Welcome to Gaia! ::

As winter slowly gave way to spring, as nights gave way to days, as light hours lengthened, the world turned and weather patterns shifted. Cold evenings with thick nasty rain storms and snow storms let in soft warm showers and nice sunny days where someone could just curl up in the sun and appreciate life. Three young mothers and their little sons watched the seasons change slowly over beautiful days, with wide eyes and curiosity at the weather. Wamii, Oriiohn and Nolan came from a far away, that much they'd tell the boys, so the seasons held as much wonder for them as they did for the young children.

There eventually came a day where it rained lightly around their little home. Since they couldn't go out and play, the tots were inside and bothering each other. Oriiohn was trying very hard to pacify a crying Riya, a pouting Aiden, and a very annoyed Steve while Roshan and Nolan looked on in confusion. The whole mess had started while Steve was laying on his back on the family's couch, tossing a ball into the air and catching it with his tentacles and generally being bored and grouchy. Aiden, deciding to be a bit mean, as babies are sometimes wont to do, had tried to snatch the ball away from him and so Steve had let out a giant growl and told his brother to get away. The baby had whined but crawled over and decided to pull Riya's hair instead – Riya was a lot less likely to be able to get back at him for it. And of course, that'd resulted in yelling and crying and pouting as Orii tried to scurry around and get the little ones back in order. Nolan – who'd been watching the Wizard of Oz with Roshan and previously Riya – stared on in amazement before she and Ro had decided it was best to just go back to their movie.

It was starting to really look like the little family was going to go insane. This rain had been going on for four days – a simple, boring rain, neither storm nor mere drizzle – and the children despised it. There was no cheery playtime outside or warm naps by the windows in their apartment with the breeze blowing in slowly. Nope, just cold wet rainy days and watching movies all day. Oriiohn herself – usually the most cheerful and optimistic of the three sisters – was almost in tears by now trying to get her little ones in order and where was Wamii when she needed her? If Oriiohn was the cheery little sister, and Nolan the smart mysterious one, Wamii was the loving eldest sister who could keep the family together. Steve knew that, the twins knew that, and Aiden knew it – Orii and Nolan were tentatively called Mama or Ma or Mother, but Wamii was Mommy – and if they hadn't known it from the get go, they'd learned it fast.

About that time the door swung open and just the golden skinned beauty they all needed to see danced through the doorway with several large bags in her arms. “Everybody up and TV off! We're going out for a walk!” she called happily, dancing into the room and dropping the bags on the couch to pick up Riya and spin him around in a snuggly hug. “Come on babydoll, stop crying. I brought you all something fun.”

Steve stared at his Mommy in confusion, maybe she'd really gone nuts too? “But...it's raining out.” he told her, tentacles flicking around, the eyes on them rattling as the two appendages swiveled to see what had been brought home.

“That's okay!” she declared and promptly produced several different sets of colorful raincoats, hats, boots and umbrellas. “We're going puddle jumping!”

Aiden watched with a befuddled expression as his brother was put down and he was picked up to have his boa removed and a funny coat thing put on him. Wamii'd had to cut holes in the back of it to fit his wings but she'd done that on the way home with some scissors she had picked up to give the boys haircuts. The little tot flapped his arms a bit and felt weird in this plastic contraption. Even worse yet, she put big boots on his feet that went nearly up to his knees.

“Whoops, wrong size.” she giggled, helping him get into them all the way and onto the floor right. It was a white coat with a gold lining, soft and warm, and a matching white hat and boats with gold bottoms. She even gave him a little kiki kitty umbrella to hold, which he promptly dropped and poked as it rolled around open on the floor.

The others, meanwhile, had been searching through the bags with equal parts curiosity and excitement. Soon enough, all four children were suited up and so were all three sisters. Boris and Natasha had even been brought doll sized rain hats with elastic on them, which Steve hooked on right by the eyes so they wouldn't come off. Yes, Mommy was thorough.

So there they were, a “small” family of seven, out to go adventure in the wide wide world of rain. Letting the children toddle off first – even Aiden, who could walk alone at least down the stairs with the handrail – the three sisters took each other's hands and promptly skipped halfway down the stairs, dancing to songs they loudly sang that no Gaian could understand or would ever want to.

The outside world was beautiful and perfect, a stark contrast to the inside of the house. While indoors things had been warm and dry and stifling, with tensions running high, outside it was cool and wet and gray with freedom to play and anger forgotten. Steve jumped for joy the second he was allowed outside again, giving a tremendous woop and spinning around with his umbrella held out to the side so he could catch the rain in his mouth. Roshan and Riya held hands and spun around, just excited to be outside, till they flopped on their butts and began to laugh. Only Aiden looked profoundly nervous, clutching his umbrella for dear life, wondering just what had gotten into everyone else.

After the initial expressions of joy were released and the girls and boys had time to calm themselves, the family looked to Wamii for an explanation of what they were doing outside exactly. She'd said puddle jumping but what on earth could she mean. The golden woman laughed a little clapping her hands and leaning down so she had all of their attention.

“All right. Who wants to help me dee-mon-strate?” she asked, looking around at the boys. The twins immediately started little chants of “me, me!” holding up their hands.

“Okay, you two can come then.” she laughed, holding out her hands and taking each troll boy's with one of her's. She led her sons over to the nearest big puddle she could see and stood solemnly in front of it. “First, we wink.” The boys tried it (Riya wasn't much for knowing the difference between winking and blinking). “Now we blink.” Wamii said, blinking twice and watching her boys do it – she had the lines out of order from the movie she'd seen, but she wasn't following it exactly anyway so what'd she care? “Now we walk walk walk back and run run run and jump!” she said really fast, pulling them back before running forward and leaping into the puddle with them, feet first.

Immediately, there was a huge splash and both twins squealed and giggled, chorused by Nolan and Oriiohn clapping and oohing. Steve stared before he decided to try it, spotting another puddle and running to leap into that. Soon enough, the whole family was dashing along to try jumping in the puddle – even Aiden, who toddled very fast to small ones then stomped in them a few times.

Before too long, they were all running down the street, laughing and singing at the top of their lungs, and having a merry old time splashing in every puddle they saw. But Nolan stopped in the middle looking puzzled, causing everyone to turn and look at her in concern. Aiden pouted that he had to stop stomping – it was just getting fun!

“We need a song they can sing.” She declared in a firm tone with a smile. “Do you boys know any songs?”

Suggestions were thrown out – mostly by Steve who listened to the radio the most in the family. Finally, Roshan offered up a tentative one - “Lines and tiggers and bears.” he said looking up at Mama No with a huge smile. She'd seen the movie and how they skipped along singing about the lines and tiggers, and before Riya'd started crying, they'd even been chorusing to it too!

“Yes! Lines and tiggers and bears!” Nolan agreed, grabbing Roshan's hand and dancing about in a little circle, proclaiming “Lines and tiggers and bears oh my, lines and tiggers and bears oh my!”

“I thought it was lions and tigers and bears” Steve commented, scratching his head – his hat had long since been thrown off (and consequently put back in Wamii's purse with his umbrella) and the boy's hair dripped soggily down his coat, leaving rainbow colored reflections all along it.

“What about fish?” Riya asked, looking up at his big brother for an explanation.

“Or foxes?” Oriiohn added, having not seen much of the movie at all.

“Babbit rabbit.” Aiden nodded, having turned around and started stomping his puddle again.

“Sure, why not!” Wamii laughed, running over and grabbing Riya's hands next, to join in the dancing and singing about wild animals. “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Fishes and foxes and bunnies woo hoo!” she tried to sing, dancing with him in a circle through the rain as her sister did.

Quite suddenly, Aiden was swept up by Oriiohn, who picked him up and began to dance too. And all that was left was Steve, who shrugged and chased his family, laughing at the whole sing song thing.