Feeling Kevla’s eyes on him he raised his eyes and caught her gaze with his own, they were warm and filled with appreciative admiration as a playful smile danced across his lips.
At Arutha’s words he turned his attention back to the matter at hand. “ I only say that because these days due to nearly a millennium of prosecution and hunting drifters are mainly one offs and loners, and who follows their genealogy these days?. It was different back then. That’s what my mistress told me anyway.” He hesitated as a sudden thought popped into his head. “Although …there are a …few…shifters who can trace their family line back to ancient times… that may still …live…around here.” He trailed off, a worried look in his eyes. Shae Nicfahgen, an immortal shifter who dabbled in the dark arts. Shit, he hadn’t thought of her in centuries. She used to be a friend of his mistress but once she died and he had his freedom he had made sure to never cross her path again, that woman scared the shit out of him. She was a woman with few moral boundaries and vindictively ruthless when crossed. However, she claimed her family line was ancient and, he flicked his worried eyes around the group, assessing them. She would find this motley crew fascinating.
“No.” he said with a shake of his head. “That might not be a good idea, best we stick with the books” he sighed with brief sharp smile before sitting back in his chair.
Naoise continued to purr softly as Aruthas fingers petted and played with his fur. What would it feel like to have those same fingers play along his skin? to feel those arms wrapped around his body? To cuddle up to and walk beside this kind and gentle man? To laugh, to cry to love with him?
As Psych kept talking however his attention became more and more focused upon him. His words invoked memories of his earliest years with his family before Alexander but even back then he couldn’t help but remember that he and his people were becoming more secular and separate from everyday society. They lived on the outskirts of towns and more oft then not in distant rural areas and the wilderness itself. People still treated them with acceptance, reverence and a little awe but there was also a touch of fear and distrust. After the black plague hit the madness of Christianity swept across Europe with a fervor more virulent and deadlier then the plague. His people and anyone who was thought of as different died in the thousands, the witch hunts, the purges, the decimation of culture and knowledge. Black Age indeed.
But as Psych shook his head and suggested that they potentially look elsewhere then the people he knew he took a step forward in denial. *Arutha!* he sent sharply to the man petting him.
