Welcome to Gaia! ::

Carol stood just outside the doors of the Barton holiday village. Fat white snowflakes fell from sky, occasionally landing on her uncovered face bringing with them a brief chill. Looking down at Bishop and Andrea the woman couldn't help but feel bad Even bundled up as much as possible both unhappy and cold. Still, Bishop had insisted on waiting outside so she could spot Kaimi as soon as possible. Andrea was too insecure yet to stray far from Carol or bishop so she too was forced to endure the weather.


At least once Kaimi and her mother showed up they could go inside. Barton holiday village was a place where the patrons could enjoy holiday themed food and entertainment. There was also craft tables for decorating cookies, making candy cane reindeer and an assortment of other holiday themed items. It had seemed like the best possible meeting place, warm, public and with something for everyone. Now all that was left for the actual meeting to occur.


" Kaimi is really cool, she's the one who gave me my magic flower." Bishop repeated for the third time. As far as Carol could tell she was less bragging than attempting to make Andrea smile, the blond girl however seemed lost in her own thoughts or just didn't care, it was hard to tell.


With Andrea refusing the respond Bishop simply turned her amber eyes out towards the parking lot in hopes of seeing her friend. It had been forever since she'd gotten to see Kaimi. She hoped the other girl hadn't been hurt or captured. In an icy world such as this it would be easy even for a magic user to fall into a deep crevasse or be attacked by the mountain natives

Bishop grinned at the shout of her name and instantly whipper her head to the side to see Kaimi come running at her. Not quite willing to rush the slushy wet driveway again the girl mere hopped from foot to foot in excitement " Kaimi hey guess what I have a sister." Bishop noted that the other girl seemed to have acquired a sibling too, clearly it was destiny.


Andrea watched the approaching girl with apprehension, she seemed very spirited. Maybe she would be ok but maybe not, she seemed to have stolen all of Bishop's attention.


Carol waved to Naomi and gave her a wry smile. " I hear there's rum and eggnog inside if it gets too bad."

Bishop rocked back on her feet but grinned " Yeah her's name Andrea, she's actually nice." In the short time that Andrea had been with the household Bishop had come to find the other girl to be a good sister, based on what she knew sisters were supposed to be like.

Grabbing Kaimi's hand she lead the other girl towards the doors. " Can you smell the gingerbread, and the fudge?" She asked as they entered. "Mom says there's lots of good things to eat inside." Bishop was a bit more interested in making a gingerbread person than eating it but what did that matter. She could always eat the person later.


Andrea smiled in return to Naomi's wink. It wasn't often that older people paid attention to kids like her. Wordlessly she followed behind Bishop and her friend.

Carol laughed and grabbed the door behind the girls to hold it open for Naomi and Mara " Heat, drinks and be merry?"

The pumpkin haired girl let her eyes roam the building for a minute before pointing to a set of tables were children were painting on and gluing glitter on tiny plastic balls. " Ornaments, You can never have too many" She assured the other girl. There were plenty of the store's Christmas tree but none for the real one Carol said they were gonna get closer to the holidays.

Miserable or not Mara at least wasn't blatantly ignoring her and Andrea thought she might be interesting " I'll stay with you" she said and edged closer to the other blonde."

" Well that settles that question at least" Carol said with a smile. " I'm thinking i'd like to sit have some eggnog and maybe a cookie or two." Carol nodded to the small set of tables next to one of then refreshment cafe's. Next to it was a small roped off area where several small children were bouncing around in a a blow up castle.

Early Christmas presents sounded good especially since Bishop had almost no money of her own. Bishop grinned and dragged Kaimi towards the tabled " What colours do you like? Do you like sparkles?" These of course were key questions in making the perfect ornament.

Carol settled into her own chair and relaxed " Things are good a little hectic with holiday season and getting used to having a new member of the household " she winked reassuringly at Andrea as she spoke. " Mostly though it's just sort of pleasant, quite possibly the calm before the storm" she mused" and your home?"


Ignoring the adults since they were talking Andrea climbed into her own seat and looked at Mara " Hi"

A tall teenage girl dressed up like an elf walked over to the table and handed each women a small menu " What can I get you today?"

" All the types of green and orange sort of like my hair and plum." Not the most flattering combination but at her age Bishop knew what she liked and cohesion be damned. Carefully she picked out a medium sized clear plastic ornament. Better to add all the colours and sparkles to something that could best absorb them rather than painting over one of the coloured ones.

"One eggnog and one hot chocolate with marshmallows." Carol ordered knowing how much Andrea seemed to enjoy the drink at home.

In response to Naomi she raised an eyebrow" literal demon spawn or just a terror?"

Andreas dog tags jingled as she moved closer and grinned " Do you like Kaimi?" She asked curious to see if the other blond got along with her sibling considering that the flower girl had called her horrible.

( just in case mara goes for them Andrea's dog tags cannot be removed they're magically bound to her )

Bishop nodded as she dipped the tip of a paintbrush into a nearby pan of glue. She was going to draw designs in glue then roll the ornament in glitter and sparkles to make it stick. After than she'd add designs of colour with the paint. " She's quite sometimes but nice, she's like me" bishop said voice soft and eyes a little distant " we both came from someplace else to mom at the store."

" Sounds interesting" Carol wondered why Naomi had chosen such a combination in a child to be the gentle Kaimi's sibling.Perhaps just so they could keep up with her. " How long have you had her?"

Andrea had to admit she wouldn't wanna be bitten either, though she had done some biting of her own as a baby or so her mother used to tell her. " Bishop is nice, she thinks weird stuff though" Which was the best way Andrea could explain Bishop's tendency to lapse into pretend.

" Learning mostly and helping mom in the store. It's really busy cause of holidays." Bishop replied carefully turning her ornament to continued the swirling glue pattern. " In the spring I can go to school though." Bishop looked forward to being able to go to school, there was a lot more to learn there and lots of kids to play with according to her mother. She just couldn't go before becuase her mother wanted her ready to be as smart as the other kids.

"Blackmailed into taking a kid? That sounds a bit dangerous" Carol replied " Still you seem to be having only minor problems with her so I'm guessing it's more they want to home them then they have issues." The women passed Andrea her hot chocolate before taking sip of her own drink. Christmas needed to come around more often, it was only this time of year you got good eggnog.


" Bishop can sing, a little." It hadn't taken the new girl long to learn that both Bishop and carol sang to the radio when there were no customers in the store. it was a little bit weird. " she forgets the words" or mostly she only remembers the chorus to songs so she'd sing out lout and then pause when the chorus was done.

" Marshmallow" she offered holding out her cup. It wasn't normal behavior for the girl not by a long shot but time and trials had changed her at least temporarily and she was at least for now a gentle soul. Still the tags that lay around her neck burned softly from time trying to tell her something to make her remember.