7 comments/ 35964 views/ 23 favorites Dream of the Unlikely Princess Ch. 01 By: TaLtos6 This was originally written as a part of a much longer work which may appear here eventually. I've pulled it out because I think it could stand on its own. If I've screwed up the relative worth of the monetary amounts in this, I'm sorry. It was hard trying to figure out the value of that form of currency at that time and in that part of the world. If you remove the nature of one of the protagonists, what you're left with is a bit of a modern storybook romance - which is what I intended it to be underneath everything. Feedback is always welcome. ------------------ 21,753 feet above sea level, Descending Mont-Laurier, Quebec Canada, June, 1986 Oksana woke up feeling a bit stiff from napping in her seat. She smirked, thinking that at least she couldn't complain about feeling cramped. At four feet, ten inches, Oksana felt as though she must be one of the few people here who could find at least a little room in the seats, if not a lot of comfort. Looking out of the window, she saw clouds far below and bright blue sky above. So it was daytime now. She overheard a child asking one of the stewardesses if they were still over the ocean in a small and uncomfortable way which hid a bit of fear. The no-doubt smiling reply was that they'd been over land for a couple of hours now. Oksana hoped the girl would feel better. Her own realization from it was that her point of no-return on this trip - the imaginary line far below where she would have bid her old life goodbye - had come and gone long ago and she'd missed it altogether. After checking to be sure that her seating companion was still asleep, she reached into her pocket and consulted her hand-written briefing sheet, the one the man with one name had given her. She read it all rather automatically for maybe the thousandth time. Oksana had gone beyond mere memorization, once the reality of her situation had begun to sink in some weeks before. She now felt that she'd never be able to forget each letter of every word. She felt a little odd about it as she read, trying to stay focused on the meaning of the words. She'd need to be able to recall every fact if she was asked by the customs people, or border police, or whatever they had where she was going. She also knew that sometime very soon, she was going to have to eat the paper to make it disappear. She heard the cabin announcement system come on with a muted chime and then she listened to the pilot drone on about beginning their approach to Toronto Pearson International Airport, wherever that was, and that it was a sunny morning there and 17 degrees Celsius on its way to a forecast high of 23. In reality, she knew exactly where it was. She'd gotten at least an overview of the geography of where she was going as another part of the insane series of events which now led her here. She looked over at her seating companion, a sleeping, brassy, long-legged blonde who had made the most of her opportunity to avail herself of the free drinks out over the Atlantic. They'd had at least a bare minimum of conversation during the flight. Comparing notes, the blonde had finally admitted to being an exotic dancer by profession. Oksana had her doubts, judging by the barely-concealed fear that the blonde had of the man seated across the aisle. At least she wasn't wearing an invisible leash like the blonde was, she thought. Then again, she rationalized, for a lot of this, she'd worn one as well. The difference was that hers was quite a bit longer. When they'd talked. the dancer had looked her up and down, making some sort of judgement of her, and wondering no doubt why anyone would want to import a girl with such little obvious appeal. They hadn't spoken of it, but they both knew the score. The trouble was that Oksana didn't know the rest of the music. She only had her other instructions, the ones which she'd memorized long before stepping onto the first plane in Kiev. The blonde had assumed that Oksana was bound to the same sort of arrangement that she was. Oksana herself didn't know what she'd been bound to. The dancer had been surprised when Oksana had said that she wasn't any sort of personal entertainer. She was a gardener looking to start a business, she'd said as she pushed the metal frames of her glasses just a little higher on her nose. Oksana had maintained an open and honest front about it, but the dancer hadn't bought a word of it. "Have it your own way," she'd said finally, "nobody flies from Kiev to London to Toronto to be a gardener, unless she has to let somebody plow her own little patch while her ass is in the air and her nose is in the dirt. That's the only sort of gardening that we're all going to be doing. I hope you really don't believe that shit, if somebody told you that." Oksana had been thankful that her companion had gone to sleep not long after. The clouds outside looked a bit larger and broken now and Oksana assumed that they were descending. She could see larger and larger glimpses of land still far below her. She quietly tore the worn paper into little pieces to put them into her mouth discreetly and began to chew and swallow as she thought back to what had led her here. The man across the aisle was the only one who noted it with a tiny nod, and Oksana realized that he'd also been there to watch her as well and now considered that he had only the one woman to watch. She'd been an extra assignment, apparently. She slipped her ring off her hand and scratched her own cheek in a bored way, watching him. He looked away as though he'd lost any interest in her. She replaced the ring on her middle finger as she considered what it meant. Her invisible collar was off as of this moment. Oksana had grown up on the streets, a diminutive girl whose naturally sweet, strawberry looks and light brown hair had gotten her out of many jams and tight spots all of her life. One look at her, and no one would have believed that she was a pickpocket, thief, shoplifter, bookie's runner, and whatever else she'd had to do in her efforts to stay alive. In her own opinion, she was at best, barely interesting to most men on a sexual level. She just happened to be cute in a childlike, quiet, and bittersweet way. The things which came through about her to become other people's first impressions of her were the same things which had saved her twenty-two year-old ass so often. Nobody wanted to believe that she wasn't the cute, bookish little thing which they saw, and hardly anyone wanted to screw someone as forgettable and lost--looking as Oksana, besides the very occasional forgettable and lost-looking boy. She hated that about herself, but knew that without it, she'd likely have been dead long ago. She was Ukrainian by accident of where her mother was living when her water had broken. The daughter of a stranded Russian whore and a young barely able drunkard and part-time pimp, her lost-mouse-in-the-library looks were all that she had. She didn't look like her father at all, and of course she knew why that was. Her mother had thrown her out as soon as her pimp was dead from alcohol poisoning. He'd obviously had no biological link to her, but he had loved her in his way and had at least tried now and then to be something of a father to her. There had been times when she'd tried to sell herself. It was too bad that forgettable and lost-looking shy teenage boys didn't have much money, she thought. The odd one that she'd been with had left her feeling nothing, but they were done in seconds if she could even get them to open their pants in time. To her disappointment, but not to her surprise, nobody decent-looking had expressed any interest. The only ones who had frightened the hell out of her and she'd run every time. The one time that it had almost cost her dearly was when she'd stayed on the edge of the alleyway a little too long, trying to catch the eye of a really nice-looking and obviously well-heeled man with a sleek black pony tail. She felt that he'd be alright as her first real john, but she found herself still not quite able to summon up the courage to make the offer outright to him. Given her past and her circumstances at that moment, it was more than a little unusual for Oksana. At best, he'd seen her over his shoulder a time or two as he stood there waiting in the cold for God knew what. It had been sort of a lost hope anyway, she'd thought at the time. She knew that all sorts of men wanted a whore now and again, but somehow she knew that he likely wasn't one of them. Women probably fell at his feet everywhere he went, she'd thought. He probably considered them to be an annoyance, having to step over them. A guy like that didn't need to be looking to buy any sort of company such as she was offering. The trouble was that somebody else wanted it one time only and for free as long as she'd last, and she'd caught on to him too late as he approached from the side. He'd almost run her down, catching her near the end of the alleyway because some asshole had locked the door to the hallway that she'd have needed to run down in order to get out the other side of the building. She was thinking that she might have seen her own death in those eyes from up close. But something had happened then and she wished so strongly that she'd have known that an instant such as that was about to happen beforehand so that she might have been prepared to pay even more attention to it. The jarring and intensely powerful moment passed by her too quickly for her to make out, exactly. Her pursuer had been smashed aside and killed almost instantly. When she'd tried to see who had helped her and why - and really whether she needed to feel a new fear now - she'd seen something that had almost caused her knees to give out as she leaned against the wall trying to catch her breath. Her rescuer was tall and though it was very dark there, she'd caught glimpses of someone who would haunt her thoughts and dreams for a long time to come. She'd wanted to cry out, but suddenly found his hand over her mouth. She could still feel the tips of those claws gently pressing against her jaw and ear on the one side. Something tickled her nose in that second. It was a moment before she knew that it was fur. The alleyway was still as they stood in the fog which hung between them from their breath. "Not a word, little princess," the raspy voice advised, "unless you wish to thank me." She'd stared at those cat's eyes there in the darkness looking down at her. For lack of a better plan, Oksana had nodded. Somewhat to her surprise, he'd taken his hand away. "Thank you," she'd mumbled, "very much." She didn't know where this was going, she only knew with chilling certainty that this stranger had just saved her life, at least for the moment. He'd smirked around those teeth for a moment and then, looking away, he'd bent to tear off what looked like the cleanest part of the dead man's shirt to wipe his other hand. She'd thought that she had the chance to maybe run, but what was the point? How far could she possibly get before he caught her? Oksana watched him as the snow turned dark around the body. He bent again and retrieved something from the inner pocket of the corpse's jacket to hold up to her. She was looking at a linoleum knife, razor sharp and with a wicked-looking hook to the blade. "In case you have doubts about his intent,..." he said with a smile. "See the lovely carvings on the handle. They do not sell them like this. Our dead comrade had a hobby." He dropped it into the snow. He looked at her for a moment. "What would you have asked if a proper man had expressed a desire for your company?" "Two hundred," she'd whispered in answer, hoping that he wouldn't want her. "I'm clean," she'd said by way of explanation, wondering why in God's name she'd felt the need to add that to it as some sort of additional advertising. His eyes opened a bit. "Not in this part of the city. You must be pretty hopeful, and you're finding no interest in what you have to sell at that price," the voice said as he looked her over. The odd thing was that she realized after a half-second that he wasn't being condescending or cruel. After another moment, he shook his head, "This is no business for you to be in. You'll be dead inside a month," he looked at her wide eyes, "or praying that you were inside of three. Your father, he was a gardener when he wasn't unconscious, yes?" She was astounded. This beast with claws and long teeth and cat's eyes knew her father? Oksana nodded anyway. He reached into his own pocket, "Did he teach you anything in between sucking on the end of one bottle or another and finding men for your mother?" "Yes," she said, "Papa taught me from when I was little. He had to keep me away from our flat while Mama had men there, but I have no garden, or even a pot with a single flower. Please, let me go." The chuckle sounded friendly, at least. "I am not keeping you here, little princess. Do you have a place to go? I mean, a place where you live? You do not look as though you sleep in this alley." "I do not bring anyone where I live, -" "It is a pleasant little thought," he mused, "but I was not asking you to take me there or even to give me half an hour, princess. I wished only to know that you had somewhere safe to sleep." "Yes," she nodded, "for another month, if I can't find some money soon. I need four hundred a month there." Oksana had no idea why she'd told him any of that. "Give me your hand a moment." She reached up trembling, and he gently took her hand and turned it over with his long claws. He felt warm. She could see that he was very careful. What she could see of his hand and arm had very short, pale fur on it which glistened in the dim light. She watched a snowflake almost land for a moment, but it disappeared just as it touched him and became a tiny droplet of water. "Forgive me, but this will be a little uncomfortable for a second." She saw her hand in the glow from his eyes and felt the heat on it from his glare. Her middle finger felt hot for only a moment, but before she could protest or even try to pull it back, he turned her hand over again, looked at what he held in his other hand and then placed a wad of money into her palm, closing her fingers over the paper notes and holding her hand a moment in his own. He looked at her, and she thought that she could see a lot of things there in those strange eyes - strength, courage, confidence, warmth, kindness, concern, sadness, and just maybe a tiny little bit of hope for her. A second later, she could have sworn that she'd seen something else altogether. Before the thought could fully register, the moment was past, and she watched the curl of his smile. "I think that you might be like a flower yourself, princess. You need only a proper place to live and grow," he nodded, "some sunshine and a little gentle rain, that is all. Take this and go to your home. You do not need to run. No one will harm you, though I will follow to make certain. Take a little of this and buy a decent meal and then go home. Stay there off the streets and pay your rent. I will send instructions tomorrow. You may decide to do nothing, this money is yours now anyway. When it is gone, you will be exactly where you are this night. If you wish to have a sunny place, then follow the instructions, and one thing -- no harm will come to you if you choose to follow my directions, I guarantee it. I cannot say the same if you choose not to, once the money is gone. What is your first name? I will know it if you lie." "Oksana." He nodded with a tiny smile which showed little of his teeth. "Stay alive a while longer, Princess Oksana." Then he looked at the door next to her, "You wanted to go through here?" "Yes, but it is locked." He stepped over and tore the lock mechanism right out of the metal door, reaching in to pull the broken bolt out. The door swung outward slowly. He opened it wide for her and winked with a smiling shrug, "It must have been stuck. Your bad luck that the caretaker stayed sober tonight and remembered to lock it for the first time in two years. I was surprised when I watched him lock it. Usually, he stumbles and forgets what he wanted to do by the time that he reaches it, "he shrugged. "Go now. I will not harm you." Oksana walked into the building and down the long dark corridor with her heart in her throat. Every time that she dared to look over her shoulder, she could see right down the long hall and out into the alley beyond. There was no one behind her. She looked at her hand. This was a hell of a lot of money. She pulled out more than enough for dinner and stuffed the rest into her jeans as deeply as she could. Coming out the other side, she walked through the bitter cold of a February night in Kiev toward her home. She went over to a small eatery that stayed open late and had them make her two sandwiches. She bought a bottle of Coke and some black tea in a Styrofoam cup. She was a little nervous about getting past the regular hangabouts on her way out of the place. She had to put up with their noise and stupidity every time that she came here. It was a pain, but normally they didn't bother her too much, but with all of this money in her pocket... She needn't have worried. There was no one around when she walked out, but down the block, she just caught a quick glimpse of a pair of cat's eyes looking her way from the entranceway of a closed shop. She walked to her apartment block and went up the stairs as quickly as she could with her key in hand. Once inside, she threw the heavy bolt and put on the two chains. She walked to the table in the kitchen and pulled out the money, bending down to pick up the two notes which had fallen when the rest had come out of her jeans. She added them to the pile. He stood in the lobby and looked up the stairwell. A minute later, he walked up silently and remembered how many steps she'd taken. Counting them off walking with a shorter stride, he looked up at the door. 3B. He walked back down and looked at the broken annunciator panel. 3B, Zaratskaia. He smiled and left the building. After a long look, Oksana sat down very slowly, staring. She was looking at over seven thousand Russian rubles. She ate both sandwiches, the first food she'd had in two days. She made them last, sipping only a little of the hot tea now and then. When she was finished, she kept sipping the tea and drinking in its warmth. Her apartment was always cold in the wintertime. Seven thousand rubles. She remembered the face there in the darkness. It was an odd combination of beast and human. She knew somehow that it had not been a disguise. She didn't understand, but she was grateful. Thinking a little, she found a place to hide the money, knowing all the time that she'd fish it out in the morning to stare at it again. As her hand came out of the hiding place, she saw the mark on her middle finger. She'd forgotten all about it, since there was no pain or irritation. There was a thin line which crossed her finger not far from the knuckle of her hand. Looking closer, she saw that it was not a plain line. It was a vine with several tiny little leaves. She rubbed it, but it stayed. Oksana got undressed and went to bed. The only trouble was that she'd seen enough of his clothing to remember where she had seen them earlier. The next morning, she was sipping the last of the Coke when she heard something near the door. She looked over and saw an envelope there on the floor. Stepping over quickly, she threw back the bolt and unhooked the chains to look out. There was no one there and she heard nothing but the faint sounds of the television from the apartment across the hall. She went back inside and opened the envelope, feeling a lump in it. Dream of the Unlikely Princess Ch. 01 A plain-looking gold ring fell out and rolled along the floor. She picked it up and examined it. The markings were faint, but there was the same motif on the ring as she bore on her finger. She set it on the table and read. If she wanted her place in the sunshine, the paper said, she had to follow all of the directions to the letter. There would be more instructions at intervals. Oksana sat down and thought back. The really odd thing was that in the light of day, here in her flat, she wasn't all that afraid of what she'd seen the night before. Given that he'd disassembled her pursuer in the span of a breath, she didn't know why she still wasn't terrified. There were specific instructions regarding the ring and the vine on her finger. For most of the time, she was to wear the ring only on that finger, covering the vine. The ring would fit itself to her hand, the letter stated. She looked at the ring again and smirked. If it was going to do that, she thought, it was going to have to get a hell of a lot smaller all by itself. The thing had obviously been made to fit a man's finger. She continued to read. If in her dealings with anyone, she was asked to identify herself, she was not to speak a word in reply, only to remove the ring and allow the vine to be seen. She was to replace the ring immediately afterward. Those who recognized the mark, the letter said, would acknowledge it and she could trust them. If she decided to decline to follow the instructions, she was to leave the ring in a specified place at night, keep the remainder of the money and go back to her life. Oksana tried on the ring. Within a second, it changed as she watched it. The thing was sized perfectly. She slipped it off and on a few times, and marvelled at how it was now sized for her exactly. She was still marvelling over it when there was a knock at the door, and it marked the beginning of her trip down the rabbit hole. She opened the door as far as the chains would permit. She was peering out at a tough-looking, middle-aged man. "Zaratskaia?" he growled quietly. When she didn't answer, he just said, "Come on, kid, show me the sign or you can fuck yourself. I haven't got all week for this." Oksana slipped off the ring and held up her hand so that he could see it. "Fine," he said sounding impatient and a little disappointed, "get your coat. You're to come with me for a proper meal where we can talk. You can call me Kirrill." It took quite a bit of courage for her, but she nodded after remembering what the stranger had said in the alleyway that no harm would come to her. She had her doubts but decided to go along with it. Kirrill drove her to a really good restaurant and she was allowed to order whatever she wanted. He had a salad. She stared at the tattoos on his fingers and hands. She didn't know the exact meanings of what she saw there, only that he was a man used to living on the dark side of the law with the sort of people who usually didn't have the best interests of strangers at heart. "Here's the way this goes," he said, "I'm going to lay out as much of a carpet for you to walk as I can for this. You'll have to make an appearance here and there, but I'll let you know ahead of time what will be required." He reached into his jacket pocket and produced an envelope. "This is for you to read later tonight. I am to give you several more before this is all over with. When we're done here, I'll take you to a bank. You'll go to a woman who I will point out to you. Together with her, you'll activate a bank account which already exists in your name. There's already money in it. You will have to provide identification to prove who you are, but she will only pretend to examine it, other than to write down the address for the bank's records." He leaned forward, "Do not make her ask to see what's under that ring as I had to. Take the ring off and let her see as you hand her the identification. You are not to touch that money. You'll need it later. Then I'll take you home and we will be finished for today. I'll have your phone hooked up and working by this evening. You are to place no calls. You are not to use it unless I call you. Understand?" She nodded; more confused by the second, "Do you need my phone number?" He looked at her, "If I can make your unpaid telephone work, do you really think that I can't find your number? Do you know your blood type?" "B. rH negative," Oksana replied. "A little rare," he grunted writing it down on a page in a little book that he'd pulled from his jacket pocket, "I'm glad that I asked. You're supposed to obtain some documentation from a doctor, but I will provide that for you. I'd like to have it at least a little accurate. Since you're wearing those glasses, I assume that you are not wearing contact lenses, correct?" He motioned for her to lean closer. "I need to see your eye colour." She nodded, taking her metal rimmed glasses off for him to see her eyes. "Gray eyes," he said to himself. "Questions?" "Yes," she nodded uncertainly, "what's this about?" Kirrill stared at her. "You have no idea?" She shook her head. He looked at the ceiling for a long moment and then back at her. "Alright. I'll try to tell you what I can. I usually do this a lot quicker and with a bit of risk. For you, I have instructions to make this slower AND legitimate, but it will still take over a month, and likely two to three months, so be sure to pay at least three months of your rent ahead of time." "You are going to leave Kiev to begin a life far away. I've been paid a lot to make this happen or I wouldn't even be telling you this much, but he said that you would need to be guided. I think that I see why he said that now. Even so, I normally wouldn't do this, but for him I would. He helped me with a few little problems - rats in my fields, you might say - so I owe him. And you fucking know that I'd cross him if I thought I could manage it, but I know what would happen then. There are not enough places to hide when he hunts, if he has a reason." Oksana tried to sit still as she fought off an urge to run out of the place. Instead, she leaned forward a little, "Who, Kirrill? Who is he, this person?" Kirrill looked slightly disgusted for a moment, "I was hoping that you would know more than you obviously do. If you don't, then I won't tell you more because I can't. Saints in heaven, you look like a sweet little thing, but you don't look worth this trouble to me. Look, girl, we're not having this little talk right now, but I will say this; if he wants you," he looked her over in an appraising manner, as though he wondered himself, "then he'll have you wherever and whenever he decides to. It looks to me as though he wants you out of some shithole, at least for the moment. That must be why you're going to Canada -- and very legally, too. You ought to be thankful, I'd say." She tried to cover her shock, but her jaw still almost hit her plate, "Canada? But -- " He held up his hand. "A little advice." He looked around in a low-key sort of way, "Learn to hear with your ears and think with your brain. Leave your mouth out of it altogether. You can still refuse to go. I am sure that it will all be spelled out for you in that envelope." He raised his hand, and their waiter was there instantly. "Find Dimitri, and tell him to bring what he was told to prepare. And tell the sorry bag of turds that we do not have all day." Within three minutes, a man approached their table and politely handed Oksana a large envelope which obviously contained books. "You will find the important things highlighted," he said before bowing very slightly and turning on his heel to walk off. Kirrill leaned forward, "Whether you go or stay is up to you. If you do not wish to be working for me later on, I would advise you to take this offer. While you make up your mind in the time that you have left to you, and for the time that it takes to get you out of Kiev -- if you decide to wise up - you will have my protection. But if you decide to remain here, you will become one of my girls, since your benefactor will not care anymore by then. It is not so bad. But take my advice and do the right thing here. I do not know why he likes you, or even what he sees in you, but I think that you will have a better life there. Now, if you are ready, ..." Oksana remembered sitting in shock in her cold little flat afterward. She suddenly had a bank account with nearly a hundred thousand rubles in it. The letter in the envelope told her that she was now a real gardener, and would have several "clients" where she would prepare plots as soon as the winter had passed by a little. She would be taken to an embassy to make an application to immigrate as well as the proper government offices to obtain a passport and an exit visa. Her clients would back up her story when they were contacted. She was not to concern herself with worrying about any details; everything would be laid out for her in advance. For all intents and purposes, and in actual fact, as far as that went, she was now a rather successful commercial gardener and landscaper who was planning to come to a new land. It had happened just as the unsigned letters said. Kirrill would contact her, and then she went where she was supposed to go and saw who she was supposed to see. She had several interviews where she was asked various questions, and she'd studied the material which had been provided for her to learn. But it always seemed that the person on the other side of the table only listened out of polite interest after they'd seen what lay under her ring. Whenever she wasn't looking at facts about the geography, politics and people of the place, she was trying hard to figure out ways to practice and improve upon her poor English. Kirrill gave her a cassette course in English as a gift from him. As odd as it was, Oksana was thrilled by the gesture. To her, it meant that this was real. It was almost eerie, she'd thought, as she noticed men near to her wherever she went. It took her a while to be able to make them out at first, but after a time, she began to recognize the same men, over and over. They looked to be completely interchangeable. It lasted for the next two and a half months. Whenever she'd been taken to where she was to garden, she found herself really working for days at a time, sweating in the cold, preparing plots for the spring, pulling back the dark cloths and tarpaulins laid there by someone else the previous fall to hoe and work some moss into the half-frozen loam. Oksana never met any of her "clients", but she was paid and well every single time. Kirrill stopped at the bank every time that she'd been paid so that she could add to her new fortune. She'd planted thousands of plants and bulbs and covered them again in the event of late frosts, She'd been told that they would be uncovered and cared for after she was gone. It was hard work, but it made her feel as though she was at a least earning a little of what she now had. It was really very satisfying in spite of the mystery of it all and far better than what she'd been doing with her life up to this point. She was dog-tired every evening, but she studied hard. It all led up to her trip to the airport the day before. By then, the mysterious Kirrill had seemed almost like a kindly uncle to her, but she knew that he hadn't been lying. If she had decided not to go, he would try to capitalize on the young woman whom he'd been well paid to chaperone through this process. Oksana had no doubt that her bank balance could be made to disappear just as quickly as it had materialized and then she'd be left with no choice. He still couldn't understand why, and he admitted it to her on more than one occasion, but if the enigmatic person behind all of this chose to behave as though she had some value, Kirrill was only waiting for her to refuse, even up to the last minute, so that he might have her working in his stable. Maybe she had some appeal that he wasn't seeing, he admitted, but he'd give her a try since he was always on the lookout for new talent, he'd said. She only wondered what happened to the old talent, but she didn't think that she had to wonder all that hard. "So, my little niece," he'd said at their parting, "and you almost seem to me to be that after all of this time, are you certain now that you wouldn't like to stay here?" He looked at her fondly, "No? Well, I guess that I can understand that. Remember the directions for when you arrive there. Your journey will not end at the airport. It is still a way from there to where you need to be." He kissed her then, just as a kindly and loving uncle would in other, more real circumstances, and hugged her tenderly. Oksana almost thought it felt a little too real to her, as though with the right move on her part now, he might turn into the man in the role for her. But she knew better. She'd never had this for herself in her childhood. She had no doubt that she probably had real blood uncles someplace. She'd just never met one of them. "Remember also that you might be pulled into a cubicle and questioned. If it happens, do not remove the ring to any official there. It will mean nothing to them and then you know nothing about me, because if I hear that you mention me, I will silence you for the trouble. But you should have no difficulty. You have proven to me in our little sessions that you know more than you need to in order to appear legitimate, since you are legitimate, after all. Indeed, you probably know more about the place than many of the officials," he chuckled. "Take care of yourself and tell him that I looked after you well, and that if my dreams come true, I will never lay eyes on him again. I am sure that he will laugh." With that, Kirrill stepped out of her life as oddly as he'd stepped into it and she stood alone at the check-in counter. Well, not quite alone, she saw as she looked around the place. She could pick out several of her protectors, no doubt there to make sure that she boarded and actually left. When she landed in London, she had to wait a little for her connecting flight. She'd been certain that Kirrill had people there to be sure that she journeyed on, and now knew it without doubt as she thought of the blonde's escort. Oksana closed her eyes and thought about the two and a half months that this had gone on. She didn't know for certain because no one had ever really spelled it out for her. But she did know a couple of things. She hadn't been getting anywhere in her shitty life for a long time. If she hadn't met one very strange person there in the dark of the alleyway, she knew that she'd very likely have been killed. After that, her life had begun to get so much better. She'd been careful to avoid it, and it had never come up between them, what had happened to her that night. She didn't know if Kirrill knew what she did about the stranger -- she wasn't a hundred percent certain that it was the same person, but she was more than willing to bet that it was. She knew that she'd likely know all of the answers to this riddle soon. At least she hoped to. She hoped to really be able to pay back his kindness somehow while at the same time praying that he wouldn't insist on the same arrangement that the blonde had with her captors. She was still confused by one aspect which had nothing to do with Kirrill, or the money, or the way that this had all happened. It was something which concerned her and how she felt about all of this because at first glance, it didn't make a lot of sense to her, though she thought that maybe she was beginning to understand it a little bit. She remembered hoping very hard as she shook in a bit if terror in that alley that he didn't want her. Over the time in between, she'd replayed the scene over and over, so many times now that it bordered on driving her insane. She saw him frequently in her dreams and he often intruded in her daily thoughts as little daydreams, these odd little hopes that he was the mysterious individual who was sponsoring her here. He just had to be real and not some trick of the darkness. She was often a little upset with herself, the way that she saw herself going through her life, and yet imagining that he was watching her, as though he was near to her. She'd drawn a little comfort from it after a while - even if she did feel something like a wishful young schoolgirl as she did it. But she'd finally been able to admit something to herself all this time later. She found him there in the movie of her memory as she lay in her always-lonely bed night after night with him in her mind. If it was him, he was no boy. All that she really knew from her feelings was that he was a male in his prime. What sort of male, she had no real idea, but to her, he was beautiful if it could be said. Beyond anything else, he most certainly wasn't lost-looking. The thought had caused her to smirk more than once when it came to her and when it did, she gave in to a bit of quiet, self-pleasure as she thought of him late at night. Because to a lonely girl who seemed to look to everyone else like a lost little mouse in a library, for damn sure he wasn't the least bit forgettable . Now Oksana had reversed her first thoughts of that night. Because as odd and inexplicable as all of this was, ... Now she hoped very much that he did want her. Other than Kirrill's doubtful appraisal, no one else did. Dream of the Unlikely Princess Ch. 02 When the aircraft had taxied to the terminal, she'd gotten just the briefest moment to reply to the goodbye that the dancer offered as she was escorted off the plane by the man. He hadn't so much as looked at Oksana. She was detained for a very brief interview. It had almost been funny. After a few questions, she'd said that she intended to set up a gardening and landscaping business, and offered to show the agent the books which she had in her luggage pertaining to the subject as it applied to where she was going and what would -- and more to the point -- what wouldn't grow there. "But I am certain that you have similar plants here to what I am used to working with," she said, "different species, no doubt, but, similar climate, and everything." The agent looked bored and asked her where her tools and implements were, if she was going to be gardening. Oksana looked a little shocked. "I could not bring them as I traveled by plane. Do you mean that no one sells such things here? I cannot be the only gardener in this large country -- at least I hope not." She was told that she could go after showing him that she had the wherewithal to make a proper start at a company. As she walked out, she heard the agent behind her, "Ms. Zaratskaia, are you sure that you're not forgetting anything?" When she turned around, he was right there, less than a foot away from her, obviously expecting her to jump out of her skin. "No," she replied with a smile, I think not." He smiled pleasantly, "Welcome to Canada." "Thank you," she smiled back just as pleasantly. As she walked in the terminal, she saw a man in a black chauffer's uniform holding a piece of white cardboard with her surname on it. She palmed her ring and walked over to him, reaching to shake his hand. He saw the mark, but she saw no recognition in his face. "I'm here to drive you to Edgar, Ontario." He consulted a piece of paper, "You're Ox -" She stared as he obviously struggled with her name. What came out of him almost made her laugh. She'd never known that a name such as hers could possibly be so tortured as it was when he'd tried to say it. She slipped her ring back on, remembering that her instructions had only applied until she was here. "Yes," she said with a small laugh, "that is me, at least I think it is. My name is Oksana Zaratskaia." "Bingo!" the man smiled, "I'm very sorry. I'm terrible with names." They spoke little on the way and Oksana looked out at the scenery with interest. She was amazed at the size of the limousine and then saw by reading the emblems that it was a Cadillac. Even she had heard of the name. At length, she asked about the town, since she was on her way to visit a friend there. "It's a nice little place," the chauffer remarked, "what we call a bedroom community here. Many of the people who live there work in other cities and towns, but like to live in a country setting. I'd say that your friend there must be pretty well off, if they live there." "Yes," she nodded, "I believe that he is." Eventually she found herself in front of an older home, large and rambling. The front door opened, and she was looking at the man with the long pony tail and his wide smile. "So you made it, Oksana." She put down her bag and hugged him a little carefully while still trying to look as though they were old friends. "It's so good to see you again, but I have many questions." She'd whispered it in Russian, not knowing about the driver. The smile didn't waver, but he nodded as he paid the driver, and then turned when they were alone, "I have many answers for you. Nice ones too, I hope very much." He picked up her suitcases, leaving her only her carry-on. As they walked to the door, he smiled. "The answer to the first one, I think, is that you need have no fear. You are as free here as those birds over there in the trees. The answer to the second one is that the people here know me as Gene. Of course, to you it is Yevgeny," he said with as much of a smiling bow as he could manage while still holding her luggage. "What secret name do I have here, then, if they can make 'Gene' out of 'Yevgeny'?" He grinned, "It is not such a long reach, if you think that 'Yevgeny' is 'Eugene' in English. So they shorten it and I am quite pleased that they do. You? You have a wonderful, beautiful name here. Would you like to know what it is?" "Very much," she chuckled. He put the bags down inside the door and leaned in to whisper. "Oksana." And then he kissed her cheek. She looked at his smile as he said, "Wonderful, isn't it?" "Well yes," she smiled in a slightly confused way, "at least the way that you say it. The driver looked as though he'd swallowed a fly when he tried to say it." They stood in his kitchen as he made them something hot, and she again declined his offer to sit comfortably. "I have been sitting for two days now, Yevgeny. Sitting in cars, in departure areas, in government offices, in airplanes, waiting and sitting and waiting to sit some more. Please, I cannot stand this anymore. Please explain to me what you have done here. Kirrill did not tell me much, other than what he would do if I refused to come to you." His expression changed in an instant and she saw that he had great concern for her. "What do you mean, Oksana? Did he threaten you or anything?" She held up her hands, "No, Yevgeny. He did nothing to me. He couldn't understand why you wished to do this for me either. He said that if I decided not to come, that he assumed that you would no longer care what happened to me, and then he said that I would be, ... working for him and not for you. Actually, he did not make that last part clear to me, but it was plain that it was his assumption, and ... I guessed that it might be a safe one to guess at myself, since I cannot see another reason here." She looked down. He stepped forward looking concerned, "No, Oksana. I will have to pay Kirrill a visit soon if it went like that. I made my wishes quite clear to him. You? You have nothing such as this to fear from me. You do not have anything at all to fear. Forgive me, please. I did not want you coming all of this way, after months of not knowing anything, ..." She could see that he was shocked and upset at this. She found that she didn't like to see him upset, and at the same time, it showed her that he must care for her as well. He shook his head in some disbelief. "It only had to be this way because I needed him to do it for me, so that you could get here safely, out of that life that anyone could see that you were about to fall into. I could not stay long enough myself to do it for you." What he wasn't saying was that he didn't think that he could have gotten her out of the Ukraine any other way. After all, why would she have trusted some killing beast out of a nightmare? She looked at him with a bit of a nod, "He said to tell you that I was well taken care of, and that if his dreams now come true, he will never lay eyes on you again. He said that you would laugh." "Well I am not laughing if he made you afraid at all, though I am happy to hear that you were looked after, but not that you were made to feel forced in any way. The only choice that was to have been before you was to leave your life there behind to come here, or to stay. I do not know what to say now." "Then please stand still for a little princess, Yevgeny," she said as she stepped closer. They looked at each other for a moment, and then she reached up, standing on her toes to hug him again. "I had a long time to think. I see that you are not even really surprised, but ..." she kissed him softly, "I know that it was you in the alley. I have not told a soul, not even Kirrill, and I never would, but why, Yevgeny? Why have you done all of this for me?" He sighed, knowing full well that she must have put it together for herself by now. Still, he felt a little relief. "I have ... something of an affliction, you might call it. I only put it to some good use for you that night, that's all. I sometimes can sense people's feelings and thoughts as I did while I stood there on the street. I knew full well that you hoped that I might express an interest in you, and I knew why. You hadn't really gotten started yet, and needed both the money and at least a little knowledge that someone might find you desirable. You are desirable, Oksana. Very much so. But not like that in such a way and in such a place. That would be nothing more than a cruel shame. I struggled with it, but then I sensed another person's intent and then I had to act." "That is another thing," Oksana said, kissing him again with some care to hopefully express what she was trying to say. "I never had much of the chance that night, being scared out of my wits at first, but I want to thank you again for saving my life." She let him go then, stepping back to smile up at him. "So? What happens to me now?" He made them some coffee, speaking over his shoulder, "Now? Well, you rest from your journey. We can talk later, but I have heard that you know how to really garden. It is what I knew about you anyway. You have enough money to truly begin a business here, but I would advise you to wait to begin over the next winter for this. The earliest that you could act is in the fall, and then to secure the workspace that you would need for the spring. The winters are long here too, so there will be plenty of time for you to plan and prepare. You need to see how things are here first, no? In the meantime, you can be my gardener," he laughed a little hopefully, "though you do not have to accept my offer in any way." "I live alone here. A cleaning company comes every Monday and Thursday to keep the house for me, and I pay someone else to cut the lawns. If you would like to make a little more money, you could do this yardwork for me, and I would know that it will be done properly. But what I am really after is something quite different, and I hope very much that you will like my idea." He set their mugs on the table and motioned for her to sit for a moment, "Ahh," he said, slapping his head lightly in frustration, "I forgot about your travel-worn backside once again. Please stand if you wish, but I will sit down as we talk." Oksana laughed at him a little and sat down across from him. "I have built a garden, an inside garden. It is as a greenhouse and the systems are almost automatic for the ventilation, watering, lighting, winter heating, and the automated blinds. I would like it very much if I could be your first customer. I would like it if you could help me to care for the plants and I want you to maintain it for me, year round, since it is always a problem for gardeners here to have work during the winter. They usually find work ploughing snow." "I have created a little jungle here, with even a few trees inside. There are a couple of little ponds with plants and fish even, to keep the balance, and I have two pools, one heated, and one not. The heated one I use for a little spa, and the other one is a place to escape the heat of the summer in a cooler, more shaded and secluded setting. There is a washroom and shower to wash off the dirt that comes from working there, and even a gardener's workbench. It waits only for the gardener, if you think that you would like to work here. You can see it whenever you like." He was pleased when he saw her eyes light up. "Oh yes, please, Yevgeny. May I see it now? It sounds lovely." She followed him through the house, and then to a curiously heavy-looking sealed door which he unlocked by passing a card near to a reader. "This door must remain closed at all times," he said a little apologetically, "I need to keep the humidity inside here, or I will have mold in the house. If this interests you, I will give you a card for your use, obviously. You will need to come and go frequently, no?" Oksana was prepared for a greenhouse, but when the door opened, she felt her jaw drop as she stared in wonder. The room was huge, over two hundred feet long, he told her, with windows everywhere. She heard fans running and even felt the air moving. Mostly, it was open, though she couldn't see very far for the heavy vegetation. The floor was not flat. It had some contour to it, higher in some places and lower in others, so that it seemed very natural. He turned and smiled at her. It was a little shy, but she could see that he was proud of what he had done. "Welcome to my little rainforest. Do you think that you would like to work here?" He was actually a little shocked at her response as he found her in his arms. "My God, Yevgeny," she kissed his cheek in joy, "You ask a ragged gardener girl to garden here as though I might say no? This would be like a dream for me. I should pay YOU for the honour to work here." "No, Oksana," he smiled as she stepped back, "I will pay you, and well for something like this. You'll have to care for the lawns as well, and I would like to help you to set up your company, if you would allow me to. Whenever you wish in the next few days, we should see about getting you a garden tractor and whatever else you need so that I can tell the people that I use now for the outside that they can now stay at home, since it is always so hard for them to come when I call them." He led her through the trails, pointing out some of the features. Oksana was in heaven looking everywhere. "This isn't a garden, Yvgeny. You have made a paradise here. The first thing that I will need will be a roll of twine, so that I can tie the end to something near the door and pay it out as I go so that I may find my way back later," she laughed. "My answer is yes, my friend. When can I begin?" He was genuinely pleased, "You may begin at any time, at almost any hour, but there are times when I think that you shouldn't be here. This place is meant to be enjoyed. Why else would I go to the trouble?" He sighed then, looking down, "Oksana, you know more about my affliction than anyone, though you have only seen a little. I harm no one. Well, unless they wish to kill beautiful gardeners in alleyways at night. No one knows of this but you. But there are times when,..." He sighed again as he leaned back against a boulder. "You may work or come here into the evening, if you wish. There is low lighting here and there which comes on automatically, but it is not enough to do much more than find your way by, so that the plants may have their natural respiration cycles. At midnight, a chime will sound, and then you have about three minutes to find your way out before the lighting switches off and it is completely dark, aside from any moonlight which comes through the polycarbonate roof panels. I come here then, most nights for a few hours to feel a little as though I was back where I came from. I do not think that you would wish to be here then, though I would not harm you if you were here. You may not like to see me then, that's all." He brightened a little, "Oh, and I must also point out that I must be away from here at times for a few days, now and again. But even so, on the weekends, I like to come here and work a little myself on the planning and the upkeep, so be sure to leave me something to do, alright? I do this most days, but you should also not be here on one of those two days, I think, in the daytime. You can decide which day, the Saturday or the Sunday. I will leave the choice up to you, or we can talk about it whenever you like." It was very warm, and with the humidity, they had both begun to sweat a little. Oksana wiped her eyebrow as she looked up at him. "I understand about the night time, I think, Yevgeny. But what is this about the day time? Why wouldn't I like to be here then?" She thought for a brief moment about how to word what she wanted to express. "I saw someone very different that night to anyone that I have ever seen. If you say that you would not harm me, then I think that I can trust you. I know that you are different, Yevgeny. I want to say that you may turn into what I saw in the alleyway at anytime, if it is up to me, I think, but what happens on those days?" She chuckled a little hopefully, "Do you turn into a nudist or something?" He laughed with some mild embarrassment, "As a matter of fact..." Her mouth fell open. "No!" She stared at him with a soft smile, "Really?" She thought that even above all of this, she couldn't believe her luck. "You may find that working in this place can lead one's mind to little desires to be, ... perhaps a little bit more natural here -- especially because of the controlled climate and how it is so warm here. And why not? It is meant to be enjoyed as well as to give one the joy of tending to it. In the daytime, no one can see into the windows, and no one really comes into the back of the place. I do come here then to enjoy it like that myself. If you find that it appeals to you in that way as well, we can even trade the days for this, if you wish. I would not mind at all." She found herself struggling for just a second or so, and then she grinned at him. "Listen, I want to assure you that I can understand that if you do not wish for me to be here at those certain times, then I will not be here. But I also want for you to know that it is only if it is you who is shy about this somehow. For myself, I wouldn't mind it a bit to have you running around like that," she laughed, "I wouldn't mind it at all. Can we go back to the house now, before I get even more inspired and you find yourself talking to your new gardener naked herself from this heat?" He nodded with a smile, and led her back. "Why, Oksana? Were you serious?" "I might be," she laughed at him, "But I have just gotten here after traveling for what seems like forever. Perhaps I am a little wobbly from it, and hearing these things from you... What a wonderful place I have come to if I can have the chance to see you like that, Yevgeny." She giggled a bit and he asked. "I am trying to think of how much I should offer to pay to see that at least once." For the moment, he was speechless. She sat in the kitchen and looked at the blank reader card that he'd given her, telling her that no one else was allowed to come there, unless a system was giving problems and there was a maintenance person sent to repair something. She sipped her coffee, wondering. "It all sounds heavenly. Where am I to sleep tonight, Yevgeny? Is there a hotel or something like that nearby?" He thought a moment, "Not really close by, but not far either, by car. I can help you with this as well if you wish, but really, if you are not bothered by me, I have a small guest house. He pointed out the window, "right over there. Please, save yourself the bother and stay here, unless you are nervous about me or my intentions. I will understand it if you are." His face grew serious, "Oh, and please, Oksana, I want to make it plain to you that I have no expectations of anything from you in return for bringing you here. So put yourself at ease on that account. What I would like most of all from you is that you can keep the secret about my affliction, and beyond that, I have a hope that I have made a friend, and even a gardener, but nothing more than this." Oksana had a lot more to think about now, but overall, she felt a great deal of relief and the beginnings of a little happiness. She had a thought and put a couple of things together before speaking. She thought with a little humor that "uncle" Kirrill would have been at least a little proud of her that she'd finally seemed to learn to think with her mouth shut when faced with surprises or things which required careful consideration. She deliberately placed her hand on the table between them and watched his eyes dart quickly for a moment at the ring. It was what she'd thought that she'd see, and it told her a lot. She took his hand and brought it to her own, laying his fingertips onto the ring with great care. He watched her and then looked at her face. Dream of the Unlikely Princess Ch. 02 Oksana smiled at him with a little uncertainty for a few seconds."I would like for you to listen to me for a moment, Yevgeny. You called me little princess there in the alley that night. It felt wonderful. I have only ever felt anything at all like that when you say it to me. Unless you ask it of me, I will never tell you of my childhood since I felt like nothing so much as a problem to two people who had nothing but their own problems already. When I grew up, I was just another little beetle scurrying around on a dung heap with all of the others. And I was going nowhere but slowly downwards. I now know that you could see it as well as I did. The difference is that you could do something about it and you did. You have done more than I can ever even hope to repay, and now I find that you did all of this for nothing?" He began to pull his hand away, but she held it there, keeping him in contact with her hand and the ring. She looked at his face as she continued. "I do not doubt your kind heart or its intentions, my friend, not in the least. But it must be obvious that from my side of things, I have had a long time to think of that night, and the only one who has been kind to me. Yes, I know who it was in the dark there. I recognized your clothes. I was terrified and frozen with fear, but not because of you from the moment that you took my hand and I saw into your eyes. I was overwhelmed by the beautiful stranger there in front of me. I have been nothing more than a thief and a pickpocket and other things because I had to be. I would like now to become as a princess, Yevgeny, for the one who has done so much for me. I have wondered every day, and I still wonder even now what it is that you see in me. If I knew the answer to that, I would try very hard to be what you see." "So, I will accept your kind offer for a place to stay, and from what you have shown to me, I think that I would like nothing better than to help you with this garden. It is such a wondrous thing to me, and to be able to work there for you is even better. You have my word that no one will know of your secret from me, though I want very much to know more someday if you ever want to tell me, but I think that I can say that I do not believe that it is an affliction." She looked across the table at his eyes, knowing what she wanted to say, but not being certain about how her words would be received, "I saw what you did to mark me that night. I think that it is the man who I now sit with who is an affectation, a very handsome and well-spoken disguise. I believe that what I saw in the alley is a little closer to who you really are, Yevgeny, and I want you to know that I am not afraid, though I could see that you can be deadly if you have the need of it. Kirrill is not a man to show respect to one who he doesn't know outside whatever group he is in. But even I know that he is in terror of you, Yevgeny. Either way, man or living wonder, I am happy to be this close to you and I am sure that if you think enough of me to let me see you completely as you are behind this disguise, I would be in heaven." "What I saw that night was beautiful and I have longed to see more of you like that. It is the other reason that I have come all of this way. No matter what Kirrill told me, I would never have remained in Kiev after putting it together that you were the one who was behind all of this, that you were real, even though you as much as said it to me yourself. I really had no choice anyway in my heart. I feel very much drawn to you, Yevgeny, I cannot help it. But I want you to show me a little of your heart here, not for me, but for yourself, that I might know that we are being honest with each other." She moved her other hand and pulled the ring away from his mark on her finger. She left it there, only showing the vine so that they could both see it and she placed his fingers there on the ring again very carefully, moving it so that he could see the vine as well. "A very lovely little thing that you have used to mark me," she said. "Well I think it has outlived its original purpose, except for how proud I am to have it there." He stared at her, "You ... Oksana, you are proud of this?" "Yes," she said nodding, "very proud. To me, they are a set, your mark and your ring." "You do not have to say anything for the moment, Yegeny, and you do not have to show yourself to me yet, though it would make my heart sing to see, but ... you say that you can see a person's feelings. If that is so, then you must be able to tell how I feel about you." Their eyes met and she was thrilled to see the cat's eyes across the table from her now, looking hopeful once more. "You placed a choice before me in Kiev. You did not think that I would come to this conclusion, but I know that you had a hope, even if you cannot admit it to yourself. I saw this in your wonderful eyes that night. So I now place a choice before you, because I have a hope as well. It is this hope which brought me here more than anything. I need only for you to decide here. I really have no more use for the ring if I am to be here as only a gardener or even if I am no longer with you at all, since you tell me that I am free. So if you want, then take the ring the rest of the way off my finger, and I will know what my role is to be here. But ..." She paused to take a breath and hoped that she had the courage for this. "Push it back on, Yevgeny, and then find the words for what you want of me, and I will not need to sleep there in the guest house. I will be where I have wanted to be since the second night there in Kiev, in your arms if you want me to be, like the wonderful man or the beautiful creature. Either way, please make your choice. Take it off and I only garden. Push it back on and you have a small and grateful woman to love you, one who is proud to wear your mark on her." Yevgeny was astounded. "But, we do not know if we will be able to stand each other," he said. "So?" She smiled at him. "You're right, of course, but you had a hope when you made your decision to help me. You can have any woman, I think, or almost any one when you look like a man." She smiled at him in a hopeful way and he could see that she'd given this long consideration and thought as she'd journeyed to come to him. "But you chose me. I have lived that moment when I first looked into your eyes as you smiled over and over thousands of times, Yevgeny. I know what I saw there. I saw you fall in love with me in that instant. You're the only one who ever has. If I'd known then what came to me only hours and days later, you'd have seen the very same thing in my eyes. You think that I ought to fear you, but I can say that I don't." She sipped her coffee, "You are the only one that I have ever really wanted." She smirked, "I know what I look like. I am not bad to look at, but I am small. I am not plain, but I am not a long beauty. I plan to spend a little money to get contact lenses and I hope that I can have some consultant offer suggestions so that I might be able to do my best with what I have. At best, I am pretty." He shook his head vehemently, "You are wrong, Oksana. You are beautiful." She smiled softly, "Thank you, but your words only add strength to mine. For some reason, I am what you want. I know it, and you must be able to see that I want to love you. For one such as you, who pulled me out of a sure slide into a shitpool and who now wants to place me in a lovely garden in the warm sunshine? I can do a lot more than fly halfway around the world. I'd have walked and swam to get here if I had to somehow." She indicated the ring with her finger on top of his. "I am not trying to force you to decide in my favor. I only wish to make you see that this ring, this mark, everything, is not the only magic here. You would not believe what magic I am prepared to work for you, though I know nothing of the subject." Oksana shrugged, "We might not get along all of the time, it is true," she looked at him, "but you ought to know what I am offering. Put this ring on over the mark again, and whatever you need from me is yours. You don't even have to tell me that you love me. I saw enough to know then, and I am looking at all that I need to see in your eyes right now. Only tell me that you love me if you can and that you want me here with you, and this will be my place in this world. It will be all the sunny garden that I need to grow in." He stared at her for a long moment and then nodded. "Alright," he said, "You need to know only a little more about why, since I have just realized it myself from your kind words. You might want a last chance afterward," he smiled. Drawing a breath, he said, "I am quite obviously not the same as you are. You're right, I don't have an affliction, it only feels that way to me --" he leaned forward a little, "but not with you here. You make it feel as though it's a blessing. You make me feel good just to breathe again. I don't belong here, and I can never return. But I feel something else now that I didn't think was possible at all. So please, Oksana, stay here with me." He looked at her with a bit of sadness. "I am the only one like me here. Our females are quite a bit smaller than the males and we are stronger in what we do, but they are better gifted at planning and can accomplish much with us. We make a life-pair once we are mated. Perhaps now it becomes clear that I am also drawn to you and why. If you wish to spend nights with me, you will see all that I am, and probably more than you wanted, I am afraid. I would never wish to hurt you, but I think that you wish to mate with me. This is something which I have been feeling from you for some minutes now. I only hope that you survive it. Do you want to change your mind now?" He almost smirked knowingly when he saw her raise her hand, but he didn't because what he felt from her hadn't changed, so he waited. "Just so that I know, Yevgeny, are there the same, or similar parts involved between us, and do you think that the actual act is possible?" "Yes," he said, "very similar. I have done this with a woman here before, but only once. She lived, I should tell you." Oksana almost laughed at his smile. "And," she continued, "are the ... dimensions roughly similar? I do not wish to be torn apart, after all." "Roughly," he said, "Think of it this way, what women have here must be able to pass a baby in labor, generally. It is the same with us, but the young are smaller." "So you do not usually kill your females while mating with them?" He shook his head, "We do not hurt them either." Oksana smirked, "They do not shrivel up and blow away, or catch fire because of it?" "Not so far," he smiled, "in all of our long history." She smiled, "Well what could possibly go wrong then?" The tension eased for him as they laughed. "No," she shook her head comfortably, "you can tell me later. You can show me later." She took a sip of her coffee and nodded, "I do want to - mate -- with you if we can manage that, sometime anyway if we have the pieces between us that will fit. For now, I know all that I need to." She touched his fingers very softly and then pointed at his chest. "Somebody in there already loves me. And I love that somebody. That's all that I need to know." Yevgeny laughed softly and couldn't believe that he could feel happy. He bowed his head to thank her in his way and then looked up and said "You were right about me that night, Oksana. It wasn't anything that I'd planned or even had the thought of, but I have been calling Kirrill several times a week, never telling him why I was calling, but I'm certain that I drove him to wonder himself about me for how much I asked for news about you. Thank you for such trust." He gently held her hand still and stared down with his eyes on fire. She felt the warmth of it again, hoping that in spite of his words, that he wasn't removing his mark. She was relieved when he turned her hand over and continued for a moment. Finally, he looked at her softly and then gently pushed the ring all the way on. She got up from the table and walked to him, motioning him to push back the chair a little. "I do not need much room," she said, "you may have noticed this." When he pushed his chair back a little, she sat on him and put her arms around his neck. Then she thought of what he'd done and wanted to see. She pulled back her hand. Oksana looked at the ring on her hand with a soft smile, "Thank you for such kindness." "It is not only that," he said in almost a half-whisper. "It is as a sign of ... I think the words would be hopeful intent." Her eyebrows rose and she freed her other hand to pull the ring away a little. It was a little hard to see, but the tiny little leaves were now filled in with green, and the whole thing now encircled her finger. She looked into those deep eyes and kissed him with everything she had. Dream of the Unlikely Princess Ch. 03 They talked for hours, when she wasn't kissing him, and had something of a surprising meal for an early dinner. Oksana helped, but it came to her as a surprise that he was a fantastic cook on top of everything else. By then, however, Oksana was nearing the last of her reserves and was growing more and more tired. She was almost afraid to go to sleep, fearing that all of this had perhaps been a dream. She was feeling a little afraid that she would wake up alone in her cold apartment back in Kiev and she said so to him, but he became a little stern in his kind way. "Go to sleep, my princess. I will not disappear. Not now. If you can't find me, I am around here somewhere. But there is no sense to you staying awake until you fall over from stumbling." "Will you stay with me a while, Yevgeny? I really want to do more than sleep, but even I know that you are right. Still, I want to be in your arms, if I could." He put his arm around her, "Of course, Oksana." He guided her to the stairs. He had only intended to show her the way, but she pulled him farther into the room. He stared wide-eyed as her clothes came off. He'd never seen a human woman quite like her without clothes on. Besides being completely smitten, he couldn't tear his eyes from her small breasts, and it made her laugh a little nervously. "Um, Yegeny? You look a little odd here. I know that I'm not the right kind for you, though if I had my wish right now, I certainly would be. You are staring, and ... it makes me wonder if I do not have the right number of these for you or something." "Not at all," he whispered, "You are so very close to what you wish to be. I have just ..." He stepped closer, "I have never seen such beauty. Please, never say to me that you are only pretty, Oksana, because you are perfect." She chuckled, "Then you have no idea how pleased I am to hear that. Do you mean it as a personal, ah, taste for you, or am I close to what you remember that the females were like?" He grinned with more than a little shyness. "Please forgive my staring. The answer is both, Oksana. The only things that are different are that you lack teeth like mine, eyes like mine, and fur, when I am as I was created. But these things do not matter at all. Only, please, get into the bed, before it all overcomes me." She chuckled as she turned to draw back the covers, "I almost wish so much for that, Yevgeny." She looked back at his small gasp. "What now? Am I lacking a tail or something?" "Well, yes," he said with a smile, "but that doesn't matter either. I very much like the view, that's all." "Then come here and hold me, before your words make me find new energy and I do something which I have never engaged in out of my own want, rather than my need for money to buy food with. I have only been with young men, Yevgeny, out of curiosity at first, and out of wanting to separate them from their money later on. It always felt a little nice, but they were finished almost as fast as they went in. I always felt as though I was only borrowing them and could never explore and do what I wished to. I want to do that with you more than anything." He turned off the light, and there was only a little moonlight in the room with them. She didn't even see him do it, but she felt him in the bed behind her suddenly, and felt his arm go around her as he pulled himself close to her. He kissed her cheek, and she turned her head to get a better one for herself, before he moved up a little and she felt herself being as completely enveloped by his long body as he could manage. Her head was under his chin, but she didn't care. She'd never felt anything like it before, this obvious sense of loving protection that she felt. "Is this how you sleep together, your kind?" Her question came to him as a soft and sighing whisper in the darkness. "Yes," he answered quietly. "We sleep like this most often, holding our females like this. It is to give protection, warmth, and a safe place in which to have their dreams. The females always have such powerful dreams, and they need to be held then." She smiled, "Then I think that I am going to like being your female for you, Yevgeny. Quite a lot, I can tell you now." ------------------ She woke up alone much later in the night and wondered why. Listening, she heard nothing at first, and thought that maybe he hadn't gotten the same comfort from her as she'd gotten from his embrace. She remembered that he'd said that he would be here somewhere. But as she lay there, she could hear something from somewhere else in the large house. It was soft moaning now and then, and ... possibly quiet sobs. She threw the covers off and reached for her glasses as she sat up. She had little trouble navigating in the darkness there and found herself in front of the heavy door before very long. With a whispered curse, she went back to the kitchen for the card he had given her and then let herself into the garden. She closed the door quietly and just as she was taking her hand from the handle, she felt the magnetic lock come on. She laid the card on the workbench and then followed the sad sounds. It took her quite a while as she walked along the little path by the small amount of moonlight coming in from the sliver of a moon. Oksana hardly dared to breathe. Her heart went out to him if he was sad in any way, but she also felt a little excited to think that she might have a chance to see him as he really was. She realized suddenly that he was not on the path as she found the sounds to be slightly beside her then. Stopping, she turned and crept forward on her hands and knees into the vegetation, careful not to rustle anything. She had to creep very slowly. At last, she caught a glimpse of him. It was all that she could do to hold back the gasp that she'd have made otherwise. He lay on his side, facing away from her. She watched his breathing and saw it when he sobbed. In between them, she heard his quiet crying. Now and then he moaned quietly and it broke her heart to hear it. She stared at the leanness and the obvious power in the muscles that she could make out. He was very light, mostly, though there were what looked like some stripes there down his side. She'd only ever seen his long hair in a pony tail, but now she could see that it was really a mane. It didn't even stop at the back of his skull, from what she could see, rather, it continued in a long stripe for most of the way down his spine. That couldn't be the hair on his head, she realized, since he was lying down. He had a long tail as well, or rather, a short tail with long hair attached to it. Her eye was drawn to his ear. She stared at the tip of it as she crept forward. She didn't know why he didn't appear to be aware of her presence, but she knew that if he did suddenly know that he wasn't alone, that would be where she would likely get the first sign of it. As she came into the small space there, she stood up and crept around him. She'd been right all along. She knew it now as she saw him. He was the most beautiful creature that she'd ever laid eyes on. She saw his strength and power everywhere on him, and noticed that his arms were longer like this. But there was something very wrong here. As she knelt down, she was certain that he'd know it and she tried to prepare herself to jump backwards if he reacted badly, though she knew full well that if it happened, it would likely be her last instant on earth. The face there was still somewhat human, though there was the hint of a short snout, and the long teeth that she'd seen that night in the alley in Kiev. Now there was more fur to it, though not very much that she could see under his long hair. His eyes were closed, and there was a trail there along the snout from his tears as they glistened in what little moonlight came through the leaves. She wondered if he was even conscious. But he had to be, she thought. He was crying. He had to be either awake or asleep to cry, she thought, but not unconscious. She couldn't stop her quiet little gasp when she saw his ear flick forward and she tensed. "Oksana," he sighed, with a little sob catching in his throat. "Why have you come? I thought you understood what we discussed." She leaned down to move his hair and she kissed his soft cheek and then began to whisper to him very softly. "I woke up alone, Yevgeny. I understood what you said, but you said that you come here to feel like you are back there. You didn't tell me that you come here to cry, and ... I love you, Yevgeny. I may not be the right kind of female for you, but I am a female. We can't help these things if we love someone. I've never felt anything like I feel for you, and you hurt, I swear that I feel it." She lay down next to him on the soft moss. "Can you lift your beautiful head only a little for me?" When he did as she asked, she positioned herself so that her leg was over his ribs a little and she carefully slid her arm under his head and pulled him to her breast. She kissed the top of his head and held him as he cried. After a many minutes, he seemed to settle down a bit and then she felt his lips on her. She sighed and pulled him a little closer. "I want to make it better for you," she said, "but I have no idea where to begin." He didn't answer for perhaps ten minutes as his breathing settled a little, and she enjoyed this tenderness, but finally, he sighed with a shudder, and then released her nipple to turn his head a little. "You are helping me. You have made it better. I usually cry at least a little bit when I come here. Tonight, it is different. I... I came here with the first hope that I have had for myself in so long, and ... " he shuddered again, "I came to ... I came to say goodbye." Oksana's eyes flew open as his words sunk in, and in that instant, she knew that he was grieving. She spoke to him quietly in whispers, telling him how she loved him, and that she was so sorry that she had disturbed him, but he shook his head a little after a while and kissed her breasts. "It has passed, Oksana. Thank you so much for this." He looked up at her a little weakly. "Well? Am I still what you want for yourself, my princess?" He sounded tired. She looked down at him and smiled, and then she moved herself lower to get her face near to his. She looked at the very short fur there; those eyes with their slits open most of the way in the darkness here and those teeth. She kissed him for the first time when he was like this and it was amazing to her. After a minute, she just said, "What do you think? Of course you are. Are you a little better now?" He nodded, "Yes. I think it would do me some good to tell you things, that is, if you think that you wish to hear them." "I would like to hear anything that you have to tell me, my friend, anything. I don't care if it takes all night until the morning, and if it takes a week of nights like this from dusk to dawn." He frowned, "I don't think that my life, as long as it is, has enough in it to entertain you for that long." She kissed him again, and ran her fingers through his hair, "Well, tell me what you can." He pushed her onto her back gently and rose up to lean on his elbows, looking down at her, promising to do his best. He stroked her cheek while she toyed with his hair and then he began. "Where I come from, there were four kinds of creatures at the top of the structure, just as you are at the top of yours on this world. When I was born, there were only three left. We differ in some ways, but there is one important one. My kind is like you, like almost every creature on this world. We have sexes, male and female. All that is left of two of the kinds is us, those of my kind, like you, males and females. The other two types call us lower than they are, as though they are better somehow. We call them our word for slugs, since there are kinds of worms and slugs like them -- each one carries both sexes. Even here, I have seen snails mating and both are impregnated at the same time. They look something like us, but that is our name for them." We are all the same in some ways -- we all stand on two legs, mostly, and we can be vicious, some more than others. My kind can run on two legs or four, if need be. Of the other two kinds, they are similar to each other, but one is larger and stronger physically. They are the weaker ones. I have fought as many as six of them at the same time. For them, it was a desperate battle, but for me it was sport. Other than scrapes and bruises, I have never harmed that kind. It is only a challenge, though they never see it that way. If one like me appears before them, they want only to kill. But when we have enough or it looks as though we must kill them, it is easy to turn their minds, and they stumble off, or fight each other." "It is the other ones who are the most dangerous, for they have powerful minds, just as we do, and they are cruel. They killed off the other type like us to eat, and then turned to us because they hate my kind and kill us for food, if they can. We are ancient and bitter enemies." "Our young are very small compared to yours. They look something like kittens, and that is our name for them as well since we have animals which are very similar to the cats here. I see that you compare me to a cat in your mind, but you know that it is not accurate. I think the closest creature here would be something like a hyena crossed with an ape mixed with a cat and a dog, a little like both cat and dog, but even that is not correct, is it?" "When I was little, maybe as tall as your knee and not far from a baby myself, my parents were killed by ten of our enemies or maybe more. My mother hid me. I was so frightened as I watched them die. But they killed five between them and ripped up the rest badly, and another two of my kind came and butchered those ones. They heard me crying as I hid, and they took me to raise as their own. They were royal among us, but my father was king while he lived." He smiled as a thought came to him. "Now you know why I call you princess." "At first, when we are very young, we ride along hiding in the hair of our parents until we are too large. As kittens grow larger, they hang onto their parent's manes. Parents always know when to let the little ones down to scratch in the sand if they need to. If they live long enough to grow more, by then they are large enough to run alongside, and they can always climb up if more speed is required or when they grow tired." Oksana grinned, trying to imagine him as a little kitten. "You must have been so sweet." He smiled, "Perhaps I was once, for a little while. One day, the female gave birth to their own kitten. I think that the birth was worrisome enough for the male, but I was there too, and I must have made it even worse for everyone with my constant questions. I couldn't stay still. The only thing that could silence me was when they showed me their kitten. I had seen newborn kittens before, but not one such as her. I just sat down and stared at her and all of the adults laughed." "I was allowed to hold her sometimes. I think that we are different from you in this way as well. If a child with no parents is taken to be raised by other adults, and they have their own children, they are considered to be as brothers or sisters. It is not this way with us. They raised me as their own, but she and I were not considered to be siblings, especially because of who we were. It is not our way. I was a prince, but under the care of her parents. She was royal enough to be a princess, and we would have been considered as a possible match when we grew up. But she changed everything." He chuckled with a soft smile, "She always changed everything." "Not long after, her eyes opened, and her parents were pleased. But when she saw me and I saw her..." Oksana watched as his eyes filled again for a moment, but then he had it in hand again. "She would not be still and struggled until she could be in my arms. She only had to touch me and then she was still and happy. She would shriek and howl the whole night and never stop unless she could sleep with me, not her parents. She was not afraid of being alone or in the dark, she was not afraid of anything then, she was angry. It hurt me to hear it. I wanted to be with her too and I stopped eating because of it. The parents watched this and showed others. The elders said that there was nothing to be done, that one or the other would likely die if we were parted then. They gave up after weeks of it and after that, we always slept together and at least there was peace in the home." "As a kitten, she would nurse, but her eyes were always on me if she could see me, and then she would run to be in my arms, or only against me. She only tolerated being carried in her mother's hair if she knew that I was tired and then always asked if I felt better so that she might be with me again. Otherwise she hung onto my hair, sitting on my shoulder and speaking silliness into my ears. I was little too and I always laughed to hear her. If I spoke to her, she would listen and stare. But if I stopped, she would begin all over again." "When she was too large to be in my hair, she walked beside me, holding onto my tail or my hand or insisting that I hold her tail. This is what we do as lovers. We were far from that, being only small, but she didn't care. She said that we would be paired one day and saw no reason not to show it. She refused to accept any other possibility and that was all there was to it." "She rode on my back if we had to travel far, hanging onto my mane as I walked on four legs, so we looked like an adult couple and the adults thought that we were nice to look at like that and talked quietly of the prince and the princess already such a young pair. But it caused us many troubles from the others all the way until we were almost young adults. I had enough problems already because many young males thought to try to beat me because I was an unprotected royal." "If a bigger young male started a fight with me, she would turn into a little ball of fury before I could blink. She had no fear of anyone. What could I do then? I would laugh, and pull her off so that I could finish what had been started. She always watched behind me, as I did for her when a young female wanted a fight, thinking that she was an easy victim. It happened though seldom that she fought another female. None of them ever tried it twice. Then we would judge each other's scrapes and cuts and we would laugh at each other. But if anyone hurt her, it would take at least one large adult male to pull me off, because I wouldn't stop until they'd stopped moving." "Later on if she had been bad, they only had to tell her that she would sleep alone and she would turn well-mannered in an instant because we needed each other and she would not be parted from me. We both knew that to punish one would be punishment for both, so we behaved." "We did everything together, went everywhere together, and we could sit silent for hours and talk with our minds. We could talk like this as we hunted, coming from different directions, we never went hungry and what couldn't be eaten by her family was given to others who needed it. We choose our mates for ourselves, as you do. It was said that we had chosen our mates in each other at such a young age, and no one doubted it who had seen us together. I was always large for my age, and I am large for my kind. She was always small for a female. You would be the right size for most females, but she was smaller." "It happened only once that other young ones tried to keep us apart to laugh at us. We were almost old enough to mate then but still very young. She almost blinded those who held her back, leaving scars to last a lifetime, and though I was only a little more than half my size now, I left three young, almost-grown males unconscious and bleeding behind me to get to her. In another minute, we were the only ones still standing there uninjured." Dream of the Unlikely Princess Ch. 03 "We stood together as the father of one of the three called me to fight him before the elders for what I had done to his son -- who was larger than I was. Really, he was challenging me for the right to rule, but disguising his purpose with outrage. He challenged me directly. Me - a prince of nothing - over nothing that I had begun. It could be done, since I was barely old enough for it but it must be with no help, and it is allowed to be to the death." "She was furious because it wasn't fair and she couldn't help me. She spit and howled in rage as she tore the ear of the son almost off with a slash of her claws on the way to the elders because he had started it all and it had now become a serious matter." "In front of the elders, she held her tongue until it was her turn to speak. Then she growled and seethed at the father that he had better be ready to kill her as well afterward, because she swore to kill his son first before anything else, so that the father's ambition would cost him dearly and no one doubted her oath except him. The son was terrified. She swore a blood feud all by herself if I was killed. It had never been done before, but things like this were as nothing to her." "Since I was a young prince, I had little to be say in the matter. It was my fate to be the one accused and nothing was asked of me other than if I was ready to fight. It wouldn't have made any difference what my answer would have been." "She put up a serious and deadly front, but I could see that she was afraid for me. In case I died, we held each other and said goodbye. She would not let go of me until she was pulled off and then her fury returned and the adults who had pulled her off me stood bleeding for it. My princess turned stone still and cold as she walked to stand next to the son and everyone with a brain there knew that if this went badly for me, he would be dead before I had stopped twitching. Only his father lacked a brain. Until then, I had been angry with him for starting this mess, but as I watched him shake next to her - and she wouldn't allow him to go anywhere - I felt sorry for him." He chuckled grimly, "It is not a fair way of doing things, but among us, a royal who is unprotected is always expected to be able to cope with anything. It kills off many of us early and saves much bloodshed later." "The elders knew of us and asked her why she swore this feud and she said that she would die anyway if I did. If she couldn't help me, then she would do what she could before she was killed. She did not want to live where this was allowed to happen to royals or anyone else and she did not want to live without me. She didn't know it, but I was so proud of her then and she had made a friend in the heart of every female there that day for her words." He smiled, "Everyone but the father knew that she was serious. He said that he would enjoy killing her. It was just another stupid thing to say in that place. One female elder nodded at me, and the foolish father found himself reeling backward and spitting teeth from my first strikes. He thought to brawl with me, but I was much faster than that. I kept him off balance and tore pieces off him as fast as I could. I almost killed him for his words and ambition and how he used his own son for it." "But I stepped back bleeding before the stupidity got worse. I waited and then asked him to get up. I had to ask because prince or not, I was not an adult. When it was clear that he wouldn't get up, I approached the elders myself and explained that I wanted no feud over this, especially if a princess might die over something so stupid." "They asked me if I would die for her. I said that I would in an instant and at any time." The female elder who had nodded for me to begin it smiled and said that everyone knew it to be true, but because of what the elders foresaw as an outcome that day, the question had to be asked so that all could hear my answer." "The elders pointed to the others there and said that everyone there was on our side of this, but that it was allowed that I fight him. They told me that it was not a crime to be stupid, but what the father had planned was a public murder that was not working for him because he had misjudged my ability and how we loved each other, and so they ordered the father to get up and continue the fight that he had called. He refused." "There are some things that are different about royals among us," he said, "for one thing, we are stronger by our nature and I had so many fights from every other male all of my life because they wanted to beat down a royal with impunity while they had the chance of it. Their chance ended that day by the decree of the elders. All of the fighting made me very hard to beat down. Another way that we are different is what you saw that I can do with my eyes. Only royals have this. For you, I was able with some thought to make something which I wanted to be lovely for you, but I can use if in other ways as well. I had only learned that I had the ability only a few days before when I practiced it in a secluded area. Even so, an elder saw it and he warned me not to show this to anyone. It meant that I was ready to become an adult." "I was asked quietly by the elders if I knew what was to be done in such a circumstance as this where the father had refused a command from the elders. I said that it was death to refuse the elders or the ruling pair. They nodded and said that they had known of our troubles and had observed how we had struggled for each other all of our lives." "They told me to think like a king, because a young king could not afford to leave a beaten coward behind him and that I now would be judged as a future king by everyone for my next actions since a king must have the ability to take a life to enforce his will and that of the elders. If I was weak now, they said, I would face a long line of this and I wouldn't live long for the one who had known all of her life the king which she wanted for her heart." "The elders proclaimed that since I had been challenged by an adult to fight like an adult, then as far as they were concerned, I must now be an adult, and so, as a royal, I was now allowed to use what royals are given, and that any others who wished to challenge me could do so openly, but that from that day, I would be allowed to strike back at anyone in the way of the royals. The pointed to the one who had refused their command and told me that I didn't need to ask anything of him anymore. I was no longer a juvenile and so I could order him by my own right to command him. They didn't say it, but everyone knew that if he now refused me AND the elders, his life wasn't worth anything." I went back to the father and told him to get up and obey the elders. He refused, and so I put my claws under his jaw and forced him to stand." Yevgeny rolled his eyes, "So he bellowed at me in defiance, and I bellowed back at him in answer." He chuckled and shook his head, "It was all very primitive. When he bellowed a second time, I tore through his chest and before he could scream, I burned the flesh from him with my eyes and I stomped my feet and bellowed at the crowd in challenge and to no one's surprise, it went unanswered." He smirked, "I am only glad that I didn't have to beat my chest as well." "The elders saw that I had wisdom enough after beating many large youths and a grown male and then stopping even while my blood was hot to consider and ask for counsel, and I became king then, and she was made queen, the youngest ruling pair that anyone could remember." "But from that instant, she was calm, and showed kindness to anyone who had need, because we had nothing to prove now that we could not be parted, and a queen must be kind. She knew this too. The first thing that she did was to ask me for mercy for the son and the rest of the coward's family. I granted it and added that they must not be held in dishonor for what he had done. She did her best to heal the son's torn ear." "With us there is no physical possibility of mating until both are old enough to be adults. Things do not fit until then. Usually after mating for pleasure, the male organ is against the female one, outside. She holds it there. It is kept against them, as we also hold them with our arms so that they are still as they dream. Our nerves connect in this way, and when they dream, they go much farther because of us." "But for her and I even when we were small this was not possible, since we were not mating, were we? Even so, we always dreamed together anyway. Even if only one's arm was around the other, we would dream together before we slept. We always woke up in a heap in the morning. It was just our way. The elders had never heard of anyone who could dream together so young. It was torture, but we had to wait until she was ready to be mated before we could begin our rule. It changed nothing. everyone called her their queen and she was very popular to everyone as she took up her duties even while still a princess." He looked at Oksana a little shyly, "I do not think that I can say it better, but ... they take us with them. We can dream far without each other, but together we can go anywhere, do anything, as though we are there, because we can be there. The male has another ability in this, besides to drive the female's dreams farther. He can hold a little of his mind back from this to keep them both safe where they really are." "How could you defend like that if you're lying down and dreaming," Oksana asked. "I think the best way to say it is to say that I did not mark you with my eyes, princess. I marked you with my heart and mind. Can you understand now?" She nodded, "It all sounds so beautiful, Yevgeny, like a continuous love story." He groaned, "It was for a long time, until I was far away trying to stop a feud, and my mate was found by more than a dozen slugs. I knew it at once and came as fast as I could, but she was already dead and half-eaten when I got there. I ... I felt her die. Our kittens ..." She saw the rivulets of tears begin again along his nose and she sat up to hold him tightly. It was a long time before he spoke again, and by then, Oksana wept with him. When he spoke again, he sounded mechanical and flat. "I caught the slowest and fattest, and the ones which she had torn up. I left them dying in pieces or without their skin. The rest got away. I... I burned everything, and then I crawled away to die. I didn't move for a long time. I don't know how long it was. One day, and days are long there. I woke, or came back to myself. I had dreamed for so long, searching. But I knew where the six were. They had run, on one of their crafts to go to other worlds." "We are known among them for many things, and perhaps the most feared is that once we begin a blood hunt, we never stop, never. Not while we are alive. I had the best reason to hunt, because my hunger for vengeance would drive me forever. I found little creatures around me. I had been there so long that they had no fear. I began to catch them, a few at a time, because I hadn't eaten in so long. When I was strong enough, it took me most of a week to stand and learn to walk again. Remember that I said long days there." "After that, I looked for females, but for a different purpose. I needed old and strong females to hear me and want to help me. I found more than seventy who would help, and sitting together they sent me with their minds to where the slugs now were. I can never go back, but then, I never wanted to." Oksana thought about it for a moment. "You came here? The slugs are here?" He nodded grimly, "Be thankful that they are too old to breed. They came here because of their own troubles as they tried to run from me for they knew that I would come for them. The name is really a slur. They don't look like slugs, but one thing about them, they have no honor among them if things turn bad. And they were running out of food on a craft full of the stronger ones. When that happens, they turn on each other. Before the ones that I wanted could fall onto another's claws, they ran, taking a young one with them in a small craft." He smiled bitterly, "They have been here, masquerading as gods to the people here for a long time, though few believe in them now. I have no quarrel with the youngest of them, but the others, I have waited so long. Waiting because it will not be good enough for me unless I have them all and I need to be sure that I can have them together and quickly. They are very powerful. I am sorry Oksana. I am not cruel, but for these ones, I can learn. Even so, I would not harm the younger one. That one has not done anything to me or mine." "Well," he said, chuckling quietly, "Another thing that they fear about us is that they cannot feel us near to them. If we were like them, we would have killed them all long ago, but we only wished to be left alone in peace. It doesn't matter anymore. My fight would begin soon, since I know where they are on this world, the six. They wanted the young one to make more, but that one is too strong now and hates them as well. We have met, he and I." Oksana blinked, "What happened? You said that you were bitter enemies." He nodded, "It is true. But think a moment. That was far away on another world, what the six did, and long ago. We found each other as I was hunting the others. As I have said, I have no quarrel with that one, so I approached because I wanted to make it clear to him." He laughed a little, "That was a very tense few moments between us. He had never seen one of my kind alive, but he knew what I was, and I could tell that he had never eaten one of us before, or I would have killed him for it. We cannot speak to each other, we have trouble speaking with our minds to each other, but we have both been here long enough to know human speech, haven't we? So that is what we used." He laughed. "He is in his prime, but so am I, and we both knew that with a misinterpretation, it would be a very short fight and he would be dead, so we were very careful. I told him why I was here, and also that I did not wish to harm him, but that I intend to kill the others and why." "How did he take that?" Oksana was fascinated. "I learned something from him. It gave me a little hope that not all slugs are the same. He surprised me very much. He was disgusted by what I told him, and said that he felt sorrow for me. He told me that he hated the others and why. They only wanted him to breed, though they said at first that they wished to save him from being eaten. He knew that they'd have eaten him if they found no other food here. They carry both sexes and wanted him for his female ones. He has never allowed this and never will. I tried to make it clear that I hoped that he would stay out of it when the time came, and he surprised me again." "He offered to help me and told me the weaknesses of each one." Yevgeny smiled, "The only trouble is that I now have someone who loves me." He looked at Oksana and kissed her softly. "I know that you do, and I know what it is to love someone and have them taken from you in hate. I was king once. You cannot be king and not know compassion. So without knowing anything of this, and without moving a lovely finger, you have stilled my arm and stopped my blood hunt for a time. I do not think that it has ever been done before. We never stop once it has begun. You are a very powerful princess, Oksana. You surely must be, for we have not even loved yet." He reached around her to hold her to him, and she sighed. "I have to say this, Oksana. Thank you. I have managed to say farewell to what has haunted me, and I think that you were the reason that I could as last. I will never forget them, but it is enough now. Unless I had urgent reason, I could now let the old worms die in peace, as long as they left well enough alone. I feel how all of this hatred affects you, princess, so I would rather leave the ashes behind. Is that what you would advise?" She nodded, "I understand about wanting vengeance, but though you would settle a score, it wouldn't bring back those who were taken from you." He smiled again, "You see? Now you know what I see in you." He kissed her again. "But there is now another reason that the hunt must continue and it has nothing to do with what they did. Tonight has only removed the personal side of it from my heart. It makes this even easier for me. The young slug and I know something, something that will come soon. If this is not stopped, it could be the slow end of this world, and the six must be removed before that. He and I both must play a part in this, and it will be a struggle, but not between us. The others will only attack me as soon as they see me, and I cannot fight them and help him at the same time. So they must be killed before. We have made a bargain, him and I. He will help me kill the six, and I will help him deal with what comes. For that, he is mightier than I." "How soon?" He shrugged, "A few months. But I want you to know that I now have someone to live for, and I now want very much to. You should not worry. I will tell you everything before it happens. I have been here a long time. Over all of the long years, I have come to like this world and its people, though they know nothing of me. I see no reason not to help stop what comes if I can." Yevgeny smiled, "and the strangest thing is that in order to help, I will have to defend a slug and keep him alive." he laughed at that, "Surely something that has never been done before." He let go of her and stretched a little. "There is a water cooler. Would you like a drink?" She nodded and stood up, but when he did as well, she sank to her knees as she looked at his beauty. He smiled a little, "It has been a long, long time since a female has looked at me like that, but even so, none have fallen to their knees at the sight of me." Then he saw that she was sad and knelt beside her, "Oksana, what it it?" She sighed, "Nothing. I... I just saw you and I feel like ... It's alright. I just wish that I could be what you are, that's all. I've never seen any creature who was so beautiful as you are. To listen to you, I wanted to be there with you, and be the same as you." He took her face in his hands, "I think that you are not looking at this the right way. You accept me. You love me. It is just the same thing for me. I accept you and I love you. I feel such happiness because of you, Oksana. Somebody loves me. Most of the females here would not, could not, and never would even consider this. To them, I am something from a nightmare. But not to you. For you, I would rather be a human male, but I also see that you like what I am. I know my good luck here. Do not feel any less. I am happy the way that you look." "I have an idea, if you are willing." He leaned forward and placed his hands on the floor. "Climb up, Oksana, and hold onto my mane." She'd never have thought of it herself, but now she instantly knew this to be a gesture on his part, and stepped over to him, wondering how this would work. She felt a thrill course through her as she touched his shoulder. It was actually easier than she thought, and wasn't the same as the child's game of piggyback. She climbed on and tried to figure it out. "You can hold on like the children do here, around my neck, but there is a better way. Climb higher and lean forward on your forearms, with your arms together inside my shoulder blades. Then take my mane on my back in your fists. You will not pull it out." She tried it, "Like this?" "Yes," he said, "A little tighter with your legs for a moment while I rise. Then you can relax. When I walk, ease your own shoulders so that they follow the motions of mine, or you will be very sore." The room dropped away just a little as he shifted upwards, and then he began to walk along the paths. His long arms kept her level. "It is a bit of play," he said, "and also, you seem to have a wish to be as a female of my kind. We normally walk together on two legs, but for long distances, the difference in our sizes makes it harder for the females, and we are built for this. Do you like it?" Dream of the Unlikely Princess Ch. 03 Oksana didn't just like it; she loved it and said so. It made him laugh, "I forgot about my spine. Well, enjoy that then." He walked them around the room a few times as Oksana hung on in bliss. she couldn't decide between the childlike joy that she felt or the naughty was that the moving lumps of his spine made her feel. Finally, he stopped near the cooler and knelt down. Oksana was off him in a flash and in his arms. They had a drink, and after tossing the paper cup, they walked together into the vegetation. Oksana looked over and gently took his tail in her hand, maybe a foot behind his flanks and just before the long hair began. He looked over with a bit of surprise, "So you really do wish to be my female?" She stroked the soft bristle with her thumb, noting that it caused him to shiver. "Is it that obvious?" She grinned at him. "I wish that I could be all of that for you. I think that if I was like that, I'd be beautiful." He stopped and picked her up as her arms went around his neck. "Listen to me. You are beautiful, Oksana. You take my breath from me if you only smile at me. But I do not love you because you are an approximation. You only happen to be the right size. This may be something which brought you to my attention, it's true, but I love you for who you are, not for who I might imagine that you might be close enough to resemble. It is an important difference. But I am very pleased that you are the right size, and you should be as well. Since you are learning how to ride comfortably, we will do this outside tomorrow night, you and I. There will be no moon for the next few nights and no one will see because I will it to be. We will go faster and farther, if you have a little courage. And you have it, princess. Consider what you are doing at this moment, right here. A human woman in the arms of a beast such as me. Your heart is pounding, but it is not out of fear." "That's because I love you, Yevgeny. I hear your words, and I know what you mean, but I think that I'd like to be the right kind, though I can't be. I didn't know that the one I fell in love with was a king, though now I wonder why I never thought of it. I think that if I could be like your kind... no, I know that if it were possible, then you and I would be a lovely couple." He smiled at her as he lay her down carefully, though there was some seriousness to it. "Then hold that little dream in your heart, princess. I like it too, but it is not the main thing. I am so happy with you just as you are." She leaned on one elbow and looked at him in wonder, the way that he was stretched out before her. By any measure, he was amazing to her eyes. It seemed to her that no one had wanted her all of her life. She'd always felt as though she was only an intruding piece of baggage or something. She'd even failed at trying to be a whore, though she now realized that she'd gone about it the wrong way. But this one here, this king from another place - he'd accepted her and wanted her. It felt good to finally feel for once that little mousy Oksana had someone now who accepted her and even admitted to feeling lust for her. It was a good thing, she mused as she reached to take the essence of his maleness into her small hands so that she might learn what she could. For perhaps the first time in her life, she felt something rising within her that just had to be sated - and Yevgeny was all the male that she could have ever imagined - or rather, never imagined, she'd want so much now. "I would like you to declare tomorrow a nudist day, Yevgeny," Oksana said with a warm smile, "you are the king, so I know that it will be so if only you say that it is. I feel enough here to know that this will likely work very well in our favor if we put our parts together. I certainly feel sure enough for what I want to do with you tonight, but I don't even know what this looks like, what I have here, but it feels the same, except for these little bumps along the top. Could we ... have children or, kittens or something?" "No, not between us like this," he replied sadly, "that is where the dream would stop for us, Oksana. Does this bother you?" She shook her head and smiled softly at the cat's eyes that now regarded her as a mate. "No, at least for now. But I do wish so much that I could be the right kind of female for you. I would be so beautiful too then, I am sure." She leaned down and kissed him, feeling those long and lovely teeth of his against her cheeks as their tongues danced. Besides his beauty, the power that she felt against her made her wet instantly, it was that sensual to her. Oksana had never been kissed this way, and couldn't imagine anything nicer. She sat up a little as she reached for is hardness and stroked it. He gazed at the lovely one who wanted him more than any other and wondered whether he had the ability to help her with her dreams, and if not completely, whether she'd be happy with what he could manage for her. He'd have to think on it more and see. Right now, the anticipation of this and her sweet body against him were much more deserving of his attention. "I am the king of nothing, Oksana, but you make me feel as though I owned the world because you are here with me." "I like that thought," she smiled at him for a moment, "And if I could have my wish and become what you are, I would love to learn how to be your queen. It will never happen, Yevgeny, I know this, but for now, you just lie back while I do my very best to make you feel as a king once more." Oksana smiled at the love that she felt for him and licking her lips, she took him into her mouth with a happy sigh. Dream of the Unlikely Princess Ch. 04 This wasn't part of my original little work. This was just supposed to be the unveiling of Yevgeny and an indication of his part in a much longer work which is unfinished at the moment. But it seems to have taken on a life of its own, and I've written this to hopefully express a bit of the emotion that is between these two while giving readers a better look at what he is and where he comes from. ---------------- Oksana felt a tiny bit of trepidation as she worked Yevgeny with her mouth. She wanted more than anything to please him really well for what were now a growing number of reasons to her mind - that he'd done the impossible for her by bringing her here from the other side of the planet not the least of them. But she'd never gotten too many chances to practice what she did now for him. She wanted to smile, but told herself to order her thoughts. She'd never had many tries at this, she thought. True, she'd overheard more than a few conversations on the subject where the women had rolled their eyes at each other and carried on as though it was such a simple thing. Men just wanted a warm wet place to put it, first and foremost. They liked the mouth for the sexy symbolism and the mouth's ability to produce suction and some finer movements than the other cavities offered, but basically, she'd heard that all one had to do was make spit and suck, throwing in whatever head motions and variations came to mind. And that was pretty much what she'd done whenever she'd done this. It didn't surprise Oksana in the least when it came to her that for Yevgeny, 'whatever' wasn't going to be good enough. In deciding that for herself, she added a tiny bit of flair to her thoughts on the subject. She had a king in her mouth here, after all. The thought very nearly did make her smile, and not just from the apparent absurdity of it. She had no reason to doubt him, and so to Oksana, she was doing her best for a king. Her king, as far as that went. She thought that she might as well finish the thought. Her male. There, it came to her. There it was. She'd defined him in only two words. Oksana sighed and closed her eyes as she continued. This was so pleasurable to her and comforting in a way, she decided. Her hand felt lower and she tried to lift his scrotum, but found that she couldn't. His testicles were large and her hands weren't, and while she liked the idea, it meant that if she lifted it out of the narrow confines of the gap between his thighs, then they might be jarred unpleasantly if they got away from her. She had only one hand in a position for this, the way that they were here. She went back to thinking for a while and left her hand there to cradle them carefully and pet lightly with her thumb. Oksana looked at what she could see of him. He was lying back in the pleasure that she was providing and she saw the hard flatness of his lower abdomen along with the ribbed abdominal muscles. The fur here on his underside was a bit darker, but she could still see the way that the sort fur seemed to sparkle just a little from the way that some of it caught any small amount of light from the moon. She was looking at highlights in his fur and nothing more, but she liked it. His chest was deep, and so the lower edge of his ribcage was well-defined as were the powerful pectorals under his two nipples. Yevgeny's head was back and his mouth was open, and there they were, she thought - the sexiest teeth that she'd ever seen in her life. She was really hoping that if they got to any playful moments between them, he wouldn't mind it too much if he could bring those teeth into the play. She decided to ask him for this. The sudden thought of seeing those teeth as he worked them very gently on her body -- if she didn't collapse in a fit of ticklish laughter - made her sopping wet even now. She carefully moved her hand so that she could let his large balls down with a minimum of disturbance and laid her hand on his well-muscled thigh. She stroked him there lightly and began to move her hand inwards, closer to his scrotum, but never quite brushing it. She concentrated on his thigh. The long ridge of muscle there gave her an idea, and she planned her move carefully. When her little bit of planning was complete, she moved herself to straddle his thigh and she began to slide herself along the muscle just a little as she kept him in her mouth. The soft bristle of his short fur grazed and brushed against her wet mound. Once she got past the initial surprise of how it felt, Oksana almost laughed out loud. With fur like this, she could rub herself pleasurably almost anywhere on him. The feeling was exquisite to her and she moaned softly as she kept her left hand on his hip bone and now moved her right hand to grasp the shaft of the wonderful sex of this male. With a little care, she was able to wet her hand as well and slide it up and down the shaft. To her surprised delight, it began to throb rhythmically, swelling very slightly in her hand and mouth. Yevgeny responded to this with deeper and more urgent breathing and he whispered her name to her several times. Oksana answered with a pleased-sounding little moan. The sound of it seemed to trigger something in him and he sat up a little to watch her with a loving smile. Oksana saw this and marveled at how the motion brought out the ribbed sections of his abdominal muscles. She moved her left hand to stroke his abdomen lightly, what she could reach of it. She did it partly out of affection for him and more than a little out of her own wonder at his power and beauty. "You look so happy there, little Princess," he said, showing hs teeth in a delighted smile, "and this is wondrous to me, what you do here." She made the same pleasant sounds in answer and became a little bit louder in the way that she suckled. Yevgeny stroked her hair with one hand and he reached to her so carefully to pet the parts of her front that he could reach with the back of his other hand. "It will get wetter there very soon, Oksana," he said, "it is time to plan what you will do next." The thought seemed to please him and he gurgled in his throat for a moment. Oksana hadn't thought of this and quickly lifted her head to ask him if he wanted her to swallow and if there would be any problem if she did. She sucked gently, bobbing her head as she listened and never taking her eyes off his face. She supposed that many women wouldn't find him attractive like this. Well, she thought, since he'd described himself as something from a nightmare, she guessed that there might have been at least one unpleasant encounter in his past. The faces of his kind were very human-like for the most part, besides the soft short fur, the biggest difference was the short snout. Along with their eyes, this gave him elements of a feline appearance. And yet, at the same time, once the teeth were revealed in any way - in conversation or laughter, they took on a very hyena-like look. Oksana had never liked the hyenas that she'd seen in the zoo, but she loved this about him. When he'd let her ride on his back earlier, he'd looked like a mixture of the hyena and a sloth - another animal she didn't like, but he didn't move like one and just looking at him kept her in proud awe that he cared about her. It also kept her very aroused just to see him move. He chuckled and stroked her cheek, so taken with the way that she did this for him while being careful to let him see her soft eyes looking back at him. "There is no trouble to it," he said, "It is exactly like what a man would try to give you, but you should plan a little anyway. I would suggest that you leave a bit of room for it to spill. There will be far too much for you to try to swallow, and I do not wish for you to choke, so leave some room and let it go as you take what you can if you wish to taste it. You will get more from me than from a man." He looked a little bit shy for a moment, "Perhaps I should sound proud here but it is true," he shrugged a little awkwardly. "There are things about us that should show you that in some ways, we remain a little primitive. Couples like to mate near water now to make this easy to remove and wash off, but the original purpose for so much seed was to show other males and females that a female has been mated by HER male. It is a warning to both sexes. For another individual of either sex to even approach then begins a fight - an often fatal fight for one or both if males are involved. It also is a very old sign of a male's possession of HIS female. Believe me, we are capable of some very primal behaviour." "Females of long ago displayed this splashed semen on their fur with pride to each other, and the fights between females were often very bloody though less fatal. Things are a little more civilized now, and this is washed off by most females. There are still some fights, and it is one of the reasons why there are four male kittens born for every female kitten. The sad truth is that we kill each other." Yevgeny smiled at Oksana and she could see that there was a lot of sincerity to it as he sat stroking her cheeks with his thumbs. "Females are cherished among us, Oksana. To know and have the love of a female is a very powerful driving force to any male, not only to mate but all of us, male and female, we all seek to be loved, don't we?" "To have even survived to the age where one can mate is an accomplishment. And then begins the search for a female who might be interested enough to even want to know you socially. For every moment that you might find yourself having the honor of only speaking with one, there are hours and days of longing -- if she is the one that you would want for yourself. It seems hopeless -- and it most often is hopeless, knowing that whatever there is that you might have to offer her, there are many more males who have the ability to shower her with so much more - thoughtful gifts and affection." "My world is full of despondent males who know that there is no one for them, and there never will be. A few find love in the arms of other males, but most live alone their whole lives, and it is not uncommon for one to take one's own life in misery." "Many find a life as a lonely fighter in our armies. They fight because it feeds them -- as much as they hate to live another day in their bleak lives. Most females know nothing of any of this and their lives are filled with constant invitations. They only need to choose the best from among their many suitors. There are some females who know what males must live through. That is why no one -- absolutely on one - seeks to break up a paired couple once it is decided by them. It is death among us to even try, no matter the sex of the interloper." But the fighters -- they know that each wound, each battle scar only makes their chances of meeting any female - never mind one who might show interest - even longer. These males have no fear of death, absolutely none. To be killed is as nothing to them and many even pray for the chance to die." "I was so very fortunate, because of my birth, and the one who loved me so fiercely all of my life. Even so, I always treated her as the gift to me that she was." He looked down for a moment, "But here, with no queen for so long, no one to care about me...." He sighed, "I now know and feel the despair of the fighter, the failed male of my world. I have not even had the company of another of my own kind here." He looked up, and she felt him swell in her hand. His smile was a little wet for the tear that she saw in one of his eyes. "So I want you to know, Princess Oksana that your coming here to me, especially for the way that you said it, is as a gift to me beyond anything. To have you feel love for one such as me is a higher honor than you can ever imagine. That a female here loves and wants me, this is something that I would never treat lightly. And what you do here for me now. I want you to know that you are as a goddess to me, Oksana. Thank you." Oksana sat fascinated at first, but now her tears ran a little and she took all of him into her mouth and she redoubled her efforts until she felt him harden more and gasp. She lifted her mouth a little while still doing her best to carry on and her mouth flooded instantly as his semen ran down her front. The pleasantness of it caused her to shudder in a very mild orgasm as she rubbed herself on him. He watched her carefully and when he thought that it had passed, he lifted her up under her arms. Oksana had always just had to accept her smallish stature all of her life since there was no use being unhappy about it. But the way that he picked her up as though she were nothing more than a doll shocked her at first until she saw what he was doing and stared. "Try to put your legs around me," he said. He held her suspended before him for a moment and then held her to his chest, leaning down to kiss her. Oksana was amazed to find herself sitting on his thighs, wrapped in his long arms. They smiled at each other for a moment. "I think that I must have been good for you," Oksana smiled with a quick look at herself, "and why does it swell just a little like this?" She looked down at where his penis still stood and throbbed as it was held between them, "Shouldn't it be growing soft now?" He bowed his head in his way, "Thank you so much Oksana. I cannot say that anyone has done this so well for me -- in my whole life." He smiled, "You have made me feel like a king by your kindness." He looked at her thoughtfully and saw the question there in her heart that she would never dare to ask him, fearing that he'd take it as a slight. But he nodded and whispered, "I know what your heart holds as a question. No one, Oksana. Not even ..." he sighed, "my Sheb'oha. Not even her." He quickly addressed her other questions as though he didn't wish to think of his dead queen for long, not wanting to ruin this between them. He smiled a bit shyly, "What you feel there is the Telling. It is looked for and taken by hopeful females as a sign of truth in the feelings of their males. They look for this during mating, for it always betrays the male's heart. If there is emotion for the female, this begins. If he does not have feelings for the female, she will know by the absence of this. You feel the beat of my heart there, and I cannot mask it and it will not stop until I am spent for the time that we mate." He stroked her back softly with a smile, "And we have not stopped our mating." She stared up at him, her eyes large in the lenses of her glasses, "So this shows ..., by this I can see --" He nodded with that bow of his head, but he held his head down. "By this you may see that I have love for my female." She felt his arms tighten around her gently. The feeling of being protected and loved came to her again and in spite of the absurdity of finding herself like this, her front covered in his gush, she almost wanted to cry. She struggled for a moment to free her arms and then reached up to throw them around his neck for a moment. She pressed against the side of his cheek gently with one hand so that his head pressed against her own, "Thank you for that, Yevgeny," she whispered, "and for how this makes me feel. If we are still mating, then I wish for you to lie back, and I can continue for you." "I have a thought, Princess," he said quietly, "The things that you noticed on me there, these small bumps as you called them, they are to touch against similar bumps on the female so that the nerves touch for dreaming. You do not have them, but I think that you must surely have many nerves all along the opening of you. If you wish, raise yourself up and take me inside you if you can, but only settle yourself then and try to find a way to be comfortable. We will not move much like that, but I think that you may find pleasure in my Telling, and also, perhaps, if we cannot dream together, I hope to pass memories to your mind, and if it can be done like this between us, you may see how life is lived where I come from. Would you like that?" Oksana nodded, "Yes, Yevgeny, oh yes, very much." It wasn't as easy as they thought, but with some effort, she sighed and groaned as she tried to find the fit. The way that he throbbed inside her was delicious, and it was all that Oksana could do to keep still. In spite of herself, she reached out to hold her hand against his chest, and she felt his heart beating in both places. She had to take her glasses off for a moment to wipe the tears from her eyes. "What happens now?" She asked, hopefully. "Put your arms around my neck", he said, as he held her tightly to him with only one arm while he took her face in his other hand gently. "You will feel those bumps in a moment. Let me know if it hurts you in the slightest, and I will stop. I will be seeking for your own nerves, Oksana, but it should not hurt. Remember, let me know the instant that you do not want this." Oksana felt a bit nervous, but she was determined. If she could see what it was to live where he'd come from, see the people there and their doings, well it was something that she really wanted to experience. She nodded, "Alright, Yevgeny." She sat on him in bliss as he held her. The feel of him inside her was incredible. She didn't think it was much larger than any human penis that she'd ever known, not that there'd been all that many, and it certainly wasn't much different in its girth, but for some reason, it had been a bit difficult to get it inside of her. It felt fine now though, as it throbbed deep within her from his heartbeat. She opened her eyes and watched his teeth come to her. Oksana opened her mouth to welcome him and felt his tongue try to tease hers into joining the dance. She loved the way that his hand held her by her face so gently. It was both affectionate and restrictive. To her, it meant that he loved her while claiming her as his at the same instant. Both of them groaned together in pleasure when their lips had sealed together so lightly, but she thrilled in anticipation for the moment when his mouth would open more so that she could feel his teeth against her cheeks. It took only a moment more and with his teeth on her, Oksana felt herself open to his maleness even more. She didn't know why it had been this way, but once she felt those teeth, it was all over for her. She was lost in bliss and she didn't think that she could possibly feel anymore wanted and aroused. But there were odd little sensations there, she realized. Actually, they weren't THERE so much as they were everywhere else. She kept feeling the tiniest twinges of well, ... not pain, she realized, and it was not even discomfort, but in odd places inside and on the outside of her, Oksana could feel twinges everywhere. But they were gone even faster than they'd come to her. She couldn't even narrow down exactly the spot where she'd felt one of them before it was gone again or somewhere else. They didn't even detract from the deep pleasure that she was enjoying, they were just tiny little mysteries to her. Yevgeny pulled back a little, "Are you alright, beautiful princess?" She nodded with her eyes closed in rapture, "Yes," she heard herself whisper, "only I feel tiny flashes of not quite pain, but before I am aware of them, they are gone. What are they?" Oksana groaned and felt herself contracting on him as he drew his delicious lips across hers in explanation. Oksana listened, but she also reveled in licking his lips and teeth, even as he whispered. "My body seeks your nerve endings, and will most likely not find any. It will take a little while longer and then it will stop. I will then try to give you my memories if I can. It is a little sad that I won't find a place to connect our nerves together for if I could fine even one, I-" Dream of the Unlikely Princess Ch. 04 The sat rigid instantly, each one staring into the other's eyes as a connection was established between their bodies. He didn't know how it was possible. The type of nerve endings that he sought would only have been on the outside of a female, here and there on her inner lips. But he'd found one inside of Oksana. It shouldn't even be possible, but... They both gasped again as the single nerve pod on him which had connected now sought to exploit what it had found, It took a long second, but Yevgeny felt himself as Oksana with him deep in her core. Oksana felt his throbs from inside him and not herself for a moment. For the briefest instant, they both felt as though they might easily trade places, and then the connection was firmly established. They were locked and dreaming together. Not wanting to frighten her, and not trusting himself to guide them on a journeying dream yet, Yevgeny decided instead to feed her his memories in this fashion. If this could be done once, he thought, it could be done many times and there was no need to hurry now. He felt so humbled to have the love of Oksana. She surprised him at every turn. Oksana found herself looking at so many of his people. She saw what she knew to be mothers standing in groups talking to each other and she could even understand what was being said. They stood on their long graceful legs with that long and lovely stripe of a mane running down their spines to end just above their short tails. Many, though not all, had similar stripes down their sides to those that she'd seen on Yevgeny. They all had long and thin arms that they moved with a lot of grace as they expressed their thoughts to each other in the way of all females, she thought, even those here on Earth, with hand movements designed to enhance the nuances of conversation. All of their hands ended in long claws, but that didn't matter. They had slender necks, and long hair framed their faces - those beautiful faces of his kind. In conversation like this, Oksana seldom saw any teeth -- unless they were laughing for a moment as they shared a private joke, perhaps. Then one or both would pull their heads back in a smiling laugh just as humans do in the same way and their graceful teeth would show then. Many of the females wore simple jewellery, thin bracelets or thin and simple necklaces. All of them were breathtakingly beautiful to Oksana. They talked of the things that any group of mothers might talk about while waiting for their young ones to leave kindergarten for the day. They spoke of their children and the bumps and scrapes that they picked up, or a particularly nasty case of the sniffles that one's child might be suffering from at the moment as their young ran and played around their legs. The smaller ones hung from their long hair and now and then would mewl into their mother's ears and a female would reach up to take the kitten from her hair and bring it to her breast -- all without missing a beat in the conversation. Oksana found herself among many of them walking along what looked to be a street, singly or in groups. In this scene, she finally figured out that the legs of the males were very long. It just hadn't occurred to her until now. She'd assumed them to be proportionately shorter than those of the females for the way that they looked if the males were on all fours. But that wasn't the case. They were HELD that way so that the back was almost parallel to the ground for when a female might ride there, but if they walked alone the legs were long and well-shaped like those of the females. Oksana finally got it. It was all about the size. The size difference between the sexes she thought. Yevgeny was right. For a girl who had always been diminutive, Oksana would have run a little closer to the tall side for these girls here, she thought, but still very much in the normal range. She got the rest of it right away, as soon as she saw couples together. It was like seeing a petite girl with an all star high school football tackle at a party, but this was what was normal among these beings. A pair of them would walk short distances side by side. She saw a few who were obvious sets of lovers from the way that one or the other would reach out to take the tail of the other in hand as they walked down the street for maybe a block to what looked like some kind of restaurant to Oksana, but for much longer trips than that, the females would almost have to trot to keep up -- as long and graceful as their legs were. Either that, or the males would have to stump along far too slowly for their own degree of grace. The next thing fell into place for her just as easily. That was why the females rode on the backs of the males over longer distances. She even noticed pairs moving slowly among the others, and these were obviously peace officers -- one male ridden by one female, talking as they surveyed the crowds, and obviously not connected by any romantic tie. They were just at work, plain and simple. She looked around herself and wanted so much to be like them, to be one of them. After a moment, she saw a few subtleties among certain individuals which were quite plainly paired couples. She watched two pairs which were obviously friends talking and laughing, looking like they'd just bumped into each other on the street there. Gradually, and every so often, a female might reach for her male's penis to give it a light grazing brush with her hand or a gentle squeeze. This happened in front of the other couple and it was noticed, but not remarked upon, just as the male of the couple might take the female's tail and caress it. It happened several times before the couples split up and continued on their separate ways. Oksana decided to follow the ones who had exchanged the light touches. When they reached the corner, they stopped and exchanged a long kiss, just as she and Yevgeny did, and the female said something in a smiling way to the male, He eased down onto the backs of his large hands and she caressed his shoulder for a moment before swinging up onto his back. They were moving even before she got herself settled, and from this, Oksana guessed that the females here were quite used to riding the males. She sat up straight for a moment as though she were on horseback, but it was only long enough for her to settle onto the place that she preferred. Then she leaned forward, placing her elbows between the male's shoulder blades and gripping his mane. She shifted one more time, and Oksana saw by her face that she was sitting in just the right place to get the most out of the ride. She smiled with pleasure and after a while, even held on by only one hand so that she could let the nipples on her swaying breasts brush against her own palm as they went. This was all done in plain sight and there were other riding females here and there who were doing it too. The odd thing to Oksana was that more of them were doing this while riding in one direction than the ones who were coming the other way. All of the couples spoke to each other as they went as though they were humans talking in a car on a drive here. Oksana thought it a bit odd until she saw where it was they were going. It was a large park in the middle of the city. The middle part of it had many artificial waterfalls and cascades. The whole thing was beautiful to her, but she saw several line-ups, and her eye was drawn there. In the line-ups, couples waited, some of them talking to each other. There were even one or two same-sex couples here and there. Several of the females were still sitting on their males and talking to other females, and she noticed a few that were talking about the weather or the lovely day while fondling their own breasts in plain view of the other couples. One of the females had dismounted and stood talking to her male, who was still on all fours. She was chatting with him while caressing his scrotum. It was quite obviously a normal and everyday gesture between them. Oksana grinned. These people obviously had a pretty healthy outlook on sex. It was very pleasant to watch. When the couple that she'd followed were admitted, she tagged along. Nobody seemed to notice her or be able to even see her. They stopped at the bank of a pool under a cascade and began to mate. Up to this point, for all of her feelings for Yevgeny, she was somewhat at a loss for what the best position or positions might be for a pair like them and the difference in their sizes. She'd even struggled, wondering if it might not be better to ask him if they could just have sex while he was like a man. At least she'd be on familiar ground. But she knew that this couple here were very active lovers from the way that they'd carried on, and so she watched intently. Armed with what she'd just learned from Yevgeny, there was a difference if the male was in love, and that difference, though Oksana wouldn't be able to tell from this distance, would keep the male hard for a longer time. It became plain that she'd been correct about the couple. They were deeply in love and Oksana was given an unwitting show of their complete list of positions. She filed it away in her head, intending to show Yevgeny what she'd learned just as soon as this dream ended. The whole thing was incredible to her. This place -- this whole scenic and wonderfully landscaped place, with its many secluded pools and waterfalls was a public place for people to make love if the thought came to them. It was accepted and encouraged among them. It was normal for them and there was no shame among them at all. More than once, she saw that two couples shared one pool and they mated as though they were alone there, one on the bank and the other twenty feet away in the shallow water of the pool. She felt her mouth fall open when she saw that they still conversed between the couples, about nothing at all during less intense moments. As she watched while the male helped his female wash in the shimmering droplets of the cascade, she couldn't help but shake her head in a bit of sadness. You couldn't build a place like this where the citizens of any city or town in any country on Earth might enjoy each other where it wouldn't get screwed up sooner rather than later and be closed. She looked at the beauty of it once more, and suddenly saw what it would look like covered in spray paint tag lines with used condoms and syringes littered everywhere. She wanted to be one of these creatures now more than anything. Dream of the Unlikely Princess Ch. 05 ** The final chapter without the lead-in to the main story. ------------- The dream ended and Oksana felt herself drifting so pleasantly in his embrace. She settled her face tightly against his neck as she hugged him. She was so happy. "Thank you Yevgeny," she sighed, "It was so beautiful to see your people. I wish that I was one of them, but I am happy with you here." She pulled her head back and kissed him softly, feeling his throb deep inside her, still showing her the emotion of his heart. "Lie down," she whispered. I have found a king for myself. I wish only now that I could become your queen." His eyes went wide and very dark as he looked at her with a soft groan in his throat. "It has been an even longer time since I have seen a female look at me as you look right now. Very well then. You find the way you like it, and I take you as my queen, Oksana, though I am nothing anymore." Oksana sighed as she found the best fit for herself on top of him, "I think ..., I think you have it... wrong Yevgeny. Remember what I said before ..." she moaned quietly, "I know nothing... of magic. But... I have the heart for it, and ..." she grunted softly and threw her head back a moment before looking down at him again, "you are my king. That's what you are to me." An hour and a half later, Oksana was looking up at him. His arms were holding her and his hand cradled her head. It was all that she could do to keep her legs around him. The big bang orgasms had come and gone again and again. Now she felt weak and happy at how he loved her so gently. She felt so languid and pliable, noticing details, tiny details. She could feel the tickle of his fur against her, and the wetness of his seed as it ran out of her, and still he went on so tenderly now. This surely must be heaven. He'd forgotten to tell her that at three o'clock, the watering system would come on. He'd forgotten it himself. She didn't even mind it as he protected her from most of the soft rain and they laughed about it. "Yevgeny? I still keep feeling little pains here and there, all over. They last only long enough for me to notice them, and then they are gone and it begins somewhere else. They don't even really hurt. Sometimes my skin tingles and itches for a moment. Then that is gone. Is this usual when you love, or is this more of you finding my nerves?" "These are things that you feel in your nerves, Oksana. Do they bother you much? Are you hurting?" "No," she said, "Please don't stop, unless you wish to. I would have thought that for someone who has never done this for more than a few seconds at a time, that I would be a little sore or something, but I think that I would be happy to do this all day with you. Am I good for you?" He smiled and nodded, but he looked a little like he was concentrating, "Yes, very much. And you?" "That is a silly question, my friend." She smiled and sighed as she reached up and stroked his cheek, "Can you not see this in my eyes when I look at you?" She grimaced for a second, "Why do I feel a high sound, Yevgeny? I can't describe it any other way. It is nothing that I hear, but it comes to my mind as though I feel it as a sound." He smiled, "You should be very happy for that, because I am. It is me trying to join with your nerves completely, but you are not ready yet, I think. That you can sense this at all is a miracle." He noted a definite change in how her eyes looked to him, and it drove him to thrust harder. Oksana got the message and bucked against him once more, again and again. ------------------------- She woke up listening to birds as she lay in his bed. She was covered in soft blankets, though her hair was wet. She wondered about how he'd gotten her here, since she couldn't recall walking, or even anything beyond the last thrashing wails of the last time. Her throat was sore. Oksana ran her hand down between her legs and smiled as she found what he'd left behind. She got up and picked up her glasses from the nightstand. She set them on her nose, and then grimaced as she took them off again to look at the smudges which must be on the lenses. But there weren't any smudges, other than a few faint marks from dried water droplets. She looked around, and noticed that she could see quite well without them. She wondered how this could be as she looked around, blinking. There were other things which she noticed now. She looked at where she'd slept, and she could feel the warmth from where she stood. From more than four feet away, she felt the texture of the linen and, sliding her eyes along a little further, she felt the wetness of his semen. She shook her head. She could taste it a little from four feet away. She liked it, but it was insane. How could she feel texture without touching? She looked at the closed door and knew there were food smells on the other side of it. She also knew that he was inside the house. She knew it like she knew that he loved her, and she knew that like she knew her own name. She stepped to the door and opened it to call down from over the railing. "Yevgeny?" "Yes," he answered. "Nothing," she said, "Are we alone here? Can I come down?" "Of course, Oksana. Why? Do you plan to give me a thrill this morning?" She giggled a little at how hopeful he'd sounded. "I might, but first I need the bathroom. I know where it is." She walked slowly along the hall, feeling the woven texture of the wallpaper without touching it. The bathroom upstairs had no window and was very dim, being at the end of the hall. She was about to reach for the switch, but didn't. She closed the door and sat down on the seat, looking around. It was the same here, she noticed. She could feel the plastic of the shower curtain in the darkness and without hearing it, she knew that the tap was leaking a little. She made sure to turn it completely off as she stood in the dark, after washing her hands. She turned on the shower and washed herself in the darkness, seeing everything perfectly. "I feel strange today, Yevgeny," she said as she walked into the kitchen. She hugged him and kissed those lips that could make her knees buckle. And then she turned sideways suddenly. She stared at him, "See? I heard the bacon there popping even before it did, really, and knew that some hot fat was coming. How can this be, Yevgeny?" He smiled at her, so in love that he thought his heart would burst. "Our breakfast will be ready in only a few minutes," he said taking the bacon out to lay it aside for the moment before he carefully wiped the pan to begin with their eggs, "There is a long mirror on the back of the front door. Why don't you look and see that you are alright, since you say that you feel strangely? You look better than fine to me." She nodded absently and turned. She could see herself from where she stood, but began to walk toward it slowly. She looked the same to herself. "I see nothing," she said, "only me." "Yes," he replied, "but it is a beautiful you, "he chuckled, "It is always a beautiful you." She turned around, "I can see without my glasses today. I can feel things with my eyes. I know things without looking at them. What did you do to me?" "Nothing much," he laughed, "I only loved you." She chuckled, "Well, you are very good at that." "At first." She looked at him, "What? What do you mean?" "I mean, that I only loved you – at first." He smiled. "Take another look in the mirror, and try to think of your wish last night." She walked to the mirror again. At first, she saw nothing, but then she remembered and felt the gentle longing wish that she'd shared with him. She gasped as she saw that as soon as the thought came to her, her eyes changed. She stared and watched it all come to her, what she wanted to be for him. Her feet changed a little, growing little claws, but her hands ... they turned into long clawed things, still beautiful, but now very deadly-looking. She raised one up and looked at it. She tried to smile and saw teeth. She opened her mouth and turned to the side as much as she could to see a little of her profile. Just a hint of a snout. It was perfect on her like this, and... There was fur, short fur and full of glistening highlights. She felt and saw her own soft ears flick backward as he cracked an egg. Oksana cried out a little in joy when she noticed that she had stripes over her ribs, three stripes. Her cat's eyes went wide in amazement as she saw a hint of something there between her legs, far back. With a gasp, she spun around and watched her tail fly to follow the movement. And then she saw her long, brown mane, all the way down her lovely back in a long line. Oksana burst into tears as she dropped to her knees. He was concerned. "Oksana? Are you alright, Have I done something wrong?" She hid her face in her clawed hands and wept. "No," she sobbed. "I'm happy. I can't believe what you have done." After a minute, she stood up and looked again, blinking hard, not believing what she'd seen. "I am exactly what I wanted to be, Yevgeny. For the first time in my life, I feel really beautiful." "That may be," he smiled, "but you not a bit more beautiful that you normally are, since it not possible to be any more lovely." She sprang to him the length of the hall and the kitchen, and he caught her carefully. "Have a care, until you learn what you have." She showered him with kisses and ached to kiss him even more. "Thank you! Oh, thank you." Her tears started again. "How Yevgeny? Can we dream together?" "It is not complete, I'm afraid. I don't have the ability to create a being. I can only change you, and it is because you wanted it so much, or I could never have done this much for you. You might not be able to dream quite like the others, but I would be able to dream together with you – to take you places instead of the other way around. We had this happy lesson last night, and once I saw that some form of dreaming was possible for you, I knew that I had to try very hard for you, so I did this. We can try to see who can lead the dreams between us. Maybe it can work both ways." He pointed at her, "You will need to practice going back and forth until it is natural for you to hide this, and..." He sighed heavily, "It comes at a cost. Some to me, but not much, but something more for you, I'm afraid. I thought about it, and decided that if I'd asked you first, you would have agreed instantly, no matter how I'd said it, so I went ahead. I had to do it this way, or there would have been much more pain if you knew beforehand." "So you did this while we were... my god,Yevgeny, you really are a king." He smiled, "Only to you. But it is enough for me, since you are no longer a princess, are you? Don't you want to know the cost?" She nodded, "I suppose I'd better hear this. You can't undo this, can you, not that I'd want you to. I love myself now." "The cost to you is your death, Oksana. Don't look at me that way, let me say it better. You will live a long, long time, much longer before you die. I don't think that most humans ever want to die, but I have seen many who grow tired of living." She sighed, "I don't think it will be a big problem for me, Yevgeny, as long as I have you." She kissed him again, and then reminded him to turn the eggs. "I don't suppose that I could have kittens like this, could I? I guess that would be too much to ask, and rightly so, I think I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I thought I should ask." He put their breakfasts onto plates and put them on the table. "I don't know," he said, "I didn't think of it, but if I can't create a being, why would I be able to make you so that you could have our kittens?" "Our kittens," she smiled, "Well maybe there's another thing for me to wish for. How does that work with you... or us? What is the cycle like for a female?" She was having a little trouble with the utensils in her clawed hands, but it was coming to her. "It is hard to tell, since there are no females here but you and the time is different because of the planet's orbit and only one moon here. It wouldn't work out to anything as solid as what you had before, so, I guess that would be the first sign, if your period cycle lengthens." "Lengthens to what?" "I'd say once every four or five years for maybe about three days of this time. But if you were true, then you would only become fertile when you wished to be and before that, you would release no eggs. No eggs, no ..." He shrugged. She dabbed a bit of egg from the corner of her unfamiliar mouth with a cloth napkin. "Well that's something to hope for, anyway. But I'm so happy like this, even if I stay the same inside." "You are hopeful to become fertile?" The cloth napkin hit him in the face as she laughed. "I'm hoping first to enjoy not having a period, you sweet fool." She rolled her eyes and then she laughed at his expression. "But yes," she said softly, "I don't even know anything about it, but if this is what I am, and I'm happy like this, then I think it would be something to hope for between us." He looked at her, "So you are happy?" She nodded, smiling "I was happy before. Now I'm beyond happy. I'd mention it all, but it's a long list, and I wouldn't want to forget anything, but the most important is that you love me. What about you? Are you happy?" "I can't even begin to explain how much." "Then," she looked down at her plate for a moment, "do you think that we could... go into the garden again?" "What I really want to say here is to tell you very sternly to finish your breakfast, since I made it for you to enjoy, and then say that we could go there." Oksana smiled mischievously, "Have you issued the royal edict that today is to be a nudist day?" He chuckled, "I thought that I would let the queen make the proclamation." -------------------------- They spent the day caring for the garden. Oksana kept notes all day long on what might be needed. She made them lunch and they sat together eating among the plants. At the end of that, they made love for the rest of the afternoon. She couldn't decide which position she liked the best yet, though he thought that she was joking. She had to explain that she couldn't say with any certainty. The little pains continued, but they came less often now and she welcomed them, now that she understood what was going on. When it had grown full dark, he led her outside and they were gone for an hour as she rode his back and was amazed at how fast they could go like this – especially since it was nighttime. But he found every fence long before they reached it and adjusted his stride to clear it. They returned hours later and made love before going to sleep in each other's arms. End --------------------------- There originally was a rather long (4 Literotica pages more) connecting piece that led into the main story, but it's been pointed out to me that I need to finish my stories. So right here is where this one ends.