"Blair Sandburg, you stop right there. Where do you think you are going? I've only had two weeks with you. You promised four," Naomi Sandburg demanded of her packing son.

The anthropologist paused and turned toward the whining voice, "Mom, I saw it. It's time. I gotta go." The man brushed his long curls back into a ponytail.

"Saw what? Go where? Honey?" Naomi complained.

Blair finished packing his bag, zipped it closed and picked it up. He grabbed his backpack with the other hand and kissed his mother's cheek as he passed her on the way to the front door.

"Mom, I'll call. Don't worry, this is good." Blair ran down the stairs and unlocked his car. The engine on his '65 Volvo roared to life and he headed in the direction of the mountains. The cat roar sounded in his mind and he knew this was the right move.

The dream had been so real, like he'd actually been walking in a jungle with a panther by his side. With a herding nudge, it had guided him along a path. A path that led to a solitary man, living a solitary existence even among a crowd of people.

"You are the answer," was heard within his head, and Blair had been positive that it had come from the large feline by his side.

The young man looked out again, he could feel the aloneness, the isolation among your peers was part of his own life experience. He could...understand.

Soundlessly, he was led back to the beginning and woke to a panther's cry.

His journey had begun.

All his life he had studied people, intuitively knowing that he would need that knowledge. He hadn't been sure why, just the basic insight that it would one day be essential.

He had roamed the world as a child with his mother and again in college. Never once finding the one place he belonged.

He focused on the highway. He stopped at the road fork and turned off his engine. He visited the trees, unsure of the direction to take. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a black shape and tried to see it clearly. He saw the panther of his dream. After making eye contact the feline loped off to the left.

Blair headed back to his car and took the left side of the forked road.

Two hours later the road sign said - next gas 100 miles - so Blair pulled off and filled his gas tank. He was walking back to the car when he was hit from behind. He felt his wallet ripped from his hand as he fell to his knees. He was pushed all the way down. Blair forced his eyes open and he could see that the robber was about to kick him when a big, black cat sat on his chest. The robber ran away in fright.

Once he was alone, the cat leapt off and Blair stumbled over to his car. It started right up and he got back onto the highway. The pain in his head subsided as he put miles on the car.

He munched on his granola bar as he looked for a clue or something he could recognize. By late afternoon he reached the summit and headed down the backside of the mountain. Halfway down, the car sputtered and stopped. Blair tried restarting it to no avail.

He got out and looked under the hood. That's what people always did, but he didn't have a clue what he was supposed to look at. Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he was sure it was the black cat again.

He took his backpack and headed on foot in the direction that he'd seen the movement.

Snow fell as he trudged down the mountain. His steps getting slower as he got colder. He soon feared that he would fail the solitary man and himself.

No sooner than the thoughts of giving up entered his mind, he saw the panther once more. It indicated a route and Blair followed. He was led to a hidden cave and he crawled in, grateful to be out of the snow.

His hands were too frozen to fumble around making a fire, so Blair huddled against the furthest wall, rocking himself. He stopped his movement as he closed his eyes. Oddly enough he felt warmer. He opened them again to see the panther resting on one side and a blue-eyed wolf on his other. He felt no threat from either and closed his eyes again.

The snow stopped as night set in, but the wind moved through the canyon and chilled the little cave that Blair took refuge in.

He knew he was beginning to freeze. He opened his eyes and forced out, "Help, please."

With that plea, the two animals rose and left him alone.

He was now alone inside a cave whose entrance was covered in ice. He was most likely to die alone, never finding the one he must.

When he would have fallen asleep for the last time, a furious growl sounded and he opened his eyes in an automatic reaction.

The panther stood before him, blue eyes staring, demanding that he stay connected to life. He was too frozen to speak but blinked his eyes in understanding.

The wolf returned and curled himself around the near frozen body, sharing the warmth he had just regained. The panther curled around both the man and wolf, waiting.

The human icicle wanted to bury himself deep within the warmth but his shivering resumed and he found it difficult.

He dreamed he felt two human hands move and explore his body. His wet clothes were removed and he was pressed against a naked man with eyes that matched the panther's.

His dream man spoke, shushing him. He told him he would warm him and Blair believed the dream man.

The rubbing became harder and Blair was forced from his dream state back into reality. The shooting pains of reawakened nerves forced his eyes open and instead of seeing the lonely cave walls, he eyes encountered the blue eyes of his dream.

He felt an immediate connection. Yes! This man made him feel alive, both outside and in.

This was it, him, the reason he had followed his heart. He was the solitary man that he could somehow fix.

He had found the answer to his journey's search and it had been worth it all.

The big man's hand ran all over his body, igniting a fire that burned from within. It warmed all the hidden cold spots inside his head, within his heart, deep into his soul.

Blair found himself stretching up, wanting to meet the lips and they met. He felt the connection deepen. He heard a cat growl again, but this time it came from the man, not the panther. The man's hard erection brushed against his own and both were caught up in the web of sensation.

Blair writhed against the hardness, loving the intensity that filled him and his mate. They moved in rhythm, as though they had practiced. Both arched into each other, their individual joys surrounding the other and pushing them over.

They came together and the dam within Blair's mind burst open and he knew without a doubt that he was a guide. His childhood dream answered. He knew that the man atop him was a sentinel.

His sentinel! A joy, before unknown cascaded through his soul.

A sentinel and guide bonded. Links forged, lives forever entwined.

Blair looked up at the warm, smiling face and spoke aloud for the first time, "Blair, my name is Blair."

Arms drew him closer and the smile on that face widened, "Blair, I'm Jim."

"My Jim," Blair sighed softly, happily.

"Yours," Jim agreed.

The panther nudged the wolf closer and the two lay over the sleeping pair, contented.

The end.

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Acknowledgements: My thanks to Mary for the beta. She takes good care of me. To Patt, for the endless encouragement, I wouldn't be here but for her.