102Is Love Safe?
Well everybody, the story continues with this brand new sequel: Is Love Safe? Now, I warn there is no real plan behind this story, and just like the last it's a kinda g-with-the-flow- thing. I'm making this up as I go along. But I will try and make this just as- no, better than the story before.
So without further ado, here it is.
Chapter One- Prologue
The night was still and cool with a slight touch of moisture in the air- winter was on its way.
A lynx stared up to the stars with dancing, but powerful, violet eyes; her back leaning against the window pane as she gazed into the night with a distant look. A small breeze snaked its way through the air and into the window, brushing against her glowing, ashen fur. The fresh breeze stroked very strand of fur on her body, sending a pleasurable shiver down her spine with a groan of bliss escaping from her soft lips. She brought her paws up and wrapped them around her waist, her tail gently swinging just off the floor beneath her. She took in a deep breath and sighed with delight.
It was then she felt two strong, muscular arms wrap themselves around her waist, pulling. A soft mewl purred from the bottom of her throat as a set of lips lightly touched the bare side of her neck. Teeth gently nipping at the fur and skin, her mewl turned to a purr as the growl from the kisser's muzzle sent vibrations throughout her entire body. Her legs suddenly went limp and her body was caught in the grip of her lover's embrace.
She grinded her body back against his. Her lips turned into a sly smirk. "We shouldn't. It might wake Hao up." The lynx moaned.
"That makes it all the more mischievous." The male growled seductively as his paw slipped down from her waist to the base of her long tail, his touch was gentle yet firm at the same time.
The lynx groaned a little louder she buckled forward, spreading her arms on the window pane to steady herself, claws extended and raking into the smoothened wood. She felt his face close to hers again, his body leaning over hers as he buried his face into her shoulder, his cheek rubbing against hers- enjoying the feeling of his monochromatic fur strands tickling her cheek. "You're crazy Shen." She managed to find her breath.
"It comes with the job, my love." The panther whispered into her ear as his other hand went north whilst the other smoothed out the fur on her tail.
The lynx bit her lip. "Do you really think I'm going to let you just take me here?" She asked jerking her hips back and pushing him away. Turning around slowly she eyed her lover, his dark fur giving off a white aura in the shine of the moonlight; his golden eyes, burning with the lust and intensity of a roaring fire. The three claw marks now hidden slightly behind his fur. She swore that there was a slight hint of shrewdness hiding amongst those ember orbs. The lynx leaned casually, tipping her neck to the side, the moon bearing down on her open fur at the shoulder.
O, how she loved to tease him from time to time.
"You really want to play this game, Fu?" The feline growled as his teeth shone in the shadows of the room in the form of a smirk. "You know I'll just take you down in one swoop, before I ravage you senseless." His tail twitched in the shade. He wanted her- he wanted her bad.
Fu was deceptive and precise. She wanted to play this game, it was her move. Pushing herself from the window she slowly walked towards the panther, swinging her hips and tail to torment him a little more. She stepped up close to her lover and looked up into his fiery eyes. She smirked and brought up a single claw, unsheathing the nail as she trailed it over the fur of his bare burly chest. She drew nearer, pressing her body against his- his warm breath blowing over her whiskers. "I look forward to it." She whispered seductively and whipped her claw upwards to his chin.
Shen cracked his head to the side to avoid Fu's claw on his face. He remained in that position, head to one side. Then, slowly, he turned to glance at his lover just in time to see her striped and spotted tail disappear out the door of their bedroom. Shen chuckled to himself and was racing on his feet after her within a millisecond.
Like children they ran through the interior of the upper levels of their single house, the wood creaking and groaning underneath their feet as they scampered across every landing and banister, Fu laughing and squealing like a little girl as Shen chased after her with a lustrous glint in his eyes. Fu used a pillar as she swung in a great arc and made for the lower levels of the house, her feet swiftly and lightly running down the stairs. Shen was one step ahead; he looked down and hauled his large body over the banister, falling down onto the lower floor with such grace that his feet hardly made a sound. Fu stopped suddenly as she reached the bottom of the stairs only to find Shen standing, waiting with his black arms crossed over his chest.
The feline rose up one of her paws and pointed at him. "That's cheating." She smirked heedlessly. Shen did not move. Fu saw what he was doing and used the moment to turn and bolt for the kitchen. Two seconds later, Shen was after her again.
The kitchen room was large and rectangular, no candles were lit. Only the moonlight seeping through the windows was Fu's way of seeing where she treaded. She quickly ran past and round the table centred in the middle of the room. Shen was right behind her, having caught up. With professional effort he leapt across the table, sliding across its smooth wooden surface with ease before standing on the other side.
He smirked at Fu's misfortune.
When she had run round the table as a means to throw her lover off, she didn't expect to look over her shoulder and find him sliding across the furniture just to be standing right in front of her. She was trapped in the corner, unable to escape anywhere with his body so close to hers.
"Checkmate." Shen sneered playfully.
"You cheated." Fu snorted with a smirk.
"You never said there were rules." Shen countered quietly as he stepped closer and took her paw in his own; there was a soft clang sound as their claws laced around each other. Both Fu and Shen looked to their paws held up in the moonlight, seeing the gleam of their marital rings that donned their claws. Shen sighed through his nose. In the shine of the golden rings- crafted in the shape of twisting dragons- Shen saw the day when he proposed to Fu. He could remember the look on her face when he knelt before her and produced the rings from his pocket, the shock, the surprise- how could he forget?
And then the way she shook her head and shouted the same word over and over again as her lips rammed him with feverous kisses. And the night following, after he slipped one of the rings onto her finger as she did the same to him and he took her in his arms up to their room.
He certainly couldn't forget that night- or any other.
Taking his gaze away from the rings and looking to his wife, Shen stepped forward with great force and cupped Fu's cheeks, bringing her into a passionate kiss. The lynx did not resist but welcomed it with as much enthusiasm and eagerness. Shen slipped his arms down from Fu's shoulders to her thighs, gripping them tightly as he forced her up against him. She was compliant and laced her legs around his torso.
Shen simpered through the kiss as he pushed up the endings of Fu's night gown, the kiss intensified as she moaned into his lips, her paws trailed along his chest and heading down to his waist, rushing to pull his pants down.
Out in the coolness of the night, hiding in the shadows of the trees, a band of forms moved swiftly and silently, the only sound being the slight crunch of the autumn leaves underneath their feet. They moved with care and accuracy up to the house.
One of them was a large figure: crawling along the flooring with paws that made the silence of a quill falling. The moonlight creeping through the breaks in the trees illuminating his hefty build with muscular arms and legs, a large tail grey tail swishing back and forth in time with every rise and fall of the animal's hunched shoulders. A set of knife-like emerald eyes cutting through the darkness with a hardened glare.
With their body set low to the ground, the creature had became more alert, their round ears stood upright at attention. He slipped out of the shadows and into the light of the Moon. He was a feline, a snow leopard, with fur as grey and ashen as dust. The clouded leopard stopped as his head snapped to the other side of the house where once clumsy figure- an ox- had mistakenly stepped on an overseen twig. The crack of the wood seemed as loud as a firework explosion.
Everything froze.
It was only after the feline gave the ox a death glare that he began to move again. He stopped and signalled with a low swing of his arm to the front of the house. About four shadows moved from the trees and positioned themselves either side of the front door and windows.
He looked over his shoulder and up into the trees where a horde of large birds sat in waiting, one of them nodded down to the leopard with a set of ice-cold blue eyes.
The feline then looked down and behind him where another low form crawled close to the floor- their movement was quick and quiet- he was the clouded leopard's only companion taking the back position of the house: a panther was the green-eyed feline's companion. They both nodded at each other and moved forward, getting to their full height as they brushed against the back wall of the building. They found a door. With a flick of the leopard's paw the panther was on the other side of the doorway. With a nod they both silently drew their blades.
Shen groaned and moaned as he rocked with his wife, their hips locked together in a loving embrace. He bit down on Fu's neck fur as his body suddenly went rigid and he heard his lover mewl out in blissful pleasure. They stopped their simultaneous movement as their passionate love came to an idyllic end. Shen held his wife close to his body as she sat on the counter side, their tails wrapped up together.
"Oh, Shen." He heard her whisper in his ear, finding her breath. "That was simply...divine."
Crack.
The panther's ears were suddenly upright. His body was completely still. He thought he heard something outside the house, like the sound of a branch or twig snapping. Shen focused his hearing to the outside of the residence. Above his lover's pants he heard nothing. He wrapped his arms tighter around Fu. And then he saw it, thanks to him facing out the closed window his burning eyes spotted the movement of shadows against the floor outside the house. They were moving round to the backdoor.
Shen moved quickly, pulling him and his lover to the floor. Shen separated from her, leaving Fu both confused and shaken. She noticed the look in her husband's eyes as he pulled up his pants. "Shen, what's wrong?" She asked.
The panther was clamped a paw over her mouth. He raised a claw up to his lips before pointing to window above the counter. Fu's nodded as she understood his silent language. There was someone outside- but they were expecting no one. Shen slowly removed his paw as he reached up over the counter, feeling around for something to use as a weapon. Fu sorted herself out, ready to move when the moment called for it. Shen stuck out his tongue as his paw slid across the counter, he then smiled as he felt something in his paw. Pulling his hand back down to him, he eyed the weapon in his paw, a cutting knife.
It would do.
Looking at the knife and then to her husband, Fu followed Shen's every command. If she was to survive she had to do exactly as he said- every word. Her ears the flicked towards the backdoor that stood less than a meter away, the moonlight glowing on the rice paper window. A silhouette passed the door. Shen noticed it too. He reached behind him and took his wife's paw in his own. Their wedding rings touched. Slowly Shen got to his feet, Fu did the same. And then he quickly pulled her behind him as he forced both of them into the gap between the counter and the door.
With heaving chests Shen and Fu watched as the door handle twisted and turned, there was some clicking and scraping when the door didn't open. It then popped ajar. Shen drew in a deep breath and pushed Fu back against the wall. The lynx cupped her paws over her mouth to stop the whimpering escaping her throat.
Like a snake in the moonlight, the blade of a long sword came into view behind the door and then a hefty black paw. Before too long the form of a black panther stepped into the kitchen. Shen gripped the handle of the knife tightly in his paw as he stepped out from his hiding spot; wrapping a large arm around the feline's neck, clamping a paw over his mouth he plunged the glistening blade of the cutlery into the panther's chest. The feline's cries were muffled and his body jerked, dropping the large sword to the floor with a clang. Shen pulled out the blade and pushed the feline to the floor.
It was dead before it hit the ground.
Shen gazed down on the corpse with blazing orbs, its body illuminated. But a shadow soon loomed over the body, Shen turned to find a large clouded leopard standing in the doorway. Shen's eyes widened as he looked down to find the feline clutching a blade in his paw- it was malicious looking. The snow leopard stepped forward but only ended up with the door slamming in his face. He growled in his throat and pursed his lips.
Shen watched as Fu forced the door shut on the feline before he could take a step. She locked the door and gasped, her violet eyes came to meet Shen's. It was then the entire access shuddered, Fu screamed and put pressure against the door. Shen dropped the kitchen knife and was by her in an instant, pushing with all his force against the wood of the door. The leopard was trying to break in.
"When I say, run to Hao and make a break for it!" Shen hissed as he increased the force on his shoulder against the door.
"No! I'm not leaving you!" Fu cried as she slammed her back against the shuddering entrance.
Shen ignored her. "There are probably more of them, I'll create a distraction. When you see a clearing, you take it!" He retorted as he looked down to the corpse on the floor, eyeing the sword. He looked back to Fu. "When I give the word run for our room and grab my sword, then go for Hao." Fu looked into his golden orbs and nodded with thin lips. "Ready: one, two, three!"
Fu bolted from the door, running across the kitchen, Shen listened over the grunting of the leopard outside and the cracking of wood as Fu climbed the stairs; her feet indicating that she had done as ordered, running to their room before heading for Hao's. Shen was swift as he leapt from the door and rolled across the floor, picking up the dead panther's sword in his paws before turning to the door.
It burst open.
For only a few seconds the two felines stared at each other: Shen's burning ember orbs glaring into the leopard's ice-cold emerald eyes. It made Shen's fur bristle. He saw that the feline was toying with him, slowly getting up and onto his steady feet Shen pointed the tip of the sword at the leopard.
The feline never moved, only his eyes following Shen with a long lasting gaze. "Come on!" Shen barked at the feline. The snow leopard lowered his sword and opened his maw, unleashing a roar that echoed through the entire house and into the night air. Shen knew this type of roar from past experience. He was going to need leverage and much space to fight this animal.
The beast was almost feral.
Shen was in no position to fight this guy. He spun on his heels and was immediately running for the stairs.
It was then he noticed the blood-curdling roar was a call, a signal.
Every window and door on the lower floor was shattered as a horde of bandits burst into the house and surrounded Shen; they were twice his size- oxen, boars, gorillas. He was outmanned and outnumbered. The odds were against him. With two paws clutching the hilt of the sword, Shen eyed each and every one of his opponent. They encircled him; Shen was poised on his feet, blade raised.
Then, from out of the kitchen, Shen spotted the clouded leopard walk with a calm but powerful stride into the room; he stopped on the edge of the ring of bandits. He and Shen met eyes, the challenge was set.
With a low voice that was as strong as steel and as cold as ice, the leopard muttered two words. "Take him."
Every bandit surrounding Shen charged in at once with battle cries, the panther had no more than a split second to react. He crouched low and leapt high into the air as the armed men below clashed into one another, all eyes looked up as Shen clutched onto the wooden banister of the upper floors. He glanced down to the bandits and the leopard before looking to his side. His eyes had spotted a knotting of rope, following the trail he found that it connected to the chandelier of unlit candles hung above the gang. Shen smirked as he reached over and cut the rope with the sword, the cord whipped free and sent the chandelier crashing onto only a small portion of the crooks below. They were crushed underneath the weight, but the leopard, gorilla and a few oxen with bows still remained.
But Shen smiled knowing that the crash had taken out most of the leopard's men in one go and had blocked the entrance to the stairs. But that didn't falter the determination of remaining thugs as they all professionally leapt up and swung over the banisters on the other side. By then, Shen was already in his son's bedroom.
Shen slammed the door shut and stepped away from it, sword raised, eyes fixated. He jumped when he felt something latch onto his wrist; he yanked his arm free and rose up the blade higher only to lower it when he noticed that it was Fu. She was curled up behind Hao's over turned bed. In one paw she held his Shen's sheathed sword and in the other, the young hybrid cub himself. Hao's multicoloured eyes were bloodshot, tears running down his face. Shen sunk down to their level. "Thank the heavens." He then spoke quickly. "Now listen to me very carefully." He huddled close to his wife and cub. "Here's the plan."
A couple of seconds later the door to Hao's room was smashed to pieces; shards flying into the room and lodging themselves in the walls, flooring and the overturned bed. The large leopard was first in, his fists balled and teeth bared. His eyes quickly scanned the room until he marked Shen, Fu and Hao by the window.
"Now!" She barked loudly as he swung Hao onto his back, the cub taking a firm grip of his father's fur as the family leapt from the window and onto the ground. They didn't evens stop to breath as Shen took his wife's arm and half-ran, half-dragged her down the road. "GO! GO!" He cried.
From the window, the snow leopard slowly walked up to the window and stared down on the family growing smaller in the distance. He looked up to see that the flock of birds perched on top of the trees prepare to take flight. "Wait!" He commanded with a booming voice. The many bandits stood down as they looked at him with scrutinizing eyes. The leopard sheathed his sword and held out a paw to one of the oxen behind him. "Bow." He snapped. Within seconds a bow and single arrow was placed in his paw. He clipped the projectile onto the string and pulled back his paw, raising the tip high into the sky. He relaxed his fingers. The arrow shot off. The feline was still for a minute before he turned to his men and threw the bow back to the oxen. "Let's go."
Every member of the team gathered as the snow leopard took the lead. They casually walked down the dirt path; the leopard drew his sword from his belt as he spotted a figure lying up ahead. When close enough he noticed the figure crawling forward, away from the group. The arrow, the one he had fired from the house, lodged through their left shoulder. With a push of his foot on the figure, the snow leopard rolled the form over onto their back. Every shadow stared down to the figure on the floor with deathly eyes.
It was Shen, and he was smiling.
Fu and Hao were long gone.