Chapter 1

What a strange world he had landed on. Six trotted along the dusty streets, staring in wonder at all of the strange and bizarre creatures. He had never seen anything like them before. But then again, being stuck in a laboratory for most of his life really didn't help. At least he knew Common, which was what he was hearing a lot of among these odd creatures.

Trotting past vendor after vendor, he finally stopped around a corner and looked out at another street. This one was even busier. He perked his ears when he heard two of the strange creatures near him start talking.

"I hear the Ssala want to try to take over Lawless again," stated the tall, hairless humanoid with slate blue skin and nostrils like slits in its face. Its ears were ribbed and the cartilage stuck out of the skin, swirling downwards in delicate, graceful spirals. He glanced at the stout, stocky, heavily furred humanoid standing next to him. It seemed to take a moment to speak, its mouth broad and lacking lips, and nearly a tongue, so it probably found speaking difficult.

"T'ere's no way t'ey could. T'at would be foolish. T'ere's no way t'ey could get pas' t'e space ring! T'ey should know t'at by now! Last time t'ey tried t'ey got blasted from t'e sky!"" He spoke slowly, concentrating on every word. Suddenly, a huge furred humanoid beast bent over and looked the furless one in two of its three eyes. He backed off, being so thin and the furry tall one being so muscular.

"Where'd you hear this, Vorishki?" The canid type humanoid brandished his giant axe.

The hairless humanoid, a Vorishki, grinned crookedly in fear, showing the flat teeth of an herbivore. "Um, from a zaz slave. He said his master was talking about it during a formal dinner. I don't know if he was just joking or not, but I figure it should be taken seriously. You know, just in case!"

The short furry humanoid stepped in between the two. The canid humanoid was starting to look aggressive. "Hey now. Back off t'ere, Dog. He was just sharin' some gossip. No need to get mad at him!" Despite the size difference, the Dog's glare was one more of caution then of anger. He backed away. Obviously this little creature was one to fear. He was probably very powerful, not to mention quite ugly.

"The zaz are spineless cowards, bowing at the feet of their masters ... and it was your kind, torint, that put them there!" The Dog turned and left, his thin reptilian like tail whipping about madly.

Six had stood silently and completely still as the events had unfolded. Storing away all that he had witnessed, he left the scene and wondered away down the busy street. He passed all forms of unbelievable creatures. Some looked alright but others he couldn't even have had nightmares of if he wanted to. After dodging a ten-hoofed creature that groaned strangely at him, he finally caught the smell of food. His stomach growling, he went for it.

He was digging through some sacks, going after some salted meat he could smell when he felt a sharp sting on his back. He whipped around with a yowl, his long ears laid back. A smaller humanoid was holding some long snaking tendril type object in his hand and glaring at him. "Shoo, you rabid beast!" He raised the object back over his head. Six, not knowing that this was where the first sting had come from, lunged at him, angered by his insult. But the resulting sting and the force of the blow knocked him off the wagon and onto the hard earth. Dazed and confused, he struggled to his paws and staggered away. He had never encountered anything like that before!

He wandered for several more hours. The stinging weapon had left some open wounds on him, which had caked with blood. He stopped a few times, panting in the heat. He wanted water desperately. He had never realized how harsh life really was, having been cramped up in the laboratory. He had never experienced heat like this, or this kind of pain. He got up and started looking for water. He had not eaten in days and that did not help his ill temper.

He wandered some more until he again caught the smell of food. He trotted over to an open door and peered in. He looked up at a fat little humanoid that appeared in front of him. "Shoo, creature. Go on home." He snarled and the little man backed off in fear. Six stepped into the building after him, but a gentle feminine voice interrupted him. He glanced up at a tall, young female humanoid, who appeared to have soft plum colored tattoos all over her body. He didn't really know if they were natural or not, but they were extremely intricate. She looked down on him with a gentle smile.

"Aww, Jarrin, the little guy is just hungry. Look at him; he's nothing but skin and bones! C'mon little kitty. You look like you've had a rough day."

The male, Jarrin, snorted. "I don't run a soup kitchen for every stray animal that wonders by. If you feed him it'll be off your tab, Cyoba!" He waddled off further into the building where the food smell was coming from, and the sounds of many people enjoying themselves. Six glared up at this female, Cyoba, expecting her to try and shoo him off as well. But she just smiled and reached out her hand. Immediately, Six's hackles rose, and his extremely long, furry tail stuck out behind him rigidly, adding more than twice his body length to him. His thin mane puffed out to protect his throat, and his ears, the same length as his body, shot back against his head. He bared his long vampiric fangs and exposed his black gums. Startled, Cyoba drew back.

"It's alright little guy. I won't hurt you. I've never seen your kind before. Are you sentient?" She glanced him over, and stared in wonder at his black gums and tongue and throat, which contrasted sharply with his pearly teeth. They were like any felines, but for the top fangs that could be called sabers if they stuck out of his mouth, but lytins had evolved the ability to hide all of their natural weapons very well. Of course, she didn't know this and was greatly surprised.

Six nodded only once to her question, slowly letting his fur settle and his tail relax. She smiled again at him, showing her teeth. Immediately Six backed off, snarling at her, not realizing it was a kind gesture. She hid her teeth and waved her hands. "Oh no, feline, I wasn't snarling at you. It is the way my kind shows kindness. I'm sorry." She waved her hand for him to follow, which he understood well enough, and he followed cautiously.

He stopped in the doorway as Cyoba went further in over to a fire and poured some liquid into a bowl. She then came back with it and placed it in front of him. She smiled again without showing her own long canines. Six glanced at her in surprise, but didn't need any encouragement. He immediately dug in, gobbling up the food quickly, his stomach demanding it. He lapped up the remaining stew and, licking his thin black lips, he glanced up at Cyoba who looked down on him, smiling the whole time.

"Well, I'm glad you stumbled across here, cat. You look like a few more days and you'd be dead. It's all I can give you though, so maybe you should go home, if you have one. I know there are plenty of places to sleep, like under homes and the like, where it's warm. I hope to see you again." She grinned at him, showing her teeth again, and turned away, going back to work. Six cocked his head, watching her leave. He looked down at the empty bowl and over at the pot that she had gotten it from, then thought better. She had obviously gotten in trouble for feeding him already so if he took more than she had given, she might get in bigger trouble. With great effort, he trotted off down the street and away.

It was nighttime. The sun had gone down and Six was searching for these places that Cyoba had told him of, but all the houses he had looked at where closed up underneath. He glanced behind some garbage bins when he heard some snarling. This sound he knew only too well. He whirled around to snarl back, but it wasn't directed at him. At the end of the alley, a pack of dark colored canines had cornered a humanoid. It was trying to hold them back with a small lantern, but the strange beasts kept coming closer. Finally, the humanoid started calling for help and Six recognized her voice.

Cyoba had not had to deal with Dark Dogs for years, as the city patrol was fairly good at keeping them out, but tonight they had her cornered. She waved her small light, hoping it would cause them to back away, but they didn't even seem to notice. Their sightless sockets did not see her as she was, but their noses told them where she was, their torn ears could hear her every pounding heartbeat. But they were too busy to notice that they were being stalked. Just as Cyoba started screaming for help, one of the Dark Dogs screamed in pain and fell snarling, trying to turn to fight whatever had landed on its back. The other dogs turned as well, snarling and leaping onto their comrade. But the intruder had leapt away and they ended up tearing their own pack member to shreds.

Then another one yelped and the pack turned on it, driven by the need to kill all weak creatures. The smell of their own blood drove them mad and they turned on each other. Suddenly, one pulled away from the battle, having caught the scent of the intruder and leapt at him. Cyoba raised her lantern as some shouts sounded down the street. More humanoids came with their torches and lights and shined it over the battle. Cyoba gasped.

"It's the cat I fed earlier." She could hardly believe her eyes as Six tore and tumbled with the far larger beast. The fur of the dogs began to sizzle in the light and they howled eerily in pain and took off for the woods. But the one stayed, driven by pain and the smell of blood all around it. Six was driven by hunger and anger, the relentless training of a half a dozen decades, hatred at a creature he didn't know, and some strange sense of honor that he had never had before.

The Dark Dog lunged at him and knocked him off his feet, tearing at him. Yowling and hissing and snarling, he fought back with his teeth and his claws until finally, blood loss and the burning of the light against this nightmare beast's skin took its toll. It collapsed on top of Six, breaking some ribs. Six began to choke, suffocating under the weight of the giant canine. His vision began going dark as he saw Cyoba looking over him, hearing the males who had come with their lights trying to heave the beast off of him. Finally, he passed out, the world slipping from his mind.

[Chapter 2]

Six heard a fire crackling. It was near him, and he could feel its comfortable warmth. He also had something like fur over his body. He tried to move but his body was tightly bound. He struggled to open his eyes, to see where he was. He could hear three sets of heartbeats, and he could smell several strange things in the room with him. He heard the soft fluttering of feathered wings and something small land in front of him.

"Hey, Cyoba," the creature said in a high pitched voice, "I think it's waking up." Six felt something poke him on the side of his pounding head, but all he could do was growl softly in warning. It immediately stopped and he could tell the little creature was cowed.

"Decay, stop that. Don't touch him. He's probably in a lot of pain. Leave him alone; let him rest. He still has a lot of healing to do!"

Six couldn't stay awake long enough to hear the rest. The pain took him back under, back into a dark and miserable world, a world of needles, of tests, of probing, of endless battles for survival against much larger and stronger opponents. A place surrounded by the strange and repulsive Albinos, the scientists of his species. They didn't even resemble a lytin, their fur colorless, their eyes a watery blue, their noses unable to smell much of anything, their tails and ears almost missing, their back legs much shorter than their front as they could stand upright for long periods of time, and had real hands. They had no male or female, all of them cloned in the laboratories. And he saw their ugly white flat faces, hovering over him, laughing, inspecting, finding every little problem with him, causing the pain that had become his existence.

But then there was a gentle hand and a soft voice that broke through his feverish nightmares. It kept him afloat, kept him above the drowning in the cruel experiments the Albinos put him through to test his incredible strength. And he looked for that hand, whimpered for it, purred when he felt it. He tried to listen to the voice, to make out the words, but he couldn't, they mingled with the words of the Albinos. But it was always there, keeping him from leaving this plane.

Again the sounds of the world came to him. Six struggled and managed to open his bloodshot tawny eyes. He rolled his eyes around to look at the room in which he lay, bound in bandages and tucked into a fur blanket, resting on a soft bed of furs. He was still very weak, but he managed to look over at what he realized was a door. It had a small flap in it down near the bottom. The wind howled outside, and Six could tell it was dusk. He only heard one heartbeat, which suddenly appeared next to him. He strained and turned his head to look at it. A pair of giant golden eyes stared back at him in curiosity.

"Are you a lytin?" The little black cat with the feathered wings reached out and touched one of his long, pierced ears. He batted at one of Six's golden loop earrings. Six growled at him, showing his fangs weakly. The cat backed off.

"Hey now, I'm not going to steal it! Why does everyone think Meowls steal everything they touch? Oh, um, here." He hooked the earring back into its hole carefully. "It apparently fell out. Better get some new ones that don't fall out so easily!"

Suddenly, the door opened and the Meowl grinned and leapt into the air, fluttering over to Cyoba. "He's awake!" the Meowl announced all importantly.

Cyoba came over and knelt down next to Six, reaching out her hand to touch him. Six bared his teeth again weakly, snarling. Cyoba drew back and shook her head. "I won't hurt you. You saved my life. I saved yours. I suppose we're even."

Six eyed her suspiciously, then glanced over at the small cat. He knew what Meowls were. He had learned that they were relatives of lytins. A feline like himself. That he might be able to trust. But the humanoid? Probably not.

Looking back to Cyoba as she stood with a sigh, he watched her move over to the fire where she took a cauldron from next to the hearth and handed it to the Meowl. "Decay, go get some water. And if you see anything edible..." She didn't get to finish her sentence. The Meowl had vanished in the blink of an eye. He already knew what she was going to say.

Then Cyoba picked up a knife from a counter in the corner and disappeared into another room. She emerged with some dried meat strips and began to cut them into small pieces. She didn't look at Six, who watched her with interest and distrust. "Were you hurt a lot, little guy? Did someone abuse you? You have whip wounds on your side, and you have the number six tattooed four times on your left leg. Did you escape from a prison?"

Six huffed quietly. A prison it had been indeed, but likely not the kind she was thinking. And abuse didn't begin to cover all the things he had been through since he had been taken from his parents. What abuse is worse than watching your parents gunned down before your young eyes so that your corrupt government could take you and experiment with you? Six couldn't think of anything. But he didn't respond. He didn't feel strong enough, or even inclined to say anything. He didn't think she needed to know anything about him.

After a few moments of silence, Cyoba spoke again, quietly. "You can at least tell me your name."

Six glanced at her. He pondered for a moment. He didn't really have a name. The Albinos called him Six for the four six's that they had tattooed onto this left rear leg. In his society, six meant evil, and four meant death. It took Six some effort, but he finally managed to croak out, "Six."

"Six? That's a number, not a name." She watched him carefully now, hoping to see some emotion from this cold and strange creature. Six neither looked at her nor gave much indication that he had heard her.

Suddenly, Decay reappeared and dropped the cauldron filled with water on the ground. He then vanished again, then reappeared a few seconds later with some green plants his arms, then again and again vanished and reappeared with some things, including wood, herbs, an apin –which was larger than he was and must have taken all his skill and strength to catch- and some roots. When he was finished, he plopped onto Cyoba's shoulder and curled around her neck and went to sleep. Cyoba smiled and scratched him behind his giant ears. "You're as helpful as you are annoying and adorable!" Of course, he was already snoring softly, so he didn't hear it.

Moving so as not to dislodge her little furry cargo, Cyoba got around to making a hearty soup. When it was done, she poured some into a wooden bowl and placed it in front of Six. He strained his long thin llama-like neck and gobbled down his food, then lowered his head back onto his bed and fell asleep, lulled by the good food, his full belly, and his comfortable warm bed. Cyoba only smiled and touched him gently. He looked so peaceful when he slept. Such an incredible transition.

Six awoke all alone. There was a wooden bowl sitting in front of him, but its contents were cold. Feeling stronger, Six raised his head and looked around. Sunlight streamed in through the far window near the door and the two windows on either side of the hearth. The fire had died now, but it was fairly warm without it. Struggling, his legs trembling under him, Six stood and hobbled over the door. He needed to go outside and relieve himself. He studied the door, and pushed the little wooden flap with his head. It swung open easily.

He growled, knowing that it was going to be a tight squeeze. He struggled, but finally managed to get his whole body out. He was still wrapped in bandages, which were itchy and restrictive, but he would deal with those later. He made his way to the bushes and answered Nature's call. Then he looked around, glad to be out of that tiny cabin. He hobbled his way around the cabin, stretching his cramped legs. When his muscles and joints felt loose enough, he stopped in front of the door and pondered whether or not he should even go back in. Certainly, he owed the humanoid for helping him more than she needed to to repay her debt to him.

Something struck Six in his side. Snarling and yowling in surprise and some pain, he turned to attack whatever had struck him. He looked up at a strange, black beast. He had no idea what it was, could never even have imaged such a creature. It was the pitchest black he had ever seen and it looked like a starved version of what he had seen in the town called a horse. It had scales along its belly and no eyes in its eternal sockets. Its nostrils flared and it snorted and whinnied as if in fear. It pranced on long gangly legs and looked behind it before dodging around Six and hiding behind him.

Six didn't have much chance to worry about the black creature for some strange horned canines came galloping out of the woods after it. They snarled and stopped before Six, bristling and showing their fangs. Six knew what this was: a threat!

Six forgot about his pain and his wounds and leapt into action. Before any of the canines could react, he had torn through their ranks and had slashed and bitten most of them. Confused and dazed, the leader barked and fled back into the woods. The rest of the pack began to follow him when another beast emerged. This was a larger version of the black creature still hiding behind Six. It neighed angrily, a demonic sound, and reared, bringing its huge hooves down on the heads of the nearest canines, which flattened with a wet crunch. It stomped its massive skirted hoof and snorted angrily at the other canines that were fleeing for their lives back into the forest.

The creature then turned toward Six, its eyeless sockets never blinking or showing emotion. Six stood with his hackles raised, his bandages hanging on him loosely, a few of his wounds opened and oozing slightly. He was still unbearably thin, his ribs clearly visible through his shaggy green tinted fur, his hips and shoulders protruding disturbingly, his gut pinched in unhealthily. But he was ready to fight, ready to do whatever he needed to do to protect himself. That had been trained into him.

The horse beast reared suddenly with an angry neigh, bringing its bloody hooves in position to crush his skull, when the little black horse leapt in front of Six. It whinnied and pranced about in front of Six, staying between its parent and its savior. Startled, Six took a few steps back, waiting to see the next move of the larger horse. After a moment, it brought its front hooves back to the earth and snorted at Six, shaking its head. Then it nuzzled its child and turned, cantering off back into the woods. The little one stopped and glanced back at Six with a soft whinny before bounding after its parent.

Pondering this, Six looked down at the great hoof prints. He could have curled up in one with room to spare. It was twice the height of Cyoba, at least. And with its apparent eyeless sockets it seemed to be more like those Dark Dogs that he had fought.

"Great Mother Maerin!" Six whirled with bared fangs at the little Decay that had appeared near him but smartly out of his reach. "Did you just make friends with a Night Horse? I don't believe it! Wait 'til Cyoba hears about this!" He fluttered over to the dead canines and shook his head. "Poor Volves. They should have known better. Night Horses are extremely protective of their babies. Oh well." He then fluttered over and landed in front of Six. "You shouldn't be out fighting anyone! Your wounds are all open again! Cyoba won't be happy!"

Six snorted with a bared fang, showing he didn't consider it a big deal. He limped back to the house, squeezing in through the door, which wasn't as hard this time with his stiff joints having been exercised. He limped back to his bed and spun around a few times before lying down and curling his fluffy tail around his body twice. If his head were not poking out he would have looked exactly like a pile of leaves with his many shades of brown and some green and a couple of white dapples like sunlight. The patterns were just like leaves piled atop one another, the top ones being still somewhat alive while the rest were rotting away. His tail fur was even rough and added texture to the camouflage.

The black Meowl pushed open the door after him, even though he easily could have just teleported into the house. But he peered in after Six to make sure it was safe. He then hopped in and stared at him with his huge golden eyes. His giant ears and tiny muzzle marked him as nothing more than a 50 year old, and among Meowls, that was not even old enough yet to breed. He was a kitten still, even though he acted a little older. If he acted like a kitten, Six would have killed him by now. But he remained at a distance, far enough to be able to teleport in case Six turned on him, but close enough to start pushing Six's bubble.

"I've never seen a lytin like you," he stated, coming a little closer and sniffed his tail fur before retreating when Six bent his head to sniff back. "I never thought a lytin was all that mean like you, but you just beat up everyone! Why do you do that? And why are you mean to Cyoba? She's just trying to be nice!"