Journal

2012-01-03T07:32:00.001-08:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've written in this thing. Uh. Last thing I put down to words, was months ago. There's really too damn much to fill in the blanks, kiddos, and since you're my journal and I already bloody well know what I've been doing, really, is there a point?

And that would be me, talking like you can understand. Fantastic, like I need more reason to doubt my own mental stability.

And so we continued to argue. To go back and forth over things we’d said, things we’d thought about. Did we have the right to decide what happened to the Yenti? Could we let that thing growing under the ice out? And my own thought, that I never voiced, couldn’t bring myself to voice; if the Yenti died, would this thing stall out? Yes, it lived off the spirits, but if it’s goal was to destroy the Yenti, would the death of the Yenti stop it?

In the end, though, it all kept circling around to destroy the tower, save Darcrow’s friend. And there was no other way any of us could think of to do it.

Once it was decided- after round after round of arguing and discussing and growling at one another- the only remaining question was how do we pull it off?

It was a big bloody funnel of spirit energy. Couldn’t exactly chop it in half with one of my daggers.

Cue more circular discussion. We had a big damn dragon, which would probably be the conduit we needed, and Ann wasn’t asking. I wasn’t asking; I’d given up my chances and rights at that just- what, days ago now? Was that really how short a time it had been, just days? Weeks, at the most?

Damn, but it felt longer then that.

Anyway, we had a potential conduit but apparently not one we were allowed or going to persue. We had my stone, I pointed out; and the only thing I could really think of to do was set it in the funnel of energy and overload it.

But the overloading part was the problem. There was the amulet, but it wasn’t enough alone- and we pure and simple did not have another source of power.

We were stuck.

Darcrow took off to see if he could make the amulet into something workable at the lay lines we’d come in here from while Ann and I poked around the tower itself, discussing the wards amongst each other and hovering on the edge of going back to the center of the city. That wasn’t something any of us thought was a good idea, exactly, but we were running short on any, at that moment.

Made me damn glad Darcrow- at least, I think that’s his name; you could also conceivably go with tall, dark, mysterious, and sexy-what, I’m not allowed to admire?- came back when he did. With surprised victory, he told us the amulet worked better then he’d expected, but that by itself, it still wouldn’t be enough; we needed a conduit from amulet to stone, something to focus and amplify and aim the power.

It was the Crow who finally asked the question we'd been dancing around like a pair of idiots.

"Why doesn't someone just ask Su Rin?"

Well. That's us feeling like morons. Awkward silence descended amongst the ranks, and the dragon in question moved up to Ann, settled himself in. Waiting, patiently, quietly, and the impression of a solider waiting for orders was a tad unsettling. Especially when the solider in question was a flaming dragon.

"I've already made mine." the Crow said quietly, head ducked, a quiet, somber expression on his face. Ann looked between him and the dragon and then, in a voice I'd rarely ever heard from her, she spoke, quiet and commanding.

"Su Rin, as an heir of Na'bu'del-" And here she went and faltered, lost it like dropping a mask she'd been holding up to her face, and I saw it all fall apart before it did. Normally, here is where I might have stepped in, taken up the mantel and done this for her; but I couldn't. Not anymore.

To my surprise, the thought didn't make my heart twist in my chest the way I expected. My choice hadn't been easy, and I hadn't made it lightly, but I realized in that moment that I wouldn't undo it. Man in Black be damned; Lady be damned- it wasn't a mistake.

I'd not only eliminated a huge handicap, but I'd taken a step I needed to. If I meant what I'd decided nights ago, after Darcrow had spoken to me, then I had to be through about this. If I was going to be true to my own inner choice, then I had to eradicate everything I had been. For real, this time.

On my own, not because some people got together and decided to do it for me by- apparently flimsily- wiping out who I'd been. Whether I'd been a part of it or not; I wasn't going to erase it, I was going to choose. And the girl who had been royalty wasn't me, any more then the girl who'd been a monster.

Which just begged the question- what are you turning into, then, Semie? Who the hell are you?

Hell of a question.

"Will you be the conduit for breaking the magic?" Ann went on, turning it into a meak little question, and Darcrow groaned and lowered his head to his palm. She whirled on him, bristling and defensive as a little cat, demanding to know what it was she'd done wrong even as Su Rin spoke, one, rumbling word.

"No."

You can't ask, Ann. I thought, grimacing. Even I grasp that. Come on, just pretend he's me and have a ball.

-discussion of events

-meyonne gives me his amulet

-dream

-finding the barbaians/ meyonne takes his amulet back

-to the glacier

-holy shit mother fucker what have we let loose on the world

-clash of the titans

-BATTLE

-resolution

-going to meet Jhudora

2011-04-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

I’ve lost myself.

Well, okay, that’s a bit dramatic, isn’t it?

Let’s change it up and say I came real damn close, but thanks to a few people, I kinda gave myself a mental shake and I think we’re back up and runnin’, kids.

Let’s start us at th’ beginning, ‘cause I been not writing forever and a day. Couple months back, I think I made it known that we died. City of Harien, Igorath, crazy library in the middle, and me findin’ out just how close tied I was to King.

Well, I also wrote ‘bout king, his other self, makin’ a world changing appearance in my life. So we’re all on the same page there. But see, the more this shit started goin’ down, the more I started thinking.

I have the right to know about all of this.

It was pretty damn clear that even if I’d thrown my hands up and said, fuck it, I’m not going to make any more attempts to find out who I am or what I did, at all, ever, that it wouldn’t have mattered. Things and people from my past kept finding me, and I was damn sick and tired of being completely off balance when people walked up to me and said shit like ‘well hello, we meet again, blah blah fucking blah.’

About the tenth time that happened, I’d got to where I was done with it. If people were gonna pull that shit, I was gonna be right-footed about it.

So I set to poking’ my nose in all the dark corners of myself, careful as I could, pushin’ right to the edge of what was okay and what wasn’t. I wasn’t happy with anything I found there. Nothing made me proud. Nothing made me happy. But I needed to know, I deserved to know, and I was fucking sick and tired of letting other people decide that I didn’t get to know.

How the hell could I claim to be a new person if I had never made the choice? Maybe whoever I was in the past had, but I, Semie, myself- I had never chosen to be who I was. Being a person because you don’t have an option isn’t being a person.

It’s being made and manipulated, same as The Man In Black wanted to, same as Feng, just in a way people thought was right and good.

I really should have been more careful, and I shoulda known, in the end, that combined with what I was doin’ and what we were dealin’ with, that I was gonna get too close to the white-hot part of the fire in the middle and burn the ever living fuck out of myself.

Which is what happened.

We’d set off to find Conchetta. A lot happened before that, actually, so let me try to sum up the important bits. I’m leaving some stuff out- and a lot of detail- ‘cause it’s been months.

We had a lot of little runs before we got home; survived our misadventure in the Blasted Lands, got involved in a war, woke up a mist dragon, got involved in another war, died, came back, met some interesting people and got involved in another war, but we left while that one was getting going. We went back to count Edress’ home and offered our assistance there, and we discovered in an attack by werewolves why Semie should never, ever, press the red button in her own mind.

Ever.

We met with a Bladesinger, who was quietly brave and strong and I liked immediately. He stayed with us for a few weeks and then got himself taken or killed by some kind of monster that had been attacking magic-users in a city we had come to stop in. We had no ability to even try and help him. We don’t even know that he’s alive.

Valor woke up to the fact that it’s me he wants, and the crystal is King. Well, not it’s not. It’s another version of king, a past king, sort of like Meyonne, in a sense. He is the crystal. That led to a lot of…turmoil, I guess…for me, because I still felt like I cared for the thing that had been king. He was still something that had a mind and a will of his own, and I didn’t take kindly to Valor attempting to use me to manipulate him into doing what he-Valor- wanted. Damn and hell, did I not take kindly to it.

The situation went a bit like this-it started with king-past king, not real king- landing’ on our ship mid-flight.

I knew it was a bad idea. Or rather, I should have known; but forgive me for underestimatin’ Valor’s stupidity. I had my doubts about lettin’ king- this king, and yeah, that lowercase is on purpose, King is King and this king is, y’know, king- anywhere near the ship, but you try and keep a ferociously angry, feral psi-were bound mentally to you at bay when he don’t wanna be kept at bay. I’m pretty sure it ain’t a good idea on any level.

Besides. He had a dead body in his eyes, and I had a sinking feeling I might know who it could be, (he hatedhatedhated Damon, wanted Damon dead, and for a moment I was so sure and my heart was in my toes and I was going to be so sick) and either way, was time to pay the piper, y’know? Whoever was dead, was my fault he was dead, and I owed him standin’ there and lookin’ at him and facin’ up to what I’d done.

“Semie?” Ann’s voice, wary, watchful, cautious.

“Tell them he’s not attacking.” My voice was barely audible to my own ears, over the sharp voices of the crew around me. But Ann’s voice raised above the din and the ship slowed, and then, bam, he was there. He was there, and huge, and savage. And the fear was unexpected.

This king scared me, and I know he…shouldn’t have done. But he did. And when he was clutching the dead body of a werehunter-

Just a random werehunter. Oh, Semie, you selfish fucking cunt, you are not allowed to feel…the man is dead. There is a dead man here. You are not allowed to be glad it isn’t The Were Hunter or Damon.

He snarled, the sound rumbling through my feet, my spine. “I know what will make you remember.” He said, King’s voice but not King’s voice.

“Feed with me.”

And he tipped the head back, revealing a pale, remarkably untouched throat. Stunningly so, in the mess that was the man’s face; pale and perfect. There was something wrong in that.

I recoiled, fighting to keep the grimace off my face.

“King. King, that isn’t going to make me remember.” Quietly, gently. His roar eclipsed it, a savage counterpoint to my voice, and there was a pause.

“It’s him, isn’t it?”

“No.” Before I could stop it, because there were a few hims, and then, with a resigned sigh, “who are you referring to, exactly?”

You know. Oh, how you know.

“King, no-”

“It’s because of him, isn’t it? He’s in your mind-”

I closed my eyes, desperately searching for words-

“King.”

Valor’s voice, behind us, imperious and demanding, and I felt a jolt of horror, of sudden realization.

How could I have ever thought- oh, fuck, of course he’s going to-

“How dare you address me?” I hoped like hell that this would end it; that king would brush him off as unimportant, self-important, as useless and pompous as he was.

“I can help you.” Slimey. Oiley. Valor sounded- sounded so much like The Man In Black, for one instant, that it made my heart stop. He sounded foul, vile, horrible.

“Valor, shut up.”

“You want Semie to remember, do you not?”

Oh no. No. We are not doing this. You are not going to be another person to use me, and you are not going to use him. To manipulate and trick and hurt him, you lying- you fucking-

“Valor, shut up!”

“I can make her remember.”

Lier. Like I’d let you anywhere near me anyway, you weasel. Cowardly, lying, manipulative, weak-willed weasel.

He carried on about how he had been gifted powers by higher beings, how they were the best way to help me remember, what better way to make me remember-

The roar of hate shook the ship. The man, who he’d been abusing in his frustration with me, was hoisted into the air and ripped in half.

Like wet parchment- like a toy being ruined by a child in the midst of a tantrum. A very big, very angry, very dangerous, very frightening child. Blood sprayed; Ann, from behind me, made a sound of pain, leveling her bow. king was lunging away, whirling on me.

“I relive you of your bond!”

Isn’t that a good thing? Isn’t that- shouldn’t that be a good thing? He’s not my King. He’s not- but I can’t-

“Stop him. Now!” Ann was hissing in my ear. He was breaking the ship’s railing, and I knew she was worried he was going to do real damage to the vessel. It was, honestly, the last thing on my mind.

If it’s not with me, then he’s a live wire- more so then normal. Right? And anyway, I can’t just- I can’t just-

King! I called, without moving my lips, then I was across the deck and grabbing his arm. He didn’t throw me off, he didn’t snarl; he immediately got down on one knee, yielding to my touch, leveling himself with me.

And in that moment, I knew that I couldn’t…discard him. He wasn’t My King, my flesh-and-blood King that I had once called- still called?- friend. He was a vicious creature, blood-thirsty and terrible and cruel, but there was somewhere in there some part of him that cared, that cared about me, and his motivations for it didn’t matter. I couldn’t turn my back on that.

I put my hand on his face, turned him to look at me. He went, surprisingly, let me guide his head around and I suddenly wasn’t even a little bit afraid of him. I’d been stupid ever to be. Those around me, maybe, but I doubt me.

I don’t think hurting me was the first thing on his mind.

*Whatever I said here.*

I knew I’d made a mistake the second Riddel slid past my lips. It was just instinctive, to say his full name, a flinch reflex. That doesn’t help what happened next. He stood, all easily eight feet of him, pure power rolling off him in waves, threatening and beautiful and terrible, and I thought, oh, help me, oh help me, he’s magnificent, he’s stunning.

He was mine. I was like that. We were like that. Together. That’s disgusting.

That’s amazing.

What was I, that he wanted me as his own?

What was I?

“Riddell.” The roar shook our ship, made me swear under my breath and clamp my hand to my mouth.

*Whatever the conversation was here.*

And then he was gone, over the side of the ship; pausing only for a moment to meet my eyes, steady, constant.

And I felt my heart break. Because I knew, watching him, that this wasn’t a part of me anymore. That whatever we were, we couldn’t be it now, not without some serious consequences.

But I still…

I still…

“The bond will be released when your husband is dead!”

And he was gone.

There had been a long pause after that, one in which Valor riped me a new one and threw a fucking tantrum because I’d tried to stop him. Meyonne went down with him, and when he came back up, to my surprise, it was my side, not Ann’s, that he drifted to.

“Maybe,” He said, soft and slow, after a long pause, “you should go speak to Valor.”

“He’s not interested in anything I have to say.” I spat back, bitterly. I didn’t want to hear it, not from Mr. Can Do No Wrong himself, not from Mr. Fucking Perfect. I wasn’t in the mood.

“That’s because you don’t open your damn mouth.”

My jaw dropped, and I spun, staring in shock. Tone perfectly calm and flat, as if discussing calmly our next stop, his face unruffled and blank.

“…According to someone, I open my damn mouth too often.” I drawled, eyebrows up. Well, you have my attention, Meyonne.

“And you always say the wrong thing.” With a hint of amusement.

Well excuse me, Your Highness. We can’t all go along like a cat, never putting a fucking foot wrong. We can’t all be like Darling Ann, She Who Can Do No Wrong even when she fucking does.

“’Xactly.” Was all I muttered. I didn’t blow up at him. We had enough tension on the ship as it was, and I knew if I said one word, Ann would be to us in a moment, and I’d have at least two of ‘em on my one.

Who fucking needs ‘em, anyway?

And that is where it started, ladies and gents. That’s where the little crack opened wider, made me vulnerable to what happened next. That’s where I started to drift. I knew better then that. I did. Even then, there was a little voice whispering you do, you want them.

“You’ve been trained in the art of diplomacy,” He was going on, apparently not noticing the look on my face. Or he’s thinking’, it’s just another Semie sulk, it ain’t important.

I felt my annoyance rachet up a notch or two.

“Kinda.” I looked at him, forced my usual cocky, crooked smirk.

“Then perhaps you should go resolve the situation.” He stopped, suddenly, and his face…changed. The superior, arrogantly calm look I hated vanished, and he gave me That Look, the one that always makes it so damn hard to keep hating him.

It’s a little sad, that look, old-aching sad, like a wound that’s healed over a long time ago but left pain behind. It’s intense, too, looking at me like he wants to see somethin’ that ain’t there. Like he wants to see whatever it is he sees in Ann that makes him see her as someone to stick by. It’s soft, though, not hard-intense but soft, lookin’ right down to the core of me and back again in a way that always makes me want to cry without knowing why. And it’s not as steady as his usual stare. He looks right into my eyes with it, sure, but it’s like he ain’t seein’ me, and he couldn’t if he wanted to.

When he looks at me like that, I don’t hate him. When he looks at me like that, I think, you and I, Meyonne, we’re more alike then we wanna be, hu? ‘Cept you got this, and I don’t. You can handle this, and I can’t.

And then I usually hate him again, because that pisses me off, that he does this so well. That he’s so okay, and I’m so not.

and yeah, cause ain’t no one gonna see this maybe it ain’t him I hate meebe it’s sometimes just a little a lot me.

Anyway, he gave me that look, and leaned close, the way he does that makes me wanna move back and regain some personal space.

“Because who knows if we have a soul?” He whispered. And he sounded…

He sounded….

What the fuck had Valor said to him, that stupid fucker? If he had fucked Meyonne up again, after all our hard work, I knew for a fact I was gonna murder him.

One deep breath. Two.

We do have a soul. So do you, Meyonne, and so help me if he told you anything otherwise…it doesn’t matter, anyway.

You’re real, damnit. You’re real to the people that matter. How many times we gotta say it?

But then, maybe it wasn’t as bad as all that. Meyonne hadn’t seemed hurt when he’d said it; he had seemed, in fact, kinda strong. Bitter-sweet, maybe, but…not hurt.

One deep breath. Two.

Daggers off. Noman took them.

Sword off. He took that, too.

“Do not loose those.”

Eyeroll shared with Ann. Ignore them.

And go below decks.

I will ignore all homicidal urges as I have no weapons. I will ignore all homicidal urges as I have no weapons. I will ignore all homicidal urges as I have no weapons…

I’ll go ahead and give you our conversation, for the hell of it.

I tapped, lightly, on the wall, with a knuckle, a light pattern.

“Yes?” His tone was sharp.

“Meyonne said the kids should have a talk.” I replied, on a resigned, careful sigh.

“That might…be wise.” Carefully. Almost cautious. Good. He should be.

“Alright…“ Swallow your pride, Semie. “So- let’s talk.”

“Shall I start?”

“By all means.” Even I herd the way my voice darkened.

“As much as much of this is probably going to be very familiar, I think it’s best that we start at the beginning.” He sounded like a teacher. He sounded- clinical, removed, aloof. I hated him for it.

“Alright.” Because I didn’t trust myself to say anything else, and I was supposed to be trying, dammit.

“Very good.” Don’t praise me, you brat, I’m not a dog. Not your dog, anyway. And so help me, if we’re going to keep usin’ that analogy you might wanna remember I bite.

He then proceeded to launch into everything I already knew about him; his backstory, his devotion to his family.

“I didn’t actually tell you the reason why I want that crystal,” He said, and he was meeting my eyes steadily and although his tone was still pompous and condescending, well, that was just Valor, wasn’t it? He didn’t seem to know another way to talk to people, and frankly, I was diplomatic enough to know that sometimes you have to ignore the tone and just focuse on the words.

“I thought you were informed- a mistake on my part.”

Oh, you can admit those, can you? Very good, Valor, if I had a treat I’d give it to you.

He informed me that his family’s safety road on that crystal, on the shoulders of king, and that apparently his opinion of his Grandfather bordered on obsessive adoration. The way he spoke of the man made me think of a child talking about a hero, and in a way, I think that’s what Valor was, in that moment. A child, discussing someone who had always been his hero- and he couldn’t or didn’t want to see that man as anything else, as an adult. In part, it was stupid and spoiled and closed minded and foolish.

In another way, I completely understood.

Then he had to go and open his mouth again, just when I was starting to soften towards him. Rather then shutting the fuck up and letting me digest how important this was to him- rather then focus on what the reasons were that I should see his point of view- he instead went on a fucking tangent about how he had done so much for us, and helped us, and that we hadn’t given him a single thing in return when he’d done everything out of the goodness of his heart.

I think this is the point where I shut down.

I mean, I can’t say I went into things with an open mind. And I can’t say there was really much of anything he could have said to make me sorry for my actions on the ship. But I had started to understand his world view a touch. I stopped even trying at this point.

And then he went and sealed it.

“There is literally nothing- nothing- you can say that would convince me otherwise.” He finished, nose in the air. There were few saving graces here, but I’m a big enough person to list the two.

I gave him points for his balls and his strength in stickin’ to what he thought was right. There’s somethin’ to be said about that degree of loyalty- that it’s stupid or impressive is up to you, but I can’t lie and say there is ain’t a whole lot I wouldn’t do for Talron.

Now, I wouldn’t do it just ‘cause he looked at me an’ asked. Not unless he had a damn good excuse for it. But still, that loyalty and the intense devotion to what he thought was important- yeah, can’t hold that against ‘im, even if I want to. An’ I do, trust me.

And the other was the way he looked at me. No matter what his voice implied, he met my eyes, steady and level. His gaze was even and calm, and he didn’t flinch or blink or back down, not even when my reply was hissed.

“Yes, but a ‘talk’ implies two people conversing.”

“Yes, it does.” At least he sounded a little flustered. If he expected me to just turn around and walk out, then he knew me even less well then I imagined he did.

“Good. My turn, then?” I asked, over his spluttering- he managed a snide- “By all means.” that had my hackles up all over again.

And I began. My voice started calm and even as I explained that I had no memory of who I was, where I was from, how old I was or even if I had been born. But this king, for all his faults-both Kings- had been so irreversibly a part of me from the moment I had laid eyes on them despite that. How Valor had manipulated and twisted that part of myself, had tried to use and force himself on it, and how I would never stand for that, because king was mine.

I think he missed a big part of th’ point, and honestly, I don’t think I coulda put it in a way he got, anyhow. That by doin’ what he did, it felt like he was trying to use me, control me. That because I felt so…so close to king, and King- well, fuck. This entire situation- can you blame me for bein’ caught on the raw?

I was bein’ judged from every side, watched and weighed and measured- I had at least two sections of people callin’ me by some fancy title, one of which seemed to think the sun and moon rose and set on me, th’ other that I was some bloodthirsty huntress. And the whole time, I felt like I was fightin’ a battle with myself, a war right on close to the vest.

And that was just scrapin’ the surface. I’d exploded, and I wasn’t near done explodin’, I’d just fallen into a lull.

Besides. Everyone and their cousin thought it was alright to use me. Us. When he started hurlin’ my name around, using me to manipulate King like he actually could, even if he could- well. That wasn’t alright, not in my book, never would be ‘less I said so.

But, at the same time, like I said, I gave him breathin’ room for fighting for what he believed in. Didn’t mean I had to like him, pompous ass he was, or that I had to like his methods, but he was fighting for what he believed, and there’s only so much of that you can hold against a person.

His not thinkin’ king was real, though- that didn’t set right with me, either. And I made it damn clear, loud and firm, that that wasn’t okay and never would be.

Anyway, after that, we found Myn. Phoenix, whatever you wanna call ’er. We finally found ’er, and she’d pretty much turned herself into a little mini-general with the goal of capturing Feng and brining him back to the Citadel.

Which was all well and good, ‘cept for we’d already gotten ourselves involved with a group of preists who didn’t want that, and on top of them, Delcova, who also had his own plans for the girl Amarissa who Feng still had with him.

And on top of all them, Damien showed up wanting Feng dead. That was a hell and itself, that fiasco. Found out a lot about myself from Damien, those days. I'll get into that in a bit.

We’d found him in a little city just a few miles from where Myn’s camp was- but not in the city. This place had a line where a ghost-spirit world litterally overlapped the real one, like waves of an ocean eating away at the sand on a beach. It crept and crawled it’s way into reality, and if you took just one step in the wrong direction, you went in over your head. We went there hopin’ to lure king- the not King, the not real one- in for Valor to try and capture and get his crystal from.

*Any blogs I have with us and Myn here.*

His roar shook the earth, and he was charging. I shifted around, ready to move- I knew, I already knew what I wanted, needed, was going to do -

-and a second, answering roar rattled my bones.

Identical.

I froze, and it was a damn good thing, because King, My King, The real flesh and blood, King, stood before me. He slammed into king with a force that would have snapped my neck, and the two locked together, in silent, silent, battle. Defending Damien. Defending me.

How can these two creatures be the same?

And then Valor was diving forward. He reached out and snagged the crystal from king’s chest, and his momentum kept him going. With a mighty heave, the crystal sprang free, and King, snarling, crushed the smokey remains of himself.

And just like that, it was over.

I felt like I was in a bog. Mentally, that is. I couldn’t no more move or speak then I coulda if someone’s been holdin’ me.

And before I could do anything, Ann was screaming Damien’s name and he was attacking King. I heard his name leave my own lips, too late. But it woke me up, f’r damn sure, and I was sprinting, putting myself between them with arms spread wide in the universal knock it the fuck off, boneheads! motion.

If it was clear who I was protectin’, well, ain’t my fault Damien went on the offensive.

…mostly.

“Move.” I’ve never heard his voice like that; if I was even a little threatened by him, I’d have squeaked and ducked out of the way in a heartbeat. It was as close to a growl as I had ever heard from him, through teeth gritted so hard they might crack.

“No.” I said back, calm and quiet. “He just saved your life.” And now I couldn’t keep the anger out of my voice, a tight hiss of my own.

“He’s the one that started all of this-”

“No, he’s not! He just saved you. You might show a little gratitude. And if you’re going to be angry-be angry at the right person.” I finished, at last lowering my arms. I figured, I was still standin’ there, Damon wouldn’t be throwin’ mental take-downs at King.

Still, whatever I expected, it sure as fuck wasn’t for him to step in, take my face in his hands-

-and kiss me.

“Mmpfh!” My arms flailed, helplessly, utterly unsure, shocked, completely at a loss. I mean, I don’t remember kissing before, and even if I’d wanted it, I didn’t know where to put my hands, for fuck’s sake, and I didn’t want it so none of the places that I’m sure my hands woulda’ been supposed to go would really be appropriate, right there.

I don’t know if he thought maybe I’d somehow ‘member him, through his kissing me. Like something from a faerie tale- kiss the princess, she wakes up, and they live happily ever after. ‘Cept this ain’t a faerie tale and there ain’t a happily ever after, not here.

At last I found purchase on his shoulders, and I pushed away, gentle, firm. His face, when I did it, was devastated. I knew what I had to do, what needed to be said.

I’d not chosen him. Looking at him looking at me, touching my lips where his hand been only a moment before, dry and soft and warm, I realized something.

I’d not chosen him. And the…longing, that had been there…the pain…the sadness…the confusion…was gone. Just- gone. I didn’t feel the desire to love him, the way I had before. I didn’t feel the…the draw to him, I’d felt in the citadel.

I’d let him go. I’d actually, really, truly let him go. It was a weight on my shoulders and off them at the same time. I hadn’t stopped caring about him, as a person- he seemed good. Honestly good. Even if it was an act, that’s how it seemed; like he had a big, true heart, and he was, at his core, someone who deserved life and happiness.

But I’d taken a massive step. I’d…I’d given that necklace to Ann, and it seemed like, somehow, that had been the catalyst. I’d backed away from him and all he might have once meant to me. Because he’d never meant anything to me. Not in my memory. He was, essentially, a stranger. A stranger I wanted to be a friend, a companion, someone I liked and cared about and maybe, once, in another life…had loved. I could admit that, that once, I had loved him, cared for him, married him.

Once, I had been his wife.

A lifetime ago.

And he needed…he needed to let go, too. He had to let me go. Enough was enough, dammit. He was obsessive. I wasn’t his any more; if I ever had been.

I wasn’t his, and I’d let him go, and it was time he knew it. Knew it in it’s entirety. I knew what I was about to do would crush him; but the time for softness and tenderness was past. A girl’s life was on the line- a very important little girl. There was so much, so much bigger then me, and him, and what had or had not happened, and a few hurt feelings and broken hearts.

I knew what I needed to say, and I knew it wouldn’t necessarily go over well.

*Conversation here?*

As he slipped backwards, King folded over me. I was used to his hand on my shoulder- it had been there through this entire conversation- or his touch, but this…this was new. Like cradling something precious. I felt…safe, in this embrace. Oddly enough, I felt like I was giving him comfort, too; like he wasn’t just doing it to show possessiveness.

The worst of it is, now, I wish I’d pushed him away, too. Because as much as I hate the Other Me, she had a point recently.

I’ll have to choose again. Talron or King. I can’t have them both; and it breaks my heart, it kills me, but I know which one I’ll choose. I know who I will always choose, above everyone and everything else. I ain’t done a very good job of showing it, recently. I’ve been a pretty shitty friend, in fact, a pretty shitty example of someone who’s ‘sposed to love someone else.

I’ve done a pretty shitty job as a person in whole, but that don’t change the truth of it.

I will always choose him.

And I almost forgot that. Damn me and my foolish, stupid arrogance, I almost forgot that.

How could I ever forget that?

That’s what woke me up, out of everything that happened next. No matter what Meyonne said, or Ann, or nobody else, that is what made me snap out of the haze I had been in and wake up to what was happening to me.

But I’m getting’ ahead of myself.

Anyway, fact of the matter is eventually King left and so did we. We went to regroup with Min but got side-carded by the Queen's Men, not for the first time. We talked with them about everything that was goin' down and the whys and hows and exchanged the itty-bitty amount of information we had with each other. They're a pretty amazing group, these guys; totally devoted to their cause and so good they practically blind you with it. I expect one or the other of 'em to start shining any minute.

Somethin' in me answers that, you know? Seeing them, something in me just feels like a little girl, starin' in awe up at the big bad warrior she wants to be just like when she grows up. Nah, now, I know that's bull and it's stupid on top of it, but that don't stop my heart from beatin' a little faster when I'm around them- don't stop me from feelin' just a little stronger, a little more invisible, a little bolder. Somethin' wakes up and stirrs and sort of blinks sleepily in the light, before it gets shoved right back down because I ain't no hero.

We told these people about a group of three that had been working for Feng, hunting us. They'd already attacked us once and we'd sent them packing; all but the little vampire who'd been with them, who had his own agenda. Turned out he knew about them, and he said they were on their way to the city.

Would we care for a game of hide and seek?

We agreed almost instantly. There's almost no one in this world I want dead, but my grudge against these four goes past all reason (as you'll find out in just a minute.) I hate them. I hate them and I want them out of the world. There is something about them that makes my hair stand on end, something that makes me feel foul.

I hate them, and that's not somethin' I can say about a lot of people.

So we staked 'em out and stalked our prey. Ann crept off after a while of waiting and found 'em further down on the trail She said one of them wasn't right- something was wrong with him. Normally, this might have either worried me or made me pause, for a second. Now, though, all I saw was a weakness. An advantage.

That might've changed, if things had been different.

2009-05-16T01:15:00.000-07:00

Ann belived that Farn was hiding something. She belived that he was upset that we'd removed his cursed; that he missed the power it had given him, even for so short a time.

Now, here's the thing. There is a massive surge with having that much power- it's downright thrilling, to feel that dangerouse, that unstoppable. To know that if someone pissed you off enough, you'd become this massive, hulking beast and could just- twitch a wrist and they'd be gone.

I don't miss it. I'd become something like a Were, or even a Were again if I thought I would be in control of myself, of the change. Sure, why not, wouldn't hurt. But it's not something I activly look for or want.

Ann, on the other hand, often mentions that she misses it. That she'd take that power back if only she could, if she ever got the chance. And she told me, quietly, that she felt Farn was the same way.

A mildly disturbing prospect on both counts.

We decided just keeping an eye on him for now was the best- and really, wasn't it the only?- thing we could do. The rest of the day passed uneventfully, with us milling about the ship. I spent most of my time on deck, again, alternating between walking with Ann and Meyone to bothering Alaric to chasing an enthusiastic Conchetta to keeping an eye on Farn. I bounced all over that ship, and still managed to get bored after a couple hours.

As if sensing it, another ship chose that moment to bring itself to our attention. We all stood, watching the ship approch, waiting for a signal, waiting for a fight. So far it had made any agressive actions, but it was coming closer, and coming at us.

Ann's ship, Ann's desicion. I let my hands go to my weapons and waited. We all stood in a circle, Ann at my far right with Meyonne, as always, acting as her huge shadow. Our hirelings were slightly further back uncertian of the course of action to take. They didn't know us very well, at this point, and weren't quiet comfortable putting themselves right in with us, I think. Alaric was beside me, a comfortingly calm and steady pressance. Very little seems to frighten him- although, I can't say that surprises me. We watched the ship approch slowly, and then Meyone asked Ann what we should do.

I jerked my eyes from the ship and to my elvin freind, watching her quietly as she stood in silence. She was chewing her lower lip and if she felt my eyes on her didn't aknowledge me in any way.

"Ann." My voice was low and gentle, a subtle prod. You're in command here, Ann, make the desicion and stop being wishy-washy about the damn thing.

Alaric's rasping voice came from my left, something about being able to burn a vessel. I really hoped he meant that one, not us. I sent an elbow into his ribs sharply, knowing Ann hadn't appreciated the words, and whispered over to Ann again. She needed to do something, damn it, now.

She finally snapped her eyes down to us again, mostly on Alaric, and barked that we would intercept the ship, translated to us by Farn. A silent, heavy breath was pulled in by everyone- you could feel it- and the tension in the air doubled.

At least until the ship grew near, and it's grand beauty was obviouse to all on deck. Magnificent, elegent beauty, enough to make our poor ship look like one of our fishing vessels by comparison.....and flying Talron's colors proudly.

My heart stopped, then caught again and began to race. I looked over at Alaric, eyebrows in my hairline. He didn't look even mildly surprised.....in fact, he looked like a little boy reciving a gift. I knew he was Talron's old friend.....but just how old?

What the hell was going on?

A few men came aboard our ship, and Alaric stepped forward to greet them; two carried a chest, one a bottle of some kind of wine. Ann stepped back, but I stayed put, refusing to move. Nothing and noone with Talron's colors frightens me or intimidates me.

Except, sometimes, the man himself.

One of the men adressed me by name, to my surprise. I nodded to him, and recived a bow. My eyebrows went even further up my forehead, if it was possible. In fact, I don't think I had eyebrows anymore, just right then. They came back later, of course. The eyebrows, that is.

The man said it was a pleasure to finally met me, and greeted Ann formally. Ann asked how they'd found us, and the man glanced at Alaric with this odd, smirkey little smile. He said it was easy to find someone you knew well.

Well, then. Is everyone in Talron's command an arrogent, secretive plotter?

I lifted my eyes to Ann, who was a walking stormcloud, her murderouse gaze locked on Alaric. I snickered softly, and turned my eyes on Alaric. He was grinning stupidly, that I know something you don't know kind of grin, and I wanted to slap it off his face. I was torn between angry and amused, and when I looked back at Ann, she promised to kill him.

I told her I'd help.

It worked; the anger lifted from her eyes and she was grinning at me. I smirked back, letting out my breath slowly. This was Talron-related, this was okay, safe, we could relax. For now.

Alaric and the men slipped off below decks to discuss what they had to. Ann and Meyone took themselves off to a corner, talking softly, and I left them too it; then needed.....'privacy'....every one in a while, as obliviouse as they both were- still-are. Besides, I had problems of my own running through my head; if Talron's men had come, did that mean Talron himself had returned? Was he going to leave? Had the empress.....was he.....

Stop that. You have bigger worries then that right now.

I took a deep breath and leaned over the railing, closing my eyes and trying not to let myself get any hopes up or fears going. I tried to produce a mental zone of 'don't fucking mess with me right now', and it seemed to work; not even Conchetta came near me. I almost felt bad about that one.

About a half hour later, then men and Alaric returned. I straightened up slowly and approched, my resolve in my choice firm. From the other side, Ann and Meyonne came, too, and her eyes told me she knew what I was going to ask. I didn't much care if it pissed her off. If there was even a chance, even a hair's breath of a chance that he was back, I wanted to know about it. This was fucking impossible, running all over the world when all I wanted was to root my feet into the earth outside Befrengaurd and not move until I was certian-sure that Talron was returned, alive, mentally and physically okay, and- and-

as mine as he'd ever been.

I 'd come dispite that longing for a number of reasons; one, the primary driving factor, was that Myn was my fault. I'd gotten her into a bad situation, and if this is what it took to get her out again, I wasn't not going to be involved. Another was who Alyssa was.....who's daughter she was. Toby had helped us, and now he needed our help.

Another was Ann herself. She followed me around all over the map when I was sniffing around like a bloodhound for hints of my past. After she'd come to the South with me, I couldn't very well refuse her anything. I owed her, and massivly.

And the final reason was simple. This had to be done. A long time ago someone decided we weren't allowed to live a quiet, normal life of peace and blissful ignorance. Ann, Meyonne, Alaric and I, all of our companions, were set right in the middle of things, and it was our job to make as much right as we could. It wasn't in any of our nature to just let things go. We might want to go home, we might not want to do what we did, but we did it.

I bowed to the Captian of the other ship, and asked politly if I may have a word. He said yes without a pause, and I found myself turning beat red as I asked if there was any word or news from or on Talron.

His turn to lift an eyebrow.

Apperantly, the last they heard was what we knew; he was in the Citadel. No new information on him- no word from him, to them or me.

I asked, then, throughly confused and a little sucpisiouse, who sent them to find Alaric.

And found that it had been Alaric.

I felt the snarl curl up a corner of my lip, heard the growl start from somewhere in the bottom of my chest. I can't turn anymore, but I found that even after being were for just a short time, I'd retained growling when angry. Maybe I did it before, even. I certianly don't know. All I know is that if you're wise, you'll back the fuck up when I did it, because I'm either going to hit or yell.

Alaric doesn't know me well enough to know it, and simply gave a bashful half-shrug when asked why he'd not told us.

Oh yeah, I was growling.

The captian let me know that if anything did happen, he'd let me know- though I wasn't sure how that would come to pass- and then they left.

Annnnd five , four three, two, one-

Ann's voice split the air like a whipcrack, sharp with anger and disapproval. She didn't yell, didn't even raise her voice, but even I was flinching under her hard words and ice cold tone. Ann has a way of speaking that makes you feel like you're about ten years old again, being scolded by an adult.

Alaric, though, remained unappologetic and sullen through the entire speech, and when it was over, shrugged, smirked, gave me a nudge in the ribs and headed below deck. I watched him go with a lopsided smirk.

I think.....I could get into way too much trouble with him.

I took a deep, steadying breath and went back to the railing, this time not trying to exude waves of anger. Just trying to enjoy the ride, and enjoy myself. Still, I couldn't help but watch the speck that flew Talron's colors, watch it until it was no longer visible and then imagine I could still see it.

Just for a second, I'd felt home again. There had been something comfortable and familer in a land that was anything but. I closed my eyes and put my head in my hands.

Stop it. You're being a shit-stupid little girl. Grow up. Get on track, Semie, this isn't a game.

The rest of the evening passed much in this fashion; I tried to distract myself from bleak thoughts and entertained myself bothering my friends until Molholander finally appered in veiw. Yet another airship came up on us about the same time, but apperantly it was one of the city's, and okay.

They said, bluntly, that they were going to escort us in. Instantly I saw the tension start to knot Ann up again; she doesn't like anyone messing with this ship. She's as protective of it as a mother with a baby. Everyone else seemed relaxed and at ease, though, so I took their cue and stayed that way myself, lounging on the railing as we glided in. These people seemed to know us and know what they were doing, and frankly, if this was a bad situation, we were outnumbered and outgunned anyway. Nothing to do but watch and wait.

Ann might be surprised to hear me say that- me, of all people- but in truth I'm actually a pretty big fan of it. And in a situation like this, even more so. You start acting out, and then things really do go all to shit. But if you just relax and stay calm, go with the flow of things until you see the big picture, you can usually end a situation more.....happily.

So I perched on the railing and hoped I didn't fall off backwards, and watched the men and everyone else. Ann was talking to a human officer, but I couldn't hear what over the wind in my ears. We moved slowly compared to our normal speed- at our normal speed, I'd never be sitting where I was now- but it was still fast enough to toss my short hair and drown out what she said. She turned and looked at me. I gave her a lop-sided grin and flashed a reassuring signal to her. Relax. It's alright, I wanted to say. not everyone is out to get you.

Molholander was one of the most lovley cities I've ever seen. Nothing can compare to what Nabudel must have looked like in it's prime- even to what it was as a ruin- but it was a close second. Ann was clearly caught by it, and I had to admit it was an almost graceful looking city.

We docked, and the ship was hooked into place- odd thing to do, from the look on Ann's face- and we were asked to follow one of the men into the city. Like we had a choice. Still, I shrugged and hopped down, dusting off my pants and going willingly enough to the gangplank. I turned and grinned at Ann, making a 'come on' wave and heading down it ahead of the others. Oh, don't get me wrong; I was nervouse, too. Of course I was. But if they were going to hurt us I thought, they probably would have already. I saw no one with cuffs or weapons at the ready, and no one seemed.....agressive or displeased in anyway. Ann fell in step beside me, and I resisted the urdge to grab her hand. She looked purely freaked the fuck out, she did.

Such a nervouse little elf.

They brought us into a building that was teaming with people, but not human people. Elves and gnomes, more then anything else. I tipped my head as the guard gave us directions, then waited for Ann to move. This was her deal. Meyone, Alaric, Thorin, and I were at her back. Even our little hirlings were there, should shit begin to fall down on our heads. Slowly, deliberatly, we started forward again, Ann's breathing slow and deep, a sign she was controlling herself. I kept my body language relaxed and calm, trying to reassure her without words. It didn't seem to be working.

Finally, we got to the proper door, and Ann pressed a palm to it. I met her eyes, and nodded, and then she swung it open.

To reveal and very familer sight. A gnome I'd only met once, who's life we'd saved when I was still new to this group. His name was- is- Master Ron Dangledongledot.

Yeeeeah, you heard that right. Try saying it without sounding like a fool.

I thought Ann was going to collapse, and heard my own delighted laugh break the suddan silence. We greeted each other warmly, all of us, and found that apperantly he'd been here on business. His cousin was captain of the little gnome ship we'd seen before, which explained.....a lot.

He bid us to eat and so we did; though it took Ann longer then any of us to relax and enjoy the meal. Even then, she sat on the very end and seemed disgusted to watch us eat; she's always been a bird about eating, ever since I met her. I know my manners aren't that bad, but I feel downright rude compared to her.

We were told we'd be given proper rooms for as long as we were here, and had full use of the bathhouse.

I choked. Luckily, no one seemed to notice, but I had to take a hasty drink before I started coughing and embaressed myself. Bathhouse which implied naked people of both sexes together in one room naked.

Did I say that part already?

I could already feel the heat in my cheeks, turning my ears pink. Thankful for a dark complexion and black hair, I ducked my head and waiting for the bad moment to pass. By the time it had, Ron was telling us that we would have someone to show us around shortly, and that we should enjoy our dinner and relax. We were welcome here, and we could stay as long as needed. I smiled, thanking him with everyone else. It's nice to be welcomed, for once.

The place was as beautiful as it'd seemed, and startling warm. I don't mean the weather- I mean, we were greeted in friendly manners and people of a few differant races intermingled with no obviouse tension between any of them.

We each got our own room, lush, lovely spreads that made me want to go no where else for my entire stay here. A big bed, he size someone like me could drown in, thick carpet for toe-burry-ing, beautiful colors, the smell of the wood from the furniture overlaying everything, and an assortment of other furniture and nick-nacks. There were even potted plants, which I assumed Ann was happy for. My favorite part were the balconies, all connected and all just about one entire wall.

I'm sorry, can we steal all this?

Joking. I'm joking.

We were shown to the bathhouse, next. It was as beautiful as the rest of the place, with elegent carvings on the walls and statues and such everywhere. The entire bathing area was a giant 'flower', and you could, um- pick a petal. Sevearl people already had.

There were benches and places for clothing and towels. It was huge, open, and I could hear the pleasent sounds of laughter and talking echoing around. It was a lovely place, and if it hadn't been full of naked people I would have been very happy there.

Ann pointed out the huge statues on the walls, life-sized representations of each angel of each land. There were even little plaques underneath that told about each.

One looked very, very much like Toby. Ilasureta.

The Weres had been mentioning her. I shot Ann a concerned look, and got a shrug in reply. She didn't know the anwser to this situation any more then I did, it seemed.

And besides, there were more pressing matters right now.

Like Annwasgettingnaked.

I felt the heat rush to my face again, and not even my dark skin could hide it this time. Her items first, then gloves, then cloak, then her sh-her shirt.

I could not form a complete sentance if I'd tried. She'd just droped her shirt in front of me, showing me all of her, as if it was no big deal. I'd seen Ann naked before- she'd seen me naked, too- but all the same.

Her shoes and pants were next, and I was aware that I was making little fish-out-of-water noises. She gave me a cat-smile and beckoned me in, taking great pleasure in my mortification.

It's rare it's her that gets to be on that end of the pair of us. Meyonne and the others were loosing their clothing, too, completly with any lack of self-confidence. I put my face in my hands and headed inside, not daring to look up, even as I heard Ann slide into one of the petals. Peeking through my fingers, I made my way over to that petal. I removed my shoes and put them under the bench were Ann's belongings had been layed, dipping my feet in next to her and finally, slowly, lowering my hands.

Normally, I would have had a great deal of fun seeing Meyone in the water with Ann. He was in the same petal and looked very content with himself at that moment. I could hear Conchetta and Noman, and to my left Thorin was in the water, women around him like cats to cream. I can't say I blamed them much- he was a well toned, handsome man, and though I couldn't see much where I sat, if he looked like that below the waist, too-

-well. If it weren't for Talron, I might be over there myself.

Wave.

I screamed as a wave of water splashed over us suddanly, marking Alaric's entrance into the water. I groaned as it instantly turned brackish, forgetting my shame in amusment. He hadn't even bothered to rinse! My laughter rang out helplessly, and Ann sent me a tolerant, tired glance. She tried to convence me to climb in with them, that I would enjoy a nice, hot bath, that I needed to wash off the traveling dust, that it felt good, that it was nice.

I would, I did, I'm sure it did, and I'm sure it was. All of those things would still be true later, when the place was less full.

As they bathed, I chattered happily as if totally unflustered, and watched the comings and goings of the bathhouse. I was chatting a mile a minute, but saying nothing. It's a good way to distract someone from noticing something's wrong. Besides, brainless chatter feels good, now and again. No plans on what tatcical moves to make next, or how to stay alive another day. Instead, teasing Alaric for his smell and being teased for refusing to get naked.

No way. No fucking way are you going to get me naked in front of these people.

I was jerked from brainless talk when Ann announced she'd 'be right back'. I followed the path of her gaze, and my jaw set.

Beautiful, dark skinned Elf-ladies, in the petal just across the way. They were beautiful like Ann was beautiful, but in a totally differant way, too. Same perfect, flawless skin, and ears raised into elegent points that stuck out of their long hair. Eyes that were wise and knowing and gentle and so many differant colors.

Long legged and slender limbed, like Ann when she climbed over to join them. I watched her go. Straight, beautiful back, blonde hair cascading in a waterfall, darker with wet. Ears, smaller then theirs, poking up through the wet strands, perfectly curved rear leading down into long, strong legs. Beautiful. She was so beautiful. They were all so beautiful.

I rolled my eyes and forced a laugh, pretending that I was mocking her be right back, when in actuality I found myself trying very hard not to get up and run out.

Conchetta suddanly appered by my side, but in the water, resting her arms on the side and greeting me merrily. I forced my eyes away from the women I so longed to be like and turned back to the girl I was like. She wasn't jealouse of them, from what I saw. She didn't seem to care that she wasn't well-endowed or tall and slender or a goddess to look upon.

Of course, she also wasn't in love with a king.

We talked pleasently for a while, and then suddanly she gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth, her giggles almost hysterical. I turned-

-and yes, actually, Thorin was that nice below the waist, as well. I wished I'd gotten into the water after all, so I could sink below it in shame. My throat closed, my ears burned, and I clamped both hands frantically over my mouth.

Still, I could feel the laughter rush up out of my throat as a very naked, very unashamed Thorin went striding away from Ann, having obviously just spoken to her, and marched past us.

Three woman were carried in his arms.

All at the same damn time.

Their sultry laughter reached my ears, and I fell backwards, howling. Someone- probably Conchetta- hit me for it. But it wasn't hard, and it didn't hurt. I sat up to see our other companions in variouse states of amused embaressement, too; even Meyone.

Ann returned to us a moment later. I watched in pleased surprised as she splashed him swimming by, then hurried over to us, where she knew he couldn't get her back. I raised a brow, my heart lightening. Here we were, playing, laughing, joking, happy.

I guess, no matter how hard things get, we're all pretty okay if we have one another.

As soon as everything had calmed down- and I could speak again- the topic turned back to more seriouse matters. Everyone kind of....converged....on the petal. We decided plans would be made in the morning.....it wasn't safe and it was rather pointless to wander the streets at night. Time to go to our beautiful rooms and get some well earned rest for the night.

That said, Meyone promptly came out of the water- my hand went back over my eyes- and so did Ann. I rose- hand still over my eyes- and, through my fingers as before, made my way back to the door.

My embaressment was not personal in this case. I had no desire to see what I'd seen of Thorin's on anyone else tonight. Thanks. Thanks ever so much.

Ann was still trying to convence me to go ahead and clean up while we were here. I told her I'd do it on my own time, would you leave me alone, elf? Damn. I stared intently at the floor until everyone was dressed, and we straggled out of the bathhouse. Once out, I was in a considerably better mood, and talking happily to Ann as we got back to our rooms. There, though, her teasing and prodding stopped as we came to our respective doors, and she paused in the hallway. Meyone and I stopped, too, glancing at each other and back to her.

Funny, how she bonds us. I don't know what all else Meyonne and I have in commen, and I think if I'd been alone in Fera he never would have stayed with me. But one thing we both do care for, one thing that we do have in commen, is a very real concern for the elf in front of us.

I asked, tentivly, if Ann wanted to share a room. I mean, we always do, only recently have we not. Usually when we don't, something weird or bad happens. Sometimes even when we do, I'll admit, but it was a sense of familiarity all the same. But she turned me down after a long pause, and we agreed that the conecting balconies would have to be enough.

Once everyone had settled in for the night, I grabbed a change of cloths and headed back out. I went back to the bathhouse, which was now nearly empty but for a few people in the very far pettles of the room. I grabbed one in the farthest corner I could, and did what I needed to do. In the clear water, I could see all of me just as I could see all of Ann, earlier.

Short, unevenly cut hair, boring black. Dark skin streaked with freckles across my nose- they looked like dirt smudges. Horrible dirt smudges that would never ever wash off. Blue eyes that would have been pretty but they'd been real blue. Instead, they were muddy silver-blue, almost gray. Stubby-nailed fingers on calloused hands, a non-existant torsoe, breasts that were bigger only because the rest of me bore undesireable weight. I twisted to see, in morbid curiousity. Nope. No butt at all. Not like the deep, sensual curve of Ann's back, leading into her bottom.

Snarling, I hit the water lightly, mussing my reflection.

Ugly. Nothing special at all. What are you thinking? You, in love with a king? You, with a mouth like scum and a body of a child? You, rash, impulsive creature? You, little better then an urchin? Why should he love you? Why, when he has the attention of an Empress? When he could have someone as beautiful and wise as those elves today?

...."I fucking hate being naked!"

I think half the room looked at me. Not for the first time, I felt my ears heat and this time I did sink below the water, with only my eyes peeking out.

About ten minutes later I made my way back to my bedroom, muttering loudly in case anyone was still awake. I wanted them to think exactly what they thought; that I was just, for some odd reason, a prude.

I closed my door softly, locking it behind. I meant to fall into sleep, emotion tiring me out; I though I'd drop off instantly. Instead, though I kept being awakened through the night by the uneasy feeling of being watched. When I'd wake, to explore it, it'd be gone. Or if I still felt it, it would move, as if the person had wings and was fluttering away from my site. Half-way curiouse and half-way frightened, I would fall back into sleep. There was no malice from what I felt.....just the sensation of being watched. I'd sleep for a bit longer, then, abruptly, be awakened again because I swear someone was just there, close enough to reach out and-

-nothing. A gropping hand touching only the darkness of the room around me and perhaps the bookshelf near the bed. Once, I knocked one of my daggers off the bedside table.

That was the most eventful occurance of the night.

I was awakened earlier then I'd like- again- by Ann, the next morning. Apperantly I hadn't been the only one to feel like I was being watched all night. Ann'd had it happen, too. She told me no one else had reported symptoms.

Well, okay then, we should be used to this kind of thing by now.

I asked her which room first, and, rather predicatbly, she said her own. I didn't much care; I shrugged, and off we toddled. We found nothing out of place in her room at all, and were about to give up the search, when Ann called my name softly. I came over to her, and she pointed out the bone shards mixed into the soil of her plant. Alaric was with us, and he came over as well. It was deffinatly odd, to him, and he began to cast a spell after a couple of minutes. He announced there had without doubt been a ghost in the plant, but now it was gone. It'd run away from him. He said he'd banished it so it couldn't return, and instantly I flinched.

I pointed out that we'd spoken to spirits- or things like them, sort of, anyway- before, and what if this one had been trying to give us a message?

Alaric shrugged. What was done was done; the ghost was gone for the moment.

"Well, check out my plant. I had the same problem."

So we switched direction and went back to my room. Sure enough, same issues. But I instisted that Alaric leave it alone; at least for one night. To see what would happen. Ann, though, shoved her plant outside and had Alaric ward her room for twenty four hours. She was not, she said, going to deal with ghost problems she didn't have to.

Alaric and I went to get our proper cloths on, and soon everyone else was joining up with us again. We told our hirlings their jobs for the day- Noman to explore the underbelly of the city, Farn to take the opposit end and see about the nobility here. To our surprise, before we could assign Conchetta, Farn spoke up, mentioning that he'd like to take her with. She was a skilled people person, apperantly, and none of us had a problem letting Conchetta go, if she felt comfortable being alone with Farn.

Then, he added that he'd also like to take Meyone.

My jaw dragged the dust for a moment. Ann's face had gone faintly pale, and her arms folded in that familer, stubborn pose across her chest. Meyone, for his part, was watching Farn with a thoughtful, considering look, although every line in his body was stiff and uncomfortable.

Okay....those two can't be impartial. Guess this is my job.

"Why?"

Farn admited that he felt he needed a 'bodygaurd' of sorts, and we'd have Thoren with us. As Thoren is pretty much a force of nature by himself, we didn't really need extra muscle.

I looked at the pair again, sighing softly. Alaric had taken a physical step back, putting himself out of the argument, and from the way Farn was looking at me, it was obviouse this was my go. I shrugged, glancing helplessly over. Farn had a point; he needed someone to protect him, since he was basically kind of helpless.

I told Ann I didn't see why not, and waited for the protests. Those two had refused to be seperated for more then a few minutes at a time since Fera. The one time I'd forced Meyone to stay back, with me, he'd nearly killed me with his eyes alone, forget the weapon at his side.

Insta-bable. I fell silent and listened to Ann weakly try to defend her choice to keep Meyone, arguements that made no sense, and felt my lips twitching. Goodness, Ann, Thoren is just a man. A large man, but all the same. You're not his enemy. Besides, he'd never catch you even if you did piss him off.

Finally, it was Thoren himself who spoke up, quietly informing Ann that she had nothing to be afraid of from him.

Aww, nice. Good job, Thor-

"Unless you get in my way."

-eeeeannnnd never mind. Ugh. Ann looked like a frightened mouse under the stare of a hawk. It got worse when Meyone quietly agreed to go with Farn and Conchetta. Ann glanced over at me and I wagged my eyebrows at her with a smirk. Her frightened look turned into a glare, and I just grinned. One way to get Ann out of being scared is to piss her off. I'm good at that.

We wandered our sepeate ways- Farn, Meyone and Conchetta, Noman alone, and Alaric, Thoren, Ann and I. It didn't feel quiet right to send Noman off by himself, not when one of us from the larger group could have been spared. But that's what we did, and soon the group of four of us were moving towards the games area.

The people around us- still a mismash of those three races- had all kinds of pets as they walked past us; all kinds of wild animals for pets. Things like I'd not been close to except for Illoria's Demetrious, and he'd not even been a real panther. I edged a bit closer to the group, trying not to picture what sharp claws and teeth could do. Unfortunatly, I'd seen it in person. I'd been on the reciving end already of things with teeth and claws.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, praying that I could do what I'd done best, before the man who'd begin chipping away at my life and sanity had cursed me. Then I put on a confident face, grinned lopsidedly, and approched my first target.

I am no master of the shadows, like Ann is, able to slip away unheard and unseen, stealthy and graceful as a cat. But what you need to get here, is that talking to people is just as infinatly hard as hiding from them. Ann's gotten annoyed at me, before, for taking a long time to say what I need to say. But when you use words as half your weapon, each one needs to be considered and measured.

I am a completly differant person when I'm talking for information, or talking to save our lives. I have to be. Lately it's gotten harder, with the curse around my neck; I tend to say what I shouldn't to just the person it shouldn't be said to, to my lies come through as clear as the water in the bathhouse yesterday.

Today, though, I seemed to be doing just fine. We got pointed to a man who supposedly had the luck of the angels, a gambler in the center of the area surrounded by people. With a thank you and a bow, we headed that way, Ann quietly with head down, Alaric just at my flank, and Thoren's long, long stride carrying him ahead of us. I was forced to take two steps for each of his one.

The man glanced up as we approched. His eyes and face were open but sly, intellegence gleaming in his eyes and a smile at the corner of his lips. I couldn't really put an age to him, but he didn't seem to old, from the looks of him. Older then me, certianly, but then, most everyone was.

He motioned for us to sit, laying out a gold peice. Alaric and I placed our own silver down, and then I nudged Ann until she did the same. Stubborn elf.

And so the game began. And I don't mean cards.

He told us he'd heard that we had questions, and we all took seats, looking at one another uncertianly. Then Alaric's deep voice rumbled near my ear, jumping right in to ask about the emblem. The man barely glanced up from his cards as he replied that yes, he did have something like that, once. He'd lost it, though, which from what he suggested, was unusual.

We asked him what we remembered, but he said not much; what we'd already run over was pretty much what knowledge he had of the thing. Alaric asked if he knew what the writing on it said; the reply was no. He hadn't even known it was draconic. He said that after he'd lost the emblem, he'd seen the man who'd won it pretty often. That the man's luck seemed to change. When I asked how, he said that he'd lost just about everything, yet continued to come gamble....but never again to those specific tables.

As the game continued on, our answers came out slowly- and pretty freakin' expensivly. We didn't learn too much, to be honest, and Thoren was coming closer still to loosing his temper then I would like. The man makes me look absolutly mild. Ann was trying to calm him, but as he spooked her the fuck out it wasn't going too well, and we could all see gaurds headed our way. The man we spoke with held them at bay, though I wasn't sure for how long.

He told us he wasn't sure where his father had won the emblem, and told us there were a couple people in the city that could speak draconic, we'd just have to look. We thanked him, and he appologized to Thoren for the loss of his uncle, still just as calm as anything.

Ann and the man exchanged words for a moment, then, apperantly fed up, Thoren grinned-

-and flipped the fucking table.

I groaned into my hands and Alaric began to laugh softly. Ann followed Thorin out, and our contact began to sooth the gaurds that came over instantly.

Once free of them, I began trying to calm Thorin, with Alaric's help; Ann walked stiff and silent on his other side, her head down and her eyes averted. Still scared of him. I coughed, turning the big man's attention to me.

"Wanna find someone to speak draconic?" I asked, smirking cheekily, and with a scowl, he decided that was best.

And I began to do what I do best.

I walked just ahead of the group, chatting merrily with variouse people and always getting the information I was after. Each one put me in a better mood, each one got my confidence back up. I knew it was a fluke, but damn, if I hadn't missed speaking with such ease, such confidence.

My questions lead us to a huge peice of property, surrounded by gaurds, with a huge wall and massive fences. And no sooner did we find it- the instant it came into veiw- I felt that invisible noose tighten around my throat again. I gasped and my hand went to my neck, feeling frightened now. If someone had gotten around the curse, somehow, or made it null for a bit, then-

-there was a great chance we'd just walked straight into a trap. I half-turned to alert the others, but before I could get the words out, a servent approched us and asked what we needed.

Ann nudged me, and I nudged back. She pushed me, then, and I squeaked, stepping forward. I informed the servent we'd come after being told that there was a scholar here who could read draconian. We were lead inside, after that, to a tent on the manor grounds in the middle of a small, lovely garden.

My heart skipped a beat when I saw what sat there.

Small, for one like him, about Alaric's size, with gray skin marred with red and white patches, like a patchwork quilt. Sharp teeth, sharp claws. Deadly in apperance, and also? Very draconian in apperance. As we got nearer, we could see that half of his face was very human, almost normal in apperance, but the other half.....the other half weas turning draconian, and fast, from what we could see.

2009-04-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-03T18:23:00.000-07:00

My firast instinct was to move forward, but Ann cut me off sharply.

"No!" She snapped. "I might be infected."

I snarled, a surge of frustrated helplessness swarming me.

"I thought this Delcova shit was done!" I heard myself snap. Ann just watched me with that irritating calm she manages at times like this, that calm that makes me feel about five years old.

The area affected wasn't huge, but it was large enough, and I was careful to avoid it was we waited for the others. Meyonne reappered at last, followed by a random elf and Alaric. Bleary eyed through he was, he sobered up swiftly, and cast a spell on Ann after having her wash clean. He claimed the spell would remove all curses and illnesses.

I guess it worked, or well enough.

He also took care of the small mound of flesh and blood; we could see the result of that one. When he finished chanting, the mound looked like normal flesh again, not inflamed, angry flesh.

Well, as normal as a pile of human remains can look. We scoured the deck and everything touched. When it was certian all was safe, Alaric burned and we dumped the remains.

And the whole time, Jasper watched us. Ann brought my attention to that little fact with a subtle motion, and it got Alaric and Meyonne's attention, as well. I come forward, smirking and leaning on the railing.

"You lookin' for something?" I asked, in no mood to play games.

He wanted to know what happened, and suddanly there was Alaric, beside me, grinning that manic grin.

"Nothing a little cleansing flame couldn't handle." He said.

Fucking pyro.

Jasper wanted to know if they should be concerned, and Alaric merly repeated himself.

Jasper looked nervouse and backed away. Wisely, if you take a moment to consider it.

Then Alaric glanced at me. "He might know something more." He said, and scuttled off. Ann began to mutter instantly, and I just shrugged, following the cleric.

Alaric got Jasper's attention, and asked if he knew the man who'd come aboard the ship. Jasper's grin was a shit-eating as they came.

"I do." He said, and when Alaric reached into his purse, Jasper held out a hand and flipped his board over. It read, 'To keep everything you told me a secret-100g'

"He paied his fee." Jasper said, and I felt my teeth grind. Alaric looked dissapointed, and Jasper grinned again. "But...." He drawled, and turned the sign once more.

'To have me break my word and tell you everything- 1,000g'

My jaw hit the ground.

Alaric grinned.

Ann, behind me, said only one word.

"No."

Jasper told us we could try other questions, and trying to keep the peace, I suggested we do that. I reached into my purse, withdrawing a single, very special coin. I handed it to Jasper, who instantly flinched back.

He told me he wouldn't take Almoric coin. I grinned my most innocent grin and told him it was all I had.

"I saw where you got that." He snapped, and my grin turned guilty. Indeed, it was the dead man's money.

Hey, it'd been Alaric's idea. Don't look at me that way.

We got a few answrs frm Jasper, but mostly hit dead ends; through we did get that the man had arrived on a Citadel ship. The shi[s activies weren't looked upon well here, and there'd been clergy on the ship; and that no one cold give a proper description of the thing.

Wonderful the Citadel was involved somehow. That made things needlessly complicated.

We thanked Jasper, and headed back to our own ship. We were all in brooding silence, until Alaric at last glanced at us. He asked if we needed anything else. We said no, at least now, and he nodded. He informed us, with that, that he was going to bed. He wanted waking when everyone else came back, and with that, took his big, hung over self back below. We explained, as best as we could, to Meyonne what had happened in the Citadel, but this wasn't the same. Similar, but- differant, too.

But Ann and I both imagined that the same bloodline was behind it.

I could tell Ann was frustrated and angry; her entire body screamed it. She was stiff and tense, her arms crossed, unable to stay still. I, though, was neither, anymore. I was just- resigned. We'd known that nothing was over, should have known we'd see blacklash from the Delcovas, after everything they'd done.

This was just one more hurtle to be overcome, if we could.

I left Ann to her brooding, heading below myself to cool down and just rest. Someone got me when Farn came back; he told us he was going to clean up and wait for the others. Conchetta came back next, and Ann told her to do the same.

Then Noman. I was flying below before he even got to the ship, ready to gather the others. However, I was informed that Noman wanted to talk to us; Alaric, Meyonne, Ann, myself- alone before we got everyone else together. There was an edge to his eyes and voice I did not like, and Ann sent the other hirelings out of the room none too gently. She didn't like the way Noman was behaving, either, then. We settled around the table once they'd dispersed, and then Noman began, eyes flashing with anger. He told us that if we expected to keep him on, he wanted a pay raise, and enchanted items. He also wanted a weapon.

I felt rather then saw the danger enter Ann. Noman was treading very thin ice with her, and if he knew what was best for him he would shut up. Very few people can speak like that to Ann and get away with it. Noman is not one of them. He hadn't earned that, yet. Little fool was still only a hired hand.

I spoke before Ann could rip him a new asshole, though I was pretty annoyed myself. You want something from me, you ask, you don't fucking tell me, not when I hired you and we're miles from your home and I can dump your happy little ass right here and fucking forget about paying you at all.

I took a breath, and simply asked why that would all be nessicary, reminding him that we had an agreement.

And he told me that he hadn't agreed to go up against deities. His words pretty much shut us right the fuck up, because what do you say to that?

Especally when it's true?

"What do you mean?" I asked, feining innocence, struggling to keep my voice even. Noman informed us that he wanted us to agree to the terms first. I looked at Alaric and Ann, knowing how easily Toby's ilk could get involved; we just hadn't expected it. Alaric said, softly, that it was our gold, meaning Ann's and mine. His too, now, I wanted to say; he was, is, a part of us, now.

I pulled in a deep breath, and flashed quick hand signals back and forth with Ann. She didn't want to loose Noman, feeling he would be useful, and he did need appropriate gear. I left the final choice up to her, and she agreed to his terms.

Fine with me; but damn if my hackles weren't up at his tone and attitude.

Still, I continued to do the talking, and then Noman explained himself. Covan'd arrived sixteen days ago, and left three days ago, as we'd been told, to go to volcanic activity where the Stygyn Preistess was meant to live. She's this six armed woma who has a snake's body, and supposedly is from the 'Great War', and eats enchanted items. Only old ones, though. Supposedly, her little minions can smell magic. Enchantments.

Supposedly, Covan had purchases at was supposedly plagued. Five men had died in their prime, aged prematurely, after Coven took off. The place they'd died was belived, now, to be cursed. I looked at Ann and Meyonne, who were clearly sharing my thought- after the South, we were in no grand hurry to deal with more curses.

Alaric, between us, was silent and considering, as he always is. Quiet fell.

Well, go on, diplomat, be dipolmatic! Snapped a little voice in my head, and I forced a smile and thanked Noman, telling him we'd get to work on his needed things straight off. He smiled back, though it lacked real warmth, and suddanly Ann spoke up. She told him he'd get the armor that night. I glanced at her, as did our Cleric, our brows raised. Ann told Noman to bring in Conchetta and Farn. Noman nodded and left. I asked her how she planned to get this armor, and Ann told me she had leather armor she couldn't wear. She'd just give it to him; it'd save us money.

I hope that was just Ann using good commen sense and not Alaric's misery-ness rubbing off on her.

Speak of the man, he was laughing, softly, at her words.

The others came back in then, and Farn started us off. He told us Almoric had been without a ruler for one hundered some odd years, because the tribes couldn't agree on one. There is a task said to be made by dragons, the same thing Mr. Axe was going for, to crown oneself leader, but you must first pass seventeen-seventeen-challanges. The people's deitey was called Kordash, who stood for power and mental sharpness; this horrible, dry desert had once been beautiful, huge forests, too. Caladishar was another being worshiped here- the Huntress. The Tigress. He told us about the differant traits of each tribe; the Norran, a people who were of the great Forge Smith, the Stygyn with their preistess, the Archists, who were magical, a great deal considered shaman, and the Kotem, who intregied me, with a Bardic mindset and lifestyle. They were the most nomadic of the tribes. There were also two more unnamed deities; two more deities known only as he who brings the storms, and she who brings the winds.

Farn excused himself, and Conchetta slipped onto a bench alone, head down. Stammering, stuttering, she informed us that she'd gotten no information. She looked so embaressed, so ashamed, that I assured her it was alright. She didn't take my assurances, and when I was about to go on, Ann's hard voice from my right said, 'Then you will try harder tomarrow'.

I flinched. Oh, Ann, it must be so wonderful to be without flaw. Conchetta stammered a bit more, then promised that she would before fleeing.

"Ann, I told you to be nice!" I snarled. She was just a kid, fiarly unexperianced and skittish.

Ann just gave me a look, then fell into discussing plans of action. He called our hirlings back in, and found that Noman wanted to take Conchetta when we told him we were interesed in finding the Kotom. We agreed he could, and sent Farn to find out about local tribal customes. Again, they got gold for what they must do. Then we settled in to eat, deciding that the rest of us would look into the five dead men. The hard part, right?

In the morning, we headed out to do just that.

Within a few minutes we found ourselves where we needed to be, at a burned house at the end of a very narrow allyway. There were sentienls gaurding the bridges to it, watching us like gaurddogs. And at the burned and smoldering home, a figure knelt before a candle, a great axe that could cleave me in two without effot was laying carelessly in the dirt beside him. A beautiful weapon, but meant for someone big. Very big.

Turned out that he was.

He was muttering prayers as we drew near, and sounded like he'd been at it for a pretty good time; for as long as the candle was burning, it seemed. And the candle had a good way left to burn yet.

We didn't have that kind of time.

The figure did not look up as we drew up, but his hand drifted to his weapon, lazy and laconic. That's the most dangerouse kind of move, that is; like a big cat lazily showing you his teeth. He's not smiling at you, that's for damn sure.

We all paused, and then Ann's hands in the small of my back, shoving me forward. I twisted around and pushed her, instead, and she dodged me with even more skill then I possesed and pushed me up once more. Grinning despite myself at our childish game of you first, I stepped forward- then reached out to snag Ann's wrist. She snarled a curse, then asked the figure to excuse us, please.

He stopped and looked up. He was huge, larger then Meyonne, bigger then nearly anyone I'd ever seen. He even dwarved Talron and Alaric, and they're not small, either of them. He was powerful, all rippling muscle and sun worn, browned skin. His eyes, though, were not stupid; we weren't looking at a musclebound lunkhead. Intellegence and curiosity, personality and a firey temper sparked in his eyes, which were brown, like his weather tousled hair. No cruelty, though, and no melevolence. His hand not on the weapon's hilt rested on his knees, and in front of his lay material, sandish colored.

"We were wondering what happened here." Ann went on softly, and his gaze instantly dulled. He looked away from us. Ann told him she didn't mean dissrepect, and that we were looking for the tailor's shop.

He told us, in that raw, broken voice, that we'd found it. It was a very deep voice, gruff. we asked him what happened, and he said only what he'd been told. When asked if he knew one of the men, he informed us one had been his uncle. Ann smiled, and introduced herself; proper name, too. He told us his name was Thorin, and explained that this had happened early morning time. All the men who'd died had been a part of a clothcraft guild. They'd been commisioned to make something for a specific group of men, and they'd all specialized in one thing in the process. They'd made the worst mistake of their lives when they'd said yes.

Barely days later, they'd all been dead.

His uncle, Thorin went on, had also sold them an emblem he'd won gambling in Molholender days ago. We asked him where he'd been for this, and found he'd been outside, fighting dark elves.

We all stopped, glancing at each other. So, he disliked drow, hu? That gave him points in my book. He'd been fighting them for over four years. The contempt, the pride, the anger, the disgust in his voice; it allrang very clear.

Then Ann asked him if he was the only one mourning the dead men. He was; he was also the only one to not belive they had been cursed. No one else would try and offer his uncle's spirit rest, so he'd come to do it himself.

My heart sank a little. Poor big guy; loosing family was hard enough, but this on top of it? and with no one else even mourning with him?

I resisted the inane urdge to pat his head.

Then Ann spoke once more. She told him we didn't belive his uncle was, either, or any of the others.....they'd been killed to-

and that's as far as she got. He roared a What!? And leapt up in one smooth bound, like any good preditor. He hovered over us all, towering even above Meyonne- and suddanly, Ann was diving behind Meyonne like a frightened mouse.

I sent her a surprised glance, then turned my attenion back on the man before us. He was storming like an angry bull, but in those expressive eyes I could see more the anger; there was hurt, and confusion, sorrow and frustration there, too. Yes, he was big and intimidating. Yes, he could squish me like a tick, if he'd wanted to.

But he didn't want to. Like anyone who'd lost a loved one, he only wanted revenge. Closure. Answers. Peace.

I began to speak. I let my words stay even and slow, soft and steady, like one would talk to a feral dog. My words were empty plaitudes, sincere but ultimatly meaningless; it wasn't what I was saying that mattered. I needed Ann to calm down, and I needed Thorin to focuse. And it was working; the more I spoke, choosing my words carefully and keeping my tone even, the more he calmed.

Once I fucked up, causing him to blow his lid again; Ann once more ducked, squeaking, behind Meyonne. I forced myself to stay calm, forced myself to see the human hurting in his eyes rather then the rage and really, really large axe he held.

Beside me, I noted, Alaric was calm, too, unaffected by the raging beast. He stayed steady at my shoulder, ready should anything happen but unflinching. I took comfort in that, in his solid pressance. I explained to him that we didn't know his uncle's killers or where to find them, no, please stop shouting, big, big barbian, but we're tracking them. Please stop scaring the elf now, we need her.

When I looked over, even Meyonne was tense and backed away from us a step or two, Ann pressed into his back and shaking like a leaf. Why were they so scared of him? He had no desire to hurt us; not unless we gave him a reason.

He accepted my words and started to calm, describing the emblem sold by his uncle. He didn't know much, besides the size and the draconic writing around the edges. Alaric and I thanked him, and he began his prayers once more, easing back down. He moved away, leaving him to it. Meyonne had scooted Ann around in front of him, and stayed pressed right to her back, like an alpha wolf guiding a mate away from threat or danger. He seemed really fucking spooked out, and so did she.

I feel even with them, unable to help teasing. "You're not scared of him, are you, Anja?" I asks, and to my surprise, it was Meyonne who spoke, telling me that man could intemidate stone.

I shrugged, and went on about walking forward. He was just a man who could physically hurt you. There's nothing all that scary about that. Physical damage is just that; you can fight back or run, you can avoid it, it's upfront and clear. If someone wants to slap you, the worst that will happen is you get slapped.

Thorin didn't scare me. People like Ann's daddy, people like Kaedwyn Monsay, they frighten me.

The sentries still watched us as we came back, and when we got to the end, Ann halted abruptly. Meyonne nearly ran her over. He said her name questiongly, and the rest of us stopped, too. She asked why we hadn't examined the remains, and the idiot moment hit me so strongly I nearly whapped myself in the forehead. Alaric said he couldn't talk to any dead, there were none left to speak with; but Ann said that's not what she meant. I asked what, and she said the lycan may have left evidence.

Once again, idiot moment.

It was decided Alaric would go in first, then Ann. Then we headed back.

Thorin watched us come back, and had no problem with us inspecting the house; though he did tell us if we stepped past the ash we'd be considered pretty much invisible to everyone in town. Or if they did speask to us, it would only be to rip us off.

Look at how much we care.

Alaric vanished into the house, then came out perhaps ten minutes later, semi-victoriouse. He said there was one area with a magical aura, nothing more. Thorin wanted to know what that meant, and Alaric explained something with magic was inside the house. He asked if Thorin knew of anything in the house that was? Thorin didn't. He didn, though, know where the dragon item was kept, and told us. Surprised surprise, that was the magic item. Apperantly, the uncle didn't know that. He demanded to know if that was why his uncle was killed, and the only answer we could give sounded weak, even to myself. We just don't know now. Alaric asked when the man had gotten it, and was told about two years ago. Alaric said that wasn't right, didn't quiet match up.

Ann's turn.

She informed us she was planning on searching the house, in case anything was left behind. As she went in, I heard her mutter about no one liking her much anyway, and I had to shake my head. Silly elf, she never made much of an attempt, did she? But that's alright, the people who mattered liked her just fine. Thorin, to my surprise, asked Ann if she said that because she was an elf. She paused in surprised, then smirked.

"Call it a problem in translation." She said, and vanished inside.

A good stretch of time later, the pair, Alaric and Ann, came out again. They told us what they'd found inside; glass shards that had taken years off Ann's life just by touching them (heh, and I already tease her about being old!) and the magical residue of the dragon peice.

Thorin asked what this meant, and Alaric told him it meant this had been planned out. Murder. He told us there was a man in the city who might help; Thorin called him 'Heshnel'. He spit it like you would a nasty tasting something you'd bitten into. He told us this Hesnel was a trained alchemist, and finding him quietly would be best.

We thanked him once more and said farewell. So did Thorin, asking us that if we found his uncle's killers to let him know. We agreed, and as we headed off, Ann suddanly spoke from behind us.

To my great surprise and pleasure, she asked Thorin if he would like to travel with us. He stopped his chanting yet again and regarded us for a bit. Then he nodded as Ann spoke to him in quiet, low tones, before pushing upright. We waited, and after a long moment, he pinched out the candle and rose.

Agreeing to come with us.

I felt myself grinning and heard Alaric chuckle to my left. "Where to?" He asked.

We decided that Ann and I were to split up to look for our newfound lead. Alaric and Thorin were coming with me, and we'd go near the tents of food and drink. Meyonn and Ann headed back towards the gambling area. We'd meet back at the airship before nightfall.

I found a private corner, when I could, and glamoured my armor, for the second time in it's life, too look rather like a loose woman's outfit. My breasts, what little of them there were, were fairly revealed, and my legs- what little of them there were- flashed through a slit in my skirt, a hint of bare flesh every other movment. I began to pass myself off as a woman looking to be rid of my husband. I got the gaurd's attention, but I also got the attention of the men I needed. Alaric and Thorin had abandoned me to look at shiney weapons, and I felt that if I pushed getting one of them, I'd loose my chance. So I took a deep breath and followed this man, alone.

He took me to a huge building, in an ally, where he tapped out a code on the door and let me in. There was a bodygaurd inside the hall, a cocky, arrogent man who kept one hand behind his back, and when at last I got him to back off,I met Heshnel himself.

Oddly, I found myself liking the man. Well, not liking ,exactly, bt there was something to Heshnel that made it impossible to hate him. Not honor, that's not the right word, but.....something. He wanted five thousand gold for information or my daggers as collateral, and I refused to give him both. So he said he'd let me walk out.

Which he did let me do. His goon tried to stop me, though, and got the upper hand on me. I screamed like a banshee, and to my surprise, Alaric and Thorin came bursting in to my rescue.

When we returned to the ship, I began to explain what had happened after Ann told us that she and Meyonne hadn't seen hide or hair of Heshnel- well no shit, friends. I wonder why that is.

I expalined what had happened, and none too happily, either. I felt grumpy and irritable, like I had failed- someone. Not myself exactly, and not the others, but- I felt like we could have done something I hadn't. Like I should have pushed things I didn't.

About halfway through my tail, another man approched the ship saying that he'd a note for us. A note that said, very simply, that Farn had been taken.

Kidnapped.

And they wanted a thousand gold to get him back.

Son of a bitch.

2009-02-12T16:42:00.000-08:00

noAnd scolded very throughly we were. Of course, it was about half as much trouble as I expected we would be in. We got the general 'why would you disobey' and 'what did you think you were doing' speech, but our defenses were solid and steadfast. We were told we were to be fined, and we were lucky that was all. We didn't see Wereboy the rest of the way to the keep, and frankly, I was a little curiouse as to where he'd gotten off to- what had been done with him. But it wasn't my place to ask. We made the journey without incident and were brought to Helix Mandrel, who informed us that we probably had good reason for doing what we'd done. He said he didn't like it, but we weren't going to be fined.

This rather noticably irritated Kaedwyn.

We asked if we might talk to him in private and, with some grudging reluncatance, were granted an audienace with him. From this point, we explained to him about Toby, and the importance of what we were attempting to do. But rather then get answers, we got sent on a rescue mission. We were to go and find a man named Delmont Coven, who had been a spy for the citadel, infiltrating the were who had gone East (?) and apperantly had something to do with the 'feast' we'd heard our own group of Were prattling on about. We got a sketched image and an idea of where the man might be, some general rules of where we were headed (what to and not to do)and an idea of what he'd been doing there. We were also told to say 'Toby', if he needed to be sure that we were allies.

So it was back to Befrengard for us, once more, to prepare.

Um, that was, after I requested a message sent to Talron. What? We were in the Citadel, anyway, and I couldn't get in there and see him.....

.....and even if it was stupid, and I was just some dumb little kid with a crush, I wanted him to know I was, you know, I duno. Thinking about him and stuff, I guess. I mean, completly embaressing and childish, and I'm sure he had more important things to do; but still.

Fuck it, I miss him, if we're getting right on down to it.

Also, before we left the Citadel, we picked up a few people, too; we meant to get one hireling to go with us on this trip, someone who knew something about where we headed. But when we got the adress of where to go- from our pecular tall man and his Mogli-it wasn't anything like what we expected. They told us an adress that went to a tiny little run down building in a run down part of the Citadel, and there we were pounced on like fresh meat.

Which, I guess, in a way made sense.

We told the woman who obviously was in charge what we were looking for, and she vanished for a while, just to come back with, as I said, three people. Two seemed young, not much older then myself, and one older. There names were Conchetta, Noman, and Fairn. Conchetta I fell in love with just instantly; she was intellegent but excitable, taking everything with a wide-eyed excitment and innocence that charmed me.

Noman was knowledgeable in areas that she was not, not to mention much calmer. He seemed tolerant of her, and respectful towards us.

Two candidates, two hits. Ann and I glanced at each other. (Alaric was off trying to earn some money. I've no idea what he was doing, but from his grumpy attitude after it couldn't have been pleasent. Of course, I'm also learning that Alaric just generally seems to have grumpy as his default mood.

The last man was Fairn, and I disliked him instantly. Something about him just shot my hackles to the sky. He was a diplomat like I could only dream of being, a man who was intellegent and smooth talking. He did not fight, he did not get his hands dirty. He came across as slimy and untrustworthy.

Still, he knew his shit, and brother, could we use someone like him.

We informed the woman running this busieness that we'd like to hire all three of them, which caused some unnessicary melodrama- and one very near heart attack, I think, as if no one ever expected such a thing to occur. After we handled one foot in the mouth incident by Ann, and an obviouse lie regarding his loyalty by Farn, we got our three hirlings and went to fetch Alaric.

We loaded back up on the ship, all of us, and moved out to Befrengaurd. I'm afraid I got my facts wrong with my last entry; now is when we ran into the bell, the dead body, etc, etc. Now is when we picked up the werespy and ran into the swamp incident.

I got confused before, I guess.

The end result is the same; we dropped off those that needed to be dropped off, got our butts scolded, picked up any comers, and headed to complete our mission a day or so later. (Conchetta was charmingly thrilled at the idea of boarding a ship swarming with elves; I could only smile indulgantly. She was like a child; so enthusiastic and eager to please. Ann muttered about 'what does she think I am' in a vaugly grumpy, amused way at my shoulder, prompting me to tell her to be nice. One elf is very differant from a group of elves, particuarly on an airship.)

We had lunch, and our hirlings gave us a small amount of the information we'd been after; the land we headed towards, it's people, races, ways, weather, anything. It wasn't a pleasent land....though I can honestly say now that I've been to the South I've been to worse. The weather here, though, was erractic and unpredictable, and the land so unwelcoming that one did not travel by foot, from what I gathered, if you could help it.

I suppose I'm getting used to elvish (or Ann-ish) humor, because her joke about everyone knowing how to swim in the event of a flash flood made only myself and Alaric snort with amusment. Conchetta, bless her heart, looked adorably confused and corrected her. Ann told her it was a joke, and Alaric met my eyes. I giggled and he flopped back on the wall, smirking.

"Elves." I intoned, as I usually do- and this time, his deep, gruff voice joined in. I only grinned, pleased. Looks like I have a partner in crime.

Conchetta got all embaressed, like the cutie she is, causing more amusment. But the nthe mood sobered as we got down to business. We told them about Delmont Covan, about his undercover mission with the Were, to stop or find out more about this 'feast'.

Instanta-panic.

All of our hirelings looked uncomfortable and alarmed, though it was Conchetta who spoke first. She thought we wanted to hunt the werewolves. Ann ungently corrected her ( yet again, a hissed 'be nice, Ann!' that went ignored.)

She went on as we passed around the scroll with Delmont's likeness on it, and we began to plot and discuss.

We were also told, in the course of this conversation, about a band of pirates that ran rampent in the skies around the areas we were headed to.

Of course there are pirates. What good story would be complete without them?

We were told that fighting would be- well, um, frankly, suicidal. Avoid them or run away, those were the best choices.

But Ann and I-we glanced at each other, both thinking similar, bleak thoughts.

We knew a barbarian who, not all that recently, had come into a rather large sum of money. He was looking for his brother, and he would, quiet likely, stop at little to get him back.

Darren.

I'd only met him once, and I don't think I'd ever met Jax,his brother. But when I'd seen Darren, he'd been a big, warm man, who'd greeted Ann like a brother. Barbian type yes, but also seemingly as gentle as a kitten.

Of course, loosing one's brother thanks to a certian wizard's foolishness is enough to turn anyone around. And the brothers were devoted to each other, from what Ann tells me; or at least, he was devoted to Jax.

Still.

We head onwards to a town called Almoric, the last known location of our querry, and then a town nearby called Molholander. We were then going to try and follow leads from that point, find out more about what might make a good 'feast' for Were here. We went thrugh and counted out a few animals, before landing on Mastadon. A huge animal- rather disturbingly huge, if you ask me, horses are fricken' big enough- with tusks big enough to gut you without them realizing they'd even done it. Powerful son of a bitch, too, and it took three people minimum to guide and rise this thing.

But how the fuck would they transport this behemoth?

I had the feeling this would not be as simple as we'd hoped. Of course, as I like to say, nothing ever is. But there had been the minisule hope.....dashed the moment the discrption of this thing hit my ears.

We split up after that, all of us retreating to prepare or brood in silent, considering thought. Ann hung about on deck, Alaric vanished below, Conchetta wandered off to plan, and I saw the others ocassionally. I stayed up top, too; it was too pretty to hang around down below. I've been on the ship before, but before that, as far as I know at least, I've never flown anywhere before. No matter how many times I've gotten to ride in the airship, I can't get over how pretty everything is from way up, and how oddly freeing it is to be above the world.

Strangly enough, my thoughts were more on the pirate situation then anything else. I was actually hoping to see this ship, just on the weird, odd off chance that it would be our boy. That he'd come here and start taking down other airships concerned me. He didn't seem the type. It would mean something very wrong.

It made me curiouse.

We didn't see it, though, and that evening we got to the border. Everyone came up, then, to watch as we crossed this.....this huge crevas in the eath, like a really big line had been drawn to seperate us from them. There was a town right on the edge, and another inside the gaping wound, oddly enough. There was a bridge, and giant monoliths, rising feet into the air. They were carved as people, and I wondered who they were intended to be. (Or if I wanted to know, because really, usually finding the answer to these questions meant getting in deep water.) But they were carved with hands out in front of them, like they were blocking something. Or maybe warning something away.

Yeah, you try going through what we have. You'd start thinking dark thoughts like that, too.

And then, the green, viberant land we'd been soaring over changed. On the other side, it was stripped. It looked like the other side of the crevass had been baked for too long. It got hot and it got hot fast as we approched, even as we went up, up, into the sky as high as we could go. There was just.....nothing there. It was an eery sight, and it made the land look flatter and bigger then I'd ever seen. We were all oddly somber as we crossed, looking at the massive expanse of nothingness. Had this land always been like this? Who would want to live here?

And motherfuck, it was hot.

Still, it was soon enough time for bed, so to bed we went, in a hot night, in our hot ship.

And woke up, hot.

In a hot morning.

I was going to get tired of this real fast.

Noman offered everyone cool clothing meant for this environment, but I am both stubborn and stupidly attached to my armor, which I glamoured to make look like the cooler clothing everyone else wore. Simply to avoid notice.....changing it to look right didn't help the heat any.

Altering my armour caught Noman's attention, for certian. But I assured him, for the moment, it was nothing he needed to know about. Nothing that would involve him. For the love of all that is good, I hoped I wasn't lying.

I got my mind off the heat by watching Meyonne try to adjust to something more then a freakin' loincloth, which was just about all he ever went in. It was adorable, and I could barely resist teasing.

We spent the morning peacefully, uneventfully.

Until a ship was spotted in the distance.

Ann, the Captian, and Farn confired for a bit while the rest of us kept a distance and watched, cautiouse and ready. Then Ann signaled me and I nabbed Alaric, who got Noman and Conchetta. We were all stiff and ready for a fight, like a pack of dogs confronting a stranger in their territory. It was only a few minutes before the ship came close; Gnomish, from what I was told, and with a white flag up. We all realxed, just a bit.

It was an odd, awkward little huddle; easily eight of us, there. Meyone and I, Ann, Alaric, Noman, Farn, Conchetta, the captian, a few others.....but those eight more up front, protective and alert. The ship was bigger then ours, and armed. It had unfamiler markings on it, but Ann seemed to know them- she was smiling slightly.

Then the Captian appered on deck, another Gnome behind him. He spoke Gnomish, straight off, and Farn translted for those of us who couldn't understand; then he switched from Gnomish to Common, and things got much easier. Plesentries, at first; then a warning when he found where we wanted to go, about the same pirate we'd heard of before. He called himself the Obsidian Axe, and apperantly Mr. Axe was so bad that Almoric and one other had hired five warships like this one to keep an eye out for him.

My stomach sank, and I met Ann's eyes. Sometimes, we don't even need our fondly dubbed 'rogue speak'. Sometimes, we just understand each other. And the thought between us was pretty obviouse. Taking a breath, already knowing the answer, I asked why we needed to be so careful of Mr. Axe.

Because no one who's seen him had lived. Not one, not one had gotten away. Destory the ship, kill the crew or make them slaves.

Darren? Big, gentle Darren couldn't be doing this. Could he? The man who had so warmly greeted us, whohad lifted Ann in a hug so violent she'd cleared the ground?

What have we done?

Alaric snapped that we wouldn't be taken without a fight, but Ann and I met gazes again, quietly. We knew. This was not a warship.....this ship is meant for speed. Speed alone. It could outrun lots of things. If we met something we couldn't, likely chances we got fucked.

The little Gnome went on; Mr. Axe was apperantly trying to get control of the four differant tribes here and not entirely failing; he had to go through these incredibly hard trials and he was getting them done, if slowly. Steadily. The tribes weren't happy about this-apperantly because Mr. Axe was an outsider, and they didn't like that he was trying to gain control over 'em- and that's why they'd hired the Gnomes.

And then they left.

We split up again, all but the 'main force' of us; Ann, Alaric, myself, Meyone. We gathered in a loose circle near the railing, watching the ship dissaper, slowly. I felt Ann's eyes on me, waiting for me to ask the question. So ask it I did, even though I knew the answer.

"D'you really think-"

She asked me what else I thought eighty thousand gold might buy.

Oh, yeah. He has that, by the way. Darren, I mean, has eighty thousand gold.

Ours.

That prompted me to fume about killing rages and then add how he'd seemed so nice. I knew completly well being nice had nothing to do with it, and Ann knew I did. The look she gave me told me so. You're not stupid so stop acting like it, that look said. She told me that he'd do anything for his brother, that Jax was very close to him. He was devoted to that man.

And we'd gotten him kidnapped. Probably worse then dead or wishing he was dead, by now.

Okay, so, to be more proper, Lim fucking Dul had gotten him kidnapped, but then I ain't pointing fingers, right?

Alaric perked an ear and an eyebrow at our conversation, wanting to know if we knew Mr. Axe personally. Ann said no, we knew who he might be. I quipped, just to be difficult, that he'd stolen from us. Ann archedly told me she looked on it as an investment.

Only a snort came back at that. I wouldn't dignify it with anything else.

Investment.

Then Alaric wanted to know if maybe we could get his help, if it was who we thought it was. I felt both Ann and I stiffen and glance at each other; our thoughts weren't in sync, but very similar. I was worried that we'd be prooven wrong- we'd get to Mr. Axe's ship and find it wasn't Darren but someone else. Someone viciouse and quite willing to kill us and destory Ann's beautiful ship.

Ann, from what she said after a beat or two of silence, was more worried that it was who we assumed. She said she didn't belive anything could stop him, if it was Darren searching for his brother. She wasn't sure, even, if her friendship with him meant anything to him anymore.

She looked very sad when she said that, and I went back to peering over the railing, and tried to change the subject. Talking about friends lost isn't easy. I worked; I managed to steer the conversation away from Mr. Axe and Darren, and soon Ann rejoined the talk.

We got below decks a bit later to deal with our hirlings; sending Farn out for information on the belifes and customes of the four tribes, Noman to ask about the people we were after and local tribes. Conchetta was to see what all else she could find out on Mr. Axe. Then Ann gave them coin when they held out begging hands, and was going to leave us to go above.

But then we were all told to come up. Another ship, according to the translation, had been spotted. A darwven warship, to be exact.

We all glanced at each other, and then Alaric's manic laughter reached my ears, making me grin. He crowed about fire cleansing their souls, to let them come, and I laughed despite myself. Oh, he was going to be fun, I could tell already. I could see why Talron had befriended him the more time I spent around him, that was for certian-sure. He was the absolute, perfect opposite of my Talron, and yet in others ways very much like him. I wondered how much trouble those two could find, if you gave them a chance to do it.

Ann gave him a slightly alarmed glance- like she had any right to act spooked by our fire-happy cleric, she's as crazy as he is- and said 'no' rather sharply. Still smirking, I moved up beside her anyway in quiet support and to wait for her decision. Here, Ann is in charge, even of us.

And then it came. We could all see this massive thing, this airship that made ours look tiny and delicate by comparison. Mr. Axe's self-chosen name was printed very clearly on the side, and I felt some little part of me curl into a ball and begin to whimper.

Another part of me leapt with excitment. My heart raced, my hands fisted on the hilts of my daggers. Ann was speaking to the captian, and suddanly we accelerated. I had to let my hand drift from my side to grip the railing with the suddan speed, and I watched Ann watch Mr. Axe's ship grow smaller in the distance. We were low, under him, and apperantly hadn't been seen; or if we had been, for whatever reason, he'd ignored us.

Now the whimpering part of me came to the fore, and I felt my heart race with something other the excitment; fear. If we'd been caught-

my hands were shaking with the combination of my emotions. I was shaking with it, all over. I felt Ann watching me again, and when I turned I saw the uncertainty in her face. I knew it was my job to make that vanish, so I asked the question that hung in the air.

"D'you think- we should have tried? To talk to them, I mean."

And sure enough, the tension vanished and so did the uncertainty. She told me that would have only one result and she wasn't going to think about it.

I decided I'd rather not, either. I gave her a nod, and we watched the sky silently until Almoric came into veiw.

It was not a pretty city. Dark, rough, with this ultimatly unfinished look to it, as if someone had started building it and gotten bored partway through. It was a dark and shadowy place, though I admit; I think part of the reason why it looked so ominus and frightening was that it was unfamiler. Our uncertianty of what was to come, our lack of knowledge on the city and it's people, the fact of what we were here for, the weight of what we had to do; it all combined to make Almoric look more intimidating then I think it normally might.

We glided into the dock near some other ships- all Gnomish, I think, because they looked like the one we'd met- and the Captian, and Farn went to deal with the dockmaster. Conchetta and Ann were off to one side, talking softly. Meyonne was only a few steps behind, Ann's always loyal companion. I was flanked by Alaric, a quiet and deadly shadow at my back that I was only just now getting used to having.It made me self conciouse, having him there; I wanted to proove to him that I was capible and competent. Not just some stupid little whelp with a crush, but someone worthy of a man like Talron.

Even if I am just some stupid little whelp with a crush.

At the same time, it was nice, having his bulk at my back.

Farn and the Captian came back to us, seemingly irritated at something; but again, I couldn't understand their conversation. I waited paitently with the others until they were done speaking, both clearly aggitated now; and then our hirelings took their leave. They slipped off the ship with a promise to be back here, all together, at a certian time. As I watched them slip off, I found myself biting my lip, fingers dancing over the cool metal of the ring at my neck. Nervouse habit.

Hopefully, those three would be careful and smart. Us, I didn't worry about; we could protect ourselves.

That bunch, though- I wasn't so sure about.

The rest of us stepped onto earth a few moments later, and no sooner had we touched it then did we notice a strange little man leaning on a wall. He wore a large sign around his neck, and as we read it, we glanced at each other in amused amazment. Ann looked exapserated and had that look on her face that always, always meant she was thinking 'humans', even if she didn't say it; Alaric was grinning in a stupid, slightly disbeliving manner, Meyone looked blank and considering as always, and I just knew I was grinning, trying very hard not to giggle. The sign read: Information, one gold- People, three gold-Places, five gold, Illegal Actitives-One billion gold. It wasn't spelled out, of course, and that made it all the funnier, to see that suddan influx of zeros.

And now Alaric was marching right on up to him. I glanced at Ann, who glanced at me, and we both looked at Meyone. Then we all ran after him. The man watched us come calmly, giving us a pleasent smile, and greeted us. He was a talkitive man who used his entire body to speak; interesting to watch, interesting to listen to. He talked very rapidly. He was something of a comidian, too; when he introduced himself, he pretended to be sneaky about the illegal part of his services. I wondered if the price, the sneakyness, or the entire thing was the show. For all we knew, he'd simply made a huge joke out of it and knew nothing in that aspect.

For all we knew, that was incorrect.

He asked us if he could help, and Alaric, to my surprise, was the one who nodded and spoke up. Normally, he's a pretty quiet one. He asked about the group of trackers we were looking for, and handed over the gold peice this man wanted.

He told us yes, they'd come through seventeen days ago, and left three days ago. I swore softly, frustrated; three days behind at least. It would have been far too easy, if they'd still been here by some twist of luck.

Ann, amused and impaitent, stated that they were probably in Molholendar by now, that we should go. She turned away, and it was a kind of an invisible group shrug before we followed. Then we heard him call out that we were wrong; they hadn't gone there.

Oh, fuck. I knew this was going to be more complecated then it needed to be.

We all stopped, turning, and Alaric headed back. Another handing over of gold, and he asked where they'd gone. He said they'd been headed there, but diverted, went further East, to the mountians. He suggested it was to track the mastodons, but sounded like that bit was a guess. He introduced himself, to my surprise, as Jasper. I hadn't expected him to give a name. He introduced ourselves, exchanged pleasntries, and then Alaric went on about asking more questions and handing over more money. Ann stood nearby, arms folded, looking irritated- but when I met her eyes she smiled and rolled her own. I grinned back at her and then turned my attention back to the questions at hand, listening, paying careful attention. At last he was done, we were out of questions, and I relized that Ann had been paying no more attention then a kitten with a ball of string. I whistled at her, motioning. We are going, I told her, grining, to the gaming area in this city. Time to relax, earn back some coin, enjoy, have a little fun for once without worrying about life or death.

I was very aware I was grinning like a maniac, but sue me, I was looking forward to this. Every day we worry. We worry about everything from the Taint to the Keep, from Damien and my past to Sparrow and Ann's mission here. We have a massive weight on our shoulders and a shadow lingering at our backs. Rarely do we ever get to enjoy ourselves. And in case anyone's forgetting it, I'm only friggin' nineteen years old. I would like to act like it, once in a while.

I wanted to play!

Alaric was just as eager to go to this gaming area as I was, though for differant reasons, mostly; and to my surprise, Meyone looked like he enjoyed the idea, too. Everyone looked thrilled at the chance except for a certian elf. Ann looked like someone had just told her she was to go face the Great Red Worm alone armed with nothing more then a wet noodle.

That confused me, but I refused- refused-to let her bring me down from my excited mood. I was practically vibrating, and the other two seemed tolerantly amused. Ann fummbled for some excuse, any excuse, but Alaric had already found out from Jasper where to go, and we headed in that direction. I fell back near Ann, and hissed at her to loosen up. There was nothing on the line here but a few bruises and some lost gold.

She didn't reply, just gave me a withering look. Fine then, be that way.

We found the entrance after a bit of wandering, and found it was five gold to get in. Alaric paied for he and I, and Ann for herself and Meyone. We were swamped by the sound of cheering and yelling, jeers and laughter all around. People swarmed us, and the mood was downright contagiouse. There were more people in one small area then I'd ever seen, and I won't lie; the sheer amount of humanity made me a bit nervouse, I'm small, I crush easily. And I'm not a big one on strangers touching me.

No one seemed to much care that Ann was an elf, so caught up in their fun and excitment were they; they really just didn't seem to care. That helped me relax, a little, that easy acceptance, but we stayed rather tightly together anyway, the group of us. We went left, to the 'safe' games, where you might get hurt but probably not badly. (The risky games, to the right, were a bit too daunting. We'd come here to earn money and have fun.....we already spent too much time worrying about being dead, we didn't need to play at it, too.)

These were games of skill and mastery. There was everything you could imagine, from tests of strength to endurance, in varying differant levels for each. The ringmasters for each worked the crowd into a betting, cheering frenzy, skilled at their jobs and clearly enjoying themselves.

It was all so basic and light hearted. Just games. Just fun.

For once.

I was the first to actually participate in something; a maze, basic and beginner at first. I had to weave and tumble my way past blunt, spinning objects that came swinging down at my head. If they weren't meant to kill me they did a good job of faking it. I was teased for being a woman and couldn't help but glow a little as Alaric placed a bet on me and I slipped through the easiest of the mazes without much effort at all.

I was instantly ushered to a harder one, listening to the cat calls and groans of loosers, and the whistles and cheers of winners above and around me. The ringmaster was grinning, teasing me once more in his stylizied way, and I agreed to try again on a harder version.

Alaric put down a bet, I put down my wager- and to my surprise, Meyon's soft voice behind me stated that he had no coin. I glanced at him, smiling lopsidedly, oddly flattered that he'd bet on me. Alaric laughed throatily and told him he'd cover it. He handed Meyone some gold, and he placed it down on me. Determined not to let the pair down, I went through this harder maze. I nearly got clonked on the head a few times, but I made it through, and the people around me went bat shit.

I tried the hardest one, too- twice, in fact. I got halfway through both times before a particuarly big whap to the skull knocked me silly, and I had to back out.

I was invited to come back, of course; the ringmaster seemed impressed, but likely only wanted the chance to earn more coin. I didn't much care; I was very tempted to do just that. Hell, splitting fucking headache or not, that had been fun.

Ann still looked like a rabbit in the middle of a fox den, and no amount of teasing could lighten her up. So, fuck the teasing, then; let's throw her in the deep end and see if she swims. I kept my eyes open, and then saw it- the perfect test for her.

"You should do one!" I crowed, nabbing her elbow and starting to drag a spluttering, protesting elf towards a certian area of the games behind me, Meyone and Alaric just behind us. I hesitated for a moment before the dagger throwing, but then saw the booth she needed to try. The point was to shoot an arrow through a set of rings, all the way through. And for bonus, you had to try and ring the little bell at the end.

And I do mean 'little'.

Another ringmaster came up as I steered her over, and she instantly flitted her eyes around, looking much like a startled deer. She began to refuse, and I tightened my grip on her.

"Come on," I whined (I'm very good at that), bouncing a little. "Have fun for once, geeze!" And once again to my utter surprise, Alaric joined in my teasing. Ann jerked free of me and started to retreat, hand to head, but I caught her again and put her right in front of the easiest of the ring-shooting booth. But before she could shoot, the ringmaster steered her to the intermediate area, saying one of her skills wasn' to use the beginer area. There were a dozen rings in this harder one, but I wasn't worried. I had seen Ann shoot before. The woman could practically pin a fly to a tree; she didn't seem to realize how good she was. This would hardly even be a challange for her. Even hitting the little bell would only be delightfully challanaging, but there wasn't a doubt in my mind she'd do it, at least once. She was given two shots, and missed with the first. Instantly she was ready to stop, to back off, groaning that he couldn't do it. I was a bristle of irriation try to peak through my good mood, but forced it down. "Oh, whatever!" I laughed, and urdged her to at least try once more. Everyone fucks up now and again- I was still dizzy from clanging my skull around inside that hard level tumbling trick. I had failed, and was still laughing and having fun! That was the point- and everyone would fail, once or twice. But with her skills, she was bound to get it.

I had placed a bet on her, as did Alaric, and Meyon (big shocker there, kids, wink nudge wink) and we had done it for a reason. Confidence.

She tried again- and missed again. She sighed, all depressed now, sulking in her loss. And she still looked panicked. I moved to stop her-

-when Meyone's big paw landed on her shoulder and he encuraged her to try once more, in a low, gentle voice. I smiled softly to myself, hand over my mouth to keep from cooing and ruining to moment. He spoke to her softly, telling her he knew she could do it, and Ann just stood there, staring into his eyes and looking confused and electrified.

I know the feeling. I get it everytime Talron speaks to me like that.

The ringmaster was the one to ruin the moment, yelling out for one more try; five gold for two shots. We bet on her again- and were rewarded, when she fired, with the soft 'DING' of the bell at the end. I whooped, as we gathered our money. Ann announced she was done, though I tried to get her to take her last shot; and when I looked at Meyone, his eyes were on Ann alone, and he was smiling.

The ringmaster was calling for more comers, announcing that if Ann could hit it, surely other cxould....I let the noise fade to the back of my mind and ran to catch up to Alaric, who was a few steps in front of us. We began to talk and laugh, and I felt the heaviness on my shoulders easing. Right now I was not the youngest in a group of somber travelers on a mission; I was the youngest in a group of friends having fun. Alaric wanted to find a drinking contest or some type of magic contest, and Ann was sulking in the back, prompting more teasing.

And then we stopped. Meyone was looking, throughfully, at the fighting arena in front of us. There was something wistful in his expression, and I grinned. I tended to forget he wasn't that old, either (um, I don't think so, anyway, as he's not really human) and probably wanted to have some fun, too. And sure enough, he announced that he thought he was going to try.

Ann paled and looked rather nausius as Meyone went to the ringmaster to ask for details, and then he was in line for next.

I blushed violently as Meyone considered himself, then suddanly stripped right out of his new cloths, causing Alaric to laugh in approval at his choice and I suppose, laugh also at his suddan stripping. I looked away, but was unable to help grinning. Sheesh.

He looked about for a place to lay the cloths, and Ann heaved a world-weary sigh before extending her arms like a paitent parent. A disturbing comparison, considering what I think she'd like to be. Hehe. He watched her for just a moment, then they smiled at each other-hers weak- and gave the cloths over. I couldn't resist teasing- "What's wrong, Ann, afraid he's going to get hurt?"

She was trying to keep her face blank, I could tell, and looked mildly surprised that I'd noticed anyway. Oh, please, she was doing a horrible job, and I'd been around her too long to be fooled, anyway.

She only told me she felt this was 'barbaric', and I only laughed. I went back to watching the arena as bets began getting placed. Alaric and I placed bets, and Ann got tired enough of my poking to place one, herself.

A big man got into the ring with Meyone, and then the two came togther, slowly, carefully at first, two big competetors eyeing one another, sizing up. Meyone was bigger, stronger. That did not make his competition a small man, as Meyone is, let's face it, just plan big.

Still, Meyone took him down in minutes. And Meyone wanted another go. The crowd was going wild and I added my voice to it, whistling and screaming encuragement.

If looks could kill, Ann would have me dead ten times over.

The man that came in next was big; bigger then Meyone, easy, and just as powerful looking. This time, the fight lasted a good while, each man matched smoothly, countering strength for strength, skill for skill. And Meyone was tired.

But he was also very skilled, we'd seen that in Fera. I hooted and shouted encuragement, willing Ann to understand that there was no real danger here, that Meyone would be just fine, if perhaps a bit bruised and sore. I could hear Alaric, too , roaring beside me, and hearing him gave ne free rein to keep it up. I felt less silly.

I just happened to look over to my left, keeping half an eye on Ann through this whole mess- and she was wiping at her face. My smile fell away, and I felt exerliation and happyness flow from me. It left behind a quickly becoming all too familer hollow tiredness, an age on top of my years, a tired sadness, a weight. A very, very heavy weight.

Because good forbid that I be allowed to just have fun once in a while. Maybe that's selfish, but damn it, I'm tired of feeling tired. It seems we're so rarely happy.

And now, when we supposed to be enjoying ourselves, and having fun- supposed to be relaxing, just being friends doing nothing important for once, earning a bit of gold and having a bit of fun-

-now, here, in the middle of the screaming, cheering throng, Ann was crying freely. And the real bitch kitty of it was, it was partly my fault. I shouldn't have made fun of her, forced her into this. I shoulda' listened to her, shoulda' at least gone with her to do something else. I shoulda' seen how upset she was. I shoulda' cared enough to actually listen to her. But I hadn't, and now she was crying.

Damn it! Sonofawhoremotherfuckingdamnit!

"Ann?" I said, my voice so small now, suddanly lost in the crowd. "Hey, Ann, you okay?"

Stupid question. But I didn't even get the patent elven stupid human glare. She just took a deep breath, and suddanly her voice rang out.

"Finish it!"

It was as if, through the crowd of people, through every other screaming voice, he'd heard her, like a dog hearing a familer whistle.

Within minutes, Meyonne was the winner of his match.

He came down to us, after winning sna such were taken care of, gathering his cloths. We all congradulated him, and I was pleased to notice that Ann looked fine once more. Well, not fine, but she wasn't in tears anymore. Now she just looked grumpy again. I released a breath as Alaric clumsy racked into me, and then his hand was on my shoulder and Meyonne was smiling and looking pleased and proud, beaming more brightly then I had ever seen and clearly happy, and it was okay again.

The weight went away, a little.

Meyonne told us that that'd been insightful, and he still had much to learn, then dressed. He was still smiling, a quiet, content little thing.

That was what I'd been hoping to get, by coming here. Fuck how much gold we could get or not get; I'd just wanted to see us smiling and laughing, teasing and encouraging each other.

It made me feel good again.

I was ready to leave, after what I'd seen Ann doing, but it wasn't fair to Alaric to insist we leave when everyone but he had gotten to do something; so when he suggested a game of chance, I figured, what the hell? A dice game couldn't even upset Ann that much, right?

The game we found was easy enough, deceptivly so. Place a bet, then each palyer rolled five dice. Highest matching sets numerically won it, and if you got certian numbers you got a special prize, too. There was a tie breaker, if one happened.

We played a few rounds, each winning and loosing a fair amount of gold. It came down to Ann, the game master, and me in the end; then I was out, and finally, Ann.

But that wasn't the end of our day. Oh, no. The funny part was still to come.

First off, I tried my luck on my own event once more. Lost again, though I damn near made it this time; the second to last wheel clonked me too hard to keep going.

Then Alaric lit up.

He'd found a drinking game.

He was like a little boy; his excitment at the thought of getting shit faced drunk made me laugh aloud. Even Ann looked amused, now.

He was the fourth out of six men to drop out, nearly winning the thing. When he came back down to us, he was clearly a happy little cleric, smiling mellowly and leaning his entire fucking weight right on yours truely.

Why me? Meyonne's bigger!

At least he's a happy drunk.

Huffing and growling under my burden, I was in no mood to say 'no' when Ann asked if, now, we could return to the ship?

Alaric slurred something drunkenly, and I started to giggle helplessly.

"I think we need to get him back." I said, grinning a little.

Ah, there it is. The 'stupid human' look.

I only grinned again.

We got past Jasper once more, and he greeted Ann by name; proper name. Anja. She startled, as did I, and we both rounded on him, dangerously.

Well, as dangerously as one can while holding upright a heavy, drunken cleric.

Ann approched him, and Meyonne stopped just beyond her. Alaric and I stood a few paces back.I heard Ann ask for his name, and get directed to the sign he held. She tossed him the gold, and his reply drifted, clearly, to me.

"I asked the gaurd over there. You're the one who's name's on the airship."

I bit my lip to keep from laughing. I think Ann has developed a mental link with me, though, because her look was pure venom.

Now I did laugh. She stormed past us all back onto the ship, Meyonne steps behind her. I took Alaric and guided him on board, too. Time for nappy for the cleric. Meyonne took him from me to get him to their cabin. I was pretty worn down, now, and my cloths were fucking burning up, so I went looking for water.

A few hours past in peace. Meyonne came back up, eventually, and lounged near me. I took up a seat in a hammock, and we just sat and talked for a bit, discussing our options and the day. There was a time, a few weeks ago only, when I'd never thought Meyonne and I would be able to just sit and talk, to enjoy one another's company. But there was nothing strained or awkward about it; somewhere over the months, we'd come to think of each other as friends. Albiet volitile friends with very differant opinions on many things.

But then, that was all of us.

We both fell silent when the Captian approched Ann talking to her in low, urgent tones.

Meyonne stood, and I stiffened, rising slowly next to him. Ann motioned me to watch, and then approched the man. She asked him what he wanted to speak about, and he told her his name was Samuel, and he had information about Delmont Covan. His voice was strained, and he was nervouse, fidgity as if ill, sweating, twitching. I felt dred rising in my belly.

Something is not right. Something is so very wrong.

The weight? Yeah, it was back.

Ann invitied him aboard to speak. He stepped up, and then shook Ann's hand. He told her he didn't have much time, could only do this once. Then he took a deep, deep breath.

"Del-"

You know how, when you drop a tightly sealed container, sometimes, it will burst? Contents fly every which way, many breaking if they're fragile. The container is ruined. You're covered in it, and stand there looking and feeling like a fool?

That's what happened, 'cept for it happened to a person.

Boom.

Ann barely had time to scream out a move! Before chunks of Samuel came raining down on the deck. I felt my stomach lurch and convulse, hearing my own hard retch in my ears. The smell of blood and something else, something foul, filled the air and coated my tongue. I managed not to retch again.

This is, just to let you know, the second time Ann and I have had a person blow up on us. And I ain't talking no hissy fit, neither, I mean litterally blow up. The first time had been during the Delcova incident. I watched Ann try to twist away, but she wasn't fast enough, and blood speckled her flesh. I had managed to dance back out of the way, this time.

Silence, but for the dripping of blood somewhere and the wet sound of random flesh hitting the deck from where they'd landed. Then Ann was moving, deamanding Alaric be woken up, for no one to touch a thing.

Ann met my eyes then, and I could only stare, wide- eyed and helpless.

Here we go again.

2009-01-10T13:20:00.000-08:00

So, we're safly on the airship. We're all breathing a little hard, we're all a little freaked out at the sheer numbers we almost had to face. And then Meyone rounds on me. This isn't unusual, frankly, and I listen with a sneer as he rants. Then I take my turn; this is how it is between us, this hot back-and-forth bickering. I apprecaite Meyone, really, I do. He is clearly good for Ann; I've never seen her so level headed, so calm, so elven, so utterly balanced since he came into her life. And frankly, he's fun; he gives me someone to irriate and annoy, someone I can pick at and on. I don't dislike Meyone, I just like annoying him. And sometimes, yes, we get incredibly on one another's nerves. I snarled at him about playing people like fiddles, and he snarled at me about using my brains and not even considering doing something as foul as turning someone. Then he went below deck to sketch some of the Were he said he'd seen.

The rest of us stood around discussing what to do next. We decided that we needed to talk to the gravekeeper, and see if perhaps he and his ghosts had any answers for us; also, the tall man and Mogli might be able to point us in the right direction, too. Also, Ann and Alaric decided they needed to 'test' on a were, any Were, to see if we could discover what their new weaknesses were. Are. Even being Were, the thought of torturing someone makes my stomach get a little queasy, but so long as I didn't have to watch.

Ann went down after Meyone, to see if she recognized any of his sketches; I have a feeling it was a bit more then that, too, after my artificer friend has wanted to buy Meyone. Reffered to him as an 'it'.

She came back a few moments later and talk continued; then she wanted to send me down there, too, to check out the drawings. My immediate response was a flat out 'no'; I didn't want to deal with Meyone one on one- whenever that happens, one of us usually ends up ready to kill the other. But she pressed, and she had a good point.

Besides, she said, I could tell Meyone about her and Alaric's little plan. I know she caught my grin.

So down I went. I knocked, checked the drawings and saw no one I knew. I told him about Ann and Alaric's plan, and was halfway pleasently surprised when he seemed okay with the idea of testing variouse things on a Were. I guess his thought patterns were similar to mine, and that, more then anything, sparked what came out of my fool mouth next.

He asked if that was all, and I told him Ann had probably said most of it all for both of us. He smiled but kept watching me, and I kept talking. Because I wanted to make sure that the picking and irritating and such was light hearted irritation on both sides, and that he wasn't going to like, blow up on me one day or something. I have the feeling Meyone is going to be sticking around for a long time, or at least I hope so, for Ann's sake if nothing else. We're going to have to find neutral ground with each other. So I didn't appologize, but I did tell him that I considered him very much a person and not an 'it', and that despite everything I respected him as a companion. I told him we might never be 'freinds', but I didn't mean it. I can easily see he and I being friends.

Apperantly so he could he, because he said he thought I was wrong; we could be, and that we had the same mind set. We both wanted what was good to win, even if we had very differant thoughts and ways of going about it. And you know, he's right.

I headed back up on deck, and we moved back into the citadel, the group of us, leaving the airship waiting once more. We headed through right to the grave keeper, and Ann asked if I wanted to check out my grave; so we could see if Damen was back. He was supposed to get in contact with me when he got back safly, but as far as I knew no word had been sent. I was surprised when Ann voulentarily let me go inspect the grave site. Unfortunatly, that meant Alaric and Meyone got to come see my little secret too. I explained to them my- um, unique situation in as few words and as understandably as it was possible for me to do, while Ann kept watch on the surrounding area to make sure that no prying ears were listening. The two, of course, felt the need to make guesses at to what could have happened and what I could be. We yammered at each other until Ann finally called time on the whole mess and went went to inspect the Delcova grave while we were here; and we got a surprise. Not only where there flowers on my grave- not unexpected- but there were flowers (fresh ones, none the less) on that one, as well.

Well, that's my heart dropping to my ankles, kiddies. I think Ann's, too. We inspected the area, looking for anything else out of place; we found nothing, but there was a raven watching us. Filthy fucking birds, even I know enough to know that. Ann and I were either very jumpy or very right, because we left the moment we noticed that bird.

We found the gravekeeper at his home, and he greeted us warmly, his attention rather on me; I think I, as a dead person who was not dead, rather interested him. He's one of the few people who's direct attention doesn't bother me; and we asked him if he knew any spirits who had been killed or knew anything of Were. He said yes, but told us recent spirits were.....unpleasent....to speak to. But he took us to some that he said could help us, and from them, we got a name; Monsay. We tried to get more information on where the Were might be keeping our girls, but got nothing more from them. We thanked everyone for their help via our gravekeeper, and left. When we got back to the citadel, we found out very quickly who Monsay was- directer of security. We got in to talk with him only becuase Mandrel gave us a note to give to those surrounding him informing him that he was to see us right away.

We met with him and discussed the girls, the were, and half a dozen other things. Somehow the conversation went from information gathering to being asked information. And we were promptly told that we had gotten involved too much already, and that we were to sit down and shut up. At least for the next twenty four hours.

It was as we left that we ran into problems.

Lots of little were-ratty problems, to be excat. It didn't take us long at all to dispatch the wererats and capture one, less then a minute, in fact. We loaded it up onto the ship and Ann and Alaric commenced their job, while I stayed busy and made sure Meyone did, too. When those two came back, we had a new lead, and a new destination. Some lands father from anywhere any of us had gone then before. Okay, great. We tie up our new friend- who is supposedly going to lead us there- and as we settle in for the night, Ann discovers a little trinket on the post of my bed.....hammock.....thing.

A bell.

We're sitting there trying to puzzle out what to do, but ann has recently picekd up on my usually bad habit of 'if you don't know what it is, poke it. If you poke it and it bites, it's usually best to kill it.'

She rang the bell, it shattered, and suddanly, a form blurred into illusionary life. A man, young, scared (do I want to know why in the hell is it that everyone from my past seems to be male? Strange, that.), hunted, desperate. He addressed me by name, told me that he needed to see me and where I could find him. (He used cryptic terminology, but I knew instantly, as did Ann, where he meant; the Crow's Nest.) He said that the girl we were so desperate to protect wasn't the key to it all after all.

And then the thing popped away.

As per usual, I was prety emotional over this, and Ann and I got in a snarling, growling debate about weather or not we should go and met this man; as Ann had felt the need to inform others-which I understood, I supposed- Alaric chimed in, and Meyonne. They, of course, were in agreement with Ann about not going- and I understood why. The entire thing reeked of trap, but I had to know. I have to, rather, as when we finally got there- after arguing more, going to bed, getting back to Befrengaurd, dropping people off, picking people up- the man was dead.

And his body was massivly protected by magical traps. Calm in the face of my frustrated, impotant rage, Alaric summoned a little wind elemental- a tiny, adorable whirlwind not even taller then Ann or myself- that dragged the body within speaking range.

And then he asked it questions. We only got to ask five, and so we picked our words carefully.

His name was Corbin Bailey Brice, and he was, in fact, the one trying to contact me. He told us, just as he had in the message to me, that our little girl, Toby's little girl, was the key, not the door, with odd inflections on both words. That someone or something called the 'Azen' had killed him. That I was to look for Razzen Delcova next.

Delcova.

As in the, as in the group that had been attempting to replace the deiety of pestilance with a man made varation, using a perfume that killed anyone of a specific bloodline. As in the family we had spent weeks researching, investigating. As in a twisted, generally fucked up line of people who could trace their roots back to a horrible, tyranical lord, and at least one illegetimite child.

Sometimes, I hate my life.

Meanwhile, our little wererat friend had promised to take us somewhere to get answers about the girls and the necromancers, which seemed to be involved in the werewolf's suddan mutation. We loaded up on the ship after destorying the body, and headed in the direction he told us to go to get to where we'd get our answers.

Which, of course, you know, being us? Ended up being a swamp.

We stopped the airship as close and low as the captian could get it, and then Meyonne, Ann, Alaric, our rat-friend, Jules, Garener-whom Ann had brought along- and myself all disembarked. We made our way through this desolated, dead place, and I made the best of it by teasing the elf mercilessly about not wanting to hike through a swamp. I didn't want to hike through a swamp. None of us did. It stank, it was eerie, we were being followed, rat-boy had taken off first chance he got, we were something like lost, and the death around us was completly unnatural. Also, bugs. Bugs.

So I teased her, and she bitched at me for it, but it kept my spirits slightly higher, for I am just mean that way. We uncovered a few things that we all wished, in retospect, we hadn't seen (like the dead-tree thing that had been what was following us, that ran and hide when Garenar revealed it) and, in time, came upon what seemed to be an old temple.

We went in preparing to fight, particuarly when the skeletons of were at each door rose up and came to 'life' at our approch. But all they did was open the doors for us.

Creepy? Oh, you bet your ass. But, it seemed, non agressive. For now. With us, things don't say non agressive too long, typically. We do something to piss someone off, or we just look like a tasty challange.

We stepped into the spider's lair, becokoned in by the dead and hoping we wouldn't be the dead.

But there was no threat in this place. There was only a man. Well, something like a man. Something that had maybe once been a man. Something that I can honestly say I don't think was a man anymore, though it was certianly male.

It told Ann that it could sense (or smell, I forget which, now) Toby's touch on her. and then he said the same to me. And the others, though he could tell they'd been in less direct contact for a shorter time. Ann explained why we were here and what we were after, and one long conversation later, we were guided to a basin of water by this male creature, and told to look in.

We found out a lot about the war- and Toby- that we had distantly suspected, and a lot we'd never imagined. We saw the massive battle between the two sides in a war fought years before even Ann's time (yes Ann, darling, if you see this, you are old. Heh.) and the union of two- and now here I guess I have to say it- diety. Toby, the diety of pestilance, and the one we'd seen only one time before, who we assumed was a diety of life.

What a mix, hu? And these two dieties, they had a kid, a little girl, and you know the rest. We all know the rest.

When we pulled back, the strange man-thing informed us that we'd been followed, that danger waited for us outside. How he knew, I'm unsure, but he was right.

When we stepped outside, there were necromancers and were both waiting for us, and it didn't take long at all before we were thrown into the first full blown battle I can say we ever ran away from. Ann and I have both fled from one on one type skermishes before, but when it comes to group battles, we usually stick it out until the end.

Now, though, we were outgunned, out numbered, in over our heads so throughly that even Garenar buffing us only helped so far. Meyone and I, for all our bickering, make an exillent team, and it's become almost second nature for us to pair off when we can. Which is odd, becuse I'm so used to teaming up with Ann; it's nice, though, to have someone else in up-in-your-face combat with me, particuarly someone who is skilled as Meyone is. True to form, he called for me to follow him as he darted off into the swamp. I followed him barely a heartbeat later, and we fell into combat with familer ease. We don't get in each other's way nearly as much as Ann and I usually do. I could distantly hear the others going head to head with weres, the spells being cast, the yells of battle- Alaric and some other wizard were heckling each other just off to my right. I was close enough to grab a few words, and if I hadn't been beating off a pissed off were, I may have gotten more out of the conversation; as it was, I can't remember what was said. Hell, I can't remember what Meyonne and I threw back and forth, and that was imporatant. At the time, anyway.

We put down the were- amazingly, somehow, we put down the were, and moved to help Ann and the others. We were holding our own, but we were outnumbered and outgunned. Alaric had to run out of magic eventually, and we were all beat to hell. We recognized this as what it was- a desperate situation. Normally the numbers wouldn't bother me, but these were not men who were could handle being outnumbered by. These were Were, and mutated ones at that. We sat back and scratched maybe two to death. And we could hear more. Lots more. And there were still the Necromancers. Plural, on that one.

We were all kind fucked, here. But as we were gathering ourselves and trying to figure out what to do, the Were attacking Alaric suddanly had a change of heart in a big way. When faced with death or becoming a traitor, it informed us that it hadn't signed up on this trip to be killed, and suddanly we had a Were on our side or something, I don't even know. Those bastards are confusing as fuck, and one is more then hard enough to deal with.

As it was, Were-traitor or no Were-traitor, we still couldn't stand and fight much longer. So like I said, for the first time in the history of being a group, we turned and ran from a big battle. Garanar took us right through a tree, true Druid style, and the little guy poped us up nice and far from the battle.

Sadly, he also popped us up nice and far from the airship, too. Which meant we got to walk through the Were infested forest to try and find where our ship was. Luckily, we made it without much indicent; but when we got to the place our ride home was supposed to be, it wasn't in sight, and instead we knew the enemy's ship hovered like a bird of prey, just waiting for us. But we didn't have much choice; we had been neatly herded and now we were stuck.

Who's idea was this whole fucking trip again? Ann, you no longer have any right to tell me I might be walking into a trap. At least my dead body didn't try to eat us!

Meanwhile, said stubborn elf had taken off into the clearing before any real decision could be settled on. Muttering curses, I sprinted after her, as did everyone else.

Sure enough, there was the ship- the wrong ship. For one heart-pounding moment, I thought we were sorta finished, because what the fuck were we supposed to do now, we had almost nothing left-

And then another, larger ship came roaring in like the fucking calvery. Okay, so not roaring, and not very calvery like, but it was big and impressive enough to scare away the necromancer's ship, and when it got close enough, we could see that it was a citadel ship.

Oh, hell, I'd rather get a ride from the necromancers!

We all braced ourselves for trouble, and when the ship finally let us up, Kaedwyn Monsay was the first to greet us, looking torn between annoyance and amusment. "I think I asked for twenty four hours?" He asked, and didn't sound pissed off as maybe he should.

Now, don't get me wrong; he sounded plenty pissed off.

We immediataly launched into our defenses, all of us speaking in turn in our own protection until we were basically told 'shut up and sit down, all of you.'

We did. And we watched and listened in amazment as the Were we assumed had betrayed the necromancers turned out to ne a spy, put there in the first place. Never one the necromancer's side at all.

Of course.

Kaedwyn then approched us, his expression stern. Ann, beside me, lowered her eyes and head, cowed, and I wrapped an arm around myself, clutching my elbow, and also, respectfully bowed my head. We were in for some major trouble, and we deserved every bit of it.

We're better, I think, at dealing with life or death situations.

2008-12-09T06:42:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-16T02:38:00.000-08:00

So we could do nothing but wait, and wait we did. We wandered the town, found our way back to the historian to get out books back and see if he could offer us anything more. We got the books but no more information, which was okay, because I didn’t figure by this point that anything else we found out would make a huge difference, anyway. I could feel the climax of this story coming, the end of the dream. I think we all could.

Afterwards we headed back to Feldon’s grave at Ann’s whim, to see if anything had changed. At first glance, nothing had, but as we approched, I quickly became aware of a murmuring in the back of my mind. I stopped, not so much alarmed as wary. I’ve gotten disturbingly used to voices in my head. I informed the pair behind me and continued forward, slowly. The murmuring grew louder, though still indistingushable, until I placed my hand on the center rock.

Then I heard, clearly, rest in peace.

I gasped and pulled away, feeling a chill up my spine. It wasn’t fear, exactly; but it certianly
spooked me right the fuck out. Ann apparently was feeling a pulse, nearly a force, that also grew stronger as she neared the center rock. And she quickly became aware of what it was; a heartbeat. She was feeling a heartbeat pulsing from this rock.

It stopped when she touched it.

We decided that my approching with my own half of what we pressumed to be Danel was a good idea. When I did, though, I realized that I no longer heard whispering. Now I heard weeping.

It stopped when I touched the rock.

We glanced at each other, then by mutual agreement pressed our little stones to the rock.
Nothing happened, even though we were all tense, breath held. We were expecting the world to blow up and I think decently surprised when it didn’t.

The only thing that happened occurred when we pulled back, the earth rummbling and shifting back and forth a bit under our feet. We glanced uncertianly at each other and decided it might be a wise idea to head back and leave well enough alone.

As we headed out of the area, though, Ann suddanly stopped, hand at her chest. Before I could ask if she was alright, I felt a fine, sharp pain in my mind, and then, just as fast, it was gone and I was fine.

We glanced at each other again, nervouse and fearful.

The rest of the wait was uneventful once more, until more of our beardless dwarf friends appered at last to tell us it was time to try and fix what had been done to that amulet. We explained to Jhonna- who was with them- what we had done ealier, and she didn’t seem upset by it. We arrived back at Feldon’s grave, and the drawves- close enough, anyway- began doing what they needed to do, Jhonna timidly holding the amulet to allow them access.

Everything was going well, which made me edgy. Things were not this easy, not for us, not ever.

Sure enough, we had all forgotten about two very important things- the child's toy and necklace we'd gotten from Moon Point. We should have known better then to leave them with Jhonna, known better then to expect them to be innocent momentos of something tragic.

Black tendrils started to emerge from the necklace. The phsyonisics around Jhonna went to work trying to stop them, but seemed unable to have much effect; after a moment, in mututal agreement, I went after the pouch on Jhonna's hip in an attempt to hack it off with the toy inside. I dove forward and nearly cut it free, and then Meyone followed up after me. We sliced it almost all the way off before, abruptly, everything stopped as a slender door in the air opened, and once again Sonya stepped through.

She confronted Ann about the jewel, which had been dropped in the chaos and Ann had picked up. nce again, Ann refused to give it to her. Sonya nodded, as if accepting this, and then just- stood back to watch. It was clear to me she was waiting, but for what?

We found out pretty fast. The group began trying to cleanse the nightmare from the amulet once more, and they did it, alright- they brought that old, angry, powerful, trapped nightmare right out into the open. And then they keeled over unconciouse, all of them. And Meyone just- vanished. His jewl hit the earth soundlessly, and it was only Jules, Ann, and I left standing. The nightmare began to walk towards us, slowly, and Jules demanded that Sonya stop it. She told us she couldn't- no one could, now- and slipped away back into her door.

That left us to deal with the nightmare alone, which left us all frozen for a moment. We knew we couldn't fight that thing and win. Not the traditional way, anyway. Ann dove for the amulet, but it was an aborted attempt and she went for her bow instead. Next Jules went for Meyone's crystal and, predicatbly, put himself between the unconciouse Jhonna and the nightmare. He began to fight off the creature, maybe trying to actually beat it, maybe trying to stall, but whatever he was doing was lost to me as I heard a familer voice in my head say now. Now!

I dug into my pack and pulled out what we assumed was the peice of Danel that was logic, and it began to glow, as did Meyone's crystal. And from Meyone crystal, we suddanly got a series of flashbacks; a couple Ann and I were presant for, a couple we weren't. The end scene was one we'd just witnessed; Sonya slipping away into her little exit in the air, telling us there was no way to end this now. But as the scene played out, suddanly, it re-wound and started again in slow motion, and just before the door shut, Sonya winked.

And then the blow-by ended.

We stood for a moment like confused sheep before the action began again, Jules attacking once more and my making my own way over to the amulet, my part of Danel having gone quiet. She was trying to break the stone, it seemed, attacking it with one shot after another, and I bent to pick it up. For a moment, I was terrified to touch it, terrified of what would happen if I picked it up. Then, I felt utterly calm, as logic took over my fear. Fear was just an emotion; it couldn't hurt me, it was no threat to me.

Eerily similar to my earlier thoughts; it was just fear, and it could not control me. I bent and picked up the amulet just as Jules threw Meyone, in his now-amulet form, down the nightmare's throat. Ann shot at the nightmare but it still did nothing, and as holding the two jewls together had no effect I set them both back down and attacked the amulet myself.

Ann's next shot, though, was what tore the thing in two. With the shattering of the amulet the nightmare dissapered, but Sonya reappered. And she wasn't alone. Our part got larger with the reapperance also of the Ghost Lord and Talia, and, with a motion of the man's hand Draughty appered, too, a shifting, oozing mass of black snot that was throwing a fit inside an invisible cage, like a bug caught under a glass.

Some arguing and talking commenced, but what it boiled down to was that Sonya no longer seemed to be under evil's influance, Draughty was pinned like a butterfly, Jhonna and the others were alive and the nightmare was gone. The lord demanded that the dark, shifting form in his invisi-box hand over the third peice we needed, and he gave us the stone eye, which split open to reveal the last peice of Danil.

The mood remained solom and cool as I collected the broken amulet and Sonya approched me. She said, almost gently; 'I can fix that'.

I was getting no cues from Ann, though some part of me trusted Sonya, now. I started to protest, just to see, and Ann stopped me. Sonya herself said she understood my lack of confidence, and she was sorry. I handed over the crystal, after only a moment's more pause. If she'd wanted me dead, she could have killed me when I was out cold. That was a big part of my decision.

She took it, she fixed it; and then she feel, not breathing, not moving. She died. That took me aback rather sigificently; though I think I half expected it. Maybe we all half expected it. But the end result was that the three parts of the whole began to spin once more and again put themselves together, along with what we had stupidly and without checking assumed was the ring of salt around Fera. It wasn't salt- it was little peices of the same item in the amulet, in my pocket, in the stone eye.

And, swiriling, spinning, it began to form a shap. Even Meyone's jewl was tugged into the mess, and then it stopped, revealing the shape of what may have been a man; it had a torsoe, and head with two eyes and a jewl in it's forehead, with legs and arms but no hands or feet, hovering. And, no surprise to Ann or I, it said,

'I have returned- Danel.'

Danel didn't so much as thank us. He started to- hover- off to the west before any of us could think of anything to say, gaping like slack-jawed fools, so utterly stunned by this that words wouldn't come. Finally, the Lord spoke up, demanding to know if 'that was it'. Danel seemed- confused, for a moment, then said yes, we'd put him back togther again, that was it. Ann told him we had a request, and he practically scoffed at us. He told us we and our desires weren't worth his time, pretty much, and that he had much to do. He seemed obsessed with 'keeping the balance'. Dispite Jules's demand that he'd lost his daughter, that we'd gone through hell to bring him back and deserved something for compensation, he refused. He did say he was not without compassion, and turned Sonya into a jem, so that Jules could keep her with him.

I don't know what I said then. I asked him what about the desires of someone more important then us, I remember that, and he said he saw no one. The rest of it I just babbled out, improvising as best I could; I don't remember most of what I said. Something about Ivy needing help keeping the balance and as much as I felt safe revealing about Talron and Nabudel, and the situation. He was quiet for a long time, and at last said that if he felt it did indeed keep the balance, he would become involved. He started to hover away again when Ann asked about returning the Lord of the Land's body to him. Danel said an even trade would be needed; a body for a body. One of us would have to give ours for the Lord of the Land to get his own back. Of course, the answer to that was a 'no'.

Once again, Danel tried to leave, and once again we stopped him. Ann wanted Meyone back. Danel demanded, once again, equal trade; Meyone was a peice of his leg, and he wanted one of her fingers. To my amusment, she put up such a fuss that he changed his mind and offered a truly fair exchange- a peice of her own leg for his. She still fussed and grunted but at last allowed for the trade and then Danel started away again.

Until the Lord of the Land started forward in what almost seemed to be desperation and blurted that he would trade his power for his body.

I hadn't realized how desperate he'd been.

The deal was accepted and the trade was made, and finally Danel made good his escape. I'm not sure why I didn't think to ask about retrviving my memories from him, but then, who knew what he'd want in return for that.

After he left, there was nothing to do but go home. The adventure was over; the journey done. I felt strangly hollow; I was happy to be going home but at the same time bitter-sweet and lost as nothing had ended the way it should have. Draughty- Drauthy had been 'balanced', not killed, apperantly but punished for not keeping the balance; Danel was not how Danel had once been but a broken, flawed version; Sonya was dead, Jules was being hunted, Jhonna was alive but alone, and Fera would be abandoned to re-populate the safer Avendale, which was not safe at all, really. There was a new power in Avendale, a vampiric one, and that....creature....still lived there.

The Lord of the Land and Tallia were going to the elven lands, to try and find what they needed there. Jules and Meyone came with us to our two keeps, and Ann informed Meyone, apperantly, of what she'd done to get him back (yes, he came back, body and all) because suddanly he was her puppy dog. He was always just one step behind her, a devoted companion and bodygaurd.

Oh, this is gonna be fun.

Upon returning to Sholewater, though, we got a rather nasty jolt.

The Citadel's influance was huge here, their colors and flags just about anywhere you turned. I felt my stomach twist into sick knots looking at it, and Ann didn't seem thrilled, either. We disembarked and said our goodbyes, then headed inside. We were instantly assaulted by the same man who handled finacial affairs and such in the castle, who rattled off reports in our ears; then gently and with honesty told us it was good to see us back again.

Ann also got scurried off to see to someone. I didn't know who, really, but apperantly I'd met her once, and she told me to find a way to meet with Ivy. Like I had to 'find a way'. But it did let me slip through to see Talron for a bit, so I wasn't bitching. Jules went to find a place to get a drink, Ann went to take care of her business with Meyone in tow, and I headed through to Befrengaurd.

There was very little if any influance of the citadel here, and I released a relived breath. There was, however, a lot of Talron's influance; his men, his colors, and so on and so forth. Along side of that, there were many, many of his interesting little friends wandering about. Races I'd seen before and some I hadn't. None of them surprised me, really.

I was greeted by the same of Talron's men that usually did so, breifed on everything that had happened, told that the races here were trying to form a sort of peace amoung themselves but needed Talron back. He'd been gone two weeks, meeting with the Empress in the city. No one was sure when he'd return. He did leave me a note, though, that later turned out to be nothing useful, but quiet fun to read none the less. It felt- odd, reciving a letter that was nothing more then mush and affection from him. Now that the attraction was in the open, I wasn't sure what steps to take, and dispite the fact that I was so determined to say I'd made my choice, I could stop thinking how wrong it was. How horrible a person I am.

And yet I couldn't stop smiling as I read his letter.

Before I even opened it, though, I'd been sent to the cathedrial to met with one of Talron's old friends, who was, apperantly, meant to keep an eye on us. And things. He was a cleric, a man named Alaric who was exceedingly formal and stiff; but quite a bit like Talron in a way. He seemed like the kind of man who would call Talron 'friend'; he had a stern sort of gentleness and was mild and polite. He had also, apperantly, met Garnar, and was- concerned- about him.

Had he been anyone else from anywhere else, I may have had reservations about the man, but he was Talron's, and therefore, in my mind, fine. Worth caution for a while, of course, but likely no threat. I greeted him and we spoke for a while, before I leaft and read my letter. Then Ann returned, knocking lightly at my door. I let her in and she explained that that woman who's life she'd saved a while back and who's baby she'd spoken to quietly in elvish had some- troubles- and that the woman would be staying here for a while, protected. I had no idea what she'd done, but whatever it was had drawn some latent elven features out in a child who's mother was apperantly half-elven, and who's father disliked the race.

I brought her to Alaric, who she'd been told about, and the meeting went well. We brought him down to Garninar to assess what damage he'd done, but apperantly he'd only made things better, not worse; and then we decided to bring him with us to met Ivy and King. May as well have him meet them on our watch, rather then by accident.

We brought him into the woods that night (after reciving word from Simon that he was paniced, hiding, angry, and scared, and that he generally hated us and wished he'd never agreed to work for us, summed up) and I guess I really, really wasn't thinking when I dragged a cleric in behind Ann and I to find a werewolf and a vampire. King appered, alright, but he was not a happy puppy, and looked half ready to pounce on and kill our newfound friend then and there.

I still wasn't afraid. King just plan does not scare me; I don't think he ever will. I know, rationally, I should be afraid of him. He could kill me without so much as an effort. But I don't think he will, that's the thing. So I put myself without hesitation between Talron's friend and King, and told King to calm himself right down; it was fine, he was Talron's. King snarled and growled but didn't attack, as I'd guessed he wouldn't. He was not as he usually was though; he barely said two words to us, and was clearly pissed off.

Ivy, too, when we got to her via the same route we'd taken before, was cold and irritated. It only got worse as we'd told her what happened, and soon she was as snipy and grumbly as King. If I'd been less worried over Talron and more frightened of this pair the way I should be, I would have been truely afraid of the shards of ice that seemed to fill the air around her. She bristled and hissed like a wet cat, although she did take better to Talron's companion's pressance then King had.

Usually I would have spoken to King, or spent a moment or two making sure he and Ivy were doing well- at least attempted to- but I highly doubted that was a good idea at the moment. As not afraid as I might be, I'm also not stupid, usually. King dropped us back off in the woods outside of Befrengaurd keep, and went as quickly as he came, anyway. We were headed back to the keep when Ann suddanly went all alert in the way she did when we were being watched, when she'd seen something that wasn't nessicarily supposed to be there.

To our relive, it turned out only to be Dagon. He looked; differant, but good differant. His eyes were gold and his skin carried a faint gold tinge to it. We greeted him and he us with the usual amount of not-quite-warmth Dagon possessed, telling us he'd never really left and informing me that he'd not seen the man in black around at all. He did phrase it as 'that person', though, and was very careful with his wording as I asked him more about it, until it at last came out that he was wary of King. Apperantly my furry friend had been hanging around, and had a disturbing resemblance to the one that had attacked Dagon so many weeks before, sent Dagon off to- wherever he'd gone, or not gone.

I informed him that, to me, anyway, King was nothing to worry about, no enemy of mine. Dagon accepted that, and greeted our newest member easily, though he didn't so much as acknowledge Meyone. After he'd gone and we were heading back, Meyone said it was because Dagon hadn't seen him. There were a number of reasons why that could be, and not knowing exactly what Dagon was, nobody got overly concerned. Everyone else could, apperantly, see Meyone fine, and that meant it was likely just whatever Dagon was that prevented his seeing Ann's not-so-little-shadow.

Who, by the way, had been told to take care of Ann by Ivy..... once again, this will be fun.

And so yet another chapter has been finished. We're home, we're safe-for now- and it seems that while a lot has changed, a lot has stayed exactly the same. We need to rest a while, and then our peace will end once more. Ann's airship crew is here and she will have us flying after Sparrow in no time at all. I wonder how much time will pass this time before we see home again, if in fact we get back alive at all, though dying is not something I like to think about. Besides that, I have my father to try and find, and do any more digging on myself I can. I passed up many opertunites on that island to do so for a few differant reasons, but now that I'm back on familer ground I feel comfortable prying around a little again.

So if this chapter of the book is closed, why do I still have that weird feeling of waiting, like something very big and possibly very bad is just about to happen? Like we're still right in the middle of water too deep to swim in? Maybe 'cause it is, and we are.

Ah, well.

2008-11-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

We can't catch a break. Not ever, not once in our entire fucking lives.

Butterflies. Those beautiful little blue butterflies we saw swarming in the woods around Carolyn. But now they were on fire. And how the fuck do you fight off burning butterflies? You don't, that's what, and instead you yell at each other while the skin is scalded off your bones until two of you finally remember that, oh, duh, there's a phsy crystal in Semie's pack, maybe just maybe we should use it on the butterflies that can't be real.

By the time I'd yanked it out and started trying to figure out what to do with it, we were pretty badly burned. So I did the only thing that made sense- I tried to ask it to help us.

Total blank out for I'm guessing a good several minutes. It was that kind of blankness where you know the answer to a question, it's right there on the tip of your tounge-

-and then Meyone touched me, and I jerked out of it. Ann and Meyone both looked a little shell shocked, and it took them a good couple moments to explain everything that had happened. And forget shell shocked, when I heard it I was freaked right the fuck out. Apperantly the butterflies were gone because Feldon had reappered and made them go 'poof', all the while reaching for the thing I held in my fist. Or me. I feel better saying he wanted my pretty shiney rock, though.

He'd done the typical roaring about 'the stone eye', apperantly, but the whole time been fighting off some force that was pulling him back and away; eventually, it apperantly did pull him away. Meyone told us that something had been differant, though he couldn't put his finger on what; something besides the force trying to rip Feldon apart, it seemed.

As Meyone pondered and Ann and I tried to figure out what step two was supposed to be, Carolyn suddanly appered from the woods, looking, again, mostly like a little girl but with that horse very near her still. It watched protectivly as she came running up to us and asked, as any sane person would, what had just happened. She had apperantly 'felt' Feldon come and go, like a ripple in the earth (disturbingly similar to what Drauthy might feel, I assume) and thought she heard Feldon's voice.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason she came. She'd been thinking, apperantly, and reitterated for us that it couldn't have been her nightmare that attacked the town because her nightmare wasn't a real nightmare. After some discussion, we came to the conclusion that the thing in Jhonna's amulet wasn't Catalina- it was a nightmare. A nightmare that had not been defeated by the amulet but instead basically absorbed by it. That nightmare was probably awfully pissed; and incredibly strong, given all this time to gather itself.

It was only after Carolyn leaft that Meyone suddanly barked out that Feldon hadn't said 'find the stone eye'. He'd left out the 'find' part.

We had the thought, at that point, to bring this little shiney to Jhonna and see what, if anything, happened. We had the typical worries; what if Sonya was our enemy, causing all this bad shit to happen, as we'd been concerned about in the past; what happened if we fucked everything up by doing this? We didn't know what could happen or what we might cause.

We decided to do it anyway. We brought this to Jhonna the next day, even though Ann was acting- completly off kilter, the way she had when she'd failed her oath using that damn bow of hers. I poked at her a little, but we didn't have much time before we were approched by gaurds and told that Jhonna was wanting to see us. We were brought back into Jhonna's home, where she stood, looking beautiful and more alive then she had in days. She greeted us warmly enough, only dissapointed that we didn't have more to offer her. I hesitated before telling her otherwise, and Ann finally spoke up, informing us that she had seen it fail i nher dreams.

But she also reminded me that she wasn't supposed to dream.

She left it up to me, in the end, and I handed over our last chance, last hope. She took it from me, and then promptly asked if something was supposed to happen.

How anti-climatic.

At least, until suddanly she informed us that she understood, and apperantly more happened then we were at all knowledgeable of because she told Jules to take off the amulet. After a few assurances from us, he did so, and the tension in the air was palpable. But when he took it off-

-nothing happened. For a second it looked as though that may have been a mistake, but then Jhonna was alright, and rounding on Sonya.

She demanded to know why Sonya had done what she had done, confirming our suspicions that she was a villin in all this mess. Sonya only laughed at and mocked us, then opened that door in the air again to let something else start to come into the room. For a second it seemed nearly everyone was frozen but, amusingly enough, myself. I did all I could think of to do. Mentally and physically, I screamed about now being a good time for some help, and dove forward towards Jules, snatching the amulet from him.

And then a bunch of things happened in very, very quick sucession.

The first was all mental. I could hear voices, thoughts, words, ideas, that weren't at all my own, that soothed me somehow none the less. And for some reason, part of those thoughts seemed- personal, in a way. They said things like, wasn't this how it was supposed to be? That stands out the clearest in my memory.

But also, I could sense that nightmare, feel it, an overpowering, overwhelming pressance in the amulet, holding the woman who'd worn it in the past all prisoner in there. Hundered years plus of power, all held together in this little necklace and all ready to blow.

Damn.

The next thing that happened was rather a blurr, but it ended in the familer, defiant cry of a girl and then Carolyn was there- Carolyn in all her firey old goodness. She caught just about everything on fire, singed us, and chased Sonya and that thing back. It melted the chain of the amulet and the thing hit the ground with a soft chime.

She looked downright embaressed for a second, and turned as if to apoologize as her flames went out again. Then, suddanly, she just- fell. Toppled forward and landed inches from the amulet. She stretched out her hand and whispered for her mother, and then, like that, was gone.

The nightmare was gone, too, after a mournful whinny.

There was a pause, a solom, helpless silence as we all realized just how deep in we'd become. Jhonna had relised my little friend ealier, apperantly, because it was on the floor now, too, and both the amulet and it began to spin madly. We all fell into typical position; some of us taking an instinctive protective stance more in front, others just behind, ready and wary. The two halves of a whole actually lifted into the air and formed a triangle from each other out, but there was clearly a peice missing- the last peice.

You guessed it, sweet, the stone eye. That was our mysteriouse stone eye.

And we thought it was a person.

Jhonna gathered herself after a few moments and we discussed what needed to be done, before Ann, Meyone, Jules and I decided to head for Avendale and see into bringing the stone eye back. Ann instisted on going to our little girl's woods to see if we could perhaps make use of the not- really-so-much-horses we'd used the services of before, but she and her nightmare seemed to be well and truely out of the picture, at least for the moment.

So it was on foot, halfway through the day, that we rather stupidly left. Of course we didn't even make it to the half-way point before night fell, and though we could have pushed on, we decided it was better to rest rather then be exhausted if something happened the next day.

Bad choice.

I can't tell you exactly what happened, as I was asleep for it. But I do know that, not for the first and probably not the last time in my life, I remember pain, lots of it in large quantities, and then.... nothing else for a long time.

Next thing I remember I'm waking up in a clearing of sorts, surrounded by people and stones. I felt better, and apperantly I wasn't the only one that had been knocked for a loop, because Jules was shuffling around beside me, and there was evidence that we'd both been towed here. I wasn't sure what happened, but Ann and Meyone filled me in on the details. Although, amusingly, it was Meyone and not Ann who told me that I'd been dropped some feet from the air in Sonya's hissy fit.

I was irritated but far from surprised. Besides, I understood why Ann had refused to give up the amulet, and I was alive, if bruised. So it was all alright, for the moment. Anyway, I had no time to dwell. Ann seemed to think there was a door to Sanctuary through this place somehow, and wanted help trying to find it. We looked until we growled in frustration, but found not a hint of a door. At last I pulled out my Pretty-Shiny-Danel-Rock and tried, as I'd tried so many times before, to talk to it. I practically begged it to help us, and, to my amazment, it relucatantly agreed. It only really offered yes or no answers, not speaking in very many full sentances expect to express annoyance or to insult me.

It had not been like this before. It had been calm, almost gentle, a mild and paitient voice that spoke up when it chose to. This voice, though, was all attitude, impaitence, rude, annoyed and clipped. It was agressive and bitchy to listen to, and it decided that playing a fake game of hot and cold with me might be funny.

It had me frustrated to the point of tears when Ann suggested I close my eyes and just focuse, think logically about the situation and stop chasing my own tail and berating myself.

The instant I closed my eyes I could see, and the oh well fucking duh hit me hard enough to take the wind out of me.

In the back of my mind, I heard slow, sarcastic applause. Bitchy damn fucking thing.

That coffin. In the coffin in Avendale, I'd had my eyes shut but been able to see perfectly, and completly, in the chaos after, forgotten about it. Now I had the same thing occuring, and could see what I needed to do to open the door.

I walked forward to the obviouse spot in the middle of the area, and place my hand on yet another shiny that was there. A door slid open in the ground a few steps away, and I grinned sheepishly. I felt like an idiot, and said so.

My pretty rock informed me I was not. I was surprised by that, to say the least. It wasn't a total asshole, then.

We went down into the doorway and were greeted by a creature that spoke druidic (for once in my life, I can say, my Kingdom for Illoria!) but soon realized we, y'know, couldn't, and switched over to a rough common. It lead us through a doorway when I told it what we wanted, and we saw to our dismay, once inside-

-one of the same tables we'd seen before, the tables that had a direct link to the portals we used and then some. Ann launched into a barage of questions about it and the portals, answered to the best of these rock creature's abilities- there were two more in there- and I listened and didn't add much. I wasn't sure what Ann was trying to get at with her line of questioning and I wasn't, also, entirely sure I wanted to know.

At last she stopped, and not long after our beardless friends showed up. They told us they couldn't bring us back, as their home had fallen under unwanted attention since the last time, but they did, of course, want to help. We explained we thought that the stone eye might be in their home, and with some quick mental exploring they told us our thoughts were wrong; the stone eye, they'd always assumed, was with Tallia. Yes, it had been part of the culture for a long time. No, they did not have it, and it was not hiding itself with them.

Ann mentioned the nightmare in the stone, and this changed things drastically. No longer was the goal 'get the stones together', it was now, 'cleanse the amulet then get the stones together'. But they needed a way to do so. Ann suggested perhaps requesing help from the Lord of the Land, which did not make the beardless ones very happy, but they had no better ideas. And all we could do was wait and see if he helped. They told us to go back to Fera, which was safest for now, and wait there. They'd get us home, at least. Ann asked, and they provided transportation.

Transportation turned out to be something that looked like a dragon made of air. It was a beautiful creature, not really frightening at all. In fact, it reminded me rather of a very, very large pet. It seemed more then friendly and happy and Jules did not seem surprised or displeased for it to be there. Ann, Meyone and I scrambled aboard- Jules mounted smoothly and with clear ease.

Yeah, he'd done that before.

Our ride home was uneventful; for once, we did not get attacked by anything, nor did we get attacked once we got back. We dismounted and Ann offered the creature a touch in thanks, though her fingers barely connected before it was off again. Jules told us it was called a method.

Apperantly, he'd been around them before.

Jules had also, before we left that underground place, told us he had some concerns that needed addressing once we got back. We were back now, and wanted them addressed. He took a deep breath and launched into it.

He explained more to us about himself and, consequently, his fears about General Kale. The dark rider, remember him? Yeah, you remember him. How could anyone forget?

Anyway, not only was Jules worried about the man returning, but he'd seen those tables before; those tables that connected to the portals. Some people in his army had used them, and not for the best of intintions nessicarily, either. Also, they had used the things and creatures associated with it to make the strange armour- that wasn't really amour but a lot more- that we'd seen Kale wearing. It was what, apperantly, gave him the ability to alter his form, and not, apperantly, fully die. We discussed it at further length, and Jules admited he was fairly certian that the rider was an elf who hated elves. Exiled, perhaps, or some such.

He was, in truth, the least of our worries. Although the table thing purturbed Ann and,to a much lesser degree, myself, we had too much on our plate as it was. There was nothing we could do about the rider, the tables, Jules's past exploits, or our portals- any portals- right now.

We couldn't do anything right now, in fact, but sit tight.

So tight we sat, until the climax of this insane, horrible adventure finally came.

What was that about 'not being heros', Ivy? I don't think I heard you.

2008-10-25T04:41:00.000-07:00

So this gant's back, minus his big flying beast. But he does have the help of three stone, flying beasts- gargoyles, big fuckers coming at us like nobody's business. We dismounted, one after the other, and stood there, preparing the fight these things and then take the dark rider as a team-

When a new voice rang out. It called the drake rider 'General Kale' and it was familer. It should have been, because it turned out to be Jules, who was calling both a challanage and a threat.

Being over three hundered feet away, I couldn't see him well, but he looked pretty duecked out in full armor. And after yelling threats and insults back and forth for a while, Jules finally raised his sword.

He flashed it at us- or, I realised when she and Meyone reacted, at Ann. Meyonne leaned over and, to both of our surprise, told her to go, that we had this. Today, he said, was not the day we'd die.

Ann and I shot him a look, then shared a look, and then Meyonne made the choice for us- with a roared challnage he stepped forward to meet the gargoyles.

Two of them swmaped him instantly and one turned it's attention to me. Big an' ugly took a swing for my middle, but missed by a wide mile and I laughed and taunted it, intending fully to piss it off. It worked.

To my side, Meyone took a viciouse strike at the pair on him, and I'll give you; I may not always like the guy, but he's damn nice to have on your side in a fight.I turned my attention back to my own dance partner, and in a few quick strokes it fell. Easy as fuck, and it barely touched me.

Therefore, I waited for the other shoe to drop.

And drop it did.

The ground under my feet rummbled, and I was less surprised then I should have been when that thing came up and at me once more. It was pretty annoyed at my irritating self, but then, I'm used to that. I've even started to enjoy it, how fucked up is that?

But I could see how this could go from annoying to deadly real fast.

If we didn't put these SOBS down where they would stay that way, they could wear us down throughly.I suggested, after a moment's thought, taking them all down at the same time, because when only one was left standing only one got up, and that nearly took us down. These fuckers had Meyone a gasp from dropping wehn we finally had the bad boys lined up where we wanted them- or more or less where we wanted them- and Meyone told me he could take them down or at least wound the last, enough so that if I was fast enough I could drop it after him. If we didn't take them all down at once, then it was game over. It was risky, but he had this cold confidence and arrogence that was contageiouse. And suddanly I felt that we 'had this', as he'd told Ann we did. I met his eyes and nodded with almost no hesitation, and then that huge, fucvking ungainly weapon he carried sliced through the air as smoothly and skillfully as anything.

It ripped powerfully and effortlessly into the monsters, bringing down all but the one, as we'd assumed would happen. I took my chance the moment he fell into stillness again, darting in like a smaller wolf on the heels on the alpha and it fell. This time, they stayed down.

Meyone was ready to cahrge into round two with Ann and Jules, and I barely managed to stop him. We could see Ann and Jules circling nervously, like two wary animals, around a ten foot tell metal monstrosity that used to be out lovely black rider.

We really need to start coming up with some more creative nicknames. Soon, we're going to run out of variations on 'dark' and 'black'.

And I absolutly refuse to allow even one more seasoning name. Period.

The oint has been lost- and it's that Meyone was about to rush into battle with this thing before his wounds had been even minorly tended to. I stopped him- and in retrospect, I'm surprised I was able to- and managed to get him to submit to a healing potion. Then we were both running towards our companions and round two of this battle.

By then, it seemed, Ann had wounded the thing enough to change him back, and one arm hung pretty uselessly by his/it's side. We watched as the two delivered the final blows to it's/his body and sent him crumbling into dust like one of his little minions that had been attacking Meyone and I. Jules told us it wouldn't stay down forever, but with luck, we'd be gone by the time he was fully functional again.

Then we headed back into Fera, us to see Carolyn, he to Jhonna.

We found Carolyn right off, this time, and so began the most trying conversation in Ann's life, because after last time I mostly kept backed off with my fool mouth shut. Unless I loose my temper I'm usually pretty good at delicate conversations (not the best, but not the utter worst either), but Ann handled her better then I knew how. She fast-footed her way through the conversation, being so careful, so delicate- but still, the girl knew. She knew and I watched with my breath held and my entire body tensed to run, to fight, as she grew more and more upset-

-and then, somehow, it just.....went away. As Ann slowly and delicatly circled the conversation around in loop-the-loops and worked the long dead little girl into realizing what we already knew- that to solve anything, we needed her to face what had happened the day of her death, the ones preciding it, even- the fire in her seemed to die.

No, I mean, the fire in her litterally seemed to die. As if you were slowly suffocating flames, they flickered and fell dead all over her body, revealing a pretty, solom-eyed little girl who could just as easily been one of the kids playing in Fera's houses right now, or doing chores.

Almost, anyway.

And what triggered this amazing change?

An admission that shocked us, or at least me, only half as much as it should have.

The historian's records were right. The girl had killed her mother.

Because she was a dream. And keeping her alive for all that time had killed Catalina, who'd wanted a child with Feldon so badly she'd dreamed one into life, and somehow even death hadn't ended the dream.

The ghost of a memory. Poetic.

Once again, though, it all came back to that fucking amulet. That amulet was, as best as we could tell, when was keeping the fate of Fera sealed, and keeping this child hanging around.

Something else she told us, before we left; actually, one of the first things she mentioned to us. Jhonna's daughter was actually, quiet likely, stronger then Catalina. Stronger then herself, even, and we'd been told she'd have been one of the strongest dreamers around, if she'd lived and grown up.

Gotta wonder how that woulda worked, a dream being a dreamer. Gotta wonder if she would have lived to be an adult at all.

Degressing.

Sonya didn't need that amulet, is the point. But, like the stupid, stubborn little bitch she is, she wouldn't refuse it. If she just didn't put it on, the whole mess would end, here and now, easy as licking butter off a knife.

But she wouldn't, because heaven forbid the herd gets frightened. They might all run off a cliff or stand in the rain with their heads up and their mouths open, stupid birds, and then what?

We left her at last, and then it was time for the Imparting Of Information That Might Have Been Nice To Know Before, Meyone, Thanks. Not that I can blame the guy, really. I mean, I have a rough enough time admiting to people something as mediocre (medicore? Maybe that's downplaying it a bit) as my lack of memories. It's private, it's personal, and whenever I have to admit to someone that no, I don't remember you, and no, I'd really rather not say why, thanks all the fucking same- it makes me feel like I've become, for a second, vulnerable. I get peevish and waspish to make up for it, and I don't stop being a bitch for hours after.

Of course, I'm generally a bitch anyway. Ask Ann. Hell, ask Meyone, that'd be more entertaining. Come to that, I'd like to hear myself.

My point is, if I get so testy over something like that, I can imagine how he must have been over the news he had to share. Something much larger then a lack of memory. More like a lack of anything.

Meyone was not- um, well, he's real, I guess, but he's not-

Meyone is a motherfucking memory. There. So much for trying to put it delicatly. So much for trying to figure out another way to phrase 'dream'. I'd be here all damn day, and he is not worth the headache.

Anyway, he's very similar in nature, I suppose, to our little girl. A memory or a dream that can be touched, (or she could have been, before), eat, feel, sleep, think, act, react and generally be. One that can, apperantly, get hurt or be killed.

One that can feel.

When he made his announcment to us , I felt empathy and no small amount of wonder as he explained that the necklace he wore was what, apperantly, was keeping him in the general state of here-ness he was in. That his entire family, his entire town, was dead, none of those people we'd spoken to had been anything more or less then what Meyone now was. It was sad, it was incredible, and it didn't change my veiw one wit on Meyone.

Yes, I felt sad for him; yes, it was all very tragic. At the same time, it wasn't all bad; who knew what could happen, with a memory trailing along behind us? None of us knew what, if anything, Meyone's pressance alone would change or effect. We didn't even know if he could be killed.

But in the long run, to me, he was still obnoxiouse, self-righteouse, arrogent, cold, stiff-as-a-spike- and a general pain in my ass. All meant in the most good-natured of ways, of course. I dislike him in the friendliest manner a person can dislike another.

So to me, this entire admission, this guilty confession, meant nothing for longer then a few heartbeats.

Whhhhat the fuck, waitaminute-

How sad- poor guy-

This could be useful-

Why are we still standing here?......

Yeah. My brain pattern, behold above. I have the attention span of a magpie, no?

And besides my own general lack of real deapth of feeling-

This particular ball never came anywhere within range of me, anyway. This? This was all one pretty little blond elf's ball to play.

Ann complained, in the past, that when Talron and I are in a room together, everything outside of each other stops exsisting. She could strip naked and dance with Ivy in the corner to some exotic music while King tapped out a beat with his claws on the stone of Befrengaurd Keep, and, according to her, we'd neither of us ever notice.

(In the above situation, however unrealistic and laughter-worthy it may be, I highly beg to differ.)

I saw what she meant, though, as it was happening here, now. It, much like Meyone's confession, didn't bother me. In fact, I felt very much like a younger sister spying on an older one, watching them; I could feel myself grinning and no matter how hard I tried I could not stop it.

Ann told Meyone that if it was any consolation, he seemed real enough to her. And he, more quietly then I think I've ever heard from him before, said it did help.

And then Ann said out loud that perhaps Meyone shouldn't be here when the war that was coming to this land started. So that he couldn't be- used.

Snap. Twist, pop, crunch, squish, crush. Moment dead. And I'm not talking poke it with a stick to see if it's still moving kind of dead, I'm talking get it out before it starts to stink kind of dead.

Aren't elves supposed to be a romantic concept? Wise, elegent, beautiful, graceful, blah fucking blah? If Semei Might Very Well Be Delfote Who The Fuck Knows Anymore can carry a moment, then why the hell can't Anjha-Can't Spell Her Last Name To Save My Half-Way-Illiterate-Ass?

He went instantly from quiet and almost distant to indignate and confused. Hell, so was I. There's a differance between undead and a memory, and she knew that, and I told her so. Of course he was quick to agree. I then asked where he was meant to go, then, if he couldn't be a part of a war that was soon enough going to be everywhere. While she floundered for a reply, he caught her eye, and again I was not there.

It liiiiiiiiiiveeeees! Quick, call a healer, this moment has a heartbeat!

Don't let Ann tell you it wasn't a moment. She can't do it with a straight face, anyway, and I bet you all the gold I don't currently have that she wouldn't be able to look you in the eye.

......Yes, I know you're a journal, therefore, you shouldn't have an eye. Nor should you honestly be able to have anyone 'tell' you anything.

I think I might be a little tired.

Anyway the point is that he told her that wherever she'd go, he would follow. That it was his destiny.

And I could no longer help it. I started to giggle. Ann was flashing me dangerouse looks and throwing threats on my life out on top of it, and Meyone's expression was helplessly confused. I started to laugh harder, and kept it up until we got back into town.

My laughter fadded pretty quickly then.

We were stopped part-way in by a very fasmiler ghost hound, but before any of us could do anything, a door opened in the air, and Sonya stepped through.

What? Casual is wrong, somehow?

Oh, come on, here. So far we've covered giant vampires, worlds of the dead, werewolves, ancient cities, beast-people, vampires, conspiracies, rocks that talk, druids, dryads, sea monsters, dragons, draconians, cities under cities, more sea monsters, shadow people, blinky spiders, fish tanks, elves, magic as a general whole, undead, terrifying monsters as a general whole, ghosts, people who turn out to be memories, stepping into the past via dream, generally evil and powerful men usually clad in black, and variouse differant variations of limbo, up to and including the Boneyard, and an entire slew of fuck all knows what else.

A DOOR OPENING IN THE AIR IS NO LONGER A STARTLING FACT OF LIFE. Thank you, that is all.

So she steps through, and what is a pretty fucking huge deal is that she dismissed the ghost hound with a casual wave of her hand.

She told us she knew what we were up to and that she wouldn't let us do it. She told us that she would not risk Catalina's wrath, and she would rather allow the curse and deaths to continue rather then piss off the woman we thought might reside still in that necklace.

Cowardice at it's best.

I knew I didn't like Sonya.

She wasn't doing this for the town, she was doing it out of fear. Fear like the rest of the people here, fear like a stupid sheep. Fear of the unknown, fear of power.

We were all afraid. I wake up everyday afraid. For myself, for Damon, for Talron, for Ann, for the people and- other variations on people- at both our Keeps. For Dagon. For Ann's Sparrow, wherever she may be. For two little girls trapped in the hands of a monster, and for two decent creatures trapped in the role of monsters. Even for Simon, and a werehunter who's name I don't even know and only met once. For a sweet little old shopkeeper in the citadel. For everyone I've met and worked alongside and come to care about even a little, who will be caught in this thing that we can all feel is building and building like one fucker of a storm.

For a while, that fear controlled me, made me not do things I might have done, made me second guess myself. No more.

Fear is a tool to be used, sharpened until it becomes anger which is refined to become purpose.

I'm afraid, but I am no coward. I can't stand cowards, and I was looking at a city full of them save perhaps Jules and Jhonna.

We ignored Sonya pretty much entirely and marched ourselves right up to Jhonna inside the city, anyway. Jules was there, too, helping her- she looked....pretty rough....and Sonya, as well. Who was 'helping' but more mostly shaking us like a terrier with a rat using her glare alone.We pulled Jules to the side- the shaking had turned into ripping us into tiny shreds- but the moment we started to talk Jhonna just keeled right on over. We had about two minutes for on fuck we've killed her before a wind started up in the room and did it's best to upset just about everything. Jules took off over to Jhonna's side, while we stood i nthe corner feeling useless.

When it became apperantly that Jhonna was still kicking- if weakly- and everything had settled down, Sonya was sent out of the room to get something for her mother. I don't even remember what, now, seems unimportant. When she returned, we dragged Jules away again to finish our conversation in hushed tones- as much as we dared say and some we probably shouldn't have. We wanted him to know everything we did, or as much as possible.

Funny, how the ones person I really trust on this island outside of Ann and Meyone (yes, okay, I trust Meyone) is the one man I know is hiding the most from us. How fucked up is that?

Speaking of being the only person I really feel we can trust, apperantly my opinion was shared, because we assumed we'd be safest sleeping pretty much in his backyard for the night.

We will learn to stop assuming things, some day.

2008-10-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

And so we're in Aveendale. We're standing there, staring in amazment as our rides suddanly turn into creatures very, very much like the Beast people we know and love. Ann is about to faint dead away in sheer awe beside me as one of them adressed us, telling us it- he- knew why we'd come and that we had friends here, before they all let themselves back into their stalls and were horses again.

Then we had Company.

And we scattered like spooked barn cats.

We ducked into every shadow and avalible shadow, and then the old man entered and talked soothingly and knowingly to one of the horses, then calmly but firmly demanded we come out.

And some part of me trusted him.

So I stepped out quietly, hand resting on my dagger. He regarded me quietly a moment, then grunted.

“You alone?” He asked, or some variation on it, and to Ann's disgust I said 'no' after a long pause.
And he called around a bit more until Meyone and Ann stepped out. He greeted Meyone as a son of Jaradul, and and then lead us out into the night. He took us to an old shed and ushered us in, and for a moment or so it seemed like this was simply to be a place for us to spend the night.

Then I found something.

At this point, I had gotten pretty skittish of acting on my own- as I kept fucking shit up, after all- but I was pretty interested in the soft, perfectly round patch of wall I'd just found. And after Ann made sure it wasn't trapped, and I had given her time to investigate, I could wait no longer.

I poked it gently.

I poke things, it's what I do. Give me a fucking break.

I poked it and I broke it. I also break things.

Sand started pouring down like an hourglass, and Ann clamped her hands to her mouth, her expression nothing short of accusation.

Excuse-fucking-me, Miss I- Think-I'll-Slice-My-Hand-Open-With-The-Death-Knife/Run-Off-The-Path-Into-An-Ocean-Of-Goblins/Make-A-Deal-With-The-Giant-Talking-Arachnid-Person/Bring-Home-A-Goblin-That-Does-Not-Act-Like-Other-Goblins-With-Budding-Emotional-Ranges/I-Could-Go-On.

And all, of course, without saying a word to anyone. I have the right to do things my gut tells me to do, too, and this was far less rash then it appered to be. Well, as the sand fell away, what seemed to be a rock goblin of sorts that stood easily taller then this room and had to stoop over was revealed.

Frankly, what was going through my mind at this moment?

Not what you might expect. It was more along the lines of:

This is the most fucking incredible thing this is so awsome oh fuck oh fuck it's going to eat us I'll die happily oh fuck oh fuck pretty.

Because I really didn't have a lot of conviction that this was a dangerouse thing, this thing. And as it moved, we all became very aware of a distant, gentle brushing sensation, as if something was touching us, wrapping gently around us, we could not see. And it smelled like flowers. Like outdoors.

Anything that pretty, smelling like that, could not be bad. Right?

The thing opened wider, and wider, and eventually I heard a voice sigh in my head, like the sound a man makes when a great weight gets hauled off his shoulders. Pure relife. I recognized it, and it make me more curiouse then upset, as it didn't seem to be maliciouse in any way. If it was my shiney rock, and it had decided to start chattin' it up with me, I was comfortable with that. So long as it didn't play head games.

Amazing, what I was comfortable with.

So we stand there, me bouncing on the walls of my feet in curiouse excitment, Ann wary and watchful, and Meyon just downright hissing and spitting. A light began to glow, and the touch and smell grew stronger, and then suddanly we were looking at a beardless dwarf. Oh, don't laugh at me, that's what it looked like. I've not got much experiance with dwarves, but I've seen a few, and that's what he looked like, mostly.

And then I heard something along side of It's alright, it's safe, and that was that for me. So I stepped forward like a moth to flame-

-and Meyone's arm snapped out, rigid and halting. I had to smirk. He might not like me, but his do-good, knight-in-shining-armor brain just wouldn't let me wander into danger. I wondered distantly why he cared if I got hurt.

Why I cared if he did.

Strange realtionship we have, us two. Combine it with his loyalty to Ann and her strange tension-that I swear and will never stop swearing is pure attraction (ew)- it makes for an interesting dynamic within our little group.

I can't help but wonder what happens if and when we leave Fera; if and when we go home.

Home.

It's amazing how far away from it I feel right now, and how much I want to go back. Yes, okay, all this is my fault and it was my idea to begin with, and I mean to see it through to the end if I can, but that doesn't mean that I have never in my life wanted to see Befrengaurd Keep and the people in it I've grown fond of, or Shoulwater and it's keep so badly in my life. I want to make sure Talron is alright, that he knows we're alright. I want to meet my father, and see that sweet old shop keep again. I want to see King, and Ivy. I want to check on Simon, and be in the citadel I'm familer with and used to.

I am, when it comes right down to it, fucking homesick. Isn't that pathetic on way too many levels to count?

Off topic. Getting back to the point.

Meyone was gaurding Ann protecitvly and keeping me at bay, but the small man standing in the light reached out and gently touched our minds, a strange, pinging sensation, telling us to come with him and assuring us that it was fine. Without the words coming out of his mouth.

I thought Meyone's hackles could go up no higher. As for myself, I simply ducked under his broad arm, for I am short and can do that, and made my way up to this new person.

Ann and Meyone followed my lead. Abruptly, it seemed, I was sort of in charge. Which is new, because usually that's Ann. But they toddled along after me, and once that big creature had settled back in place and the door closed once more, the man brushed gently along our minds again, his mellow voice calm. He greeted each of us in turn, knowing Ann for an elf- in fact, he called her quite elegently 'Elf Maiden Anjha'- Meyone for being a man of Jaradule; and I couldn't help but throw up my hands and roll my eyes as he turned to me and said, calmly; "It's good to see you again, Semie."

Does everyone and their fucking cat know who I am?!

He introduced himself as Dagget, and I thought I saw Ann dip her head to hide her smile. Wisely. And then we were off in yet another series of questions, stories, explinations and concerns.

Let's sum this up by saying Dagget knew, oh, I don't know, everything about us and why we'd come. And what he didn't know, he got by gently feeling in our minds for it, a sensation hard to grow used to but not unpleasent. He explained that this was the only way he could speak with us, through this mental conversation. It was a mostly one sided discussion, and we found out more through him then anyone else.

He told us that 'the council' was finding a way for us to get in and out of Aveendale where our prize was being kept, but they hadn't come up with anything solid yet, nor a way for us to get back again. He told us he knew who we were looking for, too- Daniel- and why, and he also happened to know who had sent us here.

He also told me that his council just happened to be the ones who erased my memory.

Yeah, this people, in an underworld society beneath the city where the ones that erased my memory. Apperantly, Damien and I had been here before, too, been here a few times before. And I'd been here with my father.

This strange man knew my father, fairly well; and apperantly at least knew of Ann's, as well, though that didn't surprise me considering who her father is.

He also explained to us that the reason why my little rock might suddanly be chatty was because of the psy crisps around the area, giving it a little extra kick in the ass. We also found out a bit more about Danel- IE, he'd been trained by an 'entitity' and had been missing for a really, really fucking long time. He'd been the most powerful kind of person like him around, and if she'd grown up, if she'd been given the chance, that lttle dead girl in Fera could have rivaled him.

She had so much potential, cut short because of scared inane bitches in a tiny, scared town.

We also found out the beast with her was called a Nightmare, and they hunted people with inporperly or nuntrained use in the sort of abilities Cataline had, and her daughter. They'd been created and warped and were now evil, ugly beasts that should not, logically, befriend the people they were sent to hunt. It was a good thing, though, if this one had, because it prooved the hold that person who'd created them- which just happened to turn out to have quiet alot to do with the vampire monster those childern and we'd been fighting- was weakening, loosening.

By the time we got to the main area we were supposed to be, the main 'city', we'd gotten so much information denied, verified, contradicted or argued over that I almost couldn't take in the amazing sight in front of me.It was no Naubudel, but then, I'm a bit biased- but it was beautiful. Magnificent and grand and huge and elegent, I had trouble ever equating myself with a place like this.

But there is was, plan as the little hairless drawf under my face.

We made our way in, and were brought straight away to the council. I don't mind telling you I was plenty fucking afraid, here- I mean, this was the same council that had done- whatever they'd done- to me. But if they knew me they didn't show it, didn't even hesitate before they were 'pinging' us- all at the same time, a mix of thoughts and touches so loud and intrusive for a moment I thought I was going to scream.

And then it stopped.

The council's speech became more deliberate, more- communiable, as they actually spoke with and not a us. Now I could notice what they looked like- and some of them looked pretty fucking freaky, let me tell you. Huge, oversized heads that probably held huge, oversized brains, and way, way too many arms.

In the end, they decided they were going to send us into a place that was esentally a 'mirror world' of our own, a kind of another version of 'limbo', deeper even the our oh-so-lovely boneyard, to get Talia out. Because it was the safest way.

Seems that vampire-monster creature those kids and we were fighting was more then just a random whack job out for as much mayhem as he could cause. Oh, he was much more then that, and if he sensed us coming after Talia- well. It would be game over. This man hated those with power and he ahted wizards, and he wanted both sides dead.

So this was the only way to get in and back out without the man sensing us doing it. Dispite our reservations and fears, we agreed. What choice did we have?

Don't be heros, keep your heads down.

Since fucking when do we do any of that?

So we rested for the day. Meyone was dead-set agianst any of this and just about on the point of bursting something valuble, and I doubted there was anything anyone could say to calm him down. So we just waited.

That soft touch we'd felt before returned, and now it did things like make breakfast and help us with our armor. It was accompained by a soft, gentle voice and that scent, and it was always, always, totally invisible.

But it was sweet and dotting, and reminded me, strangly, of what a mother or a sister might be like. It made me smile, and few enough things do that anymore.

Meyone, of course,was just about frightened of her. Big baby.

The next day it was time for us to be off, and no one waisted anytime. We were given last minute advice, then the process began. Meyone clutched both of us like a child clutches a beloved toy and we clung to him in turn, none of us even a little ashamed of our close-pressed group huddle.

It didn't do any good anyway. About half-way through we were aware of voices rising in argument and fear as Something Started To Go Wrong.

Of course it did.

Of course it did.

Because nothing can ever be fucking easy. Ever!

As we're rotating, dizzily and sickeningly through blackness, suddanly Meyone was ripped away from us, violently flung one way while we were torn the other.

We landed safely- um, relitive term- on the other side. Neither of us knew what had become of Meyone. But when Ann took a step, the ground under her feet sent out one massive ripple, like a stone tossed and skipped across a pond.

Somehow I had the feeling that was a Bad Thing.

I didn't get much chance to muse on it, becuase before we could decied what to do next, we were plucked from the ground by a massive wind like two wayward leaves and dragged.

And then we were standing in an impressive entryway, staring at a man who we both knew instantly even though we'd never seen him before.

This man, who had plucked us so neatly from that other side and dragged us back here, right to his feet was the Lord.

We had options, here. It was either, we are so fucked, or wow, okay, so this is good.

Either way, the man had brought us here to protect us from our vampire friend, who he said he didn't belive was as banned from that other side as the council had thought he was. We found out morea about him, too; fond out that he was a weapon being used but a weapon that could also backfire at any moment. This man also said that he'd exected three of us; we expalined what happened to Meyone, and he could offer us nothing to make us feel any better. He could, though, give us what we were looking for.

He brought us straight to Talia. It was that fucking easy.

She stood before us, elven, blind, ever youthful and beautiful, with the longest hair I'd ever seen and pale skin, and a calm, gentle face. She rose when we entered, instantly sensing the pressance of strangers; Ann and I were trapped like foxes, unsure what to say or how to say it. Finally I croaked out a greeting- I think I simple said her name- and she turned to me, her blind eyes unnervingly on their mark. I told her we'd met before, and she knew me as the captian- or the one who'd been her captian for a while. I had to smile a little. Yes, here I was, in the flesh. And she turned to Ann then, knowing her as one of my- um, ghosts. Spirits, whatever.

We told her as much as we could remember, everything, from start to finish. She listened quietly, not looking overwhelemd or confused at all, which amazed the fuck out of me. I guess after as long as she's been alive, it's hard to confuse her.

So what's Ann's excuse?

That's another joke, people.

Anyway, her end answer was so simple, so obviouse, that it couldn't be al lthere was to things.

She suggested seperating the horse, the Nightmare, and little girl. Seperate them, she said, and maybe the spirit could rest in peice.

I highly doubt it'll be that easy, but it's the most we have to go on. And even after we left, it was still the most we had to go on. Talia could give us nothing else and it was the best idea we had to date, actually.

The Lord took us out to send us home, but he'd made a request of us before taking us to see Talia- that if and when we found Danel, that he should try and return the Lord to 'normal'- make him just your average, living, breathing person again. Because apperantly Danel could do that. He could have done that for the little girl, too, and I'll make a note for myself just in case not to forget to find out what was done with all her things, and maybe where her old house was.

There might be no point in my knowing, but I'd like to, all the same.

We told the man we'd pass on his message, and then he sent us back into the city under Aveendale- where, as I told her her probably would be, Meyone was waiting for us.

He was- differant- a little too differant. Too suddan;ly relaxed and at ease with the situation around us.

I put my hackles up and watched Ann do the same. He offered us an expliantion but it just didn't fly. But there was nothing to be done for it, so we rested one more day waiting for nightfall so we could leave Aveendale again.

While we rested and waited, we we enterained some more by our helpful little invisible lady, asked around about the clockwork mechinations that we saw everywhere here so like the ones we'd seen before, and found out that there people didn't use what the people i nthe citadel did- they used 'copies' of the real thing, which didn't last as long but were easier to control and wasn't, may I add, as sadistic as pretty much trapping a living beasts's essence into a clockwork body.

I also asked around timidly about Damien, but not as vivaciously as I may have in the past. I told you already where my head is on that one; I have my chain of events happening in the citadel in an attempt to get my answers, and what was I going to find out here that wasn't only going to frustrate and confuse me more? I did try and remember, to see if I did remember anything, and there were times, and places, that, sure as fuck, I could remember sitting with Damien, laughing with him, walking and talking, being with him and enjoying it.

I crammed it all in the back of my skull viciously and refused to think about it for the rest of the day.

I made my choice, damn it.

I did.

We were finally taken back out into Aveendale, pleased to see the world as it should be and wasn't on that mirror sidfe, and made our creeping, sneaky way back to the stables. The gaurdians in there agreed to give us a ride back home- again, we noticed the odd changes in Meyone, how he was no longer timid of these rides- and once again, it seemed like all was well.

Then?

The gnat showed up again. And he brought friends.

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

2008-10-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

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.

Vampires, drakes, and infidels, oh my.

2008-09-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

The first thing I remember upon waking- or, kind of waking- is being able to see when I shouldn't. I was in a box, and it should have been pitch, but I could see, if not well, and there was a voice. It kept telling me to wait, and, not yet, and frankly, I was getting impaitent with laying there.

Then suddanly there was pain and I couldn't see anymore, and the lid was being tugged off my box after I pounded to let anyone outside my box know I was awake and pissed off and wanted out, even if whoever was out there wasn't someone I should let know I was awake. In fact, the person who yanked up my lid turned out to be a very small child who also just happened to be a vampire.

I was, absurdly, not shocked, though I pulled my dagger on her. She pointed and told me that was who I should be fighting.

That turned out to be what looked like another vampire creature made of some kind of brain-matter.

And for one moment I was terrified. I've gotten used to Big 'N Scary things wanting to eat us by this point, and in comparison, this thing, that seemed to be ignoring Ann and I- for I could see Ann, sitting up in a box near mine- for the most part, was about a nine and a half on the Freaky As Hell Count, but not anything that was worse then, oh, I don't know, say for example a giant, half-rotten vampire in the land of the dead, 'gaurded' by other, smaller vampires that looked like that wanted to rape you or eat you or both. Or neither, which is even more freaky.

Frankly, Primov's 'brothers' give me more chills then Primov himself.

No, this thing, as far as I can remember, shouldn't have been anywhere near as mind-blowingly frightening as that ordeal, but I was about twice as frightened as I had been then. And in that moment, the thought I had now makes my stomach tie itself into itty-bitty knots of nausia.

I thought about Damon, and I don't mean wistfully or angrily. I mean, as if I'd not forgotten him. I thought that I had to get out of this and get back to him, because he would have fought like hell to get back to me.

I am just going to sit down and cry. Son of a bitch.

No. Absolutly not. I've made my choice, I've made up my mind, and my subconciouse is not allowed to start confusing me again!

I like that curse, 'son of a bitch'. One can manipulate it to fit any situation, depending on how you speak it.

I have the vaugly disturbing feeling I'll have cause to use it alot in the very near future.

Anyway, up I got my little ol' self and in I charged, Damon or not, fear or not. And when we had the thing, just when we had him- the vampire child apperantly in charge stopped us from killing it. Him. Whatever. It seemed to be a strange matter of honor, of a sorts. I'm sorry, honor is all well and good, but I'm not used to letting something scary and mean walk away.

Not willingly.

But that is what these kids wanted, so we let him go. And the minute he went, so did all thoughts of my husband. The kids took us through the sewers to get us out of the city- and I tell you what, we had a near miss with that little beauty, with all of us playing tug of war with Meyone against this gaint-black tentical THING that grabbed him for a second time and tried to drag him away. We got him back, though, and as we recovered, questioned the kids. We found out that Aveendale had been like this for a long, long time- a city of mindless drones walking around, with very little people who were capible of thinking for themselves but could do nothing about it, terrorized by this black thing that had attacked us- and that was just one of many.

These attack had been the whim of their sire, it turned out, or they were pretty certian, at any rate; and the kid said he'd let the- thing- man- go because it was 'right'. He seemed pretty intense about doing things because they were right.

We said our good-byes, and they slipped back into the city; I found my anger at Meyone for nearly killing himself had spluttered and died out in the time we'd taken to talk to the kids, and the verbal slap I wanted to offer had turned to putty in my mouth. Ah, well, it's Ann's place to repremiand her big, strong body gaurd, anyway.

Oh, that could be taken an entirely naughty direction, if I'd picked a differant way of phrasing it. Allow me to giggle privatly for a moment.

I'm better.

Oh, what? She's allowed to tease me mercilessly and I'm not allowed to return the favor? After the number of poteinally embarressing situations I have suffered through thanks to a certian elf, I am going to milk this for all it is damn well worth.

Anyway, we crept up in the direction those kids had told us to move, and found yet more brainwashed people and gaurds blocking our way out. Meyone thought to bully-boy our way through; Ann and I thought a distraction might be in order. But for now, we went back down to the feild we'd popped out on and slept.

The cows woke us.

The oh. Well, we're just in a lovely bundle of shit now. thought brought me, at least, fully awake.

In the end, it turned out we could use the cows. Ann had the idea to start a stampede, and Meyone and I both took to it instantly.

Sadly, we all got seen.

Strangly, those who had seen us let us go.

We took advantage of our temporary good luck- with us, good things don't last too long- and ran for the hills. We didn't stop until we came upon a small refugee camp of others who had fled from Aveendale, or stopped people from entering. The man there knew very little of Fera or anything we needed to know, really, and was in the long run less useful then more information-wise, but he told us his grandfather was a 'dreamer' as well, and had spoken of this 'stone eye'.

We stayed with these people for the night, and told them- or rather, this man- our ideas and theries regarding the stone eye and Jhonna. I just hope we didn't give them false hope.

None of us know, really, what's going to happen, even if we do figure all this out. And while we're starting to be able to see the picture, it's missing some pretty big chunks and up for interpritation.

We left the next day, pretty damn content with ourselves. We'd gotten out of that mess alive and we, hopefully, had some information for Jhonna. We were nearly to Fera, and with any luck, we'd be gone in a matter of days.

I'm more curiouse then ever to find out more about my little pretty rock after everything that's happened. And yes, I did say 'my'. It wound up in my pack, and while I'm sure that's just how things happened, there's no real reason for it, I'm still a touch possessive of it after carrying it around all this time. My responsibility, just like us winding up on this lovely little dream spot in the first place.

But like I said, good things? Good luck? They don't stuck with us too long. And when we nearly got home free, a dark shadow passed over head- one, I belive Ann said, she'd seen before- and a drake and it's rider swooped down and asked us to play.

And it would have been so rude of us to say no.

2008-09-06T17:13:00.004-07:00

So. We get a new arrival, yelling at me in a squeaky voice to 'find the stone eye, the dream is short', and Ann walks through a closed door. Down below, in a previously abanded courtyard and the surrounding, equally abandoned area, is an assload of humanity, and a ship. A very big ship, in fact.

So, down we toddle to explore. Meyone and Ann, it seems, were invisible, but I was fully visible to everyone we met, and exchanged polite nods and such with a few of them. The people actually became visible almost in increments, as if slowly coming into reality from somewhere else, far away. We finnally reached the peir and the ship, and, to my surprise, the man on the peir barking orders not only turned around to face me, he removed his hat and politly bowed. And then he called me 'captian'.

I damn near swallowed my tongue.

After a minute I collected myself and ran with it. At least I was 'captian', that was good, right?

Ann and Meyone, dispit being invisible, prooved to still be very helpful, and I was beyond glad I had at least Ann with me. We saw that the ship in the water was listing badly, taking on water apperantly, and I, subtly as possible, asked what had happened. Asked to recap what happened, as Ann pointed out, becuase then perhaps we could get a better idea of where we did so poorly to almost loose the ship.

Turned out we'd really done nothing. We'd picked up what we needed to from an island a few days away, and when we got nearly to Moonpoint we were attacked by something that damn near ripped the side of the ship off. We had made it to Moonpoint none the less, and the ship should be repaired in a day or so. There wasn't much else this man could tell me, so I told him to give me any news if he found out anymore about what had attacked us, or if anything odd was found on the outside of the ship.

As it turns out, I never got the chance to find out. We headed to the 'first floor', or at least to try and find it, but as we walked time seemed to shift, and suddanly we knew we'd just lost preciouse hours. And suddanly there was an obviouse brawl, and some man in uniform was glaring at me with Intent to Kill, or , if that failed, Seriousely Maim.

Now, once again, I'm very much getting used to people staring at me in just such a manner. I still wanted to duck behind Ann and hide for the first time in a while. When I demanded to know what was happened, he demanded I called him sir. I didn't push my luck.

Turned out the men had been like this, irritable and brawling, just about since we got here. I broke up the fight and demanded to know what had happened. My own men told me the same thing, and then a few remained, after the dust settled. They told me that they thought the 'girl' was the cause for this, that they thought she was the reason tempers had been flaring and they weren't alone in thinking it. I assured them that it would be taken care of, and asked them to just be paitent.

Then we started looking for my room again. We were headed that direction when Meyone heard the music, and moved to a door, opening it without hesitation.

Music, drinking, way, way too many people, and in the middle of it all, a dog. A dog that we had seen just moments before at the back door of this place, standing beside an old man.

Or at least, it looked similar. I got a drink at Ann's urdging and wandered over to the dog, knealing to pet. Through some embaressing circumstances, I found out the dog was mine, but the person holding the leash didn't say a word. Not even when I began to half-way force him from the room.

Or rather, her, as Ann told me abruptly from my left. It took me what felt like years to coax, drag, coherce, lead and beat that wo/man into the hall again, and then, suddanly, s/he/it was in the lead, curtasy of my dog.

Er, the captian's dog.

The dog dragged the poor wo/man down the hall, and I followed after, pleased that at least the dog seemed to know where to go. Because I sure as hell didn't. Too bad I didn't get memories to go with this body, hu?

I'm a little tired of not knowing what the hell is going on with me. Um, sort of.

We came out, after a momentary issue with finding the door from the inside, right where Meyone, Ann and I had pulled up in that little boat. In fact, there was said boat.

Much creepy.

Well, it took my dumbass self long enough to realize that the reason I couldn't get any answers out of this person was because she couldn't understand me. Apperantly, she spoke elvish, which meant I got to play Ann's mouthpeice. And we told her- pretty much- the perfectly honest truth. That I wasn't the captian, I was a 'spirit', just- borrowing his body. That my constant muttering to 'myself'- and I had been- was really to other 'spirits'.

She was remarkably okay with this.

She told us what she could, which was pretty much what we already knew; except for that she was there to make sure the girl we'd picked up and brought on board, name of Catalina, got to a place called Aveendale. Catalina, she said, was a Dreamer. Yes, there was a capital 'D' when she said it. You could hear it in her voice. She said that Catalina didn't know how to control her dreaming, and that she was going there to learn.

And then we realized that making sure Catalina got too Aveendale meant keeping an eye on Catalina, and what had I just done? Dragged her away from her post.

Oops.

So we sent her back to the room we'd gotten her from to find Catalina. Meyone went after her, and Ann and I finally located my room, by getting over my ego and asking.

Inside, the first thing to catch my eye was a huge painting of my dog. Erm, his dog- whatever. An nwent over to inspect it as I wandered over to his drawers, at Ann's suggestion finding the key to them on my hip by looking in a mirror. I unlocked them and found a log and a book- titled the Ghost Hound of Mon Pion. Or, Moon Point, if you're spelling 'Point' in the weird, backwards way some that's actually not weird or backwards at all for this place; 'Point' is even spelled backwards on the building itself. Piont.

I barely had time to page through the log or the book. We were alerted, a second time, to unpleasentries up top. We rushed up to find the world's biggest brawl had set to, everyone, everyone trying to kill one another. Now, normally, I'm not nessicarily against this kind of situation, but all things considered, this was not a good thing. And there was no way of breaking it up. We tried, wadding in among the chaos, but in the end only wound up nearly getting dragged into it ourselves. I encountered the man who had scolded me the first time, who knew I had a girl on this ship, and he went off on me. My crew was to be locked up, he said. As for my 'cargo', well, his men would be happy to escort me- or perhaps he would just get her where she needed to go.

I don't take well to being threatened, or blackmailed, and this jackass had done both in the span of twenty-four hours. I bristled, and only Ann stopped me from responding with my hackles up. I bit down hard on my tounge and made myself walk away.

In the middle of all this, ann went to find Meyone and our woman. As I was trying to work my way through the people, I was approched by the same group of men who had confronted me over Catalina earlier. They asked me if ibelived them about her causing this agression in the men now, and that if I didn't do something to stop it, they would handle her themselves. I tried to talk them down, but I doubted they gave my words more then a passing thought.

It was moments later that Ann and I found Meyone, who frantically waved us over to a room. And inside, we found the man named Pheldon, who Catalina had apperantly been developing an intrest in, Catalina, and the woman with my/the captian's dog. Catalina and Pheldon had clearly been- um, busy, and now Catalina was changing cloths with the elvish woman.

It didn't take much to figure out what was happening here. They were changing places; Pheldon planned on getting Catalina out of here. They were shy and embaressed when I first stepped in, a little defensive and scared, but I soothed them with some help from Ann and they were more then willing to come with me when I told them they couldn't be seen. I told them I could get them off Moon Point safely, and almost begged them not to go to Fera but straight on to Aveendale, even though, as Ann pointed out, I knew I couldn't change the past. This was just mine to experiance, not to interact with.

So, the woman who was meant to watch Catalina told us she would make sure we got away safly- that is, dressed as Catalina, or rather as a woman.

Ann told me to tell her something in elvish, that I later found out was a send-off; she'd pretty much told the woman 'have fun in the afterlife'. Much more eloquently, of course.

And Ann followed her. Meyone and I lead the boy and his love- love?- to the little back door. I got them on the little boat, and as we sent them off, Catalina turned to me. She told me she didn't think it was true what they said- and they, apperantly, said that I was the ghost hound of Mon Pion. Or maybe she meant the dog.

Either way, apperantly she changed her mind when she looked back, because she gasped and paled, and the stone- our amulet, the same one Jhonna wore- glowed.

Meyone turned to me and paled, too, and it took me two prodding tries to get him to tell me what spooked him out so badly. For all intents and puposes, I was what we'd seen pulling up here in our little boat; the man and his dog. And above me, the sign didn't read 'Moon Piont.' It read 'Mon Pion'. Simply the way it looked, due to positioning and light, but still, eery.

And then my little pixie, who'd been with us, fretting, this whole time, went 'pop!' With a final squeak of- what else- the 'stone eye'.

And then the commotion started, and Meyone and I were running.

We came upon a slaughter; a giant black creature had risen up from the sea and was attacking everything and everyone. Meyone rushed in to help and I ran after him, but we didn't stand much of a chance; we were crushed in minutes.

The last thing I remember of that was falling victem to one of those huge tendrils, and then-

-I woke up, and realized I was laying on a rock.

Well owie.

Ann was next to me, spluttering, and Meyone was above us, on the peir. Moon Point was water-less and a broken down ruin once more.

Ann told us she'd seen that woman watching Catalina dragged towards Aveendale by way of the river, and we stood around debating what to do for a few minutes before going back inside.We decided to retreive the book and log that Ann and I had found inside.

We got there - the painting, now, with the silver on it's eyes, claws and teeth, covered in cobweb and such, looked even more like the ghost hound then it had before- and got the books without difficulty, wraping them up gingerly- they were, after all, now very old- and as we turned to leave, we heard a voice demand why, exactly, we were in his room.

We turned to see the old man and the dog that was, undeniably, our hound. We tried to talk him down, tried to prevent a fight, but he attacked. There was a moment of oh fucking shit, we can't defeat- oh, wait, this isn't going as badly as we thought.

Becuase suddanly we were doing- well, alright. At first, we were outgunned. The dog seemed almost not to feel attacks on it, and damn if it didn't pack one hell of a punch, but I pulled the man into the room, away from the door, and suddanly Meyone had tripped him like it was nothing. I took the opening and drove my dagger home. It was almost enough, but in the end, the man and his dog- named Nexus, after the ship, it seemed- ran away.

They ran away from us. I felt much better about our chances of survival. We left the room and I wish, wish we had just left with the books and counted ourselves lucky, but we decided to play heros- isn't that what Ivy told us not to do?- and ended up stummbling upon the body of a little girl. She was in the tower we'd come from, hanging above that brazier, cooked. Like a peice of meat.

Silence fell, and then I felt Meyone's gaze on me. I was already flinching, knowing exactly what was to come. Sure as hell, when he spoke, he was about a half-step away from full out yelling as he demanded that now did I know what happened when you ignored childern laughing in the night?

I didn't answer- I couldn't. I was too busy not trying to make an idiot out of myself by crying or vomiting.

It's one thing to accept that death is your fault. It's another to see a child hanging like that night's supper and think that you could have stopped it.

More silence, and suddanly he was appologizing. He said there was no way this little girl could have come from Fera. Besides, no childern were reported missing.

That didn't help, somehow. It was my turn to appologize, and I did. I also told him he was right. And he was right. I've already admitted that here. I have my reasons for doing what I did, but I never said they were good reasons.

I've not done one fucking thing right since we set foot on this fucking island, and I am getting really fucking sick of looking like a fucking idiot.

We stood around way too long talking about what we should do with the child's body, after Ann inspected her for identifying marks. We got her out of the room, but the moment we did, she just- evaporated.

Meyone, all the while, kept exploding at us, and suddanly just- snapped. He went into a rage, attacking the brazier, along with a hidden side door we'd found but could not open. We realized then he wasn't- entirely himself.

Ann found a tiny little necklace that must have belonged to the girl on the end of Meyone's weapon after his manic attack, and we headed down into the cells below us to see if anymore childern- or bodies- could be found. There were none, but Ann became alerted to a warmth in the floors and walls, and the sound of a heartbeat at the same places. And Meyone found a rattle, a child's toy of sorts. We headed back up, and Meyone lost it once more, determined to get back to Fera now without waiting for morning, dispit the fact that water had started around Moon Point once more.

Freaked out by the ghosts behind us and Meyone's explosive attitude, I agreed we should take out chances.

'Member I said I kept fucking shit up?

Yeah. People need to stop listening to me. Or at least giving in when I whine loudly enough. Seriously, just hit me over the head and shut me up.

Meyone took one step into that water and the black monster from before reached up and slurped him down. Ann and I tried, frantically and in vain, to get him back. The water retreated, some, and we stupidly ran closer, even into it. Ann was snatched away from me next, and then my own feet were yanked out from under me.

The last thing I remember, after being towed for what felt like hours, was looking up to see Ann being wrestled to the earth. Then I was pulled from the water and felt something wrong attach to my skull.

There's not a whole lot I remember after that.

Trees-evil, evvvvvvil treeeeeees.

2008-08-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

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.

Stories of the irrational but true nevertheless.

2008-07-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I was half right.

Our journey passed uneventfully the first day; we didn't waste time or breathe on speech, just ran forward. Normally, I feel like myself and Ann are something of wolves among the sheep in normal company; now I felt like the sheep itself, running from slaughter. And honestly, we would have been fucked if not for the oddities that started occuring....revolving mostly around Ann. Now, most everything weird I've experianced with this lot has had Ann smack bang at the center. Maybe because she's an elf, maybe because she's just lucky, maybe it's just a fluke, maybe she's special some other way....I don't know. But even with Illoria and Lim around, the oddest things still occured primarily around her.

So when night fell, and suddanly goblins sprang from the ground in the hoardes they traveled in behind and in front of us, but Ann found safty only steps away in the form of a santucary that was not supposed to be there, I wasn't surprised. We charged through the goblins and only she was badly hurt- Meyone and I were unharmed, pretty much- and put the circle between us and them. They killed each other trying to get at us, but they couldn't get past the stone ring to us.

Ann claimed a horse had been standing where the stones now were, but neither Meyone nor myself saw any horse.

We stayed the night there without incident, and headed out again the next day.

And this, friends, is when shit starts to go wrong.

It started with us being stalked by what our lovley, chattey tour guide called a land worm. More like a snake-like animal that moved in heartbeats and was big enough to swallow me-

-y' know what, I don't think I like that turn of phrase anymore. Considering, you know, that it did. Swallow me whole, that is.

I am getting really tired of being eaten by things.

See, Meyone told us that if this worm came into site and headed our way try and intimidate it.

Ann did not intimidate. She pissed.

She's damn well good at that.

She shot the thing and sure as fuck, dispite Meyone's attempts to make it change it's mind, it charged at us. And nearly as soon as the fight started, it reared down and just- lapped me up.

....it is really unpleasent to be in something's stomach. And it takes a painfully long time to hack your way out. Luckily, most of my important items survived, but just about everything non-magical I possessed got....dissolved.

I think this is the point where I first fell into the really bad mood.

About the time I hopped out of the other side of this thing's belly, Meyone started to get....wobbly. Seriousely not looking too good, folks. Ann was back well clear, and didn't seem injured- or not badly, anyway- and I prayed she'd get him clear or get a potion in him while I kept this thing's attention.

She did- almost too late, but she did- and we came inches away from putting the thing down- inches- but it wasn't stupid. It didn't want to die. And even though I tried to finish it off as it fled, flee it did. Ann fired off a shot and, thanks to 'hawkeyes' she'd purchased from my shop- keeper friend, she managed to hit it. But it got away, anyway, and she didn't get a chance to make another shot, even if she could've hit.

We worked with potions, the wand, and good old fashioned banadages and herbs to clean ourselves up, and continued on.

Nightime again, dispite our mad, almost desperate dash for safty we could damn well see in front of us. It honestly seemed as though nighttime wanted to catch us; wanted us to be trapped.

We ran. We ran until we were helping each other, urging each other, until we didn't, honestly, think we could.

And then Ann informed us she was leaving the road.

And then she did.

We didn't have much choice- we couldn't just let her sprint off by herself- and we followed her.

They followed us, goblins inches from our heels, on the sides of us, swarming like insects, sensing free game now that we were off the road.

Until we followed Ann over a bridge that crossed a line of salt, and, like before, they couldn't follow us.

One tried, and it became Crispy. Yes, that's with a capital 'c'. It burst into a little ball of wriggling flame and then poofed away in the air, ashes.

Yummy.

The others took the hint.

So, we were safe-ish-for now. Turned out we'd managed to find Fera, too- this, it seemed, was the place, according to the sign on the bridge.

We found a stream that Meyone refused to dirty by cleaning up in, so Ann scooped water from it and started to clean him up. I had no such qualms, and washed myself a bit in the stream. Ann muttered at me about Meyone's point of not wanting to dirty this water, not knowing who it belonged to, and he gave me a Look (another capital).

This is where my bad mood got worse.

I try not to let my temper get the better of me with the exception of a few people and a few situations. And I do have a temper. But this wasn't the place to go off, so I smirked and good-naturedly blew it off. We spent a peaceful night.

Sort of.

On my watch of our little camp- I had last watch, in fact- I heard what sounded like the faint noise of childern laughing. It sounded like it could be my imagination working doubletime. I noted it and let it go; catalouged it in one of the dusty tombs of my mind for further inspection at a later date. I like taking watches; dispite the danger. So my mood had improved somewhat by morning, when I got Meyone up. I'd had a creepy but seemingly calm enough evening with just my own self and my thoughts, which is nice, sometimes.

My mood instantly plunged downward again the moment Meyone was awake. Apperantly I'd not gotten him up in time for his royal-bloody-highness, and I got my ears damn well boxed for it, verbally.

Well, boys and girls, there's the last time I ever try to do anything nice for this arrogent twit. He was hurt and we were all tired, and in a santaury that was close to, if not was, our goal area. We were as safe as we were ever going to be, at least as far as I could tell, and needed our strength and energy for when we needed it.

Yeah, apperantly I'm just a lazy fuckwit.

So he woke Ann while I slid right back into my not-so-pleasent mood (isn't it funny, how Meyone is, for the second time, the cause of this mood?) and we picked up and started walking the salt line. Ann wanted to, Meyone did whatever she wanted to (and even in my rapidly blackening mood, I found and find this adorably tease-worthy) and I? Had nothing better to do. I had no plans to leave that place without one or both of them, and I could have walked the other direction, a kind of 'met in the middle' situation, but then if something had happened, I didn't particuarly care for the idea of it happening with me by myself. So we walked the parimiter.

And found nothing, of course. Bridge again, what looked like an abandoned working area. Woods, cut in half by the line, woods with blinking blue lights in the middle circled by it. No people. No sign of civilization. Then we found another, much larger bridge, with an arch over it, and a road leading two directions.

We crossed our protective line and turned around to look at the arch.

Take the word 'Fera', and move the 'r'.

In case you don't get what this spells right off, let me help you out.

Fear. Or, technically, since there was a space where the letter should have been, 'Fe ar'.

Yeah, I know, shut up, Semie.

At her urdging, I hoisted her heavy ass up to inspect the moved letter- nothing behind it- and then held her up longer to put it back.

Why couldn't Meyone do that? I'm not really sure. I guess I was the convient and closest lifter. Plus, we're a bit used to relying on one another, so maybe it was just habit that she asked me.

I grummbled about it, of course, and when I lowered her, she whiped her grimy hand across my front. I know my cursing irritates her, and it was partly that and partly habit that had me spitting a half-amused 'fuck you!' at her.

And then a hand connected with my shoulder. And I got scolded, like a fucking two year old. Like he had any damn right to tell me how I could and couldn't speak. Like he knew me. Like he had any jurisdiction over me. Fucking scolded. Self-righteouse, arrogent man had the balls.

My bad mood clicked into a whole 'nother level of bad-mood-ness. I was embaressed and pissed off, getting swiftly more annoyed with the situation at hand, strung tight as wire, and fucking well tired, hungry, hurting, sore, and irritable.

But I smiled something that felt more like a snarl and said 'my appologies' in a sheepish tone (that felt more like a grumble), flinching and rubbing my arm.

Smile, Semei.

We went back on our safer side, and continued on a ways. Hours later and we made camp again. And during my watch, it happened again- the noises. Childern laughing.

I feel incredibly stupid. I didn't think anything of it- I thought, at the most, it was something trying to lure people into the darkness, looking for the source of the kids. Bad idea to wander through the darkness on a thought that maybe there were brats wandering around in the dark. Why would there be?

I should have mentioned something the night before. I should have at the least awakened my companions the second time I heard it. Of course it was something out there. Of course it's not just my imagination.

But I didn't, did I? No. Instead, I woke Meyone at the barest crack of dawn, none too gently, and he woke Ann.

Then I opened my mouth, and once again, my slightly-recovering mood got shot right back down. Six foot plus of man stood towering over me, scowling.

The son of a bitch was trying to intimidate me. Hah! I hate to break it to you, sweatheart, but once a towering Were looms over you, more then once, or you come face to face with a man with burning white eyes, or a half-spider, half dark elf man appers in your dreams and battles the same man, or you help pull down a (weakened) giant vampire, or, ignoring all of that plus some, fucking Talron yells at you, then it takes more then a six foot tall bald man to scare you.

What? You've never had Talron yell at you. Shut up. It's almost as bad as Ann's father looking all seriouse at you.

Bad mood levels peaking. I felt my blood start to boil as he got in my face and demanded to know why I hadn't said anything. I told him the perfectly honest truth; we were safe here, and I didn't think it was anything.

He told us there were stories of childern being taken from villages, of creatures- a creature?- that lured them out and killed them. It found their innocence appealing.

I felt absoultly ill. But bad things were out there, what were we supposed to do, charge out into the darkness to save childern that may or may not be out there by fighting something we could not see, had no advanatage over, did not know how to fight, and could not win against at night?

I demanded all that right back, and he said yes, we should have. He would have given his life for the childern.

That's. It.

I'm surprised it wasn't out loud, the way my hold on my temper went twang.

It was pretty clear by this point that Meyone's opinion of me was less then exlimpliary, that I paled in all things compared to himself and of course, Ann, who he still followed about like a puppy following orders.

Now, on a side note, I have no problem with that.

I think it's adorable that he seems to be developing an intrest in her, and that she seems obliviouse. She's just as obliviouse to Ivy's attraction to her, or so it seems. I think it's sweet and cute as hell that Ann's picked up a silent gaurdian that she doesn't want to admit her own intrest in....even though I think it's there.

I plan on having quite a bit of fun teasing, hinting, nudging, shoving, and snickering madly under my breath at the pair of them while ignoring the sidelong looks and aggrivated glares.

Back on track, though, it was getting really irritating being on the wrong side of this man just for being who I was, while it was never more clear that in comparison, Ann could do no wrong. I know she's more lady like, and often much better at using her brains then I am. It's not that I don't have them, I just sometimes forget I do.

Even Talron, dispite his....dispite what we.....he treats Ann and I as equal parts of a whole. Meyone, though, acted as though Ann was the person to turn to, and I was just the puppy licking at her heels.

And now, apperantly, I was a dispicable person.

And so, with the last fraying bits of my temper went my good commen sense. Let him think whatever the fuck he wants about me. and so I specificually acted as though I didn't care. I acted like I wouldn't have given a fuck about those kids, anyway, like it didn't make me slightly ill that two of the kids were likely dead right now, and not in a painless way.

I may not always get on well with kids, and I don't always interact well with them, but I like them, and I like to be around them. I just don't know really how to talk to them, that's all. I've not been around too many- er, well, that I can remember. And that I had let two die made me feel like a coward.

No, I still would not have gone charging into the darkness to save them. Yes, I did feel like squished shit about it.

In my temper, I snapped out that I had a bad running record with kids, and Ann, to my surprise, supplied coldly that I had gotten the last child in my care taken, though she did not say by what.

It was true, yes, and worked for what I was trying to do in my temper, but somewhere in the back of my mind, it made me wince.

I hadn't meant to get Min kidnapped. And yes, I had taken a big risk with her life, but I didn't want the girl dead.

And as to his statment that he would risk his life for a child, I said that it was good to know one of us here would.

He stopped seeing me. It's the only way I can describe what happened. He didn't even give me a dirty look.

He told Ann maybe she should take watch, next time.

My anger did not go away enough to let me feel bad.

It did not go away at all, over the next few days. Even when Ann finally found our town- after we saw another bridge and a group of susipiciouse people outside our wall of safty- I did not stop being pissed off.

And when we got into town, the cheerful happiness of the people grated on me, in my already foul temper, wearing away the enamel of my smile for every word. They doted on Ann and I was amused to note that the women seemed completly unintimidated by Meyone, sending him to chop wood in return for food, while Ann was sent to clean up. I was, apperantly, a bit barbaric in my armor (which no, I did not glamour. I was in a bad fucking mood, thank you, and I am a beligerant bitch when I'm allowed to remain in this sort of mood.) their reactions to it only made me that much more irritated, of course.

Yes, I know how little sense I make at times.

And so we started trying to discover the mystery behind these people's nightmare. But there didn't seem to be any nightmare. Everyone was annoyingly happy. They were, apperantly, preparing for some kind of festival, and here it got a bit creepy. From the way they talked, it sounded very much like this festival would be some kind of sacrifice.

Those are never ever good- I don't even have to have experiance to know that. Combined with the cheerful way they discussed it and the celebration before hand, I got a bit of a chill.

Attempts to find out more were nicely diverted. We were only told that this celebration was the passing of the rulership (?) of this town from mother to daughter.

Yeah, because that just clears it up so nicely.

We spent most of our first day working and helping out; Ann and I tried speaking to the kids. It was going fine- even I wasn't floundering too much like a damn fish- until she got up and fucking left me alone with them. I tried to continue our conversation, but got asked if they could see my daggers- they'd already played with Ann's bow. But her bow and my daggers are two differant things. For one, if you don't aim a bow at someone you have a difficult time hurting them with it. Unless you bash them over the head with the bow, and that has to be a bit dilleberate-most of the time. With the daggers- particuarly with magical ones- it's way too easy to hurt yourself or someone else. But I took them out and played with them a bit, showed off.

Then I got asked if I'd ever killed anyone.

And stupid me was honest. Hell, obviously these kids weren't stupid or naive, and they knew about that shit, to some degree. And all kids love stories involving fighting, for one reason or another. I was knew and unusual, and I doubt very much they'd had much oppertunity to speak with people like us who'd been willing to dicuss things like yes, I have fought and killed people to stay alive.

I don't know what made me paint myself in a bad light. I'd fought and killed to protect people, too, people I cared for, and I would again, without hesitating. But I was still in that ragged, piss-poor mood. So I said I only killed to protect myself, and when one of the little girls called me out on it, I couldn't defend myself.

I did not sign up for this to be a damned hero. I just want answers and to go back to my normal life.

Looks like that's what I was expected to be anyway.

That night, Ann slipped out of the window of the room we were staying in- a lady kindly let her use her kid's old rooms. I left the window open for her and went to sleep, fairly comfortable with the protection that line offered.

At least until Ann dashed back in like she was being chased. She slammed the window and told me that if the mist came in, get out of the room.

Needless to say, I was damn well awake.

She came back into the room with Meyone (fan-fucking-tastic) and together, they inspected the area while I kept an eye on them from the window. Ann said a wolf had attacked her- or rather, chased. It's body was complete mist, and all she'd seen was fangs, eyes, and paws or claws. It had stared her down and then taken off after her. We all went in a happy little group to explore the area, and found a great heaping whop of nothing. No marks, no tracks, no fur, no mist, no (thankfully) snarling, protective mist wolf. And so around the corner we went, at Meyone's suggestion, to report the incident to the gaurds.

Who did not belive a word.

At the very least, in her prowl of the town, Ann had found a little to go on- the name Jhonna, and where this person lived or at least stayed.

The next day, of course, the rumor had spread, in a not so nice way, of the person who claimed to have seen the ghost hound. Ann told me to ignore it, but it was not helping my still bitter mood.

Then we were all pulled back to the main area of this town, where we'd already been once, because Ann's 'Jhonna' wanted a meeting. Apperantly, this was a big deal.

Of course, a public announcment was made that this ghost hound sighting was utter nonsense, from the man that seemed to be 'in charge' around here- and not five minutes later, a woman took the stage in his place.

She was stunning, and it wasn't all just her looks; she had that way about her, as if she were a queen instead of....whatever she was. And she wore a ruby amulet around her throat.

She said she'd had a vision; that she'd seen the ghost-hound had returned.

This lead to many a gasp and wide-eyed look in Ann's direction that she ignored.

Needless to say, the appolgies came in swarms after this woman got done speaking, more on this creature and the person who had seen it and come forward, and Ann managed to at last inquire about just what the hell was going on.

We discovered there was a good and bad side to this coin. It seemed that as long as this amulet was being worn, the town stayed safe. But it shortened the wearer's life significently, and after fifteen years, the woman (always woman) who wore it must hand it down to her daughter, and then die. And the father of the daughter always died, too, killed by this- wolf creature Ann had seen.

There was a memorial to the first man to fall victem to this near the town, and, assuming this situation was the 'mystery behind the nightmare' we went to check it out. Nothing odd about the tomb/memorial, except for that under the traditonal name and rest in peace, were what we later found out were words in a song. They were carved in odd, looping waves, but other then that, we found nothing out of place. And we spent a good while inspecting the damn thing. We came back later, too, and Ann found butterfly cocoons; not odd, except for it was the wrong time of year for them, she said.

We finally gave up and came back, and were put, once again, to chores.

Now, Ann had confessed the night before, after seeing her new friend, that she had fallen asleep....and elves, apperantly, don't do that while they're alive and well. But fallen asleep she had, and apperantly, she did again tonight, once we got back in. I wouldn't know; I went to sleep and, for the second night in a row, was rudely jerked awake by her.

And you wonder why my mood stayed bad. I was getting less sleep in this safe shelter then I'd gotten out in the danger zone back home.

But I did as she asked when she wanted me to go get Meyone. I accidentally woke the lady letting us stay here, but she went back to bed without too much fuss. Meyone was more difficult. He still wasn't seeing me, and it took twice for me to get him to listen. But finnally I got the big lug into our bedroom, and Ann explained that she'd seen that horse again, and meant to follow it.

She slipped out the window, and Meyone followed a moment later. I took the time to get into my armour- what, like I was going out without it- and followed after them.

We chased her on her fruitless search for her invisi-horse in the woods near the town for the better part of the night, until the tolling of an alarm bell sent us sprinting back.

We are in so much trouble, was the only thing I could think. I had a feeling I knew at least partly why there had been an alarm set up.

Sure enough, as we got back into town a shocked person announced that he'd found us, that we were alive.

But it wasn't all just us vanishing into the woods. It looked like something very, very big had taken a clawed appendage and just ripped down the side of the building we were in.

I had disturbing flashbacks of things like Primov and Draconians. But none of that was here (at least, as far as I knew) and there was no concivable idea in my mind as to what could have done this. Or why.

We were given a temporary home in the lodgings of another family, where none of us were sure we were safe.

The next few days passed uneventfully. I have never made a bigger fool of myself then I did the next few days, and the more I fucked up, the worse my mood became. And the worse my mood became, the more I fucked up.

I failed pathetically and miserably and trying to get information from childern(I, in fact, pulled a Lim Dul and opened my mouth where I should have kept it shut.)

I accidentally was seen glamouring my armor. I hadn't even thought about being cautiouse, as I was too hot over a mini argument Ann had gotten started with me. (I was getting really fucking sick of her telling me I was the reason we were there. I fucking know that, shut the fuck up before I blow up all the hell over you.) In fact, Ann and I were rather at each other most of the next few days.

Meyone, of course, already knew the information I had managed to get, and more besides, and lorded it over me in his self-righteouse, egotisitical manner that made me want to slap him and damn the consequences. No, he did not do it blantently, but his manner was more then enough to let me know that he'd just gotten his rocks off showing me up.

I had managed to find out about a man named Jules; a man Meyone had already met and spoken to. We went to see him again, and he was willing, if not nessicarily happy, to share what he knew about Ann's hound and the details behind all this that he knew. Apperantly, he'd tried to fool the hound by sending Jhonna into a dark room, then sending a man in to......um, breed. He hoped that if she never knew who this person was, the creature wouldn't be able to hurt him. Just in case, he was apperantly watching, because the thing did come.

And Jules tried to fight it off. It put him down for some time. Took him a nice long while to recover, and the beast got what it was after anyway. Nice try, though, bud, have a go next year, win a prize.

We tried to find out whatever we could on this celebration and some way- any way- we could change or stop it. But we kept hitting brick wall after brick wall, and soon all of us were frustrated and confused. We helped clean up the lady's house during the day. I mentioned that I had not pissed off anything that big lately, and to my surprise, there was something that could have been amusment in Meyone's voice when he asked me if I was sure.

For just a split second, my still raw temper flared, and I had the urdge to be a nasty little thing. But it was gone as fast as it came, and let my voice stay good-natured. I told him the only things I'd pissed off lately were gossipy old ladies, childern, mothers and Ann- and Meyone himself, I added, and was surprise to feel myself smirk wryly at him.

He almost slipped up and smiled back. I think he forgot he hated me for a second. I don't hate him. I just don't know how well we'd do with prolonged exposure to one another.

At night, we had bigger problems.

Ann had had a vision....a horrifying one, apperantly, that had her wake up screaming in the middle of the night.

To my surprise, Meyone revealed he'd had the same nightmare/vision the night before.

Jules told us it wasn't the first time. Outsiders had reported sharing visions with and because of Jhonna before. Still, this felt- differant.

We didn't get any answers when we tried. We were told we could talk to Jhonna and Jhonna's daughter, Sonya, in two day's time, and, in my mind, we should just sit back and wait for that moment before we took action.

We needed more to go on.

I got a lovely vision of my own, though I was awake for mine, and it wasn't as bad as theirs, I expect. I'd really rather not go into detail, though it ended the same way theirs had- with the words the stone eye being screamed. We had already looked high and low for the meaning of those words from their dreams, and come up empty handed.

Mystery behind the nightmare, indeed.

Well, Ann wanted to go see if something was wrong, going on the assumption that if I had gotten the vision now, awake, perhaps Jhonna was awake, too, and there was something amiss. But the house was quiet and dark, and the guards not only blew us off, they lied to us. Or at least omitted something.

I was surprised again, when, coming back, Meyone said that he belived I could very well have been awake during my little session; he said a family member had had it occur. Well what do you know, it speaks. And not just to spit at me.

Well, if he was making an attempt to be civil, I could, too.

When we finally got to see Jhonna two days later, things only got more confusing. In between then and there, we kept seeing that damn symbol in our waking lives; the most drastic being me being so sure that I was going to be crushed into goo via falling post.....when it turned out that it hadn't fallen in my direction, hadn't been a real danger at all.

But the same fucking symbol had poped up, as if it had fallen just to let us see.

Needless to Say, Jhonna didn't help.

According to her, the things we were seeing was our subconciouse trying to give us the answers we were looking for. The horse, the creepy visions, the hound, even, the waking vision- they were all us. And, she went on to make things worse, one or all of us had brought that building down. Our subconciouse had done it, for one reason or another. People have had abilites and traits surface here they never knew they had before, she told us. This place, that little amulet, tended to bring it all out to the fore.

Pretty summed up, what she said was adjust or get out, because she couldn't help us. It wasn't something she was doing.

So what, does that mean that the thing Ivy sent us to figure out isn't really in this town at all? Is it the 'stone eye', whatever the fuck that is? Or something.....something a lot deeper and a lot more ominouse? Is it something to do with Meyone bringing down a building with his mind? Because, as he admited later, he was pretty damn sure he'd been the one to do it. His worry, his concern of danger, had done it. Somehow Ann had sensed he was going to cause the distaster and gotten us out of the way.

Ivy, remind me again why I listen to you.

Wait, scratch that a moment.

Ann, never fucking listen to me!

I am Semei, hear me mew.

2008-07-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

Left you hanging a little, there at the last one, didn't I? Heh. Well, yeah, we put our stupid selves in a bad position and got attacked by a vampire for it.

The skeletons he called up- fifteen animal skeletons, at that- were....pathetic. I wiped them out while Ann took to the trees, but before I could get out of the circle that had surrounded me to the others, the vampire fused them into one giant ass skeleton that I held my own against for a few minutes.

Then the son of a bitch flipped me on my ass with it's tail, and I didn't even have time to get angry before pain. Lots and lots of pain as the fucking thing did what felt like it's best to rip me in half. It backed off for a second and I rolled away, drinking a potion and hoping like fuck that Ann was still above me somewhere, in the trees and out of this thing's easy reach.

It's been a long time since Ann and I fought as two seperate entities. That is, normally we're AnnandSemei fighting against a commen enemy, compensating for weaknesses and making sure we both make it out alive, each picking a role and sticking to it.

This time, it was Ann fighting and Semei fighting, and we just happened to be taking on the same thing. I normally know where she is and what she's doing; it's a simple fact that I can just take a bigger beating then she can, and I can hold out longer. She's stealth, I'm power, and if I don't remember that and know where she is, the next time I see her it'll be unconciouse on the ground.

This fight, though, it was enough that last time I'd seen her she'd been up. I stopped fucking caring after that, because I was the one quickly loosing bodily fluids with a vampire advancing on me.

Me. I didn't have his fucking king's blood!

I did, though, have his armour. Yeah. My beautiful, wonderful armor I love so much? Yeah, apperantly it was his, once. Just my luck the old owner would turn out to be a fucking vampire when most people just go off and quietly die when they're killed.

You know, when a guy that's come back from the dead twice as powerful, twice as pissed, twice as mean, and twice as arrogent, and twice as demanding wants his shit back? Playing 'finders keepers' isn't a great idea.

But it's mine now, damn it, and I don't go down without fighting. Besides, the bastard hit me, pretty fucking hard. So, watching Ann pop around me in the trees like a fucking squirrel, I stuck my knife in the back of a fuck-knows-how-old vampire.

I think poking a tree would have gotten a more emotional response. Hell, I think it tickled.

Then he turned around, and looked at me. Just- looked.

.....I don't, really don't, like being mind-fucked. Seriously. Not fun. Not fair. Low fucking blow, jackass. But there it is, and there I was, mooning like a calf over him, perfectly ready to strip my hard-won prize off and hand it back to him. Once, I almost came out of it- or, almost nearly came out of it, it was that tiny a moment- but then nope, nada, drooling calf again.

Then Ann tackled me. Full on, body-to-body slam that had us hitting the earth hard and did nothing to bring me around. But the man- Salic, we found out his name was, later- found his job much easier. Two for the price of one, and he caught me up with stone- stone, where the fuck had that come from?- bonds that Ann managed to wriggle out of. So she took off, and when she did, Salic jerked the knife from the tree where I'd stuck it getting ready to damn well strip, and put it to my throat.

And told Ann my life was in her hands, which meant I was ass-fucked.

I knew it, cold and sharp, all through me in this distant, chilly tingle. I felt weirdly calm, strangly okay with this, with knowing I was about to die, was going to die, here and now.

I wasn't scared- pissed as fuck, but not scared- and half jokingly considered the idea of being revived a second time, if it was possible and if Ann would do it.

I'd died once already, and hey, once you jump in, does it matter how deep the water is? What matters is what's waiting for you there, and that's the only thing that frightened me.

He asked me which of them I hated more. The man willing to kill me or the person willing to let me die. And at first, I honestly couldn't answer. And then I lied.

I told him 'both of you'.

That was a lie.

I didn't hate Ann. I don't. I'm- I expected nothing more and nothing less. It's why I knew so clearly when it happened that I'd die. Knew that Ann would let this man kill me, and would consider it a sacrifice well made.

And in reality, so do I.

For Talron. And only for Talron.

My words, though, made him offer me 'revenge'. Half-hoping it'd give me a chance to get back of level footing, to keep him talking, I asked what that might be, and he simply beared his fangs.

I surprised myself when I replied instantly 'no'. No amount of revenge was worth it. Even if I'd really wanted Ann's head, I'd already played the role of monster. Once is more then enough.

And there the conversation ended, because there, with a snarled 'fine', he slit my throat.

....I won't go into that. I won't go into how he started to feed off me. I don't think I could. I won't try. I knew, somewhere, that Ann was playing with the big skeleton. I knew she hurt it when I felt him flinch, and then again when he pulled away.

Then he chased her through the trees, while I tried to get free. And failed. Miserably.

I was only aware when she killed him when I saw a flaming ball that had been Mr. Blood-sucker go tumbling to the earth, crying out in pain.

Yes, Ann single-handedly took on a vampire. Yes, I am aware how pathetic this entire fucking story makes me look. Shut up.

Moments after he went down, who else but King and Ivy showed up, King freeing me and Ivy watching coldly while Ann made the killing blow to the vampire, retreving her dagger back from him. I think I told him I loved him. I think I cussed. A lot. Colorfully. I don't really remember. I'm surprised I said anything. I could've been hugging his leg and gotten dragged along for half a mile, for all I care.

Ann made the mistake of asking Ivy why she would be branded traitor, and both of them huffed and puffed for a bit but, of course, didn't do anything else about it and certianly didn't give her a reply. We did go, though, to what I assume is the place Ivy and King call 'home'. A horrible, cold place, with plants that sucked the life out of the earth and a general desolate feel, but oddly, I felt perfectly safe. At least, in the company of this pair. We moved inside Ivy's building of choice, past her courtyard- and I was warned not to use my healing potion, not here, as things didn't work like you'd think here- and stepped into a room considerably warmer and more brightly lit.

Ivy has an alchemist's lab.

Ivy has one fuck of an alchemist's lab.

Let's suffice to say she didn't want to just drink Talron's blood.

When we'd just met King and Ivy- before we were absolutly positive it was King and Ivy, as a pair- Ann and I had invited King inside the shelter we'd taken for the night. And he'd been as trusting as a mouse in front of a tiger. Dispit the fact that he could easily have taken us both, he'd been wary of us. Harsh, when the first thing you expect from someone inviting you inside is a trap.

Ivy's first instinct was to think I was tricking her with the blood. Giving her someone else's and calling it Talron's. And rather then be threatened or intimidated, I felt a bit- not sad, exactly, dissapointed isn't right, either- that she'd immediatly think we'd do that. Hell, wouldn't that other blood-sucker turning up be enough to proove it was the real deal?

She explained that she wanted his blood for the memories he had- memories of three thousand years. Not that she thinks he's three thousand years old. Honestly, I had my own doubts about it. She told us he was, as beast as she can tell trapped, held in Nabudel for what seemed to him to be only twelve years. Ironically enough, he was the one that, she said anyway, made the protective warding, sheilding, whatever you want to call it, around Nabudel, and it was fading as his own magic did. His own what, again?

This is just getting us in deeper and deeper.

But, she said, he was without a doubt the King of Nabudel, she knew that for a fact. No mistaking it, not after what happened next.

She was- is- trying to find a 'door' to Nabudel. Find it before undesierables do, first. Because, she said, there was a chance that if things kept going the way the are, there was a chance any old someone could just walk into Nabudel and use what they found there. So she wants to get there first, and then?

Well, I don't know what she plans on doing then. But she hoped his memories might help.

It didn't.

After she played with, then drank her little prize, there was about two-point-five heartbeats where we all, inlcuding herself, experianced a wave of well wasn't that just as anti-climatic as all fucking hell?

And then she stummbled.

I'm glad- really, really glad- I didn't step forward to help the way instinct wanted me to. Because if you have never seen what looked like the undead version of a person having fits, it's just not pretty. I was honestly scared for her, for a moment, even with King holding onto her, supporting her as best as possible- she put some major gashes into him, too. I was honestly scared for us, when those fangs of hers flashed, when we saw her wings. Magnificent. Horrible. Terrifying. Amazing.

Confusing as fuck, friends.

When she seemed okay again- after she was done gasping for breath, as if she could breathe- she told us my magnificent king had crammed his memories into the proper twelve year span without even trying, and that there was no way she could make much sense of it. It left her dizzy and out of sorts, and it got us no where and only frustrated. She said she'd be alright, though, and I would, too- she checked my neck and the bit wound left on me.

She told us who the man had once been- not a very nice guy, let me say, a power hungry ruler with issues galore- and advised us to avoid the man who had once owned Ann's bow. Though she did add that his bark might be worse then his bite.

And then I got the start of a lifetime. I didn't have to worry about eventually heading south, or what if Ann didn't want to go there. Because Ivy suggested we did, to find out more about the crystal in our packs and for some reason of her own, as well. She warned me, though, not to wander off the beaten path in search of my own- in other words, no Damon hunting- and to find a man named Danelle, in a town called Jaradul.

She warned us to be very, very careful. Avoid the shadows that don't move, she said, stay with people, travel during the day, and don't be heros. And Ann should not be an elf. If we wanted to go, there was a ship in port, for three days. Not a lot of time to decide. My mind was already made up, even while part of me shook it's head in violent denial. Bad idea, that part of me screamed. Bad. Idea.

I think that little corner of me is called 'commen sense', and I don't often listen to it much.

And with that, we let King escort us out. I teased him about man-handling a lady- wherein Ann informed me no lady used language like mine, which was true enough. He laughed and I stuck my tongue out, and I don't think he quiet knew if he should rip it out of my mouth and shove it up my ass, or tolerate me the way he had been.

Sue me. I know King is fucking dangerouse. Give me a fucking break, we all are, on some level. Even Ann. Even me.

Everyone we call companion or friend around us is. Some more, some less, but they all are, and I don't go tipy-toeing around Ann just because she could put a dagger in my back. Could. I treat Ann like I treat Simon like I treat Dagon like I treat Talron like I treat Damon. Like freinds, even if it's only to a point.

The only people I handle more cautiously are the ones such as Madam Dryad, out there in the woods. And her less out of fear and more out of 'if I don't say this just right she'll tell me to get fucked and we'll be back at round one'. I don't fear her, but I know when the time comes for me to measure and watch what I say and how I say it. And Master Hunter, as well, because I don't know him well, and because I respect him. And he? Could kick my ass without blinking. And would. If Ann or I ever happened to become lycan again, our newfound partnership with monkey-toes would be ended in a blink.

But King? King does not frighten me. Simple as that, friends. Almost never has, really; only for a day or two, upon our first rocky encounters. He's not bad, no matter what Illoria thought, and he's certianly far from really, truely evil. Dangerouse, yes. Issues galore, why not. Bad attitude, gruff, raw, mercanary, all that is without a doubt true.

But he protected me, even if Ivy told him to do it. He went beyond what he had to, and I remember plain as anything the way he did it. Almost willingly. And I felt absoultly, perfectly safe with him, being alone with him.

Aside from the fear that I might wind up with a cracked rib if he tossed me again.

But I degress, now.

My point is that I stuck my tongue out the same way I would have at Ann, and when he snarled I just grinned my biggest grin and waved. He stared at me for a long moment. I admit, no matter how not-afraid I might be of him, that stare is damned unnerving, combined with those fucking teeth, but I held the grin and I managed to mean it until the snarl went away. Then he took us home.

And nearly made me laugh out loud when I thanked him, and he actually said, 'you're welcome, my lady'.

I could almost hear the 'so there'. Point to King, allow me to be all appologies.

He pointed us in the right direction for home, we said our goodbyes, he took off again and we headed back.

And we began to get ready to go South.

After we'd bought supplies and packed, I headed off to say....goodbye.....to Talron.

There was a time, I know there was a time, where I could form coherant sentances around this man. I damned well remember it. I remember being able to bless him right the fuck out. Hell, I'm sure I still could.

But when he starts getting all- all- gentle with me, every word I think of goes out the window, and I am either going to cry or laugh.

I warned him that I was going to try and find Damon, and bring him back here. For answers, for his own saftey. And I warned him that I might not- for one or another reason- come back at all.

I expected him to at least ask 'why', but instead he said he'd have to learn how to sail. And that's when my brain turned to mush and leaked out my ears.

He'd come and find me. He'd as good as said he'd come and find me, or try to, if I didn't return.

And you wonder why I'm falling into a black hole over this man.

It only got worse when he said he'd make sure a latern was lit and hung from that tree in the courtyard until our return. Mine.

.....Why am I trying to find Damon again? Damon who?

That was a joke, people. A joke.

And off we went to the South, on a ship that looked like shit when we boarded but turned out to be hugely grand and very comfortable- I have no fucking idea what they did to it- and in two uneventful weeks, we reached the place that I had once called 'home'.

A place where you couldn't go outside after dark, where dark came early and left late, as if the sun was lazy or sleepy and couldn't be bothered to do it's job properly. A place where monsters spent the entierty of the first night scratching at the walls and running about outside the walls, giving me the willies. Where the doors had no locks (if there were doors) and people stayed in close packs like frightened sheep.

A place of unparraled beauty. Horses running across the wilderness and a lot of wilderness at that. It was breathtaking, during the day, magnificently lovely to look at.

Made you wonder what hid under the surface of the seemingly calm water, what monster waited for you to be foolish enough to enter.

We were the only two going to Jaradul, and our trip was taken at a startlingly fast pace with horses that didn't seem to tire, in almost utter silence. The man riding with us was tense and on full alert, and it didn't make for a comfortable trip.

We stoped, ten minutes out from our destination. 'The horses won't go further', the man said, and told us it was ten minutes on foot, and to be fast.

No arguments from either of us. The path leading to the city was very pretty, with sun streaming through trees and flowers and trees and greenery and plants.

But there were patches of shadow that didn't move, and things burrowing under the ground. Right at us, and fast.

We hit the gates at a full sprint, slamming it behind us, panting and wide eyed like two foxes that had just barely made the saftey of their den.

The city was empty.

Deserted, not a sign of life anywhere, and looked as if it'd been that way for some time. I could read the writting on the signs, even though this place held no memory for me- I suppose I saw it somewhere before, while living here- and the signs swinging outside every building was a family name.....with etchings, tallies, underneath.

I did not think it was number of family members. It looked more like number of dead.

Plauge. I couldn't be positive, of course, but I had the sinking feeling it's what happened here.

Swearing to myself in frustration and wondering what the fuck we were meant to do now, with no one alive and no way back besides on foot, we heard the sounds of life.

A man, with a bald head and a scrap hiding his vital parts, and not very fucking much else. Any other situation and I'd have been blushing, but this man was hauling a cart that made my stomach sink, going from house to house.

Counting the dead- checking, maybe, for any left alive. When he slipped into another building, I walked up to it- and knocked. Yes, I knocked, okay?

He cracked the door open, and simply watched as I explained myself- the stuck out a tongue that had been cut off. No help from this one.

He did, though, take us to people that could help.

A temple, full of men that looked much like himself, (though all these, thankfully, seemed to have tongues.) And we were lead to a man who seemed to be their leader.

I came straight out with it- who we were looking for, though not the full truth of 'why'. I'd been right, too, about it being a plauge- people suddanly just started dropping dead. No symptoms. This temple full of men (yes, men, we were the only females) belived their faith had saved them.

The man knew I had at least been born here- though I don't know how-and knew Danelle, and said not to go around pronouncing his name, that his art was forbidden. But Danelle hadn't been here for this , had left before it happened, and if we wanted to find it, we were to go to a place called Farrah, two days away on foot, and help with them with the 'mystery behind their nightmare'.

So much for not being heros.

So much for only traveling during the day.

But we were given as escort- only one man brave enough to stand up at this leader's request and offer to help keep us alive (or try to, anyway) on the road. Of course, our escort turned out to be this man's son. His name was Mayone, and once he escorted us-

-he couldn't go back. A sacrfice more then I ever expected from a group of strangers. He was very interested in Ann, in her elvishness, and to my surprise, she seemed....interested back.

Two days walk, hu?

This could be fun.

Emotionally worn. Soon to be physically damaged. Again. Who knew.

2008-07-11T11:07:00.001-07:00

So we got back to the keep. And we rushed through, going with the next morning’s shipment of fish almost straight through to the citadel. We arrived without any notable incident, but once there the trouble began.

First we went to my shopkeeper friend about the psy crystal in my pack. He took it without fear and apperantly talked to it, and informed us it didn’t seem to be evil or have bad intentions. He didn’t talk to it much or get much information from it, but enough to sooth our concerns. He did know a little about the monster it had been placed in, but again, not much.

It was after Ann challenged him on the size of the sandworm he’d said he wanted us to kill that he stopped, and regarded me for a long, long time. I don’t know what about the sandworm comment made him ask it, but ask he did.

He didn’t ask me if I was alright- he flat out asked what was wrong.

And so I told him- everything I knew and remembered.

And I got one fuck of a shock.

This guy knew me since I was a little girl, and he knew my parents. I was surprised to find out that they were even still alive, let alone knew anyone in this area- and with him, my entire perception of just what the fuck is going on here started to change.

This man told me information on my past that literally made everything I said in the last entry null and void. Damon isn’t the one to blame, here- I am.

The shop keeper told me that I’d come into his place since I was small with my father, and then with Damon- my father, apperantly is a wizard who’d been here long before Damon ever came over scouting for the wizards, who’d lived in sanctuary here. I’d stayed with my mother, who’d apperantly not been thrilled with my father’s choice to deal more in necromantic arts. She, this little man said, was more connected to life. She and my father had split up some years ago, before I’d lost my memories (or even before I’d met Damon) and he didn’t know where she’d gone.

He said my father was a great man- apperantly they’d been friends- and that himself and my mother, on the other hand, had never really gotten along.

And he said that Damon and I had not been in love. He said that to him, who’d known me since I was little, it seemed like an act- a good act, but never the less. He said that Damon seemed to be very much in love with me, though.

So yeah. Seems I’ve had this entire thing just fucking backwords.

Damon’s not the nasty , manipulative son of a bitch- apperantly, anyway. Apperantly, that’s all on me.

You know what really is fucked up? I would do that. Make someone think I was head over heels for them to get them to do what I wanted.

Yeah, I’m a bitch.

Anyway.

The shopkeeper told me that my father was in the wizard’s tower that we’d wound up kind of inadvertently helping spring up inside the citadel. He said that he no longer held the sway he once had, but he’d contact my father for me.

After I’d gotten a little more information on myself- and doesn’t that just sound painful?- we thanked him and left. And we headed back to my tomb- and that is still as eerie as fuck to say- to…..make sure it was just an empty tomb.

And it was, too. I felt rather silly when we left it, empty-handed and without even a hint of anything….wrong.

The grave keeper, with some pushing, told us what the spirits he spoke to said Damon said. The whole ‘it should have been me’ bullshit again. But nothing else, and nothing useful, so once more we left.

And now we pick up on the second half of our storyline; that of a girl named Sparrow, apperantly. Or at least called Sparrow. After human ‘Ann’ became elven ‘Anjha’, I’m not really trusting any moniker given to me via my pointy-earred companion any time soon.

Ann lost Sparrow a long time ago. That is to say, they were, apperantly, good friends, and then she took off over here from her home, and then she vanished. And Ann came looking. Says something about Ann, really, that does, to up and leave your home to find a friend that might be dead or worse.

So yeah, Ann’s been looking for this girl, and, I think I mentioned before, right before the whole
Primov thing we’d been sent on a wild goose chase through her subtle puzzles.

This will be relevant in a few minutes.

But while looking for a kid that Ann had known about a year ago, who might be able to help us out, we saw him. That fucking little Halfling wise ass who’d half taunted, half teased me while Ann fought his companion. He was standing on the corner, watching us with a glower- watching Ann.

We headed in that direction. Origonally, I intended to be what I usually was when Ann was dealing with anything in this line- a quiet protective shadow, playing the role of simple brawn, rarely speaking.

I mean, it’s for more than one reason; partly because it’s what I am in this situation. I don’t know enough about it to be more. Ann naturally grabs the lead, just as I do when dealing with

Damon and his ilk, and she knows more specific questions to ask- hell, she’s better at that then I am, anyway.

So I only speak when I think she’s forgetting something that might be important, and I’m usually wrong, or when she needs to be told to shut the fuck up and stop provoking- which she will deny vehementaly-or when I get pissed off, or when the conversation takes a bad turn.

And I had to do that in spades now. Nearly immediately the Halfling started off the conversation agressivly, with attitude- and of course, Ann responded in kind. Always did. Hell, I can’t say I’m completely innocent of doing that myself. I managed to defuse most of the situation, though the tension hung in the air anyway. The Halfling knew Sparrow, knew she was in danger, knew more about it even then Ann, knew that we- she- was looking for the other elf. He didn’t give us much information- any, really. He more like told us- through a sort of riddley manner- that they’d….worked?....with her, didn’t think Ann was the one good for this ‘mission’- I assumed meaning that of finding her. Told us to stop asking questions, stop trying to find them, stop leaving trails and stop being so easy to trail, which pissed Ann off to no end and made me rather embaressed.

He told us not to trust him- but who else could she trust?- and then slipped off into the crowd.
Ann went after him, and came back to me a few minutes later as a cat. A disgruntled cat- apperantly she lost him. I’m not utterly surprised, though frustrated for her. I understand what it’s like, to want answers so badly and not have them. We continued our search for the kid, but with the exception of some little brat that wanted to be paied, we found nothing. I made a note to go back to the girl, who reminded me so much of Min it made me a bit ill.

We left, then, and headed back to the same, eerie part of the citadel we’d gone to so many times before- the little area the menagerie called it’s own. We meandered through the actual show itself, hoping to speak to our tour guide. But the man was worse then talking to the fucking Cyclops. All he’d say was that he gave tours.

Then he shut the door in my face. I’ll tell you, I’d had just about enough of people shutting me down like that.

I bit down on the temptation to kick it. Or just open it myself, in a slightly less conventional manner.

Very hard.

I may have given into that urge, if Ann hadn’t gone to where the dog-boy- who’d I’ve started to call ‘Mogli’- and his intemidatingly tall (isn’t everyone, just about, to me?)….master? lived- or at the least stayed. Ann’d brought us here looking for information on something called a Cloaker.

What is a cloaker, you ask? One nasty son of a bitch. Unlike beholders, I’ve never actually dealt with one that I can remember (and with beholders, that was only a matter of weeks ago. It feels a lot longer.) but I don’t need to have. Imagine you find a pretty cloak, or cowl, just- hanging somewhere. Oh, nice, you think, lucky me, I’ll be a cheap asshole and steal this pretty cloak or cowl I happened to find.

So you do, and then, later, you learn why being a cheap asshole is bad. One of the reasons, anyway.

Because no sooner do you steal yourself this lovely item, then does it come to life and try and kill you. And I’ll tell you what, unless you’re really fucking good or really fucking lucky, then there’s probably not much ‘try’ involved.

Ann fought one, once; it had Lim by the nape, and if he’d not gone were, I may have never met a one Lim Dul. Or at least, not as such.

They don’t live on our plane, that’s one thing- they can’t survive long, unless someone keeps them alive. They feed off chaos, off streams of the stuff, and the people who bring them here usually feed it to ‘em somehow, until they’ve done what the person brought them to do, I guess.

They use them as attack dogs, pretty much, although we were also told they could be trained, to a point.

The person who told us all this was referred to us by the tall man, and was a dwarf with a metal, telescopic eye on his head. ‘A nasty got him once’, he said. Gruff, rugged, brisk and sharp, but calm and oddly likable.

He gave us more information then he really should or could have for the amount we could pay, and perhaps information that would, eventually, be helpful. At least now we know more about the little fuckers.

We left the man’s building, escorted out by a man who’d brought us in- a man who was half mechanical, like the captian that we’d gone to about the hunt, but who seemed incapable of doing anything but grunting at us.

Didn’t really seem to be a rude grunt, though. And yes, there are different kinds. Because I said so. Pay attention sometime, and you’ll see I’m right. If anything, it was oddly expressive, and made it hard not to smile. That would have been rude.

As it went, we headed back down to the graveyard, this time without bothering the gravekeeper, and inspected the mosleum- much larger and more expensive then my own, but then, this one actually held bodies, and more then one at that, and was made by people who had money to spare. This was the same place I’d been- what, months ago, now?- with this lot, looking into something called a deadwood tree and a bloodline of a family full of people that weren’t so nice.

It’s a long story, but it has to do with Toby, that ‘special’ friend I mention all the time, and lots of people dead, and perfume that you just don’t want to fuck with, and a corrupt clergy. Yeah.

Corrupt clergy trying to win power in the worst way they could possibly want to do so, and pissing Toby off something fierce. Because for them to get this, he’d have to take a nosedive and let their little masterpiece take his place.

Can you guess what Toby is yet? Like I’ve just been so helpful.

Anyway. I won’t get too far into that, either, because there is no corrupt clergy, not anymore.

There was never a corrupt clergy that anyone ever knew of outside of us and a few important people, and I doubt they’d like it much if they knew I was writing about it.

But suffice to say this place was not a nice one, and these people not good ones, in so much as I knew. Ann had last seen the cloaker she’d fought here, but there was no sign of it or anyone in or around this thing. Dead end.

So we went back to the ally where I’d found the girl, and I wound up paying the little bitch to take me to the kid Ann’s met. Who turned out to be her brother….who was now a squire. Apperantly mostly due to Ann.

See, good things do happen because of us! Or at least, her.

The kid was nervous and jittery, but he knew he owed Ann, so in he went and came out with the man who’d taken him on. Watching him, listening to the word-play of this man and Ann, I didn’t see anything that struck me as not right about him, not blatently. I like kids, from babies up, and hoped this guy was treating that one decently. I should have payed more attention to the man, but I had my attention of Ann’s questioning. The red-haired man knew the symbol Ann had, called them ‘spies’, said that we weren’t enemies with them or we’d be dead already. He told us they didn’t test people very often, and that to be doing this, they had to have really liked Ann’s friend- or respected her, at least.

He didn’t want to say much else, but what he did say…..at the very least eased my hackles. This group seemed to be beneviolent, in the general whole, towards us. Just…..wanted something big from Ann.

The same force in me, driving me to find out about Damon and his group, is now coursing in me again, though. I want to know. I want to know who these people are, and what the fuck Ann’s friend is running from.

I can’t say I’m especially emotionally tangled up in it. I don’t know this girl, and I don’t paritcuarly care about her. I do know Ann, though, and I do care about her, to a degree. She’s been beside me throughout the entire chaos that is Damon and my rapidly-becoming obsession, the least I can do is shadow her through this. And so I will, as far and long as I can.

But the point remains that, while Ann and I make a pretty good team, we have devided interests. And our interests are on two separate roads, hers spinning off over the mountains to the desert, mine right here at home and then sliding down a cold path to the south. There was, at first, no doubt in me that I’d be going west with her when she went. It was just default. She’s something like a partner, and I something like defer to her, and when the thought of going where she went came up, I didn’t second guess myself. I didn’t like leaving Talron, and yeah, I was scared as fuck, but oh well. It wasn’t even a question in my mind. If she’d want me, I’d go. She needs someone at her back, and it’s nice having someone at mine.

But now I have to wonder. Now that I do have my own set of interests, and it’s not a matter of

‘I have nothing better to do, why the fuck not?’, what happens if I don’t want to go west? Do I have a choice? Would it make a difference?

I told Damon I’d go with him. I wouldn’t have expected Ann to come with us, wouldn’t have even wanted her to. It’s my business and my problem- if she’d trailed along, I’d be okay with that, but I’d be just as okay if she’d wanted to stay.

Yeah, I’ll explain that in a second.

I just don’t know, and it’s too early to worry about it.

Anyway. After we investigated this tomb, we went back to the one for me- and watched Damon put a flower on it, place his hand on it, and then lower his head and walk away.
I was torn like a wild animal for a long time, then I turned and bolted, racing around to cut him off.

I was leaning back, propped up lazily when he walked by, eyes on the ground. And, suddenly, feircly, I wanted-

To hurt him, to hate him. I wanted him to hate me. Wanted him pissed off, wanted to be pissed. I wanted to make him feel the sick twisting in my gut, wanted to see something on his face besides anger or bitter amusment. I wanted to see emotion there, wanted to see what my words did to him, wanted to see him hurt. I wanted it, right then and there, more then I’d ever wanted anything in my entire fucking life. I wanted him bleeding in front of me, wanted an honest reaction, wanted him to loath me and scorn me. I wanted to see if he really cared. I didn’t want him to care. I wanted this to be hard. I wanted it to be easy. Everything I thought I’d made choices about flew out the damned window. I was as confused and mixed up as I’d ever been, and right then, right fucking there, I wanted him down.

All I was sure of in that moment was that if I couldn’t cut him with my dagger, I’d do it with my tongue. Sometimes, I’m better with that, anyway. I was in that cold place again, the place I’d been when we’d met Simon, where everything was cold and clear as a pond in winter, and all I knew was hurt him hurt him hurt him hurt him.

And I did, too. Or I tried my damndest. But for every sharp, sarcastic word, he presented soft applogies and seemingly heart-felt pain. For every demanded answer, I got a quiet, achingly sad avoidance.

His voice, his eyes would have broken my heart if I’d been talking with Talron. He looked like a kicked puppy, and soon that cold, clear place started to muddle up again, and I started to feel like I was kicking a puppy. I couldn’t make him bite me. Once, he came close- once, I pissed him off. Well and truly got his hackles up, I saw it. I saw it come and go just as fast, and you know what? He had no fucking right to be pissed off anyway.

But while he wouldn’t bite, he did nip rather hard; he knew where to poke and how to defend himself. I threatened to kidnap him; he challenged me to try. I demanded he tell me which way to jump; he told me figure it out your own damn self, moron, in so many words. I called him on the Man In Black, and, once again angry, he vehemently insisted they didn’t work for him. I told him he’d die
trying to stop Feng. He told me I was wrong. I told him I only cared because he had my answers.

He called me a lier.

I told him the truth. He looked as fucking smug as a fox who’d gotten away with the henhouse.

He also told me it was my father’s fault I’m in this situation. He told me my father trusted me more then him- belived in me more.

He told me he was going after Feng, back ‘home’, back to the south, after him to stop him. And that he’d send word to me when he came back alive.

Now I was only confused and upset again, and, with him about to leave, sorry I’d set out to wound. I hugged him with an apology and then I let him go….fighting the urge to just kidnap him the entire time. He’d said I was welcome to try, but in an hour they’d come looking for him. And they’d bring him back.

And then I watched him go, and I thought, I let him go. Maybe I should let him go. But I knew I never could.

We made one last pit stop, checking on the shop keeper to make sure he was okay after talking with me, and then we headed out again. We made it back to the keep with no incidents, and by the time we’d gotten back, I’d worked myself up again. I marched up to the keep, eyes on my feet, entire body stiff and jaw set, mind racing. I stormed past everyone, shoved past gaurds and maids alike, slammed into Talron’s chambers and grabbed him by the wrists where he sat.

I lead up to what I’d done slowly and distinctly, without looking at him, but when it came to saying what I’d actually done, I spat it all out so fast I didn’t understand me.

Apperantly, he did though, and his expression was utterly unreadable. And then he said, pretty much- ‘okay’.

I was kind of shell-shocked. I stayed kind of shell-shocked when he admitted he’d been frightened I’d been going to say I’d gotten back with Damon.

That, apperantly, was worse then being offered as food to a vampire. He wasn’t happy with it, that’s for fucking sure, nor my way of getting it. But we got it, and he wasn’t pissed at me. In fact, he seemed faintly amused, as well- frightened, upset, amused, and faintly annoyed.

And when we left, he still hoped to see me at dinner. I couldn’t be happy about it.

There was too much I had to discuss with him.

I never got the chance, at least, not that night.

Y’ see, the bat-shit insane vampire showing up kind of distracted me.
Walking out in the middle of the night with a cup of ancient blood?

Really bad fucking idea.

Two for the price of one.

2008-07-05T22:48:00.000-07:00

I needed to write again. Just because so much has been happening so fast, and life just calmed down enough for things to settle. 'Course, settling means my stomach's in fifty fucking knots, and my chest is tight, like I've gone stupid and broke a rib, and not done anything about it.

I'm scared. Like, really fucking scared, if I stop and give myself a moment to think about it. Everything seems bigger then me right now; feels like I'm caught up in a current too fast and hard to fight.

But some things- some things aren't so confusing anymore.

Like Damon, for instance.

I still- I want, so, so badly to belive him. He seems- they all seem- so.....so oddly gentle. I don't know if that's the right word, here. And frightened, in a way. And sincere. And some vauge, distant part of me wants....it's horrible, but some part of me enjoys the thought. On, come on, what female wouldn't? It's exciting and romantic, isn't it, the entire concept? Of a husband and wife standing side by side for a goal, the tragically sad seperation, the man trapped with memory and the woman lost without one, the thought of being the queen in this game of chess rather then a pawn.

Something you'd find in a story. I like the thought of it being true. I want Damen to be crying over me, because then it is true.

But there is a differance between heart and head. And while that is all what my heart thinks, my head won't shut up, either. And I know which is better to listen to.

My head tells me isn't it a little odd that you're not allowed to know or remember anything? My head tells me that isn't it a little odd that Damn visits an empty (?) gravesite on the same day at the same time, and cries over someone he knows is alive and well? My head tells me that if it were so important that I know nothing, I would still be in the dark. My head tells me that no one good could associate with someone like The Man In Black.

I yes, I did question weather or not my gravesite held anything. It's a bit odd of him to go there like that. I'm planning on a bit of nosing around there.

Our werehunter's words are still ringing in my head, his question about why anyone who supposedly loved me would let me be in the situation I'm in. It's a good question.

Talron.....is a good man. One of the best I think I've ever met. Strong and dependable, brave, powerful, kind, feirce, loyal.

I don't know Damon. I do know this man. I will not loose him to what may or may not be someone I once cared for in the past.

I will not loose him to my own fucking idiocy.

Talron is mine, now. Has been mine, I think, before I ever openly claimed it. And I do not share.

Ivy.....vampire you may be, but you just remember that. I do not share my toys. And if I so much as think you're going to hurt him or sink your talons into him- if I so much as think I've mislayed my trust, I don't care what you are or how old. I don't care how powerful you are or who you have protecting you. It may take the rest of my life. I may die trying. But if my Talron is hurt-

I will destroy you.

Degressing.

The were.....must be destoryed. Every last one in the citadel, they need to die. Now. Soon. Before lycanthropy changes anymore and it's impossible. It's a last minute, desperate resort, and I won't even inquire into it if I don't think we've utterly hit a dead end, but- if we can't get help from the werehunter, why not go from the other end of the bridge?

Can't be turned were if you already are. It's mearly an issues of how far I trust King. How far I trust Ivy. And right now, I'm not sure that's too far. I don't mistrust them, exactly....but do I trust them enough to make myself that vulnerable? Trust them enough to let King turn me?

And then there's the matter of Simon, who I'm faintly concerned for. It's only been a few days, but it feels like longer- and I don't like not knowing what's going on. I don't like not having control of the situation. And you know, we've been convinentaly forgetting what pulled my little rag tag band of- um, allies?- together in the first place, that is right smack bang in the place we've sent Simon devling. Okay, maybe that's not exactly true, but it's not untrue, either.

I'm talking, of course, about the taint. You know, that little thing we've been so fucking able to forget in the flow of everything else? Yeah, you don't just forget something that can turn you into a walking nightmare if you fucking piss it off. Or, you know, just happen to be unlucky enough to be standing there, minding your own business.

We need to find out more about it, is my point. Not that I especally want to, nor have any real reason to.

I mean, why do I care about some disease killing off people I don't know? Except for that it might not always be people I don't know. And won't that be a bitch, if I say 'fuck all of you, deal with it your own stupid selves', and then poof, someone I really kinda like ends up caught by it. I mean, if it happens to me, it's as simple as making Ann- or rather, letting Ann- kill me, no problem, what the fuck ever. I like living, but I'm not stupid.

But it's more complecated if it's someone else.

And then, of course, there's the little group that attacked Ann just a few nights ago. That's mostly what we're going into the citadel for, Ann and I, to see if we can find out who these people are and what they want. Plus, I kind of want to see what else we can find out via the theif's guild, if anything. Seems like these are people it might be good to get information from, now that I know what information I actually want.

We're still in way over our heads, but you know? These are the things we can handle; the things we can deal with, right now. Baby steps, and whatever else happens, happens, right? But I know I'm done with playing right into people's hands, and I won't do it anymore. I will find out what I want to find out, and no one will stop me. I will get what I want, and no one will stop me.

As for the ultimate evil, the threat to the world, the set of events destined to be set off, the events we set in motion that could destory everything?

Well, we'll just have to burn that bridge when we come to it, as the saying goes, right? Handle what we can now, and maybe- just maybe- we can actually stay above water in this current, instead of drowning.

Well just absolutly lovely.

2008-06-30T00:49:00.000-07:00

I’ve betrayed him, pure and simple.

I deserve to be thrown out on my ass. No, I deserve to have the shit beat out of me and then get thrown out on my ass.

If it was anyone else, even Ann, I know I wouldn’t feel- like this. Like I’m going to keel over and be sick. As much as I respect and like her, I wouldn’t- fuck, what the fuck did I do? What am I going to do?

After some of the things he said to me- the trust he puts in me- and it gets tested first day out under saddle and I buck and balk and leave him on his ass in the dust, after meaningless words of trust and loyalty.

Hell, anyone else, and I wouldn’t have cared half as much. Dagon, Simon, Ann, Damon, anyone, and I may have felt guilt over putting them in a bad postion but in a way, it feels like they’d expect me to bite them in the end, so when I did it’s not a shock, and they know how to bite back. We’re allies and partners, but we all know, in the end, what we are and will always be.

But he- never , I think, did he expect me to do this. I’m not afraid he’ll be angry, not even a little. I want him to be angry. I want him to yell at me and storm off and hate me and never trust me again. Okay, no, so that’s a lie, I don’t. But I don’t think he will.
What I’m afraid of is what I think- I know- I’ll get. Quiet disappointment. Resignment. Hurt. Surprise. Tired anger. And he won’t, I think, turn away and never trust me again. This will shake it to the core, though.

Fuck.

And just what, you may ask, is the emotional Seimei being so melodramatic about now?

Let me start from the beginning. Because this has not been a very fucking good week for me.
For one, I pretty much had my hopes crushed. Dagon didn’t confront the Man in Black, barely even interacted with him. Instead he watched from inside the little room with the portal, watched the Man in Black and a companion walk down the hallway. They were discussing something, and then came into his room unaided. The Man in Black said something about wanting Dagon to ‘come back’ with him, and other illusions to the idea that the man had known Dagon, once, and had dealings with him. He wanted our dragon boy back, and when he said ‘no’, the were changed, and the room itself blew them- out? The magic came unraveled, I guess you could say undone, and all had likely gotten hurt.

Our dragon boy came back with a clump of were fur, and a bit of skin. I felt a little better.

I investigated around a little bit, but found nothing- and apperantly so did my elf. We came together again in the courtyard, where Dagon sat under a tree. Questions got me nowhere with him, of no real fault of his own, and then Ann took me back inside to the banquet still occurring. She claimed they wanted me back in there- me, not us. I steadfastly refuse to let myself acknowledge that I know perfectly fucking well that that is supposed to mean.

Ardremides too the fur and skin, too, and then slipped away, the only one absent from our lovely little event. And when it was over, it seemed very much like Talron wanted to say- something else, to me. It was an akward little moment, but it was what, in the end, convinced me to do what I’d been planning for at least a week now.

I went to his chambers.

The gaurds out front informed me that he wasn’t in, at the moment, and so I trumped my little self over and sat against the wall until one of the gaurds got me a chair, wordlessly, and helped me up into it. Very amusing, if I do say so myself.

Of course, it didn’t take too fucking long for the help to start running past me and giggling, and I knew full well what they were on about. Rumors would start spreading in minutes, probably already had, but oh fucking well.

Besides, I was kind of getting a kick out of this.
Soon enough (boring hours and hours later) a male servent came up and told me my lovely King was waiting for me in the courtyard.
And so off I troddled, disgruntled as all hell and sure I was going to get yelled at.

He didn’t yell at me.

Instead he was standing under the huge tree that was in the center of our courtyard, the only tree there, in fact, barely lit with his back to me. For a moment, I had to pause- striking image that scene made for, and faintly lonely. I got within a few paces before he turned and closed the gap between us himself- smiling at me.

Okay, yes, shut the fuck up, I liked that he was smiling at me. Fuck you.

Just like a few days back, nothing mattered just then- not the ring around my neck or Damen, not Dagon or the Man In Black or the were or anything. Just that he was waiting for me, smiling at me, smiling for me.

Motherfuck, Semei girl, you just got it smashed over your head with a giant fucking club, didn’t you? May as well follow the man around bleating, you stupid little- what was the word that captian used?- ah yes. Frilly.

But at the time, I wasn’t thinking any of that. I was just thinking total brain function shutdown, rational abandoned, body tempeture dangerously high, unable to vocalize, retreat, retreat! Get out of there, man!

I didn’t move, needless to say.

We talked softly, and I tried my damndest to keep the conversation off the unpleasnetness that had been everywhere lately. We just talked, though he did most of it- honestly, I wasn’t fucking joking in the above statement. I couldn’t put thought together well enough to do much more then encourage him to keep speaking. I probably looked like a fool, but I didn’t feel like one. I was embaressed, yeah, but even that went away the more he talked.

He did tell me what Ardremides was doing with that fur and skin- he should be able to keep the were out of our keep, and maybe even track him. More then I expect to get out of that bit of fur and skin, but I was vindictively pleased. .

He was more open then I think I’ve seen him, and that’s presicly what I was after. I want to know him. And the more I do, the more I-

Oh fuck this bullshit. If I can all but say it to a vampire, I can write it down plain.

The more I know him, the more I find myself falling, stupidly, pointlessly, dangerously, idioticly, brainlessly in love. It can not be returned, it will not be returned, I might be married, he’s a fucking King, but there it is.

Son-of-a-bitch. Just- stupid, stupid girl.

He told me that he’d thought he’d never hear himself called ‘my King’ again for a very long time. Told me how he’d lived for what I can only guess is years on years after Nabudel, but in the end- a King is what he was. He said he couldn’t put that aside, but, at my instance, said he’d always be my- friend. There was a softness in his voice I wasn’t used to, and it turned my insides to fucking pudding. It only got worse when he admitted one of his favorite memories was nearly when he’d first met us, and sat it the woods when we camped, playing for us.

Ironic, isn’t it, that it happens to be my best memory of him?

He said he’d picked this spot both because it was beautiful here- and it was, with the faintest of lighting and the moon and the keep what seemed like a million miles away and this huge old tree standing watchful sentinel over both of us and he and I and a sky that was dark and huge- and because it reminded him of a place in Nabudel. Not around the keep, of course, but just outside. He said he went with his father there- rarely- but always in times of peace.

Only in times of peace.

And then Thandriel came and the entire illusion was destroyed. Suddanly the keep was there again, and everything settled back into my stomach like a heavy load, making a tight knot that had just started to let go.

And then, after saying a soft sendoff, he lifted my hand and kissed the back of it, leaning close to my ear. And said maybe next time I wouldn’t have to wait outside his chambers.

Ann told me later that she could hear my squeal from inside the keep. What? I was damn well pleased with myself.

But then my fantastic night turned sour real fast. I got back into my room, only to find a small lamp glowing the in the corner and a note on my bed that read ‘stay in your room tonight’.

I went over to the wall, hissing Ann’s name. No reply, though- and a few minutes later, the sounds of a fight broke out. I spent a good twenty minutes trying to work out what to do, then checked my door for traps. Found none- but yet still got zapped by one I’d missed. And when I opened it, there was a Halfling there before me.

He scowled.

I blinked.

He shifted.

I slammed the door.

Okay, exit one, no option. Exit two?

Yet another trap I missed. I yelped with pain and swore so vividly that in another situation I may have actually emabaressed myself.

And just outside the door, there was another trap. I yelped out, down to the gaurds, that Ann was being attacked. And then I was trapped in my room, exchanging banter with a wise-ass half elf and too afraid to push my luck with the sound of Ann getting her ass kicked going on just beyond my wall.

The little man told me this was all part of the ‘test’, and that Ann’s life depended, more or less, on his partner’s mood.

He also decided I was stupid. Apperantly, sarcasim doesn’t always work well.

And no sooner had I contented myself wit the fact that acting would only cost Ann her life, then did an very naked (okay, so she had a cloak and a robe on, but that wasn't hiding much) Ann and an almost as naked older woman apper on my balcony.

The Halfling seemed altogether too interested, and I resisted the urdge to cover his eyes.

The fight went on hours, but Ann managed to loose her attacked by turning into a cat and leaping off my balcony. Dispit me, the pair left, and THEN, of course, the gaurds came running.

We got questioned about everything that happened, and absolutely nothing got resolved- it went right back to something on you is letting these people come and go as they please, just as before.

It took us a day or two before we got our heads together enough to see Ardremides about it, and he never saw us at all. It was his apprentice who agreed to check us over for magical items, and she found nothing unusal about our things- but I did have a crystal in my packs I’d never known was there.

Now, this crystal came from the same place I did- the experimentation place Ann and the others had pulled me from, where the Man in Black had first popped out to say ‘hello’.

We took our findings to Talron, who suggested that the crystal was, in fact, the Man in Black’s in to Nabudel, and that we take it back to Ardremides and tell him that, on Talron’s own word, this was important.

Poor man looked like a wrung out rag, or a horse that had been pushed to damn far- but he saw us, and had us set the crystal down. He refused to touch it, and Thandreil, who had come with us, again per Talron, also refused. But they gave it a once over, and then came back with the- um- more then a little jarring information as to what this thing was.

They said it was a psy crystal- an intelligent being all on it’s own, with a will and a personality. If not careful, it could take over the mind of who ever held it…..depending on the crystal’s personality. If it was aggressive and ‘mean’, it could be dangerous…..if it was more timid or, I guess, ‘gentle’, less so.

Neither Ann or I could use it or talk to it, though it was determined that it was in my pack because it wanted to be, and that Lim Dul had had it long enough to have put himself in danger, if there was any.

We also figured there was a very real chance Lim Dul’s familer, Mahpoo, had put it in there.
And so off we went to find Mahpoo. We got stopped, on the way, by Thandriel speaking to Ann- but I couldn’t understand what was said or even hear most of it. We passed through the portal without any trouble and popped over into Shoulwater.

I have gotten past all pity for Lim. I have moved up to annoyed as fuck at the big, stupid dope. He was still moping around in his rooms, and yeah, it was hard to see someone who’d been as- alive as him so lifeless, now, but all I could feel, suddenly, was annoyed.

She’s dead, get the fuck over it.

But we got the monkey from him and took him, without fuss, out of the keep. It’s when we got back to the portal that we had a problem- the little beast refused to go through, and flat out ran away, though he didn’t go far. Ann caught him again, and this time we brought him to the druid that had been working on our ships.

Now, I hadn’t had much to do with this particular person, but I must say, I rather like the snarky son of a bitch. All the other druids I’ve met up until now have been as pale as water, and it was a refreshing change. He told us he would get what we needed out of the little theif (apperantly, our little friend had taken some of his gold) the next day. And we went back home. Or at the least, Ann did-I stayed in Shoulwater, curtisy of the crystal at my hip. I entertained myself for the day, doing nothing of importance (I find myself doing that more often then not) and bored out of my fucking skull. But it was kind of entertaining, and I’m becoming rather fond of the help around the keep- both keeps- the more I have to do with them.

Ann appered sometime in the day, and with four-legged companion in tow, we went back to the druid.

I have never in my life seen anyone quite so annoyed or bored with asking questions of a monkey- or with being made to do so.

I have never in my life seen a more evil smile when he voulenteered to make the little familer tell him what he wanted to know. He seemed to take entirely too much pleasure in doing that little trick, and along with being scared, Lim’s little theif was pissed off about it; I don’t know what chatter-squeak chatter squeak means, but I can guess.

I think I’m mildly impressed.

We found out, though, that he had put the crystal in my pack, and that he’d done it because the crystal had told him to and he didn’t want to make it angry. (And that put my nerves a bit on edge, let me tell you.) He said he didn’t know if the crystal had ever talked to his master, our moping sorccer friend, and that the crystal had been in my pack for what balanced out to being a good couple months.

And I had never known it.

Forget nerves being on edge, that made me downright shivery. Inatimate objects should not have a will of their own. It is just not fucking right.

Least of all so when they get yanked out of a giant monster that has been experimented on.

Whatever possessed Lim to take that thing-

-Never mind. I just- I don’t want to know. Enough that he did. Don’t need to know why. Nope. Absolutly don’t.

Probably will anyway, because I don’t usually get a say in these things, and if I do, it doesn’t usually matter.

Yeah, I’m sure you have a good idea of the look on my face right now.

And no Ann, I’m not pouting. I don’t fucking pout.

Anyhow, we found out our monkey friend had taken some things off us, too, and hidden them in our airship. He’d somehow hidden the things inside a panel on the ship, and not just ours.

We found Thandriel’s things and Ardermides’s , along with the druid’s coin and some ladies’s jewelry.

And an amulet with the sign of a scarab beetle on it. Fucking typical, isn’t it?

Anyway, we assumed that amulet was what had been planted on us- me- to let these freaks in and out, more then the crystal, and took it to our pair again.

We gave them back their stuff, too.

Ardremides agreed that this amulet had been the cause of the pair getting in, and took it- he said it should be pretty nulled, now. He also saw that the beetle on it was a façade, and drew us an
image of the real symbol on the thing.

And then we took off again, as we had planned- to see Ivy and King.

We hitched a ride as mercanaries- gaurds, if you prefer- to some merchants headed Tolgron way (the town about a day before Jhadu.) We got there pretty unharrased by orcs.

It was when we got into town the harassment started.

Okay, not really, I’m exaggerating. But the diadem of this town- the new diadem- is a slimey, greasy little man I don’t like or trust for shit. He had dinner with us and made what seemed to be general small talk, though his entire manner was enough to make me wonder what he was up to, even if it was absolutely nothing.

The man he’d replaced was, according to him, ‘ill’, and could recive no visitors.

At least I’m not the only one that wonders if this ‘illness’ is all natural. Ann had doubts, too, but when we saw him-

-a frail, helpless old man, half mad, who’s ’mad ramblings’ turned out later to be rather spot on for mad ramblings. But he did talk about a ‘she’….a ‘she’ who was ‘waiting’. And about water- water being all around. But we couldn’t get more then riddles out of him, and left. And then we left the town.

We arrived at our goal late, and of course, we were accosted by the same, stomach lurchingly eery cleric-now-vampires that had sent me scurring the other way weeks before. Ann slipped into the darkness at my back, and after some nervous babbling meant mostly to make me- us both-feel a little less tense, we followed them into the building we’d last met Shane and Thalice in. Ivy was waiting for us, in the very same room, and was- unsurprisingly-pleased to see us. To see Ann, I should say, though she’ll fight me on it.

Ivy was pleased enough to see us, and we got a surprising amount of information from her- mostly confirmation or rejection of what we’d already heard.

But this is where my melodrama from above comes into play.

She asked us what she got in return for helping us, for giving us what information she didn- and told us what she wanted.

A cup of Talron’s blood.

I don’t know what made me do either of the things I did then. Something in her tone made me bristle, protective and, yes, I was fucking possessive for the first time that I can remember.

I asked her what she wanted my Talron’s blood for. And you know, I didn’t regreat it for one minute. Even after she echoed me with faint disbelieve, I confirmed it, startled myself to hear the tone in my voice but not showing it.

But in the end, I agreed to give her what she wanted. Why? Because I don’t think she’s a threat. I don’t think she means any harm with it. I don’t see any danger. And I don’t feel threatened.
But I do feel like I’ve betrayed him deeply, offering something so precious and almost- intimate. But then, I’ve been over that. See above.

I got to see King again, too. It made me happy. Grumpy and bitchy as ever, he was, but he and Ivy at least now know about Feng and the oddity going on with the lycanthropes in the citadel.
Ann and my fuzzy puppy had yet another stand off, one that nearly ended in her becoming a werekitty again, I’m sure. The funny bit is, I just watched this time- watched him almost tenderly lift her arm, ask her if she wanted to know if a were could control someone he changed, if King could change her without a full moon.

Watched her say no. I was a little surprised, I admit. I half-thought….but I guess I was wrong.

Nevermind.

Anyway. We talked. We got information and gave it. We stayed the night. And we checked on the beast people, only to find they’d packed up and left.

Damn, they worked fast. It was almost spooky, seeing things kind of- wither, without them around. Seeing everything empty and deserted, and it actually felt empty and deserted. The glowing flowers that had lead to the big moose man were the only things not somehow less, and those were overgrown and everywhere- I think I saw Ann take a couple blossoms. I couldn’t bring myself to even touch.

And when we left, and headed back for the keep-

-I started thinking of ways to stall having to go see my King. The real one, I mean not the- ah, fuck me sideways, you know what I mean!

.......I'm screwed, aren't I?