My father walks in and sits down pouring a large glass of the whiskey and downing it almost immediately. “I would not want to cross that woman Nancy, even for but a raccoon she is a force to be reckoned with.” He pours another glass and one for me, he looks at the glass for a moment and says. “I took him home to make sure she didn’t jump him for the amount of drinking he did. He’s a normal shifter so the alcohol will affect him more than it will us, especially with how he was downing that last bit.” I nod my head and sip the whiskey, ‘specials’ tend to not get drunk at all; allowing us to enjoy the flavors of good wines more than a human could. Though most shifters took a great deal of alcohol to get drunk, that dessert wine could have gotten a shifter drunk if it was consumed in large enough quantities.

My father rubs his forehead, “she saw me walk in with Doug and after a look to her husband; who took Doug off I will guess to bed. She then game me a look that made me want to curl into a ball and I explained what happened.” I chuckles, Doug’s mother was a scary woman; I knew if any shifter in the area needed a baby sitter she watched them all. Then the child would go home a perfect angel, especially if they were trouble makers. I remember being over at there house when I was a teen and the local tiger shifter brought their eight year old son in. The boy had been poaching a local farmer’s herds and thought it was his right too. She took him outside to assist in her garden and when he came inside the boy was in tears and was a very docile little kitten afterwards.

My father levers me a gaze over his glass ad he tosses it back, “she calmed down kind of when I explained what happened. She then told me it was Doug who found his cousin after the attack, while the sight of it has obviously scarred Doug; the young man would have died if Doug had not found him when he had. Oddly the person his cousin later married is the young witch who was his nurse in the super hospital. While his mother loves the girl she wishes that Doug’s cousin had been able to marry his mate.”

I nod my head knowing why she was worried, however now knowing the cousin in question married a witch; I seriously doubt they’ll have any issue having children. The children though will be witches not shifters. Magic users in our world were an odd bunch, those under the heading of witch had magics that could only affect your health, or things like crops; they also usually involved something physical to aid them in their abilities. Generally witches when adults would work in medical or agricultural fields, which is where their abilities would work best.

Mages tended to work in high technological fields where their manipulation of forces could be applied best, and the few wizards in existence tended toward religion or entertainment; one could say those were the same field.

My father pours himself another glass and tops mine off, “I also told her that she annoyed Simon by going over his head. She laughed and told me how she did it, when she was young she was friends with a sprite. Seeing as how most of them refuse to involve themselves in the greater society, she of course happened to be friends with the one sprite who makes super laws.” I chuckle drinking half of my glass, that explained a lot. Sprites were nature spirits and while they live like other species, they tend to ignore everything not in their forests. Most shifter children in this area have had sprite friends when young, as we have a large population of them here. However, usually upon adulthood they forget the world outside the forest.

Their local population is the reason so much of the local land has to remain forested, to hear that one is working in the government is a bit of a surprise. From what I knew their biology almost ensures they not be able to retain their thoughts of the world outside their forests.

My father gives me a look, “I know what you are thinking Nancy. A sprite could chose to live in the outside world, however they would have to approach the magic council for a charm to prevent their minds from altering to the standard. As when they hit adulthood no matter what they thought as children they just become like the rest of their people. By doing this they will never have interactions with their own people the rest of their lives.”

That would be a hard choice to make, as I bet it would be lonely for a species that is so close to their own. My father finishes his drink and stands, “I’m going to head to bed. I think I’ll get working on your wood pile tomorrow, expect me to be sticking around till you’re married Nancy; it’s part of my nature.” I nod my head and stand and go over and give him a hug, “it’s good to have you here. Next week I have to be at the town book store for the release of my newest book, the shop keeper got me to promise to do this once for the locals.” He nods his head, “Nancy; your grandmother was not a loner like your mother was. I don’t think Sabers are suppose to be totally solitary,” I nod my head in agreement as I step back. “I’ve noticed, that’s probably why I am such good friends with Doug. The only reason I don’t spend more time in town is probably more due to not knowing how to interact with people since mom was so against being around people.”

He nods his head then heads out the door to go to the guest cottage and I look over to my computer. Did I want to work on anything tonight, I shake my head. Na, I think I have enough going on outside my book. I don’t need to figure out how to have the female shifter escape her captors just yet.

I stretch and head to the small addition on my tiny house, this addition was a necessity. I had an old claw foot bathtub I had found at a farm auction a couple of years ago. The only way I was going to have it were I could use it even in the winter was to add on a room to the tiny house. The funny thing was Doug didn’t want me to do the work on this room myself, he asked the guys he work with if they knew anyone who could add on such a room and one afternoon a truck full of people showed up with Doug. A few hours later I had a very nice bathroom, and the guys refused payment. It seems at least one of them had children who liked my stories and wanted to thank me for getting his one daughter into reading. It made me happy to know I helped one person discover a love of books.

I turn the water on and go to my own book shelf to find something to read as I soak, relaxing knowing that life was about to be a lot more interesting.