Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ara walked slowly through the woods, pausing now and then to pick up a particularly pretty piece of rock, or an interesting bit of bark. She had no real goal in mind for the day, just enjoying one of the first tastes of solitude since she had acquired a son. The gift from the wishing star had been a surprise, and she was finding all of her time eaten up by the little bundle of joy given to her. Today was a rare day off, when her magically appearing son Gabriel was being watched by her mother.

It had been almost two years since she had encountered the stallion she believed to be Gabriel's father and a little more than a year and a half since her son had appeared. Her original goal in going to the Wishing Star had been to reacquaint herself with Zacharael and then to forcefully acquaint his face with her satchel full of rocks.

No one had told her what kind of wishes the star granted at the time of her wish, but she had adapted to the new role of mother that she found herself cast in. At least her son wasn't awful like his father.

Spotting something glinting in the sunlight, she picked up her pace and found a large chunk of pyrite stuck in the ground. It was the size of her hoof and looked rather heavy, but she picked it up and put it in her satchel anyway. It was too pretty to leave and she wondered if there was more around so began searching more attentively.

Ara looked up when another flash of light at the corner of her eye attracted her attention. She froze at what she saw. Of all the people in all the places in the whole forest that she could run into, he was the last being she thought she was ever going to see again. Oh, sure. She'd intended to eventually find him and tell him about Gabriel, since it seemed the responsible thing to do. Ara had actually looked forward to the look on his face when she sprung it on him; surprise! You have a kid.

It had made her early days caring for Gabriel, when he was still a surprise burden on her life, that much better.

That aside, she hadn't actually thought about him in a couple of months, since her son was finally old enough to look after himself sometimes and she'd begun to wander around searching for inspiration again. Sometimes she found it and didn't resurface for a few days. It was times like that which made her glad for Silk who had been an invaluable babysitter. Her familiar was venomous, and didn't mind napping draped around Gabriel's neck most days for protection (though lately her son was adamant that he could take care of himself...Silk was less than pleased, since this meant he had to actively follow the yearling around to make sure he didn't get into too much trouble).

These musings raced through her mind in the same amount of time it took her to gasp, before old anger rekindled almost as strong as the day he'd tricked her and she shouted, "YOU!!!!"

Ara glared. He clearly hadn't changed much since their last encounter. She hadn't forgotten his deception of being prickly yet helpful and reminded herself not to be taken in by his newest act.

"Is that all you have to say to me? Hi?! You a*****e! Where are the rocks you took from me?!" she started out speaking normally, but was shouting be the end of her sentence.

If he'd truly forgotten their encounter, telling him about Gabe would be awkward...actually, did she even want to tell him about Gabe? The only reason she even had been blessed with her son was because of a misplaced wish on a star...there was no reason that Zach ever even had to know.

Ara scoffed, of course she would continue shouting if she felt like it. Perhaps she would even shout louder, just knowing that it seemed to annoy him. "If you must know, I finished my work and had a few stones left over even. I overestimated how many I would need."

She didn't let on that she'd had to make a smaller piece, she'd die before she let him think what he'd done had effected her in anyway other than to raise her ire. It had taken a whole day just to figure out a new pattern, but in the end it had turned out better than her original idea. Zach had only made off with a few black and white rocks and maybe a handful of the little gold nuggets. It was fortunate for her that he'd come along towards the end of rock transportation.

With an annoyed snort, she eyed his tail snaking its way towards her leg. No way was she letting her guard down around him again. It helped that she had a second pair of eyes peeking out from under her hat, whispering a warning in her ear just loud enough that she could hear it but no one else. Ara contemplated the merits of stomping on the offending appendage, see how he liked that.

Ara tensed up so hard her muscles ached, and for a moment she did nothing but curse her hesitance to step on his tail. Perhaps that would have given him something to do other than torment her.

"Do. Not. Touch. Me." she ground out. Underneath her hat, her snake familiar was coiling through her hair, able to hear what was going on outside but since he'd drawn his head back in when Zach got too close he could not see what was happening. Silk would happily bite anyone that dared touch her without permission, and she knew it. Would it be worth it to restrain him? She was leaning heavily towards 'not' as she made to rip herself free of his hold.

((Not this tag but probably next, we can roll for whether he actually bites Zach or not? Like, he lunges but misses or whatever?))

He was no longer touching her, but Ara did not relax. She could feel the heat from his body and that was still far too close in her opinion. Being on the same planet was too close.

"You know what, you're right. There is something else. But it's none of your business." She growled, thinking that there was now no chance whatever that she would ever expose her son to this jerk.

It was then that Silk seemed to get fed up with the stallion harassing his mistress, he peeked out from under her hat to aim properly and the launched himself at the obnoxious creature that was so close to her, fangs first.

The moment Silk left the cover of her hat, Ara knew this could only end badly. The admittedly infuriating encounter had been a nuisance in her day but before this moment odds were she would trade a few more barbs with this a** before departing and hopefully never seeing him again this time. Now, as she watched Zach stumble back in shock which quickly turned to anger, all she could think was curses at whatever spirit had led her to this encounter today.

Silk hadn't acted at her command, but that was of little importance after the fact. When the knife came out a flash of panic had flown through her before it was replaced by a sense of calm that spread like ice. The only sign that she was terrified was a subtle rustling of her wings. Her eyes were like stone as she stared into Zach's, voice low with both persuasion and promise. "Because I am asking you not to, please. You might not believe me, but he only did what he did to defend me and if you hurt him for it I will do everything in my power to return the favor."

Ara had little interest in fighting, as a rule. She was an artist, not a warrior or protector. Still, she had knives for cutting plants and other implements to dig into the earth and grind things into paste or powder to mix paint. She had skill with chisels that she normally used for carving stone and wood but which she could also use to carve flesh. Though these tools were used to create, they could also be used to harm and she'd had to defend herself a few times in the past. If it came to a fight, she wasn't sure if she could win, but she'd make him bleed.