As soon as breakfast was finished, Sisu and Jarek returned to the cliffside for more flying lessons.

"All right Skippy just keep it up!" Sisu cheered.

Jarek grunted as he attempted to "grab" the air, "Easy for you to say!" Jarek called.

The new dragon was attempting to "climb" the air as Sisu had instructed him the previous day. Of course, that was easier said than done, but on the plus side, he seemed to be doing better than he was yesterday. Jarek reached for the air, grabbing onto a nonexistent platform. Then with force, he pulled himself upward. Each time he did he climbed higher and higher, but that also left him open to falter and fall. Yet each time he would regain his footing so to speak.

Sisu had to admit, her student was a determined sort. No matter what was thrown at him he wasn't giving up. And if he failed? It just determined him to try harder.

Jarek certainly wouldn't forgive himself if he did give up. He just kept going. He would get a few bursts through the air, before faltering and then before he knew it, landed right upon the ground. As he tasted the dirt he spat out.

"Wonderful," He muttered lowly.

Sisu's response was a small laugh, "Just hang in there, you'll get it."

Getting back on his feet, Jarek dusted himself of any debris, "Ugh geeze am I going to have to shampoo this or something?" He asked in regards to his new fur.

"Dragons use algae and river slime," Sisu corrected.

Jarek's eyes widened, and his mouth twitched as it opened and closed, "Lovely," He remarked unenthusiastically, shuddering as he finished.

"It's not as bad as it sounds Skippy, trust me," Sisu reassured.

"I find the idea of putting river junk on me more than a little disgusting," Jarek remarked, sticking out his tongue as he did.

"Dragons have been bathing that was for centuries, even longer!" Sisu stated, "It helps keep us clean and it adds a shimmer," Sisu brushed her mane for emphasis.

"You guys have nothing better? Like oils? Powder?" Jarek asked.

"If you want that stuff you'd have to go to my cousin Reela's place," Sisu answered.

Jarek eyed the dragoness with a glint in his eye, "You've mentioned your cousin before."

Sisu let out a sigh, "That I have."

Jarek paused before he spoke, his eyes looking to the right before returning his gaze to Sisu, "Do you hate her or something?"

"What!? No!" Sisu blurted, "How could you say that? Why would I hate my flesh and blood?"

"Hey calm down I'm just making an observation," Jarek replied, "It's just I picked up some kind of tension whenever she's brought up."

Sisu gritted her teeth before pursing her lips in a pout, "It's not tension...at least I don't think, but she just gets on my nerves so much!"

Relaxing, Jarek put his legs over one another, "Do tell."

"Where to start?" Sisu asked rhetorically, "First off she's pretty, popular, and rich."

"Rich? Dragons can be rich?" Jarek asked, his eyes taking on a more intrigued light.

"Not in the same manner as humans, but she is what you could call "nobility", and her family line is very respected," Sisu explained.

Jarek picked up on the certain terminology, "So she's old money from your mother's side?"

"Yep," Sisu responded, "Not to say the Datu line itself isn't respected but my cousin does come from "old money"."

Jarek chuckled, "I wouldn't mind coming from old money."

"You seem the type, no offense," Sisu remarked.

"None was taken, I could go for the high life," Jarek said longingly.

"Well my cousin certainly lives the high life, and I don't mean the stuff she smokes in that pipe of hers," Sisu's tone became low, "It's just she lays around in her estate making herself look pretty, having servants waiting on her claw and foot, while the rest of us have to fight and survive and just...and it wasn't just there, ever since we were kids she was just the center of attention! Oh look at Reela isn't she so cute? Reela's so pretty! Look at what Reela did!"

"Woah! Okay man, you sound jealous," Jarek laughed.

"I am not!" Sisu protested.

Jarek smirked while raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not!" Sisu protested, delving into a small whine.

Jarek still looked unconvinced at her.

"Fine, I'm jealous! But if you met her you would feel the same way," Sisu sighed, "Cept for Jagan, he worships the ground she walked upon," Sisu then proceeded to mutter under her breath, "Just because he's head over heels for her."

"Wait? Can dragon even marry their cousins?" Jarek asked.

"Why not? Humans marry their cousins don't they?" Sisu asked.

Thinking on it a moment, Jarek knew the dragon was right, "I guess...it just always seemed kind of weird."

Marrying into the family could be considered incest, but the line seemed to fade at cousins. Jarek didn't pay it much mind. If he tried to figure out what was legal in terms of marriage and family his head was hurt. It wasn't as if he was considering marriage to anyone.

"Well marriage aside, I think we've talked long enough, time for lunch," Sisu announced pulling out two lunch boxes.

Opening them off revealed a blend of various foods. Jarek peered inside and noted with widened eyes.

Looks like you put foods from each of the different tribes," He realized.

"You bet! With Kumandra getting along I figured why not do a mixed tribe meal!" Sisu cheered as she set down Jarek's box.

Staring inside, Jarek noted something that caused his face to fall, "No dessert huh?"

"Don't give me that look Skippy, after all, you pigged out yesterday you need to lay off the sweets," Sisu chided.

"I don't have an ounce of fat on me!" Jarek protested.

"Trust me it's going to build up. Plus a guy as old as you probably has to have a slow metabolism," Sisu noted.

Jarek glared at the dragoness with a narrow eye, "Just how old do you think I am?"

Sisu felt the glare upon her, and she sheepishly swallowed the bit of food she was eating, "Forty?"

Jarek almost laughed, but held it down, "You're ten years off."

"Fifty?" Sisu asked.

"I'm thirty!" Jarek snapped.

Sisu blinked in surprise, "Oh! Thirty? Yeah I guess when you said "ten years off", you meant ten years down...not up…awkward."

"Well it's not as awkward as you Miss, I'm five hundred years old," Jarek chuckled.

"Hey I may have been asleep for five centuries, but I didn't age a bit!" Sisu replied defensively,

"Uh-huh sure," Jarek sardonically said as he chewed, "Hmm, not bad."

"I'll have you know I am quite young for a dragon!" Sisu remarked proudly, holding her head up to emphasize such a feeling.

"I'll give you that, I'd wager...you're about twenty-five...if you were human...twenty-two at the youngest," Jarek said between bites.

Sisu looked aside at no one in particular, then back to Jarek, "Thanks...I think."

If she was perfectly honest with herself, Sisu wasn't sure how old she was in comparison to human terms of development. She was an adult by dragon standards, even before the creation of the Dragon Gem, but she never calculated how old dragon years related to human years. Even her brief time as a human didn't tell her much. All she knew was that she had the form of a young woman, and as she recalled the period she spent as one, it made her wonder about how Jarek looked like as a human?

It was obvious he had black hair, that much alone would make the most sense considering what color he was as a dragon, but the eye colors were definitely "dragon". At least she assumed so. She had never paid much attention to human eye colors, or eyes in general. It did bring the question of how much transferred over to his dragon form? Especially what was around his muzzle.

"So Skippy?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you have that beard when you were human? Or is that new?" Sisu asked.

Jarek halted eating and ran a claw to his (in his own words) luxurious beard, "Yeah why?"

"So you had that even while you were human?" Sisu peered closer at the beard.

"Yeah?" Jarek stroked his beard, almost protectively.

"Did you ever think about shaving it?"

Immediately, Jarek let out an exasperated groan, "You too!? Really!?"

"What!?" Sisu blurted.

"First my sister, now the great Sisudatu! Geeze sometimes I think my niece is the only one who likes my beard!"

The beard was a defensive subject, so Sisu maneuvered around it, "Okay okay, no shaving talk, how about we talk about your niece? You mentioned her at breakfast."

Jarek's beard-stroking continued before it came to a halt. His expression softened as thoughts of his niece filled his head.

"You said her name was Padi?" Sisu asked.

A grin formed upon Sisu's face, "Yeah, I named her."

"So you were there for her birth. Did you cut that cord thing humans have?" Sisu grimaced a little as she imagined a tiny little human with a cord connecting them to their mother.

Jarek snorted out a small bit of laughter, "Nah that was the doctor, I was there for the birth though."

"Didn't your sister have a husband?" Sisu peered closer as inquired.

"Don't know if they were married or anything official, but they were a couple, that's all I know," Jarek answered.

Sisu noticed Jarek's tone drop, growing lower into a solemn pitch, "Did the Druun get him?"

That was Sisu's first guess, though by going with that theory, logically said husband or lover would be back to normal.

"No...I know the Druun getting you were common all those years ago, but let's just say even non Druun related accidents happen," Jarek answered.

That made sense. Even before the Druun, tragic accidents did happen from time to time.

"We don't have to talk about that, we can go back to your niece," Sisu reassured.

"Little Padi's simple, she's the sweetest girl in Talon, and in case you're wondering, I named her Padi as a joke to my sister, but she took it seriously. Probably was so out of it from the birth she didn't argue against it," Jarek reasoned.

"That's kind of mean joking with your sister like that," Sisu laughed.

Jarek shrugged, "Hey, that's what little brothers

do."

"Not Jagan," Sisu corrected.

"Well I take it Jagan isn't a twin," Jarek figured.

"True, do go on."

"Okay, as I said, little Padi is the sweetest girl you'll ever meet. She just always has this smile on her face, and she just...radiates joy wherever she goes!" Jarek excitedly recited his niece's qualities.

Sisu couldn't help but smile warmly as Jarek did so, "Sounds like you love her a lot."

"I do," Jarek didn't hesitate when he said that, and at that moment his face fell, "I wish I can see her again."

"Well, what's stopping you?" Sisu asked.

Getting up on his feet, Jarek spread out his body, "Look at me, you think my sister and niece are going to understand when I come to them looking like this?"

"I dunno," Sisu shrugged, "I would think a little kid would think their uncle turning into a dragon was cool."

Jarek stifled a bit of laughter. That sounded like Padi. Rapi on the other hand may not be so receptive.

"Sounds like her, shouldn't be surprising, I mean she is your biggest fan," Jarek remarked.

"What's that now?" Sisu asked, her interest piqued.

"Yeah, my niece is a total dragon nut, especially for you," Jarek explained.

Sisu's eyes lit up, "Really? Well, I gotta say I'm a little flattered."

"Yeah the minute I got her that Sisu doll, she practically squeezed it to death," Jarek chuckled.

The light in Sisu's eyes faded, "Sisu doll? There are dolls of me?"

Jarek looked confusedly towards the dragoness, "Yeah...you didn't know?"

"No," Sisu answered, her voice becoming concerned.

Jarek clicked his tongue looking aside very briefly, "Okay...awkward...I don't know much about law or copyright, but I think you could sue for something like this."

Sisu waved her claw in the air, "Nah...I mean if they are making people happy," The dragoness reasoned.

Jarek couldn't help but smile at the dragoness, "You're so easy going."

"I wouldn't be who I was if I wasn't," The dragoness stated proudly.

Jarek found tension lowering within his body. Sisu was just so accepting it was uncanny. At that moment Jarek could understand how his niece was Sisu's biggest fan.

"Well hurry up and finish your lunch, I wanted to try a new lesson on you," Sisu explained.

"More flight maneuvers? No thanks," Jarek scoffed.

"I think we can hold off on the flying Skippy, at least for now, right now I want to see what kind of magic you have," Sisu explained.

Jarek looked at her curiously, his head tilting to the side as he did, "Magic?"

Sisu could only grin and reply, "You'll see."

A/N: This took longer than I wanted, but it is finally here.