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But all Tam does is slip an arm about the neko's slumped shoulders, guiding him into the kitchen where he urges him to sit while he makes him a mug of tea.

Kero cannot hear what they say without straining his ears. Then he hears a muffled sob and he feels ashamed he even thought of doing so. Tam's voice calm and soothing seems to embrace the sobbing neko and Kero pulls away from the door. Picking up his pipe he begins to play the Morning Song, working in a few new modulations that he had been considering for some time.

After some time, how long he isn't sure for he has been lost in his music, Kero hears Tam calling to him from the foot of the stairs. When He comes down he sees that Corby has already left.

"Don't worry, dulcha, he'll be back tomorrow. He had a meeting to go to. I don't expect you have any trouble with him though, not after he heard what you were playing just now. When he left he was actually smiling. Probably for the first time is ages from the look of things. Have I ever told you that you have magic in those two little paws of your, kiddo... cause you do.... Thank you."

Tam's stare is all the answer he needs.

Not at all fooled Tam goes to check up on Hopian and Fortuny. Salunia is in the garden, playing with Puss and her new toy, so he is free for a bit and neither lion has made an appearance yet that day. Knocking on the door, he waits to see if either one is awake. After all the hard cider Hope drank the night before, he kind of believes it will be Fortuny who answers his inquiry.

"Just checking up on ye..." laughs Tam. "Salunia's been a model child and so I thought if you two were hungry, I'd make you up somehting to eat. But there's no rush..."

He goes outside where' Salunia is playing, bringing his harp with and a light blanket. There is a n** in the air and although the cub and cat have fur, he does not. Finding a spot in the sun he begins his own scales and runs for the day. Even a bard as old as he needs to practice on a regular basis or face the possibility of his fingers not being limber enough to create the sound he was looking for.

Tam shakes his head and concentrates on his music. He wouldn't have grounded Kero, except he knew the cub was not yet ready to step into the elder's shoes. Somehow, someway, he needed to impress that fact upon him, to keep him safe. Kero the elder had enemies enough, that would jump at the chance to destroy him. Some of them had no scruples what so ever. If they knew he was vulnerable, they be breaking down the door and on top of them without hesitation. His job was to see the cub through to adulthood and if it made the cat angry to be grounded, there was little he could do about it. Somehow he needed to impress upon the lion that he wasn't as powerful as he thought he was. There was more to it than that, of course. He had come to love the mage very much, to see him as the child he would never have of his own. And if that meant he had to deal with a spat of rebellious sulking, he would.

Tam begins to play a complicated piece that wraps itself about Kero's music, when he suddenly realizes Kero has stopped playing. Curious, he sends out a tendril of thought and sees that the cub has gone to sleep. Withdrawing quickly, so as not to wake him, he smiles to himself. Oh to be a cat, he thinks with a mental laugh, and capable of sleeping whenever the thought came to him. He stops playing and ask Salunia if she wants lunch.

Tam eyes him thoughtfully as he stumbles down the stairs. "Ye feeling alright, Taro? Ye don't normally sleep like that unless you are feeling under the weather." he remarks, putting his music aside. "Why don't the two of you work here near the fire, while I go work with Salunia in the kitchen."

He picks up the book they are reading and her wax tablet and gently urges the little lion to leave Kero and Corby alone.