Welcome to Gaia! ::

The walk back to his house was no stroll in the park. With the rain pouring and his pants went to his knees, he wasn't comfortable. He could hear the squish of his foot to the sock and to the sole of his shoes. He held the box with his scented oil in one hand and his umbrella in the other. His house was right around the corner, so he picked up his pace before he was coated in rainwater up to his knees! He fumbled for his keys as he stepped up onto his doorstep. He swung his door open, jumped in and closed and locked the door behind him promptly. After placing his umbrella open to dry, he sighed to himself and called out into the empty house, "home, sweet home."

He placed the box on top of the already cluttered shoe cupboard and sat onto the step of hardwood before pulling off his shoes. Underneath revealed his socked feet that were soaked to the bone. He pulled off his socks and slipped his feet into a pair of warm woven bottom slippers. He picked up the box from the cupboard and began to head up the stairs of his narrow town house. The large room was illuminated by a light attached to the ceiling when he flicked the light switch on the wall near the door.

Anthony, although he lived alone, didn't like silence in the house. "hmm... Maybe I should take a bath tonight." He said to himself as he began pulling off his wet clothes. He was about to step into the shower, but then realized that he had a new scented oil. Maybe he could use it to relax. He turned the water to the hottest setting and let it fill the tub before he ran out to get the scented oil, a tea light and a lighter. He gathered all of them quickly and ran back into the bathroom before the water overflowed out of the tub.

The tub was about halfway full when he returned. After setting everything onto the counter, he took out the metal stand, the glass cup and the oil marked 'Butterfly Flower'. He carefully poured the oil into the glass cup so that it filled almost full. He set up the metal stand and placed it on top of it. He lit the tea light and placed it under the cup. Smoke didn't immediately rise up from the cup, but he could already smell the overpowering scent of green fields and playful scents.

He stopped the flow of water, stripped off his towel and dove into the filled tub. He poured in some bubble bath and stirred it with his hand. This was the life; relaxing in a tub with fresh scents floating through the air and no one bothering him at all. His eyelids drooped lower and lower as the minutes ticked away. Not before long, he was fast asleep in his bubbly abyss.

What felt like minutes for Anthony was in reality, a matter of hours. His body sent out a chill as he found himself sitting in icy bathwater. The bubbles from the bath solution had already all popped and made his water a foggy mess. He stood up and tried to grab his towel from the rack. His arm wasn't long enough and it slipped right into his foggy bathwater.

After pulling it out and throwing it into the sink, he pulled the drain plug, closed the shower curtain and rinsed off all of the bubble bath as well as any dirt that was still on him. He got out quickly after warming up with fresh water. with his towel soaking, he grabbed his face towel and dried himself off as well as he could.

He looked over at the scented oil. The smoke seemed to form different shapes that that of normal smoke. instead of drifting off and disappearing, it was drifting right above the oil. It also wasn't the conventional grey either. He looked a bit lower and the tea light was half out, but the oil didn't seem to evaporate much if any had at all! He tried to blow out the candle, but the scent was too captivating. It wasn't as strong as when he had smelled it straight from the container and it was quite invigorating. He got dressed and took it with him into the main room. He set it near the middle of the dining table and let the scent fill the house.

He took another deep breath. Perhaps having some nice smelling oils around the house was a good idea after all.