Welcome to Gaia! ::

Shaka listened to the stories coming from the mainland about Yealian monsters on the loose and wished it’d happen here. The traders and tamers with the captured beasts tended to come through Matori on their way to Yeal since it was one of the safer paths to Yeal… and by safe he meant less likely to take over a day and get hit by a storm or dragged under by currents.

Later he left the market place to return to his house and work on building a better home for Oltia. She was being picky and really didn’t like sharing her space with Bumi: Shaka knew he should stop spoiling her and get her used to it.. But Bumi was toxic and if bitten by an angry Trotter the Trotter was more likely to die. Which Shaka did not want in the least: he’d spent forever to get Oltia marginally trained!

So here he was: making a home for his picky Trotter to keep her from getting sick by biting the toxic Bumi. Bumi was simply happy to have a barn with comfy straw to sleep in and a large rock outside to sunbathe on. Oltia apparently had to have walls and wanted fancy stuff. Thinks she’s people, Mynshaka thought with amusement. I have a house and real bed, therefore she has to have one!

He stepped back and looked at his work. It was mostly just a simple lean to with woven palm fronds into shades about the sides and front. The sides he tied down with rocks and planted some plants about the edges so she’d be comfortable and feel fancy: the front was weighted with rocks so it would hang and not fly off in the wind but could easily be moved when Oltia came and went. Nodding happily to himself he went to go grab extra straw from the large barn to fill up the bottom of her “bed.” A simple pit dug and cleaned out and was to be filled with straw then a coarse blanket to be added since she was too much a princess to settle for less.

As he was fetching the straw he heard something moving about inside of Bumi’s nesting area. He put his burden down and went to investigate; it better not be rodents. He thought to himself; pests that ate food and always tried to invade his house after they made Bumi’s home into a stronghold!

He crouched down at the edge of the straw and waited till he caught sight of whatever was moving. He grinned and dove into the straw, broad hands grabbing whatever was moving beneath the straw.

To his surprise his hands didn’t feel fur or scales: it was a shell. A rather large one. He hoisted it out and stared at what to him looked like a tiny bushi.

“Hey there lil guy.” He said softly. Had Bumi had kids? Nah… not possible.. Bumi was a guy! And there hadn’t been any eggs in here last week when he’d cleaned it out. And this thing.. It had not neck! The small head poked out and stared at him before diving back inside the safety of its shell.

“Ye got some grass on ye.” He remarked and tried brushing off the plants embedded in the shell.. They didn’t come off and he raised an eyebrow. “Maybe tis supposed to be there? Though they’re gonna die iffn ye go swimming.” He told the creature as he held it up.

“Ye dun look liken a real bushi.” He muttered. “Shells got the wrong look… no markings or color…. And those plants ain’t from bout here.”

His mind went back to one of the creatures he’d heard about from the traverls; a creature that was moving land…. This sorta looked like that? More like a moving small window garden; he thought wryly. Moving land makes ye think big and slow and rocky. Not cute and flowery.

“Ah’ll keep ye. Cal ye Flower.” He told it affectionately and took it out with him; leaving the finishing touches of Oltia’s home in favor of playing with his new creature. And to get it used to his animals. Hopefully Oltia wouldn’t use it as a chew toy!