Chapter 14

Sam had just fallen asleep when a vision hit her again.  She was really getting tired of these.  She was fighting a creature in all black.  He was matching everything she threw at him and more.  Finally he took her down and ripped her heart out, crushing it and throwing the remaining mush across the room.  Several people stood over her the next instant, mourning.  People she didn’t know, when Anya came from the back of the room and yelled “no!”  Then Kyle’s alarm went off and interrupted the vision.  

“Ugh. Well that was frustrating.”

Kyle was still his chipper self even this morning, “convention, convention, cooooonnnnn!!!!! OH! Morning Sam!  You look like death warmed over.”

“Yeah I just had a vision about my own death.  But don’t mind me, I’ll be chipper after a cup of coffee.”

“Most of us call those dreams.”

“I don’t dream. Part of my heritage according to whatever my dream self told me.  When I see something it is a warning.”

“Well that is frustrating. So how did you… wait… never mind. I don’t want to know. Knowing you it was probably pretty horrific.”

“Yeah I’d like to forget that rather soon.  So on a lighter note, what’d you think?”

“About what?”

“You know.  Anna.”

“Oh.  She’s nice.  Good with a computer.  I’ll see how fast she is today.”

“I don’t know about you but I think she’s cute.”

“Oh. Well yeah she’s cute but I don’t want to go down that road again.  Not for a while.  This last one hurt pretty bad.”

“Yeah, I noticed.  Well don’t keep that door closed.  She might be a good friend as well as a good mate.  See how she takes to the furries today, then go from there.  Who knows, she may make a fursona soon!”

“Hah! I doubt that.  Fun thought at least. Come on, let’s go collect her and head to the convention.  You two need to play line con anyways.”

“Ugh. I miss pre-reg.”

Anna was just leaving her apartment when they stepped out to collect her.  Just as he had done to Sam, Kyle handed Anna the helmet and told her to hang on.  He took off at high speeds with a squeal from Anna and Sam took to the sky to follow.  Because of the traffic, Sam actually got well ahead of Kyle until he hit the open highway and could finally get up to speed.  He caught up to Sam and cruised along with her down the highway.

Kyle and Anna pulled into the parking garage and took advantage of the never used motorcycle parking up front.  They headed in the doors and Kyle headed to the short line moving much faster while Sam and Anna were stuck in the long slow moving line.

“How come he gets to use the short line?”

“That’s because he pre-registered and is just picking up his badge. We need to register and pay to get in.  We call it “line con” because it takes a couple hours sometimes to get through the line.  It’s annoying.  So what name do you want to put on your badge?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well you can put whatever you want on your badge.  Any name.  I’m putting “yes I’m an alien”.  You could put Anna, or “foxy lady”, or some made up name or nickname.  Up to you!”

“Ooooh.  That sounds like fun!  Now I have something to think about while we’re in line.”

Sam discussed some of the attractions of the convention while they walked in line.  In the process, Anna marveled at some of the suits that walked past and the detail that went into them.  Sam couldn’t help but laugh and tease that she was a closet furry.  When she didn’t refute the claim, Sam stopped laughing and eyed her up.  She was actually giving it thought so they talked about what it meant to be furry.  Sam explained it was different for everyone.  For Sam, originally, it was a connection to her animal spirit.  That was why as a man her fursona was a coyote.  That was her spirit animal.  Now though, she just enjoyed the familiarity and community.  Not that she’d ever wear a fursuit now that she had a permanent one. 

Anna gave it some thought before nodding.  She explained how she had always been drawn to lemurs and wanted to be one when she was younger.  She grew out of the fantasy as she got older but Sam could see a slight rekindling of that fantasy in the back of her eyes.

They finally got up to the front of the line and Sam got her badge that indeed said “I am an alien” while Anna’s said “Anna Ringtail”.  Sam chuckled to herself and knew Anna was well on her way to becoming a furry.  Sam knew she had to get Anna to work but she was going to spend some time looking for some ringtail prints for Anna to peruse.

Kyle had just finished setting up the equipment when they walked in.  Photos weren’t due to start for another hour so they hung out for a bit talking about what they saw on their way in so far.  Anna was completely enamored so far and it put a smile on Kyle’s face.  Sam excused herself after a few minutes so she could go shopping, letting them continue their conversation in private.  

Down in the dealer’s den, Sam stalked around and tried to find some prints of ringtailed lemurs.  It took a couple hours to weed through the portfolios of the artists there but she found a few she liked.  Two feral pieces, a biped anthropomorphic piece, and one sexy adult themed pinup of an anthropomorphic biped.  She definitely was saving that one for last to see her reaction for the first three before showing off what can be.

A few people approached Sam while she meandered about, asking about her looks.  Occasionally they saw her badge and asked if it was serious.  Of course she was honest.  They thought it was awesome.  It wasn’t that often you got to meet a real alien.  Particularly one that was a real furry, too.  Most aliens that showed up on Earth were humanoid types.  The rest were picked up very quickly because of how much they stood out.

Sam was certainly more comfortable being alien now that she spent four years amidst others who were also aliens.  She also was confident she could handle being off world now after her training and tutoring.  One of the abilities that they learned she had was minor telepathy to where she could learn a language by focusing on a person through their eyes at short range.  She needed their attention, which was why she needed them to look at her, but in a minute she could learn enough to have a conversation.  Within a few minutes she was fluent.  Unfortunately this didn’t translate to writing, only spoken language.

Someone touched her wing and she jerked it away quickly, looking over her shoulder to see who had bothered her.  She seethed seeing it was the same person who ripped out her feather five years ago.  She actively growled at him and bared her fangs which was rather frightening considering she had the vocal cords and fangs of a puma.

“What do you want.”

He backed up a step and put up his hands, “whoa whoa!  Relax, I’m not here to cause trouble.”

“Well keep your hands to yourself.  I really don’t feel like losing a feather again.  You have no idea how much that hurts.”  Sam pulled her wings closer to her body to accentuate her point and keep them farther out of reach.

“Look, I’m really sorry about that.  I was being stupid.  But I kept that feather this whole time as a reminder and I wanted to make it up to you.”

Sam stopped her growling and eyed him up.  This was discerning.  What could he possibly want?

“What could you possibly offer me?”

“I… I haven’t thought of something I could do.  I was hoping you would have a request.”

Sam just shook her head.  This poor kid just didn’t get it, “no.  There is nothing I want from you or anyone.  In a few days I will be off this planet and out on my own anyways.  I appreciate the sentiment but it is misplaced.  I need to go, just promise you’ll not rip any more feathers out.”

The guy started stammering but Sam paid him no mind and walked off towards the photo room.  She really wanted to show these prints to Anna.  Sam bypassed the line going in to get photos amidst some scowls and angry yells but they quieted down when she went over to talk to the girl doing the photo edits.  

“Hey, Anna.  Have time to take a break for a few minutes?”

“Hm? Oh yeah.  This isn’t that bad.  What’s up?”

Anna spun in her chair to face Sam but she shimmied to stand next to Anna and showed her the first print.

“Oh, how adorable!  Very well drawn too!  You found this here?”

“Yep!  I have a few more too.  This one is a little more realistic.”

“Oh wow.  That is pretty realistic.  Still gives it a less animalistic and more… intelligent look though.  I like it!”

“The next one is completely different.  This is what we are known for here in the fandom.  Anthropomorphism.”

“Oh.  Oh my.  That is interesting.  You’re saying this is pretty common?”

“Oh definitely.  Stuff like this is all over the fandom.  These are just the pieces that I found here at the convention.  There are tons more available online or you can just commission someone to make you custom art.  That gets more expensive though.  In time.  This last one is a bit risque though.”

“Risque? Oh!  Oh wow.  That is… hot.  Wow I wish I had that body.”

“In more ways than one?”

“Oh shush!  I plead the fifth!  You were supposed to ease me into this!”

“I am.  It’s been a few hours.  You should see what’s online.  Showing you that would be dropping you in the deep end of a shark pit with chum in your pockets.  Kyle has some nice stuff in his apartment.  You should see it.”

“Isn’t that a little… invasive?  If he’s my boss now, I don’t want to bother him.”

“Nah.  Just let things go where they may.  Don’t over think things.  So far he likes you.  Anyways, I’ll let you get back to work.  Have a good day!  I’ll meet you later for dinner.”

“O-Oh, okay!  Where are we going?”

“Don’t know.  We’ll figure it out later.”