Welcome to Gaia! ::

Keita-concepts for stages:

Child: hair/ears/tail starting to turn gold, still mostly brown. Horns growing.


Teenager: Hair mostly gold but still with deer spots. Ears and tail stay at this point or a little darker. Leaf pendant moves to a loose, thin thong necklace.Hair starting to grow longer.


Adult: Hair true gold, long to his waist and worn in a low ponytail. No shirt, wears a vest open to show bear-claw scars that killed him before he was reborn (long, scary white scars). Always carries staff. Wiser nature, antlers full grown. Hunter.

The Beginning


Awaken, Forest Dreamer.

Slowly, emerald eyes opened to gaze up at leaves that nearly matched their color. The tall, long-legged boy with golden brown hair reached up with one hand as if to bat them out of his vision- but they were on the branches of trees, much too high for him to reach. Stillness surrounded him, pouring through the forest like a wave, a layer of peace over everything within....but if it was so quiet and calm, what had woken him? It was mid afternoon, the best possible time to nap in a day that was warm enough to make the world lazy; there was NO reason he should be awake without some sort of cause.

Slowly, the young deer-boy sat up, flicking his soft ears and shaking himself slightly to discourage the leaves and twigs that grew so fond of his body when he napped. He met with only mediocre success, but he ignored his foliage for a moment- surely, something was moving in the forest that had gotten his attention. A ladybug landed on one of his antlers, and he glanced questioningly up at her...but she seemed unconcerned. Yes, unconcerned- a complacent little settling of her wings, and the way she bumbled about investigating the new location. Scared or uneasy ladybugs acted totally different, which Keita well knew- he was pretty fond of ladybugs.

Standing with the same care he'd shown sitting up, he looked through the trees, trying to spot whatever had made him so off-balance. Yes, that was a good word for it. The forest was usually where he felt most comfortable, which was why he was evading his lessons (again) and napping in the sun. At the moment, however, he might as well have been in a crowded mall for all the peace he was getting. The ladybug flew away, leaving him completely alone...

-Too quiet!-

...and then SUDDENLY a small bundle of fur exploded out of the bushes next to him, rolling to a stop flat on it's back and staring up at him from under its fluffy tail. Wide eyes blinked at him from a black mask, and the utter silliness made Keita pause mid-flight. For a moment, boy and raccoon just stared at each other, before Keita laughed with a trace of bemusement and reached down to pick the creature up. It never occurred to him that it would bite or scratch him- they never did.

"Little too fast, fluffy thief," he murmured, low voice blending seamlessly into the sounds of the forest. "You should slow down a little- before you run into something that eats raccoons."

"You should be careful what you pick up, before you run into something that bites and has the mad sickness," the raccoon sniffed, manner revealing it to be male, after all. He scratched at an ear, since his position in Keita's arms made it convenient. "Just because you're forest-touched doesn't mean everything likes you."

Now, Keita knew everything in the forest- trees, bugs, rocks, critters, etc.- was capable of speech. He was NOT, however, used to a fluffy creature of the wild variety up and having a conversation with him in casual English. Pards, he could understand. His assortment of odd 'siblings,' them too. But this was more than a bit odd.

"What manner of creature are you?" He asked, a trace of doubt in his otherwise terribly curious voice. Maybe he was still dreaming- or maybe he was just lucky and this WAS a talking raccoon. You never knew, really, and who was he to say it couldn't happen?

"I...am Kvtli," was the very self-satisfied answer. There was an implied 'eh' sound between the k and the v, thank the forest, making the name more pronounceable. "I am, I am. Came to get you, because you were taking too long."

Blink. One soft ear flicked at the raccoon, questioning. "Get me to go where, Kvtli? I didn't know I was expected or...anything." Actually, he was 'expected' for his lessons the entire afternoon. Obviously, that wasn't exactly working out, either.

For a bare moment, the raccoon's black eyes held much more than general mischief- and then it was gone again, leaving him the same brick-heavy ball of fluff, tail curling over the side of his arm. Kvtli was a remarkably clean raccoon, he noticed. "To the forest- the center of the forest! You are too slow, we expected you MONTHS ago. Thought you would be more curious than that."

"Well, things have been a bit busy for a while, Mama Brit and Mama Steele have been under a lot of stress," Keita replied with an easy shrug. "We were happier just getting away from it, letting things flow, not being a problem. What about Aureli? Shouldn't she come, too? She'll be asleep for another couple of hours, yet."

"Dancer-child can come when she finds her own way," Kvtli told him impatiently, and squirmed in his arms. "Come! Come now, or I will leave you behind and never speak to you again."

Since this did, indeed, seem like a terrible threat, the stag-boy set the raccoon down gently and retrieved his staff from where it was hidden in the soft grass. Slinging it across his back, he blissfully followed the skittering creature deeper into the forest- he'd be back by dinner. A grin touched his thin features as he glanced back at the house. If he wasn't, he'd just be in the forest- and where was the harm in that?