Welcome to Gaia! ::

The golden day dried him quickly, in the vast, open spaces, the sun lighting the brightness of his light, creamy skin and the brilliant white hair, drying already in hot morning sun. The white hair was already dried, flickering around his face freely.

Slowly he smiled.

It was a reminder of the fields. Of the song. The open places of simple people, who could work through their days, and smile and sing. Poor, but content, and in so richer than the wealthy he had known. And so they were free; their burdons were the things they took joy in. A happy life, were one need only fear the ruining of crops might make him turn over coin to a neighbor with better luck, or a tax collector who had realized after so long there were people living in that touch of the map.

Golden plains, flickering in golden light.
First rays of suns light, first signs of hope.
Dance of grass, the song of the land.
A earnest smile of innocent joy, a beginning found again.

Half dry, Kalis was not cold through the night as he had felt before, but warm, and invigorated. Turning in the stretches of field, empty of people and conflict within sign of his eyes, he shut his eyes, and floated, it felt, through the waves of tickling grass.

Sometime later, not sure how long, he felt something immediately near him, and opened his eyes. Diverted from his walk's straight path, there was a small, run down old hut of sone and wood upon the plain. Glancing about for inhabitance, he smiled, and angled his path that way.

Entering a doorway without a door, he looked around. Part of the roof was missing, and the windows and door, allowing the golden light to still wrap its warm embrace about him. There was little in way of furniture. A bed long since torn apart and made home of many rodents, a small dresser standing against a wall, and a crate or two against the four walls standing sturdy. It could fall if undone, but nothing he'd do accidentally would tip anything.

Checking out his windows and doors for company, he decided he was safe for now, beyond sight of much of anything else to note.

Kalis sat on the dresser's top, leaned back against the stone wall, sun falling un his upturned face. Slowly, eyes blue as the sky drifted shut, and he fell asleep in the warm light and cool breeze, and the quiet sounds of the plains, undisturbed by machinations of man just yet.

That...was the worst headache she had experienced in 2,000 years. At least she was alive. At least Hakan and Daniel were alive. She was even relatively uninjured...her wounds from yesterday all but closed, Kami's accelerated healing bandages making sure of that. Still a bit raw, and she wasn't sure how much she really wanted to test that hole in her wing, but...

Crimson eyes swept around, over the fortifications. It wouldn't be long before they came here next.

Claws pressed into her palm, drawing blood as Flare clenched her fist. She wasn't letting them take another inch.

Sunstrike squinted under his hood, looking for Silver hair. Spotting what he was looking for, he breathed a quick sigh of relief.

Thank the gods...

"Flare!" The shout echoed over to the woman as he jogged to her.

"What in the name of all hell happened?! Are you alright? Is everyone else alright?"

He didn't pause, as she had, and gathered her up in a huge hug, his old self popping through for a moment in a display of overaffection.

Her report left him disgruntled though, and he gently put her down, looking around. "Dan's set this up well. A lot of the options we neglected at the lake will be made up for her-"

His heart stopped. All those twinges, all the little feelings nagging him...

"You're ******** kidding me..." The whisper was low and harsh, but not overly directed to Flare. How the hell did Vahn do it?

Sunstrike was lost, on the other side of the freaking world of Gaia...and he'd still been found, he'd been running since then, and every town, every place, if Sun stayed too long, low and behold there was Vahn.

"What the hell am I..." He blinked at the shades. "Flare! I need paint or chalk... something yellow..."

There was a weak noise from Kalis' pocket. He stirred but didn't wake up. It repeated, warbling, but getting stronger. He shifted, opening and eye, and quickly looking around. Didn't see any danger.
It came again, then stopped.
Kalis went to the window, looking out, thinking on what exactly to do. He was lost somewhere, and still damp. Alone and lost. Sighing, he took the phone out of his pocket, and flicked it open. "This thing still works well enough to ring?"

He put it to his ear, and stopped to listen. Garbled. He couldn't make out a thing, the phone was all fuzzy and screwy. He tried the message a second time. No better. And the third, he heard his message.



"Twilight forest..." he considered, trying to remember where those were and what they looked like. "Wait, through the caves? I saw some caves in teh forest back when I was... so if that's the twilight, and I'm on the plains south of it, that means..."

He paused on that note.

"Oh ******** his clothes hanging to keep his light colors showing, not the darker which would stand out, he tucked the hat roughly under his belt to hold it in place.

And, bending over in the grass to keep his head below it's level, occasoinally peeking up to check his direction, he made his way back toward the forest as quietly and quickly as he could manage.

No cost was too great to protect these plains. They were the last line of defence before enemeies would be climbing to the gates. Thus it was no suppprise Omikron sent down more shades to help protect Daniel's defences.

The first line was fifteen aditional pawns, ten of which equip with various melee weapons. While the last five each had dark matter powered crossbows. Slower to reload, but deadly if their aim was true.

Five hulking rooks came behind those, four of which armed only whith their fists. The center rook had two horns as if he was wearing a helmet, as well as a stone slab slung over his shoulder.

The bishops came next, two shadow, one fire, one ice and one wind. Each wearing makeshift robes to designate the spells they could cast.

"Cheerio folks!" Apparantly Noel had recovered and was down to assist in these defences. Wheater that would just grate on Flare's nerves was another question.

Noel was a null mage, capable of weilding non elemental force. He also had the ability to sacrifice all his magical abilites to let the fearal shade inside of him take over, and become a bezerker.

The null mage was acompanied by four armoured shades, each with a sash slung over one shoulder. They each had a tower sheild and a polearm that looked just like a sphere on a stick. What made them special was the runes covering that orb and their large sheilds. These where the preist-protectors of the shade army, capable of taking on the elemental alignment of whatever bishop they were protecting.

"I'm not too late am I?" Noel commented in hopes of finding out who was in charge.

30 Reinforcements.