The Fate of Xon

Sarah and Aurora walked with the guys back to Williams Hall, the girls dorm, around three that afternoon. The guys left the girls to get ready for their night on the town, which gave the girls the perfect opportunity to get to know each other better. They found out that they lived down the hall from each other, but each was having problems with their roommates up and leaving them. They had two weeks to find another roommate or they would have to be assigned roommates. Sarah had the suggestion that they move into Sarah\'s room together. It was larger because of the symbol of royalty on her, so they\'d had plenty of room.



After talking with the Head of the Girls, it was settled. They began the move instantly and were done in less than half an hour, seeing as Aurora didn\'t have a great deal of stuff. They then began to find something for each of them to wear on their night out with their friends. Again, Aurora didn\'t have great deal of stuff, so her clothing was simple and plain. Sarah was going to see that they changed that. "I\'m sure I have some dresses that you can wear. I think I had a pale blue silk dress that would go perfect with your eyes."



She dug around in a large trunk and pulled out a dress of thin silk that looked as if it would hang down to Aurora\'s calves. She held it out to the older girl and smiled. "Take it, Aurora. It would look great on your tonight."



Aurora tentatively took the soft silk in her hands and held it up in front of her. She shook her head, holding it in front of her. "I can\'t, Sarah. What are you going to wear if I take this? This must be the finest piece of clothing you own."



Sarah laughed and shook her head. "I\'ll show you what I\'m going to wear." She reached into the trunk again and pulled out an ankle length orange silk dress. It had stripes of black along it it that looked like the hide of a Tiger. She smiled at the look on Aurora\'s face. "I know, it\'s a little weird that it looks like my species, but it fits me. You wear the blue and I\'ll wear the orange. No arguments."



Aurora sighed, somehow knowing that she wasn\'t going to get out of this one, and walked into the bathroom. She pulled her ratty black cotton dress off, looking at her pale body with disgust, before pulling on the tight blue silk. It clung to her body with perfection, showing off her thin thighs and high, well proportioned breasts. It was a little loose on her waist and didn\'t come down as far as she had originally thought do to the height difference between herself and Sarah, but it was the best she had ever looked in her life. She didn\'t know why she was dressing up, though there was a voice at the back of her head telling her that both Gabriel and Brendan were pretty hot. She took a deep breath, telling herself it was all for Dahlia, to cheer her up, before heading back into the main room where Sarah was.



She stopped in her tracks when she saw Sarah and gave a low whistle. "Wow, Sarah, you look amazing." The orange dress that looked like it would be too baggy for the small girl clung as tightly as blue silk of Aurora\'s dress. It showed the thin, muscular frame of Sarah, showing a few muscles when she moved that humans just didn\'t have. It showed her as other, but Sarah and Brendan didn\'t seem the type to care if they were pointed out as being different. As a matter of fact, they seemed to love that they were different.



Sarah turned while Aurora was thinking and gasped. Aurora looked around until she realized that Sarah was gasping at the sight of her. She blushed, tugging at the knee length dress self consciously. "I know it doesn\'t look great on my super thin body, but ..."



Sarah cut in. "I wasn\'t gasping because I thought it looked bad, O, that\'s what I\'m going to call you by the way. I was gasping because you looked positively gorgeous. You look more like royalty than I do right now."



Aurora shook her head. "I don\'t think so. You look amazing. Very much like a Princess of the Court of the Tiger." She smiled at the nickname, shrugging. "And you can call me O all you want, but what do I call you? Kitty?"



Sarah laughed, shaking her head. She put a hand on the door jam of the closet to gain her balance. "Go ahead. I\'m used to being called Kitty. That\'s what Brendan calls me and the Council and everyone who\'s known me since I was born." She paused, seeing to think about it, before smiling wide. "O Kitty!"



Aurora laughed, shaking her head as she went to put on the blue silk dressing slippers that Sarah had set out for her. She watched as Sarah put shoes that were identical in style but dyed the same shade of orange as her dress. She thought for a moment before looking at Sarah. "We have nickname for each other, shouldn\'t we prepare some for Dahlia, Daniel, Brendan, and Gabriel?"



Sarah nodded, liking the idea. "Daniel already has a nickname, though I\'m not sure if he likes it or not." Taking the look from Aurora\'s face to mean that she didn\'t know the nickname, Sarah continued. "He\'s called the Barbarian Prince. Mostly because the Desertland people are consider to be barbaric. I\'ve heard Dahlia call him that several times, but that seems to be their own personal joke."



"I can\'t believe that they\'re married so young." Aurora pulled a blue ribbon she had out of her bag and tied her hair up. "How long have they been married?"



"We actually asked them that our first night together. They were betrothed by their fathers when Dahlia was five and Daniel was six, but they have only been married for the two week journey from the Outskirts and the two weeks they have been here. So it has been a month." Sarah was always the curious one, so she had made sure on their first night around the campfire that she had asked about the intriguing young couple.



Aurora nodded. "So they married before they started down here? Interesting. Maybe it has something to do with Dahlia being the High Seer and the fear that the Barbarian Prince instills. I didn\'t know that Daniel was the Barbarian Prince, but I\'ve heard of him and everything I\'ve heard had people scared."



"That was the general idea, but they have been secretly in love for years. It was the only way they could be together." Sarah ran a brush through her hair, looking herself over in the antique mirror hanging on the wall by the closet. "I heard from one of their servants that she snapped at her guardian when told that she couldn\'t marry Daniel."



Aurora walked beside Sarah, nodding at her reflection. "I heard that that can happen when two people are in love. I wouldn\'t know. I don\'t think I\'ve ever known love." She felt Sarah\'s hand on her arm and sighed, feeling that she should explain. "I just found out that my biological parents were killed when I was five and the couple raising me thought it was best to keep it from me. Apparently, I have an older sister out there in the world somewhere."



Sarah nodded. "My parents were killed by Dead Things when I was five. Their heads were sent back to our palace on a silver platter. Not something a five year old will ever forget. My uncle raised me, though I think he was more in it for the throne than for the love of us."



Aurora nodded, then she realized that she had been crying. She wiped her hands across her eyes and then turned to Sarah. "Ready to head out?"



* * *

At the same moment that the girls were talking and getting ready in their dorms, Gabriel was having a slight problem. He had been talking to Brendan earlier about possibly moving into the guy dorms, but he hadn\'t expected it to happen this soon. He quietly spoke with the landlord of the apartment complex. His money hadn\'t come through from the Island of Dreams so he had would have to vacate immediately and move into the dorms. He backed up his meager belongings and headed toward Stewart Hall, the male dorm on campus. He didn\'t know what to expect, but he was hoping it went better than the apartment crisis.



He went to the Head\'s office and found the portly man sitting behind his desk talking animately to a couple of boys. He caught parts of the conversation and knew almost instantly that it was about Brendan. Neither of the boys wanted to room with the Tiger Prince, afraid that he would attack them in the middle of the night. They had been assigned to his room, but they had found other roommates. This left the Head with a person in a single room, which was against the rules, seeing as there were those in apartments who could use the rooms.



Unable to hold his tongue any longer, Gabriel walked into the office, clearing his throat. "Master Thorgood, I am Gabriel of the Island of Dreams. I couldn\'t help but to overhear your conversation, and I would like to take the room with the Tiger Prince. I have recently been kicked out of one of the apartments due to lack of funding, and do not care who I room with, but I am definitely not afraid of Brendan of the Court of the Tiger."



Thorgood seemed to think about it for a minute, looking at the two guys still in front of him. They were looking at Gabriel as if he was insane. He finally nodded. "Okay, Gabriel, I will take you to your room."



He stood, walking to join Gabriel on the other side of the desk. They headed up the stairs and walked to the very end of the hall. Another flight of stairs and they were in the attic and the largest room in the dorms. The Head knocked and opened the door without waiting for an answer. "Prince Brendan, I have a new roommate for you. If this one doesn\'t work out, I am sorry to say that you will have to vacate the Hall and go live elsewhere. Master Gabriel, I wish you all the luck in the world." He turned and left Gabriel standing in the doorway, staring at the smiling Brendan.



Brendan was first to speak and it was a laugh. "He thinks your insane. What did you tell him that made him wish you luck?"



Gabriel put his belongings on an empty bed and shrugged. "I told him that I wanted to room with the Tiger Prince." He paused to think about when the Head\'s expression had changed and sighed. "I also told him that I wasn\'t afraid of you. That seemed to have been the turning point."



Brendan nodded and pulled his shirt over his head, tossing it into a pile on the floor. "Well at least I know that I\'ll get along with my newest roommate. All the other ones wouldn\'t come with five feet of me, and we have been together almost every day in the last two and a half weeks."



Gabriel nodded, unpacking his belongings and putting them away. He grabbed some clean clothes, black trousers, black socks, and a black silk tunic, and set them aside before turning to Brendan. "I do not like cats." He hadn\'t wanted to room with Brendan, it had just been convenient. He felt that Brendan should know the truth. "In all honesty, Brendan, I\'m still unsure about both you and Sarah. I have not slept in the same room as either of you, so I do not know how this is going to go, but the first time I dream of eating raw meat, I am out of here."



Brendan pulled a blue silk tunic over his head over his black trousers and looked at Gabriel seriously for a moment. "Thank you for your honesty, Gabriel. I believe that I know why, with your occupation, you would hate cats, but I can assure you that Sarah and I are not your ordinary cat. How much do you know about shapeshifters?"



Gabriel pulled his clothes off and began to put his black-on-black get up on. He looked at Brendan with his shirt in his hand. "I know enough. I know that shapeshifters can only shift during the full moon and that that is their most dangerous time. Why?"



Brendan smiled and came to stand a good three feet in front of Gabriel. "I wanted to know, so that I could show you just how different I am from other shapeshifters. Even Sarah." He held his hand out in front of Gabriel\'s face and allowed the bones in his hand to stretch and lengthen. Claws extended from his fingernails and fur burst over his skin in orange and black stripes. He cracked his knuckles and his hand was fully that of a Tiger. "I can shift any time that I like, yet my brain is completely human. Sarah, I know for a fact, keeps her human thoughts when in Tiger form, most of the time. We are different, because we are something new."



Gabriel was a little taken aback by the change in Brendan\'s hand. He had never seen a shapeshifter shift before, and he found it fascinating. He moved his hand toward Brendan\'s before stopping. "May I?" With a nod from Brendan, he ran his finger lightly over the fur on Brendan\'s hand. "Fascinating. Maybe this will work."



For the first time since he had met Brendan, Gabriel smiled. It wasn\'t lost on Brendan, though he wasn\'t going to waste it. He let the fur on his hand and the claws recede back into his body, again cracking his hand and being completely human again. "Seeing as I don\'t work like a normal human or a normal Tiger, maybe you won\'t be able to get into my dreams. Maybe."



Gabriel nodded and finished dressing. He ran a comb through his shoulder length brown hair. He looked over at Brendan as he ran his hand over his shaved head and thought to ask the question that was on most of the minds that saw Brendan. "I had heard that most shapeshifters have long hair to bely their status amongst their people, why is your hair so short?"



Brendan smiled and turned to Gabriel. "Have you ever hunted with hair down the middle of your back? It gets in your way and tangles in the leaves and branches. It is just a hassle. My people know who I am without the ankle length hair. Don\'t get me wrong, I love long hair on my women. It even looks good on some guys like you and Daniel, but you guys don\'t have to hunt with it."



Gabriel nodded, finally understanding. He heard the chime of the clock outside the door and sighed. "It is a quarter to six, I believe we should make our way to the next block to meet the girls, since we are to escort them to Dahlia and Daniel\'s apartment." With a nod from Brendan, they headed out the door toward Williams Hall and the ladies that were waiting for them.