He quickly realized that the lovely woman - the lovely Hotaru - had meant only to demonstrate, not to threaten or intimidate him. Kel's wariness faded again, though her question caused a moment's hesitation. It had been easy revealing what he was to Jiao, who was very much what he thought of as a fellow Hidden. Hotaru looked human enough to give him pause, but her easy use of magic and gentle smile charmed him into being less reticent than he would have been with another. Besides, he had known Sidhe ladies who could barely compare, and if not for the roundness of her ears he might have thought her one of them, a Fair One beneath the hills.
"Half," he admitted, though this time the hesitance was for his own heritage and the uncertainty as to how strangers would react to it. "On my father's side. My mother is anemoi. A spirit of the wind," he added, remembering how Jiao hadn't recognized the word. Shyly he raised his hand, calling the small breeze that was all he was able to summon these days to swirl through his hair despite the stillness in the cathedral's shadow.
Hotaru was gentler than Jiao had been, a kindness that Kel responded to with open gratitude as she softened the Fae's words into something easier to understand. "Change is scary sometimes," he agreed, more emphatically than he would have before being dropped in a strange world beside an ocean he had only ever imagined from tales. "I don't blame them for that." Her invitation was accepted with a flash of a smile and an awkward dip of his head as he slipped his bow off his shoulder and ducked inside the structure to settle gingerly beside her, careful not to sit on her lovely dress. It was better made than his own clothes, or any others he'd seen since arriving, and he thought wistfully for a moment of his cousin who had enjoyed stitching such fine garments for the matriarchs of the Grove.
"A year..." A frame of time hard to imagine being gone from his home for, though according to those he'd spoken to it was only the beginning. "Ah, I've been here... a... month?" A frown creased his lips, silently accounting for the days. "Maybe closer to two by now... I've been mostly just trying to get by on my own. But the volcano kind of threw everything off, and the seasons here aren't really what I'm used to." Understatement, but how precisely did one describe a volcano? "Do you live in Haulani?" His voice held a note of hesitance, unsure of how far was curiosity and how far was prying. He was unskilled at speaking to beautiful women he wasn't related to, more used to the cheerful disrespect of his cousins or the rough manners of the merchants and travelers he guided, once upon a time in a far away land.
And Hotaru was easily the most beautiful human woman he had ever met.
"Half," he admitted, though this time the hesitance was for his own heritage and the uncertainty as to how strangers would react to it. "On my father's side. My mother is anemoi. A spirit of the wind," he added, remembering how Jiao hadn't recognized the word. Shyly he raised his hand, calling the small breeze that was all he was able to summon these days to swirl through his hair despite the stillness in the cathedral's shadow.
Hotaru was gentler than Jiao had been, a kindness that Kel responded to with open gratitude as she softened the Fae's words into something easier to understand. "Change is scary sometimes," he agreed, more emphatically than he would have before being dropped in a strange world beside an ocean he had only ever imagined from tales. "I don't blame them for that." Her invitation was accepted with a flash of a smile and an awkward dip of his head as he slipped his bow off his shoulder and ducked inside the structure to settle gingerly beside her, careful not to sit on her lovely dress. It was better made than his own clothes, or any others he'd seen since arriving, and he thought wistfully for a moment of his cousin who had enjoyed stitching such fine garments for the matriarchs of the Grove.
"A year..." A frame of time hard to imagine being gone from his home for, though according to those he'd spoken to it was only the beginning. "Ah, I've been here... a... month?" A frown creased his lips, silently accounting for the days. "Maybe closer to two by now... I've been mostly just trying to get by on my own. But the volcano kind of threw everything off, and the seasons here aren't really what I'm used to." Understatement, but how precisely did one describe a volcano? "Do you live in Haulani?" His voice held a note of hesitance, unsure of how far was curiosity and how far was prying. He was unskilled at speaking to beautiful women he wasn't related to, more used to the cheerful disrespect of his cousins or the rough manners of the merchants and travelers he guided, once upon a time in a far away land.
And Hotaru was easily the most beautiful human woman he had ever met.
