So, we get back home, and once we finally get settled back into the keep. Sleep came without much effort- we were home, and safe. The sun rose and set when it was supposed to and nothing scuttled in the dark that was unfamiler. When we came around the next morning, though, we quickly realized we'd forgotten a rather important person; Jules. We'd meant to met him for dinner, and then everything had gotten in the way. Ann voulenteered to go get him after things were handled for that morning, Meyone with her, of course.

Of course.

Alaric and I stayed in Befrengaurd, but it wasn't long before Meyone sought us both out and told us that Ann had not arrived in Shoulwater. He was positive he hadn't just missed her. Resigned to Meyone's over protective nature, I explained about the other little paths that portal had extending from it, and suggested that she'd probably just wandered down one of them. I mean, at the time I wasn't wildly concerned. I knew Ann's near obsession with our fishbowl and her father's work in those portals matched my own with Damen and my past, and figured she'd just taken it upon herself to try and work things out. She is as stubborn as I am, and while she claims I drive her mad, she does the same thing to me often.

All the same, I agreed to take the boys through the portal and attempt to find the one her father'd been working on, even though I wasn't sure I could even get to it. I made the attempt all the same, and when we stepped through the portal, I thought for a moment that this was going to be pointless; we seemed headed straight for Shoulwater. Then I hit what felt like a bump in the road, and I was zipping in the other direction kind of- violently. I was whiped into an area that started out black as black and then resolved itself into a lighted area I immediatly recognized as a portion of the fishbowl. Not the part I'd been in, but Ann was there, so I relaxed a bit. Always better to be lost with company, and at least now I knew she was alright.

The problem was, now I'd lost lackies one and two. That is, Meyone and Alaric hadn't poped out here behind me, which meant they were either safly in Shoulwater or somewhere else here. Ann and I decided to pop around the area via those tunnels and see if we could met up with anyone else. After a few moments of this, we wound up poofing above the water, and froze in horrified shock at what we saw. Those creatures in the tunnel, looking like lizard-men, but very much alive. And very much agressive. They were swarming in droves in a city above the water, a city that didn't look like it had been built with clawed hands. As if we needed further proof that these things weren't nessicarily friendly, they came at us.

Ann and I didn't even consider any other options. We turned tail like the little girls we are and ran back through that portal with our tails tucked.

After that, we decided to stop portal hopping and wait, see if the others popped into us. We could see the light of someone phasing in above us. And the next time they did so, it was in our little bubble. And it was, to my surprise, Meyone.

More waiting. Meyone didn't like it, and I wasn't too happy with it either, but I uneasily agreed with Ann that we should wait to see if Alaric found us.

After a long enough time had passed, we resumed portal travel Ann figured out, after a little more bumping around, pretty much how to use the thing, and once she had that basically worked out we could pick a destination rather then pop around at random. We found Alaric at last, completly frozen in time- just like the lizard men. It took some debating, but at last we had Meyone gather him up like a big statue and just carry him out.

We took him back through the portals (now all of them were open, all around us, and I wondered what the repercussions of that was going to be) to Befrengaurd, where Thandreal unfroze him for one thousand gold. Wince. Ouch. That man is not cheap.

But some things, I suppose, are worth it.

From the portals we continued our day as perfectly normal, heading over to Shoulwater once more to see Jules. This time the portals opperated as they were supposed to, and even Ann didn't complain about hearing or feeling anything odd going through.

The 'odd' was on the other side, where we weren't allowed acess to a room in our own keep. The gaurd standing outside the door of the room Jules was in said he had company and he couldn't let us go in. That did not go over so well with the elf and I, and he sensed it instantly; stammering, amusingly nervouse, he told us that if, perhaps, we gave him another task then he would have to do that, and no longer be able to guard the doors. Ann told him to go make sure that woman and her significently elven looking baby were safe, and when he left, we slipped into the room. Jules was there, surrounded by people that must be old comrades, of which we only knew one person- a bard, by the name of Raglan. Well, they knew him; I think I'd met him, once, and he was a pleasent enough person. Jules was seated at the head on the table, and rose to meet us when we entered. He looked a little embaressed, but he also looked like that was exactly where he belonged. He had the air of someone who was well used to being listened to and followed, and didn't seem to mind at all having the attention of this group of men. He just seemed a bit abashed about it being our keep and all.


We appologized about missing dinner last night and explained about what had happened with the portals. Alaric also explained, as he had to Thandreil, what had happened to him in those tunnels; that he'd wandered off utterly on his own down one of them, past the frozen figures of these creatures running the opposit way, and encountered a small, glowing ball of what seemed to be energy.

Rule number one in our small world; if you can at all possibly, conciveably help it, don't go off by yourself.

When we told Jules about what we'd seen, found in these portals, he could offer no assisatnce. It was Raglan who offered more then an educated guess; he told us they seemed to be a race called the Zahn, a spin off of goblins. They maybe weren't smarter in a lot of ways, but they were in a lot of ways, too; smart in a differant way. A higher sort of intellegence, a big cat compared to a wolf.

He asked if we had taken anything from those figures, and to our surprise Alaric produced armbands he'd cut off those lizard men. He didn't tell us much; he gave us a breif history of them; they hadn't been seen for sevearl hundered years, and came from the east. East is a new direction, at least. So far, everything had come from the West. And, of course, my apperantly homelands to the South.

Ann qurried softly as to what Jules was doing- making connections?- and he gently corrected her. Reforming them. He was getting his plans rolling more quickly then I'd ever expected, and I was both impressed and a little concerned. We have enough problems, and Jules has undoubtedly brought more. We'll just to see what happens on that front.

Talk turned to, abruptly, the lycans and the girls. Ann had, it seemed, finally had enough of sitting and waiting, enough of letting everyone else handle Myn and the other girl. The moment she started talking, seriously, about how to free them, my hackles lifted and arched like a cat's back. We'd been told by more then one set of people to sit tight and wait, and not to do anything because we'd get the girls in trouble. Alaric watched in what must have been slightly puzzled silence as we bickered, but in the end I put my head down and let Ann charge forward. My guilt towards Myn's capture squeezed any real argument I had right out of me. We debated about the fact that they were loosing their weaknesses, and how were we supposed to fight the lycan without knowing what to fight them with?

The arugment ran in circles, as conversation regarding that topic usually tended to do. We finally let it drop off, 'cause Ann said she wanted to go find Garanar and make sure he hadn't burned down the forest.

He hadn't burned down the forest, that's for damn sure.

He was playing with what seemed to be, according to Ann and Alaric, fire spirits, though the vanished when we got closer. Ann seemed taken aback, Alaric truely impressed. Yours truely only got that much more nervouse.

After we say our hellos- or rather, the other two say their hellos and I stay my distance and listen with half an ear-and then Ann gets straight to the point, asking him if he knows anything about the Zhan. He doesn't- which actually kinda surprised me- and after Ann spoke to him on a more personal level for a bit, offering to let the druid that fixed our ships talk to him. He didn't want another teacher, and said so in no uncertian terms, n but was agreeable to simply talking to the druid. Then he and Alaric threw a few spells back and forth- the man is teaching the damned goblin to be a fucking menace- before the mention of 'Sacntuary' was made, and he suddanly went somber and left through a tree.

Even I felt bad for the little guy. Something about Sanctuary had made him sad and nolistalgic.


On our way back, we decided that if we were going to do this, we'd need some help. I offered to recruit King, if he wanted to help, and Ann said she was going to go check on the woman and her- um, special baby while Alaric gathered his supplies and such. He also went to talk to Thandril about the armbands and the race of people we'd found in the tunnels.

We gathered back together, after everyone had done what they needed to do. It was still a bit early to go on a wolf hunt, so we loitered about the keep for a bit, waiting for dusk to come. We gathered again to ask Ardremities about our little adventures in the Fish Bowl. We weren't sure if this if this was a threat or something we could use to our advantage, and we wanted to find out. Now.

But he knew only a little more then we already knew of the Zahn. So Alaric went to talk to Thanril and see what other information he could gather. Although, once he left, Ardremities did have a guess as to what that glowing ball of light had been- one of onlya few time elementals. From what I remember hearing, there were five of these elementals, and no one was really sure what the last two were. But this one, apperantly, was pressant, therefore, stopping people in time right as they were.

We left him and before we could do anything else, we were summoned to the dinning hall. Some messanger appeared with a crptic message- something like 'the nest has been disturbed'. Some sutiably mysteriouse line like that. For all my sarcastic comments on it now, it was enough to make the hearts of both Ann and myself leap into our throats.

We talk for a little while, and then like a ghost The Crow himself slithered out of the shadows of the dinning hall. If it surprised anyone, it was only Alaric and Meyone. I half expected it, and I think Ann may have known he was there the entire time. She's fun that way.

He told us- or, more specifically, Ann, that the person we are looking for was in a city called Narond, in the desert.

And then he did it. He boldly, darkly, suggested that Talron would have allied with the empress. Because she was elemtinating all...competition. Ann even went so far as to wonder if, perhaps, he was....he and she would marry. I felt irrational jealousy bubble up because I understood how potentally true that was. I mean, he tolerates and even feeds my little, stupid crush on him, but when you come right down to it, ageless, beautiful, wise, powerful, rich citadel empress vrs.unknown, scruffy, crude, loud, emotional, not-wise teenage brat....with a lotof baggage, some of it in the form of a ring around her neck that attached to a very much alive person. No challange. As violently as loudly as I refused to admit that he would ally with the citadel, or that he would....do anything else with it's empress....that's how sure I was I was wrong.

He also demanded to know where our loyalites lie. Ann, of course, said with the Crow. Big shock; from the way she talks about him, acts around him, I'd say he was something of a mentor, someone to be respected and looked up to for her.

My answer was just as immediate. My loyalites and my heart were with Talron. I felt a stab of guilt as I said it, because The Crow seems to be a good man, and I respect him, from the few times I've met him. But he's done nothing for me, personally, to earn my loyalty. Talron is who I've pledged myself to, and Talron is who I will stand by. I did tell him that, all the same, if he wanted to call on me he could, and that I was sorry I couldn't offer him more. He didn't seem to be angry; perhaps a little disapointed. He said maybe I would change my mind, and I said nothing. Maybe I would; never knew what the future had in store. Ann mentioned that there were three sides in this war that could pull on our reins when they needed us; she didn't say who, but they were, of course, the man in front of us, Talron, and Ivy and King. And then of course, to a degree, there is for myself Damon....and I don't know what I would do if he ever came needing me.

Being split this way probably bodes some major ill for us as time goes on.

The two men left, as did we, and conversation turned back to the lycans and the girls. Ann mentioned, as she had a long time ago, the Pewter Kettle, a hornet's nest for the lycans. She and I didn't dare walk in there, but there were two scents the Weres didn't know; Alaric and Meyone.

And so off we set to the citadel.

We planned on making a quiet, unobtrusive landing outside the citadel.

Fail. We were noticed, in our large, pretty airship, by every person making their home just outside the citadel walls. We were even approcehd by citadel gaurds asking if we wanted an escort, to which we said no, of course.

Luckily we got to the tavern fairly easily, and the boys slipped inside. Ann and I lounged around the outside of the tavern, waiting for a while, and then they exited; Meyone holding the door open, with a vacant, blank look on his face, Alaric looking more then a little drunk, and a group of men with them. Meyone glanced a quiet signal to Ann and I, and we followed at a distance.

We come, soon enough, to a long ally with a large door at the end of it. They knock, they go in, and Ann and I once again were left to wait. Ann slipped off, following them, and returned for me with a disgusted look. Well, she said, they're gonna be lunch.

Men.

So we started to try and find a way to slip into the building. It took a while, but at last Ann found a way in. To be safe, she hid me, as a kitty, in her bag. The next thing I was really aware of was the sounds of Alaric and Meyone, and Ann hissing at them where to find a way out. I heard Alaric's muffled reply, asking where I was; I meowed, as Ann told him I was in her bag. He said something like he didn't want to know, and Ann brough them to an open window. Out she went, followed by Meyone, and, after a scramble I could hear, Alaric. He got seen, but we all escaped unscathed, me riding on his shoulder due to Ann placing me there even as he took a pot-shot at a wolf and then we ran into the crowd.

We finally found each other again and I changed back, though I was rather enjoying the free ride an annonymity being a kitty gave me. The necklace is one of the most convient little things, particularly for Ann; who is, in many ways, already so cat-like. It's fitting.

We made our way to the artificer, to see if he'd contacted my daddy. He hadn't. We also discussed everything that had happened recently, although Ann, being much less trusting of the man, kept me from saying a great deal. We talked about amour and then about the were, and our two lost girls. And then my friend- friend?- said he had an idea of how to find them.....but people may suffer because of it. He wouldn't say who or how, but slipped into a side room, leaving us to wait. Barely a few minutes after, we heard a very familer little bark.

I explained, quietly, to Alaric, that the poodle that followed the bark was non other then Toby himself. He told us, point blank, that we were in charge of making sure nothing happened to his daughter.

Yes, you heard that right. Which is really, not as much of a shock as it should have been. I think maybe we suspected, in the back of our minds.

Then he was gone and the wizards came, gliding back in like a bunch of preditors. It made us all a little edgy. The wizards wanted the girl, to 'make sure she was safe'. Ann, of course, absolutly refused to let the wizards have anything to do with the girl and was tense and angry the entire time; I was more willing to belive we could get the girl more easily from the wizards then the Were, and willing, I admit, to use her predicament for my own means. These people have my father amongst their number, and if they wanted the girl, I wanted to see my parent. I had no intention of letting them keep the girl, even if they got her; but in my mind, it's easier to get her back from wizards then Weres, as I said.

Ann offered an item of Min's, for finding and retriving the girls, and the wizards said they'd see about my father, and make sure that the girls were.....retrived safly. And they were very specific in telling us that Min would be returned to us. The girl they wanted to keep. Ann was sure they wanted to use her. I took the other tack out of sheer bull fucking headedness. I mean, Ann needs someone to disagree with her, even when she's right. Keeps her on her toes.

But anyway, while I disagreed outwardly, I'm pretty sure she's right.

The wizards left, anyway, and our man came back in. We didn't spend much time talking to him, and after we left we headed right back for the keep. The wizards had a were- one of the First, like King. He needed to know. If they had him, well, it was just gonna fucking suck.

When we got back to the keep, I wandered out into the words to find King yet again, hoping it would go better then it had last time. I called for him a couple times, and, as per usual for King, he didn't come right off. I was about to call again, when Alaric spook up, grumpily and sleepily calling King 'dog' and telling him we didn't have all night.

Now, I'm just about the only person in our little group who can get away with being even slightly mouthy towards King, and even then, I'm smart enough to know where to draw the line. And to feed his ego. The moment Alaric spoke, King appered, snarling and moving with purpose towards our newest companion. I stepped between the two, arms out as if my tiny form could stop King. Laughing, more from nerves then anything, I told him not to kill Alaric, that we needed him and sometimes he just forgot his manners.

King told me to teach him some, and that, friends, is easier said then done. Alaric is very differant and yet very similar to Talron. Proud, stubborn, blunt, manipulative, and just a bit judgmental.

We got back on topic, but King already know about the wizardshaving one of the First, knew about us wanting to infiltrate the Were. He refused to help us, said we should have acted when we had a chance. When I finally had cojoled and bugged him enough- we had- he reached out to destory a poor, defensless tree. He informed us that they were nothing without a leader.

And then he was gone again.

So off we raced, back into the Citadel. We decided we were going to attempt anarchy, we were going to cause chaos in the ranks of the Were. We deiced step one was finding out where they were getting the scrap metal to make weapons Alaric and Meyone said they saw in that building they'd been in, which turned out to be a forge. The only place that really made sense to go was to the dwarven distict, so there we went. I'd never been around dwaves, at least, not much, not that I remember. Ann told us that dwarves should be handled bluntly, with no politeness, but we were still not prepared for Alaric's response to the dead end we reached with a dwarven gaurd. But then again, for having told us not to be polite......Ann was awful polite. I had to admit that much.

Acting like a half-drunken fool, Alaric called the dwarf a 'big blowhard' and said he'd bet dwarven ale that he was hiding something from us. The dwarf told him, slowly, that he couldn't realise that information, but if we were searching for a place to live, he'd have to tell us not to go to a certian intersection because the sewer lines weren't functioning right now.

Why does this never work for Ann and I? Why?


Smiling victoriously, we passed him. We ran into potential trouble a short distance away in the form of two human guards beside a 'keep out' sign, but Alaric played the fool again, and again, it fucking worked.

That is just not fair. But hey, at least now one of us can do it.

Once down in the sewer lines- and it was unmistakably that- we found a fresh gash in the wall.

Glancing at each other knowingly, we followed the pipe, and soon found fresh water leading down to dozens of workers. They were cleaning and cooling bits of metal in said water, and they saw us. Ann jumped down to speak to one who seemed to be in charge, then, a moment later, guestured at me that they were coming to bring us down. I stayed calm, stayed in the role we'd come here to play; that of one offered help. One, may I add, that both Alaric and Meyone seemed to forget about. Damn it, I don't like them, either, but if we came to start anarchy can you at least pretend not to hate them? The pair of over-blown blowhards behind me were as stiff and awkward as it was possible to be, and I wanted to slap them both. I reitterate; men.



The lycans sniffed us, knew from the smell what Ann and I had been, and we played that to our advantage. We were perfectly....'honest'.....about what we'd come for. To feed the lycans, because the feeding system wasn't fair. We told him we knew what the hunger was like, Ann and I, at least, remembered; and we wanted to help.

Of course, he wasn't stupid, and called us liers.

We got him to belive that's what we really came for; but our cause got diverted and then derailed when he asked us, to have him belive us, turn an influincial woman who turned out to be Nadir's wife. We just can't stay away from this prick, can we? Playing along, I agreed- Ann let me agree- Alaric flat out refused to allow himself to be turned, but didn't say 'no' to the plan. Oh, come on; like we'd actually go through with it! Or at the very least, we'd be capible of removing her curse.

Meyon, though, fucked things up, because Meyon is, well, himself, and too fucking good for our own good. He stepped forward and blew it, and blew it powerfully out of the water, announcing that he never would allow us to turn anyone, ever, for any reason.

Deceit, man! You and Ann are going to have a real time of it, if you don't learn the knack.

So, in an underground arena, surrounded by hundereds of Were, we took a moment to realize just how fucked we are. One of us, apperantly, weas bound. But we managed to calm the situation down, and the man still told us he would consider our offer of food; but, for the sake of apperance, he couldn't just let us walk out. He gave us a nod, and began to change.

Not a rat, or jackle, or wolf or bear or bore or even tiger.

Oh no, this bitch was a motherfucking Werelion. Without even hesitation a moment we grabbed onto Alaric's arms, and huddled together as we poofed in a panic back onto Ann's ship.


You 'member I said I felt like the time before this was the calm before a major storm? Yeah, you 'member, you're a journal.

Welcome to the fucking hurricane.