Welcome to Gaia! ::

These words had come to mind every now and again as Howl was in class. It was not as if he was normally so easily distracted while tending to his academics. True, Hillworth's academics was not nearly as challenging as it had been in other schools, but he rarely allowed himself to have wandering thoughts.

It was a puzzler. Something that he would ignore for the time being and resume his studies.

It was only one day as he was preparing to head out for a patrol that the words seemed to nudge his mind again. His roommate was still out on a medical leave, meaning that Howl didn't need to worry about someone interrupting him as he shifted to the uniform of Nysa. Nor did he have to worry about said roommate staring at him as he dared to repeat the oath aloud as he gazed intently upon the quill pen held delicately in his gloved fingers.



The lad did not know what to expect by any means. So as his surroundings seemed to fade around him and shift into something absolutely foreign, he could not help but freeze in place like an animal caught in the headlights. Once things seemed to settle into place, he was no longer in his dorm room. No, he was now in what looked like it could have been an olden office space at one point. The room itself wasn't well lit, the only light seeming to come from what the lad could call windows.

Daring to take a single step forward, he began to give the room itself a brief inspection. Though it looked as if nobody had been here for a while, it also seemed as if the room itself had been thoroughly thrashed before it went into retirement. There was plenty of dust to irritate his nose, tempting it to sneeze. Furniture had been seemingly tossed about, various wall decorations torn and broken. It honestly looked as if an animal had gotten loose in the middle of an earthquake in this space.

"...what... is this place...?" he asked aloud, as if not wanting to tempt fate into having the one responsible for the damage to pop out. He stepped towards what seemed like a desk with several claw marks carved deep into the wood, eventually using his white gloves to trail across the top. It was as if he was doing the cliche "white glove test" on cleanliness, though that was not his intent at all. His fingers had gone over the grooves, noting that the foreign cuts in the furniture was at least an inch deep.

It continued to seem as if the page would remain alone, so he once more spoke aloud to his invisible audience. "If there was only a way to get more light into this room..."

He wandered to one of the strange windows which was framed by a strange gold perimeter. As he got closer, he couldn't help but note how strange the light from the window seemed to be, as it seemed to almost ripple slightly. Light usually did not do such a thing.

There were several windows, but the teal-haired boy moved to one of the smallest ones that was slightly taller than him. Positioning himself underneath the window, he found himself looking up. Rather than seeing sky above, all he managed to see was the rippling surface of the water above.

The space he was in at the moment was completely submerged in water.

Rather quickly, the boy's legs gave out under him and he gracelessly fell to the ground. His chest felt tight and soon enough the world had gone black for him for a while. Perhaps it was not the manliest of all things to do, but the lad was now in a place where his deepest fear, his one true phobia, was coming into play. It was just easier to shut down for a moment rather than deal with the phobia head on.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but eventually the boy seemed to return to this world. Of course, everything was a bit fuzzy as he woke up, staggering to push himself up to his feet. He seemed to dip slightly to the side, eventually planting a gloved hand against what he thought was the wall. It was the pane of one of the larger windows framed in gold. As he stood there, trying to steady himself, he soon enough found himself face to face with something absolutely stunning.



It was hard for him to describe what it was he was seeing out in the water, but for a moment, his own legitimate fears seemed to dissipate as he took in the whole sight. It was like a coral reef had formed all around a series of statues. There were so many colors, and the way the light from above seemed to filter in was merely taking away the young Nysa's breath away.

Or maybe his inability to breath had everything to do with the fact such a beautiful scene was completely doused in water. If there was even a single crack in any of the alleged windows, he'd most certainly drown. He wanted to continue to admire the forest, but the detail of all the "trees" (or rather, the water) only seemed to suffocate such a desire.

"...I need to get back..." Backing away from the window, he clenched his hand that had been pressed against the pane to his chest. His other hand trembled a bit against his feather at hand. He turned away and seemed to almost crumble in that spot as if he was trying to hide from the water surrounding the area. Drawing the other hand to his chest, he pinched his eyes closed.

How was he supposed to get back? He didn't even know where he was, but now he desperately wanted to go back to Hillworth of all places. Had the words he spoken earlier been the fault for this strange place? Grasping for any sense of logic he could, he tried to take in a deep breath. He wasn't exactly successful, only getting about half of what he was trying to get into his lungs. His voice, which was usually so calm and collected was trembling as he repeated the oath one more time.



Had his eyes been opened, he might have noticed as his surroundings once more seemed to fade into the more familiar feel of his Hillworth dormitory. Yet, when he opened his eyes, he could feel the oxygen flow increasing again to his lungs as relief seemed to sink in again.

"...what in the world was that all about?" he uttered softly before collapsing onto his bed, phasing back into the form of the Hillworth student. He'd figure this all out some other day. For now, he just needed to wipe away the shock of the whole journey.