The visions stopped after that, but I'm afraid the seeds o' doubt had been planted, y'know? So I talked to Chase about it, an' he denied it all. I wanted to trust him, I really did, but it was so hard. I mean, he's so hansome an' strong, what girl would pass up the chance? An' why would Chase wanna stick with me? Anyway, I felt bad, accusin' him. so when I got back to the apartment that night, I told him I was sorry.

"Chase," I told him, "I...I'm sorry I didn't trust you. �It's just... I dunno, this is, like, the best relationship I ever been in. �You gotta undestand...it's the first time I been in a relationship that's more than a transaction. It's the first time I been anythin' more than a whore. It...it's hard for me to make sense o' things. �It's like it's too good to be true, y'know? �I keep lookin' fer strings attatched, testin' the whole thing fer weak spots."

"I guess in a way I was tryin' to push you away from me, to see if you would go, or to save myself the hurtin' later, or somethin'. �But you didn't deserve that, Chase. � Hell, I'm more trouble to you than I'm worth. �Sometimes I wonder why you stick with me."

An' Chase, he says, "Hey, s'alright. You're good for me, and you're also the first real relationship I've had, at least the first steady. I like bein' around you, and any trouble you are to me, I'm bound to be more to you. I understand not trusting me, I've got a past and all that, y'know? I'm glad we were able to sorta come to see eye to eye on this. You're the one for me, and I married ya' cause I kinda figured that might be the case. I haven't regretted it since."

Now do ya see why I'm so damn crazy about him? I believed him, an' it felt real good to finally be at peace with this. I felt kinda like I was defyin' all those rumor-spreadin' jerks, an' fer a while, I didn' care what they said. It wasn't the rumors that gave me trouble again, though, it was the Shadow Lords.

So there's this nice girl stayin' with us at the apartment; a Black Fury name o' Lillith. She's real sweet to me, an' she sticks up fer me when I need it. She don' seem to mind bunkin' down in the livin' room... if she's got a problem with it, she knows she can leave. She's pretty laid back, fer a Fury. We get along well. But y'see, she's got this teensy lil' crush on me. She's nice an' all, but I'm afraid Chase is all the emotional attatchment I need right now, an' then some. But Chase don' seem to mind her stayin' much, so I guess it's fine.

Chase, he comes up from Seattle to help us with our next mission... the retrieval o' the crystal skull. I don' quite know why we need the skull, but if anyone's gonna be able to get it, it's the Street Knights. I don't know what this sept would do without us, seriously. So the skull's in Europe, deep in Shadow Lord country. In fact, it's in ol' Lord Fangpuller's tomb. So we head out... travelin' part o' the way by moonbridge, and walkin' the rest through some o' the darkest, wettest, dreariest country you ever saw.

We arrives at the Shadow Lord caern, an we ask fer the skull, an' they say that we gotta complete three challenges before we can enter the crypt, right? Well, fine. Chase goes first, an' he chooses to challenge the real big guy, as Chase would, an' he challenges Chase to a huntin' contest to prove who the best Lupus is. When it's all said an' done, Chase arrives at the caern with nineteen kills, while his opponent only shows up with eighteen. Chase wins. Of course.

I went next. I challenged the smirkin' lil' Shadow Lady... she looked small enough that I could survive a fight with her if needed. But she didn' challenge me to combat. She challenged me to an insult contest. Well, it's a good thing my will had been bolstered earlier, or I woulda gone bug-nuts over some o' the things she said about me an' Chase. An' Moira. An' Julie. I lost the challenge, or really, I timed out, as she didn' succeed in makin' me all angry. Don' matter, really.

After the challenge, Chase came back to the group. He had been taken away by the Shadow Lords... I didn' know why, but I figgered that ol' Chase could handle himself. But he comes back in Lupus. An' he's snarlin'. So I puts a hand on that sleek, black head, an I asks him what's wrong. "Looks like you got a pet dog fer a week an' a day," he growls. I couldn't believe that they had stuck Chase in Lupus. I felt real sad fer him. I don't really know why, Chase in lupus still kicks about two or three times as much ass as I do in crinos. But he just wasn't his usual adorable self.

Julie went next, and she sat down with the old Shadow Lord, who challenged her to a contest o' wits. They sat down to tea, an' if Julie figgered somethin' out before it was too late, she would win the challenge. Well, she didn' figger it out until the old Shadow Lord dropped dead, an' by then, Julie had drank too much of the poison, and she followed, stammering out "I'm going to die," an then floppin' over to one side. Max tried to help her, but it was too late. We howled for her, an' Jack hid her body in the umbra fer later burrial. But we had business still... we had to save the world.

Me an' Chase an' Max an' Jack an' Adrianna all went into the tomb, but most of us couldn't answer the riddles, an' we had to leave. But soon enough, Max an' Chase came on out with the skull, an' we headed home.

The way I figured, Chase an' me had two options. We could stay at the apartment, in which case I would need to stay in homid, or we could lock the whole place up and the both of us could go street dog fer a week an' a day. I left it up to Chase, an' we went Lupus. Headed home, locked up the apartment, an' went outside to wait fer the moon to rise. We left the house keys with Lillith. I knew she'd take care of the place.

Then it was time to help the rest o' the sept out with their mission, the retrieval o' the golden crown. We had to go up against that "thunder-wyrm" thing again, an' when we got there, the rest o' the sept hadn't even gotten inside er yet, a' we had already had some casualties. Good thing we showed up. Even in lupus, Chase was terriffic, he ran in there, gutted the last Black Spiral Dancer, and said "I have come here to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all outa bubblegum." He looked amazing. But there was one problem. It was cloudy, an' I was stuck in lupus as well. I went on into the mouth o' the beast anyway. We fought our way through the entire thing, an' I don' even remember how many I killed. It was alot fer a lil' thing like me in lupus. I was almost killed three times, an' then healed up to turn an' fight again. I was thankful to Rat... her fighting techniques came in real useful in lupus. We got the crown, an' limped out to the field o' the apocalypse. Time to save the world.

There she stood, a little scruffy street dog. To one side, a boy of eighteen wielding a mini-gun. To the other, a huge black canine, a cross of mastiff and doberman blood, her husband, Chases-Parked-Cars. Before them, the field of the apocalypse vommited up in a haze of orange and black. There she saw heroes falling to the legions of the wyrm, and she saw those who had taught her dying in battle. It was not at all what she had expected the end of the world to look like. The blood soaked the ground and rained from the skies. A singing in her blood began. It was a singing she had heard about, but never felt, and she realized that it didn't matter. None of it did... not the other girls, not the Shadow Lords, none of it. She was here, now, looking down the throat of destruction itself, with her pack and her love. She looked up at Chase's strong canine face streaked with blood and ichor and soot, and heard the familliar voice growl, "stand your ground." They were the last line of defense between the Wyrm and the world's salvation. They were BoneGnawers, and the were saving the world. As the rite taking place behind them completed, a feathered cloak enveloped the scene, and then revealed the Axis Mundi renewed. They had won.