Welcome to Gaia! ::

Raining and pouring, the old man in the sky was snoring, and the light was flashing away. It was days like these that Sah hated, because she hated getting wet! No, it had nothing to do with not being bale to go out, these days no one kept an eye on her, so she didn't even have to worry about sneaking out anymore! It was rather boring, and no fun, that all she had to do was walk out the front door, which is exactly what she did. After throwing her gray rain coat on, of course, over her silver T-Shirt and her jeans that she decided to wear to try and keep from getting so wet. But it wasn't too bad, since it was nice and muddy, after all! This actually might be fun, trekking out and about, she had never done this before.

Drop, drop, drop. She watched the water drops fall down from behind the window, elbows crossed on the window sill. It was raining outside and although the plan had been to go to the park today to play mommy had decided that they'd stay inside instead and go tomorrow. Why did the rain have to come and throw dirt in the awesome plan? "Ohh.. I wish someone'd come to pick me up!" she thought out loud, smacking her hand against the window glass, bright blue eyes staring to the nothingness intensely as if she hoped a head would pop up and take her off to some place fun!

Jumping and skipping about, it had been a slightly long walk from her home to this other near the river side, on the edge of the woodlands. Sahra was looking forward to spending time outside with her sister, she had planned on stealing her away since earlier that morning, but decided to wait and stick around for breakfast, or else she wouldn't have eaten at all that day. But how would she get Gabby to come out without saying anything to her devil of a mother? She always did, but for once, she hoped that she would not. Sneaking cleverly up to window side, she saw by her luck that Gabby just happened to be sitting by that very window, so, she pounded on it with one hand. "G-Bird!" She whispered, motioning her to open the window.

Drop, drop, oh! What was that? Gabby snapped back to reality as she heard a loud knock on the window, almost jumping up in surprise. She saw the head of a young cheetah girl innocently peeking above the window and when Gabby put all the pieces together and understood what was happening, she couldn't suppress a giggle. It was the Sah-La, of course, and she was motioning for her to open the window! A bright grin curled to her lips and she excitedly put her little fingers under the border of the window, giving it one large jerk before she could easily push it open. "Sah! Sah-la!" she called out, then smacked her hands for her mouth, looking back to see if anyone had heard it.

It remained quiet and Gabby chuckled under her breath before she turned back to Sah, now talking in a whisper: "Are we going out in the rain? Didya come to pick me up?" A sudden burst of energy hit the girl and she almost bumped her head against the window in the process. "I was supposed to go to the park, but then the rain came.." she added, reaching her little hands out towards Sah. Sure, the window wasn't that high from the ground, but she didn't want to climb through it and tumble forwards and so draw the attention of momi-eh and Elske.

"G-Bird be quiet!" The girl snapped ducking down after the large creak extended from the window. But she quickly saw that no one was going to just pop out of nowhere, so, they where safe, at least for a short time! They needed to escape into the woodlands before they got caught! But Sah did have to admit that Gabby was going about it mostly right, better than she usually did, she was surprised to see how well she actually understood what was truly going on. Well, she wasn't sure what they would do yet, but she would consult Gabby about that once they got away from the household she oh so disliked. "G-Bird," She said all hushed like, leaning in further, "Don't you want a rain coat?" But she reached her hands upward, anyways, nodding quickly in response, she would surely feel a lot better once they got out of there!

Be quiet? But she was being quiet! Relatively quiet anyway. "Pff, okays, okays. Gabbsy will be quiet. Or will try to be quiet anyways, that is just so hard sometimes, when dar is so much to talk abouts! Like now then I just won't stop, not my fault but.. because of all these things happening!" she said in one breath, glancing down at Sahra, not realizing that she was babbling away again. Well, yes, shutting up was just harder for some people than for others. Gabby grabbed Sah's hands and with a little bit of help she managed to jump out the window and land on the ground on two feet, flapping her wings to stay in balance. Raincoat? Ahh, well she wasn't going back in now. That'd be way too dangerous, nope, so instead she just grinned at Sahra, nudging her in the side. "Who's last there.. is .. is a pink monster!" she was about to speed away when she stopped herself and turned back. "Uhs, last..where?" she added, wondering if Sah had a plan and if yes what that plan was.

Sahra pulled on finger up to her lips quickly, "Shh!" She twisted around to look back inside the window, and quickly shut it after Gabby had stepped out onto the ground. "We need to get out of here in one piece, you know!" She whispered, her adrenaline starting to pump through her veins more than ever. Tail thrashing about and ears flickering alertly, Sahra pulled the hood of her gray raincoat up over her head, and turned back around on her bare heel to face her bird of a friend. "I am not sure yet...what do you think we should do?" She asked quietly, for once wanting her opinion on what to do. Maybe they could just go for a walk? Or go scout out some of those rainy day sort of animals? No, not many things were out on a day like this, were they? Well, all except for the birds and the worms, what a lovely combination. Let's figure this out in a few minutes." She looked back and forth in the yard to make sure the cost was clear, and then quickly, she grabbed Gabby by the hand and speed off into the trees.

Gabby could feel the excitement rushing through Sahra and a twinkle of enthusiasm also reached the lovebird. Excitement was more infectious than a cold! Although it was still raining and Gabby felt her clothes getting more and more soaked with the minute, it wasn't cold. Besides, they'd be running so even if she?d get cold she would warm up again soon enough."?We should go out and explore! But where to? I knoow, forest maybe? Yes, forest. Then we can shelter!" Yes the forest sounded like a nice place, the giant trees would definitely give them enough shelter from the rain, and well the forest was never a boring place!

A slight tuck on her arm, and Gabby felt herself being dragged off. Hey! This was not how it was supposed to go! She was supposed to be dragging people off! Gabby didn't really mind it much though, it going to other way around was fun for a change! She ran along with her sister, holding one hand above her face to not drown in the water falling down from the blue blue sky. "And there is water pouring down and down and down!" She started to sing as soon as they were far enough to not be heard.

Padding along quickly, Sahra grew less and less anxious by the second, or at least by the further they got from that god awful house. She was very happy to have successfully escaped the wrath of the devil reincarnated, oh yes, how wonderfully sneaky did she feel! A sense of pride shone through in her eyes, for some reason she felt triumphant over ditching the adults, a feeling she could no longer get in her household. "The forest? But we go there too much. I want to go somewhere new!" But where was the question, where could they g-- wait! That was it! Like the other night on the T.V. show, she knew where they could go! Even if the thought of deep water slightly intimidated her, they didn't have to go deep, really, and it would be nice! After all the day really was quite warm, and so was the rain water! It would be great! "G-bird!" She said excitedly, "Let's go over the climbing rocks to the beach! Yeah, we've never been there before!"

As they were running Gabby's thoughts wandered off towards her momi-eh. Would she be angry if she found out that Gabby had ran off? Would she be worried like last time when she went to the swamp? She wasn?t sure, Yane had proven to be able to react quite hysterically when she thought something had happened to Gabby, but most of the time she was rather laid back. Oh poo! Sah was running so fast! Gabby had a lot of trouble with keeping up but she wasn't going to give up! Not now, not ever! She just ruffled her wings hoping that?d give her some extra speed.

"Climbing? Rocks?" So far she had only seen people climb trees and get stuck in trees for that matter. Would it be the same with rocks? Ohh, if so, that sounded exciting! But didn't the beach also had to do something with water? Scary open and deep glinstering water? If so she?d just tightly hold on to her sister. Nope there was nothing to worry about at all. "Okays. Us goes to climb rocks and explore! In the rain!" She giggled excitedly, unable to see the dangers of climbing slippery rocks. "Maybe we'll find some new or shiny things while climbing!" she added, thrilled.

Sahra had never really realized that she was pulling Gabby a little to fast, normally she paced herself when running with the bird, but she was just a little to excited. The water was pounding down upon them, and she was almost constantly slipping and sliding in the mud of the path, but that made all the adventure, and the fun! Sahra finally got slightly agitated with the slowness of their pace, and pulled the bird up onto her back, and speed off again. Of course she wouldn't last for long this way, but they would surely get to the mountainside a lot faster! She huffed, pacing herself to an extent, she pushed herself along.

The rocks where in view! They would soon be successful! "You know the climbing rocks!" She exclaimed, "We've been there once before, remember? It was like the first day we meet!" She grinned as she ran, hearing again about Gabby's obsession with shiny things, she plotted something quickly in her head that she would keep safe for later use. "We'll be just fine." She replied.

Whoa! Gabby had been pulled on the back of the cheetah once again, something she was rather used to by now. One day she?d be able to fly perfectly, oh she couldn't wait, although being carried like this was rather fun as well. A whole lot of fun actually! She just loved distracting Sah while she was running by leaning forwards and tapping on the girl's head. It was their little silly game. "OH. It was da one time with the black spots!" she called out loudly making sure Sah would be able to hear her, when she realized what Sah was talking about and recalled that one-day. It had been her first day with Yane. It seemed so long ago already!

"I remember it was fun. But there better not be a lot of water near. Momi-eh is trying to gets me to swim, but I noes want to. Can you swim, Sah-la?" She didn't think that she had asked her sister this before and suddenly became very curious to it. If she couldn't then maybe they could go ahead and take the scary swimming lesions Asryane had been talking about together? That'd definitely make it a bit less terrible.

To be completely truthful, Sahra hadn't heard much of what Gabby was saying. Her mind was strictly concentrated at the task at hand; she was attempting to keep pace and keep herself from falling over or tripping or something she would normally do. Sahra wondered if she ever stopped talking? Wasn't quiet good at least sometimes? She liked to talk, too, but, not that much, Gabby must have it mastered.

"Uh, yeah, there is a lot of water...it?s a beach; it's on the ocean side." She huffed, finally near enough to the rocks; she dropped Gabby off of her back and plopped onto the ground, quickly catching her breath. "And I can swim, sort of...well enough not to drown. Nen's been helping me out with that, ever since I fell in." She skittered up the rocks, it wasn't all that steep at first and not to hard to climb, but soon it would become much harder. Many rocks and boulders lie here and there, but as they pressed upward, the number of them around lessened and lessened. It was true mountainside, although this particular area wasn't bad to climb up and over, it would take them a decent amount of time.

With a loud plop Gabby landed on the ground. If there was one thing she had gotten enough practice with it was landing. Landing after flying, landing after tumbling over, landing after getting thrown off Sah's back. Half her life seemed to consist of landing! Falling and getting up again! Not that there was anything wrong with that, no to be honest Gabby rather liked it. Falling meant excitement and excitement meant having a fun time!

"Water.. ocean." Gabby repeated. Her momi-eh might have mentioned something like that. Gabby could slightly recall that it had to do with ?stay away until you can swim? but she shrugged the thought off and happily followed Sah towards and up the rocks. "Momi-eh wanted to teach me to swim and although I wanted to try, really wanted to try, water scares me." She shrugged and hoped forwards, nearly slipping over some loose rocks as she trotted forwards, happily swinging her arms along, hair flowing behind her.

Sahra, evidently not taking notice of her sister-on-the-ground, hoped up onto her feet. Speeding down the remainder of the mountainside, she stopped once she fell the wet sand beneath her feet; so cool, and fine, and soft, too! Just like Aja's fur, except when it was dry! He smelled bad when his fur was wet, anyways. "G-Bird, come on! Or else all the water will be gone by the time we get down there!" And she truly meant it, it was the time of the day that the tide was in, or at least she had concluded from all of her mothers blabbing on to Aja the other night about some sort of sea serpent.

"It'll be fun! We can wade in the shallow water in the tidal plains; it doesn't get very deep at all for a long, long ways out!" Yes, that was good, very good, a very easy solution for them both.

"I comes!" Scrambling over towards Sahra, Gabby looked around happily. The scenery was gorgeous and she had to admit that the water felt nice on her skin. Not too cold, not too warm: it had a perfect temperature. Maybe she would only day actually like the beach and its water? She wasn't planning on going in today though! Her wings always felt so heavy after a bath and Gabby wasn't planning on letting that happen today. "Okays, if you say so Sah-la. I wonder what?s behind das all. Behind the water. Could we ever find out?"

It was rather odd, standing there and looking out at all the water while the rain was still pouring down on them. It had something beautiful and Gabby couldn't take her eyes off the water anymore. "I wonder how many baths we can fill with this! Lots and lots, I think!" She exclaimed, grabbing Sah's hand and leaping forwards, tightly holding on to Sah to prevent herself from falling over.

Pulling away from the bird, Sahra speed forward, sliding down a large hill of sand and small rocks, she came to the edge of the water, the place she knew to be the tidal planes. "Oh! So pretty..." She awed, quickly ripping off her raincoat, she cast it aside onto the sand. She didn't care if it was raining, it was warm out; this would be so much fun! At least for her, she doubted that Gabby would follow.

Running out into the water, she splashed about, knowing it wouldn't get much deeper than her waist for a long ways, she felt at ease, and rather excited. This was the first time she had ever been to the beach, and obviously the first time she had ever been in or around the ocean. "This is so nice!" She purred, dragging her feet along the sandy bottom. "You should come in G-Bird! It feels really nice." Grinning widely, she flopped down into the water, rolling around in water only about knee high, she didn't mind going under, so it was okay.

Gabby, closely following behind Sahra almost tripped over the raincoat Sah had just thrown on the ground. She picked it up and ran back towards the rocks, where she put it back down. "Stay there coatsy, till we come back.." With these words Gabby rushed back over to Sahra's side and although the water still scared her a little she followed her sister in anyway. She wasn't going to stay behind alone yet, no, Gabby was determined to give it at least a shot. "It feels a bit like the swamp! Ohh, Sah, when are we going back there?" The sand on the bottom indeed felt as the mud in the swamp, heavy yet soft and sandy.

Gabby watched her sister splash around in the water for a bit before she wade back towards the dry sand, kicking up little clouds of sand. Sand! That was it! She turned her gaze up to the sky, wondering if the sand castle she was planning on building wouldn't rain away. Nah, it probably wouldn't and so she started to make a huge pile of sand, strengthening the sand by splashing a little seawater over it. "Come help Sah! Let?s build a castle for ourselves!" She giggled happily, "I wanna be the princess~with lotsa shiny stuff!"

Splashing here and rolling there, Sahra was actually really enjoying the water for once. For this was so different than a lake or a stream, it was much larger, and didn't get very deep like a swamp did. She knew she would eventually have to deal with her slight fear of deep water, but for now, she would just enjoy her surroundings; the soft sound of waves washing up, the call of seagulls and the soft ring of creatures all about the plains. The tide was slowly starting to go out, so all of the water would be gone with in the hour.

"Sand castle?" The cheetah muttered curiously, finally scrambling up to shore to plop next to her sister. It did sound interesting to make one; she had made them with mud and dirt but not really ever with sand, since there wasn't any in the swamp. "Okay!" She laughed, grabbing a lump of sand and quickly begging a "castle" of her very own. "Princess, eh? I bet you'd be a good one, awing over all the shiny things."

As her little hands were working with the sand, the huge pile slowly began to look slightly like a castle. At least she had gotten the towers right and Gabby was now attempting to make a castle moat. Sand castles, hmm, she loved them! On television she had also seen these ice-castles, which people in cold countries made! Those were even shinier, but of course they'd melt. Yep, for them a sandcastle was perfect. Gabby cast a sideway look to Sahra and her own castle and she grinned widely.

"We can both be princesses! And bestest friends! Princesses are often best friends! Or you can be the prince if we hide the long hair!" Gabby burst out into giggles and she flopped back in the sand. "Shinies, of course! Mommy gave me a pretty shiny last week! Oh, comes Sah! I'll hafta show you!" As soon as her random obsession with sandcastles had come, it faded again, and a new question popped up in her head. "Do you think there are shinies under the rainbow? That is what mommy also told me. Could we find them?" She was darting around Sahra, eagerly waiting for her best friend to stand up.

The cheetah had to stop, just to watch the little bird work effortlessly on the castle of hers. What an architect! She surely couldn't construct something of that sort, even in all it's simplicity, Sahra knew she wasn't capable. But it was still fun!

"You're weird." The feline stated through grinning teeth, digging her fingers into the damp, cool sand. "We're already best friends, so we don't need to worry about that. 'Sides, I don't think I'd really like to be a princess, OR a prince. It'd be to much work, at least in my part, I'm not at all cut out for such a job! The whole political part of it, all the manners and proper jazz." Thinking realistically as she often did now, Sahra always realized the strange and the unknown, but she was very practical as well, and growing more into it every day.

"Um, I don't know, maybe!? Why don't we go try to find the rainbow!? And then we can go back to your house and show everyone! And you can show me your stuff, too, I guess. Think it sounds like a plan? I think it does! Come on; hurry, before the evil beach people get us!" Grabbing the lovebird by the hand, Sahra quickly dragged her off in the direction of the shimmering show of color in the sky; they would find the end, and find the riches that it hid!