Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tam frowns. "What do you mean by that, pray tell? And if you were watching over him, why even let him get this far? And while I'm on that subject... if that was indeed the case, would it have been too difficult for you to communicate this much to me? I did what I thought was necessary. Had I known you all were watching I would have done things differently."

Tam shakes his head. "Forgive me... Is there anything I can do... I only cloaked the link he has to the magic... I did not sever it... I had no intention of doing so... merely repressed it... much as it had been to begin with... only a little more forcibly."

Tam dissolves the veil instantly and crumbles inward upon himself, hugging his knees to his chest, consumed with shame. "I had no intention of doing this," he moans. My intent was not to cut him away from it... only to keep him from remembering how..."

Tam hesitates for a moment, then drops to his knees beside him. He gently rests a hand on his back and begins to stroke his fur in a soothing familiar way, running his fingers through the fur and sighing.

"Kero... why the tears? Surely you do not believe I'd rob you of that which makes you so happy? I merely made it safer for you to use, until you are strong enough to handle it properly... that is all. As a weapon's master does not teach with a sharpened blade... you, too, need to learn from the ground up. But see... reach out... touch it... it is still there... merely tamed and not as powerful, true... but it is there."

He sighs once again and stands. "You probably hate me right now... and with good reason. I pray it isn't a forever thing... but if it is, remember this... I love you, dulcha... I always will... heart and soul... and what I did I did out of love and fear for you." Fading as he speaks, Tam pulls himself out of Kero consciousness and back into his own. He opens his eyes and looks at Hopian's worried face.

"Take care of him, Hope... When he wakes up give him this..." he says materializing a scroll that outlines the limits which have been placed on his skills and what he needs to do and achieve before the said limits would disappear. "But I warn you, he's going to be very very angry and upset. And that I fear is an understatement. It is probably best I'm not here when he does, so I'm... I'm going for a walk... a long walk... a few hundred miles just might work off the mood I'm in... but one never knows. If he truly wants to find me, he knows how. Take care and give the princess a kiss for me, okay?" And with that he gets up, grabs his hat off the hook and his cloak and leaves the cottage, closing the door firmly behind him.

Halfway through town he morphs into a tiny red fox and takes to the alleyways, heading for the far side of town and the wilds of the wilderness. It was easier to leave this way, using pathways he knew of but never used. Kero would hate him now, this much he knew. For how long or how strongly, he did not wish to guess, but as much as it hurt him to leave, if he stayed he'd only make things worse. Therefore there was a very good chance he would not be coming back. If Kero wanted him to, he would, but if the young lion's anger took root and drove what little affection he might have had for him out the window, it was over. His life at Silver Falls was at an end and he didn't want to see anyone or be stopped for any reason.

"Did the Firemaster tell you he wants me to come back?" asks Tam with a twisted grin, settling in for the night. The tiny crevice he had located was just big enough for two, though he doubted the salamander would enjoy sleeping beneath a fallen tree on leaf strewn dirt. On second though he wasn't too sure he wanted to share his little burrow with something that hiccuped flames while it snored.

Tam sighs. "I did something incredibly stupid today... almost undid several millions of years of preparation... and got him angry as well... on levels I don't believe he is even aware of yet. And I'm far too tired to port right now... a night apart might do us well. Return to him and tell him if he still feels this way in the morning, I'll come home."

Curling up in a tight ball, Tam covers his nose with his tail and cocks a sleepy eye at the salamander. "It's drier back there anyway... you don't want to stay here with me."

The salamander takes a sly look around and agrees, blinking out almost instantly.

Alone in the dark, Tam chuckles bitterly. "Taro, I miss you too, but are you absolutely sure you wish to live by my rules....."

Tam closes his eyes and sighs. No matter what Kero may feel right now, he knew they would be locking horns from now on. Love and concern had very little to do with it. The lion had had a taste of a forbidden fruit and it would tempt him from this day forward unless he came to understand the why of Tam's punishment. As he drifted off to sleep he weighed his options, wondering if it would help to take Kero to a special hospital his sire had had built at the edge of the kingdom, one for individuals who had been consumed by their magics and could no longer control them.