Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Children, calm down. If we plan on sticking together, you need to learn to tolerate each other." Henry said firmly, although, joking about the children part. He really did not want to hear people bicker the whole way there, he had more important stuff to think of, like what to buy for supplies when they get the money or how they will even find work. Obviously being +Anima, they can do more than an average human, but will they actually get work because they are +Anima? We are largely discriminated against. Very few people sympathize with us, other than people of our own kind. He thought, his ears still stiffened in an upright position as he pondered.

"No," Serrenedy laughed "Of course it doesn't I'm not much bigger then you now am I. It's proof don't throw em out if you can't take em." She gave a competitively kind smile. "Use your size to your advantage, I used to get...well, she's the only one that keeps me from being mad" she gestured to Sally brightly, before she noticed Davey squirming. "Ah talons" She retracted them. "Keep forgetting about those"

Whistle glared at him for a second before his gaze softened, and he replied. "It is. A family - I mean. But it's more than that - the Clan is an uprising of sorts, a culture... It's hard to explain... But I'll try for your sake."

He gathered his thoughts, and began. "The Clan is a conglomerate of a mercenary group, a church, and a system of politics. We operate under the watch of the king, but we are... apart from his rule. We do not recognize him as out ruler - if anything, we recognize our warriors. We are a militant democracy. Everyone has a say, and the strong run the show. If a representative is chosen it is because he or she is the strongest, and not because of any kind of blood right.

I, myself, am a part of the mercenary component. I was raised knowing that I would be an Anima, and I will only become a recognized adult by proving myself during my time as my Anima's partner. My rank as an adult will depend on this, and so will my chances at becoming a trainer for the new children. Because that is what I really want to do. I want to teach. I want to mould the young minds of the future children of my Clan so that they will know glory on the feild of battle as I have known it."

He looked at Henry then, and smiled. "Does that answer your questions?"

Serrenedy seamed entranced by the short story. "It sounds like everyone's close there." She whispered wistfully. "like you never have to worry about anyone leaving." She started to tear unseen by Sally.

"Wow, wouldn't it get annoying all that rank and remembering"

Looking back and forth between the different members of the group, she wondered if they would ever get to the new city. Instead of stopping with them, she followed Whistle and Henry, making sure she kept pace with them while looking back every so often at the group, hoping he wouldn't go so far as to leave them all behind. She was silent when she walked, since she didn't want to say anything that would get the older man angry. That was the last thing she wanted.

Unused to being the center of so much attention, Whistle seemed to shrink a little, and slowed down in his shrinkinking, mincing his steps.

"You are fooling yourselves if you think that life in the Clan is... more comfortable. Your rank is determined by how many you've slain, and how strong you are. To the Clan, it is immaterial how you feel about killing. People leave and never come back, because the Gods have chosen to take them back again. Mothers are forced to watch their children be killed. Siblings are separated. Bloodshed is our way of life. To assume that we are one big happy family is fallacious.

If you honestly believe that everyone comes back alive, then you are sorely mistaken. From birth, we are taught that the only way for life to go on is through death. At the age of 7, the age in which becoming an animal's spiritual partner is first possible, children are ritualisticly tortured to bring them close enough to the gods that their partner bonds completely with them. Only 75 percent or so of that year's age group live to see another day after that. From then on, you are turned out of the village to develope your own fighting style, and to one day come back, free of your bonds, to continue the cycle. Of all those released, only about 25 percent of those come back alive.

It isn't anything to cry about. It is cold hard fact. We all die, we all will someday pass to the gods. Our bodies will nourish the soil. It is the way of things." He lectured, and then growled, "And if you let your feelings get entangled in the struggle for life, then you have already lost."

Davey wasn't sure what to make of the sudden change in the group's mood, but he was sure of one thing... Serrenedy was still squeezing him rather tightly...

"Voices? Out here? Not many people come through here anymore. Is'nt that right?" A young man spoke quietly to the Raven perched on his finger. "From the sound of it i would believe there are more than just a few people coming down the road. Fly away now." The male perched in a tree gave a little push and the Raven flew off into the distance. Listening once again to judge the personalities of the travelers he jumped quietly down from his tree and walked out into the road. Inhaling the cool air he sat in the shade of a tree beside the road and waited.

Henry's actions made her curious, so while they were walking she went over to him and said with a bit of concern in her voice. "Are you okay umm..Henry?" She had forgotten his name for a moment but luckily she remembered it at the last minute. She continued, saying. "You seem really nervous about something.." Despite her shyness, she hated seeing her new friends being anything but happy and she wanted to do her best to make sure that everyone really was happy. She especially wanted to get closer to Mari since they were closest in age, or so she thought.