Welcome to Gaia! ::

The room was thick with smoke by now. Sable was getting tired, her vision slightly blurry from the many repeated attempts. But this time…this time she was sure it would work. She kicked off the reaction one more time, the room lighting up with an eerie glow as she watched her components glow again.

This time she could feel the pull of success, the strong energy emission that occurred whenever a reaction went through to completion. She smiled tiredly, her dark eyes spotting the fruits of her labor for one glorious moment before exhaustion overcame her and she lost consciousness right then and there.

When she came to, she was laying on her couch. She sat up a little and looked around, spotting them hanging lightly on the wall, placed there with reverence and care. She hadn’t remembered doing that, which meant Tavi had come in and found her passed out in her workshop again.

She savored the sight; the archangel’s wings. There they hung in all their heavenly glory, just ready and waiting for her to slip them on. She could have cried from the relief and joy. Finally, after years of toil, she had succeeded. All her blood, sweat, and tears were finally paying off.

Sable smiled as Tavi skipped along beside her, his very presence managing to cheer her up. “Hey Tav…” She was still bummed from her trip to the market, but Tavi seemed to not mind her mood. At least, he wasn’t fleeing from the storm clouds hanging over her head. He flashed her a smile, a conspiratorial one that usually meant an adventure was in her near future.

“What’s the matter?”

Sable sighed. “We finally have a way to get backwings…”

“Alchemy.”

“Yeah…but there’s no way I can afford that form-” She was cut off as a scroll was placed gently in her hands, Tavi’s grin nearly bright enough to outshine the sun. Her eyes widened and she held it up reverently. Without even opening it, she could tell it was a backwings quest formula. She looked at him in surprise before opening it.

The Celestial Quest formula. The exact same as the one she’d been pining over in the market. Reading over the ingredients, she smiled. This seemed like she could do it now. She threw her arms around him in a hug, almost afraid she’d break the scrawny guy, but he just smiled and said that if she needed any help, to let him know.

She wouldn’t have even been able to start the quest without Tavi. She still had no idea how he’d managed to get his hands on it, but she was grateful.

“Where do you even GET angel sweat?!” She asked incredulously, eying the rest of her components with a frustrated glance. Only on the first one and she was already getting stuck. This didn’t bode well. She was still mulling it over when Tavi swung by to see if she wanted to go grunny catching. He’d left without her eventually, which was probably for the best. She spent most of the day moping.

That was, until Tavi came back that evening, looking tired, sweaty, and kind of scruffed up, but cheerful. He had a black Grunny sitting in his hair, and she wouldn’t have been able to spot it had it not been laying on his rainbow extensions. The boy under the grunny grinned and handed her a vial. “That should do it. You should come along tomorrow.”

Angel sweat. Where on Gaia had he managed that one?!

She was down to her last enchanted trunk, and still had two beds and a table to go. She groaned, her forehead hitting one of the tables she had. She was flat broke, where was she going to get the rest of these before some jackass inflated them all again?!

So she found herself harvesting trash from towns, keeping her eyes open for monarchs while she was at it. Moping or not, at least she could do something productive. She earned a good chunk of gold for her efforts, and even managed to snag a single coveted monarch. She paid for it, though, getting swarmed by a particularly angry group of dragonflies. She was pretty sure she still had some in her hair. She walked home with the monarch in a jar under her arm, occasionally shaking her hair out.

Apparently she had a visitor the whole way home, because Tavi started laughing when he saw her. He was sitting on top of a pickup truck, furniture on it strapped down with bungee cords. Even from across the street, she could see what they were. Angelic furniture…beds and a table. She smiled at him gratefully, even laughing when he reached over and pulled a large red dragonfly from her hair and stuck it on his own head, smiling cheerfully. Even the dragonfly didn’t seem very annoyed anymore.

Tavi had that effect on others; no one could be upset around him.

She had never thought that getting a fish would be tougher than isolating quantum particles, but here she was, lacking only one ingredient; a diamondback lion fish. She had a large tank full of Sand Boldur’s from Durem, keeping them together until she could get enough that Logan might trade her one of his. The draft that came from the front told her she had company, and subsequent squiching noises indicated the person was soaking wet.

Coming to the front room, she found Tavi dripping all over her carpet, grinning like the cat who caught the cream. Or, apparently, the fish. For there he stood, holding out a bucket to her that held one large, gorgeous fish. It’s scales shone like diamonds in moonlight and she found herself mesmerized. Finally, she looked back up to Tavi with a raised eyebrow. “Did you go swimming after it?”

Okay, so she didn’t sound very grateful, did she? But he looked like he’d plucked the fish out of the water after wrestling it. He just grinned. “oh, I fell in…” He said sheepishly, blushing with embarrassment.

Not many people could fall into the Reclamation Facility’s water stores and come up with a rare fish. Tavi was special like that.

She had dozed off in her workshop, needing only Angel Blood to complete the next part of the formula. That would be time consuming, but it could be done alchemically. It was exhausting, and she, she supposed was resting up. So, imagine her surprise when she woke up on her couch, Tavi whistling as he fed her new pet Boldurs (she hadn’t decided to sell them yet; they were kind of cool in a weird way), careful not to let them splash the bandages around one of his arms. She stood and yawned, staggering into her workshop sleepily, only to see the Celestial Quest Terminae laying on the table in place of her previous components.

She hadn’t been out for more than an hour or so…how had Tavi managed that so quickly? It was pretty impressive, she had to admit. So, as she looked on her new wings, she made a decision. She had worked hard for these wings…She glanced at the calendar and smiled. Tomorrow, her efforts would be rewarded. Finally, an angel would get their wings.

*-*-*-*-*-*

“Happy Birthday, Tavi!!!!!” Sable was astonished at such a turnout for Tavi’s party. He seemed to know everyone in Gaia. Even Cresento was in attendance, glowering at passerby and trying to dodge Nicolae, who was pestering him for some reason. Brennevin had insisted on setting the whole party up. At least, she thought he had; that accent was hard to understand sometimes.

It was Agatha that Sable found herself talking to; it turned out that Tavi helped her inventory every few months. Sable wondered, slightly, if everyone here was helped by Tavi. Probably, the boy was a saint. Well, sort of.

Tavi was drinking punch and trying to keep Jet out of the cake, which everyone found to be rather funny. Except for Cygnus, who looked worried about the cat’s sugar intake. Soon enough, however, he got around to opening his presents. The last gift was Sable’s. He tore off the paper cheerfully, chatting the whole way. One thing about that boy; once he started going, it was hard to get him to stop.

He pulled open the box and sucked in a breath, his eyes going as wide as saucers. He looked up at her in surprise, and she had to nod and wave him on to get him to reach into the box and pull out the stunning pair of Archangel’s Wings.

“But…these are yours…” He said in shock. “You worked so hard for them…”

Sable smiled. “I did. But you worked harder. Besides, only an angel gets to wear those wings.”

She ignored the collective ‘aawwww’ that went up through the group, instead, concentrating on the stronger-than-the-sun grin that he flashed her as he slipped the wings on, allowing them a moment to get used to him. It didn’t take long, and Sable wondered if they had been meant to be his all along.