FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was a gloomy, wet, and foggy morning beyond the confines of the cave. A constant drizzle smothered the forest into silence and it seemed as if the world world ended in a solid wall of grey barely a hundred yards from the mouth of the cave.

Not in the mood to venture forth into the great outdoors and get soaked Sharra instead enjoyed a quiet morning of lazy thoughts and daydreams as water dripped and puddled at the entrance to their sanctuary. She and John had plenty of food and water, a good supply of dry firewood, they were warm and dry, and she couldn't come up with a single reason to do anything other than lie around and relax. She shifted position on her cushion of deerskins and yawned. Yes, it was definitely a good day to do as little as possible, she thought.

It was quiet within their haven of ancient stone and it had been quite some time since either of them had said a word. While Sharra would have enjoyed a little conversation, John was in one of his working moods and she'd learned that he did not enjoy being distracted at such times.

The human sat cross-legged on a few layers of old hides a short distance away. The fur on the top of his head had grown quite long over the last few months and strands of brown hung down over his eyes as he stared intently at a small object held delicately in his right hand. He turned it over a few times and a frown flowed into the lines of that infinitely flexible face of his. After a moment of hard thinking, he brushed the hair out of his eyes and sighed. His hand passed down over his face and lingered on his chin for a long moment. Pale eyes scrutinized the object in his hand with unbelievable intensity.

Sharra watched with interest, taking care not to disturb the human in his work. Their Link was quiescent for the moment. With John involved so deeply in his work, she knew better than to disturb him. She simply watched and listened as the human worked, her mind passively sensing John's awareness through the Link and she was awed by what she felt.

Mind and body perfectly balanced in a tight spiral of concentration, John had withdrawn from everything around him as he bent all of his thoughts and energy towards the object he held delicately in his long fingers. As far as he was concerned the only things that existed in the world were he and it.

There was an incredible strength within the human when he was in these moods. Power flowed up from the depths of his soul and transformed uncertain thoughts into solid and undeniable concepts. More often than not, the incredible dexterity contained in his pale skinned hands and long fingers allowed him to bring those concepts from mere ideas to reality.

Before John had come into her life, Sharra would not have believed that such abilities were possible. No one in her Clan has possessed such talent. The tools and weapons they made were simple, rugged and had been the same for generations. New ideas were rare and the skill to bring them into reality even rarer still.

But this human! He had so many new ideas, so much imagination!

The bow the human had made was one of those ideas. According to him, it was an ancient and simple weapon among his people but Sharra was absolutely astonished at the complexity of its construction. The wood had to be shaped in a flawless manner in order for the weapon to work and John had spent countless hours with a piece of sandstone shaping and sanding that staff of birch with the gentlest of touches. After long minutes of sanding, he would brace one end of the staff against the floor, hold the other end in his left hand and give the center of the staff a solid push. He would eye the bend in the wood with a critical eye and then would pick up the piece of sandstone and return to the fine sanding work.

When he finally judged the sanding to be complete, the bow was carefully coated with melted deer fat to seal the wood and then set aside. At this point Sharra had thought that John had finished the project but she had been wrong. With hardly a moment of rest to catch his breath, John had collected strands of sinew that he had carefully cut from along the spine of a deer and spent many long hours building a string for his bow. It took him several days and many attempts to braid the tough strands together and to get the length of the string right but when he finally did, the string was placed into notches on the ends of the bow and the once straight piece of wood was bent into a smooth arc.

It had deadly Power, that combination of wood and sinew shaped by alien hands, Sharra could sense it. When John gripped the bow in his left hand and drew the string back to the corner of his mouth with three fingers on his right hand, she could see fierce joy light up the human's face.

John showed her how to hold it and draw the string, but much to her chagrin she could barely pull the string back more than a hands breadth. She stared at John in awe and wondered if this strange male was typical among his species or whether he was special in some way.

The bow had finally been completed. All told he had worked on it at every available opportunity for almost two weeks. Without so much as a moment to stop, rest, and enjoy his accomplishment, John was back at work again.

The tiny item he cradled lovingly in his fingers had started out the day as a fragment of shed deer antler he had found in the woods several days ago. Starting out with a knife and carefully whittling away fine slivers, a rough triangular shape had slowly grown out of the antler. From the knife he had progressed to grinding it on a flat piece of coarse sandstone, the triangular shape becoming more defined with each step.

He appeared to be almost done with the object now and Sharra was finally able to see it for what it was, a tiny point, a spear point at less than one sixth the size. Triangular in shape, thicker in the middle and with a narrow flat stem on the bottom of the point. It looked sharp, deadly, and John nodded to himself as he turned it over and over in his fingers. He placed it on the hides beside him and brushed some antler dust off of his hands and pants. He stretched and grimaced as something popped in his back. A strange look came over his face and he froze in that position.

"Ow." He said.

Sharra chuckled as she watched John try to untangle himself from the cross-legged position he had spent the last hour in. The expressions that moved over his face as he stretched out one leg and then the other were priceless. He let out a groan as one knee expressed its displeasure about being straightened out with an audible click.

Sharra smirked and shook her head slowly as John finally sorted himself out. The human let out a noise that was equal parts sigh, yawn and groan as he leaned back on his hands. He turned his eyes to the mouth of the cave and the soggy grey landscape beyond. His gaze lingered there for quite some time.

Sharra was lost in thought as she watched the human from the corners of her eyes. His bulk shadowed her from what little light that managed to crawl into the cave on this dreary, overcast day.

Weary of silence and of her own thoughts, Sharra was ready for a little conversation. There were many questions on her mind and she wondered how exactly she should bring them up to John. The human was a quiet, private person, she knew that well enough and he seemed to have withdrawn even more in the week since the vision had taken him after he made his drawings on the wall of the cave. Recently his thoughts had been bent inwards more than not and many times he had wandered away from her to sit quietly in some place that had a good view, eyes unfocussed, fingers randomly toying with one of his many projects as the wheels turned behind his cloudy blue eyes. Those were the days when his thoughts and feelings were hidden behind a barrier she could not breach. While he was often quiet and reserved, it was unlike John to be so cold and distant, and there were days where it seemed that their Link had never even formed at all. Sharra missed the human's comforting presence when he withdrew from everything like that, and she often worried that he was growing away from her, that something he'd seen in the vision he'd had seven days ago had driven a wedge between them.

As she watched John idly, she couldn't quite bring herself to believe that he was pulling away from her despite her worried thoughts to the contrary. He remained friendly and when he was in one of his more open moods the Link easily betrayed the warmth he felt towards her. Why then was he being so distant and silent? She just couldn't figure him out. Sharra was used to him being a little on the quiet side, but not outright silent like he had been for the last few days. She didn't know whether there was something bugging him or whether it was completely normal for his species.

Despite the five cycles of the moon that they had spent together, Sharra had recently come to understand that she had barely scratched the surface about what there was to know about this person she was sharing her life with. She wanted to know more, she wanted to know his hopes and his dreams, his goals and aspirations, the person that he _really_was, but getting information out of him was like trying to get a two seasons old pup to sit down and listen for more than five seconds. John had the ability to dance around questions and change the subject faster than she could blink.

He was a private man of deep mysteries, and on most days, few words to explain them. Sharra had long ago accepted that about him. However she couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't quite 'normal' for him to be like that. Or maybe it was. What exactly was 'normal' for a human anyways?

Sharra was so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't realized that John had turned his attention to her. When she looked to her friend there was a twinkle of amusement in his grey eyes and a familiar lopsided grin graced his lips.

"You drove your parents nuts as a kid didn't you?"

Sharra's ears snapped up and she stared at John oddly.

"...Huh?"

John's grin got even wider. "Your curiosity, oddly enough I can feel it in my head. It's a pretty powerful sensation; it almost feels like an itch in the middle of my brain. One I can't exactly get at to scratch, I might add."

Sharra's ears burned and she looked away. John chuckled as a wave of her embarrassment tickled his senses.

"Sorry." Sharra mumbled in the general direction of the floor of the cave, "I did not mean to distract you. I was just doing some thinking."

The smile melted from John's face and he nodded slowly. He reached down and plucked the antler point from the floor and scrutinized it with a calculating eye for a moment.

"You're a welcome distraction, I hope you understand that." Warmth glowed in his eyes and a genuine smile flashed over his lips. "And I think I understand your curiosity."

John sighed and his long fingers fidgeted nervously with the arrow point for a moment longer before he finally returned it to its resting point on the hides beside him. Sharra stared at him curiously. He was uneasy about something, but oddly enough, he wasn't trying to hide his feelings as he had so often in recent times

John's voice filled the cave with a quiet, even rumble and his eyes became distant. "You're not the only one who's been doing a lot of thinking recently. I know I've been quieter than usual and I know that you have really been wondering why."

"Our link is part of the problem," John shook his head slowly and turned his eyes to stare out the mouth of the cave. "I can feel it changing, and I am changing with it. Things I don't understand are moving and shifting beneath the surface and sometimes it really scares me." John smiled weakly. "You have to understand that for all of my life what went on in my head was for me only. When you started getting inside my thoughts a few months ago, it scared the hell out of me. Having someone else know my innermost thoughts and feelings, and knowing someone else's thoughts and feelings, especially when that someone is not human is a frightening thing for a guy like me." John shook his head slowly. "Try not to take this the wrong way but I need my privacy. There are things about me that you don't want or need to know." A curious half smile graced the human's lips. "I think we all have secrets that need to remain buried."

Sharra nodded slowly, wondering about the turn this conversation was taking. Her link with John was more open than it had been in a long time and what she sensed there was confusing. He was nervous, and she had the feeling that he wanted to escape from this situation but he was also slightly relieved and the familiar background warmth of his mental touch was undiminished.

"I haven't been trying to push you away." John said quietly. "I've sensed that you've been worried about that recently and I realize now that I should have said something earlier." John paused for a moment and swallowed nervously. He struggled momentarily with his feelings and Sharra felt the barriers in his mind start to form again but just as quickly John pushed them away. His shoulders sagged and a sigh escaped his lips. John looked up to her and smiled weakly. Sharra's tail slowly began to wag as he let his feelings flow unchecked. The human's thoughts were a little chaotic, but out of that frenetic jumble a sense of genuine affection for her emerged.

Her tail wagged faster and a grin grew on her muzzle. At her reaction, a nervous, shy smile lit up John's face for a brief second before he turned away. His fingers toyed with the arrow point and his voice was a low rumble when he spoke again.

"I think you should know that I couldn't do anything to hurt you," he said softly, "and I'm genuinely sorry for avoiding you over the last week. Just try to understand that there are times I need to withdraw into the privacy of my own thoughts but that's a tough thing to do when you have an intimate connection with someone else that runs as deep as the one we share." Another sigh and John turned his pale eyes back to her. A wistful smile warmed the lines of his face. "I envy your ability to be so open to others with your thoughts and feelings, as that is something that I've never been able to do."

Sharra stared at the human with surprised eyes and perked ears, a happy warmth spreading through her body. She scooted over to John's side and leaned into him, tail sweeping the floor behind her. "Apology accepted." She grinned.

John chuckled and ruffled her ears. He was quiet for several moments, his fingers absently tracing patterns through the thick fur on the back of her neck. Sharra let out a deep sigh that trailed into a groan and relaxed against her human friend. Those wandering fingers felt so good. She closed her eyes and let her mind drift in John's warmth as his soft touch soothed her soul. As Sharra relaxed, John began to unwind as well. Sharra's tail wagged slowly behind her when she felt her friend's tension slowly melt away. A wonderful, quiet moment passed between them before he began to speak again.

"That dream I had last week really threw me for a loop. It took me a long time to come to terms with not only what was revealed to me but also who it was that guided me through that vision. I've never believed in any Gods or Goddesses and it was quite a surprise to come face to face with someone who claims to be one. I'm not quite sure what to make of that." John grimaced and shook his head. "All I ever wanted was a simple life and now it looks like I'm going to be denied even that."

"I didn't want to pull away from you but it was something I had to do. I had to figure this one out on my own; I needed to think that damned vision over without any outside distractions. I hope you can understand that."

Sharra nodded slowly, a thoughtful expression overtaking her features. At length she turned her head up and smiled at her human friend. "I think I do now. Because of the bond we share I sometimes forget that you are different than I in ways I have never thought of."

John chuckled. "Yeah, I'm a little different all right. The voices in my head have been telling me that for years..." His voice trailed off and he spent the next few moments staring at the charcoal drawings he had made on the wall of the cave, his arm resting gently on her shoulders.

An awkward moment of silence reigned before he turned his attention back to her. He scratched his chin and his smoky blue eyes searched her face intently for a moment, the faintest hint of a smile resting on his lips. "You never answered my question." He rumbled.

"Your question?" Sharra perked her ears, momentarily confused.

"About you and that insatiable curiosity of yours." John smirked.

Sharra turned away slightly. She could feel her ears burn. "Oh, that." It was obvious that John felt her embarrassment. A faint sense of his amusement trickled through the Link to her.

"I did have my nose into everything as a pup." Sharra admitted with a laugh but she quickly sobered and a sad tone invaded her voice. "There were times I nearly drove my poor mother to nervous shedding. Father didn't seem to mind as much though. He had great patience and was able to find amusement in most of my puphood antics and questions."

Sharra's voice trailed into silence and she shook her head sadly.

"I miss them," she said wistfully, "and I miss those carefree days as a pup. Life was so much simpler then, so much easier."

John's arm dropped to her shoulder and he gave her a gentle squeeze. "I understand completely, believe me, I do. Most of the best memories of my life are from when I was a kid, before my mom died and everything went to shit." John smiled sadly and sighed. "I miss those days too but I've come to understand over the last couple of months that there's no sense living in the past." John turned to her and grinned a humourless grin. "What's done is done and there's no changing that now."

John pulled his arm from Sharra's shoulders and leaned forward. He picked the arrowhead from the floor again and toyed with it for a moment. His eyes wandered over the charcoal lines on the wall of the cave and Sharra searched his face curiously. He was nervous about something and she could sense that he wanted to close up his thoughts and feelings again.

She was surprised when he didn't. "Well," John asked her with a sidelong glance, "you want to satisfy some of that curiosity of yours?"

Sharra stared at him, ears perked, unsure of what exactly he meant.

"Your curiosity feels like it has been directed towards me a whole lot in the last couple of weeks. Go on, ask me the questions that are burning holes in your mind. I'll answer them as best as I can, and if I can find the courage, I might even show you a few of my memories." He smiled nervously, his face barely betraying just how uneasy he felt through the Link.

Sharra was surprised at the turn this conversation had suddenly taken. He was making an effort, this intensely private human was actually inviting her into his life in a way that he had never done before. He was nervous, worried, very uneasy and Sharra had the feeling that it was a distinct possibility that he would run away if she asked the wrong questions.

The thought of having a little fun at John's expense rose up and a sly grin lit up her face. John raised an eyebrow and swallowed nervously. Sharra opened her mouth to say something but John beat her to it.

"Just so you know, this is going to work both ways. I'm going to have some questions of my own too. So think twice before you ask any intensely personal and potentially embarrassing questions fuzzball." He glared at her.

"You are no fun." Sharra frowned.

"Sure I am, you just haven't figured that out yet."

Sharra glared at John and gave his shoulder a shove.

The human chuckled and playfully shoved her back.

"You going to ask me anything or are we going to turn this into a wrestling match? This is a limited time offer you know. It might be a while before I get up the courage to pour my heart out to you again."

Sharra was thoughtful for a moment, and a mischievous grin lit up her face. "A wrestling match? I like the sound of that."

John arched an eyebrow. "Oddly enough, so do I. Trust me though, you'll lose."

"Really? We will have to see about that."

John laughed and shook his head. "How about you asking me some questions first? I'll wrestle you into submission and toss you into the river later."

Sharra abruptly sobered and stared long and hard at her friend. He definitely was in a rare mood today.

Okay ... why the sudden change of heart?"

John looked at her and grinned a humourless grin, "Mostly because a mutual 'friend' of ours told me I should stop being such an idiot and give you the attention you deserve. She also mentioned that it would be a good idea to quit keeping you out of my life."

It took Sharra a moment to digest that statement. "...The Mother?"

"The one and only. I figured it would be a good idea to listen to her. I don't think I'd want to get on her bad side." He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Also that damned itch that starts in my brain whenever you get curious about me nearly drives me nuts. I never knew our Link would be able to do something like that. I might have to do a little experimenting and see if it works both ways."

John stared at her evenly and Sharra's ears went back slightly. Despite the human's best attempts to hide it, she could feel the subtle touch of his amusement in her mind. His eyes sparkled and he flashed a grin at her.

Sharra swallowed nervously. Her Link with John suddenly went flat, emotionless, and very, very quiet. John's face took on an expression of intense concentration and his grey eyes stared right through her. Sharra looked at him oddly for a moment, wondering just what exactly he was up to. Suddenly her ears snapped back and her eyes widened as an odd sensation slowly grew in the center of her head. It felt like something was moving around inside her brain. A tiny bright point moved back and forth, sparkling, itching, tickling, suddenly vanishing and then reappearing in a completely different spot. One of Sharra's ears began to twitch repeatedly and she cocked her head to the side, a dazed look appearing in her eyes. Her fur began to stand on end and John chuckled at the look on her face, his amusement flooding through the Link to her. "Hey, what do you know, it does work!" He smirked as Sharra's eyes started to cross. "And you said I was no fun."

The sensation suddenly abated and once Sharra was able to compose herself she glared at the human. John stared back with a raised eyebrow and a playful smirk. Sharra shoved him. Hard.

"Hey!" John batted her hands away, laughing. "Wrestling later, questions first. Unless you really want that cold bath right now." Despite the tone of his voice, Sharra could tell that he wasn't unhappy with the way things were going. On the contrary he seemed to be enjoying their playful banter.

She smoothed out the fur on her arms and glared at John mischievously. She was going to get him back for that later on.

She took a deep breath and calmed herself, her eyes searching John's face. She nodded her head and thought for a moment. There was one question that had been on her mind for the last couple of months, ever since the Link between them had solidified into something tangible. It was not an easy question for her to ask and she was worried about what answer she might get but it was something she had to know before their relationship got any deeper. She took a deep breath to quiet some unsettled feelings and then asked the one question that had weighed heavily on her mind in recent weeks. She thought she already knew the answer but she had to be sure.

"Did you have a mate in your old life?"

Surprise, that's what she instantly felt through the Link. John had not been expecting that question. His mood abruptly sobered and the expression that came over his face was unreadable for the briefest of moments. Then, one of his eyebrows arched and one side of his mouth twitched upwards. His pale eyes remained wary despite the expressions that flowed over his face.

"A... Mate?" His jaw seemed to work over that word for a moment before spitting it out. His eyes met hers for a silent moment before finding something interesting in the bland stone wall of the cave. He shook his head slightly and he forced a tight smile onto his lips.

"Nah, I never could find a girl that would put up with me for very long." He glanced at her quickly and then avoided her gaze, avoided her eyes, staring out into the rainswept forest beyond the mouth of the cave. A long pause and a deep sigh later he began talking again.

"I'm a pretty solitary guy, and I learned early on in my life that I wasn't good looking enough or exciting enough to get much attention from the ladies." His words were calm, almost jovial, but there was bitterness and regret in his thoughts.

"I did have one or two relationships when I was younger that might have turned into something more but I always kept screwing things up." He smiled weakly and shrugged.

John had to force every word out. He wrestled with old feelings and memories and Sharra kept waiting for the barriers in his mind to go up. To John's credit and Sharra's surprise, he fought hard to keep his end of the Link open and she liked him better for it. She lent him what support she could and leaned into his side, hoping that her physical presence would help calm him down a little. She didn't say anything, she just relaxed against her human friend and hoped that the feelings she broadcast through the Link would let him know that she was there for him and that she appreciated his sincerity.

"Dealing with other people is something I've never been very comfortable with, and I never did figure out how to deal with the ladies." John admitted quietly. "I did my best but I trusted too much once and had my heart ripped out and stomped on for my troubles. After that every relationship I was in ended because I couldn't let myself open up to my partner for fear of getting hurt again." John's hands fidgeted nervously with the arrow point and a weak smile moved across his face. "After so many failed attempts at trying to hook up with someone I decided that I might as well just stay single."

As John's words sunk in and Sharra realized just how deeply this old pain of his ran, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. She didn't know what to say, what to do. A solitary life such as the one he spoke of was something nearly unimaginable for her. She knew loneliness well; she had endured two years of it before John had shown up but her situation had been different than the human's. She had truly been alone with no one to talk to, no one to laugh and cry with, no one to curl up next to at night. It had not been easy but John's life had been far worse, Sharra understood that now. He had been alone in the middle of a crowd, reaching out to people that could not or would not reach back to him. Sharra could hardly imagine worse torment.

"Were you ever lonely?" she asked quietly. She had to know the answer to this question, she needed to know that he wasn't as solitary as he made himself out to be.

John glanced at her and quirked his lopsided grin. "No easy questions, eh? Well, I guess I did bring this on myself." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He turned the arrowhead over and over in his fingers. The pain in his eyes mirrored the sensations she felt through the Link. John was not enjoying this conversation but she realized he was forcing himself through it for her sake.

"Sometimes I was. I think I convinced myself that I wasn't and learned to live with it though. Having the dog around helped but as far as people were concerned I guess I figured that being alone was better than being hurt by those I cared for." A long pause and John carefully placed the arrowhead back on the floor. "It was tough to see my friends get married and start families as the years passed though. I saw in them something I could never have and I'll admit that there were times when that really got to me."

John sighed and sadness flowed from deep within, "Not that such things really matter anymore. That part of my life is gone forever and maybe it's for the better now that those things really are truly out of my reach..." He shrugged helplessly as his words trailed off.

John raised his eyebrows in surprise when Sharra turned and hugged him tight. He hesitated for a second before he tentatively returned her embrace.

He opened his mouth to say something but shut it when he suddenly realized that he'd been ignoring the special bond he shared with Sharra. He'd been so wrapped up in his own thoughts and feelings that he hadn't been paying any attention to hers. Once he pulled himself from the depths of his own self pity and gave himself over to the Link, his eyes widened as their minds flowed and mingled together and their bond became their world.

His words had struck a chord deep within Sharra, and in one warm and delicious moment John realized that at her very core, where it really mattered, Sharra was no different from him. She had similar hopes and fears, wishes and desires. Despite the often childlike innocence she often displayed, there was great strength and compassion at the very center of her being. He let her essence curl around him and basked in the warmth that it brought to his soul. He began to wonder why he had been keeping this very special person at arms length for so long. It slowly dawned on him, as the Link became him and he became the Link, that Sharra wanted little more than to be with him and to see him happy.

He felt a smile move across his face and he reached out and bent the Link to his will. He would show Sharra the world he had come from, the person he had been. Maybe, just maybe, he would even let her into the places that he had sealed off from others so long ago.

****************

Sharra found herself in a place unlike any she had ever seen before, a place of acute angles, sharp corners, and shockingly white walls. A roughly textured flat white ceiling was barely a span above her head and an unbelievably huge window occupied the center of the wall directly in front of her. Strange, long, partially opaque strips of cloth were pulled part ways over the big window.

The air in this strange place was warm, yet stale, and it smelt of dust and alien strangeness. John's scent was strong in here, yet the traces were relatively old. She sniffed tentatively, trying to sort out the odd odours that came to her nose.

The flat ceiling above her lent a stifling sensation to her surroundings and Sharra eyed it uneasily for a moment before turning her eyes to other things. Beneath her feet were heavily grained planks of a rich, dark wood. The floor felt slippery under her footpads and it creaked slightly when she shifted her weight.

Strange objects littered the room, pushed into the corners and a few hung on the walls. There were even a few plants in the room, ensconced in clay pots and perched on top of strange rectangular black boxes. Sharra doubted they'd seen water in some time. The green leaves were faded and wilted, and a few dead leaves lay scattered about upon the wooden floor.

Sharra took an uncertain first step in this strange place as her curiosity overpowered her caution. The click of her claws on the scuffed and dusty floor was very loud in the room. She slowly approached some of the strange objects that were strewn along the walls.

One of the largest of these things was perched atop of a low rectangular wooden box that had many compartments in it. The object large and rectangular in shape, grey in the center with a narrow, jet black border. It smelt very strange, a sharp, acrid scent that stung her nose and lingered in her sinuses. The surface was somewhat shiny and Sharra could see her distorted reflection in it as she approached. She reached out with a tentative hand and poked the edge of the object. The surface was hard and slick and her claws made an audible click on contact. The material was cool under her fingers and she was instantly reminded of the strange thin and rectangular objects that John carried in the folded leather pouch that he always kept in his pocket. She wondered if they were made out of the same material. She bent forward to get a closer sniff of the object.

From deep in the bowels of the thing something went 'click'. An odd hum started up, the acrid smell intensified, and the grey flashed instantly into brilliant white. Garbled sound exploded out of the object and Sharra sprang back with a startled yip, feet sliding wildly as her claws tried to find purchase on the slick floor.

She stared at the thing with wide, astonished eyes; an involuntary growl forming in her throat as the white slowly gave way to dancing images.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist doing that." John's voice took her by surprise. She spun around to find him sitting on one end of a large and long padded chair that was pushed up against the wall behind her.

Sharra stared at him as blood pounded in her ears, trying to connect the two things in her mind. Her eyes went from John to the rectangular box and back. The human's face and thoughts were unreadable but his eyes glittered and Sharra thought there was the tiniest hint of a smirk lurking in the corners of his mouth.

"You ... did that?" Sharra pointed at the thing with the frenetic images dancing on it.

John nodded and raised his right hand. His index finger pressed something on a small item held in his hand and the object on the other side of the room instantly went dark and silent. He tossed the item in his hand onto a short and long wooden table that was in front of him. It clattered harshly on the polished surface.

"It's called a television. It's a form of entertainment among my people."

"... Entertainment?" She spat the word out.

"Yeah, don't ask, because I don't really understand it myself." John scratched his chin and looked around wistfully. "I never watched that much on it, mostly hockey games or the odd movie, but some days it was a good distraction from other things. Most times it was good for nothing more than wasting time."

Sharra had no idea what he was talking about and she stared at him emptily for a long moment.

"Where exactly are we?" She finally asked.

John grinned his toothy, human grin. "This," he gestured expansively with both arms, "is where I used to live Sharra. This was my home before my life took an abrupt turn for the weird and I ended up in your world. I figured it was as good a place as any to begin."

"...Begin?" Sharra cocked her head at John. The human smiled back.

"I'm going to do my best to show you some of my life, my world." John paused for a second and frowned slightly. "Problem is, I'm not exactly sure how to do it. My people live very differently than yours and you don't exactly have a common frame of reference for a lot of the things I'm going to show you." The human shrugged and looked away. "I really don't know how much of this you're going to understand. Some things are going to seem impossible to you while others will no doubt be a little scary."

Sharra remained silent. John scratched his chin in a distracted fashion, eyes unfocused and lost in thought. After a moment of motionless silence a slow grin moved across his face and a spark returned to his pale eyes.

"Ready?" He asked as he stood up. There was warmth in his thoughts, but also anticipation, mischief and nervousness.

Sharra moved beside him and took one of the human's giant hands in hers. "I think so." she said as she tried her best not to let her nervousness show. She'd seen strange glimpses of the human's world in his thoughts a few times before and some of the things there had made her uneasy. She took some strength and comfort from John's strong grip and let herself relax slightly.

John looked down at her, stormcloud grey eyes searching her face. He nodded slightly and squeezed her hand before turning away.

A sudden shift in his thoughts was the only clue that he had begun and as their two worlds combined into one Sharra was left breathless at the power with which John controlled their Link. He bent it to his will as easily as a summer storm bent the branches of a young willow, and the things that she saw there were absolutely staggering.

She saw through the human's eyes, used his senses to a depth that he had never allowed her before. He let her deeper into his mind than she thought he would ever be capable of. He wasn't entirely comfortable doing it but as the experience deepened she understood why he had to sacrifice some of his very precious privacy. He gave her the knowledge to understand what she was seeing. Alien words suddenly had meaning, matched to even more alien objects, and Sharra was totally dumbfounded by what Jon revealed to her about his world, his life and his people.

True to the human's quirky sense of humour he threw her right into the fire and strange words formed in her mind to describe the scene that suddenly sprang to life in front of her eyes. He dumped her on the_(sidewalk of a downtown street)_ on a sunny and warm summer afternoon. Impossibly tall (skyscrapers) of metal and glass that glittered brightly in the afternoon sun lined the horizon, their lofty tips fading into the haze in the distance. Sharra's jaw nearly hit the ground.

The colours were astonishingly intense in this place, and the cacophony of sound that reached her ears was nothing short of mind boggling. Strange, acrid odours reached her nose but were thankfully subdued through John's weak sense of smell. (Vehicles) raced up and down the center of the (street). Sharra was so stunned by what she saw that she stood rooted to the spot, eyes wide, ears back and mouth hanging open.

There were people everywhere! Literally hundreds of humans crowded the_(sidewalks),_ dressed in a garish rainbow of strange clothing. Sharra cringed, thinking the mob would sweep her away but the sinuous river of humanity bent and flowed around her as if she were a rock in the middle of a stream.

"Crazy isn't it?" asked a deep voice from behind her. Sharra jumped and spun around to face John. At first glance, she hardly recognized him.(Sunglasses) shaded his eyesand he wore (blue jeans) and a grey (shirt) with brightly coloured designs on the front of it. His hair was short and carefully groomed, and his beard non-existent, but the same old lopsided grin graced his lips.

Sharra didn't know what to say. What she saw around her was shocking to say the least. Her ears twitched and her jaw worked but no words would come forth. John's amusement was bright in her mind and he just smirked at her as this crazy world spun around her.

When she finally did find her voice, it was barely more than a whisper. "Is this really your world?"

"Only one very small corner of it. What you see here is just a small part of one city out of thousands scattered around the world. Almost a million of my people live here yet this city is not even considered to be very large. There are cities on my world that have tens of millions of people in them."

Sharra was awestruck. Tens of millions of people crowded into one place? She didn't think that all of her people put into one place could number more than the brightly garbed humans that crowded around her on just this (street) alone. Yet for all of the activity in the place, all of the apparent life, there was a cold, nearly dead feeling to her surroundings. There was almost no green, none of the soothing scents of the forest that she loved so much. This place was all stone and metal, all artificial, and she didn't like the feel of it.

"I remember this place well." John mused. "Whyte Avenue, just south of downtown Edmonton. My one girlfriend and I used to come here and just wander the streets, watching the people. There were some good places to eat around here, lots of good bars, and plenty of interesting shops to wander through."

The meandering flow of people suddenly froze and John shook his head. "Funny thing is I never really felt like I belonged here. Big crowds of people always make me feel a bit lost and out of place." John paused for a moment and his eyes grew distant. "If it hadn't been for Kim dragging me with her I doubt I would have come here at all."

John was silent for a long moment and a curious expression came over his face as he looked at the legions of motionless people. The brightly clothed humans faded away one by one and he and Sharra were soon left standing alone on an empty sidewalk.

John scratched his chin for a moment and Sharra felt Power build within him.

"Here's something you might get a kick out of." he smirked.

The Link swirled around her and Sharra found herself sitting in a soft_(chair), a small oval _(window) in a curving wall right next to her. The room she was in was long and narrow and occupied with row upon row of the same type of seat that she occupied. Most of them were occupied with people. Her curiosity piqued, Sharra craned her neck to look around. A (seatbelt) was around her waist and held her firmly in her seat. She began to get a little nervous when she couldn't stand up but John's gentle hand on her arm restrained her. He was in the seat next to her and she could easily sense his anticipation.

"Just sit back and enjoy this." he said with a grin that spoke volumes.

Before Sharra could ask what she was supposed to enjoy there was a strange, almost birdlike noise from overhead. Her head snapped up and she stared intently at an oddly shaped light in the ceiling. Knowledge was transferred from deep in John's mind and she knew that the light was in the shape of the words 'fasten seatbelt'. Her head swiveled to John and she stared at him evenly. Those words had strange connotations in the human's mind. John looked at her innocently but he was hiding something from her and she could easily sense it. Amusement leaked out through the cracks in his mind and Sharra was about to demand that he tell her what was going on when she felt movement.

Startled, she looked around wildly. Everything in the room remained still but she had definitely felt something move. She turned her eyes to the_(window)_ and was astonished to see the scenery outside move steadily by. Again there was that eerie sensation of things moving and the world outside came to a slow halt. Just when she started wondering if that was all that was going to happen, a deep hum began to build in her ears. The hum turned into a vibration that she felt in her bones and a high pitched whine began to grow on top of that.

Ears back, eyes wide, Sharra's claws dug into the (armrests) on her seat. Beside her, John chuckled and put his hand over hers. His thoughts and feelings told her there was nothing to worry about but her body just couldn't accept that. She was tense, her muscles as rigid as iron, and when the hum grew into a roar and a giant invisible hand suddenly pushed her back into her seat, the yip of surprise that had begun in her throat grew into a long, drawn out, howl of shock.

The world out side began to race by the (window), moving faster and faster as the (airplane) raced down the (runway)

Suddenly, the shaking and bumping subsided and the ground began to recede away beneath her! Scared as she was, Sharra couldn't pry her eyes away from the window. Higher and higher the (plane) climbed into the blue sky, the ground falling away below. The ground faded into mottled shades of green and a patchwork of brown yellow fields. Sunlight glinted off of water down among the green and gold, and Sharra realized that the small puddles that caught her eye were actually vast lakes. She almost forgot to breathe as the wonder of what she was seeing out the window took hold of her. A river twisted sinuously through green fields, far, far below.

The scene below was momentarily blotted out by a thick, white fog. It lasted only seconds before the (plane) climbed through it and out into sunlit blue skies. Clouds, she realized, they had just risen through and above the clouds!

The clouds soon became white balls of fluff that drifted over the land below, casting deep shadows over the green.

"Well, what do you think?"

Sharra had no words. She just stared out the window, eyes wide, mouth half open, absolutely enthralled by what she was seeing.

"We are really flying?" She finally squeaked.

John chuckled. "Yup."

Sharra still couldn't quite believe what John was showing her. She'd often wondered what the birds saw as they soared high above the land and this view was absolutely breathtaking.

"This is common for your people?" Her voice was little more than a whisper.

"Common enough." John replied. "It's the best way we have to travel great distances in a short time, Some of us do it quite frequently, others not so much. I've only been on a plane a handful of times in my life."

Sharra was barely listening. Her attention was riveted on the ground far below her. The land stretched out into the hazy distance, lost among scattered clouds that obscured the distant horizon.

John let her be alone with her thoughts for a moment. At length he placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned forward to speak quietly into her ear.

"The world is a big place Sharra, far bigger than you realize and I'm pretty sure that you have only seen one tiny part of it. My people," John paused for a moment, and their surroundings faded to grey, "have explored every corner of our world, from the peaks of the highest mountains to the deepest, darkest depths of the oceans."

John stood beside her, his arm resting light on her shoulders. He turned his face to her and grinned as images took shape in the grey nothingness that surrounded them.

The things she saw around her were amazing and terrifying at the same time. There were visions of crowded cities and towering buildings, and of dry, sandy lands inhabited with dark skinned people that looked very different from the human at her side. There were places where ice stretched as far as the eye could see and others where a cruel sun reigned over a strange land of sand dunes sculpted into sinuous shapes by a merciless wind. She saw odd creatures that swam in the water and chased schools of shining minnows. They looked a bit like fish but were hundreds of times larger. There was one absolutely amazing place, a wet forest world of green inhabited by birds with improbably colorful plumage and chattering, shrieking creatures that lived in the trees and swung from branch to branch on long arms. There were trees so big that they were tens of spans in diameter and so tall that their tops were nearly lost in the clouds. She saw small islands where blue water stretched out to the horizon in every direction.

"This is all your world?"

"Just the parts I can remember Sharra. I never did much travelling but I've read about these places and have seen pictures of them."

Sharra gasped as the images faded away into an inky blackness so deep that she felt herself falling into it. Just when she thought that there was nothing in this place she saw two bright specks appear in the black. One blue and one white, they slowly drew closer to her and Sharra was captivated by what she saw. A blue diamond and a white diamond hung against a backdrop of stars as bright as any of the ones she had ever seen in the night sky.

The blue diamond grew into a globe streaked with wispy, curling tendrils of white. Hints of brown and green broke up the monotony of blue but were partially obscured by the patches of white.

The white diamond became a smaller globe floating ethereally in the dark against a background of glittering stars.

She knew what it was right away. The markings and colour easily gave it away.

The moon!

The bringer of light in the depths of night; the God of Changing Faces, He who chased the sun across the sky for all eternity, always cursed to have his strength slip away as he closed in on his quarry.

But if that was the moon, Sharra wondered, then the blue orb could only be...

Sharra's thoughts fled in a panic as she swept closer to the moon, the white sphere growing huge in her eyes. Mountains and pockmarked plains flew by at incredible speed beneath her and her stomach lurched when at first it looked as if she was going to crash into the dusty plains and make a crater of her own. She flew by the alien landscape barely above the peaks of the mountains and then her trajectory abruptly changed and she curved upwards, the craggy peaks falling away beneath her.

Sharra swung up and away from the moon and the blue sphere centered itself in her vision. It soon became all that she could see, a white streaked blue diamond drifting against a background of the softest, deepest, velvet black.

Sharra drew in a deep breath and almost forgot to let it go.

So beautiful!

John's low, rumbling, voice took her completely by surprise. She had almost forgotten that the human was standing right beside her, and that this whole vision was nothing but a memory from deep within his mind. "Amazing, isn't it?" He said softly. "Our world is such a big place but when you see it from the outside you realize that it is nothing but an insignificant speck among the stars."

Sharra stared in awe, not quite believing that the entirety of her world was contained in only one very tiny corner of the globe that she saw before her. It went against everything she believed, everything she had been taught, but through the knowledge that John had transferred to her through their Link she knew that everything she had seen was true.

Sharra closed her eyes and in that one instant a million strange images from John's memories flashed through her mind. How could her people have been so wrong about the world? She wondered as she felt a sinking despair settle in her stomach. Were there no Gods to these humans, no spirits in the animals or the trees? Sharra thought of the Mother, the Father, the Watcher Above and suddenly wanted to curl up in a ball and hide in a dark place.

John picked up on her discomfort and she turned her head to find him staring at her with sympathy and a hint of regret in his pale eyes.

"I hope you don't begin to question your beliefs just because of what I'm showing you Sharra. From what I know of your beliefs they are simple and to the point and I find them to be kind of refreshing compared to the religions of my people." John cracked a grin for a moment. "My people once held similar beliefs as yours do, but modern human religions are all too often used as a way to control the masses and to make the believers feel that they are better than everyone else. Mind you, they're not all like that, but wars in the name of religion have killed a lot of people through human history."

"Even though I've never been a religious man I much prefer your beliefs," John spoke softly, "They make sense in ways I hadn't thought of before. I think I understand now when you say that all life is connected in ways I hadn't thought of before." The human shrugged and his eyes wandered over the blue globe that hung against the darkness. "My people generally think that they are separate and distinct from the natural world and rulers over it. Despite all of our machines and technology, I've never quite believed that. We are just as much a part of the earth and its natural cycles as the animals and plants; we've just lost sight of that important truth."

John sighed and was quiet for a moment. "Anyways," he began, "It's too late for the human race anyways. It seems that among other trials, my people were forced to pay for their arrogance and mistakes and they were unable to survive the experience. I can't say that I'm surprised by that. I guess I knew that we'd be the masters of our own demise."

The blue globe slowly faded from view and John remained silent for a time. Sharra sensed the knot of helplessness that seized her friend for a moment before he mastered it and forced it away.

"What about you?" She asked in a soft voice. John turned questioning eyes to her and his brow furrowed.

"You have shown me amazing and unbelievable things about your world and your people, but you have yet to show me anything about you."

"Ah, that..." John was instantly nervous. His hands unconsciously balled into fists. "I guess I did tell you I'd do that." He smiled weakly and turned away from her. He drew in a deep breath; let it out slowly through clenched teeth and the world around them changed yet again.

Sharra found that she was back where they started, back in the place that John had said was his home before he showed up in her world. He sat on his long, padded chair again and she could feel that he was nervous and uneasy on about ten different levels. At first he wouldn't meet her eyes and Sharra half wondered if she was pushing this intensely private person a little too hard. Her heart went out to him and she lent him what support she could. John slowly began to relax and bit by bit the parts of his mind that had been forever locked to her began to creak open. She smiled and moved over to sit beside him on the padded chair.

"I admire your courage in doing this. I can feel that it is not easy for you."

"No, it's tough Sharra." John said weakly. He looked lost and he wouldn't meet her eyes. "I've always valued my privacy. I've done a lot of things in my life that I'm not proud of and I'm not sure what you'll think of me once you know of them."

John clenched his teeth in frustration. "I've been on my own for so damned long that I'm not sure how to deal with other people anymore. I learned very early on in my life that the only person I could rely on was myself and despite everything you have done for me without asking anything in return, that hasn't exactly been an easy habit to break." He shook his head slowly and finally raised his head to meet her eyes. "I really haven't felt comfortable trusting anyone in years, especially a ... female." That last word rolled awkwardly off of John's lips. Sharra sensed his acute embarrassment and stared at her friend with an amused grin. A hint of the familiar spark had returned to his eyes as he grinned in return.

"But you're very different than any other female I've met," he said softly, "and I do trust you Sharra. I hope you know that by now. You've been remarkably open with me even when I was hiding everything I could. You have every right to know a little more about me and I can hardly refuse that to someone to whom I owe my life. At any rate, our Link is only going to grow stronger as time goes by and I get the feeling that it will be far easier for me to do this now than it will be in a few months."

There was a momentary pause as John collected his thoughts

"Some time ago, before everything went a little sideways on me and I had that crazy dream, I told you a few things about the person I was, but I think it would be easier for you to understand me If I _show_you the rest of my life instead of telling you."

"So," John said quickly before Sharra could get a word in edgewise, "to start with I'd like to introduce you to an old friend of mine. I think you'll like her."

John whistled. It was something Sharra had never heard him do before. It was a high pitched birdlike tone that caught her completely off guard. Her ears shot straight up and her entire body twitched. She stared at John with wide, curious eyes, wondering just how exactly he managed to make such a noise.

John didn't say anything, he just smirked at her, a twinkle of amusement hiding in the depths of his eyes.

From elsewhere in the house there was a thump and a click clack of what sounded suspiciously like claws on the hard floor. The click clack grew closer and Sharra stared in wonder as a large, four legged canine entered the room through the doorway at John's right.

It had a vaguely wolfish shape but the ears, tail and coloring were all wrong. It was big and Sharra guessed that it likely massed nearly as much as she did. A dog, she realized, this was the human's companion. She had seen it before in his dreams and she could feel that John's bond with this animal ran deep.

"Sharra," John gestured to the dog, "meet Mutt." The dog cocked its head and looked at her curiously with deep brown eyes, one ear standing at attention, the other flopped over at the halfway mark. It wagged its tail in a cautious yet friendly manner and Sharra had to smile and wag her own tail at the familiar body language she saw from this creature this creature. The dog came right up to her, sniffing curiously, ears back slightly and tail low but wagging in a submissive posture. Sharra was fascinated by its colouring. It had a long shaggy pelt of jet black that faded into a rich golden brown on the front of its legs. A patch of white showed on dog's chin and hints of long white hairs showed on its chest and belly.

John reached out and scratched the dog behind the ears. Its tail began to wag faster and its mouth parted in a happy, panting grin. Tentatively Sharra reached out and stroked the dog's thick pelt. The dog sniffed her hand and then leaned heavily against her legs as Sharra worked her fingers through its thick pelt.

John continued "I wouldn't be surprised if you and hairball here share a common ancestor." Sharra looked up sharply.

"Tens of thousands of years ago, some forgotten human hunter brought a wolf pup home to his camp and began something that had profound implications for the human race. That wolf adapted well to living with humans and they became his 'pack'. The humans soon learned that the wolf could fill in for the senses that they did not have. The wolf became our nose and ears, helping us hunt and alerting us to dangers in the dark that we could not see, hear or smell."

"Over the millennia, the wolves began to change. Selective breeding by the humans changed their sizes, colours, brought out certain desirable traits and removed other undesirable ones. What had once been a fierce predator and something to be feared became a close, trusted friend."

John smiled softly as his fingers traced through Mutt's pelt. "I think that without dogs around, the course of human evolution would have been very different indeed. I do know for sure that my life would have been very different without old Mutt here beside me through some tough times."

The human leaned back in his chair and sighed. The dog gave itself a quick shake and hopped up on the seat beside him, curling up and resting its chin on John's knee. It's warm brown eyes opened and closed lazily as it relaxed against the human. John's fingers worked through the dog's thick pelt and she felt the comfort and reassurance that he drew from his close bond with his dog.

John looked up at Sharra, renewed confidence and energy flowing through their bond. In a completely unexpected move he reached out and took her hands in his.

"I think I'm ready." He said.

*****************

John smoothly drew her mind into his, and memories began to take shape all around her. In this place John no longer stood beside her; this time he was all around her. He had pulled her deeply inside of himself and he held her there in a gentle embrace.

Memories flowed all around, flowing through her, flashing to life in her mind and slowly fading as the next one took its place. Time clouded these first, old memories. She saw John's mother and in her Sharra got her first good look at a human female.

Long strawberry blond hair and striking blue eyes in a face that was far more delicate than John's. Her laugh was infectious and her smile brighter than the sun and Sharra felt how deep the bond between mother and son had been. Even though that face was so different Sharra was able to see in it a few similarities with John's. The nose was almost identical and there was the same spark in those eyes that she often saw in John's. Beyond that there were more differences than anything else. No hair grew on her face and John's mother was a full head shorter than he and much lighter boned. Her body curved in different places and Sharra wondered if she was typical of the females of John's kind, but before she could put much thought into that the memory was whisked away and others took its place.

Father this time, a tall, well built but gruff looking man with dark hair and dark eyes, yet when he smiled his face lit up in a way that mirrored John's when he was truly happy. A stern man she knew, guarded with his feelings in a way that was so familiar to her, but patient and loving beneath that hard exterior. Strong hands held his son, guiding him as he learned how to ride a bike, how to skate...

And the memories flowed on...

Sharra felt the bewildered despair of a young boy on learning that his mother was very sick and would not be coming home from the hospital. Confusion at the funeral as he stood beside his father, watching as the casket was slowly lowered into the frozen ground as snowflakes drifted slowly down from a ski of iron grey...

A dark cast took on many of the memories from that point. She saw how John's father became silent and withdrawn over the next few years, seeking solace in the bottom of a bottle. He still did what he could to raise his son but John, more often than not, was left to his own devices and the confused and hurt boy grew into an angry young man.

Sharra felt the schoolyard taunts cut deep and witnessed the resulting fistfights first hand. A loner with few friends, John turned his back on school and drifted through adolescent life without meaning or purpose...

There were rare girlfriends and often during those times there were heated, bitter fights and words thrown that cut deeper than any blade ever could.

An image of John's father lying dead on the floor of the garage flashed into mind and Sharra felt the circle of despair become complete as John realized that he was now truly alone...

Problems with alcohol emerged over the next few years. Too many nights, long nights in bars and of waking up in strange places, sometimes even with strange people. Jobs lost because of showing up hung-over, drunk, or not at all, of sleeping in the back of the truck with only the dog to keep him warm because there was nowhere else to go. Memories of waking up in the drunk tank at the police station, covered in blood and vomit, the pain from a black eye, broken nose and bruised knuckles reinforcing the hangover by a factor of ten...

That seemed to be a low point in John's life. From there, there was a gradual sweep upwards. A job came his way, something he actually enjoyed. Through that job came a decent place to live for once, four walls and a solid roof. Better than he'd had in quite some time. Some of the old anger faded as John's self control improved. Memories of bright sun on sweaty skin flowed around Sharra as the scent of fresh cut pine boards filled her nose. Walking the narrow two by six on the top of a wall, one foot place carefully in front of the other. Hanging on to rough, resinous planks at precarious angles, a hammer in one hand and the metallic taste of iron spreading across his tongue as a few nails were clenched between his teeth. Saws screeched as stacks of lumber were cut and nailed together to form the walls and roof of a house...

There were new friends, only one or two at first, but as John put his earlier problems behind him, his circle of friends slowly grew and Sharra saw how these people became the family that he had lost.

The memories grew clearer the more recent they became and they literally flew right through her, giving her barely enough time to register them. She knew the ones she missed would be stuck in her head and would come out later, likely in her dreams. The memories of one person's life were almost too much to contain.

One of the recent memories that slipped through to her sent chills down her spine.

Strange, luminous stars littered the sky above as John lay on his back in the snow. Cold ... so cold...

Those strange stars seemed to talk to him, pulling at his mind, trying to get him to stay awake and aware as the cold stole away what little body heat he had left. Pain bubbled at the edges of awareness and she saw his horribly twisted and broken left forearm.

There were strange voices in his mind, voices from those strange stars. She heard the choice he was given; Darkness or light.

The sudden memory of a view from above was what really got her. She saw the smashed and smouldering wreck of John's truck wedged up against the trees at the edge of the road. The trail that led away from it was as clear as day in the fresh white snow. It was what lay at the end of the trail that really sent a shiver down her spine. John lay there, but he was just an empty shell, a pale skinned corpse that stared up into the dark sky through frosty eyelashes. There was no life-spirit left in that body and Sharra drew in a deep breath. The human had been dead in his world? How then did he live in this one?

The memories flowed on unabated. Sharra actually chuckled at seeing John's side of their first few days in each other's company.

She felt him change and grow as he adapted to his new life, and she felt his feelings towards her slowly change as well...

The dark and violent memories of his fevered time in the depths of blood poisoning made Sharra cringe.

Bewilderment ruled when the Gods and Goddesses of Sharra's people took a very personal interest in him, and worry took hold when knowledge of primitive tools and weapons that he should not have possessed was found in the depths of his mind. There the flood of memories dwindled to barely a trickle and their mental embrace slowly unwound...

*****************

The cave seemed a dull, lifeless place after John let his connection with Sharra fade away, but a new spark burned in the bond between Sharra and the human that had come so far and grown so much in the last five months.

Another stage of their Link was complete and Sharra felt great joy that the human had accomplished something that she knew was so incredibly hard for him to do. He did look a little apprehensive as he sat beside her, no doubt wondering if her opinion of him had changed for the worse after she had seen the life he had lived until now.

Nothing could have been farther from the truth. She now knew that he had good reason for wanting to maintain his privacy. She knew that his life hadn't exactly been easy but he had managed to find his way through it in one piece. She finally knew who he really was and she liked this strange person just as much as she had before.

No words were necessary. Sharra simply leaned against her Linkmate and rested her head against his shoulder. She held her end of the Link wide open and as she felt John relax against her she knew that everything would be alright.