Welcome to Gaia! ::

((I figured... but I am pondering making Dalziel a 'late bloomer' in the talking category xDDDD))

Dalziel was frozen in place. Too much attention.... from his Mama, this other large lady, and now another baby. It was all getting to be too much! His world was crashing around him, and indecision was aparrent.

Echo took the response as a tolerance. He hadn't dug himself in her shirt again, so maybe this was progress. With a gentle smile, the woman shifted her weight and slowly, ever so slowly so he couldn't change his mind, knelt down so he could play with Bumble and the gray infant.

His bum was just about to touch the floor when Dalziel broke out of his stupor. The young child screamed and terror, and turned back to Echo. He grabbed on to anything he could.... one hand clutched her wrist, and dug in with impossible strength as his non-formed clawes broke her skin; the other caught a handful of hair, and pulled it down with him as he tried to climb back up.

Water blurred her vision as pain shot through her wrist and hair. Echo, though small for a grown woman, had to roll uncomfortably to avoid collapsing on the group in front of her.

Dalziel was still shreaking and crying out as Echo fell, and centered right on her chest after letting go of her wrist -the hair was still captive. There, he whimpered and cuddled in close, trying to block out the horror and pain of the world.

Meanwhile, Echo layed on the ground, stunned. "Ouch... that really hurt..." she croaked and rubbed her forehead with her now-freed hand which was still throbbing. She hurt to much to be embarrassed from that rather... intense scene.

Hailey rolled backwards onto her diapered butt and then to her back as Bumble stood up. She giggled with glee at this new game and began to get up to jump onto Bumble (not so gently) when she realized that Bumble was not playing with her. He was making weird noises.

Hailey giggled at this new game and got into crawling position and began copying Bumble, hissing with a "t" sound as spit came out of her mouth. Shrieking and crying was nothing new as Kendra often was counseling humans with babies. Symphony often made shrieking noises when she did not have something she wanted but Hailey had never heard a hiss. This was a fun new game.

Bumble was confused by these creatures. They smelled funny, they made strange noises and they didn't behave like any other humans he had encountered. With a wail he scrambled to security on Annchen's shoulder.

Annchen swayed but managed to keep her footing at the demons sudden move. She didn't like it when Bumble decided to climb on her, but she hadn't managed to break his habit.

"Down Bumble," she demanded, "I'm a person, not a tree, and I can't carry you around like that."

Bumble didn't look convinced and her shoulders started to ache from the unfamiliar weight. Annchen pushed gently and after some prodding the stubborn creature jumped down, looking disgruntled.

As she sat down the demon followed her and settled in her lap. He was nearly going cross eyed from trying to keep an eye on both Dalziel and Hailey at the same time. Annchen sighed and ruffled his fur.

"You're a very silly boy Bumble," she said and smiled, "Did the kids scare you?"

((I'll be back Sunday or Monday. Just keep going anyway... Annchen will sit with Bumble for a while and if any of the kids tries to approach him he'll just climb higher on his human/tree/fortress. Annchen will not be amused if Bumble tries to find safety on her head.))

Echo was trying to get the baby to release her lock of hair when the gray child crawled up onto the couch. For a moment, she wistfully wished Dalziel was much the same: curious, independent, mobile. Instead he seemed the complete opposite: needy, afraid of everything, and clingy. The boy didn't want to do anything on his own, and his attitude worried Echo.

When the girl started to talk - introducing herself - Echo was finally able to get her hair free. She was quiet, and watched carefully, willing Dalziel to do something nice and not make a complete scene again.

As if he heard her wishes, Dalziel turned his tear-stained face and looked at Hailey once again. His golden eyes stared into her's, intently - like a cat, ha! After a long moment, the infant sniffled a last time. He cringed into Echo once but then took an audible breath as if he were steeling himself for the encounter.

Then, with Echo's heart in her throat, Dalziel shifted so that he was kneeling on the woman's thigh, clutching her shirt - this time for balance and not out of fear.

The boy could speak, but he made a gurgling noise in his own kind of greeting.

Bumble was glad to get outside and after a good roll in the grass he discovered the pool. He went absolutely still, and the only thing that moved was his tongue flickering out to taste the air. Before his human could do anything about it he was running towards the water and jumping in with a huge splash. Very pleased with himselfe he swimmed several laps.

Annchen wiped the water from her glasses but didn't bother with the rest of her clothes, they would dry soon enough. She knew that Bumble wasn't afraid of water, since he hadn't been bothered at all when the huge water fight made it a very damp business to try move more than short distances outdoors, but she had no idea he loved it this much.

Eyes watched the mini demon running around the yard, following him carefully. Hide...observe...then POUNCE!!! The eyes went wide as the mini demon jumped in the pool. The guardian looked unconcerned and the other mini demon began swimming. If he were going to act, now was the time. From the patio, Symphony skittered from table to table, hiding, peering and moving on. All that was left to cross was the concrete before he had his prey. The mini demon was coming towards this area. He poised his tail over his head so that it skimmed the floor in front of him (he found this the best way to place it when hunting. Wait..Wait...patience. One...two...three!

Symphony ran top speed across the concrete area around the pool. Run run almost there! As he was running Symphony went to put his right foot down, but stepped on his tail! Unable to put his other feet down and moving too fast Symphony howled in pain and flipped head over tail head over tail across the last few steps he had, and into the pool, missing Bumble by multiple feet.


Hailey smiled at Dalziel and reached out her hand to touch his. She let out a high pitched giggle as their fingers brushed.

Dalziel flinched back when Hailey giggled, the sudden noise frightening him a bit. He cringed back just a little, pulling his small hand back. It looked as if the infant was going to hide in Echo's shirt again, until he noticeably uncurled and then went back out to the woman's knee, clinging to the fabric there as he got closer and closer to Hailey.

The boy reached a tentative finger out, to try and poke Hailey's nose. He reached back to his own face, poked his nose and then reached again to Hailey's.

Echo watched, perfectly still so as not to interrupt. She was so happy, her eyes were starting to mist... but this time out of pride instead of pain.

Dalziel was enjoying himself, playing some kind of game that only he and Hailey knew about.

Echo was confused, to say the least. She was watching quietly as the infants were pointing back and forth. What were they doing?

Her stomach decided at that moment to grumble. It interrupted the infants. Dalziel jumped where he sat and the crawled back to Echo, as if the new noise was from some other external thing than his caretakers stomach.

As Echo wrapped her arms around Dalziel, a smile on her face and a chuckle on her lips, the woman looked at the young child. "Hailey?" she looked to the girl child. "You wouldn't happen to know... when the luncheon was going to begin? I'm afraid I'm pretty hungry."