"You didn't have to break my ribs, you know," he said breathlessly, putting a hand to his side.

"Sorry," she said contritely, reaching under his shirt, and putting one of those big furry hands on his side. As always, her touch was very gentle, very intimate, and it always confused him. He had slept with this woman, but he didn't remember her, or it. That made him a little embrassed. She'd seen him naked, knew all kinds of very intimate things about him, and they'd done the most private things a boy and a girl could do together. Kimmie was around him all the time, either she or Triana, he'd noticed, almost hovering over him almost all the time. They'd even slept in his room for those two nights, Triana curled up on his bed in her cat form-it had been amazing to see her do that! Too bad she took off all her clothes beforehand, which made him blush to the roots of his hair. Triana was even more handsome naked, but even thinking that about her seemed absolutely scandalous to him. She was his mother, for goodness' sake! They wouldn't let him out of their sight, and he could see how defensive they got whenever stranger Sha'Kar or servants came close to him. They were being protective over him, as if he couldn't protect himself anymore. He knew that him not being a Were-cat anymore worried them and they thought it was unnatural, but he was getting tired of them thinking that he was helpless. When he finally got Triana to let him out of the house, Kimmie simply invited herself along and trampled over his desire to take a walk by himself. He found their hovering starting to get a little annoying, but he wasn't going to yell at them. No way he'd sass Triana, and Kimmie was just too sweet-natured for him to be mad at her for long.

Alot of their peculiar customs seemed strange to him. Were-cat women seemed blunt, direct, outspoken, alot like human men. Triana was rough and rather harsh, but Kimmie was sweet and charming. That didn't mean that she wasn't as forward as Triana, though. They spoke their minds, and they had no qualms about talking about all sorts of very embarassing things around him, almost like it didn't matter if he was there or not. When Triana checked Kimmie's belly, checking the progression of her pregnancy, she made some frank, downright nasty observations about Tarrin's ability to father children. He'd been absolutely mortified. And Kimmie had just given her a naughty grin and agreed with every word she said! Then she gave him this wicked smile, like she knew he was embarassed by their talk, and winked at him. They were having fun with him, but he was just too embarassed to try to fight back.

It still surprised him. Kimmie was carrying a baby, and he was the father. She'd told him all about what would happen when the baby was born, how it would grow so quickly, how it would have some of the Were-cat traits at birth but would have to mature to gain the rest.

"Well, nothing seems broken," she said, keeping her paw against his bare side lingeringly. The pads on the palm of her hand were both rough and smooth, and they were very warm. Tarrin grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand out, then pulled her hand up to where he could see it. He hadn't looked closely at her hand before. She even had short fur on her fingers and on the fringes of her palms, with those dark brown pads on her palm and on the tips and middle sections of her fingers. She allowed him to run his fingers along those pads, touch the fur between them, and then she slowly extended the finger-long claws that recessed into those big fingers. He couldn't figure out for the life of him where they went. They were too big to not be noticable when they were in her hands, but there was no sign of them once they disappeared into the slots at the very tips of her fingers. She had no fingernails, which made her hands look a little strange.

"Where do the claws go?" he asked her as those claws fully extended.

"The bones in the tips of our fingers are forked," she replied. "The claw slides up between them. That's why our claws aren't longer than the tips."

"They look it," he said, measuring one of her claws, the one on her middle finger. It was nearly as long as his entire index finger.

"Well, the claws are hooked, so they can be a little longer than the finger as long as they bend in enough for them to fit. They recess all the way back against the joint, and the tip is right at the sheathe when they're retracted," she said, pulling in her claws. "Tap the tip of my finger." He did so. "Feel it?"

"Yeah," he replied. It didn't prick him, but the tip of that hooked claw was definitely there.

"That's why we have such big fingers," she told him calmly. "The rest of the finger is as wide as the tip, and the tip houses the claw."

"I didn't know that," he mused.

"Well, now you do," she said with a smile. "Any other parts of me you want to inspect? Wanna play with my tail?" she asked with a playful smile, bringing her tail around her body and wiggling the tip of it at him.

Before he could stop himself, he let go of her hand and gingerly touched her tail. It was surprisingly thick, with thick fur at its tip. He could feel the bones in her tail, but it wasn't bony. It had flesh on it, and it seemed to shiver a little in his grip as he parted her fur and inspected the skin beneath.

"Having fun?" she asked with a smile.

"Just curious," he told her. "I had a tail?"

"Mmm-hmm," she hummed in agreement. "It was longer than mine, but since you're taller than me, that's understandable. The tail is always exactly half again as long as the leg. It's a proportion true through all of us."

"It must be tiring to keep it up all the time."

"We're used to it," she replied. "Want to see where it comes out?" she asked with a wink.

"Not if you have to pull up your dress," he countered.

"You're no fun today," she accused with a smile. "I'll show you back in our room. Where it'll just be you and me, and you won't have any reason to be embarassed. It doesn't bother me when you look at me, Tarrin. It's nothing you haven't seen before."

"I don't remember seeing it before," he said with a blush.

"Well, I remember showing it to you, so don't worry about it. Trust me," she grinned.

Tarrin cast about for a a change of subject. "How long are we going to stay here?" he asked. "I heard Triana talking about us leaving."

"Probably in a couple of days," she answered. "The Sha'Kar are going to use magic to get all of us back to Suld really fast, but they need time to pack up all their things. So we're waiting for them. It shouldn't take them too much longer."

"They're coming with us?"

She nodded. "Now that the Ward isn't trapping them inside anymore, they're returning to the Tower in Suld." She laughed. "Boy, are they going to be shocked to see them."

Tarrin remembered that they said that everyone thought that the Sha'Kar were extinct. That it was a big surprise when they found them on this island. There were some five hundred or so of them, but that wouldn't be a big deal, Dolanna said. She said that the Tower was big enough to house five thousand Sorcerers, and currently there were less than two thousand there. More than half of the Tower's space was unoccupied, and settling in the Sha'Kar would be very easy.

"They seem nice enough," Tarrin said. "Not that you and Triana let them get close enough to me to find out," he added sharply.

"We're just protecting you while you're in this weakened condition," she said boldy.

"I did just fine before I met you guys, you know. I'm not a pushover."

"Certainly not," she said. Then she casually put her paw on his chest, and pushed. The power behind that hand was irresistable, and he found himself staggering back, tripping over his own feet, then falling down on his backside. He sprawled there for a moment, glaring up at her, but she just smiled down at him. Were-cats were powerful creatures. Kimmie didn't look it, but she could pick up a horse, and probably be able to throw it a goodly distance. Sometimes it amazed him that creatures with such incredible strength could be so exquisitely gentle. "Not a pushover at all," she teased.