Trees-evil, evvvvvvil treeeeeees.

Jules is hiding something. I've rarely been more sure of anything.

Ann thought that perhaps Jules is Sonya's real father, that the ghost hound was satisfied with the death of the other man. But probbing and questioning of Jules got us nowhere- got me nowhere- and when I returned to the others, Ann had discovered nothing much, either. She went off to spy on the man- after, of course, ten minutes of arguing with Meyone's morals- but when she came back, all she had was two cuts on her arm and news that we could not fight this hound.

And so we went to bed.

I'm quickly coming to hate sleeping.

Ann and I shared yet another vision, and this time I was somewhat privey to her horse- I heard it's- or a set of- hooves, faintly, right before she woke up. We suffered fire and water in that vision, and 'washed up' at a place we lated learned was called Moonpoint.

At the time, though, we didn't know what Moonpoint was or what our vision meant. Still. At least no one screamed at us about the stone eye in this one. Yet.

But I did get the feeling that we shouldn't be staying with this family any longer. In our vision, they'd been killed, and while that may have not meant a thing, it gave me the willies.

My feelings were duely noted and probably ignored, at least by Meyone, and we wandered back up to the place where the first man's shrine was. We studied and inspected it yet again, and yet again, found absolutly nothing. And as we stood around sort of going okay, now what? we were summoned back to Jhonna.

Jhonna, who promptly contradicted everything she'd told us only days before. She told us that the visions we were having were because of her. Because she'd been trying to devine things about the hound and unable, and, somehow, consquently, we were reciving those visions.
We discussed that for a bit, got why she thought that out of her and wound up realizing that we might be disturbingly close to dealing with someone Jhonna called the Lord of the Land. And how long did it take dense little Seimei to figure out what a Lord of the Land was?
Wow, I don't know. Considering this was a land in which vampires and their ilk were from, I can't imagine what one could possibly be.

Idiot Seimei.

Jhonna asked us, too, to break this curse, end it so that Sonya could grow up without having to go through what her mother had. She didn't want Sonya to bear the responsibility and pain that came with carrying Fera on her shoulders. She wanted her daughter to be able to fall in love.

I tell you what, Jhonna managed to make me feel like shit. Hell, this whole situation did. When- if- I get back, I get home, I'm going to be doing it sans one Damen, even if Ann was willing to help me find him. I don't want to, anymore.

Jhonna could never fall in love, because the man she loved would bnly be killed. She was given Sonya by a man she could only guess the identity of, in the dark, with only desperation and fear; not allowed to touch, to speak, to hold or to love. He died anyway, and she was forced to see it. Her daughter would never love a man, or if she did, she would loose him the moment they had a daughter. Such a wonderful, amazing moment would be tainted by the death. The cycle of life in a viciouse, brutal speed-run. A beautiful birth, a new life brought on this earth, in the same moment as a life snuffed out prematurally and violently.

And I- I have a man who is strong and handsome and kind and gentle, who I love very much. No one is trying to keep me from him, not yet or activly, anyway, and no, it's not a fairy tale, maybe, but I can love him and stand beside him for as long as he'll let me, and know he cares for me, as well, even if not in the exact same way I do for him. And I can always hope I'm wrong and he does. I can do this without fear, and even if he doesn't share my feelings or something stands in the way of it, I can always be beside him anyway. And that's what I want. To be beside Talron.

I have taken far too much for granted; his paitence with me, his tolerance of my fickle behavior, him. And for that I am truly, deeply sorry.

I still want to know about myself, I still want to find out who I was, Damen was, and what the blue hell is going on, but you know? I'll let the answers come as they will. If they will, even. And until and if they do, I'll be happy with what I have and have got a chance for.

And I'll do my damndest to make sure Sonya has that chance, too. When Jhonna asked us to end this curse, it was more then desire for answers that made me want to agree.

Ann told Jhonna she'd have to tell us everything she knew about the stone around her neck and the events surrounding it.That's how we found out asbout Moonpoint and what it used to be- a sort of stop over for ships, back when the first man was around. Ironically (or maybe not so much) it also fell apart right around his death, too. She told us all she knew- or, at least, we thin k and hope she told us all she knew- about the stone and the hound, our visions and the first man.


Now, see, when Ann had gone to Jules, it seemed that her little 'duel' with him had been grately exxagerated. And Ann was now the cause of some attention for- 'stabbing Jules in the chest'. The attention it brought to her was rather uncomfortable, and so she became a kitty when we got a moment of privacy and climbed into my bag. I don't think Meyone knew quiet what to think of that.

Ealier, I had expressed an intrest in wandering down to the woods again, not outside the line of salt, to induldge my curiosiy about the surrounding areas. To my surprise, Meyone came with me. I don't know if that's because he didn't trust me with Ann as a cat, or just generally didn't trust me.

But they came with me down to the forest I wanted to explore. Ann returned to her human self- after some subtle feline flirting with Meyone, deny it or not- and we realized, standing outside the forest, that we could smell ashes. A moment's debate and we went in.

And got instantly lost.

Ann tried marking our way, but we walked in a big ass circle. anyway. It seemed Meyone and I were both looking to Ann for our go signal, and she decided to just- let the forest guide us. We followed her somewhat blindly until she took off running in the direction of a horse she claimed to see- yet again. Meyone and I saw no horse, though we did see the item left where it was standing. It turned out to be a weathervane, with 'north' being the first direction visible.

So, we headed- um, 'north'. Which wasn't, actually, but got us out of the forest. It took us kind of in the exact opposit direction almost, in truth. We popped out just in time for Ann and Meyone to see a 'something' watching us before it poofed into mist, though I didn't see much of anything. I was teasing them both about going bat-shit when I felt the hand- claws?- on my shoulder.

Yeeeeah, not a good feeling.

I spun, and then wished I hadn't, 'cause I tell you what, the face that looked back wasn't a pretty one.

Our vision had been really harsh. It had been so damn real, with the house on fire and Meyone refusing to wake up, something trying to bust in the door and smoke, thick and nasty, nearly choking us to death. I'd been so sure the family was dead and it was our fault, so sure we were screwed. I'd gotten water from the kitchen and the moment Ann had opened it, gallons of water had washed us away, saving us and drowning us all at the same time.

But remember I told you, no one said anything about the 'stone eye'?

I think the vision remembered it'd forgotten something, because the tree screamed at me to find it. The stone eye, that is. Screamed at me to find the stone eye, not the tree.

Needless to say, I stopped teasing them.

We decided to take the long away around the forest, rather then risk going back through.

Now, along with wanting to go there, I had wanted to inspect Moonpoint, as well, even though Meyone said it was long since destoryed. We had just about run out of leads in this town, and what would going there hurt? So long as we got back in a timely fashion and used comment sense and caution, it might give us the filling we were missing.

We got the promise of a ride from Jhonna, and so after a bit more loitering in town, we headed over to sleep next to the North Bridge, where our ride was supposed to pick us up the next day, rather then sleep in the house we'd been staying in.


Apperantly, Meyone had been paying more attention to my feelings of discomfort staying there then I'd thought. Although I doubted seriously I was the main reason he'd suggested staying near the bridge. I doubt seriousely I'm the reason why Meyone does anything. Besides brood.

We weren't alone there- some men were gaurding a big fire pit, making sure it didn't get lit- on accident or otherwise- until the night it was meant to be. I felt a bit more secure, and a bit less so, all at the same time- more people to worry about, if anything did happen. I didn't think anything would, but all the same.

We were awaked about halfway through the night by Ann, insisting that there was undead- hoardes of them, in fact- just outside our salt ring. Meyone and a couple of other men told her- repeatedly- that it was only tree branches, but she insitsted until we both went back to sleep that they were wrong.

When we woke up the next morning, almost before we were awake properly, our ride arrived. And we can't ever have anything normal, like horses, can we? Oh, no. That would be far too easy.

We got a griffin. Which was, admitedly, pretty amazing.

And so off we soared, none too gracefully- Ann and I aren't the best riders. We clung to each other and Meyone helplessly until we were set down, on the path to Moonpoint.

Our ride promptly took off again. We all three stared after it blankly for a moment, before Meyone pointed out that he'd thought that was our ride home, as well.

We had, too, and I could only offer that maybe it would come back for the pick up.

Hopefully.

And so we headed to Moonpoint. What should have been miles of long-since-dryed-up- ground was, though, not. To Meyone's surprise- and trepidation- the thing looked as though it was in it's peak, the water surrounding the building in the middle deep and probably cold, connected to a merrily flowing nearby river that was not supposed to be flowing, according to him.

The water seemed okay, but Ann teasingly- erm, I hope teasingly- told me to drink it. She'd drank the last water we'd found, she said, but I didn't care. I wasn't about to put that in my mouth. Water that isn't supposed to be there should not, usually, be used for drinking. Still, I was going to reach down and touch, partly out of idle curiousity, and partly to get anything bad out of the way, if anything bad was going to happen.

I'd barely squated before Meyone had my shoulder in his grip and was shaking his head at me. I teased him about being worried for me, and was told bluntly that I was more useful alive then dead. At least his disgust seems to have turned to gruff dislike. Ish. Ness. Traveling with someone I'm constantly on the edge of an argument with is tiring.

Anyway, while we stood thinking on what to do, I saw the boat. A little boat tied to nearby pier that I was surprised we hadn't seen before. I pointed it out, and while Meyone took to getting it, Ann and I suddanly had a breathtakingly harsh vision of ourselves in our vision. That is, remember I told you there was lots of water and then we washed up wet and gasping?

This, apperantly, is where we had popped out.

Ann pointed it out to Meyone, and he suggested pushing off from that specific place- but in the end, we just took off from where the boat had been tied. We got across to Moonpoint without incident, and then, as we were climing out, I noticed the small, almost hidden door near the back of the building, near us. I pointed it out, and a few moments later, saw an old man and a dog standing in the suddanly open door. I noticed them moments before Ann and Meyone, and then they turned away.

We followed the figures inside, but they were gone, and our exploring began. first, we wandered out into the courtyard, poked around a well, tried to find anything useful. We decided to start 'up' and work our way downwards after that, and so found the highest tower avalible to us. We climbed up into it and started to poke around. We found windows that let us look out on the peir and the water, a hidden door that was bolted from the other side, a brazier to be lit for ships, and not much else.

That was about the time my crystal made a thank-goodness-in-vain attempt to grab hold of my mind, or so it felt like. I pulled it out and held it up, and the moment I did a small streak of what looked like a bolt of light began to flash up and down above the brazier, growing larger when I approched with the crystal, fadding when I backed off. At Ann's encuragement, I finnally stepped completly forward, crystal extended.

And to our horror, it seemed to open some kind of portal, through which I fully expected our worst nightmare to pop.

And it did, if our worst nightmare was a few inches tall, delicate as a sand grain in apperance, apperantly irritable, and very, very cute. Some kind of pixie-um- thing- he/she/it shot out past us, hit the wall, and rolled under the brazier. As we all knelt to look at it, it staggered over and then flew directly into my face. Unsurprisingly, it told me to 'find the stone eye' and then added- 'the dream is short'!

That's when the noise from outside started, and Ann walked through the door. The still-closed and locked door.

And then things got really weird.