"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.
"Well, not against other humans," he corrected sullenly as she reached down and helped him up.
"To us, Tarrin, you seem helpless," she told him honestly. "You've lost your strength, your speed, your senses, and most importantly, your immunities and regeneration. You're fragile now, just like the humans, and neither me nor Triana are going to let you out of our sight. You're too important to us. Until you're yourself again, one of us going to be right with you all the time."
"Well, I'm not helpless," he protested.
"Maybe not, but it's not going to change anything," she said mildly. "Get used to us, love. We're not going anywhere."
He glowered a little, but said nothing. Because he knew that no matter what he said or did, it wouldn't change things.
"I wonder where everyone else is," Tarrin asked.
"Well, Phandebrass is going through his books back on the ship, looking for information that may help him find a cure for you," she told him. "Camara Tal went with him to make sure he doesn't get distracted along the way. Keritanima and Allia are up at the volcano with Dolanna. Sapphire said she and the red dragon lost alot of scales when they fought, and she wants to find some of them as souvenirs. Binter, Sisska, Miranda, and Azakar are with her. Dolanna is giving Dar his daily lesson, but Iselde and Allyn are with them, so it'll probably be Dolanna doing the learning instead of the teaching. I think Triana went back to Suld for a while to fill in Jesmind on everything."
"How does Triana do that?" he asked. "Isn't Suld across the ocean?"
"I wish I knew how she does it," Kimmie said sourly. "Triana's a very powerful Druid, Tarrin. She can do some serious magic. She won't even tell us what she's capable of. That really annoys me sometimes." She chuckled. "Now that the Weave is restored, maybe me and Phandebrass can engineer a spell that does the same thing. Being able to just appear halfway across the world would be really handy. I'd only be a spell away from you," she said, reaching over and taking his hand gently.
Tarrin still felt a little uncomfortable when she did that. She'd told him she loved him, but he couldn't even remember her. He didn't know her at all, though she certainly seemed to know him. He let her hold his hand because it seemed to make her happy; he wouldn't be cold to her. But it did make him feel a little strange. It was like waking up one morning and finding out he was married.
It wasn't marriage, of course. That seemed one of the stranger things. Were-cat's didn't marry, and males didn't spend their lives with one female. Kimmie told him, in rather lurid detail, that he was the recipient of the love of three Were-cat women. Herself, of course. Then there was Jesmind, who had been his first love. Kimmie admitted that he grew to love her after they started sleeping together. That they slept together just for the fun of it. That shocked his sensibilities, but he kept telling himself that they had a different culture, and by then, it was his culture too. The third woman was Mist, the one he'd healed, who loved him because he had helped her so much. She told him that he'd never really gotten the chance to love her, but she had very much fallen in love with him from the moment he agreed to sleep with her to impregnate her. Because she wanted a baby, and she wouldn't trust any other male but him. They were a bit vague as to why she wouldn't trust any other male, but he'd take their word for it. For a boy raised to believe in the sanctity of marriage, it seemed almost unnatural to him. He had a, a, a harem. Kimmie hadn't gone into great detail about Were-cat society, telling him that it may shock him a bit, but he was starting to understand some things. Triana explained that they were part animal, with the mind and instincts of a cat mixed in with their human ones, so maybe that part of them affected alot of things that the human parts of them didn't. Or affected them differently.
"Well, that would be nice, I guess," he said awkardly.
"Don't worry, Tarrin. When you get your memory back, everything will make perfect sense," she said with a smile. "I just have to keep telling myself that."
"What do you mean?"
"It kills me to see you like this," she told him honestly. "To me, your very identity was stripped away from you. It's like someone changed you into something else with magic. And everything you knew is locked away. You're like a different person to me. I want to tell you things, but I know you won't understand. I want to be your mate, but that's just not possible like this." He felt her hand tighten over his. "I have to keep myself from biting you every time I touch you. I can't stand it, because I know I could change you back any time, but I can't do it, because without your memory, it would be a very hard adjustment for you."
"Well… do you still like me?" he asked. "I mean, do you like me now?"
"If course I do!" she said. "You're still Tarrin, and there are hints of the Tarrin I know about you. In fact, now that I've seen you like this, I understand those parts of you alot better. The turning changed you alot, Tarrin. I won't lie about that. But seeing where you came from, it's opened my eyes about the true nature of you. I can see the young man that's been buried under the weight of everything we've piled onto you," she said with a gentle, very loving smile. "In fact, given everything that happened to you and all the pressure and duties that's been thrown on top of you, I'm amazed that you've come through it as unscathed as you did. You're a very resilient fellow, my Tarrin," she told him with a wink.
"Well, I guess you can thank my parents. They raised me."
"I've met them."
"You have?" he asked in surprise.
"Mmm-hmm," she nodded with a smile. "Your mother reminds me of Triana. They have the same 'do it my way or die' sense about them."
Tarrin laughed. "That's my mother, alright," he agreed. "No wonder I liked Triana so much." He cleared his throat. "Uh, do they, uh, know about-"
"Of course they do," she told him with a grin. "Triana told them. They understand, Tarrin. They know you embraced our society, and that included embracing some of our more outrageous customs," she winked. "I had to as well. Don't forget, I was turned too. It was quite a culture shock, now that I remember," she said with a fond chuckle.
"Oh. I, I guess that's alright."
"Elke adores your daughter Jasana, and Jenna's the one who's been training her in Suld," she said. "And Triana told me that Mist brought Eron to Aldreth to meet them. She adores him too. Mist is quite taken with your parents. She even stayed the night with them. I never thought I'd see her do that," she mused, shaking her head. "So, your parents and your sister approve, Tarrin. They love you the same as they did before. They adjusted to your turning just as well as you did."
That had been a more surprising part of the tale. Jenna was also a Sorceress, but she was actually one of these sui'kun that Dolanna described, seven special Sorcerers that are tied to the Weave in ways that regular Sorcerers are not. Jenna had come to Suld and helped defend it against an invading army, and had remained behind after they won the battle to help train Jasana, who was also a sui'kun. She was on the Council in the Tower and everything, even though she was only thirteen-no, she was almost sixteen now. He couldn't forget that. She wasn't a little girl anymore. She was a young woman now, a very strong Sorceress, and had a position of importance among the katzh-dashi. Tarrin wondered how much of a fit his mother threw when she left home. Elke was very attached to Jenna, since she was her youngest child. In Elke's eyes, Jenna would always be her baby girl, no matter how old she got. She'd still be calling her janni, which meant baby in Ungardt, when Jenna was married and had children of her own.