Thoren was the first off the ship, moving with deadly intent towards Jasper. Alaric and I followed, though Ann stayed put with the others, face in hands. They could hear, from where they were. Thoren snagged Jasper like a hound grabs a rabbit, dragging him up off the ground by his shirt after the man claimed to know nothing. Then he shook him, a terrier with a rat, intending to break it’s neck. My hand was over my mouth, and I was torn between howling with laughter and trying to stop him. Thorin was promising to make Jasper a very unhappy person if he found out that was a lie, before dropping Jasper as though he weighed no more then myself.

Now I did start to laugh. I could hear Ann, behind me, half laughing, half gasping as well.
Then Thorin returned to us, and her laughter stopped; she backed up for every step he took forward and disappeared once more behind Meyonne. That only made me laugh harder.
We didn’t have the money to buy Farn back, not that I was entirely willing to, anyway. Ann and

I hatched a plan, that she would scout the area before anyone headed in. Thorin knew where she needed to go and would give her directions, but Alaric and Meyonne decided to start playing the Big Overprotective Males. They refused to let her go alone. Which is incredibly stupid, really; what do they think we did before they came onto the scene? Hm? Found random big, strong muscle heads to play as bodygaurds?

Men.

“It’ll be safer if I go alone.” She said, glancing at me. “I can become a cat, if it makes you feel better.”

“What I was thinking.” I agreed, and couldn’t keep the huff out of my voice. We’re not helpless, damn it!

Meyonne pointed out that there were no cats in Almoric, as if that would end the argument. He certainly sounded like he expected it to.

Ann started to argue, when Conchetta’s soft, amazed voice sounded from behind us, asking Ann if she could really become a cat. I felt a smile soften my features, half turning to her. She was so cute and wide eyed, one of the few innocent beings I had ever met. Or so it appered.


Ann didn’t look away frm Meyonne once, caught in a silent, gaze-only battle with him, stubborn elf VS stubborn monk.

“Yes. I’m a rather cute blonde tabby, actually.”

“She is kinda cute.” I spoke up, grinning crookedly. What? She is. All fluffy and long furred. I won’t lie, petting her is nice, when she lets it happen. Everyone who uses that thing pretty much turns into the same cat, with very subtle differences; for example, when Skin used it, he was skinnier. Meyonne was just a touch bigger. I’m told my fur is a little darker. But all a blonde tabby.

Meyonne was shaking his head once more.

Ann demanded to know who better to go and scout the area then herself, but Meyonne still refused to let her go alone. Alaric finally volunteered to go with her, stating they were both ‘cursed’ anyway, and no one would look at them. Ann was agreeable enough to that, and Meyonne, as well. They got directions from Thorin, and left.

When a good hour had past, we started to get fidgety, the rest of us. They’d been gone too long, and it was getting nearer our deadline. It was decided that we’d go hunting for them.
We found Alaric, who said Ann had taken off on the rooftops after an enemy. He helped us locate her, and we headed in that direction. It wasn’t long before a little blonde cat came running at us, bleeding from few wounds and growling in that pissed-off-kitty-cat way. Thorin suddenly acted, shock and fear crossing his face, and to my horror nearly cleved Ann into half-an-elf.

“Stop, Thoren, it’s Anja!” Meyonne snapped. Thorin demanded to know how he was sure, that the cat could be a spy and needed to be killed.
Kitty-Ann growled and lay her ears.

“It’s Ann, Thorin, I should know. I’ve seen her like this dozens of times, no one else looks like this! Trust me!” I added, keeping the fear out of my tone. Instead I let myself sound amused and confident. Don’t second guess me, just trust me.

Thorin nodded, and Ann returned to human form. She was hurt, alright, just as Alaric had been when we'd found him, and Meyonne crowned himself King of the Obviouse when he stated that.

Ann gave him a tired look, then told us what she'd learned after Meyonne had Alaric heal her. She wanted to go back and watch the sentries, to see where they went, and wanted me with her. Dispite everything that's happened, every new addition to our group and change made to both of us, we're still a good team, she and I. And I looked forward to working solo with her again. I agreed without hesitation and a grin, and the men were going back through the streets, entering the way she and Alaric had origonally gone.

Ann and I slipped over the roofttops, towards the men, myself in front and Ann falling behind, my deadlier shadow. We split to close in once we got close enough-

-and then I slipped.

Then vanished like spooked deer while I swore under my breath and gripped my now-aching foot, lucky only that I hadn't fallen. I shrugged helplessly at Ann when she came into veiw, and began to pick my way towards the ally Ann and Alaric had been attacked in. She fell back again.

We closed into three archers, patrolling an overpass. I crept to the edge of one of the homes onthe street, and Ann was moments behind me when she got my attention, and signelled there were men below. Five, inside the house we walked on.

Okay then. So far, eight men.

Ann motioned me to the stairs, and I nodded, doing as she wished. I stopped, though when I saw yet three more.

Eleven.

I motioned hard at Ann, who told me to keep going to the stairs, not to strike yet. I did so, cautiously, now below her.

Then a wind began to sing. It grew harder and harder, louder and louder. I stayed perfectly still and hopped it was nothing we needed to worry about.

Then, suddanly, above me, Ann's bow sang. There was a solid, meaty thunk, and the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the rooftop.

One for one, nice shot, Ann.

Then, again, the high sound of an arrow's flight, followed by a scream of pain.

"Bitch!"

You have no idea.


Again the sound of an arrow being fired, and again, the sound of a body hitting the rooftop.

Two. Get it over with, Ann, stop toying with them!

I was moving, now, coming up on my own victim with dagger in hand. Fool was too slow, too stupid, and my blade cut through him like butter, even with him watching me come.

Ann's voice, calling out from above me. Funny, how in battle we call for each other rather then the others. Instinct, maybe, from traveling alone togther for so long?

"I'm trying, keep going!" I called up, and just as I did, I hear a thud, the arrow again, and a final heavy thunk.

Three men, four arrows. Damn, girl.

I spun, jumping up to just below where Ann stood, cornered by two men. I had one more- just one more to put down before I could help her. The fucker would just not drop.

"So, this is what comes." The taller of the two drawled, looking at Ann with a disgusted leer, then letting his eyes drift to me. The man I'd been fighting had stopped, just like that.

"We recived an invitation to play." I drawled, letting a smirk curl my lips up. My blood was up, the adreinaline rushing through my veins. That cold, calm place was back, where it hadn't been for weeks, and I could feel something mildly manic in my voice and my smile.

He grinned to match my own, jerking a hand to the left. "Kill the elf, this one is mine." He snarled.

"Well, don't I feel special." I barked back, shifting my grip on my daggers. In truth, I was- sort of confused. Had my little taunt made him that angry?

He only kept grinning, and then his body was shifting, rippling, contorting and twisting and then, standing before me, was a sabertooth tiger, towering above my own height. His fangs gleamed, and his eyes sparked with dangerouse malice and intellegence, a bad combination. He was not beautiful, as Ann had been, but pure power.

And much much larger.

"Well, here, kitty kitty." I purred, dispite the fear that now battled for attention along with the adreilaline. Why on why had the pretty kitty decided he wanted me for himself? Just because I mocked him? Oh, temper temper, puss.

Above me, Ann had vanished onto the rooftops, and I could hear her yelling; Thorin and Meyonne were coming up in my perivrial vision, one holding a great axe, one with halabard. Alright, reinforcements. Let's hope Ann and I could last until they got to us.

And so we danced. I quickly found out it was a really bad thing if kitty managed to grapple me, and with sheer luck managed to break free once; then I jumped off the stairs and began trying to coax him onto ground level, which he didn't want to do. It wasn't long before Meyonne was by my side, in front of me; and we found out something very interesting.

Kitty kitty tried to bite Meyonne, and to all our of surprise-

-nothing happened. Meyonne stood, looking mildly confused and amused, and then laughed a bit. "I don't," He said, "think that did what you meant it to do."

And then we attacked.

Halfway through our suddan rush of kitty kitty, I we all stopped at the sound of voices from above us. We turned, looking up, and my heart jumped into my mouth.

Heshnel.

On his left and right were more figures, all robed and wearing white masks- one a woman, holding something I couldn't see, and the other a man, holding paper. We could hear, clearly, though we couldn't see well. A werebear (where did that come from?) told Heshnel it wasn't his fight. Confused, I glanced at Meyonne, arching a brow. He shrugged.

Hesnel said he was only there to observe, and that he had quite a bit of gold on this fight. No one, he said, was to take an agressive action on them.

Then the bear growled, and Ann yelped for Thorin. The fight was on once more. Thorin powerhoused past us and the weretiger, as if none of us were there, and charged at the bear. Heshnel was saying something else, but I couldn't catch it. Thorin's powerful yell drowned it out as his axe slammed into the bear.

Then our attention was brought back to the tiger, and what happened above I don't know.

The next thing I remember the bear was bellowing for our tiger to 'avenge him', but the tiger, huge coward he was, yelled back for the bear to 'avenge himself!'

And then he ran away. Too fast for me to even consider chasing him, and no way I could track him, not, perhaps, without Ann. So, I settled for the next best thing.

Heckling.

"Ann was a prettier one!"

Beside me, Meyone flashed me a Look, then headed up to the roof to assecess the situation. I just grinned and followed.

When we got up there, Alaric and An nwere argueing over keeping the now unconciouse were-bear alive, and bring him back on the ship. My eyebrows shot up at the suggestion, knowing that Ann's explosion was going to come any moment now.

Sure enough, the familer stubborn look came across her face and her arms folded. I know that pose very well. That is Ann's I'm done listening to anything you have to say pose. Meyonne, Thorin and I stayed quietly out of the way while Alaric and Ann bickered. Alaric had a good point; questioning the bear would have gotten us a few useful answers. And if we'd kicked his ass once, we could do it again, if he tried anything.

Ann, of course, refused to allow the bear onto her ship. She's rediculesly protective of a chunk of flying wood, as if it were alive and aware.

For all I know......maybe it is, in a way.

That is a mildly disturbing thought, and I'll let it drop now.

Alaric again snapped that we could question this fallen behemoth, if we only left him alive for a bit longer. Pushing her. Pushing the subject.

I knew what happens when she feels backed into a corner. Like a donkey, she plants her heels and throws her weight against the rope, and if you keep trying she'll bite you. You can't force or demand for Ann to move. You have to coax and coherce her.

Alaric found this out the hard way when Ann lifted her bow and plowed several arrows dead on into the bear. When she looked up and met my eyes, I realized something.

She made the oath. She always makes her oath when she feels threatened, and if she doesn't follow through on it-

-ug. She gets mopey and gloomy and is without doubt the most unpleasent and unhelpful person to be around. Ever.

I let my lips turn up into a little smile of understanding a nodded at her- that was right, anyway- and Alaric let his argument go without too much bitterness, it seemed. I glanced down at the bear's still body, not breathing, barely moving. It would stop in a few minutes, like the aftershocks to an earthquake.

What does it say about me that I've seen enough bodies die to know?

Still, this was a were-bear, not a normal human, and I couldn't help asking just to be sure if he was really dead. To my surprise, it was Hesnel that answered me, stepping forward. He said no, it wasn't, but as the body litterally melted to a steaming pile of goo before us I wondered if maybe just this once he was mistaken.

I stepped back from the goo as Hesnel continued to speak. He told us we'd won him a good amount of money, and for it, he'd see that Farn was returned to us. We hadn't won him enough for the information we wanted, though. I smirked. Again, I couldn't help but sort of like him; he certianly didn't seem all bad. And if the Were that had attacked us didn't like him, then he was okay in my book.

Ann set about checking the bodies while Hesnel made snide comments that we all ignored, then Alaric cast a spell I, by now, as used to seeing. One that lets him speak with the dead.

Creepy as all fuck, it is, but really useful sometimes.

He asked the bear why they wanted us out of the city, because apperantly they did.

Money, of course, was his driving reason. It usually is, especally in these situations. I was not really startled.

Apperantly he'd also taken a potion to change into the were-bear form, unlike my kitty. He'd changed au natural, as far as I'd noticed. They asked the bear what that potion had been.

Now, here I was a little taken aback. Because he replied, blood.

Oh, gross.

Next question was 'who gave you the- well, erm, the blood, technically, but okay.....'

And the answer made my stomach slam to my feet.

Razen Delcova.

Ah, fuck.

Seems like the people I know are smack bang in the middle of all this drama, and very few of them seem to have any decent roles.

When asked where he'd last been seen, the answer came back vauge enough. Something or someplace called 'Death Fire's Forge.' And isn't that a lovely little sounding name? Every place we go to seems to entail general unpleasentness somehow. Mostly, anyway.

I glanced at my compaions, and someone asked 'where', but there was no reply, and suddanly Hesnel was reminding us that we'd made just a little bit of a commotion and gaurds were probably rapidly coming.

I had about enough of the gaurds of Almoric for one evening, thanks all the fucking same.

It was time to go.

Hesnel melted back into the shadows, with his lackies, and I snagged Ann and Alaric. Meyonne and Thorin were already headed away from the mess, wisely. We made our way back to the ship in silence; the only speaking was rapid gestureing between Ann and I, totally voiceless conversation. You'd be surprised, I think, at how complex our little hand signals to each other can get; hell, I was surprised. I woke up knowing my name.

That's all.

There are a ton of people who know me I don't know, and things about myself I discover. Like being married, and 'dead'.


Oh, and guess what, apperantly you know this entire language composed of hand signals and guestures that only a small portion of people besides you understand.

Oh, yeah, and you can read this language to the south of here, because apperantly, you're from there.

And did I mention the group of mind-pinging not-dwarves that live in a huge underground city you apperantly frequented?

Oh, and your daddy just happens to be a necromancer and people are certianly frightened whenever his name comes up. Just to let you know, your dad might be Evil Incarnate. Have a nice day!

.....of course, what teenager wouldn't think their dad is evil incarnate?

Ah, the teenage drama.

Meanwhile, getting back to the point.

When we got back on board- past a group of solom, watchful soilders- I was immediatly attacked by Conchetta, not to my displeasure. I felt something inside me lighten as she squealed and ran over, catching her easily and looping an arm over her shoulders. I murmured to her to calm down, grinning- her exuberance was impossible not to return. She made me feel like a big sister, even though I had no idea if she was older or younger then me; she looked within a few years of my age either way, but acted much younger. So, by default, I was big sister.

We had to stay for the night-no ships, apperantly, were allowed to leave at night, a situation I would find myself becoming steadily more used to. But I'm jumping ahead. For now, we bidded our time and waited for morning. Some of us slept. Some of us couldn't. I, for one, woke absurdly early in the morning. Normally, I'm a lazy bitch, and when my life doesn't depend on waking at dawn I tend to sleep like a log until my body is good and ready to get up.

I barely slept at all, and woke only an hour or so after the sun was up. Damn it. I dragged myself into cloths and on deck, feeling gritty, crotchity, grumpy and generally bitchy. I wasn't the only one up; most of the crew was running around, of course, and Ann and Meyone stood at the railing, silent together. They don't really seem to need to speak. Conchetta's babbling brook of a voice reached me, and it sand-papered off some of my bad mood. I smiled sleepily and wandered off to find her. She'd probably be with Noman.

Lord, as if we don't have enough problems. There are so many personal love dramas in our little group it's getting to be a little rediculas. And I am the worst of it all. Except for maybe Mr. And Mrs. Obliviouse at the railing.

.....damn it, Meyone, do something to her! I want to see one mussed, slightly stunned, and well-kissed (ehehe, yeah, we'll go with 'kissed') elf!

A few minutes later, though, there was a murmur through the crew, and Ann was flashing to me that something very large was flapping right our way. Snarling, I got the other's attention and we headed that way.

Ugh, it's too early for this.

Before anyone did much of anything, a huge black raven swooped down on our ship- and when I saw huge, I mean it, like freakin' rideable- and dropped off a sack. Then without so much as a by your leave, it took off again.

Blink. Blink.

Long pause. Stare.

No one moved- I think we all kind of expected it to blow up, or rip open and spill out a stupid number of lycans. There was a note pinned on the side, though, and as far as I could tell, it didn't read haha suckers.

It did, though, read something nearly as bad. Lycanthropy.

Aw well just damn it all to hell, then.

Then the sack started to make noise.

Everyone kind of went stiff as a crew member cut Farn out; he was bound, though, with a what looked like a gold-and-white, otherwise normal, rope, and someone hadn't done a half-assed job of it. Distantly, I heard Ann telling someone to get Alaric, and then she looked at me. She was pale, and yeah, yep, that was fear in her eyes. I smiled slightly, trying to reassure her. She and I had our lycanthropy removed, Alaric would be able to do it for Farn.

I hoped. My hands went instintivly for my weapons, tight on the hilts. The look Farn was giving us wasn't at all affectionate, and I was fully prepared to stick the poor, stupid fucker like a pig if I so much as thought he was going to hurt anyone on this ship. One wrong move, one wrong twitch, and this threat would be gone.

I felt sorry for Farn. It was horrible, what had happened to him. I remembered my own curse; remembered the terror of being so out of control, of being entirely at someone else's bidding. The sick rolling of my stomach the day Ann and I had slaughtered an innocent family.

Pity aside, a threat is a threat.

I didn't take my eyes off him, not even when Conchetta and Alaric came back. I snagged the note and handed it to Alaric, who drawled about perhaps wanting Farn cured?

I gave him a disbeliving glance, even as black humor invaded my anger. I couldn't help but snicker. "We kind of need him." I replied, letting my voice stay light. It wasn't as hard as it had seemed.

Alaric met my eyes and of course agreed to try. Never once did my hands leave the hilts of my daggers.

Not once.

But it was obviouse when the humanity began to return to him; you could see it not only in his eyes, but in the way he seemed to shrink. It was as if there had been some aura making him look big and powerful, and the more Alaric worked at him the more it fadded away. Like rock being worn down over time. He slumped a little more and a little more, and as he did I felt my grip on my weapons loosening. To my surprise, I felt tired, too, as if I'd just run a marathon. I glanced at Ann, who was staring at the pair intently and didn't so much as glance over.

Then, Alaric stepped back, unwinding the rope and gathering it. My hands had fallen back to my sides by then, but they didn't go for my hilts again. I felt my fingers give an invoulentary twitch, fist loosely, but that was it. It was painfully obviouse Farn was no threat at that moment. He slumped forward and had to be caught by crew members; I heard him ask for food. His voice, normally a powerful and demanding hauty tone, was now barely any better then a croaking frog. He was speaking so low I nearly couldn't hear him, voice cracking and breaking in a million places like he'd gone back to being a teenager with his voice changing.

Then he said a word that was just totally out of my leauge.

Oracalcium.

"Ora-what now?" The words were out before I could call them back. That happens, a lot, with me.

No one designed to reply; like I said. Happens a lot with me.

Instead, we headed down to get some food into Farn and the rest of us, too. Now that the crisis had passed, my stomach was chewing at itself, and I knew I couldn't be the only one that was hungry. Farn was moving like an old man, slow and huddled over, and Ann kept sending me Looks that were both significent and full of concern. I returned them, but what did she expect me to do, right then? There was nothing to do. Comforting words would be hollow. We needed him stronger, and we needed answers. The rest would come.

Farn told us what he'd learned during his kidnapping. Razzen Delcova had been missing for a week, and the men were worried about the supplies of their 'blood'; the werebear had mentioned blood. Apperantly, this deity called Ilasureta, or 'The Cleansing Flame', was a popular subject. No one was very sure why.

We fell silent after that, everyone's eyes on plates or floor. None of wanted to breech the next topic; out of everyone here, only Ann and I were really qualified to understand what had happened to Farn. And we had very differant perceptions of it, we did.

I had just opened my mouth to speak, when it was Ann's voice, not mine, that broke the silence. She asked Farn what he'd been turned into, when he turned. He told us it was a were-tiger, like the one that Meyone and I'd gone up against. Probably the same damn one. Apperantly, he'd only bit Farn in a fit of temper tantrum. He'd gotten all pissed off about something and, like any true bully, taken it out on the weakest member of the party, the only one incapible of defending himself.

Farn also said he'd killed, in that form. Told us the weretiger had thrown a prisoner in with Farn, and our diplomate had heard a woman's voice whisper to him to feed. I think he said she'd said, you're mine now, or one of us now, or something to that effect, something creepy and bloodthirsty.

The topic was swiftly changed, then, almost too swiftly, to where we meant to go next. It was almsot decided to go straight to the Kotem, so that we didn't loose our chance. They were nomadic; they traveled often and were very hard to track. But we didn't know what to ask or do once we'd found them; kind of stupid to go there with no plan.

So, much to Noman's disgust, we decided to reverse course and head back for Molholander. It was the next obviouse place to find clues of where to go.

It was the only place we knew of, to find clues of where to go.

We dismissed ourselves, one by one. I followed Ann and Alaric, Meyonne and Farn up on deck. Ann caught my eye as I came out, her head jerking slightly towards Farn. There was something stormy and brooding in her gaze, and I felt bile rise to the back of my throat.

My Farn's curse was lifted, but from the look she was giving me, he was certianly not all better.