He sighed. She had to be about ten now, and a little taller. Those dark eyes were probably a little bigger, more energetic, and she was probably alot more vocal about her objections to how her mother kept trying to plan out her life. Janine's only real fault in Tarrin's eyes was that she was smothering Janette in her attempts to teach her to be a proper young lady, when all she wanted to be was the child that she was. Tomas was probably a bit balder, Janine a little leaner and more hawkish in appearance… and he wanted to see them again.

"What is that? Oh, is that the doll?" Jesmind asked, pointing at his paw. He nodded and handed it to her, if not a little reluctantly, and Jesmind took it and looked at it, then raised it to her nose and sniffed at it gingerly. Janette's scent was long scoured away from it, but it was an impulse in Were-cats to smell things. Unlike other beings, Were-cats had keen senses of smell, and an identification of an object or person wasn't complete without its scent. Tarrin often thought of his friends or acquaintances not by name or face or appearance, but by their scents. It was the most effective way to separate people in his mind, for no two scents were alike.

"Good grief, my mate, what has this little thing been through?" she asked. "It has fire smells on it, and blood, and the trees only know what some of those things are I can't identify."

"As much as I have, Jesmind," he told her absently, looking out the window again.

"Can I see it, mama?" Jasana asked, dropping the doll and coming over to them.

"Alright, but you be careful, and remember it's not yours," Jesmind cautioned her as she handed the doll over to the little girl. "And don't play with it!" Jesmind warned as an afterthought. "If you break it or lose it, I'll skin you!"

Jesmind did not make idle threats, and Jasana knew it, so she handled the little doll with extreme care, sniffing at it exactly the way Jesmind did before her. "You used to play with this, papa?" she asked.

"Janette would drag it through the house on a string," he chuckled. "I wouldn't play with her any other way, because I wasn't going to take the chance of biting her by accident."

"I've never seen you as a cat, papa," Jasana told him. "Can you show me?"

"I guess so," he shrugged. He turned around on the couch and shapeshifted for his daughter's benefit, settling into the form and instincts of a cat. It had been quite a while since he'd been in cat form, and for a short moment, it felt a bit… strange. But that wore off immediately as the old sense of it returned to him, and he sat down on the couch on his haunches and looked up at his daughter calmly.

"Wow, you're big, papa, even as a cat," she giggled, fearlessly reaching down and picking him up. Her grip was a bit firm, painfully so-Jasana didn't realize her own strength yet-but she took the pressure off of him when she put him back on the couch and put the doll down in front of him. "I didn't break it, see?" she announced proudly.

"Be glad you didn't," Jesmind said flintily. Jesmind usually seemed harsh with Jasana, but he understood her need for it. Jasana was a cunning little girl, devious enough to do Keritanima proud, so Jesmind had to keep her on a short leash. That devious nature had yet to flare up in her since leaving Aldreth, but that was mainly because Jasana had yet to see something that she wanted. As soon as she wanted something that she couldn't have, she would go to absolutely any lengths to attain it, even doing things that would utterly shock her parents. She had once used Sorcery for the express reason of keeping Tarrin with them in Aldreth, because she had heard him say that if she used her powers, he couldn't leave her. What she didn't count on was him dragging her along with him. But then again, with as much fun as she'd had so far on their trip, she wasn't too unhappy with the results.

"When can I turn into a cat?" she asked her mother impatiently.

"Not for a while yet, cub," she replied. "The ability comes around puberty. That's a few years away."

Tarrin sat down on the couch patiently, then decided that laying down would be better. "Papa, why are you staying like that?" Jasana asked.

"Because it suits me," he replied in the manner of the Cat.

"She can't understand you yet, beloved," Jesmind told him. "The ability to talk to cats doesn't come until we can shapeshift."

"I didn't know that," he told her, looking up at his mate.

"Now you do," she said evenly.

Tarrin had forgotten how much easier it was to think in cat form, where his instincts drowned out most of the thoughts that would distract him from the current center of his attention. He laid down and put his paws over the little doll possessively, his mind drifting back to the problems at hand. The ki'zadun was more or less at the top of that list. They couldn't be much more than ten days away. They should be receving reports that they had reached Darsa any time now. Things were getting closer and closer, and the terrible reality that there was going to be a pitched battle in Suld rode high in his mind. They were running out of time, but from what he'd seen, they were going to be ready. Almost all of the defenses had been constructed, erected, or planned out, and men and Wikuni and Vendari had already begun to practice the duties of the positions they had been assigned by Darvon's general staff. From what he'd heard, one of those generals was the Arakite commander, one was the Wikuni commander, and one was the Vendari commander. Keritanima had gone back to sitting in on the planning sessions, helping out where she could. Things were going to be ready, and both Keritnaima and the Goddess seemed confident that they would win. Tarrin had been as well, at least until he shifted into cat form. Now, he wasn't so sure. Something, he wasn't quite sure what, but soemthing was nagging at him.

"Tarrin, I thought you were hungry," Jesmind called, breaking him from his worried reverie.

He looked up at her and realized that he was hungry. And that tray of food and milk was just sitting there, waiting for them. Tarrin stood up and jumped down onto the floor, and then shifted back into his normal form, eyes locked on the tray. "Well, since you reminded me," he said, reaching for some thick slices of ham.

Tarrin and his family tore into the tray, finishing it off relatively quickly, and they were enjoying the chilled milk in contented silence, at least until a soundless voice drifted in from the Weave towards him. Come, it called, the voice of Spyder cast into the Weave. It is again time.

Tarrin raised his consciousness until he was bridged between the Weave and reality, then focused his will on Spyder and spoke in reply. "Same place?" he asked.

I see you did what I bade of you, came a slightly impressed response. I am in the courtyard this time. Come to me, and be quick. We have much to do this night, and we may not have time to finish.

"What are you about, mate?" Jesmind asked suspiciously. "Who are you talking to?"

"Someone I can't ignore, Jesmind," he sighed.

"He's talking to that dark lady again," Jasana informed her mother. "The one that never comes near us, always watches us from far away."

Tarrin was a bit startled. He hadn't seen Spyder skulking around. Then again, he'd been busy. It was possible that the Urzani had been keeping an eye on his daughter, given how powerful she was.

"Who is this dark woman?" Jesmind asked immediately, staring at him deliberately.

"Another Sorcerer," he told her. "The mentor I told you about. I can't ignore her when she calls me, or I'll make her mad and she'll refuse to help me. She's as touchy as you are."

I heard that, came a dangerous call.

Tarrin snorted, forgetting that Spyder could seem to eavesdrop on him. "Alright, I stand corrected. Now she's mad," he told Jesmind. "I'll be back as soon as I can, alright?"