Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was a well known fact that horses had excellent footing. They were less likely to fall off a ledge than a human was, in fact. There was one thing that horses had a hard time with- uneven ground. Especially when the ground was filled with mini stalagmites.

With another, more pained sounding cow screech, the minotaur toppled over. His axe toppled out of his big, meaty hand and clattered to the ground, landing next to the base of a tree near the park's path. The minotaur's body went down with a giant WHUMPF!

Fur and dust went flying everywhere. After all, this youma was a big boy.

With enraged red eyes, it attempted to stand up, only to fumble back onto the Earth. The uneven ground was absolutely killer.

Realized that it's chances of really standing up for a while were slim, the youma instead contented itself reaching out for Maenalus with both hands. Pretty starseed. Pretty, pretty starseed. His big lopping tongue hung out from his ginormous mouth, as if he could already taste his victory.

Sailor Maenalus had a better idea, albeit a very gruesome one. Well, until you remembered a youma was just a monster hungering for blood and starseeds. She raced to the axe and snatched it up. She had to drag it back to the fallen youma that was still reaching out and fumbling for her starseed. She did kick it, for good measure, though.

"Watch out kitty, this'll be messy."

Thank god for the power boost from being a senshi, or else this would have been impossible. She heaved the axe onto her shoulder and let its own weight bring it down on the monster's neck, severing its head. She expected blood, probably black, to begin gushing everywhere, but instead it, the entire youma seemed to poof into dust.

What. the. ********.

She stood dumbfounded and now alone with a talking cat, Maenalus looked at the manx. "What the ********>"

Maenalus squatted down and pet the cat on its head. "What was that thing?!" Worry was etched all over her face, and even though the present threat of the monster was gone, she was still very, very scared. It was the fear of the unknown, and Griffin who made a point of always being prepared, wasn't used to the feeling. Well, she wasn't used to monsters trying to eat her, either, but whatever.

Absentmindedly she pet the cat, and just longed to be home in her bed with her parents in the other room and her dog sleeping at her feet. She'd make a point to go home that weekend. When a breeze passed by and Maenalus shivered from how exposed she was because of her fuku, she was startled back to the present.

"...What am I?" Oh yeah, she forgot the cat would actually answer. "What are you!?"

Maenalus was at least put a little bit at ease by the cat. Except for the talking part. That was still weird. And her answers didn't tell her what a youma was or who the Negaverse were. Well, she supposed that the monsters were youma, but... why?! Were the Negaverse like some kind of evil corporation who experimented on and mutated animals or something? Is that how this cat could talk?

She didn't know it, but some parts of her reasoning made more sense than the truth.

But a Sailor Senshi? What was that?! Was she in the Navy now? Why the skimpy outfit that reminded her of any number of Japanese manga and the strange affects on the ground? Maenalus wished there were some sort of manual. "But who are the Negaverse? And what's a Sailor Senshi?" She frowned. "And why can you talk!?" Just because she was confused didn't mean she quit petting.

Maenalus pouted. Well, yeah, she did seem to be getting stuck on the talking cat thing, even though 18 years of media told her that talking cats (or any animal for that matter) were quite common. She wondered if all cats could talk but if most kept quiet. She didn't ask, though. It seemed impolite to linger on that one fact.

"So senshi defend against threats to the world, namely these Negaverse people. And the Negaverse creates these youma things that steal starseeds, aka souls, and therefore kill..." The cat's student was silent for a while but her eyes seemed to be staring intently into the space right above the ground, like she was trying to piece it all together. Logically what she had just said was cohesive from what the cat said. But in the real world, it was just strange, right?

She gave herself a small slap on the cheek without flinching. Nope. She was awake.

"And I fight them and make them turn to dust by using this pen and shouting the stuff you told me?" Her brows were furrowed. It was a little bit easier to understand this when she was the one saying it, not the cat. She sighed heavily. "Is that right?"

Maenalus had a very strong sense of duty and responsibility. And if it was her job to fight for the lives of innocent people and defeat evil, well, she'd do it!

Maenalus nodded. She hadn't even thought of trying to go against a youma as a civilian. She had also forgotten about the prospect of turning back into normal Griffin after being transformed into a magical girl. With a few last pats for the manx, she straightened up. Think of what she was wearing? She closed her eyes tight (did she need to do that?) and thought hard about it.

And when she opened her eyes... boom! Griffin Westwood, at your service! She breathed a heavy sigh of relief and felt herself begin to relax. She'd already done the awake/slapping test, but maybe she could go back to her dorm and fall asleep and find it really had been a dream. Or at least her unconscious brain would better be able to process it and in the morning when she woke up she'd feel better about it. Then again, she could wake up in the middle of the night from a bad dream covered in a cold, clammy sweat. Hopefully the former of the two.

"Well, Kitty. Is there anything else important you have to say?" She followed the cat, clutching the henshin pen that was now in her pocket until her knuckles were white.