Welcome to Gaia! ::

"A brilliant idea," Fai said with a smile. "We will find someone sooner or later, I am sure. But until we are no longer... grounded, I doubt we will be able to do much with this new knowledge. A shame."

He sipped his tea for a moment. "Ah, yes, I did make a new friend while traipsing around the school," he said. "Her name is Obsidian--she prefers being called Siddie. She has an interest in tea. Perhaps she could explain this technology to us sometime!"

Grounded... really, where had he picked up that term? He frowned, thinking about it for a moment. "I believe it means we are confined to certain areas--this reserve and the school grounds adjacent to it," he explained. "We cannot venture into the society itself, at the moment. Which is rather vexing, to say the least."

Then he smiled. "I believe it will be an enlightening experience," he said, changing the subject to Siddie again. "She enjoys tea, she cannot be completely uncivilized." His standards were odd, to say the least.

He sat silently for a moment, sipping his tea and pondering their new life. "I have a proposal for you, my dear," he said. "I have seen my vineyard, the grapes are on the verge of being overly ripe soon. I would be loathe to allow that to happen."

Fai had absolutely no problem with tyrants that slaughtered millions. "I was thinking, perhaps, we could set up a small process. One where I create the wine and--since I am being watched very closely, I have others doing the taste testing for me," he said.

He could, perhaps, explain why they were "grounded," but that would include explaining his running around in the human world in a loincloth... and only a loincloth. And really, she had seen him drunk, she didn't need to picture him as that strange creature that human scarelings seemed so fond of.

"I have already asked your sister if she would be interested in helping with the taste testing," he said mildly, watching her closely. Even Precious turned its many heads to her, the same expression as Fai's. "My dear, I know I ask you to trust me--and just how much of a temptation this will be for me. But if I am going to return to my... bad habit, it will happen when you are not watching, I am sure. But please, tell me of your stipulations."

Fai looked at her, then looked away again. "It... is not easy, Fala," he said quietly. "It is not easy to wake each morning, reaching for Cairo--only to find nothing but air. It is not easy to know that once I had entire isles to traverse as I pleased, now I am confined to one small area like a scareling--BY scarelings. It is--I find myself wondering," he said, almost changing the subject. "Every day I find myself wondering why I was not on the isles with her. And when I am sober, that thought is far more loud than when I am not.

"I will try," he said, looking back to her. "I will try my hardest to remain sober. But I cannot always understand why I should want to. I will TRY," he repeated. "But you will need to help me."

Fai reached up, gently cupping her cheek. "Thank you, my dear," he said softly. "I think... honestly, that is the only thing that has allowed me to remain sober for this amount of time. But perhaps--rather than drinking, of course, I should find a way to... distract myself, as well," he said, his mind kicking into gear as his hand fell away again.

"I must be honest, building this tent was a wonderful way to keep my mind off of the wine. I think the garden will be a nice change, as well. And perhaps you might think on what you wish to study seriously?"

"If I did not think you had promise, I would not have accepted you as my apprentice," Fai said. "It is merely a matter of finding what you are good at. Which means, my dear, that we should go out and try everything we can find--and I have an idea of something we can start with," he said, looking oddly entertained by what he had just decided. "Although, I am sure, the other horsemen will find it very strange indeed."

"I propose we find some of that... Halloween technology and take it apart!" he said. "I know one scareling that could possibly get us some things--but I will need to... persuade him."