Sam stared at the ceiling, where little faery lights were chasing one another, and lay wide awake on th bed Draco had given him. It was noon on the third day of his stay in the caverns. This he knew by the lights. Draco had come up with an ingenius way to fell time without seeing the sun or having a clock.

To turn the lights on or off, you just stepped into the room and clapped. There would be one full light for each hour after midnight, and, for each hour after noon, a light would disappear. For minutes, you checked how full the appearing or disappearing light was.

Currently it was a little past noon, and he had seen the lights go full cycle about three times.

"Hey Sam!" Draco called from somewhere deep in the cavern.

"Yeah?"

A head suddenly popped around the corner, smiling broadly. The face was perfectly human, with pale skin and gold, orange rimmed eyes. A thick, black braid dangled fromt he back of the head.

"Wanna come ta town with me?" Draco’s voice came from the stranger’s mouth.

Sam blinked. "Draco?"

The stranger grinned. "The one and only. Wanna come ta town?"

"How...? I mean..."

Draco stepped in, laughing. The braid fell down to her knees, matching here clothes perfectly. She wore a tight, black tanktop, which showed off her ample endowments and thin stomach. Skin-tight, black jeans flared slightly at the bottoms for her Dr. Martens to slip inside the legs. A black, leather, floor-length duster hung on her shoulders.

Her grin broadened, and she winked. "Just a little trick I’ve developed over the years."

Sam smiled. "Must come in handy."

"Eh..." she shrugged. "It’s easier to just change than to hold an illusion. Anyway...I’m going to town. Do you want to come with me or not?"

"Uh..." Sam shrugged. "I don’t know. What would people think if a perfectly normal looking human was wandering around with me?"

Draco smirked. "Where I’m going, they won’t care. I’m only human because people tend to do better business with a female than an androgenous, red beast."

Sam almost laughed. "Okay."

She grinned. "Good."

Sam had worried for a moment, when Draco led him into a cemetary, but, when she led him into a mausoleum, he almost panicced.

"Uh...Draco?" He mumbled. "I...I thought we were going to town."

"We are," she called back over her shoulder, starting down the stairs to the catacombs without a second glace at the rats that ran by.

"Uh..." Sam squeaked, running to catch up to her.

Draco laughed, and kept going. After a few moments, they reached a landing with no more stairs, where a young man was sitting and sharpening a knife. Sam hid slightly behind Draco.

"Hey Dray," the man said, grinning. "Got a newbie?"

Draco nodded, returning the grin.

The man laughed and moved aside. A doorway that was impossibly large for him to have been hiding was there. Sam blinked once before being dragged through the opening.

Suddenly he was staring at a loud, busy city. He had never in his life seen so mamy people of, literally, all shapes and sizes. For once, he wasn’t out of place.

"Welcome," Draco laughed, "to Gateway!"

She led him into the city, over a weaving path of tunnels. People smiled at him, people of every race he’d ever read about or dreamed of, and then some. It was an amazing feeling to be accepted, and what made it even more amazing was seeing people like himself. In fact, as they passed one tunnel, all he saw were what Draca had called "furries."

"Come on, kid," Draco grinned. "I’ll bring you here to explore sometime, but I gotta get some things done today."

Sam nodded, still entranced by the feelign of belonging somewhere. It suddenly struck him exactly how lucky he was. If he hadn’t fallen through Draco’s roof, where would he have been? In a cage? Heading off to the next town?

Draco led him into a room full of people and told him to wait for her. While she was gone, Sam stood just inside the door, leaning against the wall. As he waited, a young, female furry leaned over nest to him. She was a silver tabby, long, white hair fallign down her back, who was wearing a deep blue, skin tight dreww, strapless and slit to the hip. Sam blushed and looked desperately in the direction DRaco had gone.

"Hey," the tabby giggled.

Sam sunk into the wall.

"Yer cute," she giggled again, leaning towards him. "My name’s Tabby. What’s yours?"

"Come on, Sam," Draco called, walking out.

A sigh of relief escaped him, and Tabby glared at his savior.

"Kay!" He followed his friend quickly.

Draco grinned. "See you met Tabitha."

Sam nodded.

She laughed. "Don’t pay her any mind. She’s just a drunk."

Draco then led him into another room, a completely empty room, where stairs rose beyond the back wall in utter darkeness. Motioning for him to follow, she lead him up multiple flights of those thin, dark stairs to a little storage room, outside of which existed a rather loud garage. Machines roared; people shouted; Sam felt uncomfortable; Draco walked on.

She led him into a room where a mechanic lay under a piece-meal car. Sam felt slightly nervous at the sight of the jump suit legs and boots. It almost looked as if the car had been dropped on top of the man, who lay humming happily beneath it. Ther nervousness left, however, when a bushy, red, fox tail swooshed out.

"Hey Ratchet," Draco called, but the mechanic didn’t respond. "Ratchet," she called again, banging on the car, but still no response. Then she smirked and shouted, "Ratchet!" stomping on his tail.

A yip came from under the car, along with the bang of someone hitting their head. Groaning, the fox rolled himself out and tore headphone’s out of his ears. He grumbled, sitting up, the glared at Draco.

"Damn it, Dray! Why’d you haveta go and do that?"

She laughed ruefully. "Well, if you didn’t have your music so loud..."

Ratchet stuck his tongue out at her.

"Anyway," Draco continued. "You know what I need."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the fox sighed, hopping up onto his feet. Then he grinned. "Who’s the new kid?"

Draco smiled. "This is Sam. Sam, this is Ratchet."

"Hey there, Sammy boy!" Ratchet laughed, and his grin became a bit more flirtatious.

Sam smiled, Ratchet’s form of flirting didn’t scare him like that Tabby girl’s. It made him a little uncomfortable, but he wasn’t as scared with Draco standing next to him.

The fox spun then and walked over to a tool counter, humming again. He shuffled through some shelves, opened a couple drawers, and finally pulled out a little, wooden box. Suddenly he looked more serious.

"I know I don’t have to tell you this, but be careful. This thing’s real hard to get ahold of, and real deadly in the wrong hands. I went through Hell to get it, ya know?"

Draco smirked as Ratchet handed the box over to her. "Trust me, kitsune. I know."

They met each other’s eyes for a moment, then the fox sighed and sat back on the trolley. "Keep safe, Dray. You and that...thing." Then he grinned and winked at Sam. "Sure I’ll be seein’ ya ‘round, kid. Later."

Sam watched him roll back under the car before Draco turned to go. Tehy went back to the storage room and down the stairs, and, by the time they reached the tunnels again, the box had disappeared from Sam’s view.