Welcome to Gaia! ::

The woman leaned back slightly, correctly interpreting the look on Joshua's face. "I didn't send them away specifically because of you," she told him gently. "There are tensions rising in town. I had a feeling things were going to get...ugly. I wanted them out of all that." She tilted her head, shrugged a little. "Can you forgive a mother's weakness?"

Tianara's eyes were understanding. "They're too precious to keep in danger," she replied with a slight nod. "We understand." She didn't hesitate, but simply plunged right in. "There is to be a war. The merfolk need our help. Will you help us?"

The woman chuckled wryly. She didn't seem fazed. "Yes, of course. You must know I would." She extended a hand. Tianara realized that she had taken the woman for about thirty, but she had to be older - if she had five children and thought three were old enough to help their cause, even now that she knew it was to be war. "Mieka," she said. It was an introduction. "The children, once they get here, are Alysse, Lance and Cheryl."

"Tianara," replied the girl, smiling a bit. "You and the older ones?"

"Yes," Mieka said easily. "If they wish to, once they know what it's all about."

"How old are they?" asked Tianara, knowing that it was probably more polite than asking how old Mieka was.

"Eighteen, sixteen and fifteen, respectively," replied Mieka. She smiled, knowing what the girl was really after. "I'm thirty-seven." Turning her attention to the rest of the group, she asked, "And all of you?"

Mieka smiled a little. "Well, then, that's fine. Hello, Joshua, Aria, Allen," she greeted, each in turn. She didn't seem at all surprised to be discussing war out here in the middle of the forest. "You have someone warning the folk at home, don't you?" she asked Tianara.

Tianara knew she meant the merfolk, and nodded. "We have four of them out warning the others, and asking about their children," she replied calmly. "We're going to meet up with them when we're done here."

Mieka shook her head faintly. "Don't know why I bothered to ask. You wouldn't have let anyone forget that, would you." It wasn't a question, but a gently amused statement. "Well, now, do you need any more--"

She was cut off as the rustling in the brush behind her grew more pronounced, and then three figures stepped out. They were obviously the children she'd spoken of - the youngest girl looked just like her, and the other two favoured her quite a bit. The eldest girl - Alysse, Mieka had called her - stepped forward and laid a hand on her mother's shoulder. She brushed back long dark hair and examined the group minutely. "Is this them, Mom?" she inquired.

Mieka glanced up at her daughter, smiled. "Yes, Allie," she said softly. "It's them. And it's time."

Nira summoned her ball of sight. From within her dwelling she watches. "Hehehe...Lets see...another child of the sea?" she announces to herself quietly and a bit entertained, watching the face of the red-haired girl in her orb, "Lets see how this one fairs".

Cheryl cast an icy grey-eyed gaze over them, tucking her long red hair back behind her ear. "They don't look like much," she said critically - brutally honest as only young folk could be. "Are you sure they're the ones you saw?" The boy - Lance - elbowed her and made her glare at him. "Don't pretend you aren't wondering, too," the outspoken girl told her brother.

Mieka's amused look back at her daughter was only slightly tinged with warning. "Yes, Cheryl," she said. "I'm sure."

Tianara frowned. Saw? That didn't sound right. Mieka had obviously been getting her kids ready for this for a long time, so how could they only have started when the woman had seen them?

She glanced over at Joshua, wondering if it meant more to him than it did to her. Maybe it was a slang term of some kind?

((OOC: Mieka knows what's coming. razz Cheryl's inherited that tendency, in slightly less strength. Alysse and Lance are both well-trained as far as physical combat goes, and Cheryl has a gun. You know most of what Tianara can do - some basic mermagic, not a lot of which is good in battle.))

Mieka seemed to understand their confusion, because after a moment, she smiled faintly. "It's not precisely clairvoyancy," she explained to a bewildered-looking Joshua. "It's seeing what the future might possibly bring. I see a lot in dreams. I've been seeing you - mostly you and this girl here," she nodded at Tianara, "for several years now. I knew you brought painful news, and the beginning of what could be the end. I don't know if it is - I've seen it both ways." She looked a trifle sad, but then shook her head a little. "The chances are about even, I would say."

After a moment, she smiled. Then she nodded when Mac spoke up. "No, Mac, we're not," she said calmly. "It's been there for at least half an hour now. Probably more."

Tianara immediately decided she wanted to be this woman when she grew up. Nothing seemed to faze her.