     Copyright 1992 by Bill Grobe / Anime Pro Productions.  All rights
     reserved.  Skiltaire Copyright 1982 Mark Merlino

     The use, reproduction and redistribution of this work in any medium
     or by any means, including electronic media or means, except in
     current unaltered form is STICTLY PROHIBITED without the express
     written consent of the Author and of Anime Pro Productions. Any
     other use or presentation of this work and the material presented
     shall be treated as COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT and shall be answered by
     the author within the fullest extent of the Law and International
     Copyright Conventions.

Belching Dragon: Ryokyo Lyons
Internet: rstone@mirror.umd.edu
FURRYMUCK: 138.74.0.10 8888  character "Roci_Stone"
B. Grobe 215 E. Orangethorpe Ave. #183,
Fullerton, CA, 92633, USA
(714) 871-2544 (Voice/data)


                                 SUNRISE


     Bill-San stirred gently in the morning twilight.  Every morning, instinct
woke him with the first pink-orange wash of colour in the pre-dawn sky.
He lifted his head from Ryokyo's snowy mane and gently unwrapped the pair
of tremendous paws that covered his upper torso better than any futon he
had ever known.  His slow movements had a purpose, for still sprawled
across his hips and legs were two who in the low light have passed for a
matched set, judged on their sleek, furry shapes alone.  But the slight
Human would nexer have made any such error.  Roci lay across his hips,
his handsome head laying tenderly over the Human's navel.  The Savage
Skiltaire's rugged, heavily muscled body was another part of the
constantly rippling pile, formed by the Pridemates for mutual warmth and
more.  The Man reached down gently, stroking Roci's warm, squarish steel
grey head and slightly ruff coat.  Now, even in the low light, his
longitudinal body stripe seemed to glow with the red fire of a welcome
hearth, sheltering all who came near it from the nite's chill.  Picking
up seventy kilos shaped like an otter but muscled like a trio of
wolverines was never easy, but the Human made it seem so, adding a gentle
hug before laying Roci down gently across Thunder's thick washboard
midriff.  The male calico feline brought his tremendous arms up gently
from his sides, hugging Roci as he settled again into a contented ballof
fur against the dappled cat's short tri-tone coat.  Shyia had nuzzled
deeply between Bill's legs, though his spindly limbs were locked closely
together by Litenin' and Sandi, who lay asleep on either side of his
waist.  It was a soft tribute to Shyia's gentle, fluid strength.  Her
every movement was like water, with a still, gentle grace and whose
persistence could wear away seemingly immovable stone.  That was very
like her, though her task at paw had been much gentler last night.  Days
filled with her six young kits had not dimmed nor damped her firestorm of
will.  The veteran diplomat had simply decreed a new day and nite for
herself.  She woke and worked while her young slept, and while they were
active at nite, turning all of Ogawa Castle into their new world to
explore, she would sleep, but lightly.  Her enormously powerful
telepathic mind constantly linked with each of her children, so as to
make it safe for the seemingly indestructible young Skiltaire to romp and
play without risk of injury in their vast Japanese style home.  Bill-San
scooped up the female mustelid gently.  While not as heavily muscled as
her beloved cousin, what Shyia lacked in bulk she redoubled in sleekness
and muscle tone.  She could run and swim constantly for days and nights
at a time, just as Roci could, and then do it again and again without
rest if needs must.  She could reduce all of her Pridemates to jelly, and
still be as ferocious as all of them together if it came to a fight.

     Bill sighed gently.  They were all so wonderful!!

     He held her as he rose, laying her down again in the space he had
filled.  Indeed, the Man seemed to have been given birth deep in the warm
expanse of fur.  Perhaps, in the truest sense, he had.  Now, as he rose
to prepare for his sunrise prayers, he looked at his Pridemates, locked
together as gently in slumber as they were awake, in all things, each a
part and strength of the other.  This day, like all the others, he was
proud to be their Pridemate and Sensei.

     Bill-San's silk kimono hung forgotten on a doorway peg.  He walked
by it and into the sauna, where he let a gentle combination of crystal
clear cold water and live steam invigorate and clean him.  He came out
dried gently by the same hot air that carried the steam, and slid as
smoothly as any of his feline Pridemates into a clean jump suit.  He
turned right off the ready room and climbed nimbly up a short but steep
set of spiral stairs.  He sprinted quickly through the observatory and
out onto the rounded deck that was the highest Eastern facing point of
the Castle.  The modern observatory, with it's pair of matched reflecting
telescopes, seemed to be an anachronism.  But their shared home was an
intentional mix of ultra high technology and ancient tradition.  Just as
was the ancient tradition of faith that went with the softly melodic
chant of the ancient sutra.  Bill-san was half finished when his Samurai
senses and natural telepathy gave him to know that somefurry else wished
to join him.  He smiled, without missing a beat of the ancient prayer,
and as he began his repeat, Ryokyo's deep, resonant voice joined with his
Sensei's to finish the venerated prayer.  Both bowed together, and then
shared a bow with one another before the Man turned with visible relish
to his next task of the day.



   The young Man reached into his pocket, letting the strap of a large
brush slide across his hand.  Bill-San's white Soulmate was over six feet
tall at his powerful shoulders.  Bill reached up, but in spite of his
lean frame he could just barely reach up and top the quadrupedal Lion's
tremendously thick shoulders.  Ryokyo relished the sensation of the brush
in his thicker winter coat as much as his Human teacher and Soulmate
enjoyed using it.  With a brief glance, Ryokyo indicated his right
forepaw.  Bill stepped on it gingerly, fearing to hurt his friend but
knowing full well the Samurai Cat could barely feel his slight weight
through the layers of fur and muscle that could tear down trees at a
single swipe.  Ryokyo lifted the Man as if he weighed no more than a
thought, allowing Bill-San to take a firm grip on his mane, stretching
across the huge feline body and shoulders as the brush fluffed and combed
that thick fall of hair.

     Ryokyo's gratitude showed in the thunderous, throaty purr that shook
the Man like an autumn leaf fallen to the Great Cat's coat.  Bill-San
used a combination of brush and hand strokes on his friend's thick fur.
When done as they had learned to do it on so many mornings, Ryokyo's pure
snow-white fur took on an almost pearl-like luster, and his groomed coat
layered over his huge slabs of toned muscle, making the already handsome
Lion into a breath-taking sight.  Bill looked at his Pridemate and
smiled.  The Lion's soulful brown eyes gleamed like the misty stars that
still hung in the pink sky.  Gently he set aside the stiff bristle brush,
and groomed the shorter black fur on the back of Ryokyo's ears with his
fingers.

     About the time they finished, those same ears heard pawfalls, two
sets of four.  The Man heard them too, a stride later.  As the Man and
the Cat looked out over the balcony toward the great starport city below,
there was no need to turn for both to know and appreciate the second pair
who had joined them.

     "Tea is laid for thee below, my Champion.." Shyia's cultured voice
spoke as she leapt easily onto her accustomed place on Ryokyo's back.

     "Arigato, My sweet Silver Heartmate." Ryokyo's gentle words were
punctuated by more of that same rolling purr everyfurry had come to know
so well.

     Another sleek, mustiline figure leapt through the air from behind
the Man.  Roci sailed up onto the ledge of the balcony in front of Bill
Sensei with surpassing ease.  For a fraction of a second, the man's heart
skipped, for he knew as well that if the fearless young Skiltaire missed
his mark, even he might not be able to survive the hundred metre drop to
the garden below.

     *Ohayo Sensei!!* Roci sent his thought energy into Bill's open mind.
The Savage never spoke when he could send, but when he did either, he
always spoke his mind.

     "Good morning to you, Roci-Sama!" Bill spoke so that all could hear
as well as feel his gladness at seeing them both.

     *Sensei?*

     "Yes, My fine Pridemate?"

     *After the tea ceremony, will you go into the City with me?*

     "We will be very busy today, Roci-San..." Bill hesitated.

     Although Roci tried not to show it, even the stoic wild Skiltaire
could not entirely hide his disappointment.

     Bill would have died rather than sadden his Pridemate and Brother.
Quickly, his mind hit upon a compromise.

     "But after tea.." Bill ventured, his voice upturning slightly.  "How
about making me a new bow?  You know I need one." Bill ended his question
with a smile, but he needn't have spoken any word past bow.  Roci was
invigorated.  The Man knew his Pridemate's passion for archery, and
adding the expression of want and need to his question gave Roci a
mission.  Bill knew that Roci would give up all else until his Human
teacher had the best and strongest bow that the Savage's passion and
skill could bring out of him.

     *Would you shoot with me, Sensei?*

     Bill smiled.  To shoot in a friendly contest against a Savage was
like asking to out shoot Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and Robin Hood, all
in one.  Yet, both loved the test of skills and Bill's competitive spirit
would never allow him to admit defeat.

     "Yes, to try out my new bow.."

     *Done!!* Roci sent, excited.

     "Roci-San??"

     *Yes, Sensei?*

     "At tea...  Would you play the harp for us?...  It's very
relaxing..."

     Now Bill added a request and complement of his own.  Other than the
bow, the young Savage had only one other passion.  In asking, Bill had
paid the ultimate compliment to the otherwise wild mustelid who was his
Pridemate.

     Roci's response surprised the Man.  Leaping off the balcony straight
at the Human, the strength and passion in the Savage's strong embrace
clasped around Bill's neck nearly squeezed the breath from him!  Roci's
muzzle was buried deep in Bill's chest, so the youthful Skiltaire didn't
see the surprise and delight in the Man's eyes!

     Gently, Bill tucked the stout mustelid into a gentle hug in return.
"Let's go..." he said after a moment.  "The Tea is getting cold."

     Ryokyo and Shyia turned with a bow and loped easily across the
observatory and down the winding stairs.  His other Pridemates would be
waiting to join him in the ancient Japanese ceremony of harmony that
began their every morning.

     With Roci cuddled close to him, The Human took another moment to
look out over Nagoka, the city just beginning to wake under the warm
light of another bright dawn.

     For the Human and his Pridemates, another day together was
beginning.  But for Bill-San, he did not need the morning sun to warm him
like the city below.  Every moment that he shared with his Pridemates was
just as bright and warm as the sunrise they shared...

