Welcome to Gaia! ::

Maslin felt more than a little guilty as he reached out to knock on the door of the house in front of him. He had always meant to come here and keep his promise to visit. Time had simply slipped away from him, with Lazuli's hatching, endless dragon hunts, the learning of metal smithing, the camp moving locations and so on. It had always felt like there would be time later to get to get to it and yet later had never come. Maslin could only hope that he'd be forgiven for taking ages for this to happen.

Standing at the young man's side was Lazuli who hummed softly and shifted from foot to foot impatiently. The Peisio drakein was eager to meet this person that Maslin remembered fondly. Maslin seemed to like so few people which was sad but Lazuli did his best to make sure his bonded never felt lonely. He didn't care what feral Drakein said, their connection was no shame or abomination but something special that made the Keindred feel whole and happy.

Maslin swore internally when a much older and somewhat changed Damian answered the door only to freak out at the sight of Lazuli and run away. He had been with the Drakein for so long now that he was used to his presence. That and much of Magesc seemed to know about Drakein whether they wished too or not. It had not occurred to him that Damian might mistake his partner for a dragon.

Lazuli was shocked and saddened by the boy's fear of him. He was the nicest Drakein he knew. He might only know mean nasty lying ferals but that mattered little to the keindred. Oh but he had been called a dragon, hmm there weren't really any good dragons so maybe it was okay for the boy to be afraid of his mistake. Still, he could feel the disappointment rolling off Maslin and that was not good.

Before either male could do more than turn their heads to look at each other Damian was back with Kavanna in tow.

Maslin cleared his throat awkwardly and nodded. " I'm sorry I meant to visit sooner and I forgot that you didn't know Lazuli and .." he trailed off. This was not exactly how he'd planned this going. Feeling a little out of place and plenty sheepish he reached up to run a hand through his orange and blue tipped bangs while offering an awkward smile. Life was so much easier when you made other people come to you and things like this were why Maslin preferred to engage people on his own terms.

" I'm nice" Lazuli stated firmly, eyes fixed on Damian. he needed the boy to accept him so Maslin would feel better. Words were not his strong suit, he still struggled to speak at times but this he could get across.

Maslin wasn't certain at first if he should have objected more to the surprise hug or the implication that Lazuli was in some way tame. Not that his bonded acted the same as his feral kin but tame implied a sort of docility and breaking of spirit. He'd never been anything less th-

Lazuli interrupted his bonded's train of thought with waves of reassurance and an image of them standing triumphant over a decaying dragon corpse. Maslin shouldn't worry, he was filled with spirit and happy to be with the large man. Whatever his feral kin had that he didn't was of no concern to Lazuli because he didn't feel like he lacked anything.

Also ferals didn't get to go in houses and here he was stepping carefully inside one, keeping his wings pinned to his body and tail low to the ground to avoid knocking things over. Houses weren't built for his kind and lacked the wide open spaces of the tents back at camp. Still they were certainly interesting looking,and filled with strange things.

Calmed a little and surprised at the truly warm reception he'd been given Maslin smiled and nodded. "Staying for dinner isn't a problem," he replied as he too came inside. Feeling a bit more comfortable as well as slightly warmer inside the house the hybrid man released his wings from their markings. Over the years it had become apparent that his larger than average size would not allow him to fly with their help like normal orderites. Still, they required regular exposure and care to maintain good health even if they were purely ornamental at this point. Though he could not fully extend them right now, this was actually a decent time to have them out.

"Just what have you learned?" Maslin asked Damian warily. He was bigger and older than the other hybrid but it was entirely possible that Damian had had far better training, particularly regarding dovaa skills. Maslin wasn't entirely positive he wanted to see what the other male knew if it was going to be used on him.

"Magic?" Lazuli chirped excitedly. " We know magic." Unlike his bonded Lazuli was all for big flashy displays of power. As long as no one got badly hurt it was all good in the keindred's mind.

Unable to resist Damian's enthusiasm Maslin followed the younger male back outside of the house. He supposed that even if his fellow hybrid planned to use magic against him he had always had fairly good magical defenses. As they walked towards the water's edge he supposed this could also just be a display of control. Maslin himself lacked a good deal of finesse with his magic, it was an area he needed to improve upon in the future. Regardless of what Damian showed he assumed it would be interesting.

"I am sorry I didn't visit before," he noted again. "It seems both of us did a lot of changing since we last saw each other." So much time had passed and yet he was still accepted and Damian seemed just as innocent and cheerful as before. Whatever he had experienced over the years had not drained away his optimism it seemed. Damian might have changed physically and have grown into his own magically but he was still easy to relate to so far.

While Maslin had gained a few more friends over the years he found that he responded to each of them differently. Kadryn was trustworthy and dependable, she was an educational sparring partner and not bad for conversation. Eanah was a bit prickly but easy to understand and around Damian, Maslin had an inexplicable sense of calm.

Lazuli followed slowly after the hybrids, he regretted having to leave Kavanna alone and not getting to spend more time in the house but magic was one of the most exciting things to him.

Damian definitely had a more elegant flair to magic than he did, Maslin noted. He really would have to to put more effort into at least refining his skills enough to have a larger degree of control. He'd have to find time somewhere in his schedule to work in a little more magic practice, perhaps after he finished his most recent commission. "That was very good," the compliment was offered freely and with no traces of jealousy.

"Peisio seems to suit you well, both in temperament and how fast you picked up the magic." It was nice to know that Damian was not keen on fighting, that meant a lesser chance of someday receiving the news that he'd been killed in the war. Maslin would prefer his friends live out reasonably long lifespans, both for their sakes and because he was bad at grieving. "When I chose my clan Peisio seemed to be the only one I could accept, everything else felt wrong."

"Peisio is best." Lazuli pointed out, the blue hided drakein had no qualms about declaring his bias towards his own clan. Everyone else was ok but really He was a Peisio and so was Maslin and now Damian who seemed quite nice and strong. Plus the only Peiso dragon he had ever encountered up close had not been some roaring monster bent on eating his bonded. Clearly the best types of everything chose or were born into Peisio.

Maslin could only laugh softly at Lazuli's claims, not keen on getting into that sort of argument. Still, he had no doubt that between the three of them there was enough magical strength to do anything they really wanted with the water before them.

Maslin highly doubted he knew any magic that Damian didn't. Most of his family were not mages and none of them were dovaa. What he'd learned had been from the odd book and a great deal of trial and error. Well and also a little from Ba'shiri before she'd left for the celestial plane. The young man would do his best though to not disappoint his younger friend.

"Ahh well this isn't so much about being big and strong but I have found this combinations of spells useful." Maslin did have one little creative trick trick up his sleeve although it was mostly employed as his get away from dragons he didn't care to fight skill.

The hyrbid mage stretched his wings out and let them catch the sun's rays, for a second he seemed to merely be basking in the light before a soft glow began to emanate from his skin. The shine became brighter and even his hair, horns and feathers seemed to glimmer. Sweeping his wings suddenly forward Maslin created a blindingly bright flash of light and disappeared before the spell could fade.

Lazuli who had seen the trick before, waited for the brightness to dim and then stared up in the sky at the small pale ball of light that was now Maslin. He had never understood how even magic could turn a man as large as his bonded into something the size of a person's fist.

Slowly but surely Maslin returned to his natural form looking a bit exhausted as he did so, it took a good deal of concentration and magical output on his behalf to pull that trick off. He smiled down at Damian and how eager the younger male was to learn the one thing it seemed he knew the other did not. " It's a bit difficult to pull off at first and it's really only useful for escaping tricky situations". The ball of light form was not useful in battle and still susceptible to magical damage in his experience.