The plague hit Addison and almost overnight half the human population died. Those called tree huggers seemed safe and were barely affected. A week and they determined the plague had come from the damn Squirrel Rats that had infested both the northern and southern colonies. Settlement was safe and so was Sextus.

Now there were major efforts to keep the rodent populations down. I was born sixteen years before to a large tree hugger family. We had come in to help those still alive in the southern colony and stayed for six months. When we returned to the forest I was relieved and glad to have the forest around me.

I was a loner mostly but I did have a large family. Mom and dad of course but also our grandparents. I had four older brothers and two older sisters. That meant I wore left over clothes and got any and everything else they did not want. Except for my two phoenix dwarf dragons and two tiger monkeys.

Those I got for helping the sick and killing the damn squirrel rats. Six months after returning I turned seventeen and my father bought me a new twelve millimeter Wild. I still used a tristeel long knife and a short, slim skinning knife and hunted with a bow. The pistol was my first and I liked the feel.

I was lonely since my brothers and sisters were out at their own places now. The closest family to us was twenty kilometers to the north. They were as strange a many tree huggers. I let my father know I was going to visit them and made a pack. I thought of their daughter as I whistled and ran along the porch and leaped to a branch.

Killer and Charm were the first to catch up and dropped to a trot on the branch with me. Greg and Grace were next and they stayed to the side and leaped from vine to vine. I leaped and caught a secondary vine and climbed up to the next branch and kept going. It might look like I was not paying attention but I was.

My eyes flickered and searched ahead and to the sides. I looked below and above and after an hour I slowed to a walk, “time to gather.”

My friends looked at me as I began collecting different types of leaves and stuffing them into chest pouches. Greg and Grace threw a lot of fruit and then swung and leaped to my pack. They clung to my shoulders while eating fruit and looking around. I grinned but ignored their extra weight. At noon I slowed a little more, “Killer find lunch.”

He chirped and leaped off one side of the branch and Charm went the other way. Unlike when they were younger they had hunting down now. Charm was the beater and Killer the snare. It was only a couple of minutes before they had a flying lemur. They had been careful killing it and I skinned it and fed them and whistled for the beatle ants.

I squatted and watched them clean the pelt while my friends ate. Grace chirped and I looked at her and then followed her look. I shifted and leaned and then turned to watch. Below and thirty meters away Drew and a young Kaire female were stopping beside a large water barrel. I grinned as Drew looked around and the Kaire female stripped.

She was only wearing a skirt and light shirt with a few belts for pouches and packs. I shifted as Drew opened the barrel and the Kaire hesitated before climbing in. The length of the barrel was two meters so she was holding the edge and washing. I tossed the beatle ants the guts and took my clean pelt and tied it to the pack.

I stood and moved to the tree and climbed down. I had to jump to another branch as I walked out the one Drew was on. She saw me and blushed since she had already taken her top off. I looked at the Kaire female in the barrel and swung my pack off, “I was coming over to see you.”

Drew shifted and crossed her arms, “you see me.”

I looked at her and grinned, “only half.”

She grinned and then giggled and turned, “Kensa Alt Silno this is Monte Delincourt.”

I bowed towards the Kaire, “I see you.”

Her eyes widened and flickered to Drew who gasped. I blinked, “what. That is how you greet Kaire right? You recognize them and show that you see them.”

The woman smiled and slowly climbed out and dropped to the branch, “only male to male. If it is a female and you are male you acknowledge them. By saying you see them you are asking for claiming rights.”

I looked at her amazing body, “claiming? As in mates?”

She moved towards me and touched my face, “yes.”

I blushed and looked at Drew, “well I was thinking of trying that with Drew but I would not mind you.”

Drew’s eyes widened and then she grinned, “you asked and now she must decide and answer and you may get what you want. She has been looking at human males. Kensa this is Monte Delincourt.”

I looked at Kensa and she was purring. She shifted and spoke in a low throaty growl, “Monte Delincourt I claim you.”

She took a step and rubbed her cheek against mine and nibbled on my neck. I shivered and my free hand went to her hip. I shuddered and then woke and looked around, “if you need to bathe Drew, I will watch.”

I looked into Kensa’s eyes, “I would love you right here but...”

She shivered and moved back, “but there are predators.”

I nodded and turned to whistle and my friends flew or climbing and leaped to the branch. Drew chucked as she finished stripping, “I forgot about them.”

I touched Kensa and looked at my friends, “this is Kensa.”

Killer and Charm moved closer to smell but Greg and Grace leaped and swung and leaped again. She caught them with a look of surprise and looked down at the two phoenix dwarf dragons. She knelt and I touched Grace, “this one is Grace and the other is Greg. The phoenix dwarf dragon on the left is Charm and the one on the right is Killer.”

I let them touch and smell her as I turned to keep watch while Drew floated and sighed. When Killer slipped in and dove she squeaked and I grinned and helped her out. Charm chirped but jumped and folded her wings as she dove into the water. I let them play and looked at Drew’s naked body. Kensa chuckled and stood, “you would have another mate?”

I blushed and Drew stopped drying and looked at me, “I would.”

Kensa smiled, “say, Drew Pearson I see you.”

I looked at her and then at Drew, “Drew Pearson I see you.”

She smirked and rubbed herself, “yes you do.”

She looked at Kensa and then at me, “I see you Monte and I claim you.”

I grinned and then spun and looked as Greg growled. Below and to the west was a leaf leopard. With all our talking I expected it to be hunting us. Instead it was after a shifting shape in vines. When it saw the large cat it leaped and ran and I realized it had been a wolf ape scout. The leopard chased and caught it after a dozen meters.

I relaxed and turned, “I think we need to get moving.”

I waited as they dressed and we closed the cut in the water barrel. I led and they followed, a few hundred meters away I killed two rainbow peacocks. I tied them to my pack and we kept going. We climbed up and finally reached Drew’s home. I hesitated and let Drew lead and when we walked in it was to see a dozen Kaire and even more Kaire children.

I looked at Kensa and she slipped an arm around mine. The room went silent and then my friends came in. That woke up the children who started for the door and the animals. I looked back and chirped and they looked at me, “play?”

Greg and Grace were always ready to play and moved forward quickly. When a ball was tossed and bounced against the wall it had Killer chasing it. I relaxed as the children surrounded them and turned. Unlike most tree huggers, Drew’s family did not use bond animals. One of the Kaire males grinned, “your friends are tame?”

I snorted and looked at Kensa, “my companions play when it is safe or in a bath, otherwise they are protective and little hunters.”

He chuckled, “so I have heard.”

I cleared my throat, “my name is Monte.”

Kensa smiled, “and you see him.”

I nodded and the male straightened and looked at the others, “you claimed her?”

I blushed, “I think she claimed me.”

He looked at her and then grinned and finally laughed and the others did too. He bowed, “it is the female’s right to decide and make the claim.”

Drew strode back into the room with her mother and father following, “and I claimed him too. We are going to take a couple of days and then I will return and help you do your research.”

I looked at her, “research?”

Her father looked at me carefully, “botanical research into manual plant modifications.”

I stiffened, “Addison does not need anything else engineered.”

He grinned, “not even a water vine bath or pool?”

I blinked, “bio engineering is dangerous. Look at the eastern peninsula and the mess the radiation has caused. For every good change or alteration we get a hundred bad. It took a year to kill all the flying king lizards and we are still having problems with the ocean creatures.”

He shook his head, “not bio engineering. Do you know what a Bonsai tree is?”

I shook my head and he told me and I blinked, “you do not want to go to the ground to do that here.”

He shook his head, “we just need to examine plants. How and where they grow and what others interact with them. We need to see the forest eco system.”

Drew’s father hissed but I ignored him, “a hundred kilometer to the east is an old hunting lodge. It has a landing platform and several parking pads. The lodge has been vacant for a few years and the area around it has not been altered or trimmed. You will still need to watch for predators but you will not have to go as far to find the plants living as they always have.”

The Kaire grinned as the others nodded and murmured, “it sounds like we will have to check it out.”

Drew grinned and patted my chest, “let Kensa and I get packs. We can head to the lodge.”

Her mother chuckled, “I should have thought of the lodge. It is perfect if the old sonic barriers are still working. Take your time and call us after you look around.”

I looked at my friends with the Kaire children and waited. Finally Drew and Kensa returned and I spun and chirped as I headed for the door. On the porch I looked around and then started towards a tree and slipped around it, “we only have a few hours before it is dark.”

Drew caught up, “I will lead. I know where a home tree is that we can sleep in.”

I went back to collecting leaves and plants while we walked and then started to rub tanning moss on the pelt. Kensa peeked over my shoulder, “that is the curing moss?”

I smiled, “tanning moss.”

She reached out to touch and feel and nodded, “it leaves the hide soft?”

I nodded and began gesturing to leaves and telling her what they were. Finally Greg and Grace were riding my pack and Killer and Charm were walking behind us. I finished and looked around and then used my bow to kill another bird. I plucked it while walking and cut it in half and tossed the guts.

Drew slid down a vine and landed close to a cave like hole in a home tree. I let Kensa follow and then went after her. I checked the hole and Drew or her family must have been here because it had been burned. I set my pack in and removed my chest pouches. I turned and moved out the branch and knelt to feed Killer and Charm again.

Drew and Kensa had collected fruit and fed Greg and Grace. Finally I sent my friends into the hole and opened the pouches. I cut up the two peacocks and wrapped them in fire and spice leaves. I unfolded several metal sheets on the branch and Drew grinned as she set them on fire. I hesitated and sliced some of the meat thin and wrapped a single spice leaf around it.