Chapter 5: The first operation.

Half way through the mess Hikui made with the cake, Valdis began getting sick and stopped, her fur remained sticky for some time afterwards. Not like Valdis bothered or Hikui could tell her to wash herself up. Like Valdis had suggested at first, the two were forced to stay low for the remainder of the day and had to spent some quality time in Hikui's hideout. There Valdis sang some song from her village to him, all about raids, battles, getting wasted, and the heroic deeds of Meowth and Perrserker from long ago. Zuka the Beanstalk, who managed to defeat everyone who challenged him, despite the fact he was only skin and bones because he rarely ate, Amug the Ekans Lover, who returned home from an adventure with an Ekans he had met and married during that time and introducing the first outsider to their community, or Bolg the Black, who was born with deep black fur and somehow managed to survive being dismembered during a duel and still wouldn't admit defeat. Of course she also sang about her own grandfather, a song she sang with even more effort than the other ones. To Hikui, these songs were only truly enjoyable while drunk, but telling her she could not sing would have been a lie. Maybe he could use her as a distraction with that voice, if only she knew other songs.

Eventually she ran out of songs she new and to Hikui's dismay began to tell him stories from her family. That's when Hikui began to notice she actually had a good memory for such a stupid cat. They either did not do anything else at home or she was smarter than she acted, or even knew herself.

As the day was slowly coming to an end, Hikui told her it was time to discuss his plans. She sat down by the fire and Hikui took out something out of his bag in the corner of the cave that looked like a small map.

"I already checked it out a few times.", Hikui began, sat down next to her and handed her a brochure of the SPA, including a map and other advertisements. Valdis had no clue what to do with it. "They have an esoteric area right next to the counter, that's also were the Lapis boulder is put on display. They usually have one guard at the front door and one at the entrance."

"So you're saying we first kill the guard at the door and then the other one inside? Easy!", Valdis concluded herself while turning the map upside down to check from another perspective.

Hikui shrugged. He quickly pulled her closer to him by her beard and looked deep into her eyes. He lifted on finger at her face and one sharp claw came out as he pointed it at her.

"Before we start I want to make one thing perfectly clear: I don't want you to heavily injury or even kill anyone. Not at this operation, not in the future. I'm not that kind of thief, and if something happens, tonight or in the future, then our partnership is off. Do you understand me?", he told her.

"Yeah, yeah.", she answered in annoyance and pulled his paw from her beard.

"Repeat what I just said.", he told her. He knew what 'Yeah, yeah.' means.

"Must I?"

"Yes."

She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I will not cripple or kill, or else I'm on my own again."

"Not now or in the future.", he reminded her.

"Not now, not later, not back then.", she added.

"Good boy.", he said, smiled and patted her head.

"Girl.", she corrected him.

Hikui was suddenly very surprised and did not took his paw off her scalp first.

"What?"

"Since my birthday on the first this month I'm not only a warrior but also a woman and legal for marriage."

Valdis smiled back at him as he removed his paw in disgust from her head.

"You're female?"

"Yes."

He was confused examined her body. Visually he could not see any female traits and he did not planed to check closer, but he knew she told him the truth, why shouldn't she lie? During his time as a thief and when he lived with his family, Hikui developed the ability to see if someone was telling the truth or not, making him literally a Meowth lie detector.

"... we'll talk about this later.", he finished and began to wonder how a male Meowth of her kind would look like as he stood up to do the last preparations.

He felt strange knowing he had a queen by his side now, not that he was attracted to her, he rather expected for her to be joking. He then realised after her proposal yesterday he could have guessed it.

"To be fair, I first thought you where female as well.", she called out to him from behind. Hikui felt insulted.

An hour or two later they left and Valdis followed him to their target destination. With him he also took two small bags and a grappling hook, Valdis asked what was up with the latter and he just replied: "It's a surprise tool that will help us later". By the great ocean on the other side of Baram Town stood a large, almost palace like building, with large sails rotating peacefully in the wind, just like almost every other house in this town. Valdis wondered why she did not noticed this one sooner by herself. But maybe when she heard that this building was full of water she might kept off from it anyway.

The two Meowth hid behind the walls of a house not far away from the SPA and still under construction. From afar they could see a pale, white Pokémon, just floating slightly above the ground in front of the entrance like a ghost.

"Let me guess, we're not going to charge at it?", she asked him, slowly getting his way of thinking.

"From here to there they would already be alarmed before we're halfway there.", he told her quietly, not to be spotted by someone.

"... so no?", she asked again, not getting the answer and why Hikui was talking so quietly.

"No. We sneak up from the sideline.", he began to tell her and pointed to certain spots. "I'll walk around to the other and cause a distraction, and when he guard is not looking ... you knock him out. After that we'll see what's going on, on the inside."

Valdis nodded and was just about to head out when Hikui grabbed her.

"Again, I ask you to be quiet and knock him out quietly.", he reminded her. "Also, I guess you could use some of these."

He took one of the two small sacks from his belt he was carrying since they left. Valdis already wondered what they were but did not bothered to ask him after the hook.

"What's in it?", she asked after taking it. She opened it right away and saw it was filled with what looked like small, pink buds.

"Sleep Seed, they cause, whoever eats one of these, to fall asleep immediately.", Hikui explained "Let's see if you can make use of them."

"And in the other one?"

"Totter Seeds, they cause confusion, and I'm keeping these ones for me."

Valdis already got an idea when to use them and stored them in her beard until then.

"Just follow me and do as I do.", he told her and headed back into town, wanting to take a more hidden path to the SPA along the beach, much to Valdis' annoyance.

On their way he also needed to remind her to keep her voice down in order to not be heard. Valdis understood his logic more when he mentioned the element of surprise, a calm before the storm. Valdis found the idea amusing of suddenly striking before the other side could prepare.

"By the way.", Valdis asked. "How will your distraction even look like? Do you attack first and then I stab his back?"

"I will just make some noise, that should make him let his guard down.", he explained.

"Oh. And what kind of noise?"

"Whatever ... I act like I would sneeze."

"And if you sneeze by accident?"

"... I will not simply sneeze by accident."

"... wanna bet?"

Hikui ended the conversation there.

They eventually got there before Valdis began to lose her patience but not before climbing up the small cliff that separate the beach from the plateau the SPA was build on. Not really large, but enough for a larger Pokémon like Hariyama to climb, and so had the two Meowth.

Hikui quickly jumped unto a small outcrop and from there high enough to pull himself up. At the top he looked down to Valdis who starred at him, somewhat impressed.

"What're you waiting for? Don't tell me your kind can't climb.", he asked her.

"Of course we can, but not like this.", he told her. Hikui gestured her to demonstrate.

At the wall Valdis extended her claws, rammed the ones on her right paw into the rock, pulled herself up, rammed in the ones on her left, pulled out hers on the right and steadily but slowly dragged herself up.

"I guess that's also a way to do it.", Hikui though to himself.

Shortly after the finally made it to the SPA. Hikui signalled Valdis to stay while he peeped around the corner to check on the guard. The white Pokémon they saw turned out to be a Corsola, a she, and a key hung around her body.

"That one is new to me." Hikui quietly said to himself, he never saw that Corsola around town, let alone a Corsola like this, if this even was a Corsola. She probably must had moved here recently.

Valdis tried to take a look as well but was pushed aside before she could be spotted.

"Stay here and wait. I'm counting on you.", Hikui quietly told her and pointed at her feet, he then slowly made his way down the wall, half way there during back around to check on Valdis and finally disappeared behind the corner.

Once he was gone Valdis began to silently mimic him and upset sat on the ground and began playing the waiting game. She definitely wasn't a patient Meowth, she could not wait for the stealing to finally begin, her claws already tickled in excitement. If it was going her way, they would already have been inside already and she thought about striking now, but Hikui probably knew what he was doing and according to their contract he was still her superior, at least for now.

Then ...

"HAKUSHON!"

Valdis knew he was faking it, but it still was the weirdest sneezing noise she had ever heard.

"Hello ...?", the Corsola guard asked very emotionless and slowly turned towards where the sound came from.

She slowly, very slowly, floated in Hikui's direction. Valdis just wanted to step in, but the Corsola turned back around again for a moment, as if she had an idea what was going on, but resumed to again look for the one who sneezed.

"Is anyone there?", she called out again, or rather just said with the same strength as before. "Please, be so kind and identify yourself."

Valdis knew she had to act now and not messing it up. In duck walk she snuck over to the Corsola with her claws already extended, trying not to make a sound. The Corsola was almost just around the corner when Valdis caught up to her.

Just as she wanted to strike her down from behind, a green force field appeared around the Corsola, blocking Valdis' claws and attack like a stone wall. Not good, she had been detected! The Corsola slowly turned around while her shield also faded away. She looked at the Meowth still with the same, sad expression. Valdis had to think fast now!

"My evening was supposed to be quiet ...", the Corsola told her.

Valdis quickly reached into her beard, to out the sack with the sleep seeds, and, having no time, threw the whole content at the Corsola's face right out of it. One of them actually made it into her mouth.

"Oh, that's a cheap move ...", the Corsola told her just as her eyes began rolling into her back, then seemingly disappearing just like her branches on her body, leaving her as an empty, white and lifeless shell that fell on the ground right in front of Valdis.

Vadlis was not sure if she should be proud or creeped out now. But no time for that! She stepped over the passed out or dead Corsola and went to check on Hikui.

"Hikui, took care of the guard.", she said, but no one was there for some reason.

"Eh ..., Hikui?", Valdis asked and began looking around for him. What happened?

In the worst case, if Valdis messed up, she would also alarm the other guard on the inside. She could probably deal with them, but Hikui liked getting things done quickly. After he caused the distraction, he quickly climbed up the wall with the help of the grappling hook he took with him and onto the SPA's roof, mostly a flat surface. He did not told Valdis about this part of his plan, he intended of getting inside through another way: A window on the ceiling in the main bathing area. Sneaking through the inside, he could ambush the other guard.

Not many builds in Baram Town had glass windows, but the SPA did. With one of his claws he carefully cut a circle into it with some lines from the middle to the sides like a child drawing the sun, then kicked it in. Not the quietest method, but efficient, even if it took some time to learn it without injuring himself.

Carefully not to cut himself in one way or another, he jumped down into the building. One of the reasons why this area was not guarded: There was no way for someone like Hikui to get out the same way he got inside. He now needed Valdis, or else it would be hard to get out of here as a free Meowth.

The building was warm and the air most. Usually it was even warmer and moister when the SPA was having guests, then the would fill up the water which they drained after closing. Hikui did not visit the SPA often, mostly only to get his nails done. Like many other feline Pokémon he rather cleaned himself in his own way rather than taking bath and because the old and the ugly would come here regularly, as well as that one Mimikyu ...

It was very quiet, which meant Valdis either did her job good, Valdis did her job not at all, or the wall had great isolation. No turning back anyway, Hikui began creeping to and through the changing rooms and to the entrance area. Through the corridor, past the changing cabins, he could the air getting dryer and colder.

He tucked down against the side of the counter. He could not see the esoteric area yet or the guard, but the entrance door. It was still closed, so Valdis must still be outside. He did not took her for someone who would close a door behind her, at least not quietly. Hikui remained low and went through his mind again how to exactly proceed.

The SPA tended to hire water and rock Pokémon for all services, usually. From the nights he checked before they always had all rock types. The one on the front door seemed slow, fingers crossed this one was slow as well. Hikui always thought Nosepass were funny. It was at least still awfully quiet, so the guard was either small or was not moving at all right at the moment.

As Hikui was thinking, he suddenly heard a soft noise behind him, like something tiny and light hit the ground. Hikui turned around, there was no one behind him, only one single Plain Seed laid on the floor. He definitely was not alone, someone had dropped it there, maybe even to distract him right now.

Hikui looked up. On the counter stood a Morpeko with a key around it's neck, looking down at the seed, frozen in a state of shock and which an expression that clearly told the Meowth the seed was not a distraction but rather a clumsy accident. The Morpeko slowly tilted his head to him and smiled awkwardly. Hikui had bee spotted!

Hikui reacted quickly, grabbed a fist full of coins and threw them at the Morpeko, but the hamster like Pokémon dodged just in time and jumped of counter while the coins hit and shattered a bottle of lotion that was put on a shelf behind the counter for sale.

On the ground the Morpeko wasted no time and ate the seed he dropped, then faced the Meowth again.

Hikui smiled. It was too easy!

"How cute. I actually believed they would hire someone larger and more intimidating than this.", he laughed.

The Morpeko frowned.

"First, rude! Second, I'm only accompanying my friend, Han, outside! And third, ... oh, they did!", the Morpeko, a young male, answered upset.

As the ground then began to shake in a rhythmic way and the noise of something large and heavy approached, Hikui knew it was too easy to be true.

Expecting the worst, he slowly turned around to see a Gigalith blocking his way behind him. It also wore a key.

Hikui flinched.

"Oh my.", he said, then took a Totter Seed from his bag and threw it at the Gigalith.

Outside Valdis was collecting the last seeds that fell on the ground during her confrontation with the seemingly now dead Corsola and quietly cursed Hikui for running off like that. If she got to the hideout ad he was there, he would receive a good beating, she told herself.

Suddenly there was a terrible noise coming from inside the SPA. Valdis was confused and pressed her ear against the thick wooden door the Corsola was guarding, she could hear someone yell, but it was not Hikui, loud stomping noises. She had to find out was what going on and tried to break through the door. It was larger and thicker than the one from yesterday, but at the third try he managed to get in. She later remembered she got the key from the Corsola, but it did not matter anymore.

She landed face first on the floor again as she got in, looked up and saw the Gigalith rampaging and Hikui with a Morpeko clinging the back of his head and covering his eyes while he tried to get it off.

"Get off me!", Hikui shouted.

"How did you got in here?!", Valdis loudly demanded to know.

Hikui could not see at the moment, but he was glad to heard she came to his aid.

"Just give me a hand!", Hikui ordered her.

"Do we still need to be quiet?"

"I don't care!"

Valdis was pleased hearing this and smiled sinisterly as she got up.

"Finally some action around here.", she said to herself and charged at the confused and dizzy Gigalith while screaming.

It did not saw her coming as she slashed at it with her iron claws, lost balance, tripped and fell over the counter behind them, shattering it upon impact. Valdis was proud of herself.

The Morpeko was to pleased at all and there was an expression of great discontent on his face, like he was realising he won't have this job anymore tomorrow, but as he looked over to Valdis, his was suddenly turned grim. At the same time Hikui managed to get it off his head by himself and threw it away.

While the Gigalith got back up again and faced Hikui, the Morpeko focused on Valdis.

"You!", the Morpeko shouted and came closer towards her. "What did you do to Suphan?!"

Valdis did not know what he was talking about, looked behind her to the open door and put together he probably meant the Corsola.

"Not as much as I wanted to-!", Valdis began to explain but was suddenly tackled down by the Morpeko. He hissed at her and his fur turned from yellow to a dark purple and his eyes turned as red as blood.

Valdis tried to defend herself by slashing him with her claws, but the Morpeko instead bit into her left forearm, very deep and strong. Valdis yelled in pain.

"Valdis!", Hikui called out to her but could not her at the moment, because the Gigalith tried to stomp him under his feet and he did not want that to happen and had to dodge.

Valdis tried to shake him off, but he wouldn't let go. She got up and waved him around to no avail. She ran over to a wall and began swinging him at it over and over again, until he eventually let got and there was dent in the wall.

The locked at the knocked down Morpeko on the ground while rubbing her wounded area and turned around to look for Hikui. The Gigalith was really on a rampage, it was not sure if it ewas still under the influence of the seed or just very angry.

"Hikui, led him to me!", she called out. Hikui did as told not really thinking about what she was thinking.

As Hikui passed her, the Gigalith on pursuit, Valdis ran at it as if she wanted to run into it. Just before she would have been trampled by it, Valdis jumped up, unleashed her claws and slashed at the Gigalith's face multiple times before she landed on the ground again.

The Gigalith was stunned for the moment. Valdis took the chance, slashed at his torso two more times, and the Gigalith collapsed.

At that moment, Hikui knew he had a powerful ally by his side and he HAD to keep her around. Maybe this is what his journey needed: A Beast.

Valdis turned around and sharpened her claws by rubbing them against each other.

"This is the way we ladies fight in a cold and frosty morning!", she sang satisfied and then saw a shining red and blue wheel coming right at her.

Too late. It hit her and was pushed violently against the knocked out Gigalith. As she looked up she saw the Morpeko again, a bump on his head and just as mad as before. He lifted on of her legs.

"How many limbs does a Camerupt has?", he asked her.

"What is a Camerupt?", she asked him back?

Hikui rushed over before the Morpeko could do something to her and grabbed him from behind. The Morpeko struggled and cursed. Hikui took the bag with his remaining seeds and wiggled it in foront of the Morpeko's eyes.

"Here, eat this!", he told him, and so he did. The whole bag.

Right in front of Valdis the Morpeko turned bag to his cute self and at the same time realised what he just did. He stopped moving and simply stood there like a block. and with his mouth and eyes wide open. Hikui pocked him from the side and he just fell over stiff as he was. Hikui quickly got on he knees and put his paw in the Morpeko's throat. He was still breathing and had a pulse, even if it was faster than it should be.

"Oh my, I guess I panicked there for a moment.", Hikui said as he sighted in relive, got up and he looked around the mess and wiped the dust off his fur. "I hope no one of the town's Pokémon heard us."

He highly doubted it himself.

"Again, how did you got in when you said we use the door?!", Valdis asked him again, now once again upset as well.

So he told her what he did.

"Well, I thought as partners we would tell each other everything!", she judged.

"There are some things someone should not tell someone else, not even a friend." he told her and tried to sound as serious as possible. "Now hurry up, I don't want to go too late to bed."

"... whatever.", Valdis concluded.

Right around the corner, Valdis was surprised she missed during the fighting, was it: An area with bright, colourful carpets on both the ground and the walls, dream catchers of all kinds of colours and sizes as fell hung from the ceiling. A long table where they put various kind of incenses on sale and many display cases and boxes with various small stones of many different shapes and colours in them. An right in the middle, the heart of this area and their goal: The Lapis Boulder. Not as large as the rock in front of their hideout, but close. Blue like the deepest waters, formed like an egg, like apebble washed ashore and rounded by the ocean and with small golden freckles like powdered sugar on a cake around it.

The sight made Valdis giggle and she urged to touch it. So smooth! Hikui pulled her away.

While Hikui check the lapis boulder and thought of how exactly to get that thing out, Valdis got curious and checked out the gem stones on display. There where many, many small boxes filled with pebbles of different colours and shapes in each of them, on the boxes itself the name of the kind of gem and what the price they were offered to by the pebble.

One type of these gems especially got her attention: They where round and foggy and had a colour that almost appeared magical to her, some kind of a bright bluish green. She never learned to read and knew very less about gems, but at least knew whatever this kind of gem was, the box stated it's name started with the letter F.

Valdis knew Hikui did not wanted to steal anything else, but she couldn't resist and picked up the box. She then realised he might notice when she was carrying it and would be troublesome if they also had to carry that boulder now. She got a bright idea and chucked the whole content of said box into her mouth. It was barely enough for her to breath.

"Valdis, are coming or what?!", Hikui called her. Valdis tried hard to look and behave normal. "I will push the boulder down the podium and you make sure it does not smash on the ground. Okay?"

Valdis signalled she understood. With all his might Hikui pushed to boulder down, She got it but instead of slowly putting it down to the ground, she kept carrying it.

"Valdis, ... you can put it down now, but CAREFULLY."

The back pain from yesterday returned and she had no other choice anyway. She put it down not caring if it was carefully or not and grunted quietly in pain as she held the hurting spot.

"Alright then, the hard part is over. Now we need to bring the baby home.", Hikui said and inspected the lapis a little more.

Valdis was shocked for a moment.

"It would be the easiest to roll it back to the hideout. I just hope the tracks won't be that visible.", he said.

Valdis was relieved hearing this.

"You stay over there and push, and I will stabilise. Don't move it too fast, I like my feet."

Valdis did as she was told and began rolling it across the room and out of the build.

"Nice, nice, just like that, easy, ...", Hikui lead her. He thought of rolling the rock off the cliff they climbed up before. The sand would be soft enough and the sea would wipe their tracks.

Barely out of the SPA, Valdis peeped from behind the boulder to see for herself where they were heading and spotted something. Not so far away, a group of two Magnemite and one Magneton where approaching and heading right at the two. It seemed they really were not as quiet as Hikui planned first and now they were in trouble.

Valdis stopped rolling.

"Why diy ou stop?", Hikui asked her from the other side.

He was not seeing them, so Valdis tried to warn him, but with her mouth full could only muffle. Hikui looked behind the rock at her face and could only see her with wide eyes, puffy cheeks, making weird noises and seemingly pointing right at him with her right paw.

".. what?", he asked because he couldn't tak her serious or understand her.

Valdis did what she did before now only more stressed.

"Open your mouth if you want to talk to me.", he ordered her.

Because the situation was urgent and Valdis couldn't think of something better at the moment, she simply swallowed.

"The cops are coming!", she told him. Her throat was now hurting and she mourned her loss.

"The what?", he asked confused.

Hikui quickly turned his head then he saw them as well coming closer towards them.

"Oh, shoot!", exclaimed in shock and let down the lapis rock right then and there. "Abort mission! We'll try another day!"

Hikui wanted to head straight into town, hopefully hide there from the police. Valdis had other ideas and casually walked over to the three.

"What are you doing?!", Hikui protested.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of them for you!", she said and she kept moving.

Hikui hurried after her when she now was face to face with the police officers.

"PUT YOUR PAWS BEHIND YOUR BACK AND-!", one of the Magnemite wanted to demand her but got a pawful of claws at this large eyeball and was knocked down.

"OFFICER DOWN!", the other Magnemite called out.

Vadis just wanted to do the same to the other Magnemite and proceed to face the Magneton, but the second was faster then her. It shot many blue sparks at the Meowth, her limbs got numb and was fell down on all fourth.

As the two remaining magnet Pokémon surrounded her, she realised she might underestimated he police of Baram Town again.

The Magneton looked closely at her.

"HEY, AREN'T YOU THE ONE FROM THE MARKET SQUARE THIS MORNING? THEFT IN TWO CASES, THREE ASSAULTS, TWO ON A POLICE OFFICER, AND RESISTING ARREST. YOUR COMING WITH US NOW.", the Magneton told her

"Make me.", Vadis quietly told them and reached into her beard to get the bag with her sleep seeds. The Magnemite noticed and gave her an electric shock.

Hikui came running at them, jumped over Valdis and kicked the Magneton on his upper eyeball, making him fall. Putting his disgust aside and before the Magnemite could do the same they did to Valdis, he reached into her beard, pulled out her bag and threw one at the Magnemite. I bursted in his face and knocked it out.

He proceeded to then grab Valdis by her beard with his other paw and a run for it just as the Magneton got up.

"You're stupid, stupid, stupid! Do you know that?!", Hikui shouted at her as they flew and her limb body was dragged along.

"I almost got them ...", Valdis argued in response.

They somehow managed to escape back into the woods. By the time Valdis got her feeling back in her legs. As she told it to Hikui he kicked her shinbone.

"That's what I call a disaster.", Hikui said.

"At least they likely will talk about us tomorow.", Valdis tried to cheer him up.

"That's what I also fear. They already have my face on a poster."

"I would love to see myself wanted."

"I wonder if I should have left you there. Some Pokémon won't learn otherwise."

"Then I would just have tried it again, and again."

"I guess Pokémon like you just try to smash through the wall with their heads."

"Exactly, and sooner or later the wall has to give in, because I won't."

The thought of Valdis running against a wall over and over, trying to get to the other side made Hikui snicker. Maybe they should try one of those "Escape Rooms", with Hikui just sitting in the corner watching Valdis solve the riddles herself.

By the time they got back to his hideout Valdis was starting to feel sickly. Her stomach began to sting and it hurt more the more she moved. Hikui was not surprised when she declined to push the rock aside again like she did the previous times, maybe, he thought, she was just tired or began to realise what she did wrong and felt shame. For today he would let such a behaviour slide.

Inside, while Hikui prepared the fire, Valdis began walking up and down behind him and bit into her arm. She worried she might got hurt at some point during her fight or the cake this morning was not getting her well. She tried to endure it as much as possible, Meowth should not get sick, at least not without clearly visible injuries.

It took not long for Hikui to get bothered.

"Do you have something you want to say to me?!", he asked her annoyed. She denied. "Then sit down or something, you're getting on my nerves!"

When the fire was prepared Valdis squat down by it and focused on the flames, trying to ignore the pain. That's when Hikui noticed something was not right with her.

"If you have problems, we can talk about it.", he told her.

Valdis slowly looked up. She began to fear she actually needed help now.

"I'm not feeling so good ...", she said both sickly.

"So ... not emotional-", Hikui wanted to ask her but before he could finish his sentence Valdis began to choke in rhythmic thrusts typical to feline, and Hikui knew once the countdown has started, there was no way to prevent it.

Her eyes popped out with every thrust as she stood there like frozen, Hikui rushed to her, grabbed her from behind and began dragging her away.

"Oh please, not in here! Please, please, outside!", he begged, fearing the mess and the smell.

But she was faster than him and unleashed a short but strong stream of gall fluids and pebbles onto the floor.

Hikui expected the worst and resisted to look at the mess at first, he was very surprised when he did and dropped the tired Valdis.

"What the heck?!", he called out and almost picked one of the pebbles up. "What are these?!"

"Some rocks from that store we robbed.", Valdis answerd exhausted as she got back up. The pain was gone now, so that's a relieve.

"Some?!", Hikui put together what had happened and was amazed by the amount she spat up. "You do know these were minerals and not candy?"

"I know! I wanted to take them with me and because I had no bag I simply used my mouth.", she told him "And then you forced me to swallow. ... my throat still hurts."

"I must say, I'm impressed.", he admitted, grossed out, but impressed. "At least we ... I mean YOU got a consolation prize."

"Just me?!"

Hikui smiled, halfway disgusted, halfway proud.

"It was your idea to smuggle these things in your body and I'm not going to touch them!", he pointed to an empty corner. "Now you can start making your own pile over there."

"My own pile?"

"Yes."

Valdis squealed like an excited little girls and wasted no time to pick up the stones and place them where Hikui had showed her. Hikui, who watched her go, was both amused and disgusted.

"Don't be too, excited. You have a long way to go before yours is the same size as my is now.", he told her. He stretched his arms. "Also, ... I would say it's time to let this day finally end, don't you think."

Valdis smiled back at him.

"I'll be well and rested, and tomorrow will be an even greater day!", she announced, pulled the seed bag out of her beard, took out a single seed and ate it, planning to instantly fall asleep and rest for today. Hikui tried to warn her, but he was too late again.

Nothing happened.

"I feel nothing.", she said, then keeled over face first on the floor and was knocked out instantly.

Hikui shook his head. He decided to let her lay there for the night. With her it surely won't get boring from now on, but inside he worried if keeping her was a good idea.

But for now it was time to rest and to plan their next operation.