Welcome to Gaia! ::

A bird would not judge a disfigured child. Lamia knew that too well.

The sun rang warm over the tropical island, and as she sat on the trunk of her tree-house she plaited dune grass into a mat for her bed. The tree-house in question was close to the ground, in the hollowed out part of a tree. These trees were name, Gowlglain, which according to Seyo meant Heart Tree. Lamia shared the house with her dear friend, and attended to it dutifully.

Since it had been a week since she had last woven mats, the ones that kept the dampness of the morning dew from their beds began to curl and brown. The chore was fairly simple and enjoyable, it let Lamia enjoy the heat of the Summer Island. All around, tall birds chomped at leaves, fruits, or at the odd elephant mouse on the ground. The elephant mice were miniscule, with long little noses that sniffed out bugs in the underbrush. More than once Lamia had pitied them and shooed away the flightless birds, who sped off as Lamia swiped at them with her formidable claws. It became a noticeable habit as elephant mice began to cuddle around the cool scales of her tail when she worked.

Seyo was gone, gathering most likely. The sea provided bounty enough, and hunts were saved for the winter. In anycase she'd hate for him to be hunting and run across Jarkai, Golden Horn. He was a massive boar who earned his name by his enormous golden tusks, complete with a thick mane of golden hair. He was bad-tempered and not above stealing from Seyo when he was trying to carry a carcass back to the house. That's why they saved hunting for winter, when he hibernated during the breif days of solid night.

Lamia continued to weave, and felt her life at the pinnacle of peace.

The sun had begun its fresh descent into the sea as Lamia prepared their dinner. She used a large, thick skinned gourd as a pot, cooking it under a patch of hot embers. The stew steamed with herbs from a small garden Lamia tended to, as well as bits of fish and fruits. It gave off an aromatic smell, and many feathered monkeys, chi'utalain as Seyo called them, swung close in hopes of snagging a taste.

"Seyo," Lamia called with a smile, "You timed just right, it's time to eat."

With the meal Lamia had baked a special kind of flat bread. They had no utensils to eat with, so Lamia had made bread with a kind of jungle wheat in a tiny stove. They both kept fire to an extreme minimum...the Summer Island was capable of catching enormous forest fires at too much fire going in one place. So Lamia kept it to hot embers only, cooking quickly and instantly pouring sand to extinguish the flames.

"No thank you, I'm gong to clean up. I'm sorry I cooked it today but," she gave a slight wriggle of discomfort, "I had the disfortune to see one of the elephant mice get sick from the raw fish. I'll make it up to you tomorrow, I promise!"

She folded the gourd, bottom burnt and the flesh boiled off to leave a paper-thin skin, to take to where it would decay and become mulch more easily, right next to the gourds she so often used. She scrubbed the clay bowls clean letting them dry from their small hooks inside the house. She carefully smothered the embers, testing it with her long nail to see whether embers still remained. When all that was done, she looked back for Seyo. He was still out for a drink...so she left a light for him by his bedside using a small jar of fireflies. He'd let them go when he got home. She herself tucked into her bed, and let herself sleep.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Lamia was dreaming, on a strange cloud of dark blue. Images flickered through her mind...phrases she didn't understand. A flower bloomed from ice. Plain, upon plain, of white vastness. An angry man bearing down a velvet fist...

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Lamia woke up, confused to the tiny, tinkling sound of something...a bell perhaps? But Seyo was still asleep, wrapped in the tendrils of his hammock. Lamia hadn't chosen that for her bed, her tail too long and thick to fit, and made a bed from what she'd remembered of her old life.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Lamia turned to the entrance, sliding out past the thick greenery used to hide the entrance. Somewhere, a bell chimed in a bouncy, consistent rhythm. Not bothering to disturb Seyo, Lamia slipped off towards the noise, and stifled a gasp of surprise.

It was an elephant mouse, it's long nose painfully tied to a string. A tiny bell rang from it's tail as it fruitlessly attempted to escape. Lamia was upon it in an instant, cutting off the strings with her claws. The tiny elephant mouse, rapidly began to clean off the angry red mark around it's nose while Lamia pulled off the bell on its tail.

"What-"

Lamia had no time to think. A thick cloud of green smoke bombed the area, making her hack and choke, the tiny elephant mouse in her lap wheezing and squeaking. Lamia felt dizzy. She began to slid more and more to the ground, growing thick-headed with drowsiness. Before she was overcome, a tall, sleek figure emerged from the fog...her hair whipping about like the wind.

"Little naga girl..."
____

Herai wasn't disappointed with her quarry. Her scouts had done well.

There'd been a slight shift in her extensive plans; the deformation due to the Devil Fruit would certainly have to go. She'd see what her scientists could find. Then there was the large, looming, blue man...whomever he may be. But all it took was to create a temptation Lamia would follow...while the blue one would not.

"Should we leave a trap for the blue one milady?" one of the preists stepped forward with a bow.

"Set three." she ordered swiftly, "One at the home, one here, and one by the airship. He's an inquisitve creature, he'll feel the need to investigate his girl's disappearance."

The preists carried Lamia to the airship, a long boat with many, many propellers and long sets of oars set with special wind dials to propell it further. On the bow were a pair of gold painted eyes, the prow further decorated with a dragon. It was what they called a drekar, a dragon ship, in Skypeia.

"Milady," another priest noted, "We discovered many clues to a dead civilization here. Should we search, in case there's a Poneglyph?"

"We will wait," Herai ordered, "Until the blue one is off the island. Our operations to secure the North Blue will take some time yet, and that would exclude any necessary changes to Lamilllia. The blue one will seek Lamillia first, and that is when we shall send scouts for the Poneglyph Stone. Keep the scouts close by and have them ready to await orders."

With a soft whirr of the propellers, the oars slowly began to flap, lifting the long, lean ship into the sky. They set their course, and took off with surprising speed, leaving the trees rustling in their wake...a large dent where their ship had landed on the beach.

On the waters a miniture airship skidded onto the sandy bank. A preist was upon it, grumbling as he fumbled with papers. "They say he got caught..." he grumbled, "But if there's no proof and we overreact then God will have our heads."

He'd returned after a scout claimed the blue one had been oblivated. The trap had gone off apparently, so they passed it on. According to his God's orders, he was to seek out any symbols of Ponegylphs and take them down. He'd gathered several others for comparison, taken from the slowly growing collection at Skypeia. He'd return to the Sky Islands immediately for further processing, and eventual relocation of the Poneglyph.

What he unfortunately didn't know...was that the scouts were not entirely through with their work on Seyo...

Lamia had awoken into a beautiful, but horrifying, nightmare.

It began on the ship. She awoke in a room, the bed soft as a cloud and hemmed with gold thread. The tiny elephant mouse was squeaking frantically in her lap. And there was a strange movement underneath her. Not like sailing on a boat...but with a faint bobbing like the hovering of a hummingbird. She dared to look out the window, and nearly broke down.

She was trapped on a ship, a flying ship, and slowly departing from Kaikan. She slid to the door, banging on it furiously. "Let me out!" Let me out!"

To her great surprise, she was quickly answered. A pair of guards, wearing white uniforms and bedecked with decorative wings answered. "God is waiting."

"God?" Lamia questioned in worry. The elephant mouse had taken place by her ear, whimpering in a trumpeted voice. They led Lamia to the deck far more swiftly and gently than she would have imagined. She thought they'd be ferocious pirates, or at least like the soldiers she'd remembered from vague memories.

The deck was a wonder, shining with a light wood. Gold was formed into fantastical shapes, and on a lowered palanquin was the most beautiful woman Lamia had seen. While Seyo had a more natural, animalistic sort of beauty, this woman was as sleek and trim as a cheetah, wearing a gold tunic that revealed her long legs, her feet tied into slim sandals. On her head was a simple gold crown, circling firmly around her brow, her hair pulled into four long, glimmering braids.

And without even being told, she knew that this was the ship's "God".

"Lamillia," Herai said in her usual, commanding voice, "Welcome to my drekar."

"My name's not Lamillia," Lamia protested, although something inside argued against it, "And why did you kidnap me?! Who are you?!"

"My name is Herai, Lamillia," she said, persistent and smooth, "And you are more important than you know. I'm sorry the blue one won't be here to calm you."

"Blue one? What did you do with Seyo!?"

"Seyo is it? Keep note of that, it's a clue, surely," she ordered to a preist, who nodded as he recorded it. "Seyo is a hindrance little girl. And I-"

There was a giant explosion from the island. A thick burst of flame jutted out from the ground, before dying down quickly. Lamia choked on her own breath as she heard a faint howl.

"-have no patience for those who get in my way."

Overcome with horror and remorse, Lamia fell upon the deck and screamed.

"How could you..." sobbed Lamia. The guards on the ship had carefully carried her onto a small circle of pillows, but they didn't help in her greif. "How could you?! He was a living being!"

"It was very easy," Herai replied calmly. "It all falls into the line of things. In anycase, he's not going to be the last one."

"But he is the last!" Lamia said angrily as she was swamped with tears, "He doesn't have anyone else!"

"Surely he has told you...oh but he hasn't?" Herai looked down upon the snake girl in interest. "He is what we call a Son of the Earth."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lamia asked suspiciously.

"It's very simple actually," Herai leaned back as she explained, "Have you heard of True Stones?"

"True Stones? Why..yes..." Lamia said dazed, "Seyo once showed me a perfectly square rock with strange engravings that couldn't be cut."

"Most people call them Poneglyphs." Herai replied, "They reveal the Void History. I've been collecting them of late and they pull things into a very interesting scheme."

"But what does this have to do with Peyo?"

"A long time ago, in the Void History..." Herai began, "There were five races that lived in peace, in a single interconnected Kingdom, representing the elements of Earth, Sky, Sea, Fire, and Metal. We Skypeians hail from the Sons of the Heavens, the first Skypeians said to have descended from the Fairy Vearth. And your friend Seyo comes from a race that literally sprouted up from the Earth, as a plant does."

"There are still missing pieces of course, parts in the history left a mystery. But one of the races apparently caused the world to break apart, to all the singular islands. Strangely enough, once the Void History vanished, the World Government stepped in. My plan," she said, "Is to use this information to turn against the World Government and unite the world under the people of the Sky."

"You're trying to usurp the world," Lamia realized in horror. Herai merely looked down upon her in pity.

"Silly girl. Everyone knows that kings are merely successful thieves."

They were then distracted by a loud noise, like a roar, coming from the ocean. A long spray of water followed the ship in a straight stream. Herai regarded it seriously. "Do you suppose he survived?" one of the preists asked.

"Possibly, they're very strong. See if you can't-"

"No!" Lamia shrieked, yanking on Herai's arm, "Just leave him alone! We're already flying, just stop it!"

Herai's arm swiftly caused Lamia to float up, making her squeak with shock as she was lifted up gently, before making a hard bump onto the ground. "Very well Lamillia," Herai said vexedly, "We'll let him be, in exchange for your compliance. But should he find his way," Herai's eyes darkened, using the same glance she used to terrify troublemakers to cause Lamia to shrink in terror, "Don't expect me to think twice about throwing him to the Sky Sharks."

She made a wave, and the ship's oars began to pump and swivel faster in attempts to outfly the pursuing Seyo. Lamia, terrified and defeated, was carried gently to her room.