Welcome to Gaia! ::

The sky was black with clouds as a young woman carried a box into an old temple like house. This was her first time she had ever lived alone and she was scared; yet so excited. She was just promoted to being a Master of her art, so she was given a run down temple to recreate. Her grand master had told her that all masters must do this to gain a bond with their temple that is necessary to teach. The young woman didn’t quite understand this, so she continued to carry boxes into her new home. The inside was covered in dirt, dust, cobwebs and it smelt like something had died. The girl cringed and rolled her eyes. She didn’t want the promotion, and she really didn’t want to be here.

A few hours later all the boxes were pilled in various rooms and the girl was exhausted. She lay on the floor breathing heavily when a spider crawled across her chest. She screamed in fright and ran to the back yard. Her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped. It was stunning. It was slightly over-grown with weeds and vines; but beautiful none the less. There was a fountain that had potential to be a koi pond, open space that would fuel a peaceful meditation session and possibly a rock garden. The girl winced as something dropped on her head; a rain drop. She squeaked and ran inside. The rain began to pour down, like a blanket being laid on top of the temple.

Unfortunately the rain didn’t stay out. The roof was a little more than leaky, there were gaping holes. The girl went to one of the many boxes and pulled out two large tarps. She then proceeded to go outside and looked at the roof. She was determined to fix it. With tarps slung over her shoulder, she climbed up one side of the temple and stood shaking on the edge, trying not to fall through. With speed slightly in-human she ran to the middle and across the roof. She spread the tarps and stopped instantly at what she heard. She was caught off guard, tumbled off the roof and hit the ground hard. However, she ignored the pain and kept looking in the direction of the noise. A baby, it was a baby’s cry. She slowly got to her feet and ran into the forest behind the temple.

The rain stung her face but she didn’t care. Who could leave a baby out here? Who could have such a monstrous heart? Her leg had been hurt but that didn’t stop her. The cry was getting louder. Each breath felt like her lungs were tearing and each step felt like her legs were breaking, but she kept running. Nothing would stop her from helping this child. A sparkle caught her eye and she slowed down so she wouldn’t pass it. She looked in all directions and couldn’t find the item. The crying had stopped as well. Then she heard a slight giggle. She looked down and there the child was, soaked and muddy. The girl pulled off her sweater and wrapped it around the child. “What the…”

Once she returned to the temple with the child she ran some warm water. The girl cleaned up the young one with a cloth and noticed her shimmering scales, her tail and her hoofed feet. There was also a large silver horn that adorned her head. The woman didn’t know what to make of the child. She seemed special, but why did the woman find the child? She wasn’t anything special, and she certainly didn’t how to care for it. However, something inside told her it was fate; not to worry and everything would be alright. She looked into the child’s bright eyes and said, “My name is Getsurei. You can call me mommy, or Rei, or whatever you can come up with. What am I saying, you’re just a baby.”
The baby looked right back at Rei and smiled. She reached up and lightly played with Rei’s fox like ears. Rei just smiled back and whispered, “I’ll protect you always; my Kimi-Ryu…”

It had been just over a week since Rei had found the young child in the woods, and things seemed to be running smoothly; or rather smoothly down hill. The house needed more work done on it than she had anticipated and it was difficult to do anything with a baby around. If Rei looked away for one moment, Kimi-Ryu would be discovering something new. She seemed to like the backyard, so Rei decided it best to clean that first.

Getting rid of the weeds and other undesirable plants was the easy part. Fixing the fountain was slightly more difficult, but it needed to get done. Rei got out a bucket and began to take out the dirty water that remained from all the rain. However, she noticed something inside the water; eggs. “They must be from frog’s, I mean there are no fish in here. At least I hope there aren’t.”

Kimi noticed her mother was staring into the fountain, which seemed odd because she had looked pretty determined to get it fixed. She crawled over to her mother’s side and tugged her shirt.

Getsurei looked down at Kimi and lifted her so she could see the beautiful beginning of life. She pointed to where the eggs were and whispered into the baby’s ear, “Look Kimi, those are frog eggs. One day they will open up and babies will come out.”

Kimi pointed to herself and giggled.

“Yes, babies just like you. Except frog babies; and you didn’t come out of an egg.” Wait, maybe she did. After all, she did find Kimi in the forest. “Tell ya what. We are going to look after these eggs till they grow up nice and strong.”

Kimi wriggled and clapped with excitement and joy. Maybe she could play with the babies? That would mean new friends! She was extremely delighted at the thought.

The next day Rei made a make shift fence-like covering for the fountain so no animals could get to the eggs. She also noticed that Kimi was ‘patrolling’ the area for dangers. Every time Rei would try to bring Kimi in she would make a fuss and cry. So, against her better judgment Rei set up a tent beside the fountain so Kimi and she could keep watch over the eggs all day.

Rei was woken by the sound of a banshee giggle. She poked her head out of the tent and saw Kimi-Ryu leaning over the fountain and kicking her feet. The eggs had hatched and little tadpoles were swimming about. “See Kimi, it didn’t take too long did it. Soon they will be big and strong frogs. Now, you need a nap and I need to get some food for them. Let’s go.” She bent over to pick Kimi-Ryu up, but she began to fuss even worse than normal. “Alright; here is the deal. You can stay here and guard them, but if I come back and something happened I am going to get mad and you will be in trouble.”

Kimi smiled and nodded. This was so exciting! She was going to take care of the babies; she was going to make sure they were ok.
It took Rei an hour and a half to get the food needed, due to traffic jams and an accident. Upon returning to the little temple she heard sharp screams of a little girl. “Kimi! Hold on! I’m coming!” She ran as fast as she could to the back yard, breaking a door in the process. What she saw was slightly funny, but also made her panic.

Kimi was holding onto the legs of a heron, who was trying to fly away. The heron seemed slightly stunned. Rei spotted a stick on the ground and began to piece what happened together. The heron must have been after the tadpoles and Kimi hit it with a stick. Then it tried to fly away, but she wasn’t done with it yet.

Getsurei walked up behind Kimi-Ryu and grabbed her hands lightly. “Let it go honey, I’m here now. No one will hurt your babies.”

Kimi let go slowly and the heron flew off. She was proud that she protected her little ones. No one would ever touch them, they were hers.

The moon was high in the sky and Kimi-Ryu lay in her bed wide-awake. It had been a long day of hard work and her mom had gone to bed early, falling asleep almost instantly. There was no time for a bedtime story. Though she didn’t need them; she loved them. The small beams of light danced through the window, slightly illuminating part of a chair bedside the bed. Kimi looked over and smiled. She could see someone, though there was no one there.

“Having trouble sleeping child?”

“A little. I want to hear a story. Hey, do you know any?” Kimi sat up in excitement. Her friend would probably have the best stories.

“Ah, yes I do have one. Although I do not think it is suited for a bedtime story.”

“It’ll be ok, I won’t get bad dreams.” She smiled in such a sweet way that no one could resist it. At least her mom couldn’t anyway.

There was a brief silence. “Alright. A long time ago, there was a beautiful red haired witch. She was very powerful and admired by many. One day, a young woman came to the witches cabin. She was so excited to meet the beautiful witch; she was there to ask to be her apprentice. However, she was sorely disappointed when the witch turned her away. Her heart was broken as she wandered for many days with out rest. The young woman came across a hermit. He told her many things about her own power, and also that he could help her become the strongest in the entire world. The young woman thought this to be her opportunity, so she took it.

Years later she went back to the Witch. The witch was horrified at what the woman had done to herself. She had uncovered a power that no being should possess, the darkest power. The witch pleaded with the woman to stop what she was doing, to get away from the darkness. But the woman just laughed at the witch and told her this was of her own free will, and that she could not be swayed. The witch had no choice; she had to try to dispose of the woman. The woman, weakened after the epic battle, lingered off to die. She made it deep into the forest. Suddenly the hermit appeared. ‘Such a disappointment, so much potential.’ Then he disappeared, leaving her to die. And die she did. Her spirit stayed, fighting to regain the power she had in her life. No, she wanted more power. Then she could show that witc-”

Kimi had fallen asleep shortly after the voice had begun. She looked so innocent and sweet. If only she knew that the wheel of fate had begun to turn. That and she was sucking on her thumb.