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Carmine walks past Xar as he lies out on the deck basking in the sun, looking a little confused and obviously deep in thought.
Xar`Rex opens one eye to see who it is, and grunts in greeting, too lazy to actually move out of his nice warm spot.
Carmine jumps alittle as Xar grunts, turning to look down at him "...I thought you were asleep..."
Xar`Rex "Mmm no, just like the Sun. Down here, there is less wind. Less cold."
Carmine "Oh." she smiles briefly at him, then goes back to looking confused and thoughtful.
Xar`Rex starts to close his eye again, then pauses, "Is something wrong?"
Carmine shakes her head "It's nothing really ..."
Xar`Rex "Hm." He looks unconvinced, "You are not happy."
Carmine "Well ... it's about Ruby ..."
Xar`Rex "Ruby. The one who calls herself sisteR?"
Carmine nods. "Corve doesn't think she is though..."
Xar`Rex Why not?
Carmine "I don't know exactly ... he thinks she's some trick. That it's a lie."
Xar`Rex "Do you want her to be your sister?"
Carmine "... Yes. I think."
Xar`Rex "even if she is evil?"
Carmine "... Maybe."
Xar`Rex "How will you choose?"
Carmine "I don't know ... it depends if she even is my sister ...but..."
Xar`Rex "If she is, then what?"
Carmine "... I don't know." She admits, unhappily
Xar`Rex "Maybe you will save her."
Carmine brightens a little at that thought "I'd like that, if I could!"
Xar`Rex "You will have to be strong though. She might not want it."
Carmine "...Yeah. I don't even know how ... especially if I'm ... changing to be like her."
Xar`Rex "You are changing?"
Carmine "Sometimes when I fight, I cut with black arcs ... when I wrapped essence around me to protect me it congealed as blood..."
Xar`Rex frowns. "I thought you said no to them."
Carmine "I did!" She says emphatically. "But I still seem to be changing."
Xar`Rex "Well, we will save you too, then."
Carmine "I don't want to change though. Even to be with Ruby." She sounds actually scared of the thought.
Xar`Rex rises to his feet and pats Carmine's shoulder reassuringly with his enormous paw. "We will find out what is happening. Maybe it is connected to her. If we can get her to stay with us, we can find out."
Carmine smiles "I hope we can."
Xar`Rex frowns for a bit. "If she does not wish to stay with us, we might have to make her."
Carmine "... I don't know how..."
Xar`Rex "We might have to trap her."
Carmine "But we've only ever seen her in my dream..."
Xar`Rex "Hmm, well, I am sure we will meet her some day."
Carmine "I suppose we will..."
Xar`Rex "Whatever your powers look like, you are still you. Nobody else can change what you think."
Carmine "...I guess..."
Carmine is silent for a time, still looking thoughtful.
Xar`Rex watches her for a bit, then smiles, "Maybe thinking about something else for a bit will help. You can learn something as you, the Solar. Not the darkness."
Carmine "Like what?" she asked, evidently curious.
Xar`Rex thinks for a minute, "Target practice? I can carry you, and teach you to hit things from a distance."
Carmine "Ohh, I've never tried that before..." She smiles.
Xar`Rex thinks for a moment, "I have some knives you could use. But we may want to start with rocks, since we are over the ocean."
Carmine "...rocks might be better, yes. I wouldn't want to loose your knives!"
Xar`Rex gathers some crap from Oteki's hold, and forms them into small pellets, giving a pouch of them to Carmine.
Carmine takes the pouch, ties it along side the others on her belt.
Xar`Rex launches himself into the air, then circles around and grabs Carmine with his talons, gently, and they soar out over the open water
Carmine hangs in his arms, looking down over the sea. She did like flying like this, she decided.
Xar`Rex skims low over the water, and frees one arm to drop a floating target, then flies back up a little distance to circle around it. The seas are calm today, so the waves don't move it much. "Okay. Can you see the target ok?"
Carmine nods "I can see it."
Xar`Rex sets his wings in a slow glide, "Try throwing some, to get a feel for where it is, how far, how hard to throw."
Carmine does as directed, muscles moving under her skin as she throws the rocks out. It's quickly obvious that she has quite a lot of natural ability...
Xar`Rex "Good, now, we will go higher, a little at a time." He does so, keeping his movements smooth and even.
Carmine continues to throw out rocks, missing sometimes but hitting close too.
Xar`Rex grins, "You are very good at this! Now we will try moving faster." He does so, diving down a bit higher than where they began, and flying faster and faster, alternating between narrow and wide circles
Carmine takes her time with aiming now that the flight path is more erratic, and she misses more ... before something just seems to click inside her and she hits the target dead on three times in a row, the final time instants after Xar jinked sideways suddenly
Xar`Rex laughs. "Are you sure you did not know how to do this?"
Xar`Rex tries a few strafing runs
Carmine lands the stone on the target each time. The last time, she actually gets it to stay there, not bounce off. "Never before..."
Xar`Rex circles around, higher, "Well, I do not know if I can teach you anything more, you are good at it naturally. But it is fun, isn't it?"
Carmine nods "It is!" She throws a rock that multiplies into a phantom hoard of rocks, smashing the target to flinders. "...I think I broke the target though..."
Xar`Rex laughs
Xar`Rex "Perhaps we will target some fish, they will be more of a challenge."
Xar`Rex "Some swim near the surface to feed
Carmine starts to look around for fish
Xar`Rex ranges back and forth, til a school of large fish shows just under the surface
Carmine waits for a fish to leap from the water, sending a stone flying towards it "...missed!"
Xar`Rex circles around to get in range again, "Try again!"
Carmine tries agian, this time hitting the fish on the side of the head, just before the gills.
Xar`Rex grins and swoops down to pick up the fish with a spare hand, then circles around again, "One more, and we will have dinner."
Carmine nods and concentrates. She doesn't notice that she doesn't have a stone in her hand, and so what she releases is a bolt of sunfire that flashes downwards, cleanly punching a hole through the side of the tuna's head.
Xar`Rex tilts his head to one side. "Well. Now we won't have to cook it."
Carmine grins
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