Welcome to Gaia! ::

A Mysterious Find

Ivy-Rose ran helter-skelter about her front lawn, occasionally casting a glance over her shoulder and letting out a cry. Somehow, a troupe of four rather grotesque goblins had escaped from their wood and had decided to play a game of chase. Poor Ivy, armed only with a broom, was now wishing that her neighbors (who were nearly too far away to hear her any other day) were home.

These goblins were the apparent Spiderwick variety, being approximately 3-and-a-half feet tall and toad-like with upturned, flat faces, and sharp little teeth of wood or glass or that had been "borrowed" from other creatues. The tittered cynically, their numerous extra spider-like eyes following Ivy's every move.

"Please! Help!" Ivy shrieked and spun around once, giving the nearest goblin a good whack with her broom.

Nate had no reason to be where he was, but he was there anyway. Walking along, minding his own business and just wanting to enjoy the music currently blasting in his headphones, his too-long to be human ears flicked as they heard the sound of someone crying for help. Eyes flashed from blue to red to green, and he wrenched the headphones off.

"Heya," he called, looking around. "Where are you?"

Pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, his newly green eyes flicked around worriedly. Setting into a trot towards the sound, tail thrashing in nervous habit behind him, he called out again.

"Anyone there?"

"Over here!" Ivy shrieked in response to the voice, stumbling over one of the goblins that had used her averted attention to its advantage.

"Oof!" the green-skinned girl grunted before whacking at the creature with her broom and continuing her sprint.

Jesus H. Christ. What's this then....

"I'm comin'! Hold on!"

Nate broke into a full-out sprint towards the woman's voice. Left, right, left, zigzagging towards the source until he skidded to a dead halt, jaw dropping. A green girl being...accosted by...what the hell were those things?

"Uh," he managed, head tilting slowly to one side as he stared at the assembly before him. "Hallo. Needing...needing help, then?"

He took a step forward, towards the nasty-looking little creatures.

"Lay off," he said, voice firm. As if that would do anything....

One of the goblins stopped before the young man, looked up at him curiously, and happily prodded him in the leg with a weapon fashioned from a fork and a string.

Ivy stopped running abruptly. The new boy had hooves! Real, honest-to-goodness hooves! And a horn! Oh my...he must be part...part...something horselike! She ogled him for a moment before being bitten on the heel by the same goblin with the fork.

"God damn...AURGH!" Ivy whacked the goblin with the stick-end of her broom.

"Cach! Get off, you little - HEY! Get away from her!" Nate growled, kicking out at the little creature that had poked him before charging towards the woman. In a move that was both foolhardy and rather stupid, he dove at the creature the woman had struck with her broom and tackled it to the ground, ready to give it a sound beating.

"Clear off, all of you!" he shouted, fully aware how ridiculous he must look at that moment. "Go on!"

When the one creature was tackled to the ground, it began prodding the young man once again with its fork. The three others soon joined in.

"Get off of him, you beasts!" Ivy shrieked again and gave the goblins a good whack with her broom, sending one sprawling to the groun, "We need to get them through the back gate! Help me!"

Only then did she realize that this...unicorn-person (who happened to be a complete strangers) was helping her.

Completely indignant at the fact that he was being prodded with silverware, Nate looked up at the woman in confusion.

"Wha' the hell are they gonna do, eat us or something?" he asked, getting up and swatting the forks away anxiously. He didn't want to be eaten. Especially by little...toad...whatever they were. "Alright! How do we...where's the...will you stop poking me, you damn mutant monkey!"

Growling, he seized one of the creatures by the throat and turned to the woman.

"Where's the gate?"

Ivy quickly snatched up one of the little goblins, ignoring the scratches it etched in her flesh with its fork.

"Back yard!" she yelled and bolted for the back gate, leaping over her low fence in the process. The other goblins followed her, not quite liking the idea of that girl holding one of theirown captive.

Nate followed quickly after, still gingerly holding the little creature.

"Heya, there," he called after the woman as he ran, "what...what the hell are these things? Why were they chasing you?"

"Goblins!" Ivy yelled over her shoulder as if this were a completely normal occurance, "They followed me through the gate!" The teen reached the back gate and threw it open, causing a rather odd-looking forest to flicker into exisance as the hinges creaked open. She threw the goblin into the oddly-coloured foliage, and the other followed suit, cacking insanely.

The hybrid wiped her hands on her pants.

"Toss him in."

Goblins.

Nate was currently half-strangling a goblin.

Of course.

"Well, this is certainly one of the strangest things I've ever done in my life," he said matter-of-factly to the woman. Skidding to a halt beside her, he stared briefly at the creature in his grasp before throwing it through the gate. Tail twitching, he turned to look at the green woman with a look of vague confusion on his face. "Does this happen often?"

Ivy laughed; a high, tittering sound something like a bird, and closed the gate. The forest flickered out of existance, the laughing of the goblins fading on the wind.

"No, not often at all," she answered truthfully, "but occasionally, yes." Now she took the time to ddiscreetly look the young man over.

He was equine and cute! She felt herself beginning to blush.

"My name's Ivy-Rose," she said and stuck out her hand for him to shake.

"Ah...right. Okay then," Nate said, trying to reason out the events of the past few minutes. Goblins?

Well, he was hardly in the place to doubt such things.

"M'name's Nathaniel. Nate for short," he said, taking Ivy's hand and shaking it. He'd noticed her looks at his unusual appearance, but for once was not nettled by it. She wasn't exactly run-of-the-mill herself, so any questions probably wouldn't be as invasive as he was used to.

But he still raised a hand to his horn in self-conscious defense.

"So...ah, Ivy-Rose," he said, forcing himself to lower his hand, "before being attacked by goblins, what where you doing out here?"

"Harvesting," Ivy pointed to the powder-blue pickup truck in her front yard, the back lined with plastic and filled with...well...one could assume they were some kind of fruits, "and call me Ivy, if you like."

She thought for a moment. She'd been struck by a rather insane idea. Well, why not? Nate didn't seem like a crazy axe-murderer...

"Would you like to come inside? Have a cup of tea?"

Eyeing the strange stuff with curiosity, Nate shrugged and nodded.

"Alright, Ivy then. I'd like to, sure."

He didn't really have anything better to do anyway. His plans for a quiet evening at home with the goldfish and his books sounded supremely boring compared to what had just happened in five minutes.

"Alright," Ivy smiled, "Come on in." She made her way to the back door which led into the kitchen.

"Feel free to make yourself at home," she said as she filled the tea maker (with some help from a stepping stool), "It'll only be a minute."

Trying to comfortably take a seat - which was always a challenge, with that tail - Nate settled back and waited quietly for Ivy. Glancing around her house, wondering briefly if any more fork-wielding supernatural creatures would jump out at him, he drummed his fingers and hummed to himself.

"So..." he said, not wanting an uncomfortable silence to spiral out, "what d'you do? For a living, I mean?"

"I pick that stuff you saw in the truck," Ivy spoke loudly to be heard, "It grows in the forest you saw. I sell it. It makes a fairly good profit." Of course, 99% of the Gaian population had never seen the faerie fruits before.

"How about yourself?" she asked as she watched the little river of tea fall into the teapot.

She was quite easily amused.

Nate nodded, not bothering to acknowledge that she couldn't see him doing it.

"Me? Heh, actually...I'm a waiter. Sometimes I play violin out on the sidewalks on weekends whenever I need a bit of change. I'm living the life mothers warn their children about," he said, grinning. He was damn proud of it, too.

"Nifty!" Ivy grinned as she filled two mis-matched coffee mugs with tea. She grabbed the little sugar holder and creamer and, performing some kind of deranged balancing act, finally made her way to Nate.

She placed the many objects in her arms on the coffee table and took a seat beside Nare, offering him a mug.

She preferred her tea black, if tea could be black...

"Personally, I think all mothers are a little screwy in the head."

Taking his tea with a pleasant smile, Nate proceeded to dump far too much sugar and cream into it.

"I completely agree," he said, adding still more sugar. "Mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters...heh. Either they like you or they don't, and if they don't they'll make it known." He laughed again, and took a sip of tea. ...Bleaugh.

He added another pinch of sugar and sipped it again. Perfect. Easing back on Ivy's couch, he sipped at his...well, tea-flavored sugar.

"If you don't mind my asking, Ivy...don't take it personal, now. But...what are you, exactly?" he asked, innocently curious.

Ivy had, in truth, never been asked what she was before. People either didn't care or didn't want to speak to her.

Regardless, she knew the answer.

"I'm from the family Sirenicircumundrydonidae," she smiled slightly and sipped her tea, "Which is the nice way of saying I'm a...pixie-elf-sprite-treefolk-merfolk-hybrid...thing. Blame it on science."

"The same can be asked of you? No offense meant. I'm just...curious, is all."

"Now that's somethin'. Sireni-circu-mun-nyeeh. Right. Gotcha." Nate said, tripping over the unfamiliar word. Taking another sip of sugar, he poked at his horn unconcernedly.

"None taken. I'm a unicorn-human hybrid of some sort, apparently," he said, tail twitching into his lap. "That's 'bout all I know for sure. It's earned me comments about interspecies love a couple times, of course." He shook his head, eyes turning gray. "Honestly. How immature."

Leaning over a bit to glance down at his hooves, he settled back onto the couch and shrugged. After a beat, he glanced at her.

"Blame science? D'you mean...did someone make you like that? Were you...I 'unno, human or summat before?"

Ivy watched his tail curiously. It was beautiful, as far as she was concerned.

"No, I was never Human. Heck, I'm not even technically female," she smiled up at him, "Some oddball doctor in a lab grew me in a test tube." She twitched her wings.

"Believe me, I've gotten the inter-species thing too."

Nate pushed his glasses up again to get a better look at Ivy. Green skin, antennae, wings...everything she said of her gender aside, she was darn nice to look at.

"That's...well." Unsure how to reply to this, he finished off his sugar and set the cup down. "Why woul' he do that, I wonder...." Aside from his dashing good looks and winning personality (at least in his own opinion) Nate saw no reason for his own existence. Maybe he was the decrepit lovechild of something twisted. He usually didn't care - but Ivy's strange origins suddenly had him interested again for the first time in years.

"Can you fly with those things?" he asked with a nod at her wings, to break the silence he'd let grow.

Ivy shrugged. She knew what the good doctor had wanted, sure. She just didn't like to share it.

"Mmhm," she nodded, smiling, "I don't use them much, though. Sometimes I forget they're there." It sounded silly to have said that. Incredibly silly.

Resisting the urge to poke at them, Nate nodded in understanding.

"Same thing with this," he said, pointing at the horn. "You wouldn't think I'd forget about it, but I do all the time. Doesn't really do much 'cept make me look pretty," he added with a grin.

"Yes, it does," Ivy spoke absently, and it took a few moment for her to realize what she had said. She gasped and brought a hand to her lips, blushing a strange kind of bruise-like colour.

Luckily, fate intervened.

A small piece of paper suddenly fluttered in through an open window, and Ivy watched as it landed at Nate's...hooves.

Nate blinked, staring at Ivy briefly. He'd only meant it as a joke...

"Uh. Oh! Um...paper." he said, retrieving it from the floor. Handing it over to her, he noticed the peculiar blush and felt one of his own starting slightly. Oops. "Ah. I think it's for you, then."

Ivy took the paper and arched an eyebrow. It looked like a ticket of some kind with an address and odd saying.

"Wash away the past for a new future...hm," she read the saying and her lips flockered down into a momentary frown, "I have no idea what this is. Some kind of deranged fortune cookie?" She turned the ticket over in her hands a few times.

Nate shrugged, leaning next to Ivy to try to look the ticket.

"Odd. Odder still, where'd it just come from?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at the window. "Wash away the past... weird."

Leaning back again, he stared at the window as if expecting another ticket to blow through.

Ivy walked over to the window and leaned over the sill, half-expecting another goblin to be there. She could see it in her mind's eye, holding a stack of papers and giggling as it scampered away.

Except there was nothing.

She looked around for a few more moments and shrugged. Returning to her seat, the girl flipped the ticket over in her hands once more.

"I have no idea."

Running a finger along the inside of his mug to collect sugar residue, Nate shrugged again.

"Could just be...y'know, one o' those things," he said. Not that he had any idea what 'one of those things' was. His conversation had turned to fluff in response to the randomness. "Well, it's got an address...maybe you could check it out later. Just to see what it is."

One of those things...?

"Maybe," Ivy agreed, not wanting to sound unintelligent, "I think I will. Maybe tomorrow." She watched Nate running his finger inside his mug and blushed again for reasons unknown.

She kicked her feet, which only barely touched the floor. She didn't like the growing silence, and the bobs at the ends of her antennae flickered twice. Her eyes once again floated to Nate's tail.

"May I...oh, this is so silly...may I touch it?" She pointed to said tail and blushed a deeper shade of sickly purple.

Unless salamanders counted, she had never come across something with such a long tail before...let alone someone.

Nate, deeply involved with his sugar, nodded and flicked his tail onto her lap.

"Go 'head, I don't mind," he said, sucking his fingers. Usually he'd mind it a lot, but Ivy...strangely, he didn't care at all.

An odd smile crept up on Ivy's face, and she hesitantly poked Nate's tail. Once she was reassured that he wasn't going to gore her, she stroked its length (or as much of it as she felt was far enough from his rear to do as such) and fiddled with the tuft at the end a bit.

"Well, it's a very nice tail," she giggled slightly.

Nate bit back a snort of amusement at Ivy's interest in his tail, twitching the tip on a whim.

"It gets in the way a lot," he said mildly. "I tend to get it caught in doors. I like it well enough, but th' damn thing doesn't do much and I wish it could be shorter."

Having finished off every last grain of sugar, Nate placed the mug down on the table again and settled comfortably into the couch.

"So, y'get many visitors 'round here? Y'live with anyone?" he asked.

Ivy giggled slightly at that. For some reason, the mental image of a unicorn boy with his tail stuck in a door was amusing.

"Sorry," she apologized quickly, and then held her hands out, "It's just me and the dustbunnies in the attic. I'm the eccentric neighbor. Nobody likes me much around here." She smiled sincerely enough, but her fingers danced nervously on the sight stone hanging around her neck.

Fairly certain he knew what she was laughing at, Nate grinned sheepishly.

"Ahhh, you laugh now, but it hurts like a b***h and takes a lot of dignity with it," he said, waving a finger at her. Listening to her attentively, he frowned and his eyes shifted to yellow.

"Don't like you? Hmph. Screw 'em, if y'don't mind my saying. Light 'em on fire or something."

Noticing where her grasp went, he peered at the stone curiously.

"What's that?"

Ivy would have told him she got her wings stuck in door if it weren't for the fact that that would be a blatant lie. That, and doors could tears wings off.

"I think I...might?" she looked down at her busy fingers, "Oh...this?"

She held it up on the bit of ribbon it hung from.

"It's a sight stone," she spoke, smiling, "A flat, perfectly round stone with a hole bored exactly through the middle by a steram or other natural...thinger. It helps people who can't see into the faerie world to see into it."

She paused.

"You don't appear to have that problem. Are you the seventh son of a seventh son?"

Nate thought on it, then shook his head.

"I don't know, really," he said regretfully. "Maybe."

Taking off his glasses and polishing them idly, he peered at the stone. It didn't look like anything very special...

"Well. Learnin' all kinds of stuff today," he said, replacing his glasses and shoving them up his nose again for the hundredth time. He glanced once more at the ticket, an idea dawning.

"Y'think maybe that ticket thing's somethin' faerie-related?" he asked. It seemed like a pretty good theory, all things considered.

Ivy nodded and smiled slightly. She thought Nate's glasses were rather cute.

She then looked to the ticket what still lay on the table, half-expecting it to tell her where it was from or not be there at all. It was there, though...sitting there...taunting her.

"I think it has to be," she shrugged and returned her gaze to Nate, "but I think I'm gonna go check it out anyway."

Her natural curiosity was immense, yet another grand flaw she could blame on her heritage but often didn't. It got her into trouble, and she had a feeling it may again rather soon.

Picking it up to look at it briefly, Nate mouthed the words wash away the past before setting it down again.

"Well, tell me what happens when you go an' see. This whole thing's got me interested," he said, getting up and gently removing his tail from her lap. "Thanks for th' tea and the eventful evening, but I should get back..."

He hesitated, then dug out a crumpled scrap of paper and a pen. Scribbling his phone number, he handed it to her with a grin.

"I can come an' visit again, if you'd like,"

Ivy blushed that sickly bruise color again and a grin broke her face, so huge it hurt her cheeks.

"I'd like that," she nodded, "Any time you like." She grabbed a piece of paper from the nearby bookshelf and scribbled her phone number down with a conveniently-placed pen. She then handed it to Nate, still blushing.

After Nate had left and the fleeting disappointment had, in fact, fled, Ivy would have kissed the mysterious ticket, noticed the arrival date, and pinned it to the cork board on the wall.

The First Outing

Ellie was pressed up against the glass display case in a small shop in Durem, her breath fogging it considerably. There were so many pretty things inside; bracelets! Necklaces! Rings! All so pretty. She ran a finger down the glass, following the contour of a beaded bracelet.

The woman she was slowly begin to realize as her mother then approached, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Do you like them?" the woman asked.

Ellie nodded.

"Would you like me to buy them for you?"

Ellie heaved a dramatic sigh and shook her head. Mother had bought a great many things for her since they left their house. The truck was filled with bags from all different shops, all filled with things Ellie had picked out herself.

And a lot of it was very expensive, too.

Ivy laughed slightly and motioned for the shop owner to join her by the case.

"How can I help you?" the elderly man asked.

"I'd like those," Ivy pointed, her fingernail clinking against the glass, "Please?"

Ellie stared on in horror as the man unlocked the case and took out ten small beaded bracelets and placed them in a little bag.

"Come on, Ellie," Ivy smiled and placed a hand on the little girl's back, guiding her to the front of the store where she paid for the bracelets.

There was a mutual, wordless agreement that the day's shopping was finished and the odd pair started back toward the pickup.

It was then that Ellie saw the lady on the sidewalk. The lady had birds...lots of them. She released Mother's hand and ran to teh woman and her stand.

There were parrots and cockatiels, along with a slew of exotic birds that Ellie had never seen before. It was none of these flashy beaked wonders that caught teh little girl's eye, though.

It was the small yellow canary, sitting in a wire cage, singing softly to itself.

Ivy once again came up behind Ellie and followed the girl's gaze to the bird. The look of absolute wonder on the child's face made Ivy's heart melt.

She bent to Ellie's height.

"If I bought you the birdy, would you be sure to take good care of it?"

Ellie hesitated a moment, "Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes."

Ivy smiled and bought Ellie yet another plaything, albeit it a living, breathing one.

On the way back to the car, Leopold clutched under her arm and Amelia's (which she had dubbed her new pet) cage in her hand, she waved and smiled to the man leaning on the back of the blue truck. He waved back.

Ivy, confused, looked toward her truck to try and see what her daughter was waving at.

She saw nothing.

A Day in the City

Ivy wandered through the streets of Durem, calling out for people to buy her faerie fruits. Her stock today looked much like glass orbs filled with glowstick-liquid.

They were much more edible than that, though.

Ellie was walking beside her mother, clinging to the green-skinned woman's skirt as if it were a lifeline. The little girl stared wide-eyed at the sights around the city. She had never been in one this big!


Sati huffed a sigh. Forever the odd one out when it came to her brother and his friends, she was forced to keep Bunny near by to entertain her bored mind. Her second closest friend, Lehela, sat as invisible and silent as always.

“Im bored.” She informed her friends, as she watched Xalander and his friends fruitlessly flirt with a girl that seemed a lot older then them. She wrinkled her nose in distaste, hunger taking over her small frame. “Xalander!” She called to her brother. “I’m HUNGRY”

The distraction proved for a perfect escape for the 18 year old, who seemed uncomfortable at the 13 year olds flirts, not wasting a second to flee the scene. The older of the two siblings let out an angry huff before looking at his 5 year old sister. “Fine! Lets go get you something...”


Ellie stopped dead in her tracks and blinked at a girl nearby. Ivy followed suit and looked down to the little girl.

"What?"

Ellie simply pointed to the girl with the red hair, Leopold clutched tightly to her side. The girl's hair was so pretty!

Ivy recognized Sati, and also her brother, whom had attempted to steal from her before Ellie came around. She smiled and waved, not quite knowing if the girl would see her.


Sati was busy hopping off of the bench she was sitting on, to notice much of her surroundings. So she failed to notice Ivy until she received a jab in the side. When she glared at her older brother, she noticed he was pointing at something- rather someone, standing rather stiff.

The young girl followed her brothers finger until she saw Ivy.

Seeing the girl, Sati let out a happy cheer and tightening her grasp on Bunny, she ran towards her friend from before. "HI IV-" The words caught in her throat when she noticed the other girl. She stood there, her head cocked to the side slightly. "Hello? Who are you?"


"Elshiva,"Ellie said simply before stepping forward and reached out to pet the girl's pretty hair. She smiled and looked to the girl with her oddly intense eyes.

Ivy bent down to the girls' height and smiled. Ellie hadn't had the chance to make friends yet, and Sati seemed like a damn good place to start. She then looked up for a minute and forced herself to wave at Xalander.

There was no point in keeping a grudge.


"Hungry?" Ivy half-smiled and pulled 3 fruits from the basket, juggling them for a moment above the basket. She then held them out to the kids.

Ellie took one and bit in before drinking out the fluorescent goo within. She then moved to a nearby grassy patch and sat down, legs crossed.


Sati's eyes glittered at the sight of the fruit and happily accepted it with a tiny squeek of joy. "Thank you Ms. Ivy!" She cheered before running off to join Ellie in the grass, taking a tiny bite of her own fruit.

Xalander let a grin pass over his face before he nodded his own head in acceptance to the fruit. This time around though, he pulled out a wallet out of his baggy pants and offered money for the two of their fruits. "Hows it?" He asked idly while taking a bite of his own food, arm with money still held out for Ivy to take.


Ellie smiled to Sati, her lips glowing a neon pink.

"This is Leopold," the girl smiled and pointed to her patchwork teddy bear.

Ivy shook her head and refused to money.

"My treat," she nodded, and then began off to sit with the girls, "It's good. Having a kid's a lot different than I'd expected." She shrugged.

"How about you?"


Sati watched as the girl pointed to the bear, before letting a wide grin of her own pass over her lips. "Nice to meet you Leopold!!" She giggled excitedly before pointing to her rabbit plush. "Thats Bunneh!" She cheered with a nod of her head. And then she moved to point to the air that was next to her. "And this here is Lehela! Dont pick on her size though, okay Elshiva? She hates it that shes so short."

Xalander shrugged in a half hearted motion before looking in the direction of his sister. "What do you mean its different?" He asked after a moment of thinking. "Didn' you have her before we met?" After seeing the girl, he had simply assumed that the green woman simply had not brought her along the time he had stolen fruit from her.


"Hello, Bunneh," Ellie smiled, and then turned to the air beside Sati. She certainly didn't see anyone there...

Oh, well. Maybe that hadn't decided to show themselves to her.

"Hellu, Lehela, n' I don' think your short at all." Of course, she couldn't quite tell, but as long as this other girl seemed to be able to see the see-through people, she wasn't going to question it.

She then pointed to the young man only she saw sitting with them.

"Thass Johnny."

"Nope," Ivy shook her head and sat on the ground with the girls, placing her basket on the ground and taking a fruit of her own, "Only had her about a week."


"HIIIIIIII JOHNNY!" Sati called and waved energetically before leaning over to Ellie and whispering "Lehela says hes cute." And then moved back upright with a nod of her head, before turning her attention back to the fruit.

Quickly polishing the tasty morsel off she turned back to her new friend. "How old are you Elshiva? Im 5!"

"Only a week?" Xalander took a seat next to her and cocked his head to the side. "Adoption?"


Elshiva giggled slightly and Johnny gave a give of half-wave to teh air around him.

"I'm four," Ellie nodded, "Almost as big as you."

"Kinda-sorta," Ivy nodded, "I got this ticket, you see, and when I went to the place it told me to, there was Ellie on the train. I really think she more adopted me..."


"Wow! You ARE almost as big as me!" She said in awe as she looked at the girl. Well- if she had to guess an age, it certainly wouldnt have been 4. "That, thats my brother Xalander. He likes to play jokes on people, so watch out, okay Elshiva, Johnny, Leopard." Wow. Was it just her, or were there a lot of people where they were sitting?

"Wow. Geez. Talk about odd." That was all he could even manage to think, at the moment if he was totally honest with someone.


"Okay," Ellie nodded, and then held up a finger, "Leopold, not Leopard. Leopards are big kitties." It really didn't bother her much, but she figured that Leopold must not like being called a kitty.

"Yeah. No kidding," Ivy smiled and laughed slightly.


Sati winced and nodded her head. Leopold. Leopold. Leopold. She attempted to drill it in her mind so as to not make the mistake of calling the bear a large cat again. Hey, you know, if you think it enough... it starts to sound funny. Sati giggled to herself at the thought and mused over it for awhile.

Xalander finally let out a sigh and plopped himself down to the ground. One of his hands went up to rub his temple. "Man, Honestly, I think I'd turn tale and run. Get the hell outa there, if I were you."


Ellie cocked her head at Sati. What a strange girl, laughing for no reason!

"Yeah, well, didn't quite know what was happening until it was too late," Ivy shrugged, "and it gets kinda lonely anyway. It's nice to have someone look up to me, as cheesy as it sounds."


Xalander shrugged carelessly. "Eh, if its true. Its true." He quickly ate his fruit she gave him before looking down at his watch. "Alright. Well, it was nice seeing you Ivy." He said with a nod of his head in her direction before turning to his sister's direction. "SATI! Time to go home!"

Sati let out a long depressed sigh at the call, but nodded her head. Turning to Ellie she smiled warmly. "I gotta go now. But Im always around this area when Xalander is hanging with his friends." She spoke "So if you want to play at the park some time, I would like that. See ya later Elshiva." She giggled as she hopped to her feet and giving a wave to the 4 that she had sat near, she ran to her brothers side, and the both of them walked off.

A Dream

Elshiva lay in bed, eyes closed, dreaming her long day away. It was not a pleasant dream, though. No, it was overtaken by the evil water, overthrown by the waves crashing about the shore.

She and Sat perched in a small rowboat, Johnny holding them in his strong arms. The ground had disappeared. The houses were submerged. The animals were all dead and floating.

Ellie was crying.

Suddenly, there was a mighty roar from beneath the roiling waves, smacking against the side of the tin boat and tossing it about like a ragdoll.

It was the train!

The girl felt a sudden rush of fear. Oh no! The train! They must'n't let it get near them! All at once, with hive-minded fervor, the girls and Johnny began paddling with their hands...and began to move backward!

The train blew its horn ocne more, sending up a stream of bubbles that lifted the boat from the surface and sent the crashing down beneath the waves. Ellie felt the water rush over her, felt the rising panic...

...and then she woke up.

The girl was drenched in sweat, her nightgown clinging uncomfortably. She looked to Amelia, who was singing softly to herself upon her swing. Outside teh window, rain was pelting the ground. It was like a continous roll of thunder, punctuated only by flashes of light.

Elshiva pulled the covers up over her head adn cried herelf back to sleep.