Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tam stops near what must have been a doorway. "Actually... it's kind of sad. His presence there unified the students as nothing else had done. No one wanted him there. I got to know him pretty well because of that. He was always getting into scrapes and needing patching... and I had the strongest healing magic at the school at the time. He was really quite lonely... but truth is... he didn't do much to make friends... he gave as good as he got most of the time and then dug in a little more just to make sure he got them back. Not wicked.. not mean... just angry... "

Tam looks down at Kero and smiles. "Sometimes I think that if he had had just one true friend besides that little salamander... things wouldn't have turned out as they had. Shall I finish the tale? The ending isn't very pretty but kind of important."

Tam nods. "Yeah... he did but not right away... At first he tried to escape... not the school itself... he really wanted to learn... but well... I not sure when he started using the drug... I knew he was... even confronted him on it a time or two... but he always had some sort of answer for me... trouble was... it made his talent erratic and the students picked up on it fast. Some noble brat even began supplying him with the stuff... in an effort to make him fail. Then one night... someone came up with the bright idea to feed it to the salamander..."

"One side effect of the drug is that it can cause paranoia and when he came into his room and saw the salamander tottering about erratically, he rushed to see what was wrong. Only the tiny thing thought he was going to hurt him and well..." Tam looks around the town. "By morning... not a building remained intact... I managed to pull out quite a few people... got others to help rescue as many as we could... but the one man who probably could have helped us by summoning rain was out cold in the opium den. Middletown burned to the ground..."

"I agree... " says Tam quietly, looking around. "With great power comes great responsibility... not only to oneself but to those around him... including the familiars he keeps. I wanted you to see this to see what happens, not only when one abuses themselves... salamander store a great deal of power within them... and they are very attached to their masters... The first to die was his master... unable to control it's energies, it flared up and crisped him instantly. Then, in grief, it proceeded to eliminate all those whom it knew hated his master... masterless... and out of control... one tiny salamander level the whole of the town... I wanted to make sure you understood the dangers involved...

"I can't stop you from experimenting yourself... but don't drag another down with you...." says Tam sternly. "Drugs, even more so that alcohol, alter the state of one's perceptions... be careful... be wise... It is best to avoid them except when necessary. Understand?"

Tam returned home and pulling out his harp, went up onto the roof to think. With his fingers drifting aimlessly across the strings, creating strange alien melodies, he wonders if he did the right thing. He didn't want to frighten Kero so much as to make him think.

When Tam comes to bed, he notices this almost instantly and sits down by the cub, resting a hand on his back. "Where's Thyrion?" he asks in a gentle query.

"Why?" asks Tam quietly. "I thought he was your friend?"