Welcome to Gaia! ::

Atreyu had been raised after his blooming for most of his life on the Isle of Amara, with his mother, Zikiri, and the three daughters she had bloomed with her new mate since her separation with Atreyu’s other mother. In his earliest years, before they parted ways, she and Yzadra had lived with him in Andile. But early in her new relationship, Zikiri and her mate, Akazae, had chosen to relocate. Closer to home, further from rumors, nearer to the mother tree. It had been the perfect place to raise their three blessings, in any case, and Atreyu had learned there to quiet himself into the background.

Though his mother never lied about him, she never corrected anyone who mentioned the eldest of her four daughters, and Atreyu learned to find it easier to do the same. He trained with his sisters only as often as necessary and spent the rest of his time not otherwise dedicated to chores out amidst the jungle itself. Nature was more honest than anything that spoke back. If asked, Atreyu would have had to say he wouldn’t likely miss Andile the village itself, in so much as it was defined by the persons there who he didn’t have much close connection to himself. But in so far as Andile, the land that Aisha had given fruit to and her children had chosen to name, in so much as it was defined as the space where all the trees and rivers, nooks, caves, and cliffsides he knew were concerned—he suspected he might miss that.

He wasn’t certain what exactly prompted the decision for a move to Emeka, and he wasn’t opposed so much as he was unenthusiastically indifferent. No one would know him there, so he would be obligated to make new acquaintances at least, and awkwardly avoid his sisters’ new friends.

The first phase of which was apparently set to begin immediately. Though they had only spent their first full night settled in their new home the night prior, Akazae insisted that he go meet the sisters of his ‘age range’ who were being called together for a scouting session. Given that it sounded like at least the potential for an excuse to be out in the jungle early, Atreyu supposed it wasn’t the worst of ways to begin the day. He dressed in fitted, wrapped shorts, short beneath a loose, draped skirt that hid them and a top which hung down over where most of his sisters by now had a fairly developed chest. He found, though, that with the right decoration, his lack of a pronounced bosom was forgettable, and he blended in well enough with his sisters that few inquired further unless they came to know him.

Akazae’s directions had seemed vague at the time, but when he set out in the direction instructed, it wasn’t long before he found what must have been the spoken of gathering himself: a building cluster of adolescents, none of the girls looking armed yet, but all well beyond their youngling years—and a boy.

Atreyu normally managed better than to stare, but given Akazae’s attitude towards hybrids, he would have anticipated they’d be moving somewhere low in that regard. Then again, this was the only one he saw, and in spite of himself, he felt a curious quickening of his pulse—curiosity, he was sure. He hadn’t had opportunity before to meet with many a male among his sisters, and it was encouraging to know that if he was stepping into a crowd with that among them, he wouldn’t be the one earning the attention, surely.

Of course, he had no way of knowing how long the boy had been here before him, and he supposed it stood to reason that if the hybrid were a long term resident of the area, Atreyu would be attracting eyes and questions regardless. Atreyu angled himself for the back of the gathering. His attention, though, lingered on the hybrid, and he wondered what it was like, to be so obvious there was no hiding it.