Welcome to Gaia! ::

A loud snapping and breaking sound could heard coming from within the walls, ceilling and floor. The whole structure started to tremble and change, taking a new, bigger and more elaborate form
It didn't take long before it stoped, but nothing was in the same place anymore

The once 'small' green area had now turned into a huge place
To the north a huge sea-like lake covered most of the landscape, with a set of islands floating in the distance
To the east a higly ridged mountain rose from the ground, with a luxuriant forest growing at its feet. A small road was barely visible, going all the way up and then disapearing to the other side
To the west and south the once forbidden woods were now a large dark forest. And between it, the lake and the river stood a complex of buildings that were the newly formed farm

And the inside the HQ had also suffered a drastic change. It was now much bigger and taller than before, despite of the 2nd an3rd floor fusing together
On the first floor a whole new area had been added on the east side, dedicated to the instruction of the Mishaps
The older blue, red and yellow areas had also changed. New rooms were added and the older ones were wider than before

The Mishaps rooms were now placed in a new disposition, all of in one single floor now. They too had expanded, giving the guardians and their children a much wider space to live in
Also a new magic was given to them, allowing the rooms to be chaged directly by the guardians whenever they needed

And as for the 3rd floor, the attic had lowered and merged with it, while the minishop inflated its space. Also a semi-natural pond and luxuriant vegetation covered the rest of the now soil covered floor

Crow squinted out into the distance, where the sudden surge of movement had dragged the greenhouse.

"Ah, shoot."

Lenore, having already felt the earth move beneath her feet during her encounter with Sabriel, gave an irritated sigh and held tight onto Deimos.

"Ever'thing's been changin' lately," she said calmly. "Ever'things gettin' bigger."

She gave the vine that was creeping over her shoulder a dirty look, and the bristly tendril withdrew hastily as she flared her razor feathers almost boredly.

"C'mon, Dei - lotsa new stuff tah look at, iffen whe're really far away from home."

Tugging at his hand impatiently, Lenore skittered towards the door, her pockets jangling with their stolen contents.

Crow stood and brushed herself off, shading her eyes with one hand and biting her nails with the other.

"Well, I hope so. We better start walkin', just in case something out there tries to eat them or something."

With the plants kept at bay with the combined threats of slashing and burning, Lenore lead Dei out of the suddenly much larger green house. Lookig around in fascination, she noted the new landscape with appreciation. Enormous fruits and vegetables grew in abundance in a sprawling patch near them - her stomach was growling to obviously to ignore.

"Hmm. Let's go git some lunch, Dei," she said cheerfully. Scuttling into the freakishly large garden, she helped herself to a softball-sized chunk of grape from one of the vines and ate it with gusto.

"Biiiig fruitses."

Wandering deeper into the garden, feasting on her pilfered chunk of grape, Lenore looked at the plants with wide eyes. Everything was so big - and too tempting to resist. Abandoning her grape chunk in favor of a bit of a watermelon-sized cherry tomato, she sat in the shade of a towering cabbage and ate contentedly. She was about to attack a low-growing patch of blueberries when a cheerful singing caught her ear from behind the cabbage. It was too high-pitched, and a tad too cheerful, to belong to Dei.

Scrambling to climb the thick leaves, she perched on top of the cabbage to find the singer. She spied him quickly - a tiny creature with a whipping tail and a row of spikes growing from his spine, matching the cruelly hooked spikes sticking out of his nose and lips. Lenore watched him in fascination as he toiled to dig up an enormous carrot.

"Mortal blood and mortal bone.
spiky nasty sharp ol' stone,
to hunt for baby Night-y.

Rusty nails and ol' dogs tails,
cat o' nines and nightshade wine,
mortal hair and mortal flesh,
to feed the baby Night-y.

Nighty, Nighty, whot ye want?
Little girls eyes, or little boys tongues?
Feed th' baby Nighty whot it wants,
and burn th' hapless mor-tals!"

The little creature sang it hideous song in a musical, lilting voice, its verses punctuated by wicked laughter as it scrabbled for the carrot.

Lenore shuddered as she listened to the evil song, though she hummed along to it unknowingly. Flaring her razor feathers and howling a battle cry, she leapt off the cabbage and landed near the creature.

"Who are you, and why is you stealin' our carrotses?" she yelled at the thing angrily.

The creature jumped and turned, staring at Lenore curiously.

"Well met, well met! Does it wants a bit? I trade fer that pretty blood ye wear 'round your neck, little lady Raven-Born."

Lenore grabbed at her vial pendant and clutched it tightly, eyeing the creature with suspicion.

"I isn't tradin' it," she said flatly. Looking him over, she crept a bit closer to the creature.

"What is you?"

The creature bowed with a flourish.

"Th' name's Dobql - duergarr extrodinaire, at ye service."

"What d'you want?"

Dobql jerked a thumb at the half-unearthed carrot.

"Gettin' dinna for meself, o'course. Why izzit that a noble kree-cher like yaself is in a little out o' the way veggie patch like this? Izzit your court's? Iffen it 'tis, I wasn't meanin' to do no harm-"

Lenore cut him off with a confused shake of her head.

"My court's? What d'you mean?"

Dobql leaned against the carrot and looked at Lenore as though she was talking madness.

"Pfft! Innit obvious? You's a Unseelie, through an' through, so obviously an Unseelie is livin' in their court's land! Ain't part-i-cularly bright, are ye, Raven-Born?"

Lenore stiffened.

Unseelie?

She'd heard the word a couple times before - once, from Julian, and once, from the white fire that had swallowed her a few weeks ago.

She was about to grab Dobql and shake more information from him when she heard Dei calling for her.

"DEI! CAP'TIN! Over here! Help!" she called out to him, seizing Dobql and glaring at him.

Holding Dobql by the collar of his shirt, Len picked him up and showed him to Dei.

"We got's us a thief," she said, angry for no reason she could think of.

Dobql writhed in Lenore's grip, trying to get loose.

"Wasn't doing no harm! Wasn't doing nuffink - jus' gettin' summat to eat! Lemme go, Alecto, lemme go!"

Lenore twitched and let Dobql go instinctively, confusion whirling in her mind.

"Alecto?"

Dobql rolled his eyes.

"Don't know nuffink at all anymore, does ya?" he asked sympathically before turning to run.

Snapping out of her confusion, she snatched Dobql back up again.

"Alrighty, tha's it. Start talkin', or me an th' Cap'tin start doing, uh, mean things." she said in as threatening a manner as she could, feeling a bit guilty as Dobql turned frightened eyes up to her.

"Pirates is mean and nasty to whoever get's 'em mad, right, Dei?" she said, twiggy finger firmly wrapped about Dobql's neck.

Dobql stared at Dei with huge eyes.

"Needn't threaten - you and I, we almost kin, er, Cap'tin."

Wincing as Lenore's grip on his neck tightened, he looked up at the girl dolefully.

"Whot izzit you wants?"

"What the bloody hell is an Unseelie, and why'd you just call me Alecto?" Lenore demanded, smiling at Dei craftily.

"I dunno, Dei, I think he'd burn much faster n' that. Mebbe if I slice him up a lil' bit first - he could burn REAL good then."

Dobql gave a squeal and looked at Deimos again.

"Ye wouldn't!"