Flame’s own form shimmered, and a moment later her eyes were level with his. She looked at him and smiled a feline smile. “You look amazing. Though…” she suddenly laughed, “You’re still smaller than me.” Which was true. Aidan was now roughly the same size as his wife, but his build was still a touch slimmer and he was the tiniest bit shorter. His coat was thick and striped with a pattern of fire-like markings similar to, but not the same as Flame Song’s. The fur around the sides of his face was longer, and he had a thick ruff that wasn’t quite a mane around his neck. His tail was longer too, and more thickly plumed. He twitched it, finding the extra appendage rather odd. Not having wings was strange too. He’d once been a normal human, entirely flightless, but that felt like a lifetime ago. All at once he wanted to try out this new shape.

“Catch me if you can!” he shouted, and took off down the hill. H stumbled a bit at first, adjusting to a quadrupedal balance, and Flame caught up with him easily. He soon got used to coordinating four legs at once, and they raced side by side over the grass. Aidan laughed in sheer delight. Running like this was almost as good as flying!

He nudged Flame with his shoulder and shouting, “Tag, you’re it!” he spun ninety degrees and raced off with her in hot pursuit. They zigzagged over the hills, chasing each other like a pair of kids, or rather kittens. Then as Aidan raced after Flame she suddenly reversed and tackled him. They went tumbling head-over-heels and ended up with Flame pinning Aidan firmly.

“Hey!” he protested.

She was panting hard, and in between breaths she said, “You may not need to pause for breath, but I do! Let’s take a break.”

Aidan indeed wasn’t out of breath at all, but he didn’t have any objections to resting. He yawned a huge feline yawn. For him it was very, very late and now that he had slowed down his sleepiness was catching up with him. “Sounds fine, though if I sit still for too long I’m going to be out cold.”

“How long will Belak watch Spark?” asked Flame.

“Well, I asked if he’d mind keeping her for a couple of days, so we have plenty of time. Much as I love the little fuzz-ball,” he added, “sometimes I need a break. I imagine you do too.”

“Sometimes,” agreed Flame. She took her weight off of Aidan and let him get to his feet. He sat on his haunches and scratched behind his ear with one hind foot for a moment.

“Bother,” he said, “I can’t quite get at it.”

Flame laughed. “Now you know why I always liked having you scratch behind my ears. It’s pretty near impossible to reach that spot yourself. It’s even worse than that place in the middle of your back when you’re human.” She suddenly shimmered into human form and reached over. Her fingers found just the right spot and scratched at it. Aidan’s eyes closed halfway and an expression of pure bliss crossed his feline features. Somewhat to his surprise he found himself purring.

Flame laughed again. “If you had any idea how silly you look right now…”

“I do,” he said. “I’ve seen you looking just the same hundreds of times.”

“This is a bit of a reversal, isn’t it?” she said.

“Mmm-hmmm,” he replied drowsily. Flame Song’s scratching shifted into a softer stroking motion, and he drifted off to sleep with her fingers running through the soft, fine fur on his head. For a moment Flame considered waking him and heading home to sleep. There was a faint danger out in the open, but here in the north there were few people. The dwarves seldom ventured out of Coppertop on the surface, preferring to travel via their underground tunnels, and nobody else lived north of the Barrier Mountains but their own little family. So there wasn’t much danger of somebody happening on them asleep in the open. And no animal would mess with as formidable a predator as a firecat. In the end, however, it was her tiredness that made her decision. She simply couldn’t overcome her inertia enough to move. So she shifted back into firecat form herself and, curling up next to her husband, she fell asleep.

She had a brief moment of disorientation when she awoke to find herself out under a sky going from red to indigo with the fading sunset. Then she saw Aidan just opening his eyes next to her and remembered. He stretched cat-style, working his paws through the grass. Then he looked at her and said, “You’re beautiful this way too, you know. I don’t think I’ve ever told you that, but it’s true.”

She smiled. “You make a handsome firecat yourself.” She rubbed her cheek along his affectionately. Then she gave a little laugh. “But right now your fur’s every which way.”

“Well, so is yours,” said Aidan. “I guess bed head is a full-body experience when you’re a firecat.”

“Guess we’d better do something about it then” said Flame, and started licking Aidan’s fur into place along his neck ruff. Aidan found himself purring again. There was something very pleasant about being groomed like that. Instinctively he found himself responding in kind, licking Flame’s fur into order in turn with a rough tongue. The mutual grooming session lasted quite a while, and it stirred up some very pleasant emotions in them both. When the last recalcitrant strand of fur had been put into place Aidan looked at Flame and found that she was turned away slightly, looking back at him over he shoulder with an unmistakable invitation written in her pose. He gulped. This had been what he’d had in mind when he’d gotten the ring, but now he wasn’t quite sure what to do. He was a giant cat, for heaven’s sake! How was he supposed to…?

Flame must have seen his expression, for she said softly, “What’s wrong?”

“I… I’m just not quite sure how to…” He stopped, sure that if he’d still been in his usual form he would be blushing furiously.

Flame smiled a feline smile. “It’s all right. How do you think I felt on our wedding night? I didn’t have a clue how humans went about things, but you didn’t have any complaints, did you? You have all the right instincts; they come with the shape. Just do whatever comes naturally.” She didn’t give him time for further thought or conversation; she just rubbed her check against his again and continued the motion along his side, her body pressing against the length of his. He relaxed and breathed in the scent of her. He let go of his nervousness and gave into the demands of instinct. And he found that he did indeed know what to do.

All that night and all the next they ran and played and loved together. They hunted too, working together to pull down one of the big northern deer. Aidan found a fierce predator’s joy in him that he’d never known before as his fangs met in the doe’s neck and he broke her spine with a hard twist of his head. He lapped at the blood that steamed in the cool night air while Flame ate her fill of the fresh meat. He felt a soft touch of regret at the creature’s death but he knew, with a deeper knowledge than he’d ever known before, that death was only a part of life. He pondered for a moment where that left him, who had died and yet was not dead. Had he been removed from the turning of life’s circle? Then Flame looked up at him, beautiful even in feline form with blood on her muzzle, and he remembered how truly alive he felt when he was with her. True he’d put off death for a time, perhaps even for centuries, but eventually true death would claim him too. And when it did, his body would return to the earth to nourish the grass that fed the deer, and that was all as it should be.