Welcome to Gaia! ::

"There's bridges," she called out to Iggy. The poor ghoul was still fighting a tree. How many times did she have to point that out? And she was sure the lake was iced over in this cold. She might never have seen snow before but she knew ice. Water in the cold turned to ice. She had learned this from the ice cubes her mother used to make for her favorite brain smoothie.

She trudged along for what felt like almost an hour. It was hard to figure out how much time passed to be honest. It could have felt longer because she was moving more slowly. She was used to moving so fast and she missed it but in time, she eventually spotted two students in the distance. It had been easier for her since she had walked in the trail Merope had made. Any movement they did was even slower than she because of all the damn snow.

Calling Merope a student seemed almost silly. He was a pretty big water dragon thing. She wasn't sure if she should catch up the rest of the way or just lurk back in the distance some. For all she knew, she and the others wouldn't be welcome.

Julian watched as Rain stirred and started moving about, packing all of her things, and his tent, up before heading out in the direction Merope had left in. His eyes shuddered closed for a moment before opening again. He glanced over to Iggy, she had paused not too far away from him, asking if anyone needed a lift.

He didn't need to be carried, and what little masculine pride he had would kill him before he let a ghoul carry him. He would NOT be a complete weakling.
Since he seemed to be keeping in his human form, he took a moment to take the remains of his bag of sushi from one of his pockets, setting the lights in a loop over one arm and placing both the bag (In case anyone was hungry still, and his present among the lights.

That done, he pushed off the trunk and wobbled over to the stone ghoul, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"C-can I j-just lean on y-you?" he asked, a light red flush taking over his cheeks. He glanced back over his shoulder at the rest of the group.

"I h-have extra s-sushi, if anyone w-wants some..."

While the idea of perching on the stone girl was decidedly delightful to Belladonna (it would be the perfect irony! A stone girl being perched upon by a living person! How quaint!), she did not want to take the offer because there were others who couldn't walk well and the witch could. Well, well enough. The snow seemed to be so foreign to her that she could barely make five steps without tripping or sinking or falling or something ungraceful. But she had begun to follow the group, if only she was lagging behind.

"You'll be ok Julian, I promise! I won't let anything happen to you!" This promise would hopefully mean more to the boil than the rest because at one point in time she had let something happen to him: She had lost their 'baby'. And Belladonna definitely didn't want that shame to follow her around forever, so vowing to protect Julian when she could would be the only way to make it up to him. And besides, this watery path surely couldn't be THAT bad, right?!

"Oh Barth, you always need a lift!" The witch chided, shuffling her way over to the demon and reaching down to help him up. "Have a nice nap?" This part was said with actual curiosity for while Belladonna knew he sure liked to sleep, she hadn't yet put two and two together about him. "We should probably send someone faster up the path to let Merope know we're following him so he can wait for us!"

At this point Alessa didn't really care where they were going. She just wanted to get out of these Jack damn woods. She hopped diligently after Rain, though she chose to move on the fresh snow instead since her big feet acted like snow shoes. She actually moved really fast, probably because she wasn't wading through it all, and was able to keep up rather well. At least, until she felt her insides lurch and suddenly she was humanoid again. Granted, she was still burdened with an uncomfortable tail, but oh well.

The first things she immediately noticed that she was a lot colder, especially her exposed skin. The cut under her eye and across her exposed shoulder also stung some. With a shiver she moved back onto the trail everyone else was using, knowing she wouldn't be able to make tracks of her own without slowing down. "I can't believe I actually miss being a rabbit," she grumbled to herself. He looked back at the others to see if anyone needed help, now that she wasn't completely defenseless. Of course, she certainly wasn't carrying anyone her size or bigger though.

The Reaper was lagging behind after spending most of her time shoveling snow into her mouth as a makeshift meal. She had taken a lot of that moment off to the side to think to herself about what to do, and by the time she grabbed her tent to move on with the others she knew.

Nonchalantly, Colette kept a moderate pace behind the group, humming happily. They were headed towards the southern path, perfect!

At the mention of sushi, Colette perked up a bit. Sure, she ate a few handfuls of snow, but actual food was left over. She needed the energy. The ghoul shuffled over as fast as she could, unaware of how desperate she looked.

"I.. if you don't mind, would love to take it off your hands." She didn't want to take someone else's food, but damn it - she had already rejected chocolate and gummies and resorted to eating snow.

"Um," Hedera muttered, looking nervously at the Colette, "I have sushi from back in the train? It should still be fine to eat, if you want it." Her sushi was, in fact, firmly sealed inside an unmoving, unbreathing, unliving bag. The demon wasn't a germophobe, but she still kept her food clean!

And it seemed the energy rush keeping her locked between forms had faded, as Hedera-Rose's skin faded to a pale tan color and she shrank several inches, easily becoming one of the smallest-if not the smallest-ghouls in the group. Oh well. At least she wasn't like that one boy who kept turning into...an owl, right? "Wait, we're going down the water path?" She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, looking somewhat miserable and almost looking like she was about to cry. Of course, being half-plant probably meant that she couldn't shed tears.

Oh well.

There. There was the magical and blessed voice offering to carry.... other people who were faster and had already taken her up on the offer.

The path divide was coming up. He'd agreed to whatever: either the horrible, laborious, and soggy amounts of swimming....or the horrible, laborious, and vertical amounts of climbing. But it looked like the group was splitting up anyway.

Wasn't there a middle path ?

Now that he could see it properly. A very nice, straight, fast path that involved absolutely no climbing or swimming.

"Err, on second thought, I think I'll, err..." Exit, stage less walking.

She was relieved to see that many had followed. But of course, that didn't really mean much. They were just now out of the woods and this is where the real decision was made.

She was worried that her group would split up. It was inevitable if any of them wanted to go the other way as Merope had already decided where he would go. While she wanted to keep them all together, was she fighting the impossible? Perhaps it was time to let go, let people go their own way, say goodbye. Much like the skeletal baby birds in a nest. Eventually, they had to strike out on their own. It mad her sad.