He was quiet, but always had a smile, this visitor. Sener 'of the long complicated name few Kin can pronounce' came in to a slow 'landing' while dreamwalking, at the Plateau where the Twelve and One cheetah kin tribe lived. Though, he didn't stay long. It did seem like he was looking for something, something else, something other than just friends or a new place to sit around. He was also quite young when he showed up here, he had a bit of growth left in him and was somewhat innocent of the ways of other worlds than his own.

"But I've been traveling a long way," he said to the Twelve, as he came and left frequently, "I know that what I'm seeking is here, I just... haven't found it yet."

His exotic accent was pleasing to the tribe, he had no fear of people to speak of, so he would simply walk up and watch someone working.

Sometimes though, Sener would look up, his ears perked and his eyes focused hard on some faroff point, and then furrow his eyebrows. Once he'd done that in the presence of enough of the Twelve, someone finally said something about it.

"What is in that direction? I have seen some flying dragons, but surely they cannot be alone?" He asked. Thus, he was told of the Spotted Hand tribe, more cheetah kin. "I will go meet them," he said casually, and began walking. No one moved to stop him, the days when the cheetahs in the area had to be wary of more predatory kin like lions or panthers was long over since they had dragons patrolling their territory.

It took him several days, of course, to arrive at the Hand's area. It was a pleasantly sheltered stone outcropping - somewhere north of the Plateau and still well within sight of it, because the Plateau was that big. The ocean was near, or at least closer, and there were far fewer people here among the Hand.

However they were talented Kin, these other slightly wilder cheetahs. Though they did not number in the double digits yet, they had several young sprinting around their camp. Sener was entranced by children, but he usually liked to shift down to a more humanoid-size before approaching them.

One of the cheetahs, Jahkonu, was a metal shaper, and that was something that suddenly clicked in the merideti's mind. "May I ... see that?" He pointed with a clawed finger at a small object sitting on a wooden table nearby. Jahkonu shrugged, he wasn't the friendliest of people but he was smart and talented, and he'd made the little silver-colored pot that Sener wanted to see.

The pot was small, with a little lid, it was more like an incense burner - in fact that was what Jahkonu was planning on using it for, since it wasn't much good for anything else. "I'm planning on putting some small holes in the top and sides, for smoke to exit," he commented absently, as Sener stood looking at it as though in a trance. "What, haven't you ever seen a... are you okay?"

"I've ... found it," Sener whispered. He looked up at Jahkonu who blinked in confusion. "May I have this? It's... meant to be with me. I can feel it." He went on to speak in a tumbling of words about how magic on his world worked, how he had finally located the object which he'd be able to focus his magical energies, and how it would mean the world to him if Jahk would allow him to keep it.

"Sure, it's nothing, I can make more. Did you want holes put in it or not?"

With his big ears flopping to the side, Sener tilted his head. "For the smoke, you said. Yes, yes that would be nice, it would make it airy... see through..." Sener was still a bit dazed. He'd found it after looking so hard! He'd come to another whole world to do it too! The little incense burner fit in his human-sized hand easily, but would have to be strung with a cord so it hung on his neck, so while Jahkonu was busy shaping small flower-shaped holes into the silver lid, Sener began tugging his own mane hair free, and twining the strands together to make a cord.

He giggled, quietly, and wondered... What would his first spells be like? He'd probably have to head home to learn some good ones. For the moment through Sener relished the feeling that now he was complete, now he had his true bond item, his focus. And though bewildered at the reaction that Sener had, Jahkonu smiled broadly when he was done and handed the two-part item off to the merideti.

"Done, so when you're going to use it for something interesting," Jahk said, "be sure to tell me, I want to see you do it."

"I will remember that!" Sener said. For the time being though, he would remain on Planet Twenty, looking around and around for a cavern or big tree to set up a temporary home in.

Sener did return to his ancestral home for a while, and did learn some spells! He knew that his bonded item was definitely working, when he created a smoke-based portal that... worked? It showed him the Plateau! Well if that wasn't enough of a sign that he ought to return to Planet Twenty he wasn't sure what it could mean, so he bid farewell again to his family and friends (and made a note of when their next big gathering would be, somehow he'd have to keep track of it, he didn't want to miss another!) knowing that now he would merely have to concentrate and poof! Open portal!

He had practiced with using just the right herbs, scented flowers, bits of coal or bone; taking to heart that his item was so useful as a burner, why not use it that way overall? So he became something of a 'smoke master'. Well, 'master', maybe? He hadn't been able to really find anyone that did things just this way back home. And he wasn't positive there were any other places, either?

But now he was heading back to the Plateau and would definitely find a few places to bed down here and there on his wanderings.

It wasn't so long after returning (with cheerful greetings from those he'd met before, and a very pleased and impressed Jahkonu) that he sniffed something else on the wind than bonfires and cooking. Sweet like flowers, but also musky, he wasn't sure what exactly to make of it. Until she walked by, that is.

Sener, usually quite verbose, was at a complete loss for words just then. He'd been around different kinds of dragons, he'd been a dragon! (He was right now, in fact!) But he'd hardly ever seen ones without those big wings, almost all the Plateau's inhabitant dragons were flighted.

She seemed aware of him, but in a casual manner. She glanced into the sheltered cavern where he'd put down his gear, and tilted her head.

"Oh, I am sorry. I saw a cave and didn't think whether it was already occupied..." And then she did the draconic equivalent of pushing her hair behind her ear, a thing that humanoids would often do. "I can find another-"

"No no please stay!" Sener blurted out, and all but clapped his paws over his big dumb stupid loud mouth. "I - I mean - I mean, um, I am Sener neYeuki-naTier, buIsotu; people just call me Sener here... And you're completely welcome to look around! I... I mean if you want to!" Again he resisted the urge to absolutely fold himself into a ball and hide in embarrassment.

"I would like that," she said, "my name is Ilowe Discedus. I just got here, I'm not really even sure quite how."

At that, Sener brightened and collected himself a little, "I might be able to discern it, if... if you don't mind me asking for a strand of your lovely mane?"

She blushed almost as hard as he had, but leaned her head down and shook her neck a little. It wasn't difficult to gather a few spare hairs (her mane smelled musky, delightfully so) and Sener busied himself with preparing them to be lit in his burner.

"I'm - ah - I'm a shifter, if you didn't know (of course you wouldn't know how could you know you just got here and we just met)," his muttering words tumbled out of him but Ilowe just chuckled. "I am never sure if it's going to startle anyone, some of those cheetah kin are a bit jumpy because of it."

"Oh, I'm a shifter myself, so don't worry about that..." She said it so casually!

Sener turned abruptly, and as he did so his humanoid form moved into place. He liked to keep the tail and the big ruff of fur down his back, but all of a sudden he felt almost naked... Not that dragons usually mentioned it. Or worried too much about it. He bit his lips and tried to concentrate on lighting a flame which would catch the hairs he'd placed in the incense burner, and momentarily he was able to focus a bit more on it instead of whether she was watching him do all this.

She was, obviously intrigued. When he'd shifted she decided she would do that too, it was casual enough that he appeared not to notice the larger shadow she'd been casting at the entry to his cave vanished and became a bipedal one about the same size as he was. Her neck was a bit shorter, in fact she was kind of more sturdy looking in this form - he was told he looked 'lanky' in whatever configuration he chose. Well that happens when you live on a planet with tall grass to walk over!

Ilowe would easily glide over grass, or blend in with the swaying grains; Sener cleared his mind again when she peered over his shoulder.

"I'm ... well, a smoke mage? I guess?" He said, "not a lot of people from my home seemed to specialize in this so I have kind of had to make due and teach myself."

"Well that's definitely interesting," Ilowe commented, "I'll - stay out of your way."

"No, it's okay, I'm trying to divine what happened to bring you here, so it's right that your ... energy? Is nearby..." He managed, barely, to not say lovely there...

Images formed, swirling tendrils of smoke rose from the hair that didn't exactly burn up the way she'd expected them to when lit. They didn't smell like burnt-hair either, come to think of it. To Sener's keen nose it smelled of wildflowers and wind, and something he just could not identify.

"Oh, there's the place I came from," Ilowe said. She squinted, it was a little hard to make out details since they were all formed of twirling bits of smoke. "I ... I remember going through an archway and then just... Being under an- there it is, that's where I came out..." The smoke moved into shapes that evoked the nearby Claw Arch.

"I guess something just... moved you here?" Sener blinked a few times and the vision vanished, dissipating as normal smoke with the predictable normal-burning-hair smell.

"Suppose it's for the best, I like it here," she gave a grin, the odd glittering gemstone pieces around her forehead making her look quite exotic.

Sener bit his lips together again and merely concentrated on cleaning up, rather than letting his mouth get away from him again...