Welcome to Gaia! ::

Maggie was giving Chris a strange look, before she broke out into a huge grin. "You're from the States too! So am I!! Gawd, I haven't met anyone else from America in AGES!!!" She practically jumped on him with happiness. "So, which part of America are you from? I lived in the Appalachians, but I was born in Georgia!" As her excitement mounted, her speech grew rapid and high pitched. She was also completely oblivious to his flashback. In fact, Maggie was oblivious to a lot of things.

Danni was sitting at Cook's feet in front of the fire after their game. He'd won again, of course, as he always did, but it had been close. At least, that's what she was sticking to. But now, in the soft light, she sat with her back to him as he ran a brush down through her hair, working out whatever tangles had managed to get in it.

His hands, which could knead dough, crush bones, mend clothes with a needle and thread or pound a hole into solid concrete, were currently running gently through her hair, fingering the strands as he set aside the brush and began working her hair into several small braids. When she slept with her hair in these, then took them out in the morning, it left her hair wavy and smooth.

"You know, I thought your hair looked decent enough when it was that redish color." He remarked softly, and she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "I turn it back every now and then when I've a yen to make a change. And it's called auburn, that hair color. I've died it completely red once or twice, but it doesn't look as nice as this blue. I'll turn it back sometime, though, just for you. If you actually had any hair on top of your head, I could dye it for you." She said, and he chuckled.

"It's not so troublesome having no hair up there. Don't spend ten minutes in the john messing with hairstyles, that's for sure." He said, and she chuckled, hugging her knees. "You're right about that. Lia spends a good half hour cooped up with a mirror every morning. It's much simpler to just let it grow and fall down my back." She said with a slight shrug, then turned when Cook patted her on the shoulder, letting her know he'd finished with her hair.

With a smile up at him, she kneeled next to him and laid her head in his lap, breathing in deeply the smells of the shack. He ran his hand up and down her back, and they both looked silently into the fire, each thinking their own deep thoughts. Danni thought of how she'd manage to fend off the demons who'd be sent after her until she fully mastered the Book and Sword of the Ancients.

Cook thought of how he'd be able to make his little girl happy. Deep down happy, not just on the surface. Cutting ties with her family would leave a hole he wasn't sure he'd be able to fill. But she needed friends, family, love, security. If he could manage to give her that, maybe he'd be able to see that light in her eyes that he caught glimpses of every now and then.

He thought of her protector currently on his roof, and was angered by the fact that she should need a protector in the first place. She was fourteen for Christ's sake. She shouldn't have to constantly be on guard, wondering where and when she'd be attacked or confronted by things that should stay in nightmares. It also angered him how she was being closed off from others because she practiced dark magic. True, she wasn't helping matters much with her opinionated tongue and rough attitude, but still. She hadn't gotten to choose whether or not she wanted to be in the dark arts. It had been chosen for her by fate, and she was the one being punished for it.

As if sensing his thoughts, Danni snuggled in closer, speaking in a low voice. "All I need is you, the dogs, this shack, and our kitchens. Nothing else. Never forget that." She whispered, and she reached up with a hand. Knowing what she wanted, he twined his fingers with hers, and their hands rested on his knee. "You've told me enough times to get the hint." He replied, and could picture her rolling her eyes in her mind, though right now they were shut. But still he worried, and it was because of that that he didn't send her up to the bed despite the late that, just let her stay there at his feet, her head on his lap and her hand in his. A man could get used to having a little girl adore him the way she did him, he thought with a half smile.

--

Luna walked in, raising an eyebrow at the scene. Several men with guns looked at the naked woman wearing only but a jacket with curiosity. Luna paid no attention to the men as she walked towards Ialo, placing her hands on her hips. "Would you like to make a safe getaway? Or were you planning on committing suicide with these imbeciles?"

Whatever Ialo had been thinking as he waited for the man to attack had been completely shoved aside. His jaw was slack, and his eyes wide with astonishment.
"Y... Y... Yes?" It wasn't so much responding as it was asking. And his voice was bordering on squeaking. Very undignified of a dragon.
"Whu-wait!! H-h-h-ow did you get here?!" At first there was no color in his face, from shock, but Ialo began to turn incremental shades of pink as Luna got closer to him. He edged away, the soldiers following them with their guns.
"Umm....." It was almost possible to see steam around his head. And his eyes darted around, refusing to look anywhere but at Luna, or at the man, or at his soldiers. So, that left only his feet and the ceiling to stare at.

--

She nodded, her eyes looking lazy. She walked to one side of the wall, her arm sucking into the dark red mass that became a sword, and slashed into the wall violently. Her posture remaining the same, she looked out through the hole she created. She turned to Ialo. "That's not important. Can you still fly? Because this is too high up for a wolf." she said with a smirk.

Ialo didn't even wait for Luna to finish her sentence. With a massive swipe of a black sword, Zephyr was de-chained from the ceiling and dragged along by a burst of strength that Ialo didn't think he'd be able to work up. He barely registered Luna's powers, didn't consider them important at the moment. The room was almost instantly filled with a dense chilling fog, and Ialo grabbed Luna with his free arm, moving too fast for the soldiers to get a lock on him, even if the sensors could locate the dragon. Ialo was not immediately aware that his body temperature dropped to that of the fog, causing his skin to become so pale that he looked like a walking cadaver and his touch to be like ice. Pulling his adopted brother and pushing his old classlmate out the hole created in the wall, and the dense blue-gray fog quickly covering the trail, Ialo pulled them both into a free-fall down the side of the building.

".... You were saying?"

Lin's eyes widened at Dymetri's reactions and words, though she kept running her hand through his hair. "What do you mean? I am simply running my hand through your hair."