Well, intrepid reader. Last episode, Shiran had apparently been forgiven for the accidental mess in Chareka, and was working well with Kejani until the break was over. At that point, she led him to another room and left him in the dark. We continue as the room rumbles around our befuddled hero.
Shiran looks around.. o O {I got locked in a drive chamber. I just know it.} He sighs and commences feeling around with wingtips and hands, trying to get an idea of the room's geometry.
The room seems rather bland, though it does have a couple of the 'taur couches in it. The feeling of acceleration has smoothed out, but gravity does seem to be increasing.
Shiran frowns.. whatever he's in, it's moving. He eases over to one of the couches and hunts for straps.
Kejani radios down to operations and purrs into the pick-up, "The cargo has been sealed and been sent on its way. It should be landing at your end shortly. Kejani out."
Shiran settles as best a biped can into one of the over-sized couches, and waits. Wherever this thing's going, it probably won't be long getting there...
At a remote landing field outside of Chareka, a group of felitaurs waits. They all have the reddish gold coat of the Fireclad clan. Just like Kejani.
Kejani settle into one of the couches nearby herself, waiting to arrive. She thynx about something for a moment, then giggles.
Shiran frowns. Something's odd here. Simply keeping the shuttle darkened seems odd for a prank; after all, once they got him in some contraption, would it even matter?
The ship lands softly, and the lock door thunks against another connection, while Shiran can feel the lock door of his chamber slide open, into a dark passageway.
Shiran frowns, and slides up, reaching forward as he heads for the sound; he's learned the noises of door machinery from long experience.
A very faint luminescence can be seen up the long corridor, along with an assortment of faint sounds.
Shiran slips forward, eyes thinning to slits; earfans spread to full behind him as he steps, quietly, wings bunched close.
Diane, meanwhile, is grumbling about having to disassemble a drive assembly cause some male wasn't paying attention. And of course everyone thinks she did it on purpose. :P
Kejani takes a different, better lit, passageway off the ship. She is greeted by a large group of Felitaurs, all wearing the same basic mischievous grin.
One of the felitaurs pads up and snugs Kejani, "Good job sis. We even got Brahe's kits to volunteer."
Shiran almost automatically slides his hands out slightly at waist level, wrists rotating curled fingers around into striking claws as his tail pulls up; the dwagon's whole stance shifts as he steps towards the light, bunching to fly.. or pounce.
The faint outline of a door becomes visible in the distance, but other shadowy images seem to move around, and some chuckles can be heard, though they sound tinny, as if over speakers.
Shiran blinks.. wherever he is, it's fairly big; if a ship, it's more than a shuttle, or else he's in a different part of the station. He slides forward on the balls of his feet, moving quickly now.
The "door" continues to beckon, though the faint light it gives off tends to deepen the shadows around it. More of the recorded purring and other felitaur sounds bounce around the dark corridor.
Shiran slips up to the 'opening'; what light there is shows the frown his 'ridges are creased into as he eyes the opening.
Kejani gathers all the other female felitaurs up, heading to the main dining hall of the tower, "Okay everybody, aggressive posture, no purring, and don't forget to scowl!"
Suddenly two small forms burst out of their hiding places, trying hard to growl fiercely (and failing). They launch a series of projectiles at Shiran's back.
Diane finally gets off shift, then gets the note from Kejani. She hmms and takes the next shuttle down to the Fireclad Clan's tower.
Shiran turns, and flash-builds an airshield for.. whatever they are, ducking into a crouch as he does so..
Kejani directs a couple of the 'taurs to get the hoses set up, "Aim for that doorway..don't fire immediately, though..make sure you wait for him to realize that all is not well."
A surprised "oof!" from one of the forms as it's projectile *Kersplats* mooshily against the dwagons shield. The other form tries to bounce her shot off the ceiling, trying to get the dragon from above. Meanwhile, the 'door' behind Shiran slides open and gives a view of the outdoors, looking like a park.
Shiran reaches up to catch the second 'thing' as the first makes a relatively harmless splat against his forward shield, taking a single step backwards..
Kejani whistles loudly, then yells, "Shiran, sworn enemy of the Fireclad clan, turn around and face your fate!"
The dragon stumbles through the holographic door to find a huge room filled with felitaurs, especially nearly a dozen angry looking females surrounding him. In his hand...is a banana cream pie?
Shiran blinks? He's being assaulted first with plasma, then with _food_? He sighs, sliding over to get the wall behind him. So be it.
The "wall" suddenly shifts and tosses Shiran at the waiting group of felitauresses.
Kejani brings her hand down in a chopping motion, "Fiiiiiiiiiire!!"
The tauresses release the valves on the hoses and a thick white substance gouts from the nozzle, coating the dragon from head to toe, obscuring his vision. As the substance runs down him he notices it has a vanilla smell to it.
Shiran hits the ground, however, much, much sooner than he should, as he drops and shoulder-rolls in between. The 'pie' in his hand has long since turned to a high-velocity blur of off-white, headed back at whatever threw him forward. The wrong set of reflexes seems to have kicked in as his wings snap to half-back, and a 'cone' of air appears almost right in front of the nozzle held by the pair closest to him.
Two small felitaur cubs, Scorch and Stardust (the ones who tangled themselves up with Shiran and Zaura at the dance) pounce Shiran from behind as the spray of whipped cream is splattered around the room by the dragons elemental tricks, though a blast or two from the side did splatter him a bit.
Diane walks into the Fireclad banquet hall in time to see the start of this, she doesn't look too happy, but is having troubles not smirking a little.
The pie that Shiran threw is presently sliding off Kejani's chestfur.
Shiran twists, rolling to hit the ground shoulder-first, one wing snapping out and the other folding in as he twists. He doesn't, for the moment, notice Diane, letting his 'deflectors' distract the others while he tries to get out fromm under whoever is on top of him.
Kejani glorples! as she's struck by a speeding pie. The rest of the tauresses screech in terror as what turns out to be whipped cream coats the entire pack! Kejani stands in shock for a moment, then begins to tremble, which then changes to shaking uncontrollably...seconds later hysterical laughter erupts from her and she falls over sideways!
Scorch purrs, "Got him!" and holds on, but not even a hint of claws are being used by the small cub or his sister.
Shiran blinks, stopping short as his assailant seems.. familiar? A bit of reason starts to penetrate, and he eyes the two with a 'what goes here?!' sort of look.
Scorch and his sister are just grinning and giggling gleefully, being careful of Shiran's wings as they hold on. ;)
Kejani yells out between fits of laughter, "Get him!" Tenths of a second later Shiran has been pounced by whipped cream covered female felitaurs laughing gleefully! "Hold him for me," Kejani orders, trying to sound stern.
Shiran blinks. There's entirely too much giggling for this to be serious, after all. He eases out of his air-weave as it becomes apparent that this is simply another too-silly felitaur ritual.
Diane can no longer suppress herself, and giggles loudly off to one side.
Shiran takes a too-deep, shuddering breath as he eases down. Mrph.
Klamor purrs to Kejani, "C'mon sis. I think this is enough. ;)"
Shiran looks around. "Just what have I been pulled into?"
Kejani strides up to the dwagon, trying to look stern, "You have passed the final test. As a representative of the Fireclad clan, I, Kejani Fireclad, welcome you as a member." She reaches down and wipes a bit of whipped cream from her chest and dabs it from her chest onto Shiran's nose, "I anoint thee Shiran Poorsenseofdirection."
Kejani steps back with a grin and the tauresses release the dragon with a cheer!
Diane hmmfs and purrs loudly, "He's already a member of the Rockhopper Clan by mating. I'm not sure he's up to belonging to two clans. ;)"
Shiran cocks an eyeridge, tilting his head as his nose orients, rather pointedly, at the splattering Kejani's wearing. "But good enough for a snapshot." HE blinks at the cheering, regarding the crowd with curious looks as he pulls assorted debris from his shoulders.
Klamor chuckles at Diane, "He'll do fine. He went through the ritual combat just fine." He pads up to Shiran and offers a paw, "It's a way we symbolize that the grievance between us wasn't serious, just like the combat is anything but serious."
Shiran takes the offered limb, and blinks. "Is that what this was over? I see.. though it was a bit hard to tell, at first." He grins. "I've learned nerves over the past year."
Diane moves over to Shiran's side and snugs, "You look cute in whipped cream. I'm starved. Here I am, working hard all day, carrying YOUR child, and I come to find you playing around with a dozen other females. ;)"
Scorch and Stardust hug Shiran's legs before bouncing off after each other.
Shiran rrrphs as he gets ambush-snugged. "You were in on this, weren't you?" The dwagon le sighs. "This was _not_ my idea, and it's not what it looks like, either."
Diane shakes her head, "I would not have approved had they told me. I know how rattled that fight made you. But it turned out ok. Oh, and this is EXACTLY what it looks like. ;) C'mon kecharra, let's eat. ;)"
Shiran snorts, and would roll his eyes if he could. "I suppose. At least we're not doing this in an engine block, hmmmm?" He grins, and winds off to stalk lunch.
Kejani smiles at Shiran and motions on to the dinner that's been prepared for the occasion. Everyone dives in to the meal with great gusto, the celebrating lasting for hours.
The assembled felitaurs are quite happy to clean the whipped cream off each other during the dinner, and Diane even sneaks a few licks at Shiran during the meal, but finally relents and uses a wet towel to wipe him off. The evening is finally topped off with dessert. Strawberries....and whipped cream.