Family

Even though Huck was still recovering, he wasn't happy about being left behind in the house while Cassia was out with Nico. After only a couple days, she was beginning to get the impression Huck was actually growing tired of the man. Nico must have been noticing it too because he stopped coming in their room as much and instead would send in Jules or Mabel to see if Cassia wanted to come running. She always did, but felt guilty leaving Huck. After all, he was only injured like this because of her. He was so close to being well she didn't want him to do something silly in anger and hinder his recovery. Instead she would stay inside and wait until he had fallen asleep for an afternoon nap. Then she'd go to join Nico in the woods.

On the third day, Nico decided he would take Cassia to see their nearby village. They stayed in human form and walked down along the river, farther downstream. Cassia smiled, relaxing and listening to the birds chirp in the trees. She had always dreamed of being able to shift into a bird and fly high in the clouds. No one could be a bird though. Mammals are mammals. The magic of their shifting couldn't change that. Across the river they came upon a little herd of wild deer. The animals raised their heads, big eyes watching the humans walking, ears and tails twitching as they watched for signs of danger. Even if the pair had been in the forms of deer when they came across, they wouldn't be able to hide their true selves from the animals. They sensed the shifted deer were different. Just like Cassia and those like her could sense if an animal in the woods was wild or just shifted like them.

"Have you ever tried to run with wild deer?" Cassia asked curiously as they strolled along.

"Nah," Nico looked wistfully across the water where the herd was starting to move away. They're too smart to let a shifted human too close."

Cassia understood. In any form she took, its wild counterpart never really trusted her.

When they came to the village, Cassia was excited to look around. The houses weren't all that close together but it was definitely a little community. She saw every building here was like Nico's house, made of clay with logs and branches build in for a frame and support. Nico told her it was mostly older people and new parents here, just like most villages. They helped and took care of each other. Once parents were confident and ready for their own space they would leave to make a home somewhere else in the territory and trade their empty house for supplies to do so.

Nico had told Cassia and Huck that he had five siblings. The oldest was his brother Levi who Nico simply described as "being a bit too much like Dad to stay around." Apparently shortly after Jules and Mabel were born and Levi's shift animal had settled, he had left this territory all together, choosing instead to live in the next one. He had told his family that he believed living along the ocean would be right for him. He had left then and they had only seen him a handful of times since.

After Levi came Nico's older twin sisters, Nora and Vera. Nico excitedly told Cassia they both had mates and lived here in the village with his nephews and nieces. He took her straight to their homes which were side by side. Vera, who could shift into a rabbit like their mother, was a lovely, short woman with blue eyes and brown hair. Cassia thought she looked strikingly like Agatha, only younger. She had a twin daughters herself as well as new twin sons. Nora, who was taller, thinner, and more serious like Ivan, could shift into a bobcat which had been quite hard on Agatha who hated even thinking about eating meat. Nora had one daughter, one son, and was now expecting twins of her own. Nico's sisters, just like him, had been thrilled to meet her and talk to her and show her around. They didn't ask too many questions although Cassia could tell they wanted to. Nico or Ivan must have told them not to pry.

Carrying or playing with one baby after another, Cassia felt a stab of sadness hit her unexpectedly. She was the youngest of nine herself and many of her older siblings had just started to have babies when she left. She knew she was an aunt at least three times. She had loved the times she'd been able to hold and dote on her little nephews and niece. Her unsettled animal though had always made the people of her land nervous, worrying what ever was wrong with her she would give to the babies. So those times with the children had all been stolen moments and precious to her. That had all ended when she had gotten caught. The backlash had been awful and now she doubted she would ever see them again. Agatha was a healer and hadn't seen anything wrong with Cassia. She knew they were going to the village today to see Nico's sisters. Surely if she had thought Cassia could spread what ever was wrong with her, she would have objected to the visit. Cassia took comfort in that.

The friends walked to stalls where people were selling things like hides, clothing, foods and spices. Nico told her they traded with people in some of the other territories. He had pulled a sack from his shoulder then and gone to a stall to trade for some things Agatha had asked for. He pulled eggs out of the sack in exchange for the goods. Cassia had thought it was funny that Nico's family had a few chickens they kept for eggs. Obviously they were handy when it came to trading though. Not many people had chicken eggs. Usually animals weren't kept either for food and definitely not as pets. It was frowned upon. Agatha loved her chickens dearly though and took wonderful care of them. Cassia and Huck had accepted it pretty quickly. Especially when they were able to have eggs for breakfast.

After their trading was done and Cassia had given one last kiss to each of the babies and hugged Vera and Nora good bye, she and Nico headed back up the river towards his home. They were half way there when Nico suggested they stop and rest their feet in the cool water of the river. Cassia had hesitated, having spent more than enough time in this river over the last couple weeks. She gave in though and climbed up onto a rock with Nico and sat down to relax, feeling the water rush over her skin.

"What happened that made you sad for a while when we were in the village," Nico asked her curiously, "I didn't want to mention it then and you got over it in a bit." Cassia nodded and told him about her parents and siblings briefly, without going into too much detail. She was so fond of Nico but she still wasn't sure how much information to trust him with.

"So, what happened when you got caught?" he asked then, looking sad but also eager to hear.

Cassia bit her lip and stared out at the water, uneasy. "King Ferdinand was very upset," she sighed as she remembered the day, "He was angry with me for putting the babies at risk. I had some other things I'd gotten in trouble for recently too so he said I had been warned and that I would have to be punished."

"Punished?" Nico repeated in disbelief, "For giving affection to your own family?"

"He didn't see it that way. He just saw it as I had risked affecting their ability to settle their shift or even shift at all. It's not normal to be like I am and no one else wants their children to be like this."

"That doesn't make any sense," Nico shook his head and actually looked angry for her, "Shifting of any kind isn't something you can spread. Everyone can shift anyways. What did he do then? What was your punishment?"

Cassia swallowed and studied her friend. She believed he was good and that he could be trusted with at least some of her secrets. She didn't think Huck would like it but she wanted to talk to someone about it and here was her chance to do so. "The King said I would have to face him. He was going to have me shift and then I had to fight him or go to jail..."

"You fought King Ferdinand? Doesn't he shift into a grizzly bear?" Nico's eyes were large with surprise when he cut her off.

"I was supposed to...I went to the clearing and I shifted into a fox. It's a form I know best and I thought I would be quicker and more agile. But when the king shifted into his enormous grizzly bear, something happened."

"Tell me! What was it?"

"Huck was there," she whispered, the image of the black wolf leaping over her, teeth barred as he watched the bear king flashing in her mind, "One moment I was all alone about to be beaten maybe to death. The next moment Huck was in front of me, defending me against the bear. He took the challenge himself but he still lost and the King was angry...it's against our laws. You can't interfere in challenge from the King... So after he was beaten they took him to jail and my challenge from the King remains if I ever see him again."

"Jail..." Nico was frowning as he processed this, "He's out of jail now. Did you break him out? Is that why you were in the river? Were you trying to escape?" Cassia nodded but couldn't meet his eyes, feeling ashamed. "So King Ferdinand is the one who did all this to him? The grizzly bear attacked and injured one of his own people?" She could only nod again. There was more to the story but she couldn't tell him. That would be giving away her dark secret.

"Our King and Queen don't punish people by challenging them like that," Nico spoke softly, thinking this over, "Huck saved you though! Your mate loves you very much."

Cassia cringed, "That's something else I've been wanting to mention. Huck isn't my mate."

"What? Really?" Nico looked flabbergasted as he turned to look straight at her, "But you two are so connected and really love each other!"

"We do," she giggled at the look on his face, "we've just never discussed being mates."

"Well you are both dumb," he laughed now, "If I had someone I was so crazy about and thought they were crazy about me, I wouldn't still be wasting time. I would be with them."

"We are together," she laughed, "Just not together the other way." They both laughed.

Just then, a snap of a branch came from up river and they both froze. Nico's deer sensed the threat and he went on high alert. The sound came from up river, the same direction as the lands Cassia and Huck had come from. There were dense bushes here so the pair couldn't see anything more than the shifting of the branches and they could hear it. "Be quiet now," Nico whispered to her, "Come on lets try to head back." Cassia agreed and stood up slowly, trying not to make noise. The sounds of twigs snapping and rustling leaves were getting louder now. They went to move to the treeline. Then before they could get far enough, the person burst through the bushes, walking towards them. They had been spotted.