Over the years the Scholar found many reasons to travel during his time living in the new world, from ancient ruins and abandoned structures to strange, foreign biomes and unfamiliar tribes of native Woolcoats. He was something of a stranger to most of the other men he landed with, hardly spending any time within the log walls of Lasdock when he could instead be wandering the utterly unknown wilderness just beyond. While the settlement's population could be considered somewhat downtrodden at the best of times, stranded as they were, the Scholar had other priorities. As a rather unremarkable academic in the Capitol, he had joined this perilous journey across the Greater Temporal as a fast track to fame and fortune, to document some of which had never been seen, learn some of what has never been known, and return home to a dozen published papers under his belt and enough Collegiate award money to last a lifetime. Less honest than a lifetime of careful advancement in well-established fields? Yes, he was willing to admit that to himself, but it was hardly less effort and certainly more risk!

And once their broken vessel ran aground, never to sail again, the whole plan was quite obviously a gambit he had lost. Nevertheless, he buried his despair with purpose. He could still do what he had come to do. And he wouldn't have me his future wife otherwise.

Aufei had been a friend of his for quite some time, the first of their respective species to meet, and the best example one could point to for cooperation between the two peoples. After long months spent slowly, painstakingly learning snippets of each other's language, the scholar could convey his intent to travel and learn of the land, and Aufei could communicate her eagerness to help. Over the ensuing months, they would take frequent trips deeper and deeper into the forests surrounding the Scholar's settlement, entertaining the young dragon to no end as he took interest in every little mundane thing. Soon enough, these adventures were her escape, her refuge from a life in her tribe that she had grown terribly tired of. Each week, he would find her in the clearing they first met, exchanging hesitant greetings in the other's language, laughing at their respective linguistic butcheries before the scholar conveyed his intended objectives with single words, drawn pictures and gratuitous finger pointing. Each week brought more ambitious travels, roving further from the ship, taking the whole day, then multiple days, camping out in the forests by firelight, the scholar growing so bold as to rest his back against her flank as he scribbled into his papers, her being so bold as to wrap a wing around him during the colder of nights.

Even as their relationship evolved, adventuring was a constant throughout. And, without either of them truly realizing, they had become quite good at it. Their most complex expeditions to some of the the largest of ruins in the region were planned with careful experience, to last entire weeks at a time, facing dangers that could prove fatal to the unprepared. He learned much of the native's culture, their lifestyles, and grew familiar with the tribe Aufei called home, her friends and family, and they grew familiar with him and his people in turn. All the while he would do his work, filling binders upon binders with observation and documentation. This study was originally to distract himself from the grim prospects of his rescue and return to his homeland, but in this work he had found a passion. To see what had never been seen, to know what had never been known... there was something of a fire in him to see those words ring true. And Aufei shared in this, he could tell; every travel completed, every ruin explored and landmark found as they ventured further from home was met with a thrill and joy that showed plainly in her eyes and in her movements, a sight he found strikingly endearing and, well... beautiful.

Aski's birth threw a wrench into their escapades, to be certain, and he couldn't deny some days he selfishly wished to be back out in the wilds with his wife... but how could he not be overjoyed at the prospect of a son? He looked forward to the days he could travel the wilds once more, as a family, no less!