Welcome to Gaia! ::

The ice was nothing. How many times had Lao fled from the hands of true ice apparitions? It cracked under her flexing jaw, her form already beginning to shift. "Kill me if you like." she snarled, "But remember what it means to kill a totetsu! I would not need to slaughter you once I'm gone...no...you all will take care of that yourselves!"

She changed. Huge, hideous, and monstrous she tore through the tent, ripping the thick seal-hides like paper as she thudded onto the ground. Dazed and panicked villagers ran about, unsure as how to deal with Lao...but she quickly leapt over the snow bank walls, her feet scraping across the tops and sending them tumbling as three weeks worth of work laid ruined behind her. Ice cracked behind her as she fled from the ice shelf, and eventually she was swallowed up by the dark night.

The hail of icicles was beginning to become too much. Even Lao, with her centuries of power gaining from eating human flesh, was beginning to wane under the strength of the spirits. She felt the Ocean Spirit particularly...vicious b*****d was probably thrilled at the chance to claim her spirit.

There was no escape from the seas, swimming would only slow her. But with the proximity to the Spirit Oasis...

She stilled, shrinking back into her delicate human form as icicles rained down around her. She concentrated, and shifted.

Not just her footsteps. Everything warped and blurred, a sussurrus causing the line betwen the Mortal and Spirit world to collide. She lifted her foot from the side of the humans-

-And just like that she vanished into the familiar swamp of the Spirit World...nothing but giant footprints left from her flight.

She was small and lovely as ever in her human form, save for her thick scowl, a mixture of rage and humiliation. She'd lost control and gobbled up humans...again...And she was so much closer to a century's fast this time-

"Lao..."

Lao sneered at the familiar voice. A soft figure in royal robes with long white hair floated elegantly behind her. "Yue." she spat, "Come to give me the royal lecture?"

"You were so close." she said in pity, "Why? You've never made it past a decade before."

"Not my fault," she said snappishly, "If a human wants to cause trouble among his own kind then he can just deal with it. Your b*****d brother isn't helping either."

"Do not scorn the ocean," she said sternly,"He won't like to hear you talking about him when his feet are in the human relam...away from you."

"Oh excuse me your highness, your exalted grace," Lao replied mockingly, "But if I recall...no one ever even mentions you anymore in the human world! They've praised you for your quick sacrifice and then left you lonely on the moon! So pardon me if I refuse to sympathize with these low-born creatures!"

Lao stalked off, Yue gently trying to coax her back. Yue had tried looking after her since she arrived, so long ago now, to the Spirit World as a newly deceased Moon Spirit, walking both worlds with the Ocean and her people. Lao was merely a stew of rage and despair.

But she'd get there, she reminded herself every day she stalked the muggy and forlorn lands of the Spirit World. One hundred years of fasting....then she'd get there...

Hakata returned to the Chief's quarters, "That was hell."