Welcome to Gaia! ::

She sunk into the water, green with its haze. Ripples tickled her ears and she felt the warmth crawling into her like drugs into veins. The darkness behind her eyes faded and lights moved with her clouded perception. Some where deep inside her, she felt alone, sick, like a something that was forgotten and left out in hot rain.

Splash! And the mood was shattered; she looked up to see Ptah poking his head out of the water. He had just canon balled into the water. the ********>, thought Ceridwen looking over at him.

He was catching a lot of attention from the people who were swimming at the bottom of the falls with them.

A group of girls sat at the other end of the falls giggling at him. His hair stuck to his face and glistened in the light making a almost pink mask over his face. She would see his neon green speed-o under the water barely covering him. No wonder the girls were giggling.

Looking over to her right she could see Ethan swinging his feet idly in the water looking up at the falling water, missing out on the water sports. Beautiful as it was she couldn't blame him.

The water fall was not a big one, giving only the slight out pouring of a stream, but that was its striking glory. The mist floating down from the out pouring made a stunning rainbow effect in the sky. Like metallic glitter raining from the cliff face.

It was a sight to see and she was glad for the 1st time today that her adopted mother had dragged her along on this trip.

It had been a pleasant day indeed and the five were walking back to the car as the day faded into beautiful color and dusk. The path meandered in front of them and as it was getting dark it was starting to become harder and harder to see the end of it.

"I'm really really really glad you brought us to the falls mom! Those girls were so hot. I got one of their numbers." Ptah said and as if in need to prove that he had accomplished something he waved a limp piece of neon pink paper between his fingers.

"Yes it was quiet a relaxing time; this place is very beautiful, thank you." Said Ceridwen in her soft eloquent way, smiling.

Ethan, as if to say that all was said, wrapped his hand into hers, small fingers lacing between larger ones. He held Abidemi in a picnic basket next to him, the little blue creature cooing in joy and bouncing up and down like a spring.

Cat smiled and tightened her grip slightly on Ethan. She had been worried that this trip was going to be a fiasco and would be yet another reason she and her children would hold separate lives, only to met once a day at most, at the dinner table.

All of them piled into the car, tired but happy and drove down the roads and streets making their way back home in the shady evening light until. . .

"Oy mom I need to race like a piss horse." said Ptah sighing and looking to the back of Cat's head.

"Ahh sweetie can you hold it? I mean the only gas station near by is that one." She nodded her head in the direction of the one that was before them at the stop light they were at. "Do you really want to piss in that hole?"

Cat was being kind by saying such a thing. The station, if you could call it that, used to by owned company that had been out of business for over two years now, and it seemed they had sold this particular station to a bunch of screw ups. It was dirty and rusty all over with hole in its drive away that almost prevented anyone from buying gas there.

"Mom it's not really a choice here." Said Ptah looking just as perturbed as the others at the stations sad state

Sighing Cat swung the car in the direction of the station; its tires giving a groan as she had to turn it around very close to the rather large hole in the pavement. The van grumbled to a stop and Ptah flung himself over the others in the back set, flying through door and toward the station.

"I'll be back in a second!" He screamed over his shoulder nearly falling on the ground because of his speed and the fact his shoes weren't tied tight.

Cat laughed and got out of the car, the others following their lead.

"I believe I'll stay in the car with Abidemi." Said Ceridwen stretching herself out on the back set as the others got out.

"Mk well we're going to go in and get some snacks, you want anything?" Cat asked watching Ethan pass her slightly making his way into the station it's self.

"No thank you." She said smiling and pulled Abidemi over to her playing with his wings softly.

Cat smiled turned around and made her way into the station noting the prices of the snacks and how long Ptah had been in the bathroom. Walking quietly through the small aisles she looked at the chocolates and frowned, much more then she was willing to pay. Just then she felt a pair of eyes rest on her. She turned around slowly and was met by the eyes of the cashier hungry and slightly disturbed. She nodded to him and turned her back again only to notice he was not the only one staring at her. A man in the back loading beers into the display refrigerator was staring at her with the same look. She frowned and hoped that all they would do was look.

Ptah burst through grimy glass doors looking satisfied if not a little disgusted. "Here's your key back man. Thanks I really needed to go." Ptah smiled and set the key with its dirty large wood block key chain on the counter.

"That's alright kid, I know what it's like to get a urge." The man slurred and looked at Cat once again.

Cat sighed inwardly, and Ptah frowned glaring at the man slightly, that was his mother after all. Ethan walked to Cat's side and held out a can of soda to her with a questioningly look.

"Sure kido." She smiled at Ethan and nodded turning to Ptah "What anything?"

Ptah looked at her then at the two men and shook his head. "Mk" Cat said lightly and walk over to the counter placing the can and the amount it cost down. As she did that the man behind the counter reached his hand over the counter and grabbed her wrist.

"You're a pretty one 'aint ya?" He said leering at her.

Cat gave an inward shudder and sighed "Yeah some people have said that, why?"

The man raised an eyebrow and Cat noticed that the other man had made his greasy way behind Ptah. "You got a mouth on ya don't ya b***h?"

Ptah opened his mouth to yell at the fat man behind the counter was startled into silence by a pair of arms wrapping themselves around him and a whisper in his ear. "I like you pretty boys better then normal woman, and you're even young." The dirt covered man laughed slightly "Just rip for pick'n"

Cat growled at the man holding her adopted son. She twisted her arm and in one swift move released herself from the sick wretch holding her. Stomping over to Ptah she reached behind her and in one flash of flesh cold-cocked the man holding Ptah just as hard as her body would allow for. The mans face suddenly sprang blood from numerous orifices and he gave an inhuman screech, letting go of Ptah grabing his bleeding face.

"No one touches my son unless he wants them to." She growled at the man watching the blood leak from between his fingers.

"ROY!" the man behind the counter yelped. "What the ******** did you do to my brother you b***h!" Reaching over the counter behind the rack of cigarettes he pulled out a shot gun and fired, without aiming, in the direction of Cat.

Cats eyes become large as the bullet flew past her and a look of disbelief swept over her. "No way in hell are you that dumb." But even as she was saying this she had already made it half way a crossed the room, knowing what she had to do.

Leaping over the counter as the man was trying to aim at her again Cat knocked his head as hard as she could into the wall behind him. Blood smeared where his head had been. Taking the gun from his hands she disassembled it before him and broke the loading spring.

Turning on her heel she leaped over the counter and took a rather stunned Ptah by the hand and lead her two adopted sons out of the ********" She mumbled

"Mom how did you do that!?" Yelled Ptah

Cat gave him a look of 'you were there stupid' than smiled and hugged him "Balls to the walls" she said shortly and got into the drivers side of the car as Ptah and Ethan climbed in the back.

"What happened I heard shots?" Asked Ceridwen

"Nothing, just two idiots learning their lesson the hard way." Remarked Cat pulling out of the station and toward home.

((Note: So anyway this is how things are going to work from now on. I will not break up my posts so that each family member gets their own time with me. I'm doing nothing (well for the most part) but group post any more. So I'm going to color the part with Ceridwen in it so it's easier to read *nods*))

They were all sick . . . coughing, miserable and tired. When they did speak it was in snapping tones, displeased and annoyed. Cat's eyes scanned her dark warm room. Light music flowed to her ears from a crossed bleak expanse and she felt as if she was dipped in black ink that consumed all it touched.

"I hate being sick" she muttered to herself and looked toward the door "And I hate being sick and lonely at the same time even more."

She stood her blanket wrapped around her like a dark cloak, and stumbled in the half light to the door. Turning the handle she made her way into the hall and remarked with awe how well her house could take on the moods of it?s occupants.

Her cold feet stepped out farther into the dreary hallway that linked the upper rooms together. The railing that made up one semi wall of the hallway and the stairs seemed chipped and old, though she knew it had only been painted a few months ago. The floor beneath her looked and felt like chipped ice in the moon light from the window and everything she laid her eyes on had a second worldly feel to it.

She promptly sneezed shattering the silence that filled the house, a weak "Bless you" echoed from the floor below her and she made her way down the stairs.

Stepping onto the 1st floor she looked toward the living room and saw that all of the houses occupants were gathered there all cast in a warm and soft light. Ceridwen held a cup of warm tea while leaning her back against the bottom of the couch. Ethan and Ptah both had laid their heads on her lap and she was petting Ethan's hair absent mindedly.

Cat felt as if she had interrupted something intimate. She was just about to turn away when Ceridwen's voice piped up "It's alright, we want you to stay."

Looking back and studied their faces and noted that she seemed to be truly speaking for all of them. Cat stumbled over to the couch and laid down on it curling up slightly she draped her arms over all of them and held them close as they sat in the quiet and still. Just then she heard a sigh and noted that the same devil from before was even lounging among them just as Abidemi was at Ptah's feet. Snuggling in she sighed once more dozing in her relaxed and ill feeling haze.