Preface:Greetings, all! What follows is a multi-chapter story that will be a stand-alone part of my Appalachian Monstergirls modern setting stories, which began with "The Wildcat's Sister"; characters from that work are obliquely referenced (such as the brother of the main character), but no prior knowledge is required. The primary monstergirls are a nightmare, a weresheep, a dormouse, and a bogey. This story features only a little lewdness, so savor the fluff and feels!

And, to conclude with a standard disclaimer: The monster girls featured in this tale, and many elements of the setting, are based off of the works of Kenkou Cross, and as such this work is intended to be a tribute to his creativity. The characters, however, are my own. Pray neither sue nor steal; I have very little to take, but I love that which is mine.

The Sweet-Dreamers' Sleepover

Chapter 1: Marley

"Honestly, though, human chicks are so much better than monster girls."

The owner of this particular opinion was a college-aged man, much like all of the others seated nearby, with lean muscles and the cheap overconfidence of youth. He leaned back in the wobbly plastic lawn chair that had been field-promoted to accommodate the current pontificator, a visitor to this social circle, while the regular members of this athletic group were all seated in more comfortable - if no less scuffed and stained - chairs pulled around the folding table that currently bore an assortment of resilient cups and bottles. A few of the red plastic cups had toppled over, drooling their foamy backwash onto the table's surface, and some few of those were in front of the man speaking, which, along with the spindly legs of the seat he was currently propped up in, helped to explain why he teetered haphazardly, at many instants seeming like he was about to careen backwards and spill himself onto the floor.

If he expected any sympathy or aid in the case of such a fall, he was not likely to find it among the other young men sharing the table or occupying other seats around the apartment, which was shared among a collection of other athletes from the same university. While the opinionated speaker definitely had claimed an outsized amount of attention from the crew, most had the tact to merely study him from over the edges of their own cups, hiding their distaste behind deep gulps, or sharing furtive glances of disbelief with each other. Others were less circumspect, their expressions serving as mute challenges that the speaker was too deep in his own cups to notice. Already, the poor soul who had invited the newcomer had offered apologetic gestures to the most senior members of the friend group, but he knew he would face a few teases later about his choice in guests. Like any social gathering, this hang-out was like a mixed drink, where a bad new ingredient can spoil the taste - and this swaggering preener was an acidic note in an otherwise mellow brew.

"I mean… let's face it-" his next faux-philosophical declaration was interrupted by a mediocre belch - "we all want the same thing, you know." He dismissed all subtlety with an obscene hand-gesture, which only made his chair wobble threateningly. "Humans, monsters; men, women. We all just wanna get down to business." Shrugging, he drank deeply from his red plastic cup, and then plopped it onto the table, gazing around for a more yielding container. Another young man, wearing a green cap and perhaps the only one present sporting a grin - albeit one tinged with a manic menace that the speaker was too inebriated to detect - generously deposited another beverage in front of him. The speaker immediately raised it to his lips - "Mmm, tropical! Nice," - and set it back half-drained on the table, not noticing just how much kick that punch had. "As I was sayin', we all just wanna fuck. But these monster girls, they get all…" He waved a meandering hand in the air as if trying to pluck the word from the heavens. "Clingy. Needy. Sexual M-Printing, or whatsit. Too much, too fast for my taste; they all want to shack up at the drop of a bra. Human girls - they're more likely to be fine for a little fun without all the strings attached, y'know?" He punctuated this rhetorical question with a more substantial expectoration, and reclaimed his dangerously-clear punch, tipping the cup skyward.

"Oh, of course," encouraged the other young man in the cap, with a gleam of mischief in his eyes. The others examined him with a wary respect that hinted at their awareness of what was to unfold. Many friend groups have the one chaotic soul that keeps things 'interesting' through sheer unpredictability, and since they all had gotten dragged into this jokester's schemes on several occasions, they knew it was better to be on the fringes of his interest than to be the clear target of his creativity. Theo Fayette, as this particular troublemaker was named, had been a hellraiser from the moment he had emerged into the world, and neither age nor nearly two decades of being scolded for his tricks had managed to temper his impulsive imagination. The others nearby were just glad that his mayhem for the night was about to fall onto the shoulders of a worthy target, and that their resident loose cannon would be an agent of karma tonight. "Human girls are much more understanding about guys sleeping around."

"Exactly!" the blissfully-unaware newcomer proclaimed, the sarcasm in Theo's words sailing past him entirely unnoticed. "They get it, y'know? Gotta sample what's out there, can't just take the first tail you tap." His final word brought his attention to his now-empty cup, and Theo obligingly waved to another person to bring another cup of the nearly-clear punch over to the table. Accepting his doom with a cavalier grin and nod, the visitor tipped the fresh cup back, and gasped and winced as the beverage seared its way towards his stomach. "Plus… these monster girls are just weird, y'know?" If possible, the stares aimed at the newcomer became even more bladed, save for Theo's grin, which was mirthfully dangerous. "The way they smell, the way they're all scales and fur and horns… 's like humpin' a barnyard animal."

"You sound pretty used to that," Theo replied, and smoothly pressed on before the victim of his jibe could begin to catch on to the insult, "but - and forgive me for the randomness of the question…" He leaned in closer to his prey, his grin wide and hungry, his eyes aglow, "Between your right and your left, which shoe do you prefer?"


With a drawn-out sigh, one member of the collection of athletes stood from his over-encumbered chair at the fringes of the circle and began to meander towards the kitchen, where the reserves of alcohol were tucked away. Despite the prodigious amount he had already consumed, his steps hardly wavered as he weaved between his peers. Perhaps that was due to his own sheer size - it made sense a man shaped so much like a keg would be adept at holding a flood of booze without issue. Brushing past his peers with his broad shoulders, though punctuated with friendly nods, the football player made his way towards a quieter setting, glad to leave behind him the banter that had soured his mood.

It wasn't the smug prick's attitude that bothered him so much - although that was enough to earn what was going to come later, as far as Josh Carroll was concerned. He knew the game that Theo had in mind for this particular jerk, and was pretty sure he would be called on later to help arrange it - and would get a certain grim satisfaction from doing so. No, it wasn't the asshole's crude opinions on monster women that made Josh's stomach turn… it was the fact that he could have imagined himself saying something similar, not that long ago. He had changed, and he knew exactly who he had to thank for that - but that didn't keep a bit of guilt from dogging his heels. He had been at the receiving end of his own share of cruel pranks in turn, and perhaps those could stand in for penance, but still… Josh swallowed, and resolved to do something extra nice for his manticore girlfriend the next time he saw her.

As Josh arrived in the kitchen, passing a couple of his fellows hefting cases of cheap beer to take into the living room, he nodded to them before making his way to the fridge. Opening it, he rummaged past a variety of multi-colored bottles all containing their own brand of intoxication, until finally finding the small four-bottle carrier of a brew that Patty had gotten him hooked on. That had been another change - he had spent years swilling the cheapest piss-water that could get him wasted, but after the manticore had spent hours teasing him about his taste in beer, he had finally relented and tried some of her favorites. Admitting defeat had sucked, but he hadn't really gone back since - she was right, it was nice to drink something with actual flavor. Popping the cap from one of the bottles, he lifted it to his lips and took a deep draught, the rich taste bringing to mind the heat in her eyes, the way she smiled, her scent…

Love had changed Josh Carroll, and he was damn glad for it.

Gasping as he lowered the bottle, Josh let the warmth of the alcohol spread throughout his chest before he glanced around the kitchen, his mood slightly improved. He paused, though, as he noticed something out of the corner of his eyes. The hall leading back towards the living room branched off into bedrooms, and one door had been left cracked open. Blinking, Josh stepped closer, gently opening the door to glance inside, only somewhat surprised to see the room's occupant sitting at his desk, bent over an opened textbook. Josh cleared his throat, and the young man glanced up from his studying to meet his gaze, a ghost of guilt flickering across his face before he nodded to his wider teammate standing at the door. "Ethan, bro… break just started, man. Finals are done. What are you doin' in here?"

"Yeah, sorry…" Ethan Yates turned in his chair to face Josh directly. A year younger than Josh, Ethan was another graduate of Shallow Creek High School, just out of his first semester as a freshman. Unlike Josh's messy, sandy-blonde hair, Ethan's hair was jet-black and neatly combed. The younger man possessed a lean angularity, from his shoulders to his broad chin and defined cheeks, a stony rigidity that matched his inflexible personality. It had taken Josh a while to get used to Ethan - he had first taken the younger man's standoffishness as judgment, but in time he had come to realize that Ethan mostly reserved his critical eye for his own self. He worked hard, on the field and in class, though his grades were middling at best - probably a big part of the reason he hit the books as hard as he did. Still, despite their differences, Josh had come to like the guy; there was something about Ethan, a kind of innocence and good-heartedness, that reminded Josh of his own younger brother Jake. "Next year I have to take Calculus, and I barely scraped by in Prob & Stats… plus, my English grades this year were rough."

"There'll be time for that later," Josh insisted, starting to jerk a thumb towards the common area and then stopping. Maybe it would be better to wait to try once more to include him in the social time, until some time when there wasn't a jackass preaching to the entire crew. "We're on break, man. Let your brain chill out a bit. You can't keep putting yourself under all this pressure."

"I'll be fine," Ethan insisted, but frowned, glancing down before back to Josh. "But thanks for looking out for-"

"Man, just… relax a bit, okay? We're on the same team, you don't have to be all formal with me. Look, you going home for the break?"

Ethan nodded. "Yeah, I'm driving in tomorrow."

Josh shrugged. "Me and Patty are going to spend the weekend together, and then go in on Monday. But… just do me a favor, eh?" He took a swig from his bottle, and then nodded to the books on Ethan's desk. "When you get home, put the studying down for a bit. Enjoy seeing your family, sleeping in your own bed - you'll be better for it when you come back, I promise." Josh knew he was hardly one to lecture anybody on how to get good grades, but the words felt true.

Ethan nodded slowly, but let a rare smile creep onto his face. "Not sure how much rest I'll be getting when I get home, either. My parents are going out for part of the weekend, and they agreed to let my step-sis have some friends over instead of going to a party at somebody's lakehouse. So, I get to babysit a sleepover - make sure they don't cause too much chaos."

Josh frowned, his forehead wrinkled with thought. "Your step-sister… she was…" Like many upperclassmen, he had treated the lower classes with a sort of vague disinterest, a consciousness of their existence without the taint of actual consideration. Still, he vaguely remembered someone coming onto the field to congratulate Ethan after their wins, though that had been a year and a half - and many, many, many beers - ago. A sheep girl? A bigger girl?

"A senior, this year." Ethan shook his head, smiling in slight disbelief as he ran his hand back through his hair. "It's weird to think about her and her friends being at the top of the school."

Josh, his brow still beetled in haphazard memory-mining, nodded in reply. "Oh, yeah! She was a centaur!"

"A nightmare," Ethan corrected, "but, yeah, kinda. Her mom is a centaur."

With that confirmation, hazy memories trickled into Josh's alcohol-glazed mind. He remembered a girl in an oversized hoodie, dark hair covering one eye, charging to meet Ethan with a brilliant grin as they all had marched off the football field, stripping off helmets and pads. He could remember the guys teasing Ethan about it, and the stoic junior's characteristically-blunt replies failing to stave off their needling. And there had been other girls there, too… yeah, Ethan was the type of guy who managed to draw a lot of attention from the other sex while remaining somehow oblivious to it. Josh snorted, a prophetic pity and the clarity of recent experience making him shake his head. "They're leaving you in charge of her and her friends? Sounds like you'll have your hands full, then."

"Oh, it'll be fine," Ethan waved dismissively. "They're all good girls - I bet they never even wanted to go to the lakehouse party, just used it as leverage to get to have a big sleepover together instead."

"Oh, I'd put money on it," Josh agreed, smirking. He kept quiet his suspicions that they had also intentionally chosen a time when Ethan's parents would be out of town. Ethan was a good guy - but the sort to be entirely too trusting. Maybe it was just having spent so much time with Patty… Josh felt he could see the real motivations behind what was going on, but - like ancient Cassandra, cursed to see the future without being able to change the dooms she saw - knew it would be no good to try to warn Ethan about it. Taking another deep swallow of his nearly-empty bottle, he nodded a final time to the other athlete. "Ah, good luck, then. I'll see you next semester, unless we run into each other back home."

"Yeah, I'll catch you around," Ethan said with a friendly smile, already turning back to his books. Josh observed him for a second before turning to go, content that things would work out just fine for the other guy. After all, Josh himself had been changed for the better through the saving grace of a hell-raising manticore; maybe Ethan would find what he was missing, too.

Halting suddenly as he re-entered the hall, glad that his bottle was draining low enough not to geyser forth its contents, Josh nearly ran into another man, whose face was mere inches from his own, green eyes alight with chaos under his cap. "Hey, I've been looking for you," Theo remarked eagerly, the usual casual charisma of his voice failing to cover his devilish intentions. "Does Timmy still have that truck with a camper shell parked on the other side of the girls' dorms?"

Josh nodded, already aware of the particular cruelty Theo had in mind. "Yep. And it's a warm enough night that he'll be fine till morning. Need help with the heavy lifting?"

Theo's eyebrow rose. "You sure you're up for it? I heard coach chewed you out after you and Patty got caught in the locker rooms-"

"Ah, this one is worth the risk," Josh reassured him, remembering the newcomer's callous words comparing monster girls to barnyard animals. It wasn't the first time any of them had heard opinions like that. Their girlfriends had heard them too - much too frequently, causing too much pain. "He already passed out?"

"Fell back out of his chair and started snoring," Theo chuckled. "Help me remember - he likes his left shoe best."

"Got it. Grab the markers and let's head out - we'll still have time to drink a few and laugh about it before we need to crash." Rolling his shoulders to limber himself, Josh followed his friend back into the living room, looking forward to administering this bit of justice.

He couldn't change who he had been, or the mistakes he had made. He could just try to be better, to be worthy of the girl who had given him a chance he didn't really deserve. But… maybe he could help a few fools like himself on their own path to enlightenment, even if they were blind to the good it would do them - guys like this asshole passed out beside his toppled lawn chair, or maybe that jerk back home who had gone after Patty's little sister during the Fall Festival. Giving guys like that a little 'guidance' was the least he could do, after all.

Soon enough, the laughing crowd departed the apartment, leaving Ethan behind to slip into bed and turn off the lights, letting a fitful sleep take him, his mind swimming with formulae and facts - and a wistful wondering at what it would be like to be home once more.


It was the best birthday present ever, and it was all his - he was the luckiest ten-year-old alive.

Ethan's dad told him that it was the biggest treehouse in three states, and he believed it. Of course, it helped that his dad owned a construction company - and some of his workers had even volunteered to help build it. It sat in the middle of a tree that forked low towards its base, splitting three ways and sprawling over much of their backyard. With that solid foundation, they had made a wide floor, complete with observation deck, two rope ladders to the ground, - not a slide, cause those were for little kids - and an enclosed command center. His dad's grin had been huge when he showed it to him, and even the workers that had helped build it had laughed and cheered, but Ethan had practically flown up the ladder to go check it out for the first time. He had been up there for hours since then: checking out the views, sitting with his legs swinging back and forth under the railings and out into space, planning what he would put in the command center. Imagining what all he could do up here was almost as good a gift as the treehouse itself, and he was already planning the entire summer based on this place. His mom had already told him that he could stay there until dark if he wanted, and the sheer amount of freedom made his head swim with possibility.

"H-hey," a soft voice called up to him. "Cool treehouse!"

Ethan blinked, and his gaze fell down into bright magenta eyes. Looking the dizzingly-far distance to the ground, he found a girl close to his age standing there, on the back of a purple pony. She looked up at him, her long dark purple hair pulled back on either side of her face except for curled bangs, which almost reached down to her brilliant, purple-pink eyes. She waved up at him shyly, swaying back and forth along with the pony she was- no, that wasn't it. She was the pony - her body stopped at the waist just where a horse's neck would be, and from there back she had the four legs and swishing tail of a young horse - a filly, he remembered from class, 'cause she would be a girl horse. Ethan gawped back at her, his eyes wide, and he could see her face crumple under his inspection, her legs taking a slight step away-

"Yeah!" Ethan's exclamation froze her in place. "My dad built it!" Ethan flung a hand out, motioning towards the rest of the skylifted sprawl. "Want to come check it out?"

The girl's face beamed, and her tail lifted and flicked back and forth as her feet danced a little. "Yeah!" She looked around, but her face fell as she saw the ladder. "Aww…" She looked back up at him, crestfallen. "Sorry… I can't. I can't get up there…"

Ethan was slower to understand the problem, but as he did, his own expression decayed further than her own. His promised land had become an instant lie; this fatal flaw had made a dystopia out of heaven itself. Screwing his face up in a stubborn frown, he descended from his place on high to go play with this new friend, leaving the treehouse behind - but already, his mind was chewing away at the problem, like the teeth of a great drill grinding through a mountainside.

Ethan's dad had been shocked at his idea, but in time, he had come around. It had helped when the new neighbor had introduced herself: a kind lady, Miss Marley, who had just moved to the area from a nearby city, with her sister's daughter Nellie, who was Ethan's new friend. Nellie's parents were career military, and so having Nellie had been a pleasant surprise to them - but, after long conversations, they had decided that growing up in a stable home would be better for her than life constantly moving between bases, and Nellie's aunt had offered to raise her instead, having always wanted a little girl to take care of. Now, having just moved into an old house nearby, Nellie had been told to explore the area and see if there were any kids her age to play with, and just by sheer luck, the big lot next to their property was Ethan's house - there weren't any other kids close to their age within a few miles. Ethan was a year older than Nellie, and Nellie was a girl, but already the two of them had hit it off instantly. Seeing that, Ethan's dad had agreed to his son's rather extreme solution to the problem, on the single caveat that, since he had already paid his workers enough to help build the treehouse, Ethan would have to help his dad with this construction himself.

And so it was, by the end of the summer, that Ethan's tree fortress had a long, gently-inclining ramp up to its balcony. His dad had called that yet another marvel, the first he had ever heard of. Even though some of the nails were crooked, and it wobbled a bit in places, and it wasn't done until summer was pretty much over, it restored the treehouse to glory in the eyes of Ethan and Nellie - one summer was over, but there were so many ahead of them, and next year, they could have all kinds of adventures up there!

Time passed. Ethan and Nellie started school: Ethan in fifth grade, Nellie fourth. There were more summers, just as much fun as they had imagined. Years chased each other, and they changed to the middle school - torture for that year in different buildings until she caught up. The Yates house fell quiet for a time after the car crash that took his mom, and the laughter died for a season while Nellie let him be alone there to cry - but like spring, smiles sprouted anew in time, even tinged with painful memories.

And, a few years later, the Yates home became much busier, with boxes being driven the short distance between the two properties, with rooms being repurposed and renovated - a new name on an old door, just down the hall from Ethan's own. That made it even easier to spend time hanging out in that treehouse, now weather-stained and a bit creaky in places, patched where storm-snapped branches had clawed at railings, and with the addition of a pull-up bar close enough to the command center that they could still shout to each other which she was reading. Sometimes his friends came over to hang out there, or hers, but most of the time, it was theirs alone. He'd never found a way to say it, but the treehouse hadn't necessarily been the best birthday gift ever after all, compared to the other important thing that had happened the same day - but getting to share it with his best friend made it even better than he'd imagined.

Maybe that was why, even when he dreamed, he was in that treehouse - staring up at the metal roof that rang out from raindrops falling between the leaves, his head resting on a warm, soft flank that smelled faintly of lavender shampoo. Only then did the world feel at peace, and Ethan rested - sighed, deep and contentedly, and let himself relax into the oblivion of slumber.


"Alright, guys, I'm heading out, I'll see you all next-!"

Ethan froze in place as he was interrupted by a knock at the door he was reaching for the handle of. He pulled the door open, his face a mask of curiosity. After his eyes adjusted to the glare of morning sunlight, he blinked in surprise when he discovered that it was a member of campus police on the other side of the door. It wasn't that unusual for those officers to make the rounds through the apartment complex, since it had been built for the college students and was just across the street from the main campus. It also wasn't unusual for those officers to pay visits specifically to this apartment, considering the reputation some of its residents enjoyed. It was strange, however, that one would visit on the first day of Christmas Break, although, considering the get-together last night…

"Afternoon, Officer Linda," Ethan said, with a genial nod.

The officer relaxed her stance when she saw Ethan, offering him a tight, but honest, smile. "Good morning, Ethan," she replied, her gaze hidden behind her reflective sunglasses, though her head tipped down and up. She glanced to his side, at the duffel slung over his shoulder. "You heading back home for the break?"

"Yes, ma'am," he responded politely. "Was just on my way. Do you need…?"

"You?" The woman's laugh was short but genuine, her antennae shaking in front of her face. "I think you're fine, unless…" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, and her gossamer-clear wings fluttered behind her, above the stinger-tipped, black-and-yellow body of her wasp abdomen, the colors clashing with the pale blue of her uniform. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about an incident this morning…?"

"No, ma'am," Ethan replied with blunt honesty. "I've been up for a couple hours, packing some clothes and a few other things for the break," nodding to the duffel at his side, "and everything has been quiet here."

"I see. But, if I can guess… there was a little get-together here last night?" The officer's smile was as sharp as her stinger.

"Well, yes - though, I was in my room, studying…"

"I believe you." Here, her expression softened. Ethan already had a reputation as the white sheep among his peers, more likely to be found at the library than one of the raucous parties that security occasionally had to break up. "Still, the chief wanted me to make the rounds of the usual suspects…"

"Ah." Ethan gave her a sympathetic grimace. "How bad is it this time?"

"Well, let's see… where to start?" Shifting her stance, she nodded towards the sidewalk nearby. "Some tennis player - with rich parents, mind - found himself in a bit of trouble this morning. He says he came here last night just to hang out - though I'm guessing that's his vomit all over the shrubbery, so he probably had a bit to drink while he was at it. After he passed out, he woke up this morning in Tim Boyd's camper-"

Seeing where this was going, Ethan covered his face. "Not the shoe thing again…"

The officer's face was statuesquely composed in a cold smile. "Yep. He was naked, and the only thing in the camper with him was his left shoe. And before you suggest he ended up that way of his own volition-" Ethan raised his hands in instant surrender, and she nodded kindly to him, aware that he wasn't the sort of schemer she was used to interrogating - "He was covered in black marker, all over his body." She paused to let the curious horror build on his expression. "Big black spots, like a cow. And-" Here, for a moment, her composure slipped into a snicker, but she smoothed her features like a master sculptor - "a pair of 'dick-horns.' A lot of dicks, actually, of a wide range of artistic value and accuracy of depiction…"

"Checks out," Ethan acknowledged, having had to scrub more than his fair share of penile graffiti off of himself in the past, whenever his roommates caught him asleep and decided to punish him for not joining in their revelry.

"Unfortunately, instead of just waiting to flag down one of our patrols, he decided to make a cross-campus sprint back to his own room. Might have made it, too, if he hadn't taken that shortcut across the cross country track. The girls' team was having a practice, and when they took him for a pervert, they decided to run him down. Poor bastard dropped the shoe in his panic, too-"

"I get the picture," Ethan interrupted, wincing. Had the guy really deserved all that? Theo and the others had their own code of honor, mischievous and outrageous as it could sometimes be. Still.. "I was just saying bye to Theo and the others a moment ago-"

A loud squeal of rubber cut off Ethan's next words, and instead the bassy rumble of Theo's car - a rusty old muscle car with a hideous, mismatched paint job, but an engine that purred like a king of the paved jungle - spoke for the prankster's whereabouts. Ethan and the officer watched as the car drove past the apartment, moving just too fast for Linda's shouts to reach it, as Theo's Cheshire girlfriend leaned out of the window and waved enthusiastically to the cop, laughing as she slid back inside.

"Gods help us all if those two ever manage to have a kid," Officer Linda moaned, shaking her head. "I should've thought about the back door." She looked for a moment, considering - only for a second - if Ethan had stalled her to give his roommate time to flee, postponing Theo's reckoning for the tennis player's torment, but she quickly ruled that the boy was too honest even for that. "I'll catch him around, don't worry about that." She offered Ethan a professional nod, and he returned the gesture with a smile, before leaning back inside to shout a second farewell to his remaining roommates.

As Officer Linda strolled back to her patrol car, avoiding the pinkish stain on the sidewalk with exaggerated care, she took a moment to glance back as Ethan walked out of the building and towards his car. Safe behind her reflective lenses, she examined him another time before minutely shaking her head, wondering how a boy like that had managed to make it this far out of high school without being snatched up. It wouldn't last long, her instincts told her, and with a little laugh she got into her car to report her already-expected failure to catch Theo Fayette, eager to get back to actual work and let this matter cool off for a while. Ethan pulled out ahead of her, but as she turned onto campus, he headed for the interstate, starting the long drive home.


Hours would pass over Ethan's drive, as radio stations faded into static, and mountains rose skyward. His small SUV - a bit dated, but sturdy and with good mileage-per-gallon, and modified for a centaur passenger from when he drove his sister to school - rolled over bridges spanning deep crevasses, past glistening lakes, along steep cliff edges where water trickled to splatter onto the stone below. Each mile brought him closer to home, especially after he turned off the interstate onto narrower two-lanes that twisted between rolling hills, under the gazes of flaking billboards still advertising long-closed shops, long-outdated deals, and the surroundings felt more and more and more like home.

Finally he turned off once more, taking a road that seemed to have been born to serve as a blueprint for roller coasters, making blind twists and sudden steep rises, offering brief glimpses of incredible vistas only slightly tarnished by familiarity but gilded by his time away from them. He even drove down the slope past the squat Shallow Creek High, and further down the hill the middle school it overlooked. Home, home, his spirit sighed, and a tension he never really had noticed began to seep out of his shoulders. It wasn't completely gone, though, even as he bumped over the railroad tracks, crossed the age-cracked bridge over the burbling stream that gave the area its name, until his car crunched over familiar gravel.

Ethan's car reclaimed an abandoned spot in front of the garage, and he turned the engine off with a nod of satisfaction. His car door slammed shut behind him as he stood, and turned to grab his duffel - but for a moment he paused, and looked at the greatest treehouse in three states - complete with quadruped access ramp - just as he left it. But as eager as he was to climb back to its comfortable heights, to breathe that sacred air, there was one thing that was more important, first.

The front door opened - his dad's smiling face, a glimpse of the living room beyond, the wide-and-deep stairs that led to his room and hers, and the familiar figure descending them with magenta eyes wide open-

Home.


Author's Note:More to come, and soon. I'm suffering a bit of schedule slip on my main fantasy series, and this concept has been bugging me for a few weeks - I'm going to try to finish off this story as a refresher to get me back on track. This story should be four chapters long as I have it outlined, and will be stand-alone (albeit with a few mentions of characters from "The Wildcat's ..." series, and the same setting). It is set after the second story in that series, "The Wildcat's Rival," which should be coming along soon; hopefully this spring, barring any more massive delays.

As for what to expect - this story is supposed to be a bit heavier on the romantic angst (with a satisfying happy ending, as is my preference). It is a harem-style work, but that kind of resolution requires a lot of conflict, especially in any modern-universe settings. There will be some lewdness, up to the line but not quite across it. And my goal, as always, is to make all the romantic rivals believable and to give them all roughly fair treatment - fingers crossed that I succeed. Drafting this did feel like coming home for me, too, since it shares a lot of similarities to one of my most successful fanfictions, "Into Dreams," and I hope that bodes well for its reception.

And, finally - cliché, I know - thank you for reading, both new readers as well as returning ones. This story arc is a bit experimental for me, and I had a blast coming up with the concepts for this tale - both the campus chaos of this chapter, and the battles at home to come. I hope you all enjoy it just as much... if so, please let me know, as I thrive off of feedback. It was the responses to posting "The Wildcat's Sister" elsewhere that got me to get off my butt to write this chapter, after all, and so perhaps further feedback will drive me to crank out the next one all the sooner.

But first - though my catchphrase feels a bit 'on the nose' with the theme of the monstergirls in this story - I really, really need... sleep...

~Wynn Pendragon