Cait's blue eyes regarded her fair visage in the stained and discolored mirror. She smirked. Perhaps this reflected her true soul more than a new silvering would. The small cabin was deep in the woods -- owned and maintained by her wealthy employer on lands subject to logging. Cait had heard distant rumblings in the lands around her recently, but it didn't concern her. She was paid well enough to do her job and living here was part of it and that was enough.

It didn't even matter to her that Simon had "dumped" her. They both knew he would, or that she would him. It had only been a matter of time. Neither of them yet knew of a way for her to get back home, return through the original method being impossible, and they both knew that neither of them were the sort to be without "company" for long.

She didn't forgive him because there had been no offense and nothing to forgive. They'd been lovers, but they hadn't been in love.

Cait had never been "in love" in her life. No one had ever been that important.

===

Over time, Cait and the Old Man gravitated toward one another and the first words, the first gestures hardly mattered except that they drew them closer. There was a bond in the blood waiting to happen. Cait knew it as instinctively as she knew the smell of cat, or the phases of the moon.

That first meeting drove her back time and again. When she was ready, Cait continued the dance by crossing the Outback to where Eldarion leaned against the bar, shirtless, his eyes peering out from under his hat. She tried to get a deeper draught of his titilating scent, and he spoke to her, they exchanged names and he marked his steps in time with her dance when he asked if she wanted anything from the bar.

"Sure... I'd love something." She thought about it a moment. "Let's keep it simple.. an ale for now."

"Simple, eh?" He grabbed a dark ale like his own. "Alrigh'... " Twisting the top and handing it over he heard her say thank you. Her fingers brushed over his, her eyes regarded him with a marked intensity. His didn't stray as he bore her emerald eyes lingering on his blue. He took a sip of his drink. "Ya star' all things simply, Cait?"

"I always figure that's the best way," she told him and leaned in closer. She sniffed slightly, indelicately and then uttered in a sigh, "What *are* you... I can't quite pin down the 'scent..'"

"Curious one, are ya?"

"I like to know what I'm... dealing with."

Laughing darkly, he paused to take a drink. "Well, yer... dealin' with... someon' who travels much in th' forests an' such..." She let out a soft bark of a laugh and then took a long pull of her ale in an action that mirrored his. Ahh... your humor is obiviously being enjoyed by someone, Eld's mind said to him *So I see, mind* "An' yerself? Can' place yer ... 'scent' ... eith'r..."

"I don't usually tell strangers this.. but I'm feeling generous tonight." She leaned in close to him and whispered into his ear, softly breathing across his ear as she spoke her race name.

"Really ... interestin'... So... why ar' ya feelin' generous enough tanigh' ta gran' me this information?"

This close to his face, he could see the slight narrowing of her eyes. "I don't know... can't be the ale not so soon..."

"Sur' as 'ell ain' my good looks er charmin' personality..."

"To be honest, you were the only one in here who seemed to have any skill." Impulsively, she leaned in toward him again and pressed a warmlipped kiss to Eldarion's cheek. She seemed to like to whisper near to his long ear. "I know you don't know who the hell I am... but perhaps we can change that?"

"May'aps..." He watched her; who knew? She could be one her assassins.

Cait tapped her fingertips against his temple. "Think about it." She pushed away from the bar with no more preamble than that and leaving the ale, she moved toward the door.

"'ey Cait." She turned, raised a finely curved black brow and looked at him. "Tomorrow ... sam' tim'... I'll 'ave though' 'bout it by then..."

"Tomorrow. It's a ... date..." And she sauntered out of the Outback trying not to let her pleasure show.