~Shino/Dog~

S...she didn't freak out...she wasn't scared of us. I felt a few tears run down my face, and I covered my face with my hands. "Shino-Nii?!" I couldn't help it. Someone had accepted us. "Um..why don't you kids go play. I'll stay with Shino." I felt Aaralyn take my hand and lead me back to the bench. I lowered my hand and smiled at her. "I must look pretty uncool crying like this huh?" She shook her head. "I...it's just...I never thought someone would accept us." She looked down. "It must be hard huh? I can't even imagine..." I leaned back. "Truthfully...this is our first day outside our families estate." Her eyes widened in shock. "Tge curse broke once...a long time ago. But then all of a sudden it started again. The head of our family decided it wasn't safe for us to leave his sight. So all 12 of us have been in the same house with only each other since we were born. Sone of the family finally got fed up though and told him to let us go...he gave us one year if freedom." I looked over and smiled at her. "I think it's a little late for me. I mean I'm 19. It's not like I can go to school. But...it's improtant to the younger ones like Tarsuya and Kaoru. They can have a year to be normal kids. I...would give anything to freeze time for them right now."

~Kaoru/Ox~

Kai was smiling at us. "So what do you two turn into?!" Tatsuya smiled. "I'm a dragon." Kai's eyes grew wide. "That is so cool!! What about you Kaoru-Nii?!" I smiled shyly. "I'm nothing that cool...I'm the ox." My zodiac was stupid...everyone said so...Kai smiled. "I like cows! They're cute!" I felt a blush creep into my face. He didn't laugh at me. "So can we still play hide and seek?" We both nodded. "Ok then, I'll be it this time!" Kai ran off to count. Tatsuya grabbed my arm. "D...do you think Shino will tell? What if they erase their memories?!" I looked down. I thought of Kai smiling at me. "I..don't want them to forget." I looked over at where Shino was sitting with Aaralyn. He was smiling. "No...I don't think he'll tell."