Welcome to Gaia! ::

Being surrounded by so many signatures was a foregin feeling, especially when they were of the opposite faction and literally living next door to them.

For several months Laven and Wolframite had been living in the barracks with other officers, foot traffic and murmured noises were common as were the occasional shouting. All sounds that were impossible to ignore with the thin walls that separated them but eventually, after a year, it had turned to a white noise she could expect.

But then the house they were rebuilding was complete and she was able to say goodbye to the tiny room and reclaim some semblance of normalcy to her unusual life, even if it meant that the sun would never shine through her windows. Still, Lavendulan could imagine it if she tried hard enough and could ignore the purple hue from the crystals.

However, this place was buzzing with activity; mostly people who had given up trying to figure out why they were here or how to get out, like the group of juveniles off playing King of the Hill.

She wasn’t sure what was worse, the clawing sounds made in the evening house of the monster trying to break into the houses, the screams of those being taken. Perhaps this mysterious fog that caused intense hallucinations or simply knowing your enemy was only a few feet away and in a bout of insane madness might try killing them in their sleep, they were half youma afterall. Wouldn’t be long now until someone blurred the lines between her and her boyfriend with the beast that is kidnapping, possibly murdering, people.

Laven needed away from all of them, to reach a place where she could settle her nerves and just think for a while, perhaps find more of those talismans or chunks of metal.

Oh how time passed when the sun was hidden behind a veil of fog and there was nothing to track the time with. The only tale tale sign that dusk was approaching was when the air began to rapidly cool and a mist from the outer reaches of the forest began to crawl its way towards the village.

“Not today…” She said calmly yet cooly as the last random piece of metal she found was stowed away in her subspace pocket.

There was magic in the fog that coiled around her feet but she was quicker in her water form and rather than wait to see if it still had an effect on her Lavendulan shifted. Her body became almost transparent but it held shape as she sprinted between trees and through shrubs, not caring that the stationary objects passed through her and certainly not paying any mind to the Order signature up ahead.

Vivid red in a forest of green and misty grey hues. The knight was not easy to miss and while it would have been easy enough to avoid the swing, the most direct path back to the village was straight ahead.

His swing went wide and like the branches and limbs, the squire’s weapon passed through her with no resistance, just the sensation of cool water flowing around the wooden gavel and part of his hand.

Lavendulan skid to a stop several feet ahead of him, out of range from another melee attack but if he threw it, she’d have enough space to dodge. She held her hand out and above her palm a ball of water formed, “Trust me when I say I have no qualm leaving you out here for that beast to find.”

Her arm extended out towards him and the orb flew through the air at a tendril of fog that was creeping up his backside and over his shoulder. It was obliterated in a puff of white but was taking form again. “If you want to live, I suggest you stop walking quickly and pick up the pace.” She didn’t need to be the fastest person in the forest, she just needed to be faster than him at least where the monster was concerned, however, Laven was sure that the fog wouldn’t stop once it got him.

The time remaining on her magic waned and in seconds her form solidified, the orb of water dissipated and there, in front of him, she stood in her usually black uniform with cyan trim. Pale white skin that was tinted a lighter blue along her arms and near the edges of her scales. Her pupils were pulled into thin slits, focused like a feline.

He moved past her and she glared at his back.

“Such a self righteous p***k…” the words fell from her lips before she could stop them but the audacity of his statement begged for a reply. “I didn’t need to say anything to make you hate me. We were enemies before you took a swing at me simply because I exist.” It was in his nature as it was in hers to want to reach into his chest when his back was turned and rip out that starseed of his. Maybe, the beast might accept it as an offering and let her, and Wolframite, go.

A tempting thought to consider but her more human nature venomously rejected the idea.

Fog condensed and swirled around her ankles which prompted her into motion again. “Chances are you were probably out here looking for an opportunity to kill me anyway.” He was of a similar strength to the Captains and because of Wolframite, she knew that he sensed her long before she sensed him.

“I don’t give a s**t if you die out here.”

Once more her form shifted back into the one he had originally seen and without waiting for a, no doubt, assholish remark; laven ran past him. She wasn’t looking to have a conversation nor was she expecting an apology for trying to kill her, honestly she wanted nothing from the squire.

Not once did she look over her shoulder to see if the fog had overwhelmed him or if he wizened up and started running