Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sora stared out at the turquoise shallows of the sea, his gaze tracing the waves and looking for signs of life. Every once in a while, he spotted a school of tiny fish, but they were too well camouflaged to glimpse frequently. The silver of their scales blended with the silver of the sunlight glint on the waves. This was how he spent his days, this was his routine - staring out at the sea while he was supposed to be collecting and cleaning seaweed of sand for their meals. He sucked in the salt air and watched for the sea traders. He liked his life the way it was.

And for the foreseeable future, his routine was ruined.

It had all started when a flutter mare brought a stumbling purple stallion down the beach. His father had gotten so worked up over her appearance that he'd greeted them and invited them to stay for as long as they liked before asking even the most innocuous questions. And so here Sora was, staring out at the sea, collecting another half as much seaweed as he did on a daily basis. It wasn't that he didn't like the strangers - they seemed nice enough, and he was growing accustomed to their presence - it was that they'd upset his routine, and he was surly for it. So he brought himself to the sea to look for some kind of civilization out there, or his singing friend. She had never made an appearance so close to a populated shoreline, but he could hope. They were interesting, those seafolk, fascinating. The others he met all had some kind of trade, unlike his own family, who simply lived off their territory. Theirs was a strange existence.

Sighing, he picked up another piece of seaweed from the beach, blowing the air out of his nostrils to keep sound out of his nose. A voice behind him called his name, and he couldn't help but roll his eyes. Dropping the seaweed on the pile he'd made, he blinked back out at the sun-bright sea. His name came a second time, and he lifted his head to his sister's call. "What?!" he yelled back, fighting to be heard over the roar of the waves.

Delmaria fought down a grin at the irritation in Sora's voice. This had been her purpose. Annoy him enough to make him come back and keep her company while her parents helped the flutter mare tend the stallion's wounds. Not that her father was helping - he was badgering the poor mare with question after question about her wings. It made Del a little jealous. There was no doubt she could fly with those wings, despite her heavy build, which was something that Del herself could not even do. She knew why he asked so many questions, but still... The inordinate amount of questions he paid to any visitor with wings set her teeth on edge. "I'm hungry!" she yelled back at Sora, walking halfway down the beach. "Stop staring out at the sea like a sorry sot and bring the food up here."

Groaning and gritting his teeth, Sora did his best not to glare at his sister. She was trying to push him - she always did. It was like it was her job to mess up his routine. And she knew it was important to him, so she had no excuse that would really make him feel better, like their parents needed him. Nope. She was hungry, and that might not even be true.

Sora reached down and picked up the pile of seaweed sitting on a rock beside him, ignoring the grit of sand in his teeth. The walk up the beach took a bit of talent, carefully avoiding the rocky, barnacle-y patches and sticking to the sand. Falling in an inadvisable place could mean the end of him, and that was why he was so careful about his routine. Nothing bad had ever happened to him because of it, and he liked it that way.

He dropped the seaweed in front of his sister. "Here's your food," he growled. "Clean it yourself. How's Alexi?"

Del smiled at her little brother, reaching over to ruffle his mane with her muzzle. She laughed as he pulled away, half-scandalized. "Thank you, brother," she said, eyes lit up in amusement. Pulling a single piece of seaweed from the pile, she laid it out on a rock brushed free of sand and started working on rolling the sand off the waterlogged plant. "And you'd have to ask them. I'm not keeping good tabs on our visitors at the moment. My head is busy preparing my own food, since my brother seems to have abandoned that duty for today." Her eyes flicked back up in time to see Sora roll his eyes, and Del hid her grin as she went about brushing her muzzle down the length of the seaweed to rid it of sand.

Olivia felt a little flustered at all the questions that Niall was asking her. She could hardly concentrate on her patient with the questions. Not that she minded, not at all...but it was a bit distracting sometimes. She was grateful that Niall and his family had allowed her to stay with them and tend Alexi through his worst days.

Even now, there were moments when his eyes would glaze over and he would become distant. She'd seen it enough to know that it wasn't a wound easily healed, whatever hurting him was more than anything his flesh had endured. Those wounds she could care for, promise to make better--but the mind was a surgery field that she couldn't command. The battle he fought there would be largely his own. But she would offer him a light when she could, if he would take it.

"My parents were flutters. I can shrink. I don't think it works that way for anyone, I mean you can't just shrink your wings or your body. It would be quite the sight though, I do agree." She smiled warmly at Niall before turning to Destati. "Tell me about the problem your daughter has with her wings? They tear in the water did you say?"

Kamila Maluhia found herself on the beach. In her old faith, she had found solace here. Each grain of sand meant something in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow along the way, she had lost that faith like a garment that had become too tattered to wear. It was not exactly wilingly done, not on purpose at all. One day she had awoken to find that nothing in her life made sense anymore.

Something had to change.

She had laid aside her faith and mourned it's loss. It had given her a purpose in life, it had inspired her to be and do great things. The gaping hole that it's loss left behind was not easily filled. It had been a long night of the soul where spiritual darkness had reigned supreme and unchecked.

It was grasping and stumbling in that dark that she had found a new faith, a different faith. And with it came a kind of secret purpose that made the blood in her veins sing a song of adoration.

He'd been standing around for what felt like hours, hovering over his mate and the flutter mare, Olivia, and the wounded unicorn she had brought with her when she had stumbled upon their little family. It was sad, so sad, to see such a creature - a creature that, under normal circumstances, would be powerful and peaceful and whole - brought so low. Alexi had the build of a warrior, there was no mistaking that. But he also had the breed of a healer, and Niall thought that that was a shame, that someone had attacked the poor fellow. Nevertheless, he had questions, and he asked them to keep him occupied while he waited for the next order to fetch some kind of supplies.

"Yes, that would be quite odd," he murmured when Olivia spoke of shrinking only one part of one's body, and then opened his mouth to reply to the question she asked of Destati. "My daughter -"

"Niall." The blue eyes that both Del and Sora had inherited flicked up at her mate. as she cut him off and he fell silent. Destati knew that Del didn't particularly like it when her father talked so much - it wasn't anything he could help, really; it was how he was. Naturally curious, fixated on wings. She was the one that always had to ground him, and it started with when he spilled all the young mare's secrets. She knew Del had several that she kept from him just so he didn't tell them to every stranger with wings who passed through. "Delmaria is part kelpi, which requires her to bathe in the sea every few days. Her wings become waterlogged and stick to her body, which causes tiny tears. The next time she goes in, they sting horribly. The spirits were cruel to her in this respect, though we're happy they brought her to us so we could help her the best we can." She gazed down at the snowy mane of the unicorn beside her, and for once wished she had true wings to offer him some kind of comforting caress. "We are glad the spirits brought you to us, as well," she murmured, mostly to the stallion. "You will be safe here."

Niall bit back the rest of his response, chagrined, when Destati scolded him. He was much better at contributing to the flow of information than he was at restricting it, and that could be embarrassing sometimes. He was that father, the one who embarrassed his kids - at least Delmaria, anyway. Sora seemed rather happy as long as he wasn't being forced to explore elsewhere when he and Destati had a date day or something.

"All of that is true," he said quietly. "There is another branch of Destati's family farther down the beach, too, if you need help between our home and theirs. They are just as friendly. You are still welcome for as long as you like, of course." Part of him mentally cursed himself - he was beginning to stumble over words, just as he stumbled over stones.

Smiling up at Niall as he spoke, Destati nodded. That was the other thing about Niall - for all his talking, sometimes he did say things that she had forgotten to mention. "My parents would welcome you openly if you have need of them later," she confirmed. "But what do you have need of now?" She looked down at the wound in the male's haunch. Something had pierced deep, and though it appeared to have missed organ, bone, and vein, it still looked devastating.

Sighing at his sister, Sora lifted his head back to gaze out at the sea. He was bound to go blind from this pastime someday, he was sure, but for now, he enjoyed it. The warmth of the sea's reflection on his face, the cool wind against his cheeks. But something had changed since he had taken those few steps down the beach: something orange seemed to glow beneath the waves. Almost without his knowledge, he made his way back down the beach, hoping so hard that his chest hurt. No matter how much he professed to not liking to meet new people - and he didn't like to meet new people at all - Sora loved having friends. As long as they planned their appearances far in advance, anyway. Whoever this sea person was, he'd not met them before, which was another cause for excitement: he could learn more about their ways from a different perspective. And despite the fact that it was a new person, the fact that it was a seathi (by size, anyway) outweighed his dismay. "Hello?" he called at the waves.

As she rolled the sand off her sheet of seaweed, Del heard the shift and brush of sand being disturbed. When she looked up, she saw her brother moving back down the beach, and groaned. "Sora!" she grumbled, but before she could yell at him about wanting to spend time with him, something coming down the beach caught hold of her peripheral vision. It glinted gold in the afternoon sunlight, and when she looked at it fully, Del saw the rich brown coat of a stranger approaching. "Ahoy!" she yelled, no doubt alerting her parents and the medic mare and her patient. Sora, on the other hand, didn't let his attention stray from whatever he was moving toward, and Del had to roll her eyes. Of a singular mind, he was. Always had been.

Kamila Maluhia studied the group in the distance, looking for someone she had never seen. But not a one of them matched the description, no one seemed to be the subject of her task. She felt no sorrow for thinking like that, no outrage that her target could have been one amongst this seemingly friendly set of soquili.

She did not judge her task, her service was unconditional.

A mare broke away from the group with wings like soft paper, her body a pleasant shade of blue. She cried out a greeting and shouted back. "Hello!" Smiling warmly, she let her laughter drift out across the beach as she came closer.

Olivia nodded as she watched Alexi, still vacant. "Yes, I think we might be able to make a salve or more like... a goop? I think aloe vera would be best to try first. We'd try to thicken it and apply it before going in the water and after with a less solid kind for nourishment. But if that doesn't work, I'm sure we'll be able to find something. There just has to be if we put our heads to it."

She smiled at Destati. "Well, I think it's possible at least."

She watched the mated couple move in a kind of synchronizaton that bespoke of long years together, as though the other's movements were an extension of their own. Like one being. Her heart swelled at the sight of it but she looked away lest she look too long.

"Yes, this moss will do quite nicely. We use moss because it draws out moisture from the wound and helps to staunch any residual bleeding. Do we have any vines to tie it with?" She couldn't remember if she'd asked before.

"Alexi," she said firmly drawing him back into the living world.