Welcome to Gaia! ::

In the afternoon, there had been a thunderstorm that had poured down rain for an hour or so, and afterwards, the grass had been wet and the air had smelled fresh and perfect in a way that Naeria couldn't quite describe. Of course that evening, she'd gone out to see if any new mushrooms had sprouted in the aftermath. They loved this kind of weather.

She'd been looking in one of the alleyways where she often found some growing.

She was not, however, expecting to find one that big. It was spotted like an amanita, but the shape was all wrong. It was wide at the bottom, and very round, and it had feet.

Eyes, too, she saw, as it turned around to stare at her, and then smiled, revealing a row of sharp teeth.

Fascinating, she thought as it started to waddle towards her.

Chaos, Naeria heard, just in time, and then she jumped back just before the creature jumped forwards, chomping its sharp teeth right where her face had been.

A youma. That conclusion fit with the evidence about it that she had observed so far. Now that she was looking at it, the small eyes seemed to shine with malice. Naeria scrambled backwards some more, reaching for her gun.

"Apologies," she muttered, glancing sideways at the woman who had arrived. "It is difficult to, um. Tell the difference between these and the native, um, species." Her voice went quieter, nervous about the way the woman was asking about what she was.

She couldn't find the voice to answer that question. If she answered wrong, would she be attacked? If she didn't answer, would she be?

She fired a bolt at the youma, at least not wanting to be attacked by that

"From Velencya," managed Naeria, but that was all the words that she could muster in the current situation.

Even with the youma's sharp teeth, trying to squish it seemed violent, and hurt her heart. She knew that things like this were complicated, though.

She thought about the invasive species of bugs that she'd found in the woods with Gabby. She thought about what Lyndin had said, after revealing that he'd been working with the Negaverse. He thought that it was Chaos protecting Earth from the outside forces more than anything else was.

Then she thought about the youma digging those teeth into Andreyia, or Portabella.

With a small determined noise, she jumped on it.

“We’re researchers,” she managed, as she caught her breath once the youma burst into dust. “Looking for ways to help our world. I am, um,”

Introductions? Was that what they were doing here?

“Naeria,” she said, and nodded. She did not add any other Earth pleasantries, because she was aware that the other woman was not from Earth.

Instead, she glances at the pile of dust by her feet.

“Thank you,” she said, “For warning me.”

Chaos had destroyed her world?

Naeria put that information with the other facts that she had considered over the last few seconds. It did not seem false. She was not a historian, but she knew some things.

She did not know that she always trusted Lyndin's information, even now that the had reconciled somewhat.

She did not say any of that to this woman, though, this stranger.

"I will be, um, careful," she managed.

And then she was slipping away back towards the house.