Welcome to Gaia! ::

As though on cue, there was the sound of foliage rustling and crushing underfoot as someone, obviously not accustomed to travelling outside of the comfort of a beaten path, made their way closer.

Karma's first thought upon recieving the letter had been that it was some sort of scam. Failing that, simply junk mail. However, the fact that someone had taken the time to hand-write it had piqued her curiousity and, after a couple of hours of debate, had made her decision to at least go and have a look. If it turned out to be some sort of elaborate attempt at mugging, after all, she'd left her on-person valuables and money back at the office just in case.

An especially-sharp branch jabbed through her jacketsleeve as she passed by, making the foxcoon draw in a hiss of pain. She paused twenty or so paces from the tree that Nox had perched in to cast a slightly-sour look about herself and then fumble the paper out of her pocket to read it over once more.

This....seemed to be where it had said to meet them. A good distance out of the public eye and just far enough from society that nobody would hear her cry for help. How convenient...maybe she DID have 'sucker' printed on her forehead, she thought dismally as she tucked the paper back into her pocket and crossed her arms over her chest to wait.

For a moment, Karma had no clue where the diminuative voice had been coming from and had perked her ears, swivelling them on the air alertly. Just as she thought she'd pinpointed the location, Nox was flying toward her. One's first impulse when they're in the woods and see something rather large on insectile wings flying toward them at a high speed would be to swat at it maniacally...

Karma, however, managed to restrain herself and settled for simply putting up her hands protectively in front of her face.

When the inevitable insect attack didn't arrive, and the voice continued to speak, closer now, she slowly lowered them again, blinking owlishly at the smallish fey woman hovering before her.

"Its...its a pleasure to meet you." she managed when silence fell between them as it seemed Nox obviously expected her to reply to the statement. "I...uhm..." she cleared her throat, trying to collect her scattered wits and graduate past the shock of the fact that what appeared to be a fairy was speaking to her.

"I'm sorry, 'blood heritage'?" she inquired, cocking her head at an angle that advertised her confusion.

A medly of expressions crossed Karma's face during the course of the explanation. The first being surprise as she turned her head to regard the ring of mushrooms nearby, the next being slight skepticism at Nox's assumption that she was a descendant of one of her people, followed quickly by one of rapt interest and chased by a look of sympathy at the explanation of the curse.

When silence, again, fell, Karma spoke again. "I'd be happy to help if I can..." she said, following it with a quick nod as though she was trying to also convince herself of this. Or perhaps she was just badly distracted. Her eye kept straying to the ring of mushrooms nearby and her tail twitched behind her in agitation. She seemed to just barely be resisting the urge to charge headlong into it.

"How do we get there?" she inquired, trying not to sound overly eager, though her eyes never left the mushroom ring. "Do we just step through, or...?" her experience with portals was limited only to the ones which connected Gaia to Earth, and she used those as little as was possible.

"Wait! I--" but it was too late. Nox was gone. For a moment, Karma stood where she was, hearing only the muted sounds of the slumbering forest nearby.

Had it all been a dream, she wondered? Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, she took a step toward the mushroom ring....

....and almost immediately, she was overcome by the sensation once more. Her heartbeat quickened slightly and every inch of her being seemed to be reaching toward the ring.

Go. GO NOW. some unseen voice within her head murmured, just as audibly as if someone behind her had whispered in her ear. And go she did as her steps carried her to the mushroom ring's edge. Once there, she hesitated only a moment before stepping gingerly into the unbroken circle of fungi.

The sensation was immediate and disorienting. She hadn't moved, and yet, she felt as though she'd crossed miles. In the time it took her to blink twice, things had changed. She was still standing at a forest's edge, to be sure, but it was not the same forest.

And this was not Gaia.

It occurred to Karma then that Nox had never told her how to go BACK and her chest began to tighten with panic. Stupid...!! Her hand met her brow loudly and her teeth gritted. One of these days, she would learn to "read the fine print", so to speak, before agreeing to these things.

The pull from the ring was gone, but seemed to have redirected itself and was now openly commanding her to turn around. Reluctantly, she did so, and found herself in dumb shock to see the stoic behemoth of a castle not far in the distance.

She hadn't been lied to...it was real...!!

It was also demanding as, quite on their own, her feet began to plant themselves one in front of the other toward it. In what seemed no time at all, she had reached and passed through an open portcullis, only finally stopping to take in her surroundings when she was, at last, inside.

Ordinarily she would have been horrifically squeamish about treading into someone else's dwelling without them being there to welcome her, but she couldn't seem to help herself in these circumstances. Just as Nox had said, there was something here that called to her. NEEDED her.

"Hello?" It seemed such a horribly cliche thing to call into an empty corridor as they did it in almost every movie she'd ever seen, but the silence made her feel horribly isolated in such a large place and prickled at her in a way that was almost stronger than the ever-growing pull she felt.

Her voice did not echo so much as it seemed to fall dead a few inches from her lips. And, save for the dancing flicker and muted crackle of the torches, her meager greeting was met with no response.

The foxcoon began to move forward again, tentatively now and unaware that she was being watched. She had the crazy urge to try and remove one of the torches from the wall and carry it with her, but...there seemed no need for it. It was not due to lack of light that this castle was dark, after all.

An involuntary shudder passed through her as she rounded a corner, finding herself looking up into the black void of a narrow stairwell. Her stomach fluttered and flipped within her as the pull seemed stronger here. Much stronger, in fact.

She began up the stairs at a quiet tiptoe, giving way to a brisk trot about halfway up them, and nearly having broke into a full-tilt run by the time she reached the top, panting slightly. The nearer she drew, it seemed, the more clearly the severity of the situation was defined for her.

What had started out, in her mind, as some sort of extravagant favor for a bizzare little creature had quickly graduated itself into recognizing her duty and obligation to free one of her own distant family. One who could not free themselves and, due to her dawdling, suffered all the longer for it.

But where -were- they...??

Instinct led her directly to the open door from which the pastel purples and blues radiated on the walls from the darkly-colored window. It was the first thing to catch her attention upon arriving at the threshold of the door, being that it was the only source of color in the otherwise-drab room. However, it was quickly realized that not only was the window pleasing to look at, but also the reason she was here.

The roughly-hewn visage of the brown-and-cream bird seemed to study her through the twinkling blue glass of its trapezoidal eye as she drew near, standing there for a moment in awe. She was aware that her hands were lifting then, placing themselves on the cold smoothness of the glass and delicately tracing its contours and angles. The pull had ceased, and what she felt now was a deep-seated feeling of rightness.

It was here. HE was here.

The voice made her start, jerking her fingers away from the window's surface as a gasp caught in her throat. The voice had been enormous, seeming to come from every corner of the room, and yet somehow she knew that even if others had been near, she would have been the only one to hear it.

And, suddenly, there was indecision. Melidora...the name was not familiar to her and did not inspire any feelings of long-lost kinship. Did she...? What if she was giving something vital? Or more than had been bargained for? Did she really want to...?

On their own, her hands planted themselves on the window again, more firmly this time as she looked on with a desperate sort of helplessness. You came all that way... a voice in her head crooned. All of that walking, all of that desperation to get here, and now you are unsure...?

"Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die." the words, quite unbidden, spilled from her mouth before she could stop them.

Why had she said that...?

The spirits, however, did not see this as a valid answer as the same voice repeated the same question in the same tone.

"Do you, Karma, give freely of your spirit and essence, to free Melidora, son of Vates and Fidicina, of his dread curse?"

"Yes." she said before she could get to thinking about it again. "I do."