Welcome to Gaia! ::

David Hargot listened to the rhythmic tp, tp, tp, tp of his shoes as he raced himself down Durem Street. He'd just sat through rather dull lecture on the roots of English prefixes and had to burn off some energy. This way why he'd opted to take a scenic detour through the bizarre street, two suburbs across from his apartment. It wasn't procrastination, not at all; it was important exercise.

He shot a glance at across the road to the old park, where he spied a pile of leaves. It wasn't that unusual, it was Autumn after all. His speed slowed however, when the leaves shifted. 'What?' he exclaimed as he came to a halt. The strange pile was no more a pile of leaves than he was a purple elephant. He laughed as he watched the funny looking buzzard take flight. It was too absurd! There weren't any birds like that around... anywhere that he could think of.

David walked over, curiosity drawing him to the creature. As he approached, he spotted the book and picked it up, flipping its pages without actually looking at them. He was far more interested in the bird hovering above him. With another laugh, he called to the bird, 'hey! I think you left your book behind!'

Far too absurd. He couldn't even keep a straight face as he called to it and burst out laughing again. Who'd ever heard of a massive red bird wandering around parks and playing with books?

It took several deep breaths to stop the flow of laughter and set himself down against a tree. As he flipped through the unusual book, he tried to make himself look as relaxed as possible. The book too was strange; it looked old enough to crumble to dust in his fingers. Where did the bird get such an old book? Even stranger, why did the bird have the book?

Jack chimed almost angrily at the man who had disturbed his grooming and even had the gall to pick up the book he had been watching over. Of course, had he realised that Aya herself had taken the rare opportunity to step outside of the library and relax then he certainly would not have felt the need to stand guard. Or he would have at least taken his regular form to wish her good day.

He circled around in the air above them, though he chirruped in questioning surprise when the Ice Queen's voice echoed from the branched of the tree. She addressed the unfamiliar man bluntly and, though still too nervous to actually get close to this unfamiliar person for the moment, he circled a little lower. He was conscientious enough that he did his best to stay out of Aya's way. He knew that he was potentially dangerous to her.

The man didn't seem too threatening at least. And Jack knew that if she was watching over proceedings there was nothing to be worried about. The phoenix fluttered a little as he wheeled in the air and eventually he braved a low branch on a nearby tree, bright green eyes shining as he turned his head to eavesdrop and study this person. So it was a demon summoning tome? He was sort of glad he'd felt too lazy to actually read it in that case. He wondered if the man would be curious or horrified.

"A while," she answered to his first question, "perhaps an hour or two I am not certain. I was taking a nap and I often lose track of time whenever I am slumbering." But whoever didn't lose track of time whenever they were sleeping? Well except those who had alarm clocks and did not throw them out the window/against the wall whenever the device saw fit to do what it was created to do. Now that his first question had been answered and quite well if Aya could say so herself, it was time to get to his second query.

"That book not only gives the procedures as to how to summon several types of demons but how to efficiently banish them as well," she explained, trying to tell him that her interest lay with both reasons even though he may see that the latter was the true reason she had been reading the book. Pet? Her violet eyes swiftly landed on Jack who sat perched on another branch. Her lips twitched with amusement. If Jack was anyone's pet, it would be that DJ's...or Master Guyy's. Slowly, she turned back to the human, her smile widening a bit at his antics. Despite what he said, he seemed far more interested in Jack than the summoning tome.

"Hear that Jack?" she turned back to the phoenix, "Are you from the Tropics? I am not positive either," she let out a soft laugh before she made a mistake with moving her foot. A lone sandal fell to the grass. Luckily, David had already moved. If he hadn't, his shoulder or leg would have probably been hit. Ah...how careless of her. She was enjoying herself far too much. This would not do. She couldn't be lax. With a sigh, she slid off the branch and expertly landed a few steps away in front of David. She didn't put on her wayward sandal and instead, chose to examine the human that disturbed her moment of relaxation.

Despite the fact that she had just slid off a very high branch and she was missing one piece of sandal, Aya did not look ruffled in the least. In fact, she looked even more graceful than before if such a thing were possible.

"I am not at liberty to answer. Ask Jack yourself if you want to know what type of bird he is," she said in answer to his third question finally. She didn't know if Jack would be alright with her revealing that fact. She didn't know how both David and Jack were going to react to that but she'd thrown the ball in their court already. Too late to go back. She considered being blunt about what the Shinigami Library actually was but decided against it. Clan of powerful beings or not, they were still a secret mercenary group. It wouldn't do for her to announce to everyone where their HQ was...even if it was in plain sight. "And the Shinigami Library is just that. It is a library with a large collection of books and the collection is growing still. We get shipments of old and new tomes or books every other day."

She held out her hands, silently asking him for the book back. Her hands were thin and slender and did not look like they were meant for hard labor. Little did David know how many demons and humans she had killed and defeated with her slender fingers.

"What about you David? What do you do?" she asked him, her head tilted slightly to the side and her smile never wavering, "And what brought you to this place? Besides Jack of course."

David nodded. It didn't seem that strange that a person like this would sleep in trees. It was a nice park after all, one of the nicest around.

Ok, he'd run with that. If this was a dream he could laugh it off when he woke up. This day was too odd to take anything for granted. If he did he'd probably stay up half the night wondering about her and her exotic companion. 'Ah. Soooo, were you wanting to banish demons then?' David asked, ever full of questions. 'But why did the bird have it, were you reading it before you fell asleep?'

David frowned slightly when the bird squawked, then burst out laughing when it turned around, beak raised. It did not seem happy about something; it's whole persona emanated outrage. In fact, it was behaving more like an indignant child than a bird. Birds were funny like that. He whistled to it, though perhaps it's be better if he apologised to it instead. He was about to do so when the librarian began talking to him again.

'Are you sure?' he asked as he watched the girl leap - no glide - down from the branch. He noticed how delicate she looked when she landed in front of him. He'd only seen girls with hair and eyes like hers in movies and even then most of them were digitally enhanced. When he realised she was examining him he stretched and looked up to the bird, trying to make himself look as relaxed as possible - though possibly failing and seeming slightly self-conscious. 'Hey Jack,' he called as he tried to keep a straight face, 'sorry for offending you. Are you, er, from the Tropics?'

Yep, he was talking to a bird. He was talking to a bird while a purple-eyed, demon-hunting beauty examined him. Even if this wasn't real, it'd make an awesome story for his next assignment.

When she again suggested that he should talk to "Jack" he began to realise that this girl was serious. He'd known she was serious before but now he realised she was serious serious.

'He can understand me?' he asked, his tone rising toward the end. There was a puzzled frown taking over his face now. He was confused but hooked. He wasn't sure which emotion to react to: excitement, confusion or curiosity. It was all he could do to look calm. He wanted to know more about these people and their library. Even if what Aya said was true and it was just a normal library, if it had people like her or more of the large, red birds, it was worth taking a look at. 'So, were you also serious when you said this book is about demons? Do you really use it for banishing them or are you a writer of some sort?'

His freckled hands placed the tome into her fine-boned palms. They very much looked the part as librarian's hands.

'Me? I'm a writing student,' he replied with a shrug. He was by far not as interesting as these two and the bizarre book. 'I'm just on my way home and wanted to take the long route. I only stopped because I saw Jack.'

Jack rolled his eyes, a light and musical chuckle bubbling from his throat. When the young man asked whether Jack could understand him, he nodded. Just as Aya confirmed it. Just as he had shaken his head when asked if he was from the tropics. Clearly this was one smart bird. He stood on one leg and scratched at his neck nonchalantly.

He waited as they discussed the book, half listening in to the parts about demons. Was that what this book was? It wasn't something he'd read, certainly. But a writing student? Aha, Aya was onto something there. Maybe a writing student would distract that author that seemed to have managed to somehow integrate himself into the library upstairs. The man was like a rat. Impossible to find when you wanted him and yet there when you least expected it. Guyy had talked jokingly about hiring some kind of author-catcher.

Though when Aya lightly chastised him for pausing to preen he ruffled up again and glared at her. That was it. The bird fluffed and suddenly instead of a red bird sitting on the branch, there was a young man with long red hair and shining green eyes. "For your information I was going to take it back, I'd only just started preening. I figured I'd wait a little while to see if someone came back for it first." He huffed to Aya, folding his arms as he looked down on them from his tree.

He slipped down and dropped lightly to his feet, patting down the simple but surprisingly stylish and expensive looking shirt and jeans he wore. He was feeling casual today. "And no, I'm not from the tropics. With my complexion? I'd burn. Well... actually, I wouldn't..." he seemed to drift off thoughtfully. "I should burn, but I don't. Hello." He waved at David cheerfully. "There's a lot in the library that's even better than some mouldy old book about demons anyway." He chuckled.

"You have no idea just how many creatures there are here," Aya answered, lips curling more and more in to a welcoming smile as he asked her how in the world she had gotten up so high up a tree. She decided to tell him the truth, "I jumped," she said simply. And it was true. Aya could jump up trees as tall as this one quite easily ever since her body had been altered. It was more of a curse than an enhancement truly. Yes she'd gotten stronger and faster but she'd also gained a lot more weaknesses. That and the fact that her body was continually trying to destroy itself, causing her to sleep seven days in her laboratory to recover from the damage her body kept dealing to itself. It was like a disease that was slowly eating away at her.

"Yes...he shook his head earlier in answer to your question,"And I am not certain if you two will get along but wouldn't it be nice for a writer such as yourself to meet a famous author? And yes...I want you to come to the library. I would not have made the offer is I had not been certain of it."

Her eyes twinkled with merriment both at Jack and at David. Both boys were equally excited albeit for different reasons. As Jack finally revealed himself and even fluffed up (no pun intended) at her, Aya had to hide a mischievous and triumphant grin. Finally he'd decided to show himself. It was quite entertaining to ruffle up Jack's feathers (no pun intended yet again). She couldn't quite contain her grin however, once David began asking Jack rapid fire questions. This human interested her a lot. As far as she could tell...he was truly normal. There was nothing extraordinary about him except for his ability to not panic in the face of two creatures who could easily kill him.

She cleared her throat to get their attention. "Why don't we talk while we walk?" she suggested but it wasn't a suggestion at all for the moment the words left her mouth, Aya slipped on her sandal and turned, heading straight for the library. "And Jack...please refrain from calling the old tomes moldy," she said as she glanced at the young man while the air around all of them began to drop in temperature, "Ilia will butcher you if you called one of her babies that."

She smiled at both boys again and returned the temperature back to normal. It was difficult to know which one Jack would be expecting a butchering from if he decided to insult the old tomes in the library: Ilia or Aya?

This was amazing. He'd entered a world far more interesting than his own and now he didn't want to leave. Sure, he'd probably still have to go to classes but now he'd be able to come to this fascinating library, talk to fascinating people - no, beings - and read things far more fascinating than anything his old reality could spit up.

Something niggled at David when she mentioned the other creatures. If Jack was a phoenix, it was likely that this ethereal beauty was not human either. The fact that she could jump up to a tree branch almost proved it. He blushed slightly and and ran a hand through his hair, hoping he wasn't about to ask something stupid. 'Are you-,' he paused, unsure how to put it. 'What type of person are you?'

Oh yes, the writer. Meeting a famous author didn't seem as interesting now. It was like going to the gym after running a marathon: fun but not as attractive as it would normally be. Who cared about a writer when you were going to some strange, magical library with an attractive librarian who wanted to see your work?

'I thought phoenixes were firebirds that rose from the ashes of their previous lives. I didn't know they could transform,' he explained. How was he to know that people got it wrong? His irritation didn't last long, it was soon replaced by curiosity about phoenixes. 'What else can you do? Do you whisper inspiration into people's ears? How old are you? Were you born as an egg or a person?' He had more questions but he'd wait until those ones were finished before continuing his verbal tirade.

David listened to Aya and felt shifts in temperature. He was standing closer to Aya though so for the most part, it dropped. When they had finished talking he was about to ask who and what Ilia was but Jack started running. Ever up for a challenge, David silenced his question, burst out laughing and bolted after Jack. There was no way the feathery redhead was going to make it to the library before him, even with a headstart.