A/N: This is reworked version of the my first published story on . It's now a story in the Bleach Anime-verse - which I've always been a fan of along with DBZ. It is roughly 200 odd years before Bleach 1, cant be more specific due to the messy unspecified nature of the Bleach timeline. Knowledge of Bleach will help but isn't necessary. Soul Society is also reworked a bit to reflect a more multi-national population base, but still dominated by Asian influences (this will be explained in-story). I don't own Bleach and this is written for fun not profit, blah blah.

Chapter 1

The sun shone down weakly on a rugged mountainous region of land, its rays filtered by low lying grey clouds that occasionally even obscured a mountain as it reached down and hugged the earth. Colors of every type imaginable reached the eye, the soft green of lichen, grass and small trees, the rugged damp brown of rock, the occasional blue as the wind softly pushed the white clouds and allowed a glimpse to seemingly infinite blue of sky beyond. Yet, for all the ruggedness of the terrain, interspersed between the mountains were wide sweeping valleys, and draped like haphazardly fallen blue strings over the mountains were small rivers and tiny waterfalls which drained into the valleys. In the valleys through the day shadows of the looming mountains would be cast like a giant finger before the sun. Every early morning the twittering of birds would resonate through the region as they scurried and swooped about the land to find their breakfasts.

In one such valley, if you looked closely enough, you would soon begin to hear a natural sound, but in essence was an unnatural one. The clip clop of a horse is natural, the sound of its hooves on the earth. However the two horses trotting slowly down a beaten path into the valley, could not claim to be purely of nature; affixed to the undersoles of their hooves were steel shoes, hard leather crafted saddles adorned their backs, and reigns were mounted over their equine heads. Both horses were palominos with their trimmed manes rippling in the wind and the motion of their bodies as they moved slowly forward. And sitting atop each horse were two rather tall teenagers.

Leading slightly and clearly the elder was a sixteen year old girl, she was slender in figure and shape, but tall; reaching almost five feet nine inches, her loose long black hair that fell into the small of her back rippled in the wind and her keen sapphire blue eyes gazed intently, scanning her surroundings. Her face had a pleasant appearance to look at, soft contours melded together, and it was clear that she was of Northern European descent. Her skin bore no makeup but she managed to look elegant anyway, with her fair skin pleasantly brown in the sun; it spoke of many hours swimming or sun tanning. She wore blue jeans that hugged her figure and rugged mountain boots adorned her feet, whilst a thick long sleeved red checkered shirt provided a bit of warmth from the cool to temperate climate.

Following her was a boy; he was thirteen, though he was about a head shorter than her. He had the same black hair and facial features. Clearly a younger brother and he was clad in similar attire but with a blue checkered shirt and a brimmed cowboy style hat. Slung across both teenagers backs were scoped 30.06 hunting rifles.

The girl brought her mount to a halt, her brother following and from a satchel on her saddle brought out a pair of binoculars and put them to her eyes, scanning the valley below.

"See anything sis?"

"Ja," she responded positively staring through the lenses. "But it's not an antelope, it's just a small hare."

"Damn," said the younger brother, frowning in frustration. "We've been traveling for almost half a day and not a sign of any worthy prey."

"Patience," she said in slightly admonishing tone. "The wind has only been in our favor since we've entered this valley. Hunting is not like one of your computer games, it's an art. And besides, you're in the Roland Warding section of the game farm, the antelope here are big, old and experienced. And our Uncle has let too many rich dentists in here to hunt in recent times." Roland Warding was a standard of quality for all game animals. If a male antelope, for instance had horns longer than a certain length…it was called a Roland Warding.

"But why?" he asked plaintively. "It's making it harder for me get my first antelope."

"Because our Uncle is a cunning skobbejak (scoundrel)," she said with a fond grin. "By making the antelope harder to kill, he's getting more return in his investment. The rich folks still want to bag that elusive kill and trophy but end up coming out empty handed, and yet, Uncle still gets the money for their stay. Only someone with skill and experience can bag a Roland Warding trophy now."

"Do you think we'll be able to do it?" he asked eagerly.

"Yes, Klaus," she rolled her eyes, "in case you didn't remember, while you were out becoming a brainiac on a computer I was always outdoors and spent every holiday I've ever had out here."

"Of course, I remember," said Klaus in a disgruntled fashion.

"So, anyway, let's continue into the valley, we'll keep hunting for another hour, and then we have to start on the journey back," she advised, "and no further talking. The antelope may no longer be able to smell us, but they'll sure to hear us talking and scurry away before we can spot them."

"Yes, Melly," said Klaus with a teasing grin.

"It's Melanie," she replied angrily. "Stop butchering my name."

"Sorry, sis," he said, hardly looking it.

"Keep bothering me," she said warningly shaking a finger at her brother, "and I turn us around now."

Her brother shrugged, knowing she wouldn't do it. As their Uncle had instructed her to get Klaus his first antelope kill and be done with it, the boy had been irritating their parents and Uncle about it constantly for the past six months, ever since he had got it into his head that he wanted to at least do something as 'manly' as his cool big sister did.

Melanie would always head to their Uncle's game farm during school holidays, and it was here where she learned the 'old ways of the world' as their Uncle always put it. She had learned to ride horses, shoot a rifle, and track game, live off the land, in short, all the skills that a Ranger possessed. And when she was back in the city, when school was back in session, she had a spot on the school athletic team as a High jumper, but she did not stand out in the sport, despite her obvious athleticism. Her true talent, to the surprise of most of the family, was in martial arts. She had seen an exhibition in her freshman year done at their High School by a visiting Ninjitsu sensei, who was promoting his art and his newly opened dojo, just a few blocks away from the High School.

When Klaus had first heard of this he could only snort in disbelief and laughter. Ninjitsu in most Western minds was synonymous with the utterly ridiculous cartoon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and he had teased his sister mercilessly about it. Until a few months later she had issued him a challenge to come and visit the dojo and see her train. What he had seen that night, had made him shut his trap faster than he could say the word 'Ninja'. He had seen how his sister could toss a man almost twice her weight as effortlessly as she was taking a morning stroll. Now, granted, it was only in a training situation, and her fellow student (the man she flung effortlessly) had allowed it, but the fact remained that she could do such a thing, if so inclined.

All this had finally let him come to one conclusion…that his sister despised acting like a typical girl her age…and when he had finally joined her this year in the same High School he saw that most of her friends were boys, and only here and there she had a female friend, he had it finally confirmed in his mind.

Still, he took comfort in the fact that, while his big sister was all these things, she hardly gave a damn for the Internet and computers, bar its obvious benefits as a help in her schoolwork. She couldn't sit in front of the computer and make it sing and dance for her like he could. Klaus was already beginning to think he his future lay in a job like IT security consulting or something similar.

But he still wanted to at least get closer to his sister in the 'manly' department, so he decided to forsake his beloved laptop and joined his sister during the brief two week October holidays to the game farm. Where he got a basic course how to shoot the rifle slung to his back and ride a horse; he was rather adept with the rifle, (only when shooting from a prone position) and his horsemanship was limited to keeping the horse at a slow trot (he just couldn't get the hang of how to stay in the seat while the horse was galloping).

"All right," came Melanie's voice, breaking through his thoughts, "that's it, time to go back."

He looked at her in surprise, had an hour passed already? She was staring at the sun's position overhead.

Klaus grumbled under his breath as he guided his horse to turn around. It was slow going, as for a while the horse just kept trotting forward, but eventually turned left in a wide turning circle. Melanie on the other hand had somehow guided her horse to turn on the spot and had to wait a bit for him to catch up.

"Don't worry, little bro," she said smiling brightly at him. "There's always tomorrow. A hunt like this is not a quick thing…sometimes you're lucky…sometimes you're not."

"Have you ever failed to hunt anything?" asked Klaus a bit morosely. It was the third day and the third attempt to hunt a Roland Warding antelope.

"Of course," said Melanie, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "There was that time three years ago during the June holidays, an entire month and fifteen hunting trips like this one, and the specific type of antelope I wanted had totally eluded me."

"Why so picky?" asked Klaus confused. "Why not just hunt anything that came along your way, if the pickings were that dry?"

"I don't hunt for the sake of killing, nor do I hunt for pride or ego," said Melanie sternly, "in my six years of coming here every holiday, I've only killed three antelope, you've seen their trophies mounted in father's study. I hunt for the journey, and for being outdoors in this fresh unpolluted air, and also because it's fun stalking the game here."

"Oh, so it's a test of skill for you?" said Klaus in realization. Melanie nodded. It took slightly longer to get out of the valley, as they were going uphill and after an hour and a half both siblings crested the valley and guided their mounts on a due northern direction around the mountain. It took two hours for Klaus to realize their route was different than the one they had used to reach the Roland Warding section of the farm. Here was another of Klaus gifts, near perfect Eidetic memory, once he has seen a thing, he always remembered it, and his memory was telling him that their to and from routes did not match.

"Where are we going sis?"

"Oh, we're taking a slight detour to a very nice waterfall," she said, "the horses could use a drink and we could sure use some sustenance as well."

And just as she mentioned it, Klaus's stomach gave an angry growl.

"I've awakened the monster," she said dramatically. Klaus in an amazing display of maturity stuck his tongue out to her. They had both had an early breakfast, and frankly Klaus was surprised that he had gone so long without a meal, as it was well past midday.

Soon enough, they could hear the frothing and hissing of falling water and after guiding their horses around a sheer wall of rock they trotted down and Klaus could only gape at the sight before him. From high above a thick stream of water fell of the edge and into a pool roughly ten meters in width. The air was very humid here and he could feel the cold spray drifting onto his skin. The sun caused a refractive rainbow of color as he looked at the spray of the waterfall.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" said Melanie with a smile. Klaus could only nod. "I had the exact same reaction when Uncle showed me this place for the first time, it's what made me choose to learn from him and come back every holiday."

Klaus felt quite touched that she would show him such a place, which held such importance for her. Despite the fact that they were siblings, there had been a kind of estrangement between them as she had headed off to High School four years ago. They only saw each other during evenings and since she took martial arts in the evenings, even less time were available to them. It had been a rather interesting mystery to figure out who his sister had become, now that he was also in High School.

They dismounted after coming to a stop at the edge of the natural pool. Klaus had to suddenly use his horse for support as his legs buckled under his weight for a moment, and he felt rather stiff. Melanie winced in sympathy.

"You're going to feel today's riding rather badly," she said, gathering her horse's reigns to let it dangle forward.

"Again?" he said indignantly.

"It takes a while for your body to become used to the pounding," she shrugged. "I suggest you do those stretching exercises I showed you again."

Melanie walked over to Klaus's mount and helped him with the reigns of his horse. She un-slung her rifle from her back and after doing the safety procedure of opening the bolt and checking the chamber to make sure it was empty and the bullets in the small magazine still in place, she shoved the rifle into the special leather holster on her horse's saddle and turned to watch her brother do the same safety procedure, afterwards, immediately doing the stretching exercises.

She pulled and unstrapped her rolled up sleeping bag from behind the saddle of the horse and rolled it open on as dry ground she could find, and after releasing her horse from the weight of her saddlebags, dropped them on the splayed out bag. Opening the flap she pulled out two plastic lunch boxes filled with sandwiches and some fruit, and placed them on the bag, the water canteen also joining them.

Seeing this of course, caused Klaus to lose all enthusiasm for his stretching exercises and he was soon seated on the sleeping bag and digging in to his lunch box. Melanie, though, ate with more restraint but also wolfed down the entire contents of the box and drank a generous portion of the canteen.

Melanie closed her box, putting it back into the saddlebags and stood stretching the kinks out of her back and groaning. "You want to try the pool?" she asked her brother.

"Ummmm…no, thanks," he said, gulping. He knew they had not packed any sort of swimming trunks, and that could only mean that…

Melanie stood and with a slight hesitation (thinking about her brother's discomfort) pulled off her all terrain boots and socks and started to undress, soon enough, all her clothes lay at her feet and without a care in the world walked forward into the waterfall pool and began to wade and drift in it. Letting the water wipe the grime and sweat from her body and even once let herself be briefly bombarded by the residual fall of the water from high above, it was too powerful to stand under directly.

Klaus allowed himself a brief stare at his sister's nude form, and had to admit from a purely clinical, objective point of view that she was rather beautiful, certainly not fashion runway material. Her skin was evenly tanned all over and though she did not have the breasts his buddies are always salivating after, they were there…a B-cup, he judged. Her hips and waist were well on their way to rounding into full womanhood, her legs were long, toned and athletic and she kept herself smooth between her legs.

Klaus averted his eyes from that point, as he had felt his objectivity begin to slip and he lay back on the sleeping bag and stared up into the sky.

Melanie stared at the position of the sun and decided that it was time to go; they had to get back to the farm compound before sundown and that left only three hours to make the journey. She judged they would probably be back just as the twilight of the setting sun hit.

Rising out of the pool and shaking off as much water as she could, she headed over to the saddlebags.

"Come, Klaus, we've gotta get back before sundown, or Uncle will make my life a living hell," she said. Klaus nodded and began to roll up the sleeping back which he had been lying on. Melanie pulled out a small towel from the saddle bag and dried herself as best as possible, which wasn't much.

Oh, well, guess I'd just have to dry naturally, she inwardly smirked.

She stuffed her clothes into the saddlebag, bar the socks and boots, and quickly put those on. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Klaus, initially his eyes widened in shock but then he got a contemplative expression on his face.

Dressed only in socks and boots, Melanie hoisted her saddlebags back on her horse and after gathering the reigns, mounted the horse in one fluent move. She could see Klaus's hands shaking a bit and he coughed. She felt a bit sorry that she was making him uncomfortable, as he mounted his own horse and followed in her wake for a moment, before she saw him encourage his horse to trot alongside hers.

Soon the hissing of the waterfall was behind them and fading into the distance, as they were soon skirting a nice wide mountain pass.

"You do this regularly, don't you?" said Klaus, trying hard to keep the accusation out of his voice, gesturing to her nudity.

"Yes," she nodded, "as you can no doubt see, I have no tan lines."

"You're a naturist," he stated. She sighed in response to the title.

"I suppose, but in my case, not entirely accurate," she said in response.

"How so?"

"I believe that in an appropriate setting," she gestured around them, "and in the right climate, to wear clothes is not necessary. But our ancestors began to wear clothing for a reason…the cold. Clothes serve a useful purpose, and in that I agree, in our current civilization; clothing often reflects status or power, that I do agree with to a marginal extent, however a naturist believes otherwise."

"Does Mom and Dad know, and Uncle?" he asked with a frown.

"Of course," said Melanie, she considered herself lucky, for when God was handing out families, that she had been blessed the most open-minded and considering parents on the planet, they were strict but fair, and in her opinion she hoped she could raise her own children in the future in the same way.

"How did they take it?" he asked curiously, staring fixedly ahead.

"Surprised, at first, obviously," she said dryly, "then asked me to explain why I wanted to walk around naked."

"What did you say?"

"God created us in his image, if he wanted us to hide our true appearance from each other, we would have been born with clothes or some sort of natural coverings for our unique attributes," she responded with a smile and a twinkle in her blue eyes. "Why should we feel shame over His creation? We don't feel shame over the shape of the trees, or the color of the sky etc, so why for our bodies?"

"Makes sense I suppose," conceded Klaus.

"And I don't want you to be afraid of looking at me in this state," she said sternly.

"What?" he squeaked.

"You heard me," she said, "look at me Klaus," she ordered, her voice brooking no argument. Reluctantly, he turned his head to look at her. "I'm not ashamed and you fear you're going to have a…reaction to my nakedness. It will happen, its natural, even though I'm your sister, it's simply your natural hormones speaking. But there is absolutely nothing sexual about naturism. When eventually, you have seen me for long enough like this, it will become normal for you and nothing will happen. In fact, you will soon not even notice it."

"Ok, I understand," he said a bit uncomfortably and the conversation died down as Klaus fell back a little and took his sister's invitation to stare at her nude form, and amazingly enough hardly half an hour later, he found her nudity had vanished from his mind and he could look at her completely calmly.

The journey continued and Melanie found that she had slightly overestimated how long it would take to get back to the farm compound…it seemed that Klaus was beginning to get the hang of sitting on a horse at a faster speed, and as such both mounts had trotted at a fast pace, as a result they had arrived an hour earlier than she anticipated. Soon enough, after crossing a familiar stream, the farm compound came into view.

It was situated on a small plain with a looming sheer mountain overhead to its south side. The compound occupied a footprint of about a hectare of land, with an eight foot high fence around it; which was camouflaged with thick green vines growing on it. Various large trees dotted the compound, the largest of which was an eighty year old gnarled oak tree near the centre of the compound. The ground was covered in luscious, well maintained green lawns, which surrounded the various houses on the compound like a sea of green around islands of manmade stone. The front gate was a near artistic creation of stone, a sloping stone contour that tapered to each side of the entrance, which was wide enough for cars to enter. On the left side, spelled out in a mosaic of smooth river bed stones was 'Villiers Game and Hunting Farm' and on the right was the Dutch translation 'Villiers Diere en Jag Plaas'.

Melanie continued onwards and when the two teenagers neared to within two hundred meters of the gate, Klaus coughed slightly.

"Ummm, shouldn't you be getting dressed now, sis," he said uncertainly. Melanie chuckled in response.

"No," she said confidently. "When I started doing this, six years ago, Uncle hit upon the idea of making his farm a 'clothing optional' place. And he makes it quite clear in his advertising brochures he leaves in the various bars, hiking and gun shops all around the country. Since he did that, his occupancy rate has doubled."

"But I haven't seen anyone else naked around here," said Klaus in an alarmed fashion, staring around as if there were suddenly going to jump from the bushes a bunch of naked people and yell, 'Surprise!'. Melanie chucked again.

"That's quite simple to explain," said Melanie, "it's been in deference to your first here since you were six years old that Uncle has asked the guests to refrain from doing that. But the guests have been harping him about it, and he asked me to feel you out on the subject today. No doubt when he sees me he'll immediately conclude that I've been successful."

"I'm not going to have to walk around naked too, am I?" asked Klaus nervously.

"Of course not, if you don't want to," said Melanie astonished, "it's 'clothing optional'."

And with that the two teens crossed through the gates of the farm compound. No one was immediately in sight at first as they guided their horses along the cobblestone road made for cars, and headed towards the stables. But as they neared the main house, (incidentally the largest and where their Uncle lived) which was closest to the gate, they saw on the balcony of the second floor their Uncle himself standing and leaning against the railing.

Uncle Hendrik was a tall man, reaching about six foot two; he had short curly hair on his head which had the first showings of grey reaching through the brown. He had an angular face which could scowl angrily enough to make you want to run the other way, but his eyes were the kindly azure blue that all of them shared. He had a strong build with thick, hairy arms and today he wore khaki pants with a khaki cargo shirt, with green shoulder boards showing his Game Ranger affiliation.

"Had fun, Klaus?" he barked humorously.

"Yeah," he said disgruntled. "Not a single sighting today."

"Better luck day after tomorrow then," said Uncle Hendrik. "I see your sister has told you about our little 'option' on this farm. Good. That will please majority of the guests."

"Yeah," repeated Klaus.

"See ya later, Uncle," waved Melanie, as they passed the main house and turned right towards the large stables, which housed all the horses. The farm had eight horses that could be used by the guests, while the two Melanie and Klaus were riding were only allowed to be used by Uncle Hendrik and visiting family members.

They both dismounted and led their respective horses into the stables and Melanie guided Klaus through the 'grooming and maintenance' of the horse. She showed him how to bend the leg of the horse to check the shoe for any debris then took a large brush to groom the horse clean from dust and finally removing the saddlebags and saddle itself. They restocked the mangers with hay and even threw in a carrot as a treat.

Carrying the saddlebags and rifle slings out of the stable, Melanie stopped and quickly pulled off her boots and socks, stuffing them in the saddlebags. She let out a sigh of contentment as her feet were freed from the heavy all terrain boots, and were padding on the soft grass, and finally she felt truly free and liberated…to her there was no other feeling like it in the world as to walk around completely in the nude and feeling the wind gliding softly over her body.

She picked up the saddlebags and rifle again and caught up with Klaus who had stopped only for a few moments to see what his big sister was doing. Soon, Melanie was walking up the steps onto the wide verandah of the main house and walked into it in her brother's wake. They emerged into the entrance hallway; the floor of which was lined in smooth dark floorboards and wood paneling and mounted on walls were nature landscapes; some photographed, some painted. Her Uncle's house had a definite feel of yesteryear to it; from the smell of the air, to the furniture, it was as if you were walking into the eighteenth century.

There were, of course, modern amenities among all this, electric halogen lights adorned the ceiling, and she could hear the cursing and good natured yelling of the guests at the big screen satellite television in the lounge room, no doubt an important Rugby game was going on. And as she walked deeper into the house, she passed her Uncles' study and saw the computer sitting on the ancient mahogany desk; her brother was salivating over the thing, as it was apparently one of the new sixty-four bit processor machines.

Her room in this house was a much more modest affair than the one in her parents' house back in the city. Three meters by three meters, all it had was a single dresser, a single bed in one corner and a small study desk and lamp. She dumped the saddlebags on her bed and carefully pulled out her 30.06 rifle and sat down on the bed. She opened the sliding bolt and pressed small button on the side of the rifle, letting the magazine fall out, checking there was no bullets in the chamber again, she closed the bolt and pulled the trigger, with the muzzle pointed at the ceiling to 'dry fire' the rifle. This was to relax the firing mechanism, which if left tensed for too long would cause the coiled spring inside to remain in position, and effectively ruined the entire bolt action. She slung the weapon back into its leather sling, gathered the magazine and placed it on her small desk and placed the rifle on its specialized wooden mount on the wall. This done she pulled out all her clothes out of the saddlebags and flung them into the small washing basket in the corner of the room.

She walked out into the hallway again and went next door to check on her brother. His room was similar in design to hers and she found that he had unpacked already and had his 'temporary' rifle (since it actually belonged to Uncle Hendrik) also mounted. He had flung himself onto his bed and had his eyes closed, but his breathing was too fast and deep to indicate sleep, so she walked in and pulled the rifle off the mount and quickly did the safety procedure.

"I did do it properly," he said slightly petulantly.

"I know," sighed Melanie, locking the bolt and dry firing the rifle. She placed it back on the mount. "It's not that I think you don't know what you're doing, it's just that you can never be too cautious about weapons. The accidents I've seen and heard stories about don't bear contemplating."

"You've seen a rifle accident?" he blurted astonished sitting up, "was anyone hurt?"

"Yes, and no one was hurt, but it was a close thing," said Melanie. "And believe it or not, it happened to Uncle Hendrik."

"Really?" he asked.

"Yes, it was three years ago, he escorted some guests through the mountains in the Willis Jeep," it was a painstakingly restored model dating back to World War 2, Uncle thought it had probably been used in North Africa by the Americans, "he was sitting in the back with his rifles' butt on his foot, and there was a round in the chamber, and his safety was on. But then the jeep hit a nasty bump in the gravel road and it slipped off his foot and hit the floor of the Jeep hard, the shock triggered the spring inside the bolt action, but it was stopped by the safety…he didn't know this though, and then a few minutes later he saw an antelope and just as he switched the safety off the rifle fired prematurely. Luckily, he kept the muzzle up in the air when he did it. But still, it was a nasty shock to him."

"Damn, if he with all his experience could make that mistake…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, then don't take it personally if I second guess you about the way you handle that rifle," said Melanie softly. "Anyway, are you going to get some rest?" Klaus nodded. "Good, just do those stretches again before you fall asleep, okay?" He nodded again. "Good." She turned quickly on the circle her breasts bouncing freely and walked out of the room.

In the hallway, Melanie heard that the sounds from the lounge had stopped and when she glanced into the room she saw only her Uncle was there and all the chairs were empty of guests and the big screen was off.

"Is the game finished?" she asked.

"Yes," nodded her Uncle, it looked as if he had swallowed something foul. "Free State beaten by Northern Blue Bulls, forty two against twenty."

"Yay for my team," she said sarcastically. She was not an avid follower of Rugby, though she kept up with the scores and who won the league. She could not imagine sitting through eighty minutes of a game and scream, groan, curse and cheer at the misfortunes and fortunes of a team. She tentatively supported the Blue Bulls, only because they were based in the city she was born and lived in. "Have you told the guests that 'clothing optional' is allowed again?"

"I did," he said, a gleam in his eye. "There are a few lovely ladies already out there," he stared out the window, "too bad they are all married." Uncle Hendrik was a widower, his wife had died due to breast cancer at the age of forty, that was just seven years ago. Sometimes Melanie thought, he had only allowed his farm to become 'clothing optional' because he missed Auntie Annie. But she didn't think so. Ever since his wife had died, instead of retreating into his shell, he had gained an unquenchable passion for life, to enjoy the gifts God had given him, and appreciate the beauty that came to his farm. Sometimes Uncle Hendrik would just stare at Melanie when she was playing outside in the nude and his eyes twinkled in appreciation and his mouth smiled in contentment…and afterwards without fail he would thank Melanie for giving him the gift of the vision of youth and beauty. Of course, it was not only with her he did this, any female guest walking around in the nude could feel his reverence for their forms in his eyes.

Melanie walked up to the window and could see beyond out on the sea of lush grass; that a group of four nude women in their mid thirties were spreading blankets onto the grass and lay down to catch the last half an hour of decent sun. Their voices could not be heard from this distance but the occasional giggle did reach her ears.

She turned around and spied the remote control for the television on the coffee table.

"Do you mind, Uncle?" she gestured towards the device.

"No, go ahead."

Melanie seated herself deftly on the couch and tucked her legs in under herself and thumbed the remote control. The TV came on the sports channel the men had been watching, showing highlight reruns.

She began flipping the numerous satellite channels available and after finding only reruns of shows she had already seen on her favorite channels like, Discovery, National Geographic, History and MTV, she switched the television off and walked off to the study to check her email account…only to find that Klaus was already there. With a huff, she stalked off to the kitchen and ate a microwave meal…only to find Klaus was still on the net…she returned to her room and snuggled into the bed with a good book…

She didn't remember falling asleep.

The boundaries of the Villiers game farm was well over eight feet of chain link fence; that was also electrified, with barbed wire twirling on top, which was also slanted in both directions to keep things in and also out. At the northeastern part of the boundary something decidedly odd had happened during the night.

In the earth near the fence, there were the impressions of tire tracks and multitudes of footprints belonging to at least three people were scattered in and around the area. The most visible phenomenon on the earth was a meter wide swath of flat ground leading directly towards the fence in a thick, fat line. And right at the point where the line and the fence met…the fence was cut at least halfway up in a square flap like fashion, almost like a supremely enlarged version of a cat flap on a door…except the tracks that let into the Villiers farm was decidedly too big to belong to a house cat…

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Melanie awoke blearily to the sound of birds chirping and in the distance a cockerel announced the rising of the sun.

"Somebody shoot that bloody chicken," she muttered under her breath. She tried to in vain to fall asleep again, once she was awake, she was awake and no amount of trying would cause her to nod off again. She threw off the covers over herself and headed over to the wardrobe. She had the door opened halfway when she realized that she didn't have to wear clothes anymore for Klaus's sake and closed the wardrobe and walked out of the room towards the bathroom. A quick shower took care of her hair which was standing in all directions and a brushing of the teeth removed the icky taste in her mouth.

Staring out the windows, as she walked down the hallway, showed her the rapidly lighting landscape and she decided to treat her Uncle and Klaus to a nice breakfast of French toast, bacon, and freshly squeezed orange juice. It took about half an hour to prepare everything, knowing the quantities of food that Klaus and her Uncle consumed. She ate her share and headed outside, grabbing a towel on the way.

Standing on the verandah she stretched luxuriantly and breathed in the fresh mountain air and headed off towards the centre of the compound. Here was a large rounded pool about fifteen meters in length. Around which were sloped, wooden, adjustable pool chairs. The sun was about fifteen degrees above the horizon and already the area was already coated in a nice warmth.

Melanie spread her towel over a pool chair, and adjusted it so that it resembled a flat bed and lay face down upon it, allowing the sun to bathe her body. A quarter of an hour passed when…

"Excuse me," came a voice from her right. Melanie perched herself up on her arms and looked in the direction of the voice. A young man stood there, he was a shade over five foot seven, with pale skin, he had brown eyes set in a pointed face with soft black hair which was slightly long and parted to the right. He had towel slung across his right shoulder and like her, was wearing nothing else. He had a well toned torso and wiry strong muscle in his arms with broadish shoulders…he was no muscle man, but it was clear he worked out. "May I take this seat?" he gestured to the pool chair two seats away from her.

"Sure," she said nonchalantly, "that what's it's there for." She tried to guess his age and judging from the hair on his chest, maybe twenty four…five.

"Thanks," he said as he draped his towel on the chair. "My name is Steven."

"Melanie," I said in reply.

"Nice to meet you," he said in a dignified tone as he lay on his back allowing the sun to tan his front. I noticed he had a slight lilt in his English which I could not identify.

"So what do you do?" asked Melanie, something triggered her curiosity of this stranger. He opened his eyes and stared at her for a moment, seemingly thinking things through in formulating an answer.

"I am a teacher," he said eventually.

"Of what?"

"I can teach most High School subjects, though my interest lays in Natural Sciences," he replied.

"You don't say," said Melanie wryly, "well, here's me hoping for an 'A' next year."

"You're in Grade Eleven, I take it?" She nodded. "Horrible year," he visibly shuddered in remembrance.

"Tell me about it," she said rhetorically and then frowned in thought. "Which country do you come from?"

"What makes you think I'm a foreigner?" he asked a little abashed.

She smirked, "Your skin is a little too pale for you to come from this country, and your accent, while good, is slightly off,".

"Oh dear I seem to have been caught out," said Steven sarcastically with a merry laugh, his accent now sounded like an American one, Boston, if she had to guess. "Really should have put more effort into it."

"Why try to disguise your accent?" I asked with a frown.

"I suppose I wanted a level of discreetness as I traveled your marvelous country," he said with a lopsided grin.

"I'm guessing if I ask you why you want to be discreet, you'll answer me in some evasive manner then," she stated with a smirk.

"You guess correctly, young lady," he said nodding. "But I was telling the truth about my occupation."

"And what brings you to this hunting farm?" asked Melanie curiously, as she turned over to lie on her back, allowing for an even tan.

"The same thing that brings everybody else, I wanted a holiday in a natural environment, and seeing as I was in the country already…" he shrugged with a grin, "oh, I don't think I'll hunt anything, but I will take on one of the game drives."

"And naturism?"

"Oh, yes, I suppose I am a naturist, getting harder and harder in the 'States to practice it, fucking conservatives," he cussed with distaste.

"Yeah, is it just me, or has America been…I dunno…going down the tubes lately, politically speaking?…if you don't mind me saying so," said Melanie with a wry grin.

"It's because of all this hysteria going on,'" said Steven with a grimace, "about the World Trade Centre terrorism disaster and you've got the excuse the conservatives have been looking for to clamp down. The founding fathers are probably turning in their graves."

"I read once for a report I had to do in school," said Melanie closing her eyes, trying to remember from last years history class, "that Benjamin Franklin said 'Any society that gives up a little liberty for a little security, will gain neither, and in the long run, lose both.'"

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The following day, Klaus had another attempt to bag his elusive Roland Warding antelope trophy. Once again, he and Melanie were out on horses, in the Roland Warding section of the farm. The only difference of course being that this time, Melanie did not wear a stitch of clothing from the start. Klaus himself had been tempted to give it a try, but the instant he even considered the thought of walking out of his room unclothed he got major nerves that shuddered across his body. So he did not join his sister in walking about in the nude, but instead focused on getting his hunting trophy.

Melanie was in turn focused on getting her brother into a position to get his trophy. And it was not easy. The winds did not favor the pair of teenage hunters at all. So she decided to turn their route into the wind, hoping that a suitable antelope would be upwind from them.

She was leading her brother on a pass, the mountain rose steeply to their right, its view near totally obscured by a very low cloud that she could reach up and whip her hand through, to their left the earth was more even in its descent, making for a down angle of twenty degrees.

"Sis, how are we going to see the antelope with this cloud obscuring almost half our sight?" he asked. Melanie sighed…shaking her head.

"If I told once, I told you a thousand times, if you want to hunt you must keep quiet," she whispered intently.

It was just as her hearing returned after speaking that she heard a rapid noise, a noise of the earth being disturbed by a running, heavy quadroped, which sent red alarm bells tingling in her mind. And before she could even think of shouting a warning to Klaus, her horse had reared on its hind legs and was whinnying like mad at whatever it had perceived that she had not.

Melanie had tried to hold on, but it happened too suddenly. There was no time to tighten her feet in the stirrups, no time to get a better grip on the reigns…she fell backwards…the world felt surreal all of a sudden…strangely enough, she felt no pain as her body hit gravel path hard…her head bounced back up off a jagged rock that fate seen fit to put there…she heard a screaming…then the loud reports of three rifle shots one after the other…blam, click, click, blam, click, click, blam…and then she knew no more.