Welcome to Gaia! ::

:: Prompt 3 Reply - the Okapi ::

A storm. A majestic storm in the begginning of the night and the ending of a beautiful summer day. The weather those days was changing really fast. Mother Nature was angry for some reason. Lately the humans didn't really care about Nature's feelings but the should have. After all she gave them all of her fruits and vegetables, gave them shelter and gave them the weather that helped them raise their children.

A huge lightning struck from the dark grey clouds and hit the ground. Achak's light blue eyes sparkled. The little dequ shivered. The weather became from sunny and warm to quite cool and with piercing wind. He looked at the sky. Small reflections of lightnings were on the edges of the clouds. The dark grey clouds fused perfectly with the light blue shades of the lightnings. A rather loud thunder was heard nearby and brought back Achak to the reality. The storm was getting bigger and bigger. The young dequ had to find a shelter and fast.

He was in a forest which protected him a little bit from the strong rain but it was still cold and Achak was scared of the thunders and lightnings. Especially from these which were nearby and they were many. Finally he spotted his salvation. A deep and dark cave. Now all he had to do was make sure that there isn't anyone in it. He hoped with all his heart and soul that there weren't any big scary monsters in the cave. He entered the cave carefully. "Hello?" his voice echoed back in the cave. "Yes? Yes, who's here?" a reply came from a voice which sounded pretty scary. The dequ gulped. What was he to do now. He decided it was better to stay in the cave with the possibility to get eaten by a big and scary monster than die struck by a lightning so Achak grabbed all his courage and went deeper. "Where are you?" the voice was heard once again. "Right here!" the dequ answered. It seemed that the voice wasn't coming from far away and when a lightning hit the ground and lit the cave the dequ saw that he was talking to another one of his kind only a bigger one. What a relief Achak felt when finsing out that his monster was just a dequ! They talked a little and it seemed that the other dequ was really friendly and kind. After the hard day Achak had it was best for him to go to sleep earlier than usual that night. He was exhausted. Though the storm was outside it was a beautiful night for sleep and so the little dequ did.

The morning came. Birds were singing outside and the sun was starting to shine with its orange and red beams. One of these pesky beams entered the cave and landed right on Achak's eyes. "Mmpppph" he said sleepily. He opened his beautiful bright-blue eyes and saw that there wasn't a single sign of the storm last night. "Well that's strange! It's such a beautiful weather outside." the dequ said but when he turned to hear the response of his new friend he found only a few rocks standing there behind his back.

prompt 1::: Zebra Duiker

Meimou wa having one of those weeks where it was dicided it was time to go for a really long walk to re-connect with nature....

well thats where the problem sarted. mei didn't really explore Gaia too much and had gotten really lost. And I mean really lost. It's said you can survive about 3 days with out water and a week without food. thats good to know, Mei lasts about 3 hours.

"Where am I" Mei- said rummaging though the long grass looking for something eatable. "And wheres the food around here"
Comming around a bend where there was a large bush Mei sees a butterfly sitting nicely on the top.

"I could eat that" mei thinks crouching to the ground getting ready to pounce on it "It might be poisonous but..." Mei springs towards the butterfly which looks up as it flutters away. with a small squeek mei lands on the ground on the other side. Looking up there is a wet nose placed on Meis forhead.

"I... huh? HI? " A little brown stipey creature is looking wide eyed at Mei crumped on the ground after the short fall. It prnces off a few paces and seems to laugh. "You thought that was funny did you? thats nice ._.; "

the creature was really cute "YOu have cute stripes" Mei said reaching out a hand towards it. Well that kinda went over well. The ceature sniffed Meis hand and turned tail and hoped away a bit.

3 hours of this later...

"What kind of game is this?" ;_; "Do you want to play with me or torment me?" Mei flops over "nyaaaaa I'm so hungry now, that butterfly wouldn't have made me feel better at all. Hey were did that creture go?"

My rolls around on the ground before lifting off the grond jut to be hit in the head with a low branch. "Ow ;_; hold on there were no trees out here" Mei looks up and sees the creture holding a branch over flowing with funny shaped fruits.

"aw, that was nice, are you trying to make up with me?" It out the branch down and sits beside Mei. They spend the rest of the day eating funny shaped fruit and watching the butterflys dance from flower to flower.

"Yeah they are much better uneaten" *nods*

Prompt 3 - Okapi

Cricket walked along the narrow beach on the edge of Soggy Forest. She knew she should have started back sooner. It’ll be way past dark by she time she gets home. She looked up at the darkening clouds. The storm was moving in faster than she’d expected. Normally the afternoon thunderstorms blew in quickly, dropped rain hard and fast, and then blew out as quickly as they’d come. This one had started building late and it looked to be a big one.

She felt rain drops on her face and she quickened her pace. The wet drops grew more numerous and steadily got heavier. It was getting harder to keep her head up to see where she was going. A quick glance ahead showed her that she still had a long way to go to get around the edge of the forest. Taking a short cut through the forest and maybe getting lost didn’t appeal to her at all.

Lightning blazed across the sky and lit up the beach. Seconds later, a crack of thunder stopped Cricket in her tracks. With the lightning so close, she knew she was too much of a target on the beach. She turned and ran to the cover of the forest. Under the canopy of the close growing trees, less of hard rain fell on Cricket. She looked into the dark forest and still couldn’t bring herself to go through the dark forest. She looked back out to the beach. It would be a while before the storm passed. Well, she could wait.

Cricket found a tall broadleaf plant that she could easily sit under. She’d barely gotten settled under the leaves when another crack of thunder rumbled overhead. When she realized that she was holding her breath, she let it out slowly, willing herself to relax. Cricket tried to peer through the leaves to see if the rain was lessening. She could barely see the edge of the forest in the dark. The late storm sounded like it was definitely going to last longer than the usual afternoon storm bursts.

Cricket made herself a little more comfortable and settled in. She pulled the leftovers of her lunch from the bag she used to collect seashells. The bread and fruit wrapped in cloth had survived somewhat amid the shells in the bouncy ride they took when she ran for cover from the storm. The bread was in pieces, but her peach emerged with only a few bruises. She was glad of that, she loved peaches and she'd been saving this one.

Cricket heard a rustling near her. She froze. She knew most of the animals on Jamiju island weren't dangerous, but if it was as scared as she was of the thunder and lightning, it might feel threatened and attack. She slowly looked in the darkness to see if she could see anything moving. She spotted a little nose on the other side of the plant stalks. It wiggled and moved closer. Behind the brown nose was a white face with two sparkling blue eyes. It hesitated, as it looked from her to the fruit she held in her hand. It sniffed again and took another step closer.

"Would you like to share my peach?" she asked quietly. She was answered by more nose wiggling and sniffing. Cricket dug her fingers into the flesh of the peach and pulled it in half. The small animal inched a little closer. Cricket separated one half into two pieces. Taking one of small portions, she tossed on the ground halfway between her the inquisitive nose. The white face edged closer to the fruit, exposing the rest of its body. Cricket now recognized it to be a Dequ. Cricket took a bite of her half of the peach while she watched the little Dequ eat it's tidbit. When it finished, Cricket took the other small portion and placed it in the palm of her hand. She reached out her hand, saying, "friends?" The animal inched closer until it could stretch its nose out far enough to reach the fruit in her hand. Cricket giggled as the soft velvet lips wiggled across her palm reaching for the peach.

Cricket leaned back a little to get a better look at the Dequ while it munched. In the dark, the body appeared to be the same soft brown as the nose. The white striped legs were easier to see in the dark. She couldn't recall ever seeing a pattern like that before. Cricket marveled at those big blue eyes. Eyes that were now eyeing the rest of the peach that she held in her hand.

"Still hungry?" Cricket held the peach out closer for it to sniff. When she drew the peach slowly back to herself, the animal followed. Cricket took another bite of the peach, then gave the rest of it to the animal standing next to her. When the peach has gone, Cricket's new friend lay down and curled up next to her. Both slightly less hungry and sharing their warmth through the stormy night.

Cricket reached out a hand and lightly stroked the top of its head. In the dark she could feel two slight bumps on its forehead. She scratched the area between the bumps and felt the animal sigh. Cricket whispered, "If you come home with me, I'll share all my peaches with you."