The Canis Quest: Chapter 2 (continued) - By Kathy Carman  

	"But how can this be?  She can’t be a Stone-wielder, we have both parts of
the Stone!" said Razor, hardly knowing what he was saying at the time.
	"Yes, but you are missing that critical part."  He opened his treasure chest
and there inside was the same scroll and cloth-wrapped package destined for
her so long ago.  "That part which will bring it together."  He presented the
package to his step-sister and the scroll to Razor.  Katrina unwrapped the
package and revealed a beautiful piece of jewelry.  True, it wasn’t a Stone.
It was a mithril and gold setting, with the mark of the White Tiger and
smaller insignias of the White Wolf on a rather plain cord.  Racing along the
top was the same golden Dragon that ran alongside the amulets of her brothers.
Razor unrolled the parchment.  It was the same scroll with strange writing
that Shandor had brought them at the start of the Quest.  It now clearly
showed the two halves of the Wolf Amulet, and above them was the Princess’s
silver setting. The Stone-wielders revealed their Stones, and again that
strange glowing took place, only each of the three parts shone with a
brilliance equal to the Sun, or perhaps the brilliance of the glowing coats of
the Wolf and the Tigress.  The Half-Stones lifted from the astonished
brothers’ paws and lightly, carefully, laid themselves in the Setting.  The
now fully completed Stone surged with power and light.  Its light filled out
the room and stretched out for miles in every direction.  

	The five of them stared in awe and humbleness at the power bestowed upon them
by the Wolf and Tigress.  The Wolf Stone was whole once more.  Katrina grasped
the Stone and held it in her lap.  The grey kat also gave Katrina a marvelous
Bow.  "This is the Silver-Pink Bow of Diana, a great Warrior Princess in her
day, and she lives in songs and legends.  This bow is destined to you by
inheritance.  Guard it well, and it will do the same for you.  It is also your
destiny to properly name it in order to truly claim it as your own.  I know
you are skilled in archery, and this bow can only enhance your ability."
Katrina solemnly accepted the great Bow.  Quietly the group left that room of
wonder.  
	Katrina went to find something else in the castle.  The others started after
her as the grey kat said, "You shall stay the night here.  You may stay as
long as want or need."  The boys caught up to Katrina in a big stone room.
Mounted on the wall was something of obvious importance.  Upon closer
inspection they found it to be a pure Silver Arrow.  Katrina ceremoniously
removed it from the wall to show the others.  
	"This is the Claw of Sheba. Legends say it was forged by Sheba herself.  It
has been passed down for generations in my family.  It has never missed it’s
mark and has always been retrieved.  And sometimes it has granted omens of the
future.  I feel that soon, this Silver Arrow may come into use again.  I have
had dreams, premonitions about this day.  I had no idea of the full magnitude
of all this would bring.  A whole new family!"  
Just then, the black Wolf calmly entered the room strode up to the Princess.
She calmly bent down and stroked him.  
	"Who is he?"
	"This is Canis Rex.  It was my brother’s idea.  It started off as a little
joke, but he has proven himself worthy of the name."
	"What do you mean?"
	"Canis Rex.  It means King of the Wolves.  He’s been with me ever since my
father disappeared.  I can’t think of a time when I was not without him.  We
found him abandoned as a pup and took him in.  We figured he had to be left
behind because he was injured and couldn’t keep up with his pack.  Ever since,
he has always thought of himself as my protector, as my father was, so we
named him the new King.  He’s saved my life several times in my lifetime,
which is why he wears this medal."  She reached through his thick fur and
showed them a pretty necklace with a gold that was once worn by a young
princess.
	"You have a wolf for a pet?"
	"No one owns Rex.  Everyone belongs to the Earth, the Sky or the Sea, and
most importantly, to themselves.  Sorry if he scared you, he always howls at
night."
	"Is that arrow, pure silver?" asked Chris with interest.  The others glared
at him with noted dissatisfaction.  

	The next day everyone just kind of milled about the place after breakfast.
Katrina wore a new warrior’s outfit with a short skirt that cut down in a V.
She went out and target practiced with her new bow.  Everything looked
different in the pleasant sunshine.  The boys watched Katrina hit the bull’s-
eye practically every time.  At lunch time she shot down four apples from a
tree.  "Hey Razor, She’s got your eyes," T-bone whispered.  Later, the grey
kat led them on a tour through some of the palace.  

That night T-bone and Razor talked about their future plans.  "So Jake, What
are we waiting for?  We found what we were looking for, we found the Setting
and your sister.  What more do we have to do here?"
	"I don’t know.  Normally, I’d be all for leaving.  But something tells me
there’s something more for us here.  I mean, Okarab’s still out there, he’s
probably still looking for us.  I think we should sit tight until something
happens."  
	"But we’ve been here now for two full days.  I know your weird "feelings" are
usually right, but Callie might need us.  What if nothing happens?"  Just
then, a woman screamed.  
	"Katrina!" they both yelled at once.  They bolted and ran up the stairs to
her bedroom.  They met Chris at the door.  
	Okrab had appeared through Katrina’s large open window.  He had her trapped.
She was still clasping her Mystical Bow, she was apparently sleeping with it.
	"What do you want, Okrab?!" yelled Razor defiantly.  
	"You know what I want!  I want the Power of the Wolf Pack.  I want your magic
amulet!"
	"How did you find us?!"
	"Fools!  You called on so great a power and you didn’t even bother to cloak
it?  With so great an energy surge it was only a matter of time and distance
to track you down.  Along with the new information that you have completed the
Stone!  Now I won’t have to track down the individual pieces!"  
	"What do you want it for?  Only a descendant can use their power!"
	"Well, thanks to this stone," and he motioned to the tiny glowing green bead
around his neck that they noticed before, "I can use any of the Stones!  Not
only that, but the half of the scroll that I stole from the Temple has also
told me where I can find the key to ultimate power once I steal your Wolf
Stone!"  He turned back to the window.  "I will give you time to make your
decision!  The Stones or the girl, it’s your choice!"  With that, he grabbed
Katrina and fled off into the night.  

	"Well, at least she has her Bow," said the grey kat.
"Yeah, and it’ll be real handy without these," said Razor as he held up her
quiver of arrows from beside her bed.  The kats ran outside and split up.  The
SwatKats dove for their jeep, but it wouldn’t start.  Chris followed them.  
	"Crud, the battery’s dead."
	"Look, if you want me to help, you’re gonna have to give me my Surge - suit
back."  
	"What are you crazy?!  You think we’re gonna trust you with a weapon of that
magnitude!"
	"Otherwise I can’t help you.  I’m not brave, or strong, or skilled.  Give me
my suit or you’re better off going without me."  T-bone and Razor looked at
each other.  Realizing the more time they wasted, the more distance Okrab put
between them, Razor went into the trunk and pulled out an unusual messily
folded suit.  Chris eagerly put it on and once again, (for the first time in
this chapter) became Hard Drive, a being fused with electricity.  His voice
got deeper, his pupils disappeared, and his hair got all puffed up like he’d
been in a fluff dry cycle. 
	T-bone gave Razor that ‘Are you sure you know what we’re getting ourselves
into’ look.  But instead he said, "But what about transportation? The engine’s
shot, and there’s no way we’ll catch him on foot."  They returned to the
castle and searched for the grey kat.  He was behind the castle, at an old but
cozy stable, busily saddling five fine horses.  
	"Horses again?" said T-bone.  "Not that I have anything against them at all,
but why is it that whenever we’re in these kind of adventures without the
Turbo-Kat, we always end up riding HORSES?!"
	"I don’t know T-bone, Just lucky I guess."
	They each mounted a horse, Razor mounted a dark grey named Wolf Runner.  So
named, for when he was found, he was running amongst a pack of wolves in the
nearby area, and appeared to run with the soul of a Wolf.  T-bone mounted a
jet-black, shadowy steed named En Las Sombras.  The grey kat mounted a cloudy
grey steed named Mithrandir, and Hard Drive was given a yellow buckskin named
Electra.  
	"Better take your shoes off, Hard Drive," warned Razor.
	"My shoes?  Why?"
	"Well alright, If you want to risk getting your foot stuck in the stirrup,
and you fall off and get trampled to a painful, horrible, and pretty icky
death, no fur off my back," answered T-bone.  Hard Drive thought for a moment,
then quickly removed his shoes.  
	"Luckily enough, I took an equestrian course a few years ago, so I remember a
few of the basics, if you guys will give me a few pointers..  Like, how do you
start these things?" said Hard Drive.
	"O, with these horses, it’s real easy.  Just squeeze their stomach with your
legs and yell, ‘Yah!’" answered the grey kat.  	Hard Drive did as he was told,
and soon Electra was galloping along as fast as she could.  "Hmm…  Maybe I
shouldn’t have given the green rider one of the more skittish horses.  Electra
runs like greased lightning."
	"O never mind, he’ll be fine." 
	"Hey, who’s she?" Razor wondered, motioning to the last mare. 
	"This horse can be ridden by no one but the princess.  Her name is Tiger
Lily."
	"An appropriate name."  For she is a beautiful black and white pinto, whose
black patches on her barrel seemed to appear in stripes.  
	"We’d better be going then, we’ve no time to lose.  We can’t lose sight of
them, or we’ll never find Katrina again.  Yah!"  Mithrandir and the grey kat
galloped off.
	"Yah!"  Razor and Wolf Runner joined the chase.  
	"Yah!"  T-bone and his mount remained perfectly still.  "Yah!"  Still
nothing.  "Sombra!  Sombra?  Sombra, Wake UP!"  At last the horse arose to
attention.  T-bone pointed at the others now far ahead of them.  "Follow Them,
YAH!"  The five-horse-chase had begun.  "Hey guys!  WAIT UP!"  
	No one noticed the shape of Canis Rex among the cliffs, also joining the
pursuit.  
	T-bone arrived just in time watch Okrab and the princess duck inside a cave
near the top of a tall thin mountain.  "Split up," said Razor, "Anyone find
‘em call the others."  The horses broke off in different directions, the grey
kat excellently handling both Mithrandir and TigerLily.  
	Moments later, T-bone gave a yell.  The others came quickly, and crept into a
dark cave.  Razor and Hard Drive both clutched their Wolf stones.  


	"Your choice, my dear Princess Katrina," Okrab offered her.  "I will spare
your life and the lives of your brothers.  I will give you infinite
prosperity.  Your kingdom will once again flourish under your noble reign, and
you will become legend, much like the bow you now hold in your hands and the
queen it belongs to.  You know what I want in return.  I can make all these
things happen.  With the Setting of the Wolf Stones I can summon the two
stones to me, and their power will be mine.  It will all be mine in time, so
take the obvious choice."  
	"I will surrender nothing to scum like you.  I’d sooner die." 
	"We shall see, young kitten.  We shall see."

	The three kats from Megakat City came upon Okrab, his back turned, his
attention diverted to a colorful fire, muttering unhearable incantations.
They could see Katrina, tied up and gagged at the back of the cave, deathly
afraid of her fate.  "So, what kept you?" Okrab turned around, his jade bead
glowing a fiery red.  "I offer you one last chance.  The powers will diminish
only slightly if the Stone-wielders are dead.  I would rather take them from
you alive.  But if I am forced...  With the powers I stole from the Temple of
the Wolf Pack, I command the elements!  I cannot be beaten!  You cannot hope
defeat an entire world!"  
	"You’ll have to take it from my clenched fist, Okrab!"
	"Uh, actually..." muttered Hard Drive.  
	The others glared at Hard Drive.  "You’re going down, Okrab."  
	"As you wish, if we must do this the hard way."  Okrab raised his hands
pointing his bony claws at the kats.  Lightning zapped out of nowhere and
fried them.  They almost fell to their knees from the electrical shock.  The
two SwatKats fired a mini Octopus missile at him.  Okrab willed something, the
two missiles stopped in mid-air and fell pathetically to the ground.  Okrab
raised his hands and sent a huge tidal wave of water from out of nowhere and
walloped them.  Hard Drive, seeing Okrab’s foot in a puddle, sent his own
electrical storm at him.  It hit on target, but Okrab only laughed.  His jade
bead turned white for a moment, then sent the same electrical energy back at
Hard Drive tenfold.  While Okrab was distracted, the grey kat managed to free
Katrina, and they tried to crawl away.  

Suddenly a dark blur of muscle and fur appeared out of nowhere and helped
them, sometimes dragging the princess by her clothes to urge her toward the
exit.  Okrab, seeing this, was about to send an bolt of evil energy at them.
Canis Rex stood fast, protecting Katrina.  He growled menacingly at the
fireball, and for some reason, it melted away inches from them.  
	"What?!  What happened?!" cried Okrab.  
	"Our normal powers won’t work against Gargoyle and Wolf magic.  We have to
call upon the powers of the Wolf and Tiger!"  
	"No," cried Hard Drive, "Anything we throw at him he can just bounce off and
send right back at us!"  
	"Then the only thing we can do is destroy the source of his power," said
Katrina, holding her bow.  "If I just had my Silver Arrow, or just any arrow!"
	Hard Drive didn’t look like he felt all right.  His face kinda twisted in all
directions.  He reached in his pocket and revealed the Silver Arrow!  
	"Chris!  How could you?!"  
	"Old habits die hard!  Be glad I did steal it, it’s gonna save our lives
right now!"  He threw it across the room to his sister, but Okrab intercepted.
Rex jumped up at the giant gargoyle, biting his arm until he released it.
Then grabbed it in his mouth and delivered it personally to Katrina.  
"Quick!  Toss me your Stones!" she cried.  Hard Drive and Razor undid the
chains on their amulets and rolled them across the floor without incident, for
Okrab had no power over them.  Again placing the three parts together, she
turned it toward her bow and arrow.  "From the forces of Wolf and Tiger came,
guide my weapon to Evil’s Bane!"  The completed Stone shone upon the bow and
arrow, making them glow like the stars.  She put the Mystical Arrow of old to
her legendary Bow, and aimed at the source of their nemesis’s magic reservoir,
the tiny jade bead that hung from the gargoyle’s neck.  She hated to think
about what would happen if she missed.  But there was no time, she fired.  The
Silver Arrow traveled faster than thought, and split the bead neatly in two.  
	Lightning-like energy wisped out of the gargoyle like water down a hole.
Okrab was weakening, but he was not beaten yet.  "You think you have beaten
me.  You think this is the last you shall see of the Order of the Dark
Gargoyles.  That’s what you thought about my brother, you were wrong then.  We
are not finished, not by a long shot!"  
Princess Katrina rose the amulet to the sky and called, "By the power of the
Roar and Howl, We call forth the powers that will save us now!"  From the
Stone, two bolts of lightning branched out on either side of the kats.  There
appeared, menacing, Shandor on one side and Sheba on the other.  One howled,
one roared, the light of the Stone grew, and the gargoyle known as Okrab was
no more.  Like ghosts, the White Wolf and White Tigress disappeared as
mysteriously as they had come.  
	Razor and the others rushed over to Katrina.  After a few minutes of
congratulating one another they returned to the castle, and the kats made
plans for leaving in the morning.  
	"Katrina, why won’t you come home with us to MegaKat City?" 
	"My home is here.  And besides, Rex and my brother would miss me too much.
And I would miss the castle, and the horses, and the mountains, and, and,
everything.  Thank you very much for inviting me, but, no."  She sighed.  "I
wish I could’ve been able to see the Temple of The Wolf.  I’m sure it must
have been a beautiful thing."  
	"Maybe we can," said Razor.  
	"How?  Okrab destroyed it?"
	"Remember that door, that led outside, only instead of Wolf country, it was
Tiger country?"  
	"I’m not getting this.."
	"You have a lot of rooms in this place that haven’t been entered in years,
right?"
	"Yes, I suppose so.."
	"Where’s the most south-facing door in this castle?"  The grey kat led all of
them there, and sure enough, there was not a Tiger/Wolf emblem there, only of
The Wolf, and what seemed to the icon of a temple or building of some sort.
Razor and Chris put their amulets in the keyhole, opened the door, and they
stepped into the remains of the Temple of the Wolf Pack!  
	Katrina was almost moved to tears.  "I didn’t want to see this."  
Razor’s Wolf instincts were leading well so far, so he continued to follow
them.  He entered the Jewel Keep once again, and saw all the broken crystals
as they were before, except they were shining with what looked like golden
dust.  He offered the complete Wolf Stone, and said, "Powers that were taken
from this magical hoard, return hither and the Stones restore!"  Lights danced
all around the room, all the stones were renewed.  The grey kat, Katrina, and
Chris gaped all around the splendors of the shiny crystal room.  Razor’s hand
reached out for one of the Stones.  It was round with a golden color, and gave
off slight warmth.  It also had little extrusions sticking out all around it.
"Katrina, What can you tell me about this Stone?"  
"The Sun Stone.  That Stone has the Power of Life and Light and Renewal."  
	Razor went back into the main room, both hands glowing from holding both
Stones.  He knocked on a floor board in the very center of the main hall and
discovered it was hollow.  He removed it, and discovered another Amulet
keyhole, as well two other indentations, one of  a strange heart symbol, and
the other of a Sun.  He placed the completed Wolf Stone in the above keyhole,
the Heart Stone in the Heart keyhole and  also the Sun Stone in the
appropriate place and stepped back.  In almost the blink of an eye, there was
a bright white flash, and the ruined temple was gone, and in it’s place was a
glorious new one completely whole and clean.  
	They walked into the Library.  "Just imagine the treasures this place holds.
We will study the works in this place to find out why the Wolf Pack
disappeared."  
	"Hey, Where’d Chris go?" T-bone looked around anxiously.  
	"The last I saw of him he was in the Jewel Hoard!"  They ran to the Jewel
Hoard in a second.  At first, they didn’t notice anything was amiss, but they
saw the place where the Lightning Stone was.  Was, because it was gone, and in
it’s place was the other half of Jake’s Wolf Stone.  T-bone grabbed it angrily
and hurried back through the magic warping door, to the castle, to the outside
where they kept their broken jeep.  It too was missing
	"Aw crud.  He knew the battery was dead!  He re-charged it with his suit-
thing!"  
	"Forget about it, T-bone.  He’s long gone by now.  He did what he came to do;
he knew we’d just take him to jail when we got back."  
	"But Razor, that thing was a rental!  How are we gonna explain this to the
airport?!"  
	Razor answered, smiling his old Razor smile.  "Same way we explain to
Commander Feral."  He paused.  "But what about Chris’s Stone?  We may need
it’s power again, and the ancient scrolls say that the full power is too much
to be used alone."  
	No sooner were these words spoke than in the next instant, the four kats
found themselves in the Statue room of the castle.  The two statues of the
Wolf and Tigress were glowing.  Suddenly, they came alive, to the living
beings of Shandor and Sheba.  The two white animals walked calmly over to the
kats.  The kats froze in awe.  T-bone felt the Wolf and Tiger each place one
of their paws on T-bone’s hand, the one holding Chris’s Stone.  White light
erupted out of the Stone from under their paws, and Razor could feel his own
Stone glowing also.  He could feel ties breaking and ties being made,
something ending and something beginning.  "Chance Furlong.  You have been
inducted into The Order of the Wolf and Tigress.  You are the new Stone
wielder half of the Wolf.  You should consider yourself to be Jake’s brother."
	"I can understand you.  You mean- This is cool!"  
	"You must use your power to right the wrongs of this world, and find peace.
Until next we meet."  So saying, Sheba and Shandor walked back up to their
pedestals and became jeweled-eyed Statues once more.  

	The SwatKats bid a fond farewell to their friends and family and returned
home to their normal boring lives, in between fixing cars and saving the city
from crime.  Chance could never stop admiring his Stone.  "So what do you
think of my fortune tellers now, Jake?"  
	"Hey, she never mentioned a word about Sheba."  
	"You know, I’ve been thinking.  If we can turn into Wolves and Katrina into a
Tigress; What could stop Shandor and Sheba from turning into kats?"  
	"What are you getting at?"  
	"Well, you still don’t know what happened to your parents, right?"

What happened to the ancient Wolf Pack?  What will happen next to the
threesome?  What new threat will, uh, threaten Jake, Chance, and Katrina?  Why
do fanfic writers late at night end a story so cheesily (and is that even a
word?) with all these stupid unanswered questions?  Tune in to the next and
final chapter of, (dun, dun, DUN!)

THE CANIS QUEST:
THE CONCLUSION!

P.S. I would LOVE it (that’s love with little hearts all around it) if fellow
katfans and Canis Quest fans would illustrate pivotal scenes of this or any of
my fanfiction.  I can see them clearly in my mind’s eye, but lack the skill to
convey it in color rather than words.  

Here of course I have a few notes to myself while I was writing this fanfic
last summer…

	Out of nowhere, a blond woman runs screaming through the brush.
"Rrrrrrrruuuuuunnnnnnnn!!!"  a few moment later, two Velociraptors chase after
her.

Sometimes simple is best..

Never forget the ol’ subtle as an airhorn fallback!

I ALWAYS SOUND TACKY LATE AT NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!  I ALSO MAKE LOTS OF TYPOS WHEN
I’M HYPER!!!!!!  AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I CAN’T THINK!!!!!!!!  I
think I’ll go get something to eat.  
I’m back, couldn’t find anything to eat.  I got a caffeine free soda and
that’s it.  I’m still hyper, still can’t think straight.  I have something
important coming up, and I don’t know how to introduce it.  ACK!   More
Typos!!  How do I make them stop!