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The day had been long for Marli, though she had spent the bulk of it merely sitting on the shore, letting the waves lap at her toes. Many of her days had been spent as such; she wasn't fond of staying at home. Although she loved her Guardian dearly, HE was there, and even after months and months she couldn't bring herself to talk to him. She feared him, as she did so many things. So she stayed mainly at the beach from the time she awoke until sundown. Inle understood her need to be out of the cabin, away from Paur, and respected it. Marli would have been at the beach still...but she was thirsty. It drove her to the Center, which was closer and safer than home.

At the moment, she was attempting to scrabble up onto the counter in order to reach the cabinets and sink. Wisps of hair had escaped her blue headband, and her bangles clattered quietly as she scrambled up...only to lose her grip on the counter. In an attempt to stay on the counter she grabbed at whatever she could, hoping to find an anchor. Instead, she found a pot, and it landed with a crash next to her. Long ears folded back, and she frowned. "Owee," she muttered.

Marli sighed as she picked herself back up, lifting the pot and checking it for dents. She hoped it was alright, she hadn't meant to bring it down with her, and she was relieved to find that the sturdy steel was unharmed. As she moved to put the pot on a different part of the counter so she could climb unhindered, she caught a flash of red out of the corner of her eye. Marli whirled around instinctively, holding the pot against her as if it would protect her. Her head tilted to the side, one ear flopping over while the other remained upright, as she saw the boy.

Luc looked familiar, but she couldn't place it. Her nose wiggled, as it often did when she was in thought, and she stared. "I know yew..." she said after a moment, already-soft voice gone quieter with her inherent shyness.

Marli's other ear perked at the familiar name. He looked so different to her; the last time she had seen him, she was recovering from her injuries and still in her gryphon form. He had seemed so much bigger then--he was still bigger than she was now, and he probably always would be as she was a bit on the diminutive side.

She had missed him, these long months. He was her best friend, probably her only friend, and it seemed a lifetime ago since they had last met. Irrational tears of joyful sadness welled in her eyes, and she sniffled. She raised an ebony hand to wipe at her face, nearly smacking herself with the pot, but her gaze never left him.

"Where y' been, Look? 'S been ferever...I missed yew."

Marli nodded, ears and hair flopping around her face. She had wanted so much to see him after she grew, so that they'd be able to play together again--as fun as his last visit had been, she had mourned the fact that he was so much bigger than she was. She glanced at the sleeping Nyxa, and the urge to chuck the pot at her for taking away her friend was strong, made odd by the fact that Marli didn't like violence. Her ears pinned back as she glared--as much as she could--at Nyxa before she turned back to her friend.

"Ya went offa th' island?" she asked, curiosity instantly rising. "What's it like? Issit fun?"

Marli frowned a bit at the tone in her friend's voice, and though she wondered what had happened, she knew better than to ask. She knew what it was like to have things one didn't want to discuss.

Her ears perked once more as her attention was drawn to the large bow, and her eyes widened a bit. "'S pretty!" she said, marvelling at the wooden creation. She put the pot down on the floor--carefully, she hadn't liked the loud noise it had made earlier--and moved closer to get a better look. It WAS pretty, with its intricate carvings, and jeweled grip, and furred and feathered ends. With a smile, she turned back to Luc. "Whassit for?"

If Marli could have paled beneath her ebony fur, she would've. Luc was going to kill things? Killing stuff was bad, or so she'd always been taught to believe! She sat herself down across from Luc, wings hitching higher upon her back so as to avoid being sat on. She brushed ashen locks of hair from her face with a hand while looking from the bow to her friend. "Innay-mama says killin's not cool."

Marli's hands fidgeted in her lap as she looked at the bow once more. "I guess..." she trailed off, wondering how something so pretty could kill things. She didn't know much about the world yet, and to her the pretty bow was just a pretty bow, rather than a hunting instrument.

She looked up at Nyxa as the woman stirred, frowning at her in a mixture of sadness and disapproval. Couldn't she have slept a little longer? At Nyxa's question, she nodded. "I live thatta way," she said, pointing in a random direction which, in reality, was in the opposite direction of where her home lay. She really did know the way home, but she was a little wary of Nyxa--what if she took Luc off the island again?

The ruffling of her feathers spoke of her discomfort around the woman, but she looked at Luc with a warm smile. "Yah! You don' go nowhere, k?"

As had been their routine when Tsukai had been in his wisp stage, so continued the routine a little later along the line. Kiro and Tsu were both sitting at one of the tables in the main area of the Centre.

Tsu didn't know what Kiro was doing. It was like the neko-jin was always busy with something. He guessed it was probably something to do with the approaching Halloween Party - but he didn't really know.

Tsukai, himself, was practising his writing skills. It was odd, the Aerandir thought idly. There was one set of writing that Kiro had shown him. It was a simple-looking set of 'letters', 26 of them. Then there was another one, which had about 50 letters. Kiro had told Tsu there was another set of 50 and another set that had too many letters to count. For now, Tsu was just working on the smaller set of letters, but the bigger ones looked like fun!

Absently, Kiro felt his gaze rise at the sound of - what he thought was - somebody approaching from outside. He caught the sound of a voice he didn't recognise, and this peaked his interest, idly waiting for its owner to present themselves.