"You'll have to excuse me, lad," Garyth told him with a short smile. "I need to go talk to the Centaurs. Jak, you go find Karn and travel with him."

"Karn's going?" Tarrin asked.

"He intends to pay them back for burning down his forge," Garyth chuckled. "Besides, he's a Dal as well, and he knows the language. Having a Dal along may be useful for our side."

"It could," Tarrin agreed.

"I'll go find him, Garyth," Jak said. "See you later, Tarrin."

"See you later," Tarrin said in farewell as Jak trotted off towards the inn.

The Were-cats more or less dispersed at that point, for there was nothing for them to do but wait. Thean and Singer wandered towards the inn, Rahnee and Jeri moved to follow Jak, but Kimmie stayed where she was, deciding that staying with Tarrin and Jesmind and her sisters and daughter was better than anything else. Nikki and Shayle came over with Jesmind after the others broke up, Shayle holding Jasana in her arms. "My goodness, Tarrin, mother wasn't kidding when she said you'd grown," Shayle told him with a smile.

"A long story," he told her. "You two are looking good."

"Thanks," Nikki said with a smile. Nikki seemed a little different somehow, but he couldn't quite pin down what it was. She was a petite Were-cat, about Kimmie's size, with Thean's grayish striped fur and her mother's tawny hair and face. She was wearing what was more or less a standard among Were-cats, a pair of leather breeches and a stout shirt, hers made of brown wool, with loose, flared sleeves. Shayle was tall and willowy, with strangely narrow hips and a flat chest compared to her sisters-traits that set her apart from the rather buxom and voluptuous females of the Were-cat race-but she had a very cute face with a cherubic smile, and her mother's tawny hair and tabby-orange striped fur. Shayle was wearing the same style of clothing that she'd been wearing when he met her nearly a year ago, a pair of buckskin breeches and a simple sleeveless leather haltar-like half-shirt that left her midriff bare. Tarrin liked both of them. Shayle was very mellow, and Nikki had a youthful exuberance about her, just like Jeri, that was almost contagious in those around her. "Have things gone alright for you since you left Shoran's Fork, Tarrin?"

"Well enough," he said. "You're joining us?"

"If you'll have us," Nikki said cautiously.

"We have plenty of room for you, Nikki," Tarrin assured her. "I see you met your niece."

"Jasana? Oh, I've dropped by a couple of times since she was born to look in on her," Shayle said, bouncing Jasana slightly in her arms. "Isn't that right, cub?"

"Umm," Jasana agreed. "Auntie Shayle's come to see me three times."

"You certainly look different, Kimmie," Shayle noted to her.

"It's not easy to run in a dress, Shayle," Kimmie said mildly.

"It certainly looks better on you than those gods-awful dresses you insist on wearing," Shayle grinned.

"There's nothing wrong with wearing a dress," Kimmie said primly.

"Of course not, but good grief, woman, go look at what's the latest fashion!" Shayle told her with a cherubic grin. "If you're going to wear a dress, wear one with style!"

"I like function as a fashion statement, Shayle."

"And it keeps all the males' eyes off you. Advertise, girl! A little cleavage reels them in faster than if you took off your dress and paraded around naked."

"Really?" Kimmie said archly.

"Of course. Even Were-cat males get caught up in the allure of seeing what's being hidden from them. It's a universal male trait, you know."

"You're getting bad in your old age, Shayle," Jesmind laughed.

"You're older than me, sister dear," Shayle said blandly. "If I'm bad, you're worse."

"I never pretended to be anything but bad," Jesmind winked.

Nikki cut them off by approaching Tarrin and boldly grabbing his wrist. She turned his paw palm up, then tugged at the fetlocks growing from the outsides and lower quarters of his lower forearms. "What are these?"

"Fetlocks," Shayle answered. "That means that your size is a matter of age," she reasoned. "What happened to you?"

"Papa was made old by a mean old winged lady," Jasana told her.

"That's the short of it," Tarrin chuckled. "This is what happens when you're attacked by a Succubus," he told them, motioning to his height.

"A Succubus?" Shayle said in surprise. "How did you ever end up facing something like that?"

"Not by choice, believe me," he told her. "I'll tell you about it while we travel."

"I'd like to hear that story," Nikki said eagerly.

"You like to hear any story, little sister," Jesmind teased.

"I can't help it if I like to hear stories," Nikki shrugged.

"You should read, then."

"I do. But there's just something about a story told by a person that makes it better than written on a page. It's just better, somehow."

Jesmind was about to comment, but Sathon's magically augmented voice, booming across the village and the fields, interrupted them. "Alright, let's gather on the road and get ready to move out!" he called. "Those outside the village, remember to circle around to the south, and don't get within a half-longspan of any building!"

"Sounds like it's time to go," Jesmind sighed, taking Jasana from Shayle.

"Time to go," Tarrin mirrored, moving towards the road leading to Watch Hill. He'd only been in Aldreth for a few short days, but the time had completely changed his life. He knew he'd come back, someday. He'd made a promise, and he'd realized that the village and the farm were all the home he had ever known, and the only place where he could go that would feel right to be his home. He would come back to Aldreth, and when he did, he would come back to stay. He didn't know what would happen while he was away from the small village, located about as far from human civilization one could get and still be considered in human lands, but what he did know was that the next time he saw Aldreth, it would be through the eyes of a free male. Unfettered by his quest or the burdens placed upon him, unrestricted by the needs of others. He would come home free, and he would live the rest of his life free.

It was much to look forward to.

Moving at a brisk walk, Tarrin moved at the head of the long column of Centaurs and transformed Were-kin, with the men of Aldreth nestled safely in their center. Tarrin walked along with Jasana riding on his shoulders, Jesmind on one side and Sathon riding on the back of Mikos on the other. They had moved steadily southwest all day, as the other Were-cats ranged ahead to scout the road and kill any solitary or straggling Dal soldiers or messengers. They often brought back their horses, singly or in groups, and they proved their worth on that first day by eliminating nearly half of the garrison of Dal soldiers at Watch Hill without even getting there. Unlike the soldiers that had been at Aldreth, the Watch Hill garrison did patrol the road, did range about to seek out Rangers and farmers turned partisans. What they invariably found that day was a Were-cat looking to separate their heads from their bodies.

The Watch Hill garrison commander had to know that something was wrong by now, Tarrin was sure of it. They were about three longspans out from the village situated at the top of the small hill that gave it its name, and that garrison commander had gone a whole day without a single man sent to patrol the north road coming back. That had to have raised all sorts of warning flags in Watch Hill, a sure sign that something was coming to worry about, but Tarrin really wasn't that concerned. Mikos had sent a pack of Were-wolves ahead, to have them circle around the village and ambush any Dal messenger or soldier riding towards Torrian, but not riding into Watch Hill, in order to keep news of the attack from getting there too soon. That was a wise move in Tarrin's opinion, and that also allowed them to assault Watch Hill at their leisure, without fear of someone escaping to warn Torrian.