Welcome to Gaia! ::

Elysia was thoroughly excited that her old travel buddy, Wanderlust, had brought back knews of a new location to explore. They wanted others to go and explore it too and bring back any interesting stories. Although Elysia was doing her best to build a new home for herself in Homewood, she just couldn’t resist seeing more of the world she was born in. Most of her life was so far spent in a dire rat colony in the barrens. A colony that was probably still stuck in its old ways of attacking noulicorns. She remembered the fellow colony member who also left, umm Athena. They both wanted something different and left. It was nice to know that she wasn’t on her own in her thinking.

She was getting ahead of herself here, but her thoughts kept her busy as she made her way to the Mistfruit forest. It was eye opening and much cooler than the barrens or even Homewood. There was a lot of felled trees but those that still towered over her were in no better shape. There was a strange mist that floated about but it seemed to stay just off the ground, allowing Elysia to move about with full sight. She crested a hill and perched upon a slimy grey rock, her eyes widened as before her was a strange creation that was build by the Others. It spanned across a nice sized river that flowed away and out towards the barrens. She rubbed her hand paws together in delight.

“Ohhh look at that Larimar! It’s so massive! I wonder what secrets it holds,” Elysia murmured to the teal faery perched on branch that was attached to a log.

Grey eyes turned towards the siamese rat and cream wings fluttered. “Shall we go look?”

Just before Elysia was to reply back to her familiar, a sound behind her caught her attention and she twisted to look behind her. “Hello?”

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Elysia looked a bit surprised by the fact that she completely missed seeing the dire rat there. He blended in rather well. Her head tilted in curiosity as she sat a bit more upright. From nearby, Larimar thrummed low in their throat as a way of greeting the newcomer. Hearing the other dire say “wow” made Elysia’s ears wiggle a little. The dire introduced themself as Brownie, what a fitting name. He was rather jovial and social for meeting a stranger but Elysia seemed to be taken with that.

“Hello Brownie,” Elysia replied politely, “I’m Elysia and this is Larimar. My friend Wanderlust told me about this place and I was ever so excited to check it out. I’m currently curious about the massive thing the Others built just over there.” Elysia turned back towards the dam and gestured towards it. “And we’re doing well so far, just taking a break.” She patted the rock beside her in a offering to Brownie if he’d like to sit with her.

"So what brings you out here? Do you live in Mistfruit forest?" She inquired.

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The trees were rather dense, whether they were the logs all over the ground or the standing trees. The branches were all stiff from death and broke up into sharp points. Even though she wasn’t very big, Elysia had to agree that they were indeed sharp. She shifted her harness briefly before turning her attention to what Brownie was indicating. Sure enough there was a color variation among the trees at the base of the dam. Now, she was really only interested in checking out the dam and seeing if there was anything interesting about it. Maybe a way inside, like all Other built dwellings? And why across a river? Brownie on the other paw, seemed more interested in the trees. Well, it was close to the dam, maybe the can look at the trees first and then the dam. She looked towards Larimar who was still perched on a jagged branch.

“What do you think?” Elysia asked of the faery.

“Why not? This whole place is new to us. The more we learn, the more we take back to Wanderlust,” came the faery’s reply.

Elysia turned her attention back to Brownie. “Let’s go check it out. After you,” she gestured that Brownie go first and she’d follow him.

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Elysia carefully made her way down the slope behind Brownie. Larimar fluttered up off their perch and flew past the dire rats to the trees below. They found a branch to land on and sat waiting for the rats to catch up, yawning. Elysia was more paying attention to her footing and Brownie than what her familiar was up to. She smiled back at Brownie who was trying to straighten himself out after their climb down. His words about the strange fruit had her tearing her eyes from him and to settling them upon the odd fruit growing up in the trees. Even Larimar was sniffing at them but didn’t seem inclined to put one in their mouth. Larimar was fond of fruit but had a healthy suspicion of unknown objects it seemed.

“I’ve never see this before. It’s all so new. I’m still growing accustomed to Homewood…. Now this. Not sure I’m brave enough to eat one though,” Elysia remarked.

Larimar bit the stem clean off of one, freeing it from the tree and sending it to the ground below.

“Hey, watch it Larimar. You could have hit one of us,” Elysia rebuked the faery. They just chortled and chittered. “Sorry about that, Brownie. Larimar isn’t a big talker but they like to create some mischief.” She then picked up the strange fruit and handed it to Brownie to inspect.

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Elysia tilted her head and then glanced towards the sky. It was growing darker, probably best to start heading back to Homewood. Although it would be a few days journey back. But she would rather bring back a short tale of what she’d seen than nothing at all. Larimar glided down from the tree and landed softly besides the pale dire rat. Elysia patted the faery’s head and then looked back towards Brownie.

“Probably best to just work our way home now. Then come back another day. I’d rather take my chance sleeping out in the barrens for now til we figure out this place more later.”

Elysia shifted her packs once more and made the climb back up. She waited for Brownie to reach the top and then headed back towards the barrens and eventually Homewood. Hopefully what she had to tell Wanderlust wasn’t too droll. She gazed towards the sky once more, Larimar flew gracefully not far above them.

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