Welcome to Gaia! ::

The view outside was spectacular, with the mid-morning sun glinting up off the snow, light caught in bright rainbow bursts and reflecting back up onto the creatures that chased each other in the backyard. Tera smiled, watching as Iran leapt upon Emmett, the two Zuuri tumbling into a drift and sending white plumes into the air with their scuffling. Her fingers moved thoughtfully along the edges of the bloom that sat on her knee.

The Egg Room was quiet, nearly deserted, which was highly unusual for her. It had been a long while since she had taken in new creatures that required a gestation period; to be honest, besides those she received as holiday gifts, this bloom was the first since they had returned to the House. Did that mean something? Tera glanced downwards, seeing how the bloom caught light off its long spines, and wondered silently. At the very least, she knew this bloom represented something special to Quantel, who had taken quite a fondness to it, rarely leaving its side. She was only gone at this time because Tera had asked her to go, in order for the Bond to become closer to whoever would emerge from the bloom's interior.

Though no noise had given away her approach, Tera was not surprised when Anwahs lay a hand on her shoulder. The older woman waited a moment, to see if she would be acknowledged, before asking, "Is this it, then?" When Tera merely nodded, not turning, Anwahs added, "Looks like your son wasn't lying about a third."

Wincing, Tera curled the fingers of one hand in on themselves, trying to block out the visions that word brought. "Please, don't call him my son."

"That's who he--"

"I don't care." Soft blue eyes floated up in her memory, and Tera shoved them away painfully. Her voice was harsher than she intended when she continued. "I want to stick with proven facts. Aii, he knew I would have three Feien." Her anguish safely stored away, she finally looked up at her grandmother. "What else did he tell you that you haven't told me?"

Anwahs looked into the eyes that faced her, searching for some sign of whatever it was that troubled Tera. She knew that ever since she had first showed up, something had been haunting her favorite granddaughter, and she almost regretted coming at all. But what the man had said, though cryptic... "Are you sure you want to hear it?"

Showing no emotion, save a brief flash of frustration at the games that were still being played, Tera bit out, "Yes. Now spill it."

With a sigh, Anwahs dropped down to sit at Tera's feet, back against the window seat that the blonde reclined on. Where to start? Sorting through the jumble of worlds in her head, Anwahs finally came across the proper elocution needed. Her swirling eyes shut halfway, and she allowed herself to trance back to that moment, so that his message could be relayed without the chaotic ciphering her nature usually gave to whatever she spoke.

"I came to her in her time of grief; three she had once, but three no more. One lost, one dead, one with dreams fulfilled... A house divided, a lover gone, gratefully she went to her death at my hands."

Tera realized immediately that Anwahs was speaking Gospen, true Gospen, the language that twisted in a mortal's ear until it became a tongue they understood, when spoken correctly by a proper god. The fact that Anwahs used it now caused the hair on the back of her neck to rise, and her fingers closed around the bloom she held protectively. When Anwahs fell silent, the words still resounding softly in the air around them, Tera hazarded a joke, an effort to lighten the mood. "Sure he was talking about me?"

Anwahs chuckled tiredly at that. "Aii." As her hair slowly shifted from a pale blue fuzz to dark green curls, she leaned her head against Tera's knee. "We might want to finish this conversation later, however."

Avoiding the issue again? Tera frowned slightly. "Why is that?"

"Because your little Lady doppelganger approaches."

Maq had chosen to enter the shop in the middle of the night for a damned good reason; his intentions were to go and read up on the newest Feien to have moved away, and he really didn't feel like running into anyone else while he was doing so. Now that he was actually standing there, in front of the list, the line-up of names marching in front of his eyes, he realized how good an idea that had been. Each one hit, and hit hard, not simply because of the fact that he would miss them, but because of what it represented. Their already fractured race was splitting apart, losing each other, dragged away to parts unknown by the very Bonds that had been chosen to keep them alive.

He thought about how little he actually knew of his kind, of where they had originated from. Hell, he didn't even know much about the one who had Summoned him, never having really had a chance to meet and speak with Corvus. There was an empty space inside of him that had yet to be filled, despite how full his life was of activity and emotion. Maq would freely admit to anyone who spoke to him that he loved Tera, and wouldn't trade his bond with her for anything, but living in her world, dealing with everything made for creatures bigger than he was, made him long for a place, any place, where he wasn't the one having to adjust.

Frowning, he turned to face the empty shop. This was the only place any of them had in common, the only thing any of them shared. Still, it was larger than any of them, not really a place that made for a Feien. The only things here truly for Feien were the items in the case, and even those were merely human objects that could be used by their race. He thought of the first time he had come here, shortly after meeting Tera and experiencing part of her world; she had brought him to the object case and helped him select some things for his own. The joy upon seeing rapiers in his size! The disappointment when they proved to be mere plastic, not the lovely shining steel of the blade Tera owned... The memory of his first dream, his oldest desire, came back to the surface of his heart: To one day make a real sword, a Feien sword. To leave behind the plastic toys and once more seize the culture they had lost.

Head swimming with these ideas, he flew to a shelf to sit and think, passing the notice on the School of Artificing along the way. The art of enchanting objects... What if the object didn't yet exist? Was there a school that would show you how to make it? Settling down on the wood of the shelf, Maq attempted to sort things out. He knew he wasn't a great thinker, but with the number of Feien steadily leaving their ranks, he would have to force himself to be. He couldn't let Feien like Quantel be responsible for the education of the juveniles that joined their race.

Not only did he need to find a way to teach the young Feien, but he also needed to find out more about their kind. Questions would be asked that few, if any had the answers to. He certainly didn't, and had only the faintest idea of who might. One of the older Feien, probably. The Summoner would be out, simply because if Corvus was willing to give answers, there wouldn't be so many questioners still floating around. Aria was the next name on that list, but he knew from talking with her in the past that she didn't know much more about Feien that he did. Out of the names between him and Aria, the only one he recognized was Yeande.

Somehow, that almost made sense. He knew from Tera that Yeande's Bond was Youko, and Youko was one of Tera's oldest friends here in Gaia. Yes, he would start with Yeande, and if she didn't have the answers he needed, he would move on to someone else. If it came down to it, he'd go after Emperial; though she was a human, he knew she'd know something about the Feien, since she was Bonded to their Summoners. Maq wanted that to be a last resort, though. For ******** sake, they already had to depend on humans for so many other things; he hated to think they'd have to depend upon them for their own history, too.

With a game plan ready, Maq felt much better than he had when he'd first come in. The knowledge of his now-gone friends still weighed heavily in his mind, but he was now intent on seeing that fewer Feien let their Bonds take them away. Pushing off the shelf, he dove down to glide out the window.

Maq was pacing, and that bothered Sin. He wasn't used to seeing the Feien do something so mindless, especially with a paper in his hand and a quill in his mouth. As Maq chewed and glared thoughtfully at the paper, Sin sighed and rolled over. So far, ever since they'd gotten back from their morning run, this is what they'd been doing. Maq pacing, Sin watching. Maq pacing, Sin rolling over. Maq pacing, Sin losing his ever-loving mind.

Enough was enough. The Pixatiger gathered himself up into a crouch, waited for the most opportune moment, and leapt. Right on target, he caught Maq around the middle, the Feien's papers flying wide as the two of them tumbled across the carpet.

Another day, another gorgeous view; this morning, however, Tera was not enjoying it alone. Sitting on her thigh with the bloom was the diminutive figure of Quantel, the Feien's fingers picking through the foliage of the flower as if searching for an insect infestation. On the floor was Anwahs, her head leaned against Tera's side, eyes closed as if resting, though the constant shifting of her hair belied that appearance. Outside was nearly as lethargic, several animals trudging through the snow on the ground in an effort to reach the greenhouse. Tera smoothed one finger over Quantel's hair, smiling to herself. This had not been a scene she had pictured ever happening, especially not in the month prior to this.

Anwahs shifted, then peered her eyes open to look up at Tera. "Do you know what I just realized?"

"No. What did you just realize?" Knowing her grandmother, it could honestly be anything.

"I haven't heard you sing in a while." The quiet introspection in Anwahs' voice caught Tera's attention. "You lost your instruments in the fire, did you not?"

Turning her gaze back to the window, Tera looked through it without really seeing. After a long moment, she answered, "Aii." No elaborations, just that simple word, as she hoped the subject would be dropped.

Quantel looked up at her Bond quizzically. She could not recall ever seeing Tera with an instrument, nor having seen any instruments around the House previously. The idea seemed oddly contrasting with the memories of Tera's swordplay in the yard in the dead of night, the vicious fight between Tera and those others during their time in the Realms. Her curiosity was aroused, however. "You sing, Teralinth?"

"Oh, my, yes!" Anwahs chimed in, before Tera could say anything. "I'm surprised you haven't heard her yet." Turning around to face them both, Anwahs clapped her hands together and beamed. "Come on, Ter, you need to sing something!"

Come on, Sunshine. You need to sing us something. Tera swallowed, the echoing voice touching a part of her she thought she had left behind. She could almost feel his hand on her shoulder, urging her to entertain them, to lift their spirits. Allowing herself a smile, Tera nodded. "Okay, but I get to pick the song."

Excited, Anwahs hopped up onto the window seat, facing Tera and grinning. "Whatever you want, love." She made a quick motion for Quantel to move over to her, and the Feien obliged, lifting the bloom magically and moving it into Anwahs' lap as well.

As the others settled in, Tera's eyes fell closed. Softly, she began to sing, in a voice that would never sell a million records, but all the more beautiful in how real it was.

~The sky is crying once again,~
~Each raindrop is a memory.~
~Nothing's done to ease the pain,~
~Only thoughts of what could be.~

~Your teardrops falling freely,~
~Each is blood from the soul.~
~The pain is more than you can bear,~
~Soon it all will take its toll.~

~The clouds above share the feeling,~
~Gray and dismal, like within.~
~It eases slightly, but you know~
~Soon it'll all begin again.~

~The thunder rolls, like in your mind~
~Aching memories of what is past.~
~You hold them all deep within,~
~Hoping it'll end at last.~

~The flash of light high above you,~
~Gone before you can see.~
~Just like that last ray of hope,~
~Wishing for what could be.~

~Teardrops fall down from the sky,~
~Each a drop of blood that has been bled~
~By tormented souls of ages past,~
~Words of pain no longer said.~

~Crystal clear, seems so pure,~
~Is the coming of the rain.~
~As your tears run down your cheeks,~
~Seeking ends to all your pain.~

~The sky is crying once again,~
~Each raindrop is a memory.~
~Nothing's done to ease the pain,~
~Only thoughts of what could be.~

Letting the final words drift away into silence, Tera sat quietly with her back against the side of the window. She was surprised when she finally opened her eyes and found that her audience had grown. The Egg Room was almost full with her housemates, clustered on window seats, nestled on cushions, perched on one another. They all watched her with wide eyes, as if holding their breaths for the next thing she would do. A gentle touch on her knee caused her to look over at her grandmother, who was smiling. "He would be proud of you, you know."

And at the sudden clamor of the room, the demands for another song, Tera knew that yes, he would be indeed.

Quantel's fingers danced along the edges of the bloom as she talked quietly to it, reaffirming her constant insistence that she was the one who was there for it, and would always be the one there for it. Soft light filtered in through the lacy curtains that Tera had drawn over the window, after Quantel had claimed discomfort at the direct sunlight that had once poured in. The light gleamed softly off the long spikes of the bloom, though the bloom itself was still.

Entering the room, Tera paused momentarily to watch Quantel with the bloom, smiling to herself. She'd had little experience herself with moving blooms, though she remembered that a few other Bonds had seen action in this particular stage, but Tera had never stopped watching the bloom for any signs of motion. According to Quantel, there had been none, save for the movement caused by passing air currents. Striding over, Tera spoke softly, so as not to startle Quantel, who seemed to be deep in conversation. "Think you can handle a little time away? I'd like to fill in for a bit."

It was reluctantly that Quantel pulled away from the bloom, nodding, hiding any possible resentment deep inside. The stronger the bond, the stronger the Feien within, perhaps? After all, Maq and Tera were rather close, and he certainly wasn't a weakling. With a small smile sent in Tera's direction, the blue Feien lifted off from the cushion. "Do not let it get into any trouble," she said in passing, as she flew out of the room.

Chuckling, Tera settled down on the floor beside the cushion, wrapping one arm around her knee and pulling it up to her chest. She sought the bloom with her hand, letting the spines prickle, yet not pierce, the skin of her palm. Content with your place, little one? It had been so long since Quantel's emergence, and Maq had come to her emerged, that Tera wasn't certain how long was long enough for a Feien to remain in its bloom. Her mind began to run down the list of those of her friends that currently had Feien, so as to be able to ask them about the emergence of their own.

The patter of footsteps on the stairs alerted Tera to the approach of Anwahs before the woman came bursting in the door of the room, breathless. Quite used to such entrances by her grandmother, Tera merely looked up at her complacently, waiting for an explanation. When it finally came, however, all complacency vanished.

"Dave's got one of your Merukin so distraught that she's locked herself in a closet downstairs." It wasn't easy to tell whether Anwahs was amused or not by this situation. "He's still sitting outside the door, whispering things to her underneath it."

Eyes narrowing, Tera started to rise, then glanced down at the bloom. Reluctant to leave it alone, she looked at her grandmother. "Could you sit here while I go take care of it?"

"Sure!" Immediately Anwahs flopped down beside the cushion, her currently long hair falling in dark green tendrils around the bloom. She smiled prettily up at Tera. "I'll try not to eat the thing."

Rolling her eyes, Tera left the room quickly, having a good idea as to who was in the closet and what Dave was saying to her. As soon as she had gone, Anwahs rolled over again, onto her back with the crown of her head on the pillow. The locks of her hair began to pull inward, getting shorter, and the bloom slid a few inches along with them, before becoming disentangled. Soon tiny orange braids stuck every which way from the top of her head, her eyes roving the ceiling as if seeking out the mysteries of life.

There was a slight pressure on her chest, and then her chin, a tiny green face leaning over hers and breathing ink-scented air over her. "Busy?" Kef asked.

"No, why?" Anwahs had a particular fondness for this little demon, if only because of the amount of trouble he caused for a number of writers. When he grinned at her, she grinned back, ignoring the fact that his hands were leaving dark green stains on her chin.

Eyes gleaming, he chortled, "Aliya and I've got this notion... Wanna help us make more scrolls?" The responding nod nearly unseated him, and he clung to her shirt for dear life as Anwahs leaped up.

"There's parchment in the library." With nary a glance back, she left the room giddily, excited at the notion of causing trouble.

Alone, the bloom sat on the cushion, quiet, still. As a gentle breeze stirred one of the curtains, allowing a streak of sunlight to fall upon it, it continued to sit, motionless, as if it were any other violently spiked flower that one might find lounging on a cushion.

Another gust of air lifted the curtain, exposing the burgundy creature that hovered outside to the occupants of the room. Unfortunately, the only occupant was the bloom, so as the creature let herself in, emerald green eyes focused on the strange flower, none were there to interfere. She smiled, reaching out to touch it gently, before a little plant-like female poked her head from the burgundy one's silver hair.

"That's it! That's it!" the little female cried out. "Crocus saw it! And we've found it!" She clapped her little frond-like hands together.

"Shush!" the other chided in a lilting voice. "First we needs must bring it out, no?" Stepping gingerly into the room, the Faeling shuddered at the dryness in the air. She walked carefully across to where the cushion lay, her dark green tail wrapping around one leg as she moved, the little Bloomling in her hair watching with wide, excited eyes. Reaching the cushion, she knelt, her wings folding in against her back, and she gently cupped the bloom, lifting it easily. A smile crossed her face finally.

The Bloomling squealed again. "Little one, fear not! We have saved you from the dry and the dark!" She clapped and bounced, jostling about as the Faeling began heading back for the window. "Didn't we, Anya? Didn't we save the little one?"

Anya stepped up onto the window seat, then out the window, extending her wings so that she could glide through the air. "Yes, yes." Her attention was focused on keeping the spiky little bloom from fluttering out of her hands as she flew towards the greenhouse, perched as it was on a hill near the grove. She broke the light crust that had formed over the snow as she touched down, shivering as she did so.

Almost immediately, half a dozen tiny Terriers sprung up around Anya's feet, yipping and yowling like possessed demons. The Bloomling in her hair shrieked wildly, but Anya merely lifted one foot daintily out of the snow. Not offset, the Terriers of the damned surrounded her other foot, one leaping forward to sink its miniscule teeth into the sensitive flesh of her tendon. Now she cried out, the sound echoing among the trees that surrounded the greenhouse. So startled was she that she lost her grip on the bloom, the spiky flower tumbling through the air until it caught its spines on a low hanging pine branch, tangling in the long needles.

It hung there, unnoticed, as Anya and the Bloomling fled, the pack of Pixapups giving chase. The occasional gust of wind made it sway gently, rocked in its pine scented embrace. Long shadows fell over the bloom, cast as they were by the sun through the tree branches above. A soft pattering of snow speckled the drifts beneath the bloom, dislodged as the branch moved from both the breeze and the weight of the bloom.

It was this pattering of snow that caught Lucy's attention, usually indicative of a bird that had paused its flight to rest in one of the trees of the grove. To her annoyance, rather than a tasty feather snack, the source of the snowfall was a strangely violent appearing flower. Huffing, the Zurui stared at the bloom, debating several different courses of action, few of which ended in anything other than one of those long spikes impaling some tender, sensitive portion of another creature's anatomy. Finally coming to a conclusion, she opened her jaw widely, then enveloped the bloom and closed her mouth carefully upon it. Drawing away from the branch, Lucy could feel the spikes threatening to pierce her tongue, and laughed silently to herself.

Nimbly the demon Zurui stepped across the crusted snow, keeping her weight light and managing not to break through to the soft powder below. Her tails swayed behind her, occasionally dipping down to brush against the snow, sweeping aside any sign of her passage as she made her way back to the House. She was very careful to keep her mouth from closing too harshly on the bloom, not for fear of damaging it, but from reluctance to injure herself.

She had nearly reached the House when the form of a much larger creature dropped down in front of her, startling her and causing her to step back quickly. The beast looked down his nose at her, then hissed, the fur along the back of his neck rising. As Lucy began to spin around, she caught sight of a second, then a third, approaching. Reluctant though she was to lose her prize, she was even more reluctant to allow the pards to corner her, and knew that running with the bloom would merely result in her crushing it in her jaws, possibly damaging her mouth and certainly destroying what she held. Making her decision with a toss of her head, Lucy threw the bloom into the air, then bolted, striking one of the males with her tails as she passed.

The sudden appearance of the bloom, now tumbling through the air towards the ground, caused the pards to pause, before a green and blue female leapt forward, rising up on her hind legs to catch the bloom on the end of her muzzle. Unfortunately, it landed sideways, one sharp spine poking into the sensitive tissue of her nose. With a highly undignified squeak, she danced backward slightly, then forward, finally flipping the bloom back up a few inches and moving her head beneath it so that it landed neatly on the top of her head. Her large eyes began to well up with tears.

~Really, Spira. Are you a performing animal now?~ The first pard, his tan and burgundy coat gleaming in the morning sun, eyed her in wry amusement.

With a soft whimper, Spira reached a paw up to rub at her nose. ~But it HURT!~ Finishing the rub, she attempted to look up at the bloom, almost going cross-eyed in the endeavor. ~What is it, Tannim?~

~It would appear to be the flower that we have seen Tera carrying about.~ He stepped closer, sniffing at the bloom carefully. ~How that hellish canine came to have it, I have no idea.~

~'Ave ta get it back then, righ'?~ The third nipped the bloom gently off Spira's head, folding his wings down against his purple shoulders. ~Canna 'ave Tera gettin' worried o'er it, can we?~

Tannim nodded. ~Take it either to her, or to the one who calls himself Miz.~ He fixed his eyes sternly on Blare. ~Straight there, and straight back, understand?~

Blare started to nod, but stopped himself, a little afraid of damaging the bloom. ~Sure thin', boss.~ That settled, he slipped past the other two pards, making use of the swinging door that led into the kitchen. Luckily, the first thing he saw was Miz, standing at the counter and chopping up a cooked chicken breast. Blare's tail twitched happily, and he trotted over, then nudged Miz's elbow with his forehead.

"Hmm?" Miz glanced down, then smiled winningly at the pard. Out of all the creatures in this House, the pards were probably the ones Miz liked the most. He started to slip a piece of chicken off the cutting board when he noticed something nestled in this particular pard's mouth. "What have you there?"

When Miz reached a hand out, Blare readily deposited the bloom into his palm. The pard worked his jaw, attempting to alleviate the ache that had started from having to hold his mouth open in an attempt to avoid poking himself on the bloom, then eyed the chicken longingly.

"Oh, CRAP." Miz's eyes widened, almost horrified. "Tera is going to KILL you!" As if mention of the woman's name would summon her appearance, Miz quickly looked around the kitchen, then put a hand on Blare's shoulder and began pushing the pard back outside. "Out, OUT! You hide, I'll put this back."

Completely confused, but remembering what Tannim had said about giving the bloom to either Tera or Miz and coming straight back, Blare allowed himself to be shoved unceremoniously outside.

Once the pard was gone, Miz whirled around, facing the door that led from the kitchen into the side hall, where the stairs were. In order to reach it from where he stood, he knew he would have to pass the open entryway that looked out into the main hall, where Tera was currently attempting to coax someone out of the hall closet. Tiptoeing across the kitchen, Miz cautiously peered out the entryway, making note of the fact that Tera, bent over as she was in order to speak through the keyhole of the closet door, was not looking in his direction.

Eyes on her and heart in his throat, Miz reached out with his Unseen Hand and carefully opened the side door. Once it was open, and he was confident that Tera would not turn, he made a graceful leap across the remainder of the kitchen and through the open door that would cause half the cast of "Swan Lake" to shake their fists at the heavens in anguish, that they could not be as lithe and nubile as he. That was, of course, ignoring the fact that the door, as soon as he had passed through and let it go, swung back and smacked him hard in the hindquarters, sending him stumbling forward and nearly pitching head-first over the railing of the stairs.

For a long, pulse-pounding moment, Miz hung there, one arm outstretched so as not to squash the bloom, his ears twitching at the sudden silence that filled the first story of the House. To his horror, he realized that Tera had ceased talking, and he could almost sense her listening as well, could almost hear the creak of the floorboards as she straightened up. In a move completely against his entire belief system of "exercise as little as possible", he levered himself over the railing and scampered up the stairs, his free hand braced against the wall in an effort to keep what little balance he had remaining.

Cresting the top of the stairs, Miz turned quickly to the right, heading for the entryway leading into the Egg Room. The coast was blissfully clear, and he strode over to the cushion that usually cradled this bloom and its tiny female caretaker, even as he attempted to ignore the stitch in his side. Muttering under his breath, he cursed the fact that he had left the beginnings of his lunch on the kitchen table, else he'd now retire to his room for a long, well earned bath. With a disgruntled huff, he deposited the bloom as gently as his irked ego would let him, then spun on heel to make his way back downstairs.

Once more alone, and in more comfortable circumstances, the bloom sat quietly, motionless, as if reflecting on its existence. Which, of course, was foolish, as it was merely a bloom. Still, the only living being in the space of the room, it drank in its surroundings. From somewhere off in the House, the echoing of footsteps began their way up the stairs, the approach of the Bond.

A sudden pop announced the reappearance of Anwahs, who immediately flopped back down beside the cushion on the floor, jostling it and causing the bloom to slide a few inches to one side. I'd hate for Tera to find out I left the thing alone, she groused to herself, one delicate finger reaching out to touch a spike. Hate flower-sitting even more. So boring.

"You two have fun?" Tera's voice swept the room as she entered, a crooked grin on her face. Quantel watched from her perch on Tera's left shoulder, shrouded in the shadows cast by the woman's long hair.

Grimacing, Anwahs rolled over and up onto her knees. "That's not even funny. It's a bloom, for cripes' sake." Rocking back, she stood, then stretched, as if she had been stretched out on the floor for the entire duration of Tera's absence. "Like anything interesting ever happens to a bloom."

Quantel slipped off Tera's shoulder, gliding down on her outstretched wings until she reached the cushion. Delicately she levitated the bloom back to its original place on the pillow. She paid no attention as Tera and Anwahs moved back out of the room, folding her legs beneath herself and resting her hands on the outstretched petals. Her smile was content, her mind at ease, as she began once more to speak with her charge.

It had been one hell of a long week for Maq, and he had nothing to show for it. He'd picked a fight with Miz, irked Tera, and just been a general hard a** to everyone he'd run into that wasn't a Feien; the few Feien he'd seen this week hadn't really helped any with what he was currently attempting to pull off. Nearing the end of his emotional rope, he had finally decided to pay a visit to one of the few Feien he knew of that not only perked him up, but seemed to be doing something with their life.

That said, he flew directly for Berra's window, not pausing for once to examine the sights and sounds of the house around him.

Inside of the guest room, Maq found himself met with silence. The sprockets had all been stowed away safely in one of their stasis tubes, and Berra seemed to be nowhere in sight. In fact, the only sign of life seemed to be the white-winged shape huddled in the corner of the bed, engrossed in an open book.

Talon had been reading for the past hour or so since Karma had taken Berra and Globin out shopping, and was enjoying the silence. For a moment, Maq's arrival went unnoticed, but then, one green-tipped ear twitched at the faint sound of rustling wings as the earth feien's yellow eyes flicked up from the pages to locate the intruder.

Well, s**t. Maq had been hoping to find Berra right off that bat, so he wouldn't have to bug anyone else about finding her. Unfortunately, like so many other plans he'd tried this week, fate decided to jump up and bitchslap that thought right out of him, using one of the few Feien he had mixed feelings about to do so.

Dropping down out of the air to land on his feet on the floor, Maq took another look around the room, as if that would cause Berra to come bounding out of the corner somewhere. Finally, deciding to make the best out of this situation, he looked in Talon's direction and gave him a grin. "Hey, Talon, right?"

Talon looked at him steadily a moment, and then reached up to dogear the page he'd been reading over before being interrupted and moving to get up. "Yes." he said quietly, arching his back to pop it, his wings fanning once behind him.

The other male was easily taller than he was....at least as tall as Globin, just eyeballing him. and well-muscled. He'd really not gotten much of a good look at the red feien last time he'd visited to drop off Berra's mouse as their encounter had been brief and stiffly cordial. "And you're Maquinar, if memory serves."

"Yeah, though I like Maq better." He couldn't help but look Talon over, almost curiously, given that the other male's appearance had changed a lot since they last saw each other, as short a time as that had been. Shorter too, if he wasn't mistaken. Torn between wanting to know more about what had happened to the guy, and wanting to see Berra, Maq decided to go for the latter. After all, Berra would probably know the answer to that question.

His smile was still easy, open and friendly, when he asked, "Is Berra around?"

Talon shook his head once in the negative. "No. She and Karma have gone shopping. They'll likely be back in an hour or so." The inward bristling he'd felt calmed itself a bit now that he, at least, knew why it was Maquinar had come. The prospect of random feien filtering in and out of the guest window uninvited and for no reason didn't appeal to him much at all.

Where Maq offered a smile, Talon's face remained blank. It was not angry, not wary, simply expressionless. "Why do you need to see her?" he questioned then, one ear flicking a bit.

"Had a few ideas I wanted to bounce off her," was Maq's first response. It couldn't be said that he hadn't gotten used to protective father types questioning his desire in speaking to their daughters; if anything, it amused the s**t out of him, since Maq always figured he'd be the last Feien anyone should have to worry about.

Of course, that left the second half of things, and given what he'd heard of that situation first hand, Maq decided he wasn't going to pull any punches. His expression grew a little more serious, the grin crooking up at the corners wryly. "I also wanted to see how she was holding up, what with Tahki and Raylan having moved off and all."

The white-winged feien's eyes narrowed just slightly, watching the other male's expression shift. He wasn't sure if it was the starting of a challenge or not, and for the moment, decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Tahki and Raylan's leaving had been just as much his doing as it had been Maq's -- not at all.

"She's fine." Talon said, unable to keep a slight edge of stoniness out of his voice. "It helps, of course, knowing where the both of them are and that they will, in fact, be coming back soon."

Nodding, Maq gave him that much. "Yeah, it does help." It was actually rather hard to get anything other than amused by a guy who's golden-tufted head you could see right down on top of. For what wasn't the first time, he wondered what Tahki ever saw in the man.

He stretched his arms out slightly, shoulders back, an unconciously peacockish movement that sent muscles shifting along his scarred chest. "You don't have any idea when she's getting back, do you? I'm sure she'd like to see me all the same."

Talon wasn't the most perceptive feien in the world, but even he could see when he was being baited. Maq's posturing along with his statement made it obvious that information was being withheld...information that he might not want to know, but that Maq might gleefully hand him with minimal prodding.

His eyes shut for a moment as he drew in a breath, venting it silently out through his nose. "Not a specific day, no." he said, his lips thinning a bit. He recalled Tahki having mentioned Maquinar was an old friend of hers, which was fine. He'd never asked how -good- of a friend, though....it hadn't seemed to him that he should.

That surprised him a bit, the pause and the silent exhalation. Did it actually bother Talon that Tahki was gone? Somehow, that didn't make much sense... But then again, it did. Regardless of how the two of them had ended up, she was still the mother of his children, so to speak.

And with that in mind, Maq had to ask, "You've told Berra about what went down between you and Tahki, right?"

Talon felt his teeth clench. He'd not told much of anyone because he'd assumed it had been no one's business. He had told Yeande, of course, because she had been involved, but that had been all. But who had Tahki told, he wondered? Just Maq? Everybody? Was THAT why people had been up and vanishing from contact with him lately??

"No. I haven't." he replied, doing his damnnest not to snap. "Because she has enough to deal with as it is right now. When the time comes, I have full intention of explaining things." It was unspoken, but the look in his eyes radiated the unspoken statement: "Why the ******** is it any business of yours?"

Something about this guy had always rubbed Maq the wrong way, and that little bit just added right on to it. His smile slipped down until it was a mere shadow on his face. "You mean when she notices you and Yeande are an item?" The tiniest of lines appeared between his eyebrows, the largest indication of his real feelings towards that idea. "The sooner you tell her the better, you know. It'd be pretty shitty if she just walked in on something and had to make her own conclusions."

Talon, at this, felt his mask of blankness begin to crack. "Her sister is missing..." he began. "And she is scared to death of whatever the hell that thing is she brought home from Canada with her. She doesn't need me dumping something else into her lap right this second to deal with as well. I said I would tell her, and I will."

As he spoke, he moved forward until he was standing directly across from Maq. The illusion of intimidation was utterly lost, however, as he only came up to the red-haired male's chest. If he noticed, or cared, he didn't let on and looked up, yellow eyes burning into Maquinar's red-oranges.

"I don't know what Tahki told you. I don't -want- to know what Tahki told you. But you have one side of the story and I don't appreciate being put on the spot in my own home about something that was meant to be kept between her and I."

At the sign of real emotion, Maq cracked a smile, slightly jaded though it was. Folding his arms across his chest, he looked down at the shorter male, creases forming around his eyes as he met Talon's stare. "I didn't ask to be involved, but if one of my oldest friends shows up in pain, I sure as hell don't plan on keeping out of it."

Of course, this started all those rolling emotions building up again, the same ones he'd been fending off through his judicious use of physical training and random expenditures of energy. The smile disappeared again, replaced by a tightened jaw. "You hurt her, Talon, and I did my best to help her through that. You're right, I don't know what happened, but I know what I dealt with.

"But," he finished, "I didn't come here to d**k around with you. I came to see if Berra wanted a friendly ear to talk to, what with half her family MIA."

Talon, as though following Maq's example, though it was an unconscious gesture on his part, likewise crossed his arms over his chest. The smile had pissed him off. It didn't matter if it was gone now, while it had remained, Maquinar's entire face had become a downturned target that radiated cockiness. One that his fist desperately wanted to bury itself in.

"If you don't know what happened, then you really have no place to draw conclusions, do you?" he growled. "You think I wanted to hurt her? You think I enjoyed watching her cry and knowing it was because of something stupid I did AND didn't even remember save what I was told? Is that what you think?"

His voice had steadily risen as he spoke, the leash of his temper fraying. He'd tolerated a damned lot this past couple of months and kept his explosions to a minimum, but this---was treading on his last nerve.

That did it. Maq had tried to be fair to the guy, to not go off on him for what had happened between him and Tahki, whatever it was. But saying he had no place? Putting words in his mouth? ******** that. His arms unfolded, his right hand dropping down habitually to where he had once worn his rapier. "That's funny, because I don't remember saying any of that. I distinctly remember saying I *didn't* come here to d**k around with you." Maq's voice, as if in counterpoint to Talon's, remained at an even keel, deep and sonorous. "But since you seem so determined to drag it up, maybe I do. Maybe having Tahki come to me, thinking she's not good enough to be around anyone anymore, kinda painted you with the p***k brush in my mind."

Drawing himself up, he looked right down into Talon's upturned face. "You got a problem with that?"

Talon's fingers twitched, his left hand balling itself into a fist as he glared back. "I think I do." he said through gritted teeth. If he had hackles, they would have been on-end. "And I think it has something to do with the cocky b*****d who swaggered in uninvited not too long ago."

What the hell did this guy think he was doing? HE had started this. Subtlely, granted, but if he hadn't wanted the ******** ants, why had he been stirring the nest with a stick? Why would he have brought up Tahki and Yeande at ALL if dicking around with him hadn't been his intent? Jackass...

Inwardly, Talon steeled himself. He had never actually fought with another feien before...most adults, he'd found, tended to avoid conflict even after inviting it. But damned if he wouldn't rise to the occasion if Maq wanted to take it that far. Enough was enough.

Damn if Maq didn't do it again, a grin spreading as he let out a bark of a laugh. "Uninvited? Last I heard, you weren't the only Feien living in this house, and I can guarantee you that one of them doesn't mind me dropping by." He didn't miss the balling of Talon's fist, and a part of him whooped silently. He'd never really had the chance to spar with Ursa, and hell, if this guy wanted to try to take him on, Maq would be more than happy to oblige.

Shifting his stance slightly, Maq let his body loosen up, lifting his forearms and hands up so that they were perpendicular with his torso. The little guy didn't look all that dangerous, at least not the parts that weren't poking out of his head. Besides, this was something Maq had wanted to do the moment Tahki had first spoken in that broken voice. "You want to uninvite me now and toss me out, go right ahead."

And at that invitation, an invisible ringside bell seem to have rung as Talon dropped his arms out of the folded position over his chest and, taking a stride forward to close what was left of the distance between them, placed his hands on the taller feien's shoulders.

"Gladly." he snarled, and shoved, putting as much force behind it as he could muster. Which, after the merging, was quite a bit.

s**t. ******** strong. That was the thought that went through Maq's mind as he stumbled back, nearly knocked off his feet by the shove. By sheer luck he managed to keep his feet underneath him, making a mental note to avoid connecting again with the white Feien's handiwork.

With a swift step back into swinging distance, Maq feinted towards Talon's face with his right hand, dropping the left in a low sucker punch, aiming in for Talon's ribs.

The punch connected, making a bark of air leave his lungs and his vision temporarily go gray around the edges. By sheer force of his will, Talon managed not to lose his wind entirely. In doubling over slightly from the blow, he grabbed for the hand he'd been hit with with his right hand, his left swinging upward in a collision course with Maquinar's jaw.

Finding his left hand seized, Maq remembered Ben's advice and avoided the instinctive urge to yank back. Of course, the proper maneuver of stepping closer really wasn't a better choice, as Talon's left hand came sailing up at his face. Strong, but not very fast... He tilted his head back enough to avoid a direct hit, but the force of the clip he took was enough to jar the teeth in his head. Suddenly, he tasted blood, tiny bursts of light exploding behind his eyes.

Shake it off. Keep it up. Maq lifted his foot and attempted to bring his heel down, hard, on whichever one of Talon's feet he could find, even as his left hand scrambled to grip the hand that clenched around it.

A sharp pain stabbed through his ankle as Maquinar's heel missed its mark, but hit another. Son of a -b***h-...!! Talon felt tears involuntarily spring to the corners of his eyes as the grip on Maq's hand tightened compulsively in reaction to a near-crushing grip for a brief moment before he let go of him entirely and retreated one quick step.

Ugly bruises were already forming on his pale flesh where he'd been struck, but he forced himself not to favor either area. He refused to give Maquinar the satisfaction as he brought up both fists, one low and one high and awaited the red feien's next move.

Once released, Maq danced back on the balls of his feet, fists up and weaving slightly. His left hand throbbed painfully, as did his jaw, and as he began to circle Talon, he concentrated enough of his magic into beginning the healing process for the inside of his mouth. If there was anything he hated, after all, it was the taste of his own blood.

Knowing that Talon was following his movements, Maq hoped to fake him out again, feinting towards his face with his right hand part-way, and dropping his left again in towards Talon's stomach. The difference this time was that, instead of following through with the left, he suckered out the right again, like one of those cartoon punching-gloves, knuckles heading straight towards Talon's nose.

The movement was unexpected and Talon noticed the change of direction a moment too late to dodge, but succeeded in altering its path as he turned his head a fraction to the right. A sickening crack resounded through his skull, seeming to jar all of his senses at once into a high stinging throb as the other male's fist met his eye.

He staggered backward a step, feeling the lids almost immediately beginning to swell shut. Oh, that son of a b***h...that ******** whoremaster! His good eye glared at Maq with bleary reproach and then narrowed.

Quite on its own, something in his brain flexed. A flurry of images passed by his mind's eye almost too quick to register. Black cats, the number thirteen in large blood red digits, leaning ladders, broken mirrors, open graves, dead sparrows.....on a better day he might have paused to wonder what the ******** it all meant, but this was not, by any stretch, one of his better days.

Without warning he kicked out, trying to hook Maq's ankles out from beneath him.

Oh, but that felt GOOD, the connection between fist and flesh, the satisfaction of a blow well placed. Maq grinned again, back into the glaring face of his opponent; despite this guy being stronger, he still felt like he was coming out quite on top.

That was, until the strangest sensation swept over him, flushing him cold and clammy in a heartbeat. Distracted by it, he missed the initial swipe of Talon's leg, catching sight of it just as it was connecting with his ankles. Over he went, wings and limbs akimbo, before he instinctively pulled himself in and rolled as much as he could away, attempting to avoid a follow-up attack.

Before he could get to his feet again, Talon pounced on the other feien. Due to Maq's constricted posture, however, instead of landing on him, he glanced off and landed beside him. His initial plan to pin Maquinar beneath him botched, he lashed out with one fist in frustration, not aiming the blow first.

As such, his fist swung down at Maquinar's retreating and unguarded back, squarely between his wings.

The one bit of good fortune Maq had remaining at the moment caused his wings to soften that blow, which would have made it endurable, had it come from anyone other than this guy here. With the power of Talon's frustrated strength, however, it was damn near crippling. Maq's mind went blank as the pain exploded, heedless of the choked expletitives that poured from his lips.

His momentum kept him rolling slightly, landing him on his side and facing away from Talon. The words rasped off into a strangled groan, even as his wings attempted to shrivel in on themselves.

Talon paused then, still kneeling, panting slightly and heart pounding from the adrenaline pumping through his blood. As his fist had connected, a pang of sympathetic pain had resounded through the bases of his own wings...much in the way human males would involuntarily wince and cup their nether regions after watching someone else being on the recieving end of a well-placed kick.

His eye throbbed in deep-seated agony as it continued to swell, filling him with resentment for the other feien and likewise with grudging disgust at himself for having exploited what was a universal weakness in their species. It was a cheap way to win...if Maq had been trying to kill him, that would have been one thing, but...

But WHAT?? the irrational part of his mind screamed at him. This ******** blew in out of nowhere and started beating the s**t out of you! Now get over there and make sure he doesn't get up again, are you insane??

At length, he stayed where he was, swallowing through a throat that felt lined with cotton as he reached up to gingerly touch his eye, wincing and withdrawing his fingers almost immediately. All the while he kept a wary eye on Maq, waiting to see if he was done, or if he would get up to try again.

Maq lay very, very still for what felt like ages, his wings settling once more into loose folds of cloth as they accepted the fact that there wasn't another affront to their delicacy coming. Slowly Maq realized all Ben's warnings about watching out for those "tender spots" weren't a bunch of bullshit meant to keep him nervous. His ears twitched, his next realization being that Talon hadn't continued the attack, which meant a couple of things, none of them leading up to adding onto the whole "p***k" idea.

The next noise he made was probably the last one Talon expected to hear: A low, wry chuckle, as Maq started to push himself up with one arm, turning his face so that he could look at the other Feien. A grudgingly amused grin lit his features. "That, I've got to admit, is one hell of a way to bring a guy down."

Talon looked back at his opponant and said nothing for the moment....whether it was a further display of aloofness or simply a lack of things to say was a mystery as he cupped his hand slightly and placed it over the swollen blue-black pouch his eyelids had become. His fingers glowed gently with white light for several seconds and when he brought them away, the swelling had vanished, allowing him to open his eye again.

Around the circumference of the socket, however, was a telltale ring of black that the healing magic had been unable to erase. Blinking twice, ensuring everything was in working order, he then addressed Maquinar.

"I didn't do it on purpose." he said quietly, a grudging edge to his voice. He paused, as though wrestling to get the next statement out. "I'll heal it if you like." Was unwarrented guilt one of the traits he'd picked up from Josephus as well, he wondered?

While his own meager power wasn't enough to be able to heal his injury on the spot, something about the idea of some guy mucking his fingers around Maq's wings put the Heat Feien off a bit. Maq would probably have been a little pissed about getting beaten if he had, in fact, felt like he'd been beat. As it was, he figured he'd done pretty damn good for himself, and at worst the end result could be called a draw.

He shook his head slowly. "Thanks, but I think I might keep the pain as a reminder that skill and speed can't always beat out a sharp right." Maq completed the upward push with his arm until he was sitting back on his haunches. Once more his eyes roved Talon, as they had earlier in the encounter, as if weighing up more than the obvious physical differences now.

"So... How'd you pick up all the new perks?" He gestured at Talon's forehead, which was the easiest to gesture to. "I'm guessing the bull-like strength goes with the horns?"

At the refusal of the healing, Talon gave an inward sigh of relief and continued to work on himself instead, placing his hand next on his bruised ankle. "Gemstone." he said. At this point, why the hell NOT make idle conversation if they were done beating on each other? Everything else about the encounter had already been surreal, what was adding one more oddity going to do?

"I melded with an ancient and was given much of what he had in life."

"No s**t?" The funniest thing about Maq was how much physical activity, of any sort, left him in a rather chipper mood. Little things like grudges and hurts seemed to melt off in the distance of his adrenaline afterglow. Add that with the emergence of new information, first hand information at that, and Maq was suddenly keen on life, and not so against the idea of chatting Talon up.

"I've run into a Feien with a gemstone, but not one that had actually managed a merge." He pulled one leg over the other, lotus-style, as he considered his options in questioning. Best go for a more diplomatic approach, since he'd just hammered the smaller Feien. "I'm sure you get pretty sick of explaining the whole thing, though."

Talon shook his head a bit. pulling his hand away to find that the bruise on his ankle had faded to a mere shadow of its former self. "There isn't much to explain." he said. "I took the stone to Julius, Julius cast a spell, and I took it into myself. It hurt like ******** hell while it was happening...stopped after a few minutes, though." His eyes flicked up to look at Maquinar again. There was no way he was going to tell him that the pain of merging had been the only time he'd ever cried out in agony.

"The horns hurt my neck for a few days, and the fingers are a pain in the a** when it comes to weapons, but for what I've gained, that's easily overlooked." He waited to see if Maquinar had more questions before introducing a change of subject, examining the bruise on his chest and wondering if it warrented healing or not...it was an ugly shade of purple but it didn't hurt much, oddly.

Taking that in, Maq nodded. "Considering the 'weapons' we've got available aren't really made for us anyway, I'd say that's not such a loss." His left hand moved up to his hair, beginning to run through it, before the curving of his fingers reminded him that, yeah, his hand still hurt like hell.

Maq brought his hand back down, flexing said fingers gingerly, as he worked some minor healing into them, hoping it would clear up enough by the time he got home that Tera wouldn't notice the throb. Oddly, it did feel a lot like the phantom pains he'd gotten when *her* fingers had been chopped off. His eyes, however, were on Talon. "With the power you've got right now, and the lack of such most of the other Feien have, you'd sure as hell would be a force to reckon with, if you had a bit of training. Shitty human weapons or no."

Talonfaust regarded Maquinar steadily and, to that, said nothing. Training was well and good, but who would train him? He wasn't social enough to look for someone and the people he knew either relied on magic or simply didn't fight at all.

He cleared his throat, and then switched the topic. "If you want to keep thinking I'm a p***k for what happened between Tahki and I, there isn't a lot I can do to stop you....but as long as you feel like you were involved in it, Maquinar, I'd like you to know my angle on things. Because it was honestly never my intention for things to happen as they did."

"Only if you start by calling me Maq." He tried not to think about the one other Feien who insisted on calling him Maquinar, despite his preference for the shortened version.

Sure, he'd give Talon the benefit of the doubt, for the time being at least. After all, Tahki had to have seen some sort of redeeming quality in the guy, not to mention the fact that Berra seemed to be relatively decent, given where half her genes had come from.

And so, Talon explained. He began with where things had begun to go bad shortly after his and Tahki's breeding and how he'd been unable to get ahold of her for several weeks. How Berra had gone a very long while before meeting her mother and how it had upset the both of them. He explained Yeande's relation to him and how she had been a close friend since his birth and one of very few people he could rely on for support.

He went on to tell him about the night Berra had left for Canada and how he had allowed Meka to intoxicate him in an effort to calm him and succeeded only in making him wake up the following morning with a horrible headache and no recollection of anything at all. And then the follow-up visit with Yeande which had opened a rather large can of worms when she'd filled in the blanks of that night for him.

He told Maq of having to explain the incident to Tahki, and furthermore how he had planned to accompany Irisa on her quest to Europe and how Tahki had likely gone to see him soonafter that. In closing, he gave a brief overview of the last couple of weeks...of coming home to Tahki and Raylan being gone, and Yeande's disappearance and recovery from the frozen pond.

When he'd finished, he looked to the heat feien across from him, awaiting his assessment of things. Either he would understand, or he wouldn't....and if he didn't, little was stopping him from simply leaving and continuing to think Talonfaust was an a*****e for what he'd done, and as long as he did so at a distance, Talon was fine with that.

Maq sat quietly through the telling, nodding occasionally to show he was paying attention, though it was more the sympathetic wincing at the appropriate moments that gave a better impression of that. For the most part, it reconfirmed his stance on keeping all of his relationships with women open, and being completely honest about it from the start.

At the end of it all, Maq tilted his head to one side, popping his neck contemplatively before he decided to speak. When finally he did, it was with a shrug and his usual good-natured drawl. "Life can really ******** with your head sometimes." He hadn't completely lost his image of Talon the p***k, just tempered it a bit with the addition of Dicked-Over. "It's good that both you and Tahki had someone you knew to fall back on, I guess." His words weren't chosen to be snide or cocky; they held the honest-to-goodness quality of someone who thought that, yeah, both sides had it rough.

"Right." Talon replied with absent agreement. He wasn't sure just how much "falling back" on Maq Tahki had done, but given what had become of him and Yeande, he chose not to inquire either. That was something he felt he could live without knowing the details about....and she'd been justified, he told himself. Even if hurt, she had been justified completely in seeking out someone else.

"I haven't told Berra or any of the kids yet because, frankly, I didn't know what the hell was going on until a few days ago and I didn't want to make assumptions and tell them something that might turn out to not even be true. Right now, its just a matter of picking the right time to do it, that's all."

He exhaled a long sigh....gods, he could write a damned soap opera about his life. At least then he'd get paid for relating this s**t.

"All right." He still didn't think much of the whole waiting idea, but since it didn't sound like Yeande was over here shacking up with Talon, it probably wouldn't blow up as badly as it could.

He leaned forward a little, his wings twitching in a phantom reminder of the pounding they'd taken not too long ago. "You know Berra better than I do, and I'm gonna trust that you break it to her easy." A truce, then, with as much as a white flag as Maq would ever be liable to wave.

"I wouldn't break it to her any other way." Talon said, his voice still quiet, but the tone earnest. If he hated upsetting Tahki, he hated upsetting Kookaberra five times as much. And he felt he'd done enough damage as it was in the mistakes he'd already made with her upbringing unintentionally.

His lips thinned for a moment, and then he added. "I....don't know if Tahki even wants to see me again when she gets back. And I don't blame her if she doesn't." A tight waver, barely perceptible came into his voice as he moved to get up then and turned away, feeling his stoic expression yielding and not wanting the other feien to see it. ".....take care of her, Maq. Don't let anyone else hurt her that way again."

Though he hadn't gotten the feeling from her that the last thing Tahki wanted was to see Talon again, Maq didn't feel it was really his place to say anything about that. Taking his cue from the other Feien, he stood as well, this time his right hand coming up to run through his hair. "Sure thing."

Now, that left the other bit. Maq had, after all, come all this way to see Berra, and if what Talon had told him at the start of their... encounter was true, she'd probably be back any minute now. Reluctant as he was to leave without getting a chance to talk to her, he asked, "Am I still uninvited? 'Cause I've got a couple completely unrelated things to ask Berra, and I'd hate for you to have to see my ugly mug again in the future, if I could just wait for her to get back now."

Talon drew a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh, regaining the slip of control quickly as he looked over his shoulder at the heat feien. "No." he said simply. "It isn't my place to say who Berra does and doesn't talk to." He still felt Maq was somewhat of a meathead who had not nearly as many brains as he had muscles, but at least that explained why he carried himself the way he did and that he wasn't privately carrying some sinister manipulative agenda with an outward appearance of ignorance.

He arched his back, the vertebrae giving a faint pop as he did so. The back of his neck stung a bit from the way his head had rocked back from the punch he'd taken...he'd likely be feeling it in the morning.

He nearly left then, to leave Maq to wait for his daughter while he relocated himself to another part of the house, but he found that he had one last question. "Where does one go to train?" he asked. Obviously Maq had learned from someone....and if he should be presented with a future encounter like this one, he would have liked to have been better-prepared.

"So far, I'm the only Feien I know of that does any sort of training." Which was mostly true, given that he'd found out Ursa had left a while ago. His shoulders rose in another shrug. "I picked it up from a human friend of my Bond's. He boxes, among other things." Maq's orange eyes were already seeking out an unobtrusive spot to wait out Berra's return, though his body gave off signs that he was still paying attention to Talon.

"Hm." the sound was noncommittal and sounded a touch disappointed. He had hoped there were other options, and all things considered, he really was not motivated in the least to inquire about learning from Maquinar himself at the moment. He guessed Maq likely shared his lackluster opinion of the sentiment and so he let it drop without further ado.

Elsewhere in the house there was the sound of a door opening and the rustle of plastic bags. "Suits and battles! We're ho-ome!" Karma's voice announced from the main hallway making Talon's wings bunch on his back like someone hearing nails on a chalkboard.

Maq lifted himself up from the floor, hovering a few inches above it. "Later then, Talon," he called out, figuring the white male was probably near eager to see him go. Truth be told, part of him wanted to talk more about training, and merging too, but Tal just kinda seemed like one of those guys that would most likely be best dealt with in short doses.

In a blur of red, Maq headed in the direction of the voice of Talon's discomfiture.

Ian blinked, flying at a slow pace bwhind Maq. It gave him some more cooling off time and he enjoyed it. He couldn't believe how crowded it was getting. Back home there wasn't this much going on for dinner. Generally it was a time to get together, hang out, and talk.

"Damn..." Crazy household Maq had.

Instead of heading through the door, past which Ian could make out many other creatures, including all of the ones he had seen before, Maq dropped down and flew in through an open window, landing on the sill and waiting for Ian to join him. Just beneath the window lay a counter covered with all manner of dishes, filled to the brim of steaming pasta casseroles, large fluffy biscuits, steamed vegetables, and fresh salads. The ram-horned man stood at said counter, filling plates and handing them out to each creature that approached.

Ian landed behind Maq, dropping his wings. It was almost like home, but back home there wasn't this many! He sniffed the air, his stomach starting to growl. It smelt good! He turned to the heat feien. "So how do we get in on this? "

Before Maq could reply, a small green creature emerged from the curtains, placing itself between Ian and the food. "You don't, bug boy," the thing sneered, ruby eyes glinting dangerously. "You fairy freaks aren't welcome here."

Folding his arms over his scarred chest, Maq glared down at the Sigil, who was not even the same height as Ian. His voice, however, was jovial when he stated, "Meet Kef. Littlest p***k this side of Miz's pants."

Ian laughed. He glared down at the Sigil, shaking his head. "Ok, whatever."

With a curl of his lip, Kef snarled, "Get the redhead to tell you how he got that mark sometime." A single claw jutted out in the direction of Maq's chest, before the green one scuttled back off into the curtains.

Shaking his head, Maq laughed. "Don't mind him." He stepped forward, to the edge of the sill, then looked down at the counter beneath them. Judging a clear spot, Maq jumped off and landed, between a plate of rolls and a bowl of applesauce.

Ian had seen the scar, but hadn't really thought anything of it. Well, seems feien weren't immune to real attacks. Good. He liked a challenge. He watched Maq jump and land between the rolls and applesauce and followed suit.

Except, he didn't land on his feet. More like his rear. Ian had misjudged, causing the green feien to laugh as he got back up. "Watch out, last step is a doozy!"

Glancing back over his shoulder, Maq shook his head slightly, chuckling. "Looks like we'll have to work on your balance too, at some point." He turned and saw that the ram-horned man was holding out a pair of soda caps to him, which Maq took with a nod of thanks. Passing one back to Ian, he gestured to the food with his own.

"Just grab what you want." That said, Maq immediately started helping himself to some hash browns.

Ian smirked, accepting the cap and looked around. It all looked good so he had trouble deciding. Finally he settled on some hashbrowns, like Maq, then wandered over to the meat. Grabbing a small handful, he went around to the vegtables, loading his "plate." Rynn would have frowned so bad on him, stealing off the larger plates. Finding himself a seat, he dug in. "Tera's quite the chef!" he remarked with a mouthful of meat.

Maq's laugh was so sudden that he almost choked on the mouthful of sweet potato casserole he had just shoved into his cheek. Coughing wetly, he shook his head until he managed to clear his throat enough to gasp, "Tera burns water." A couple of swallows and he was able to add, "All this is thanks to Rith over there," indicating the ram-horned man with a jerk of his thumb. Rith smiled as if he could hear the pair conversing, but he appeared to be wrapped up in serving roasted chicken to a trio of Zurui.

Having filled his own cap to the brim, mostly with proteins and starches, Maq began to make his way along the counter, away from the buffet, looking for a place where they could sit without having to endure the hands constantly reaching for grub. When he finally found a suitable area, next to a gleaming chrome appliance of some sort, he dropped into a seated position with a happy sigh. Their spot gave a clear view of the kitchen and all that were currently crammed inside of it, while coincidently be on the exact opposite of the room from where Quantel and the bloom had been settled.

Ian blinked, blushing. "Sorry. Rynn does all our cooking, save for the grilling. I just assumed..." He was bright red now, not meaning to sound insulting to Rith. He glanced down to his "plate," still blushing. Glancing back up, he offered Rith a smile, meaning to tell the ram-horned man how sorry he was.

Taking a bite of hashbrowns, he looked around, spying Quantel and the bloom. In a way, she reminded him of Aria, but she was different. Just something about her. He didn't know what, but he wanted to know more. "Tell me about Quantel."

Chewing slowly, Maq thought about the question, and instead decided to address the first issue. "Don't worry about it too much. Before Rith came, Ter had her turn for meal-making, just like all the other tall two-footers." With a half-grin, he lifted up a chunk of fried potato. "'Course, her turns usually served up sandwiches or cold leftovers, more often than not." He bit down on the potato with a loud crunch.

As for the question... He knew he'd better keep to facts, after everything Tera had said to him regarding Quantel. Once the mouthful was swallowed, he stated, his expression growing less jovial than it had been, "Quantel's younger than I am about a couple of weeks. She's a Shadow Feien, and the only friends she had have moved." His fingers curved around the hash brown, and he shoved it into his mouth again for another bite.

"Rynn's teaching Malthuis to cook. He's a good kid, but lousy at cooking." He picked up a bite of green bean, and popped it into his mouth, chewing. It was really good, almost like what Rynn made. "But he's trying. He is much better at reheating frozen dinners though." Ian laughed. He liked the kid, he did, but he knew not to eat too much of his cooking.

"So basically you grew up together," The green feien stated."And all her friends have moved? That's a shame. I wouldn't mind getting to know her." Granted, he missed the tone of Maq's voice, kinda watching the shadow feien out of the corner of his eye. Gods, there was something about her...

Feeling a faint twinge of discomfiture, Maq shifted his position, not looking over in Quantel's direction. "Don't make decisions for others, Maq. Let them see for themselves." Tera's words came back to him, and he hoped that she was right. Didn't mean he had to fully support the idea, though. His shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. "Haven't most of our friends moved? I think we've all lost folks." He picked out a shred of cabbage, bit into it thoughtfully, then added, "The two of us don't get along very well; Ter says that's because we're so different. But if you want to give it a shot, feel free."

The Shadow Feien across the room seemed to be paying little attention to any save the bloom beside her. A soda cap lay near her knee, but she gave it as little a thought as to the rest of the room. Long fingers curling around one spike, she smoothed her other hand over a petal, leaning forward so that her forehead nearly touched the bloom.

Ianios nodded. "Too true. There's plenty that seem to just up and vanished." He sighed, thinking back to Celaien's gemstone, tucked away in his bed. He didn't sleep with the gemstone, just kept it there while he was up and about. And Aria had lost a good many friends as well, with most moving away.

He looked down at his plate, trying to decide. He got along fairly well with Maq, and Aria. Maybe she wasn't all that different. He set the soda cap down beside him. He could at least give her a shot. He grinned at Maq. "Be right back!"

He got up, flying over to Quantel. Landing nearby, but not too close, he slightly bowed. "Evening, Quantel. Pretty bloom you have there."

Quantel glanced upwards briefly, taking him in before lowering her gaze again. Her voice was soft, yet carrying, and bearing the same hints of the strange accent that Tera's words had. "The bloom belongs to my Bond, not I." She seemed to pull closer to the bloom, almost fearfully. "I thank you though, for your kind words."

Ian smiled. "But it seems to be more under your care than hers, am I right?" He asked gently, looking at the bloom and back to Quantel. "It's a very interesting bloom. Dangerous looking. And I happen to like danger."

"Teralinth has many of us to show attention to." The tone wasn't bitter, merely wistful. As she stroked one of the spikes, her shoulders shivered beneath her hair. Another glance in his direction, though she dared not meet his eyes. "You are Ianios, aii?"

"Aye, that I am. Come to train under Maq's direction." He gave her a sly smile, wondering why her shoulders shivered. Was she cold? He liked the fact she knew his name. He would have rumbled in pleasure if he had known how.

"Cold? I could get you something to cover up with."

The tiniest of smiles curved her full lips. "Nay, I be not cold." At the mention of Maq, she ventured a glance across the room, but the red Feien was studiously ignoring what was occurring on this side of the counters. "Maquinar is a fine warrior; I am certain you shall flourish under his tutelage." For some reason, the idea of this did not seem to completely please her, a dejected hue tinting her words.

Ian ignored the dejection in her voice. He had wanted to be a warrior since he emerged. Why, he couldn't place his finger on it, but it was there. "Thank you, I certainly intend to try." Maybe she didn't like strong guys, he didn't know, but he would be strong. He had to be, for his adventuring.

Well, he couldn't make her like that fact, She was her own person. He smiled at her. "If the lady will excuse me, I'd like to get back to dinner, then I must be off. It grows late."

She inclined her head slightly. "Be well, and the best of luck in your endeavors." Her own dinner, a few grains of rice and a sliver of chicken, lay untouched in its cap, and most likely would remain so long after he had left.

Ian bowed lightly to her, taking wing to return to Maq. "Damn, I like her!" he exclaimed once he landed. He was kinda glowing. Now, if it turned into anything more, that was up to Quantel, but Ian secretly wished it would.

He sat back down, trying to eat slowly, but his stomach was up in knots. So it was all he could do to choke down the food, as good as it was.

A non-committal grunt was Maq's response, as he tucked another wad of bread into his mouth. Ian seemed to be a cleaver guy; he'd figure out soon enough what Q was really like. Hell, if worse came to worse, Aria would tell him. That idea perking him up, Maq finished swallowing and announced, "You do those exercises I showed you, with the routines, and come back... How's next week sound?" Nodding to himself, Maq figured it'd be good, since a week would give Ian enough time to start to get things down.

Ian nodded. Sounded good to him. He could practice, exercise and soon he'd be a great warrior, able to adventure freely. Without worry of getting hurt ot anything. Able to defend those he cared about.

He tried finishing off dinner, but the knots in his stomach and all, he just wasn't able too. "Sure thing. Looking forward to it." He set the cap aside, standing back up. "I think I better head for home. See if Aria has emerged yet and all. Thanks for dinner."

"Not a problem." Grinning up at Ian, Maq set his own cap on his knee. "Make sure she gets my note, eh?"

"Will do." He gave Maq a grin and headed out the way he came, someone practicing as he flew home.

An evening like any other, which was winding down with the presence of Tera at her desk, quietly working on some of the numerous inventory sheets she had, tasks from the shops she managed and co-managed. Quantel had a suspicion that a new shop had been added to this series of papers, but as Tera had been quite occupied by whatever it was and seemed to have little time to spare, the blue Feien had not yet asked her of it. Quantel herself, and the bloom as well, were situated to one side, gently swaddled in the sweater and anticipating yet another sleepy night.

Leaning back in her chair, Tera used her thumb and forefinger to rub the bridge of her nose. Though the backlog had been taken care of, there were a number of small jobs still left that began to give her a headache just by thinking of them. She made a note to meet with Ice again in the next few days to work out some of the details. Literally. The silverish quill in her hand skated over to a blank sheet of parchment and scrawled "Meet w/ Ice Q by Thurs" in scrolling letters, before she placed the quill back into its inkwell. Catching the sheet up with her nails, she lifted the page up so she could blow across the ink lightly, hoping to get it dry before she tucked it away for later use.

As she held it, the paper began to quiver, then slowly, ever so slowly, the top of it tipped backwards, angling towards the desk as if drawn to it. Emerald eyes narrowing, Tera watched the paper until it finally touched the desk, aware of its slightly heavier sensation between her fingers. Simutaneously she felt the tiny hairs along the back of her hands rising, and heard a soft, sharp inhalation from Quantel's direction. Her attention shot there, taking in the strange sight of Quantel, eyes wide and hair standing out, who was staring at the bloom.

Having not actually witnessed the emerging of her first two Feien, Tera at first did not realize what was happening. Her human eyes simply saw the bloom, glistening in the warm light of the lamp, its spikes and fronds trembling almost imperceptibly. When she dropped the illusion cloaking her features, she still saw little else with her elven eyes, save the addition of a soft haze of magic surrounding the bloom, pulsing and flaring subtly. To her complete astonishment, a tiny hand began to protrude from the haze, stretching, reaching outwards. The hand clutched about blindly, until it found a spike and seized it, pulling. A second hand joined the first, grazing the end of the spike before finding purchase and pulling upwards as well.

Quantel was the first to come to the aid of the bloomling, and that which was emerging from it, heart racing and mind whirling. She rose and caught the wrists of the young Feien, long fingers wrapping firmly around them. When she felt the Feien began to pull away, she called softly, yet authoritatively, "Calm yourself and permit my help." Coppery and warm, the scent of blood rose to Quantel's nostrils, and she felt the slickness of it as she renewed her grip on the Feien's wrists. Whether it was recognition of Quantel's voice, or merely acknowledgement of the command, mattered little, save for the fact that the Feien ceased struggling and released the spike, instead using the leverage of Quantel's grip to continue its battle to emerge.

Her breath caught in her throat as Tera watched what was occurring, leaning in unconsciously for a better view. As Quantel pulled, more of the Feien was visible, tiny arms covered with blue and black markings, a head wreathed in bright white locks. From her vantage point, Tera was unable as of yet to make out a face, or even an apparent gender, though she knew the Feien were genderless by nature. That glorious mane continued, tangled in what Tera took to be bits of the bloom, black and red highlights shooting throughout it and cloaking most of the Feien from view. It was at this point that Quantel cried out at the exertion, then flung her wings out to either side, beating them once and rising up from the sweater. Aware of the young Feien coming free of the bloom for the briefest of moments, Tera watched as Quantel landed with her charge, her wings habitually folding down to cover and protect both from outside forces. At the same time, the parchment still in Tera's hand lightened, and she felt as if a slight, imperceptible weight throughout the room had lifted.

In the dark cocoon of her wings, Quantel panted softly, mentally chiding herself for being as foolish as to use physical means to do the job. Her hands still clung to the new Feien's wrists, so fragile in her grip, and she rued the fact that she had never attempted to master the art of dark vision. She could feel the breath of the other against her face, the tangled weave of hair that could be hers, could be the other's, could be both intertwined. Willing her heart to slow, Quantel reached forward mentally in an effort to detect the level of power within this one, and was mildly disappointed in what she found. No matter. Other uses can be found. The other Feien was beginning to recover as well, which was a much better sign. Through the darkness, Quantel whispered, "You hurt yourself on emerging, aii?"

There was a moment of hesitation, and the new Feien whispered back, in a lilting, feminine voice, "I did..." Even now, she could feel the roll of liquid as it emerged from her stinging fingertips, sense the path it formed as it dripped through the air before landing in soft droplets on her leg. The hands of this other creature moved effortlessly, knowingly, releasing her wrists and moving together to cup the fingers that bled. Something was familiar about this one, comfortingly so, as was the beginning tingle in the palm of her hand, the tingle that moved up through each finger and seemed to force her flesh to knit itself together again.

As Quantel performed the healing spell on the wound, her thumbs gently caressed the soft hand in her grasp. This moment was important beyond anything else she could do, these first few moments she would share with the new Feien. What happened now would either cement the work she had performed thus far, or destroy it all in a single heartbeat; with so many other things that had gone wrong in her life, Quantel was determined that this endeavor bear fruit. "Give me but a moment, and you shall then be presentable to our Bond."

"All right." With the pain receding, she became less uncertain as to these new surroundings. The time before this, not including her recent struggle to be free of whatever it was that had held her mere moments ago, were murky and jumbled, more sensations and feelings than actual memories. It was safe here, and warm, and whoever was with her she could tell had been with her for a very long time now. She remembered her first clear vision, among the jumble of other images that accompanied her arrival, when she had lifted her head and found herself gazing up at the cool, intent visage of this other, remembered a moment of realization before those enormous wings had swung out and performed the maneuver that had pulled her free. "What... who are you?"

Quantel smiled at the question, even as she lifted a fold of the sweater that still cradled them, using it to wipe the blood from both herself and the young one. Soon to be your reason for being. "I am a Feien, just as you are." Her hands found the tangled mane of hair before her, smoothing it back and combing through it with her fingers. Though the hard protuberances from the other's forehead surprised her, she made no show of it, and did what she could at this moment to avoid drawing attention to that. Continuing, she whispered, "We are both members of a dying race; it pleases me immensely that you have made your arrival somewhat unharmed."

The girl nodded, briefly, eyes squinting in an attempt to see in the gloom cast by the wings around them. At the thought of wings, some muscles along her back quivered, and she felt a part of her brushing against the protective living shield. Feien, she thought, and knew instinctively that these things on her back were wings of her own, and she experimentally attempted extending them, where they bumped and rubbed against the older Feien's wings. To her amazement, someone or something seized her wings and stilled them, pressing them gently but inescapably back down.

The use of her magic hand had been automatic at a stranger's touch, but Quantel quickly turned the mistake into a learning experience. "Rubbing one's wings against those of another Feien is both impolite and immoral." She kept her voice soothing, using tones she had heard from Tera when the Bond had needed to explain something to one of the Juu without insulting its intelligence. "I shall do what I can to teach you our ways, for there are Feien among us much less tolerant of such faux pas." Before the girl could answer, Quantel had found her hands once more. "Now you meet our Bond, my dear."

As the minutes had dragged by, Tera began to become concerned. The huddle of leathery blue wings had twitched occasionally, but there had been no other sign of life from the two Feien. Had something gone wrong? Was the new Feien all right? She had been on the verge of reaching out to gently move the wings aside when they lifted on their own, Quantel standing upright and helping the new Feien to its feet. She found herself leaning even closer, eyes widening at the sight of this tiny new, decidedly female, Feien. When both had stood upright, Quantel keeping one hand on the other's shoulder, Tera released the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

The girl, first wanting to see her benefactor, had been staring at Quantel when she felt the exhalation of warm air, then turned her head in that direction and blinked, surprised. The area around them was *huge*, and the being in front of them seemed even more so. Green eyes as large as her own head stared at her, and she shifted from one foot to the other, wondering at this strange feeling in her stomach. The face before her seemed familiar, in the same sense that the other Feien had seemed familiar, but not quite as strongly.

Tera's first realization was that the parts she had briefly thought to have been broken pieces of the bloom were in fact attached to her new Feien, who even now was blinking up at her and leaning closer to Quantel. It was this blinking that brought Tera to her second and third realizations, simultaneously: Two tiny horns and three even tinier eyes. She'd witnessed third eyes before, on Ares, and vaguely recalled Maq mentioning a Feien with horns, but the two together with the presence of spikes was something entirely new and, as far as she knew, completely unprecedented. Realizing she was staring, Tera attempted to break the tension with a soft smile, then, in the same low, carrying tones she knew tiny creatures such as the Pixas could tolerate, she spoke. "Welcome, little one. I am Teralinth d'Kalin, your Bond."

The little Feien smiled back, slowly at first. "That's a nice name." Her wings quivered, and she asked, "Are you supposed to be that big?" No sooner had those words left her lips than the strange sensation of her wing being seized happened again, the pressure not painful, but not to be ignored either. The most perplexing thing about this was the fact that, as she turned to look, she could clearly see the hand of Quantel's that was not resting still on her back hanging at the other woman's hip.

Quantel leaned in, softly chiding, a whisper meant only for the ears of the young one, "One does not ask such questions of those bigger than they, lest the bigger ones see it as a sign of weakness." She loosened the grip of her magic hand, smoothing gently over the delicate membranes of the wing with it, smiling at the girl in a matronly, kind fashion. "Many things for you to learn whilst you are still young, aii?"

As her Feien spoke, Tera attempted to listen, vainly, despite the accented hearing of her de-illusioned features. One brow arched upwards. "What are the two of you whispering about?"

"I am informing the young one that there is much for her to learn," Quantel supplied smoothly; not a lie, per se, for she already knew it was impossible to lie to her Bond. "My next words were to be that much in this world she has entered into will be immensely large, in comparison to herself."

"Is this so, Ori?" The Gospen word for "eyes" slipped out before Tera could stop it, and she winced inwardly. Smooth one, Ter. From the eager nod, and sudden bright smile, of the new Feien, she relaxed, chuckled even. "It looks like you've got yourself a teacher, then, in Quantel there."

Smothering down the rush of joy that rose within her at Tera's words, Quantel inquired, as if innocent to the meaning behind the word, "Shall 'Ori' be her name then, Tera?"

"Oh, yes, please!" At this exclamation, Tera could do little but laugh and nod. Thus christened, Ori bounced slightly, excitedly, until the strange pressure against her wing returned and stilled her. With a slight glance to the side, where Quantel stood, she bit the corner of her lower lip. Another mistake? Glancing down at the surface beneath her feet, she wondered how long it would be before she knew what was proper and what was not. Lucky, then, that Quantel was so willing to help her learn.

The joy bubbled again when Quantel's touch had made this one, this Ori, quiet down so quickly. How very, very easy this was proving to be.