Welcome to Gaia! ::

The twins watched as they passed the pretty houses. "Wow lots of houses here." Aki said. Yuki thought about the question. "I don't know. Can we see a fire station or police station or a grocery store or maybe a office building?" they asked.

They had only seen things in magazines or books but those seemed the most exciting.

Aki said "I don't know, we never saw any of those. Police and fire trucks have flashy lights and sirens. I saw one book where the town had a general store, icy-cream shop, a res-tar-ant called diner. I think they got food there at those. But if you know of better things to see we want to see them."

Yuki asked "Animals? We've seen cats and dogs, squirrels, and birds before. Other animals we saw in books."

Aki asked "Are their saloons and cowboys in the town?" He had seen a cowboy book about shoot outs in the streets and cattle ranchers.

"We're here?" Yuki smiled "Yeah!"

They anxiously squirmed out of their seat belts and grabbed their jackets.

Aki said "Oh, no cowboys because were are not in the west. I saw cowboys in a book. We've never seen a television." He thought about it then asked "Where are we then?" He had never been told where they lived in relation to the world.

When they got to the ice rink they were very excited to see the floor with the ice. They followed Ms Sonja into the building. When they got inside it was cold so they put on their jackets and saw the ice rink. It was all shiny white. Yuki said "Oh look at that. That must be the ice floor. Very shiny."

The twins went closer to the rink to see what the people were doing. They had shoes with blades in them that they were gliding on. Some going fast in circles, others spinning by themselves like tops. Some tottered on the sides trying to stand. Some of the patrons starred at the twins, maybe not having seen nekos or maybe why they were there they supposed.

They said to Ms Sonja "Yes we want to try." as they nodded yes. "It looks like lots of fun." Aki said. Yuki said "Some of the people are making pretty circles."

The twins went to sit in the bench and took off their shoes as Ms Sonja came back with the red boots with metal bottoms. They waited as she helped them put them on and lace them up.

The boots were snug but fit fine so they nodded that they were okay. Aki was not sure how they were suppose to stand on the blade. He noted that there were bumpy parts at the tips. Aki said "We stand on these?"

Yuki was happy with her pretty red skates with the shiny metal bottoms. The bottoms were sharp. "Oh the metal is sharps need be careful." she said to Aki. He looked and nodded "Oh, ya okay."

Aki went out on the ice first. He held onto Yuki's hand as they entered them they held the railing. At first he tried to walk but could not. Then he tried gliding but was not sure how to so he ended up going nowhere moving his feet back and forth in place.

Yuki hung onto the bar and had a hard time keeping balance. She put her feet together to steady herself and moved ever so slowly pulling herself on the bar.

Yuki tried to move her feet a little and made a little progress as she could glide a little bit at a time. "I did it!" she said. She made progress a few meters at a time and got a quarter of the way around the rink without falling but staying close to the railing.

Aki tried to push off as he was shown and moved forward a little before he fell. "Ow this is hard." he said as he got up to try again. He concentrated and started to get a little better before he fell again. "I got it...oops maybe not." he giggled.