Welcome to Gaia! ::

The shop was unusually quiet that day, and not many people were around. Huni was in the kitchen, thankfully not blowing any appliance up. Ning was hiding in Linneas' room along with her bonded, a little afraid to venture out into the scary, 'dirty' shop.

The Study door creaks open, anxiously hoping for someone to enter.

Brenner opened the door to the shop quietly and entered, shaking the snow from her boots. There was no one about, and she wandered through the shop, browsing idly. She was thinking of maybe buying some nice antique stationary.

The open door to the Study caught her eye. Maybe they kept the rare stuff in there? Curious, she slipped through. She was disappointed at first by the rows of books. Nothing too interesting after all. There was a desk, though, with what looked like writing instruments on it. Perhaps she'd find some nice stationary there.

Brenner walked to the table and looked it over, feeling a little disappointed. The paper and writing utensils on its surface looked like they belonged to someone ... not for sale, and even if they were, not to her taste. But there was something else, too. A fat, leather-bound book sat on the table. She ran her fingers over its ancient surface thoughtfully. She couldn't have said why, but there was something... compelling about the old book.

The Tome seemingly shivered at Brenner's touch, as if it enjoyed being stroked. And once the Study was sure the woman was preoccupied with the Tome atop the writing table, the door slammed shut and an audible click of the lock sounded.

The slamming easily caught Huni's attention, and muttering a few expletive beneath her breath she hurried to the Study. Seeing it locked, Huni just thought she had left the door open and a draft of sorts slammed it shut. "Yeah, that must be it..." she murmured, returning to the kitchen to try and salvage what appeared to be coal-colored brownies.

The Tome allowed itself to be eased open by Brenner, if it had a face it would have smirked at the woman's reaction to its blank page. Eerily, the pages trembled as words seemingly written by an unseen hand began to appear:


<center>Who built them?</center>


The Tome seemed to ask as a pen rolled out from inside the Tome onto the table. The book vaguely thought to itself it needed a new gimmik for the next 'Author.'

Brenner stared in wonder as the words appeared on the page. The pen rolling to a stop beside her hand didn't even register in her mind. She rubbed her eyes, expecting to see them fade away. They remained, silently asking their strange question.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she muttered. "Who built what?"

She stood frozen for a few minutes, and then slowly, in a sort of daze, picked up the pen. She carefully wrote out a response, not even knowing why.

<center>"The one that fell from the stars."</center>

Carefully, Brenner set down the pen.

The lights continued to burn steadily throughout the entire shop, save for within the Study. Inside the sealed room, the electricity seemingly died, but oddly enough, faint points of light like a constallation was painted upon the ceiling.

And slowly, the stars began to descend. One particularly large glowing ball landed on the table, setting the original tome aflame. And once the fire burned away, the lights came back on.

Instead of ashes, a reptillian child lay curled around a tome that was different from the first one. In his arms was a crescent pillow as he gazed up at Brenner.

Awed, Brenner watched the "stars" descend. The tome bursting into flame startled her out of her stupor and she leapt aside with a cry. She stood pressed against the wall, shocked, wondering if she should try to run and get help.

But as suddenly as it had started, the fire vanished. The lights came back on, and the study seemed exactly as it had before... except for one tiny difference. Not quite believing her eyes, Brenner stepped forward.

A strange child, part snake and part human, lay on the table top, clutching a pillow in his arms. She looked at him, transfixed. It did not even occur to her to be afraid.

"Hey there, little guy," she said softly, reaching out a hand.

The snake boy reached up a chubby hand and patted her wrist. It was hard to tell, but it looked like he was smiling. Brenner smiled back, charmed. She gently scooped him up, holding him against her chest. He snuggled into her, tightly clutching his pillow. It was only then that she noticed the new book on the table.