My name is Daniel Smith and I have written this piece as an attempt to delve further into the empathic aspect of chakats, as well as other talents in the Chakat Universe. I also want this story to be entertaining and fun while still keeping a sense of meaning about it. This is my first story and I hope that you will find it entertaining. The subtitles above each section tell you the perspective the story is being told from and sections without a characters name for a subtitle are told from a third person point of view. This is not a stand alone piece and does not thoroughly cover what chakats are. Please visit Bernard’s page to learn more about chakats and the chakat universe. I hope you enjoy.

 

Tears of a Devil
By Daniel Smith
Episode 1: The Guardian Angels
 

Louis Stevenson slowly walked through the campus courtyard, his eyes darting here and there looking for a sign of something familiar. His new home, Wood Creek University, had quite a diverse population and it was starting to scare him. Of course he had heard of morphs, but hearing and seeing are two different things. A familiar voice behind him caused him to relax a bit he turned and saw his friend Mark Campbell talking to a couple of other friends from his high school. He slowly approached hoping to join in on the conversation

"Hey guys, what are you talking about" He said with a new found strength

"Oh hey Louis, we were just discussing some of the gene jokes here" Mark pointed across the courtyard to a bunch of morphs having lunch on the grass. Clearly his friend here was adjusting pretty well to the idea of morphs. Before they could continue though Louis cut in.

"You guys want to go get some lunch, I’m starving?"

Sounds good, and okay was the general response, so they headed off for the lunch room. They knew their way around a little because they had all come for orientation a week ago and they had plenty of fun playing "I know the Way". On their walk there they discussed classes and what they had planned for the year. Mark was hoping to major in engineering while Louis was more interested in medical fields but still unsure. It was freshman year anyway so they had plenty of time to change their minds.

The meal plans they had gotten were pretty expensive and thankfully the food was pretty good. Louis knew his friend Mark sometimes got a bad temper when it came to bad food, but apparently they would be set for the year. It was getting close to midday and one of Louis’s classes would be starting soon, so he said his goodbye’s and set out for his first class, psychology.


As Louis took his seat he stared, his mouth wide open, a look of pure surprise. The teacher was at the blackboard writing down today’s lesson plan. A person who had known or spent anytime with morphs would have thought that he was staring at the huge mess of papers, binders, and folders on the teacher’s desk. The teacher turned around and stared back at him saying

"Well its good to see that at least one of us is surprised to be here" and of course the class began to laugh at him and it was at this moment, something clicked with him…his mouth was wide open.

He quickly proceeded to mentally smack himself on the forehead for not realizing that morphs as well as humans could be teachers. The teacher was what appeared to be a female cat taur. Black fur covered hir tail and then went across the top of hir second back and up hir humanoid spine, to form a loop around hir neck. The fur on her sides was gray and covered her arms completely and her legs down to about where a knee would be. Her hair was a light gray and reminded Louis of ash. Silver fur covered her under side and stomach and formed "boots" over her paws.

She began by Introducing herself. "Hello class, I’m Chakat Silverboots, Child of Starwalker and Red Mane. As far as my name goes don’t ask, please. I will be your psychology teacher for the remainder of this school year and I hope for the sake of your grades you will be my students!" She slowly began pacing back and forth behind her desk. "For those of you who have never met a chakat before, we use different pronouns for ourselves. Shi replaces she and he, hir replaces her and him, and to address me formally use Shir Silverboots. Now before any of you get caught up in confusion let me explain. Chakats are hermaphrodites which means we are both male and female and Chakats specifically maintain this state at the same time"

Unfortunately for Silverboots Louis was far beyond the point of confusion leading somewhere in the direction of him speculating that he was going insane. The words boy and girl had lost their definitive value and his hearing had apparently left him as well. Another mental smack to the head and he was back to reality just in time to completely miss the explanation for the question he was about to ask. Louis raised his hand, and then Shir Silverboots called on him.

"Yes, what is it, and what is your name."

"It’s Louis. My question is, if you use shi instead of he or she does that mean you are a girl and a boy?" The class began to laugh again

"Yes it does, and if you have any more questions just ask your classmates or pay attention Louis." Hir tone suggesting shi was ready to kill him if he didn’t sit his ass down and start listening.

The rest of the class went by quickly as they went over procedure and covered what materials were going to be needed, which fortunately was a rather short list. They did a quick icebreaker to introduce everyone and then the bell rung. Silverboots dismissed everyone and quickly called him over to her desk. Shi motioned for him to sit and asked "Do you have another class today". As he shook his head shi leaned forward saying "good".

Unfortunately for Louis this teacher was more then a little frustrated with his earlier performance in hir class and was ready to get payback. Louis spent the next hour and half helping Silverboots organize her huge mess of a desk.


"Yes!" Silverboots thought to hirself cheerfully. "I scored an assistant for the yearly cleanup." Shi slowly and quietly walked up behind him, observing how well he was following her organizing instructions. He seemed to be doing pretty good, putting things in order. What caught hir attention the most though was how well built he was. He looked like he had been working out for the last 10 years of his life. It wasn’t like he was covered in huge bulking muscles, no; it looked like he had taken his time to craft his body to its delicate but strong form. His light brown hair complemented his blue eyes well and his broad shoulders went along with his build. The tan kaki shorts and blue shirt went well together and the shirt was tight enough to show off his build but not make him look feminine. Shi was about a third of the way into her male phase but still found him to be very attractive. As hir thoughts drifted elsewhere so did hir grudge against him.


-Silverboots-

After I walked around for a couple of minutes, moving this and that to its correct location, I heard Louis say something but couldn’t make out the words, like he was whispering. "Oh sorry, what did you say?" I said sounding surprised. Noticing that the papers he was working on were now fully organized the words "quick learner" came to mind.

"I thought that now would be a good time to explain myself for what happened earlier" he paused for a moment as if gathering his thoughts "you see where I lived before I came here there were no morphs and the thought of a morph being a teacher kind of caught me by surprise" he paused again almost like he was expecting me to interrupt him but he continued "and then you started talking about the pronouns and you completely lost me. My guess is that during that time of confusion you explained that you were a hermaphrodite and I would just like to apologize for my apparent lack of attention."

"Apology accepted and I would like to thank you for your help with this cleanup." I said with a huge grin on my face "Every year I build up this huge mess and then I leave it here till next year, your help has meant a great deal to me, and now we can both go home. Oh and by the way I’ll try to keep in mind that you have never been around morphs or chakats before, okay."

"Okay" He stood up and picked up his stuff "Well I’ve got to get going, I’m supposed to get checked into my dorm and I promised to meet my friends for dinner, so see you later" he said as he turned and walked towards and out the door.

"Very interesting, I’m going to have to keep my eye on that one" I said to myself quietly as a smile crossed my muzzle


-Louis-

I quickly rushed towards my dorm building as the rain poured down. I didn’t have my magical umbrella so I ended up getting drenched. I wasn’t worried about the water though, it was the thought of what my new room mate was going to say when some drenched stranger came in. I thought it through and decided it would be a good ice breaker at least and quickly headed up the stairs towards my new room and new room mate.


-Firestripe-

While I was waiting for my new roomie to arrive I decided to take a shower to get us off to a fresh clean start. During my shower I organized my thoughts and decided that when it came time to meet this person I was going to befriend them or I would break them and then befriend them. I quickly (relatively anyway) washed my fur and began drying it in anticipation. My first day here had been great and by the time I was ready to go wait for my new room mate I had entirely forgotten about getting completely ready. I jumped onto my bed and quickly pulled out my book to read while I waited. Several minutes later I heard the familiar click and turn of the door knob and practically leapt off the bed. As my new room mate stepped through the door the look on his face was priceless. I’d say that he was surprised to see me but that would be an understatement. Ah well, might as well start with a good introduction.

"Hi, I’m Chakat Firestripe, Child of Sandshade and Clearbreeze, but you can call me Stripe for short." No Response, well that’s strange. I judged by the lack of comprehension that he hadn’t heard me so I decided to leave the hug for later just in case something was wrong. I gently grabbed and pulled him by the arm to the bed and sat him down. His body was limp like a corpse and I couldn’t figure out why. Then it hit me, he was soaked and most likely needed some warming up.

"Ill be right back, you just stay put" he mumbled something resembling an ok and I ran to get what I needed. I found my luggage case on the other side of the room and pulled out the thickest blanket I could find. As I ran back memories flashed through my mind of my mother. This had been hir favorite blanket and it reminded me of how shi and I used to snuggle up near the fire on the long and cold winter nights.

I quickly wrapped the blanket around my new friend and observed as his whole body began to relax. Then he glanced up at me and his whole body went tense again. I was about to ask him what was wrong but he went ahead and said it.

"Um, your, ummm… breast"

"Oh I’m sorry, give me a minute and I’ll be right back" I quickly ran to the bathroom to grab my favorite red shirt with the butterfly’s on the shoulders. I knew I had forgotten something. With haste I returned to the room determined not to ruin this first meeting. Unfortunately for me my new room mate was asleep and …he looked so cute!!! I guessed I would have to go sleep and wait till morning to talk to him.


As consciousness returned to Louis so did the thoughts. First his teacher and now his room mate. He was starting to get frustrated and it wasn’t just because of the morphs. His thoughts went back to the area of his life that seemed to be causing him the most trouble right now. Growing up in his family meant several things, one of them being devoting your life to god. His father had been the preacher at the local church and had been very strict with him about his schooling and behavior. One issue that his father had constantly brought up while in his presence was morphs. As a young boy in church and by his father he was taught that morphs did not have souls. They were not created by god; they were created by human sin. This idea was not what was frustrating him though; it was what this idea implied that worried him. By conceding that the morphs that he had met so far did not have souls he reduced them to animals. But animals do not show compassion like that chakat did last night, and animals do not go to classes or teach classes for that matter. What did it all mean, what does having a soul mean? As the sounds and aroma’s of a well cooked breakfast entered the room his thoughts were interrupted by the growl of his stomach. He rolled over on the bed that he assumed had been given to him and carefully laid the blanket, hir blanket, to the side.


-Louis-

"Finally up sleepy head, breakfast is almost ready so go ahead and get dressed and we can eat!" Shi quickly trotted back into the kitchen area while I went over the events of last night in my head. Got drenched. Slipped and hit my head on my way to the room. Saw a nude chakat. Feinted from exhaustion? Ah well, doesn’t matter at least I still have my dignity…now where is my shirt…and pants. Oh shit. I quickly stood up and peeked my head into the kitchen "Um, did you undress me?"

"Yeah, you were sweating a lot and looked really uncomfortable so I just took your clothes off and put them in the bathroom to dry. I hope you don’t mind." Shi gave me a smile and continued cooking. God, I couldn’t help but feel violated. My clothes were laying on the bathroom floor neatly folded and apparently ironed. "Shi sure went through a lot of trouble for me, and now shi is making me breakfast, I guess the least I could do is have breakfast with hir." I thought to myself. After I was dressed I slowly walked back to the kitchen.

"Can I come in" not that I wouldn’t have if shi had said no but I figured I might as well try to sound kind.

"Sure, just sit yourself down and I’ll have the food ready in a minute" I sat there in silence hoping shi wouldn’t say anything but knowing at the same time that I was going to have to talk eventually. As shi turned the stove off the smell of food began to steady my thoughts. My muscles relaxed, breathing slowed, and I finally began to notice the sexy feminine figure attached to those strange legs. Hir fur was all back except for a red stripe that ran straight across hir second spine and then up hir back where it blossomed into what appeared to be flames. Hir hair was dark gray and lay loose down hir back. Shi had a large bust and appeared to be in good shape. Shi turned around and slowly lowered three plates to the table

"Okay we’ve got bacon, eggs, and a whole lot of pancakes so I hope you’re hungry." Shi gracefully turned and grabbed two plates, some pancake syrup, and the silverware. Shi set hir load on the table and started forking food onto her plate. I followed in turn helping myself to the generous portions. The food was delicious and reminded me of my family’s annual Christmas breakfast. As shi ate I noticed shi kept eyeing me like I had some syrup on my nose or something.

"So" shi said "how do you like the food?" I grinned

"It’s pretty good. Where did you learn to cook like this?" Shi put hir fork down and began what I can only assume was deep thought.

"My sire was a chef at a gourmet restaurant, so when I was raised he passed a lot of his cooking skills down to me. This may just be bacon, eggs, and pancakes, but how you cook something is just as important as what you’re cooking. My range of recipes is pretty limited but what I can cook, I can cook well."

After we finished eating shi got up and began to move the dishes to the sink. I grabbed a few plates myself and started to clean them. "So where did you get these dishes from? I thought I was going to be eating off of paper plates for at least a week."

"They belong to my family. They figured since one third of the family was leaving, might as well have one third of the dishes go to." Shi grinned and quickly began passing me the dry dishes to put up. Once we were all done cleaning shi said hir goodbyes and headed off to hir calculus class. Well I wasn’t just going to sit here. My stuff had been dropped off by the school so I headed over to my bags and searched for something new to wear.


-Firestripe-

I couldn’t concentrate during calculus and for good reason. When I had first met Louis he hadn’t been conscience long enough for me to notice, but this morning had been different. He was empty, no emotions, like his body was a void that I couldn’t help but stare at. Chakats are empathic meaning that we can sense other people’s emotions and even emit our own back to them. As we mature we learn how to control this ability and it can be very helpful, but this was just unnatural. When I talked to him it was like watching a movie but without the sound. Like I could only guess what the actors were saying by reading their lips. Silverboots was right; it was like his soul was in a cage shut off from the rest of the world…


-Silverboots-

Today hadn’t been a trying day and I felt like going out and relaxing, so I headed to the schools arboretum. Wood Creek University by normal university standards was a nature retreat. The main campus was located in the center of a valley with housing development on the outer reaches and dorms near the center. There was also a small town in the southwest part of the valley. Most of the younger kids would hang out there on the weekends, and that was where you had to go if you needed something beyond food and dry cleaning. The woods were well preserved and a small river ran through the valley, hence wood creek. The river ran in a diagonal from the south west corner to the north east corner of the campus and the arboretum was constructed around the river after it left the north east corner of the campus.

As I entered the arboretum my mind filled in the empty places with memories of friends and lovers. I could honestly say that I had slept under ever single tree planted here, and most of those multiple times. The flowers were still in bloom from the summer and the trees looked beautiful. My senses exploded as I went deeper into the labyrinth of beauty and euphoria; the wind carrying the scents of over a hundred different flowers. Every scent unique to its own in a way that could never truly be duplicated by another flower, but that beauty was nothing compared to combined scents of several flowers. In my mind the scents were a painting, and every scent no matter how prominent or minuscule was a part of that painting.

The blissful smells dominating my mind were quickly replaced by surprise. My assistant from yesterday was asleep on a park bench and looked like he had had a rough night. I slowly sat down next to the bench making sure not to wake him. I reached out empathically, studying his emotions. His wall was gone now, probably because he was sleeping. As I sifted through his mind I found confusion and anger. Quietly I lowered a hand to his head pushed the hair in front of his face to the side. He stirred and looked up at me, and for just a moment I could see everything. His eyes, they held enough pain and hate for a lifetime. His subconscious quickly locked the door to his mind and once again I felt the absence of him. His body was just a shell, one I could only see and touch but never understand, at least not in the way I felt his mind. I had dealt with this kind of thing before but it still left me very uncomfortable. I had taken a class in body language and during the class all empaths were equipped with devices that neutralized our abilities so we had to read the people’s body’s instead of their emotions. However, spending your entire life reading people’s emotions and then being cut off from it could be pretty traumatizing so we were all prepped for it. As I returned to the situation I quickly decided how to deal with Louis, I was going to have to be to the point and forceful. Not exactly my best qualities but useful all the same

"Finally awake I see" I said trying to sound casual. He quickly sat up and moved his hair back into place covering his eyes. A look of worry crossed his face followed by confusion.

"Where am I?" He said as he turned his head left and right looking for something familiar.

"My guess is that the few moments before you arrived here were probably pretty blurry and that all you clearly remember is leaving your dorm." I smiled and out of habit emitted a feeling of warmth towards him only to be reminded that his walls were up. "As you drowsily walked through the park you probably collapsed on this bench and fell asleep from exhaustion."

"And how exactly would you know all this?" I frowned knowing that he wasn’t going to like the answer but he needed to know the truth.

"Louis I’m an empath, as are all other chakats, meaning that I can sense the emotions of others and project my own. Louis the reason that you are so tired is because subconsciously you have created a wall that blocks your emotions from others. You’re expending at least five times the mental energy of an average human being just to do this. I have never seen this sort of thing, but for some reason when your subconscious sensed that your emotions were being read it started projecting a wall for the sake of mental security at the price of energy. My guess is that because you have never dealt with furs before your mind singled out the empathic ability of chakats as a threat. I’m not sure how you are projecting this wall but it is a problem. Empathy is rated on a scale of one to six, six being stronger than the normal high of five and having inconceivable limits and one the least. I would probably be a four if I left this talent untouched, but I have honed it quite well and would qualify as a five. That wall of yours went up yesterday when I turned around and saw your face. Your wall might not be using so much energy if you had not run into me specifically because I am the only level five empath on campus according to all of the student and faculty records. I have a responsibility to help you deal with it because in truth, I am the one who caused it."

Louis had spent most of my speech with his head down. He looked up at me and nodded. "So what does all this mean?"

"It means me and you are going to be spending a lot more time together." I smiled at him but could tell he wasn’t too excited.

"And what if I don’t want to?" My patience shortened at my apparent lack of social progress.

"Unfortunately you don’t have much choice. As I said earlier you are using at least 5 times the mental energy of a normal human being. If you want to stay conscious long enough to take any of your classes then you’re going to need my help. But this is more serious than that. If you continue like this even with the intervals of sleep, which by the way are going to become more frequent and longer, then you most likely will suffer brain damage. The longer we sit here talking the harder this is going to be to fix. I’m sorry I didn’t contact you about this earlier, but you falling asleep here and the apparent strength of that wall in your mind have opened my eyes. I guess I had hoped that the wall might just fall on its own. We have to go soon; I have a spare room at my apartment you can use till we fix this." I stood up and gestured for him to follow. With a look of reluctance he stood and we started to walk in the direction of the main campus.


-Louis-

On our way to hir apartment shi made a few calls to, as shi put it, get things ready for my stay. The apartment turned out to be a huge dorm room designated for the use of staff. The rooms were relatively larger as was the foyer. The walls were painted a light blue and the floor was wood except for in the living and sleeping rooms which were carpeted. All the walls were lined with pictures and the shelves with trinkets and gifts. The kitchen was expansive to say the least and every sort of utensil you could ever need was sure to be found. Silverboots had headed off to answer the door after showing me around, so I quickly set towards the living room to lie down.


-Firestripe-

"Look, I know I’m asking a lot from you but he really needs your help." Shi put on her cutest face and my resistance melted.

"You know you can look pretty cute for an old witch." Shi grinned and pulled me into a big hug and began to run hir fingers through my back fur making me purr. We parted and held hands

"You are going to owe me for this." Shi laughed. "Not considering what you said on the phone last night." Shi began to mimic me. "Silverboots, he’s so cute, oh my god, I just wanna snuggle with him!" Shi quickly switched back to hir wickedly evil grin. "Congratulations Stripe, here’s your chance." Hir grin turned to a grimace and her voice to sadness "And besides you have to do it, his life is on the line." I took a large deep breath and then slowly released. "So were is he"

"I don’t know, lets find out" Shi gracefully rushed past me in the direction of hir living room and I followed in suite.

And there he lay, looking just as cute as the night before. "We don’t have to wake him, right?"

"Correct because waking him will only decrease the amount of time we have to work with. I’ll give him some powerful sedatives that should keep him under for the next 48 hours. By then his brain will have enough energy to cope with his wall for at least 8 hours. Hopefully that will be enough time for us to eliminate the wall. Firestripe I am going to need your assistance to help bring down this wall. Because your empathic level is lower than mine he might be able to receive some of the signals you send him while he is conscious and his subconscious will possibly decrease the strength of its walls. However that will only be important when he wakes up, the reason I called you over tonight is because I need you to constantly send empathic signals to him while he is asleep so the two of you will become empathically harmonized. It’s hard to explain, but imagine a chakat or empath who is close to you in your life and how close you are empathically. What you are going to be doing is recreating that closeness in a much shorter amount of time through constant exposure of your two minds. I will be wearing an empathic neutralization device so that my empathic abilities do not interfere. There are three things that I need you to send him while he is asleep, comfort, security, and… love. Can you do that?"

"I can try for him and for you" I slowly walked over next to the couch he was laying on and nimbly lowered my body to the floor. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do so I just started projecting the feelings Silver had told me to. Unlike this morning I could feel him. But there was something strange about him; his thoughts were disturbed, like he was having a subtle nightmare. Silver left the room and when shi came back shi was wearing a metallic ring around hir head and was holding what smelled like coffee in hir hand. Shi gestured for me to take it so I set it down on the floor next to me while I continued to feed Louis emotions. Shi gave Louis some shots and sat down next to the couch.

"I can get you excused from your classes for the rest of this week if it’s necessary. I’ve already called my usual sub and she said she can cover for me while I’m out. So all we need to do now is be patient. When you get tired just drink some of that coffee, it’s my own recipe. It boosts your energy and at the same time it helps you relax.

"So how long do I have to do this?" Shi smiled "You should do it at least until his current emotional state comes to reflect what you’re sending him. When that happens, continue to feed him the emotions for maybe twenty minutes and then come get me." Hir smile turned to a grin "Unless of course you don’t want me to leave." Shi flipped hir hair and winked at me while positioning hirself so I had a perfect profile of hir beautiful body.

"I would be a fool to say no to that" as shi strode towards me shi pulled of hir white top with floral embroidery and threw it to the side landing on the floor. Shi lay down behind me and began to run hir skillful and experienced fingers through my soft fur. As I purred I whispered "just remember to not distract me from my work" Shi slowly wrapped hir arms around my lower torso and rested hir head on my right shoulder. "I’ll try not to love." Hir head receded from my shoulder and lay still against the couch.

Outside the sun had gone down and the stars shone like glitter in the sky. The crescent moon gave the campus and icy glow as the autumn wind made the leaves dance.


-Silverboots-

The sound of birds chirping filled my ears and my eyes opened to the sight of Stripes back. I slowly rose and sat down in front of Stripe. Shi was sitting up straight, but hir eyes were closed. Every defined muscle was relaxed, and shi seemed to give off a feeling of peace. That was only a guess though because my empathic inhibitor prevented me from feeling or sending emotions. I left hir and him and headed for my bedroom.

Before I had chosen the quiet life of a psychology professor I was an empathic trainer, meaning I taught strongly empathic people how to maximize the potential of their talent and possibly use it in their field of work. One of the tools that we used in that job was an empathic measurement device or EMD. It was used to measure the strength of an empath’s ability to connect with others. It can’t actually tell you what level the empath is but in general you can make an accurate guess as to what level they are.

Right now what I needed was my personal EMD so that I could detect if there was any empathic activity going on between Stripe and Louis. I couldn’t just remove my headband, despite the fact that accuracy didn’t really matter, because if I did I risked disturbing the connection between them. I had kept my personal EMD from that job in an old box in the top of my bedroom closet. When it came to expensive technological equipment I had a sort of packrat side.

I slowly pushed myself up so my hand paws were supporting my ascent as I reached for the dusty old box. Inside were several electronic gizmos that I felt necessary to keep around just in case. I quickly searched through and found my personal EMD. It looked like a remote controller without any buttons except for a dark glass circle of glass at the top. Written down the surface of the device were instructions explaining the value of the colors the glass circle could glow and how to turn it on. I headed out of the room towards the living room.

Stripe was obviously asleep, but that gave me no worry. Empaths have been known to connect subconsciously to people while sleeping, assuming the people were close to them. That was done without thinking though so if Stripe fell asleep while sending emotions to Louis then shi was probably still doing it. I slowly maneuvered around Stripes body so that I was at a position where I could insert the device between them. I clicked the circle twice so that the device recognized that I was measuring two people instead of one and slowly put it in between them. The circle turned a dark purple. Worry flickered across my face as I thought. Dark purple represented a supremely strong connection and was the highest rating so either Stripe and Louis had some common emotional ground thus strengthening their emotional connection or Louis was actually sending emotions as well. However, the device could only measure emotions being sent and I knew no matter how much common emotional ground they had it couldn’t affect Stripe’s abilities drastically enough to generate that strong of a connection, so Louis had to be sending emotions as well. I was expecting to maybe get a much lower rating because of the modified number of subjects and the only reason I had set it for two people was because it had been a trained precaution for testing. What did it mean though? In order to obtain a rating that high with two people both people would have to be extremely powerful empaths to begin with, and since Stripe is an E3 it should be technically impossible. Despite the inaccuracy of the test, dark purple was generally associated with E6’s. Could it be possible that Louis was not only capable of sending emotions at an extremely advanced level but also bolstering the abilities of others, or were his abilities so strong that they could compensate for Stripe’s ability? Maybe in the time that Stripe has been sending emotions to Louis shi became bonded to him in a way that made empathic communication extremely natural and easy. Discovering if Louis had empathic abilities would have to wait for when he regained consciousness. I needed to see if Stripe had been affected by him. My worst fear was that their minds may have become one in a sense. It would certainly make it possible for them to achieve such a high rating but it could have disastrous affects on their mental selves.

I slowly lay down in front of Stripe and began to lick hir on the ears. Hir eyes opened halfway and shi began hir almost musical purring. "How are you love?" Shi shifted forward and gently wrapped hir arms around me bringing hir muzzle close to my ear and running hir hands down my back and through my hair. "Wonderful." Shi whispered as shi moved hir lips to lick my neck. I slowly removed my headband and placed it on the couch. Love and caring washed over my mind as Firestripe bathed me with hir emotions. Louis was different. His mind was relaxed like a breeze. Apparently Firestripe had a good effect on Louis because anger, confusion and hate were no where to be found. Stripe moved lower and began to caress my nipples with hir wet and delicate tongue. Shi pulled my right nipple into hir mouth and began to drink of me while using the palm of hir left hand to massage the other. Moans escaped my mouth as the escalating pleasure forced me into submission. Several minutes passed as Stripe pleasured me. At least I knew that Stripe is okay

At this point my female side was fully aroused and my male side was on its way, wouldn’t take long to fix that though. I pulled Stripe closer to me and we began to kiss for what seemed like ages, however in a matter of seconds we were both out of breath and separated for some air. I quickly took advantage of the break to pleasure Stripe in the way shi had pleasured me. I lowered my head and began to lick hir nipples, moving back and forth between the two. As I continued I slowly ran a single finger down hir back and then began to massage hir lower back with one hand. Hir purring changed to moaning as I began to drink of hir. I emptied hir right breast and then moved to the next. Hir right nipple appeared to have gained sensitivity because massaging it elicited a moan of pleasure that could be no other than orgasm. As the feelings of orgasm echoed through hir body shi found support on the couch. "Thank you" shi whispered as shi lay limp against the sofa. Hir afterglow pleasured me as hir emotions continued to bath me with love.

After a few minutes of enjoying the presence of a loved one the silence was broken. "Now it’s my turn." A grin only a true youth could deliver shone on hir face as shi stood and positioned hirself behind me. I gently wrapped my tail around hir lower body pulling hir closer. Several minutes’ hir erection had endured waiting for this moment. As shi slid into me pleasure erupted throughout my body. Hir motions started slowly, letting the passion of the moment sink in. Shi lowered a hand paw to my own erection and began to slowly massage it in time with hir efforts. Hir hands worked my nipples and shi was gently lick-kissing me on the neck. Hir efforts tripled and shi gently, but rapidly pleasured me. As my whole being became enveloped in hir love we peaked together. Hir seed flowed generously through me as the walls of my womb contracted on hir erection wanting more. Shi consumed the seed from my own male orgasm with a look of satisfaction on hir face.

As hir erection slowly began retreating from me shi wrapped hir arms around me and began to purr. "Stripe I have a question I would like to ask you." I felt hir nod behind me so I went on. "Stripe over the past 2 years you have always been there for me, even when it was inconvenient for you. You have shown me the unconditional love of true family and you respected my choice to take things slowly. I’m sorry I made that choice, it was unfair to you and I’m sorry I’ve waited so long to ask you this. Chakat Firestripe, will you be my Denmate?" Hir hug on me tightened and I heard what I assumed was the beginning of tears. Shi held me for what seemed like minutes and tears began to run down my back. When shi loosened hir grip on me I turned and are lips met. When we parted hir elegant blue eyes told me everything. "Chakat Silverboots, I would be honored." Shi managed to get out as shi wept tears of joy. We embraced and I knew this was the moment of my life that I would never want to end.


-Louis-

As the strange feeling of returned consciousness drifted upon my body so did the inexorable pull to stay put. I didn’t exactly know where this couch was but it was very comfortable and at the moment I was sure that that had to count for something. I rolled to the right to be greeted by two really large furry cat people and decided I was probably seeing things. I sat up and stared at them. They stared back but apparently they were not willing to make the first move. I came to the conclusion that if I was seeing things then what I did didn’t matter and if I wasn’t a good "Hi how are you?" couldn’t hurt.

"Hi, how are you?" I said with a hint of uncertainty in my voice. As the faint echo was heard throughout the room I began to feel excited. Excited? What was going on? I slowly stood up and began to move towards them.

"Are you okay Louis?" One of them said.

I froze at the sound of my own name. The cat’s voice seemed familiar, like I had heard it recently. I thought back, ignoring the possibility of this being a dream. "Silverboots?" Yes that was her…I mean hir name. Shi nodded. And the other one was "Firestripe?" Shi also nodded.

"Louis we need to make sure you are okay" Silverboots said. "Do you remember that wall I told you about the last time we talked?" I nodded recalling what shi had told me about my supposed emotional wall and shi continued. "It’s gone…"

"That’s good right?" Shi paused with a look and…a feeling of uncertainty.

"Well yes and no. Originally we were going to get rid of it when you woke up, but now that you are awake, it’s gone. That’s good because now you’re safe but bad because we don’t know why. I was hoping to at least find a little bit about it before we got rid of it. I’m pretty sure you owe your safety to Firestripe seeing as shi is the only one who could’ve possibly caused your mind to bring down the wall."

"How did shi do that?" I didn’t like this, there was just too much I didn’t understand. "By projecting friendly emotions to you in your sleep for a couple of hours, shi was able to convince your subconscious that empaths aren’t a threat." Questions filled my head. Did shi do anything to me, could shi see my memories. I gently fell back onto the couch and began to massage the front of my head. It felt sore and there was a constant rush of feelings confusing me.

"Louis that isn’t important now, what we need to do is test you for empathy. When you were asleep I tested Firestripe’s connection to you, and the test results suggest that you were sending emotions back. I guess it should have been obvious because of your ability to block empaths, but I apparently ruled it out on account that there is no record of any human being having strong empathic abilities." Firestripe and Silverboots were overwhelmed by the wave of anger that permeated through the room as Louis rose to his feet.

"Believe me you gene jokes, I’m empathic! My head hurts like hell and you want to test me like some kind of freak! Just leave me alone, I never asked for any of this and now I can’t even figure out how I feel because there are so many god damn emotions in my head!" As Louis collapsed to his knees a distressed Firestripe rushed forward and wrapped hir arms around him. He weakly returned hir embrace as a calm passed over the room. "He has obviously become more sensitive to emotions but to change so quickly?" Silverboots thought to hirself.

Firestripe was supporting my head and sending me calming and comforting feelings. Silverboots gently spoke while Stripe held me. "Louis, I’m sorry I didn’t think about how you felt about all this. I knew you were confused but I was really excited about the possibility of discovering a strongly empathic human and I guess I got a little ahead of myself. Can you forgive me?" Reluctantly I nodded towards hir sending a spike of happiness through my head. Judging from the size of said spike I would have to say that Silverboots emotions reflected and almost entirely different personality from hir own body language. "I’m going to go turn on the empathic interference fields, okay?" Shi said it like I knew what they were so I just nodded an okay to hir. "I’ll be right back once it’s done." As Silver left Stripe helped me get back on the couch and lay down

"How do you feel?" Firestripe said as shi gently massaged my neck and shoulders while I lay there. "Better, thanks to you." Shi smiled and for the first time in my life I felt the happiness behind a smile. In a way it made body language feel phony. I decided I needed to apologize for what I said earlier.

"Firestripe, I’m sorry I called you and Silverboots what I did, but when I started getting angry it just overwhelmed me. I was so angry I forgot that the real reason I’m still alive is because of you two and to me that counts for a lot. I hope that you two will forgive me in time." Shi laughed.

"You obviously don’t know much about chakats. Louis, we are quick to forgive and befriend, and slow to hate. We enjoy the company of others more than anything and we read people like books. We may not have spent much time together but when I was connected to you I saw the real you, and the person who just called me and Silver gene jokes was not Louis, the real Louis. So I’ll forgive you, but on one condition, you must try one of my milkshakes with me; Silver doesn’t like them but she isn’t very adventurous when it comes to food. So what’s it going to be, yes or no?" As shi waited for my answer I broke into laughter.

"Stripe, I can honestly say that you are the only person I know who requires that a milkshake be accepted with forgiveness, so yes I will have a milkshake with you." Shi literally jumped up into the air when I said yes. "Okay Louis, you can wait here while I make em." As shi rushed out of the room Silver rushed in.

"The stupid computer had to be rebooted and then I had to reconfigure all the settings for the walls. How are you feeling?" I started laughing which made hir smile and also become a little confused. "You know now that I think about it Silver, "how are you feeling" is a strange question for an empath to ask. Why don’t you tell me?"

"Well the problem with that is that most likely you just reflecting how Stripe feels, but that’s just because your sensitive and you don’t know how to control your empathy. I meant how do you feel physically? I had to give you some drugs so that Stripe and I would have time to decide how to handle your problem and to let you and Stripe bond a bit."

"I guess I feel kind of light, like this is a dream or I’m not really here. I already know that I can walk and I don’t feel limp anywhere." Shi smiled

"Well then, you’re perfectly fine. The drug has that light feeling on most people because it helps relax your muscles, but keeps them strong unlike older anesthetics. As far as you empathy goes I’m going to need you need you to stay here for at least the next week while I try to teach you to control your empathic abilities. It could be longer though because technically, empathy use has only been taught when the person already had the basic skills of an empath. This is not because chakats are the only people to have empathic abilities but because even if empathy is detected outside of chakats the person learns to control it even as a child. Since your talent was not discovered till now you are a truly unique case. Since stripe and you have bonded in a sense shi can stay if you wish." "God I hope he wishes." Silverboots thought to hirself.

"That sounds good, oh here shi comes now." About 10 seconds later we heard "Okay Louis they’re ready."

"Your empathy must be working pretty well if you can sense hir anticipation that well. What is shi making anyway?" As Firestripe came into the room carrying two milkshakes Silverboots practically dashed to bathroom with hir hand over mouth. Firestripe started laughing.

"I told shi was touchy about the milkshakes. I’m sure you will love them though." Shi handed me a milkshake as I sat up and I gulped in fear at this apparent monster of the milkshake family. "If it could do that to Silver then I’m in trouble" I thought. It looks like this is going to be an interesting week.

 



To be continued.

Chakats are Copyright © Bernard Doove, and they are used with his permission.

All other characters are my own. I hope you enjoyed the beginning of this series and if you have questions or comments please email me at snickers5261@hotmail.com.




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