Welcome to Gaia! ::

Prologue


All of a sudden, that day had unfolded in a sequence of dramatic scenes. Persons, known as friends, had turned out to be connected to transcendental spheres, had turned out to be traitors, had turned out to be lost in despair and had shown another side of theirs.

It had been a day of blood, rage, bravery, tears, loyalty and loss.

It had been the day when the Leviathan Stadium was destroyed.

Memories, warm and unpleasant images of the past years, had been burried in the ruins of the famous place, now only existing in the hearts of all those who were a part of the stadium crew.

It would take a long time to rebuild this place, as it would need even more time to heal all those inner gashes that day had brought.

But every ending is just the beginning of something new. And thus, after taking breath, a minute's silence, after wiping away the last tears, it was up to everybody where his first steps of the "New Age" should lead him.

Lucind knew which path she had to take next - back home. But "home" had a special meaning in her terms:

Three hours by dragon north of Barton there was a valley - Magpie Valley -, safely placed between a low mountain range and a rough coastal area, where several small villages laid closely together. In one of these, Feimurgin, Lucind had found accommodation at the "Greenhood Pension" several years ago. Meanwhile, she was treated like a member of the Greenhood family and being with them, Lucind was able to let go of her usual mask of distance she wore whenever she travelled through new, foreign areas or sometimes even on places where people showed her kindness.

North-east of the valley was a lake district - this was Lucind's birthplace. Because there, hidden between lakes, marshes and moor, Lucind's clan lived - the Varhetel's. It took you about an hour by horse to get from Feimurgin to the border of the Siren's territory.
Being an open secret, the inhabitants of the villages - mostly human - knew about the Sirens' existance and since Lucind's clan had settled down there some hundred years ago it had been a peaceful coexistance, most times, though both sides preferred concentrating on their own lifes.

After saying goodbye to Enki and the others, Lucind was now sitting in the protecting, yet rocking cabin on a taxi-dragon's back - he had flewn her from Barton to Feimurgin many times during the last years and knew the route by heart...which forced Lucind to check from time to time that he didn't doze off and lost his course.

She had to return for several reasons. The last pieces of her personal things, like clothes, herbs, money, a set of daggers - all lost in the shattered stadium. Then she desperately needed to get more sleep, that short nap at the camp in front of the stadium had only spent her enough strength for another few hours. Therefore, she could barely keep her eyes open now.
The most important reason was but to go and see the council of her clan: Lucind needed to consult the elders concerning what had happened during her soul invasion. Concerning what she had seen in Maximos's soul.

Wrapped in a blanket, Lucind leaned back in the narrow built seat and closed her eyes. With the cabin swaying in time to the dragon's wing strokes she drifted back into snooze. Right before she fell asleep a soft smile curled her lips when she thought:

Damn...I really need a coffee once I've arrived...or a Caramel Macchiato...


Prologue end

1 cm = ca. 1 km

"Please wait, sir," Lucind said to the coachman," I'll be back with your charge in a minute."

She motioned Rebecca to follow her. When she was about ten feet away from the massive, wooden double door, an apple suddenly came flying over the roofed wall, directly heading towards Lucind. With her reflex still working despite her exhaustion, she quickly catched it in height of her shoulder.

"What a joy, coming home." A smile curved her lips. One of her rare, you may call 'real' smiles. Not that her usual smile, like that she gave Rebecca, was faked, but a rather polite one. But seeing the Half-Siren standing in front of the entrance of the Pension, you could easily tell this was a place she was attached to. Her eyes twinkled when she moved on and slided open one side of the gate which was unlocked although sunset lay ahead.

Entering the small, graveled fore-court of the pension, Lucind turned left and walked to the backside of the house were a nice little fight was just about to reach its peak:
Dodo stood at one end of the pond, in his hand a squirming, slimy, brownish thing that resembled a salamander - but it had an oversized tail, huge gecko-like feet and...antennas.
Granny, with her back turned on Lucind and Rebecca, had put one feet on a stone in front of the pond and flailed with her arms, in one hand her knobbly wooden staff in the other hand another apple. "Leddim go, leddim go, willye...!!"

"Nooo," Dodo cried indignantly," it's eating my goldfish, this little, filthy b*****d!" The salamander like creature desperately tried to escape but then Dodo gave him a good shake, to stress that this was a body of evidence - you could almost tell that animal was in tears.

"That ain't true, and ye know't. Now, leddim go, yooouuu..." She raised her hand as if to throw the next apple towards her husband, when...

"Lucind...!" Dodo smiled at her, his voice suddenly warm and friendly. The strange animal took its chance and slipped uout between the man's fingers and jumped back into the pond where it vanished immediately in the suspicious dark of the water.

Granny blinked. "Err...dat's a trick eh?" She squinted her eyes, but eventually turned her head around. "Ah! 'Tis really ar lill Si'en!" She dropped the apple and hopped towards Lucind. "Got yer mail. But what wazzat?! Only hints and 'I explain everything when I'm back.'" The old woman grimaced.

"I'm sorry," Lucind shrugged," just wanted to drop a short note and come back as soon as possible. And I was damn tired....I am tired..."

"Yeah, ye look 'orrible," Granny pointed at Lucind's face, but her wrinkled face showed traces of concern.

Lucind grinned sleepyly and wanted to answer, but at that moment Sarah came around the corner, her sandals clicking on the wooden terrace. "You've already arrived! I prepared your room and some food," she broadly smiled. "And we've sent the message to your clan like you asked."

"I thank you - for both."

Meanwhile, Granny had waddled around Lucind to get a closer look on Rebecca. As if the girls was an interesting object of an auction, she scrutinized Rebecca. Finally, she poked Lucind with her staff. "Whazzis, eh?? A slave?"

Lucind turned around, then raised her eyebrows. "Nooo~...she's not. This is Rebecca and I decided to invite her staying here for a while. Or as long as she likes to. Because we had some...trouble at the stadium...and erm, well she's no place to go to now, therefore I thought she can have one of the guests rooms and help a bit in the household for payment." She gave Sarah a questioning look.

And so did Granny. "Can we keep'er?"

Sarah nodded and smiled warmly at Rebecca. "I don't see a problem with this."

"Yay!" Granny rejoiced and immediately started pulling on Rebecca's hand. "Come, come! Showye yer room...nahahaha!:3"

"Don't worry, it's okay. She won't eat you," Lucind encouraged Rebecca.

"So, it's true then?"

The Half-Siren glanced at Dodo who showed a serious frown.

"The Leviathan Stadium has been destroyed? The news already brought it around midday but nobody could give reliable proof."

"Yes...," Lucind answered," it's gone...."

"Now, now - there'll be time te talk bout that laters," Granny cried and cast an earnest look at Lucind before she vanished in the house, dragging Rebecca with her.

In fact, Lucind was relieved: she wasn't in the mood to talk again about what had happened just this morning. So she directly headed to the bathing-house, were she stripped, leaving all her clothes in a messy pile on the floor - though stepping with them into the river, they were still slightly smelling of dust, sweat and blood.

When she turned on one of the showers she sighed in relief and enjoyed the fresh water running down her drowsy form. She sat down on the wooden floor after soaping, placing her head on her knees. But soon Lucind realized that she was about to doze off, so she stood up and left the showering room - to find that someone, most likely Sarah, had taken her used clothes with her and instead left two fluffy towels and fresh smelling, light clothes.

Shortly after, Lucind and Rebecca had dinner in the dining room, together with the other three. The Half-Siren only nibbled on a sandwhich, though, before Sarah stated she should go to bed before she simply passed out at the low table around which they squated.

So Lucind sayed goodbye and staggered to her room where she only managed to kick off her slippers before falling into the bed.
She pleaded Var for some undisturbed, dreamless hours, turned on her side and fell asleep half a minute later.

And her plead was heard: it wouldn't be some hours, but in fact almost twenty before Lucind woke up.

Summation of posts! gonk

Finally, a magpie landed on the entrance gate, hopping from side to side, its tail feathers twitching up and down. Lucind smiled and addressed the bird in Seireneia: "Long time no see, hn?" The magpie croaked as if to reply and followed Lucind into the garden, more jumping than flying, and eventually tripped into Lucind's room, where the Half-Siren already sat at the low table and wrote a short message for her brother.

The black-white bird curiously inspected the room and carefully picked at smaller things.
"You'll get your reward, don't worry," Lucind smiled, neatly folded the small piece of paper and tucked it into a tiny leather case which was connected to a double-strapped belting construction. The magpie, used to this procedure, didn't objected when the woman fastened the case to its leg but nevertheless pecked at Lucind's hand rather affectionately.
Finally, the bird soared off, swaying uneven in the air as if it was drunk.

Lucind was looking forward to see Larhien again.

Lucind's mouth twitched, when the figure came into her room: it was a tall man - at least six feet high - wearing closely fitting pants, light, elastic boots and a jacket partly made of suede, with shoulder pads and a broad cotton-belt fastened with several metal buckles. On the whole, his silhouette revealed an agile, athletic but not overly muscle-bound body. When he came into reach of Lucind's nightstand lamp, you could consider his short, ruffled hair to be of a dark blue.
He was carefully moving, making no sounds...or almost no sounds.

"Hmmng...still too loud, brother dear, too loud..."

The man stopped abruptly, then chuckled when Lucind opened one eye and, like a sleepy cat, peeked up. "I wasn't sure if you're sleeping or just dozing, therefore the sneaking," Larhien replied but nevertheless looked as if he had been caught in the act.

Lucind climbed out of the bed, stifled a yawn. Without a further word, she padded over and raised her arms to embrace her brother, wrapping her arms around his neck. The male Half-Siren hugged his sister tight, lifting her up for some seconds. "Was worried," he murmured, planting a soft kiss on Lucind's hair,"I'd been with our family the whole day therefore I hadn't heard about the horrid events at Latent. The stadium's really gone...?" He had visited his sister there several times and knew its meaning and legendary aura.

"That's right...nothing's left, only a field of rubble but most of the building has been eliminated or was blown away."

"And what about you?" Larhien scrutinized his sister's face, his hands resting on her shoulder. "Granny wasn't willing to tell anything - except from the hint that 'you've had a hard time'." His handsome face showed greatest concern and even a trace of fear.

She smiled, but slightly knitted her brows. "To be honest...I don't feel really fine. Physical, yes, still a bit exhausted, nothing serious... But I went through a particulary strenuous diving trip...it was pretty close." She leaned her forehead against his shoulder whereupon Larhien took her in his arms again, not asking more questions.

[ Message temporarily off-line ]