Welcome to Gaia! ::

tam orders a large bowl of cream to be brought to kero, so that when he is done with his tune, he can enjoy a well earned treat... then while kero is drinking the cream he launches into s soft sad melody that pulls at the heart strings, there are no words to his piece but his strings sing and soar over the world, climbing to the tops of the coldest peaks, diving to bottom of the deepest of oceans... leading his audience on an emotional jaunt that ends with a sweet tender musical embrace... he stands and bows then tells kero to join him when he is finished with his snack... then he goes to their room, and climbs out onto the roof... staring up at the heavens... with a tear in his eye and a small sad smile on his face... he pulls out a locket and stares at it for a bit, then places it on his chest....

tam turns and gives him a hug back... i love ye too, kero... so what do ye know about the stars? he lays back down and puts his arms behind his head... unknowingly losing track of the small locket which has tumbled from his chest....

tam accepts the locket with a smile of relief... thank you, kero... that means a great deal to me... and she's a child of the lapis lazuli... the night blue gem stone.... ok... the stars form constellations... patterns... and some people claim to be able to read them... i make no such claim, but i love to watch them all the same... he smiles and points out a series of stars that form a m when ye draw a line from one to another... that is her ladyship's chair... sort of like a throne... and those three that sit so close together... people say it is a belt of a great hunter... ever see the northern lights?

it is truly magnificent, rippling bands of radiant light all across the sky... as though the all father is playing with his paint set... i wrote a song for it once... for me master.... then he falls silent and bites his lower lip....

better get some rest, kid... i... i'm going to be up here for a bit... need to do some thinking...

that night the entire inn is lulled to sleep by the silvery notes of a very special harp... and in the morning they awaken feeling refreshed and primed for a whole new day, none of them remembering anything about the music, but feeling it deep inside.... coursing through their veins... centering them for the rest of their lives...

when he awakens some time later he realizes that tam has not slept in his bed at all that night....

and finds him curled about a strange little harp made form a dark veined wood and strung with what looks like liquid strings.....