a positive sign, and though it wouldn't be as forceful in her mind as it was now later on, after time and Were-cat mentality dulled the edge of the memory, it would still be there.  Jasana's personality would revert back to her usual scheming self, but he hoped that she'd finally be able to recognize the line that she dared not cross.
	"Why is Dulai so aloof?" he asked Allia as the sun began to set, as he and Jasana and Eron walked with her and Allyn along the edge of the sukk flock.
	"She's always been like that," she answered.  "Our family has been ruling the clan for nearly three hundred years now, and I think she takes a little offense at you and Allyn being brought into it without her approval."
	"She's snippy because she doesn't approve of us?" Allyn asked.
	"No, she's snippy because she never had the chance to approve of you before you became part of the family," Allia elaborated.  "Dulai's always been very proud of the family's honor.  Maybe too proud," she frowned.  "I think she's afraid that you or Allyn were going to damage the family honor."
	"Not a bloody chance!" Allyn said hotly.
	"That's my Allyn," Allia said with a smile, patting him fondly on the backside.
	"I guess she decided that I couldn't be all that bad, after thrashing Kallan."
	"I think she was a little mad at you for that," she laughed in reply.  "You may be part of the family by clan law, but remember, Dulai probably still thinks of you as an outsider.  In her eyes, her brother got thrashed by an outlander, not a member of the family."
	"I didn't think of it that way," he admitted.  "I don't--"
	Tarrin stopped as the sukk all started giving out frightful, keening squawks, flapping their useless wings and starting to scatter in every direction.  Tarrin glanced a huge shadow race by, blocking the sun for an instant, and he realized that the birds had seen Sapphire, and were on the verge of panic.  Tarrin turned and shouted in a booming voice "STOP!" as he waved his arms to get their attention.
	It hung there a moment.  Instinctual fear battled with the birds' instinctual trust of a Druid, and then they all started to settle down a little.  "Settle down!" Tarrin barked at them, intending for them to understand him.  "What you just saw won't attack you!"
	"What happened?" Allyn asked.
	"Auntie Sapphire just flew over us!" Eron said in excitement, pointing.  Allyn followed his clawed finger, as did Tarrin, and they saw the majestic blue dragon banking several miles away from them, turning and descending as she prepared to come in for a landing.
	"We'd better go calm down the clan before they start throwing javelins at her," Tarrin grunted.
	"They wouldn't attack her.  They're not that crazy," Allia told him.
	"Papa, Aunt Sapphire said not to say anything," Jasana reminded him.  "I think that means we can't tell them what's going on. That would be saying something."
	"She has a point," Allyn acceded after a moment.  "I wouldn't dare mince words with a dragon."
	"Neither would I," Tarrin agreed with a nod.  "At least we could kind of drift over in that direction, so we're the first things she comes across.  Odds are the tribe might come as close as Selani get to panicking when they realize she's coming right for them."
	They cut through camp, a camp that was very quiet and very tense.  They'd seen the dragon turn and descend, and now the monstrous form had dropped out of sight, behind the low ridge that stretched across the western desert.  Warriors were ducking into tents and coming out with weapons, as the youngers were sent off to tighten up the flocks in case a hasty retreat was ordered.  The Were-cats, Allia, and Allyn moved quicky through the camp and started towards the rise, with the setting sun in their eyes, as Sapphire's titanic footsteps started quivering the ground under them.  If there was any indication how huge and massive the dragon was, that was it.  She was so big that her every footstep was felt by anything within a longspan.  Kedaira started following them curiously, and Tarrin took a moment to warn both her and the fox that they were about to see something that they'd be terrified of, but in this case it wasn't a threat to them.
	By the time they reached the base of the low ridge, Sapphire came into view.  Just her head, a head that had to be a hundred spans over them.  Her head and neck ambled into view as she crested the rise, and then she looked down at them with those yellow eyes of hers, eyes that reminded him briefly of Keritanima in a strange way.  Though he wasn't afraid of her, he couldn't help but feel....intimidated by her immensity.
	If he was intimidated, the Selani were downright terrified.  He heard a Selani scream in fear for the first time in his entire life, and there wasn't just one scream.  Bedlam erupted in the camp behind them as Selani scrambled around, unsure as to whether to form up and attack the gigantic monstrosity that had ambled up to their camp, or turn and flee in panic.  Fleeing in panic was highly dishonorable, and Tarrin felt that their honor was the only thing keeping them from doing just that.  Sapphire watched them with intent eyes, then she looked down at Tarrin again as Kallan, the shaman, and Dulai started moving towards the dragon at a wary rate of speed.  She took a few more ground-eating strides forward, until most of her body was visible, and then she sedately sat on the top of the rise, craning her neck down it to bring her head within twenty spans of those standing at its base.
	"Tarrin," she said amiably, in Sha'Kar.  "How are you, my little one?"
	"I'm doing quite well, Sapphire," he replied with a nod, then she brought her head all the way down until her snout was just before them.  Eron and Jasana broke out into choruses of "Auntie Sapphire!  Auntie Sapphire!" and hugged the gigantic dragon's nose, which for them meant that they pressed up against it with their arms outstretched.  Sapphire nuzzled the two Were-cat cubs, only knocking them down twice, then reared back a little to look at them without having to cross her eyes.  "Allia, you're looking very well," she noted.  "Glad to be home?"
	"Home is the best place to be, Sapphire," she smiled.  "How was it for you?"
	"Ugh," she said, making a sour face.  "The brood destroyed the cave and scattered our hoard all over the desert floor!  They wanted to heat it up so it would keep the cave warmer at night!  It took me almost a month to get everything back to where it was supposed to be!"
	Allia laughed as Kallan, Dulai, and the shaman finally reached them.  "Children do tend to turn everything upside-down."
	"Daughter!" Kallan said in surprise.  "You know this beast?"
	"Of course I do, father," she said absently.  "This is Sapphire."
	"Do you speak Selani, Sapphire?" Tarrin asked her quickly, since Kallan and Allia were speaking it.
	"I caught a Selani a few days ago and lifted it off of him,"she answered in flawless Selani.  "He seemed a bit terrified of me, but it didn't last long.  After I explained what I needed, he calmed down and allowed me to do it.  Then afterward, he wanted to fight me.  He was quite respectful about it, but he was very insistent.  What foolishness!"
	"You'd be the ultimate challenge to a Selani warrior," Tarrin told her with a sly smile.  "The more dangerous the enemy is, the better."
	"If he could defeat you in fair combat, his honor would have no equal," Allia laughed.
	"As if he'd ever have a chance," she said primly.  "You are Allia's father?" she asked Kallan directly.
	Kallan swallowed visibly, then stepped forward.  "I am," he replied in a surprisingly steady voice.  "How do you know my daughter?"
	"I travelled with her and Tarrin for some time," she answered.  "She's a very good friend of mine."  She glanced at Allyn.  "Keritanima asked Kimmie to ask me to tell you that Iselde wants to know how you're doing," she related to him.  "She wants to talk to you, but you told her not to contact you.  Well, she's getting worried about you."
	"That sounds rather roundabout," Allyn said with a slightly nervous smile.  Tarrin could smell the fear all around him.  Allyn was very nervous, and Kallan, Dulai, and the shaman were absolutely petrified.  It was saying a great deal about Kallan that he could manage to speak so evenly to Sapphire.  Tarrin didn't often notice the effect Sapphire had on those not familiar with her, since he was so familiar with her.
	"That Wikuni knows better than to ask anything of me.  Every question from her mouth sounds more like a command," the dragon said with a snort, the wind it caused racing over them.  "She asked Kimmie to do it because she knew Kimmie wouldn't mind asking."  She glanced at Allyn.  "Well?"
	"Uh, I'll contact Iselde tonight," he promised.
	"You should never ignore family, Sha'Kar," she chided him.  "Family is all we have, and all that we are."
	"I will be guided by you, great dragon," he said quickly.
	"Naturally," she drawled, looking to Kallan again.  "Have your warriors put away their swords, Selani.  If I had come to fight, you'd be dead already."
	Those words would have incited immediate response from Kallan, had they come from anything other than the five hundred span long behemoth looming over him like a mountain ready to fall on top of him.
	"Wh-What does bring you here, honored one?" he asked hesitantly.
	"They do," she said, nodding towards Tarrin.  "I don't get to see my little one very often, so I'm here to see him before he goes home.  That I get the chance to see Allia as well is just a welcome bonus."  She looked to Tarrin.  "I will be staying for dinner," she stated.  "And we'll catch up on the goings on I've missed."
	Kallan blanched, but he wasn't crazy enough to object.  Nobody told a dragon what they couldn't do. "A--A--As you wish, honored guest," he stammered, taken aback by this bit of news.
	Sapphire reared her head back, and then she closed her eyes, muttering under her breath in the language of the Wizards' magic.  Her massive form then wavered, and then it seemed to disappear.  Kallan gasped and Dulai took a step back, then they stared slack-jawed at the tall, shapely woman with dark hair and a blue dress that exactly matched the color of Sapphire's scales appeared over the rise and started down towards them.  Tarrin recognized her immediately as Sapphire's human appearance when she used magic to change her shape.  She strode down the rise effortlessly, then imperiously held out her hand to Tarrin when she reached them.  Jasana and Eron clamored around her, as Eron held up his new pet fox for her to inspect, which was writhing wildly to get away from the human-bound dragon, as Jasana begged her to show her magic.  She silenced both of them with a tut and a wave of her hand, and both immediately fell silent.  They always obeyed Sapphire without question, because they had already tasted her temper once before.  That was a lesson that neither of them ever wanted repeated.  Tarrin took her hand with a gentle smile, swallowing her smaller hand up in his huge paw, and then she gave Kallan a regal look.  "Now then, take me to your tent," she told him.  "I'd like to rest a while before dining.  And it had better be good," she warned in a dangerous voice, glancing at Kallan, as if she would eat him if the meal served wasn't to her liking.
	"A--As you command, honored guest," he repeated.  It seemed to be all he could say as he experienced the full force of both Sapphire's intimidating size and her forceful personality.
	"Now then, let's not stand here like sukk," she prompted.  "Take me to the camp."
	"Of course, my friend," Tarrin told her, moving to do exactly that.
 
Chapter 6

	All in all, it had been a most satisfactory trip to the desert.
	The night of Sapphire's visit, she absolutely dominated the entire evening.  That in itself wasn't that unusual, given who she was, but she overwhelmed Kallan and Allia's tribe with more than her physical presence.  Like everyone who dealt with the dragon to any degree, the fear and awe of her majestic size was quickly overshadowed by absolute amazement at both her incredible presence and her formidable mind.  Sapphire easily invoked awe and terror on any who looked upon her, but those who talked to her found themselves in awe of her because of her intelligence and her commanding personality.  Triana was the feeblest of shadows of what Sapphire was, one who utterly dominated everyone and everything around herself with the merest raising of an eyebrow.  Kallan had to shake off the initial terror that almost anyone felt at coming face to face with a dragon, but his awe and fear of the dragon didn't wane over the night.  It simply shifted its focus.  Kallan learned very fast that Sapphire was vastly intelligent, as well as being exceptionally wise.  The tribe's shaman tried to meet the dragon on philosophical ground, but was sent packing, literally, in little under three minutes.  Dulai actually lasted a little longer, since as an obe she had a much more open mind than a Priest, who was taught one doctrine and way above all others.
	Sapphire came to know Allia's tribe, and Allia's tribe came to be as much in awe of Allia and Allyn as they were of Sapphire.  That they would actually converse with her, and she acknowledged them as if they actually existed, seated itself heavily in their minds.  She was peremptory with all other Selani, except perhaps Kallan, but she dealt with him more or less because he was the leader.  But Allia talked to her, even made her laugh once, and the dragon asked personal questions concerning Allia's adjustment back into her old life.  A few of her questions went right to the matter of Allyn, and that terrified many of Allia's tribe.  Allia and Allyn would not lie to her--they weren't that crazy--and their answers made one of those dark eyebrows raise, and a malevolent, soul-chilling gaze swept over the large gathering around a bonfire in the center of the encampment which never failed to make the Selani cringe.  She never said a word, but every Selani in the camp instantly understood that Allia and Allyn's well being was very much a personal interest for her, and nobody had better get on her bad side.
	Sapphire confused the Selani a little, since they saw two aspects of her that few saw.  They saw her in her full terrible majesty and came face to face with the full power of her arrogant personality, but they also saw her playing with Tarrin's children, talking to the adult Were-cat with compassion and care in her voice, touching him and treating him as a favored son, showing a much different side of herself.  Of course, that gentler aspect of her evaporated the instant she dealt with one of the Selani, but it did show them that the dragon was much more than she seemed.  The Selani seemed to understand that only the privileged few were beneficiaries of her gentler demeanor, and that the rest of them had better stay on their toes around her.
	The Selani got used to Sapphire, in a way, by the end of the feast.  Numb was a better term for it, as the power of Sapphire's presence among them had started to numb the Selani to her, to where if they couldn't accept her, at least they didn't gawk like mice watching the owl swoop down on them.  They started at least talking a little with one another, and food that was either blackened from being forgotten in the fire or cold from being forgotten after it was pulled from the fire was finally eaten, but only a handful of the Selani there could even remember eating that night.  The dragon dominated every thought and memory in the entire tribe from the instant she was spotted until nearly a month after she was gone. But by the end of the night, when Sapphire announced that she was tired and was ready to withdraw, at least the Selani could bow to her without nearly falling over.
	It was an educational experience for Tarrin, and once again a powerful reminder of the unusual circumstances of his life.  To him, Sapphire was just Sapphire.  He knew he had to be very respectful towards her, and he knew that she was a dragon, but she just didn't have that kind of an effect on him.  It was like that with several other unusual people in his life, he realized.  He didn't consider having friends like Triana or Shiika or Sathon or Lord General Darvon to be too outrageous, but it had been so long since he'd had a normal life that they did seem normal to him.  That sense of inclusion seemed to infect all of them, for his friends had little trouble dealing with Sapphire, up to a point anyway, and the highly unusual mix of beings that formed the core of Tarrin's life had evolved to the point where their rarity or unusual natures seemed to be forgotten.  Seeing outsiders dealing with them, with Sapphire or Sarraya or Darvon or Dar, that was when the unusual bonds of friendship that existed among their most diverse group seemed to be most noticable.  Even the most common of them, Dolanna and Dar, were now so different, so unique, so unusual, that they too were held with some strange regard by others, something that really annoyed Dar.  His association with Tarrin, being a member of the group that had retrieved the Firestaff and destroyed Val, made him larger than life.  Dar was now just as famous as Tarrin was, a fame spread like wildfire from the walls of Suld to circle half the world.
	Strange that the sense of inclusion that existed among them wasn't noticable until he saw others trying to deal with them.  What Tarrin could easily accept, considered normal, was so radically abnormal for others that they simply couldn't deal with it.
	Sapphire's visit was both welcome and educational.  By morning she was again in dragon form and preparing to fly away, saying her farewells and promising to come and visit him at home soon.  Her visit had reinforced several lessons in his mind about his friends and family, and it had all but terrorized the Selani into accepting Allyn...or else.  That or else seemed to be frozen in their minds, and as Tarrin bid goodbye to her that morning, several Selani had already begun to make tentative overtures to Allia and Allyn, offers to take Allyn hunting or show him how to weave cloth, and the shaman had visited before sunrise that morning and informed Allyn that he would take lessons with her during the midday heat.  What Tarrin probably would have had to ram down the throats of the Selani with several messy object lessons, Sapphire accomplished with the raising of a single brow and a withering glare cast about a camp that promised unspeakable punishment for any who defied her will.
	Because Allia and Allyn's place in the tribe was more or less secure now, Tarrin was ready to leave right after Sapphire.  The other reason he was ready to leave was Kaila.  Though she wasn't healed yet, he had every confidence that she'd be whole again within two days.  Kallan still had a slightly contrite look on his face after the moral lesson his wife and Tarrin had taught him the day before, and Tarrin knew that Kallan had learned what Fara'Nae had wanted him to learn.  That was the only thing standing in the way of Kaila's healing.
	And so, some hour after Sapphire took to the air and disappeared over the eastern horizon, Tarrin gathered up his children, spent long moments in emotional farewell with his sister and her betrothed, shared a firm, knowing handshake with Kallan, and then he too departed.  He heard the clan-king announce to the tribe that Tarrin was a true child of the Holy Mother, and that he was welcome in Selani lands whenever he so desired to visit them.  Kallan officially made Tarrin a member of the clan, which Tarrin accepted rather absently, since the clan wasn't half as important to him as Allia.  He said his curt farewell, gave Allia one final hug, clapped Allyn on the shoulder, patted Kedaira on the snout, and then Teleported home.
	What chaos awaited him there was enough to make him want to go back to Allia.
	There weren't any overt signs of the carnage awaiting him.  The house was as he remembered it, as he had Teleported into the yard to prevent any chance that someone might possibly be standing in the space he would have chosen to appear--a fatal stroke of ill fortune for both parties involved when it happened--and started towards the door.  The fact that neither Kimmie nor Jesmind had tried to talk to him since they'd left for the desert hadn't really registered to him, since he'd been so busy with Allia and Jasana and trying to keep Eron from picking up anything that could kill with a single bite or sting.  It was a misty morning, though the air around the house was as comfortably warm and dry as it always was, thanks to the magic spell the Goddess had woven around it.  The house looked inviting and welcoming to him, a respite from the days in the desert and a return to the normalcy of home.
	One look through the open door dispelled all thoughts that he was returning to a quiet, happy home.
	The entire parlor looked like it had been ransacked.  Furniture, clothes, dishes, and even pieces of walls, ceiling, and floor were torn up, laying in dishevelled jumbled piles scattered randomly across the floor.  The smell of blood was heavy in the air, as was the smell of old, drying meat, withering vegetables, and clay jars of spices shattered, their contents scattered all over the entire house.
	Eron gaped, Jasana gasped, the fox sneezed, and Tarrin simply stared.
	"Papa!" Jasana gaped.  "What happened to our house?!"
	That was a good question, and it was a question that had no quick answer.  The blood he smelled was Were-cat blood, exclusively so, and a quick look around showed him that everything that was destroyed had been torn apart by a Were-cat's claws.  Tarrin took a couple of steps in and knelt by what had once been his favorite chair, its wooden skeleton shattered and puffy stuffing ripped out of the upholstery covering and flung around the room.  The chair was a good ten spans from where it usually sat, by the fireplace, and it had been both clawed up and physically thrown.  There was a dried bloodstain on the chair, what part of it Tarrin could not identify, and it was Were-cat blood by scent.  He leaned a little closer, and found that it was Jesmind's blood.
	"Papa, I smell Mama's blood," Eron told him.  "And Aunt Jesmind's."
	"Anyone else's?" he asked, trusting to Eron's incredibly sensitive nose to immediately detect what Tarrin would have to search to discover.
	"No, Papa.  Well, I smell Aunt Jula's blood a little, but not much, and it smells old."
	"Whatever happened involved them, then," he said, not sure whether or not to feel any fear.  After all, what could possibly harm them when they were inside the house?  The house itself would defend them if it came down to a fight, and besides, nothing would come anywhere near the house that would want to harm them.  Few even knew where the house was.  So what happened?
	The answer came flying down the stairs by the kitchen.  It was Jula.  She had a torn shirt on and her leather breeches were ripped from the left thigh down, and she looked totally exhausted.  "Father!" she said breathlessly, jumping over the gouged, clawed, partially broken bannister, landing lightly, and then charging right into him.   Tarrin felt significant relief at seeing his bond-daughter alive, well, and looking to be unharmed.  He gave her a harried squeeze and then pushed her out to arm's length, looking down at her.  "What in the blazes happened here?" he demanded.
	"Jesmind and Mist had a fight!" she said quickly.  "A real fight, father!  It's a miracle they didn't kill each other!"
	"A fight?  Are they alright?" he asked as Jasana and Eron gasped, then gave each other wary looks.  "Where are Kimmie and the twins?"
	"They're with your parents," she answered.  "I sent Kimmie out of here with the cubs to get them out of harm's way, while I stayed and tried to pull them apart.  It was a nightmare!" she said with a frenzied look.
	"Why didn't you just use Sorcery?" he demanded.
	"I tried, father!" she shouted.  "Jesmind's Druidic powers seem to have manifested, or maybe Mist's, or maybe both of them.  Every time I tried to use Sorcery to stop them, something killed my spell!  And I wasn't about to wade in between those two and try to pull them apart with my bare paws!"  She gave him an anguished look.  "Everything I tried failed, father, and they destroyed the house!  I couldn't stop them, and I really tried!"
	"Calm down, kitten," he said quickly but gently, putting his paws on her shoulders.  "I'm not blaming you.  If you say you tried your hardest, then you did just what you said you did."
	Jula's look of relief was overwhelming, as she gazed up at him with those vulnerable green eyes.  "Umm, Papa?  Where's Mama?" Eron asked in a small voice.
	"I finally managed to pull them apart, after they were about half dead," Jula told him quickly.  "I guess whoever was stopping my magic got too tired to keep it up, and I took them both firmly in hand.  I've got them trapped in cells of Air in rooms upstairs.  I have them on opposite sides of the house, and I have magic working so they can't even scent each other.  They're both still totally keyed up, father.  Every time you open the door, they go berzerk.  Whatever caused this, it hasn't even started to work itself out of them yet."
	Tarrin frowned.  Fights between Were-cats weren't uncommon, even fights with this kind of evident ferocity.  Whatever happened, it had caused them to both go totally insane with rage.  Tarrin looked around, at his precious house, and knew that all things being equal, they got lucky to stop them while the house was still standing.  Jesmind and Mist alone were very powerful, formidable Were-cats.  Them fighting one another was like a natural disaster.  And his house certainly looked like a tornado had raged through it, then turned around and came back to rage some more.
	A glance up told him how far it had went.  A soft paper playing card had been driven through the ceiling.  It was stuck up there, the King of Swords, with half of its soft length sticking out of the ceiling.  Just what it took to drive that card through the ceiling made Tarrin cringe.
	"Is Mama alright?" Jasana asked fearfully.
	"They're both fine, cubs," Jula said, looking down at them.  "They're fully healed.  The only reason I'm using magic on them is because they're both still trying to get into another fight with each other."
	Eron was quiet a moment.  "Who won?" he asked.
	"Eron!" Jula said in surprise, gaping at him.
	"Save it," Tarrin told her, patting her arm lightly.  "Who did win?" he asked curiously.
	"Not you too, father!" Jula said with a surprised look, then she laughed ruefully.  "Am I the only one here who doesn't care?"
	"Bet you my Mama whooped your Mama," Eron said immediately to Jasana.
	"Never happen," she retorted.  "My Mama can kick your Mama's butt."
	"Their butts were equally kicked," Jula said tartly.  "Because I did the kicking, at least after Sorcery started working again."
	Tarrin looked around.  Given what he knew of Mist and Jesmind, Jesmind was damn lucky she got out of it alive.  Mist wasn't very tall, but she was awesomely powerful, even for a Were-cat, insanely fast, highly experienced, and she had a mean streak in her that Jesmind would never be able to match.  Stone for stone, Mist was the most ferocious and dangerous Were-cat there was, even over him.  No other Were-cat, not even Tarrin, ever wanted to get into a fight with her.  If Jesmind fought Mist to a draw, then his opinion of his mate would increase significantly.
	Odds were, it was a simple fight over dominance.  Mist was physically superior to Jesmind, and they both knew it.  But Jesmind was Tarrin's mate, and that social boost put them more or less on even ground as far as the pecking order was concerned.  But when Tarrin left and the calming influence of Eron was removed from her, it destabilized the delicate balance that existed in the house, and Mist probably reverted very quickly into her old habits.  And the first time Jesmind said or did something that Mist felt was a threat to her superiority, she would attack.  Which was probably exactly what happened.  Mist was either simply seeking to put Jesmind down and assert her dominance, or perhaps she was fighting to take Jesmind's place, seeking to drive her away and take her place as Tarrin's mate, and Jesmind was fighting to retain her position.  If that were true, then that was probably the only reason Jesmind had managed to fight Mist to a draw.  Where Tarrin was concerned, Jesmind was capable of some incredible feats.  Like standing toe to toe with the most ferocious Were-cat alive, and giving back as good as she got.
	But did they have to do it in the house?
	"You don't seem too surprised!" Jula said accusingly.
	"Were-cats fight sometimes, cub," Tarrin shrugged.  "You know that.  If they're both alright, then that's all that matters.  I do want to find out what set this off, though," he frowned.
	"Mist attacked Jesmind," Jula said with a somewhat disapproving look at her bond-father.  "Ever since you and the cubs left, Mist has been getting more and more unsettled.  She was getting more and more cranky and out of sorts, and her temper was getting shorter and shorter.  Jesmind said something to her that she didn't like yesterday, I have no idea what, and it was like lighting the fuse of a cannon.  Mist hit Jesmind, Jesmind snapped, Mist snapped, and they had at it for nearly an hour.  They tore up every room in the house!"
	"An hour?" Tarrin said in surprised.  Then again, the house certainly looked like they'd been at it for an entire hour.  More like ten.  "They trashed everything?" he said quickly, a sick feeling growing in his stomach at the thought of all his precious possessions in his room had been destroyed.
	"Well, they couldn't get into your room, because Kimmie blocked it with magic," she said.  "She also blocked off the room holding her magical laboratory, since if they'd have gotten in there, they would have blown up the house.  At least me and Kimmie got alot of stuff out of the house before they could tear it up, so most of our things are safe.  What those two destroyed was mainly furniture and stuff we didn't have time to get out of the house."
	"Well, that's something, at least," he said, blowing out his breath.  What a mess!  It was going to take them a month to clean it all up!
	But what had set Mist off?  That was a good place to start, he guessed.  At least after he got them calm enoug