The Castle (IC) [M] {04}

[Stygian]

When Ian turned around, he had to look up because of the immediate closeness and greater height of the one who had addressed him. That wasn't what caused such a sensation of fearful unsettlement to well up though, but the other person was.
   She was an inch or two taller than Ian, a bat, athletic and slender, and had a presence that could cause either a blush or hairs to stand on end, probably both. Hauntingly beautiful, shapely and strong-lined, she was nevertheless intimidating, with her pallid fur contrasted by claws and clothes so black they seemed at one with the shadows. Her straight, pointed muzzle ended in a flare-tipped nose and over her pleasant lips just the hint of a pair of fangs hinted. Perhaps most frightening, beneath her point-tipped ears and pale gold bangs were a pair of eyes dark as night, with a pair of pinpricked glowing pupils set in them, staring straight at the rat.
   'And I am not in the mood to have to go and save your scrawny ass,' she said, her voice smooth but scathing, lightly accentuated. 'Perhaps you're not from here, but how hard can it be to see that this place is not the kind which you wish to wander in?' She leaned down and forward, those terrible eyes closing with Ian's. He noticed just then that she didn't wear an undershirt, just an open black shirt and black wrappings tightened around her arms up to the biceps. She didn't seem the least unnerved by his guns.
   'Why are you here and where do you think you're going?' she murred, exposing long fangs.

[Sunblink]

Although a little wary of the threadbare and exhausted appearance of the uncomfortable-looking chair, Keaton took a seat, deciding it wasn't prudent to be picky about her choice in furniture. Other priorities were in order. She moved with Mel, allowing herself to be angled in a position that would offer the best glimpse of her burned eye-socket. As Mel healed her eye-socket, soothing ambiance coalescing through her body, Keaton responded cordially to her question.

"No, there's no other injuries. But thanks, though," Keaton answered. Feeling uncomfortable, she shifted slightly, not enough to ruin Mel's healing process but enough to jostle the two orbs resting in her pocket.

Clnk.

Both spheres rolled together, the sound of their collision nearly muffled by the fabric of her pocket. Keaton blinked, wondering what there was in her pocket for her beloved marble to scrape against, only to recall rather dramatically that she had taken the eye Mel had laid out among the enchanted artifacts before.

An idea formed. Curiously, Keaton stared at Mel. "Hey Mel, that eye you told me about... can it be used properly?"

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[lucas marcone]

Ian's rush had worn off midway through his first sentence. "Hold it you're the scarey person everyone keeps talkin bout." He smiled and holstered the guns. "Well like i was explaining to the others, I came in here on a bet and stayed because I was invited in....and to make my room mate think twice before betting someone to do anything else. sorry bout the bullet holes sometimes i get carried away." He leaned against the wall. "So is that all? You going to lead me back or leave me here to rot?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel looked bewildered. "Eye? What do... Oh! That thing." She stared thoughtfully at Keaton for a moment. "Actually I think it could work for you. It was ordered by a demon, but since you use dark magic you should have no problem activating it. Saturate it with your magic then insert it. You should feel the spell in your good eye, as they link to work together."  Her brow furrowed as she tried to remember details of the object. "Hmmm... the demon was feline so I think it has feline night vision. And he was aging so I expect some vision enhancement. " She looked at her toes for a moment. "It seems like there was something else, but I do not remember what it was. Frustrating. It seems like it was something I should remember."

[Stygian]

The bat's lip twitched for just a second, but otherwise she was still. Still, that Ian reacted with such composure, a slight hint of surprise and nervousness the only small signs of his feelings on the situation, did irritate Stygian a bit. She snorted. Roommate? Bet? If he was a student, why did he carry guns? He seemed too odd for it to be that simple. But she couldn't just leave him there. At least he didn't seem too dangerous.
   'Follow,' was all the bat said, before she unfolded her arms, her shirt somehow clinging to keep her decent, and slid past him, strolling off down the corridor through the dark, leaving it up to the rat to do as she said. It was somewhat hard to keep check on the bat, calm though her pace was, as she seemed to almost blend into the shadows at intervals.
   When they finally returned to the entry hall, Stygian found that Keaton had been joined by Mel who was attending to the jackal's scarring. Pretty much ignoring Ian, since he was sure that the rat was behind him, Stygian, who inexplicably had returned to his former appearance during the walk, stepped in and looked the both women over.
   'Well, I think I solved the problem with Cog,' he said. 'But I found someone else who shouldn't be here. And that still leaves you to attend to. I haven't planned anything in this evening. Other than locking the doors, of course.' He looked down into the floor pensively, oblivious to a clot of blood at the corner of his mouth.

[lucas marcone]

"Well that was an interesting little jaunt." Ian said walking back into the kitchen. He set the towels he could find and pick up after the incident down on a table.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel looked up from Keaton's wound at the sound of Sebastian's voice and Ian's footfalls. "That would be our screaming practical joker, I suspect. He seems to have a habit of being in the wrong place." She chuckled just a bit at Ian's description of his excursion as interesting. "I told you that your host would find you when you least expected him."

At Sebastian's question of what they intended to do for the rest of the evening she realized she was tired. Probably the walk into town hadn't been the smartest plan only a few hours after being healed of the nearly fatal wound. "I hope you do not find it incredibly rude of me, but I think I will borrow a book from your library and read myself to sleep after Keaton and I have tested her new eye."

[Angel]

After a few seconds with one foot out the door and the rest of her body inside, Ketefe bolted for the trees in the courtyard. Once she was under a few branches, she shook herself off and grimaced. Bam had better have a good reason for going out in such a storm...

"BAM?" she called again, being careful not to touch the trees around her. She moved from one relatively dry area to another, staying close to the trees and trying not to get struck by lightning either. The trees weren't really close together, and Ketefe hadn't seen Bam yet. Where could she have gone? She has to be out here, but I don't see her... Then she noticed a massive oak tree amidst the smaller trees and bushes. Somehow she doubted Bam had climbed it, but she had a pretty strong hunch that wherever the fae-cat was, that tree was involved somehow. "BAM? ARE YOU OUT HERE?"

[Sunblink]

Keaton clinically listened to all of the properties her new artificial eye contained from Mel, her hand rummaging about in her pocket before it surfaced with the aforementioned stone resting in her palm. Unconsciously, she stared critically down at it: it was still unassuming, and despite having its function revealed she doubted it would be of much use. Still, if it meant that she would have improved vision and wouldn't have to use her glasses anymore, which were more of a detriment than anything beneficial, it was worth attempting...

She didn't have the opportunity to, because Stygian arrived five seconds after this thought passed through her head, an unidentified rat with him. Keaton blinked at him, eyebrow arching, although this expression faded once she realized the spot of blood dappling the corner of his lip. She didn't want to imagine where it came from, but after the next moment she spoke her mind started wandering into very unwanted, unpleasant territories.

'Oh fuck he did NOT just eat Cog. He did not. He is just being ambiguous. That's it. Right? Right. He wouldn't. I mean, the two of them... they...' Without realizing it, Keaton noticed that her hand had been clutching the eye-stone in a pallid death-grip, knuckles turning bone-white beneath baleful black fur. Fortunately, Mel brought up testing her new eye, which garnered her attention immediately. Anything to get her mind off of this and reassure her that Cog was fine.

"Oh yeah, we still need to test this thing," Keaton said, weighing the eye in her hand. "We'll see everything that it does once I've tried it. Hopefully it won't blow up or something, though..."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

'Ah. Very well then,' Stygian commented. He walked around Mel and Keaton and over to the doors. 'There should be a key to these around here. For now I'm just going to seal them from the inside and put something on them.' He pushed them once to make sure they were in place, then shot the long metal bolts that sat on the inside of the ornamented doors and hung a chain over them. Finally, he placed his hand on the face of one of the doors and held it there. Slowly the cracks between the doors and walls somehow darkened for a few seconds, before the bat removed his hand and turned back toward the others.
   'I don't want you opening those doors again now. And you,' he said, looking at Ian, 'you're either going out the back, or you're sleeping here and where we can keep check on you. It's your choice.' He paced back over the floor, over next to the girls. 'As for me, I think I'd like a book too, and a drink. I've still got those bottles up there, if anyone wants to bother going up the stairs again.'

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Noticing how tense Keaton was Mel answered, "I am positive it will not explode. The worst that should happen is a bit of double vision." Then Sebastian said he wanted a book as well and Mel remembered she had promised to show the library to Ian. "Why don't we test out the eye in the library, Keaton.  It is warmer and there is more light there." She turned around, fully facing Sebastian and Ian for the first time, and noticed the blood on the bat's face. Not his, he had bled black before. Unfortunately she hadn't seen him when he had come back after the fight to know if it was from that or a more recent snack. Yet another mystery to add to the day. She hoped eventually she'd figure out what was going on.

[Sunblink]

Exaggerating her expression slightly, Keaton attempted to form some sort of semblance of relief upon hearing the reassurance that the eye would not explode, then perked up when Mel suggested they test the eye in the library. More than happy to extricate herself from the dreadfully uncomfortable chair, Keaton stood up, dusting herself off. "Alright then," she said agreeably, moving to follow Mel into the library. As an afterthought to Stygian's remark about the bottles, she added, "I'll probably get some whiskey after this. I kind of need it."

Just before she took a step, however, she stared down at her former eye, which was resting in the hand opposite from the one holding her new eye-stone. "Might as well get rid of this, though..." Keaton muttered, scowling.

Gritting her teeth, she clenched her fist around the old eye, concentrating momentarily. The old eye convulsed, twitched, bending its form gelatinously around Keaton's fingers, and one by one the colored, pixelated shards on its form vanished until it was completely black. Then, with that, its writhing form retracted in on itself like a black hole, disappearing into Keaton's fist, and seemingly exploded within her hand, the floating particles sent spraying out from between her fingers the only trace of its combustion. Satisfied, Keaton dusted her hand off.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

Stygian almost but not quite shrugged, not waiting for the others as he passed Mel and set off down the nearest corridor, his form soon obscured by the shadows he so much enjoyed, not noting Keaton's eerie way of dealing with her old eye.
   Even though the books that at the moment lay up in the tower were all he would need to conduct the research he wanted, Stygian nevertheless decided to walk to the library with the others, setting a slow pace so that they could catch up. Still, the library turned out to be a bit too calm for comfort. Rynkura sat minding her own business, and though he could not see Jeremiah, Stygian guessed that the frog was busying himself with something more or less only concerning himself, or something he did not want to stick his muzzle in. He strolled halfway down one of the aisles, thumbed a book while his ears swiveled slightly to listen to the girls, and then leaned on it, looking toward them.
   'I thought I'd grab those drinks and books. Can I trust you to make sure that... Ian, that was your name, right?' he said, and looked momentarily at the rat, then spoke on without minding him more. 'That Ian finds somewhere to sleep, preferably as close to you others as possible. I'll take a round to make sure that the place is locked up, but you're free to come up to the tower if you wish.'
   With those words the bat turned and left them, calmly walking back out the exit and then down the corridor in the direction opposite to the one they had come from. His steps faded into silence immediately.

[Aisha deCabre]

Rynkura had kept an ear on Jeremiah as he muttered to himself, scouring the shelves for his chosen topic of interest.  Something of a strange one, she thought, then smiled to herself.  But in this world there is always one stranger.

She hadn't paid much attention to time past, but there were still books in front of her...plenty on enchantment by different authors, for Mel to look at as she had discussed earlier with the dragon.  The night seemed to be progressing slowly enough, and as per the tigress's mindset, she wasn't entirely sleepy just yet.  Her staff leaned on the table, its glow making for a good reading light.  Doing things like this brought back many memories of her long and studious life.  At her age, it was hardly needed anymore, but it was still far too easy for her to lose herself.

The tigress perked her ears, suddenly hearing as footsteps approached the library.  Her emerald eyes squinted to see whom it was; a small party containing the dragon, the newcomer rat, the succubus, and the bat.  Speaking of stranger things.  My, what a mix.  What has it brought, what shall it bring...

With her jaws opening in a wide yawn, Rynkura gave a quick nod of greeting to them as they walked in.  "Well, I hope the storm has caused nobody grief," the tiger chuckled.  But it seemed like she sensed otherwise.  "Now what interesting things have I missed with my head in these books, I wonder."

*     *     *

It was expected, a part of her mind said, as the nerves in her temples screamed with pain...the ringing in her ears had turned into an impeding headache almost as soon as she was about to sleep.

"Uuuuugh!" Aisha snarled, turning about in her sheets with frustration, her eyes squinting and trying with all of the will she could muster in them to stay closed.  It was hard to tell if she was coming down with a cold anymore, but she hadn't had such a pain before...and she hadn't been so close to being struck with lightning twice in sequence before, either.

I will definitely see Rynkura about this, soon, the panthress thought, hands held tightly to her ears.  At least the room was silent, and dark, the way she liked it...and the loud noises were all outside.

...However her hearing had been damaged, it seemed, Aisha still could listen well enough to pick out inconsistencies in the solace.  For suddenly, there was a silent ruffle of wings behind her, as if having just materialized out of thin air, and a curiously irritating scent.

Aisha's body lay still in the bed, but her arm slowly reached to the indent next to the side dresser, where her weapons lay, and slowly gripped her boomerang.  Tired and angered, it was safe for her to speculate.  If it's not me, but a Creature's presence causing this unrest, they are very, very dead.

"HAH!"  She jerked from the bed, holding the shimmering, silver blade over her head, threateningly to what sat on the window.  But the source of the sound hadn't moved, instead just regarding her with that same crimson gaze as much akin to her own.

She paused, then lowered the weapon, trying to interpret the scene before her.  It was the raven, having returned after seemingly flying off into the storm...and what was most strange, it still held the cigarette that it stole from Sebastian, in its beak, as if it were comically smoking the thing itself.

"Cuervo?" Aisha muttered, her brow furrowing as she tossed the boomerang back into its place...after all, she found the bird, and wouldn't kill it...but still.  She stared at the thing for a minute, then snarled in a harsh breath.  "How...in HELL...did you get back here...?  And what...?"  The headache became worse for that moment, and her hands came back to her head, interrupting the panther's snap.

She sat back down on the edge, then looked back at the bird.  "Ooookay then.  If the forces are keeping me awake, dammit, I'll stay awake.  In fact..." she said to herself, her voice going into a mutter.  "I'm going for a drink.  You stay here, bird, then maybe I can see what you want."  A pause, then a snort, red eyes going dark and dangerous.  "Better have gotten rid of that thing when I get back.  Bad habit."

With a sigh, Aisha picked just her navy blue clothes up from the dresser and placed them back on.  She considered taking something on her weapon belt, and then shook her head.  It's just the kitchen, I won't need more than my own claws and teeth.  Painfully grunting, the felid pushed herself from the edge and opened her door, making her way through the first floor's maze and into the kitchen.

[Boog]

Jeremiah leaned out from behind a bookshelf as the others arrived. "Hm? Another one?" he smiled, again being careful not to grin, and strode over, "Well, good to see we're not the only ones with that special seeing problem that makes a creepy old castle look like a motel. Call me Jeremiah. And you are?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel bowed politely to the tiger. "It seems that Keaton ran into a problem with her artificial eye. I happened to have a substitute but your experience with both enchanting and healing would be invaluable in getting it working optimally." 

[Prof B Hunnydew]

The ancient oak glows until the small courtyard garden seems to be shine in the bright sunlight... The dark wood's grain lines glow green when light blue as doorway opens from the trunk before the cat girl. Ketefe.  Out of the white doorway steps a a full white unicorn with a bright orange-yellow fae-cat girl with royal blue long hair.  The fae smile at Ketefe because she is wear nothing but her hair down her front with a green gem on her forehead and green leaf wings on her back.

The fae hugs the horned pony and he return through the door.  As Bam grows a green leaf grown as she turns to Ketefe.  "Thank you for calling me back... How are things here?" asks Bam

PBH

OOC: I will be updating Character sheet on OOC thread before I post again by this time tomorrow.

[Stygian]

For a long while, about an hour or two, the only signs of the bat around the castle were occasional glimpses of him wandering down the corridors, darkness wreathing itself around him like a cloak, caressing him like a living entity. He moved about the place, silent as a ghost, searching and watching. He still had long to go before he would be able to sleep well, and even after what he had said he hadn't been too keen to go up and read. He had made himself a quick drink, but had downed it fast and kept walking. Fortunately, the place was calm and still, and together with its dark and ghastly qualities this soothed the bat. The sort of relaxation that the situation presented was something he'd needed for a long time.
   When Stygian decided he had finally secured the place and that he should call it quits, he made his way back to the kitchen with a couple of bottles to have a last drink goodnight. He found Aisha standing leaning on a counter and looking rather worse for wear.
   'Couldn't sleep?' he questioned, a rather obvious thing to ask, but he didn't care.

[Angel]

It was difficult for Ketefe to keep her eye from twitching at Bam's ... entrance into the courtyard. The fae was naked save for her forehead gem and her hair, and she was riding on a unicorn, out of a door that appeared in a shining tree. And she was pretty sure Stygian hadn't slipped anything into her drink.

Bam generated a leaf-gown, and when she spoke, it took a minute for the blue feline to respond. "Um... things are fine here. There's a newcomer, but other than that, everything's almost normal." Bam's speech had changed a little somehow, but Ketefe couldn't quite put her finger on it. There was a little thunder, and she suddenly remembered where they were. "Can we talk inside? I'm not a big fan of standing in rainstorms."

[lucas marcone]

"Ian" he said with a smile. Then he whispered "Just between you and me....the people here are a little too normal for my likeing."

[Boog]

Well well well, I'm in wonderland. We're all mad here, "Wait'll you get to know 'em," Jeremiah replied dryly, "They can be a real hoot." He strode back over to the table where he'd left his research material (it was starting to dwarf the table itself, and the quasi-pattern formed by the notesheets had expanded to the point where some pages were hanging over the sides) just in time to steady one pile of books that was starting to teeter, "So, what brings you out here anyway?"

[lucas marcone]

"College bet." Ian said cooly. "You know how unrelenting some weaker minds can be. I came for the bet, and stayed for the company."

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha was appreciative of the quiet, absolute dark surroundings as she entered the kitchen...though she trudged in muttering a mix of curses.  Some of those were from her own tongue, and some were of the common...all of which were sour enough for the panthress to be thankful that Rynkura wasn't around to hear them.

Aisha shook her head slowly and rubbed the sides of it with one hand as she explored the shelves and cupboards for a snack, or a drink...something to help her sleep...and just ended up leaning her arms on the counter with a sigh, thinking about the day's events.  The adventurer was just glad that she wasn't dropping into the middle of everything.

It was then that a slight glow from her tail ring caught the sight of one half-lidded eye, followed by a familiar voice a moment after.  She hadn't been too surprised at least when the bat walked into the kitchen, but something made her just...shudder, all of a sudden.

"Mierda...Yeah...yeah," Aisha nodded her answer and turned to face Sebastian, shaking her head again to get rid of the feeling.  I MUST be getting sick.  Despite a somewhat ragged look to her, the panther smirked, uncaring.  "Headache.  It's what happens when your hearing should have been knocked out completely with lightning."  Her smirk disappeared...but she still spared a polite nod of greeting.  "I'm sorry if I'm disturbing, but I'm just looking for something to perhaps help."

As the felid turned around, however, she narrowed her eyes suddenly and turned back, looking at the bat.  There was a pause, her face looking incredulous for a moment.  But the panthress didn't feel it in her to be too unnerved at the sight of a droplet of blood on the his lip, though she probably should have been.  She pointed to the side of her mouth, to indicate the spot.  "Ahm, and you've got some leftovers or something, right there."

Her mind was still trying to grasp what she had heard before that, anyway.  "I take it you can't sleep either," she just decided to observe, turning back to the cupboards.

*     *     *

Sparing a polite bow of her head back to the dragon, Rynkura's head tilted at the mention of Keaton.  "An artificial eye?" she said with curiosity.  "Huh, unheard of in a Cubus, but that probably isn't my business."

The tiger smiled warmly, and stood up, regarding the jackal with one dark spot where an eye used to be.  "How may I help, then?"

[Stygian]

As Aisha spoke, Stygian's expression developed into a sort of mild surprise. He was glad that her reaction was more positive than he had expected by far, even though she showed some mild irritation, but if that remark about disturbing was not sarcasm...
   The bat raised his paw and gently touched the blood next to his mouth when he heard the panthress' remark, and frowned. If Keaton and Mel had noticed... He was being such a jackass. He had to tone down the whole 'dark and demonic' thing, or soon they would all be taking pains to avoid him. 'Sorry. Didn't notice,' he said, and stuck out his long tongue, sweeping the tapered tip over the side of his face and licking his fur clean. He then closed his mouth and swallowed, leaning back against the table in the middle of the room.
   'I don't have to sleep much. I just like doing it. Keeps you in touch,' he said, facing Aisha. 'And if anyone should apologize for being disturbing, it's me.' Looking down at the floor, he exhaled slowly. 'I've been causing a lot of bother here. And... well... You didn't have to hear that, right now, out there.' He looked at her, shame apparent in his slight blush and his dark eyes.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha kept her ears turned behind her on Stygian as he spoke, which was quite easy to do as they had been nearly glued to the back of her head that evening.  She thought that shy of warm milk, tea would be a good enough drink to help one sleep, and took some of what was left from the cupboards.

As it warmed up, she turned to face the bat, her face kept somewhat neutral while listening to him and leaning comfortably on the counter.  As willing as Aisha was to just get back to sleep, there was still time to listen, as was her habit.

Her head tilted as Sebastian finished, expressing something shameful in his expression, which came to her as something of a surprise.  After a moment of trying to find something to say, Aisha just smiled.  "Hrm, well, no, I probably wasn't," she agreed as-a-matter-of-factly and turned to pour the tea, her lip curled into a slight grimace.  "But, hell, stranger things happen.  Still it's wierd though...how...?"

She stopped and turned around with a cup in her hand, pausing to drink it.  The warmth felt soothing as it followed the liquid down her throat, and it helped her to find what to say...or how to think of the situation.  "Bah," she shook her head, dismissing the last thought.  "Anyway, it's for you two to deal with...not me, or the rest of us, so I don't try to judge.  And if you're happy...more power to you.  And if you're not...more power anyway, just 'cause it's a good thing to say."

The panthress smirked.  "As for a being a bother, amigo, well...I still keep my original thought when the bunch of us foolish adventurers trespassed.  That we might have brought the bother, not you.  Ugh," she suddenly grimaced and held her head again.  "Damn pain won't forget to tell me that it's there."

She finished her cup, and then sighed.  "Anyway, I should be going to sleep.  That bird returned, and it's going into a roast if it keeps me up," the panthress snorted.

[Stygian]

Stygian snorted, and made a sly smile back to Aisha. 'I was an angel to start with,' he said, and paused, as if that would explain everything. 'But I'm afraid that I might be more trouble for Cog than he might suspect. I need friends, not more people who loathe me...'
   The bat made a pause and stood again, sighing inaudibly before looking back toward Aisha. 'There are some stronger things you can take if you want,' he said, and shifted his look toward the bottles for a brief moment. 'But maybe you're not the type. Sadly we don't have any... Aspirin? That's what you use, isn't it?' he asked, frowning a bit at his puzzlement. 'There's a pharmacy down in town, but I doubt that would be good at this hour. So were I you, I'd try cold water and not to focus too hard.' That was advice more from others' experience, since Stygian could not remember the last time he had needed to worry about things like the illnesses of regular creatures. He had headaches sometimes, yes, but those mended themselves, and could mostly not be helped with normal medicine. 'Either way, I hope you sleep well,' he added, just before she left. He had another drink before he went to get some sleep.
   It was when he walked into the great round hall with the large spiral staircase near the heart of the castle that Stygian stopped, the sudden lack of thoughts striking him still and numb. His eyes wandered upward to the distant ceiling, a faraway silhouette in darkness, arches holding the vaulted ceiling up lit deep blue with the night outside the windows at the top. It looked so distant, like the backdrop of the night sky behind the stars themselves. And yet, he knew that he could reach out a hand through the dark and touch that ceiling with his own darkness in just a moment, if he so wished.
   A thought came to him. Why was he doing this? Why was he pretending to be one of these creatures, to be like them? Why did he even bother with looking alike to them, or speaking to them? He had lost so many memories, so much understanding of what it had been like, that the essential feeling of being alive in the same way as them was foreign to him. Once, he had been so consumed by his own darkness that he had been numb to things like their feelings, unconcerned with their small lives in his cold hatred and focus. Why had that changed? His imprisonment should only have infuriated him further. Why was it then that instead, he just felt distance and bereavement when it came to the thing that had been the one goal of his life once?
   Looking down, the bat eyed the carefully laid, perfectly smooth marble floor. To see the world around clearly even through the deepest black, but not being able to understand what lay within his own darkness; that seemed his curse. Well, I know what I wish, at least, he thought. And that darkness has no part in it.
   Stygian cast one final look up at the distant, shadowy ceiling. Then he turned, and walked back down the corridor he had come from.

   Trained to ward off assassination through martial arts that were as much a philosophy and a way of life as it was a way to do battle, for a time long enough that most common swordsmen would have called it lifespans, Cogidubnus still did not wake immediately when the door to his room opened and closed. His guest was a most stealthy creature. The rustle of fur and the smell though, brought the wolf to a still awakening. He didn't move, seeing as that might have warned a potential assailant, but from the instant his mind became actively conscious, he was ready to spring.
   The soft sound of cloth and a weight on his bed, a light tug on the sheets, were more surprising, as was the sudden familiar voice, smooth and silky.
   'Don't worry. It's just me,' she said, moving closer. 'I heard your breathing change.' She sighed and relaxed, slipping a hand around his waist. 'Easy. I'm just going to sleep...' she said tiredly.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog was surprised she had returned, really. He turned for just a second to regard her, his yellow eyes gleaming dully in the night, and he blinked silently before laying back down. His breathing softened, and he laid still, feeling the warmth of her body behind him as she slid behind him. He closed his eyes again, willing himself to relax.
He murmured as she slipped her arm around his waist, and as she moved closer he could feel her chest rising and falling with her breath. He couldn't help a small smile at her words - even had he wanted to, draining him of blood certainly wouldn't help with that...
"Sleep well." He sighed, adjusting himself just slightly, and soon he began to breathe deeply, the tired wolf again falling into deep sleep.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Well, Ketefe I am glad you called, My mother was not pleased with me coming here with no magic the first time and then I go break my own "rules started use some.. She said I could only come back If someone call me. or 500 years whichever come first."  says Bam as put on her glasses again. 

The unicorn had returned through the magic door, and the magic door closed. With the closing of door, the magic in the Old Oak slow fades .  The moment of sunlight gives way to mist and then light rain as the natural order also return to the garden... 

"Yes yes We should go inside, the storm has not let up at all.  Before the heaby rain hits us.  Wait how long have I been gone." Commends Bam  as she race for the indoors.

PBH

[Mel Dragonkitty]

In answer to Rynkura's question Mel said, "I happened to have with me an artificial eye commissioned by a demon and not picked up. I believe Keaton should be able to use it, but it is a custom piece, designed to work specifically with the magic of that demon. Some minor adjustments may be needed to the enchantment for her to receive the full benefit of it. Your help would be appreciated."

[Angel]

Ketefe ran inside with Bambi. Once they reached the interior, she shook herself vigorously and spoke again once she was reasonably dry. "You were probably gone two hours or so. Your mother really was going to keep you there for 500 years? And how'd you get into the oak tree?"