Beyond the Stepping Stones discussion

This river gurgles with music. One who walks near it will hear the delightful melody and will be filled with joy. Many sad people come here to cheer up, or just to hang. [The water is drinkable]

Leya rapped her three tails around herself and squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for a crash landing.

Leya felt the water close around her as they sunk. She felt Zara release her. She wrapped one of her long tails around Zara's wrist and started swimming upwards, using paws and tails. She broke the surface and pulled Zara over to the shore with her.

Leya shook the water out of her fur and sat down to clean the leaves and twigs from her fur. "It's okay," she told Zara. "At least we're on Crag now." She smiled then shifted into her human form, still sitting. "Do you need help drying your wings?" She asked, seeing the sopping wet feathers.

"Oh. Okay," Leya said, standing up and helping Zara stand up. "Where was he last on Crag?"

(Should I bring him in later or should he be gone?)

((Okay))

"He searches the planets twice?" Leya asked, also looking around. "Where would he be in his searched by now?"

"Off we go then!" Leya said, walking towards the forest.

((Okay. ^_^))

Leya paused. "I guess..." She sighed impatiently and listened hard for something, anything, that might signal her brother's presence. After about forever and a half she heard a crash and a male voice grumbling about stupid roots. Her eyes widened.

Leya nodded slowly, a little in shock as a boy about two years older than her stumbled out of the forest into the clearing. He looked like from her memory, if a little more bedraggled. She was frozen in place as her brother walked forward, seeming to have not noticed her and Zara yet.

Jasher looked up, his eyes were shining like there were tears in them. "Zara..." He shook his head as if to clear it and focused on Zara. A slow grin crept onto his face. "Zara! Oh am I glad to see you!" He ran the rest of the way, still not noticing Leya, and only slowed when he gave Zara a hug so he wouldn't knock her over. He pulled back, his grin turning into a small frown. "What's that expression for?"

Leya just sorta watched, still petrified. She couldn't even clear her throat to get his attention.

Jasher smiled at Leya. "Hi, I'm Ja-" he stopped short as he took in Leya's face.

Leya's hands un froze long enough to cover her gasp as about fifty million new memories were triggered.

The siblings stared at each other for a long moment before they could speak again.

"Leya? Leyanoir?" Jasher was the first to speak.

Leya nodded, still covering her mouth. She looked at Zara, trying to convey her gratitude through her eyes, not trusting her voice to not crack if she spoke.

Jasher looked at Zara too, beaming. "Thank you!"

Leya felt her foot take a step towards, then another, and another.

Jasher turned to Leya and walked the last few feet to her, then pulled her into a hug. "Where did you go?" He whispered to her.

Leya hugged him back. "I'm not really sure," she answered. "I lost most of my memory."

Jasher pulled back and held Leya by her shoulders at arms length. "What?

Leya shrugged. "I got into a fight with someone stronger than me and I think they erased my memory."

Jasher guided Leya over to sit by Zara. He sat too so the three were in a little triangle "Let's," he agreed.

((On/off wifi issues. It's totally fine. ^_^))

Leya shrugged. "I dono..."

"How about we hear your story first, Zara," Jasher suggested.

Leya nodded in agreement.

((XD Okay))

Jasher grinned. "This is probably the best timing in history." His grin faltered a little. "I seriously about lost it and gave up."

"I'm glad we caught you before you did," Leya said. "What have you been doing?"

"Barely surviving, honestly." Jasher shrugged. "I've hardly eaten or slept or anything that I should have been doing," He admitted. "I actually finished my second round here, I was just delaying it a little so I could get a drink here. Which reminds me..." He trailed off and stood up then walked over to the river and dove in.

Leya sprang up and rushed over to the edge, but relaxed when she saw Jash easily swimming against the current.

Leya walked back over to Zara and sat across from her. "Thank you, for bringing me here even though he might have already moved on."

"I'm glad I thought to go into my lighter form then..." Leya said sheepishly. "I'll stay here until you can leave if you want. I'll keep Jasher here too, though I'm sure he'll try and take me back to the rest of my mysterious family asap."

Jash pulled himself up onto the shore and turned into his fox form, shook the water from his fur, then padded lightly over to sit beside Zara and Leya. "Mkay. She's stolen now. Where do I take her?"

Jash cringed a little. "Well... We don't really have a home... Anymore."

Leya looked at him, confused. "What happened?"

Jasher shrugged. "You don't want to hear..."

Jash shrugged. "It's alright. Just one of those things... It happened about a week after I last saw you. I only got the message yesterday."

"What happened?" Leya repeated, more forcefully.

Jash shrugged again.

((Maybe Zara could try to get it out of him?))

Jasher let out long groan/sigh then said finally, "Okay fine. But I'm going to warn you now, I suck at breaking things gently."

"Can you ever break something gently?" Leya asked with a smirk.

Jash chuckled weakly. "I guess... Well, my- our parents sorta... Split... Our brothers live on different planets so it didn't really matter to them that all of the children were..." He trailed off.

(It's okay. XD)

"I don't know," Jash admitted.

Let's shrugged. "The children were what?" She asked. "Disowned? Kicked out?"

"...yes." Jash frowned. "We were... Er, disowned."

Leya frowned too. "That... That really sucks," she said, feeling her voice on the verge of cracking. "Did they say anything about if you found me?"

Jash shook his head. "Not really... They just told me to stop looking because I'd never find you." He snorted. "I want to take you to them just to show them how wrong they were."

"I wasn't taking her to meet my brothers." Jash shook his head. "They can come visit when they want and see I found her."

Leya flopped backwards into her back. "Are they that bad?" She whispered, almost whimpered.

"They have their own lives. They don't really care what I'm doing. They think I've completely lost my sanity. Which, I guess I did for a while," he added sheepishly.

((Same))

Jash laughed too. "Good thinking, moving out of my reach." He grinned.

Leya sat up and looked between Zara and Jasher. "Are you two a couple?" She asked bluntly, wanting to know and not wanting to stretch it out before they actually got the question.

Jash frowned. "And I still find that annoying, by the way. It's not like I would make you serve me or anything. I would let you be your own self and would be careful not to give any orders."

"Ooooooohhhhhhhhhh so that's how it works." Leya nodded. "Okay. Yeah. Makes sense." She grinned.

Jash through his hands up in the air.

Leya shrugged. "I didn't think you would have to serve them your whole life."

"That's lame." Leya frowned. "How do you become their servant for life?"

Jash returned the look.

"Okay." Leya nodded.

"I'm pretty sure I know what it is," Jash put in. "Then again I could be completely wrong and my random world traveling gave no real help in figuring it out."

Jash pouted at the sword. "How rude," he mumbled. "Well, I met another gaurdian Angel, like you Zara, and she said that a kiss would cause it. She learned that the hard way." He shrugged.

"Sooooooooooooooooooo," Jash said. "How about I just don't kiss you?"

Leya grinned. "You know, this is really cute to watch."

"It so is!" Leya insisted, her grin growing wider.

"You have got to be the most stubborn person I know," Jash told Zara.

"Well it's a good think I did that, isn't it," Jash said, smiling at Leya.

Leya smiled back.

Jash turned back to Zara. "Only four. But that's four whole planets twice in two years. I think I broke a record. Or started a new one."

Jash looked at Zara's still-dripping wings. "Did you crash in the river?" He asked.

Leya nodded. "Yes. Yes we did."

Jash laughed so hard that he rolled over, and almost fell back into the river. When he finally composed himself, there were tears of laughter in his eyes. "You've really got a thing with getting wet when you first meet people, don't you?" He asked, snickering.

(Gonna disappear for a little while. Going into a dead zone)

Jash smiled at her. "Aw don't be mad." He stood and walked back over to sit by Leya. "I was wondering what that huge splash was."

Jash made a face at Zara then whispered to Leya. "Watch this." He turned into his fox form and padded lightly over to Zara. He rubbed his head against her leg like a cat, a trick that he'd found that made Zara unable to stay mad at him for long.

Leya held back a chuckled.

"That's why I did it," Jash admitted, turning back to his human form, standing only a few inches from Zara. He crossed his arms and grinned.

Leya stood up and walked over to Jasher. "ATTACK!" She shouted, then jumped on top of him, smushing him to the ground. She sat on his back and laughed. "Victory!"

"Hey!" Jash said. "I wasn't ready!"

"That was the point nerd," Leya said, happy that this felt so natural.

"I have a question," Leya said.

"Fire away," Jash replied.

Leya rolled her eyes. "I meant for Zara."

"Are you gonna leave as soon as your wings are dry?" Leya asked.

"Hm yes. I would also like to know that," Jash added, finally bucking Leya off and sitting up.

Leya made a face at him.

((It's okay! I was hiking and before that I went through a huge dead zone))

"Well, I'm not letting you off the hook until Leya and I have our own house away from the rest of our family," Jash said. "And even then I'm still gonna try and figure out a way to keep you as long as possible without kidnapping you or something like that."

Leya nodded in agreement.

"Thank you," Jash said. "And I said without kidnapping you. I know exactly how that would go and it wouldn't go well for me." He chuckled.

"Where would we even live?" Leya asked. "I mean, I guess I would want to say hi to everyone else, but I don't really want to live on Hinansho. I like meeting other people that aren't Kitsune. Well, when I like meeting people anyway."

Jash shrugged. "I've searched the worst places so far, so none of the planets I've been would be a good living place unless you were born there and were adjusted to the lifestyles."

Jash nodded. "I haven't been to Sol... Sounds like a nice place from what I've heard. Well, as nice as you can in this universe."

((Same! I was gonna quickly say that. XD We've got our sleep schedules pretty much lined up exactly))

((You too!))

"Can we go now?" Leya asked. She thought about how they would get there and frowned, then turned to her brother. "How did you travel from planets to planet?"

"Well, the first time Zara tried to get me there," Jash said chuckling. "That ended about as well as when she tried to bring you here. There's a shuttle that goes from place to place. That's what I used after I realizes Zara couldn't carry me across space." He grinned at Zara.

"Okay," Leya agreed, standing up. "Don't make that detour to long though."

Jash stood up too. "And stay on guard," he cautioned.