Welcome to Gaia! ::

Bastianna Casquete du Cimetiere looked out over her dominion. She had come to this place a few years ago. There had been no caretaker left and the place had been in ruins. Taking i upon herself to clean up the place, she had set about the work of bringing the graveyard a layer of respectability. Soon after she began the upkeep of the graveyard she named Bonaventure, Ville de Mort. City of the Dead, she came across a foal abandoned.

At first she'd thought it dead, when she found it. It was nothing but a scrawny little thing impaled with all sorts of metal. The metal though did not affect her and she was a bright, happy foal given to odd eccentricities. In a fit of fancy, she had named her. Lasciate Ogni Sperenza Kirkegård. Abandon all hope ye who enter here, graveyard. She called her Kirke for short.

The foal had grown into a gangly adult with a child-like wonder. She was always happy but the things she loved were all what others would consider strange--a bouquet of dead roses, a broken toy, or things of a more macabre nature. But it was all these things that made Bastianna love Kirke. She raised her like a daughter, giving her a red teddy bear that had been restored. Kirke always had it with her, from the moment she was given it.

Kirke had always liked the quiet of the graveyard as the shadows grew long. In the solemn darkness, she moved between the graves visiting each headstone like an old friend. She brought them flowers, not all of them of course. She tried to change it around. She never took the old flowers away, she couldn't bear to. Why not let the dead flowers rest here along with the souls?

She gave a dreamy sigh as she helped Sabine with the masonry. Some of the stones were too heavy for Sabine to place, so she often enlisted Kirke's help. The masoleum they worked on now was impressive. There were fleur de lis carved into the marble columns. The detail was intricate where Sabine had restored it to it's former glory. This masoleum though was to be something more than just a final resting place, this was to be their home.

Bastianna had carefully planned out the rooms of the building that would be their home. Her room was accentuated in ebony marble shot through with white streaks. It was a bit more grandoise to go with her new title of matriarch. Sabine, of course, had her water room with her otter Gris-Gris. Kirke had her room of eccentricities and flowers. It smelled like warm, wet earth in there--a good smell of clean and growing things. Kirke even had a small cultivated mushroom farm in the corner. Three of the other three were prepared to her other siblings tastes.

Céleste Casquette des Os room was the old room where the bodies had been prepared for burial. There were bones hanging around like wind chimes. She knew how much Celeste loved the clack of bones in the wind, the two small window directly across from each other making a breezeway. Tunde Casquette des Sacrifices room had a large altar in the middle of the room. The shelves and walls were lined with bottles of powders and rare ingredients. His room connected to Marcellus Casquette du Sang's room. The room was small, not very elaborate with only a place for a hearh. But the two rooms funneled into a shared stable where they raised creatures for slaughter. They would be pleased.

Sabine watched Kirke hum a peculiar song as she moved between the rows of plans. They had used all their hard save money for these glass panels. It was a luxary they'd been glad to pay for. The joy in Kirke's eyes was worth every shilling. Kirke had insisted that half the place be kept for growing foods and other useful ingredients. The mare had a green thumb for all that she had no thumbs and that they would have been black.

Sabine went back into her room and layed in the small alcove staring at the waterway in the floor. The water danced and with it, she slipped into those ethereal half dreams. The future shifted like sand on a beach. The fates swirled in eddies, each passing moment changing the larger picture.

She blinked out of her reverie. Their paths would lead them here soon--her brothers and sister. The thick stone would be a comfort as well as the powers and giftts each of the siblings posessed.

Bastianna walked amongst the gravestones and stopped beside the one they had placed in honor of her grandmother Agatha. It was the blue moon and on this rare night it was said that the spirits of those we know drift closer to the veil. It was her job as matriarch to stand watch and wait for something to happen. And for it to work, the vigil in graveyard was to be completely alone.

It seemed the wind began to whisper.

Kirke loved the silence. To her, silence had a special kind of voice that echoed. The wind sang as it stirred leaves, the world shifted it's earth while sleeping. It was as though she could feel the soil breathing peacefully after a long day. Her plants now cloaked in darkness pushed toward that hope for light.

The hours passed slowly and the restless urge to move made her get up. Sabine was careful not to disturb Gris-Gris (who hated to be awoken) and waded down the stairs into the pool of cool water. Everything in her wanted to dive beneath the edge and wade out into the pond then on into the river but she had to stay. This was a test for each of them, and for her it was about honor and duty. Respecting traditions instead of flouting them. She swam around in the water, her anger and frustration simmering like the embers of a fire. She felt as though the water around her should be boiling. Let the ancestors test her then, she would pass.