Welcome to Gaia! ::

Not long after returning to Destiny City.

It was nights like these that he could not help but transform into Erytheia, to be one with the night, to be one with the stars. To forget the boundary between his identities. To pretend that Destiny City was just as Japan had been and not a place where cosmic powers clashed.

Looking at the stars above that matched his following robes, the white like the core of a star and the sheer pastels glittering like the light hitting the earth… It was times like now that he would let himself forget there were ever battles to be fought or fights to be won or chaos to contend with. It was the sight above the city that made him forget the soldiers and knights and guardians here on this planet and think of their own realms across the sky…

The knight of Cosmos bounded from high perch to high perch resting at the top of a particularly high street lamp. He was no longer afraid of falling — not physically away — as he had the feather he had found on his wonder that he keep in the gilded cage on his belt that held his summons.

It was than he felt a rather strong presence below.

✪

It was behind the gardening store that he found what he had sensed before. A senshi. But she had those glowing symbols, the ones he had heard about yet never seen up close before, signifying some special closeness to her world.

And she had gardening supplies.

Erytheia had thought about building a small garden since he had returned to Destiny City. His place in Japan had been way too small for such things though. He wondered what her plants would be for.

“What do you have there?” He inquired as he approached. “Sailor Ida, is it not?”

✪

“No. I don’t think we’ve ever formally met.” The gardening supplies and mention of her asteroid reminding him just how they had ‘met’. “I suppose I met your asteroid more than I met you, but I was just a page then.”

Had it really been that long ago? Ida had been his first glimpse at what a senshi homeworld looked like and it had left quite the impression back then. Those black creatures, inky and foreign. He’d been quite terrified of space for a while after that experience.

“Well, we did meet.” He corrected himself, now quite embarrassed as he recalled what he remembered of it — little but one of those creatures attacking him and then blackness. “I was just unconscious for most of it.”

✪

“It is good that your world is healing.” Erytheia replied. He recalled the flowers called starseed blooms that had appeared on his own wonder and how they had not been there on his first visit. Oh, how barren it had looked then! He had not known back then that this was not uncommon after a thousand years of neglect.

Speaking of uncommon, had she said her world had… bugs?

“Your world has bugs?” The knight said, not quite understanding. “Um… is that a good or a bad thing?”

All he could think of was blight or Chaos — the only two life forms other than plants he had ever seen on homeworlds or wonders.

✪

Erytheia sighed in relief at hearing Ida’s laugh. Why did his mind always want to go to the worst possible outcome?

He came closer to the senshi as she drew him in.

Life was beginning to return to her planet. But how? Erytheia wondered. When he had first come to his wonder, there had been nothing living there but an old tree. After all this time, that had been the case. It wasn’t until he became a knight that he first witnessed the starseed blooms. With barely anything on Erytheia, he wondered what a world was like that not only had abundant plant life, but insects, too.

“So, more life means that it is healing?” He questioned, but it made sense. Certainly, a world with life was one that was becoming whole again. His own powers were of healing, but he had never connected that to life on his wonder.

“You would take me to see it? I’d love too!”

Erytheia turned a bit red. He hoped he wasn’t being too eager. But he was fascinated that life could have returned to Ida’s world and it was always hard for him to hide his emotions.

✪

Healing. Yes, that made sense. What else could it be but that?

“Yes. I suppose so.” Eryethia nodded. “I wonder if my world has —”

But he stopped his outward musings as Ida pulled out her senshi phone. He was accustomed to the sudden rush of air and movement and space that accompanied such travel… but he would remiss to say that it still didn’t catch him off guard from time to time just how unearthly it felt. Such was the feeling as he recalled the last time he was called to Ida.

But this time. This time… it was so much different.

✪

Erytheia tracked the butterfly’s movement with his eyes, astonished. Its violet wings beat as if it were the most natural thing in the universe. Life.

There was life on this world.

He didn’t have time to fully grasp what he was seeing when Ida asked if he could hear what the senshi had heard. He almost had to close his eyes to hear it. Block out the color of the flowers and grass and trees of Ida to hear the sound…

… of a bird?

Erytheia’s hand was tugged and he knew the hunt was on. He followed Ida through the woods as the trees only grew. He felt a familiar feeling well in his chest.

He loved birds and would often go bird watching. This was the feeling of discovery he had felt before. Of hearing the distant call, the rustle of feathers, the shift in the air. Seeking the sky for what was close at hand.

“Do you see it?” He said in a whisper, trying to hold the excitement from his voice lest he scare anything that might be near by away from Ida.

✪

Erytheia followed as Ida led them to the stairs. Spiraling around the tree, the knight could not see where it ended. They began their climb under the archway.

As they went up, Erytheia let his hand grace the trunk of the large tree. There were so many trees here in such stark contrast to his own wonder and its surrounding lands. Where Erytheia seemed to go from horizon to horizon endlessly, a plain of crystal-like stone, Ida seemed to go forever upward, its trees climbing to the sky.

He took note of the structures that Ida pointed out, though he couldn’t see many of them through the canopy. His ears perked up at her mention of the Wishing Tree as there was an old tree on his world that his ancestor had said was once for wishing. But he kept silent, listening to Ida as the reached the promenade.

“A bird!” Erytheia exclaimed and then drew a hand to his mouth. He was supposed to be keeping quiet. A large grin grew on his face and he laughed at his own mistake never taking his eyes off the bird he saw as its jade form sliced about.

✪