It was the days like these that set the world at rights again: lazing in the sun with your father to one side of you and your uncle at the other, letting yourself forget all your troubles while you basked in their company. For little Reketet, the basking was quite literal: as an empath, he could feel their emotions just as much as he felt the sun on his fur, and they were both just as content as he to be lazing around in the sun like this. Even more strongly, Reketet could feel the very souls within their bodies, for he was a Spirit chyrith, and perceiving spirits was as much a sense to him as hearing and touch.

When you lived a life where you had far more enemies than friends, and had to be cautious even in your own front yard, you savored the quiet moments where your fears were far away. They always ended too soon. Soon his "uncle" Singer would decide he was rested enough from his journey and they would be up on their paws again, with Singer teaching him how to use the magical abilities that came with being one of reviled Spirit chyriths. The lessons were good for him, but they were a reminder of how different he was from the family that had adopted him--no one else needed to be tutored by an older chyrith that could only offer lessons after avoiding his own prosecution, to come visit Reketet at the den of the Mystic chyrith Lord, who was his adoptive father.

But for all it was, at times, a hard life, it was far better than the one Reketet had left behind the day Lord Cateiran had adopted him, and for that he was eternally grateful, and tried not to complain too much. The days and moments like these made it all worth it.

"Hey, Reketet..." his uncle's voice gently broke the quiet afternoon daze. "I just had an interesting idea."

As if he'd been sleeping behind his closed eyes, Reketet stretched out and yawned, all four paws reaching out before him and brushing his father's side. Making a contented little noise, Reketet rolled onto his back, aiming his muzzle in the general direction of Singer's voice. "What's that? New lesson?"

Apparently it was. "I haven't taught you how to use the Planes Shifting ability yet," Singer replied. "Normally, I'd want to finish you up with controlling your three Summonings, but--well, do you think you might enjoy a little trip off-world?"

Reketet put out a little empathic burst of surprise--his equivalent of going wide-eyed and gaping. The ability to shift between the planes and visit other worlds and dimensions was a skill new to him, thanks to the still-recent transition he'd made from adolescent to midgrowth (the chyrith term for an immature adult). Chyriths gained new abilities as they aged and entered the different stages of their lives (cub, adolescent, midgrowth, adult), as naturally as a tree gained more rings as it grew.

Planes Shifting was a skill he'd have to learn someday, at least so he'd be able to control his ability and keep it from going haywire by accident, as untrained skills sometimes did, but.... "You think I could handle it?" he asked doubtfully, scratching his nose with a claw. It was a bit of a scary thought... there was so much that could go wrong in opening a new, temporary path through the very fabric of existence.

"Of course you can," Singer promptly responded, though he reassured the young chyrith by adding: "But you don't really need to worry too badly, just yet. Today, you just get to watch and tell me how I'm doing it. We'll take a little trip through my own, so you can see what it's like, and then we'll work on your own casting of it."

A weight settled on his head and tossed up his hair--Singer giving his fur a ruffle with a handlike forepaw. Reflexively he ducked his head and made a blind swat (pun unintended) for the affronting hand with a giggle.

"The most I'll be expecting from you on the subject will be, I hope, making a window but not an actual door," the older Spirit added with cheerful confidence, "so there shouldn't be any danger associated with your own practicing. That won't be until next time."

Though blind little Reketet couldn't have known Singer gave him a wink at that last phrase, the youth picked up the playful gist of it nonetheless, through Singer's assorted emotional emanations. It didn't wipe away his doubt, but it tempered it significantly. Singer was family, and his family could do him no wrong. If he said Reketet could do it, then Reketet could do if, even if he had to work at it a bit.

"Well, if you think so," he giggled, "I suppose I gotta give it a shot."

"Up you get, then," Cateiran said, nudging Reketet's side with his nose and encouraging the youth to his feet. "Go find someplace good for a portal--and please not at my doorstep, hmm? I'd rather not be feeling the temporal rip for weeks after."

"Oh, I'm not that bad at sealing off the warps I make, old man," Singer chuckled, to another round of giggling on Reketet's part. "Come on, Reketet, I know a good place just on the other side of that hillock."

The Spirit Lord padded off, and after giving his father's cheek an affectionate, catlike nuzzling, Reketet obediently bounded after him.