Whether it was intentional or not, there was always this lesbian undertone to Felicity and I like to work on that...

Well...that's all I have to say on the subject.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of the story or its characters and thank you for making me die a little inside on just having to say it...
"Felicity is poised on the crest of the hill, pulling back on her bow...with a sharp snap, she lets it fly...the huntress commends her and the two of them huddle together in conference. I can't help wondering...why Felicity tells me less and less..."--Excerpt from page 292 of "A Great and Terrible Beauty."
Chapter 2- Cats

I am a cat-person. Always had been and always will be.

Dogs are loving things, really, that is if you like slobber. Their eyes just beg and beg and beg, "Love me! Love me!"

I had those eyes for Father once. To have him, and mother as well, love me and be with me. Once upon a time. Dogs' eyes hit too close to home.

Now cats...

Cats never beg for anything. They demand. "Feed me." "Pet me". "Scratch me behind the ears---yes, like that." Never please or thank you.

Gemma's eyes are like a cat's, they hold you spell-bound and at the same time they cut through you. They're her gems. Heh. Gem...now that is a most suitable nickname.

Through peripheral vision, I see her there, locking her eyes on me. She seemed caught between regal and vulnerable. Eyes intent but with arms hugging tightly around herself.

I feel the huntress' eyes on me too and so I steady my arm. A snap and the arrow pummels hard into the wood, and it cleanly splits into two.

"You've improved so far..." the huntress comments. And I smile happily, though inwardly I scoff at myself. I'm like a daughter looking for her parents' approval. I am not that girl. Not anymore and not anytime soon.

I almost startle when the huntress' fingers lace over my shoulder. Gently, the huntress draws me into her, the both of us huddling. Heat pools in from within me, but who can help it really?

The huntress is beautiful, tanned to the color of burnt butterscotch, her eyes a darker hue. Her hair is wild and thick and it hangs loosely down her back in a chaotic mane but there's a certain grace to it.

And she's naked, let's not forget that little detail where I can see the sleek curves of her endless arms and legs, taut and curvy in all the right places to be taut and curvy.

Corner of my eye, I see Gem finally stop looking at me. I'm surprised how I want her "gems" to stay over here, on me. I don't know if I want that feeling or not.

She flickers her gaze on Pip and her knight, Ann singing off to an invisible world which cheers her on most happily.

I look back at the huntress. She stares at me intently like some sort of predator ready to pounce on her prey. I stare back like a true opponent over prey. I am no-one's prey.

"What?"

She still stares. Blink. Shakes her head. "It is nothing. You remind me a lot of this girl, that's all." She drops her hand off my shoulder and it feels naked without it. "Wild but regal, eyes always ahead never down." She squeezes my hand "And powerful too. Not like her friend or anyone else's, but in her own way..." Her eyes cloud over distantly to a "once upon a time" of the two girls I already know she is thinking of.

"Sarah," I say the name without a second thought.

The huntress faces me, "What?"

I refused the urge to look away. "Sarah Rees Toome and Mary Dowd. They used to come here a lot..."

"But then Mary refused to take Sarah any more..." She finishes for me.

I widen my eyes. "What?"

"When one has power, the other depends on it and on her who can use it as a game of cat-and-mouse to the other sooner or later...," the huntress' eyes flash, "Mary did just that...She had the power to go in and out of the Realms, and held that power over Sarah. They always do sooner or later."

"Gemma would never do that," I say fiercely. I don't know who I am convincing. Me or the huntress...

Suddenly, I feel her hand drift over my collarbone. I stiffened. Was it heat I am feeling or a sickly sense of fear "There is a way to stop that from happening to you..."

"How?" I ask.

After spending much time with the huntress, I come over to where the girls are holding a rabbit by its ears at my side, my other arm gripping onto the bloody arrow that had ended its life.

They all looked grim, Pippa taunting and wide-eyed in only the way that could be so Pip "What if I choose the dream instead?"

I can't tell if she's teasing playfully or meanly at Gemma. Gemma is scowling back at her. Ann is looking at the two of them, uncomfortable.

"What if I refuse to bring you here the next time?" Gemma replies and my heart sinks, my stomach wrenching at remembering the huntress' words.

I don't let that show on my face as I interrupt them. "What is the matter?"

Pippa pouts prettily, a little girl denied a toy , "It's Gemma. She doesn't want to bring us back."

I tighten my grip on the arrow as I turn to Gem, "What's all this, Gemma?"

I focused in on her eyes. She stares back. She looks away then. "I didn't say that."

"Well, you implied it," Pippa says haughtily.

"Can we just forget this whole silly argument?" Gemma snaps, her eyes flash like they always do. Darken or lighten with emotion.

"Gemma." Pippa exaggeratively sticks her bottom lip out and goes doe-eyed. I bite back a laugh. "Don't be cross."

I match her expression toward Gemma's direction, my mouth droooping into that same bulldog face. "Gemma, please stop. It's very hard to talk with my mouth like this."

Ann joins in with Pip and I, and soon enough we manage to get Gemma and ourselves laughing on the ground

It is only when we leave, that I look back at Gemma, the last one to go. The doorway still gapes open as she looks back at her mother holding hands with a little girl. There is an unreadable expression on her face.

Is she so ready to lose paradise, her mother? Again? Sometimes I hate that mysterious part to her, like you know her, then in the next second she is the perfect stranger, I know others feel that way with her the way I do. She's a puzzle that sometimes you try to finish happily, other times you feel frustrated over it and it'll bother you for days to come.

I feel the sickness coming in on me again, the fear, and I brush it off, turning away from Gemma who doesn't notice a thing.

I shut my eyes tight as I feel Gem close the door.

I turn around and I stare at her. She stares back. Her eyes still manage to look vibrant even in the dimness.

And I think back to Mary and Sarah. I won't be Sarah. I will be the cat eyes, the powerful...

I must.

Whether the puzzle is finished or not.

Whoo! This thing has been haunting me till I posted it.

I'd like to thank ThreeOranges again for checking this.

Anyone is welcome to give me a pairing and a word to go along with writing them out in a story. It can be slash or straight or whatever. I'm open to anything but incest. Just message me.

Afy signing off...