Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tyson peeked out the window on the central floor of his and Lillian’s home; his trademark grin had been on his face since the moment he saw a familiar truck driving down the road from his upstairs bedroom. As soon as his eyes had laid themselves upon it, his body was set in motion from there on out. A leap was all it took for the boy to get himself out of a bed, followed by a mad dash down the stairs, and ending with a hop skip jump which brought him to the shut door in a matter of seconds. Now, as he stood at the large wooden planks, peering out the glazed-over glass windows while eagerly awaiting the others arrival. Tyson’s greatest challenge had come to keeping himself under control, a brief jump here or there excusable though.

“She’s here! Lillian! Alex is here!” He soon cried, his voice ringing through the house that soon stirred the teenager from her seat at the kitchen table.

“Well, open the door if she is there! Make sure she doesn’t fall into anything!” Lillian responded as she huffed her way over from the cooking area to the arrival room. By then Tyson had opened the door, his hands at work as they motioned ‘Come, Come’ to the figure walking up the path.

As Tyson “ushered” in their arrival, his older sister made a quick sweep of the entrance and living room. It was just to make sure that everything, such as used-up juice boxes, discarded pajamas, and unwanted breakfast bowls were thrown out or out of sight. If they were to have a guest, even if it was their good friend Alex, the house had to look somewhat decent Lillian thought. The main reason due to the fact that the outside yard was in complete shambles. Not only because of the traps scattered about the lawn to ward away intruders, but also thanks to the “too-big-for-the-house” gifts that their parents had sent them that now were set around the yard collecting moss.

Within the instant that she saw the large box resting upon the dolly, Lillian was sporting a dark angry frown. Just great, another enormous and useless object to add to the rest that had littered her home. Where she would put it she didn’t know. The walls were already aligned with paintings, statues, ancient weaponry, decorated vases, and snap shots galore.

“Okay…we’ll just…um.” The teenager sighed as she contemplated what to do with the obstruction. Her pondering left Tyson to begin his guesses without her to interrupt him.

“I bet we got an Egyptian mummy coffin! Or, maybe we got a solid gold statue! Oh! Oh! It could be a stone solider!” Were only a few of his guesses of the thing that was under the cardboard veil as he laughed at the older woman’s antics. Since it had to be heavy the odd pieces of history matched the foggy description perfectly.

Lillian soon broke off his final guesses as she came back from her thoughts with an answer to Alex’s question. “Since it’s already in the house, and because I don’t want to have you drag it back outside. We’ll just have to make due with putting it by the window. That’s the only spot we could put it that is clear, and where we won’t break any bones getting it over there.”

Tyson’s laughs surfaced and moved about the room in a flurry, his cries of joy bouncing off the cluttered walls of their home; leaving an echo in their wake. “Alex!” Was the only thing he managed to cry in his bout with a strong case of the giggles.

While the kid kept himself busy, making several attempts to rid himself of his seemingly unlimited giggles, Lillian had moved herself so that she stood beside Alex’s side. Without much thought the young women got to work on taking apart the box, firstly removing the remaining pieces of tape so Alex could have easier access prying the nails from the wooden prison’s side.

“Well….” Lillian’s unknown answer drifted from her lips as she crumbled up the black tape in her hands, “I have a few jobs circled, but I still don’t know. I don’t feel comfortable being away from Tyson for too long, he can’t stay here by himself, he’s just too young.”

“Bah, I can take care of myself just fine, sis! I’ve done it ALL the time.” Tyson responded casually, his giggles residing.

“Oh really? Since when have I ever left you alone in this house? Name one time.” Lil bounced back to her brother, not even turning around to give him a stern look, her voice having the same effect that her eyes would’ve.

“Um….well…there was this…erm… ” Tyson’s voice fell into what one would categorize as a grumble. Rats! He had been caught in his game… “Fine! Then nevermind. Hey Alex!” The tyke called, changing the subject to yell at the woman who was only a few steps away. As he neared and tried to peer over and into the box, his usual onslaught of questions began. “So…can you see it yet? What is it? Is it a stone solider from that tomb?! How about that Egyptian coffin? Is that it?”

Lillian shrugged her shoulders at Alex's suggestion of how to take care of her "Tyson problem". It was a cheap and easy way to get rid of the dreadful predicament that had fallen in her quest of getting a real job. Her delivery girl job only paid so much now that many gaian citizens were using e-mail and deliverymen who owned cars to get their mail and packages out to their rightful destinations. A girl on her bike or walking with her little brother with a wagon in tow could only do so much nowadays.

"It sounds like a good plan, Alex. We'll see first though if I even get a interview and then if I am hired at any of the jobs I'm looking into." The young lass told her close friend as she turned herself to glance into the kitchen.

She had just let their dog, Marmaduke, outside to get some fresh air and he already wanted to come in? His howls and the sound of scratching flowed into the room that they were gathered in as Alex made an attempt at opening the wooden box.

"I'll go get him..." Lillian turned with a second huff and was out of the room in a flash.

As soon as his older sister had left the room to let in their clumsy dog; Tyson made his move for the crated wooden box. Thanks to Alex's well-placed an helpful limbs, the tyke managed to pull himself up ontop of the box with little to no effort at all.

Now that Lil had gone to get Marmaduke, he had time to do some exploring of whatever lurked on the otherside of the wooden bars. "Kay, I'm ready Alex! Open it up!" Tyson told the strong-willed Italian from where he perched on the box ready to reveal what his imagination had run rampant on.

Tyson grinned and with no time to spare, returned the salute to Alex. For now he merely sat idly on the large wooden crate, awaiting for the fun to begin. "Good luck, Solider!" Were his final words to the send off before the child sent himself off to Daydream Land. An explosion! A great blast of magical essences! Smoke billowing out as though it belonged to an enormous fire! Water gushing forwards as if it was a rushing Waterfall! Wind twirling and dancing rythmically as though it were a tornado. What an entrance their newest present would make if such things were to happen upon it's opening. The tyke's ideas only grew as he waited for the box to give under the pressure being applied to it's side. It was taking longer than usual, normally the boxes would pop open with just a mere tug.

"Come on Alex! You can do it! Put a little oomph into it!" The child cheered before he had to grip onto the sides of the box. Finally they were getting somewhere!

The box's sudden jerks had the tyke holding on for dear life by now. He only let go to reposition himself and make it easier to see what exactly was going on inside their Crate of Wonders.

"Alex! Are you ok--WOW!! Look at this thing!" Tyson's concern for the young miss was washed away when the light from the room shone into the box; revealing the mysterious artifact inside of it. He knew from various encounters before that he needn't to fret over Alex. She had demonstrated before that she was just too tough to be injured by a silly little stumble. If someone was laughing after taking such a sudden fall in Tyson's book, you were marked as A'Ok.

The youngsters waving arm ushered Alex back so she could see what they had worked hard to release. Inside the crate lied a large statue, it's body hunched over so it looked down at the ground. It's griszly carvings that decorated it's highly inhuman form peeked Tyson's forgoing curiousity. The dark shadows that loomed over it's form as it remained in the crate brought a haunted mood to the creatures roaring features. "Isn't that a...gargoyle?" Tyson asked Alex in his best hushed voice. It was as if he believed the thing could hear him, or atleast see what he was up to. Certainly the boy did not want to wake such a frightening creature from it's slumber.

Tyson sat rightside up on the box after the blood that had rushed to his head gaze him the dizzies. He was rubbing his temples when Alex started to speak about their gargoyle. His eyebrows quirked up and the sides of his lips tugged into a smie as he gave himself the jitters..

"It's not gonna wake up, Alex! It's just a statue." The child reminded her, as if she needed reassurance that the thing was fake. But the thought of waking up to see such a thing alive gave him the jitters. It's eyes would be red and glowing he decided, and it would lumber down the hall and break anything in it's path. Yet, other than his idea on the eyes, the description sounded similar to his dog rather than a monster.

He watched her run her fingers over the details and the craftsmanship that Tyson couldn't help himself and reached under the side to pet it too. "I thought a gargoyle would try to eat us..." He mumbled after his hand had wandered into the stone figures mouth and feeling the sharp and chiseled teeth.

Tyson looked up from petting the gargoyle's cold stone head, "If he wants to protect us, he can go on the roof! No burglar would want to go into a house if there was a big gargoyle watching them!" He laughed at the idea and quickly began thinking up ways to get the heavy beast onto their roof. If Alex said they were protectors, then it had to be. The young woman knew basically everything there was to fantasy creatures, and that meant that Tyson wouldn't question anything she said.

The child laughed at the show of affection as he continued to pet the gargoyle but still watch Alex. "Do you think he really will come alive?" He asked as he was suddenly caught between two beliefs. That of listening to Alex and that of listening to logic. Okay,so maybe he did question bits and pieces of things she said. It was simply the thought of such a creature prowling around their home though that stirred his thoughts and caused him to shiver immensely.

"What will come alive?" Lillian asked as she stepped back into the room with their dog Marmaduke at her side. He didn't stay there for long though once he saw Alex. The dog galloped over to her, his massive footfalls shaking the pottery and paintings on the wall in the process. When he reached her and gave her a good lick of greeting it was then he saw the stoney addiction to their home. He began to growl at it, asif h expected it to up and run. When it didn't, Marm inched ever so close to the being and pressed his wet nose against the cold stone surface. It smelled weird and he pulled back after only a couple of sniffs.

Tyson giggled at the sight, finding it very funny, "Don't worry Marm! It's just a statue!" He cooed when he moved his small hand away from the Gargoyle and onto Marmadukes head to pat him reassuringly. "It won't hurt you."

"What the heck is that!?" Lil had moved closer to their small group and looked inside the box to discover the new artifact, "Where am I supposedto put that thing?! It's huge!" Just like Alex suspected, as soon as Lil had seen the beast she had begun to stress over what to do with it.

"Yeah! You're strong enough, Alex!" Tyson cheered with unrestricted exuberance. Perhaps the child didn't see what she was saying as a joke. By the tone of his voice and the sparkle in his big hazel eyes, the youngster believed her. He actually thought that Alex would lug the stone beast up the houses many flights of stairs and place it on the roof.

Perhaps he thought she could do it because to him, the Italian was invincible, like Wonder Woman! She could lift basically anything and that included him (Lil never picked him up and twirled him around anymore.) She was also really smart and very speedy. Certainly if she said she could bring the statue up the stairs she meant it.

"Tyson, she's not really going to put the Gargoyle up on the roof. Now down you go so Alex can move it outside." Lillian beckoned Tyson off the box, too worried about him falling off it if he stayed on. "But yeah, that'd be a good place for it. You can just put it on the deck." She smiled at the older woman and reached down to tug Marmaduke away from the statue that he still was growling at.