Page 2 of Starfall

He chuckled. “I jump fences.”

She sighed. “Of course you do.”

He opened the door without letting go of her hand, and the clanking of the equipment proved that the muscle nuts like to rise early.

She wiped her shoes on the mat, and he led her to the back and past some construction areas marked with safety tape. She heard some snickering and dug her heels in. She slowly turned and stared at the two men who were looking at her with Rowen. She glanced at her new friend. “I am just going to deal with this.”

He let go of her hand, and she stalked over to the guys and spoke to them for a moment. They backed away, and then, she took a three-hundred-pound barbell, lifted it, and set it off the pathway. “Don’t be messy. This is a nice place. Keep it nice.”

She turned and walked back to Rowen, taking his hand again. He smiled, and when they were on the other side of the door, he murmured, “What did you say to them?”

“I just mentioned that I had been in a bad fight and showed them some bruises. And that you were being a friend and letting me use the new facilities out of pity.”

He tightened his grip on her hand as they walked to the new sauna. There was a towel rack outside. “Sorry, but there isn’t a change room here that you would want to use. The change room for the sauna isn’t finished yet.”

She shrugged and removed her clothing right there, wrapping herself in the towel and then folding her clothing neatly.

“There is a vestibule inside with a shelf. You could have changed there.”

Emery sighed. “Of course. Thanks for that.”

“No problem.” He opened the door, and the warmer air helped her relax a little. She put her clothing on the convenient shelf and then moved to the inner chamber.

The heat wrapped around her, and she added some water from next to the heating unit and then clambered up the benches to the highest one.

When Rowen entered wearing a towel that did not cover much, she tried not to stare.

He chuckled. “You can look. As we discussed, I worked hard at it.”

She sighed and scooted down to the same level, looking him over. “Well done. My compliments to the construction crew.”

He chuckled and then paused. “Emery, I noticed something this morning before you concealed it.”

Her hand went to her arms, and she covered the skin on the inside of each forearm. “Oh. That.”

“Yeah. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.”

“Well, I gave you the short notes on my life.” She exhaled. “I skipped over a bit.”

“Like?”

“My parents adopted me before they found out I was an ogre. When they figured it out, they brought me to counselling and tried to get me to stifle myself. That is where this body came from. The other form was shameful. My claws were too sharp and limbs too long. They made me hide, and I did... but the ogre nature came out and wanted to be seen, so she—I started cutting myself with those deadly claws.”

“Your parents noticed?”

“They did, and they found me a counsellor. The cutting mostly stopped, but I still hated my other face.”

Understanding flickered on his face. “The one that scared your family.”

“That would be the one.”

“The one that I dream of.”

“If you say so.”

“Tonight is Yule. New starts for a new year. Why don’t we try and see if we can’t bring both of yourselves together.”

“It’s the same personality; it is just the body that is the problem.”