The Alanno Anthology

Story One

"WE WANT OUR MEN BACK," cried out the continuous chant of the protesters outside of the Alanno Embassy.

Pulling the curtains from the window just a bit, the tall white furred Alannoy female with light gray short hair and two white broken horns looked down at the crowd of humans marching back and forth with their picket fences. She smiled as she turned around back into the room.  

"They are persistent I'll give them that," the white Alanno said looking at the two other Alanno women in the room.

Sitting by a large wood desk filled with papers and folders was a black fur Alanno with two straight curling black horns coming out her long black hair going down her broad shoulders wearing a traditional human suit. The other, a rust red Alanno with straight red horns and black red hair done into a bun and wearing a similar attire, sat in a large red leather chair holding a large cup of brandy looking at the white Alanno smiling back.

"Well, you don't know what you have until it's gone," said the black Alanno flatly as she read over an open folder.

"Ha, it's like looking at spoiled children after you take away their broken toys. Especially after they complained that it was broken," the red Alanno chuckled as she swished her drink in her cup.

"How's the paperwork Lerre," asked the white Alanno to the black one.

"Cumbersome. So many worthless complaints, so little time," Lerre sighed. 

The red Alanno chuckled before taking a sip of her brandy. "They make it so easy for us to continue our mission."

"Be careful what you say Xaasa, you don't know who is listening," the white Alanno said cautiously, walking over to the red Alanno.

"What are they going to do, throw us off this planet? We're already too integrated into their system," boasted Xaasa.

"That may be but we are still eons away from our final steps, it's good to keep a low profile," interjected Lerre as she move some papers into a growing bin of finished documents. 

"And we don't what a catastrophe like last time," added the white Alanno, looking over a list of books by the bookshelf behind Xaasa.

"You worry too much Rassa. That world didn't like us from the beginning anyway," interjected Xaasa.

"That may be but it's never a bad thing to be too careful," said Rassa, taking out a book titled 'Beauty and the Beast', "slow and steady wins the race, as the humans would say."

"Mmhm, interesting," said Lerre, looking over a recently opened folder.

"Found something interesting in that pile of junk," Xaasa commented before taking another sip.

"Apparently some of our protesters had filed formal complaints."

"Ooh, some Intel on our adversaries," Xaasa said sounding intrigued.

"Well…"