Welcome to Gaia! ::

Naeria was paying attention to the dots on her ComTech that showed her when people with magical auras were around. Often, it was something she didn’t think so much about, but now that she was making friends, she wanted to see if she could find some of them again. She still had questions for some of them!

From watching the dots, and moving towards them, she managed to find one of the humans. She had not known from the dots, but it turned out to be the knight with the nice name, Targovishte.

“Hello,” she said, waving. She was getting good at waving. “I was hoping to see you. I was wondering, can we look at Jupiter?”

When the knight got too close to her, into her personal space, Naeria took half a step back out of the way but did not say anything else about it. She knew there were some other Earth greetings, but she preferred waving over any that involved much touch with near-strangers.

Targoviste sounded almost embarrassed about the state of Jupiter, and if anything that made Naeria more curious about what she would find there.

“I know it is not your fault if some things are broken or not growing,” said Naeria. “Things have not been going well on most planets over the past thousand years or so.”

She reached out her hand, slowly, since she knew contact would likely be needed for this. “But let’s look at what is there.”

It was slightly damp, and there were ruins around them, but she did not mind that. After all, places like this had many shady spots for finding mushrooms, and also different plants, or other fungi and lichens. The rest of the structures made her wonder about the history of this place.

“I like Jupiter,” she announced.

The butterfly had her smiling, watching its flittering movements with her wide, golden eyes. “And look! There is some life here!”

Immediately she was pulling out her ComTech, scanning the biological makeup of the butterfly and then taking a picture.

“Let us see. What can we find out about your species?”

“Carbon based life form,” Naeria said, looking at her screen. “Scan indicates a similar, but not identical, chemical makeup to Earth invertebrates. More testing would be needed for a more detailed result,” Naeria glanced at it, fluttering freely now a bit farther away, “But I won’t try to capture it.”

What Targovishte said next had her eyes sparkling.

“Underground?” There was more of a chance to find mushrooms down there. Or maybe slime molds, or algae, or some kind of plant that did not follow the rules of Earth biology and that could thrive away from light. “I would love to look there. I do not mind the damp.” She was smiling. “Some of my favorite species thrive in conditions like these.”

“Living underground in harsh environments is a good idea to keep safe,” said Naeria, following closely behind the knight as she led her down the stairs. Was that an idea that she could take back for Velenia? Unfortunately, it might not be, because the larger problem there was not just weather conditions as far as she knew but many factors that made living there impossible.

“Have you seen any life down here?” she asked, looking at the beam of the flashlight. She tried to not look overly excited as she said, “For example, mushrooms?”

Naeria did not see any mushrooms either. She could accept that, though. Sometimes you did not find certain species immediately, and this underground living area might not have been the proper environment for them, after all. She typed a few notes on her ComTech as she walked.

"I would like that," she said, "To hear updates about what you can find up here."

It was good to hear that she was so invested in fixing this place, as well, and to restoring the life to it as much as she could. Earth was beautiful, but it would be better if there were more thriving places in the universe.

"And I can help, too. When you have set aside more time." Looking at the pile of rocks, she could see that clearing it would take time and probably tools. "But I could help with something like that. Or, cleaning. I have been practicing cleaning."