It's been way too long!!! Ever since school started, it's been so hard to find writing time. But I'm not taking a sport this season, so I have more time off. (Do you really care…I don't think so. lol) This small Thanksgiving break gave me time to update. I hope you all had a good thanksgiving (if you celebrate thanksgiving that is. Or if you don't, I hope you had a good day anyway.)

But I am determent to finish this fanfic! Even if I loose my readers! (Please don't forget… please keep reading. Merle will thank you. : p)

Thanks to reviewers Macky and Nii! You inspire me : )!

Disclaimer: No, no and no…

Ally or Obstacle?

"Please come down sweetie, you might hurt yourself."

The stubborn girl clung to the side of the tree in perseverance. The women below her bore a kind face, and her voice was soft and becoming. But the girl knew better than to fall for flattery.

"You're gonna make me take a bath! I know you are!"

The girl pouted and shot an evil glare in her direction. This did not faze the women at all; she was conditioned to this behavior from this particular girl. She cocked her head and smiled,

"Little beast girls should be clean and smell nice. When a female is attractive, they attract fortune."

The girl rudely stuck out her tongue, "I don't care! I hate water!"

The wind started to stir as the leafs in the tree shook and the old truck moaned. The branch that the girl was perched on couldn't hold the stress much longer and it snapped. The piece of wood came tumbling down, along with the girl. The mom was wisely anticipating this to happen, as she sprung forward to catch her. The girl closed her eyes and screamed, waiting for her head to connect with the ground. But it never did, instead she fell into the warm chest of the relieved women. The girl gently sobbed, burying her face into the woman's shirt.

"Do I have to take a bath now?"

"I know a better thing to do," the woman replied smiling.

The woman carried the child down a forest path that shown with the filtered light from the sun through the trees. It was a sweltering hot day, and the beasts felt uncomfortably sweaty. The girl ran her fingers through the long pieces of waist-length hair on the older females head. On occasion the sunlight caught the jet-black strands and glimmered like soft skill. The girl touched the hair on top of her own head. All she had was small puffs of short hair.

"I love your hair..."

"Thank you. But if you had hair my length, you would need to wash it all the time. Your hair it very cute though, I've always wanted ginger hair."

"No you don't," the child denied.

The little girl was sure that the woman was lying. But her attention was diverted as they soon stopped at what looked like a thick pool of mud.

"Why did you bring us here?" The girl looked quizzically at the woman.

"To go swimming, of course!"

She raised her arms in a graceful arc and plunged head first into the mire. The girl watched in stock as the woman surfaced, with rivers of dirt sliding off her face.

"Your hair! It's going to me ruined!"

The woman smiled, "I used to love playing in the mud when I was a child. It's okay, it will be fun! You said you hated water, you never said anything about the mud!"

The girl wondered what had gotten into her all of the sudden. She was always so careful to maintain her beautiful hair, and now it was cover in dirt!

But she wasn't about to ask anymore questions, as long as she didn't have to take a bath anymore.

The girl slowly put a toe into the mush as it swallowed her whole foot. The girl grimaced in disgust, but she didn't have long to ponder the gross feeling before she felt a tug at her leg as she was pulled under. The mush consumed her whole body. The feeling of the cool mud pressed against her skin was smoothing on this hot day. It didn't feel as gross as the little girl thought it would. Just when she though she would drown in the devouring surroundings, she felt arms pull her to the surface.

The two females stared at each other. They were unrecognizable in their brownish masks. They both burst out with hysterical and joyous laugher that filled the surrounding area. Then the mother started the war of mud fight with a ball of dirt throw at the girl's smiling face. They played for hours jumping on each other and slapping themselves with mud. Then they retreated to the shore hours later.

The girl looked up at the woman with bliss, "Mom…I love your hair, but I love you more."

The mother pulled the girl into a sticky embrace, "I love you too Merle."

"Let's go take a bath now," piped the beast girl called Merle.

The mom was quiet as Merle attempted to pull away. But the mom was shaking and the girl became worried. She pulled away from her mom and saw the streaks of bare skin where the mud had come off and tears were present.

"Mom! What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

The woman shook her head as a sad look consumed her. She grabbed Merle's shoulders,

"I can never go back! We can never be together again! Stay with me here. We can be together forever! No one will ever hurt you again. You won't ever have to take a bath again…"

Merle was alarmed and frighten, she stepped back hastily, away from her mother's urgent face.

"I can't. We need to go back to brother and sister. They need me, and they need you too. We can't stay here."

The mother pulled back, with full streams of water pouring down her face. Her red struck eyes became serious.

"If that is your choice, then good-bye Merle."

She placed her hands on Merle's chest and reached quivering lips to Merle's cheek,

"I loved my family more than this world or any other…"

She shoved Merle with all her forced into the bottomless pit of mud as the girl screamed,

"WHY MOTHER? WHY!"

She continued to plummet into the void…

This time her face connected with the ground as she felt the bitter taste of dirt in her mouth.

"That little brat screamed in my face!"

Merle was brought back to earth with a thud as the voices of guff humans filled her ears.

A more horrible sound rang through the air, "get a hold of yourselves men!"

"Sorry Ajax. It was the beast's fault, she started screaming bloody murder."

Merle opened her eyes and lifted her face from the ground. She stared in stock as the view of a campsite of humans came into focus. She had never in her life seen so many people in one place. There were woman doing everyday labors such as the laundry and cooking. The men practiced swore fighting in a circle and people crowded around to watch. The elderly spoke quietly with the younger children and the older children played near their gray tents dispersed around the camp. Merle noticed something peculiar about the people; they all appeared to be miserably worn-out and sullen.

People started to remove themselves from what they were doing to watch their leader returning from his journey. They all paid their respects to him by kneeing and pressing their heads to the ground. Ajax stepped away from the crowd of men,

"Listen to me, little followers. I will bring you entertainment tonight! These beasts rudely stepped in our path and begged us to take them after their parents brutally attack some of our men."

There was a rush of whispers throughout the crowd, as looks of disgust were shot at the beast children.

Mieko shouted out, "our patents did no such thing!" but he was kicked in back, and a roar of cheers rang through the crowd.

"YES! You should despite these creatures! They are a contamination! They take our land and stove us out! They should live in the woods! Not us! Hate them and come back tonight and watch their assignations!"

"NO! Please! We were living in the woods already! Let us go back! Let my sisters go!"

Mieko's plea filled Merle's ears as tears filled her eyes. She didn't want to hear his pain anymore. She felt herself being tugged up again and thrust against a tree. Mai and Mieko were put there too, as a rope was bound around their middle. It was done so tightly that it cut into their skin. Mai moaned quieted and Mieko kicked and yelled.

The people started to thrown rocks at them. Mieko put his arms in front of his sisters to block the rain of stones. To the children's relieve, the people soon retreated and the siblings were left alone.

"Mieko. Mom and dad are dead and we are going to die as well. There is no hope for us anymore." Merle wept.

"Sister, we won't give up yet. I will protect you both till the very end. I won't let them win. Even if I die…"

"Help us mama, dada. Please save Merle…Mieko…and me…and come back." Squeaked Mai.

"It's okay Mai," said Mieko softy. "Dad and mom with always watch over us. Besides, I know how to escape and it's all thanks to dad."

"How?" said Merle with a hint of hope in her voice.

"I can cut these ropes with the nail file that dad gave me. He was right when he said that it would help us. He was a true warrior. He was our warrior." He said proudly. "I just need to get my arms out of these ropes. But it might hurt when I pull at the ropes…"

"Go for it brother Mieko…" said Mai surprisingly cheerful. Mieko and Merle exchanged glances. They felt touched by their sister's courage, which gave them courage as well.

"I will Mai, you two hang in there."

"We have to hang in there Mieko, we're tied to a tree." Said Merle, forcing a goofy grin.

"Make yourselves as small as you can as I pull up my arms."

Merle tightened her stomach as she started to feel the ropes bite into her side. The roughness cut her skin and as she clenched her fists and took the pain. She looked over at Mai, who was also in pain. She found Mai's hand under the ropes and held tight, and smiled at her tough sister. Blood was forming around the edges of the ropes when finally the stress was released and Mieko hands were free. Merle felt a small burst of hope bubble up in her chest. It was amazing that any of these children could still smile and push on.

Mieko looked around wearily to make sure that no one was watching them. The tree that they were attached to was fortunately set back from the campsite, and all the people in the clan seemed to be distracted with their own families. Little by little the Mieko sawed each rope that was binding them, and the female children could feel the ropes become looser. The rope burns edged into their skin started to sting with the absence of the rope and the presence of the air. Mai rubbed her eye and stomach at the same time wincing. When all the ropes hit the ground, the beast's smoothly lowered themselves, and pawed the ground lightly. Then didn't want to make any sudden moment so to catch anyone eyes, but no even looked in their direction. The children subsided further into the shadows of the trees.

"Which way should we go?" asked Merle.

"I think we should go to Kaylip, remember when mom told us that some of our kind might be trying to rebuild a home there?"

"But the only way to get there is through the campsite." Said Merle sadly.

"Well...we can go around it then."

The cat children started to walk towards in the direction of the campsite, by keeping an angular far distance. After a long silence Mai voice peeped up,

"Will we find mama in Kaylip?" she said hopefully.

Merle fell a sad pang in her heart as her dream returned to hear. She could still feel her mother's lips on her cheek and the tight grasp of her hands on her shoulders. Merle turned away from her sister,

"Mother is beyond grasp in this world."

Mieko pulled his sisters in an embrace. The three of them had matured so quickly in this short time.

"Mom and dad live in all of us."

The three of them took a moment to think of their lost parents. They were orphans and they only had each other. Merle softly sobbed into her brother's chest. She had always loved her brother, but now she relied on him even more.

Mieko suddenly pushed them away and grabbed a stick.

"There is someone else here, I think I saw something move. Come out and face us dirty pigs!"

There was a rustle in the underbrush and as a rather large creature was coming closer. Mai clung to Merle's grubby top shirt as they braced themselves for the worst. Mieko was starting to believe that this was no human, but the second worst thing; a carnivorous and agitated animal.

Two yellow paws emerged out about the size of wagon wheel. Then a chest attached to a head swung into view. It had the mighty face of a lion, with fierce features and piercing golden eyes. Its wheat-colored mane overflowed around its face, with two large horns protruding from the locks. The brute pulled the rest of its body from the trees to reveal a black and white patched back-half of an ox. This animal was about the size of a small tree. This was a very noble creature called a cattalon. They are half lion and half cow.

The cattalon stared intently at the beast children. No one made any sudden movement until another creature revealed themselves from behind the large neck of the animal. It jumped down, showing it to be a male human boy. Mieko's face turned from surprise to rage.

"So… They sent encaged animal to eat us?!"

Mieko's anger filled the surrounding area and caused the cattalon to growl slightly. The boy cocked his boy with distain. His face didn't appear malicious. His features were soft and gentle. He had sand colored hair and grass-green eyes.

"I don't think my cattalon would do such a thing unless I was in danger, and my friend isn't encaged. I let him go free whenever he wants too, and I certainly wouldn't call him a dirty pig. He's a young cattalon named Kirfew, and I'm called Goce. Are you traveling by foot, because me and Kirfew will assisted you if you wish?"

Mieko was taken aback by all of this. He didn't know what to do. Should they run? Was this boy from the clan that killed their parents? Was he family with the people who tied them to a tree? Why did he appear kind? Why do they have a reason to thrust any humans? Why aren't they being chewed to pieces by this half cow, half lion? Did they really find any ally or an obstacle?

I should have continued, but I'll save it for another time. I introduced my new character Goce. Hehe : ) you will find out more about him in the next chapter. (I hope that will come sooner this time.)

Thank you, and please take the time to review.

--FT