Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Mum?"

Neith looked up at Elle. She looked flustered and pale... and for someone who was like Elle, that was a look that was nearly impossible to achieve. Seh also had an arm behind her back... and a smell coming from her. Neith was suspicious. She raised an eyebrow at Elle, "Hmm?"

"Well... remember how you got Kia? And you never asked for her, or expected her, she just turned up?"

"Yes?"

Elle pulled out the arm from behind her back and quickly put the tiny baby into Neith's lap before her mum could react.

Lirael blinked at Neith, before falling back asleep, clearly not at all concerned by the smell she'd created.

"I didn't ask for her, and I wasn't pregnant, she just turned up! So you need to take care of her while I go and get toys..."

"What!?"

"...from the storage, and I promice I'll be right back, you have nappies for Aquene so they'll work for Lirael as well, and bye mum, thankyouloveyoubye!"

Elle vanished out the tent flap and was gone.

For the entry that is being worked on, dispite the computer falling apart!

Elle hadn't had time for much lately. Including her magical studies and practice. She'd been flustered by this change of life, this horrible full time job with no pay, a 'job' that she'd never really been able to appreaciate before now.

And after taking care of a baby, then a toddler as the little strange girl suddenly grew on her, she had a new respect for her mum. Elle had grown up as a part time middle child, part time eldest child, with half-sisters all over Gaia. She had never really understood how strange it was to have so many sisters of so many various breeds, species, races, types... whatever people called it, and of so many different ages.

But that didn't mean she had to admit that her mum was right sometimes...

And what had made her task somewhat mroe difficult was that there was no guide online for this baby. This Lirael, who Elle still had trouble calling 'her baby' under the strange circumstances, who was beautiful but REALLY strange. And that, coming from a teenager who could quite honestly claim her genetics to be 60% elf, 40% living vampire, with several different other races including dragon blended in, that coming from Elle? That showed just how bewildered she felt about this little girl.

It wasn't that Lirael wasn't sweet. She was an adorable little girl, quiet like Elle was, inquisitive and curious, and already showed traits that Elle admired in someone. Elle knew from witnessing her mother's children, she could have had a much more difficult child to take care of than Lirael. If she'd gotten a child that took after Kia...

It was other things. Things that you'd never be able to see... but you could feel them. Elle tried so many times, but there was either no words or too many.

On top of that, Lirael apaprently had a sort of 'familiar' with her. THat had come as a shock. When Elle had first seen it, she thought she was seeing things. Whatever it was, it rarely let Elle catch a glimpse of it.

But that had been a while ago. Those things had slowly worn down Elle's surprise till she was used to everything. Even the creepy feelings, and the horrible task of toilet training.

So when she'd woken up and had found a child-aged Lirael standing on the third shelf with several picture books wide open around her on the floor, it shouldn't have come as a big shock. But it did and Elle stood there for several minutes, staring stupidly at Lirael's new size.

Lirael stared back, a tiny little red being sitting on her shoulder, the book in her lap forgotten. When Elle didn't say anything, she stared back down at the book. Lirael couldn't read any of the words, but she understood the pictures.

Elle snapped out of it and carefully asked, "Would you like me to read to you?"

The dark head shook, one small hand pushed the page over.

"Would you like breakfast?"

Again Lirael's dark head moved, this time in a nod.

Elle stared for a few more seconds before wandering off to find something for them both to eat. When she'd come back with yogurt and some fresh fruit, Lirael had climbed down and was now sitting placidly in front of the TV to watch Spongebob.

Elle was so surprised by the sudden change in growth that she barely stopped to think about what else had changed in Lirael with the new age. She gave Lirael the food and as they sat to watch the TV, Elle kept sneaking looks at Lirael. And slowly the other changes sunk in.

Lirael now had a strange leather strap down her front. Her hair was adorable as always with little black pigtails, there was a little red mark on her forehead. She spoke too, though Elle hadn't heard any words directed at her, spoke to the red familiar that was taking out the shape of a tiny humanoid. They were short childish words, Lirael still struggled with some of the letters, but it was speaking.

Later today she'd take Lirael over to see her mum, Elle decided, before returning her attention to Spongebob.

In all of her hectic weeding and building, Elle hadn't forgotten Lirael. Not at all... but Lirael did find herself spending half her time with the teenager guardian and her 'nanna'. Both seemed interested in unimportant things such as using strange tools to pull out plants... and it didn't leave them much time to give the little girl attention.

That might have upset some Pae'il but for Lirael, with Neith and Elle's rich collection of books between them, it suited her just fine. And sometimes when they were clearly going to be occupied for hours, she would even go for a walk to Barton by herself. It was cheap and most books she found were funny ones with too many words or men and women cuddling on the cover but sometimes she found a really interesting book. One about things that she couldn't even understand yet, the words were too big, but there was something about the paper and the pages and the images that made Lirael know that front he moment she'd set eyes on that book... she had to keep it.

Her stash of nicked books had growl considerably by now. Lirael kept them all in the top of her Nanna's house where a tiny gap between the roof and the ceiling was only several feet high. That's why no one had bothered with it when they saw it, but it was ideal for her and she loved it. It was clean now and her piles of books, though not many, were already making little labyrinths around the low area. It was a maze only she could understand, an order of books that only she would be able to decipher.

That was where she sat now, ignoring a spider that crawled down her hair, clinging excitedly to her latest steal. This one had been a particularly hard one. The person who had it hadn't wanted to give it up and she knew that if he found her he'd be SO angry. But she hadn't liked him anyway. He made her blood crawl.

The best thing about this book was that it didn't open much and that made her curious. If it didn't want to open for her then what was it hiding? She'd tried everything to pry the pages open, everything, even a chisel and hammer. The pages weren't damaged, the book didn't budge, and it left her aching with the need to figure it out.

But it did open to some pages. The words were too big and the writing too small for Lirael...but that wasn't a problem. She just had to learn how to read better. And till then the book could stay safe in the most centremost of her labyrinth, protected by the maze she'd created.

Dear dary

I went to the beach and found an egg. i tried to hide it in seeweed but it was found by a boy then a baby, who hid it with me and had a second one. it was beutiful like a pearl and i tried to keep it safe but then the boy, who was older than me, met a girl his age. How boring. I wandered off and when i came back it was gone.

but that was halloween. nothing much else other than lots of candy in the candy hunt.

Lirael