Welcome to Gaia! ::

Shee nodded and smiled at the pair as well.

The woman kept on smiling; she didn't understand this strange, pale man and his quick words. He sounded nice enough.

Her grandson, being significantly taller than she was, bent over her shoulder and whispered the meaning of his words in her ear gently. She raised her head with understanding. Nothing more than a mere greeting it was; nothing more than was expected. The slim man's head was still waiting intently by her ear; he knew her better than anyone else after having lived with her for almost his entire life. She whispered back in her ancient Quechua tongue.

The man straightened and said in a precise, clear voice, "Good day to you as well. Where are you headed?"

The llama was gently nudging Mani. Only being about as tall as the creature, he began to stroke the side of its head. Mani knew about llamas.

The young man laughed softly. Complimenting livestock and pack animals was a very strange thing to do. Still, if this group was going to see Maita, they weren't as ignorant as they would have you seem.

Upon hearing Maita's name, the old woman frowned, and confusion clouded her brow. The man, seeing this, quickly asked her what was wrong.

"There were no flamingos at Maita's lake today. Did you not notice? There are always flamingos at his lake. Something is wrong there."

He stood still, furiously thinking about what this could mean. His grandmother was right of course. When they had passed by Maita's house a short while back, he hadn't noticed anything about his surroundings; indeed, they usually passed on this route enough times that he tuned out everything around him and instead focused on their path.

But what could have possibly happened? Maita very rarely stepped out of his home, and when he did, everyone knew about it. He was a good man; the thought of something bad happening in that serene little corner of the Andes sent shivers up his spine.

"I fear things might not go as planned, friends. Perhaps I should come up to Maita's with you to check on things? We could get there very quickly; I know of some quick routes."

Mani had heard the old woman say there were no flamingos at the lake today, and that made him sure that something was wrong. The older Incan man wanted to take them up to Maita's house to see what was wrong- Mani thought this a good idea, as the man probably travelled these Andes more than Mani and his friends combined. As much as he thought it would be fun to perhaps have an adventure, he looked across the faces of all the older people, seeind one thing written on them: urgency. He knew this was going to be no adventure. Glancing towards the llama and the wizened Quechua woman, Mani cleared his throat.

"I will stay here. You go see what is wrong."

"I am Atoc." The man looked questioningly at Shee, who had yet to really say anything.

Shee's face had taken on a expression of steely determination. She turned towards the man, opening her mouth to utter, "Shee."

Atoc motioned to the side of the trail, where the path stopped and unruly vegetation sprang up and curled together like a mess of tangled hair. He stepped off the dirt and began to walk.

Stepping through the vegetation was not easy. Shee was used to the cold, but she wasn't used to this. As she followed Atoc, she looked down at her feet often, trying to make sure to not trip over any stray roots.

Looking ahead at the Peruvian man, she envied his apparent ease as he walked through the mountain wild as effortlessly as he had walked the path. At least, she thought as she craned her neck back to look at him, Shane was not that good at walking up mountains, although admittedly still much better than she was.

That was the last thought on her mind as her feet flew out from under her and she fell back.

Well, this was not good.

Falling, Shee felt the rough bristle of the mountain savagely brushing against her skin. As uncomfortable as that was, her mind was more focused on trying not to fall off the mountain. As hard as she tried, she could not stop her descent. Frantically trying to grab something- anything, her hands closed on empty air.

Suddenly she felt a sharp, abrupt jab as an arm closed around her. She'd almost forgotten that there was somebody back there. Seeing a black-haired blur for just a second before her body hit the ground with a dull thud, she felt a heaviness closing in around her as everything began to fade from sight.

Hearing a loud, brash voice, her eyelids fluttered; and in a moment, Shee opened her eyes slowly and winced.

This was not what should have happened. She'd rather not have to explain to Shane why she'd regained consciousness so quickly, when she should have been out cold. Hopefully he'd think it was because of him. Passing a hand weakly over her ankle, she felt numerous scratches imprinted onto her skin. Perhaps...

Lifting her eyes to his, she refrained from saying anything right away. Thanks to her, there were now two things LOTUS had to worry about.