Circling about the crude stones he had wondered what had caused his earlier mishap not that he could complain about the results. But why he had not been able to get back to Earth had eluded him. The stones, while crude, had resembled a miniature version of Stone Hedge, brownish blocks upon one another.

He had inspected them as the power of ley lines seemed strongest here. He had wondered if he had just one mishap or if it had been something entirely different, probably something to do with the inhibitors that had been strung about the island.

Well, here goes nothing, he had thought as he crept into the center of the stones, his eyes closing as he channeled energy into himself and ...

When his eyes had opened he had been on a world that had been strange to him. The atmosphere had been thin, the light seemed to indicate that the world had been set in dusk, whether perpetual or not that had been something that he could not answer.

The gravity here wasn't that strong either ... it was certain that he had not been upon Earth.

The first thing he had looked for had been landmarks and features that might indicate to him where he had ended up.

Karivnie landed, panting lightly in the thin atmosphere, stretching her slightly sore wings after her long flight. It had been too long since she'd gone planetside just to feel the wind through her feathers, and even longer since she'd done so in a place where she could safely forgo the uncomfortable necessity of clothing. She preened quickly, running her fingers through the silky feathers of her slightly tousled crest before twisting to comb down the feathers between her wings. The K'mari merchant frowned as her shoulders gave a quiet throb of complaint at her contortions, shifting to a less demanding pose and rubbing the joints where her wings joined her torso. "I may have overdone it a bit," she mused to the empty air.

Stretching once more with a sigh, she turned instead to smoothing the soft down that gave her delicate frame an adorable, almost fuzzy appearance. She could feel the heat of her skin radiating through her thin feathering as she ran her hands down her chest, over the firm roundness of her breasts, nipples peeking out from the delicate feathers covering her, down her lean stomach, around small but rounded hips, and finally each slender leg, pausing to reorder the thicker feathers circling each ankle. Pausing to touch the ground, thus finishing her post-flight stretches, she unfolded herself from her bent position and looked around in the dusk.

She hadn't been on this planet long enough to tell if the dusk would get any lighter, but her computers had mapped the planet's rotation well enough to inform her that it would certainly be getting darker soon. K'mari eyes were well adapted to taking in light in low-light situations, but her vision was still better in the daytime.

To the adventurous K'mari, this meant one thing: if she was going to finish the ritual she had developed for banishing her shipbound claustrophobia in time, she needed to grab her kishir and find a good place to unwind and play for a while before darkness fell. Seizing the instrument from her room and strapping it over her shoulder, she half-ran, half-flew towards a rocky outcropping over the twilit plain, settling herself upon it before running her fingers across the complex system of strings of the harp-like instrument. Secure in her solitude, she soon fell into an improvised melody and raised her voice to harmonize with the subtle tones, the music haunting, beckoning, fey, a ballad of wistful loneliness played by a musician intent on beguiling the time with the gift of her avian heritage.

Slithering about the ground he found the soil to be clay-like. Passing by purple planets he had let his mind course over his recent failure wondering if Shokushu's inhibitors had interfered with his own teleportation abilities. It made some sense, though none of his other abilities had been affected though this seemed to explain everything.

If he set up a conduit elsewhere, transported there and then to Earth would that work? It had been worth looking into to see if the inhibitors had anything to do with matters. He had to form another conduit here anyway so he could shuffle himself to Earth than to Shokushu to see if his theory had been correct.

Glancing about for raw materials in which to begin the formation of this conduit he had witnessed a ship making its descent. From the looks of its trajectory it didn't land far from here, just beyond those hills.

He had never seen its configuration before and ever so curious about those things that he had limited or no understanding of he could not help himself by refraining to check out matters.

So he had traveled, the distance thankfully short for even in the low atmosphere his progress was as slow as always. But before he had crest that hill he had heard a melody reaching his ear drums. The soft sounds were pleasant, a being singing while plucking the strings of some instrument that he could not quite place his tentacles on.

The sound had been intoxicating as it swept over him though he had managed to continue on due to his recent resistances that he had built up against sonic attacks that had bombarded him. He could do little else though, it had been enough that he had been enduring this bombardment as best as he could.

Instinct had told him to retreat, to fall back when he could. He had virtual been defenseless in this state and if he were to come under attack he could not prove to be much of a threat given the sounds that washed over him. But curiosity had urged him onward, his body moving even slower at the onslaught of sound before he did crest the hill, eyes looking for the source of the sound.

Reclined comfortably in a cradle of stone, face pointed towards the darkening heavens, Karivnie was oblivious to all but the music she coaxed out of her kishir. Eyelids half-covering her violet eyes, she lowered her vocal accompaniment to a hum, slowly bringing her song to a close as the first stars pierced the clouded firmament.

Sighing contentedly, she lowered her instrument to her lap, raising her head as a cool breeze caressed her. She had sufficient supplies, her ship was nearby, and no deadline by which she had to find her way home. It was a beautiful night on this lonely, alien world; she was going to enjoy it. Her fingers continued to pluck occasional chords on her kishir as she hummed to herself, weaving her own song to accompany the rising light of the stars.

The light grew, and Karivnie turned her head to observe a large, golden moon cresting the western horizon, filling her with nostalgia. The largely treeless vistas were nothing like home, but the golden western moon was so like that of Kuuzora that it made her heart ache, wondering how long it would be before she found her home, before she saw her family again. Unaware that she had an audience, Karivnie changed to a brief, mournful air before falling silent once more, returning to intermittent, absentminded plucking of chords, now jarring and melancholy, that echoed the shift of emotion beneath her spellbound features as her unnoticed visitor continued his lumbering approach.

The sound of her playing had given her away of course, the breeze here washing over his mauve flesh as the stars began to turn on like lights upon the dark night sky. Slowly he had slithered closer, his progress slow as the ground itself had hindered his progress.

He did see her looking towards the western moon as it came into view rising over the horizon. His gaze had slid to it for only a moment as he had gazed upon it with no particular interest as he had just been looking upon what she had been gazing at.

Eyes slid back to the player though as he gazed at the strange instrument that she had carried. Clearly it had not been anything he had been familiar with in all his travels to date and with his store house of knowledge.

Come to think of it his keen eyes piercing through the darkness quite easy settled upon the player realizing that he had not recognized the player's species.

He managed to get a little closer with the strain of musical chords colliding against his ear drums. His hands lifting so that they had been in front of his torso, his hands coming together as his palms smacked against each other as he applauded by clapping two or three times.

Well done, he said into her mind, half dazed by the musical sounds that had bombarded his ears. It was a dangerous position that he had been in since a great deal of his abilities were ineffectual or at least hampered by the condition that he had been in.

A motion in the darkness caught the corner of Karivnie's eye and she glanced idly in its direction. Before her glance had even landed on the source of the motion, a sound so out of context in the situation that it took her a moment to identify it reached her ears. Applause. Her head finished the turn, gaze falling on an impossibly tall (to her 4' 10", at least) creature supporting itself with thick, muscular tentacles.

His voice rang through her head as her eyes fell on him, his hands stilling as he spoke. Well done. He sounded oddly... disoriented, something about the way his voice sounded inside her mind giving her an impression that he was somehow off-balance.

He didn't really resemble any of the natives of Terrisol, but Karivnie hardly felt safe in assuming that he had no connections to them- not after he approached her in the middle of nowhere. It was entirely possible that he was also simply here to break the monotony of interstellar travel, but then why approach her? What did he want?

Grateful for the low light that hid the fact that her feathers were now a delicate rose, Karivnie said in her most courteous professional voice, "Thank you. Forgive my rudeness, but who are you? Do you have business with me, or is this a chance meeting?" Save for her rosy plumage, any observer would think she was utterly poised, her round face and petite form simultaneously belying her composure and the companion towering over her, several feet away.

Her voice sounded clear against the stillness of the night, the flat planet seeming all the emptier without her music filling it. Hoping that whatever disorientation had hampered the alien being before her was still in effect, Karivnie stealthily gripped her pistol as she spoke, grateful for the kishir in her lap, since it hid the motion. After all, telepathic beings could still be taken by surprise, and as a child of traveling merchants, she had been drilled often on that fact. It was difficult, but not impossible- and in the world of often-unscrupulous enterprise, it was a necessary skill. Just because this creature didn't look much like the usual mercenary didn't mean she was safe with him.

Eyes sliced through the darkness that engulfed them as easily as he peered though the muck of the ocean depths. He came forward a little, judging by his movements whatever effect that poured over him had still been in effect, he probably would have lost his balance and even may have been knocked prone had he not had multiple legs.

He stopped a short distance away, apparently out of his range of striking her to place her more at ease. He had noticed the coloration change of her plumage but not knowing anything about her or her kind it had been impossible for him to read her.

Mouth tendrils twitched a little, his vision catching the delicate motion of her hand though he could not see through the instrument that had rested in her lap. The first issue that had gone through his mind had been that she had been armed. Whether or not he had been correct had been assessed through a little mental probing, or would have if he didn't find her mind quite different than that of the typical humans that he had dealt with. So the truth of the matter would elude him at least for the time being. His mind retracting to allow for him to communicate with her and of course to monitor her surface thoughts, things that he seemed to master so well over the millienum that doing such had been as easy as breathing had been.

Chance meeting, he announced as those mouth tendrils began to twitch more wildly as if they had been living serpents. I saw your ship descending and since I figured you may have known where just exactly this is that I would approach you and find out. He gestured to the nearby ship with a hand as if confirming what he had seen.

I cannot fault you for being cautious. It being night here and not knowing the world I couldn't say if it were safe here or not. You may call me Aegir.

It was an irony of Karivnie's psyche that now that she had an answer to her questions, she had difficulty trusting that they were true. Of course someone would claim to meet her by chance, thereby putting her off her guard to make the eventual capture easier.

Stiffening slightly as the tendrils around Aegir's mouth lashed, answered nonetheless, "This world has no proper name that I know of, and was referred to as PX-004 in my computer's database. Its only sentient inhabitants, to my knowledge, are tribal primates that roam the plains and view travelers like ourselves with suspicion, as they lack the technology for interstellar travel themselves. I doubt that they would be bold enough to approach us, however, so you likely will not encounter them."

Regarding the tall alien with curiosity, Karivnie went on, "But you would be able to gather as much from any database. How did you come to be on this planet without knowing anything of it, Aegir?" It briefly occurred to her that she had not introduced herself to him, but she had yet to even release her gun; she had no intention of releasing unnecessary information.

Her hand had not moved beneath her instrument, he stored what he could of her upon his mind wondering about her species and of course the inherent strengths and weaknesses that she possessed. She seemed to be bird-like in nature, combing those traits with that of a human female. This had only seemed to enhance her beauty.

PX-004. Sounds more like a destination point, a form of reference rather than a true name so one could work out their location amongst the stars.

His eyes peeled over the ship as he drew it in. Mouth tendrils wriggling a bit as he did so. Apparently he had seemed defenseless in doing so though of course his mind had link up with her own so he could be aware of her surface thoughts and could act if necessary.

I'm not concerned too much about the natives though I plan to stay clear of them while here.

He had slithered over towards the vessel as if something had attracted his attention. A mauve hand pressing against the metallic hull. I did not come by way of ship. He looked over his shoulder back at her. My kind have learned in ages past how to travel the stars without ships projecting our minds to other worlds. Our bodies follow, simple put we have learned to teleport though we need a conduit, a focus to concentrate our energies on.

The place I had been at, the very place I wish to return to, may have hampered that ability somewhat bringing me here rather than my destination so a mishaps from outside sources would be my guess.

Karivnie's features registered surprise as she replied, "Whatever interfered with your travel caused a fairly large mishap, then. This planet belongs to a system surrounded by dead space- no civilization, only asteroid fields for days. It's quite the boring flight; you're lucky that you circumvented it."

She paused for a moment, curiosity getting the better of her as she watched the mauve alien examine her ship, blue welling up into her hollow feathers, leaving her previous rosy coloration a muted undertone. Finally she queried, "What are you, anyway? Where are you from?" As she spoke, she justified her blatant curiosity to herself. If he has any suspicious connections, or sounds like he's leaving things out of his story, I can just stun him and leave instead of waiting for him to turn on me. As an afterthought, she added, Of course, I could just shoot him now... but if there are more of his kind, and the Terrisol Consortium hires any of them, it would be better to know something of them now.

It never occurred to her that it was perhaps this exact curiosity that made her people so wary- the older and wiser K'mari realized that this childlike, wide-eyed wonder with which they viewed the universe left them vulnerable. Oblivious, one of their feathered children remained perched on a rock in the middle of dead space, fearlessly regarding the ancient telepathic being before her, secure in the knowledge that between herself and his unknown powers was one firearm set on stun.

Kicking her tiny feet cutely, her hidden hand still wrapped around her gun, Karivnie added one more question before Aegir could answer: "What kind of place could interfere with teleportation? You seemed rather off-balance when you first spoke; are you injured?"

As she had asked her questions of him he sank into her mind using the time tat had been offered to him as time he could work upon her alien mind mapping out this function and that. It had been easier than most, her mind's layout similar to a human's.

But as she asked her questions he did give them a degree of though noting that her feathers had transformed into another color. Now he could change the color of his flesh but that had been better to blend into the terrain. Hers seemed to indicate mood. Had red been to indicate danger? Surprise? A willingness to attack. Had blue been a more tranquil emotion? He hadn't been able to say for certain though he could feel her surface thoughts as they radiated off her.

Would his kind join up with an organization? He had highly doubted that.

But to humor her he had found himself answering. You need not worry about my kind. They are rare for starters, mostly keeping to themselves. Currency doesn't interest them though knowledge does. I suppose that if they had wanted to know something badly enough they would simply pry those secrets from the minds of those that possess that knowledge so it is doubtful that they can even be bought.

And yes, that does make my kind telepaths.

He paused for a moment as if to give her mind a chance to digest all that. After a few seconds he had continued by now working out from her thoughts that she had been armed. He had not known if he could be stunned never having endured that condition but he had been in no hurry to find out.

I am uninjured being a little disoriented by my travels, he lied, there had been no sense in telling her that it had been her singing and playing that had done so to him. I came from a planet, I don't know its name come to think of it. Shokushu, I think. Anyway they have inhibitors there to prevent magic and the like, I can only fathom that these inhibitors did something to impede my teleportation abilities.

Telepaths. The thought went through Karivnie's head with the mental equivalent of an exasperated sigh, generated from annoyance at the fact that she had never been particularly adept at shielding her mind from nosy telepaths. In a case of emergency it could be done, but it was taxing to maintain that level of focus for any extended time. Her primary mental skills were regarding intuition, as was usual for K'mari. As such, that intuition gave a warning, discordant twang as Aegir finished speaking.

Suspicion naturally sparked, Karivnie shifted slightly to align her weapon with Aegir, silently giving thanks for a large and slow-moving target. She spoke as she did, hoping to lessen his attention to her thoughts by forcing him to multitask. "Shokushu? I've never heard of it. If your kind is so rare and unmoved by the mundane, what kind of place could be worth having your natural abilities hampered?"

Ever the merchant's daughter, she chose her words with care, hoping that her subtle ego-stroking would coax a bit more information out of him. She could feel the nervous pink creeping into her feathers once more, uncomfortable with the being's casual description of his race's usual research methods. Telepathic races of that caliber were quite rare- which was a blessing, because if he were truly as powerful as he claimed, Karivnie could hardly hope to keep any of her secrets safe from him if he decided they were interesting. Her finger twitched faintly on the trigger with the thought, but she stilled the impulse, gamely began the focusing exercises that had been drilled into her, and waited for the satisfaction of her curiosity.

Having a compound mind was a blessing since he could freely multitask though he had humored her as her beliefs had been more of a reassurance to her. He sensed the nervous tension that had risen up within her and even felt the strong desire for her to fire, though he had also sensed her strong discipline washing against her, struggling against that urge.

He had not moved other than the twitching of his mouth tendrils that was. Quite frankly he had been curious about whether or not he could be stunned so it had been unlikely that he would have tried to dodge even if he had been able to do so.

I was exiled from my home. Long story there but the gist of it had been that I spoke out our abilities to one that had not been of our race, so in return they have gotten rid of me. I suppose it is a self imposed exile since they never really cast me out though given what awaits me should I return well I'm better off not returning so Shokushu is my new home now.

I found it once before when I was estranged from it and can do so again by just spending a little effort on the matter. So where are you heading? If this is a dead part of space as you say then why are you here? Repairs?

He once again took a look towards her ship before flickering his gaze back towards her. You know I could assist you with that.

Trying to suppress the nervousness that flickered through her as the alien's milky gaze fixed itself on her, Karivnie focused on their conversation instead. She couldn't deny the spike of interest that had arrowed through her as he related the reason for his exile: she had found a telepath with a propensity for answering questions? Still, it wouldn't do to let him think she was stranded here, so she addressed that issue first.

"Thank you for offering to help, but my ship is in perfect condition. I simply chose to stop here because it is an inhabitable planet, and I didn't relish the thought of an unbroken journey to M'hariezh." She had not yet gotten the knack of reading Aegir's body language, but thinking he might not know of the planet, she added, "It's a forest world well-known for high quality woodwork; I'm hoping to pick up a shipment from one of their artisans."

Scanning the robed alien, azure undertones once more becoming dominant in the shifting rainbow of her feathers, Karivnie asked curiously, "How would you be able to help with repairing my ship if it were broken, anyway? Are your people technopathic as well as telepathic?"

And while I'm asking personal questions...

"And I'm sorry if this offends you, but as I've never encountered one of your race before... what does it mean when you move the tendrils on your face?" Karivnie accompanied the question with helpful motions of the fingers of one hand, mimicking the mobile tentacles surrounding Aegir's mouth and hoping she wasn't perpetrating some kind of horrible social gaffe.

His mouth tendrils twitched again as he had listened to her words, questions that had not been posed to him before though he answered learning some of her color schemes based upon the rising emotions he felt within her. He knew that she had been armed by this point and she had been correct in his assessment of the world in question. True he had traveled to this world or that but Earth had been his major stomping grounds until the others began to close in one him. Shokushu, beginning Earth-like in nature and free from the interferences of the others of his kind had made a good enough substitute even if there were a few things that he had prefered.

I have not come upon such a world though such a place would shield my eyes from the harsh rays of their star or stars as the case may be.

Over the long years I have learned a little of this and that. Knowledge that I picked up in books mostly though I am blessed with an eidetic memory and can recall everything that I have read so I can be a bit helpful in that regard. He pretended not to know that she had been stranded here. Until she thought about it he would not have guessed though the surface thoughts had bubbled up to the fore of her mind.

Though I meant I could shield yourself from the influence of other telepaths or at least make it harder for them to function. And these? He gestured to the tendrils that rung his mouth as he thought of an easy way to explain. A moment slipped past in silence before he made his answer.

Facial expressions. Grins, smiles, looks of disgust, annoyance, fear, you name it. Just as the coloration of your feathers express moods it seems.