Welcome to Gaia! ::

Salem grabbed his hand and looked Dontee dead in the eyes. "You can tell me! I promise I won't tell anyone or say anything! What is it?" she asked excitedly.

Salem blinked at him and dropped his hand. Was he pulling a prank? She started to become upset that he thought he could trick her when a thought crossed her mind. He was different! If he was actually a dragon, then she'd found something new! Right? These emotions crossed her face each in turn, frustrated, confused, excited, hopeful. She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself.

"What does that mean? Your human form?" she looked him over anew, appraisingly. Well, he had selected a very dapper human form, she thought to herself. "Does that mean you become a gigantic, scaly, fire breathing monster, dragon?" she asked and began scanning for hints of a scale, horns, teeth, claws, anything that would corroborate his story. Then her eyes widened. "Can you fly?" she whispered.

((OOC: Sorry I've been gone so long. I've been really horribly sick. Still am, but I at least got some sleep last night.))

Lael was still doubled over in laughter when Karinda agreed to venture into the city first. She didn't think it wise to laugh at a dragon but she simply couldn't help it - the little creature was not only glowing, but looked so stunned at this turn of events that it had stiffened and now looked to Lael something like a statue of sorts.

Wiping the tears from her eyes but still chuckling, Lael guestured toward a tunnel to the right of Karinda, before leading the way down it. At first the 'stairs' down the tunnel seemed rough and uneven, almost like the roots of the tree had chanced upon the shape. But as they desceneded away from the roots the stairs became more even. Wooden planks held the earth back. The air smelt pure here. Lael had always liked the tunnels leading to the surface. Not this one, exactly - a slide through a tree and glowing fungus wasn't exactly her thing, but the tunnels always smelt like the earth and sea together, fresh and vibrant and brimming with the potential for new life.

As they continued the fungus became less and less. The loss of the natural light source was replaced by torches. Soon, they would be replaced by the light of Templum. It had been some time since Lael had been here. It had never changed before, but she couldn't help but wonder if anything had changed by now.

Lael had forgotten just how far beneath the earth Chaim had hidden his sanctuary and as the tunnel narrowed she prayed that this long forgotten entrance hadn't caved in. With the silence spanning between them Lael sensed mistrust growing - not that she could blame the woman or her dragon. If a stranger had snatched Lael off an island, told her that jumping through a tree and walking down a darkened tunnel was 'safe', she would be mistrustful too. That was without the added uncertainty of having suddenly moved forward in time five hundred years.

Think before you speak. She told herself.
"Dragons are a rare thing now." She said. "I'm not blessed enough to have been born when they were a common thing - not that I think they ever really were, but I was born when I had the opportunity to meet at least four."
She paused, from here they would be forced to crouch. She really didn't like this entrance.
"There are two types of people in the world." She said, almost forced to her hands and knees to duck under a rock.
"The humans, that is, mortals, and us. That is, everyone else." She turned to offer a hand to Karinda to get under the rock.

Dontee nods with a small smile. "I know, I know... but it's just to inform you for future uses if you ever encounter another dragon... for some dragons would take more offense than others... I mean, I understand quite what it means to inavertedly offend... I have done it with many human encounters... you know, when humans was a new sight... so... I was quite young." He looks down to the connected arm before looking up and nod. "I see... I assume that walking with a linked arm at least means we're friends." He concluded, though still found it a little odd. He looks to her with a small smile once more when she insisted that he answer all her questions. "Well, alright... at least all that I feel I can answer."

Salem also looked down to their linked arms and nodded. "I would like to think we're friends, but mostly this is because I like to touch others," she put it rather bluntly. "I wasn't focusing before, but I like to try and see if I can read other's energies. Some new-age psychic once told me that if you could, you could see the color of people's auras..." she closed her eyes and began clicking her tongue ring against her teeth again. "As of yet I could never see, it may just be that I have no talent for that, but I'd like to think that no one's aura was strong enough! Probably someone like you might be different..." she concentrated and even in the dark of her eyes thought she saw a kind yellow color. But...

"Nope! Still got nothing! Anyway, earlier you said you offended humans upon first meeting them?" she whispered the word humans and threw a quick dart around, no one was watching. Good. "How can that be possible? You just a lived a sheltered like with other people like... like you?" She walked a little more turning abruptly into an alleyway and leading Dontee along. There was a doorway in the brick wall of the buildings that was covered by a simple piece of plywood littered with graffiti. She released Dontee and shoved the door open, stepping into the building was suddenly enveloped in dust that had settled after many years. It smelled musty, but it was away from any prying ears. "Ah, here we are!" she announced and leaned against the shoddy counter that was once used to brew espresso and display pastries. "What has made you come out amongst people, anyway? If you never had to?" she asked pursuing the line of questioning.

Salem looked down at the dusty floor beneath their feet. "Why would you care about the well-being of the very species that once hunted your people?" she pushed away from the counter. "And why tell me? I mean, you could have gone along this whole day without mentioning it. I would have just drug you along to any place I could think of-" she let that slip and blushed. "I-I mean I would have asked you to escort me to my errands and we would have part ways and probably have never seen one another again. Why tell me?" she asked and reached for another cigarette, out of habit, but then paused. Dammit... she thought but dropped the carton back into her pockets and began relentlessly, anxiously pacing.

”Come hither, Saiirin,” Karinda said to the still glowing dragon, a smile stuck on her lips. “’Tis time for us to depart from hence.”

The dragon turned her brooding gaze to Karinda as the girl turned to follow Lael down a tunnel to her right. Saiirin hurried to catch up, the sleek creature quick on her feet.

Karinda’s eyes glanced from Lael to the roots beneath their feet that served as stairs, leading them deeper into the depths of the earth where the scent of dirt became nearly overwhelming. Karinda’s smile faded as they continued down the tunnel in silence, the stairs beginning to look man-made as she questioned the sanity of her decision to follow the girl.

The lit fungus began to grow further apart until finally it no longer provided enough light to keep the tunnel well lit. Instead, shadows flickered on the wall from the changing light of flames contained within steel torches mounted on the wall. Karinda paused to finger the one of the perfectly forged pieces of metal before continuing after Lael.

“Dragons are a rare thing now,” Lael said, breaking the silence. “I’m not blessed enough to have been born when they were a common thing—not that I think they ever really were, but I was born when I had the opportunity to meet at least four.”

Looking to the ceiling as it lowered, Karinda bent over to keep her head from hitting the ceiling before replying.

“Two hun--" she stopped, inhaling deeply to steady herself as she corrected her statement. “Near the year of 1310,” she began, her voice quiet, “dragons were no rare sight. ‘Twas by their doing that their existence remained uncharted in more than tales used to frighten children. Sadly, by the dawn of the new century, the hunting of dragons was known as a sport, forcing them into hiding or else face extinction. I can only imagine how few still remain within this day and age,” she finished with a sad sigh.

Karinda’s ears again tuned to Lael’s voice.

“There are two types of people in this world,” Lael said, all but crawling beneath a rock jutting out from the top of the tunnel. “The humans, that is, mortals, and us. That is, everyone else.”

Karinda ignored the helping hand Lael offered her, easily ducking beneath on her own.

“Forgive me,” she said, “but your words make little sense. Not all humans have the leisure of mortality, while the simple number of thou and I is no closer to ‘everyone’ than a king is to a peasant of another kingdom.”



Chaim blinked in surprise at Eve’s fear as the girl tugged on his sleeve

“I apologize,” he said, his eyes echoing his apology and displaying his slight confusion at the girl’s reaction. “I had no intention of scaring you. My only desire was to give you a ‘convincing cause.’ It would be my pleasure to accompany you back into town.” With a smile, he properly offered her his arm, sparing her from tugging on his sleeve as he folded his wings into his back.