Sagarmatha
4 AM

Nick awoke unpleasantly; it felt as if the world was shaking. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that, in fact, Felix was shaking him.
"Hey, get up," the snow leopard whispered.
"What time is it?" Nick mumbled in response.
"Four in the morning."
"Damnit."
He woke Judy, before getting dressed and stepping out. It was near pitch black, but surprisingly, the monks were already up and about toting lanterns for illumination.

As soon as Judy was dressed, the trio went to eat. The hall was empty, completely devoid of monks, unlike yesterday. When they finished, Felix grabbed the attention of a monk walking rounds and exchanged a few words. He motioned for them to follow, and they went after him into the caverns. Several winding turns, and they found the Geshe.
"So," the head monk began. "You're sure that you wish to go after her?"
"Yes," Felix replied, absolutely certain in his choice.
"Very well. As you requested, we packed bags for you. Inside, you have food and water for two weeks, shelter, and other supplies. They'll be waiting for you at the path entrance. If you want to catch up to her, you should probably set out within the next hour."
"We will."
"I take it you remember the mountains?"
Felix smiled.
"Like the back of my paw," he responded.
"Good, good. Unless there's anything else you need, you should go."
The trio turned to leave, but Felix stopped and faced the head monk once more.
"One last thing, actually," Felix stated. "If someone else comes here looking for us or Leora, turn them away."
"Any reason?" the monk questioned.
"I believe I have been followed by someone that wishes to do harm to her."
The monk thought for a moment.
"Very well."

The three exited and, true to the corsac fox's word, they found three large, yet appropriately sized traveler's packs waiting for them by the start of the mountain path. Felix donned his, but as Nick and Judy attempted to wear theirs, they struggled to stand.
"Kinda… heavy…" Judy commented.
"Oh, you'll get used to it," Felix commented, falling to all fours and proceeding onto the snow-covered path. Nick couldn't help but chuckle.
"All fours? We're not savages, Felix. This'll be just like Tundratown." He took a step onto the path, and immediately sank waist-deep into the snow. This time, Judy and Felix laughed.
"You see, Tundratown is climate controlled," Felix explained. "The snow is always packed hard there. This is mountain snow on an unpaved path, so you have to watch your step around here. Just follow my prints and we'll do okay."
Judy followed his example and passed Nick, again giggling as he struggled to fish himself out. Eventually, he managed to climb out and, too, followed the others on all fours.
"Why didn't you mention that the path wasn't paved?" Nick grumbled, annoyed.
"I assumed it was common knowledge that we don't pave mountains." Felix gave a cocky grin, before turning to face the path. "Don't worry, it gets less snowy and more rocky the farther we go."
"Is that supposed to be reassuring? I don't know if my paws can take sharp rocks."
"Oh, they're not sharp; quite the opposite, in fact. Weathered from millennia of blizzards."
Very shortly after, Nick piped up.
"How far are we going today?"
"We didn't even walk ten feet and you're already asking when we're stopping?" Judy muttered.
"Sixteen hours," Felix explained. "Long day ahead of us, so don't waste your energy."

8 PM

The only thing that Nick could feel was exhaustion. They had just finished setting up camp in a small enclosure chiseled out into the rockface, the second such cave that they had passed on their day's trip. Felix elaborated that many centuries ago, the monks of the neighboring lands all came together and carved out small grottoes for spending the nights on a ten-day hike.

Along with pitching tents, they had made a small campfire using the portable stove in Felix's pack; upon the fire they set a pot of water and began to heat their rations. Nick was pleased to see that the food was plentiful, and that the individual rations were large in size; it was just about the only good aspect of the day's journey.

He ate ravenously; it was the third meal he had eaten over the course of the entire day, and the first time in eight hours that he had anything in his stomach. By the time the others had started, he was nearly done.
"Hungry?" Judy asked sarcastically.
"Not anymore," Nick replied.
Felix chuckled.
"You've got a good attitude," he stated. "I know you don't like this, but try to bear with it a little longer. By this time tomorrow, we'll be reunited with Leora. After that, we can take it slow on the way back; we have more than enough food."

Nick waited for Judy to finish before retiring to a tent with her, leaving Felix to finish tying down and cleaning up their camp before he, too, went to rest.

30,000 ft Altitude
Asia
Noon

Kai was sitting in the galley of the cargo plane while his co-pilot was in front. Although the auto-pilot was engaged, and the plane was level and on-course, he tasked her with watching the radio for any incoming transmissions. At the speed with which they were flying, they would reach Sagarmathan airspace in less than an hour. After that, the wolf would fly an additional half hour to the monastery so he could make the jump, before looping back and touching down at the nearby military base. There, she would wait for his return, or his call, whichever came first.

He was busy working fuel calculations when the wolf came back into the galley.
"Yes?" Kai questioned.
"I'm taking a break," she responded. "It's no fun up there."
"Very well."
"If you don't mind me asking, why are we taking a plane half-way across the world?"
"Do you always question your superiors?"
"I've just gotten into the habit, yes."
Kai laughed.
"Excellent," he responded. "It's a good habit of independent thinkers. If a soldier didn't occasionally question my orders, I would begin to question his sanity. We're going to retrieve a leopardess."
"Who is she?"
"A subordinate."
"You waste your time, and all these resources, for a subordinate?"
Kai rested his chin on his interlocked hands.
"Time is not wasted if you enjoy wasting it. I'm curious, how much did Savage tell you?"
"Everything. You can take off the mask."
"Rather, how much did he show you?"
"Enough to know that you're an ugly motherfucker beneath it."
"My, my!" Kai chuckled. "That's offensive! I'm considered rather handsome by our standards, if you must know."
"Really? Show me."
He removed his mask and set it on the table, before rotating his head left, and then right to showcase his features.
"Those eyes…" she muttered, taking a seat. "What's wrong with your eyes?!"
"I differ from the average mammal in a thousand ways, and you're concerned with my eyes? Wolves have good hearing, right? Good sense of smell, too?"
"Of course," she responded.
"Listen closely: what do you hear? What do you smell?"
They sat in silence; the only background noise was the very quiet noise of the turbines, shielded by the noise-proofed cabin.
"You're very... still," she observed. "Practically invisible."
"Meaning?"
"No noise, no scent. No breathing, not so much as a heartbeat."
"How does that make you feel? Terrified, I would assume. It was intended to be that way, at least."
"You drew the long straw in evolution. So what?"
"Humans stopped evolving naturally when we created antibiotics. We could choose who lived and who died. No, I was bred in four hundred years of war. Built, rather."
"Built?" she asked, confused.
"Do you really think it's an accident that I have two hearts and you can't hear a single beat?"
"The hell? I don't believe you. You can't sync up two hearts; the beating would never match up. Why would you even have two hearts?"
He gave a vampiric grin.
"Safety in redundancy. As to how, I'll leave that to your imagination."
"No, really, how do you do it?!"
"You know, you never told me your name," Kai spoke, dodging the question.
"Five forty-three," she responded instantly.
"Your name, not your number."
"Why should I have a name? You never gave me yours."
"Kai," he answered immediately.
She looked up to the ceiling, as if searching for an answer.
"Grace," she replied.
"That's not your real name, is it?"
"Is Kai yours?"
"Touche."

She sat and stared at him while he resumed his scribbling on the notepad.
"What are you doing?" she inquired.
"Fuel calculations. I want to know how close we can swing by the monastery."
"I don't know why you even want to go there; we don't have a parachute."
"Don't need one."
Grace burst out laughing.
"I don't care what you are; if you're larger than a shrew, you're going to break at thirty-thousand feet. Someone your size will splatter."
He shrugged.
"I routinely make six mile jumps. In the past, orbital drops weren't out of my league. They probably still aren't."
"You've been to space?" she asked incredulously. "How did you get there? I know about every expenditure in the world, and there certainly haven't been any passenger rockets outside of space station dockings."
"Savage didn't tell you everything, did he?"
"He said he did."
"I'm old, Grace. Very old. Before mammals could talk, I was well over your age."
"When were you born?"
"On your calendar? Time immemorial."
She snorted.
"You think it's a joke," he spoke, "But there aren't any records outside of my personal library that detail the world back then."
"What about Savage's Court?"
"Their records are very incomplete. Almost nothing before the twentieth century, and even less after."
"What century is it now, according to your calendar?"
"The beginning of the forty-ninth."
"Really," she remarked sarcastically. "Tell me then, how was peace between predators and prey negotiated in our year zero?"
"There is no year zero, but ignoring that fact, how could I possibly be expected to know?"
"If you're that old, you should know."
"How old are you?"
"Thirty-one."
"What happened in Honshu eight years, three months, and twenty-seven days ago?"
"How should I..." She stopped once she saw the expression that Kai was giving.
"I spent twenty-five centuries in a bunker, a little over six miles underground. I thought the Earth was uninhabitable after what we did to it. In fact, seeing any life at all was quite a surprise when I first stepped out."
She pondered for a while, before returning a question.
"What do you mean, 'what you did to it'?"
Kai sighed.
"The only way I can give an accurate description is to go into very great detail, which we do not have time for."
"Abridge it."
"We fought senseless wars over territory, religion, politics, and other, even more mundane matters. Of course, fighting wars for hundreds of years means you develop better armor. Better armor requires better weaponry to defeat. In the end, it spiraled out of control."
"What was the 'ne plus ultra' of weaponry?" she inquired.
"That depends: used in warfare, or not?"
"They're different? Why make a weapon if you don't intend to use it?"
"The single most powerful bomb ever made, we called the 'Pashupatastra'."
"Why the complicated name?"
"Those scientists had something for Hindu scripture. It was, supposedly, the personal weapon of Shiva the Destroyer, never to be used on lesser foes for fear of destroying the entire universe."
"How grand."
"We never detonated it, of course; even in the face of certain destruction. To do so would be madness. No, we stuck with thermonuclear weapons, which burn hotter than the core of the sun, flash lethal radiation, and drop radioactive fallout over a large area. We detonated enough of them that the dust they kicked up blocked out the sun and poisoned the land, causing nuclear winter."
"... The Long Cold..." muttered Grace, stroking her chin.
"... But eventually, it all settled, which gave way to you."
"I have so many questions now."
"Well, we have half an hour."
"Why do your eyes glow like that?" she began immediately.
"So I can see in absolute dark," he explained.
"There's no light in absolute dark conditions."
"Every black body above absolute zero emits radiation of a certain wavelength. We emit infrared, as do most things at room temperature."
The wolf furrowed her brows and eyed him strangely.
"What do I look like, now?"
"Like a wolf."
"I mean, funny colors or anything?"
"I've seen this way for nearly my entire life, and I can hardly remember a time before I had these eyes. The statement 'funny colors' doesn't have any meaning to me, since I have nothing to compare it to."
"So can you, like... see through walls?"
"A little, yes. In fact..." He closed his eyes. "I can still somewhat see like this."
She began moving her paw around, and he followed it with his hand.
"Creepy," she commented, before quickly growing disgusted. "Does that mean you can see through my clothes?!"
"Do you really want me to answer that?" he retorted. She stared with horror, and eventually Kai sighed. "To be honest I really don't care. Everyone seems to forget that all animals were naked when I was young. In fact, I think it's stranger that you're actually wearing clothing than not."
She slapped him.
"I probably deserved that," Kai remarked.
"You bet you did. Alright, next question: why are you keeping yourself a secret from us?"
"Why should I reveal myself?"
"They have a right to know."
"I have a right to privacy."
She paused. He was right, and she knew it.
"Fine. What job did you hold?" she inquired.
"Assassin. Soldier. Bodyguard. All equally applicable labels."
"How does your kind live this long?"
"They don't. I was genetically engineered not to age past a certain point. Something about telomere regeneration, but I never cared much about the science."
"What do you eat?" she asked.
"Food," he responded.
"What kind of food?" she pressed, annoyed.
"Good food, preferably. I hate bad food."
She gave a very infuriated sigh.
"Are you predator or prey?" she reworded.
"Technically, neither. Humans have no natural hunters, and no natural prey." He clacked his jaws twice, showcasing his mandibles. "No fangs, see?"
She gave him a look with the intent to convey I'm about to kill you.
"Meat or no meat?!"
Kai smiled.
"Now you're asking the right questions. I prefer meat, but I can do without."
She stared at him strangely.
"You're not a cannibal, are you?"
"That depends on what you mean by 'cannibal'."
"Do you eat other mammals?"
"That's not cannibalism."
"Do you do it, though?" she pushed.
"A long time ago, yes. Now, I stick to what the rest of you eat, since beef and pork are so hard to obtain."
She gave him a look of extreme disgust.
"What about actual cannibalism?" she mustered the strength to ask.
"Well, there have to be humans for me to eat them, no?" he responded, amused.
"You love dodging questions, don't you? Let me rephrase: have you ever done it?"
"Not by choice."
"So you have?" Grace responded bemusedly.
"I prefer not to talk about it. Let's move on; next question."
"... Who did you work for?"
"Oz."
"What, is he a wizard?"
"No, short for Ozymandias. We always made jokes back in the day about it."
"Why, because it sounds ridiculous?"
"No, because there was an ancient poem. Ozymandias is the Greek name of the greatest Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses the Second, also known as Ramses the Great."
"How does this poem go?"

"I met a traveler from an antique land,
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away," he recited.

"Hmm, iambic pentameter. So, I take it your jokes implied that he wasn't a good leader?"
"He only cared about his end goal, so we jokingly hoped that he would ruin his empire. He was one of the most powerful men in the world, and almost nobody could stand in his way. We lived with four hundred years of constant war, and we thought it would be unthinkable that it would just end. One day, it all started going to hell. Politics went bad, wars got grizzly... In the end, he and I were probably the last two men, until he died of age. Now, there's me. I always have hope someone else will show up, but..."
"If you could take it all back, go back in time and change things so that none of this ever happened, such that you were with your kind once again, would you?"
"Don't you ever make mistakes you wish you could correct?" he responded, before turning his attention to the paper once more. "Alright, if my math is correct, and it always is, we have enough fuel to arc around within thirty miles of the monastery."
She waited a while before responding.
"I'll go contact the control tower at the military base," she replied, heading to the cockpit.
"Intercom when we swing closest to the monastery," he shouted after her.

Kai grabbed all of his equipment, and made his way to the rear of the plane. He waited, firmly clutching the straps attached to the aircraft's walls. It was a long time before he heard the wolf's voice over the intercom.
"You're clear to jump," she radioed.
He pulled the lever to open the hatch, wrapping the strap around his hand to avoid being sucked out. As soon as the door was fully open, he switched the lever back, and leaped out.

Nearly masked by fog and clouds, he could see what appeared to be a small village centered around a mountain; he aimed his descent towards it. At his estimate he would land approximately twenty miles out. He steered himself through the skies towards his destination, before changing his focus to finding hard ground. If he landed in a marsh, or a deep snowbank, he could end up trapped with no way out.

He spotted a paved road, approximately two car-widths wide; it was his best bet, although it would be tricky to land on. As the ground approached, he tried his best to avoid being blown off-course by the crosswinds and convection currents. When he was only a few hundred feet above the ground, he oriented himself for the landing. At this point, nothing he could do could significantly change his landing site, for better or for worse, and all he could worry about was making sure he landed correctly.

Sure enough, he landed on his two feet, nearly stumbling as he left two small impressions in the soft, poorly laid asphalt. Cursing the bad road design, he began his walk towards the village, turning his disguised on.

4 PM

Kai took his time reaching the village, partly because he was encumbered by his enormous load of equipment, and partly because he felt no large need to hurry. As he walked through the gates, the villagers immediately began glaring at him; they all sent their young inside, with a few following their progeny, barring their doors shut. He walked through nearly the entirety of the settlement, finding nothing.

He stopped, looking around. There were three villagers still outdoors, and they each stared at him.
"Have you seen a snow leopard, a fox, and a rabbit, traveling together?" he asked.
One of them raised a brow.
"Can you understand me?"
They spoke amongst themselves in a foreign tongue, before laughing. He recognized their language to be Maithili; they were insulting him. He changed his language to match.
"I'm looking for a snow leopard, a fox, and a rabbit."
Immediately, their amused expressions faded.
"They passed through," replied one of the villagers.
"Where are they?"
"They went to the monastery."
"Where is the monastery?"
"Up the Grand Stair," one of them replied, pointing a wavering finger off to the side.
He nodded, and made way, before one of them shouted at him.
"The monks warned us about you. Don't go up, if you value life."
He shook his head subtly, ignoring their advice.

Kai took the stairs two at a time, seeing that the steps weren't particularly tall. He reached a second settlement about half-way up the mountain; based on the icons and imagery, he presumed it to be the monastery, or at least part of it. He began wandering through, until a monk came to him.
"Namaste," the monk murmured, holding palms together and bowing. Kai inclined his head slightly as a gesture of acknowledgment. "May I assist you in anything?"
"Yes. I'm looking for four mammals."
The monk hesitated, before responding.
"What did they look like?"
"Snow leopard, fox, rabbit, and a leopardess."
More hesitation.
"Allow me to ask Geshe-la Bikash; one moment, please."
He waited while the monk entered a cave, descending out of sight. Several minutes later, he returned.
"I'm afraid we haven't seen any mammals that fit that description."
"I know for a fact that you cared for the leopardess for two months. The former three were here yesterday."
The monk paused.
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave," he stated firmly.
"Not a chance. Take me to speak with your head monk."
"Please, don't make me resort to violence."
"Do not test my patience."

In the blink of an eye, the monk's fist was at Kai's face; he deflected the blow and threw the monk to the ground, pinning him beneath his foot. Nearly immediately, a swarm of monks came from nearly every facet of the mountain, surrounding him. He dropped his heavy bags to the floor, pulled a grenade from his vest, and held it aloft.
"You will bring your leader here," he demanded.
"I already am," spoke a faint voice from behind the crowd. The crowd immediately parted, bowing low as a corsac fox passed between their ranks.
"I am here for—" Kai began.
"Four mammals?" the fox inquired.
"And I know they were here."
"I swore that I would not allow anyone to follow them."
Kai stowed his grenade, releasing the monk from beneath his foot; the trapped mammal scampered away, quickly fading into the crowd.
"I failed to protect her once; Felix sent her here to keep her safe. I will not fail again, and no force, on this world or any other, will keep me from her."
"If you care about them so much, why are you so heavily armed?"
"To protect them."
"Pardon me for not believing you."
"What will it take for you to divulge their route?"
"To quote you, 'no force, on this world or any other'. Now, please, leave. Don't force me to resort to violence."
"I am not here to fight."
"If you stay, you will have to."
"Then so be it."

The fox tapped his staff on the ground twice, and several of his monks began their assault. Kai withdrew a smoke grenade and dropped it to the ground, immediately plunging the area into darkness. Some of the wiser monks retreated past the cloud, but a few still threw themselves into the fray. For over a minute, the only sounds that could be heard were pained yelps, and sounds of struggle. As the smoke cleared, twelve monks were incapacitated, with a thirteenth in a headlock. The rest were staring in confusion.
"All of this bad karma…" the fox muttered. "You will never ascend."
"Ascend to what?" Kai spoke, entertaining the head monk's conversation.
"Into the realm of the Humans, or the realm of the Gods. At this rate…" The corsac chuckled for emphasis. "You'll never reach nirvana."
Kai threw the disciple that he held away, switched off his disguise, and pulled off his mask.
"Oh really? Never is a long time; according to you, I should be farther along than most anyone here."
"Y-y-y-you were hiding among us to test us, and I-I-I…" The head monk stammered, ears drooping and eyes held wide in disbelief. In the end, he conceded, and, falling to his knees, bowed very low. "Please, forgive me! Let us treat you to a feast!"
"I'm intrigued with how you know about my kind," Kai mused.
"It was in the murals, the surviving scriptures! Humanity is the final mortal rung on the cycle of rebirth; we didn't think anyone had such good karma."
"You peg us as good, then?"
"Well, anyone can be good or bad in any given life, but you must have been a saint in your previous lives!"
Kai sighed.
"Let's not get sidetracked," he stated. "How are they getting to Honshu?"
"I can guide you to the trail after our feast."
"I'm on a very tight schedule."
"They just started on their journey. Felix should catch up to your leopardess by tomorrow; they certainly won't be off of the trail in the next few hours. Please, I insist!"
Kai closed his eyes in deliberation for a few moments.
"Fine," he answered.
Immediately, most of the monks began heading their separate ways hurriedly, most likely to prepare for the feast.
"I'm curious," Kai piped up. "Would you show me your teachings while we wait?"
"Of course!" the corsac replied, motioning for the man to follow. Kai picked up his belongings and accompanied the head monk.

They began to descend into the caverns, following several winding turns before coming to a stop in a room with a large mural.
"The Life of Buddha," Kai observed.
"You know of this mural?"
"Of course. It's a very famous depiction."
"I'm not sure I have much to teach you, if you already know about the Buddha."
"Please, begin from the start."
"Well," the head monk began, "We believe the Buddha lived thousands and thousands of years ago according to the classical order of events."
The fox traced his paw across the mural, holding it mere inches from the surface.
"He passed his teachings along to any that would listen," he continued. "They must have unknowingly followed the Path, for how else could they have all been human?"
"What happened next?" Kai inquired.
"Well, a branch of his disciples carved this temple out of the mountain very long ago. We don't have any written records of the fact; only word of mouth has survived."
Kai nodded.
"So," the monk continued, "They trained in the art of peace, until neighboring villages came under attack. They at first tried to reason, but failed in every manner. In the end, they came to the decision that they must perform violence to end violence. They trained in lethal arts, but when they had the enemy beneath them, yielding and begging for mercy, it was granted."
"Why?"
"They resolved to only use the minimum force necessary to subdue a foe. Any more was senseless and a waste of energy, and any less would not subdue the foe."
"I see. How did mammals come to inherit the monastery, then?"
"Well, it is said that the great darkness of war befell all the men of the world. For a hundred years, the monks hid and accepted refugees of every kind. Among them, the first mammals with the gift of tongues."
"Where did they get the gift of tongues?"
"Perhaps their karma was not good enough to well entreat them to humanity, but good enough to prevent them from being a mindless animal with only carnal instincts. We do not know. What is important was that the monks had the good grace to take them in. By troves they fled up the mountains, and by troves they were given shelter and food."
"What happened to the men?" Kai asked, curious.
"In the end, they realized that they could no longer grow sufficient food for themselves and for us. A few stayed behind to help the newcomers acclimate and to care for them, but the rest went off to find a new path, and arable acreage."
"Did they succeed?"
"It is said that they went to the Pure Land. Whether or not it is true, I do not know. I do believe, however, that their selfless actions have allowed them to break free of Samsara, the cycle of rebirth, and allowed them to ascend into Nirvana." He paused, and turned to face Kai. "Tell me, where are you from?"
"The land is now called Zootopia."
"You came from very far, to save four mammals?" The monk bowed low again. "I am sorry that I misjudged you earlier. Your actions are, perhaps, purer than my own. You are closer to godhood than anyone else that I know, myself included."
Kai hid a smirk while the monk wasn't looking.
"I can show you to the dining hall. The preparations for the feast should be well underway, and I am sure that some of the monks would be interested to hear your stories, myself included."

The man sat in a very large chair, towering over the other monks; they had brought countless delicacies from the village below to please him, most of which he had turned down. He told story after story about his triumphs and duties, such that they would view him in a higher standing, until eventually they stopped asking. Now, he was merely biding his time until the head monk decided that he had 'atoned' for his prior actions.
"Do these dishes not please you?" the head monk asked, upset.
"I have already had my fill, I was waiting for you to finish," Kai stated.
"You are too kind," was the response. The monks all around stared at their leader, until he waved subtly. They all cheered in response, for their lavish feast would not be interrupted early.
"However, if you could tell me where this trail begins…" he began.
The corsac stammered a bit.
"… Today? It's not safe after this hour!" he protested.
"I'll take my chances."
"Please do not take insult, but you are still mortal, yes?"
"In a manner of speaking."
"It would hurt my conscience to know that I sent you out after dark on one of the mountain trails. Please, stay the night with us. We can set out at eight tomorrow morning."
Kai let loose an exasperated sigh.
"No later."
"No later," the fox promised.

They took him to one of the larger huts outside, and gave him ample bedding and supplies. After he was left alone, he began preparing for the journey in the morning: he took the snowshoes from his pack and sharpened the cleats, cleaned his weapons, and set out his equipment for the next day. As he finished, he looked around the room. On a small shelf he found a holy text, which he began to browse; it appeared to him to be a collection of various Buddhist writings, all bound in a single book. As he flipped through the pages, his phone began to ring; he answered it.
"Procyon, it's me," spoke the voice.
"Sirius?"
"Yeah, listen—"
"You think I know your voice that well? All wolves sound the same on the phone. Introduce yourself next time," Kai berated.
"Wow, not cool Procyon. Listen, we've got a problem. It's bad."
"If you want me to come back, I'm letting you know right now that I'm not leaving without Leora."
"Altair is stirring up trouble in the Court. By now he's convinced a little under half of the members that you're a liability in the wild."
"So your meeting just got out at nine o'clock Sagarmathan time?"
"What? No, he's been sending correspondence."
"He doesn't have majority, right?"
"Yeah, but Arcturus and I are losing support by the hour. We're starting to get worried that he might try to pull something."
"So what, are you going to kill him?"
"God, no! We're not monsters!"
"Don't be surprised if this all turns South by tomorrow. Where is he?"
"He's not at the lodge, so probably at ZSS headquarters or at his home."
"When you see him, tell him to watch himself."
"You want me to threaten someone who has the power to have anyone on the planet killed?"
"On my behalf, yes. Use these exact words: 'Remember Mapleton'."
"Procyon, that's exactly why he's rallying for support."
Kai sighed.
"Why did you call me, then?"
"We need you back. He won't do anything if he knows you're around the corner."
"Absolutely not. I said it once, I'll say it again: not without her."
"He doesn't think you're a threat halfway across the world!"
"Inform him that I am, then. You can't expect me to deal with all of your problems, Sirius."
"You caused these problems!"
"Goodbye, Sirius."
"Wait, wait! Arcturus wants me to tell you not to wreck his plane."
"Is that all?"
"He also mentioned that your three are safe in his custody."
"… Alright."
Kai hung up. It was troubling news to say the least, but he had faith in Sirius' ability to handle things. At any rate, he had more important matters to attend, and he needed to be well rested. He laid back on the firm bedding, stared into the ceiling, and found himself unable to quite fall asleep. Disaster had an uncanny habit of following him wherever he went, and he prayed that it would not follow him here.

A/N: Nick's section is short, because I don't think I could possibly write about 16 hours of hiking in an interesting manner, so I PA'd it. This chapter should put me over 200k words, so yay to that. Maybe to celebrate I'll go back and try to fix up chapter IV. Oh God, chapter IV. The prospect of writing that scene just scares me, since it'll probably be awful. How to begin is easy enough, but then I get into trouble: everyone's got a fetish, but what the hell would mammals like? Would it be a predator/prey thing? BDSM? Something else entirely? I'm not sure, but this is why I take a week to write chapters: it's so I can write and rewrite as I see fit until I'm happy with the end product. On the plus side, if it isn't awful, then I can always write more lemons in the future.

On a side note, Happy Labor Day Weekend, everyone. Also, to the guest reviewer who wanted the chapter yesterday: I'm sorry, but it wasn't ready then; you could have just PM'd me, and I would have sent you the chapter draft. We could have had a rousing conversation, too. Still can. Happy Birthday, by the way. Thanks to Jackofallfables again for his help with this chapter.

My classes start on Tuesday, and I'll be rocking a 9am-7pm schedule. I'm sure I'll find time to write, though it might be difficult to keep doing a chapter every week.

Someone asked if I would consider a career as a writer. Writing doesn't pay unless you can actually write in both quality and quantity, which I can't seem to produce. Imagine if I started charging for this fic; it would just be a joke. That's why I'm doing computer science, because no one cares how bad your code looks if it runs flawlessly, and if they do care, then you can just tell them to sod off.

I might rename the chapter later, I just want to get it out tonight.

Fun Fact #36: Antarctica is a frozen desert, meaning it gets little precipitation of any kind. The South Pole receives on average less than four inches per year.