A Long-Overdue Update

 For the three past months, I have been posting inconsistently.

Life happens. While Astrid nearly being murdered by her cousin and moving in with me was a major factor, it deserved more than two sentences. She was brutally attacked on several occasions, one of them nearly causing her death. I have been taking care of her as she recovers, which is a long and difficult process.

But that's... not all.

It was the Running more than anything.

I can't explain how it happened. How I was drawn to it. How it was drawn to me.

It started one night in late January. The Running and I were keeping our distance from each other after the incident.

I had just gotten out of the shower. Dried off. Ready for bed. I slipped beneath the covers.

And the Running was standing in the doorway. Merely watching. Observing.

I lay in my bed, facing the wall. And the Running, curious, came to me. Slipped under the covers with me. Maybe it liked my body heat. Maybe it needed something that I also needed.

It cuddled me. It's hand reached for my warmth, it... well. Let's just say I finally discovered what was beneath that strange garment.

We continued. For many weeks, we continued. To embrace something so alien, so other... was very strange. But very fulfilling.

And then Astrid came.

She had to move in with me, and I had no idea how to explain the Running to her. How to explain what it had become to me...

But I didn't have to. It... explained, in it's own way. It doesn't... talk. Much. But it... showed her, with gestures. With love. It has a healing effect on her, like a cat's purrs. It loves her. Loves us. And after a while, Astrid embraced it. As I had.

See, the reason I've been so busy...

I'm not on hormones. And one day, I missed my cycle.

And soon, the Running came to me. As if it knew what that meant.

I didn't know it could happen. That it was possible. We are different species entirely.

And yet it placed it's hands on my stomach, and spoke the first human word I've ever heard it say.

"Happy."