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Spring continued to battle against the last vestiges of winter in Serenia. Snow still covered some areas of the land and in general it was not yet warm enough during the days to switch to lighter clothing. Some areas had escaped winter's grasp however and that was where Maslin currently found himself. Parked on the edge of a dock that extended out into a small lake with a fishing rod in hand. Maslin did not fish regularly but every once in a while he enjoyed spending a day relaxing and seeing if he could outwit or outlast the fish who seemed reluctant to bite. Like today he preferred to fish from a dock, boats and Maslin had never gotten along and Lazuli had a habit of rocking them violently when he got excited.

Lazuli had come along today, the peisio drakein currently lay stretched out beside Maslin staring intently into the water as if willing the fish swimming below the lake's surface to jump out and come to him. The first time Maslin had taken Lazuli fishing the keindred had actually nearly used his water based basic to make such a thing happen, which kind of defeated the purpose of fishing. These days Lazuli just watched, and ate whatever Maslin caught though he came along less for the meal and more to keep the man company.

The sun continued to arc higher into the sky and as time passed the pair of Peisio chatted, unconcerned with the lack of fish eager to take the bait.

It was Lazuli who noticed the other Hybrid first, he raised his head from where it had rested upon his forelegs and issued a curious little whistle. He'd never seen anyone quite like that before. Nothing about the tall slim man's appearance concerned him although bright greenish yellow eyes watched him carefully.


Maslin drew his eyes away from the red and white bobber that rested on the lake's surface turned his head to see what had caught Lazuli's attention. He had hazy memories of seeing the man in the distance somewhere before but he wasn't quite sure where. Regardless, he was obviously a hybrid and one with an impressive looking pair of wings at that. he raised an arm and offered a sort of lazy wave in the other man's direction. He could come and talk if he wanted or continue on his way, either result was fine with Maslin right now.

Lazuli had given a small rumble of approval when the strange man had used blue magic to carry this things for him. Even though Maslin could see the same thing he projected the picture to his bonded anyways. Maslin should learn to do that! The keindred had never met a thing he'd needed that he couldn't carry for himself but Maslin was often hauling around huge metal projects and making multiple trips when just one would be needed if he had such magic.

Maslin snorted quietly at Lazuli's suggestion but offered a feeling of thanks regardless. He was pretty positive a levitation spell was a more advanced magic than he'd ever reached. A few healing spells and a little offensive magic was all Maslin had set himself on mastering. What he knew of magic and his chosen clan's skills was enough to keep him alive and mark him as not a complete pushover. For Maslin that was enough, his apprenticeship under his uncle in metal smithing was of far greater interest to him for the time being and he had not recently found himself in any situations where his current skill level was inadequate.

"Good afternoon, the fish are a bit shy with me today, though there's plenty of them," Maslin replied with a wry smile. "Some people are having better luck though."

Perhaps the fish disliked the bait he was using or it was the wrong time of day for the fish here or any number of variables that seemed to effect one's success when fishing. The hybrid man didn't fish often enough for it to be useful for him to learn everything one could know about fishing. Perhaps when he was old and had nothing else to do he'd retire around here and take to fishing every day. It seemed like the old men were those having the most success thus far.

Maslin was less than impressed with the other man's none too subtle attempts at intimidation and what may or may not have also been a poke at him about his weight. It was just his luck that a fellow hybrid turned out to be as antagonistic as most people. There truly were only a handful of individuals outside of his family that Maslin found to be decent company. Though the naivete of his youth had passed Maslin had found all new reasons to dislike the majority of his fellow magescans.

Before his bonded's grouchy nature could scare the interesting hybrid off Lazuli was on his feet and moving across the creaky wooden dock towards the pale skinned man. " Nice magic, more?" The Peisio keindred would defend Maslin if the tension in the air brought a fight but he would much rather see what other things the stranger could do. "Lazuli," he offered as an introduction as he stopped only inches away from the robed man.

Lazuli had been startled by the appearance of a small furry head from under but he was soon too busy staring at the orbs of magic floating around him to care. The keindred didn't know how much use such a skill had but it certainly looked pretty and the presence of so much magic made him feel good. His claws bit into the wood of the dock as he willed himself to stay still and not to try reaching out and touching the magic. The last time he had tried to play with strange magic it had ended poorly and Lazuli was not inclined to spend days recovering from injuries and being half blind again.

Lazuli longed for the time when he would have great magical skills too, displays such a this made him more determined than ever to practice. He would learn amazing things and then more girls than just Kioda would call him pretty. He would like her best though because she had been the first.

"Maslin come see, he is better than... she was." Having forgotten the woman's name he flashed a mental picture of an old aiskala dovaa through the bond. She had been very good but this was better, felt stronger, though different. This man didn't look as body strong though and he did not know if he was as fast as she had been. Who would win between them in a fight Lazuli could not be sure.


Unable to resist Laz's summons and interested by the display of magic despite being skeptical of it's source Maslin reeled in the fishing line and stood so he could join his bonded. He didn't recognize whatever it was the other man was doing. It looked like Aedaun based magic he supposed but he'd never learned anything quite like it. Of course he was progressing his magical learning pretty slowly right now so it might simply be something too advanced for him to have seen or read about.

"He is definitely better than Ba'shiri," he murmured in agreement as he got closer and could better feel the magic being worked. What you could see and the strength of the magic underneath is seemed to be two different things in this case. Ba'shiri seemed as if she had used her many years to master all that an Aiskala dovaa could possibly do but this man, he had potentially far more varied magic at his disposal, one of the few perks to being a hybrid. He might not like this man but he accepted that he held a power that Maslin himself likely never would.

Practise Lazuli prompted from through the bond.

Maslin opted to ignore the comment and instead address his fellow hybrid. " I'm Maslin, who are you and from whom did you learn that," he asked nodding his head in the direction of the magic encircling his bonded. Standing closer now he noticed the weird little fuzzy white head peeking up just past the high collar of the man's clothes " and what is under your robes?" The words came out of his mouth just as the young man realized how wrongly they could be interpreted.

Lazuli watched sadly the strange hybrid man and his companion left. He would have liked to have seen more magic and maybe he and the fuzzy thing could have played while the magescans did boring things like talk about racial politics, a subject which Lazuli cared very little for.

He also didn't care for the idea of being replaced once Maslin was as powerful as the man they had just met. "Will you make a fuzzy magic thing too?" he asked, craning his neck a bit and looking up at his bonded.

Maslin shook his head and grinned down at the blue hided drakein " I have you, what would I need something like that for." Lazuli was his partner, in a way no magically summoned thing could ever be, so far as Maslin was concerned.

Meeting the other hybrid had been a strange and not altogether pleasant experience although he supposed things could have gone worse. Whoever the other man had been and wherever he was going were not Maslin's concern though. Like most people the pale man had come into his life, caused a bit of chaos and then left again.

"C'mon Laz, help me gather the fishing stuff and let's go home. " Tired from the experience and disliking the looks he was getting from the other fisherman now, Maslin felt it it was good time to make his own exit.