There are treasured moments when there is a pause in the craziness of my world. Everything is calm and I get the brief chance to just relax and reflect on how good my life is. Kalindra and I were sitting on the porch of our home, watching the glowing red and yellow clouds of a beautiful sunset against the darkening sea green of the sky. I had plied Kalindra with a special homecooked meal (and it says something about our lives when comfort food contains enough chili peppers to melt the pot) and she was starting to doze off on my shoulder. I looked down at the top of her head, smiling at those few gray hairs that she couldn’t see and I would never tell her about. The breeze through the treetops made a gentle rustling, and, while the trees were not the pungent pines of Earth, the scent of the Velan forest around me was just as comforting. I gave my mate a gentle squeeze and slowly exhaled a deep breath in a sigh of contentment.

       There are treasured, and altogether too fleeting, moments.

       (zvng) BANG!

       “DA! You’ve got to help me!” yelled my son as he threw open the front door with a crash and darted out onto the porch. I was on my feet and summoning my staff before I knew what was happening.

       “SHE’S AFTER ME! You’ve got to stop her! I’m not ready — I, I, I don’t know what to do!” yelled my son, staring aghast back into the house.

       My staff materialized reassuringly in my hand as my adrenaline charged brain started to realize that something peculiar was going on here. “Lan, what...?”

       (zvng)

       “Lan Louis, stop right there if you know what’s good for you! The longer you run...!” cried a high, female voice from inside the house.

       Lan gave a strangled “eep!”, vaulted over the railing of the porch in a flash of red fur, and dashed pell-mell fifty yards down the dirt road before suddenly teleporting (zvng) and disappearing.

       Confused, I swung around to face the darkened interior of my home, staff glowing at the ready. This was eerily familiar. Suddenly, my legs were swept out from underneath me. I landed on my back with a thud on the rough planking of the porch, the wind knocked out of me.

       Kalindra promptly sat on my chest and favored me with a close up view of her toothy grin. “Coimelin, I do not think we should interfere,” she purred as I struggled for anything resembling a breath.

       I heard a female voice shriek, “Lan Louis!” as it dashed past, then (znvg) it was gone.

       Kal pulled me to my feet. I clutched and hung on my staff, bent over and gasping for breath and sanity.

       “Come, sit back down.” She patted the bench.

       “Lan...,” I wheezed.

       “Is perfectly alright. Sit!”

       I shook my head. Gingerly, carefully, I straightened up and dismissed my staff. With a grunt, I eased myself down onto the comfortable bench and was quickly seized upon by a vigorously snuggling vixen.

       “I believe my coimelin also promised to make lemonade....”

       Yes, I thought, poor Lan has NO idea what he is getting in to.