Welcome to Gaia! ::

Yuma raised an eyebrow; "Well if you know a way that doesn't involve me getting struck in the chest by a dragons tail?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well, even when they have such a bad opinion of me, and blame me for their mother's death?"

Kaos stood up, "What! He hit you!!! That's no way to go to the Abyss!!!" He shot a glare at Toole, "What the hell were you thinking!!! you could have killed her!!" He walked away from the table and left the inn, making his way up to the Island.

Ailes rushed after him, "Dad! What the hell?"

He called in his pipe and began inhaling heavily, "I can't have her getting smacked around like that... she'll be joining me quicker than i'm willing to let her!"

Ailes grabbed his arm and spun him around on air, "Well that doesn't mean you have to blow up and leave!"

They studied each other for a moment; Ailes with her intense glare, and Kaos giving her a lost look.

"I was merely retrieving A potion to give to Yuma that will knock her out for a few days..."

Ailes nearly fell from the sky over the huge misinterpretation she had made, "Hell's fire... i thought you were mad."

"I was," he chuckled, "But not at what you think i was..."

Ailes smiled, "Well then, I'll leave you to your business..." she kissed her dad's cheek and ran back to the inn.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ive snorted, "Mother night! If I gave up after every time someone had a bad opinion on me, i'd be a pile of trash on the side of the road asking for money. You can't let "Bad opinions" Affect you; you have to change them! That's your job as a parent! Hell, I hated my dad, I can't even count how many times i told him that, but you know what, Toleranth, That never stopped him from being there for me when i needed him."

she sighed, "My mother may have thought of him as the biggest pile of s**t ever put on this earth, but to me he was.... he was my hero... and i never got to tell him that." she looked at her reflection in her glass, "No, instead i get to mope around thinking about how my father would bend me over his knee now; Despite my age, and crack me in the a** a few times for all i've done. He would be so disappointed in what i've become, yet, he'd forgive me, and love me just the same."

she took another swig of her tea to try to hide her tears, "Damnit Toleranth, don't give up now... you've only just begun. If you think your kids are grown up you're sadly mistaken... hell they're not even a quarter of the way through their lifespan. they're still just kids. hell, I'm still a kid. I'm still learning about life, and how much it sucks, but i think i'm getting the hang of it." She looked at him and smiled despite the tears now streaming from her eyes, "You can't tell me that someone of your intelligence could actually be outsmarted in the game of life by someone like me."

Then it occurred to her, "Wait a minute... you're a teacher right? Go talk to Kaos sometime. He was a teacher all his life, and was so wrapped up in being good at what he did, that it wasn't until one of his students came back 30 years after he had graduated; with his family, that Kaos realized what he had been missing. Kaos was 135 at that time." Ive smirked, "And even though he only knew his daughters for 6 years of their lives... they don't hold it against him. Maybe there's something you can learn yet..."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ian appeared as a glowing white light fluttering around the tree, then came into view as his usual sprite form. he flew around the island and stopped at one end where he saw Kaos casually walking up to the island. He called down to him, "Got a minute?"

Kaos looked at his watch and sighed, "15 technically, why?"

Ian flew down to him and began telling the story as fast as he could, but what he didn't realize is that he began speaking in the Abyss's old tongue and then he looked at Kaos rather confused, "Did you understand anything i just said?"

"Every word..." his eyes were a hard violet as he continued his long path up to the island.

"So what are we going to do about it?" Ian asked while pacing on air.

"We aren't going to do anything... I'm going to Arynia," He made it to the edge of the island and looked Jezabelle over for a few long seconds then walked to the house, "From the looks of it, it would seem you have chosen a Lady... So it is your duty to protect her, Which you will do. I have a duty to protect two beautiful women in my life, which requires me to interfere with events in Arynia."

Ian stopped pacing and stared at Kaos's eyes. He could see, for the first time in a long time, Kaos had been on the killing edge. It scared him to know what he was capable of doing at this point, but he had very little time to do too much, "What are you planning, old friend?"

a cold smirk curved Kaos's lips, "Start at the source, and see how far my power will let me go..."

Ian shuttered as he backed away from him.

Kaos walked into his house, but as he reached the door he laughed, "For a second there you sounded like your father..." he looked over his shoulder seeing the doubled image of Ian's father standing next to him, "I'm glad to see you're filling in his roll quite nicely."

Ian blushed and turned away from him, "Thank you..."

Ive smirked and hopped off her stool to get back to work on making breakfast orders and refilling coffee. she stopped by Toole's table and cleaned up the empty plates, "Awww, You're all alone now, Sugar... where'd they all go?"

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ailes smiled, "Dad's just fine, He's not mad at all. He went up to the house to play chemist again... he's whipping you up a few visiting potions...I'm sure you can go up and see him." Ailes looked back down at the inn, "I had better get back to Toole... He's all alone with a big stack of pancakes..." she frowned, "I'm jealous..." She continued her path down to the ground and dashed to the inn.

~~~~~~~~~~

Kaos peeked is head around the corner and smiled at Jezabelle, "You sure can dear, I'm just grabbing a few things myself..." He pulled a wooden box down from one of the cupboards and dusted it off, "It's funny what sixteen years can do to your stuff... the house got refurnished overnight... doesn't it look nice?"

He pointed around the room at the various items that had been placed inside, and while Jezabelle was distracted he teleported up to his room and locked himself in with a barrier.

Ian gave her the warmest smile the boy could produce and said, "It's nothing to worry about, Kaos will take care of it. My responsibility is to stay with you, and protect you... so just stay close to me, okay?" He fluttered over and landed on her shoulder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ive smiled, "Alright, Did you want anything else?"

Ailes stormed into the inn and slid in next to Toole, giving him a nice warm hug, "Did you miss me?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The door opened and Kaos was standing there with his small round glasses resting on the end of his nose, "Darling, you're a fool if you think i'm young... but here, i made you a present..." he set two large bottles with corks stuck in the top.

He kissed her passionatly, then dashed passed her, "I'm off to Arynia after i see what it is Jezabelle wanted..." he stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked back up at her, "If you want to see what i really look like come to Arynia when i tell you to." He smiled and continued out the door, "Love you dear."

Kaos smiled softly and rested a hand on her head as it slowly flowed down her long hair and rested at her hip, "Honey, Before i leave i am making sure you will be able to return to a safe home soon; Very soon. I won't be gone too long, and i might even have a few minutes to say goodbye, but i can't guarantee i will look the way i do now as i stand before you. I'm sorry..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ailes sliced a piece of the fluffy pancake off and ate it. she smiled and looked up at Toole, "Now that's a childhood memory... Daddy used to make me these every morning... except he would make them in the shape of..." she flipped the stack over so the bottom one was looking up at her and she began to cry. at the very bottom was one shaped like a heart, "a heart."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ian sighed, "When we were in Arynia i wanted to see the type of environment you lived in... so i looked over Toole's roof and was devastated by what i saw. Men abusing women, People being forced into slavery, and a young girl being raped..."

He began turning a deep maroon color as he continued his story with a hiss, "Rage filled me with these sights, and thankfully i managed to save the girl... but i wonder how many others suffered a fate she almost had to endure... how many others were hurt like that. I decided that i could not have you living in such a place, so i took action. i told my mother to send up a hoard of Tree sprites to fight the men suppressing your people, and Kaos is going to join the battle."

Ian stopped her, "No, it's plenty pampered for a week, remember... i didn't think we'd be back for a while, so i prepared it." he smiled and ran his small fingers through the locks of her hair, "You have beautiful hair..."

~~~~~~~~~~

Kaos grabbed her arm and sat her in a chair, "Alright, but if you're going to be fighting there... listen. Ian called some Tree sprites from the Abyss to fight, because he saw what was going on there and didn't like it... Your father Toleranth has left for Arynia and i don't know where he is or where's he's going but he's probably taken out a good number, or was taken into custody. I, However, Find that things tend to unravel faster when they lose their center, so I'm heading for the throne. I won't bother with any of the other guards because they're not worth my energy. i figure i only have a little and don't need to waste it on them. I'll tell you when i have killed him, Fair?"

~~~~~

Ailes wiped a tear and looked up at Toole, "I'm not all that hungry... but i am worried about what everyone's up to... i feel like something else is going on... mom has a funny aura about her, and i can sense my father's energy from here, so obviously something went wrong there...." she set her fork down and snuggled as close to Toole as she could, "I think it's started...."

Ian smiled, "Your hair looks beautiful the way it is. i like it long like that. you don't need to do anything with it." he wrapped himself in it, the winced and scrambled to untangle himself and once he did he drifted to the ground where he laid there shuttering for a bit, suppressing a yelp of pain.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Kaos stood up and indicated he was ready to leave, but before he did he whirled Yuma into his arms and gave her another long passionate kiss, and while he was doing so he used a bit of magic to wrap a beautiful necklace around her neck. It was a silver diamond shape with a large chunk of his onyx jewel in the center, and diamonds surrounding it, "Be careful Yuma..."

He walked out the door and began walking over to Jezabelle and Ian, "Sorry i left earlier without telling you, i had things to take care of... but you had something you wanted to ask me?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ailes continued to rest in Toole's arms, "I'm still a bit tired.... wanna go take a nap?"

Kaos bent down next to Ian and shook his head, "Been taking on targets bigger than you lately."

Ian looked up at Kaos and hissed, "I wasn't about to let that damned monster win..."

he chuckled, "Just as feisty as your father too. You've crinkled your right wing... and it's going to hurt like a b***h to straighten it; still willing?"

Ian looked at the ground and growled, "Fine..."

Kaos smirked and laid Ian on his back...so his wings were pressed against the ground, and you could clearly see the difference between the wings.

Ian began to tremble as he felt one of Kaos's hands brace him down to the ground as he felt the tip of his index finger push up his wing. It hadn't began to hurt yet, in fact for how slow Kaos was moving his hand he began to relax slightly, but when he reached the first crimp Ian screamed.

He began kicking and thrashing around as Kaos yelled for him to keep still or it would only hurt worse. when he didn't listen Kaos pressed his hand flatter which allowed for very little movement for Ian, but he began turning a deep red and screamed louder, while Kaos continued to press and flatten the creases.

as he finished one a bright white light flashed and healed the damage of the wing so it would stay stable, but as he made his way to the edge he noticed that Ian had stopped breathing. It was causing so much pain that he wouldn't breathe... Kaos let up on the pressure of his hand and Said, "Ian, you have to breathe... i'm almost finished."

Ian began shaking and cried, "No! I don't want you to continue! It hurts too much!!! Please Kaos!!! Stop!"

Kaos frowned, "You have one crease left... it's right at the tip, so it's going to hurt like hell, but if i get it healed you won't have any more problems."

Ian looked up at him, his almond brown eyes trembling from fear, "Kaos...I...."