked at Rose and winked, "let me tell yah, some of the stuff I play, may make some folks feel 'older' than they like to think," she joked at the redheaded jaguar.
"Yeah, Keep telling yourself that, Wolfie, and I'll charge you extra for your coffee," Rose said over at the counter, but all in good fun. Toby the Wolf was making friends outside of her mate and bandmates. But Toby didn't want to ruin the atmosphere with her noise, so she put the guitar back in its case to the dismay of her new friends.
"Sigh…maybe later tonight," Toby said grabbing her case by the handle. There was one giant 'Awww' from Ian and Husky, "hey now, don't give me that shit, I've got a gig tonight at the 'Midnight Howl' wanna come?" Ian's eyes lit up at the opportunity, She called up Tanya and Husky dialed up Saetto and Andy, the party was about to begin,
Toby had only been living in the Santa Monica area for two weeks but her band's popularity was through the roof in the gay community. There had never been an all-female metal band in the California Area since L7. Ian arrived with the group to a line half around the block, "Would cha' look at that line? I wonder what kind of music they play?"
Tanya peered up to see if she and her friends were getting any closer to the entrance, "This band must be good if they can get crowds like this," Tanya commented
"No kidding you don't get a lot of rock bands in this area," Saetto said, just as interested at what this new band in town can do as Ian. Saetto was looking at a flyer he found attached to a telephone pole, but one name seemed to strike Saetto's interest, "hey Ian, I didn't know you had an older sister," He said showing the paper flyer to the coyote.
Ian looked at the flyer, coming to a realization, "So that's where you've been all this time?" She thought looking at the name of the bass player, "It's been a while since I've even spoken to her, humph…punk ass stoner," She grumbled, The group got into the club and pushed their way to the front. This group was in for a big musical surprise.
The band was just setting up for the show. On guitars and backing vocals was the raging French Canadian-Armenian wolf herself, Toby Gayl. On drums was a tough, tomboy panther from Brooklyn, New York that could play as fast and brutal as the devil himself, Raven Pantera. Raven was also the only member of the metal band who was straight.
On bass guitar and backing vocals was Ian's older sister whom she hadn't seen since she started college, Riley 'Sleepy' Yote. She was nicknamed 'Sleepy' because of her knack of falling asleep anytime anywhere. Finally the last member of the band was the love of Toby's life; a beautiful Spotted Seal from Monterrey Bay named Erica Watters.
The band seemed to fit the look of their style. Riley wore a worn-out white shirt with a ripped off collar and black spandex tights. Raven was rough and edgy, wearing a black sports bra and black leather leggings. Erica was wearing her Muschigrell Silverette Bicast leather leggings clinging to her thighs with a black leather bikini top with fringe.
After making adjustments to the stage, it was time to party, "Uh…hey, testing one two, OK…we're all set here," Erica said checking the microphone while 'Sleepy' was thumbing a couple notes from her navy-blue Rickenbacker 4003, "Um…we're 'Stone Hornet', and uh...this is our first major concert, we want you all to have a good time,"
She went over to Toby and cropped a feel of their rear end and her silky smooth tail, "Lead us off, honey," Erica said into microphone giver her mate a lick on the cheek, Riley nodded to the guitarist as Toby's blood felt warm with lust. Toby was asked to play something by her new friends, and that was exactly what she was going to do.
"C'mon girl show 'em what you can do, man…" Riley acknowledged, thumbing and palm-muting a bass solo to her favorite song. Her fingers moved on the strings like a sorceress conjuring up magic with every note. As soon as she went into the main riff, Toby, Riley, and Raven did their thing playing their instruments with absolute power.
Toby's head banging and skill with guitar made her dreadlocks fly in all directions. The crowd was blown away by the drums and the heavy sound that was Stone Hornet but it was danceable just like their influence, Black Sabbath. Erica moved her buxom body to the beat, singing in a tone that got her into the band besides being Toby's mate,
"Well I'm leaving tomorrow at daybreak
Catch the fastest train around nine
Yes I'm leaving the sorrow and heartache
Before it takes me away from my mind
Send me love and I may let you see me
Send me hopes that can spin in my head
But if you really want me to answer
I can only let you know when I'm dead
When sadness fills my days
It's time to turn away
And then tomorrow's dreams
Become reality to me
So realize I'm much better without you
You're not the one and only thing in my heart
I'll just go back to pretending I'm living
So this time I'm gonna have to depart,"
"Holy shit, they've got power!" Ian said blown away by the heavy sound. Tanya grabbed Ian by the wrist to dance with the in-crowd. Toby on stage was up to her usual stage antics which often involved sometimes playing her guitar with her teeth and tearing off her shirt in front of the cheering fans, "yeah baby, take it off!" Ian cheered to Toby,
"C'mon girl show me your moves!" Tanya said to her mate. In the heat and sweat of the dance floor, everyone was having a blast. The neon lights flashed and shined on the crowd. It wasn't her style of music, but Ian was really enjoying herself dancing the night away with Tanya, Husky and Saetto. Stone Hornet were the Queens of Heavy Metal.
"Thank you…thank you…you peeps have been a kick-ass crowd be sure to uh yeah…be sure to tip your waitress, she's lookin' stylin' tonight...we'll be back on Thursdays," Erica joked to a laughing audience. As the crowds shuffled out of the club, Riley and Toby were packing their instruments and Erica was wiping the sweat from her brow.
"Hey cool show guys," Ian said to a half-naked wolf and a bigger, taller and more buxom coyote with Kurt Cobain style hair laying next to her. Ian wasn't all too pleased to see her older sister. She looked at Riley with a strong neglect and headed out the door, "I have to get going, I hope to see you guys whenever…I get the chance…Riley,"
"Hey wait!" Riley said heading towards the door to try to catch Ian, but she had the door slammed in her face, "awww….fuck," Riley groaned. She wanted to make amends with her sister and try to start over. She had a lot of feelings for her sister; she just wanted to try to rebuild their relationship as family, but those kinds of things take time.