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Arvid nodded. "It's almost like all these trees should have been here all along, even though we know they weren't..." he himself mused before grinning and giving Saffron a gentle push.

"Come on now!" he quipped playfully. "We're not going to get any answers just standing here and gabbing on about trees."

(( Good Lord I got behind. D: ))

The sisters went inside and put their picnic things away. The bread seems harder than usual to Elizabeth, who as usual says nothing.

"I feel odd," says Elizabeth to Amapola. "It's like something's changed."

"Don't be silly, Lizzie," says Amapola. She takes a sisterly glee in tormenting her smaller sibling with the nickname she'd always hated. "You're just cranky because you didn't sleep well. Go have a nap, you'll feel better."

Elizabeth isn't so convinced. "I'm going to have a look around town. Want to come?"

Elizabeth and Amapola leave their house and wander through the streets. Elizabeth's right--something does seem changed. Not that they'd really know, having mostly kept to their house and garden for many months. The large piece of parchment tacked up catches Elizabeth's eye first. Amapola has keen eyes as well, but interesting things are more likely to catch her attention, not subtleties that might be important.

"Amapola, look here," she says, nudging her sister's side and walking over to read it. "Relocated?" Immediately she looks around. The island doesn't seem any different. Perhaps a trip to the beach would clear some things up. At least maybe she'd be able to find someone else who knew more than she did.

Amapola frowns at the poster. "How odd," she says. "I wonder what prompted them to do that?" she wonders aloud. "Well, clearly they knew what they were doing, so let's--Elizabeth, where are you going?"

((Someone please RP with me at the beach! If you'd do me a favor and shoot me a PM if you've posted a response I'd appreciate it. I check Gaia multiple times a day, but not every thread I've posted in.))

"Wow, that's adorable." Aspen hadn't seen anything like it before. He lifted Melek closer so her could get a good look at the little baby thing. "I wonder what it is?"

***

Noel nodded, "Yeah, let's stay in your room awhile." She wasn't sure if the sound would come back, and would rather spend her time with her beautiful naiad-love.

She smiled at the kiss and followed her into the room. She smiled as she hadn't been to Asysu's room before. She wondered what was inside.

***

Woobie laughed, "Sure! Let's get away from the ravine, though." Although it could be fun to flip into and then fly back out...antoher time maybe to try that stunt.

Woobie led the girl into a clear area and smiled, "Watch me just for now, ok?" He took a deep breath and did another flip, but tried to slow it down so she could see it better. "Now, you come in front and I'll put my hands on your waist to spot you."

***

"You are right." Cutter said to Arvid. "The best place to go would be the HQ. We are close." Just as he spoke the path opened to the HQ. "See?" There wer a few pae hanging around and something on the door. "What's that?

***

Rais saw the tiger turn into a demon. He should have guessed. The demon then went off with Faroth and didn't even introduce himself. "Disrespectful demon." When he said the word demon it had an edge to it, like a slur. Rais hated angels and demons for what they had done. He still had his past life in his mind he didn't know what they were like now.

Rais turned to the 'hello'. His eyes looked the teen up and down. What was this? He had heard tale of such creatures, but hadn't actually seen one and therefore had no opinions about the faes. "Hello, I am Rais the Chieftain of the Faun that live in Laisidhiel. What may I ask are you?"

Ear twitching slightly, the demon stifled a growl, keeping silent at the comment dripping with disdain. Uppity, pompous a**, Kane thought to himself, not entirely understanding why he was behaving himself this much. Granted, maybe it WAS only because this was a foe he couldn't completely size up. Still, he wasn't picking fights, he wasn't being a smartass...

...for Kane, this was a major achievement. Even if he didn't think of it that way, his angelic mother would be so proud...

Faroth wound his way through the forest, heading back to where they'd left the other Pae earlier. He glanced back over his shoulder from time to time, smirking at Kane, then kept on, assured he hadn't lost anyone.

"Hey, kid," Kane's rough voice sounded softly near Faroth's ear and the kid had to try not to jump out of his fur. The demon wasn't that close a minute ago! "So, what's the deal here? Obviously, you got more respect for this guy than anyone else, even people who threaten to eat ya'. So...why? He your dad or something, 'cause he don't look it."

Expecting sarcasm, Faroth saw only curiosity in the demon's eyes when he turned to look at him. "Course he's not my dad. Not like that. Dunno who my 'dad' is, but doesn't matter. He's the leader. He's smart and strong and stuff. And kinda' scary when he gets mad...but usually he doesn't. Not 'til now..." Faroth trailed off guiltily.

It was all foreign to Kane, so he'd need some time to puzzle over that info. Instead, he smirked. "Dunno who your dad is, huh?"

Pointedly, Faroth looked over his shoulder. "Who's yours?" At the silence, he smirked back and moved on, spotting Texas and Magnus nearby and picking up the pace.

Kane blinked, speechless for a second, then grumbled, following, "...little know-it-all, smartass..."

"I say we just relax." The naiad chuckled, before turning around and propping some pillows against the headboard. Then, she closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "Today's been a strange day. I need some time to let it all sink in, ya' know?" Everything from Noel's house being destroyed to that weird noise in the direction of the forest all within a couple hours or so was a little hard for Aysu to take in quickly.

"I mean, unless you want to do something else?" Aysu opened an eye to glance over at Noel, before shutting the eye again.

------------


Knowing his place wasn't exactly the word for it, but Criofan did know he definitely didn't want to get on the Chieftan's bad side. When Rais said it was wonderful to meet him, Criofan O'Kane nodded his head in thanks, not even dropping his formal, polite act for a moment.

He waited patiently as Rais seemed to observe both him and the tiger-guy closely, before Rais turned to him and asked a question that was rather odd. He wanted Criofan to generalize the faeries? He couldn't help knitting his brows in confusion, breaking the formality, albeit momentarily. Then, he decided it was best to say, "Ah can't say we can be generalized, but Ah've never had a problem with any faerie Ah've met." That was definitely an exaggeration--he had definitely had problems with certain faeries before--but this was his chance to defend himself as a person, he concluded, and it might be the best bet to say they were all good, as far as he knew.

The faerie continued, "Ah'd say we're generally good with typically good intentions. What exactly do you want to know?" Criofan certainly seemed polite enough, and he hoped that was enough for Rais to assume that the greater majority of faeries were all equally as polite--or, at least, it was enough for Rais to assume he was a good person, even if it wasn't completely true.

Texas lifted his head briefly to spot Faroth and Kane coming back their way. The appearance of Kane didn't surprise him, but he was a bit surprised to see Faroth coming back. The demonic thought he was in trouble for some reason or another, and was assuming he would probably never see the satyr-child again. What was he doing back?

...And what was that person walking with Criofan in the distance? Criofan seemed to be on his best behavior, so it hinted that this person was definitely powerful, and he looked something like Faroth did, except brown... Maybe it was Faroth's father? But it definitely didn't look like his father.

The demonic decided to look back down to his little satyr-thing-baby and coo at it again, much to the little toddler's delight, who snatched another finger of Texas' and started to suck on that. Little Vangelis soon distracted Texas from his concern, and the demonic couldn't help baby talking to the little thing in his arms, much to Magnus' exasperation and the little boy's delight.

Vangelis reached up with his free hand and poked Texas' nose, before echoing Texas' giggles once again. He certainly didn't seem threatened by the demon, despite what the fauns thought of Texas' demonic heritage...

Magnus decided that Texas was going to continue to act like a new mother or something of the sort, and therefore decided to ignore him and Vangelis entirely and move forward so he could meet up with Kane and Faroth somewhere in the middle. He wasn't too concerned as to why they were coming back, but he was mildly curious to find out what had made the forest so chaotic, albeit momentarily.

Takeko chuckled again. "I don't know, but...he looks sorta' like a deer, doesn't he?" she commented on the toddler's little hooves. "Well...a deer-like Pae?" She was puzzled, but still...the little boy was darling.

Melek stared for only a moment longer as his dad had held him closer to look. Then he reached out, poking the toddler lightly with a finger. "Hey you! You know anything fun to play?" He was really getting tired of all these adults milling about. Someone closer to his age was bound to be more fun, right?

"Melek! Leave the poor baby alone, will you? Can't you see he's scared?" Takeko fussed half-heartedly, then chuckled taking her son from Aspen with a quick kiss on her mate's cheek. "He's little and scared, honey. I'm not sure he really wants to play right now."

Melek pouted again. Well, what fun was that then?!?

---

Saffron chuckled, taking a playful air swipe at the demonic child. "Alright, alright, you young whippersnapper," he joked, not nearly as old as he acted sometimes. The mixed angel headed down the path towards the HQ. "We might have got something out of the trees themselves had my grandma been here. She talks to them, ya' know. I just turn into one." More laughing.

Pastela followed him and watched him do his back flip. "Wow... you're so graceful Woobie... I don't think I can do one like that...." She bit her lip, feeling a little nervous. "Should we really be practicing this now? I mean.... there's so much island left to be checked over."