Prologue

"Mom?" Smokey-blue Sular Flurrith padded up to his mother where she sat curled up against his father in the large armchair.

"Yes, dear?"

"You said that when were old enough, you'd tell us about our ancestry." Sular sat upon his raptorine haunches and flicked his wolfish brush of a tail over his feet. His twin, Shyne, popped her head about her brother's shoulder and lay down beside him, looking up at their parents.

Ythé "Crystal" Shekeira-Flurrith exchanged a knowing glance with her mate, Muse, and sat up. The golden Vahazaya in gryphoness form crossed the living room and reached up for a small homemade volume that rested between her legal documents. "We did, didn't we?" she murmured as she came back, the volume held in one black taloned hand. Climbing back up into the chair, Crystal settled herself as Muse hooked a smokey-blue leonine paw about her shoulders.

Their offspring leaned forward with interest, crawling across the floor until they lay at their parents' feet. "Well, you already know my side of the family," Crystal began, fingering the leather bound book. "That in itself was easy to trace and to get information on. But, for your father, well, we had to dig a little deeper--on both sides."

Muse took it from there. "All these years, since your birth, your mother and I have worked long and hard in our spare time, collecting bits and pieces of information from my family and the great Glacial Prime library. Your mother took the Ventrishikas on Phoenixia and I had the job of pulling information from the Flurriths on my homeworld. When we had enough, we sat down together and whittled the nights away to produce this for you." He smiled proudly and took the book from Crystal's hands, handing it down to Sular. "Read it, and hopefully it will answer all your questions."

Shyne reached around and grabbed the volume before her brother could lift a paw. Together, they meandered off to their room and flopped therein on the floor and read . . .