Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Where we going? Where we going?" The young child asked continuously, annoyingly, as she pranced some feet ahead and weaved this way and that to purposely strain on the leash that held her. A long serpent's tail flicked and waved with a mind of its own, occasionally flicking the woman's legs behind it.

"I ol'reh'ee told ye-OW! Buggah! Wotch it!" Cursed the black rabbit eared lady. She stopped for a second to rub the stinging whiplash on her lower leg, and felt where the scales had cut some of the fur away but luckily hadn't drawn blood. With her bright hued eyes, she glared at the child's back when she got nothing even remotely close to a "sorry."

Continuing on with the walk, Keres continued to zig-zag as she fiddled with the clasp that held the crimson cloth around her torso. She'd turn it up and down to watch the sun reflect off its golden surface, and then would giggle to herself when it'd turn almost clear opalescent as they walked through patches of shade.

Watching it change colors again, Keres was suddenly jerked to the right and down the path of the Center. With a sharp look she glared up at Rann, but as soon as she looked away, her hostility was changed to curiosity when she spotted a playground and another child. Seeing the cat ears and tail, she immediately yelled out, "MEL!" (for Melchy) in a rather loud voice for someone so young... and then completely ignored Rann's words of "it's not him, it's someone else."

(She wished she could shoot lasers out of her eyes...but that was another topic.)

Keres watched with golden eyes as the kid came closer...but as he did she realized that Rann's words had been true and that this kid wasn't Mel. She saw that he was bigger and had orange and white on his hair and furry parts where Mel only had black. Realizing that she was about to meet someone new in about three seconds, the little sphinx knew that there was only one thing she could do in a time like this.

RIDDLE TIME.

Crossing her arms tightly over her chest, metal arm bands clinking in response, she narrowed her eyes and waited for the kid.

Meanwhile, Rann stood there and flicked her eyes between Keres and the other kid. Tightening her grip on her end of the leash, she offered a smile and a greeting to the cat-kid when he was close enough, "'lo there." She then glanced down and watched the chimera girl, praying that she didn't try some attack stunt.

(( I'll put the answer to the riddle in really small font at the bottom of the post in case you don't get it. It's your choice if you want Taki to answer correctly of not [of course]. ))


Rann bowed her head and smiled again. "I'm Rann, and this is Keres," she said in her accented voice as she nodded down to the sphinx. "Keres say-"

"It stands on one leg with its heart in its head. What is it?" Keres said, interrupting Rann without hesitation. She continued to watch Taki, her stern look not letting up as she awaited an answer. It was the riddle that would decide all, and in this case it decided whether or not Keres would semi-humanely talk and act around the boy... so, to her, and in her mind, to him, this was all very important.

...

Rann just smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. Ever since a few days ago, she'd already asked Rann, Anya, and Isaac riddles... but she had never thought that Keres would actually do it to other people.

"Kereeesss..." Rann growled in warning, but it fell upon deaf and determined ears.

(( A cabbage ))

The sphinx looked at him skeptically, giving a look that showed he was wrong until a second later she raised her eyebrows and gave a clap. A small smirk flitted over her face as she exclaimed almost happily, "you got it!" like that Regis dude on "Who wants to be a millionaire".

In the background Rann sighed and finally relaxed the hand she was holding the leash in. She was about to offer a compliment to the boy, but she soon felt a sharp slap on her leg again. She glared icily down at Keres, who looked back up at her and started speaking before Rann could get in an insult.

"Did I come f'om a cabbage?" She asked in a sly sweet demanding way.

"Ya, an' yew smashed ih'ol up in th' sink."

Keres looked back up at Taki and ignored the last part of Rann's answer. "I came f'om a cabbage. Did you?" (Obviously she hadn't heard that he had...)

Out of everything the other kid just said, all Keres heard was "playground". Call it selective hearing. "I LOVE PLAYGROUNDS!" She exclaimed, golden eyes widening in childish glee. Her gold and brown wings ruffled awkwardly and her serpent's tail swished rather fiercely and spared no kindness to whatever was behind it.

Rann had already given up on answering Taki's question about her accent before she had even begun. With him already having changed subjects and now focused on Keres, as well as his general age, she doubted that, like most others in this Gaia place, that he'd never even heard of Abruna and wouldn't even be inclined to listen to her chatter about it. Moving her gaze from the kids to the play structure, as well as the Center building, in the distance, the Sven's attention was brought back to the little heathen sphinx as her feet from a both a sharp tug on the leash and a thwack of her tail.

"Leggo," Keres said as she looked up at the bunny eared woman. She yanked on the leash again with her tawny hued hand.

Looking down at her, Rann replied, "what's the magic word?"

"Now!"

Rann's eye twitched, but not even wanting to go into an argument, she did what any other parent WOULDN'T have done, and disconnected the leash from the collar around the child's feline body... much to said child's pleasure.

"We go now, Taki!" Keres exclaimed, her blunt demand semi-hidden behind her eager face.

Basically ignoring all that Taki had said, for reasons that may be connected to the fact that he changed subjects and talked way too fast for her young mind, Keres mainly just giggled to herself as she too jumped onto the first landing.

Following him up onto the next platform, she put her small hands on both of the fat support poles on each side of the entrance to where Taki was hanging. Breathing a bit hard, Keres watched Taki in awe as he hung there upside down. She wished she could do that! She then glanced over her shoulder at her tail and curled it a little. ...it was quite prehensile... Maybe she could?!

"How you do that?" She asked and pointed at him inn indication to the whole hanging upside down.

Meanwhiilleee, Rann just moved and sat down on the ground at the edge of the playground's parameter. Hopefully the kid (AKA: her own) wouldn't do anything stupid.

The last question shoved Keres out of her "awe"-staring, which she had obtained when she had watched Taki flip onto the gravel below the monkey bars. She looked from him to her tail behind her as she gave it a twitch. Could she actually hang with it? She'd surprisingly had never tried before, but Anya HAD picked her up by it a couple times...

Glancing back out to the monkey bars again, she wondered, "how do I get on bars, though?" Her head tilted down at her feline feet as she picked on up tentatively. She couldn't reach the metal with just her hands...and knew full well that she lacked the proper coordination to just rely on balancing with her two hind feet and tail (she had already attempted that while one time trying to get something on the kitchen counter).