According to those lessons, there was very little left of those seven cities. Just piles of mossy stone, a few foundations, and a sense that there had once been something built upon those spots. That was why it was so hard for scholars to even discover who had once been there. There just wasn't anything left to use to learn more about them.

"I didn't realize that it was on the coast."

"Yeah, but nobody goes there. It's said to be haunted, and sailors are too superstitious a lot to risk it."

"Hmm," he sounded absently, but by then his attention span had dissolved. He stalked out of the navigation room quietly, going back out onto the deck.

It was later that day, nearly at sunset, when Dolanna sat Tarrin down near the bow. From her scent, Tarrin could tell that she was a little agitated, but as usual, her appearance gave no clue as to her inner feelings. "Keritanima tells me that you had something happen yesterday," she began.

"Something, but I don't know what." With slow attention to detail, Tarrin told Dolanna about what had happened with Sheba the Pirate. He was careful to explain the way it felt. When he was done, Dolanna was pursing her lips, her brows knitting together. "I do not know if it was Sorcery or not," she finally concluded. "You are right about that, dear one. Since your cat form is so radically different than your humanoid one, perhaps the way Sorcery works while in that form is also different."

"I don't know," he said.

"Do you think you could do it again?"

"I think so," he replied. "It was something like a reflex, but I remember the way it felt. It may take a while, but I should be able to do it again."

"Well, we will work with that once we reach Dayise," she said. "Because of the confines here, we dare not experiment."

"Yes, we may sink the ship by accident," he agreed.

"Now then, how do you feel?"

The way she said it made no doubt as to what she was asking. Tarrin closed his eyes and turned away from her, and sighed. "I don't feel anything, Dolanna," he told her in a quiet voice. "Nothing. I know what I did, but it's like it wasn't as serious as pulling out a splinter." He looked at her. "If I was put in that position again, I'd do the same thing. Without regret."

"That is your survival instinct talking," she told him. "Once we are off this ship, and you are in a less stressful environment, we will see how you feel then."

"No, Dolanna, this goes beyond that," he said, rubbing the metal of the manacle on his wrist. "I'm just not the same as I was before. I don't know if that's good or bad. To be honest, it scares me half to death. But I just seem to accept it, the same way I accepted this when it happened." He held out his paw, pads up, for her inspection. "I think back to what happened with the female, and what I did, and it doesn't even make me twinge. Not even a bit."

"Dear one, I told you long ago that you had to explore your feelings," she told him. "I rather doubt that you've grown that heartless. You would not still be wearing those manacles if you had."

"I wear these for an entirely different reason, Dolanna," he told her, rubbing one of them. "To me, these represent what happens when I let my guard down. I did once before, and Jula used that collar to enslave me. I paid dearly for that mistake. It's never going to happen again."

"I think you are too hard on yourself, dear one," she said soothingly, putting a hand on his paw, then grabbing hold of it and placing it between her hands. "Do not dwell on such negatives. It can only depress you. Concentrate on the love you have for your sisters, and the friendships that you hold with many of us. Even Kern and the other sailors are starting to relax around you. They are beginning to understand you."

"I don't trust them," he said in a blunt tone. "Not one bit."

"Kern says that you saved his life."

"Out of respect," Tarrin replied. "I respect Kern. That doesn't mean that I trust him."

"I would not find many that would take such an opinion, Tarrin," she said. "How can you respect someone, yet not trust him?"

"Easily," he replied in a blunt voice. "I respect him, but I wouldn't turn my back on him."

"Tarrin," she said in a chiding, slightly exasperated voice.

"Think what you want," he said, pulling his paw away. "I trusted someone once, and I had a collar put around my neck in return. Never again."

"You certainly do not act like they would put you in slavery," she said.

"It's a small ship, they don't have the tools, and they couldn't get away from me if they tried it," he said in an ominous voice. "That makes me a bit more relaxed about it."

"Then why not use that to build friendships among the crew? Kern told me that you took interest in the navigation charts today. Why do you not go down there tomorrow and learn about navigation?"

"No," he said. "I won't be friends with someone I can't trust. And I can't trust anyone I don't know."

"Then get to know them."

"I don't want to know them," he replied, giving her a steady look. "I just want them to get me to Dayise, then leave me in peace. Nothing more, nothing less. Until then, I'll help defend the ship, but they better stay out of my way." He stood up. "I think I'm done talking," he said, clenching a paw into a fist. "I'm starting to get worked up talking about things like this."

"Go on then, dear one. Have a good night."

"You too, Dolanna," he said, putting a paw on her shoulder fondly, then turning and stalking away.

From not far away, Keritanima approached Dolanna, and then sat down where Tarrin had been. Dolanna's expression was worried, brooding, and her scent betrayed her unsettled condition. Keritanima had learned long ago that scents told the only truth about some people that there was, and she depended on her sensitive nose nearly as much as Tarrin did. It was a rarity among Wikuni to have an animal sense, but she had never regretted having the gift. "So," she said after a moment. "What do you know?"

Dolanna sighed. "I would not tell anyone other than you or Allia, Highness," she began.

"That's not a good sign," Keritanima said.

"No, it is not," she agreed. "Tarrin is turning feral."

"Feral? What does that mean? I heard someone say that once before."

"It means that he is withdrawing from civilization," she replied. "At a more personal level, he is hardening to others. He will not open himself to strangers, and he is developing a distrust of anyone he does not know."

"That describes any number of people I know, Dolanna."

"It is a very difficult concept to explain, Keritanima. It has much to do with his Were nature. When a Were-creature becomes feral, it will not trust anyone except those it trusted before turning feral. It makes a Were-creature moody and potentially violent when it is exposed to civilization, or people it does not know. Right now, Tarrin has around him people that he trusts. If we were to die, or he were separated from us, he would most likely simply disappear into the forest, and never be seen again. He would never trust anyone again, he would probably only speak to others of his own kind, and even them he would not entirely trust. And he would never leave the place he considered his sanctuary unless forced."

"That doesn't sound like much of a problem," Keritanima said. "It's not like we're going to abandon him, and I don't have any plans on dying anytime soon."

"It is very much a problem, Keritanima," she said. "Tarrin will have to function in civilized surroundings. And do not forget, Dala Yar Arak is the largest city in the world. If he turns truly feral, his ability to control his violent tendencies will be greatly reduced. He will strike out in anger or outrage much more quickly, and he will have little or no remorse about his actions."

"So he scratches a few people. They'll learn to leave him alone."