Hawk looked up as Numair snatched his hand away, as quickly as he'd placed it. Numair was looking down at him with a frown.

"Na dhya, Hawk," he said after a moment, "neither of those things mean you are stupid. And shame on the people who let you think that about yourself for so long." His face softened a little then, and he added, "You deserve better than that, my dear."

Hawk couldn't help but look at his lips as he said that, and then his slim hand as he replaced it on the fence post. Swallowing deeply, Hawk lowered his head again and didn't answer, focusing on packing the dirt in around the base of the post.

"In any case," Numair continued, "we don't have birds in Aetheri, you know. I can quite honestly say I've never thought about wing shapes once in my entire life. You are the expert here, not me."

Hawk sat back, brushing the dirt off his gloves, and chanced a look up at Numair again. Numair met his gaze squarely, leaning against the post, and said gently, "Now if you would be so kind...please tell me more about this albatross."

As evening fell, it colored the new fence a deep orange. Vlad knelt at one of the raised garden beds along with a slim bluish dragon who was not much longer than the bed itself. They chatted as they planted small starts in the bed, each at one end.