Welcome to Gaia! ::

Em gives a rude chuckle. "Heavens no. Ai and Bez have been together longer than your sirrah has been alive... and then some... but they had problems and issues... not the least of which was that when they were both set outside the gate, the Lord of All put them down here in physical forms that were not exactly compatible. That and the fact that Ai was carrying a great deal of anger towards his swedh kept them apart until Kero began to finagle ways to bring them back together. I know the story... or at least Bez's side of it... he told it to me one winter when he was in his cups... but it is not my place to repeat it. Sorry. Now you take care of your sirrah... and no ice cream... got it?"

"Don't worry... he can have all of it... if he finds any." laughs Passura wisely. "I think I will never look at ice cream in the same way again."

Passura smiles dreamily. "That sound heavenly." he replies finding a discarded blanket to put over the tiny dragon.

Confused the boy concentrates on the job he's been given, while the girls huddle together on their mother's abandoned sleep pallet. He can hear their whispered arguments, but as he has no answers for them, he decides just to listen and make no comment.

"That wasn't Mom... couldn't be. It was a man..." hisses Mara under her breath.

"No it was Mom... it had to be.. he smelled like Mom, had hair like Mom... and when he talked his voice sang like Mom's... " insists Ari shaking her head savagely.

"No way..." grumbles Mara back. "I don't believe it... that is not my Mom."

Passura begins to panic. The tiny dragon seems insatiable. Not knowing what he should do, knowing only that Kero's precious stones were back into the void, he closes his eyes and reaches for Rhea's mind.

"Teacher... Sirrah needs his black s tones..." he sends, praying she can hear him.

Passura grumbles as e watches over the dragonling. "Poke him in the nose... she says" he mutters, timing himself. "He's not a donkey."

**good night, kiddo... may the angels watch over ye... **

With a sigh of relief he curls up beside the dragon and watches the fire, trying not to eavesdrop on the two in their discussion.

After a bit the two fall silent and the atmosphere in the room grows tense.

"Ari says that man is Mama." grumbles Mara angrily.

Passura nods. "He is.... I don't understand it either, but He... he did take his true form once when you two were really little. Ye didn't revert back to babies then, but ye did sprout wings and fly around. We had a few problems when you were small. His baby brother kind of fell apart and he and sirrah had to put him back together. Then he did something important for sirrah that... that made sirrah very very happy, but then he got sick... and fell asleep. They tried everything to wake him up and nothing worked. It was a good thing he was a lion when he did... at least it made it easier on your Dad to raise you."

"Told ye..." digs Ari with a satisfied grin. "Ye need to use yer nose more, Mari."

"This nose isn't worth squat... everything smells the same." grumbles Mara testily. "Why is your nose so good....."

As they were talking Bez comes into the room. He listens to them silently then sighs. "Girls, Ai wants to talk to you... why don't you go on in."

The two look at each other and then at him. "Us?" they echo in frightened voices.

Bez nods with a gentle smile. "Don't worry... he won't bite... trust me... if you have ever trusted me before... you must truly trust me in this... go say hello to your mother... though he's insisting we find him a new name. Maybe you can help him in that, hmmm?"

He waits until they leave the living room and then goes to kneel by Passura and the tiny dragon. "How is he?"

Bez looks at Passura and sighs. "Think ye can translate that into something I might understand?"

Pasa chuckles. "I can try..."