Welcome to Gaia! ::

[I WANT THAT ONE]

[Unaccompanied Minors]

[Trapped in the Mall]

Mom was... shopping. It was a mysterious pursuit that involved walking up and down hallways and aisles and in and out of stores and examining every single object known to man and holding it up to see if it would fit but deciding it was the wrong color and manhandling avocados and staring at packages of meat for invisible differences in cut and fat content, and then when you actually found something satisfactory you took it to the man at the counter and gave him the thing and gave him a card and he'd swipe the card through a machine and it would beep for a while and then you'd take your thing and go to another store and repeat the whole process. Naturally, Nahuel often found himself incredibly bored during shopping trips, so he had been left in a curious indoor playground called Kidspace where, for just ten dollars, a pair of bored teenagers would make sure no child under the age of seven cracked their head open.

Mostly it was full of screaming infants and bawling children his own age. Nahuel had easily gotten bored with the other, ordinary children who seemed content trying to chew his tail, and climbed all the way to the top of the little playfort.

From his newfound and rather regal perch he took the time to look around the whole of the room. Maybe he'd spot someone interesting from up here. After all, he certainly hadn't seen anyone from the ground.

"I'm sure you'll find something fun to do," Alaina reasons with the winged child unforgivingly clawing at her pant leg. "Mum'll be back in just under an hour, Garrett, hun, I promise."

Garrett cranes his scarfed neck up at his guardian, his golden eyes examining every muscle spasm across her face and every emotive change readable through her eyes. He does so in such a casual way that one would not think the examination to be demeaning, rather than to be felt as a slightly awkward specimen to be observed and learned from. Alaina chocked it up to the fact that he's a curious boy who looks at the world with new eyes.. but really, what else is a bird of prey to do but to take in his surroundings, to know them with such delicate intimacy that they could be one with the feathers on his back or tail?

Adjusting the tiny blonde child she holds against her shoulder, who, thankfully, has finally fell asleep, Alaina runs her other hand, weighed down at the elbow by shopping bags as it is, through the Eden's fluffy bangs affectionately.

"Give me one hour. Only that," she murmurs, tilting her head in expectancy of a response.

Considering this, looking from his sister to his mother and finally to the Kidspace entrance - equipped with two doors, one that has been proportioned for the little ones specifically - he finally nods his approval and whispers, barely audible, an "okay."

His guardian smiles brightly with relief and newfound shopping adrenaline. "Good! Good. I'll be back in one hour. Be good!"

Garrett waits for his mother to pay, wave her rushed goodbye, and disappear around the corner before he brings himself to enter through the small door into the obnoxiously bright coloured room. He squints a little to allow his hypersensitive eyes time to adjust.

Nahuel focussed in on the newest arrival. Did that boy have wings? He reminded him a little of Hana in that aspect, except Hana was a butterfly. Hmm. Still, the boy looked more interesting than any of the other kids. The jaguar boy pushed his hat into a more secure position on his head and judged the distance to the ground. No worse than jumping off the bookcase, right?

His tail streamed out behind him like a banner as he jumped and landed in a crouch on the ground, his movements somewhere between feline grace and toddler stiffness.

Still on all fours, Nahuel fixed his hat again and made his way over towards the other boy, eyes narrowed nearly to slits as he went.

"Hiya!" he proclaimed, sitting back on his haunches in front of the feathered child.

It's not often that something manages to startle Garrett, but he certainly was not expecting an aerial assault! He nips the tip of his tongue but manages to not jerk away at the reveal of the cat-like boy. Instead, he smooths his wings against his jacket and begins his customary look-over with his intense golden eyes.

"Hullo," he says carefully, resting his thumbs in his pockets. He tilts his head to the side, trying unsuccessfully, with his limited knowledge in numbers hindering him, to count the number of peculiar spots on the boy's tanned skin.

He blinks suddenly, determining it to be impossible and therefore it must be a bajillion spots! He eats back his silence, remembering what his mother always reiterated for him to practice in social situations: conversation. At least, ones that extend further than his own head.

He decides on: "You have a lot of spots. Have you ever tried t' count them all afore?"

Nahuel, who had never even considered doing such a thing, tugged at his tail and focused on the end of it. "No," he said, feeling slightly stupid. Why hadn't that ever dawned on him? He started to count them now, but got confused about which ones he had and hadn't counted and gave up around ten.

"I guess 'bout five hundred," he shrugged, releasing his tail. It swished back behind him and slowly wagged back and forth, sweeping various bits of debris around the carpet.

"'m Nahuel," he said, sticking out a hand. "Nahhhhhhhh Wellllllllll," he repeated, annunciating.

A smile cracks into Garrett's stony demeanor, and he accepts the hand offered to him with steady politeness. "I'm Garrett," he responds, and with a little hesitation, he follows Nahuel's lead with, "G-aaaairrr- ret. Tuh."

The tips of his tail feathers ruffle slightly as another child runs past, oblivious to the introductions of the two boys. Still, Garrett is aware of it, and files it into the back of his mind. Red headed female, noisy voice, now relocated to the east end of the room. This calculating observance has become - rather, IS - second nature to him, and takes no more than a second away from his attention.

Now closer to his acquaintance, he once again looks over the spots, almost beginning to help in the effort to count them again. But he stops himself, forcing himself to continue talking. Out loud, that is.

"Did your Mum leave you too?" he asks in a soft and gentle tone. His thumbs again find their place in his pockets. "Mine says she'll be back inna hour and I'm s'posed to stay here." He doesn't quite like it indoors, and as much as it's usually inevitable, the crowds within the mall are much, much worse and would make Garrett very uncomfortable, Alaina knew. A lesser of two evils, she supposed.

Nahuel nodded at Garrett. "She's shoppin'," he said, fixing his eyes on Garret's. They were the same color, even if they had nothing else in common appearance-wise. "Didn't want to take me," he added, chewing his lip. The other boy didn't talk like kids their age, and Nahuel wanted to impress him and string more words together. He was suddenly finding his pragmatic manners of speech babyish.

"Didja see the play fort?" he asked, pointing to the wooden structure behind him and getting up. "'s good for climbin!"

In demonstration, he leapt at the fort and began fighting his way up a rope ladder.

"See?" he asked, looking at Garrett over his shoulder. "'s fun!"

A fort! He had noticed it, truly told, but didn't give it much thought at all. Following Nahuel's lead and attempting the same pace, Garrett too starts for the ladder, but only three steps up does one of his taloned toes, broken out of yet another pair of boots, catches on the rope and set him back on his bottom on the padded mat. One of the supervisors glances his way, but doesn't deem it worthy of her effort to come over and check on him.

Garrett winces, but immediately leaps up onto his feet out of sheer stubbornness. One of his tail feathers is bent, damaged in the fall, but other than a numb pain in his behind, one the toddler deems easily ignorable, he feels all right.

"Coming, coming," he calls up at Nahuel in a gruff tone as he begins to climb again, this time much more carefully. He focuses his eyes on his hands, one two, one two, to avoid seeing the other's reaction to his fall.

Nahuel wrestled his way up onto the top platform and looked down at his new friend. Garrett was taking more time on the ladder, but then again not everyone could be amazing at everything, and those feel looked hard to climb with. Or do anything else with, for that matter. He reached a clawed hand down for his new friend to take and braced himself against the top board.

"Come on!" he urged. "Let's go to the tunnel next!"

He motioned across the platform with his head. There was a plastic tunnel stretching to the next tower.

"'s cool!"

Now, the idea of enclosing himself within the constraints of a plastic tunnel wasn't exactly the most appealing idea Garrett has heard all day, but some sort of pride in him won't allow for his turning back now. If only his mother could see this!

Pulling himself up with the help of the other child and leaving the rope behind, Garrett tucks his wings very neatly against the folds of his jacket. "Okay, tunnel we go," he agrees with a faltering voice. How much easier this would be if he could only be taught how to make use of his wings! Then he could meet the other at the top of the tower by his own means and not through some very enclosed space and-

While all this thought clouds his mind, he finds himself already at the mouth of the tunnel. Swallowing harshly, he abruptly looks to Nahuel for guidance.

Nahuel, who was already a bit of a ways into the tunnel, noticed his new friend's faltering. What was wrong? Did Garrett not really want to go in the tunnel? He craned his head around and then turned around completely.

"'s short," he consoled his new friend, pointing to the end of the tunnel. It was only about five feet long. "'ll be over in no time," he added, using a phrase Mom reserved for things like shots and icky medicine. Grinning, he began backing up through the tunnel, keeping his eyes locked on Garrett.

Climbing was climbing, after all, and the tunnel was way easier than the ladder. If Garrett had done the ladder, why couldn't he do the tunnel?

A quick glance at the tunnel's length eases Garrett's anxieties a little. It is short.

Inhaling sharply, Garrett follows his new friend loyally through the tunnel, keeping his eyes and thoughts fixated on the top. His breathing quickens, and he uses this as a distraction from his screaming instinctual need for open space, working, as his arms and legs work through the tunnel, on keeping it even.

"Almost there?" he asks weakly as his right wing grazes the plastic tunnel.

"Yup!" announced Nahuel reassuringly as he climbed out of the tunnel. He had safely made it across the gap and now sat down on the platform to look back at Garrett. He could tell the boy was having trouble but wasn't sure why. "s' almost over!"

He looked around the platform, sizing up what sorts of fun they could have here. There was a net bridge to another tower, but there was also an open-topped plastic slide spiraling down to the bottom of the play area.

"Wanna slide?" he asked Garrett.

Reaching Nahuel's side on the platform, safely conquering the tunnel and his subsequent fears, Garrett breathes an audible sigh of relief. Space! Options!

"Yes," he agrees a little too eagerly, brushing at his bent tail feather consciously. "Down the slide, that's fun!"

"Yeah!" shouted Nahuel, a sort of feral excitement taking over his voice box. He was about to dive down the slide but then remembered what Eshaa had told him about manners and taking turns.

"You wanna go firs'?" he asked Garrett curiously.

Smiling genuinely, Garrett accepts the offer with a quick nod. He's gone down slides before, and they're very very freeing!

"Thanks," he murmurs in his normal tone as he carefully maneuvers around Nahuel and onto the top of the slide without knocking into everything with his feathers or talons as he once used to.

Tossing a grin over his shoulder at Nahuel, the boy hesitates no longer. He pushes off with his arms and takes off down the slide with a whoop and a thrilled shout!

Nahuel peered over the side of the tower and watched his friend get off the slide. Well, if he'd had fun! Nahuel maneuvered his way onto the slide and pushed off onto the slick plastic. He cheered as he went down.

"Again?" he suggested when he stood up at the bottom, and cast his eyes towards a wall of tires meant to act as a ladder up the tower.

"Again again!" Garrett chimes without question. Another child screams happily as they too enjoy the slide. It seems that with his mind otherwise occupied, Garrett cannot keep up with absolutely all of his surroundings as per usual for the boy, but for some reason, in the presence of the other, he doesn't quite seem to mind it.

He examines this new ladder for a mere second before deeming it all right. Now rubber his talons can handle! "Beatchu to the top!" he croons with a playfully challenging sort of grin aimed at Nahuel.

In an absentminded sort of fumbling way, his wings stretch at awkward spans, one spread up at the tip and the other folded but ruffled. Unaware of this, or at least not thinking it an unusual sight, Garrett starts up the closest row of tires.

Nahuel accepted the challenge with a feral growl and leapt at the second row of tires, digging his claws into it. He was fast at climbing, and this surface had good traction. He was about to pull ahead of Garrett despite the other boy's head start when he got hit in the face with...

...a wing?

Nahuel sneezed and dropped back to the ground.

"No fair!" he shouted. "Cheater!"

He had barely reached halfway when the accusation is cried out. Garrett stops, setting his foot back down on a solid surface before twisting his body around to get a proper look. He opens his mouth to protest, but as his wing now grazes the tire he holds onto and crumples instinctually to maintain its shape, he realizes he can no longer deny it.

Frowning harshly, he reverses his footing to take one step down. "M' sorry," he murmurs softly, his voice barely carrying over the shouts and screams of over children nearby. He tries again, this time projecting just a fair bit louder, not wanting to offend. "Sorry! I dinnt mean to!"

Apologetically, but not before clutching the lip of the tire he holds onto to ensure he too doesn't fall, Garrett offers one of his brown dusted hands to Nahuel.

Nahuel stared at the hand for a bit before taking it. Well, if he said so... Mom had said he should believe people when they apologized. "'s okay," he added, starting back up the wall of tires. It took him a bit, but he fought his way back up to where he had been before.

"Less climb!" he urged, continuing to wriggle up the wall.

He'd seen the hesitation, but tried very hard to not let it bother him. He hadn't meant to do it! Stupid silly looking wings. No one he's seen has funny looking things out their backs, no one but the pigeons on his windowsill came close.

"Yeah, we climb!" He starts up the tire again, and surely can't scale the tires as naturally as his company can, but this doesn't stop him from giving every effort to try and match his pace!

Nahuel grinned down at his new friend and fought his way over the top of the wall. He sat there and peered down, thinking. He'd never seen someone with wings like that before and wondered if they were maybe a little like his tail? He had nearly no control over his tail. So maybe Garrett really hadn't meant it.

He extended a hand down for the bird boy.

"I go firs' this time?" he asked.

Garrett resorts to a nod, waiting for his breathing to catch up with him. He sits down, welcoming the slight moment for rest, then manages to say, "Yup. You first this time."

His right wing twitches a bit, but settles against his back and the folds of his jacket. Deciding it better to keep moving than to get comfortable, especially with the heavy foot traffic near the ledge, Garrett pulls himself into a reliable crawl. His talons, while he thinks they're pretty cool, don't serve as well to be walked on than his knees.

"We go down the slide again?" he asks, affectionately remembering the short lived but exhilarating thrill of rushing toward the ground in a free-fall.

"Yup!" exclaimed Nahuel, who promptly flung himself onto the slope of plastic and disappeared around the first curve. A whoop of excitement trailed behind him.

Garrett takes extra care to tuck in his wings and sit properly on his tail feathers to avoid any more accidents of any sort, to the irritation of a handful of children waiting to get down the slide themselves.

Down, down, down! Garrett can't help but to cheer as the air brushes by his face and the slide's low sides rush by his line of sight. It's very disappointing to feel the mat under his feet once more, knowing that his ride has ended.

"Funfunfun," chatters Garrett, abnormally chatty.

"Uh huh!" agreed Nahuel, dusting himself off from where he had landed on the mat. He began looking around for what to do next. Was that a... a trampoline? over there where all those kids were jumping up and down?

He got up and hopped a few times trying to get a better look. It was!

"Wanna bounce?" he asked Garrett.

"Bounce?" Garrett parrots, following Nahuel's path to the trampoline. Oh, so that's what that was for! Bouncing! He'd done that plenty of times at home, only every time he did, he'd gotten yelled at for tearing up the comforter with his toes.

Still, this doesn't look to him to be as soft as his mum's bed. He pats the trampoline's center cautiously to test its durability. It seems tough enough! And he severely doubted that the caretakers of this place would tattle on him to his mum. That's good enough for him!

One leg after the other, he pulls himself onto the rim of the trampoline, and, lacking the proper caution, walks out onto the middle while others bounce on it. This lands him straight on his bottom, once more! But! What's different this time is that, even on his bottom, he manages to bounce! He screeches out an abrupt laugh at this realization.

Nahuel followed Garrett out onto the the trampoline. He had to use every last piece of feline instinct to keep his balance, but once he was closer to the center began hopping along merrily, giggling as he went.

"'s lotsa fun!" he called to Garrett, attempting to help the other boy up. This was not a particularly good idea. His balance gone, Nahuel found himself also flat on his rear and bouncing like a rubber ball. Unsteadily, he got to his feet and jumped a few times, testing the give of the trampoline.

Wow! This was almost like flying! Well, in as much as jumping off the bookcase was like flying.

Allowing himself to be tossed around helplessly against the surface a few times, Garrett finally decides it's time to regain control. He decides against using Nahuel as a support, as this has proven unwise already.

Instead, in the instant he's sent airborne again, he spreads his wings just enough, with a slight concave curve, to provide a cushion of air. It takes two tries, but finally his feet are doing the pushing instead of the momentum of other's!

"Look, Nah, look how I do it!" Garrett exclaims breathlessly, spreading his arms to match his wing span. His bounces are slower and almost more controlled than the other children, but certainly this doesn't hinder the amount of fun the boy is having, not at all!

"You're flyin'!" cooed Nahuel after a moment's observation. Wow! He was so jealous of Garrett now. He should have thought of that before, after all. If Garrett had wings, it was only logical he could fly. And all Nahuel had was a useless tail!

Oh well, if he couldn't jump all fancy like Garrett, he'd just jump higher. In his next few bounces, he worked on springing upwards like the cats he'd seen on TV. It also seemed that there was a way to land in relation to how everyone else was that would make his bounces higher.

Finally, with a whoop, he soared upwards past Garrett.

Hah!

Garrett whoops out a laugh, sounding a little screechy by laughing standards. Utilizing every muscle he's aware of, he tries to flap his wings to catch the air in the right way to allow for flight. In all his other attempts, he's never once succeeded in more than a second's float, but this friendly competition for air time sparks new hope in the child.

His left wing crumples under the first try. He grits his teeth, thankfully maintaining his balance and catching the trampoline with his feet, and tries again. And although he manages to slow himself down on his descent, he never once manages to fully capture some independent air time.

"How you .. get so .. high up?" he shouts between every bounce.


"Yah gotta land righ'!" cried Nahuel, rebounding off the trampoline's surface and whizzing past him again. Landing again, he continued, "you gotta land righ' before someone else!"

He wasn't sure of how exactly it worked, but he knew if you jumped right when someone else landed you'd go SOARING. And it was awesome. He was proud of himself for figuring it out, but at the same time he wanted Garrett to figure it out. After all, they were friends!

Watching his feet now with unfailing determination, Garrett lands at the same pace as he has always done. How to change that, he wonders? Well, first he tries tucking in his arms, but when that doesn't do anything, he sticks out both his arms and his wings at the same curve.

Success! Someone else's landing is his own bounce boost! He leaps higher than ever before - though not quite as high as his friend's top record - and laughs with delight. "I diddit, Nah, I diddit too!!" So high! So high! He loves being so high!

"Gaaaaarrett?" a familar voice calls, melting very much into the background noise.

"Yah did!" cheered Nahuel. It had felt good to be the best for a bit, but he was just as happy that his friend had figured it out. And Garrett stayed up for longer - Nahuel just fell like a rock.

He lost his momentum and gradually bounced to a halt before taking hold of Garrett's foot as he continued to hover.

"I think someone's callin' yah," he said.

Garrett folds his wings to discontinue his fake flight experience, purposely falling at Nahuel's side.

"Oh," he mumbles, looking around with deflated enthusiasm.

His guardian spots him and strides over, weighed down by even more shopping bags and his sister, miraculously asleep all this time. "It's time to go, honey," she explains soothingly, gesturing with the only available body part, her head, toward the door. She takes note of the other boy with a hidden yet hopeful smile; did he actually socialize without needing her constant nudging?

Garrett gives a downfallen glance at Nahuel, looking absolutely mournful to be taken away from his company. "I gotta go.." is all he grumbles before his golden eyes retreat to the floor at his feet.

Nahuel frowned. No fair! And they were having so much fun! Though he guessed he couldn't protest, since if Garrett's mom said he had to go, and she was his mom, and moms were generally right, then he had to go.

"Byeeeee," he sighed reluctantly. "'had fun."

He watched Garrett leave and retreated back to the play fort. His earlier boredom resumed, and he crouched in the highest tower and waited for his mother.

But he had a friend now! he reminded himself. Not just a friend like Teagan, but a real friend his own age! Yay!

Dear jurnal Journal,

Mom sez says I have to prak prax practice my letters.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Like that.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

We went to the mall. I met Garrett. He is cool! He haz has wings! And he can flie fly! Sort of.

Then we had krismas crismas christmas this morning. I got legos!

sinser sinceer LOVE,
Nahuel

Nahuel had been almost impossible to get to sleep. He had been excitedly blabbering about his new friend Garrett for the whole afternoon, but Eshaa finally managed to wrestle the little boy through a bath, into pajamas, and into bed, where he promptly realized he was very, very tired.

Eshaa was pretty sure she wasn't all that tired, but that didn't explain why she was hallucinating Wystan hauling a suitcase towards the front door.

"What's going on?" she asked him. It looked like everything he owned was in that suitcase, and the two others just like it, that were stacked by the door.

"I got a call from the institute," he explained, setting the suitcase down. "They want me on the next flight."

"So you're leaving? What about the work on the dig?" asked Eshaa. Something vastly more important flashed across her mind. "What about the rent?"

"It's paid for three months," said Wystan. "The institute's assigned me to the taurian cultural foundation. They just got their grant money renewed and they know I've wanted to get onto that project for ages. Help me get these to the elevator."

Eshaa complied.

"What about Nahuel?" she asked.

"I'll call and write. It's not like I'm his father."

"Yeah, but he adores you."

"Tell him I had to go on an adventure on another planet and I'm meeting with aliens and fighting bad guys and finding treasure."

"Wystan, we are aliens."

"He doesn't know that. I'm going to miss my flight."

"You couldn't have told me before you walked out the door?"

"I only found out this afternoon. I've really got to go."

"Take care of yourself, Wyst."

"I'll be sure to."

The centaur man stepped into the elevator and the doors closed. Eshaa went back into the apartment, still not sure what she was going to tell her son.

[Out of Season (cross-posted with Esperanza's journal)]

"Look, mom! A bird!" shouted Nahuel, who had run ahead of Eshaa. He was excitedly hopping around something he had found in the snow. From the distance she was at, Eshaa could see that it was brilliant blue and and gold. As she got closer, the patch of color formed itself into a large parrot.

"It's not moving," said the toddler, crouching down to inspect his find.

"Don't touch it," said Eshaa, finally catching up to her son.

"But it's hurt!" he protested, not moving back any. Eshaa bent over and gave the bird a better look. Its breathing was very slow and its eyes looked glassy.

"Remember when you went to work with me? How warm it was?" she asked the jaguar boy at her side. Nahuel nodded.

"Uh-huh," he said.

"This bird's home is a place like where I work. What's the weather like here?"

"Cold," said Nahuel astutely, chewing on the end of his scarf.

"So the bird can't live in cold weather like this because it's home is warm," said Eshaa. "Let's go inside."

"Can we take the bird?" asked Nahuel, tugging on her coat. He looked hopeful. Eshaa hesitated long enough to be interrupted by the crunch of snowboots. She turned to spy an older man in a building maintenance staff uniform approaching them.

"Sir?" she asked, not sure if she'd ever seen him before. Maybe he was new. "Sir, do you know the animal care and control number?"

He didn't reply, but he did approach them so he was standing over the bird. And then he began to laugh. A low, steady, guttural laugh. Eshaa took her son's hand.

"Nahuel? Let's go, kiddo," she said, trying to pull him away.

"Mom! The bird!" he shrieked. Eshaa looked again. There was no sign of the old man, not even prints in the snow, but the bird...

The bird was on fire! It was encased in a flickering red glow and was thrashing madly in the snow, its wings carving wild patterns and flicking half-melted ice into the air. Its mouth was moving, but Eshaa couldn't hear anything. Whatever this was, it wasn't normal, even for Gaia. What had even happened?

She looked down at Nahuel, who looked a bit terrified and was clinging to her leg for dear life, and scooped him up into her arms.

"Mom! The bird!" he protested again.

"Let's go, Nahuel," she said forcefully, pressing a hand over his eyes and hurrying into the building. Hopefully, he hadn't been traumatized.

There is a letter and a package for Nahuel in the mail today.



Growth Quest! In order to grow, Nahuel needs to complete the puzzle and learn about the Mayans! This quest should be 2 to 5 posts of at least 400 words each. PM the mule when you're done!