Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mae swished her tail over some dead fallen leaves as she lay on the ground. She looked over to her father who stood off to the side and chewed happily on something. Mae couldn't tell from her position on the ground what it was, but she really couldn't care less. Knowing wouldn't solve her boredom. Mae sighed heaver this time, her previous sigh falling on the seemingly deaf ears of her father. Which the thought of could almost make Mae laugh if she knew his ears weren't open to every sound around him, scanning for any perceived danger at all times. Naz's eyebrow quirked up as he finally swung his head in her direction, the grass he was munching on slightly swaying at the corner of his mouth with the motion before he swallowed. Mae watched his head quark to the side and gave a little huff of his own. "Mae. Dearest. Is there a reason you are sighing out every breath you take and staining your coat with swamp mud? You know your mother wont be pleased to see you plastered in the stuff. There are so few ponds of clear water in the swamp to wash with."

Mae huffed out her own breath, murmuring her first thought. "Its her own fault for going off with the boys and leaving me here." To disguise her impertinence she stood and walked closer to her father. Tail still swishing impatiently. "Why do they get to go out and have an adventure when I'm stuck here with you?" At this, both of Nax's eyebrows lifted, the side of his mouth lifting slightly as the slight from his daughter fell off him. "What, are you getting too old to keep your old man company? And we already told you why. We need to stock up on healing herbs and the part of the swamp they can be found in is dangerous. There's quicksand!" He blurted out quickly, trying to urge his brave girl to understand how dangerous and scary the world can be. It only made Mae's eyes roll as once again, her father blew things out of proportion. Life wasn't really all that scary. She wanted to experience things!

Suddenly, Nax started and jumped at a branch popping under the weight of something near by. "Wh-whats that? Who's there?!!?" His voice quivered as his ears swiveled to the noise but his face pointed in the direction of where he had last heard Mae's voice come from. They were both blind with the eyes on their faces, but Mae had been gifted the use of sight from the eyes all along her body she had inherited from her mothers side. Mae grinned broadly at who was walking towards them.

"Is that really any way to greet your sister, Nax? You'd think by now you'd be used to the sound of my steps. Or have your fears finally taken over that small head of yours between what you call ears?" Nax glared at the direction his sisters voice was coming from as his daughter bounded up besides her, happily proclaiming "Auntie!" Nax gave a small growl as his lips rippled with it. "I would have if you'd stop lumbering over every broken branch you find. And my head isn't small! I know you are just jealous I inherited dad's ears. I could hear you coming a mile away." "Uh-huh" Was her only reply. She kept her retort to herself about if he had known she was coming from such a large distance away, why was he still jumping over every sound she made. Instead, she turned her attention to her favorite niece. "Hello Mae. You look like you've been on a grand adventure! Look at all that muck on you. And how is my favorite niece?"

Mae giggled at her aunt. "Auntie, I'm your only niece." After that, a frown fell back onto her face. "No, I have not been on an adventure. Just wallowing in the same boring mud as always, thanks to dad! It's so booooring here." Extending the word to show how desperate it made her feel. "Mama and the boys went out to find herbs in the swamp and they wouldn't let me go with them!" She complained. Nasrin nodded her head. She knew how protective her brother could be. Usually her sister-In-Law was better at convincing him to lengthen his leash, but if she had taken the boys with her, she understood why she wouldn't be able to keep her many eyes on Mae. Even with so many, Mae's antics could easily make one dizzy.

"Well" Nasrin began "If you have nothing to do, would you like to hear about some of my adventures?" Mae felt the pull to both roll her eyes at missing out on her own adventures and excited to hear about all that was out there. It took her no time at all to decide to eagerly nod her head and put on her best pleading voice. "Oh yes auntie. Would you please?" Nax rolled his own eyes at this, grumbling to himself before his sister could launch into a story. "Oh, sure, with her you know what the word please means." Nasrin ignored her elder brother and started thinking of which story to tell her niece.

"Lets seeeeee. Which should I tell you about. About the---" At this Mae interrupted her, eyes shining with eagerness. "Tell me them all! I want to hear about all the exciting and interesting things out in the world." Nasrin took a second to consider this. "Interesting, you say? I was once traveling through this very swamp, for this swamp is wide and long, it reaches through twists and turns you have not even begun to imagine." Mae's eyes sparkled as she nodded, attention fully on her aunt now. Nax just sighed next to them, neither paying him any mind as he went a few paces to try and sniff out a nice grass section to munch on. If he was lucky, Nasrin would be able to keep Mae distracted long enough for him to get more than two bites in.

Nasrin continued her story, happy to have her nieces attention. "There are many places in this swamp that have attributes you can find in no other lands." Mae's nose scrunched slightly at the use of the word. 'Attributes' "What do you mean auntie?" Nasrin didn't mind the numerous interruptions Mae would give. She knew it was just her way of showing she was paying attention to what she was listening to. It was when Mae was silent that she had to be wary her story was uninteresting and uncaptivating. "Take the area to the East for example. I was walking through the area just the other week and experienced something I had never seen in all my days before." Again, Nax rolled his eyes as he half paid attention to the two. He knew his sister wasn't terribly much older than his daughter, and thus wasn't exactly worldly in her experiences. His neck bent to the ground again to take another bite of the patch of grass again. "I was walking around, not doing much of anything when I came across a bubbling bog." This time Mae's eyebrows scrunched together. "Bubbling? Why on Earth was it bubbling for? Was there a volcano under it?" Her voice getting higher as she gave a guess as to why she thought a bog would bubble. At this, Nasrin smiled, she knew she had her neices attention now. "No, I could feel no heat coming from it. If I had, I would have stopped right then and had a Spa day." Mae giggled at her aunts words. She couldn't really picture the wandering woman sitting still for very long to let the rich minerls in mud to do any work on her skin. Not that Mae thought she needed a Spa day with how nice she always looked. "No" Nasrin continued, lowering her voice slightly to add a layer of spookyness. "It was from all the dead bodies that had fallen in and gotten trapped."

Mae gasped and Nax whipped his head around to gaze at them with unseeing eyes. "Dea-dead bodies? Perposterous! How could you even tell there were bodies in the bog? It's not like you could see through the water." "Of course not, silly" Nasrin responded tersly. When her brother interupted her it was always for some reason, like to insist she was wrong about something. "Its a Bog, dummy, its too muddy." Nax harumphed at her, but did not interupt again. He was waiting for her to continue her story so he could point out how silly she was being. Nasrin leaned in closer to Mae conspiratoraly. "This bog wasn't bubbling from a heat source, or from some trapped gas. Or, at least, not one made by the Earth. No, these bubbles were made by the dead bodies beneath the surface. Thats how I could tell they were under there." Mae nodded vigerously. She didn't understan what bubbles had to do with bodies, but she listened intently. "I could tell there were bodies because every bubble that popped was the last words from a soul as it was sucked down, never to be seen again."

Mae gasped again, Nax practically choked on a muzzle full of grass but decided it wasn't worth arguing with his sister at this time while he tried to cough up grass. Nasrin ignored him again to launch into impressions of bubbles popping around her. "Mildred! Don't forget me!" She said in a low voice. She angled her body in a different pose as she changed the pitch of her voice. "ACK! I've Been robbed! That man stole my purse". At this Nax grumbled under his voice, his coughing fit finally over. "What a silly thing to care about if you were dieing." Again, his sister changed her pose and made the pitch of her voice higher. "Oh no! I forgot to add butter to Jerry's grocery list before I sent him to the store!" Her and Mae burst into giggles at the last of her impersinations. Nasrin enjoyed the time she was able to spend with her neice. Even if her brother could be annoying. She waited untill she could speak evenly again before continuing on. She nodded, trying to be solemn again, "And that is why it is called The Bog Of Remembered Sorrows."

Nax could stand it no longer. He scoffed and piped up to chastize his younger sister. "Theere is no such place as The Bog Of Forgotten" "REMEMBERED!" His siter said over him. "Remembered Sorrows." He turned to where his daughters giggles had come from. "Your auntie is telling tall tales again. Theres no way voices can be trapped like that." Nasrin and Mae both glared at him. Nas for basically being called a liar from her brother, and Mae because once again, her father was being a spoil sport. "Oh yeah? And how would you know." Nasrin countered him. "Its not like you leave your little area of safety. If you ever went anywhere you'd see there are many things about the Earth we don't know about." Nax squared his shoulders and raised himself up to his full hight as he quiped back. "I don't leave because its dangerous out there! A bog doesn't need to scream at me for me to know it can suck me under!"

Nasrin just rolled her eyes at him. She knew his reason for staying home was a sound reason, in his eyes at least. Even with his inhanced hearing his lack of sight kept him stuck in one area. Their father constantly asking her how he was doing since Nax never left the swamp to visit him. Nasrin only humphed at his trying to seem larger to her. He would never be intimidating to her. Not because of his fears, but because of his love for her and unwilingness to harm anything. "Well, we'll just see what Burgle has to say about it. I think I see them coming down the path now."