Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Yesraj," cries the wind, the distant sound drifting across the water towards her; with the passing of several breaths, she will hear the sound again and perhaps be better able to recognize its source. "Yesraj!" coms the cry again, but though she may have heard this voice a thousand times, there is something different in Unwelcome's calls today. The cry is a high-pitched yelp, a call that demands some sort of response, and when the cream-and-red bird comes fluttering into sight, she is clearly agitated. Her feathers are all fluffed up, standing nearly on end, and as she comes to a landing just in front of the gypsy she is whistling low in distress. Until Rajani speaks to her she will pace back and forth, bobbing up and down.

It may be, therefore, that it is with little surprise that Rajani will find that her solitude is further disturbed by someone else -- skidding down the slope, looking as if he has just come from a fistfight, First is bolting towards her resting place even as Unwelcome lands. There is a monstrous bruise starting up on the side of his face, a tear in his shirtfront, and from the mud all down one side, he's had at least one close encounter with the ground today. By the time he comes to a stop in front of her he is completely out of breath, and must stand with his hands upon his knees, head hanging, drinking air in great big gulps.

"R .. Rosalie," he manages to gasp finally, which given his sibling's recent behavior should be answer enough. He's either gone to see his lady, or run to her as First has run to Rajani, because something is plainly wrong. It may not be his brother, because Unwelcome's behavior has not changed at the mention of him, and neither bird nor boy seem impatient to have her fly after them. In fact, Unwelcome edges closer, whistling more softly now, begging for a caress.

"Ain't him," First manages, still breathless; he lifts his head, pushing his hair out of his eyes. There's a gleam in his eyes that could be fear, though it's unlikely he'd admit it, and when his gaze sweeps across her for once it isn't because he's trying to rile Oberon. He's checking her for hurts, for signs that something's wrong with her.

Finding no sign that she is anything but hale and perfectly relaxed, he does not yet relax himself. "He ain't been here? Not Last. Jay. Jay ain't found you?" The question seems to come from nowhere, and he asks with the faintest edge of panic. Little wonder he is out of sorts; though she has never met his infamous elder brother Jacob, she's known the Freds long enough to have heard plenty about him in passing. In the absence of a father, Jacob has practically raised their little family, and absolutely runs it. It is on his word that they came to Palisade in the first place, and it is by his grace that they own their little tavern. She will also likely have guessed, from the way they have said his name in the past, that he is not a gentle man.

A sudden rush of color takes over his face beneath the freckles and the bruises, an uncommon color to find on one of the Freds, and quite suddenly he seems to have difficulty meeting her gaze directly. His eyes shift to Oberon, but that is just as hard: the Guardian seems to possess an even more knowing gaze then his mistress and he must quickly look away. So he looks at Rajani's boots, at the ground, then at the river as if suddenly taken up by the view, his mind having flashed back to a distressing conversation he was recently forced to partake in. Trying to explain that his elder siblings think he's mad for Rajani is plainly impossible and First would most certainly prefer to face a firing squad. Explaining that he was bullied into giving up her name as the party responsible for -- by her very existence -- convincing him to move smuggled items without sufficient profit is equally distressing, but at least if Oberon tramples him for suggesting blame would result in a death less painful then one by embarrassment.

" .. it's Ghas' an' Jay," he mumbles finally, "that crate we passed on, fulla long-knives an' swards, they found we ain't got enough money ferrit, and they's mad as hell." This is almost certainly not the full truth, but he is desperately hopeful that she should believe it. It does sound like something which would greatly trouble a Grimm, if anything, but the Freds have certainly made mistaken business decisions before, and it has not resulted in this level of panic.

Unwelcome, paying little heed to her hedgewitch's lies, paces closer to Rajani, going so far as to sit on one knee so that her ruffled feathers can be smoothed down again. She is plainly happy to find Rajani so calm and confident, the gypsy's level state of mind readily soothing her distress. But she has of late begun to more readily chat with others, and it is entirely possible that she might have a wholly different answer then First.

There is a touch of panic in his gaze now, visible to them both: he regards Oberon with growing horror as if convinced that the Guardian can somehow read his very thoughts. How is he to know that this is not the case? The damned creature grew a tail overnight! Despite his close association with Unwelcome, he still does not quite trust Guardians, or really understand them.

In his panic to search for something to say, he finally hits on another probable half-truth, though this certainly will not help his case. " .. Jay," he says, his voice a bit hoarse now, "he thought we'd given 'em to Rosa .. or .. a friend, 'cause .." Now he trails off briefly, then picks up the thread of the sentence with a certain hopelessness. " .. we got caught up in the stuff you bin doin', gettin' ready to fight."

This lie suits him better; he is able to take a deep breath, because this is actually close to the truth. "They don't want us fightin'. Ghas', he said Grimms ought know better'n get caught up inna war."

This statement causes Unwelcome to bob up and down, whistling softly. Though soothed by the gypsy's presence, the conversation has brought ill memories to her hedgewitch, and she is not happy with his displeasure. "Ain't no foolsss," she tells Rajani, in a growl that sounds much like Ghastly's thickly accented voice. "Ain't no foolsss!"

The rook is delighted to be addressed: she stands up straight and whistles affectionately up at the gypsy, which causes First to stare at Unwelcome in a growing horror. She only acts like this when she's about to show off something new she's learned, and he has a sinking feeling what that might be. " .. shh," he attempts, but his mouth is dry as a desert, and Oberon's gaze don't help him none. "Don't pay her no mind, she been makin' stuff up lately, ain't no good asking fer her help .."

It is not clear if Unwelcome understands this, but she flips her tail at him in an imperious way, and stares up at Rajani to make certain she is paying attention. Then, making a sound like a human clearing her throat (and where did she learn THAT one?) she begins. " .. whole crate," the rook grunts, and Rajani may recognize the growl as the one that she had used before, belonging to Ghastly. "Damn ye, damn ye, rrrrrrr worm riddled rrrrr." She bobs up and down for a moment, as if excited by the mention of worms: she recognizes the word, though it's doubtful she understands why it was used here. "No better time rrrr one lass or two then rrr?"

While this is a mouthful, and certainly evidence that First is spending more time with the bird then he would willingly admit, she is not done.

" .. one?" asks Unwelcome, and she huddles down low, all her feathers out, in an impression of purest misery that mimics the breathless tone of what can only be one of the Freds. But then she straightens up again, for another growl.

"Rrrr won't ask ye third time rrrr." Straightening, she flaps both wings forward, as if threatening someone before her.

" .. Rosalie," Unwelcome continues, again huddled low, in the voice of one of the twins. "Jay alreddy knows Jay already knows."

Then she flutters up, and lands on Rajani's other knee, as if to signify a change in position of the speaker. This may be significant, as her 'voice' stays the same, coming as close as she can to one of the twins. "Don't matter, don't matter, ssss. She don't care none, ssss."

After a few whispered swears and one or two low moans, First has covered his face with one hand. There's no need to see Oberon's glare: he can feel it burning a hole into his skin. The little conversation plainly does not bring back pleasant memories for him, as well it might not; he doubts that it will take long for the gypsy to put it all together with his actions and come up with the correct answer. After all, this cannot have taken place long ago, and he's just said that Last is in Rosalie's company.

So if Last ran to check on Rosalie, the other lass implicated, and First has come -- breathless from running -- to her ..

"Ain't no matter," he says shakily nonetheless, "really, it ain't, 'cause it ain't like I got any plans to do anything 'bout it. Jest -- forget it, will ya? And sock Jay, if'n he comes knockin'. You'll know him if'n you sees him, right? He looks like us, only posh." He half hopes that this discussion of his elder sibling, until now shrouded in as much mystery as the Freds can manage, will distract her from her who's and why's.

In the dim light, she can see him go pale under his freckles, knowing that the worst has come to pass. He's too young yet to figure that there's fear behind her words, too inexperienced himself to understand that there might be anything but the anger that he can hear all too clearly. But as Unwelcome cries, quick, high cries of confusion, he manages somehow to hold his ground as she approaches him. He doesn't seem to move nor breathe, though he seems to sway a little, as if her words take something out've him that he didn't know was keeping him standing up straight.

"No, Raj," he says, and there ain't no vehemence in his voice, for he don't dare yell at her, and he don't have no breath anyway. "I always knowed. It don't matter." For those last three words he catches his breath and utters them fiercely, as if determined to make her understand that he does not intend to .. follow up, as it were. But this seems to take the last of his strength and energy, and he shrinks back from her after that, a wholly unusual behavior from a Grimm. "Jest forget it, right?"