Early morning light glistened on fresh ink scrawled across parchment. Thinking over what she'd written, Felline bit the tip of her pen. Master Korvu, her tutor, a prim, fussy cat wearing pince-nez, a waistcoat, and a cravat, winced. She noticed, and quickly put down the pen. This wasn't Foret. She couldn't behave like a country girl here. Master Korvu cleared his throat.

"Your conclusions?" he prompted.

They were studying texts on the legend of technology. Felline and her sister had had a scholastic teacher back home – the famous Mistress Chat – who had taught them letters and arithmetic, lessons with practical applications. Master Korvu approached their schooling from a different angle. He brought poetry, grammar, history, moral philosophy, and rhetoric to the table. He expected them to appraise the texts through a combination of reasoning and empirical evidence, and then debate their findings.

"Technology is a fairy tale," Lepra said dismissively. Her parchment lay blank on the desktop. "The texts clearly state that machinery could move on its own with the power of a storm. Yet, nothing struck by lightning has ever gained a life of its own. You don't see houses walking down the street. They only burn."

"I disagree," Felline said. "Machines were built for a purpose. A house's purpose is to stay put, but if a device was constructed to, say, dig a hole, then that is what it would do."

"Why on Third Earth would you need a machine to dig a hole?" Lepra asked.

"More efficient use of time? Labor? Cost?" Felline suggested. "I believe the texts are forgotten knowledge. Or maybe a warning. These machines did exist."

Master Korvu, his arms crossed, nodded his head slowly and waited for Lepra's rebuttal.

Lepra shrugged. "If it exists, bring it to me. These are fairy tales. Fairy tales have morals. The moral is clear: Technology is an evil that is best left forgotten." She shut her book with a thwap and sat back, her gaze straying to the window.

"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist," Felline murmured. She was looking at a twice-copied reproduction of what machinery might have looked like. It appeared to be some kind of farming vehicle. The artist's interpretation included partial diagrams and smudged equations in a language that no longer had any meaning to anyone except the clerics. "Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't keep it from existing."

"Lepra?" Master Korvu prompted. "Your response?"

Abruptly, Lepra stood up. "I'm sorry, I'm not feeling very well," she said. "Please, excuse me."

Master Korvu was half out of his chair, but Lepra was out the door.

"Never mind, never mind," he said to no one, flustered. Patting at his pompadour, he sat back down. Polished his pince-nez before snapping them neatly back on his nose. Looked at Felline like a dog that had been kicked. "Shall we move on to literature?"

What in Thundera had gotten into Lepra? The rest of Felline's lessons seemed to take forever. When Korvu finally released her, she went in quest of her sister.

She found Lepra in the stables. Felline opened the door to dusty coolness, shafts of sunlight that caressed the stone floor, and the feline smell of Thunderian mounts. Picking up the hem of her skirt so that it wouldn't drag in the sand, she pushed open the gate to Lightning's stall and peered inside.

Lepra sat curled up between Lightning's front hooves, her head resting against his cobalt chest, her claws combing through his stiff, cornflower-blue mane. For his part, Lightning dozed in a sunbeam, the tip of his tail curling up and then straightening in contentment.

Felline pulled a bit of jerky out of her sash, padding over to her sister. Her bare feet sank into the sand lining the stall, which was so fine it held perfect prints. Offering the jerky to a suddenly awake and interested Lightning, she knelt and touched her sister's ankle. "What's wrong, Lep?"

"I hate it here," Lepra muttered. She turned her face into Lightning's chest.

The mount flexed his two-toed hooves in the sand, draping one foreleg across his mistress. Hunting for more treats, he nibbled her hair.

Felline stared at what she could see of her sister – the curve of one slim, rosetted shoulder, the low, ruched back of her gown, a few wisps of golden hair. "You mean you hate Thundera?"

"I do." Lepra's voice was muffled. "I want to go home."

Felline couldn't believe her ears. There was nothing in Foret. Nothing. A bunch of farms, wooded valleys, rolling hills, and the same animals, day in and day out. Felline had always felt like she was suffocating there. Which, she realized, must have been how her mother felt and why she'd left. Master Korvu alone provided more food for thought than the entire town library back home, with its grand total of fourteen books. It was inconceivable that Lepra wasn't as happy here as she was. Happier, even. Lepra had received more than one offer of courtship since they'd moved to Thundera, but she'd refused them all, which hadn't thrilled their father overly much.

How could Lepra not love Thundera? The city was proof of the strength of the great cat empire, the jewel glimmering in the center of their vast, resourceful lands. King Claudus's palace, Cat's Lair, lay like a proud sphinx in its heart, a monument to their status as lords over all animals of Third Earth. There was nothing they couldn't buy or do in the royal city.

Felline realized what would cheer up her sister.

"Let's go hunting," she said.

Lepra sniffled. "What?"

"Hunting," Felline repeated, grinning. "There's a wildlife reserve on the river side of the first quarter. We don't have to leave the city, and it'll give us a chance to stretch our legs."

"How do you know about this?" Lepra asked sternly, but she'd stopped hiding against Lightning.

"I came across it accidentally," Felline admitted. She'd roamed all the upper districts of the city so far but hadn't yet found her wanders taking her to the slums, and that was just fine with her. "All we have to do is purchase a license at the gate, and we can hunt there. We can even keep what we kill."

"We'd better change out of these gowns, then," Lepra said, smiling indulgently. She stood to brush sand off her skirt. Lightning whickered, thrusting his square head at his mistress. Lepra gave him a pat. "Don't worry, darling. We'll be back for you soon enough."

..::~*~::..

The chib-chib knew they were there.

The two sisters tracked the buck for the better part of an hour, chasing his blue-striped hide through the shadows of trees and underbrush. He stood now in a clearing, head high, steel-blue beak turned into the wind. The breeze teased at his floppy ears and white mane. Eyeing his curved, dangerous horns, Felline slipped off Blue Beauty. She patted her mount's neck soothingly, and the mare, trained for hunting, transformed into a cobalt statue. Felline crept forward on all fours.

Peering from beneath a shrub, one the chib-chib had already stripped of buckeyes, she nocked an arrow. The four-legged chib-chib gave a questioning warble, listening. He lifted a delicate hoof, the fur of his fetlock a spray of feathery white, and then put it back down in the exact same spot of mulch. Not breathing, Felline drew her arrow.

She released it. Her shot went wide, however, and the chib-chib broke for cover.

All feline grace, Lightning surged out of the woods with Lepra astride his back, her bow taut between her hands. Fierce as only a cat could be, she stood in her stirrups, fangs bared. She released, and her arrow found its mark. Brought up short, the chib-chib chirped once before crashing to the ground. It lay still.

With a whoop, Felline ran to her sister. "Nice shot!"

"Thank you, but what happened to yours? Haven't you been practicing?" Lepra dismounted, bow in hand. "You shouldn't have missed a shot like that."

"I know," Felline grumbled, embarrassed. Unlike Lepra, she'd never been very good at archery. The daughters of noblemen were deemed too delicate, both of body and of mind, to learn any other martial arts.

"Help me with this," Lepra said, gesturing at the fallen chib-chib. She'd already broken down and stored her bow. She reached down and grasped the bigger pair of the chib-chib's four horns.

Quickly, Felline put her own bow away and whistled for Blue Beauty. She grasped the chib-chib's tail above its fanned tip and together, the sisters hauled the carcass to the stream they'd crossed not too long ago. Whickering, Blue Beauty and Lightning picked their way to the water and lowered their heads to drink.

It wasn't until the sisters had skinned and cleaned the chib-chib and they were washing off the blood in the rocky stream that Felline noticed something odd about Lepra's left hand.

She was wearing a ring. A gold one. With a small, clear stone. On her third finger.

Felline snatched her sister's hand out of the water, unintentionally splashing them both. "Wh-Where did you get that?" she spluttered, dripping.

For a long moment, Lepra didn't answer, staring at the ring while Felline stared open-mouthed at her.

Then, softly, Lepra said, "Rachan gave it to me. Before we left Foret."

"Rachan? That farmer back home?" Felline gasped. "But Father –"

"Won't agree," Lepra said. "I know. Rachan said he would come for me when he saved enough money. Although we don't know when that will be, I'll wait. I'll wait forever if I have to."

Lepra lifted her left hand with the right, putting the ring to her lips. A single tear escaped her closed eyes.

Felline was dumbfounded. She remembered Rachan as a shy, clumsy man on the wrong end of thirty, a bit on the chubby side. What she couldn't remember was him ever being alone with her sister, ever even speaking more than two words at a time to her. But, if what Lepra was saying was true, then –

"Where did he get a ring like that?" she wondered.

"It was his mother's," Lepra said, fondness shining in the gold-brown depths of her eyes.

"How long?" It came out a whisper.

"He asked me to marry him about six months ago," Lepra answered, and smiled. "The day we left. As for how long I've loved him, I don't know when it started. It happened so gradually."

"But . . . He's a farmer. Back in Foret."

"Yes."

"That means you'll leave us." Felline put her ears back in accusation.

Lepra blinked as if she'd walked from a dim room to a bright one. "Oh. Yes, but that won't be for a long time. Years, perhaps."

She said it so casually. As if leaving wasn't exactly what their mother had done. As if she wanted to be a farmer's wife. Felline couldn't believe it. Sleek, sultry Lepra, in an apron and head scarf, covered in flour with kittens hanging on her ankles!

"What about all those men," Felline spat the word, "who keep asking Father for your favor? He won't refuse them forever. He'll choose someone if you won't."

"You have to promise me something," Lepra said. She threw her arms around her sister. She spoke into Felline's neck. "Promise you won't tell him."

"We have to tell him! He'll hide the fact that you're already spoken for to save our reputation."

"Please, Felline. Do this for me."

Felline didn't answer, but she held her sister as tightly as she could.


A/N: Happy Friday, Dear Readers!

Reviewer Thanks! This is always my very favorite part of updating! :3 Night Whisperer (I'm surprised that there aren't more Lion-O/OC stories . . . I mean, Lion-O IS kind of dreamy. Or is that just me? Hee! I really appreciate your review, and I will try super hard to finish "Cat's Cradle." Believe it or not, I have the last chapter written. I'm sort of writing backward from there . . . Does anybody else ever do that?), J.A.M.B (I love when stories can make me feel like I'm there with the characters, so I'm happy my descriptions got a good review - thank you for that! I'll try not to let the story go too slow, though - I feel like that's an equal danger. I'll start converging with the first season soon.), and Heart of the Demons (Onward, ho! lol). All of you, thank you again for taking the time to leave reviews, and special thanks for the fave.

To all of you, I hope you continue to enjoy this story, and maybe feel a little affection for my OCs. (I totally feel like a dork saying that, but it's the truth.)

Humbly yours,

Anne