Welcome to Gaia! ::

Seeing the door slam shut in front of them, Maya turned to face the new open door. It seemed that the house wanted them to get moving, and Maya couldn't have agreed more. But Intus was talking about being hungry--was he even ready for this?

Before heading toward the door, Maya pulled up an image of the Logrus in front of her, it's drastic design swirling in midair for only Maya to see. With both hands, she reached out into the empty space of midair. Looking as if she was searching around for something that wasn't there, a minute later, an bright red apple appeared in her hand. She quickly handed it to Intus.

"Here, if you're hungry, you can eat this. I think the house is telling us to get a move on, so let's not dawdle around anymore. Are you guys ready? Because I sure am."

She headed toward the now open door at the other end of the hallway. "Mort, keep an eye out for me. We may be needing lots of help."

Will do, he replied, his emerald eyes glowing in the dim light of the hall. You know I'm watching over you.

Maya turned and waved for the other boys to follow. This would take forever if no one was willing to cooperate. "C'mon, let's move!"

As Maya stepped through the doorway, she looked all around her, noting her surroundings. The walls were covered in dust and curling old wallpaper that looked as if it was about to fall from the walls completely. Lanterns hanging from wall sconces lit up the hallway dimly, their glass covered in dust and grime as well, leaving little transparent glass for light to actually shine through.

Looking behind her, she saw Laertes reach out to grab her arm. She spun around just in time for him to catch up to her. "Looks like you're ready at least," she said, giving him a smile. "Shall we continue on? Maybe we can get in and out quickly." She paused, and gave the hallway another glance. "This place is definitely creepy. I'd like to find these things as soon as possible. I know the house is capable of far too much, and I wouldn't want to see any of us get hurt."

Continuing on ahead, she saw little more than hallway, with an occasional door here and there. "Do you think we should go into these rooms?" she asked Laertes, hoping he'd have a better idea of how to find the list of objects.

Maya noticed the strange opalescent threads as well, but didn't bother to make the observation out loud. The house was full of all kinds of strange things, and she knew they'd come into contact with much more than odd spiderwebs.

"What? We can't go back?" she asked Laertes, spinning around to look back at the doorway that they'd come from. Her eyes only met a darkness like she'd never seen before. None of the lanterns flickered behind them, and it was as if a black hole had sucked out all natural light. "Well, I hope we didn't need their help," Maya said aloud, sighing. She wished that they all would have stuck together, but she felt the most comfortable with Laertes, and was pleased she was wandering the creepy house with him instead of Intus and his jellyfish Daemon.

"Careful Laertes. You never know what's going to come out of these doorways," Maya insisted, her hair, though already pulled into spikey bun-pigtails, standing on end as well. A shiver ran down her spine, and Mortality squeezed her arm tightly, sensing the presence of an unknown person.

As the door opened and Maya saw the ragged old woman standing here, she stepped backward quickly, her back pressing into the wall on the opposite side of the hallway.

"Whoa." Her voice was but a whisper as she stood beside Laertes. "How long have you been trapped?" she asked, tilting her head to the side to try to get a better look at the woman. "We could use a favor," she agreed, giving Laertes a light nudge to the side with her elbow. "Can you get us anything we may need?"

Though Maya's Logrus powers allowed her to reach through Shadow and obtain what she wanted, she was fairly certain that it wasn't a good idea to bring Chandra's necessary ingredients through the Logrus. She was honestly a bit afraid of what may happen.

Things to attend to? What could the woman possibly need to attend to if she'd been stuck behind that door for all of eternity?

Maya was glad that Laertes spoke up, asking for the hand. It seemed it might have been the most difficult thing on the list to get, but if this old woman could provide it for them now, it'd be one thing they could check off.

The instant the hood slid off of her head, Mort squeezed Maya's arm incredibly hard. Danger was afoot. Shall I strike? he asked his Forgotten, waiting for her call. Though he liked to wait for her instruction, he would lash out to help the girl if necessary.

"Not yet," she whispered back to him. "Hold on." She watched as the woman's body shifted and the hood dropped, revealing her horrifying face.

"How about your hand? I'd rather use that instead of mine or his," she said, pointing to Laertes. "You've probably got extras, from what it looks like." Not wanting to run scared, Maya pulled up the Logrus again, but this time, by the hand that was dropped to her side. Casually moving her hand around as if she was searching for something in midair, she finally felt cold metal. Just what she was looking for.

She moved her hand behind her, and slid the dagger into the waistband of her skirt, not moving her hand from the wrapped-leather handle. It was a weapon, even if it was small. She hoped that she wouldn't need to use it, but this strange spider-woman seemed threatening. Maya could only imagine poison dripping from her long fangs.

Ethan points out the fact that the others are leaving and waits a moment to follow, but it was apparently too long. "Where did they go?"

Hurr wasn't the most thrilled at leaving Intus behind, but Ethan was walking away, so she had come along. "I don't know, but he is going to be all alone."

Still in hearing of intus, Ethan made sure to speak loud enough, "The house isn't that bad. It just makes life interesting." If he had judged the odd boy's personalitiy correctly, that should get him to follow. He told Hurr that mentally.

With that they keep walking. Who knows what they would meet. As such they needed to keep their focus on what's going on, not the last of the group.

As Ethan walked out into the darkness, he found himself suddenly at a choice point. The hall branched out in front of him to the left and right. From the left hall, if they listened closely one could faintly hear the gentle sounds of the ocean lapping at the shore. From the right hall, the smell of a fresh pie baking wafted out. Behind him, he could no longer see where had come from - the darkness closing in as it had on Maya and Laertes.

As Intus stepped to follow after Chandra, he accidentally trod on the trail of her robes. As she turned to look at who had followed her, the floor tilted under both of them. Chandra threw an arm out to the closest wall, but couldn't find any purchase on its smooth surface. Instead she and Intus slipped along the floor away from the entrance area and were both dumped into a field piled with snow.

The cold didn't seem to bother Chandra, who slowly pulled herself to her feet and looked around. "I had hoped the House would not interfere," she said to Intus, "but it appears it has other plans." She slowly looked about, and seeing nothing but snow all around, turned back to Intus. "I do not suppose you have a preference for which direction we pursue?"

She hadn't been expecting that, and the spider woman fell easily to Mortality's attack. Hitting the floor with a sickening thud, she hissed and scrabbled at the floor ineffectually. Freed from his temporarily paralysis, Laertes looked at Maya.

"How are we supposed to get her venom?" Not like he had a plan before, but now he really didn't know how to get the woman to co-operate.

“A-CHO!” Intus sneezed. Ugh… his head was all in a whirl. All he could remember was that he was following Chandra and the next second the world became all blurry, blurry and cold. The apple that was in his mouth was lodged firmly into his upper jaw making his face really sore. Intus tried to lift himself from his crumpled position in the snow, but he couldn’t feel his arms, or his feet. His eyes widened as he noticed his appendages were rapidly turning blue. Intus frantically searched the snow. THERE! Two was upside down in the snow a few feet away. Intus carefully picked him up with his purpling hands. Two’s body was turning to ice, and his feelers were stiff from the cold. Intus carefully wrapped him up with the front part of his sweater; his face was wrought with concern.

Chandra spoke to Intus as he was warming Two. Her golden eyes stared down at Intus and he did all he could to avoid them. The life was returning to his body, the cold didn’t seem to bother Intus too much, but it wasn’t comfortable. He looked around the landscape. They looked like they were outside, but the house was nowhere to be seen. And besides, it wasn’t snowing when he arrived at the house. “Still the house?” Intus asked. He already new the answer but affirmation would solidify his thoughts. "I do not suppose you have a preference for which direction we pursue?" Chandra questioned Intus. He was still looking around, for anything that would warrant a decision, but the landscape was barren. “I suppose… right would be right? But who’s right?” Intus stared at his feet.