Welcome to Gaia! ::

Donat peered wide-eyed at the crowds around him and his father as they made their way through the shopping mall. It was probably the most people he had ever seen in an enclosed space, and while the goat-boy was far from frightened, it was still quite interesting, and admittedly a little overwhelming. Kumoru seemed to know where he was going, though, so Donat made sure to stick close to him. Much as he might have liked to wander off and see what interesting people he could meet.

Kumoru knew exactly where he was going, and that was the thrift store. He had paid for brand new jeans for Donat for the last time. The boy could rip holes in the knees practically before the tags were off of them. And since Arlyn was still rather averse to the idea of clothes in general, Donat's older brother could not be expected to provide hand-me-downs for the goat to shred.

He lead Donat along through the people at the mall, occasionally glancing back to make sure his son was still following, and that he was following on two legs. The mage hoped he could break Donat's habit of crawling or walking on all-fours soon, since the boy was starting to grow up.

Donat was starting to think he was outgrowing holding his father's hand, but he still occasionally reached out to tangle his fingers in Kumoru's navy robes for reassurance. Overall, though, his eyes wandered through all the crowds around him, looking for interesting people.

The crowd opened up as Donat and his father walked through a large doorway into an area filled with racks upon racks of clothes. Since it was more convenient now, the goat-boy lengthened his stride a bit to walk beside his fater, leaning down to put one hand on the ground for a moment as he did so.

"Try to walk upright, Donat, the floor is dirty," Kumoru scolded him gently, glancing at the boy and then looking around. It looked like there were a bunch of shirts available, and he figured Donat could use more of those.

"Want to go pick out a few shirts?" he asked the boy, pointing over towards the rack of them. "I'll let you get three that you like, as long as they fit you. And while you do that, I can pick out some pairs of pants for you to try on." The mage pointed over along the wall, which appeared to be devoted entirely to jeans and coats.

Donat nodded slowly, his attention already captured by the orange-skinned kid already looking at the shirts. Barely hearing the tail-end of his father's shopping plan, he bobbed his head up and down once or twice, then took off to go look through the shirts and the person with them.

"Hiya," he said, leaning down a little to try to make eye-contact with the orange-skinned boy.

"Yeah, shirts an' pants," Donat told him, glancing over to where Kumoru was watching him over a rack of sweaters and turtlenecks. Then he added with a grin, "I like green ones," and rifled through a stack of them to get to a green shirt that was near the bottom.

"What color shirt do you like?" the goat inquired after a moment, sticking the index finger of one hand into his mouth. "'sides orange, I mean." Donat's eyes flicked down to his own spotted brown tones, then back to the other boy's bright orange. He did not really want to stare, but he had to admit that orange was pretty different.

Donat nodded, looking thorougly interested in Chath's talk of colors. As the other boy dropped the shirt on the floor, the goat leaned down to look under the table to see the pile of shirts already there, then stood up again and nodded. "Those are good colors," he said with a nod of agreement.

Chath's question caught him a bit off guard, though. Donat stuck a finger in his mouth while he thought about it, then reluctantly admitted, "I'm not sure yet." He chewed on his finger for another moment, then added, "Daddy says I'm a kind of goat, but I don't remember which one." His features fell a bit, and he stuck a second finger into his mouth. "I'm not in my animal book."

"What about you?" he asked, turning his gaze back to his friend across the table of shirts.

Donat considered this for a moment, then smiled a little. "Yeah, maybe you're right," he said. Then he grinned broadly at Chath again. "And all the frogs and salal- salm- salamal-" he skipped the word and replaced it with a short giggle "I don't think I've seen any orange ones. So you're special, too, I think."

He glanced down at the pile of shirts on the table, and poked around for another green one. Donat found a burgundy one, first, though, and after pulling it out, he offered it to Chath. "How 'bout this one? It's your favorite color, right?"

With a nod and a vague gesture off to the side where Kumoru was, Donat said, "Yeah, I'm here with Daddy. What about you?" He looked up a little and smiled again. "My daddy does magic!"

He blinked at Chath's other question, though, and cocked his head. "Dragon," the goat repeated. "Am I a-s'posed to have one?" As far as he could recall, he had no dragon yet.

His face brightened again, though. Maybe it was going to be a surprise and he was getting insider information!

"He does all kinds of magic," Donat told Chath, with a touch of pride in his voice. "I think he said he can even make people see ghosts!" This ability was yet untested on Donat himself, though, so he could not attest to how well it worked.

At mention of dragons, the goat-boy's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Reeeeeally?" he asked in disbelief and awe. "I'd love to meet your dragon! Is it big? Can it breathe fire?" Figuring they were going to go do so at that very moment, Donat searched the table for a place to stow the shirts he had picked out while they were gone.

"Yeah, sure. Want to talk to him now? He can hold the shirts I like while I meet Keir." Donat smiled and took a few steps towards his father, then waited to see if Chath wanted to follow.

By the way Donat reacted to the other boy's description of his dragon, it was like he had told the goat Keir was a pink dragon made of sparkles and cotton candy. "Keir sounds really cool!" he exclaimed. "And yeah, sure, I'll be careful." He certainly did not sound the least bit intimidated.

More about himself, though? "I, um, I like playing tag and being outside a lot," Donat told him, sticking a finger in his mouth to suck on while he thought. "My brother and I play blocks a lot, too. And reading is fun sometimes, but I mostly like being outdoors." He glanced up at his friend again. "What about you? What do you like to do?"