Welcome to Gaia! ::

Joa was wandering around in the huge hedge maze. She had no idea where she was going. In fact, she was rather bad at mazes. She had wandered into this blasted thing a while ago to keep the greenery in shape, and something really weird happened. She can't remember exactly what, but since it happened her world was all dark and cold and generally uncomfortable. She was restless, but she never seemed to get tired. Or hungry. Or thirsty.

Joa was beginning to suspect something was very wrong.

The grass and hedges had begun to go wild a while back. She had remembered seeing them get unruly and faintly wondered where the shears and other gardening tools had gone. She was still in her work attire, a beat up dirty white shirt, rather snug fitting leather trousers, black boots, and leather gloves. All accompanied by a wide brimmed hat that was frayed at the edges.

She hadn't seen anyone else for a really long time, either.

Yup, something was wrong.

She stumbled about in the maze, occasionally getting frustrated and crying out in rage every so often.

Joa herd a noise not far from her. It sounded as if someone had knocked into one of the hedges.

Hope alighted within her.

"Hello?" she called out, trying to walk towards the area she heard it.

Grumbling, she finally got a little too frustrated and slammed her hands against a hedge wall. Her hands sank through it. Eyes growing wide, she pushed the rest of herself through, albeit difficultly. She let out a yell of triumph, finally thinking she'd found a way to get out easily. Without much hesitation she ran at the next wall and soundly bouncing off it to end up landing with a groan.

Oh well. At least she wasn't trapped in that part any more.

Hearing the voice again, she quickly gets up.

"Are you friendly? Do you know the way out of here? Don't move!"

She then looked around quickly before deciding on the quickest route: up and over.

And with that, she began to climb. After a few sliding of feet and grunts, she makes it to the top, looking around for someone, anyone.

And then her fear of heights catches up with her.

She whimpers and sits down on top of the hedge, clinging to it.

"Oh man oh man oh man why did I climb up here? I'm such an idiot... Help!!!!" she yells the last word loudly, hoping that whoever is near her can at least spot her. She has no idea how she's getting down, and she tries to concentrate on what's on the ground.

Grass. Weeds. A couple of flowers here and there. After a few moments her attempt at calming down completely failed and she resorted to a half whimper, half cry, despairing once again.

As she sat despairing, she heard the friendly stranger reply to her questions. This made her feel a little better. But she still had no way to get to her, and no way to get down for that matter.

But then she saw Sen floating towards her, and her eyes widened once more in suprise. And then down Sen went. Just one hedge between them now, not much, and surely she could make the jump... If not, well, she had a strong feeling that not a whole lot could hurt her any more.

She got to her feet. Closed her eyes and took a deep breath, summoning the courage that was buried ever so deeply inside of her. Very deep. So deep she didn't think she'd be able to call it up. But at the last moment, right before it occured to her that she couldn't jump it, her semi-corporeal body took over and she leaped, clearing the gap well.

Except, her foot caught on a branch on the top of the hedge separating her from Sen. She managed to get a good look at the ground that was soon going to meet her face before she plummeted to it, landing head first with a loud thud. Her hat fluttered to rest about a foot from her.

Joa fell onto her side, then sat up slowly. She rubbed her face, expecting to feel some kind of pain, but nothing. Blinking slowly she looked at the other spirit, a smile leaping onto her face.

"Yaaaaaay! I found you! We found each other! I'm not alone any more in this stupid maze!"

She jumped up and promptly hugged the other spirit as best she could. She really couldn't feel anything. It was as if she were numb all over... but wasn't. She took her hat and bowed low.

"Thank you for collecting my hat. I'm Joa. Who might you be?"

She gave Sen a big smile and jammed her hat atop her head cheerfully.

"It's nice to meet you too, Sen. I'm sorry for startling you like that. I've just been in this maze for so long... Have you been here too? Do you know the way out?"

She looks at Sen hopefully, then glances around at the ever familiar surroundings of high grass and weeds and long, never ending walls of hedges. This could finally be her release from this thing. And if it wasn't, at least she had someone to talk to now.