Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I wouldn't expect you to have heard of them," the priestess replied kindly, "The prince's name is Zainire. I suppose you'd better try and remember it, since we may be seeing more of him..."

As the boy frowned at her, addled and rubbing sleep from his eyes, she leaned slightly closer and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Xeiashi, are you alright? Do you need me to heal you? Are you getting enough sleep?"

"Well, if you don't promise to get a good night's sleep tonight I'm afraid I'll have to prescribe you a sleeping draught," she smiled, though in fact her insides chewed at the thought of giving away a vial of the precious blue liquid. How long her stockpile would last now was questionable.

This thought turned her mind back to the issue of Panda's demise. She grew rigid and felt her vision blur again, but before the despair could totally catch up to her Xeiashi's question captured her attention. Somehow, it surprised her he would be so interested. Then again, Xeiashi was not known to miss details. "Oh... Shinichi, his name was. The prince's boyfriend, it seems."

Evelyn

Evelyn had not spoken since hearing of the Professor’s death. She silently agreed to light the candles, silently stood through the service, and did not shed a single tear.

She had to give the healers here their credit, as she stretched, she did not feel pain as she expected to after such injuries. But perhaps she wanted the pain.

“There was no body found…”

Those words haunted her. Everyone had been whispering them and she just could accept it. The torture that the Professor must have felt as his body disintegrated, the hurt. And that was just physical. What of the mental anguish? Who would hurt him so?

But just to ask that…hypocrisy. The last words she had said to him…they were meant to hurt. They were meant to injure. She knew her shoes and books would do no damage, but the words…she may have hurt him. She must have. And he died without an apology from her.

Evelyn went out to the beach, where she saw Xeiashi asleep. A grim sort of smile passed over her face, when she saw him awakening. He was a spellcaster. He was there when she yelled at him. He would understand. “Xeiash—”

She saw him walk away, headed for Lorika.

Lorika.

She surely must have known what had happened. No way she couldn’t have. Oh no. Her role model. Her friend. The Overseer’s Highest Priestess. Oh no. Evelyn crumpled to the ground and stared, her eyes wide.

The world was never going to be the same again. Nothing would.

((this post is a continuation of the time line that Feline has been in. It happens right after she returns to the to the temple so she is alone in the rubble pile as no one has started to look for Panda's body yet.))

Small rocks and dust tumbled down the pile landing on Feline’s head.

Sighing she shifted her weight from one foot to the other trying to gain more leverage on the rock she was trying to pull out of the pile. This particular rock was proving to be a little more difficult than the rest. A few more short tugs proved that this rock didn’t want to move from it’s chosen spot, but it had no choice. Feline needed to get underneath it.

Positioning her hands in sturdy holds on the rock, Feline carefully placed her feet to each side of it for the best leverage. Once she was sure that she had a good hold on the rock she leaned back, pushing with her feet and pulling with her arms at the same time. Her wings flared behind her to counterbalance and add more leverage. There was a brief moment in time where everything seemed to still and the forces were balanced, rock and feline in perfect harmony. Then the rock gave a little.

Feline pulled at it with a little more enthusiasm. The rock then lost the battle, but not before getting it’s last revenge. At the sudden loss of counter force, Feline found herself tumbling down the pile, rock still clutched in her hands. She ended up sprawled at the bottom of the rubble pile with the rock cuddled squarely on her chest.

“Ooffff…”

All the air had been knocked out of her. With an air strangled grunt she shifted her weight sideways to roll the rock off of her. Feline’s muscles complained when she finally made the move to sit up. She had been working at this particular section of the pile for a couple hours now.

My body just isn’t up to this sort of thing! Maybe I should think about adding in some training with the combat students.

Using her wings to help make the climb more bearable, Feline reached the now open hole. Brushing her hands on her filthy robe she knelt down and reached into it as far as her arm would let her. Just when she thought her reach wouldn’t be enough her fingertips brushed the box she had been looking for.

Feline let out a huge sigh, I was so worried that he hadn’t done it.

A self satisfied grin spread across her face as she got her other hand on the box and began to tug it out of it’s confines. When she had returned to the pile she had hoped that she would find the rest of the amplification set in it’s box, rather than strewn about the pile.

I guess I’m lucky that Panda was as suspicious as I thought him to be. I figured he would have put the whole set away in it’s protective box after I stole the amethyst, but you can never know for sure.

“Thank you Panda for saving me the trouble of moving the whole pile!” she said out to the still night air that had slowly crept around her as she labored.

Sitting down cross legged with the box in her lap, she carefully checked for any magical traps that may have been left on the box. A few minutes of probing with her other senses told her the box was clean.

The blast must have short circuited them out., Feline thought happily as she finally gave into temptation and opened the box.

She was in luck. The rest of the set sat nestled in the velvet interior of the box. The amethyst called out happily to her mates. Grinning, Feline pulled the pieces out one by one and put them on. A silver torque with a blue sapphire wrapped itself comfortably around her neck. Cuffs with malachite and citrine fit perfectly on each wrist and a belt of amber and garnet wove delicately about her waist.

The final piece what the one the amethyst was the most excited about, it’s companion. With great care she took the turquoise out with it’s silver chain and placed it around her head, nestling the turquoise next to the amethyst.

When the final piece came into place an energy web fit itself around her perfectly. I don’t know how he managed it, she thought in wonder. Panda had gotten his hands on a full amplification set from her homeland.

Rubbing the silver jeweled cuffs subconsciously her thoughts turned to her homeland. She missed it so much, but too much time had passed. Return seemed to become less possible.

Even if I did return. Where would I go? What would I do? They must have already replaced me. They had to have. There would have been no choice. The people always came first and I was expendable if needs be.

Tears slowly left streaks on her dirty face, a silent sob briefly wracked her body. The gems hummed sadly along with her grief.

Sniffling, she wiped her nose on her much abused sleeve. Get a hold of yourself! She gave herself a mental slap. You were to become the Goddess. This gem set has returned a small amount of that to you. The time for mopping is over. She sat a little straighter and shut the box with a definitive snap. There is work to be done here and people to help. Now is the time to make my own destiny!

With that last heartening thought Feline stood up and tucked the box under her arm. There wasn’t much more she could do this evening and sleep was tugging at the edge of her consciousness. Lifting off into the night breeze she flew to her little tent and quickly passed out on the little cot.

((long post is long...but needed....but LOOOOOONG))

((the plot...it thickens!))
((...wait, Bapp has never met Xei before (the Arena doesn't count I think) ...so how is he 'familiar'...Xei is the only blue-haired kid in the area, right?))



Lorika seemed quite distracted by other thoughts, and the blue-haired boy was all too happy to excuse himself from the situation with a short bow.

He turned for a thin path in the treeline, the road to his hut, but a familiar face on the ground stopped him in his tracks. "Evelyn...are you okay? What happened?" he asked anxiously.

A quick look around showed nothing out of the ordinary, save for a strange-looking buy with an even stranger hat. "Did you have anything to do with this?" he asked angrily.

Zain continued to stroke at Shinichi's wings, remaining silent for a long time after his question. He shuffled up slightly, rubbing his face into Shin's hair, pensive. He hadn't really thought that far ahead, in all honesty. All he'd wanted to do was get away, run away - far away, anywhere. However, he supposed he'd just assumed that they'd go back home, find the whole political situation sorted and just take the throne like his mother, Yesenia, wanted.

And where did Shinichi fit into that?

...Yes... where DID Shinichi fit into everything?

Zain had stumbled upon the white-haired merman and used him as a focus for his energy. He was a diversion, quickly forgotten once it was time to return home. However, when they were together... he had a lot of fun. He was certainly the first person he'd spent such a long time with. He felt like he was getting to know him well, picking up on his little moods quickly thanks to their constant close proximity. He liked being near to him. On a different level, he felt - at intervals when his short attention span allowed - intensely attracted to him. He didn't know whether or not Shinichi reciprocated those sudden, black desires, and had no idea whether or not he had any experience in such matters at all. The thought of that, in fact, filled him with a certain fear. The weight of responsibility.

He buried his face further into Shinichi's long mane, closing his eyes tightly. In that case, it was easier to imagine a life skipping all of that - going home, Shinichi at his side, taking the throne with the beautiful merman as his mate, just as he'd told the priestess. But that wouldn't happen, would it? ...Would it? They wouldn't accept it at first, no, and it may take years to change things... but he'd done it before, hadn't he? He'd shown the stuffy old traditionals that his way was the right way. So, combining naivety with stubbornness as per usual, Zain suddenly found himself seizing on the idea, clutching it tightly deep within his chest.

"We could..." he whispered, tracing his lips across the top of Shinichi's pale ear, "We could wander for a while, but you know, wouldn't you rather come back home with me?"

"You wouldn't be alone this time. I'd protect you," he added quickly, a stubborn edge to his tone, "I'd never let them treat you like they did again."