Chapter 7

Ben lasted until the following spring before he found someone he didn't have to share, and to his credit, it wasn't because he'd been actively looking. Instead, it was one of those bolt-out-of-the-blue, glance-across-the-room kind of moments in human chemistry. I know, because I was standing next to him when it happened. When Kristina Winston happened. Even in a crowded room of teenagers, with my sensitivity damped down to minimize the mental buzz from thirty or forty kids all feeling festive, and their thoughts and feelings dancing at the edges of my shields, I felt the connection and the heat that followed. Simultaneous mutual and total fascination.

Kristina Winston was nice too. Sweet, warm, outgoing, vivacious. Perfect for Ben. He was instantly lost and I was instantly happy for him, but not as happy as Teddy Seville was three days later. She practically launched herself into my arms when I saw her.

"Ben has a new girlfriend," She gushed between kisses.

"Officially, I don't know that for sure, but based on the practical reality of what I do know? Absolutely."

"I heard it was one of those love at first sight moments at Kara Solomon's party."

"It was. I was standing two feet away when Cupid's arrow struck. It's a good thing Ben and I hadn't come to that party together, because I went home alone."

"Not nice," Teddy feigned anger. Of course she wasn't really mad, but automatically defended my right to being treated with respect.

"No, it was fine. Ben called me first thing the next morning and apologized. It took me ten more minutes to get him to confess that he was breaking up with me though, poor guy, its the only time I ever remember him being tongue-tied."

Teddy giggled over that. Ben really was usually the very definition of smooth and unflappable. "Well, it means you're finally all mine, so expect to see some changes in how I interpret our relationship, okay?"

Expect some changes? That I did, and changes I did get. Our relationship drew closer as Teddy became more secure within it. Our relationship moved to a much more physical one, and I can't complain about that! A lot of it was new to both of us, but girls our age have very active imaginations. We did a lot of exploring and reveled in our mutual discoveries.

I made sure Teddy understood immediately that I wasn't looking for a replacement for Ben, but would always keep that door open. She said she understood, and that it was a worry for some other day.

The Memorial Day holiday marked the end of school and the start of the summer break. The holiday itself was the last weekend at Angels Camp for me until the school started in the fall. We spent it up at Lake Tahoe, on the lake, swimming, jet skiing and eating every meal off the grill. It was fun in a way that I'd not experienced previously. The experience was made better by having Teddy with me, as her family had finally bowed to the inevitable and began treating us as a couple. Bikinis were another new experience for me, and I would have been willing to try one of the new holographic ones, but Melissa and Cole said no. Teddy's parents said yes, and hers projected an image of the Venezuelan War Memorial in all the proper places. What made the suit great as far as I was concerned was the fact that the hologram presented no actual barrier to my roaming hands, though I did try not to be too blatant about it.

Teddy and I hit a peak that weekend in our physical relationship. We weren't going to be together for the summer, and Teddy needed a lot of reassurance and comfort, a need which found its expression sexually. We had some very great sex. More than at any other time in our relationship. The learning and discovery phase had led to a new phase of intimate knowledge and anticipation that even got my back brain off its wheels a few times. That weekend had been the ultimate expression of our new sexual confidence.

"It seems you have heard that phrase somewhere before."

My Teacher in the Garden of Knowledge had said that to me when I'd called myself a 'Walker', and it was true.

On Aruh, the Guardians were known as 'Walkers'. Legends on Taluat had used the phrase 'Walker between the Worlds' to describe their ancient counterparts as well. The phrase was particularly well known among the Rhellian believers. My personal opinion was that the Walkers and the Guardians were not the same. Oh, the same people, certainly, and probably the ancient Choctowineh, but without a racial memory akin to the Yaru's, I had no way of knowing for sure. I didn't go to Aruh to find 'the truth', behind what I felt. I went because "I thought becoming Yaru would help with my search for the ways to what I wanted, and thus assist me with 'the plan'. I did sort of refer to it that way in my mind. It had become a title as much as a description, as if I was writing the book of my own future in my head.

I spent the summer on Aruh with the Gold Lake Runners. This pack from the southern temperate zone of Aruh were a far cry from the plains dwelling packs my Grandfather Andy had first met, and where he had first come to know Titan, the Yaru who had grown into the recently created title of 'Planetary Elder'. It had been over fifty years since the title had been created and given to him. To a Yaru, this was a recent development. To a species with a racial memory, a century seems like the blink of an eye.

Glint on the Far Frozen Waters was old, even for a Yaru Elder, and a veteran of the Preci war. Leader of the Gold Lake Runners, his pack numbered eighty six Yaru, counting the youngest pups. Their range included a series of rocky badlands and mountainous slopes that included a string of six mountain lakes, the largest of which they had taken their name from. Golden lake was where they made their den, and it was cool, windy and beautiful.

"Child, you are both wilder and wiser than any youngster," Glint told me across the council fire. I saw a lot of nodding from the others at the gathering. "This alone makes it difficult to treat you in the same manner we would our own young, as you have asked us to do."

I had been gone for several days, and was getting a very public dressing down for having done so. I had not bargained for the right when I first approached the pack, and this was their way of reminding me that my traveling away from the pack and away from Aruh was at worst a violation of our agreement, and even at best an un-negotiated change in the terms of the bargain. The Yaru treated bargaining as a very serious matter.