"You don't mean you are giving up your chance to go to the hologames on Bruja Prime!" Maria Maldanado said. "You've been heading for that since you started-we all have."
"I can do it later. If I still want to. It's not like I can't beat you guys anytime I want to," he said, grinning in his best evil overlord fashion.
"What about cards?" one asked. "What do we do with the cards?"
"Si, and what about our prizes for winning the individual games? We get those in the real game, not in something you make up."
He thought about it. Yes, there would have to be incentive. Getting his glory wasn't going to be tangible enough for some of them-some of them weren't very into abstract concepts like glory. They wanted stuff". He had another idea. One that would definitely keep the other gaming freaks interested and occupied. He sighed. He didn't like it. He really didn't like it. But it was the only sure thing.
From his pack he extracted three heavy notebook folders packed with his collections from the last four years. "We just use the dice for my game-I'll explain the rules. And at the end, when we total who won the most games, each winner starting with the champion and working down to the one who wins the least gets to pick their choice of my cards. Agreed?"
By their words and nods and the expressions on their faces, he could see he had them. He began explaining the new game, all the while wondering when-or even if-help would find them.
Chapter 11
The entity in feline form who was commonly called, but who did not necessarily answer to the name "Khiindi" reflected, while cleansing the fur below his rib cage, that this mission had somehow strayed far from his initial concept of it. This was, of course, due to the poor planning and incompetence of his bipedal subordinates. If they weren't so young and cute, he would have seriously considered showing them the rough side of his paw. However, since they were in his care, and he was actually rather fond of them, he exercised the patience and strategy all catkind employed when stalking a goal, a tidbit, or, if things were dull, a leaf or a dust mote. All of his wiliness, feline and otherwise, would be required to turn this trip around, and he knew it. Fortunately, he was more than up for the challenge.
Even if his last few missions had gone a bit out of his control, he had never lost his native resourcefulness or the cocky ability to believe in himself that had once been his hallmark, especially back in the days when he'd been known as Grimalkin.
Thus far he had successfully introduced his companions to useful people (even if to date they had proved their usefulness only by providing him with fish). He had also caused less desirable beings to show their true colors by irritating them, so they would identify themselves as enemies. And naturally he had ingratiated himself with all potential allies.
It was really rather exhausting managing so many personnel. No wonder frequent naps were necessary to stay fresh and alert.
Supervising mealtimes was also essential. Because Khorii grazed in the 'ponies garden and Elviiz did not actually require organic nourishment, the poor kids were socially impaired when it came to breaking loaves and fishes with the others. Khiindi sought to ease this gap in social customs by making himself the Linyaari ambassador, allowing other students to pet him and offer him tidbits from their plates. That should encourage them to engage in conversation with Khorii and Elviiz about what a beautiful cat they had, and how friendly, intelligent, etc., etc.
It had come to Khiindi's attention, however, that not all of the students admired him or spoke to him kindly. On one particular day, Khorii was having to search a bit harder than usual for edibles in the garden, and also was trying to think of a way to stimulate new growth. Khiindi, who had no interest in vegetables, got bored and scampered ahead of her up the hubbub and into the lunchroom where Hap, young Sesseli, and several other friends could be counted on to see that a fellow didn't have to rely on the Condors crunchies for sustenance.
Nothing particularly tasty was being served, Khiindi found to his dismay. Beans again. And not all that many beans, at that. He thought that perhaps, in the absence of vermin and birds to offer to the communal pot, he should start bringing crunchies to the lunchroom and offer to share. All those beans also made for a very heady atmosphere throughout the school.
Of course, he did know one place where a tasty meal could still be had for the asking. With a flirt of his tail, which he allowed Sesseli to stroke as he graciously declined the bean she offered to him, he left the lunchroom and headed for the pool, where his friends swam with his intended meal.
So focused was he on this delicious goal that he was taken totally by surprise when a large hand reached down and grabbed him by the tail and held him aloft. "Gotcha, you mangy flea bag. You want to go in there, do you?"
Pain shot through Khiindi's whole body. Everything from his tail to his whiskers was in agony. Spots of light swirled before his eyes. He snarled and twisted and did manage to sink claws into flesh a time or two, but the other hand brutally slapped him away. Sick and dizzy, he was carried like a dead rat into the poolroom, whereupon his captor began to swing him by the tail. Through his pain, Khiindi heard a girlish scream, then a wonderfully familiar voice say in an uncustomary tone of command, "Put the cat down and step away from him, Marl. Do not hurt the cat."
"If it's not the bionic boy!" Marl said, and instead of putting Khiindi gently down, he swung him out over the water and let go, so that Khiindi flew out to the deepest part. When he hit the water, he should have landed hard and possibly injured the parts Marl had not already broken, but instead something held him up and he drifted rather than smacked down to the surface of the pool.
Whereupon, just as he was getting soaked, Lealikilekua dived under him so that he landed on her round back, the water lapping his injuries. By the time she brought him to the edge and deposited him there, the scene had changed.
Out of eyes blurred with pain, Khiindi saw his assailant lying flat on his back on the deck, blood pouring from his nose and mouth and his arm sticking out at an odd angle. The big bully's friends backed away while Elviiz, fists clad in steel attachments, swiveled 180 degrees on his right ankle, challenging any of them to take him on.
Khiindi felt as if his poor tail had been almost torn off. His back was on fire, and his hind legs would not obey him. He wanted to wash his wounds, but his neck would not move in the regular way, so he could not turn his head even to see if his tail was still attached to his hindquarters. He thought probably his back was broken.
Still, it was some comfort to see that his honor was being properly defended and that he was being avenged. Though he could have done without the screaming.
The little-girl scream that cried his name was loud, but Marl's screaming in anger and pain that he'd been murdered was louder. Loudest of all was Shoshisha, bending over the vicious boy, just screaming because she'd never seen anything like that before.
The noise, so close to him, hurt Khiindi's ears and he spat at them all, though the spit actually came out as drool dribbling from the side of his mouth.
Shoshisha was a twit. As for Marl, Khiindi thought for a moment that perhaps he was a shapeshifter who was really at least partly descended from the Khleevi, the horrible buglike race that had had no purpose except to waste, destroy, and eat the rest of the universe.