Outside, faint light played gently across the Academy grounds, trying to warm the mid-morning air and failing.  The cloud cover was still too strong, and a chill wind wove among the trees, rippled the puddles on the ground, and tapped at the window, trying to get into the library.  Few seemed to notice nature beckoning as they bent over books in mostly silent study.

Saizenna sat at one of the large, round library tables, her nose buried deep within a smallish red tomb. The table had cut-out edges so that students of the four-legged variety might also make use of them and Wildfire was leaning his velvety black chest against the concavity, his dark eyes half-closed as Zenna turned the pages.

<<I don't have to read one page and I get the whole story in my head. Why do they even bother to teach us to read, I wonder.>>

Zenna's eyes didn't leave the page, <<Oh, they must stay awake nights thinking of ways to torture us.>>

Wildfire opened his eyes a little and regarded his Bonded coldly. <<Are you making fun of me?>>

<<Me? Never.>> Her tone was lightly playful, but she placed her book on the table anyway to place a quick kiss on the stallion's soft black nose. <<How can you not know how deeply I adore you? The best day of my entire existence was two days ago. Here...>> She mustered up a warm vision in her mind of everything she felt for him--a swirling mass of pinks and crimsons and creams--and sent it full force along their newly forged mindlink. Even she could feel the tingle of it as it was received. Wildfire was smugly pleased.

<<You are mine.>> was all he said, and half-closed his eyes again. Someone finally thought he was wonderful! It was a new feeling indeed. Zenna grinned to herself and returned to her book.

It was a few minutes before her chain of thoughts was again snapped in twain.  {{Hey, Wildfire! Saizenna! Congratulations!}} She paused and lifted her eyes to regard three younger unicorns entering the library. She checked off each of their names in her mind. The pale filly with the sea colored mane and tail was Aurora. Saizenna had only spoken to her a few times, but had found her to be amazingly insightful for a young 'corn. With her were two smart looking young stallions. The one with the coat that looked like a hurricane sky was Stormcloud, he was hard to miss. The other was...was...trex! She could never remember his name! At any rate, all three were a year or two older than Wildfire, and how funny, she thought suddenly, that she had begun to measure such things against her Bonded!

Wildfire, as usual, was uncomfortable accepting praise, but he did his valiant best for his Bonded's sake. {{Thanks.}} he said simply, and half-closed his eyes again. It made him look so suave and aloof, he thought. He hoped they admired him.

<<Wildfire!>>

<<What?>> For a second, the stallion worried that Zenna had been walking in his thoughts again. She probably thought he was being childish! Oh, he had forgotten for a moment about the inprivacy of a Bond, and to lose her respect and love...!

<<Wildfire, what's the name of that brownish 'corn next to Stormcloud?>>

The stallion visibly relaxed. <<Oh. That's Crossfire.>>

<<The one all the Wyn are talking about?>>

<<Yes.>>

<<Hmm.>> Zenna had never talked to him, but she had heard some interesting stories... She waved at all three of the young 'corns, motioning them over to her and Wildfire. "Hey Aurora, Stormcloud, Crossfire... What are you three up to this fine morning?"

{{Well, while some of you are basking in Bonded bliss,}} sent Stormcloud with a friendly flick of his tail, {{*others* of us still have to study for our diplomacy exam tomorrow. Envy us.}}

"Oh, I would!" Zenna said, turning her own tome towards the 'corns so that they could read the cover. It read: PRE-DARK ERA RIN CAADIAN PAINTERS, VOLUME ONE. "except I've got an art exam tomorrow as well. Even new-Bonds don't get no breaks 'round here!"

Everyone laughed. Aurora, however, seemed especially interested in the topic.  {{So you are studying Hukill and Faradae and Ouglafaan at all? I love the neo-traditionalists from that era! Don't you find their use of lighting and their chop-and-stitch brush technique fascinating?}}

{{Huh,}} Stormcloud grunted, though his tone remained friendly, {{Everyone knows Hukill was a fraud. His assistant painted the whole lot of his landscapes and never got one fleck of credit.}}

Aurora sighed. {{Oh, 'Cloud, we've had this discussion before. I thought we agreed that there was insubstantial proof to support that theory.}}

{{No, you decided that. I never budged.}}

{{Whatever you say. Crossfire, what do you think?}}

The bay stallion seemed startled that Aurora would ask him such a question. {{I haven't the slightest idea what the two of you are talking about, to be honest. And I hate to break up this conversation, but it's been almost a tick and half since breakfast...shouldn't we get to work?}}

Zenna looked up, startled. "What time did you say it was?"

Stormcloud glanced briefly up at the timepiece affixed high upon the library wall. {{Almost four and a half. Why?}}

"Jerlain was supposed to meet me here almost twenty minutes ago so we could study for History...." Zenna furrowed her brow. "How odd."

Jerlain stepped through the library door, closing it behind her to keep out the chill blast that wanted to come in with her and looked around for Saizenna.

She heard her voice called almost at the same time and was looking in the direction of the voice when suddenly the world seemed to stop and become focussed on just one thing.

It was a unicorn stallion, tall and handsome.  Her eyes took in his patchwork of colours briefly before her gaze was funneled and narrowed until all she could see were his eyes - his locking onto hers.  Her breath seemed to have left her body and her mind....her mind seemed to have left the Realm altogether and was soaring as if on a swirling cloud of light.

Stormcloud was galloping across an empty sky, going faster than hooves could travel, faster he could have ever gone inside his mortal body...faster...faster...

There was a sound, too. Something beyond the cup of his ears, like rushing water or the hollow roar of a hurricane wind, and there was the sense something large and deep and powerful coursing towards him across empty space.

He was, he realized suddenly, rushing forward to meet it.

It was like a hurricane, really, or a tornado: when the wave of him met the wave of someone else, sucking him down and down until he was deep in the heart of her and yet somehow she had also been sucked down inside of him. A strange, impossible mathematical loop, and yet...

::I know you.:: he thought, or perhaps she thought it. It was hard to tell now, his mind looped over and under, his thoughts and hers woven, no weaving! together, even now, like the strands of a beautiful new tapestry. But it was more than that. It was more than a joining, it was a joining that *should've* happened, that was always meant to happen. A joining that BELONGED!

And just like that--with an upsurge of joy! and an upsurge of *finality* as the rapidly swirling force of Light lifted suddenly away--it was over.

Stormcloud opened his eyes and his nostrils and breathed in... His first breath as a new being.

{Jerlain,} he sent to his newly Bonded. {I am...}

But of course, there was really no need for him to finish.

{Stormcloud,} Jerlain acknowledged, her mindvoice new and tentative. Automatically he sent a surge of reassurance.  Clear communication in their earthly forms would come to them soon and for the moment they could simply ride this wave of crystal clear understanding of one another.

As the Light receded and she was returned to herself again, all the pieces of 'Jerlain' had been shuffled and adjusted to fit in this massive new part of herself.  She felt as though love alone moved her closer toward the stallion and certainly she did not seem to need to tell her feet to close the distance although she was still far too dazed to think about it too closely.

The others watching would have been able to see that in fact her feet were not touching the floor at all as a force like that of gravity drew her closer to her new Bonded so that they could touch for the first time in their physical bodies.  Stormcloud's talent manifested with his joy and he was unknowingly levitating his Bonded toward him, limning her with the radiance of his newfound love for her.

Jerlain's fingers touched his face, felt his breath searching her fingers as he nosed her hands and arms and then her neck and face.  She settled into the embrace, wrapping her arms tightly about his neck and breathing in the strong vibrant scent of the stallion.  She knew she would never ever get tired of this and the realisation that she now had a whole life ahead of her with him by her side made her unable to do any more than just be lost in the wonder of it.

Stormcloud nuzzled his new Bondmate's neck.  What was that delicious smell? He'd never noticed that humans smelt so good before!  And the softness of her neck and cheeks and those little curls of tawny mane...ah..hair. Marvellous!

This was Bonding.  He'd waited for it all his life, knowing that it was going to come one day and here she was at last!  His own Bondmate!  He was so lucky - she was surely the most beautiful girl in the whole world!  And listen to all her thoughts!  They were all of him!  Him!  There was no mistaking that, as she was now the centre of him, now her world revolved around him too.  He could feel everything she was feeling.

A rush of relief and excitement was passing through her right now.  What was that all about?  His thoughts leapt with hers to extract meaning from it.

His Bondmate was extending outward with her joy - Bonding with him was going to change her whole life and she was revelling in all the wonderful new things it would bring her.  He caught an image of another girl's face and a name accompanied it.  Tia.  There was a joyfulness in his Bonded that she and Tia had *both* gained Bondmates and would continue to share an equal friendship and destiny - and more, they would be linked together as more than best friends and yearmates.  They would be linked as Cha-mates!  Other faces flicked through Jerlain's mind as she made more mental connections. Tall, composed, clear-sighted Saizenna close by them, another ordinary looking girl with blue eyes, but with a gentle, empathic nature that meant that Jerlain would never really think her so ordinary again.  An exotic, tiny woman with honey coloured skin, soft brown eyes and a fiece aura of loyalty about her.

Cha-mates!  The force of the realisation hit him too!  He had Cha-mates now! His mind raced over the past few days, tracing the other 'corns who would now be linked with him in this most special way.  Firedance - Bonded with his Bondmate's best human friend.  Firedance!  And Wildfire - Wildfire, right there in front of him, witness to his Bonding!  And Spark - over there with his new gentle Bondmate, what was her name again?  No matter - he would know soon enough!  And Smoke - beautiful, gentle, intuitive Smoke! His Cha-mates!  His joy was swimming along with Jerlain's now as, secure in their love and acceptance of one another, they reached outward to embrace the wider circle of the Bond.

Her hand on Stormcloud's withers, fingers tangled in his mane, Jerlain finally looked around her at those who had witnessed her Bonding.  Almost as if to reverse mirror the scene of the night before, the first eyes she made contact with were Isabel's.  The new, growing understanding between the two girls was re-inforced as Jerlain's expression poured out her feelings to the new friend she knew would understand and share her joy.