Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Not too far Cordelia." said the snake's purple haired guardian. Ebony was currently bent over a park bench as she stretched the muscles in her legs, warming them up for her run.

With everything that had happened since her smokey ward's birth and the obvious passing winter, the Brit had allowed her workout sessions to gap further and further apart until they had pretty much dissolved into non-existence. Thinking more on the matter, it'd been months since she'd spoken to Aphismet let alone scheduled any sort of new training lesson. This all ended now. Luckily, Delia was more than happy to leave the confines of their Gambino home and explore the outside world some more.

"Yes Ebby!" was the basilisk's excited and hurried response before she was zooming down the concrete path, her smokey ribbon twirling madly after. There was so much to do and see! Cordelia wondered what surprises she'd be in for today.

She must have skimmed along the path for all of five minutes before deciding nothing terribly interesting was going on there. Just a bunch of humans lounging around on benches or sitting on blankets full of food. A movement out in the field further up caught her attention though and with lightning speed, the Frei made her way there.

What she found made her eyes grow wide and a slow impressed sound to leave her lips. A couple of kids and their dogs were tossing around a big, round, flat object. It was so cool the way it sailed so easily through the air, like a knife cutting butter. Sometimes the kids would toss or catch it on the fly and sometimes it was the dogs, but every time it went right back to its flying state in the sky.

"Oh no!" Cordelia watched as this last time one of the kids threw it too high for any of the others to catch and it went sailing into the woods beyond. Reacting more on instinct rather than thought, the Raevan chased after the frisbee. Yet, having not exactly seen were the thing had been headed, the youth soon found herself lost. "Not again..." she sighed before deciding to continue on in her frivolous search. Delia figured she might as well get something out of getting herself lost in the woods again. Slithering slowly around trees and bushes, the girl called out to the inanimate object in the naive hope that it would come to her somehow. "Here little um...circle thing. Come on...where'd you go?"

Curious grey eyes were peering far into the dark depths of a hole in a nearby tree, the obvious small size of it alluding the Frei as impossible for a frisbee to enter, when the sudden voice startled her. Cordelia floated back a few paces, eyes wide with surprise and possibly a tiny bit of fear. H-had the tree just spoken to her?!

It was a pretty well known fact between Raevan and guardian that Delia could speak and understand another language other than English, yet a spontaneous ability to hear trees was something the snake was not expecting at all. It made her wary and nervous of the big plant, its wooden limbs looking ready to grab her at a moment's notice. She'd never heard them before, so what had suddenly changed for it to occur now?

Despite her suspicions, the smokey girl floated slowly closer to the tree once more and swayed a couple of times before finally speaking herself. "E-ello? I'm fine, but I uh...I guess I am sort of lost. I was looking for something. It's big and round and flat and red." Even if she was doubtful of the tree's motives, perhaps it could serve a purpose of helping her find the toy and her way out of these woods.

One minute she was swaying back and forth, patiently waiting while the tree seemed to be mulling over what she'd said about the toy she was looking for, the next her sharp wings were snapping wide as a low hiss escaped her lips. Clearly she had been right to doubt the wooden flora and its unknown motives. Immediately Delia shifted back to the distance she had earlier when the tree had began speaking with her. If it wanted a fight, a fight it would get even if the snake felt she'd not done anything to prompt this attack.

So focused was she on glaring in the direction of the loud noise that the floating girl hadn't noticed the frisbee she was looking for skidding to a stop right below her. Though she did notice that the noise wasn't a tangle of timber roots shooting at her like she'd imagined, but rather a tiny human girl. One that looked a tad embarrassed by the loud ruckus she'd created as well as cautious and shy at approaching the dark Frei.

Dropping her defensive flared wings and allowing the breathe she'd been holding to finally whoosh out of her lungs, Cordelia laid a hand to her thrumming heart. "You scared me! I thought the trees were coming to get me!" the basilisk quickly accused before blinking at the object Vivi picked up and presented to her. Recognition finally sparking, a bright smile bursting across her face. "Oh! Yes! Yes it is! Thank you!"

Cordelia giggled and shook her blackened head quick. "No they don't, but..." Although she knew the voice to be of this human now, the Frei couldn't help eying the tree warily still. "One can never be too careful. At least that's what Ebby says."

"I wasn't playing. It goes to some boys and dogs I was watching. But..." Delia carefully looked around. She hadn't heard anyone else in the woods since she entered. Other than Vivi that was. If those boys had been looking, they would have made a much bigger ruckus than the French woman had. "I don't see or hear them. They might not want it anymore." The idea of an abandoned toy made the snake sad and her lips slowly formed a pout.

"Cordelia! Cordelia where are you?!" came the disembodied British tones of the smokey Raevan's guardian. Ebony was not happy at all. She'd told Delia to stay close by and here she'd dashed off all on her own again. Heaven only knows what kind of troubles she's gotten herself into this time. The violet haired female didn't even want to think about it, it made her sick with worry. "Cordelia!"

"Uh oh..." the Frei replied as she looked behind her and through the trees back to the field she'd come from.

Pout becoming even more apparent on that scaled face, Cordelia swayed in uncertainty. Yes, that was her name and yes, that was her guardian. Yet...admitting that now would only mean facing a very disgruntled Ebby. Surely this new breaking of the same rule would constitute a punishment of some sort. When she covered the white living room in soot and ashe after inspecting the fireplace, the Brit had her clean everything so she'd be more likely to remember what she'd done was wrong, and thus less likely to repeat it.

Her soulful greys slide to the hole in that tree again and the snake wished she could somehow slither her way into it now. Again came the calling of her name, louder and more demanding than the previous times. The Frei sighed and nodded, best to get it over with now or else it was sure to be worse later.

"Yes, I'm Delia and that's my Ebby." Cordelia replied with a less than enthusiastic expression, bordering forlorn. "She's going to be really mad at me for wandering off and getting lost again."

Meanwhile on the other side of the woods...

"Cordelia Shade! I mean it, this isn't funny! You come out here right this instant!" Of course Ebony had no idea if the basilisk was even remotely close by to hear her, but as a highly concerned parent, the woman had to try.

"N-nest paw?" the half-formed girl questioned with a tilt of her ponytailed head, a ghost of a smile gracing her lips. This tiny woman had such an odd way of speaking! What did that mean anyway? Was it another language like her hissing one? How interesting that would be if it were true!

Her delighted euphoria all but evaporated into thin air as Vivi called out to her guardian. Wide eyed and wings flaring, Cordelia flung herself around to the other side of that tree she'd been talking to previously. "Nooo! Don't call her! She's going to be mad!" was the Frei's hissy whimper towards the baker, all the dark girl's prior bravado deflating in her moment of anxiety.

Moving from the field and into the woods, Ebony could be heard making her way carefully towards them, the sound of her running shoes crunching on the debris of the underbrush. "Ello? Who's there? Cordelia?"

Being of a very youthful mind, Delia still wasn't convinced and wouldn't be until she saw for herself how her guardian would react. She was very sure that whatever it was, it wouldn't be entirely good. The familiar sounds of her woman's voice attracted her attention as well, but it wasn't held long as another, louder sound soon followed. Acting on instinct, the basilisk's wings immediately flared out again and she issued a warning hiss to whatever was coming their way. She even floated to put herself between her new friend and this unknown element. Whatever it was, it would have to deal with her first.

Her eyes grew wide as the beats came louder and faster, yet before she knew it they were suddenly doing the opposite as a flash of white streaked past them. Mouth slightly a gap, Cordelia looked after it in amazement. She'd never seen anything move so fast! What was it? As if knowing exactly her thoughts, Vivi answered her query. "A deer?"

Suddenly something else trashed violently through the other end of the flora and burst on the scene then, her overcast eyes surging with a great storm. "Cordelia! Are you all right?! I heard..." Ebony exclaimed before noticing the other female there. With a suspicious frown, "Who are you?"