Astyr was waiting downstairs for Randy when he pulled up beside her on his motorcycle. She loved riding on the big Triumph and was looking forward to another long ride today. She gave Randy a big smile before putting her helmet on and climbing on the back behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist. He revved the engine and started slowly down the road.

They followed the river north and after an hour came to a state park that had a natural spring that fed into the river. There was a swimming area around the spring and a ramp for putting boats into the river and along with a public restroom and a small shack renting tubes and paddleboats, there was a restaurant that had seating on the inside and a snack counter on the outside for swimmers who didn't want to go inside. They decided to sit inside out of the chilly breeze and Astyr was astonished to see that the tables had large griddles built into the table tops. There were other diners and she could see that they were making their own pancakes at the table.

They sat down and the waitress came and took their drinks orders and left them a large stone pitcher of pancake batter and a rack of syrups. Astyr grabbed the pitcher and started pouring the batter out to make different shapes and they had a good time trying to decide what they all looked like when she flipped them over. Randy was pretty good at guessing but got quiet when she turned over the last one. It looked like a large wolf and he was sure his heart had stopped beating. Astyr was grinning at him and she asked him if he wanted to give up.

"It's Mickey Mouse!" she said laughing. "Can't you see the big ears?"

Randy tried to laugh away his nervousness and then teased her about it, "If Mickey Mouse looked like that, Disney World would have shut down years ago."

She pretended to be hurt but she was laughing too hard. They finished eating and then went for a walk around the large spring holding hands and walking close together.

"Hey," she said, "Is there something bothering you? You seem kind of distracted today."

Randy paused and then sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't notice, but it's no big deal." He said.

"Of course it's a big deal if it's making you sad." She told him, "and I'm your friend, how could I not notice."

He grimaced when she said friend and leaned down to rest his forearms against the railing that kept people from falling into the river. "I wish you thought of me as more than just a friend, Astyr; even though I don't deserve it. But I'm just feeling down today because of my dad. He's been in pretty bad shape ever since my mom left, but lately it's like he's just completely given up. I don't know what to do to get through to him anymore."

The pain etched on his face nearly broke Astyr's heart. She knew all too well what it felt like to be abandoned and she wished she had something to say that could make him feel better. She squeezed in between him and the rail and put her arms around him. She just held him for a while pressing her face against his chest and eventually he brought his arms up around her and held her, too. They stayed that way for a while, Astyr didn't want to let go of him; she didn't know what to say to help him so she just gave him what comfort she could.

"You do deserve more, Randy." Astyr said, "But I've got too much going on in my life right now to give you more than my friendship. Please try to understand. I love being with you but I can't promise you that I'll be here a month from now when I don't know if I will be."

Randy laid his cheek against the top of her head and hugged her tighter. "It's okay, Astyr. It means a lot to me that you're here with me now. If that's all you can give me, I'll take it." He pulled away from her but kept his hands on her shoulders and looked down straight into her eyes. "I'm here for you, too. If you need anything from me, even just someone to talk to, I'm here." He gave her a smile and she couldn't help but smile back at him.

She felt bad that she couldn't share with him the things she had learned about herself in the last couple of weeks but there was no way she could explain to him the supernatural turn her life had suddenly taken. Then she reconsidered; maybe she could tell him the gist of it without mentioning anything that wasn't human.

She led him over to a picnic table under the trees and they sat beside each other looking out over the water.

"My mother left me, too, Randy. I know how you feel. And I know how it feels to find out that you're not important to your father. Mine doesn't even want to know me."

Randy turned his head to see her face. "I thought you didn't know who your parents are."

Astyr sighed, "I didn't, but Grima used to know my mother and she told me about them. She also told my father about me; it turns out he didn't know I was alive. But she could have saved her breath; he doesn't have time for me."

Randy put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. "He's a fool, Astyr, and he's missing out on the best thing in his life." He leaned down and gently pressed his lips against hers. Astyr turned towards him and he moved his hand up to the back of her neck as he kissed her harder. She felt the warmth of his skin under her hands as she laid them flat against his chest and she kissed him back. He smelled good, like the forest and fresh air and Astyr took a deep breath inhaling his clean male scent as he pulled her head back and started kissing her neck. She could feel herself blush as a wave of heat rushed up to where his lips were brushing her skin. It was awkward trying to kiss while they were seated beside each other so he pulled her up onto his lap. He was cradling her against him and when he brought his lips down to hers again, she couldn't resist running the tip of her tongue along his lower lip. He gasped in surprise and opened his mouth gently catching her tongue playfully with his teeth. He let it go again and started to kiss her deeper but just then they heard some giggling coming from the nearby playground.

A couple of little girls were staring at them and covering their mouths as they giggled helplessly at the sight of the two teen-agers making out on the picnic bench. Astyr jumped up and turned beet red in embarrassment. She couldn't believe her first kiss had just been interrupted by laughing spectators. Randy seemed to understand what she was feeling and he stood up and grabbed her hand and pulled her away to the parking lot. They didn't talk anymore as they put on their helmets and climbed back onto the bike. Randy took a different route home that was almost twice as long and the sun was just going down as he dropped her off at home. He took his helmet off and gave her another kiss, a short kiss right on her lips and told her to have a good night. She walked up the stairs with a smile on her face thinking of how nice it had felt in his arms as he drove off down the driveway.

***

Randy wasn't smiling as he pulled up to his house. He felt like a jerk. He shouldn't have kissed her like that. She had already told him what he needed to know and he should have left it at that. Things were going to be hard enough for her once Lucky started putting his schemes in motion; she would already hate Randy enough without feeling like he had used her, too. The kiss was nothing but selfishness for Randy, he couldn't resist her and he had wanted to take more than her words of comfort.

His mood took an even darker turn when he saw the Lincoln Continental parked in front of his house again. He really didn't want to face Lucky when he was already mad at himself, but he parked his bike and went upstairs determined to get this over with.

He opened the door to the living room to find his father swearing loudly and swinging a half-empty bottle of whiskey towards Lucky's head. Randy didn't bother to try and interfere and Lucky soon enough had the bottle in hand and had thrown Randy's father back down into the chair hard enough to nearly topple him over backwards.

"Randy, my boy! You're just in time." Lucky turned to Randy with a big grin on his face and took a long swallow of the drink. "My grandson here was just trying to get me to put him out of his misery. What do you think? Should I let him off the hook that easy?"

Randy didn't want to get tangled up in the old man's twisted games and so just ignored everything he had said. "Astyr knows about her father, and he knows about her now."

Lucky's face lit up like a child at Christmas. He had waiting thousands of years to get revenge on Tyr and things were finally starting to go his way. "Excellent, did she mention when he'll be coming to meet her?"

"He's not." Randy said. "He knows better than to just jump into your trap. Astyr thinks he just doesn't care enough about her to bother."

"Who cares what the little bitch thinks." Lucky said with a sneer. Randy forced himself not to react, that would only make his great-grandfather happier. "We're just going to have to force his hand. He knows he needs to protect her from me so we need to put her in danger from someone else; someone strong enough that only Tyr himself can save her. Once he's gotten to know her, then I'll make my move."

Randy didn't want to hear any of this. He didn't care what the old devil was planning and just wanted to be as far away from him and his schemes as he could get. "Just tell me what you want me to do. I don't need to know your master plan," he said, "I only want to get this over with and get out of here."

"I'll tell you what to do, pup, don't worry about that." Lucky said. "But you're not done here until I say so." Randy clenched his fists so tightly that his fingernails cut into his palms as he listened to his orders. "Tyr won't come here to Grima's place; it's too remote and not fortified. I need you to get her moved into the Falkor's place. Tyr will feel it's safe enough to meet her there and I will make sure that the one person other than me that Tyr doesn't want to know about his baby's existence, finds out all about her."

"Fine," Randy said through clenched teeth, "what do you want me to do?"

Lucky laughed and clapped Randy on the back in a friendly way. Randy had to force himself not to flinch at the contact. "All you have to do is let that Falkor boy find out that Astyr's boyfriend isn't human. That'll scare them into moving her away from you. You'll run into him at the dance, make it a good scene, boy. Got it?"

Randy got it, alright. Letting Astyr and that Falkor guy find out about him would be the end. She would go away and he'd never be allowed anywhere near her again. Maybe she wouldn't know just how much he had betrayed her but it wouldn't matter; she would be just as gone and just as out of his reach as if she had found out his part in all of this.

"You won't need me anymore after that so consider that the end of our agreement." Randy told him. "I'll be leaving Saturday morning."

Lucky laughed again. "Fine boy, as soon as she is moved, you're free to go. But you know you're welcome to come back any time you want."

"Yeah," Randy said, "thanks for the offer but don't hold your breath." He went into his room and slammed the door behind him. Five days was all he had left. He tried to tell himself that he was glad his freedom was coming up so soon but there was a pit opening up where his heart was supposed to be and it had Astyr's name written all over it.

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