Karivnie reflexively noted the implication that bright light bothered Aegir, tucking it away in her memory to be reviewed in context of the entire encounter once he was gone. She was more interested in the implication that he was both well-read and extremely old... what information could he have amassed by now? Most likely not the location of her home world or he would certainly appear in the Sheriaan, the shared racial memory of the K'mari. She wasn't overly discouraged, however; nothing prevented her from sailing away from this planet and continuing her search for the necessary navigational files... and a stop by M'hariezh would make her the envy of several Aeries upon her return.

Karivnie blinked at the mention of other telepaths. "I hadn't heard of any telepaths in the area save for yourself; are you able to sense any nearby?" Her violet eyes automatically swept the area, almost missing his explanation of his facial tentacles as she went on the defensive, hand tightening around her pistol.

A moment later, she processed his explanation, embarrassment bringing warmth to her face as she tried to console herself that at least her guess was correct. Still, she felt rather childish for asking something that, in hindsight, was rather obvious. "You're correct in your assumptions, anyway. There are those among my kind who can suppress their pigment changes, but I don't have that skill. It's quite envied among the merchant Aeries." Curious and searching for common ground, she queried, "Are you always the same color?"

Growing cold, she clambered down from her perch, stealthily shielding the view of her pistol behind her kishir as she moved closer to the alien, leaning back, putting her body into a cute arch as she stared up at his towering height. "You're really tall..." she remarked, violet eyes going wide.

His eyes pressed closed for a moment, as if in concentration though his white orbs opened back up, tentacles twisting to form the equivalent of a grin. He regarded her for a brief moment as he then shook his head.

No. I sense your mind and about three dozen or so about two miles from this spot, probably the natives that you spoke of. Their brain activity doesn't seem high enough to mark them as telepaths.

His voice had seemed calm enough coaxing her down from her perch. Yeah, she hide the gun from him behind her instrument though thus far he had not intended on harming her. Why? Well first off he was still getting his barrings as he tried to envision where Shokushu was among the dots of stars that had begun to make out the inky black sky.

This color? He held a tentacle up so that he could see it, mauve flesh becoming green, then red, black and back to mauve where it had seemed to settle. I can change my color, once my kind hadn't been so large and often were preyed upon. So blending in became somewhat of a necessity though as we grew larger we used the talent to assist us in hiding.

His tendrils had twisted again into that familiar "grin". He absorb her last comment and seemed to answer without any pretense failing to conceal anything thus far. Like reptiles we continue to grow throughout the ages. To think we start life no bigger than your palm, about a fourth of the size if you really think about it. Most perish by violent ends before they get much taller than six feet or so.

He indicated a height of an estimated six feet from the soil with a tentacle, in the event that she had no concept of such a measurement. It was still much taller than she had been of course.

We can alter our size a bit too, stretching out or even compressing ourselves to fit into even small cracks given our boneless natures.

Karivnie watched as Aegir's flesh shifted through a few colors before settling on mauve again, a bit embarrassed at herself that such a superficial shared trait made her feel the slightest bit more comfortable with him. Still, he was unmistakeably alien, and gazing up at the twisting tentacles that served as his facial expressions, Karivnie felt a stab of homesickness.

"K'mari are roughly the same size when our eggs are first laid," she replied quietly, glancing from her palm to the height that Aegir had indicated, "Although we obviously never reach such heights. Our eggs have elastic shells, enabling us to grow at an accelerated pace before hatching. We're born roughly half of adult size, and usually reach it. Death by violent means isn't common among my people, even those of us who travel."

Her voice trailed off into the silence of the foreign world's night, and her face warmed again with embarrassment. What was she thinking, that this stranger was going to pat her on the head and hand her the maps to her home because she gave him sad eyes? Enough reminiscing.

She shook herself, feathers of her crest bobbing with the motion, and cast him an apologetic smile. "I'd ask how old that made you, at your height, but I really should begin preparations for my departure. Otherwise, I'm sure that you could spend the night answering my questions and I'd still have more the next morning. Perhaps we'll bump into each other some other time?" As she spoke, reminding herself of her initial purpose in landing- to be alone and outside for a while- her natural shyness came creeping back, finally overriding her loneliness with the caution that had kept her safe all these years of traveling, with and without her family.

She placed her hand on the sensory pad next to the door, rather closer to Aegir than her avian sensibilities preferred. Karivnie didn't know what the expectations for personal space were for his people, but being able to brush his robes with her wings was, for her, too close. She waited impatiently as the ramp descended to admit her into the ship, turning and discreetly stepping back as she tipped her head up to Aegir, preparing to end the surprisingly cordial encounter. "I hope that you find this Shokushu without any trouble, Aegir. It was nice meeting you."

Over 10,000 to be precise it was 10,123 Earth years, however old that made her by her standards since he doubted that her world revolved around its star or stars as quickly as Earth's. But he had not answered the question as she spoke, drawing closer to his position as she did so, her head craning up to look at him given his height.

She had been close enough that he felt her wing brush against his robes, a tentacle lifting up coiling loosely around her forearm. His mouth tendrils moved in an odd way which had indicated that he had been curious about something that had been triggered by her surface thoughts of boredom.

Wait, he spoke into her mind though the word had not seemed urgent or rushed as he looked down upon her. His tentacle retracting, falling away as he recalled that she had been armed. Give me a moment.

And that had been all he really needed to map out the differences in her mind between that of a human given the compound nature of his mind that allowed him to multitask.

His white eyes closed for a moment of concentration as he summoned forth. The terrain about them changed, night giving way to day, a stream opening up in the soil while trees erupted from the soil. The ship vanishing from site as a few K'mari flew in the air in the distance as the current terrain became more mountainous and rugged.

Even his form melted, shrinking in size to a little more than five feet, feathers sprouting from what was once mauve skin now more caucasian then anything. Slowly his eyes opened as the illusion had been complete. A spitting image of her home world that he drew out of her memories.

"There's always time for a little deviation," he spoke to her, lips matching up to telepathic words that sank into her mind so she didn't realize the difference.

He had been fascinated by the K'mari and their ecology given that he knew nothing about them. He could have told her that all the lives of his kind had begun in violence. Now that they had evolved to reproduce asexually by budding. Those beings, those nodes, an extension of their parent. Though beginning life with little intelligence the slowly grew in intelligence and cleverness but had always been tools of there parent, that was until they killed them becoming their own master.

Among the illusion he had masked her instrument and her gun from her own perceptions as he had done with her ship. To her gaze they had been invisible, to her touch weightless though they were still there in her grasp.

Karivnie flinched instinctively as one of Aegir's tentacles coiled around her arm, albeit loosely, and she almost shot him then. The only thing that saved him from what would at least be an unpleasant shock was her utter shock as she was- to her eyes- transported from the dingy world on which she had landed to Kuuzora, her own much-longed for home.

Her large eyes swam with happy tears as she looked around, the sight of home welcome even if her mind was swimming with confusion. She couldn't possibly be here, after all of this time, but she wanted so badly for it to be real as she took in the towering trees and the glint of sun off of brilliantly feathered bodies flying in the distance. How could Aegir have known? she wondered. The dissonance that rose from that thought was deafening. There was no Aegir here, just a surprisingly tall K'mari male whose name she didn't know. Then how had she gotten here, if Aegir- the name stuck firmly in her mind, even though it made no sense within the setting- had not teleported her here? And if he had not, then how was she here? Or- her suspicious nature seemed intent on analyzing this miracle into misery- where was she?

Unaware that she still carried both her kishir and her weapon, it was only the worst of bad luck that, as questions chased themselves sickeningly through Karivnie's mind, her fingers tightened on the trigger she was unaware of holding and released an electrified disk into one of the tentacles upon which Aegir stood. Oblivious to her own action, Karivnie finally found the ability to speak.

Naturally, her first words within the fantastic world of the illusion were questions. "Who are you? How- how is this possible?" Deviation. The remark seemed a reply to something, but shock had wiped her mind clean of recollections of her words just before being engulfed in the illusion. She would likely remember later, but at that moment, she was too enmeshed in confusion to make the connection. Still, it nagged at her, along with everything else about this too-good-to-be-true turn of events. What is going on?

He let out a grunt as her shot connected with him even if she had perceived it as missing him closely. Pain seared through him as he felt the electrical shock course over his body, the smell of his rubbery burnt flesh waifed up into the air. His appendage had coursed with the charred marks brought on by her gun, instinctively he had lashed out at the accursed object his left hand it the object to jar it loose from her grasp.

Surprisingly he had not been stunned in the typical sense, while he had been in so much pain that he had nearly blacked out. He detached the battered tentacle from his body, the pain slicing through him deeply. On the ground it had wriggled though of course all his companion would perceive had been the slapping away of nothingness out of her hand and the k'mari that had been next to her keeling over with the anguish brought on by pain.

Though this had seemed to pass quickly enough for he had managed to answer her questions. Anger welling up inside him at being so stupid that he had remained in the line of fire though joyful that the blast had not caused him to pass out.

He had been slow in his response though, it passing out of his mouth as he straightened up. With his compound mind being quite adapt at multitasking his illusion had not flickered. His mind reaching out towards her own as he had read an appropriate response, red as his crest rose for a moment. Instinctively he had been ready to last out though his feathers smoothed over in a half minute or so his illusion flickered for a moment becoming the dark planet that they had actually been on then back to the image that he had created. Apparently his control hadn't been as good as he had thought, though invisible appendages lashed out to grasp her, hands resting on her shoulders while a pair of his tentacles wrapped about her wrists.

"It's an illusion you twit!" he squeaked in pain as his feathers became a black in coloration, the illusion maintained even with the pain that had coursed through him, pain that had subsided some as he had detached his own tentacle glad for that "useless" ability since the loss of the tentacle pained him less than being shot. An automatic response in him sealing off blood flow to the tentacle while his vast regenerative powers went to work.

"And to answer your question I am Aegir." The words had been practically spat out, though seeing into her mind as he could do he could tell that his wounding had been unintentional causing the coloration in his feathers to return to a red, he still seemed bitter about the wound regardless though perhaps in a few moments his coloration would become more even tone though of course not right away.

Clarity washed through Karivnie's mind, the pain apparent in the hunched body of the K'mari before her giving her shocked expression a smug cast as she remembered her gun. She wasn't entirely sure how she had managed to shoot him since her hands still felt empty to her, but as his hands gripped her shoulders and what felt like tentacles coiled around her wrists, she felt a stab of pleasure through the onset of claustrophobia that she had caused him pain.

The illusion flickered a moment as the telepath briefly lost control, reassuring Karivnie that she was in fact still on the barren, twilit world on which she had landed. Glaring at the red-plumaged K'mari facade that Aegir was wearing, she twisted in his grip, aiming a blow with one wing at his head, hoping the blow would at least loosen his grip so she could get some distance from him. Her ship's door should still be open; if she was fast enough, she could get inside her ship. I should have known that you couldn't be trusted.

"What is this, Aegir? What do you hope to accomplish by holding me in this illusion?" she snapped, a deep red flooding into her own feathers and her crest flaring atop her head as she fought the larger alien's grasp.

Feathers now fading from a red to a light blue he tilted his head to the side as if to get a different angle on the features of her face. Thus far he had not detected anything in her mind that he had to concern himself with other then the weapon she had wielded of course. His eyes flickered to the gun now upon the ground then back to her.

His hold upon her loosening a little as he had digested her thoughts and had heard her words reflecting upon them for a quick moment. He had figured that matters didn't make much sense to her given that her perceptions had been altered previously.

He had not know if her spike in pleasure had been caused by her claustophia and a strange reaction to be restrained or at having shot him but time and perhaps a little delving would explain this.

I'm sorry, he began, those words alien to him as his instincts nearly took over in ripping her apart in the same manner that he had with his human victims. She had been alien, and as such he afforded her a little more leyway than most.

Thrust had been the biggest liability of all, he had thought. Once or twice in his long life he had elected to trust anyone and they had been all non human.

You inadertly shot me and I reacted as I had. I did not seek to keep you here in this illusion, only to quell some of the loneliness in you that I sensed.

The aggressive red drained from Aegir's feathers, turning to a light blue as he cocked his head to regard her from a different angle. Watching it, knowing that what she was seeing wasn't really there, Karivnie marveled at the skill displayed in the illusion.

His hold on her loosened slightly and she tensed, ready to take advantage of the opening. Then he spoke, and his words came as a complete shock. An apology?

Karivnie stared at the alien disguised as a K'mari, her feathers caught somewhere between pink and blue as the fear and shock tumbled inside her. "I realize that as a telepath you might not be clear on personal boundaries, but taking liberties with other people's minds is not taken well by many people, myself included. I appreciate that you wanted to make me less lonely, but making me see things without telling me will not help. I don't see why my loneliness should bother you, anyway." Staring around the perfect replica of her home world, she shook her head slightly and pulled her wings around herself, adding softly, "But I have to admit, this illusion is... incredible."

She appeared lost in thought, reflecting on her family as she watched the wind move through a lush landscape that wasn't there, illusory water sparkling under an imagined sun. It was unbelievable, how well he'd pulled this off, even cloaking himself in the guise of a handsome young K'mari male... and all to protect her from her loneliness? That also seemed unbelievable, but a part of her wanted to believe it, the same part that wanted to abandon herself to the illusory world that had been built around her. As if agreeing with that impulse, the wind kicked up again, shoving her towards Aegir.

Tentacles bled away from her as he listened to her explanation nodding slightly. In his experience he had been so use in dealing with humans that prying into their minds had been nearly automatic. Mouth tendrils flexed and eased slightly, wind ruffling through his feathers as she spoke to him.

Invisible tentacles fleeing from her body, a small smile fluttering across his face. "Of course. I'm still not use to encountering other species. It's just that ..."

His words cut off, feathers still blue as thoughts rumbled through his head. Then he added, "I sought only to quell your loneliness for a time ... I ... I find you alluring in a way and that had driven me to act as I did." Of course the illusion had still been projected around them, he had not retracted it yet after all.

But when she stumbled forth from the wind it had been his hands that grabbed hold of her at the hips, a sudden reaction to her losing her balance. He attempted to stabilize her first and foremost though he could feel her warmth against his hands as he held her in his grasp, eyes looking down into her own, another smile upon his face, this one larger than the last that eased across his face. His heart beat a little quicker, his nostrils taking in her scent at this close range.

A musky aroma, pheromones, had escaped his body without his control. An evolutionary throwback since he knew that such had no effect on humans he encountered and all beings he had met thus far though he had been uncertain whether or not they would effect her at all. Curious about that question his feathers remained a blue coloration as he held her in his arms.

Karivnie couldn't begin to express the relief she felt as his tentacles released her, although she tucked that emotion aside as she listened intently to his explanation. She could excuse unfamiliarity with other species, she supposed, although it seemed odd that one who could travel so easily would be so unversed in matters of etiquette.

Caught off guard by the gust of wind, she felt Aegir's hands grasp her hips, the brush of finely feathered skin over her own making her shiver in a not entirely unpleasant way as thoughts tumbled through her head, her own feathers flashing a brilliant azure at his revelation. Her violet eyes were wide as she stared up into his warm smile, the rational side of her still trying to argue against the inexplicable feeling of safety that he gave her. Still, her intuition told her that this, at least was no illusion; he really meant her no harm, and was at least fascinated by her. Lowering her head to cradle her forehead on his shoulder, Karivnie spoke into his chest, enjoying the feel, even imagined, of being held by one of her own kind. Inhaling a strangely appealing musky aroma, she felt herself relax a bit more, snuggling against him as she raised a hand to comb absentmindedly through his feathers. "I don't understand," she said slowly, "What do you mean that you find me 'alluring'?"

She knew the meaning of the word, of course, but such talk was only used between aerie mates. In this context, directed at her from an alien being so different from her, it made no sense. She knew that among her own kind she was quite pretty and she supposed perhaps Aegir could appreciate that, but 'alluring'... she shook her head. She couldn't even imagine how such a match could work, even if she were so inclined. Still, she couldn't deny that being nestled against his body, her hardening nipples pressing against his downy chest as she was surrounded in the scent wafting from his feathers was pleasant in a way that she had never felt before. Unsure of why she did so, she wrapped her arms around his waist, twining herself around him with an unfamiliar intimacy, the warmth of her soaking through his robes.

And the answer to her question had been a simple one given that he found that most of his time had been spent on Earth and later Shokushu. While he sensed the question rising up within her mind he made no move to address it coming to learn that some people simply don't desire to have their minds read seeing their own thoughts as sacred.

But his feathers had remained blue in hue, had his pheromones actually worked? That would have been a first though he had been use to excreting them around humans. It had been nothing under his direct control, they sort of released themselves when he had been heavily aroused, such as now.

His fingers burned with the contact of her body so close to his own. Her words flowing up to his ears while a shiver ran up and down his spine at her welcomed contact. If not for the maroon robe that draped over him he would have had the warm contact of her flesh riding over him.

Eyes fluttered closed as he dipped his head so that his chin rested atop her head. He let out a small sound akin to a bird chirping, a small groan that passed from him as he felt the hardening of her nipples pressed against him.

"What I mean is," he began in a tone of voice that had quavered a little, "is that from the very first moment my gaze fell upon you I had thought that you were attractive. If I had not made a creed with myself long ago I would have taken you, possessed you however I could. Yet I wage this internal war between possession and placing you upon a pedestal to admire."

His eyes drifted opened as a soft kiss had been planted atop her head. His words not entirely romantic given what he had been though he had tried nevertheless.

Still feeling oddly warm and cuddly in the cloud of scent emanating from Aegir, she clung unselfconsciously to him as she listened, her own feathers retaining their curious blue hue. She smiled shyly as he explained his attraction- she enjoyed being admired as much as the next being- but her keen ears could hardly fail to pick up the quaver in his voice or the bubbly warmth that welled up inside her with his soft kiss. In her loneliness, she soaked up the admiration and signs of affection like a dry sponge, but her analytical, inquiring mind couldn't let the details that eluded her go.

For the most part, his actions and attitudes mimicked those of mates within an aerie. She had seen his true form, and was certain that he couldn't mate with a K'mari. Admittedly, she had no experience with mating and so was fuzzy on the details, but she felt safe in assuming that their bodies were too different for it to work. Maybe he just likes the way I look and is mimicking mating behavior because he knows I'm lonely? I probably would be looking for a mate on Kuuzora by now anyway, if it weren't for Terrisol...

Amidst her comfortable haze, she snuggled closer to him in the wake of his kiss and responded by pressing her hot lips against the skin of his neck, her arms snaking behind his back to press her closer against him. The last piece of the puzzle could only be filled in by him. "How would you... possess me?" she asked. Her intuition told her that the core of the tangled mystery of his behavior and her feelings lay in the answer to this question, so she went on, fingers still stroking his feathers with innocent sensuality, "I think... I might like that. Would you explain it, please?"

He hadn't really thought about the matter though he had figured that they were compatible. She had been a humanoid which seemed to possess all the parts of a human female. Of course he had not been entirely certain as to this fact failing to harp on matters.

A kiss to his neck bled his feathers from blue to green, his hands scrolling up and down her sides as he processed both her words and thoughts. He smiled at her as she broke the kiss on his neck still feeling her hands tracking against the feathers of his back.

At last his hands came to rest upon her hips, his eyes gazing into her violet ones.

"Allow me to show you," he answered, hands guiding her downward to a blanket that seemed to mysteriously appear behind her. He had thought about the logistics of matters given her wings and thus guided her to her knees instead. One hand rising up to settle upon her shoulder, the other rested for a moment upon her hip before sliding it's way to her abdomen before beginning to trickle down to her crotch, rubbing against her clit as his mouth leaned down towards her own as he dropped down to his knees placing his mouth against her own, tongue wriggling inside her mouth against her own.

Trusting, excitement charging her as she saw that the time for enigmatic answers were gone, she allowed him to guide her down onto the blanket (that wasn't there before, she noted absently), an odd extra charge going through her as he brought her to her knees.

Her breath caught as his hand slid from her hip, stroking down the soft, slight curves of her abdomen, and a small moan left her lips as his fingers found her clit. Shifting to give him better access as the foreign pleasure rippled through her, Karivnie leaned in to meet his lips eagerly, twining her arms around his shoulders, moaning again around his tongue as pulling him close made his chest brush the hard nubs of her nipples.

For a moment she contemplated drawing back from the kiss, yet another question brimming to the forefront of her mind, but remembering who Aegir was, she instead thought: Do you enjoy this too? Would it be better if you were inside my mind?