Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Hey,... " calls Tam down the stairs. "It's ok... bed's big enough for the both of us... and I don't bite... much..."

Tam shakes his head and goes back to bed, wondering what it is the cat has against him anyway. He lies there for a long time staring up at the stars through his window, then slowly drifts off the sleep.

Tam chuckles softly so as not to wake him and looks out the window. The sky is just beginning to take on the first rosy hint of dawn. He has just enough time to dress and run, if he wishes to get to the temple on time. Swearing under his breath, he carefully extracts his feet from beneath the cat, gathers up his clothes and climbs down stairs to dress. A quick wash in the kitchen and he is ready to run, which is exactly what he does, all the way to the temple, arriving a few minutes prior to the service to find Mica waiting for him. Waving a greeting he joins him at the main entrance and follows him inside.

Tam leads the congregation in greeting the dawn, his voice soaring out over the congregation like a soothing balm. Hopian has heard the hymn before. It is sung every morning at the temple and he has always thought it to be a beautiful hymn, but somehow, on Tam's lips the word praise and thanksgiving take on a whole new meaning.

Surprisingly, Mica leads Tam out following the greeting and into the temple's garden, where a light breakfast has been set up for them both. "So, tell me Master Talesian... how long have ye been banished for..."

Tam's mouth falls open and not a sound comes forth.

The elderly priest sighs and with a gentle fingertip pushes upward on the bards chin. "You will catch flies if you stay like that." says the older man with a kind laugh. "And please, it took no great feat of deduction to see what you truly are. You practically glowed as you sang."

"Damn..." says Tam in a low expressionless voice. Then he looks up with a startled cry of alarm. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that outloud...."

And so the morning goes and by the time he returns home, Tam has been carefully grilled on both the cub's and his plans for the future.

"I'm nothing special, Dawnlord Mica," says Tam as he leaves. "And right now, neither is Kero. I have no fancy powers, I wield no fantastical skills. What I do is I sing and I play.... no more and no less... I was never young and I will never grow old, in a way it is a curse far more than any blessing, for I see the ones I come to care for grow old before my eyes and die. Yes I can cast small magics with my music and I do have a shape or two I can take, but beyond that, don't expect to see miracles or the like happening all about the town. It just isn't going to happen. Kero is a far better healer than I."

"And yet you go on, day in and day out... striving to be true to yourself. That hymn you sang this morning... it wasn't directed to Lathander was it?"

Tam smiles thinly and shakes his head no. "I'm sorry, I had no right to interject my own worship onto your people... forgive me. But I fear Lathander was but a distant thought in my master's mind when I first drew breath to sing. But he is a honorable deity to devote one's life to, m'sirra. One of the best. And I am grateful to have found your people so welcoming."

Tam leaves and Hopian finds himself ushered quickly inside.

"I expect you have some sound reason for spying on Master Talesian and my meeting this morning." says Mica in a stern voice.

Mica shrugs. "Call it a gift of my master. A skill Lathander has bestowed on me to help me in my work. But true sight isn't always a blessing either, cat. So will you answer my question?"

Mica nods. "Very well, but I do hope you don't mind if I tell him you were here. This behavior is unbecoming of you, Master Hopian, gem child or not."