“Actually, I'm gonna go see if I can find some more info on this land owner. I'll catch up with you back at the Den."

Tarloh and Talia started the long trip to the outskirts of town.

Once in the woods, they morphed into their animal sides and made rapid progress on their way to the abandoned building.

It was really quite large. It had been cleaned before being abandoned, hoping it might help attract a buyer. There were a Lot of rooms, including a wide-open area, a room where the meat had been washed which could easily be converted into showers, and actual smaller rooms that could be used as living quarters. It was perfect except for the distance from town.

The two of them wandered around. They enjoyed spending time alone with each other. They checked out the surrounding area and actually found a small cave nearby, embedded in a rock outcropping. It was about thirty feet deep with relatively smooth walls, with a smaller ten foot enclave off towards the back right-hand corner.

"This is so cool," Talia said.

"Look," she added, pointing up. There was a spot in the ceiling that had a small hole in it.

"That would work as a chimney."

“For what?"

"So that Red could live out here. You know, have her own space again.

Something for her and Jane."

"Always looking out for her, aren't you?"

Talia wrapped her arm around his.

"You too. Both of you forget to look after yourselves sometimes, but Red's worse. You sometimes take time to smell the roses. Red . . . Red needs to have a mission. She needs something to occupy her all the time. At least now she's occupied with Jane, and that girl needs some looking after no matter HOW powerful she is."

The two of them strode from the cave and back down to the main building.

"What about us?"

“What ABOUT us?"

“Should we consider getting our own space?"

Talia was a little surprised.

“Well, we've never been completely exclusive," she replied.

"Either of us."

"And we wouldn't have to be," he said.

"We're both a little too wild.

But we DO keep ending up together, and I kind of like it that way."