The Lord Tiranis, An Origin, Part 1 

A story of the past 

The next two weeks proved to be great. If not for all the test the scientist put him through it would be amazing, but the sex made it all worthwhile. He got to experience it with all but two of his barrack mates, and each one brought him pleasure in slightly different ways. They taught him what they liked and he did his best to ensure they enjoyed it as much as he did.

His first dinner had exposed him to food that was nothing like the slop he'd been fed before, and the following meals just widened that experience. His friends laughed when he piled on different plates and tasted everything. He couldn't get enough of the tastes he had access to now.

He realized that they weren't undisciplined, like he'd first thought. Even though no one forced them to, they all went out every day to run two kilometers. Then they did an hour of weight training, and then sparred. Through out that some would be taken to practice their powers under supervision.

LRK was taken for tests. Many tests that didn't seem to amount to anything. That wasn't going well. None of the tests had revealed what he could do. They had him fight, meditate. They'd hooked him up to machines that shocked him. He'd spent hours in a freezer, then more time in a room so hot he thought he'd burst into flame, but nothing happened there either.

The others tried to comfort him by explaining the scientist didn't know what they were doing. They were just putting him through the methods that had worked to reveal one of their abilities. They did their best to help him, by explaining how they use them, what they did to improve their control.

LRK did his best not to let the lack of result get to him, but today he'd heard the word defect mentioned again. He didn't want to be defective, that meant being recycled. He didn't even want to be normal, that meant he'd be sent to one of the infantry division, away from his friends.

That had been another word he hadn't had when he'd arrived; 'friends.' Peek, the house cat who heard minds had explained its meaning, and LRK held it dear. He didn't want to lose that. He would leave, if ordered to, he was a soldier, but he hoped he wouldn't have to.

Something else this facility had was a pool. And his friends liked spending time around it. They played with large balls around it. Some lied on towels, letting the sun warm them. LRK enjoyed that, but there were other things he preferred doing if he was lying down, and he'd been warned the scientist didn't appreciate when they did that in public.

He'd come today because his friends had insisted. He hadn't felt like doing anything. The fear he was normal or defective was sapping most of his energy, but they'd said being in the sun would do him good, so he'd followed them out and to the back of the research building, where the pool was located.

Unlike them he hadn't changed out of his fatigue into bathing suits. Once there he just took off his boots and sat at the edge of the pool, putting his feet in the water.

As with the previous days, Rhine was the only one of them in the pool. Unlike LRK and the others, the otter loved the water. LRK didn't mind getting wet, but the idea of being waterlogged in three or four meters of water scared him. He could feel how heavier he was when his fur was wet. He'd sink right to the bottom.

Rhine had tried to convince him otherwise, but LRK was a cat. Cats didn't belong in water, his reading had confirmed that. So it was just Rhine and some of the humans swimming about.

After ten minutes LRK stood and shook his feet. He'd had enough of the sun and the water. Further back, CM, VeeDee, Bear and Copper, a vixen who could start fires, were laughing as they threw a beach ball at each other, dodging and then running after it. Bear waved for him to join them, but he shook his head.

He realized that he should spend more time with them, if he was going to be sent away, either to be recycled or to join the infantry units, he should cherish every minute he was with them. Only, instead of making him feel better, when he was with them it was a reminder of what he'd miss when he was gone.