Chapter 2

Ranal let us sleep to noon, then had his wife come wake us. "Marcus has already been summoned to the palace, now you must get up and get ready to join him."

Jessie stretched and yawned, showing her needle like fangs for a moment before they retracted. Cassandra saw my look and giggled. "You will get used to them in time." she said.

Jessie and I dressed and rushed through breakfast.

Then we rode the Harley to the palace courtyard. Jules and Marcus greeted us there. They had samples of the guns and ammunition laid out on tables in the shade of the stables. "Come and tell me how these things work." Jules said.

I had Marcus get the stable boys to fill bags with sand and stack them against the far wall. When they had a stack about 6 feet high, and 5 feet long and bout 3 feet thick, I picked up an AK47. "This is an assault rifle." I told the king. "It fires one of these." And I held up the 7.62x39 cartridge. "This particular gun holds 30 in this magazine." And I loaded the clip. "The magazine goes here like so," And I clicked the magazine into place. "You pull this back and let it go forward, this feeds the first round into the chamber." I demonstrated. "Then you flick the safety off." and I showed them how.

I explained how to use the sights. Then had them practice sighting with an empty gun. I had a kitchen worker hang a side of beef from a tripod in front of the sandbags.

"The gun can fire either one shot each time you pull the trigger." And I fired a pair of shots in semi auto mode. "Or you can empty the magazine in a single burst." And I flipped the selector to full auto and blew the side of beef into burger.

"Dear Goddess!" Jules said as he inspected the damage done to the beef.

Jules ordered the man that I had knocked out in the alley brought out and stood in front of the sandbags. He loaded the magazine on his AK without fumbling, showing that he had been paying close attention. He clicked the magazine into place and aimed at the man. His thumb moved the selector to full auto and he squeezed the trigger. Literally blown to pieces, the man collapsed in a spray of blood and tissue.

Jules regarded the rifle in his hands grimly. "I could almost wish that I had not introduced such a hellish weapon into the world."

I demonstrated the other guns that I had brought. The king particularly liked a Beretta 9mm that had been nickel-plated. I gave it to him along with a holster and a case of 9x19mm hollow-point bullets. "Practice daily." I told him. "Go for smooth on the draw. Fast will come of it's own accord. But a lightning draw does no good if you miss your shot."

Marcus preferred to use my old .44. I gave it to him along with a case of ammunition.

Jessie and I had a matched set of Para-Ordinance P-16.45 autos. 16+1 shots and we could interchange ammo and magazines.

I had to decline to demonstrate the RPG's and other heavy weapons right there, saying that they were far too dangerous to demonstrate in an enclosed area. "Then tomorrow, outside city walls." Jules said.

On that note, we took our leave, and a few toys, and went home.

Cassandra received a Ladysmith 9mm with a pink polymer grip. Ranal got a black Beretta 9mm just like the king's, so they could interchange ammo and clips. I also handed out Mexican switchblade knives to all for a last ditch surprise.

Cassandra had a few people over for supper that evening. The cooks had a ball with the spices and seasonings that I had brought back. Although I had to put up with a pair of bites on the neck so the head cooks could understand the cookbooks and the labels on the packaging.

The dinner party was a success, and Cassandra was at her radiant best.

Ranal was a gracious host, keeping everything going smoothly. Jessie, Marcus and I just enjoyed the food and the company.

After the dinner, some of the guests stayed over.

Jessie practically raped me as soon as we got into the bedroom.

When I woke up in the morning, we were not alone in the bed. A couple of the guests from last night had joined us during the night. They were a pair of young ladies that I had noticed during the dinner because of their remarkable similarity and the fact that they had short silky fur all over their bodies, cat like triangular ears set high on their heads, vertical slit pupils in their eyes, and yard long fuzzy tails.

They were tumbled over Jessie and me like boneless furry blankets, and they purred in their sleep.

Jessie woke up with a mouthful of fur and turned her head toward me. "Pah!" She spit out the hairs stuck in her mouth. "Chenna and Varra." she said in exasperation. "I knew we should have locked that damn door."

"So that's why the bed seems crowded." I quipped. Jessie made a face and I gave her a firm kiss to start the day.

Jessie and I wriggled out of bed and started dressing. The cat girls kept right on sleeping. Jessie shook her head. "They're harmless." She said fondly. "They were my best friends while I was growing up."

"Looks like you will have someone to keep you busy today while I go take the King and crew out to start training." I said.

Jessie grinned. "We're all coming with you. I'm in this too, remember?"

She reached out and tweaked the tails of the sleeping girls. They woke up fast, yowling and hissing with all of their fur standing on end. They looked at Jessie and started wicked smiles.

My loving wife shook her head and pointed at me.

I got pounced from three sides at once.

I had never believed that there could be too much of a good thing until that morning. I was wrong. I am a lot stronger than I look, but in mere moments, I was thoroughly pinned to the floor by 3 giggling females. They were all a lot stronger than they looked too. When the ladies finally let me up, we were almost late for our meeting with the king. A hurried breakfast with Marcus, then out to the deuce and a half that Marcus had already brought around earlier.

Ranal and Cassandra rode up front with Marcus driving.

Chenna and Varra rode in back with Jessie and me. "What's all this stuff for?" One of the cat girls asked.

"We're going to war." Jessie told them.

"Too much noise and too much stink." said the other cat girl, wrinkling her nose in distaste. I agreed with them, but kept my thoughts to myself.

As best I could figure, Chenna was the one with the white spot on her right cheek, and Varra had the white spot on her left cheek. To test my theory, I said "Chenna, where do your folk come from?"

The girl with the spot on the right looked up. "Our people were created long ago by wizards who wanted a race of hunters and fighters. They blended humans, Free Folk, and various big cats. The ones who looked more like the cats had more of the cat minds as well. They rebelled and killed the wizards who created them. They live mostly in the forests and mountains west of the Dragon Peaks. Those of us who looked and acted more like humans and Free Folk came here to live. We are never numerous. But any human or free folk who breed with one of our kind produces only catkin. The mutation still breeds true."

"So you have the longevity of the Free Folk." I said.

Varra nodded, "we live very long lives compared to mortals, but we are also slow to mature, and breeding catkin to catkin is rarely successful."

"Mostly we are dancers, concubines, bodyguards, consorts, and soldiers." Chenna said. "The two of us are sisters from the same litter. When a catkin woman breeds with a human or Free Folk male, there is always a multiple birth. When a human or Free Folk woman breeds with a catkin man, the results are single births or twins."

"So how did you meet Jessie?" I asked.

Jessie blushed beet red. Varra gave a silvery laugh, "When Jessie was a mere 12 years old, a year younger than us, we caught her spying on our older brother as he made love to his Free Folk mistress."

"I was curious." Jessie protested weakly.

"Jesselle had a crush on our brother," teased Chenna.

"And our brother knew she was spying on him. We have very good hearing you know." Varra said, she flicked an ear to emphasize the point. "So he deliberately put on a show that nearly exhausted his lover, and strained his back so he could barely walk for a week."

The catkin girls laughed and Jessie blushed, but finally joined the laughter.

The truck slowed, then turned off the road. We bounced around in the back of the truck for a few minutes, then the truck came to a stop. We heard the cab doors open, so I climbed down and turned to help the ladies down.

' I collected a kiss from Jessie as a toll for lifting her down.

Jules was waiting for us near a wagon piled with crates and boxes. He smiled warmly when he saw Jessie and the girls. "So the terrible triad is united again."

Jessie winced a bit, then grinned back. I wondered what mischief the three of them had been into in the past, but put the thought aside. I had more than enough else to worry about just now.

The king wanted me to demonstrate some of the heavier weapons for him. So I blew apart various trees and boulders with the RPG-7 and a LAWS rocket. Grenades were a big hit, with Chenna and Varra throwing them with amazing accuracy and range. The heavy and light machine guns chewed up the countryside rather well. But the flamethrowers were set aside as too inhumane.

Chenna and Varra wanted matching pistols. So we gave them a pair of the Para Ordnance P16.45's complete with gun belts, clips, cleaning kit, and of course, ammo.

I set everyone down on the ground with cloths spread out in front of them. I led them through disassembling and cleaning their guns, then putting them back together.

Over and over I drilled them until they could take down their guns and put them back together blindfolded.

In the later afternoon, soldiers and anyone else who wanted to try out for the elite forces ran improvised obstacle courses, demonstrated hand to hand combat, and feats of strength, speed, and endurance. We weeded them down to the best hundred, and then to the best 50.

At the end of the day I went to the King. "Jules, I can make your elite forces from these men. Only 1 in 5 will graduate. But they will form the core to train others. Send to any who have mastered some form of combat and offer them top wages to train your troops."

"That will be very expensive." frowned Jules.

"How much is your kingdom worth?" I asked. Jules nodded, but he wasn't thrilled.

I told the finalists to meet me in the same place in the morning an hour after dawn.

Then everyone trooped back to town. I told Marcus to leave the truck at the palace in the morning and we would all ride out in a wagon like the troops.

Over the next few days, we weeded more out. Men who could not learn to shoot. Those who could not co-operate with others, and the stupid.

We ended up with a mixed force. Men and women, human, free folk, and catkin.

I taught what little martial arts I knew. A piss poor mix of Karate, Judo and aikido. But it was still better than the crude punches and kicks that constituted hand-to-hand combat in this world.

On the 5th day, a Sword-master showed up. He got the troops for 2 hours per day. I had instituted a regimen of calisthenics that I recalled from my old army days. I got into better shape along with the rest. I taught firearms and explosives along with basic tactics.

Another Master showed up. This one teaching a form of hand to hand that resembled karate. He took over a couple of hours per day as well.

We soon had squads organized who trained and lived and played together. A catkin man who had made an art form of night fighting was added to the roster.

We even had a crew of soldiers, mostly older retirees, who did nothing but reload our empty ammunition casings. A group of alchemists were put to work developing a substitute for the gunpowder and another group were set to work duplicating the primers. The books I brought back were a huge help, but I was getting tired of my neck feeling like a pincushion from all the damn bites so the alchemists could read the books.

Everything was going fine on the military front. Dragons were doing aerial recon for us, keeping tabs on the mercenaries' movements.

We were sometimes able to evacuate towns before the mercenaries got there. When we failed, they left no one alive but a few girls who were carried off and later raped to death. My troops were angry and itching to hit back.

On the home front however, things were not quite that smooth. Chenna and Varra had moved into our rooms with us. "We heard all about the attack in the alley." Varra said. "Where Jesselle goes, we go. Between us, no one will get to her."

While I had no problem with that, the catkin girls seemed to delight in walking in on my wife and me while we were busy screwing each other's brains out. And of course, they slept in the bed with us. "We don't mind." Chenna said once when they walked in on us. "We've seen it all before."

Then the damn girls sat down to watch and offer critiques of my style. They were only kidding. I think. But it was damn distracting. Jessie found the whole situation too funny for words.

But I soon found the catkin's weakness. They're ticklish. ESPECIALLY their tails

Jessie and the twins would gang up on me when I got too big for my britches, and only a good tickling could save me from a similar fate. Since catkin don't need much in the way of clothing, being covered in that soft dense fur, most of the time Chenna and Varra wore only a short shift dress, or nothing at all when they were in our rooms and relaxed.

I designed a halter top for them and a pair of shorts, complete with a hole in the back for the tail. And all three girls took to wearing these outfits when they were at home.

Soon Cassandra had some made for her, and the sight of her in a halter and shorts made every man who saw her that way drooling. Marcus and me included. Ranal noted the looks and almost strutted as Cassandra so obviously doted on him.

Marcus was in charge of the troops once I had taught all I was capable of. I reserved my time for teaching tactics and strategy to the officers and non-coms. We had set up ranks based on armies in my world, mostly for my convenience, although I did not tell them that.

Even Jules' consort Larilea was wearing the new, comfortable clothing when securely in their private apartments. Before long, other women were copying the clothes, and a fad had started.

Marcus was friendly with Varra and Chenna, but his true affections were reserved for a raven-haired beauty named Lai. A shy girl whose family was related to Larilea's. She obviously adored Marcus, and he loved her whole-heartedly.

They were married 2 months after our return from my world. Lai became a regular visitor to our rooms when Marcus was away. She was lonely, and in a new home in a new city. Jessie and the catkin twins immediately adopted her as a kid sister.

For me, this meant a 4-way pounce instead of a 3 way pouncing. Lai lost her shyness once she got to know us, revealing a lively sense of humor and an incredibly sharp intellect. She remained shy around crowds and strangers, but among family, she was not above bawdy practical jokes and driving her husband to distraction.

I came home late one evening, tired and half asleep. I had long since designed a shower and had it installed in the bathroom. This night, I used the shower, dried off, the climbed naked into bed. I wondered dully where the catkin twins were, then slid under the covers and snuggled up to my wife.

It was a full 20 or 30 seconds before I figured out that the naked lady I was cuddled up to was NOT my wife. I sat up and threw the covers back. "What the fuck!?"

Lai sat up, bare as an egg. "Surprise!" she yelled. The lights flared up and Jessie, the twins, and Marcus came out from behind the drapes where they had been hiding and watching their prank unfold.

Lai got on her hands and knees to crawl off the end of the bed, laughing like hell. Her delectable butt was wagging in the air as she crawled past me. So I gave into temptation and bit it. Not hard, just a nip on the left cheek. Lai squawked and leaped halfway across the room, bringing another round of laughter.