Welcome to Gaia! ::

Passing through the doors with the pumpkin on them, Wyng briefly wondered what lay behind the other doors, or if she had picked the right door. After all, what she needed could be behind any of the doors. Then she started to hear a strange, yet familiar, light humming. For a moment she remembers being in a pumpkin patch full of small pumpkins, happily smiling and glowing pumpkins.

Trying to figure out why she suddenly remembers this, Wyng does not notice at first that the humming has stopped. When she does note the absence of sound, she looks around quizzically, as if she could find whomever stopped humming. She did not find the source of the humming, but, when she was looking around, she suddenly started hearing voices. These voices seem familiar, like something she has heard before, something warm and loving. Unconsciously, Wyng starts heading off towards the voices smiling as she does so. At least until the door slams shut behind her.

When the door slams shut all of the sudden the memory of the pumpkins becomes real, the entire area illuminates, and Wyng finds herself standing in the middle of the patch. The pumpkins seem to have a path through them, one end is leading back towards where she came in, but the other end leads further in. Confused, Wyng decides to follow the path further in until she reaches a wide open, very peaceful field, covered entirely in glowing orange flowers. The glow from the flowers makes it very easy to see that in the center of the field is a single solitary tombstone.

Approaching the tombstone she says it reads HERE LIES SERENA in bright orange letters. It is surrounded with small yellow flowers that have dried with age. Obviously placed there by someone who cared for whomever was in the grave. Examining the tombstone closer, Wyng hears the sound of a heartbeat below the stone. Suddenly you realize that the goddess wants you to be a grave robber, but her loyalty to the goddesses caused her to not care about something she normally would have reviled.

Wyng carefully pushes away the flowers and the dirt until the heart is uncovered and examines the heart. It is glowing a steady yellow the same color as the goddess who set her on this task. It is also still beating. Curious as to why this is, Wyng goes to remove it as instructed and then she remembers something. She remembers looking up into a warm smiling face that could not see more happy to see her and she remembers being held close yet gently, as if she were the most precious thing in the world to this person. Still reveling in the memory, Wyng finishes removing the heart and places it in the bag.

Sorrowfully, Wyng rationalizes that it has come down to her or her mother. Wyng knows that she must exist for the Blessings and the goddesses, but even knowing that what must come next is a painful decision. Maybe, she thinks, when she is a goddess she can return for her mother and save her. That thought bolstering her, she takes her only weapon, the scissors, and plunges the scissors into the form of her mother.

When that happens, her mother's form shrieks and disappears, as does all of the water. Coughing and sputtering a bit, Wyng is aware of the growing brightness and turns seeing an open door. Heaving a sigh of relief, Wyng gratefully heads for the door only casting one glance back. In that one glance, she's sure she saw her mother's form standing there glaring at her holding the scissors.

Tearfully, Wyng heads back to the shrine.

Hearing that they all were being called back to the shrine, Wyng happily, but not without apprehension, returned to the shrine. When she entered, she noticed that the statue of Ruin, her goddess, was moving. "You cannot escape forever." She told Wyng, while still perched on her pedestal. Contemplatively, Ruin had run one hand gently across her scythe. "You must face your Fears. Eat or be eaten. That is the way of it here. Were it another time... I wonder which one you would be?" she asks. Then Ruin dropped down from her pedestal and approached Wyng, proceeding to circle her and look her over. "I wonder indeed. Perhaps we shall solve this little mystery? Take this." She said as she handed Wyng a small jeweled dagger. It was a simple blade set with a stone, and from it dangled what looked to be a small claw of some sort."That should be more than enough," Ruin continued "You will need to learn to fend for yourself, to take on your challenges and judge for yourself what it means to sacrifice. That is the only way you will become stronger, else you'll fall prey to someone greater still." As she spoke, the blade of the knife began to rust, stained with a dark color reminiscent of Ruin. "You are ready." She announced, gesturing with her scythe. "Go." Her bright glowing eyes stared into Wyng and followed her as she obeyed her goddess' instruction. After Wyng had left the building, she could swear that she still felt that gaze. Then suddenly, she blacked out.

Noticing a piece of paper on her left, Wyng grabbed it.

A=0, B=1, C=2

Analyzing every possible option of what it could be Wyng finally concluded that this must be the way to decode some code, but this did her no good if she did not also have the code. What if the code it decoded was not the one needed to open the door. Panicking a little, Wyng stuffed the paper in her pocket. As she did so she heard from behind her: "Come here, lassie, Ah wouldnae hurt ye..."

Tripping over herself while searching, Wyng landed against the doors. Feeling them give a little, she decided to push harder at them. It did not matter, they'd give a little but they would not budge.

Seeing this the follower called out "Did ye think ye cud find the code when ye cudnae find yer maw?"

Having no clue what it meant, she continued her search.

Searching one last time to her left, Wyng looked under the paper that had regenerated before and found a different paper.

A C E G.

Wait a moment, she thought as she pulled out the other paper from her pocket. Comparing the two, she noted that the new paper had to be the code, meaning the first paper had to be the decoder. Using this knowledge, Wyng typed 0 2 4 5 into the number pad, after all that's what she had gotten from the two papers.

Click.

The door unlocked. She was free. She could get away from that creepy figure! Running outside, Wyng was glad to see something in a color she was used to, grey trees. They could hide her from the figure! That is, if it was still following her...

Wyng was about halfway over the bridge, when she encountered another rotten board. Again, instead of breaking away beneath her, it trapped her foot. Was this bridge really meant to be a trap?

After tugging at her foot a couple times and finding out that it was indeed stuck, Wyng decided she'd have to use the same tactic as last time. Gritting her teeth, Wyng slashed at her foot, only cutting it half off. Yowling in pain, Wyng despaired that this sort of thing did not get any easier with repetition, but then again, it was not supposed to was it?

Slashing a second time, Wyng hobbled off, one of her feet mostly regenerated and the other a regenerating stump, bleeding bits of shadow.

She could hear the snip snip snip of the figure's scissors directly behind her, it was relentless. Without looking back, she could tell it was still behind her. It felt like it was almost breathing against her back.