Welcome to Gaia! ::

If Mary pressed any closer to Sister Ignatius, the two would become one. She tried concentrating on the simpler aspects of this new planet; the crisp winter air, the frost-withered grasses, the tracks of animals in the residual snow. But the pomp and circumstance that was Gaia bled in all around her.

She had been hoping this place would be different -- quieter than Manifest. It was almost worse. She rubbed her face into the Sister's bosom, trying to block out the light and noise that she had hoped coming here would eliminate. She missed the sea and the wide emptiness of the night sky.

Loose gravel skittered under foot and she brought her head up, unconsciously spreading her shawl with her free right hand; using it to steady her course, as a sail steadies a boat. "Careful, dear," Sister Ignatius clucked, squeezing Mary's shoulder and smiling warmly.

Mary nodded, loosening her grasp on her shawl to finger the ever-present locket that hung around her slim neck. She reassured herself that she was meant to be here. She could endure a bit of discomfort; she had done so in her checkered past and the task before her ordained that she would do so again. Mary Celeste squeezed the locket, whispering a silent promise to the pair it held safe, "I will protect you. I will avenge you."

Promise concluded with a prayer, she breathed deeply, gathering her courage, and pushed away from the Sister. She would have to plot her own course. It was time to set sail. She looked about at her crew; ill-fitting though they might be, they were all she had. A young girl, nervously twisting her blouse, flitted about to her right. Her trembling hands belying her happy grin. The other, calm and steady like the sea, made his way with purpose, a halo of stones lighting his way. There was a -- function about him. One she could not ascertain.

Their guardians were there as well, but were somehow secondary to the pair, as bilge hands were to first mates. She made her way closer, wanting to start a conversation, when a sound trumpeted through the sky, shattering the relative stillness that had come upon them. As birds vacated the treetops en masse, the group made its way, albeit trepidaciously, to the front of a large, rambling cottage accented by a dirt path.

The sound echoed again and Mary Celeste strained to find the source. Find it she did, in the guise of a colossal pink plush elephant, barreling its way towards Airi. Mary had almost forgotten about the girl who had brought them all here, so quiet was her passage. With a shriek, the monstrosity lunged at Airi, managing to capture her under it's furry rump. Mary ran to help the girl, despite being pulled away by Sister Ignatius, but skidded to a halt, tears streaming down her face, as Airi disappeared.

"Not again," she whined, shaking her head frenetically. "Not again!" Her personal diatribe was interrupted as the elephant roared and raced towards Sofi, the earth trembling in it's wake.

It was a hell of a time for Vilden Keth to declare that he needed to take a leak. But even he couldn't have foreseen the horror that couldn't have been anything BUT a drunken hallucination.

But as far as Sofi knew, drunken hallucinations didn't affect the sober, and drunken hallucinations didn't affect other PEOPLE, for that matter. And that was where the charging oversized stuffed elephant came into play.

A lock of hair stood straight on end before bending in a point toward the elephant. And before Sofi could warn the others with a "Sofi senses... tingling!", she found herself on the business end of a plush trunk.

"OOF!"

She barely had time to process that the trunk was by far the most COMFORTABLE thing she'd been hit in the stomach with. Her eyes caught sight of the ground above her (or was it below? At the moment, Sofi cared not for such trivial things such as which way was up), and she squeezed her eyes shut and braced for impact.

THUD. And she was airborne again! Another long second passed, and then Sofi met ground once more.

BOUNCE.

And again.

BOUNCE.

And now for the landing-- face first into the dirt followed by a long skid, during which Sofi became intimately familiar with the taste of Gaian soil. Definitely crunchier than Neilani soil, she decided.

She was silent for a long while before finally staggering to her feet, coughing and hacking up what could have been once an entire flowerbed.

"...I..." P'tooh! "...wasn't ready..." Bleah! Bleah! "...Mister Elephant!"

The plaything of a plaything. Shai held the thought only for a moment, watching Sofi tumble and bounce as the golem swept her effortlessly to the side. It was decidedly surreal, but no more so than a life spent on an ever shrinking island. Death was always waiting, and rarely dignified.

Death, however, was just the beginning. It was this belief that held Shai steady, above the currents of fragile mortality that tugged at those around him. It was this belief that led him calmly past the beast, even as it spun and raged.

It wasn't Sofi he was drawn to, though. She picked herself up, as anyone should, and found a handle on the odd situation. Resilient, he thought, and his shards reflected her young dirt smeared face for a flashing moment. Pure.

Mary's fear told a different story. Fear had only one source, a lack of faith. Mary Celeste's faith, it seemed, was crumbling. Shai settled one hand over hers, feeling the white knuckled tension as she gripped the locket tighter.

"Suffering begets suffering." His words were slow, accented with careful pronunciation. "Make...a better choice." With that, Shai raised his other hand...pointing to the beast that galloped wildly towards them. One haunch had split along the seam when it smashed into Sofi, pale stuffing pushing outward, and a thick length of thread flapped and fluttered wildly.

Great problems often had simple solutions, if one took the time to look.

His soft touch cleared the fog that had laid claim to her mind. Her eyes rose to meet his, tension fleeing as she was absorbed in his luminous gaze. Like a sextant, he righted her course; the stones that hung from him pointing the way as surely as the stars ever had. She did not know him, but she trusted him. Leaning on the Sister for support, she stood, taking stock of the situation. There was a... thing she could do, but perhaps it would not be necessary.

She wore no shoes, for they tended to slip on a wet deck. Her bare toes curled in the cold dirt of the path; the stains of century's old blood mingling with the earth. "Make a better choice... Suffering..." Shai's words rung in Mary's ears. She knew suffering, was intimate with it's finer qualities, and much of her life had been dictated by it. "Make a better choice."

They needed tools. Face twisting, Mary tried to picture what Sister Ignatius would have packed. Her dresses, her books on the stars, her mending kit, her... her mending kit! Scuttling from tree to bush, Mary Celeste made her way to where their luggage had been abandoned, wincing at the noises coming from Sofi. Some one had to do something and she couldn't do that, not unless there was no other choice. The girl would have to take care of herself.

Mary dug through her bag, tossing skirts and blouses, socks and underwear, before resurfacing, triumphantly, with a foot-long cherry box. She flung it open, retrieving her scissors and fishing line. Scrambling back to Shai, she handed him the spool, taking the free end for herself. She brandished the scissors and spoke, sounding far more sure of her self than she felt, "If we can catch him, we can stop him. A better choice." She paused and then added to herself, "And if this fails, I shall not let you fall." There was another way, she simply feared to take it.

Sofi was silent a long while, collecting her thoughts and bearings in one fell swoop. Up was down again, and she appeared to be stuck in a Sofi-shaped indentation in the tree trunk. Whether it was by dumb luck or divine intervention that she was able to see the scene in front of and above her remained to be seen. But for the moment, she was safe.

".....Uhhhhhhhhh..." She considered Shai's words carefully. Could she stand? Sure, if she were actually on the ground. Maybe. Perhaps. ...Okay, maybe not for a few minutes. But she didn't want THEM to know that. They had a rampaging elephant to deal with, and Sofi could take care of herself, thank you. So she said the first upbeat thing she could think of. "It is a mystery!"

There were more pressing matters at hand, anyway. Needle? Thread? Sewing supplies? Sofi had an IDEA!

"Make a mouse!" She called. "Elephants hate mice!" A pause, as Sofi pondered that. "Actually, could you make a hamster? Mice are nice, but hamsters go 'tiki tiki tiki' and we could keep it afterward. I don't think Mister Elephant can tell the difference anyway, right?" Another pause to catch her breath. "Wooooh, dizzy."

Shai's hands tightened on the spool. The beast was righting itself, and there was little time for discussion. Some things, however, had to be said. "Mary..." His voice was low, not a warning, but heavy with solemn observation. Perhaps she hadn't seen the girl. Sofi couldn't run, much less take another hit! She hadn't bounced back as he'd hoped, and the luminous Fa'e was reluctant to put her in the path of danger again. "She-"

"I'll hold it." Aki's voice was startlingly near. Shai hunched his shoulders and flexed the golden spokes, bringing two of the dangling stones into view, and glanced at the swinging reflection of his guardian in the not so distant trees. He'd never known angels could move so silently through the woods, but then, Shai had yet to learn the difference between angels and elves. Either way, his heart settled again in peace.

He didn't check with Mary before altering her plan. Tossing the spool to Aki, having faith she would catch it, Shai dropped swiftly to one knee. The ground was shaking again, leaves trembling from the canopy of the dented tree, and that left only moments.

The shards pulled slowly out of the way to one side, lines firming in an almost abstract sweep, and Shai slid one arm around Sofi's dirt clotted waist if allowed. He smiled sidelong at her, eyes narrowed to mute dancing glow he could see reflected upon her smudged face. "We can be bait together. I will help you stand."

Sister Ignatius watched from across the clearing, tossing a fist in the air and yelling obscenities at the giant pink pachyderm, making herself useful as a one woman cheering squad. It wasn't that she didn't want to help, she was just old... and fat, and would more than likely slow everyone down. Waist deep in a bush was a much safer proposition.

It was from this vantage that she watched Mary Celeste dash through the trees, a glittering length of fishing line trailing behind. She made mental note of the girl's ingenuity and breathed a sigh of relief that she would not have to ask Mary to do the thing she feared most.

Mary, having quickly agreed to the new arrangement, positioned herself across the clump of trees from Aki, motioning for the elven woman to ready herself and to hold on tight.

The elephant, limping from the loss of stuffing to its rear limb and having lost sight of the Fa'e trio momentarily, busied itself by smashing its trunk into anything in its path, hoping to unearth the teens and take them out in one fell swoop.

"Now's your chance!" Mary hissed at Shai and Sofi, waving her arm, trying to move them by sheer force of mind.