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Corby flashes him a smile. "Not much, right after I left you the other day I came down with the chills and all it implies. I had the flu so bad, I couldn''t keep anything down. I heard you got it too, so you know how I had to have felt. It went through the compound like wildfire, but most of us are better now. Maya was worried it was something she made, but some of those who got sick hadn't eaten her cooking. A few of the older priestesses like to cook for themselves."

"I'm thinking you all got exposed at roughly the same time. Perhaps when you were staying up at the compound with Ai and the others, Kero. All it takes is one visitor who's a carrier. Someone who probably didn't even know he was sick... or was coming down with something." says Shar nibbling on her scone. She looks at Ai and frowns. "You're not eating, Lady Ai. How are you going to get better, if you keep neglecting your body."

Ai sighs and begins to eat her scone, slowly.

Corby eyes her carefully. "Most people stop eating to lose weight, you seems to have lost a few years as well."

The bard glares at him and snorts through her nose. "This wasn't intentional."

Corby, who has never quite understood Talesian's connection with Ai shrugs. To him they are two entirely different people. "No problem... Was only making a comment, m'lady. Don't have to get so defensive about it."

Ai sighs and apologizes, then suggests that he and Kero go work on their lesson. "Corby, you play the pan pipes, right? I gave Kero a set that was lying around here and he's trying to master them. He's doing pretty good, but could you give him some coaching on it?"

The neko nods happily. "Certainly. That is the first instrument I learned to play on, so it's like breathing for me."

Ai waits until they leave the room then flashes Shar a thin smile. "I love Corby to death. He and his sister were some of my finest students in their day, but he knows nothing about me when it comes down to it and I'd like to keep it that way. He knows Talesian and he knows Ai, and never the twain shall meet."

Corby chuckles as he senses the lion's eagerness. So he shows im the different ways of blowing across the openings and the effects it gets. "You really need to remember this because it changes the pitch slightly, making the note a bit flat if you don't. Sometimes it's something you want, but not usually. And becareful of how hard you blow into them as well... Plus this set is made of reed so clean it carefully after each use or it will start to grow stuff inside of it." says the neko, carefully wiping the pipes before handing them back. He urges Kero to try it before him, so he can correct his technique.

Corby listens attentively, nodding with the music. When Kero finishes he praises him for the effort and shows him a few spots that he could polish it up a bit on. "I see you have been toying with the idea of writing your own music. When Tam gets back, hae him teach you composition. I'm surprised he hasn't already done so. Music is like a book. Or so he used to tell us. It has a definite beginning, middle and end. You need to lead the listener to a climax then end it off smoothly. If you peak too early, the piece drags and if you pospone it too long, your audience falls asleep."

Corby grins. "Now for my lesson... what are we doing today?"

Corby's eyes soften slightly with understanding. "That's okay. I was able to help you, correct? Even though you only had one set of pan pies to work with. I'll play the piece we were working on and you listen... if I do something wrong, wait until I'm done and tell me about it and we'll irion it out... Fair enough?"

Corby pulls out his pipe and begins the lesson. As usual he isn't as fast on it as Kero, but his fingering is perfect. "I can't seem to get it up to your speed, but it sounds so pretty played like this I really don't mind." he says softly afterwords when Kero makes a comment. "Hey, I have an idea, get your pipes... let's do a follow the leader plus one more...."

"Huh?" says Kero picking up his pipes and getting comfortable.

Corby explains. "I'll start of with a simple musical phrase... you repeat it adding one of your own... then I repeat what you've just done, both parts mine and yours, adding another... it's lots of fun and teaches something of composition. You'll see how some sets don't gel no matter how hard you try to stick them together and some seem to flow."

Ai listening from the other room chuckles softly. "The little stinker... that was one of my teaching techniques. I guess the scamp was listening back then after all."