Welcome to Gaia! ::

Veiris waved the waiter over. "A tea for the young lady. Something calming," he ordered. The waiter nodded and left.

The Shifter offered a smile in return. "Radical changes can be difficult for anyone to handle. It can be good to take a break; although, I do think this is not the best place to do so. Radical changes seem to be part of the decor," he looked around as he spoke, briefly glancing over the various customers in the tea house...or tavern, he realized. He didn't see alcohol on the menu when he entered, but everyone else seemed to have located it just fine.

He wanted to keep talking with Claudette, hoping for a chance to ask her some questions once her curiosity about Shifters was satiated. Although, he was enjoying the opportunity to speak openly about it. He wasn't sure Sherith would be as accepting, even if she didn't react to the knot work tattoos that ran the length of his arms.

Claudette nodded, not really sure what to make of Veiris's explanation. It sounded like a nice feeling, but she wondered if Clerics were as bad as Immortals. Maybe it's better not to push it; Sherith had awakened again, and so Claudette decided it was better to just listen to whatever Sherith had to say.

Kira, on the other hand, exclaimed to Baldur, "The wedding is in three months, during the Harvest. It'll be so magical! You and Svana should come to it!"

The Immortal was feeling a little antsy without Claudette by her side, as she was supposed to be watching her like a hawk, and instead Claudette was sitting with a narcoleptic and a bird. She made a rude noise, and she lifted her hand.

Maybe it was time to teach Claudette and her new pals a little lesson.

"Hear that? The wedding is in three months and we're invited," he exclaimed, smacking his hand across Svana's arm. She glared after it, well aware Baldur was egging her on.

Rising to the occasion, she said, "I know we're invited, she asked me to be the bride-thing and wear a pretty dress. Although I'm not sure if she would appreciate if you brought your werewolf. Is he allowed to bring his werewolf?" she asked Kira.

He gave a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat.

She picked at an unusual piece of fruit, trying to decide whether to sample it or not. "It's been a long time since I've been to a wedding. Our population in the swamp has remained unchanged for so long, no new blood in or out, all life mates were determined long ago," she mused. They assumed now that they had combined forces with the mountain elves that love would blossom again soon. It was a good thing they wrote down what knowledge they had on those kinds of ceremonies, because she honestly couldn't remember what went into them.

"Pleased to meet you, Veiris; I wish it had been under better circumstances," Sherith says with a polite nod. "Yes, thank-you, the tea is quite nice. Actually, it's nicer than the kind I usually had at...home." Bringing up that word causes her throat to catch a little, but she valiantly smooths it under.

Hearing about someone getting married, she looks over to Kira. "Congratulations," she murmurs politely. Personally she knows little of romance, or marriages, but everything she has read indicates this is the proper response.

Turning back to Veiris, she goes on to say, "I wasn't looking for a particular book. I had read everything already available to me many times and I wanted something new. Usually one of my guardians would get new ones for me, but some of them were gone. Alris was the one who gave me the money and sent me on my way. I was just looking at the backs of the books, wondering which one I would try, when I was...interrupted."

Then she looks over to the elven woman. "What is it like, living in a swamp? I've only lived in a forest. Well, sort of."

She was about to say more when a bolt of SOMETHING hit her table. Obviously it couldn't be lightning since they were indoors. "How did you do that?" she asks with hushed awe, her eyes growing wide in her pale face. Well, if that doesn't give Claudette an idea of her ignorance when it came to magic, then perhaps nothing will. The girl seems completely, one hundred percent, startled and impressed.

Veiris listened to the young woman talk about books and reading. He enjoyed learning new things, an inevitable byproduct of traveling as he did, but he couldn't recall the last time he'd read a book. He learned by word of mouth, through stories told around the fire, and by chatting with any merchant, craftsman, or scholar he managed to travel with.

He was startled when a small bolt of lightning struck the table between them. While Serith was startled and Claudette seemed unphased, Veiris felt his griffin form pushing to come out. Lightning was the griffin's domain, and its pride reared up at the thought that someone would attack it with its own weapon. He felt his eyes shift before he stopped himself pulling them back form the eagle yellow to human brown.

"You continue to be poor company," he said dryly in Kira's direction but offered no other acknowledgment.

Svana almost choked on another piece of food, swallowing a laugh. "Hear that, Baldur? It's young love. I hope you're ready for eternal commitment."

"How could I dare, when you're so obviously fated for Larus?" he lamented, slapping a hand over his heart. "I couldn't possibly accept, young miss. She already has her true love."

"If Larus heard you say that it would ruin your friendship," she sang.

"It's called self-preservation. My life far outweighs his."

As Kira and Claudette got out their claws, Svana seriously considered plundering Baldur. She doubted he submitted easily. It might actually be fun. That said, his cooperation would make it easier and given their relationship up to that point, she doubted she would ever get it. That was what rope and shackles were for...

At the mention of an army, Svana brightened. "Oh, I actually already have my army. And instead of wasting them on this foolhardy mission of Larus's, I would gladly lend them to your aid." She wouldn't, actually, but since this cafe was a portal and she doubted she could even get her army to whatever world Kira came from, there was no harm saying it.

"That depends on who I'm gutting and what's in it for me," she replied cheerfully.

Veiris found himself chuckling at the preschool comment. It was easy to see how Kira could easily play the role of a five-year old. Tantrum and all.

Even though he was laughing, the talk of armies and gutting still made him uncomfortable. He wanted to safety of the Shfit and the power that came with it- eyes that saw magic and power that threw lightning. But he held it back, trying to ignore the toddler-like Kira and focus on Claudette. He hoped if he didn't feed into Kira's flame she would die down again. Although, the elves were a concern of another matter. Too many people quick to fight, he thought.