Welcome to Gaia! ::

She tugged at the ends of her sleeves, hoping they were long enough to cover any patches of skin revealed to the cold air. As the log reached its destination, Edel quietly slipped off and trailed behind the other sprites. Eyes remained downcast, trailing over the pale mushrooms and grass and occasional hole that she easily walked around. The only object of true interest was the cabin, but she wanted to shy away from its presence. Behind the cracks and scratches of the door was a flickering light, which indicated some sort of presence, but the important question was whether or not the presence inside was benevolent or malevolent. But they had little choice. Edel faithfully followed Altair and Fjorgyn to the door.

The scratches were a mystery to her. It must have been a warning of sorts, and as Altair spoke aloud she wanted to believe that the scratches indeed formed a words of sorts. The scratches seemed too thick and often to be a coincidence. Lips pursed together when the sprite found a number of words embedded into the door, but could not decide which one was the “correct” one. Her mouth constantly opened and closed as she attempted to pick out a satisfactory suggestion, but the tallest sprite seemed to have managed to find it first.

As Fjorgyn took her gloved hand, Edel squeaked, but was easily pulled away from the door just as it fell over. “O-Oh…!” Her face paled, but at least the door was now open. “I-I suppose we should go in now,” she murmured, her hand sliding out of the other sprite’s. Hands folded together, she decided to take the first hesitant step inside. Finding no visible presence in the cabin, she decided to walk over to a random collection of mushrooms to admire their pale glow.

Fjorgyn's smile remained timidly reserved, but on the inside her heart was doing jumping jacks at Altair's praise. It felt good to do something right, for once. But then the next second he let go of her hand, and she felt the cold once again.

Out of the three, she entered the cabin last. She stooped a little to put some more space between the ceiling and her head. The shimmering mushrooms felt almost hypnotic, but she heeded Altair's warning best she could considering her relatively unwieldy shape.

Surrounded by an almost unearthly glow, Fjorgyn felt...peaceful. But given all of her experiences throughout the entire night, she was unsure whether to trust the feeling. Dusk before dawn, calm before storm -- it was impossible to know which it would be. "No humming," she told Altair. "For now." Best to err on the side of caution.

“It’s okay,” she murmured as she leaned over to get a better look at the fungi. “I have no intention to touch them, plus I have Fjorgyn’s gloves still.” Thin lips curled into a grateful smile as she turned her head toward the giant sprite. The smile shrank, her expression transforming into one of curiosity as the other star child began to hum. Unfortunately, the tune wasn’t particularly familiar to her, her mind drawing a blank as she listened to the melody before Fjorgyn urged Altair to stop the music.

Lips pursed, Edelweiss continued to examine the mushrooms until she brushed aside a particular clump to reveal a hole. “I-I think I found something!” she called out, but as she looked at the hole she realized that Fjorgyn would never fit. “Oh no…” She tried clawing at the dirt, accidentally turning up a mushroom in the process. The accident caused her to suddenly pause. She thoughtfully eyed the fungi. Maybe the mushroom would…? But she wouldn’t dare make Fjorgyn be the first one to try. Sighing deeply, she took a bite.

Fjorgyn bit her lip as she inspected the hole in the wall, wondering if perhaps she could somehow squeeze herself through one limb at a time. But she didn't know how sturdy the house was, if the roof might collapse should the walls be damaged in any way. She turned to the other two sprites in the group, a proposal that they go ahead of her on her lips -- when she saw Edel pick up a mushroom and bite into it.

"Oh! You think..? Certainly, stranger things had happened to them during this endless night, and the mushroom didn't seem immediately toxic to Edel at least. Fjorgyn looked around for a mushroom of her own and picked a lovely blue one, closing her eyes as she took a bite. The fungus felt slightly rubbery on her tongue, but it had a fragrant taste.

Fjorgyn heard an odd choking noise behind her and whirled around, holding back a scream at the terrifying sight. "Edel, oh no, no, no," she muttered, hovering about the bloody mess that used to be her companion. Her hands fidgeted frantically in the air, aching to do something to help the starchild, but it was already far too late. In the giantess's anguish, she failed to notice how much closer her perspective to the ground and the dying Edel had become...

There was so much blue light. At first it had been hard to see, very disorienting, but now the glow was calm and almost serene. However, in here, there was no one. There had been no one for some time. Memory served little as the green skinned witch sat upon her broom handle, hovering only inches above the floor. Her hands rested in her lap and she wanted, listened, for what felt like so long. She didn't know where to go from here but she couldn't stay much longer.

That was when the voices came.

Each of them was different and muted from a distance, but they peeked in from the other end of the doorway. They sounded louder than necessary, almost... bigger. Was that right? To be fair, anyone was bigger than a sprite.

In dazed loneliness, the nightmare witch sat with practiced silence. She would stay a little longer, now -- for these voices.

Beyond the tunnel was light, brightly blinding but cold. It was a dispassionate light, Altair thought indifferently. His rose-colored eyes slanted down, peering at the room. More fungus, more floorboards. A crooked house... Blood flaked off his hands as he briefly knelt, scraping some of the mushrooms into a pocket on his robe. Altair looked up, trying to see past the blazing light. Another sprite! His feet moved closer, leaping up of their own accord. Perhaps it was someone just as lost as they were! Or was it someone who aided the enemy? He blinked against that perpetual glare. There was something about that sun... Shaking his head, he stepped forward again, the fungus squishing gently against his feet. Behind him, Fjorgyn stretched, growing slowly to her normal size. "A-altair..? Who...?"

shhhhshh... crack... uuuuhhnn

The floorboards shifted under him, coming apart at their seams. Parts of the floor fell away. revealing a dark maw of grinding metal teeth. "Greenling!" he cried out, his voice barely heard over grinding gears. Through the sudden haze of splintered wood, Altair saw the witch, her face still dazed, lost. "Witch! Fly away!" He slipped and a warm hand wrapped around his arm. Suddenly, Altair was slung across Fjorgyn's back as she tried to leap around the still standing pieces of floor. His hands instinctively clutched her shoulders. The machine ground beneath them slowly, inexorably, a pit of darkness and wood.

"Too dark, it's too dark, Altair, do something!" The giant's voice was quick and the last syllable merely a squeak as the floorboard beneath her gave way. The glowing sun. Brighter, brighter, brighter. Altair concentrated all his might on that immutable sun and it pulsed, peeling off layers, sending out stringer rays. It dazzled and grew. Hot, blinding, illuminating. And then they were moving; Fjorgyn leapt from splinter to splinter: a spastic dance of survival. On her broom, the witch zoomed above them. "Jump to your left!" From her vantage point, Hazel could see exactly where they needed to leap. Through Fjorgyn's strong legs and her guidance, they drew near quickly. Landing, the witch looked at them with worried eyes, broom grasped tightly in white-knuckled hands. She had simply flown to the corridor. With a great heave, Fjorgyn flung Altair into the opening. He tucked his knees in and rolled. She followed, large hands gripping the ledge. She drew up her feet, the grinder pulsing mercilessly below. Her green braids swung wildly as she tried to hoist herself up.

"Pull me up!" But... there was simply no way the two small sprites could tug Fjorgyn up. Altair knelt next to her, touching her hand briefly. "Eat this." He pressed a blue mushroom hurriedly into her mouth, flashing the witch a look of despair. "Witch, please help us! She will shrink soon. Take her right arm!" It was weird, perhaps, that the sun pulsed with every syllable he spoke, but in the noise, the confusion, the adrenaline pounding through their blood... no one noticed. Their headaches pounded in unison. The seconds it took for Fjorgyn to shrink were like minutes, hours. But shrink she did, and the witch and the star each grasped one gentle arm and pulled. Altair's fingers dug into her skin., He wouldn't, no, he couldn't leave another sprite behind.

It almost felt like Fjorgyn was watching herself do impossible things. She couldn't fathom that it was her skipping precariously from board to board with Altair on her back and a terrible machine grinding below. And then when they finally reached the ledge and Altair was thrown to safety, she still didn't think that she would survive this. She could hear the terrifying sounds of death right below her feet; she drew up her toes as high as possible, a line of sweat tracing the edge of her cheek.

And then the sound receded, and she felt hands on her arms, supporting her, lifting her. She crawled onto the ledge and fell on her back, gasping for breath. "Thank... you..." she whispered as her heart rate finally began to slow.

Her head was resting on a clump of the very blue mushrooms that had saved her life. Fjorgyn sat up, shaking debris from her rat's nest of hair. She put a healthy handful of slightly crushed fungi into a dress pocket. They'd already proved to be useful so far, so perhaps they could be useful in the future. Besides, she couldn't help but enjoy seeing the world from the same eye level as everyone else.

Fjorgyn extended a hand out to the witchy girl. Privately, she reveled in not needing to reach downward to do so. "I'm Fjorgyn," she said, with gratitude written all over her face.