Welcome to Gaia! ::

"No, the music room is one of the things I need to clean today." he said with a sigh. "There'll be no avoiding it, then. Plus it's best to get it out of the way, I just wish he'd ask my permission first." and finally nibbled on some fruit, looking thoroughly stressed and worried about this. "I'm not hungry anymore." and rested his head on the table, sighing, black ears flopped on either side of his plate.

"Blech. Play clothes it is then. No point in getting dressed up if Dad doesn't like em. Plus he hasn't told us to look pretty, so we're really not disobeying."

"Anna? I have a nickname?" the girl asked, smiling brightly before pushing past her sister to hug Nix. "Oh yay! That makes us official friends! Best friends even!"

"I think you're just being weird." Martha pointed out.

"Well be safe then. I'll be downstairs eating breakfast if you need me." he said, allowing Leo to go get his clothes, the prince himself heading downstairs to breakfast until Ipo stopped him.

"My Prince!" and clung to the shorter male. "I have a request. About one hour before lunch can you go to the music room? Kashi would like to have a private room but he thinks you're too busy to give him the time of day."

"Ipo what are you planning?"

"Nothing." he said with a smile, walking with the prince to the dining hall.

Kashi tried to smile at this, looking at the wolf across from him. "I know he won't, and that's what's really depressing. People should be hurt when they're rejected, right? He's too kind for that. He tries to avoid it."

Annabelle returned the kiss on the cheek, smiling. "Comrades in arms!"

"Huzzah?" Martha asked, raising her fist slightly. "Not sure how Emily would feel about this."

"I'm done washing." The pinkette climbed out of the tumb, toes feeling the cold tile and she moved to grab her own towel, bringing Nix hers. "Hurry up, Martha."

"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying." and made a 'tch' noise, rinsing her hair out.

Emily smiled, "Hi Lily."

"Good morning, Miss Lily. You're looking lovely this morning. Absolutely gorgeous. Princess Emily has demanded snacks today in your stead."

"I asked nicely."

"Yes, sorry. She demanded nicely." and chuckled. "I'm finishing it up. And my morning has been lovely. Busy, but lovely. We're preparing lunch right now and dinner should be on the table within the next few hours to be prepared."

"Justin's probably eating, so i didn't want to interrupt him." The child said, adding her two bits into the conversation.

The man laughed. "That's quite all right. Sneak in as many times as you please. Here you go, Miss Emily." and handed her the large plate, the image of her grabbing it rather funny since she was still so small in the adult's eyes. "Walk carefully."

"Yes sir." and slowly waddled away.

"and Miss Lily, your tray of snacks." and offered the fruit and cream wrapped treats.

"When I think of the scene in my head I react really calm and he's just as calm, but I know I won't act like that. I'm too emotional. And I cry a lot." That made him smile lightly before eating another piece of fruit, looking back up at Tsume. "Have you been rejected before? I mean, you are older. Never mind. You don't need to answer that if you don't want to." Tsume probably didn't want to talk about that sort of thing anyway, Kashi was one thing but to speak about your own personal experiences was another.

Martha scrubbed furiously before rinsing off and standing. "Done!"

"In record time." Annabelle handed her a towel as well before looking at Nix. "Huh, I guess we'll just meet her there. We still have classes even with this noble coming."

"Ah well," Martha wrapped herself in the towel. "Let's get dressed then. No point in wearing fancy clothes to class anyways." and walked out.

"Nope, I got it." She said, carefully balancing it on one hand as she opened the kitchen door into the hallway. "But he's a big deer and he always says he's lost. I think he's from brother's stories." she explained. "and he's really really old. I think he's going blind." she sighed. "I don't know what to think though, he's sometimes very confusing."

Kashi worried he might have said something terribly wrong as Tsume moved away from the table. "Tsume?" he asked, silencing quickly as the wolf started to speak. He'd heard of binding, from the Kaspians, it was being someone's familiar and a person could indeed have more then one. But to be treated terrible and losing half of your soul to protect yourself. He regretted even asking, knowing full well that Tsume was refusing to let the main show on his face. But Tsume had entered a bond with Lily, Lily had found him. Why was he using the wrong pronoun for Lily? Lily was a she, not a he. But then Lily was gone again and this time Tsume did allow some emotion break through. "Well, you found him, and he's doing well. She, she's doing well." Kashi corrected himself. But could someone who shared a soul with him really lie about that person's gender? "Maybe you have time to form one know, just not with the women in the castle. Ipo."

The two triplets followed the Falian, Annabelle still rattling away about why they shouldn't be excited for the newcomer. Martha looked at the clothes before picking the soft gold outfit. "This looks good."

Annabelle chose the powder blue one, putting it on carefully. "These look good. You have such cool clothes, Nix! I wish Nalaenir could get such cool styles." she murmured.

"But why do elders get lost?" she asked, entering the empty ballroom and then opening one of the glass doors onto the patio. "I hope we can help him. He's been here ever since you and brother left to go to Falia. But be careful, no one else knows he's here, okay?" and moved into the hedge garden, weaving in and out of it's maze like paths before exiting and going to the tall forest of pine trees. "Mr. Deer?" she called loudly, entering past the thick trunks and looking around. "Mr. Deer I have food." and held the plate high before she tripped over a rock hidden by snow. "The food!" she cried, trying to grab the simple pieces of sliced apple and carrots and put them back on the platter. she paused as a wind blew, doing her best to keep herself warm before a snort filled her ears.

Dead leaves crunched lightly under the snow, creature moving forward gently to the one that smelled familiar. Another deep breath, exhaling, foggy eyes focusing on the shapes of people. Looking down he saw the smaller figure, ears moving forward as he sniffed more at it, making sure it was the child.

The child looked up, nostrils in her face before smilling and hugging the caribou, stroking his nose and pointing downward, conversation silent with an ability only she could use.

But the mammal was distracted, smelling someone else, someone, someone old yet new, and warm. Life, he smelled life. Carefully he stepped around Emily, sniffing some more until he found the stranger. And old smell, a new smell, the smell of life came from this one.

"He's just smelling you." Emily said. "He says you smell," she listened harder. "Old but new and of life." she said, finishing picking the fruit from the melting snow. She only reached where the leg met the torso, the reindeer itself being tall and large.

"That makes sense." Ipo said with a smile. "I don't blame you. I wish I could say the same, but the only other one that is my exact species is Ipo, but we're twins." and chuckled, taking another bite of fruit, pausing as Tsume smiled at him when speaking his last sentence. The hare blushed, knowing full well it wasn't meant for him, but still. "I can't have fun. Some of the maids still mistake me for my brother so I've been celibate since I was assigned here." he explained. "Well I was until the king and Prime Minister took advantage of me." he muttered under his breath, blushing in embarrassment at the thought before holding his face in his hands. "It's embarassing and shameful. The King and Prime Minister. I'm no better then Ipo." But all of these words were said very quietly, Kashi's head hitting the table as he sighed. "Hardly any better then Ipo."

"That's a good idea! We should write a law during breakfast that outlines the trade between countries." Annabelle said, pausing. "I sound like Emily."

"It's an improvement." Martha joked, slipping on her shoes. "C'mon, let's get something to eat. I'm hungrier then a pig."

"Really?" Emily asked, "That's amazing. I'm normally the only one."

And a hello back to this oddly scented one. Just shapes, all he could see were shapes now, far too old to make out detail. And a hello to the small one along with a thank you for the food in this desolate winter.

"Clarity? What do you mean by clarity? And you're welcome, Mr. Deer. I brought apples and carrots like you asked."

He could smell and when the child offered a slice he took it gently, the sweet juice a blessing. Offerings, how long it had been since someone had given him food in return, though again, he was a story to the little one. With old joints he slowly moved to rest on the ground, legs under him as he took another slice, feeling the warm body against his. Where was he from? A place as old as the earth yet younger then the child. So old, but his home was fading, where had his family gone?

Why was he here? To do the job he had been given, to deliver the winter he carried on his back, shake it loose among the land and wait until it was time to pick it up and travel. Delivering winter, but his family, they were no more, missing. Where had the faith gone? They could not survive without faith. Why had it disappeared?

Emily grew excited and saddened all at once. Excited because this reindeer was no ordinary deer, but a spirit of the winter if not the spirit itself. "A therian." she murmured. "A creature which exists when others believe in it. Like a God." she buried herself deeper into the fur, giving it an awkward hug. She'd believe in him as long as she needed and as much as possible so he could stay alive.

"Well that too, but they're right there at the top of the food chain and I'm like, down here." he said, motioning to some invisible hierarchy hanging above the table. "If someone found out, even a maid, I'd be shunned and hated because they'd think I seduced them." he sighed. "It's terrible in an entirely different way."

"Well we can write one now and then just polish it up when we're older!"

Martha sighed. "We have politics and geography today along with music. I hate music, the harp. Why'd I get the harp? Useless bucket of strings. Morning Elliot."

The prince glanced up from his silent breakfast, reading some documents a maid had delivered. "Good morning you three. I see that Emily and Lily are missing."

"They never showed up?" Annabelle moved onto her seat and began filling her plate.

Oh, he was not as powerful as he used to be, there was no point in bowing. But yes, he was one of the few still alive. He'd crossed paths with the one who stripped the trees of their leaves, he was also so very, very old. Humans, an influx of humans he'd noticed. There was a time when the humans were scarce and colorful species abundant. Humans, the living parasite. But they could grow to be different, they had to understand.

Emily knew the last words were for her, the reindeer not wanting to hurt her feelings but she was sad anyway. There had been a time where there were not a lot of humans like herself? "Brother told me the story." she said softly into the fur. "He told all of us, and his mom told him. Dad probably knows too." But they didn't believe, did they?

"I suppose." Kashi murmured with a nod knowing it was true. "We should hurry up. We've got floors to sweep and mop. The winter brings in the most mud of the year." he explained, fitting a few more pieces of fruit in his mouth.

"Brother what does it take to write a law?"

The man shrugged. "Depends on the law." he muttered.

Martha finished filling her plate. "Trade. We want to trade with Falia."

"Oh, then you'll want policies and regulations, but not a law. Trade is a very flexible thing." he said. "What will you be trading?" He was doing it to humor them, he was alone this breakfast morning.

The caribou exhaled through his nostrils, the space between him and Leo filling with steam. Falia, that is what he smelled. He smelled Falia on this stranger. There was no need, Falian, to worry about him. He had survived this long, there was no doubt he'd survive in the years to come.

"I'm good at writing." she said. "I have the best handwriting." And listened to the idea, brown eyes widening as a smile split across her face. "That sounds good! But, but stories need to have lots of drawings. None of ours did so they'll need to be lots, so they know what to believe in, right?" she hugged the reindeer happily. "Everyone will know! Everyone will know who you are! And we can write stories of the others!"

The spirit almost seemed to smile at this, feeling the potential energy of the idea. He was so old, word of mouth used to be enough. But the world was always changing, the land was already so vastly different then what it once was. Now was a time for colored words on paper to pass along stories. The world of the living never ceased in surprising him.

"I'll help, Miss Lily! I'll help a lot!"