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Tam laughs and gives her a hug. "Alright.... One day long long ago.... there was this fox walking through the forest....." and he tells the short Aesop tale with so much flourish it becomes nearly four times longer than it truly was written.

When he finishes Hopian smiles wickedly. "Ye know.... I seem to remember your mother saying something about that tale being written about you."

Tam lifts an elegant brow and looks offended. "Me?" he exclaims in dismay, then dissolves into laughter. "Actually ye may be right... I suspect it was one of us kids anyway... I don't use it much these days, Princess, but did ye know one of my shapes is that of a fox?"

Tam eyes her closely and gives her tummy a tentative poke. "Naw... not enough padding... as for me..." Suddenly his shape dissolves and she finds herself face to face with a small red fox, one she's seen before and he knows it as she is the one who found him in the garden a few weeks prior, he winks and licks her nose. "Stinker..." he laughs and bids everyone a good night.

"I'm off to bed. Pleasant dreams everyone... and may the angels watch over ye..." he says with a grin, bounding up the stairs.

Salunia watches him go with a frown. "So whaf shawp does he weawy hawve?"

"Maybe you should ask him that someday, but make sure you are outside when you do so.... it's kind of big." says Hopian laughing. "What I want to know is... having seen Ai's... what shape does Bezernia have.... He's only shown us two.... I don't call his riding of Puss as a shape.... that was more of a possession."

"You've seen it?" asks Hopian eagerly. "I mean... can ye give me a hint..."

**just so ye know... Bez only has two forms.... **

Hopian frowns. "Now I'm really confused." he grumbles testily. "Didn't Ai say he was the angel of faith.... oh, how did she put it... 'Love without Faith is empty and Faith without Love is futile...' or something of the sort. So how can he be the essence of your power... I know he serves a different purpose now... but..." he shakes his head and sighs. "Guess I'll have to do some asking too."


**Bez is what he is... Lord of Shadows, but his shadows don't so much conceal as soften.... as for his forms... his panther form was one of desperation, to come close to Ai as possible... his true form is simply his humanoid form... only larger... much larger, with tattered smoke gray wings. There was a reason he's always losing his feathers. **

Hopian looks at him and shakes his head. "Kero... which one of ye am I talking to here?" he demands with a shrewd sideways glance.

"Why the Lord of Nothingness... who else..." quips Hopian with a grin. "Go to bed, Kero... let me have some quiet time with my family will ye... Fortuny is tired and Sal is already at half-mast... "

Hopian blinks then laughs self consciously. "Ahhh.... that never occurred to me. I always thought that because Tam was so quick to shift into so many forms, he'd have a few as well. I wonder... do ye think it is something Tam learned from his foster parents... or if he had the skill to begin with."

Kero smiles broadly. "Part skill, part learned knowledge is my guess.... As for Bez... he has told us, has he not... that he's not very magical... so I assume that pertains to shifting as well as the rest. But you could always ask him. Of course getting a straight answer might be a bit dicey. I've seen he's much like me in that aspect. He doesn't appear to lie, but neither does he give freely what one can find out for themselves through other means. And he is geis-bound to charge a fee if something is required of him."

Kero grimaces. "A few scratches. I'll live. I've had much worse, ye know. like pieces of old swords protruding from my chest."