Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was a dark and gloomy day, when Tatiana’s life changed. Barely nine years old, living in a beautiful home with a beautiful family—everything was like a fairytale. Her younger seven-year-old brother was her only friend, aside from the maids and the butlers and tutors who filled the large estate.

Her father’s ancestors had a very wealthy and lush history. From an old noble lineage, the Goliath family name was never truly royal, but somehow always managed to hold onto wealth throughout the various ruling-family upheavals. Her grandfather had sailed to Nipoor and established a trading company that further cemented their wealth. He eventually returned to Sunderland to raise a family, including Tatiana’s father, and a sprawling holding sprang into existence north of the Palisade, not far from the shores of the Iron Sea.

Tatiana and Leopold were raised as a proper missus and sir, children with good manners and a thorough education. Life was a wonderful adventure, full of good foods, fun games, and endless laughter. They were well loved and could get just about anything they wanted from anyone. One of their favorite maids was a wizened old woman with few teeth and flyaway grey hair. She would tell them story upon story of spirits and wolves, huge deer with bloody horns and beautiful princesses. The two would sit and stare up at her; wide-eyed and mystified by a world they had never seen.

Perhaps it had been the old lady, perhaps it was just that time in life when adventures seemed romantic rather than dangerous, perhaps they had simply been a little too sheltered… but whatever it had been, the two began to hatch a plan to see the magical forest for themselves. They had ponies and knew how to ride; little Leopold could hold his pinprick of a sword with a steady hand, and Tatiana could shoot a target from forty paces away. Certainly they were old enough to see the forest?

Alas, their parents did not agree, and as it goes with children of privilege, ‘no’ was not an answer they could accept. So on a cloudy, blustery day in fall, the two bundled up, put some food in a basket, and trundled off into the brush astride their ponies.

The trip was fun at first, as they shifted between a canter and a gentle walk, laughing at how they slipped right out from under all their caretaker’s noses. They wondered how their parents would react, when they returned with the heads of wolves hanging from their saddles as they sat astride their own guardians. They would be heroes! A knight and a princess of the highest order! No one would ever tell them they couldn’t handle adventure ever again.

But the day dragged on, and the clouds began to grumble and complain at the weight of water they carried. Leopold grew tired of the endless meadows and began to whine about how the saddle was not quite so comfy after hours and hours. Tatiana, though slightly disheartened, would remind him of how silly they would look if they came back now, empty-handed. At this he would nod with almost comical solemnity, growing quiet for another hour, until his saddle would once again remind him of how uncomfortable long rides were.

An entire day almost passed, with them only stopping once or twice to partake in some of their rations or relieve themselves in the tall grass, accompanied with naughty giggles at the thought of their mother’s reaction to this behavior, before the forest sprang up ahead of them. The sky’s grumbling grew more insistent, as though urging them to take cover, and the two gratefully obliged.

With a final run for cover, the two cantered across the remaining heather and slipped into the forest. Immediately, a hush seemed to settle around them. The horses’ hooves sounded muffled against decades of leaf litter and the gloomy light filtering between the branches appeared to wrap everything in a mystical silence. The children looked around with a mixture of awe and fear.

“We should make camp soon—that’s what Papa says they do when he and the men get stuck out at dark…” Tatiana asserted, flinching slightly at how loud her voice sounded amidst the quiet.

“How do you know where to go?” little Leopold whispered, as though uncomfortable with the idea of sounding as loud as his sister.

“I just do. This way,” she stated with more confidence than she felt. If her brother had asked ‘how’ again, Tia wasn’t quite sure she would know how to answer him. She couldn’t explain the feeling that had been growing inside her since this morning, the feeling that they were going the right way. With every step they took, the sensation became more and more urgent, like something had been waiting for her to come this way for so long that it simply did not want to wait anymore.

They eventually found their way to an old streambed that had long since turned to a trickle, leaving behind a cavern cut into the soil, held up by a tree’s ancient roots. Their dinner was small, for they were afraid to run out of food, and sleep was fitful and full of frightening dreams about wolves. In the night, the clouds finally released their heavy burden. The stream quickly inundated, since the dry ground was not prepared to absorb this sudden downpour. It was barely dawn when Tia awoke with a yelp.

She had been dreaming of standing on a boat that was sinking into the sea as she looked around for a way to shore. The wet, cold water seeped through her skirts and left her chilled. It felt so real. It wasn’t until the wet feeling became rather uncomfortable that her eyes peeled back and she saw that their cave was half underwater.

With a small yell, she awoke her brother and dragged the half-asleep boy out onto the shore, where the pattering rain continued to soak them through. They stood there, shivering and tired, hungry and wet, uncertain of how their glorious adventure could have turned so sour.

“I want to go home…” little Leopold cried softly, holding onto his sister’s hand for comfort.

With a tut, the equally small Tia pulled him into a hug and pet his head reassuringly. “It’s just a little water Leo… what will the guards at home say when we come back simply because it rained. Don’t you want to be a knight?” she asked, not entirely sure where this strength of character was coming from. She too wanted to go home, to be safe and dry and warm. But there was something in these woods for her, something she had to find, and she knew it would be impossible if Leopold kept trying to go home.

The disheveled boy just nodded, trusting his older sister to know what is best, and allowed her to pull up his cloak and bundle him onto his pony. On the two travelled, following nothing more than Tia’s instinct and a dream of glory. Again, hours passed and the rain did not let up. It was only when all seemed hopeless that a light began to filter through the trees ahead.

The two children pulled up their horses and stared with hope and apprehension. “What is it Tia?” Leopold asked breathlessly, to which his sister only shook her head and lead the way forward. Barely minutes later they stepped out from the trees into a huge glade, filled with an even more gigantic tree.

Leopold pulled up his pony and frowned, disliking the strangeness of it all, while Tia immediately slid from her own mount and began to walk toward the tree on foot.

“Tiiiiaaaa… I don’t think you should go near it… it might be a spirit’s tree or something… Maude always told us not to mess with spirits!” Leo whined.

The little girl only flapped a hand at him in reply, “Oh Leo, you’re always so worried about everything… Maude never actually believed in spirits, she always said they hadn’t been seen in forever! I’m just going to look…”

“Well I’m staying right here… something doesn’t feel right… Tia, I want to go home…” the young boy began to whimper, looking around as a slight chill descended around them.

Tia, however, had just reached the roots of the giant tree and began to inspect it closer. It was beautiful, almost mystical, and it was the source of the otherworldly glow they had seen earlier. The vast tangle of branches created an effective canopy, so it was the only dry spot in the entire forest. It also held the oddest assortment of fruit Tia had ever seen! She squinted up at them, trying to figure out what they were, when her eyes settled upon a pair more beautiful than the rest. A golden one that sparkled like the sun, and a moody grey one that felt like a summer night. They were such a funny shape, almost like little animals!

Everything else in the world seemed to melt away as her eyes trained on those strange shapes. She had to have one… she had to bring one home, to show everyone that she had braved the forest and taken from it one of these magic fruit. With the spry agility of youth, Tia swung up into the tree and towards the dark one that was speckled with glowing turquoise spots, almost like stars. Pulling, it snapped off the branch and she looked at it with childlike greed.

“Tiiaaaa… we should go! Those aren’t ours!” Leopold tried one more time to call his sister back as the cold around him seemed to thicken, but she had eyes for nothing other than her prize. Soon, she turned to look up at the golden one hanging just a little further overhead, and called back, “Stop worrying! I’m going to get you one too…”

Then, just as she was about to close her fingers around the second prize, a scream echoed through the glen. Turning, Tia looked over just in time to see an enormous dog-like creature tearing her brother from his saddle. “LEOPOLD!” Tia cried out, as she slipped out of the tree and onto the ground, jarring her knees on impact. The creature looked up from its kill at the sound of a little girl’s yell, and seemed to smile as Tia ran towards it.

She tucked her prize into her shirt and pulled her bow and arrows off her shoulder. The creature turned and began to stalk towards her, unafraid of this inexperienced human child. It charged, and Tia loosed an arrow. Whether through luck or magic, no one would ever know, but the arrow found its mark in the wolf’s eye. It howled in pain, pulling up short and giving the girl just enough time to turn and hop onto her pony. As she cantered by the snarling creature that was attempting to yank the arrow out of its skull, she leaned over and dragged her brother’s body onto her saddle, leaving behind his slain horse.

Nothing was in her mind but escaping this evil forest. The adrenaline, fear, and exhaustion erased most of the following hours from her memory. She barely remembered riding through endless trees, or being found by her father’s search party, or being carried home as she cried herself to sleep. She was never quite the same after that day.

The family tried in every way possible to reignite the light in the little girl’s heart, but nothing worked. Months passed, and winter came and went. Tia would spend hours in her room, staring at the little deer statue that she had stolen from the forest. There were days when she hated it with all her might, for it had been the reason she left her brother to the jaws of that creature. There were days when she prized it above all else, because it was all she had to remember little Leo by. Sometimes she wished she could smash it, and other time she would spend hours polishing it to a high sheen.

Spring came, and with the change in weather so came another change in Tia’s life. One morning, while she was in the house’s library, she heard a muffled crash come from her room. Jumping to her feet, the little girl dreaded what she would find when she reentered it, imagining a maid standing apologetically over the broken remains of her darling statue.

Instead, what she found was a baby deer, in the exact same colors as her trophy from the woods. Standing over it, Tia was filled with an almost motherly feeling as it bleated pathetically, looking up at her with eyes almost the exact same shade as Leopold’s had been.

At first, her parents balked at the idea of their little girl raising a wild animal in the house. However, upon Maude’s insistence, they saw the fire that the little deer had seemed to reignite in their daughter’s eyes.

Days turned to weeks, then to months and years. Tia had named her new companion Nym, for the night sky he had so reminded her of when she first found his totem. Everyone was willing to look past their strange connection, their love-hate relationship, for everyone had been so worried that Tia would live a broken life after witnessing her brother’s death.

The mixed feelings she had felt while Nym was a totem did not change upon his ‘birth’. She distrusted him, but loved him, hated what had happened in order for her to get him, but loved that he was hers and only hers. They would play, and fight, wander together for hours, and not look at each other for days. As Tia grew from a little girl to a young teen, her deer grew with her. Soon he was big enough for her to ride, and yet sometimes she would ride horses simply to make him pine for her. Sometimes she would push him too far, and he would canter off, not allowing her to sit astride him until she apologized.

Tia was a spirited and wild as he was, and their similarities kept them as far apart as it brought them closer together. It wasn’t until shortly after her seventeenth birthday that their relationship was truly tested. A group of bandits and thieves came unto her family’s estate as she was out riding with Nym. They easily captured her parents, thereby dispatching the guards, and began to ransack the house. So distracted were they by the ease of their victory that they had forgotten to account for the family’s daughter.

At the sight of them in her home, holding her parent’s hostage, Tia lost all warmth she had gotten since that dark night in the forest. All she could see was a band of those dog-like creatures, circling everything she knew and loved. With a sword and bow in hand, and Nym at her side, the two brought down assailant after assailant, until the marble floors were littered with bodies and slick with blood. The thieves ran, images of an insane woman and a monstrous black buck etched into their minds as they made their way off into the night.

That night, Tia and Nym had discovered that they had a common enemy… and that, together, they were unstoppable. While they would never grow close, they were never far from one another, understanding the one could not exist without the other. However, they lived and fought together with ears always perked towards the forest, waiting for the howls of their greatest enemy to call them to battle once more.