Rale, naked as usual in the late morning sun, tore up the path from the dock, eyes bright with excitement. He came to a breathless halt in front of his mother and the words came tumbling out. 

"This really neat guy's come out to Buck's Rump!  He's wolf usually, but he says...he says sometimes he's Puma, and when he's Puma, watch out! His name's Rock. It's really Hardrock, but he says Rock's easier. He says he used to have another name, but he'd rather forget it. He knows all about snares and plants you can eat and stuff like that. He says he was fauve for a while and had to know all that to live. He says..." 

"Hey! Slow down!" Sylvia Slipsunder hugged her son and knelt down to his level. "What does he look like? How old is he? When did he come? Where did he come from? Are you sure he's safe?" 

Rale took a deep breath and answered, "He's pretty tall, taller than you. I bet he's as tall as Brad." 

His gaze grew momentarily distant at the thought of his eldest brother, on the mainland at Salmon Hat University and Rale's idol. Then he came back to his mother's questions. 

"His fur's sorta silvery gray, and boy is he built! I guess he's about Brad's age, maybe even a little older, but it's hard to tell. He looks kinda sad a lot of the time, especially last night, but I think he felt better after the storm. We went up top and watched the storm last night! That was really neat! Storms are more fun when there's somebody with you. He was kinda different after that, like he felt better then." 

Sylvia knew about Rale's love of thunderstorms. She worried sometimes about the lightning, but she trusted his judgement. He had an uncanny sense for the weather of the islands, and if he said lightning never struck Buck's Rump, he was most likely right. 

This sounded like the man she'd seen get off Kari's plane yesterday. He'd looked around briefly, and then disappeared. Sounded like he'd swum out to the island without stopping to introduce himself. Strange behavior, but she'd seen even stranger behavior here. 

"He came to my campsite while I was having supper. He said he swam out earlier, though. I gave him part of my rabbit." He saw his mother wince at the mention of eating rabbit. "We talked some and then went up top to see the storm. He didn't say where he came from, just that he'd always been on the mainland. He said he came on Kari's plane. She told him about Buck's Rump. He doesn't like people much. He said he was looking for some place where there wouldn't be many people." 

"That's most any place on Freedom's Run, the way business at Water Wings has been lately." Sylvia shrugged. "But I don't really mind. Too many people means too much work. But go on with what you were saying. How do you know he's safe?" 

"Oh he wouldn't hurt me Momma. We're good friends! He said he'd never had a friend like me. We talked till after midnight. I could tell because the moon was over Freedom's Run. It was full, and it's overhead at midnight when it's full. I went to sleep with his arm around me." 

Something about this last statement raised a passing concern in Sylvia's mind, but she pushed it down again. Rale had a good instinct for people. She'd never known him to be wrong about a person or the weather, not since he'd been old enough to voice his opinions about either one. 

"What did you talk about?" 

"Oh, lots of things. How we both hate to wear clothes...the best ways to trap animals...how to cook  em quickest and easiest...what plants to cook with  em to make  em taste better...how to sharpen a knife...stuff like that. He knows lots, Momma. Said he'd had to learn it the hard way. This morning he showed me some plants I didn't know about that you can eat.  Said a guy could live forever just on what he could find on Buck's Rump if he knew what to look for. 

"He said another thing that made me kinda sad, though. He said he came here because he liked the sound of the name Freedom's Run. Said he'd been running to freedom for a long time, and now he thought he'd found it. He was kinda sad when he said it. Then he said this was already the happiest he's ever been. I felt better when he said that!" 

"Who're you talking about, Squirt?" Luke came up beside Rale and put a hand on his little brother's shoulder. "Doesn't sound like anybody around here." 

Rale went quickly over some of what he'd told his mother, ending with, "...you'd really like him, Luke." 

"Maybe. He sounds a little weird to me; sorta wild. You be careful, Squirt. I don't want you going fauve on me." 

"Well, come on and get some lunch, you two." Sylvia led the way to the kitchen. 

Over lunch, Rale rambled on about his new friend. Sylvia listened quietly, asking occasional questions, while Lucas sat thoughtfully, an occasional scowl crossing his face. 

That evening she mentioned the newcomer to Brad in their monthly phone call. 

*    *    *    * 

The clock radio greeted the new morning. Bradwell Slipsunder turned over and laid an arm across the chest beside him. Clyde stirred and opened his eyes. With a contented sigh, he half turned and snuggled close, eyes closing again. 

Brad and Clyde weren't lovers; Clyde McNutter was pretty securely teamed up with Scout McIntyger, but nights like this were a welcome relief from Brad's studies at Salmon Hat University, and Scout had his other friends as well, both male and female. He'd spent the night with one of them, so Clyde would have been alone if he hadn't asked Brad over. He enjoyed Brad's wolfish looks and white coat, not to mention what he could do in bed. 

Brad gently tickled Clyde's ribs and Clyde responded with a pillow to Brad's head. "Hey Clyde, I forgot to tell you. I talked to Mom last night right before I came over. My kid brother's got a new friend out on Buck's Rump. Name's Hardrock, or Hardcock, or something like that. Must be about our age, she says,  or probably a little older. Rale says he's OK, but it sound a little strange to me, a twenty-some-year-old and a ten-year-old. Says he just got there from the mainland. Had been fauve for a while. How does it strike you?" 

"Hardrock...     Hardrock...     What's he look like? Did she say?" 

"Said he was wolf, silver-gray. Why'd you ask?" 

"Reminds me of something back home, six or seven years ago. My dad's battalion was called out to help look for a guy named Hardrock. Seems he was a high-priced whore in Carolett and one of his customers turned up with his throat torn out about the time Hardrock went missing. They never did find him, even with the Carolett police and the Home Defense Corps and half the Michinak Army Base looking for him. I wonder if it could be the same guy. He'd be about the right age. This guy Hardrock in Carolett was only about seventeen then. That'd make him twenty-three, twenty-four now. They said he'd been a whore since he was twelve. He was a silver-gray wolf, they said, and a good-looking sonovabitch. Real hard case, though. Never let anybody get close to him. I guess that was part of the turn-on for his customers. Dad said actually he was glad they didn't find him. He'd heard the guy was known to get pretty violent when anybody crossed him." 

Brad glanced at the clock radio. Nine-fifteen. Still pretty early at home. He got out of bed and pulled on his pants. "Hey Clyde, I'm sorry, but I'd better go. I've gotta grab some breakfast and call home." 

*    *    *    * 

Hardrock Pumawolf woke early and carefully disentangled himself from the boy who slept snuggled against him. "Funny how fast somebody can become part of you," he thought. "Day before yesterday I didn't give a damn about anybody, or even very much about myself. Now everythings's different. This kid and his thunderstorm really turned me around. I know now what things were like for me when I was a kid, things I'd never been able to remember. There'll never be anything like that for this kid, not as long as I'm alive." 

He looked down at the sleeping boy, then started out to walk all the way around Buck's Rump. He wanted to know everything he could about his new home. 

*    *    *    * 

Lucas grabbed the phone on the third ring. "H'lo. Who's this?" He was still half asleep. 

"Hi Luke. Is Mom around?" Brad sounded too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for this hour. 

"She's down at the beach I think. She's been going down there early to walk when it's quiet. You want me to run get her?" 

"No, I'd just as soon she didn't hear this. Listen Luke, one of my buddies here just told me something you oughta know about. You know that guy Rale's been palling around with out on Buck's Rump? Well it seems that he..." 

Five minutes later Luke put down the phone and dressed quickly. He started for the dock, then as an afterthought went back for his sheath knife. 

He waved to Sylvia as he headed his canoe for the island. "Going out to see how the Squirt's getting along," he called. Sylvia waved back and continued her early morning walk. 

*    *    *    * 

Rale woke from a pleasant dream. He reached out to touch his new friend and found that he was alone. "Rock must've gone for a walk. I'll get a fire started for breakfast." 

He carefully made a tent of twigs over fuzz-stick tinder, then added larger sticks over that, leaving a tunnel to the center. When he was satisfied with his structure, he struck a match and watched in satisfaction as the tinder caught and the fire sprang to life. He seldom needed more than one match, never more than two. 

As the fire grew he added more wood, then retrieved what remained of the second of last night's squirrels from the tree-limb where it hung to be safe from varmints. It would make a good enough breakfast until they could get something more. Maybe they'd try to catch some of the fish that teemed in the waters around the island. 

"Hey, Squirt. Where's your new buddy?" Luke stepped out of the trees and came up beside him. 

"Oh, hi Luke. I guess he's gone exploring. He was gone when I woke up." 

"Listen Squirt, I think you'd better come home with me." 

"No! I'm getting some breakfast ready before Rock gets back. We haven't eaten anything yet." 

"No time for that. You've gotta come now!" They argued briefly, then he took Rale by the arm and started to drag the struggling boy toward the beach. 

*    *    *    * 

Rock heard the buzz of voices as he neared the campsite. He approached silently in time to see Rale being dragged from the little clearing. It was clear that the boy did not want to go. "Kidnap!" was all he could think. In an instant his coat had shifted to  tawny gold, his ears had become more rounded, his muzzle grown shorter and his teeth larger, sharper. A red haze descended over his vision as he sprang. 

"Rock! No! He's my brother!" Rale's scream caused the puma to abort his leap in mid-air. 

As he twisted to one side he saw the flash of sun on steel and felt sharp pain beneath his navel. He fell heavily beside the two boys. 

His head struck something hard. 

Then there was darkness. 

*    *    *    * 

"Luke! How could you? He's my friend!" Rale stood sobbing over Rock's still form. 

"He's a killer! He killed a man in Carolingia."
"That man tried to kill him. He refused to do something the man wanted him to do, something really bad! The man said he'd kill him if he didn't do it! They had a fight and Rock had to kill him or he'd have  killed Rock! He told me all about it! He had to run away then, and he's been running ever since. Now he's found a place where he doesn't have to run any more..." 

Luke looked down at the unconscious man at his feet, at the bloody gash in his belly. 

"I'm sorry Squirt. I didn't know. I thought he might hurt you, or do something bad to you. He's hurt pretty bad. I think he might die if we don't do something. We've got to get him back to Water Wings. Mom'll know what to do." 

Between them, the two boys managed to get Rock to the canoes drawn up on the little beach."We'd better put him in mine," Luke said. "It's bigger and I'm stronger. You can come in yours. But lets hurry!" 

Sylvia saw the boys approaching and knew by their frantic paddling that something was wrong. She met them at the dock. 

"What's wrong?" She saw the inert body in Luke's canoe.  "Oh my god, what happened?" 

"I thought he was going to hurt Rale. I went out to get Rale and he saw me trying to get him to come home. He jumped at me, but he tried to stop when Rale yelled. I cut him before I could think." Luke choked on his words. 

"Momma, he went Puma! He was trying to protect me! You've got to do something! Don't let him die!" Rale climbed out of his canoe, sobbing his heart out. 

"Well I can't do anything for him there. Let's get him to the house. Luke, get the cart! Hurry!" 

*    *    *    * 

A half-hour later Rock lay in the bed in the guest room, a neat bandage covering the gash in his abdomen. When she'd shaved the silver-gray fur from around it, the wound had turned out to be superficial, though bloody, and Sylvia had stitched it up with boiled sewing thread. There could have been a problem if he'd needed help available only at the hospital in Fairport. 

 His nakedness hadn't bothered her. In fact she'd enjoyed it. Under other circumstances she could have found herself more than enjoying it. He was indeed quite a remarkable specimen of young manhood. "Stop it Sylvia," she chided herself. "You could be his mother!" 

*    *    *    * 

"You're going to have an impressive scar, Rock. Sorry I couldn't do better on the stitching. I never was much of a seamstress." Sylvia grinned at Rock as she pulled the stitches out. In truth, she had done a commendable job, and she knew it. 

In the two weeks that had passed they had become good friends. Rale had been in and out constantly. Luke, too, had been a frequent visitor. But while Janet and Bethany had been a great help, Sylvia had done most of his care.
Rock found her easy to talk to. Sylvia told him about the islands and their people, about the resort. She talked with him about family matters, about the kids, and being a mother with no partner to share the responsibility of keeping them straight. She was rightly proud of the two studying on the mainland. 

Rock told her many things about himself and how he had come to the islands. He didn't say much about his years as a prostitute. He mentioned it, but didn't go into details; it wasn't something he was proud of. He told her about the man he'd killed, though no details as to why.  He told her about the years he'd spent as a fauve, wandering across the continent from the piney woods of Carolingia, searching for a place that could feel like home, but never finding it. He told her about how his heart had jumped at the name Freedom's Run, before he had any idea where it was. He told her how he'd searched, had asked, until he finally found someone who knew of a fennec with an airplane who went there sometimes. 

He told her about swimming out to Buck's Rump that first day to be alone; of finding Rale that first night; how it seemed he'd found himself as he could have been, as he should have been, as he wished he'd been; how he'd found his own salvation in a boy who lived wild on an island but was loved and had a home to go to. He told her of the rebirth he'd found in the thunderstorm, how he'd found those lost memories of his early years. He even shared a little of the pain of those early years with her, something he hadn't wanted to burden Rale with. This made his solemn oath that such things would never happen to Rale entirely believable to Sylvia, and explained a great deal about the bond that was evident between the two of them, like the bond between brothers but somehow deeper. 

Sylvia found herself thinking of him as she did her own children, as another brother to them. He was only a little older than Brad, after all. 

Finally, she said, "Rock, I've been thinking...thinking about what you said about not having a family, at least not one that you'd be willing to claim. Seems to me a man need a family sometimes, even when he's away from it like Brad is. How'd you like to be family here? Jan and Beth like you. The boys like you. Hell, Rale more than likes you; he worships you like he does Brad. You're his big brother too. How about it?" 

Tears welled up in eyes that had forgotten what tears were. Rock had a hard time getting his voice to work. Finally he managed to blurt out, "Sylvia, you're looking at the happiest man in the islands, maybe even anywhere on Therion. I've been trying to figure out how to ask something like that. I was afraid to, but I wanted to more than anything, and now you've beat me to it." Then his voice failed him again and all he could do was grin. 

After all, family...matters!