Eeeeeeeee. 

He bounces, petting his pretty new outfit and preening in the mirror. He looks so cool! He is going to have to make sure his Blade matches when next he summons it. 

"I don't really want a shirt," he says cheerfully, polishing the gemstone embedded in his left horn with a scrap of his previous one. 

That's fine, she supposes. He looks at least minimally presentable, in sort of a rakish daredevil teenager way. 

... He's so tiny in clothes that fit. He could ride on her shoulder like a messenger bird. It's alarmingly tempting to scoop him up and carry him, especially when he's bouncing around with glee like an apprentice who just cast his first cantrip. 

This is terrible. 

He has no awareness of this concern at this time. Too busy SPINNING in his FANCY NEW COAT. 

Serra is just gonna do what she does best and not introspect on that there cognitive dissonance. 

Time to set down her traveling pack and armor and weapons and so forth at the temple and go visit Laila! 

Laila is very easy to find, it transpires. The front door of her house is open, there's notes scattered everywhere, and she's standing on a chair rifling through notebooks at the top of a shelf, looking moderately panicked. 

" ... good evening, are you all right?" 

"Nope!" says Laila. She doesn't sound it, either. "When I left my teacher was a day late from plant-gathering and that's normal, he gets distracted, but," deep breath, set down the book, "now it's been more than a week more and he's not sent a message, he's not left a note, nothing in any of his notes suggests any latent arguments with fellow researchers or dangerous spells he was developing, he just - he just didn't come home." 

"I, um, sorry about this, but I can't very well introduce you to someone who isn't here and I haven't cooked dinner or anything. Rain check? I need to do ...... something." 

"Of course. But can we help? Not that can't take care of yourself, of course, but if you mean to go wandering the wilderness looking for a missing person, perhaps an extra sword arm ... ?" 

"I mean, I can't pay you - " she smiles, sudden and bright, when she realizes what Serra meant, " - oh, but you're a paladin. Yes, I would welcome your assistance in this quest." 

Pause. 

" ... 'we'?" 

"I'm not allowed to leave," chirps Ashoc, "so clearly I am coming too." 

He doesn't look the slightest bit upset about this. 

Wow she is going to have an actual for-reals adventuring party and not just a temporary mercenary team. 

... Okay, so technically a wizard and a paladin and another sort of arcane spellcaster - she's not sure, sorcerer maybe, he seems sorcerery? - is kind of a stupid adventuring party composition, but nothing bad happened last time, right? 

And so they gather their things, and head out seeking adventure.