The Pack

  It was Late.Ki Dan sighed and stared at the moon. Forced to be on the run from humans.... It was brutal to be on the road this constantly. His entire race, the La'ret was feared and hated by the humans. Not that the La'ret had extended the hand of friendship, but to be fair, it really was all the humans fault. The La'ret did appear to be a race to be feared. They were wolfish, humanoid in shape, more like a wolf-anthro. Ki Dan was thin, muscular, and had his long hair (fur?) tied back in a ponytail.

  As the day was coming to an end, he wrapped his hand around the talisman around his neck, and prayed to his god for an end to all this fighting. He threw off his jacket and collapsed into a deep sleep on his sleeping bag. He had an interesting dream as he slept........ He was walking along aforest path when he came to a beautiful waterfall......
 
  "Wait, a waterfall?!" He said "No, I'm not letting that happen!" And willed himself awake.

  There was smoke. And fire. Ki Dan  quickly jumped out of the tent ready for a fight. What he saw were thousands of La'ret running at their fastest to get away. He grabbed one by his shoulder

  "What's going on?"

  "The humans are invading!!! They're trying to finish off our entire species in one big swoop!!" And then he zoomed off.

  Ki Dan sighed He made his way through the rushing crowd to see what was so frightening. When he finally got there, he was enraged. Humans were mowing down everything with their guns. The damned guns. The La'ret hated guns with all their being. Ki Dan growled. No, he wasn't going to stand for this!! He rushed low at the humans, roaring. He grabbed and clawed at them. He fought so long and so hard, until he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, and a wet sensation on his chest. Unconsciousness came soon after.

  When he finally came to, he sat up immediately and screamed. but wait... It was too quiet.....He looked around. He wasn't sure if he had lost color, everything looked gray. Then he realized it was ash. It was slowly coming down from the sky, like snow. it covered everything. He brushed large amounts of it off him and stood up. He appeared to be the only thing around breathing. Then he started to walk.

  He walked for miles and miles and miles, or so it felt like. He wasn't sure how long he could do this, losing blood from his wounds, and what. He had made it 17 and 1/2 miles before he finally passed out from blood loss. The last time he awoke, it was to cold, and a feeling of loss. This time, it was a nice warmth, and curiosity. He opened his eyes and looked around. There was a human girl tending to his wounds. Her short dark hair fell over her eyes as she worked.

  "Welcome back, I was afraid I had already lost you"

  He blinked twice. "Lost me? Have we met before?"

  She rolled her eyes and grinned. "I meant I thought you were dead, numb-nuts." She said with a chuckle.

  He snarled ferociously.

  She raised her palms in a sign of surrender and backed up. "Whoah, chill out scruffy, I was just teasing. Now if you'd please, lie back down so I can finish taking out the bullets."

  With a grudging look on his face, he slowly laid back down, and she continued her work. When she was all done, she bandaged him, and sat down.

  "I'm Lynne, by the way."

  He stayed quiet for about a minute. "Ki Dan"

  She smiled. "Ki Dan. That's a nice name. I've always admired the names of the La'ret. So nice, and yet here I'm stuck with a name like Lynne."

  He cocked his head and stared at her.

  "It's Ok, you can laugh, it's a joke"

  He grimaced. "you are right to be ashamed to be a human."

  She exhaled sharply and slapped him. He snarled.

  "Listen Scruffy. I didn't HAVE to save your life. I CHOSE to. Now, you better give me some damn respect for it, cause I am not afraid to bust your butt and drop you back in the forest like a dead slug where i found you."

  Ki Dan was taken aback by this response. He figured she was just like all the other humans. Afraid, feeling like a dominant species. But this human female....... She treated him like an equal. He bowed his head.

  "I apologize for my rudeness."

  "Yeah, great"

  she turned on her computer and checked her email, and sent some. After an hour, she groaned at a new email.

  "Wonderful, just wonderful. Well, Mr. Ki Dan, human law has just approved the hunting of La'ret in our territory, so you have to sneak back. Unfortunately, I am wanted by the law too, and since I'm outlawed in any human territory.-"

  "Wonderful, but what does that mean?"

  "Unfortunately, it means I'm coming with you."


Several hours later.....


  Things were looking grim. The humans were trying to exterminate the La'ret once and for all. Now they were allowed to kill any in human territory. Pretty soon they would be allowed to enter La'ret territory and declare war. Lynne and Ki Dan were gearing up. He just kept knives and such. She kept a scalpel, several grenades, a shotgun, and ammo. They were hiking through the woods. Eventually, after three days of constant bickering,. they made it to a tribe of La'ret. Luckily, they were friendly towards Lynne. The Elder there spoke to them.

  "Listen you two. A war is imminent. inevitable. There is a chance to appeal to the humans. Now, The main racism to the La'ret comes from a small base east of here. If that base gets taken down, we might just be able to stop a war. Now, none of our tribe here are warriors, and I do not wish to sacrifice unnecessary lives, so if we are to carry out this plan.... You two must do it together."

  Lynne fainted after a groan.


That night............


  "You know," Ki Dan said. "I never.......I never really thanked you properly for saving my life. Without you, I'd be a bloody corpse stuffed with ash." Lynne smiled. "And in my opinion, Lynne is a lovely name, as beautiful as any La'ret name."

  Lynne's blush was redder than sharks tooth after a meal, and they shared a smile.

  That night, Ki Dan and Lynne had done the impossible: The had become friends, and developed a bond.


The Next Day...


  "So," Started Lynne. "The control room to the whole thing is located here, but that's way too heavily guarded. We'd never make it"

  "So you're saying this mission is pointless?"

  "No, Scruffy, I'm not. I'm saying we can't take it down from the control room. Luckily, that isn't even the best way to get the base. There's a maintenance room located right here, next to a storage bay. If we can get into this bay, we can take the necessary supplies to the entrance to the system in the maintenance room."

  "Well, that's great, but if we just shut it down, that won't stop it."

  "I know that, TRY to let me finish this time. When they made this, there's so much stuff running, they had to do something dangerous. They powered it by lupintium"


NOTICE: Lupintium is a powerful superconductor for computers, and can generate thousands of kilojoules in milliseconds. It is also, however, extremely explosive, and very dangerous. That is all.


  "Isn't that dangerous?"

  "Yes, Very, so they have extremely strong walls, but it's only strong on the outside, so nobody can use this against them. They're very careful on the inside, so no need to pay extra for that."

  "And where exactly are you going with this?"

  "If we can steal a block of Semtex, and wire it to the main system, we can set off an explosive charge that will destroy the entire base."

  Ki Dan nodded. "Nice plan"

  And so they set off. They took this time walking to talk, and laugh and joke. and enjoy their possibly last free moments When they finally got there, they proceeded to sneak in a side entrance. The plan all went according to plan, up to when Lynne was wiring the bomb. Three soldiers burst in, just talking, were quickly alerted to the intruders and shouted into their walkie talkie. They didn't have much to say, as Ki Dan Destroyed them. No, he didn't just kill them. the word kill is to soft. he ENDED  them, as they were trying to kill Lynne.

  "Ki Dan.... You saved me" She said with a smile and tears in her eyes.

  "Yeah, now we're even. Keep wiring!! we don't have much time."

  and they didn't. With. Ki Dan defending them, they lasted a while while Lynne wired. Finally, she finished.

  "This isn't good!" She shouted over the din of oncoming warriors. "We can't run from the explosion and defend ourselves at the same time!!!!"

  "Then Go!!!" He shouted. "I'll hold them off as long as I can!!"

  "But Ki Dan-"

  "GO!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll try to catch up!"

  And she ran, the building set to blow in 2 minutes. As she ran, she saw Ki Dan trailing far behind her, repeatedly pausing to turn and shoot the warriors with one of their fallen soldiers guns. Lynne finally raced out the doorway to a safe distance. She turned to look at the building. Ki Dan hadn't made it out yet. She turned and ran towards the building. She saw in the doorway, Ki Dan almost out. And then the building blew. Lynne was dead on, the explosion was huge, effectively wiping out the base. She wasn't dead, but she was injured. She overturned rubble, desperate to find Ki Dan. She found him, unconscious, fur matted with blood and dirt and grime. She immediately took out her scalpel and did everything she could to save his life..........


6 years later...............


  In the small town of Lin Dan, Lynne smiled as she picked up her son and kissed his on the forehead. She walked through the town until she had made to her cozy little home.

  "Mommy?" Her little son asked.

  "Yes?"

  "Why is everything around here so peaceful?"

  She smiled. "Because of a very special man named Ki Dan."

  "But wait......" Said the little boy. "I know that name!!"

  "That's right." Said Lynne as she set her child down, walked over to her husband and gave him a kiss "That's daddy's name."
 


EPILOGUE - So, Ki Dan survived, got married to Lynne, and they had a kid, a little boy. After the base was destroyed, there wasn't really anybody who really hated the La'ret enough to speak out aginst them, and peace and order was restored. Now, Humans and the La'ret live side by side, work side by side. In Short, everything turned out all right, and everybody (everybody in THIS story at least) lived happily ever after.



THE END