Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was dark. ...Oqaia pulled the green shawl over her shoulders and stepped off of her wagon steps very ungyspy-like- without even a shade of grace, and sighed. Why was it always dark when these things came up? The sun seemed to never shine at the same time that the meij stream called forth to the gypsies and their Fortunette children. Oq had been settling down for what she'd hoped was a long... LONG nap. They'd been travelling all day- they were nearly to the Pythos, when she'd been overtaken by that strange, uknowable- yet always distinct feeling that the meij required her to be somewhere else.

She was halfway to the shared wagon when she stopped, rolled her eyes at a sudden nudge, and looked up into the dark night- as if somehow the stream was above her like the milky way.

"Would it kill you to be a little less mysterious?"

Oqaia was suddenly afraid that there may be an answer... but of course, the night was silent, and she sighed- this time in relief as she half ran to Clair d' Lune.

She leapt to the first step- a neat little hop- and rapped her knuckles on the wooden door.

"Lorelei? Are you there? We have... business..." she said, cryptically, as she didn't quite know what else to call it.

"No," Oqaia said, stepping back out of the light that poured from the open door, and pulling back her voice as well into a soft, comforting tone. "Your Fortunette is being summoned, however." She would have gone on, but the sleeping forms inside were suddenly visible to her, and Oqaia nodded to herself. They would continue this outside. She stepped back even farther, and beckoned for the woman to follow.

"And bring your Fortunette," she said. "I'll be at the fire."

With those words, the strange, pink-haired girl found a sudden kinship in Lorelei.

"Me neither," she said softly. "I'd thought I was the only one." A part of her wanted to reach out and take her hands, and tell her that it was good to know that she wasn't the only one who was surprised... and maybe a little frightened, being dragged along by these strange powers she was coming into, and into this world of magic and mystery... but she resisted, instead sitting on the grassy earth near the nearly embered fire.

"I don't know much of it myself, but apparently there is a stream of magic that runs through the world- the meij, and it flows directly through those who call themselves gypsies. But really, anyone who is a 'gypsy' is not born into the lifestyle, but rather- pulled to the magic. That is what makes us all gypsies here. Even you and I," Oq said, the corners of her mouth tugged up in a sweet smile at the thought, "dragged into this by the strangest of circumstances. We may not look like my half-sister, or like those who have been gypsies through all of their many lives... but we are drawn to the magic, and that makes us sisters and brothers.'

'A Fortunette is just a strong magical entity that lives within the meij, but it longs to be free, and to live with us, the magic-keepers. Every rare while, one of these entities will find one of us that they want to live their lives with, and they pursue an object. When they are ready, they ask to be called into this world by their parent." She smiled again. "That's you. Whatever magic that is asking to love you is also partly here, in these objects. But now it's time for them to grow, and experience a new form of existance- that of an animal."

Oq stopped, not having been given an answer by the meij of how to draw out the magic. So she opened her expression and her wide, yelllow eyes, and asked...

"Tell me... Lorelei... who are you? Why are you here, with us? I don't think I ever was told how you found us, or why you feel drawn to this life."

Oqaia dropped to her knees in return and wrapped her arms around the girl. She couldn't understand what it would be like to be so swept up by the winds of change and love- and then to be left, watching those winds take away everything that was held dear to her. Oqaia knew now why she had been the one to be pulled by the meij for this quest, instead of her sister. There was something in Lorelei that Oqia recognized, something that she felt comfortable with and familiar. This was a piece of home- and yet, also a feeling of newness and of magic.

"Oh Lorelei," Oqaia whispered, dropping away from the embrace to look the new gypsy in the eyes. "These were meant for you all along. That is why they haven't changed until now. ...Because you have not yet accepted that this is now your life. You're free with us. ...Won't you play them for me? And please, tell me that this, your life, is happy. At least somehow, that you feel like this can one day be a happy life again."

Oqaia suddenly knew why she felt such a need for the words to be spoken- it was what the meij needed. For so little had been said- she had not asked Lorelei what her past was, or what she thought her future should be... and the zills had never heard the sound of its mothers voice in a way that welcomed it into the world. She was still waiting for the retun of her love, of the one she believed to be the owner of this destiny. ...The zills were of the element of sound- and so far... nothing had been said.

Oqaia didn't realize how true the words were. It was the love of these two mothers- one present, and one who helped bring the magic into the world at the start- that now drew forth on the meij, and sucked at the soul of love and belonging.

The sound of Lorelei's desire for her child reached the meij, and pulled at a pure, purple strand of a very powerful form of the stream of magic.

The zills fell from Lorelei's pale, delicate hands as if their constitution was suddenly made of air. A flash of light accompanied the strange disappearance... and then, instead of the sweet sound of the golden zills- another sweet, beautiful sound appeared before the sparkling gold light cleared.

The sound of a martin's song.



It called forth: I am born. This is my home.