Welcome to Gaia! ::

A giggle escaped the lips of a female Cormini, her blue eyes darting about at all the festivities going on. So many korliyo, so many humans! Oh maybe she could get so much out of this festival besides luck that is. Siria beamed as she skipped over and watched the others play a round of dice before she grew bored with that and meandered over to the pillars. "Choqlehut! Are you seeing all this!?" she called out into the sky over head, her ears flickering and her tiny tuft of a tail bobbing back and forth behind her. She shut her eyes for a moment, maw lifted to the sky as she breathed in the night air before shaking some energy back into herself and darting over to the trinkets table.

Throwing her paws up onto the table, standing on her tip toes, her haze glittered over each and every treasure. She would take one of those, and one of those, and oh yes one of those! Why, she'll just take them all in fact! Beaming her big blue eyes up at the merchant, she attempted to work her 'magic'. Maybe she could get him to give her one... or two of his pretty pretty trinkets.

Yonak's ears twitched sharply as the human said his name. No. That was not right. Not even close. He smiled pleasantly. "Treehna." Now the other one, the one in leather, her fiyuri was marginally better. As Zareth spoke, he let his mind and eyes wander. There was Lughus, setting up his wondrous fireworks. Yonak was eager to see them in action, but politeness kept him where he stood. He turned to Zareth, speaking quickly in a hushed voice. "So like children, they are." He gave a small laugh, his smile lighting his eyes as he nodded to the humans. They were mildly entertaining, but more boring than not. He searched his mind for some of those clumsy human words. English. That was what it was called. "Dahnce, Eet. Earn blessings of Choqlehut."

To Lughus' surprise, he was soon approached by a human girl with a good ear, and tongue, for Fiyuri. "That was positively fluent!" He stated, somehow flattered. "Better step up my game. I know not a word of egglish, haha! ..I said that wrong, didn't I?" As more Corleos padded over to be an audience, he managed to regain some steam. He sighted Yonak over their shoulders, but to Lughus' dismay, he seemed engrossed in discussion- he'd have wanted him to see it! Well, there was always the finale- Nobody could miss that one.

"Hello, good to see you, greetings, oookay. To start with, my name is Lughus, and this is something I call a 'fire palette'. Now before we start, please allow me a short introduction." He gestured to the spread around which people had gathered. "We have all come here from afar in homage to Choqlehut, the god of weakness, braving the coldest days of the year, in the darkest forest of our land. In any tribe, some young children ask: What is weakness so good for, that we take such pains to honor its deity?" In quick succession, three of the points of dust burst into small noisy, sparkling flames. Lughus continued his story. "We usually say: We pray for the weakness of one's prey-" Another flame, a vibrant green, burst into existence- but it proceeded along a line of dust, chased by the first flame. They raced each other along the edges of the fire palette, sparks flying close to the younger corleos sitting up front. "-we beseech that weakness not visit our loved ones-" Four deep blue flames seemed to spiral from four directions onto the second yellow flame, and they all flickered out at the same time. It now became obvious that a chain reaction had begun on the fire palette, a domino effect of flames lighting other portions of the tale and setting it into motion, and each location only staying alight for the amount of time allotted by the amount of powder at that location. "-and we also tell the children that without weakness, there is no strength, just like without fear there is no courage." Two discs of smaller flames, one white, one silver, circled each other in tighter circles until they combined into one golden disc that burned longer. The show was getting more spectacular.

"But Children see the world with fresh eyes, unconstrained by our habits;" the third flame, so far left alone, became several multicolored ones, which broke through another line of red fire then curled around the palette's surface into different shapes as the story continued. "-and so they introduce other points of view. One of my favorites that I've heard of a cub to her parent was, why would a god be happy if we keep asking it not to visit us, and aren't we telling the god we only want weakness around if it makes us have strength? That clever little sidya kept me up all night thinking." He laughed as a red point paced back and forth, a swarm of blue sparks pressing in from around it. "And then it came to me. What there is, really, to celebrate about weakness. My ground dust can be blown away with the slightest breeze- their flames short-lived, ephemeral. Yet, it can be used to tell a story- just like weaknesses can." Slashes sparked across the entire surface of the palette. "Scars tell of battles; our faults tell the story of our lives, and make us who we are. We find ourselves through learning to embrace and accept our qualities and weaknesses alike, to bear them with pride." Colors and sparks embraced each other, spiraling closer and closer to the center.

"In the end, who wants to be perfect? Nobody would need each other. Weaknesses keep us together, just like Choqlehut brings us together today. So, let us say cheers to weakness!" At the center of the fire palette, there was a tube- when the sparks reached it, it lit up. At first, there was a hissing noise... and then suddenly, with some help from Lughus' heat psionics, it rocketed upward before finally exploding below the canopy into the light bloom of a brightly colored firework that lit up the forest a little more.

Lughus coughed, the smoke having drifted into his face. "And that concludes the show." He grinned, waiting for the questions sure to come.

Katerina blushed and was shocked when she was complimented on her Fiyuri. She had never been complimented on it. He seemed flattered and it made her feel better about being here. She had worried that she would be shunned or worse but this guy seemed nice. "Thank you I have been practicing a lot. I wanted to learn the language and it fascinates me." She grinned as he spoke. "A bit wrong but I'm sure I mess up Fiyuri too. If you like I could teach you some english. But if you don't want to learn you don't have to just an offer." She saw the Corleo look over his shoulder and she looked too to see what he was looking at. She saw the guy talking to the humans. She watched as he spoke and began to do things. His name was very pretty and she was interested to find out what the fire palette was. She smiled as he began to explain things. This was one of the things she had come here to learn and it was great that she was learning this without even having to ask anyone.

She gasped again as three points of dust burst into small sparkling flames. She wondered how he had done that. She listened to him speak about weakness of prey as she watched the dust and flames. She watched the green flame and wondered if it was hot or not. She watched it chase the first fire along the line of dust. She giggled as the sparks flew and watched it all. This was amazing. She wondered if she could learn to do this. She heard him as the four deep blue flames sparked into life. She watched them spiral to a yellow flame. She frowned as they flickered out but they had been so pretty. She listened to him continue to talk and nodded her head. It all made sense to her and held a sort of magic within it. The white and silver flames caught her attention and she watched as they circled around each other. And then when they combined into gold she grinned and wanted to reach out and touch it but she didn't.

She grinned and felt like a little kid as the multi colored flames danced around the carpet. She liked what the kid had asked it sounded so wise and just seemed to hit perfectly. She loved all of the sparks and flames. She smiled as the scars seemed to appear. Scars were always interesting and could tell some of the best stories ever. She grinned no being perfect sounded boring and far too easy. No excitement or joy to be found only boring and unimaginative. She clapped and grinned as the spark turned into a firework it was amazing. She looked back at Lughus as she heard the cough. "Are you ok?" She smiled and stared at him. "How did you do all of that? It was amazing."

((May I present Alexis: the skinny, prepubescent tomboy))

Alexis stepped carefully through the crowd of huge muscular beasts, careful not to get in anyone's way, or be trampled underfoot. At first, she'd found it hard to suppress the instinctual fear one felt when surrounded by so many large natural predators. But she was used to it by now. After all, they'd been here for two years.

While their parents didn't speak a word more than 'yes' and 'hello', Thomas was now pretty much fluent. He was only five when they came here, an age when language acquisition was easy. Alexis was not quite as good. It wasn't a matter of skill, really, but a matter of confidence. She understood most of what was said to her, but she never spoke back in Fiyuri if she could help it. She'd rather they think of her as an ignorant human than try and be made fun of.

"Babysitting is the worst job ever." she muttered to herself. Thomas was practically feral now (in her opinion). He didn't listen to anyone, least of all her. "I'm not even getting paid." Not that money would be of much use here.. He had last been seen fleeing in this direction. The forest was dark, so she followed the only source of light and that's how she found herself here. But she seemed to have unwittingly walked into some kind of spiritual festival. Thomas probably knew this was going on, that's probably why he ran away. She wondered briefly if they were allowed to be here, but there were other humans around, so she strode on with a little more confidence.

Now then! This didn't seem like any kind of place for an eight year old to be wandering alone. Alex squinted around in the darkness. It wasn't easy to see with only fire light to look by. Everything was either dark or dazzling. She could see several small outlines. But in this light, she couldn't even tell if they were Corleos or human.

She continued to walk around the clearing, stopping occasionally to glance into dimly lit groups of people for her brother, but nervously hurrying away if anyone began to approach her, until she caught a snippet of Fiyuri that was announcing the start of some kind of display or show and her curiosity got the better of her. The light show was spectacular. She had always loved fire works, even back home. When the show was over, she couldn't help but run to the front of the crowd to talk to the man who

"That was amazing!" she said in Fiyuri, forgetting herself. "You know.." She was going to say more, keen to show off and share her knowledge of human fireworks, but she realized she had no idea how to say (or even explain) terms like strontium or oxidizer. So instead she just smiled sheepishly and glanced at Katerina. "Um, y-you haven't seen my brother, have you?" she asked, timidly reverting back to English. "About this tall, dirty, and a total nightmare." she said (half) joking.

Ngaio

It wasn't long before Ngaio rose to her feet again. Gamboling really wasn't her thing either. The female nodded good luck to those still throwing the bones and drifted off. She was quiet as a shadow. There seemed to be a gathering of humans and corleos in front of the merchant booths. Since she really didn't want to stop there, she smiled tolerantly and moved around. Ngaio found herself between a couple of the pillars. The flames of the bonfire were nice and relaxing. The sound of clapping hands jolted her out of her musing.

She looked around until she saw a corleo in his human form. What was this? Curiosity got the better of her and the shadowy-purple female moved closer. She thought the pattern he'd made with the lines was pretty. The pattern was put aside as the male continued his story. Ngaio startled as three piles burst into sparkles and dust. She oohed softly. As he continued she decided she liked the effect this with powders. The last one flew into the air and left her eyes dazzled. Ngaio was content to remain sitting and watch those around her.

Katerina smiled as she watched the tension leave his shoulder. She was impressed with what he had done. She grinned as he spoke and told her how he had done that. She was fascinated to find out the different chemical reactions these different materials that were smelted had. She wondered if he would teach her. She looked at his wares and felt ashamed of her home made flint. It didn't look nearly as good as the ones he had made. Another thing she would need to learn how to make. "What would you want in trade?" Seemed like it would be fun to trade with him and others here. She looked at the tube it seemed like the one he had turned into a firework. "Is it hard to use heat shanak for you?" She stumbled a bit over the word shanak but managed to say it right. "I am interested they look like fun." She smiled as a girl ran over and spoke she seemed so delighted by the show. Katerina knew how the girl felt.

She listened and smiled at the girl as she heard the english. She frowned and shook her head. "No I'm sorry I haven't seen your brother. How long has it been since you have seen him?" She was worried about the brother but laughed as she heard the description. "Yes brothers can be nightmares at times. I'm Katerina. What's your name?" She turned to Lughus and spoke in Fiyuri to him to translate. "She asked me if I have seen her brother. He is about this tall, is dirty and well I haven't seen him." She shrugged.