Welcome to Gaia! ::

Isarelle pulled the mare, Meena, back onto the forest path and they continued their travels to Soul’s River. She looked to every face giving each person a nod of reassurance then took the lead on the trail. The small delay would only throw the group off time a slight bit and they would still manage to make camp before sundown.

Meena paused a bit to munch on a shrub but got moving again as Isarelle tugged on her reigns. Garren, she had noticed, had been completely quiet ever since they started on the trail. This was a bit unlike her brother. He was always saying something or commenting.

“Brother?” she whispered softly so none of the others would hear.

“Yes?” came his reply.

“You’ve been so quiet. What’s the matter?” Isarelle asked.

“Oh . . . I’ve just been thinking. That’s all.”

“About . . . ?”

“About the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. You do know this is a mess, right? A big, sticky, difficult mess.”

“Yes, brother, I do. It is a mess. But it is a mess that will help us all – that will save us all.”

“Or kill us all.”

“Garren!” Isarelle hissed, “You’re so difficult.”

“I’m sorry Isa, but you can’t tell me that you’re not worried as well.”

“Yes,” she said soberly, “It does worry me. But please don’t make anything more difficult than it has to be.”

“Alright. I’m done. I’ll stay quiet.”

Isarelle nodded a bit and her brother was aware of the motion. Then she looked up in attempts to see the sky beyond the trees. She wondered where Adencia had gone.

-

Being in the sky was a wonderful feeling. Adencia loved to relax and glide along to currents of air. Though this time she could not just let the animal take control and to what it wished. She was so close to getting complete control – to getting to the point where she could do what she wanted and change back if she pleased.

Adencia kept an eye on the group of travelers through the trees and concentrated on following them at the same time. She could not become distracted or else she would stray and not be able to get back to them all. Weaving back and forth through the air currents she floated along thinking of ways she could claim control of her feathered counterpart.

A sudden thought popped into her head and she quickly pushed it away to stay in concentration. It would be terrible to change back in mid-flight.

((I say go on ahead, we were going to do that anyways...))

((Alright, just another post to get Adencia back into elf form and I'll get us going.))

The hours of the day continued to pass bringing the sun from morning to midday. Isarelle and Garren changed with each passing hour, not even giving the switch a second thought because it was so normal for them though guaranteed it was a bit strange for the newest member to their group, Zera. It was Garren’s hour when they broke out into another clearing and decided to stop for a break.

He saw that Adencia was still in the sky and wondered if her transformations usually lasted as long as this had. She seemed to be having a bit of trouble so he kept an eye on the eagle as he removed Meena’s saddle to give her a break and let her graze.

Adencia was beginning to get tired, slowly weakening from the persistent attempts to keep with the group. She was getting closer to total control yet at the same time was losing it. She felt that soon she would change back but couldn’t get her counterpart to near the ground to make a safe shift. That’s when it all hit the fan.

Her worst fears came true as she unexpectedly changed back. Adencia was at a body shattering height to where survival from impact was next to impossible. She fell through the skies but her mind did not go to irrational thoughts and screaming. She kept a level head and tried as hard as she possibly could to accomplish the very thing that would save her. Breaking through to the eagle form and transforming for flight.

As Adencia grew nearer and nearer to the hard earth terror took hold of her hope and pushed it away. She was going to die . . . if she didn’t do anything. That anything would have to come quickly. She was but twenty feet away now and her adrenaline spiked sending an energy pulse coursing through her body. This was just what she needed and seconds later she was a great bird, pulling up from a steep dive barely missing the ground.

Blades of grass swept along the eagle’s chest as Adencia pulled up and missed death by an inch. Adencia pulled up and opened her wings to their full extent allowing herself to drift to the ground. Talons touched the earth and her true Elvin form was restored.

Garren watched in horror and awe as Adencia plummeted to the ground then shifted back into an eagle at the last second. The look she had on her face when she was back on solid ground told him that stunt was far from planned. He ran to her as she sat down then lay on her back. She was breathing heavily and laughing with a touch of hysteria.

“Are you alright?!” He exclaimed, “What happened? That was madness!”

She stayed silent for a moment still panting and shaking her head a bit. “Well . . .” she said, “That was exciting.”

“Exciting?!” Garren said, offering a hand to help her up, “That was crazy.”

“Welcome to the animal kingdom.” Adencia retorted, taking his hand, “They never seem to be able to make up their minds.”

Adencia looked to Thorn with a smile.

“Did I do that on purpose? If I ever do something like that on purpose feel free to leave me tied up somewhere.” She laughed, “No, that was purely by luck that I didn’t just become a splat on the ground. I’ve been trying to master the eagle form, like I have with other animals, for quite some time now. I was getting tired and couldn’t pull the animal back to the ground for a landing before it decided that it just wanted to leave and let me fall. I guess scaring the crap outta someone is a good way to get them to do something you want . . . obviously I was able to change back and save my skin.”

Garren shook his head and held onto the elf’s shoulder as she swayed a bit.

“Are you sure you’re alright.” He asked.

“Fine, fine.” She said, “Near-death experiences can take a little bit of the strut from your stride if you catch my drift. Just give me a minute to rest and get my head back together and we can get going again.”

Garren nodded but no sooner did he let go of her did she fall over. He went to help her up again but she pushed him away insisting that she was fine and she needed to sit down anyways.

“Just leave her be.” Isarelle chimed in.

“Alright.” He murmured then cocked an eyebrow at the elf who had returned to lying in grass, “I’ll get you some water then.”

“You do that.” she smiled, feeling the aftereffects of the transformation kick in.

Adencia grinned at Thorn and pushed herself up onto her elbows.

“That’s pretty much the basics of it.” she replied, “I get these random transformations – sometimes provoked by an emotion or danger, other times unexpected and uncontrollable – into whatever animal. During these transformations it’s almost as if I take a backseat and have no control over the animal; their instincts and ways are stronger than mine. If I work at it then I can control the animal and therefore be able to transform into it at will. Otherwise I’m stuck having no control over what the animal does, no matter what it is, until I change back. So far, I can only shift into the feline, serpentine, and not until just now, an eagle form.”

Garren was back by this time and he handed Adencia a canteen. “Go ahead and rest for a little while longer, we’re all taking a break. Don’t take too long, though, we need to get going again.”

Adencia nodded and took the canteen, waiting until he left to drink. After drinking a little water she looked to Thorn and offered him the canteen.

“And what about you?” she asked, “Are there any . . . properties . . . that you acquired because of your curse besides the physical. It comes to my understanding that you are much older than you look, no?”

Zera was quite interested on the conversation herself, these curses were really so different, she wondered how one item would be able to cure all of them. She was so wrapped up in what she was hearing that she almost missed the low groan. In a flash she disappeared into the woods, not quite leaving but staying well out of sight.
“Ow, I never get used to this headache.” Kayoe muttered as he slowly regained consciousness. He opened his eyes and waited for things to come back into focus.

He once heard the recommendation that he should carry potions to knock himself out with, as they came without many of the side effects of a blow to the head, but the headache and the other side effects distracted him enough to keep him from getting angry all over again when he remembered why he had to do knock himself out in the first place. As he got his vision back he saw that he was being carried by Tanyeera, and muttered something that bordered on being understandable about being able to walk. Then almost as if by instinct he looked in the generally direction that Zera was hiding, despite not being able to see her he spoke to the group of trees she was in.
“It’s okay, I’m fine now.”

Kayoe stood up his balance and coherent thought returning to him, Zera stepped out of her hiding place with a rather inquisitive look on her face.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” She asked him.
“Yeah, I’m fine...”
“Good.” Once she confirmed that Kayoe was okay she asked the question she had really wanted to ask. “How do you do that?”
“What?” Kayoe replied, slightly confused
“No matter how I try to hide, you know exactly where I am!”
“I’m not sure,” Kayoe admitted “It is probably the same way you are able to track me down whenever you want to with out really having to look that hard.” Zera nodded, she never did have trouble finding him, she just set out and did it. Kayoe then turned to Tanyeera, “Thank you, I’m sorry to have troubled you like that."