Welcome to Gaia! ::

All those nights spent not sleeping had finally caught up with her. Diana had fall asleep somewhere around midnight in the middle of a large meadow, surrounded by long mint-scented grass that tickled her nose. The sun hung big, bright and beautiful in the baby blue sky and beat, like a drum, against the fur on her back and the top of her head.

A low, annoyed moan gurgled from somewhere deep inside her throat as the heat from the sun, combined with the light, persistently nudged Diana out of a peaceful sleep. She shifted clumsily, and successfully planted her face in the cool dirt beneath, as far away from the obtrusive elements as her lazy form could get without actually moving.

Somewhere off in the distance, came the screech of a rather ugly sounding bird.

Diana's ears twitched and, with a resigned sigh, the female Numa flipped onto her back and rubbed away the sleep that still lingered on her eyes.

Her recent slumber had inhibited all five of her senses, it seemed. The sounds of the other Numa moving through the tall grass were clearly audible in the meadow, but Diana, who hadn't quite woken up all the way yet, was having trouble distringuing between the swish-swish of his movements and the wind that pushed the grass this way and that.

She gurgled quietly and took a moment to let her vision clear before sitting up properly and brushing away the various clumps of dirt and twigs that had collected in her fur. The female Numa was quite unaware of the other, furry form beside her, until she turned to walk in his direction, realized that something was in the way and promptly fell back on her rear to avoid it.

Diana shook her head violently and, after collecting herself, blinked up at the other Numa, with a stupid, sleepy expression on her pretty face.

"Oh. Hello," she said softly, with one eyebrow cocked to the side, "Do you always like to hover above people, who were having rather nice, fluffy dreams just moments before?"

It was a lie. In fact, Diana couldn't recall if she'd been dreaming at all.

She'd certainly never been called that before. Diana's eyebrows did a summersault and, flew upwards and, if she hadn't known better, she could have sworn they were trying to get away from her face. Madam? Was he joking?

Somehow, she didn't think so. Well. She wasn't sure what to make of that.

"No," she shook her head and spoke very seriously, "I usually fall asleep wherever I happen to be at the time. There are stranger, more dangerous places to sleep than a meadow. Most of the time, I sleep by the river."

It had gotten much colder, she would agree with him on that, but she didn't know of any particularly warm sleeping spots. If there were any, Diana was sure she would have found them.

"I do?" she asked softly and reached up to prod at her face with her front paws. A couple of leaves and twigs fell to the ground at her feet. Diana chuckled and pointedly ignored the heat that flooded her cheeks. Oh, how embarrassing.

He had a way with words that was simply dazzling- in all of the best and the worst possible ways. As the word 'Narcolepsy' fluttered passed her ear, Diana was torn between feelings of awe at his ability to use such large and impressive words and frustration at not understanding what they meant. She didn't like not knowing. It was very odd. Sure, she'd never claimed to be a particularly bright Numa, but, being in this male's presence for just a couple of seconds did a lot to make her realize that her intelligence was sub-par at best.

"I don't fall asleep just anywhere," she responded vaguely and gestured at the surrounding lands with a grand flourish of her arm, in attempt to make herself seem less stupid by feigning mystique, "I fall asleep where I am."

"I don't know what Narcolepsy is," she said honestly, with a shrug of her shoulders, "but if I had it, I'm sure I'd be the first to know."

Diana listened with rapt attention as the other Numa explained the strange word; her eyes grew wider the longer he spoke and a disinterested fly flew in and out of her open mouth. She wrinkled her nose in distaste and swatted it out of the way with a paw.

"Wow," she murmured once he'd finished, and shook her head in a sympathetic fashion, "I'm sure glad I don't have Narcolepsy."

The female Numa was very used to sleeping whenever she felt like it, but never could have imagined what it might be like to have absolutely no control over the function. It was unfathomable. Crazy, even.

"I like to be up during the night," she told him in an as-a-matter-of-fact kind of tone, "so, I sleep during the day. I'm backwards."

Her head was suddenly full to bursting with tortured images of poor Numas who were unlucky enough to suffer from this condition called Narcolepsy. Diana loved to sleep, almost more than she loved the night, but she couldn't help but sympathize with those unfortunate few who collapsed in the middle of nowhere, for no good reason.

Actually, that was an amusing thought. She struggled to disguise her chuckle as a cough and exaggeratedly covered her mouth, to "save" him from her germs- or was that a smirk lurking behind the violet colored fur?

"Why not?" she asked him softly once she'd regained enough of her composure, "Who says I can't sleep in the meadow? There isn't a rulebook."

Almost as an after thought, she added, "Is there?"

She certainly didn't know, but if there was, Diana was positive that this strange Numa who simply oozed intelligence would know and be able to tell her about it.

Diana had never really paused to consider the dangers that might come from sleeping wherever she wanted. In fact, Diana was beginning to realize that before today and her meeting with this other, much larger Numa, she'd never done a lot of anything before. Hank was very good at making her think. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"I like popsicles," she told him conversationally, as though she didn't really mind the idea of being one. Popsicles were very cold, but they tasted good. The pros outweighed the cons.

"It's nice to meet you Hank," Diana chuckled at his nickname. He was much bigger than her, but it didn't really seem to suit him. She wasn't sure that somebody so polite and intelligent could ever be beast-like.

"My name is Diana," she beamed at him and held out a paw, "I suppose you know of some other, warmer sleeping spots, then?"

She didn't mind sleeping out in the open, but the female Numa couldn't deny the cold. It would be nice to wake up warm for a change.

He was right. Again. As badly as she wanted to contradict him, Diana knew that she would simply loathe to be eaten.

"You're right," she told him calmly and with a nod of her head, "I wouldn't like to be a popsicle. Their life expectancy isn't long enough for me. I'm going to live forever."

Of course, she was only joking. Diana knew that the likelihood of her immortality wasn't very high, but she could dream. Plus, this was an excellent way to pull Hank's leg. She wondered if he'd take her seriously.

The description of his cave, no matter how short, was appealing and as she had no cottage to call home, a welcoming thought.

"How do you know that I wouldn't like it?"

Vaguely, she wondered about the nature of his experiments. Maybe, if she pushed him enough, he would show her.