Welcome to Gaia! ::

The woods were peaceful and quiet. Overhead a bird chirped in the trees. Perfect, lovely summer day for hiking, camping, swimming, or burying a corpse.

Maybe not so perfect.

The bird overhead have a sudden cry of alarm. There was a noise of some struggle hidden in the leaves, a branch snapping, and suddenly quiet. The bird's song was silenced. All the other birds in the surrounding trees went quiet or very quickly flew away.

There was no immediate answer. Not even the smallest twitch of a twig. Were it not for the lack of birdcalls, the quiet might have been reassuring.

Then, something moved. A dark streak through the trees, so fast it was hard for the eye to follow. It jumped from one tree to another and disappeared.

And then, far too suddenly, it was behind Sunil before she could react with a burst of energy and a gust of air: the largest feien Sunil had ever seen. Tiny sticks of limbs stuck out from the gargantuan mass of the body, so distended the frame seemed dislocated and out of place. The shape of the torso was strange, bulging in odd places. The fein was black in color, with pale white skin and bright hair streaked green and orange. The head was ridiculously disproportionate, a tiny leering face on top of all that mass.

The giant feien opened it mouth. The gaping maw stretched wider than the feien's head, impossibly wide.

"BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURP" went the giant.

Out came a flurry of sticky, gooey feathers flying out in all directions.

The giant feien settled back on his haunches, patting his chest. He seemed smaller now that he had rid himself of many of the feathers. His little stick-legs stuck out towards Sunil. Now that he was smaller, she could just make out the flicker of a tail twitching on one of his sides.

The mouth opened again, but this time in proportion to the face and the black feien erupted into silly, high-pitched giggles. He seemed to be trying to say something, but his amusement at seeing Sunil covered in ugly, gooey feathers was too strong and all he could do was giggle and giggle.

The laughter stopped short. The eyes widened. "YOU IS NOT KNOWING THE GREAT YANVIR?" screeched the voice, and whatever voice the massive frame suggested, that was not it. It was high and squeeky and utterly devoid of any fear-inducing properties.

The Great Yanvir struggled to roll himself forward and jump around, but he was for the moment stuck, trapped in place by the weight in his stomach. He could fly perfectly well (and very, very fast), just not stand up.

Yanvir's little stick-arms pounded against his sides. "What do you mean, you is not hearing of me? I am the GREAT and MIGHTY Yanvir! I is only the most powerfulest feien in all world! Moore powerful than Juli-fooly, Yanvir is! Most powerfulest EVER."

He struggled to reach the gemstone but failed, which was probably a good thing since Sunil was the one who had to hold it. "Okay!" he agreed. "And then me eat you!" He said it so cutely it might have been a joke. Probably it was not. Yanvir waved his hand. "Alacalagazebroman!"

And just like that, the gemstone in Sunil's hands began to grow warm to the touch and lose its physical shape.