Welcome to Gaia! ::

Miko~


"Hikari! Aaron!" Miko called after them. She turned to Ishira and Rhaplanca with wide eyes. "We have to follow them! Something bad is going to happen!" She covered her mouth with her hand and as quickly as she could raced after the other two.

I am the Light of this World
The Beacon of Hope for Everyone

~ Hikari ~

Hikari ran past a few straggling guards on the outside who immediately pursued.

"Hey, weren't we looking for a blonde girl? She's a Reyvateil, too! Catch her!" The two of them gained on her, and one reached out and grabbed her long, flowing hair by the locks.

"Ow!" Hikari was pulled back by him and fell to the ground. As soon as they covered her, she screamed on impulse, "EXPLOSION!" The blast knocked the two of them back a few yards. She stood, deciding now would be a good idea to put her hair back up into a pony tail so something like that wouldn't be able to happen again. She saw that Aaron had caught up to her by this point but before he or Ishira or Rhaplanca could do anything else to stop her, she raced on.

Looking up into the sky, she saw Gannon making a dive for the woods. And so, she took off for the wooded area a ways behind the inn. She soon heard voices and came to a halt behind the trees, hiding there. A little ways away were a bunch of soldiers, along with Melody and Zek.

Next to them, a redheaded woman stood. Hikari squinted. She looks familiar, she realized. "Naomi...?" She whispered, then shook her head. "No, it's not her." She couldn't seem to recall just where she'd seen that face before.

Just then, a memory struck her. Or rather, the vision in the memory. The picture in Gannon's home! And this girl! They look almost identical! But... I'd assumed she died... I mean, Gannon never talks about her and Naomi told me that they were close. If they had been so close... wouldn't they be together now? She frowned, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. What in the world is going on?

My Song is a Shining Light

Together We Shall All Unify in Radiance

Miko~


Miko decided to hang back from everyone else. When they entered into the woods, she doubled back, quickly and quietly climbing up into one of the trees in the distance, far enough away so that she could see them, but they couldn't see her. It was easy enough for her to do it, as she'd played in these woods many times as a child and beyond. She figured that she would need to be high enough up just in case Hikari's bone-headed move got the others into trouble. She kept a protective eye on her little group. making sure none of the CPG could get to them before she shot them down with one of her arrows.

Deep inside, her fear and emotions were going haywire. On the outside, Melody kept up a defiant facade. She wasn't going to give in. That's who she was. Resilient to the end. "I don't care what you do to me. I'm not going to be afraid." She couldn't stand the pleased look on the other woman's face at the thought of all of the torture. It sickened her and strengthened her resolve to not break down in front of this power-crazy madwoman. If she did, that woman would have exactly what she wanted. And though Melody wasn't a fighter, she knew she had the strength to endure until the bitter end.

Gannon…

The Teru folded in his wings and dove straight at the man behind Melody. He fanned out his wings, breaking his dive to less than suicide speed as he crashed down on his target. There was a sickening crack when the man’s spine snapped as his body nearly folded in half. Before there was a chance for anyone to react, Gannon was already well into his next attack. He launched several razor sharp ice shards directly into the unprotected neck of the man holding onto Zek. He fell without a sound, dead before he hit the ground.

With a savage roar, the Teru unleashed a barrage of deadly ice spears into the troop’s ranks. Most of them did little damage as they hit ice resistant armor, but a few got through and hit the vulnerable meat between the armor plates. In just a couple seconds, half a dozen of the men who had been there were dead, a few more lay injured. “Naomi…” His voice came out as a deep growl. He turned his attention to the red-headed woman in front of him and stopped in his tracks. It couldn’t be…



It was as if someone had knocked the wind out of him. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t breathe. Without his concentration, the transformation magic failed and he reverted to his Teru form. His vision became blurry as tears filled his eyes. Emotions overwhelmed him. He wanted to run and take her into his arms, but his body wouldn’t move. He couldn’t even think straight. The only thought in his mind was that Tessia stood before him, alive. “T…Tessia…”

There was a crash behind Melody. Something had fallen from the sky. Before she knew what was going on, several of her soldiers lay dead. She took an involintary step back from the chaos around her. "Oh, my..." A draconic being lashed out with ice magic, killing several of her soldiers. It was a bit different from the form she knew, but there was no mistaking who stood before her.
This was much sooner than expected. How had he managed to get here so fast? They hadn't even had time to send the word that the two Teru were in custody. It seemed like someone had leaked their plan. Still, now was as good a time as any.
It took only a few seconds, but it seemed like an eternity. Resonance had taken out about a quarter of her soldiers before he finally noticed her. His transformation failed and he returned to his true form. He looked much older than she remembered. He'd aged badly over the years and his horns were gone, but she knew the man in front of her better than anyone else in the world. The man she hated more than anyone else in the world. "Resonance... My love... My husband..."

Gannon…

It was as if everything else had gone away. As if it was just the two of them standing there. Just he Tessia. She spoke his name. His real name. How long had it been since anyone had called him that? The sound of her soft voice. They way she looked. They way she smelled. Everything was just they way he remembered. "H-How can this be?" He took a step forward on legs that felt like rubber. His body and mind had gone numb.