This story is © Angela "LemurKat" Kingston-Smith (aka "Raynflower") and cannot be used for any means, profit or non-profit, barring reading of, without the written permission of the author.

Arron threw himself against the door. He had half-expected it to be locked, but it swung open under his weight and he almost stumbled inside.

"Kat!" He called, darting up the stairs two at a time. If Dario had reason to kidnap Luka, she must be very important indeed and he needed to speak to Kat - or someone about it immediately.

The lounge was empty, on the magivision a Furrae sitcom talked to itself. There was an imprint on the couch where Kat had rested, and the fabric was still warm. "Kat!" He called again, then realised that maybe she had gone to bed. She still would not have recovered from the blood-draining though and he worried that she could not have made it to her bedroom by herself. He bolted up the stairs and pushed open her bedroom door.

Her hammock swung in the gust of wind from the door, but was as devoid of life as the lounge. The great mirror stood, a dark and looming shape in the corner, doors covering its reflective face. He shuddered at the sight of it. As though it were somehow responsible for everything they were going through.

Where was she then?

At a more sedate pace he returned to the lounge, and it was thus he noticed the hallway door, the one to the broom closet, stood slightly ajar. Puzzled he walked over to it, she would hardly be hiding in there, would she? And swung it open. There were some coats, and a cloak and of course the broom, but certainly no Ringtailed Lemur.

With a despairing sigh he pushed the door shut, but it would not close. Crouching down, he investigated the obstruction. It was a spiral bound notebook, cover tucked back. In Kat's scrawlish handwriting was written:

He frowned at it, pushing the door closed.

It fell shut with a "click" that rung out like a death knell.

Kataryna heard the sound, pausing in preparation for the next jump. She glanced back over her shoulder so see the thin sliver of blackness, the last connection between her and the mortal realms, had gone.

The door had been closed.

She shuddered, turning her attention back to the obstacles. The floating platforms stretched out before her, forming a loose path down into the vibrant forests of the Rainbowlands. Beneath her feet stretched the Rainbow itself, beautiful but insubstantial.

"Follow, follow and I shall lead," the Grimalkyn encouraged her, dancing about on the floating "stepping stone" before her. He was never still, not for a moment, but here in the Rainbowlands he had a voice. It was musical, almost childlike voice that sounded almost like a flute had been taught to speak words. "Into the land of your destiny."

"But the door…" She said sadly and shook her head. There was no way to go but forwards. She judged the distance between the step she stood upon and the next, trying to envisage it as just a tree branch and call upon her ancestral memory. Such leaps were nothing to the lemurs of old. Still, her wings threw off her body weight and she was thus nervous.

Nowhere to go but onwards.

She jumped.

The risky leaps and the sheer drop below invigorated something inside her and a great sense of satisfaction descended. She was born to this, this leaping from platform to platform, her wings opening and closing ever so slightly, their instinct to unfold kept in check. She was a Lemur and trees and heights were her home.

It was almost with sadness that she touched down to solid ground once more and stopped to behold the beauty of the Rainbowlands.

This area, this boundary between life and death, was beautiful in its barrenness. Around her stretched skeletal trees, their branches topped with golden, red and orange leaves of every shade known to Furrae kin and some that were not. Piles upon piles of golden-red leaves carpeted the forest floor, slightly squishing beneath her feet. The Grimalkyn, never still, darted before her, his tail stirring a flurry of leaves in his wake.

"No not dally, do not stray." He sung and whirled and was almost gone. "Pay no heed to the wandering shades."

She hastened after him wondering of what he spoke and then she saw them, pale faces peering at her from behind the trunks of trees or between the branches. There were many, their eyes seemingly too big for their emaciated bodies. Some were Furrae, their condition leading them to look aside from their species, but others were not - flat faces and furless bodies, they reached out to her as she hurried past, whispering pleading words in a voice she could not understand.

"What are they?" She asked, "why are they here?"

"They've lost their way, tribute they did not pay - so trapped they are and doomed to stay!" The Grimalkyn appeared before her suddenly, flashing needle-sharp teeth at one of the Lost that strayed too close. "To the River we must go, to sail away from all their woes."

Such was his agility that he seemed to flow through the trees, sinuous and swift, pausing only to dance about impatiently as he waited for Kataryna to catch up.

"Where are we going?" She asked, not for the first time.

"To save the soul that's trapped within," he replied. Something brushed against her wingtip and she shrieked, whirling, to see a pathetic shade of a Fox draw back in fear, shielding his face with one hand as though she were to hit him.

"Angel," he whispered in a voice both pathetic and weak. "To touch you is a blessing."

The Grimalkyn was behind her, teeth flashing, tail whirling a maelstrom of leaves. The Fox cowered pathetically before his violet and pink wrath. Choking back her own distaste at the creature's pitiful condition, Kataryna hurried onwards, golden leaves cascading down to catch in her hair.

A moment later the Grimalkyn was before her again, leading the way.

The river's roar broke through the whispering silence - the violent pounding of a river in flood. The Grimalkyn had, for once in his life, paused and sat in a half crouch on the riverbank, tail twitching restlessly.

"A token for your passage you have brought?" He asked, as Kataryna came to stand beside him and saw the River.

The River that bordered the Rainbowlands was a terrifying sight indeed. Constantly in flood, the waters rushed past with such speed and fury it seemed all would be torn apart in its wake. Whole trees, complete with birds' nests, floated past and a squirrel chattered at her from one of the branches. She could see the far bank, barely, but it seemed an impossibly long way away.

"A token?" Her hands flew to her pocket and closed about two opates. She could not remember putting them there, but maybe in a dream? She drew them out on the palm of her hand, one yellow, the other blue. Little more then loose change - would it be enough to pay her passage?

"Do you wait for the Lost to come? Make your Tribute, feed the stream."

Kataryna glanced down at the small domed stones in her hand, and then flung them out as far as she could. Instantly the waters devoured them and a great turbulence arose. Water poured back and around as something erupted from beneath. The prow crested first, the carved wooden head of a swan staring at her, and then followed a small, almost dainty boat. Water streamed down its elegant sides and it moved through the turgid water as though it were little more then a still pool. It was empty, but moved with such purpose and direction it was easy to believe it were alive.

As it neared the bank, a sparkle of yellow caught Kat's attention. One eye of the swan glinted in striking yellow, the other a dazzling blue. Her opates.

It reached the bank and stopped, patiently waiting. The Grimalkyn sprang into its berth immediately, but Kataryna could not stop herself from stopping to admire the craftsmanship. The boat was a swan there was no questioning that - every feather had been carved in exquisite detail and the wings nestled at each side looked ready to spread at any moment. She placed one hand on the swan-boat's elegant head. "You're beautiful," she whispered, "exquisite." And for but a moment one of her opates blinked brightly and paled, almost as though the boat were winking at her.

Slightly disconcerted, but pleased, never-the-less, the Lemur sprang into the boat, joining the Grimalkyn on the narrow sitting plank. For all the beauty of the boat, it was not designed for comfort.

"I wonder who carved such a beauty," she mused, and the Grimalkyn shot her a look that said she was mad to ask such a thing.

She sighed and sat back as the swan-boat turned about and made its way smoothly through the current. Above her the sky was not blue, nor grey, but a myriad of colours, blending and merging and swirling together like chaotic clouds. For all the fury of the river, the boat floated in calm, still water. Glancing back she realised that this calm patch was consumed as soon as the boat had passed through it. The Grimalkyn fidgeted beside her, tail twitching, ears twitching, fingers clenching and unclenching as he fought to keep his body still.

Kataryna delved deep for some sort of small talk, but could find none. What was there to be said?

"Who is it I am here to save?" She asked after a time.

"He who wields the power of the light," the Grimalkyn replied, grooming his tail, eyes flaring. "He who must be restored to fight the fight. Without him you will fail and all the world will turn to ice."

"Well I guess I'd better go and find him then," she commented. "But how is it that you can bring me in but you can't bring me out?"

"You are the One who walks the line," he said. "Neither here nor there." One small hand stroked one of her wing feathers. His touch was light and surprisingly cool. For a fraction of a moment he was still, completely and utterly. Then he sighed and his ears drooped, but he said nothing.

Kataryna resisted the urge to fondle his head hair.

They were partway across when motion in her peripheral vision caught her attention. Upon the shore they had left behind, three scrawny Furrae were setting a makeshift raft into churning waters. It took all of their strength for two of them to hold it in place and the first to jump on, then the others followed. Immediately the water seized hold of the haphazard boat, wrenching it cruelly downstream. In vain the Furrae tried to steer it on a diagonal course across the river, before the seething waters grasped the rudimentary rudder and tore it free.

"Can't we do anything to help them?" Kat asked, moving to the tail end of the boat. "Won't you turn back and pick them up?" She asked the swan. It woodenly ignored her.

"Cannot help," the Grimalkyn said, and his tone sounded at least a little sad, "if you do not pay tribute, the torrent you must face."

As Kataryna watched, a wave crested the raft, sweeping one of the Furrae free. For a long moment he clung to the boards, and then was ripped into the river's unforgiving grasp. Like a dejected piece of flotsom, it tumbled him downstream, drawing him beneath to a watery grave.

The remaining two Furrae clung tight, muscles straining. The raft had drifted quite close to the swan-boat - such was the speed it was travelling, and Kataryna could quite clearly see the determination in their faces. There was no fear in their eyes. Perhaps they were beyond fear. Their bodies were pathetically wasted, their fur threadbare and their clothes little more then tattered rags, but still they clung. She scoured the boat, seeking something - anything - to throw to them and draw them into the safety of the swan-boat's smooth passage, but there was nothing and she could do nothing but watch with bated breath and clenched teeth.

A feathery wisp of a finger appeared from the water, drawing a hand behind it, it caught on the edge of the raft, closely followed by another. The raft titled and the Furrae started in fear, slashing at the fingers with the first thing at hand - their teeth. A moment later the creature came into view, dragging itself from the raging waters.

It appeared not unlike them, only where they were half-starved, it was little more then a shadow. Furrae once, from the general shape of it, it was naked safe for clinging pond weeds. Its skin was hairless, as pallid as a slug. The eyes were huge, bulbous and black and transfixed the two rafters in a single gaze. Then one hand snaked out, grasping an ankle aimed at its face. The two skirmished violently, half-obscured by raging waters, but the aquatic beast triumphed and the raging waters swallowed them up. The final remaining Furrae clung desperately to the raft. His eyes lifted, and locked with Kataryna's. Help me, he mouthed, but the waves ripped him away, tossing the raft over and over like nothing more then driftwood.

The swan boat continued serenely on its way through the raging waters and came to a halt against the far bank. The Grimalkyn was leaping from it even before it had fully docked, but the Lemur followed at a more leisurely pace, pausing by the bird's head, she patted it gently.

"Thank you," she said, "you are magnificent."

The Opate-eyes sparked once more and the wooden face looked almost pleased. Then it lowered its head, fanned its wooden wings and glided in a half circle, diving beneath the turgid waters.

Now Kataryna took in the surroundings. The forest was wild here, on the banks of the great river, a complicated wall of brambles, creeping vines and great spiny plants. Through these the Grimalkyn flowed, seemingly immune to the sharp spines. With a resigned sigh, Kataryna pushed through after him, thorns clawing even through her fur. Blood trickled down her arm splashing to the ground. A skittering reached her ears and she glanced down just in time to see some small, deformed bug crouching over the blood droplets and lapping them up. With a shudder she pushed ever onwards…

The brambles changed, sharp spires of rock scraping across her skin and digging into her bare feet. She stood in a stone forest, rock monoliths surrounding her, their faces carved with strange and arcane ruins.

For a moment she faltered, and found the Grimalkyn beside her once more.

"Do not linger," he coaxed, "to linger is to be lost." He flicked his long tail, flowing sinuously onwards.

"Easy for you to say," Kataryna muttered, scrambling after him over rock falls and through gullies. Her legs ached, her arms throbbed with cuts and bruises and she was beginning to feel a shadow of the blood loss weakness once more. Her step faltered and she leaned heavily against a rock, blinking to clear the haze from her eyes.

"Almost there," the Grimalkyn urged, "never fear."

Kataryna drew a long and lingering breath. A grey haze had settled over the stone forest, sinking down between the rocks and the sickly, cloying stench of blood reached her senses. She shuddered - the mist was brown tinted and seemed to be seething.

"Grim… What is it?" she whispered, hesitantly but urgently. The mist was coalescing and it may have been her imagination, but she could see what dimly looked like faces - human and Furrae, forming in its substance. She shivered as it settled.

"It is Cerberus," was all he would say, his ears drooping in disconcertment and he darted away, a pink and blue lightning bolt of fur.

Her legs throbbing, Kataryna forced them into motion, pain erupting down her side as cramps took hold. Behind her the mist settled and began to take form. Three sets of slavering jaws, composed of many faces, lunged at her. Such a sight was enough to lend wings to her feet and she ran as she never had before.

Behind her the shadow-dog took chase, oozing across the ground as horrified faces screamed and twisted hungrily from its midst.

The ground was slick with moisture, mud allowing little purchase and the blood pounded in her ears. She knew not where she ran merely that it was away, away from this monstrosity. For an instance she had to slow to navigate a particularly awkward outcrop in the stone forest and she felt it gain on her. Its wretched, vile scent filled the air, engulfing her senses and nausea rose within her. A cold chill swept over her, a bone deep cold that bit straight to the core.

She glanced over her shoulder, very quickly wishing she had not. Mere feet from her the great dog head leered, huge jaws open, long, sharp dark teeth bared and a face stared at her from the tip of its huge slavering tongue. Its breath reeked of decay and death and other horrors.

Her foot caught against a ridge of rock and Kataryna stumbled, tumbling in a flurry of fur and feathers. Something cold beyond measure brushed against her and she realised, with horror, that the blood-mist horror was licking her. In vain she tried to crawl away, but her wings were too heavy, too great a burden to bear. The huge jaws, dripping shadowy goblets of saliva, closed about her.

She was falling, plunged into a sea of guilt. She had betrayed him, abandoned him selfishly, taken her life away without even telling him why. No note, no nothing, just her. Dead. No better then any of them. She could see them now, the shadowy wisps that made up the mist, mere shades of what they once were, reaching for her.

"Come join us, Kataryna," they called in silent voices. "Come be one with us. Here there is no pain, no guilt, no fear. Nothing but the Hunt."

Their fingers were like skeletal whispers, brushing gently against her skin and their faces… their faces were like masks, eyes that did not blink, expressions that did not change.

And they looked hungry.

She could feel the hunger in them, feel it consume her. Found herself slipping away, to be drawing down into a world where everything seemed so simple, so clear-cut…

"Come feel the Hunger with us Kataryna, come…."

She could feel her Self flowing amongst them, becoming one with the shadows and the darkness and the Hunger, the all-consuming Hunger. Their touches were gentle and beautiful caresses.

"Yes," she whispered, "yes!"

And they were right, there was no pain, no guilt - the emotions fleeted away as though they had never been. There was nothing but the Hunger, seething inside her. The Hunger, but not for food.

…For the Hunt.

A quiver of anticipation passed through the beast of amalgamated spirits. And a whisper began to rise amongst them.

"Preeeey, preeeey…" The words rose in volume and tempo, until they became the baying of a dog. And then, the great amalgamated beast began to move.

It was weird for Kataryna, a part of the greater being, but still holding onto at least a fragment of her conscious mind. She felt herself being drawn into the Hunt, felt the bloodsong sing in her veins - veins that would never willing hurt a flea. The beast surged and the souls trapped within moved with it, pushing against her so that she must join in the chase.

The great shadowy hound flowed through the rocks, and Kataryna caught a fleeting glimpse of their quarry - a small blue and pink shape, leaping and darting through the rocks, pausing every so often to glance back at its pursuer.

"Run Grimalkyn," she whispered, "I am lost," but just as quickly the bloodlust took over and her face distorted into a horrific grimace.

Oh but how they would make him run!

The thrill was not in the kill, but the chase.

The shadow-hound flowed over and around the rocks, the Grimalkyn remaining just far enough ahead. Kataryna, already quite near the front, managed to wiggle herself forward so that she took the position beneath the beast's chin. Here the bloodlust really took hold.

The Grimalkyn darted, mere feet from the great shadowy jaws. As one, the souls that made up the dog's chin lunged, fingers clawing in an attempt to grasp him. Her fingers very lightly brushed against the fur of his long, bushy tail and then he was gone, slipping through them as easily as moss.

"

Prey, prey!

And there stood the Grimalkyn.

Only he was not the Grimalkyn that Kataryna had seen before. He appeared to have grown to many times his normal size, so that he now stood at least eight foot tall. His pink and lavender fur bristled and his eyes shone like twin suns.

"Release her," he commanded, and his voice, whilst still having that sing-song quality, was now a deep, booming roar.

The shadow dog paused.

"She is mine now," the words came from a thousand voices, all in unison and Kataryna was shocked to hear her own voice amongst the cacophony.

"No," boomed the Grimalkyn and his eyes flared blue. "She is not." He was speaking in a rather direct manner for him. "She shall never be yours." His tail flicked angrily, restlessly.

The dog growled and snapped and Kataryna found her fingers reaching out to clasp him. He was mere inches away, how easy it would be to drag him in and have the great shadowy jaws consume him.

He did not give her the chance, his long fingers grasping her outstretched hand. His touch was cool and slightly clammy and firm, extremely firm. Kataryna felt him begin to pull, to try and tug her free. She resisted, wanting to remain here in unity, here where everything was so simple. Shadowy hands closed about her, holding her securely in place. The Grimalkyn braced his feet against the ground, tail thrashing angrily and tugged with what she imagined was all his weight. She could feel herself sliding one way and at the same moment being drawn back the other, stretching, being drawn in twain.

"No!" She screeched, the words sounding very harsh to her. Her wings spread slightly and unknown to her, the feathers emanated a glowing white light. The shadowy hands released her, and she tumbled free, bowling the Grimalkyn over. The two of them tumbled, silver and pink, white and blue, down the rocky slope.

Dazed, confused and dripping shadows from her extremities, Kataryna picked herself up. The Grimalkyn had returned to normal size now.

"Nearly there," he repeated, bounding ahead, "dark shadows have gone to cower in fear."

"That thing is frightened of me?" She asked, brushing clinging clumps of shadow from her clothing. "Why?"

"You are the one that walks the line," he replied, "you should bow to none. The power inside of you is more then you can know."

She frowned, "that sounds almost like a line from a song. Something by Aeternity?"

The Grimalkyn answered that with nothing more then a glance and then was gone again, leaping and darting down the remainder of the slope. She ran after him. "How did you do that? Grow huge and all?"

He skidded to a halt and rewarded her with a disparaging glare. "I am the Grimalkyn," he replied, as if that explained it all. Possibly it did, Kataryna reflected, her knowledge on such beasts of the imagination was scant to say the least.

The forest of rocks gave way to a more barren landscape, a plain of flattened, oval stones that slipped and slid beneath her feet. She glanced about uneasily - if Cerberus were to approach now they would have an easy advantage. Small, scraggly trees pushed their way out from amongst the pebbles, their leaves a rusty, desiccated red.

"Behold the gates," the Grimalkyn sang, darted back to run rings around her. Where he got his energy from was beyond her. She was exhausted, her incident with Cerberus seemed to have drained some of her energy from her and it took huge effort to drag her over-heavy wings across the shifting shale and towards the shining white gates.

They were impressive, and familiar, although it was the sort of familiarity that comes when remembering a dream. Two ivory pillars had grown from the shale, placed about ten paces apart. Atop each pillar crouched a beautifully crafted gargoyle - a cat-bird, one clawed forepaw raised, the other some sort of winged gazelle with only one horn that sprouted from the middle of the forehead. The pillars provided the support for a most elaborate gate. Every railing took the form of a twisted piece of vine, curled around one another and upon which perched delicate ivory insects and birds. A hummingbird, captured forever in mid flight, sipped nectar from a flower so real Kataryna felt that if she touched it she would find it soft and slightly rubbery.

As she reached out to push the gate open, several of the ivory insects took to the air, buzzing and whirring and the hummingbird fluttered once around her head, its wings a blur to return shortly thereafter to its original, and motionless, position.

"She wishes to pass through the ivory gates," the unicorn observed, shifting its position to stare down at her from not-quite-lifeless white eyes.

"Is she worthy?" The gryphon queried.

The Grimalkyn darted about, amusing himself by chasing the ivory insects until they returned to their perches. Kataryna merely stood, regarding the two gargoyles, unsure if they were talking to her, or merely about her.

"There is a taint of sin upon her soul," the unicorn appraised her, head cocked on one side. "A crime she has committed, yes?"

"A crime that would have her condemned?" The gryphon frowned, shifting its position to glare at her.

"She has been here before," the unicorn continued. "She is special."

Bored with his rather fruitless herding, the Grimalkyn crouched back on his haunches. "It is she-who-walks-between-worlds," he explained, enunciating each word slowly, presumerably so as it could be understood by the gargoyle's stone ears. "She will enter, so forget your doubts and open the gate."

The gargoyles noticed him for the first time.

"It is the little dream-cat," the gryphon commented. "I wonder what mischief he brings."

"I can creep and I can climb," was his response, "now open these gates or you shall be shamed."

"Look," said Kataryna, feeling faintly embarrassed, "I can always just walk around." And she could - for there was no wall, and all she could see through the grill on the gate was more of the endless sea of oval pebbles.

This comment went completely ignored, not even worthy of response from any of the three conversants.

"Very well," the unicorn conceded after much contemplation. The two gargoyles resumed their original position.

And very slowly, the gates swung open.

Kataryna stepped through the Ivory Gates.

Again.