Astyr woke up early the next morning to enjoy a jog in the cool misty weather. The sun was already up and shining through the forest canopy and Astyr stayed on the road intending to jog all the way up the driveway and along the dirt road to the paved road that led into town. She jogged along the two-lane blacktop until she reached the other end of the dirt road that looped back to Grima's driveway. The asphalt was the only sign of civilization in the area, people's houses were set far back from the road and the only sign of a home that Astyr could see in most cases was a rusty metal mailbox on top of a wooden post beside a driveway just like Grima's that disappeared into thick woods. She had counted four of these on the way from Grima's driveway to the road and as soon as she turned onto the rutted dirt lane that would bring her the back way home, she began to keep count again.

She had passed three more mailboxes when she began to feel that someone was watching her. She had never been on this part of the road before so she didn't know for sure how much farther she had to run, but she was running. She increased her speed and the trees along the side of the road became a blur in her vision as she passed. The feeling grew stronger and she began to hear footfalls approaching behind her. He glanced over her shoulder and saw a man in a pair of black basketball shorts and trainers gaining on her.

She could tell from his pace that she couldn't outrun him so she brought her speed back down to a jog to let him catch up. She felt silly for letting herself get scared by another early morning jogger. When he was level with her, he slowed his pace and they ran together at a steady speed for a while. Up close, Astyr could see that he was closer to her age than she had thought; he was heavily muscled and appeared to be six feet tall but his skin was smooth and tan and he looked to be no more than nineteen or twenty from the youthful look of his face. His hair was a chestnut brown color that glowed with red and gold highlights where the sun hit it. He had a prominent brow that shadowed his eyes and his nose was straight but almost perky at the end. That and his large, full lips made him look like a teenager, Astyr thought, because his strong jaw line and thick neck definitely didn't look like any teenager she knew. He moved fluidly and was breathing easily despite the exertion of the jog and there was only a fine sheen of sweat on his bare chest that served to emphasize the planes of muscles as they moved beneath his skin.

"Randy" He spoke his name in a breathy way.

"Astyr," she replied. "Nice to meet you."

"You, too," He said. Conversations during a run were by necessity short. "Been here long?" he added.

"A week," she told him.

They had come to Grima's driveway by this point and Astyr indicated that this was where she was stopping. He said "See you next time," and continued on down the road as she headed up the driveway to the house.

When the clearing around the red-stilted structure came into view, she discovered Grima standing on the grassy bank of the river which flowed past the property. Grima was practicing some kind of martial arts with a long wooden stick and Astyr watched in fascination as the older woman swung it around in graceful arcs and powerful swings.

Astyr had practiced martial arts of all kinds ever since she was little. It had helped her deal with the sometimes harsh reality of growing up in a varied string of foster homes. Sometimes the physical exertion and mental control had helped her to mentally overcome the hardships of her nomadic life, and sometimes the training had simply saved her from brutal physical attacks. She had been forced to study a wide variety of styles because she could only take classes that were available close to where ever she may have been living at the time and usually she could only afford to take classes that were offered for free. She was a quick learner and naturally athletic so she never had any trouble swiftly making her way up through the belts. She had a black belt in Taekwondo, Jeet Kune Do and Karate, and even though she hadn't been able to stay around long enough to test for a black belt, she was more than proficient in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Kung Fu and Kendo. In the latter, she had trained in the art of Japanese sword-fighting and she had enough experience in Kendo to tell that Grima's movements with the stick were deliberate and precise.

Grima noticed Astyr watching and bent over to pick a second long wooden stick up from the ground. She held this out to Astyr and with a smile Astyr took it in her hands.

She spent a few minutes swinging it around to get a feel for the balance and to get her hands used to the feel of the wood under her fingers. Grima smiled approvingly and took up an offensive stance with her stick held out in front of her in both hands. Astyr mirrored her pose and they started to spar. Grima opened with an aggressive volley of strikes and Astyr was forced to step back to get her stick up in time to block. She swung the trailing end of her stick up and around in an attempt to catch Grima from the side and get under her defense but Grima was already there and after repelling Astyr's strike, came at her like lightning. Astyr was surprised at how much speed and power the older woman had and was working harder than she had expected to keep Grima from landing a strike. As the intensity increased, she found herself using more and more moves from other styles of fighting to stay out of range. She was being forced to give ground and after literally bending over backwards to avoid a short stab at her head, Grima quickly swept her stick around behind Astyr's knees and knocked the girl to the ground.

She helped Astyr up to her feet and they spent the rest of the morning with Grima showing Astyr the intricate moves she had used to overcome Astyr's defenses. When they were thoroughly exhausted, they dragged themselves up the stairs and prepared a light lunch of cold meats, green salad, and fresh fruits. They spent the rest of the afternoon sitting together in the living room talking about Astyr's first week at school, the books Grima had loaned her, and finally, Hakon and Gunnar Falkor. Astyr discovered that the Falkor family were originally from Europe but had moved to America many years before. Grima wasn't really clear on how many exactly but Gunnar was born on American soil. Grima had known them in Europe but had emigrated long before them when she came here to practice medicine. She told Astyr that it was a pleasant surprise to her when she discovered they had finally made their home in Boston and that when the boys' father had retired; she convinced them to move close by. Grima stated that the boys were like nephews to her and she would trust them with her life and that Astyr would do well to do so as well.

But Astyr still had doubts and her suspicious mind still couldn't let go of how much they admitted they were hiding from her. She decided to see if Grima would tell her anything and told her all about the car ride home last night.

"Hakon said he was going to answer my question, but he didn't really tell me anything." She asked Grima to explain what he meant by saying that Astyr, Grima and the Falkor family were special. "I mean, I could only assume that being the only people who can see inside of a person's inner-most self would make us special. I haven't lived with the fear of being discovered as a freak my whole life without knowing I'm different. But I want to know why." She was frustrated beyond belief about this and she was almost praying that Grima would give her answers.

Grima took a deep breath and looked into Astyr's eyes.

"We are special, Astyr, different," she began slowly. "We're not different from other people. We're different from all people."

Astyr was sure she had misheard that, she definitely didn't understand what Grima meant and she asked her to clarify.

"Have you studied in Biology class about the different classes of Mammals, yet?" Grima asked her. When Astyr replied that she had, Grima continued. "Well then maybe you know that most mammals evolved from protomammals that emerged in the early Eocene era which started around 55 million years ago. These mammals flourished in the tropical climate of Earth during this era and they diversified to an amazing degree. But 34 million years ago there was major extinction event caused by large meteors hitting in Siberia and the Chesapeake Bay area at the same time. That brought an end to the Eocene era and all the larger animals on earth died then. Smaller creatures survived because their bodies were more efficient at managing the radiation prevalent after the impact. The Earth cooled dramatically and land areas changed and the tropical forests receded to the equatorial region leaving large temperate zones between the warm tropics and the frozen poles. In those temperate zones, the animals grew large again due to the lack of competition and the wide open spaces left from the forests dying back. Most of those animals were the precursors to all of the modern animals on Earth today."

She took a moment to make sure Astyr was following along before speaking the words she knew would be difficult for the girl to understand.

"During that time, when radiation levels were still high during the Oligocene era, there was one branch of mammals that split from the rest. This branch was able to process that radiation through their bodies and use it in different ways. They looked almost like modern humans and they were the most advanced species the world had ever seen."

"What happened to them?" Astyr asked when Grima paused.

"Nothing happened to them, we're sitting right here."

That stopped Astyr for a moment. "Are you telling me that you and I are some kind of ancient radioactive human race?"

Grima chuckled a little bit but tried to clarify things for Astyr. "First, we are not radioactive; our bodies store and use energy from the environment around us. Humans call it magic but it's really just like wireless connectivity or electricity. We pull it into ourselves and our bodies store it and use it when we need it. Second, we are not humans. Humans are a form of primate. We were around for twenty million years before primates started to develop separate from other mammals and it took millions of years more for the different hominid species to branch out from there. We are no more related to humans than humans are to sheep."

Astyr wasn't really sure if she was believing this or not but she was irresistibly drawn into the technical aspects of the discussion. She couldn't stop herself from debating all the issues. "But we are just like humans!" she argued.

"No, Astyr, humans are similar to us but not the same at all." Grima patiently explained. "It took tens of millions of years after we branched off but finally after all those years of evolution, some remnant of the genes we shared with mammals formed themselves into a pattern of characteristics that were remarkably similar to us. But humans only look like us on the outside; inside, in their DNA, they have almost nothing in common with us. They look like us but they are weak and fragile, they have no means of interacting with the world around them and they live short, tiny lives."

"What does that mean?" She asked Grima in surprise. "What do you mean by short?"

"Well," Grima started, "When our bodies have enough energy stored, they begin a process of continual regeneration. We can live for many thousands of years, Astyr."

Astyr was almost in shock at this point. How had she gone from a foster kid, moving constantly from home to home, to this? Why had she been plucked from the stream of her life and thrown into this sudden under-tow of fantasy and disbelief. She had so many questions that she couldn't focus on any of them.

Grima could tell she needed some time to process what she had heard so far, there was still so much more to come but it could wait for now.

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