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{As told by Riordan}

I had been at the treehouse for quite some time, and I have finally realized that it is complete and utter madness.

Not that it's a bad thing. Just...madness. Jayde is always flittering about doing something, be it at here or at the shop she owns, and there are constantly people and pets alike milling about, sometimes doing something, sometimes doing nothing at all.

And there are a lot of arguments, too, but it's usually humorous.

Today was not such a case.

Jayde brought home a new member to the family today; or at least she thinks its a new member of the family. None of us are quite sure what goes on in her head sometimes, but she...forgets things. I try to love her anyway. I know she needs it.

But apparently the sleeping arrangements were something of a hassle, and the solution was to make an entirely new house. More flitting about the house and then silence. Hmmm...

When they finally did return home, I noticed that Lyra was more sullen and silent than usual. As Jayde frantically ran about the house looking for eggs (your guess is as good as mine) he made his way directly to the roof, where he would likely spend hours simply looking up at the stars.

I admired him for that, as little as I'd like to tell him. The few questions I had asked him about the subject he answered immidiately and intelligently, proving to me that he knew a great deal about astronomy and astrology. Quite an interesting fellow.

So tonight, I followed silently as he made his way up the stairs and to the roof, where he flopped down, hands cushioning his head as he lay.

"I realize we may have started off on the wrong foot," I said by way of an introduction. Lyra said nothing, but snorted. After a few moments, he spoke.

"So you don't always speak in couplets."

"No, it's simply amusing, and a way to give romance to the language." He didn't have a response to that either, only looked up at the sky again. Real conversationalist, this one, I thought. But I wanted something from him, so I pressed on.

"Do you know a lot about the stars?" I finally asked.

"I have forgotten more about the stars than you will ever know."

"Will you..." I paused, wondering how best to phrase it. Eh, probably the most streightforward would be the ideal choice. "Will you teach me?"

When I asked that, he tore his gaze away from the sky to cut a glance at me--presumably to see if I was serious. I held his gaze steadily.

"You won't have enough time to learn all that I know," was the response. A little depressing, that, but when one thought about how much there was to learn about astronomy, it wasn't all that bad.

"What little I could learn would make a large difference, to me anyway."

That must have been the right answer, because he looked at me fully then, if only for a moment. Lyra turned his gaze back to the stars then, and pointed streight up.

"That's the northern star," he said, "and it's generally known as the easiest one in the sky to find because it's the brightest. See, it's the end of the handle to the big dipper...."

I settled down beside him and looked into the sky, following his finger and his teachings.

{As told by Riordan}

I woke to the sound of bickering, perhaps not so surprisingly. Rising, I stretched in the sunlight that was pouring in the window and adjusted my headphones so it wasn't quite so loud, at least.

Pushing the wrinkled covers aside, I stood, padding quietly across the floor to stand at the top of the stairs, looking down. Again, not so surprisingly, Lyra was arguing with Damen.

"Oh, you're a great one to talk," said the bounty hunter acidly. "You're calling me a leech when all you do is stay on the roof and look at the pretty sparklies? You never do anything around here!"

"Now that's a damn lie," he growled back, hunching his shoulders in a way that said, were he still a cat-like creature, he would have been ready to pounce. And rip Damen's throat out, not that it wasn't still likely.

"I work over at the shop ten times as much as you do, and look after Jayde when she's having one of her spells." Spells? I thought. What in the world is he talking about? But I waited until most of the fighting had subsided before creeping downstairs.

"What do you want?" Of course, this wouldn't put the kath in the best of moods, so I had to tread carefully. No tormenting Lyra today, I thought.

"What did you mean when you said one of Jayde's "spells"?" I asked him, settling down beside him at the table. Damen was nowhere to be seen--apparently he'd decided he had better places to be than here.

As loud as he'd been earlier, the elder was surprisingly quiet now, studying his hands intently.

"Spells," he said after a moment. "She sometimes...forgets things, yano, and is really sick afterwards. You have to be careful when she's like that." This was a side of Lyra that I rarely saw. Even when he was looking at the "sparklies," he was usually only inwardly touched by their beauty. Now he was quite seriously worrying about someone, softening.

"Why does she...forget things?"

"I don't know," he responded. He stood then, walking away from me with a determined stride. Apparently he decided he had better places to be, too.

But this whole episode had me quite curious, and somewhat concerned. I decided to find my way to the bottom of it.