Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Sure, sounds like a plan!" Ari said with an eager nod. She grinned and glanced back at the two playful aerandir. Well, weren't they having fun! "Wiya~! Why don't we take Li home for a bit, hmm?" Somehow she didn't see dragging the two appart as a possible option right now, not that she minded.

Rawiya's head snapped round as Ari called her. Her long ears twitched in thought at her statement. She brayed in excitement and began to trot after her Guardian, keeping Li on her back. Ohh~What fun!

(( Rp now continues on AIM. ))

The Lodge was silent, empty. Anthony was out but, having thought that some of the guardians might drop by, had left the items they would need out in the lodge.

One rather strange item was sitting near the door labelled "For Oleo. Please touch." was the simple instruction. It was a large hollow bamboo tube with cork stoppers in each end, a tube meant for carrying messages and suchlike.

((I'm assuming you brought the items cos, well, you need 'em =P))

For a second nothing happened. Then the items Air had collected for Oleo began to glow, as did the bamboo and Oleo. The glow was soft, blue and seemed to pulse softly. The glow suffused and joined each to the other, merging in thin wispy trails.

Slowly, as the items, bamboo and Oleo mixed, Oleo's form began to grow and stretch. His body became an upright blue glow, his paws stretching into hands and feet, his beak shortening and becoming a mouth. Slowly the blue glow began to fade and standing in the room was a newly made child Areandir.



Photo:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/Aerandir/Aerandir/Oleo/photo_child_oleo.jpg

Ari began to walk towards the lodge, a small bag over her shoulder and the quest letter held out in front of her. She seemed a little nervous, oddly enough. She was the type of person who dreaded the idea of doing something the wrong way-and though the letter said to come to the lodge when she had collected all the items, her nature prevented her from being relaxed just yet.

Rawiya was trotting along behind her, seeming bored and uninterested in the trip. Her blue feathers were ruffled dully and her ears were twitching to the side as if anything else but where they were headed would be more exciting. She clicked her beak idly and strutted right past Ari when she held open the lodge door. To her, this was just another strange outing.

Where both young women had possibly been expecting Anthony there was now Alyosha. Having just walked out of the small office the dedicated, if unusual, administrator found himself between two owners and their gryphons. He had not heard Emiko enter earlier, being somewhat pre-occupied, and it was only Ary opening the door which led him to come into the central room of the Lodge.

Alyosha was tall, around 6ft 4", had long black hair and overly pale skin tending to snowy white. His yellow eyes glimmered as he took in both of the two females - one appearing human but seeming though she might be something else and the other who looked somewhat like a grown Aerandir without the wings. He smiled at them both, wondering at the odd mix of humanoids that inhabited these isles and wondered whom these two Ar'Idil residents might be.

"Ahhh if you're looking for Anthony he's been called back home due to something of a family emergency. I've taken over here for a few weeks until he comes back due to the high number, I'm told, of current 'growths'." Alyosha had come over to the lodge to find piles of items neatly arranged with nametags on. Most of them he hadn't yet seen, Acia having transported them directly to Ar'Idil rather than via himself.

"I'm Alexei, Alyosha for prefrence. Aerandir Project Administrator." he added as an afterthought realising that these two females would not know him any more than he knew them.

Where Emi had expected to find the gray haired Anthony, she now found herself face to face with the man that had sent her a letter all those weeks ago. Flicking her tail around, Emi tucked it neatly behind one dark furry brown paw, large ears flickering right back to her head. She didn't notice the other two until a rather jittery Ari spoke. Emi returned the smile with one of her own, if not identical to the others hers would be just as embaressed.

Would they think it silly? The Keppit furry found the edge of her fingers tightening around the box, as if she needed something - anything - to hold onto. "It's alright - we, that is we were just visiting the fridge anyway," Emi commented, her tone finding a hushed octave. If Ari had recently visited the fridge she would have seen the sign, if not, maybe she wouldn't have had a clue what exactly Emi was on about.

Introductions came right after explanations. Dark tipped ears twitched lightly, Anthony's family wasn't well either? Or at least that's what she assumed. It seemed it was running through Ar 'Idil with first Progolo, now Anthony. The edge of her white tooth nipped on the edge of her lip, waiting for Ari to finish her very-well mannered statement before she produced her own.

Kala was the first to notice Rawiya and the large man. Bounding forwards, she almost sent poor Blanche toppling right off her back. Hooves skimmed along the floor, arriving neatly beside Alyosha's black shoed feet. Sweeping her head to tilt her beak towards the sky, the flamingo gryphon watched this funny mans every move - half expecting the white gryphon which had been on her back to follow in the same motion.

Except, she didn't. Stretching her wings out as not to fly half way accross the room, Blanche landed back onto all four paws. She hadn't even made it all the way to Alyosha, rather the white gryphon scooted back to her mother's paws. Pressing one paw back behind the other, the gryphon tucked herself right behind one chocolate brown paw- watching Kala and this man from around the edge of an ankle joint. He was massive compared to Emi!

She barely made a noise, turning her golden gaze towards the ankles of the other woman. Where did she recognize them from? Tilting her head around to one side, Blanche slowly came eye to hoof with Rawiya. Her tail went taunt for a moment, turning her attention back to Kala and the pale tall man.

"I hope it's nothing too bad," Emi stopped there - this was Gaia, anything on this earth could have happened. Pressing a smile, Emi's blue metallic eyes glanced down to the white ball of Aerandir gryphon now crowding around her ankles. Ah yes - it was Blanche's job that Alyosha had told her about all those weeks ago.

"Nice to finally meet you, I'm Emiko, thank you for your letter," She hadn't sent him a letter in return. Strike one. Emi's ears drooped a little against her head, the tip of her extortionately long tail flicking against the floor. Dark fingers latched lightly onto the box, a soft rattling announcing the gemstones had seemingly shuffled where they lay.

"Ah...yes, that's me...Ari's fine," Ari nodded as her full name was spoken. She shifted a side glance at Emi and gave her a friendly, though still slightly nervous smile. She was ever so glad to hear that things were going well with Anthony and his family, though. After all, the most important people in anyone's life were friends and family, right? To have something happen to either was always hard.

"Uh...yes...I was told, in my letter from Anthony, that when I had my items for Rawiya's growth I should come here," She told Alyosha sheepishly.

Rawiya had been bored with the whole conversation from the start. She never liked it when the two leggeds and her mommy stood around gibbering about like that. Boring! She let out a sharp breath through her beak, her flexable ears twisting around as she spotted Kala and Blanche. She knew both of them from before. With a flick of her tail and a snap of her head in a toss upwards she squawked the two a greeting. Well, maybe it wouldn't be so boring after all!

"Ahhh I see, I see!" Alyosha exlaimed slightly, somewhat happy that he'd be around for another set of new Aerandir growths. Those on Cetalu had long since grown past the stage where he had to due this duty but he felt that he missed both the reaction of the owners and the thrill of a step forward in the Aerandir project.

Alyosha dissapeared for a moment back into the room he had come from. When he returned he had a strange pair of items. One was a thick cloth band with beads all around one edge. It was green in colour - a leafy green reminiscent of the forests on the Islands chain - and seemed an item which might convey a sense of the dramatic to it's wearer. This he handed to Arianna.

The other item was in fact a number of small items which appeared to be strange beads of a glowing material. The flickering, pale hued beads were in a small box which Alyosha handed over to the rather anxious seeming furry.

He smiled confidently at them both, wishing to reassure them. He had seen how some guadians became nervous about their charge's growth as if, up until now, it hadn't been 'real'. Soon they'd be looking after actual children, that was surely a cause to be nervous about.

"If you let them touch the items you'll find they will transform. From what I've been led to believe the new method of doing this means it will happen nearly instantaneously. It's truly something to behold..." he smiled, standing back. He didn't wish to crowd or cajole them, they had to do this in their own time.