Welcome to Gaia! ::

The loud booms were the first to alert Kizzy of the storm, followed by the horrid sound of rain colliding with the window. "NO! No no no no no!" Kizzy forgot her pancakes and dropped her fork on the floor and ran to the nearest window and smished her face up against it.

"Kizzy! What's the matter with you?" Sai picked up the discarded fork from the floor and set it on the table.

"It's doing dat again!" She made frantic and agitated motions towards the window and growled. Walking over Sai put her arms around Kizzy's neck and hugged her close to calm her.

"Sweetie, that's just the rain. The earth needs water that comes from the clouds in the sky. That's how everything stays healthy, and is able to grow. Now come on, finish up your pancakes before they get cold!" Sai ushered her daughter to the table with a clean for and then went over to greet Loki and Maren with a bow. "Welcome to the Inn! My name is Sai, may I help you?"

Despite the crowd, the little girl caught Loki's attention. She was a cute little thing, but she had a very strange outfit, all spikes. Loki wondered why the child's mother would let her wear something so dangerous-looking. Perhaps she was in a play?

She smiled when the mother came over to greet her. At least it was a friendly inn.

"Pleased to meet you, Sai," she said. "You work here? I'm hoping to stay in town for a little while and I could do with a room, if there's one spare. I'm Loki, by the way."

Chiaku followed Cordain silently as he cared for Zeejay. However, when he was finally finished, she realized it was now important to explain to the innkeeper her concerns.

"Sir Cordain, there is a very serious matter at hand," she said softly, hoping that there were no others to overhear the conversation. "We discovered that Zeejay was wounded by human weapons. Astora Village has grown accustomed to attacks from the fae, but humans...? No. We do not know what intentions these people against the village or against Ms. Morato, but we will need to be alert."

Crossing her arms, the governess frowned considerably. "We brought Ms. Morato here for medical attention, and also...I think you will be able to guard her room in case her attackers return. Are you willing to put the lives of people in your inn at risk? If not, we will surely move her elsewhere, but we thought it might be best for her to stay here until she recovered."

Faevan rushed into the house, leading the way and releasing the lock. She held the heavy door open, and watched as Shin cane in from the storm. Looking outside into the swiftly growing darkness, she couldn't find Dio or Sylvia. A bit panicy, she looked outside, squinting through the rain, and saw a light appear in Dio's ranchhouse window. With a sigh, she closed the door, shaking the water out of her hair and removing her coat.

"Where's Papa?" Shin asked quietly, not quite looking at Faevan, a bit ashamed of himself.

"He's at his ranch. I'll take you there after the storm passes, if you'd like." Faevan looked at him, her eyes almost sad, as she fidled through the gloom of the kitchen, looking for her matches. In a quick spark, she struck one, lighting a nearby lantern. "For now, will you help me light the lamps?" She held out a long taperes stick meant for lighting the candles nestled gently in the simple glass cases throughout the house. Shin took one, lit it, and took off into the living room. Faevan caught her breath a bit as she watched him shelter the flame within his palm to keep it lit. She didn't know how flame retardent her little nephew actually was, but he returned safely, the taper blown out, a small film of white smoke drifting up from the charred end.

"Auntie FaeFae?" Shin began, handing her the tpaer and seating himself at the table. "I'm...I'm sorry I yelled at you today." His long fingers trached the woodgrain about the table, keeping his eyes busy.

Faevan took a chair beside him, taking his hand in hers and tilting his chin up.

"Shin, I'm sorry too." She brushed a leaf out of his eyes, smiling softly. "I'm not very good at this guardian thing. I don't ywant to replace you're Papa, you know that, right?" She waited until he finished nodding, and continued. "Shin, you have to understand one thing. Things were...different, when it was just your Papa and I. We lived here long before the other villagers came, when the Fae were still deep in the forest and didn't live in the village..."

"Do you not want us here?" Shin asked, his green eyes looking worried.

"Oh, no no no!" Faevan hushed him. "Your Papa and I love you. But the Fae in the forest are different from you and the other children. They can be..." She sighed and got up, disappearing into another room and returning with a tattered book. "Some of this is missing, but what you need to know is here." She slid the book onto the table, resting her hand on the worn leather. "This belonged to your great, great grandmother. Her name was Sylvia."

"Just like my sister?" He asked, and grinned impishly. He liked the sound of that. His sister.

"Yes. She was named after her." And she also lived here during a time when the Fae lived a lot closer to Astora. Now, I know you can't read this now," She looked at him, her eyes looking conflicted for a moment, "but maybe you can start once you learn a bit in school? If you're going to learn history, I think you should learn your own too."

Shin simply looked at Faevan, blinking a few times before launching himself into her arms.

"A blackout is when all the lights turn off and everything stops working..." Paine explained to the fae. It was hard defining a blackout to Kizzy, since her life was all about details. If she explained what a blackout was, she might confuse Kizzy, leaving more questions to be answered by the girl. "A blackout usually occurs once in a while...if the weather is really bad." she continued. She pondered the statement. "Weather....hey Kizzy, did that fae in Carol's arms really change the weather?" Paine asked. She didn't know the green haired fae's name yet, but she would ask Carol later. "Maybe you should make him change the weather again" she joked.

Paine's mind was all blurry. Her mind was dense with thoughts of a new outfit for Carol. After all, Carol did request it didn't she? She asked her to create new outfits for them, right? But what did Carol look good in? Maybe a few more investigation of the girl's personality and style would be better. She wanted to create clothes for her new friend, but..she wanted to create something that Carol would like.

Paine was just about done with her pancake, and got up and carried some dishes to Carol. "So, your fae's name is Kapono? What a nice name..." Paine said, setting down the dirty dishes by the others. She eyed the dishes that Carol was rinsing. "Need some help?" she offered. "An artist is good with art, but also good at cleaning up messes..." she remembered the times she was so into her art, she created a huge mess on the floor, cleaning up the floor for some time before it was sparkling clean. She sighed. "the old times....oh, sorry, dozed off again, anyway, need help?"

"Yeah, I'm currently staying at the inn for now. I got to go see uh...Lady Chiaku is it? to see if I can really stay. I got a small room for now, but I haven't been able to sleep or stay in it, since there was a little, uh, emergency I had to help out with." Paine said, grabbing a plate. "How long have you been here Carol?"