(NOTE: another flashback sequence to Felicia's years as a young student.)

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"What will you do when you're a Magi, Flagstaff? You're a Lep'kufft. Your people don't like magic. They'll hate you."

The concern in Felicia's voice surprised him. They had discussed it before, and it had been a subject of unending teasing from her. A rabbit wizard! she had laughed. There's no such thing! There was no teasing now, only worry. He shrugged. "So, I'll be the first. And they won't hate me; they just won't acknowledge me. They'll ignore me and all of my great works. Their loss."

"That won't bother you?"

"Eh. A little, maybe." He shrugged again. "It's not like I have a lot of interaction with them anyway." His contact with other Lep'kufft had been minor since being left behind by his uncle, and he saw only the few Lep'kufft who lived near the valley and village. But those encounters had been uncomfortable. Although the adults were polite and gregarious, the children his age had been another matter, and he had been made a target of jibes and practical jokes from the start. His uncommon loner personality and unique status of dwelling with a Kataran and Dogonian, as well as his unusual green fur, made him a target. The Sorceress had managed to help him through the rough spots, taught him to let go of his anger, and he made a determined effort to become a better Lep'kufft than the other rabbit children he had known. Except that, unlike them, he practiced magic.

"But you'll be alone," Felicia continued.

Flagstaff laughed. "No, I won't. I have you and Mother, don't I?" He pulled some grass loose and threw it playfully at her. "Besides, what do you care! You never thought I'd amount to anything anyway. Dumb ol' magic bunny, you used to call me. Remember?"

The fox laughed and tried to fend off the grass. But she sobered quickly. "I care," she told him. She looked again into the valley, but this time let her gaze pass by the cottage and look out beyond to where the village and the outside world loomed. "I don't want to see you hurt. Or Mother. I don't like it when others treat you so shabbily." Her eyes narrowed, and the rabbit thought he saw a spark of anger flash in them for a moment. “You’re my family.”

"What about you?" he asked her, changing the subject. "What will you do?"

"Whatever I can," she said quietly. "Whatever it takes."

"Yeah?" Flagstaff grinned now. "Think you'll ever learn magic?"

Felicia whirled about, her jaw dropped in shock. The rabbit just grinned wider. "Why, you brat!" She hit him with the bouquet, and he threw up his arms to protect himself. Flagstaff laughed. Felicia's poor handling of magic was a sore point for her, and teasing her about it was his pastime. She hit him again, this time with her open palm. "You longeared, bucktoothed brat! How dare you!" She slapped again, and this time it hurt. He blinked in surprise at the sharp pain in his forearm where she had struck him, and when she hit him again, he realized she was no longer playing. "I work just as hard as you do!" she seethed. She balled her hand into a fist and pounded on his shoulder. "I do all the lessons! I practice all of the meditations like you and Mother! I concentrate my will until it feels like my mind will roll over and fall out of my skull! I do my best! I try as hard as I can!" Tears of frustration now flecked her cheeks as she struck him again.

"Whoa! Hold it! Stop!" He finally caught hold of her wrists and struggled to keep her still, to prevent her from hitting him again. His forearms and shoulder were smarting now. "I'm sorry!" he gasped. "I didn't mean it! Really!" The vixen glared at him. "Really," he reassured her. "I was teasing, that's all. I didn't mean anything by it."

She pulled her hands loose of his grasp, and stared resentfully at him as she massaged her wrists.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "I know how hard you've been trying. I didn't really mean to hurt you."

"Really?"

"Really. I think you'll make a fine Magi." He was lying now. He could tell from her difficulties with her lessons that she just didn't have the sensitivity to magic that a true Magi required. It happened. Not everybody was meant to be a wizard or a sorceress, whatever their determination. But if it was a lie, it was a white one, because he now realized how the frustration had been eating away in her and he wanted to assuage that. He didn't want to hurt her.

"You think so?" Felicia was obviously surprised that he had such a high opinion of her abilities. "You think I'll be a good Magi?"

"One of the best," he lied again with an earnest smile.

They sat and looked at one another for a long moment. The barrier of adolescent distrust and competitiveness that had been slowly cracking for some while now seemed to dissolve away, and it was as though they saw one another for the first time, not as children or as siblings, but as adults facing a frightening and exciting new world. At that moment Flagstaff abruptly knew the same pensiveness the fox had been feeling, and felt a chill run up his spine as his thoughts flashed over his own prospects for the future, of wandering through strange lands or setting up a wizard's shop in some far-away town. A new life. Felicia watched him, breathing hard, her eyes still damp, was thinking many of the same thoughts no doubt. Childhood was ending, and they both felt the approach of its demise.

All at once, Felicia threw herself at Flagstaff again. They tumbled back into the grass, the rabbit startled by the renewal of her attack. But this attack was different. She kissed him. Hard. When the kiss broke some minute or two or three later, she was lying atop him, and he found himself mesmerized by the bright emerald glow of her eyes. "I just realized something," she said in a breathless husk. "We're not really brother and sister." She kissed him again, wrapping her arms around him.

Flagstaff struggled to get free, though not very hard, and when they broke again so they could catch their breaths, he could only mumble, "Not brother and sister...?"

The fox smiled. "Not really," she said again, and she kissed him again. Any arguments Flagstaff might have found with her conclusion were soon forgotten.

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(NOTE: This is the last of the illustrations I had already worked up before realizing that I already had too many to actually use. I may do more in the future, or just rough sketches, but I'll certainly have to be choosier about what will actually go into the finished product. Thanks for viewing a work in progress!)