Welcome to Gaia! ::

Exi had every idea of how she got there, and with her faithful companion riding with her the entire way. Heke is a very well behaved little boy, and it doesn't hurt that Exi throws some little spells on him every once in a while as little treats to his good behaviour.

But right now, he's causing a bit of a fuss.

"Shh," she urges frantically, trying to calm the fussy toddler and meanwhile keep her focus. This proves very difficult, especially with a finicky subject like a moose. She finally sighs when Heke lets out a screech, and sends a simple spell over the toddler's vocal chords to silence them. Heke, being so distracted by his temporary mute-dom, stops squirming and sits rather dumbly in the crook of his mother's elbow.

Finally. Exi smiles tiredly at her birdy before shifting her focus back to the moose in question. She'd picked a wonderful man out of the sky for a spirit, a librarian. She loves librarians. They are always so nice to her, and give her shiny cards in every city she's been in. So far, she's collected 43, and 725 late fees she never intends on remedying. She can barely read the language, but the pictures fascinate her so much..

Gah! Back to the moose. She tugs on the spirit, who had waited so patiently at her side during the trip, not that anyone else would know that. She and the boy are in similar guises today; she picked for herself a stern looking woman in her late fifties to portray, sporting a very posh ski outfit, and Heke is an ordinary boy with snowgear and slicked back red hair. She wiggles her fingers a little bit, and each one cracks ceremoniously. Now for the fun.

Exi lets out a nervous squeak, followed by an equally nervous laugh. "Oh, uhm..?" she starts to say, before hugging Heke to her chest. "All the time, no. It's ur.. uh. Not all the time that an animal will explode into flames in front of me, no, nope."

Heke nods his head exaggeratedly, which would cause one to assume that he's actually been trained to do that under circumstances during which he or they are approached. Only he does it for far too long, and it just extends Exi's nervous silence.

"Uhm!" Exi coughs into her mitt and gives a side glance at where the hunter had disappeared. Well, it's a good thing someone else was here, else she'd have only two options, at that point.. and her house is small enough as it is, so it would have been the second.

"I, am.. going to go now. Yep!" Exi side shuffles unsuccessfully in the snow, just managing to knock a lot of snow into her boots. She squeaks as the cold hits her, a noise that Heke instantly mimics.

Well, this makes things awkward. Exi seriously contemplates transforming into something more menacing to send the woman heading for the hills, but, truthfully, she's utterly afraid of what this lady would do. So instead, Exi shrinks a little in her place, instinctively turning away so Heke is furthest from the other's grip. He doesn't notice anything's wrong, and is amusing himself by blowing spit bubbles.

"I said I didn't know anything about how these kids magically turn from animals to animally children in front of me," Exi says dismissively, though in actuality is admitting to knowing more. "And I certainly do not know voodoo or whatever you people call it around here. My magi- er. My skills are.. culinary?"

She swallows sharply at her slip up, keeping her eyes anywhere but in the woman's direction. Exi's a horrid liar, and even worse when under interrogation.

Darnit. Her English and human skills haven't been improved enough to get away with this one, never mind her word recall needs a bit of work. Culinary? What was she thinking?

Blushing forthright, Exi tries feebly to tug away her arm. "I - I was just trying to help," she says in barely more than a whisper. Tears start to well up in her eyes. She has to leave this planet, and she's just begun to fall in love with it! This has happened so many times before..

Heke tugs on his mother's hair, and in sensing her anguish, nuzzles his face into her neck. No crying, or he'll cry too!

Exi rubs at her watering eyes with the back of her cold hand, and exhales a weary laugh at the moose boy's perfect little comment. She can almost hear his older voice through the little thing already! She smiles a little at this.

Heke, feeling his mother relax her grip, just rests his head on her shoulder instead. Tired tired. Don't like the cold. Sleep a little. He finally closes his eyes and quickly falls into a nap.

"Thank you. You'd just do me a favour not to tell anyone what you saw me do here," Exi pleads softly, rubbing her thumb up and down Heke's coat out of nervousness.