Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Sorry, not much of an opening post, but I've got a paper to write, ugh. Oh, you can check out more of the setting here.

The air was cool and crisp. Ocean waves could have been heard from the splendid palace of the lycans in the center of the Isle de Luna. The sun slowly crept in from an open window, shining its light upon a clean room. Truth be told, it was only clean because of the servants that worked in the palace. If it wasn’t for them, this room in particular, would be a mess. On the bed, sprawled out in white sheets, was the child of lycans. She wasn’t very tall, only about 5’3’’ with long, messy black hair that resembled a lion’s mane. At least, that’s what her mother called it. Her skin was olive in tone and her eyes were a bright amber color. But you couldn’t see them now, for Carmen was fast asleep even though the sun had already woken. She was always a late sleeper.

“Mmmmm.” Carmen winced at the sunlight. Who the hell let Maya in?! Oh wait, right. Carmen was never one to get up on time, that’s why her mother insisted she have a handler. Not that the other children didn’t have handlers, Carmen just didn’t see the need in having one. She wasn’t like her younger brother and sister. No, they were spoiled. Carmen was far from spoiled but it doesn’t mean she didn’t like a good meal every day. Ah, food. Carmen put a smile on her face now, her eyes still squinting shut. “Do I have to?” She pulled her pillow up over her head now, trying to get the sun light away from her face, but it was no use. “Why can’t I just sleep in… why can’t I just have breakfast in bed…” She began complaining again- she was always complaining this early in the morning. She moved her legs around, feeling the emptiness of the sheets around her. Dammit… she always knows how to get me out of bed, ugh… “Argh, oh fine…”

Slowly, Carmen moved the pillow from her face and sat up in her bed. Bright amber eyes looked to Maya who was getting her clothes ready for the day. Yes, this was the life of an aristocrat. Sounds great, right? Wrong. Carmen wasn’t the best example of royalty. No, that stuff was better left to Katherine and Arian.

Slowly, she began getting out of bed, heading to the bathroom to wash up. When she was done, she came back out to the room to pick up the clothes Maya had put out for her. “Ah, do I have to wear this dress today? Where are my jeans? Mom didn’t have another ‘girly talk’ with you, did she?” Carmen’s mother was always trying to get her to wear girlier outfits but Carmen always refused.

((Feel free to take control of any of the family members, we can treat them as NPCs.))

Carmen couldn't held but sigh. It's like there was a secret war going on between her and her closet. With a stifled yawn, Carmen threw her arms to her side, admitting defeat. Secretly, the dressed picked out for her was quite pretty, she had to admit. But she wouldn't dare say that out loud. Besides, she was too sleepy to argue with Maya this early in the morning. And by early, she meant at all. "Oh, fine. But you promise." She gave a knowing smile to Maya as she began changing. When she was finished, she looked to the mirror, then to Maya. "Well, what do you think?" Waiting for her reply, there was a suddenly the chiming of a small bell in the corner of her room. Her mother was calling her. "Well, I guess we better get down there."

At the breakfast table, Carmen looked around to find two empty seats. "Where's dad and Arian?" She asked to no one in particular, hoping to get a reply from someone other than Katherine. Even though the two were sisters, it didn't mean they had to like each other. Since they were small, Carmen could remember Katherine always trying to compete with her, trying to be better than her, but to no avail. The youngest sister, Katherine, was indeed, however, the first to respond to Carmen. "They're out hunting. Something about a sudden overflow of deer." Katherine hadn't noticed her sister come in the room before, but as she did, she realized her sister had been forced into a dress for today. "Oh my! Mother, look, I think the pigs are flying outside." "Shut up, Kat. Don't be jealous just because I make this look better than you." "Oh, jealousy is far beyond my reach for someone like you."

"Children, that's enough." Silence filled the room as Carmen stood there, staring at her younger sister who was already halfway through breakfast. Another moment passed before the two sisters broke eye contact and Carmen went to take her seat next to her mother who was the cause for the silence. It was always something or the other with the two sisters, and Isabel, their mother had had enough of it. "Now you two play nice today or I'll make you sit in a room the whole day together.", their mother warned. It was a good threat to the two sisters and they both held their tounges from any further comments. "Carmen, you look lovely today. Looks like Maya won today's laundry scuffle, I presume." The queen chuckled to herself. She knew having a servant for Carmen would be worth it in the long run, no matter how much she protested. It was known throughout the palace that Queen Isabel was the reason they had servants at all, since the King couldn't make up his mind either way. No, Isabel believed that the key to a well run house hold was a good servant and the master/servant relationship that came with it. Of course, she knew the servants in the kitchens below knew they're place here amongst the royal family and so she never had to look after them too much.

Carmen scrunched her nose at her mother, giving a sideways glance to the walls. "Yeah, something like that. Wait... how come I didn't get asked to go hunting today?" Carmen looked around the room again, as if the answer was going to appear out of the corner of the room. She looked down at her plate that one of the servants had prepared for her, a healthy portion of eggs and bacon. She looked back at her mother with puppy dog eyes. "I want to go with them..."

Carmen's mother didn't care to acknowledge her eldest child for a moment as she took a sip of her orange juice. Could have used a bit of gin. "You're not going because you have training today. There is word that another suitor from the mainland may be coming to the island to see you.", she said with a smirk. Katherine couldn't help but throw an evil smirk on her face as well.

"WHAT?!" Carmen slammed a fist on the table, outraged. The color in her eyes started to glow and her chest began to vibrate. "I thought I told you guys, I won't see any more suitors-"

"You'll do as your told and that's the last I'll hear about it." Isabel was stern, and her gaze never left her breakfast as she continued to eat, not breaking a sweat over Carmen's outburst. Katherine was enjoying herself. Carmen sat there, practically shaking with rage. But no one was responding to her rage, no one was acknowledging her, and Katherine was breaming with joy. Giving up on her outburst, Carmen decided it was another fight lost to her majesty. Oh, if only someone else were in her shoes! Then she would have someone to talk to... someone who understood.

"I'm not hungry anymore." Carmen shoved her plate away from her and stood up briskly. "I'll be outside in the garden if anyone wants me." No one said anything as Carmen moved to leave the room. Just before the doors closed however, one could hear Katherine crying out, "Don't forget your training later!" Carmen turned to yell back at her younger sister, but the door had closed shut.

Carmen walked in a rage. How dare her mother try to stick her down like that? She was eighteen now and the law said that she couldn’t take the throne unless she took a husband. But Carmen wasn’t ready for any of that. She wasn’t ready to get married, she wasn’t ready to take the throne, hell she wasn’t even ready to get out of bed in the morning! How could her mother expect such things of her? She felt a chill crawl up her spine.

It was a short moment until Maya reached her side, comforted her. Carmen felt her hand on her arm- it felt warm. The chill had made its way all around Carmen’s body now, but Maya’s hand was full of warmth and the chill subsided, along with her anger. “No, I don’t want to talk about it.” She replied, as they walked along the garden path. This was one of Carmen’s favorite places to be- it was so full of life yet, pleasingly quite. A moment passed and Carmen felt blissful silence. She sighed. “I mean… what does she expect me to do, just follow her orders like some kind of… like some kind of… dog?!” Carmen wasn’t yelling, but her voice was shaking and full of emotion. “It’s ridiculous. It’s like she’s… pimping me out or something, but for what? For the sake of the empire? Is the empire worth one person’s happiness?”

She looked to Maya, to those comforting green-blue eyes were always there for her. Those were eyes of understanding and loyal compassion. Softly, Carmen sighed- she felt at ease now. “It’s whatever. Not like I’m actually going to go through with any of this. I’ll play her game, but she’s not going to win. I swear it.”

A moment passed and Carmen felt the pressure of Maya’s hand on her arm again, pulling back down to reality. “Anyway… yes, I want to go see this new place you’ve discovered.” She stopped walking now and turned to Maya, putting her hands together in her own. With a smile, she gave a small laugh. “I’m always up for one of our adventures.”

Carmen was excited. Every time her and Maya went on one of their adventures, there was always something interesting that happened. Like that one time they went into the town and almost ended up with an arrow through their chests. They went through the forests, climbing and dodging. It was when they finally got to their destination that Carmen became baffled. Not only from the beautiful sight that was in front of her, but from the words that came out of Maya’s mouth.

Do I trust you? What kind of question was that? Well, when she thought about it, it was a really good question. What was trust? Did Carmen even know what that was? She trusted people to do normal, everyday things, but even then some, there were people she didn’t trust, like Katherine. But, she thought hard for a moment, and came to a conclusion that Maya was talking about a different kind of trust. The trust between them was much more than the trust between her and anyone else. When she thought about it, Maya was probably the only person who had really earned her trust. A small light shone inside of Carmen, giving her a warm feeling in her chest as she thought about it. Trust.

“Yes.” Was her simple answer, as she eagerly awaited Maya’s response, hoping that whatever was about to come next would be totally worth it.

Carmen shook her head in disbelief at what she was seeing. A slight blush rushed across her face as she watched in amazement at the sight before her eyes. Maya undressed in front of her before stepping into the warm water and Carmen’s eyes never left her. She didn’t know why, or what she was looking at to begin with. All she knew was she couldn’t take her eyes off of her. The sun shone on the water and reflected onto Maya, causing her to glow. It wasn’t until she spoke that Carmen finally snapped out of her daze and fell back into reality.

“Oh, um, yeah, right. Sure. Gotcha. No problem.” She was stuttering and she hoped Maya hadn’t noticed. With quick nervousness she began to undress, not at all feeling uncomfortable about undressing in front of her handler- she’d done it many times before so it really wasn’t a big deal to her. When she was done, she took a deep breath and entered the water, taking note that the water was indeed quite warm. The air was electric all around them and Carmen couldn’t help but have goose bumps climb up her back. “So um…” She said, breaking the silence around them. “What now?”

Carmen wasn't very much a good swimmer. She had learned how to swim years ago, but it wasn't her best feature. Nevertheless, she followed Maya into the unknown, focusing more on keeping her head above the water than paying attention to the beautiful scenary around her. When they had stopped, Carmen looked in the direction Maya had pointed and followed suspiciously after her. It was a dark cave, with a small opening that barley fit the two of them behind the crashing noise of the waterfall. Carmen reached the ledge and climb up onto it, shaking her hair loose of some of the water trapped within. It wasn't until then that she noticed how unbelievably close she was next to Maya. They were chest and chest and with no room to move. There was silence, it seemed that even the crashing of the waterfall next to them didn't make a sound as Carmen looked into the green blue eyes of the girl before her. She couldn't move, she was frozen like a statue and all of her body felt warm inside. She tried to speak, to get words to come out of mouth, but nothing came. Just a slight trembling of the bottom lip in an attempt to make words. It was getting hard to breathe...

All at once, life came crashing back down, sound returned all around them and Carmen was very aware that she was standing there, still, like an idiot. "So, um..." Words finally found her lips as she turned amber eyes to look down into the dark cave, seeing light at the end. "What's in there?" It was a stupid question for a stupid person to ask, but its all she could muster out for the moment, so, she went with it. Why was she acting this way? It was like she was sick or something with this fleeting feeling in the pit of her stomach. Swallowing, she pushed her thoughts aside, looking again for the excitement she felt before at explore a new place with Maya.