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By Deborah Chester

Three days of warmth and shadow ... nuzzling against the solid reassurance beside her ... squirming with her siblings in the moist milk scent ... dozing while gentle fingers stroked her back ... making the soft mew-cries in dawning awareness of a world large and new.

Vision cleared first, bringing her shapes to associate with the confusing tangle of fragrances filling her senses. Sibling shapes ... four little wedge-shaped heads covered in tan and fawn fuzz, wobbling in exploration. Mother shape ... large and infinitely gentle, crooning sounds of love, providing warmth and nourishment as she stroked her babies and sang softly to them.

Her single female child she held often, nestling her atop her stomach and letting the tiny one wobble and explore. A golden child with soft, downy baby fur and no markings at all save a light brown mask across her eyes that would probably darken with maturity. All the males were striped in brown and fawn, almost identical, fractious when together yet furious if separated. The golden female, however, was placid and calm, content to interact with her mother yet adventurous enough to explore on her own.

"My golden one,'' the mother crooned to her, smoothing back the fur over sweet baby eyes. They all lay together in the bed. A small lamp glowed, pushing back the surrounding shadows. Many sounds came from far away, muffled and unimportant.

"Brave and strong, my daughter will grow up to be. Look at you, bigger already than your brothers. Straight-shouldered, you are. An Aaroun, you are, my darling, a daughter of a proud line of the Heva clan. All your history, I will teach you. Our songs, you will learn that you may teach them to your sons and daughters. Through you, we will go on."

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