Welcome to Gaia! ::

She scrubs ar her face with her paws and sticks out her tongue at him, laughing to herself, wondering when he'll realize she's ordered hard cider for him as well. "Spoil sport." she retorts, still chuckling. Then she winks at the innkeeper. "Don't worry, I'll behave... but Kero's right... I better take it easy. It's been awhile since I had that much in one sitting. Anyway... that's what an elephant is... a big walking wall of tree consuming flesh. Tamed they can be quite useful. Wild, they are best to be ignored."

Ai gives him a funny look. She had just minutes before watched him scarf it down, eating it so quickly she wasn't too sure he had even tasted it as he ate. "Kero, dulcha, ye ate it yerself." she reminds him shaking her head. "Don't ye remember? Ye dove right in after ye brought ye harp in."

She orders him another plate and sighs. "Honestly, ye can't keep him full these days. He's growing like a weed and eating us out of house and home. Well, the house part he's left untouched. Hasn't found a sauce to put on the roof yet that will liven it up."

Brion chuckles wisely and asks the maid to bring a double serving in for the leonine musiker. "He may not be a bard like his guardian, Master Talesian, but he's damn good in my book. An' he's offered to sing fer his supper, he has. That more than pays fer the dinner he'll eat... no matter the size of it."

Kero's eyes light up at that suggestion and he makes himself comfortable at the table, waiting for his feast.

Ai chuckles as Brion winks at him.

"Eat... eat... I've raised boys of me own and I know how much they can stock away. As fer paying me back, have ye forgotten how many nights ye've played for free, lad? Over the years it's been me in yer debt not the other way around.I've done right well by the two of ye. Sure I can show my appreciation in the way I can do best, hmmm?"

"Kero," says Ai with a soft laugh, shaking her head. "No bard looks a gift horse in the mouth. Ye feast when it rains and tighten yer belt when it's dry. Surely Tam's taught ye that much at least."

Ai sits back and savors the last of her cider. There is no doubt about it, she is pleasantly buzzed, but nowhere near drunk. Still even she knows it would be wise not to have any more. She watches Kero eat and slowly extends her invisible feeding web to embrace the inn and it's inhabitants. Everyone here seems to be having a good time, gossiping, visiting, and simply enjoying each others company. It has been a long time since she has felt comfortable enough to feed as she was... a nibble here a taste there, absorbing their emotional flows and transforming them into even more possitive emanations. Brion would have a good night at the till, as those who were present stayed on to listen to the lions sing, a rare treat and one they could boast of for generations to come. To her it was a fair exchange for the food Kero was presently enjoying.

Then Ai joins him by the fire and begins to sing in a hauntingly beautiful language, leaving him to accompany her or listen, The songs she sings are simple enough for him to join in on as long as he doesn't try to do anything more than that. How he knows what she is singing he cannot say, but he realizes she is telling stories of her homeland and the people she had left behind so very long ago. She sings of the open tundra beneath a brilliant moon, of warm fires and good friendships, and the brief fleeting beauty of spring, when the whole world seems to burst into flower in a single day.

They sing long into the evening, then wend their way home by the light of a nearly full moon. Ai doesn't weave, but only because she is leaning against his sturdy shoulder. Someone had slipped her another bowl or two while they were performing and now she is well on her way to being truly sauced.

"We should do that more often." she remarks with a satisfied chuckle as they wander down the lane and into town.

She sighs and hangs her head. "Kero... about all that... we... we need to talk... really talk..." she murmurs worriedly. She looks up at him and smiles thinly. "But probably when I'm a bit more sober, huh?" Even though her eyes are wide with doubt, the love she carries for him deep inside shines through her concern.

"But just so you don't worry too much, it's not you that is the problem, dulcha... it's me." she adds in a hesitant voice.