Welcome to Gaia! ::

It has been a long time since I touched this journal. The pages are tattered, many are ripped. I keep tipping rotdust out of the spine and folds of the cover...

But it survived Kyendi's fall. Or, rather, the fall of the first Kyendi. As have we... barely. All of us - myself, Odilen, Pantalai, Rhumba, and Solstice - made it through, along with our most important items. Although what do they matter, really? We lost some things that were more important.

Namely, Odilen's confidence, what scraps of it she'd found before Kyendi's fall.

And her voice.

She screamed for so long, and panicked so badly, that we believe she lacerated her vocal cords. They are damaged beyond easy healing, and even Koniryu is loath to try such a delicate tactic. He says there is something to the damage that is unnatural, possibly accelerated decay due to Valesti's power. As such, he believes healing may do more harm than good...

We are alive. That is something. And Odilen has stopped coughing up blood, but she has lost so much beyond her voice. She huddles in the trees always, eyes wide with a constant fear that I fear is tearing her apart. Even when we moved to Sabilasi - to the amazing New Kyendi - she still refused to touch the ground. Koniryu was kind enough to help me, along with Leila who teleported us to this new tree.

Currently, we're living outside again. I'm glad it's warm here in Sabilasi - it's snowing in Gaia right now. Koniryu strengthened a few young trees so the Ieldi could live in them temporarily, but it's hardly better than the Gaian trees were. I wanted to try and make something more permanent, but Koniryu told me to wait...

I'm so tired of waiting.

I want to go home, wherever that is.

It's been almost a month since we made the move to Upper Kyendi. It was not without difficulty, as the teleporter could only take one living being at once and Odilen absolutely refused to be put down. Fortunately, Chronos volunteered his aid and used his own abilities to get himself and my little girl up to the village level, while Pantalai and I followed via the teleporting mechanism. Or magic, whatever it is. I haven't quite figured that out yet.

The new home is wonderful, though. This used to be part of an Ieldi city, restored to some of its former brilliance. Koniryu said once (rather grumpily) that they used to be far more than even this restoration can hint at, but it suits our purposes just fine. We're so high above the ground that I can't get close to the edges at all... it startles me to see mist BELOW us. Mist and the half-rotted remains of old Ieldi catch-nets.

Odilen is sorely disturbed by the sight of those tattered nets. I wonder why?

In any case, our house - and it is a house, truly, not just a shelf - is wonderful. It's small, but after the shelf it feels as large as a palace... it's one failing is that there's only one small window, but considering when you walk outside there's the huge expanse of tree and sky and sun, it's surprisingly easy to deal with. The little 'porch' has a small bench on it, and I've begun cultivating some small vines on the branches that make up the porch roof support.

Inside, there's a higher ceiling than you'd expect, which helps with any possible feelings of being cramped. Small sconces were carved into the wall by the previous occupants, along with delicate swirl-like carvings that appear to be on the wall just for pure decoration. The kitchen and living area is all one space, the walls elaborately carved with images of stylized Ieldi, swirling trees, clouds, wind, you name it. The kitchen is rather rudimentary - just a sort of sink-thing (also beautifully carved) with an odd hole in the counter. The rope had rotted away, but the light metal bucket remained. With a replacement rope, I discovered that the countertop hole was in fact a sort of tiny well. I can hear water splashing down there if I put my ear to it. Lord knows how the Ieldi engineered it to get so high up in the tree, but I'm not complaining. I use the camp stove for cooking now, there's a place for it under what seems and acts as a ventilation shaft. I don't know where it leads.

There's also a small bathroom. The toilet isn't flush - waste goes down a similar deep, deep hole, again with the sound of water below. Better not drop anything in THERE. The tub has an elaborate apparatus for heating water, a sort of kiln under a big wooden flask-thing that then tips the hot water into the tub. The water for this seems to siphon in from the outside, maybe coming from a reservoir of rainwater somewhere. I sure hope we never need a plumber - I have no idea where the 'pipes' are!

Odilen and I live in the other large room, the bedroom. An array of curtains - tattered, but I'm slowly mending them - separates the room into two halves, each with a bed surface carved right into the wall. No mattresses, of course, but we supplied our own.

It's a very interesting home, that's for sure. It doesn't seem quite mine yet - it's a quite different place than anything I'm used to, and the reminders of the Ieldi are everywhere. I also haven't replaced half the stuff we lost in the fall of First Kyendi (as we're calling it now) so the rooms seem rather bare with only the meager items we saved.

Still, it's a start. Odilen has even expressed interest - via hand signals and mouthing the words - in going outside sometime. Astonishing. I do believe she might be beginning to heal. Koniryu - oh, he's been around a lot, actually, I think he feels protective of Odilen and the other Ieldi - thinks so as well. It's good.

Not the same as it was before, but a step in the right direction.