Welcome to Gaia! ::

Asrahs sighed and pouted from where she was sitting on her rock. The animal seller had moved on a few days ago and now there was nothing to help Asrahs stay occupied. Papa Natsu and papa Viveka were both busy and Asrahs didn’t play with Aaran since he was so big and that would felt like he was m-a-d-e too which was not what Asrahs wanted. Besides Aaran liked to sleep in which made him boring! Most of the settlement was still just starting to wake up and the sun hadn’t even really gotten up yet either.

Wriggling her toes Asrahs tried to figure out what to do today. Maybe she should hunt down more members of her big mixed family. That could be fun. Holding up her fingers she started to count them off. Papa Natsu, Papa Viveka, brother Aaran, uncle Ra… ras… Rastian! That was it. His name was so hard to remember. Frowning she decided she liked uncle Rast better but was going to be a good girl and make sure to always use his full name in front of him. Still it did give her a goal for the day unless something more interesting came along. Giving up on counting the rest of her strange new family she sat as patiently as any youngling could, meaning of course she squirmed where she sat every few moments watching the sun wake up so she could go wake her uncle without it leading to papa Natsu and papa viveka being told she was up ‘wondering at unnatural hours of the morning.’ She had been extra careful sneaking out this morning so she was sure she would have most of the day before they found her.

Asrahs tilted her head and look at this newcomer who she had never seen and yet was here demanding play. She was a shifter girl? Smiling back she considered being mean; but she was lonely and did want to play badly. “Well my papas say assuming isn’t right, but I am bored so it’s ok here. As for play.” The grin widened. “Yes if you’re ready to play with me than we can start at any time.” She got up and swung her braid behind her. “I’m Asrahs.” Holding out her hand she was clearly eager to play but wanted to get the greetings out of the way after all it was what adults did all the time. So it must be pretty important. All the while she was thinking of games the pair could play. There were some nice pretty paths up a rocky place near here where sail scales like to play and they could try and catch one or watch them. There was also racing and drawing in the dirt and of course she could show this girl a few other little games or perhaps just around as the adults started to wake up actually do things.

Gladly going along she started her plotting and grinned even wider when Mirin said she was new! That made her exciting and interesting. Her eyes lit up as she started to ask questions. “Where are you from? How come you are only staying one day? What are your parents like?” She grinned. “Well we could chase sail scales around, but you have to be careful of the sharp rocks. We could play lily hopper or we could try and match some of the other drawings that are just outside of everything. There’s a lot we could do for fun, I like to go bug my uncle but no one is awake right now. Papa Natsu could play music and we could dance but he’s still asleep too.” She pulled a frowning pout not wanting to say she might also be scolded later for bringing a stranger home before everyone woke up so perhaps that was a silly idea to start with. She liked it much better when things were busy and active so having a new friend/object of study was fun!

Rolling her eyes Asrahs couldn’t believe this girl had never heard of Lilly hopper. It was only the third best game ever invented by Asrahs of course. “Well there are to versions. Wet and dry. The wet version is where we have to go and get a lot of smooth rocks about this big.” She held out her hand. “And then we have to skip them across the water and the goal is to land on one of the water lilies. The dry version is for when papa hate that you’ve been digging in the water for a bunch of smooth water stones. And you just get wet once getting a bunch of lilies. You then have to dry them out and toss them on the ground and hope on all of them at least once on only” She held up one finger very seriously. “one foot. Of course you can make the game a lot harder if you have to carry something or have a lot of lilies really far apart.” She hoped the girl understood her explanation well enough. She was always good at adding more rules to make it harder but Aaron always won anyway so it would be nice to play against someone else. “By the time the game is over you are all dry again so your papa and moma never have to know.” She grinned.

Snorting she looked at Mirin like she was silly. “Lilies come from the water of course.” Rolling her eyes she took off in different direction from Mirin. “This way. That way goes toward where the travelers like to feed all their pets. You can go if you want, but watch where you step.” Snickering she headed to the closest pond she knew had lilies. Really now since she knew the place why would Mirin just take off in any old direction. That was silly. Moving quickly she grabbed a large stick so she could fish out the lilies they would need. It was by far easier then getting all wet to get the lilies picked. And no little bites from the fish.

Flipping out another she grinned at the other youngling. “How good are you at hopping?” She tossed a few on the ground behind her. “After all each on you have to get to and they can be super far apart if you want a few or a lot fairly evenly out.” She held her arms out as far as she could stretch. “I can hop TEN on one foot.” She finished getting a few more out of the water with an ease of having done it many times before. “We can use them if their still wet so we could start anytime after we spread them out. Just mind the slimey bits. Otherwise you land hard on the rocks.” Asrahs made a face that said she’d done that a few times too.

Laughing Asrahs thought Mirin didn’t know what being tired of lilies was like until she lost! Still gathering up her lilies she moved up toward Mirin and tossed out lilies at random. The best way to make the game fun was to have no pattern or set place for them. Asrahs knew girls who did that but then Mirin wouldn’t stand a chance at all her Papa Natsu had taught her to play fair, though he let her cheat against him sometimes when no one else was around. Smiling she noded. “Ok I’m gonna go first then.” Asrahs finished her tossing and then started hopping on her own lilies. To make it harder she did it on one leg as much as possible.

After a sharp nod she watched the other youngling hop across. She did really really well! Not as good as Asrahs of course, but still really good. When the other fell Asrahs felt her eyes go wide in surprise. She tried hard not to laugh right away but she found herself giggling and was glad when Mirin started to laugh too. Moving closer she bent over her hair all following gravity’s call. “Hey are you alright?” She knew from lots of experience that rocks and ones bottom were not compatible. In fact she had a bruise that had once lasted a whole handful of nights after falling and tumbling down a pile of rocks. “If it makes you feel better I think that lily counts.” She pointed to the offending lily that had stopped Mirin’s progress.

Wrinkling her nose she picked it up and shook it checking for slime and water. It was one of the ones that while a bit slippery wasn’t too bad. “After the game is all done you can take this one with you as a prize for getting so far.” She grinned. “You’re really good better than most others who play with me. My big brother always beats me, but his legs are super long.” She held out her arms as far as they would stretch.