Welcome to Gaia! ::

"It's okay, Prince," Ian beamed. "We go through it all the time! For school and to come here and everything!"

Serenity lifted Gaunt's hand to her lips and kissed his fingers gently. "It's like walking through a door," she smiled. "Everything will be fine, you'll see."

She put her other hand on Prince's back and ushered all of them through the portal together.

On the other side of the portal was a circular room with a tiled, patterned marble floor. Around the walls of the room were tall, round pillars, and between each of the pillars was another portal. None of them were labeled, and rather than going towards another portal, Serenity led Gaunt and Prince to the middle of the room.

"All right?" she asked them with concern. She didn't want to take them further until they were ready.

"This is the portal room of the main house on our clan grounds," Serenity explained. "Sort of a portal hub for our family. Grandma and Grandpa live here with most of their children, my aunts and uncles. Mama and Papa have a house on the southwest area of the clan grounds, Skye and I have our own, and three of our brothers share a third living space above the clan library. This is in the world called Gaia."

She looked around at the portals. "Not all of them are active, I think only ... four? Possibly five now? Grandma and my uncles, Yue and Yukito, are the ones who create portals."

Ian was looking around at all of the portals. "Which one goes to the Borderlands, Mom?" he asked impatiently. "I wanna go!"

Serenity shook her head. "Have patience, we have to wait until Gaunt and Prince are ready again."

She looked to Gaunt. "Do you think it might be a bit easier if I told you what to expect on the other side?"

Serenity smiled. "I'll show you once we're on the other side, but they're very well protected," she assured him. "The one that leads to school goes to Grandma's office, which is locked when she's not in it and protected by magic. The one to the Southland, where Mama's grandparents live, goes to an underground labyrinth hidden beneath the palace, so it's pretty much impossible to find - not to mention, it's camouflaged into a wall. The one to the Seconds world only shows when one of us is nearby, and the one from the Borderlands, where we're going, is invisible, sort of in a tree ... so it's impossible to see unless you know where it is, and also requires knowledge to operate."

She blushed faintly. "And it's also in one of the safest areas of the world ... the ranch is basically a rescue operation for abducted children."

Serenity nodded and turned towards another of the portals that was glowing. "Then off we go," she murmured, nudging Prince ahead of them. She held tightly to Gaunt's hand and followed after Prince.

It was late morning in the Borderlands, and the sun was just rising towards its zenith. It seemed to be midsummer, or thereabouts, because the trees of the forest they had appeared in were in full leaf, and the sounds of birdcalls filled the air. Squirrels skittered along the branches, and a short distance away, a deer was grazing. As the four humans suddenly appeared, it looked up sharply, and then took off like a shot.

Ian stared at the deer, his eyes wide. "Wow ..." he breathed. "I only ever read about them ..."

Serenity turned to Gaunt, blushing slightly in the bright sunshine. "Um ... I forgot to mention, the time here passes differently than our worlds, so any time we come here, we never know what time of day or or what time of year it's going to be," she murmured softly. "It looks like summer now."

Though she realized belatedly that it could have just as easily been winter instead.

Serenity giggled softly. Yes, she would lead on. The only question was, what did they want to do first?

"Do you want to see the ranch, or should we get Ian's bow first?" she asked, moving away from the portal (which vanished from sight almost immediately). "We're sort of in the middle right now, they're in opposite directions."

Thankfully, no matter how long they were there, they would have more than enough time to do whatever they wanted before they had to go back. The passage of time was so different here.

Ian looked around. "I dunno," he admitted, "but I know there's animals here that we don't got at home. Like ... well there's the deer, but griffins and dragons and ... and ... and my great-grandma can be anything she wants to be!"

Serenity glanced over at the boys. "Ian, stop scaring him," she said sharply. "There are no dragons or griffins in this area, and you know it."

She turned back to Gaunt. "Then we head east," she nodded, turning to their right. "Come, it's not far this way. Stay close, Prince, we don't want you to get lost."

If one didn't know the forest, after all, it was easy to get lost - but Serenity had been there more than enough times to know where to go.

"Aw darn," Ian pouted, crossing his arms. "I wanted to see a dragon or a griffin."

Serenity giggled. "It's because humans haven't been here to decide that things need changing," she replied. "The elves are a natural race, they take care of nature, just as nature takes care of them. This world is well over thirty thousand years old, and pretty much everything is the same as it was when it was created."

She paused for a moment, suddenly realizing that she sounded like a know-it-all. "Um, there are a few fighters at the ranch who are first-generation elves," she blushed. "They've been around since before the creation was completed."

Ian giggled up at Prince. "Learn how to shoot it, of course!" he exclaimed. "What else would I do? Hey maybe you can get one too and we can learn together, wouldn't that be cool?"

He thought so.