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Ai returns the hug with a soft troubled laugh. "Who's running? I couldn't leave your side right now if I wanted to. Don't you realize that? That's why I wanted you to leave... to keep you safe and free. I wanted you to have the chance of choice, dear heart."

She hugs him close, letting her body slowly morph back into that of a lion, until at last there are two entwined bodies laying on the roof. Yin and yang. The beginning and the end. A perfect union (or was it?).

Ai sighs against him. "I... I know... I want to fly... need to fly, but you can't...." The lioness laughs bitterly. "I don't know why, but somehow flying seems rather important to me right now."

"Is it flying or the chase?" asks Kero thoughtfully.

Ai gives him a funny look. "Why do you ask that?"

"If it's the chase... then we could go play tag and pounce in the woods... as far from here as we can... a good hard run, and you really trying to get away from me, might work just as well." he ventures hopefully.

Ai ponders this for a moment. "It might work... but you'll need to let me get a really big start... I'm afraid, as I am now, if you pounce too soon... we're going to... ummm... well, nature is going to take it's course whether we want it or not."

Ai laughs nervously and starts to run for the forest, leaving a scent trail he will have no trouble following. She just hopes no other cat takes it upon himself to follow as well. This could prove to be very interesting.

Ai is larger and a bit more powerfully built, but heavier on her paws than Kero, and he catches sight of her near the top of the falls, bounding over the barely submerged rocks at it's head. One slip and down she'll go, so he doesn't say anything, but now he has to figure out how to get across without getting wet. Her method would have his teeth chattering in no time.

He is also in an area he's not all that familiar with. The woods here are wilder, less travelled. The game paths narrow and hard to manuveur. He casts about for a scent trail and starts down one promising such trail that leads off towards a ridge line of stoney bluffs, the precusers of the mountains he so loved to mine. Ai has been here, but she's also laid a few switch backs, so he can't be sure which one is the freshest.

Suddenly a ghostly white shape tumbles down on top of him from the tree tops, then darts off towards the ridge.

"Gotcha..." comes a familiar laughing send, flavored with just a hint of exhaustion. Ai is in far worse shape than he, having only just recovered from her ordeal following his attack. It isn't a matter of weakness, she's fully recovered, but she is sorely out of shape.

Suddenly the pounding sound stops, Ai has come to a halt. Confused because she doesn't seen him behind her she begins to slowly backtrack, moving without a sound, retracing her path, wondering what he's up to.

Finds himself scrambling to get away from her back legs which are sinking quickly into the loosened soil beneath her.

"Kero! This isn't funny...." she growls flailing a little, causing him to duck her scrabbling feet. "A little help would be greatly appreciated. I can't seem to find any leverage." she moans trying her hardest not to laugh.