Welcome to Gaia! ::

"It is early, but it's also quiet. And Rosa free." Filix grinned, and shrugged. "When better to take a walk, than early in the morning?"

She of course, didn't reveal the conceled sword...

"You ask a lot of questions." Filix commented, but lightly, as if she didn't mind. She didn't mind after all, but there weren't many as curious as Ursa. "It makes life easier to avoid her, sometimes. Less arguements, and so on."

The sun was nearly hot enough to give Filix burnt skin by now, and the last thing she needed was a tan. Besides, the glass around the bottles was growing hot, and Filix didn't want to do any harm to the potions inside.

Leaning over to give Ursa a hug, Filix told her, "I think I should place these safely in my chambers. I'll see you again, Ursa, goodbye!"

She waited for Ursa for a few moments, then made her way back to the castle.

((ah, like Neith said, feel free to edit anything if I screw it up XD))

Angua had returned to Tir Nan Og almost reluctantly; despite the bond she had felt with the fey child she was kithain to, he was becoming ruthless. She only had a glimpse of the court's intrigues, but even that was becoming too much. And worse, she found herself doing what was asked of her, whatever her own feelings on the matter were. Yet when she left, she felt as if she were abandoning Lupinus, though he obviously didn't need her. She paused to look through the bag she carried over her shoulder; everything Lupinus had asked for from Gaia was there, even the more random items on the list. With a sigh, she began to walk; having let her mind wander, she finally realized she wasn't heading in anything close to the proper direction. If she looked straight ahead, she could see a castle through the trees, but it was the shining castle of the Sun Court.

She should go back, she knew. If she were seen... she didn't think that would go over well, and yet she continued to move forward. She felt an insistent tugging at her mind, as if something was drawing her towards it and clouding her mind. Angua followed the pull, hoping it would abate somewhat and allow her thoughts to clear. Her heart beat faster as she approached the castle, but she saw no one and warily entered the courtyard. Thankfully, whatever was pulling at her wasn't trying to make her go inside the castle. She could say she was lost, she supposed, as long as she didn't intrude so far as to go inside...

Walking quickly across the courtyard in a daze, she moved toward a smaller building at the read or the courtyard. She pushed open the door and, once inside, let the bag she carried fall to the ground. It looked like a place where one would work metal, and a workshop. There were bits of iron strewn about, half finished keys, and other oddities. It was dark, but sunlight streamed in through a dust-covered window.



All else forgotten, she reached out a hand to touch the window, leaving dusty fingerprints as she placed her palm against it. Cutting through the haze surrounding her thoughts came a voice, somehow familiar, but at the same time very different.

"Welcome, Angua von Uberwald, to your ancestral home. Do you, of your own free will, give of your soul and your lifespark, to restore Lutra, daughter of --- and ---, to the Realm of Tir Nan Og and the glory of the Sun Court?"

"I..." With only a moment's hesitation, she nodded slightly. "I do."

The light streaming through the glass grew brighter, almost blinding her, and she had to look away. The light colored the floor by her feet, and as it faded, a small form took shape. Angua rubbed her eyes until she could see the child sitting beneath the window.



The small girl was clad in green, staring at Angua with wide eyes. The child reached up a hand to touch her own face, blinking with surprise at being able to move again. "Where am I? No... I know this place. But who are you? Where are my par--" She stopped herself, not wanting to hear the answer.

Angua moved toward the child slowly. "Angua. And they're... well, they're not here." She needed to get the child out of this dim and neglected building and into the sunlight. Then she'd have to figure out how to explain how she got here...

"Feel" it....Tara knew she wanted to, wide gray eyes wondering over the humble brown earth of the practice area as though it were sacred ground.

No matter what name they took, no matter what legend, to Tara, the beings of magic were her muses. Not that she'd ever imagined it were possible to "cast the spells that makes the peoples fall down". Her belief in magic was far simpler: the unexpected rainbow, finishing sentences with her fiance. For years she had practiced with pencil or the advances of technology to give them the shapes she saw and felt inside through art. Now, here, she perhaps could see at last the shape they gave themselves. A crooked smile curved her lips. Or at least admit it was only her own wishful thinking, all this time.

She looked to her feet, scuffing them in that soft soil, feeling the expectant eyes on her, almost feeling their doubt. She faltered and bit her lip, gaze turning toward anywhere now but the practice field. Would it be no more concrete than that vague longing....? An impossible mix of a child's faith and a skeptic's questioning, she'd need far more than THAT. She couldn't trust this feeling of knowing, when she wasn't certain of the questions. The pull her heart she had always felt....was it her own desire, or was it something more?

A sharp wind stung past suddenly, and she gave a short cry of surprise, hands lifting to shield her face. Sharp as....an arrow, finding its mark.

Dearest hope made dearest truth....with a good slap in the face. She grinned back to Sajhiri.

"I feel it. Now, let's see it."

Tara dug quickly as she was able, stopping only once to offer a sheepish look of apology to the creature named Caelestis when her excitement nearly launched a clump of hard-packed soil into its face. Long minutes passed, marked only by the sound of earth and exertion.

She winced as the shovel abruptly stopped hard and her muscles screamed protest, but only for a moment. She dropped to her knees, now pawing at the ground much like the fantastic creatures aiding her. Her questing fingers smoothed over flat stone.

Tara chuckled, unable to tear her eyes away from the lonely, shallowly-carved features. "Slap him back, huh?" she murmured.

She could not have refused if she wished it; the pull was beyond her body, now, something seeking to return to its own. She raised tiptoe, and her breath shivered across the timeworn stone brow.