Welcome to Gaia! ::

The relatively cool night was lit by the moon shining down through the canopy. Kelina stood on the forest floor, her eyes looking through a small gap in the upper canopy exposing the star-y night sky. It seemed like it was yesterday that she got her new bow and rank of archer. Kel still didn't know if it was a dream or not, it had seemed so real! She had seen her mother and saw her last warm smile. A smile was brought to Kelina's face just with the recollection. It had all seemed too real to be a dream. So Kelina set out that night, with her spiffy new bow, to try and determine if it was all just a dream or not. Maybe she could find the place again. She started by running across the forest floor for speed, so she could retrace her steps to where she had been awoken that night. Her eyes flit about as she ran, her quiver stripped to her waist and bow in hand she made sure she was aware of her surroundings.

There! That was the tree she had slept in. At least she thought she was sure about it. Stopping at the trunk, she looked up, it sure seemed like it was. She replayed what had happened and tried to figure out where she had gone next. Her posture relaxed as Kelina tried to remember where the voices had first came from. Perhaps it would help if she got up in the tree again. Nimbly, she climbed up the tree after swinging her bow over her shoulder. Once getting to the right branch, Kel was sure that she was in the right place. Now where had those voices originated? But just then, she thought that she heard something in the trees. In the trees? The ghosts had never been in the trees, always on the ground, so it must be danger. Quickly, she swung the bow from her shoulder and notched an arrow pointing it to the trees. "Who's there?" She said into the night, the forest bugs seeming to quiet at her question. The glowing fungi didn't illuminate any other earthling that she could see, so they must be in the upper canopy, so that was where she focused her attention.

Kelina sighed in relief as a voice, and then a shifter appeared out of the trees. She didn't have her blunted practice arrows like she had had at the tournament and she really didn't want to hurt anybody unless she had to. She lowered her bow so that it wasn't pointing at him but didn't put it away. Shifter or not, he could still be dangerous. Especially as there was a war coming, one could never be too careful. "It's not good to sneak up on someone. But I accept your apology. I am retracing my steps to try to find something I had previously found, but I can't seem to remember where I went from here." She figured she would leave out things like ghosts and voices as to not make him think she was crazy. He was attractive, Kel thought, as the light from the glowing fungi illuminated him a tad just so she could make out his features. "It is nice to be able to completely relax in the forest. I've only traveled a little bit away from Ast. But I've never left Juahar. I plan to at some time in my life, but with the war coming, I don't think now would be the best time to explore new things." Surely everyone had heard about the war from the south, right?

Frowning, Kelina supposed it was possible that there were still some shifters who may have stayed in the depths of the forest who had not heard of the war yet. "There's supposedly a place below us, below Juahar called Oba who has a king who wants to invade us and take our land and make us their slaves or just kill us. A man named Besian had hosted a tournament to get most of the strongest fighters in one place to inform everyone. He's also married to one of the elders." Kelina continued to frown as she thought of her memory of that. She wished that she had had the chance to talk to the strange earthling to make sure he knew she didn't mean any disrespect to him. "They're strange looking earthlings, if they look like the man that warned us. Almost like the leaf tribe, but with orange gems instead of blue or green. So for future knowledge for you, it might not be best to wander around and sneak up on people at this point in time." She warned him for his own good.

Kelina nodded sullenly. If war was brought to her homeland, she would have to fight. She would fight to protect her sister, she would fight alongside those she met at the tournament, she would fight to protect shifter and alkidike alike, for the leaf and wind. Race wouldn't matter when your home was being invaded, all that mattered is that all the others that call that place home would rise up with her to fight back these intruders. "It will change a lot. Most of us were not privy to that kind of information. The man Besian spoke with the elders alone. Some people might just be power hungry." She shrugged with her words, she had no idea why these mysterious people from Oba would want to invade them. "I'm Kelina." She said, finally introducing herself and relaxing a tad bit.

"Its a pleasure to meet you as well." He seemed nice enough, Kelina thought, but she hadn't even really confided in her sister about the circumstances of her new bow. "Nothing important, just needed some fresh air!" She said with a dismissive wave of her hand. Kel noticed that he picked up some moss, her mother used to have her collect all kinds of moss like that. "Are you a healer?" She asked curiously to get the attention off of her.

Kelina nodded, that statement told her more about him that he probably realized. So he was good at healing, and probably wanted to ride Radaku. "Well you can never be too prepared when it comes to animals. My sister wants to be an animal trainer." She was used to Lasarra coming home with small scrapes and bruises from animals.

"She hasn't told me if she plans to specialize in anything yet. For now, its whatever animals she can tame since she'll take all the practice she can get." Kelina nodded. "Just because your parents are one class doesn't mean you have to be though. My mother was a healer but I didn't choose that path."