Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tam smiles at him and opens the book to read, but when Hopian looks back later he can tell that Tam hasn't turned a page. Instead he seems to be staring intently at the book, watching something and when he walks by him to check the fire and toss on another log to drive away the evening chill, he catches a glimpse of a golden locket.

Suddenly Tam chuckles to himself and replaces the locket within his shirt, grinning. Whatever he saw must have been funny for his eyes are twinkling with hidden laughter. He tosses the book on the side table and stretches his feet to the fire. "I'm a granddad..." he tells Hopian with a wink. Imagine that... me, of all people. My boy has pups of his own now."

Tam nods in agreement and leaning back carefully, using a pile of pillows and blankets stacked by the chair just for that purpose, he pads the back of hs chair, supporting his back without crushing his wings. Then he closes his eyes and pretends to sleep. It is all a pretense, Hopian knows this, but he honors Tam's desire for some quiet thinking time and goes to fix their supper.

88what... no cheese gonk **

Tam accepts the bowl and sighs. "A little red meat would be nice... keep this up and I'm going hunting..."

Tam almost chokes on his food. "He told ye that! So much for keeping things under his hat, huh?" he wipes his chin and grins. "Don't tell me... you were the spitting image of perfection..." he grins a challenge. "So tell me, Hope... what was the worse thing you did as a kid... come one... ye can trust me... to blab it all around the town" he whispers under his breath.

Tam shudders. "Sorry..." he whispers. "I didn't mean to drag up bad memories." He flashes Hopian a sad twisted grimace. "You know, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but I've only heard bits and pieces about it from Kero. "

Tam reaches out and places a hand on Hopian head. A sense of peace falls over the lion and he finds himself wrapped in an invisible blanket of unconditional acceptance. Love in it's purest form.

"To tell that I'd have to tell of how I was found, full grown, by my foster parents outside Amestru's temple" He smiles kindly at the cat and laughs. "Full grown, physically... but so much a babe inside. I knew nothing of the world, even less how to live in it. Seeing this, he and Lyssan adopted me and transformed me into a fox cub and there I stayed for years... until I got my sea legs, so to speak. Once I learned enough about living like that, they shifted me into a more mature form..., one quite similar to the one I wore when they found me, albeit without wings. Funny thing... neither one knew what an angel was... well... Lyssan might have known, but she didn't make the connection. Kind of hard to connect that winged simpleton who couldn't even dress himself properly with the glories from on high angel most people know."

He smiles and closes his eyes, thinking back to those first encounters with the world of man. "Man, I was such a blank slate... but even though Amestru could see and feel the magic in me, he couldn't touch it... couldn't identify it. He never thought to try using bardic magic with me... not even once. So I was subjected to all kinds of instruction... martial... magical.. mundane... you name it... music kind of came as an after thought... and once it was there... well.. that's jumping ahead."