What are you?

It was such a big table... Eri made her way to a seat close to Erolass and sat, nodding to his question.

"Yes, I'm a vegetarian," she replied. "And thank you." She smiled at Kiwi and sat him in her lap where he curled up quietly. Yet, his eyes were still wide and his ears seemed to twitch at noises only he could pick up.

Eri narrowed her eyes just the slightest and studied Erolass' face.

"You're something else," she said with a gentle, teasing smile. Eri couldn't believe that just a short while ago she met this man in the forest and was now in his home... his very, very nice home. And he was an artist. A good one, at that.

"Thank you," said Erolass with a slight bow of his head, "You are as well, but in the best sense of that term of course." Erolass chuckled and then placed his napkin on his lap. A tall, balding man appeared to his left in almost an instant, to which Erolass started speaking to. Erolass then turned to Eri, "This man will be our butler for today," he said, "Tell him anything you want--I've mentioned the bowls of fruit to him already--and he will have the cook make it for you." The butler walked over to Eri and bowed, "Perhaps something to drink madame?" he asked politely.

As Eri was ordering, Erolass couldn't help but think of how he lied to her, not anything bad. But he HAD neglected to tell her that he was royalty, and Fire Prince at that. It's not that he didn't trust her, he just didn't want to be judged by his titles, and he never liked being royalty anyway. Not to mention, people who knew he was royalty always acted different around him, and he liked when people would just be themselves. That's why he never told anyone.

"Uhm..." Eri blinked. Butler? She glanced up at the man. "Just water, please. Thank you." Eri paused and a small smile played at her lips as she felt Kiwi stir. He lifted his head from the ball he had curled up in and his nose twitched, taking in his new surroundings. Getting to his feet, the little sugar glider was instantly climbing his way up Eri's arm to perch on her shoulder once more. Eri lifted a finger to him and he touched the tip with his nose - his own way of greeting her - before letting her pet his face gently.

Before she knew it, Eri felt - rather than saw - Kiwi leap from her shoulder and towards the table, using his wings to glide swiftly. With a quick movement of her hand, Eri gathered the air beneath him, stopping him in mid-glide, his tiny arms and legs all outstretched.

"And where do you think you are going, Kiwi?" Eri couldn't help but laugh as he simply hung in the air by her own power, perfectly content. She flicked her blue eyes to Erolass and shrugged her shoulders.

"He can't really...glide all that well. So whenever he tries, I help him a bit to strengthen his arm up," she explained, using her hands to bring the soft current of air towards herself. Holding her palm out, it ceased and Kiwi landed gently in the center of her hand. He twitched his tail once and skittered back up to her shoulder.

"Silly thing," Eri said, shaking her head.

"I think he's rather cute, and a trooper," laughed Erolass as he asked the butler for a wine, "I also think it's quite nice what you're doing for him in regard to helping him fly. Most people would just let animals go off in the wild again after they were healed, but true animal lovers will actually care for the animal until they are SURE the animal can function properly again. Very admirable."

Erolass chuckled as the butler reappeared with his wine and Eri's water. Erolass took his wine and sipped from it contently, "It's very nice wine," he said to the butler, "Thank you. How do you find the water Eri? It's from a spring over on the other side of the Temple." Erolass always enjoyed company, and when they came, he always gave them the best.

Erolass firmly believed that your guests deserved the best you had to offer, and in Erolass's case that was a quite a bit of best, being royalty. It was one of the only times Erolass enjoyed his status, otherwise he was content living as a painter, far away from his family--except Naina of course.