Welcome to Gaia! ::

She hadn't been expecting the cheers. The small girl turned her head this way and that to the faces calling out. Bodies were still but the sound was rousing. She grinned again, not a pleasant smile, but a self satisfied one.

Suddenly it was gone and it was dark. even with her enhanced Sight she couldn't find her way smoothly. Axejil hissed to feel foolish, to stumble and bump things, but the sound of the heart was calling to her with a steady thump-thump.

"Ungh.." She hit the obstacle with a hollow thwank sound and felt around the edges to realize it was a crate. The thumping heart was coming from inside. She grasped blindly until she felt ragged fabric. Axejil let her small hands play along the edges of the fabric, tried to pull it, but it fell out of her hands and slipped back into the crate with a hollow thud.

Thump-thump

She tiptoed to peek inside, grasped with determination to the fabric, and found the sight of her prize. Her pleased grin was lit eerily in the yellow heart's light as Ajexil began the surgical task of cutting it free.

She didn't care what it was wrapped in. She didn't care if there were whispers. Living, dead, animal, vegetable, or mineral. The girl was driven and unfeeling to her circumstances. She had a task to complete and she would do it.

As the final threads were snipped she lifted the heart and it stopped in her hands. A moment happened which made her unsure, was it supposed to stop beating?

Ajexil... A harsh whisper still clung to her. A voice so familiar... Ajexil..

"You will be strong. You will be proud. We are the master race."
"We are the master race."
"The colony will thrive. It is our job to guide them. You will weild powerful magics. You will be unforgiving. You are the future of this colony and all will look to you."
"Our colony is supreme."
"Yes. No fear. No doubt. All will fall before us. We will have our revenge and you are our future."
"The future is my birthright."

She snapped out of the memory with a cold determination. If it was a memory, she was comfortable with it. That in itself was reassuring, a confidence in herself.

Here eyes snapped open and a snarl of fury ripped from her throat. There was no hesitation, no doubt, as she plunged the scissors into her attacker. It shrieked and was gone and she was left, no water, coughing desperately.

Anger boiled through her veins.

She had no doubt. Her goal was true. She would be the best. The winner. The leader. Whatever was required of her, she would fulfill the tasks.

As Axejil pressed out the doors finally she couldn't care to turn around. Whatever that spectre was, it was false. Her Mother Eye would never hold her back.

A Mother Eye had no need for a heart.