[karmaleafbarer]

Well, most of the drawings you'll see here go with the fanfic I'm currently working on so instead of explaining them, I'll post the story segment below each one it goes with.

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The female mudokon shook helplessly, the gnarled wood wavering in her hands as the two males approached, their hands stretched outward in a show of peace.

"Calm down..." Abe said in a low, even voice, his eyes darting from the egg, to the stricken female, and lastly to the club of wood, not sure which he should be focusing his attention on most.

"I--I---" she faltered, looking as though she was going to pitch forward and faint for a moment as a bead of sweat trickled down her snout. She couldn't have birthed her egg more than five minutes ago and it was a miracle that she was still standing, really.

Abe cast a worried look at BigFace who was poised to move forward, not daring to do so just yet. Despite his mystic ties and deep bond with the spiritual world, he doubted that he'd be able to move faster than the mother who seemed bent on crushing her child.

"Its gonna be alright..." Abe continued, feeling as though he was reading off of cuecards as he took a step toward Akya.

"Leave me alone." she shot back, eyes wide and hunted. Abe noticed for the first time that large tears were streaking down her cheeks. "You don't understand. I can't--I WON'T let this monster loose on our people!"

"Monster?" Abe asked, daring to tear his eyes away from her to look at the egg again. To him, it looked like a fairly normal mudokon egg....oval in shape, tapered at the top, and a smooth shell. The only thing he could fault it for were the dark green splotches mottling it, but he hardly thought that an egg pattern was any way to judge a fellow mudokon. "Look...maybe...maybe we should just both sit down and you can explain..." he soothed, raising his foot to take another step forward. When Akya didn't flinch at his advance, he moved closer.

Her stance was no longer aggressive and she now held the branch at shoulder's height, trembling even worse. There was a sudden flurry of movement out of the corner of his eye as BigFace darted forward suddenly, like a snake striking, and seized the egg from where it laid in the underbrush. At that moment, Akya burst into helpless tears, sobs racking her emaciated frame.

Half to steady her, and half on his own impulse of pity, Abe closed the distance and supported her with his arms as she cried, wondering just what the small female had been put through to make her go to such extremes...he had seen a lot in his day as a mudokon crusader...suicides, homicides, but most of the enslaved muds had reverted to being more or less normal once they had been rescued from beneath the Glukkons' rule. This was the first time he had ever seen one of them hold such deep-seated aggression that it would drive them to the potential destruction of their own child.

"You don't know what you've done..." she sobbed against Abe's chest. "Neither of you. Its all over...its all--"

"Akya..." he said gently, trying to get her attention. When that didn't work, he drew her away from himself and gave her a light shake, waiting until her eyes had focused on him. "I dunno what you've been through...I don't even know what half the people I've rescued have been through. But its not our way to kill each other. Not eggs, not peers, nothing." He paused, waiting for her to compose herself a bit. "Can you explain?" he asked her after a moment.

She swallowed hard, trembling still with exhaustion and terror, but nodded......

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Hee hee....cliffhanger. Sorry guys <=D