She discovered her special heritage with the help of her husband. Born to an ancient line, she knew the joy and comfort of a husband as her mother and grandmother did before her. All fear was gone. She floated in a pink sky on a golden cloud of joy, warmed by the sunshine of his love. She drew nearer, ever nearer to the sun, and finally trembling like a dry leaf she was swallowed up in the sweet caress of its fire. “Oh, Jal! I love you, so much!”

The end of their passionate encounter was just the beginning of their close bond. Fabana turned to meet her husband’s shining hazel eyes. He smiled gently and kissed her.

“Are you happy, Fay?”

“Delirious,” she said. “You are love.”

He went and rolled on his back in the sleepy savanna grass, and Fabana snuggled next to him.

“Aren’t the stars beautiful, Fay?”

She didn’t notice. Her gaze was turned upon him. “You make everything look beautiful. Even me.”

After the honeymoon, Jalkort had to return to the mundane reality of evening hunting and morning scavenging, but every moment he spent with Fabana was made to count. She would hunt with a group of females headed by Amarakh, and most of the males would trot off with Ber. But Jalkort would leave with Gur’mekh and a few chosen males who hung together almost as a clan within a clan.

When Fabana would return, and Jalkort saw her from across the field, he would run to her and forgoing words simply press his body against hers and nuzzle her. Her heart would almost rise to her mouth and she would paw him, knowing with some pride that new life was stirring inside her--life born from love.

Jalkort often spoke of Gur’mekh, his wonderful psychic gifts, and his big plans for the future. Fabana wanted to meet Gur’mekh, but it was more easily said than done.

Then one day when Jalkort came back from the hunt, he came trotting back with a lean, muscular male with a very intense pair of eyes that seemed to look right through people’s faces and spy on the heart.

“Here he is, Fay! You wanted to meet Gur’mekh!”

Jalkort’s pride was too clearly evident. Fabana nosed Gur’mekh’s cheek. “Jal speaks of you highly.”

“He speaks highly of you too, Fabana.”

There was something odd about Gur’mekh that disturbed Fabana. She could not quite tell what it was. Maybe his supposed gifts troubled her, but she was not sure. It would do no good to come out and ask him about his activities, so she tried hard to push her doubts to the back of her mind. She was wise enough to know Gur’mekh would pick up any strong suspicions whether she voiced them or not.

“Your husband is indispensable to me,” Gur’mekh said. “I believe that our sun is rising, not setting. That there are great things ahead for our race, and that those who have looked down upon us for centuries will come to respect us as children of Roh’kash.”

“Is something going to happen?”

“Something revolutionary? No. Something evolutionary, at least for now. I believe that we have wasted the blood of our seers on petty concerns. I think that the psychic gift is a trust given us by Roh’kash for the betterment of our people. I believe that I must work to make the clan and someday the race better off than I found it. That’s what I will teach my children, and if the gift does run in families, we need to encourage our seers not to forgo marriage, but to do as my parents did, spreading the gift of Roh’kash until it becomes one with the race, and the race is one with it. A family united in blood and in spirit. Wouldn’t that be beautiful, Fabana?”

“Perhaps. And yet....”

“And yet?” He looked her in the eyes with his intense stare. She glanced down.

“And yet, there is some comfort in privacy. I mean, don’t you think things you’d like to keep to yourself? Like maybe being attracted to someone else’s mate?”

Gur’mekh was visibly upset, but quickly covered it. “Of course she doesn’t know,” he thought to himself. “Why, Fabana,” he said aloud, “If we all knew how we felt about each other, I think we’d choose the right partners in life. I mean, when I was growing up, my mom and dad would look at me, and I would feel drunk with love. I wish everyone could feel that way, even once in their life.”

“I feel that way when I’m with Jalkort.”

Jalkort kissed her, and the issue was soon smoothed over. Still from then on she distrusted Gur’mekh, and tried to encourage her husband to hunt with Ber instead.

Demrath once thought the happiest day in his life was the day he married Lenti. But he changed his mind when the pups were born. Small expressions of the miracle of creation, he looked at them lost in wonder and love.

Tela was a small Lenti, her pushed-in nose and large eyes were typical of a pup, but he could tell that she would grow to be like her Muti with the fire of Roh’kash shining in her eyes. Krull and En’geer naturally held Demrath’s attention, for he knew in the months to come he would spoil his twin sons the way his father spoiled him. “Mighty warriors, you make the earth tremble in your wake!” He laughed softly, nuzzling them, then kissing his daughter. “Look at them, Lenti! Our family!”

Demrath showed off the pups whenever he could. Many of his friends were veteran parents, having raised several litters. But the pups of the next Roh’mach generated a great deal of interest. There were those out there who could see Tela as the future leader of her people.

Of course, the depth of Demrath’s happiness only rubbed salt into Gur’mekh’s wounds. “Lenti, I would have given in to your every whim!” he said passionately, but only to the back wall of his cave. “I would have made you a goddess and worshipped you night and day! Now you have his pups when you could have had mine--seers, visionaries, destined for greatness!”

After Gur’mekh had his say, he decided he must pay his respects to the pups or lose all of the progress he’d made with Lenti. After all, if he was going to be their father someday, they must get to know him. Though it rankled him that they were Demrath’s pups, he remembered that they were also Lenti’s children, and he would love them if only for that.

Gur’mekh trotted down to Demrath’s den, grumbling about all the nice things he’d have to say to him. But when he arrived, he was soft-spoken and polite.