Bot Story:
    Book 1 – Nancy and the Ferrets

Chapter 1

Milliscent's nose twitched, her eyes blinked open. Sunlight came in through the hole in the tree trunk above her head. Mentally she checked the time, 15:44:31. She had some time, but not much. She uncurled her body and stood up shaking the leaves from her fur. "Time enough for a snack," she thought as she bent down for a quick search in the crumbly compost under the leaves. She found a handful of sowbugs, a few millipedes, and a large orange centipede that thrashed around in her paw. She crunched these down quickly, licking her lips, and peered out the hole, cautiously sniffing the air. Then just to be sure she did a mental scan. All clear, no one was close enough to see her emerge from her private napping spot.

She pulled herself up then slid out of the hole and set to work cleaning any remaining bits of leaves out of her fur. Satisfied she headed west, down slope to the stream. A bit of a scramble between some rocks and she was at streamside. She knelt by the water and cupped her paws to lift the liquid to her lips and drank. Then she checked her reflection in the water, dug a comb out of her bag and teased the white shock of hair on top of her head so it was nicely fluffed. Next she went to work on the long hairs of her tail. She was proud of her tail. The hairs on it were magnificent, most over a foot long. And when she stood upright with her tail held up (as was her habit), it was slightly wider than her body and almost as tall as the top of her head. Finally satisfied, she replaced the comb and removed an apple from her bag and headed downstream, deeper into the small canyon that had been cut by the water's action.

She walked beside the stream in silence, slowing eating her apple. Sycamore trees towered over her head, and closed in by the limestone walls of the small canyon she felt safe. She really loved this part of the world. The open feel of the giant trees, the way the sunlight came through the leaves, the sounds of water and birds, the coolness in the shade, and the rich smells. She twitched her nose. All was well.

As the canyon swung back east, then south, finally opening up, she could hear a loud voice up ahead in the clearing. "Oh gads, what are they up to now?" she thought.

As the path approached the clearing she stood a little off to the side in the shadows, and swallowed the last bites of the apple core. Fizzgig and Marley had teamed up against a couple of tourists who were wearing the cowboy avatars, although the one tourist had an obviously feminine name. Milliscent shook her head in disgust, "They've probably not even had a chance to download everything yet. What a greeting."

The cowboy avatar, a humanimal, was 6 foot 1 inch tall, even without the hat, and sported a wicked looking pair of horns. Fizzgig was only 3 foot 8 of pure ferret, wound up tight like a spring, always thinking up new trouble, and much too clever. Marley was a large (for a ferret) 4 foot 2, a slow thinker and born follower, but he made up for it with a cruel streak. Fizzgig and Marley had the tourists totally intimidated. Fizzgig was waving a wicked looking dagger about and was giving the orders while Marley stood by, closely watching the tourists. His paws resting on the handles of twin flintlock pistols he'd stuffed in the red sash around his chubby waist. "A thief and a pirate, so true to form," thought Milliscent. The two tourists stood meekly while the smaller ferret ranted.

"Contraband," he squeaked. "We cannot have you bringing contraband into this world. You must empty your pockets."

Suddenly the tourist named Nancy Drew changed from a cowboy to a cowgirl. This did not bother the two ferrets; Fizzgig did not react, but Marley shifted position to better stare at the front of the Cowgirl's thin blouse. He licked his lips and grinned.

"She must have finished downloading and realized what she looked like," thought Milliscent. The other three ferrets were not around; they were probably giving a tour or something. She stepped out from the shadows and strode boldly into the clearing. "Hey guys, what's up," she said cheerfully.

Fizzgig took an involuntary step backwards before answering, "Just checking for ummm, contraband. You know, illegal stuff..."

"What, like raisins? Chocolate? You know too much chocolate is bad for fur persons."

"No, no, not for us personally," he drew out the word. "That is why we must confiscate it. It is bad."

"Bad for a fur person maybe, but not for humans." She turned toward the female tourist. At 5 foot 4, Milliscent could look straight into the cowgirl's eyes. "You are human, aren't you?"

Nancy Drew took a step backwards under Milliscent's sudden attention and stammered, "Ah, ah, yea. We are not bots or anything like that. Honest." She looked worried.

Milliscent sighed she hated this reaction. They had to be human. She turned back to Fizzgig who was fidgeting and softened her voice. "Look, your shift is almost over. Why don't you let me take over now? I happen to know you've got a whole cupboard full of raisins at home."

Fizzgig relaxed, grinned, spun his dagger around his index finger and slid it into its sheath with a snap of his wrist. He said, "Yea, sure. Raisins."

Seeing Fizzgig relax, Marley relaxed as well and shifted his position, taking his eyes from the female tourist. He then leered at Milliscent and gave her a wink.

Fizzgig shouted, "COM'ON MARL M' BOY, ADVENTURE AWAITS US; MICE TO CAPTURE, NESTS TO ROB, AND RAISINS TO SUBDUE. OUR SHIFT IS OVER, LET US HEAD HOME." And he turned suddenly and walked north out of the clearing, then turning west, crossed the bridge over the main stream and started up the hill.

Marley started after Fizzgig, as he passed by Milliscent he gave her a playful swat on the rump and laughed, "Oh baby, you sure are stinkin' good today!"

Milliscent was furious, "Stink? STINK!" she shouted. "WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU TOOK A BATH? LOOK AT YOU; YOU'RE NOT EVEN WHITE ANY MORE! AND MUSKY? WHOOOH, YOU DEFINE THE WORD."

Marley, already out of the clearing and starting toward the bridge turned back and said, "Eau 'd Marley. Too much manhood for ya baby?" Then tickled by his own joke he started dancing wildly, leaping and twisting. Each time he landed his belly shook and he let out a hiss of air and a little grunt. And the way he bounced, first doing handstands, then back to his hind legs, he looked like a giant fur covered springy toy. Dancing and hopping about in this absurd fashion he tried to cross the bridge but smacked his head against a post. Milliscent winced, but Marley seemed not to notice and he bounded over the bridge and scampered up the hill after Fizzgig.

Milliscent turned back to the tourists. "I am so sorry about those two, they know they are not supposed to do that. They're supposed to be helpful, answer questions, or give tours."

Then the male tourist suddenly said, "Gaaah!" Took two steps backwards, tripped over a small rock, and fell backwards into a bush.

Milliscent sighed. "He must be just about done downloading," she thought. "Hey," she said softly, "It's okay; I don't bite, don't have rabies, almost never spray, and I bathe regularly. You're safe now. You can relax."

The male, Joe Hardy, got up, brushed himself off and mumbled, "I might have known, with the world named SkunkWks..." He looked at the cowboy hat that he'd dropped then reached down to pick it up. As he was trying to replace it on his head, his hand brushed a horn. He dropped the hat in surprise, reached up with both hands and grabbed his horns. He started patting his head, then his face and muzzle. "What am I?"

Nancy laughed at him. "You are a cowboy, love. And I am a cowgirl," and she whirled around. "How do I look?"

He stood there for a second, a stupid look on his face, and then grinned. "Wow! Awesome, nice horns too." She had the head of a Texas Longhorn cow, on a rather shapely woman's body, and covered in brown/black brindled cow skin, blending to tan on her throat and lower face. Her horns were long and thin, and twisted slightly. She wore an embroidered denim skirt, a frilly white blouse, boots, and a white hat. She grinned at him.

"Check yourself out," she said. "You are one buff bull." It was true. He had the head of a Texas Longhorn bull, on the well-muscled body of a man. He was covered in bluish-gray cow skin freckled with black and blending to lighter on his chest and belly. His head was dark. His horns were shorter and straighter than hers, but over twice as thick around. He wore jeans, an unbuttoned denim vest, boots, and a tan hat. He grinned back.

"Hey. I think I like this world a lot better already," he said. "Awesome tourist avs. Awesome."

Nancy turned toward Milliscent. "Why did those two weasels insist we empty our pockets? Tourists cannot bring anything into the worlds."

"Well, because they knew you do have something in your pockets. A sort of welcome gift... Raisins. Don't ask me why Scotty put little boxes of raisins in your pockets then made some of the bots raisin addicts." She smiled crookedly, "Half the stuff he does makes no sense to my poor little bot brain." Then she brightened, "But he programmed me first, and has been working on my scripts the longest. So I guess that makes me the smartest bot in here. I'm 'first bot', did you know?" and she nodded and smiled to herself. Then aloud said, "And I am all-powerful bot, I don't even need weapons like those silly ferrets."

"Ummm, Milliscent..." said Nancy. "All-powerful? Is there something we should know to stay out of trouble?" She glanced a bit nervously at Milliscent's tail.

"Oh, nothing difficult. No predatory behavior, like harassment of others. And nothing to excess, like flooding or being a potty mouth."

Joe spoke up, "What is there to see here? I see wonderful woods, and this stream? Where does it come from, where does it go?"

"Well," she said. "Straight north and to the northeast is the Woods Of Westermain. There are some old ruins there, which are haunted by forest spirits – the Fae. At least it will be when those bots are done. The canyon to the northeast marks the boundary between Westermain and the Tiger Woods south. To the northwest, up the main canyon, is the northern end of the Natalie Woods. That is where I live, at The Center For Advanced Stuff. Straight west is the heart of the Natalie Woods and where the ferrets have their hole. South of that is the Creation Workshop. Then in the very southwest corner is the lake" she paused. "It has a vortex and you can ride that down to the caverns."

"What is a vortex?" asked Joe.

Nancy answered him, "Like a whirlpool, but bigger and more dangerous. Ummm, Milliscent, the ferrets live in the woods to the West?"

"Yes."

"Okay, then that is out. I don't feel like meeting up with them again."

"The Natalie Woods are really beautiful, open and pleasant, and the ferrets are not always like that, they can be a lot of fun. Still I can understand your reluctance. Maybe on another visit." Milliscent continued, "Oh yea, straight south is the beach, and Don Key has a concession stand there, ice cream and other snacks. And the swamp, but we're not to take visitors there."

"Why not?" asked Nancy.

"It's dangerous. There's quicksand, bad gasses, poison snakes, and other things that bite or sting. Plus it is just plain icky. And then there is Bluto..." her voice trailed off.

"What's a Bluto?"

"Hmmm, 'who' I suppose qualifies. Not really an animal, or a fur person and definitely not human. He's big and he's grumpy, and he does not like visitors." Milliscent looked at Nancy to see how she reacted to that last bit of information. "But enough of the swamp." She quickly continued on, "To the East is the Tiger Woods. There are no tigers there yet, Scotty has not finished them, but there is a castle. The woods are kind of ruined. They say men lived there before the tigers drove them out."

Nancy looked puzzled, "That does not make any sense. How could the tigers have driven the men away if the tigers don't exist there yet?"

Milliscent was quiet and thought a bit, "I don't know. I just know that men once lived in the Tiger Woods and they chopped down the biggest of the trees, dug the pit, made a castle, then the tigers came and killed most of the men and drove out the rest. That was long ago. Since then the tigers have been replanting the forest. There are few big trees, but you can see the new trees, and what is left of the old ones."

"But no tigers now?" asked Nancy.

Milliscent looked like she did not know what to say.

Joe spoke up, "Oh never mind about the tigers honey. Let's go see that Don fellow. I'd like an ice cream." He tuned to Milliscent, "A beach you say? Is there swimming?"

"Oh yes."

"Sounds good," said Joe. "I could use a snack and a dip."

Nancy screwed up her face at that last comment like she was about to say something, but then changed her mind.

Milliscent said, "You have little boxes of raisins in your pockets, it is a bit of a hike. And I have some wonderful apples in my bag." She opened her bag and removed an apple and held it out to Nancy, who was the closest.

Nancy's hand began to come up to take the apple, but she stopped and stared at Milliscent's paw. "Oh, no, no. I don't really like apples all that much. Raisins are just fine," she lied. Then looked down so she would not have to look Milliscent in the eye. She patted at her denim skirt and found a pocket that held three small red boxes of raisins. She removed one box, opened it, then started taking out and eating one raisin at a time, staring at the ground and chewing slowly.

Joe seemed clueless as to what just happened and said, "But honey, you love apples. Don't you love apples?"

She just shook her head and mumbled, "Not right now, maybe later."

Joe turned to Milliscent and said, "Well, I love apples Milliscent, and yours look really good. What kind of apple is that?" As he took it, his hand brushed her paw. Then he smiled at her and took a bite of the apple without even polishing it first.

Rejection and acceptance in the space of only a few seconds, Milliscent was both hurt and elated. "Oh Joe, you can call me Millie, and the apple is a Winesap." Her mind raced as to what to do. She suddenly thought of a way to give that Nancy girl something to think about, and maybe tease Joe at bit at the same time.

"Walk this way," she said. Then slowly turned her back on Joe and Nancy. As she did, she had lowered her tail so they would get a good clear view of her back, the ebony hairs beside the pure white. A white stripe started at the shock of white hair on top of her head, ran down her neck, separated into twin stripes and ran down either side of her back and continued along either side of her tail all the way to its tip. Slowly she raised her tail straight up, arched her lower back, and then looked back over her shoulder. Both Joe and Nancy were standing open mouthed, watching her display. She smiled very sweetly and said, "My friends call me Stinky." She winked at them and started walking south along the path, her tail held high. She made a show of wiggling her bottom as she walked.

She could hear Joe's footsteps behind her, then Nancy's run to catch up to Joe.

Nancy's loud whisper came from behind, "You pig!" then a thwack.

"Ow," whined Joe, "why'd ya hit me?"

And the whisper again, "Don't you dare call her 'Stinky' or you'll get worse than that. And stop that wiggling."

Milliscent smiled to herself. It was good to be in control, to be all-powerful bot.

Then the three crossed a bridge just above where a creek joined the main stream and they continued south.

<end of chapter 1>