With Beam and Fang Ch. 04-05

"And her foolish bravery, I see..." Sageclaw snarled. "You are a food animal, cow. You will survive to bear more cows, then I willeatyou and I will enjoy it. Unless you do not wish to live to bear young, which is the only thing women live to be..."

Celia glanced at the two nude women that were holding her down. Despite being "predators", and clearly not going to be eaten, their eyes flicked down and away from hers.

"Sir!" A voice called from the entrance of the amphitheater. A short, powerfully built jackal walked in, wearing a combat vest and nothing else, a rifle strapped to his back, his paw closed around a leash that was attached to...

Schaffer. He was walked in with his arms bound behind his back and blinders wrapped around his eyes, his back covered with the marks of rough handling – sluggishly bleeding claw marks and what looked like a fierce bite on his shoulder, as well as matted, burned fur where a stun gun had hit his hip. The collar around his neck looked slightly too tight for his wide, horse's neck.

"Ah, another prisoner..." Sageclaw said, rubbing his paws together. "What is your name, horse?"

"General Schaffer, US Army, serial number 3421115..." Schaffer said, his voice flat and emotionless – rather impressive, considering the circumstances.

"Well, horses are good eating, but I think he might need to be questioned first..." Sageclaw said. "Take him to the pens."

"Yes sir!" The jackal said, jerking on Schaffer's leash. "Come on, stallion, let's get you gelded at least..." A braying, harsh laugh came from him as he dragged Schafer off. Celia gulped, then looked at Sageclaw as he returned, sighing and shaking his head.

"Where was I?" He asked.

"Oh, you don't need to say anything more!" Celia said. "I...you're right. And my lover, he is a powerful lizardman. Strong. Clawed. Carnivorous. I'm sure he would be glad to join your..." She glanced around the amphitheater, at the guards, the slaves, the burning fire. Cult seemed too impolite.

"Pride," Sageclaw said, smiling. "We call it the Pride."

I think I am going to gag,Celia thought. "Pride," she said. "I love it."

Sageclaw regarded her, carefully, then asked: "If so, why did you come with the horse and with the arms of the false United States?"

"Oh, that was before I heard your greatness, before I heard your glorious words!" Celia said, purring as she pushed her chest out, trying to flaunt herself as best as she could. She reached out with two fingers, grabbing a bit of meat off the platter, and held it over her tongue.

And she thankedgodthat she had practiced as a stage magician before she even got into thievery. It had been years and years, but she still knew how to palm food. She knew how to chew and make sighing, gasping noises, as if she had just chewed the most delicious thing imaginable. And she knew how to stash the food hastily away, where no one would find it for quite some time.

"And before I tasted the flesh of the slave-beasts," She said, nodding. "Please...show me more of your compound!"

###

Schaffer grunted as he was shoved towards a nasty set of stocks in a...a dungeon. The whole world seemed to have gone completely insane, so why not have a dungeon? Still, the thought that zipped through his mind just before he was shoved, head first, into the stocks and the wood and metal clamped around him, was that this man had been planning this stuff for far too long and in far too much detail.

Just our luck, to have the first alien technology discovered to fall into the hands of our very own furry Hitler...he thought as he heard a faint hissing noise. He craned his head, but could not see...and then he felt his pants being cut away. Cool air blew along his furred balls and his cock twitched as it was revealed.

"W-What the-"

"Did you think I was kidding?" The jackal behind him laughed. "We geld all the cattle and the horses that we get. I mean, it keeps you from being intractable."

Schaffer felt a mixture of fury, disgust, and abject panic. He could not see behind him, and all he could do was listen – a faint clatter, a faint click, a soft chuckle – an evil sound. Then he heard feet padding towards him.

The jackal came close. Schaffer closed his eyes.

Then, without showing any tensing, or any hint he was about to do so, he kicked. His leg jerked up, then thrust out, smoothly, and he felt his hoof drive home into something hard and flat, which crunched and cracked inwards like an opening door. Schaffer felt an intense thrill as he heard a choked, gurgling noise, and then the clatter and thump of the jackal hitting the ground.

"Jackass," Schaffer muttered. He reached out with his leg, trying to drag the jackal's body close. Fortunately, the jackal had fell forward after staggering backwards, and inch, by painful inch, Schaffer started to get the corpse closer and closer to the stocks. He bumped his knee against the stock and managed to shove the corpse past the edge, so that he could see the key on the man's body. He gritted his teeth, then started to rock back and forth. The stocks were mounted on a movable platform, and he heard the faint squeak of it shifting from side to side, until, finally, it tore free with a loud squeal and the stocks and Schaffer fell to the side. He grunted as he crashed down...but his restrained wrist was right beside the jackal's belt. It was the work of a minute to get the key off, then the work of five minutes of frantic struggling to get the key into the lock, then turn.

The stocks came undone and Schaffer pushed free, landing on his back, gasping.

"No pants..." He said, grabbing for the jackal's hip. He stood. "No armor..."

He worked the slide on the pistol he had retrieved. "No extra magazines..."

The pistol clicked nicely as he set the safety off.

"I've had worse odds..." He said, and reflected for a moment: He had never felt more alive. "Maybe being a horse isn't so bad afterall..."

###

Celia waked beside Sageclaw as he led her past two guards and into the main chambers of the island mansion. There, in the center, was a large pedestal. It was surrounded by...science stuff. That was the best term that she could think of. There were beakers, scanners, and other bits of computers and monitoring gear that she sure was very expensive and very important. But the pedestal itself was empty – bare and polished clean.

"This was the chamber were the Blessing was studied, until the second phase of my plan begun," Sageclaw said, gesturing to it, his other hand sliding up and down her back. "The Blessing's ways were strange to us...really, it was pure luck that my scientists discovered how to weaken its strength. The first who beheld the Blessing and partook of it-"

Celia bit back the urge to say 'Partook? Seriously?' and instead listened with mounting horror as Sageclaw led her past the pedestal.

"-they were transformed not simply into this perfected fusion of man and animal, but into dumb beasts. One might see that as an improvement, but not this...this perfection..." He sighed, softly as they came to a large, open grotto. The waters that lapped and rippled against the sides of the grotto looked and smelled clean and pure, but there was the intense tang of salt and the smell of fish in the air. Celia's sharp eyes picked out several large tubes, open and wide, completely unfiltered.

"You put the meteorite into the ocean?" Celia asked, her eyes wide.

"Of course," Sageclaw said. "I did that two days ago!"

Celia looked at him, then at the water.

"That's..."

Sageclaw chuckled. "Brilliant? I know."

The sudden, intensely loudbangof a gun going off made Sageclaw and Celia both clap their hands around their ears, the sound ringing around and bouncing about within the metallic chamber, the noise not even slightly dampened by distance. Celia hissed as she heard the ringing in her ears fade only slowly, Sageclaw's voice sounding muffled and washed out: "What the-"

Two more bangs. This brought Sageclaw to his knees, gasping and clutching at his head, while Celia screamed.

She looked around, desperately, trying to find the source of the noise, seriously tempted to rip it to pieces, and damn acting like a human being. But then she saw, at the door she had entered by, Schaffer! He was mostly naked, and held only a pistol that smoked slightly as he hurried forward, leaving behind the corpses of two guards – both of them wolves. He had shot one in the head, the other twice in the chest and they lay on the ground, though, one clutched and reached for his rifle. Schaffer stepped on the rifle, crushing the barrel with his hoof, and the wolf gave up even trying – instead, pressing his paws against the holes in his chest.

"Schaffer!" Celia said.

"Prey-animal!" Sageclaw snarled. He ran forward, moving darting and fast. Schaffer brought his pistol up and...

And were those bullets shoved into his ears?

Celia blinked and then clapped her paws over her ears as the pistol went off twice more, shattering a beaker and punching a hole in the wall, but not touching Sageclaw as he rolled underneath a thin metal table. Schaffer fired twice more, these bullets blowing holes in the table. Sageclaw pushed himself out from under the table, blood streaming from a crease on his thigh. His paw clapped to it as Schaffer walked over, pressing the hot barrel against his forehead, causing Sageclaw to hiss angrily as Schaffer shouted.

"What?" Sageclaw asked.

Schaffer shouted again as Celia removed her paws from her ears. It sounded so distant and washed out, she had no idea what he had said either.

Sageclaw snarled and then made a strange, jerking motion with his hand. Celia must have missed where his hand hit the barrel, but the pistol went flying, Schaffer jerking back as Sageclaw sprang to his feet, faster than she would have believed possible. Sageclaw's paw slashed out and Schaffer clutched at his chest, five lines of blood bursting against his black fur. Snarling, Schaffer swept Sageclaw's leg with his own, and Sageclaw fell, his forepaws getting under him somehow, turning what should have been a crash into a hand-stand, then a backspring to land on a table.

Celia grabbed up a large, glass beaker, and threw it as hard as she could at Sageclaw. Sageclaw ducked, glared at her, then turned, to see Schafer leaping for his dropped pistol. Sageclaw jumped – farther, faster – and landed on the powerfully built horse's back, his claws digging in. Celia growled and felt her own claws burst free, a fierce, feral anger burning in her. This motherfucker haddumpedthe meteorite in the ocean, had eaten PEOPLE, and-

And-

She was too mad to even think. She leaped forward, her legs sending her hurtling through the air faster and farther than she ever had before. Her shoulder caught Sageclaw's shoulder and the two of them rolled off Schaffer and into a pile of clawing, scratching, biting flesh. Sageclaw's claws scored along her left arm, while she sank her teeth into his shoulder. His knee slammed into her belly and she grabbed at his back, claws digging in, seeking for his spine. Blood flowed and dripped into her mouth, and along her body, and even the pain that flared and flashed through her like fireworks seemed to be distant and far away.

Then, Sageclaw's paw was around her throat, slamming her head back against the ground.

Everything went whitish-gray and her grip slackened despite everything she tried to do, tried to focus on. Sageclaw growled at her, his eyes flashing angrily as he lifted his other hand, claws dripping with her blood.

"You could have been in the Pride, bitch!" He growled.

"That's a DOG, you idiot!"

The voice, neither Celia's nor Schaffer's, jerked Sageclaw's head around just in time for a metal pole with a flat, square base to catch him square in the jaw. Sageclaw tumbled backwards, his head snapped to the side, a spray of teeth and blood misting the air.

Celia, coughing and panting, sat up...

And saw the cow woman, her body trembling, her muscular arms wrapped around what had once been a lighting fixture before she had turned it into a makeshift club. She leaned against it, her broad forehead rested against the metal pole, gasping.

Celia thought she should say something. Maybe something like 'lights out' or 'he got taken to pasture.'

Instead, she rubbed her ears...and said: "Guns areloud."

Schaffer put his hand on her shoulder, his other hand going to his chest. Then his fingers tightened.

"Where is he?"

Celia blinked, and the three of them looked down at the empty ground between them.

Sageclaw was gone.