Nizhoni's Tale

To straighten out confusion this is the background story for a Traveller RPG character named Nizhoni. Rory is Nizhoni the name change will be covered later in the story.
This chapter is rated R for violence and sex situations.

The Fall

Rory lay in Hunter’s arms on the sandy floor of the cavern. They had just completed making love for the third (or was it the fourth?) time and were holding each other waiting for the ‘tie’ to recede. To Rory it seemed as if her whole life had suddenly fallen right into place. All her life she and Hunter had been best friends and she just couldn’t envision it otherwise. But she also had a dream of having children and strong life mate at her side. And now those two visions had come together and she was left wondering why she hadn’t seen it this way before. She looked into the eyes of Hunter, the strong life mate lying beside her. The life mate whose child she hoped, as she felt his rapidly softening manhood slide out of her, she already carried inside her.

She reached up and played with his ear, making it twitch.
“I love you,” she said dreamily.
“I love you too,” he answered back and licked at her muzzle. “But we need to head back before they send out a search party for us.”
They quickly dressed and started back through the caves, following the inertial trackers in their comms.
‘I can’t wait to see Candy’s face when she picks up our mating marks,’ Rory thought.

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Blaze heard a distant sound and came out on the catwalk around the tower of Cracker #4 to see what it was. It looked like smoke was rising from the village. Then he noticed movement below. There were a group of Vargr down there but they were too big to be Foxes. Blaze didn’t remember any reports of visiting Vargr but that didn’t matter right now.
“Hey!” He yelled down at the group. “Get away from here, there is a hydrogen leak.”
The Vargr looked up at him and pointed their weapons at him.
“What the…” was all Blaze had time to say.

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In no particular hurry, the new lovers headed for the entrance of the cave, stopping often nuzzle and caress. Suddenly there was a rumbling and rocks began to fall. Hunter pushed Rory ahead of him and yelled," Run!" And the ceiling fell as the tunnel plunged into darkness.

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''Hunter!" Rory screamed again, as she had so many times since the rocks had stopped falling, continuing to frantically move the rocks that separated her from her love. Her fingers were raw and bleeding before she realized that she needed to go for help. ''Hunter, I'm going back to the village to get help. I'll be back soon. I love you. Hang on." she called before scrambling away.

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The air was oddly still and quiet as Rory hurried towards home, but she was too worried about Hunter to notice. As she neared the village though, she began to sense that something just was not right.
'Where were the sounds of the children at play?' she wondered. And her friend, Candy's, mother had been trying yet again to teach her how to cook. 'So where is the sound of Candy's mother's swearing? I know I can smell whatever it is that she's burned this week. Sort of smells like meat. And it smells like she set fire to the kitchen as well.'
Rory looked up, as she neared the base of the last hill before the village, and saw smoke, far more smoke than she should have. More smoke than could be attributed to Candy's cooking lessons. And all she could smell was smoke, burned meat, and an odd unfamiliar scent. Then she saw the first body.

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Angus McTaggart stood behind the pilot, looking at the approaching planet.
He was glad to be back, not just to be working again but because he really missed his Fox friends. Angus had been with the mining operation here since the very beginning and come to regard the ‘wee’ Foxes as his extended family. At 6’2”, his red haired bulk towered over them, and he couldn’t stand up right in one of their homes without bumping the ceiling, but that never stopped him from being invited over or him from going.

“All clear for approach and landing from the beacon AI,” the Comm. Tech said.
“Anything from Tanen?” Angus asked.
“No, I’ve called but he must be away from the control shed. The relay will pass it to his comm. but he’ll need to get to a main terminal to…” The Tech paused, listening to his ear piece. “I’m getting something. It looks like a personal comm. signal but he must be overloading the power to get out here. It sounds like Tanen.”
“Put it on.”
“…come in…trap…Vargr…” The signal dissolved into static.
“What the hell?” The pilot said. “I’ve lost the landing beacon. It just went dead.”
Angus looked at the scanner readout.
“It looks like there was an explosion at the plant.” Angus considered the cryptic message. “Get me the Director.”

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Director Trellan listened to Angus’ report and frowned.
“Any of the other ships report anything out of the ordinary?” He asked his comm. officer.
“No sir, everyone is reporting all clears from the landing AIs.”
“Have any of them reported contact with the caretaker personnel?”
“I’ll check sir.”

“No sir, just the AIs,” he said a moment later.
“I don’t like this. Instruct the escorts that they are to go in and sweep the landing areas first. Then they are to remain in the air until the crew ships land and secure the facilities.”

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Angus and the other miners found Rory several hours later, in a huddle, just rocking back and forth, between the ruins of what used to be her home and those of the home of Hunter's family.

''Rory!" Angus shouted, when he found her and realized she was alive. ''Hey, somebody bring a blanket! I've found Rory! She's alive!" As he scrambled over rubble and grew closer to her, he could hear her tunelessly humming and see that she was holding something close. When he was close enough to touch her, he realized what, or who, she was holding.
'Oh my god!' he thought, 'It's baby Raney!'
He reached for the baby, but Rory would not release her hold on Hunter's baby sister.
The staff doctor, Dr. Leianard, was beside him taking the baby’s vital signs with a hand sensor. She glanced over to Angus and shook her head.

''Rory, sweetheart, let me have the baby. Give Raney to me, sweetheart. I'll take care of her for you."
As Rory slowly relinquished Raney to Angus, he quietly asked one of the other miners, "Did anybody find Hunter? Where you find Rory, you usually find Hunter nearby."

Rory's keen hearing caught the quiet question and at the mention of Hunter’s name she suddenly sat bolt upright.
''Oh no!" she cried, scrambling to her feet,"Hunter! Hunterstrappedinthecaveyouhaveto helpmesavehim!"
The miners, having been startled by her sudden movement and speech, jumped.
Angus said soothingly, ''Slow down, Rory. What about Hunter now?"
"He's trapped. The cave fell in."
''Can you lead us there?"
''Yes, but..."
''But what, Rory?"
''I need to look after Raney." Rory said, clearly torn between her responsibility to the baby and the need to get help to her trapped lover, who was the baby's sole surviving family.
Understanding the urgency of the rescue, and knowing that Rory would almost certainly deal better with Raney's death knowing that Hunter was safe, Angus said, "I'll look after her for you. Just lead them to where Hunter is."
As they headed off with a sled full of digging equipment and first aid packs, he fervently hoped that Hunter was indeed safe.

As the others went off on the rescue, Angus headed back towards the tent that was his temporary HQ, carrying Raney. Tears filled his eyes as he looked down at her. Then he noticed the unusual way the fur around her neck looked. Looking closer he found the skin under her neck fur indented from the unique bead design of her necklace; he had given that necklace to the child himself. The little Fox child had been strangled with it. It couldn’t have been an accident as the catch was designed to release if caught.

Angus took the child and laid her with the bodies of her parents at the mortuary and proceeded on to the command tent. Another miner came running up to him.
“Sir, we found another Vargr survivor.”
“Good, at least that’s two.”
“No sir, he isn’t a Fox.”
Angus’ demeanor darkened. “Take me to him.”

The miner led him to the tent they had set up for triage. It had only one occupant. The vast majority of the Vargr were descended from the ancestors of wolves. The Foxes were a rare minority. Angus had heard reports that there was also a small group of Coyote Vargr as well.

“We found him pinned under some rubble brought down by the plant explosion,” the miner treating him said. “He is busted up pretty bad and is asking for something for the pain.”
“So he speaks Galanglic well enough do he?”
“Yes.”
The other two miners backed off a bit, they knew very little about the Scotts of Earth or the Solomani ancestors descended from them. They just knew that when Angus’ accent started getting thick, you gave him plenty of room.

“I was just about to send for Dr. Leianard.”
“Hold off on that for a moment, Lad. I want to talk to him first.”
Angus walked over the Vargr. His jumpsuit and fur were singed on one side and the smell promised serious skin infection.

“It hurts,” the Vargr said.
“Aye, I reckon it does. I’ll give ye something for the pain but I’ll be needing ye to answer some questions first.”
The Vargr said nothing.
“Where do ye come from?”
“The pain.”
“Listen, you mangy cur! I’ve got a lot of friends out there that are dead because of ye. If ye want relief from the pain, ye’ll be answering my questions. Now, where are ye come from?”
The Vargr cringed from more than just pain.
“Kragzig,” he said in reply.
“Why are ye here?”
“They paid us, 100,000 credits and the chance to…” The Vargr stopped.
“A chance to what?”

The Vargr said nothing but his hand moved to cover a pin on his jumpsuit. Angus grabbed the hand and looked at the pin. He recognized the pattern instantly, anyone that had traveled this part of the Vargr Extants would know it.
“Ye be Kfaeghr, is that it? They promised ye the all the Foxes ye could hunt and kill did they?”
The Vargr remained silent but his eyes revealed the truth of Angus’ summation.

“What are Kfaeghr?” One of the miners asked.
“A Godforsaken heathen cult. They hunt other types of Vargr, like the wee Foxes out there, for sport. Believe it’s their heathen God’s command.”
Then Angus noticed the palm of the Vargr’s hand he was holding; the pattern of indentations in it was similar to those in Raney’s neck.

The Vargr groaned and writhed, “The pain!”
“Aye, I promised ye something for the pain. Its better than ye deserve though.”

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Dr. Leianard was heading for the medical tent when she heard a shot ring out. She saw Angus come out of the tent.
“I heard there was another survivor.”
“Aye, Doctor, but he’ll not be needing your services anymore.”

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Angus and Dr. Leianard came up to the entrance to the caves as a line of dirty sweat covered miners started out. Two of them carried a blanket covered litter. Rory clung to the litter, sobbing.
“The boy never stood a chance,” the lead miner told Angus. “He was caught in the middle of the fall, must have died instantly.”
Angus walked over to Rory.
“Rory, I’m sorry.”
“It’s all my fault!” Rory sobbed. “I should have come back sooner.”
“There was nothing ye could have done lass. Why don’t ye come with me now?”
“NO!” she said and latched on to the litter so hard it knocked the carriers over. “I won’t leave Hunter!”
Angus and the others tried to calm her but she hissed at them, baring her fangs. Dr. Leianard pulled out a hypodermic, motioning for the others to grab her. Angus and two other miners caught the snarling, biting, Fox between them.
“NO! NO! I won’t leave him! HUNTER!!” She screamed, just before collapsing from the drug.