Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Gesundheit!" Lloren muttered just in time for a sneeze, then rubbed her nose, still half-asleep. The cacophony of birds to grace the sunrise at the top of their lungs this deep in the forest could wake a slumbering titan, but she'd managed to just roll over and snooze through those early hours. The sneeze, however, had snapped her right up and out of dreamland. She clambered onto her legs through the tent flap to greet whoever had woken up before her, yawning. "Goooood morning! Best thing about stationary survival exercises, late mornings. Awww, yeaaaa."

The air was temperate and dry, easy to warm up in as there was no wind. The sun made no large contribution as it came through a thick filter of leaves and branches in the forest canopy. The mountain was a rocky one, full of ledges and cliffs- but overgrown with old life, roots crawling over every otherwise smooth surface.

After equipping her glasses, Lloren began a stretching routine, starting with the arms. Untied and suffering from acute bed-hair, her mane was not so much a frizzy lion's as a massive, ill-groomed mop. It was no doubt intimidating to forest creatures as she swung from leg to leg in more stretching motions.

And so began day one on this mountain for Group 1 of this particular survival class, to which Lenore, Zinnia, Martino and herself had been assigned. So far, they hadn't encountered anything dangerous- on Day 0 they had hiked up to the location on the map and set up the textbook campfire, releasing the smoke that signalled the start of two weeks of living off the land. Digesting their packed dinners just as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting the forest into pitch blackness except for the light of their fire, the exhausted trainees had soon gone to sleep.

Today, they would have to catch what they needed to keep themselves fed. And try not to kill each other. But that kind of thing only happened to -other- groups, right?

Unlike Lloren and Zinnia, Lenore was a relatively light sleeper. That, coupled with the uncomfortable ground had meant that the young girl hadn't slept very well at all, even by her lax standards. At some point, after having stayed up far longer than anyone else, she had succumbed to sleep, but she was unsure how long she had stayed as such.

She blearily opened her eyes to the sunlight and banter between the two other girls before clenching them tightly together and sighing. Pulling herself out of the sleeping bag, she rubbed at her tired eyes to get the sleep out of them. Opening them just slightly, the girl looked around at her surroundings.

"Hup, hup, hup..." Lloren continued to stretch as others woke up, now pulling one arm, then the other over her head as she tilted sideways. It was odd that she had actually gotten up first out of everyone- perhaps due to the cooler temperature at night and her ability to sleep on hard ground. She turned around to Zinnia's voice, too late to witness her and Lenore's uh, moment.

"Yea," she acquiesed to the blue-haired girl's comment, appreciating the beauty of the forest as well; the training compound was a lot of packed dirt and bland walls, not much to look at over a few months or years. All expeditions were a welcome change of scenery. As for the food question, she gulped, still mid-stretching routine. However, as she spoke, she began to fool around and noodle-armed to short frog-hops instead. "I know they tell us to beware of those and subsist on meat in the wild, but y'know..." She began alternating snakey hand jabs at the sky, then the ground. "We're probably surrounded by delicious vegetables, berries and mushrooms. Wouldn't it be a waste not to cook 'em up if we find 'em? I mean... check this out."

She stuffed a hand in a pocket, then swung suddenly backwards and snapped the motion short in a weird dance pose- an outstretched arm holding a booklet in Zin's direction, she grinned at her upside-down. Lloren then spoke quite enthusiastically; Zinnia has always seemed to her like a person who might be open to bending the rules and what have you shenanigannery. "There was an old dude in my town that liked to go mushroom hunting. I went with him sometimes, took notes and made sketches. Plus, my mom's a gardener. We can identify a few things with this."

That's when Martino entered her field of vision. Lloren waved in answer to the artist's greeting, still upside-down. If she had been attempting to get a reaction out of Zinnia with an increasingly weird morning workout just now, she wasn't about to stop due to his presence. Even though they had not really interacted much before, Martino's beard, glasses, older age and similar name reminded her too much of her dad for her to reign in the familiarity.

"Ayyy, Marty! Good of you to join us on this fine day. Well, that leaves one..." She peered at the tent, where Lenore was just out of her sleeping bag.

Lenore was knocked to the ground as Zin threw herself on top of her. She supposed that was one way to be woken up. Clenching her eyes shut, she tried to push the older girl off to no avail. "I'm up, I'm up..." she murmured quietly. Yawning softly, she got to her feet and stepped out of the tent. She gave Martino and Lloren a small wave, but said nothing as she looked around the area.