Welcome to Gaia! ::

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the hidden meaning behind the box currently siting open on her bed. It had come by post early in the morning and Jessie wasn't able to open it until after closing but now that it was open she was wishing it had gotten lost in the mail, or at least delayed. She picked up the postcard that came with it, on the front a picture of Bridal Veil Falls at Niagara Falls in New York. The back was post dated two weeks ago with a note scrawled in her mother's loopy handwriting:

Having a great time. We should be in town around Mother's day and will stick around for a few days before heading out west. Lets do a girls only day! Your dad can putter on the car and we can head out on the town.... speaking of night out on the town. Found this in a store and couldn't help but get it for you. Can't wait to see you in it.
Love, Mom and Dad

"Why couldn't it have gotten lost." She groaned into the empty apartment. After placing the postcard on the dresser she finally held the 'surprise' up. It was teal.... a bright teal sleeveless dress. A bright teal, v-neck, wrap bodice, cotton dress with a semi-wide black satin 'belt' that sat right below the bust-line. The skirt couldn't be more then a hands breath longer then mid-thigh and was... flirty was the only adjective that Jessie could think of since it was gathered in a ruffle pattern which made the bottom of the dress very flowy and kind of reminiscent of a babydoll top. "Pleated! That is what it is called. The skirt is pleated." Not that actually coming up with the correct term made the dress any better in Jessie's eyes. Not by a long shot.

Unable to put it off any longer Jessie went into her master bathroom and emerged in the bright dress. The skirt swished every time she moved and Jessie was sort of right, it was a bit shorter than she thought, about a hands breath above her knee. It would cover everything when siting bout would still show off her toned legs. Observing herself in the mirror Jessie tried to be objective about the dress.

The top isn't too plunging and does show off a respectful amount of cleavage. The straps are wide Jessie held up two fingers and nodded when it was slightly wider then that, and the side is high so I could do a wrap or a bolero jacket although I don't think mom would appreciate anything that covers up her 'present'. Jessie did a quick spin in the mirror and watched as the dress fluffed out and settled to swing back against her thighs. She could feel the breeze of her twirl on her back where the dress dropped to rest the just above the small of her back. I wonder if I could do black leggings and flats... She tried to imagine it but shook her head, her mom would likely be disappointed if she added anything to her dress other then shoes and jewelry and since it would be the first time in months that her folks would be back in the state, let alone the city, so Jessie will wear the dress and deal with it. She fished out a pair of black strapie wedge heals that she knew would pair nicely with a layered necklace look; a few strand of silver chain of varying lengths, and her hair mostly up with a silver clip.

I really hope moms 'Girls Night' doesn't consist of club hopping. Jessie mentally prayed as she headed back into the bathroom to change out of the 'surprise' and back into her slacks and blouse.

Jessie kept an eye on the clock and calculated how much longer she was at the store before Jackson was coming in to take over. It was going to be a early night at work for her because she had some training planed with Maia and Shang. She needed as much help as possible and Jessie knew she dared not go out patrolling while her folks were in town. Since her mom's present arrived a few days ago Jessie figured her folks would be here the 11th or the 12th, and likely stay for around a week before jetting off once more to parts unknown. She idly wondered if they had hit every state yet.

Jessie had turned back to her book when she heard the bell over the door tinkle merrily. "Welcome to The...... MOM? DAD?" She had looked up in time to see her mom hold the door open for her dad, who was carrying two suitcases. She scrambled around the counter and hugged her mom before turning to her dad to take one of the cases. "You guys are early. What happened to meandering your way down from Niagara?"

"Oh you know your father. He couldn't wait to see his baby girl." Karen Haze waved Jessie's question aside as hugged her daughter once more before pushing her out to arms length. "Let me look at you." After a moment of inspection she produced her verdict, "You look tired. Eathan doesn't she look tired?" Karen turned to her husband, expecting him to agree.

"Come on girls let’s get out of the doorway and inside proper before we talk about how she is running herself ragged" Eathan Haze nudged his wife and daughter all the way inside before closing the shop door. He gave Jessie a quick kiss on the cheek as he claimed the bag she had taken from him. A few steps were all it took to drop both cases of at the stairs going to the upstairs apartment. "So Jessie tell us what you have been up too. Your mother's right, you do look a bit tired." He turned and eyed her up and down.

Jessie was unsure how to respond. She might have played with the idea of telling her parents about her nightly activities but now with the two of them standing there in front of her waiting for an answer she couldn’t… she just couldn’t tell them that she was putting her life at risk on a nearly daily basses. So she lied. “Oh it’s a combination of things. Work and lots of city events, you know. I’ve met some old friends and a few new ones.” She knew that would make her mom happy but her dad still seemed to have some reservations. Jessie sighed and hugged him. His arms wrapped around her and once again she felt protected and cherished, like nothing in the whole world could hurt her as long as her daddy was there. “Everything is fine daddy, promise.” She murmured against his shirt.

“Alright then baby girl. Alright then.” He let her go and sat back on the steps. “So tell us about these new friends.”

“Oh I met them during some of the nights out. They are…” Jessie wasn’t quite sure what to say, “interesting and well they are helping me get out of my comfort zone.” She shrugged. Interesting was a real understatement since they all ran around in skimpy outfits fighting creatures of darkness and teaching Jessie to fight.

“Are any of them guys?” Her mom cut in, the gleam in her eye clear. She loved her daughter with every beat of her heart but sometimes, Karen thought, she is too shy. She needs a man. A boyfriend would fix everything in Karen’s mind. He would help bring out Jessie out of her shell and best of all might provide Karen with the grandbabies she wanted.

“Well, a few of them.” Jessie admitted while she tried to come up with a reason why her mom couldn’t meet them, since she knew that would be the next question. “One is currently dating my other friend and is way too young. The other is,” and with a silent profound pray for forgiveness, “gay.” She owed him a huge apology but it was the only way she could think to get her mom off her back. “Speaking of friends I was going to go out with them tonight. Give me a moment to call and get that changed and then we can spend the night catching up.”

“Oh dear it’s no big deal. Go hang out with your friends, your father and I can fend for ourselves for the night.” Her mom waved off her daughters concern. Karen was a bit disappointed that Jessie’s male friends were unavailable but she still held out hope that soon Jessie would find a great guy to settle down with.

“Oh mom I couldn’t do that and besides I’m sure they would understand.” Jessie headed back around the counter to grab her phone and call Lily to tell her patrol/training was off for tonight and for the foreseeable future until her parents went back to globetrotting.

After a little bit of time wondering through the deserted city of Pompeii, Pompeii stumbled upon an odd sight. Most of the buildings in the city were in nearly perfect condition, only the ones on the very edges of the town showed any sign of damage, but here in the center of the town Pompeii could see the first physical aspect of the abandonment of the city. She spared a moment to wonder what Luxor was doing before she became absorbed into figuring out what had happened to this structure. It was hard to call it a building since it no longer had a ceiling or walls, if it ever had one but the size said building since it was a few yards by a few yards square.

Four great pillars stood in a square, steps leading up to a platform nestled between the pillars. Poles were littering the ground around structure. They couldn’t have been wood since they would have deteriorated, and yet they were too thin to be stone. Metal was a possibility but Pompeii’s research said that bronze was the general metal of the time period. Would Saturn’s Pompeii have and use a different type of metal? The steps seemed chipped where something heavy had landed on them, there were even holes in a few of them.

Picking her way carefully through the debris was able to make it to the top of the stairs and saw what must have once been a fire pit. A large depression was cut out of solid block of stone situated in the direct center of the platform. What was left of a mosaic around the depression add the only bit of color to the sad little ‘building’. Pompeii finally knew what this place was. It was the sacred fire pit. It was the place that was considered the religious and political center of the city and the center of all government, the official "home" of the people. According to her memory the Prytaneum was normally connected to the ruler’s household since it was their duty to always keep it lit and since the knights seemed to have been the rulers it should have existed within Pompeii’s house somehow.

“It is.” Pompeii spun around and nearly landed in the stone pit when a voice spoke behind her. Aralias stood off to the side in the shade cast by one of the pillars, his shadowy figure nearly impossible to see. “For God’s sake Aralias, don’t do that.” She bent over trying to calm her racing heart. She didn’t see the smile flit across her ancestor’s face. Once she was able to regain her composure she stood up and asked, “What is?”

“This place.”

“What about it?” Now she knew he was just being obtuse but didn’t really know how to call him on it.

“It is.” When Pompeii glared at him, Aralias snickered and elaborated. “This place is a part of the household of the Knight of Pompeii.” He gestured to an unremarkable entrance just on the other side of the Prytaneum. “That is the other side of your residence. It is this area where the city laws and rules were upheld.” He pointed to more entrances and rattled off what was housed in the buildings, Pompeii had tuned him out trying to think about how large the knight’s residence had to be in order to house both the seat of power as well as the knight’s household and suites for allies. It wasn’t until he mentioned a library that Pompeii stopped him.

“A library?”

“Yes, right there.” Aralias pointed to another nameless entrance and Pompeii made a mental note to go there before they left. To think a library… the knowledge that was just sitting there for her to read. Aralias’ sigh drew Pompeii from her thoughts.

“What?”

“You aren’t listening. You need to restart the flame.” He pointed to the pit behind Pompeii and gestured for her to hurry up. “Since there is a Knight in residence it should be relit.”

“But I don’t see any tinder or fuel. How do you expect me to light it if there is nothing to get it going with?” Pompeii glared at the ghostly figure and suppressed an urge to smack him when he laughed.

“No fuel is necessary but you will have to clear off the mosaic.” He mimed cleaning the tiles and shooed Pompeii, telling her to hurry up without speaking another word.

Grumbling it didn’t take her long to dust off the pedestal but as she went she wondered at the how intricate the tiles were set and at how the fire pit itself held ashes and yet Aralias said no fuel would be necessary. It was very much so a contradiction, and one that annoyed Pompeii so when the stone was clean and a few of the tiles replaced from where they had become dislodged, she turned to Aralias and sarcastically gestured to the pit as if to say ‘what now oh great one.’

“Do you see that Saturn symbol worked into the flame? Trace it with your finger.” He watched in silence as Pompeii followed his instructions, he didn’t even react when a glow began to pulse from the flame pit. Both the current knight and the past knight watched in silence as the glow got brighter and brighter until a flame nestled within the bowl, glowing merrily at the astonished face of Pompeii.

“How?” She could feel the heat, and the flames flickered normally. Aralias just shrugged and just before leaving said, “look into the flames, you might be surprised what you see there.” Rolling her eyes Pompeii decided to take his advice and after starring at the fire for a little bit, she was shocked to see a sparkle of metal resting on the bed of ash. The flame had to have disturbed the material and revealed a ring. “Now who would throw a ring into the fire?” Pompeii murmured to herself, fighting an irrational urge to reach for the ring. Part of her argued that it was just an illusion since there was no fuel but another part of her screeched that if the flames looked real and felt real they had to be real. So it was with trepidation that Pompeii extended her hand until it was just above the flames and while she felt warmth it was not like it would have been if it was real flame.

So with a racing heart and a shaking hand, Pompeii lowered her hand into the flames and was surprised when the fire seemed to dance across her skin but cause no damage. Even knowing that the flame wasn’t hurting her it was still too weird watching the flames lick at her fingers for Pompeii to linger in the fire. She scooped up the ring and a handful of ash and quickly retreated from the ruins of the Prytaneum. After dusting off her hands and the ring Pompeii studied it and then decided to ask Luxor what he thought of it and it’s hiding place. After all why leave such a pretty ring behind and in the sacred fire no less. This place keeps getting stranger and stranger.

Pompeii studied the stars arrayed over the dark city. It was eerie here with no lights in any of the homes and stores. The only visible light was the glow from the Prytaneum where the symbolic hearth fire of the city was lit. Even the knight’s residence was shrouded in darkness, not that Pompeii cared that much since the darkness made it easier for the young woman to forget that the collection of rooms once housed hundreds of people who worked and lived in that solitary building. It was the seat of government for the city of Pompeii and home to Pompeii, the Knight of Saturn.

Pompeii shook her head and turned her focus back to the stars. There were so very many of them spread out in a blanket across the dark sky. As luck would have it only two of the several moons of Saturn were visible at that moment and Pompeii vaguely wondered if a senshi was on either of the moons looking down on the planet or if they too were watching the stars and contemplating the universe. “’There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio’”, She said softly to herself.

“Who is Horatio?”

“GAHH!” Pompeii jumped when a voice spoke from the darkness of the roof’s shadows. She twisted around and spotted a ghostly figure leaning against the waist high lip of the tiled roof. “Seriously Aralias? Did you have to sneak up on me?” The ghostly figure of her ancestor stepped a bit more into the starlight so his look was clear. It was one of snarky amusement. The same look he had when he ‘coached’ her on her runs in the city.

“Danger can be anywhere and more likely than not, will try to sneak up on you. As a Squire you must always be vigilant.”

“Bull.” Pompeii knew that her ancestor just liked startling her. “What do you want?” her tone was sharp and hostile. The little ghostly creep only showed up when he wanted to make fun of her or when he wanted her to do something, like cleaning the main entrance hall in the Residence, or when he ‘suggests’ she practice her speed and agility by jumping over and around baskets only to end up in a pile of them.

“Do I have to want something? Can’t I just be here to show my support?”

“No.”

“Well, cynicism does not look good on you.”

“And the purple skirt and ruffles of this uniform had to look dreadful on you… at least I fill out the blouse.” Pompeii straightened her back, proudly showing how her chest filled out the fitted front of her uniform. “I bet you looked just lovely in your day and age.” She swished her hips enough to send out the tail end of her skirt to snap in the dead quiet of the night. Pompeii’s sharp comments were enough for her to feel better about Aralias’ snarky comments and jokes, especially when she could see the glare he directed to her. With a smile she turned back to the stars, “What do you want Aralias? Truly?”

“I was just wondering why… you who spent so much time in the library… has yet to find all that it holds.” Pompeii wasn't facing her ancestor but she could tell that he was being secretive on purpose. The sarcasm in his voice was pretty normal for the dead knight.

“I can’t read Greek let alone the language that those scrolls and books were in. I cleaned the place… what more did you want me to do. It would take years to translate even the simplest scroll. I can’t even read the map I found in there.” She turned to face her tormentor, frustration and anger in every line of her figure, only to find that like normal Aralias had disappeared. It annoyed her to no end that she had a whole library of information at her fingertips and couldn't read a single line of it… and that ectoplasmic parasite knew it. He knew that she no longer went into that building because she couldn't stand the frustration of seeing shelf upon shelf of scrolls, books, and papers laying there. Ancient knowledge that might as well be on the sun for the amount of good it could do her.

Pompeii was avoiding her mother and the only way to do so was to leave the planet completely. She ditched her store and her phone to hide in the empty city that she was the squire of. The brunette sighed in relief as she walked down the mosaic filled halls of her wonder. No mother to ask why she wasn't seeing anyone, no father to fuss over her, no customers bugging her about her stock or lack thereof, and no ancestor to piss her off. Aralias ran back to wherever he goes after Pompeii gave him an earful, who knew the big bad past knight of Pompeii couldn't stand hearing about the way her mother kept going on and on about wanting grandchildren.

Pompeii couldn't suppress the smile that was beginning to make her cheeks hurt. Who knew making her pain in the a** ancestor run with his tail between his legs would feel so good. On that mental high she sailed down the hall of the knight’s residence heading towards the suite of rooms that belonged to the Knights of Pompeii… To herself.

She had found the set of rooms a while ago during one of her random explorations, it was actually one of the few suites she had access to, the others were locked. While she had at least dusted and swept the whole hallway she had yet to touch the suite. Now was a good time to get started, just about anything was preferable to returning home right now. She had left a stash of cleaning supplies by the door so she was all ready to start by the time she came to the intricately carved wooden door which lacked any visible handle. Pompeii lightly ran her fingers around the carved swirls and geometric designs until she found a particular divot in the carvings. She slipped off her ring and inserted it into the hidden lock and pushed. A soft click of the lock releasing was followed by the door swinging open on silent hinges.

The door came to a stop and the current knight of Pompeii stepped into a mess. It looked like a someone had picked the room up and shook it violently. The sitting room, that's what she guessed it was, had cushions thrown every which way some even torn if the amount of feathers were any indication. Justs about the only thing that wasn’t tipped over or showed some kind of destruction was the fireplace and that was only because it was made of stone and set into the wall. “The hell…” The destruction was a complete surprise to her since nowhere else in the city showed even a fraction of this kind of devastation. Could Aralias have done this? It was the only logical explanation and as Pompeii moved through the room casually straightening things up she realised that it had been done by hands. The chairs were tipped over not pulverized, the shards of cloth show tearing not cutting, the murals were damaged by objects thrown at them if the debris under them were any indication.

She was tempted to call out to her ancestor to make him explain himself but Pompeii found herself in no mood to deal with the petulant child that was her ancestor so instead she picked up her broom and got to work sending the feathers, dust, and destruction flying. Time lost all meaning as the rhythm of the broom became hypnotic and before long she had at least straightened up the sitting room and found herself in the bedroom. The destruction here was much less since the bed was solid but the desk and chair had been tipped over and the pillows torn. Again she got to work but this time she found she needed to rest and the bed was calling to her, torn sheets and all. As Pompeii sat there contemplating what could have happen she surveyed the room; four doors led from the room, one back to the sitting room, the other two were likely a bathing room and a dressing room, the fourth was a set of glass doors leading out to a balcony. The murals that adorned the bedroom were muted and very minimalistic compared to the many she had seen in the residence let alone the city but there was a very beautiful one of the countryside situated between the two other doors. Rolling green hills and trees spotted here and there, a lone shepherd stood watch over his flock as the sun set off in the distance.

It was beautiful and Pompeii wanted a closer look. It didn’t take her long to spot the strange design in the trees… like the suite's door it was slightly indented. Hidden well among the painted shadows of the trees sat the symbol of her ring. The mural was hiding something.

Repeating the steps that she used to open the door had the desired effect, the secret panel swung open silently to reveal a staircase leading into into darkness. She only hesitated a moment before entering the cramped space soon losing the light from the bedroom as the staircase began to spiral in on itself, descending ever deeper. The further down she went the more she realized she was beginning to see the stairwell around her but it wasn't until she reached the bottom that she saw there was a light, a soft glow emanating from a an archway. Why would Aralias need a secret room? So many questions filtered through her mind as Pompeii cautiously entered through the archway only to stair dumbfounded at the smallish room. Mosaics covered nearly the whole thing. Complex and dizzying mix of primarily Pompeii’s symbol and Staturns all done in mostly purple. The sheer time it would take to design such a pattern was quite mind boggling but what drew Pompeii the most was a pulsating orb of energy, about the size of a baseball, hovering inside an alcove . It seemed to have a presence—like it was more than just a light. While it did not share the same mist-like appearance as the Code Piece on Olympus, there was no denying that this orb of light was one in the same. Although smaller, it still seemed powerful.

Pompeii recognized it for what it was, the Code. Which meant she could get answers from it, unlike Aralias. Understanding them however would be another matter. What to ask first? Pompeii paused for a few moments to contemplate just what to ask it but there really were only a hand full of things that had plagued her for a while."“What happened to my city? Where did all the people go? Why is Aralias still here? Why does he keep telling me to clean the library? What exactly are you? If you are neither light nor dark does that mean that chaos can never really be destroyed? Can a balance ever truly be achieved?" Honestly she was not expecting an answer let alone the ones she got.


Anger seemed to swim around it at the flood of questions. Annoyance was clear as the Code spoke. "Likely, you failed your position as a Knight and your Wonder suffered the consequences. I'd say don't be too hard on yourself, but you probably wouldn't be, anyway. Knights are always so quick to pass off the blame to someone else. Your people are gone because you failed them. And he's telling you to clean the library because it's filthy. Do you think this is any way to show respect to your Wonder—to me?"

The anger seemed to ebb and it pulsed, much calmer now. "I am the Code. I protect the balance of the Universe. Could a scale with only one plate ever sit, balanced? Chaos will never be destroyed. Unless you want this world—and all worlds—to end. Chaos is necessary. Chaos is…good. If more Knights understood that…perhaps we would be closer to winning."

Pompeii was taken aback at the anger the Code seemed to project. She felt a flash of shame and guilt at its accusation that she was a failure as a knight. So she didn’t patrol nearly as much as she should but the Code had no idea what it was like balancing a job along with being a knight and Pompeii nearly said so but the Code had already moved on to her next questions regarding the library. Its response to that really got her peeved and the glare she shot the Code would have informed it as much, if it was anything other then some strange omnipotent thing.

Her anger had yet to fade as the Code moved on to her more metaphysical questions but its answers quickly distracted her. The concept of striking some kind of balance with Chaos was much more mentally stimulating then ways of smacking the Code around. “Francis Bacon once said ‘In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.’” It was said quietly as she eyed the entwined mozaic. “Its finding this balance that is so hard.” Pompeii hadn’t forgotten her earlier annoyance with the Code so without even a backwards glance she left the little room and began the trek back up the hidden stairwell, her mind awhirl. Might as well go back to cleaning as she tried to mentally work out just how to reset the balance the Code was talking about.

It had arrived with the afternoon mail and it took an extreme act of will for Jessie to finish ringing the line of customers before she could open the slim cardboard box. When she was finally able to rip open the packaging to reveal the book inside Jessie couldn't help but squeal in joy.

She had been waiting for this boon since she had finished reading Frost Burned in January. Jessie looked up to find Jackson at the end of the counter, resignation in his eyes. Jessie would be useless for the rest of the day until she finished the book in the early morning of the next day. Jackson knew this as it was not the first time Jessie received a highly anticipated book, nor would it be the last.

Jessie's eyes practically begged the younger man to cover the store and at his reluctant nod she did a quick little jig. With the book clutched to her chest Jessie headed out the door.

The day was too nice to read inside and it wasn't like Jessie would notice her surrounding once she started to read. She was just tired of winter so spending a few pleasant hours in the sunshine of spring was all good with her.

It didn't take her long to settle in her local park. The birds chirping, kids playing, and the small fountain burbling and slashing faded into the background when Jessie reverently opened the front cover and began to read.


“You should have brought the van,” said my stepdaughter. She sounded like herself, though the expression on her face was still a little tight.
“I shouldn't have brought anything, including us,” I muttered, shoving harder on the hatch. My Rabbit had a lot of cargo space for a little car. We'd only been here twenty minutes. I shop at Walmart all the time, and I never come out with this much stuff.We'd even left before the big midnight reveal. And still—I had all this stuff. Most of which had not been on sale. Who does that?
“Oh, come on,” she scoffed, determinedly cheerful. “It's Black Friday. Everyone shops Black Friday.”
I looked up from the stubborn lid of my poor beleaguered car and glanced around the parking lot of Home Depot. “Obviously,” I muttered.


Before Jessie knew better she was straining to read the next line and with a sigh she glanced up. The park was empty and twilight was just about done. It didn't surprise her that she was more than half way through the book since she was a fast reader. The chill in the air prompted Jessie to begin her walk home.

With her mind in the story she had drifted to a stop a few feet from the park's fountain so absorbed in the book that she had lost all awareness of her surroundings, including the evil that was even then stalking her as it's next prey. Jessie was so deep in the story that when a force struck her from behind, propelling her forward to land on the ground with a bone jarring thud, her book flying out of her hands. Jessie's first thought was it was one of the creatures from that same book that had attacked. She lashed out with her feet and twisted until she was on her back and could see her attacker clearly, dimly registering a splash behind her, it wasn't a wolf that Jessie was fending off but a dark shadow that looked like a cross between a dog and a Komodo dragon.... It was ugly as sin and it was a youma. A few well placed kicks got the youma off her and as Jessie got to her feet she did a quick glance of the area looking to see if there was any more youma, a nega, or anything that would be an obstacle for the fight that was about to occur.

She froze for a second as what her eyes were seeing, or rather what they weren't, finally connected to the sound that she dismissed earlier. Her book was not on the ground anywhere near by. "No. Nonononononononono" it was like her brain stopped working between one moment and the next, without any care to the youma she spun around and raced to the fountain. There her fears were realized.

Sitting at the bottom of the shallow basin sat her book. No amount of drying out would fix it. It was ruined. Jessie reached into the cold water and removed the soaked book reverently, as if the water logged hardback had been written by the hand of God himself, until she stood there with it in her hands water trickling through her fingers.

Only the barest hint of sound had her turning around. The youma who had snuck closer was just outside of pouncing distance, and something in her snapped. Slowly and deliberately she placed the destroyed book on the rim of the fountain and casualty removed her shoe. The canvas flat wasn't terribly intimidating but if anyone had been around to see Jessie's face they would have been just as worried as if she was holding a loaded gun. Her eyes were dry and hard, glittering like stone in the faint light from a distant lamppost. Her face empty of all emotion like a doll's, porcelain and scary in the shadows. If the youma had any real thought in its tiny brain it should have been running far far away, but it wasn't so it sprung right at Jessie.

Without a change in her face Jessie swung at the leaping youma. The shoe thwacking the beast so hard it's very head snapping to the side, it's body following the change of trajectory. The youma landed hard on the cement walkway. It was scrambling to its feet when Jessie casually walked over to it, limping slightly due to not wearing her shoe. She didn't even feel the cool stone under her bare foot. She kicked the creature back down to the ground where she proceeded to slap it with her shoe until it turned to dust underneath the assault.

It wasn’t any one thing that roused Jessie from her sleep but a combination of things. The first was the incessant buzz of her cell phone alarm going off but since she had shoved that under a pillow it wasn’t too bad. The second was the sunlight streaming in and seemingly hunting her down to bathe her eyes in the stingingly bright rays of light. An arm across the face helped that but it was the final annoyance that Jess just couldn’t ignore and that was the birds. The loud, raucous, and extremely obnoxious birds that sounded like they were having a rave right by her ears. No pillow could smother the sound. Each tweet and chirp drove nails into her head until she couldn’t take it and finally, finally, opened her eyes a crack only to shut them again with a groan at the bright light.

“God, why do they have to be so loud,” The brunette whined to no one in particular as she did her valiant best not to hurl all over the place as a marching band took up residence in her skull. Last night grew hazy after she pretty much dragged Seung up to her apartment for a night cap after another youma trespassed on her property. For years she had no problem with negaverse pests and now it was like her little store and garden were like catnip for the ashy bastards. First that one who destroyed a good part of her bookstore and now this one that decided to trash her garden. Jess was to irritated from the hangover to really correct her current thoughts on everything. That first youma had trashed a good hundred or so books but it didn’t destroy her store, not really, nothing a week of work didn’t fix. And that second youma, all it did was break a garden gnome. One she didn’t particularly like anyway. Honestly it was more or less the fact that they came anywhere near her store, and she was still pissed to high heaven about the damaged books… that anger wouldn’t be fading any time soon.

None of that mattered right now anyway, what did matter was her splitting headache and the buzz of her phone that was even now going off again from under the pillow she had inevitably shoved it. Muttering curses about anything and everything she yanked the meddling device free from its padded hiding place only to wince at the time. She didn’t have a lot of time to shake off this hangover and get ready for work before she needed to get downstairs and open up shop. With a sigh that said more in silence then all the curses in the world Jessie stood up and groaned. Sleeping on the couch was never the best move.

Muttering once more she hobbled over to the kitchen and glared at her empty mug from last night. Even a passing sniff revealed that she had accidentally dosed herself with more whiskey than she could handle. Not that she could handle much at all. All because she had learned something she didn’t really want to learn. Bah! Being a knight sucked a**. Jessie needed aspirin, coffee, and a shower in that order… or all at once. Which ever worked best. Her head was too fuzz to even think about last night.