Welcome to Gaia! ::

Maslin smiled as he reached for the plate, it was unfortunate that someone else was ill but that did little to destroy his eagerness to try out Kavanna's cooking. Different sorts of foods were always a draw to him. "Hmm, Lazuli eats whatever he can get his jaws around, he's not that picky." Unlike Maslin who had things he distinctly liked or disliked Lazuli viewed all food as as a good thing, although the keindred had made it clear that he could to some degree discern the varying tastes of things. "Of course he eats a lot more than a normal person too so he tends to hunt as well."

Lazuli had grown out of being filled up by a plate or two of food provided by those at the camp and would slink off to kill and devour something every few days. Sometimes, if he made particularly clean kill Lazuli would drag the carcass back to camp for skinning before hovering over it and picking the flesh from the bones. The hides were usually used by someone in the camp but on occasion were sold and the money then given to Maslin. Although Maslin did not spend it for himself, it was Laz's money but it was easier for him to go into a town than the drakein even if neither of them were welcome most places.

Lazuli gave a pleased croon at the compliment and nodded as Maslin spoke. "I can eat your food if you share but I don't have to." He was quite content just to be able to better examine what the inside of a proper house was like. He hoped that he and Maslin were able to visit Damian often, then there would be more time to see things and more magic which was always a good thing. Perhaps Damian could get his bonded to practice more and they could be the greatest peisio mages just as he would be the greatest peisio drakein.

Maslin carefully chewed and swallowed his current mouthful of food before replying. Food which was as far as he was concerned just fine and rather different from the things he had at home.Maslin was still mostly in the dark about dovaa culture and wasn't sure if this was a common dish for them or simply something from a part of Serenia he'd never visited.

"I don't live the most interesting life," Maslin admitted. It was safe and comfortable though and he liked it that way. "Mostly I do metal smithing and mechanical crafting all day. I haven't invented anything really special yet but I'm learning a lot about how to craft my own metals and how magic can interact with mechanical things." He still quite enjoyed taking things apart, replacing broken bits with better things and then putting it all back together again.

"Tell them about Her" Lazuli suggested. That was a good story as far as he was concerned.

Maslin rolled his eyes but quickly launched into an explanation about meeting Ba'shiri the fierce old Aiskala Dovaa who'd been offended that a boy his age hadn't picked a clan yet and set about fixing that. " I haven't seen her since and I guess that's probably a good thing since we'd probably be enemies then even if I want nothing to do with the war." Maslin was quite content to let other people run off and battle on the fringes of the continents or the uninhabited ones. If he had to choose though he would fight for the orderites for they were the only family he had known.

Of course that might put him on the opposite side of the war of the friends he was eating with now. They still seemed connected with Kavanna's family and Maslin would regret having to try and hurt Damian or Kavanna.

" The war is not my problem" Maslin pointed out "Even if I were to fight neither side would care or acknowledge that I helped." Hybrids didn't get to be war heroes, not that Maslin was inclined towards violence to begin with. Having proved himself competent at defending himself and the caravan Maslin was now allowed to spend his time as he pleased and that meant as little fighting as possible.

He turned his head slightly to address Damian once more " I don't make weapons because their only purpose is for battle. " His family in general avoided making weapons unless a commission price was too high to say no too. While the full story had still not been explained to him it had , he had learned, something to do with his father and why he was not with them. " Sometimes I make armor though, I've been trying to work how to mix magic with it to better counter the properties of certain dragon attacks."

"I have spoiled lazuli enough to not want the same behavior in children of my own," Maslin replied with a chuckle as he too got up from the table and tried his best to help clear it.

Lazuli gave an annoyed huff at that but didn't otherwise respond, he did have a nicer life than most drakein.

"For you just kind word of mouth would be enough," the young man noted with a smile. They were not the closet of friends but Kavanna and Damian were special in an inexplicable way to Maslin and for them he would make exceptions to his usual pricing structure.

" If you meant in general though, since you can find the odd other smith who does it, they tend to be kind of pricy. " It was a difficult art and everyone had their own way of going about it. "You'd likely be asked for some of the rarer dragon soul types and you'd be best to send your husband to do the ordering or many will raise the price due to not wanting to help the enemy as they see it." even civilians weren't free from the war and the bias it brought.

Maslin had nodded at Kavanna's initial statement, he would be more than happy take a commission from her anytime. He would also make a better effort to stay in contact in the future though for more than just business reasons.

Damian's insistence that he wasn't tired reminded Maslin of some of his younger cousins who would fall asleep on their parents, all the while insisting that no they weren't yawning and yes they could stay awake all night if they wanted. He hoped the younger boy didn't exhaust himself out of stubbornness. A day in any city was always a tiring and stressful thing for Maslin.


The young man tried very hard not to stare after Damian after his innocent and somewhat confusing proclamation of love and deep friendship. That had been unexpected and Lazuli's quiet hissing laughter did little to make things less awkward. "It's uh, it's okay, just a little weird," Maslin murmured. Although he did appreciate the claim of being a best friend he wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve the title or such devotion.

"It's been an interesting day, thank you for letting Lazuli and I stop by."