Welcome to Gaia! ::

angrily tam scrubs at his face and shakes his head... no... i won't... kero... ye have got to stop looking to everyone else to make ye behave... ye have to do it yerself... got that... i can only teach ye what is right... yer the one that has to do it... if smashing yer stinger each morning is what ye need to do... then do it... but ye must do it... not me....

don't be foolish says tam testily... kerobian, i've seen the inner you and it's not like that at all... that is your fear and your anger you see... your fear of becoming just like him and your anger over what he has done... and when we are that afraid or that angry, we can do one of two things... yes, don't argue... we can do one of two things... we can let it consume us right down to the dust ye fear even more or we can open a window and blow it away... and now he sends kerobian a vision of the darkness being pierced by a tall wide window and a cleansing wind, like a swift horrible hurricane bursting through and carrying the tatters away, leaving behind not quite an angel but rather a small cat like spirit whose fur glistens with all colors of the rainbow in the moonlight, it's fur night dark but somehow far more beautiful than anything kerobian had ever seen before in his life.... scattered with a sweeping expanse of stars...

that, dear heart... is the inner you... i should know... i've seen it more times than i can count... true ye tend to hide it... but angels know, taro... it is something ye can't hide... it is what we first see when we look at people... the soul... that which makes them whole.... no matter how much muck ye rake over it... we know what is there...

he sighs and curls about the cub, holding him close... kero, when someone we love does something bad, either to you or because of ye that doesn't make you evil as well.... and if yer parents were ashamed of ye, it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with them.... no child is evil... not truly... they can be raise evil, true... but fundamentally, evil is a choice we make not a thing we become and all that stuff took place long before ye were able to make such a choice... i have met creatures man has called evil for eons and found good souls within them... and i have been walking this creation of the all-father for a very long time

he sighs and kisses his head... tracing his crescent moon... i should know... you have emnast... i have bez... we were very close he and i... angels don't have a sexuality... we don't have males and females... though mankind has often chosen to portray us as such... we're neuters... but we do and can love one another... like kin or like lovers... and he, though we were close... far closer than many angelic pairs... he betrayed me... used me in his battle with our master, even though i was no part of the fight... i suspect the all-father knew this for in the end, for when he cast him out, i was allowed to stay... for a time... but ultimately i suspect it was my love for bez that caused him to send me away... does that make me evil?

that's what i'm here for, kiddo... to show ye the light at the end of the tunnel... ok... yer life has never been easy and to be truthfully honest, it's gonna be downright difficult in the years to come, but there is hope and love aplenty to found in it... iffin ye don't shut it out... and it is with that love and hope ye'll pull through... promise me ye never look at yerself in that light again... or iffin the fear comes back that ye talk about it...

know this... everyone gets angry, kiddo... even the all-father has been know to blow a gasket or two in his days... it's what ye do with that anger that will ultimately make ye a monster or allow ye to take the next step forward... and remember this as well... no matter what ye do... i'm here for ye... i'll always be here... if not physically then i'll always be just a whisper or call away... just say me name and i'll come running... fair enough?

tam sighs and hugs him tight... dono't ye ever scare me like that again... please, kero... for the love of all that's holy... are ye truly trying to give me a heart attack....

he kisses the cub again and looks at him close... are ye going to be ok?... feeling a bit sleepy? I think i got the worse of it out of ye... it shouldn't hurt ye now... but yer bound to have ingested some of it... feeling groggy, right?

tm shakes his head... no, taro... no one's ever told me the date... only that it was a long time ago... some creatures tell their age by the passage of the seasons, in fact many dragons do so i assumed ye really didn't know... do ye?

then i shall have to buy ye a birthday present... laughs tam giving him a hug... ye stay here, kiddo and rest.. after all that ye need it... i'm going to do a bit of shopping he says with a wink.... i'll be back as quickly as i can....

tam sighs and pulls him close... i don't buy gifts because people are bad or good... i buy gifts because i love to give them to the people i love... tomorrow then... sleep, kiddo... i'll stay with ye then... i'll be right here.... and if i'm goine when ye wake i'm only down in the kitchen fetching our lunch, ok?