Tarrin sat down in the large living chamber on the first floor calmly, still in cat form. Chopstick landed beside him, done flitting through the large house to get an idea of it, and the drake nudged and nipped at him playfully. Turnkey landed on the other side of Chopstick, and the drake turned his playful attentions away from the boring Were-cat and to an opponent more willing to engage in a little mock battle. Phandebrass stepped over the wrestling drakes absently, carrying a very large leather case in his hand. "I say, I'm going to miss all my space on the Dancer, but I have what I need here for field work, I do. I say, Jula, if you're not busy, maybe you'd like to answer some questions for me. I'm a student of many fields of study, and I never pass up the chance to expand my horizons."
Jula glanced at Tarrin with a knowing smile, then looked at the doddering mage. "Thank you, but no," she replied tactfully. "Tarrin told me not to involve myself with the others until he has time to get me ready for it. Whatever that means."
"I say, I understand perfectly. I saw how Triana handled him. I would be something of a distraction, I would," he chuckled.
Tonight. He still wasn't that sure of what to do tonight. He didn't want to miss a night of searching, but if there were Demons out there hunting for him, going out would be a very bad idea. He had his staff with him, sitting in the elsewhere at the moment-he wasn't going to let that out of his sight-but he didn't want to get into a running battle with such obviously dangerous opponents. He'd slip up eventually, and they'd kill him. Fighting them was that last thing on his mind, but he didn't want to lose a day. Not a single day.
There were other considerations. He had to take Jula with him, and she would be a liability. She just wasn't ready to face such things. She needed more time, more training, and more experience. He'd be too busy worrying about her safety to pay attention to what he was doing, and that would create a very dangerous situation for both of them.
Dolanna solved his problem for him, as she came into the room from the kitchen. "Nobody leaves until Phandebrass completes his work," she announced. "Dar and I will go to the market for supper and breakfast for tomorrow, but nobody else will leave. Not until Phandebrass is done." She looked at Tarrin. "And that includes you, dear one. You need a day's rest, anyway. You have pushed yourself hard these last days. It is starting to show on you."
"Tell her I wasn't really set on going out anyway, Allia," he told Allia in the manner of the Cat. When he did so, Jula's ears picked up noticably, and she stared at him in surprise. "I can't take Jula until she recovers, and I won't leave her alone."
"What is that, Tarrin?" Jula asked. "I can't hear a thing, but… it's like I can hear what you want to say."
"It's how cats communicate," he replied to her. "You hear what I want to say, without me actually having to say it. We can understand any kind of cat, from a housecat to a lion, and they'll usually obey us when we ask them to do something. Cats have respect for Were-cats." He looked at her. "And just so you know right now, Allia can understand us," he warned Jula.
"I don't see a problem with that," she said. "Could you teach me how to do that?"
"Well, it's something you probably can't make yourself do," he said dubiously. "It would be easiest if you were in cat form, because it's an instinctive knowledge. Then you wouldn't have to try to force yourself."
"You need to teach me how to do that anyway," she pressed.
"I think you're old enough," he said after looking at her a moment. "I could do it, and I'm younger than you." He shapeshifted back into his humanoid form, looking down at her. "We may as well start now," he said. "Come with me."
"Where are we going?" she asked as she followed him to the stairs.
"A bedroom," he replied. "You don't need any distractions. You'll have enough of them as it is."
He chose the first bedroom he reached on the second floor, one of the smaller ones with only a bed, chest, and washstand. He closed the door behind her, and immediately started unlacing his shirt. "What are you doing?" she asked curiously.
"Take your clothes off," he told her. "They won't change with you."
"I understand that, but why are you taking off your clothes?"
"Because we're going to kill two birds," he replied. "This is something you'd eventually have to face. I may have my amulet, but I'm not going to cheat in your training. I'll do it the same way it was done to me."
Jula turned her back for a moment and pulled her shirt over her head, as Tarrin removed his pants and shirt and placed them on the bed. She kept her back to him as she took off her pants, and she stood there for a long moment.
"Turn around," he ordered. "You can't avoid it forever, Jula. The best way to get you over this is to make you meet it head on."
She turned around, but she kept her eyes locked on his. He sighed and shook his head, then raised his paws from his sides. "Look at me, Jula. Look at all of me. You're going to see it all eventually anyway, and it doesn't offend me for you to look."
She hesitantly did as she was commanded, blushing furiously as soon as her eyes dropped. Tarrin even turned around for her, so she could see everything. "Just one word of warning. Looking is one thing. Touching is another. It doesn't bother me to have you look at me, but putting your paws on any of my more sensitive parts is not recommended."
"I wasn't considering it, Tarrin," she replied, turning beet red. "It's strange. I don't really feel embarassed standing here naked. What embarasses me is having you standing here naked. Isn't that strange?"
"It's your instincts," he told her. "It took me all of about four days to shed my human modesty. I was exactly the same way you are now. My own nudity didn't make me bat an eye, but someone else's bothered me. You'll get over it." He stepped back from her slightly. "Alright, shapeshifting is alot easier than you think it is. You already know how to do it. It's in your blood. The trick of it is the first time. If you do it consciously just once, you can do it again like it was the easiest thing in the world. To shapechange, you have to imagine yourself as a cat, then will yourself to change. That's all there is to it."
"That's it?"
"That's it," he affirmed. "It's a natural part of you. Here, watch me." He shapeshifted for her. He could shapeshift without even thinking about what he was doing, he had become so accustomed to it. Because his clothes did change with him, he probably shapeshifted much more than other Were-cats. "Now you," he told her in the unspoken manner of the Cat.
Jula closed her eyes and balled her paws up into fists. "Squat down," he warned. "If you shapeshift like that, you'll end up standing on your hind paws. You'll topple over."