Welcome to Gaia! ::

Progolo was relieved at the ease with which the woman spoke; it was contagious. He found himself smiling gently as the other Keeper comforted Kala. "Yes, flamingo and giraffe. Her name is Kalarune," he said. "And...she is a...fox and an owl, I'm guessing?" he asked, gesturing to the white gryphon. "She's absolutely gorgeous."

Kala watched as Blanche lept nimbly of the table, making a move as if to warn her not to. The last time she'd jumped off a table, she'd almost broken an ankle. But Blanche landed flawlessly on silent paws.

Sincerely impressed, Kala ached for a better view. She clip-clopped out from behind Progolo and extended her neck towards the other Aerandir. A distance of about three feet seperated her long hooked beak from Blanche's curved mouth.

"Do you?" Progolo asked conversationally. "I've never even seen a real giraffe...that wasn't a photo, that is. I'm assuming they aren't native to the Gaia..."

As Emi stood, he got a good view of the object she had placed in the fridge. "Blanche's shelf?" he read, grinning. "She moust love sitting in there. I wouldn't imagine she's well suited to Ar'Idil, hm? All that fur..."

Kala, on the other hand, liked the island weather. Feeling the cold air of the fridge wafting in her direction made a shiver run through her slightly humped back, and she retracted her long neck. Her feathers puffed up for added warmth--an odd look for what was normally such a sleek bird.

"Cwaw," she complained to Blanche, as if to say it's too cold!

Progolo was a better listener than a speaker, so he didn't mind the rambling. He too rested his weight against a cupboard, placing his palms loosely on its top and assuming the look of a polite audience. At the mention of the letter, Progolo shook his head.

"No, not yet. Kala needs to improve her motor skills a bit more before she moves on, I think. She's still a tad clumsy. Aren't you, Kala?" he said, turning a gentle smile on his charge. She glanced over at him, looking suddenly like a confused puppy then anything else, but then her attention went back to the other Aerandir. She was WAY more interesting.

The man chuckled lightly, before resuming the conversation. "Blanche ought to be a wisp soon, right? Has her job been decided?" he asked, not knowing the new nature of Aerandir growth.

Kala had been in the act of rubbing at her ears again when Blanche stood and invited her to play. Her head bobbed around like a snake's for a moment while she considered. What could they play? Swimming? No....there wasn't any water. Besides, a fox-owl mix probably wouldn't be crazy about gettting her fur wet. How about tag? Tag was fun, but this Aerandir didn't have nice hard feet for running, just soft squishy ones that didn't make any noise. But maybe she'd like to play tag anyway?

Kala uttered another, unmusical syllable before making her way carefully over to Blanche and nuzzling her round face.

Kala might have clapped with joy if she'd had any hands, but she settled for an excited toss of the head before setting off after Blanche.

If Blanche had any advantage, it was being able to change directions at the drop of a hat. Kala nearly ran into a wall on several occaisions, and her grip on the hard floor was possibly even worse than that of the artic fox/owl. Kala had to skid to a complete stop on her hooves before turning.

Which was quite fun, actually. In fact, she enjoyed sliding more than chasing, for the time being. She let out a call to Blanche, to inform her that she'd found an even better game.

Progolo tsk'd as Kala chased yet another gryphon off. If Progolo didn't know any better, he'd think Kala was quite the bully. Ah well. As long as she didn't hurt anybody...

"No wisp stage?" Progolo repeated. "Hm...I can see how that might be dangerous. Do you remember what you need?"

Progolo scanned over the list until something caught his eye. A feather...? Hm, It seemed all the Aerandir needed feathers to grow...Fortunately, Progolo had a practically endless supply of them. His little menagerie of charges shed them constantly.

"I can give you a feather if you don't want to rip one of Blanche's out," he offered. "In fact...the way Kala's carrying on, she's probably lost several anyway."

Kala had indeed, managed to accidentally loosen a wing feather and several pink down feathers in one of her near collisions with the wall. She'd been trying to preen the feather out of her wing when Blanche got into the game a little faster that expected.

She took a shaky half-leap backwards, clacking her beak in mild surprise. As Blanche peered up at her, she bobbed her head in amusement--the closest she could come to a full grin. Wow, she'd figured it out quickly! Satisfied, Kala made sure Blanche was watcing before dashing past her and buckling her knees to skid again.

Once she had come to a stop, Kala had once again resumed trying to preen her wing, her long serpentine neck twisted flexibly over her back. That stupid feather was itchy when it wasn't smoothed down properly! Frustrated, she took it in her beak and pulled it out. It was one of her primary feathers, expedient for flying, but Kala didn't care. She didn't even know how to fly. She liked to have all four hooves on the ground, in a manner of speaking.

With a raspy gurgle, she placed the handsome red feather aside, flicking her tail in annoyance. Holding her head in that position had reminded her that her ears still hurt. She rubbed her head against her wing fussily.

Just then, Blanche came sliding up to her, on her belly once again. Hm...a little unorthodox, but, then again, Blanche didn't have smooth, hard feet to slide on. She indicated her approval with a gleeful squawk.

Progolo nodded, his hand instinctively going to his ear for the pencil he often tucked there, but there was none to be had. Frowning, he heaved his weight away from the cupboard and opened a few drawers, looking for something to write with.

"Do you have a pen?" he asked over his shoulder. As he opened another drawer, he flinched. Well, he'd found the sugar he'd come to plunder...

Kala was surprised when Blanche tried to help out, and she flinched away slightly. The pressure of her beak was more direct than Kala's rubbing and, mercifully, it was enough to provoke a small trickle of the trapped fluid to dribble out of her ear. She gurgled and wiped her head on her wing. Yuck. Ear slime. Her ear felt much better, however. She flicked her ear experimentally, to see if she could get any more out, but what remained was deep down. Ah well. That small amount was still a relief.

She clacked her beak in graditude, giving Blanche a nuzzle.

Progolo was taken off-guard by Emi's question, not knowing she had seen his reaction to the sight of the sugar. "Um...yes...why...?" With an inquisituve look on his face, he scratched off 1 feather from the list with the pencil he'd been given. His long fingers found difficulty holding onto the splintery stub, but he, fortunately, wasn't exactly doing calligraphy here.