:afro:

"How's it look up there, Mae?" Charlie yelled, looking up at the bird flying above in the trees.

"It's wonderful, Charlie! There's tons of birds around here!" Mae yelled back. She had found a bird friend to fly around with, and it was chasing her around branches and through leaves. Charlie could just barely hear the bird laugh from above.

"Don't get too far away, Mae! Remember that I'm all the way down here," she said, barely loud enough for the bird to hear.

Charlie frowned a bit, trying to figure out how she was going to climb the tree to go up there with them. She bent down and took some soil in her hand, suddenly getting an idea. She smiled and stood up, stepping back and putting her hands out in front of her. Suddenly the soil started condensing and getting harder, and then started swerving around. In only a minute or two, she had created a rope of soil, and she made it hard and firm so it could hold her. (haha, hard and firm. xD) She took the rope in her hands and threw it up into the air, watching it go up and up and up. It wrapped around one of the higher branches, and she held on tight as she continued wrapping it around the branch, forcing her to go up into the air.

She got up to the branch, though it took a while, and took a deep breath. That was sort of hard. She watched Mae fly past quickly, seeing another bird follow her, chirping. Her legs dangled over the branch as she held onto it with both hands, looking down at the ground.

Alecis was flying with her daemon, Rheis, sitting on her back. The two were laughing about the girl she had just met over in Dahlin. Getting all angry about nothing... Pfff.

As light as air, Leci danced over the treetops of dense jungle. She was on Taigar Island, and she loved watching the animals below. Tigers, leopards, and monkeys were a few of her favorite. The birds were pretty too, and she soon saw a pair racing each other.

There was something about the one bird though, and Leci couldn't quite put her finger on it...

Suddenly, Rheis spoke up. "That isn't a bird, silly. It's a daemon, and it looks to me like it belongs to that new Overloridian..."

Alecis was excited, more so than she normally would have been to see another Overloridian. She didn't really feel like fighting, but this girl didn't seem like the fighting type either. She did look tomboyish, Leci admitted, but she looked gentle. Maybe she wouldn't mind Alecis coming to talk to her. They were about the same age, and Alecis sort of felt lonely these days.

Mae circled Charlie quickly, the bird following right behind her. 'Charlie, the Cuir Overloridian is up there,' Mae silently stated, diving down and swerving.

'Does she wanna fight?' Charlie asked, purposely not looking up so the girl would have to talk to her first. 'Because I don't really wanna fight.'

'I dunno, I don't think so. She looks like she's just here for fun,' Mae said, suddenly flying up and past Charlie again. 'Maybe you should go talk to her.'

'She can fly, she can come talk to me first,' Charlie said with a light laugh. It was weird seeing the other Overloridians places...they seemed to run into each other a lot. She remembered the Cuir Overloridian to be a loud girl, but she seemed nice. She was so used to the idea that Overloridians were these power hungry clio, but everyone at the meeting had seemed normal enough. Not many people seemed to enjoy the meetings though, even though they didn't seem to bad to Charlie.

Alecis quietly floated down, into a tree that was nearby Charlie's after she saw the daemon fly down.

Alecis looked at the girl and her bird and smiled.

"Hi!" She called over, "I'm Alecis, do you remember me?"

'There she is,' Mae said, flying over to Charlie's shoulder and landing peacefully on it. The other bird landed on Charlie's other shoulder, to her own surprise. 'The bird's fine,' Mae said.

"Hi," Charlie said, looking over to Alecis. "Yeah, I remember you. The Cuir Overloridian, right? Charlie," she pointed to herself, "Though you prolly remember that. This is Mae," she pointed to Mae, who ducked her body down in a bow/nod thing.

"Nice seeing you again," Mae said.

"How are you?" Charlie asked politely.

Alecis smiled, "It's nice to see you again, too." She turned her attention to the clio, still smiling, "I'm alright, just a bit tired, I came out here to see some animals. They're so beautiful, big cats are my favorites, but I like watching them all."

Alecis looked down at the jungle floor below them, looking for anything moving. She didn't really expect to see much, it wasn't that late yet.

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, animals around beautiful," she agreed, though right as she said that the bird on her shoulder started pulling her bangs with its beak. "Ouch," she said, and Mae laughed a little before shooing the bird away by flying towards it. "Yep, big cats are cool."

Whenever she thought of a big cat, she thought of Iluhra's daemon, which kind of scared her a bit, as Iluhra did. Charlie as Iluhra were just very different was all, and she was pretty sure Iluhra wouldn't hurt her if she stayed out of her way, so that was her plan. She shook the random thoughts from her mind, looking to Alecis again to pay attention to her.

"So yeah, I found one of those jewel things," she said, for lack of anything to talk about. So far she didn't know anything about this girl, so she wasn't sure if they had anything in common or not.

"I figured," Alecis responded. "It seems like we all have..."

Rheis raised his non-existent eyebrow, and spoke to Alecis telepathically, Do you trust her?

Alecis shrugged, she didn't see any reason not to. If this girl tried anything funny, she knew she could take her down. But, she didn't think that would happen. This girl seemed nice enough.

"Have you found anything unusual about it? Besides the fact that it wont stop glowing?" She laughed.

Charlie shrugged, "I just get really powerful when I touch it. It's just kinda weird that it just showed up and stuff. The clio back at Adhbhar are trying to do research on it, but they're not finding anything."

"Let's talk about something less boring," Mae said, and Charlie looked at her.

'How impolite, we're in the middle of a conversation! I don't wanna seem rude,' Charlie said.

'That's why I said it. You're thinking the same thing,' Mae said. 'Our minds are connected, remember? We're just gonna talk about it at the meeting anyhow.' Charlie sighed and looked back over to Alecis. Mae was right, they would probably have the exact conversation at the next meeting, which was coming up soon anyhow.

"I guess we could talk about something else for a change-" Charlie started to say, right when the bird from before flew past her and stole the bow holding her hair up. Her hair fell down to her shoulders, covering Mae, whow as laughing uncontrollably. Charlie wasn't sure what had happened at first, until she saw the bird fly past her again with he rbow in its beak. "Dammit!" she said, standing on the branch and trying to keep balance. "Stupid bird..."

Alecis smiled, she had been thinking the same thing. There was enough to worry about, this little trip was supposed to be relaxing. The meeting was later tonight anyways.

When a small bird stole Charlie's hair bow, Alecis giggled a little. She hummed a short tune and a slight breeze picked up. The bird was being forced back, as Alecis manipulated the air around it. It looked confused and started flapping it's wings harder to get away, but Leci calmly grabbed the ribbon out of it's mouth before letting the wind die down.

With a smile across her face, Alecis jumped to Charlie's tree and handed her the tie.

Charlie watched as Alecis moved the bird, and she smiled when she handed it back to her.

"Thank you," she said, accepting her tie back. She stuck it in her mouth, probably not the most sanitary thing to do, and pulled her hair back how it was. She slipped the tie back into her hair and thanked her again. "That was really nice of you. Some people would just laugh and watch me try to get it back."

She was glad that the Overloridians she was running into were nice and were helping her. They understood where she was coming from, unlike the clio that tended to judge her. Not that'd run into many common clio, just Overloridians. Maybe she needed to get out more. Her only friends these days were her brothers.

Alecis laughed a little. Normally, she probably would have just watched. But Charlie seemed nice, and Leci didn't want to run her off.

"So, how do you like being an Overloridian? It's a big change, huh?" Alecis looked down.

"I became one early too, just like you. Did you know that?" She looked back up, smiling.

"Yeah, big change. I'm not so sure if the clio of Adhbhar were ready for a big change, they seem to be doubting me. I guess they'll get used to me, they don't have a choice. It's just hard getting used to a new leader, I guess." She looked down to the ground and back up to Alecis. "No, I didn't know that. It's nice to know that someone else knows what I'm going through." She smiled, watching Mae fly from her shoulder and over to Alecis' daemon, who was sitting on a branch nearby. She started conversing with him, being a bit bored with the conversation between Alecis and Charlie.

"Yeah, I was fifteen when I settled. That was a fun time." She rolled her eyes, remembering the day when Rheis could no longer change shape.

While Alecis was lost in thought, Rheis started talking to the Magpie that had flown over to him.

"How are you Mae?"

Hm, what should I do? Rowan wondered as he found himself and Nym face-to-face with a fully grown wild tiger. The tiger was simply gazing at them, as if it too was trying to decide the best course of action. Nym stood between them looking tense, and glaring at the tiger.

All Rowan knew for sure was that the tiger wasn't likely to attack as long as they were facing it. "Don't turn your back on it," he said quietly to Nym.

A little TOO quietly. Nym, obviously not hearing him, turned around and said, "what?"

Dammit, Rowan thought as the tiger lunged at Nym with a roar. He had to act fast. Brandishing his chain, Rowan used it to bind the tiger from head to toe, effectively immobilizing it for the time being. He didn't want to have to kill it, so he constricted the chain just enough to cut off the tiger's air supply until it passed out, and then released it.

"Whoa," was all Nym said.

Mae would have smiled if birds could smile, but since she couldn't she expressed her emotions with words. "I'm doing very well, thank you. How about-" She looked down at the ground after hearing something strange, as if something was being attacked. She looked to Charlie, who seemed to have heard the same thing.

"Go check and see what that was, Mae," Charlie said, and Mae nodded and flew into the air, flying down, but not too far away from Charlie. She saw Rowan and Nym through the branches and flew back up to Charlie.

"It's Rowan and Nym!" Mae said. "They were attacked by something." Charlie seemed startled, and turned to Alecis.

"We should go check and make sure they're alright," she said, and she jumped from the branch. Any branch that got in her way she broke, and she landed on a self-made pile of incredibly soft soil, close to where Rowan was. "Rowan!" she called, seeing the tiger on the ground, passed out.

Wonderful, Alecis muttered under her breath as Charlie jumped from the tree. Rowan really knows how to spoil everything. She sighed, and then she, too, jumped from the tree.

Softly landing, the worry she was almost feeling for him faded. He had already knocked the big cat out, and it was laying near his daemon.

Rowan turned around when he heard his name, and to his pleasant surprise saw Charlie, who had just landed a few feet away from him. "Charlie! I didn't think I'd be seeing you here," he greeted, smiling. Second later Alecis fell from above and landed nearby. The smile disappeared from Rowan's face. "Alecis," he greeted not nearly as enthusiastically.

Mae landed on Charlie's shoulder after she reached the ground. Charlie smiled at Rowan. "Hi," she said softly, looking surprised when his expression changed so much when Alecis dropped in. Both Charlie and Mae turned and looked from Alecis to Rowan, wondering why both nice people suddenly seemed so...mean.

Maybe it was the whole Overloridian thing. When she was with these people she somewhat forgot that they hated each other...

"Rowan" Alecis nodded in his direction, then turned to survey the area.

"What are you doing out here, I wouldn't see you as the type to roam in the jungle?"

"I'm not," Rowan replied with a sigh. "Nym, on the other hand..."

"I love the outdoors," Nym elaborated.

"How about you two?" Rowan asked with slight interest. "Did you just run into each other here, or did you come together?"

Charlie could agree with Nym on that aspect. She loved the outdoors. Maybe it was because she grew underground in an earth box...then again, so did Rowan. Anyways, she watched the two and decided to answer Rowan's question.

"Yeah, I was here hanging out with Mae and Alecis happened to come here, too." She smiled and nodded looking from Alecis to Rowan again. It was interesting how the mood changed when they were around each other. It was also interesting that she knew practically nothing about them, but felt as if she had known them for a while. She had contact with these two more than any of the others, and was pretty much friends with both of them. Thinking of that, she looked over to Rowan and just...smiled. She couldn't help it.

Alecis looked at Charlie, then she looked at Rowan, then she looked at Charlie again.

Nahh, that can't be. Alecis thought. No way.

She shook her head to get the thought away and quickly changed the subject.

"Yeah, we just met up here. Overloridians seem to have some sort of magnet that draws us together or something." She laughed.

"Yeah," Rowan said, although he was just barely listening to Alecis. He was more focused on Charlie. He was somewhat glad that Alecis and Charlie had just happened to meet up there by chance; it would be kind of awkward if the girl he liked and the girl he hated turned out to be good friends.

Charlie looked from Alecis to Rowan, feeling the tension between the two. She happened to be in the middle and she felt the need to bring it out and into the open.

"So...you guys really hate each other, huh?" she said bluntly. It was getting more awkward by the second, being between the two.

[[That's all I got. xD]]