"How well you know me!" Jigano laughed. Old books were indeed a passion of his, and he chuckled as he reached back into the boat to collect his basket and dump the water out again. "Ah well... I suppose we just have to make new ones," he decided with a sigh that wasn't entirely melancholy. There was anticipation in creating something new, something that might be similar to what they had once had, but also entirely its own work, given the unique flora and fauna of Caido. "Have you met Ronin yet? Since you're interested in the beasts of Caido I had thought we might team up with the Monster Hunter's Guild sometimes, to study the unusual creatures that they bring down. Mmm. And I need to introduce you to Killian, too, our newest Guildmember," he added thoughtfully. Really, he needed to call the whole Guild together and soon, so everyone could meet. Perhaps he could spice things up a little...
But that was a thought for another time, as he distracted them both with talk of animal shifts, and how they were come by. He winced a little at Caiside's shock, glad he had started with the most recent shift, but gave his friend a sheepish smile. "'Four legs are better than two!'" he quipped. And paws are better than hooves, he added silently to himself, grinning at Caiside's understandable bias. When the hand landed on his shoulder he didn't even flinch away as he might have even a season ago, slowly learning to accept that not all touches were a prelude to pain, either through violence or guilt-edged memory. "It was easier the second time, I suppose," he admitted wryly. "When I first grew feathers it was... I suppose I was too distracted, then, to let myself do anything other than what I had to do. And it's not actually the first time I've been a horse," he let slip with a faint, amused grimace. "Though it's not my fondest memory. There's a certain divine comedy in finding myself able to do it at will now, I suppose!" He tilted his face up to the sun, letting the rays strike him gently as his lips curved up again. "If I could choose, though... I suppose... a form that would let me protect what's important to me. A gryphon, perhaps? Or a dragon..." A silver dragon, the most courageous and honorable of all the metallic good dragons of his world, with their breath of ice and scales that could turn aside the spells of their foes. Yes... that would be incredible, if it wasn't so laughably out of his reach.
But that was a thought for another time, as he distracted them both with talk of animal shifts, and how they were come by. He winced a little at Caiside's shock, glad he had started with the most recent shift, but gave his friend a sheepish smile. "'Four legs are better than two!'" he quipped. And paws are better than hooves, he added silently to himself, grinning at Caiside's understandable bias. When the hand landed on his shoulder he didn't even flinch away as he might have even a season ago, slowly learning to accept that not all touches were a prelude to pain, either through violence or guilt-edged memory. "It was easier the second time, I suppose," he admitted wryly. "When I first grew feathers it was... I suppose I was too distracted, then, to let myself do anything other than what I had to do. And it's not actually the first time I've been a horse," he let slip with a faint, amused grimace. "Though it's not my fondest memory. There's a certain divine comedy in finding myself able to do it at will now, I suppose!" He tilted his face up to the sun, letting the rays strike him gently as his lips curved up again. "If I could choose, though... I suppose... a form that would let me protect what's important to me. A gryphon, perhaps? Or a dragon..." A silver dragon, the most courageous and honorable of all the metallic good dragons of his world, with their breath of ice and scales that could turn aside the spells of their foes. Yes... that would be incredible, if it wasn't so laughably out of his reach.
