My face grew hot as I watched Witch place her hand on the man’s cheek, as to gently run her thumb along it.

Unable to look away, I didn’t just hold still… I even held my breath as I watched the man bend forward and down, and then lock lips with her.

I felt my tail twitch wildly as I watched them kiss. I wanted to leap from the branch I was kneeling on, to run around in the nearby snow. To roll in it, both to cool me off and to bury myself and hide.

Thank goodness Witch became so unaware when she was with him!

“Well…?” he whispered after they finally separated.

“Mhm. She’s fishing,” Witch whispered back.

“Cats do like to fish,” he responded, and I squirmed as I watched the way his hands slid around her body.

They were both dressed in thick clothes, as to stay warm during this harsh winter, but even with all the layers they still found ways to touch and caress each other. It was almost a skill all on its own, one that I wanted to praise them for.

“She’s kind enough to not intrude anyway,” Witch giggled, and I felt my ear flutter.

Shoot. Was that her saying she knew I was here?

She hadn’t looked up at me, but…

The two kissed again, and then Witch turned and tugged him away. To lead him to the house.

I watched them go, and held my breath the entire time they remained in my sight.

The tree I was up in, hiding, was one of the larger ones around here. The benefit to it was the branches were huge, thick and long. The type that didn’t even budge when I sat or walked upon them. They were perfect for me to lounge in, or hide when I didn’t want to get found by Witch or animals. The negative, usually, was that most of those branches were above the other trees nearby. So it was difficult to see things at a far distance, since the surrounding trees and their leaves blocked everything from view.

Right now though it was to my benefit. I couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh of relief when Witch and Fredlo walked out of sight, rounding some trees and heading for the house.

Gosh…!

I suddenly felt terribly exhausted as I leaned back against the tree itself. The cold bark felt hard, but it also felt good since I was suddenly really warm.

Fredlo was a nice man. A little older than I’d have thought Witch would have preferred, but he was a gentle sort. The type to always bring gifts and snacks, and not just for Witch either. He never forgot about me, and was always as nice to me as he was to her… as if I really was her child, or sister, or something.

I kind of liked him. I liked how he always tried to make Witch giggle, and I also liked how he always seemed to ask for permission to kiss her or touch her. It was such a little detail, but it made me feel like he was worthy of her somehow.

Yet for as much as I liked him, and for as much as I loved Witch…

Reaching up, I cupped my face and groaned into my hands.

Why’d they have to sneak out here! Thank goodness they hadn’t done anything here! If it hadn’t been so cold, and the ground covered in such thick snow, it was likely they would have.

Which meant I would have been stuck up here, doing my best to not be noticed, as they did stuff that made me want to squirm and run away.

In the future I’ll need to make sure to hide farther away. And not at places that Witch was likely to use as her rendezvous locations.

Maybe I should sit with her and talk to her about it. Maybe I should tell her of a few locations around her home that she should well… just simply avoid, or something… so that I’d not get put into this kind of precarious situation again.

“I mean…!” I groaned again as I squirmed on the branch. My tail wildly swayed in the air nearby as I giggled a little.

Honestly I couldn’t say I wasn’t interested. As embarrassed as it was to just watch and listen to the two, there was also a part of me that couldn’t take my eyes off them when it happened.

Like the way she had brushed his cheek, or the way he had snuck his hands into her many layers of clothes. The sight of such things made my heart beat quickly, yet at the same time made me entranced as if I was learning something no one was able to teach.

Taking a deep breath, I let out a deep sigh and blocked my sight for a moment as my breath hazed the air.

“You’re lucky, Witch,” I whispered.

She had wanted such a thing. A love. A husband. She had wanted a child. And if they kept on doing the stuff they were doing, it’d not be long until she had one.

Winter was about halfway done… I wonder if her belly will start to swell before it’s over or not.

Sitting up, away from the tree, I sighed again and smiled.

I was so happy for her. I was happy that she seemed healthy again. Able to walk around without needing help. Her demeanor had completely returned to a healthy one. She was upbeat, back to her teasing and stern self. It was almost as if her days of weakness, being stuck to the bed, had never happened.

A part of me knew it was because no one has asked her for help in some time. She’s not needed to use her magic for almost two months now, not even for anything simple. And another part of me knew it was likely thanks to Fredlo. She was infatuated with that man, and spent half the time he wasn’t here talking about him. Even when we spent our couple hours a day where she taught me one of her lessons, it felt more like a lesson about men and Fredlo than it did whatever topic she originally intended to teach me.

Yesterday she had started out teaching me about currents in streams and lakes, yet before I knew it she had switched to instead teaching about how to properly make a man’s shoe. And the only reason she had even been focused on that was because a few days before she had noticed Fredlo’s shoe had needed a new sole or something.

It was honestly not that bad. I enjoyed listening to her talk about him, since she was so happy while doing so… and the stuff she taught while thinking of him weren’t always silly or bad. I particularly enjoyed her spiels when she talked about how good men and bad men could be differentiated. Typically such lessons included stories about men in the past she’s known, and how they had been rude or made mistakes. I dedicated some of those stories to heart, and others had simply smiled and nodded my way through.

Rolling over a tad, I swung my legs over to one side of the large branch I sat upon. I let them dangle a bit as I sat there, and studied the spot in the snow that Witch and Fredlo had just been standing in. They had stood under this tree on purpose. The snow beneath it wasn’t piled anywhere near as high or as thick as the surrounding areas, but there was still enough to see the footprints and marks. It was interesting that Fredlo’s holes, from his steps and body, weren’t much bigger than Witch’s.

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He wasn’t the biggest of men, but he was still taller than her. Wider. Was he just light on his feet, or…?

Pushing off the branch, I fell to the ground. The drop was a far one. One that would have hurt Witch had she done it. I however landed with ease, even in the slick snow I didn’t slip upon landing.

Glancing around, particularly towards where Witch and he had disappeared to, I made sure they weren’t nearby. I slowly stood up straighter, and smiled upon seeing no sign of them.

By now they were likely in the house.

I knew from experience they’d be in there for some time. But not so long that it was weird. I knew before the sun started to set Fredlo would emerge, as to head back to the village nearby.

He had made a cabin not far outside the nearby village. He had settled down, after meeting Witch after his first visit last year. He had originally come to get medicine for his sister. Some kind of medicine to help her sleep at night. It wasn’t long after he had returned, bringing back gifts as thanks and payment after finding out the medicine had worked wonders for his sister.

Usually Witch never took payment. From anyone. For any reason. She said it was an insult to the power within her, an insult to the being who had blessed her with it.

Yet she has never hesitated to accept his gifts. Not once.

Smiling softly I kicked some snow as I headed away from the home, to head for the nearby lake.

I had no plans to fish today. I had reset the fish traps last night, and with the world being so cold the fish wouldn’t bite unless I fished the deeper parts of the lake. And right now that section was covered in a thin layer of ice. Not thick enough to walk on, either, so that meant I’d need to use the small boat to fish.

I wasn’t in the mood to sit in that boat covered in ice, as the chill wind that existed out on the lake buffeted me. Not when the traps worked far better and were much easier to use.

So I had nothing to do, really. I had already dealt with the fish traps. The chickens. We didn’t need heavier meat, so there was no point in hunting… and thanks to how cold it was, there was no point in visiting the nearby human village. They’d all be huddled in their homes, so there’d be nothing to do.

“Maybe I should make a cabin too,” I wondered.

Actually… why didn’t Witch just go to his cabin? Was it because it was too close to the human village? She did seem to want to keep their relationship something of a secret. Although she didn’t keep it from me, other than their more intimate moments, she seemed to go out of her way to keep it from everyone else.

Maybe there was a reason for it. Witch was special, after all. A human, but not. She was special like I was… though she’d never really gone into a lot of detail about it.

She had claimed it wasn’t important. For me to know that stuff about her.

In truth she didn’t seem to know much about herself. Which was odd… since she knew so much of the world.

One of the rooms in the house was full of books. Books full of important information of the world.

They told how to make medicine. How to pray to certain gods. Some were journals of thought, written by people who were befuddled by a problem they couldn’t comprehend. Others told one how to cook certain dishes. Cookbooks, as Witch had called them.

And then there were some that were written in a language that even Witch couldn’t read.

As far as I was aware, I’d read all of them. At least, all that I could read. There were a good few dozen in a language that I couldn’t read, so Witch had to read them to me, but there were only a few I’d not heard read just yet.

“Most of my lessons have been vocal lately,” I whispered as I trudged through thicker snow.

Witch’s lessons were beyond interesting. She knew so much of the world, particularly of the humans who now ruled it. It helped that although special, she herself was human. As she proclaimed at least.

Walking through the snow, I wondered how long this winter would last. Right now the world was a little quiet and gentle, but the last few days had been rough and windy. The snowstorm we had just endured for a week, and something told me it wasn’t over yet. I could smell an odd stillness on the breeze. The wind was colder than usual, which was saying something.

It made even me sometimes shiver, even though I was wearing thicker clothes. For the first few years here, I’d not even worn such clothes even though Witch had wanted me to. It had felt weird. Hot. Bothersome. I hadn’t been used to the feeling of being so warm during such a cold time.

Now though I couldn’t imagine not wearing them. It almost made me wonder how I had survived growing up practically naked during the winter. Especially since the house my family had lived in had no walls, and no fireplaces.

Maybe that was why that man and Witch kept on trying to sneak away. Maybe it was their way of trying to keep warm.

I smirked a little as I thought of Witch.

“I’m a little jealous,” I whispered. Not just of her attention and focus being completely on that man the last year or so, either.

The humans called it love. Which was funny since the word meant many different things to them. It was a feeling. An object. An act. A desire and even a faith, somehow.

“I’ll get her to teach me more about it, later,” I decided.

It was only fair. Don’t go showing me something so interesting and not at least tell me how it felt and how to find it myself.

Rounding a tree, I stepped through some light snow and onto what should have been a path. The snow covered it, but I knew from memory this was the right spot.

This path led all around the nearby lake, and would eventually take me back to our home. It’d round it, and then spit me out behind the chicken coops.

As long as I didn’t walk too quickly I should end up back at home by the time they would be done… and I’d not be interrupting anything. Hopefully.

It was embarrassing to do so. Especially since Witch smiled so weirdly as she tried to pretend they hadn’t been doing anything.

I know to her I looked like a young child, but was I? I didn’t feel like I was, really.

But maybe I was. Compared to her at least.

“Especially since…” I started to whisper as the lake came into view, but then I smelled something odd in the frigid air.

Was that blood…?

I paused a moment to look around. Maybe an animal had gotten hurt, or was being eaten or hunted. We didn’t get them often, supposedly since I smelled funny, but occasionally larger predators did come near.

If a large predator was here I should catch it. If Witch really was going to become pregnant some of its meat would be useful for her. Plus we could use its pelt to make a bed for the baby.

Enjoying the idea, I picked up my pace a little to track the smell. I only had a small knife on me, but I wasn’t too worried. I’ve hunted larger beasts before with just my claws and teeth. Though I usually got hurt doing so. What I’d do is find it, and then track it a little… then I’d return to the house and get proper equipment. My bow, for one.

It didn’t take long to find the blood. The layer of white snow helped… and thanks to the freshness of the air I was able to easily smell the source.

The snow crunched beneath my feet as I shifted a little… and stared down at the body.

A human. A woman, it looked, based off the long hair.

She was lying face down near the lake… and was soaked. And not just of blood. She wasn’t in the lake, but had definitely fallen into it.

I followed her tracks in the distance. They led away from the lake a few dozen feet from where she laid. It looked like she had been running, and had ran straight into the lake.

The drops of black and red splattering her tracks in the snow which came from the dense forest in the distance told me her wounds had come from before her fall into the lake… and likely had been the reason.

A tiny wheeze startled me, and I hurriedly stepped over to her. Before I even knelt down to touch and check on her, I realized she was still alive.

She was as cold as the snow and ice she was lying in… but she was alive.

“Hold on!” I shouted as I grabbed her.

Poor Witch. Her moment with her man was about to be ruined.

Turning her over a little, to get a better angle to lift her, I hesitated a moment upon touching her. She was so cold to the touch it made me shiver and tremble… As if her body was made of ice. Even her blood felt cold and slick, as if it was frozen.

I couldn’t tell where her wound was, but it didn’t matter. I’d not be able to help her out here… and the wound wouldn’t matter if I didn’t warm her up.

Lifting the cold and wet woman, I groaned as I turned and hurried back home.

At least the home will be hot and steamy.