The sun has not risen and will not rise for several hours yet, but there is still activity within the Shoppe, or better said… on top of the Shoppe. A Jupani earth mage chants quietly around a plant while a black Vartan and a Savanite wearing a headband slowly work the soil and place six little plants around the larger one in the center.

Very carefully, Zoltan pats down the last bit of dirt over the new plant and then tries to pull his ear loose from one of the leaves which has gently closed around it.

Moon-Brow wipes her headband (which covers the mark that gives her a name), and pats the earth lightly around one of the remaining plant. It nips at her finger, and she withdraws her hand, sucking lightly on her thumb. "Ow," she shake-signs with her free hand.

"The vendor said these no hurt her… I no goings to be very pleased if they does." The Vartan opens and shuts his hand, working out the kinks from his clumsy attempts at gardening.

The Savanite's ears blush, and she signs, "I'm not hurt. It was just a reflex of habit." She wiggles her fingers where the hippogryph can see that they're all quite intact … and she wiggles her ears as well.

Smiling, Zoltan stands and stretches his tired muscles. "Thank you for waking up for me this early, Star," he whispers, checking on the progress of the earth mage. "I wants this day to be perfect for her."

"She is blessed just to have such a loving father," signs Moon-Brow (also known as "Star"), who adds a wink.

Zoltan blushes under his feathers. "And an equally loving aunt." He moves to kneel down next to the exit door back into the Shoppe. "I think I sees the sun starting to rise… "

Moon-Brow grins. "I'll put away the tools… "

Iona, the earth mage, keeps chanting … and the flower in the center of her circle starts to shift as the warming light of the new day starts to illuminate the garden.

The Black Vartan smiles, keeping his eyes on the closed flower bulb.

The golden rays of a new day reach out, caressing the flower, coaxing it along with the murmured incantations. Slowly … the bulb opens … revealing the brilliant colors of a Coruscant Fiero!

"Wow," Zoltan mouths and silently waits for the incantation to finish. His hands flicker at the Savanite, "Start getting breakfast ready. I take mage to street and then wake up Pouncer."

Soon enough, the spell is finished, as the flower is now in full bloom. Iona lets out a long breath of air, and immediately starts putting up her equipment – keeping care not to step on any of the plants.

Moon-Brow nods her head to Zoltan, and – tools in hand – zips downstairs to clean them off and fix up breakfast.

Zoltan waits for the Mage to finish closing up, hands her a small leather pouch with some coppers as her payment, and then carefully flies her down to the streets a few blocks away so the other Vartan patrons won't get nervous at the sight of a mage near his Shoppe. After seeing her off, the Vartan returns to the rooftop and sneaks downstairs towards Pouncer's room.

Pouncer is sound asleep in her bed, having somehow managed to get quite tangled up in the covers while rolling around in her sleep. Her tail flops out one end, while light snoring comes from a lump underneath the tumble of blankets, where her head should be.

As gently as he can, Zoltan scoops the cub up on his arms and creeps back up to the roof.

Pouncer makes some strange little murfling noise in her sleep, and smacks her lips, but, even after being extracted from her bed, she somehow stays quite asleep.

The Vartan sighs contentedly to himself, looking down at his daughter with the same admiration a customer might look at a particularly shiny treasure. He shakes himself out of the reverie and carefully nudges the door to the roof open. "Hey, Shinyfur … Wake up … "

"Wha?" mews Pouncer, and she yawns widely as she blinks away the last remnant of kittenish dreams. It takes a bit for her eyes to adjust to the sunlight … but the first thing she sees when they open and adjust … is a bright spot of color. It takes her a few moments to try to piece together just what it might be … seeing as she's just woken up. Her eyes go wide.

"Your friend here insisted I bring you up here so it could be the first to wish you a happy birthday. It also brought along some friends of its own for you to meet as well. I think they've decided to stay here since I told them that you like bugs as much as they do," the happy father whispers into the cub's ear, setting her down and pointing to the various bug-eating plants placed in a circle around the Fiero.

Pouncer's face transforms into the brightest smile that ever graced the face of a cub. She squeals, excitedly, "Daddy! Daddy, it BLOOMED! On my BIRFDAY!" She throws her arms as far as she can around the Vartan (which isn't far).

Zoltan hugs the cub back, almost burying her in his arms. "Of course it did. It's your flower, after all." He preens the cub's head with his beak. "You ready for your birthday breakfast or would you like to stay up here a little longer?"

Pouncer seems positively torn! She at last scrambles down, to go inspect her flower – her beautiful, blooming Coruscant Fiero. She looks as if she's about to cry, she's so happy! "LOOKIT!" she squeals, pointing at it. "It's BEE-YOOTIFUL!"

"Not as beautiful as you, Shinyfur." Zoltan winks and then scoops the cub up in his arms again, holding her up to the flower at the top so she can get a good look (and sniff) at it.

Pouncer just giggles, and hugs Zoltan's arm as tight as she can.

"Auntie's making you wiffle-waffles. How about we go and wake up Enos and get something to eat?" Zoltan gives the cub's hair another gentle ruffling.

Pouncer nods her head enthusiastically. "Yesyesyesyesyes!"

Placing the happy cub on his shoulders, the Vartan heads back into the Shoppe and sends the cub off to get dressed while he goes to rouse the second cub from his slumber. The smell of breakfast makes the Vartan's own stomach start to rumble.

As Zoltan heads in to rouse the second cub, there is a scuffling noise, as the cub shuffles under the covers. A little tail-tip is all that can be seen poking out from under the edge. Looks like someone woke up already.

Zoltan hmms and starts to absently stroll around the bed. "Now where did Enos go? I don't see him anywhere! Where could he be?"

The edge of the blanket lifts up just a bit, as glittering eyes peek out. As soon as it looks like Zoltan might look back in the direction of the blanket … the edge drops and the eyes vanish again, while the bulge under the blanket squirms and giggles.

Zoltan sits on the mattress and carefully props an elbow on the lump. "I can't seem to find Enos anywhere! Hmm… Where have I not looked?" He drums his fingers across the bump, right where the cub's head should be.

The bump giggles and squirms all the more … then suddenly gets quiet and still.

Except for the tail-tip. The tail-tip lashes back and forth.

Standing back up, the Vartan moves so that his leg just happens to be placed at the head of that lump in the mattress. "Oh dear… maybe I should look under the bed?" He kneels down and peeks under the mattress, leaving his back and backside wide open, if there happened to be anything there that might be thinking of pouncing it.

With a ferocious roar … er … squeak … a jaguar cub leaps (still partially entangled in his blanket), on the unsuspecting Vartan.

"Aieeeeee! A ferocious monster has me! Oh no!" Zoltan flails slightly, enough to jolt the cub around – but not enough to send him tumbling from his back – and then lies flat on the floor, playing "dead".

The cub goes with it, then pauses as Zoltan "dies". "Mew?"

The Vartan's head pops back up. "Boo!"

Pouncer squeals loudly, and tumbles to the floor. He rolls back onto his tail, and giggles … then holds his hands out. "Up?"

Zoltan pulls himself to his hands and knees. "Hop on my back. I'll give you a Dromodon ride to breakfast."

It's quite a challenge for the cub, but he at last clambers onto Zoltan's back … though he uses a few feathers as a hand-hold on the way up. He mews happily from atop his "mount".

And with that, Zoltanos Cambio of Mountain Shadow Tribe, Redeemer-of-Shadows, Baron of Paradys, hero of the Babelite War, Peacemaker of Abaddon, and Squire of the Knights Templar trots downstairs on his hands and knees with his son balanced on his back in a game of "horsie". He crawls over to the breakfast table, past anyone else who might have been alerted by the smell of cooking breakfast. "Good morning everyone. Goodness, this floor is clean!"

Two cheetahs peer down at Zoltan. They look identical, even down to the headbands they're both wearing. Well, one of them looks slightly older than the other.

And, the older one has frizzier-looking hair.

Zoltan blinks. He blinks again… and again… and almost forgets about the cub on his back, as he manages to barely contain leaping up to his feet at the sight of the second Savanite. "Gkkk!" is the only sound he's able to blurt out.

Third-Vision smiles and makes a dainty little wave to Zoltan. "Wanted to wish Pouncer a happy birthday."

Moon-Brow's ears wiggle.

Enos squeals and holds his arms out. "Nana!"

Third-Vision smiles and lifts Enos up from Zoltan's back, then sits back down, cradling the cub in her lap and tickling his ears.

His burden lifted, Zoltan jumps to his feet and puts his arms around both Third-Eye and Enos. "I've missed you! Oh Star… I glad you could make it! I gots so much I wants to tell you abouts." He glances back in the direction of Pouncer's room. "But that should probably waits until laters. Today is no my day after all."

Third-Vision nods and smiles, cuddling Enos some more. Enos seems quite delighted to see her, and he starts babbling incoherently … as he always likes to do when he sees someone he's not seen in a while. (Pouncer does much the same, except that her words occasionally make sense.)

Poking his head back down the hallway, Zoltan scrawks, "Hey, Shinyfur! The wiffle-waffles are getting cold! Hurry now!"

Pouncer comes charging out of her room, dressed in her very favorite clothes … which right now would be her Temple Scout uniform, adorned with each and every merit badge she's earned, plus quite a number of pins she's made up on her own. Her tail is adorned with all of her best shinies, and she even brushed her teeth!

"Thank you for coming. You don't know how much I've missed you," Zoltan signs quietly to Third-Vision… and then double-takes at Pouncer. "Ohhh… you look even more beautiful now."

Pouncer bounces up to the table, and proudly announces, "It's my BERFDAY!!!"

Herbir shuffles into the room, wiping his eyes. "Yah, and … " He glances in the direction of Moon-Brow and her sister, and his neck-feathers ruffle for a moment. He shudders, then says, "You big girl now!" For some reason, he's taken to speaking clunky Rephidim Standard again.

Pouncer twirls around so everyone can admire her shinies, then bounds up to her chair.

"This is my father, Cambio Herbir," Zoltan scrawks. Trying to keep things going as smoothly as he can manage, he turns to the older Vartan. "There plenties in kitchen… you can bring Nicodemus' breakfast outside to the roof if you wants. The flower make it smell all nice up there rights now."

Zoltan ooohs and ahhs at his daughter obligingly. He may be rather biased… but he does think he has the prettiest daughter on Sinai right now, shinies or no!

Pouncer squeals, "The Corky Faro is BLOOMED!"

Herbir nods, dips into the kitchen, and takes as much as he can carry on up to the roof. He smirks as he passes the enthusiastic cub.

Third-Vision seems to relax just a bit as Herbir disappears. She smiles obligingly to Pouncer, still stroking Enos' head-fur. The little boy cub seems to have dozed off again in her arms.

The Vartan hops up from his seat and proceeds to ladle out breakfast, allowing the cub to fill Third-Eye's ears with stories of the past several month's happenings. "We goings to be getting more guests soon. You staying for the day or just here for the morning?" he scrawks as he places a glass of juice and a stack of waffles in front of the older Savanite.

Third-Vision tries to make what she can of the stories, then signs, "I will only be here for the morning. It was a convenient time to come to handle some other business, with the Temple. They do not and cannot recognize us yet, but I hope that we can encourage good will. I will be accompanying some Templars back to the City of Hands. They wish to study some of our findings in the City." She pauses, then adds, "Some of them."

"Which ones?" Zoltan scrawks, placing the biggest stack of wiffle-waffles in front of the cub. There's probably no way she'll manage all of them… but it should be impressive to watch her try nonetheless.

Third-Vision signs, "There are various histories and maps, plus some more ruins in the area that include some signs of ancient machinery. Even with the Twelve-times-Twelve, we are not prepared to study such things ourselves."

Pouncer starts, about to lay siege to the wiffle-waffles, then stops and claps her hands together.

"Which Templars, I mean… " Zoltan hushes himself while Pouncer says grace.

Pouncer scrawk-mews, "Thankee Star, for alla really nice things, and for Papa and Pa-Papa and Auntie Moon-Brow and Auntie Third-Eye and Unca Nikky and Little Enos and alla Papa's Squire friends and the Temple Scouts and especially Den Mother Sapphire and … " Her list goes on for a while. "… and for my flower … and WIFFLE-WAFFLES! Thankee." With that, she digs in.

Zoltan smiles, and then he tucks into his own breakfast.

"Technopriests," signs Third-Vision, answering while Zoltan eats, "and some Inquisitors. An Arch-Inquisitor will be among them." She looks at the hippogryph.

"I was curious if some of the Knights were going. Um… " The Vartan flicks at a bug centerpiece in the middle of the table to encourage the bugs to rattle and hiss. "I don't know if you heards yet… although Moon-Brow probably tells you."

Third-Vision nods. "I am especially interested in maintaining good relations with the Temple."

"You a good leader, I always know that abouts you. You do what will need to be done. And despite everythings, you will always be my best and dearest friend." Zoltan grins, balancing a glittery coolect on his finger and teasing it to perch in the Savanite queen's hair.

Third-Vision smiles and shakes her head, as the coolect litters glitter on her.

Pouncer gobbles down a sizable portion of her wiffle-waffles, then says, "All right! Let's go see the CORKY FARO!"

Zoltan shovels in a few more mouthfuls and stands to his hoofed feet. "Ready when you are, Shinyfur." He holds his hands out to Third-Eye, offering to take the snoozing cub from her arms.

Third-Vision hands Enos over to Zoltan, then gets up, bits of glitter fluttering down to land on the floor.

Pouncer leaps to her feet, and rushes for the roof. "Last one up izza fluffnar!"

Zoltan leans over to plant a kiss on Third-Vision's head, just above her namesake and then, grinning merrily, heads out after the cub.

Moon-Brow winks and scoots for the stairs. Third-Vision shakes her head and comes up last. It looks as if she has been declared a "fluffnar" for the day.

Pouncer skips up and across the rooftop. She bounds past Nicodemus, and squeals, "Hiyas, Unca Nikky!" as she waves energetically. She stops at the blooming Coruscant Fiero, and waves her hands to draw attention. "It bloomed TODAY! Annit only blooms once a YEAR! And it was my BERFDAY!" She goes on and on about what she has learned about Corky Faros and other flowers that Moon-Brow helped her plant in her garden… even though most of those gathered have since learned this several times other from her previous speeches.

"So do you want to see your other presents?" Zoltan scrawks, patting the cub in his arms.

Pouncer squeals, "YEAHHHHHHH!"

Enos squirms in his half-sleep, and starts chewing on a clump of Vartan-fur within reach.

Zoltan carefully places the snoozing cub in Nicodemus' gentle hands and then starts pulling boxes from their hiding places. There's a small box, a big box, and an even bigger box! Odd… the really big box keeps making noise.

Pouncer looks as if her eyes might … bug out! "Ooooooo!" She seems to find it hard to decide … but size settles it. She dashes over to the biggest of the three boxes.

As the cub pulls the lid off… dozens upon dozens of brightly colored bugs squirm out and squiggle through the garden. The circle of bug plants manages to catch quite a few; the rest fly around, making an interesting chorus of noises. It's almost as if the bugs themselves were singing happy birthday to the cub.

Pouncer squeals, clapping her paws together in utter joy and fascination with the gift!

"It should keep the garden interesting. I made sure to get bugs that would be good for the plants. They should stay here awhiles." The Vartan gestures to the remaining boxes.

Pouncer suddenly recovers her senses … and pounces for the next box! Perhaps not surprisingly, she goes for the second-biggest one.

Inside this one is a two volume set of books about… bugs! It's a special volume that allows the collector to keep the bugs inside the book, and also shows a picture of what the things look like before they're pressed between the pages.

Pouncer squeals delightedly, and seems about to use the book to capture one of the bugs … but she restrains herself, realizing that there's another box yet. She sets the book aside (pages open) and tears into the last and smallest of the boxes.

The third box is the obligatory "practical" gift. It holds two shiny crystal hair and tail pendants shaped like butterflies as well as a dress with bugs that look somewhat like the cloth "Gish" bug Pouncer has, printed onto the cloth.

"Ooooooo!" coos Pouncer, as she regards the gifts. She promptly sticks the pendants into her hair and tail, and she holds up the dress, though it looks like she'll wait until later to try that on.

Zoltan grins at looks back at the two Savanites, unsure if they managed to bring anything… but simply happy that they managed to be here themselves today.

Pouncer bounds over to Third-Vision, showing off her haul. She happily explains in great detail just what she happens to have. Enos, meanwhile, squirms, and Nicodemus lets him down. Enos promptly heads over to the biggest box … and, after toppling it, crawls inside.

Zoltan lifts up the corner of the box, letting a couple of bugs crawl out. "Hey… you want to see the big paper bug I gots? There a surprise inside for whomever hit it hardest and break it open."

Pouncer BOUNCES at this. "ME! ME! I'm the BEST GISHER!"

While Pouncer is turned, Third-Vision reaches into a fold in her humble-looking robes, and pulls out something shiny and chitinous-looking.

It also happens to look like a bug.

Pouncer turns around again, then goes "OOOO!" as she sees what Third-Vision is holding. "Can I please?"

Zoltan beams happily. His daughter has manners.

Third-Vision smiles and hands the "bug" to Pouncer. There's a pull-string at the bottom … and Pouncer quickly figures out to pull it. The wings pop open on the back of the bug, revealing a spy-hole underneath.

Third-Vision shows Pouncer how to hold the bug up to the light.

Pouncer looks into the eye-hole. "Ooooo! PRETTY! There's a PIKTUR inside!"

"What of?" the Vartan whistles, trying to peek over Pouncer's shoulder.

Pouncer sticks the bug in Zoltan's face. "Alla us! And some BUGS!"

Zoltan almost falls over backwards as the bug appears in his face suddenly, and then peeks in.

Inside, painted on a chitinous window, is a stylized depiction of Zoltan, Enos and Pouncer. Due to a bit of disregard to scale, Nicodemus, Herbir (he looks pretty much like a copy of Zoltan), Third-Vision, Moon-Brow and several of the friends Pouncer keeps mentioning in her letters have been crammed in as well.

Oh yes. And lots and lots of little fanciful-looking, colorful bugs.

Zoltan smiles at the image and dabs at something around his eye. Maybe straining to look at the picture made his eye water or something. "Thank you," he signs, bowing his head to the Savanite queen.

Pouncer catches the sign, and her ears flick and go pale. "Oops. I furgot!" She then starts hopping up and down. "THANKEETHANKEETHANKEETHANKEE!" she squeals, alternately hugging Zoltan and Third-Vision.

Third-Vision smiles and pats Pouncer's head. "You are most welcome."

The Vartan sniffles a little, probably just the pollen from all of these new plants.

Third-Vision pulls a handkerchief out of a pocket, and hands it to Zoltan. With her free hand, she signs, "Allergies? Let us go inside so Pouncer can get her surprise." She smiles.

Nodding, Zoltan takes the proffered hanky and dabs at his eyes. "I just realized how great my family is, and how much I love you all. That's all," he signs and squeezes Third-Vision's shoulder, walking back into the Shoppe with her and preparing for the rest of the day. Yet he also looks forward to the many days ahead as well.