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 Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:02 am
Kumoru sighed as he pushed his glasses up a little on the bridge of his nose and put pen back to paper. Why did everything require so many damned forms? Not that he ever expected Gaian taxes to be too terribly exciting or enjoyable, but he found that he was far jumpier about it than even the year before.
Since he had been effectively expelled from his wizard school nearly two and a half years prior, the necromancer had been living on his own here. He had two dependents now, but the silly paper monkeys who delt with all the forms he mailed off still had to know his occupation every year. "Unaffiliated magic-user" was what Kumoru had to write. And honestly, there should be more forms before he could claim that legitimately. More things just as stupid, but if he was caught without the paperwork saying that he was an unaffiliated wizard in good standing with the community, then there would be much trouble.
It was not for lack of trying that he could not find himself some good group to sign off for him. A good many of them were just too suspicious of a necromancer. Just like his mage school had been. It was frustrating; could a man not study what he wished and be respected or at the very least tolerated for it? He had children now on top of it all, too.
For now, though, the best he could do was ensure that all his calculations in income and such were perfectly done and not suspicious in any way while he continued to look for someone to sign off for him. And, of course, deal with all the accompanying paranoia everytime he had to fill out something official that required statement of his profession.
Kumoru was getting seriously sick of jumping at everything. Not that he was dishonest in any way, but it was just too easy for the world to perceive him as such. As a necromancer, he was not evil, nor was he planning on raising large armies of undead to wreak havoc upon the world of the living. It was not why he was studying it. Everyone just left it as a given that he would somehow, someday, turn down a path of evil.
So misunderstood. With a dramatic sigh, the mage idly considered becoming a poet, and went back to his taxes.
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Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:12 am
Kumoru I received a troubling phone call today. Apparently someone found out about my issue with my profession. I have no idea where they could have learned that, except the Tower of Wings itself. They seem to have need for a necromancer, though. Said that they could do what I needed if I could do what they needed. And it sounded like I really would be the best bet for what they need. DNA from an extinct animal. Nothing specific, thankfully; that will be a hard enough task by itself. I mean, I have methods for restoring dead tissue to life to acquire DNA, and even though I cannot say I have ever tested it on dinosaurs, I am fairly confident that the magic would work on something that has been dead that long. I am not about to go rob a museum or something to get the bit of bone, fur, or scale I need, though. I really need to figure something out soon, though. The fact that this D-corp knows about me is really worrisome; will they blackmail me into doing it? Or do I really have as much of a choice as their representative said over the phone? Regardless, I really need what they are offering....
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Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:03 am
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:09 pm
As the little goat-boy rolled around on the floor, giggling to himself, Kumoru scratched a mental note into his brain always to be sure he got all the terms of an agreement before he actually agreed.
Not that having the little one around was bad. He was another playmate for Serif and Arlyn, at least. But taking on a third child was such a great commitment.
He had been told upon receiving the boy that D-corp was well aware that he was a responsible person, and would be able to take good care of the little one. Which confirmed, of course, that somehow, the company had gotten in touch with the Tower of Wings. The mage tried not to let that thought bother him, but it was still a bit troubling. The wizards at the Tower had an easier way to keep track of him now, if they wanted and if D-corp permitted it.
Kumoru tried to reassure himself that this was unlikely as he leaned down to ruffle the goat-child's long dark hair. D-corp did seem completely honest about signing off on his good conduct. Perhaps they had been lying to the Tower. Or this was something different altogether. He should not have to worry.
Well, he should not, provided that he lived up to D-corp's expectations of the child. There was clearly something expected of him in terms of raising the boy, but for now, he did not really know what. Bringing him up as a decent person should be a given, though, so Kumoru figured he would do that in the meantime.
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Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 6:56 am
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Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 7:05 am
For Serif, baths were easy. Kumoru had to accompany her to the bathroom each time, not to help the little girl wash or anything, but so she could proudly show off to her daddy that she was grown up enough to wash her hair and soap herself up all by herself. In fact, if the mage so much as offered a hand, she would pout at him and wave his hands away, adamant that she do things on her own.
Arlyn was equally independent about his bathing, except that he would not allow anyone into the bathroom for any reason. Kumoru suspected that this was because the Anima removed his blindfold when he took his baths, and Arlyn always made it extremely clear at swordpoint that no one was to see his eyes. Serif had tried once to help her brother, but had been met in the doorway by bared steel. After that, no one even knocked while Arlyn was in the bathroom.
Donat was a different story altogether. He excitedly dragged his father into the bathroom with him for every bath not to show off, but to play. Nothing seemed to amuse the goat more than splashing suds into Kumoru's face and to watch the mage sputter and wipe them away. The wizard did contribute to the games a bit, though, to make the best of getting just as wet as his son, by casting little cantrips to twist bubbles of water into animal shapes. These, Donat quickly and gleefully smacked with his hands, of course, breaking the simple spells and sending water droplets everywhere.
At the very least, it made bathtime a desirable thing for the goat-boy. While he was not quite as rambunctious as Serif, he still liked going outside just as much, to roll around and crawl in the dirt if for no other reason. Sometimes Donat played with his sister, but even when he did not, even when he just went with Kumoru to the store, he managed to get himself dirty enough to warrent a thorough scrubbing. Donat still had not shaken the habit of walking on all fours, which did not help the problem.
But at least he liked baths.
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Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 8:27 pm
Kumoru paced, his arms crossed over his chest except when he occasionally reached over his shoulder to grab his ponytail and twine his fingers into his black hair. It was the only way anyone might be able to tell that he was nervous.
Donat was curled up on his side on the round cushion he had taken to sleeping on, except he was not asleep. His brown-furred arms were folded over his stomach, and his eyes were squeezed shut; occasionally, he let out a little pained whimper.
The mage had tried to be careful with what he fed the little goat boy, figuring that, having been extinct for the last several thousand years, the goat in Donat might not be able to tolerate the plants that grew in the present world. Well, really, Kumoru had worried himself sick about atmospheric composition, too, among other things, but there was apparently enough human in his son to prevent any problems from that.
But Donat's love of being outdoors still was apparently a need to worry. The grass at Olly and his mother's house was alright, but Donat had gotten into the bushes behind Kumoru's house and made himself sick on the leaves. The mage knew from the bit of plant studies he had done that they were not poisonous to modern animals, or even to humans, but something in them just did not agree with his little boy.
Kumoru knelt down beside Donat again and stroked his hair lightly, figuring he could try a spell again. Conventional healing did not work, and Donat really did not seem quite poisoned, just extremely ill. He probably just could not digest the leaves. The necromancer's spell was just a little something to try to help relieve the pain in the goat boy's stomach. Maybe if he did not hurt so badly, Donat might at least be able to try to throw up the leaves.
As he continued to gently pet Donat's hair and furry shoulders, Kumoru figured he would wait until the boy was better before working on teaching him that those leaves were bad and that he should never eat them. He just wondered how many plants were like that in the modern world. There had to be a lot, and for poor Donat, it would all be trial and error.
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Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 8:12 am
Donat was still a little shakey from being so sick, but Kumoru was greatly relieved that the goat was at least up and moving again. He handed his son a tipsy-cup of warm tea, which Donat took carefully in both hands, making sure he had both of the handles before taking a cautious sip.
Watching the boy take the cup reminded Kumoru of another issue Donat might have with the modern world. The little one had fingers, but no thumbs. The mage wondered almost daily if the lack of thumbs would be a problem for... whatever D.corp wanted Donat to do when he grew up. For now, Donat seemed to be improvising ways to grasp things, but at the very least, he would eventually have to learn how to write somehow.
Kumoru had to admit that some evenings, while he was reading after the children had all gone to bed, he would play around with pencils, trying to find the best way to hold one without use of his thumb. Donat could go another few weeks at least before it was really necessary to start learning, but the sooner the mage developed a decent teaching strategy the better. He might have to work on some other ways to teach the goat how to perform fine motor actions, since Donat had already encountered a few activities, like pulling books off of shelves, that frustrated him a little.
Donat peered across the table at his father while the mage thought, but glanced down at his hands occasionally to make sure he still had a good grip on the handles of his little cup. He had not spilled a drop yet, proving to himself that he was really getting the hang of this. His tummy still hurt, but he thought his daddy would be happy that he knew how to use his cup alright now. With a little smile, Donat raised the cup to his lips again and drank down the rest of his tea.
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Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 8:54 pm
D.Corp turned out to be Kumoru's saving grace as far as Donat's instruction in the alphabet was concerned. The mage had gone so far as to approach the shelves of parenting magazines at the bookstore, but each time had deemed the task of teaching the goat his letters too mundane for him to require help. Okay, so it really was a matter of his own pride that prevented him from seeking help, but teaching the alphabet just seemed like it was too simple. Like Kumoru was missing something obvious. Unfortunately, Kumoru could not remember precisely what, in his early childhood, had worked to enlighten him in the sounds and forms of the letters of the alphabet, and therefore was unable to use his own experience. But D.Corp had turned out to provide him with a set of coloring pages depicting the alphabet letters, and the mage was thus spared the embarassment of having to consult parenting magazines. He sat in his Favorite Chair in the living room, with Donat seated on his lap. Before them were arrayed the coloring pages, and a set of crayons. "Okay, the first letter of the alphabet is 'A'," Kumoru told the boy, pointing to the outline on the first page and offering Donat a crayon. The boy frowned and nodded, repeating the sound as he curled his fingers awkwardly around the blue crayon. After using his other hand to adjust his grip on it a few times, Donat leaned towards the letter and prepared to try coloring it. "Do you want some help? I can help you with the first one." Kumoru took Donat's hand and gently guided the boy's movements to color in the A. Well, most of the coloring marks were inside the lines. Then he helped him color the little alligator in green. Excited by his first success, Donat traded the green crayon for a red one as Kumoru pronounced the second letter for him. Then, wanting to try it all on his own, the goat-boy made a big scribbly mark over both the 'B' and the creature sitting on it. Kumoru laughed a little. "Close enough. You have to color more slowly, though. Not so fast. Donat nodded a little, looking over the colors for the next letter. With a little of daddy's help again, he colored in the 'C' purple.  The second page went a bit better. The patterns on the egg for 'E' encouraged Donat to try making swirls instead of scribbles, but he also understood fire well enough to try to make it as exciting as possible. He was a bit closer to the lines for G, H, and I, as well, and even made a special effort on the last two to follow the shape of the letters.   The completion of the first three pages necessitated a small quiz. Kumoru dearly hoped the little boy was actually learning the letters, and not just having a blast coloring them. He only had one set of these coloring pages, after all. "Do you remember what this letter is called?" the mage asked, pointing to one of them. Donat immediately nodded, and reached for another crayon. Kumoru smiled hopefully. "Which letter is it?" The goat peered at the letter, then glanced over his shoulder at his father. He stuck one finger in his mouth and munched on it thoughtfully. He took his finger out of his mouth. He glanced at the letter. He stuck the crayon into his mouth. "B?" he offered uncertainly, removing the crayon to speak so Kumoru did not have to take it out for him. "That's right," Kumoru told him, stroking his hair a little before pointing to another letter. "What about this one?" "I," he replied after a few moments of fiddling with the crayon again. "Alright." Kumoru figured they could go back through everything once they had finished coloring. Donat seemed eager to continue with that. The next couple pages went alright, with Donat especially enjoying the octopus for the letter 'O'. He also said that the 'N' was supposed to be green since there was a birdy nest on top of it.   Donat needed a little help with the proper colors for the quail and penguin on the next sheet, but Kumoru thought it was interesting that the boy thought to ask instead of just scribbling them in purple or something. He appeared to be getting a little better at holding the crayon. Perhaps Donat would be better able to learn on his own how best to hold things to write, and Kumoru would not have to worry as much about teaching him that. Water was blue, Donat knew that for sure. And he thought he was remembering the letters pretty well, even if there were a lot of them. He could get the letters Kumoru pointed to nearly all the time. Maybe he would have to ask about what color the animals were, though.    Fortunately, 'Y' told Donat what color the animal needed to be. And the 'Y' looked kind of like a tree, so the boy made it green. 'Z' had fun stripes on it already that Kumoru said were black, so Donat colored those in black, too. "Black" started with 'B', though; Kumoru was sneaky like that, so Donat would have to remember.  When all the pages were done, Kumoru guided Donat through all the letters in order. He had forgotten some near the middle, and once or twice tried to put two in the wrong order, but overall, the mage was pleased with how well he did for his first time all the way through. "Alright, we're all done with that for today. Try to remember the letters, though, Donat. We can go through them all again tomorrow." "All of 'em tomorrow?" Donat looked a bit daunted by this task. "So many!" Kumoru nodded. "We can practice every day until you know them all." Donat responded to this by glancing warily at the pages of letters and sticking a crayon in his mouth again. "You'll learn them all fast. Sooner than you think," the mage reassured him as he gently took the crayon out of Donat's mouth.
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Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 9:20 am
*Making Peace with Revenge 1
Donat had always been curious about the doorway off of Kumoru's library. All doorways had a room on the other side, but the goat did not think think he had ever seen where this doorway led.
It was after lunch, and Kumoru was off by his big desk in the library, looking at books or making marks on them with a feather or something. He did that a lot. It was boring, though, at least after a little while's watching, and there was no more letters practice to look forward to, either. Donat figured now was as good a time as any to test the door.
He walked a bit unsteadily on two legs until he was sure he was out of his father's sight before putting his hands on the floorboards, too, and scampering off to reach the mysterious doorway. Donat would have to get onto twos again to reach the door, but that was okay. It was just easier to walk on foor feet.
Fortunately, Donat had grown just enough to be able to reach doorknobs now, if he stretched. He could get all four of his fingers around the knob, and while it was a little tough without an extra finger like Kumoru's or Serif's, the goat could manage to turn it.
This knob was stiff or something, and it took a little more force than Donat was used to to get it to open. But the door latch clicked quietly after a moment nonetheless, and Donat tottered backwards with his hand on the doorknob to pull it open.
Arlyn's head snapped up as the door to his room suddenly opened. Well, it was no bigger than a closet, really, but it was his and it gave him a place to be alone and feel safe when he was sleeping. Like now. The anima crept out from under his blankets, and carefully set the lamb plush from Anua aside before grabbing his sheathed sword. Who would dare intrude upon him?
Donat was surprised at how small the room was, but it was all done up like a miniature bedroom. There was a dresser and a small window and a light in the ceiling, and a bed in the middle. His brother Arlyn was in the bed, too! He was always easy for Donat to spot because he was so red and had wings.
But this must be where Arlyn went all the time. The goat-boy's brother frequently slipped away for long periods of time and Donat never knew where he was. With a cheerful smile, Donat raised his hand and waved to his brother.
Well, whoever it was must not have been Serif. Arlyn would have heard the girl's noise already. And his father always knew to leave him alone here. Starting to draw his sword, the anima hopped lightly down off of his bed and approached the doorway.
Oh, Arlyn could not see, could he. Donat felt a little silly waving, and stopped. Arlyn was coming to meet him anyway, so the goat took a seat on the carpet in the doorway.
"Hi," he said with a small smile.
"Hello," Arlyn replied quietly before he could stop himself. So it was the new person. Quieter than Serif, at least, and not so intent on coming after him. With the exception of this intrusion.
Best to ensure that it never happened again. Arlyn drew his sword.
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Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 8:37 pm
*Making Peace with Revenge 2
"This is my room," Arlyn told Donat, grasping the hilt of his sword in both hands. He would not threaten his brother yet. If he was like Serif, Arlyn would not need to. If nothing else, she knew to stay away from him when he bared steel.
Donat nodded, glancing around the small space and appearing not to notice the weapon. "Small room," he commented.
He sounded so... unconcerned. This would require more effort. "I don't like visitors," Arlyn said. Donat had spoken, so the blind anima was able to pinpoint his location. He raised the blade to actually point it at the goat.
Eyes widening with curiousity, Donat took the other end of the shiny sword that was pointed at him gently between two fingers. "Is it sharp?" he asked innocently, peering at the steel.
Frustrated by the ineffectiveness of his efforts, Arlyn turned the blade to the side and jerked it out of Donat's grip, cutting his brother's finger in the process. The little one should be afraid of him, especially with the sword!
"Get out of here."
"Hey!" Donat yelped, immediately withdrawing his hand as the blade drew blood. He thrust his injured finger into his mouth and sucked on it, wincing a bit at the metallic taste of the blood.
"Jus' want'd say hi," he mumbled around his finger, giving Arlyn a hurt look. With a heavy sigh, the goat-boy backed out of the doorway and started to push it shut.
Wait, the little one had come especially to see him? Why? It was not like Arlyn himself had gone out of his way to welcome Donat into the house or anything like that. He had no obligation to. But neither did the goat. Why did he want to come visit?
The red-skinned anima heard him going now, though. So at least he had gotten Donat to leave like he wanted. With a sigh, Arlyn sheathed his sword and turned to climb back into bed. He had a nap to finish.
Donat pushed the door shut carefully, trying to remember to be quiet. His finger hurt, though, and it was getting icky-tasting red stuff all over the place. Why had Arlyn done that? The sword was pretty. Maybe if he went back a different time, Arlyn would be nicer?
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 10:21 pm
*Making Peace with Revenge 3
"... Oh gods," Kumoru sighed as Donat toddled into his field of view sucking on his bleeding finger. No need to ask how the injury had happened, considering the goat-child seemed to have come from the direction of Arlyn's room.
"Here, I can heal it for you," he reassured the boy, holding out his hand.
Donat sniffled and, relieved to see that his father was not angry, took his finger out of his mouth. Placing his injured hand into daddy's, the boy whimpered, "Arlyn cut me for bein' in his room."
Kumoru nodded slowly as he concentrated on his magic for a moment. He had to take the energy to heal from somewhere, but since the cut was really fairly minor, the mage chose to use his own this time. With a few murmured words of magic, Kumoru set the child's skin knitting back together quickly, and so nicely there would not be the slightest scar.
When he was finished a few moments later, he looked up into Donat's eyes and sighed. Punishing Arlyn would do no good, he knew from experience, and at the same time, Donat had most definitely done nothing wrong. "You shouldn't go to Arlyn's room unless he invites you," Kumoru told the boy gently. "I know you were just being nice, but Arlyn likes to be by himself a lot."
"Why?" Donat peered back at his father, looking a bit confused as he put his newly-healed finger back into his mouth. "Doesn't he get alonely? I get alonely if I'm in my room all the time."
"Arlyn is different, though. Some people, like your brother, don't always like to talk and play all the time. Or he likes to play by himself. You still have your sister Serif, though, don't you?"
The goat pouted. "He doesn't play with Serif or me ever, daddy."
The mage was not sure what to tell him. In truth, he himself did not completely understand Revenge and his mercurial moods.
"Just be nice to him when you see him, I guess, and stay out of his room, and when he wants to play, maybe he'll come to you." Hopefully this exercise in patience would not be too much for the little goat. Serif, at least, understood that Arlyn was dangerous when he wanted to be; Kumoru was not convinced that Donat was afraid of him, even after having been cut now.
... This idea required three fingers; Donat stuck two more from his other hand into his mouth and idly sucked on them for a few moments. Then he took all three out and smiled a little. "'kay. I want to be nice enough for Arlyn to want to play with me. I'll do it. And maybe big brother can not be alonely anymore."
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Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:11 pm
*Making Peace with Revenge 4
Even though his finger did not hurt or anything anymore, Donat still thought it might be a good idea to go off on his own and play for a while. He had some wooden blocks that required his attention, after all.
The goat thought back to the last time he had played with blocks, quite a feat of memory for him since this had occurred over a week ago. He and his sister Serif had played together. They had taken turns building up a tower as tall as they could, and when the tower was complete, the other would knock it over. And then they would switch. It was a fun game for a while, though Donat remembered he had tired of it more quickly than Serif. By the time they had had to stop for dinner, Donat had been in charge of the construction by himself, and Serif squealed with delight every time she kicked the tower over, or pushed it, or crawled into it, or thrown unused blocks at it....
Since he was alone, Donat thought he would try building one and just letting it stand. Serif got noisy all the time, and he seemed to get tired of her games more quickly than she did. The blocks made a nice little wooden sound clicking against each other as they were stacked, too; a sound Donat had of course been unable to hear with all of his sister's excited chatter.
Maybe Arlyn liked quiet games, too, and that was why he never played with Serif. Serif seemed to leave him alone, too, except for the occasional shouting and waving her arms like she was happily trying to scare the red-skinned boy. It annoyed Arlyn without fail, but Donat was not sure if Serif understood when he told her not to do that to her brother.
With a self-satisfied smile, Donat added another block to his tower. He could play quietly, so in his mind, that should be enough to lure Arlyn out to join him. To the goat-boy, it was a little like a mouse in a hole in the wall, like from one of the picturebooks Kumoru had gotten him. If things were quiet outside, the mouse would get curious and come out to look.
Except Arlyn was sharper than a mouse.
... Maybe if he came to play blocks, Arlyn would leave his sword behind. Donat was sure no one needed a sword to play blocks.
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Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:52 pm
*Making Peace with Revenge 5
Arlyn sat cross-legged on his bed, arms wrapped around the somewhat unruly bundle of both his sheathed sword, and his plush lamb from Anua. Eppie, the plush, was admittedly rather quiet much of the time, but was a comforting presence nonetheless. The Anima had long ago decided that Eppie was the only one allowed into his room, except for maybe Kumoru, if he had a good reason.
And the rule had held out until earlier, when the new boy, Donat, had decided to invite himself in.
How dare he.
Certainly put a damper, in Arlyn's mind, on any obligation to follow any rules that Donat might lay down. Not that the goat had. But if he did, Arlyn would certainly not follow them.
.... Eppie seemed to be voicing different opinions, Arlyn thought as he brushed his lips gently across the lamb's curly, if slightly worn down, wool. Something about Arlyn and Donat being brothers, and at least Donat was a hundered thousand times quieter than Serif. The girl seemed intent on frazzling Arlyn's nerves at every opportunity. And Arlyn responded by avoiding the opportunity whenever possible. That was the reason for the KEEP OUT rules for his room.
Did the rules really apply to Donat, too, though, Eppie questioned. The lamb found the little boy inoffensive in all respects, although a part of Arlyn suspected that was because goats and lambs were not really all that different. They were kin. Still, Eppie countered, that meant that Arlyn was even closer to Donat, since Arlyn was his brother.
Arlyn held the lamb plush out at arm's length and told it, "Maybe sometime I introduce you to him." And went on to specify that this would occur outside of Arlyn's private KEEP OUT room.
Eppie figured this would be alright, but still murmured a little about Arlyn being nice, too, and playing with Donat. The boy did go out of his way to come visit, did he not?
The red-skinned Anima was forced to consider this. He was all about reaction, reciprocation. Everything done to him had to be returned. But Donat had caused no harm. Not like Serif. He would exhaust himself if he actually took the time to repay her in full, scream for scream and chase for chase. Brat.
But back to his brother. Donat just wanted to say hi. That sounded like just part of being a brother. Which was nothing bad.
With a sigh, Arlyn got up out of bed and carefully placed Eppie on top of his head. Balancing the stuffed animal there with little trouble, Revenge headed for his door and then out into the library. He was not completely sure what all he might have to do, but Eppie was insisting that he be a brother back to Donat.
And Donat was not Serif, so Arlyn figured it could not be too bad.
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Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 10:58 am
*Making Peace with Revenge 6
Arlyn had the house memorized so well at this point that he knew he could get anywhere without having to worry about Eppie falling off of his head. Unless Serif ran into him or something, but Arlyn would have been able to hear her coming from a mile away, enhanced hearing or not.
Little wooden plink! sounds from the living room told the Anima that someone was playing blocks there. The lack of any other noise led him to believe that it was probably Donat. So the red-skinned boy headed over in that direction, sword in hand just in case the goat was mad at him for earlier.
Donat, having determined after a few attempted towers that the carpet did not make a good enough foundation, had moved his blocks onto the low wooden table in the center of the living room. It was nice and flat on top so he could stack the blocks there and they would not get all crooked so easily.
He was just stacking away and minding his own business when Arlyn appeared, hesitantly sneaking around the corner into the living room. Was he coming to play, too? Donat waved a four-fingered hand to his brother before remembering that the Anima could not see him with that silly cloth over his eyes. So he just offered a little, "Hiya," and glanced back to his tower.
"Hello," Arlyn replied softly, creeping closer to the table. He had memorized the whole room, so he knew precisely where the table was, and by listening to the little noises Donat made, Arlyn was able to find where his brother sat around the table. And all without letting Eppie fall off his head.
"This is Donat, Eppie. See how quiet he is?" the Anima told his lamb plush quietly as he took a seat on the carpet near where the goat was playing blocks.
Donat set another block carefully on top of his tower, then sat back to peer at Arlyn and the cute little animal sitting on his head. Was he being introduced? Kumoru had taught him to always be polite when meeting new people, so Donat smiled pleasantly to the little creature on top of Arlyn's head, and waved.
"Hiya," he said again, for the lamb's sake. "Are you big brother's friend?"
The red-skinned boy paused a moment to listen to Eppie's response. Then he passed the message along to Donat: "Eppie says he is my friend, and is very pleased to meet you." Arlyn took the plush off of his head and set it on the table, so Eppie could get a better look at Donat.
Then, frowning a little, Arlyn asked hesitantly, "... Can I play blocks with you?"
Donat leaned onto the table to peer closely at Eppie for a minute, then grinned and patted the plush on the head. When his brother spoke again, Donat sat back and looked over at him.
Arlyn still had his sword. It was sitting on the carpet next to him, and it was inside the long thing so Donat could not see the shiny part. Arlyn was not touching it, though. So maybe he would not try to use it.
After about two second's consideration, Donat nodded. "Okay. Big towers are easier with two people. Does Eppie want to help, too?"
Arlyn touched the scabbard of his sword for a moment, then chose to leave it behind on the carpet as he scooted closer to the table. He gently moved Eppie a few inches to the side, then carefully felt across the table in an effort to find where Donat's existing structure was.
Eppie was really smart, he thought. Wise words from the lamb. Smiling faintly, Arlyn told Donat, "Eppie says he just wants to watch, 'cause I'm your brother, so I need to help."
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