Kedok

Mother - Andressaa

Father - Atrocity

Midform - slender and tall, at over 7'7", but extremely strong looking. Always girded for action, and extremely flexible. Brown chitin ranging from a buff shine to rich russet, very shiny. Has bright blue eyes, and hair on his head, a hissing, whispering voice which has a shapeshifting aspect to it as well.

Shapeshifting - spends a lot of time in four-footed form, which stands around 4' tall at the shoulder and grows a wierd ruff of black hair down the spine; this shape is more cheetah-like than anything else, and in it he can run extremely quickly, corner amazingly well, and hardly get winded. Can shift into what passes for a normal, if very tall, brown-skinned black haired, blue eyed human - though his eyes have no pupils and he prefers to keep the tail. Stands around 6'5" in human form. He very rarely transforms into a fully xenomorphic shape. Almost eight feet tall, but like most xenos this translates into a raptor-like stance and he is usually eye to eye with Atrocity over 7' at that shape. His full Xeno shape loses the hair, and while he has no eyes in that shape, the front of his head does retain brilliant blue markings.

Personality - Smart, a bit bookish for a xenobreed. Though he's extremely horny all the time, just like his sire, he has a strange way of showing it, and displays a profound respect for women of any type or breed. He picks up languages and can imitate sounds, so he enjoys trapping his prey - be it humanoid or animal - by using sounds against it.

He was not at all like the first hatched, the first born, sister Mengusikaa. She breezed through the hatching room once in a while, as this second-born son matured in his egg. Perhaps aware at such an early age, or perhaps just responding to the presence of light and darkness - things which other xenomorphs would not have detected at all what with their lack of eyes - this male determined himself to learn as much as he could, before even venturing out to eat his first meal.

Fatherform was watching, in fact had found him a nice host to chomp on while he grew bigger and stronger, and chose his forevershape. Well, nothing is forever, as they say.

He wasn't sure who 'they' were, but 'they' were probably right. Because when this sturdy young manling xenomorph came bursting from his humanoid host (which was likely picked up from a related tribe of cheetahs somewhere on a place called Planet Twenty, it was a spotted dark shape, tailed, that must be why he prefers ...) Atrocity looked at his new son, proclaiming him Kedok.

Kedok nodded, looked around, and shapeshifted into something smaller, quicker, and four-footed. It was pure instinct, but it surprised Atrocity.

"Impressive, Kedok, your sister never learned to do that."

"I am not my sister," Kedok said quietly, while munching on a ratlike creature he'd found scuttling along the stone corners of the room. "What are these things? They are not edible. You looked at them a lot." He indicated a row of books, mostly science journals and genetic engineering tomes.

Surprised again, but pleasantly impressed, Atrocity picked up one and opened it. "This is a book, Kedok. It contains information. I think reading will come easily to you, come look."

So very shortly, Kedok learned to read, and with some difficulty to write. His hands were still more geared toward killing things. So whenever he was to read or write properly, he'd have to shapeshift again. His hands were the first thing that changed, Atrocity noted. He even wondered if his son could be taught surgical or medical techniques...

Atrocity glanced upward, where Kalkin and Baeris and their own brood went about their daily dragonry lives. They had continued to 'rescue' versions of themselves, which was good. Atrocity explained to Kedok what it meant to be in his 'line', how being one of the Sangers was to inherit an amount of baggage.

"That's all right, no one will notice me. I'm fast." Kedok said, oddly. "Your enemy, their enemy, is not mine. And those people above, they are not your enemies either."

Atrocity wondered about that, but said nothing. Kedok had a weird wisdom about him. Though he could say some perfectly plain things - Atrocity wondered how he'd come about knowing them.

The weeks went by, with a lot of reading, and training for strength and speed, and finally Atrocity showed him how to use the dimension gate that was set up in the other room. It was very likely that by now, Baeris knew it was there, because of the way she was connected to the Healing Den itself. They lived deep in its rocky bottom, past where the hydra kin had roosted but with good connections to the upper levels. When everyone else was asleep, they would prowl the corridors in search of food.

It was not really an issue, food materialized for them in the kitchens, all the time. It was the Den itself, some ancient programming that it followed because it was useful to do so. But 'food' for Kedok and Mengusikaa was slightly more ... alive and kicking than that which Atrocity would bother with.

"I think you've gotten lazy, father," Kedok said while pulling marrow from a bone, his inner-teeth working it with a sucking sound. How he could speak and eat like that at the same time was a mystery even to Atrocity.

"Lazy."

"Yes, lazy! You don't hunt much, come along with me. Let's go up to the top and get caught. Run around a bit."

"Yes father, you should run around," Mengusikaa said from the shadows, chuckling, her visits were infrequent but welcome. "They must have forgotten what it was like to be afraid, as well."

The pair of xeno siblings could tell that their fatherform was conversing with one or another of his draconic bonds, and he came to the conclusion that his offspring were even crazier than he was.

"I'm not going to stop you from going," Atrocity said. "But if you do get caught, do not kill any human up there." He warned sternly, "and do not lead them down here. If you get caught, lead them anywhere but here."

Kedok would have blinked, but he could not. Instead he tilted his head, fine dark strands of hair not bothing his vision at all even though they fell over his big blue eyes. "It is more than a game, I know, but father you should come with some time. You run on other worlds, but never here."

Atrocity shooed his offspring away, pretending like having to tend the other young male who was incubating was taking too much attention. Mengusikaa took off again with her triple-headed beast, and left Kedok alone with the corridors of the Healing Den.

He shifted down to his speed form, ground his hind legs a bit, and then bolted into the well-lit area near the entrance to the Den. Access hallways threaded around the whole of the big rocky asteroid, some carved and finished with steel and sheet rock, others merely bored out and left more natural. He could slide through either with such great ease that it was practically not a challenge.

When Kedok spotted a bunch of similarly four-legged creatures running around in the flight dome, if he'd had blood to pump instead of a thick hydrolic-fluid-like substance, it would have quickened. There were three of them, one bigger, the other two smaller and with a ruff of pale fur just like his own down their shoulders.

And oddly enough, they had blue eyes too.

So Kedok sprinted into their midst, nipped one on the tail tip (catching fur, they were just as fast) and began a romping chase that landed all four of them in a huge pile at the feet of one tall and elegantly angry woman.

"Ivo!" Baeris said, "so now you're chasing after...." She paused, and her whole demeanor changed. Kedok was still tangled up with the long spotty limbs of his 'cousins' and 'uncle' Ivo, so he didn't have much freedom to scoot away. Under this woman's gaze, so like and yet so completely unlike fatherform Atrocity, he wanted to fade from existence.

Baeris' stiff form then slightly relaxed. "Atrocity, of course." She said, licking her lips and glancing down at Ivo who was ... probably trying to hump her leg. The younger cheetahs batted at Kedok's tail which like their own beat up and down on the thin grass of the floor. "Get up, please," she said, and even the other two cheetahs did as she asked.

They shapeshifted, alongside Ivo, into a pair of rather attractive humanoids who kept a lot of their markings, male and female, looking around young preteen age. Kedok shifted, and...

"Yes, that would be his," Baeris sighed. Though he was only less than two months old, Kedok stood even with the tall woman, and looked her in the face, if not the eye. Even he could not do that.

"I ... understand why..." Kedok said, and his head lowered.

Baeris' eyebrows furrowed, "what?"

"Nothing, nothing, I ... should not have come. I am sorry." He bowed, and was about to try running away, but Baeris smiled. The change in her face was as night and day.

"So he can teach even if he doesn't practice politeness," Baeris chuckled. "Well, come on then, Haya, Mira, Ivo please ... Let us have some time in private."

The dark furred trio all looked like they were going to protest but Baeris glared at them, and Ivo slunk away with his tail between his legs, and his children romping beside him.

"Now... you." Baeris said. "Come along, to the deck there. Nothing is private in here, but that place at least doesn't echo through the whole Den." They ascended to a viewing area that had heavy curtains and probably a good bit of magic around it to keep conversations private, but also overlook the egg hatching sands beyond. She closed the curtains, and the whole room became silent.

Caught, but ... Kedok had no idea that being 'caught' by this woman would be so... weird. He thought he could race around, make this 'Baeriskshau' spin around herself by chasing his tail around her and then wisk himself away down halls she'd never be able to follow him into.

But she looked at him with ... almost the same eyes as his sire. And with the same power, even more perhaps, because this was her domain. Not his father's. And Kedok knew that now. Beyond doubt, that was why Atrocity did not join in pestering anyone up here. Even he was an invader in this place.

But Baeris wasn't glaring at him in anger, she was examining Kedok carefully. "You... hatched from something other than a plain human," she stated, and Kedok shrugged. "Atrocity does not carry shapeshifting himself, that was your mother, and your host was probably something more like Ivo... Hm."

"My father does not ... I mean, I ... do you want me to leave? I will leave and not come back, Ididn'tgetherebythetunnelsitwassomewhereelse -" he blurted, causing Baeris to almost laugh.

"I know he's there, I know," she whispered. As though even with the curtains and magical concealment, Kalkin would know - and he would probably be less forgiving than she. After all it was Baeris who told them all to get out, and Atrocity never to return... so maybe she wanted him to be there. It was all too confusing to the young xenoshifter.

"Well if you are going to be here, I want you to be useful," Baeris said. "But I have no idea what you ... could... heh." She chuckled, and then began laughing. "You'd make a lousy spy with that last -- thing -- you just said," she shook her head, "but perhaps more use than just running between your sire and up here."

"But how do you know?" Kedok said, "we are never in sight, he does not come up, he goes ..." Kedok's guts knotted, "I have said more than I promised I would, now I'm failing both of you," he turned away.

"Don't get all emo on me, kid," Baeris said, "Atrocity should find a place for himself, and you, but ... he's not ready to do that yet. When he is, he'll leave. But even then I know he'll still be making his presence known. He's one of us, after all."

"He told me I am," Kedok said.

"And look at you romping with Ivo's kids, it's obvious that you're ..." Baeris looked him over, "you're really very odd," she said under her breath. "But you're all right. I'm not going to invite your father up for dinner any time soon, that lazy ass can still find his own food. But if you can keep yourself busy without damaging anything or eating anyone - or anyone's pets - you can stay up here if you like to get some exercise or talk."

"You have books," Kedok said, glancing gently beyond her brown shoulder. "... I would like to read some. I think my sire would too. And he is not lazy, he is ..." Kedok paused, "he is probably afraid of you, but he is less afraid of his old master."

At that, Baeris gave a foul sneer toward the wall, wherever she thought would be best directed at Renaud. "Everyone is afraid of that bastard, I've even been told I should be - but frankly if our paths crossed I suspect we'd see who needs to be more afraid. Him or me."

Kedok tilted his head again, and softly purred, "I think I like you, you are a good queen for this den. I will take your orders, even if my sire's come first."

With that, Kedok shifted down to his four-paw shape and lept from the drapery, onto the grass and past the mostly-empty sands, vanishing in a cloud of dust.

***

Instead of being genuinely angry with Kedok, Atrocity was rather curiously ... curious. After being intense and somewhat explosive, of course. The disregard that the young xenoshifter had for his father's concerns was of most importance, and naturally, Kedok expected to be punished for that.

But he wasn't. Instead, Atrocity simply told him to relay whatever might be of use, "play both sides", he suggested. And after that point, whenever Kedok went topside, he always came back with gossip, books, and occasionally left tidbits like pelts, exceptionally nice jewlery or whatever else Atrocity had gotten off a victim on his own journeys away from the Den.

This all suited both males fine: Atrocity had helped birth the third of his brood, who was now 'in training', and so Kedok was left alone more often than not. He slithered through the tunnels, familiarizing himself with all their turns - and learned that the Den changed its plumbing regularly. At least once he had to dig himself free when he thought he could simply double back - the tunnel vanished before his 'eyes' and senses, making him realize that there was such a thing as magic, after all.

Most of the books he read said there was no such thing. But Baeris, and later even Kalkin, came to him to help sort it out.

Kalkin wasn't so happy with the boy, as Baeris seemed to be. But through all the grumbling and complaints and suggestions that they simply take up pitchforks and torches (whatever that meant) to drive Atrocity from their nice safe haven, Kalkin saw what Baeris did:

A boy, one who aside from their obvious species difference, could be any of the Sanger's children.

"I'd never choose to bed a xenomorph," Kalkin muttered. Baeris smacked him on the head and asserted that he most likely would have, if he didn't already have enough female company to keep him well occupied. That, she chuckled, and if a female xeno would have him, he would hardly have much to say about the matter.

Kedok also continued to use the dimensiongate in Atrocity's area, for large hunting and to just get out from the tunnels. Though he welcomed their closeness at all times, he also found that a good patch of grass was nice to lay in, chase butterflies (and eat them - he could catch them in flight with his inner-teeth!), or just get lost.

And getting lost was something that Sangers did with alarming regularity.

***

He couldn't tell them, of course. He could not say where he'd been. And over the year of his life, he had learned to show a little more assertion, courage that kept his big toothy mouth shut, instead of gaping or blurting out secrets. Since this secret was one he really, really had to keep.

He'd accidentally happened upon the world where his father had been born and made. The landscape had hardly changed, apparently, the burnt-out hills and buildings showing that dragons regularly bombarded both the Institute and Alabaster.

Alabaster had a nice .... well, not nice, so much as good defender in a xeno-kin. She was part-dragon, Kedok had seen a few such creatures, and knew that his sire's companions were such. Had she spotted Kedok, however, he knew that she would kill him on scent. And Kedok was torn.

Because here was the enemy of his sire's enemy. ... Did that make any sense? Kedok watched as carefully as he could, creeping in the night right past Alabaster's security even though it involved a dragon or two. There was little here other than humans and their weapons. But back toward Renaud's Institute there were plenty of things to see and do.

He learned of his father's method of releasing himself from the 'contract' that kept him bound to Renaud. If he just up and asked about it upon returning (if he could return) Atrocity would surely exile him from the Den himself. But the four 'horse boys' seemed to be just as scary as anything Kedok could manage, with their assorted weapons and the like.

And that was a problem... It certainly would cause more difficulty to the Engell there, and Kedok was almost ready to stand up and walk into Alabaster to help.

He couldn't do that, of course. Not at all. He still was who he was. Atrocity's offspring. The way Kalkin put it, "That tall bastard's spawn". And he'd be recognized instantly, the way that Baeris had known. While hidden away in the Den one time, another Engell had visited briefly. There was something about that guy - mental power, certainly but also a charisma that drew Sangers in. So if this world's Engell was anything like that one, and he was, he'd know exactly what Kedok was.

But not why he'd be there... But not why...

Kedok fretted, and then found his way back to the portal. On arriving back to the Den, however, he learned that Atrocity had taken off again and was playing with some sewer-bound lair. Maybe he'd remain there, he certainly could always recreate anything he'd built in here (having left most of it, and having left the other two unhatched eggs of Kedok's siblings). So for the moment, Kedok had the place in the Den to himself.

It was less crowded, that was for sure, because the two human-sized xenodragons that always slithered around weren't here. Kedok didn't have to worry about Recht trying to bite him, or Mekot following him around to tattle on him.

Kedok wanted to find a place now, a place where he fit in, and where he could be of use... for someone who came from such astonishing stock, he had a morality streak a mile wide. "Something is wrong with me," he hissed. "I think I need to kill something..."

Fortunately for him, and sadly for his victim that he located in a human-world not so unlike the Victorian era Earth had, killing something did make him feel better. He relished the flavor of meat and blood, and seriously enjoyed the crunching of bone under his stiff jaws. Fed, sated, he got back up and stood on a rooftoop, surveying the city below.

Industrial smoke poured nonstop from factories, causing the evening sky to be completely black. Thus under the cover of a starless night, gaslight only edging the darkness by a few feet at a time along the streets, he ... Gathered the clothing that he stole from his victim, a slender elderly man, and hoped that he fit in them well enough to pass.

Pass as Human. That meant no tail, that meant trying to make a 'nose' - but why he would need such an organ was beyond him, he could smell through every inch of his skin, even in human form. He adopted this guise, as much as he could. His feet were uncomfortable in the shoes but he took the time to figure out how to put them on, and how to make his feet not so wobbly. Standing without his tail became the next challenge, of course.

At the Den, Baeris didn't care whether he was naked and had a tail. It was about the same as with Ivo, he was furry and had a tail. He understood how hard it was to just be human.

The thing that really galled Kedok, however, was that he had to put away his inner-teeth. When he finally finished up his transformation, the only thing that bothered him was that he still didn't have pupils in his eyes - he didn't know what they were for, aside from in theory from reading books. They were useless to him, he could see and his peers could not. Well, people would stare at him anyway, perhaps because the legs of these pants weren't quite long enough to reach his ankles. He was good at shapeshifting, but he had a shape to go to. Not some shape other than that.

Now... To test himself. Though it was late, there were people walking around the streets. Some were homeless, some were rich coming out of a theater. He dropped to the ground, feeling the fabric of his stolen clothing strain with his movement. He'd have to remember: cultured humans here did not go leaping from rooftop to rooftop. He wasn't even certain they could. How limited they were.

Kedok wasn't sure why he wanted to be here, but perhaps the challenge of passing as human in a world where his kind certainly never existed would do. But what would he do among them? If he could pass?

The groups of wealthy people passed him and though some looked toward him, they saw how he was dressed, and looked away. They weren't terrified or even particularly repulsed: they thought less of him because they believed him a beggar.

He heard them whispering to that effect, as well. And when he'd seen someone else up the street hold out their hand - he understood. He could get things from these people. Well, he could try.

He emulated the other beggar, "please help a poor soul," he said, scratchy voice. He held his hand up, dark nails looking painful, broken. Several groups of people passed him by, hurrying to their taxis. One of the stragglers, a woman who clearly had had an argument with her male companion, who rushed on ahead, paused.

"Oh my dear," she said, "dreadful... dreadful... Here is something for your--"

"What the hell are you doing, Eliza?" Sharply spoken by her boyfriend, he grasped her hand before she could fully draw it out of her purse. "This creature's not worth the effort. The poor should leave good folk alone."

"Thomas!" This 'Eliza' said, "that's hardly a fitting attitude, most of the poor have only what they wear. I'll not have you telling me whose effort is wasted." She shrugged off his hand, and while he angrily stood there watching for anything untoward, she passed two coins to Kedok. They rattled in his hand, he clenched his fingers over them the way he'd seen the other beggar.

Bowing, he said, "thank you miss, you're most kind, most kind..." He didn't look up, but he didn't have to. He could sense the pair, Thomas dragging Eliza by her other hand toward the cab waiting for them. Horses would make excellent meals, Kedok thought - but someone might notice them missing.

It occurred to him right then, that hunting here would be a pleasurable experience.

***

It turned out that Eliza gave part of her time to a shelter for homeless folks - and after a day or two of wandering around town, Kedok found it. Purely by accident, actually, he had followed one of the underfed men back to this place, and smelled food coming from it. Human food, and his prey both.

He entered, found a place to sit, and watched for a bit. He looked just as disheveled as any other man of his class: he only had the two coins that Eliza had given him, and that was more than some here. He smelled her before he saw her, Eliza the kind one.

The kind one with a fiancee who seemed to be a bigger jerk than Atrocity. The man stood near the exit, glaring at his young girlfriend, and was not patient about it. Kedok overheard her saying to him, that he could probably help out serving, which was met with a laugh that everyone in the room heard, and none was brave enough to stop.

Well. That was something to consider... Now Kedok had a goal. Twofold. He could hunt, and be 'moral' at the same time!

Kedok returned several times to the soup kitchen, in the coming days. Finally Eliza returned, this time without Thomas lurking over her shoulder. And this time, Kedok made his way up to the line, though he would probably never eat the food offered. With dozens of other men and a few women, some children scattered here and there, who could spot yet another man wearing the same clothes as the week before?

Eliza did. Perhaps it was his hair, still somewhat shining and clean, almost all Sangers hair could be perfectly dirty and still look all right. Or perhaps, his eyes. Eliza plopped a small potato and some runny broth into Kedok's bowl, and then looked up.

"Oh! Oh my, you're that man from the theater..." She said. Kedok was among the last in the line, so others just went around him to reach their portions. Eliza looked up at him and then gasped. "Oh, your eyes..."

He had to think: "yes, ma'am, I'm... blind."

She rolled her head around, "oh, oh, that is ... well you do get around for a blind man."

"Listening gives you a lot more than sight, sometimes," he said simply. They walked toward an empty table, Eliza was a bit... protective.

"You are new here, though," she said. "I've been working here for a year, you know. Did you just arrive?"

"Last ... week, yes, last week. I spend a lot of time traveling." He watched her with his 'sightless' eyes, that was it he'd forgotten eyelids too! Damn his concentration on the feet, he couldn't blink, still. It clearly unnerved the girl, but she was very polite about it. He covered the unusual silence with, "you are very kind, ma'am. To do this for me, but all these others too."

She gave a gleeful titter, and something inside Kedok ... changed. She was adorable. She would probably like having a flitter or two. Why would Kedok even think it?

She was pretty. Fair colored hair, light skin with no markings, a little plump for her age perhaps, and not very tall. But her face lit up with delight when she could talk about doing things for people - and it wasn't that she was full of herself either. She talked about the projects that her family had supported, and that her soon-to-be husband seemed to despise.

"Then... why be with him, if he hates the things you love so much?" Kedok asked quietly.

She did not answer. But it was telling: the way she looked around, fiddled with her fingers, found a spare thread and toyed with it. In thinking that he was blind, she let herself do these little things, they told Kedok that she too was unhappy with this arrangement.

"I could never find a ... wife that did not share things with me," Kedok prodded. Gently. He had to be gentle. He actually didn't want to offend her, nor push her away. Or more accurately, have her push him away.

"Well, sometimes, ... one must do what is best for everyone..." She sighed.

"Yet you are doing what's best, for everyone," Kedok said, and moved his head to indicate the room full of people. It was dreary here, dim, but there was enough daylight coming through the crusty windows to tell that this was a haven.

It was a haven of food, however, and Kedok had already killed another homeless man the day before this. Knowing that he would essentially not be missed. Another newcomer, he learned. And at least, Kedok had the good sense not to steal his clothing. Apparently the one he'd gotten his from the first night really was new. No one recognized them.

He'd seen two old hairy men fighting over a coat, their friend had died and both needed it equally.

Kedok could not get cold, hot, or even truly hungry. Even human, he remained above such things. But others... He observed and learned. It was this behavior, this mix of greed and bounty, need and want, that he played upon.

"Your fiancee seems to have arrived," Kedok said, when Thomas arrived at the door.

"How ... how did you know that?" Eliza said, though she knew Thomas would be more furious with her even speaking with a man such as himself.

"I could smell his money," Kedok said, simply. Eliza's eyes went wide, and her face blanched. She bit her lips, bid a quiet farewell, and hurried - with the greatest reluctance - to her fiancee's side.

***

It felt good to be back in his true form, Kedok stretched out on the rooftop where he'd arrived, and let the rain clean his single set of clothes. No one looked up. Ever. They walked below in a sea of dark or vibrantly colored umbrellas, dodging one another, and ignoring the beggars as ever.

In the two weeks he'd been here, he watched and learned that there were rivalries between some people at the shelter. A burly and scarred man kept hogging blankets from the more transient train-hoppers; one wicked-tongued woman kept trying to foist her young children on strangers only to be rebuked for her childrearing skills by another younger woman; bullies and weaklings did a dance almost endlessly.

And then there was Thomas.

It had solidified in Kedok's mind that he needed to kill Thomas. But he also wanted Eliza. Perhaps not for 'his own', even Kalkin didn't lay claim to Baeris nor she to him after all. And his own parents - Atrocity and his xenoshifter mate? They'd bed whatever could put up the least fight. Or in their case, whoever did put up a fight.

Kedok didn't want Eliza to fight. Nor did he want to kill her, or eat her, or do anything that would make her angry with him.

Sangers were notorious for having women issues. And of course, when half your blood is xenomorph, taking orders from and keeping happy your queen was extremely important.

Would she make a queen? She was generous and kind - she would be a good worker. Not a warrior, certainly. But a queen? He couldn't bring her home to Atrocity of course, he'd kill and eat her himself.

But at the very least, what Kedok wanted, was to free her from that jerk Thomas. The best way to do that, of course, would be to follow him around, learn his habits, and finally take him down. He was not always in her company, obviously, and Eliza had seemed to relish that fact. And perhaps Kedok had seeded a bit more mistrust or misgiving in her about Thomas than she had before - or perhaps just brought it to light that she was unwilling to do herself.

So once the storm was over, the shabby black coat and pants, formerly-white shirt and sockless shoes were dried, Kedok shifted himself back into his human form (realizing that he could not correct the mistakes he'd made in this detailed shape now, he had to leave the same things out as he had before) and headed to the streets.

***

Thomas Ivyfield was a rich man. Not so wealthy that he could simply snap his fingers and get things done, but he wanted that, clearly. Kedok read what he could about the man by how he moved, how he dressed, and interacted with others. Those who dressed properly, deferred to him, or served him silently and to the letter were not scorned.

Anyone else was. Including his fiancee, of course. Someone didn't step out of his way quickly enough, and was pushed to the side. Thomas would openly confront people if he believed he could get away with it. Including doing so to his woman, in public. Women of this world were not the possessions of other universes, but neither were they fully liberated and equal. They were still used as bargaining tools: especially pretty daughters, forging alliances with families of money.

Eliza's family was also fairly well off, educated, and well-traveled. And possibly, a bit greedy. When the Ivyfields presented their son (Kedok learned this from reading a newspaper story about their betrothment, sent there from a business article of the same families) as an eligible bachelor, the Wakelands were among three with girls the appropriate age. He'd wooed and then chosen among them - a weird rite, one which went counter to almost everything Kedok knew in his soul to be correct.

The female should have the options of her males. The queen chooses her partner and if she feels like it, she chews them up and spits them out for her offspring if he doesn't suit her.

So it was with an odd sort of respect for women, that Kedok resolved yet further to find Thomas and perhaps make him suffer a bit before dying.

In the meantime, his adoration of Eliza grew. Not to the point of obsession, but he truly enjoyed when she would come to his table, or just walk by with a smile on her face. Though she believed he could not see it, she showed the rest of the world without caring. Her expression always - universally - changed to a dour, hesitant mask of resentment when Thomas arrived to collect her from the shelter. Her whole body, she slumped a bit, bowed her head, let her face fall. And her scent?

There was an edge of fear that Kedok didn't like. And the superiority that Thomas let off, it was like a bowl of hot meat surrounding a nugget of shit. He displayed like proper men did, he showed off his wealth in style, and he purported to know what was best for the world, like his father and grandfather before him surely had. Where were their women?

Bound to the kitchen? Died in childbirth? He had two brothers, one sister. All younger, and the last one caused his mother's death. It was noted at the time of the funeral (another newspaper said) that while his siblings were distraught, Thomas posed for news cameras and flirted with reporters outside the church. He had been quoted as to say that the past wasn't as important as the future, and his mother's work had been done.

"I don't think I even want to eat someone as foul as this," Kedok whispered to himself while folding the newspaper back into the bin in the library, and walking outside to hunt.

***

He had been there two months, now, and knew where Thomas lived, where Eliza's family home was, and where significant portions of their time was spent. He also knew there were three soup kitchens, only one of which Eliza visited frequently, though her friends sometimes would get her to go to the others. She felt more comfortable, she said, among those whose faces she knew from her own family home's streets.

There was never a hint of arrogance from her, though occasional vanities, and well-earned pride appeared. She loved frilly hats, though she did not wear one to the shelter. She liked comfortable shoes. Her umbrella (it rained with regularity here) was brightly yellow with a red handle.

Thomas dressed perfectly and with a taste for silk, gold, and styles that were always new. People even commented on it, he'd buy fashions from across the sea that arrived weeks before his contemporaries could buy them here. Always black, his umbrella and his shoes and his mood very frequently. He was known to drink with his peers from his college, but if things turned to talk of social woes he brushed them off and would try to steer them back to discussions more to his liking. Women, leather goods for riding horses, hunting, and the like.

Kedok hated him, with such a passion - because those things... Weren't they also things that he himself liked? Hunting? Riding, well, Baeris had encouraged some of the dragons in the Den to show Kedok how to ride, and he liked that, it was fun. Women? Well, Eliza perhaps, there might be a woman out there for every male, and more for those who look... Kedok would prefer being found by a female, to having to go out and look for them.

Some of the prostitutes on the streets tried looking at Kedok without fear, but none could stand to look at his eyelidless, pupil-less face for too long before begging out of his presence. Even the seasoned ones had their limits, though they chastised themselves vocally: here was a strapping tall man, skin beautifully brown, with but one weird quirk to his face...

It was a quirk they all had to admit drove them away from lingering after any encounter. He did have encounters, he did learn how to make love like a human, allowing the girls to show him what they liked, and pleasuring his soft body unilke anything he could even imagine should he be in his true form. But he liked these women for more than just their desires. They were an independant bunch, and they took their orders from their queen too.

He did make friends with them, asking them questions, keeping up the illusion of this blind traveling man. He was not looking for pity, and for that they told him they adored him. It was from some of them that Kedok learned about religious habits, he had to ask strange questions (like why a church was needed to bury someone, why not just put them where they could fit?). It was also from one of them that they learned that Thomas' brother Rudolph was apt to go whoring.

That gave Kedok a very fine plan indeed.

With the promise that they'd be paid with or without their services, Kedok asked the girls to summon him when Rudolph arrived for his weekly trip to the House. The girls asked no questions: they were used to keeping silent not just among themselves. They had judges, police, priests and all coming to their doorstep, they knew the value of secrecy.

Thus when they realized he was more than he seemed, crouching on the corner of the building next door keeping watch in his unblinking way, they kept their mouths shut, and he appreciated them for the effort.

When Thomas' brother came to the house, he didn't follow immediately. Instead, Kedok went through and noted which of the girls were missing. It would be one of three that would be his partner tonight, and as luck would have it, the room next to hers was unoccupied. Kedok huddled near the wall, listening and waiting.

They played, got down to business, and then when Rudolph was in his post-activity stupor, Kedok chose to act. He emulated the girl's voice, gently asking him questions. Would his brother be home? How careful would he have to be to come home after a trip like this? Rudolph obliged with answers: Thomas was home this night because there was a card game he was playing with his buddies. The house tolerated his own indescetions because they didn't lead noisesome troublemakers from colleges into their mansion.

So they would be distracted. Good.

Rudolph left, and Dolores, the girl who had been with him, snuck around the doorway and looked right at Kedok.

She whispered, "how'd you do that? That sounded just like me!"

He grinned slightly, "It's a gift. Now, I have to hurry. Thank you for being patient with me."

Kedok left and followed after Rudolph, he knew the route to the Ivyfield's home already. He also knew a shorter way there, one which led along more popular pathways, busy streets. Streets a cheating young socialite had to avoid in order to keep his status clean.

Kedok had no such needs. He blended in perfectly now, and the girls at the brothel had found him a pair of dark glasses - they didn't quite fit on his head, they had to be bent a little, but now he looked more the part of a blind beggar. And didn't quite unnerve people so much. They merely looked away because he was a vagrant, not because he was bizarre.

The Ivyfield mansion was large, stuck in the middle of a group of such places. But it was closer to the road and had a bigger yard beyond its kitchen, instead of up front. That made it slightly easier to get inside. Like all good shapeshifters, Kedok's clothing melted away 'as if by magic', when he shifted into his four-pawed form.

If he thought about it too much, frankly, where his clothes went did bother him. But right now, that was not the concern. He snuck in between two large bushes, smelling the reek of money and cigarettes, hearing laughter that broke the calm on the street many yards beyond. Thomas' laughter of course.

"And any good woman should stay in the kitchen or the bed, I say," Thomas announced, slapping one of the house servants on the rear. Kedok watched this from a window, perched on a branch outside. With crystal clarity, he could see that Thomas was cheating his friends in their game, and had already won more than half too much.

The way that the other men alternately laughed with him and glared in silence when Thomas left the table to relieve himself, told Kedok that this man would not be missed. Not one bit.

Well, perhaps by the families accountants...

"Did you know," Thomas said while he returned from the water closet, tucking his shirt back into his pants - the only time he felt comfortable enough to look rumpled was around his 'friends' here. "That she told me she'd rather have chosen Rudolph over me! The nerve of that wench!"

"Wait," said another man, fiddling with his cards, "your fiancee would rather marry your philandering little brother?"

"I would wager she'd call his payments to those filthy whores philanthropy instead," Thomas said. Though his tone was lighter, his sneer came across easily. "Helping out those weak willed sluts. It's a wonder he hasn't come home with a disease."

"They're cleaner than your mouth, these days, Thomas," Rudolph stated, shutting the door behind him as he entered and then traversed their game room. While he didn't stop, he did pause a moment and looked over his shoulder at Thomas. "And wasn't it you who introduced me to them first?" With that, and before anyone could react, he exited into the house and left a fuming brother behind.

No one likes him, Kedok realized. There was nothing about this man to like. Yes, yes, he was a brilliant businessman. Putting the profit margin on his father's bank investments higher - by firing the 'dead weight' and pulling strings to have certain taxes waived. If Kedok were merely interested in blackmailing him, there would be no point: all he'd have to do is wave his hand around in a bank, and everyone would have something on the man.

Kedok released his hold on the branch, and sped up the side of the wall, to the room where he was positive Thomas slept. It had a tiny fraction of Eliza's scent to it, and Kedok waited in the darkness. He crept about absolutely silently, pulling open drawers and using an odd sense - almost like a sonogram - to filter through the clothing and discover the pocket watches, rings, discarded wallets and the like, as well as a small gun and bullets in a box near the bed.

He'd have to be careful of those, Kedok realized. With no more thought to it than that, Kedok removed the gun from the box, put the box back, and chucked the gun outside into the thick bushes. What could Thomas do with a handful of bullets, anyway?

Later on, quite early in the morning actually, Thomas bid farewell to his friends. Over the course of the night, his laughter punctuated the silence, his chiding tone indicated that he had cheated all but one of his friends out of their money that night. As though he needed more, Kedok thought. Why would a man who already had all this spectacular wealth want more?

To compensate for that which he didn't have? Or couldn't have? Eliza. He couldn't buy her, that was certain. Kedok remained absolutely still in the dim corner of the huge walk-in closet that Thomas' suite had. His sleep clothing pressed and perfectly laid out, ignored - he disrobed and simply plopped into the open bed face down. Exhaustion was a good sign. That would make this easier.

Kedok waited until Thomas' breathing was regular and slow, he was sleeping lightly. The xenoshifter planted himself in the corner by the window, so he could leave quickly if need be. And then he said, quietly in Eliza's voice, "you are worthless, I hate you."

And half a moment later, a bit of rustling on the bed indicated Thomas had turned over, his eyebrows were furrowed but he still slept, "your attitude is horrid. I could never love you. I will never be with you."

"No - no! you're mine," Thomas said, muttering in his sleep.

"I refuse," Kedok said, "you are not a good man."

"I'm as good as my money," Thomas murmured, "I'll show you... I'll show you..."

"Pathetic," hissed Kedok. He heard something, a slight gasp from another part of the room. With a start, he realized that Thomas had not closed the door fully, and Rudolph was waiting in the doorway. Kedok knew he'd been seen, so he merely turned back to Thomas' direction, and repeated, "you are pathetic."

When it looked as though that was all he could get from the slumbering man, Kedok stood to his full height, clothesless, with his tail for balance and his weirdly glowing eyes standing out in the dim room. Rudolph sucked in a breath, but stayed calm.

Even when Kedok approached, towering over the man, he looked merely surprised and taken aback, not truly afraid.

"I will be killing him soon, but not tonight," Kedok said. "What will you do about that?"

Rudolph's mouth opened and closed, his eyes wide and then narrow. "What.... are you?"

"Concerned," is all Kedok said. "You did not answer my question."

"I have no answer," Rudolph said. "Please don't ... kill me..."

"I have no intention of it," Kedok replied, still in a hush, his natural voice more chilling than the weird version of Eliza's that he'd used moments before. "And... your brother, are you not leaping to his defense?"

With that, Rudolph straightened up, and looked the eerie blue-eyed xeno in the eyes. "I have nothing to say about that, either. Now... unless you're planning on spending the night in the guest room there, I would appreciate you not ... lurking like that."

He paused, turning to leave, "or at least, shutting the door."

***

It perturbed Kedok that on her regular day, Eliza didn't come to the soup kitchen. It was noted among the staff, and certianly buzzed in fits and starts around the whole place. Her bright and shining laughter was always something that everyone there counted on to lift the pall of depression.

"Something is wrong," Kedok said to one of the others there, an actually blind man, who didn't seem to mind it when Kedok sat next to him.

"Well you've been fawning over her the last two months, boy, go do something about it then." He grunted.

People knew? Well, it didn't much matter. There was indeed something amiss, and Kedok needed to find out what happened. He first visited the Wakeland home. They were in a tizzy, so to speak, as Eliza had gone shopping with her fiancee and not returned the night before. They had spent time together before, of course, but never unannounced, and never unsupervised.

So she was not merely sick, detained by a doctor's order. That, Kedok felt, would have been a much better alternative. It meant clearly, that whereever they were, Thomas and Eliza were together - and he would have to kill the man in her presence. He wanted to spare her that, but ... perhaps it was time.

This charade had gone on long enough, Kedok thought. He couldn't have her, he knew she liked him but she would not love a man who murdered anyone, that was as obvious as the love in her heart for people in general. She might forgive him for it, but she could never love him for it.

So be it. His goal was pure now: get her free of that bastard while he still had the chance. But where? Where would they be found?

It wouldn't be in the Ivyfield's home, certainly. But perhaps ... Rudolph would know. On the off chance that he was home, Kedok literally walked right up to the house, rang the bell, and asked to see Master Rudolph of a matter of urgency.

The servant, the same girl that had been roughly handled by Thomas the week before, stared in some kind of awe, and then bolted up the stairs to where Rudolph was indeed still lounging. Kedok heard the voices, "there's a ... man, here, a very tall man," she said. He heard Rudolph's grunting as he exited a chair, and then the two of them stomping back to the curved staircase. Only the man descended, however. He rushed to the door, and came outside, shutting the double doorway and shooing Kedok onto the narrow pathway toward the back of the house.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded, "he's not in."

"I know he is not, I believe he's abducted Eliza. Where would he have taken her?"

At that, it looked as though Rudolph's blood turned as green as Kedok's.

"He... what? Oh no, no, this ..." Rudolph was about to level an accusation, but Kedok already shook his head.

"I know. I should have just done it. Instead I chose to torment his dreams. ... It was... a mistake. Now I must correct that mistake."

Rudolph guided them toward a stand of trees, "you... you love her don't you?"

Kedok looked away, glancing into the sun which was visible through the smoky air. "Don't you?" He replied, and silence was Rudolph's only answer.

The young man pondered. "We have a summer place, not too far. But it's half a day away at least, and ... no offense but I don't think I can hail a cab to have my brother murdered."

"He may be in the process himself," Kedok said, shifting down into his four-pawed shape. He spoke, but did not need to move his mouth, "tell me where it is, what does it look like, and do you have anything that... I could smell from it? I can locate it if I can smell it."

".... You have no nose, sir," Rudolph said with a faint twist to both his eyebrow and lip. "I think I do. It's a ... hunting house, I'm sure we have something from it."

He trundled away to a guest house or shed, and then came back as rapidly as he could. "This is his vest, I'm sure you know it. He wore it last time we went hunting. It was a fair number of days ago though -"

"This is enough. I can sense the air. Wood, guns, furs. A fireplace. What direction?"

Rudolph gave as adequate directions as he could, considering Kedok would not be driving along paved roads in a carriage. When he finished, Kedok nodded.

"Thank you. I ... will apologize now, for what I will do to him later. But you know as well as I do... He will deserve it."

He sped off, not seeing the other man nod, nor also seeing him head toward the stables to fit his horse for a quick paced ride.

***

Like most Sangers, Kedok ran very fast. Faster than most normal cheetahs, certainly, and quicker than any carriage could ride in this world. But he also, like most, would be apt to get lost. So Kedok kept stopping, orienting himself, spotting for the street names that he had to pass first, and then the country lanes which eventually dwindled to a dirt path toward the side of a lake. Much of this land belonged to Thomas' family. The summer hunting home was easily spotted along the shore, and there were signs that people were indeed there.

In fact, there was enough sign that it looked as though the horses still hooked to the carriage were rather put off by not having been let loose of it over night.

There was no doubt at this point, that Eliza was there: her voice, shrill, called out. "You will stop this at once! Mercy!"

While it did not sound as though she were in pain directly, the haggardness of her voice, and its loudness, said that she hoped dearly that someone would hear. There was a home not very far away, but it was unlikely anyone there heard her. Kedok rose to his full height, appraising the building. There were three easy entrances, but probably a room or two between one of them and where Eliza was.

Kedok decided that if she were so insistant, Thomas was right there with her. Kedok went up to the front, hoping that the door was unlocked, which it was not. Carelessly, however, one of the kitchen windows was open a crack, all Kedok needed to gently wedge it open and slip through. He could climb or cling to almost anything, and the whole insde of this house was wood. It made gripping with his claws much easier.

Along the ceiling then, he moved. The whole world upside down or sideways didn't matter to him. Carpet was just as easy as ceiling wood. True to his estimation, the room in which Eliza was being held was near the center of the house, without a window in it. She was lashed to a pole, this room might have been used to stretch deerskin or even dry meat? It had that smell to it, certainly.

Eliza pulled on her bonds, she was both roped and chained, and it looked as though she'd been there quite a while. Her hands were pale, and her wrists slightly bloody from her attempts to escape.

"You thought you could wither me, you thought you could invade me, but oh, no, no..." Thomas said, "But you are mine. The only invading will be me into you, bitch."

Kedok wanted to be ill. He did. But he was his father's son, none the less. The sight of a half-nude woman (she'd been stripped of her shirt, and only her undergarments were left upon her legs) tied up and helpless, about to be raped had potential.

Unaccepable, he thought to himself. While Thomas himself had no shirt on, his pants were still up and he made to undo them. Eliza squirmed, trying to put the pole between herself and Thomas. She kicked at him once, but Kedok noticed that her feet were also bound, and could only part so far. She wound up in about the same place as she had been, and Thomas' back was to Kedok as he entered the room silently.

"Please, please, Thomas, Tom - I'm begging you, don't do this, not like this!" She said.

"Beg all you want," Thomas hissed. "In fact, keep begging. Keep begging like those filthy whores, like those vagrants. You like them, but you'll love me." He stripped her garments roughly down, "You - will - love - me!"

"I don't think so," Kedok said, in a voice that only he recognized. That would be Baeris' voice, stern and controlling. Since it was completely foreign - and female - both Thomas and Eliza froze.

Eliza saw Kedok, and blanched. She started screaming in earnest, which confounded Thomas enough that instead of turning to face him, which is what Kedok would have prefered, he slapped Eliza and demanded her to shut up.

The blue eyespots on Kedok's facial carapace would have narrowed... Thomas was intent on raping this woman no matter what circumstance outside him changed. Well that was fine. He was distracted.

Kedok slipped closer, and placed one hard claw upon Thomas' shoulder, spinning him around and leaving a welt on the man's pale skin. Eliza took in a breath to scream again, but then choked on it, she recognized Kedok now.

"I should have done this last time we met," Kedok said. "But I wanted to give you the benefit of saving yourself... You failed." His mouth again did not move, yet he spoke clearly. Not in Baeris' voice any longer, but his own whisper. Then, before Thomas could even respond further, Kedok swept his arm rapidly into his throat, and held him above the floor.

"Normally I would burst a hole into your skull," Kedok said, sliding his inner-teeth out menacingly, while Thomas flailed his arms. They both came around to clutch the xenomorph's arm, while he kicked futilely. "But you aren't even worth tasting. I am sure that you would be ... bitter."

So instead, Kedok exerted his strength and constricted his fingers together, until they touched around Thomas' neck. A gristly snapping was heard, and Thomas' feet shuddered to a halt in mid-kick, swinging down limply a moment later.

"About time, that," Rudolph said quietly from the doorway, "Eliza - Eliza, are you -- did he --"

"Get me down, get me down please," she sobbed, and Kedok moved aside. Rudolph smelled of sweat - horse and his own. They must have galloped the whole way, that horse would be an admirable racer at that pace. Thomas' brother cut Eliza free, and fumbled with the chain that ran from her ankles up to her neck.

"I ... I can't ... I don't know where the key might be," he stammered. His hands shook. Kedok's did not.

"Let me," he said, and pulled the chain apart easily. It unraveled from her neck, and Eliza stumbled into the pair.

She sprang back up, though exhausted, and stood wobbling. Rudolph wasn't sure what to do, but Kedok 'glanced around' without looking, and spotted her gown tossed into the corner of the room. It had dirt, grime and blood upon it, but it was something. "Here, Eliza... I am sorry I did not get here earlier." Kedok bowed his head, offering her the dress in the same wierdly humble way that he'd acceped the money she gave him several months before.

He shapeshifted back into his human form, which had clothes and that same two coins in one pocket.

There was silence, broken by Eliza's hesitant sobbing. Rudolph comforted her, finally standing and helping her to put the dress around herself functionally if not properly. Finally, Eliza looked at Kedok.

"Kelly, I--"

"My name is Kedok, actually," he interrupted, with a half-grin. "And ... I am sorry. I am truly sorry. This is my fault."

"Actually it isn't," Rudolph said, and both Eliza and Kedok glanced at him warily. "He would have done this anyway. He ... he killed a prostitute shortly before you became involved with him, Eliza. The ... the girl I would have brought out of the brothel and given a proper name to, actually..." He swollowed at a lump in his throat, and Kedok lost control over his human shape, slipping into his more comfortable half-xeno form.

"What?" Eliza said, now not seeming to be concerned about this bizarre xenomorphic creature with a tail in their presence. "He - he ... and I almost..." She looked to be about to faint.

"You were very brave," Kedok said, "very brave indeed. And if he said something about... well, about his dreams, that - would be me. I imitated you, last week, hoping he would give you up if he thought you truly hated him." He spoke in her voice, unerringly, and seriously creeping both humans out.

"Don't ... do that, please?" Eliza said, waving her hand a bit at him, "and what are you exactly? I thought you were a bit odd, even for a blind beggar..."

***

Kedok would likely return to see Eliza and Rudolph, perhaps even attend their wedding. But for the moment, he had to go back home - back to the Den, back to explain his vacancy to Baeris if not to Atrocity.

"Well I'm sure he'll either be as proud as I am or as angry as he could be, about this," Baeris said. Even if he had tried to hide it from her, Baeris was like his true hive-queen, and when she asked him what was bugging him (only a week had gone by at the Den, that was how things often seemed to work there, and his absence was hardly noted - but his growth and his habit of becoming a human with ill-fitting clothing certianly was spotted!) he simply had to say it.

He had all but forgotten the reason he had gone there, of course, so that never even came up. He had made friends, killed someone important, and fallen in and out of love for the first time.

"That's a very Sanger thing to do, young man," Kalkin announced, coming up near them and leaning against the couch's back. "We're notoriously unlucky in love, you know."

Baeris rolled her eyes. "Just keep trying, Kedok, you might find someone who really does understand you - and doesn't have someone else in the way. That needs to be killed." She pointedly looked at Kalkin who waved his fingers and laughed while he walked back to his office.

"But... now I'm ... going to be kind of alone. I did say good bye to the women," he chuckled. "They were sad to see me go, their queen thanked me for having done it, too. I think there was something more to it than that. She did not say."

"... I bet it had been her daughter," Baeris said, standing. "That he killed. Come along, Kedok, there's something going elsewhere. You do not have to be alone, I just hope that there's something ... appropriate for you here. I've got a note from the Kalyturn Hybridization Center, they need some ... applicants for something. Then again, there might be tons of little friends waiting for you in other places. There are plenty of places to look. Shoo. Go on. Come back with something that won't eat the other dragons, all right?"

This time, Kedok traveled through one of the official portals, reached through a bigger, and more stable, version of Atrocity's portal. These things were scattered through the Den, any given day there would be a visitor coming through from Dawnlight, or Carramba, or wherever - they came through these stabilized portals. After tuning it to the right place, Kedok swished his tail, turned human and fiddled with the two coins in his pocket. Stepping through, there could be another adventure waiting.