And yet more Drakes and infedels, but no vampires this time. For once.

So, we're almost home free, right? We're thinking, alright, we're out of the woods, we're almost home-

When boom, the world's biggest gnat decides it's time to erradicate the elf. Of course, in doing so, he's gotta go through us.

I don't think he had much of a problem with that.

And so, once again, we're off into a fight. For a while it was pretty one sided, with him being feet in the air and us being, you know, not. We hack at slashed as best as we could at it, but it was tearing into us until it showed up again.


The gryffin.

Meyone lept on it and then collected me, and we wound up leaving poor Ann earth bound as we swooped around in ariel battle.

Then dumbass me decides to get Meyone above the drake and jump down onto it's back.

I'm not sure how I didn't fall off. Not when I jumped, not when I swung at the rider, and not when the rider took us feet above the earth, and not even when we came downwards in a violent spin. Though I did wind up hanging onto the tail for dear life until I finnally got thumped off. I did mostly the work of keeping it distracted, trying to hold the drake rider off of Ann for at least a few minutes until she and Meyone put the fuckin' animal down, and now we suddanly had turned the trick on him.

So of course, like everything else has been, he ran away.

We took a few moments, swearing and grummbling, to lick our wounds, then we got on the gryphon again and flew back towards Fera.

It ditches us about half way there, though, and we quickly realize we have a problem.The Gryffin won't fly us into Fera, and there are about fourty billion zombies skulking around the outside of the ring of salt.

Meyone went all self-sacrificing on us again, and this time we couldn't stop him. He charged away, leading as many of the zombies off as he could, so we could get through. We then had to watch, helpless and frightened, as he fought his way back through.

He made it, though. Thank fuck, he made it. The only man in the world who could bully his way through a bunch of undead and come out fairly unhurt. I wanted to laugh with giddy, dizzy relife. We'd had one too many times we'd nearly lost one another now, and somehow we always seemed to get out of it. So far. Crazy-ass man fits in with us two more then I think he'll ever admit.

We were rapidly approched by Jules and sevearl frightened looking men; the change in Jules was a shock to none of us, I don't think. He was dressed for a fight and carried his weapon like a part of him, like an extension of his body. No wonder Ann'd had her hands full with him, if he was as good as his image suggested he was.

He told us that these things had appered soon after we left and that Jhona was pretty much exhausted, fro mher own impending death and keeping these beasts at bay; but he took us to her anyway. She did look worn and weak; but dignifyed and proud none the less. I have the feeling very little could reduce a woman like Jhonna to anything less.

We told her everything we'd found out at Mon Pion, everything we were speculating, found ourselves in what felt like desperation- at least to me- to offer something solid throwing her every bone we even thought we sniffed.

She was dissapointed in us. For everything we'd gone through, we didn't have one peice of solid, undeniable evidence or answers, and that's what she wanted. I understand it at the same time it irritates me. To her, to Sonya, time is preciouse. But they can't expect us to magically solve a mystery this tightly woven in a day.

I wish it was that easy.

When we finally left- leaving her with the items we'd found at Mon Pion but keeping the books with us- Jules stopped us before we could go to our next port of call.

He asked us if we even knew the story of Mon Pion. We said no, then I, at least, wished I'd not said anything at all.

The story was grusome. It told of the man who was Mon Pion, who had lost his daughter and wife and stole other people's childern to replace his losses. But in stealing them he couldn't make them love him, and he wound up killing them and feeding them to his dog. And when he finally stopped, the dog didn't, continuing to lure childern to the man where he killed them and fed them to her.

In the end, one of the stolen childern turned out to be his granddaughter. His daughter was alive, raised by another family unbeknownst to him, and when her husband chased after the dog to retrive the baby this alllll came out into ugly, blaring light.

In the end, to save the child, the man threw himself and the child out the window of the tower of Mon Pion, and the dog plunged down after them. The child survived- the man, the husband, and the dog did not.

You see how we tied this story in pretty naturally with the curse of the ghost hound of Fera, the story confirming many of our suspicions. I think Jules meant it to discurage them, in which case he was pretty damn far off the mark.

We headed back to a researcher, scholar-esque man that Fera had who'd helped us once before, to see what information he'd found for us.

Paraphrased? Catalina never made it to Aveendale. She stayed in Fera and had a daughter that could, in my mind anyway, only be one man's. Feldon's. The man guessed instantly that that's what we were thinking and asked us to make certian that we kept that little idea to ourselves. Feldon, he said, was a hero here, and to destory that for these people without proof or purpose was only stupid and cruel.

We'd just have to wait to smash their hero when we had proof and purpose then.

So anyway, supposedly this little girl ended up making the wrong kind of friend; the kind of friend who went around, apperantly, burning down houses. A horse who went around burning down houses.

Caroline denies until she's blue that it was her horse. And yes, I did say 'Caroline denies', as in pressent tense, but we'll get to that later, boys and girls, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, with this disaster occuring people wanted someone to blame, and you guessed it- an innocent little girl was their scapegoat.

People make me absolutly sick sometimes. I can't imagine what pathetic, cowardly sheep these people must be, to be so quick to place the blame on a child, a little girl who'd done nothing wrong and hadn't meant to harm anyone.

But hell, hadn't we seen much the same thing with Catalina, on the ship? Yes, the moods of those people had been influanced by that monster, but all the same they'd been eager and willing without any extra help to throw all the blame on one head.

Frightened people are like scared sheep. They bleat and run in circles until you point them in a direction, and then they mindlessly run that way until they fall off a cliff.

Fucking idiots.

Anyway, you can guess the end result, right? Kid ends up being killed, as, coniencadentally, does her mother. And who else finds the dead mother but Feldon? He claims it looks like the daughter killed her.

Yet another death blamed on a hapless child unlucky enough to be born with some kind of power, of ability.

Illoria mentioned a couple times when she was around that people, that her own mother, had been frightened of her. I wonder if it was anything like this. I also recall more then once seeing Ann scorned because of what she is- our drake riding friend isn't even included in that number, although he's a biggy.

Damn, people are stupid.

Degressing.

The fact of the matter was the whole point came around to Feldon is a two timing, lying son of a bitch and no one wants to hear it, so shut the fuck up and sit down. At least, as best as we could tell.

We headed out again and found Meyone, who was helping out with Zombie Duty. The things hadn't gotten past the protective ring around Fera- yet- but there were groups of people ready just in case-

well, just in case.

Night fell and, spurred by our discovery of the burned girl's magical dissapering body, I decided I wanted to go back to the place where Ann, Meyone and I had first come into Fera; the place I'd heard those kids. As with many of my choices recently, Ann wasn't too damn happy with me, but she agreed to come anyway. Meyone stayed on the entire other side of town, still on Zombie Watch.

I was surprised that either Ann or I even considered sleeping, with those undead nasties prowling around the outskirts so very close to us; okay, so many the door was closed for now, but how long until they managed to break it down and come storming in to eat us all? Not a very happy thought, let me tell you. And one that kept playing out in my equally unhappily vivid imagination.

Getting our minds off the Zombie Squad turned out to be remarkably easy; Ann and I started to talk. In a low murmur we began to speculate and discuss again, whispering through ideas and theries, trying to work out at least one other possible sequence of events. But everything tied right back into that damn necklace having a power of it's own, and Feldon hurting Catalina by betraying or denying Catalina and her child. After all, Felodon had a fiancee of his own- though I forget her name and don't much care about it, to be honest, as for some reason I don't much think I'd have liked her and I don't much care for her even in memory. Don't ask me why- I doubt any of this is her fault, and I suppose the correct person to be angry at is Feldon for causing this whole mess. Impotent frustration seeking an outlet, I guess. Normally I try and burn that off in violence.

But there's been enough of that.

Disturbingly, we realized that just about the only thing to do was go to Aveendale and see if we could find the woman Ann and I had spoken to in the dream; the elf-woman. But that was a journey in and of itself, and then there was the time it would take to find her.....as I said, time was pretty damn preciouse right now.

It was then that all thoughts of saving Jhonna took a flight right out of my head. It would be time to get to Aveendale, and possibly another day or more to find her and get her to Fera, or get information from her. And then journeying back.

Jhonna would be dead before we returned, or near to it. This was no longer a rescue mission; this was a mercy mission, an attempt to save Sonya while she could be, to prevent this from happening again, because there was no way we could help her mother now.

Maybe it sounds cold to you, maybe not, I don't much care. But in my head I sort of clicked over and Jhonna became a dead woman walking. If Jhonna was dead, I could focuse better on Sonya. So I let her be. No sense in mourning or fussing over it; we didn't come to Fera in time to save her and that was the end of the story.

Maybe it means I'm pretty fucked up, if that doesn't bother me the way it should.

Anyway, We end up dealing with the zombie squad's massive STONE EYE group bellow, and I'm not asshamed to admit we both squealed like little girls. But as soon as the zombies belted their usual littany at us, they all vanished. None to slowly, we went back into town and collected Meyone ,and the we headed back over to Jhonna but she's down for the count and Sonya is her mouthpeice. I have remarkably less respect for someone a quarter of my own age, and we just about tore into each other, we two, over weither or not Catalina had had an affair with Feldon- her beloved Feldon.

In the end I shut up and let her belive whatever she wanted. We left again, frustrated and tired of meeting dead ends- but then Ann took us back into the creepy direction-changing woods.

And there we got our biggest break of all.

In the deapths of those woods, we found the same firey horse Ann had been seeing, and beside it, a little girl.

On fire.

Caroline.

Her hair flamed, her eyes were empty, burning sockets. Her cloths were ruined and scorched, her skin much the same, and yet she was smiling. It wasn't a pleasent smile, if only because it looked like yet more flame waited behind that sweet smile. She stood next to the horse and petted it, and it, the animal of the dangerously black coat and deadly flaming hooves (amoung other things) nuzzled her affectionatly, the way a dog might muzzle into the hand of a beloved partner.

We glanced at one another uncertianly, then Meyone and I fell back, letting Ann take the lead. She approched slowly, with us right behind, and spoke softly. She told the girl that we'd come to figure out what had happened to her- and to her mother.

And that was the big mistake.

"Don't talk about my mother!" The scream nearly ripped the flesh off us, it was so fucking hot.

Nothing. Can. Ever. Be. Easy. For. Us. Ever. Just once, I would like some nice, normal, sane, living being to sit us down with a drink and a hot meal, and say, 'yes, this is what happened, this is what you must do, listen carefully.'

Just once.

And so we began the tediouse and careful process of quzzing and questioning a girl who could kill us without ever meaning to.

We pretty much just had a bunch of information confirmed, didn't learn too much of anything; like I said, she swore blue that her horse wasn't the beast that had been setting houses on fire. She also said everyone in the town was really nice to here, especally Feldon, and Feldon paid attention to her and told her stories and such and so on, to the point where our suspicions were confirmed more and more.

About the second time she roared for us not to talk about her mother, I started to get antsy. We'd asked just about everything we could, time to go. But Ann stayed, and chatted with the girl like an old friend. I found myself charmed by her, too, dispite everything. She was still just a little girl, and a rather sweet one, apperantly. Poor baby hadn't deserved anything those people had done to her.

She was just a child. A child had shouldered the burden of the fears and ignorances of adults, and suffered for it.

It wanted to go back and shake them all. No, they hadn't been the ones to do it, but they were the only ones I could take my irritation out on.

She knew the elf-lady, too, turned out, had heard her name spoken, but hadn't the foggiest how we could get back into Aveendale to find her, let alone without getting caught again.

We asked if perhaps we could ride the huge black horse, but that was a no-go....but apperantly, he had friends would could ride.

Boy, could we ever ride.

These were no horses. These huge hulking black beasts that appered when we finally angered Caroline enough for her to leave- we kept, stupidly, bringing up her mother, though it was hard not to- they ghosted out of the blackness and bowed to us. We bowed back and mounted- Meyone with hesitation and more then a little trepidation- and suddanly we were flying. These horses moved without moving, flowed like water under us so even I, who couldn't ride for piss and doesn't do big animals well, was enjoying myself.

They raced headlong down slops and hills, tore without stummbling up the other side. Their feet barely seemed to touch the earth, and they moved so rapidly I was barely aware of the dark blurrs that were the other horses racing along side me.

The day-at-least trip back to the city took all of twenty minutes, and gaurds at the gates?

What gaurds? They never seen saw us. We cleared their damn gate and the horses took us straight away into the stables.

And then they weren't horses anymore.