It was cool on the low slope, half winter and half spring. Wind 
whirled in an eddy above his head. Maelstrom snorted at a blade of 
crabgrass that had scratched his nose. They had sharp edges. He 
snapped at the whole plant, cropping and chewing with a preoccupied 
air.  

A storm was coming down from the jungle, the young ampharos ram could 
smell it. Heero-ki always gathered the flock up on the high cliff to 
enjoy a thunderstorm as one. Of course, he always gave certain flock 
members the higher places on the peak, those that boosted you closest 
to Watakko. And Heero always took the top rock for himself. 

Maelstrom dreamed of enjoying a storm on his own, but he rarely got 
the chance. A shy flash  flicked from over the other side of the 
mountain. Thunder rumbled from the north. Tonight he would probably 
be stuck on one of the lower rocks again. If he dared to rush out 
into the field and enjoy it there, or anywhere else other than the 
hierarchy of the cliff outcrop, he could imagine what Heero would do 
to him. 

He flicked an ear in irritation as the gnats teased him. He was 
determined to enjoy this little bit more time on his own before he 
suffered the humiliation, the violation of being forced to stand on a 
stone where lightning would never reach him. 

Maelstrom edged towards the ewes at feeding. The others shied away 
from him. All but Dreamer... They all knew, though it was forbidden 
to talk about and Heero insisted it was not true, he knew too and 
everyone else knew. Maelstrom was the son of the enemy ram.

A few of the older ewes gave Dreamer the looks of shame that they had 
regarded her with ever since she had been discovered to have birthed 
a lamb sired by the enemy ram. Most of the ewes had their lambs of 
last spring still with them right now, grazing beside them or in the 
area, but his own older sister Dreamer did not. His throat vibrated 
with a nearly silent growl as he remembered what had happened many 
days ago now. Heero had taken her lamb up to the top of the cliff and 
thrown the thing to its death. Amidst Dreamer's begging bleats, 
Maelstrom had watched the little black lamb fall away with her tail 
flashing, her four legs moving in midair. He still hated himself for 
standing there, not doing anything. He hated everyone who had watched 
her little woolly body sail down and land with a tiny thud.

Now Dreamer's eyes were not the same. They were full of anger and 
fear and Heero-ki himself. They were always watching him. 

"*Phara,* Dreamer," he bleated low to her, blinking his lights to 
greet her. The ewe rose and nudged her brother, knowing that he could 
see what was in her lights. She wanted to leave this flock, but how 
could she leave Ki-ki and all of the others? If she left alone, Heero 
might not think it worth it to pursue her. If she took a number of 
the others, he would hunt them all down. He would know where they 
would have probably gone. He knew these lands well.

Nothing that you can do, thought Dreamer as her brother's lights 
sparked alongside her, helping to warm them up although they were 
borne of anger. Maelstrom, a spring older than herself, had grown 
longer and leaner yet this year, and unusually large. Large, 
and quick on his hooves, graceful, placing 
his charges exactly. She had seen Maelstrom's growing strength in his 
spars with other youths. Heero would do something about him sooner or later. 

"Hi Maelstrom!" Ki-ki came bounding over to him from her own mother's 
side, Dreamer's mother's best friend. "How're you doing? There's a 
storm coming up--I love storms! Don't you?"

"I do," Maelstrom knelt down to ruffle the mareep's wool, even though 
she was a little too old to be treated like a baby. she still liked 
it coming from good old Maelstrom. 

Ki-ki giggled. "You need your own lamb, but till then, guess I'm 
stuck being yours!"

"It's a hard world, *maripu,*" said Maelstrom, saying the truest 
things in jest. He liked her. She had sense, and she also wanted to 
get out of here someday. A murderer wasn't her idea of a flock leader 
any more than it was his. "I've got to keep you a lamb as long as I 
can."

"I wish," said Ki-ki. The mareep with the little black star on her 
forehead frowned at the grass. She still remembered Dreama's death 
all too well. She and Dreama, the same age, had been good friends. 
She edged towards him and bipped her tail light, indicating she 
wanted to whisper to him. As he bent his big head down to hear her, 
he knew what she was going to say.

"I want to leave here." Her little child's whisper was loud and her 
breath hot and sticky.

"Me too." He didn't know why he trusted her with a secret. But aside 
from Dreamer, she was pretty much the only one he did trust anymore. 
Even his mother had threatened to tell Heero, the time he had told 
her, after Dreama's death, about how much he hated him. She believed 
that Dreama's death had been good for the flock--that destroying the 
blackness brought in by the enemy, was good. Good, his tail. Would 
she think so if her own coat was black? Did she really believe that? 
Or had she been so terrified to speak anything rebellious after Heero 
had barely spared her, for staying with the flock even though she had 
mated with the enemy? Maelstrom would never know what he had put her 
through, after she had given birth to someone so obviously his 
father's son. Maelstrom had been too young to remember.

He only knew that there were precious few who had any spirit left in 
this place and his poor mother was not one of them. She ate grass 
because it was there. She flinched in fear from Heero because it was 
what the ancestors ordered. she never dreamed of anything better--or 
if she did she never thought anything could come of it. Maelstrom's 
hoof scraped the ground, drawing sparks as if trying to strike up a 
fire. He was tired of all of it. 

~

Heero-ki finished laying out the dried cloudleaf. The plants helped 
to keep the evil spirits from the flock--the *akki* who possessed 
other creatures sine the beginning of time to hunt and kill the 
denryuu. These *burakos* spirits could threaten the sheep as well and 
turn them to the side of darkness. 

It was all laid out and ready for when the storm came. They could 
enjoy it in safety. A quick rap of flashes from the clouds beyond the 
mountains and then a growl of thunder told him he had not completed 
it a heartbest too soon.

Heero headed down the slope along the stream. The big, orange tinted 
ram lifted his head, chin dripping, and turned to look at his flock 
further down, strung out over the foothill into the field. They were 
all there.

~

Maelstrom looked up at Heero's pink-tinged lights arriving in a slap 
of wind from the oncoming storm. His *denki* stirred and he wished 
that such a deep experience as receiving a storm didn't have to be 
stolen from him every chance he got. 

Maelstrom was the first ram that Heero greeted as he entered the 
loose hug of the feeding flock. "*Amphaa,*" the youth nodded his 
head, dimmed and flickered his lights, ears forward, all a soup of 
submission to his leader. His energies boiled under his skin. His 
mind whipped his current into behaving. 

Heero-ki's eyes showed his madness when he smiled. The bigger ram's 
light-balls whirled on the inside, a storm on his head and his tail. 
He butted Maelstrom in the side and gave chase. Maelstrom took off 
over the grass, refusing to bleat or do anything other than just move 
away as quickly as he could. He would not give Heero any more 
satisfaction than his submitting already did.

Ewes and lambs scattered out of the way, broken in two as the fleeing 
young ram cut a path through. They looked on in surprise and disgust--
for the chasee, not the chaser. Maelstrom ran with the foam churning 
up round his lips. He heard the big ram's snorting breath. Two pairs 
of hooves echoed the distant thunder out on the grass. Everyone knew 
Heero hated him, a youth he had not sired. Maelstrom ran.

"The storm comes soon!" Heero whirled with a lashing tail to face the 
other sheep, catching them in his vision all around. "I have laid the 
cloudleaf out, I have cast the spell! The *akki* have been chased 
away! I have given chase--like I always do." Heero threw back his 
head and laughed. Maelstrom's ears burned at the insinuation. Heero 
thought he was so clever. And at the same time--there was an element 
to him that was not in control. This paradox of a ram led them--since 
before Maelstrom had been born he had led them. What lay in their 
future?

The mounting wind gusted down from the slopes and rolled out over the 
fields. It batted Maelstrom's ears as the ram's nostrils flared, 
smelling rain. The wind tingled with the static spilling loose into 
the air from the other sheep around him. Dreamer approached him with 
her heavily pregnant waddle and stood near her half brother. He was 
all she had, she felt like she was all he had. She had begun to get 
over the loss of her Dreama. But she knew he hadn't. Her little black 
lamb was in his eyes whenever their gazes met.

"To the high cliff!" Heero-ki, come down here to fetch them all, 
started back up the mountainside, taking his time. Every sheep 
responded, some slower than others. Maelstrom brought up the rear. 

"I think of leaving more and more," he said to Dreamer as she hung 
behind with him. In her state she found a slower pace mor convenient.

"Leave?" Dreamer glanced around as if there were a spirit 
eavesdropping who would go take the news to Heero. Heero didn't like 
it when sheep who might betray him to the enemy flock, left. In fact 
he didn't really like it when anyone left. Not even Maelstrom, a ram 
unrelated to Heero...Heero found her poor brother enjoyable for 
butting and chasing, an object to humiliate. Someone who represented 
the enemy. Someone who, she knew, Heero might find a way to kill one 
of these days. And yet...

"If you leave..." she trailed off.

"What about you?" Maelstrom hated the thought of leaving his 
sister. "It would not be forever. I'm leaving for a reason, and I 
will be back. I am going to find help for us." He turned round and 
lent her his flipper to help her over some rocks.

~And vengeance for my youngest lamb,~ she thought as she took his 
flipper and looked up at him. She knew her brother boiled with a 
dangerous anger. 

"Your next lamb is coming soon," he said quietly to a closer rumble 
of thunder. He faced away again to climb another ledge. Dreamer 
followed easily enough, despite her condition. Her lamb was moving 
and glowing so much inside of her now. This one was Heero's--but he 
would not trust her. He would not trust it to be his even if it 
smelled so. Not after she had had her Dreama by the enemy, the same 
one that their mother had had Maelstrom by. And look how he was 
treated here. If he had been born black too he would not be alive 
now. If he had been born a year later, he would not be alive now.

Her silence satisfied Maelstrom--she knew he was right and that if he 
did not get help and stop Heero that who knew what worse things would 
come? He knew who could do it too. It was just a matter of getting 
the chance and the courage to leave.

Dreamer heard Heero bleating at the top of the cliff as she hiked on 
up. This trail was always easier when you weren't so pregnant. 

boom, thunder banged closer, lashing winds whipped. The first drops 
of warm rain fell. Maelstrom trailed the flock amid a gale that 
carried stray leaves and debris. The air blustering in was hot and 
moist like Heero's breath shouting in his face. Maelstrom tossed his 
head in irritation at the image in his mind. His hooves found 
familiar footholds to the top.

There on the rocks the flock was climbing. High up was Heero, and his 
favorite ewes not far from him. To say that he always took top 
position up there was false. Once in a while he let one of those ewes 
have it...not that it guaranteed you would be the one to receive 
lightning. Maelstrom himself had received it once, from near the 
bottom. He had wished for the gift of the ancestors to bless him in 
every storm ever since. So good it hurt, the *denki* stretching your 
spine wide as it pushed through you, washing you with energy, 
scrubbing you clean.

Maelstrom sniffed the conflicting winds, feeling Haru whisper to him 
through a wall of so much frustration and pain. Through a wall of 
Heero-ki. Maelstrom glared up the rock and looked at him with hatred 
as the rain ripped down in sheets. Lightning flashed and he tried to 
hide his stare. What if Heero looked this way? He found a place near 
Dreamer, and not far from Ki-ki and her mama. Kiki the mareep with 
the black star on her forehead usually found a higher place in a 
storm than Maelstrom himself did!  All owing to her having a mother 
who had been friends with Heero since before Maelstrom had been born.

Thundr and lightning lashed the sky up above them. Maelstrom felt his 
electricity rise in response, a buzz speaking to a buzz. Static and 
rainfall criss crossed in a blend of the hot wind. 

Maelstrom stepped down from his rock. Heero had his head upturned, 
gazing at the spirits that he must imagine bowed to -him-. 
Maelstrom's stomach felt sick with disgust. It was this way every 
storm.

"Where are you going?" Dreamer squinted in the pouring rain as 
Maelstrom dimmed his lights and edged further down.

"Away." 

Dreamer clung to her position on her rock, her eyes bulging almost as 
large as her headjewel. She was a fret of flickers in the storm. Her 
brother was leaving...and what would Heero do to her? She climbed a 
step higher to Heero-ki and turned away from him, blinking her lights 
in what she hoped he knew was her way of saying goodbye.

Maelstrom leaped up towards her, climbing the rocks quickly. He 
nuzzled her once in the rain as lightning curled in the sky again.

"I will be back." 

Thunder ripped the night. Dreamer's face was a blend of tears and 
rain as she blinked her lights to him in acknowledgement. She knew he 
would have to be quick. The storm would give him cover, th rain would 
wah his tracls clean off the rocks. "Go," she mouthed the words as 
her jewels of light glowed painfully red. "Phos's-light-to-you." 

Maelstrom made a long leap off the rock and landed, absorbing the 
impact with the tense anger of his muscles. The last that Dreamer saw 
of him was a dimly bounding tail. 

Heero-ki bleated out loud to the sky as he received his lightning. No 
one heard him, no one saw him, all they knew was a bang like the 
world cracking in two and a light like Phos had come down to hug 
them. Dreamer was the only one who knew Maelstrom was gone...and she 
was probably the only one who would care.

~

Maelstrom was a sour face plunging through the storm. He forced 
himself to ignore the pleasures that his element brought when the 
weather turned violent. It was all a trick...everything set up 
against him. The young ram faced the driving rain with a snarl. He 
leaped from stome to stone along the ridge, heading west. Right now 
he was only trying to place distance between him and his flock. If he 
got far enough away and he couldnot be tracked, Heero-ki would not 
waste time in hunt and pursuit--even though, Maelstrom thought, that 
was one of his crazy leader's favorite pastimes.

Free--the thought was not comforting as he slowed his run, panting 
against the flash of lightning and thunder. The trees thrashed black 
above him and the shadows paced back and forth along the trail he 
took through the mountain forest, north side. Heero would be less 
likely to search for him here...Maelstrom like the others always 
stuck to the south face of the mountains. He rammed down the forest 
trail head jewel first. The night hike ahead was an obstacle and a 
danger, all brought on him because of Heero-ki. 

As the storm quieted, he climbed up out of the forest, sniffing and 
alert. Maelstrom crested the rock ridge of the mountain, still on 
familiar land. He knew these mountains for a way west, as the flock 
moved back and forth along them. The wind was cold and brought a 
beating on his back as he headed back down to the windwrd side of 
themountain. For now he would stick to it--it was warmer on this side 
with the heat coming off the jungle.

He realized what he was--a young and stupid ram going it alone, for 
now. He had no idea of whether his father--his real father--would 
accept him. He woul remember that last year during the fight of 
flocks, Maelstrom had fought on Heero's side. He had been 
dumb...fooled. Trained to fight for him with no regard as to whether 
it was right or in his best interest. He wouldn't do it again--but 
would he get the chance to prove he wouldn't?

~I can still go back.~ Maelstrom stomped faster along the slope, 
slipping on the slick grass a few times, like only lambs slipped, in 
his haste. A few more stabs to his dignity. Thunder snarled over the 
trees and he felt it mirror his own feelings. He would find his 
father and get his revenge for what Heero had done to his niece. And 
his sister. And his entire flock, and him. Heero would be dead before 
he had a chance to wreck one more light-path...but would his father 
trust him?

Moonbeam was not the trusting type.

Maybe if Maelstrom had been more black...if the only halfway 
different thing about him was that his neck and tail bore four 
stripes each. Moonbeam was partial to those who were different. If 
only his father had seen everything that had gone on in Heero's 
flock. Maelstrom would come to him a prodigal son. And Moonbeam 
already had plenty of other offspring to care about one errant young 
ram.

He continued on through the rain, wondering what Moonbeam's flock was 
doing in the storm themselves. He had hardly ever seen his father 
except by distant light, or by fighting. He had hated his father two 
falls ago, when the flocks had met and everything had turned into a 
fight. Moonbeam's flock had taken several of Heero's sheep away and 
they had never been seen again. Heero told them that the sheep had 
been killed, most likely. Maelstrom knew it was probably a lie. Heero 
trying again to slander his father's name, sully that whole flock 
just because he couldn't lead both, own both. He could only hope that 
Moonbeam would understand that he had just been a skinny-necked youth 
who had just followed orders. Moonbeam must understand that he had 
changed.

Maelstrom realized that he didn't know what he was getting into. but 
he knew what he was getting out of. As the storm died he thought to 
himself: ~that'll be the last storm that I didn't get to spend how 
*I* like.~

The thunder rumbled, withdrawing its anger. The rain had slackened 
and Maelstrom picked his way over sodden grass. He crossed a swollen 
stream. The storm had been asign from the ancestors, telling him that 
it was time for all of this to be over. He was not just a fighter for 
Heero--he was a ram with a light-path of his own.

Maelstrom didn't bother himself with what he would say to Moonbeam or 
even how he would approach him without being killed. He did know that 
Moonbeam was ruthless to his enemies and anyone he thought might be 
an enemy. Progeny or not. For now he concentrated on finding the 
flock. He stopped to cast his light around in the solitary danger but 
remembered he was still too close to Heero on the high cliff. Heero 
would likely kill him if he found him now. 

Maelstrom dropped his head and ran on over a smoother stretch of 
slope. The thunder and lightning never died, the clouds were thick 
with them, blinking thair *denki* in a light-song. It was one of the 
only good omens that he had been sent.

~

Dreamer came off the cliff, soaked in the rain and wondering if 
Maelstrom had got away all right. Heero was still here, so he had not 
caught her brother. He was not calling--or swearing--so he had not 
missed him yet. The lightning's peak had abated, and she needed to 
graze. But she must wait for Heero to come down too, lest he think 
she was trying to get away or steal lightning for herself, out in the 
fields.

Heero came down from the mountains clutching a pebble in each folded 
flipper. "Daark one away, dark one away," he chanted as he shone down 
the outcrop. He started back down to the grassy slopes. The storm 
still whipped mountain and hill, but he was hungry. The *akki* had 
been driven far away from them by the guardian lightning.

He did not notice Maelstrom was gone until he started to look around 
for the chance at chasing the youth and didn't see him 
anywhere. "Maelstrom?"

Dreamer hunched her shoulders and edged towards her own mother, 
hoping her secret would never be told by her lights or her eyes.

Heero marched over to Dreamer. As she shied away he grabbed the 
pregnant ewe by the flipper. He had seen her and Maelstrom together 
as they had come up to the cliff. He hda seen them take places near 
each other.

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know."

Her jerked her arm. She felt the current rising and conducting itself 
to her, even through their resistent skin. "WHERE?"

"I didn't see him! I don't--know--" Her words quivered too much as 
she tried to get them out.

She carried his own lamb this time. He would let her live, he would 
let her lie. For now. He shoved her to the ground, kicked her on her 
side. The young ewe curled around her belly, knowing she would have 
to leave too or face death when her lamb was weaned. Lambs weaned 
fast. She lay with her tail light flickering against her belly in the 
rain while Heero stood over her, his glared injecting terror.

Ki-ki watched with a frightened face. She stepped closer to her 
mother as Heero roughed Dreamer up and then stood over her. Maelstrom 
was gone--and he had not taken her with him. Why? Hadn't he always 
wanted her by his side? Good old Maelstrom? Was he really gone or 
just lost up there?

The mareep couldn't eat, she couldn't think. She cried onto the 
ground, angry tears. Not fair. Maelstrom and she had always shared 
their secret. Had he gone for good? Would he ever be back? He hadn't 
even told her he was going. 

She moped around. Everything had turned static and plain, the storm 
fell lackluster. Who cared about thunder and lightning when her 
favorite wrestling buddy, confidant and all around friend had left 
her?

Ki-ki paced to the edge of the flock until her mother called her 
back. How would she get away and follow him? How would she convince 
her mother she was old enough? 

If she ran away would Heero try to find her? If he found her, would 
he kill her like Dreama?

~

Maelstrom stopped to feed alone on the foothills facing north. So far 
he was clear of the flock. He had been sent this storm to escape. The 
spirits were on his side. He must thank them somehow--who was he to 
ignore the great ones when they had done him a favor? 

The thunder and lightning still wrestled together in the clouds. Rain 
fell heavy, light, then heavy again. Rain dropped off his ears and 
ran down the bridge of the ampharos's nose. It beat on his back, a 
rough caress. 

It was sinking into him now, what he had done. He had left behind the 
only flock and family he had ever known since birth. He was leaving 
behind his mother and sister and everyone else, he was only a young 
ram, heading out with no sure plan in mind. Small groups of rams 
roved over the mountains here and there, but they were rarely seen. 
Other flocks kept far away from these two flocks, lest they be held 
and impressed into them, subsumed into the lock of fear and violence 
that was all Maelstrom had ever known. 

The memory of the fighting last fall, when the two flocks had come 
head to head, remained in his mind as the ram finished feeding and 
hiked further west. He sought a place to plead the spirits to forgive 
him for what he was trying to do. Who knew how many would die...who 
knew how red their fields would be stained before it was all over and 
Heero lay dead?

~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~

The storm suited Moonbeam well. It drove the closeness back into his 
flock after he had had to kill that ewe. Traitor--she would be 
remembered as a traitor, until she was finally forgotten. He had 
gotten the flock well away from the body before they could begin to 
see anything wrong with what he had done. It was never easy to kill 
another sheep, traitor or no. 

Rain ran sleek down his coal black hide. His squinting eyes, chinks 
of deep red, reflected his light. Standing on a high rock he lifted 
his head and bellowed back to the thunder. The thunder answered. 

It had been some time since he had spotted Karama with those other 
sheep. He had only watched from a distance. He had thought about 
attacking, but the flock had only just been through the killing of 
the ewe, her mother. Anothe death would have taxed them too much. 
Ever since he had killed her, they had grown jumpy and even though 
they were just settling down again now, they did not talk or play so 
freely as they had before--not that he was one to let them play while 
a threat brewed in the east. Somewhere over the mountains, they were 
there--Heero-ki and his sheep. Moonbeam had vowed vengeance in the 
form of killing every last one of them and he would carry it out. He 
would see Heero die before he did himself. he had promised it when he 
had been driven away, when the stalemate battle three autumns ago had 
led him and his followers away to found the -real- flock that 
followed the light. His followers had given himself to him. They were 
his to do with as he pleased and he would use them in his plan. 

Head jewels flickered in submission as Moonbeam strode down among 
this flock, many of them oddly colored. Sheep who had been shunned 
and ridiculed elsewhere had found their place here. Moonbeam had 
heard tell of the great Bua na kuros, Bua na phos, but for now he did 
not think there was much to it. So there had been a fight in the 
southwest where the mountains met. What about the great battle 
between his flock and Heero's here in the northeast, the one that had 
won, the fall before that? That had been far greater in his opinion--
far greater, because his flock had triumphed. Moonbeam grinned as he 
remembered the spill of the enemies' blood over teh stone as he had 
used the old scyther's blade to divide their bodies as they lay 
screaming and alive. He had returned to them in severl moments all of 
teh suffering that he had been made to bear at the hands of their 
flock when he had been younger.

He had taken particular in dismembering old Noko-ki, the ewe who had 
with the gang of ewes, taunted and bullied him as a ram lamb when he 
had first evolved into ampharos. He had evolved from blackness into 
more blackness, dashing all his hope that evolution would give him a 
normal color. They had ridiculed him and now he had seen one of them 
bleed, along with others that they had passed their curse of doom 
onto. He had grinned into Noko's screaming face as he cut her stomach 
open and pulled a hunk of cud from it, bunching it in his flipper and 
holding it for her to see.

Moonbean grazed on the grass in the rain, desiring to taste the blood 
of the rest of that flock, smeared on it.  They had gotten away 
lucky. Heero's flock had rebounded and was still larger, stronger. 
Like he was resigned to being the lesser in everything he 
accomplished.

A young ewe came up to him with her head and lights low. He gave the 
buzz-zap sound that permitted her to speak. 

"You said that you will be leaving, moonbeam-ko...you will be leaving 
soon?"

"Soon...and I have put Banrai to lead in my place," he said, speaking 
of his strongest son who showed promise of attaining his father's 
might.  He watched the ewe's flickering reply carefully and yes, he 
did catch a hint of something bad. Disappointment. She wanted away 
from here like many of the young sheep. They just did not understand 
all that he had been through to get them where they were. The 
slaughter had changed their feelings. Nothing had been quite the same 
since that fall. He reisted the impulse to grab her and demand to 
know why she had asked--it would only make things worse in this 
place. 

He was heading west. The answers lay there. He just needed to find 
them...needed to finish what had begun all that time ago and might 
have seen some fruition had he not been taken away so young. 

The young ampharos ewe made her way back down among the rest of the 
flock and grazed. moonbeam smiled. She had believed him when he had 
told the flock that he had sent Ko, that flaaffy with the red 
stripes, away to be killed. No one would ever know that she had been 
an escape, and if rumour served him right, she had gotten the end she 
deserved.

Moonbeam took his leave of the flock in the storm, gathering the 
sheep around him with a neat, short zap to the ground. They flocked 
to the noise, lightning near among lightning far, in the storm. "I 
will be leaving now. If anyone is gone when I return there will be 
trouble." They knew better than to try anything. He hadn't said how 
far west he was going or how long he would be, except to his faithful 
followers, who would be sure to deal with traitors the way he would 
have wanted and expected, in his absence.

"Oh," he said to his son, "and if that Pokos comes around, kill him--
if you can catch him."

"I will," said Banrai, a ram with thickened stripes and a heavy 
build, and a *denki* to rival a summer storm. He said it like he 
would really enjoy doing Pokos in if he got the chance.

Moonbeam growled to himself. That little pest of a ramling came 
around one more time and a hunt would probably be issued--not that 
Moonbeam hadn't tried to hunt him down before. Just when you thought 
he was gone, he was back, fathering lambs whenever you turned your 
tail. Moonbeam tried to forget that he had once been a part of this 
flock.

He headed off into the rain after a last glance around, his giant 
black form a walking shadow, towering away. He would be back. How far 
he would go and how long it would take him, he couldn't be sure, but 
he had made the journey here once, so he could make a return trip. 
Maybe he would even find Karama in the whole ordeal, and kill her AND 
those other sheep she'd taken up with.

Some rams didn't live to be much older than he was now. How many more 
chances would he get?

~

Maelstrom filled up on the fresh grass further out from the flock and 
climbed the hills warily, creeping out from where he had been hiding, 
putting mountaintops between his lights and the flock's. He saw no 
sign of pursuit. Through the pouring rain he could just see a smear 
of reddish light mixed with the other colors. He felt truly alone 
now. Getting away from the flock had been the easy part. Now he might 
spend days wandering on his own.  

He stood there watching the lights for a long time, his own shine 
dimmed so much that the rain would smudge the rest away. He worried 
for Dreamer and hoped that Heero would not think she had anyhing to 
do with it. He had had no choice but to do this now, before she had 
another lamb who could be condemned. 

What did Ki-ki think? Did she think she would ever see him again? 
What a spunky little lamb...the only one there, almost, with a really 
good head on her shoulders. Just as well he hadn't told her anything. 
She would be in no danger.

Unable to sleep, he squished through the soggy ground, his mind 
throbbing with a need that could only be quenched by Heero himself 
being thrown off that cliff. Maelstrom smiled as he entertained an 
inner fantasy of leaping up there in the storm and giving him a good 
shove off the peak. Maybe if he had tried a little harder it could 
have been that easy...but probably not.

~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~

A whisper came from the forest, too quiet to be heard.

"Is he gone?"

Pokos had been hiding in the bushes not far from Moonbeam's flock. He 
rubbed his flippers together and giggled, but careful not to giggle 
too hard. Now it was time for a little fun. "Just as soon as Mr. 
Big'n Nasty's far enough away..."

Pokos trembled as he waited. No ewes in any sort of readiness this 
time of year, but plenty of big mean rams to pester. He particularly 
didn't like Banrai, whom Moonbeam had put in charge. He was too much 
like his father. Big rams, Pokos gave a haughty toss of his head. All 
brawn and no brains! Their size spoiled them and didn't really press 
them to use their minds very much. Pokos, standing no taller than the 
average ewe, might have been a little prejudiced, but he'd also been 
a little beaten down. Until he'd wised up and stopped trying to bang 
his head against everyone else's, and put it to better use.

He snickered to himself, thinking of the flocks farther up north from 
here, where the mountains got so big they made these look like 
diglett mounds. Those flocks were fun too. Here and there, Pokos made 
friends, here and there he got lucky. "It's all about keeping your 
eyes open."

Pokos watched Banrai from behind the bush. He crept up the mountain, 
dashing from bosh to rock to tree, always keeping hidden. His 
comically big ears, sporting three stripes each, as well, wiggled. 
His big, bright eyes blinked. He licked his lips. Banrai stood on a 
grassy knoll watching the other sheep to make sure they didn't do 
anything disallowed, or whatever. Pokos knew the type. Banrai might 
lead this flock one day, right now he was just waiting for someone to 
mess up so he could punish them. From banrai's blind spot, Pokos 
smiled at the big one's back. So he was wanted, dead or alive. 

A bolt of lightning shot through the rain, struck the rock behind 
Banrai. The ram whirled around, all attention attuned to the stand of 
trees and bushes. He saw no one, but bolts of lightning did not just 
slip out of the nearest bush unless there was an electric type 
pokemon in it looking to get his head smashed in. Growling, Banrai 
blasted a bright beam of light into the shady shrubbery. He 
illuminated rain, leaves and little else.

"Who's there?"

Pokos was using his skills of quiet--none too easy for an ampharos to 
learn ("especially if you're prone to talking to yourself," he 
muttered)--to get himself out of these bushes and around the other 
way. He got far enough this way he was covered getting back around, 
because this place led to a bunch of forests the other way. Pokos 
wanted to pop in and visit a friend.

Ooh...it was dangerous in here, Pokos kept the apricorn halves on his 
tail light, the biggest apricorn shells he had ever found. Enemies 
could get you, but Pokos was a little more concerned about Banrai 
right now! And, yeah, Banrai -was- an enemy!

Banrai stomped towards the bushes. He hated leaving his post. Now the 
flock's safety was compromised, and in bad weather. Thunderstorms 
felt wonderful, they were sacred but they also gave poor vision. How 
did he just -know- that Pokos was back?

Pokos sent another thunderbolt arcing over Banrai's head. The ram 
rushed away through the foliage, loving the thrill. He didn't even 
look to see if it hit! He was relying on his speed, and his traps, to 
get him out of here alive!

Banrai gave chase. He knew it was Pokos now! The big ram blundered 
through niches and among bushes not meant for his size. He snarled as 
vines and bushes snared him. He didn't see the true snare that 
tripped him and looped his ankle.

fighting with the vines, Banrai threw them off and with an angry 
crack of lightning he stormed back the way he had come. There was no 
sign of where Pokos had got to and all he had to show for his trouble 
were scratches all over him.

Pokos might have expected him to chase him all the way. He just might 
catch the son of a houndour if he waited for his lights to come in 
sight, from up at his post at the top. And he might not. 

He had an idea. 

"Sparks," he said. Sparks-on-grass came running over, his younger 
brother. A ram whose lights matched his own almost perfectly--if he 
shone them a certain way. Why hadn't he thought of this before?

"You called me?"

"Yes. As you know i'm in charge whils Moonbeam is gone and that idiot 
Pokos is playing his games again. I'm just tired of it, he needs to 
be killed." If they were his father's orders to have him killed, he 
would carry it out. "Here's the plan...all you got to do is take my 
place up there and shine your lights as if you were me."

Sparks was only too eager to take up the high point and pretend to be 
leader. Banrai slipped away with his lights dark, heading through the 
woods to where he just might get that Pokos by surprise--for the 
first and last time.

~

Pokos came round the bend, the way he had planned, around through the 
forest that let him reach the field under cover. Not much liking 
close forest, Pokos took in the scene as he stepped to the forest's 
edge. He spied Banrai's light on the peak. "Still hanging around up 
there, aren't you, Mr. Clever." Pokos laughed to himself.

"Boo."

By the time Pokos heard Banrai's bleat behind him and leaped, Banrai 
was already juming towards him. He knew the whole trick in his mind, 
right down to Sparks being up there, before his own feet left the 
ground.

Banrai was too close this time. "Only having fun!" Pokos bleated in 
his tenor voice as Banrai charged at him. Pokos dodged by the breadth 
of a wool strand as Banrai ran past him. Pokos knew he was in trouble 
now. His cotton spore flooded the air behind him, mixing sodden in 
the rain. He still knew, he had flirted with death again...and lost. 

he couldn't give up yet!

Banrai's longer legs gained on Pokos, who stotted over every rock and 
bush he could put in his enemy's path. His body flew at Pokos in a 
tackle attack. 

"*Phaaa!*" Pokos went flying forward. He landed in a roll and felt 
his tail and hindquarters sail over head. He got up facing Banrai and 
jerked away.

Banrai caught Pokos round the middle and held him. Pokos kicked him. 
Backwards, hard. His heel met soft flesh. Banrai's body buzzed as 
pain coursed through him. Pokos squirmed free, flippers giving 
rubbery friction as he fought them. Pokos crashed away into the 
foliage. 

Banrai wasn't going to lose him so easily. He charged in after the 
little ram, swiping aside bushes and vines. He hated he forest almost 
as much as Pokos.

Pokos dashed away, ears back, lungs panting. He just might get 
away. "I... just might..." 

"*Amphaaa!*" Banrai shouted after the fleeing Pokos. At the least he 
had left an impression...but he bellowed and cracked a thunder bolt. 
He had lost him again. Now to head up that mountain...and tell his 
son. 

~

Pokos ran with a limp, "Ow, ow, ow, *amphaaa...*" The tackle had left 
his back and side feeling like everything was broken. No, he thought, 
make that, he wasn't just broken and squashed and whatever you might 
call it. "I -am- breakage, wreckage, in and of itself. I have never 
known such pain. Of course," he said to himself, "you say that 
whenever you get hurt..let's face it Pokos, we got to get ourselves a 
better pain threshold..." He limped on in the rain, feeding when he 
got hungry and eventually planning on sleeping when he got 
tired. "Would be nice to sleep, yes...Kind of doesn't help when 
you've probably got half your ribs cracked and your spine bruised..." 
It would be a while before he could sleep, much less show his face 
there again. There went the week.

"Some folks can't take a joke!"

~

Maelstrom felt the rain as a constant drum, a pattern playing down 
his body so many times he couldn't even feel it anymore. He was numb 
to the night and the storm, but still found some anger left for them. 
He glared at the darkness, snorted water off his nose. He imagined 
that the world cringed when he growled and ran when he charged. 

"Uhh...uhhhhh..." 

He stopped at the sound of another ampharos ram's voice, paired with 
a rustle of the bushes just ahead. His ears lifted high. Had someone 
found him...somehow doubled around him and gotten the jump on him? 
How? Maelstrom's feet froze. He prepared to run...

"Ow, ow, owww..."

Something kept him where he was. He didn't think he had ever heard 
the voice before... His worries were put to rest when he saw the 
lights--a stranger's. 

Pokos emerged from the shrubs limping and groaning. He was a short 
ram--no taller than Maelstrom's chest. Dreamer was taller than this 
one! He had the biggest ears Maelstrom had ever seen, but it made him 
look cute...he was rather squat, but just the way he moved told 
Maelstrom he was quick on his feet--when he wasn't injured. Maelstrom 
backed away, not trusting his own kind. 

"What?" Pokos looked up at him, ran his eyeballs up and down to get 
the gist of him. Maelstrom's flickering lights strobed onto 
him. "What's wrong, never seen a ram who got beat up like a piece of 
cud?"

"What happened?" Maelstrom thought that was a strange first question 
to ask someone you didn't know, but it just came out. He took another 
step back as Pokos came to stand before him, leaning against a rock 
for support. 

"Good thing there's so many rocks around here. Me and someone without 
a sense of humor crossed paths. Ow." He winced and rubbed his neck. 
There too. "Is there any part of me that doesn't mind my moving it?"

"Who...who was it?"

"Who're you?" Pokos wasn't so sure he should just spill all to this 
one, even though he'd never seen him, or was pretty sure he never 
had. "Pardon my skepticism, I'm just not inclined to be the trusting 
soul that I was before I got, well, beat up."

"I do not have to give my name to anyone," said Maelstrom. "And I do 
not want to."

"Ah, come on. Okay--I'll tell you my name. What is it with people and 
names? Touchy, touchy. I'm Pokos...would say I'm from a certain 
flock, but I'm not. I guess you could say I'm a floater...now I guess 
I'm a limper." He grinned a rather painful grin.

Maelstrom tried hard to remember if he was from Moonbeam's flock. If 
he had seen him, though, it had been some time ago. "I'm looking for 
Moonbeam," he said. "Do you know who or where he is?"

"Ohh...whoa...yeah. Um, are you *sure* you want to find him? He's not 
someone I'd want to butt heads with...then again, who is, unless 
they're no taller than your belly button...but he could take you 
out...although you're not a bad size, no offense, he could take out 
just about anyone. Except maybe his dear old son, who gave me the 
makeover you see here."

Maelstrom found himself beginning to smile as they stood there in the 
dark and rain. Pokos was making him smile. The idea that any ram 
would hurt someone so much smaller than him was troubling to say the 
least. It was never necessary to fight anyone like that...

"So...you know Moonbeam? Is his flock nearby?"

"Yeah, I know him. Can I ask, how come you're looking for such a grim 
customer? He's just not everyone's idea of someone to munch sweet 
berries and clover with, is what I'm saying."

Maelstrom realized he could tell Pokos without fear of harm. This ram 
was in no shape to hurt him or anyone, or even get very far if he 
wanted to betray him. Maelstrom needed information, and after the 
long night's hike he had finally come upon someone who could help. 

"I come for revenge on my own flock's leader," said Maelstrom, "who 
killed my sister's lamb in cold blood and who has humiliated me for 
all of my life. I want to stop this monster before he kills another. 
You never know what he is going to do, and that is why I seek out 
Moonbeam's help." Maelstrom felt the buzzing of electric buildup in 
both his bulbs.

"He your sire? Brother?" said Pokos. "You sound like him...even look 
like him a little, cept for being yellow of course. It's in your 
lights." 

"My sire," said Maelstrom in a quiet voice that was almost lost in 
the rain. Pokos nodded grimly, not a gesture he could usually hold 
for long.

"Well," said Pokos, "I'm not one to criticize others' family trees, 
usually, but you have one hell of a dad. I'm not crazy about him 
myself. Too grim...too prone to, you know, killing people." He 
shuddered, then realized that if he kept on talking like this he 
might get himself killed. Maelstrom looked like he could turn violent-
-just the way he looked at you or something. Like they said, all in 
the lights--and all in the family. "But, he's probably in my family too in some way or 
other, so I guess that makes us even." Pokos grinned and tried to 
stand unassisted by the boulder. After a show of winces and yelps he 
leaned against it again. 

Mealstrom knew that Moonbeam only killed those that he knew would be 
dangerous--like those from Heero's own flock. Killing was sometimes 
necessary, or he wouldn't be heading out here now. 

"Now from what you told me," said Pokos pointing to Maelstrom with 
his free flipper, "-your- flock leader must be our orange-colored, 
hell-and-damnation preaching, lamb-killing friend. Heero-ki?"

"That is him," said Maelstrom, not amused. "And he is nothing to joke 
about."

"Oh, everything is. come on, you can't honestly look at these 
big rams and NOT think to yourself, they are just so -stupid.- I 
swear they're brothers. I swear they are."

"Brothers or not," said Maelstrom, "I will see Heero dead and to do 
that I want Moonbeam's help. Is his flock nearby?"

"Uh, yeah, but if you think I'm going back there to let ol' Banrai 
finish what he started you've got something coming, and the flock 
wouldn't interest you anyway. Moonbeam's on vacation."

"Vacation?"

"Out of town, as humans would say." He knew too many human terms for 
it to be good, but boy did they come in handy. "Taken a hike. He's 
headed somewhere east. Oh, and did I mention he wants me dead and has 
wanted me dead for several years of my life? Tough being short...it 
really is."

"He wants to kill you because you're short?"

"No, not exactly...you see, i make my living off of tricks. It's the 
only way I get ewes, after all. A ram's gotta do something! Well, old 
Moonbeam didn't take my ways too nicely, he'd rather that we stuck to 
the tactic of bashing each other's brains out. He didn't accept my 
appeal that my vertically challenged self was at a pretty big 
disadvantage. and when you don't agree with Moonbeam you find 
yourself on the receiving end of his, well, tendency to kill stuff."

So Moonbeam was a grim ram. Well, Maelstrom knew how it felt--he knew 
how it burned. It burned in him. He still meant to meet him. Killing 
did not mean you were full of darkness, not necessarily. Otherwise 
Maelstrom would be sacrificing his soul to save others. He would meet 
his father. Maelstrom moved over to a nearby bush and browsed it as 
he brewed up questions, keeping his thoughts straight.

"Why has he left the flock and where is he going? Do you know?"

"West," said Pokos, leaning over to massage his leg, trying to loosen 
up the blood that was pooling in the bruises. "From what I hear, and 
with these ears I hear plenty, he's gone there because he wants to 
kill the same guy you do. And there's help to be had out there."

The rainy little spot where they stood grew redder and brighter as 
Maelstrom's lights surged. "I must find him. I could help--I want to 
be helping him, I want to have a part in the death of this thing who 
leads my flock--who is not fit to call himself a denryuu." He balled 
his fists at his sides, as Pokos tried to make himself more moveable. 

"I like you," said Pokos, "dunno why, but it's a shame really about your motives--cause 
you're not a bad guy. A shame cause you're all bent on killing just 
like they are...but I guess it's cause of where you're coming 
from...anyway."

"Well then," he said, choosing to ignore that comment, because Pokos 
didn't look like he could take another beating, "I'd better start 
heading west. Is he going along the mountains?"

"For now yeah, just skippin' along," said Pokos.

Pokos wouldn't be able to come with him if Moonbeam wanted to kill 
him. Maelstrom was disappointed...the idea of going it completely 
alone disturbed him. After only half a night of it he had found 
himself craving company. Pokos had been a relief to find, 
even if he was annoying and kept bringing up things that Maelstrom 
didn't want to ponder.

"Thank you, light-brother," said Maelstrom. "Phos's light to you, and 
feel better."

"Wait!" 

Maelstrom stopped in mid-step, having only taken a few strides. 

"I'm coming with you, don't you know? What you think I want to be 
left alone in this state?" He picked up his flippers, pawing them in 
the air in a gesture of,"Yeah, yeah... I know you're going to meet 
Moonbeam, I'll scram when you find him. Cause, you know, the...the 
other evil dude wants me dead too."

Maelstrom growled. Pokos was getting on his nerves again. He was 
divided about letting him come. Pokos seemed like the type who 
wouldn't let go when you asked. More than that he was disturbed by 
his equating Moonbeam with Heero--that they were both 'evil'. Well, 
if Pokos was a troublemaker, he could expect little else from flock 
leaders. "How many enemies do you have?"

"What, you think I can count that many? I'm a SHEEP, for Phos's 
sake!" Pokos shook his big eared head. "This is an issue of quality, 
not quantity, anyway; getting rid of Heero would greatly increase my 
standard of living."  

Maelstrom paced in the rain, watching his wet feet. Letting Pokos 
come along might be inviting a ton more. "I am going now," he said, 
his look dark like the midnight storm. He foraged on a bush nearby, 
giving Pokos a moment to decide to leave. Maelstrom just might chase 
the ram away himself. He tried to convince himself to do it.

Pokos shivered. Whether the face wearing it was black or yellow, the 
look was the same. "If you're going, I am too,' he said. "If only for 
the chance to bump off one of my two biggie enemies." He grinned and 
chewed cud noisily. 

Maelstrom abandoned the bush with a swat of his flipper, tousling the 
wet leaves. The ram stormed on into the night with his lights in a 
deep angry glow. Pokos took up limping by his side, the limp markedly 
decreasing as he went. Maelstrom kept his gaze ahead of him and 
looked for any sign of enemies. If Pokos's weakened gait attracted 
anything, Maelstrom would abandon him in a second. He hadn't given up 
a place with his flock only to be dragged down by a troublemaker. 
Maelstrom realized he might never be able to go back, even if he was 
successful and Heero died. Heero's followers just might turn on him, 
see him as another Moonbeam--if they didn't already. 

He'd like to see them make a scratch on him, he'd kill the lot. 
Maelstrom scuffed his foot over the ground, passed dung on the path 
behind him and continued.

"Hm...er...I guess you're not in the mood for much talk?"

"No." Maelstrom's anger fired in a wreath round his headjewel and 
tail bulb. He walked on through the rain with no regard for whether 
Pokos was keeping pace. The mareep tumbling with moving legs and 
bleating cries, whirled through his head, and fell forever. He cared 
about nothing but seeing Heero's blood run. 

"Well oh-kay." 

To the wet slap of rainfall on the rocks and saturated ground, there 
came the rhythm of Pokos chewing cud.

Lights shone on the mountain up above them, just to the west and in 
their path. "That's his flock," said Pokos. "They might still be 
looking for me."

~

Moonbeam was making headway on his own. It was faster than moving 
with a flock, and right now...he wanted to be alone. The rain ran off 
a pure black hide that had condemned him in his youth, been the 
target and excuse of tauntings and bullyings. He tried hard to 
remember his father in the west, that old ram...if he was even still 
alive, but his mother had always said that he would be alive. 
Moonbeam remembered him dimly and knew it was true. 

He had not seen his father in so long. He could barely remember the 
ram who had never been able to teach him what he knew, before 
Moonbeam had left. Moonbeam tried to remember the slopes that he had 
grown up on. It felt similar, blended with the fields of later on. 
Later on, when he had lived with the flock who had nearly made him 
give up on himself, think he was worth nothing. 

The ram blended with the shadows, all but his lights, which he had 
dimmed, only leaving enough light to avoid tripping over rocks or 
falling down the slope. He just knew there would be trouble in his 
flock, knew that everything would happen while he was gone. and that 
no matter how many questions he asked he would never get the full 
story. Well, if anything bad happened they knew what would happen in 
return. They'd been with him long enough to know.

He marched on full of a lust to kill one ram. All of his other 
killings, all of it had been in his name. He didn't think there was a 
single act of violence on his part that had not been streaked with him somehow. 
Heero was going to die and Moonbeam would return from his visit to 
his father, with new power, new plans. His father was wise and knew 
about how to manipulate and get favors from the spirits. He would 
teach Moonbeam, proudly teach him when he saw what a great big ram he 
had become. Moonbeam knew he had grown bigger than him, and probably 
bigger than any other ram out there. Including Heero.

~

"This way. I'll show you how I get around them when i ~Really~ need 
to avoid them and the danger's high." Pokos meandered further into 
the forest and Maelstrom followed, most reluctntly. Wet leaves 
brushed him and he could barely keep up with the little ram. Pokos 
knew how to move through undergrowth, in the rain, in teh dark. He 
had to give his new light-friend credit.

Maelstrom nevertheless blinked his tail and mentally pushed the evil 
spirits of the forest away from himself as he followed Pokos. The 
lights of the flock that must be Moonbeam's fell out of sight as they 
moved. this was crazy--enemies must be all over the place, and here 
they were almost blind in here, and with lights on them! They were 
asking to be eaten. And considering how fast Pokos was in this greenery, he 
could take a guess at who would suffer more should something attack. 

"You had better not get us killed in here," he hissed from behind the 
short one. He slapped aside leaves and branches. He was tired of 
getting fondled by cool wet foliage, licked by the nasty tongues of 
the forest. It wanted to eat him. *Burakos*, evil 
place.

"I kow what I'm doing," said Pokos, ducking branches and leaping roots. Maelstrom stumbled and 
curse behind him. "Besides, trust me, anything in here doesn't hold a 
flicker to what that flock would do if they found us!"

Found -us,- thought Maelstrom, stopping to rub his root-stubbed 
hooves. The spirits were already picking on him, chipping at his 
strnegth and soul with each slap and stub. -Us-, not just Maelstrom, 
although he knew he couldn't risk coming so close. He had to get 
Moonbeam alone. That might be the only way. 

Nevertheless, Maelstrom felt his trust of the odd little ram fading 
as he struggled to keep up with him. He could just tell. Pokos was 
enjoying the ego trip. Leaving the bigger ram in the dust. Maelstrom 
knew. He had to know, he was a ram too. 

He discovered that even with a limp and a bruised side, Pokos far 
outpaced him in the forest. His feet were magic. 
Maelstrom grew angry, his own feet kept tripping him up and his 
hooves failing him. "This jungle part ends soon, it does?" Maelstrom 
growled from behind Pokos as he stumbled over a tangle of low 
creepers. He tripped but caught his balance against a banyan tree, 
nudging it with his shoulder, feeling the rough bark. Nothing in here 
liked him. It was the shadow spirits' hunger for anything of light.

"Better jungle than Moonbeam and his little droids," said Pokos, tail 
flying high, brushing low as he leaped over several tree roots and 
small plants, having lost much of his limp. He paused to pluck a 
dangling fruit, then tossed one on a fly to Maelstrom. It bounced off 
his chest. "Whoops, sorry there. Try these. Lift your spirits and 
lighten the load in your head a bit, light-friend. Not to mention, 
tastes mighty sweet."

"I just want to get out of here," said Maelstrom, ignoring the fruit, 
wherever it had fallen in this mess of jungle and blackness. It sure 
wasn't worth the hunt. "I do not eat foods that I do not know what 
they are or what they do." As if Pokos didn't know the first thing 
about surviving.

"Well, if you're a stickler, you'll be happy to know we're almost 
there." 

Pokos hiked briskly along with a song humming past his closed mouth. 
He would lighten Maelstrom's mood. He'd shake that attitude! He had 
made it his next challenge. Especially since he could imagine 
Moonbeam might have had his beginnings in such a dark state of being. 
And the world sure didn't need any more of -those- kinds of rams.

~

Moonbeam thought he glimpsed lights off behind him, from down in the 
forest. Had any of the sheep followed him from the flock? Was it 
Pokos? He hadn't seen him around for some time, but Pokos was like 
that--just when you thought you'd seen the last of him--that the 
other flock or an enemy had killed him--he showed up again. 
Moonbeam's crimson eyes watched for approach, but he didn't see the 
lights again. He despised these waiting games. He turned and headed 
on. 

All he had to do was think of Heero and he moved all the faster. It 
was all the motivation he had ever needed. Moonbeam could remember 
the teasing, the beatings like yesterday. No one had really accepted 
him, or his mother. She had told him she loved him no matter what, 
that it didn't matter what the others said, to just ignore them. 
~You're my baby, Moonbeam, my beautiful baby and no one can take that 
away...it's not you, it's them. Pay no mind...they don't matter. I 
love you.~ But they had mattered and her love had never been enough. 
In a flcok it wasn't enough to be loved only by one. Especially since 
they had insulted her too. Moonbeam had seen her shy away from those 
mean other ewes and he had hated her for it. He had screamed out in 
his head for her to do something, dammit, yell back at them, strike 
lightning back! She hadn't, and she hadn't stood up for Moonbeam 
either. She'd licked his wounds, but never prevented them. Ignoring 
didn't work, holding him afterwards, saying soothing words and 
telling him it wasn't him, didn't work. It didn't made him part of 
the flock. 

So many times he had wanted to see her spit cud in young Heero's 
face. But even in the beginning he had been too large and strong for 
her. Heero had been the ringleader. Moonbeam couldn't recal every 
single time Heero had beaten, chased and humiliated him. 
Moonbean remembered the fights. Time and again Heero had followed him 
around while he grazed, kicked at him and goaded him.  
Moonbeam learned to fight well but he never won. He banged his head 
against a larger ram's that never gave way. He remembered fighting 
him under the sun and losing, Heero-ki doing what he did to him. 
Until the last fight, that last fight that had seen no clear winner 
emerge. Moonbean had not gone in for another charge. He had taken his 
followers and left and thee hadn't been a thing that Heero could do 
about it. 

Or so Moonbean had thought. Heero wanted him dead now, but never as 
much as Moonbeam wanted Heero dead. The taunter's hatred could never 
match the taunted's. The victim always burned hotter. 

~

Pokos hid in the bushes as Maelstrom crept up to him. They had both 
seen the light out in the open, up ahead. any noise that Moonbeam 
made was masked in the rain.

"That is him,"said Maelstrom. It was time. "Stay here."

"Don't need to tell me twice," said Pokos. He crouched underneath a 
palmetto, senses tuned for danger and smelling a kakureon somewhere 
above his head.

Maelstrom watched the lights of his father, so like his own. The 
temperature cooled, fell away into the damp and clung clammy to him 
as he climbed up the slope. Moonbeam was far and high away and much 
too far from his flock to go and fetch them to kill him. But as 
Maelstrom climbed up higher, he realized, Moonbeam wouldn't need any 
other sheep to help him kill him if that was what he wanted to do. He 
had thought that in the last year, he had grown a lot. but his father 
still towered over him. Maelstrom panted into the springlike wet, 
peering at his father through the rain as he climbed. 

He didn't know when to give the signal of light, when to let his 
father know he was here. He stopped and watched. He was a fool for 
never having bothered with a plan. All heat and fury he had blundered 
this far. Would it take him anywhere farther?

Moonbeam whipped around to face him. He stared at his son from the 
vantage point. Maelstrom froze and stared back, unaware that his tail 
was lashing low, his lights flickering. His ears, back at first, 
relaxed forward. Submission came without even thinking.

"Dah, Moonbeam-ko."

"Don't you dare call me 'dah', licker of Heero's hooves. Who are you 
and why are you here?" Moonbeam's deep bleat curled in a sneer.

"I'm Maelstrom...I came here to join you." Maelstrom backed down the 
slope again. Sparks of irritation silouetted Moonbeam's pitch black 
shape. Maelstrom felt like the intruder now, and real stupid. What 
business did he have running after him like he was any old ram who 
didn't demand a shred of respect? Moonbeam was a leader!

Moonbeam started down the slant after him, walking slow, like he 
could take his time because there was nothing Maelstrom could do. 
Maelstrom felt the encounter turning dangerous. The spirits screamed, 
his flippers rolled in fists. 

"I don't like it when I ask a question and get half an answer." The 
giant ram let a growl trail from his words. "You are of that flock?" 

It stung Maelstrom to hear that and have to answer. They both 
knew. "I was of the Ki flock, but now I am of no flock."

"And -why- do you come you join me?"

Maelstrom let the rain fill the next few moments.

"I've come hearing that you are on a journey, to learn how to kill 
Heero-ki." Maelstrom nodded his head, flickering low, showing no will 
to do anything but what his sire asked. "I came to help you."

"You? You, who has lived with him, and fought for him, just like the 
scum he is?"

"I have changed. He murdered my niece!"

Static like grass shimmered on his head and shoulders. "When did I 
tell you you could shout at me?"

Maelstrom's breath raced to catch his pounding heart. "I am sorry--"

"And how do you know these things? Who told you?"

"I..." He scrambled to find a name that wasn't Poko's. "I had come 
for your help when i heard you taking leave of the flock. I heard you 
and your sheep. I followed you from there."

"So you spied on us?" moonbeam didn't know why he hadn't flown off 
and attacked Maelstrom straight out now. "You spy on my flock or me, 
and you will pay."

Maelstrom backed further away as Moonbeam approached with neck 
stretched and ears back. His large head jewel dripped with current, 
pulsing, sparks ripping from it. 

"You must earn the right to walk with me and help me on my light-
path!" said his father as he continued his steady march towards his 
son. Maelstrom found it too hard to beg. He wuold not get down and 
snivel at him. "I have no need of help from you, and I can't think of 
a good reason not to kill you, traitor to your own blood!"

"I swear, please, Moonbeam-ko, I have changed in over a year's time. 
I was only a lamb then." Maelstrom stepped backwards into a bush and 
stumbled, feet flying up. He fell backwards into the rough bush. It 
clawed his back and neck. As he twisted to get out of the nasty 
little trick of the bush, Moonbeam advanced further on him. Maelstrom 
was an awkward lamb with his dignity slipping through his flippers, 
his light-path fast on its heels. Why had he chosen now? Why couldn't 
he have planned and had patience? ~Why, Phos, why?~ 

"I take treason from no one." Moonbeam's head jewel's sparks lit in 
his red eyes. His son was growing up to be a promising size, and a 
promising soul. But how to spare him without letting him off easy? 
Moonbeam would have killed him with the rest had he managed to 
capture him too along with the others those two autumns ago. 

Maelstrom twisted to get free of the bush. His feet kicked, he was 
splayed out embarrassingly on the ground, just how Heero liked to cut 
his adversaries down. Branches scratched Maelstrom's face and chest 
as he finally got up.

~

Pokos could only watch their lights from a distance, still too tired 
and too injured to do a thing to stop Moonbeam from delivering the 
killing blow. Poor guy...he'd grown on Pokos. 

He got into position, ideas brewing in his head in case Moonbeam 
tried to deliver the killing blow. Pokos wasn't going to just let him 
die! Not when he could prove again how much better quick and little 
was than big and bumbling! Not when he could prove to Moonbeam's own 
face how pathetic he was. 

~

"You want to accompany me? you are lucky I am letting you live."

Moonbeam stood a barely respectable distance away as Maelstrom 
regained himself and stood still. If he tried to run now Moonbeam 
might strike him down where he stood. He had underestimated his 
father. Moonbeam tolerated nothing from a traitor. All of this was 
Maelstrom's own fault...he was having to eat his actions now.

"I am grateful...You are generous." Maelstrom was shaking, weak as a 
weed caught up in his namesake. Sweat blended with rain on his skin. 

Moonbeam spit in Maelstrom's face. Maelstrom started to jerk his head 
away but was still. He let the rain wash him. Moonbeam felt a grin 
wanting towarm him. He kept his face straight. This son of his was 
clearly willing to do anything to serve him. Moonbeam still had what 
it took. And this ram might be very useful to have on his side. One 
more for him, one less for Heero.

"You have lived your life as an enemy to me. Until you prove 
yourself, you are no son of mine."

"What do I have to do to prove myself?" said Maelstrom. Was it him or 
was Moonbeam having to pause to give it some thought? Was he trying 
to work something out?

Moonbeam pondered how to tell him he had changed his mind, without 
having it sound that way. He glared at his scratched up and groveling 
son. The downside to such complete dominance was that his inferiors 
became so pathetic they annoyed him. It seemed there was no happy 
medium. 

"You say you have come on a quest to help me rid Mother Megga of that 
orange scourge of a ram."

"Yes." Maelstrom felt his hopes rising. He gazed with anxious 
flickers through the slackening rain. Had Moonbeam thought things 
through?

"I will try you as my helper. You will come with me and do anything 
you are asked to do." Two together were safer than each apart, and 
moonbeam knew he would crave company before long. Being alone meant 
being dominant to nothing. 

"Yes...Moonbeam-ko."

maelstrom glanced Poko's way. He supposed the other ram had vanished, 
or if he hadn'the wasn't coming out. It was a shame, really...Pokos 
had been lighter company. He felt ashamed. That he would prefer that 
rascal over his own father for a flockmate? This was Moonbeam! Of -
course- Moonbeam was angry at him, Maelstrom wouldn't have trusted 
him either. Moonbeam was giving him a chance to prove himself. It was 
more than he should have expected to ever get.

"Come with me, then...the night's getting on and we must be rested up 
for tomorrow." moonbeam started off, but kept his eye on the youth. 
He was far from trusting him.

Maelstrom walked alongside Moonbeam, partly behind him and a 
respectful few paces away. He kept his lights to a dim shudder. He 
looked back a few times at the bushes where he had left Pokos. Did 
the little ram know he wasn't coming back--that he couldn't now?

He pushed away the gnaw of regret, growling to himself and then 
glancing wuickly at Moonbeam to see if he had heard. If Moonbeam had 
noticed, it didn't show. Moonbeam strode elegantly on in a way that 
Maelstrom could only dream of doing right now. It would be a few more 
years before he was at full size, but he was already feeling that 
attaining Moonbeam's stature didn't lie in his light-path.

Feeling like he was treading a very narrow path indeed, Maelstrom 
followed his father in silence and thought of Poko's voice.

~

"He left me? Nah," Pokos hid in the bushes and waited for a while. 
Maelstrom was his buddy! He was going to come back, right? "Oh but 
wait...if Moonbeam let him travel with him he probably didn't say Ok 
now I'll wait here while you go get your buddies.' Especially you 
Pokos...you never did kiss his apricorns yourself, although you're a 
lot closer to them than most." He chuckled at the millionth joke 
about his shortness. It helped him feel a little better about his 
handicap. Like he never entertained fantasies of what it would have 
been like to be a normal height?

He'd prayed to all those spirits and things, they sure didn't bat a 
light at him. Eh, he knew how to trick the stripes off them. And he 
wasn't going to sit here getting any wetter!

"Not that I can actually get wetter than I am," said Pokos as he 
stepped out from behind the bush and started in the direction where 
the two lights had gone. They would keep to the open; no trouble to 
track. Pokos would just find out from Maelstrom what was going on, 
whether they could meet up and travel again sometime. 

"Plus bug the lights off moonbeam! Yeah, we all know that's the -real-
 reason you're going." Pokos rubbed his flippers together and 
snickered. Without a flock to back him up, Moonbeam wouldn't be so 
hard to get. Maybe he could even get that Maelstrom to shake the 
whole revenge thing and, you know, lighten up. 

~

Maelstrom followed Moonbeam with quiet obedient steps. Rain poured 
down and his tail bulb was supressed. He made no motions to gather 
thunder or lightning when the clouds herded together again in the 
distance and rubbed up static. When the change in electricity 
resounded round his ears he kept sober. He couldn't tell yet if 
Moonbeam had softened up towards him. It would probably take a long 
time. At least he had gotten through the worst with him. Things would 
smooth out from here.

Moonbeam climbed to the top of a ridge and had a look around. From 
here they would be out of the way from enemies, as well as keep a 
lookout for anyone spying on -them-. If this Maelstrom had anyone 
from Heero's flock trailing him, he would kill him AND the follower...

Maelstrom chose a nearby spot as Moonbeam curled up against a rock, 
out of the way of most of the wind and rain. Maelstrom went to sleep 
thinking of many things, mostly Dreamer, Dreama and Ki-ki. 

"Bzzzt."

Maelstrom's eyes popped open. He was now staring across the way at 
Pokos half hidden by an evergreen bush shaped like a brush tail 
upright. The ram was not only  blinking to him, he was buzzing to get 
his attention in what must have been, for him, a discreet manner.

"Pokos," he rasped, terrified now that the other ram would ruin 
everything. "Get out of here!"

The ram's giant ears fell. His gaze rolled up to Maelstrom and 
settled on the groun. "So it's 'get out of here' soon as you get what 
you want," said Pokos. "Not 'thank you,' not 'you know, if it weren't 
for you...Good thing you found him, you're quite similar to him you 
know.' 

Pokos didn't mean it as a compliment and that was why Maelstrom was 
getting mad. And at the same time, seeing him again was an 
overwhelming relief. He did owe Pokos a thanks.

"I am sorry," said Maelstrom, "I am grateful. Thank you." He glanced 
at the soundly sleeping Moonbeam and stepped over to the same rock as 
Pokos. He crouched by the bush and put a flipper on his shoulder. 
Rain still fell and the night had turned cooler. Pokos cracked a 
smile. 

"Yeah, yeah. Well anyway, I just came to say, Phos's light to you...I 
certainly wouldn't want to ruin the sire-son bonding process 
especially if I might get murdered just for sticking around. 
moonbeam's kind of uptight about party crashers, in case you haven't 
noticed."

The constant digs at Moonbeam were getting to him, but Pokos was 
leaving anyway. "Phos's light to you," he said, putting a grateful 
glow into his light. He rose and stepped back, nodding his head. "I 
will remember this. You have been a good help and a good light-
brother."

Pokos' lights flashed in a terrified flicker. His eyes grew wide and 
his ears laid back. "What?" said Maelstrom, just as he completed the 
backward step and bumped into Moonbeam. 

"Light-brother?" said the big black ampharos, looking at Maelstrom 
and Pokos. "I should hae known--you little sneasels!"

"No..." Maelstrom knew it was useless to argue. Pokos had ruined any 
chance he had had. There would be no way to redeem himself here. He 
took a suden turn to dash aawy and Moonbeam caught his arm. Maelstrom 
instinctively pulled. "Let--"

Maelstrom gave a stronger yank back, bringing Maelstrom's head 
jerking forward. In a firework of sparks, Moonbeam's head cracked 
into his at a wrong angle. Maelstrom saw the sparks after they were 
already gone. 

"You will die now too, joining all my other traitors and enemies!" 
Moonbeam lunged forward, trying to throw all his weight onto his son 
and knock him to the rocks.

"Not so fast! Aren't you forgetting someone! Get your dirty claws off 
that innocent! It is I, Pokos the great!" Waggling his tongue in his 
open mouth, Pokos ran a circle round the fight and finally grabbed 
Moonbeam by the tail. Maelstrom wriggled free while Moonbeam was 
distracted. 

Moonbeam bellowed his anger as he lashed his tail, whipping Pokos 
clear off it. Pokos went rolling on the wet grass. Moonbeam turned 
with a snarl and charged after him. Pokos snapped to his feet and 
leapt for the forest as Moonbeam ran flat over the ground where he 
had just been lying.

"I will crush you under my hooves and spread your blood on the 
grass!" Moonbeam gave chase. He had had enough of this ram for years 
now! Time to send him where he sent other traitors. If only he wasn't 
so darned fast! Pokos was already getting into the forest and finding 
his way among the trees, slipping through small spaces. He knew this 
part of the forest well--but was he good enough to get away now?

"Please! Stop!" Maelstrom didn't know why he cried out at all, but 
seeing Moonbeam give pause and turn on him, he wished he had 
not. "Moonbeam-ko, my father--if you will please let me explain!"

Moonbeam leaped in a lunge towards Pokos. He landed full on the ram's 
back. A scuffle thrashed in the bushes. 

Maelstrom ran towards 
them, desperate to stop the fight... but what good would he do anyone 
but Heero by getting himself killed? Now he had even more against him-
-and all because Pokos had just decided to show up and make noise. 
Why had he chosen to trust someone who was another enemy of his 
father's?

{he helps stop the fight for a moment thru the bushes?}

The scuffle continued, vines and palmetto leaves wrestling, shining 
in shards of ampharos light. Maelstrom high tailed it down the other 
side of the mountain. His anger caught him up and consumed him double 
as he ran over the squishy grass. Everything was ruined. All becasue 
of the very unnatural Pokos, who had managed to live this long 
against all odds. A ram who used trickery on any rival, who upset the 
mose basic of instincts with impudent, lambish behavior that gave him 
a brush with death every other heartbeat? Someone like him was 
trouble to be anywhere near! Maelstrom had let loneliness make a big 
mistake for him. It wouldn't happen again. He would keep away from 
rams with such slippery darkness grown all through them.

Maelstrom reached the cover of bushes and rested, waiting to see a 
light emerge over the ridge. What would he do now? Where would he go? 
He glared at the leaves in front of his face, pattered on by the rain 
that had begun to pour again. 

~

Moonbeam couldn't have thought he would actually catch Pokos this 
time, could he? The ram was incredibly gifted in the way of reflex. 
Pokos pulled on two hanging creepers and with a snap a tangle of them 
dropped on Moonbeam's head. This was the closest Pokos ever wanted to 
be to him, he thought. Tonight, he had played his game a little -too- 
risky for comfort. Yes, theer was such a thing! He knew it--now!!

"It's the safe life for me for a while," he muttered to himself as 
Moonbeam flailed his flippers, bucked his spine to fling the tangle 
off his head. Angry sparks coursed out from what looked like a giant 
Tangela. Moonbeam whipped off the vines as Pokos dashed into a stand 
of trees. He blundered after. He would trample the little one easily 
and with relish. 

A thin, bendy tree trunk whipped forward and smacked his nose. 
moonbeam's nostrils filled with his own blood as Pokos let go the 
trunk and sprinted further into the forest. Pokos ran just praying 
that no enemies ended his life, but better that than giving Moonbeam 
the satisfaction.

Moonbeam was too dizzy to go anywhere for a moment. He had to lean on 
a tree for support. He breathed noisily, blood clogging his sinuses. 
The tree's punch throbbed up towards his brain. Moonbeam threw an 
angry spark at the tree--and missed. He growled after the vanished 
ram, stacking more plans for torture once he found him.

~

Maelstrom watched Moonbeam and Pokos' lights disappear--and only 
Moonbeam's come back out. Maelstrom figured it was just as well. The 
end of a light-path that had tempted darkness too many times. One did 
not mess with the law of the ancients.

When Moonbeam was a long distance away, he crept back out of hiding, 
practically feeling his way through the rain. e could not lose sight 
of his father. He would head to wherever Moonbeam was headed and 
there, maybe, he would get the chance to redeem himself. ~It was my 
fault. I should not have associated with pharamps like Pokos.~ And no 
one would respect anyone who did--not anyone sane.

"Maelstrom!"

The voice whispered from behind him, from an unseen someone. 
Maelstrom whirled on the apparition voice. Was it Pokos come back 
from the dead, his spirit cloying to him? Maelstrom's light stabbed 
the bushes. The bushes wiggled and a big-eared head popped up.

"Pokos...I...I thought you are not dead?"

Pokos made a gagging sound, opened his mouth and stuck his tongue 
out. He pretended to collapse behind the bush and the comic sight 
only felt eerier in the dark and rain After all that had already 
happened. 

"Stop that," he hissed. "It is terribly bad luck!"

"Why the whispering? He's gone," said Pokos, getting up and brushing 
debris off his white stomach. "Amazing he can walk on those two feet 
of his after the fancy footwork he displayed back there in the woods."

"What do you mean? What happened? How..." Maelstrom glanced at where 
Moonbeam had disappeared, then back to the ram before him. "How did 
you get away?"

"I told you--big, clumsy rams--they're easy to get away from in the 
forest or other such place. They're so big, they never have to run 
from anything. They never learn the first thing about the art of 
escape. And there's nothing else that teaches you to improvise so 
well." He smacked his lips and strutted out from behind the 
bush. "I've put so many over on hin that the joke's getting old."

Maelstrom leaned his head out from his neck. How dare he insult his 
father that way!

"Course, he could never take a joke anyway." Pokos turned around to 
eat up a stray leaf off his shoulder, where the rain had stuck it.  
Maelstrom's glare only deepened. Pokos finally noticed him and held 
out a flipper, palm upturned. "Like I was saying."

"Are you trying to follow me?" said Maelstrom. "Do not." He turned 
and started walking.

"Oh, hey, wait!" said Pokos. "i'm sorry over what happened, no hard 
feelings--Look at this situation, really! Three amps, each traveling 
to the sme place, each separate, each intent on killing the ones 
behind." Pokos chuckled. "What ever happened to flocking together? 
What happened to survival?"

"It is not funny," Maelstrom's sparks emphasized his glare. He was 
near tears and hated himself for it. "You destroyed everything. And 
do not talk to -me- about survival, you always thrusting yourself in 
danger and going the way of the dark forests...of stepping in and 
messing up everything tht I had wanted to do! Moonbeam wants me dead 
because of You!" Maelstrom laid his ears back as he walked. "So go 
away now and be glad to be alive." 

"I...I'm sorry." Pokos frowned. "Really...."

"It does not matter! It does not bring back the trust! I had gained 
the trust of my father! Moonbeam may never look upon me again for all 
my life, without the intent to kill me! I gave up a place with my 
flock for this! You...you..."

He growled and his flippers clenched in fists so hard they hurt. Rain 
trickled round his eyes and he thanked them for hiding his 
tears. "You...be lucky that I am not killing you where you stand. I 
am giong now. Do not try to follow me."

Maelstrom whirled with sparks of violence, like the storm he walked 
in. The rain showered down heavily between them.

Pokos waited till he was out of sight. He scratched under his chin, 
stepped forward and followed.