Welcome to Gaia! ::

Eleanor smirked softly as her wings fluttered. she landed quietly and tilted her head slightly as she looked around. "Jaras...? Are you in..?" She stepped quietly on the grass, continuing to survey the area.
Jaras, still brooding slightly in his kitchen, heard a soft voice which he knew could only belong to one being. "Eleanor," he whispered quietly. He walked swiftly to the front door and opened it, a broad, joyous grin plastered on his face. "I am here, Eleanor...please, come in...It is not often that one of Heaven's commanders decides to meet with I, leader of the Exiles..."
She laughed softly and stepped forward, her wings folding at her back neatly. "How've you been Jaras?" She bowed her head slightly as she entered his house.
Jaras clasped Eleanor's hands in his own. "I have been well, considering the circumstance, as ways, my love. How have you been? How is heaven these days?"
She smiled, and nodded softly. "That is good to hear, I've been alright, and things are as well as they've always been, but it's been quiet recently. I can only hope that what the demons are planning isn't something that needs to be dealt with heavily. We can only do so much." She sighed softly. "It's tiring at times, but I manage, as always. How is Ephraim?"
"Yes...this recent lull in demonic activity has been disquieting to my own troops of late...Ephraim was doing well the last I saw of him...He has been out for a couple days though...An assignment from his personal trainer, I believe..."
"It's good to hear he's fairing well." She looked out the window quietly, sighing softly she rubbed her shoulder before carefully stretching her wings. "I hope things aren't too hard on you and your troops." She smiled and looked back to him. "I'll do what I can to lighten the load for you, but I'm afraid it won't be much."
"Don't do that," he protested, sitting down at the table. "We chose our fate and are making the best of things down here...Tokyo is faring well with our guidance, as are those we inspire in New York...We only wish we could do something to bring us back into the Father's favour again..."
She smiled softly and nodded her head. "Alright." She looked out the window once again. "Baby steps Jaras... Little by little, you'll be able to come back someday..." She rested her arms on the table, and her head in her hands. "Think of this as a test. Do your best and you'll get the outcome you deserve by your choices."
"But so many centuries have come and gone...I don't think anything short of a large-scale war would do anything to help the Exiles...a war that would include even the human race...And this time, the Exiles would have to choose which side to fight with...Should that ever happen, I think you know which side I would choose, my love..."
She smiled softly. "But even so, such a great conflict would cause great pain between everyone." She shook her head and sighed. "I don't think I'm up for a full scale war." She laughed softly. "Dealing with the demons every so often is enough trouble, but everyday.. I'd have to get lighter armour if it ever happens." She frowned "This is so heavy on my shoulders, I can't fly as fast as I used to.." She stuck out her tongue childishly. "Perhaps I'm just getting old?"
"Old? I don't think so. You look just as young and beautiful as when I met you an eternity ago...perhaps you just need to get something off your chest.," he joked. "...mental burdens affect us physically over time...You know that from watching the humans..."
She rolled her eyes and smiled. "I know this all too well." Her eyes closed. "It's just so hard to live the way we do." She shook her head. "But there's nothing I can do about it. I just have to let things take their course and hope for the best."
"And what is so hard about the life you live in heaven, Eleanor? You can feel God's love everyday...down here...we hardly feel anything at all...A few of us have taken our own lives...Some others have even chosen to join Lucifer, destroying their hope of going home forever..."
She frowned. "I want things back the way they were... without all this idiotic fighting..." She laughed softly, without much feeling behind it. "Hindsight is twenty-twenty..." She shook her head. "I can't enjoy living like this... If only I could go back...."
"What are you talking about? Why are you complaining? You weren't the one who made the wrong choice...I was...And I have to deal with that until I can prove my love for Him again..."
Jaras paused. "When that time comes, we will be reunited again...you shall see..."
"Some days it feels as if I have..." She murmured softly, her head bowed. "I know Jaras." She smiled softly. "Sometimes I think I spend too much time watching the humans, taking after their selfishness at times." She shook her head. "So long as I get to see you from time to time, I won't go astray... So I can be one of the first to greet you when you return..."
Jaras nodded. "Then it will be like old times...I might even join His army again...In Deus, Honora," he said, reciting the motto of Heaven's Host..."In God, there is Honour."
She smiled. "Ah, so I'd be giving you orders then hmm?" She stuck out her tongue once again. "There will be no mercy on you."
"Or I could just resume my position as househusband," he replied, sticking out his tongue as well.
She smirked, leaning back in the chair she sat in. "You'll still get no mercy there, Jaras." She winked playfully. "I'll have you work hard either way." She wagged her finger. "There's no escape."
"Bah...It's hopeless," he said jokingly, throwing his hands in the air in defeat. "Always a competition with you, but I don't mind."
She giggled and ran her finger over the table, drawing a spiral. "But it's all the more satisfying when you win."
Jaras chuckled. "So you have always said, dearest."
He looked at the position of the sun in the sky. "Shouldn't you be heading back to heaven now? I'm sure your troops are missing your lectures and training routines right about now..."
She sighed softly, standing up. "I suppose so..." She smiled. "I'll drop by next time I get the chance to if you want."
"I would like that," he said, standing and showing Eleanor to the front door. "And perhaps Ephraim will be here next time and will be able to see you...I know he misses you."
She nodded slightly and flapped her wings a few times, hovering above the ground. "Good bye Jaras..." She bowed her head and took off into the sky.
"Goodbye, Eleanor, my love..."
Jaras watched her disappear into the sky and walked back into his house...


Ephraim sat in a tree not too far from where he watched his mother enter his father's house. He cringed slightly at her beauty as always, saddened in a way, knowing he will never be accepted by her kind. He stretched his sore arm, and cursed his negligence from his last training session, "Never leave yourself open," he smeared to himself as he recalled his trainer pinning him down with weapons then striking him hard on the arm with a wing. He cocked his head slightly to the side as his mother exited the house, then hopped down to the lowest branch and hung himself precariously upside down as he watched her float off. He sighed to himself and wished, not for the first time, that he could do the same as he flexed his undeveloped wings.
Ephraim dropped from the tree and stretched, and remembered that he didn't have to train for the next three days because of some meditation his trainer would be doing. He glanced over at his fathers house to make sure Jaras was inside. He turned and started heading for the caves. "I think Mardi Gras is going on about this time of year, been awhile since I have gone," he said to himself. Ephraim grinned, knowing his father would cut off what little wings he possessed if Jaras ever found out he went to New Orleans, especially if he knew that it wasn't the first time.