Welcome to Gaia! ::

Her feet dangled on the outside of the cart she was riding in. Traveling with a small group through Tale seemed to make a lot of sense nowadays so that’s what Mella was doing. Fingers cracking she stopped stretching them out and took them apart to shake them. Her hands were cramped from drawing. She was working on images from her time in the camp to tell the story from a view behind the lines. Mella wished she had paid more attention to the details of the camp but she did have a few notes jotted down in what was quickly becoming her journal and source of parchment for art. Only three pages actually had any writing on them in very small print, but the number of pages that had images from her memory recorded was increasing. She was fine with the idea of selling them to any interested party and so far had even found a man who said one of the people she had drawn in her sketches was his brother. Mella was happy to give that sketch to the man just to see him smile. Right now she was working on a quick sketch of one of the prentices she had worked with in the tent. His name was something that she just couldn’t remember but she had known it at the time. Still that was what happened she supposed when she hardly spoke to others. Every now and then their names would come to mind to match their faces but for the most part she only had their faces etched to her mind.

The cart she was traveling in hit a root making it jump and causing Mella to lose the parchment and her stick of charcoal. Making a squeak she moved forward and ended up falling out of the cart herself while she tried to catch her precious materials. The thunk against the ground came to her before she thought about the fact that there was indeed gravity and she was at its mercy. A good series of words she hadn’t used in a long time came to mind but since she was fairly certain she just bit her tongue it didn’t seem like a good idea to use right at the moment.

Sand from Tale, once again it proved that it was evil as it was plentiful. She rubbed her tongue along her teeth on the insides and was relieved not to taste any blood. It was then that a hand gently took her shoulder and started to turn her. Her eyes stayed focused on her art supplies though as she reached for them with a hand trying to just answer his question not really thinking much of it. “I’m ok. I just fell.” It was true enough the sand had cushioned her landing very well even it was a small ban in her existence it was a blessing in this case. The face out of the corner of her eye made her stop with her fingers brushing her current work in progress. Turning to face him all the way she realized she knew this person. It was the exact person from her sketch! Gasping she reached quickly for her sketch which was currently face up in the sand. “You. You’re from the healer’s tent.” It was so frustrating not to be able to place his name! Holding up the image for him to see she used her other hand to wipe off her face. She wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t recognize her since the most memorable thing she had done in the camp was retch at the entrance and work on some balms. The sand all over her face was fine but always seemed to get everywhere. Feeling it her hair she gave it a quick shake hoping to dislodge some of it with her fingers. She knew she’d have to shake out her clothes later when the wagon was stopped for the night. That line of thought made her realize she had forgotten about the wagon. Telwren was in there! Twisting her neck she looked to see a good number of eyes staring at her. In the bed of the wagon peeking over the edge the sailscale was staring at her likely woken up from its nap by either the bump or the stop. It looked like it wanted to snap at anything that annoyed it next. Blushing Mella waved to them to let her know she was ok and she tried to stand up too quickly and the sand shifted out from under her feet. Surprised her eyes widened but she didn’t even have anytime to say anything as gravity decided that it was time for round two. She managed to steady herself before she dropped onto her behind and got another sand bath, though in her panic she dropped her sketch. An alarmed squawk and a small bit of clamoring followed by a plop in the sand let her know that Telwren was on his way over to her.

The sand was warm under Telwren’s claws. It moved awkwardly in the sand for a moment before it decided that flying would be easier in the future, but the food bringer was so close it would take too much work to lift of and flap over to it. Hissing softly it wondered why the food bringer had moved so far away. It should stay close or go and get food not play in the sand.

“No.” She blushed thinking about it all. “I’m not really used to the difference in terrain. I’ve only traveled a short distance in Tale before which is why I decided that not walking in the sand was for the best.” She gestured to the wagon absentmindedly and glanced at it only to see a number of grinning faces looking back. Her faced turned an interesting shade of a deeper blush as she realized how silly she must look. She was holding them all up just sitting there talking! She knew how full the wagon was of supplies so it wasn’t like she could try and convince the wagon driver to let this near stranger to her ride along. If she wanted to keep talking she would have to walk the rest of the way to the next town. If she remembered right they were getting quite close and the trail was easy to follow. So perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to walk and she could even talk with someone who had an experience in common with her. That would be a strange turn of events.


Waving at the driver of the wagon she held out her palm flat facing up and danced two fingers in the center before pointing at herself and the stranger who knew her. The man nodded seeming to understand and she saw her gear was soon dropped gently off the side of wagon into the sand so the driver could continue his journey without her hindering him future. She used this time to stall and think over her reply to the leaf man she was left with.


“Yes. Um well it's not a surprise I remember images well. I can't think of names. I don’t even know yours.” She felt so bad for that but she was honest about it at least even if it was an embarrassing fact. “Sorry about that.” She dipped her head in apology. "but images like this” She took the picture and glanced at it for a moment before looking back up at him taking full measure of his form and features. Her eyes narrowed as they flitted over his appearance. “It’s not the same or perhaps you've changed a lot, but it's good enough to see a general likeness.” Heading to go pick up her gear she moved very carefully disliking the texture of the sand. “I was actually told by a friend from Zena that I should make a catalog of plants but I don't know enough about the plants to do something like that. I'm no healer” She shook her head bending down to grab her bag she dropped her parchment in it that had the sketch lost in the pages. “I am actually going to be going to Jauhar to see what it is like. I was going to go with a friend, but he was injured in the fighting before and I thought that whoever he ended up he should rest.”Besides if she ever did catch up with Nu she wanted to have a few of those different kinds of berries from Jauhar all ready to use as paint to surprise him. Shrugging she slipped her bag onto one shoulder and headed back to talk to the stranger more. "What happened to you after the retreat was called?"


The food giver just kept moving around. Back to the bags where it kept the food and then back toward the other strange one. Curling up at his food giver’s feet he gave a hiss and was promptly picked up after a moment he slid into the sash around her midsection peeking out at the strange one his food giver was talking to. Why was the one he picked so noisy? She spent too much time caterwauling.

Uquin. She would try and remember that name. She nodded her head again. “Yes not only that but even if I did make it all there is the problem of transporting it and having to make copies if anyone wanted any.” It was very hard to draw the exact same image twice in fact no matter how hard she tried she never could do it. There were always small differences here and there and over time the distortions would get worse if she tried to copy from the copies. When she was a child it had been a fun game to make an image and then try it from the copy until eventually the later images didn’t’ even look like the first one. A sailscale looked more like a moracker.

His words made her want to grab hold of him and drag all the information out of him about her friend. “If it was the wind boy I saw you with before that was Nuawahn and his carmpel are friends of mine. Where is Neued ?” Mella asked not being familiar with that name. She smiled at him glad he found a way to progress his craft. At least she thought he was a healer before the fight, though perhaps he was like her and placed there to be of use. She doubted it having seen how he seemed in place in the healer’s tent when she had felt like running away. “It’s good to have those kinds of skills, not matter how slow going it is. I fled home.” She followed Uquin’s eyes not thinking much of Telwren’s presence as he had simply become a part of her life. Her small friend was starring at Uquin with an unwavering intensity that might have been a bit off putting. “Don’t mind Telwren. He likely wants a treat.” She rummaged in her bag for a moment feeling for some dried meat. Taking out a small piece she offered it to Uquin to give to the familiar. It wasn’t the greatest tasting but the sailscale never seemed to mind all that much. “fingers flat like this.” She used her other hand to show him how to offer the food palm up. It tended to prevented nipped fingers and Telwren clutching while it snapped up the treat offered. It had taken several times of having to suckle her fingers after feeding the greedy boy before she figured it out. She wished she had thought to ask Kyilet questions about his little Inui when she had spent the night in Zenna sharing that fire. Who better to teach her about sailscales than a tamer who had one?

Telwren watched the one his food giver harped at. It had moved its head and Telwren wanted to attack the soft fluff that grew out of the back of its head when it moved like that. The fluff his own food giver had was soft and comfortable to curl up in when she laid down. Telwren had learned not to do that often because when his food giver woke up she tended to spend hours picking at the knots in the fluff he made during the night. When his food giver pulled out the food his attention snapped from the stranger to the food in transit. Telwren didn’t’ move but his eyes never left the morsel. Why give food to the stranger? It should all belong to him! He let out a grumpy squawk and looked at the stranger annoyed with it.

Mella hadn’t really thought of the cost of other’s having to buy the collection of sketches before. She had always just made them so only the cost of the supplies to make such works came to mind not the cost of the finished product. She cringed realizing how much it would cost and how few could ever actually get it. Uquin was right about that.

She nodded absent mindely thinking of the chaos of the retreat she remembered passing through several places. One of them was Neued then? She hated the idea of taking a path back the way she had fled but it would half to do if she was going to find a way to deliver a message to Nu. “Mez in Sauti. Well it’s my home part time. It feels like I have been traveling a lot lately.” She watched his face closely as he took the food from her. Seeing Uquin judging Telwren like he was a foreign matter somehow made the air feel better so it was easier to talk about painful things. “I make drawings like the one of you. I thought maybe I could help at the camps. I know it seems strange but I couldn’t just sit and do nothing. That would be like giving up and not even trying. Besides people need to see what happened there. I can’t show too much, but I can at least show the pieces I can remember.” She shrugged which unsettled her sailscale and earned her a reproachful glare which made her giggle. She slid her hands up her stomach so they could be between her body and the sailscale in her sash. Gently she pushed the small scaled body out a bit from her so Telwren would be able to snap up the treat easily.

Craning his neck Telwren was judging the food in the stranger’s outstretched hand. After a bit it was satisfied it wasn’t going to be taken away suddenly Telwren’s maw darted down and snapped the treat avoiding this temporary food giver’s hand. Nipping the hand meant less food in the future and Telwren was no fool. Food in mouth he eyed the stranger almost daring it to try and take the food back. When that didn’t happen Telwren tilted his head back and swallowed the food whole in three successive gulps. The food was heavy on his insides so Telwren decided it would be a good time to curl up and sleep. His food bringer would keep him warm and likely not jostle him too much. Having gotten food from the stranger, it’s presence no longer meant anything until Telwren would feel hunger again.

It was strange but Uquin almost looked surprised when she mentioned her home. Didn’t everywhere have a small settlement or two around? She supposed perhaps he had heard of Mez and wondered why she picked a small place that was hard to get supplies for her work at. Still it was where her parents lived so to her it would always be home in a way.

She couldn’t help but blush as a soft smile played on her lips. “Thank you. I still wish I was able to be of more help. That whole place was..” She shivered. “Not a situation I would like to be in again. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a healer and see things like that even occasionally and not in a battle field.” She picked up her pace just a bit as if walking faster would help leave the memories behinds her. The sand slide under her feet and she had to adjust her balance more which made her steps seem more awkward than anyone familiar with the ground.

She chuckled at Uquin’s broken question making the memories she saw of the battle field fade just a bit. “Telwren. This cute little sailscale is Telwren.” She reached into her sash and gave the sailscale a good scratch on the head. “There was a place near Mez that I used to go and sketch. There were always a bunch of sailscales there. After I fled home after the fighting I went up there and this little one decided to try and steal my food. I kept coming back and feeding him and eventually he just decided to stay with me.” She made a face sticking out her tongue a bit. “Of course it took a while for us to get used to one another. I don’t really know too much about dealing with animals and got bitten a lot at first. Still I think we get along pretty well now.” Flexing her fingers she thought she was lucky she didn’t loose a finger or have a scar from her first attempts to handle Telwren.

She smiled glancing over at Uquin before going back to keeping her eyes on her steps. “He does seem to be that’s for certain. He’s grumpy a lot but he always stays by me and reminds me of home no matter where I am. It probably seems silly but it’s kind of nice.” She smiled just a hint while walking thinking how much more interesting Telwren had made her life. “He can make things a bit complicated though at times. While I was trying to arrange passage with a caravan to Tale he was hissing and snarling at one of the helping hands there.” She gave a sigh. “Needless to say I didn’t get passage with them having a ‘dangerous ill tempered beast’ with me.” She shook her head. “I honestly have no idea why he was causing a fuss either. Maybe the man just smelled funny to him.” She gave a shrug of her shoulders not really having any explanation for it. Reaching in her bag she decided on a matter that had been in the back of her mind for a while now. Pulling out her sketching book she stopped walking when she found the image of Uquin taking care of a patient during the battle. She flipped the page over and quickly scrawled her sign on the back and gently tore it out. Where she home she would have been able to do this without trouble but she doubted she could walk and manage safely on the sand. Holding it out to Uquin she wondered if he would really take it or if he would prefer to forget the whole battle. “Sorry but it just doesn’t seem right to have drawn you, and met back up with you and not give this to you. If you don’t want it that’s alright but I thought maybe…”

She glanced at Uquin not really sure if she should believe him or if he was just being nice. Still she supposed that was true. Telwren had been fine with Uquin and the more she spoke with him the nicer he seemed. Even in receiving a gift he was humble and kind. She gave him a large warm smile. “Of course I’m certain. If I wasn’t I would never have offered.” She started to walk forward again still cautious of her footing. “I can always draw it again, or another scene. It wasn’t like there wasn’t enough to be seen while I was at the camp.” She attempted to make a gesture with her arms and overturned her slim sense of balance. She winced and yelped as she felt Telwren’s own attempt to steady himself in her sash which involved his talons and her stomach. She managed to steady herself before she completely fell but she slid a hand behind her sash to check her stomach and her hand came away with blood on it. Her face paled as she could just imagine her insides falling out and was scared to look to see if this was the case.