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Cytheria laughed and took another sip of her ale before setting it on the table. "Apparently not long enough. I saw no other horses in the stable? Did you travel by foot?"

"Oh", Reynard leaned back, hands pushing against his thighs, and took a deep breath. "I traveled here slowly. By foot in the backs of farmers wagons. The harvest always provides adequate wagons on the road. I wanted to enjoy it this time, to take it into myself and really remember it."

"That doesn't fit with the Reynard that I remember, perhaps it has been longer then I thought."

"I don't know." Reynard slapped his hand lightly against the table to and then lifted it to reveal two gold coins. He waved his right hand over the coins, obscuring them momentarily, and then held his hand up in the air showing two coppers resting on the table. "Do any of us really change?" He touched the coins with the tips of his fingers from both hands, covering both coins, and then lifted his hands in the air showing empty palms and no coins on the table. "Or do we always change? We have both traveled far I the river of time since we last saw each other, is there anything left of who we once were? What is the essence of me if you separate it from that river of time? Am I not different each day? Each moment I am a different person." Reynard's voice became slightly louder, and his eyes would not look away from Cytheria's. "When are we ever the same? The past is gone and the future is unknown, yet we expect the past to give us clues as to what the future holds."

There was a knock at the front door. Nial and his wife exchanged looks at each other briefly before Nial began walking to the front door.

"I don't know," Cytheria smiled, "sometimes the past has a way of catching up on us."

Reynard let out a robust laughed that showed it's truth in his face and eyes. He slapped the table and smiled. There were four gold coins on the table when he took another sip of his ale.