Angusreached for the cutters and snipped off a length for the attractive brunettewith her shackled companion. "Anything else, ladies?" the shopkeepera...ked, handing the small bundle of links to Moira who accepted it shakily. Angussmiled in tacit recognition of her discomfort. "Two locks, please, Angus, " Isabel said quietly. Angus' smilebroadened slightly as he handed Isabel two brass-bodied, stainless-steel-shacklepadlocks from a shelf near the reels of chain. "These are the best of the lot,". .hey Dad you there?!" Oh sorry honey. I just got lost in my thoughts." Well I don't know what your thoughts were Dad but the way you were looking at me I sure know now what Mom meant when she talks about how girls used to just melt under your gaze. Look how you made me blush." Honey, you must have that effect on all the young guys around." He opened the tube and sat on the corner of the bed placing her feet in his lap as he started applying the cream to his hands. " Just look at how divine you. Although the gorillas certainly did not celebrate birthdays, their new baby was born about the time Alex came to be with us. Therefore, if I decided it was Alex’s birthday for celebration, it would be the baby’s as well. And besides, these times at the lagoon is special for the young ones. They can chase around as they want, so long as nobody gets hurt, without parents fearing for their safety from anything else in the jungle.Typical for Alex when we get together, she is torn between the two. "TATTOO?" I almost yelled. Everyone in the room laughed."Don't worry. Only Gifted can see it. Most of us had the same reaction." he said."Is that it?" I asked."Not quite." He got off of my back."Well, what now?"Then came the ritual. Kammeryn read loudly from a scroll consisting entirely of words in a language and alphabet I did not understand. Every once in a while, one of the group members would repeat swatches of what he said. The circle started to glow with a muted white. I floated in the.