Welcome to Gaia! ::

I... I don't know.... Talesian never seemed to need that... that form of loving, but I do. I don't understand why. Is the lion in me too strong... what?" she whispers worriedly.

She slowly shakes her head in negation. "I'm kind of tired right now, not sleepy but really all I want to do is lie here next to you. Do you mind?"

what quests are you working on?

Ai snuggles close and despite her arguments to the fact that she wasn't sleepy, she is soon fast asleep, out like a light, curled against him, much as he once curled up against Tam.

The next morning Ai wakes up with an enormous headache, half buried beneath a heavy breathing... let's just say... snoring, jet black blanket of fur. She's larger, of course, almost full grown. Having accepted what she is and the fact that she has needs separate and different from Tam's has helped her unblock the channel by which she unconsciously feeds. Eating in her physical form had kept her alive, barely, but had not given her enough energy to repair the damage done. And although she was finally on the way to recovery, things still weren't exactly right. There are some emotional channels which were quite raw and more than a few things troubling her. Bez's defection being the most devastating... the book on the hill being the next.

She carefully rolls Kero off and tries to sneak downstairs. She wants to check on Andra and think. It troubles her that that infernal volume had made it through the protective shell she had cast over the village years ago. It was a highly selective shield, deflecting danger away from the town. Not exactly protecting it but rendering it invisible to certain eyes. She had learned long ago that she could not protect people from themselves and no longer tried, but she could shelter them and warn them if danger was attempting to worm it's way into their midst. She should have felt that shipment as it rode into town and warned Mica of it's presence.

*And somehow slipped it's way into a new shipment... possible I suppose... those books are supposed to be sentient to some degree. And with Ai unable to do much, Kero was left wide open as a target... ugh stressed *

She makes herself a pot of tea and goes out into the garden, testing but not touching the shield Kero had erected, surveying it's perimeter, looking for weak points. Smiling to herself as she does, seeing how far he's come in skill. But then Kero had always been a perfectionist, the only thing he was truly lacking was self restraint and emotional maturity. Even as a full blown mage he had difficulties with that, no doubt because he had died so young and Jor was such an impulsive master, he certainly didn't learn it from him. His method of keeping his emotions under control by denying them worked, but it also handicapped him in many ways, which was why she had been guided to him in the first place. Who would have guessed that she as well as he would have grown so much.

Going back inside, she tries once again to slip back into that most familiar of shapes, but no matter how hard she concentrates, it won't come. She is well and firmly stuck for the time being.

Ai greets him with a fond nuzzle and goes to check on Andra. He is still asleep, so she returns to the kitchen and climbs into her seat with her tea. "Too bad it's the wrong season for fresh berries, but we did have some stored in the ice box. Want me to go fetch them?"

Ai silently shakes her head. "I feel like a cornered rat right now. Nowhere to run... nowhere to hide... "

"Make that two of us..." comes Andra's voice from the doorway. He walks into the room looking rumpled and exhausted. He and Kero had fled the temple compound with only the clothes on his back.

Ai takes note of this and offers to fetch him some of her clothing. "When I walk on two I'm quite a bit taller than you, but you could always roll up the legs and sleeves." she explains telling him they could wash his present clothing so he returns up the hill in fine style.

"How long are we to hide out down here?" he asks worriedly. "If I have another night like last night, I'm going to go quietly mad. Nightmare after nightmare... blood everywhere...."

Ai walks over to him and places a gentle paw on his leg. "I was outside earlier... only to the garden. And I couldn't sense anything amiss. But I don't dare try to breach Kero's shield. His magic and mine are direct opposites in many ways... and at the strength he's raised it... to counteract it, I'd be setting off an explosion or rather... an implosion... do you know what that is?"

Andra shakes his head in negation looking confused and extremely worried.

Andra scratches his head. "Like a whirlpool?" he asks trying to tie it to something he knows.

Ai nods. "Yes, you have it... only it would suck in the entire village and then some... not something I want to risk. There are ways around it. I could bring it down, if I had to, without such a reaction... but I would have to chip at it, slowly. Think of trying to dig through a stone wall with a spoon. It's been done. People have escaped from captivity with far less for tools. You simply look for the weak spots and worry them until they give."

Andra shudders. "And if you trigger the wrong weak point?"

"Boom..." says Kero flatly.

"Which is why he'll be bringing it down, not me." says Ai firmly. "What I want to know is how will they reach us to tell us it's safe?"

"Telepathy.." ventures Kero hesitantly. He hadn't thought of that little problem.

Ai shakes her head and taps her forehead. "Nope. We're cut off that way. That's why I brought it up, my head hurts so bad this morning."

"A messenger bird?" says Andra hopefully. "Non-sentient creatures shouldn't be blocked... right?" He looks to Kero for a reply.