Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Three days? And you are up and walking already?" says Lyssan blinking with stunned confusion. "Was it hard... I mean... yer not exactly built fer it?"

She sighs and shakes her head. "No.. don't answer that... And that young man... the one I frightened the veegeebees out of... he wouldn't be..."

Tam kneels down at her side and give her a tentative hug. "Things are different now, Ma. They tell ye to move about as soon as ye can... just not to over do it... and yeah... Bez is my... my life mate... I'm sorry I didn't let ye know... wasn't too sure how to, when it comes down to it..."

A short time later, Lyssan joins him, having finally returned the hungry Ari to her parents. She curls up at his feet and wraps her tails about her nose. "Thank you, old friend, for watching over them." she says quietly watching the sleeping child squirm away form something in his dreams. "He's haunted... isn't he?"

Lyssan looks at him with a grin. "You always were a great father... just didn't have any kid to lavish all that attention on... that's all. All my kids loved you... you know that. Shall I tell Kev that he needs to wait a bit before he starts whatever he was to start with you? I don't think he'd mind, he's been helping Rhea with the kids and hanging around with your brother. Em's been teaching him a tiny bit about magic... how to deal with it mostly... he's still not very good at using it, I'm afraid."

A sudden mental scream brings him quickly back. Passura is sitting up in the bed staring wide eyed straight ahead. Not exactly awake, but not asleep either, caught in the grip of a nightmarish memory, magnified by his fear of being alone... a nightmare that was only all too real, no matter that the kindly mage had offered him a home. The invaders who had claimed him for their own had pretended affection as well in the beginning. But their minds had been closed to him whereas Kerobian's had been open from the start. He was fairly sure he could trust the funny half snake half cat person, but love him, that he still did not know if he could do.

It takes awhile for the child to relax. But when he does he clings to Kerobian as though he is a life raft. Sobbing silent tears the boy buries his head in Kerobian's chest and cries his ehart out. Lyssan peeks in and seeing the two sitting there simply being there for one another makes her bleak world a little brighter. Tip toeing out, she decides to visit next door for a time, even though it breaks her heart each time she holds little Ari. She is grateful that she still has a way to connect to her daughter but knows she'll never be able to love her as freely as Tam will one day come to do, if he didn't already do (or was it she... just the thought of the one she had called son for longer than any of her other children turning around and crossing that invisible divide to bear his/her own young is a bit mind blowing, though now that she thinks back on it, Tam had always been an extremely nurturing individual...)

She smiles to herself as she assures him she would love to see his crystal glade someday and walks to the cavern next door. It was getting late in the day and Tam had his hands full. If his daughters were anything like her young ones once were, this was the time of day when they were at their fussiest. With two of them, no doubt he and his beloved were overwhelmed, still so new to the role of parenthood, they didn't know which end was up.

The boy, being the boy he was, nods and scrubs his face on his sleeve, his stomach audibly growling as though it agreed with Kero's suggestion. He giggles softly and shakes his head with a trembling smile.