Welcome to Gaia! ::

The scent of peppermint was intense around Noel as she gazed with narrowed eyes at the treeline bordering the park. It was a beautiful day and sounds of little kids playing and bigger kids shouting echoed through the area, but Noel remained stock still and staring. She knew it was there. She had seen the little shimmer, barely recognizeable. She'd started to be able to see the shimmers after Galleai had come back. They had told her it was because she was somehow tied to the woman who was worshipped in the dreamlands. Which meant she could walk the manido-aki too, both when she was asleep and supposedly when she was awake. But so far Noel had not tried to slip through the veil. Now, however, the telltale shimmer - here one moment and gone the next, only visible by periphery - had caught her attention. She didn't know if she planned to go through or just stand there and watch yet. She hadn't made up her mind.

Howl may not have noticed Noel, but Noel noticed Howl. She hadn't noticed him exactly, at least not at first. The first thing she'd noticed was the tightening in the air that foretold some kind of magic. But this magic was foreign, it wasn't dreaming magic so Noel didn't recognize it. What she did recognize was the fact that it was focusing on the shimmer.

Realizing there might be a threat to the gateway she hadn't yet decided to walk through, Noel turned to look around and see if she couldn't determine who the threat was coming from. It wasn't difficult. Clearly the man in the fruity robes with the ladie's hair was up to no good.

"Hey!" Noel called out, her legs spread wide and her fists on her hips. The smell of peppermint grew stronger, wafting through the park. "Hey! You leave it alone!"

"Thats a portal to the Manido-aki you dum-dum." Noel said in the most superior tone of voice she could muster. Unfortunately, Noel was not the sort who managed to stay angry or superior for long."I'm Noel." She added, smiling a little. "I can probably show you how to get through, but I don't think it will take you home. Unless you live in the dreamlands."

Noel sized him up for a moment, determining that his robes were indeed fruity and his hair was pretty fancy for a boy. Then again, Wild Jack and Orion were her only real male role models and neither of them were amazing examples of stellar grooming. Nevertheless, Howl (what kind of name was Howl?) had a nice smile and Noel decided on the spot that it might be fun to have company for her first physical trek through the dreamlands. "How come you're so far from home?" She asked.

"I've never been through for real." The little girl replied. "Only when I was sleeping. But Moth says that if you go to Mabon the doors there will take you where you want to go. So maybe one will take you to Wales?" The trick, of course, was making it to Mabon. She had no idea where the portal would take them or how time would flow once on the other side. It could go a million times faster or slow as mud. According to everyone back at the Wayfarer's Rest is was impossible to predict, which was why you had to be careful. Dreamtime could be like faerie time.