This World is Wild, But is Not the Forest

[The Dreamer]

She blinked her eyes a few times, adjusting the bright, white world around her. This is not the forest she called home. It didn't even feel right, like it was not the planet she called home either. Just a vast, empty white space, dotted by animals here and there, and a few, what looked to be structures, far in the distance. Behind her stood a large tree, almost exactly the same as the one she had called home before... before what? She couldn't really remember.

She put a hand to her gem, a large, green emerald, settle where one of her teeth should be. She felt along the edges, well defined and slightly sharp, and the facets, flat and pristine. There was no damage to her gem, which was a relief, for if there was, that would spell certain the end of her long life. The only thing a Gem like herself could not recover from is damage to her own gem, for that is what a Gem is, all else you might see if merely a construct of will.

So, if there was no damage to her precious emerald, than she should surely remember how she got to this strange place, one seemly devoid of all natural life. It lack the warmth of the green and browns she had grown used to, and quite fond of. In this vast, seemingly unending space of white, there was only this fountain that stood before her...

She stumbled back a few steps. Where did this fountain come from? Where did the tree go? It was there only a moment ago! She thought. She looked down at her feet. There was dirt on the ground when I... woke up? I could feel it. Now though, there was only more white space, hard and smooth, cold to the touch of her toes. This planet...? Dimension...? What ever this place was, it certainly was far from the world she had come to know, to love. All that stood before her now was a fountain, spewing water from it peak, down into the basin at it base. Nothing natural about it, in it looks, although, it seem to hum with a similar energy to the white space that now encompassed her world. Maybe it was natural... well, this world's natural. I kinda prefer dirt and trees over a fountain and endless white space as far as the eye can see. If the laws of nature are different in this world though, I suppose I will have to accept them... while figuring out exactly what the laws are now... and how I got here. That would be nice to know. She knelt down, cupping her hand into the water that flowed through the fountain. Bring a hand full of the water to her lips, she drank from it.

She spit it out instantly. Even the water taste different here. She scowled. Hopefully it all doesn't taste like shit, or all the animals who drink from it will probably taste like shit too. While a Gem didn't need to eat in an capacity, Emerald grew up in the natural cycle, and was more than happy to be part of it on occasion. Okay, more than just occasionally. Though she hadn't drank the water, and had barely even touched if for more and a second, it had an adverse affect on her. She grabbed her chest. I feel weird. She dropped to her knees. Okay, weird is an understatement. I'm gonna hurl. The was a shimmering under her skin, a faint rainbow rolled in wave along her skin, from the tips of her fingers, all moving towards her gem. She put a hand to her gem. What is this... power I feel? Her gem seemed to gently hum with power. "What the...?" It was the same hum she felt from the fountain. It as if her gem and the fountain were now humming in unison. She leaned over the edge of the fountain, seeing herself reflected in the shimmering liquid. Shimmering? It was purely water a moment ago... cupping another handful of what she thought to be water, it shimmered a spectrum of colors. It was like a rainbow in her hand, moving the the same pattern as the rainbow under her skin had. What is this stuff...? What is this... Omnillium? She paused, dumping the rainbow liquid back into the fountain basin. Omnillium? Where... where did I hear that word? This word felt so foreign to her, something that had never been uttered by any of the humans she had spoken to in her years, but when she looked at the liquid that gushed from the fountain and flowed around it's base, it felt so... correct. So is that what this is, Omnillium? Is that what brought me here? There was a certain force in the world, at least in the one she had previously come to know, that flowed through all life in the cycle of nature. "Perhaps, this... Omnillium; Maybe it's what ties this world together," She touched her gem as it hummed in sync with the fountain, "and what now ties me to it."

She turned from the fountain, takes several step forward, and away from it. Well, if this is what ties the natural world together, well this world's anyway, then I should begin to understand it better, hopefully as well as it did Earth's. She felt confidence in the little knowledge she had of this knew world, while it was very important knowledge to her, and some that might lead her to learn the greater secrets of this new natural world, it was still a small percentage of the knowledge she would need before she more than just survived this world. To truly thrive as she had in the last one, she would need much more.

Now, where to begin.

[Erza Scarlet]

Just as she began to walk away, there was a sudden emptiness behind Erza in the direction of the gigantic metal tree she'd woken up under. Spinning around and putting a hand on her sword's hilt, she observed the phenomenon in front of her - The tree was shrinking rapidly, and appeared to be changing into an actual, organic tree as it did so. And then, seemingly just as soon as it had finally stabilized into a simple, stout, bark-and-leaves tree, it inverted into the ground, leaving in its place only a large spring, water gushing from the formerly-static ground and forming a fountain of sorts. Erza rubbed her eyes. Okay, that was just weird.

She stood for a moment, trying to regain her bearings. For some reason the whole place seemed different just by the recent exchange of its centerpiece, oriented just slightly off from what she'd aligned with only moments before. She suddenly felt the urge to leave this place as fast as possible - it gave her a strange sense of forboding, and the heebie-jeebies to boot.

It was in that moment that she was bumped rather violently from behind.

Her left foot flew forwards, putting her back into vertical equilibrium as her hand again flew to the sword on her back, this time going so far as to actually swing it to her front as she spun around to face her assailant.

"Whoah, there!" A bewildered woman, green from head-to-toe with the exception of a lengthy mess of near-white hair and significantly better-muscled than most, backpedaled away from Erza, hands up but beginning to take a similar stance to her own as Erza's sword remained in place, showing no signs of wavering. "If it's a fight you want, I'll certainly oblige, but I'm not sure you'd want to be on the receiving end." She was lower to the ground now, her center of weight perfectly balanced, and Erza could see that the green girl had managed to pull out some sort of claw weapon during her short speech.

Erza lowered her sword very slightly, giving off a noise somewhere between a grunt and a low growl. "You seem eager enough. Let's have at it then - you ARE the aggressor, after all." With that, she waved her sword slightly - an invitation. Though, at this point, Erza didn't really expect a fight. The muscly woman in front of her was certainly exhibiting aggressive body language, but she HAD offered a truce after all. She took one hand off her sword to give it a good shake; she was still a bit stiff from just having woken up, and felt she may have pulled a muscle in her shoulder in her reaction to the other woman's initial contact.

"Aggressor? It's crowded, and I bumped into the ONE person not moving. You got that much of a problem with it, yeah, let's do this, right here, right now." She was grinning now, and appeared to be halfway between satisfaction and genuine amusement. Erza noticed that, in the front of her mouth, at least one of her teeth was replaced with a gemstone. Emerald teeth? Well, it wasn't any weirder than the emerald SKIN, and she'd certainly witnessed weirder than that.

Erza lowered her sword to the ground, then sheathed it, adopting an arms-crossed stance. "Apology accepted then. I like your style." Erza extended a hand to the still-battle-ready spunky one, an equivalent grin crossing her visage.

"Damn right you do," she grunted as she glanced momentarily up to Erza's face, then back to the outstretched hand. She then stood back up into a more casual posture, raising her hand to grab Erza's and promptly pulling out, all in the same fluid motion. Her hands were certainly rougher than Erza had expected, probably even more so than her own. "Emerald." One of Erza's eyebrows raised in confusion. "My name. Emerald."

Erza's head bowed, her eyes closing and a slight smile returning to her face. Of course. She lifted her head again. "Well, it'll certainly be easy to remember. Though, I'm not really one to talk." She spun her head to the side, most of her hair flying cleanly around her shoulder to rest on the front of her breastplate. "Erza. Erza *cough* Scarlet."

It was unclear to Emerald whether Erza had let out a chuckle, or had actually coughed due to the hair she'd caught in her mouth.

"Now, if we're friendly, and you have nothing better to do, we may as well keep company. I need to get out of here as fast as possible - Every time that thing changes" - and she swung out an arm to point at what was formerly the fountain, but was now simply a large wooden spire, engraved with runes of a language so old and foreign even Levy might have trouble deciphering them - "I get disoriented, and too many times of that can't possible be good for a person. Sooo, any idea where we might go?" Erza raised her eyebrows slightly. Perhaps this Emerald might know a bit more about this place than she did - And even if not, she certainly looked to be good company while they got their bearings.

[The Dreamer]

Pale skin and hair a scarlet red, How fitting, Emerald looked up and down this creature that stood in front of her. That's a human alright, although she certainly isn't the run a scream type like the rest of them. Emerald was quite pleased with the bravado shown the this human who called herself Scarlet. It was quite like her own, and not something she had see very much of in her life time. Not many humans showed these qualities, the ability to stand one's ground unwavering, and was much the reason why Emerald preferred the company of nature's creatures. I might do well to keep near this one. She might be able to surprise me more. That would be refreshing.

"Very well then, we shall keep each other company until we see fit to part ways." Emerald was definitely going to keep this human near.

She looked around the vast whiteness, looking for an indication of some civilization or nature or something, something other than more white space. She looked to the structures in the distance, eight in all surrounding the fountain at what seemed to be the center of this place. Well, it use to be a fountain anyway. What was once a trees, then fountain, now kept changing it form every so often. Although, it still hummed with the same energy Emerald had felt coming from it as a fountain. It may change form, but it does not truly change way it is. She touched to her gem. Maybe this world will be a nice fit for a Gem after all. She thought about herself, and how gems are truly only the gemstone, and that the forms they take can change nearly as much as this fountain does.

She turned back to the human. It seemed as if she was beginning to become impatient, growing tired of Emerald's lack of answer. "Ah, yes," she paused, looking over to the most green and natural looking structure in the distance. "How about we head towards that structure. It looks quite close to nature, and I'm tried of walking around without dirt between my toes." Emerald did miss her forests already, and longed to return to nature's embrace. She hoped beyond whatever that structure held, she could find something like what she was use to, and could begin to gain comfort in this world. She did not feel like she would be leaving any time soon.

"What do you say, Scarlet?"

[Erza Scarlet]

Though Erza was, at the very least, glad Emerald had accepted her offer to collaborate, something about her just seemed off. She obviously wasn't human, though that wasn't as much of a bother as... Well, Erza couldn't quite put a finger on it. There was a sort of aura about her of connectedness with her surroundings - She seemed to just naturally be aware of aspects of the environment Erza couldn't possibly have noticed. Which, of course, was in line with the fact that her first instinct was to head off into a forest - it was only sensible that the most natural possible environment would be soothing to one of her disposition. And that wasn't her only odd fixation - she seemed to really like her teeth, which was quite the disjunct from her apparent rough-and-tumble attitude.

Regardless of these quirks, however, she still seemed a solid fighter, and probably an equally solid ally. It was likely in Erza's best interests to retain as positive a relationship as possible with the green-skinned one. Erza let out a small groan.

"I'm not so fond of forests, myself. I always end up starving, and lost. But I suppose if you can find your way around them, it'd certainly be better than... this place." Erza glanced once again over to the mossy, vine-covered structure, and a deep sense of forboding slowly came over her. True, most of her negative experiences with forests were due to the incompetence of Natsu and crew, but the thought of purposely returning to that dreadful environment gave her the chills. She had to go somewhere, though, and a standard, natural forest was probably a safer bet than anywhere else this awful place had to offer.

Though, it didn't seem that so many people were around that gate, going in or coming out. There were others that seemed to have more traffic, which meant they probably had more people and were, by extension, safer. Of course, 'safe' wasn't exactly Erza's goal. Perhaps the lack of people meant something was going on through the portal that was inhibiting said travel? Now, THAT was something that piqued her attention.

"On second thought, yes, let's definitely head that way. Uh, I think the... floaty white guy said something about vehicles?"

[The Dreamer]

Not fond of forests? How can anyone not be fond of forests? Emerald didn't quite understand the sentiment of anyone who didn't enjoy the freedom and balance of a place so natural as a forest. She did however know that many humans seemed to not enter the forest much, or any natural environment really, unless it suited their needs, like when they wanted to kill another of nature's great creatures. While never happy with how the humans usually took the life of another animal, she did not have a problem with it's death, as that is how the circle of life works. Birth. Life. Death. Rebirth.

"How does one get lost in a forest exactly? There are trees all around you. Can you not tell the difference between them?" Emerald stopped herself for a moment. "Actually, nevermind that. I have trouble telling you humans apart. You all kind of... Stink." Emerald could always tell when a human was near by, as most all humans gave off a certain scent. One of fake flowers and grime. Rarely did one ever smell like the natural world she liked to surround herself with.

"And gathering food is no task, or at least I wouldn't expect it to be. Mother Nature provides all that you could need, if you have the strength to go and get it." Emerald looked over the human again; beautiful scarlet hair, strong and sturdy body, and a powerful demeanor that was easily felt through her gaze. This human, Scarlet was it, was quite an example of a human.

She knew she would enjoy time spent with this one. Very much so.

"I would have to agree though, returning to a more natural setting would put me more at ease." The power that emanated from everything in this place, it was nearly unsettling. Even the ground and the air she breathed beat with power. It was like this entire place, this vast, white emptiness, was quite literally the 'heart' of this world. Not only would moving to a forest relieve these stresses for Emerald, but it might also allow for her to better understand Scarlet, maybe come to know her more. Relationships with humans were not something she was very experienced with. Most in the past usually ended with a beating or threatening... For the human of course.

"A vehicle? What kind of vehicle exactly?" Humans used a very odd means of moving through the world, by riding atop these nasty, unnatural, polluting things. They were awful, in sight, in scent, and in sound. She could never really understand why a human would choose to destroy their world with such terrible things. She knew of Gem technology for extended travel, and while she was not very fond of it, at least it didn't hasten a world demise when in use.

Maybe, Scarlet would be swayed towards a more natural form of tra...vel...

"What 'floaty white guy' are you talking about?" Emerald hadn't met anyone besides Scarlet thus far in her existence in this plane. Her head throbbed, and an image of a small figure outline in black with a deceptive smile flashed across her mind.

If she hadn't met anyone else, then who was it she just saw in this... memory?

"Who exactly are you talking about, and why does his or her mention cause me pain?"

[Erza Scarlet]

Erza nodded emphatically. Short-notice lessons on subjects she didn't quite understand were the most fun to give, if only because embellishing on those aspects as of yet still unknown to her would most often go unnoticed by her pupils. She concentrated for a few minutes, much to the bemusement of several onlookers, as a bright flash of rainbow-flavoured Omnillium lit up the air behind her, forming into a classic wooden school chalkboard on stilts, complete with a rather confusing display of chalk-drawn yellow and white images filling up most of its free space.

"Alright then. Omni: A review!" Her face was tellingly serious, as though she were somewhere between completely uninterested and barely able to contain her laughter. With a flourish, her sword flew up to the top left corner of the board, where there was a childish depiction of a smiling white... fetus? Holding a yellow-and-pink-streaked orb. "Omni is an all-powerful being, probably, or something like that, who controls the state of the entire universe we are currently standing in. He's also completely white, and floaty, and apparently enjoys turning people into his personal action figures." Sometime between the appearance of the chalkboard and now, Erza had donned a pair of sleek black glasses, a touch that accentuated her eyes and reminisced of a schoolteacher, but starkly contrasted with the armor still claiming the rest of her figure.

"When he does so, we're brought here, and he tells us what's happening. Maybe you don't remember because you hit your head on whatever the... Centerpiece thingy... was at the time, but you should've gotten this speech too." Her sword swung dangerously close to Emerald as Erza pointed at her sole student. A sly grin finally perpetrated her harsh visage, and her chin turned up as would a lord's to his vessels. "You haven't been paying attention in class!" With that and a spin that caused her hair and skirt to swish almost as dangerously as her blade, she again turned to the chalkboard, this time nearly stabbing figure in the middle, a blushing shark struggling hopelessly as its teeth latched onto a spiral staircase, surrounded by 8 question marks in the compass directions.

"We're here, in the middle, and those -" (she swirled her sword in a circle to encompass the question marks) "- Those are the other sections of Omni's playmat. Any questions?" She left no time for questions. "No? Good, because I don't know either." A great majority of the mostly-unrecognizable drawings were left unmentioned and unexplained as the chalkboard was again returned to dust at Erza's hand.

"Oh, yeah, and we can make stuff, like that. Speaking of which, I have just the perfect vehicle in mind..." She again concentrated for a few minutes, this time more fiercely, as the object she had in mind was simply far more complicated than a mere chalkboard. Though, once the summoning was complete, she made sure to again dramatically wave her arms about in a gesture towards her creation. "Oooh yeah, it worked! How d'ya like it?"

In front of Emerald stood a black, four-wheeled vehicle, in make similar to a carriage but in dimensions more like an upright piano on the back of a raft with wheels. This carriage had no internal seating, instead condensing the back of the driver's seat into a 2-foot wall containing the magical mechanisms that powered the thing. The driver's seat was more of a bench, a plush red fabric affair, soft and poofy enough to remain comfortable for quite a long ride and wide enough for at least three passengers. Hanging off the rather meager railing in front of the sole seat was atttached not a set of reigns, but instead a single cord, a wrist strap hanging off the end for the driver. The cord continued from its hook on the front railing back to a hole in the side of the vehicle's body, where it disappeared into the mysterious inner mechanisms of the thing.

Her glasses now inexplicably missing, Erza jumped, flipping midair and landing square in the center of the bench. "Magical carriage! Runs on magic power, gives off nothing but movement." Reaching out for the wrist strap, she secured it tightly around her right forearm, her arm muscles rather obviously uncomfortably compressed by the device. It had never occurred to her to simply slide it down to the wrist, but having stubbornly done it like this from a young age, she was used to the mild discomfort of the device. It got better as she got to driving, anyway. She glanced back to Emerald, who was inexplicably still on the ground. "Well? What are you waiting for? Hop on in!"

It was only at this moment that Erza realized what a show she'd been putting on. Though, this was sort of how she approached most social situations. She brushed off the concern as meaningless. Surely, this Emerald wouldn't mind much - and even if she did, she at least looked fun to take on should things get hairy. Or, more likely, if they decided later on a sparring match, as her newly-found travel partner hadn't done or said much by way of antagonization. Speaking of which... "And I'm NOT smelly."

[Erza Scarlet]

The green anomaly had been unresponsive, arms crossed, for the duration of her impromptu presentation, likely having been more confused than informed by it all. Well, I didn't exactly have long to prepare the lesson plan... Erza stood back up from the bench on the magical carriage and bent over forward to give her a hand. Emerald reluctantly accepted.

Look, I didn't get much of what you said, but as long as you know where we're headed, let's just do that then. Every time I try to think about this... Omni? Ow! Yeah, headaches happen." She again took Erza's calloused hand, hoisting herself upward and momentarily losing her balance on the slippery step. Emerald's eyes went wide for a split second before her instincts kicked in and her foot swung forwards to catch her only inches before a collision with Erza would have occurred, leaving the two staring at each other, frozen and uncomfortably close.

After a brief moment of eye contact, Erza rather forcefully let go of her companion's hand and plopped herself down on the center of the bench, nodding emphatically. "Let's be going, then!" The nature-lover took her seat slightly more judiciously, and the recent incident disappeared quickly and completely from Erza's mind as the magical carriage kicked into gear, shooting off towards the Tangled Green as it bounced, skidded and flew about, careening wildly and leaving a trail of dust and befuddled civilians in its wake.

There were no roads in the Nexus - Only white. White floor, white ceiling, dragging on and on in all directions but for the center. Erza had tried making small talk for the first few minutes, but the green woman was unresponsive. In hindsight, it was likely a combination of her complete concentration on holding tight to the seat to stay in the carriage and the shear of the wind passing at 80 miles per hour making polite conversation all but imposssible. Had she taken the time to look, she would have noticed Emerald's white knuckles and terrified expression, that same demeanor common to most who would ride with Erza as the driver, but that would certainly have contributed to that recklessness in her driving that caused her passengers' terror in the first place. As it was, to Erza at least, the trip ended up being overall pretty peaceful, considering.

It was as she was musing as to the state of her travel arrangements that she again glanced forwards and noted a small gathering about the stone pillars marking their destination - and she was coming up on them fast. Panicking, yanked the steering joystick to the left, pulling the stout vehicle into a skid that ended only a few feet from the quickly-retreating crowd with the carriage nearly tipping over onto them, precariously balancing on its right wheels for a very long couple of seconds before slamming back to the ground.

"Good, glad that worked out. What's everyone doing here?" Erza hopped off of her wheeled creation, seemingly unfazed by the aftermath of her nearly-fatal mistake and taking in the sweet scents of a carnival on the first day, before the tang of vomit and piss had infiltrated the euphoric getup. A few of those in the crowd, those more used to the antics of new primes and who hadn't already fled or fainted, halfheartedly gestured towards a gathering of booths to the side of the gate. Most of them seemed to be selling refreshments and snacks or dinky plastic toys, but the largest one in the center, which seemed to be the hub of most of the activity, was surrounded by more dangerous-looking folks, most carrying weapons and bantering back and forth as they filled out forms of some sort.

Erza turned to her companion. "Wanna check it out?" Not waiting for a response, she began to wade through the thick of excited Primes towards the center booth.

[The Dreamer]

Emerald's hands flew to grip the seat of this contraption. Another one's of humanity's disasters waiting to happen. Heavy, heaping behemoths of metal and wood... Emerald could see their use in the human world, they had spread so far and wide across the world, like a plague of rats, or the spread of weeds across a landscape, so it was understandable that they would need to travel a speeds great than they could manage on their own. It was a wonder why so few would even begin to try. Many humans she came to know, most all in passing only, where quite large in stature, and seemed to take much effort in the simple task of running. It was such a contrast to the speed and efficiency that many animals could move, like it was no task at all. Even she herself could move great distances with little effort, although to expect humans to meet the standards of Gem physiology, now that would be just unfair.

The wheel beast, a car was what the humans called it, moved at a great pace across the white, unmarked landscape, and so erratically at that. It did not seem that this human, Scarlet, was very knowledgeable about it's use. Or she was trying to kill Emerald. This would be a cowards way of doing the deed though. They moved so swiftly towards the vine covered gate, and also toward what seemed to be crowds of humans surrounding various marketplace-style booths. some sort of event or announcement looked to be going on.

The vehicle screeched to a halt just outside the crowd. Emerald was surprised that the woman didn't drive right through the people, with they way she drove. Scarlet hopped from the seat, bounding towards the crowd and asking if Emerald was interesting in checking out what was going on. Long before Emerald had even left her seat, Scarlet was gone and into the crowds.

Emerald took a moment to regain her bearings... and to throw up the small amount of breakfast left in her stomach. oddly enough, the vomit seemed to meld into the white ground below her feet, vanishing as if it was never there in the first place. Well that's fucking gross. She thought, and continued to vomit the rest of her stomach contents onto the ground at the thought of this vanishing vomit. She wiped her mouth clean of residue, and turned to face the crowd of humans, nearly trampling each other to move towards a center booth, almost as if someone had spoke a pack of elephants or something. Human always tried to distance themselves from animals, to make themselves feel above them. She never bought it. Sometimes, they were even worse than animals in their behavior.

She looked over the crowds and tents, feeling alienated from them. Emerald was never one for crowds, not of humans anyway. They cared to little for those around them, and too much about getting ahead of the rest, by any means necessary. Whatever was so desperately needed by these humans, she was not interested in becoming a part of it.

She looked to see Scarlet moving through the crowd with such vigor and force, hoping that whatever it was she was looking for, that see find it, and that she would see Scarlet again sooner rather than later. This is where their paths would separate, and Emerald was fond of the woman, despite their meeting only moments ago.

Turning away from the crowd, and towards the large, vine entangled gate that stood before her, she thought of what might lie beyond it, for she could not see through it. hoping that it would deliver the natural environment that it promised in it's looks, she walked towards the gate, stepping into and through it without hesitation.

Continued to "The Hunt for Home"