Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jake's voice could be heard from just inside the door, pleading with the little shadow. After a series of thuds and crashes, Jake finally opened the front door, holding Kali against him with one arm. "Hello Thali. Please come in. Excuse the mess..." As the elf did not know Jake, she probably would not notice the slight tenseness in his voice.

Kali was curled around Jake's arm, mouthing on his arm with teeth that seemed nothing but razor-sharp. At the sight of the pair of strangers, she paused and raised her head, red eyes blinking at them. Her head tilted one way, then the other, an innocent look of curiosity coming over her features as she queried, "muh?"

The shifter sighed softly and stepped inside, Kali still clutched against him. From the wide foyer with its twelve foot high ceilings, it was easy to see that Kali had been wreaking havoc on the poor doctor's life. Shoes were strewn in every direction, some looking as if they'd been shredded by an animal with sharp claws, others merely bearing bite marks. A vase lay shattered on the floor and a lamp in the living room to the right was in the same condition. Instead of walking into the living room, Jakeb walked straight down the hall to a modest sun room, which featured a 'window' in the wall into the kitchen, a piano, couch, and several cushioned chairs - one of which had bite marks on one leg.

After setting the shadow onto the already damaged chair, Jake proceeded attempting to introduce her to their guests. "Kali, this is your Aunt Thali and -" he paused a moment, studying Oliver as if he were trying to remember the shadow name, then continued, "Oliver. Say hello."

Kali clambered to her feet almost as soon as she was sat down in the chair. When introduced to the two and instructed to say hello she blinked at them, then stared at Jakeb, as if wondering if she should listen to him or not. Then she slipped down off of the chair and toddled over to them, plucking a shoe off the floor on her way. "Muhmuh," she said stated abruptly, peering around Thali with a grin - quite pleased with herself. Once she had completed her 'greeting', as daddy had insisted, her teeth clamped down onto the brown loafer in her hand. She then let out a girlish giggle, a sound so pure with childish mischief that it was simultaneously creepy and cute.

Jake blinked and looked down at his arm, as if he'd actually forgotten about the bite. "Oh...no. I'm fine. See? She wasn't actually trying to hurt me." Holding his arm out, he pushed the sleeve of his light, long-sleeved shirt up. His skin had hardly been pricked, and the bites hadn't even been deep enough to draw blood. However, his skin was a bit red and there were some scratch marks. Tugging his sleeve back down, he decided not to mention the ugly bite mark on his knee.

His brown creased slightly at her question. "No, I haven't slept. She showed up at midnight, right after I'd fallen asleep." The lack of sleep, however, wasn't the cause of his ruffled appearance. Kali had been tearing apart his house since the moment she'd arrived. He left out the fact that his sister, Mari, had visited just before Kali appeared, thinking it was unimportant.

"I was hoping you could teach me about them. Kat's ordered me to take care of her as if she were my daughter, but I have a feeling she requires a bit more attention than a .... normal child." Jakeb almost hesitated to call the shadow abnormal, watching her as he did as if he expected her to understand his statement.

Kali, however, was quite transfixed by her two new friends. As her mouth worked on the brown shoe clamped between her teeth, she gazed from the tall elf to the normal-sized shadow - which was how they seemed from her perspective. At Thali's disapproving statement regarding her shoe-chewing, the little shadow growled softly. "Maaaa."

Turning her attention from the elf, who had just become uninteresting to Kali, she blinked at Oliver and smiled at him from around the shoe in her mouth. A soft giggle rose from her throat and she released the loafer in her mouth, holding it out to the shadow. "Muh?" she asked, her voice hopeful. Surely the male would share her appreciation for chewing on Jakeb's shoes.

Jakeb smiled softly at her concern, an expression that hadn't shown on his face in almost an entire day. "I will, don't worry." At the comment on Kali's behavior his smile turned to a dry smirk as he cast his gaze to the two shadows interacting. "I didn't call Kat until this morning. Believe it or not, but her behavior has improved."

When she switched to 'teaching mode' as Jake's clairvoyance processed it, he listened carefully, obviously quite interested in learning more about shadows. However, whether this was in concern for Kali's well-being, or Kat's careful 'instructions', couldn't be discerned from his vague expression. He never was one to wear his emotions on his sleeve. At the mention of misplaced magic, however, he let out a small sigh and sank into the chair nearest Thali's. His legs immediately folded, one over the other, and he leaned slightly to the left, his elbow resting against the arm of the chair, his jaw of the same side resting against his balled up fist. Classic Brit in repose? Check.

"Of course she caused it..." he mumbled under his breath, replaying his memories from Mari's visitation the night before. Shifters weren't meant to be spell-casters, but Mari had a strange knack for it. This was hardly surprising, given the fact that she was performing partial shifts in the womb. While Jake held a great deal of affection - and maybe pity - for his youngest sister, he couldn't help but want to wring her neck. If the girl hadn't been there making such a fuss, and then left so suddenly, he never would have used magic to try to follow her! And, by an extension, he wouldn't have such a headache as he did now.