Stern was alone with Aimee and the rest. He had been quiet lately, trying to get a handle on events. First, there was Dragonstorm. He had parachuted in during their last attack, and had aided the forces that opposed them. Next came the move to Oregon, then he had found Aimee again. Aimee...
His thoughts drifted back to an earlier time. A happier time, but hardly an innocent one.
Five years earlier...
The music at the party was loud and the strobe lights were disorienting. Nevertheless, Private Stern tried to enjoy it. Aimee was way into it, by contrast. Going in there, Stern knew that Vulpines had keener senses of smell than he did, and it was more than the lights and the music that excited them; it was the pheromones. Even if he could smell them, the corporal considered the very thought of being attracted to one of these creatures to be disgusting. The sheer mix of smells and sights was overwhelming, especially for the less prepared, like Aimee.
"Thomaaaasssss, are you havin a good time?! I AM!" Aimee used Stern's first name, and was clearly drunk. Her orange fur was stained by three kinds of alcohol, and her breath, never the freshest, was most foul.
"Aimee, we should get you out of here. In your condition, you might go off and do something you might regret."
"Awww... come on! Don't you want somma this? It's good sh..." THUD
The Vulpine girl fell down before saying the profanity. Stern picked her up and took her out of the room, to the hootering and hollering of the other Vulpines, all of whom assumed he was going to do something very much unbecoming of an honorable man. He the learned that he only took her to her house and left her untouched, they would have been very disappointed.
Present Time
"Aimee, do you remember anything of our time together on the reservations?" Stern hoped to jog her memory by bringing those times back up. Good times.