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                              SAER'S PAST

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                            COPYRIGHT NOTICE

This story and all characters herein are copyright © 2000 Paul A.
Hinchberger III. All characters in this story are fictitious. Any
similarities to anyone, either real or fictitious, are purely
coincidental. Distribution is permitted as long as (1) no fee is charged
for distribution (including charges for the medium this work is
distributed upon) and (2) the content is not changed in any way. If the
medium that the distribution occurs in is a mass medium and/or
distribution is charged for, you must also obtain permission from the
author prior to distribution.

                             CONTENT NOTICE

This work contains mild-to-strong language some may find offensive. (Oh
well...) This work covers sensitive topics that may not be appropriate
for all readers. (Again, oh well...) Just keep in mind that you are not
being forced to read any of this and I will not be held responsible for
any "damages" that may result from other people reading this.

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"SIMION HAS PASSED HIS SECOND test," the rat said with a look of relief
on his face as he entered the house.

"Are you sure, Master Sinder?" Saer asked. She had been worried for his
safety since they lost each other in the woods. Throughout their first
adventure together, Saer had mounted strong feeling for the wolf. It
agonized her to know that there was nothing she could do but wait for
her love to return to her.

Sinder nodded his head wearily in response to Saer's question.

Now that Simion had passed his second test, Sinder was relieved. Not
only because Simion was safe, but also because the meditation was
wearing him thin. From the time that Simion entered this dimension,
Sinder had been concerned that Simion's presence would somehow upset the
gods' plans so much that he would be put through a series of tests. He
saw Simion's first adventure as a test of his conscious -- to see if he
would be there to stand up for what was right. This latest one, the rat
deduced, was a test of bravery -- being put up against such a demonic
being, being stripped of his magic powers, and losing track of all but
one of his friends.

"Mom?" a childish voice cried out.

"Yes Kel?" Saer answered, hinting in her tone her displeasure with her
daughter sneaking out of bed again.

"Is your boyfriend OK, now?"

Saer was caught in an awkward moment. Indeed, Saer had great feelings
for Simion. Even though she had only known him for less than a week, she
came to know him more by his actions. He was a kind hearted and caring
fur with a sharp wit. He held magical powers beyond anyone's
understanding. And he wasn't afraid to stand up for what was right.

Saer smiled at her daughter. "Yes, he is, honey."

Joem looked coldly at Saer as he stood in the doorway between the living
room and the vestibule. "I don't suppose you told him about your past,
have you?"

"What are you getting at, Joem?" Saer asked, knowing full well what Joem
was alluding to, and a little pissed at his surprise visit. It was
something she didn't think Kel was quite ready for, so she played dumb,
hoping Joem would catch on.

Joem fixed his eyes on Kel without moving his head. It was only a short
time before the gaze made the young fox feel uncomfortable, making her
approach her mother for comfort.

Kel wrapped her furry arms around her mom's. "Mom," she asked, looking
up at Saer with riddled eyes, "what's he trying to get at?"

"Nothing," Joem quickly answered for Saer as he turned away and walked
back into the living room. Damn it, he didn't want to lead Kel on to
what he was getting at, although she was getting close to her coming of
age. Then again, maybe it was better that she was let on to what he was
getting at. After all, Joem didn't want to see Kel end up in the same
mess Saer got into during her coming of age.

Sinder looked on as Saer led her daughter back into her bedroom. "If
only I had known," he whispered to himself. Even though he knew he was
not at fault for Saer's past, he still blamed himself regardless, as
most fathers do.

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Saer looked deeply into Kel's eyes, preparing herself for the speech she
was about tho give. Her daughter really didn't deserve this, but it was
better if she learned about this now from Saer's experience, rather than
having her learn it the hard way from her own experience. After all,
what kind of a parent would Saer be if she let her daughter fall into
the same pitfalls as she did? The thought of what could happen to her
helped push Saer along in the discussion.

"Kel," Saer managed to say through her nervousness, "I guess it's about
time I bring this up, especially since you will be coming of age pretty
soon." Kel continued to give her Mom the same unbroken, inquisitive
look, which certainly wasn't helping Saer much. The fact that Saer was
about to break off a considerable piece of her innocence pained her, but
better her than some boy that she may never see again.

"Kel, there's going to come a time when you're going to like boys a
little more than you do now. And there's going to be a time when you
going to have overwhelming feelings for them."

"What type of feelings?" Kel asked.

"Feeling of love, hon. Soon enough you going to find that you want to be
real close to one. And not only will desire him for who he is, but
you'll also have desires for his body. Now, I don't want to give you the
impression that these feelings are wrong, because they're not. But
you've got to be aware of the consequences that may come about. You see,
Kel, I made what perhaps is the best mistake of my life when I was about
your age. I fell in love with a boy, and I thought we had mutual
feelings for each other. Well, I was in heat and I let my instincts and
my emotions overcome my intelligence. He got me pregnant, with you, and
I never saw him again."

Kel looked up at her mother with her eyes open wide. "I...was a
mistake?"

"Kel, honey," Saer consoled, "you certainly were not a mistake. You
weren't planned on, but I wouldn't have it happen any other way." Saer
ran her hand through her daughter's head fur. "I love you, honey, and
nothing's going to change that."

"Even if I become pregnant?"

Saer held her daughter close. "Yes, honey, if you become pregnant. I
just pray that it's not under the same circumstances I had."

Kel thought for a moment. If her Mom was warning her about getting
pregnant, then ...

"Weren't your parents mad at you when you got pregnant?"

Saer drew a deep breath. Yet another thing to explain to her daughter.

"For all I know, Kel, my parents were dead by the time I was twelve.
They were killed in a war, but I managed to escape into the wooded areas
by the village. After a couple of weeks, I came across Master Sinder. I
had a premonition about him, and knew that he was going to help me. He
has been like a father to me since that time."

"Master Sinder's your daddy?" Kel asked, not quite understanding how
adoption worked.

"Well," Saer chuckled, "he's not my real father, honey. My daddy died
when my village was under attack. Master Sinder adopted me."

"Adopted?"

"Yeah, you know. He took me in. He did everything my real daddy would
have, had my real daddy still been alive. In essence, he became my
daddy."

"Will Simion become my daddy, Mommy?"

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"I can't believe you man!" a scruffy cat said as he followed Joem into
the study.

"Siber, don't start."

"I'll start if I feel like it, man!" Siber said as Joem found a seat and
placed his folded paws against his muzzle in contemplation. "You realize
what you're putting that little girl through?"

"Saer would have to discuss it with her daughter eventually," Joem
played it off.

"Don't you think 'when' and 'where' should be up to Saer?"

"Siber, I don't think you realize how intimate Simion and Saer have
become."

"What are you getting at, Joem?" Siber asked, thinking Joem was feeding
him bullshit.

"They've already had sex," Joem barked out with disturbing indifference.

Siber looked stunned as Joem continued.

"Took her in his arms and carried her upstairs. Went right at it in a
room at the Wayward Inn. And, from what I heard, they were at it for
quite a while." Joem paused a little for effect. "It certainly puts a
different spin on things, doesn't it?" Joem rhetorically asked as he got
to his feet and approached Siber. "And, on top of that, Siber, Simion
doesn't know about Saer's daughter, Kel."

"This still isn't right," Siber answered, "you forcing Saer to discuss
those things with her daughter against her own will."

"This world ain't right," Joem countered as he turned around. "Saer's
not the perfect little fox Simion might have imagined her to be. And
while I don't personally hold Saer's past against her, I think it's time
she come to terms with it before Simion gets here. It can blow up into a
feud if at least one side isn't levelheaded about this. And right now,
there's only one side in with whom we have leverage. The situation will
be much easier to deal with if we get Saer and her daughter OK with the
past before Simion arrives. Otherwise, we'll have to split our energies
between them."

"That's assuming Simion's going to need diffusing," Siber said.

"True. But I'm not taking the chance. I..." Joem turned away from Siber
as if in embarassment. "I care about them too much."

Joem turned to sit back down as soon as Siber gave him the surprised
look on his face he knew the cat would give him. "Yes, I know it's hard
for you to believe, but I actually do care about what happens to furs."

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Sinder heard three raps at the door.

"Perhaps Simion has finally found his way home," Sinder thought to
himself as he got to his feet and walked to the front door with the aid
of his walking cane. Sinder certainly wasn't old, but that incident in
the woods, when Saer pounced him into that log, and that log's
splintered branch pierced his leg ... Sinder winced just thinking
about it

Three more impatient raps came from the door right before Sinder opened
it. To his grateful surprise, there stood Simion, with his friends
Mertok and Darlene bringing up the rear. Saer had to him a bit about
Simion's cheetah-morph friend Mertok, but the vampire bat certainly
threw him for a loop. He had heard many frightening tales about their
kind, but could never prove them true or false, so he had simply
discarded them as tales.

"Ah, Simion! Finally, you have arrived!" Master Sinder stepped aside and
gestured for the group Simion led to step inside. "Come on in!"

"What's up?" Simion enthusiastically asked as he, Mertok, and Darlene
walked in. As he conversed with Master Sinder, a crowd began to gather,
excited that their hero had returned. They were anxious to know what
happened to the wolf, but even more anxious to find about the cheetah
morph and the vampire bat morph Simion had brought with him.

"Well, everybody," Simion said as the growing crowd caught his
attention, "I have a couple of new friends for you to meet. Everyone,
Meet Mertok, former Borland Guard, and Darlene, vampire hunter seeking a
new line of work after succeeding in our latest adventure."

Simion could detect some hesitation in the warm greetings his old
friends gave his new ones. He just couldn't shake the feeling it was
because of Darlene, so he decided to try to dispel some prejudices about
her species.

"Thanks to Darlene here, we were able to find our way back home. We got
a little lost, but she gave me a couple of lifts to see our path ahead.
It's not every day you get an aerial view of the landscape."

"Yeah," Darlene said, "well I wish you hadn't squirmed so much. I almost
dropped you a couple of times."

"Hey," Simion answered, "you're used to flying! I'm not! Besides, I
don't have wings to save me from a fall."

"Ahem!" Mertok said as he nonchalantly looked away. Simion rolled his
eyes at his friend's feigned irritation Admittedly, he had spent too
much time on Darlene without introducing his other friend.

"And of course, thanks to Mertok here, I'm still alive. He intervened
when my magic went awry during my first adventure." Simion's eyes lit up
as he recalled a question that he had in the back of him mind. "Which
reminds me, Master Sinder! You never told me about magic in this realm!"

"That's because, unlike you, most furs have to learn it." Sinder kindly
replied.

"Excuse me?" Simion asked in disbelief.

"The majority of furs just aren't born with magical powers, Simion,"
Sider explained, chuckling a bit at Simion's reaction. "They have to
learn it."

"Great," Simion whined. The wolf so desperately wanted to get a finger
on what made his magic tick. He had performed a memory exchange with
Mertok and a pain exchange between Mira and her abusive husband Altaire.
Simion knew it had something to do with transference, but so much was
yet to be discovered.

"Don't worry!" Master Sinder chuckled. "I know some fur that can help
you harness your magic powers. But in the meantime, why not come to the
kitchen?"

"You have supper ready this late at night?" Simion asked excitedly, his
tail wagging in delight. "All right!"

"No, Simion," Sinder laughed, "but I'm sure I can find something to
make."

"Well, that'll give us enough time for you to tell us about your
adventures, Simion," Siber said. The group behind him responded with a
resounding "Yeah!" to encourage Simion.

"Well," the wolf said, feigning reluctance. "OK."

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Everyfur took had taken a seat in the study, listening intently to
Simion describe his adventures. Some had to settle for makeshift chairs
(tables, arms, and walls) but all were comfortable enough.

Simion began retelling the story of his first adventure. He told them
how he met Mira at the inn, and how bruised and battered she was. He
recounted how he tracked her through the woods and into a clearing,
where he was ambushed by her abusive husband Altaire. He told them about
the nights in jail, the episode in the courtroom, and how Altaire was
brought to an untimely end.

As Simion finished telling the tale of his first adventure in the
village of Borland, quite a stir aroused amongst the crows. From the
bits and pieces of conversation that the wolf picked up, he could tell
they were all pretty good.

As the murmurs began dying down, Mira asked Simion, "Why don't you tell
them what happened after that?"

"After what?" Simion asked, a bit stunned with the suddenness of the
query.

"After we left town and came back to the inn?"

Simion looked inquisitively at Mira for a while before it hit him. "You
don't mean ... "

Mira nodded her head. "You and Saer. What happened that night?"

"Well ... " Simion said timidly as the rest of the group's interest
piqued. He was still dealing with the fact that he had premarital sex.
To him, it was a very private matter that he wasn't to comfortable
dealing with himself, let alone to an entire group of people that looked
up to him.

"Isn't that where you and my mommy made out?" Kel asked from the doorway
of the study.

The snickering turned to cold silence as everyone awaited Simion's
reaction to the young fox's question.

"Excuse me?" Simion said in disbelief.

"My Mom told me about it!"

"Oh really?" Simion asked in further disbelief. Did Saer have a
daughter? If so, why hadn't she told him about her? And why the hell was
she discussing such things with such a young child?

"And what did she say?"

"She said you're good," Kel said as she held back a giggle.

While Kel's innocent response elicited a few laughs from the crowd,
Simion became totally embarrassed. That was certainly nobody's business
but his and Saer's. It was bad enough this kid knew about it, but now
she had just blabbed his bedroom performance to a bunch of furs he had
only recently got to know

"And just how old are you anyway?" Simion asked with moderated disgust.

"Twelve," the youngster replied flatly, unsure of how Simion was
reacting.

Simion stood there and digested the facts for a while, still holding
back his anger. Saer has discussed their sexual relationship with her
daughter, of only twelve years of age? Wasn't Kel a bit young for that?
If Kel was twelve, then that meant Saer was thirteen when she had her!

"Oh my God," Simion muttered to himself as he came to the conclusion
that, maybe, the relationship he had with Saer wasn't so special after
all. She already had one kid ... how many others had she slept with?
Simion wasn't so much worried about disease as he was about the feelings
he thought they shared. Was he just another fur she was sleeping with?
Simion didn't make out with Saer because he couldn't control his male
urges. He was madly in love with Saer, and thought she had the same
feelings for her.

Simion got up and left the room completely destroyed, leaving everyone
in shock.

Kel looked disappointedly at the floor. She had the sneaking suspicion
she might have ruined something for her mother. But what did she do? Sex
and love wasn't something to be ashamed of, was it? That's what her
mother told her.

As Kel thought about what happened, she noticed a shadow on the floor
besides hers. Looking up, she saw it was Joem.

"I made Simion mad, Joem," Kel said remorsefully. "And my mommy's going
to be mad at me when she finds out I made her boyfriend mad at her."

"Well, first off, I don't think you made Simion mad. I think you've
misled him, and he's probably unsure of how you and your mother really
feel about for him."

"What did I say wrong?"

"It wasn't so much you saying the wrong thing as it was you saying it at
the wrong time. Simion doesn't know you, and you came in here talking
about what he and you mother did. I think it gave him the wrong
impression."

Kel looked back down at the floor, disappointed with herself.

"Why don't you go talk it out with him?" Joem suggested, trying to sway
Kel away from her disappointment. "Tell him how your mother really
feels?"

"But I'll just make him mad, Joem. I'll say something wrong again."

"Kel, Simion needs some explanation, and since you were the one that
confused Simion, I think you should try to un-confuse him, OK? Besides,
even if you do make him mad again, I think he'll be even madder if you
don't try. Not trying would make him think that you might not care what
you did to him"

"But I do care for him, Joem."

"Then talk it over with him, Kel."

Kel looked up at Joem for a bit with sullen eyes, and then made off in
the same direction Simion had.

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Simion looked around the room, which was still in its makeshift recovery
room state. "This is where it all started," he thought to himself as he
looked around. "This is where I was dragged to in my unconscious state,"
he thought as he eyed the bed, which lay unmade since he last slept in
it. Simion walked up to the bed and lay down on it, looking up at the
ceiling with his hands folded on his chest.

"And this is where Saer took care of me for until I came back from La-La
Land."

Simion's thoughts were a tangled mess. He was trying to pinpoint his
feelings with the fox that he had so fallen in love with. A caretaker
and nympho were certainly attributes you wouldn't assign to a single
fur, yet Saer seemed to be both. "How can the person who nursed me back
to health when I made the jump into this world, " Simion thought, "be
the same person that blabs her bedroom excursions to her daughter?"

As he contemplated the events that had unfolded, Kel peeped in through
the door. It took a while before Simion realized she was there, but she
eventually came into his view out of the corner of his eyes. After a
long moment of silence, Simion spoke up.

"Where's your daddy?" Simion asked, too hurt himself to care how that
question might hurt Kel. To Simion's surprise, however, Kel wasn't even
phased by that question. As honestly as only a kid can do, she looked at
Simion and answered his question.

"My mother says my real daddy's a dick head."

"And she teaches her to swear, too," Simion thought to himself as he
rolled eyes.

"What's the matter, Simion?" Kel asked, seeing the gesture.

Simion looked back up at the ceiling. "Nothing ... "

"It's my mommy, then, isn't it?" Kel asked as she approached Simion.
Simion didn't answer. He was still hurt. Why hadn't Saer told him?

"Kel, have you and your mother had the talk yet?"

"About what?" Kel asked as she stopped beside the bed.

"About, like, where you came from? How you were born?"

Kel nodded her head. After a bit of thinking about how he should deliver
his speech, Simion sat up and scooted so that his back was against the
wall. He left enough room on the bed for Kel to sit, and gestured for
her to do so.

"Well, I don't know what all you discussed, but maybe I can give you
some extra advice for when you start liking the boys a lot more than you
do now. Boys might always want it, and they might always ask for it, but
the ones to keep - the ones you should spend the rest of your life with
- are the ones that will wait. Besides, no boy really wants to spend the
rest of his life with a slut."

"Is that what you think my mother is?"

Simion eyes opened wide with shock. That wasn't exactly where he was
going, but he understood how Kel interpreted it that way.

"No, not exactly. I just think your mom was a little indiscriminate with
whom she slept with. And I can't really make a valid decision because
your mother's seen fit to hide her past from me ... " Simion paused
when he realized something. "I should be having this conversation with
your mother, not you. I'm sorry."

Kel looked up at Simion, who had regressed back to staring into space in
contemplation.

"Can I tell you something, Simion?"

Simion's attention snapped back toward Kel. "Yeah?"

"I've never had a daddy. And mommy's never really looked for one." Kel
looked Simion right in the eye. "I was hoping maybe you'd become my
daddy."

Simion's left ear perked up, and a newfound feeling of joy and pride
coursed through him, but was buried under feelings of betrayal.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah! I never knew anyone who could make my mom act the way she does."

"Act?" Simion asked, curious as to what she was getting at. "How so?"

"Well, she's downright goofy sometimes. Sometimes it is like she's not
even here. She never tells me exactly what she's thinking about, just
that it's about you."

Could this be what Simion interpreted it to be? There was only one thing
that came to Simion's mind that involved someone "acting goofy" while
thinking of one person. That was love. If Kel's innocent descriptions of
Saer's actions were to be taken at face value, then Saer was indeed in
love with him. While Saer wasn't of the hook yet, one of Simion's major
concerns had been answered.

"Come here," Simion said as he picked up Kel and sat her in his lap.
"I'll see what I can do, okay? I'm not promising anything," Simion said
as he lightly pressed his finger against Kel's nose, "but the outlook's
pretty bright."

Kel hugged Simion again, resting her head against his chest fur. The
feeling of pride and joy came over Simion again, and this time it there
wasn't so much betrayal to bury it. It felt good to be wanted like Kel
wanted Simion -- as a father figure. Someone to help her, guide her,
fend off deleterious boyfriends.

"And just who said you could be that kid's father?" Saer said, speaking
softly as she had just awaken. After Joem woke her and reported to her
about what happened with Kel and Simion in the study, Saer rushed to
find the two.

While she could not understand most of what was said during her
eavesdropping, she certainly got an eyeful of the embrace the two
shared. It was an amazing sight for her. She didn't know too many men
who actually wanted to be fathers, but the way Simion and Kel held each
other was too much like a father/daughter moment. Maybe it wasn't the
just the fact that she had the daughter that bothered him.

As Saer began to walk toward the bed, Simion turned around on the bed
and lifted Kel off onto the floor. He then whispered something into
Kel's ears, to which Kel nodded and left the room. When Simion was sure
Kel was gone, he gestured for Saer to sit on the bed beside him. She did
so, slowly and delicately, unsure of where Simion stood right now.

They sat beside each other for a long time, unsure of how to bring their
feelings out. Neither wanted to set off a huge argument, but there were
many questions that needed answering.

"Why didn't you tell me about Kel?" Simion asked.

Saer countered finely, "You don't like kids?"

"You know darn well that isn't the case." Simion answered quaintly. "You
saw with your own eyes how Kel and I were getting along. In fact, I like
her. It's just ... the events that led to her birth."

"What about it?"

"The fact that I don't know it."

"Where should I start?"

"Well, why don't we start from the point after you found Sinder in
woods? You said you were twelve when he found you, and if my math is
correct, you were thirteen when you had Kel. What happened?"

"You mean how did I go from an innocent girl to a teenage slut?"

"Well ... not exactly." Simion said, squirming from the perceived
pressure "Just ... "

"I know that's not what you meant," Saer reassured. "But the fact is,
Simion, I was a little loose in when I came of age. Even though Sinder
was, in effect, both my father and my mother, he was jack of all trades
and master of none. I don't think he was ever prepared to guide me
through all the changes a female goes through during her coming of age.

"One important thing he forgot to do was explain the birds and the bees
to me. I had received the lecture before, about how it takes a man and a
woman to make a baby, but I was too young then for my parents to give me
many details. I found out the hard way, after about three months of
gratuitous sex, that intercourse led to pregnancy, which led to babies."

Simion put his arm around Saer's shoulders. The gesture was consoling
enough for Saer to return the gesture.

"I'm sorry I've been such a jerk toward you," Simion said. "I guess it's
just because I was brought up in a different environment. I was taught
that sex is something that should be shared with only one person - the
person that you married. But, from what you've told me, you weren't
afforded full parental guidance. You didn't have anyone to tell you the
possible outcomes, both physically and spiritually. If I were you, I
probably would have done the same."

"What's your religion anyway?" Saer interrupted Simion.

Simion chuckled a bit. "Well, I was raised as a Christian, under the
Catholic denomination. But I don't exactly subscribe to every single
detail. Rather, I take the base beliefs of Christianity with the belief
that, since there is only one God, and that there are other religions
out there that believe the same, that there certainly is a divine entity
out there. While I call him God, he does go by other names to other
people."

"And your God, is he the one that says not to have sex until after
marriage?"

"Well, it was written that way. To me, sex is something special that
should be shared with only one person. Back home, however, it seems a
lot of people got married just so they can have sex, and then got a
divorce when the fun was over. Now, I'm not saying there should never be
divorces, but I believe that people where I come from were using it as
an escape. 'I can marry this person for sex now, and divorce them later
when I tire of them.' It's not supposed to work that way, so my belief
is that you should only have sex with only one person in your life time
- preferably after you're married - after you've made the commitment to
that one person."

"So, what about that night we shared at the inn?" Saer asked.

"Well, at that time, I had made a commitment to you." Simion took his
love's hands in his. "You were everything I had always wanted in a
person, and I wanted no one else. I must admit, though, I felt like I
had no control. But I didn't mind either. I just wanted to be with you
the rest of my life."

"Well, there's something I have to admit to you Simion. That night at
the inn, I was in heat, hence your feelings of being out of control."

"What?" Simion asked, confused.

"I remember Master Sinder said humans do not go into heat."

"True," Simion interjected.

"So, then, the instinct is new to you in your wolf form. I realize that
now. But there was also another decision I made that night."

Saer held Simion's hands in hers. "Simion, I want to have your baby."

The wolf's limp ears perked up. "You want what?" he asked in
astonishment. "Don't you already have one?"

Saer smiled. "Yes I do, Simion, but I love you so much. I want to start
a family with you, but I don't think it's fair for you to father only
one child that's not even part yours."

"But, what about marriage?"

"There's no place to get married officially here for miles. It would
take days just to get to the nearest religious convention. And even
then, the convention might not even hold the same beliefs as you. That's
why most furs just move in together."

Simion and Saer sat there on the bed for a while, holding each other in
each other's arms. Neither knew what to do next, but both were quite
content staying right where they were.

"Simion," Saer said, trying to break the silence, "I know this must be a
lot for you to take in. Why don't you sleep on it, OK?" And after
licking his muzzle, Saer got up to leave the room.

Oh, how it hurt to do this. Instinctually, Saer was still in heat from
the time she and Simion made love at the inn. Her body yearned for
Simion to be inside her once again, his body against hers. How easy
would it be to tempt Simion into giving in? Saer didn't dare risk it,
for her love for Simion was too great. It would be best to let things
settle before going all the way again.

As Saer walked away, Simion contemplated all that had happened that. Not
so much about Saer, but about himself and his actions. Now that he knew
more about Saer, he was more relieved that he hadn't lost Saer than he
was upset about Saer's oversight. Although he hadn't seen much of her,
he loved everything about her. He loved the way she joked around, the
way she laughed, the slight attitude she carried.

"Saer?" Simion said right before Saer got to the door.

"Yes?" she responded, turning around.

"Seeing as how we can't get married officially," Simion said as he got
to his feet and slowly made his way toward Saer, "can you at least give
me one thing? A little modification on a tradition from where I come
from?"

"What's that?" Saer asked.

"Well, Saer," Simion said as he got down on one knee, and took Saer's
paw into his. Looking into her inquisitive eyes, Simion proposed to
her."

"Will you ... be my life mate?"

Saer almost began to cry for joy as she fell into Simion. All these
years, she finally had a man committed to her. No fur had even done this
standing up, let alone get down on his knees and ask. Amongst the sobs,
Saer managed to tell her wolf, "Yes."

As they held each other closely, Simion softly whispered these words to
her: "For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in
health, until death do us part."

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