Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Hope you don't mind my asking," he began (in a tone that betrayed he really didn't care if she minded) "but what was that you've been hiding under your robe since I came to get you?"

"It's not all, Jasmine." He spoke in a rather tense voice; he probably wasn't quite as tired as Jasmine, but running after Dibbuns all day while expecting doom and destruction wasn't exactly the most relaxing thing in the world. He wasn't in the mood for Jasmine's nonesense any more than she was in the mood for his. "Aside from the question of how comfortable any of us is with an infirmary keeper running around with alcohol hidden in her robes, what's gotten into you? You've never exactly been the warmest creature in the world, but you've been snapping at everyone and I'll swear it's Eula (and me) getting the worst of it!" Otherwise, it was Faith, but he wasn't even going to go there right now. At any rate, his voice was getting a bit louder than the almost-whisper he'd intended to use for Gem's benefit.

Donato stood listening to Jasmine's tirade with growing fury. Was she honestly going to say that the way she was treating everyone was due to the events of the past DAY? The alcohol - was THAT her excuse?! She sheer stupidity of it left him dumbfounded for a moment. There were so many things he wanted to shout at her, but she wasn't giving him a chance to get a word in. When she finally stopped for a moment, he opened his mouth, only to be cut off by Jasmine's puerile parting shot. Again gaping, he watched as the door was slammed in his face. He spun around to leave, furious. On his way to the door, Gem's words stopped him in his tracks; he slumped his shoulders and didn't turn around. "Well, kind of, Gem. Just forget it; go to sleep. It's late." He wished he could just go to sleep. It'd been a long night, but right now he could hear his blood pounding in his ears. "Goodnight." He left and went down the stairs to find Eula, walking quickly in an effort to do something with the anger and frustration he couldn't just let out on Jasmine.

Donato picked out Eula's form in the dark and approached the tree. "I tried to talk to Jasmine," he said flatly and deliberately. Then, a bit louder and much faster, "I don't know what exactly I was expecting, but it wasn't the 'I'm-the-Abbess'-mother-so-I-can-do-whatever-I-want' card! Or 'I'm having a bad day, so just accept that I'm going to treat everyone like dirt' like she's the only one worried about anything." He sighed and dropped down beside her, leaning against the tree as well. More wearily, he shared the last. "Oh, and guess what? Did you see what she was hiding under her robes?"

He chuckled bitterly. "You're going to love this. We're like to have another Fenya on our hands. Here's hoping no one else in the Abbey gets hurt any time soon." He shook his head. "I swear I have these images of Jasmine conked out with her head down on the table and Shune patching everyone else up." And of course whatever threat it was pounding on the gates, but let that rest for the moment. "And Jasmine figured it was alright to keep it a secret, since, you know, apparently everyone else decided secrets were okay."

Donato watched Eula with her head on her knees. Things hadn't been like this in so long - one problem mounting on another... He sighed sadly. Putting his arm around her shoulder, Donato rested his own head against the top of Eula's. "I don't know..." He said quietly, listening to the sound of her voice. "I guess we have to. She won't listen to either of us, that's for sure."

Who: Eula, mysterious dream beings, Gem, and Jasmine (briefly)
What: Nightmare/ Late night chat
Where: Dreamland/Eula's room then infirmary

Eula: Eula had meant to have a longer conversation with Donato that evening. She had meant to tell him about Gem and what she said and how confused she was. She had not counted on being so tired. Eventually, she had to reluctantly give up her attempt at a real conversation with Donato and go to bed. There was always the morning, and chances were she’d be able to think straight after a decent night’s sleep. There were too many things on her mind now to be able to sort them all out.

So after changing, she curled a paw around the flickering light of her bedside candle and gently blew it out before climbing into bed and pulling up the covers. Her mind raced for awhile still while she lay there, but drowsiness finally won out and she drifted to sleep.

Dream: ::Once again, it was a night of less than perfect sleep... but unlike many others, there was no campfire in a forest, or familiar fox figure, but a voice... soft and small, so familiar, but so strange... whispering in her ear, and drifting there..::
"In the darkest hour, a chance you'll see.
A fallen angel from her tree,
One wing white, one wing black
A quest to set her free
In the sandstone find the key.”

Eula: Hearing the riddle floating through her subconscious hardly stirred her. It had become the voice in her head, that blasted poem. Although she could not make head nor tails of it, it was always, always there lurking in the back of her mind.

Dream: ::Slowly, the mists began to settle... and of course, there was the forest... but now, it was clearer, she could see it WASN'T that forest... it was just an orchard, THE orchard from the abbey grounds!::

"In the darkest hour, a chance you'll see.
A fallen angel from her tree,
One wing white, one wing black
A quest to set her free
In the sandstone find the key."

Eula: And here she was again, in another one of those strangely lucid dreams - and after having on so recently, too! If one could groan in their sleep, Eula did. She looked around, trying to find the source of the voice, becoming impatient quite rapidly with the mysterious atmosphere of everything.

Yes, I know the poem, it is already branded on my memory. So stop.

Dream: ::On and on the mists swirled, it seemed they didn't want to give her an answer, but for the longer she would stand there, unable to leave, unable to move from this dream, the more the mists would clear, and slowly, the trees around her took a more firmer shape, until finally, there was a single figure, perched upon one of the closest trees, watching Eula intently, still hidden in shadow, again the rhyme repeated, as if now it would be a little clearer::

"In the darkest hour, a chance you'll see.
A fallen angel from her tree,
One wing white, one wing black
A quest to set her free
In the sandstone find the key."

::The figure's wings opened, and stood there, silent::

Eula: Eula was already frustrated with this sluggish and seemingly trivial dream. But she had nowhere to be - she was sleeping, right? She waited for all the swirling mists to clear, eyes narrowing a bit to try and bring the scene into better focus. When the rhyme repeated for yet a third time, she completely lost all impatience. “Yes, I get it! Knock it off! I heard that damn riddle in my head during all my waking hours, why not a reprieve during the sleeping ones?”

Dream:::Silence, at least the riddle didn't repeat itself again... but that didn't stop the figure from watching her, waiting for her, standing there, wings outspread, completely still, even against the slow wind, that blew through the distinctive feathers of its left wing... silence and nothing more, until it began to fall, still so indistinct, it fell almost in slow motion, before shattering into rubble and a cloud of ash before her, with no chance now to find out what it was::

::But still, the voice continued, not belonging to that figure it so seemed now...::

"In the darkest hour, a chance you'll see.
A fallen angel from her tree,
One wing white, one wing black
A quest to set her free
In the sandstone find the key."

"From Beneath You It Devours." ::There was barely any time, barely any time to let the dust settle from the rubble of whatever... thing... had fell from the tree, when It came, out of the ground, a paw as large as a badger's skull, as thin, sharp and crooked as a hooked blade, and they grabbed at the hare's leg, a sudden paralysis, as a face dragged itself from the earth, red eyes, fangs, rotting breath and so hideous a beast was there, words could not describe, as it looked at her, and then leapt, jaws open!!!::

Eula: Eula continued to look about her, frowning a bit, now noticing the creature in the tree. She waited a few moments, then was about to call out to it, when it started falling. She blinked, watching it with confusion as it fell to the earth. She looked to the pile of rubble, when that rhyme started up again and she put a paw to the side of her head, really wished it would stop. “I alrea-” she was barely able to get two words out before suddenly a monster was upon her. Unable to react fully in her dream state, she could only stare wide-eyed in disbelief.

She had heard multiple times in her life that one could not dream of their own death. She wasn’t sure if that was just a myth or not, but before anything decidedly less gruesome occurred, she jolted awake, her breathing rapid, to find herself back in her own room, dark and quiet.

She sat up, startled gaze looking carefully around her in the darkness. She sighed, pulling the covers up a bit as she passed a cold paw over her forehead, gathering back her nerves. Her heart was still racing from her sudden jolt, and she didn’t know if she’d back able to calm back down and fall asleep. Sighing, she rubbed her paws together a little to warm them, thinking how she couldn’t keep doing this. She needed one, just one, stress-free, dreamless sleep. Going on like this was going to drive her insane.

Dream: ::But even awake, it was as if a shadow cast itself upon her, clung to her, even then, awake, there was still a lingering feeling, of eyes watching, and waiting, but then of course, that was the whole truth... and these dreams were here, to stay, unless something was done soon::

Eula: Eula rubbed her paws into her eyes, groaning with drowsiness and frustration, still feeling gloomy and cold and confused. She pulled the blanket back up to her chin, laying down in an attempt to fall back to sleep. Whenever she closed her eyes, all she saw was flashes of her dream playing rapidly before her. She opened her eyes wide, staring at the unseen ceiling above her. She wished it wasn’t the middle of the night, that there would be someone up somewhere to talk to... about anything.

Her mind kept tugging her in a certain direction. It was making a connection that Eula, in her sleep-deprived state, was having trouble piecing together. She sat up again, running through the dream, the poem, that past evening through her mind. She glanced around the darkness again, then threw her blanket off, feeling in the darkness for the robe slung along her bedpost. She grabbed the long, grey robe and pulled it over her shoulders, hastily tying it off around her waist before making her way carefully from her room.

Opening the door, she slipped out and clicked the door shut silently behind her, as if there were someone she would wake in the room if she was any louder. She gave her eyes a moment to adjust, then she made her way quickly and quietly up to the infirmary.

Infirmary ::And luck be it, for whatever reason, that the infirmary door lay half open, not it's usual locked position... it seemed Donato had been more than right about his concerns of Jasmine's inability to perform her usual duties... the smell of sleep inducing herbs had all but gone, bad luck to anyone in pain, but there were definite noises from inside...::

Gem: Small grunts, tiny noises of exasperation and struggle, and then a final small smacking sound, that ended in a recognizable:: Owwww...

Eula: Eula stopped just outside the door, pausing before she went in as she heard noise inside. After a moment, she lifted a paw as if to knock, then hesitated, blinking at her own stupidity. She laid a paw on the handle and pushed the door quietly the rest of the way open, peeking her head around inside.

Gem: ::And there she was, she couldn't have been any more obvious, as a beam of moonlight from the windows Jasmine had forgotten to close illuminated her cot, and the little bat sat there, still struggling with the bandages covering her second wing, a pile of unraveled gauze already on the floor, but the second wing seemed to be more stubbornly bound, as she tried to hold back any crying and continue, when she stopped, ears perked... and slowly turned towards the door, with a watery eyed blink:: ...Eula?

Eula: Eula laid eyes on the young bat, standing there in the shaft of moonlight, and almost instantly the image clicked in her mind. She paused for a moment, stricken with something of a jolt of excitement that was bitter with foreboding. She lifted an eyebrow, watching Gem struggle with the bandages, deciding for her own purpose not to explain what she had just figured out. “Gem, what are you doing?”

Gem: ::She quickly wiped at her face as she did before, letting go of her wing, as they both curled together:: I woke up... and somebody tied my wings together... just... trying to get them unwrapped... ::She started, like a Dibbun realizing she was doing something she wasn't to... which of course was EXACTLY what she was doing...:: I just wanted to get out of here... ::She said with the teeniest whimper:::

Eula: Eula frowned a little, taking the scene in in silence for a few moments. “Jasmine tied you up to keep you from leaving, so you need to stay. You hurt yourself, so you need to stay in the infirmary for awhile. You’ll just get in trouble if you leave.” She paused, looking at Gem. “I think you and I should have a little chat while you get back in bed.”

Gem: ::She just sat there, very evident that she couldn't get out of bed, but she pulled the covers up again anyway, holding them tight:: Can you put the fire on again, please...? 's cold... ::She added unnecessarily as a cold wind swept in from the open window, over the empty fire... yet again something Jasmine had left aside to find the bottom of a bottle::

Eula: Eula walked over and closed the window, leaving it cracked just a bit so it would not grown too warm. She tugged the curtains around though, blocking out the moonlight and throwing the infirmary into darkness. She walked over to the dying embers of the fire, kneeling as she stoked it back to life. Without glancing at Gem, she began talking. “So, is there anything you’d like to tell me?” she asked lightly, feeling she already knew the answer to the question.

Gem:::The bat sat there, cuddling into her blanket, and wrapping her available wing further around herself, in an obviously guilty silence for a little longer, looking down at her injured leg, before looking up again:: I guess... 's about the fox? ::She tried, wiping at her face again, at least sounding better now they had a fire going to stay warm, sniffing a last time::

Eula: Eula, having brought the fire back, glanced back at Gem with a confused look on her face. The fox? Ura? She paused for a moment, stalling all the questions that instantly came to mind, deciding rather to let Gem tell her about it so she wouldn't skew the results of the conversation. "All right..." she started. "Tell me about the fox."

Gem: ::She seemed to huddle less at least with the warmth spreading, as she began to speak a bit louder, less whispered:: I don't really know him... But I was 'sleepin... annen I met him there... pretty blue eyes and stuff... Annit was a long time ago... right before we went to Salamandastron.... ya remember? ::Who could forget the little stowaway...She seemed to be brightening now, talking, ears perking, as she raised a finger in slight imitation of whatever had been said:: Annhe said, Gem, you're a really really special girl, an' you need to look after Eula, or she'll get hurt! ::Nod::

Eula: Eula nodded a little, blankly. Why on earth would Ura go and tell a Dibbun to watch over her? That was a ridiculous amount of pressure to put on a young creature. Besides, Gem was proving to be more of a liability to her than a real help. Furthermore, she was surprised Ura had spoken to someone other than herself, and let them remember it. And that Gem had kept it a secret this long. She frowned a bit, thinking. "Is that the only time he has ever spoken to you?"

Gem: ::She looked pensive for a moment, before slowly, shaking her head:: I dunno... I remember... like... I've seen him lots more... But, I don't remember anything else he said... an that's why was so important to keep watching you... ::There was a thought... when had it began Gem's constant surprise greetings to Eula by dropping into view? How long ago since that trip to Salamandastron, and she'd been kicking and dragging herself along after them... had the entire time been nothing but this secretive mission to watch over her somehow?::

Eula: "All right Gem, listen. My well-being is not for you to worry about. I'm capable of taking care of myself, not to mention that this was over five years ago. Worrying about me is not your job, so don't. And that certainly does not justify you listening in on my conversations. You can be around me sometimes, speak with me. But you can not follow me around. You can't." She was quiet for a bit. "That fox's name is Ura, by the way."

Gem: You told me that already... ::Gem nodded, ears wilting a little as she turned, but then turned back, raising again:: But it's notta job... I wouldn't been much of a friend if I didn't care, right?

Eula: "There's a difference between being a friend and not minding your own business. I have a lot of friends, and I don't want any of them following me around, or listening to my private conversations. And Gem, you're still a child. You need to be having fun, not looking after me. You can always let me know when you think there is danger, or if you think I am in danger. But you need to stop sneaking around. I don't like anyone following me around."

Gem: ::Ears wilted again:: I said I'd stop, I promise I will... ::She pledged simply enough:: I jus' didn't want you to be worried, 's all...

Eula: She sighed, rubbing between her eyes a bit, thinking. "I worry less when I can work things out for myself. But now that everyone will know what's going on, there's going to be a lot of pressure on me. That's a problem. If I keep a secret, I have a good reason. It's never to be mean, it's never to be selfish. I did it for Redwall, so no one else would have to worry so much, and I did it so I could concentrate without everyone bothering me about it."

Gem: ::Gem seemed to think a little more on it there, hugging around her covers and her good leg, pulling herself a little forward:: Well.... can I help anything?

Eula: Eula was silent for awhile, staring at Gem. She was a part of the riddle, Eula was completely certain. But how could Gem help? The bat didn't already know anything that she wasn't saying, did she? She sighed, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. Why couldn't she have been given an older, less hyper creature to work with? "Your biggest concern right now should be resting and letting your leg heal. You aren't much help to anyone with a broken leg." Eula almost ended the conversation there, but she bit her lip. "Are you hiding any secrets, Gem? Is there anything you should tell me? Because I need to know everything that is going on. I have some stuff to figure out, and I can't have you hiding anything from me."

Gem: ::In response, Gem suddenly dashed and crossed over her chest:: Nope, notta thing! But I can help!! ::She flapped open her free wing just now proudly, smiling:: Who needs legs?

Eula: Eula frowned, shaking her head. That was exactly what she needed right now, for Jasmine to think she was an accomplice in Gem escaping the infirmary. "Jasmine is already very angry with me. She'll blame me if you leave the infirmary," Eula said flatly. "Do you remember the riddle? Have you been trying to think of what it means like everyone else?"

Jasmine: ::There was a loud, sudden thump as Gem opened her mouth!!:: OUT!!!! OUT DAMNED SPOT!!! ::Hic, and nothing more, before a snoring followed in the direction of Jasmine's door::

Gem: ::Gem blinked in the direction of the door that lay out of sight, but let out a sigh of relief, before touching the casted leg, as if considering, before wings fell back:: I haven't reaaally thought about it... but Faith solved something...

Eula: Eula lifted an eyebrow, glancing in the direction of Jasmine's yelling. She looked like she was about to tell Gem something, then blinked when the bat continued speaking. "What did she solve?"

Gem: I. C. U. ::The bat beamed, nodding:: She was gonna tell you, but your family was all there, so she didn't wanna. ::She held up her finger again pointedly:: Inna first lines of each verse is a word that sounds like a letter! I, C, and U!

Eula: Eula paused, blinking. Her brow furrowed, and she shook her head. At this point, that did nothing to help her. "All right... I'll think about it. Thanks." She almost told Gem what she found out. Almost. But she just couldn't. She was silent as she looked back towards Jasmine's room, then looked back to Gem. "Do you want something really important to do?"

Gem: :At that the bat really brightened:: Yes!!!

Eula: "Okay, listen. Jasmine is getting really sick. But it's a very weird sick, so you have to be careful. It's a kind of sick that makes you think you aren't sick, and if you tell her she's sick, she might get angry. But sometimes she might try to sneak in a big bottle, or hide some liquid. You should try and make sure she doesn't try to drink a lot of this in secret... or tell someone, an adult, if she does. It's making her sick, but she doesn't know. Can you do that? Tell someone if she keeps doing it? Me or Donato or another adult? It's very important."

Gem: She blinked, and nodded there solemnly, as if passed a sacred quest, smiling bright:: You can count on me!!

Eula: "Okay good. Because it is very, very important. We don't want Jasmine getting really sick. Because she'll hurt herself, and might also not do a very good job at healing, and hurt others by accident."

Gem: ::She nodded, but slowly stopped, suddenly looking up to Eula a little downstruck...:: Isn't this jus' the same as Uncle Ura asked me to do for you...?

Eula: "I'm not really sick, and I wasn't then either. Plus, I'm telling you to go to adults if it gets serious."

Gem: ::Approximately 0.2 seconds later:: Okay! ::She nodded enthusiastically::

Eula: Almost immediately, Eula got the feeling all of this was going to come back and bite her. It always did. Things just never went right for her. "All right, I think we should both get some sleep. It's been a long day for everyone."

Gem: ::She wilted a little:: Oh. ::She said disappointedly, then looking back at the sound of the snoring:: ...I don't think she'd be mad any more...

Eula: All Eula wanted was a night of SLEEP and now this bat was going to guilt-trip her into an utterly restless night in the infirmary. She rubbed her eyes, shaking her head just a bit to hide her frustration. "All right, fine."

Gem: ::To which she smiled back:: Thank you... ::And at that, she settled back, pulling the covers up, nice and quiet...::