In a matter of moments, I transported Addie and myself through the shadows. Addie looked a little wobbly from the speed we were travelling at so I put my arms around her to keep her from toppling over and falling through the shadows to some random, forlorn destination.

My bond to my Companion was weakening as I left my realm behind and entered the human one. I barely managed to let her know what had happened and she in turn, told me where my little mouse lived so I could take her home. When our bond grew so faint I c0uld barely feel my Companion’s presence anymore, I felt a tightening in my chest. I had rarely ever been out of contact with my Companion since we had bonded. The feeling that she was no longer near was foreign and distasteful.

Soon, my shadows delivered us to our destination. I found myself rapidly blinking in pain against the brightness of the sunlight. I obviously preferred dim lighting in general, and the sudden exposure to such a bright round ball of freaking fire in the sky did not take kindly to my eyes. Not to mention with my extra-enhanced eyesight that was far superior to mere humans, the light was excruciatingly painful. I immediately toned down my vision adding protective tints to my irises that just made them look even darker than they already were. Immediately, it was like I was looking through built-in sunglasses. Being outside became bearable.

Right as I finished adjusting, I immediately flinched in surprise as Addie gave a loud, ear-shattering whoop right next to my superior hearing-enhanced ear. My ear began ringing shrilly and I had to shake my head to get the noise to go away.

I saw Addie tear away from me and hurried into the house we were facing. Before following her, I immediately tuned down all my senses (from smell, to touch, to hearing) so that I wouldn’t be taken by surprise if something random happened again.

The girl ran in and out of rooms, opening and shutting doors and laughed delightedly...at what, I really couldn’t say. She finally bulldozed her way upstairs to her bedroom leaving the door open wide and fell onto her bed. Her eyes were big and shining and she was giggling like a child. I raised my eyebrows as I leaned against the doorway and peered in at her.

"Ididn’t expect you to be this excited to be back here,” I told her. From what I’d seen from the house, it wasn’t anything special. It was not luxurious, there were no servants...yet she was uncannily ecstatic.

"To me, it’s home. To you, it’s just a house.” Addie replied.

"That’s true enough,” I acknowledged. I would definitely prefer my own home to this place. But if this place was home to her, I suppose she would overlook this rundown mess of a building and cherish it like I cherish mine.

"I am just so happy to be back,” Addie continued cheerfully, “I haven’t been here in…I don’t even know how long.”  Suddenly her face paled and she sat up looking like she was going to be sick. I didn’t know what to make of such drastic changes of emotion. Was that a normal human tendency? Was it healthy? Was the person I was supposed to mate mentally unstable? The thought was a little unnerving, though it would make little difference to me in the end. Still it would be useful to know just what was going through her mind right now. Addie definitely didn’t look well.

"What is it?” I asked her.

"I don’t know how long I’ve been gone!” she wailed, “What if my friends have sent out search parties for me? What if school has started and I missed it?! What if I got fired from my job?” With that tirade, she rushed past me back down the stairs to a small room that seemed to be made up into an office. She threw herself in front of some weird small rectangle that glowed light and began focusing on it desperately.

"I don’t see why it’s such a big deal,” I told her ignoring the weird rectangle and focusing on the concerns she’d presented. She was finally home. Why ruin her good mood by worrying about what other humans thought about her? From the limited knowledge I knew of humans, most of them hated school and actively went out of their way to not have to go...so really, no harm done, right?

"And another thing, how can you live in a shack like this? There are no servants or scouts, or wards…this place is like, prehistoric.” I continued glancing at the clutter that littered the room. Maybe with any luck, I could convince her to stay here for a day or two and then return to my realms with me where everything ran smoothly and conveniently.

My little mouse seemed greatly offended. “Yes, it is a big deal, and what do you mean how can I stand it here? I couldn’t have afforded it without Kame. I’m an orphan. Ever since I was little, I had no prospects. But I was permitted to receive an education by the government, however I didn’t have anywhere to live and I had to survive on the streets for a time. But then I met Kame, and he bought this house for me.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to her. What if I said something and she just lectured me again? And who was this Kame anyway? I didn’t understand a lot of what she said, but as I listened to her story, I felt something I had never thought I would ever feel for this human.

Before, I’d felt contempt, annoyance, anger, intrigue, curiosity, amusement...she had incited all those emotions in me in just the last little while. But this emotion I now had was not something I ever would have expected. Sympathy. No, empathy. I was an orphan too.

"No way!” Addie cried desperately pulling me from my thoughts, “I couldn’t have been gone that long, could I?” She turned towards me looking to me like a half crazy...scratch that... completely crazy person.

"I was only at Jonghyun’s a week, and Jin’s a day or two right? I couldn’t have been floating in the shadows for over a week, could I? And you! Meeting you and deciding to come home couldn’t have taken a month to figu