Page 40 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

"Jeff made it," Ashley's mom said rather smugly. "You're in for a treat, if you've never had homemade before. How handy that the recipe suggests cutting it into five pieces."

"Instead of two," Ashley said, still laughing. Her mother stuck her tongue out and cut generous pieces of pie for everyone.

Penny oohed and aahed her way through hers, finally turning to Ashley. "Do you know how to make these?"

"Yes? It's not hard, just a little time consuming."

"I have the best mate in the world," Penny announced to Ashley's delight and the objection of everyone else in the room.

"Go practice your shifting," her dad said after a while. "I'll clean up in here and get the guest room ready. For Gwen," he clarified. "Ashley and Penny can sleep in Ash's room."

"Please don't judge me for my high school obsessions," Ashley muttered, but they went out to the back yard so Penny could practice her shifting. Fortunately, she remembered her clothes every time, probably because it was a few degrees below zero up there on the mountainside.

"It doesn't help," she eventually groaned. "The partridge is still distracted by everything, can't remember what happened two seconds ago, and flips out if it hears something it didn't expect, even if it was something I was just thinking or talking about! Can shifter animals just be…dumb?"

"True animals can be," Ashley said, thinking of a spectacularly dumb, if sweet, cat they'd had when she was growing up. "I guess I don't know why shifter animals couldn't be, except usually they have enough of their human part in them to keep from being really stupid, I think."

Penny fell backward into a snow drift, making angel wings and then letting out a frustrated squawk as she shifted to partridge form and beat at the snow like it had offended her. She turned back to human, spluttered, "It thought the snow was attacking me!" and threw her hands in the air. "I'mnot dumb,am I? Pretty drummer hit things hard, go 'urgh?'" She did a very credible caveman grunt at the end of that.

Gwen, watching from up on the cabin's back deck, laughed. "No. No, you're not dumb. Nobody who can handle social media the way you do is dumb. Or who comes through with flying organizational skills in an emergency. Or?—"

Penny sat up abruptly. "Does my partridge have ADHD?! No," she said before either Ashley or Gwen could answer. She collapsed back into the snow, looking disappointed. "No, it doesn't feel like that. Not what it feels like in my brain, anyway. It's not that it…well, maybe itisreacting before it thinks. Emotion before intellect. But it doesn't get distracted from its fixation…oh, maybe that too," she admitted. "The whole egg thing. It kept coming back to the eggs. Oh my God. Maybe my partridgedoeshave ADHD." She lay there a minute, clearly thinking that over as she puffed steamy breath into the air, and finally added, "But it's also dumb. It thinks the air is on fire."

Ashley couldn't help giggling at that last. She went over to drop into the snow next to Penny and held her hand. "So how do you deal with ADHD?"

"How doIdeal with it? Meds. How does a partridge deal with it? I have no idea." Penny sighed another steamy breath toward the sky. "I'm pretty sure 'dumb' is the bigger part of the problem here. 'Fire! Fire! Run away from the fire! It's too cold for fire! What's burning? Find a nest! Is the nest burning? What about the eggs?!'"

She was clearly quoting the partridge, its scatterbrained alarm fluctuating through the words. Ashley's bear rumbled,Calm,and put its paw over Penny's chest.

Actually put its paw over her chest, as Ashley shifted into bear form without intending to, and sat beside Penny in the snowbank, one massive paw pressed gently against Penny's torso. She inhaled a sharp squeak, then, audibly surprised in adifferent way, breathed, "Oh," and relaxed like she'd just gone into a sauna.

Calm,Ashley repeated.Now shift.She lifted her paw so Penny could shift without being crushed, although Penny obviously remembered what Ashley didn't, in the moment: that she could shift into a truly enormous partridge. Gwen, up above them, said, "Holy shit!" as Penny transformed into a bird roughly the same size as Ashley's grizzly, although nothing like in her weight class. Still, a bird some eight feet from nose to tail feathers was shockingly large, and when Penny spread her wings to adjust her balance, even Ashley, as a bear, took an awed breath. Penny's wingspan had to be a solid twenty feet across, and even if birds had lightweight bones, Ashley wouldnotwant to be smacked by one of those wings.

Or raked by one of thosefeet. They were long and spindly and had appalling-looking claws at the ends, visible as Penny lifted her feet and put them back down again, settling herself, then cocked her head to stare at Ashley.

Ashley, or her bear, murmured,Good,then leaned forward to gently bump her huge furry head against Penny's feathery one. The bird's neck retracted into a fluff of feathers at the weight of Ashley's head, and she tried to adjust to use less pressure. After a moment, Penny extended her neck again a little, looking more comfortable. Ashley said,Good,again.It's all right. You're safe. You're whole now. I know you've been hidden for a long time, but everything is okay now.

There was a silence, one that Ashley didn't know what to do with. Her bear, serene and mellow as always, was content to wait, and after a little while, to her complete astonishment, she heard Penny—or Penny's partridge—whisper,Ashley?

Yes,the bear said.Your mate.

Penny, as amazed as Ashley, said,I didn't know we could talk like this.

Ashley gave a big rumbling bear chuckle. The Ashley part of her said,Neither did I!and the bear, calm and confident, said,We don't, often. The human parts of us are so good at talking, it's easier to let them do it for us. But you've been hidden so long,it said gently.You need some time to breathe. Time to know who you are. Time to know you're not alone. So you need to hear me. Your mate,it said again, fondly.

The partridge didn't answer. Not in words, at least. She did press her head against Ashley's, clearly using a lot of partridge weight and strength, but the truth was, even an eight-foot-long bird couldn't budge a bear. Ashley's mind wandered a moment, wondering how much ostriches weighed, and whethertheycould press hard enough to move her, but she let the thought go. Partridges weren't built like ostriches, anyway.

After a long time, the partridge sighed and very quietly said,It's not safe.

It wasn't,Ashley's bear agreed.It is now. You're safe. I'll keep you safe.

She could feel that Penny trusted her. That the partridge trusted her. But she could also feel all the time the shifter part of her had been hidden and quiet, not trusting the world. It would take a long time, she thought, before the partridge really feltsafe.

That's all right,the bear said, still gently.We have all the time we need. Your human is a good fierce protector.Shekept you safe, even without knowing it. Now she has me, and you are,the bear said again,safe.No one will ever hurt my mate.

All at once, unexpectedly, Penny shifted back to human, her eyes soft and huge and grateful. She put both hands on Ashley's face, very small and soft in all the rough bear fur, and when Ashley shifted, too, Penny smiled and stole a kiss, whispering, "I'm awfully tired. I think it's time to go in now."

Ashley slipped her arm around Penny's shoulders and guided her back to the house, murmuring, "Of course. Anything for you, Penny. Anything for you."

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