"I'd rather have a chance at winning, Janine," Elke said, which made Tomas snort.

"I'll show both of you. Eron, do you hear this slander?"

"Oh, no, I'm not getting into this one," Eron said. "I'd have a very hard time trying to prove you don't lose by keeping us from losing."

That made both women laugh, and Tomas gave Eron a blistering look. "Then let's play Tarok," he offered.

"I hate Tarok," Janine objected.

"Precisely."

"You're very close to sleeping in the guest room, dear," Janine said in a dangerous tone.

"Put your money where your ego is, dear," Tomas said. "King's Castle. If me and Tarrin lose, I'll sleep on the floor tonight."

"You better make sure you find enough blankets," Janine said with a competitive grin. "Let's give my husband a backache, Elke."

"I think I can enjoy a bit in Tomas' suffering," Elke said with a nasty grin.

"That's mean, Elke."

"I'm Ungardt, Tomas," she told him. "We like being mean."

"I'll play, but I have other people to visit tonight," he said, giving Janette a telling squeeze. "Before it's her bedtime."

"Then I'll play for you, Tarrin," Eron said. "You visit with Janette. I'll put Tomas on the floor for you."

"He wouldn't do that!" Tomas challenged.

"Tarrin is half Ungardt, and my son, Tomas," Elke smirked. "He likes being mean too."

"You ruined it, mother. He'd have never known I would throw the game if you wouldn't have opened your mouth."

"Traitor," Tomas said sourly at him.

Tarrin just gave him a fanged grin, and that made the ladies laugh.

"This is cheating," Tomas growled. "I'm surrounded by people who want me on the floor tonight."

"You expected sympathy from this group?" Janine asked in feigned shock. "You need to wake up, dear."

"I would like to watch," Allia said. "I have never seen this game played before."

"I'll teach you the rules, Allia," Elke told her. "It's an easy enough game, if you're paying attention to what you're doing."

"Are not all games so?" Allia said, getting up as the adults started towards the card table in the far corner of the room.

"You come too, Jenna, so you can continue the tradition of female superiority in cards," Elke said, slapping Tomas on the shoulder with enough force to send him staggering forward. Sometimes his mother didn't know her own strength.

"Well now, it seems that I've got a certain little mother to catch up with," Tarrin told Janette, tapping her on the nose with the tip of his tail and making her giggle. "I've missed hearing all about your dolls, Janette."

"You don't care about my dolls," she challenged.

"I care about everything about you, little mother," he told her, pushing her off of his lap. "Now then, there's only one way that I can really visit with you."

"How is that?"

Tarrin reached under his shirt, and withdrew the small wooden toy that had been the main plaything in their many games. He dangled it from the end of its string, giving her a gentle smile, and then handed it to her.

"Oh, Shadow wants to play," Janette said with a beaming smile.

"Shadow does indeed," he told her with a gentle, loving smile, then he hunkered down and shapeshifted into his cat form.

Laughing, Janette dropped the scratched, battered wooden figure on the floor, and Tarrin pounced on it, feeling all his cares and worries melt away in lieu the pure simple joy of the game.

To: Title EoF

Tarrin and Allia returned to their room just before dawn. They had slept over at the house, Allia in the extra guest room, Tarrin at the foot of Janette's bed, and Tomas on the floor in the parlor. The sense of peace and calm of the house was still with him as they crept into their own rooms just before the other Initiates began to stir to prepare for the coming day. It had been very good for him, a night without any worries or cares, surrounded by the people that he truly trusted. He met Socks, his replacement, and had a long talk with the black cat with white paws about what was correct and proper, and what was not. Because Tarrin was Were, the cat listened to him, and would obey. Tarrin couldn't force obediance, but housecats held Were-cats in very high regard. Socks would behave now. He also got to see his family and Allia interact, and he was surprised. Allia fit in with them perfectly, and it was as if she filled the only missing piece. She was Tarrin's older sister, Jenna's confidante, and his parents saw her as the one child they had lost. Tarrin had had an older sister, named Alexa, but she had died in infancy, two years before Tarrin was born. Allia became that lost daughter, filling the only true hole in the hearts of his parents. And what suprised Tarrin was how totally comfortable Allia was with being adopted into Tarrin's rather unique family. Elke was a very strong woman, powerful, willful, and wise, and Allia respected her tremendously. Eron was a bit more laid back than his wife, easygoing and with a wit, a bit quiet and always speaking to the point, but he had a quiet calm strength that seemed almost unshakable. Eron was the rock from which the family built its foundation, and Allia had immediately understood that. Jenna was mystified by the ethereally beautiful Selani, and Allia had began to teach her the forms of her people more suitable for her small frame.

It was a reminder of what he had lost, and a goal which now stood before him. Tarrin would have his family. They would all live together in peace, and want for nothing. When all the craziness was over, when he and Keritanima and Allia could come out of the desert without fear, then he would live as close to his family as he could. The bad taste he had for the Tower meant that it wouldn't be in Suld. Tarrin would rather return to Aldreth, where his non-human nature wouldn't be so serious, and where he could use his non-human status to help the village with the other non-humans that drifted in from the Frontier to trade. It was what he wanted, it was what he decided he was going to have, and by the gods, it was what he was going to get.

But there were other things to attend to, and that was what occupied his mind as he descended the stone stairs to the baths, scenting the passage of the Novices mingling with the smell of cloth and mineral-rich water, of heat and steam, and of the rock itself. Tarrin had developed the habit of bathing when there were the fewest people in the baths, because his presence still caused a bit of commotion with Novices, and even Initiates. The fights he'd had and the rather gruesome things he'd done to his assailants had terrified most of the other students, and they would have nothing to do with him. They were, after all, only children. Tarrin couldn't really blame them for it, but it hurt to see the fear in their eyes as he passed, to hear the whispers that they didn't realize his sensitive ears could pick up. But if luck was with them, then the Novices wouldn't be scared of him much longer.

It didn't take him long to find Tiella. She was in the cooler water, and she had her knees bent so the water covered her to the neck. Even after months, Tiella was still so modest that she couldn't stand bathing with others.

The area around Tiella cleared immediately when Tarrin slipped into the pool, holding a bar of soap, and approached the pretty former villager. "You missed a spot," he told her absently.

She turned around, and then smiled. "Tarrin," she said warmly, standing up in the water. When the move lifted her breasts above the surface of the water, she blushed furiously and sank back into the water.

"Tiella," Tarrin sighed, "I think that you shouldn't worry about that with me. I've already seen them. It doesn't make any difference now."

Her face turning red, she stood up quickly, water splashing, and she glared at him. Then she realized what she did, and then blushed even more and laughed ruefully. "Alright, I give up," she told him. "But if you stare, I'm going to pull your tail off."